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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.
Read More…
Friday, July 11, 2008
2008 ENnies Award nominees announced
The annual Gen Con EN World RPG Awards – aka the ENnies – has announced its nominees for 2008 (copied below). Online voting for all 19 categories, plus a fan write-in category for Best Publisher, will begin on July 21, and end on August 3, so look over the list and prepare your ballots, folks. Winners will named at a Gen Con Indy ceremony on the evening of August 15.
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
2008 Diana Jones shortlist announced
Right on schedule, this year’s shortlist for the Diana Jones Award, established to recognize excellence in gaming, has been finalized. The 2008 nominees are:
- The Canon Puncture podcast
- Child’s Play, the charity formed by the creators of Penny Arcade
- The Come Out and Play festival
- Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar (Bully Pulpit Games)
- Open Design/Wolfgang Baur
- Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media Edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (MIT Press)
As always, the DJ Award committee has made worthy, thought-provoking selections, which will be narrowed down to a winner on August 13th, the night before GenCon Indy ’08 opens.
Read More…
Monday, July 7, 2008
Ticket to Ride – Nordic Countries coming in September
When we heard of copies of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries being brought here from overseas and selling for $100 of more, we knew the game would probably see an English translation. The official announcement (see below) came from Days of Wonder today, allowing Ticket fans a collective sigh of relief, as they’ll get their chance to claim train routes across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This will be a complete game, unlike the Switzerland expansion which required one of the main sets to play. Designed for 2-3 players, Nordic Countries should be available in September for $50.
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Saturday, July 5, 2008
Halo boardgame planned this August
B1 Games will be bringing us the Halo Interactive Strategy Game, a modular, three-dimensional boardgame based on the immensely popular video game property, at “1527 hours, August 1, 2008″. According to company’s site, the game will include “Sculpted, 3D collectible character pieces”, Heroic and Legendary difficulty levels, and have “Special insider Halo DVD content” (how the DVD will factor into gameplay, if at all, is unknown – I’m kinda hoping it won’t). The game will have Campaign, Slayer, and Capture the Flag modes, and to top it all off, B1 Games also promises expansion products with “new adventures, vehicles, characters and weapons”. Could be interesting – or just the last licensee to the table. I’ll put myself in the “curious” column.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Origins Awards 2008 winners announced
Normally, I’d expect an email press release notifying us of the winners of this year’s Origins Awards (copied below). Had to search them out myself, instead. Congrats to all the winners, which include Classic Battletech as Best Miniatures Game, and Aces & Eights for Best Roleplaying Game. There’s some great winners on the list this year, and the full nominee list has even more great titles. I’ll say it again: I called the Zombie Fluxx win.
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Sean K. Reynolds joins Paizo
Paizo Publishing announced today the hiring of Sean K. Reynolds, well known in the D&D community for his work on the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Monster Manual. Reynolds will be working as a developer on the Pathfinder and Pathfinder Chronicles adventure lines. The full release is below.
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
Audio report – Free RPG Day 2008 is upon us!
In our latest episode, we talk with special guest Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions and Free RPG Day about this Saturday’s second annual event. In just one year, the participating publishers have multiplied, and Aldo tells us both what to look for at local stores, and what it has taken to make it happen. Then we lapse into talk of other industry trends and releases before wrapping up.
Audio Report – The pre-game jitters
A bit before this whole 4e thing, Mike and our old friend Chris picked apart what could’ve been a much better prelaunch marketing push, especially from the retailer point of view. Then Mike and I discussed several other recent industry news bits, including the Upper Deck layoffs and the latest Fundable pledge drive to keep Delta Green products flowing. Have a listen, and let us know what you think.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
D&D 4e GSL surfaces
The long-awaited Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License is finally available. The potential red flag of the Quality and Standards clause is still there, broad as all outdoors, and Wizards seems to be giving itself the right to sue any licensee and hand them the legal bills, regardless of judgement. Still, at least something is publicly posted, finally. The GSL still holds products released under its guidelines to begin selling no sooner than October 1st.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Amber creator Erick Wujcik passes away
Known for the Amber Diceless RPG and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, as well as his contributions to several other systems, Erick Wujcik, 57, passed away last Saturday after struggling with pancreatic and liver cancer. An excellent tribute and obituary by Kevin Siembieda of Palladium Books tells of the other hats Wujcik donned during his career, and there’s a page for the birthday party where he was awarded a 2008 Ennies Lifetime Achievement Award in January. OgreCave’s best wishes go out to Erick’s family and friends.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Catching up with Asmodee
Fresh from last month’s release of Cash ‘n Guns: Yakuza (which we mentioned in our GTS ’08 wrap-up podcast recently), Asmodée is preparing to ship the strategic diplomacy boardgame Senji this July. I just looked over the game at KublaCon today – it was one of the few titles I failed to get a closer look at in Vegas – and liked what I saw. As a Daimyo in feudal Japan, each player attempts to reach 60 honor points and become Shogun. Alliances will be crucial for survival, as players must rely on neighbors to defend their borders. With tricky bits like that, diplomatic negotiations could take quite a while, if it weren’t for the hourglass that limits your pleading time – something I’ve wished for in Settlers games, at times. Expect Senji to clock in at a price of about $70.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the other bit of Asmodée news I missed at GTS: the return of Formula De in time for Essen in October. This version will have rules for street racing while avoiding police pursuers. The game will also have prepainted figures and as few rules changes as possible. In all, great news for folks like me, who only just tried the previous sold-out version for the first time a few weeks ago.
Other tantalizing Asmodée news:
- Dungeon Twister may see an enhanced edition with larger boards and prepainted character miniatures. This would be next year, though, well after the Mercenaries and Fire & Water expansions (the former being at the show in limited supply).
- The card game Hero: Immortal King should be along next month, for 1-2 players right out of the box.
- Bringing back the murder-mystery-in-a-box, Death Wears White has been scheduled for later this year. The one-shot party game will sell for $29.99.
It was great to catch up with Asmodée at KublaCon, and get some time to make up for the hectic nature of GTS.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Yog-Sothoth opens Casting Call of Cthulhu
Our buddies over at Yog-Sothoth.com recently presented a funny little flick to the interweb world at large, Casting Call of Cthulhu. This short film on the perils of casting a Lovecraftian film first showed up at the Riofan Film Festival. Even if you’re just a casual Cthulhu fan, this is worth taking a look – ’tis very well done.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
New sourcebook targeted for Delta Green
Delta Green fans already know – Arc Dream Publishing and Pagan Publishing are doing the fundraising round for the next Delta Green sourcebook, Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity. Written by such notables as Dennis Detwiller, Greg Stolze, Kenneth Hite, and Shane Ivey, the book will touch on a number of unknowable evils, lurking in regions from Alaska to New Orleans. This sourcebook follows on the heels of Delta Green: Eyes Only, which is a finalist for this year’s Origins Awards. For as little as a $50 pledge, fans can help make Targets of Opportunity a reality – the Fundable.com pledge drive is rapidly closing in on its $20k goal.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Audio Report – Once more unto the GTS 2008
We had a couple of summary posts up from this year’s GAMA Trade Show (see part 1 and part 2 if you missed ‘em), but for a slightly more detailed account of the show’s announcements, we recorded this episode of the OgreCave Audio Report. Steve and I go over the products that caught our attention, while Mike asks questions and tries to maintain order. Have a listen, and hear what game goodies to expect over the coming year.
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