This past week saw the conclusion of the Clone Wars' "Mortis" trilogy, which I commented on in last week's Adventuring in the Tree post. The final episode was very good, and Knights of the Old Republic fans should definitely check out Filoni's comments on characters originally planned to appear in the episode...and why they ultimately did not. This week I'll do a 180 from the philosophical gaming environment and talk about a new take on some existing tech that caught my attention in the episode - a collapsible speeder bike.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Adventuring in the Tree
No, this week's title has nothing to do with Wookiees or Ewoks, unless you want it to. It ties to something Clone Wars Supervising Director Dave Filoni said in the commentary of the Clone Wars episode, Altar of Mortis. For those who haven't seen it, and no spoilers here, the Mortis trilogy delves in to the supernatural side of the Force way more than usual. It's something we've really only seen in the extended universe, and reminds me more of the Knights of the Old Republic era or some of the scenes in the more recent Fate of the Jedi novel series. Anyway, Filoni said to his writer to treat the episodes like they are all within the tree* from Empire Strikes Back, and that they're full of metaphor and, I presume, illusion.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Backyard Hoth
So, I'm a few hours early, but here we go. Today was a snowday for most anyone here in the midwest, thanks to the snowmageddon/snowpocolypse/etc/etc/etc dumping massive amounts of snow, closing interstates, and shutting down anywhere people would want to go today. I could go on about how the latest Clone Wars episode is very interesting and I'm looking forward to the how this develops and oh by the way Sam Witwer was in on the epsiode and so forth...but instead, I give you this, from my backyard:
Read MoreMV and Product Updates from DDXP
in Conventions, D&D
No, I didn't make it to D&D Experience (DDXP), though I would have loved to go. I haven't been since it was called Winter Fantasy. And 2nd Edition was current. And it was in Wisconsin. Anyway, Wizards is hosting a number of seminars, starting off today with a discussion of new products. There is a bit of new info on Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale, out in June. Much of this has been released before, some not:
- Includes monsters stats and organizations they are part of.
- Raven Roost Bandits
- Ironwood Circle
- Tigerclaw Barbarians
- Drow Group
- 8 Sheets of tokens, monster on one side, bloodied version on the other
- 2 maps, generic locations usable in any campaign
There are at least two websites liveblogging the DDXP seminars, the host Baldman Games and Critical Hits. It is interesting in that they are both using google docs, but different approaches. For the Products Seminar, baldman's version has a lot of detail, but updates in chunks of information at a time. Critical Hits' version is showing up live as it is being typed. You get more of a feel for the flavor of the event/audience, but less specific info.
Any fan of the game ought to read both. It's the most up to date info available right now. Also, check out the seminar live blogging over the rest of the weekend.
Star Wars Wednesday - Running Published Epic Length Campaigns pt 2
First, a few comments on recent events, then back to the examples for running an epic length published campaign.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Running Published Epic Length Campaigns
Adventuring in the Star Wars universe takes many forms: the one-shot adventure, the homebrew campaign, the convention “classic” adventure, the living-style campaign, and the long term published campaign. Campaign length ranges from a few adventures, to epic length storylines played across dozens of sessions and multiple months or years. Campaigns are plotted well in advance, grow organically out of the choices made by players and gamemaster characters, or more likely, a combination thereof.
While these are all great blog subjects, today I’m focusing on the long-term, epic length published campaign.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Clone Wars & Starwars.com
This past weekend marked the mid point of Clone Wars season three, and with it the Savage Opress episode trilogy. After seeing the season three trailer and other material at last summer’s Star Wars Celebration, I’ve been looking forward to the new shows. The series has improved steadily through season two and I hope it continues to do so. I have a few comments on the new episode, but I’ll save them until the end of this post as they’ll contain some minor spoilers.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Chevin and Species Creation
Back in November, a member of the WotC Community forums asked if I would take a look at a couple of species that were never updated to Star Wars Saga Edition. I’m always on the lookout for good Star Wars Wednesday material, so keep the suggestions coming. I’ll go a step further here, and talk about the species creation process I typically used while working on the game.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Posters
Taking a break from the gaming talk this week, with a look at one of my few collection items, Star Wars posters.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Unlikely Allies
Sorry again for the late post, but I think many of you will find it worth the wait. First, an update on the Star Wars RPG rumor extravaganza, then a new adventure ready for your holiday gaming sessions - or any other time.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - SWRPG Rumor & Speculation
I got the news Monday evening. Fellow Star Wars RPG freelancer Robert Wieland sent a message that Mongoose Publishing had posted on thier company blog that they did not win the Star Wars RPG license, but that someone else had. A company known to do RPGs and card games, but not minis, and the license included all three types of games.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Handouts and Fonts
While looking over Saga Edition and earlier d20 Star Wars products, it occurs to me that one of the more tactile and immersive elements of the game went largely unused: player handouts. In the d6 Star Wars RPG, handouts were a regular feature throughout the game’s run.
Read MoreSterlinghershey.com Adjustments
FYI, I've been adjusting the site, having learned a bit more about the behind the scenes controls. I do this regularly, but this time, the changes are more significant and apparent. I've merged the news list into the blog, so it's all one page now. The blog now shows up as the main page. Longer blog entries (like Star Wars Wednesdays) will show the first paragraph or so, then you'll have to "click to read more..." which sends you to the full post. This will also help me track which entries are getting the most readers. This shouldn't affect any links to any individual posts - those page addresses have not changed.
I've also cleaned up the tags and categories, so searching by subject should be easier (see the right column for the lists). Given that I talk about Star Wars in a variety of contexts, I haven't tagged every Star Wars entry with that, which gets redundant very quickly. Instead, look for items starting with sw, like swse (Star Wars Saga Edition) or swminis (Star Wars minis).
Star Wars Wednesday - Kershner and TESB
This week marks the passing of The Empire Strikes Back director, Irvin Kershner, so I, like so many others, will talk a bit about the movie. I can't speak directly of Kershner, having never met him and only know him like most fans do - as the director of the excellent and successful squeal to Star Wars. But I can relay some thoughts about the movie, as I remember them from long past, and now.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Adapting Adventures
Adventures are obviously central to any role-playing game. Creating rules, and characters from those rules, can and should be entertaining and fun, but up until game time, they are simply creating the role for you to play. While many Gamemasters and game designers enjoy the adventure creation process, but it is not for everyone. Some have the desire, but not the time while others may have the desire but feel they lack the skills to create a story appropriate for their campaigns. Note, I don't say they lack the creativity (although they might think so). They might not feel comfortable writing a particular story type, or feel they don't have the rules knowledge to create a level-appropriate encounter.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - 3,720 to 1
For years...say almost 20 now...I've run Star Wars RPGs at local gaming conventions and at GenCon. It is how I started writing RPG material in the first place. More on that in a future post. Since I started working on Saga Edition, I've used the convention adventures to highlight the latest books and my most recent publications. Once the end of the Saga Edition line was announced, I intended to make a few of these adventures available for free for others to use.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Crawling Along
This week's Star Wars Wednesday takes a look at a few online tools that can add some nice elements to your RPG or minis game.
Read MoreKC Game Fair wrapup
KC Game Fair was this weekend and we had a fantastic turnout and a big boost in attendence, with hundreds of players over 4 days. There were as many people playing Saturday afternoon as there were the entire convention last year. We had RPGs, minis and wargames, boardgaems, LARPs, dealers and guests. Thanks to everyone who came out to play and help out. It was a great weekend of gaming.
Star Wars Wednesday - Starships Mailbag
I'm preparing for the KC Game Fair this week, so in the interest of time, I'm going to answer a couple of starships related questions generated by some earlier posts. Also, if you're following up on the Assault on Intran skirmishes, I have received some reports (that time is now closed) and will follow up on the convention game next week. On with the questions:
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - SW Tabletop Gaming Resources
With no official Star Wars RPG or Minis material in the foreseeable future, it's time once again to highlight some of the fan sites working to keep the games alive. Some of these sites have been around a very long time. Most cater to a specific segment of the Star Wars gaming audience – d6, d20, Saga, Minis and so on. Some sites contain brand new fan-generated material, while others serve as discussion areas or indexes for existing work. A few store FAQs and other information released for free from official sources that are no longer available. Some of these are old sites at new locations, so if you've lost an old favorite, you might find it here.
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