Castle Ravenloft Goodies
Posted by Fozz
WotC will be releasing the Castle Ravenloft board game later this month, but today we got a couple of goodies in the form of extra bonus adventures and a designer's commentary.
Wow talk about support! The game isn't even out and they are already releasing extra content! Nice!
The extra adventures for the board game are for groups and consist of an escape from a zombie horde and a quest for the Sunsword.
Download the bonus Castle Ravenloft adventures here.
If you are the type of person who likes a glimpse behind the scenes at how things are made, then you will enjoying reading the designer's commentary along with a preview look at the Castle Ravenloft rules book. Read the commentary here.
I am very excited about playing this board game and have already pre-ordered it over at Amazon.com and will post a full review once it is released.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Wizards of the Coast Gen Con Interview - Part 1 of 2 (D&D Boardgames) from LivingDice.com (livingdice.com)
- Gen Con 2010: D&D New Products Seminar from Critical Hits " RPG (critical-hits.com)
- Gen Con: The epic tabletop gaming convention invades the midwest [Gen Con] (io9.com)
Looking Forward to New Core D&D Novels
Posted by Fozz
I just finished pre-ordering the new novels from Wizards of the Coast set in the core 4E D&D world presented in the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide over at Amazon. I just happened to stumble upon them while browsing around the D&D website. I have only read a handful of D&D novels, but I am looking forward to jumping into a new series and seeing how they visualize this setting.
The first book, The Mark of Nerath, written by Bill Slavicsek, one of the creators of the fourth edition of D&D, and it takes place in the Nentir Vale. It follows a group of adventurers as they try to stop an evil emperor from the time of the Nerath Empire escape his prison in the Shadowfell. It sounds like it will play out just like a home campaign featuring all the cool 4E D&D races we all love. I can't remember where I read it, but I think it even has a revenant brought back by the Raven Queen, which should be pretty cool because it is just like one of my characters. You can read a sample chapter here.
The second book, The Seal of Karga Kul, written by Alex Irvine, seems to follow a different storyline, so I don't know if they will be connected or not.
I am excited about reading these books and will post a review once they come out. First one is due next month.
My favorite power – Teleportation
Posted by Fozz
Teleportation has long been my favorite superpower and always my favorite thing to do in D&D. As a player, I loved my Assassin's at-will teleportation, stepping into one person's shadow only to appear within my enemies'. My teleporting Swordmage, instantly appearing to smite my marked foe, if he dares to ignore me. And as a DM, nothing messes with your player's well laid plans as a teleporting and phasing Gish Assassin.
Wizards of the Coast has started up a new article series talking about various rules of the game and their first discussion is about Teleportation. It discusses the original rules and the recent rules updates.
If you want to get up to date about the various rules and updates to the teleporting power in D&D check out their new article.
D&D meets Choose Your Own Adventure
Posted by Fozz
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.
New D&D 4E Monster Format
Posted by Fozz
I just read a post over on the D&D website that showed a few examples of the new formatting for the monster stat blocks for D&D 4th Edition. I definitely like the new design as it sorts all the information in a slight easier to use fashion. All of a monster's traits, standard actions, minor actions, and triggered actions are grouped together, which makes it more organized and easier to find it's abilities. Powers also have been changed to have a formatting more similar to a PC's power cards, so each power has an "attack" and "hit" section, etc.
Overall the changes to the monster info block make complete sense and will help DMing run a little more smoothly. Check out a comparison of a Kobold Dragonshield below, side by side.
D&D Intro Video
Posted by Fozz
I have been really impressed with all of the videos WotC has been releasing. The Penny Arcade podcasts and the Robot Chicken videos have all been very cool and fun. This new video discovered by Bucky is a great introduction to D&D 4th Edition, featuring Chris Perkins. I think it is a great introduction to players not familiar with D&D at all or even older players that may not have played in a while.
Player’s Handbook Heroes Set 2 Gallery
Posted by Fozz
The Player's Handbook Heroes Set 2 looks very nice and will make a great addition to any collection. I especially like the Genasi Paladin and Human Swordmage due to their versatility as a wide range of classes.
Sting Review – Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Arcade
Posted by Fozz
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
Posted by Fozz
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.
Upcoming Events
September 4th -Support WeeBeeGamers
Gamer Shirts
Pages
Categories
Comments
Tags
Recent Forum Posts
Login / Site Info
Connect with Facebook
Tshirt Stores
Our Hosting Solution
Recent Comments