If you wish to choose 100d6, you may.  In fact, I had to do the obligitory test of 100d100 just to see how it worked - the app did fine as my iPod Touch screen filled up with 100 sided dice.  For those curious, I rolled a 4788.

You can also set up multiple dice to roll.  Say you want to roll 2d6 and 1d4 at the same time?  No worries.

You can also roll physically impossible dice, like a 13 sided die.

The rolling is pretty nice and the app features a neat tilt/view, where if you hold your device at an angle, the dice seem to tilt appropriately.  Not bad MachWerx, not bad. You can see an example of multiple dice rolled and the tilt effect below.

The only downside, if you can consider it one, is the cost.  At $0.99 it isn’t going to break your bank (and if you think of it this way, it’s less than a cent per die) but it isn’t free.  Personally, I think it’s well worth it, if for no other reason than to support the devs who worked on this little app.  The graphics could use a bit of an update as well but all in all it’s a great app.

Technorati Tags: dice, die roller, iphone, ipod touch, mach dice, rpg, role players, reviews, software, apple, apps, app store

In the second of three Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition core rulebook reviews I am covering the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Earlier this week I took an in-depth look at the Player’s Handbook, and you can expect a short review of the Monster Manual soon. The Player’s Handbook review discussed game mechanics and playability as well as the general presentation of Fourth Edition, and in the DMG I intend to take a critical look at the tools Fourth Edition gives the dungeon master.

Player Management and Game Basics

The first several chapters of the new DMG are a sort of “Dungeon Mastering for Dummies” guidebook, covering basics of the Dungeon Master’s role, and providing tips on how to engage players. It opens with a Bartle-style breakdown of player personality types, discussing what motivates them, what they find rewarding and what bores and angers them. The knee-jerk reaction might be to call this stereotyping, but I’ve been using Bartle-inspired pop-psychology on players in tabletop and online games for over a decade now and I find it very effective in creating a good game environment that addresses the interests of all my players. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised that the authors chose to include it.

The rest of the first section covers basic conflict resolution and gives some tips on how to deal with common problems. There’s a great section on building improvisational aids, as well as a brief introduction on the theory behind Fourth Edition’s three-tiered 30 level character progression. I’m still not completely sold on the idea but they make a good argument.

Encounters

The next three chapters discuss the DM’s role in creating and managing challenges and encounters. I found the guidelines for creating skill challenges somewhat obtuse, in that they refer frequently to tables and guidelines laid out in an earlier chapter; I spent a lot of time flipping back and forth on the first read. Fortunately the system is simple enough that with a little bit of practice you’ll have it all memorized. Combat encounters are very streamlined in Fourth Edition and the DMG doesn’t spend much time on elaborating rules. As you’ll see in the forthcoming Monster Manual review, Fourth Edition’s monsters have very clearly defined combat roles, and most of the chapter on combat addresses NPC tactics. Although somewhat arbitrary in nature, the roles they define and the tactics they suggest are a good jumping-off point for encounter design, especially considering the highly strategic nature of the combat system. They provide outlines of a few encounter templates for quick plug-and-play action when you’re short on time, but the system is robust enough to allow for plenty of tweaking and creativity.

Game Design

Most of the latter half of the book is devoted to campaign and adventure design. I found this section somewhat disappointing. Dungeons and Dragons has always tried to walk the middle road between providing a generic game system and a full-fledged campaign setting, and they continue that trend in Fourth Edition with the typically bland outcome. The DMG presumes you want to comply with the defaults provided in the Player’s Handbook and don’t even touch on the theory behind class, race or cosmology design. This is fine for DMs who just want to run a light and simple Tolkienesque game, but it leaves those of us who enjoy creating rich and unique campaign settings out in the cold. If you intend to create your own races, classes, powers, or invent your own religion and cosmology you are on your own.

Once you get past that issue they do give you a good breakdown on creating adventures or customizing them from packaged adventure books, as well as tips on campaign design. They don’t give you a full campaign setting so you’re expected to come up with geography, social and political schemes (beyond the basics described in the race entries in the Player’s Handbook) and all the other things that flesh out a world, but they do give you some good advice to help get it done.

DM’s Toolbox and Fallcrest

Last but not least is a chapter devoted to monster and NPC design, a small entry on house rules and a system for generating random dungeons and encounters, and then another chapter detailing a sample starting area called Fallcrest. This is pretty standard stuff, so I won’t get into it here. I’ve used random generators for fun on-the-fly games before to kill an afternoon or a long road trip, but for serious games I don’t recommend them.

Fallcrest is everything you would expect in a generic starting adventure: a small, remote village with a few notable characters and a low-level monster problem awaiting destruction by a band of inexperienced heroes. It contains a great selection of maps and a few solid encounters in an easily readable format with plenty of tips and advice for new DMs. I doubt an experienced gaming group will get much out of Fallcrest, but they’re not the target audience.

Conclusion

The first half of the DMG is a great read for anyone interested in running a roleplaying game, with solid advice from experienced DMs and plenty of effective techniques for game management. I would suggest at least browsing through it even if you’re not planning to run a Fourth Edition game.
I could take or leave the rest of the book. It leaves me wanting either a fully fleshed out campaign setting or a thorough and detailed guide to world building. It’s clear that WotC wants to reach a broader audience with Fourth Edition, and they may have hit on the right combination of depth and open-endedness for newbie game designers. I just can’t help feeling they could have done more.

Technorati Tags: dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, fourth edition, dungeon master’s guide, dmg, review

Here’s my new favorite app - available free through the app store.  Dice Bag! It’s nice, simple, sharp looking and a lot of fun to show off to other gamers.  Did I mention it was free?

Technorati Tags: ipod, touch, iphone, app, dice bag, ultimate geek, gaming, table top, rpg, role playing games, 2x the geekiness

One evening a few of us were sitting around chatting about games and imagining how our characters would act and what they could do. One of us mentioned that it would be great if gaming was more like this. We were all really into our characters, thinking like them and even beginning to act like them, even though we weren’t actually playing.

I tried a few things to make it run more smoothly, but ran into conflicts with the other existing rules. Part of the reason I wrote the article on traditional RPGs versus MMORPGs. The answer came from a comment by Adam on that article. (Thank you, Adam) He listed a few websites that focused on the role-playing side and not so much the hack and slash leveling up that even some tabletops seem to be leaning towards today.

And that brings me to The Window.

The window is a role playing game that really focuses on ROLE PLAYING. It even calls it’s players actors rather than players. The GM is called The Storyteller and the party of players is called a Troupe.

At first I was a little skeptical, thinking it was just a new veneer on old furniture. But I decided to continue reading. It starts with three precepts for setting up a game. These three precepts pretty much govern the game. It sounds a little vague, but it becomes much clearer as you read (and even clearer as you play).
These are the three precepts to a Window game:

“Everything about a Window character is described with adjectives rather than numbers.”
“It is the actor’s responsibility to play their role realistically.”
“A good story is the central goal.”

Let me say now that I’m hooked. This is the system I’ve been looking for. Rather than interrupting the game every 5 minutes for a new dice roll to make sure you’re still hiding, this game trusts the players to use their characters realistically. Not to say the GM doesn’t have control, it’s still ultimately up to the person running the game, but The Window actually works better when there is an exchange of ideas between the players and GM.

The creation process is more like writing a 3 paragraph story about your character than algebra homework.
Rather than having a number attached to each of your skills and stats, you describe them.
(Note for those of you starting to wonder what to do with the pound and a half of dice you own: Don’t worry, there are still dice rolls, they just take a backseat to actually playing your character.) if your character is “really good” at something, say exactly that. There is a chart (one of a very few for this game) to help you understand how to use the dice for this and all other instances. The website has a sample character to help you understand how to create one. You are even encouraged to dress as your character if it gets you into the role.

I’m actually having trouble reviewing this game without explaining it end to end, so I’ll sum up:

Good Stuff:

This game plays more like you’re acting in a movie as the script is being written than a dice rolling argument. The limited amount of dice used IN NO WAY LIMITS the flexibility of the game or the involvement of it’s players, it in fact maximizes how much they can contribute. It has no setting, allowing it to be played as any type of game, while having examples of how to use it in a variety of settings. It also has no limits of classes or races, allowing you to be EXACTLY what you want to be. You can learn the rules in under a half an hour and have a character created in another 15-20 minutes. Oh, and it’s free, the rules are spelled out on the website.

Bad Stuff:

The Window is rather open-ended, a problem if you’re dealing with inexperienced players, or are GMing your first game. The lack of set modifiers for classes and races can be a bit intimidating in character creation. It’s dice system is backwards from most systems out there (small dice are better, low rolls are considered successes), causing slight confusion until you’re used to it.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a more captivating gaming experience. It has everything that you want in a role playing experience because it allows you to decide how the game will work. It takes a little getting used to, but after that, The Window gives a WAY better gaming experience than the other systems I’ve played. I am seriously considering using this as my default system when running a game. Everyone looking for something more than hack and slash should at least give it a look.

To keep with the theme of the game, I am going to rate it with adjectives. Numbers follow to help convert the ideas until you’re comfortable with their system:
Playability: Amazing (9/10)
Simplicity: Awe Inspiring (9.9/10)
Flexibility: Astounding (10/10)

Technorati Tags: role playing, rgp, the window, games, table top

My friends, I’ve looked into the abyss and seen the future of tabletop gaming, and it seems the only miniatures that will be involved are if you still use a 13 inch computer screen.

I got online this morning to do some research for a tabletop RPG I’m working on. Right now I’m just using the open source d20 rules, but the ultimate goal is to create a system of my own, something where I don’t have to force my ideas into something that doesn’t always quite fit. Don’t get me wrong, I think the current rule systems out there for tabletop RPGs are great, just want to try my hand at it.
I did a web search for RPGs, hoping to get some new rule inspiration, or maybe find a good community with a board for GMs to swap ideas about games and rules. I was very disappointed in what I found. The search results were overrun with links to sites for online RPGs. I almost couldn’t find anything on tabletop gaming aside from sites that sell RPG books. There was a day when if you did a web search for RPGs, you couldn’t find anything BUT info on tabletop gaming.

And then along came World of Warcraft. I used to use the word WOW to express excitement and astonishment, now I use it as a curse word.

I can’t fairly blame ONLY the makers of World of Warcraft for what’s happening to gamers. I also blame MTV, fast food, cellular phones, and even my beloved internet. While all of these things have a place in today’s busy world (except MTV), they are causing tabletop gaming to become a lost art. Our attention spans are getting shorter and our ability interact with other people (even if they are pretending to be a half-orc) is getting sketchier.

The glow of monitors and click of keys has replaced the wan light of a 60 watt bulb and the clatter of dice in basements around the world, but not completely. Not yet. In some places, you can still hear Lord Dalkus arguing with Dark Falconitas over a misinterpretation of the rules. But, sadly more and more gamers are getting slapped around by n00b fr4gg3r.

Don’t let this happen. We are still here. We will not go silently into the night (unless we’re a level 16 assassin). Let us take back what is rightfully ours (after all, the internet was popularized by gamers and geeks.) Let’s turn the internet into something of use to tabletop gamers.  What do you think?  Do you know of any good, online resources?

Technorati Tags: games, gaming, rpg, dice, dungeons and dragons, world of warcraft, n00b fr4gg3r

photo source

Inkseine introduces a gesture-based UI, which reduces screen clutter and makes the app just plain fun to use. It also includes a few unique features. My favorite: you can highlight handwritten text and use it to search any document on your computer (or search the web), then open it for viewing or hyperlink it into your notes for easy access later. Inkseine also has a handy widget for taking clippings and pasting them directly into your notes, like a streamlined version of Snipping Tool.

Naturally as soon as I downloaded it I went straight to planning a D&D campaign. First I sketched out a couple of regional and dungeon maps. After adding some annotations, I hyperlinked the dungeon maps to the regional maps using the search feature. I have all my D&D books in PDF format so I used the search tool to look up the monsters and traps I intended to use, then took snapshots of them and pasted them right into the notes for easy access. I have the whole adventure planned out with everything at the tip of my stylus, and anything I forgot to paste into the notes I can easily search for mid-session without digging through a stack of books. Freakin’ sweet.

I could go on about the things you can do with Inkseine, but I’ll let you check out the features yourself over at its page at Microsoft Research.

It seems to me that the days of creating a well thought out and personalized character are gone for the most part. Especially with the advent of 4E, players are being shoehorned into roles they may or may not want to play. Any group that wants to deviate from this now has to come up with a fairly complex set of houserules, and make sure those houserules are balanced against the rest of the game. My idea of a great RPG is one that provides a framework for me to create a character, and play that character in a group with others, without being shoehorned into any specific role. If I want to play a meek cleric that gets by solely on his healing powers, or a third-story thief that has a personal rule against killing, I should be able to. 4E seeks to strip that customization from me - too many of the powers are focused on the encounters, and too little are focused on the roleplaying.

What are your groups doing to combat this, if anything? Or are you going with the flow? My group has switched from 3.5E to a game called Savage Worlds. While SW has it’s (minor) problems, its a fairly simple system, and creating almost any type of character you want is possible. We’re running a The Savage World of Solomon Kane campaign right now, and having a blast.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and how your group is proceeding.

Technorati Tags: 4e, escapist, roleplaying, savage worlds, solomon kane, role playing, dungeons and dragons, d&d

Fourth Edition D&D has been out for a bit now and I’m starting to see lots of discussions on why it’s great or why it sucks.  So which is it?  Is it great or does it suck?

I’ve read through some bits and pieces for the books but due to upgrading from a one kid family to a two kid family I just haven’t had time to really dig into it yet.

I’d love to hear from you all what your thoughts and just as importantly, what your experiences have been with 4.0.  If you’ve played it and have some thoughts please feel free to discuss them here (but keep it civil).   There has been an interesting discussion going on in an older post about this but I’d like to update it and keep it going here.

I could spend $60 and get the three core books and be off and running - or I could stick with my 3.0/3.5 stuff as  well.  What, in your opinion, should I do?   While I’d love to hear anything you have to say about it, I’m particularily interested in thoughts on the MMORPGifiying of the game (Massive Multiplayer Offline Role Playing Game?), the use of miniatures in 4.0 and thoughts on multi-classing.

A lot of “professional” reviews seem pretty positive about the changes while a lot of player reviews seem to fall somewhere between “eh” to “screeching death”.

So give it to me straight.  What do you think of D&D 4e?

Technorati Tags: dungeons and dragons, 4th edition, D&D, wizards of the coast, role playing game, opinions wanted

I’ve seen various comments about this online, including a short and poignant post by Monte Cooke. and in his Wikipedia entry. Troll Lord Games confirms this on their forums.

Yikes! I first started playing D&D Basic when I was about 8 years old and I really haven’t stopped in one form or another, whether it was pen and paper or the latest computer RPG based on the D&D world. It’s impossible to describe the effect this game, and the RPG genre has had on my life. The books I read, the other games I’ve played, the way I think, the friends I’ve met and my desire to learn more about medieval history - enough so to pursue a degree in it - all have been influenced by playing this game.

Gygax, along with Dave Arneson, did much to fill many of my afternoons with fun, adventure and dice. He was 69 and passed away at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Condolences to Gary Gygax’s family, friends and everyone he ever touched through his life or his life’s work. Say what you will about RPGs - anyone who can leave a legacy that’s positively touched hundreds of thousands of people has done good work in my book.

Technorati Tags: role playing games, rpg, dungeons and dragons, D&D, sad news, gary gygax, dnd

He’s been under an NDA for quite some time and apparently spent that time not gaming writing this review, it’s pretty well detailed and only part one of three.

Whether you’re anticipating this new release or dreading it, it’s certainly worth a read to get some perspective.

Here’s a quick excerpt:

Let me just say this upfront. I. Love. 4E. And I didn’t want to. Much like many of you out there, the 3.5 partial reboot just five years ago pissed me off. But we’ve spent 8 years now with the better part of this system. And hell, even 5 years is a long time. But Massawyrm, you’re thinking you don’t know how much I’ve spent on 3.5. No? Here at the Casa de la Wyrm we don’t have a D&D bookshelf. We have a D&D closet. It’s where I keep my boxes of Dwarven Forge Master Maze, my big plastic bins of D&D Minis, and two long shelves of over $1000 in 3.5 books. But just 2 weeks into playing 4E, I boxed up every non-fluff heavy book I owned, drove down to Half Price Books and sold them for as much cash as I could get. I knew I would never, ever, touch them again. Yes. 4E really is that good. It is the XBOX 360 to your XBOX. And it is time to upgrade my friends.

Be sure to check it out if you’re interested in this D&D Reboot.

Technorati Tags: dungeons and dragons, d&d, fourth edition, 4th edition, monster manual, where’s cthulu

I first began this game weeks ago and unfortunately regular life gets in the way so that I may afford the electricity to power up my PS2 and purchase food so that I’m not balling up in pain whilst playing the game. When life calms down a little allowing me to have some quiet time, you can be certain that I’m sitting with a controller in hand and my brain is bouncing all over the place while I’m reloading and regrouping.

Currently I’m stuck on a level (I won’t say which as I’m slightly embarrassed- but it is in the double digits) and strangely I’m not discouraged. In most games that I get stuck on, I wind up feeling like there’s a glitch in the game and I become disinterested. In this case, I know it’s solely due to me. I visualize many people beating this particular section with ease. For myself, it gets my mind in motion trying to figure out a decent strategy so that I can conquer and succeed. To me that equates an awesome game. The writers and developers actually put some thought into this and I truly see and feel it.

Let me back up a little- I haven’t played an RPG game in YEARS (with the exception of Kingdom Hearts II). I’m typically a gun toting, martial arts butt kicking type of gamer. Give me terrain, baddies and a few puzzles/situations to solve cerebrally and I’m happy. It’s all about in your face action, explosions, and feeling beaten down yet proud when you beat a level. RPG seemed a little too slow paced after many years of preferred genre.

When I received this game I was a little skeptical. Okay, I was a lotta skeptical, but after the first half an hour I fell prey to their agenda and I’m hooked. I’m a junkie and I don’t care!

Allow me to bottom line it:

The Good:

A decent story. Great characters (because the main one is ME as I was able to choose my own gender and name). Great squad building, battle strategy, plot, etc. Gig, the character who shares your body- a power hungry trouble maker, yet the one person who can assist you in your fight against the world eaters (please read the About section) he keeps me gasping and amused whilst thinking, “Omg, he didn’t just say that… did he?”

The Bad:

The beginning started out a little choppy and I had almost lost interest. Once you get past the needed background of the story, it does get better. Unfortunately when you wish to start a new game, there’s no way to by-pass the multi-hundreds of years of story. In some areas you can opt to skip scenes but not all. It makes it a little frustrating if you don’t save in the correct area and you need to relive a long winded section of dialogue.

The colors and visuals are a little limiting, but you truly get so into the game that the aesthetics seem like a minor issue.

You can forget about having a life as it winds up consuming a large portion of your free time and you tend to forget you have family and friends. It truly sucks so close to the holiday season as I have a feeling I’ll be dropped off many card and gift lists.

Overall Score: 8.25

Gameplay: 8
Experience (Sound/Graphics): 8
Replayability: 8 (although I don’t know when I’ll get to the end to replay it)
Fun Factor/Price: 9

I didn’t quite know how to sum up what it’s “About”- so I borrowed the following from the info Nazi site (long story) “Wikipedia”.
History of Prodesto
At the end of a long war-shattered age, one man brought all the countries in the Continent of Prodesto together under his rule: Lord Median the Conquerer. Though only one man, he became renowned throughout the world for his heroism, and had even managed to slay the god of death. However, within ten years, the empire Lord Median had created collapsed with the death of his son, quickly followed by his own death. With no apparent leader, the continent collapsed once more into civil war. Fifteen years later, Lord Median’s daughter had proven herself as a true leader, and convinced the remaining countries to form peace treaties, establishing peace once more.

This peace collapsed however, when the “Master of Death”, Gig arrived with three giant beings known as World Eaters under his command. They quickly devastated the land, annihilating entire nations in a matter of days, and it wasn’t long before nations began abandoning their alliances and allying with the World Eaters in an attempt to save themselves.

When things looked their darkest, Layna gathered up what remained of her forces and made a direct assault against Gig, a battle which apparently killed both of them. With their leader gone, the World Eaters fell silent, apparently having gone to sleep, remaining as monuments of the destruction that occurred.
Starting Your Journey
The year is now 800 in the Tamaito calendar. 200 years have passed since the defeat of the shadow at the hands of the technique user Layna. Ever since that day, with the shadow’s defeat, the giants known as “The World Eaters” have retained their silence in the continent. The body of one of the giants remains in the peaceful country of Raide, and serves as a symbol of fear to those who pass by it.

Within the country of Raide, there exists a small secluded village that refuses to acknowledge the existence of those from outside world. It is known as the “Hidden Village”. In that village lives the protagonist along with his friend Danette, and other members of the Sepp race. Along with Layna, whose age now exceeds 200, the protagonist helps to protect the village.

One day, the protagonist and Danette are called forth by old lady Layna and given weapons to help guard the village. Danette, who has always dreamed of protecting the village, is overjoyed and is given twin daggers. The protagonist is given a long black sword.

The moment the protagonist takes hold of the black sword, it begins to insult and swear at Layna. Both the protagonist and Danette are profoundly confused at this point. It is revealed that 200 years ago, Layna destroyed the shadow and sealed its soul into the black sword. The shadow goes by the name of Gig. To utilize the power of Gig, Layna chose to give this sword to the protagonist.

The protagonist is infused with the soul of Gig, gaining control of his power, and is now able to fight against the World Eaters, who have now reawakened. With Gig residing in his body and Danette, who has been his friend since he was young, the protagonist departs into the country of Raide to defeat the World Eaters.
Gameplay
A key element of the game is customization, giving the player many more options to choose from when progressing through the story. When the game begins, the player chooses the gender and name of the main character, a change from other Nippon Ichi games.

At the very beginning of the game the main character can become powerful enough to destroy even the final boss, but relying on Gig too much would be the equivalent of just letting the world be destroyed. Instead, the player is expected to build and train an army of units capable of handling whatever comes his way, relying on Gig’s powers as little as possible.

The player is given the ability to create and command squads, which, after enough time, will become an army capable of destroying the world he is trying to save. Up to 25 different character types can be created, each filling a unique position in the squad with its own strengths and weaknesses. Characters’ individual abilities can do such things as increase the range of an effect or give each unit a bonus to its inflicted damage.

Tedious tasks like visiting the same area over and over in order to level new characters (a staple of older Nippon Ichi titles) are no longer necessary as any character’s level can be set to that of the main character. Also, unlike the older Nippon Ichi titles, the player is not allowed to return to older levels. Squads can also be merged together in order to increase their power.

The game includes more options for interacting with NPCs than previous Nippon Ichi games. It is possible to steal items from shops or NPCs instead of buying them. Additionally, the player can attack the towns and fight against the NPCs inhabiting them. Alternately, the player can recruit NPCs into his army.

Technorati Tags: video games, soul nomad and the world eaters, frpg

Video Games
Juiced 2 (FINALLY a racing game I can get into)
Soul Nomad and the World Eaters- A FRPG that breathes life back into a genre I had nearly forgotten about,
Spider Man: Friend or Foe
Literature
World War Z- Z is for ZOMBIE!! (are you scared? I hope so as it IS that time of year, although any time of year is the right time for zombies)
and Lego Mindstorm (my world domination plans now includes toys).

My time has been spent wisely as I’m a girl in a geek store who is bouncing from a myriad of delights that I can’t wait for a little more progress on my part to share with everyone as to what’s worth playing, worth reading, worth constructing and worth starting your first winter blaze with.

Feel free to request other items of general geeky interest for review that can benefit the masses and divert us from complete global domination (it WILL happen).

Ghic Chic

read more | digg story

Enter Dungeons & Dragons Tactics.

This PSP game offered much of what I was looking for. Turn based, characters on a hex (or in this case, square) layout for easy range and hit calculations, fleshed out universe and as a bonus, the game is based on the full rules set for D&D 3.5 as laid forth by Wizards of The Coast. And I do mean full! You can choose from any class and any of the core races, even creating characters with Psionics.

The game allows you to take between 2 and 6 characters on a variety of adventures, gaining loot and experience along the way. You can have up to 11 characters in your group from which to choose your party members.

The first thing I noticed when starting this title up on my PSP was the gorgeous soundtrack. Neo-celtic music pops out of the speakers as you begin your game play lending to the atmosphere of ancient realms steeped in magic, or a ren faire. Think Enya without the licensing fees. It’s a nice touch, although the music stutters or skips a bit when portions of the game are being loaded from the UMD.

One of my few real gripes with this game will become immediately apparent to you when you start to play. Menus! Menus are everywhere and they are not set up in an intuitive manner. Of all the aspects of this game that it’s taken me time to get used to, this was the by far the hardest. When your deep into a game it can be annoying to have to change your state of mind just to navigate through branching tree menus to equip a crossbow or pick a skill for your character. You will get used to this the more you play, and with 40+ hours of game play and a good replayability factor, you’ll have plenty of time.

D&D Tactics stays faithful to the 3.5 rule set throughout and manages to streamline much of the esoterica for very smooth game play. Kuju did an excellent job of cramming books and books worth of rules into the tiny PSP and still giving us a game that is, despite the menus, very playable. You can in many cases such as character creation or leveling up your party decide to let the game chose what’s best or take the manual route and do it all yourself. You’ll find this kind of flexibility throughout the game.

You start of by developing your main character – you can choose from a number of pre-made characters or make your own. In fact, you can create as many characters as you can fit onto your memory stick. From there it’s off to adventure.

The story line itself is divided up into a number of acts, interposed with cut scenes to drive the story forward. While the cut scenes are nothing to write home about and the dialog is at best stilted, they get the point across. Interestingly, your game play is directly affected by the alignment of your party – and can be changed with that alignment. Your decisions can move your alignment towards good, neutral or evil.

On to game play:

Your party starts on a world map with just a few options for adventures. As you move forward through the story line, the map unfolds before you giving you more and more choices as to what and where you’re going to do your thing. Like many pen and paper games, you will spend some time shopping, selling loot that you pick up and buying new weapons, armor, potions and scrolls for your party. You do this and manage your party through the world map screen.

D&D Tactics is truly a tactical game. There’s not a lot of roll playing going on here as it focuses more on the combat aspects of the pen and paper game. In many respects I think this was smart move on Kuju’s part. It allowed them to focus on the purely combat aspects of the game, taking the rules, modifiers, rolls and trivia of the D&D world and condensing them into a simple combat method. Combat takes place using a system of squares through which your characters can be positioned. Think of hexes using miniatures.

The game engine takes into account everything about the character and whatever weapons, spells or abilities they’re attempting to use. You can pretty much do whatever it is you’d like to do with your party while in combat mode within the limits of the map. You control each character individually and can have them go off in six different directions if you so choose. You can send one or two members after chests and treasure while four others take on the bad guys. It’s the flexibility of control which allows this game to shine. Combat is handled by the game engine, giving you some animations (depending on what mode you select you can reduce the animations for faster game play). You won’t find yourself frantically pushing buttons in an attempt to slice an orc with your axe.

One issue you’ll encounter is tracking in the combat maps. The PSP screen is obviously limited in size and scrolling across maps to find enemies can be a bit of a pain.

The graphics, especially when fighting against some of the larger creatures of the D&D world are quite good for a platform this size. The text is large enough that you won’t find yourself squinting and once you get the hang of the menus, you’ll find yourself hopping into combat and enjoying the heck out of it. Some of the effects are downright pretty.

If you’re looking for a pure tactics version of Dungeons & Dragons, light on the story but heavy on fighting, equipment, levels and experience then you’ll certainly be pleased with this title. It won’t replace actual table top play but will give anyone interested in the D&D world a great way to approach it when time or other players are a limiting factor.

Speaking of other players, D&D Tactics features an up to 4 player WiFi mode in which you can play cooperatively in a dragon hunt or in several player vs. player modes.

The Good:

Great control over your characters.
Tactical play is true to D&D 3.5 rules.
Graphics are quite nice.
Addicting game play.
Great musical score.
If you’re already a D&D fan, you’ll love this title.

The Bad:

Menus are clunky.
Cut scenes are stilted with no voice overs.
If you’re not a D&D fan, it may be a bit to complex and overly concerned with equipment/combat.

Overall Score: 8 out of 10

Gameplay: 8
Experience (Sound/Graphics): 8
Replayability: 8
Fun Factor/Price: 9

Stop by the D&D official 4th edition forums to talk amongst yourselves.

A stately looking gentleman in his lat 40’s got on the train and stood near me. He had on a nice polo with the emblem of a government agency clearly emblazoned on it. Suit pants and suit jacket. Brief case in tow, he opened it up and pulled out an open notebook.

Clearly visible on the page this notebook was open to was a nice, hand drawn dungeon map with encounters clearly marked.

I salute you Government Agent RPG Guy. Not only do you probably know how to fire, dismantle and clean a rocket propelled grenade launcher but you’re also a gamer.

Now this is an interesting concept in and of itself. They’ve also gone ahead and launched Kobold Quarterly, an online and/or print magazine (available from Piazo.com) with lots of new gaming resources and art.

Again from Baur:

Kobold Quarterly is the scrappy little magazine of Open Design, a tiny journal that covers the world’s premiere roleplaying game and the world’s best fantasy adventures.

Each issue is written by the industry’s best, including well-known RPG designers, and each features full-color art by fantasy artists new and familiar.

Because Kobold Quarterly is not associated with any particular company, we can run what gamers want, instead of what the marketing department wants. It’s one editor and a community of Open Design patrons putting together everything from great interviews to character optimization, from the finest worldbuilding techniques to tested tactical crunch.

Technorati Tags: open design, rpg, d20, dungeons and dragons, kobolds, my that is a big sword you have

If you’ve got a favorite game, publishing house or artist and want to show them your appreciation, stop on by and cast your votes.

Technorati Tags: ennies, table top games, role playing, rpg, talisman, black industries, game

First, I really want to thank those who were so supportive of this
convention. From Wizards of the Coast whose employees contributed
approximately $15,000.00 worth of products, to the Junior High School
Student who donated the one thing he could afford - a brand new set of
dice. No matter how big or small the donation, we offer a huge thank you
to all who contributed to this event.

Greetings All,

Well, Ziggurat Convention 2007 is finally over. I am sorry for the
lateness of this e-mail, but I will try to answer all your questions, as
well as share some pictures with you guys so you can see what happened.
I have been getting feedback from all over post about the convention,
and have the following bits of information. For those who have loved
ones who are in these pictures, or for those of you who are publishing a
story about the event, please write me privately in about a week, and I
will do my best to send larger copies of these pics to you.

First, I really want to thank those who were so supportive of this
convention. From Wizards of the Coast whose employees contributed
approximately $15,000.00 worth of products, to the Junior High School
Student who donated the one thing he could afford - a brand new set of
dice. No matter how big or small the donation, we offer a huge thank you
to all who contributed to this event. We are honored, and humbled by
your generosity. Boxes of left over gaming materials will be shipped to
MWR Centers throughout Iraq with supplies for the troops to use.

The most popular events held few surprises for everyone. The Console
Gaming, Rifts, Risk, Axis & Allies, Magic the Gathering, World of
Darkness, and Dungeons & Dragons were all very popular. What did
surprise us was the popularity of XCrawl as published by Panda Head
Games. SPC David Amberson ran that game, and gave a copy of the XCrawl
main rules book to the three players who chose their characters first.
The table was quickly locked after eight players, and more wanted to
join in, but were unable to because of table size restrictions. SPC
Kathleen Hiersche ran Munchkin Demo’s with a whole lot of prize support
from Steve Jackson Games. Hiersche was even confirmed as one of the “Men
in Black,” so she can run games at other conventions later. Another
surprise came from the influx of interest in ShadowRun’s 4th Edition
game run by SPC John Gilbert.

Ziggurat Con had drawings for prizes. SPC Amberson disqualified himself
from the drawings as the Convention Chair, and as the one holding the
drawings. The winner of the Grand Prize - a Core Rule Book Set, extra
dice, graph paper, mechanical pencils, a D&D Tote Bag, a Gargantuan
Black Dragon, a Colossal Red Dragon, 4 boxes of miniatures, a shield and
a short sword was SGT Gary Decker. SGT Decker really wanted the sword,
and after getting the sword, almost left the rest of the prize pack,
much to everyone’s laughter.

The following are e-mails and letters I received from those who went to
the Convention. I did not edit or censor their e-mails to me. I want you
to see what they wrote, and know how much they appreciate your support.
Because of you, this convention was possible. Now if we can only find
someone to run the convention next year - LOL!!!

“Thanks for the games I had a great time wish I could have stayed for
the whole con, the convoy I was taking to Bucca was stopped on the road
for an EFP and we never made it further than CEDAR II. I have two
question one when are you free I would love to get together and talk or
XCrawl or anything and second do you happen to have any shirts or
miniatures left? I here I left 15 min to soon and I did not have to my
driver changed the tire by himself at 1400 (I do have the best driver in
the unit ) well send me a message back let me know I would love to get
together.” - SSG XXXXXXX

“Given what we had to work with, I am proud of the results of this
convention. We had limited time, resources, space and people–yet stuff
managed to pull off a noteworthy event. The prize support was absolutely
phenomenal and the whole thing would have been impossible without such
loving, supporting gamers back home; even the major gaming companies
themselves, pitched in to help. One of the things that pleases me most
is the fact that everyone who came in walked away with something
significant. We weren’t even able to actually give everything away and
STILL everyone had something big to show for having been there. However,
one of my beefs with the whole thing was lack of attendance; we didn’t
have enough games being run or enough to fit the games we did have.
Which isn’t for lack of support–unfortunately, the problem with the
being the first gaming convention to be held in a warzone is that we
are, in fact, soldiers in a warzone. Mission requirements or inability
to travel prevented many people from showing, who otherwise would have
made it. The really irking thing about this is that we had people from
off-post saying they would show, who never did. But, I digress. I think
one of the bigger problems with attendance was a sort of resigned
acceptance of an inability to attend, so no effort was made; either that
or inflexibility on the part of certain unit supervisors or commanders.
No one specifically, that’s just how the Army is–the “grin and bear it”
attitude. Which isn’t to say we didn’t receive support over here.
Indeed, there were a few unit commanders actually in attendance and
enjoying themselves thoroughly. The goal of the event was achieved,
however; it got the word out, got us supplies to pass out to the various
MWRs, introduced some new players to the game and, most importantly, it
proved that it was possible, paving the way and setting the bar for this
sort of thing in the future.” - PFC XXXXXXXX

“First, I like to thank EVERYBODY for showing up to ZiggCon and
especially all of those who helped out! This event was put together BY
gamers FOR gamers. Without our fellow gamers, this wouldn’t have been
possible. We owe each other for the memorable occasion this past
Sunday. As much as we all enjoyed this event, it would have been almost
NOTHING if it weren’t for the folks back home showing their support for
us in this environment. They were the ones who donated the dozens of
thousands of dollars worth of gaming material that we ALL got a chance
to walk away with. While we had the big-name publishers dishing stuff
out for us, we also had the “mom & pop” game shops helping out, as well
as the individual gamers who were willing to donate their own gaming
gear. 20+ year-old gaming dice?! Heck, I, personally, won’t forget the
feeling I got from holding that 4-book stack of old-school AD&D books
from 1978! All of that being said, it’s only fair that the people, who
sent so many of their potential assets and/or prized gaming treasures,
get something back from us. I’m sending out a call to all who
participated in and all who helped with ZiggCon. Please send us any
photos you have and a review of what happened, what you helped out with
and what you thought. Essentially, this is our great big “Thank You” to
the gaming community at large and a witness to all of those who so
desperately wanted to be here. (You’d be amazed at the sheer number of
civilians and former military that wanted to actually be HERE for it!)
Let’s say thanks and tell ‘em how it went.” - XXXXX

So to everyone who helped us, we, the participants of Ziggurat Con thank
you for all your help. Without you, there wouldn’t have been a
convention to support.

SPC David Amberson
Ziggurat Con Chair

Technorati Tags: ziggurat, convention, roleplaying, iraq

Wizards of the Coast has revealed plans to launch Gleemax.com, an online destination for hard-core strategy and hobby gamers. Building on its heritage in the hobby gaming space with Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, coupled with its success with Magic Online and its understanding of what strategy, hobby and tabletop gamers want, Wizards of the Coast will provide gamers with a centralized destination online to get everything they want or need.

Looks like this is the first part of Wizards’ ‘Digital Initiative’, for which they killed Dragon and Dungeon magazines?

Technorati Tags: wotc, gleemax

Free RPG Day - June 23, 2007

“Impressions Advertising & Marketing will be working with hobby game retailers and RPG publishers to bring NEW RPG Quickstart Rules and Adventure Modules into the hands of gamers. Consumers will get their hands on brand new material for a variety of RPGs — no overstock, retail-priced or dead product here. The goal is to get gamers inspired to play a new RPG, which will in turn, create sales through local game stores.”

Gamingreport.com has released some news about Twilight:2013 today, including some fiction, and a sneak peek at the new ruleset. Hopefully they do this game justice - I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on it!

I was always a bigger fan of the 1.0 version - 2.0 and 2.2 never really did it for me. I still have all my old material (dating back well over 20 years) in a box upstairs - I just can’t bear to part with it!

This is the second such news of WotC not renewing licenses - you may remember the earlier story of Dungeon and Dragon magazines not having their licenses renewed with Piazo Publishing.

I wonder what is going on at WotC?

“Paizo Publishing and Wizards of the Coast today announced the conclusion of Paizo’s license to produce DRAGON and DUNGEON magazines effective September 2007. Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON will cease with issues number 359 and 150, respectively.”

It’s sad to see an institution of gaming go the way of the dodo.

Some of you (heck, alot of you) have probably already heard of this webcomic, but I just found it, and boy is it funny!

Twenty Sided » DM of the Rings

As I just started GM’ing a game (Palladium Fantasy if you are wondering - the really old 1st edition), I find this GM humor very poignant.

And I quote: “Consumers will get their hands on brand new material for a variety of RPGs - no overstock, retail-priced or dead product here. The goal is to get gamers inspired to play a new RPG, which will in turn, create sales through local game stores.”

Sounds like a good idea to get more traffic flowing into the ailing brick and mortar hobby gaming stores. You can check online to see if a retailer near you is participating.

It’s basically examining ageism in the D&D world, and how that translates to the real world, and back.

“Basically, going by age is just about the stupidest metric you can use
when hiring, in D&D or in life. I’ve got slacker 20-somethings and
go-getter 70-year olds in my extended family, and I’ve got the opposite
as well.”

Very interesting read methinks!

Search by RPGs, board games or CCGs.

This has been in development for a while, and while it has piqued my interest, it looks entirely too heavy on the miniatures rules for me (i.e.: speed is expressed in squares you can move per turn, not feet or meters or something sane).

D&D 4.0 looks to be taking this trend, too. I prefer less miniatures, and more imagination and DM descriptions in my tabletop gaming sessions.