The Tower of the Twelve is opening it doors to heroes as the twelve face their greatest hour of need. Within its walls, the Planecallers will gate you to Shavarath, Plane of Battle. Here the devils, demons and archons issue forth from their fortresses to clash endlessly on the wasted battlefield.

I recently had the pleasure of going on an expedition to Shavarath lead by Kate Paiz, Senior Producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online. As we fought our way across the blasted battlegrounds, she revealed a wealth of information about the future of DDO: Ebberon Unleashed. Prepare for a divination on the Ebberon setting, the DDO store, the free-to-play model and why keeping your subscription and becoming a VIP member is an awesome deal.
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Genuine Star Wars Clone Trooper Blasters and Light-up Lightsabers are headed to the Wii this fall. Bensussen Deutsch & Associates are bringing out these fully licensed peripherals for their Power A line.

The Clone Trooper Blasters are made to work with the upcoming Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes game. It uses both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk for a duel trigger action, one the barrel and one on the nunchuck. You can customize each blaster with a nice variety of stickers that are included.

The Light-up Lightsabers aren’t designed for any specific game. They’re sculpted replicas of Yoda and Anakin Skywalker’s lightsabers. The Wii-mote fits right in the hilt. You can turn the light up feature on and off to conserve battery power.

Pictures of all three Power A Clone Trooper Blasters and both Light-up Lightsabers follow the break.
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Activision line up for E3 2009 is chock full of win. The full review has something for everyone showcasing remakes of classic games and sequels with fresh IPs for E3 return to its glory days. Speed demons can hook up with Blur and Tony Hawk: Ride to get their adrenaline rush on. Gamers will wax nostalgic over the updated re-envisioned Wolfenstein, the granddaddy of the FPS, then take a look at it’s latest progeny Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat 2.

Music fans have new bands and features to bump and grind to with Guitar Hero 5 and can explore new genres with DjHero. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is ready for show and sci-fi buffs can get their fill with Singularity and PROTOTYPE. I’m putting Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in with sci-fi because I can’t quite make the leap to call them superheroes. Get the full list complete with details on each game after the break.
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Next week, True Games Interactive will be releasing its free MMO-action title, Warrior Epic. In an effort to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming title, I took some time to participate in the recent closed beta test.

I have to admit, it isn’t what I expected going in. Warrior Epic isn’t your typical MMO. You won’t spend hours running around obtaining quests and crafting. Instead, it follows in the footsteps of games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. Players can play for free, with the option of purchasing things like double XP potions, exclusive clothes, and other things. However, True Games says that only convenience items will be available for purchase, and that, “anything along the lines of “broadsword of one-hit kills” would never be available for purchase through micro-transactions.”

You’ll start with control of one warrior, who has a few abilities. Obviously, those powers vary depending on the type of hero you select. After you finish the tutorial level, you gain access to your warrior hall. From this central hub, you can recruit new types of heroes, browse and equip new items, and find new quests to take on. You can also see the spirits of fallen warriors, who can be called back to life under certain circumstances.

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This week’s Zero Punctuation takes on Valkyria Chronicles. This classic RPG is a PS3 exclusive so some of you may be unfamiliar with it. The reference to Valkyries in the title might tip you off to the storyline if this wasn’t a Japanese RPG. Weirdly enough, you’d be on the right track. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based JRPG filled with androgynous, angst ridden heroes in a World War II like setting.

Anyone unfamiliar with Zero Punctuation should brace themselves considering JRPGs are one of Yahtzee’s “favorite” genres.
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Action figures, miniatures, battle maps, water damaged paper – I’ve used all of these things to make my games more real, more visual experiences for players but there is nothing quite as powerful as evocative language and suggestive imagery to trigger a player’s imagination.

Unfortunately, the process of running an RPG often drivels down to mechanical conversations concerning target numbers, attack modifiers and range values. This process creeps up on even the best storytellers as the math of the game can take over scenes of conflict though each group is likely to handle this immersion breaking in different ways.

Stepping back from the mechanics a bit I’ve seen that one of the best ways to get a player excited about their characters is to help them visualize them. Not everyone is a great fantasy artist, though if you’re lucky enough to have an artist in the group it is certainly a cool idea to get character or team portraits done, but the Internet is a great resource as well.

Thank the Google engineers for the unending repository of photos in their indexes or troll art sites like Deviant Art or Elfwood to find a drawing that matches your mind’s eye view of your hero. While having an image might shortchange the “my character is wearing…” introductory discussion during the initial roleplaying scene a bit, it can help reinforce the reality of the game or help you describe your character even if flowery writing and description are not your personal forte.
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A mega update for Relic’s RTS Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II has gone live. This brings the game version up to 1.3.1. The update will be applied automatically when you login to Steam.

Key changes include addition of a 2 vs. 2 mode, two new maps, new unit selection graphics, and a re-tooled skirmish AI.

An in-depth developers’ log (including screenshots) of the update can be found by following the links below:

The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part One)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Two)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Three)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Four)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Five)

If you are not interested in reading something that fancy, you can check out a brief listing after the break.

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The world of Paragon City is getting a bit darker as the lines are blurred between good and evil. City of Heroes/City of Villains is promising to muddy up the ethical water in the near future thanks to its “Going Rogue” expansion. The new content is designed to allow players to run the gamut of alignment between Superman-good to Apocalypse-Evil with all the morally shady places in between.

Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer at Paragon Studios, explains in the press release that the team behind the game is looking to expand the game  into the four-colored jumpsuit world with the new content.

“For Years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain. Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions, enabling them to further develop, unveil new perspectives, and overcome new challenges.”

At the same time the game will introduce that time honored comic book convention – the mirror universe – where the normally heroic Statesman becomes the evil dictator of the world known as Praetoria in the guise of Tyrant. In the core universe the new alignment system also finally allows players to freely cross between Paragon City and the Villain haven of the Rogue Isles. Missions in all locations will now reflect their moral compass as well, allowing players to shape their character’s outlook and just where they fall in the good guy – anti-hero – bad guy range.

Along with the new alignment system and mirror universe zones two new archetypal storyline characters – Maelstrom and Desdemona will make their appearance to typify the good/bad paradigm.

I applaud the concept of making an MMO more responsive to the choice of the players and recent additions to City of Heroes/Villains like the Architect mission creation tools go a long way to extending the lifespan of this elder MMO even as Champions and DC Universe Online wait in the wings to give players more superhero MMO choices. I just find the claims hard to believe after all good/bad the missions are all still basically the same and nothing ever changes in Paragon City.

Full details after the jump.

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Jeffrey Steefel reveals the next chapter in the Lord of the Rings Online storyline in a new podcast. Book 8 takes adventures back into Moria for clean up detail and ultimately to  Dol Guldur, Sauron’s Mirkwood stronghold, and the Hill of Sorcery.

Steefel also talks more about the new Skirmish feature which will give players the chance to use henchmen of a sort in instances. Marshaling troops of NPCs is a natural progression of gameplay with epic battles ahead in Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor.

TenTonHammer’s Loading Live podcast, LotRO’s Jeffrey Steefel on Book 8 runs just over 45 minutes. It’s enough time to get in a decent workout or keep you occupied during rush hour.

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There is one role that every player and game master takes on while playing a traditional RPG or wargame whether they know it or not – the role of teacher. No one enters the gaming hobby initially fully burst from the head of Zeus with the complete knowledge and understanding of any RPG system ever created… we have to learn them as we go. We learn to read the vast tomes of knowledge, listen to our companions and by playing and observing the choices and decisions of our gaming partners and our fearless storyteller. Our opinions on a system is just as easily colored by the actions of our fellow gamers as it is by any flaw in a rule system.

Too many times over the years I’ve ended up on the topic of role playing games and immediately the other member of the conversation will mention that “I played that once in high school/college/the military” and when I follow up with the next logical question: “Why did you stop?” half the time or more I get the “The guy/gal running things left.” While not every player is a future dungeon master, it says something to me that in many cases the person running the game becomes the glue with which these social gaming units are held fast and the cohesion of that unit is often not supported by the people who are enjoying it so much.

Role Playing games (or just about any hobby game including miniatures) require an atmosphere where players are introduced to a game or system or story and then helped along in creation of their character avatars. The process of making that connection can be very unique and is often the very point where a player will decide if gaming is for them or not. One bad experience, one unreasonable limitation or response from a dungeon master or fellow player will color the new folk on how long they will often spend in this hobby. A string of these things will eliminate all but the most determined. Often players rely on the storyteller to mitigate the rough edges of a gaming session without truly taking on the role of mentor or advocate for the newer players.
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