tabletop
Latest
Get over $1000 worth of pen-and-paper RPGs for donating $20 to Haiti
Like tabletop RPGs and want to help Haiti? That should include every single one of you. Otherwise, get off this site right now and go roll yourself a 20-sided die and see how much fun it is. Then come back, and go donate $20 to Doctors Without Borders through the Gamers Helping Haiti program on DriveThruRPG.com. Just by throwing a Jackson in the pot, you'll get the chance to download $1481.31 worth of old school pen-and-paper RPG rulebooks, scenarios, campaign settings and addendums. That's more orcs, droids, bards, free actions and critical hits than you'll ever need in your entire lifetime! The set includes the full Serenity RPG, the Castlemourn campaign setting and full sets of rules for both pirate- and zombie-based roleplaying games, among about a million other little RPG related downloads. Not to mention that by donating, you're helping out the cause of Doctors without Borders in Haiti, and you don't have to be watching CNN to know that those folks need all of the bonuses to Strength they can get these days. What are you waiting for? Don't roll for initiative -- just go do it! [via The Escapist]
Warmachine game attacking PC, consoles
According to a statement made to BigDownload, the video game adaptation of Privateer Press' tabletop fantasy war game Warmachine is currently in development for the PC and (unspecified) consoles. Quietly announced in August, the Warmachine video game is being developed by the indie team at WhiteMoon Dreams and will feature player control of "various warcasters and their warjack battle groups" across interactive battlefields in both single and multiplayer modes.WhiteMoon Dreams' Norvell Thomas promises we'll get a chance to see whatever that last sentence even means in a "gorgeous" demo by GDC 2010. Thomas adds that the indie dev's goal is to "wow" publishers at the conference in order to fund full development of the table-top adaptation.
All the World's a Stage: We don't need no narration
All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. Throughout my career as a roleplaying columnist on WoW.com, I've been talking about roleplaying as a way to tell stories, but last week a comment by Zombie, as well as those made by a few others on the same topic, caused me to think about roleplay stories in a new way. Perhaps what we roleplayers do isn't actually storytelling so much as it is character development through interesting and somewhat disjointed anecdotes. There's really no beginning, middle, or end to a roleplayed character in WoW. Instead, what you get is a mishmash of events and experiences, which you may then string together into a story in your mind if you like. But even if you don't, you can see that most of us don't really expect for a narrative to develop from a clear beginning, through various plot developments, and finally lead into an exciting climax. There is something else roleplayers want to get out of their experience, even if many of us have trouble articulating exactly what it is.
D&D rolls with the changes, ported to Microsoft Surface
By the time your average Dungeons and Dragons player has failed his third death save and gone off to that great dungeon in the sky, he or she's spent nearly $800,000 on miniatures and various-sided dice. (Trust us, it adds up.) Keeping that number in mind, we'd like to turn your attention to an alternative to tangible tabletop gaming: Surfacescapes, an in-development application for the Microsoft Surface, which attempts to recreate the D&D experience on an outrageously large touch screen. As the Surface currently costs $12,500, the lifetime savings would be abundant. Sure, there's a few kinks to work out -- the dice roll a little slow for our tastes, though this would make saving throws infinitely more dramatic. There's also the small matter of how introducing this technology into the game might diminish the whole "role-playing" element. If used just for combat encounters, it could be a powerful streamlining tool. For everything else, it would need to be fitted with an Imagination Manifestation Drive™, and those don't exist yet. Check out a demo of Surfacescape's proof of concept in the video after the jump. [Via Engadget]
Blood Bowl dev wants to work on Games Workshop's 'forgotten IPs'
If you're a fan of tabletop war games, you're probably hotly anticipating Cyanide's video game adaptation of Games Workshop's classic fantasy-football mash-up, Blood Bowl. You are also probably pretty old, and have a large, curly beard. Likely a gray or white beard, due to the aforementioned elderliness.We've got great news for these senescent war game enthusiasts -- in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Cyanide's Antoine Villepreux explained the developer would be glad to tend to Games Workshop's "forgotten IPs that we think deserve video game adaptations." If the words Inquisitor and Mighty Empires bring haste to your old, old heart, a table-to-TV adaptation of your favorite Games Workshop franchises might be within the realm of possibilities.
Joystiq impressions: Ubisoft's RUSE
Randal Graves: I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am. Indecisive Video Customer: I beg your pardon? Randal Graves: Your ruse. Your cunning attempt to trick me.Clerks (1994)Ubisoft is betting against Kevin Smith and hoping that you will appreciate its cunning attempts to trick you with this real-time strategy game that feels like a board game on steroids. Ubi announced the game at GDC earlier this year, but besides the strange Euro-trailer and a few screenshots, there wasn't much to go on. Thankfully, the publisher has released the above gameplay video that shows off the new IRISZOOM engine that powers the game -- now you can see what the game's all about. RUSE has a very robust tabletop feel, and opens up to an impressive scale. Read on after the break to see just how the "ruses" work. %Gallery-48492%
New Blood Bowl trailer pits rats against lizards
Like you, we've spent a good deal of time in our backyards, wrangling together neighborhood mice and lizards and forcing them to play miniature games of football. Now, a new trailer for the video game re-imagining of tabletop favorite Blood Bowl looks to bring that fun indoors, as the rat-like Skaven skitter about down field against brutish Lizardmen. That's something you won't see in Sunday's big game.In development at Cyanide Studio, Blood Bowl is expected to take the field for the PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PSP in the second quarter of 2009. Finally, we'll be able to settle the age old question of which is better at tossing around the pigskin: reptiles or stupid, stupid rat creatures. Download Blood Bowl Skaven vs Lizardmen Trailer HD (36 MB)
Wii Warm Up: Card and board games (without the cleanup)
The news that Uno would be gracing WiiWare came as a pleasant surprise to us. We love card games, board games, and anything of the like, but we're just not big fans of cleaning them up. Or, in some cases, setting them up (looking at you, Axis & Allies).What card/board games would you want to see grace WiiWare? Do you think a WiiWare is due for some Texas Hold 'Em or something?
RCA trots out RIR205 tabletop internet radio
Among the other low-rate gear unveiled this evening by Audiovox comes the RCA RIR205, a tabletop internet radio that may have gotten away with that design in 1992. Instead, we have no option but to recommend this one only for rarely used spare bedrooms, though the built-in AM / FM tuner, WiFi radio streaming (complete with a Slacker song tagging feature) and the integrated support for WeatherBug forecasts are quite nice. Additionally, users can record up to 10 hours of music and other radio programming onto the unit's 512MB of inbuilt memory, and of course, you can set the alarm to wake you with online music or your favorite local sports talk host. Not too shabby for $149.99, but that exterior could use some work.
PAX 2008: Count all the pretty pieces in the tabletop gaming gallery
One of the best things about PAX is that it's not just all about video games. There are legions of people who still enjoy doing it old school, and that includes board games, tabletoppers, and RPGs. We witnessed people playing everything from the massive, sprawling, plastic-fest of Twilight Imperium to the simple wordplay of Apples to Apples. Heck, even the final elimination round of the Omegathon was a Jenga showdown.Check out the gallery below that's filled with people who still love how a pair of dice feels in their hands. To those about to roll, we salute you.%Gallery-30902%
Tabletop veterans to lead the MMO persistence revolution
What do you get when you combine $20 million in venture capital, two giants in the tabletop gaming industry and a World of Warcraft veteran-founded MMO development company? A pretty good chance at a successful MMO, that's what. However, in addition to that you need an innovative idea, and you need a successful execution of that idea. Red 5 Studios' Ed Stark and Dave Williams might just have that idea with their recent yet-to-be-named MMO project. They recognize that the two major ingredients in any MMO are community and persistence, so they're banking on improving those concepts. "Right now for most of these games, when the player saves the princess and he starts walking away from the tower – if he looks back he's going to see the princess at the top of the tower again," says Dave Williams. Their ideas revolve around expanding upon the sandbox concept and allowing players to affect and change the world around them, not just play in it. We'll certainly be keeping our eyes on Red 5 Studios for more on this exciting project.
Zombies!!! coming to Xbox Live Arcade???
Hopefully that's enough punctuation in one headline for you. Apparently an eager gamer had sent in some ideas on how to turn their Zombies!!! game, which pretty much keep them rolling in brains and entrails, into an Xbox Live Arcade title, and was told "that they were already underway with this very project." We decided this was something we needed to look into ourselves, given our love of tabletop gaming.We caught up with Todd A. Breitenstein of Twilight Creations in the extremely slim booth congregation at Comic-Con's gaming portion and he said, "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a project... but do you think it would be cool?" A tile-flipping game was an escape from ravenous zombies plot? Heck yes, we would. While we enjoy getting our game on in Catan, Carcassonne, and even Ticket to Ride, we'd also love to see some good old-fashioned killing of the undead happening as well. Maybe they could even include their flipside game Humans!!! in the deal.[Thanks, Barry!]
Are you a worshipper of Tzeentch?
One of the delightful things about the development of Warhammer Online is that it has breathed life into a tabletop game that, for many, was an every-present fantasy standby as they grew up. While few people we know of were actually rich and/or talented enough to put together that 2000 point painted and converted army that is the stuff of dreams, just about everybody could inhale the lore in the army books and fancy the day when they could.Cicadymn over at The Greenskin is doing his part to get everybody back into a Warhammery mood with a recent blog post about the chaos god Tzeentch--pronounced "Zeench" for those who tend to side with the forces of Order-- the first in a series highlighting the plethora of Warhammer gods. As he rather astutely points out, Tzeentch, as the changer of ways, is really the patron god for any MMO player who strives for the next level or who has ever gone back to fix his talent layout. More than that, we think EA Mythic opted to go with Tzeentch over one of the other Chaos gods because they couldn't stand the thought of making a game without those nifty Discs of Tzeentch.
Champions Online content is king for Brian Gilmore
You'd be right to think that Brian Gilmore -- a content designer for Champions Online -- is an interesting fellow. In fact, you'd probably be right in wanting to play some Champions tabletop with him, too. All in all, we have to wonder what sort of contacts, missions and spawns Brian has been concocting for our most anticipated superhero MMO. Will there be Victorian era zombies wearing Frock coats and Top Hats. What? We can dream!While there isn't any new game information in the article you can find a very cool story about one of Brian's GM (Game Master) experiences with the tabletop Champions game. We're kind of jealous that we'll never get to do battle with "The Demon's Hand" supervillain group. Anyhow, the fact of the matter is that with each of these Meet the Team articles we find out that the group of people working on Champions Online are a pretty unique lot.
Recognizing Champions Online's tabletop roots
One of the unexpected benefits (at least from our perspective) of Cryptic's shift from Marvel Universe Online to Champions Online is the professional relationship it fostered with the guys who managed the Champions pen and paper IP. While the crossover from paper RPG to MMO is far from straight-forward, there is a considerable brain trust from which Cryptic can draw in the creation of their game. The Escapist recently posted a terrific article which went into some depth with one such mastermind -- 16-year veteran of the franchise, Steve Long.While Long maintains some unadulterated affection for the HERO character creation system of the pen and paper game, he seems to be of the belief that the current arrangement (with Cryptic buying the Champions IP outright and licensing it back to Hero) is going to be beneficial for both parties. While MMOs seem to be driving the overall simplification of pen and paper RPGs, Long thinks that MMOs have a lot to learn as well, especially in the areas of customization and interactivity with environments.
From Tabletop to Desktop: WAR's Destruction careers
With the announcement of the White Lion as the final career in Warhammer Online, we finally have a good idea of what the class dynamics will be in the long-anticipated MMO from Mythic. Obviously, the specifics of each aren't set in stone, as some classes don't even have their masteries announced yet, but one finally gets the sense that it's all starting to come together. With this is mind, we've put together an overview of the game's classes, including a comparison to their tabletop equivalents, to give you a better idea of what you've got to look forward to with the upcoming open beta. In the first part of this feature, we take a look at the careers on the side of Destruction.And if you like what you what you see here, make sure to check out our on-going Massively goes to WAR features! From Tabletop to Desktop: WAR's Destruction careers >>>>>%Gallery-24169%
PC Gamer's Warhammer 40k interview
While many people are eagerly awaiting the release of Warhammer Online, there's another MMO in development with same initial name: Warhammer 40,000 Online. Although the initial difference between the two is obvious -- one's a fantasy RTS, the other is a science fiction RPG -- a recent interview with Vigil Games' General Manager David Adams and Studio Creative Director Joe Madureira offers up more juicy details.Topics covered in the interview include customization options, available classes and NPCs, and how the existing Warhammer 40k universe will be introduced to gamers who may not have ever played the tabletop version. While there are still no beta or release dates on offer, development continues apace. We'll have more on this title as news emerges.
All the World's a Stage: Magical table, magical screen
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.As with many other people, my first experience of roleplaying was with a "tabletop" roleplaying game in high school. The older kids introduced me to Vampire: The Masquerade, and although I wasn't enthralled by the whole "bloodsucking" thing, I quickly realized that the basic activity was lots of fun, and I ended up starting my own roleplaying group with Earthdawn, a more traditional (yet surprisingly original) fantasy setting. Those games were my some of my happiest memories from high school.In college I couldn't find many people who were interested in playing with me, and when I came to live and work in China after graduating in 2000, I thought that my roleplaying days were over for sure. You may imagine my surprise when in late 2007, I came across another foreigner here in Nanjing, discussing Dungeons and Dragons with his Chinese wife in one of my favorite restaurants. It turns out he needed another player for the group he has going here, and although his wife wasn't interested, I happened to appear, ready and eager to join up.Originally I had thought that WoW would be the only way I could continue roleplaying while living in the far East, but starting to get back into my old hobby has given me a chance to see more clearly what the differences are between tabletop roleplaying and roleplaying in a game like WoW. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and different people have their preferences. Both have a special value which is mainly derived from connecting creatively with other people.
The Daily Grind: What tabletop games would make good MMOs?
One of the tidbits of news that made many of us happy here this week was the claim (and yesterday's follow-up statement) that the MMO underway at Cryptic is most likely a Champions MMO. If the sheer geekgasm that occured amongst many veteran tabletop players is any indication, careful planning and design will likely make this a winning title, drawing quite a bit of player-base to it. Of course, this got us to thinking about some of the tabletop games we've played, and in turn this brought up a variety of interesting IPs that could be optioned for a MMO. Today we thought we'd ask you -- if given your choice of all the different tabletop RPG systems out there, which do you want to see as an MMO? Are there any particular rulesets that you think would lend themselves more readily to the workings of an MMO? Are there any niche games that the world never picked up, but would be fantastic for an MMO?
Blood Bowl isn't just a vampire's breakfast
No, in fact it's a video game. Imagine that? Arriving courtesy of French developer Cyanide, Blood Bowl is a title based on the Games Workshop fantasy tabletop game of the same name. Cyanide assures us that the game will be a "faithful representation" of the tabletop experience, so fans should find their title intact on the DS, barring any unforeseen circumstances.If you want to check out some of the many versions of the tabletop game, hit up this link here.[Via Joystiq]
