Category Archives: Star Wars

COTB 019 – Arrows Exiles and Mists of Pandaria

Carlos and Ben welcome back special guest J.J. and new guest host Holly. Together they discuss recent movie news, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Path of Exiles, Fiasco the board game, Civilization the board game, and the Game of Thrones board game.

Last minute Geek Christmas Gifts already?

Cripes, it’s Christmas already. What’s going on? Well, here’s gift suggestions- maybe for your geek friends, maybe for you.

Of course, I expect lots of folks around these parts are playing Skyrim or Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m certainly doing the latter at the moment. The only problem looking at those as gifts is that it is incredibly likely your fans of the material already have them. ^^ But it wouldn’t hurt to check. Also, the Humble Indie Bundle 4 looks great, and half the profits go to charity.

Hey, look- The Guild Season Five is now out, just in time for Christmas.

Right Stuf Anime is having a bunch of sales. Of particular note is the remastered Utena DVD box sets. The series had been hard to find for awhile. It’s one of my wife’s favorites. I may have picked up the Soul Eater holiday package…

For the budding RPGer, or someone who might want a bit simpler rule set, Pathfinder’s Beginner Box has been popular. And the Bestiary 3 was just released! Another interesting up and coming d20 game seems to be Legend. It’s a little over the top at times, but it’s an interesting approach to mixing classes, races, and specialties via mix-and-match tracks. That is, you can take a bit of ranger, combine it with a bit of steampunk robot-making, and be a dragon. Or you can be an elven ranger with all of its ranger-y goodness. (I suspect the former option might be more popular, but ya never know.) ^_^ Plus, right now all proceeds go to the Child’s Play charity. Nice. And lest I forget, although I haven’t had the opportunity to play it, the 3rd edition of Mutants and Masterminds sounds fun.

For the eBook fantasy readers out there, check out B. Justin Shier’s Zero Sight and its sequel, Zero Sum. Check out Zachary Rawlin’s The Academy. Both are marketed YA, but fun reads. Of course, if you haven’t picked up Sanderson’s Way of Kings, that’s fun. And Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind and its sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear. If you’d like RPG tie-ins, Paizo’s James Sutter’s Death’s Heretic is really very good.

Come to think of it, I can recommend books forever. =P

Oh, and I did pick up Betrayal at House on the Hill, for board gaming goodness…

And who can go wrong with a squishable Narhwal? (Picked one up for Q, it’s great. ^_^)

Other suggestions?

Star Wars Saga Edition ending

Well, it’s official:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75862/22320345/Wizards_of_the_Coast_announcement?pg=1

There have been several questions lately regarding the future of the Star Wars Miniatures and Roleplaying Game and until now I haven’t had definitive answers to give you. After a lengthy evaluation, Wizards of the Coast has decided not to renew the Star Wars license with Lucasfilm. We’ve had a long and fantastic run, but with the economic downturn, we have made the tough decision to discontinue our Star Wars lines.

WotC is no longer going to have the Star Wars RPG license and is discontinuing its miniature line. I am a bit saddened by the news; I’ve got every WotC Star Wars book and I enjoy the system. I had fun with some of the people on this blog. ^_^ Plus, my regular group just started a game. I really, really hope that this news doesn’t mean that we won’t play it to completion- we’re going through the freely available Dawn of Defiance campaign, and having fun. ^_^

My group has been a bit burnt out on 4th Edition D&D. Star Wars is close enough in rules to 3.5 and 4e that it was familiar enough to get rolling, and in truth, in a lot of ways I personally prefer the SW mechanics to the 4th edition implementation of encounter/daily/utility powers. ^^; We’ll see what happens!