Who doesn't remember their first encounter with a Gelatinous Cube? In my case, our DM misled the group into believing that a Spectre was floating down the hallway toward our group. Most of us panicked, as we lacked magic weapons, but our Paladin charged the foul "undead" creature. He had faith in his magic weapon, the only magic weapon in the group, it was his screams of "it burns, it burns!" that signaled that something else was up.
Ever since Erik Bauer's very successful foray using Kickstarter to fund a Gaming Paper project, it seems that each day brings a new worthy project. Kickstarter really seems to be where the action is for the prospective game designer/start-up company. Given my plans for the next couple years, I hope that this trend continues.
Here are two current projects in the midst of their funding processes that caught my eye. Each one has its own appeal, but if you only had $50 with which to fund projects how would you distribute your hard earned money?
First up is Technoir, a game of high-tech, hard-boiled roleplaying.
Next up is a game that may be too "original" for its own good. I like the underlying concept -- I've mentioned before that I am looking forward to Mike Elliot and Eric Lang's "Quarriors" game -- but the wild variety of the dice in Dice Age might be more a disadvantage in the market than an advantage. What are your thoughts?
The opening screen roll of the Star Wars franchise is a classic serials trope -- Flash Gordon used it to wonderful effect -- that conveys background information in an attractive manner. Add to that the John Williams score, and you have sheer film making pleasure.
As you know, I am pretty excited about George Strayton's upcoming Legends & Labyrinths game. So excited, that I'm giving it a Star Wars lead in...
For the past month, my wife Jody has been providing me with fantasy and gaming inspired cartoons that channel the old cartoons that used to be so prominent in gaming magazines like Dragon and The Space Gamer. This week's entry is the first that will be in color.
I'm happy to see that in the weeks since I have started these posts that Wizard's of the Coast has decided to start including cartoons on their website. I don't think I had any influence on their decision, but it is nice to see we are thinking in the same nostalgic way.
I am really looking forward to the release of Wizards of the Coast's next board game Conquest of Nerath later this month. I am not only a fan of big box Axis and Allies style board games, but I want to see the "points of light" setting for the D&D 4th Edition game become more developed -- and it looks like this board game will continue Wizards' recent exercise of adding depth to that world.
One of the biggest mistakes that Wizards made with the release of 4e was the lack of focus on a setting with sufficient depth to form a meaningful connection with players. The reported reason for the vagueness of the setting was that it would allow DMs to create more of their own worlds and use the open "points of light" setting as a sandbox. In reality this concept may have appealed to a few gamers, but I believe it cost Wizards greatly. Recently, they have begun to increase the richness of the setting.
First, in the excellent Tiefling and Dragonborn sourcebooks -- products that weren't particularly successful in the market in part due to the fact that DMs had no way of knowing how much rich fluff these products were offering. This is especially true given the relative lightness of fluff in early core products.
Second, in the growing series of books based in the "points of light" setting. The books suffer from a lack of being able to draw on a rich setting, but each book adds more depth to the setting. As I mentioned earlier, reading the books is like watching world building in progress.
Third, products like the upcoming Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale are filled with rich narrative details -- the kinds of details that should have been in the game from the beginning.
One of the key reasons players enjoy sandboxing around Paizo's Golarion is because the setting has a rich, deep, and strong IP in which to play around. Wizards is finally making the "points of light" setting a richer place.
The G4 box opening makes the game look good, and I'm even more excited about the product itself. I saw a d12 being used and anything that uses d12s automatically gets a boost in my book, which is one reason why I own all the Rogue Games stuff.
You can ignore the last minute of the video where the staff of G4 pretend to play the game.
As always the Gen Con festival will mark the release of several exciting new role playing games. Among those set to be released this year is a little game called Legends and Labyrinths that will be published by a group of upstart whippersnappers who plan on setting the role playing game world on fire!
The game combines the wonder, excitement, and flexibility of Old School style games with some of the narrative design elements that are coming to the forefront of modern RPG design. It's Old School play without the rules interpretation arguments. George Strayton, the man behind the project, has incorporated some very innovative rules and infused the project with a level of excitement rarely seen outside the Savage Worlds game boards.
At first glance, you might be thinking this is just another player entering the Old School Renaissance game market -- an already flooded market that already has its high production value products -- but you would be wrong.
Trust me when I say that the release of L&L will be bigger than you imagine.
