Nuketown

July 2009

The Blue Dolphin Splashes Down at Nuketown

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 9:35am

This is my first-ever post written on my family's spiffy new Asus Eee PC netbook, aka "The Blue Dolphin", so named because it's small and blue, which led my wife to describe it as a baby blue dolphin on Twitter.

Anyway ... we decided to get a netbook as a direct result of our summer vacation; I could have used it at Origins, and it would have been handy to have for writing on Butler Island on Lake Champlain (where we spent a week hanging out with family friends).

It's a cute little machine -- it ships with a 160 GB hard drive, wireless N support, a 4 cell battery capable of up to eigth hours of use (assuming you use the Asus power management tools), three USB ports, an SD card reader, an ethernet port and Windows XP.

I'll forgive it for that last bit; I don't have the energy to hack this thing to run Mac OS X, and if I have to run Windows, XP isn't too bad (though I am curious about trying Windows 7 on it). The whole thing cost about $300 from Amazon. which made it a fairly inexpensive experiment.

Game Day: Star Spawn Munchkin

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 07/26/2009 - 7:37am

When will people start listening to the Herald of Bob? I argue. I reason. I yell. I shout. But no one, not a single blessed soul, every fully understands that Bob is the real enemy. And that if he's doing something that looks like it's going to help you, that means he's about to win. Or setting up a win in three moves.

He is, by no means, actually helping you. And he is the real enemy.

Such was the case Friday night when -- in honor of of the 8th anniversary of Steve Jackson's Munckin -- we combined my Star Munckin, Star Munckin 2 and Munchkin Cthulhu sets to create a truly epic space/horror mashup that will forever be known as ... Star Spawn Munckin.

It was a surprisingly effective combination, leading to feline cultists, mutant investigators, and bounty hunter bugs battling against clown troopers, geek ones, and various forms of shoggoth. It also saw our single best Munckin moment ever.

Initial Thoughts about HackMaster Basic

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 3:30pm

HackMaster BasicAt Origins 2009 I had the pleasure of playing in an Introduction to HackMaster Basic session run by Steve Johansson, one of the designers (Dave Kenzer, another designer, was running the other table). Full disclosure: I'm a staff writer for Knights of the Dinner Table but when it comes to HackMaster I'm as much newbie as anyone else.

HackMaster Basic ($19.99, Kenzer & Co.) is a new beginning for HackMaster; the first edition of the game was based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with a number of supplementary (and often humerous) mechanics tagged on. After losing the D&D 1E license , KenzerCo decided to reboot HackMaster with their own game engine.

The end result, featured in HackMaster Basic, is a mix of old and new. It's touted as being the very best in old school gaming, but in truth it manages to sneak in a number of innovations into the old beast. The end result is something that I think could work for a lot of folks who enjoyed the older editions of D&D, but are looking to mix up their games.

Sci Fi Wire: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Video Game

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 6:47am

My review of the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is up on Sci Fi Wire. It's a decidedly average game -- fun for younger fans, ho-hum for older ones. I'll take any excuse to run around Hogwart's, but while the mini games have their moments, the game just isn't all that compelling.

I'd love to see a full-blown Harry Potter RPG, in which you play as some other student in his/her first year, encountering their own mysteries, going on their own quests, and making a different set of friends ... all in the shadow of Harry's own adventures.

GameCryer.com: Jedi Academy Training Manual

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 7:36pm

My review of the Jedi Academy Training Manual for the Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG is online at Game Cryer.com. This is essentially a "class book" for Jedi and other Force users, introducing new Force powers, lightsaber forms, holocron rules, variant lightsaber crystals and a host of new Force traditions.

I can't say that the game needed this new book, especially given the number of Force powers we've seen released in the campaign books so far. I'd rather have seen a noble, scout or soldier focused book released, but if you like Jedi (or if you're running a Force-heavy campaign) this is a good supplement to have.

I think my favorite additions to the game are the lightsaber forms; they give combat-heavy Jedi a number of new tricks, each of which builds on an existing lightsaber form from the Jedi Knight prestige class's Lightsaber Forms talent tree. They're a cool way of allowing lower level Jedi access to some of the lightsaber forms capabilities, while at the same time allowing Jedi to truly master a style of fighting.

Can you survive the Betrayal at the House on the Hill?

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 4:30am
  • Betrayal at the House on the Hill
  • Players: 3-6 players
  • Play time: 60-90 minutes
  • Publisher: Avalon Hill
  • MSRP: $39.99
  • Style: Semi-cooperative
  • Official web site

Betrayal at the House on the Hill is a collaborative board game in which players explore an ancient house on a lonely hill, seeking to unlock its secrets ... and its horrors.

It’s a dynamic game whose map is randomly generated each game using a series of tiles representing the basement, first floor and second floor of the house, with a new tile drawn every time a player enters a new room. Players take on the role of one of several adventurers tasked with exploring this haunted house. Each adventurer is represented by a stat card representing key abilities such as speed, strength and will. Different adventurers have different strengths -- the preacher is strong in will but weak in physical abilities, while the boy explorer has a high speed, but low willpower.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Now On Hulu

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 7:31pm

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is now available on Hulu. The follow-up to the popular 1980s anime series can be viewed in its entirety. What can't be watched, unfortunately, is the original series. One can only hope that this is the first crack in the wall; I'd love to be able to re-watch the Macross Saga on my lunch break.

Pathfinder RPG Rulebook Video Preview

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 07/14/2009 - 3:58pm

Erik Mona, publisher at Paizo, gives a sneak peak of his just-arrived copy of the company's upcoming Pathfinder RPG. I've got to admit that I felt a wave of nostalgia while watching Erik flip through the book; it's certainly captured that classic D&D feel. From the gorgeous illustrations to the faux parchment backgrounds to the dense columns of text, it feels like the D&D I played for so many years.

It's so unlike D&D 4E. Its pages upon pages of powers statblocks demarcated by red, green and blue headers feel like nothing that's come before in the D&D universe (which, I'm sure, is the entire point).

Good work Paizo!

What I bought at Origins 2009

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 07/14/2009 - 4:30am

One of my favorite parts of hitting the big gaming conventions is spending a few hours (or rather, a few days) browsing and shopping in the exhibit hall. Origins 2009 was no different, and while I'm happy to say I didn't break the bank, I did come back with a goodly pile of product purchased at the show.

I didn't go into the show expecting to pick up any Savage Worlds books, as our Weird Pulp campaign never really got off the ground, and we haven't played the game in months. But then I went to the Studio 2 booth, and found the brand new Fantasy Companion supplement for Savage Worlds. Published in the same folio format as the Savage Worlds: Explorers Edition, this book repackages the fantasy species information from the previous hardcover release of the game and folds in a bunch of edges, magic items, and monsters from the various fantasy toolkit PDFs.

I like PDFs, but I'd been hoping that Pinnacle would release the toolkits in a dead tree edition. when I saw the Fantasy Companion on the shelf, I instantly picked it up.

Metamorphosis Alpha plots 4E return

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 4:00pm

A Raptor in Metamorphosis AlphaA D&D 4th-edition powered version of Metamorphosis Alpha -- the first-ever SF role-playing game -- is being released by Signal Fire Studio. The original game took place aboard the generational starship Warden in the centuries after the vessel was badly damaged, killing much of its crew and mutating the survivors. It inspired the classic Dungeons & Dragons module Expedition to Barrier Peaks and inspired the Gamma World RPG.