May 17

Game – Rise, Conquer, and Rule the Underworld!

 

Court of the Dead

The team at Project Raygun currently has a campaign on Kickstarter called Court of the Dead: Mourners Call. This is more than your average tabletop game and promises to deliver an immersive in-world experience of the Underworld, using detailed cards and ornate miniatures.

The starting goal for this campaign was $75,000 and at the time of this post it has raised over $351,000 with 4000 backers. What is even more impressive is it was fully funded in only 5 hours of it going live! The buy in for this game is $90 dollars and includes all the Stretch Goals and Kickstarter Exclusives. Looking at the campaign you can see the buy in is worth it by how much detail and love is being put into the artwork and miniatures!

What is in the box?

This is a description straight from their Kickstarter campaign.

Court of the Dead: Mourners Call is a 2-5 player, highly competitive board game that calls upon players to balance cooperative needs against their own ulterior motives. There are many paths to uniting the Underworld, but only one Mourner will realize his or her vision. The player who wields his or her power and faction influence the best will gain the most points to win.

You and your fellow mourners must work together to bring balance to the Underworld, but… only one of you can truly Rise, Conquer, Rule!”

So do you have the cunning to balance working with your fellow mourners and achieving your true motive of being the one true ruler of the Underworld?

Stay Nerdy my friends!

October 7

RPG – Pathfinders: Advanced Class Guide – Part 1

The awesome folks of Paizo we generous enough to send me over a copy of their Advanced Class Guide. For the last week I have been devouring it’s pages so I could write up my review. As I was doing so I decided that I needed to at the very least divided it up three post to give each section it needed attention.

The Book:
I have to say that the standard that Paizo sets on the quality of their products is so high. I mean everything they do is polished to a high sheen and Advanced Class Guide is no different. When I opened the box I was welcomed by a beautiful cover depicting, two of the books featured heroes (Bloodrager and Swashbuckler to be exact) fighting a nasty un-dead emerald dragon! The cover artwork by Wayne Reynolds is so stunning I was afraid to touch it and ruin it’s perfection (I love Wayne Reynolds I have a framed signed piece of art on my den wall to prove it)!

Pathfinder: Advanced Class Guide
Pathfinder: Advanced Class Guide

I knew I had to so I eventually picked it up and cracked the cover open to find out just what Paizo had in store for me. I thumbed quickly through to find what the cover art promised, a awesome tome of painstakingly created companion tome for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.

The book pages falls in at 256 pages which includes 10 new classes (We will delve into these shortly), archetypes and class options, new feats, new spells, new gear and magic items, and instructions on how to create you own hybrid class.

Classes:
If you are like me I love with things get mashed together. I mean who does not like two great songs mashed together making them into one epic song? So what does this have to do with Advanced Class Guide you ask? Well it does just that it mashes two awesome character classes and give us one epic character class! We are given 10 of these in chapter one and Paizo calls them hybrid classes.

These 10 hybrid classes are:
Arcanist – a Sorcerer / Wizard mix who is a scholar of all things magical.
Bloodrager – a Barbarian / Sorcerer mix that puts fear into his enemy with bloodline and combat prowess.
Brawler – a Fighter / Monk mix who can quickly adapt to changing battle conditions.
Hunter – a Druid / Ranger mix that forms a team of a adept hero with a highly trained animal companion.
Investigator – a Alchemist / Rouge mix who is a investigator that loves to solve mysteries.
Shaman – a Oracle / Witch mix are divine spell-caster that use the power of spirits for the spell-work.
Skald – a Barbarian / Bard mix is a front-line bard that inspires his allies in all of their endeavors.
Slayer – a Ranger / Rouge mix  who knows the opportune time and location to take out their enemy.
Swashbuckler – a Fighter / Gunslinger mix that are light on their feet and quick witted with their tongue.
Warpriest – a Cleric / Fighter mix who is the perfect healing fighting machine.

I like a few more than the others… The hunter for instance really calls to me and actually reminds me of the hunter class in World of Warcraft. I can say that each of these hybrid classes are well thought out and well balanced and I am sure that everyone will be able to find a favorite or two to play. Hey and if you do not in the back of the book there is instructions on how to create your own! Come back in a couple of days to hear more about that!

So next time I will be delving into archetypes and class options, new feats, & new spells!

Until next time nerds!

September 25

RPG – 5E: The Bone Devil!

Wow the art work alone on this guy just makes your blood curdle! This fiend is what nightmares are made of! Check out the page below to see what I mean! Oh and when you are done head over to your favorite local gaming store and pick it up (it is available at Wizards Play Network stores early prior to the September 30th release date)!

5E: Bone Devil
5E: Bone Devil

This book is a hardbound, 352 page behemoth and cost $49.99 (you can pre-order it for 29.97 on amazon.com)! It is a must have if you are planning to run a 5th edition campaign!

Later Nerds!

August 29

RPG – Crafting Eberron and 5E Dungeon & Dragons.

Eberron
Eberron

Keith Backer is pretty sure that Eberron will see a 5E makeover, but until then wrote a blog the other day that will help you get started! He gives some pretty cool ideas on how to take some the the staples of the core rules and bend them to fit into Eberron. He suggests leaving a few things out like dragonmarks until they are reworked. So why not head on over to his site and read the full article!

Later Nerds!

August 26

Blurb – WotC Reworks Magic Release Schedule!

Starting autumn 2015 WotC will move away from their 3 block / 1 core release (explained below) to just 2 blocks twice a year.

Magic the Gathering
Magic the Gathering

“Expansion sets beginning with Mirage have come in groups (usually three) which form a block (the preferred term in actual gameplay) or cycle (the preferred term when describing the associated storyline) consisting of one large “stand-alone” expansion set of more than 300 cards, followed by one or two small expansion sets of less than 200 cards, which continue the themes introduced in the large set.”

They hope this will relieve some of the player concerns of a constant reinvention of the game. With this move that also hope that it will keep the the players excited about what they release and in turn keep the game fresh.

Rosewater Quote:

 Since the beginning of the block structure (Mirage block, way back in 1996), the third set has always been a problem child. It needs to have enough cohesion to feel as if it belongs to the block, but it has to have enough differences that it manages to spark the interest of the players, who have already been playing the environment for seven or more months.”

“Who exactly is the core set for? If it’s for beginners, why do we only put it out during one point of the year? Is that the one time we expect new players to start? And why do we keep adding new cards and bringing back mechanics? The beginners don’t need any of that and it only leads to making the set more complicated.”

The new set labeled “Blood” will be release in autumn of 2015. You can read more here.

Enjoy Nerds!

August 25

Blurb – Days of Wonder Merging With Asmodee!

Days of Wonder best known for it’s award winning Ticket to Ride tabletop game, announced today that it will merge with Asmodee Group.

Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride

Asmodee is a huge distributor of board and trading card games.  These guys handle other known brands such as Dixit and 7 Wonders and the French publishing rights to the Pokémon card game.

This move will allow Asmodee to find more exposure in the US gaming market. With the gaming community growing in the US (as one can see in the attendance at this years Gen Con) I am sure this will be a lucrative move for them.

One other thing! Not to worry the staff at Days of Wonder will continue heading up the brand as a independent company.

Only good things can come out a merger such as this. Lets face it more backing you have the more you experiment and create!

Until next time Nerds!

August 22

Blurb – Museum/Hall of Fame to Honor Gary Gygax

Epic Quest Publishing has begun a Kickstarter to make that happen! The DRAGONWARS of TRAYTH is a new campaign setting for the Pathfinder and OSRIC (1e)Role Playing Game. The fully detailed Campaign contains 25 modules, a Campaign Guide , and Players Guide for the World of Kadar campaign setting. There is a write up about it over at roleplayerschronicle.com!

Dragonwars of Trayth
Dragonwars of Trayth

I had the great pleasure of meeting Gary Gygax at a couple of Gen Cons and I can tell you he was a very humble and awesome person. I think that a museum to honor him and those like him is a awesome idea and I for one support it. So head on over and help fund this project and make this a reality, I have!

Later Nerds!

August 17

RPG – Paizo: Pathfinder Gen Con Reveals.

The below information was taken from Known Direction Podcast and I thank them for posting it!

Hell’s Rebels Adventure Path

Releasing after the Giant Slayer adventure path, Hell’s Rebels will cast the players as rebels in Cheliax city of Kintargo, who will attempt to overthrow the rule of House Thrune.
Will also have issue 100 of the Adventure Path line. This issue will be an extra 32 pages long (120 Pages), will be written by James Jacobs, and will also contain a special article on the dead god Aroden written by Erik Mona as well as summary and supporting NPC for every AP released so far.
PCs will be building up a resistance group called the Silver Crows in the city over the course of the campaign, and might use the organization rules from Ultimate Campaign.
While the AP will have plenty of combat, social RP will be a large focus. Expect a political focus.
Probably not a good AP for Chelish loyalist.

Occult Adventures

The Pathfinder RPG rules hard cover to be released at Gen Con 2015.
Will focus on occult themes, spiritualism, and pulpy flavor.
One of the phrases used was “Less Professor X, More Penny Dreadful.”
Will be the book that introduces Psychic Magic into the Pathfinder RPG!
Psychic Magic will work very similarly to existing Arcane and Divine Magic, with spells per day progressions and will not be based on the Psionic Handbooks from 3e/3.5e Dungeons & Dragons.
Will introduce 6 new classes to the Pathfinder RPG.
The Kineticist will be a raw manipulator of psychic forces (Telekinetic, Pyrokinetic, etc) and will not be a caster / magic user.
Spiritualist is another. Has a spirit that they communicate with and can manifest through the world. Ectoplasmic is an ability.
The Mystic was mentioned by name, but no details were given.
There will be a public playtest of these six classes “soon.”
The book will also have a monster section to help support the play.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Races Hard Cover

Because of the success of Inner Sea Gods, they decided that another Campaign Setting hard cover would be good.
The first 2/3 of the book will cover the various races and ethnicities in Golarion and how they fit in, not as general an over view as they got in the Advanced Race Guide.
The remaining third of the book will be lots of crunch for use with characters in Golarion.

When I can get my hands on a definitive list for Wizards of the Coast I will post it!

Enjoy Nerds!