» 2004 » March
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
I always suspected scholars were making it all up anyway
Introducing Lexicon: an RPG for n players, 26 letters, and a Wiki. (Two example games are online, one run by the Paranoia XP developers and one based on the NOBILIS game world. This looks like a great way to generate source material for more formalized RPGs.)
Andy Chambers leaves GW
Most of our readers are going, “Who dat,” but the Warhammer hardcore have been whispering about this online for at least a week. Internal sources confirmed today on message boards that longtime Warhammer 40,000 lead designer and very nice chap Andy Chambers is leaving the Games Workshop nest. He oversaw the recently completed and about-to-ship new edition of the 40K core rules, and while the packaging of the new edition has changed interestingly, by and large it doesn’t look like a radical departure from Chambers’ distinguished career. The interesting question is what he might do next, but that will be answered in time. [Update: “about-to-ship” means October, apparently. My bad.]
Amber turns to GOO
Erick Wujcik (creator of the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game) and Mark MacKinnon (CEO of Guardians of Order) announced recently that they’ve signed a letter of intent to move the publication rights for the Amber RPG over to Guardians from Wujcik’s company Phage Press. It’s still just a letter of intent, but GOO have opened a discussion forum about the move and future plans for the Amber RPG.
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Arborell Update
Wayne Densley, author of the Chronicles of Arborell free online gamebook series, wrote in to report some new developments. While the second book in the series still hasn’t been released yet, work is proceeding, and in the meantime, he has released both a compilation of Blood and Iron web serial episodes (available here) and an Atlas of Arborell. Keep an eye on this stuff; it seems to have a promising future.
Friday, March 26, 2004
Hidden treasures of GTS ‘04
There were a number of unexpected products lurking in the exhibit hall at GTS last week, which is always refreshing to see. When a product I’ve never heard of appears at a major industry show, it gives me a touch of the wonder I had when I discovered my first CCG, first boardgame, or when I first roleplayed. It’s not often I feel that way anymore, so I enjoy it when a new game blows into view and kicks up dusty memories.
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TupperWar Party!
The good folks at Columbia Games, home of Wizard Kings, Hammer of the Scots and other games involving scads and scads of little wooden blocks, are floating the idea of Block Parties, wherein you (for a hypothetical value of “you”) host a game night in your home focused on Columbia’s block games, they help you promote the event, and you get a cut of any orders generated. I’m excited to see a marketing idea this good happen in an industry notoriously deaf to good marketing ideas, but it isn’t quite perfect, is it? I mean, with games like this, there’s kind of a PlayStation-in-the-ghetto factor: if your friend has one, you effectively have one. However, for CCGs and other games that benefit from each individual making an investment, this idea could be en fuego. These games already have in-store demo support programs, but in-home events seem meaningfully different to me, better able to get through people’s resistance by showing them what their real play environment can be like - tournaments don’t bring out the best in CCGs, in my opinion. Social Games, are you listening? And what say our readers?
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
I’ll see that treason and raise you 10
Just a quick update r.e. the Paranoia XP dev blog: some of the bits posted thus far make the game sound like it’s heading in a somewhat rules-heavier direction than fans of the old game are used to. I think this is actually just an optical illusion; what it is, is the world’s getting heavier. This extra poundage will apparently be optional, but it’s obvious where the designers’ hearts lie. Certain things give me hope, though, like this quick borrowing from Baron Munchausen.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Big exclusives hurting conventions
The GAMA Trade Show was always at least partly about the free swag retailers could load up on. For many game store owners, those products, brought back and plopped on the store shelves, paid for the trip. But with the big giveaway figures WizKids is using as a draw at the show, like the HeroClix Galactus and last year’s MechWarrior Dropship, many retailers are only showing up for the day the figure is given out, then splitting town. Inflated preregistration numbers are relayed to potential exhibitors, numbers that don’t fully convert to buyers on the exhibit hall floor.
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People like them apples pretty well, it turns out
Out of the Box announced that their flagship family/party card game Apples to Apples has sold over a million copies, and once you count expansions, over half a billion individual A2A cards. That one drawing has done pretty well for John K, one supposes.
Monday, March 22, 2004
GTS ‘04 wrap-up: Pirates of the Spanish Main
I was fortunate enough to finally track down Mike Selinker and James Ernest at GTS last week, lead designers of the new WizKids “contructible” game, Pirates of the Spanish Main, announced at the Galactus banquet. After walking with the two of them to the WizKids booth, I watched the two examine the polystyrene punchout ships carefully. Selinker explained that the ships have movement and weapon ranges measured by the long and/or short sides of the game’s cards. When a ship is damaged, one of the multiple masts is removed from the freestanding, slotted-together ocean vessel. Each mast also represents a cannon, and has a die face showing both the target number needed and the range of the cannon (shown by the die’s color somehow). Tiny dice accompany the booster pack style game packages, though I couldn’t tell if they were a particular color themselves.
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