5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Freely Downloadable from Wizards of the Coast

Man, can you believe I almost typed “from TSR". Gettin’ old does stuff like that.

The new 5th edition of the legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) is here. Curious as to what’s in it without popping $50 on one of those beautiful, new rulebooks? Boy, are you in luck! Publisher Wizards of the Coast has made the basic rules for the new system available to anyone with an internet connection and a case of curiosity.

The free PDF version of DnD 5 weighs in at 115 pages and contains all the goodies you need to get going: 20 levels of advancement, four classes with subclasses, four races, and 120 spells. And that’s before you include the free, basic edition of the Dungeon Master’s guide!

So why has WotC decided to release a free e-book version of their rules for gratis? Julian Murdoch of Gamers With Jobs interviewed lead designer Mike Mearls and came back with the answer in GWJ Conference Call #409. Mearls citied both the video game free-to-play business model and the buying habits of decades-old DnD groups as primary reasons. New players expect to get the first taste on the house. As for existing players, we all know that there’s usually only one or two members of any given gaming group who buys the books for everyone to use anyway. Wizards could either go with the flow or fight the winds of change.

Will this new free-to-play model be as successful for a book publisher as it was for MMO and mobile game developers? I guess we’ll see when the 6th edition of DnD is ready for release. In the meantime, Wizards seems genuine about supporting ‘freepers’. Shortly after the release of the DnD 5’s first major adventure, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, an online supplement was made available to ensure compatible with the free editions of the rulebooks. Additionally, WotC is expecting the PDF basic editions to be continuously updated with more information and player suggested rule changes until December of 2014.

Check out all the latest happenings in the world of Dungeons and Dragons at dnd.wizards.com.

Hello Kitty Prepped for Tabletop Battle Against Spider-Man and Batman

Is it possible that we’ve gotten this far into 2013 without some bizarre new Hello Kitty crossover product? Worry not friends, those masters of marketing machismo over at the Sanrio have spent the past few months powering up to blow your minds with a hypercharged hadouken of H.Kit.

A new licensing agreement with with National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA to their friends) has just been announced for a whole slew of new Hello Kitty branded merch. This newest deal promises to unleash a torrent of new Hello Kitty toys and collectables onto an unsuspecting marketplace including “action figures and statues, high-end lamps, calendars, tea sets, vintage carrying cases, and more.” Speaking of “more”, the deal also includes a provision for NECA subsidiary WizKids to create a Hello Kitty tabletop miniatures game in the HeroClix line.

Yeah. One more time: Hello Kitty is getting a HeroClix game.

Already home to such franchises as Mage Knight, Star Trek, The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, and many flavors of DC Heroes, Hello Kitty and Friends are currently being fitted with the famous combat disk base. While no pictures of the new figures were on display for the announcement at the 2013 New York Toy Fair, we did get a picture of the above oversized novelty box. Lovely. WizKids states that the new figures are expected to ship in North America this summer. I, for one, cannot wait to see how the plushy pink princess of purr stands up to Steam Golems! Or Killer Croc!! Or a Sentinel!!! Or…

1980s Dungeons and Dragons Books Return in Digital Form

Current stewards of DnD, Wizards of the Coast, have announced that the "first of many waves of classic content" have been released at DNDClassics.com, a joint venture with DriveThruRPG. Announced at GenCon last year, Wizards has been hard at work scanning all those vintage role playing tomes into convenient, space saving PDF files for preservation and resale.

A look at the top 5 sellers in the first few days of release is exactly what you'd expect. Old fogeys fond of plastic polyhedrals should brace themselves for a warm wave of nostalgia!

D&D Basic Set Rulebook (yep, the one from the 1981 red box)
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands
G1-3 Against the Giants
D3 Vault of the Drow

All of these old fiends and more are available for about $5 to $10 at DND Classics.com

£20,000 RFID Enabled Scrabble Board Brings Championship Play Live to the World

The Prague Mindsports Festival has pulled out all the stops (and pennies from their piggy bank) in their quest to bring champion level Scrabble to the world live via the ‘Net. In what may very well be the highest tech boardgame translation ever, the folks at Mind Sports International (MSI) have embedded every Scrabble tile in the game with an radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. The complimenting board and trays are where the real magic happens. It takes 225 RFID antennas to read every space on the board. This information is captured by the nine mainboards inside and relayed back to a central system where a real-time recreation of the gameboard is presented alongside streaming HD footage of the players. As for the customizable LED lighting around the board… Well, that just makes it look cool!

MSI’s CEO explains "Our goal was to help bring popular Scrabble tournaments to life, whilst reaching a wider audience by capturing tournament play in a technologically advanced and engaging manner.”

The Prague MindSports Festival is running December 1st through the 4th featuring classic games like Bridge, Backgammon, Poker, Scrabble, and Risk. New gaming hotness will also be represented in the form of League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournaments. For more information, game schedules, and live streams, check out www.PragueMindSportsFestival.com.

Achtung! Cthulhu–Charlie Company is a Free PDF Comic Created with Photos of Tabletop Miniatures

World War II, model building, supernatural evil, tabletop gaming, and comic books collide in a nerdgasmic orgy of WTF as only the Internet can provide. Really! I can’t make this stuff up!

“Alone, forgotten and hunted behind Nazi lines, the survivors of Charlie Company are trapped in the Forest of Fear.

Achtung! Cthulhu – Charlie Company: Forest of Fear #1 is the first episode in a new photographic comic featuring miniatures, terrain, and Cthulhu horror from British publisher Modiphius.

Charlie Company are sent deep behind enemy lines on a desperate mission to destroy a new Nazi secret weapon before it can be unleashed. Too late, the company is faced with the true horror of the Third Reich's latest experiments….

Achtung! Cthulhu is the Cthulhu-inspired World War II roleplaying game setting from Modiphius – available for Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds (Realms of Cthulhu), Trail of Cthulhu and the PDQ system – which explores a terrifying secret war. Check out achtungcthulhu.com for more information, or follow us at facebook.com/modiphius.”

Download the comic for free and see for yourself at WargameVault.com

Source: The Miniatures Page

Re-Releases of Original 1st Edition AD&D Rule Books to Feature Disappointing Covers

Last month Wizards of the Coast announced they would be reprinting the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks as part of a fundraiser for the Gygax Memorial Fund. While the books are still on track for an April release and promising to feature all of the original pages from the legendary tomes, the covers have been drastically altered for the new editions.

Okay, maybe not "drastically altered” so much as “almost completely painted over”.

While I was expecting some modifications to the covers identifying these special editions as being… well, special editions, I can’t help but feel disappointed about so much of the original, iconic art that graced the originals being removed. Do we really need books dressed up to look like books? Was this really a problem? “Ooo, what’s this strange picture propped up on a shelf in the bookstore. Oh, my! It’s a book!”

The original cover of The Players Guide pictured above told a story. The new one is simply filler. It is an afterthought put there just because they had to put something on the cover. It is evocative of nothing.

Looking at the (admittedly atrocious) art of the original Monster Manual we see another drastic change in context. What was once a land full of adventure is now just another faux leather game book with a dragon on the front, indistinguishable from dozens of others. If this is what passes for, in the words of Wizards of the Coast, “attractive new cover design” then the future is much more dull than I ever could have guessed.

Also curiously missing from the new covers is any mention of the Gygax Memorial or the legacy of these titles. What’s this? A new Monster Manual?  Who cares, just give us your cash because you buy everything we put Dungeons and Dragons on. We even made it look like the last dozen so it’ll fit in with your collection and you’ll never know it’s there. Is the celebratory purpose of these books being republished not worthy of mention on the cover?

I’m not going to fly into a Nerd Rage over this. After all, most of us were raised not to judge a book by its cover. These new-old editions are a rare treat and, depending on your point of view, for a worthy cause. However, this ol’ dice rolling geek can’t help but feel more than a little let down about the first peek of what should have been a celebration of nostalgia. It is a shame that the only new piece of content Wizards chose to create for these “limited-edition reprints of the original 1st Edition” show so little of the love and reverence that the intended buyers surely have.

Source: GeekDad

PS: Gamma World

2011 Gifts for Every Gamer Guide–Part 4: Tabletop Traditionalists

The holiday season is a time where we all crack open our piggy banks and wrack our brains to think of the best surprise for that special someone in your life. And we do mean best! While there are some inexpensive items on this list, we set a $200 spending limit and we’re not afraid to use it.

We’ll be breaking down the generic “gamer” moniker into it’s various flavors and choosing one item we feel would make prefect surprise for your target of holiday cheer.

Don’t care enough to send the very best? We’ll clue you in on the best gift card based on their gaming platform of choice.

For the final part of our four part 2011 Gifts for Every Gamer Guide we unplug for a while and turn our scrutiny to those Cravers of Cardboard, the Poobahs of Pewter, the Daimyos of Dice, the tabletop and board gamers. These are old school gamers who indulge is such alien concepts as friends, family, sunlight, and dice. Lots and lots of dice.

Gears of War : The Board Game on Sale

Packed full of miniatures and high quality cardboard, Fantasy Flight games have long topped my list of things to drool on when visiting my local comic shop. Their latest offering is sure to grab the attention of our chainsaw wielding brethren still battling the Locust menace.

Gears of War: The Board Game is packed full of goodies like plastic figures (over 30!), nearly 250 cards, and 17 double sided map tiles. In a unique twist, this game features a co-operative system where up to 4 players face off against the game’s card based “AI” system in 7 randomized scenarios. All of your favorite moves from the video game are represented, such as the Roadie Run or blind firing from cover. There is even an optional rule set for playing Horde Mode!

Fantasy Flight has been kind enough to post the rule book online and released an overview video.

Gears of War: The Board Game is on sale right now. Be sure to give that box a good sniff for me! Mmmm… That’s one thing that digital distribution just can’t offer.

Deal! Tabletop RPG Game Systems and Accessories $1 Sale from Avalon Games

Avalon Games is having their Dollar Day sale today, September 17th! You can pick up everything from full RPG and wargame rulebooks to ground tiles and cardstock models in handy PDF form for a buck a piece! There are even complete print-and-play boardgames. Check ‘em out.

Behold the Teddy Bear Roman Legion of Emperor Cuddlius!

Eureka Miniatures, the fine folks behind such mad figure lines like Jurassic Reich and Winged Fez Monkeys (as well as a huge selection of traditional historic and sci-fi minis), bring you the snuggliest conquerors of the ancient world.

Since Eureaka already took all the good jokes, I’m just gonna quote them:

The Emperor Cuddlius is here to direct his mighty furry legions and Centurion Fuzzius Maximus (hero bear and champion of Teddy Bear Rome) puts in an appearance as well. Mike has also included a catapult siege engine - which we think you will all agree is the epitome of Ancient Teddy Bear technology! The bears use this wonder weapon to fire pots of honey into besieged enemy fortifications to remind them of the sweet benefits of submitting to Roman Teddy Bear civilization.

You can check out the full line on either Eureka’s site or their US Store. Stick it to those bar-bear-ians!

Download a Free Issue of Kobold Quarterly

Download a Free Issue of Kobold Quarterly: "

Ninja-deadly D&D magazine Kobold Quarterly pretty much rocks. It’s like ole Dragon reincarnated, with D&D and Pathfinder articles written by industry giants. Not sure if you’d like it? Download issue #11 for free. Just follow the link above and read the instructions."

Look at These Minis!

I don't show too many tabletop miniatures on this page, so you'd better pay attention when I do. Its gonna be good: Nazis on Dinosaurs!

Check out the full line of Jurassic Reich figures.

LOL! Samurai Dwarves minis:

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/914514

I loved this line of minis when it was introduced several years ago, but I never dared to dream of the cavalry they've just released. Click the link to find out what the heck I'm talking about:

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/570279