FREE Heavy Gear Ruleset!!

Those crazy guys over at Dream Pod 9 have done it again - they're offering totally 100% FREE PDF copies of the Heavy Gear Locked & Loaded Rulebook and Field Manual on DriveThru RPG!

Dream Pod 9 Swag!!!

This past week has NOT been a good week. So, when I got home on Friday, I was pleasantly surprised to get my prizes from winning DP9's Golden Gear contest.

A very cool little trophy, a nice certificate, 3 packs of Fighting Piranha decals (Southern, NuCoal, and Arena Sponsors), and a Southern Fire Support Squad (which is what I chose with my $50 credit). This helped make the week a lot more bearable.

Big thanks to Robert at DP9 for his great communication throughout the process and the staff at Dream Pod 9 and Fighting Piranha!

Free Stuff - Happy Halloween!

Wargames Vault and Drive Thru RPG are offering several free PDF games and supplements on their sites through Halloween (Oct. 31st). All you have to do is track down the pumpkin images and click on them.

If you get a "treat", a free item will be automatically added to your account. If you get a "trick", it'll come up with some odd pic or video. Note that each site, while affiliated, has different games available and you'll have to check them out separately to be totally free.

So far, I've found the following:

50 Fathoms Figure Flats
Dead Heat
E-Z Dungeons: Mummy's Tomb
Kaiju Kaos
Plague City
This Quar's War

The Best Little Hellhouse in Texas

CoC: Midnight Harvest

Fear and Faith

HINT: You'll need an account to find them all! Good luck...

RPG Documentary Now on Hulu

"The Dungeon Master", a 2008 documentary following the lives of 3 RPG game masters, is now available on Hulu.

Product Review: Greenpeace's "Deepsea Desperation"

^Yeah, that dude has a bad case of oil diarrhea^

Today, Greenpeace released a tiny "print & play" game named "Deepsea Desperation". It's a free (and CC-licensed!) 2-page PDF document designed by Terrorbull Games. The concept is simple - one player plays the valiant environmentalist defenders attempting to stop the other player (as the evil, cute sea creature-killing oil company *wink,wink*) from destroying the local environment (and getting rich in the bargain).

The gameboard is a simple 6x6 grid of squares, representing a small lake or sea, as if envisioned by Jules Feiffer (if you ever read The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid, you'll catch my drift). Each player starts on an opposite corner with their relevant counter - an oil tanker for the 'Oil Company' or a Cocaine-smuggling Earth-saving Fastboat for Greenpeace.

Coins (representing the filthy lucre, I guess, although Greenpeace seems to partake of these riches as well....) are placed over the oil reserves. Several crying animal counters are placed according to the coordinates rolled on 2D6 (although the "Sad Panda" seems somewhat out-of-place with the other aquatic animals...). The Oil company then starts first.

Each player turn, that player may perform one of three actions. Each player can move, while each player has 2 unique actions. Greenpeace may 'occupy' the oil tanker or form a 'marine reserve' around its ship, protecting surrounding animals & that area from drilling. The Oil Co. can lobby to remove reserves (an interesting real-world analogy) or drill for oil.

Drilling (obviously) can lead to oil spills by rolling doubles on a 2D6 and the Oil Co. player must pay a penalty from his or her pot, as well as killing any animals in the area. The game ends (and both players lose) if all the animals are killed - a nice little mechanic that seemed the least heavy-handed of the lessons being promoted here.

The Oil Co. player wins once he drills enough oil to collect 12 coins, while the Greenpeace player wins by either bankrupting the Oil Co. or by making all the deepwater squares into reserves. The former seems to be relatively moderate to accomplish, while the latter is nearly impossible when the Oil Co. can remove most (if not all) of the reserves Greenpeace puts down simply by moving to the right square and performing a Lobby action.

Overall though, this is a nicely-designed, quick game, especially for children. Well-intentioned propaganda is still propaganda, but that doesn't mean it can't be FUN!

The game is available as a free PDF here.

Pros:

-A quick (~15-20mins.) game suitable for children of all ages

-Nicely designed

-"Hurray for environmental responsibility!" message

-You get to re-enact the smarmy 90s cartoon "Captain Planet"

Cons:

-Pretty easy for Oil Co. player to demolish Greenpeace marine reserves

-Maybe a little heavy-handed with the "big, evil oil company" message

-Sad Panda!

LARPing Documentary on Hulu

"Darkon", a 2006 documentary about LARPers in Baltimore, is now available on Hulu.

I'll be the first to admit that LARPers make me giggle and I love to poke fun at them.

But this was a great documentary on the subject. Honestly, I preferred seeing the out-of-character parts of each player's "real life" rather than the LARPing itself. I thought the directors (Luke Meyer, Andrew Neel) really did a great job of not only humanizing the players, but showing the true reasons about why they play. Most players seem to work menial and/or dead-end jobs that they're bored with and LARPing is their escape from that. And, honestly, don't ALL humans fantasize about being someone else or somewhere else?

My favorite highlights:

0:22 - CHEESE MONSTER!? (+10 Terror factor to lactose-intolerant PCs?)

0:33-0:38 - The politicking and "Manifest Destiny" of the in-game country, Mordom

0:47 - A player relates his personal problems with the "fantasy" of Darkon's fantasy world

0:58-1:02 - Battle For The Citadel Of Peace

1:10 - Strategic planning with D&D miniatures!

(Unfortunately, no one bothers to cast Lightning Bolt...)

Darkon's (the gaming group) website is here.

Review: BattleScribe Army Roster Builder

Recently I came across a thread on Dakka, begun by user Jonskichov, regarding the release of a new, free army builder program named 'Battlescribe'. And yeah, I fell in love with this little gem right away (in fact, I literally dl'ed it only 30 minutes ago!)....

'Battlescribe' (currently V. 1.02b and still in BETA) is like any army builder tool really. It seeks to simply the process of creating army lists, without the hassle of pen & paper or lengthy Excel spreadsheets. The user simply downloads the main program (here), downloads and extracts both the game system files (40K here - this means the user can use BS between several different games and rulesets) and any relevant codices extensions (40K Codices here). The main program already creates the sub-files where the game system files and codex extensions are placed, which is handy.

The U/I looks like this (click the thumbnail for a larger pic):


As you can see, unlike many other army roster programs (*cough*ARMYBUILDER*cough*...ahem) the interface is clean and free of excess clutter. To begin, you simply select "New Roster" and a window pops up with any Game System Files you've loaded, any codex sub-files, a space for the Army name, and the total points value.

In the example, I've selected "40K", "Eldar", "Re'lant Corsairs", and "1000pts", respectively. The left-hand window displays all unit types available from the codex. Highlighting the desired unit type and hitting the "Select Entry" button loads that entry into your roster, in the central window. From the Roster window, you can highlight specific units and add any options you'd like. Below I've selected my Farseer and can now chose to add or subtract any options in the Option window to the right:



Removing units is as easy as the click of a button (literally the "Remove" button in the central window). BS will also tabulate the total points you have and will warn you if you exceed your given points value. When complete, you can save your Roster (either as an editable ROS file or an HTML document - allowing you to post it on the web or print it from any browser). Features and roster output may be lacking a bit, especially for those accustomed to AB's inclusion of rules right on the roster. Personally, I think having the rules printed on the roster (literally down to codex-specific universal rules, like Waaagh! for Orks or ATSKNF for SMs) can make the rosters look clumsy and jumbled. I'd rather go to a codex for specific rules, if need be (that's why you buy a codex anyway...!) and keep the roster focused on what it's supposed to - letting you & your opponent know what and how many of something you're taking.

Pros:
-Quick, easy-to-learn interface
-It's FREE! (though I'm sure a small donation would be nice for the developers...)
-Small size allows program to be loaded unto a USB for use on any computer
-For a free roster builder, has all current codices and has few errors

Cons:
-Lack of a direct printing feature may turn some people off
-Currently only supports 40K
-Lacks all the bells-and-whistles of more 'advanced' programs, like Army Builder