Two topics of interest this week that don't exactly fit together. The first is the 100th Episode of The Clone Wars, the second is the conversion of the Order 66 podcast from Saga Edition to Edge of the Empire. Read on for comments on both...with a spoiler alert on the 100th Episode musings. After the break, the post will proceed with the podcast info, then a large break for those who don't want to accidentally read a spoiler or two on the Clone Wars.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - A Sunny Day in the Blog
It's 2013! Time to get this year's first Star Wars Wednesday off to a great start...three days late. Actually, technically four days, given this will go up after midnight Friday. As it happens, I'm actually glad I was...delayed a bit. Tuesday was spent recovering from New Year's Eve. Wednesday I got distracted assembling new furniture and rearranging the living room, and slowed further while relocating our over complicated, over wired, TV/surround sound/stereo setup. Thursday turned out to be a bit more on track - I caught up on the Clone Wars, while assembling another furniture piece (flatpacks are fun! Right?). With the 100th episode broadcasting this Saturday (OK - LATER THIS MORNING), I wanted to be back on track.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - 2012 End of the Year Grab Bag Blog Post
Well, 2012 was an exceptionally interesting and unexpected year for Star Wars and Star Wars gaming. The design and release of the new Star Wars RPG from FFG. Lucasfilm going to Disney. Celebration VI. New movies on the way, and Clone Wars moving right along. I could go on, but most fans know it, and there are far better sources out there.
Instead, this end of the year grab bag blog post is going to feature links to Star Wars RPG related sites - new, old and still active.
Star Wars Wednesday - SWEotE Beginner Game Release
This past week marked the first true, final product release for the new Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight Games, the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. It is a true beginners game, with step by step instructions for brand new RPG players, which work just fine for veterans as well. It has a streamlined version of the Edge of the Empire RPG rules which are technically still in Beta, until its anticipated release in 2013. This won't be a review of the product, but I'll throw out a few comments and a few helpful links for those who want to check it out.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Transition Order 66
Order 66, the first podcast dedicated to the Star Wars RPG, ended their Saga Edition exclusivity this past week. They're transitioning over to Edge of the Empire, after toying with the idea of running two separate podcasts. Not surprisingly, they decided the didn't have time for that.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Busy Days, Holidays
This is one of those weeks with way too much happening between home, work and so on. So, here are three fun and/or holiday related things fans might find entertaining....
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - KCGF SWRPG Payoff
I ran 3 sessions of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beta at KC Game Fair. It was my own scenario called Payoff. The main plot was simple - the PCs owed two different crime lords a lot of credits. They get the opportunity to make enough to pay one, but not both, back.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - KCGF X-Wing Trench Run
Last weekend was KC Game Fair, the local Kansas City gaming convention I help organize via the Roleplayers Guild of Kansas City, Ltd. We had a good turnout, and everyone seemed to have a good time. This year, I ran three rounds of the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beta RPG, and two rounds of X-Wing Miniatures, using the Death Star Trench Run scenario by Dagobah Dave. I'll look at the RPG next week. This week, it's all X-wing.
Read MoreDragon 417 - History Check: The Blood War article
in D&D
This month's Dragon magazine / D&D Insider includes my latest entry in the History Check series, History Check: The Blood War. The in-game history of the Blood War is long, varied and complicated...and even more so across the editions and major campaign worlds of D&D. I had a good time wrangling them into a History Check tale, with some additional guidance from Wizards. Fans of Planescape should recognize a few things, but the article also touches on a lot of points from various sources. The article art is also the cover.
Star Wars Wednesday - KCGF Weekend
Hey everyone. This is KC Game Fair Weekend. Come by and try out some Star Wars games, and a lot of others as well.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Blue Ghost of Star Wars Present
I didn't originally plan to go with the whole Blue Ghost of .... series when I started it, but why stop now? With the explosion of Episode 7 rumors, it actually rather fits.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - Blue Ghost of Star Wars' Future
So, today's* astonishing news can be summed up in about 6 words:
Disney buys Lucasfilm. Seven. Eight. Nine.
By luck I seemed to catch the front end of the explosion that became my twitter feed. While still in the...wait, what? stage, confirmation tweets from Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee scrolled past and the race was on to learn what I could from work. I finally caught up on the rest after the work day was through, but for me, a lot of the news came through the various tweets from my main Star Wars sources and their retweets.
"This is where the fun begins." As they say.
Star Wars Wednesday - Blue Ghost of Halloween Past
I admit, after coming up with that title, I rather want to figure out how to do a blue Star Wars Force ghost now...right, so, the internet never fails to show that someone has indeed done this before. It is on theforce.net boards , though the image can only seem to be seen via google image search.
OK, it's Halloween. Since Halloween falls on Wednesday, looks like I'll probably have a couple of posts on the subject this year.
Star Wars Wednesday - Nearly Free to Play
Today, two Star Wars video games from opposite ends of the modern PC game caught my attention. One was an update on The Old Republic's move to the free to play (sort of) model. The other was Dark Forces, the original Star Wars first person shooter.
Read MoreDragon 416 - History Check: Strahd and van Richten
in D&D
Dragon issue 416 went live today on D&D Insider. This time, it's a look at Ravenloft, just in time for Halloween. Kicking things off is my article in the ongoing History Check series, featuring D&D and Ravenloft icons Strahd von Zarovitch and Dr. Rudolph van Richten.
Wizards of the Coast is testing a new release method for Dungeon and Dragon magazines this month. They are releasing each as a full issue via PDF, instead of posting the content a little bit at a time throughout the month. Consolidated PDFs has been requested often since they dropped that format some time ago. They used to issue the full PDF at the end of the month after the individual articles were posted. If you like the new method, which I do, be sure to let them know somehow (forums, twitter, etc.).
Star Wars Wednesday - X-Wing Far Far Afield
X-Wing Miniatures has been out long enough for players to accessorize their game to enhance their playing experience. Since X-Wing can be played on any flat surface without grids or hexes, creating an interesting play surface is something most anyone can do for...as much money and time they wish to spend.
Read MoreStar Wars Wednesday - SUVUDU Readers Companion
Another busy week, this time a surprise deadline at the day job. Fortunately, some really interesting stuff popped up regarding the Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion (besides its release this week) and the Random House blog SUVUDU. Links after the break:
Read MoreRealms Works Beta Map
in Cartography
I've added an excerpt of the fantasy world map used in the Realms Works beta test to my online portfolio. Realms Works is a new tabletop roleplaying game computer utility program that helps gamemasters organize their campaings. A demo of the beta was shown at GenCon this year.
More information on the product can be found here, at Lone Wolf Development. they are best known for the popular Hero Lab RPG characater creation software, used by many popular tabletop RPGs.
Star Wars Wednesday - One of Those Weeks
Travel can really throw you off schedule. This is one of those kinds of weeks. The sort where you go "it's Wednesday, wasn't there some thing else I needed to do besides collapse at the hotel?" Right. That blog post....from a phone. There's an app for that...it just won't actually post any thing but a draft for some reason. No problem, that is what copy paste is for.
Next issue...I don't have all that handy Star Wars info with me.
Star Wars Wednesday - Edge of the Emprie Beginners
With any game line, there are products you hope to work on, or those you wish you had the opportunity to contribute to. As a freelancer, and even as an employee, passing over a particular project often means losing the opportunity to ever contribute to that specific product. There may be opportunities down the road for something similar, but never that exact thing.
This week, Fantasy Flight Games announced the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. It's an introductory set for newcomers to roleplaying games and, obviously, Star Wars roleplaying in particular. As might be expected, it comes with pregenerated characters, dice, fold out maps and a simplified rules set.