Roleplay Life

Looks like it’s almost out. Paizo has it listed for pre-order here. They’re saying December 2009, so it should be soon, or pushed out.

Friday, while I was out running D&D, Palladium Books was sending the deluxe hardcover version of Robotech The Shadow Chronicles RPG to the printers. They promise more data, new illustrations, more equipment, and more spaceships.

I’m fine with deluxe editions, as long as they come out first, at the same time, or a year or two later as the regular version. When they come out soon after the first book WITH extras, it just feels wrong. I’ll wait for them to announce deluxe versions of the rest of the Robotech books before ordering.

It seems a lot of the old game designers and fantasy writers are passing away lately. Erick Wujcik, whose name I remember from many Palladium games, passed away on Saturday, June 7th.

Erick created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle RPG, back when TMNT was just a black and white comic. I used to play that all the time, mixed in with Ninjas & Superspies, and Heroes Unlimited. I think every weekend in middle school had at least one game going, and sometimes it was all weekend. In one of these boxes around here, I probably have some of my old characters, written out on blank sheets of copier paper. Amazing how many hours of fun we got out of a ten dollar book.

I got my Player Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual yesterday. I’ve been busy working on my 4th edition campaign, so not much time to put together a comprehensive review. I run my first dungeon in over 8 years on Friday, so I’ll have a better idea of the rules after that.

The books look nice, but I wonder about their longevity. The paper and ink doesn’t feel right to me. Do we really need full color rule books? I guess it appeals to a wider, younger audience, which is who they’re trying to market to.

Also, this week is sketch week for me. I’m trying to do 10-minutes a day of sketching and posting them to my personal site. I’m not that good yet, but only through practice do we get better. That and killing wandering monsters… oooh a kobold!

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.

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.

Well, this is not technically a role playing game related event, but there is a high level of cross over appeal. June 14-15 is the 2nd annual NorCal Pirate Festival, in Vallejo. This should appeal to all you 7th Seas players out there. More information available here.

Margaret Weis Productions has released new bonus material, covering black market and improvised weapons and armor. When Cylons start boarding your ship, you can now reach for a chainsaw, drill, Molotov Cocktail Sakhov Shaker, or that near by high voltage wire and join the fray. Throw everything you got at them, except the kitchen sink (no stats for that yet).

You can download this bonus material here.