Ken Newquist The latest editions of Dungeons & Dragons went to great lengths to abstract the combat system, eliminating weapon speeds, dropping call shots, and creating area-of-effect templates. All of this abstraction comes at a price though. Some of the exceptional aspects of the game — liking being able to put an arrow through an enemy’s eye … Read more
In the last issue of the Libertarian Gamer, I laid the ground work for a libertarian campaign set in the classic post-apocalyptic setting known as Gamma World, laying down some campaign guidelines and destroying the world. Now it’s time to rebuild it. Into the Vaults Every Gamma World (Amazon) game worth its salt has vaults — … Read more
Battles is 12 track audio compact disc dedicated entirely to the sound of warfare. Created by Toxic Bag Productions, the disc contains battle “soundscapes” from four genres: Fantasy, the American Civil War, World War II, and Science Fiction. Toxic Bag is probably best known for their Gamemaster’s Collection, a collection of four CDs consisting of … Read more
Glade “Plugins” — small fragrance dispensers that run off of electricity — are being blamed for countless house fires in a newly-circulated e-mail. It’s also generating plenty of grassroots comments from people who say they — or someone they know — have had problems with the product. According to the e-mail — told by a … Read more
At least a third of what made Halo such a great game was its original soundtrack, which combined good ol’rock’n’roll with synthesized orchestras and erie discordant notes to perfectly complement the action happening on screen. The music is just as important to its sequel, but just as Halo 2 is has a certain over-the-top, Hollywoodish … Read more
In the distant future, Earth will be in ruins. The land will have been ravaged by a horrific assortment of doomsday weapons, from nuclear bombs to genetically engineered super-viruses to hunter-killer nanites. Mutants — both human, animal and things horribly in between — roam the Earth … and consider it home. They compete with the … Read more
Clive Thompson, at Slate (Internet Archive), argues that the more like a movie a game gets, the less fun it is to play. His primary arguments are that 1) cut scenes distract from the flow of the game, 2) narrative structure imposes order where it’s not wanted and 3) narratives cover weaknesses in game play. … Read more
Between finishing Halo and the release of Halo 2, I got the itch to return to the original ringworld crafted by Larry Niven. It had been years — probably more than 10 — since I last strolled the imagined, curving plains of the Ringworld. For those unfamiliar with the concept, imagine a wedding ring scaled … Read more
Halo 2 is the best online multiplayer game I have ever played. The game levels are beautiful, the matches are easy to join, friends are simple to find, and the cacophony of voices screaming during combat is unparalleled, Oh, and the single-player campaign isn’t bad either. Return to the Extraordinary As in the original Halo, … Read more
When Eberron, Dungeons & Dragons’ latest campaign setting, was announced, I was less than excited. Descriptions of it — with its “lightening road” trains, airships, and various “modern” convinces powered by magic, struck me as being too much like “magepunk”, and too little like fantasy D&D. And there was the spectre of the Forgotten Realms, … Read more