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Monday, August 30, 2010

August 30th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Happy Birthday to Atlas Games

Atlas Games is 20 years old this month, and founder John Nephew has put out the word that they’re celebrating. If you’re lucky, you may still have time to get a free birthday gift box of Atlas Games stuff – the first 250 folks to order it and pay for their own shipping will get a semi-random assortment of games or game related items from the company. Even if you miss out on the birthday goodies, stop by the website and wish the Atlas crew a happy 20th, with many more to come.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

August 7th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
This just in from This Just In From Gen Con, Sat 5 PM

As Day 3 of the “Best Four Days in Gaming” winds down, we’ve got your show notes for the Saturday 5 pm TJI show. Guests Adam Jury and E Foley (aka @geeksdreamgirl) join hosts Ryan and Kevin for the Saturday evening show.

  • @geeksdreamgirl ran multiple dating events at the show, while Adam and Eclipse Phase managed to snatch away a few silver and the gold for Best Writing at the Paizo Awards ENnies last night. (See the winner list here.)
  • The costume parade forces Ryan to make a hard choice. Everything from stormtroopers in kilts to walking tetris blocks was represented.
  • In case you forgot, Eclipse Phase is under the Creative Commons license. Rules remix, people!
  • More about geek dating events, including speed dating at Gen Con Indy. On the other hand, some guys just need to be slapped silly for honking what isn’t theirs.
  • The fit4gencon movement.
  • A little social pressure is applied to… um, us at OgreCave.com. Don’t worry, Ryan, we’re working on the podcast. Expect the OgreCave Audio Report 2.0 soon!
  • Hosts and guests all want an adult-sized LEGO bounce house.
  • DC Adventures: “freakin’ gorgeous”.
  • Praise for Twitter, and the gaming community therein.
  • Stupid Ranger and the Roleplaying Therapy for the Severely Disturbed event.
  • Ryan manages the most spectacular segue ever – with urine.
  • A parting shout-out to Campaign Coins.

One show left, midday Sunday – pardon me, “Day 4”. Check back tomorrow!

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 5 PM 2010

Catching up after the one-two punch of delayed-then-released shows – here’s show notes for the Friday 5 pm show. Guests Steve Kenson and Ken Hite sit in on the Friday evening show.

The crew ends the show thinking forward to the evening’s ENnie Awards ceremony, which has happened by now – click here to see the 2010 winners list.

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.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

August 5th, 2010: Mike Sugarbaker says...
This just in from This Just In From Gen Con, Thursday 5PM 2010

Sorry, I was in the bathroom. Here we go!

Can I just say how great it is to not hear Ryan Macklin again after so long? Nah, I’m just kidding. See you tomorrow!

August 5th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Boardgamegeek wins 2010 Diana Jones Award

BGGWe’ve already mentioned it briefly in this morning’s TJI From Gen Con! show notes post, but in case you missed it, Boardgamegeek has won this year’s Diana Jones Award. The mostly-anonymous award committee selected the tabletop gaming website over three other game nominees shortlisted this year, FFG’s Chaos in the Old World, and the RPGs Kagematsu by Cream Alien Games, and Montsegur 1244 by Thoughtful Games. See the press release for more details.

Read More…

August 5th, 2010: Mike Sugarbaker says...
This just in from This Just In From Gen Con, Thursday 11AM, 2010

I love contexts where you can just say “It’s Thursday, 11AM, 2010,” and everyone knows when you mean. So yeah, it’s on once again: This Just In From Gen Con is in live-from-the-show mode, and we’re doing notes. If you’re new here, shame on you! welcome! Here goes:

Subscribe to our feed if you haven’t, because we’ll be on top of the TJI notes for the whole show, plus any other tidbits we turn up.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

July 21st, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
2010 Diana Jones Award shortlist announced

It’s that time of year again: Gen Con draws ever closer, heralding the announcement of the Diana Jones Award and its shortlist for 2010. Each year, this independent award is bestowed on prime examples of “excellence in gaming” by the Diana Jones Committee (made up of past winners and other luminaries). The nominees are an interesting group, and are described thusly:

  • BoardGameGeek, a website edited by Scott Alden and Derk Solko
  • Chaos in the Old World, a boardgame by Eric Lang, published by Fantasy Flight Games
  • Kagematsu, a role-playing game by Danielle Lewon, published by Cream Alien Games
  • Montsegur 1244, a role-playing game by Frederik Jensen, published by Thoughtful Games

Follow this link for more details on what brought these four nominees to the committee’s attention. As always, the winner of the 2010 Diana Jones Award will be announced on the evening before Gen Con Indy gets started at the Diana Jones Award and Freelancer Party in downtown Indianapolis.

[Update: The votes are in, and the winner has been announced!]

Sunday, July 18, 2010

July 18th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Precis Intermedia acquires remaining West End Games properties

RPG Blog 2 broke the news that Precis Intermedia is the new home of the Masterbook, Shatterzone and Bloodshadows properties, which all formerly belonged to West End Games. Last month, it was revealed that WEG’s Eric Gibson had sold the rights to TORG, the precursor to the Masterbook system, to German company Ulisses Spiele – now it seems all WEG has left is the Junta board game. I’m sure someone can be found to adopt it.

We’re still awaiting a more official Precis Intermedia announcement (there’s just this fun hint so far). When we hear more, we’ll let you know.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

July 14th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave Gaming News Update – Petroglyph Games

In our latest Gaming News Update interview, Lee Valentine chats with Chuck Kroegel of Petroglyph Games about the company’s plans to release a card game, a board game, and a PC game in the next few months, all about a single fantasy setting. Kroegel, Petroglyph’s General Manager and one of the company’s designers, goes into the details of their plans to present the world of Graxia to the greater gaming public.

Monday, July 12, 2010

July 12th, 2010: Lee Valentine says...
Dust Games Products to Move from AEG to FFG

Alderac Entertainment Group announced on July 9, 2010 that most of the Dust Games design library they have published or were going to publish (excluding The Adventurers) will be moving to Fantasy Flight Games. Some games involved in the transfer include Dust Tactics, City of Thieves, Arcana, and Mad Zeppelin. The increasing number of games on AEG’s release schedule was going to require the company to grow faster than it was prepared to, and may have forced AEG to release multiple titles per month to keep pace with both its own planned releases as well as those of Dust Games. AEG will cut the total number of scheduled releases to provide adequate playtesting and support for each product they do release. The company also plans to focus on its core product lines that are already doing well (such as L5R and Thunderstone), and may push some other new games back to 2011 release dates. GenCon 2010 events that were scheduled for the affected products will go on as planned, only to be run by FFG staff instead of AEG. (Full AEG announcement copied below.)

Read More…

Friday, July 2, 2010

July 2nd, 2010: Lee Valentine says...
Alderac Has a Steady Summer Launch Schedule, Culminating at GenCon

Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) has big plans for the gaming industry this summer. They have a strong list of games to be released between now and GenCon. All these products will be available at the AEG booth at GenCon, and there will be demos and scheduled events for their new board and card game products at the show. From Legend of the Five Rings to Mad Zeppelin, AEG has a full gaming plate for the next few months.

[EDIT 7/12/10: some of the releases below have changed due to AEG's recent arrangement with FFG to take over Dust Games releases. -Allan]
Read More…

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.)
Read More…

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.

Monday, June 14, 2010

June 14th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
OgreCave GNU: Matt Leacock (Forbidden Island)

We’ve all marveled at the elegant way certain games work, and the cooperative masterpiece Pandemic has impressed more than its fair share of gamers. In our latest Gaming News Update interview, I caught up with Matt Leacock, the man behind Pandemic, as he celebrated his new cooperative game, Forbidden Island. The new release was all the rage at last month’s KublaCon, and gamers came out to Dr Comics & Mr Games in Piedmont, CA to play GameWright‘s foray into cooperative games with the man himself. Have a listen for Matt’s thoughts on game design, giving “life” to games that defeat players, being nominated for this year’s Spiel des Jahres award (for Roll Through the Ages), and more.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

June 10th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
Monsterpocalypse film in the works

Hollywood’s been shopping for games again, and now DreamWorks may be courting Tim Burton to direct a feature film based on the Monsterpocalypse property. DreamWorks picked up the movie rights to Privateer Press’ collectible miniatures game last month, and is working on forming the right team to make big screen kaiju magic. My question: will fans be thrilled or worried by the idea of their city-stomping aliens and monsters potentially getting the Nightmare Before Christmas animation treatment?

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

June 9th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
2010 Spiel des Jahres nominees announced

I’m a little behind on this, but since I’ve finally played one of this year’s nominees for Germany’s game of the year award (better known as Spiel des Jahres), I thought I’d research the others a bit and get to know them. In no particular order, this year’s nominees are:

  • Roll Through the Ages: a Yahtzee-ish strategic dice game by Pandemic designer Matt Leacock.
  • Dixit: a popular party game that plays similarly to Apples to Apples.
  • Portrayal: another party game known in Germany as Identik, wherein players draw an image based on a description before learning what criteria it will be judged by.
  • A la Carte: a lighthearted game of food preparation, with spice “cubes” that are shaken out onto dishes, and too much spice can ruin the food.
  • Fresco: a more strategic game where players manage a team of artisans as they work to restore a fresco in a renaissance church.
  • The Kinderspiel des Jahres nominees were also announced – Diego Drachenzahn, Kraken-Alarm, Panic Tower!, Vampire der Nacht, and Turi-Tour.

There’s no clear winner in the listed nominees, but of the shortlisted group, I’ve just played Dixit over the weekend. It gets described as having “gorgeous” artwork, and having looked through the full color cards, I can see why – but I found the game’s style more quirky and weird than most… like Salvador Dali was running the art department. Not bad at all, just weird. Still, a neat variation on the peer-judged mechanic made famous by Apples to Apples, with a touch of storytelling thrown in for flavor.

[EDIT]: I’ve just interviewed Roll Through the Ages designer Matt Leacock in our Gaming News Update podcast feed, so be sure to have a listen. – A

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

June 8th, 2010: Allan Sugarbaker says...
WizKids/NECA to develop Star Trek Clix game

Though I doubt it will be the final frontier for the game, WizKids/NECA announced today that it will make a Clix game using the Star Trek license. More specifically, the company will create “HeroClix branded miniature games to be sold both physically and digitally, set in the Star Trek universe, including all of the Star Trek television shows and Star Trek feature films.” The interesting bit (other than a new collectible Star Trek game) is the word “digitally” – could this mean a Star Trek Clix iPhone app, maybe? Time will tell. Gamers will get their first opportunity to boldly go where no Clix have gone before this December 2010. I say, tribbles versus borg, aaannnd… fight!
Read More…

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.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

April 27th, 2010: Lee Valentine says...
Survive! Manages to Survive

Stronghold Games has announced that it has acquired the rights to reprint the classic Parker Brothers game Survive!. It is somewhat odd that this gem went out-of-print in the United States years ago, given that it has sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. If you haven’t heard of Survive!, players represent leaders trying to shepherd their people off a volcanic island about to erupt. The waters surrounding the island are teeming with whales, sharks, and even sea serpents. This is one of the most vicious little games I’ve ever played. The new version will be entitled Survive: Escape from Atlantis, and will receive direct input from the original designer, Julian Courtland-Smith. The game is scheduled currently for release in Q4 of 2010.

April 27th, 2010: Lee Valentine says...
The Spoils CCG Rescue Mission

Since Tenacious Games went out of business there was some doubt as to whether The Spoils CCG would ever produce a new set. When Arcane Tinmen acquired the rights to produce The Spoils, a limited number of tournaments and casual play sessions restarted for the game. Now, for the first time, Arcane Tinmen is producing a new expansion set release. The new set is called Seed II – Gloamspike’s Revenge. Arcane Tinmen is offering full sets of every card in the release and deeply discounted package deals through participating local game stores and via direct sales.

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