Creating Worlds: My First Campaign
Yes, I know, I promised to talk about rules stuff next. Sue me. I'll get around to it, since I've noticed actions that change initiative, not to mention exactly how immediate actions work, tend to confuse even 4e veterans.
Well, to be fair, I've never seen a system where readied actions didn't confuse everyone! I'll expand on that more later. You may have noticed I haven't been as prolific in my writing of late, and the reason is- I didn't have much new to say!
I keep touching on the same points in my editorials, and often, I come off as way too critical- something else I've talked about before. It may seem paradoxical that someone who claims to enjoy gaming nitpicks about it so damn much!
Free Zombie Dice Game for iPhone
Steve Jackson Games has released a free iPhone game based on thier great dice game called, Zombie Dice. I only wish I had an iPhone 
(not really)
Check it out on their website.
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Fun Party Games from Games Day
At our recent games day, I was able to play a couple board games that I really enjoyed. Here are some games that you may or may not have played yet.
Zombie Dice
Is a very simple dice rolling game by Steve Jackson Games that has you running around as a zombie trying to eat as many brains as you can until you get blown away by a shotgun. The dice have three pictures: brains, shotgun blasts and runners. You bank brains and re-roll runners all before you get three shotgun blasts.
The game is short, fun and brainless (well lots of brains, just easy to play). It is a great filler game to play in between rounds of other longer games or before you start and everyone is still arriving. It is so easy even my younger kids picked it up easy and had fun playing.
Available Here: Amazon.com
Ninja Burger
Image via Wikipedia
Is another Steve Jackson game that puts you in the shoes of a ninja that stealthily delivers fast food burgers. You are given missions and must accomplish them by making various dice rolls using "ninja" type skills, such as disguise, climbing, and combat. Every game is jam pack with hilarious situations and every ninja has strengths and weaknesses. It has a similar feel to the Munchkin games (which is a good thing).
I really enjoyed this game and had lots of fun using my ninja skills to deliver the delicious Ninja Burger. It is a medium length game that takes about 45min to an hour to play. Every game is different because there are many different ninjas to choose from and you gain fortunes to help in various ways. The missions are varied and will make you laugh out loud. I am definitely looking forward to the next chance I get to play this game.
Available from Amazon along with an expansion, sequel, and even an RPG. Check out the video on YouTube.
Wits and Wagers
- Image via Wikipedia
Wits and Wagers is a game by North Star Games that combines trivia and gambling. Everyone answers a ridiculously hard trivia question and then bets chips on which they think is closest without going over. You win chips based on the odds and if your answer was closest.
I first played this game with the creators at Gen Con a couple years ago as well as played the game on the Xbox 360 and it has continued to be a family favorite. The questions are so diverse and difficult, it doesn't really mater how smart you are at answering the questions, but more on how good you are on your bets. You will get wild answers that make you laugh and everyone will have a good time playing.
Available on Amazon along with an expansion and family version.
What games have you played recently that you recommend or even a game you have heard good things about? Post below.
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Upcoming Pokemon Game Features 4-Way Video Chat….. only over local wireless?!?
The upcoming Pokemon Black and White for the Nintendo DSi features an amazing new technology that allows for 4 players to video chat live within the game. This would be pretty amazing except for the fact that you can only use it over local wireless, which on the DSi is about 30 feet. Isn't that amazing you can actually see the people your playing with in the same room. I could help but laugh at this.
That's the funny part, but don't worry you can still do 2 person video over the internet. Just be careful who you chat with, because you may be surprised to see someone's Pokéballs.
3DS to Feature Unexplainable New Anti-Piracy Features
According to THQ's executive VP of global publishing Ian Curran, the Nintendo 3DS will have better technology to prevent piracy.
Curran said "What excites me even more [than 3DS games] is that there's technology built in that device to really combat piracy."
"The problem with the DS market in the last few years, particularly with the DS Lite, is that it's just been attacked by piracy. It's made it almost impossible to shift any significant volume. The DSi combated it a little bit, but the 3DS has taken that a step further."
D&D meets Choose Your Own Adventure
Wizards of the Coast is releasing a new product line called Dungeons & Dragons Essentials. These products go back to the basics and are a a great way to introduce new or younger players to the game we all love.
It has a unique method of putting you into the action and is even designed for solo play. Below is an except:
It plays out like a Choose Your Own Adventure type book, which I think is a great way for younger kids to get into fantasy roleplaying games.
I hope that they are able to get these products out to the general public in better places than game shops. Hopefully they can get them into bookstores and maybe even Wal-Mart would be great exposure.
What do you think:
Will this product be good for D&D?
Will it help bring new players?
Are you interested in it as an existing player?
It's time to leap into action, but that can mean different things for different kinds of fantasy heroes. How do you imagine the hero in your mind reacting to this situation?
- Do you imagine pulling a weapon from the back of the wagon and leaping down to fight the goblins? Go to 2.
- Do you imagine casting a magic spell to blast the goblins? Go to 3.
- Do you imagine drawing a dagger, using the wagon for cover, and sneaking around to pick off the goblins without putting yourself in too much danger? Go to 4.
- Do you imagine tending to the merchant's wound, perhaps uttering a divine prayer to restore his health? Go to 5.
- Or do you prefer hiding in the back of the wagon until the fight is over? Go to 6.
- Do you have a different idea about what to do? Go to 42.
Torchlight – Action RPG Game – Mini Review
I just heard about this game yesterday, although it came out a couple weeks ago, so I decided to give it a try. We were just talking about Diablo the other night, and it seems that several of the creators worked on the first 2 Diablos, as well other ARPGs. Torchlight has everything I enjoyed about Diablo and it is a great little game. I say little, because it only cost $20 as a downloadable game. You can download a demo here.
Torchlight plays just like any other ARPG and has all the things you love, dungeon exploring, multiple baddies, big bosses, and my favorite loot, tons and tons of customizable loot. When you start you only have 3 classes to choose from basically a fighter, ranger and mage, but each of these can be customized as you level up into 3 different talent trees. You also start with a pet that fights with you as well as returns to town to automatically sell your junk items. Depicted very nicely in thr Penny Arcade cartoon below.
The games graphics are stylized in an exaggerated cartoon manner, very similar to Team Fortress 2 or WoW. They are such that the game can be played smoothly even on lower end PCs but really shine in high resolution. The sound effects and musical score are spot on to give you an atmospheric and energizing soundtrack to your battles and exploration. The interface is clean and simple and it makes it very easy to do the most common tasks and then get out of your way as you play the game.
The game features randomized dungeons for lots of variety and replayability. Once you max your player out you can retired him and then hand down certain benefits to a new character. If you get tired the dungeons you can take a break to fish, which when fed to your pet have an interesting effect.
The game only features a single player campaign, but I am fine with that because I never got to play Diablo multiplayer and it was still tons of fun.
Overall I highly recommend the game even though it is a single player experience only, but the team is currently working on a mutiplayer version of the game. It is only $20 and will easily eat up at least a week or two of your life. So give the game a download and tell me what you think below in the comments.
Sting Review – Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Arcade
Wizards of the Coast and Stainless Games released Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers on the Xbox 360 arcade this week and I have been playing it nonstop. It offers a great Magic experience for the extremely decent price $10, less than 4 booster packs.
The game features several different modes of play. The single player campaign mode allows you to test your skills against increasingly difficult Planeswalkers as you unlock new decks to play with. Magic: The Puzzling offers a series of Magic puzzle where you have to figure out how to win in one turn. A co-op campaign allows two people on the same console play a Two-Headed Giant match versus two planeswalkers. You can also play online via Xbox Live in 2-4 player matches.
Gameplay
They have done a great job of translating the paper and tabletop game to the TV screen and Xbox controller. You can easily flip through your cards pulling your trigger to fly the cards fullscreen and even view card specific rules such as First Strike and Deathtouch, in case you forget, add in the intro tutorial and even Magic newbies will be playing in no time.
They have made the gameplay flow very smoothly for a great arcade feel. Certian things like The Stack are disguised as a brief countdown timer when you play card and spells and each section of your turn is followed in order. I enjoy that I can play a quick game in less than 5 minutes without leaving my house at anytime, either against the very capable AI or a human player matched to my level using the Xbox TrueSkill system. The game is instantly accessible to players of every skill level and that is a great accomplishment given the complexity and depth of Magic.
The game starts with 2 decks to play with and as you defeat different planeswalkers you will unlock a total of 8 decks. Then everytime you win with a deck you unlock 1 of 17 extra cards that can be added into the default decks. It is not completely a customizable deck building system but gives you a few options to beef up your deck of choice. With downloadable content, I expect to see them release extra decks, extra unlockable cards, and new play environments to customize your play experience.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics and interface are very slick and animations are smooth. Spells and effects have subtle animation and sound cues that tell you the state of your cards, such as summoning sickness and tiggered spells. The attack animations are fairly generic as animating every card would have been a nightmare for the developer, but do an adequate job of showing what happens when you attack and defend. Certian spells are given a little extra polish such as Incinerate, which lobs a fireball at your opponents as it burns away their life.
The sound effects do a decent job of giving you audio cues as to what is happening and nothing is over the top. The music score is soft and appropriate but will quickly get old once you hear it over and over, thankfully the Xbox allows you to play your own music in game.
Conclusion
If you love Magic: The Gathering or are even slightly interested in TCGs, I would wholehearted recommend buying this game. It is a steal at only $10, and you will get plenty of play time out of this title. I have been playing all week and can't say enough good things about it.
Player’s Handbook Heroes Set 1 Review and Gallery
The new format for D&D miniatures has been released and the first set we have are Hero miniatures for use with PCs in your game. There are six packs with three heroes each, two male and one female. Each character comes with a card that is a new power for that class. Each pack retails for $10.99 and includes 2 martial hero packs, 2 arcane, 1 divine and 1 primal pack.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the new set of hero miniatures from Wizards of the Coast for several different reasons. First of all, I would guess that most players are only playing in one game and therefore only need one of the miniatures. That makes it a $10 miniature and you have two extra minis that you may never use. The next big selling point is the power cards. I really like the idea and for some people they are useful, but for anyone who subscribes to D&D Insider and has the Character Builder, all of these powers are in the program. So for me that isn't a selling point anymore.
Second, and I know I might take flak for this from some people, but 1/3 of the figures are female and I don't think this matches up close to D&D's demographic. I only have my personal experiences to draw from on this but I also saw a large number of D&D games last year at Gen Con and I would say that out of the 6 games and 36 PCs, only 3 were females players or males playing females. That's only 8% out of a small section, but even looking around at other tables, there weren't many female players, maybe 10-15% would be a generous estimate. So when a third of the minis are female, although nice to look at, aren't a selling point. I understand that WotC needs to be "PC" but maybe 1 female out of two packs would be a better idea. And I'm not just upset because the only dragonborn is female
What I do like are the sculpts and paint jobs. They have really brought up the quality. So overall, I would only recommend buying them if you really want a certain character, or want the power cards, or are a completist Or you could be like me and just buy the individual minis you want online.
Indie Gaming Spotlight: Grow
Sometimes great things can be simple, very simple. The proof of this is Grow, an indie game series by Eyezmaze. All the Grow games are all based on one simple premise, you start with a blank world, every turn you can add something to that world, and every turn everything previously existing in the world "level ups" and becomes bigger, or better in some way. The trick to solving the puzzle of Grow is to have everything in your world at its highest possible level; which then becomes a simple matter of adding things in the right order. What complicates the whole matter and wherein lies the genius of the game is the fact that the objects interact with each other when they are added. So while one object might just upgrade over time, another object might require something else to be added to "level it up." Conversely, an object might destroy another if it is added too early or at the wrong time. This cause and effect style of gaming ends up being real fun and considering Eyezmaze has animations for all of the different combinations(even for the completely wrong combinations) you'll be tempted to replay the game again and again tell you solve the puzzle. Even then you might play on still just to see the hilarious results of the mismatches. Like the gameplay, the animation is incredibly simple but very effective. The little people that inhabit and live in your little world are truly a joy to watch and see them react to your new additions and the ever evolving landscape.
There are 6 full length Grows to date: Grow 1-3, Grow Cube, Grow RPG, and Grow Island. One of note is Grow RPG, where you slowly build a little RPG world for your hero to adventure in, and only when everything is fully leveled up can the hero finally make it to the end and defeat the final boss. Truly an experience that is not to be missed.
All games can be played, for free, on www.eyezmaze.com
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