Talking Game

Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000

I have had several experiences over the last few months for which I would very much like to call out some of the excellent customer service I have received.

It's funny - customer service is something that we usually don't think about until something goes wrong. In gaming, that means misprints and damaged/defective/missing components. When I order a product and it arrives in a reasonable time, it never occurs to me to even think about the customer service I've received, even though it was there.

The gaming industry is small enough that the publishers try very hard not to get a reputation for bad (or even mediocre) customer service.

So how do you ask for help when you want and/or need it?

Before you ask, do your homework - find out who their point of contact is. It doesn't do me any good to ask Atlas Games' web designer for help if I'm missing a pawn from my copy of Recess.

Here are a few simple rules:

Rule One: Be honest, polite, and respectful.

A few months back, my wife purchased for me (as a gift) most of Dominion. She bought it second-hand from a co-worker. There are now only two sets I lack, in fact. At the time she purchased it, there was a question as to whether the included sets were complete or not. So I sent a quick message to Jay of Rio Grande Games.

"My wife purchased (second-hand) a bundle of Dominion along with the expansions. Several pieces may be missing - is it possible to purchase single cards or other components directly through you, as needed to complete the set?"

It was only a few hours before Jay got back to me, asking what I was missing. As it turns out, the sets were complete - but I am confident that he would have sent me any missing parts (possibly for a small fee, but that's only appropriate when I purchased second-hand).

And it probably goes without saying, but do your homework and ask the right person. Check the company's website to see if they have a customer service contact. If I ask the webmaster for a PDF, it won't do much good. Sometimes, you need to start your e-mail with, "I'm not sure if I have the correct person for this - if you are not the correct person, can you please forward this to the appropriate party?"

Rule Two: Don't be afraid to ask.

The worst thing a publisher can do is turn you down or ignore you. If this happens, you're out the ten minutes or so it took to type the e-mail.

As you may recall, I'm a big fan of the Bits and Mortar program. Now, I was browsing their site, and I realized that I have books from several of these publishers where I don't have the PDF versions. So I sent off some e-mails.

One publisher I contacted is not a current participant in the program, but their game had been distributed by another publisher who was a part of the program.

"I realize," I asked him, "that you aren't listed as a participant in the program, but I was wondering if you were considering membership or if you provide a discount code for DriveThru for people who have purchased print copies of your books."

I got the PDF. For free. It was accompanied by a brief note, "We are not currently running the bits and mortar program. However, as a gesture of goodwill and to say thanks for buying the game, I have sent you a Drivethru link to allow you to download a free copy."

If I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have received the PDF.

Rule Three: Be prepared to back it up.

The publisher may ask for some proof if you're asking for something for free that isn't a broken/missing/defective piece. Sometimes, they may ask for proof of defective or broken pieces.

I asked both Pelgrane Press and Mongoose Publishing for a variety of PDF files. Both are Bits and Mortar participants. In the case of Pelgrane, I'd had some of the books since before the program existed - and I told them that in my e-mail (Rule One). I didn't have receipts for any of these products.

Both publishers responded within a day or two. Both requested photos of the products to prove that I had them. This was easily done.

I had the PDF files within a day of sending in the photos.

Rule Four: Be as clear as possible.

Your e-mail should spell out what you have, then what you want. Most of the letters I sent boiled down to: "I have X. I would like Y. What steps do I need to take?"

If you send an e-mail to a publisher that says, "I bought a book. Can I get the PDF?" The first thing they'll do is ask you "Which book?" Or "I bought a game and it was missing a piece," they need to know which game and which piece.

If it's a missing promo, then it gets a bit stickier. Sometimes. This happened to me at GenCon a few years ago: "I bought Mutant Chronicles at GenCon. It was my understanding that I was supposed to get a promo figure with that purchase - when I got home, I didn't see it in my packaging. Is this piece still available? If so, how do I go about getting one?"

An hour later, I had an e-mail from Fantasy Flight asking for my shipping address.

Some people will say, "I'm missing X, please ship replacements to:" This is perfectly acceptable - just be polite. And remember that some publishers have a set procedure for replacement that they have to follow. It's not the publisher's fault things were broken in shipping or misprinted or mispacked at the factory. Sometimes they have these procedures to they can figure out where the screw-up occurred (and prevent the mistake in the future).

I don't always get what I want, but I've found that - by following these four simple rules - I am successful more often than not.

Synchronicity

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:05:00 +0000

A quick bonus post for you, because this was too good not to share immediately.

In a wonderful bit of timing, Asmodee has started a series of posts on the process involved with making games.

It links up nicely with last week's post about what I do.

Their first post, "Making A Game: From Prototype to Project," can be found here.

Dungeons and Dragons Memories

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000

Those of you who are gamers and have been under a rock for the last few weeks may have missed that Wizards of the Coast announced that a new edition of Dungeons & Dragons is in development.

ENWorld has the best overview I've seen of news and other information. It can be found here.

Looking at the design team, I have faith that it will be a quality product.

But I come here not to bury 4e, but to remember my experiences with D&D over the years.

For those of us who are roleplayers, D&D has been a constant. For the majority of us, it was our gateway into the hobby. Even if you've never played it, it has impacted your role-playing in some way - many many games were created to fix its perceived flaws.

My first experience with D&D was around my tenth birthday. It was still First Edition at this point. I saw kids playing on the playground, and wondered what was going on. "It's a game," one of them told me.

"Do you have room for one more?"

He looked around at the other players, "Erik's not here. Maybe we can let him try?"

"Sure," said another, "he can use Erik's character." The DM shuffled through his folder and handed me a scuffed-up piece of paper with numbers scrawled on it and crossed out and re-written and erased. In short, a well-loved character.

I was completely lost. I had no idea what any of these numbers were or what they meant. "So ... " I said, "When is it my turn and what can I do?"

"Anything," was the answer. "You're an Elf, so you can even do some magic." He turned to the DM, "And he can find secret doors. Don't forget to tell him if he finds any."

Even with this in-depth introduction to the hobby, I watched for a few minutes before contributing. The party was in a room with a throne at one end. "I approach the throne," I said.

"You die," said the DM. "A pit opens under your feet and you fall onto spikes and die."

"This is stupid," I informed the group. And I gave the sheet back to the DM and wandered off to play kickball or something that wasn't stupid.

A few months later, my best friend (Chad) was drawing something. When I asked him what it was, he told me that it was a dungeon map. "For D&D," he informed me, gravely. Not wanting to start an argument, I didn't tell him that D&D was stupid.

"What are all the marks on the map?"

"This is a trap," he said, "and this is a secret door. The treasure room is over here."

"If you put the trap on the map like that, won't they just go around it?"

Chad looked at me for a long minute. "The players don't get to see the map," he eventually informed me. "Only I get to see the map."

That conversation was why I am a gamer. In large part, that conversation is why I spent twenty years as a DM. Because I wanted to see the map.

My parents were (and, to a degree, still are) anti-gaming. They were caught up in the anti-D&D hysteria of the 1980's, so I had to hide that I was playing. And I definitely couldn't buy any books.

The first gaming book I ever purchased was the Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual for FASA's Star Trek rpg. I didn't know it was a game book. Had my parents known, they wouldn't have purchased it for me. As it is, I figured out it was a game book pretty quickly - but I couldn't figure out what the game was. After all, those weren't D&D stats.

The first game book I knowingly purchased was the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition Player's Handbook. I still have it. In fact, I think it's the book my wife will eventually be making an AD&D character from. It has the old square TSR logo. I bought it with my first-ever paycheck in 1992. By this time, I was already playing (regularly) several games, including my friend Lee's Dark Sun game. Most of the games were one-shots and short campaigns, generally lasting a few sessions before the DM lost interest or had another good idea ...

When 3E came out, I hadn't played D&D in several years. I was into several other games - but 3E with its promise of being a universal game via the d20 License drew me back. I called my friend Aaron and informed him that I was "putting the band back together."

The campaign never went anywhere, and the players had no idea what they were doing on the map. The first session was so bad that I actually reset a combat to the beginning. "Now that you know what flanking and attacks of opportunity are," I said, "let's try that again. This time without the TPK."

The first gift I bought for my wife (then my girlfriend) was the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragon's Player's Handbook. I didn't even have one for me, yet. And, to go with the PHB, I got her a set of dice. In purple.

Her first session was - for me - a bit of a test. Would she throw her hands in the air, declaring it to be "stupid," or would she come back? We're married, now, so I'm sure you can figure out the answer to that one.

Somewhere along the way, roleplaying took a back seat to boardgaming. Until 4E brought me back to the table - as a player rather than as a DM. I'm currently in two campaigns (one of which is on hiatus while the DM figures out the best balance between gaming and his small child).

I don't get involved in the Edition Wars. I have fond memories of collaborating with Chad on elaborate dungeons for 1E. I smile when I remember the 2E games with the high school crowd. I can't dislike 3E, either, as it confirmed for me that my wife was The One. And 4E brought me back to the table.

The 5E development team looks solid. It looks like people who know 1E and 2E and 3E and 4E. People who enjoyed all four versions, and who are willing to make sure the fun comes before the rules.

The announcement has turned the Edition Wars up a few degrees. There is a lot of anger coming from both the 3E and the 4E factions - before any of them have seen the rules or what's coming.

I don't know how deeply I'll invest in 5E. I'll get a PHB for sure. Probably a DMG. Or their equivalents, if WotC throws a curve ball and does something weird. If they're good, I'll get some more.

We'll see. Either way, it'll be an interesting ride.

What I Do

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000

Every now and again, I am asked just what exactly it is I do for Asmodee (other than demoing their games).

I can't share specific examples, but I can - in broad terms - explain the process.

My role is "localization." I was, at first, credited as an Editor, but I'm not comfortable with that credit, as I'm not necessarily grammatically correct when I finish. In fact, while grammatical correctness is a goal of the revision, it's secondary to clarity.

The process is deceptively simple. Originally, I worked only on games which had previously been released in French. These days, most of Asmodee's games (and those which they distribute) seem to be shooting for simultaneous release.

Basically, a translator is given a draft of the rules. They then translate those rules and send them to me, along with images (if possible) of the game. Usually I am working from a Word document with "track changes" running so they can see what I tweaked.

I read the rules and make sure that they make sense. For my first read-through, I'll not make any changes, I just leave comments that are often answered later in the rules. On my second read-through, I'll clear these comment (if they were answered), and will actually make changes.

I ask questions for clarification, and tweak the wording as appropriate. Sometimes the games will go through multiple cycles. To give you an idea what the rules look like when someone don't localize them first, check out Mall of Horror (if you can find a copy). In the case of Ghost Stories, for example, the game itself (and components) was changing faster than we were getting it translated. This led to a great deal of confusion and problems with the final translation. In fact, these two games (more than any other) have driven me to ask more and better questions.

In the time I've been doing this, I have become quite familiar with how French can break when it is translated into English. The easiest example of this is the word "Precision" - when you see "Precision" in the rules for a game that was originally in French, the word that should be there is "Clarification." It took me a few games to figure this out, by the way.

Now, this localization doesn't catch everything. Claustrophobia, for example. The original French rule book said that the Demon player could use certain abilities "once." Somewhere in the translation process, that was changed to "once per game," when, in reality, it should have been "once per Threat Phase" (the equivalent of once per turn). Takenoko has one action available in which you draw two tiles and choose one. The French rulebook then states that you place the remaining two on the bottom of the deck. The English rulebook says you place them back on top of the deck. If the translation I receive is wrong, then the suggestions and corrections I provide will also be wrong, which then leads to errata. And no-one likes errata - not the fans, not the publisher, not the designer, and really not the translator or localizer. I learned recently that they tend to use English as the basis for other translations, too - so if a mistake creeps into the English version, it'll also appear in the German and Spanish versions, compounding the need for accuracy.

I've seen several games that haven't been released yet. In a few cases, these game will never see English-language release. Renaissance, for example. Others go through multiple translations - Helldorado is an excellent example of this. I saw no less than three official translations of that one - and then Asmodee cancelled it and another publisher in the US decided to step up for an English-language release.

Some projects have required group discussions, either via Google Chat or Skype. That way, the conversation can include my wife (who has helped on a number of games, both credited and not) and more than one of the translators if more than one are working on a project.

I know I'm not the only translation localizer in the industry, but I don't know any of the others, so I can't speak as to their process. It's not hugely time-consuming, but it is a necessary step in getting games to market. And I'm often under a time crunch. Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk, for example, was finished less than a week before GenCon, and they wanted a prototype at the convention. It involved a 3am Skype call with the translator so we could make sure were on the same page in terms of humor and other nuances.

It's worth noting that humor is difficult to translate int he first place. Many of the jokes we slipped into the English version of le Donon de Naheulbeuk won't make sense to the French. Some of them won't make sense to the British, either. We tried to make it as universal as possible.

And, before you ask, I don't know when (or if) this one will be released. It's a fun game, but it's also a weird one and it's based on a French podcast so some of the jokes won't make sense unless you have heard the podcast (or are familiar with it).

It's not a perfect summary, but it explains what it is I'm up to when I have projects in front of me.

Intersecting Hobbies

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000

People who have just met me tend to think that I have only a single hobby (gaming). And, while that single hobby is basically all-consuming, it's not my only hobby.

I really have two active hobbies - gaming and photography. I collect a few things, too, but I generally don't consider collecting to be a hobby (with a few exceptions). For Christmas, I received a few photography toys that I hope will make my blog more entertaining.

Shortly before the holidays started to roll, I managed to get an old camera of mine working again - a Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 210. There's just something real about working with film. I've had much better luck with the black & white film than I have with the color film, but I may scan some of my photos and throw them up here, as appropriate. Obviously, I won't be posting pics of (for example) football games unless I'm posting about a football game and tying it (somehow) to tabletop gaming. That'd just be silly.

I have a Lensbaby, and have had for several years. All three of my gifts were lensbaby-related. The one most likely to impact my blogging was the Lensbaby Macro Kit, which will allow me to take ever closer images of game components and games in play. Maybe next year, I will make it into the Top 300 Images list on BoardGameGeek.

I also received the Telephoto and Wide Angle adapters for the Lensbaby, which I put to good use on New Year's Eve at Phoenix, where we had fifty or so folks turn out for one of the most entertaining evenings I've had in a very long time. Thank you, by the way, to all who attended. I saw dozens of games played that night, and had another chance to play Eclipse.

At least one significant event occurred at the festivities, but it's not my place to share that one, as it's not my news. Congrats, by the way, to all involved.

I took several hundred photos, all of which can be found in this set on Flickr. I haven't weeded out the less-good photos, so be aware that that set is a blend of good and bad.

Meanwhile, 2012 looks to be a strong year game-wise. I've seen several previews and have other bits of information from several publishers that tell me so. And that's before looking at my preorders ...

I can't wait to get things rolling.

Reading, Prepping, and Playing

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

It's this blog's equivalent of a clip show!

I'm only half joking.

Here's what has kept me occupied through the end of 2011 and is likely to keep me going through the first part of 2012:

A co-worker bought a copy of Lu Zhan Jun Qi for me for Christmas. It reminds me strongly of Stratego. In a good way. The copy I received is as pictured on the page I linked, too. It's gorgeous.

Asmodee gifted me with a copy of Eclipse. It scratches that Twilight Imperium itch in about half the time. Not only that, but I like it quite a bit more than TI - the rules are clearer with less errata and no need for an expansion to fix its problems.

Tonight, I hope to introduce my usual Wednesday crowd to Quebec. It was (for me) the Game of the Show at GenCon. I hope the Wednesday crowd takes to it as quickly.

Takenoko was in the same package as both Eclipse and Quebec. My first thought was, "Cute panda figure!" And then I had a chance to play. I like this game - it's cute-looking, but don't late that deceive you. There is a surprising amount of game in the box.

I'm enjoying Mongoose's participation in the Bits and Mortar program. I've filled in my RuneQuest II (now Legend) PDF's, and have grabbed most of my Traveller PDFs, as well. I really only need the core book most of the time.

Speaking of Traveller, I grabbed Chthonian Stars. It makes me really want to run a Traveller game.

I have also taken advantage of Pelgrane Press' participation in the Bits & Mortar program. I have most of the Gumshoe core books (lacking only Night's Black Agents), and so got those PDF's. And finally had a chance to read through them and spend some time thinking about them. Wow. I knew Gumshoe was an awesome system, but on re-reading, it really shines. Most games have an "automatic success" threshold somewhere in the rulebook - Gumshoe basically says, "if it's essential to drive the story, then it's an automatic success. Players can exert themselves for extra information if they want to."

I managed to acquire another PDF reader for the table, too. A customer gifted me with a Cydle M7. It's less powerful than my Kindle Fire, but will work as a PDF reader. We plan to use it as a cookbook in the kitchen - its built-in stand makes it ideal for that purpose.

And Cubicle 7 continues to hold my interest. I now own all of Qin: The Warring States. Well, all of it that's available in English, that is. The next book is reportedly suffering from some translation issues - which is perfectly understandable from where I'm sitting. Of course, I've spent most of the last decade working with a French publisher on translations ...

I hear from people that I don't give FFG enough credit for their good games. And it's true - I don't. Part of that is because I'm not buying any Games-Workshop licensed products. This removes the vast majority of FFG's output from my shopping list immediately. But I've played a few of them - and, for the most part, I do enjoy their board games. In the next year, however, two of my most-anticipated games are coming from FFG, both of them reprints of a sort (and neither of them is Merchant of Venus).

Rex: Final Days of an Empire is FFG's rethemed reprint of the old Avalon Hill/Eon Dune board game. I have a copy already, but the reprint means I may be able to actually get it to the table.

They're also reprinting WizWar. Again: I have a copy, but it never sees the table these days. Which is a shame, because it's fun.

And, finally, a reminder of my post from yesterday: Gaming at Phoenix Games in Mukilteo for New Year's Eve. We'd love to see you there.

New Year's Eve

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

Got New Year's Eve plans, yet?

If not, you should consider joining us at Phoenix Games' annual Game (All) Night.

Kicking off Saturday at 5pm and wrapping up on Sunday when everyone goes home (Brian scheduled it for 2:30, but I've not gotten out of there before 8am).

It's $5 (or you can bring a dish for the potluck). The $5 goes towards basics like plates, cups, napkins, etc. So don't feel bad if you bring cash instead of food. The usual guideline for food is to bring enough for your group plus one. And we always need real food (that's not to say that chips and cookies are unwelcome, mind you).

Tomorrow: What I'm reading, prepping, and playing.

Holiday Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

... and this is the post where I take a week away from discussing gaming to wish each and every one of you a happy holiday. I don't care if you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, a birthday, the coming of the New Year, or any of the dozens and dozens of holidays which are celebrated this time of year: I hope this season is filled with joy and love and laughter for you.

I pray you are surrounded by family and/or friends who appreciate your company and enjoy your presence.

I hope you get to play that game you've been trying to get to the table. And I hope you win, even if your opponent is another of my readers.

Next week, I'll have a longer post covering what I've been reading, prepping, and playing - look for a batch of capsule reviews, and an overview of 2011. Maybe a few bits of info. on 2012 (if I can get permission to post them).

Thank you for reading - it's the best gift most of you can give me, and I very much appreciate it.

I'll see you next week.

GenCon 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

At about this time every year, I start to stress out about GenCon. I worry that I screwed something up the previous year and won't be invited back. I worry that maybe they needed me at some point when I was eating lunch and couldn't find me, and so I'm done.

I worry because I haven't seen any new rules in a few months, so maybe they've found someone else who will cost them less money and do a better job ...

It's all completely ridiculous. I know. I work hard for them, and they know it. Have known it for a good long while, in fact.

Even so, I was greatly reassured a few weeks back to get an e-mail from Asmodee. They're sending me some games. And I've had a sneak peek at the GenCon 2012 plans.

I can't spill the beans, but I really want to. All I can say is that 2012 will be one of the Best GenCons Ever for me. I say "one of" because that first GenCon will be hard to top - not because it was particularly great, but because it was My First GenCon.

Either way, the e-mail has reminded me that GenCon is coming. And, even though GenCon is only a part of my schedule for a few weeks per year, there are people working year-round on it. I wonder if Asmodee didn't finish last year's convention only to start immediately working on this one.

In fact, I have a hunch that it's always in the back of people's minds in this industry. I'm sure that, as they decide what to publish when, they have the various conventions marked on their calendars. "This game is a big box. While we could release it at any point between July and October, it'd be a good release for GenCon." Or Origins. Or Essen. Or whatever convention they choose to push. Larger publishers can probably release games at multiple conventions - "If we release this game at Origins, that leaves us that game for GenCon and that other game at Essen."

All of which is a reminder to me. My work in the gaming industry is part-time and seasonal. I do the non-demo work a few months before games are released, and it's sporadic at best. There is no way I could make a living at it. But there are people who do make a living in the industry. Some of them make a pretty decent living at it - and they can't afford to lose sight of little things like convention dates.

And - even more amazingly to me - the folks working to make GenCon entertaining and wonderful are a microcosm of the industry as whole, which is people working to entertain us in our homes on our own schedules.

It's really rather intimidating for me to think about - that's a lot of people trying to keep us entertained ...

Designers & Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:05:00 +0000

I first saw a blurb on Designers & Dragons on RPG.net (which shouldn't be surprising, as Shannon Appelcline is one of the bigwigs there). Hmm, I thought, that could be interesting. But it's likely to be a long dry read.

Then I saw it on Amazon. Fifty bucks? Who would pay fifty bucks for a book of gaming history? But I wishlisted it - in part to keep track of its availability. See I have a large wishlist. Terrifyingly so, at times.

It's also available as a PDF from DriveThru. Yet again, the price put me off from buying it.

Then, a few weeks back, my good friend Wade showed up at my house for a planned day of hanging out. "Have you seen this?" He pulled the book out of the trunk of his car.

The first thing I had to say was, "Wow. That thing's a tome." Followed almost immediately by, "I see why it's fifty bucks!"

It's big. And it's beautiful. And, at that point, I knew I had to own it.

Wade graciously allowed me to flip through it for a few.

It's few weeks later, and I now own a copy. This book reminds me of the Hero system's core book from the 5th Edition - the one everyone called FRED? It's massive.

Rather than writing in a strictly chronological order, Appelcline wrote his history publisher-by-publisher. He separated them into a number of different eras, and then handled each era in roughly chronological order.

The entries are well-researched and filled with interesting information. And Appelcline's writing style is very approachable (with occasional bits of snark, where appropriate).

The real beauty of this book doens't become clear until you hit the end of an entry. You see, Appelcline didn't write this book to be read straight through. You can if you want to, but you'll miss out on the ability to follow a single thread - Gary Gygax's career, for example. Game Publishers which Sue Their Fans. The Future Publisher(s) of RuneQuest.

It's a very different way to read the book, and it's oddly engrossing. My only complaint with this is minor - a page reference would be helpful for this thread-jumping.

I have caught a fair number of editing hiccups - wrong words, missing words, misspellings, and the like. It's a bit distracting at points, but doesn't detract hugely from the book itself.

It's clear Appelcline loves his hobby, and a lot of research went into this volume.

The book won't be for everyone. If you aren't a hardcore gamer, this book isn't for you. If, on the other hand, you know someone who is hardcore, then this would be an excellent gift, provided they don't already own it.

Player Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:05:00 +0000

I received an e-mail from one of my Dungeons & Dragons DMs a few days back. He's having doubts about continuing the game because he's read on a number of blogs and forums that Epic Tier "blows" in 4e.

Apparently a lot of game bloggers have different goals when playing games, and there are either mechanical issues or balance problems or something that bugs these other bloggers that doesn't bother me.

You see, when I play games, my goals change as the game goes on.

At lower power levels, my goal is to learn the system and have fun with Kewl Character Powers. This is also when I'll start to look at higher-level elements to figure out what direction I want the character to take, including powers and abilities to pick up in the future. At low levels, I get an idea of a character's potential - and it doesn't matter if the game is D&D or L5R or Burning Wheel. This is also the point at which I start to get a handle on a character's personality. Thorssen, my first-level Paladin of the Raven Queen, for example, started out looking at moving towards a Warlord multiclass, but he wound up being much less warlike than I had expected once he hit the table.

Lower levels are also when the party dynamic is figured out - this is a group goal. It's when we figure out that Thorssen and Kaden (the party's Cleric) will banter back and forth and try to convert one another. Both respect the other (and the other's God), but they communicate best via light teasing. Thorssen is a bit afraid of Thava, our party's Dragonborn Wizard - you can tell in part because he tends to move away from her when a fight starts. Out of combat, he barely speaks to her at all. He's got a soft spot for the party's Thief, and he respects the fighter. He often moves to help either with their flanking. He also has a habit of making himself a target so that the rest of the party can maneuver around him.

The mid-level game is when the party dynamic is pretty well set. My goal for the character may change, depending on what personality turns he's taken. For example, Thorssen had initially multiclassed into Bard (it did the same thing as the Warlord without being ... well ... warlike). And then, a few levels later, he retrained out of it, as it didn't fit. It was too social for him. Thorssen is a high-Charisma character that isn't particularly social by nature. And no, we're not using Charisma as Attractiveness (at least, I don't think we are ... ).

As we head into higher levels, my goal in play will be working on the internal party relationships more and more. Do I have kewl powers? Yes. Do they matter? Not really. It's great that I can be a part of the team.

At all levels of play, however, my biggest goal as a player is getting to interact with my friends. Not Thorssen's friends - my friends. John and Katie and Jim and Dawn and Stephanie and (occasionally guest-starring) Wade.

In fact, that social aspect is my biggest goal no matter what game I'm playing. I don't care if it's No Thanks! or Burning Empires or Fireborn. I come to the table (whether a real physical table or a virtual web-based table) because around that table are people I like with whom I want to spend more time.

I might even play Fluxx, if that's what it'd take to get these folks to the table with me.

Kindle Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:05:00 +0000

It's not often that cnet's Eric Franklin and I both talk about the same thing. In fact, I tend to avoid discussing too many tech things in part because I don't want to be mistaken for him - he's an expert in his field, and electronics are his field.

Last week, however, my Kindle Fire arrived.

Fair warning: This post has three videos in it, so those of you reading via RSS (or Kindle) may not be able to see the videos. I've filled in text overviews so that the videos are optional, and I am really hoping that their formatting doesn't make this entry illegible for you.

When gaming, I like having two copies of the necessary books - one for the GM and one for the player(s). Having a tablet gives me a shortcut for this - I can have one print copy for the players, and then the tablet for my own reference. DriveThruRPG has been a godsend for me on several fronts - and, with the addition of my Fire, it has potential to be even more useful (and dangerous to my wallet).

Some of you may recall that I have a Kindle DX that I have been using to read PDF files for several years, now. As a pure reader, it was exceptional ... most of the time.

Some of you may also recall that there is one PDF that has been the bane of my Kindle's existence: Houses of the Blooded.

It took upwards of ten minutes to render a single page of this particular file on the DX, which made for some very frustrating reading. Even then, the render was ... less-than-perfect. And the "convert" option that Amazon advertised turned it into an unreadable hash. So did conversion via Calibre.

Now, keep in mind: I have had my Fire all of two days at this point. There is probably something I'm overlooking for one or more of these programs that would improve the few negative portions of this experience.

So here is my Kindle Fire with its built-in PDF reader showing how it can read Houses of the Blooded:

Not too shabby. It loads quickly, it scrolls smoothly, it zooms well. In fact if I were just reading the PDF and not trying to use it to run a game, I'd use this built-in reader nearly every time. It's fast, it's smooth, and it looks good. Not only that, but it remembers where I left off.

But it won't work At The Table, because there's no search option. If I don't know what page something is on, I have no fast way to look it up.

Adobe also produced a version of their Acrobat Reader for the Android Platorm. It's free for the Fire, so I gave that one a spin, too.

I was less impressed with this one. It was slower than the built-in reader, and just plain didn't look as good. But it has a few bells and whistles that the barebones reader lacked. Most notably, the ability to search the file.

For a free At The Table file reader, this one gets the nod - If I'm looking for a rule, I can search for a word that is in that rule and have a shot at finding it relatively quickly.

Finally, I used QuickOffice Pro - it's not free, though. This software allows you to open more than just PDF files - there is a free version that lets you read these other files, but not change them. The pro version lets you both open and modify Word and Excel files and, as an added bonus, lets you read PDF files.

It had a few rendering artifacts here and there, but on the whole it was much faster than the Adobe software AND was searchable. If I were using my Fire at the table, this is the app I would use. QuickOffice can integrate itself with your Dropbox and Google Docs, too, making it easy to put the files onto your Fire without needing to move them around (most of my DriveThruRPG library has been migrating to my DropBox as a convenient storage area).

All in all, I will definitely be packing my Fire along as a game aid. For the first time to see if it's as useful as having the book (without being too distracting). After that, I suspect it'll be just another game aid. Much like dice or pencils are.

AFK Tavern: Second Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about a new local business - the AFK Tavern. I wrapped up with, "I would eat there again." It took me nearly a year to do so, but we went back for another shot.

We were promptly greeted even before we made it to the door - a significant change from last time. We were offered a tour and were shown to our table almost immediately.

We noticed pretty quickly that the menu had changed. Their drink menu had grown significantly, for one. There wasn't a list of Games On Tap on the menu anymore, either.

We picked something that looked promising, and our server took our drink order very promptly.

And then we waited. It was close to twenty minutes before our drinks were served. Mind you, the place was packed, so I expected a delay when I ordered.

What I hadn't expected was that there were only two servers (or "NPCs") on duty that night plus two other folks who must have been managers. It was about five minutes after our drinks arrived that we were able to order our food. And then - again - we waited.

Last time, the mozzarella sticks were barely warm in the middle, as if the fryer temp was too high. I think they have lowered their fryer temperature since then, because this time the mozzarella sticks were much better. They were crispy on the outside and still mostly hot on the inside. A HUGE improvement over last time.

The fried pickles were tasty - but a bit cold by the time they made it out to us. And they could have done with a dip of some sort (ranch dressing is a fairly common dip for deep-fried pickle slices - Food Network offers this recipe).

Shortly after the appetizers arrived, we requested glasses of water, and I ordered a glass of mead (I'm a sucker for a good mead). When the mead arrived, it was room temperature. Mead should be chilled - it reduces the burn and enhances the sweet.

Our food arrived a few minutes after our appetizers were finished. My Orcburger was good. On the previous visit, it had been both cold and burnt. That was not a problem this time - it was really good. It took a while for the water to arrive, however. Our server wandered past the table three or four times before bringing it to us.

The dessert selection was impressive. My wife's mousse was really good and rich enough that she couldn't finish it. My lemon drop cheesecake was tasty and had the perfect texture (which is make-or-break for a cheesecake).

In fact, my only real complaint this time around was the slow service. I still have some of the same concerns as I had last time, but they seem to be turning the tables over quickly enough. And they've managed to stay open for a year, now.

This time, out, I can give them a solid B. The only thing they need to bump that to an A is to increase the service. I will definitely be back, just not on a Friday.

Jack Vasel Memorial Fund Auction

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:05:00 +0000

This will be a shorter post than usual:

A few weeks back, I talked briefly about some of the game-oriented and gamer-driven charities that are out there. One of those that I mentioned was the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund.

They are hosting a fund-raising auction on BoardGameGeek. Go! Bid! You only have about a week left!

In an ideal world, everything will go for more than double cover price.

GeekGirlCon Debrief

noreply@blogger.com (Setauuta) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:05:00 +0000

Sometime last year, I remember getting a business card announcing something called GeekGirlCon. The icon looked very interesting, and what little I heard made it sound interesting. I started hearing more about it as it got closer, and when I realized that it was happening near us, I figured it would be worth a shot.

Since it’s a first-time convention, I was expecting it to be fairly small, and probably slightly un-organized. While it was small, I was pleasantly surprised by how well-run the whole thing was. The panels were in two different locations at the Seattle Center, with about a 10 minute walk between them. The moderators were kind enough to end the panels about 10 minutes before the scheduled end time to give both the panelists and attendees the time to get from one location to the other, which I appreciated - it meant that I didn’t feel as rushed when trying to go from one panel to the next. There were clear signs showing where things were happening, which was good, as the panels were being held in rooms in much larger buildings and would have been a bit hard to find if you didn’t know exactly where they are.

There was a dealers’ room, which was pretty small and cramped, but full of some incredible vendors. One of the really neat things was how happy all of the vendors were to be there - every sale was a moment of victory. A lot of them seemed to be either local folks or people who sold primarily online, so conventions still seemed new and exciting. The vendors were all of the people that I look for at other conventions - costumes, jewelry, books, board games...it was a very dangerous room for my wallet. The University Bookstore had a stall and used it for author and artist signings, which led to a bit of a backup in the aisles. Little things like that are pretty easy to fix, though, so I don’t see that it would an issue next year, depending on the venue.

The panelists were amazing - there were some pretty big names mixed with some local talent. My dear friend Gwen was on a panel about audio drama (insert shameless plug here), and an incredible panel on YA included Scott Westerfeld (of Leviathan and Uglies fame) and Hope Larson, who recently finished drawing a graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time. There was a really interesting panel on killing cattiness in the geek community, and I realized that it’s the kind of panel that couldn’t happen at many conventions. The panelists and attendees managed to discuss cattiness without descending into cattiness themselves, which is impressive - they were able to calmly discuss issues they’d seen (and, in some cases, participated in), without calling names or getting into any fights themselves.

I think that demonstrates one of the best things about this convention - the overall atmosphere was incredibly welcoming and open. I’ve always talked about geekdom as being like a group of different languages, and most conventions focus on only one or two different languages - video games, board games, anime, that sort of thing. This convention, however, incorporated everything - there were panels about costuming, video games, writing, and a pretty decent open gaming area. The main thread that connected everything was not the language of geek we all speak, but the fact that we were women. There were plenty of guys there, too - some of them looked like they were dragged there by their girlfriends, but most looked like they were happy to be there on their own. The different kinds of geek were mingling freely, and the costumes ran the gamut from anime characters to many, many Princess Leias.

Overall, it was the most welcoming environment that I’d ever been in, and it was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt at a convention. I’m hoping to help out next year, and I am definitely looking forward to going again and seeing how it grows. If you’re in the Seattle area next fall, I highly recommend stopping by and watching GeekGirlCon demonstrate how a geek convention should be run.

Merchants of Venus

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:05:00 +0000

There was a bit of a stir last week at Essen, when two different publishers announced that they had secured the rights to the (out of print) Merchants of Venus game.

Stronghold Games has been working with the original designer, Richard Hamblen. Fantasy Flight Games has been working with the descendents of the original publisher, Avalon Hill (now a division of Hasbro).

So who legally holds the rights to produce the game? That's the million dollar question.

Something that I haven't mentioned before,

It's entirely possible that both publishers could do versions of the game, provided one of them doesn't use the original art and rules text.

Yes, really.

Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.

Of course, then one of them may claim the other has published a derivative work and another kettle of fish (which I freely admit to not understanding at all) is opened.

We could have another Scrabble vs Scrabulous situation, here - and there is some excellent analysis of that (now old and resolved) situation here. It may also turn into a Steam/Age of Steam debacle.

Personally, I'd like to see both versions hit the market - Stronghold has a history of doing an excellent job with their various reprints, and Fantasy Flight has done an excellent job of cleaning up and/or chroming their reprints.

But that's not likely to happen.

As one BGG user said:

So the situation on the rights of old Avalon Hill-games is as unclear as people always said, eh? Very bad for all involved parties and maybe no one really is to blame.

Here's hoping that it ends well for all - including the fans.

But you'll forgive me if I have my doubts of a positive outcome.

Claustrophobia: De Profundis

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:05:00 +0000

For those of you just joining us, it's the expansion to Claustrophobia which is due late this month (or early next month), if CROC manages to retrieve the copies from the South Pacific.

A few weeks back, I shared an unboxing video for Claustrophobia de Profundis.

A few days after that, Asmodee posted a video they shot at GenCon of me, talking briefly about the game.

So what's left to say?
A fair amount - the video doesn't show off just how well-put-together the pieces are. Seriously: Check these beauties out:

Now, because this is the internet and people on the internet seem to need to complain, allow me to complain about these figures for you. Or more accurately, allow me to list the complaints I've seen about these figures:

1) The Sicaria need eyes.
2) The clothing the Sicaria are wearing is too bright.
3) The Hellhounds don't seem to be as detailed as the Troglodytes from the base game were.

Sounds like ... really minor complaints, honestly. Would the Sicaria look better with eyes? Probably. But I don't know that I'd have been satisfied with poorly-done eyes, either. My Redeemer has slightly crazy-looking eyes - it's appropriate, mind you. The Redeemer always comes across (to me, at least) as a bit unhinged.

The clothing for the Sicaria isn't actually bright. They're armored. So the Sicaria (Angela and Ruth, according to CROC) are the only characters in the game (other than the Redeemer) wearing any sort of armor. In fact, these are not cheesecake figures by any stretch of the imagination, which is nice.

So what's in the box?

Sphere covered this. What he didn't mention is that there are TWELVE scenarios in there - that's double what was in the base game.

I've played a few of the scenarios, too - it's good. Really good.

A few months ago, Asmodee posted something on their websitesite that caused my wife to comment. They basically said, "If you dislike Claustrophobia, you're going to hate the expansion." She thought it was bad marketing. But it's true.

What this set does is take the base game and turn it up a few notches. Everything I liked about the base game is enhanced with the expansion. The Demon player has difficult decisions to make with their dice every turn - do they need to get more TP? What's a better choice: 2 TP to buy a Demon or an extra die next turn? Will a card help? What's more important in this situation: A Demon or a Troglodyte?

With the addition of the expansion, the Demon player has to keep track of their Hellhounds, too. They only cost 3 TP to summon, and get a free die in the turn in which they're summoned. But in later turns, they use of one of the Demon player's dice.

The Humans previously had to decide where to put their dice to do the most good during initiative - the Sicaria don't make that decision any easier, as their skills make them different both from one another and from the rest of the team. Not only that, but the question of attacking the Demon or the Trogs is harder, because it's possible to attack Demons, Troglodytes, and Hellhounds.

All in all, it's a very strong expansion that doesn't detract from the base game at all. It maintains its strong theme and continues to be a joy and a delight.

Short Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:05:00 +0000

I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire. I'll let you know what I think once it gets here - the appeal to me is the statement that it'll have a "desktop-quality" PDF reader. While I love reading PDF's on my Kindle DX, it's inconvenient when gaming because it's not as easy to search for a specific rule if a question comes up. I will post a full review once it arrives. Well, a few weeks after it arrives. I need to test it thoroughly, first.

Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple is a bit like Fiasco backwards. In Fiasco, things start out messed up and then continue to go bad. In Do, the PCs are there to fix a problem and, more often than not, should succeed. And, as an added bonus, it's much more kid-friendly. Definitely worth picking up.

Jungle Speed is now available at Target, Toys-R-Us, and some Wal*Mart stores. I've personally seen it at Target at Toys-R-Us. I hope they sell a billion of them. There's even a commercial that is airing on Nickelodeon and Cartoon network. It's worth noting that the game no longer includes a wooden totem - it comes with a soft rubber totem. To my mind, this is a good thing - no more property damage from when the totem goes flying.

The Dungeon Twister video game has apparently been delayed. Again. The last word I'd had said "September 14." Obviously that date came and went. There's a fairly recent video on TricTrac.tv that shows Chris Boelinger talking about the game. If I spoke French, I'd love to translate it. Sadly, I only speak English, and I'm not even terribly good at that. I hear that it may be playable at Essen this year - it was playable at the recent Asmoday. When I get more news about its release, I'll share it with you. Believe me, I want this at least as much as most of you. Probably more, actually. After all, I've written more about Dungeon Twister in all its forms than nearly anyone else out there, including Chris. Also? I've seen several teasers for the next set, Traps. I can't wait to see how the finished product plays.

The game I'm most excited about from Essen? I'm not sure. Takenoko looks amazing (and simple). Cyclades: Hades looks to be a lot of fun. Ghost Stories: Black Secret should be good. There's a standalone 51st State expansion coming, too. Of course Claustrophobia de Profundis is good, but I already have it. It's hard to get excited about the release of a game you already have ... there are just so many good games hitting all at once.

Speaking of Good Games, Tikal II won the Games Magazine Game of the Year. I don't always agree with their decisions, but I've been saying since I got it that Tikal II isn't a bad game - it's just that people are too busy comparing it to the original. I honestly think the game has been hurt by its association with the original. The only thing they have in common is their theme and their designers.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but Gamethyme.com now has a favicon. Those of you reading via RSS obviously haven't noticed. Thanks for the change, Blogger team! It's small but (for me, at least) important.

I'm considering changing the name of the blog from "Talking Game" to "Gamethyme's Talking Game" or "Talking Game with Gamethyme." Something like that. I don't want to drop "Talking Game" because I get a LOT of Google Hits from it, and I want to more deeply incorporate "Gamethyme" to the title. Thoughts and suggestions are, of course, welcome - just leave me a comment.

I went back to that game store I mentioned a few months ago. As soon as I was half-way through the door, I was greeted warmly and asked if I needed help finding anything. The guy knew right were it was, guided me there, and helped me find the exact one I needed. It still had the obnoxious Yu-Gi-Oh duel machine thing and the signs warning people not to use their table or their chess sets, but the staffer was a huge improvement. When I asked him what was new and good this week, he pointed out that new Games Workshop naval game. "Just about everything else," he told me, "is in a holding pattern for Essen." It means that he was at least marginally aware of the industry, unlike the folks that had been there during my previous visit. I'm happy with Phoenix Games, so I won't ever spend a lot of money here, but it means I can use this place as an emergency backup for supplies like sleeves or occasional games that Phoenix can't get for whatever reason (and there aren't a lot of those).

... and that about wraps up what I have to say this week. Next week, I'll be talking more about de Profundis. Unless something big drops in the meantime.

Ten Years of the Toyota Prius

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:05:00 +0000

I saw something on the news the other day about it being the tenth anniversary of the Toyota Prius. Has it really, I thought, been around for that long? Yes. It has. Eleven years, actually.

When it first came out, it was exciting and different and new. My friends would eagerly point them out whenever we were on the road and spotted one. "That's one," we'd say, "That's the future right there!"

But here's the thing: It's no longer an oddity on the roads. It's become just another car.

These days, it's the Tesla that draws our eyes and interest that way.

This year, Vampire: the Masquerade turns 20. White Wolf has put out a 20th Anniversary version of the game. I remember when it came out - it was new and revolutionary and different - a system that supported storytelling more than combat.

And now it's just another game. When you look at its influence, dozens of other games have taken cues from it. Or have tweaked some of its ideas and then improved upon it.

In fact, I've grown to dislike their system a great deal - in large part because other people have taken their ideas and improved upon them to the point where the original looks dull by comparison. But that's beside the point.

The real point is this: What was new and revolutionary a decade ago is now just another _______. Newer games have taken ideas from older games - mechanical ideas, mostly - and refined them. Polished them. Made them something new. There are more electric cars on the road than there used to be.

So, even though The One Ring is new and a "compelling blend of indie and old school designs," it is still standing on the shoulders of giants. And, in another decade, someone will be standing on its shoulders, too.

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to look as it representative of what is yet to come.

With ideas as diverse and unique as we're starting to see these days, I really can't wait to see where we're going.

Charities

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:05:00 +0000

Early this year, I had that minor issue with someone using one of my images without permission (and without following the terms of its Creative Commons license). In that post, I mentioned that I had requested a $50 donation to Child's Play.

Since then, I have received a number of e-mails from folks asking about game-related charities. At the time, I only knew of Child's Play and Toys for Tots. A few more have shown up since then.

Since it's now well into September, we are nearly to the holiday season. This is when charities start to gear up for their busy season, and I want to encourage you to give to charity.

These are the charities I know of who are either game-related or are tied in some way to gamers which I can recommend to you:

Childs Play - Originally started by the Penny Arcade guys, Child's Play initially focused on getting video games and video game systems for low-income or otherwise disadvantaged children. Over the years, it's grown well beyond that. I can, without hesitation, recommend Child's Play as a charity worth supporting.

Jack Vasel Memorial Fund - Tom Vasel is one of the internet's best-known and most prolific board game reviewers. Over the years, he's done an excellent job of letting us into his personal life in bits and pieces. Tom is also an amazing human being. In 2010, his son, Jack, was born too early. After struggling for longer than anyone had expected, he passed. The boardgamegeek community rallied and raised tens of thousands of dollars to help with the medical bills. Tom wishes to pay that forward. The Jack Vasel Memorial Fund gathers funds which are then given to gamers who are in need.

Foodmachine - I only recently became aware of this one. Apparently, a bunch of New Jersey-based Warmachine players formed it to give money to the local food bank.What started small and local has snowballed, with prizes now provided by Privateer Press. It's a great idea.

Toys for Tots - The USMC's annual toy drive also accepts games. My FLGS participates every year by putting out a big box for donation collection. They collect year-round, however, and also accept cash donations. Check the website for the local chapter near you.

And not game-related, but relevant to me, is Movember. I've decided to participate this year. Those of you who know me know that I have facial hair. In fact, I have had this facial hair since the mid nineties. I shaved it off for one month a few years back (and was paid $300 to do so). On October 31, I will be shaving it all off again, and then regrowing just the mustache, with normal facial hair to begin resuming in December.

I don't get any kickbacks or prizes for any donations to any of these charities. I support the missions of all of them (in one or two cases, I do so financially).

Cursed Items for D&D

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:05:00 +0000

Apparently Wizards of the Coast does listen to its fans.

Remember when I ranted about a lack of cursed items in 4E?

They're now available.

Finally.

It probably sounds weird that I'm so excited about this, because I'm not currently a 4E DM. I'm a player.

It's not as odd as it seems. I promise.

Currently, I know that every time I slay a foe, I can (and should) grab anything they drop that I can carry. I don't need to worry at all about drawbacks - it's a matter of, "Is this stuff better than what I already have or not?"

I miss the mystery of, "Is this safe to use?" or "Will this item have a drawback of some sort?" I miss powerful items that forced PC's to remove their armor. Or which had a risk associated with them - the Wizards article linked above makes it sound like the curses are added to the existing awesomeness of an item - so you might get a Dragon-slaying Backbiter blade +4 that has the power to do significant damage to Dragons (and nearly anyone else), but inflicts half-damage on its wielder in the case of a critical.

It means that PC's will need to think before mindless grabbing handfuls of loot. It may be that that blade +4 is better than my Longsword +2 - but is it worth the critical effect?

I, for one, can't wait to start seeing some of these items in play.

Jim and Jason: I'm not kidding. I'd love to see a few cursed items in our games from time to time.

The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:05:00 +0000

The Kobolds did it again: They've released another Kobold Guide. And offered me a free PDF to read.

The previous Guides had loads of solid information on writing and publishing RPGs and RPG Adventures. How to approach publishers, various models of design, and so on. I really loved them - enough that I purchased print copies after reading the free PDF copies.

The new one, however, hit me in a particular weak point missed by the others: Board Games.

The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is structured similarly to the three RPG-flavored volumes - that is, there is one "core" author, who does the interstitial work as well as an essay or two. This time, it's Mike Selinker who fills this role. There are also essays by Richard Garfield, James Earnest, Matt Forbeck, Jeff Tidball, Andrew Looney, and several others - all of whom I recognized (which says something about me).

It's divided into four parts: Concept, Design, Development, and Presentation.

Part 1: Concepting is just what it sounds like - working on coming up with an idea for a game, and it includes some thoughts about game design in general. I especially recommend reading Richard Garfield's essay in this section, in large part because I agree with him. I don't always like his games, but I do like what he has to say more often than not.

Part 2: Design overlaps a great deal with Part One. It does include the first thing in the book that made me actually laugh out loud - Andrew Looney's chart detailing his creative process. It ends with PUBLISH and then START FAQ FILE. It was an excellent reminder that publication is never done.

I particularly enjoyed Rob Daviau's essay from this section, where he discussed how a small rules tweak can clear out multiple paragraphs of rules text and make a game easier to learn.

For those of you who don't know, Mike Selinker has a Livejournal account dedicated to the "most beautiful" things. Each time he posts, he picks a category, and discusses what he finds to be the most beautiful example of that category. So it was not a surprise to find an essay here called, "The Most Beautiful Game Mechanics."

Part 3: Development has (no surprise) some overlap with the previous section. Rob Daviau's essay could easily have fit into this section. It's all about taking your game and then polishing it some more - generally it's polish that is out of the hands of the designer, too. Dave Howell's essay could easily have fit into Part 2, as it outlines a series of design rules.

Part 4: Presentation is all about that final coat of polish and what to present to potential publishers. Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) has the first essay in here, with a long list of "This is a bad idea and why." It's written interestingly, and demonstrates a solid understanding of gaming and gamers. Having been in business for as long as he has, it should come as no surprise that he has this depth of understanding.

Michelle Nephew's essay in this section seems to my (unpublished) mind to be the most useful. It summarizes much of the rest of the book, and does so clearly and concisely.

Even if you aren't thinking about designing a board game, I would still pick up a copy of this book - the sneak peek into the mind of some truly excellent designers is well worth the price of admission.

ICONS Contest: Results

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:25:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting - I got home late last night.

Here are the answers:

My favorite comic book character? Lobo. No-one got this one. Not surprising. Most of the guesses I received were fairly predictable - Batman, Superman, Wolverine, and Green Lantern led the pack.

My favorite superheroic system? The old Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP system. After a brief discussion with my wife last night, I would also have accepted Smallville (which I think of as being a soap opera game, even though it is a super hero-genre game. FASERIP got a fair number of guesses. HERO system received a fair number of guesses. Mutants and Masterminds was the most popular guess.

No-one got both questions correct.

The winner was Uriah Otting, who did not have any correct guesses. Uriah, please check your e-mail and get back to me. Thanks to all for your participation.

Pax Prime 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:05:00 +0000

I had an excellent time at PAX Prime this year. Like most conventions, it was a fair amount of work and a huge pile of fun.

I was there to help Mindspan Labs demo ZoxSo. Going into the weekend, I was filled with dread - it'd been a while since I'd played, and I wasn't feeling as sharp as I usually do. And - to be perfectly honest - I'd like the game, but I wasn't a huge fan. So the prospect of playing a game like that over and over ... well ...

Friday morning, I met with Dave to go over our plan for the weekend. He re-taught me the game (and managed to show off a few of the strategies in the process). Which helped a lot - suddenly, I wanted to play more. He wandered off to check on something, and by the time he returned, I had an opponent at the table and was already mid-game.

I'll discuss the game in depth some other time - this post is about PAX, not ZoxSo - but it's fast-playing, fun, and has a surprising amount of strategic depth. Enough that I played it 70+ times this weekend, and I still want to play more.

I've been to GenCon and Origins. I even visited PAX a few years ago. And all three conventions have a very different feel from one another.

Origins is about playing games and teaching games. It's the focus of the con. It's the smallest of the three, but it holds the Fun of the Game above all other considerations.

GenCon is about selling the game. Sure, people are playing games all hours of day and night, and I play a lot of them there, but - at its heart - GenCon is much more mercantile than Origins.

PAX is ... different. For me, PAX is about the people. I had an opportunity to meet dozens of folks while teaching ZoxSo. I also got to teach the game to a number of good friends who I game with regularly.

I met a game store owner from the Midwest. I met a gentleman who works for Best Buy in the cellular phone department. I played with an insurance agent. I played with scientists and doctors and lawyers and game developers. I met the wife and mother of the designers of The Ares Project (coming soon from Z-Man games). I became re-acquainted with a friend I hadn't seen (or heard from) in over a decade.

And I got to keep an eye on the tournaments and board game area. And deal with the Enforcers.

PAX has the best volunteer team in the convention business. No question. They are unobtrusive, but omnipresent. And I saw them heading off problems before they even developed. Stuck in a long line and getting irritable? Odds are good that an Enforcer will be along shortly to entertain you. Vendor stuck at a table? Enforcers will bring you water, if you ask politely.

At one point, a cookie seller came by - they were selling cookies to raise money for Child's Play. It was all up to us what we donated, but if we hit the $30 level, you could get a "Yo Dawg" cookie. The woman who was selling to us had bacon-wrapped Nutter Butter cookies which were inside an Oreo cookie brownie ...it made me wish I had $30. It also bears mention: Child's Play is one of two of my charities of choice.

In short: PAX was amazing.

If you have the chance to attend PAX at any point, I heartily recommend that you do so.

Also: If you haven't already entered my ICONS Contest, you still have a few days.

ICONS Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Franklin) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:05:00 +0000

I recently purchased a print copy of ICONS from Cubicle 7.

As is their policy, when you purchase a print copy of one of their games, they will send you a free PDF from DriveThru RPG.

In this case, however, I already own ICONS in PDF. I bought it a few months ago, and very much enjoyed it.

This means that you can win my bonus PDF copy of ICONS.

All you have to do is answer a few quick questions that you probably don't know the answers to.

Here's the skinny (and it's much like my previous contest, also thanks to Cubicle 7 - keep distributing all the great games, guys!):

To enter, e-mail your answers to the following questions to contest@gamethyme.com by the time I check my e-mail one week from now (that is: On the 9th).

Your names, e-mail addresses, or other information about you will not be saved after the contest, and will not be shared, sold, saved, or used in any way that is not directly related to this contest.

You will receive one contest entry just for entering. Each correct answer also gains you an additional entry. As there are only two questions, no contestant will have more than three entries into the contest. On the day of decision, I will use random.org to determine a winner.

For the record: I don't think any of my friends know these answers. And I will not answer these questions if they come up in conversation with my friends until after the contest is completed.

Here are the questions:

Question 1: Who is my favorite comic book character?

Question 2: What is my favorite super-hero RPG system?

Good look, and I look forward to your answers.

Special thanks to both Cubicle 7 for offering PDFs with purchase and Adamant Entertainment for publishing ICONS.