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All the World's a Stage: So you want to be an Enchanter
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the thirty-first in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class (or profession!) well, without embarrassing yourself. Enchanting cries out to be roleplayed. It could be a kind of magician's engineering, or a more refined cousin of alchemy. Although you could certainly play an enchanter as another sort of magical mad-scientist, the profession actually lends itself well to a more gentlemanly (and sane) approach, where experiments are not so much about creating some sort of autonomous monster or mind-controling love potion of serene bliss, but rather altering the nature of things to do what they never would have done previously.Enchantments have a huge role in mythology and literature. Cinderella's fairy godmother turned a pumpkin into a stage-coach with an enchantment, Hogwarts School's "Sorting Hat" famously talks to students who wear it, and the One Ring even contains the soul of Middle Earth's lord of evil personified. All these are enchantments in which ordinary items are magically enhanced so as to reflect some aspect of character development or plot in the story, and a roleplayer at the keys of an enchanter character can work similar magic in telling his own story.
Fairy Godmother Tycoon: get your magic wand ready
Ever since Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon came out in 1990, there's been an onslaught of "Tycoon" games. You've got everything from RollerCoaster Tycoon, to Airport Tycoon, to Prison Tycoon, amongst others. There's even a "Tycoon Collection" that contains Circus Tycoon, Carnival Cruise Lines Tycoon, and Mall of America Tycoon. It's a total invasion of the tycoons.Adding to that pile is one more tycoon game that at least sounds creative: Electronic Arts' upcoming Fairy Godmother Tycoon. All the past tycooners (we just trademarked that phrase, fyi) simulate a type of business, from running a lemonade stand to operating an amusement park, but this one takes you into fairy tale land, where you have to manage being a Fairy Godmother. Which is essentially a kind of business as well, you think dealing out magic and wishes comes cheap?Apparently it doesn't come easy either, because in this game "you must make careful decisions -- purchasing supplies when they're cheap, pricing your potions correctly, hiring goons to help you with your marketing, casting spells on peasants and upgrading elements around your shop." Check out the interview on VH1 GameBreak with game producer Todd Kerpelman, and find out more about it.
