Dice Theory

Show Your Network Your Nerdiness

We're a couple days late(and far, far more than a dollar short) with this news, but WotC has decided to go after the new generation of gamers at the source of all things teen, materialistic, and closeted: MySpace. They now have their very own  D&D MySpace profile that you can send a friend request to and leave comments on. There doesn't seem to be any exclusive content here, nothing new in the blog posts(all old news items it looks like), two D&D art pictures and the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft cover in the pics section, no videos, and just the second track from the Midnight Syndicate D&D Soundtrack as the page's music.

It's only a couple of days old, so there's hope that it will get more interesting, and might make use of MySpace's huge community to do interesting, innovative things, but until then, the page is just as lame as the rest of MySpace as far as I'm concerned. Nothing but lots of pictures, lots of people, lots of noise, and very little usefulness.

The Dice Theory Podcast Directory

Hey everyone! As a group that plans on starting their own podcast sometime in the future, we know just how hard-to-find RPG podcasts are. But while looking for great material to present to you and fun ideas for my own games, I've stumbled across them every now and again. So starting today, it's going to be my goal to present to you all of the RPG podcasts I come across, starting with one that updated just yesterday, Fell Calls, an Iron Kingdoms' podcast. They're on episode 87, so you know they're serious about updating. You also have plenty of archive material to go through if you're an Iron Kingdoms fan.

Another podcast I've found is done by a group of 3 guys, "The Durham 3".  The latest update on their blog is to episode 29, but you'll note a few skipped episodes before then. They've promised to "fill in the backlog", so it looks like this group pre-records their podcasts in advance to make sure they have plenty of content for days to come.

The last addition to the directory today is Wizard's own D&D podcast. Their archive contains the past 8 episodes, full of product talk, GMing tips, and interviews with some of the most famous RPG writers on the planet.

I'll keep you updated on other podcasts as I find them, and maybe we'll even get a static page to list them all on. Until then, there's plenty of material in those three to keep even the most dedicated RPG audiophile busy. Enjoy!

Fan of Freeport? It has its own blog!

Green Ronin Publishing first started a series of adventures set in it's custom town of Freeport, "the City of Adventure". It won both an ENnie and an Origins award, and since then GRP has continued to publish adventures for the Freeport setting. Now fans can get a regular glimpse further into the city of Freeport through the blog Green Ronin has made available at http://greenronin.com/freeport/.

Their first entry is "Freeport Designer Journal, Part 1" and gives fans inside info on their upcoming Pirates of Freeport sourcebook, "a 256-page hardback book that fully details a city that can be used in any campaign setting and with any fantasy roleplaying game".

Enjoy the inside info, Dice Theorists!

The DM of the Rings

I'm a fan of gaming, and I'm a fan of web comics, so you can bet your Holy Avenger I'm happy when the the two combine! I've found an excellent table-top gaming comic called "The DM of the Rings". It's by Shamus Young, a software engineer who games in his freetime. You can find the latest installment here, and a full archive of the 64 previous strips here.

All D&D 2007 Products Announced

From Wizards.com:

Interested in what's coming out next year? The online catalog now lists third trimester products, September to December 2007 -- everything from Fortress of the Yuan-ti to Elder Evils!

Brief though it may be, this is no small news for any DMs wanting to figure out what they should be pre-ordering and what they should be creating homebrew for the rest of the year. Let's take a look at some of the upcoming D&D products, and who they might best be suited for.

For the Collector:
If you know a gamer who's already bought the Special Edition Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual, what better accessory to match than these custom dice, complete with black suede bag embroidered with the D&D logo?

Comes out in April, retails at $12.95.

For the Expert Exterminator:

If you've travelled from one edge of the planes to to the other, challenging and defeating every creature, critter, and construct in your way, hacking and slashing until you fear there's no combination of animal and templates you haven't already slain... have no fear. The Monster Manual V is here.

$34.95, and stacking up next to I, II, III, and IV this July.

For the Devious DM:
Exemplars of Evil is a villain creation sourcebook, including 9 already created villains. This could be new, insightful, and helpful to many DMs new to the hobby, but if you're an old-skool DM you might want to save the $29.95 and just dust off your old 2nd Edition The Complete Book of Villains.

Releasing in September.

For the mythical Female Gamer:

If you can find one to buy this product for, Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress is a "smart, humorous examination of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game from a female gamer's point of view".

The book delves into the myths and realities of gamer stereotypes. It explains how to build a character for a D&D game, how to shop for gear, how to play, and how to find the perfect gaming group, all the while exploring the things that make the D&D game a rewarding and recurring social experience for both men and women.

Between the style of the title and the description("how to shop for gear"... "a rewarding... social experience for both men and women"), this sounds more like it's feeding the typical stereotypes of women more than enticing them into gaming. "Like, I could be a princess? I can buy a pony!? Tee-hee!". Few, if any, of the female gamers I know are actually like this. If you have yet to experience members of the fairer sex in your own gaming group, you can learn about them via Mongoose Publishing's The Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers.

Confessions from a Part-time Sorceress will be available this September for $14.95. No image for this product is yet available.

For the Rules Lawyer:
Normally we wouldn't waste space on this gamer type, but never has there been a product so well suited to them. And if they're going to waste your time finding the exact text of the rule they just quoted to your DM word by word anyways, you might as well make sure it takes the least amount of time possible.

Coming in October, $26.95.

For your Out-of-Season Horror Adventure Enthusiast:

We'll have to wait for some preview material to determine if Elder Evils is another "Who's Who in the Circles of Hell?" ala Fiendish Codex I & II, but I'm hoping it describes some truly unique and backstoried horrors. As Gandalf said, "There are many evil and unfriendly things in the world that have little love for those that go on two legs, and yet are not in league with Sauron, but have purposes of their own. Some have been in this world longer than he." Will we see Balrogs not as a simple Monster Manual creature, but as the primordial spirit of fire, the equals of Sauron or Gandalf, the Maiar  they were created as? Ungoliant? Cthulu? ...the bunny from Monty Python?

We'll have to wait until December, and pay $29.95, to find out.

Great Product Idea: Cards for Items

From ENWorld comes the news that a company known as The Other Game Company has been producing a series of printable PDF products which lists the entire stats of each products theme(spells, monsters, and now items) on an individual card. While my personal GMing preferences lean more towards books for things as complex as spells and monsters, the card format seems perfect for unique and interesting items. Imagine your players' joy at killing the dragon, raiding its treasure chests, and receiving real-life loot for their in-game equivalents. Easy to paper-clip onto a character sheet, and durable enough(if printed on card-stock paper, available at any local WalMart/Target/OfficeMax) to withstand the manhandling of your cheeto-fingered players, item cards are a nice way to make something special seem even more so. If you're an evil GM who's pleasure comes primarily from tormenting your players, imagine your own joy at getting to take away the physical card when your 10th level rogue sneaks into camp to steal the fighter's sword.

If The Other Game Company's items don't fit your needs, they have blank item card templates at their site, or with a minimal amount of effort in Photoshop you could roll your own. Let us know if you decide to do so, The Other Game Company's cards are decidedly lacking in both a space for art, and rounded corners.

Rodney Thompson now full-time designer for SWRPG d20!

RPG writer Rodney Thompson has been hired as a full-time designer in the roleplaying R&D department at Wizards of the Coast for the Star Wars RPG line of products. Rodney is the webmaster of popular fan-site SWRPGNetwork, a frequent contributor to WotC products(Hero's Guide, Dragon Magic, d20 Future, among others, and of course the upcoming Star Wars RPG: Saga Edition), and a freelance RPG writer for companies including Green Ronin Publishing(author of The Noble's Handbook) and The Game Mechanics(contributor to Artifacts of the Ages: Legendary Weapons). He's written many articles for Polyhedron and other Paizo Publishing magazines, and even written for the Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game, by Alderac Entertainment Group.

Congratulations to Rodney, best of luck with the new job and moving to the Seattle area, and here's to hoping for a great upcoming Star Wars RPG line!

New Penny Arcade Gaming Forum: Births a Tabletop Sim

The webcomic Penny Arcade is known for its consistently delivered funnies, comic strips hitting the web every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. However, Penny-Arcade is also host to a very vibrant forum community that has recently added a new subforum called Of Dice and Men. Provinding a place for tabletoppers to chat and run games, Of Dice and Men has quickly become my new favoriate forum hangout. It offers a wider variety of gamers and because it's a PA community, the forum is fairly active and has a great number of projects and games running.

One of these projects that has gathred great iterest is the Generic Interactive Tabletop Simulator. This is a psrite-based computer proram designed to run such games as WH40K and Heroclix. The thread shows the amazing progress the team has come, complete with the entire armies of Orks, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Space Marines.

Here is a brief description of the project from one of the forumers working on it, JamSessionEin.

The overall aim of the project is a fairly open-ended sandbox environment for players to play tabletop games on. I'm sure most of you can figure out the kinds of things it might be used to simulate, but we won't go into any sort of explicit details on that. What I will say is that it is an entirely volunteer project, and this thread is an open invitation to participation.

The idea is simple - We're aiming to create a program environment where players can chat with one another, set up tables, and play whatever games with whatever rules they care to. To facilitate this, the application will come with a variety of tools - movement tools, measurement tools, dicing tools, all the stuff that your standard tabletop simulator might require. The interface is going to be a fairly visual one - players will be able to upload and play with their own two-dimensional sprites, viewed in a top-down angle, on the table. These uploaded sprites will then (hopefully) be added to an overall sorted 'pool' of sprites that the application can use, and can then be used at a later date by other players.

We'll be following the progress of this project and hopefully will have more to show you. For now, I recommend checking out the project and looking at the cool sprite armies these guys have made.

 

We are back!

This blog has been dead for awhile but a recent effort on the parts of several have had a rekindling affect. We are going to be updating this blog and trying to get it back on its feet. Thanks to Hisham and Grimace for single-handidly keeping the blog running. Resubscribe and check back often, this will soon become the headquarters for news, cool supplements, personal projects and neat stuff from around the gaming world.

Welcome back!

Future Player's Companion 3 Released

The third Future Player's Companion, subtitled Tomorrow's Evolution, has now been released by The Game Mechanics and is currently on sale at RPGNow with a cover by WETA Workshop's Ben Wootten.

What's of note for this d20 Future supplement is the fact that at least four Holonetters are involved in its development: Rodney "Moridin" Thompson, Gary "Penangallan" Astleford, Pete "Shadowdeep" Schlough (who did the cover for FPC2) and yours "hisham" truly.

For a peek at the black and white interior art I made for the PDF e-book, check out my blog entry here, with a link to high resolution goodness in my deviantArt gallery.

Wait for a compilation of all three FPCs to be printed and bound as a hardcover book by Green Ronin in January.