» 2001 » February
Friday, February 9, 2001
Deciphering the Rings
The official announcement of Decipher’s plans for the Lord of the Rings CCG went up on their site today. Decipher has the rights to make a card game for each movie in New Line’s trilogy, and they plan to take full advantage. There is mention of an electronic card game to compliment the traditional CCG. If the movies turn out as well as everyone hopes, get ready to shell out some cash for a variety of card decks and booster sets.
From Reality Storms to Camel Racing
In the mid ’90s, Omni Gaming Products made a valiant effort to purchase the Torg licence from West End Games. Their ideas for Torg would have set the game back on course, repairing the ugliness that had accumulated in the official campaign. However, monetary issues stopped OGP from releasing more than an introductory newsletter.
OGP didn’t curl up and die, though. In the tradition of Cheapass Games, OGP announced their new game, Blazing Camels. At a paltry price of $5, can you afford notto give it a try?
Thursday, February 8, 2001
SCA Event – Wargy
The Society for Creative Anachronism (sca.org) is a medieval reenactment society that puts on events that range from feasts to giant wars in full armor. Wargy is a one day event on the 10th of February in San Jose, California, in the Kingdom of the West. The event is a day long Resurrection battle, in which participants who die can go back to a resurrection point and rejoin the carnage. The battlefield is a giant map, divided up into the various principalities of the Bay Area. War groups can hire mercenaries to fight with them for their prizes. E-mail the autocrat for directions.
Atlas Rides the Waves
Expanding Atlas’ Penumbra D20 adventure series, The Tide of Years is a new, 48 page quest involving deep sea diving and a crystal that manipulates time itself. Written by Michelle A. Brown Nephew (wife of Atlas President John Nephew), the adventure will provide “an opening for GMs to introduce time travel into their campaigns, either as a one-time extraordinary experience or as an ongoing campaign theme.” A supplementary PDF of the clerical Domain of Time provides gamers with a preview to “tide” them over until the adventure’s release in early March.
Wednesday, February 7, 2001
News from Mythrole
Mythrole Games, publishers of digitally-distributed analog card games such as Night of the Ill-Tempered Squirrel, will be publishing a full line of D20 material, according to tragically misinformed sources. Mythrole put out a non-confirmation last week. From the press release:
Says company owner Tyler Sigman, “we are very pleased to be having nothing to do with the sizzling D20 intellectual property. The timing is right, and this move strategically doesn’t place Mythrole on the crest of gaming and allows us not to leverage the might and activity of the d20 license in our favor. We will be not releasing our first d20 product in March, and we are very excited about what the future holds in terms of not taking advantage of this current trend.”
Mythrole’s news page has the full story.
Shadowrun Supplemental #13 Available
The latest issue of The Shadowrun Supplemental is available for download here.This issue was delayed slightly by the news that FASA is closing up shop, which prompted a last minute update.
Freeport in Focus Again
Green Ronin Publishing has posted a new episode of Focus on Freeport. A look at the upcoming Madness in Freeport adventure is included.
Hero Wars Gets Thunder Rebels
Greg Stafford and our friends at Issaries have released another great looking supplement for Hero Wars. Thunder Rebels: The Players’ Book for Orlanthi Barbarians, details nearly 50 cults to follow, and “also includes myths and maps to help adventure on the Divine Plane, including a map of Orlanth’s own divine Storm Realm.” Whoa. Go take a look to see some sample art, the complete table of contents, and an excerpt from the book.
Troll Lord at Visioncon
Troll Lord Games, a company that’s developing products for the D20 system, will be in full effect at Visioncon. Anyone near Springfield, MO, on Presidents’ Day weekend should be made aware of this. That is all.
Lost Colony RPG Delayed
Though the CCG has been out for a while now, the Lost Colony RPG is
still a no-show. While I was working at Gamers.com, I inquired about setting up a preview feature for the game, and was asked to check back in a month or two. The latest update on Pinnacle’s website confirms it: Lost Colony is delayed, until late this spring, at least. That’s okay. What I’ve seen of the setting has me intrigued enough to wait for it.
The D20 conversion book for Deadlands will also be completed late this spring. John Goff, frequent Deadlands contributor and the new Line Developer for Eden Studios’ Conspiracy X RPG, has the project well underway.
Tuesday, February 6, 2001
The Politics Of Dancing – No, Actually The Economics of RPG Design
I’m not a big RPG guy, but that news about adding “mystical gateways” to the Forgotten Realms canon is interesting. Yes, it will unbalance campaigns that get crazy with them, but for some campaigns it may be the balance they want. But that’s not what I’m thinking about.
Read More…
De Planes! De Planes!
If you berks didn’t know the Planescape setting is alive and well, you obviously didn’t count on the fans. Since the Planescape line had ceased production, Mimir.net was the place citizens of Sigil frequented. Not for long, though, as Planewalker.com will be stepping in as the new official site of Planescape. Jim Butler, Director of RPG Licensing at Wizards, detailed the reasons for the change:
Jon Winter, webmaster of mimir.net and moderator of the Planescape list, has recently come forward to tell me that he’ll be unable to keep updating the site to the extent that he has in the past. He’d also like to step down as moderator. It seems that getting a PhD is more important… imagine that!
Please join me in congratulating Brannon and www.planewalker.com! I look forward to seeing the exciting offerings planned for the new official site in the future.
Oh look, a Magic Door
Nearly every fantasy setting, from the Ultima series’ Britannia to the Wheel of Time, makes use of mystic portals. The principal characters need to see the key events that drive the plot, even if those events are thousands of miles apart. I’ve made use of various types of portals myself. If the portals are interesting enough, they can even become the focus of the adventure.
In the first installment of Perilous Gateways over at Wizards, Roger E. Moore describes the ancient network of portals created by the elven kingdom of Illefarn. Each article in the series will bring “more detail about a network of portals linking various parts of Faerûn and beyond in the Forgotten Realms campaign.” Handled carefully, the series could add to the Realms; handled poorly, the portals idea could unbalance many a campaign, as could the use of any mystical gateways.
Friday, February 2, 2001
For those who have lives
For those who have lives and therefore don’t pay any attention to Slashdot, they had an intriguing discussion on zero-sum games today.
Wingnut Games at Visioncon
Aldo Ghiozzi, owner/founder of Wingnut Games, will be a special guest at Visioncon this President’s Day weekend. Wingnut is best known for wacky games like Battle Cattle (a personal favorite of mine). Aldo’s looking for Wingnut fans to run demo games at the con while he mans the booth, so if you’re interested and plan to be in Springfield, MO, email Wingnut and let Aldo know.
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Seriously this time: watch this space
Seriously this time: watch this space in the coming weeks. We’ve got some more free time now.
A periodic hour of awesome with editors Allan and Mike. Subscribe!
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