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.

I have to admit that I haven’t played Magic the Gathering in a very long time. In fact I have sold a lot of our Magic the Gathering collection. The collectible card game was just too much to keep up with when I went back to school. Having a full-time job and full-time school work just didn’t leave much room to learn new rules that were released with each new set.

When M10 was released, I bought a pre-constructed deck that came with an unopened booster pack. Inside that booster pack was a Baneslayer Angel that I later sold on eBay for $30. Needless to say, my interest in new Magic the Gathering cards was renewed. I bought more M10 but never pulled another Baneslayer Angel. I did buy a few packs of the next set but didn’t enjoy it as much as the core set.

So I’ve learned that I really do like the MTG core sets much better than the expansions. The expansions seem to always have these funky rules that I don’t care to comprehend. The core sets seem to stick as close as possible to the basic rules. Also with M11 I have more chances to pull another cool rare card that hopefully bring me big bucks to pay for even more cards.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

Your friend Jeff here with the scoop on a new RPG I played when I went to Mobicon a few weeks ago.  Having gone to play 4e DnD but having not signed up for Living Forgotten Realms (the official Wizards Realms campaign) in time, Elizabeth (the Queen of the Tiny Kingdom) and I went looking around, checking out the cool gamer merchandise.  While we were skulking about we ran into a booth run byThe Wandering Men promoting a game called Untold, a card based role playing game I’d only heard of in the periphery.  We had some time before anything was going to go on, so when one of the team members mentioned he was doing a demo, we both agreed pretty heartily.  The first game was a lot of fun with my character freaking out on the rest of the party and the big barbarian guy throwing a charmed enemy at something we needed that was out of reach.  The game was so much fun we ended up playing in another demo the next day and would have played more if not for some of the other activities at the con.  Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

To explain, Untold is, like I said, a card based role playing game.  It’s a tabletop RPG in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons, but all the player needs is a deck (representing your character) and one 20-sided die.  When making a character, the players assembled a deck of cards like in Magic the Gathering or games like it based on an amount of Untold Points as determined by the GM.  Each card has a value in Untold Points so if the GM declares you have 30 points to make a character, you have that much to use.  Each card represents something about your character.  There is the Race card that gives you the basic stats for your race and type, Aspect cards that increase each stat (Body, Mind, Spirit) and then the Swap Cards.  There is Story Swap (you must either have a story for the card or fulfill something in the story to acquire it), Site Swap (have to be somewhere or have something specific to use it), and Time Swap cards (takes an amount of time to equip, use, or ready the item or action).  It is important to not use all up all your UP with these cards because there is another set of cards you can have call Hot Swap cards that represent actions or spells that aren’t always active.  If you have 25 UP used toward a 40 maximum, you can use Hot Swap cards up to 15 UP.

The cool thing about Untold is everything is story based.  Your Apoc Churl (human barbarian, essentially) has a powerful tribal bow?  How did you get it?  Questions like that are essential to gameplay.  Let’s take an example real quick.  My first game I played a steampunk robot called a Klik Roller.  One of my Swap cards was “Diplomatic.”  After a series of embarrassing situations and harassment from the other players, I asked the GM if I could remove my Diplomatic card.  My character was stressed to the point of breaking and decided he had enough and was no longer Diplomatic.  Because of the freeing of some UP by removing the card, I was able to increase one of my Aspect cards to have higher stats.  But only because I could justify it in the story.

Untold is very customizable for both the GM and the player (giving it Untold possibilities!  See what I did there?).  I bought a bunch of cards and plan on buying some more.  I have a character in mind that I’ve already written up a story for and have a pretty good idea of the cards I’d use too.  It’s very easy.  I hope to do more articles on the game as I get more in to it and after we play it some.  The full rules are on Untold’s website along with setting information and a very helpful forum.

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

For those Legend of the Five Rings(L5R) fans who have longed to show their clan pride, finally AEG has heard your cries. As part of AEG’s main online store, they now have L5R clan stores. In the clan store, you can find merchandise tailored to your favorite clan from hoodies to deck backers. AEG is also selling L5R foils. For $20, you get:

Thanks AEG. Now I will never have to fret over Father’s Day, Christmas, or anniversary gifts.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

Sometimes when you are bored, you look around for things to do. Personally I have a rather vivid imagination in as much as whenever I endeavor to do something, I like to picture myself in the ‘universe’ that my activity takes place. It’s the minute storyteller in me. For example, when I play either version of Warhammer I like to name my commander and flesh out the stories that my battles tell to me. A game isn’t fun unless I can immerse myself in it. That’s where Pokemon comes in.

Pokemon, for the un-initiated is/was a hugely successful roleplaying game series that started in 1996. As a child, it captured my imagination because you play a 10 year old child that partakes an adventure around the world (or your particular region) to befriend the varied creatures called Pokemon. 13 years, several games and remakes later, I haven’t exactly kept up. I started the game when I was nine years old! Why would I keep wanting to play it as a 22 year old? It is because of the immersive nature of the game. Each game builds on the last. New Pokemon, regions and features are introduced each time, increasing the mythology of the game. There are numerous “trainer types” that the player fights, giving the idea that you can be whatever trainer you want to be, from the innocuous Bug Catcher, to the versatile Cool/Ace Trainer.

No player has the same team, and even if they do that doesn’t guarantee their Pokemon have the same moves and abilities. That makes it worthwhile to me. Look anywhere online. You will find people roleplaying in forums, designing “themselves” as trainers on Deviantart, making “Trainer Cards”. I love it all. Still not sure what trainer I would be classified as, but that is but one source of identity related to the game.

Now I recently delved back into the Pokemon world due to a bit of insistence on my part to my wife Elizabeth. When she was younger the only video game she played other than a Volleyball game on Game Boy was Pokemon Yellow. Now she plays as many or more video games than I do. She has a Dsi my mom bought her for her last birthday, so in order to see if she’d like Pokemon still, I convinced my parents to buy her one of the newest iterations of the Pokemon Series, Pokemon Diamond. Well long story short, she got it and now that’s almost all she plays. Not to be outdone, I picked up Platinum, the companion piece, to compete against her.

Let’s just say she has around 20 hours while I’m clocked in around 9 and a half. So with the hobby gaming scene a little light around Hattiesburg, I find myself drawn to the Pokemon Trading Card Game League that runs in Brandon, Jackson, Laurel and the like. I feel like a kid, but it’s not such a bad thing. Therefore I posit if you are interested in an immersive experience that can spark imagination (at least active imaginations like mine) then don’t hesitate to play Pokemon again. It caters to the role player, the level grinder, the OCD collector. I did and I’m glad of it!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.