I play a ship’s mechanic in the Serenity game I’m in. Unfortunately, we can’t always afford parts, so sometimes I have to turn to less than savory methods to obtain the necessary parts to keep our ship in the sky. While borrowing parts is a far cry from heisting entire ships, the latest word on the streets from Margaret Weis Productions still has some useful information for my character’s next shopping trip.
I spent most of my time this Memorial day weekend attending Fanimecon. I really didn’t pay much attention to the gaming room there, since most of the open gaming looked like various collectible card games and video games. There were a couple of guys who had Warhammer 40k miniatures, but I don’t know if they actually played or not. Most of my time was spent going up and down artist alley, checking out all the independent/amateur artists. No cosplayer pictures are available due to technical difficulties.
I did drop by Kublacon this weekend, mostly to meet up with friends, and get in on a great game of Serenity. So I didn’t do much exploring outside of the open gaming and the dealer room. Yes, one big room for the dealers and open gaming. One of the highlights of the con was I finally got my pitcher of dice.
Another highlight (besides the Serenity game I was in) was that I got to roll up a character for the Maid RPG. Maid RPG is the game that Ewen at Yaruki Zero is currently translating. I met one of his friends, Mike, at Kubla who had a table in the open gaming/dealer room. He didn’t have a finalized copy, just a printout of the rules, so I’m not sure how the final product will look. Since I was pressed for time, I didn’t get a chance to play or read through all the rules, but I did have a blast rolling up a character.
I’m not a big fan of randomly generated characters, but the randomness of the character generating system was really fun. My character was a really boyish, worthless maid, who only got her job due to distant relatives and probably only keeps her job due to the fact her boss really really likes her, and relieves her stress through prayer. Something that random definitely belongs in an off the wall anime series.
From what it sounds like, they plan on releasing the book at Gencon. I hope they attend Fanimecon once the book is released. I bet they’d be a huge draw in the 24 open gaming room. If not, maybe I’ll run a game. It looks like it could be a real fun and fast game, kinda like Teenagers from Outer Space.
Robert Asprin, author of the Myth Adventure and Phule’s Company series, and editor of Thieves’ World, passed away yesterday. The Myth series was one of my favorite series. Thanks Robert, for the great stories.
There’s a small obituary for him at Myth Adventures.
I just picked up my copy of the first 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure, H1 - Keep on the Shadowfell. Let me just start by saying that I’m glad I preordered this, cause I think I would have been really upset had I paid full price. I haven’t read it cover to cover yet, but I wanted to share my first impressions.
Keep on the Shadowfell comes in a relatively nice folder, with the 4th edition quick-start rules booklet, an adventure book, and three maps. The quick start rules feel cheap, like some sort of flashy sales brochure. The adventure book reminds me of a glossy catalog you might get in the mail, or maybe an issue of Dungeon magazine. The maps are on par with what comes with the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Starter Set.
From what I’ve read, D&D feels like it becoming a bridge from trading card and collectable miniatures games to role playing games. That isn’t entirely bad since it will bring more people into gaming, but it will definitely turn off some elements of the older fan base. Maybe TSR had the right idea by having Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. One for the younger beginning gamers, and the other for the older experienced gamers.
Had this been $10 cheaper, I’d feel better about this purchase. If you’re not at all interested in 4th ed, you already weren’t going to buy this. If you’re excited about 4ed, just wait a couple of weeks for the actual rules.
Back when I started playing D&D, orcs had pig snouts! Otherworld Miniatures has a line of pig-face orc miniatures. Unfortunately, they’re located in the UK, and all the prices in euros, and the shipping will probably be costly. Still, they’re nice looking miniatures.
I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, so I tend to cover gaming related events in this area. This weekend, Kublacon, the Khan of Cons will be in the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame. It starts Friday, and ends on Monday. I’ll be at Fanime Con this weekend, but I may check out Kublacon one day this weekend.
Tony DiTerlizzi, currently known for his illustrations in the Spiderwick Chronicles, has posted his character sheet for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons mouse thief character on his blog here (scroll to the bottom). This is the second AD&D post in a couple of posts, the other one talks about the Kenku, can be read here. Tony DiTerlizzi has done artwork for various roleplaying games, including AD&D’s Planescape and Changeling: the Dreaming to name a few (a whole list can be seen at Pen & Paper here). It was his artwork that really attracted me to Planescape, and made Changeling: the Dreaming one of my favorite series of World of Darkness books.
Looks like some spring cleaning going on over at Goodman Games. Dungeon Crawl Classics, a line of adventures which draw their inspiration from 1st edition AD&D adventures, are 20% till the end of May, online and at participating game shops. I planned on running Idylls of the Rat King at DunDraCon this year, and I played in the Sunken Ziggurat. If you’re really feeling nostalgic, check on the fan conversions to 1st ed on the resources page, and some of the 1st edition adventures here.
Yarukizero is a blog I came across while hunting for other gaming blogs. This one also incorporates another one of my passions, manga and anime. Most of the recent posts has been about the blogger’s work translating Japanese roleplaying game, Maid RPG.
The latest post is on anime-related role playing games. I agree with the blogger that Avatar the Last Airbender would make an awesome roleplaying game, if done right. Personally I think Margaret Weis Ltd’s Cortex, and Eden Studio’s Unisystem would be two of the best systems to make an Avatar game with.
Read the whole article at http://yarukizero.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/thoughts-on-anime-rpgs/
My biggest complaint about Dungeons & Dragons is the dependence on maps and minis. With 4ed, it doesn’t look like that’s going away anytime soon. Painting miniatures is not one of my strong suits, so my only other option is start buying a whole lot of D&D Miniatures boosters , or make my own tokens.
There are plenty of articles out there on how to make your own game counters, but almost none on making d20 style tokens. Using a couple of ideas from various paper craft sites, and a couple of articles on making counters, I was able to come up with a fast and easy way to make tokens. Here’s how I did it … (more…)