Articles by Danny Rupp
Danny works professionally as an architect and serves as managing editor here at CH, which means he shares many of the duties of being an editor but without the fame and recognition. He also writes about RPGs, videogames, movies, and TV. He is married to Sucilaria, and has a personal blog at Incorrect Blitz Input. (Email Danny or follow him on Twitter).
Venture Brothers: Watch It
I’m very happy to say that the third season of the cartoon the Venture Brothers started three weeks ago on Cartoon Network. You don’t know what Venture Brothers is, you say? Well that’s exactly why I’m posting this, to let everyone who just happens to come here but still doesn’t know about this excellent show in on what it’s all about.
Venture Brothers is a very adult themed spoof of Johnny Quest type shows, it runs on Adult Swim which should give you some idea of what I mean when I say “adult themed”. If you liked the animated The Tick series, then you will most likely love VB because the main creator (Jackson Publick) of VB worked on The Tick as well. The show’s title might give you the impression that it focuses on the adventures of the appropriately named Venture brothers, but they are really secondary to their father, former boy wonder Rusty Venture, and his hilarious bodyguard Brock Samson (voiced by Patrick Warburton). The show beautifully blends several themes like fantasy, super-science, and campiness into a supple goo of episodic television content. The first two seasons of the show are available on DVD, but what really inspired this post is the now running third season.
Right now it is only three episodes in to the season, but from just those episodes I can tell that the whole package will be worth buying on DVD. The animation seems to have significantly improved from the previous seasons, and the writing seems to have an extra layer of polish on it. [Read the rest of this article]
Gaming in Ancient Rome
A friend sent me a link for something really interesting, it’s an auction by Christie’s for a d20 from Ancient Rome! It looks like the Caesars may have been playing D&D pre-1st Edition.
From the site:
A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE
Circa 2nd Century A.D.
Deep blue-green in color, the large twenty-sided die incised with a distinct symbol on each of its faces
2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm.) wideAcquired by the current owner’s father in Egypt in the 1920s.
Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period. Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.
Also of particular interest to us is that apparently it currently is the property of a Maryland Fine Arts professor. For just $17,925 it looks like you could possess the potential source of the first critical hit…or fumble.
I think we all know what game they were using it for…
How to Compare Birds to Fish
A common topic has come up several times throughout various discussions that has been wracking my brain lately. The discussions it has been most prevalent in are ones that pertain to game design, and specifically tabletop games or computer games. About two days ago a reader commented on my post which was mostly ranting about the intricacies of the comparison made between 4th Edition D&D and World of Warcraft. Part of the comment echoes something I’ve heard time and time again from people, usually ones who would rather not make any points and instead just wish the discussion to go away. The part of the comment I’m referring to is:
anyway its imho a bit hard to compare D&D with WoW, one is a Computer and one a P&P game, do you also compare birds to fish?
Let’s start simple here, and as I’ve said many people have used this argument to try and stifle any kind of discussion on the subject: all of them are wrong in their base assumption that when you compare two things they must be similar in numerous ways. This is a closed-minded assumption which limits our capacity for creative thinking. You can , quite easily, compare birds to fish. They are both animals, they have two eyes, they both need oxygen to live, birds do not live in water while fish do. That was a simple comparison of birds and fish, and yet when it comes to a game like D&D people make it sound like you’re killing the Pope by comparing it to a videogame. [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: Which Edition?
Just over a week ago Dave wrapped up his 18 Adventure long, and final, D&D 3.5 Campaign with a definitively epic finale. This inspired him to ask you all how many campaigns you’ve been in that have seen completion, to which a huge 30% of you voted that you’ve never had a campaign finish, or been involved in only one ongoing campaign. 2-3 finished campaigns was the next highest option with 25%, followed by only one campaign at 12%, and a whopping 10+ campaigns finished came in next with 11%. Those seem like pretty good numbers, though there are 5 people who voted for not playing RPG’s or not playing in campaigns, for those people we’d love to hear from you because a vocal minority is always interesting to hear from!
Last Friday D&D was pretty much unavoidable, as the controversial and awaited 4th Edition core books launched with what seemed like a thundrous fury, we’re all extremely happy that the launch successfully sustained through leaked PDF’s and early shipments to still raise quite a bit of excitement. Dave expressed that he is a bit weary of talking about the flaws with certain games, and so I’m going to posit a question of positivity!
What is your favorite edition of Dungeons & Dragons?
- I don't play D&D! (3%, 9 Votes)
- D&D Original (all versions) (4%, 10 Votes)
- Advanced D&D (7%, 17 Votes)
- AD&D 2nd Edition (9%, 22 Votes)
- 3rd Edition D&D (3%, 8 Votes)
- 3.5 / 3.x Edition D&D (30%, 78 Votes)
- 4th Edition D&D (44%, 114 Votes)
Total Voters: 258
Loading ...Inq of the Week: Wii Wheel Rock You?
Oh, the pun hurts. Last week Dave asked everyone what their primary influences are in the Fantasy genre, and I’d say it’s no surprise at all that Tolkien Middle Earth and Lewis’ Narnia were the most common influence(77%). Next most influential were 70’s-90’s film, including Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and Willow with 44%, then Classic Myth, like Beowulf and the Odyssey with 40%. Not far behind those were modern fantasy movies like the LotR trilogy, followed by Howard’s Conan, Leiber’s Lankmar, Zelazny’s Amber, Moorcock’s Elric, etc, and then Weis & Hickman’s Dragonlance, and other D&D-inspired fiction. It’s very interesting to look at and sculpt a collective idea of what we all think Fantasy is by looking at our biggest influences and how they mesh together. Especially when it comes to any individual D&D game, which can incorporate elements from any number of the influences listed in that poll.
This week’s poll comes courtesy of my lovely wife, who has been playing Mario Kart Wii for the last two days almost non-stop. If you don’t own a Wii, or haven’t played Mario Kart on it, then surely you’ve at least seen the Wheel that comes with it and so please vote based on whether you like the idea of using it to play or not.
Do you use the Wii Wheel for Mario Kart?
- Yes, only losers don't use the wheel! (64%, 28 Votes)
- No, I use a different controller. (36%, 16 Votes)
Total Voters: 44
Loading ...Some people have scoffed at the $10 price tag to purchase more wii wheels, others just like the use a gamecube controller because it feels familiar and comfortable from Mario Kart Double Dash. My first encounter with using the wheel was confusing and painful, but a few times after that I started to adjust and think it’s quite fun to use. What are your thoughts?
Session Report & Review: Keep on the Shadowfell (Part 1)
We were very privileged to receive a promotional copy of the first Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition adventure module, entitled Keep on the Shadowfell, which comes with a small set of quick start rules as an introduction to the yet-to-be-released edition of the game. Dave and I took the opportunity to gather a group of friends last Friday night and give the first portion of the adventure a try. Judging from what we got through in the 3-4 hour session we played, and from reading through the module book, Keep on the Shadowfell is at least 3 gaming sessions worth of material assuming you don’t do two marathon or speed adventures to get through a lot of it in fewer sittings.
The module comes with a full adventure book for the DM that contains comprehensive quick start rules for 4th Edition and the usual walkthrough of the whole adventure, as well as a small book with all of the non-DM specific rules and the pre-made character sheets. Included are a Dwarven Fighter, Human Wizard, Half-Elf Cleric, Halfling Rogue, and Dragonborn Paladin, all of which seem to be much more finished than the Dungeon Delve characters that Dave and I saw at the D&D Experience back in late February. The basic rules themselves are very similar to everything you know from 3.5e D&D, with some very notable exceptions.
First off, we were very happy to see that our namesake is restored to its former glory in that rolling a 20 now automatically scores a critical hit and you do maximum damage for the attack. The turn sequence is now more refined, with players having a Standard Action, Move Action, and a Minor Action on their turn. [Read the rest of this article]
A Game of Epic Numbers
There’s a lot of buzz going around about the soon-to-be-released 4th Edition D&D Adventure Keep on the Shadowfell, some people even did a ridiculously thorough read through of it, though Phil does provide a great review / preview there for it. One thing that he mentions is the hit points of monsters at such low levels, one level 3 elite brute having over 100 hit points for example. From the looks of it 1st level characters in D&D will have between 25-35 hit points starting out, but what has changed is that they only gain a small number (under 10) each level. The result is that by levels 4 or 5 it looks like a 3.5e character with good rolls will be about even, and then by level 7 or so 4th Edition characters will actually have less hit points then in previous editions.
In chatting with Phil about this, because he’s known for doing that, he reminded me that this was one of the efforts towards extending the ‘sweet spot’ of the game, ramping up the early game a bit and allowing the late game to taper off much less. The result that I foresee, and am very much in love with, is the idea that this may prevent the numbers in later games from becoming too ridiculous. [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: Play to the DM
Last monday, to wrap up our Unofficial Review Weekend, Dave’s poll asked which Nick Fury was the better Nick Fury, Sammy J or David Hasselhoff. An overwhelming majority of 76% thought that Samuel L. Jackson made a better Nick Fury, while 15% thought the Hoff was best (and more true to the original comic Fury), with 8% left over preferring someone different entirely. Who else you could want to play Nick Fury, I honestly don’t know!
This week Dave and I are starting to get into full swing with planning our upcoming 4th Edition games, the reason we’re both planning (and working on things together) is because we’ve somehow ended up with at least 12 interested players in our area! We’re all pretty hyped since Dave’s current game has been going for several months now, and would easily continue full steam if he hadn’t said that it would end by the time 4th Ed. is released. I think the game will end on a great note, and hopefully pump us all up for the coming games.
All of this new planning made us start to wonder, how many people out there are dedicated DM’s (or GM’s), how many people stick to just being a player, and how many like to play both sides of the screen?
Which do you prefer to play in tabletop RPGs?
- Playing a Character, the real stars (25%, 17 Votes)
- Being the DM (or GM), running the show (19%, 13 Votes)
- Both sides of the screen! (55%, 38 Votes)
- Neither (1%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 69
Loading ...Now the second season premiere of American Gladiators is on, so I’m going to go enjoy that!
D&D 4e: A Whole New World
Within the core books for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a base world is being set up which is intended to give new players and especially new Dungeon Masters a much easier time getting into their first game. The setting is called “Points of Light” and is summed up on their site as:
The Dungeons & Dragons game assumes many things about its setting: The world is populated by a variety of intelligent races, strange monsters lurk on other planes, ancient empires have left ruins across the face of the world, and so on. But one of the new key conceits about the D&D world is simply this: Civilized folk live in small, isolated points of light scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world.
One of the reasons this is such a big deal is that in previous editions of the game there was nothing like a base setting which shipped with the core books, instead there were expansion books for settings such as Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, and several others. Each of these worlds provides a different style of play for a game, whether it’s with established characters that have been read about in novels, familiar events and locales, or more general concepts such as the inclusion of elements like the Warforged as a more commonplace feature. These settings provide a framework on which the DM and players can then build their own stories, simultaneously elevated a lot of the tough work in running a game while providing a rich context and consistent themes.
Some people feel that this encourages players to be less creative, and discourages a DM from creating a whole world of his own, instead taking the easy route and just using what is in the book. While we haven’t yet seen what has gone to print, what is much more likely is that the core books provide a simple base on which ideas can be laid with a lot less effort than it would take to generate everything from scratch. [Read the rest of this article]
