Marvel Battle Dice Images Available

Matt Forbeck, game designer extra-ordinaire, has posted images of his forth-coming Marvel Battle Dice game. There seems to be a trend of mainstreaming superhero miniatures games. On December 7th Cinerati mentioned the upcoming non-collectible Teen Titans game by Bandai and according to Forbeck the Marvel game should be releasing in January.

This news bodes both positive and negative for the "gamer" industry. The gamer industry is a small cross-section of the overall gaming industry. The broader gaming industry includes all kinds of board games and toys, everything from family games like Monopoly to specialty games like Warhammer. The gamer industry, on the other hand, is a niche market made up primarily of specialty games devoted to the comitted "gamer" rather than the casual player.

The expansion of what would typically be constituted as a specialty game, in this case a superhero miniatures game, into the mainstream market is a positive trend for gaming as a whole. Gamers are continually looking for new players to enjoy games with and the entry into the niche marketplace by mainstream gaming companies is a positive trend in this regard. It also provides a glimpse of a possible stable gaming future where games designed by talented specialty game designers are widely available. Fans of specialty games remember fondly the days when the full line of Dungeons and Dragons products were available at Toys R Us and this may signal a return to such popularity.

On the other hand, if the current specialty gaming companies who produce a wide array of excellent games are unable to gain access to mainstream retailers this may be a sign of a crisis in the industry. While many Number One has talked to are excited about the Matt Forbeck designed game, there are others who wonder what this will mean for the popular Heroclix game by Wizkids Games. Wizkids games is a current "gamer" company which has made a great deal of headway into the mainstream marketplace, especially with its Heroclix property. If the Battle Dice game fortells the loss of the "miniatures" license with Marvel for Wizkids, this could spell financial troubles ahead for the company. This could mean trouble for the industry as well, as Wizkids is one of the larger niche game companies. Wizkids is the perfect example of a corporation attempting to adapt and expand its role in the marketplace.

The primary concern of consumers isn't usually the health of any particular company, but the industry as a whole and thus the most important concern is product availabilty and quality design. As long as talented freelance designers like Matt Forbeck, who also works with Wizkids, are designing games the gaming industry has bright days ahead.

Kung Fu Assassins Attack UCLA

This Sunday, December 11th (scroll down to the bottom of page), students from the Deadly Venoms school of kung fu will descend upon the UCLA campus to battle over who will inherit the school's treasure and legacy. Will it be Toad? Snake? Centipede? Lizard? Or the mysterious Scorpion? Who knows? (Well actually I do, but I'm not telling).

If you've seen Five Deadly Venoms you know it as a poorly dubbed Chop Socky classic. In fact, it is one of the all time great Shaw Brothers films. But you haven't really seen the film until you've seen it on the big screen (35 mm) in Mandarin (with subtitles) and remastered. Awesome.

Gaming Goodness for the New Year

With the coming of the New Year, and possibly in time for my birthday, two new interesting gaming products will be released. The first is based on an entertaining, but soon to be cancelled, television cartoon series. The second sees the return of a cornerstone Role Playing game into the market.

Though the television series may be cancelled at the end of this year, that hasn't stopped Bandai from releasing a new Teen Titans "miniatures game." The game is not collectible in the random sense and it doesn't appear that it will be ultra-complex, but it is a Teen Titans game. Naturally, I must own all three sets. According to ICV2 the game will "come packaged in sets of four characters along with a comic book page that doubles as a game sheet, a character-shaped die for game play, and one third of an inte

rlocking piece that forms an exclusive Communicator when consumers collect all three sets in the series. Each Teen Titans Comic Game Heroes package (MSRP $5.99) also includes a game card for the "Battle Communicator" LCD game."


I wonder what Matt Forbeck, whose Marvel Comics based Marvel Battle Dice will also be released next year, will think about this? (You can read all 6 of his articles about the dice here).








For those of you out there who love three things -- Westerns, Evil Dead Movies, and Role Playing Games -- great news for the upcoming year. Pinnacle Entertainment has made it's official announcement regarding the Deadlands: Reloaded game. Deadlands will see release early in 2006. Sure this is four or five months behind schedule, but fans of the RPG have been waiting years for the update (since the d20 synthesis/crisis).



The Deadland game is set in an alternate version of America's post-Civil War past in which ancient spirits have been awakened and where the Supernatural is a regular threat. The threat is less in the civilized areas of the East (but still present), but the Supernatural thrive in the West where brave adventurers, hearty homesteders, and wealth seekers journey forth.

To quote the Pinnacle Website:

"Each epic tale features detailed information on a specific place or event, and puts your posse smack in the middle of things for a customizable campaign of horror and glory! They’ll ride with Wyatt Earp, protect Deadwood from the all-too-real Ghost Dance, learn firsthand about the Reckoners and their servitors, and maybe even take some of ’em down."

For those interested in the earlier incarnation of Deadlands, the majority of the rulebooks (there are over 50 of them) are available as PDF files from the Pinnacle Website. Pinnacle will include a conversion guide for newcomers who wish to use older material. Shane Lacy Hensley is one of my favorite game designers (he is also working on City of Villains for the PC), so someone looking for a combination of Lovecraft and Deadwood should make Deadlands there first stop.

Will the Harry Potter Series End With the Death of Harry Potter?

The current speculation in the British press is the upcoming final volume of the Harry Potter series will end with the death of the eponymous hero. The Mirror has the story, which demonstrates to wonderful effect the tabloid nature of the British press, where all things must be controversy and scandal. Speaking of which, assume an identical story to air on Fox New soon as sensationalism is Murdoch's stock and trade.

Why do the British press think that Potter will find his final end? The following quote by the Audio Book actor who portrays Potter in the US Audiobooks:

"She's lived with Harry Potter so long she really wants to kill him off."

So Jim Dale makes it clear that Rowling is becoming tired of writing Potter books, so much so that she "really wants to kill him off," and that automatically means we should assume he dies in the next book? I don't think so. I do think that it means we should assume that Rowling has written a couple of private short stories that do the chap in. Maybe she has even written a Holmes pastiche where Potter is the victim and Holmes gives up because he doesn't like the chap. Maybe she has even taken to browsing various Potter/Weasley slash fiction sites. I don't know what it means except that she is done writing the book and is happy she gets to move on.

And Potter fans need not worry, she has indeed finished the book.

Rowling has already revealed she has written its last chapter, in which Harry and his chums come of age.

But the only detail of the top-secret project is that the final word is "scar".

So let's see...she has written the book, which I imagine has completed its major narrative movement before the final chapter (as she has done in every book so far), and the final chapter is about how "Harry and his chums come of age." Is it supposed to be after this point that she kills Harry? Well, heck that could mean he dies of old age...or cancer...or a Quidditch accident at the next World Cup.

But to rumor mongers it means he is brutally murdered. I don't know if Harry dies or not. I do care and I will buy the book and read it. But I would buy it and read it even if I had full knowledge that he lives until the end of time.

Does one of the most popular fiction series in history really need this kind of rumor -mill manipulations to increase the sales of the next volume?

I think not.

World Baseball Classic Finals Prediction

I predict that the United States will play...the Dominican Republic in the March 20th Championship Game at Petco park.

Why?

Hmm...let's see.

Dominican Republic:

SP Bartolo Colon
SP Pedro Martinez
RP Antonio Alfonseca
RP Duaner Sanchez

1B/DH David Ortiz
1B Albert Pujols
2B Robinson Cano
2B Alfonso Soriano
SS Miguel Tejada
3b Adrian Beltre
RF Vladimir Guerrero
LF Manny Ramirez

United States:

SP Jake Peavy
SP Dontrelle Willis
SP Barry Zito
SP Roy Halladay

RP Jason Isringhausen
RP Billy Wagner

C Jason Varitek
1B Derek Lee
SS Derek Jeter
3B Eric Chavez
CF Johnny Damon
CF/LF Carl Crawford
LF Adam Dunn
LF Barry Bonds

These aren't even complete lists, but no one really compares to the depth of these teams with the possible exception of Puerto Rico.

For a list of players by country look no further than the World Baseball Classic site.

Thanks to Fruits and Votes for the info.

Headed Immediately to the Stygian Abyss of the Garbage Can Comes...

Conan the Collectible Card Game. Comic Images, who currently publishes the Raw Deal WWE Collectible Card Game, will be releasing a Conan card game in the near future. As noted by gamingreport.com the game will have 55 card starter decks (at $10.99) and 11 card booster packs (at $3.49). This would have been huge news 13 years ago, but the barbarian will have to overcome significant market forces to be competative in the current CCG marketplace. It might have been nice if Comic Images had asked themselves the following question, "Just how big is the Conan fanbase and of those how many are interested in a Collectible Card Game?"

This isn't to say that the mighty Cimmerian doesn't have any market clout, he does, but I find it hard to imagine that there is muc CCG appeal here. Imagine the following:

Howard Fan 1: Okay, I tap Conan the Reaver who decides to attack your Juma the Unyielding card.
Howard Fan 2: I "sacrifice" Juma in order to play Conan the Avenger from my hand to intercept your Reaver. I pump his strength with the Thulsa Doom card from the Kull expansion, while increasing the Avenger's strength with the "By This Axe I Rule Card."
Howard Fan 1: But you have forgotten that I had played the "Red Nails" card which prevents you from playing Kull expansion cards during combats.
Howard Fan 2: Ah, but I had played the Ashton card which allows me to ignore all modifying cards if they prevent the play of Atlantean modifiers. This, plus the fact that I had played the Tower of the Elephant location card means that I get to add Juma's strength to the Avenger card because Elephant makes all sacrifices increase the player of Thulsa Doom's character's strength.
Howard Fan 2: Fine. I activate Aquilonian princess, who prevents Juma from being sacrificed because she must be sacrificed instead.
Howard Fan 1: Okay. Who wins. Conan or Conan?

Any time the resolution of a game ends with who is tougher Conan or Conan, I think the playability is a little lacking.

Now if Fantasy Flight were releasing this as an expansion of their Call of Cthulhu card game...that I'd play. How you ask? Well, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft used to take elements from each other's writing and add it to their own tales. They had a kind of "shared universe" if you will. That would be interesting, but Conan vs. Conan should only be a conversation referring to the quality of various adaptations (i.e. which Conan movies/comics/RPGs are better).

Get Killed in Original, Return for Sequel

Sarah Michele Gellar, who played the hapless victim in the Grudge, will be making a return to the franchise in the Grudge 2 slated for release October 2006.

The Horror Channel covers the story here.