Miniatures Games
So just how many hands does WotC have, and do any of them know what even one of the others is doing? I mean, not to say anything bad about making the new, updated-for-4th D&D Minis rulebook free online - that’s lovely and thoughtful. What’s odd is that they’d release minis rules that have been adjusted for 4e compatibility and not even seem aware of how the 4e rules are still secret, available only for 5 large and an NDA, and madly speculated-about. Naturally, the minis rules are probably not a rosetta stone of 4e insights; they’re only going to create confusion, and WotC must know this. Hell, is that their goal at this point? Jeez.
Holiday parties and other happy interruptions have delayed us, but the OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide shall not be stopped! Continuing our 2007 gift suggestion lists, we present Twelve Games Under the Tree, our picks from gaming goodies over $20. Time grows short, so get to your local game store and pick up those gifts. We’ll prep the rest of our Guide and get back to you shortly, but there’s always our previous lists if you’re desperate for ideas.
For everyone’s safety, we try to keep tabs on any snake-eating mammals lurking nearby, and come to grips with what Mongoose Publishing plans to unleash on gamers in the year ahead. The traditional State of the Mongoose address was posted today, this time as a temporary forum, and so far, we’ve learned the following: Read More…
Marketing - or to be more specific, the D&D 4e marketing approach thus far - is one of many things we dive into this episode. The death of Dreamblade, unlife of Zombie Fluxx, and everlasting love of ThunderRoad make appearances this show, as well. Plus, in his OgreCave Audio Report debut, Lee Valentine of Veritas Games Company joins in to throw some elbows with the rest of us.
Not content to stick with traditional miniatures games, Privateer Press has announced its plan to diversify into collectible miniatures in 2008. Privateer will produce Monsterpocalypse, a CMG with over 80 figures at launch, including big monsters, vehicles, and “destroyable city structures.” The plastic figures will come in random boosters and non-random starters. A few figure prototypes from the Kaiju-themed game are previewed on the announcement page: a giant lizard monster, a giant robot, and a giant mushroom - or maybe a UFO, I’m not sure. In any case, it should be interesting to see how Privateer handles a collectible property in a market that often punishes collectible releases.
We chat with Brendan LaSalle of Pandahead Productions, creators of XCrawl, about the new fiction contest they’ve put on with publisher Goodman Games. Yes, there are prizes, and yes, one of the judges tells you exactly how to curry favor. (It should not surprise you that the judge in question is me.) Also, Allan really likes Halo 3, Steve likes Halo ActionClix (though not nearly to the same degree), and a whole lot of other stuff too. The full version of our talk with Brendan is up on our Interviews page as a separate download. Enjoy, and please to share with us your thoughts.
Tabletop Gaming News reports that Rackham, publishers of AT-43 and Confrontation, is under “legal protection,” which is how they say Chapter 11 in Europe apparently. Here’s a PDF press release and another PDF about this whole legal-protection thing if you’re curious. (I guess “PDF,” similarly, is European for “web page.”) This certainly sheds new light on their recently announced partnership with Fantasy Flight (again with the PDF).
After one last public letter, it seems Upper Deck is withdrawing its bid to buy Topps, sports/trading card company and owner of Wiz Kids. The Upper Deck letter states that Topps “has erected a series of hurdles designed to frustrate UD’s ability to move forward”. Now we’ll see if legal battles start up over this whole mess, or if everyone will calm down and focus on developing games and such.
The winner list for this year’s ENnie Awards is popping up in multiple places (such as RPG.net), so here’s the early reports on who took top honors:
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Despite my extra hours at work, the editing’s finally complete on our latest OgreCave Audio Report. Our first episode ever with all four regulars, we close out the Gen Con ‘06 - Gen Con ‘07 product year with our second annual Ogre’s Choice Awards. Now, keep in mind that we recorded this before all D&D 4th Edition announcement hoopla, so you can see how our predictions stack up against the info WotC has managed to get out to the world.
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