» Conventions
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Seen and heard at GAMA Trade Show 2008
Since I’m borrowing a machine yet again – man, I need a laptop – I’ll give you a quick braindump of things seen and heard at the GAMA Trade Show ’08 this year. I’ll post more when I can sit down longer, and we’ll discuss everything in detail next time we record an Audio Report episode.
Many of the show’s exhibitors and attendees missed the show schedule addendum, which explained room costs had been negotiated lower for next year (yay!) by agreeing to hold both 2009 and 2010 starting on and during the week immediately following Easter Sunday (What?!?). Nearly everyone I spoke with thought the move was beyond a bad idea – doesn’t anyone remember the final nail in Gen Con UK’s coffin a couple years ago? Reportedly, GAMA is now rapidly backpedaling on this announcement.
Now on to the games:
- James Ernest and Mike Selinker have their fingerprints all over the show this year. Steve Jackson Games is bringing out Lord of the Fries: Third Edition, a boxed version which has a minor rules tweak and a new menu. Paizo Publishing was showing off a new version of Falling featuring the popular goblins from Pathfinder products. Paizo also plans a card game called Yetisburg, a comedic historical-ish design for two players by Mike Selinker and Joshua Frost, and yes, it has yetis wearing Civil War uniforms. Duncan Toys is working on finalizing Warball, another Selinker design. Not the game you played during PE in grade school, it’s a cross between Marbles and a CCG, with metal miniatures cast inside certain rare marbles. There’s at least two other Ernest and/or Selinker titles I’m forgetting, too.
- Yes, Upper Deck’s World of Warcraft CMG looks outstanding. Especially the dragon. My players had better watch their backs, as I’ll be springing some of these goodies on them eventually.
- Looney Labs will have Monty Python Fluxx this fall. Yes, it will use Creeper cards - including a lot of spam. Done deal.
- Twilight Creations, the Zombies!!! folks, will bring us Humans!!! in July. The game will be playable alone or in combination with Zombies!!, which should be sweet.
- Steve Jackson Games should have the Munchkin boardgame ready by Origins. Though I’m not a Munchkin fan, I’m cautiously optimistic.
- Privateer Press’ Monsterpocalypse looks great, nearly ready for its fall release – two big monster figures and their powered-up versions, multiple buildings and support units, all in each collectible one player starter for $29.99. Kinda wish they were two player starters, but the game’s enjoyable enough that I might buy in anyway.
- Fantasy Flight, quite possibly the show’s MVP, was showing off all sorts of lovely figures from Dust Tactics, while giving away starter sets of the Mutant Chronicles CMG - frighteningly gorgeous figures. Amidst other announcements, the company has plans for both a Battlestar Galactica boardgame and a Gears of War boardgame. The Anima RPG is finally due out this summer, after being delayed again to catch up with Spain, which just released the game’s second edition. As predicted, Talisman: Fourth Edition will be designed to receive expansion sets, which may not be a bad thing – after all, the game’s best version, Talisman: Second Edition, had plenty of expansion sets.
- This fall, Flying Frog Productions will release A Touch of Evil, a boardgame with the same style as Last Night on Earth, that can be played competitively or cooperatively. An original CD soundtrack will come with the game, and the supernatural beast is randomly determined each session.
- Yes, Valley Games had a pre-production version of Titan. Production value on this one is great, and will have some added reference charts to speed gameplay.
- Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd has scheduled three books each for Serenity and Battlestar Galactica. Serenity Adventures comes in June, followed in August by Six Shooters & Spaceships, and the Big Damn Heroes Handbook in September. BSG fans will get Colonial Military in September, Ships of the Fleet in November, and Battlestar Galactica Adventures in January ’09. A new Tom Wham boardgame, Dragon Lairds, arrives next month, and the Demon Hunters RPG, based on the film by Dead Gentlemen Productions, will ship any day now.
- D&D 4e is here. But since we all knew it would be, even Wizards of the Coast doesn’t seem to be making a big production out of it. Odd, that.
I’ll get more posted when I can, though at this rate, it may have to wait until after the trip home.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Upper Deck bringing WoW Minis promo to GTS
ICv2 has the story of the first of what is sure to become many GTS ‘08 previews. In this case, Upper Deck will be giving out a World of Warcraft CMG promo figure at a retailer presentation on April 21st, the first full day of the show. It seems doubtful that a single WoW figure will lead to any of the craziness of promo releases past, but just wait until Onyxia, the “broodmother of the black dragons of Azeroth”, becomes a convention promo figure - that’s when we’ll see if Upper Deck handles the process any better than WizKids did. I’m not saying UD has announced a similar con exclusive sales plan yet or anything, I’m just seeing the potential for history to repeat itself.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Audio Report - Them’s heretical words!
Round two of today’s catch-up episodes, this early February show muses on the future of the Dark Heresy RPG (which became clearer soon after show time), upcoming con season, the WoW CMG, and more. Mike also gives us a primer on Vincent Baker’s latest game, In a Wicked Age, and we’ve all been keeping busy playing things. Again, thanks to everyone who emailed asking when we’d be back - the answer is, now.
Audio Report - Back in the saddle again
The OgreCave Audio Report is getting back up to speed with this, the first of two shows being fired off today. We’ve been talking, you just haven’t been able to hear it. Here’s the proof: our first Audio Report of the new year, recorded back when OGLs and inroads to Starbucks were all the rage. Thanks to everyone who emailed their concern over the extended, unintentional hiatus - my dead paperweight of an old machine caused considerable delays, but we’ll be all caught up fairly soon. Meanwhile, have a listen, tell us what’s on your mind, and welcome back.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Hidden City hidden up Gen Con’s… website?
For those who didn’t spot my comment, I went back and played Dragon Hoard, the in-browser casual game hosted rather incongruously on a section (which it currently occupies all by its lonesome) of Gen Con’s site labeled “Gen Con Now.” I have no idea how long it’s been there, but seeing as how I found it when I went to look for the press release about the bankruptcy filing, well, I kinda reacted.
Dragon Hoard is fine. It’s a fairly original casual game - it’s all about dragging stuff, which might not be to your taste, but hey. The only problem with this game is where they put it; games like this currently live or die on a flood of people looking for something clicky and mindless to do (and there’s no shame in that whatsoever). Said people are not currently coming to Gen Con’s web site to find it, and won’t be in the near future, no matter how badly Gen Con wants another revenue stream. Now, maybe there are plans to hook Dragon Hoard up to the usual spigots (BigFish, Yahoo Games, whatever), but right this second, the partnership here between Gen Con and DH’s developers Hidden City Games - that is, Peter Adkison’s other company, publishers of Clout Fantasy and US licensors of Bella Sara - seems even more unfortunate in light of Gen Con’s admittedly unforeseeable new resource crunch.
So, okay. Maybe not what I would have done from a business standpoint, but fine. I go on about my business, and get this thing I read about on Penny Arcade, this Spectromancer. From the description and title alone, you know it’s gonna be a bounce off of Magic, but reading the website I’m surprised to learn that Richard Garfield and Magic R&D legend Skaff Elias actually did development work on the game design. I download, I run the installer, and what’s the publisher’s name on the newly created folder? Hidden City Games. Well, that’s… actually pretty cool. And yet, where does the link go if you click through to Spectromancer’s discussion boards? To community.gencon.com.
Maybe I’m the only one this is all news to, and again, nothing’s wrong with Spectromancer as a game - there are some translation issues right now, but the ways in which it simplifies M:tG are actually really elegant and appealing - but does anyone else think it’s a little weird how thoroughly Hidden City seems to be leaning on Gen Con right now? Especially given that Gen Con’s got trouble and Hidden City’s got pony crack?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Seriously, what the hell is up with Gen Con LLC
Gen Con LLC files Chapter 11. Okay. That and the Lucas thing, kind of not wonderful together. Kiiiind of crazy. Bankruptcy is by no means a death sentence or a threat to the Indy show, most likely, but the list of crazy isn’t over. Here’s the new Gen Con LLC home page, with entries for the company, the Indy show, and “Gen Con Now.” Click on “Gen Con Now” and… “Dragon Hoard“?? Might be a fine game, but at the moment I’m a little scared to find out.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
LucasFilm sues Gen Con LLC over charity auction of Star Wars memorabilia
It’s hard to know what to make of this item, so here’s a quote: “LucasFilm says that Gen Con, a company that puts on gaming conventions, failed to uphold a contract to deliver proceeds from a ‘Star Wars’ memorabilia auction to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. […] According to this complaint, Gen Con owes almost $1 million to the charity and to LucasArts for proceeds from an auction held at last May’s Gen Con convention in Los Angeles. LucasFilm says it undertook expenses to advertise the auction to increase participation.” Wow.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Amber & Palladium TMNT designer Erick Wujcik terminally ill
It was announced yesterday that Erick Wujcik, designer of the classic RPG adaptation Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness and the seminal Amber Diceless RPG, is rapidly dying of pancreatic cancer. Palladium publisher Kevin Siembieda has started a website to “give the millions of people who have loved the man and enjoyed his games, the opportunity to express their appreciation for him and his work.” If you have a story to share, please do.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Dr Who RPG announced at Dragonmeet
Frequent OgreCave contributor Matthew Pook tells us some exciting news from Dragonmeet, happening right now: Cubicle 7 has secured a license to produce a Dr Who RPG based on the new BBC television series. According to Matthew, the license also includes spin-offs like Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. We’ll wait to see what the official press release says once it’s posted. Excellent news for Whovians, in any case.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Audio Report - Coming down after con season
We still have a bit of the shakes from all the convention news of the past month or so, so we let it all out in the latest OgreCave Audio Report episode. From how Gen Con developments reflected on our 2007 Ogre’s Choice Awards to the Penny Arcade Expo, and from Rackham’s recent issues to troubled local conventions, we manage to have a theme and be all over the map. Jump into the story already in progress, or check into previous episodes - it’s all good.
Back to the