He also added Barak Obama seemed "a little bossy."
ME
Several players and I are working to get another session of Yeld scheduled. In the meantime, I thought i would post character stats and descriptions to give you a sense of what The Magical Land of Yeld is all about. Several of the players compared character creation to "Best Friends," where characters stats are based on how much everyone else at the table hates you.
With Yeld, all of the players take on the rolls of children between the ages of 5-12. You roll two 6-sided dice to determine your starting age, create a name, decide if you are a boy or girl, and then everyone else at the table decides what kind of Friend you are. These can range from Big Brother to Brat to Know-it-All to Princess (which can be a boy). Some have restrictions based on age or whether you are a boy or girl. All of them come with Special Dice, which are extra abilities, and bonuses to your Core Dice, your basic stats.
It seems like for the first few sessions, I will be the game master. One of the ideas of the game is to rotate who is GM to give everyone the chance to come up with a session idea and influence the course of the story, but my players really want to be players at this point. Once they are more familiar with the rules and gameplay, I'm sure they are going to want to step up and take the GM's hat for a session or two, but until then I will fill the role and keep Chase mostly in the background.
I think I've come up with the first adventure, or at least the story hook/title: "Goblins in the Stacks." It will be set in a comic book shop in the Mall of America.
ME
However, the whole process did get the players excited for the game, and we already have a list of questions and "concerns" (I put it in quotes because it isn't as serious as it sounds, and it is a playtest after all) to try to address at the next game, mostly concerning some of the background of the game and a few mechanical issues. As I get more time, I will post more notes and be sending item lists to Jake Richmond, one of the designers working on the game.
I did run the players through the basic rules of the game, and they picked them up quickly. I do see one possibility that I think really isn't a concern for my group, but could be for other groups: There seems to be a lot of potential for players to force a game master to burn through challenge dice. I need to re-read the various rules sections, but I don't remember anything that addresses how often a player can challenge a situation. For example, if my character tries to convince the shop keeper to give him the magic item, and the GM uses challenge dice to set a challenge level, does that challenge level stand regardless of how many other characters attempt the same feat? Or could players continue to keep pushing the issue, or changing tactics to force new Challenges, causing the GM to burn more dice?
Or on the other hand, if a GM has a character argue with a player, is that considered a challenge? Does it need dice? Or can the player automatically win any argument simply by calling for a die roll (assuming the GM doesn't want to burn any dice)?
Also, I know once you purchase a monster, the monster is part of the story for that session. Does that mean unique or recurring villains (say, one pursuing the characters through Yeld) must be purchased for every adventure in which they appear?
These are just a few simple questions that came up while explaining the game, and likely as I re-read the rules they will be answered, but it gives you an idea of what players think about when they look at a game like this. Though everyone at the table was all about having fun, there still is an element of competition and wanting to "win."
I'm going to be posting more notes and observations as we go through the playtests, and I will put up some of the character stats/descriptions hopefully tomorrow.
Before I go I'd like to point out the icon I'm using for this post is one of the characters from Magical Land of Yeld as drawn by Jake Richmond. You can find this icon and others from Yeld at Jake's livejournal
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jake_richmondThrough an assignment by
memento_mori here is my revamped version of Captain America, the man known as Pangaea!
I can't believe it snuck up on me this year.
Saturday is Free Comic Book Day.
Of course, this year we have only one local comic book shop, but that won't stop me and my oldest son from headin there and pickin up a book or two. And in addition to the free comics, they also are offering a Heroclix Iron Man and a Star Wars mini as well. Rock on.
ME
So check out the review and let me know what you think.
ME
And that is why I was late for work this morning.
ME
Alan Sugarbaker, one of the guys at the Ogre Cave Audio Report, gives a brief rundown on some of the products he saw at GTS in Las Vegas. There are a couple of interesting mentions in there, as well as some products I'm pretty excited about. I just wish these companies would stop producing all these cool collectible miniatures games and draining my wallet (and filling up my office).
ME
Today the GAMA Trade Show (GTS) will get into full swing in Las Vegas. This is one of the first times many of these games and products will be on display and available for purchase as publishers and designers pitch their wares to the people who will stock and promote these products throughout the year. Hopefully we'll see some good coverage of the event this year, though last year the news updates and reports were a little spotty (which isn't surprising as there is a lot going on at these events and most of the news coverage is secondary to why people are there).
The bad thing is I probably could have gotten a press pass to the event, and I actually have family in the Las Vegas area, but the time and expense of heading out there just couldn't be justified, so again I'm on the sidelines, waiting for an Internet update like everyone else.
Ah well, someday.
ME
Battue is a very cool game, and the components are beautiful. Be sure and check out the review, and sign up at the CharCon Web site, even if you aren't in the West Virginia area. We're hoping to make it more of a regional site for gamers, and would love to have some more players and game designers helping post some content and discussions.
ME
Here is the three tiers of D&D, which is basically a breakdown of power levels - Heroic, Paragon and Epic - and how players and game masters alike might handle these different kinds of characters and scenarios.
Enjoy.
ME
This is a very quirky sounding game, and from the few actual play reports I've been able to find, it also sounds like a lot of fun. Below is a short game description, just to give you an idea of how charming and bizarre this game is going to be.
In Maid RPG, the players take on the role of maids who serve a Master who lives in a mansion. That’s the basic setup, but what ensues is often an excuse for the most bizarre chaos imaginable. This is a game that embraces randomness. Characters have random Special Qualities, ranging from Freckles and Glasses to Stalkers and Cyborgs. During the game, characters earn points of Favor by pleasing the Master, and one of the things they can spend Favor on is causing Random Events.
Awesome.
Be sure and check out the site and bookmark them for future updates. The hope is to have the game out by GenCon Indy this year.
ME
Presumably this is part of a D&D 4E promotion, but I absolutely love the first stop on the tour.
ME
The game is an homage of sorts to the old Nintendo-style adventure and rpg games, like Legend of Zelda and the original Final Fantasy games. For the record, I grew up playing these games, and loved them. There are some other fantasy elements thrown in as well, but every person I've showed the game to has immediately recalled some moment playing Zelda or another game and said "We have to play this."
So that is what we are going to do. I will have about 3-5 players on a regular basis, and we're going to take a group of characters through the main game. The idea is to take notes on what we like, what we don't, questions or problems we encounter and things that absolutely rocked. Then we'll send our notes off to Jake and hopefully he will find something useful.
I plan on posting actual play reports as we go along, and encourage anyone who might be interested to buy the playtest copy and start their own game.
ME
I'm trying to alternate my column between RPGs and board/card games. I'm also trying to alternate between more mature games and those intended for kids or families. So since last week I reviewed "Godlike," a game about super heroes during World War II, this week I chose to do short reviews of two memory games for kids.
Also, since I'm getting ready for Origins in June, I am going to try to "clear my plate" so to speak and get a bunch of reviews posted online over the next month. My goal is to have multiple reviews written and online each week in May. This also includes games that I have written mini reviews of, like the two in this past Sunday's article. Those easily can be turned into full articles to place on Board Game Geek, and that's just what I'm gonna do.
ME
So for those of you who are interested and don't have the print version, here is my article:
I also plan to submit this, as well as several other reviews of "Godlike" supplements, to RPG.net later this week. When that happens, I will post links to those articles as well.
ME
An article by MSNBC on plans for 4E D&D and the struggle for a pen-and-paper game to compete in an age of online games. Has a lot of interesting tidbits and interviews with some notables in the role-playing game industry. Well worth the time to read.
ME
Until then, and until this day passes, watch your back and keep your sense of humor.
ME
A buddy of mine and fellow gamer is getting married tomorrow, and in about 20 minutes I'm heading off to the rehearsal dinner. I picked up my tux today and man, we are gonna look sharp.
We had a bachelor party for him a couple of weekends ago, and being a bunch of geeks and good Christian boys, it was a very un-bachelor party.
In fact, the highlight of a night filled with one of our cool friends playing guitar and the groom-to-be playing HeroClix with our less-cool friends (I sat out cause I was nursing a beer and a headache, but eagerly watched the four-way carnage unfold) was when all of us took turns filling the various roles in Rock Band on the xBox. Let me just say, I suck on the drums, and got us booted offstage thanks to my crappy playing during a rendition of "Don't Fear the Reaper." I later redeemed myself with, if I do say so myself, some rock-a-licious vocals on Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" and a spirited attempt at the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage."
During a lull in the festivities a couple of us old married guys took it upon ourselves to give some advice to my buddy. One tidbit was to get her gaming, lest she end his gaming. Of course I don't think he has anything to fear. He and his soon-to-be wife have several times played board and card games with me and my non-gamer wife, including "Settlers of Catan," "Dread Pirate" and "Guillotine." In fact, about two years ago for Christmas she bought him almost all of the expansions for "Killer Bunnies." That there my friends is what we call "a keeper."
So though I am a little sad to be saying goodbye to my single friend, I am eagerly looking forward to hugging my married friends tomorrow afternoon. It'll be fun to have another married couple to throw dice and sling cards with.
God Bless, Evan, and much happiness.
ME
