With this book, you can make your PCs the boss of their own mafia. It contains rules for creating and maintaining mobs, operating the mobs, and of course, GANG WARS! But, this is no regular old 4E “every book looks alike” job. These are new rules to make an almost entirely new game out of 4E. And really, it is just skinned with 4E for a workable setting (and it can easily be used in any flavor of 4E). If you are willing to find/make your own stat blocks and tweak the rules of what skills are tied to what, you can run this game in any system, because the mob rules are unique and not 4E dependent. In fact, the author has stated that he will be doing a free conversion for the new upcoming DCC RPG.

The book itself is 96 pages. The first chapter deals with creating mobs. The second deals with activities/crimes your mob can commit as well as punishments if things don’t go as planned. This chapter also deals with bounty hunters and assassins, the upmost punishment for the noisy crime lord. Chapter three is the operations of the mob. It gives the actual rules for a mob taking a turn. Chapter four deals with the rules for gangs fighting. Chapter Five is campaign ideas for the DM. Chapter six has 6 scenarios a DM can use to get a location established. Chapter seven contains 3 pre-built, ready-to-use mobs. There are also several appendices containing stat blocks, a thieves dictionary, maps, and tools to build up neighborhoods.

This is a really flexible products. You can use it to introduce a DM-run mob that acts as an antagonist in your story. You can use this to make one or more of your PCs an actual mob boss, running their mobs concurrent to their adventuring careers. Or, you could make a game of just having a bunch of mob bosses fighting it out for control of a city.  This is the perfect product to build that feeling of Cersei, Littlefinger, Maester Pycelle, Varys sitting around a table cordially chatting as their spies and thugs duke it out to win them control of the Seven Kingdoms in the background.

This is a must-have product for anyone who wants to run a unique 4E game or anyone who is interesting in implementing a fantasy mafia (for any setting).

The Goodman Games website has a 7-page PDF preview of the Introduction chapter and an 8-page PDF preview of the Mob Turn Chapter.

This book is available now in PDF or Print from Goodman Games Online Store, your FLGS, and various other retailers. It carries an MSRP of $21.99. But, it is worth its weight in gaming gold!

Stuart

Stuart and I got in a nearly complete game, save for a ship combat mechanic that was not ready just yet (the Clix bases were non-functional on the ships).

Here is a shot of the board.

The “Enterprise” image at the top is the central transit site for transporter movement. Players may beam up once during their turn and then beam down to any place on the planet (the cards with tokens on them). Alternatively, players move one space for each action expended. Players get a random number of actions for each round based on the event card draw (these cards are under the hand on the image’s left side.) Besides actions, there are events on the cards that resolve immediately if applicable. The top of the board has the ship combat tracking path. Various events and actions move the ships and bad things happen if the Klingons advance too far. The track at the right is the turn tracker. Some events take place after a certain point on the track, so moving faster is better.

During a turn players may exchange items, beam up/down, pick-up items (the square tokens on the board), attempt to complete a challenge (visible on the board as the cards with red, blue or gold numbers), draw cards or use a special ability. I played “Uhura,” so my special ability was drawing a card and then giving to a nearby player in one action.

The main resolution mechanic are the various challenges on the board. In the image there is a “24″ command challenge at the center (its gold, blue for science, etc) that I will use as an example. To beat the challenge, one or more players enter the square, add whatever bonuses from cards or crewmen (red-shirts that give bonuses for various actions) and their own skill to a dice roll. All the characters have comparative advantage in the various skills. While everyone has the same skills, if you want to beat a command challenge, send James Tiberius Kirk. Need something analyzed? Send Spock. That said, given a little luck and the right combination of bonuses anyone can defeat a challenge. Our Captain Kirk player successfully cured a plague, so anything is possible. Players do take damage from cards or challenges. You cannot die, but as you take damage the Clix base reduces your skill numbers until you finally drop and retreat to the Enterprise for some Dr. McCoy quality time.

The challenges often have two levels of success. You can get by with a 20 dice roll, but a 24 gets you better results. Specifically, there is a chart (just visible at the top of the board and to the right) that tracks success. The low success gets you one point on a track, while the higher gets three. This is something of an issue because organizing challenge attempts takes time and some time just getting it done is more important than the larger point benefit. The lesser success also changes how you draw event cards for the various tracks. A low success on a “command” challenge might mean that the command plot line (deck) increases in difficulty or the rewards go down. Choose wisely.

The success tracker also indicates how you did at the end of the game. To win, you must move all three tracks as high and as fast as possible. You could focus on only one track, say the Klingons and defeat them, but the planet descends into anarchy because the rebels won.

If you have not already guessed, this is a cooperative game, so team work is essential to success. Ego by players will result in defeat.

The mechanics are fun and the game quite fast (under one hour). The cards, board and Clix miniatures all were of good quality. Most importantly for me though was the “feel” of the game. The Wizkids! representative indicated that Reiner wanted the game to play like an episode. I thought he was just trying to sell us on the game, bu it actually is true. As you play the game, you almost have “acts” like a TV show. Things start going well and then BAM!, the plasmatic ferangulator device fails and you need to find some dilithium crystals or you are all going to die!

I truly enjoyed Star Trek: Expeditions, but I have a reservation. The plot lines and events required to make the game “episodic” might limit the re-playability of each scenario. Yes, the cards and tokens appear randomly on the board, but after 4-5 runs of the same scenario the excitement level might run dry since repeated players know the best path to completion. That said, this game begs for add-ons and supplements and I expect them in the near future.

These are my thoughts on Star Trek: Expeditions and my reasons for giving it the “GTS 2011 Best of Show” title.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

P.S.,

Stuart chiming in here. I had the same reservation as Trask. The game is GREAT, but it will need to be supplemented with additional stories to use to increase re-playability. I also hope for an expansion to bring in more of the Star Trek personnel as Kirk, Spoke, Uhura, and Bones were the only player options. We need Sulu, Chekov, and of course, Scotty! But this game was a fun game, especially for Trekkers and as it was designed by Reiner Knizia, you won’t go wrong.

You can play the game solo, or up to four players. It has a run time of about an hour. and it is set to release in mid-June.

Stuart

Green Ronin

Green Ronin had a nice spread of all there recently released books.  And they seem to have new stuff around every corner.  Most exciting (to me at least) was the Dragon Age RPG: Set 2. Expect full coverage of this when it comes out. Also coming soon is the 3rd Edition Mutants & Masterminds Game Master’s Guide, DC ADVENTURES: Heroes & Villains, Vol. I, and exciting things for the A Song of Ice and Fire RPG.

The Green Ronin Booth

Bandai

Bandai has the Naruto CCG set #20 that just released (I love the tag line.  ”Where the fiercest ninjas are also the sharpest dressers) , #21 in May, and Chibi Tourney Pack #3 in July (great artwork on this one). Their hottest new release, Resident Evil [Deck Building Game] is not starting to come back in-stock at retail stores after selling out their initial run. There will be a new expansion coming out this month, and another in June (in this one, if you die you can come back as a zombie).

Resident Evil by Bandai

Three Sages Games

TSG’s has a new addition to their plastic (foam backed) mapping tiles Mystic Woods (outdoor encounters, small cabin, skeleton of a dragon) and a Gigantic Cavern set. And of course, all of the sets use the same background so they mix and match well with their previous sets.

Gamers Rule

Gamers Rule has a new expansion for their Dungeon Deck Quests cards. If you are not familiar, this is a seven deck system that can create an adventure on the file in 30 seconds for any Fantasy RPG with dungeon delving. You flip the first card for a lure on why the PCs are there, the 2nd is the entrance card that describes the approach, the 3rd card is the overall atmosphere of the dungeon, the 4th card describes the rooms, the 5th card has a map, the 6th card is the challenge involved, and the final card is the treasure.  You just have to add the appropriate combat stats for the challenge card depending on what game you are playing. Their first expansion adds more advanced (high level) challenges.  The second expansion is just more cards for the decks.

Cactus Game Design Company

Cactus focuses on Christian Games. They have built up impressive partnerships, having Christian/Bible versions of Catan, Blink, Apples to Apples, Guesstures, Outburst, Scattergories, and more.  Their newest game is Bible Taboo. The Redemption Trading Card Game has a new booster coming out at their national tournament in August.

The next post on Monday is the “Best of Show” announcement! Stay tuned!

For Under the Tree

Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game by Wizards of the Coast.

This game had given me mixed emotions this year. I was excited when It was first announced, for it was Ravenloft, the world I love the most. I was upset when I first found out the game was based on D&D 4E rules, because I thought I wanted a different board game experience then that. However, I was re-excited when I actually played the game, because it is GOOD! The modified 4E rules makes an excellent boardgame. Its fully customizable and easy to design your own adventures or create your own components. It is a great board game to bridge the gap between your RPG friends and your Board Game friends. And best of all, you can play it as a 1-player solo adventure. And the game actually works really well in this mode (though I found it sad that I had no one to brag at, after i landed my killing blow). This is a Co-Op game, which is the hot stuff now. This game is definitely worth a grab.

Shootin’ Ladders: Frag Fest by Smirk & Dagger Games

Now to the opposite of the co-op game, a backstab and kill all your friends game. Take a first-person-shooter video game, rip it out, throw its essence into gingerbread men, and throw them on the old-school Shoots-and-Ladders board, and you have a recipe for cookie carnage. I first played this game at GTS this year, then again at Gen Con. This game blew me away (literally). A great party game or a “waiting for the rest of your friends to show up” game. Basically, everyone assumes the role of a gun-toting gingerbread man on a conquest to be the last-cookie-standing. You pick up equipment and ammo along the way, and take cover behind obstacles on the board where possible. Everyone has a small character sheet, similar to MechWarrior, that tracks damage to parts of the body. The best part, when you deliver the killing blow to one of those body parts, the part is ripped off the character sheet and given to you as a souvenir. I love the small of frosting in the morning! It smells like…[sniff, sniff]… victory.

Stocking Stuffers

Poo: The Card Game by Wildfire LLC (Published by Sandstorm Productions LLC)

Poo is one of those games that I constantly look for. Games that gamers can play with there non-gamer friends/family and both parties enjoy it. And what can be more fun then monkeys throwing their feces around the table? In this fast-paced card game, each player takes the roll of a monkey, with the cleanest monkey being the winner. There are poo throwing cards, defense cards, cleaner cards, and event cards. You will be playing this game in minutes, and playing for hours. Great for kids and great for parents.

Back to the Future: The Card Game by Looney Labs

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future (dang, has it been that long?), Looney labs has taken the engine of their popular Chrononauts time-travel game and repurposed it for B2TF. The idea behind this game is that you have a timeline of events laid out on the table. You are a descendant of one of the characters in the movie, and you have to alter this timeline so important events happen in your favor. The first to do this wins. This game covers the entire timeline of all three B2TF movies, and is a lot of fun to play as a fan.

Digital Gifts for Friends Far Away

Age of Cthulhu: Horrors from Yuggoth by Goodman Games

Earlier this year, I reviewed volume 3 of The Age of Cthulhu line, Shadows of Leningrad and found it to be a fantastic supplement. I am pleased to say that volume 4, Horrors from Yuggoth, stays true to its lineage. Designed to run on Chaosium’s BRP system and the Call of Cthulhu RPG, this chapter brings you to Norway on an international rescue mission to find famed arctic explorer pilot General Umberto Nobile. Set in the 1920’s this adventure is colored with real historic elements. But in that history, you have all the intrigue, adventure, and Cthulhu culting that you have come to love in this series. While available in book form, it is also available in digital form for easy gift-giving.

Freeport Companions by Green Ronin Publishing

In the times of 3.x D&D, the world of Freeport was one of my favorite locals. Pirates, Blunderbuss, and Krakens, oh my! Well this world is still alive and well. Designed to work with their The Pirate’s Guide to Freeport book (which is a good gift as well), their companion books are designed to bring these rules and mechanics to various game systems. Currently available are Companion books for 3rd Era, True20, Savage Worlds, Castles & Crusades, and now Pathfinder. I applaud Green Ronin for taking their great product and giving it life in many other systems. All of these products are available in PDF format.

I hope all of readers have a save and enjoyable Holiday season. Please post in the comments what kind of gaming gift you are passing around your table this year?

Stuart

D&D RPG

Stuart Greenwell (SG): The Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game, also known as “The Red Box” is coming out next month.  This is the full D&D rules, but at an entry level?

Mike Mearls (MM): Yes. One of the things we wanted to do with the red box was to make a solo adventure that you play through. And as you play through the adventure, it fills in your characters sheet for you based on the choices that you make. So, if you decided to grab a sword and start fighting in melee, it helps you fill out the fighter information on the character sheet. By the end of the adventure you have a full completed character sheet. It even has you make a choice with some story items that determines your alignment.  For example, a guy could asks you for help with something that was stolen. If you volunteer you are a good character. If you say “whats in it for me”, you are an unaligned character.

SG: If you hit him over the head and steal his gold?

MM: Yeah, evil isn’t really covered in this yet. Maybe in the black box. But seriously, overall it tried to show you the entire D&D experience, not just the tactical combat parts.

Dark Sun

SG: Dark Sun was released here at the show. How is it unique in the 4E landscape?

Rodney Thompson (RT): For Dark Sun we wanted to take it back to the original second edition boxed set. It had a magic to it that was very unique. So, that was our story starting point. For 4E, the most interesting new mechanic is the Themes mechanic. A Theme is a way to describe what your social role is in the world. For example, You can be an elf and a rogue and that defines a lot about a character. But in Dark Sun you could also be, for example, a Dune Trader. You can travel the deserts as a merchant, and that is your social role. Themes will help in making your character more unique in Dark Sun.

SG: Are their associated powers and abilities that are tied to Themes?

RT: Yes, there is one for free. This is like a racial encounter power. This is to help remind you, every encounter, that you are a certain Theme. As you gain levels, you have the option to swap out power your class powers for Theme powers instead.

Gamma World

SG: Gamma World is coming out in October. is this going to be compatible with the other D&D products?  Gamma World is post-apocalyptic earth compared to the fantasy worlds in other D&D products. How would they tie together, if at all?

RT: There are degrees of compatibility. We made it so the monsters in Gamma World are very similar to D&D monsters. If you are a DM, and you are running a Gamma World game, you can use, for example, a Beholder or a Dragon from the D&D books.

By the same token, we want to give players a very different experience in Gamma World. So, on the players side the character creation isn’t necessarily similar. But, you will recognize similar terminology and types of mechanics. For example, if you play D&D you will instantly know what an at-will power is in Gamma World. There have also been some numerical tweaks to the system to change gameplay slightly. For example, because we want Gamma Word to run a little faster, we upped the players damage so they can kill monsters faster. Conversely, we also dropped character’s hit points, so monsters can kill them a little faster too.

SG: Gamma World has what will be called Expansion Kits. Are those adventures or supplements or both?

RT: If you think of Gamma World, it is a stand-alone game that has compatibility with D&D. These expansions are a lot like board game expansions. They are a thing that you buy to expand your core experience. They do include new adventure content. But, they also include new rules, monsters, and locations. So, its more like they are expanding the whole experience rather than one particular aspect of it.

SG: Can you describe the card aspect of Gamma World? How do the cards tie to the RPG experience?

RT: In the classic Dark Sun RPG, you had tables in the book that you rolled against to determine random stuff like mutations and mutant powers. The cards are used to replace that design. Unlike a table in a book that you can’t change once printed, the card element of Gamma World makes it able to be altered or expanded by adding or subtracting cards. In Gamma Word, the idea is that you have mutations that are coming into effect throughout the game and you are also finding ancient technology that you can use. The cards will just facilitate that mechanic.

SG: I know the core box set comes with cards. Do the expansions have cards as well?

RT: Yes, and in addition there will also be packs of cards that can be purchased on their own.

SG: Are those are randomized packs?

RT: Yes. The idea is that if you are sitting down to play a Gamma World Game, the DM could tell the players to each get two packs of cards. Then you would crack them open at the game, and those are the random mutations for that game.

SG: So Players and DMs would buy them specifically for random elements in the game? It is won’t be something people would buy to collect?

RT: Correct, it is designed to be part of the play experience. It is not a collectible game. You could pull cards in a non-random way, there is some discussion in the books about that.

MM: Yeah, you can do that if you really want to. But power gaming in Gamma World doesn’t really matter. It is a very lethal game. It would be like power gaming Call of Cthulhu. You can do it, but it doesn’t really make much sense.

Fortune Cards

MM: Similar to Gamma World cards, we are going to be doing fortune cards for D&D. They are collectible cards that give the same kind of random dramatic element to the game. The player can alter the action a little bit by using a random benefit. As a whole they make the game a little more unpredictable and makes things work out in an interesting new way.

Also like the Gamma World cards, they aren’t designed to build an optimized deck to get a more powerful character. they are designed to be random and add chaos to the game.

RT: If you are familiar with TORG and their drama deck, it is similar to that concept.

—–

At this point I was evicted from the tower.  My time had come to an end.  But I have dreams of next year, again scaling the Keep for the wealth of information inside!

I want to thank Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson for taking time out of their Gen Con to talk to me. And a special thanks to Katie Page for arranging the interview.

Stuart

Gen Con WOTC Booth

Gen Con WOTC Booth

I climbed “The Keep” on Gen Con Saturday. When I reached the top, I saw a table at the center, with the latest WOTC games laid out upon it.  This table was surrounded by comfortable  couches and chairs. This was gamer paradise. The view from the top was spectacular, as it overlooked the entire vendors area.

Looking out over the vendor floor

The reason for this ascension did have purpose. I did not break through the guard trolls and climb up in secret. No, I had a summons.  An appointment  to talk with D&D designers Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. The purpose of the interview was primarily to talk about the new D&D Boardgame line that is launching this month. However, with the attention of these venerable game designers, the topic also shifted to the new happenings in the D&D RPG line as well.

I will publish this interview in two parts. Next will be our discussion on the D&D Boardgames.  Following that will be talk about the D&D RPG.  Stay tuned over the next few days for some interesting conversation!

Stuart

Ivar Backpack Cutaway View

Other backpacks have pockets to distribute the load, but they are not the right size for the large form-factor game books or miniature boxes. Pricing ranges from $60.00-$110 USD depending on the model.

Here are shots of the real packs (though there are several other models not pictured.)

If anyone among my readership has first-hand knowledge of these backpacks, I would love to hear about it. Gen Con 2010 approaches and my single-strap courier bag was a bit painful last year, so I seek an alternative.

For further information, check out the Ivar Backpack website. I suggest you download the Ivar 2010 PDF catalog, as it has upcoming models as well as current offerings.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Full Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post and receive no benefit from any sales of this item.

Ok, enough talk, here are the images of Orcus.

Wizards-of-the-Coast-Orcus-Miniature

Wizards of the Coast Orcus miniature-2

Wizards of the Coast Orcus miniature-3

Sadly, Mind Storm Labs does not have a GM out for the game yet. They do have a downloadable Alpha Omega GM screen, but you need to print it out and build a backing setup yourself. Never one to shirk from botching an art project, I decided to build my own Alpha Omega GM screen.

Materials were my first consideration. I built GM screens in the past with cardboard, but they tended fail quickly and they were not water-proof. Floods happen at game tables more often than the Nile River Delta.  I needed something to defend against the deluge.

Above all, I did not want to put a lot of hours or money into fabrication. A quick check of my garage turned up some useful items; paper-covered foam backing board for mounting photographs or art work. I have a good size chunk of this leftover from an photography mounting project last year. Although covered in water-vulnerable paper, it had a foam core and was quite stiff.  It is about 3mm think and I picked it up at a local craft store. The same project also used aerosol glue. This glue sprays in a fine mist and is perfect for mounting paper on a backing.

I cut the foam into four sections of equal size. Here is a shot of one piece with a section of GM screen setting on top for measurement purposes. Note the rough edges from my clumsy cutting job.

Alpha Omega GM Screen Step 1

I should point out that Mind Storm Labs released the GM screen in two formats, landscape and portrait. I went with landscape because it was shorter and would not block my view of the battlemat carnage.

I decided to use duct tape as my hinge system, due to cost and ease of installation. I found some black duct tape (called “midnight”) at the local craft store and went with that, mostly because it matched the foam I already had. I also ran a strip around the edge of the foam to give it increased resistance to damage, but to also stop the foam from flaking off. It is strong, but at the cut edges it tended to shed black foam.

Alpha Omega GM Screen Step 2--Duct Tape the Edges

The Alpha Omega GM screen has four pages to it, so I wanted a folding GM screen for easy transport.

Once each section was duct taped, I applied a piece of tape as a hinge. This took a bit of planning to prevent locking the hinge in the open position. The solution is to apply the outside hinge when the two section are closed. Then you open it to the extent you would like it to open on the table and apply the interior hinge. This allows it to fold freely and still have a maximum open position that will stay put at the game table.

Once I had it together, I sprayed one side with adhesive and applied the GM screen printouts.  It took a couple of hours to fully dry, but I could handle it after 20 minutes.

Here is the final result.

Alpha Omega GM Screen Assembled

Here is a shot with the screen folded up. The WOTC miniature is there for scale.

Alpha Omega Screen Folded-Up

I did learn some things that I would like to pass on.

1. Get the foam cut at the craft store by someone with the correct tools. I used a utility knife and a metal ruler. It worked, but it was a bit rough in areas and a bit annoying to do.  Better tools would make for cleaner cuts.

2. Do not get the adhesive on the duct tape. It takes forever to dry

3.  Find a way to precisely cut the duct tape. If I had a glass table, I could cut the tape on that for a cleaner look. My duct tape joints were a bit rough.

4. The center joint is too tight and does not bend back far enough. I would have preferred it coming to a point, rather than the flat setup I have now. I may cut it loose and rebuild this section if it is an issue.

I am the first to admit that my Alpha Omega GM screen is rough and honestly not very pretty. It will get the job done and if the players complain about how it looks, bad things will happen to them. ;-)

If anyone else gives building a DM screen a try, drop me a comment. I am interested to see how it works out.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer