» 2004 » April
Friday, April 30, 2004
Green Ronin to wield Warhammer FRP, other titles
This morning, Green Ronin announced it has struck a deal with BL Publishing, a subsidiary of Games Workshop, to be the exclusive RPG developer of GW properties. The products will be published by BL Publishing, allowing Green Ronin to concentrate on the creative aspects. As one would expect, the planned products include a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, which Green Ronin is already working on. The new version is scheduled for Spring 2005, and is sure to be followed by a variety of other Games Workshop RPG titles. If Warhammer 40k becomes a roleplaying game, we may see a whole lot more sci-fi going around.
Read More…
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Reaper website hacked, customer info stolen
As someone who’s getting more and more into miniatures gaming, it scares me a bit to hear what just happened to Reaper Miniatures. A group of hackers has stolen Reaper’s customer information, including credit card numbers used on the site’s online store, and is demanding money to keep from making the information public on the web. Hopefully the FBI and whoever else gets involved in this sort of thing can sort it out soon, and let Reaper get back to concentrating on great miniatures. The full announcement from Reaper’s website is reprinted below.
Read More…
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Oh yeah, D&D turned 30
We in the Cave were too busy playing it to make much note. The BBC offers the best media coverage we’ve seen. ” ‘I thought we would sell about 50,000 copies,’ says Gary Gygax.” And back then, that was a low number.
Join the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things
Well, it must be royal, ’cause it has Knight in its title: the Dark Riders expansion for Mage Knight streets today, featuring figures with riders, dark and otherwise, that can be removed from their mounts and placed on their own bases. Some figures I’ve seen might have benefitted from a second sculpt for use when standing on their own; when you put them on the independent base, they look a bit like they’re doing that one Michael Jackson dance move. Or like they have a pole stuck in their butts… which, in point of fact, they do. Wow, now I wish I hadn’t put those two images next to one another. I’m sure WizKids does too, but nonetheless, this should give MK strategy an interesting goose (there I go again). A press release waits below.
Read More…
Savage Worlds brings you yet another license, plus pictures of tiny Victorians with guns
Pinnacle/Great White/Whatever has announced what isn’t really a license so much as a simple, standardized contract for people who might want to use the Savage Worlds system in their RPG or miniatures-gaming products. Basically, they get to approve your game and you pay a royalty and include a logo. They’ve also posted a nice gallery of Rippers leads and package art. I look forward to giving Rippers a go… it’ll be my first look at the Savage Worlds system and I’m keen to see if it’s as fast as advertised. Lord knows that’s what we need.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Monday, April 26, 2004
I think I’m turning German, I really think so
With regard to that Settlers article last week, here’s some harder sociological evidence that folks like Uberplay and Days of Wonder might want to keep the complexity dialed down. Redoubtable geek-feed Boing Boing cites a Scientific American article by Swarthmore professor Barry Schwartz about the dynamics of choice in the Western world, and how more people are turning from Maximizers (what we in the gaming tribe would call min-maxers, obsessives who analyze and agonize over every move to get the best possible return) to Satisficers (not evidently a typo, and well characterized by the board-gamer’s exhortation to “be German,” that is, adopt the supposed tendency of German gamers to pick a good-enough move and not worry so much). The article itself is behind a paywall, but you can read more about it here and here.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Lone Wolf howls with previews
The fellows at Mongoose have posted more teasers for the Lone Wolf RPG. This time, we get a look at the official character sheet, and a second rules preview which includes full rules for the Magician of Dessi, among other things. Now, should I pick Tracking as my next Discipline, and know which page to try next, or… oops, flashback to the original gamebooks. Sorry.
Friday, April 23, 2004
Another step down a slippery moon slope
If you have been to your local game store lately, as I have, then you have likely noticed that Fantasy Flight has scored another victory in their ongoing quest to make Reiner Knizia design a CCG without knowing it. Blue Moon is a two-player card game with no real collectibility aspects… but it has two different, named factions… and it has two other decks of different factions that you can buy separately. Careful, Reiner! People seem to be looking for ways to play Magic without playing Magic lately, and early buzz on this one is good; I look forward to inspecting it more closely. Press release below.
Read More…
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Canada sends troops to Catan - “Stop stealing our vowels!” says prime minister
Gamefest’s Gamewire cites this Toronto Star article about Settlers, proving once again that even our mildly complicated games come across as far too complicated for ordinary people. Once the article gets rolling, a decent picture of the game starts to come in, but on the whole, the conclusion comes back around to chaos. Why is it that the market has yet to discover anything with Settlers‘ strengths for a mass audience (luck, trading, thematic familiarity) and none of its drawbacks (luck-based stagnation, trading-based long playing times, and relative complexity)?
Back to the