PyMapper Version 8 Available

PyMapper version 8 is now available. It looks like there is some functionality to use your maps for real time roleplaying with the implementation of Fog-of-War. It still has all the useful settings and features of prior versions as well.

 

You can get the latest version of PyMapper here and the PyMapper web site is here. In past posts there were comments indicating my PyMapper post should be updated because the program was no longer supported. I could find no evidence to support this claim then and I certainly can't find any now. For the record, there are several links to the tile scans here.

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Up Front Kickstarter In It's Last 48 Hours

If you are like me and have been waiting for Up Front to be re-printed, make sure you get in on the Kickstarter campaign. The 48 hour count down has begun. This deal is rediculous. The base game and additional core nations alone is over 1300 cards. At the current stretch level, the number of cards you get is more than doubled. To get all the cards, a pledge of $125 USD is required (shipping included for US adresses).

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1325766284/up-front-the-card-game

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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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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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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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Woo Hoo! Phantom Leader Coming to IOS

Phantom Leader is coming to IOS! I thought I was going to have to wait until next year for the re-print. I am checking the app store daily now. I hope this does extremely well and Dan Versen Games will decide to release other games as well. If they are listening, at least all the Leader and Commander series games please. As soon as I can get my hands on it and play, I will post something.

B.

Dungeon - New Version Coming

A new version of my favorite childhood game is due to be released very soon. I have already pre-ordered three copies. I intend to give my nephews the same opportunity I had as a child for such memories. This is one of those games that, judged all by itself, would not rate very high in my book, but because of the theme and the memories it is still a favorite. I even still play the game from time-to-time with my nephews and since finding a solo scenario recently I have even played by myself too. I highly recommend playing this with any youngster who shows an interest in this type of game.

 

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X-Wing Released

Fantasy Flight Games has released a Star Wars themed ship combat game with rules similar to Wings of War. Each ship can have various attachments and pilot abilities which give it varying point values. Each player creates a force of the specified point size. All manner of space accessories can be added to the play surface to create any scenario imagined.

Initial ship choices are limited. An X-Wing and two Tie Fighters come with the base set and additional X-Wing and Tie Fighters can be purchased as well as Tie Advanced and Y-Wing ships. The Millenium Falcon, Slave 1, A-Wing and Tie Interceptor ships will be in the next wave of ships offered.

We have played three games so far and certainly recognize the huge potential this game offers. Each game was quite fun as well. I think we'll get lots of mileage out of this one.

 

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News: Announcing PyMapper version 5.2

 A few months ago I posted an entry about a mapping program called PyMapper. A new version is now available. The big addition is the random dungeon creation using pre-defined geomorphs. Below is the announcement from the yahoo group:

Posted On The Yahoo Group: 

PyMapper version 5.2 adds the long awaited random dungeon generation functionality. After much development (and much frustration and finally inspiration) a workable randomizer methodology was developed for the program. Random dungeons are based around the concept of a geomorph, which is a fancy way of saying "a collection of tiles that fit together." Each geomorph is 12 squares wide and 14 squares high. Each geomorph has a series of 'connection points' defined to tell pymapper how they align next to other geomorphs. The dungeon randomizer takes a group of geomorphs and fits them together according to these connection points. A sample set of geomorphs is included in this release. Users are highly encouraged to submit new geomorphs so that we can get a wide assortment of options. The randomizer can be found in the Maps menu. A tutorial file is also included in the /geomorphs/ folder where you installed pymapper.

I have created a library of geomorphs to be used with pymapper. The zip file is also located in the pymapper folder. I strongly encourage the community to send in their own geomorphs to expand our choices. Please send geomorph files to pymapper (at) hotmail.com and I will compile and distribute them.

News: SuperSystem 3rd Edition Released

It looks like SuperSystem 3rd Edition has been released by Four-Color Figures. More info here.