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COTB 001 – Kickstarter and Superman Grounded posted by Benjamin

09-Apr-12

Carlos and I cover the purpose of Coming out of the Basement, give a brief intro of each other and our geek credentials, then talk about Kick Starter and Superman Grounded (We can’t help ourselves and delve into the new 52 briefly).

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It’s a great time to be a board gamer (I think). posted by Derek

26-Feb-12

Over the past 4 years, I’ve gone from a board game fan to a true believer.  Perhaps even a Hobbyist, gods forbid.  Indulge me in a bit of history, before the real meat of the post….

More…

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Space Alert: the most fun I’ve had getting screwed (by a game). posted by Derek

26-Feb-12

Mr. Carlos suggested that I turn this in to an actual post, rather than simply a comment, so here it is:

 

I played a new game this recent game night (and since the comment, I’ve actually purchased it for myself). I’m not sure, but it may be the most entertaining game I’ve ever played. It may not be the *best* game, as I first thought, but I can’t remember a time I’ve had more flat out fun in a long time.

It’s called Space Alert. It is chaos and awesome rolled up in to one.

More…

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Last minute Geek Christmas Gifts already? posted by CJ Ovalle

14-Dec-11

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?

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Whither 5th Edition? posted by CJ Ovalle

14-Nov-11

Referring to D&D, of course… I suspect it’s close- within the next couple of years.

Rich Baker has had a couple of interesting Rule of Three columns, where he (and other designers) reflect on different parts of 4th edition. Baker mentions that powers between different classes seem very similar, which has definitely been a complaint of mine, and he’s noted that some of the real benefits of 4E also have costs. He also mentions that 4E is mostly a striker show, which I think is true to a large extent. And Monte Cook’s Legends and Lore column has certainly been provoking, as has his return to the WotC fold. Monte has asked some really interesting questions in Legends and Lore, and discussed the game’s history as well as the role of complexity in the game. So far, I like what I’m seeing.

Now, what are the odds they’ll bring back the OGL? =P

Heroes of the Feywild is coming out tomorrow, or two weeks ago if you’re close to one of the favored FLGS stores that can sell it early. Living near one of those stores, I picked it up last week. Solid book. I think I liked Neverwinter a tad bit better overall, but HoF is definitely fun. New races- pixie, hamadryad, and satyr, and several new class options, including the barbarian berserker, the bard skald, the druid protector (I think) and the wizard witch. The themes are a lot of fun- I particularly liked the fey beast tamer, which gives you your own magical beast companion. They’re all decent, though, and I wish they had more room for themes and epic destinies in the book. I was also happy that the pixie was relatively close to the one I made for a home game a few years back, at 4Es advent.

Mine:
Pixie, Not Quite The Greatest Race That Has Ever Existed (inside joke based on a wiki-editing war)
Tiny Fey Humanoid
Ability Bonuses: +2 Dex, +2 Cha
Sorta tiny: Treated as a small character for most purposes, including reach
Speed: 5 (flight)
Languages: Common, Elven
Skill bonuses: +2 stealth, +2 nature
Fey Origin

The official version isn’t identical, but it’s close enough that the player who was playing a pixie can walk right into the “real” version without much modification.

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Game Night posted by CJ Ovalle

07-Nov-11

Attended a game night this past weekend, and played some fun stuff. Five people playing, which limited our options a tiny bit, but still had plenty of games to try out.

First game was Ricochet Robots, in which you slide robots around the board to get them to a certain point. They only stop when they hit a wall or another robot; the point of the game is to get the robots to their goal in the fewest number of rules. It was a neat game, but not really my cup of tea. Part of the problem was that I was really tired when we started playing, and there were at least a couple of rounds where I didn’t try very hard. ^^;

The next game was Last Call: The Bartender Game. Players are randomly assigned drinks which take a certain number of bottles of specific colors to make. Each bartender starts with several bottles of one color, and you trade bottles around between bartenders, gathering different colors to specific places so you can make the drinks on your cards. If you trade a bottle in one round, you can’t trade it in the next round and you go to the bottom of the initiative track, to borrow a D&D term (basically, you go at the end, but then someone else goes at the end the next round, bumping you up, etc.). The goal is to accumulate the fewest number of ice cubes which you get when making drinks that are “watered down” (which happens when you make a drink but there are some extra bottles at the place you’re making them). Pretty quick game.

The next game was 7 Wonders, which I really liked. Mostly a resource management game that at least thematically reminded us of Sid Meier’s Civilization. Had fun with this one.

The final game of the evening was Betrayal at House on the Hill, which I absolutely loved and will probably purchase soon. In it, your group explores a mysterious old house that you’re trapped in. You play certain characters that have speed, might, knowledge, and sanity stats, which you use during your encounters. The map is randomly generated through the placing of tiles as you explore, and you draw event, item, or omen cards as you encounter them. Omen cards also give you the dreaded haunt roll, which you will fail eventually- and that’s when the titular Betrayal happens. At that point, you figure out which betrayal occurs based on the omen card, characters there, and some other factors, and one person leaves the group and has his or her own evil goals to fulfill, which the group has to stop/escape/survive/defeat. There are apparently many many different betrayals that can happen. This particular game, I apparently was feeding people to the house in exchange for a sort of immortality. ^_^ Lots of fun.

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Check out “The Trainee” if you get a chance. posted by CJ Ovalle

02-Nov-11

An old friend from high school has written a comedic Web series about a superhero sidekick-in-training, “The Trainee.” Check it out.
The Trainee Webseries

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Board Game Updates posted by CJ Ovalle

25-Oct-11

My wife and I were married on Halloween 8 years ago, and yes, we had a costume wedding. Every year since then we’ve had a themed low-key Halloween party where we often play games and provide chicfila and other food and drinkstuffs. She’s really great at both costumes and decorating, while I’m mostly along for the ride in those areas. Last year she made a giant glow in the dark monster octopus which hung from the ceiling of our entryway, tentacles spreading through all over, gaping maw towards the front door. It looked pretty awesome under the blacklights. ^^ Halloween is our favorite holiday.

I and some friends have picked up a few board games that were recommended by several people, among them our resident boardgame expert (who owns hundreds of games, including many antiques). One of them was a game that Derek mentioned awhile back, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer. Interestingly, it also has an iPad app, which has been really useful in learning how to play the game. (Slight aside: recently acquired an iPad, and I’ve been using it constantly. Used it as my sole computer at a conference in New Orleans, and it worked out beautifully. Looking for more apps, so feel free to offer suggestions.)

Some friends of ours picked up Ghost Stories. Cooperative games are relatively rare, so they were pretty excited to get this one. The couple that bought it have been trying it out on their own, and they say it’s been fun. I like the premise- your group needs to stop an evil undead creature from resurrecting in this Asian-themed game, and you cooperate to fight off waves of invading spirits. Looking forward to it. The other coop game they’ll bring is Pandemic, which we’ve had fun with in the past, fighting off virulent disease outbreaks around the world (hmm… we could show Contagion in the background when that comes out…)

I also picked up Elder Sign (go cthulhu!) and Nightfall (horror competitive card game), but I haven’t had a chance to play them yet. ^_^ We’ll probably break ’em out at the party itself.

One the video game front, I’ve been playing League of Legends… eagerly awaiting the Old Republic, though!

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Speak Out With Your Geek Out posted by CJ Ovalle

14-Sep-11

This week is Speak Out With Your Geek Out, which seems appropriate for this blog. ^_^

Take a stance against baiting nerd rage and stereotypes of geeks.

Post about how much you love your geeky hobbies or vocation from Monday, September 12th, 2011 to Friday, September 16th on your blog, website, social media account or in a forum somewhere. Then come here and tell us about it. We’ll have a kick-off post where you can stand and be counted.

So, although we haven’t been particularly good about necessarily POSTING here, it really is part of the purpose of this blog; coming out of the basement. Yes, we’re playing with a geek stereotype; if you haven’t read it, look at Mike’s definition of Geeks and Kurt’s definition of Basement in the tabs above.

Heck, I’ll quote a big chunk of Mike’s:

It’s about marginalization. When you get passionate, does the conversation start flowing with you or does it stop and eyes start rolling? It’s “geeking out” when your passion surpasses the audiences tolerance for your obsessive interest. Now, this doesn’t mean a group of people can’t be geeky about a topic because within the group they aren’t marginalized. It just means if that room was full of average people, the dedication to the “geek out” would be relegated to, well, those geeking out. Believe me, when I start discussing Lockean linguistics with gamer friends, I can tell from their reactions that I’m the geek.

So you aren’t either a geek or not a geek. Everyone’s a geek about something, likely more than one something. So you’re not a geek, you’re a geek about X. Like Curly said in City Slickers, it’s up to you decide what that one thing is. Except I still think it can be more than one thing. So it’s more like City Slickers two where Jack Palance’s zombie twin showed up.

Yeah, we’re all geeks about SOMETHING. Some of our hobbies are probably considered particularly “geeky,” but we love them. ^_^

I will blog on this a bit more later; I’ve got a bunch of deadlines tomorrow that I need to meet, but I’ll come back! Really this time. ;)

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Gaming Updates – Neverwinter, Pathfinder posted by CJ Ovalle

28-Aug-11

I’d been running a Pathfinder game for one of my gaming circles, which I mentioned back in November 2010. We finished the first module in Paizo’s Serpent’s Skull Adventure Path a couple of months ago, and I think in general a good time was had by all- the players seemed to consider it a success. (I think for me, the standout session was when they snuck to the top of a tower and rained chaos on invading cannibal villagers below.) One of the players has since moved, but we’re going to try to use the wonders of technology to bring her in when the game resumes. I used Obsidian Portal for some of the game, and I quite like it. One of the players kept great adventure logs there.

The 4E game that I was in with the rest of that gaming group died; it was replaced by a Pathfinder Kingmaker game for a short while, but alas, that game also faded. It wasn’t too much of a surprise, but it’s a pity. The other longer more established 4E Dark Sun game is wrapping up. For each of those games, we’re trying to figure out what to do next. I think the first group is going to do a Neverwinter game- the new Neverwinter Campaign Sourcebook is out (more on that later). The second group, we’re still trying to decide. Pathfinder, 4E, Dresden, Savage Worlds, RIFTS, AGE- lots of interesting options.

Time, of course, is always the issue for all of us. The games aren’t weekly- the long-term game is every two weeks, and the others are even more sporadic. Work, kids, school, other hobbies- all of those things factor in to when we can get together, for all of us. There’s rarely a game where everyone is there. And really, that’s okay. That’s the way we have to roll*, and it ends up working out. I’ve been incredibly busy with an ALA copyright project, work, and school, so I’ve certainly had to be the one to miss sometimes. A few things help:

  • Commitment and persistence from the DM.
  • Interaction outside of the game- if not in person, forums, chat, or similar.
  • Someone taking and sharing notes (ESPECIALLY for those sporadic games).

So, the Neverwinter Campaign Setting has been released. In my opinion, it’s a pretty good book. I was a fan of Forgotten Realms, and I think this book did a good job in bringing in the FR flavor- even more than the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting did, in my opinion. It’s got great story, and the mechanics are also solid. There are several interesting new themes, new options for races, new themes, and a new gish class, the Bladesinger. I think it has the potential to be a quite interesting addition to a 4E game.

One thing that WotC and 4E have been very weak in, in my opinion, is adventures. One huge advantage that Paizo has is the Adventure Path series. Each AP can last a hero’s entire career. WotC doesn’t have anything near as all-encompassing, and that hurts. When time is the most scarce resource, anything that saves time is a must. Pregenerated modules save time. The fact that a lot of adventure content is unavailable- particularly the Encounters sessions that are exclusive to game stores- is kind of frustrating. Dungeon adventures haven’t really done it for me. Even the ones that are supposed to offer an overall storyline have been erratic. They’re rarely released on time, and they don’t really have the cohesion of the APs. Plus, you can only play the first part of Scales of War so many times…

On the Paizo front, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, the Inner Sea Primer, Inner Sea Magic, and the Inner Sea World Guide are all terrific. Paizo’s done a great job. Pathfinder has done very, very well in sales, reportedly surpassing WotC. Liz Danforth over at Library Journal has flat-out stated that the torch has passed. I think that for traditional fantasy role-playing, that might be correct. I like them both, but Paizo really is something special. I believe that WotC has been very odd in its D&D offerings, with board games, optional collectible cards, confusing lines, out-of-print books, and uneven digital forays. I think Paizo’s had a few missteps- I don’t know what the heck is going on with that Pathfinder Society position, and some of the public copyright assertions from employees aren’t really correct (which to be fair, is common)- but those are relatively tiny, tiny quibbles. Their books have been great, and their designers and developers are really approachable. I’ve even had the chance to chat with many of the Paizo folk, and they’re all great. I’ve had a chance to interact a bit with some folks at WotC, but they tend to be a lot less public. There are probably good reasons for that, but it doesn’t help. Another thing Paizo has going for it is the great third-party support, largely due to their use of the OGL.

To be clear, though, I’m still playing both.

I’ve been doing a bit with Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design, when I have time. I’ve had the chance to contribute a bit to the Midgard Campaign Setting, which has been a fascinating process, and I shilled for the new planar project, Dark Roads and Golden Hells, on RPGCountdown. ;) To shill again, I think it’s fair to say that in some ways the book will be a successor to Plansecape- among others, it’s got Colin McComb and Wolfgang Baur as participants. So check it out. ^_^ Open Design’s got a lot of good stuff out. Adam Daigle’s and Mike Welham’s Book of Drakes is their most recent must-have, and I’m not just saying that because Daigle hooked me up with an awesome Kobold patch.

*This might be a word joke. I haven’t decided yet.

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