The Tudors: Seasons 5 and 6

I was (and remain) a huge fan of the Showtime historical drama series The Tudors. One of the great disappointments surrounding the series is that it wasn't really about "The Tudors" at all, but only concerned itself with the life of English king Henry VIII. I was really hoping that, after his death in the show, they would go on to the fascinating life of Queen Elizabeth, her struggle with Mary Tudor (aka "Bloody Mary" because of her persecution of...

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Upcoming NJ Convention News

A couple of quick updates for those who are local enough to take part in the New Jersey convention scene.Metatopia, the convention specifically for game designers to present works-in-progress for playtesting (as well as tons of excellent seminars for game designers/producers and those who aspire to be) has moved its date to November 2-4. Pre-registration for the convention is now open; if you want to see what some of the best up-and-coming independent game outfits have in the pipeline, or want to become an up-and-comer yourself, this is an indispensable...

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A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore Now Available!

I am pleased to announce that the pdf version of Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is now available in the BRW Games online store!A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is designed to bring you much of the new rules and components from Adventures Dark and Deep as a rules supplement, suitable for use with AD&D, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and similar old-school games.Adventures Dark and Deep...

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Banners on the Cheap

Last month I was approached by a company called Banners on the Cheap. Seems they wanted to get the word out about their products to a new audience; gamers. They offered to give me a banner of my choice in return for a review (with the understanding that it will be an honest review), so here 'tis.Originally, they offered to do a map of some sort for me. Several other bloggers have taken them up on that offer, and their results look pretty good, but...

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Roll a d6

I actually found this a while ago, but I heard the original song on the radio yesterday, and all I could think of was this version...

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Rules vs. Imagination

Commenter kensan-oni made the following comment in response to my previous post on x.p. budgets. I thought it was an important enough point that I wanted to make my own response to him as a post unto itself.I think one of the things that should be noted is that while I agree with you on a level, the "Encounter to be Avoided" is something that doesn't work if you stay by rules as written, ever since 2nd edition. The movement speeds are codified,...

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On X.P. Budgets

The following quote caught my eye from today's Legends and Lore by Mike Mearls, talking about monster design in DnD Next:When it comes to combat, the math that our system uses assumes an adventuring day that lasts a number of rounds and involves a total experience point value for monsters based on the party’s level. Higher-level parties fight more and face tougher creatures. The adventure design guidelines give an XP budget for an entire day,...

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Made for Play: Board Games & Modern Industry

Here's a fascinating documentary about how board games are manufactured....

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Review: The Dark Knight Rises (Caution: Spoilers)

Preface: No discussion of The Dark Knight Rises is possible without addressing the horrific mass murder that took place in Aurora, CO on opening night. It should go without saying that my thoughts and sympathies are with the victims and their families, and that while the shooter is obviously mentally ill, there can be no possible justification for such an act. We don't yet know why he did what he did, or why he picked this particular film. That said,...

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90 Minutes Left to Support Starfire Command!

There's a terrific looking new space battle miniatures game just wrapping up its Kickstarter called Starfire Command.The models look great, not too expensive, and the game itself is looking very promising indeed.If you're into space battle games, I'd urge you to take a look at it, but hurry, man! It's only got an hour and a half left.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965181650/starfire-command-space-fleet-miniatures-war-g...

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Ranking the Batman Films

With the impending release of The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow (I've already got my ticket to see the whole Dark Knight trilogy, starting at 6 PM today, culminating with DKR at midnight tonight), I thought it would be appropriate to throw up my own ranking of the various big screen incarnations of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego.I will go on record as saying that one does not cast for Batman. One casts for Bruce Wayne. You could put almost anyone into...

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Cities of Greyhawk

I've been working on a top-secret project lately (in and around all my not-so-secret projects), and have been doing some research on the various cities of the Flanaess in the World of Greyhawk. Some of it was fairly straightforward, but I noticed something extraordinary as I got into the data.In CY 576 (the era described by both the original folio and "gold box" set), the wonderful Darlene map indicated which of the settlements were capitals, cities,...

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The Funniest D&D Story I've Ever Heard

This is R.A. Salvatore telling his "Wubba Wubba" story. Apparently this is famous throughout D&D-dom, but I hadn't heard it before today.I'm still laughi...

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RuneQuest 6th Edition Now Available for Pre-Order

I never got into RuneQuest. Sure, I owned some of the books, but for us in high school it was all AD&D all the time when it came to fantasy, and that was all she wrote. Still, I know that RuneQuest and Glorantha hold a special place in many OSR gamers' hearts, so I thought many of you might be interested in this news from The Design Mechanism:RuneQuest 6th edition is now available for pre-order. All direct orders are handled through our partner,...

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Saying Exactly the Right Things

A quick follow-up to yesterday's news regarding online gaming from WotC and Paizo. Here's Lisa Stevens, Paizo CEO, on their strategy:Just to make things 100% clear, we don't care what VTT tool people end up using. If you like Roll20.net or d20Pro or Fantasy Grounds or Nferno or whatever, then that is fine and dandy with us. Keep using them and playing games. We just wanted to give folks another option here on Paizo Game Space. We aren't in competition with the other VTTs. We aren't going to be trying to outcompete and steal their customers away....

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Some Virtual Gaming News from Wizards and Paizo

WotC's VTTHere's a two-fer on a subject that a lot of gamers are following closely; virtual gaming.First, from Wizards of the Coast, comes the announcement that they're shutting down the Beta test of their Virtual Table Top:"I wanted to inform you all about an important decision that Wizards has made regarding the D&D Virtual Table and Virtual Table Beta. While we appreciate the enthusiasm and participation in the Beta phase, we were unable to...

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Tesla Coil of the Mountain King

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that a couple of years ago I attempted to make a point about putting individual stamps on megadungeons through different interpretations of music, using Edvard Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King as my example.While I would encourage everyone to read (or re-read, as the case may be) that original post, because I think the point still stands, I happened across the following and thought I'd share it because it's just too effing cool not to. Had I seen this back then, I certainly would have included it."They...

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First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon

I just got an announcement with this pretty neato news from the folks who put on Dexcon, Dreamation, and Metatopia here in NJ. If you're going to be at GenCon this year, it's definitely worth looking into. Plus you get to try out brand-new games before they're even published!Double Exposure, Inc. is pleased to announce a new area of Gen Con 2012 - the First Exposure Playtest Hall.Double Exposure will be using their unique formula of reversing the...

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The PanEuropean Huscarl

I stumbled across this really cool Ogre-themed video today. Basically, a Huscarl is the PanEuropean variant of the Ogre MK...

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Making Revetments

As you can see from the pictures from my recent Ogre miniatures game at Dexcon, I took it upon myself to make some revetments for the scenario. A revetment is basically a U-shaped fortification designed to shield whatever happens to be inside-- tanks, troops, what have you (in Ogre, a revetment adds 2 to the defensive strength of the unit inside). I needed a bunch for Operation Shockhammer, and was dreading the prospect because I have next to no...

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After Action Report: Operation Shockhammer

One of my main events at this year's Dexcon convention was an Ogre Miniatures scenario I devised called Operation Shockhammer. Four Ogres (plus a few token screening units) are tasked with assaulting a very well-fortified defensive position; lots of walls, revetments, and favorable terrain. (The attackers get 1 MK-V, 3 MK-III's, 4 GEVs, 4 LGEVs, 3 HVY, and 1 SHVY; the defenders get 2 Fencers, 150 points of infantry and 150 points of vehicles, plus...

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Dexcon 2012 Report

Vinny-- the man behind the con. A terrific guy and someone who really knows how to put a fun convention together.This weekend I attended the always-fabulous Dexcon gaming convention in Morristown, NJ. I was scheduled to run two AD&D 1st edition games, 2 sessions of Ogre Miniatures, and one of The Awful Green Things From Outer Space. Alas, the games that were scheduled to run on Thursday and Sunday didn't end up happening due to lack of attendance....

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RIP Ernest Borgnine

Another milestone; Ernest Borgnine, a staple of movies and television for decades, died today at the age of 95. If you grew up in the 1970's, you watched reruns of McHale's Navy on television and know exactly who he is. If you were into sci-fi, you saw him in The Black Hole and the Airwolf TV series.He kept on working until the very end, doing voice work as Mermaid Man in the Spongebob Squarepants cartoons (with his McHale's Navy co-star Tim Conway...

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