A Modest Proposal: Batman the Series

I think it's high time we had a new live-action Batman series on television.With CW's new series Arrow, focusing on the Green Arrow, we're seeing a gritty, realistic, drama about a millionaire who fights crime as a costumed alter ego at night. If they can pitch that, why the hell aren't we seeing a Batman series? With no slight at all intended towards Green Arrow fans, of course. Laying aside the rather schlocky superhero shows of the 1970's...

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Taking Another Look at Birthright

I wasn't a fan of the Birthright campaign setting when it first came out in 1995. To me, it seemed like just another in a multitude of settings that TSR was cranking out, and although I had a vague notion that it had something to do with starting off as the leader of a realm (or something equivalent), I never really pursued it. It seems I wasn't alone, since the setting was retired without fanfare in 1999. In retrospect, this shouldn't be all that...

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Banners on the Cheap 25% off Sale

In honor of the current election cycle, Banners on the Cheap is offering 25% off everything between now and November 1. If you've been intrigued by the various posts (including one of my own) about their services and how they can be used in a gaming context, now's the time to check them out! They're great for large-scale wall maps, fantasy art, battlemats, and probably a lot of things I've not yet thought ...

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Castle of the Mad Archmage Update

I know a lot of folks are wondering when Castle of the Mad Archmage is going to see print, and I wanted to give everyone a quick update based on new feedback I've received from Black Blade Publishing.The latest news is, their print version of Castle of the Mad Archmage (slipcase, poster maps, etc.) won't see print until 2013. Probably Q1, but no later than May. May 2013 is the hard deadline, after which time they lose the right to publish.Sorry I don't have better news to give, as I had hoped we'd see it this year, but such are the vicissitudes...

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RIP Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong, the first human being to walk on the surface of the moon, died today at the age of 82. He had served in both the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and was an inspiration to an entire generation of young Americans who would be fascinated with the idea of space travel and the colonization of other worlds.Farewell.UPDATE: From the family's announcement: "For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request....

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Iron League Campaign: Troop Strengths

Continuing on from my previous post about a hypothetical Iron League campaign that would have parallel D&D adventurers and large-scale warfare, I've collated the various accounts from those Dragon magazine articles and come up with the following troop type totals. These are the overall totals for each major participant; in the articles there is a lot of talk of forces being split, dwarves sent to reinforce other armies, etc. I've gone ahead and combined all of the troops mentioned for each side, so all the forces of the dwur-king of the Iron...

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Phil Reed and Andrew Hackard Talk Ogre and Munchkin

Over at ICV2, Andrew Hackard (head of the Munchkin line for Steve Jackson Games) and Phil Reed (Chief Operating Officer of SJG) were interviewed and gave some tidbits about the upcoming plans for both Ogre and Munchkin. Please do read the whole thing, but here are a few highlights:We’re trying to make sure we get to [Ogre] Kickstarter backers before Christmas, but it’s really going to depend on how things work out on the manufacturing side because of the complexity of the pieces.  We want to test everything.  We don’t want to ship the...

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Iron League Campaign: Overview

One of the things that always fascinated me about the World of Greyhawk was the series of articles produced by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz back in the early 1980's that detailed events in the Flanaess. Mostly there were details about troop strengths and movements, battles that had taken place on both land and sea, and political machinations. (Which, as an aside, actually fit in beautifully with the events that were later laid out in Greyhawk Wars and...

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More of Mollie's Musings from My Campaign

Here are another batch of drawings from one of the players in my Greyhawk campaign, chronicling not only what happens in the game, but also the (sometimes risqué) banter that flies back and forth at the table. This was a special "on the road" game, as many of us schlepped down to the Jersey shore to play at the house of one of our players who switched jobs a while ago and hasn't really been able to play since (I relaxed my normal limit...

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New Spell: Past Life Regression

Past Life RegressionLevel 3 Cleric/Mystic spell (necromancy)Requires: Incantation, gestures, holy symbolCasting Time: 18 seconds (3 segments)This spell allows the caster to lay hands upon any character and thereby allow the character to remember some specific aspect of his past lives. In practical terms, this allows the player of the character in question to apply "meta-game knowledge" learned from some previous player character who has died in the past. This knowledge can span whatever the previous character knew; the location of traps on the...

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Just Glue Some Gears on it (and call it Steampunk)

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Playing at the World: First Impressions

Author Jon Peterson was kind enough to send me a review copy of his new book Playing at the World, which bears the wordy subtitle of "A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role Playing Games".In a word, if you have any interest in the early history of Dungeons and Dragons, wargaming, Gary Gygax, or role-playing games in general, buy this book now. No, don't wait. Buy it now. I'll wait.Ordered it? Good.I'm...

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The Zero-Sum Game of Campaign Settings

As you might infer from the title of my blog, I am a fan of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting. I have spent literally thousands of hours reading, writing, and dreaming about Greyhawk. Technically, I was a fan of the setting even before it was an official setting; most of my homebrew campaigns prior to 1980, when the first Folio was released, featured a Duchy of Aaqa, or an Empire of Lum, or other places whose names were gleaned from the tiny glimpses we read about in the artifacts and relics sections of Eldritch Wizardry and the DMG, and had...

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The Future of Dungeons and Dragons

Today (8/16/2012) at 7:00 PM eastern time, Wizards of the Coast will be live streaming the keynote address from GenCon: "The Future of Dungeons and Dragons." Speculation is that they will not only talking about the DnD Next playtest, but might also divulge which campaign setting(s) will be featured.Hie thyself to this link to see the future of D&D:http://www.wizards.com/dnd/GenCon.a...

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Remind You of Anyone We Know?

(Courtesy of XK...

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Worthy Cause: Braille Polyhedral Dice Kickstarter

I've been deliberately trying to not flood the blog with all of the cool things I see on Kickstarter. But I saw this tonight and decided it was worth letting my readers know about it:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/592087154/braille-diceI personally have no use for braille dice. I'm not vision-impaired myself, and don't know anyone who is.But DAMN this is a terrific idea that will help hundreds if not thousands of people, and it's worth a couple of bucks to me to help out vision-impaired gamers. Regular six-sided "tactile dice" exist and are...

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Lightsaber Training Class in San Francisco

AWESOM...

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New DnD Next Playtest Packet Available

Well, well, well. Just in time for GenCon, we have a new DnD Next playtest packet from Wizards of the Coast.I just downloaded it myself, so I obviously haven't read through any of it yet, but it does seem like there's no adventure module included, so DMs are going to be on their own in that respect. (Which is a plus in my book, btw.) Looks like there are more complete rules for character creation, which is something a bunch of us have been looking for.All in all, I'm looking forward to seeing the next iteration of the playtest. More when I've had...

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More of Mollie's Visual Game Diaries

About a month ago, I posted a few drawings that one of our regular players, Mollie, makes while we game. This time she's done it again (actually, she does it every time, but I don't always post 'em and sometimes they get a little blue), this time chronicling the misadventures of group in my own campaign as they explore beneath the Castle of the Mad Archmage.What I love about these things is that they don't just capture what happens in the game, but...

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"The world needs another generic fantasy system like it needs udders and a top hat"

Game Knight Reviews has a terrific interview with Mike Nystul about the now-running kickstarter for his new game "Axes and Anvils", which is an all-dwarf RPG. Love the idea, and I've backed it myself. Do check it out; there are four days left!It does bring up an interesting notion, though. While I firmly agree that we are now supersaturated with generic fantasy games*, are we in a position now where niche fantasy games will start popping up? Why entire niche RPGs rather than supplements for already-existing games?__________* I view games like...

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Of Snailflails and Google Hangouts

I had the opportunity last night to play in an AD&D game run by the  all around great guy Joe "The Lawyer" Dimech (link to his blog firmly ensconced over to the left). This was a first for me, for I had never before played in a game online; the game was part of the "Flailsnails" project, and was run in a Google hangout. The game itself was an expedition into Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works (apparently most of the party had been playing there for quite some time; most were 4th to 6th level, with my poor 1st level mountebank tagging along...

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More PDF-anoia

So yesterday Cubicle 7 announced that they are not going to be making pdf copies of their RPG The One Ring available any more:We are re-examining our pdf programme at this time and will not be offering pdf versions of The One Ring until further notice.Many apologies for any inconvenience caused. What was interesting, however, is a statement that they made over at RPG.net:Sorry for the frustration with the PDFs, we really appreciate that they are a mainstay of modern gaming and our other games will remain fully supported in PDF.So, it's not...

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Ships!

As careful readers of the blog will recall, I've been in the process of putting together a fleet of late Medieval / early Renaissance ships. For figures I chose the 1/2400 "Christians and Corsairs" line put out by Figurehead Ships. (They also have Napoleonics, Spanish Armada, and an "Iron and Steam" 19th century line.) I got mine from The Last Square, located in Madison, WI; they have a very nice web-store so ordering online is very easy.The...

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