Adventurer's League Season 4 (Part 6)

DDAL 4-11 The Donjon

All right Game Fans, Season 4 of Adventurer’s League (The Curse of Strahd Story Arc) rolls on through with DDAL 4-11, The Donjon.  After returning to Orasnou, the characters encounter a surprise.  A group of Orcs have arrived at the small town and have demanded the town assist them with a crisis.  The current leader of the town has offered the assistance of the next party of adventurers (The PCs) to help them solve this issue.    

Just Dumb Things (Deadlands Short)

So I have an abiding love of Deadlands in all of its permutations (I would love to see someone mod Fallout 3 into the Wasted West), but oh my lord have I seen some awful interactions between characters in this game.  Today's JDT is the first time we got a horse killed by a PC. 

Book Review (TRO Succesion Wars)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with a quick review of the Technical Readout: Succession Wars book for Battletech.  Like the other books in the Technical Readout series, this book gives you access to more combat units for your game of Battletech. Let’s dig into the book, the units presented, and have a bit of a discussion about what’s in here, and what you’ll need to pick up next.  

 

 

Live Streaming Games, (and the intersting places you'll go)

Hey Game Fans, it's an early Monday morning the day before Halloween and I hope you are all gearing up for the joy of over indulgence in candy, liquor and scaring the pants off of each other.  I've got a quick look for you today about one of the coolest Live Stream games I've seen in a very, very long time.  I was watching Death From Above on Hyper RPG's Twitch channel (you can find a link to both their twitch channel and their Youtube channel in the links over here on the right -------->).  The current season of that program (Season 3, technically 4) is one of the most entertaining, story driven performance pieces I've seen.  The episode on Friday, the 28th, was one of the best episodes of a live streamed gaming show ever. 

Battletech (The Company You Keep)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an idea about one of our favorite games around the office, Battletech.  It’s a wonderful board game (with customizable pieces and a depth of units so big it has its own website) of giant robots fighting on futuristic battlefields across any of the thousands of inhabited worlds in the future of the human race.  Often described as Game of Thrones with giant robots instead of swords, Battletech has much more to offer than just the Succession Wars.  With 30+ years of books and stories written about the universe and computer and video game adaptations, there are a million different stories you can experience playing Battletech.  

However, that depth of information can be crippling for a new player to get into the setting.  So how does one get into the game?  

Well, there are a host of ways you can dig into the setting, but if you want to experience the tabletop game, i suggest 3 purchases to get started.  The Battletech Introductory Box Set (if you can find it), has all of the basic rules you need to learn how to play the game and gets you a collection of giant robots of your own to get started.  From there, the new BattleMech Manual gives you the rules you need to play more complex games with the units you have and scales up the rules to add more complexity and variety to the game.  Finally, the new Technical Readout (TRO): Succession Wars will greatly expand the units you can play with on the tabletop.  Once you have played some games and had some fun with it, change up your units a little and see what works for you.  This is a game that offers virtually unlimited options and choices for combat units, so you could literally play for years without exhausting the potential.  

Plot Traps Addendum A (World Building: Myths and Legends edition)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another article in our Plot Traps series.  Today we’re going to take a look at Myths and Legends and how they can help you shape your world. We’ve got a buddy who runs a channel on Youtube called Terminally Nerdy who posted a video about this topic which you can find here.  One of the most important ideas he reminded me of is that you can make your myths and legends as big or as small as you need them to be, and they can work in just about any Genre of gaming (or storytelling for that matter).  Be sure to check out the video, (and like, subscribe and favorite stuff, if you found it as helpful as we did), and we’re going to dig into some thoughts and ideas about what you can do with Myths and Legends in your game.  

Some thoughts for Expanding Test of Honour

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to take a bit of a different look at Test of Honour.  We’ve done a lot of unboxing articles and shown you what you can find in most of the boxes (and the units and cards that come with), but today we’re going to take a look at what we would like to see for Test of Honour going forward, and things that we like about the game.  Without dithering much, let’s dig into the Wish List.

Legend of the Five Rings Beta First Looks

Hey Game Fans, today we’re going to talk in brief about the new version of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying game from Fantasy Flight Games.  Currently it’s undergoing an Open Beta for playtesting and i personally think that’s a fantastic idea.  Legend of the Five Rings is a long running franchise, featuring a Miniature Wargame, a Collectible Card Game that ran for several editions, and four editions of a Roleplaying game that featured drama, action, and intrigue.  

Since the property was acquired by Fantasy Flight Games, rumors and questions have been circulating about what they would do with the property.  They announced a new ideation of the Legend of the Five Rings card game, this time using the Living Card Game format that Fantasy Flight has had great success with in other properties (including Star Wars, Warhammer 40,000, and Call of Cthulhu to name a few).  They are also offering a board game that features the Great Clans of Rokugan vying for control of the world of L5R in the aptly named Battle for Rokugan.  I know that i was very interested to see what they did with the Roleplaying game side of the Franchise, and i have had a little bit of time to take a look at the first few chapters of the Beta (I think I’ve almost figured out how to make a character).  I’d like to talk about those first few chapters today and give you folks my first impressions.

Test of Honour Unboxing (Daimyo's Retinue)

Daimyo’s Retinue

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an unboxing article on one of the expansion sets for Test of Honour.  We’re going to take a look at the sprues, the cards, and any other odds and ends that come in the box.  Now most of these expansion sets (aside from the Samurai Warband) have additional metal components (typically metal heads) and a metal hero character.  Let’s dig into the components and see what you can put together out of the box.

Test of Honour Unboxing (Ronin)

Ronin

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an unboxing article on one of the expansion sets for Test of Honour.  We’re going to take a look at the sprues, the cards, and any other odds and ends that come in the box.  Now most of these expansion sets (aside from the Samurai Warband) have additional metal components (typically metal heads) and a metal hero character.  Let’s dig into the components and see what you can put together out of the box.

Gensai of Lakeport

Hey Game Fans, we’re back for another part of a feature on the Homebrew setting of Lakeport.  Today we’re going to look at one of the races from Lakeport, the Gensai.  Like the rest of the Wanderers, they draw from an extra-planar heritage.  There are planes of raw energy that exist in the multiverse, and strange creatures and energies bleed across to the world of Lakeport.  The Gensai draw an ancient connection to the elemental planes.  Like the other Wanderers, they occur within other populations and have no culture of their own.   Let’s dig into these unusual beings

1879 (Mechanics First Look)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another look at a different role-playing game than we normally cover.  Today’s entry is 1879, a different take on the concepts of colonialism and exploration through the lens of Steampunk, travel to alien worlds and magic.  Let’s take a look at the core mechanic for task resolution and how that shapes the rest of the game (we’ll dig into building a character later on, and we’ll see if we can’t discuss some of the underlying concepts and ideas that shape the game).  

Adventurer's League Season 4 (Part 5)

DDAL 4-9 The Tempter

All right Game Fans, Season 4 of Adventurer’s League (The Curse of Strahd Story Arc) rolls on through with DDAL 4-9, The Tempter.  Disaster has struck and the resources to pay for Orasnou taxes have been gravely reduced. If something can’t be done, the town will either starve or risk the unforgiving wrath of the Lord of Barovia.  There are rumors of wealth and resources that can be gained from a nearby estate, but these will not be given freely.  

Test of Honour (Skill Cards)

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another article on our new favorite skirmish game, Test of Honour.  Today we’re going to finish up our look at the Starter Set by taking a look at the rest of the cards in the Starter Set.  These fall into one of three broad categories, Skills, Dishonor, and Injuries. Each of these interacts with the game in a different way and allow you to do things that operate outside the rules.  Let’s dig into the skill cards and see where we get to.

Plot Traps: Bad Guy Example (The Unbroken Circle)

Hey Game Fans, we’ve shown you the theoretically steps for how to put together an Antagonist/bad guy for your RPG fun, but that’s a theoretical.  Today i’d like to take to an opportunity to show you how this works in actual practice.  I haven’t exactly decided what kind of a Big Bad Monster that’s Going to Break Your Tiny Face ™ to use in this, but let’s dig into the idea and see what we can come up with.  As always, we start with the Antagonist and work our way down from there.  

Test of Honour Unboxing (Pauper Soldiers)

Product Name

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an unboxing article on one of the expansion sets for Test of Honour.  We’re going to take a look at the sprues, the cards, and any other odds and ends that come in the box.  Now most of these expansion sets (aside from the Samurai Warband) have additional metal components (typically metal heads) and a metal hero character.  Let’s dig into the components and see what you can put together out of the box.

Test of Honour Unboxing (Masked Men)

Masked Men

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an unboxing article on one of the expansion sets for Test of Honour.  We’re going to take a look at the sprues, the cards, and any other odds and ends that come in the box.  Now most of these expansion sets (aside from the Samurai Warband) have additional metal components (typically metal heads) and a metal hero character.  Let’s dig into the components and see what you can put together out of the box.

Test of Honour Unboxing (Mounted Samurai)

Mounted Samurai

Hey Game Fans, we’re back with an unboxing article on one of the expansion sets for Test of Honour.  We’re going to take a look at the sprues, the cards, and any other odds and ends that come in the box.  Now most of these expansion sets (aside from the Samurai Warband) have additional metal components (typically metal heads) and a metal hero character.  Let’s dig into the components and see what you can put together out of the box.

 

Adventurer's League Season 4 (Part 4)

DDAL 4-7 The Innocent

All right Game Fans, Season 4 of Adventurer’s League (The Curse of Strahd Story Arc) rolls on through with DDAL 4-5, The Innocent.  The characters explore the Glumpen Swamp and find a terrible den of evil.  Difficult choices await the adventurers as they decide what to do with an ancient creature of unspeakable origins.  

Plot Traps: Bad Guys Part 5 (Antagonists)

Hey Game Fans, we’re going to keep on keeping on with our discussion of Antagonists and how to get the most use of them in your adventure writing.  Every Antagonist has a specific role to play in the narrative you’re putting together. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of them gives you a leg up in finding the spot to put them and how to utilize them to maximum effect.  We’ve talked about Minions, Specialists, and Lieutenants in previous articles, so today we’re going to finish up with a discussion about Antagonists.  These are the end bosses, masters of disaster,  or world breaking tyrants.  In some cases they are background elements, like an evil overlord whose minions constantly threaten the neighboring kingdoms.  In other cases they are personal enemies that have to be dealt with in some way.  We’ve written these articles technically backwards, because we really do think you ought to start with your primary antagonist.  Once you’ve decided who or what it is, you can design the overarching scheme and figure out what lieutenants, minions and specialists you can use to build their encounter, adventure, story arc, or complete campaign.  

Radiants and Fellwan of Lakeport

Hey Game Fans, we’re back for another part of a feature on the Homebrew setting of Lakeport.  Today we’re going to look at two new races for the setting, the Radiants, and the Fellwan.  Like the rest of the Wanderers, they draw from an extra-planar heritage.  There are planes of raw energy that exist in the multiverse, and strange creatures and energies bleed across to the world of Lakeport.  The Radiants draw on a connection to the Positive Energy plane, a universe of life affirming and strengthening energy, while the Fellwan draw their power from the Negative Energy plane, a universe that weakens living creatures and empowers the undead.  Like the Aasimar and the Tieflings, they occur within other populations and have no culture of their own.   Let’s dig into these unusual beings