Stewart Wieck and Nocturnal are Resurrecting West End Games.

On April 13th of this year, Stewart Wieck announced that Nocturnal Media had purchased West End Games from it's past owner Eric Gibson. West End Games (WEG) was founded in 1974 and like many early companies in the role playing game hobby, started off as a publisher of wargames. Prior to their transition into a role-playing game publisher, WEG produced a number of classic wargames including Cosmic Encounter, Junta, and Kamakura. The company made a major leap into "hobby" wargames when they published Bug-Eyed Monsters and Web and Starship, both designed by Greg Costikyan, in 1983 and 1984. When WEG finally jumped into the role-playing game market, they did so with quite a splash with the Paranoia role-playing game, a game that combined a simple rules set with a comic sensibility that mocked Cold War fears and the role-playing game hobby.

WEG would eventually add a host of high quality licensed role-playing games like Star Wars and Ghostbusters and unlicensed games like The Price of Freedom and Torg to a strong line of hobby games that included Tales of the Arabian Nights, Druid, and Tank Leader. For a time, WEG was one of the biggest brands in the hobby and their rapid decline came as a surprise to many fans, but the company managed to limp along as it moved from one owner to another. None of the owners could quite manage to recapture the particular combination of mechanics and settings that made WEG a force in the hobby.

Now the company has transitioned into the hands of Stewart Wieck, one of the leading names in the modern gaming hobby, who has a long history in the gaming hobby dating back to his days with White Wolf Publishing (a company he co-founded in high school) and which includes stints working on the Star Wars and Torg properties as a freelancer.

While some may be skeptical that Wieck can revive WEG and bring success back to the brand, I'm fairly optimistic about the endeavor. Wieck has a long track record in the industry and his company Nocturnal has done a good job with Pendragon. Additionally, Wieck has a detailed knowledge of the direct to digital RPG marketplace. One of the first things that Wieck is planning as WEG owner is to add Print on Demand versions of the WEG "in house" d6 RPG gamebooks. He is also planning to do a Kickstarter launch of the classic WEG board game Web and Starship.

 

 According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Web and Starship is a :

Board and counter Wargame (1984). West End Games (WEG). Designed by Greg Costikyan.

Web and Starship is a Hard SF Wargame played on a two-dimensional map of nearby stars, with the third dimension represented by notations on the display. The setting is asymmetric; there are three players, each of whom has different capabilities. The Pereen can travel between stars by means of an instantaneous "Web", but must use slower-than-light probes to add new planets to the network, while the Gwynhyfarr use Faster Than Light ships, which are too small to move large amounts of material from one star to another. As a result, the Pereen will generally win in any ground combat, while the Gwynhyfarr forces are superior in space engagements. The third player, Earth, has access to both the Web and faster than light starships, but begins the game with limited versions of both Technologies, which only slowly improve. Earth is initially located directly between the Pereen and Gwynhyfarr spheres of influence, leading to a great deal of diplomacy as player alliances form and reform. The result is an interesting exercise in strategy in which gameplay is generally focused on economic expansion, interrupted by intermittent warfare.

Image Source Scott Smith

If we can talk Wieck into republishing Bug-Eyed Monsters as well, there are at least two WEG products that will be added to my must own list.

Fantasy Film Friday: HAWK THE SLAYER (1980)

For gamers of a certain age, Hawk the Slayer inspired the imagination as much as Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. The film's story is staid, predictable, and pretty forgettable, but the overt sternness of "Crow," the over acting of Jack Palance, and the "Sword of Mind" made it all worth it. I cannot overstate how many times I watched this film as a wee lad, but I will say that my love of this film does a lot to explain why I'm less critical of films like Seventh Son. All I care about is whether the cast is having a good time.

There are several reviews of the film on the internet, if you want to read a review, but this being a gaming blog (supposedly) I will be providing Savage Worlds statistics for Crow...the Elf for Savage Worlds and Shadow of the Demon Lord.

Name: Crow  (Savage Worlds)

Race: Elf

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Skills: 
 Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Riding d6, Shooting d12, Stealth d8, Survival d8, 
Throwing d6, Tracking d8

Charisma: -2; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1)

Hindrances: All Thumbs, Code of Honor, Loyal, Outsider

Edges: Marksman, Quick, Rock and Roll!

Gear: Bow (Range 12/24/48, 2d6), Dagger (Str+d4), Leather (+1, Covers torso, arms, legs)

Special Abilities:

• Low Light Vision: Ignores penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.

• Rock-n-Roll! edge gives Crow an RoF of 2 with his bow instead of normal bonus.

While Savage Worlds has been my "go to" system for quickly stating things up for gaming, because of it's Fast, Furious, and Fun nature, I've decided to provide statistics for Crow using Robert Schwalb's excellent Shadow of the Demon Lord system. Partly because of the easy to use and learn system that allows for a lot of customization, and partly because the background of Hawk the Slayer includes the intrusion of a Demon Lord into the world of our heros.

Name: Crow (Shadow of the Demon Lord)

Ancestry: Elf                      Level: 7

Classes: Warrior (Novice), Fighter (Expert), Nightstalker (Master)*

Professions: Tracker, Artisan (Bowyer), Exile, Highwayman, Hunter

*Class featured in Terrible Beauty expansion.

Strength: 11 (+1)      Agility: 14 (+4)      Intellect: 10 (+0)      Will: 12 (+2)

Size: 1                        Speed: 12               Perception: 11          Defense: 15

Health: 42                 Healing Rate: 12

Corruption: 0           Insanity: 1

Talents: Shadowsight, Spell Defense, Bewitching Presence, Iron Vulnerability, Catch Your Breath, Weapon Training (longbow), Combat Prowess, Forceful Strike, Swift Shot, Combat Expertise, Durable, Darksight, Shadowblend, Silent Moves.

Special Abilities: Immune to damage from disease; charm, and disease.

Equipment: Adventurer's Pack, Longbow, 40 Arrows, Dagger

I think that each system brings out some of the intricacies that made Crow an entertaining character. If you are interested in playing either Savage Worlds or Shadow of the Demon Lord, you can purchase them by clicking on the hyperlinks.

Rules of Good Gaming

There are those who think that there is only one simple rule for being a respectful gamer who provides good gaming experiences for fellow game players. While it might seem easy to just say, "don't be a [expletive deleted]" when asked what your personal house rules are, I find that it's often useful to be a little more specific than that.

For example, I have 8 year old twin daughter who are either participating in whatever game is being played, or just out of eyesight (and within earshot) playing Minecraft, whom I would rather didn't even hear the [expletive deleted] part of that statement overly often. But a lack of profanity isn't really the most pressing issue for me when it comes to gaming with friends, not by a long shot. Most people are considerate around 8 year olds. This is why I was glad to see RDigby's Gamer's Guide to Good Behavior on Deviant Art.

The first column of his tidy infographic and the first item of the second column cover the things that really get to me. I really appreciate it when people help me maintain the condition of my board games and rpgs. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to buy a new book/game because someone spilled something on it or lost some pieces (this is particularly true for games like Squad Leader). In these cases, it isn't usually about any person being a [expletive deleted]. Instead, it's about not going out of one's way to be extra-conscientious. I like my gamer friends to be extra-conscientious.

This is why I'm actually very grateful for the group I - too rarely at present - get to play games with. They may tell [expletive deleted] jokes more frequently than I'd like in an ideal state, and come to think of it I might be guilty of this as well, but they are always responsible with my game materials.

Shadow of the Demon Lord is Frighteningly Good [Part One] -- Could It Be Satan?

Robert J. Schwalb prefaces his new role playing game Shadow of the Demon Lord with a brief discussion of how he entered into the role playing game hobby. As with many of us, his introduction to the hobby was Dungeons & Dragons. Based on the fact that Schwalb asked Frank Mentzer to write a foreward to the game, I'm going to venture a guess and say that Schwalb and I share the fact that our introduction to D&D was Mentzer's excellent re-edit of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic set. I had a lot of fun with that game, and by the sound of it Schwalb did as well.

Schwalb's preface makes something else clear, we both had to "grapple" with the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and how that affected the way people viewed the role playing game hobby. It's in his description of his personal reaction to the Satanic Panic where Schwalb and I differ.

In my own personal experience with Dungeons & Dragons, by which I mean the way my friends and I played it, devils/demons were viewed as imaginary generic villains to be defeated by devoted Paladins. In my young mind's eye, the devils and demons of the game were cartoony and less genuinely malevolent than they were "Maleficent." They were there to be defeated in the same way children defeated witches in fairy tales. When I encountered people who worried for the safety of my soul, I was more confused than angry. I remember when my parents moved to the Bay Area and we lived with a coworker of my father's while we found a more permanent residence. One night, while I was playing a game on the Atari, one of our hosts mentioned this sinister game that was threatening the souls of young children. I didn't hear the panic in the person's voice, I only heard the words Dungeons & Dragons, so I quickly interjected in an almost bored way, "yeah, I play D&D and I love it." This did not go over well with our hosts, but I don't remember the rest of the conversation. Yar's Revenge was more important than any criticism of D&D. It wasn't until a game group I was a part of had to play Star Frontiers instead of D&D due to "satanic" elements that I became annoyed.

Why wasn't I worried? Let me give you a glance at some of the evil horrors that threatened to consume the soul of a D&D player.

Here we have Asmodeus as he was portrayed in the AD&D Monster Manual. Don't get me wrong, those eyes are a bit disturbing. As for the rest of the image, I'd seen more disturbing get ups when I took BART over to Berkeley...and I'm just talking about the other customers at the local comic shop. Asmodeus doesn't look particularly "cool." He looks like typical 70s "sleeze" and that had zero temptation appeal. He certainly doesn't look frightening.

The devils got a little more frightening with Baalzebul, the Lord of the Flies, but a horned beast head with fly eyes is only so frightening. Given that the image ins sharp line art, it lacks any real frightening impact and a guy who is "The Lord of the Flies" doesn't sound like he has a lot to offer a 10 year old. I mean c'mon, he's the Lord of things that eat poop. I'll just stab him in the face, IN THE FACE, with my Holy Avenger for the XP thank you very much.

 

This isn't to say the artwork wasn't good. I really like the illustrations in AD&D, it's just to say that none of these images had any verisimilitude or compelled me to fall into devil worship. I'd rather tell a good story about good conquering evil. In a world where evil exists, and where we often feel helpless to fight it, it's nice to have a place where you know that Good will be victorious.

That's my experience. Schwalb's was a little different. 

According to game designer Robert J. Schwalb's preface to Shadow of the Demon Lord, "D&D had been [his] game -- at least until it was decided there was too much Satan in its pages for me to play and keep my soul intact, and so I was forced to find other games to scratch my roleplaying itch. The Old World of Warhammer provided a far darker and scarier place than anything that D&D had to offer and thus it had me entranced." 

When I first read this, I almost read it as Schwalb thinking that D&D had "too much Satan" in it. Upon many re-readings, I've come to think that like my friend who was forced to play Star Frontiers instead of D&D to avoid "Satan" In my case, this created a journey from D&D to Flash Gordon -- and eventually superheroes. In Schwalb's case, this was a journey from Satan, to what my group jokingly called "Super-Mega-Ultra-Satan."  

Let's just compare those D&D "Satanic" image above to the "non-Satanic" influences of Warhammer. Let's just say that Schwalb hit the nail on the head when he says it is a far darker and scarier place than D&D. When one looks at the Chaos books of Warhammer, you can see why my friends call it "Super-Mega-Ultra-Satan." 

Also, it's amazing. My old Warhammer Realm of Chaos books are favorites of my collection.

When you look at Robert J. Schwalb's new role playing game Shadow of the Demon Lord, you can see the influence of both D&D and Warhammer. The cover of the rulebook has a demon that is clearly influenced by D&D's Orcus, but the style and horror elements are dialed up to 11 and are pure Warhammer.

 

None of these comments should be viewed as a criticism of Schwalb's game, which I think is one of the most exciting games both thematically and mechanically, I've seen in some time. Instead, they are an overview of some brief thoughts of how amazing it is that in attempting to avoid "demonic" imagery, a player ended up playing something that would probably have freaked out the Patricia Pullings of the world far more than D&D if they ever happened upon it.

Given that the theme of this blog is gaming with kids, most of the future entries in this series will be about how to adapt Schwalb's extremely versatile system to "kid friendly" topics like Scooby Doo and Skylanders. Having said that, I had to write a post looking at how the Satanic Panic continues to influence game designers and gamers. 

I know that the Satanic Panic affected the way that I gamed for a time. It forced me to encounter new genres and styles of play. I still resent the stupidity of the critics of RPGs back in the day, but I can use a little motivated reasoning to find the silver lining of the clouds. Thanks to Robert J. Schwalb, some of that silver lining now includes "Super-Mega-Ultra-Satan."

Exciting News from the New TSR - The Publishers of Gygax Magazine

I recently received an email from the new TSR discussing their scheduled lineup of new products and it is a real doozy.

When I heard that a rag tag band of old school gamers and old school game company employees had acquired the trademark to the name TSR, I was a bit skeptical. This skepticism remained even after they announced the production of a new gaming magazine entitled Gygax Magazine. My skepticism was primarily rooted in the fear that the new company, which was clearly going to be an OSR (Old School Renaissance) inspired venture, would err too much on the side of D&D OSR and not be a celebration of the entirety of Old School Roleplaying games. My skepticism soon translated into enthusiasm when I received my first copy of Gygax Magazine. Where I had expected a magazine dedicated to various D&D clones, and would have enjoyed those articles as I am a fan of D&D retroclones, what I received was a magazine that included articles covering a wide variety of games and genre.

It was like reading Dragon Magazine during the period when Dragon was more than just a house organ. Gygax Magazine is more the Dragon that published "Crimefighters" than the magazine that dedicated itself to "all 2nd edition all the time." The magazine continued its strong mission of supporting multiple genres, even as the company has had to negotiate some legal obstacles and the loss of some key partners, but the end of the legal battles (and the loss of Luke an Ernie Gygax as partners) resulted in the company deciding to end future publication of Gygax Magazine.

These recent obstacles had me once again worried about the future of the company, but then I received an email about their projected lineup and my excitement has returned.

This year, TSR plans the release of three lines of products.

The first is a line of adventure modules designed for use with a variety of old school game systems. This line of adventures is called, fittingly for one which is supporting multiple systems, the Pantheon Series.

 

As you can see from the image, the Pantheon Series will include Fantasy (Multisystem), Science Fiction (Metamorphosis Alpha), Superheroes/WWII (Godlike), and Espionage (Top Secret).  The lineup of authors includes highly regarded designers from the early days of gaming and support for an interesting set of games. The first adventures in the series were originally published in Gygax Magazine, but future entries will be original to the series. I think that this is a bold move by the company and will test how much newer gamers are willing to support the more free wheeling support fostered in the early days of the hobby.

Next on the list of products is a more conservative, but equally anticipated, 5th edition D&D adventure series. The series opens with Trouble at IronGarde Watch by Frank Mentzer and James Carpio. Mentzer was the editor of the classic BECMI edition of Dungeons and Dragons and has a wonderful sense of what makes a great fantasy adventure.

 

TSR's next offering demonstrates their willingness to fully commit to being an rpg publisher. Code Name: ACRID HERALD is a brand new Espionage role playing game designed by Merle Rasmussen, the designer of the classic first edition of Top Secret for the original TSR. The game is in its early stages, and the title is only an internal playtesting title, but I look forward to seeing what wonders lie in store. When Top Secret was first published, role playing games were young and Espionage wasn't a widely accepted game setting. Modern gamers, and game play styles that are more story oriented, provide a richer environment for Espionage games. The current spy game market has some excellent entries, but there is room for a new player if the game hits the right sweet spots. I'm looking forward to what Rasmussen has in store.

Psst...I'm one of the Essayists in the Official Companion to the Munchkin Card Game

I've been vaguebooking about this for some time, but I finally get to announce that I am one of the authors in an upcoming Munchkin product. That's right, I've been given the chance to write an essay on what makes Munchkin such a great game and have been given the honor to work with James Lowder and to receive positive feedback from Steve Jackson himself.

Talk about an achievement unlocked. Working on this project was a dream come true and I cannot wait for you to read the essays that my fellow authors and I have put together for you. There are a number of great writers on the project, as you can see from the Table of Contents:

• Foreword: “Why I Love to Dance in Pants Macabre” by Ed Greenwood
• Introduction: “The Space Between the Cards” by James Lowder
• “Munchkin by the Numbers” by Steve Jackson
• “To Backstab or Not to Backstab: Game Theory and the Munchkin Dilemma” by Andrew Zimmerman Jones
• “Madness in 168 Easy Steps” by Andrew Hackard
• “Monty Haul and His Friends at Play” by David M. Ewalt
• “Monster Grievances” by Jennifer Steen
• “Screw You, Pretty Balloons: The Comedy of Munchkin” by Joseph Scrimshaw
• “On with the Show: Confessions of a Munchkin Demo Pro” by Randy Scheunemann
• “Munchkin as Monomyth” by Jaym Gates
• “From Candy Land to Munchkin: The Evolution of a Young Gamer” by Dave Banks
• “The Emperor of Fun: An Interview with Phil Reed” by Matt Forbeck
• “How Playing Munchkin Made Me a Better Gamer” by Christian Lindke
• “Flirting 101: Throwing the Dice in Munchkin and in Love” by Bonnie Burton
• “The Charity Rule” by Colm Lundberg
• “Munchkin: Hollywood” by Liam McIntyre
• “My Favorite Munchkin” by John Kovalic

 The book will be available for purchase on February 23rd, but you might want to pre-order it from Amazon now.

[Disney's Frostlanders] Converting Disney Infinity's Captain America to a Kid Friendly Mini-Game Format

Since the day I first saw +James August Walls's Kid Friendly mashup of Disney Infinity and Skylanders for the Savage Worlds role playing game, I have been inspired to work on more content that I can share with my twin daughters History and Mystery. No longer am I satisfied with sessions of Candyland or Pokemon Jr. Adventure Game, though I very much still enjoy playing those with the girls, now I want to design adventures that will turn them into full fledged game enthusiasts.

The other day, I posted the beginnings of a Frostgrave inspired rules set that I plan on playing with the girls. The rules are simple, and different from Frostgrave, and I think that they will make for a good basis for game play. Over the next few weeks, when I'm not posting about other things, reading for my qualifying exams, or working, I'll be posting articles in the Disney's Frostlanders series. Initially, these articles will feature character conversions for my kid friendly miniatures rules and James' simplified Savage Worlds rules.

One key thing to keep in mind for these conversions is that they are going to be conversions of the characters in the game and not in other source material. I sort of broke this rule with the Captain America that I published yesterday, giving him leadership powers that fit the comic character, but these adaptation articles will tend to avoid that trap. I'm not trying to make the "perfect" conversion of the characters, I'm trying to make a fun to play conversion of how the character plays in the emulated video game.

For today's conversion, I'd like to focus on the Disney Infinity 2.0 version of Captain America.

This version of Captain America has upgrades in three main areas Melee, Ranged, and Health/Speed.

Movement

Captain America has no special movement powers, so his movement will be at the default level for each game system.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	6	6

Melee

Watching the video, it looks like Captain America is a highly skilled combatant in Disney Infinity and so in the Frostlanders system I will be giving him a Melee Attack value that is close to the maximum of +4 (keeping in mind that "powers" can add to damage later for other characters). There are few characters more skilled in combat than Cap, but I am going to leave room for the possibility and for there to be room for players of Cap to have the character "grow" with experience. Keeping these things in mind, I'm giving Captain America a +3 in Melee in Disney's Frostlanders. In +James August Walls ' Savage Skylander Skirmish, it looks like he uses "Agility" as the Melee and Ranged Stat and has given Merida a d12 in that Stat. I'm going to be a little more critical in my assessment, and give Cap a d10 Melee stat. This gives us the following.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	+3	d10/Parry: 7

Ranged

Given how skilled Captain America is with throwing his shield, and how well that is represented in the video, we will need to give him a decent ranged attack. He's no Hawkeye, and thus no Merida, and I'd like to leave him room for character growth later, so I'll give him a +2 in FrostLanders and a d8 in Savage Skylanders.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	+2	d8

Armor/Toughness

Captain America is wearing what looks like leather armor and is bearing a shield. In FrostGrave, leather armor adds +1 to Toughness and a Shield adds another +1 but Caps shield is special so we'll give him an additional +1 for a total of 8 Armor. Given our lower damage swing, d12 based damage instead of d20 in FrostGrave, this is a pretty good value. In Savage Worlds a Toughness of 8 is pretty substantial, more so in this adaptation since our simplified version of the game will default to the Melee stat with a bonus for weapon/strength. The "Hulk" in our simplified system would have a power reflecting higher strength and not a stat. Cap's shield will add to damage (1d6), so he'd be able to hurt someone with a similar Toughness. We'll give him 8 in both systems, especially since most ranged attacks will be 1d6 added to the Ranged attack value. We aren't going to be as granular as even James' simplified system. All Energy Blasts/Ranged Attacks will do (Ranged Stat) + 1d6 damage. Cap's tough, but hurtable.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	8	8

Willpower
 
We are given no evidence that Captain America has above normal Willpower in Disney Infinity, but he does seem brave. We'll give him a +1 and a d8 Spirit in Savage Skylanders.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	+1	d8

Health

He should also have a mid-range Health value somewhere between 12 and 16. Cap is a tough combatant, but he's no Hulk. Vigor is used to test for recovering from being Shaken in Savage Worlds and Captain America doesn't appear to get stunned very easily. James gave Stitch and Baymax d8 Vigor ratings and I think those are fine, this seems even more accurate after the recent change to the Shaken rules in official Savage Worlds products.

Statistic	FrostLanders	Savage Skylanders
	14	d8

Parry?

I've listed the "Parry" Statistic under Melee since that attribute only matters in Savage Skylanders. Captain America has a 7.

Powers

This is where things get a little interesting. Captain America seems to have a couple of key powers in the Disney Infinity game. He has the ability to "charge" his attack, he has a regular ranged attack, and he has an area shield "explosion" attack.

We will represent these in the following way.

Shield -- Damage +1d6 (d10+1d6 Damage)
Powerful Shield Attack -- Subtract 2 to hit and add 2 to damage.
Ranged Attack -- (d8+d6 Damage)
Shield Explosion -- Attack every creature in 6" Circle with a +2/1d8 Melee Attack (d8+d6 Damage)

I think that pretty much covers this adaptation of Captain America based solely on the video. I've added a couple of other powers to my skirmish game "non-Infinity" Cap, but that one lacks the Shield Explosion power.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Coming to a Tablet Near You

When Paizo Publishing released Rise of the Runelords, the first base set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, in 2013 they re-invigorated the "Card Based Dungeon Crawl" genre. Mike Selinker's design work on the game combined elements of the classic Dungeoneer card game with innovative mechanics from games like Dominion, We the People, Ascension, and Thunderstone and maybe just a dash of Savage Worlds and Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is an entertaining card based simulation of role playing game campaigns. It is engaging to play and can be played in a relatively short period of time.

Now thanks to Obsidian Entertainment, developer of Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the Kickstarter phenomenon Pillars of Eternity, we will be seeing a version of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game on our tablets. The game has been developed for Apple iOS and Android Tablets, will make its PAX Prime debut in Seattle, August 28 – August 31, 2015.
 
The Obsidian version of game takes advantage of the benefits of computer based play to enhance the player experience by allowing for immediate gameplay, multiple games running simultaneously, and additional downloadable adventures.

As in the table top game, each player will have a unique character composed of a customizable deck of cards and stats, and character classes such as fighter, rogue, wizard, and cleric.

Features exclusive to the digital version of the first release include:
 

• Reactive cut-scenes featuring Pathfinder’s iconic characters
• The ability to explore the towns, cities, dungeons, and landscapes of the Rise of the Runelords campaign, including the fiercely independent Sandpoint, and the goblin-infested isle of Thistletop
• Beautifully enhanced and animated backdrops of every locale
• Multiple adventure profiles to enable players to experience the campaign using every character
• Tutorial that distills the rulebook into a mini-adventure
• Single-player and pass-and-play multiplayer gameplay mode

Obsidian’s Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is scheduled for a fall 2015 release.

About Pathfinder
In the world of Pathfinder, players take on the role of brave adventurers fighting to survive in a world beset by magic and evil. The Pathfinder RPG is currently translated into multiple languages, with hundreds of thousands of players worldwide. The Pathfinder brand has also been licensed for comic book series, graphic novels, miniatures, plush toys, and apparel. For additional information, visit Paizo.

About Obsidian Entertainment


Founded in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment is an entertainment software development company based in Irvine, California, passionately dedicated to the creation of high quality role playing games for all personal computer and console platforms. Obsidian is best known for the products Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the record breaking crowdfunding through Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity. Visit Obsidian Entertainment for more information.

Behold! Disney's FrostLanders: A Disney vs. Skylanders Game Inspired by Frostgrave

On July 20th of this year, Osprey Publishing released Frostgrave their most recent set of miniature wargame rules. Starting with Field of Glory in 2008, and continuing with the excellent Bolt Action in 2012 Osprey has published a number of high quality rules for use with miniatures. In 2012, they started a series of paperback digest books that explore a number of interesting wargaming options. This series started with Dux Bellorum and has included a number of excellent games like In Her Majesty's Name and A Fistful of Kung Fu. 

Like many of Osprey's offerings, Frostgrave has an easy to learn system that is highly flexible and moves quickly. The focus of the rules are on casual fun and not on tournament play. In some ways, this is a similar approach to the one that Games Workshop claims is the basis of their recent decision to abandon Warhammer Fantasy. There is one major difference though. Unlike the new Warhammer: Age of Sigmar game, Frostgrave is firmly entrenched in traditional fantasy tropes. Frostgrave shares some thematic elements with Games Workshop's classic Mordheim game, but is much easier to learn is more focused on story than Mordheim was when it was first released. Frostgrave is so easy to learn that it inspired me to begin creating a derivative game that I can use to play with my 7 year old twin daughters History and Mystery. Inspired by +James August Walls, my game is a mashup of Disney Infinity and Skylanders.

As easy as the rules for Frostgrave are to learn, they do have a couple of "fiddley-bits" that might make things a little complex for playing with my daughters. For example, in the Frostgrave rules as written it is possible to hit an opponent and not injure them and most rolls are contested rolls. I want to move away from having contested rules as much as possible and use a Monte Cook and Numenera inspired mechanic where the players to all the rolling. Additionally, Osprey has not published a fan license that states what we as fans are and are not allowed to do with their rules, so I've decided to use a rules set inspired by the actual Frostgrave rules.

So here are my simple rules.

1) All die rolls are made with a d12.
2) Turns follow the following pattern.
            a) Roll for Initiative.
            b) Hero Phase
            c) Ally Phase
            d) Villain Phase
3) Player Characters are rated in the following areas:

MOVEMENT -- Min (4)/Max(10)

MELEE -- Min(-2)/Max(+4)

RANGED -- Min(-2)/Max(+4)

RESISTANCE -- Min(0)/Max(5)

MENTAL RESISTANCE - Min(0)/Max(+4)

 

HEALTH -- Min(8)/Max(20)

4) Villains are rated in the same statistics, but their numbers are 5 higher for all values 
     other than Health and serve as difficulty numbers the players must roll better than.
5) On a player's turn, the player may move and take 1 action. That action may be an
    attack, a power activation, or another movement action.
6) When a player attacks a Villain, the player rolls 1d12 and adds their relevant statistic
    (melee in hand to hand and ranged for ranged attacks). They then add their statistic to
    that value. If that value is greater than the Villain's equivalent statistic, the Villain has
    been hit.
7) On a successful hit, subtract a Villain's Resistance from the total and what remains is
    the amount of Health lost.
8) If a character is "prone" then it takes half of their movement to get up.
9) To activate a power, the player rolls 1d12 and compares it to the activation score of
     the power. If it is higher than the score, the power is activated.
10) When a Villain attacks a Hero or Ally, the Player rolls a Melee or Ranged test. If the
       roll is higher than the Villain's value in that area the attack misses.
11) Villain powers activate in the same manner as Player powers. This is one of the few
      rolls the Game Master will make.

I've only done stats for a couple of characters, but I have a feeling that this will be fun.

All icons used in this post were made by Lorc. Available on http://game-icons.net

LEGO Dimensions: New Scooby Doo Set Trailer

By everything that I've seen LEGO Dimensions is a combination of everything I love about Skylanders and Disney Infinity, but with LEGOs. That sounds like a family funday fantasy to me and the new Scooby Doo playset trailer, which includes gameplay footage, only adds to my desire to buy this new game. Now that my twin daughters History and Mystery are 7 years old, I've begun playing a video and table top games with them. This last weekend, we played Minecraft and Mice & Mystics. I'm also planning on using +James August Walls' mash up of Disney Infinity and Skylanders using the Savage Worlds rules as a way to introduce miniatures gaming to the girls.

The more LEGO Dimensions offerings I see, the more certain I am that these characters will be added to my miniatures and roleplaying sessions with the twins.

Lou Zocchi Has a Special Way of Talking About Dice

On November of 2013, there was a post on Reddit that Gamescience Precision Dice were no longer being manufactured, but that was only part of the story. A few years back, Lou Zocchi sold Gamescience to Gamestation and allowed them to continue his tradition of manufacturing high quality "unpolished" dice. The company produced the dice for a couple of years, but were not able to sustain it as a business and ownership returned to Lou Zocchi.

For those who don't know, Lou is one of the foundational figures in the Hobby Gaming field. He was an early editor of the wargaming magazine The General, that was published by Avalon Hill, designed some high quality airplane wargames and a couple of cool starship wargames, and was one of the first hobby distributors. If you wanted to buy role playing games back in the day, Lou Zocchi's catalog was a great place to order from.

From the dawn of the hobby Zocchi has had strong opinions about the importance of dice being as truly random in their results as possible and claims that his dice are the most random. Whether this is true or not has been rarely tested, but his presentations are legendary.

Favorite New Games, Most Surprising Game, and Other #RPGaDay2015 Catch Up on Prompts 3 through 11

I've already posted answers to the first two #RPGaDay2015 prompts by +Autocratik, but I wanted to catch up before focusing on longer posts for some of the future answers. I'll be answering the prompts between 3 and 11 today. Some of these deserve longer posts, and I will likely do some later, but I don't want to drop the ball like I did last year and not answer all the prompts.

You can find my answers to Prompt 1 (Most Anticipated Pending Product) and Prompt 2 (Kickstarter Project Most Pleased to Have Backed) at the appropriate links.

3)  Favorite New Game in the Past 12 Months -- The Strange from Monte Cook Games.

 

4) Most Surprising Game -- James Bond RPG from Victory Games. This is quite simply one of the best espionage role playing games ever designed and given the poor state of licensed games at the time it was quite a feat. You can get the retroclone Classified here.

5) Most Recent RPG Purchase -- Fantasy AGE by Green Ronin Publishing. I also ordered their TitansGrave campaign sourcebook.

6) Most Recent RPG Played -- Savage Worlds by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. I love the game and it gives my players a break from all of their 5th Edition D&D games.

7) Favorite Free RPG -- Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules by Wizards of the Coast. There is enough there for years of gaming. There are other free rules I enjoy, but when Wizards offers most of 5e for free it's a big deal.

8) Favorite Appearance of RPGs in the Media -- The Big Bang Theory.  I know that this show has gotten a lot of hate from the gaming community because "They are playing it wrong," but it's my favorite appearance for two reasons. First, David Goetsch and Maria Ferrarri - writers on the show - have been kind enough to visit my podcast twice (First TBBT Visit and Second TBBT Visit) in which they demonstrate how geeky they are. Second, and more importantly, they show players having fun. Everyone is having a good time when they play, and that makes it a good appearance.

I'd like to give special recognition to TitansGrave and True Detective Season 2. I almost gave it to True Detective because Ray's son was playing at recess on a DIY grid-map made from a cardboard box and with random action figures as miniatures, but I opted for TBBT.

 

9) Favorite Media You Wish was an RPG -- Thundarr the Barbarian. This was an extremely difficult question because it seems like this year is the year when all my RPG wishes are coming true. Modiphius is releasing a John Carter role playing game. Flash Gordon is being released by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. There was an official Sherlock Holmes game produced this year. It really seems like all my favorite stuff is getting made with official adaptations. That leaves Thundarr. There are several unofficial mockups, but I'd like to see what could happen if someone did a professional version. Ideally, I'd like a version based on the 4e adapted Gamma World, but that would be impossible.

10) Favorite RPG Publisher -- Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Good people, creative ideas, and focus on fun. Savage Worlds, Necessary Evil, Rippers, Flash Gordon, Deadlands, Weird War II, Slipstream, Solomon Kane... Oh, and I've written something that they'll be publishing later this year.

11) Favorite RPG Writer -- Greg Gorden. He has been a part of most of my favorite role playing games. He worked on James Bond, DC Heroes, Torg, Deadlands, and so many more. His design sensibilities add cinematic qualities to everything he works on.

Achievement Unlocked: A Personal Savage Worlds Announcement

The other day, I vaguebooked on The Facebook that I had worked on a project that I might be able to talk about. Well, I'm now officially allowed to talk about it. At this year's GenCon, Pinnacle Entertainment announced a number of exciting products and it just so happens that I worked on one of them.

The project is called Savage Tales of Horror and it's an anthology of horror themed adventures for your enjoyment. The adventures are all playable with just the core rules and the Horror Companion.

I can't say a lot about my adventure, and to be honest I wouldn't want to drop a lot of spoilers anyway, but I can tell you this much:

1. My adventure is called Blood on Ice.

2. The adventure only requires the Core Rule and the Horror Companion, but it does use some rules that people often overlook.

3. The adventure was designed as a perfect pick up/one shot adventure, but I hope you will want to use it to create a campaign.

The adventure anthology includes a number of excellent authors like Shane Hensley (you know...the creator of Savage Worlds), John Dunn (the guy behind the excellent Accursed setting), and fantasy author Howard Andrew Jones. There are a number of other excellent participants in this project, but I want to leave some stuff for future posts as we come closer to the release date.