Articles by Dave Chalker
TheGame is Dave Chalker, a lifelong gamer, freelance game designer, Master of Arts, and son of Jack L. Chalker. Dave is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Hits and so runs the place. He is the envy of geeks everywhere because he's dating e, the Geek's Dream Girl. (Email Dave or follow him on Twitter).
Paying the Buy-In
The problem is a very simple one:
When starting a new campaign (or even just planning a one-shot), it’s tough to get people into a new game. Thus, the game usually ends up being D&D. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it being D&D, but with so many RPGs out there, I enjoy a bit of variety when I can get it.
Why is it so tough? Because the “buy-in” total for the game is too high.
What do I mean by that? The buy-in is anything that has to be contributed by the players (and GM) in order to make the game function. While buying the game itself and any accessories is one form of buy-in, that’s generally not the problem. The problem is how much has to be learned in order to play a new RPG. [Read the rest of this article]
YouTube Tuesday: Singing about Kissing Wookies Edition
An a capella version of various John Williams songs, with new lyrics around Star Wars. Oh, and it’s composited very well, as you’ll see.
Hands-On: D&DI Character Generator Beta
Today, the Beta version of the D&D Insider Character Generator became available to subscribers (and possibly some non-subscribers who signed up to beta test.) At GenCon, we were given a preview of the Character Generator alongside several of the other applications, but we didn’t get a chance to use it hands-on. Today, however, I went through and inputted the character I’m currently playing to test it out, and it all went very smoothly… with one exception.
Installation takes a while, especially on the step to update the .net framework to its current version- a period of about 15 minutes where there’s no indication that anything is happening. A reboot is required, but other than those two things, it went pretty smoothly.
Launching the app takes a little bit, which I’m presuming is when it connects to the Internet to get current data. I expected to have to sign-in to my D&D Insider account, but that did not happen at any step. [Read the rest of this article]
ZeroClix
Citing the tough economic times, Topps announced today it will be shutting down Wizkids. For those who came in late, Wizkids was the studio that made the first clicky-base game MageKnight, and then was able to spin off the concept into their most successful game, HeroClix. They had a string of other clicky-base games, the construct-a-ship game Pirates of Spanish Main, various collectible card games, a board game or two, and a few other miscellaneous products. Topps purchased Wizkids in 2003 (when founder and game genius Jordan Weisman left).
As recently as last year, Wizkids was still a very strong company, running one of the largest booths at Origins, but I don’t recall them having a presence at all in either of this year’s summer shows (though I could be mistaken.)
The ICV2 article notes that they are trying to keep the viable brands going (specifically noting Heroclix, and I’d guess Pirates would be another relatively safe franchise) but I wouldn’t hold my breath for any of their other products.
As always, best of luck to those who recently lost their jobs finding other work, especially the game designers who may have trouble finding work elsewhere, as I fear Wizkids may be only one of the first game companies to fall in this economy. Topps deciding to close Wizkids is a bad sign in and of itself, as it shows that large corporate backers are having problems, which does not bode well for the smaller independant companies.
RPG Bloggers Unite! GenCon Panel
At long last, the audio for our GenCon panel on being an RPG Blogger is up.
The panel includes:
- Myself and Bartoneus
- Yax from Dungeonmastering
- Phil the ChattyDM
- Tasha the StupidRanger
- Bob from RPG Digest
(Which, you’ll note, includes all the founders of the RPG Bloggers Network.)
Therein, in addition to hearing all of our voices, is a lot of great advice for all the RPG Bloggers out there. Find out about why each of us got into it, what tips we can give about writing, receiving comments, search engine optimization (or lack thereof), what blogging platform we recommend, and being you when you blog.
YouTube Tuesday: Vote for Lando Edition
Currently only available at Funny or Die, some campaign ads you need to see before voting. And remember, if the Emperor doesn’t win, he might have to get another job.
Are you ready to ROCK?
Last year, in December, Bill Slavicsek decided to give a holiday present in the form of the entire 4e Elf class in his Ampersand column, one of our first big glimpses directly into 4e. This year, the holidays have come slightly early, but he gives us an unexpected present (one not listed in the editorial calendar): the entire Bard class. To see it, however, you need to be a D&D Insider subscriber.
It turns out that I am (as of last Friday), so here’s some tidbits about the new Bard:
- They are Arcane Leaders (no big surprise there), and they’re better at short rest healing (which all leaders SHOULD be.)
- They’re a jack-of-all trades in several ways, including having a benefit like the feat of the same name, having a huge class skill list, and best of all, can take as many multiclass feats as they want.
- They get their own rituals (which we don’t have yet) which they can cast a limited number of times per day without spending resources.
- They have a number of utility effects for skill-boosting, in the areas traditionally mastered by Bards.
- The two at-wills featured are unusual but very much fitting with leaders.
- Their powers are mainly ranged, focusing on the more arcane end with some musical flavor. Some familiar spell names make their way back in to the Bard’s list, which I’m always fond of.
- They use wands as their implement (conductor-mage, anyone?) but can also use “Songblades” and magic musical instruments. Clearly they missed the mark by not offering axes.
Overall summation is that I like their class abilities quite a lot. The Bard finally comes into its own, buoyed by the leader role. I’m not super-excited about the selection of powers they showcased (with a few exceptions), but that will probably change when I see the final list. I’m looking forward to playing a Bard again for the first time really since 2e: I played them in 3.0 and 3.5 but always ended up dissappointed. (That’s where “Bards Suck!” comes from, after all.) I actually think the 4e Bard has the potential to outstrip the Cleric in healing ability, and is far more appealing to me in play than a Cleric.
A brief comparison to the Advanced Player’s Guide version and the Forgotten Heroes version: Play the APG version (Troubador) if you want more of the swashbuckling type (especially since the WotC one doesn’t use Dex), play the FH version if you want the total Music Mage concept featuring songs as class abilities (and a fairly complex set of abilities), and the WotC version best portrays the “Versitile Inspirer” type.
There you have it, your Bardic options for 4e. Speaking of which, I was amused to find an article Bartoneus wrote last year talking about the missing Bard, which speculated on the four roles and the eight classes in the core book (all correctly.) Always interesting to look back on our speculation and information gathering to see how close we were to the final product!
Inq. of the Week: Presidential Election
Last week, we wanted to find out which of the wonderful pile of games that have just come out you’re planning on buying. The big winner, and I have to agree that it’s a must-buy, is Fallout 3 with 65% of the voters. Second place is Fable 2, recently reviewed here. In third, since our WoW crowd seems to be diminishing, is Wrath of the Lich King. I personally haven’t bought any of the new games on the list because my Xbox 360 started refusing to read disks, and I prefer to play the games I buy instead of just smelling them. So hopefully I’ll replace that soon, and get to enjoy some of these great titles around Xmas-time.
It’s everywhere this week: the Presidential election. While not all of our readers are US citizens, I’m sure the election coverage spills out over the world. So in that spirit, we thought we’d conduct our own informal presidential poll:
Loading ...In case you’re somehow unfamiliar with the candidates, full descriptions after the break:
Mean Things I Have Done in Horror RPGs
- Had a PC’s longtime girlfriend seduced by a butt-ugly vampire.
- Replaced a resurrected PC with his evil twin… permanently. (As a result of this)
- Force said evil twin into working with the PCs after he was disowned by the rest of his doppelganger crew.
- Killed a PC’s roommate, brought him back as a Frankenstein’s Monster. His personality remained mostly unchanged.
- While investigating a missing professor’s home, they came across a pathetic looking dog who seemed to be malnourished… in fact, was filled with demon-rats who exploded out of the dog at an appropriate time. (This is the only time I have made a player cry in one of my games.) [Read the rest of this article]
The Big Switch
Today, I have made a big decision.
For the past two and a half years, I’ve received a monthly comic shipment straight to my door. It was a time when I was buying and reading a lot of comics, and wanted to be in from the beginning on 52, the first of DC Comics series of weekly comics (and the only weekly comic I’ve enjoyed so far.) The local comic shop’s subscription deal wasn’t very good, and in fact, got worse not that much longer after I first inquired about it. I signed up with SciFiGenre because of their price, but I also have to say that I have always been VERY impressed with their service. Rarely any kind of issue whatsoever, and they always let me know when there was a problem with an incoming book. Plus, being able to view upcoming issues and the list of all available titles is a big plus.
However, all that said, I’m canceling my account as of today, and not picking up individual issues any more. [Read the rest of this article]
