Posted by Andrew Modro | Posted on 21-02-2010
Category : Feature, Legacy D&D, Microlite Games, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, RPG, Reviews & First Looks
Tags: Microlite Games, nicolas dessaux, sailing the skies of mars, sean wills, searchers of the unknown, swashbucklers of mars
So far in my exploration of microlite gaming, I have stuck with games that have taken a single particular approach — taking an existing game and attempting to condense the rules while still maintaining a similar format. Microlite20 (and its spinoffs, such as Microlite20 Modern and Dragoons20) and Mini Six are still recognizably d20- and d6 -based, which is one of the selling points.
This is not, however, the only way to condense a game into a microlite, as proven by Nicolas Dessaux and Sean Wills. → Continue
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Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 28-01-2010
Category : D&D4e, Legacy D&D, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, Pathfinder, RPG
I think everyone already knows about the KQ store giving away the PDF version of Kobold Quarterly #10 for free until the end of the month. This post is just meant as a small reminder for everyone who hasn’t taken up that opportunity to have a look at a truly excellent RPG magazine.
Issus 10 has been previewed by me back in July 2009, so you might want to check that preview out before making the purchase, but for free you can’t make anything wrong after all. Just head to the KQ online store, add issue #10 and use the coupon code KQ10Free at checkout to get your free copy!
For more details, check out this page on the official Kobold Quarterly website!
And while you are at it, why not check out my interview with Kobold-in-Chief Wolfgang Baur?
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Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 28-01-2010
Category : Feature, Legacy D&D, News, Reviews & Culture, RPG, Random musings
It seems Penny Arcade joined the discussion about a court’s ruling to take away a prisoners D&D books, too:
One commenter also provided us with two links to websites with further information on the court’s decision:
Thanks, Sven!
3 people like this post.
Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 27-01-2010
Category : Ask The Readers, Feature, Legacy D&D, RPG, Random musings
From what I’ve heard the majority of gamers started playing with a variation of D&D, may it be the original D&D from 1974, AD&D 2nd Edition or the more recent D&D 3rd Edition (or any other edition). A lot of German roleplayers were introduced to the roleplaying hobby by “Das Schwarze Auge” (known as “The Dark Eye” in the US).
As I already described in my “Confessions of a Gamer: In the Beginning“ post, I started with TORG. Actually I played the game only once on a small gaming convention near Bonn and didn’t even understand half of the rules, but I was instantly hit by the RPG bug. Later I joined a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. To this day, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is one of my favorite games and obviously one of the games that influenced me most. So you could consider WHFRP 1st Edition my true first game.
So, what was your first game? Please share a few of your earliest roleplaying experiences with us. If you are a RPG blogger yourself, why not write a post about this subject on your blog? A trackback to this post would be appreciated though.
P.S.: Thanks to Roberto Micheri, who inspired me to write this post!
3 people like this post.
Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 26-01-2010
Category : Legacy D&D, News, Reviews & Culture, RPG, Random musings
I just found this news at BoingBoing and thought I should share it with you:
Singer, 33, has been a devoted player of the fantasy role-playing game since he was a child, according to the court ruling. After the ban went into effect, prison officials confiscated dozens of Dungeons & Dragons books and magazines in his cell as well as a 96-page manuscript he had written detailing a potential scenario for the game that players could act out.
Prison officials enacted the ban in 2004 after an inmate sent an anonymous letter expressing concern about Singer and three other inmates forming a "gang" focused around playing the game.
Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons "promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling," according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.
As I understand it the punishment is that you are imprisoned for life, so what’s the problem with letting the prison inmate play some D&D? Banning the game for him and the other inmates will probably not have any beneficial aspect. And I always thought, resocializing was a fundamental aspect of imprisonment, too. And how does D&D promote “competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling”?
You can read more about this, on BoingBoing or at InsideBayArea.
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Tunnels & Trolls is almost as old as D&D (it was released in 1975 – that was the year I was born) and surprisingly enough the latest version is almost unchanged from the game Ken St. Andre designed over 30 years ago. I have to admit I was almost totally oblivious of its existence (aside from seeing some ads in gaming magazines in the early 1990s) until I recently started to get interested in old-school gaming. After reading a review by Berin Kinsman, I decided I had to check T&T out.
Last week I finally got my copy of the Tunnels & Trolls v7.5 Boxed Set by Fiery Dragon Productions. At first I was a bit disappointed because for some reason I expected a much bigger box. But when I opened it, I was more than happy. Although the box (and the books) are smaller than the usual Letter-sized boxes (and books), it’s full of old-school goodness.
As you can see, aside from a rulebook, the box contains two adventures (one solo adventure and one GM-based one), several monster and spellbooks, a full-color poster map of the Trollworld, player and monster tokens, a set of character sheets and even four six-sided dice. That’s a lot of bang for the buck if you ask me. Just throw in some scrap paper and a couple of pencils and you have everything you need to play in a handy box!
The rules of T&T look a lot like OD&D on the surface, but on a second look you notice that D&D and T&T are quite different. Tunnels & Trolls uses the attributes Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Speed, Intelligence, Wizardry, Luck, and Charisma. During character creation you roll 3d6 for each attribute. That sounds pretty familiar but when you roll triples, you are allowed to roll again and add the new roll result. So it’s possible that characters start with very high attribute values.
→ Continue
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