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
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
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
There are a few major gaming milestones in my life. Playing Colossal Cave on my Apple II+. My friend Jeff and I engaging in a Saturday-long game of Asteroids on my Atari 2600. Playing GoldenEye on my N64. Meeting my present off-line gaming group and launching our Blackrazor D&D campaign. And finding the Geezer Gamers. … Read more
Matt Snyder (of 20by20room.com fame) recently posted a RPG meme topic to his blog. In it, he poses 15 questions about people’s gaming experiences. Here are my answers. 1. What is the first RPG you ever played? Some weird combination of 1st Edition AD&D and the basic set. At the time I was in 4th … Read more
When the mainstream sees Grand Theft Auto, they see mindless violence, rampant mayhem, and destruction without purpose. When gamers look at it though, they see something different: freedom to explore. Unlike many other games (at least until the release of Grand Theft Auto 3), the mission agenda in the game is not hard coded. Players … Read more
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is a tile-based board game in which players assume the roles of hunters and gatherers attempting to glean resources from a prehistoric landscape. It’s a great game for geeks, but it’s even better for families. The game uses a mechanic similar to the original Carcassonne game. The game “board” consists of … Read more