Well, it has certainly been a terrible week of storms, and I’m sure that many of you are as disturbed and saddened as I was by the terrible tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma.  That tornado was of epic and terrifying size, and the loss of life and property was shocking to comprehend.   If you have the opportunity and inclination, please click this link to NBCNEWS.com, which has provided an excellent list of organizations to contact in order to assist in the relief effort for the survivors of that terrible storm.

As is my usual wont, I have posted another review of a new role-playing game this week on EN World News.  I’m not sure how it’s happened, but this will be the third in the streak of space opera RPGs which have come to my desk.  And like the previous two RPGs, it’s got its own unique style and thematics.

Rapture: End of Days has a dark and disturbing premise – the end of the world came, Book of Revelations style and Earth was taken over by the armies of Satan.  Only those few humans living in off-world colonies have escaped… or have they?

To read the full review of this horror-filled, science fiction RPG, please click the link below and head over to EN World News for all the details:

Rapture: End of Days – Outrunning The Apocalypse in a Starship! (A Review)

This game is certainly of a different ilk than other space opera games I’ve played over the years.  And its foreboding setting opens up role-playing opportunities to examine both the darkest and brightest extremes of a player-character.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

But frankly, I’m barely noticing the various meteorological fluctuations due to my absolute white-knuckled anticipation of the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, hitting theatres this weekend!  I’ve was really pleased with the way the franchise was rebooted a few years ago, and I can’t wait to see the new release, particularly to see how Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock; Voice of Smaug in The Hobbit) rises to the role of a Star Trek super-villain!  Mr. Benedict has been awesome in the BBC’s Sherlock series, and Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and the other actors have taken so well to their roles as the crew of the Enterprise, I have no doubt this movie will be a blockbuster of the summer!

So in keeping with the theme of space, criminals, and good guys, I have a new review on EN World News about a game that offers many of those elements.  Durance is a role-playing game written by Jason Morningstar for Bully Pulpit Games, offering players the chance to portray convicts and civilians on a prison planet, as they strive to survive building a colony on a dangerous alien world.

For more information about the game, please click the link below and head over to EN World News to read the review in full:

Durance: Roleplaying Convicts and Colonists on a Hellhole Prison Planet!

So I’ve got little to complain about with a weekend ahead just full of movies, gaming, and more gaming!  The only downside to the whole thing will be coming back to Earth on Monday to start up the next week…

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

I want to remind everyone that it’s only a little more than a month before Origins Game Fair 2013 in Columbus, Ohio (June 12-16).  So if you’re planning on going, make sure to register for games and get your hotel plans made before they’re all gone!  I’ll be there Friday and Saturday this year, and will be staying for the Origins Game Awards show on Saturday night!

This week I have a review of a product for one of my favorite game system – the Hero System!  Specifically, this is a setting designed for the Star Hero genre supplement for the 6th Edition of Hero System, offering a new vision for a space-opera campaign.  BlackWyrm Publishing has released a number of settings for Star Hero after its 2011 release, including The Fires of Heaven setting from just last year.  It’s a very detailed, mostly “hard” science-fiction setting, set in the 23rd century as humans are just beginning to expand outward into the galaxy.

For the complete review, please click on the link below and head over to EN World News to read all the details about this Star Hero setting:

Review of The Fires of Heaven by Patrick Sweeney

BlackWyrm Publishing www.blackwyrm.com has some very interesting concepts for space-opera settings beyond The Fires of Heaven, all designed for Star Hero.  I’ve always been a fan of Hero System and Star Hero, and am glad that others enjoy the genre enough to create strange and exciting universes for players and GMs to experience.

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

Being humpday, I do have another review posted over at EN World News.  And today I happen to be doing a review of a D&D product, although it’s not for 4E.

As many of you probably know, Wizards of the Coast has been releasing a line of Premium D&D books, re-publishing favorite and out-of-print tomes of D&D lore from previous editions.  As it turns out, I was fortunate enough to get a review copy of the newly released Premium Spell Compendium v3.5 by WotC, a new reprinting of the 2005 release for d20/3.5.

For all the information about this new Wizards of the Coast release, please click below to head over to EN World News to read the review in full:

Review of Premium Spell Compendium v3.5 by Wizards of the Coast

The picture of the cover does not do justice to how awesome the new version of the Spell Compendium looks and feels – but you can read all about that and more in my review.

On a final note, I wanted to mention that the Kickstarter for the new Pathfinder RPG Campaign Setting from BlackStar Studios is in its final two days.  The Shadowlands is a fantasy/science-fiction setting that looks very promising, and I’m heartened to say that they are fully funded, and into several Stretch Goals now.  To find out more about the world of Saemyyr, home to The Shadowlands Campaign Setting, you can check out their official site and learn more about the project.

And yes, I’ve already spoken to the folks at BlackStar Studios about a review – possibly pre-release – so keep an eye out on my review blogs!

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

Today I have posted another review over at EN World News, featuring a look at a new game system by the artist Grant Gould.  Mr. Gould’s work has been featured in a number of projects, and his portfolio can be seen over at DeviantArt.  Unsurprisingly, his new fantasy role-playing game, Blade Raiders, features his artwork inside and out, and offers some inventive new combinations of rules and gameplay.

For more information about this new FRPG, please click on the link below to head over to EN World News for the complete review:

Review of Blade Raiders by Grant Gould

Blade Raiders is an interesting mix of features, with a few quirks, but strongly oriented to maximizing role-playing and storytelling without bogging the game down with rules.  The setting is not the normal fantasy faire, but for gamers looking sample a new realm unlike the D&D/Pathfinder style of world, Blade Raiders is definitely a game to take a look at.

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

Before I get on to discussing my review, I want to take an opportunity to urge everyone to consider offering aide to the victims of horrific bombing at the Boston Marathon.  One of the easiest ways is to give a donation of money or blood to the American Red Cross, who has been on the scene assisting the victims since the bombs went off.  Of course, we all hope the terrorists will be brought to justice, but helping out the victims as best we can is essential to recovering from this national tragedy.

Today’s review is of yet another product from Kobold Press, who are kind enough to shower me with lots of cool products to talk about.  Journeys to the West is a supplement for the Midgard Campaign Setting and used with Pathfinder RPG.  It offers GMs a plethora of islands and archipelagos out in uncharted seas, where discoveries, adventures, and dangers abound!

For more information about this product, please click on the link below to head over to EN World News to read the complete review:

Review of Journeys to the West by Christina Stiles

This book is packed with amazing adventures and wondrous locations, and gives heroes the chance to experience a campaign with tons of exploration and discovery.  Although it’s written for Midgard, GMs will find it can be used in many different types of campaign settings, and offers some unique quests in uncharted lands.

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

As it is Wednesday once again, I have a new review posted over on EN World News, but this review is somewhat of a “first” of its kind in the history of the Neuroglyph Games site.  For the first time, I am actually re-reviewing a product, one which I had originally given a rather poor grade overall.  As a Reviewer, I had always told myself not to do this, because felt as if it would open a can of ethical worms I had no desire to have crawling around on my weekly column.  But the author appealed to me to give his new rendition of the product a second look, and it was so vastly improved and full of new content that it was like reviewing a new work altogether!

So today, I have a new review of a re-released adventure module, written for the Pathfinder RPG, and adaptable to 3.5/OGL as well.  Rocks Fall Games re-designed The Dark Totem Part 1 into something quite new, and well worth giving it a new opportunity to be reviewed.

To find out more about this adventure module, please click on the link below to head over to the EN World News for the detail on my re-review:

Review of The Dark Totem Part 1: The Chantry Keep by Rocks Fall Games

I must salute the perseverance and hard work it took for the author to re-write this adventure, particularly after receiving tough reviews from myself and others.  I truly feel that the author of The Dark Totem Part 1: The Chantry Keep took my critiques seriously and constructively, and produced a new version of the adventure which is far more cohesive, and a really just a darned good fantasy storyline.

I hope my re-review of this re-released adventure module gives it the credit it deserves, and I wish the folks at Rocks Fall Games the best in this and their future products.

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

But while the 2013 Origins Awards aren’t scheduled to be given out until June 15th, my personal involvement in this year’s awards started several months ago, as 2012 was coming to an end…

Getting Tapped

Back in November 2012, I received a rather startling email in my inbox one afternoon.  I was contacted by the Foreman of the Role-Playing Games jury for the Origins Awards, and asked if I would be interested in becoming a jury member this year.  Obviously, I was very excited at the prospect of taking part in one of the biggest awards for publishers in the RPG gaming community, so I was put in contact with John Ward, the Executive Director of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and Academy Chair of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.

As it turns out, it was my weekly reviews on EN World News which caught the eye of the Academy, and led them to offer me a post on the jury to decide the nominees for this 2012’s Origins Award.  I suppose it goes to show just how broad the readership is for EN World – and it was an absolute honor to be asked to take part in the awards process, based upon my review blogs!

Sitting in judgment

As anyone would guess, confidentiality was essential to avoid any possibility of impropriety on the part of a juror.  However, now that nominations are done, I’ve been told I can discuss a few aspects of what it’s like to be on an Origins Awards jury.

As I previously mentioned, each jury has a Foreman, and there are several other Jurors (along with yours truly) who are tasked with rating games and game products to select the nominees.  At the beginning of 2013, each of us Jurors received a large and very heavy package of games in the mail, along with a sizeable number of games in PDF format.  I was fairly shocked the afternoon I received my package at how weighty the darned thing was, banging up several toes when I tried to nudge the box off my stoop and into my home, not realizing how heavy all those games would be!

From there, I spent the next several weeks reading through all the role-playing games and accessories I’d received, rolling up characters here and there for new game systems, and generally assessing what I liked and didn’t like about each RPG product.  And there were quite a few role-playing games, accessories, and supplements offered up this year to be judged for the Origins Awards – nearly 50 different products all told!  The process of going over that much material in such a short time was both fun and a bit grueling, but it was also utterly fascinating to see just how diverse and creative RPG Designers are becoming these days.

It was interesting to note that the Role-Playing Game Jury didn’t act like a courtroom jury, and there was no discussion during the evaluation process between myself and my fellow Jurors.  In fact, it wasn’t until after the ratings were tallied, and the lists of nominees released, that the Jurors had any discussion among ourselves about the games we were judging.

The jury process worked so that each game or game product was evaluated by each Juror on its own merits.  Games were scored points in six different criteria, which bear some resemblance to my own rating system used in my EN World Reviews.   Once the Jurors submitted all our score sheets to the Academy, the ratings were totaled up, and the top five nominees emerged from among the contestants.

I rather liked this system, as eash game or game product had to impress several persons in order to become a nominee for the Calliope for Best Roleplaying Game.  For those who haven’t seen the list yet for this year, here were the nominees from my jury:

Nominees for the Best Roleplaying Game Award

• Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy RPG Core Rules by Privateer Press
• Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Games by Margaret Weis Productions
• Monsterhearts by Buried Without Ceremony
• Nights of the Crusades by Aetheric Dreams
• Primeval RPG by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.

Overall, I have to say that the scoring process by a jury, comprised of several roleplaying gamers, makes for a pretty even playing field to get a fair result for the Origin Award.

Obviously, there were literally dozens of products judged this time around, and only a tiny fraction of those entrants get to make the Top 5 and become Nominees.  So I wanted to mention a few products I evaluated during my jury duty this year, and found them to be impressive enough to want to recommend them for consideration by the RPG fans in the gaming community:

• Yggdrasil by Cubical 7 Entertainment – A role-playing game of Viking heroes in an alternative timeline based upon the Norse Sagas and myths.
• Shadows of Esteren by Agate RPG– A lush and beautiful fantasy role-playing game which takes place in a bleak gothic horror setting.
• Nights Black Agents by Pelgrane Press – Creepy espionage RPG pitting human spies against vampire agents, using the GUMSHOE Engine.
• Champions Complete by Hero Games – The most up-to-date edition of the classic superhero roleplaying game.  ‘Nuff said!
• Streets of Bedlam by FunSizedGames – Thrilling crime-noir style game using the Savage Worlds game system

Needless to say, I’ll certainly be reviewing several of these games on EN World in the coming months!  While I can’t say how these particular games were rated in my own scoring process, I still feel they are worth mentioning in their own right.

As frequent Readers of my blog might guess, I’ll definitely be putting in an appearance at Origins Game Fair this year – particularly when it comes to attending the Origins Award Ceremony on Saturday June 15th.  Aside from the thrill of being honored to be chosen as a Juror, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to meet some of my fellow Jurors in person.  And most of all, I look forward to seeing the jury process to the very end, and find out who has won the “Callie” for Best Roleplaying Game at the Origins Awards!

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

Hopefully, many of you were able to participate in International TableTop Day last weekend, on Saturday.  Word has it that it was quite a success!

I had a great time with my own gaming group, getting the chance to play a few new games in the process.  I’m happy to report that I won my first game of Cards Against Humanity this past weekend, just barely hedging out the next two runners-up by just one point.  I dropped some pics of the festivities in my Twitter feed (@Neuroglyph), which you can check out if you’re interested.

But as it is now Wednesday once again, I have a new review which I’ve posted over on EN World News.

This week I’m happy to report that I’ve reviewed a new D&D 4E product – something which seem to be getting more and more scarce as WotC plunges inexorably toward D&D Next.  But 3rd Party Publishers are still putting out solid 4E content, such as Darklight Interactive, who has recently released an amazing new module called A Night in Seyvoth Manor.  This module combines some of the mechanics of Fourthcore, but with some sensibility and verve all its own.

For more details about this adventure module, please click on the link below to head over to EN World News and read the entire review:

Review of A Night in Seyvoth Manor by Darklight Interactive

Not only is this an impressive work by the author, David Flor, but combines some very cool elements of Fourthcore and old-style tournament dungeons into something new.  And I should probably mentions that this module is free to download from RPGNow – and it’s a darned good way for Darklight Interactive to show just how good their products can be!

And while I may not run my gaming groups through Fourthcore adventures anytime soon, I’m definitely going to consider taking a session to run A Night in Seyvoth Manor for them – it’s just too good not to try out!

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!

And as it is Wednesday, once again this week I have a new review posted on EN World News.  This week I am reviewing an adventure module for DCC RPG by Thick Skull Games called Attack of the Frawgs.  This adventure is designed to work with DCC’s “character funnel” and has plenty of scary and dangerous circumstances for 0-Level “heroes” to blunder into.

For all the details about this product, please click the link below to head over to EN World News, and read the review in full:

Review of Attack of the Frawgs by Thick Skull Adventures

I like that Third Party Publishers are working to provide adventure material for Goodman Games’ DCC RPG, and I certainly hope to see (and review) more submission like this in the future.

And one final reminder: This Saturday, March 30th is International TableTop Day!  So grab your favorite board games, CCG, and miniatures games, grab your friends and family, and game until you run out of “beer and pretzels” or you just can’t game anymore – whichever comes first!  Be sure to tweet your gaming pics and stories to #TableTopDay, and I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Easter Holiday!

So until next blog… I wish you happy gaming!