Category Archives: news

news

A brief tribute to Albert Uderzo

news

Yesterday the news that the French comic-book artist, who created Asterix with the writer René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo died at the age of 92.

I’ve been a fan of Asterix the Gaul since I first came across him and his adventures in the late seventies. When I saw the Asterix the Gaul animated movie whilst on holiday at my aunts in St Albans. Those holidays in St Albans hold a special place in my memories. I enjoyed them a lot.

My first Asterix book was the Twelve Tasks of Asterix that I bought through the book club that my secondary school participated in. We’d get a leaflet with a selection of books we could choose from. I think they were slightly cheaper than the shops. I can’t recall how many times I read it. But it was a prized possession for teenage me. I just about remember playing the Asterix video game on the Commodore 64.

At Brighton Poly with access to better shops, particularly book shops I was able to binge out on the Asterix books.

Decades later on the family holiday from hell to France we went to the two theme parks outside Paris, Parc Asterix and Disneyland Paris. I enjoyed Parc Asterix so much more than the Disney one. Although I think the theme was wasted a bit on the kids. The main characters were so much more accessible than the Disney ones.

Two or three years ago I had something delivered from abroad that arrived with the amazing stamp above. Which I keep in a safe place. It’s a treasured item.

The characters that Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny created are iconic. They have bought enjoyment to millions and millions of people, young and old over the decades. That is such a rare thing to have done.

My thoughts are with the family and friends of Albert Uderzo.

Genesys RPG Gets A Reprieve

genesys, news, RPG

I’m not sure how well last weeks US trade show for the gaming industry GAMA was attended. But with all that’s going on in the world currently it happened.

For fans of of the Genesys, Star Wars and L5R RPGs by FFG that was a good thing.

Since the New Year those RPGs have had an uncertain future. As we moved in to 2020 the news broke that the RPG team was part of the announced redundancies within FFG. Then the end of February saw rumours leak that FFG would no longer be producing them. That their current commitments of announced products would be met and that’s it.

It looked like this was it. They had run their natural course. They were deceased RPGs. They were no more. Ok I’ll stop trying to turn this into a Python dead parrot sketch.

Then last week Asmodee (the parent company) during the GAMA trade show held a keynote.

Like all things these days there were people in the audience live blogging the keynote.

It would appear that these RPGs are not no longer. That the development of them has been moved to a new studio based in Europe called EDGE Entertainment.

The existing books (and I’m assuming ancillary products of dice, game screen, and adversary cards) will still be printed. That new books will be developed. And that they will work with existing ones. They will not be new editions (ie second editions).

This is pretty good news.

Theros Coming To D&D

D&D, gossip, magic, MtG, news, RPG

The website Comicbook is reporting that once more WotC are dipping into the crossover pool between MtG and D&D.

This new crossover is called Mythic Odysseys of Theros. Which naturally going by that title takes D&D players to the plane of Theros. Which just so happens to be the current set. Although by the time this new campaign book hits your FLGS MtG players will have said their good byes to Theros and moved on to Ikoria.

Theros is heavily influenced by Greek mythology. So it will be interesting to see how they handle the themes and tropes such as heroes, monsters and gods. Plus will they pick up the theme of the current set of the under world?

I’d still like to see a Plane Shift release for Eldraine, and an art book. But now that is just wishful thinking.

Read the original story HERE. (If you want to see the cover of the book they have a link to the archived web page with it on also)

Tales from the Loop Amazon Series

news, RPG

The trailer below dropped this afternoon. Took me a little bit by surprise because I wasn’t aware this was in production.

I believe this series is inspired by the RPG and it’s art with the same name.

Which is pretty damn cool.

We often see a film or tv series made into a RPG. But rarely do we see it going the other way. The only one that comes to mind are movies based on D&D plus the old cartoon.

The exciting thing is we don’t have that long to wait to see it. According to end of the trailer this will be dropping in 3rd April.

I think the trailer looks pretty cool. I’ve gone from zero awareness to totally excited for this.

Who knows there might even be an upturn in the sales and playing of the RPG.

Let me know what you think of the trailer in the comments below.

UPDATE: a twitter like person informed me apparently this is a book also. And that is the source of the inspiration. The Wikipedia page needs updating then.

The Death of Genesys ‘Confirmed’!

genesys, news, rant, RPG

It has been reported over the last few days that FFG are killing off their RPG department completely, and that they will no longer be producing RPGs.

The slight silver lining to the cloud is that already announced RPG products like the Keyforge campaign book will be published. But after the current commitments have been met, nada.

That means the Star Wars, L5R and Genesys RPGs will join the ranks of defunct RPGs.

It’s a shame that this is happening.

It kills off any hopes fans of the games had that FFG would be using outside contractors to produce new content for their favourite game.

There are other rumours or conspiracy theories floating around along with this news. These range from FFG are being sold off to Asmodee being sold off. But that’s just internet chatter trying to make 2 + 2 = 5.

I haven’t played the Genesys system but I do like it. Especially that it had the Android source book. The one drawback for me that applies to the whole group of FFG RPGs is the use of custom dice. Naturally these dice had the infamous FFG premium added on. They did produce a mobile app for the dice. Which was considerably cheaper than a physical set.

But we are about to get into the scenario I have for all modern board games that rely on an app for play. Support after the product is no longer published. It gets worse in this situation because the FFG software department went in the cleansing just after Christmas. So unless the Asmodee software team pick up the support and maintenance of the app. As soon as a future release of Android or iOS breaks it, that’s it. It’s a dead app. That’s assuming that FFG don’t pull the app.

The app was the only realistic option for players that want to use any of the RPGs going forward. The dice sets will get rarer and rarer, and more expensive because of this.

I suppose the only option left would be for players in the future to map the relevant custom dice to their regular versions. Not ideal, produces an overhead during play that could slow things down when doing checks. But still a work around.

The future of the licences that FFG have is an interesting one. I think some like the Star Wars one will be picked up. What the actual practicalities of that is I have no idea. Can a third party pick the RPG licence up? Can FFG sub licence those rights to a third party? I’ve no idea. But whatever the specifics we could be a few years off seeing a new Star Wars RPG.

As for seeing a L5R RPG. That’s a harder one to guess. I know it has it’s fans. But enough to warrant a third party approaching FFG about licensing it? I’m not sure.

I love the Android universe. An IP that it seems FFG are mothballing completely, joining Tannhauser.

I know Genesys is a generic system that players are meant to use to create their own worlds and adventures. However I felt it was under supported, especially the two source books they produced. Apart from the sample adventures they produced for conventions there was no other material produced for them. The Android source book was lucky that FFG had produced the Worlds of Android book for Netrunner.

I think Android and Terrinoth would both have benefitted from FFG producing adventures on a regular basis for them. As would the Star Wars and L5R games. They needn’t have been the multi adventure campaigns that WotC put out for D&D. But more single adventures along the likes that the Adventurers League gets, that form part of a season.

Yes FFG introduced the Forge for fan created content. But I’m not sure how popular that was or is. I do feel that was a little too late.

Regular official content helps sell a system. Not all GMs want to home brew. Some want to pick up an adventure and run with it. Being able to cater for both is important. Although you could argue that if that was the case then the Genesys RPG isn’t for them. But it should be.

I still hold onto the hope I can get an Android based campaign up and running. But the likely hood of it being Genesys based has taken a hit.

Epic Card Game Digital App Arrives Immanently

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At the time of writing this post in less than ten days time Epic Card Game Digital will come out of its beta phase of development, and become available to all for free.

Epic Card Game and its digital version is a MtG like card game. But instead of having that collectible element, Epic has a fixed card pool that. So everyone that buys a copy of the game has all the cards. The nice thing is that the game supports all the expected modes of play for a card game like MtG, constructed, draft, cubes, etc.

Naturally there are differences between Epic and MtG when it comes down to the actual game play. But you can look those up.

I’ve had early access to the digital version after backing its development on the Kickstarter that WWG ran well over a year ago now.

What I’ve been impressed with during this time that despite the limited resources that a company like WWG have compared to the likes of say WotC. They have still managed to develop the digital version across multiple platforms simultaneously.

My use of the app during this beta period has been sporadic at best. I’ve not played online with the game. I’ve not tried deckbuilding. So what have I been doing in the app? I’ve been playing dark draft against the games AI.

I really love dark draft.

It’s such a great tweak to drafting that works really well for two players (it is a two player format only). What I like is that you have an idea what cards the opposing player may have but not exactly. There is that bit of unknown. You don’t know which two cards were not chosen and which two were removed from the game.

Compared to other games like this that have digital versions, I’m looking at you MtG:Arena, the game is completely free to play on a casual level. You get all the cards, unlimited copies, expansions are free. It doesn’t cost to play online against your friends.

So where do WWG hope to make their money?

“The only things players pay for are cosmetics (like digital foils), extras (like extra deck slots) and competitive play (like Arena and Tournaments).”

I’m really rooting for this approach to do well. It makes a refreshing change to the nickel and dimming by the likes of WotC.

Another reason I’m rooting for it is that WWG are releasing across multiple platforms at the same time. No “it’s only available on PC, other platforms later” (much much later).

I think WWG have done a great job with the digital version of Epic. It doesn’t have all the flash animations of the likes of Hearthstone and Arena. And that’s a great plus. It’s concentrated on providing a solid, good looking card game.

I look forward to playing my friends online when they can finally get their hands on the game.

You can read the full announcement here.

Update on planning session 5 #3

D&D, news, RPG, session planning

With rumours of a new D&D source book flying around the Internet. All we actually have that some are taking as a clue that it is Forgotten Realms based, is a dice set coming out in March.

I think WotC have got the right balance in these products between being useful and full of tatt. The map included is the Sword Coast on one side and Waterdeep on the other. Who knows what the conspiracy theorists will be reading into that, especially with the set being named after Laeral Silverhand—Open Lord of Waterdeep, FORGOTTEN REALMS LAERAL SILVERHAND’S EXPLORER’S KIT.

On the alternatives to D&D front, news was breaking that FFG was making “massive” redundancies within certain departments. I believe the two main ones effected are the Interactive department (basically their in-house software dev team) and the RPG team.

With no official statement there will obviously be various conspiracy theories going round. Redundancy is never a nice thing to go through. And it needs remembering that there are people here that have just lost their jobs. Our thoughts firstly should be with them and their families during this uncertain time.

How this will affect the RPGs that FFG produce (Star Wars, L5R, Genesys) and their on going development and support we don’t know. It’s possible that any new developments will be outsourced in some way.

So after that bit of news like stuff…

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.

With our next session only three days away it’s time to do those final bits of prep before scraping together the pennies to print bits out.

I think I know how the session will flow, and the main combat encounter.

The session will start off in the tavern over breakfast, and some adventure hooks being seeded.

I’m pretty sure the main combat encounter will be the gladiator arena that has been discussed in the previous prep post. I have decided that the end of the encounter will be interrupted by Hoondarrh, the Red Rage of Mintarn landing in the middle of the arena demanding their tribute is delivered early.

It will also see the party given the job of investigating the outpost they discovered on their journey to Mintarn to find out what happened to the guards and workers sent to open it up again.

For the arena I’m going to draw the map in advance on a Pathfinder battlemap. I’d love to do the 3d version. But resources are severely restricted at the moment.

I think with all the above that should be roughly the two hour session taken up. Which you will remember is the duration my group likes for their sessions.

Looking forward to Saturday.

South Park S23 E7 – Board Girls

D&D, news, RPG

I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a South Park fan.

I particularly love the episodes that play homage to geek culture, or a nod and a wink to it whilst tackling a more controversial and sensitive issue.

For me a classic episode is Cock Magic. An episode where MtG takes front and centre place in the story line. Which sees Kenny playing MtG against cockerels trained to play the game in illegal underground tournaments.

As a boardgame fan I love the latest episode that aired in the US last night (I think it was).

If we ignore the political social issue that makes up the storyline. (I don’t want to discuss politics and political correctness. That’s for another time and place. Besides if you can’t laugh at yourself whichever side of the argument you sit on, I think you are taking life too seriously. Lighten up. ) There is a lot for the boardgame hobbyist to geek out on.

Above what the D&D table looks like for me.

It’s nice to see boardgames take such a prominent place in the storyline, and see so many references to major (for the hobby) websites and YouTube channels. Chuck in the onscreen games and name checks, and it’s obvious the writers (if not gamers) have done their homework.

And if you are a WWE (or old school WWF) fan there is also the Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage appearance (not as himself) and the wrestling style smack talk promos scattered through out the episode. You will appreciate those a lot.

A fun episode.

2020 The Year of Commander

magic, MtG, news

Wednesday was a big big MtG news day for Commander players.

Some what unusual for WotC they announced their product plans for the format months in advance.

Thanks to the Command Zone I can “borrow” their summary timeline from their announcement video. Ok “borrow” implies I may have asked. And I didn’t I just took it.

As you can see the Commander goodness kicks off in April next year when we get the Commander pre-cons early. Which is nice because they will have arrived just in time for my birthday. This time around we are getting five, yes five Commander decks. Which will be themed around the Ikoria set that comes out at the same time. Not only are we getting that additional deck, but there will be 71 new Commander cards spread amongst the five decks. Plus reprints. Oh and we can buy the new Commander decks prerelease weekend. Sweet.

The third quarter of 2020 sees two more Commander pre-cons released along side the Zendikar Rising set. These will be themed around Zendikar Rising, contain three new cards each. The major difference will be the packaging. There will be no large foil Commander card, and will be packaged more like the Brawl decks (apparently). These decks will replace the Planeswalker decks for this set.

For the last two years we have had Planeswalker themed spellbooks. They have been replaced with a green themed Commander Collection. Eight reprinted cards from the history MtG for the Commander player. I believe there will be a foil and regular version of this if I heard right in the video.

Then a biggie drops in the final quarter of the year (just in time for Christmas I bet) Commander Legends. Apparently this is draft meets Commander! 70 new Legends to build with. A booster box is 20 packs, with each pack containing a foil and two legendaries.

Along side Commander Legends comes two more Commander pre-con decks. Which get the same treatment as the Zendikar Rising decks.

So it looks like WotC are targeting Commander players in 2020. Not surprising it is their most popular format.

So if my maths is correct, over the year we are getting nine new Commander pre-con decks. That sees 83 new Commander cards. Add in the 70 new Legends from the Commander set, and that rises to 153 new cards. And we are not even taking into account any obvious new Commander cards in the regular set releases or any Brawl decks (we know it’s dead). That’s a massive number of cards to add.

I like that the four pre-cons out side of the big annual Commander release are meant to be starting off points, and not part of that designed to be played against each other design of the main release.

It also nice to see that WotC want to make it easier for players, especially new ones to get their hands on Commander staples. Does that mean we will get to see some of the more expensive lands reprinted, or the likes of Cyclonic Rift? I can see the recent Brawl cards that Commander players went crazy over making it into these pre-cons. I don’t think we will see any big reprints in the decks themselves. But Commander Legends is another matter indeed.

There is no doubt that this stuff will sell. I just hope they print enough to meet demand. To make it accessible for that new player they need product on shelves, selling at the retail price. Yes I know that WotC dropped MSRP, then put up the cost to distributors, and that ripples down the supply chain to the consumer paying more at the till. But let’s assume the set pre-cons should be selling for around £30, then they should not be being sold for £50, £60,or £90 just because WotC got the demand wrong, and didn’t print enough copies. Even if that was the case, and WotC did a large print run that still didn’t meet demand, which is likely. They need a second (even third) print run hitting stores ASAP after the release date. Eliminate that window of scalping, or reduce it to the shortest period possible.

You can read the official post which has the Command Zone announcement video and previewed art HERE.

In other big MtG news. Somehow an individual got their hands on a handful of Theros Beyond Death boosters, and posted photos of the cards.

I’ve had a brief look at the photos that are circulating on line to see what new and returning mechanics there are.

If you liked Sagas from Dominaria then you will be pleased to know that they are returning in Theros Beyond Death. Have to admit they are a bit of fun to play.

The Constellation mechanic is making a return. Does this hint that enchantments will be a bigger thing in this set?

There is an Omen enchantment cycle. Which has an appropriate colour etb effect, and then a 3CMC sacrifice the card to Scry 2, and they have flash.

Escape is a new mechanic being introduced that allows you to cast a card from the graveyard. You exile four other cards from your graveyard and pay the escape cost of the card to be able to cast the card from the graveyard.

One or two of the leaked cards look sweet. But the take home is the above really.