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Dungeons and Shadows
from the two-great-tastes dept.
Eric L. Boyd
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
Waterdeep is one of the largest cities on the Sword Coast, the western shore of the continent known as Faerun. Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is the most popular setting supported by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). Stretching back more than a decade, it has an enormous backstory that can be somewhat intimidating to dive into. Waterdeep attempts to allay the fears of a Dungeon Master (DM) looking to set a campaign in the most well known city of the setting. The book offers up political intrigue, mercantile callousness, and an endless parade of Non-Player Characters (NPCs). Unfortunately, Mr. Boyd's effort to capture the richness of the setting falls somewhat short. The issue at hand is a complaint I have about several WotC products. Waterdeep is a mere 157 pages and retails for $29.95. Within those pages, the book is packed tight with information. A history of the city, notable NPC guilds and organizations, and important personages flesh out the bulk of the book's front-end. As with most D&D books there are new prestige classes, monsters, and spells. This stems from WotC's determination that every book has something for both players and DMs. At the center of the 157 pages is a mere 20 pages worth of localities within the city. It seems to me that describing the city would be the primary purpose of the book, but almost as much time is spent on prestige classes as in providing an understanding of the city's layout. At $30 a pop it's imperative that a tome either be focused on DMs, focused on players, or have good integration of the two types of content. While City of Splendors provides copious details, the inclusion of relatively weak player-oriented content dilutes the purpose and impact of the book. Players will be severely under-served by this offering, and DMs should only consider purchasing it if they know they're going to be running a long-term campaign in this particular corner of the Realms.
Weapons of Legacy
Bruce R. Cordell, Kolja Raven Liquette, Travis Stout
Wizards of the Coast
$34.95, 224 pages
Weapons of Legacy is an 'options' book that provides players and DMs with something that every gamer wants in droves: crunchy stuff. The pages of this book are filled with descriptions of noteworthy items with sometimes sordid but always interesting histories. As a result of the weight of history around the items in this book, not only are they magical but powerful to boot. Each item, whether weapon, armor, or amulet, has a detailed history associated with it. When found by a player character it appears to be a simple (usually underpowered) magical crafting, but detailed study and rituals can unlock the potential within. The enhanced features of the item are only available to someone who has followed specific rituals that directly relate to the item's history. Additionally, they must take feats to allow them access to the unlocked power. Requiring characters to invest themselves in order to get the most out of an item ensures balance. Whereas Waterdeep's diluted focus resulted in a mediocre offering, Weapons of Legacy offers plenty for both DMs and players by integrating the content for both groups into a cohesive whole. While there are classes and spells, they tie directly into the overall legacy item theme of the book and do not seem the least bit out of place. The mechanics for using the weapons are sound and DMs can chortle with glee, as the in-depth backstories associated with each item are tremendous hooks to hang adventures on. Above and beyond simply moving a campaign's plot forward, the specific rituals associated with the item provide a sense of history to the gameworld and willingly have players insinuating themselves into a campaign's plot. For folks that just need to tweak, there are even rules provided for creating new Weapons of Legacy. This book isn't for everyone, of course. Legacy items are a neat idea and the book's ideas are executed very well, but not every campaign or character is going to benefit from this tome. Despite that, if the idea intrigues you'll find a well-integrated sourcebook with interesting ideas and a lot of backstory just waiting to get your gears moving.
Five Nations
Bill Slavicsek, David Noonan, Chris Perkins
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
The newest campaign setting that Wizards of the Coasts supports is Eberron. Developed after an exhaustive search through thousands of proposals, Eberron is a unique style of D&D play. Incorporating elements of pulp mystery, Indiana Jones, and gritty war stories, Eberron is very different than the high fantasy nature of the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. Five Nations is the first sourcebook for the setting which details the world at large. It describes the nations that once made up the ancient kingdom of Galifar. At war for over a hundred years, they've only recently found peace. Each nation has a dedicated chapter and provides a host of details for both players that might want to know about a character's homeland, and for DMs looking to set an adventure there. Besides basic histories and geography, there are some great fiddly bits strewn throughout the book. Sidebars in each of the chapters details five things that every countryman knows, for example, and there are 'daily life' examples for each nation. Each chapter also contains prestige classes and adventure hooks, the occasional monster or spell, and wraps all of these elements together into a detailed overview. The book conveys a lot of information in a surprisingly thin pagecount, and is well worth the pricetag. Simply put, this is a must-have for anyone planning on running a game in Eberron. It fills in many of the gaps the core book leaves open and offers a bevy of opportunities for adventure and intrigue. Players will find it extremely enjoyable as well, with lots of crunchy elements to empower characters and a satisfying amount of detail about a PC's homeland. Every chapter is a mini-sourcebook, and taken together Five Nations is a solid reference for every Eberron campaign.
Explorer's Handbook
David Noonan, Prank Brunner, Rich Burlew
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
Where Five Nations acts as a reference to the world of Eberron, the Explorer's Handbook is a DM-specific tome that allows for intuitive mix-and-match adventuring. Most of the book is made up of locations, self-contained areas that can be dropped into an ongoing campaign or strung together to form an adventure. In addition to the adventure locales, the Handbook begins by offering extensive details on the act of traveling within Eberron. An emphasis is placed on the idiosyncrasies of airship, rail, and sea travel. Explorer organizations, prestige classes, and some equipment is also detailed, all with the idea of preparing and provisioning an expedition to a far-off place. While this section nominally offers content for players, the rest of the book is completely focused on the needs of the Dungeon Master. The adventure locations are divided into 'Points of Origin', 'Midpoints', and 'Destinations'. Each chapter collects a handful of places grouped together around a theme. Each 'Point of Origin' is a place to find or set off for adventure, such as a nightclub or train station. NPCs to staff the location, some flavour to interest player characters, and several possible adventure hooks are offered to provide a DM with everything he needs to run the locale. 'Midpoints', in turn, are more exotic places that can offer up more clues and draw characters further into the plot. An elven city populated by good-aligned undead is one such location, a trove of knowledge held by benign beings with a truly alien outlook. 'Destinations' are all obscure or hidden locations typically fraught with danger. They're the endpoints to an adventure, allowing characters answers to their questions and opponents to defeat. A variety of end-points are offered, from a dragon's astrological observatory to an abandoned city of giants. Explorer's Handbook does a competent job of guiding the DM's hand. In addition to concrete localities, the examples hand an Eberron DM blueprints for constructing the kind of pulp high adventure the setting is known for. It's essentially of no use for the average player, but a DM looking for assistance in creating an Eberron campaign could find much worse than this particular bag of tricks.
Loose Alliances
Malik Toms, Peter Taylor, et. al.
FanPro
$24.99, 128 pages
The world of Shadowrun is a complicated place. Just over fifteen years of publications with the Shadowrun (SR) name attached makes for a phenomenally rich backstory for this cyberpunk-meets-Tolkien gameworld. Loose Alliances is a tool for Game Masters (GMs) and players to understand the heavyweights of the world more fully. With an ever-increasing number of books detailing the Shadowrun world outside the city of Seattle (the traditional setting for an SR game), there are ever more opportunities to go running around the globe. Loose Alliances breaks down the movers and shakers outside of the corporate set. In Shadowrun even political movements, religious groups and the idle rich have a use for 'deniable assets', and where there's money and interest there's a hook for a GM. As with most 'background' sourcebooks, Loose Alliances is presented as a series of electronic documents on the network of pirate Matrix (a world spanning virtual reality) sites called Shadowland. Numerous commentaries from the peanut gallery should make most Slashdot readers right at home, given the wide range of opinion and bias that run through the observations. Between the posted text and the comments, Loose Alliances gives a reader a better feel for the ways in which groups of like-minded people affect the SR world. While most Shadowrun games involve characters doing illegal things for and against world-girding corporations, the metahuman rights organization down the street or a religious group is just as likely to have dirty deeds that need doing. The best sourcebooks for this setting open up the world beyond the cookie-cutter expectations some games can fall prey to, and Loose Alliances does an admirable job of exposing GMs and players to new possibilities.
Shadows of Asia
John Szeto, Jason Levine, et. al.
FanPro
$29.99, 231 pages
The 'Shadows of' series of Shadowrun books are geographical guides. Already published Shadows of North America and Shadows of Europe are joined by this guide to the east. Besides the war-torn microcountries of China and the Japanese Imperialist state, the book goes into detail on nearby areas such as the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, and the Philippines. Though some previous sourcebooks have touched on this area of the world (specifically the Philippine's fight for freedom against the occupying Japanese), there has never before been a dedicated look at the region for the setting. The most geopolitically active areas of the region, such as China and Japan, receive long treatments discussing local history, important cities, and general trends in the country. Smaller nations receive one to two page summaries of the most important elements a runner is likely to need to know. It's difficult for me to separate my appreciation for the pure flavour information within the setting from what might be useful to the average player or GM. These types of books offer the most insight into the backstory of the gameworld, and Shadows of Asia provides GMs hundreds of little plot hooks, for localities from Neo-Tokyo to Jerusalem. They are fantastic resources for the Game Master, essentially making this book required reading if you ever plan on running a game set east of Poland and west of Seattle. For a player, though, there isn't a great reason to pick up the book. There aren't any character options and the book has more detail than most players would probably want for their backstory. If deep background is what you're after, though, both GMs and players will find that Shadows of Asia fills in a large gap in your Shadowrun worldview.
System Failure
Drew Curtis, Jason Levine, et. al.
FanPro
$29.99, 128 pages
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Shadowrun world is that it is far from a static place. Just as time, politics, and technology move forward in real life, so too does the reality of the Shadowrun setting. Every few years setting publisher FanPro releases a sourcebook that has serious ramifications for the world at large. One classic sourcebook turned the city of Chicago into a post-apocalyptic nightmare of gang lords and killer insect spirits. Another discussed the birth of an Artificial Intelligence in the midst of a crisis situation. System Failure does more than just provide interesting color; it wipes the slate clean on the Shadowrun universe's computational otherworld called the Matrix. A terrorist attack by a group of anti-technological fanatics, combined with the machinations of the aforementioned AI manages to corrupt and destroy most of the world's communications and informational systems. The book provides the background needed to understand the players involved and the scope of the events. It's not a traditional adventure per se, but instead provides a number of tools for creating adventures. GMs can use provided adventure hooks to bring player characters into the momentous events detailed in the book, either working for or against the forces planning the destruction of a fundamental element of the Shadowrun world. System Failure is Shadowrun at its absolute best, bringing together numerous plot threads that in some cases have been brewing for over a decade. Even without the plot significance, the sheer cool factor of the events described will make for amazing campaigns with a vaguely end-of-days feel. Definitely not a book for players, GMs of the setting can use it to craft an entire campaign or just use it to fully understand the world-reshaping events that lead to the newest edition of the setting.
Neat. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Neat. (Score:2)
Re:Neat. (Score:2, Insightful)
There really should be a distinct icon for tabletop RPGs, there certainly is a critical mass of pen-and-paper roleplayers on
Re:Neat. (Score:4, Insightful)
We need a games-that-are-not-computer-games games section.
Kind of like "news for nerds, stuff for people who know what FLGS means"
or
"news for nerds, stuff for people who don't know how many dice they own"
Parent
Re:Neat. (Score:3, Informative)
Or maybe your are suggesting a 'non-video' games section?
Re:Slashvertisement Section (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you think this reads like ad copy?
"Players will be severely under-served by this offering, and DMs should only consider purchasing it if they know they're going to be running a long-term campaign in this particular corner of the Realms."
If that's a reason why I should buy the Waterdeep book, then I sure hope WoTC didn't pay much for Zonk's review. From where I come from, this is the polite way of saying "This book is a smelly piece of poo."
Alternity (Score:2, Insightful)
D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:2)
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:3)
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:3, Funny)
Social skills? Seriously, man. We obviously aren't playing with the same broad swaths of humanity if you think DnD teaches social skills!
I do give you credit for omitting hygiene from your list, though.
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Score:3, Funny)
Hahahha. Pardon me if I politely disagree. My level 14 Pacifist Healer with a base CHA of 29, modifier of +9, and CHA-check modifiers of +7 (for a total of 45) might have something to say about using Diplomacy when your party of 6 is surrounded by a horde of high-level, evil, intelligent NPCs. You'd be amazed how much you can learn from being required to say the right thin
Re:D&D: No sign of dying. (Paranoia fiends uni (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry, citizen, but knowledge of diplomacy, parties, or level are above your security clearance.
Perhaps you are referring to NASTY EVIL COMMIE MUTANT TRAITOROUS SCUM?
This infraction has been noted on your permanent record.
Please stand by for IntSec pickup for re-education and termination.
Have a nice day.
PARANOIA is fun because The Computer says it's fun. Stop playing non-fun RPGs! Play PARANOIA!
-->SHAMELESS SEGMENT CONCLUDED. THE COMPU
Re:Indeed (Score:3, Interesting)
It's that interaction between a GM and the players that makes RP fun. You all sort of set a tone for how casual or serious you want to be and play that out. The GM can adjust thing
The games may be going strong, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sword of the Phoenix was sort of the Mecca for All Things Gaming here in Atlanta for...as long as I can remember. They just closed up permanently this year. The game shops (I think they were actually called The Game Shoppe) in the local malls closed up two or three years ago. About the only places I can find locally are either used bookstores with varied wares (and rarely anything new), or stores dedicated mainly to comic books or collectible card games. Other than the slim pickings there, the only option is mail-order.
Ah ha! (Score:5, Funny)
First, we will need to bring this old bucket to the ancient witch by the village well. She will then tell us of a strange, spider-like beast lurking nearby in the woods, known only to the local inhabitants "The Interweb."
DUN DUN DUN
Parent
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Much as comics receeded from mass distribution to specialty comic shops in the 70s/80s I see new RPG material and supplements going into a catalog only system. Sure used stuff and core books will probably still be staples at most comic / gaming stores, but you don't strictly need every D&D supplement that comes out every X months, there's just no market for it. And sadly when a store owner has to choose shelf space between the next niche RPG supplement or something that's really in demand it's going to be an easy decisiion.
HOWEVER, most places that i frequent that carry a wide array of RPG stuff are usually that way because the owner or owners are passionate about the game and will try to have as many books on hand to attract the "serious" diceroller crowd. The store I purchase most of my comics and RPG stuff from (Warp 2 in Edmonton) is run by an RPG enthusiast and a couple real comic-heads and is probably one of the better places in the city to buy new material when it comes out, again, because the owner is passionate for the material he will make sure it's there.
Parent
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
There are an increasing number of systems that available directly over the internet; I'm not talking about ordering a paper book, I'm talking about downloading a PDF or text file directly. In many cases, they're cheaper than the printed version of the same system. There is a limit to how much cheaper they can be, however; the majority of the cost of producing a professional RPG or supplement isn't in the printing. You still have to do just as much work writing, editing, procuring or commissioning artwork, etc. However, you can cut out the distribution costs, which are a good half the total price to the consumer.
Many games now have "fast-play" rules sets for download, which are good enough for everybody but the GM, but some even have full systems available for download free. If you have a laptop this is a godsend, but more than a few gamers have downloaded these things at work and printed 'em out on the company laser printer for non-laptop use. Not that I'm recommending the latter course of action, of course. As disposable computing becomes more commonplace, I expect to see e-book readers cross a hurdle or two and supplement laptops, opening this course up to a lot of people who can't really afford a decent laptop presently.
Additionally, I think it's only a matter of time at this point before somebody starts offering print-on-demand book sales; the only question is whether the big book chains (Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc.) beat the big printing chains (Kinkos, uhm I don't care who else, etc.) to the punch. When that happens, you'll be able to walk into your local Kinkos or whatever and walk out the door with a professionally-printed book.
When these things combine, your local game shop may not recover, unless it focuses on dice, figures, and services; provide comfortable chairs and computers so that the local gamers can meet in your store and use your computers, and you might even be able to sell the service, IF you do it right. A really good player-locating service and an active gamer club run from your store can bring people in. Of course, places like Kinkos can fight you there, too, since many have conference rooms.
I envision the successful gaming store of 10 years from now consisting of a small merchandise area with lots of dice and t-shirts, a concession area with cheap but profitable food and drinks, and a lot of comfy couches with permanently-tethered GM laptops and free WiFi. It would offer a web-based player locator service, ideally through a partner instead of trying to run the web server themselves. The most successful ones would be within walking distance of a Kinkos, and preferably also of a college.
Parent
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:2)
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:2)
/Mikael
Go north my friend!! (Score:3, Informative)
Hmmm.... Big chain bookstores do carry the books (Score:2)
Hmm...... I know for a fact that my Barnes and Noble actually carries Dungeon and Dragons game books. I don't know how many but I do know for a fact that since I opened up one of them and started reading it.
Re:Hmmm.... Big chain bookstores do carry the book (Score:2)
Why? Ordering online is cheaper! (Score:3, Informative)
I've purchased a few things from my local Comic Book Store, but unfortunately our unfriendly neighborhood huge book chain (########.######.ca) have them cheaper, and in fact, their online store is cheaper than their retail store (and by a considerable amount!). For example...
On the Wizards.com website, the Dungeon Masters Guide II: Price $39.95 ; C$55.95
Our local gaming shop? Just a bit over $56.
Our local huge book store? $55.95
Our local huge book on
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:3, Informative)
They're on 10th Street by Georgia Tech. They're doing great. RPG's every tuesday. Board games on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They're cheaper than SotP was, and the owners are all nice guys. They have a great discount too.
Take I85/75 to the 10th street exit, go west on 10th street, they're on your right after City Cafe.
--michael
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
A friend of mine plays D&D and he used to live in Corpus Christi, Texas. One thing about CC was that there were a lot of people who wanted to play D&D et al but there really wasn't anyplace for them to meet and play. Further, it was only a few people who wanted to get together at the time and they didn't want to meet in some place where they would have to put up with all of the screaming and yelling and other problems which occur when you play in a game shop's back room or floor.
Their solution was this:
Get a group together and go find a cheap unused shopping strip and talk with the owners. Tell them their problem and see if the owner would be willing to rent some of the space out to them on the weekend so they could have some place to gather and play. They started out with a place that cost them $100.00 a month. It was in a bad neighborhood but there was plenty of parking because no one ever came to the shopping strip. (When I visited him there was only one shop open there for some small company.) They only used the place on the weekends and always left it cleaned up so if the owner got someone they could move in without any problems. Well, first thing they did was to pool their money to buy a small refrigerator (one of those $50.00-$100.00 models) so everyone could bring their drinks and keep them cool. Then they decided that each person would donate $0.50 for each drink so they could use the money to pay for the place. Then someone decided to buy boxes of candy and bring that. Since each drink cost about $0.25 and each candy bar only cost around $0.30 each (they sold them to themselves for $1.00 each), the club made enough money each month to pay the owner and have quite a bit left over. This allowed them to rent the space for the entire month - which they did.
Once they'd begun renting the space for the entire month they went about getting more people to come to the club. The rules were simple. No outside food or drinks. If you wanted something more substantial than soda and candy you either left and ate outside of the club or made a suggestion on what the club should provide. But, if you suggested something, they bought it, and then no one ate it, it was then put on a list (white board by that time) of things tried and found to be not a good thing for the club to buy. This eliminated a lot of the problems and the club prospered. When I went to visit the club again, it had over 100 people in it, maintained a list of who wanted to use the club when, had a BBS set up to handle reservations and annoucements, and the club's size was well over 6000sq ft of space. It was costing them around $500.00 a month for usage and they were even thinking of moving to somewhere a bit fancier. The walls had been hand painted by the club members with pictures of dragons, castles, treasure, and what-not. They were having contests like the greatest amount of treasure obtained in a game, the highest level, and so forth. They were talking of moving to a new location that would allow them to have glassed in areas so that each of the groups didn't disturb the others while playing yet still allowing everyone to see everyone else playing and having a good time.
And this all started with just four people who wanted to play D&D.
Parent
Re:The games may be going strong, but... (Score:3)
The Priceless Pearl Adventure:
Once upon a time, in the land of adventurers, there were greedy people playing and adventuring. They were so greedy that no matter how much treasure was given to them they always thirsted after more. So one day a sage asked them to retrieve "The Priceless Pearl". Of course, the greedy people decided that a pearl worth that much was something that they should keep rather than share with the sage.
So of
Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table top (Score:2, Insightful)
Just look at the kinds of PC games and video games being released, we don't want overcomplex table top games, we want simple fun, easy to get into games because of the massive constraints now on our time.
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong. I'd give anything to play D&D again.
The problem simply is, that as an adult, with a job and a family, if I were to play D&D again, I might... MIGHT be able to play twice a month. And that's assuming that the other people in my group were as dedicated as I was. Which is never the case.
In reality, we've gotten together twice in the last 6 months.
On the other hand, I can log on to WoW and play two hours a night after the kids are asleep.
People play MMOs because they like actually being able to PLAY, instead of schedule coordinate and then get disappointed when no one shows up.
I don't have to worry about THAT until MC.
Parent
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:2)
Nicely put.
The recent success of MMORPGs like WoW have been proven to have expanded the market.
This gives a greater chance that some of the neophytes to the genre will jump over into tabletop gaming to diversify their entertainment. Many of them are younger and have less demands on their time, thus can afford 9-hour runs in MC (and the like). Once they grow bored of the limitations inherent to computer-mediated games like WoW, it may bode well for tabletop fantasy RPG games.
Just a thought...
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:2)
Of course, nothing prevents you from playing any tabletop game on-line...chat rooms, IRC, etc. People have been doing this for a long time.
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:2)
You actually have the self-control to stop at two hours? I'm impressed. Every time I log in for "two hours" I look up 5 hours later and realize I have to got work tomorrow.
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:2)
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Video games, MMO's and RPG's supplanting table (Score:3, Interesting)
The 2 children (1 year and 4-5 years) are either put in a bedroom in their crib (the 1 year old) or put in front of a Movie of their choice for the evening. When they get old enough to understand the concepts, they will be invited to participate.
The trick is to insure that the game does not interfere with real life. We have a set schedule of Saturday afternoons and evenings for one DM and Monday nigh
Other systems (Score:5, Informative)
All of these are great games, and I recommend that newbie role players talk to your local hobby-shop owner and get a sense of the options at your disposal, and what would fit your group best.
GURPS! (Score:2)
Re:Other systems (Score:3, Funny)
You forgot a good one (Score:2)
Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu [chaosium.com].
Love that game. Good for beginners too. Simple system, and it teaches you something that I consider to be very important to a good gaming group: Never become too attached to your characters.
And it's lots of fun. You already know you're doomed, so why not have a little fun with it? You know you gotta love a game where bragging sounds like this: "I had an investigator survive three whole games!
Disclaimer: I don't work for Chaosium, YMMV, etc.
Write your own damn adventures! (Score:3, Insightful)
There is certainly a role for supplementary material and pre-packaged campaigns and adventures (I refuse the to use the "M" word). They can help stoke a GM's imagination and if they're really good they can set standards for home brew campaign settings and adventures.
But the RPG hobby has become seriously consumerrhoidic.
Playing the game should be the point of the hobby . . . not collecting books.
Re:Write your own damn adventures! (Score:2)
yeah, i think that transition occured around 1990 when TSR started to spew books for every stupid combination: the left-handed gnome handbook, etc.
The review above mentioned page after page of prestige classes. Same tactic: force everyone to buy hundreds of books.
> Playing the game should be the point of the hobby . . . not collecting books.
ideally, unless of course the books are just great reads. Like the GURPS worldbooks - even if you don'
Re:Write your own damn adventures! (Score:3, Interesting)
For Shadowrun tho, IMHO, it's an entirely different matter. The canon(official) storyline of shadowrun is incredibly rich and interesting. Most players swear by it. It advances in a somewhat realtime fashion, always going forward. They used to release a lot of 'adventures', which were mostly cool, but now they tend to expose the storyline and give you tons
Ahh nostalga (Score:5, Informative)
It reminded me why I got into computer programming in the first place. D&D modules were the 'software' of games.
I'm not sure kids playing today have this same experience. It seemed to me for a long time that modern D&D adventures were played in cheap card games (Magic The Gathering) and in RPG computer/console games.
It's great to hear that far from being dead and gone D&D is actually still a great pastime. Now if we could just get WOTC to hire Gary Gygax...
GenCon SoCal This Weekend (Score:3, Informative)
Support your local indie game author! (Score:5, Informative)
You have nothing to lose but your four dozen expansion rulebooks for Shadowrun.
Ask Slashdot: Profit!!! ? (Score:4, Interesting)
My stores are "kindly" placed in towns without a nearby mall.
For those who go to gamer stores, what attracts you to a store over buying online?
I can't believe gaming is experiencing a rebirth. Another geeky lifestyle to piss off the broads.
For Gamers who have kids (Score:5, Interesting)
Years ago Scott Kurtz posted this on his website PVP.
I have since played DnD with my little brother and his friends. While they have not become gamers they really enjoyed it.
It seems like all of those people who say they can't play DnD or other table top RPGs because they have kids and families ought to be playing with thier kids and families. It gets them away from the video games and the TV.
Shadowrun 4 is also in PDF format (Score:3, Informative)
As well as a lot of other books coming to PDF(including older stuff). I got both the PDF and the hardcover because with a PDF you can search, and with a book my eyes don't bleed. =)
Shows that the RPG industry is heading the way to e-books faster than the more traditional publishers though.
Check out the small press (Score:4, Informative)
Some really good stuff to check out:
Burning Wheel [burningwheel.org]:
Dogs in the Vineyard [septemberquestion.org]
With Great Power [indie-rpgs.com]
The Shadow of Yesterday [anvilwerks.com]
Primetime Adventures [dog-eared-designs.com]