Joe Gamer

I’ve been a longtime fan of The Knights of the Dinner Table comics from way back in the days when the comic appeared in Shadis magazine. Shadis! That was a while back. For a while the comic appeared in Dragon magazine (DRAGON!) and eventually found its way to comic book format. The guys at Kenzer & Co. STUFF the pages of KoDT and Jolly Blackburn is the writer / artist. Let me tell you KoDT is FUNNY stuff. Actually you don’t have to believe me, the guys at Kenzer are GIVING AWAY a comic in PDF form. Go ahead, download that, read it and come back. I’ll wait.

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Funny stuff right?! If you said “no” stop reading now and go away, I have no use for you. Philistine!

Anyway, for a while I visited the Kenzer&Co forums pretty regularly. Jolly often posted during those times and you just get to know folks … or at least know what they want you to know about them, but then again that’s all we really know about most folks anyway. Let me just say Jolly is VERY likable and much loved by my wife and I as well as a great many other fans.

So what does this have to do with AEG?

Recently Jolly and his wife Barbara lost their daughter Amber. I can’t imagine their pain. BoardGameGeek (another industry class act) started a drive to raise money for the Blackburn family, and AEG stepped in with some really significant donations. I can’t afford a single one, but I strongly encourage folks to go over to BBG, register, and bid on something neat. Also take the time to look at all the companies and individuals donating items for this family’s cause. Gaming is filled with some really excellent people.

When you are done go hug your kids, kiss your spouse, and remember to let the ones you love know it. You never know how much longer they will be with you, so make every moment count. Now if you don’t mind I’m wrapping this one up to go read a book to my little girl. Hopefully I won’t choke up.

© 2011, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Anyone who has spoken with me at any length on 4e DnD knows I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the up side of the system, things seem streamlined, the system is a little more intuitive, and some of the character classes *coughWARLORDcough* really appeal to me. On the downside I find that magic just isn’t as special as it used to be and there isn’t anything particularly special about any character class. I like the concept of rituals vs. magic abilities, but nothing wows me about magic as a whole in the system. The magic has gone out of magic, and as a player who’s loved spell casters from the first time I picked up a Red Box three decades ago, this saddens me.

So recently I have started playing in a 4e DnD campaign (my first) set in the Darksun campaign setting. Tiny King Jeff runs the show as the DM. He’s pretty new at DMing, and while the job isn’t any easier having three veteran DMs sitting at the table as players, he’s doing well. Reservations about the game aside, I have to say I’m having a blast. All of the characters have their own niche, and each has gotten a time to shine. In my mind that’s a SERIOUS plus to a gaming system. I still hold some reservations however because we haven’t advanced beyond first level. So while I can say the start of the game is strong, I really have no idea what 5th, 10th, 20th, and 30th levels may be like.

Also as a person that actually LIKES systems like RoleMaster where you spend HOURS creating a character only to have him die to a luckily rolled critical in the very first combat he encounters, or even the Stormbringer system where you have a better chance of playing a one armed beggar than anything actually useful, I have to say I already miss the struggle. What is the point in pushing on with a particular character if the hopes of seeing him finally come into his own when each character shines from day one? I know this directly conflicts my previous statement that such balance is a strength of a system, but I allow myself such contrasting opinions.

Overall I’m happy with what I’ve gotten from 4e so far. However I can’t say I’m going all in on the system yet. I’ll have a much better idea in a year or two. If I’m still playing my Warlord Trader and still discovering neat new aspects to the character, I’ll be more than pleased. If things end up becoming monotonous with each encounter pretty much seeming like the one before, then I’ll end up dropping 4e like I dropped Everquest, with a disgusted “what’s the point” attitude never to return. We’ll see (no pressure Tiny King).

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

I’ve just started playing a paladin in a Pathfinder game my friend Shaphan runs. Every time I play a paladin I have this theme music playing in my head. So I thought I might as well adjust it slightly to fit. Enjoy.

Sung to the theme of the 50′s/60′s western, Have Gun Will Travel.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

I DM a homebrew DnD 3.5E campaign on Wednesday nights and occasionally someone cannot show. When it is our host or I who cannot show, there just isn’t a game. When it is one of the other players however, we typically game. Our most recent game was canceled because the current adventure is supposed to highlight the two rogues in the group and the primary one could not show. It is always disappointing to call an entire game. I considered running a one-off for the other players, but I don’t want to get too far away from the central story. I joked to the other players via IM chat that they should all take the Leadership Feat like the character Clay, and then when someone doesn’t show the players could all play a follower or cohort on the side. At this point I realized that Clay, with a 19 Leadership Score, has nearly fifty low level followers (40 1st; 4 2nd; 2 3rd; 1 4th; 1 5th). Currently the group is half a continent away from their base of operations, but that doesn’t mean things stand still at home. With that in mind we gathered for a night of character creation.

We have five players in addition to the DM, so when one is missing we need four characters. Clay’s 19 Leadership Score provides exactly 4 2nd level characters, and I thought this was perfect. During the course of the night we created the 4 2nd level characters, 2 1st level characters, 1 4th level character, and 1 5th level character. Additionally, Mori’s protege was detailed as was a hireling for Kitty!

Now when someone can not game, we don’t have to continue the main story without them, we can pick up a side game in the same story with characters that add depth, pathos, and (dare I say?) verisimilitude to the story. Most importantly it spares us an otherwise boring Wednesday evening.

Do any of you do anything similar for your canceled games?

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Infinite City is a tile based game published by AEG. The game lends itself to having serious cut-throat potential, and some tiles that seem very innocuous at first can become very strategic targets. One player’s plans can be ruined by the placement of a single tile while the placement of another can open up vast new possibilities. While I believe fans of Carcassonne should enjoy Infinite City, it reminds me more of my earliest games of Cosmic Encounter, and I put this game into the same general category: easy to learn, different every game, and the more cut throat the better.

The game consists of 120 2″x2″ tiles and 90 wooden tokens. The tokens are broken up in groups of 15, each group a different color and are used by the players to indicate tiles he or she controls. Players take turns playing tiles that represent sections of the city. There are 21 different types tiles each with a different game effect. The rules are simple, so simple in fact that the rules sheet is a single 12″x9″ page printed on both sides and folded. The rules are printed in a font that is neither cramped nor small. A good portion of the rules space is dedicated to scoring with setup taking the majority of the remaining space. The smallest portion or space in the rules goes to the actual rules themselves. This is significant because while the rules are light and fast, the game is fun!

Setup involves “shuffling” the tiles and placing them into draw piles. Five tiles are placed face down in a cross formation, and each player draws five tiles of his or her own. The first player plays a tile face up adjacent to any of the tiles already in play, places one of his own colored tokens on the tile, and the proceeds to follow the instructions on the tile. Sometimes the instructions include placing another token on a different tile, placing a new tile, flipping a face down tile, or manipulating the other tiles and/or tokens in play. If a player flips over a face down tile or places a new tile, then the player performs the actions outlined on that tile and so on. Once the player is finished following the directions of tiles, he draws new tiles until he has at least five. Those are the basic rules.

Scoring is done by counting continuous groups of three or more of a player’s tokens. Each player gets bonus points for controlling tiles that have points indicated in the upper left corner. A player controls a tile if he or she has a token on that tile, and multiple player can control the same tile. Finally the player controlling the most tiles with a particular decoration (a set of interlocking rings) gets even more points.

See? Simple. Infinite City is easy to learn, loads of fun, and JoeGamer approved.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.