April 25, 2004
Star Wars Minis
Gaming Report has pictures of minis from Star Wars Collectible Mini Game.
April 22, 2004
Monday Mashup #35: Glengarry Glen Ross
“You wanna know what it takes to write mashups? It takes brass balls to write mashups.”
Last week's Mashup was Glengarry Glen Ross. I think the answer for this Mashup is pretty obvious. Screw Real Estate. You want to go where the competition is really fierce? Try dealing in souls.
For my Mashup, I would probably use In Nomine or Nobilis. Heck, I'd probably just run it using Amber Diceless. The PCs take the roles of low-level demons doing the same kind of job as Screwtape, making deals for mortal souls. Of course, the more cutthroat demons always seem to get the good leads, but the PCs aren't the bad-asses. They don't get the leads for corporate CEOs or politicians with one foot in hell already. No, they get leads for house-wives that just decided to dabble in the occult and usually get scared away the second they're shown the pricetag.
Now, there is a contest. The winner gets a promotion. Second place? A trophy. Loser? Well, lets just say that swimming in a lake of fire is not a fun way to spend your summer vacation.....or eternity. Of couse, there are rumours of a golden oppurtunity. A previously uncorrupted politician is ready to deal. The big boss loves politicians. A deal like that could win the contest all alone. However, everyone else has also heard the rumours.
Wednesday Weird #9: The Car
Here's the deal. Things have gone bad. Real bad. The characters need to get away fast and any car will do. Looking to grab a car, they could end up with something normal, but then that wouldn't be very weird, would it?
For my take on this Wednesday Weird, I'll address the car in a modern-day contemporary (non-magic) setting. The PCs are running from or after someone and they see a guy who had just shut the trunk of his car and has the doors of the car wide open and the car running. It's perfect! The PCs may apologize to the guy as they hop in his car and drive off. A car chase ensues. During the car chase they hear the occassional thump from the back trunk as something is rolling around. At some point they swear they may have heard a voice yelling from the trunk. After the PCs escape their pursuers or catch their prey they hear that their is indeed someone yelling for help from the trunk. Opening it, a guy gets out with a panicked look. "Who the heck are you!?"
As an alternative, the guy in the trunk could push down the back seat and crawl into the back seat.
What happened: Two guys were driving down the road. One was bragging about his new cars spacious trunk. "You could fit a body in there." The other guy doesn't believe him and eventually a bet is made. They pull to the side of the road and the one guy crawls in the trunk to demonstrate. The other guy, a bit of a practical joker shuts the trunk and laughs at his friend, fully intending to open the trunk a second later. Well....sometimes things just happen at the worse possible time. Getting out of the trunk later, the guy in the trunk was prepared to chew out his friend for the horrible joke of shutting the trunk and driving around the city in his new car like a madman....only to see complete strangers.
Gaming Resource
Shawn Brown has a bunch of excellent artistic maps in his Pen & Paper gallery. I think most GMs could find a use for at least one of these maps.
D&D Minis: Giants of Legend
Gaming Report has some photos of minis from the next set of D&D minis including a huge Red Dragon and a Treant (aka an Ent).
With this set, I think they may get a lot more people looking at playing the game. In a traditional mini game, getting these huge figures is very expensive and they are much more work to paint. D&D Minis already had a price and time advantage over traditional minis games but this really shows it, since a dragon this side would easily cost about $40 if you bought unpainted metal minis.
April 16, 2004
Spiderman Trailer
I just watched the new Quicktime trailer for Spiderman 2. I can't wait.
April 11, 2004
Coolest News I've Heard in a While
This is really exciting news, for me at least. John Woo will be directing a movie based on the Metroid, specifically the original.
(More Metroid Movie news: IGN has this article suggesting some possible actresses to play Samus Aran, Metroid's main character.
April 8, 2004
The International Journal of Buffy Studies
I picked up the book Buffy and Philosophy right before starting the Gillian game and it has been a lot of inspiration. In a similiar vein, may I present Slayage, The International Journal of Buffy Studies.
April 7, 2004
Wednesday Weird #8: The Apprentice
After a two-week break, the Wednesday Weird is back.
We've already done the Wizard, so now it seems like a good idea to look at the classic partner to the Wizard: The Apprentice.
Of course, an apprentice doesn't have to be apprenticed to the a wizard or sorceror. All sorts of careers involve some sort of apprenticeship, but in fantasy worlds and fantasy gaming, the sorceror's apprentice is one of the classic cliches. Let's make it weird!
What happens when the apprentice realizes that he or she is in love with the teacher? Having an attraction for a teacher is a common enough thing, but in a world of magic potions, this has a lot of weird potential. Perhaps the PCs are contacted by a love-sick apprentice who is looking for some unusual ingredients for a potion. If they find out what it is for, do they still take the job?
April 5, 2004
Dungeon Crawl Board Games
The BoardGameGeek website has this list of Dungeon Crawl board games, which they define as "games that take place in a dungeon." I can think of one I have that they missed, although the name is lost to me at this moment. However, there are several here I'd like to try that I had never heard of.
The BoardGameGeek website is really neat and has pictures and reviews off all sorts of board and card games, both out of print and new. If you like these kinds of games, check it out.
April 2, 2004
WISH 90: System
Ginger asks: What do you think about system updates (Paranoia XP, Amber 2.0, DnD 3.0/3.5) and conversions (d20 Silver Age Sentinels, GURPS Traveller)? What about world/setting updates that result in system reboots (the end of the Age of Darkness)? Do you buy them, run them, or use them for resources? Why or why not?
System updates can depend greatly on what they update. I buy them in the hopes that they will improve the system. For example, White Wolf's World of Darkness updates were almost always a better version of the system. (The system was still horribly flawed but each version that I read seemed to improve on problems in the older versions.) I will certainly buy Amber 2.0 because, although it is one of my favorite games to play, it has a lot of problems that could be fixed.
Conversions are extremely cool, but will depend on the system being converted to. I had no interest in the d20 Call of Cthulu or any of the other d20 conversions out there. I don't think d20 is flexible enough to handle the various settings that have been attempted with it and a game of Call of Cthulu using D&D rules would completely change the feel of the game and not in a positive way. However, I bought all the GURPS World of Darkness books as they came out and was extremely happy with them. I like GURPS a lot, so of course I'd like to see one of my favorite systems get a conversion of one of my favorite settings. I'm certain many d20 fans thought the same way about d20 Call of Cthulu, despite my dislike for the idea.