Changes Revealed by the Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed Quickstart

I very much dig the changes in 7th edition from a gameplay perspective.  Here's why.

Cthulhu 7th Edition Quickstart

Chaosium has posted a QuickStart for Cthulhu 7th Edition. You can find it on DriveThruRPG and Chaosium's site.

A summary and review are forthcoming.

D&D Next Release Schedule

• Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (July 15, 2014); Fantasy Roleplaying Fundamentals; $19.99; Will include six dice, a 64-page rulebook with adventure, rules for characters levels 1-5, and 5 pregenerated characters.
• Player's Handbook (August 19, 2014); Core Rulebook; $49.95
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen (August 19, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure; $29.95
• Monster Manual (September 17, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95
• The Rise of Tiamat (October 21, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure $29.95
• Dungeon Master's Guide (November 18, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95
• Deluxe DM Screen (January 20, 2015); $14.95

Ars Technica Measures Which Steam Games We Play, and Which We Don't

And here's a quick summary of the unplayed titles:

More in the original article, here.

Draft Time!

This week's draft.

I passed up on a fairly strong counter-draft in Round 3, which is my only anxiety: first and second picks were Shock.

Re-doing This Week's Draft

I wasn't happy about the lack of removal I had earlier in the week.  Here's B/R Aggro from the same card pool.

This week's draft

Courtesy of the Magic Draft Simulator: A R/G Sliver deck. I'm not happy with the amount of removal I drew (next to 0).

PAX East Future of PC Gaming Panel

Milk Run Structure

So far, my Shadowrun 4 campaign has largely been narrative-driven, but the players have finally transitioned into being runners. The downside of having players with limited playtime, hacking through three sessions has taken six months. I intend to expand my campaign's player base, and offer mini-sessions, possibly via roll20, called "milk runs." Here's the format I have planned for each Milk Run.

CCP Cancels WoD MMO

Sadface.  Via Gamespot:

The studio says it was "falling regretfully short" in its goals of creating an vampire-themed MMO. Following the cancellation, 56 employees at the Atlanta, Georgia studio have been laid off. Some of the team are said to have been offered other roles within the company, with the remaining staff at the studio now working on games set in the EVE universe.

Star Citizen Dogfighting Module Footage Released!

Another Magic Draft

Another Magic Simulated Draft.  This week, a BU removal-heavy deck with one real bomb (Guardian of the Ages) and two tutors to nab it.

And this is why I don't play DayZ.

Spotted on a stream run by The Syndicate Project.

WoW 6.0 Patch Notes

WoW Alpha 6.0 Patch Notes are up.  Here they are on MMOC.

AMD Takes a Shot at the Titan Z

After Intel announced a $3,000 graphics card, the Titan Z, AMD responds by announcing a $1,500 card that appears to challenge it for half the price.  A water-cooled dual-GPU card that can run games easily at 4k has me actually considering the jump to 4k within the year, paired with Samsung's $650 4k monitor.  More information on the Radeon R9 295X2 at Tom's Hardware.

Building Optimal Pressure Damage

In MMO terminology, there are two types of damage - pressure and spike.  Pressure damage is ongoing damage that is concerning, but not particularly fatal given basic precautions are taken and players don't play sloppily.  Spike damage, on the other hand, requires an attempt at active mitigation.  Spike damage translates to tabletop games fairly easily, but pressure damage doesn't particularly work in a straightforward environment across the board -- especially in Shadowrun.

Urban Brawl Matches for the Weekend of Sept. 20, 2052

For a summary on Urban Brawl, the second most popular sport in the Shadowrun world, click here.

Urban Brawl Standings for the week of Sept. 20, 2052

W	L	T	North Division	W	L	T	South	Division
12	2		Seattle Screamers (UCAS)	12	1	1	Ares Predators (Ares Macrotechnology)
11	2	1	Boston Massacre (UCAS)	12	2		Renraku Invincibles (Renraku Computer Systems)
10	4		Tacoma Wings (Federated Boeing)	10	4		Tenochtitlán Volcanoes (Aztlan)
9	5		Mountain Dragons (Dunklezahn Enterprises)	9	5		St. Louis Slaughter (UCAS)
8	6		Chicago Sensations (Truman Technologies)	8	6		Miami Spears (CL)
7	7		Tsimshian Warriors (Tsimshian)	7	7		Havana Guerrillas (CL)
6	8		Montreal Assassins (Québec)	6	8		New Orleans Tombstones (CAS)
5	8	1	Lakota Arrows (Sioux Council)	5	8	1	Norfolk Battlers (CAS)
5	9		Detroit Nightmares (UCAS)	5	9		Cincinnati Lasers (UCAS)
4	9	1	Denver Thunderheads (UCAS)	4	9	1	Atlanta Butchers (CAS)
4	10		New York Slashers (UCAS)	4	10		Oakland Terminators (CFS)
3	11		Chicago Shatters (UCAS)	3	11		Los Angeles Bolts (CFS)

Trask Industries

Because I'm an X-Men fan.
)

Magneto Murders JFK

Because I'm a Marvel fan from way back:
)
Complete with a pseudo-documentary.

This week's draft simulator.

Attached.  A R/B aggro.  I know.  You're surprised.

Dwarven Forge: Caverns Kickstarter OPEN!

Because ermagherd. Ends on the 8th of April. Link here.

Meet the Hunter

Wildstar Beta Trailer

Dwarven Forge: Caverns

From Dwarven Forge, the tabletop terrain studio that makes wonderful dungeon designs: A new kickstarter coming later this month, for cavernous tiles, made from similar material ("Dwarvenite") from their last round.

For an introduction:

Another Draft Simulator

This week's draft:
UG
14 creatures
2 counter-drafts

Pres. Obama announces Iron Man

I know this is not about games.  Still awesome.

Guild Ball Kickstarter

Guildball, an alternate fantasy football game in the vein of Blood Bowl (but with slightly less fantasy), has a kickstarter going on now.  It ends March 22nd, and the buy in is at 57 pounds ($95).

Dreadball Expansion: Dreadball Xtreme

Mantic is now running a Kickstarter campaign for a new expansion to Dreadball, Mantic's game of sci-fi tabletop sport, similar to Blood Bowl but with a sci-fi setting.  The expansion is called DreadBall Xtreme, and focuses on off-the-books matches of Dreadball.  The buy-in is $25 if you only need the team and PDF rules, $75 if you need the full set. The campaign ends on the 16th of March.

Oh My Goat

Blizzard Accidentally Released Paid Upgrade to 90

...and quickly took it down.  It's $60.  More details here at MMOChampion.  Picture borrowed from Zheo on the MMOC forum.

A Freaking Titan

Games Workshop is releasing an Imperial Knight Titan Plastic kit.

No Sleep 'til Draenor

With news of an impending squish on stats provided by items and the expansion around the corner, I've made a number of goals for myself prior to the expansion.  Here they are:

Magic Draft Simulator

At the suggestion of a friend, I've been tooling around with Wizards' Magic Draft Simulator. The simulator is a pre-seeded draft meant to provide practice in picking cards. Here's the list I came up with:

An Intro to World of Warcraft Addons (Part 5)

In Part 1, I discussed what an addon is and how to install one via Curse.  In Part 2, I discussed essential, non-intrusive addons that improve general gameplay.  In Part 3, I discuss addons with a moderate impact on user experience, specifically in combat, that I still recommend to improve the gameplay experience.  In Part 4, I discuss data/UI management addons that I find helpful.  In this, the final part, I discuss questing helpers that I use.

An Intro to World of Warcraft Addons (Part 4)

In Part 1, I discussed what an addon is and how to install one via Curse.  In Part 2, I discussed essential, non-intrusive addons that improve general gameplay.  In Part 3, I discuss addons with a moderate impact on user experience, specifically in combat, that I still recommend to improve the gameplay experience.  In this part, Part 4, I discuss data/UI management addons that I find very helpful, but your mileage, of course, may vary.

An Intro to World of Warcraft Addons (Part 3)

In Part 1, I discussed what an addon is and how to install one via Curse.  In Part 2, I discussed essential, non-intrusive addons that improve general gameplay.  In this part, I discuss addons with a moderate impact on user experience, specifically in combat, that I still recommend to improve the gameplay experience.

An Intro to World of Warcraft Addons (part 2)

In Part 1, I discussed the Curse client.  Now I recommend addons that have minimal impact on the user experience, but that I consider essential. Note that I take no responsibility for downloads, and have no affiliation with their authors.  These are just what work for me, at this time.

An Intro to World of Warcraft Addons (part 1)

A Primer on Addons

Addons are plugins that allow user additions to the World of Warcraft interface, dynamically changing the user experience in ways that is arguably essential.  This is a quick guide I’ve written on how to install addons, how to update them, and it accompanies a few recommendations I’d start with.

An Interesting Analysis of Lego Price Changes

After looking at MF0, I found an interesting article about price changes in Lego bricks.  Check it out.

Games Workshop Cancels White Dwarf Magazine

Per Bell of Lost Souls:

Games Workshop has killed White Dwarf, and intends to split its production into "gaming" and "hobby" segments.

More at BoLS.

An Outsider's View of Creepypasta

Aeon magazine wrote a rather decent synopsis of Creepypasta.  Check it out here.

Mobile Frame Zero - Ways To Buy Individual Parts

Following up on the Bell of Lost Souls review of MFZ, a lego mech wargame, I decided to follow their lead and see about buying individual bricks. At their suggestion, I decided to check out BrickLink, which essentially allows people to buy individual bricks similar to a Bitz site, only from multiple sellers. It additionally allows you to sort new or used, and view ebay style reviews. All told, you can get important blocks for a fraction of the cost of Lego's online store.

Mobile Frame Zero: The C6 System

MFZ requires a set of mechs to your design. There's a stock mech list you can build for around $10 a Mech. However, there are also a series of mech designs publicly available called the C6 system, created by Micah Bauer, that are all made out of common parts and thus available for less than half of that. Check it out here.

Mobile Frame Zero - Bell of Lost Souls Review

Bell of Lost Souls has finally gotten around to reviewing Mobile Frame Zero, a LEGO mech wargame I've had my eye on. You can find the review here.
Summary: Lego wargame. $10 a model. Interesting game dynamics. And you get to play using this:

Happy New Year!

Insert fireworks here.