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Saturday, August 7, 2010

August 7th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Super Genius to take over Dungeonaday.com

Hyrum Savage at Super Genius Games has been teasing for a day or two that an announcement was forthcoming, and now we know what he’s been up to: Super Genius Games will take over management of Dungeonaday.com. Started by Monte Cook, the subscription-based website has provided dungeon crawl encounters and rules articles every weekday since its inception in early 2009, with most of the site’s content generated by Cook himself. Starting September 1st, Super Genius Games will take over the daily site updates and management, and update the site to be compatible with Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder RPG. Seems like a solid plan – Monte’s leaving the Dragon’s Delve, the massive Dungeonaday.com labyrinth, in good hands. (Full press release below.)
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August 7th, 2010: Mike Sugarbaker says...
This just in from This Just In From Gen Con, Saturday 11AM 2010

Continuing the TJI adventure:

Friday, August 6, 2010

August 6th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
2010 ENnie Awards winners announced

The annual Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (otherwise known as the “ENnie” awards) took place earlier this evening at Gen Con, and the internet is buzzing with celebratory blog posts and tweets. Paizo Publishing dominated this year, with Pathfinder taking home gold for Best Game, Product of the Year, Best Production Values, and several others. Here’s the winner list (the full nominee list can be found here):

2010 ENnie Award results:

Best Cover Art
Silver: Eclipse Phase
Gold: Pathfinder Bestiary

Best Interior Art
Silver: Shadowrun 20th
Gold: Pathfinder Core Rulebook

Best Cartography
Silver: Aces & Eights: Judas Crossing
Gold: Pathfinder City Map Folio

Best Writing
Silver: Victoriana
Gold: Eclipse Phase

Best Production Values
Silver: Shadowrun
Gold: Pathfinder

Best Rules
Silver: Hero 6th Edition
Gold: Diaspora

Best Adventure
Silver: Trail of Cthulhu: Armitage Files
Gold: Pathfinder #31: Stolen Land

Best Monster or Adversary
Silver: Pathfinder: Classic Horrors Revisited
Gold: Pathfinder Bestiary

Best Setting
Silver: Rome: Life and Death of the Republic
Gold: Day After Ragnarok

Best Supplement
Silver: Players Handbook 3
Gold: Mysteries of the Hollow Earth

Best Aid or Accessory
Silver: Gaming Paper
Gold: Pathfinder GM Screen

Best Miniatures Product
Silver: Gaming Paper
Gold: D&D Minis

Best Regalia
Silver: Battletech
Gold: Cthulhu 101

Best Electronic Book
Silver: The Devil We Know
Gold: The Great City Player’s Guide

Best Free Product
Silver: Lady Blackbird
Gold: Advanced Players Guide Playtest

Best Website
Silver: d20PFSRD.com
Gold: Obsidian Portal

Best Podcast
Silver: All Games Considered
Gold: Atomic Array

Best Blog
Silver: Gnome Stew
Gold: Kobold Quarterly

Best Game
Silver: Shadowrun
Gold: Pathfinder

Product of the Year
Silver: Eclipse Phase
Gold: Pathfinder

Fan Award for Best Publisher
Silver: Fantasy Flight Games
Gold: Paizo Publishing

Judges’ Spotlight Awards
Fiasco
Trailblazer
Chronica Feudalis
Ancient Odyssey: Treasure Awaits
Mindjammer

A hearty congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and winners!

August 6th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
This just in from This Just In From Gen Con, Friday 11 AM 2010

It seems the technical difficulties have been resolved, and shows are flowing again, so now we have show notes for the Friday 11 am show. Guests Darren Watts and Jennifer Brozek lend a hand for the Friday morning show.

  • Ryan swears! Crap!
  • Fat Patrol and Felicia Day. No relation whatsoever.
  • Jennifer, Ed Greenwood, and others read a really bad book… out loud.
  • Ryan ran some Mythender. Darren recounts the tale of when Luchadore masks got him thrown out of a bar a few Gen Cons ago.
  • The Authors’ Alley has yet to provide @jenniferbrozek with a Twitter contest winner.
  • Darren’s splitting his time between Hero Games, the GPA, and IPR.
  • Geeky Pinups, and the Weregeek webcomic.
  • Ryan predicts the Dresden Files RPG will sell out at the show.
  • DC Adventures: Hero’s Handbook. Awesome layout guys are mentioned: Hal Mangold, Fred Hicks, and Adam Jury.
  • Wizards is doling out Dark Sun at the rate of 100 books/day.
  • Free Market again.
  • The Evil Hat PDF Guarantee: people like it.
  • Grants Pass didn’t make the show, which happened to Gameplaywright’s The Bones at Origins.

I’ll have the next batch of notes up in a bit.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

July 18th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave Gaming News Update – Colby Dauch

Because we know you can’t get enough, we’re starting the week with another Gaming News Update interview. This time Lee Valentine chats with Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games and Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons Heroscape line. Colby has several projects in his queue, both freelance designs and new Summoner Wars releases, which Lee quizzes him on for this new episode.

By the way, if you still haven’t familiarized yourself with Summoner Wars we’ve got a review of it right here.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June 29th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
2010 Origins Award winners announced

Though the news trickled out in other ways, the 2010 Origins Award winners have finally been announced. Among the highlights: the rerelease of Space Hulk beat out Small World for Best Board Game; Looney Labs continues its streak with a Best Party Game win for Are You the Traitor?; the return of WizKids and HeroClix gets a nod for Best Miniatures Line; and Eclipse Phase wins for Best RPG. (Click through to read the full list.)
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Saturday, June 19, 2010

June 19th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Free RPG Day 2010 is here!

If you missed our interview from KublaCon, you didn’t hear Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions talk about today – that is, Free RPG Day ’10. Yes, it’s today. Hopefully, you’re at a participating store right now, or you soon will be. If not, listen to our interview, try not to weep over the fun and freebies you’re missing, and if we hear of any other free goodies today you can take advantage of, we’ll post ‘em here.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

June 8th, 2010: Mike Sugarbaker says...
WotC PR breaks losing streak with D&D Encounters

I never thought I’d hear first about a D&D organized-play initiative from CNN. (Well, I guess technically I heard from Mike Mearls’ Twitter feed, but that’s 2010 for you. I sure don’t mean to suggest that CNN is relevant in the bigger scheme of things.) This piece completely reads like it was pre-assembled and delivered in the manner that PR firms do, but A) it’s frankly reassuring to see that Wizards can still manage to get that done, and B) I’m actually impressed by the specific content they’re doing it with. D&D Encounters is a way more strategic move than it looks like.

Time has been one of the key things plaguing the public perception of D&D since the ’80s. Along with the need to study tomes of minutiae, the long playing time which D&D demands by default leads more or less directly to non-players feeling like D&D is either some sort of cult or an all-absorbing lifestyle rather than what it is: a fun hobby that doesn’t noticeably hurt anyone. Directly attacking the time issue is strategic on WotC’s part in a very specific sense of the word: it makes things better on multiple fronts. It makes D&D take an amount of time that people expect a game to take, and thereby says “hey, this is just a harmless game,” much more effectively than, well, saying so in a press release. It addresses the needs of older gamers, and thereby gets word out that D&D players are older than they used to be. It puts a very much non-digital D&D game into the media, to help repair the PR debacle that was the Virtual Play Table announcement. And on and on.

I think the fact that CNN picked up this story at all, even just on the web site, lends a lot of credence to the idea that playing time is, or was, a major squick factor for the mainstream. That is my theory, which is mine. And for the rest of us, hey, a series of bite-sized Dark Sun previews.

Monday, June 7, 2010

June 7th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave GNU: KublaCon – Free RPG Day ’10

We’ve returned from our annual pilgrimage to KublaCon (well, it was a week ago, but you get the idea), and we have a Gaming News Update interview to share from the event. Take a few minutes to check out our talk with Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions on Free RPG Day ’10. He gives us the rundown of what to watch for at this year’s event (at a store near you on June 19th), and we discuss Free RPG Day’s success so far, the state of the roleplaying hobby, and sweet dice towers.

Planning to hit your local Free RPG Day this month? Willing to write a couple paragraphs on how it turns out at your store, and maybe send a photo or two? Drop me an email at sven (at) ogrecave (DOT) com with the subject of “Free RPG Day recruit” to help us cover the fourth annual dice-rolling free-for-all. You could see your name up in lights on the Cave wall. Actually, it’s kinda dark in here…

Saturday, May 8, 2010

May 8th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
J. Eric Holmes, D&D “blue box” author, dies

Once again, sad news has surfaced regarding an early champion of the roleplaying hobby – Cyclopeatron reports that J. Eric Holmes, author of the first D&D “blue box” set, has passed away at 80 years old. A former associate professor of neurology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Holmes was also a fantasy and science fiction author who was well known to fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the early days of RPGs, Holmes had several articles in The Dragon (or Dragon Magazine to you and me), and wrote the book Fantasy Role Playing Games – Dungeons, Dragons and Adventures in Fantasy Gaming (see his Wikipedia page for the list).

The staff of OgreCave wishes the best to the Holmes family.

Monday, April 26, 2010

April 26th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Wizards offers a “D&D junior” as free download

From time to time, new roleplaying gamers – or parents that play RPGs, or gamers trying to bring their buddies over from consoles and PCs – ask me to recommend the best way to get them into tabletop D&D. Lately, I’ve been at a bit of a loss, not having any one set or edition to universally put forth as a gateway into the system without going way, way back to ancient basic boxed sets and such. Wizards of the Coast must be aware of this perceived lack of friendly entry-point products: not only is a new “red box” basic set on the way later this year, but earlier today, WotC also posted Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod, a child-oriented D&D variant stripped down to the bare minimum. Targeting age 6 and up, the free 14-page PDF provides everything needed except dice and pencils, and boasts a play time of “as little as fifteen minutes or as long as an hour.” The game looks like a young players’ D&D Miniatures or a D&D: Fourth Edition-lite boardgame, but it just might be a more comfortable starting point for newbies, or a fun diversion for seasoned gamers.

Friday, April 9, 2010

April 9th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Convention report: PAX East 2010

PAX East 2010 recently landed in Boston, MA, and being a local, loyal Cave dweller Lee Valentine was more than happy to check out the show for us. From nifty card and board games to big-budget electronic titles, the Penny Arcade Expo doesn’t disappoint, as Lee tells us in his report on the first ever PAX East. There’s even a Wil Wheaton cameo – how can you not give it a read?

Saturday, March 27, 2010

March 27th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Clix and other distant rumblings from GTS 2010

Sadly, the OgreCave crew didn’t make it out to the GAMA Trade Show this year, but if we had, we’d probably be talking about the following news trickling out of Vegas right now (other than the Origins Awards nominees, of course):

  • HeroClix, now coming to us from NECA/WizKids, is back in a big way at GTS. The Brave & the Bold, with its team-up “duo” figures, arrives next month; Brightest Day is after that, followed by Web of Spider-Man (which will have an Iron Man/WarMachine duo figure), and then DC 75 will celebrate DC’s 75th anniversary and include characters from the White Lantern Corp. The HaloClix game will also get a new set, possibly to coincide with the release of Halo: Reach late this year.
  • In other NECA/WizKids news, there are plans for games based on the movie properties of Gremlins and Freddy vs Jason, though according to a forum post by Justin Ziran, VP of Brand Marketing at WizKids, these will not be Clix games. Finally, WizKids plans to introduce three new Euro style boxed games coming this fall, designed by some combination of Reiner Knizia, Vlaada Chvátil, Mike Elliot and Eric Lang. The Euro games will be based on three “HUGE properties” and use pre-painted figures – a WizKids speciality.
  • Pirate versus Pirate (Out of the Box Publishing) will have a triangular play area with some loot in the middle, and pit 2-3 teams of pirates against each other. In this board game sequel to Ninja versus Ninja, each Pirate crew can win by capturing the treasure or eliminating his opponents.
  • Wizards of the Coast will produce a new D&D “Red Box” Starter set in September, and have a number of 4E products lined up for beginning or returning players. Let’s not forget the big Castle Ravenloft cooperative board game, either – coming in mid-August, the game will be for 1-5 players (solo rules? Interesting…), and include a scenario book, 40 plastic figures, interlocking dungeon tiles, 200 encounter and treasure cards, and more, all for $64.95. I’m trying not to get my hopes up for this to be a D&D take on Space Hulk. I’m trying, but failing. It just sounds sweet!
  • James Ernest and Mike Selinker ran demos of their new game Dust & Sin, an appropriately-named game about building Las Vegas, which will be published later this year by Mayfair Games. [EDIT: After a few name changes, this game is now called Lords of Vegas]
  • AEG and Dust Games will release Mad Zeppelin in May, and a Thunderstone expansion, Wrath of the Elements will arrive this year as well.
  • Super Genius Games (the company founded by R. Hyrum Savage and Stan! that brought us Cthulhu adventures like Murder of Crows) announced the Adventurer’s Handbook, a 96 page softcover compiling some of the best Genius Guides from the company’s Pathfinder line. It ships July 2010 and will cost $19.99.

We’ll add more as we hear it. Game publishers: if you announced products at GTS this year, tell us about ‘em, and I’ll add to the story as I’m able. (You could also put news(at)ogrecave(DOT)com on your PR email list, while you’re at it. Please and thank you.)

March 27th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Origins Awards 2010 nominees announced

As per the usual pattern, as the GAMA Trade Show ends, this year’s contenders for Origins Awards get sorted out and announced. As per the selections made by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, the nominees for 2010 are listed below. In Card Games, The Stars are Right is up against Thunderstone and Martian Fluxx for the award; in Board Games, Castle Panic is fighting to beat Small World and the Space Hulk rerelease; and the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG is hoping to snatch the RPG award away before Eclipse Phase or A Song of Ice And Fire can grab it. But we won’t know the results until the Origins Game Fair this summer, where the attendees will vote to decide the winners. (By the way, more than a few of the nominees were part of our OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide 2009. I’m just saying.)

Read More…

Thursday, February 25, 2010

February 25th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
PAX East on final approach, and selling out fast

One month from tomorrow, on March 26, PAX East, the second location for the Penny Arcade Expo, will hit Boston, MA full force. The new show, a spinoff of the original PAX in Seattle (dubbed “PAX Prime” by many), had already sold out of full-show passes over three weeks ago, and with only a few hundred single day passes currently left for Friday and Sunday – well, if you were on the fence about going, you’d better commit or forget. This inaugural show’s official schedule just went up yesterday, adding to the considerable excitement that resulted two weeks ago when Wil Wheaton was announced as PAX East’s keynote speaker. If you can’t make it out to Boston, OgreCave will have a representative at the show in the form of Lee Valentine, frequent Cave dweller and one of our staff writers. Actually, he’ll be there whether you attend or not, so… yeah.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

February 16th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
DunDraCon 34: Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in development

Though Goodman Games hasn’t announced it yet, and Joseph Goodman’s only given vague hints of “something fun in the works”, a few of us at DunDraCon 34 this past weekend got a taste of this secret RPG project. Goodman was playtesting an early version of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, which was exactly what fans of the DCC adventures would imagine – a streamlined, deadly, 1st Edition D&D throwback with some D&D 3.5e influences. As already mentioned, no release date or details have been announced as yet, but I’d wager we may see it in stores early 2011, possibly sooner. In the session I joined, character building took less than five minutes, and cast each of us as not one, not two, but three 0-level peasants out to strike it rich as glamorous adventurers. You can probably guess why we made so many characters – yes, the mortality rate caused comparisons to a session of Paranoia, but we had some truly horrible luck as well. We’ll talk more about my preview of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in the OgreCave Audio Report (which the Ogre shamans are casting resurrection on as I write this) sometime next week.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

January 24th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Kobold Quarterly offers free issue download

The crew at Kobold Quarterly just let us know about the special offer they launched today. From now through January 31, gamers can go to the KQ Store and use the coupon code “KQ10Free” to download a free PDF copy of Kobold Quarterly #10. Released just prior to Gen Con ’09, KQ #10 features an interview with Paizo’s Jason Bulmahn, an Ecology of the Hill Giant article, and contributions from John Wick, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, and more. If your download doesn’t work – the kobolds tell me their website’s already getting slammed by demand – send ‘em an email, and they’ll sort it out for you. In any case, don’t pass up the opportunity for a free taste of what the industry needs more of: a great gaming magazine.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

December 24th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave’s Christmas Gift Guide 2009, part 4

This is it – Christmas looms on the horizon, just one day away. But say you’ve forgotten to get a gift for someone, a fellow gamer, and there’s no time to get to the stores anymore. Fear not, for the Cave dwellers have compiled one more list of gift suggestions in our OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide 2009. This fourth and final list provides An Aetheric Guide for Christmas, our traditionally last-minute PDF/downloadable product list. Just read through the list, select a few pre-screened OgreCave recommendations, and download your gifts as needed. You don’t have to risk wading through last-minute shoppers – they’ll be like a pack of sugarplum-crazed elves by now.

Here’s wishing you a safe, happy holiday season, from the staff of OgreCave. Seasons greetings!

Friday, December 11, 2009

December 11th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave’s Christmas Gift Guide 2009, part 2

Another weekend of holiday shopping is here, and you’ve probably formed some ideas of the larger-cost items you’ll be picking up (or requesting from others). In case your mind’s not quite made up yet, the OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide 2009 continues with its second section, Twelve Days of Roleplaying. This list of gift suggestions is entirely RPG related, and the Cave dwellers have chosen a range of roleplaying goodies that would make great gifts.

Our board game list will be up shortly (work and sickness have caused delays), followed by our traditionally last-minute downloadable product list. So listen closely each night – those bells might be a jolly Ogre… or more likely, an Ogre stepping some other jolly critter.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

December 3rd, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave review – The Grinding Gear

Things are settling to a nice pseudo-calm around here, so we’ll start throwing some goodies up onto the site real quick before something else crops up to delay us. Gerald leads the charge with his review of The Grinding Gear by LotFP Publishing, an old school “deathtrap dungeon” of considerable quality. Read on, and see what Gerald thought of this nasty little vacation spot for adventurers, or browse through our library of previous reviews.

Friday, October 30, 2009

October 30th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave reviews – Death, Frost, Doom & Something Wicked

The fear continues as our Screams from the Cave echo across the internet with more reviews. First, Gerald has his review of Death, Frost, Doom by LotFP Publishing, a creepy mood-piece for old school D&D gamers. The Lee gives us his full analysis of A Touch of Evil: Something Wicked, the horror boardgame expansion from Flying Frog. More fear will come to light tomorrow as well, so check back with OgreCave for more Halloween-style games.

Monday, October 19, 2009

October 19th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Wizards scores partial victory in copyright lawsuit

So, you may recall how Wizards of the Coast had taken the seemingly extreme step of removing its PDF products from the internet, and then sued eight people for copyright infringement, back in April. Well, two of those defendants have settled, and agreed to pay Wizards damages totaling $225,000 (also copied below). Is that really how much WotC would’ve made selling electronic copies of D&D 4e? If so, can they really afford not to get the PDF products back up and running? I mean, it’s not like pirates can’t scan books to make their own PDF copies. The pulled products still look like an overreaction mandated from on high at Hasbro.
Read More…

Monday, October 5, 2009

October 5th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave review – Points of Light II

Gamemasters can never have too much inspiring resource material, and Gerald has selected a potential resource to examine for us. His thoughts on Points of Light II: The Sunrise Sea may tell you whether you need to track down a copy of this fantasy setting sourcebook for yourself… or for your DM, perhaps.

Friday, September 11, 2009

September 11th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
One Bad Egg ceases all production

It’s always sad to see a respected game company shut down, and indeed, many of them either fade away quietly or flame out in spectacular fashion. Today One Bad Egg made the announcement the correct way – openly and honestly – that the company is going dark. Founding member Fred Hicks made the official post (also copied below), which sites disappointing sales of OBE’s D&D 4e products and “a collective lack of the wind staying in our sails”. The company’s website will remain available for a year or so, and products will begin to transfer over to Highmoon Media in October to reside there. Click below for the full announcement.
Read More…

Sunday, August 16, 2009

August 16th, 2009: Allan Sugarbaker says...
This Just In from Sunday morning at Gen Con 2009!

It’s Sunday, and Gen Con 2009 is in its final stretch. This Just In… From GenCon! has posted its Sunday 11am show, with co-host Derek Rex from Pulp Gamer, and guests John Wick and Robin Laws. Until host Ryan Macklin gets back home, OgreCave will be providing the show notes, so here’s the latest write-up:

  • Derek’s been meeting army buddies, attending Phil & Calye Lacefield’s wedding, attending the RPG Podcaster meet-and-greet, and more, all at Gen Con.
  • The White Wolf party
  • Robin has been at the Pelgrane Press booth, pushing the Gumshoe system, and getting ideas “into the bloodstream of gaming.”
  • John Wick’s Shotgun Diaries (see the cool little YouTube preview) and Houses of the Blooded have blown out of the show.
  • Epidiah Ravachol’s Time & Temp
  • Joe MacDonald’s Ribbon Drive and it’s mix CD.
  • Jeremy Keller’s Chronica Feudalis
  • Paul Tevis’ Penny For My Thoughts
  • Serial Homicide Unit
  • Mist-Robed Gate
  • John was impressed with the Pathfinder RPG, and it has inspired him.
  • Thoughts on what has and hasn’t been impacted by the economic downturn.
  • A plug for Action Castle.

Check back after the 3 pm Sunday show for more notes, or just hang out at OgreCave for a while, ‘cuz we like you and appreciate your business.

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