News from Around the Net: 23-DEC-2011

By Fitz, on December 23rd, 2011

This must be the “It’s nearly Christmas” edition of “Around the Net”! If I haven’t mentioned it enough already, I wish everyone reading a very happy holidays – from Cthulmas and Christmas to the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa! May everyone have a safe, warm holidays in the company of family and friends.

There will be no weekend posts this weekend, as both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will both be filled with family fun and a bit of charity work. But posts will resume again on Monday with a review of the Dungeonmorph dice and cards I purchased myself as a gift!

In the meantime, please drop by the Discounts and Giveaways! page to register for a $10 gift certificate for RPGNow/DriveThruRPG and check out some of this month’s coupons. Who knows? Personally I think $10 at RPGNow can buy a lot of holiday cheer!

And here’s the week’s news… (I’ve gone back to the older format for now, but am continuing to include all the links in a Bundlr page if you like that approach.)

Food for Thought

Fantasy armor for female characters has always been twisted by male minds into the “chainmail bikini” ideal that we’ve seen in classic fantasy art from Boris Vallejo and others for years and years… Well, Ryan at Mad Art Lab has some suggestions from an armorer’s point of view to make real armor for women that protects them and works in battle. Awesome article.
There’s still time for a gamer-inspired holiday greeting card… Alexander Thompson at Dr. Techno came up with this brilliant idea for the gamers in your life. Just don’t roll any critical failures as the recipient or you might get an unpleasant message…
Looking for some advice to help you break into the RPG industry? Black Campbell does some debunking this week of traditional advice (like “It might not pay, but you’ll get your name out there.”), so it’s definitely worth reading through at least once.
When I was younger I was always doodling maps, but as I got older I’ve slipped out of the habit. The RPG Guy has a great short video on three key factors to remember when creating a map – style, terrain, and details.
The Id DM this week had a great article on setting the expectations of both GM and players at the table. There’s a balance that is constantly tested on each side of the equation, so it’s good to have some solid things to shoot for.
I love learning about bits of gaming history. And Matt Stagg’s article “Neverwinter: The History of an Imaginary City” at Suvudu serves as a great introduction to this iconic chunk of Forgotten Realms real estate, from its genesis in the mind of Ed Greenwood to the latest Neverwinter Campaign Setting book released by WotC recently…
Speaking of WotC, Tracy Hurley had a great article about holidays in campaigns called “Festivals of Light” at the WotC D&D blog. It offers some great ideas and links to others scattered around the blogosphere.
Or maybe you’re looking for ways to introduce a bit of mystery into your adventures… Mati at Troll in the Corner has some deep insights into mixing in a bit of mystery after trying it himself. I’ve never been a mystery fan myself, but I was hooked as soon as Mati started describing the structure of a standard mystery, which I’d never really seen explained before…
Another thought-provoking article was from Justin Achilli at his blog this week about “The Universal RPG Play Loop.” As I’m a big fan of keeping things simple, I love the concept of boiling things down to a core ideal. And RPGs boil down to a cycle of Situation, Response, and Resolution… Abstract, yet easy to see and apply as a GM or game designer if you take that big step back to look at the big picture. Justin does a good job of explaining things in terms of VtM as well, which helps.
The whole D&D edition war has been raging for a few years now and shows no signs of fading. But I thought this article from Sir Larkins at The RPG Corner spawned a very interesting conversation in the comments. Read all the way through to see some intriguing back and forth that is quite enlightening.

Games and Gaming

Without RPG rules, some settings don’t work. But more often than not you can typically find ways to pair different settings with other systems with a little jury rigging. DNAPhil at Gnome Stew suggests that one of a GM’s roles is much like a Sommelier pairing the right meal with the right wine – but pairing the right setting with the right system for the most effective combination. The concept of pairing different systems with different eras of play in a particular setting is quite interesting as well… How many other GMs have tried this?
Do your villains have a sense of humor? Kurt Schneider at Gnome Stew suggests that maybe they can… if you plan ahead like a stand-up comedian and write your material in advance, and ~~steal~~ borrow what you can from other sources…
Are you looking for some Christmas scenarios for your gaming? Check out this list from the Journeyman GM – it includes something for Deadlands, Ork!, Risus, and Savage Worlds!
Vanir at Critical Hits also had a fun collection of Christmas article ideas this week…
Or maybe you’re looking for a new scenario for Trail of Cthulhu? Nook Harper at Total Party Kill wrote one with some great twists and turns. It seems that working at Miskatonic U has once again become a bit dangerous…
Need a necrotic disease for your campaign? There are some doozies possible at Rolang’s Creeping Room this week on a d20 random table. I rolled that my particular necrotic ailment was caused by a monster bite, it affects the blood, which somehow starts turning blue and melting you from the inside out. It can only be cured by taking a salt bath. Personally I hope I don’t across a monster with this kind of bite-induced ailment!
If diseases aren’t your thing, perhaps you’re looking for some odd loot to stash with an NPC or monster. Garrison James has 30 different strange items at Hereticwerks to toss into the mix. Things like an empty leather sheath or a collection of melted candles sound like things I’d find on shelves and in containers while playing Skyrim. But broken arrows, granulated amber, and other odd things might just lead to some very intriguing places or nowhere at all…
Or if you’re not looking for a full-blown adventure, but a mini-adventure, check out “Zilgar’s Repose” by Garrison James at Hereticwerks. For being a small adventure, it’s got plenty of detail, from a simple map to a list of wandering monsters and encounter descriptions. Great stuff!
Or maybe you want to fly by the seat of your pants and improvise a bit… The Chatty DM has some tips for “Instant Dungeon Crawling” at Critical Hits this week. Using few resources and a simple d10 random table, he came up with something that was a big hit at the New York Comic Con offering a “Learn D&D” activity. (He wrote about some of the highlights of that experience here.) I might have to try this with my kids over the holiday…
You may have seen a number of posts this week celebrating Krampus, Santa’s demonic copilot, starting with the beginning of the RPG carnival at Nevermet Press and the awesome art from Steven Austin… Ben McFarland at Kobold Quarterly kicked off a series of Krampus monsters for Pathfinder, one for 4e from Jerry Leneave, and one for Dragon Age from Daniel Perez… I can hardly wait to see the roundup of all the links at Nevermet Press to see what other fun the demon has wrought across the gaming world.

Publisher News

As the team continues to work on the Far West Adventure Game, the development team has been doing a great job of posting updates on the IntoTheFarWest.com site. Recently they posted an “inspirography” listing some of the films available on Netflix streaming that they have used for “fine inspirational viewing.” I’ve seen 13 Assassins and Swilverado, but the rest have now been added to my own Netflix instant queue!
Paizo will be releasing a huge box of monster-standups for Pathfinder in May 2012 according to ComicRelated this week. The suggested retail is $34.99 USD, which seems a bit much to me, but if it includes bases and multiple copies of some of the common monsters it might be worth it. Any opinions?
Chaosium and indie developer Red Wasp Design’s new computer/tablet game Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land should be out soon… iPod/iPhone will come out January 30, 2012, and other platforms (iPad, Android, PC, and consoles) will come later. (I’m looking forward to it for iPad, so hopefully not too much later.)
The Online Dungeon Master wrote a plea this week addressed to Wizards of the Coast. It’s simple. Focus on PR for 5th edition or whatever they’re working on. He brings up some great points about how WotC is alienating their player base a bit with the current edition war, but they need to really stay positive and run a clean campaign (unlike the current Presidential campaign that’s heating up in the U.S.). Good advice for any company trying to get a message out.
I have to admit that I try had to keep my political views to myself. But I agree with the editorial at Neuroglyph Games this week about the SOPA fight raging between the politicians and businesses in power and the people not doing anything wrong on the Internet who may be slammed hard by random SOPA acts. Sure, piracy is bad. But we don’t need to give our government the power to shut down sites because someone posted something that was pirated. It happens accidentally all the time. Due process is part of our legal system for a reason folks. The article covers quite a lot of ground, so bear with it to get the full message please. Freedom of speech is something worth fighting for.
WYRED, which is based on Warrior, Rogue & Mage’s base system, continues to evolve at the hands of Rev Lazaro. An update was released recently at The Chaos Grenade fixing a few things.
The great folks at LPJ Design have kicked off a Christmas sale- 30% off the normal price of many products at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow through Christmas Day! Check it out here. And they also released a new set of images this week – Image Portfolio Platinum Edition 11: Storn Cook
Nocturnal is also offering a 50% discount on their Pendragon PDF, Softcover POD, and PDF+POD products through the end of 2011. Get ‘em while they’re hot!
Rite Publishing is offering a Christmas sale with 25% off more than 200 products through the end of the year. They also just released Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Bonetongue, Steward of Dead Dreams (PFRPG) and the Fantastic Maps: The Breaking of Forstor Nagar bundle.
Also releasing products this week are Cubicle 7 – Clockwork & Chivalry, 2nd Edition; White Wolf – Dreams of the First Age (with errata) for Exalted; and Raging Swan – So What’s It Called, Anyway?

Reviews

Crafty Games released The Mistborn Adventure Game last week and the reviews are starting to appear, like this one from Toloran at Reddit.
Thilo Graf at G*M*S Magazine reviewed an interesting book this week – Cooking with Class from Adamant Entertainment. This fun little book has tidbits on food in fantasy settings, adventure hooks, and a veritable cornucopia of information. Though more for NPCs than PCs, I might have to pick this up myself to add some flavor to my next campaign!
Berin Kinsman at his Dire Blog took some time to check out Van Graff’s Journal of Adventuring from Mongoose. This also seems like a fun book slanted towards offering advice to PCs on being better adventurers – from gear and party construction to spell selection and more. Great details for a new roleplayer.
And over at tenletter, Jerall checked out Divine Favor: The Paladin from Open Design. Like 99.9% of all Open Design books, I’m interested in reading this one myself especially after reading that it is “crammed with some amazing work and good ideas.” That’s a pretty strong recommendation!
Stargazer took a brief look at Carcosa this week from Geoffrey McKinney and published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Definitely not family friendly, but it sounds intriguing as a potential setting. Can’t argue with the influences like Lovecraft, Howard, Carter, and Moorcock.
I was inspired by this review of the Dungeonmorph Dice and Cards this week at the Skyland Games site to purchase my own. And though you’ll see my review next week, I tend to agree with the Skyland review where it was a bit underwhelming in the end. (On the other side of the fence is Benoit’s review of the dice at Roving Band of Misfits. They seemed to be quite pleased with the results. So I expect it was more about unrealistic expectations than anything else.)
Over at Technology Tell this week, Rick Moscatello wrote a review of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Beginner Box. Though it’s a good review overall, he raises some questions at the end that seem a little strange – “While there’s much to like about this introductory set, there’s no mention of what to do if you have three players instead of four and having five players (as well as the GM) means someone will need to create another character, which can greatly slow down start-up time.” No game manual is going to cover absolutely every possible variation, so I think this is unrealistic even for a beginning RPG set…
The more I read about Designers and Dragons by Shannon Appelcline, the more I want to read the thing. This week Megan at Flames Rising posted a great review that just reinforces that want!

Tools

Interested in gaming podcasts? So is the OnlineDM at Online Dungeon Master. He posted a great list of RPG podcasts last week that I’m going to have to check out.

That’s it for this week on the news front. If you’re looking for even *MORE* news, check out The Gamer Assembly’s “Weekly Assembly”, Chris Hackler’s “What’s Up With D&D” at ENWorld, and Morrus’ collection of the most popular articles of 2010-2011 at ENworld…

If you missed any of my articles this week, here are some links to catch up:

‘Twas the Night Before Krampus (with apologies to Clement Moore)
A review of Divine Favor: The Cleric from Open Design
And a continuation of my reviews of Fantasy Craft and The One Ring

I hope everybody has a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas! No article from Ancient Scroll’s Secret Room this weekend as we all share the holidays with our families, but we’ll get back on track in the next couple of weeks once things settle back down.

As always, if you feel I missed something (and it would be impossible NOT to), drop me a quick note via the contact page or drop me an e-mail at news(at)gameknightreviews(dot)com and I’ll add it to the list for next week!

Here are the rest of this week’s stories, Bundlr-style: