» 2009 » July
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Decipher embezzler sentenced to six years
Decipher was once a major force in the tabletop game industry, with nearly 100 employees and some of the most popular CCGs and RPGs on the market. It didn’t last, though, due primarily to a massive amount of embezzlement. The embezzlement lawsuit against Rick Eddleman, former VP of Finance for Decipher, has continued, and now a verdict has been reached. Eddleman, who has been convicted of stealing $8.9 million from Decipher over a ten year period, has been sentenced to 36 years in prison, of which he will actually serve just over 6 years. Upon release, Eddleman has been ordered to pay $910,000 to Decipher, but since Eddleman hasn’t accumulated any obvious signs of wealth that could be repossessed, repayment will take time. WKTR News out of Norfolk, VA has video interviews with both Decipher CEO Warren Holland (Eddleman’s brother-in-law) and now-convicted embezzler Rick Eddleman.
Two RPG events that should be happening regularly in every town
First, the Tucson Gamemasters’ Conference. More or less speaks for itself.
Then, the weekly Dungeons and Divas game at Guardian Games here in Portland. An article ran on this in one of the local alternative weeklies, and that on its own is interesting both as a barometer of perceptions of D&D as well as of what is perceived as cultural progress for it.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
OgreCave reviews – Forsaken Bounty & Middle Kingdom
A pair of new reviews are up today. First, Chris joins the Cave staff and carves his thoughts on FFG’s Rogue Trader: Forsaken Bounty into the nearest wall. This Free RPG Day offering gives roleplayers a taste of next month’s Rogue Trader RPG, and Chris tells us if the flavor’s savory, sweet, or sour. Then Dennis has given Middle Kingdom from Z-Man Games a try, and his review sheds light on this Far East-themed card game. Have a look, or browse our review index for more.
EDIT: Fans of Rogue Trader should also head over to FFG’s website for the Forsaken Bounty follow-up adventure, Dark Frontier, just posted for download today – and it’s free, too!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
2009 Diana Jones Award shortlist announced
This year’s nominees for the Diana Jones Award have been announced, and as always, they include a worthwhile assortment of game innovations. They also pit two Origins Award Best RPG nominees against each other again:
- Dominion (Rio Grande Games)
- Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (Wizards of the Coast)
- Jeepform (the Vi åker jeep collective: http://jeepen.org/)
- Mouseguard (Archaia Studios Press)
- Sweet Agatha (Kevin Allen Jr)
The winner (or winners – there’s been a tie before…) will be revealed on August 12th, the night before Gen Con begins.
Read More…
Monday, July 27, 2009
ENnies 2009 voting open
This year’s ENnies are open for voting business now. If participating in the RPG-focused awards appeals to you, head on over and fill in a ballot. The polls close this Saturday, August 1st, and as always, the winners will be announced at Gen Con in Indianapolis.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Lone Wolf gamebooks to become feature film
Variety.com reports that Convergence Entertainment has secured the rights for a live action Lone Wolf feature film. Joe Dever’s classic fantasy gamebook series has already made the transition to full roleplaying game through Mongoose Publishing, but the leap to the movies is a big step. Convergence also secured the rights to produce a Gungrave film, based on the anime series which has already spawned two PlayStation games. According to the story, Convergence plans each film to have “budgets in the $30 million-$35 million range”. If the project comes to fruition, this could be interesting – or another good idea mangled by Hollywood. We’ll see.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Family Games 100 contributor list announced
Following in the footsteps of the excellent Hobby Games: The 100 Best – which we recommended in our 2007 Christmas Gift Guide – Green Ronin has been hard at work on its follow-up book, Family Games: The 100 Best. Edited once again by James Lowder, the 400 page paperback will offer essays on favorite games from a wide range of game industry luminaries. The contributing authors for the new book have been announced, and include Alan R. Moon (Ticket to Ride), Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering), Mike Selinker (Risk: Godstorm), Keith Baker (Eberron), James Ernest (Kill Dr Lucky), Kevin Wilson (Decent), Luke Crane (Mouse Guard), Fred Hicks (Don’t Rest Your Head), Stan!, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (co-founders of Games Workshop), a foreword by Senior Director of Product Acquisition for Hasbro Games Mike Gray, and an afterword by author and actor Wil Wheaton. Due to release later this summer, this is sure to be another must-read.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
NECA buys HeroClix, selling exclusive fig at SDCC 2009
Reports are trickling out of San Diego Comic Con of NECA Toys selling an exclusive HeroClix figure at the show. Yes, I said HeroClix – NECA is selling a Marvel HeroClix: Hammer of Thor figure called Thor’s Mighty Chariot, which depicts exactly that. NECA is also offering preorders of the figure through Amazon, where a shipping date of August 15 is listed. The convention exclusive itself isn’t particularly newsworthy – these sorts of big show releases serve to anger retailers on a regular basis – but the fact that NECA seems to have bought HeroClix and still hasn’t officially announced said purchase is certainly worth noting.
Richard Garfield Announces Next Game
Gamasutra reports that Mind Control Software is joining with Magic: The Gathering’s creator Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias to produce a new game called Mind Twist. The game will be playable on iPhones and as a Flash application on Facebook. Apparently this will be a wargame playable in 10 minutes or so. A free army will be offered to beginners, with more armies being made available for purchase as time goes on.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Gaming Report.com = gone?
For a while, GamingReport.com was a go-to site for tabletop game news. After the site was purchased by F&W Media, Gaming Report became the online home of Scrye magazine. Ever since Scrye was cancelled back in April, there’s been speculation the languishing news site might be headed for the same fate. Today, the website no longer leads to the GamingReport.com page, but to cbgxtra.com instead (also owned by F&W). A mistake, perhaps? Or the first steps toward being off the web?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Original Talisman designer self-releases follow-up after 26 years
So this is interesting: Bob Harris, who designed Talisman for Games Workshop in 1983, has published a short-run limited edition of Mythgardia, a new fantasy adventure game that, at first glance, both does and doesn’t remind one of Talisman. It is self-published and seems to straddle the line between handmade prototype and “real” product (although it is professionally printed), but for bragging rights and a first glimpse at the evolution of a classic, who cares? Small editions like this one from legendary designers generally get scarfed up at Essen or something, never to be seen again; here’s a rare chance to buy one online (for a bit less than collector’s prices).
Random Encounter interview: Jamie Chambers
Just over a week ago, we told you about Signal Fire Studios and Metamorphosis Alpha. We wanted more details though, so we went straight to Jamie Chambers, President of Signal Fire, for the skinny on plans for the MA relaunch. Our Random Encounter interview with Jamie offers a quick Q & A session on the new company and upcoming releases.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Kindle brings up the PDF versus print debate again
This is scary: a number of Amazon Kindle owners learned buying an e-book doesn’t always mean you get to keep it. Merely because a publisher decided to change its corporate mind and stop offering certain books in electronic form, those who paid for said downloads had them automatically removed from their Kindle devices. Sure, the price of those e-books was credited to each buyer’s account by Amazon, but I’m not fond of the idea that electronic ninjas can sneak into my home and take back products I’ve legally purchased. Wow. I mean, way to kneecap the electronic medium’s struggle toward acceptance as legitimate, “tangible” product. Bravo, Amazon. Wasn’t there a signed contract between Amazon and the publisher to avoid just such a thing?
The implications for the game industry are chilling. If Wizards of the Coast had been able to reel a few of its PDFs back in like this, instead of merely pulling the plug on all further downloads a few months ago – I’m sure the company would’ve been smart enough not to do it. At least, I hope so. It’s one thing to deprive a small percentage of customers of their George Orwell books (yes, 1984 was one of the revoked titles – Big Brother loves the irony), but it’s another thing to deprive your entire fanbase of products that are out of print. After all, obscure Forgotten Realms supplements aren’t likely to be reprinted soon.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cubicle 7 licenses Call of Cthulhu, adds to momentum
Cubicles must be much larger these days than what I remember, because Cubicle 7 has a ton of upcoming products under its banner. The UK based company just announced that Chaosium granted Cubicle 7 licenses to publish Call of Cthulhu and Basic Roleplaying products. The company has already made plans to unleash Cthulhu Britannica, an adventure compliation due in August, and Cthulhu Britannica: Folklore in November. As for Basic Roleplaying, Cubicle 7 merely states it’s “being used to develop a brand new game based upon the works of a popular award-winning author” to be announced in the months ahead. This new arrangement adds momentum to Cubicle 7’s current pace, which includes recent partnerships with Postmortem Studios (100 Series PDFs), Boxninja (3:16 – Carnage Amongst The Stars), Adamant Entertainment, and John Wick. Through these partnerships, Cubicle 7 will release each company’s products to a wider audience, and publish Boxninja’s follow-up RPG, Carnage Amongst the Tribes, this November (among many other products – check the individual links for each company’s arrangement). And let’s not forget the Doctor Who RPG, due this October. In all, Cubicle 7 is definitely a busy company, and one to keep tabs on.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
OgreCave review – Kachina
Though it may still be working its way to stores near you, we already have a review of Kachina by Bucephalus Games. Demian had a look at this tile-laying strategy game, and gives us his verdict. (‘Tis rather favorable – oops, I spoiled it, didn’t I?) Proceed to his review, or peruse our other game write-ups in the review index.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
2009 ENnies nominees announced
Though voting isn’t open yet, the ENnies Awards have posted the current list of 2009 nominees. These selections will be put to the online vote starting July 24, so get your research done beforehand if you plan to chime in. Winners will be announced at Gen Con, as always.
Get ready to count the 4E jokes: interview on card-based RPG in development
LivingDice is definitely a blog to keep in the ol’ aggregator – most recently, it’s brought Untold to our attention. It’s still under development – and maybe I’m cynical, but when I see someone developing a full color card-based roleplaying game, I take “coming soon” with a grain of salt – but the free primer PDF is at least an interesting read.
(Also at LivingDice at the moment is copious and depressing evidence of marketing-fail on the part of the upcoming minis-and-iPhone game Ex Illis. If I didn’t already know what it was, I’d look at those banners and think it was some kind of product for the disabled.)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Signal Fire Studios ignites with Metamorphosis Alpha
Today Jamie Chambers, the designer of the Serenity RPG and the Cortex System, just let the world know about his next venture, Signal Fire Studios. This new game company will focus on “creating a strong lineup of role playing game titles starting in 2010 that include some familiar names” – which weren’t mentioned yet. Signal Fire’s existence was a poorly-kept secret mentioned in hushed tones at GTS ‘09 in April, but news of an impending announcement was delayed – until now. Signal Fire will publish a new version of Metamorphosis Alpha, the classic sci-fi RPG, using Dungeons & Dragons: Fourth Edition rules. Original MA developer James M. Ward will be involved in the effort, as will Cam Banks, former lead developer of the Dragonlance product line. Release dates have yet to be announced, but we’ll happily await more signals of sweet roleplaying products from Signal Fire Studios in the months to come. See the pair of press releases below for more details.
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Friday, July 10, 2009
OgreCave review – Small World
Some games generate a lot of buzz even before hitting store shelves, and Small World from Days of Wonder is such a game. With its mysterious previews and its current race/power design contest (which is still going on right now!), this area-control fantasy board game hasn’t been shy. Now Lee gives us a full write-up of the game, including all its quirks and best traits, in his review.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
SJ Games’ Revolution spinning faster
According to rumblings on the web, Revolution from Steve Jackson Games is on track to arrive from the printer a bit early. If my talk with SJ Games’ Will Schoonover at GTS ‘09 is any indication, this is good news for Eurogame fans. By all reports, Revolution is a solid game, with multiple paths to victory if I’m not mistaken. Though I didn’t get a chance to try Revolution at the show (I spent the evening trying to align planetary bodies in The Stars Are Right), I’ll certainly be awaiting the game’s August (or earlier?) release.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Vox now transmitting
Here’s something interesting: Vox, the newest offering from aethereal FORGE, was released earlier this week, and is described as “a story-driven, rules-light, PDQ-based Role-Playing Game about people who hear Voices in their heads.” Hmm. Reading on, you learn this:
“Each player in a Vox game controls a character who at some point will hear one or more Voices in his head; each of those Voices is controlled by one of the other players, or the GM. Exactly what these Voices represent must be discovered by the players during the course of the game.”
Not merely a scenario designed around voices in your head, but a whole game system? Sure enough, Vox provides guidelines for generating voice personalities, rules for role-playing them, and multiple settings from Victorian Era to futuristic in which to hear said voices. Designed by Michael Fiegel, designer of Ninja Burger and HELLAS: Worlds of Sun & Stone, Vox is now available in print or PDF form. The voices in my head say this might be worth checking out.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Warhammer Fantasy LCG announced by Fantasy Flight
There have been hints and rumblings over at Fantasy Flight about another Living Card Game, and today FFG finally spilled the beans. The next LCG property we can expect is the Warhammer: Invasion LCG, which is based on the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay setting and continues to take advantage of FFG’s licensing arrangement with Games Workshop. Just in case Warhammer fans aren’t excited enough by this announcement yet, FFG also announced the Core Set would also contain codes for two exclusive items for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Origins 2009 follows reduced attendance trend
GAMA made this year’s official Origins attendance announcement earlier today, and the verdict is about what we expected. Though “over 10 thousand gaming enthusiasts” attended the convention, the overall attendee total was down by about 18% from 2008. You may recall GAMA gave a similar report for GTS ‘09 – identical, in fact. Sales of day-pass tickets at Origins were up by nearly 16%, showing either that “more people were introduced to the hobby this year than ever before” (as GAMA insists), or more gamers are cutting convention costs down by making single-day, hit-and-fade operations. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Gen Con’s attendance compares this year.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Big Things in Store for Midnight RPG Setting
The folks at Gamer Dome noticed recently that Fantasy Flight Games has pulled materials from its award-winning Midnight RPG series from its website. This probably has something to do with the upcoming U.S. DVD debut of the Midnight Chronicles, a film set in the dark world of the Midnight RPG setting. The Midnight Chronicles blog reported the release of the French version of the DVD on June 10, 2009. ICv2 reports that the U.S. version of the DVD will be available in September with an MSRP of $14.95.
Gamebook Competition Warming Up
In case you’re looking for something to do this holiday weekend, you might be interested to know that the second year of the Windhammer Prize was announced last month and will be accepting entries this fall. The contest is designed to encourage creativity within the realm of solo gamebook writing, and there is a cash prize. To check out some of last year’s entries and get a better idea of what this is all about, visit this link.
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