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Erol Otus and Star Control II

Erol Otus and Star Control II

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star_control_iiLet’s talk about Star Control II.

Last week Black Gate blogger Scott Taylor did a special Art Evolution post on the august Erol Otus, perhaps the most distinctive of the first edition D&D artists. Otus’ work has graced numerous RPG books and adventure modules, including some of the most famous in the industry, including the seminal Deities and Demigods and the D&D Basic boxed set.

Go ahead, click on the link to Scott’s article and check them out. I’m sure you’ll find at least a few familiar pieces.

One of the more intriguing tidbits Scott shared in the comments section of his excellent article was this one:

Erol has worked for years in the computer games industry, most notably with Star Control II, but it’s cool to see him back at tabletop gaming.

Star Control II is one of the most famous computer role playing games ever created. Published in 1992 by Accolade and later ported to the Sega Genesis and the short-lived 3DO platform, it was named one of the best games of all time by both IGN and GameSpot.

It put you in charge of a sturdy starship and gave you over 500 star systems to explore, and a series of fascinating mysteries involving 16 cleverly-designed alien races to unravel, set in a galaxy filled with surprises and plots within plots.

But I was pretty sure Scott was dead wrong about Erol being involved. I would have remembered that.

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Game Review: Pathfinder Beginner Box

Game Review: Pathfinder Beginner Box

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bb-cover

Back in March I got this hankering for something nostalgic in the RPG universe so I went to my twin bookshelves of games and thought ‘where do you go from here?’

Well, where I went was to the tattered pages of Basic D&D, and as I flipped through the booklets I was transported back to a simpler time, a better time, when the game I loved wasn’t a rules monster with so many supplements I didn’t know which way was up.

As I re-familiarized myself with this venerable system I emailed James Jacobs over at Paizo to tell him of the small joys I was discovering along the way. Low and behold, James fired an email back that indicated Paizo felt the same way and was prepping for a boxed release of their own.

I mean really, when was the last time a gaming box hit the market? I’d say sometime around 1995 as the death-throes of TSR were beginning in Lake Geneva.

In turn, this came as heady and exciting news, but alas I had to wait a full seven months before I got to lay hands on a new piece of legend entering my collection.

So it goes that I finally received my copy of the Pathfinder Beginner Box. Holding it, I noted how thick it was, how heavy, and when I shook it much like a gift at Christmas it sounded of cardboard, bound books, and dice… ah the sound!

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Game Review: Innistrad from Magic the Gathering

Game Review: Innistrad from Magic the Gathering

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innistrad-werewolf

Magic The Gathering has recently released another set, this one featuring the dark plane of Innistrad. The end word of title in itself, Strad, should tell you all you need to know to get started here.

The Vampire Strad, as most older gamers will remember, was the famous vampire found in the classic TSR module I6 Ravenloft. That particular gaming supplement was so popular that it spun off its own boxed set and gothic fantasy dimension in the early 90s.

I’ve always been a fan of I6 for a couple of reasons. A: The cover might be the best work Clyde Caldwell ever did for TSR, and that’s saying something. And B: It featured the first TSR 3D map which detailed Strad’s castle.

Now I recently picked up a copy of this module, took it to Milwaukee, and had Caldwell sign it as Wayne Reynold’s birthday gift because the cover inspired Wayne to become an artist. That in itself should be enough to put it into TSR’s artistic top 10, but as the concept of Strad and his new domain began to grow, the creative think tank at TSR began to fail in how to deliver it.

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Dark City Games Oracle’s Breath Now Available for iPhone

Dark City Games Oracle’s Breath Now Available for iPhone

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o-breathWe’re big fans of Dark City Games’ terrific line of solitaire fantasy games. We’ve wasted many hours with these little wonders on the Black Gate rooftop headquarters, when we should have been plotting the overthrow of the entire publishing world.

Instead, we searched for the buried archives of long-dead sorcerers on The Island of Lost Spells, stood alongside Roman Legionnaires at the border between Gaul and Germania in Wolves on the Rhine, and plumbed the depths of an ancient ruin for a powerful relic in The Oracle’s Breath. There are publishing barons in Manhattan who owe their Perrier to Dark City Games, and that’s a fact.

Subscribers may even remember that we published a complete solo adventure from Dark City Games in issue 12 of Black Gate: “Orcs of the High Mountains,” by Jerry Meyer, Jr. Don’t tell me we don’t share the love.

Now comes word that Questland Games has made one of Dark City’s best adventures available for the iPhone: Oracle’s Breath.

Yes, now you can journey to a rich world of fantasy while everyone else in the staff meeting thinks you’re checking stock prices.

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Art of the Genre: Dark Tower and Bob Pepper

Art of the Genre: Dark Tower and Bob Pepper

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Goth Chick say 'bring it!'
Goth Chick say 'bring it!'

We’re a little less than three weeks from World Fantasy Con in San Diego and John O’Neill is at it again. This time he’s sent Goth Chick in from Chicago to prepare for his California arrival which wouldn’t be a problem except she and my receptionist Kandline don’t get along. Seriously, it’s was like watching Malibu Barbie and one of the Bratz go at it over the actual value of an immunity boost at Jamba Juice.

Meanwhile Ryan Harvey and I are watching the new Avengers trailer and debating which was a better hero, Ryan’s boy Captain America, or my personal favorite Iron Man. Yep, the offices were in an uproar and the only way to settle or satisfy the situation… Dark Tower grudge match!

Yeah, that’s how we roll here at Black Gate L.A.

Before you could say Strawberry’s Wild the game was out and sides declared. Ryan became the dapper-dressed troubadour king of Zenon, Goth Chick created the perfect persona as the necromantic queen of Brynthia, lovely Kandi decided on the enchanted and silver-charmed princess of Arisilon, and I of course took the unlucky and often lost in the wilds Baron of Durnin.

It was an epic contest, the tower spinning out brigands and dragons with equal delight, but in the end Ryan rethought his purpose in life, found religion, and joined the Sanctuary of Brynthia, Kandi finally allowed my baron to get ‘lucky’ in the ruins of Brynthia before we ran off together, and Goth Chick took the tower with the help of her undead hordes. All-in-all it was a solid days work, but as I played I couldn’t help stare at the art involved in the game with whimsical delight.

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New Treasures: Dungeons & Dragons The Shadowfell

New Treasures: Dungeons & Dragons The Shadowfell

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shadowfellRegardless of where your gaming loyalties lie these days — 3rd Edition, 4th Edition, Original Edition, Pathfinder, or Other — you have to admit that Wizards of the Coast has produced a top-notch line of adventure supplements to support D&D over the past few years.

They’ve put some of the best writers in the business — including Ari Marmell, Bruce R. Cordell, Mike Mearls, Bill Slavicsek, Richard Baker, and many others — to work crafting attractive and superbly produced game books that keep me opening my wallet month after month.

Yet, as an old-school gamer who cut his teeth on the golden age of role-playing adventures, one thing I still miss is those beautiful box sets TSR produced in the 80s and 90s.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The Ruins of Undermountain, Dragon Mountain, Menzoberranzan, City by the Silt Sea, and dozens of others.

These weren’t just outsized adventure modules.  They were complete campaigns, packed with gorgeous color maps, thick adventure guides, character sheets, new monsters, and other mysterious goodies.

When you held one in the game store, you felt the promise of weeks of adventure vibrating in your hands. Or maybe it was just the crushing weight of the box, making your wrists weak. Whatever.  Your hands trembled, and you knew that had to be good.

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Art of the Genre: A Gaming Family Tree

Art of the Genre: A Gaming Family Tree

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Sir Fleetwood: Basic Edition Fighter, Level 30, Art by Jeff Easley
Sir Fleetwood: Basic Edition Fighter, Level 30, Art by Jeff Easley

I began my journey here at Black Gate telling everyone that I was a gamer, a lifer as I put it, and that’s something I just can’t seem to shake. It all began when I was in junior high school, very early eighties, and with that damnable Red Box… but that isn’t to say that there weren’t thousands of others who did the same things I did concerning the D&D hobby in their school years.

What makes me different is that I still play today, but again, I’m not alone in that either as sites like Dragonsfoot help link like-minded, and yes ‘old’, gamers into an online world where they can still discuss the trials and tribulations of gaming life.

[Note: True story, I was on Dragonsfoot last week and someone asked a question about the module B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. I answered the question and added a bit about the nasty trick in the room in question. Bam! I get jumped all over for not posting a spoiler alert on my answer… for a thirty-year old D&D module! We old gamers take our hobby seriously I guess.]

But back to the point, I salute anyone who can continue a hobby for thirty years. Like most things started in youth most people will simply grow out of such simple passions. For me, however, a deep love of history and art kept me involved in gaming, along with a good deal of chance.

To tell this story, I’m going to provide a history, but for the art side of things I’ve gone to great lengths to recruit all the friends I’ve made in this industry the past two years as a visual guide. To me there is a symbiosis involved, and one cannot truly appreciate the tale without the visual additions, because any good fantasy tale deserves some wondrous illustration.

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Eat Flaming Laser Death: An Evening of RoboRally

Eat Flaming Laser Death: An Evening of RoboRally

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roborallyThese are good times for board gamers.

After the death of Avalon Hill as an independent game publisher (its remnants were purchased by Hasbro in 1998), it sure seemed like the era of the board game was over.  SPI, FASA, Task Force Games, GDW, Yaquinto, West End Games, Fantasy Games Unlimited, Mayfair Games, TSR, and finally Avalon Hill… the leading lights of board game design in the 20th Century had all perished by the end of the 90s. It looked like those of us who loved to move cardboard counters around abstract hex grids were relegated to paying ridiculous prices for out-of-print copies on eBay.

But that was before Fantasy Flight proved there was still life in board games yet, with a stellar line up of beautifully produced — and profitable — titles. Mayfair Games returned from the dead, phoenix-like, with the English language rights to the blockbuster Settlers of Catan. Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR and built on their rich tradition with D&D-inspired board games like The Conquest of Nerath (read Scott Taylor’s terrific review here). And, surprise of surprises, Hasbro has kept the Avalon Hill name alive, putting out high quality games like Battle Cry and Axis and Allies.

So on a Sunday night when I’ve managed to pull Tim and Drew, my two teenage sons, away from Gears of War 3 and sit them down at the gaming table, I find I actually have a choice of intriguing modern games to offer them. Should we go for complex and fascinating, like Axis and Allies? Colorful and fun, like Descent: Journeys in the Dark? Quick and light, like Cheapass Games’ Kill Doctor Lucky?

Rhetorical question, of course. When one of the choices involves lasers, killer robots, and blowing each other up in a frenetic race for mechanized glory, the answer is pretty much a foregone conclusion. It was RoboRally in a landslide.

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The Seven Greyhawk Classics of the Ancient World

The Seven Greyhawk Classics of the Ancient World

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against-the-giants1I’ve been pretty hard on Greyhawk novels. They’ve been the butt of more than a few jokes — both mine and others — from those of us who enjoy reviewing and talking about the fantasy genre.

I’m generally pretty forgiving, especially with novels of adventure fantasy. What can I tell you — I’m a fan.  But when books can’t be bothered to clamber over the very low bar of my expectations, I’m as capable of a harsh review as anyone.

The novels of Gary Gygax — and in particular his Greyhawk books — routinely limboed under that bar with room to spar, and I’ve said as much in print several times over the years.

Now, I’m second to none in my admiration of Gygax. I consider the man one of the great creative minds of the 20th Century, full stop.

I believe his work with D&D and Advanced D&D — especially the original hardback rules, and the incredibly inventive adventure modules that accompanied them, such as Descent into the Depths of the Earth and The Temple of Elemental Evil — was directly responsible for the mainstream acceptance of fantasy, as manifested in modern role playing obsessions like World of Warcraft and Warhammer.

But his novels?  Poo poo.

tomb-of-horrorsHowever, Gygax wasn’t the only one to pen Greyhawk novels.

Some of them — especially the so-called Greyhawk Classics published in honor of TSR’s 25th anniversary — are remembed quite fondly.

Written by Paul Kidd, Ru Emerson, Keith Francis Strohm, and Thomas M. Reid, and based on some of TSR’s most famous adventure modules, including Against the Giants, Tomb of Horrors, and Keep on the Borderlands, the seven Greyhawk Classic novels formed a nostalgic return to some of the most fondly-remembered adventure settings in gaming.

They were published in mass market paperback by TSR (later Wizards of the Coast) between July 1999 and February 2002, beginning with Against the Giants and ending with Tomb of Horrors.

Here’s the other thing you need to know about the Greyhawk Classic novels: you can’t have them.

They’re among the most collectible D&D novels ever published, and that’s saying something.

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Art of the Genre: Concepts of a Fallen Vanguard

Art of the Genre: Concepts of a Fallen Vanguard

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Brom makes beauty out of death like only he can
Brom makes beauty out of death like only he can
Last week I wrote about art direction in a film, primarily a film that failed, but that certainly isn’t the only such place where an unfortunate failure can happen. I recently had the opportunity to go to Oceanside California and share a lunch with Nick Parkinson a former developer on the Sony Online Entertainment MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Now I’d had some limited experience with Vanguard back in about 2008. In a former life I took part in Sony’s Star Wars Galaxies circa 2003, and a friend of mine convinced me to come over to Vanguard and say hello many years later. Since it was only eight months after Vanguard’s release, I figured I’d oblige, so I went to a local Gamestop and asked the clerk where I could find the game. He actually laughed in my face.

Come to find out Vanguard had been a colossal bomb, so much so that you couldn’t even find a retail copy less than a year after it hit the shelves. In fact, Wikipedia lists Vanguard’s awards as: Gamespy awarded Vanguard the “Biggest Disappointment” award for 2007. Vanguard also won the awards in the categories for “Least Fun”, “Most Desolate” and “Lamest Launch” in the MMORPG.com MMOWTF Awards for the worst games of 2007

[Note: As bad as this game may or may not have been, there is absolutely no way it could have been a complete failure in every way like Final Fantasy XIV. That is hands down the worst MMORPG ever released on the mass market.]

Still, even after being thrown out of the store, I eventually I found a version and loaded it up. Thinking I’d meet up with my uber experienced friend, I purchased a full-blown max level character from a clearing house site and was ready to roll! What happened? I promptly fell off a pier in the city my avatar originated, drowned, and lost all my items….

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