Decipher's "Fight Klub" Tough to Decipher
The company behind the old Star Wars and Star Trek CCGs, which ran into various business issues in the past (that I assumed meant we had seen the last of them) is releasing… something. What is that something? It’s still fairly mysterious, but damn if it isn’t ambitious.
Let me see if I can try to parse what I read from the website. They’re making a new CCG. It will feature a bunch of licenses (as many as they can get their hands on) and, well, they won’t be the usual ones. (The one actual card I found on the site is from Reservoir Dogs.) It won’t be sold in stores; it will be shipped right from Decipher. You don’t buy booster packs, you buy “Kilos” which are 121 cards. It will have a pyramid scheme where you invite new players, and then receive a percentage of what they spend on cards. They’re encouraging viral marketing (and the whole thing has a viral marketing feel to it anyway.) There will be gangs/territories, like a cross between the RPGA regions and MMO guilds. Like all their previous games, they’re going to hire models to be their booth babes, a fact they advertise fairly prominently (way to immediately alienate an audience, Decipher.)
Completely absent from the site is ANYTHING ABOUT GAMEPLAY, other than a vague opening about it being a ” wonderful addition to your gaming lifestyle.” What you can find, however, are plenty of comments left from potential players who seem less than excited.
Without more info, of course, I can’t judge this on any level other than “ambitious.” I like the idea of a game with tons of licenses and some of the community stuff, but am completely put off by the models, pyramid scheme, and decision to cut out the Friendly Local Game Stores across the country who did so much for the company previously. Time will tell if non-digital CCGs are ready to make the jump to an internet-supplied business model.
Inq. of the Week: Who's your Dragon?
Inspired by our recent X-Box LANfest, Dave asked everyone what they would do in the event of a Zombie Attack / infestation / outbreak / brunch. Mmmm, Zombie-brunch. 45% of you said you would gladly grab a weapon and start killing – everyone you ever knew, loved, or cared about – because really they’re trying to eat your brains and that’s not cool. 23% of you jumped the gun and have already started repopulating the human race, which I guess is admirable. 12% would stay hidden until the Zombies passed by (we hope), and 11% would all-out run for their lives and hopefully not run to somewhere that there are more zombies. Developing a cure came in at the bottom tied with various other plans detailed in the comments at 5%, it looks like we’re all more about the killin’ and sexin’ than we are about actually solving problems. I can’t say I’m surprised, just a little worried maybe.
I’ve been inspired by Dave’s adventure last night which featured a beautiful mini’s mat titled “Dragon Shrine” and the party fighting statues of each color chromatic dragon (mostly simultaneously) along with a badass statue of Tiamat herself. Not to mention the fact that his entire campaign is built around Dragons and heavily focuses on the colors and aspects of each. This week I’d like to ask what some may consider a fundamental question of IQ, personality, and overall values.
Loading ...Dragons are a very important aspect of D&D, obviously since they’re in the name, but there are so many different kinds even when you just look at the Metallics and Chromatics. Below I’ll list a short blurb about each one of these for people who’d like to research before they choose. [Read the rest of this article]
Chatty's Out of the Box #006: Gummy Dragons
Here’s another comic with some new characters, once again done with the creative support of my good friend PM.
It was about time that I put my gargantuan and Colossal dragons to use, it’s not like I ever needed them in my actual games.
I owe the original idea of this comic to Scotticus, thanks man!
I’m really enjoying doing those, and I’m perfectly aware that it’s not everybody’s thing here. I do it because I get to learn a lot on so many things: digital photography, comic book writing and comedy (which ain’t easy).
I still need to make myself a pair of light diffuser and I should experiment taking pictures from different angles to show different parts of my gaming room (although, the way I currently do it allows me to snap pictures without actually cleaning up my work/play space…)
If you want to see a bit more of my play room, have a look here.
I’m actually thinking of putting the comics on it’s own series of webpage and implement some sort of archive… but I’ve only done 6 so far… so no hurry.
Thanks for humoring me and thanks for the feedback both positive and constructive.
Found a name for my gaming group!
Yesterday, before we started our bi-monthly D&D game, I had to step outside to go and get the last player from the Subway station nearby.
As I got out, I noticed that out of the seven people that play in our group, 4 own a Ford Focus Station Wagon (So Ronin, I may have to call on you soon…)
That gave me the idea for an official name for our group:
The D&D Focus Group!
Feel free to leave your groans in the comments!
The non-Focus drivers own a Honda Fit (me), a Honda Civic (Math) and a Mazda 5 (Yan). I guess it’s a battle of the American Family car vs the Japanese!
Stay tuned for the Campaign log. It was quite a nice game last night.
Upgrading
I’m initiating the upgrade to the new version of WordPress, which is supposed to be a pretty radical change. So prepare for possible weirdness and brokeness.
Upgrade complete. I ran into a few snafus (so there are still some things not working) but oddly none of them had to do with upgrading WordPress. The new admin interface is pretty spiffy, I have to admit, but is going to take some getting used to!
Robin’s Laws Revisited: Part 4, Creating your Campaign
This post is part of a series that revisits Robin Laws’ classic work on Gamemastering, called simply enough Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering.
I tackle each chapter in order. It’s not so much a review of the book but more my views on the subjects Robin touched then. If you want to get better at GMing, this system-neutral book is probably the best 8$, you can spend .
This time it’s about designing and starting a new campaign.
So you have chosen your rules set for your next game (or settled on what everyone agrees to play) and now you want to design your own campaign… Robin Laws discusses a few areas you may want to explore while building your campaign [Read the rest of this article]
Design a Bad Game Exercise
(This is a guest article by Stephen Glenn, designer of You Must Be An Idiot! and the Spiel Des Jahres nominated Balloon Cup. Stephen was responding to Jacob’s article about game design exercises, and gave us his own.)
I have had game design ideas wake me up in the middle of the night. I’m constantly thinking “what could be a new game idea” and I go to sleep, literally, almost every night with bits of design swirling in my head. In fact, I had a breakthrough last night doing exactly that. I have a game that I’m convinced would work GREAT with the Euphrat & Tigris scoring. Unfortunately, it’s the Euphrat & Tigris scoring… an idea so friggin’ wonderful that I couldn’t live with myself if I borrowed it. So I lay awake thinking “how do I reach those ends in a *different* way”. And something occurred to me! I got up, wrote it down, and went back to bed satisfied.
I do something from time to time called the DESIGN A BAD GAME EXERCISE. The concept is that I am under contract to design a game in ONE DAY. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be particularly original. It doesn’t even have to be fun. It just has to be a game that works. Game = a system wherein players compete by making choices. For example, LCR would not qualify as a game even by these minimal standards. Another restriction is that the game can’t be the same as any other game I’m aware of (including those created in previous DESIGN A BAD GAME exercises).
This idea has several things going for it: [Read the rest of this article]
Adventure Prep: My Rewind button
This week, my actual prepping work is rather light.
Since all 6 players are available (What are the odds?) we have to move the game out of my place. I can only accommodate 5 in my gaming den. That means I’ll have to pack my stuff to go to Math’s on Friday evening.
It also just happens that the prepping I did 2 weeks ago wasn’t all used up. To make thing easier still, a big part of the next 2 sessions will be exactly as written in the published adventure I use, i.e. Expedition to the Demonwebs pits.
Anecdotal Aside: Monte Cook was initially approached to tackle this product and he thought it was about mixing Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (a Sci-Fi themed AD&D adventure) with the classic Queen of the Demonweb pits. He envisioned having a party of adventurers taking the ship off Greyhawk and crashing it into the Demonweb… Now that I would have liked to see! When he actually learned what it was about he wasn’t as interested. [Read the rest of this article]
I'm okay but busy…
Title says it all.
With a huge job milestone coming next week and the daily gym, my energy level is steady but on the low side. So when I’m done putting the kids to bed and doing a little prep for my Friday game, there’s no juice left for blogging.
I did manage to perform an elegant, player-approved, Ret Con for last game’s Role Playing debacle and I hope to be able to write on this later this week.
Today I have a 3 hour company-wide meeting and then I have 4 interviews for new positions in our labs…
I’m so taking a few days off after next week 
(Hurrah for unused Vacation days).
Cya later…
YouTube of the Week: Sweded Edition
I really enjoyed seeing “Be Kind Rewind” a few weeks ago, but I also really enjoy that fans around the world have taken it upon themselves to make sweded movies of their own. Above is the fan-made sweded T2. If you enjoy that, check out the Top 10 Sweded Movies and the Be Kind Rewind YouTube channel.
