Joe Gamer

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.

I picked up Fantasy Flight’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Core Set. I was quickly impressed with its massive volume and weight but put off somewhat by it’s considerable price (MSRP $99.95). I should have gotten it though Amazon.com (click the link above to the product or the ad below), but I’m creature of impulse, and I was there, and it was there, and well I can drop that kind of scratch – (if my wife says so). I wanted to rip into it immediately, but waited until I bought it. Then I had to wait until I got in our car. THEN I still had to wait until I got home. OK, truth to nuts, I didn’t make it home. I had to stop over at Monkey Lord’s place and I ripped it open there.

I’ve seen previous incarnations of Warhammer’s attempts at a RPG, and while I’ve never played it I was always impressed. I could never get into the groove of the game or find anyone willing to run a game so I never got a chance to play. That said, it didn’t prevent me from purchasing one of the editions (5th I think) for myself. It currently resides someplace on one of my bookshelves drawing all of the other books around it into it’s own orbit. Here I’m imagining all of the books being pulled close to the Warhammer book due to it’s own gravity and the book saying “I win”. So when I saw this new product on the shelf, turned over the huge box in my hands and noticed that it contained 35 special dice I knew it had to be mine.

Being both a Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight product, the artwork is of course brilliant. Once the rather huge box is opened, one finds many cards, counters, and yes – dice. So many dice. Also included are four soft bound books: one for all players, one for wizards, one for clergy, and one for game masters. The books can be purchased separately, but in reality one boxed set is needed by a gaming group. Finally the discerning eye will find three simple card stock boxes which at first impression have no real purpose. Seems these are how one keeps track of his or her character’s cards between games. I find that both interesting and a bit annoying at the same time.

By simple examination of the contents, it may not be easily discernible how one plays the game. While the archetypal polyhedral dice are present, they are not covered with numbers but with archaic symbols instead. Character sheets are double sided but only about 1/3 the size of a standard sheet of paper. The cards vary in size, shape and meaning. I imagined that the game may be played on two levels: as a classical RPG like Dungeons and Dragons or a pseudo-board game like Warhammer Quest or Descent. I can tell you now it is purely a Roleplaying Game.

I’ve considered that adding cards to an RPG might be benificial, but I had yet to see it actually put into action. This game does this and does it pretty well. The cards represent talents, abilities, insanities, and wounds that a character acquires over the course of his or her career.

The books are not difficult to read if read thoroughly and in order. If you wish to simply thumb trough the books and get an idea of the character classes and what each is capable, then you will NOT be happy. Thumbing through the books can be a very annoying experience as the Player’s Guide is designed to teach and is not designed to be a reference. I’m not entirely happy with the order that the concepts are presented either as some concepts are referenced before they are explained. If you have patience though, the concepts eventually become clear.

The Game Master’s guide presents some additional core concepts as well as some game master advice. Since many of the basic concepts of how to play have already been covered in the Player’s Guide (you will read that one first won’t you), many of the new concepts presented in the Game Master’s guide are less annoying to learn. The Game Master’s guide also provides a short adventure to get things started and while I haven’t played it yet, it feels like the presentation was a little hurried. I’ll comment more once I run the adventure myself.

There are a variety of starting character professions included in the set. Players choose a profession for their character which provide a number of special abilities and possible directions for progression. As a character gains experience, he or she may purchase advancements that include stat increases, access to new abilities, and even a new profession. Characters get a bit of a boon if they follow their profession all the way to the end of it’s advancement, but eventually the character must choose a new profession if he or she wishes to continue to advance. Each profession has exit professions that generally expand or compliment the current profession. Player that run a wizard or a member of the clergy will need to thoroughly read the wizard’s guide or the clergy’s guide respectively. The one main drawback to the set is that there are only a limited number of professions, but that will be addressed with expansions (of course).

Expansion is not only planned, but already here. The very first thing I realized as I read the books is that everyone is going to want their own Extra Dice Set and they are now available. Honestly you’ll probably want 2, more if you have a lot of disposable income and don’t like other people touching your dice.

Also, the first expansion of character classes, The Adventurer’s Toolkit, has been released though I have yet to examine these. Both items can be found on Amazon, and I’ve also seen them at hobby stores and even Books A Million.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Wednesday nights is the single nerdiest night of my week. This is the night that several of my friends and I gather for our “weekly” Dungeons and Dragons 3.5Ed Game. The cast of characters includes:

• Clay Barrett: A rather promiscuous and constantly randy male Lesser Aasimar Favored Soul.
• Mori: An impressive female Greater Aasimar Fighter who wields dual blades.
• Thurkear “Aust” Caex: A mysterious male Fey’Ri Duskblade with a nack for getting into trouble.
• Aisha Kuroneko : A female Nekomimi (cat girl) Warlock who flirts with evil like a cat plays with a mouse.
• Olley Tallowish: A very short male Halfling Rogue and candle maker with a penchant for very tall women.

Together the band forms the Bent Blades, so named because each of the party carries at least one curved melee weapon.

The game centers around a small settlement called New Fort Brawn. Where a small band of adventurers is needed to search for the scattered remains of a statue of the Old Fort Brawn’s greatest hero. The these pieces are needed is because the head of the statue has become animated seemingly with the soul of the hero himself. If the pieces of the statue can be combined and reunited with the hero’s regalia, Old Fort Brawn’s greatest hero may be restored to life, but for what purpose?

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

When I got home tonight the little one was watching Mulan which makes me very happy. I love it when she watches stories with strong female characters, especially in a fantasy setting. Obviously ancient China isn’t exactly a fantasy setting but when you add dragons and spirits its close enough. Add on top the love between the father and daughter and you might be able to see why I hope she watches this over and over again.

During the course of the movie my little girl had a few questions. Here were the two I wanted to share that I thought fully illustrates just how geeky I can be:
Q) (After Mulan has taken a vicious sword strike she falls in pain.) What’s wrong with her?
A) She just took 1d8 + 12 damage to the chest.
Q) (Upon seeing the BBG’s hand break the surface of the snow after the avalanche.) What’s that?
A) The bad guy. You know it’s hard to keep a high level barbarian down.

Now I must go as The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother is playing and is taking up a good bit of my attention now. That is a whole other genre of entertainment to get my daughter hooked on though perhaps in a few more years when she can really start to appreciate the genius of Gene Wilder.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.