Blink is a rapid-fire card game in which two players attempt to match shape-filled game cards as quickly as possible based on design, number or color. It’s also become our stocking stuffer/birthday present of choice in the Newquist household. In the standard game, each player’s given their own deck with the same number of cards. … Read more
Some of the second-stage books for D&D 4th Edition are hitting book stores, which has ignited a new wave of reviews among bloggers. I don’t think any of these new books are going to change hearts and minds among those who dislike 4E — that will have to wait for 2009’s Player’s Handbook II — … Read more
Snow plays havoc with Game Days. We plan out everything — whose house we’ll be at, what game we’re playing, who’s able to make it and then whammo, a Nor’Easter comes roaring in and dumps a half foot of snow over our plans. In the old days, that would have meant the end of game … Read more
It’s my birthday today, and I’ve been having fun playing with my toys, foremost of which is the Classic Battletech Introductory Box Set that my sister Kristen and her husband got me. The box set has led to something of a resurgence of the game in my group. We’ve played Battletech on and off for … Read more
After five sessions of fighting pirates and swoop bike gangers, the heroes of my Knights of the Old Republic campaign went up against their first Sith: Kaldros Ygin, an arrogant self-assured student of the Dark Lady Aldera. I’ve been dropping hints over the last few weeks that Ral Duris, leader of the pirates of Zebulon … Read more
One of the challenges of running a Star Wars campaign is finding a way to incorporate plenty of Jedi and their Sith nemeses without tearing asunder the canonical Star Wars timeline. The Expanded Universe has helped with this, providing a number of Dark Apprentices to serve as fodder for Jedi who some how escaped Palpatine’s … Read more
One area where Star Wars: Saga Edition could use some help are its creatures. There are certainly a number of them out there, particularly the iconic ones from the movies, but the system tends to come up a little short with more mundane critters. After my third session of Star Wars, I thought back our … Read more
Three weeks into our new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic campaign it became obvious: we needed a blog. Or at least, I needed a blog. Even without leaving the Vargis Tau star system and its binary world of Zebulon we’d still managed to accumulate a dozen-odd NPCs, three or four ships, three adventure … Read more
Skill challenges were one of the best things to come out of our D&D 4th Edition playtest. Building on earlier versions that appeared in Spycraft and Unearthed Arcana, skill challenges provided an in-game mechanic for resolving non-combat conflicts and complex tasks. We used it to handle the exploration a lava tube complex leading to a … Read more
For the second time in two years, I have a dead Xbox 360. The machine gave me the Red Ring of Death on Sunday after crashing while running DeadSpace. The machine simply froze, and when I powered it down and powered it back again, I was greated with the ominous glowing red rings.
Normally, this would be inconvenient by manageable: Microsoft extended the manufacturer’s warranty on the 360 to three years, and my Xbox is still covered. Unfortunately, this month isn’t anything resembling normal. I’ve got three game reviews looming between late October and late November, and don’t have time to wait for Microsoft to fix my box.
The first thing I tried was stopping by Best Buy; I got the extended warranty for my first Xbox 360, and when it died I was able to walk into their store and get a replacement. Unfortunately, the warranty was from the original date of purchase and wasn’t extended when I got the replacement.