 March 2004 Archive
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
« February 2004 | Main | April 2004 »
08:57 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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.)
03:39 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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.]
11:43 AM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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.
09:41 AM: Demian Katz says... 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.
06:40 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... 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.
12:55 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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?
11:25 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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.
11:16 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... 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.
09:53 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... 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.
02:46 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... 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.
02:31 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... We're still mopping up the mess from last week's technical failure, so we're a bit slow in getting this to you: our interview with Mike Selinker, formerly of Wizards of the Coast and Avalon Hill. The interview should have gone up right after the WizKids banquet presentation, but our website glitches had other plans. Such are the plans of ogres and men. In any case, dive in and see what Mike has to say about recent Avalon Hill games, among other topics.
09:23 AM: Demian Katz says... Invisible City's March game of the month is here. In Pitter Pattern, two to four players take turns rolling a die and placing tokens on a board composed of dominoes, hoping to establish high-scoring patterns as a result. It's a fast and variable abstract strategy game that's more than worth the free price tag. And, as always, stay tuned, since there should be more free goodness next month; if the game list is to be believed, the next offering will be Tabletop Freeze Tag. Hmmmm.
12:28 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Yes, folks: they took on Warcraft, and now it's Doom time. This title will feature graphics from the upcoming Doom III, as well as sculpted plastic stuff and what appears to be a modular board similar to the Warcraft board. Presumably FFG is wise enough not to make this play anything like Frag (don't misunderstand me, Frag became a fine game; it would be a mistake to be seen by the customer as too near it, however). This Slashdot discussion has some of the predictable reactions from the PC crowd, and a funny joke from me. This will allegedly hit in October; it'll be funny if Doom III gets delayed again and this comes out first.
08:11 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Games were not only the topic of Wednesday evening’s banquet presentation, they were the activity. Amidst the clusters of green balloons, and accompanied by the sometimes deafening sound of party horns and maracas, retailers were kept on their toes with a word search contest, a guess-the-number of jellybeans contest, and other games. After all, they were sitting through a presentation on St Patrick’s Day. Best to keep them entertained.
12:21 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Though they seemed a bit frantic, WizKids managed the horde of retailer registrations for Galactus HeroClix figures with only an hour delay. While the majority of retailers lined up outside the banquet hall to complete their check-in process, a handfull of WizKids employees carted massive pallets of Galactus figures into the room and unpacked them in preparation for distributing. When Jordan Weisman, President and CEO of WizKids, finally took the podium, Galactus was standing atop the podium next to him, as if to say "Thanks for coming to my show. Now the guy behind me's going to say a few words."
08:04 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... I only link to this to point out that I was right. Also, I didn't mention it before but I had vague wishes/suspicions that the name Chop Shop might be some kind of obscure shoutout to RoboRally, and now that I've heard it involves robots, well dammit, ¡viva la Twonky!
05:12 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... We had a bad roll on the Technical Difficulties Table today - naturally, the very best time this could have happened - and it took a while to get straightened out. If you find anything irregular, let us know.
12:32 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Alien Menace is back in the swing of things with a revised version of Sucking Vacuum, which the company announced last week. The new boxed version is a gorgeous full-color product, with 18 tiles that are played to make the doomed International Space Station each player must escape from. Sci-fi fans will be thrilled by the upgraded version, as nearly every tile hides so many "Easter eggs" from popular TV shows and movies, gamers will spend the first hour examining the game boards and laughing at all the goodies they find. The Alien Incursion variant rules included in the box seem like they'll turn an already solid, frantic, and entertaining game into a mad scramble for survival, and that's for a game that was already about avoiding death by suffocation. With a compact, high-quality box, full-color components (and nifty plastic missiles to track oxygen with), and a price of $19.99, the new Sucking Vacuum is a sure winner. If this game doesn't end up on Origins' short list for Best Graphic Design of a Board Game, I'll be extremely surprised.
11:55 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Left out of the Green Ronin presentation this morning was Human Head's next roleplaying project, Normal, Texas. Scheduled for the end of 2004, the game will be about an everyday little town with ooze monsters, giant spiders, aliens, miniaturized humans, and other freakish goodies. According to Matt Forbeck, head of Head's Adventure Games Division, current plans are for six Normalproducts in total, providing a jumping off point for players to take it from there.
07:10 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... This GR entry would be intriguing if it weren't for the fact that every catalog-like thing that I've ever seen Wizards release has contained something that was either misnamed or actually cancelled some time after said catalog went to press. As it is, it's just funny. Maybe Chop Shop is the boys' equivalent to Star Sisterz, and you get cards that challenge you to jack cars so you can win collectible crowbars and mallets.
11:32 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Staggering out bleary-eyed for the retailer breakfast presentation, I walked toward the banquet hall through the Orleans casino and was suddenly joined by a well-dressed, middle-aged man who seemed to appear out of nowhere. He immediately caught me off guard by calmly, matter-of-factly stating “Yeah, the works of Satan are all around us, my brother.”
11:25 AM: Mike Sugarbaker says... No disrespect to the fine SJG line of folded paper, but, as in so many other genres, the Japanese have us sort of outclassed. This blog Boing Boing has been nuts for the folded paper over the last couple of days, including these Star Wars models that might be of use to players of the previewing-just-about-now Star Wars minis game, this 1:1 scale replica of the guns from Aliens (attention LARPers!), and this software that claims to turn 3D files in Maya, Lightwave or DirectX format (and others) into print-cut-and-fold models.
03:42 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... I just staggered back from Peter Adkison's party (thanks, Peter!), and find Mike has one-upped me. Curses! I'll get you, evil brother of mine. Anyway...
10:18 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Looks like Duel Masters will be giving MtG's Darksteel some competition in the new Origins Awards category, "Stupidest Name for a CCG Expansion." Elsewhere in the WotC press dinner for non-D&D properties, a release date is announced for the GI JOE TCG (should be ready for Gen Con), and you sort of get to see the RISK Godstorm cover. Thanks to GR's squad for taking all those possibly-illegal photos. We'd have taken some ourselves, but you people are too cheap to buy us nice things like digital cameras via that PayPal link. Ha!
11:50 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Myriador Ltd. has announced their product schedule for most of this year. Of particular interest is the Fighting Fantasy Role Play Game due in June 2004. The game will use the d20 System, just as the other Fighting Fantasy derived Myriador releases, but remain a "fully contained game." The company's forums also mention plans for world guides, though none are officially scheduled yet.
04:04 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... Betrayal at House on the Hill is a tile-based casual game with a haunted-house theme, set for release within the blast radius of Halloween. It's a little unclear from the press release whether this is a reprint or not, but I don't think it is. You're welcome to correct me in the comments (like I can stop you - wait, I can!). I like the sound of the secret-defector mechanic; one member of the party is trying to nail the others, which could be nicely Werewolf-y. Also juuust a bit reminiscent of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game that Hasbro did a few years ago - great game, and could be adapted nicely to a tiled board. Hmmmm... I'm scheming, this is my scheming face... eh, whatever. Details when you hit Read More.
01:33 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Atlas Games just now (like, half an hour ago) posted some sample card art from the upcoming Lunch Money sequel, Beer Money. Some of my buddies from the days back at Gamers.com will be thrilled. In fact, the only way they'd be more thrilled is if Beer Money were also a Counterstrike mission.
10:29 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Spectrum Games and Z-Man Games have set loose a new take on the superhero RPG supplement. Omlevex poses as the official sourebook of Omlevex Comics Group, a fictional comic group. With stats for Silver Age Sentinels, M&M Superlink, and the Hero System, it seems like all the bases are covered.
11:02 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Matthew gives us his take on a new card game today: Big Top by APE Games. Did this circus-themed revision of a classic card game perform well under Matthew's watchful gaze? Find out in his review.
11:30 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Z-Man Games will soon be publishing the Tome of Levity, a 48 page book of unusual spells. No, not levitation, levity. As in, "funny but useful spells for most fantasy campaigns." Like what? I'll let the press release below clue you in.
10:22 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Alien Menace, the company known for producing cheap, humorous games and for giving a wider aucience to Mythrole Games' titles, has announced plans for a revised, expanded edition of Sucking Vacuum, the company's Origins Award nominated board game. Called Ultimate Sucking Vacuum, the revised game will be a boxed product, done in full-color, with dice and everything needed for 3-6 players to begin fleeing the International Space Station right away. The Ultimate edition will also include tournament rules and an "Alien Incursion" variant, which is something I wanted back when I played the original version. Though the press release fails to mention a release date, my sources say Ultimate Sucking Vacuum will arrive in June for $19.95. [EDIT: The catalog I just picked up at GTS '04 says the game has a March release date, so we won't have to wait nearly as long. - Allan]
10:05 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Though the images have been floating around the web for a couple of weeks already, Wizards of the Coast has put up an official figure gallery for the entire Archfiends Expansion of D&D Miniatures. They've also done a close-up preview of some figs from all four alignment factions, most recently from Chaotic Good. Take a close look at that guy in the gallery's seventh row down, on the left, the Moon Elf Fighter (Uncommon), another CG guy worth checking out.
12:07 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Over at the Atlas Games Dispatch page, Northern Crown: New World Adventures is mentioned. Just as Nyambe took d20 to Africa, Northern Crown will take d20 to colonial North America. An entire campaign setting, Northern Crown is still in early development, but will certainly contain witches, wendigo, and other weirdness to keep the colonies a'jumpin'. This may end up with some similarities to Deadlands, though more details have yet to be announced.
03:11 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... If you're tired of seeing non-roleplaying news on OgreCave - or, conversely, of seeing any roleplaying news at all - we have good news for you. We've created two new XML feeds for consumption in your feed aggregator of choice (we recommend BlogLines) - one for roleplaying-related posts only and one for posts about everything else.
10:44 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... Ever since seeing the game in a case at Gen Con SoCal, I've been curious about WotC's impending board game release, Risk: Godstorm. Today's press release (below) adds fuel to my curiosity. Players seem to take on the role of one of four ancient civilizations, and start conquering the world using tools such as miracle cards, faith tokens, and temples. As the name Godstorm implies, the gods of ancient myth get involved this go round (gods of magic, death, sky, and war are mentioned), though it's still unclear if each player uses each god once, or some other arrangement takes place. Apparently Atlantis exists as a temporary resource for the players, then sinks like a stone at some point during gameplay. All in all, I might be more enthused by this Risk version than I was by the original. We'll see how it looks in a few months.
04:11 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says... It's high time I wrote about the advance starters that WotC was kind enough to send us; it's a good game. I'd be very heartened about its advent if I didn't know that 80% of the kids who buy it are going to make up their own rules or fail to play at all. But it is indeed what it was advertised as - a stripped-down Magic that works like a well-oiled one-stroke motor - and it's a reminder of how strong a game Magic is, even (maybe especially) before you pile on ten years of exceptions.
12:52 PM: Allan Sugarbaker says... WizKids has a customer survey they want you and all your buddies to fill out. To compensate you for your time in answering the questions, you'll be entered in a drawing that could result in a HeroClix Galactus figure, a MechWarrior: Dark Ages DropShip, all four of the Mage Knight Avatars of the Four Horsemen, or a full factory set of Topps BaseBall 2004 cards. Spend a few minutes telling them what you want, and you might win it.
11:29 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... According to Yog-Sothoth, Fantasy Flight isn't the only company planning a Cthulhu card game this summer. Atlas Games has announced plans to release Cthulhu 500, which is just what it sounds like: a Cthulhu racing game. The game will be released as a two-deck package for $19.95, and should be ready in time for Gen Con Indy '04 this August. Jump over to Yog-Sothoth's story for more details and a first look at some artwork from the game.
12:46 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says... To start the week off right, Joe's provided us with his thoughts on The Slayer's Guide to Elementals by Mongoose Publishing. Did he give a yea or a nay to this d20 book of combative natural resources? Find out for yourself. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 Back to the archives
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||