Avalanche Press is having a sale for a reason: they’ve decided to abandon use of the D20 logo. You know how CEOs always say when they get canned that they’re “pursuing other interests”? ” ‘The changes we are proposing are really things we have been discussing internally anyway,’ commented Mike
Author: Mike Sugarbaker
Virtual chits don’t blow away when someone opens the garage door
Via Slashdot Games, an intriguing editorial on the state of independent, digital wargaming. Produced by small development shops and sold almost exclusively online, these games are near-duplicates of old-school SPI hex-map cardboard-counter throwdowns, sometimes souped up with online play or even (gasp!) 3D graphics. Party like it’s 1977. (For those
The Hasbro meltdown begins: content restrictions added to D20 license
It took a while, but Wizards of the Coast’s corporate masters are finally setting about ruining a perfectly good product. The full scoop is available on that there GR page, featuring an eloquent anonymously-posted comment signed “Ryan Dancey.” The relevant chunk of the revised D20 STL is included below –
Anne Rice is pretty sexy for a big red marshmallow
Penny Arcade weighs in on the White Wolf vs. Sony suit today. The comic distorts things a lot, but the news post is balanced and entertaining – that’s just how they do up in the P.A. They have also “secured” a copy of the legal filing as a PDF (from
The werewolves are like Spider-Man. There’s no infrin… um… oops
I don’t actually know Gothic literature well enough to say whether the World of Darkness’ feud between vamps and werewolves is original. Nor have any of us seen the list that WW claims it has, the list of “60 points of unique similarity” between WoD material and the upcoming Kate
It has ‘synergy’ in the title but it isn’t a business game – how refreshing
I saw Strange Synergy on the shelves last week and thought, that’s… uh… strange; why didn’t I see any hype about this? In case you’re in the same boat as I was, the idea is superhero combat, with teams of superheroes drawn from no fewer than 100 power cards. Sounds
WarCraft RPG to add war in upcoming supplement
The anonymous comment at the end of this review of Sword and Sorcery’s WarCraft RPG claims that the mass combat system in the upcoming/available-now-if-you-like-PDFs Malhavoc book Cry Havoc will be included in a future WarCraft supplement. That’s pretty much rumor, and should be treated as such. Presumably, there will eventually
Everyone likes mathematical simulation-based art when it has zombies
This would make an awfully nice screensaver for an All Flesh fan. (You know, I think the real experiment here is to see how fast this link has spread around the Internet. I’m off to eat some yummy brains now. Bye!)
Suave in-store campaigns for Avalon Hill
This looks seriously freakin’ hot. Avalon Hill’s official incorporation into WotC is bearing fruit: “Wizards of the Coast is producing its first board game expansions as part of this program. The expansions, which are taken home by the winners of the event, will serve to alter play for experienced players,
As a matter of fact, you haven’t heard it all before
Jane’s RPGnet report on girls at Gen Con does not read like the eleven million “women in gaming” articles you’ve already read in your short, damned life. Jane gets the perspectives of four specific people and focuses on that, not the same old generalizations. Women already feel like outsiders too
Carcassonne 2-player spinoff, Puerto Rico card game before end of year
While I was at ICv2, I found this stuff about Rio Grande’s recent successes and big plans for the rest of the year… mostly for September. The lede is about the 2-player Balrog game or whatever. We’ll see about that, but I’m excited that Carcassonne and Puerto Rico may be
More schadenfreude: WotC Stores steadily closing
Revealed in the details of Hasbro’s just-released quarterly report are gruesome numbers regarding the retail arm of Wizards of the Coast. From the article: “With no purchaser for the chain, and an apparent inability to make most of the stores profitable, [Hasbro] appears to be willing to continue to close
Next wave of SR figs pushed back two months
Want more Shadowrun figures and want ’em now? Nyaah nyaah. Now they aren’t coming until December. All the schedule changes can’t be endearing WizKids to their fans, but at least the company is starting to show signs of knowing its limits.
SJG stops hitting itself in the head with tiny pewter hammers
There’s no permanent URL for it that we can find, so we’ve pasted it below: Steve Jackson Games is closing its miniatures department, effective at the end of the month. As always, Steve’s honesty and directness in corporate communications is unrivalled and appreciated – “[t]he reason for the shutdown is
I keep wanting to say Optimus
So the folks at Bizzaro Games are working on Odyssey Prime, which they describe as a game “of Alternative Universes and Modern Covert Operations” – kind of a militaristic take on the whole Stargate thing. Even if that doesn’t float your kontiki, D20 Modernists might want to check out the