Back on May 3rd, Green Ronin announced they’re working on a DC Comics roleplaying game based upon their Mutants & Masterminds system.  Here is a snippet from the press release:

Green Ronin Publishing announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with DC Comics and will be releasing the DC ADVENTURES RPG book this August. The game is based on Green Ronin’s Mutants & Masterminds, the leading super-hero RPG in the tabletop gaming world.

“It is DC’s 75th anniversary this year and I’m delighted we can help celebrate it by bringing the DC Universe back to the roleplaying hobby,” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “The team-up of the DCU and the creators behind Mutants & Masterminds will create an unstoppable force of great gaming!”

The DC ADVENTURES game will consist of four books, each done in full color and beautifully illustrated by top comic artists. The line launches in August with the DC ADVENTURES Hero’s Handbook. Following it will be Heroes & Villains, Volume 1 in the fall. Then 2011 will see the release of Heroes & Villains, Volume 2 and DC ADVENTURES: Universe.

Since then, Green Ronin has been running a Design Journal blog.  If you are interested in this game, this blog is definitely worth reading.  They’ve already revealed the Power Levels of the big heroes and villains (posted below just to cause some argument amongst the geeks).

Aquaman (12), Batman (12), Black Canary (10), Captain Marvel (15), Flash (12), Green Arrow (10), Green Lantern (14), Martian Manhunter (14), Nightwing (10), Plastic Man (11), Robin (8), Superman (15), Wonder Woman (15), and Zatanna (11)

Black Adam (16), Black Manta (10), Brainiac (13), Catwoman (10), Cheetah (12), Circe (14), Darkseid (16), Gorilla Grodd (12), The Joker (11), Lex Luthor (14), Prometheus (14), Sinestro (14), Solomon Grundy (14), Vandal Savage (13).

Additionally, they’ve published the stats for Green Lantern (Hal Jordan).  Click here to check out the Design Journal blog.

You can pre-order two of these books, Hero’s Handbook and Heroes & Villains vol 1, from most local comic book shops or Amazon.com.  Can’t wait to get this game in August!  Anyone else thinking about getting this game?

]]> http://onceuponageek.com/2010/06/22/dc-adventures-rpg/feed/ 7 http://onceuponageek.com/2010/04/22/star-wars-resume-role-playing-games/ http://onceuponageek.com/2010/04/22/star-wars-resume-role-playing-games/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:30:28 +0000 Shag http://onceuponageek.com/?p=3197 Concluding my Star Wars Resume!  In 1992 a former classmate named Serv and I assembled a group of folks to try the West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game.  Serv and I didn’t really know each other that well at the time, we just both happened to share an interest in Star Wars and RPGs.  Little did we know, but that group would be the catalyst that would lead Serv and me to become college roommates and life-long friends.  Serv, Bob, Ed, Pat, and I had a blast with that group and we continue to stay in touch through THE UNIQUE GEEK.  I’ve been a part of a few other Star Wars RPG groups since then, each of them full of great players and classic moments.

The West End Games (WEG) system was released in 1987 during Star Wars‘ wilderness years.  After Return of the Jedi in 1983, Star Wars fanaticism began to cool off.  By 1987 Star Wars was positively old news, so the WEG game didn’t really make a big splash.  However, people began to take notice once the system was awarded the “Origins Award” for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987.  Not only did the game contain a decent rules system, the books were chock-full of new Star Wars ideas and information.  In fact, it’s widely accepted that WEG established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  Lucasfilm considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy, he was sent a box of WEG Star Wars books and directed to base his novel on the background material presented within.  How’s that for an endorsement!  Once Star Wars popularity began to rise again in 1991, WEG was well-positioned to take advantage of the resurgence.  In 1994 WEG took to publishing its own original fiction in their quarterly Star Wars Adventure Journal, featuring stories from authors like Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, Kevin J. Anderson, Barbara Hambly, and Kathy Tyers.  Sadly, WEG lost the Star Wars license to Wizards of the Coast around the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Below you’ll find all my Star Wars RPG books.  Click the image to enlarge.

WEST END GAMES

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – First Edition
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – Second Edition
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – Second Edition – Revised and Expanded
• Gamemaster Handbook
• Gamemaster Screen – Second Edition
• Gamemaster Screen – Second Edition – Revised
• Star Wars Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Movie Trilogy Sourcebook
• Rebel Alliance Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Imperial Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Tales of the Jedi Companion
• Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
• Heroes and Rogues
• Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races
• Galaxy Guide 8: Scouts
• Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim
• Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters
• Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations
• Rules of Engagement: Rebel Specforce Handbook
• Platt’s Starport Guide
• Pirates and Privateers
• Fantastic Technology
• Fantastic Technology: Droids
• Fantastic Tech: Personal Gear
• Cracken’s Rebel Field Guide
• Wanted by Cracken
• Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy
• Flashpoint! Brak Sector
• Classic Adventures: Volume 2
• Classic Adventures: Volume 3
• DarkStryder Campaign Box Set
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 7
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 9
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 11

WIZARDS OF THE COAST

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition
• Gamemaster Screen
• Star Wars Gamer Magazine Numbers 1 – 5

NON-ROLEPLAYING BOOKS I FOUND USEFUL WHILE GAMING (not pictured)

• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Essential Guide to Droids
• The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
• The Essential Chronology
• The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook

Such a great game!  Even if you don’t care about the RPG rules themselves, you can sit down and read these books for hours as they are so interesting and truly flesh out the Star Wars universe.

This is going to wrap-up my Star Wars Resume for now, but check back tomorrow for some really unique Star Wars comic art.

With that said.. I LOVE IT!  This pathetic little ad inspired me to try roleplaying and seek out further comic adventures of these heroes.  Sometimes greatness comes from humble beginnings.  Click the image to enlarge.

I’ve only just started flipping through the set, but I gotta say this is a truly gorgeous game!  Each book has glossy, full-color pages.  There are several loose character sheets, each printed on heavy-cardstock.  There are punch-out cardboard tokens for Story Points.  It’s just well put together and beautiful.  For a video walk-thru of the box set contents click here.  For a seven-page PDF preview of The Player’s Guide, click here.  I’ve only scratched the surface of the contents and can’t wait to read it cover-to-cover.  For now though, here are a few things I’ve noticed that relate to my playtesting group…

CREDITS

Here are the credits listed on the inside cover of The Player’s Guide.

And a close up on the Playtester’s paragraph…

Hooray!  My thanks to Cubicle 7 for the shout-out!  My group, called THE UNIQUE GEEKS, consisted of Sterling, SGhoul, Scott C, Shavenger, and myself.  We read through early drafts of the rules, ran a few adventures, and created lots of characters and gadgets.  Then provided feedback to Cubicle 7 on all of this.  I’m happy to say some of our contributions made it into the final draft!  Now, I hope I’m not breaking some unspoken playtester rule by talking about which contributions were from my group.  If so, I deeply apologize to the almighty playtester gods and humbly offer to sacrifice myself on the altar of the omniscient 20-sider.  Additionally, I’m not trying to take anything away from David F. Chapman or the folks at Cubicle 7.  They’ve created a great game and deserve to be praised for everything they did.  They did all the heavy-lifting creating the game from scratch, we just came along and piggybacked on their ideas and made a few suggestions.  I’m honored to have been invited to the playtest and honored that the folks at Cubicle 7 thought some of our suggestions were good enough to include.

GADGETS

For one particular adventure, I developed four different gadgets.  Gadgets are unique devices or tools characters carry with them for specific purposes.  While going through the new box set, I was blown away as I stumbled across two gadgets I created printed right next to the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper!  Wow!  I created the “Engineer’s Mate” and the “Engram Eraser”, both shown below.  Click the image to enlarge.  I created these gadgets for an earlier draft of the rules, so some of the stats have changed since I came up with the concepts.  However, the gadget name, traits, and purpose remain the same.  My compliments to whoever wrote the descriptive paragraph.  They did a great job taking the idea and explaining it succinctly and effectively.  Nicely done!

You can’t tell from this scan, but each gadget on the page below is perforated so you can pop them out of the page!  So cool!

TRAITS

One of the areas we provided lots of feedback and suggestions on was “Traits”.  I’ve noticed looking over the new box set that several of the “Traits” we suggested have been incorporated.  Now it’s quite possible that several other playtesters suggested the same particular “Traits” that we did, so I’m not claiming that we’re solely responsible for these.  “Traits” we suggested that appear in the final game include: Sense of Direction, Animal Friendship, Owed Favour, Unattractive, Owes Favour, Argumentative, Dark Secret, Impulsive, and Selfish.  Again, my compliments to whoever wrote the lengthy descriptions for each of these.  We just shared a germ of an idea from a game mechanic perspective, whereas someone at Cubicle 7 beautifully wrapped explanations and examples around it.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to take a deep-dive into these books and savor every detail!  In fact, I may be so wrapped up in this game that I fail to post here for a few days. 

The Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space role-playing game by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd was released a couple weeks ago in England, and I should finally get my hands on a copy today!  I ordered the game through my LCS, which is getting it from Diamond Comics Distributors.  Diamond has it listed on their shipping list for today!  Hot dog!

I’ve posted about the game previously, but again I gotta say how impressed I am with the package they’ve put together for this game.  First off, it’s a box set.  How cool is that?!?!  What game company has put out a decent RPG box set in years?  Everyone just publishes hardbacks nowadays.  Also, this box set is packed!  Check out the video below done by my buddy The Acrobatic Flea.  He posted this on his excellent blog, HeroPress, to demonstrate how nicely this box set was put together.  It’s even got a hinged cover!  Way to go Cubicle 7!  Even if you don’t care for Doctor Who, you gotta admit this is a well-designed product.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded video above.

Below is a list of the contents as you saw them in the video:

• Player’s Guide (86 pages)
• Gamemaster’s Guide (144 pages)
• Adventure Book (30 pages)
• Character sheets (including pre-generated characters for the series cast)
• Dice
• Blank Character Sheets
• Gadget sheets
• Story Point Tokens

You can purchase a PDF version of the box set right now from DriveThruRPG by clicking here.  You can also join the discussion forum for the game by clicking here.

Upcoming supplements to the game include: Doctor Who Gamemaster’s Screen; Aliens and Creatures; and Defending the Earth (U.N.I.T. box set).  Also, next summer they’ll release a Matt Smith/11th Doctor themed edition.  It won’t be an all-new edition, mostly just updating the visuals and the branding.

Finally, I’ve heard a rumor that there is a credit to me and my playtesting group inside – Shag (and the Unique Geeks).  I’m totally stoked about that!  I got mentioned in an official Doctor Who publication!  My life is now complete! 

Biggest change below is the new flat-screen monitor for the desktop!  Hooray!  Love it!

Added a new bookcase, which will help get some things organized.  I still need to fill the shelves (which won’t take long).  Yes, the top shelf of the left bookcase is entirely full of Doctor Who audio dramas, and the middle bookcase is almost entirely full of Doctor Who books and RPGs (with Doctor Who videos and magazines stacked on top).  Some of those book shelves are actually stacked three deep.  Feel free to be jealous or horrified.  Your choice.

This corner is most interesting because all the yard equipment is gone!  We enclosed an outside shed-like-thing and moved all the yard equipment out there.  So my Comicatorium is no longer an impromptu garage.  Also, got my Tom Fleming prints framed and hung.  Loving them!  Thanks to Sterling for buying the Aquaman print and starting my love affair with Fleming’s work.

Finally, here is the overflow of comic boxes from my closet.  The nice thing is that they are alphabetized and organized!  Hooray!  I’m now up to 47 comic long boxes.  I’m dreading ever moving again.

]]> http://onceuponageek.com/2009/10/28/shags-comicatorium-update/feed/ 10 http://onceuponageek.com/2009/10/23/doctor-who-roleplaying-game-solicitations/ http://onceuponageek.com/2009/10/23/doctor-who-roleplaying-game-solicitations/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:37 +0000 Shag http://onceuponageek.com/?p=2147 As I’ve reported here previously, I’m totally excited for the release of the Doctor Who roleplaying game by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.  Myself and four friends were playtesters for this RPG back in the first quarter of 2008, so we’ve been waiting a long time for this to come out.  Below are the three solicited items so far.  I CAN’T WAIT!!!!

Additionally, over on Cubicle 7′s forum you can preview the Blank Character Sheet, as well as seven pages of the Player’s Guide.  These pages look gorgeous!  Great work by Cubicle 7!  My thanks to my buddies over at HeroPress.net and Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery for mentioning these preview pages. Otherwise I may have missed them.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Core Set

On sale November 30, 2009

Imagine you could go anywhere. This world or countless others, encountering strange alien races, new cultures or hostile environments. Now imagine you could travel to any time. See the pyramids and the Sphinx (back when she had a nose!), discover who (or what) really built Stonehenge, meet the first Emperor of Japan, or travel into the far future as humanity spreads to the stars. Where would you go?

With Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, the power is in your hands! You can go anywhere or anywhen in the universe. It’s not going to be easy. It’ll probably be dangerous. The universe is a hostile place, full of Daleks, Slitheen, Krillitane, Sontarans, Plasmavores, Cybermen, Sycorax, Judoon and worse. There will be fear, heartbreak and excitement, but above all, it’ll be the trip of a lifetime.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space is a roleplaying game set in the universe of the world’s longest running science fiction show on TV – the BBC’s Doctor Who. Published in a boxed format, the core set includes:

• Player’s Guide (86 pages)
• Gamemaster’s Guide (144 pages)
• Adventure Book (30 pages)
• Quick Start Guide (4 page)
• Character sheets (including pre-generated characters for the series cast), Blank Character Sheets, and Gadget sheets
• Story Point Tokens and Dice

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space has been written to appeal to both the experienced and first time gamer.

Doctor Who Gamemaster’s Screen

On sale December 14, 2009

Packed with all the information a Gamemaster needs for easy reference during a session of Doctor Who, this ‘deluxe’ four-panel thick screen will last for years of Adventures in Time and Space.

Aliens and Creatures

On sale January/February 2010

In the vast expanse of space wait creatures beyond the imagination. Mutants housed in impenetrable armour, vast criminal families that disguise themselves in the skins of their victims, and thousands of cloned soldiers ready to conquer and crush.

But it’s not all evil and danger out there. The songs of the peaceful enslaved echo through time, while others try to protect the weaker species in the endless night of space.

Aliens and Creatures is an expansion set for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game.

Within this box you will find:

• 148 page rulebook detailing many of the creatures faced in the Doctor’s latest adventures including the Cult of Skaro, Davros, the Weeping Angels and the Hath, as well as additional rules for creating your own creatures both as enemies or as playable characters
• 32 page Adventure book, featuring a whole new ready-to-play adventure and many ideas for additional stories
• Additional Story Point Counters
• Alien Record Cards for easy reference

Below are a few snapshots from Dragon*Con 2008.  I typically take about 400 pictures each event.  While these aren’t really the best quality shots, they do give you an idea of some the diverse things going on.

Click here to view all my Dragon*Con photos on Flickr.  Also, for some of my favorite Dragon*Con shots click here and click here.  Finally, you can read about my 2008 Dragon*Con exploits by clicking here, here, here and here.

Shag and Captain America.  Check out my t-shirt.  Eat that, Steve Rogers!

Shag and Iron Man.  Again with the t-shirt backing up Tony Stark’s Civil War position.

Gareth David Lloyd & James Marsters from the Torchwood panel

Comic writer Peter David

Comic writer Mike Baron

The Convention Vixens

You never know who you’ll run into at Dragon*Con.  Race and Serv with Axl Rose.  … yeah, right.

The Unique Geek Board of Directors dinner

Iron Man!

Adam West and the Batmobile in the parade

Speed Racer’s Mach 5 in the parade

This Marvel vs. DC shot shows you just a tiny fraction of comic book costumes to be found at Dragon*Con

Talk with you sometime next week.  Assuming I recover.  

‘Nuff Said.

Finally! Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space role-playing game release has been officially announced.  Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd has been working on this for a LONG time.  It’s nice to see that they’ve finally been able to announce the month of release.  Watch for it coming in October to a den of geeks near you.

Okay, I just got permission from Cubicle-7 to reveal a long-held secret…

Myself and a handful of Unique Geek listserv members were playtesters for this new Doctor Who RPG!!!  Myself, Scott C (of NeedCoffee.com), Sterling (of New Bard’s Press), Kevin Powell, and Shawn Linton were all playtesters for this RPG. We did the playtesting back in the first quarter of 2008.

While we can’t talk about the game or the mechanics, I can say that I’m excited for this game to come out!

Sweet cover to the box set too! It’s a box set!  I love RPG box sets!!!