Kobold Quarterly #13: A Must Buy for Dragon Age RPG Fans

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Wolfgang Baur and his Open Design Project. I am also a big fan of his quarterly role playing game magazine Kobold Quarterly and have been a subscriber since day one. I have watched as this magazine went from a primarily pdf product, where one had to special order the staple bound black and white version of the first issue, to the full color slick paper state of the art product it is today. This quick transition is no surprise as Baur has extensive experience as a magazine editor.

Throughout the magazine's run, I have only had one small complaint -- and it is very small. I have been disappointed that the magazine limited its focus to d20 (and after the new edition's release 4E) articles. The magazine's subtitle has been "The Switzerland of the Edition Wars. The market lacks a non-house organ magazine, one that covers gaming products from a wide variety of publishers. Early in the gaming hobby, there were a number of magazines that covered the role playing hobby as a whole. TSR's Dragon magazine and Games Workshop's White Dwarf weren't always house organs that only provided content related to their respective companies, they covered the industry as a whole. Add to these magazines like The Space Gamer, White Wolf, Shadis, and Pyramid, and you have a long tradition of magazines covering the broader hobby.

This tradition largely died when Pyramid ceased print publication and became an online subscription. Fans were left with only one magazine that covered the field, Knights of the Dinner Table. While Knights contains articles that cover he hobby, it cannot be argued that the magazine's primary purpose is the comic strips it contains and the promotion of Kenzer Company related gaming products. Knights is a good magazine, that does have some broad coverage, but it is still primarily a house organ. There is also the small print run magazine Polymancer, but that product has yet to get wide enough distribution to fill the much needed hole in the market -- a hole made all the bigger when gamingreport.com ceased to be the news source for the gaming hobby.

Thankfully, Kobold Quarterly has begun to see some generic and non-D&D (retro, modern, post-modern versions) content filling its pages of late. Key among these offerings is in the Spring 2010 issue. In the issue, Chris Pramas -- lead designer on Green Ronin's excellent Dragon Age RPG -- has written an article that will allow fans of Green Ronin's flagship Freeport line of products to translate their tales to the AGE engine used by the Dragon Age RPG. It will also help to expand the gaming horizons of new gamers who were introduced to the hobby by the Dragon Age RPG. The article provides character creation rules for nine backgrounds based on Freeportian archetypes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Green Ronin's Freeport, it is a setting that combines traditional fantasy elements with tropes from pirate stories and horror elements from the weird tales of H.P. Lovecraft. Imagine Elven pirates wielding fireballs while battling Eldritch Horrors who fire cannons from their tentacle beards and you have some sense of the setting -- make sure you don't forget the Serpent men and the Yellow Sign. It's a fun setting and it is nice to see Kobold Quarterly publish support material for an wonderful new role playing game. The fact that the material is based on content originally designed for d20 makes the publication of the article even more appealing. It demonstrates that Baur is willing to promote articles that seek to expand the gaming horizons of all of its readers.

This takes Kobold Quarterly beyond the status of "The Switzerland of the Edition Wars," and places it at the "Publication on a Hill Promoting All Aspects of the Hobby" status.

Kudos to Baur, and thanks to Chris Pramas for giving us Dragon Age RPG fans a background for Gnomes. The DM in me cringes at the incorporation of Gnomes, but one of the players in my group will certainly be grateful.

Who's Up for An iPad Smoothie?

Until they release the 3G version, I think this might be the best use for an iPad.



Well, this or playing the new Small World app, but it seems a little ridiculous to pay $400 just to play a digital adaptation of a great board game.

David Gemmell Award for Fantasy Shortlist Announced

I was late in discovering the fantasy works of David Gemmell. Even though Gary Gygax's company New Infinities published the first American edition of Gemmell's debut novel Legend (they published it under the title Against the Horde), it wasn't until 2001 that I'd even heard of the author. A friend of mine (Tom Wisniewski), a player in my regular D&D group, mentioned that his favorite author was David Gemmell and that Legend was one of the best fantasy stories ever written. Based on this high praise, I bought a copy of the Del Rey edition and was so enraptured that I read the book in a single sitting. It has been that way with every other Gemmell book I have read. They aren't uniform in their literary quality, but they are uniform in their ability to get you to turn the pages.

Gemmell isn't my favorite fantasy author, but he was a fine example of what a author in the school of Sword and Sorcery themed fantasy can be. Robert E. Howard was the founder of this particular sub-genre of fantasy which merges supernatural horror with some traditional fantasy elements. It is a sub-genre that has seen its literary qualities undervalued due to the frivolous hack work of some of its supporters/promoters. The key criminals in this regard are L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter. DeCamp was a skilled fantasist outside of his Conan and Howard related work and without Carter's editorial hand modern fantasy would be lackluster today. Both of these men were deeply influential figures in the fantasy genre, yet when either of these men got their hands on a Sword and Sorcery tale of the Conan school all they could produce was hackneyed drivel. Comparing Carter's Thongor, or his Conan "collaborations," to the Conan tales of Howard is like comparing a research paper I wrote in 5th grade to one I wrote in Graduate school. DeCamp and Carter did yeoman's work in promoting the Sword and Sorcery genre, but both did great damage to the literary respect the average person believes the genre merits.

David Gemmell was a writer in the Sword and Sorcery school, in the best sense of the term. He was the most "Howardian" writer of his era, something he accomplished without writing Conan pastiches. Gemmell's tales featured the deeply individualist protagonists and supernatural horrors that the genre demands, but he added other narrative layers as well. Like Howard, and unlike many other Sword and Sorcery authors, Gemmell incorporated historical events into his fiction. Gemmell's Drenai saga contains many tales pulled straight from Herodotus, including the Battle of Thermopylae which forms the structural basis for Legend. Gemmell also incorporated a sub-narrative discussion of Christian morality and "just war theory," something I cannot attribute to any other Sword and Sorcery author. Yes, other fantasy authors incorporate such discussions, but they don't tend to be in the Sword and Sorcery genre with its anti-hero protagonists and often nihilistic worldview.

This isn't to say that Gemmell's fiction was a kind of Christian apologetics or that they were works of evangelism. His discussion of religion, war, and heroism is what one would expect from a man who could be described in the following way:

Expelled from school at sixteen for gambling, Gemmell entered the world of work with little in the way of vocational skills and drifted through a number of casual jobs. These included labourer, lorry driver's mate and nightclub bouncer, a profession well suited to his robust six foot, four inch frame.

He isn't writing books to convert anyone or to preach. The religion in his books puts a context onto the violent actions of his villains and protagonists. The faith of the Gemmell books lacks simple Manichean dualism. It is a world where even though miracles happen, there is still suffering and heroes wonder why such suffering exists. Gemmell provides no answers. It is as if he is writing through is own musings on the topic, he is discovering rather than dictating. It makes for interesting reading.

That said, Gemmell's works aren't books that are meant to be read as religious tracts, they are adventure tales where heroes battle powerful foes to protect the things they value. Sometimes the heroes are redeemed villains, sometimes they are citizen soldiers, and sometimes they are murderous avengers who may never be redeemed for their actions. Most of them are compelling, and the vast majority of them partake in exciting adventures.

Gemmell's fiction is the perfect combination of Robert E Howard and Michael Moorcock. His writing contains the rugged individualists of Howard, but it also has some of the irony of Moorcock. He is very much an author worthy of having his name attached to an award.

The David Gemmell Fantasy Awards, now three awards, have released the list of this year's nominees. It is a list full of very good fantasy by talented authors. You can see the full list below as well as in the embedded video.

Of all the nominees, I think that Graham McNeill's Empire (Time of Legends: Sigmar Trilogy) (an excellent media tie in novel set in the Warhammer universe) and Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold are the two that fall most within the Sword and Sorcery tradition, but I am a fan of Brandon Sanderson's fantasy and am glad to see that he received two nominations.

Please read this year's nominees, but if you haven't read any Gemmell do give Legend a try.

The 2010 Origins Awards Examined Part 2 -- Children's, Family, or Party Game

Tuesday, I gave a list of all the nominees for this year's Origin Awards -- the Hobby Gaming Oscars -- and included some closer examination of two of the categories. I was impressed with all the Card Game and Board Game nominees, but it was probably pretty clear that a couple of them held particularly special places in my heart. As I mentioned in the previous post, the Origin Awards (Awarded in June at GAMA's Origins gaming convention) are the gaming hobby equivalent of the Academy Award. Technically, the Origins award is the official award of the "Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design." The Academy is made up of both professional and hobbyists, and the nominee selection process has participation at the hobbyist, professional designer, and retail distribution levels.

This has been true for quite some time, and the public/industry nature of the award is one of its great strengths. Looking back at a February 1982 issue of The Space Gamer (one of the leading gaming hobby magazines of the 1980s) one finds a nomination ballot soliciting nominations from fandom at large -- a process that is not longer followed for a variety of reasons. In that ballot, the selection committee is described as follows, "An international Awards Committee of 25 hobbyists (some professionals, but primarily independents) directs and administers the awards system." I'll write more about the process in my post regarding the failure of some publishers to properly promote their work by submitting to the Juries this year in a future post. Suffice to say that the Academy is, and has always been, an organization of professionals and amateurs working together to ensure that the best in the hobby get proper consideration.

Today I'd like to take a look at another category. I'll be providing information about the Children's, Family, or Party Game nominees.

Children’s, Family, or Party Game

Are You The Traitor? – Looney Labs

As the Dice Tower review makes clear this game is a faster and more chaotic version of the traditional game Werewolf, a version that is significantly removed from the traditional game that inspired it. This is a game that has great potential for fun, or great potential for boredom depending on the group it is played with. One can imagine dynamic games where long conversation periods precede the accusation process, but one can also picture games where the accusations come so swiftly as to undermine the game play value. Typical of Looney Labs creations this game is very loose in structure and you need to consider the playing group that you are with before considering playing this game. One advantage this game has over traditional Werewolf games is that no players are ever eliminated from play. The winners of a round receive points and play moves on to the next round. This prevents any players from feeling left out as the game continues and is one of the great innovations in this adaptation.

Duck! Duck! SAFARI! – APE Games

Duck! Duck! SAFARI! is the latest in Ape Games duck! duck! series of games featuring a broad array of rubber ducky themed toys. SAFARI contains the rules and pieces for five different games, the rules for a sixth game have been added on the website, for players ages 6 and up. I am a fan of games like this, and Stonehenge, that offer gamers a decent bang for their gaming dollar. The package includes traditional race games and memory based games with excellent components. Besides, who isn't a sucker for things this cute?

Pack and Stack – Mayfair Games

Do you want all the panic and chaos of moving day, including wondering just how you are going to fit your giant library of games into the moving truck, without any of the back ache? Then Pack and Stack is the game for you. Mayfair Games has made a business of importing entertaining family games from Germany to the United States and this is yet another feather in their cap.

Ren Faire – Atlas Games

A few years back, Atlas Games released a wonderful little card game by the title Gloom which featured two wonderful game play innovations -- a requirement that to win you had to make the life of your opponent better than your own, and the use of translucent cards that layered effects on your base playing card. With Ren Faire designers Michelle Nephew and Wendy Wyman have found another way to create competitive play that doesn't feel competitive. Ren Faire is a game of Ren Faire noobs who are desperate to garb themselves in appropriate attire in order to fit in with the rest of the crowd. The game uses transparent cards to represent the clothing that will go upon your avatar, but to get those clothes you must play performance cards to earn the money to buy the clothes. This is where Nephew and Wyman's innovation comes in. Players must actually perform the actions described on the performance cards. This can lead to mayhem and amusement. Mechanically, this game is a perfect fit in Atlas Games line of non-rpgs. I have long considered their Once Upon a Time to be among the best games with regard to combining card games with performance, and now they have added another game to the list.

Word on the Street – Out of the Box Publishing

Ever since Out of the Box Games release their excellent Apples to Apples game, the company has been a leader in the independent Children's and Family game market. With Cineplexity, they demonstrated that they could make a movie trivia game with extraordinarily high replayability. Last year's release of Word on the Street once again demonstrates the company's ability to create trivia games with tremendous replay value. The goal of the game is to bring all of the letter tiles onto your side of the board by selecting a word based upon a category card, think Fact in Five, and pulling over every letter tile that the word contains one lane closer to your side. One twist, you have a time limit and when time is up you can no longer move tiles. You and your team must choose words that move the most tiles, but you must do so quickly and as the other team tries to distract you -- possibly by claiming that your word doesn't fit the category. Spend to much time defending the "legality" of your word and you might no move any tiles. The game combines elements of Scrabble, Boggle, and Apples to Apples to create an entertaining experience.

The Shattered Glass Project -- Jess Hartley's Fiction Foray into the Open Design Wilderness

A couple of years back Wolfgang Baur began a project that leveraged the hobby gamers' desire to support game designers they enjoy to create a revenue generating project taking advantage of the distribution possibilities the internet offers. With his "Open Design Project," Baur asked fans to become Patrons of role playing game adventures that he would design in collaboration with some patrons and distribute back to all the individuals who patronized his project. There were various levels of patronage that allowed for a greater, or lesser, role of creative input by the Patrons and also allowed for more individualized product offerings at the termination of a given project. For example, a high ranking patron would not only be allowed to have input on the content of the adventure, but would receive a signed copy of a printed version of the product as well.

Early in the process, the Patrons and Baur discussed whether finished products should be available for sale to the community at large upon completion -- perhaps after a given timeframe of Patron exclusivity. The answer was often some variation of, "No! We supported the work, we want to keep it special." Supporting a project often entailed a much higher price tag than is associated with buying a typical adventure at a hobby store, so the sentiment is easy to understand. This isn't to say that there haven't been projects "made public." Baur has done patroned work that was intended for public sales upon completion, and the vast number of Open Design bit torrents available has demonstrated the willingness of some patrons to completely ignore Baur's copyright -- and the rights of exclusivity shared by other patrons -- in order to make the "information free yo!"

In fact, it was upon seeing a group at my local gaming store playing an early Patron project that the GM announced proudly he had downloaded from a torrent that I cooled off on my patronage of Baur projects. I am still a patron of all of his projects, as of today, but the broad availability of torrents and my lack of time to participate actively has led to me reducing the level of my Patron status. I tend to be a mere "patron" rather than a glorious "Patron of the Arts," as I was in the past. Baur's project is inventive, and he is one of the better designers out there. He deserves your support, and not your scouring of the internet for a "freebie."



Speaking of deserving your support, on March 20th of this year Jess Hartley -- of White Wolf and other RPG design fame -- announced that she was beginning a patron supported project of her own. She calls the project The Shattered Glass Project and describes it as follows:

What is Shattered Glass?

Shattered Glass is a modern fairy (urban fae) short story, penned by Jess Hartley, which will be made available for a limited time, exclusively to patrons of The Shattered Glass Project.

What is The Shattered Glass Project?

The Shattered Glass Project is many things. It's an experiment. It's a work of fiction. It's a solution. It's a piece of art. And it's your chance to be directly involved in my work.

Why "Shattered Glass?"

Shattered Glass is the splintering of reality that happens when a person realizes that the world is not quite as they believed it to be. It is destruction, from which both damage and opportunity may arise. It speaks of magic mirrors and ice queens, of vandalized store windows and shattered windshields. It's the fragile nature of everything precious, and the value both of protecting that which we hold dear and knowing when to move on to something else when what we love is no longer good for us.

If you enjoy the thematic writing within the White Wolf gaming line, Jess Hartley is one of the writers who makes the flavor text of their games so engrossing. And let's be fair, it is the flavor text of the White Wolf games that helped them start a minor revolution that re-invigorated the role playing game hobby. For readers of White Wolf's flavor text, books and films like Twilight and Vampire Diaries are merely part of an existing obsession rather than new takes on older narrative tropes. As a contributor to White Wolf her work has been primarily within the re-imagined World of Darkness of the 21st century (if she contributed to the works in the 90s I apologize for limiting my credit giving to the more recent work), a re-imagining that broadened the scope of the line of narrative horror games. She has contributed to works within all aspects of the World of Darkness, but her largest area of contribution has been in the Changeling game line. In its 1990s incarnation, the Changeling game setting seemed mildly out of place. The game, with its focus on Faeries and the Fairy Court, seemed slightly out of place with the urban horror focus of the rest of the World of Darkness. With the re-invention of the line, and Hartley's contribution, in the 21st century version there is no longer room for doubt that Faeries can be as horrifying as Vampires, Werewolves, and "constructs."

With The Shattered Glass Project, Hartley is bringing her personal take on urban fae storytelling and I am looking forward to seeing the results. I have signed up as an "Artisan Patron." If I am going to participate in a Patronage project, I like to have something physical to which I can lay claim. I just don't trust that some other patron won't violate Hartley's copyright and make the digital version available beyond the "limited time." Which is a shame as all the revenue patrons contribute goes straight to the artist, which negates any "corporate overlords cheating artists" argument in support of piracy, and the virtual patronages are a very reasonable $5.

If you can't spend $5 to support an artist you admire instead of taking the product of their hard work for free, then you don't really admire the artist. Actions speak louder than words.

So if you are in mood for a -- possibly pretty dark -- modern fairy tale, give Jess Hartley's project a little support. I can't wait to see the results.

And Now for the Real AVATAR

From the looks of the second preview, the only problem with this adaptation of the excellent animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender is the casting.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best animated shows I have seen in quite some time, though Phineas and Ferb is on the list, and you can view some clips and a limited number of full episodes at the links below.

• Avatar Episodes
• Avatar
• Games

A-Team -- Second Trailer: Speaking of Things That Make My Inner 12 Year-old Happy

Tron as Advertised by Saul Bass

Readers of this blog know that I am pretty excited about the release of Tron: Legacy in 3-D this Christmas. I imagine it will be one of the first movies that my daughters and I watch together in the theater and sharing a small piece of my cherished childhood with my own children is something to which I am very much looking forward.

One of the things that I am interested in seeing is how modern visual techniques are going to transform the concepts that were presented in the original film. The original film was a visual tour de force. Its ability to translate computer concepts into beautiful visual metaphors was remarkable and the imagery in the film comparing the circuit like structure of the "internet" with the nighttime illuminated landscape of a modern city is one of my favorite transitions in all of film.

That said, after stumbling upon Hexagonall's Tron credits, and advertising, done in the style of Saul Bass, I have begun to wonder what a retro-remake of Tron done in the style of a Stanley Donen, Alfred Hitchcock, or John Frankenheimer would be like. Try and imagine the film that would follow these opening credits:

This is a movie that I'd like to see. In particular, I'd like to see how modern animators would face the challenge of doing a retro-remake that uses modern technology to achieve classic animation techniques. What animation style would be used to simulate the life within the computer? What would a retro-remake "innerverse" look like? What would the opening video game sequence look like? I don't know, but I would love to see it.

Wizards Announces Rollplaying for Roleplaying

As a part of their annual April Fool's "spoof product" tradition, Wizards of the Coast has announced the release of two "much needed" new products for any roleplaying gamer's collection with Roll-playing for Roleplaying and Dice-n-Wipes.

Of the two, Dice-n-Wipes is the more farcical as it pokes fun at the overly common superstitions of many gamers. The "karma cleaning" joke is one that has been done to the point where it has become almost dull, but the ad for the wipes is amusing in a way that adds a little freshness to the joke. I did find myself saying, "well, I could use these to wipe down my gaming mat." The fact that I found a real use for a joke ad was sufficient to make me laugh.

The ad that really amused me, though it pales in comparison to the brilliant My Little Pony role playing game ad from a few years back, is Roll-playing for Roleplayers. This product is also known by a couple of other names, The Amber Diceless System, Over the Edge, Vampire: The Masquerade "old school edition pre-diablerie roll-playing power creep," Bullwinkle and Rocky Roleplaying Party Game (an under-appreciated work by David "Zeb" Cook), and Wizard's own 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide and Dungeon Master's Guide 2, as well as quite a few other products.

The point is, while it is an amusing joke to infer that a product is needed specifically to incorporate more "roleplaying" in a group that focuses on "roll-playing," the real irony comes from the fact that several products have been created specifically to produce this effect. Aaron Allston's classic Champions campaign product Strike Force is one of the best examples of a product of this type. Champions, like 4th edition and D&D in general, can easily fall into the "roll-playing" trap where everything is decided by die rolls and the "improvisational persona performing" that makes "roleplaying" so unique -- and is the aspect that Greg Stafford argues make "roleplaying" an artform more than a game -- can be abandoned for pure mechanics. The riff that D&D is "roll-playing" and not "roleplaying" is a riff as old as the hobby, and it is good to see Wizards have a little fun with the stereotype. The ad also takes a couple more self-deprecating jabs at Wizards; look carefully at the bottom of the book.



It just hit me that the joke of the book may be the fact that it is a book filled with rules that will better allow players to substitute "roll-playing" for "roleplaying" more fluidly, rather than the inverse -- which was my initial assumption. If this is the case, the joke is even better and more self-deprecating. What company in their right mind would release a product that intentionally provided rules designed to removed the "improvisational narrative" aspects of the game experience? Other than FATAL, Rolemaster, and Hero System 6th Edition I mean?

GAMA Announces 2010 Origins Awards Nominees

This week the Game Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) announced their annual list of Origins Award Nominees. The Origins Awards are the most prestigious award in the Adventure Gaming hobby and the winners are determined by the members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, a committee of GAMA. This year's list contains a wide variety of nominees, covering many genres within the gaming hobby. The nominees themselves are selected by retailers and industry professionals at the Game Trade Show based upon a selection of recommendations from category juries. The juries are made up, as they have been since the early 1980s, of a combination of industry professionals and serious hobby enthusiasts. This ensures that the Origins nominations have input from fans, retailers, and creators which helps give the awards their well deserved prestige.

I will have some more comments regarding this year's nomination process and my disappointment with some of the publishers who failed to submit their products for consideration, but I wanted to take the time today to congratulate this year's nominees and to provide my input regarding the games and books that have been nominated.

Here is the list of nominees for the 36th Annual Origin Awards followed by my own commentary regarding the individual products:

Today, I'll be commenting on the first two award categories and will comment on the remaining categories throughout the week.

We begin with card games.

Card Game

The Isle of Dr. Necreaux – Alderac Entertainment Group

The Isle of Doctor Necreaux is a cooperative card game where the players attempt to rescue some of the worlds top scientists from the nefarious Doctor Necreaux. This game combines several features I find almost irresistible -- Pulp Villains, Gargantuan Reanimated Cyborg Apes (Julius Schwartz would be happy to see this too), and cooperative play. Alderac Entertainment Group has made a real push to move into the non-collectible, non-rpg, hobby game market over the past few years and it is really paying off with games like Necreaux.

Martian Fluxx – Looney Labs

Looney Labs Fluxx card game engine is one of the great underlying mechanical systems in modern card gaming. The game starts with only two rules -- draw one card, play one card -- and from there anything can happen as each card play modifies the rules of the game. These modifications can be anything from altering the number of cards drawn to establishing the terms by which a player can win the game. The Fluxx engine is a perfect example of how to utilize exceptions based rules mechanics to create interesting play. The first game in the series Fluxx was an abstract card game, in the sense that it had no theme, but Looney Labs eventually expanded the line with themed versions of the game where the cards featured their own twists on game play. Martian Fluxx is the latest entry in the series and uses the classic 50s style martian invasion as the basis for playing mayhem.

Poo – Catalyst Game Labs

Okay, how had I not heard of this game. A card game described as, "The Game of Monkeys and Poo Flinging" would quickly be added to my gaming shelf. This is especially true when the publisher responsible for the game is a company I trust for good game design and high quality components. It is also a company I hope will survive the year. Catalyst recently discovered, "that business funds had been co-mingled with the personal funds of one of the owners. We believe the missing funds were the result of bad habits that began alongside the creation of the company, which was initially a small hobby group. Upon further investigation, in which the owner has willingly participated, the owner in question now owes the company a significant balance and is working to help rectify the situation." This is a cautious way of stating that an owner/employee took money that belonged to the company for personal use, an occurrence that is all to common in the gaming industry. Catalyst assures its customers that the problem has been rectified. I hope so and I hope that the situation is handled in a way that prevents future damage to Catalyst.

The Stars are Right – Steve Jackson Games

Any time that Steve Jackson Games releases a game that isn't another in the long line of Munchkin related merchandise, it warms my heart and gives me hope that the company will continue to thrive. The fact that The Stars are Right is a fun game that whimsically plays around with eldritch horror is icing on he cake. SJG is currently suffering from what is often called the 80/20 rule where 80% of the company's revenue comes from one product line. Hopefully people will check out the great products that SJG has been producing over the past few years and realize that GURPS isn't dead and that SJG -- who started out as a hobby game company -- is producing great non-Munchkin games as well. While you're buying a copy of The Stars are Right, which you should, check out the new Pyramid online, Revolution, and the awesome new edition of Frag.

Thunderstone – Alderac Entertainment Group

Thunderstone is AEG's second nomination in this category, a fact demonstrating their smooth transition into the broader hobby game field. The game follows the recent trend of games like Dominion and Fantasy Flight Games Living Game System in that it combines the customization of deck building with the non-collectible nature of a traditional game. For many gamers, I count myself among them, this is an ideal combination. Players can construct unique playing experiences and combine card abilities in interesting ways without having to take a second mortgage on the home in order to afford the ultra powerful "rare" cards in the Collectible Card Game secondary market.

While I have played, and still play, a wide variety of role playing games, my favorite segment of the gaming hobby is the board game sector. Like the card game sector, it includes great games that can be gateway games to other aspects of the hobby. How many Talisman players went on to become roleplayers or miniatures aficionados? How many people became D&D players after playing Heroquest or The Dungeon? I imagine quite a few. The post "German-Invasion" years have seen the quality of components increase in the hobby as a whole. Where one might once have found that the hobby industry production standards were often lower than those of mainstream games, that isn't true for the modern hobby game. Gone are the days where games as fun and worthy of replay as The Creature that Ate Sheboygan are released by major hobby manufacturers with second class components like "die cut counters" and a poorly produced map. If that game were to be produced today, it would be a lavish affair with sculpted minis for the monster and sturdy components representing the defenders of the city. To be fair, the Charles Vess cover on the original game couldn't be much improved upon, but the rest of the games components would be vastly improved.

Board Game

Castle Panic – Fireside Games

Castle Panic follows the recent trend toward collaborative/competitive games. The players of Castle Panic must work together to defend the castle from the invading armies of orcs, trolls, and goblins that besiege it. A player can only become the victor of the game if the players succeed at their goal of defending the castle -- the winner is the player with the most victory points after a successful defense. Castle Panic is coming close to displacing one of my two favorite cooperative boardgames (Lord of the Rings and Ghost Stories) as a game that stays on the bookshelf in the "game room" rather than being relegated to the closet of gaming goodness or the storage pit of doom.

Endeavor – Z-Man Games

Z-Man games is a company who has made the transition from small press company, whose games had nominal component quality, to one of the leading hobby game companies in the United States. Endeavor is a perfect example of why this company has been so successful in the past few years. The game features all of the desirable qualities of a Eurogame. It features an interesting premise, players of the game set out in search of new lands and new civilizations in an attempt to expand their trading empire. The game plays easily, has high quality components, and only takes about an hour and a half to play a full game.

Small World – Days of Wonder

Days of Wonder doesn't release a lot of games, but every game they have released to date has been a winner. From Memoir '44 and Battlelore to Ticket to Ride and Mystery of the Abbey all this company has done is release playable and high quality games for hobbyists to enjoy. Small World is a fantasy reworking of the classic game Vinci. Both games are about expanding civilizations, but Vinci featured a larger map that enabled some players to avoid conflict during game play -- especially during 3 player sessions. The game is similar to Brittania in that players civilizations change over the course of play as their old civilizations fall into decline and they need to adopt new civilizations to keep generating points for victory.

Space Hulk – Games Workshop

When Games Workshop announced that they were re-releasing an updated version of Space Hulk with a limited production run, the young child in me screamed with giddy joy. When I found out that the release would be an update of the first edition rules, that Matt Forbeck lauded in Hobby Games: The 100 Best, my heart nearly exploded from excitement. I have always enjoyed the first edition and its mechanics and preferred them to the second edition (I own both). This version of the game incorporates rules from the original game and the Genestealer expansion and contains some of the most beautiful plastic playing pieces of any Games Workshop game to date -- and that is saying something. These miniatures are awesome. If you love the idea of playing a game inspired by Alien this is the game to play.

Steam – Mayfair Games

Martin Wallace's series of train games are some of the best games in the genre and Mayfair games is the leading manufacturer of train themed board games. With Steam they have a game that demonstrates why the genre is so popular. Players of prior Wallace train games will recognize the mechanics of the game, but this package has a lot to offer with its depth of play and quality of components. If you have never played a train game before, this is a great place to start.

While that completes the analysis for today's post, here is a list of the remaining nominees.

Children’s, Family, or Party Game
Are You The Traitor? – Looney Labs
Duck! Duck! SAFARI! – APE Games
Pack and Stack – Mayfair Games
Ren Faire – Atlas Games
Word on the Street – Out of the Box Publishing

Roleplaying Game
Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – Cubicle 7 Entertainment
Eclipse Phase – Catalyst Game Labs
FantasyCraft – Crafty Games
A Song of Ice And Fire – Green Ronin Publishing
Supernatural Roleplaying Game – Margaret Weis Productions

Roleplaying Game Supplement
Big Damn Heroes Handbook – Margaret Weis Productions
The Day After Ragnarok – Atomic Overmind Press
Seattle 2072 – Catalyst Game Labs
Warriors & Warlocks – Green Ronin Publishing
Weird War II – Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Miniatures Figure or Line of Figures
Duke Rathar, Dragon Lord – Fantization Miniatures
Kings of War: Elves – Mantic Games
Marvel HeroClix: Hammer of Thor Expansion – WizKids
Monsterpocalypse Series 4 – Privateer Press
Warhammer Armies: Skaven – Games Workshop

Miniatures Rules
BattleTech: Strategic Operations – Catalyst Game Labs
HAVOC: Tactical Miniatures Warfare – Voodoo Ink Publishing
Larger Than Life – Two Hour Wargames
Warhammer 40K: Planetstrike – Games Workshop
Warmachine Prime Mk II – Privateer Press

Game Accessory
Arkham Horror Dice Set – Q-Workshop/Fantasy Flight Games
d20Pro – Mindgene, LLC
Forsaken Lands Poster Map – Maps of Mystery
Fortress of Redemption – Games Workshop
Knights of the Dinner Table – Kenzer and Company

Game-Related Book
BattleTech: 25 Years of Art and Fiction – Catalyst Game Labs
The Best of All Flesh – Elder Signs Press
Cthulhu 101 – Atomic Overmind Press
Deluge – Pinacle Entertainment Group
Legend of the Five Rings: Death at Koten – Alderac Entertainment Group

Historical Board Game or Expansion
The Hell of Stalingrad – Clash of Arms Games
Richard III: War of the Roses – Columbia Games
Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel – Academy Games
D-Day at Omaha Beach – Decision Games
Unhappy King Charles – GMT Games

Historical Miniatures Figure or Line of Figures
Wings of War Albatross D.III – Fantasy Flight Games
15mm Parachute Rifle Company – Battlefront Miniatures
15mm Ming Chinese – Old Glory Miniatures
28mm British Napoleonic Infantry – Victrix Miniatures
28mm World War I: Great War in Africa – Brigade Games

Historical Miniatures Rules
Flames of War: Open Fire – Battlefront Miniatures
Wings of War: World War II, Deluxe Edition – Fantasy Flight Games
Napoleon’s Battles, 3rd Edition – Lost Battalion Games
“La Salle” Napoleonic Tactical Wargame Rules – Sam Mustafa
Warlord Games Black Powder Rulebook – Warlord Games

Historical Miniatures Rules Supplement
Flames of War: North Africa – Battlefront Miniatures
Eternal Empire: The Ottomans at War – Osprey Publishing
Battles of the Seven Years War: Austria vs. Prussia – Test of Battle Games
Fields of Battle: Atacar es Vencer! – Spanish Civil War 1936 – Iron Ivan Games
Commonwealth Skirmish Scenarios – Southern Maryland Press

Green Ronin Releases Family Games: The 100 Best

Two years ago, Green Ronin Publishing released one of the best books on hobby gaming ever written. Their book, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, featured thoughtful articles highlighting some of the best games in the history of the gaming hobby written by some of the best game designers in the industry. Some of the games were well known and are played by thousands of gamers on a regular basis, others were rare games that influenced the creation of the games people play today. One thing is certain, the game became a Christmas Wish List for many gamers and started an internet meme where game hobbyists listed the games they own/play.

Green Ronin has now followed up on the hobby game book with a book entitled Family Games: The 100 Best. With it the company hopes to provide for family games the same kind of invaluable resource they provided for the hobby game industry. The book was originally slated to be released last year's Gen Con convention, but was delayed for a variety of reasons.

Your average consumer isn't a collector of games and doesn't have room in their house for 1000+ board/card/roleplaying/family games and resources like these two books allow for those consumers to purchase games based on the opinions of individuals who have a great deal of experience in designing and playing games. Why James Lowder and the folks at Green Ronin have yet to ask me for an entry in their compilations is beyond understanding, but the list of games in this edition is once again a wonderful selection of the popular and the rare and consumers cannot go wrong with any of the games on the list.

I have provided a copy of the games included in the new volume below, those games that are bold are games that I own and those games that are italicized are games that I have played.

Family Games: The 100 Best

* Foreword by Mike Gray
* Introduction by James Lowder
* Afterword by Wil Wheaton
* Appendix A: Games and Education by David Millians
* Appendix B: Family Games in Hobby Games: The 100 Best by James Lowder

* Carrie Bebris on 10 Days in the USA
* Steven E. Schend on 1960: The Making of the President
* Dominic Crapuchettes on Apples to Apples
* Mike Breault on The Awful Green Things from Outer Space
* Jeff Tidball on Balderdash
* Keith Baker on Bang!
* Bruce Harlick on Battleship
* James Wallis on Bausack
* Paul Jaquays on Black Box
* Lewis Pulsipher on Blokus
* Teeuwynn Woodruff on Boggle
* Fred Hicks on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* James Ernest on Candy Land
* Ian Livingstone on Can't Stop
* Bruce Whitehill on Careers
* Jared Sorensen on Cat
* Wolfgang Baur on Cathedral
* John Scott Tynes on Clue
* Alessio Cavatore on Condottiere
* Elaine Cunningham on Connect Four
* Will Hindmarch on Cranium
* Erik Mona on Crossbows and Catapults
* William W. Connors on Dark Tower
* John D. Rateliff on Dogfight
* Robert J. Schwalb on Dungeon!
* jim pinto on Dvonn
* Gav Thorpe on Easter Island
* Jeff Grubb on Eurorails
* Kenneth Hite on Faery's Tale Deluxe
* Richard Dansky on Family Business
* Warren Spector on Focus
* Corey Konieczka on For Sale
* James M. Ward on Fortress America
* Stan! on Frank's Zoo
* Bruce C. Shelley on The Game of Life
* Phil Orbanes on A Gamut of Games
* Monica Valentinelli on Gloom
* Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
* Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti
* David "Zeb" Cook on Guillotine
* Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
* Joshua Howard on Halli Galli
* Bruce Nesmith on Hare & Tortoise
* Mike Pondsmith on HeroClix
* Anthony J. Gallela on HeroQuest
* Chris Pramas on HeroScape
* Ed Greenwood on Hey! That's My Fish!
* Colin McComb on Hive
* Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
* Jon Leitheusser on Ingenious
* Uli Blennemann on Java
* Luke Crane on Jungle Speed
* Monte Cook on Kill Doctor Lucky
* Emiliano Sciarra on Knightmare Chess
* Todd A. Breitenstein on Liar's Dice
* Marc Gascoigne on Loopin' Louie
* Andrew Parks on Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
* Seth Johnson on Lost Cities
* John Yianni on Magi-Nation
* Bill Bodden on Master Labyrinth
* Andrew Greenberg on Mastermind
* Ken Levine on Memoir '44
* Scott Haring on Mille Bornes
* Steve Jackson on Monopoly
* Sheri Graner Ray on Mouse Trap
* Kevin G. Nunn on Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue
* Dale Donovan on The Omega Virus
* Darren Watts on Othello
* Charles Ryan on Pandemic
* Michelle Lyons on Pente
* Thomas M. Reid on Pictionary
* Nicole Lindroos on Pieces of Eight
* John Wick on Pit
* Matt Forbeck on Pokémon
* Robin D. Laws on Prince Valiant
* Stephen Glenn on Qwirkle
* Sébastien Pauchon on Ricochet Robots
* Peter Olotka on Risk
* Richard Breese on Rummikub
* Jesse Scoble on Scotland Yard
* Richard Garfield on Scrabble
* Mike Selinker on Set
* Rob Heinsoo on Small World
* Hal Mangold on Sorry!
* Jess Lebow on Stratego
* Eric Goldberg on Strat-O-Matic Baseball
* Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
* Karl Deckard on Thebes
* Dan Tibbles on Time's Up!
* Tom Wham on Trade Winds
* Susan McKinley Ross on TransAmerica
* Ray Winninger on Trivial Pursuit
* Leo Colovini on Twixt
* Matthew Kirby on Uno
* David Parlett on Upwords
* Lester Smith on Werewolf
* John Kovalic on Wits & Wagers
* Philip Reed on Yahtzee
* Kevin Wilson on Zendo
* Jess Hartley on Zooloretto

As you can see, I own and have played a lot of these games. Some of them, like Heroquest and Heroscape, appeal to my "rpg" gaming personality. Others, like Zooloretto, are wonderful games for playing with people who want to play a great game but aren't interested in "fantasy" themes. I'm surprised at the absence of some games from the list, but I am not surprised that any of the games listed made the list. This is because there are more than 100 Family Games worth playing if you have the time.

My Twins Turn Two Today.

Today is my daughters' second birthday and, as will become an annual tradition, the day will begin with this delightful song from one of the greatest films of all time.



I'll give you three guesses why and the first two don't count.

Happy Birthday William Shatner!

I have said many times, and I'll say it again, I am not a Star Trek fan. I am a William Shatner fan. I first watched Star Trek in syndication and I truly cut my Shatner teeth on T.J. Hooker. The man has entertained me in television, film (Free Enterprise is genius), computer games (the Scott Bennie written Star Trek adventure game episodes are wonderful), books, and in music. For most of my life, the words Shatner and "recorded music" brought to mind weird performances of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Rocket Man," and "Mr. Tambourine Man," (on the Transformed Man album) but thanks to Ben Folds, William Shatner released a wonderful record HAS BEEN. Prior to that album's release Shatner and Folds did a nice duet on Conan O'Brien.

Dungeons and Dragons Revealed -- Why I Wish You Tube Had Been Around During the 80s

Can you imagine what all those Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons types would have done and said if they saw this video representation of a Dungeons and Dragons gaming experience?



Key "easter egg" points for me were:

1) The map from the Dungeons and Dragons black boxed set.
2) Miniatures from the Dragon Strike introductory roleplaying set.
3) Miniatures and "doors" from the classic Heroquest game.
4) The Jack Black moment.
5) The Blair Witch moment.
6) The use of Boccob.

Through the Gates of Ennui: Sharing Timmis and Fierro's "The Silver Key" Adaption

Fans of HP Lovecraft know that film adaptations of HP Lovecraft stories have a shaky history at best. Scads of tales have been adapted, but very few have been remotely watchable. The only real gem of the bunch is the silent version of "The Call of Cthulhu" produced by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. The film is well done and captures the haunting tones of Lovecraft's story by rejecting any impulse to modernize the narrative or special effects. The Historical Society produced the film not only as a period piece, they produced the film "as if" it had been produced in 1926. In doing so, they created a genuinely enjoyable and powerful work. I look forward to seeing their to eventually be completed adaptation of "The Whisperer in Darkness."

Making films of successful and haunting Lovecraftian tales is difficult enough, but how difficult would it be to adapt a tale that is at its core problematic? Conor Timmis and Gary Fierro are two independent filmmakers who were brave enough to answer this question with their adaptation of "The Silver Key" entitled "The Silver Key." Cthulhu aficionado Ken Hite has said of what makes the tale so problematic, it's lack of true dread, "even Lovecraft didn't believe that "the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is apathy," which is why there's a thriving horror literature, and tales of ennui are rapidly forgotten, dei gratia."

"The Silver Key" is a tale of ennui and not horror, but then again that seems to make it perfect for indie film fare.

The ten minute film is, like the HPLHS film, a silent film, but in this case they have updated the setting to the modern day. The use of daylight during the opening sequences of the film remove any weighty emotion introspection of the Randolf Carter character, haunting obsessive desires to retreat into childhood are better displayed at night, but the choice is a much less expensive choice than filming at night. There is a nice transition from bright to overcast/gloomy as the film progresses and couple of good uses of digital effects. One does wonder what the Yellow Sign is doing in the story, is the director implying that retreat into childhood leads to madness? The film runs 10 minutes. What do you think of it as an adaptation of this story?

You Should Be Reading "King of RPGs"

In his invaluable The Complete Guide to Manga¹, Jason Thompson writes, "Dragons and wizards, sword-wielding heroes with improbably large shoulder pads, terms such as levels and hit-points -- many of the trappings of Japanese fantasy can be traced to RPGs (role-playing games), the popular category of video and tabletop games that originated in America." Thompson follows this statement with a quick rundown of the development of the RPG field in Japanese culture and a discussion of the ascendancy of Video Game RPGs and Collectable Card Games and how tabletop RPGs enjoy a "small cult following in Japan, as in America." According to Thompson, roleplaying games influence on Manga as a whole is largely as a background influence, with few Manga being based specifically on roleplaying titles. There are some key exceptions, including the Record of Lodoss War series, that is based on the Japanese RPG Sword World by Ryo Mizuno and a couple of others, but for the most part RPGs influences the underlying archetypes of Manga fantasy without being a direct inspiration for the field.

Think of it in terms of the anime Dragon Ball Z's "Over 9000!".



Or even in terms of the cult classic martial arts film Kung Fu Cult Master's "if I have 6000 points, he has at least 10,000!.

Both of the above pieces of entertainment contain obvious roleplaying game references, but neither is a representation of a specific roleplaying game or aspect of roleplaying game culture, though R. Talsorian Games did release a roleplaying game based on Dragonball Z in 2000.

What has never really been done in Manga is a book about the people who play roleplaying games -- a kind of Manga equivalent of the Dead Gentleman The Gamers series of movies. Author Jason Thompson and illustrator Victor Hao have changed that with King of Rpgs. This book is Manga that is a send up of every aspect of the gaming hobby in a way that takes the meta-cognitive "tell the story of the adventure the group is roleplaying" storytelling of the Dead Gentleman productions and turns it on its head. King of RPGs isn't a book about how fun the stories gaming groups create during their playing sessions and how funny many of the common experience of the gaming group are. King of RPGs tells the story of gamers and gaming through the lens of a shōnen Sports Manga. These Manga take the competitive nature of athletics and transform them into wildly over the top stories that combine narrative tropes from Kung Fu films with "poverty to success" storylines. The formula, known as spo-kon is apologetically melodramatic and can be wildly humorous depending on the title. According to Thompson these Manga often feature stories where the hero, "through intense training...struggles to succeed in sports, although it is a long, hard road full of blood, sweat, and self-sacrifice. His coach or his father...is harsh and unforgiving, an archetype known as oni coach. Of course, he has the hero's best interests at heart...or at least the drive to win, no matter what the costs."

Take a second to imagine that description if you will. Imagine one of the players in your gaming group as the "poor struggling player" who through intense training will succeed in being the ultimate game player, although the path will be full of blood, sweat, and self-sacrifice. Imagine that you, the game master for the group, are the oni coach who must push this gamer to become the best he can be and to win at all costs. Imagine wild roleplaying sessions where you bring live snakes, throw dangerous objects at the players, and where the dangers the players face are as real as the ones their characters face. If you can imagine that, you can begin to imagine what Thompson and Hao are doing with King of Rpgs.

From the back of the book:

At the University of California, Escondido, no one would ever guess that freshman Shesh Maccabee is a hard-core gamer -- and in recovery to boot, following a court order, a wireless ban, and months of therapy (all because of one little seven-day Internet cafe episode). His friend Mike -- who personally prefers Japanese-console RPGs -- is tasked with keeping Shesh far away from any computer with access to World of Warfare.
Everything is going according to plan -- until a Ren Faire fangirl introduces them to the campus gaming club, where they meet Theodore, a fanatical tabletop game master whose single goal in life is to run the greatest Mages & Monsters game in the world. And there just happens to be room for two more players. Soon Shesh and Mike are dragged into the dungeon of hard-core gaming -- and cops, baboon men, Sri Lankan cave roaches, and Gothemon card collectors converge in the zaniest adventure that ever involved twenty-sided dice!

In the first volume of the series, Thompson and Hao manage to spoof, parody, and turn into dangerous life-threatening activity, almost all aspects of the gaming hobby. The only thing they leave out are the board gaming community with its fertile Diplomacy and Eurogame fields, but I am sure that those will have their day as well.

Victor Hao's artwork is dynamic and he manages to bring the wild visual storytelling one would expect in a Football or Baseball Manga into a representation of tabletop game playing with remarkable skill. Hao makes playing an RPG look like a visually exciting activity! Trust me, this is quite an accomplishment. Imagine turning the conversation in Plato's Republic into an action movie, not what they are describing the actual conversation. Not easy right. Hao could do it. I know, because he made sitting around a table chatting look fast, furious, and life-threatening! The panel to panel artistic storytelling is excellent. Hao's artwork leads the reader's eye naturally from panel to panel. Hao's Manga caricatures are well drawn throughout the book, though there are some pages/panels where I think he could have added more consistency to the line art. The monster designs are excellent and Hao does a wonderful job differentiating the "fantastic" sequences and hyper-action sequences from the "real world" sequences in a way that visually notifies the reader what emotional queues they should be following.

Thompson's writing on the book is strong. The reader immediately sympathizes with Shesh and his friend Mike, and we come to like their gaming group as well. Theodore Dudek, the young Game Master (read oni coach), of the book is a glorious creation. A creation that Thompson is so fond of that he even created a blog "written" by the character. True to form, Dudek's blog is not only a good "send up" of the Gygaxian personality GM from the 80s, it is also a very good game blog.². Thompson, a gamer who cut his teeth on the classic Erol Otis covered Red Box edition of Basic D&D, has a wide knowledge of the gaming hobby and is able to incorporate references to the tabletop RPG, live-action RPG, CCG, and Video Game genres seamlessly and fluidly into the narrative. He is also a master of taking what seems like a relatively mundane scenario and turning it into a nightmarishly wild experience for the participants. Thompson also pokes a bit of fun at the anti-D&D (and other games) sentiment that rears its head from time to time in the Culture Wars and has a character dedicated to eradicating game playing due to its harm to society. One wonders when/if Thompson and Hao will include a send up of the classic Chick Tract -- Dark Dungeons.



I cannot wait to see what they could do with the above panel.

I highly recommend the King of RPGs Manga for any gamer fan, or really for anyone who wants to read a funny over the top story about college kids. The book is quite fun. My only criticism is that we have to wait almost a year before the second volume is released. It only takes about half-an-hour to read the Manga, and it leaves you wanting more. It doesn't leave you wanting to wait a year! It's like Frito Lay potato chips, you want more than one!

To help tide us over. Thompson and Hao are offering a lot of behind the scenes information on the King of RPGs blog and have posted this hilarious Book Commercial for the Manga based on Sonny Chiba's classic Satsujin ken (aka The Streetfighter).

¹At least it's been invaluable to me as a non-Otaku. The book has served as a wonderful introduction and critical resource of recommendations for me as I explore what Manga I think might be worth investing my time and money in reading. It has become the Manga equivalent of Thomas Weisser's excellent Asian Cult Cinema. Weisser's book turned me from a fan of films like Hardboiled and The Killer into a full blown obsessive fan of films like Bride with White Hair, Swordsman 2, and Chinese Ghost Story. My friend Jay and I made several road trips to the Bay Area in order to buy Tai Seng videos that eventually covered a wide array of genres.Return to Text.

²Though for some reason Thompson doesn't always post comments from Dudek's imaginary nemesis (B N Nemecz) who stops by the site to harangue the lad. Nemecz put a little bit of work into a post responding to Dudek's "First Time DM'ing Tips: Part 1" that has yet to see the light of day. It should also be noted that Thompson's Dudek blog stirred a bit of a controversy on the RPG Bloggers network. Some readers felt that it was a "marketing ploy" and should be excluded from a network of gaming blogs, but other argued that the blog -- in addition to being a viral marketing attempt -- was a very good gaming blog in its own right. While I wouldn't confuse "Dudek's" opinions with Thompson's by assuming they are one and the same, "Dudek" brings up some interesting points for conversation.Return to Text.

Generic Movie: Hollywood as of 1980 or as of Its Origins?

Sean Mattie and I have been discussing, via email, the current fiscal/narrative conservatism that Hollywood seems to be exhibiting of late. His argument, and it is a common argument among critics, is that Hollywood is "no longer" in the business of making original productions and now busies themselves with adaptations of other works and long strings of sequels/remakes.

Having read The Day of the Locust (and seen the movie) and The Loved One (and seen that movie too), I am less critical of modern Hollywood than he is. I think that Hollywood has always been in the business of being risk averse and that the question to consider is whether the overall quality of entertainment offered today is less than that of any other given point in history. I am also of the opinion that quality is up compared to most eras of cinema, but that classic movies of the past are...well...Classic.

Speaking of The Day of the Locust, the thing I have always liked most about the Simpsons television show is how Homer Simpson continually visually references his namesake and his "big hands" in the majority of episodes. Every time Homer is choking Bart, you are getting a glimpse of the end of The Day of the Locust.

MBA Finals, not to be confused with NBA Finals

I am currently in the midst of Finals season for the quarter and posting has been light. Sorry, but my mind is currently filled with visions of Share of Voice and Net Present Value, and has been distracted from the world of popular culture.

Supercrew RPG Update

Back in January, I reviewed the independently published superhero roleplaying game "Supercrew." Overall, I gave the game a glowing review.

In conclusion, I think that this is an excellent game at a reasonable price. It isn't likely to replace Savage Worlds' Necessary Evil campaign in my game rotation any time soon, but I think I'll be trying to fit it in when some players don't show up for our regular sessions.

But there was one small thing that kept nagging at the back of my consciousness. I really wanted the game to have more online support. In fact, I wanted it to have any online support.

Well...the good folks at Kaleidoskop have updated their website so that it now includes a support site for players of the English language edition of the game. So far the site merely includes some sample pages from the game and character sheets for use in your home campaign, but it's a good start.

I'd still like to see some more support with regard to designing obstacles and villains for the heroes to face or an English language version of their Hjältegalleri which features a number of characters created using the system would be helpful. While it isn't difficult to figure out what Gravitationskontroll or Noll Friktion are in English, Osynlighetskappa is another matter entirely.