Review For Initiative

[Yeld] Goblins in the Stacks

2008-05-13T23:11:32Z

We played the first session of our Magical Land of Yeld playtest this past weekend, and though short, the adventure went rather well. We added two more players, Cody and Kim, who played Zappa the Baby (5 yo boy) and Rainbow the Know-It-All (8 yo girl). I will post stats on these two characters later, as well as the revised stats for the existing characters. We made sure all of the characters now have a Tough of at least 2, and changed Davey (our resident Princess) Special Die: Girl Knowledge to Monster Knowledge, figuring he was a big comic book/sci-fi/fantasy fan and would have a better chance than most of knowing secrets of some of the monsters we would encounter.

The setup for "Goblins in the Stacks," our first adventure, was rather simple. The player characters were all Friends who were going to the Mall of America to a comic book shop to purchase Issue 1 of a Japanese Manga called "The Magical Land of Yeld." All of them had heard the comic was incredible, but no one knew any more about the book. So the session began with the kids standing in a long line waiting for the store to open and worried that by the time they would make it inside, all of the issues would be sold.

I made a mistake early on by deciding the proprietor of the comic book shop was a former-hippie-artist-turned-comic-book-guy named Dirty Gary (I know a comic shop owner named Gary who is a great guy, so I took the name from him, but added the "Dirty" part to give the character more personality). This proved to be waaayyy too open to interpretation, and the players had a lot of fun with the name. Too much fun.

Anyway, the players all had different ideas on how to up their chances of getting inside the comic book shop, and most of them involved some sort of action that would either get all of them thrown out of the mall or cause harm to the people in the line. At one point Cody (playing the Baby) said "Fire makes for a good distraction." With my character Chase, I tried to steer them in a less destructive path, and as GM reminded everyone they were kids and relatively good ones.

In the end the group decided to get out of line and work their way around to the back of the mall and to the back door of the comic book shop. It was a known fact Dirty Gary had a storeroom in back called The Stacks, an area reserved for back stock, rare comics and piles of memorabilia collected by Gary over the years (including a monster-mask collection that would come into play later in the game).

As GM I spent the first of my Action Dice to set up a challenge for the players: To sneak into the back storeroom without being noticed. The two smartest characters, Rainbow and Davey, put their heads together, so I allowed Davey to make a Smarts roll of 3 (2 for his Smarts and an extra die since Violet was helping) against a relatively minor challenge of 2. I'm not sure this is how it was laid out in the rules, but in order to keep things moving I decided not to search through the rulebook and instead allowed the extra die. Davey made the roll fairly easilty, ending up with an 11 versus my 6, so I decided the back door hadn't shut properly after the last delivery and there wasn't anyone watching the back door. The kids slipped in and began to search for the comic books.

Throughout the session I allowed players to name small items their character might carry, so long as it seemed within reason (no shotguns or bolt cutters). Davey pulled a small Hello Kitty keychain light out of his fanny pack (he is the Princess after all) to give them some light, and they slowly worked their way through the stacks of old comic books. Eventually, in the middle of the room, they found a small thick cardboard box with Japanese writing on the lables. The top had been opened. A thick velvet curtain hung over the doorway to the front of the shop, and they could hear Dirty Gary arguing with someone on the phone about a shipment being delayed and receiving too few comics. Convinced he was talking about "The Magical Land of Yeld," Violet the Brat, played by Rachel, reached into the box and pulled out the top copy of MLY. It was a rare chromium cover and was thicker than the other comics in the box, with a note that it contained a limited edition full color map of Yeld.

The group then argued over what to do with the rest of the comics, whether they would steal them, destroy them or somehow ruin them. I'm not sure why our Friends suddenly became such hooligans, but as the GM I told them they could hear noises and voices coming toward them from inside the stacks. The Friends split, with most of us diving behind some boxes and accidentally into a pile of Dirty Gary's monster masks. Violet and Mac, the 10-year-old Bully and oldest of the group, went behind a pile of Little Lulu back issues and watched as three Goblins came out from between several bookcases. One of the Goblins carried a twisted branch that glowed blue at the tip. They were talking about the Yeld comic book and searching for the box.

Mac decided to cause a distraction and tried to fire his slingshot (I decided a Bully could have one of those as a level 0 weapon) into the darkness, but ended up hitting Chug, the large, slow-witted Ogre following the Goblins. The shot did not damage, but there was a moment when the Friends thought they had been found. The Goblins called for Chug, and the leader, CrackTooth (a crooked-jawed Goblin) told the Ogre to "store" the case. Chug unhinged his lower jaw and swallowed the box.

Violet and Mac, with the Goblins and Ogre between them and their Friends, decided to cause a distraction, and together overturned the table they hid behind, sending Little Lulu comics scattering everywhere. They yelled "Door!" and ran, pursued by two of the three Goblins.

Carey, who plays Davey, came up with a cool idea: He grabbed a goblin-like mask, put it on, stood up and did a Smarts test against Chug. He yelled that "the little green kid" (CrackTooth) stole his wand. Chug, with a Smarts of 1, rolled a 4. Davey added in a Special Die of Monster Knowledge (that Ogre's are stupid) and rolled 3 dice, getting a 14 total. Chug turned, grabbed CrackTooth by the head, and as Davey and the other Friends ran, he made a Strong challenge against the Goblin (each rolling one die and winning with a 4 to CT's 1) and stole the wand.

Violet was pursued by the Goblin FinHead (who had a fin on his head) while Mac was pursued by OneEye (who had only,,, well, you get the idea). Violet grabbed a limited edition replica lightsabre, complete with sound and light up action, and spun to confront FinHead. She failed her Brave challenge and FinHead attacked, but failed in his attack (Strong 1) versus her defense (Tough 3). We decided the two of them squared off, and Violet attempted another Brave challenge, this time winning the die roll, knocking out FinHead's Brave of 1, and sending the Goblin running in terror.

OneEye lept up on a bookcase and Mac turned and used his Special Die of Trip to make a Strong attack of 3, knocking the book case over and crushing OneEye (Tough 1). The Goblin dropped a piece of Loot, and I ruled it was a Serrated Goblin Blade (Weapon 0). Mac grabbed up the sword and ran.

The Friends found themselves in the wrong part of The Stacks, unable to find the door out. Davey noticed the harder he gripped the wand, the more light it shed, so he suggested all of the Friends take ahold of it, and the blue light blazed forth, illuminating an old iron bound wooden door. Hearing Chug and CrackTooth coming toward them (CrackTooth having seeing the comic book in Violet's back pocket as she ran) the Friends opened the unknown door and lept through.

They all fell in a heap on the dirty ground outside, with sunlight streaming down on them. A booted foot landed beside them, and an armored guard in medieval gear told them to "get up, get moving." Other people in similar dress milled about, and the Friends realized they had fallen through the door, which hovered and rotated several feet above a large dry fountain. An old woman warned the group they had better move along, because the Whirr-Clicks that guarded the door certainly would come to see what had come through. No sooner did the Friends ask what a "Whirr-Click" was, then two large steam-driven robots came clunking around a corner. Everyone in the town square darted indoors, and the old woman beckoned the friends to hide in a small inn.

That was pretty much the end of the adventure. We talked a little bit about the direction of the next session, and everyone said they enjoyed the game and were eager to see where it led from here. One a side note, we did come to one decision concerning the theme of the game. We decided all future sessions would be based on the names of songs by the Canadian band Rush. So the next session will be appropriately named "La Villa Strangiato," the Strange Village.

I plan to post updated character stats and monster stats as well. I need to go back and figure out how many Adventure Dice I spent (four monsters and one challenge), but I am sure it was well less than 20, so it was an Easy Challenge (meaning the players now have 1 Reward Die).

Thats about it for now. I will post more as it comes to me.

ME

politics and youth

2008-05-07T19:00:22Z

My six-year-old son this morning asked who I was planning to vote for. I said I didn't know and asked who he liked. He said he would "vote for Hilary Clinton" because she was "a pretty lady and I love her."

He also added Barak Obama seemed "a little bossy."

ME

At the threshold

2008-05-07T14:49:54Z

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.

Violet
7-year-old girl
Type of Friend: Brat

Core Dice
Strong: 1
Smart: 1
Tough: 3
Brave: 1

Special Dice
Break: 2
Fight Dirty: 1

Davey
9-year-old boy
Type of Friend: Princess

Core Dice
Strong: 1
Smart: 3
Tough: 1
Brave: 1

Special Dice
First Aid: 1
Sew: 1
Girl Stuff: 1

Mac McCreedy
10-year-old boy
Type of Friend: Bully

Core Dice
Strong: 3
Smart: 1
Tough: 1
Brave: 1

Special Dice
Trip: 1
Bullseye: 2

Chase
8-year-old boy
Type of Friend: Liar

Core Dice
Strong: 1
Smart: 2
Tough: 1
Brave: 2

Special Dice
Liar: 2
Letter Writing: 1

In the Yeld campaign you don't get a Heroic Job until a couple of sessions in. However, we all looked through the various jobs to get an idea of what we thought we might want to pursue with our characters. Several of the jobs lent themselves really well to our characters and concepts.

For Violet, the Soul Thief seems like a good choice, mostly because the player loves thieves and darker characters, and the Soul Thief strikes a lot of chords with her. A bratty Soul Thief capable of destroying your armor and wearing down your strength strikes me as a terrible foe indeed.

For Davey, the Shepard is a likely job, because it is a solid class that provides a lot of support to other characters, such as providing first aid and repairing armor (sew).

For Mac, the Oath Breaker is a natural fit, because it prizes strength and is a defiant role, perfect for the group's headstrong Bully. Plus it gives him lots of reasons to hit things.

For Chase, my character, I think I will go with the Freelancer, a nice cross between a jack-of-all trades and a scout.

These are just a couple of the possible jobs, and things might change by the time we get there, but these were the ones that jumped out at us.

We've got a couple other players who plan to catch games when they can, and there are eight basic Friends types, so we already have been talking about possibilities for their characters. i really want to have one of the characters be 12 so we can deal with the storyline of one of the kids turning 13 while in Yeld (which has dangerous ramifications for the rest of the group and is a very cool story device, in my opinion).

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

A brief journey to Yeld

2008-05-04T01:49:48Z

Today myself and three friends got together and did character creation for Magical Land of Yeld. Since this was only about half the players we had hoped to have, and since this was a relatively short session due to scheduling issues, we didn't get much further than character creation.

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 jake_richmond

Bizzaro-verse

2008-05-02T14:03:30Z

Through an assignment by

memento_mori here is my revamped version of Captain America, the man known as Pangaea!

Pangaea

A captain in the U.S. military during the World War II, Roger Stevens was wounded during a mortar attack on his unit in North Africa. Everyone in the unit was killed except for Stevens, who was gravely wounded and close to death.

In his fevered state, Stevens was gripped by visions of a primal world where all nations were encompassed by one land. Civilization thrived in this unity, a great hunters and champions were hailed as beacons of truth and justice.

In his dream the souls of these champions came to Stevens and offered to heal his broken body, investing him with the strength of their unity and the power of the One Land. Stevens accepted, and awoke healed and imbued with great strength, endurance, agility and a burning desire to unite all peoples under a single world banner.

Returning to the states at the end of World War II, Stevens took the name "Pangaea" from author Alfred Wegener's book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." As Pangaea, Stevens began a crusade for peace and unity, fighting Nazi spies, terrorists and power-mad dictators who threatened to send the world spiraling back into war.

Seeing his great works, impressive physical abilities and needing a symbol of unity, the newly-born United Nations officially sanctioned Pangaea as the world's first humanitarian super hero, presenting him with a shield emblazoned with the symbol of the United Nations.

Prepare yourselves, true believers

2008-04-28T16:00:05Z

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

Conquering the New(est) World

2008-04-27T14:03:53Z

My review of Immortal Eyes Games' "Conquest of Pangea" ran in Sunday's edition of The Parkersburg News. This is a board game for 2-4 players where you attempt to become the dominant species on the super-continent of Pangea over the course of millions of years of evolution. The really cool thing about the game is how Pangea, the playing board, actually breaks up, with pieces splitting off over the course of several rounds. It is an interesting game that takes a little time to get used to, but can be a lot of fun.

So check out the review and let me know what you think.

ME

A word of advice

2008-04-26T02:05:57Z

If you ever find yourself hurtling through a wormhole in time and space and along the way see hundreds of clocks as the years roll back, those aren't really clocks. It is just your fragile human brain trying to make sense of time travel.

And that is why I was late for work this morning.

ME

A Ogre in Las Vegas

2008-04-25T12:37:21Z

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

GTS in Vegas

2008-04-21T13:54:46Z

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

Sacking the City of Brass Pillars

2008-04-20T14:02:46Z

My review of Red Juggernaut's Battue: Storm of the Horselords ran in this morning's edition of the Parkersburg News. I also put the review up on the CharCon (West Virginia's gaming convention in Charleston, W.Va.) Web site, and hope to be posting more reviews there in the coming weeks.

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

4E's three tiers

2008-04-18T20:08:51Z

As we get closer to the release of Wizards of the Coast's D&D 4E, we are getting more and more glimpses of how the new game might look and play.

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

Maid RPG is coming

2008-04-18T13:04:00Z

A recent announcement by some Story-Game members that they are working on an English translation of the Japanese Maid RPG. And I can't tell you how excited I am.

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

Keeping an eye out for you

2008-04-17T14:06:19Z

If you are going to be in Seattle the next couple of days, there is a 13-foot Beholder that would like a word with you.

Presumably this is part of a D&D 4E promotion, but I absolutely love the first stop on the tour.

ME

The door to a magical land

2008-04-16T13:47:45Z

In some very cool news, next month myself and several friends will begin playtesting Jake Richmond's new RPG The Magical Land of Yeld. You can purchase a .PDF of the playtest copy for $1 at RPGNow.com.

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

Children's games

2008-04-16T13:13:58Z

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

"Godlike" review

2008-04-06T13:26:34Z

My review of the role-playing game "Godlike" was printed in this morning's Parkersburg News. Unfortunately the article never made its way online, which happens from time to time (they like to hold back some of the local content to "encourage" people to buy the print paper rather than just reading it online for free. Of course, I don't know of anyone other than myself who buys the paper just to read my column).

So for those of you who are interested and don't have the print version, here is my article:

“Godlike”

Genre: World War II super heroes role-playing game

Pages: 352+, Hardback

Cost: $39.95

www.arcdream.com/godlike/

http://merb101.livejournal.com

By MICHAEL ERB

PARKERSBURG - During World War II there were great heroes, but there also were those who were something more. Something greater than human. Something godlike.

“Godlike” is a role-playing game about super heroes during World War II. But “Godlike” isn't your normal super-powered game. The heroes, called Talents, are normal people with extraordinary powers, but who ultimately are still very human.

The Talents in “Godlike” don't dress in spandex and capes while soaring into war. That's like wearing a giant target on your back. Instead Talents tend to work in small groups, just like a regular military unit, and conceal their extraordinary abilities when possible. The Talents have great power, but ultimately are tools in the war, and a player character's ability to affect the course of the war is limited and dependant more upon the success of missions rather than just on personal actions.

Powers in the game are called Miracles, and are one of the really cool aspects of “Godlike.” Though characters may be able to perform incredible feats of strength or defy gravity, there are limitations. You might be able to dead-lift a tank above your head, but only if no one is looking. You may be able to fly, but anti-aircraft fire or even a lucky rifle shot will bring you down. You may be able to run faster than a speeding bullet, but have to recite a prayer or some other psychological trick to get yourself to move that fast.

The trick to powers in “Godlike” is to have powers be extraordinary but narrowly focused, and to figure out how to use them within those constraints. That is one of the most fun aspects of the game, finding ways to use your powers to give you the advantage. Add into that the ability to cancel or disrupt the Miracles wielded by other Talents (which is why Talent-vs.-Talent battles didn't dominate the war) through a contest of Wills, and you have an almost chess-like game of strategy set during a confusing and lethal war.

“Godlike” uses 10-sided dice and a system called the One Roll Engine (ORE). The system uses dice pools, meaning if you have four points in a certain stat, like strength (Body), then you roll four dice when using the stat. Powers basically work the same way, and most contests between characters or situations use one of the character's main stats (Body, Coordination, Sense, Brains, Command and Cool) plus the relative skill or power to determine how many dice are rolled. In order to maintain a chance of failure, you can never use more than 10 dice in a single contest.

One of the cool aspects of ORE is the ability to determine not only whether you succeed in a dice roll, but also how well you do. This is called Height and Width. Successes are determined by matched dice, so if you roll five dice and come up with 2,3,4,4 and 6, your success would be your pair of fours. The Height of the roll would be a 4, so provided no one gets matches higher than a 4, you would win the conflict. The higher the number, the more powerful the effect, and you have to get a Height higher than a 2 to succeed. The Width is how many matches you get, and determines how quickly an effect occurs, with more matches meaning a faster effect.

Some powers and situations give you the ability to add Wiggle Dice, where you just decide what number they should be (so you could create a pair and a success or increase the Width). There also are Hard Dice, which are always 10s. Those most often represent powers that are on full blast whenever used, so you don't have the ability to do less than full damage or move at less than full speed.

The book does a great job of setting the stage of World War II, using a combination of historical and fictional history, with the fictional bits being marked with a bullet-hole symbol. The game book also uses lots of stock photography from the real war, with many of the pictures slightly altered to add flying men and other Talents. Add to that some really good fiction that sets forth the idea of both the Allies and Axis using but ultimately mistrusting and trying to destroy Talents when possible, and you have an incredibly realistic and compelling game.

The greatest strength of “Godlike” also is its greatest weakness: The setting. World War II was a time of great heroes but also of terrible tragedy, sacrifice and personal horror. The heroes of “Godlike” feel human, and it can be very difficult to role-play out some of the darker aspects of war that are so important to the setting. When a character dies, which is very likely in the course of the game, you as a player feel it. Again, this is strength of the game and a huge compliment to the creators, but at the same time can be a big turnoff for players looking for more four-color style super heroics and a lighter subject matter.

In fact, with as good a game as “Godlike” is, I've had trouble finding players willing to play, mostly because the setting is intimidating and a little depressing. I had one player push the book aside almost instantly and say "I don't play games about war."

Now, one of the nice things about pen and paper role-playing games it the ability to play them how you want, so it wouldn't take too much effort to shake up some of the rules and alter the setting to meet your needs and the desires of the group. Want to make things more comic-book like? With a little work and a few tweaks, you can do that. Want to have more Talent-versus-Talent battles and less horrors of war? You can do that too.

Ultimately “Godlike” gets a huge recommendation from me with one caveat. Know that while the One Roll Engine and the game setting are excellent, the writing is top-notch and the game does exactly what it sets out to do, the subject matter might be a little too much for some players, so know your audience. You can tell some extraordinary and compelling stories with “Godlike,” but I would definitely consider it for a more mature audience.

For more information on “Godlike,” visit http://www.arcdream.com/godlike/. For more game reviews and discussion, visit my blog at http://merb101.livejournal.com, and feel free to contact me at merb101@gmail.com.

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

Twitter-pated

2008-04-05T22:02:28Z

I am now on Twitter as merb101. I have no idea why.

ME

D&D on MSNBC

2008-04-04T12:46:55Z

Yoinked from a discussion on Story-Games.com:

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

Jokes on me

2008-04-01T20:23:48Z

Yeah, it is April Fools and I'm home sick. Some fun. As such there isn't a lot to update today, as I've spent most of my time in front of the television watching old episodes of The Office and the rest of the time sleeping. I am hoping to be back to work tomorrow and hopefully have something more interesting to put up.

Until then, and until this day passes, watch your back and keep your sense of humor.

ME

Marriage,,, blessed marriage,,,

2008-03-28T20:42:03Z

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

Nothing to do with gaming

2008-03-27T14:03:06Z

The only reason I'm posting this now is to give you time to grow your beards.

The World Beard Growing Championships

The competition is at the end of May (edit: in 2009) and is in Alaska. That's right, on our home turf. And we will be well-represented.

Beard Team USA

They are living the dream.

ME

Portland gamer love

2008-03-26T13:47:19Z

Artist and game designer Jake Richmond jake_richmond linked to a recent story in the Oregonian about indie game designers holding a convention-within-a-convention at Gamestorm. Jake, who has created and published games such as Panty Explosion and Classroom Deathmatch under the Aratashi Games banner, was interviewed along with PE co-creator Matt Schlotte, as was Christian Griffen (chgriffen), creator of the very cool Beast Hunters game.

The article is actually a really nice story about indie games, and Jake and Christian represent the industry very well. Give it a read.

ME

Big smelly go

2008-03-24T13:47:27Z

My review of Firefly Games' "OG: Unearthed Edition" ran in Sunday's edition of The Parkersburg News. I also will be sumitting the review to RPG.net and will switch the link over once it runs. My thanks to the guys at Firefly Games for the review copy and for the very fun game.

ME

My life in Fluxx

2008-03-20T17:01:19Z

My review of the Looney Labs' card game "Fluxx" ran in Sunday's edition of The Parkersburg News, and since then has been posted on BGG.com where you can find the full review. A quick and unusual card game, Fluxx is one of those great filler or party games you can pull out with almost any group of people and start playing right away. I'm eager to eventually see some of the Fluxx spin-off games, like Eco Fluxx and, yes, Zombie Fluxx. Looney Labs also usually has a great convention presence, so I'm hoping to hook up with some of those people at this year's Origins in Columbus, Ohio (which I didn't manage to do while I was there last year).

Also, for those interested, here is an updated link to my board and card game reviews that have been posted on BGG.com. So far there are 33 of them, and again, this doesn't include any role-playing game reviews I've done, or those couple of board and card game reviews that never got posted. It also doesn't include my articles about companies or preview stories, just the actual reviews.

So, if you get some free time, feel free to peruse my offerings and give me a thumbs-up on the reviews you like or find useful, and check out the rest of Board Game Geek while you're there.

ME