Roleplaying Games
First of all, my apologies... I not only had no internet access all weekend, but I also lost my camera the first day of the con, so I got a not great picture of the larger than life serra angel sculpture and not much else.
I'll do some in depth discussion of some items later in the week, but the highlights went something like this:
Wednesday: Planes have never had much leg room, but the cigar tube planes I ended up stuck on the journey to GenCon had me cursing my great height. To add insult to injury, despite great reductions in fuel costs overall, I still paid more for my flight than last year. By a fortuitous coincidence, I ended up on the final leg of the flight with half of Paizo, who I'm sure were just thrilled to deal with fans before they even reached the con (I'm joking, they really were on my flight, but beyond saying hi, I tried to leave the poor guys alone). That evening I got to see more of the Paizo crew and even caught an advance look at a full color proof of the Pathfinder Bestiary, which Erik Mona had brought with him to the con and was sharing with a group of contributors and Pathfinder Society volunteers. The art director deserves some serious credit, the artwork is stunning and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of the book when it becomes available.
Thursday: Let it be known, attend your RPGA meetings! I skipped the immediate entry into the exhibit hall, remembering the complete the insanity all too well from last year. Instead I attended a midmorning RPGA seminar... in which Chris Tulach handed out one of the coveted treasures of the delve: an RPGA Player reward card. Okay, so the wooden boxes were much cooler prizes than cards, but to get the card all I had to do was show up! Chris shared some great info about the RPGA scenarios and upcoming events. Weekend in the Realms sounds like it will be a killer event, and the upcoming Worldwide D&D Day that coincides with the release of Dungeon Masters Guide 2 sounds like it will be a really different and innovative event. I am also intrigued with the release of the mini-campaign adventures for Living Forgotten Realms. I wasn't signed up for the premier mini-campaign adventure, so I can't say how it went, but it sounded very cool.
Friday: Two highlights here... first off, 4e D&D Extravaganza... I took notes, but the big revelation was the announcement of the next setting for 2010. As I expected, it will be Dark Sun. I'm really looking forward to it, as Dark Sun is a big step into something different and I'm fascinated to see how they put it together. Second the ENnies... congratulations to Wizards of the Coast who took gold in Best Publisher (Paizo took silver in this category). A special congratulations also to relative newcomer Kobold Quarterly, which took an ENnie for Best Writing.
Saturday: Did I mention that I went to GenCon to game too? And on Saturday that's exactly what I did. I spent the afternoon in an RPGA session playing the LFR adventure Ghosts of the Past. The adventure was sickeningly hard, but we did survive and even managed to get the most crucial of the story rewards. My message: ongoing damage SUCKS at low levels. For the evening I was hosted by the fabulous WereCabbages for their open gaming night. This isn't an official GenCon event, but is a highlight for me, because it means an opportunity to game with some incredibly creative folks. One of the cabbages brought the designer of Venus Needs Men! to the event and I spent the evening learning the game (more on that later).
Sunday: Dungeon Delves are a rather unique experience, but also great fun. I got an opportunity to play an artificer in the Delve - not a class I've looked at much, and managed to accumulate enough tokens to get a second RPGA Player Reward Card - this time Kenku Explorer, which permits the card holder to create a kenku character for Living Forgotten Realms play. After that it was time to wrap up with a too quick lunch, a final pass in the hall, and a sickeningly inconvenient series of flights back home.
I can't believe that this important gaming store event almost slipped by this year without me noticing. I blame the timing of my outing to sunny Bermuda. But that doesn't matter... because there is still time, the event is TODAY!
Free RPG Day is based around brick and mortar stores as a way to draw interest in new games, new product lines, and new settings. The usual suspects are among the participating companies - Wizards of the Coast, Whitewolf, Paizo, Goodman Games, Mongoose Publishing - but also many smaller companies... Q-Workshop, whose dice are one of the best pieces of gamer bling out there, was a gold sponsor this year. The Q-Workshop giveaway item? Purple Q-Workshop dice with yellow letters. I wish I could get a complete set, they were beautiful (I got a 20 sider, as that's likely to get the most use).
Of course, Paizo's item was a highlight as usual, the Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary - including a personal favorite, the Faerie Dragon. Whitewolf previewed their new WoD segment, Geist, and of course Wizards had an Eberron adventure, Khyber's Harvest by Keith Baker (but for 2nd level characters... hello, players start at first!).
In any event, I'm glad I made it... to find a participating retailer, check out the Free RPG Day website.
Fans are probably Paizo's greatest strength... for the fans of Paizo, from valued contributors to fervent customers, are incredibly vocal and protective of the company. So it is no great surprise the the original PaizoCon in 2008 was organized by fans, though certainly the company showed up in support.
This year's PaizoCon was something else entirely. From a session of the Slumbering Tsar, Greg Vaughan's sprawling half million word 3.5 opus that has yet to see print, to the fan produced Wayfinder fanzine, this year's event was an order of magnitude more intense than the previous event. Among the differences: this PaizoCon was a formal event sponsored by Paizo.
I regret that I found out about PaizoCon this year after I had already purchased my vacation tickets... to Bermuda - so this year I was unable to attend. Fortunately one of my favorite gamers, Lou Agresta, attended and has blogged extensively about the festivities on his blog, RPGAggression.
Check out the details on his blog and I hope that you'll check it out. Next year, with Pathfinder RPG released I expect the event will end up being even bigger.
This week saw the release of Monster Manual 2 for 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. As a gaming enthusiast, I thrive on monster book releases, remembering with a certain fondness the black and white illustrations in the original AD&D Monster Manual. The new book brings back many old favorites, and I hope to do a proper review of it here once I've been able to do more than just flip through the pages.
In celebration, Wizards of the Coast is sponsoring Worldwide D&D Game Day: Monster Manual 2. Most of my local gaming stores have closed, but I'm looking to venture out to one of the few remaining for this event. More from the D&D Insider website:
Bring your friends and join in the fun as we celebrate the release of the Monster Manual 2, packed with new options for your Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game.
Come and face down enemies (both brand new and some old returning favorites) jumping right off the pages of the next big monster expansion for the game. While you're at it, beat those vile beasts down with characters using options from upcoming releases. No matter if you're new to the game or a 4th Edition veteran, we'll have everything you need to embark on an all-new adventure!
Just for participating you'll take home the pregenerated character sheet and a miniature of the character you played. If you DM the game, you'll take home the adventure itself, a poster map of the encounter areas, and a pack of monster miniatures used in the adventure.
Dave Arneson, who along with Gary Gygax was co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, has died of cancer. He was 61.
While Gygax, who passed away last year, is popularly known as the father of D&D, Arneson was D&D's co-creator and was largely responsible for role playing as we know it. According to the mournful splash page up at Wizards.com (amended by a more reliable proper statement), Arneson's original "Blackmoor" RPG campaign was the first ever role-playing campaign and the model for all that followed, including some of the basics of RPG gameplay: "that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess."
But with as big a debt as the gaming world owes Arneson, it's the words of his daughter, Malia Weinhagen, that mean the most:
"The biggest thing about my dad's world is he wanted people to have fun in life. . . . I think we get distracted by the everyday things you have to do in life and we forget to enjoy life and have fun"
So in honor of the man jointly responsible for gaming culture and the invention of the modern RPG, have a wonderfully fun weekend enjoying life.
Apologies in advance for the lack of a pic, I'll try to add something appropriate later. This is timely. I logged into RPGNow this afternoon to find the following message:
Wizards of the Coast has instructed us to suspend all sales and downloads of Wizards of the Coast titles. Unfortunately, this includes offering download access to previously purchased Wizards of the Coast titles. We are in discussions with Wizards about their decision to change their approach to digital sales of their titles and will post more information as we have it.
This has also affected a number of other sites. Paizo also sent out a notice letting its customers know that they have until midnight tonight to purchase Wizard of the Coast pdfs, and that their access to download those pdfs would cease shortly thereafter.
Wizards has done a lot of less than savory things with 4e that made me upset, but their claim that this was done in response to piracy is... well, more than a little suspect. This hurts only paying customers who were purchasing the pdfs legitimately. Color me not impressed by this move from Wizards. If you have a WotC pdf from one of the traditional pdf retailers, make sure to download it as soon as possible, as it will be unavailable soon, if it isn't already.
Lately I've been just a little obsessed by comic book heroes. Not obsessed enough to wear tights to work, but that's probably for the best. Perhaps it is just the fact that I'm a computer gamer as well as a tabletop gamer, and I-14, the next free expansion for subcribers of CoH, is due for release soon for my favorite MMORPG City of Heroes, but it makes me want to go back to my tabletop roots a little bit and look at comic book gaming.
Of course there are many tabletop comic book settings and systems - but one of my favorites is a product of the Open Gaming License and was made by the fine folks over at Green Ronin - Mutants & Masterminds. Well, comics have frequently ventured into the realms of fantasy, and now Mutants & Masterminds joins them with the availability of Warriors and Warlocks, a pdf sourcebook for the game that brings fantastic sword wielding and spell casting heroes to life for the game.
Check out the news directly from Green Ronin!
Paizo's search for the next superstar game designer winds down with the end of voting for the final round. Voting ends today (5 p.m. Eastern) on the final four designer's adventure proposals. The winning adventure will be published as a Pathfinder Module for the new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Paizo's new take on version 3.5 of the world's most popular roleplaying game.
Eric Bailey of Wakefield, Massachusetts presents the Last Ride of the Mammoth Lords:
Presenting a challenge that is perhaps overly ambitious for a 32 page module, Eric lays out an adventure based on the idea of a strange illness that is turning the barbarians of the region into plants. With trolls dinosaurs and roc riding, this adventure has some interesting twists, but it looks to me like the stat blocks are going to take up so much of the adventure that there will be no room for story.
Matthew Stinson of Jacksonville, Florida presents Denying the Boiling Beast:
Ok, the Boiling Sisterhood sounds interesting and a hurricane in Magnimar makes for an interesting hook... but this adventure just felt a little off to me.
Kevin Carter of Aliso Viejo, California presents Dragonrest Isle:
Ok, I like adventures on tropical islands... well any islands actually, because of two things: I can plug them in almost anywhere and I love water adventures. So I was a little biased towards this adventure. But some of the mechanics just don't work... the 4 red dragons, even if they are juveniles, are a massive challenge for PCs of this level. Also, this one really felt like it lacked the Pathfinder feel. The title doesn't convey adventure, which is also a problem
Neil Spicer of Waxhaw, North Carolina presents Realm of the Fellnight Queen:
I confess, I like gnomes and fey in general, and the use of them here makes me want to like this adventure a lot. I confess, it strays into some Pathfinder specifics that I myself am not as well-versed in... which is good for the Pathfinder ties, and bad because I can't really tell at a glance whether the tie-in is well done or not. It could be world breaking and I'm not sure I could tell. That said, some strong role-play elements here will fly in the face of how a lot of players PLAY, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.
All in all some pretty interesting stuff. Which one will win? Go influence the outcome - VOTE!
Paizo's search for the next superstar game designer continues with a final round. Voting begins today (5 p.m. Eastern) on the final four designer's adventure proposals. The winning adventure will be published as a Pathfinder Module for the new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Paizo's new take on version 3.5 of the world's most popular roleplaying game.
I'm itching to see what the group produces for this final round - you can be sure you'll get my comments with more urging to vote yourselves after the entries are posted later this afternoon (though my comments, because of the length of the proposals, certainly won't go up until later in the week). In the meantime, check out the competitors entries from round four, available at the RPG Superstar 2009 page.
Paizo's popular RPG Superstar 2009 contest continues with a bit of a twist straight out of reality TV. The top 8 contestants each were given one of their opponent's entries for a villain and told to design a lair for that villain, complete with a map. While many of the tasks provide a glimpse of the writers' creativity (Clinton Boomer from last year's competition for instance), or skill in imagery (James MacKenzie from last year's competition), this task really gives an idea of what writing for rpg publishers can actually be like. Usually your imagination can't run wild and you are given very specific instructions to function in... and someone else's creation to use to do it. I was surprised and interested to see the task, and I hope some of you will take a look at the entries and vote.
Voting for this round, to chose the final four, closes at 5 p.m. Eastern time today.
Paizo has once again launched a search for new talent. Drawing on their experiences from last year's RPG superstar, they have once again gathered contestants to work game writing magic in a whirlwind display of creativity. The beneficiaries? Well, besides Paizo who will gain a pool of new talent to work with, and the talent who gain possible freelance gigs out of the event, the beneficiaries are readers at Paizo's forums.
Paizo will be releasing their Pathfinder RPG, an OGL based advancement of the 3.5 ruleset that, if all goes as advertised, will also be backwards compatible with existing 3.5 material. That's right... for those of us who want to continue playing 3.5 (or something close to it) this is a promised salvation. What does this have to do with the RPG Superstar events? Well, the design is all taking place using the Beta rule set for the Pathfinder RPG. That means, for folks wanting to play the game, that this contest will yield what is, for all practical purposes, the first set of supplementary material for the game... and it's all FREE, posted for anyone to see on their boards.
I did mention this was a contest right? And one that YOU, the readers, get to participate in. The last round involved all 32 talented writers selected by the game writing professionals who acted as the initial judges. Those folks each contributed a villain concept, and 17 folks were selected to create the stat block for their villain. The judging for that round is now going on, and you can participate in the selection! Just go to the forums and take a look. Will you like Bracht Darkhouse, the Flesh Peddlar or Malgana the Twistwood Lich? Find out now!
So, the gift giving season is here... and I'm just as flustered with it as I am excited. I mean, I love getting gifts, but whenever anyone asks, I am at a loss to say what I might want. I mean, a man is the obvious choice for me... but I have one, and asking for two... well that would just be greedy!
Favorite things I'd like to see?
A subscription to Kobold Quarterly is high on my list... I mean, I have one, of course, but it can always be extended, right?
One of the new 4e Dungeons & Dragons books... I am still torn on the new edition, enough so that I haven't been buying everything that comes out. Also, the new books are expensive, so I am reluctant to shell out the big bucks for them. On the other hand, unlike many of my fellow grognards, I like the game, so the new Manual of the Planes or Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons might be nice...
On the Paizo side of things, the new Pathfinder system is gaining steam. In addition to their Adventure Paths (they are finishing up their third, so now is the time to get on board for the fourth, Legacy of Fire!), they have a dizzying array of products. One of the ones I haven't picked up yet and holds, frankly, a lot of attraction, is their Planet Stories line of books... yes, plain old non-rpg books. One of their best products is also currently free: the Beta playtest rules for the Pathfinder RPG, also sometimes referred to as 3.75 or 3.P - a Paizo spin on the OGL rules.
As for card games, I will stick with my very favorite... I still need to get my hands on a couple different decks for Killer Bunnies from Playroom entertainment.
For board games? I am still looking to get my hands on the new edition of Talisman.
What sort of gifts are you looking for? Have I missed a gem? Tell me soon... my man is demanding a list, or I will go without swag this year!
And girls who like girls who like breastplates!
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