OgreCave

Crafty Games, having just gone rogue from Mongoose’s Flaming Cobra imprint and moving to Studio2, is planning several new releases over the coming months. Primary among the company’s announced projects is Spycraft: Third Edition, due Spring 2011. According to Crafty Games’ Patrick Kapera, “Updating Spycraft gives us the chance not only to synchronize rules across all our core games but also lets us bring the focus of the Spycraft brand back to espionage.” The new edition will make use of the Mastercraft system, and allow for increased customization and gamemaster tools. See the full press release below for more details.
Read More…

No Comments

Sleep is Death, a two-player game for PC and Mac in which one player acts like they’re playing a basic point-and-click RPG, and the other has 30 seconds per turn to arrange the world’s graphics around them to make it seem like they are. Yes, they get to prepare some of the graphics. Yes, this is as simple and completely awesome as it sounds. Stupid cheap, too.

Iconica, a gorgeous indie card game being sold on Etsy. The linked post is subtitled “Not Just Another Pretty Face,” but frankly doesn’t make much of a case for that; the game seems like it might be a little samey and tough to learn, and the world-building seems pretty generic. But oh, that design. I’m also interested in Etsy as a venue for sales of actual independent games, as opposed to just crafts based on video games.

Deathwatch, the third core Warhammer 40K roleplaying game, has been announced. I only bring it up because I keep seeing threads about it and thinking, “that’s a bit harsh, it seems like the system has plenty of support and I don’t know why anyone would think it was dyi– OH WAIT”

3 Comments

To help get you through to Friday, Andy has provided us with his thoughts on the Basic Action Super Heroes! Ultimate Edition Role Playing Game by Basic Action Games. While readers might remember that BASH! made me get all nostalgic recently, Andy has approached the game from a purely analytical viewpoint. What did he think of this supers RPG system? Click through and read on.

Apparently, it’s Read an E-Book Week – certainly a trendy event, what with all the Kindles, Kindle-likes, and upcoming iPads pushing the book market that direction. In order to celebrate and promote the medium, DriveThruRPG and White Wolf Publishing have a free electronic offering for gamers. Those who stop by DriveThruRPG.com before the end of this Saturday, March 13, can download a free copy of the World of Darkness rulebook. Yes, the full, 200+ page core system book from a few years back is yours for the taking. But maybe you’ve already got a queue of electronic books you’re reading your way through – what’re you reading this week?

5 Comments

In case you aren’t in the know just yet, OgreCave’s voice is echoing in more directions than ever before. For those who have joined the massive Facebook nation, you can become our fan at OgreCave’s Facebook page, facebook.com/OgreCave, and find bonus goodies there like our Oddness Observed by Ogres gallery. Also, most everything posted there and here on the main site gets announced on our Twitter feed, at twitter.com/OgreCave, so if you’re inclined to be as connected as possible, we’ve established a side cavern to the Cave there. We’ll have these linked in the sidebar for future reference shortly, and if we set up shop anywhere else, you’ll be the first to know.

No Comments

In case you missed out on the first two years, the third annual Windhammer Prize is posting its rules and schedule early to allow plenty of time for writing and judging original gamebooks. While this hasn’t quite reached the scale of the computer-based Interactive Fiction Competition, it’s a similar opportunity to be creative in a medium with a lot of potential, and I hope it keeps growing. Do your part and check it out! Oh, and did I mention the cash prize?

No Comments

One month from tomorrow, on March 26, PAX East, the second location for the Penny Arcade Expo, will hit Boston, MA full force. The new show, a spinoff of the original PAX in Seattle (dubbed “PAX Prime” by many), had already sold out of full-show passes over three weeks ago, and with only a few hundred single day passes currently left for Friday and Sunday – well, if you were on the fence about going, you’d better commit or forget. This inaugural show’s official schedule just went up yesterday, adding to the considerable excitement that resulted two weeks ago when Wil Wheaton was announced as PAX East’s keynote speaker. If you can’t make it out to Boston, OgreCave will have a representative at the show in the form of Lee Valentine, frequent Cave dweller and one of our staff writers. Actually, he’ll be there whether you attend or not, so… yeah.

1 Comment

Fantasy Flight president and founder Christian Petersen on the upcoming “Battles of Westeros: A BattleLore Game”: “We acquired BattleLore to be our core brand for medieval tactical warfare games (in the scale represented in the classic BattleLore game). The BattleLore name is not necessarily tied to Richard’s ‘Command and Colors’ system.”

Right, right, Christian, because you’re the one who gets to decide what names are tied to in people’s heads. Yyyyyeahnotreally. Any competent marketer will tell you that brands don’t move like that (and yes, for those of you who begin frothing and spitting as soon as the M word crosses your screens, BattleLore certainly is already a brand as well as the name of a game; Days of Wonder’s brilliant launch campaign saw to that). But once a brand is tied to something conceptually, if you try to change that link, you’re vulnerable to all sorts of emotional reactions from fans (should your brand be lucky enough to have fans), including one of the worst: betrayal. I hope FFG is ready to hear BattleLore fans complain bitterly about Westeros no matter how it differs, and to watch more hardcore gamers turn up their noses just because the name BattleLore is there.

Elsewhere in the linked mini-interview is an enlightening tidbit on why DoW sold BattleLore in the first place; look for it. As for Westeros, I’m interested to see it for what it is on its own terms, but… no release date.

No Comments

What’s that you say? You remember when the Ogres used to have voices, echoing from deep within the Cave in podcast form? So do we. Now that some problematic software issues seem to be resolved, we’re going to ease back into some recordings of gaming goodness, starting a new episode of the OgreCave Gaming News Update. The relaunch episode kicks things off with my interview of Hero Games’ Darren Watts, recorded at DunDraCon 34 last weekend. In the episode, we briefly discuss Champions for Hero: Sixth Edition, which Hero sold preview copies of at the show. Darren also talks about upcoming 2010 releases, including early details of his Champions Beyond project, and fields unexpected questions from a young assistant interviewer (my daughter).

Have a listen, tell us what you think, and let us know if any glitches turn up. We’ll be hard at work getting the OgreCave Audio Report back up to speed as well.

2 Comments

Just what the heck is WEGS? Demian had a close look at the Wickedly Errant Game System in his review of WEGS 101: Old Skool by Gamewick Games. In a rather saturated fantasy roleplaying market, does WEGS manage to rise above the pack, or does it blend in with the rest of its competitors? Read on to find out.

To help ease you through the week, Demian sent in his review of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, the recent roleplaying release from Cubicle 7. Demian has experience with previous Dr Who games, so like many of us, he was curious about the latest system to take on the good Doctor. Click through to see what he learned about the game, and while you’re at it, feel free to browse.

Thunderstone has had strong sales for Alderac Entertainment Group. AEG is currently sold out of the product. They are planning another print run equalling the size of the first one. They also intend to print the game in 5 other languages shortly (via partners). Thunderstone: Wrath of the Elements, the first expansion for the game, should have an estimated launch in the second quarter of 2010. Check out our recent review of Thunderstone.

1 Comment

Though Goodman Games hasn’t announced it yet, and Joseph Goodman’s only given vague hints of “something fun in the works”, a few of us at DunDraCon 34 this past weekend got a taste of this secret RPG project. Goodman was playtesting an early version of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, which was exactly what fans of the DCC adventures would imagine – a streamlined, deadly, 1st Edition D&D throwback with some D&D 3.5e influences. As already mentioned, no release date or details have been announced as yet, but I’d wager we may see it in stores early 2011, possibly sooner. In the session I joined, character building took less than five minutes, and cast each of us as not one, not two, but three 0-level peasants out to strike it rich as glamorous adventurers. You can probably guess why we made so many characters – yes, the mortality rate caused comparisons to a session of Paranoia, but we had some truly horrible luck as well. We’ll talk more about my preview of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in the OgreCave Audio Report (which the Ogre shamans are casting resurrection on as I write this) sometime next week.

4 Comments

Before I head off to DunDraCon for the weekend, I’ve posted Lee’s latest review. This time, Lee has provided us with his thoughts on Thunderstone by Alderac Entertainment Group. This new card game is a deck-construction title along the lines of Dominion, and hopes to tap into that game’s large fanbase. Have a look, or browse through our other reviews for more gaming recommendations.

For the first time, OgreCave’s review section includes a detailed look at an electronic RPG. That’s right, Dennis has provided us with his thoughts on Dragon Age: Origins, the gorgeous RPG release from BioWare for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. You’ve seen the previews and commercials – now click through and see if you need to pick up a copy for your gaming needs.

A couple weeks back, and for the first time in over two decades, I joined in a superhero RPG session. This was big for me – I got burned out on comics long, long ago when Peter Parker was revealed as a cheap knock-off clone of the “real” Spiderman, or was revealed to eat babies in his spare time, or some nonsense. Sure, I dabbled from time to time thereafter, reading an issue or two of whatever my friends recommended, but for all intents and purposes, I had stopped pursuing comics as a hobby.

Anyway, in this case, it was BASH! Ultimate Edition by Basic Action Games that drew me back in – the invite was hard to pass up when it came from Chris Rutkowsky, the game’s creator. (My one-session impression: a clean, quick system with decent flexibility. We’ll have a full review soon-ish.) In all, I enjoyed myself quite a bit, and was surprised to continually flash back to memories of the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG, circa oh-god-I’m-getting-old (‘84).

All of this is my round-about way of saying that, apparently, I’m not the only one reminiscing about the RPG of True Believers these days: earlier today, co-designer Jeff Grubb posted a nostalgic timeline-like list on the Marvel Super Heroes RPG that provides a glimpse into the secret wars world of designing not merely a spandex-clad roleplaying experience, but dealing with licensing issues (always a fun time). If you ever gamed in TSR’s version of the Marvel Universe, or wish you had, this is a must-read.

By the way, Basic Action Games just announced a print plus PDF bundle through IPR, so if you picked up a copy of the original edition from your Gamers Help Haiti downloads, and want to see more, this is your chance.

1 Comment

Make no mistake – we applaud Steve Jackson’s victorious rank of #1 on this list of 30 Great Gaming Geeks. But, wow, look at who Geekosystem placed him ahead of: Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (the Penny Arcade guys) are at #12, Richard Garfield is way back at #16 – hell, he even beat Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, and many other iconic gaming characters. Even Evil Stevie himself is shocked by the outcome. Still, congrats, Mr Jackson, just the same.

No Comments

From the moment it started, it was clear the Gamers Help Haiti charity fundraiser at DriveThruRPG would pull in big numbers. Indeed, convenience and reward made for a very successful charity drive – to the tune of $178,900, far beyond similar game industry charity events. For you slackers that didn’t contribute yet, you can always go directly to Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross and donate yourselves silly.

No Comments

On this day in 2001, OgreCave truly got rolling. The dot-com collapse suddenly gave me a lot of free time, and with my brother Mike as my partner, we invited several collaborators from my Gamers.com days (and earlier) to help with a new site. Others soon joined us, and with their dedicated help, the site has spent years surging from our cavernous corner of the net to club news, reviews, and interviews over the head to mount on the Cave’s walls. We’ve made our occasionally-insightful growls echo forth in podcast form, and traveled to numerous conventions and trade shows to hunt down fresh news.

This won’t be stopping anytime soon. In fact, we have big plans. We can’t reveal too much right now, but I want to assure everyone that we’re still on the prowl. In particular, the OgreCave Audio Report, which stalled out due to software problems, will be relaunching very soon. Other features will launch this year as well, hopefully within the next several weeks. We hope you’ll help spread the word when the time comes.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to join the Cave dwellers and help out around the site, drop me a line at sven (at) ogrecave (dot) com with the title “Joining the ranks”, and we’ll chat. As for the rest of you: stay tuned.

No Comments

Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast made an announcement on the company’s message board confirming what has been rumored for a while now: when the Star Wars license comes up for renewal this May, Wizards will not seek to renew it. In the announcement, Greg Yahn, WotC’s Director of Marketing, states “We had a long and fantastic run, but with the economic downturn, we have made the tough decision to discontinue our Star Wars lines.” WotC products for the Star Wars Miniatures Game and Star Wars Roleplaying Game will be available through August, with multiple new releases scheduled through April. Wizards had first taken over the Star Wars license from Decipher back in 2002, starting with WotC’s version of the Star Wars CCG.

7 Comments

Days of Wonder once again has trains on the brain. As we’ve noted here previously, Days of Wonder is holding a Ticket to Ride championship series where the World Champion will win a ticket for two on the Orient Express.

As its second powerful blow, Days of Wonder has announced Mystery Express, a train-themed game that doesn’t bear the Ticket to Ride brand. In this whodunit deducation game players take on the roles of would-be passenger-detectives on the Orient Express, investigating a murder that’s just occurred in transit. The project has some solid names attached to it, namely Antoine Bauza (Ghost Stories) and Serge Laget (Shadows over Camelot, Mystery of the Abbey, Ad Astra). The price is expected to be $50/€45. Look for a release in late March or early April.

If you haven’t done so already, check out our review of Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912.

No Comments

The crew at Kobold Quarterly just let us know about the special offer they launched today. From now through January 31, gamers can go to the KQ Store and use the coupon code “KQ10Free” to download a free PDF copy of Kobold Quarterly #10. Released just prior to Gen Con ‘09, KQ #10 features an interview with Paizo’s Jason Bulmahn, an Ecology of the Hill Giant article, and contributions from John Wick, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, and more. If your download doesn’t work – the kobolds tell me their website’s already getting slammed by demand – send ‘em an email, and they’ll sort it out for you. In any case, don’t pass up the opportunity for a free taste of what the industry needs more of: a great gaming magazine.

No Comments

Gamers have shown again and again how they can rally to the aid of those in need, and right now there’s no one in greater need than the earthquake-stricken citizens of Haiti. DriveThruRPG is running one of the most successful gaming charities in a while, Gamers Help Haiti. The DriveThruRPG vendor community has banded together to contribute a staggeringly long list of donated product downloads to the fundraiser – valued at over $1,400 – which can all be yours for a small $20 donation benefitting Doctors Without Borders. Those who can only afford a $5 or $10 donation will be gratified to hear that DriveThruRPG has pledged to match their contributions. However, those who can afford twenty bucks and chip in during January will receive the gigantic list of downloadable products within a few days. As this is being posted, Gamers Help Haiti has already raised $82,650 since launching Wednesday. Convenient and rewarding in more ways than one, this is how to rack up big charity drive numbers – have you helped out yet?

[EDIT: The results are in. Click through for the details.]
Read More…

5 Comments

The Doctor Who RPG has shown Cubicle 7 has the know-how to do a licensed RPG well, so it should be no surprise the company has pursued other significant licenses. The RPG licenses don’t get much bigger than what Cubicle 7 and Sophisticated Games have just announced: The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings Role-Playing Game. The two companies are jointly developing the license, which was last in the hands of Decipher. Click below for more details, or just wait until late this year and be surprised.
Read More…

2 Comments

Today our review section expands yet again. Demian’s latest write-up gives us a look at the new edition of Mansions of Madness, the Call of Cthulhu adventure compilation from Chaosium. Click through and find out if the scenario you need is lurking within this updated release.