Roleplaying Games
Greetings! I am currently a bit down because I wasn't at DragonCon (apparently the steampunk contingent stole the show--darn it I should have been there!), but that leaves me no excuse not to fill you in on the interesting things that happened this last week in our hobby!
• Chaosium released a sneak peek of its new product, Pulp Cthulhu, detailing one of its new occupations--the Reanimator.
• Wizards unveiled the Shards of Alara Orb of Insight for their new Magic: the Gathering set--write anything in the box and see how many times it will appear in the new cards!
• A new collectible miniatures game, Mutant Chronicles, is shipping now from Fantasy Flight Games.
• Games Workshop has a whole bunch of new Warhammer and Warhammer 40k stuff, including a new Dark Elf Battalion and bad-ass War Hydra, and a new 40k boxset that has everything you need to start playing the game--plus a new line of paints, Citadel Washes, that promise to make shading easier than ever before.
• Palladium's press release announced new products for the fall, including the Macross sourcebook for the Robotech RPG, and a new Zombie Apocalypse RPG called Dead Reign.
• A legendary Call of Cthulhu podcast has reached its end--YogSothoth.com's Bradford Players have completed Horror on the Orient Express!
More to come, of course, as the week progresses!
There are a few days left to vote in White Wolf's Hunter: The Vigil trailer-making contest.
The four finalists can be found here, here, here and here.
They're really very good--obviously a lot of love went into these. My personal favourite is the third, since it depicts all the different ways Hunters can approach their callings. And it's very White Wolf, melodramatic but pretty.
Cast your vote at the White Wolf livejournal here!
"Reckless Adventures in the 1930s!" is its oh-so-intriguing subtitle. For those who want to bring in the autumn with a bit of two-fisted cosmic-horrors-can-eat-lead action--and who doesn't?--Pulp Cthulhu has been officially announced by Chaosium for a fall release! You can adjust the level of pulp to meet your gaming group's needs, of course, and "insane scientists, reanimators, mentalists, gadgeteers, professor-sorcerers, supernatural detectives" are said to abound in the setting. Well done!
In other Chaosium news, The Klarkash-Ton Cycle is currently shipping--a collection of Mythos tales by Clark Ashton Smith, these freaky-but-slightly-goofy tales will certainly put you in the mood for your upcoming Pulp Cthulhu campaign.
Ok, pictures may be coming soon... depends on whether I can get them downloaded from the con (otherwise they may need to be added in later).
I'm here, live at GenCon, and I have to say it's an exciting time. Wizards of the Coast is touting their new 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules with the release of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which has sold out within a few hours of the exhibit hall opening on both days of the con so far. It's uncertain whether there will be any more copies tomorrow, so I'm afraid I can't report much on the contents yet. Personally, I'm trying more for a copy of the DM's screen, which I'm pleased to report is not a flimsy cardstock screen this time around.
Paizo also has a strong presence at the con, with a number of GenCon releases. In addition to a hardcover Pathfinder setting book, they also have the Pathfinder RPG Beta Rules.... or they did until very early this morning when they sold out. Josh Frost reported happily at one of the seminars that the free downloadable version available at paizo.com had over 1000 unique downloads in the first hour it was up. Paizo's organized play division, the Pathfinder Society, hit the ground running with 8 a.m. timeslots. (Many were heard to groan "Damn you, Josh Frost!" at the con in reference to the early start times, and I heard rumors of tshirts being made with that slogan!).
Other notable releases include the upper levels of Gary Gygax's castle dungeon for Castles & Crusades, Hunter: The Vigil from White Wolf, and many others. I plan on spending a good deal of time in the exhibit hall tomorrow, and hopefully will be able to post again with more news from the con before the weekend is over!
Okay, as I've admitted numerous times, I'm a bit of a Paizo fanboi. It's only fair, therefore, that I make this week's game of the week reflect one of Paizo's much awaited releases for GenCon... the Pathfinder RPG Beta rules. These aren't the final rules of course, but rather the culmination of three releases of alpha rules and the input of countless Paizo messageboard regulars.
The process so far has been amazingly open, and while I did download the Alpha rules, I confess that I've been waiting for the beta release so I could have a nice paper release to refer to. I know, tech junkie who needs to read paper... it's my complaint about the online Dungeon and Dragon magazine releases too!
Anyway, it releases at GenCon along with a ton of other Paizo goodness, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. This is the lifeline for everyone who is hoping for their 3.5 material not to go to waste, and also for many who simply don't like 4th edition.
It is August! That month of hopefully-lovely weather, people slowly gearing up to get back to school, etc. etc. Hopefully you've got some good game on this summer so far, but if not, you have a whole summer month left to atone!
Here's some stuff that's going on (and I promise that this is one of the last big round-up posts in lieu of actual posting, because there's just two weeks to go in my job)!
• Five days left to vote in the ENnie awards! Go go go!
• Three days left in the BRP Adventure-writing Contest. Five to seven thousand words, every genre except Lovecraftian, possible publishing!
• Two weeks before Hunter: the Vigil!
• FFG's reprint of Dark Heresy in stores now, and the launch of the website for Red November, the game of gnomish submarine adventure (awesome)!
• Humans!!!, the companion board game to Zombies!!! in which you actually play the zombies (and yes, you can play the two together) is out this month from Twilight Creations!
Keep your eyes peeled--it might have been a slow couple of weeks in terms of product releases, but the end of August is going to get mighty busy indeed (much to the chagrin of people like me who have school to go back to).
VelvetDiceBag, as you may have noticed, has been kind of non-existent lately. Faerie Dragon already went over the reasons why he hasn't been here as frequently in the past couple of months, and on my part I was slewn first by an exam period and then a soul-sucking 4 a.m.-shift job that drained all energy I might have had.
But now that I'm getting used to said job, I'll do my best to post regularly on this, my far better job!
Let's take a look at what's been happening in Tabletop Gaming in the last few days.
• ENnie Award voting will begin shortly, after they resolve their technical difficulties. Keep checking back here for when the polls open, and check out the nominees here!
• Wizards announced the 4th Edition Forgotten Realms Player's Guide for September. Of most interest is the introduction of two new races, the Drow (oh no) and the Genasi (elemental humanoids--I've had a soft spot for them ever since I played a custom Steam Genasi in Planescape).
• Chaosium announced a 1920s Call of Cthulhu sourcebook for August, Secrets of Morocco. The Secrets series is always top-notch quality and jam-packed with useful information, so I'm looking forward to this.
• The new Magic: the Gathering set, Eventide, came out recently. An excellent article was posted on the set's journey through art, rules, design and development.
• Three weeks remain until the release of Hunter: the Vigil, and previews are still in full force on White Wolf's website.
• Fantasy Flight Games is gearing up to release their A Game of Thrones CCG Core Set, with daily previews.
More to come, day by day!
Well, they've done it... the complete compiled issues for June's Dragon and Dungeon magazines online have been posted. I'll confess, I had begun to think that the online magazines would fail completely given the lack of attention they had been getting. I am pleased to report that the current issues are not only complete, but that the content is half decent.
There are a few articles that really would be better suited to being free online web enhancements, but for the most part the content was reasonably good. While I was pleased overall with Dragon, Dungeon was somewhat lacking... I miss Campaign Workbook articles and the Dungeoncraft articles they have posted before are frankly a little too basic for me. Hopefully the Campaign Workbook articles will make a return soon.
In positive news, not only are the compilations posted (yes, I know, they hid them in the table of contents rather than listing them in some sort of logical fashion... I wish the listing was in a more intuitive place, but at least it's there), but the editorial for the next issue is already posted. Also, they will be starting an Adventure Path next issue... there's a high bar set for those, given Paizo's excellent work, but I'm willing to give them a chance.
So I've had a few weeks to observe the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition... part of which was to be a suite of tools gleefully promised to us months ago. It seems the edition is going to start without the tools, however, since none of them were ready at launch. Nearing a full month since the release, only the Compendium (a fairly helpful if relatively plain tool that allows the user to search the rules) has been released. The interface is very plain at present, boring and utilitarian, which suggests it was perhaps rushed out the door to show that they intend on releasing the tools.
Wizards of the Coast doesn't have a stellar record when it comes to electronic tools for the D&D game, so I can see why they might think their userbase a bit skittish. Frankly, we are. I don't trust WotC with electronic tools at all and am very skeptical about the subscription Dungeons & Dragons Insider service. They've had months to wow me and they've failed completely - not even bothering to compile their electronic files for the magazines into a complete issue. The content for the intervening issues between the end of the Paizo run of the magazines and the release of 4e was an opportunity that Wizards of the Coast squandered.
So have I given up? Ever the optomist, I've been continuing to try to keep an open mind. While the Compendium is not particularly elegant, it is up now and it works, after a fashion. The magazines in their new online format have had some fairly regular updates and articles have been going up a few times a week. I'll confess, I haven't read them all, but the article of illusionist powers for the wizard was actually quite decent, and brings a return to the Class Acts section, which was one of my favorite Paizo additions to Dragon magazine.
I have had less time to look over the Dungeon articles, and here I believe Wizards squandered another chance. I would have loved to have seen a really good entry level adventure that addressed many of the criticisms of the new edition in the magazine this month. Instead, we have some side-treks for the published adventure and two adventures for the middle part of the heroic teir (1-10th level... the adventures are for 4th and 8th level). I've made some use of the side-treks, which were decent but more appropriate for a web enhancement than part of Dungeon. I'm going to hold my blistering critique for next month... the game has few adventures out and needs options beyond the published Keep on the Shadowfell as an entry point. I'm hoping that I'll see one next month.
I am not a WotC apologist... they've messed up a lot in the months leading to the release, especially with regards to Dungeons & Dragons Insider, but at least this month they have posted something. We'll see if they promptly post the compilation and if the full table of contents gets posted. If both of those things happen, the DDI might still have a chance.
Today is June 21, 2008 - Free RPG Day - which is great for a cheap old queen like me, since it means plenty of free swag is available at my friendly local gaming store. What kind of swag? Adventure modules, quick start guides, the kind of stuff that might make you take a look and say, "Hey, I've never played Pathfinder and this Revenge of the Kobold King adventure looks really cool!" Okay, so I'm a Paizo fanboi, but for 4e fanatics, especially those complaining about the lack of a low level adventure in the Dungeons and Dragons Insider version of Dungeon magazine this month, there is also a Wizards of the Coast adventure.
The giveaways look pretty cool and include everything from miniatures (another WotC offering) to dice from Chessex and Q-workshop and even more adventures and quickstart guides - Harn, Traveller, Tunnels & Trolls and several others are represented. The stuff is free only at participating local gaming stores, so take a look at the Free RPG Day website and check their list of retailers... maybe you'll find that cool new system you were looking for (or get a chance to check out something from 4e for free). Maybe you'll even discover a nearby gaming store you didn't know was quite so nearby.
I'm a big advocate of supporting the friendly local gaming store because they offer something most online retailers can't: a real community, a means to find games and players and try out things you aren't sure if you want to buy yet. For those who find it usually more worthwhile to order things from Amazon, this is a chance for an even better deal. Get to your FLGS today!
One of my favourite internet people, Lore Sjöberg--you may know him from The Brunching Shuttlecocks, The Book of Ratings or even the Björk Song--just posted an opinion piece on Wired and damn is it funny.
Killjoy Cooking With the Dungeons & Dragons Crowd thinks about what it might be like if people treated new cookbooks the same way they treated new RPG books. Totally brightened my day.
Posted: 12:15 a.m. by LordOrcus I'm so mad that there's a new edition of The Better Joy Cookbook out. Thanks for making my old copy obsolete, you greedy hacks! For five years now, my friends have been coming over for my eggplant Parmesan, and now I'm never going to be able serve it again unless I shell out 35 bucks for the latest version.
Posted: 12:42 a.m. by KathraxisHey, I have a question! When you preheat the oven, can you start it before you measure out the ingredients, or do you have to do it afterward? Please answer quickly, my friends and I have been arguing about it for four hours and we're getting pretty hungry.
The newest R'lyeh Report contains a whole bunch of Chaosium news. Some highlights:
• A fiction book, The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson: Horripilating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, is in stores now and is advertised as being a good introduction to the Mythos for people who want their friends & loved ones to witness the horror of the universe.
• The Basic Roleplaying RPG is expected to be in stores in the last week of the month.
• Secrets of Morocco--this is a new Call of Cthulhu sourcebook expected in July, 20s and 30s era, and the Secrets series are usually top-notch.
• Pulp Cthulhu--the sourcebook for "reckless adventures in the 1930's" is nearly done and expected in August (and at Gen Con)!
• Of course there will be tons of Call of Cthulhu events at Origins, and a Chaosium booth at Gen Con!
And girls who like girls who like breastplates!
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