 April 2001 Archive
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11:04 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Proper use of names, by they for towns or for characters, is tackled in the latest issue of RoleplayingTips.com. There are also some ideas for speeding up combats, and several other useful tidbits. Applying a Fresh Beatdown Nazis and Supertanks
10:52 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... The gods of Wingnut have smiled upon us again. Here's a taste of what you'll be getting in the upcoming Land of Og supplement, The Complete Caveman's Club Book. No, it's not just a catalog of clubs - you get Smart Caveman Kits like this one: ADVANTAGE Since it took Philosophical Smart Caveman such a large amount of time to come to a conclusion, it is only right that the end result is in comparable size. Once per day for every odd level, Philosophical Smart Caveman can either: double his percent chance to succeed a Figure Things Out%, or cut in half his Forget How To%. So, at level three, he could double his Figure Things Out% for two different instances, cut his Forget How To% in half twice, or one of each. DISADVANTAGE All this brainpower can make a caveman tired. The brain cells have floated away (or maybe it was staring at the sun too long), but all this work puts a constant strain on his health and he receives a permanent "-1" to his Health ability score.
01:39 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... First Ren and Stimpy, now obscure Kids in the Hall references... someday, I will get 1992 out of my system. Anyway, FFG has announced a new game called, yes, Armada, a "customizable disk game" (evidently not collectible) set in the Twilight Imperium universe. This new stuff page has it coming out in May, which is cool. But there's no news of a release date for the intriguing-sounding Tom Jolly project, Vortex. (Maybe Mr. Jolly will spill the beans for us, after we get those Drakon and Programmer's Nightmare reviews up.)
10:18 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Precedence Studios has announced their new worldwide agreement to develop and publish Tyranny Games' Sack Armies. The upcoming collectible wargame will have 120 hex shaped army tokens, and will be sold in 42 token starter sacks for $13.99 or 18 token booster sets for $4.95. From what I've seen of Sack Armies so far in the playtest, this game should be a real winner. Look for it to arrive in June.
03:59 AM: Demian Katz says... Greysea LLC, the most recent publisher of the innovative Ace of Aces and Lost Worlds combat picture book games, recently sent out an e-mail announcing that the web sites devoted to the company and its two main products are no longer in service. No explanation of why this has happened was included, but such an event does not seem to bode well for fans of the games. All is not lost, however -- Flying Buffalo is still occasionally producing Lost Worlds books (most recently basing them upon the Knights of the Dinner Table). The fate of the Ace of Aces air combat books seems more uncertain, however; hopefully Greysea's recent "Anniversary Edition" won't be their last gasp.
11:55 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... There's so much happening with D&D 3 and the D20 System, I'll try to round up most of the news in one big summary. Consider this my attempt at a Chain Lightning spell. :-)
04:54 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Whyyyy didn't you believe me?! Just because that sad little "More to come!" has been sitting over in the Reviews box for a while... um... okay, then. But now it's time to put on your happy helmet and heed Michael Suileabhain-Wilson's review of Ars Magica: The Mysteries. Just how you like iiiit!
11:39 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Nightshift Games has posted an entertaining eight page pdf preview of the Supermegatopia RPG. The anime game may be mature in nature, but that won't stop it from acting goofy as well. For example, the sheer amount of kiwi fruit in Supermegatopia outweighs the citizens thereof, and is used in everything from fuel to perfume. A Taste of Angels. Honey-glazed. With Fries and a Coke
09:33 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... The next supplement for Atlas Games' Feng Shui RPG has shipped to distributors and should be on your local game store's doorstep shortly. In Your Face Again has 128 pages packed with ten scenarios to challenge any participant in the Secret War.
11:35 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Cavemen are coming out for the spring thaw over at Wingnut Games. The Complete Caveman's Club Book is being printed at this very moment, as is the second printing of Land of Og. You'll need Land of Og to make proper use of the CCCB, but since each gives you 64 pages of prehistoric goodness for just under $10 apiece, you'd do well to check them out. Ogre recommends. You buy. Ug. Game Swapping Lunar Empire For Sale
10:57 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Doug Herring at Mystic Eye Games let us know about the latest pair of nasty creatures available on their site. This set of monsters were created in answer to the following: "What types of foul beasts could be born of the nightmares of an unrequited or spurned love?" Aside from Rimmer's lust monster, you'd have the Heart Breaker and the Black Lover, two horrific (and apparently lonely) beasts. This brings the grand total of free creatures at MEG to six, all as a prelude to the upcoming creature book, Nightmares & Dreams: A Creature Collection, and Mystic Eye's new setting, The Hunt: Rise of Evil.
05:58 AM: Demian Katz says... Andrew Chapman, the author of several classic Fighting Fantasy adventures (including Space Assassin and Seas of Blood), has just electronically published Invaders, a previously-unreleased gamebook originally written to be part of a short-lived Australian series. The book is being distributed free of charge as a 2.42 meg PDF file, and it's best viewed with the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, though good, old-fashioned Acrobat Reader also works. No matter how you read it, however, this book is yet another sign that the Internet is an exciting place for gamebook fans to be.
11:52 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... A few more tidbits for ya as a birthday gift (my birthday, not yours). Enjoy. :-) In an interview over at Games Unplugged, Vampire creator Mark Rein*Hagen speaks briefly about the new game he's working on with his new company, Atomoton. Called Zero-Gravity (Z-G), the new game is described as "an action-figure trading-card game that can and will morph into an RPG, an animated show, a video-game first-person shooter, a comic book, an Advanced Game Boy game, a novel series, and a secret society." Whew! Sounds like it will require many trips to the game shop to play Z-G, but color me intrigued. Observers of the Titles Prize Alert. Prize Alert. Head over to the competitions page at Fiction-Fantasy.net. Why? Well, I'll let them tell you:
09:26 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Green Ronin has posted the cover art for Hell in Freeport. The 64-page adventure will be for character levels 8-11, and is written by WotC veterans Jim Bishop, Jess Lebow, and Paul Bazakas. Hell in Freeport should be available in July.
11:31 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... In a surprising announcement, Don Perrin of Sovereign Press revealed plans to redo the Sovereign Stone RPG using the D20 System. Sovereign Stone has already seen the efforts of a number of former TSR "golden era" designers, as well as the efforts of Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and artist Larry Elmore. A press release addressed why the choice to convert was made. Creature Collection Corrections
09:22 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Privateer Press has been very active of late. Not only have they launched IronKingdoms.com in support of their D20 setting, but Privateer Press is also featured on RPGaction. Best of all, along with the Matt Staroscik interview and company profile, the complete D20 stats for steamjacks are presented. Can you say mecha combat for D&D 3? Me too. Wounds Unlimited Reaches Its Limit
11:58 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... The latest release from Cheapass Games has swarmed store shelves nationwide. Girl Genius: The Works is a card game based on a new comic book series by the enigmatic Phil Foglio. The game mechanics are similar to those used in an earlier joint effort from James Ernest and Phil Foglio, Xxxenophile, but without the adult artwork. The full-color 108 card packs sell for $14.95. Two other Cheapass games, Unexploded Cow and Devil Bunny Hates the Earth, will both be released in the first week of May.
11:49 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Misguided Games has posted a new page on the races from their upcoming RPG, Children of the Sun. Due to arrive in Spring 2002, Children of the Sun is a dieselpunk fantasy setting that has already generated some interest at last month's GAMA convention. Each month through the end of this year, Misguided Games will post info on another of the game's races. The first race posted is the Avendera, "an enigmatic race of leonine beings that dwell in dark, underground regions." Caves? Excellent. We ogres approve.
09:44 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... In the PC gaming world, you have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on hardware and software to deathmatch effectively, and you have to sign NDAs up the wazoo to review a beta. In our world, a beta version of Frag cost us $12, and we don't have to sign a damn thing to tell you what we think. For those who missed the hype, Frag is designed to be a boardgame take on Quake, Doom, and their first-person-shooter ilk. The board is a grid spattered with weapons and gadget pick-up spots, walls, doors, and the occasional pool of acid. Each player's pawn runs around shooting and getting shot, and "respawning" whenever it dies. There's no penalty for dying a lot, apart from losing your stuff. The point here is not realistic combat; it's realistic simulation of an unrealistic gaming genre. Frag's rules are just complicated enough to give you that old-timey boardgaming feel, without being so complex that you can't tear through your turn like a skiing scout in Tribes. A turn-based board game can only take the simulation of a deathmatch so far, but generally, we found the mechanics to be fair and plausible in our two games. Shooting a rocket launcher felt about like shooting a rocket launcher in Marathon, for example. There's a very healthy amount of luck in the actual mechanics of taking a shot at someone - most of the game's real strategy probably lies in the card play. And that's pretty random too. That's not to say that there's no tactical play on the board, though. Hell, we only played a couple of games, what do we know. If we have a complaint, it's that being the guy who keeps getting shot and never gets ahead is a little less fun when you slow deathmatching down to the pace of a boardgame. In Quake, you can at least crash around really fast, enjoy the graphics and scenery, and have a laugh even if you suck. We had a laugh when we sucked too, but something about having cards in your hand and having to wait your turn makes you feel a little more ripped off when you lose at the last second. But PC deathmatching is more of a sport than a game in many ways, and I suppose that's the difference. Steve Jackson Games has now sold out of the beta edition of Frag, and the website has a box shot with some interesting new graphics. Check it.
11:42 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... I just realized it's Friday the 13th. Let's get on with the news before something goes wrong. :-) A brief article on the Chainmail miniatures game preview at GAMA is on the WotC site. There isn't much info, but reports are that everyone was enthusiastic. Our friend Chris Pramas, Creative Director for the Chainmail game, is shown in the pics, running demos for convention goers. We're looking forward to October to see it ourselves. Listen Up, Cyberpunks... Avalanche of D20
10:30 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... WizKids has posted the complete list of figures from the new Mage Knight Lancers set. There's over 100 new figures listed, and a few have images to view as well. Check out the scorpion rider, and pray your DM doesn't use it as a drider.
10:43 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Pinnacle has the new cover art for Weird Wars, and they're showing it to the world. Seems enthusiasm for the game is growing, so new artwork has been commissioned. Looks great from where I'm sitting. Scarred Lands Needs Stories
10:32 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Coming early this July is the D20 adventure Instrument of Destiny by John Nephew, from Atlas Games. It starts with a festival, goes into the desert, and things get ugly from there. Could the release be set in hopes of riding the tide of The Mummy Returns, perhaps? The adventure will be for character levels 6-8, and will have rules for "hieroglyphic magic."
05:26 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... That sounds kind of salacious, doesn't it? Pagan Publishing, the fine folks behind the acclaimed Delta Green supplements for Call of Cthulhu, confirmed earlier this week in a press release (way, way below the fold) that their staff will be writing the WotC-published D20 System version of the Call of Cthulhu basic rulebook. This means that, though none of the award-winning Delta Green world or other supplementary material will be in the core book, great writers like John Tynes will be writing the basic text that re-introduces horror role-playing to the masses. This is a good thing.
09:54 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Scorpion's Nest Tactical Gaming has just announced that Impressions Advertising & Marketing will be working with them to increase exposure of their games, including Terminus 5. With a 422 page master rulebook, the Terminus 5 miniatures and role-playing game covers fog of war, plenty of weapons and vehicles, a detailed timeline, and a unique world history.
04:57 AM: Demian Katz says... Rio Grande Games, the company responsible for bringing lots of clever German games to the American market, has just posted their fifteenth newsletter. Quite a few interesting forthcoming releases are described, including Barbarossa, a classic Pictionary-like game which uses clay instead of pencil and paper, and The Traders of Genoa, a game of trading and negotiation set in the 16th century. Also, Tolkien fans will be happy to hear that Lord of the Rings: The Search will be on its way some time this summer!
10:19 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... The summer release schedule has been posted at Chaosium. Some of the highlights are 20th Anniversary Call of Cthulhu and 5th Edition Stormbringer (formerly known as the Elric! RPG). A reprint of the Complete Dreamlands and the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, and a new Miskatonic University Graduation Kit, are among the other products mentioned. I'm looking forward to the San Francisco Guidebook for CoC. I remain convinced that Coit Tower houses an ancient evil.
12:33 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... According to the official GenCon page, all of the convention hotels are now fully booked. Don't let that stop you from going, though; just expect to rent a car and drive in to the con from your distant hotel each day.
11:53 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... If you have your copy of Necromancer Games' Demons and Devils, look up the product password and head to the company's site for another free download. This time, 21 pages of additional material are available to supplement the already excellent D&D adventures in the book. As if that weren't enough, two maps are also available. If you've got the password, go grab 'em. By the way, the solution to the Rappan Athuk riddle has been posted somewhere on the Necromancer site. If you can find it, you can download a special encounter, which pays tribute to the Vault of the Drow encounter that inspired it. Zorro Takes Over Game Trade Void Where Downloaded
11:31 AM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Would you pay a dollar a month to read reviews and get into flame wars? Aaron Powell of Gaming Outpost hopes you will. While the articles and forums at GO will be accessible only to subscribers, the news page will remain free, and will go to a Slashdot-style model with discussions of its own. Will this set up a caste system, where the rabble gets noisy, unmoderated discussion for free, and paying customers get the discussion with intelligence? Or will the paid forums simply turn into a ghost town? GO's forums are among the most heavily-trafficked and opinionated gaming forums online, and this change will mean something, either way. As for the articles, Pyramid was an online subscription-based magazine before it was cool. Can GO compete? Will all fans of non-mainstream interests (that's us) be paying for all of their web content soon?
04:21 AM: Demian Katz says... Deep7, publisher of the 1PG line of cheap and quick role-playing games, is currently looking for unsigned bands who might be interested in contributing to a soundtrack for use with the second edition of its "teen horror" game, Shriek. This is a great opportunity for musically-inclined gamers (or their friends) to get some exposure, and it's a non-exclusive arrangement, so there's no harm in submitting a song or two. For further details, visit Deep7's homepage.
11:28 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... The next supplement for Blue Planet v2, Natural Selection, is at the printer and should be in stores and at Fantasy Flight Games by late April. The newest oceanpunk supplement will detail the ecology of the waterworld Poseidon, allowing for more exploration of the wet wilderness. Preview the Scars Old Dungeons Getting Upgrade
11:53 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Pinnacle has moved into high gear by posting several new tidbits. Among them is a recounting of the first playtest session for the D20 game, Weird Wars. How did the first playtest session go? Well, after a WWII combat against some basic Germans, the PEG playtest team determined that "the D20 system, as expected, just really doesn't work for realistic horror." In the next update, changes will be applied, and weird horrors will show their faces. Centauri Knights Preview Looking at Mystic Eye's Beasts
11:46 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Wizards of the Coast has posted some downloadable character sheets for the psionic classes found in the Psionics Handbook. Carefully document your mental prowess, lest you hear the DM utter the phrase that strikes fear in disorganized players: "If you didn't write it down, you don't have it." 'Twould be a shame to lose your character's mind in such a fashion. Diskwars: Season One Champs Announced
10:48 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Gamers can finally get their hands on an RPG based on the works of author Jack Vance now that Pelgrane Press has given us Dying Earth. Written by Robin Laws, John Snead and Peter Freeman, the game takes players to a ruined world of desperation and magic. From everything we've heard, and the little bit of Jack Vance's novels I've read, this one will blow Dark Sun away. I never could get behind halfling cannibals. April's Rings Wargame Report A Painted Holistic Fantasy
04:25 AM: Demian Katz says... The solitaire gamebook scene has been dead for far too long; apart from some interesting online efforts and a handful of simplistic Choose Your Own Adventure books, almost nothing notable has seen print since the late nineties. Fortunately, Panurgic Publishing, the brainchild of Fighting Fantasy author Paul Mason, has begun publishing a line of "Panurgic Adventures" to breathe new life into the genre. The first book released is Heart of Ice by Dave Morris, a book previously published in the Virtual Reality Adventures series. This re-release is in an attractive trade paperback format, and it can be ordered from Amazon.com for $17.50 plus shipping. Those wishing to avoid Amazon's shipping fees can contact Mr. Mason directly and arrange for payment via the PayPal service. If all goes well, the next releases will be Down Among the Dead Men and Twist of Fate, both from the Virtual Reality Adventures line. After that, a never-before-published book entitled Red Dragon Pass should appear. It may be a while until these releases become available, but OgreCave will keep you up to date!
11:59 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Artist and all around great guy John Kovalic has put out a call to fans of his hilarious gaming comic, Dork Tower. John's looking for your opinion of which Dork Tower strips should be in this summer's Best of Dork Tower #1, and he's offering a bribe -- er, prize for your participation. Limiting yourself to the first eight issues of the comic, choose the following and email them to Mr. Kovalic:
11:43 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Back from GAMA and settling into their new website nicely, Pinnacle has begun an ongoing column to chronicle the creation of Deadlands D20. As Deadlands fans may recall, the D20 project was scrapped when Pinnacle was purchased by Cybergames last September, but when PEG regained its independence in January, the project was back on again. John Goff, veteran Deadlands designer, is partway through the design process already. On top of Deadlands, PEG has another D20 simmering on the campfire. Weird Wars will be a game of alternate history horror, starting with Weird War Two: Blood on the Rhine. In this version of WWII, the Nazis won't stay down when they die. Hoo-boy... In Other Undead News...
11:14 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... (Just doing that to get interesting search engine traffic. No offense.) Steve Jackson Games has pre-announced another non-collectible expansion set for Illuminati: New World Order, the collectible version of Illuminati. Purists may scoff, but lots of folks played INWO, and its streamlined rule set helped make a ridiculous explosion of cards and concepts not just practical, but inevitable. The coming expansion, long titled Bavarian Fire Drill, is back in active production, according to SJG's web site.
10:04 AM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Since a day without WotC news is like... well, just go read this more complete outline of their 2001 plans. Harry Potter and major league sports, oh my. No mention of the Potter RPG, which further confirms the news that the RPG has been called off.
10:01 AM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Most gamers don't understand the game distribution business, and frankly, we here at the Cave aren't way ahead of you. But we do understand that Alliance Game Distributors' acquisition, announced Friday, of Berkeley-Topline Distributors and "selected assets" of Barchetta Distribution will change the industry in massive ways. Berkeley and Barchetta were some of the last big independent distributors, in California at least, and Alliance, already the biggest distributor in hobby gaming, shows no signs of slowing down. Will game distribution get choked down to a two-party system, or fewer, and create the same problems the comics industry has? Will small publishers survive? Will all of this just not matter at all?
04:38 AM: Demian Katz says... Deep7, the company responsible for the 1PG line of quick and easy role-playing games, has just released a new card game. In Snake Oil, each player is a quack attempting to sell allegedly miraculous potions and oils in an effort to become rich at the expense of the gullible masses. Of course, there's also a fair amount of sabotage and backstabbing involved. The game is available in a downloadable format and costs $4.95. |
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