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Friday, June 25, 2004

June 25th, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Origins Awards winners, Diana Jones Award shortlist

We got ‘em - a couple were missed initially due to lack of visual aids and fleeting moments of disgust, but we should be all set now. Here’s how it went down:

Historical Minis Rules - El Cid, Warhammer Historical Wargames
Historical Minis Series - 28mm Ancient Celts, Renegade Miniatures
Abstract Board Game - Zendo, Looney Labs
Historical Board Game - Attack! , Eagle Games
Traditional Board Game - A Game of Thrones, Fantasy Flight
Board Game Expansion - Zombies 3: Mallwalkers, Twilight Creations
Graphic Design of a Board Game - A Game of Thrones, FFG
Gamer’s Choice Board Game - A Game of Thrones, FFG
Gamer’s Choice Historical Board Game - Settlers of the Stone Age, Mayfair Games
RPG - Angel, Eden Studios
RPG Adventure - Black Sails Over Freeport, Green Ronin
RPG Supplement - Redhurst Academy of Magic, Human Head
RPG Graphic Design - Redhurst Academy of Magic, Human Head
Gamer’s Choice RPG - Savage Worlds, Pinnacle
Gamer’s Choice Play-By-Mail - Middle Earth Play By Mail, GSI
Accessory - MK Dungeons 3D Tiles, WizKids
Gamer’s Choice Accessory - Bag o’ Zombies, Twilight Creations
Long Fiction - The Book of Final Flesh, Eden Studios
Short Fiction - “Podo and the Magic Shield,” Mage Knight, WizKids
Graphic Fiction - “Everybody Loves Gilly,” Snapdragons, Dork Storm
Periodical - Dragon, Paizo Publishing
Gamer’s Choice Periodical - Knights of the Dinner Table, Kenzer & Co.
Gamer’s Choice Electronic Product - Pyramid Online, Steve Jackson Games
Traditional Card Game - Bang!, Mayfair
Card Game Graphic Design - Bang!, Mayfair
Trading Card Game - .hack//ENEMY, Decipher
Card Game Expansion - A Game of Thrones: Ice and Fire, FFG
Gamer’s Choice Card Game - Munchkin Fu, Steve Jackson Games
Fantasy Minis Rules - Warmachine, Privateer Press
Fantasy Minis Series - Warmachine, Privateer Press
Science Fiction Minis Rules - Shadowrun Duels, WizKids
Science Fiction Minis Series - MechWarrior: Liao Incursion, WizKids
Minis Accessory/Terrain: MechWarrior Dropship, WizKids
Gamer’s Choice Minis: Warmachine, Privateer Press
Game of the Year: Indy HeroClix, WizKids

Feel free to join us in saying WTF below, or celebrating your favorite’s victory. There were also some Hall of Fame inductees, in the form of two games and six folks:

Squad Leader
Warhammer 40K
Ed Greenwood
Larry Bond
Loren Wiseman
Bob Charrette
Reiner Knizia
Klaus Teuber

Oh yeah - Matt Forbeck used some of his stage time as presenter to announce the short list for the Diana Jones Award to be awarded at Gen Con. And they are:

HeroQuest
My Life With Master
Savage Worlds
The Scandinavian gaming scene
True Dungeon

Posted in Industry | 7 Comments

June 25th, 2004: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave review: D6 Adventure

Back in the day, Merwin wasn’t that thrilled by West End’s d6 system. Has the new version, in the form of D6 Adventure, changed his mind? And what about Lauren? Will she ever be able to tell Dirk how she really feels? And is Timmy still trapped in the well? Find out some of these things (well, just one, really) in our new review.

Posted in Reviews | Comments Off

June 25th, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Origins 2004: the big boys
  • Wizards’ best schwag is the Eberron temporary tattoos. The magically-imbued “dragon marks” are one of the coolest things in the Eberron book in my opinion, so that was a good call. They have RISK Godstorm new at the show, which I hope to demo, and they have Star Wars CMG figures. Han looks cool. (The game doesn’t differ a lot from D&D Minis from what I can tell, although there are no charging rules and no specific ties to the SW RPG.) The only unreleased product they are actually demoing is the GI JOE CCG; I haven’t tried it yet but a friend says it’s nice and fast.
  • You already know I have some Pirates of the Spanish Main, but you might not have known that WizKids was also pre-selling HeroClix Ultimates boosters at the show. They are previewing, in one of those no-photos cases, some new MW figs that look rather dull on the whole. Jade Falcon Clan fans will be into it though.
  • Does White Wolf still count as big? They have DragonMech new at show, and they have the big monitor with the big speakers, droning on about Vampire: the Requiem with big animated-text effects. This episode brought to you by the letter What and the number Ever.

No Games Workshop booth that I can find, although I chatted with Chris Pramas about Green Ronin’s upcoming new edition of Warhammer FRP, still in progress. Now that Warhammer Online is cancelled, maybe GW will change their minds and launch a 40K RPG first, although that’s speculation on my part.

Posted in Conventions | Comments Off

Thursday, June 24, 2004

June 24th, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Origins 2004: dig those crazy napkins!

I have several proper packs of Pirates of the Spanish Main in my hot little hands now, as opposed to just the promo ship in the schwag bag. The 12-page card-sized rulebook is fairly complete, at least for a two-player game. I hope to get to play tomorrow. These were sold as previews, the game doesn’t hit stores until July.

I am about to collapse, but first, some more quick impressions:

  • I met a couple guys in the back of the hall selling hand-made wooden tables for a dexterity game called Kineti-Go, in which all the little wooden caroms have strong magnets in them. So does the small frame thingy which you use to help launch them. The board also has magnets in several key corners. Overall, it doesn’t feel like the magnets are affecting play much, aside from the launch and the occasional wonkiness, but it was a lot of fun - somewhere between darts and crokinole - and exactly the sort of weird little find that I love Origins for. Plus, the tables had built-in cup holders.
  • Twilight Creations is showing The Haunting House, and has announced a game due in October that features cute wind-up toys - zombies, of course - that fight each other (according to stuff you work out with gameplay, telling you how many winds you get, whether you get to adjust your facing, et cetera). It’s called All Wound Up and I don’t think I have to tell you that it’s going to be the coolest thing ever.
  • I played Bandai’s chess-variant CMG Navia Drapt. It’s more chess-y and not as simple as Creepy Freaks, but it also has lots of exception-based goodness that keeps it a little light. The most elegant thing about it is that using pawns gives you your money, so even though they don’t have much power or flexibility, you need to keep them in the game. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, how cheap the handsomely-appointed starter sets were ($30… although the starter might be for one player), and how fetching the minis were. It hits in August, of course.

    • Posted in Conventions | Comments Off

June 24th, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Origins 2004: need sleep

First, I would like to thank the PR folks with GAMA for helping my registration go so smoothly. Second, I am not even going to try to estimate how big the crowd is compared to last year. It seems like more, but it also seems that I’m always wrong. I have been here a few hours and the exhibit hall is just about to open - plenty of folks in line - but I have already learned a few things:

  • Third World is bringing out a Tom Jolly card game called Necromaster in the fall. The tagline is “play with dead things.”
  • WizKids is selling more damned Galacti, damn their eyes, and are also giving out sample Pirates of the Spanish Main ships. I have no idea if the game’s for sale here, but I can attest that the things are damned hard to put together on two hours’ sleep.
  • Games Quarterly has piles and piles of their first print issue on a table in my hotel’s lobby. My hotel is not conjoined to the con, but is actually closer to most of the action than hotels that are. A lot more events seem to be taking place “off property” this year, including some “sleepover” events in the different hotels.
  • Sleepy sleep sleep.

Posted in Conventions | 1 Comment

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

June 22nd, 2004: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Warhammer Online pulls the plug

Games Workshop might have read the latest post on Greg Costikyan’s site, or maybe reality finally set in. Either way, as ICv2 reports, the Warhammer MMORPG has been called off. The website has the following announcement:
Read More…

Posted in Computer and Console Games, Miniatures Games | 2 Comments

June 22nd, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
There’s this other collectible marbles game… it’s called marbles

Normally we like to wait until we get the full press release in email, but this is too funny not to post.

Posted in Industry | 7 Comments

June 22nd, 2004: Mike Sugarbaker says...
An ultimate geek dream fulfilled: shiny, candy-like armored sleds away!

Good gravy, I think LEGO is actually, kind of, sort of selling a combat board game (only on an Epic Duels kind of level, but still), in the form of these things. You can buy me some now.

Posted in Board Games | Comments Off

June 22nd, 2004: Allan Sugarbaker says...
WizKids calls off LotR CSG

Looks like WizKids “has removed the Lord of the Rings CSG from its product release schedule. ” Perhaps their product launches were getting too cramped again, which was one of the main reasons they cited for layoffs in the past. They’ll reschedule it, no doubt.
Read More…

Posted in Miniatures Games | Comments Off

Monday, June 21, 2004

June 21st, 2004: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Nobly going where others have gone

Now entering the noble field of - um, nobles, is Mongoose Publishing’s Quintessential Aristocrat. How will it compare to The Noble’s Handbook and other d20 products on the subject? Go pick up the 3.3 MB pdf for $10, and have a look.
Read More…

Posted in Dungeons & Dragons | 2 Comments

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