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
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.
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.
When Paizo Publishing released Rise of the Runelords, the first base set for thePathfinder 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 Thunderstoneand 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 Gameon 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:
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.
On July 20th of this year, Osprey Publishing releasedFrostgrave 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
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.
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.
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 Worldsby 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.
