An actually (potentially) INTERESTING D&D comic book [NERDAGE]

Normally I am almost 100% against D&D or other RP related comics.  I haven't read any that are particularly exciting and go beyond making a comic about a specific RPG for the sake of making a comic about that RPG.  It's the same with video-game tie ins to movies (accept American History X, the game: the curb-stomp mechanics were sublime). 

 

This however I think I can get behind

 

This frame alone sells me:

 

 

They aren't just orphans - they are orphans with DISEASES...a common foe in more adventures then I would care to admit (None of which I'm proud of, LOL). 

I will probably be going to the comic store this week/weekend and when I do I will be looking for this title. 

 

That is all...move along, people, nothing to see here.

Kingdom-Con! [GAMING]

This weekend I attended one of the many over-looked and under-rated events in Nerddom, Kingdom-con.  Kingdom-con is one of the many small, single-store sponsored events that go to a local hotel, set up shop, and drag in people from all over the state. 

Going into the event I luckily had little to no expectations.  I had been told about it by a few friends a week before, and while it sounded fun I wasn't particularly looking forward to it.  I hadn't put any thought into it for that matter.  What little expectations I had stemmed from previous events kin to this. 

Kingdom-con had a great turn out, and a lot of support from various game companies.  There were rooms set up for 40k & Warmachine, and a tournament that was in full swing by the time we showed up.  There is a lot I could cover - but I just want to focus on the five highlights of the event.   This will be presented in descending order of awesome.

#5 - Warlands

I have been on a big 80's post-apocalyptic kick lately.  Maybe its a mark of the waning days of the Zombie Apocalypse, but there is an almost aesthetic nostalgia that goes with cold-war era visions of nuclear wastelands with Mad-Max style banditos.  This game capitalizes on games like the aforementioned Mad Max trilogy, Death Race, and other motor-head style movies. 

Now I am no 'car guy' or 'gear head' by any definition...but the prospect of zipping around junk yards in suped-up buggies with machine guns strapped to the hood is too cool to resist.  The game is all about basically getting matchbox cards and strapping guns to them.  It is the ultimate demolition derby, and while I didn't get to play a demo: I am definitly eager to give this a shot.

#4 - Flames of War

I have known about this game for a while, but never got to watch people play.  Historical wargaming seems like an idea I can get behind.  While Milady Geek and her husband were upstairs trying Battlegrounds (basically a card game version of WFB) I went downstairs to check some of the games in progress.  There were three games of Flames of War going on, and I watched as a group of what looked like US infantry valiantly hold against a Nazi Armored advance.  Another table featured soviet mass-infantry charged defensive lines of some other army while artillery/rockets flared overhead. 

From what I saw, it looked like the game was simple, the rules were quick, and had a good depth of strategy.  I'm not eager to buy new miniatures, but I am definitly curious about looking into the rules. 

#3 - Zombie Dice

There was a creepy old guy giving the demonstration.  I had seen it sold in places like Barnes & Noble, and had heard good things in a few random reviews (Penny Arcade comes to mind), but had never tried it.  I was willling to wait to avoid the creepy guy.  However, after overhearing the excitment of some of the other players, we all jumped in for a round.  We wound up sitting through five games.  The fifth we played a variant called 'Cthulhu dice'. 

Zombie dice is fast, fun, and amazingly simple.  If you can roll dice and count to 3, you can play this game.  All it is is a set of dice (red, yellow, and green) you pour into a bag, draw three and roll.  They will either come up as a shotgun blast, a trail of feet, or some juicy & delicious brains.  The brains you keep, and make up your score for the game.  Feet are runners, and you keep rolling those till you either get a shotgun or a brain.  Shotgun blasts are set aside through your player turn, and you can keep rolling until you either choose to stop or accumulate 3 blasts.  If you get to the 3, you basically bust and lose all your brains.  The first one to get to 13 wins. 

I would highly recommend this game.  This is a great quick, casual game that you can play with any number of people (even as few as 1...IE yourself...so you can play with yourself I guess I'm saying...yeah...).  It would make a great drinking game, and even if you don't often play it: I encourage everyone to get a set and keep them around.

#2 - 40k kit bashing competition

The only event featured on my list.  This might very well be the most fun I had at the con (its a tie between this and #1.  The rules were simple, you had something like a half-hour to assemble a miniature with clippers and glue from random bits grab-bags put together by the War Store.  They also had a giant tackle box full of parts in hte front on the off-chance your bag didn't come with any legs (like mine did), and you are encouraged to swap and use bits from around the table.

It was a BLAST.  Some people foolishly tried to make models that could be featured and playable in the game (I pitty these fools).  Everyone else just threw together what they had in some of the most horrible amalgations imaginable.  I created some chaos champion with no shirt and as many flails, spikes, and banners I could glue to him: my end goal being to use everything in the bag I was given.  I came close, but my goal fell short with the last 6 pieces, as I had run out of room to put bits after I gave him that spiked codpiece (lol).

This event lost #1 slot mainly because it took 40 minutes for the judges to come in, look at all the miniatures, and then vote and debate over who won.  When the winners were decided upon, it seems that they were just pulled aside and left everyone else just kind of milling about.  When it became clear the event was over, we quickly stole every bit that wasn't nailed down, then left the room to the grumpy Dresden RPG group in the back who had been dicks the whole time through. 

#1 - SUPER DUNGEON EXPLORER

OMFG! A 16-bit beer-and-pretzels style tactical game a la Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactica Ogre (or whatever its called).  Every player takes a hero and the 'consul' takes the roll of DM as the players must make it through a dungeon, steal treasure, and fight hordes of awesome looking kobolds, giant ogres, mimic knock-offs, and a dragon we never had to fight.

This has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.  But when looking for pictures I came across this miniature, and it might be the most awesome model I have ever seen (even more then the badass bear below)

The mechanics are simple, effective, and fun.  The game also posseses a good tactical depth and I think (when run right) you will rarely by hurting for anything fun/interesting to do on your turn. 

The classes we played with were a Dwarf Fighter (who had a taunt attack and a cleave ability), a Demonkin Rogue (Who backstabbed and did some crazy dodges and teleports around the place) and a Human Paladin (who had an awesome offensive healing ability).  There was also an elf druid that could apparently turn into one of hte most awesome bear-models I have ever seen...but we weren't allowed to play that one :(

This bear is scientifically proven to contain 900% win

Each character comes with a card that summarizes their abilities and their actions are determined by a set number of blue, red, or green dice.  Your movement and how many actions  you take per turn are determined by a 'd-pad' icon and a push button in the upper-right of the card (in the same style as your classic NES controller or arcade platform). 

After each player turn, the DM can summon kobolds or other monsters and has a number of points they can move each turn.  Kobolds have different types and abilities that allow them to either throw rocks, gouge with pointed sticks, or beat on the players with cruel-looking daggers.  They also have the ability to 'mob' which makes their attacks far more lethal and make them a legitimate threat if the players are careless.  At one point our paladin would have died if the Dwarf hadn't stepped in, drank a potion, and used a special ability that took the hit for him. 

The game comes out in September, and is an easy must-by.  This is another great quick and casual game that you can probably rope non-gamers into playing with you. 

I would also like to say the guy who gave this demo was easily the most fun and enthusiastic at the con, which is big when you are deciding whether or not you are interested in the game they are selling. 

Apocalypse World [GAMING]

Apocalypse World is an extremely promising game recently brought to my attention by way of the Walking Eye.



No...not that kind of Walking Eye. I am talking about a nerdy podcast focused at paper-and-pencil games like D&D.

Apocalypse World is a largely story-driven RPG and goes about it in a way that I so far haven't seen the like of. The rules are beautiful in their abstract simplicity, and while the rulebook can be quite confusing in places: it only takes a small measure of talking it over to figure it out.

The setting is definitely more 80's style nuclear apocalypse then the more common Zombie apocalypse in conventional pop-culture.  It doesn't even have to be a desert, give your chracters parkas: enjoy a nice brisk nuclear winter. 

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic hell of you and your player's creation. On the first session the group sits down, discusses what kind of stuff they would like to see in the wasteland of their choosing, and through character creation establish histories and relationships. From there the GM/DM (or MC in the case of this game standing for 'Master of Ceremonies') using a set of guide lines to advance the story. The players hvae nothing gluing them together except the desire to survive, and can go any direction they want with the story. The MC takes on less of a role as writer/director of the adventure as perhaps a set designer and the guy who supervises the Extras. It is very low-over head for him.

A lazy MC doesn't even need to work with an abstract idea of a shitty nuclear wasteland.  They can just googled 'pictures from New Jersey'

The game's simplicity is built around afew core stats (Namely Hard, Hot, Cool, Sharp, and Weird) which more act as descriptions for character actions then quantifying attributes of physical performance. What I mean is they don't measure 'my guy is X strong which means he can lift x pounds'. What this does is work with 'moves' to determine the outcome of what the player describes when coupled with 2d6 (which is all the game needs).

So one of the players might be trying to gain the loyalty of a local (leaderless) gang. The player may choose to make an example one of the biggest guys by saying 'Jeremiah is going to get out a baseball bat capon style and wail on him', the MC would call for a 'Dice+Hard' roll, and the result would yield a measure of the desired effect.

So the MC might say on a soft success (a 7-9) "You get to choose one of the following: 1) The gang accepts your lead, 2) You are unharmed, or 3) They don't fight it any more." A hard success (10+) will yield maybe two of those results. The MC will then describe what happens. Maybe if just option 1 was chosen, you get beat up in the fight and have to take down a few more members before the example is set. If 2 & 3 are chosen, You are unscathed but a few more might have to get beat up (and you don't have a gang, but it might make a future attempt easier).

Some other possible examples:
-You can try to seduce someone with Dice+Hot
-If you are pondering a problem or searching for something it might be Dice+Sharp
-Opening up to the Psychic Maelstrom is done with a Dice+Weird


I still haven't figured out what rolls would be required of "Hawk rolls down the highway shooting his wrist-bow while his boy-slave rides bitch"

 And none of these are 'Oh Chip goes aggro on him' or 'Chip shoots his gun'...the players must be descriptive and have a set goal in mind. If someone tries to seduce someone its not just "Burroughs tries to get in X person's pants" you would have to start with something like "Burroughs smiles coyly and give a knowing glance and...".

I will leave it at that (for now)...but by making the game mechanics based on cause and effect in a narrative sense (I do this with X effect on the story) as opposed to the conventional phyisical sense (I move seven squares and do Y effect on my environment/enemy with my greatsword)you create a system that is far more likely to lend itself to interesting story and character development.

I think that is possibly the coolest thing about this game. You can say 'Buzzsaw forces the gas pedal to the floor and starts drifting to the right, trying to force the biker to fallback or run him off the cliff' and with that free-form description not only get across your own mental picture of what is happening, but further events more and in a interesting direction. Too often most paper and pencil RPGs boil down to "I move, I hit it with my sword", and while many systems try to come up with ways to componsate for that (D&D4E's abilities namely) it is still just the same. There is no reward for particularly descriptive players outside of house rules.

"Humunculous strips to his thong and starts shooting at the Gyrocopter" is a far more interesting character action then "I shoot it with my gun"

I digress...

There are a number of archetypes that (while not limiting what they CAN do) outline the specialty of your character. They are things like Angel (You are a medic and doctor extraordinare), Chopper (you are the leader of a biker gang), and Brainer (Previously sighted weird guy).

They have a set series of stats that you can select from, and all come with their own particular flare and flavor. For instance: a Hocus runs a cult or religious group, and has a bunch of abilities that involve either bringing hope to these people, manipulating them to do your bidding, or drive them into a religious frenzy and send them to smash heads in. A Hardholder has something similar: Choppers have a gang too, but their abilities more focus on using their gang to mess people up or keeping their snarling group of banditotos in line.

Tank Girl would be a (hot) Driver with the 'My other car is a tank' ability

Hardholders are characters that have a gang and a stretch of turf they call their own. But if they personally try to shoot someone, patch-up a teammate with a medkit, or drive a tricked-out car they aren't going to be unable to do those things because of their class. They obviously won't be as good as a gunlugger, medic, or driver...but they can certainly try.

Gary Oldmann in 'Book of Eli' is the coolest example of a Hardholder

At last there is only one thing I can think of that needs to be mentioned: Sex moves.

Yes this game has 'Sex moves'. No they are not 'Doggy', 'Missionary', or 'Cowgirl'. No you are not going to be too explicit about it and this game isn't pornography.

His move might be 'Settle for the dog in frustration' but I don't know.  I'm really just looking for an excuse to reference this flick (It's good.  Go netflix it now.  I SAID NOW, DAMMIT!)

Sex moves are things based on the player class, that have a particular effect if they are intimite with another PC or NPC. In general this builds history and gives them insights into how that other character's head works...in some cases LITERALLY. The Brainer (A weird almost shamanistic creature that fills the roll of 'magic user') will conduct a deep brain scan on someone automatically in that situation.

A post-apocalyptic setting is always desperate, scarse of resources, and an extremely stressful place to live. Sometimes your body might be the only thing you have to barter with for the water or medicine that will keep you alive. Sometimes it might just be the only fun past-time available when two consenting adults are stranded in an atomic wasteland.

Which brings me to the biggest possible detractor I have seen so far...

This came up when searching for 'Apocalypse World Brainer'...no idear why.

This game needs to be played by mature players. I don't necessarily mean 'old' and I don't mean it in the sense of ESRB ratings. I am thinking mentally mature in the sense that when talking about sex you aren't going to get (too) giggly and you can avoid being judgemental. You also need to know where to draw the line and not go overboard and creep everyone out with the WAY overboard amount of drooling, sweaty interest you put into this aspect of the games. It might be worth having a discussion with the group before the game even starts to know where all the lines are.

This is my last chance to post a picture of Mad Max, and I've been looking for a reason too this WHOLE time.