» Roleplaying Games
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
WotC amends D&D4 GSL in soon-to-be-specified ways
One of the big complaints about the Game System License for D&D 4 has been the clause that says they can change it without notification; well, apparently they have every intention of at least getting word to people who read the web, and here’s us doing our part. Changes to the GSL, as yet unspecified but relating to third-party publisher feedback and fan-site policy, will be announced in the “very near future,” which presumably means a Gen Con announcement event (and its attendant website meltdown). One wonders if the fan-site-related aspects were necessitated by the suspension of development work on Gleemax, which was vaguely posited at one point as the intended home for fan-contributed material. (Like they could ever stuff that genie back in the bottle.)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A passing thought about RPG systems and conversion
So, my sleeping shadow army, riddle me this: how might one go about designing an RPG system that wasn’t necessarily meant to be played in and of itself, but was designed instead for easy and consistent conversion to any reasonably traditional RPG system?
I don’t even know if there’s any good writing out there on the main concerns, generically speaking, in doing conversions. So throw us a link if you’ve got one.
Reaper puts the lead back in leads
Not in all of them, granted - just the new P-65 Heavy Metal miniatures line. Apparently, real, honest-to-Orcus lead is perfectly legal in miniatures! That tidbit and a bunch of fascinating other ones are available on the linked FAQ. Kudos to Reaper for finding a way to turn economic necessity (the newly high cost of tin solder) into an excuse to take it back to the old school, a marketing move that core gamers always love.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Hârn creator passes away
A few days ago, the man who created the highly-detailed fantasy world of Hârn, N. Robin Crossby, passed away after a two year battle with cancer. Yesterday, Tom Dalgliesh of Columbia Games, the original publisher of Hârn, issued a statement (below) that highlights the importance of Crossby’s influence on the RPG setting. Crossby had been continuing to expand Hârn through Kelestia Publications. OgreCave wishes his family the best, and asks the world in general, “Can we stop losing great tabletop gaming names now, please?”
Read More…
Friday, July 18, 2008
OgreCave Reviews: D&D 4e Player’s Handbook
Lee has been hacking and slashing his way through Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, and after much consideration, has provided us with his take on the 4e Player’s Handbook. Prepare yourself - the thorough review lays it all out for you, but provides insight into what may either frustrate or delight you about the game’s latest incarnation. Have a read, or peruse our other reviews at your leisure.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Yay, we’re all insiders! Or something
Dragon #364 is, for the moment at least, a free download. You do have to log in if you want to read articles as plain HTML, plus the links will go for-pay eventually, or else I’d link you straight to top-billed DMG author James Wyatt’s commentary on the design of that book, or the “Class Acts” article that adds two pages of the interesting wizardy stuff that should have been in the PHB. (Did y’all really need those two pages for something else that badly, WotC?) Oh, and the searchable rules database (aka D&D Compendium) is also free, for now. I wonder if taking these back behind a paywall eventually is gonna really backfire on Wizards - we have a bit of talk on that subject in the next Audio Report, but… yeah.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Today’s RPG Zen koan, with oregano on the side
“If geeks talked about cookbooks the way they talk about RPG books.” The question, grasshopper: if this makes you laugh instead of cry, have you been spending too much time on RPG forum sites, or too little?
Friday, June 6, 2008
D&D 4th Edition ships without the thing everyone thinks it is
Well, okay, what everyone seemed to think it would be, back when 4E was first announced with all the tantalizing screenshots and online play noise. I guess we can give WotC PR due credit for successfully reassuring the world that D&D would, in fact, continue to be playable on un-augmented, analog tabletops… of course, it helps that the online playtable still doesn’t exist. Nor any of the other D&D Insider components besides the online Dragon & Dungeon magazines. D&D Insider News has this to say on its scheduling, and nothing more: “In April, the creators of the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game traveled to various cities across the United States to meet with reporters, talk about the new game, and unveil the suite of online tools that will be available to D&D Insider subscribers later this year.” (Emphasis mine.) Hate to say it, but my Master Tools sense is tingling. To be fair, I’m looking around for past promises that the playtable would be ready for 4E’s release and I can’t actually find one right now (help would be appreciated - by me, not WotC, I’m sure), but this strengthens my conviction that the main flaw in the playtable plan is they got too ambitious. A 2D product would likely have shipped quicker and cheaper, and wouldn’t have introduced as much OMG-it’s-a-video-game confusion early on.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Wizards to attend Gen Con Indy 2008
The question on everyone’s mind, and making many folks nervous lately - will Wizards of the Coast attend Gen Con 2008 - has been answered, finally, with a resounding “yes”. As gamers and industry members hoped, the details seem to have been sorted out, and Wizards will indeed attend, and be a co-sponsor of, Gen Con’s 41st year this August. The press release (below) mentions that WotC will be “celebrating the newly released D&D 4th Edition by debuting the new Living Forgotten Realms campaign”, as well as enjoying the 20th anniversary of R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt stories. Now the question becomes, once the WotC events are finally posted for prereg (they’re promised later this week), will they fill instantly, or just crash the website entirely? Either way, this is great news for the show that hasn’t had much to smile about for a while. Update: the Gen Con schedule will be updated tomorrow. See the comments below for details. - ed
Read More…
Monday, May 12, 2008
Monte Cook to help with Pathfinder RPG
The title pretty much says it all - Monte Cook, possibly the most respected name in the d20 System industry, will be lending his advice and developmental assistance to Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder RPG as a Rules Consultant. Now technically, Cook is going back on his decision to retire from the RPG field by signing on to help with Pathfinder, but I doubt anyone will mind. Paizo and Malhavoc Press, Cook’s d20 company, have worked together in the past, so it seems logical they’d come together for something as potentially-major as the next “bedrock for the Open Game movement” (as Erik Mona of Paizo put it in our recent Audio Report interview). Click through to the full announcement, which makes it sound like Cook has been involved for a while now.
Read More…
A periodic hour of awesome with editors Allan and Mike. Subscribe!
You are currently browsing the archives for the Roleplaying Games category.
-
Recent Reviews Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
(Days of Wonder)
D&D 4e Player's Handbook
(Wizards of the Coast)
Movie: Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army
(Universal Pictures)
Trail of Cthulhu
(Pelgrane Press)
Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords
(Red Juggernaut)
MagnetX (PsyX Games)
Marvel Heroscape
(Hasbro)
Battle for Hill 218
(Your Move Games)
Fear Itself
(Pelgrane Press)
Last Night on Earth
(Flying Frog Productions)
Zombie Fluxx
(Looney Labs)
More...
Categories
- Board Games (261)
- Card Games (208)
- Computer and Console Games (107)
- Contests (14)
- Conventions (126)
- D20 (251)
- Dungeons & Dragons (242)
- Features (15)
- Game Design (10)
- Gamebooks (30)
- Industry (304)
- Interviews (19)
- LARP (12)
- Miniatures Games (236)
- OgreCave (416)
- Playtest Reports (16)
- Reviews (78)
- Roleplaying Games (549)
- Uncategorized (573)
Archives
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- May 2002
- April 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- October 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- July 2001
- June 2001
- May 2001
- April 2001
- March 2001
- February 2001
- November 2000
- September 2000
Back to the