While Dungeons & Dragons may dominate the history of tabletop RPGs in the USA there is another game that has been around almost as long and has had almost as much impact on gamers. I think back to my first games in the early 1980’s and I realize that it wasn’t swords & sorcery that grabbed my interest and pulled my to the game table, it was my love of comic books and super heroes.

The first RPG I played was a nondescript blue book with two titanic heroes clashing on its cover. The rules were confusing for a group of 3rd graders to grasp but it didn’t matter, we just rolled the dice and as I found happening for the next 7 years, it always degenerated into a fight in the park. The epic clash of super powered characters didn’t have grand story at first – like many of the comics we were reading they were simple morality plays locked up under the sanitary seal of the comics code authority.

While Champions was the early leader in the market other games like Superworld and Villains & Vigilantes offered different takes and options for those who were unhappy or uncomfortable with the system behind Champions. These systems all offered a different mechanic but the core concepts were similar, all of them focused on costumed heroes with amazing powers fighting to save the world from dastardly villains.
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The settings of a tabletop RPG don’t have to revolve around the dungeon or large fire breathing lizards. Sometimes its even best if you take a break from the endless crawling and looting and reach out into different genre.

One of the more interesting settings I’ve enjoyed over the years thanks to my love of comics and films like The Rocketeer and Indiana Jones is the classic pulp adventure. Pulp is quite a bit different from the fantasy tropes of many RPGs as it usually takes place in a modern setting with an interesting mix of fantasy or sci-fi thrown in to mix things up a bit.

This week I thought I’d highlight some of the games that focus on this high-adventure oriented setting and give some suggestions for how even those married to the dungeon can integrate elements of Pulp into their existing games.
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Seven days have passed. Seven days of joy and fear, terror and epiphany. The RPG Emperor truly does have new clothes, and it looks like they fit.

While I’ve been anticipating the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (something that is not noted on the products themselves BTW) I’ve thought long and hard about how I’d review it once it finally got here. A few weeks back the world got its first chance to play the new rules thanks to the release of H1 Keep on the Shadowfell but it was hard to gauge the game or its focus fairly just from that bite size exposure.

Now, finally, we have the full rule picture at our disposal and I’ve decided it does little good to pick and poke at the rules, to run down a basic list of likes and dislikes when describing this product so instead I’m going to discuss the experience of playing and the impression I have of the foundation 4E sets going forward for the game.

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While we’re waiting for the release of the D&D 4E core rules this week I thought it’d be a good time to do some general news and updates.

I realize this column had been Wizards of the Coast heavy lately and I apologize for those of you out there reading who like your gaming discussions to be a bit more broad in nature. Before we go far afield though I wanted to highlight an announcement I received from Wizard’s last week regarding some interesting changes coming to the entire Magic the Gathering line.

Beginning with the release of the upcoming “Shards of Alara” expansion set, Wizards is instituting a few changes tot he way cards are bundled, sold and even to the content of the cards themselves. The new set launches on October 3rd, 2008.

One of the more shocking changes, and one I’m not sure I completely buy as sold to us, is that as of that card set the number of cards in a set will be decreasing. While Wizards is claiming this is as a result of feedback from Magic players who claimed “the volume of cards released each year is too high ”, I’m betting its much more likely the cost of printing and lower sell through rates may be mandating this change, though its always easier to wrap a change like that in a “customer request” to make it more palatable. That’s just my suspicion though.
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I’ve been talking about the upcoming revisions to Dungeons & Dragons for awhile now. Well the chance to finally test out the changes introduced with this new version arrived on May 20th in the form of the first 4th Edition module – Keep on the Shadowfell. I was one of the few lucky folks who had the module in hand before the release date but unfortunately coverage was embargoed until that point and well, life got in the way of getting this up the day it came out.

Before I jump into all the gory details about how the system works and how it plays let me first say that this is a very different game than its predecessor. Many of the same terms are used. There are still Hit Points, Armor Class and Feats, but some of the sacred cows of the D&D system are wearing new leather coats.

Be warned, this extra-long edition of The Analog Gamer might spoil some secrets about the forthcoming D&D game.

Keep on the Shadowfell is a well designed module. It comes with a nice thick cardstock cover containing a number of maps suitable for miniature game play and 2 booklets. The first book is a character folio that includes an overview of the basic 4th Edition rules as related to characters. The other is the DM booklet that contains an expanded version of the introductory rules aimed at running the game along with the full adventure itself.

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Its been a few weeks since we’ve had a regular installment but this week I thought it would be interesting to talk about a few random news items along with a quick review of the Wizards of the Coast produced card and dice game – Inn-Fighting.

Inn-Fighting
Price: $14.99
Release Date: October 2007

Not sure what you want to do tonight? Maybe one of your regular players has decided not to show up and you’re left holding the game on their account. Well I can heartily recommend Inn-Fighting as a great way to keep the game group focused on the fantasy RPG elements without having to break your back on story and plotting.

Inn-Fighting is a dice and card game that is meant to simulate the wildest bar fight in the world. Players draw from a small selection of adventurer cards and then abruptly begin to bash and beat the other players at the table with the table. The goal of the game is to defeat enough opponents in the brawl that you accumulate 20 victory points. Points are gained by defeating bystanders or opponents and the game does an excellent job of introducing unique characters with often humorous special abilities into the fray.

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Modernization is a good thing in general. Its brought us electricity, access to immense amounts of information, both trivial and important and generally has outstripped the ability for many of our hobby and leisure activities to properly leverage it.

Continuing the discussion of the forthcoming 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, it would be a mistake not to mention that even D&D is now joining the modern era with official, integrated digital features meant to make the game more approachable and manageable for players and storytellers.

The tweaks and changes for the system lie not only in the new streamlined rules, but also in the access to information and a new business strategy for its publisher, Wizards of the Coast. The addition of accessible digital tools might just change not only how the game is played, but Wizards believes, just who is playing.

Dungeons & Dragons is one of those cultural icons. While not everyone plays it, the game is a well known brand, whether as a subject of ridicule from stereotypical jocks in Hollywood cinema or as a distant memory of long nights in high school, college or on a military deployment that was spent commanding Wrothgar the Gnome Barbarian on his quest to regain the Lost Candelabra of Gorgenzola from the forces of the demon Orcus.

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On June 6th change is coming. No matter how much the stalwart heroes of countless worlds fight it there is a shift ahead. After 30 years and 3.5 editions, the most popular role-playing system in the world is preparing to shed its most recent set of scales and embrace modern tools and services. Dungeons & Dragons is exiting the cave of ideas with a shiny new coat of rules and a few creative directions altered from the previous edition.

Over the last 20+ years that I’ve been a player of RPGs both analog and digital, I’ve noticed that there is one trend that you can count on whenever change strikes the gaming fandom: people immediately either defend and champion the change or they fire up the torches and erect a cross to burn the new concepts in effigy. Its almost like a religious debate and people often act as though you’ve threatened to force them to slaughter their personal golden calf.

I’m not someone who has a zealot’s perspective on any game. I love games. All sorts of games, all sorts of rules. I’ve changed through every version of D&D and AD&D over the years and have generally found that while none of them was delivered perfectly from the mouth and hands of some deity unto mankind without the need for change, that overall each version has done something better than the last.

1st Edition was the stone tablet brought down to the RPG masses and lead them from the temptation of empty miniature wargaming. 2nd added options and expanded the rules and choices with kits, weapon and non-weapon proficiencies along with the almighty THAC0 and served us well during our days of wandering in the desert. The arrival of 3rd Edition introduced the concept of community content, embraced the morphic nature of gaming and added yet more options and features and allowed players to “take back” control. With 4th Edition I suspect that Wizards of the Coast is continuing the trend of streamlining the game, making it more accessible and looking to make the message simple enough that it spreads easily and attracts new followers.

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The latest expansion for Magic the Gathering is closing fast and in conjunction with Wizards of the Coast, Gaming Today is releasing exclusive information this week about cards that Magic players can find in the new set.

“In Shadowmoor, even the all-new game mechanics are warped. Wither and Persist make -1/-1 counters matter, and can turn creature combat into a meat grinder where attrition or reanimation can determine the victor. The untap symbol also makes its debut, allowing you to spring new tricks on the unwary.”

“Hybrid mana costs are back, and appear on over one third of the cards in Shadowmoor. Mono-colored hybrid cards join Wither, Persist, the Untap Symbol, and Conspire as all-new mechanics unleashed in this dark world.”

“Shine a light on the dark power in Shadowmoor, available in stores (and immediately legal for play!) May 2nd.”

Shadowmoor is in pre-release and we have two spoiler cards, one of which -Valleymaker – you will not find anywhere else on the net before the game hits store shelves.

The Valleymaker is a 5/5 Giant Shaman who cost 5 red or green to summon. The giant has two abilities both of which surround the concept of land sacrifice:

Tap and sacrifice a Mountain: Valleymaker deals 3 damage to target creature. Tap and sacrifice a Forest: Choose a player. That player adds 3 green mana to his or her mana pool.
Their home uprooted by a giant, the gang of boggarts mourned their old stomping ground.

The second spoiler card, Wound Reflection is an enchantment that cost 5 black mana. Once in play its abilities go into effect:

At the end of each turn, each opponent loses life equal to the life he or she lost this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)
The mission of the Nighthearth, Illulia’s cult of murderous cinders, is to intensify every pain suffered in Shadowmoor.

For a better look at both cards simply click on the image above and a larger PDF copy will load.

For more information on the Shadowmoor block check out Magic the Gathering’s website preview.

And now for the news…
This week before I get into the discussion about the initial Analog Gamer’s Digital Experience I thought I’d cover a bot of digital news first. Magic the Gathering Online version 2.5 went dark yesterday.

While I’ve long since shrugged off the paper crack that is Magic I know there is a large community out there who have not had any interventions performed on them and have transitioned from paper cut ridden wastrels to digital addicts. This outage is in preparation for the forthcoming Magic the Gathering Online v.3.0 launch. The new version of the game looks like it’ll bring Magics online presence into a modern format with some really interesting features. IF you want the complete story on what MtGO III is bringing to the virtual game table check out the game’s producer’s thread over on Gleemax.com in the Magic the Gathering forums.

… and here’s Shawn with Sports
Kicking off the virtual gametable series is proving to be in many ways a perfect parallel to the analog experience. I found that finding the time and coordinating the technologies can initially be just as frustrating as getting a place and time to gather your local players. We already had the Ventrillo server up and ready for our use but not all the players had headsets or the software client installed. This took some time to remedy. Then there was the issue of the software we chose to use as our initial chat client for character creation. We’ll discuss it more fully next week with the review of the first game session but some problems became obvious even just when trying to host a character creation session.
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