Dark Tower is probably the most beloved of the Judges Guild supplements originally published back in the dawn of time (1980). Considered to be a mega dungeon masterpiece it was re-released back in 2007 and original copies command a high price on eBay.
Thankfully Goodman Games and Judges Guild have done a deal which could see this iconic scenario coming back in a ready to play format with revisions for both Dungeons & Dragons 5e or Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC).
According to Goodman Games, the new version will be targeted at PC levels 8 to 12 and will include a whole bunch of new material designed to extend this module into a mini campaign.
This is definitely going on my wishlist and something I would love to run at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club using my go to fantasy system Castles & Crusades.
The Other Godzilla Movie You Haven't Seen
Shin Godzilla (aka Shin Gojira) was released to Japanese aufiences back in 2016 and takes a more traditional approach to the Kaiju movie. Whilst the movie does include some top notch CGI it chooses to employ the classic man in a rubber suit approach made popular through the TOHO Studio classics of yesteryear.
A peculiar movie with lots to say about the geopolitical dominance of the US and it's shared history and ongoing relationship with Japan. It's hard to make a Japanese movie about Godzilla without touching on the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, the miltary occupation and the Self Defence Law of 1954.
Shin Godzilla by Francoyovich (Deviantart)
This movie focuses on the incompetence of the ficticious Japanese Government and the rigid power hierarchy which neuters decision making. I have seen criticism of the absolute cavalcade of one line actors whose entire purpose seems to be appear deliver their line and then disappear. However, it does give a fairly realistic impression that in a state of emergency there would be a lot of beuraucracy and conflict in those types of meeting.
I particularly love the Defence Minister (Kimiko Yo) who is itching to unleash the full destructive power of the SDF like a true hawk. There are some really great moments in this adaptation of Godzilla which make it truly worth the watch.
The Man who Made Catan
I've been playing a lot of Catan Universe lately and YouTube did it's thing again where it suggests videos from my search history. It struck gold this time with a mini documentary about Klaus Teuber, the German dentist who designed Settlers of Catan.
The worldwide success of Catan has made this a family affair with both of Klaus sons now also play full time roles in the company.
HMS Evergiven Gets Stuck in Vital Shipping Canal
Unles you've been hiding under a rock for the last week you will be familiar with the plight of the Golden class container ship the Ever Given which managed to get itself wedged between both banks of the Suez Canal. This one little incident demonstrated how our modern supply chains are so finely balanced that blocking this one canal can bring about massive economic turmoil.
I had to laugh when I stumbled upon the very creative fantasy version created by Limitron and available in both day and night versions on his Patreon.
I love a bit of nautical action in my Dungeons & Dragons and this is an encounter map just itching to be used in an upcoming campaign.
My weekly roundup of news and what I found on the internet.
The King is Back
Godzilla
vs Kong hit streaming services this week and I have to say I was
impressed. It's another installment in the Legendary Pictures franchise
comprising of Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Godzilla vs Kong - The long awaited match up
It doesn't dissapoint.
The
CGI is top notch and the story line pretty bonkers, but what you
really came to see this movie for is a straight up duel between the two
biggest monsters in Hollywood history. There is plenty of additional
content to excite fans of Kaiju movies and without spoilers, this isn't
just about the two biggest Titans duking it out.
An all star cast
of quality actors provide exposition and never overshadow the real
stars. This is a winning formula for Legendary and produces an insane
mind blowing visual spectacle of a popcorn movie which is what the real
fans are after.
Evil Genius Economics
In preparation for my current game at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club I had to invent an evil genius to be at the heart of the current problems that the city is experiencing.
In order to wreak revenge on an epic scale you need to have epic resources and epic managerial skills. Whatever your evil scheme is you will need to amass resources through various shell companies and have unwitting minions essentially funnelling cash into your organisation to keep the lights running at your secret volcanic island hideaway.
Being a costumed superpowered crusader on the other hand is usually a solitary affair and thwarting evil schemes is a simple case of turning up doing a bit of blasting and then off to the next encounter. There isn't much in the way of investment required.
And then I found some playthrough videos of Evil Genius 2: World Domination. The designers have clearly looked long and deep and consider all the vital aspects of the evil genius business model. Worth a look if you are into your worker placement simulations. Available to download on Steam
If you aren't into computer games I can heartily recommend Mwahahaha! which is a 2 to 5 player boardgame which explores the same principles of resource gathering and minion management. Published back in 2013 by White Wolf it is sadly out of print but copies can be snagged on eBay at a reasonable price.
Trailer for Rick and Morty Season 5 Drops
The long awaited season 5 trailer is out and it looks amazing. As a fan of Combining Mecha anime such as Voltron (aka Beast King Go Lion) and 80s puppet show Star Fleet (aka X-Bomber) I am particularly looking forward to them exploring this trope.
Rick and Morty is chock full of great ideas for role playing games. No genre is left untouched from their hypercritical and synical gaze. One of the best sci-fi comedy series in the multiverse.
The new series on Sunday June 20th so yet another date for you to pop in your calendar.
Role Playing Games are a funny business to be in as it specifically appeals your creative side. Once you have purchased the core rules for your system you and are actively encouraged to go off and write your own scenarios. There is really not much incentive to keep buying core rulebooks.
However, whilst I love this part of the hobby as it scratches my story writting itch, I understand how important it is to support small creators who are doing some amazing work. Scalping everything for free doesn't keep the lights on for most publishers.
In fact small publishers often do things for the love of the hobby are some of the most creative people out there which is another really good reason to lend them some financial support.
There are plenty of resources for the time poor DM such as Drive Thru RPG, DMs Guild or Dragonsfoot and one such creator is DMDave who publishes a host of Dungeons & Dragons materials via his Patreon subscription.
These are really high quality productions and feature battle maps by Miska's Maps, additional monster stat blocks and magic item cards. I downloaded the Glaive of the Revenant King and this adventure is the real deal, a ready to run scenario.
Want a taste of how good his products are? Just sign up to his mailing list and you will get a free D&D 5e scenario every month.
The biggest tabletop games convention in the UK has announced it's dates for 2021.
Due to venue refurbishment this is going to be a much smaller event than in previous years but I for one am glad to see it still taking place after the disaster that was 2020. Fingers crossed.
Imagine running the same Dungeons and Dragons campaign since 1982 That's exactly what Robert Wardhaugh of London, Ontario has done for the past 39 years.
Robert Wardhaugh - Playing the same game since 1982 Pic: from CNN article
He regularly posts photos on his instagram account @The_gamednd and has amassed a collection of some 20,000 miniatures. He even has a Hall of Heroes which celebrates every character who has reached level 25. You can read more about Robert, the game and the world over at his website thegamednd.com.
Sometimes the YouTube recommendations algorithm just nails it and this is how I found the amazing carpentry creations of David Lundell. Check him out he has just about something for everyone.
Ask a roleplayer if they have enough dice and they will reply "You can never have enough dice". So who could resist these awesome floating eyeball dice.
There appears to be a trend of people casting their own dice with things embedded in them. I've seen skulls, frogs, penguins and eyeballs. The difference with these dice is that the eyeball floats and always looks up at the number rolled.
At $59 a set (D4, D6, D8, 2 x D10, D12 & D20) they are a premium item and I'm not sure how they would compare in a randomness test against the gold standard Gamescience dice, but they look amazing.
Talking about dice, if you are a fan of the maker community on YouTube you will probably have heard of Wesley Treat. He makes one off custom furniture, signs and light fixtures in an Americana style inspired by his years as a photographer trekking across the USA capturing it's disintegrating history.
Wesley takes you through the whole process of constructing the classic platonic solids we know and love. If you have ever tried to do this yourself you know it's hard enough making it out of cardboard never mind steel. A fascinating video and a great YouTube channel if you are at all interested in art, design or making things.
This week's roundup of what caught my eye on the internet.
Justice League the Snyder Cut
The long awaited (and hard fought for) directors cut of the panned Justice league movie was released on HBO Max on the 18th March. This was definitely on my list of films to see although I'm wasn't sure I would be able toto manage the advertised 4 hour run time in one sitting. Thank God for streaming services where you can resume watching from where you left off.
Justice League - The Snyder Cut
I won't spoil it for anyone, but if you saw the original movie and thought it were dissapointed then you are in for a real treat. There's more bonus material in this than the original so really it is a completely different movie.
I am also rarely impressed with Director's cuts. I am a huge fan of the original theatrical release of Bladerunner (1982) as I thought Harrison Ford's Mikey Spillane voiceover added so much detail and really missed it in the Ridley Scott cut.
That said I still I hold out hope for the 4 hour long cut of David Lynch's Dune (1984).
Fresh from their two successful live stream games Comic Relief are giving you all the opportunity to enter a competition to win a seat at an epic two day Live D&D event at Warwick Castle.
The game will be hosted by Mark Hulmes (High Rollers D&D) plus other Renaissance Fayre style events like a jousting tournament, the chance to win a handcrafted sword, a falconry exhibition and learn how to fight like a hero from medieval experts.
You can donate on the Comic Relief website and the competition closes on 4th April 2021.
Gaslands (mad max with matchbox cars) has been a bit quiet since the epic launch of Gaslands Refuelled.
This week saw the release of TX4 - Wasteland Survival Handbook which is essentially a series of 6 scenarios which form a wasteland campaign. This is not a huge update, there are no additional factions for example. Instead it focuses on building a system for running a championship tournament.
It's all about flavour and whilst fans have been stringing race series together since the game was published three years ago, TX4 brings a canonised version to your game.
Gaslands at Dragons Keep
I'm a big fan of Gaslands and it is by far my favourite set of post apocalyptic car combat rules (believe you me I've tried em all). When my club Dragons Keep can host one of its famous Game Day events following the relaxation of lockdown, I will be dusting off my Gaslands Cars and enjoying some car carnage.
Dragons Keep now on YouTube
We now have a YouTube channel which we can use to show off how awesome our club and its members are. Expect regular content updates once we are back in our venue and we can take some video footage of our fantastic facilities. To whet your appetite here is a little video featuring some of the modelling prowess of our talented miniature painting members Sam & Tony. (Ed: they paint miniatures they aren't miniature members!!)
I've never had a problem with people copying what we do at Dragons Keep, after all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Especially when you are unimaginative and not very creative. As they say "you've got to keep up with the Dragons Keep" isn't that right Mrs. Jones.
If you are a Kaiju fan then you will probably have enjoyed the two Pacific Rim movies. The debate rages on about whether the second movie was any good and whether or not Guillermo del Toro will ever return to the franchise.
However, this week Netflix released a 7 part anime series called Pacific Rim: The Black.
The creators of Pacific Rim have created an engaging and epic setting and one which definitely deserves a Role Playing Game adaptation. It blends two of the best things of of modern Japanese culture; Giant Kaiju Monsters and Gian Mecha Robots.
CoraQuest, a dungeon crawling co-operative family boardgame, is the brainchild of Cora (8) and Dan Huges (44) who have been making game review videos as Dice Tower content creators for 4 years.
GaryCon is the annual D&D convention which celebrates the life and work of Gary Gygax. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions the event will be virtual only. For UK Roleplayers this means that you can save money on flights and hotel accommodation and attend from the comfort of your living room.
Whilst most boardgames are affordable around £30 a few can be quite expensive and they take up a lot of space, so if you are a cash and space limited boardgame fan what do you do?
You rent a boardgame. Yes you can now rent a boardgame through Rent-A-Meeple.
Sign up to one of their monthly subscriptions from £14.99 a month and get 1 boardgame sent to you postage included. You can keep the game as long as keep up your subscription or you can return it and replace it with a different boardgame.
As boardgamers we've all bought a game that was the new hotness or looked great on kickstarter but ended up being a lemon. Using Rent-A-Meeple is a great way to try out that game before you buy.
There are 16 subscription options to suit every pocket and style of play and if you really like a game and want to buy it, just email the company and they will tell you if it is for sale.
Dragons Keep Affilliated with Online Games Retailer Gamessesh
The management team are hard at work behind the scenes making my Friday night game group Dragons Keep Roleplay Club one of the best in the country. We are proud to ammounce that we are now affiliated with online games retailer Gamessesh. Club Members get a sizeable discount at checkout.
Details of how you can access your discount are in the Members Benefits channel on the club discord server.
Join Dragons Keep for Tabletop Roleplaying in South East London
If you are a tabletop gamer living in Bexley, Bromley, Chislehurst,
Dartford, Eltham, Greenwich, Lewisham, Orpington or Sidcup then Dragons Keep might be your local games group in South East London.
We are passionate gamers who meet every Friday from 7pm to 11pm at our venue in Chislehurst. We are always looking for new players and we play a wide variety of tabletop Role Playing Games in addition to Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) we play Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds and many many more.
We also organise several Games Day events throughout the year at weekends so you can satisfy your tabletop boardgame obsession. Contact Us through our website www.dragonskeep.co.uk our facebook page or our meetup page and talk to us about your passion.
Swede Dude Makes 3D Catan out of Toilet Paper and Glue
I rekindled my appreciation of Klaus Teuber's Settlers of Catan this week updating my iPad with the latest version of the app, now called Catan Universe. It's a cleaner rendition of this classic game and just as frustrating challenging to play. However, I'm damned if I can work out how to restore all my purchases from Catan HD. Answers in the doubley doo below please.
Of course this has meant that my YouTube recommendations are full of Catan related videos, which is how I stumbled on YouTuber Projects Electrify Weekend. Strange considering that I subscribe to many of the DIY Science channels like Applied Science, Great Scott, Integza and of course the mad electrician himself Electroboom. Something is clearly amiss with the reccomendations algorithm over at YouTube.
I've always lusted after a 3D Catan board and Oliver demonstrates that it's only my own procrastination that is not making this a reality.
D&D Adventurers League Drops the PH+1 Rule
I've kind of known about the D&D Adventurers League for some time but as I am not really into tournament play or "sanctioned events" (I had a couple of fairly horrific experiences playing living Greyhawk back in the day when the RPGA (Role Playing Game Association) had a UK presence.
Now call me cynical but, the current modus operandi of WotC is to release mini source books and big campaigns rather than pocket money adventures which would keep your game going for the next few weeks.
It is entirely possible that rules for some characters may be spread across multiple books encouraging GMs and players alike to buy these wholy unnecessary extra books just for a couple of paragraphs or "official" rules text.
My point is that the rule of PH+1 (ie: characters must only come from the Players Handbook +1 other sourcebook) may well have been preventing the latest cool new character classes from ever seeing the light of day in organised play events.
In the case of Ravenloft, it's a whole gothic horror subgenre all to itself, which seems to be the saveur du mois (Flavour of the month) these days that could only have been hurting play.
BTW: You can download the back catalogue of Living Forgotten Realms content for D&D 4e if that floats your boat.
Well it had to happen sooner or later. Boardgame publishing behemoth Asmodee has bought the popular virtual table top simulator Board Game Arena (BGA). Is there nothing this company doesn't own?
Assurances have been made that BGA will continue to be run independently and the good news is that this purchase will ensure that the Asmodee catalogue of games is fully accessible to the games designers.
Thanks to COVID-19 BGA saw 600% growth which must have surely put it in Asmodee's crosshairs. I for one joined last year and have enjoyed the ease of use and the social aspects of the platform. Feel free to add me as a friend (Tonybro001) and am always wanting a game of Race for the Galaxy or 7 Wonders.
It seems like only last week I was sharing news about the new D&D Movie reboot (Ed: it was) and lo and behold national treasure Hugh Grant has confirmed that he is joining the cast of the Dungeons & Dragons movie to play the as yet unnamed villian role.
A few years ago this might have made me groan with dread as he was still being cast as floppy haired romantic idiots. However, that was before I watched him in the Guy Ritchies excellent The Gentlemen (2019). Frankly he blew me away with his portrayal of scheming crime journalist Fletcher. He can turn on the machiavellian menace when he needs to so I am really looking forward to this movie.
Gina Carano Firing Controversy
Daughter of the Wolf
You would have to have been living under a rock for the last few weeks not to have read something about Gina Carano being fired from Star Wars: The Mandalorian despite being the most popular character after Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). Yes she was more popular among fans than Pedro Pascal's title character The Mandalorian (aka Din Djarrin).
As you probably know I am currently running a Judge Dredd Campaign for my Friday night Roleplay Club Dragons Keep and so I am constantly thinking about Judge Dredd.
What joy then to hear that Penguin Random House have produced a series of Judge Dredd audiobooks based on a range of popular 2000AD characters. You can checkout their range over at Audible.
Bromley had until recently had only one dedicated games store. Yes you could get your Games Workshop fix at the Warhammer store and yes you could buy some of the most popular games at Waterstones, but if you wanted to buy anything that was remotely niche or you wanted some Army Painter or Vallejo paints then War Boar was the place to go. Unfortunately, they bit the dust just before the pandemic, closing their doors in late 2019.
Troll Trader Bromley is a new venture in association with Cornwall based miniature manufacturer TTCombat.com. The new shop is located at 3 The Mall, Bromley, BR1 1TS (directly opposite Iceland and Poundland).
Troll Trader Bromley
With the Lockdown still in effect, I sincerely hope that they managed to open physically as I'm running out of paint!!
Rege-Jean Page has officially signed on for the new Paramount Dungeons & Dragons movie alongside Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu). Slated for a 2022 release the movie is written and directed by the partnership of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night, Spiderman Homecoming).
There's scant details at the moment, but this is seen as a welcome 4th movie and a reboot of the Dungeons & Dragons movie series (Which I must rewatch) given the renewed popularity of Dungeons & Dragons.
After a 4 month hiatus YouTuber Wyloch's Armoury is back in the saddle and building cheap as chips scenery again. I have been waiting with baited breath to see the culmination of the Tomb of Horrors Dungeon Series (now on Part 9) and am so glad to see him return to D&D crafting. Keep up the great work.
Tabletop Gaming Magazine
I can't say that I've been into a Newsagents for quite some time and haven't bought a monthly magazine in even longer so it's no surpise that I missed the launch of Tabletop Gaming Magazine in 2017.
However, doing some promotional work for my Friday Night club Dragons Keep has meant that our paths have finally crossed.
They have recently launched a Tabletop Gaming YouTube Channel which is a refreshing addition to my subscribed list rather than than the plethora of American channels which seem to pump out let's play video after video ad nauseum. It's nice to hear an English accent with high production values for a change.
The Glenn (Ford) and Mike (Hutchinson) show is a particular highlight as the two hosts are responsible for my favourite tabletop game of car carnage Gaslands.
In the best tradition of John Craven's Newsround here's my rundown of "What I Learned" on the Internet this week.
Gelatinous Cube Love Song
I've always considered Gelatinous Cubes to be unfeeling unsentient slimes with the notable exception of the Forgotten Realms Glabagool. However, Ginny Di has obviously spent far too much time considering the romantic emotions of the most famous slimes of D&D Lore, penning this 1950s style ditty of unrequited love.
I was recently made aware of these cool looking light up dice which might be launching on Kickstarter soon. They were supposed to go live in June 2020 but for some reason (possibly a worldwide epidemic) they didn't.
The dice are purported to connect digitally to Virtual Tabletops like Roll20 so what you roll in meatspace appears in the VTT. The designers have undergone exhaustive product testing and produced randomness comparisons with the gold standard platonic solid random number generating Gamescience Dice and those Chessex ones mere mortals use.
Clearly they know what their target market wants and, fingers crossed, they get their ducks in a row and launch soon.
Bonkers Bladesmith Fashions Real Life Gotrek Axe
YouTuber Michael Cthulhu has excelled himself once more and made a life size replica of the famous Axe from Warhammer's Gotrek and Felix novels. No stranger to building stupid sized axes, Michael has really gone balls out on this one and you can follow every step of the way in his 4 part series on YouTube.
Mike is a larger than life character but this time he is dwarfed (pun intended) by the size of this iconic weapon, wielded by one of Warhammer's most iconic characters. As part of a charity live stream raising money for Doctors Without Borders (Medicine Sans Frontier), Mike shaves his hair and cosplays as the famous Dwarf before taking one for the team and needing medical attention himself.
Are you Struggling to Find a Roleplay Group Near You?
It's hard enough to find likeminded Tabletop RPG fans near you at the best of times but this has only been made worse by the current year predicament and the various lockdowns which have been imposed on everyone.
At Dragons Keep we are looking to recruit players from our local area (South East London) in anticipation of our venue reopening in the very near future so that we can return to playing face to face as soon as possible.
Our Tabletop RPG Club is in Chislehurst, South East London, within easy reach of Bexley, Bromley, Dartford, Eltham, Greenwich, Lewisham, Sidcup and Orpington. But that's too far a commute for many people and whilst we are playing online games it is a purely temporary measure.
We thought it would be helpful to provide some tips and tools to help you find a local group which is right for you.
I'm an occasional user of D&D Beyond so this almost slipped under my radar. Several of the D&D Beyond team left parent company Fandom including co-founder Adam Bradford, Tom Kenreck and community manager Lauren Oboe. Now this might not seem like a big thing, but it might also be a foreshadowing of things to come.
From a managerial perspective it makes a lot of sense that you subcontract out the creation of game software to people who are expert at that sort of thing and reduce or shift the risk of development.
However, if it's a big hit, you now have a situation that a significant proportion of your customer base is using a product you don't technically control and have to pay twice for the same content. Whilst you might get a cut of that cash under a licensing deal with said software company, it's a significant barrier to your future growth.
Is this the precursor to a WotC acquisition? Potentially, but it could just be individuals wanting to take advantage of new opportunities which have arisen. Time will Tell.
As reported by Clownfish TV, apparently the social justice gatekeepers on Twitter are up in arms about the portrayal of one character in the new WotC approved D&D video stream The Stuff of Legends. This outrage comes despite that voice actress Shanna Malcolm specifically requested that her puppet be a big bewbed lady Dragonborn Barbarian.
I'm not usually a huge fan of these Critical Role style games but Stuff of Legends is doing something pretty cool which appeals to my generation raised on The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock. IMHO, having the puppets acting out the scenes really adds to the seperation between character and player. I love it.
Honestly, I get so tired of the box ticking virtue signalling manufactured outrage that I feel the only answer is to say:
"You go girl!!"
£438 for a Digital Boardgame!!
Dropping into my inbox thanks to Asmodee Digital was this article touting the latest innovation in boardgame technology, the digital boardgame.
SquareOne is essentially a square tablet with an interactive border giving you a new way to play some of the most popular boardgames on the market. Obviously Asmodee are heavily invested in this with 3 of their titles (Ticket to Ride, Terraforming Mars and A Game of Thrones) already having implementations. The indiegogo project is backed by some of the other big names in boardgames including Kosmos, Ravensburger and Call of Cthulhu creator Sandy Petersen.
Backers can get in on the action for a mere £438 for the standard edition with an 8 game starter pack. Whilst my eyes watered at this sort of investment (remember these crowd funded projects aren't guaranteed) when you consider that the average cost of a board game these days is about £40 then you are approaching a price point parity.
However, one of the great attractions of boardgames for me is that they are
physical products. They don't require an ongoing subscription to an
internet service to play them, or an app to be downloaded. If I want to
thin out my collection and sell one, I can. Unlike technology they
don't have a product lifespan and tend to hold or even appreciate in
value.
That said, I do own several digital editions of boardgames for my iPad. One of my favourites being Race for The Galaxy (also on Android, Steam and Boardgamearena) which has to be the best card game implementation I know of. I've playtested the crap out of it during COVID-19 lockdown and racked up some 2,000+ games. I guess for me the holy grail is to have an implementation which can run on ubiquitous hardware which I already own and be a VTT for Role Playing Games.
I can see the appeal of having all your games in one little box compared to having a house full of cardboard (particularly for the millenial generation rent) and it does look like a pretty cool way of playing some of your favourite games.
If like me you are constantly firing up a new tab to check what BGG thinks about a game you have just read about then this firefox plugin is for you. Simply highlight a word on a web page and right mouse click to open a new tab with the games BGG entry on it. So simple even Oleg would approve.
David Neumann's iOS News Blog on Boardgame Geek is a must read if you're an iPad owning boardgamer and I was over the moon when I read that Games Workshop had signed a deal with Full Control to develop an iOS version of Space Hulk.
I've been buying PDFs from the likes of RPGNow / DriveThruRPG and printing them at home for a few years now, but recently I took the plunge and decided to order my first Print on Demand (PoD) product. Being based in the UK, I've always been reticent to use the PoD option as the costs have been quite high to have things printed in the US and shipped to the UK, but a couple of things made made me take the plunge.
I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of OBS, Steve Wieck, via his blog OneBlogShelf, which re-energised my passion for making games. I've had a few ideas for card games in the past and so this was a great opportunity to try out the PoD option particularly with respect to cards.
Another advantage of OBS was that I could convert some of the proceeds from my own product sales into credit with which to purchase the PoD copy of the Outrider cards
Following the recent launch of DriveThruCards,
a One Book Shelf (OBS) site which specialises in printing card games, I
discovered Outrider, an auto duelling tabletop game by Dice Fest Games
which featutures an innovative movement/manoeuvre mechanism using
cards. I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic road racing games and sook
took advantage of the Launch Discount and got the whole PDF + POD Cards
for £17.04 including delivery.
What Makes Playing Cards so Special?
I've made my own cards in the past for things like my DM's Decision Deck and My Item Cards and whilst I'm really happy with the results from my own prints there are a few things unique to playing card printing which are pretty insurmountable for the Print-at-Home (PaH) user.
Double Sided Printing - The major advantage of PoD over PaH is that you get access to commercial grade print technology Yes with a little lot of trial and error you can get pretty good results, but you will never match commercial printers which use registration marks for alignment.
Print / Paper Quality - Home printers have come on in leaps and bounds but there is no escaping that with every incremental increase in quality you have an exponential increase in cost. High grade papers are really pricey and tend to drink ink like a vampires drink blood. If you want a photo quality result you have to suffer that slightly tacky feel which as you can imagine does not make for good playing cards. Casino's are very particular about their casino quality cardstock which has a very high opacity preventing stopping people seeing the card values through the substrate.
Cutting - Several cards are usually printed on a single sheet and unlike books are not bound together before guillotining. I've had some great results at home, but inevitably you do end up with cards either not having precisely the same dimensions or being gaffed in some way.
What You Get
The Outrider download consists of 8 files; the rules, a scenario booklet, a series of optional Terrain Tiles and 5 files of cards, counters and dashboards. The printed cards which will be delivered to you from the printer consist of:
18 x Manouevre cards.
8 x Vehicle cards (double sided 16 vehicles in total).
8 x Dashboards (double sided 1 for each vehicle).
15 x Counter cards (require cutting up before use).
3 x Range Cards (double sided single/double fire lanes).
1 x Turn Order/Control Loss Reference Card.
1 x Lucky/Second Wind car.
A sample of the 54 different cards contained in the deck
I would have preferred to have multiple sets of the manoeuvre cards included in the PoD element rather than the included tokens. Personally, I find thicker cardstock counters are easier to pick up during play and would have been happy to do a little bit of DIY before being able to play. Similarly the included Dashboards and Vehicle cards are double sided meaning that you can only play one of each style of vehicle unless you print your own duplicates. At the end of the day you have all the files necessary in the PDF element so it's not too much of a hassle to print additional cards.
From the point of order it took about 12 days for my order to arrive, which is pretty good considering that it has to be processed, printed and delivered to the UK. I suspect that if a UK printer/distributer could be sourced this time lag would be greatly reduced.
A really nice poker style plastic card box was supplied for free (sadly, mine had a little crack in the lid)
The cards come cellophane wrapped, with a nice plastic poker style protective case. Print quality is superb with a nice glossy finish. Although the cardstock used was nice enough, it is slightly thinner in weight to regular playing cards. This may become an issue in the future as I'm not confidentt it will stand up to normal gaming wear and tear from a bunch of hamfisted boardgamers.
How did the costs stack up
As I mentioned before, the discounted price for the PDF and POD Cards was £17.04 (which includes USPS First Class postage to the UK at £6.73) which compares favourably with say a Fantasy Flight Silverline game such as Bruno Faidutti's Citadels. The cost of postage from the US to the UK is a significant proportion of the price (almost 40%). This is of course largely out of the hands of either the printer or OBS and is the one issue which needs to be overcome if PoD as a concept will become generally accepted.
Final Thoughts
For me although the cost was comparable to a mass printed card game, the quality of the cardstock was a little dissapointing. I also hope that the guys at OBS can source some UK based printing companies to add to their cadre of US ones. This would certainly go a long way to making me choose PoD as a viable alternative to just buying from one of the big games manufacturers. At the moment it's a bit of a 50/50 choice, which will most likely be decided by how much I lust after a particular game or not.
I have yet to actually play the game, so stay tuned for a follow up review.
The Secret DM is running a great contest with an awesome prize...
A complete set of WOTCs recently reprinted 1st edition AD&D books!!
and
The chance to have your submission published in a professionally produced digital edition!!
All you have to do is to come up with a 10 room dungeon which evokes the feeling of 1st edition and submit your entry to thesecretdm@gmail.com with the subject line Gygax Contest.
The contest runs until 27th September 2012, so get your designing pens out... I know I will.
iPhone 3G box - nicely sized for use
as a dice tower or dice box
Prepare to decouple
Decoupled!
Ready to nest
Nested and ready for action!!
Okay, so it's not a dice tower made out of actual iphones, rather just the extremely sturdy boxy it came in. I stumbled on this instructable the other day and knocked this out in a lull between olympic events last night.
My iphone 3G got stolen a couple of years ago and I still had the box, so i decided to put the box to good use. The 3G box is considerably larger than either the 3GS or the iphone 4 boxes (as used in the instructable) and makes a more practicle dice tower and also doubles as a capacious dice box.
I followed the general guide in the instructable, but as I wasn't using exactly the same box, I needed to fiddle with the dimensions of the opening hole. I also elected to just go with one baffle which throws the dice forwards onto the cradle and then down onto the 45 degree baffle at the bottom. I think that the second baffle's job is to slow down the dice, lessening bounce-out, so I would reccommend that you stick with the instructable and put 2 baffles in if you try this yourself.
After construction I discovered that my hand was just a bit too podgy to comfortably retrieve the dice and the visibility from an observers point of view was also quite poor.
It was a trivial matter to trim the edges of the lid at a angle to rectify this whilst maintaining its function as a lid. I also discovered during modification that there is enough material in the off-cuts to make your baffles. It is entirely possible to construct the dice tower solely from the contents of the iphone box with no need to resort to scraps of foam board. Of course you will still need the glue to hold the whole thing together.
The other advantage of the using an iphone 3G box is that it comes with foam pre-glued into the lid already, which dramtically reduces the chance of dice bouncing out.
This year was a landmark birthday for me as I hit the big 4-0... Ouch.
Blood Bowl Team Manager The Card Game
However, my work colleagues bought me some Forbidden Planet vouchers which I promptly blew on Fantasy Flight's Blood Bowl Team Manager the card game. The game attempts to recreate the fun of Games Workshop's classic Bloodbowl but rather than being a focusing on just one match between two teams, it follows an entire 5 week season of matches with up to 4 teams battling it out in the Blood Bowl Tournament.
Tonight, I bribed my step-daughter into playing the first game with me (so I could learn the rules) by promising to do the washing up for her. She wasn't too keen with either the theme or the complexity until she started to get to grips with using the powers on her team upgrade cards and then proceeded to beat my human team with her orcs.
I loved the fact that the matches are boiled down to just the weeks highlights, which sportsfans will recognise as homages to the weekly round-ups on ESPN. This mechanic forces players to make choices about which cards to play in which highlight in order to maximise their chances of getting rewards such as team or staff upgrades, fans or being able to draft star players.
Although I've only played this game once it does manage to capture some of the flavour of the original game and features some of the famous star players like Morg 'N' Thorg and the Dwarven Death Roller. It plays quite quickly (our game took slightly less than 90 minutes including reading the rules) and has a nice level of randomness. Needless to say I loved it and am itching to don my spiked helmet and give it another go very, very soon. 8/10 - Spiketastic
P.S. There are some great tutorials out there on how to play the game from the team at Fantasy Flight and Crits Happen and a review from the always excellent Tom Vassel's The Dice Tower
I was so incensed this morning with Apple's ridiculous Apple ID security questions and the lack of sensible choices it provoked me to ranting.
When offering choices for security questions they have to:
1. PROVOKE CONSISTENT ANSWERS - The best security question always has only 1 answer and a person should be able to answer with 100% reliability consistently. Asking someone "What is your favourite car you have owned?" may have an answer which changes over time, you could easily buy a new car next week and your preference may change.
2. PEOPLE FORGET - Fact is we are all getting older and our memories fail us, so asking a teenager "What is the name of you first teacher?" will likely provoke a consistent response more frequently than a 40 year old.
3. PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES - Even though we are all sharing in this global digital experiment they call the Internets, our personal experiences are different depending on our age, sex, nationality and culture. Ask a person from India "What is the first car you have owned?" and they may never have owned a car. If subsequent question choices always contain one car question then you have dramatically reduced their options for selecting a question that they can reliably answer in a consistent fashion (see 1 above).
4. IF YOU'RE GOING TO FORCE PEOPLE TO SUPPLY 3 DIFFERENT ANSWERS DON'T HAVE QUESTIONS WHICH CAN PROVOKE THE SAME ANSWERS - If you ask "What was your first car?" and then in another question "What was your favourite car?" don't be suprised if people choose the same answer!! They may have only ever owned one car, but more importantly people often have a fondness for their first of any experience. I can remember the number plate of my very first car almost 20 years ago yet I can't remember the number plate the car that I own now!!
What annoyed me most is that there was simply no reason for this to happen, and it wouldn't if Steve Jobs had gotten wind of it. The content of the question and it's answer are entirely irrelevant and merely exist as a way to provoke a validateable response in 100% of cases. Therefore the only logical method is to is ask your users to write their own questions and answers and not to force them to choose between your choices in an Adventure Gamebook style!
