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Friday, July 3, 2009
Big Things in Store for Midnight RPG Setting
The folks at Gamer Dome noticed recently that Fantasy Flight Games has pulled materials from it’s award-winning Midnight RPG series from its website. This probably has something to do with the upcoming U.S. DVD debut of the Midnight Chronicles, a film set in the dark world of the Midnight RPG setting. The Midnight Chronicles blog reported the release of the French version of the DVD on June 10, 2009. ICv2 reports that the U.S. version of the DVD will be available in September with an MSRP of $14.95.
Gamebook Competition Warming Up
In case you’re looking for something to do this holiday weekend, you might be interested to know that the second year of the Windhammer Prize was announced last month and will be accepting entries this fall. The contest is designed to encourage creativity within the realm of solo gamebook writing, and there is a cash prize. To check out some of last year’s entries and get a better idea of what this is all about, visit this link.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
This is the tweetfest we promised you, and this is the slideshow it turned into
So it turns out that the sort of person who both uses Twitter and goes to gaming cons apparently forgets all about the former once they’re playing things at the latter. I am as guilty of this as everyone else. Fortunately for us board game fans who missed Origins, this dude Ted Cheatham took some photos, taped some audio, and put the one over the other. The result is a bit richer than a straight podcast but not so demanding-feeling as video interviews. Right on!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Blood Bowl Now Available for the PC
The Games Workshop Ltd. miniatures game Blood Bowl is now available for the PC, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP. Wikipedia reports that the portable versions of this game are missing career league play and other functionality that is available in the PC release. For those who can’t wait for their local store to carry this product, a downloadable version is available for purchase for $49.99.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Mutant Chronicles Movie on Sci Fi Channel
The Mutant Chronicles movie is coming to the small screen on the Sci Fi Channel (soon to be the SyFy channel). For those who blinked and missed it, Mutant Chronicles premiered in theaters in April 2009 and its already coming to TV. That’s gotta be one of the shortest turnarounds from big screen to small screen on record for anything other than an independent film. The hobby game-inspired movie stars Thomas Jane and co-stars Ron Perlman, John Malkovich, and Devon Aoki. Its first Sci Fi showing is Saturday, June 27 at 9 p.m., followed by a planned repeat on Sunday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m.
The movie’s official site (with trailer) is here.
Matt Forbeck gives a Mutant Chronicles author’s perspective on the film here.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Toys ‘R’ Us Buys F.A.O. Schwarz
Toys ‘R’ Us just announced that it has acquired financially ailing toy store icon F.A.O. Schwarz. While it has only a couple of locations (at Fifth Avenue in New York City and at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas), F.A.O. Schwarz is 145 years old and its flagship Manhattan store draws in millions of visitors each year. This makes F.A.O. Schwarz an historical gem in the Toys ‘R’ Us crown. During the fourth quarter of last year, cost cutting measures gave Toys ‘R’ Us an 11% rise in profits even as sales declined.
For the detailed story follow this link.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
New Multiplayer MTG format starting September
Wizards of the Coast has announced a new set of products called Planechase for Magic the Gathering which will focus on multiplayer gameplay. Planechase game packs will include 70 cards, a special die (yes dice in MTG), and a strategy insert with multiplayer rules. While MTG has long had multiplayer formats such as “five color magic”, “two headed giant”, and “emperor”, this release is noteworthy in that the Planechase products include “plane cards” specifically designed for playing just this format. Planechase release events will be held September 4-6, 2009.
Monday, March 30, 2009
I went to GameStorm and some stuff happened
First, The Free RPG Blog is rad. Just had to get that off my mind.
Now: GameStorm! The best thing about Portland’s largest game convention is that it’s smaller than anything in Seattle. This makes all the industry heavyweights who live in Seattle feel all relaxed when they come here. I’d tell you everything I gleaned in conversation as a result, but that’d end the relaxation pretty quickly.
Andrew and Kristin Looney of Looney Labs were guests of the con and waaaay overshared on their plans for the rest of the year - they told their secret Christmas gift, for crying out loud! But one thing I doubt they will mind me telling you about is Are You The Traitor?, a card game which, as you might guess from the title, plays in the are-you-a-werewolf? gamespace. It’s similar to Covert Action in some ways, but I found it easier to grasp - basically it’s a Werewolf/Mafia-ish experience for fewer players in less time. They’ll have it out for Origins, and even the haters are going to have to admit that it is freaking gorgeous.
Bucephalus Games was showing a whole lot of stuff coming out soon. I liked the look of Bill of Rights by Mike Selinker along with Teeuwynn Woodruff of D&D fame, and a Mr. Dan Tibbles. It’s kind of like Nomic Lite, but lots of games are like Nomic Lite… but Bill of Rights is more so. Also showing, not from Bucephalus but perhaps in a similar vein to Bill of Rights, was T.P.O.C. (The Politics Of Cannibals) by Stractical Concepts (not kidding about that name). Didn’t get a chance to play it, but any political game where you can throw swing voters into a cauldron of stew has something going for it.
I saw a game called Space Alert getting a good measure of play; apparently it’s from the designer of Galaxy Trucker and is along the same lines - build a spaceship, hope it doesn’t get torn to hell by stuff - but it’s co-op, way crazier, and timed by means of an included audio CD. It doesn’t have a US publication date yet.
On the RPG front, new releases were largely of the ashcan-and-leaflet variety. Be on the lookout for Advanced Sea Dracula Second Edition, though. And should you find yourself in one of those normal-people bookstores, check the humor section for Michael Fiegel’s Ninja Burger Employee Handbook, which he was showing alongside HELLAS but which doesn’t have hobby-channel distribution.
Lastly: Mutant Chronicles movie trailer. Certainly looks… like a movie.
Friday, January 30, 2009
OgreCave reviews - Trail of Cthulhu Screen & Resource Book
Lee chimes in today with a review of the Trail of Cthulhu Keeper’s Screen & Resource Book from Pelgrane Press. A worthy addition to any Trail of Cthulhu Keeper’s arsenal, Lee maps the Trail product’s good and not-so-good points for us in great detail. If that isn’t enough, a number of other terror-inspiring Cthulhu goodies are described in our review section.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Get to know a few old favorites from the random-encounter tables
The incomparable Lore Sjoberg brings us Monster Manual Comix.
Friday, December 5, 2008
The Day of the Ninja is upon you
Watch yourself today - you never know when they’ll strike. We’ll have a little something to honor the sneaky fellows later today (they’ve already begun their assault, as you can see), but in the meantime, stay on your toes. The Day of the Ninja is nigh!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
More WotC layoffs
Just like back in August, Wizards of the Coast has laid off employees today. Rumors are still swirling about the number of employees affected, though around 24 seems the prevailing estimate. According to a post at ENWorld by Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens, today’s layoffs include the following:
- Randy Buehler (VP of digital gaming)
- Andrew Finch (director of digital games)
- Stacy Longstreet (senior art director)
- Julia Martin (editor)
- William Meyers (creative manager, digital design)
- Dave Noonan (game designer, D&D podcast cohost)
- Jennifer Paige (online community manager)
- Jennifer Powers (marketing)
- Jonathan Tweet (game designer)
With today’s staff cuts, WotC joins Upper Deck in having a pair of layoff rounds this year alone. While this has some gamers wondering if the layoffs are caused by D&D 4e being less successful than expected, others mention similar cuts made shortly after the release of 3.0 and 3.5.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
More just in from Gen Con 2008
I’ve got a few minutes to peruse a few internet rumblings from this weekend’s big Indianapolis show, so I’ll point out a few things that caught my attention:
- The new Baron Munchausen RPG from Magnum Opus Press is at the Mongoose booth. [EDIT: we've had mixed reports on whether it was at the show, but e23 has the PDF]
- Cubicle 7 has the Starblazer Adventures RPG at the show, and demos of the eagerly-awaited Doctor Who RPG.
- Due to the near-certain success of Ken Hite’s Where the Deep Ones Are, brilliantly illustrated by Andy Hopp (which we saw back at GTS ‘08), Mr Hite hints there may be a sequel - The Antarctic Express (Polar Express combined with Beyond the Mountains of Madness) - and possibly others to follow.
- The Sultan is a cool game table for ultrageeks with $9,700 to burn.
- The story-boardgame Zombie Cinema requires players to make their characters interesting, lest everyone else decide you should get eaten.
We’ll point out more bits as they become fully realized, or interesting, or as time allows. All of the above.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Battlestar Galactica boardgame preparing for jump to stores
While the SciFi Channel heads into the Battlestar Galactica home stretch, and plans for a Cylon-heavy prequel, Fantasy Flight has fired up the engines on a related project: the Battlestar Galactica boardgame website. According to the site, the game will put each player in the role of a character from the television series, each with his/her own skills and disadvantages. Loyalty cards will be dealt to secretly determine which character is actually a Cylon, both at the beginning of the game and at a “Sleeper phase” partway through. The Human characters work together to escape toward Earth, while the Cylon characters secretly work against the other players. At this point, it doesn’t look like FFG has designed the game to be ultra-expandable, but I wouldn’t put it past them. The boardgame is currently scheduled for an October ‘08 release.
Monday, August 4, 2008
PAX East Coast officially in the works
While I was off in the wilds of Minnesota last week, Tycho over at Penny Arcade made this post pseudo-announcing PAX East Coast 2010. As many gamers know, PAX - or Penny Arcade Expo - is the game con that mixes tabletop names like Fantasy Flight and Wizards of the Coast with computer and console folks like Blizzard, Bungie, Valve, and the like. With the exponential growth the show’s experienced in the past few years, a second show seems logical, and by working with Reed Exhibitions, the guys who put on the New York City Comic Con, this may work out nicely. No specific date has been set, though more details could come at PAX ‘08 later this month. The East Coast show could potentially provide an easier show venue for tabletop game companies if PAX East’s date ends up being farther away from Gen Con.
Monday, July 21, 2008
West End Games for sale, maybe
As has been mentioned on ENWorld, West End Games owner Eric Gibson has apparently decided to sell the company. After assuming control of WEG five years ago, it seems that economic difficulties have caused the cancellation of Bill Coffin’s Septimus. Fans of WEG have been inquiring about preorder refunds for a while, which is likely adding to stress levels at the company - and has led to a rather angry proclamation on the WEG Forums and another at RPGnet. The questions linger: does the nature of the tabletop game industry lend itself to early burnout for publishers (ala the original Hogshead Publishing)? Do game fans expect too much from companies with limited means? Or is it more that creative individuals struggle with creating solid business plans, much like Guardians of Order?
Friday, July 18, 2008
Audio Report - 4e licensing and other ventures
In our latest Audio Report episode, Lee Valentine joins us again as we discuss the more restricted nature of the D&D 4e Game System License. To us, it almost seems publishers will require a Will save to move to the new edition. Then we move on to the Mutant Chronicles CMG becoming non-random, and Days of Wonder issues. In Currently Playing, we’ve dabbled in everything from Red Dragon Inn and Carolus Magnus to Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. Have a listen, and be sure to check out our previous episodes.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Rock Band 2 full track list posted
The annual E3 craziness is going on this week, and Harmonix has chosen today to squash the unconfirmed Rock Band 2 playlist rumors by announcing the full track list (reorganized at G4tv.com, thankfully, and copied below). As expected, over 80 tracks will be part of the new game, all created from the master recordings. As a bonus, tracks from the original Rock Band, downloaded or otherwise, will be usable in the new game. The sequel will arrive this September, so start warming up now - that angry monkey noise from “Down with the Sickness” may require some practice to perfect. I’m working on it already.
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