Thrawn Trilogy

 

I recently finished listening to the Thrawn Trilogy audio book on Audible. If you are a Star Wars fan and are looking for some source material for all the cool new Star Wars games then I highly recommend this read (or listen as it were). Before listening to the Trilogy, I didn't know much about what happened after episode six, so this was a nice tie-in to the movies for me. I am hoping to use some of the background story and event in the Star Wars RPG by FFG. If you haven't read or listened to it, check it out. It is pretty good!

 

BTR

 

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Fantasy Flight Holiday Sale

 

Most large board game companies have an online store and most of them do some kind of Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Holiday sale that offers 10%, 15% or even limited 50% (for loyal customers) savings. To my surprise, FFG has several items at 75% savings. Most of these items are not things I would buy at full retail, but at a huge discount these items become a little more palatable. There are a few $100 games marked down to $25. It might be worth buying a few of these just for the components to make your own games or to give away as Christmas presents. LINK

 

BTR

 

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Legendary

 

I just finished playing my first game of Legendary. I wasn't blown away, but I am not ready to trade it off either. I only played solo and I am sure a group dynamic will add to the experience. This was a learning game too which sterilized the game play a bit. I see a lot of potential here. There is room for breadth as well as depth. We'll see what they do with it. For now I am giving it a 7.5 out of 10.

BTR

 

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Veterans Day 2012

Thank you to all the US veterans, both past and present.

Remember, Freedom is not Free!

DVG's Phantom Leader Released For iOS

This looks like Red Finch's first iOS release. The app is a digital port of DVG's solo player boxed game. For all intents and purposes, it is the boxed game on the iPad screen. I believe this is exactly what they were aiming for. There are no fancy platform shooter animations or AI, but there is some nice background music and limited sound effects. At $14.99, most people who are not familiar with this type of game will probably be ranting all kinds of nasty childish comments on the app store about how 85 other apps do more and look better for 99 cents .... whatever!

This is the app I was hoping for and expecting. I was not expecting the price tag though and I fear that will deter many people which will likely make it difficult to justify further releases. I hope this isn't the case. I would like them to release all their Commander and Leader games in this way.

I have played 3 or 4 games and enjoyed getting my ass kicked in each of them. :-) The game has a few flow issues and maybe a few bugs, but these types of things are expected on a new release and it does not appear to be anything that Red Finch can't handle. The game is difficult to win, just like the boxed game and should provide many challenging hours of entertainment.

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Blogsy, 2 Thumbs Up

If anyone who reads this is a mobile blogger with an iPad, I would like to put a good word in for Blogsy. It is very feature packed and quite honestly my preferred way to create my blog entries. Initially I used it just while I was traveling, but became attached to the flow and control. I have only tried one other blogging app and decided it didn't work well enough to use on the iPad. I give this app 5 stars!

 B.

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Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG Beta Released

 

Along with Fantasy Flight's other Star Wars related offerings is a new RPG, Star Wars Edge of the Empire. This is a bit of an odd ball. The book is a Beta test for the new system. I have never heard of releasing a printed Beta for something like this, but they got me to buy one ....

 

Something cool I didn't realize is the dice app I mentioned a few posts ago actually has the proprietary dice for the RPG built in already, so I guess I'm good to go. :-) We'll see how it all works out .....

 

B.

 

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Adventure Games Guild Releases Dungeons

Adventure Games Guild has released their first offering, Dungeons. Dungeons is lite solo RPG game. This might do well as an introduction to role playing for younger folks who are interested in fantasy roleplaying. The budding publisher has a meatier project due early next year as well. I haven't played Dungeons yet, but I have read the rules. As soon as I get some play time I will post an update.

B.

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Solo or GMless Roleplaying

Recently, I have been doing a little research on solo RPGs. Some of you might ask why I would want to do such a thing. It is pretty simple; circumstances do not allow me to be as social with my gaming friends as I once was, but I still want to play RPGs. The trick is finding a way to surprise yourself or have the adventure unfold in a way which isn't obvious so that it doesn't feel like you are the player and the GM. There are a couple of options here, especially for the roleplayer who enjoys story telling games.

Mythic, by Word Mill Games, is an RPG system in its own right which can be adapted to play other RPGs GMless or even solo. This system combined with the two player game World vs. Hero, by the same publisher, can up the story telling ante considerably. Check out the solo play World vs Hero webpage HERE and see if that sounds like something that would interest you. The rest of the site has many interesting tidbits as well. I especially enjoyed reading some of the story dialogue that was generated using these systems. There are several examples on the site.

 

When the roleplayer uses these resources along with other resources like donjon, Ptolus or the multitude of other resources available, there is no telling what adventures may be had. While reading the World vs. Hero web site I could not help but crave adventures in all my favorite genres using that system. I am hoping to put these resources to the test. I would enjoy hearing from others or reading the adventures of others who are like minded.

 

B.

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