WOW.
That was a lot of people.
So I expanded my winners.
I pulled out my dice and did this old school.
Congrats to:
F. Douglas Wall.
John Harp
David Cutts
and since demand was so high I did some more.
faoladh
Thaumiel Nerub
Anthony Hunter
Tim Shorts
Seven is a good number!
Honestly that was fun. I am working on more material for a variety of things (vague much?) so I am going to give more stuff away in the future. Certainly in October, but maybe sooner.
Thanks everyone for participating!
Showing posts with label Gen Con. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gen Con. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2013
Not at GenCon? Get a Free copy of The Witch!
I am at work. Been here for 2 hours now. Wish I was at Gen Con to be honest.
How about you?
Well maybe I can improve some people's days.
I am going to give away 3 copies of The Witch today!
I will pick three people that comment below "I am not at Gen Con either". I will need a way to get in touch with you via email to send out your copies.
How about till the end of the day today or something.
How about you?
Well maybe I can improve some people's days.
I am going to give away 3 copies of The Witch today!
I will pick three people that comment below "I am not at Gen Con either". I will need a way to get in touch with you via email to send out your copies.
How about till the end of the day today or something.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Enjoy Gen Con!
I hope everyone is having a great time at Gen Con today!
I have seen some pictures and they look fantastic.
Have fun!
I have seen some pictures and they look fantastic.
Have fun!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Gen Con Blues
I had mentioned earlier in the year that we (my family and I) were not going to go to Gen Con this year.
Partly due to expense, partly due to this being the busiest time of year for me at work (getting ready for Fall term to start).
Now I am thinking that was a bad decision.
My kids love to go and frankly so do I. Not that there is anything special we were looking forward too this year. Just the normally hanging out with gamers, playing some games, hitting the food trucks, seeing all the costumes and spending way too much money.
We are already set on going next year. In fact we might even go a day early to hit the zoo or the museum.
Can't wait for it! But until then I will have to settle for hearing all about the fun you all have.
Partly due to expense, partly due to this being the busiest time of year for me at work (getting ready for Fall term to start).
Now I am thinking that was a bad decision.
My kids love to go and frankly so do I. Not that there is anything special we were looking forward too this year. Just the normally hanging out with gamers, playing some games, hitting the food trucks, seeing all the costumes and spending way too much money.
We are already set on going next year. In fact we might even go a day early to hit the zoo or the museum.
Can't wait for it! But until then I will have to settle for hearing all about the fun you all have.
Monday, August 27, 2012
More Wrap-Ups and Plugs
At Gen Con I got to play a FANTASTIC game of Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG that mixed in characters from Buffy, Supernatural and Charmed. I got to play Piper and was thrilled to death with it. Reminded me of running "Semi-Charmed Life" so many years ago. Kudos to the GM and all the players.
A few plugs I'd like to make:
Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary has a kickstarter.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewpascal/dungeons-and-dragons-a-documentary
20 days to go and they still have a bit to raise. I have heard a lot of good about this film and would love to see it get made.
Band of Zombies is down to it's last 50 hours.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/all-flesh-must-be-eaten-rpg-band-of-zombies-source
There are some nice stretch goals with this one.
Banners on the Cheap has been flirting with the RPG market.
You can see teh map I had made here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-new-map.html
Well now they have a full blown site for maps and battle mats.
http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/rpg-maps-and-banners
The site is super easy to use.
I think that is it for now.
A few plugs I'd like to make:
Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary has a kickstarter.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewpascal/dungeons-and-dragons-a-documentary
20 days to go and they still have a bit to raise. I have heard a lot of good about this film and would love to see it get made.
Band of Zombies is down to it's last 50 hours.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/all-flesh-must-be-eaten-rpg-band-of-zombies-source
There are some nice stretch goals with this one.
Banners on the Cheap has been flirting with the RPG market.
You can see teh map I had made here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-new-map.html
Well now they have a full blown site for maps and battle mats.
http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/rpg-maps-and-banners
The site is super easy to use.
I think that is it for now.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Zatannurday: Gen Con Cosplay
But I got her!
I didn't get her name, sorry to say, but I got this pic. One more was sent to me as well.
Love her costume! I thought she looked great. Hope she had a great time at Gen Con.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Gen Con Haul 2012
First up: Yes. I know I owe you all a Part 2 of the OSR is Dead. But many of you made a lot of the points I was going to.
I also know I missed White Dwarf Wednesday. I was away from my machine all day.
So instead a drive by post. With pictures.
So here is my Gen Con 2012 haul. I also picked up some things here for my kids.
Here we have all the books, minis (love that Gelatinous Cube) and swag.
I picked up a way cool game, Monsterhearts (pdf), that I want to talk about in much detail later. Also my new ConX 2.0 book, Zenner cards and screen.
I got my two copies of Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord and Jason Vey's Amazing "Amazing Adventures". Again, I want to talk about that one in detail too. I picked up a replacement GURPS Horror (lost it years ago) and GURPS Castle Falkenstein.
I got some of the "Drow" D&D dice bags. And a bunch of older d20 books on magic.
Minis. I got some dragons (well my kids did) and some other minis. I love that huge one. It is a statue of some sort. In my games it will be a Death Titan.
Some books for my games. The Dragon (Mongoose) and Dragonlance is for the 3.x game, Faith & Avatars and the Dragon Mag Annual are for the 4e game. Rokugan was just because it was a buck.
Finally I am replacing my worn out Pokemon backpack for a real gamer bag.
And a full set Drow dice. We all got some and had to go to all the D&D events to get them. They are very cool. My wife likes hers because they are purple. All her dice are purple.
I also know I missed White Dwarf Wednesday. I was away from my machine all day.
So instead a drive by post. With pictures.
So here is my Gen Con 2012 haul. I also picked up some things here for my kids.
Here we have all the books, minis (love that Gelatinous Cube) and swag.
I picked up a way cool game, Monsterhearts (pdf), that I want to talk about in much detail later. Also my new ConX 2.0 book, Zenner cards and screen.
I got my two copies of Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord and Jason Vey's Amazing "Amazing Adventures". Again, I want to talk about that one in detail too. I picked up a replacement GURPS Horror (lost it years ago) and GURPS Castle Falkenstein.
I got some of the "Drow" D&D dice bags. And a bunch of older d20 books on magic.
Minis. I got some dragons (well my kids did) and some other minis. I love that huge one. It is a statue of some sort. In my games it will be a Death Titan.
Some books for my games. The Dragon (Mongoose) and Dragonlance is for the 3.x game, Faith & Avatars and the Dragon Mag Annual are for the 4e game. Rokugan was just because it was a buck.
Finally I am replacing my worn out Pokemon backpack for a real gamer bag.
And a full set Drow dice. We all got some and had to go to all the D&D events to get them. They are very cool. My wife likes hers because they are purple. All her dice are purple.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Is the OSR Dead?
So I made some interesting, though not entirely new or unique, observations.
The OSR, as a Movement, is Dead.
This is the point of view of Tavis Allison who gave a talk about the OSR at Gen Con this past week. Tavis has the street cred to back up his claims too, author of The Mule Abides blog and the Adventurer Conqueror King game system.
Though he has his reasons, I think I am looking at something slightly different.
I am not talking about the lack ENnies or even representation at Gen Con.
There was the the OSR Publications booth, which was great.
I am talking about the OSR as a movement. If the stated goal* of the OSR was to get old-school style gaming back into the hands of gamers, then one only needed to go to the Wizards of the Coast booth and buy a copy of the 1st Ed AD&D books, or listen to their keynote address about the availability of older products, or go play D&D5.
(* lets be honest here, no one ever stated any goal of any sort)
If the goal was get products to go mainstream, well the OSR Publications booth was a good step in that direction. George Strayton of the Secret Fire RPG was an industry guest of honor at this past Gen Con as well. Castles and Crusades (one of the earliest Retro Clones in my opinion) never seemed more popular.
So if the OSR as a mission was get "old school" products in the main-stream, then that goal has been met.
The movement then is dead. Why? Well if the "R" mean Revolution, Revival or Renascence, then the goals have been achieved. Old School is back.
The OSR as a community or even as a loosely affiliated publishing movement will live on. Much like the Indie Press Revolution (who, to be perfectly honest, does everything the OSR could do and does it well).
There will still be sites and blogs that support old-school play. They existed before the OSR movement and will (in some form) afterwards.
I fear though that for many that the "R" stood for "Resistance" as in the alternative not because they liked old school play so much, but because they hated the "new school" of 4e or even 3.x. Well for them I fear the battle wages on and it will never be won. TSR is never coming back to life, WotC owns D&D and there are many that enjoy the newer games.
In any case the OSR will change. Not because it wants to, but because it will need to to stay relevant.
I will have to post on this topic more in a bit.
The OSR, as a Movement, is Dead.
This is the point of view of Tavis Allison who gave a talk about the OSR at Gen Con this past week. Tavis has the street cred to back up his claims too, author of The Mule Abides blog and the Adventurer Conqueror King game system.
Though he has his reasons, I think I am looking at something slightly different.
I am not talking about the lack ENnies or even representation at Gen Con.
There was the the OSR Publications booth, which was great.
I am talking about the OSR as a movement. If the stated goal* of the OSR was to get old-school style gaming back into the hands of gamers, then one only needed to go to the Wizards of the Coast booth and buy a copy of the 1st Ed AD&D books, or listen to their keynote address about the availability of older products, or go play D&D5.
(* lets be honest here, no one ever stated any goal of any sort)
If the goal was get products to go mainstream, well the OSR Publications booth was a good step in that direction. George Strayton of the Secret Fire RPG was an industry guest of honor at this past Gen Con as well. Castles and Crusades (one of the earliest Retro Clones in my opinion) never seemed more popular.
So if the OSR as a mission was get "old school" products in the main-stream, then that goal has been met.
The movement then is dead. Why? Well if the "R" mean Revolution, Revival or Renascence, then the goals have been achieved. Old School is back.
The OSR as a community or even as a loosely affiliated publishing movement will live on. Much like the Indie Press Revolution (who, to be perfectly honest, does everything the OSR could do and does it well).
There will still be sites and blogs that support old-school play. They existed before the OSR movement and will (in some form) afterwards.
I fear though that for many that the "R" stood for "Resistance" as in the alternative not because they liked old school play so much, but because they hated the "new school" of 4e or even 3.x. Well for them I fear the battle wages on and it will never be won. TSR is never coming back to life, WotC owns D&D and there are many that enjoy the newer games.
In any case the OSR will change. Not because it wants to, but because it will need to to stay relevant.
I will have to post on this topic more in a bit.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Gen Con recap: The name of the game is "D&D"
I did something truly special this Gen Con. Something that I would love to repeat.
I played D&D with my family through the entire Con. One of the things I wanted to do with my boys was to play the history of D&D with them. I didn't get into every game I wanted, but I got in enough to make it count. I also wanted my wife to join in so she could give her unbiased opinion of the games. I have learned to trust her judgment on many, many things over the years.
Part of the plan was that any XP, gold or magic the boys got in the games they could translate that over to the special 1st Ed Game we were playing at night.
We played a D&D4 game on Thursday. It was a fun game where we all played Dwarfs. The DM was great and he played well with the kids. Thursday night I had a game of my own to play (which I'll discuss later).
Friday was our Castles and Crusades game. I REALLY wanted to play this one after going on and on so much about C&C a while back. I picked up my new copies of the 5th printing of the Players Handbook and Jason Vey's amazing Amazing Adventures. The game we played was also a lot of fun. Again we had a great GM...er Castle Keeper, and in this we all played Assassins. My youngest loved it.
Friday night we rolled up characters for 1st Ed AD&D!! They rolled up two each, and these are the children of the Dragonslayers (their current 3.x game). That took us till midnight since I had to look a lot of things up and we were sitting on the 2nd floor of the JW Marriott and everyone had stop by and comment on what we were doing.
Saturday we played D&D5/Next. If I would have known we were making characters I would have gone into it with a different mindset. But it worked out well and character creation was a snap. Really. It only took me 30 mins to do my character and help out my wife and two kids. I playtested the Warlock and I like it so far. The game itself was fast, I mean really fast. I am going to come back to that in a sec in fact.
Saturday night we played AD&D 1st ed. I had the boys go on a quick adventure into Castle Quasqueton from B1 In Search of the Unknown. The boys had some great rolls and they even took out some orcs, zombies and a group of kobolds. The boys made their objective (which happened to be a on sheet of paper I wrote on when I ran this in college around 1988-9 or so), find a missing witch (Marissa) and bring her back. I hinted there was an evil cult at work (cause that was what I was doing in 88) and the boys ran with it. Now this cult is "infiltrating" the lands and they now have to put a stop to it. I might run with that.
Fighting the Kobolds
Quite by accident one of the common elements in the D&D5/Next playtest and my AD&D game on the same day was the party (6 and 5 characters respectively) fought 4 kobolds. The combat for each ran very, very similar. In both cases it was fast with hit points flying everywhere and characters on the verge of death. I can say that in at least this respect D&D5 is closer to old-school play than 3 or 4 was.
It dawned on me at one point or another while playing Saturday night. I was playing AD&D. With my boys. At Gen Con! I play a lot of D&D with them and I have played a lot of AD&D over the years, but this felt special. This felt like the best thing I could do then and there.
I have no idea what I am going to do with D&D5 when it comes out. At this very same Gen Con Wizards of the Coast had announced that D&D5 would not be out till 2014. That is a very good year in my mind. Still gives us time to play some 4e AND be out in time for the 40th anniversary of D&D.
WotC also announced that previous editions would be made available again via e-book format of some sort.
There were copies of 1st Ed for sale at Gen Con and we all also picked up a full set of D&D "Drow" dice.
For me there is no debate. D&D still reigns as king at Gen Con.
Part of the plan was that any XP, gold or magic the boys got in the games they could translate that over to the special 1st Ed Game we were playing at night.
We played a D&D4 game on Thursday. It was a fun game where we all played Dwarfs. The DM was great and he played well with the kids. Thursday night I had a game of my own to play (which I'll discuss later).
Friday was our Castles and Crusades game. I REALLY wanted to play this one after going on and on so much about C&C a while back. I picked up my new copies of the 5th printing of the Players Handbook and Jason Vey's amazing Amazing Adventures. The game we played was also a lot of fun. Again we had a great GM...er Castle Keeper, and in this we all played Assassins. My youngest loved it.
Friday night we rolled up characters for 1st Ed AD&D!! They rolled up two each, and these are the children of the Dragonslayers (their current 3.x game). That took us till midnight since I had to look a lot of things up and we were sitting on the 2nd floor of the JW Marriott and everyone had stop by and comment on what we were doing.
Saturday we played D&D5/Next. If I would have known we were making characters I would have gone into it with a different mindset. But it worked out well and character creation was a snap. Really. It only took me 30 mins to do my character and help out my wife and two kids. I playtested the Warlock and I like it so far. The game itself was fast, I mean really fast. I am going to come back to that in a sec in fact.
Saturday night we played AD&D 1st ed. I had the boys go on a quick adventure into Castle Quasqueton from B1 In Search of the Unknown. The boys had some great rolls and they even took out some orcs, zombies and a group of kobolds. The boys made their objective (which happened to be a on sheet of paper I wrote on when I ran this in college around 1988-9 or so), find a missing witch (Marissa) and bring her back. I hinted there was an evil cult at work (cause that was what I was doing in 88) and the boys ran with it. Now this cult is "infiltrating" the lands and they now have to put a stop to it. I might run with that.
Fighting the Kobolds
Quite by accident one of the common elements in the D&D5/Next playtest and my AD&D game on the same day was the party (6 and 5 characters respectively) fought 4 kobolds. The combat for each ran very, very similar. In both cases it was fast with hit points flying everywhere and characters on the verge of death. I can say that in at least this respect D&D5 is closer to old-school play than 3 or 4 was.
It dawned on me at one point or another while playing Saturday night. I was playing AD&D. With my boys. At Gen Con! I play a lot of D&D with them and I have played a lot of AD&D over the years, but this felt special. This felt like the best thing I could do then and there.
I have no idea what I am going to do with D&D5 when it comes out. At this very same Gen Con Wizards of the Coast had announced that D&D5 would not be out till 2014. That is a very good year in my mind. Still gives us time to play some 4e AND be out in time for the 40th anniversary of D&D.
WotC also announced that previous editions would be made available again via e-book format of some sort.
There were copies of 1st Ed for sale at Gen Con and we all also picked up a full set of D&D "Drow" dice.
For me there is no debate. D&D still reigns as king at Gen Con.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Back from Gen Con!
I am back from the "Best 4 Days in Gaming" and I am still riding a gamer's high.
So much to talk about and share.I'll have to get my thoughts collected and share some posts with you all soon!
So much to talk about and share.I'll have to get my thoughts collected and share some posts with you all soon!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Posting this week
My regular posting is going to be off this week due to Gen Con.
I have some reviews of some books I have been using for years , so I have those queued up and ready to go.
There might the random/odd post from Gen Con itself.
But otherwise I am going to be enjoying the Best 4 Days in Gaming!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Friday Links
It is the Friday before Gen Con. While I am gearing up for some serious vacation time coming to me. I figure I'll send you out some link today.
First off, David from There's Dungeons Down Under is back, at least for 1 post.
Kenzer & Co are giving away HackMaster Basic for free! Crazy I know.
The Kickstarter for Band of Zombies for All Flesh Must Be Eaten has 21 days left to go. Get in on the Zombie WWII goodness. This promises to be a great book.
My boys and I have decided to start our 1st Ed AD&D game at Gen Con. Seems fitting and I don't have to haul all my minis and maps with me.
But to do that I need character sheets. While I have one of each type of the original AD&D sheets left, I didn't want to use them. Good thing we have the Mad Irishman and his collection of RPG Sheets.
Happy Friday everyone!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Gen Con 2012
It dawned on the other day that I am in no way shape or form ready for Gen Con 2012 yet.
Hotel was booked back in January, badges bought, games registered for.Google calendar updated.
But I am not mentally ready. I am not running anything this year officially, maybe something for my kids. Most likely the continuation of theForgotten Temple of Tharizdun.
I plan to pick some things up at the OSR booth, but there are not many purchases I want to make this year to be honest.
Who is going to the Best Four Days in Gaming?
What are your plans?
Hotel was booked back in January, badges bought, games registered for.Google calendar updated.
But I am not mentally ready. I am not running anything this year officially, maybe something for my kids. Most likely the continuation of theForgotten Temple of Tharizdun.
I plan to pick some things up at the OSR booth, but there are not many purchases I want to make this year to be honest.
Who is going to the Best Four Days in Gaming?
What are your plans?
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Gen Con Registration
Well I got into Gen con registration this morning.
I didn't end up getting all the games I wanted, but I did get a lot of good choices.
I wanted to take my kids on a "history tour" of D&D.
So far we are going to be playing 5e/Next, 4e, 3e and Castles & Crusades. I wanted to get in an AD&D1 game and Basic game. No luck though.
I still might run them through a Basic game on my own one of the nights. Of course if I can find a Labyrinth Lord game, I'd love that. C&C is close to 3e and AD&D so this is a good choice. And I wanted to play that one myself.
I am not sure if I'll have time for a Ghosts pickup game, though I love to try it at least one night.
Hope you all got your games!
I didn't end up getting all the games I wanted, but I did get a lot of good choices.
I wanted to take my kids on a "history tour" of D&D.
So far we are going to be playing 5e/Next, 4e, 3e and Castles & Crusades. I wanted to get in an AD&D1 game and Basic game. No luck though.
I still might run them through a Basic game on my own one of the nights. Of course if I can find a Labyrinth Lord game, I'd love that. C&C is close to 3e and AD&D so this is a good choice. And I wanted to play that one myself.
I am not sure if I'll have time for a Ghosts pickup game, though I love to try it at least one night.
Hope you all got your games!
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Gen Con Schedule is out
The Gen Con schedule is out now.
I do not have any Ghosts of Albion games running. I wanted to focus on paying games with my boys.
We are going to try to get into the D&D Next games, try to get some AD&D first ed in, and hopefully some D&D Basic (a clone) would be good too. I'll run some D&D 3.x too, so we will get the full D&D experience. I think it will be great.
I happy to see there are plenty of Victoriana games, some Buffy/Unisystem games and some others I am interested in. I'll have to put together a schedule.
I am sorry there won't be any Ghosts of Albion games. But I am not amiss to doing a pick up game one night.
I do not have any Ghosts of Albion games running. I wanted to focus on paying games with my boys.
We are going to try to get into the D&D Next games, try to get some AD&D first ed in, and hopefully some D&D Basic (a clone) would be good too. I'll run some D&D 3.x too, so we will get the full D&D experience. I think it will be great.
I happy to see there are plenty of Victoriana games, some Buffy/Unisystem games and some others I am interested in. I'll have to put together a schedule.
I am sorry there won't be any Ghosts of Albion games. But I am not amiss to doing a pick up game one night.
Monday, February 6, 2012
More updates
Not much going on today for a blog post. Just a bunch of random updates.
Digital Orc is trying to organize an Old-School/Grognard blogger meet-up.
His site has a sign-up sheet.
http://www.digitalorc.blogspot.com/
Tim Knight of "I Rather Be Killing Monsters" has posted about About.Me a social media link tool with free business cards. Here are our links, Tim Knight and mine.
Ever wonder what would happen in an alternate world if Tara and Warren got together and instead of him killing her, they got pregnant and had the Anti-Christ? Of course you have. And the answer lies in Amber Benson and Adam Busch's indie movie, Reverse Parthenogenesis.
http://io9.com/5881586/buffys-tara-and-warren-are-finally-having-an-evil-baby-together
Ok, well not really Tara and Warren. But (then) real life couple Amber and Adam.
This should be pretty funny. A lot of people don't know this but Adam Busch (whom I have never heard anyone say or have a bad word about) is pretty damn funny.
Hopefully a real post soon. Kinda in a haze right now.
Digital Orc is trying to organize an Old-School/Grognard blogger meet-up.
His site has a sign-up sheet.
http://www.digitalorc.blogspot.com/
Tim Knight of "I Rather Be Killing Monsters" has posted about About.Me a social media link tool with free business cards. Here are our links, Tim Knight and mine.
Ever wonder what would happen in an alternate world if Tara and Warren got together and instead of him killing her, they got pregnant and had the Anti-Christ? Of course you have. And the answer lies in Amber Benson and Adam Busch's indie movie, Reverse Parthenogenesis.
http://io9.com/5881586/buffys-tara-and-warren-are-finally-having-an-evil-baby-together
Ok, well not really Tara and Warren. But (then) real life couple Amber and Adam.
This should be pretty funny. A lot of people don't know this but Adam Busch (whom I have never heard anyone say or have a bad word about) is pretty damn funny.
Hopefully a real post soon. Kinda in a haze right now.
Gen Con updates
Gen Con badges bought.
Hotel booked. More expensive than last year, but not undo-able.
The big issue this year is my Ghosts of Albion game.
As in I am not going to be running any.
I might do a pick up game, that I would announce here.
It basically boils down to me not having enough time to work out a new adventure. That and my kids are older and they want to play in more games with their dad.
So this year I am looking forward to playing more and trying out a bunch of new games.
Hotel booked. More expensive than last year, but not undo-able.
The big issue this year is my Ghosts of Albion game.
As in I am not going to be running any.
I might do a pick up game, that I would announce here.
It basically boils down to me not having enough time to work out a new adventure. That and my kids are older and they want to play in more games with their dad.
So this year I am looking forward to playing more and trying out a bunch of new games.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Dinosauria Character Illustrations
My last game at Gen Con was Dinosauria!
This was a new one I had started on a while back designed to be an intro adventure for Ghosts of Albion.
I have mentioned here a few times and even posted the characters. One of my players that night decided to do illustrations (with anime style "chibis") of the new characters. I was floored! I loved them. I asked her permission to post them here and she agreed. So without further ado, here are the stars of Ghosts of Albion: Dinosauria!
Lady Valerie Beaumont
Chief Constable Walter Edwards
Lady Fionna
and Xian “Jane”
and our cowboy, John Mulgrew
I thought these were awesome and I very happy to have them in my Dinosauria! collection.
Click to make bigger. Sorry about the quality of the scans, was playing around to see if I could make her light pencil sketches show up a little better.
And thank you Audrey for being in my game and doing these great character portraits!
This was a new one I had started on a while back designed to be an intro adventure for Ghosts of Albion.
I have mentioned here a few times and even posted the characters. One of my players that night decided to do illustrations (with anime style "chibis") of the new characters. I was floored! I loved them. I asked her permission to post them here and she agreed. So without further ado, here are the stars of Ghosts of Albion: Dinosauria!
Lady Valerie Beaumont
Chief Constable Walter Edwards
Lady Fionna
and Xian “Jane”
and our cowboy, John Mulgrew
I thought these were awesome and I very happy to have them in my Dinosauria! collection.
Click to make bigger. Sorry about the quality of the scans, was playing around to see if I could make her light pencil sketches show up a little better.
And thank you Audrey for being in my game and doing these great character portraits!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Zatannurday: Gen Con Zatanna
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Gen Con 2011 - Recap, D&D games
Every year I look forward to playing D&D at Gen Con. Whether it is with friends, my kids or at the RPGA room. To me it is what Gen Con is about. Of course I got that chance. But...not all D&D is created equal.
Legend of Drizzt - D&D Board Game
Thursday I played the D&D Board Game The Legend of Drizzt. I signed up for this because I wanted to get a better feel for the game and I thought it would be a fun game to get my wife to play with us.
Well our "GM" (and to be fair the game does not need one, but they had people playing that role to show us how to play) was so busy doing other things that she never could really focus her attention on us. We didn't get started till 30 minutes after the start time and the pieces were never really set up for us. Like D&D4 characters get daily, utility and at-will powers. We had played Ravenloft before so we knew to expect that. We got our power cards, but it was never explained what they were or how they should be used, or even that we were not to use all the ones we were given. Later we discovered that many of the powers for our characters were left in the box including a trap disabling power that could have saved two of the characters.
The GM was very unclear on the rules and went back and forth on what constituted a "tile", and was rarely available to answer our questions leaving my wife and I and the other player going through the rules on our own.
All in all, a very disappointing experience. If WotC was trying to sell me a game didn't quite do it. I wanted to pick up Wrath of Ashardalon, but now I want to wait till I play some more Ravenloft first.
D&D 4 - Living Divine
Ok this game ran much better. The DM knew her rules, had a great grasp on the concepts and introduced a new interesting concept.
However. I have some issues with the adventure and the Living Divine play-ability.
First, the concept of Living Divine is pretty cool. I like the idea and I like what they are trying to do. It just was not a good idea for a con game where we can't invest in the character and enjoy in their divine growth.
Secondly, and most importantly, I didn't like the adventure itself. Basically the point of the entire adventure was to kill a bunch of scared villagers so we take a baby from her parents to give to a demon.
I'll give my son credit, he didn't want to do any killing. He was more than happy to attack the demon, but killing people that were basically afraid of us was not something he was cool with it.
My issue with it was simply we had no effect on the outcome or overall plot. We had no real chance of killing the demon or altering the effect of what will happen with the baby. Honestly in that situation my character would have taken the baby to raise, but that wasn't really an option. The DM was passionate about her creation to be sure, but we had only a small part in her world.
For me, I like run games at Cons where the players feel like they are the most important people in the world. They are the ones between the innocent and the darkness AND I want to be sure when we are playing I know my rules upside down, backwards and forwards and if the players have a question then I need to be able to answer it. I am not just representing the game I am running, but myself and the company I am running for. I want people to leave my table saying they will buy that game or tell me they are going to play my games next year.
Sorry WotC, I am a HUGE fan, but I can't say that about these games.
Special Mention. LEGO - Heroica
We also played a demo game of LEGO Heroica. This experience was everything the others were not. The guy demoing the games took the time to explain everything to us including all the rules our goals and how we needed to do everything. He lots of other tables, but he didn't leave till we told him we were good. He also came back many times to check in on us. The game we played was sold out...so we bought 3 others. That's how much fun we had.
Legend of Drizzt - D&D Board Game
Thursday I played the D&D Board Game The Legend of Drizzt. I signed up for this because I wanted to get a better feel for the game and I thought it would be a fun game to get my wife to play with us.
Well our "GM" (and to be fair the game does not need one, but they had people playing that role to show us how to play) was so busy doing other things that she never could really focus her attention on us. We didn't get started till 30 minutes after the start time and the pieces were never really set up for us. Like D&D4 characters get daily, utility and at-will powers. We had played Ravenloft before so we knew to expect that. We got our power cards, but it was never explained what they were or how they should be used, or even that we were not to use all the ones we were given. Later we discovered that many of the powers for our characters were left in the box including a trap disabling power that could have saved two of the characters.
The GM was very unclear on the rules and went back and forth on what constituted a "tile", and was rarely available to answer our questions leaving my wife and I and the other player going through the rules on our own.
All in all, a very disappointing experience. If WotC was trying to sell me a game didn't quite do it. I wanted to pick up Wrath of Ashardalon, but now I want to wait till I play some more Ravenloft first.
D&D 4 - Living Divine
Ok this game ran much better. The DM knew her rules, had a great grasp on the concepts and introduced a new interesting concept.
However. I have some issues with the adventure and the Living Divine play-ability.
First, the concept of Living Divine is pretty cool. I like the idea and I like what they are trying to do. It just was not a good idea for a con game where we can't invest in the character and enjoy in their divine growth.
Secondly, and most importantly, I didn't like the adventure itself. Basically the point of the entire adventure was to kill a bunch of scared villagers so we take a baby from her parents to give to a demon.
I'll give my son credit, he didn't want to do any killing. He was more than happy to attack the demon, but killing people that were basically afraid of us was not something he was cool with it.
My issue with it was simply we had no effect on the outcome or overall plot. We had no real chance of killing the demon or altering the effect of what will happen with the baby. Honestly in that situation my character would have taken the baby to raise, but that wasn't really an option. The DM was passionate about her creation to be sure, but we had only a small part in her world.
For me, I like run games at Cons where the players feel like they are the most important people in the world. They are the ones between the innocent and the darkness AND I want to be sure when we are playing I know my rules upside down, backwards and forwards and if the players have a question then I need to be able to answer it. I am not just representing the game I am running, but myself and the company I am running for. I want people to leave my table saying they will buy that game or tell me they are going to play my games next year.
Sorry WotC, I am a HUGE fan, but I can't say that about these games.
Special Mention. LEGO - Heroica
We also played a demo game of LEGO Heroica. This experience was everything the others were not. The guy demoing the games took the time to explain everything to us including all the rules our goals and how we needed to do everything. He lots of other tables, but he didn't leave till we told him we were good. He also came back many times to check in on us. The game we played was sold out...so we bought 3 others. That's how much fun we had.
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