WotC Catalog 2010

A few weeks ago, I was at a local gaming store and noticed something curious: a Wizards of the Coast Spring/Summer catalog... for 2010! Someone had left it unattended on top of some books that were being prepped for the shelves, and none of the employees were around.

I pulled out my crappy cell phone and managed to snap a couple pics before I heard an employee coming around the corner. Only two of them turned out, and for some reason my phone won't transfer one, so I've just got the one shot of the Table of Contents:

From WotC Catalog 2010

As you can see, lots of planar-related stuff here.

GenCon is next week, and I'll be attending the Wizards' seminars. I'll post any news I get from there on this blog!

Scribblings

Been a busy week. In addition to my normal three 12-hour shifts, I volunteered to do a fourth on Thursday. We're a touch short-handed right now, and I could use the extra money, so it was worth it. Of course, that afternoon the night shift person decided to call in.

Well, not so much "call in" as "come in to pick up her check and then tell us she's not coming in while she's at her workplace." x.x

Anyway, they couldn't get someone on short notice, so I volunteered to say a few extra hours until someone could come in. Wound up doing a 14 hour shift. On my day off.

Needless to say, I was basically useless on Friday. Lazed about, played some Rock Band 2. Finally got my (single player) band up to earning a jet plane, so I can play gigs outside the USA. Also decided to try drumming a bit... and basically got my ass kicked. Drumming is harder than I expected.

This morning, I've been doing a little writing. I've had a plan since last August to write out my own D&D campaign setting, but my typical lethargy crept in and I kept putting it off. I'm finally getting myself sorted out, and seriously working on this stuff again.

My first project is a new racial write-up. The plan is to create a 4-8 page PDF, which I'll sell online under my Bluegrass Geek label. Following that will be a new class, which is a bigger investment in time & effort, and will require some friends to do some playtesting. The final move will be to write out the campaign setting itself, which will include the new race (and a bonus "bloodline" race) & new class, plus feats, a few Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies, new "gods" and the actual world setting itself.

Depending on how well the race & class PDFs do, I'll either make the campaign setting a simple 32-64 page overview, or a full-sized Campaign Setting book & separate Player's Guide book.

I do plan on commissioning some artwork for these PDFs, but I'm going to have to read up more on creating my own company & the legalities involved (especially the D&D GSL).

iPhone game quickie

Just a quick post. I'm trying to sort out exactly what I want to do with this blogspace, as my original plan kinda faltered. Will work on writing up a game report this weekend, before the next game. For now, here's a couple bits of iPhone gaming news:

The Blizzard Authenticator is now a free iPhone app. Instead of buying a physical dongle, you can just get the app for your iPhone/iPod Touch. Once synced to their servers, you can use it offline just as if it were the physical authenticator.

Wolfenstein 3D has been ported to the iPhone. It's available on the store for $4.99 and either uses on-screen controls, or the tilt-sensor.

The Tragically Unhip

Say hello to my Rock Band group: The Tragically Unhip!

Weekend Reverie

I've neglected this blog far too long. Things have been crazy at my day job, but that's no excuse for a writer! *shakefist*

This weekend was a great break, though. I got to participate in the Weekend in the Realms event with some great folks. We got the cooperation of Page 3 to use their store to play in. We did get stuck in the basement and had to leave after a few hours, though. Moved the game to our friends' place and played for hours.

It was a lot of fun, and we got to try some things in-game we hadn't done yet. Overall, it was worth it!

Gencon: Days 3 & 4

Saturday at GenCon started out early. The "Haunted and Historical" tour kept us up late, so we almost overslept and missed...



The "Killer Breakfast" does not serve breakfast. :) Basically, it's a silly thing that authors Tracy & Laura Hickman put together. Everyone piles into the room and a group of about a dozen people get pulled up onto the stage and given "character sheets." Tracy then gives a scenario and starts asking the people "How did you get here," and "What do you do?"

If people's answers are too boring or just lame, they get "killed" and taken off the stage, to make room for the next person. Of course, the trick is that everyone will get killed by the end of it, so it's no big deal. The people who are the most entertaining "live" the longest onstage. A couple of my favorites:



The Pirate gal actually lasted a couple rounds, if I remember right, because she played it to the hilt. And besides, everything's better with pirates!



As I mentioned before, there is no breakfast served at Killer Breakfast. When Tracy Hickman asked this guy "what do you do?" he got up and pulled out a table, then proceeded to serve Tracy & Laura a light breakfast. He lived a couple more rounds. :)



Yes, this guy dressed up as Yoda, complete with little arms on sticks. And he really stole the show. He also was sitting next to a kid who was doing a Harry Potter-ish thing to play, and they really had fun playing off each other.



I really wish I could've got a better picture of this. Someone dressed up as the "Monster in Darkness" from the comic The Order of the Stick. Did a great job of it, too.

Of course, in the end, the entire audience died. :)

We managed to double-book several events on Saturday, so we didn't get to do everything we had planned. After the Killer Breakfast, we got some real breakfast, and did more shopping in the dealer's room. Then, it was time for "Tracy Hickman's X-Treme Dungeon Mastering!"



This was a seminar where he talked about the various ways to play games, and how to avoid many of the pitfalls gamemasters make when running their games. He had a lot of great insight, including...



... using Joseph Campbell's monomyth to help build your stories.



At the end of the seminar, Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis held a contest. Apparently, a batch of human DNA samples are going to be sent up to the ISS as a kind of "back up" for the human race. They drew out a name and the guy pictured in the middle won.

Again, the seminar kept us from attending a couple other events, so we just spent some time walking around getting pictures and such. I stopped by the miniatures painting area, and they had a bunch of their contest winners out for show.





Then, the big event of the con...



Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the original Dungeons & Dragons game, died this past year. In tribute, the con had this huge styrofoam d20 die out on the floor. The die was hollow, and people were encouraged to drop some of their spare dice into it.

On Saturday evening, a charity auction was held. All purchases made at the charity auction went to help soldiers who had been badly injured in combat. Several artists and writers donated unique pieces of their work, along with lots of other gaming related items. But the big event of the night was auctioning off the huge foam d20 and all its contents.



The auction started off kinda anemic, without a whole lot of bids going in. It was a bit disappointing, but some of the presenters gave impassioned speeches that seemed to get people more in the giving mood. The die ended up going for $1500.

That brought an end do our Saturday. Sunday, the final day of the con, started out after a good night's sleep. We only had a single event to attend, the "Worst Mistakes in Game Writing" seminar. Several writers talked about the typical mistakes people make when trying to get into game writing, and took questions people had about the subject. It was really informative, and I hope they do it again next year.

After that, it was just a matter of getting home. GenCon was fabulous fun, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

I have one more follow-up post to make. There was a bunch of good cosplay at the con, and I'm going to show off some of the highlights in another post later today.

GenCon Day 2, Part 3

Day 2 was so busy, it took three posts to cover!

After the "Ways to Play" seminar, we took a bit of a break. We missed the Ennies and a Paizo seminar, instead retiring to our room to check out some of our loot. That will be a separate post, probably next week.

We returned that evening for the D&D Miniatures seminar. As we came in, the folks giving the presentation showed off a few of the upcoming minis they had with them:





Once everyone got settled, they began the presentation. There was talk about the current starter set and available minis boosters. Then, they talked about the next booster set coming out:



Oooh, baby. Yes, that's a mind flayer sketch on the left, and a stirge mini in the upper right! They did say they learned their lesson from the last time they put out a stirge (and it was hard to get), so it'll be a lot easier to get them now.

They talked about last year's championship winner, who got to help design a new figure. It's an elf ranger, with a crow companion on his arm. They did let slip that, yes, the Martial Power sourcebook will have rules for animal companions in it.

Next was Legacy support.



The plan is to pick up posting new stats for the old sets starting in October. They'll publish downloads for the cards once per month, except for months where a new booster set comes out. They'll do this all the way back to Harbinger. They also said they were looking into making sure that old Chainmail minis that had an equivalent DDM figure would be allowed in league play.



The next discussion was what they wanted to do in 2009. Yes, that's another beholder, an aboleth (which they gushed over, saying they didn't think it could be done until they saw the first sculpt), and a rust monster. The rust monster is apparently going to be a critter in MM2.



Yes, they still want to publish a colossal Orcus figure. They're having some issues finding a way to make it economical and affordable to gamers at the same time. They did cite that the Colossal Red Dragon didn't sell as well as they'd hoped due to the price, and some people mentioned they saw them for sale in some of the discount booths at the con for as little as $25, while the Gargantuan Blacks and Blues were going as low as $15. (Apparently those sold out quick, as I didn't find one at that price the next day.)

During the Q&A, someone brought up the lower quality of recent sets, and the Wizard reps agreed. Apparently they had changed companies, and weren't happy with some of the figures they got out of the last few sets. However, they said that this has been worked out, and they were really happy with Demonweb.

There was also a question of playing the minis game online through DDI. This is something the Wizards reps said they wanted to support, but the RPG side was first priority, so this would be further down the line.

After the minis seminar, it was time for one of the more expensive things I had bought tickets for: the "Haunted and Historical" tour of downtown Indianapolis.



The lady in the green cloak was our tour director (I forgot her name by the next morning, unfortunately). She was working in cooperation with an actual "ghost hunter" society that operated in Indiana, and took us to some of the more famous "haunted" sites in town.



Our first stop was the Indianapolis Grand Central Station, the first Grand Central Station in the USA. Supposedly, this is haunted both by a conductor, as well as a "ghost train" of President Lincoln's funeral train. And, yes, that's a full moon in the sky. I was happy with how this picture turned out on my little camera.



This is the bar "The Slippery Noodle." Originally, the building was a storehouse with a hidden tunnel to Grand Central Station, which was used to conduct escaping slaves for the Underground Railroad.



As our guide was telling us about the stories, this guy came out to listen. When she was talking about one of the night managers who heard footsteps when no one else was there, this guy said "That was me!" The manager told us a few of his own experiences, as well as other stories he had heard about the building, which was a great little bit of lucky timing.



This is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, dedicated to all the service personnel who died in the Civil War. Supposedly this used to be the site of the mayor's mansion, but the mayor never lived there. His wife didn't like hanging her laundry in the middle of the downtown square, so they lived outside of town. Shortly after they moved out, there were rumors of a headless man seen inside the house, which persisted for years. One day, a young man went inside on a dare, and caught a turkey that was walking around inside the house. After that, the headless man was never seen again. ;)

We stopped by what is now a bank building, which used to have a restaurant in the upper floors. I don't remember the story well for that one.



This was the Indianapolis Athletic Club. Supposedly it was not built with fire in mind, so of course a bad fire broke out one night. The firemen couldn't get to the water line inside, people couldn't get out easily. They got some of them out, but one firefighter went back in to save a man trapped inside. The firefighter died of smoke inhalation later. After that, people say they can still hear a fireman banging on doors at night, warning people of a fire that went out years ago.

Finally, we stopped by the local arts theater. One of the owners apparently liked to jog around the upper levels on days where it was too rainy to do his jogging outside. He was unfortunately killed near his home one day while jogging, after being struck by a car. Folks report they can still hear someone running upstairs late at night.

Also, a homeless man apparently fell down an open window into the basement during the depression. He was badly injured and no one could hear him. When they finally found the body, they found bloody scratches on the wall, and the rock he had been using to bang on pipes, which he ultimately used to kill himself with. Apparently people can sometimes still hear banging on the pipes, or see a figure in the basement shadows.

So, that finally brings us to the end of day 2! We were absolutely exhausted after this one, let me tell you.

Days 3 and 4 will be much shorter, so they will likely be combined into one post. Then I'll have a final post, showing off some of the stuff we bought/won at the con, plus a bunch of cosplayers we saw!

Gencon Report: Day 2, part 2

Work was hell today, and I've picked up the sinus bug that's going around, so I really don't feel well. However, I'm going to get up at least the second part of day 2 here. I'll try to get days 3 & 4, as well as a special wrap-up post, but those may be delayed until next week when I'm off work again. Yes, I have to work through the Labor Day weekend.

After the D&D Seminar's presentation ended, they took questions from the audience for the second half of the event. Unfortunately, I didn't get a recording or notes, so I'm going by rough memory here.

A question was brought up about how well D&D 4e was selling, and the team was obviously enthusiastic. My impression was that they were happy with the sales, not just in marketing-speak mode.

People asked about DDI stuff, some to do with compatibility (the guy asked about Linux, but the Wizards folks mostly focused on the possibility of a Mac port "when it makes sense"); some about the virtual mins (you get a default set of 3D "minis," can buy more random sets of "minis," and there is a set number of times you can "clone" the 3D mini; cloning it onto your game table more times than that results in 2D tokens instead for the rest); getting a group together (yes, there will be a "waiting area" where you can set up Pick-Up Groups); and how the app handles your numbers (it will auto-calculate the results of rolls, which you can drag & drop into place, eg. you roll 2d6+3 for damage against a player, get a result of 13, and can drag that "13" to their HP, which will deduct the damage appropriately).

There were questions about specific rules issues, which I can't remember the details of. Sorry.

Someone brought up the OGL and how useful things like the Hypertext d20 SRD were for DMs. This got a direct answer: the OGL was bad business for Wizards. They still wanted 4e to be open, but not so open that it cost them the way the OGL did for 3e. They realized that there were concerns about the GSL, and they're working with other companies to fix that. Finally, they recommended that anyone who needs an electronic resource for looking up rules either subscribe to DDI for the Rules tool, or purchase the PDF versions of the books and take advantage of its search functions.

After the Q&A was over, we went to lunch at Steak & Shake. The local one had experienced GenCon before and was well prepared. They had separate lines for pick-ups and dine-ins, and a staff that was both efficient and very friendly. If you just want a fast-food meal at GenCon, I recommend hitting this place.

Then, we went to the Fantasy Flight Games PR venue.



These guys were very friendly, and had some great insights into the board games market. Also talked about their relationship with Games Workshop, and their issues getting the Confrontation game to market. They also mentioned they had a new Arkham Horror cardset out at the con, Black Goat of the Woods.

We had some time after that, so we went shopping in the exhibition hall. More on that later, but I did pick up Hunter: the Vigil and its brand new book Witchfinders, while my partner picked up the Arkham Horror expansions Kingsport Horror and the aforementioned BGotW.

Next was the "Villains of Eberron" seminar, by none other than Keith Baker, along with his assistant.



He had a lot of great insights into how to use the various groups in Eberron as antagonists in your game, as well as a few hints at the 4e version of the setting.

We had to cut that seminar short to make it to the next one: "Ways to Play D&D," aka the RPGA seminar. A few of the guys from the Q&A seminar were back to discuss the new Living Forgotten Realms and how it was going to affect ways people play D&D.

One of the main things talked about was the new Wizards Play Night. This is the group that does the "Friday Night Magic" stuff for Magic: the Gathering, and now they're doing something similar for D&D: the Delve Night

Essentially, Delve Night is a monthly adventure broken up into four major encounters (with accompanying roleplaying opportunities). The idea is that you can play once a week for a couple hours, so folks who want some casual D&D can get together regularly to play. They'll also support bi-weekly or monthly play for folks who can't get together as often. It's fully supported by the RPGA, so it counts towards your points and such.

Also, there's going to be a special event October 24-26: Weekend in the Realms. It's an LFR event where you basically find a shop, library, bookstore, etc. that agrees to host you, and play a special D&D adventure all day. It's a mega-adventure broken into three parts, each part taking approximately 3 hours to play. They really want this to be a public event, rather than something you roll at home, so that other people get exposed to LFR and D&D.

You can read more about the Delve Night and Weekend in the Realms on the Wizards site.

We all recieved a little postcard-flyer for the WitR, and also the con-exclusive LFR player option card:



Normally, characters cannot play RPGA events with the new "spellscarred" rules in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. This card is the exception to that rule, so GenCon attendees will have an extra option unique to them. I expect most folks will keep theirs, so I doubt many will show up on eBay or anything.

Then, we were asked what we wanted to see out of Living Forgotten Realms. Adventure styles, rewards, etc. Some of the rewards suggested were: player option cards with unique feats or powers, not found elsewhere in the rules; exclusive battlemaps or Dungeon Tiles, including spell effects; exclusive minis, which may be too expensive to pull off, but they were willing to look into it; a branded d20 die (with an RPGA or LFR symbol for the 20); free DDI time and other "virtual rewards."

That prompted some questions about online play with the DDI. We were assured that yes, you will be able to play RPGA sanctioned adventures using the online game table app. There's still some discussion about how to use player option cards online, and possibly awarding things like alternate virtual minis and such.

... this post is running long! Okay, I'm going to stop here, and post a Part 3 for day 2 for the last two events, which are rather photo heavy: the D&D Minis seminar, and the "Haunted and Historical Downtown Indy" tour!

GenCon: Day 1

The trip began way too early in the morning. I had to get up at 4:30 am to drive up to Indianapolis. Well, I had to sit in the passenger seat on the way up while Scott drove. ;)

We arrived in Indy and went to the front to register. Surprisingly, the registration process was simple, smooth and straightforward. Unfortunately, most of the gaming events were sold out in advance, and I managed to double-book some of the seminars. Others were just so physically far apart, we couldn't stay for one and make it to the other.

After that, lunch was in order. Found a nice little coffee shop across the street from the convention center called Ah Barrista. Really good sandwiches.

Then, the first seminar:White Wolf's Q&A for their new game, Hunter: the Vigil. The crew was great, very entertaining and gave a lot of information on how they designed the game. If you're familiar with the old World of Darkness game Hunter: the Reconing... well, forget it. This is its own beast. This has more in common with Hunters Hunted than HtR: mortals who might have access to esoteric abilities, not mortals called to fight by supernatural beings. You can play a straight up mortals game with this, or you can delve into more mystical groups such as the Lucifuge. I only wish I had snapped some pictures.

Unfortunately, my Secrets of Eberron seminar was in a hotel far enough away we couldn't make it in time. Instead, we hit the exhibit hall and did some shopping.



The main hall. I was surprised how much space they laid out for the vendors.



Fantasy Flight Games had a huge amount of floor space, lots of demos for various games out there.



Demo for the game Tannhauser: Undead Nazis versus cybered-up Allies!



The other side of the FFG booth, lots of Confrontation minis.



White Wolf's booth.



Eve Online booth.



... I don't know. It was there, I took a picture of it.



Boffers! People were whacking each other with these all weekend.



A monkey and his banana.



This is a great idea: rubber molds so you can make your own buildings and terrain for your minis games.



The Wizards of the Coast booth, one of the bigger floor spaces (naturally). They had several demo tables, as well as...



The new Character Generator app. From what I've seen it looks really useful.



Paizo's booth was very purple.



Crocodile Games set up some great tables to show off their minis.



Green Ronin had a booth too.



Just outside the hall, the giant foam d20. It was hollow and people were encouraged to drop some of their own dice into it. The giant d20 and its contents would be auctioned off Saturday, and the money donated to charity.

After browsing around the hall,we did a “play to win” game of Risk 2210. This version of risk uses sci-fi units and a slightly different map to fit the theme. It also has some modified rules, such as command cards and a 5 turn limit. That limit makes it possible to play Risk in a few hours, rather than taking up all day, which is a major plus in my book. It came down to a tie-break at the end, and Scott won the game!

The game ran a bit long, so we missed out on a reading by Michael Stackpole. Still, we had a good time. Afterwards, we checked into our hotel and went out to eat at a fantastic Italian place, Bucca de Beppo. Wonderful food and fantastic service made it worth the price.

Coming up next, day 2, including pictures from the D&D 4e Q&A session!

A fresh start

Welcome to the blog for Bluegrass Geek Creations*. This will be my blog for posting updates on my writing, gaming and general nerd-itude. Be sure to also check out my MySpace and LiveJournal accounts, and feel free to follow me on Twitter.

The basic gist is that I'm an aspiring game writer. I'm working on some concepts for Living Forgotten Realms, as well as my own homebrew D&D 4th Edition campaign setting. The latter will eventually make its way onto RPGnow as a series of PDFs while I test out the new races, class and various other goodies. Eventually, I plan to release a full Campaign Setting and Player's Guide. More details will be forthcoming.

* Tentative name for my one-man company. Still looking into if I can/need to make it formal as of yet.

GenCon!

Sorry for the idleness. Was getting ready for, and going to, GenCon! Had a lot of fun, met some cool people, ate good food and spent a bit more money than I had planned. n.n;

I'm visiting with my folks in Lexington right now, and will be home later tonight. Expect an after-con report on Tuesday, along with a ton of pictures!

Glad I waited

Rock Band 2 has been announced. All your previous downloaded content will work with the new game, and new RB2 download content will work with the original game. The old instruments will work with the new game, but there will be new instruments that are supposedly higher in quality. The game is due out in September for Xbox 360.

Xbox Downloads finally fixed

Wow, it's been a busy week. Need to keep up with this more. Anyway… Microsoft has finally made it possible to transfer game downloads to a new console. If your 360 died, or you upgraded to another unit, you can use this system (once every 12 months) to move your purchases to the new system.

Keep on the Shadowfell, part 1

I really don't want to be awake at 4 am... but that's what happens when you get a midnight shift at work. :P

Anyway, today we started playing the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell. The adventure is designed to show off 4e's new combat systems and player character abilities, as well as some of the new setting fluff for the game.

Overall, I'm impressed. Combat is a lot more fun, compared to the 3.5e Greyhawk campaign we've been playing. There's a lot more maneuvering, a lot less "spend a turn healing and do nothing else" for the druid/cleric, and everyone just has a lot more options. The Paladin was actually very useful, and kept everyone alive through the first half of the night. Later, we added a 5th player who picked up the cleric (which saved our butts later on). Even my wizard was useful the whole time, usually dropping lots of fire on the enemies.

Unfortunately, our dice hated us. Lots of poor rolls all around, but even then we only came close to having characters die on the last big encounter we ran. The game is much more survivable, but still takes a lot of tactical consideration.

As to the role-playing, we didn't get much chance to run that, but what we did was fun. Mostly, we just focused on learning the new rules and just having fun.

If you're trying to decide whether or not to buy 4e, this adventure's a good way to test the waters.

On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness

The new Penny Arcade video game On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness is available now for PC, Mac and Linux, as well as Xbox Live.

In addition, Ars Technica is running a contest: caption a PA comic they've got, and the winners will receive a custom USB flash drive (featuring PA artwork on the drive itself) with a copy of the game on it. These are only available to reviewers, so they're going to be collectibles for any PA fans out there.

WoW patch 2.4.2

Another minor patch for World of Warcraft today. Biggest changes are a new Hunter pet in Outland and that Blacksmithing BoP weapons are no longer Unique (and most are one-handed, now).

The official patch notes page isn't up yet, but it looks like almost everything is the same as the PTR patch notes.

Death Knights for everyone!

Tons of info on the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King over here on WorldofWar.net.

Quick Post

The new NIN album is great. Very melodic, not the hard-driving sound of Year Zero, but more like The Fragile.

I finally got my Warlock on WoW up to level 40. Hello one gold for a mount + riding skill that doesn't take a bag slot. Slow cast time though. Also, can't wait to try out Howl of Terror.

Blizzard digital downloads

You can now digitally download older Blizzard titles. Once you sign up for their store (if you haven't already), you can plug in your existing serial number to download games you already own; or purchase games you don't yet own and download them right away.

Currently Warcraft 3 and Starcraft (plus their expansions) are available, with Diablo 2 coming soon. I've plugged in my WC3 and D2 codes, and may snag them again if the mood hits. Unfortunately, I seem to have thrown away my Starcraft box, and lost my text file with the relevant serial numbers, so I'll just wait on Starcraft 2 for my zerg fix.

Time to blow shit up.

The second map pack for Halo 3 is out. 800 points, two remakes and one brand new map.

And don't forget that the first map pack is available for free on Xbox Live now!