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Axiom Verge: Retro Gaming At Its Finest

Axiom Verge: Retro Gaming At Its Finest

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Axiom-Verge-1-small

Over the past few years retro-gaming has been on the rise. From the NES Classic, to the upcoming AtariBox, many companies are releasing games and devices that pull at your nostalgia, allowing you to relive some of the gaming moments from your past.

Along with retro gaming, indie game development has rocketed over the past few years. Independent game developers with small budgets and small teams are creating new games and experiences in a variety of genres, leading to the creation of compelling stories and incredible pieces of art.

In 2015, Thomas Happ created a sci-fi game that matched the wonder and exploration of a nearly bygone era. An era of 2 dimensional side scrolling games, featuring exploration, with an emphasis on combat, puzzle solving, and powerups.  This game is called Axiom Verge.

Axiom Verge features many of the game mechanics from classics such as Zelda, Castlevania, and Metroid. This game and many others similar to it are often categorized as a “metroidvania” game. The comparisons between Axiom Verge and Metroid are more than a subtle nod, with the difference being Axiom Verge takes those ideas and expands on them.

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Modular: A First Look at Starfinder 1: “OMG! All Your Trope Are Belong To Us”

Modular: A First Look at Starfinder 1: “OMG! All Your Trope Are Belong To Us”

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256 Starfarer Combat Technician Pic
Well-authored and beautifully illustrate
256 Starfinder Core
Does for Science Fantasy what Dungeons and Dragons did for “traditional” Fantasy.

“Dad, we can’t get the Starfinder combat system working…”

“Look, Son, it’s a D20 system, so Armor Class reduces the chance of being hit, rather than absorbs damage.”

“OK. I get it now! You’re the best, Dad!”

(Tousles hair) “That’s what Dad’s are for, Son.”

OK it didn’t quite go like that. For a start, I did not in fact tousle my 13-year-old son’s hair since (a) it’s shoulder length and he gets cross if you tangle it, and (b) he’s 13. Even so, it was a “life’s full circle” Country and Western moment of the same order as when non-geeks teach their kids to throw a rabbit or skin a baseball or whatever.

However, Kurtzhau was indeed encountering a D20 system for the first time, the engine at the heart of Starfinder, Paizo’s new Science Fantasy (it uses that term in the text!) system, with which he’s pretty much fallen in love. The blurb says it all.

The Starfinder Roleplaying Game puts you in the role of a bold science-fantasy explorer, investigating the mysteries of a weird and magical universe as part of a starship crew. Will you delve for lost artifacts in the ruins of alien temples? Strap on rune-enhanced armor and a laser rifle to battle undead empires in fleets of bone ships, or defend colonists from a swarm of ravenous monsters? Maybe you’ll hack into the mainframe of a god-run corporation, or search the stars for clues to the secret history of the universe or brand new planets to explore. Whether you’re making first contact with new cultures on uncharted worlds or fighting to survive in the neon-lit back alleys of Absalom Station, you and your team will need all your wits, combat skill, and magic to make it through. But most of all, you’ll need each other.

Inspired by my son’s enthusiasm, I decided to take a look myself…

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GenCon 2017 Pt. 4 – Catch Up Edition

GenCon 2017 Pt. 4 – Catch Up Edition

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Company of Iron_TOPI’ve covered a number of new games that I saw at Gen Con, including fantasy deck-building games, science fiction games, and youth games. Some games, though, are hard to classify under a large thematic umbrella, defying the tight boxes of genre. Here I’d like to touch on some of those games.

Privateer Press

One of my favorite miniature war games is Warmachine, created by Privateer Press. In fact, my first article with Black Gate was an essay on their Iron Kingdoms RPG line. At that time, the Iron Kingdoms RPG was built on the D20 system, and it’s now a standalone RPG line … but Privateer Press is really known for their miniature line.

In Warmachine, you create an army commanded by a unique warcaster, and comprised of their large, magical, steaming metal constructs called warjacks, supported by units of troops, solo soldiers, and officers. Their companion game, Hordes, is fully compatible, but the warlocks in Hordes use a slightly different magical mechanic to command their feral, rampaging warbeasts. You assemble an army by picking one of the available factions, and then buying, assembling, and (hopefully) painting your miniatures to represent your completed army. The folks over at Penny Arcade have recently begun broadcasting full games of Warmachine for your viewing pleasure, if you want to see what it’s all about. But Privateer Press has major expansions on the horizon for their game lines.

This summer, Privateer Press released Grymkin: The Wicked Harvest, a dark fey-themed faction for Hordes. These are some truly great miniatures, from the child warlock known just as The Child (complete with her companion and protector, Dolly) to the warlock The Dreamer (along with three solos representing fragments of her dream power) to the grotesque porcine Piggybacks and the darkly amusing Neigh Slayers. Words really can’t do these miniatures justice, so check them out on the website.

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Modular: The Traveller Central Supply Catalogue Page by Page: Survival Gear, Electronics and Computers…

Modular: The Traveller Central Supply Catalogue Page by Page: Survival Gear, Electronics and Computers…

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Traveller Central Supply Catalogue
(Click through to first article)
256 Traveller rescue ball
Rescue Ball

I’ve finally started making use of the Mongoose 2 Traveller Central Supply Catalogue. As predicted, it’s been handy to have two sets of armour listings, which is as far as I got last time with my page-by-page.

The players — all 13-14 year old boys — liked the catalogue just to look at. Rules aside, it added coolness to our Traveller sandbox game. One or two of the items proved invaluable, including the Diplomatic Vest, which the rogue character leapt on with unholy glee. (He should, however, have considered something more powerful than the flechette gun.)

So, now we’re onto Survival Gear, Electronics, and Computers, sections that continue the faux catalogue conceit.

2. Survival Gear

As with Armour, this section duplicates and expands on the equipment in the core rules. For example, it tells us more about “Artificial Gills” to make clear that these must be worn with a mask, and includes lots of new items.

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Modular: Picking Pathfinder

Modular: Picking Pathfinder

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I’m curPatfhinder_Corerently running a Swords & Wizardry (S&W) campaign for a few friends. I wrote here about why I chose S&W instead of my preferred system, Pathfinder. In fact, that post served as the genesis for this Black Gate feature,  Modular. But now, I’m going to look at some of the strengths of Pathfinder and why, when this S&W campaign is done, I’m going to transition the group to a Pathfinder adventure.

So, though I had both played and run Pathfinder, I chose S&W for reasons I talked about in that prior post. I wanted a more story-driven, less mechanics-based system. Also, because two-thirds of the party was new to pen and paper RPGing, I wanted something lighter in the rules department. And there’s no comparison between the two in that regard. The S&W Core Rules comes in at just over 140 pages. The Pathfinder Core Rulebook is almost 600!

Now, I explained in that first post that while I was still reading RPG products, I had stopped playing during 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D): there simply hadn’t been time for it.

But I wanted to get back into playing, and the choice seemed to be between Pathfinder and the newly released 4th Edition. Now, I had only ever played D&D, going back to 1st Edition. I mean, it was synonymous with role playing games and 4th Edition was the natural choice. But as I researched both systems, Pathfinder clearly seemed to be the way to go.

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Modular: The New Mongoose Traveller #3 — Random Adventures, Or How I GM’d With No Prep

Modular: The New Mongoose Traveller #3 — Random Adventures, Or How I GM’d With No Prep

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(Read First Article)
(Read First Article)

Spacers in Ganelon Navy uniforms cram the bar. These guys have a reputation for trashing bars and brawling with strangers. However, this evening, they are beyond well behaved. They keep their hands off the waiting staff, even tip them generously. They are almost painfully polite — “I’m sorry I nearly jostled you! Please accept my apologies, and further apologies on behalf of my ship and indeed my culture…”

This is a problem!

Or at least a problem for the three hard-up traveling companions huddled around a small corner table… let’s call them Travellers... sipping beer from bulbs designed to cope with the 0.15G (these are real!). They have a contract to catch the Ganelon spacers behaving badly so as to compromise that star kingdom’s naval goodwill tour. So far, they are not seeing any bad behaviour.

Somewhat direct in mentality, Charadack, the retired marine sergeant in the group, starts loudly boasting about a battle in which the Imperium forces utterly thrashed those of Ganelon Star Kingdom. Perhaps he can provoke an assault?

After about fifteen minutes, a Ganelon officer carefully navigates the crowded bar and addresses Charadack: “I hear you are talking about your great victory. May I compliment you and the entire Imperium for your chivalry? You are brave and noble fighters, and indeed were exceptionally polite and gracious to the POWs captured as a result of  your glorious success…”

At this point, our Travellers are starting to freak out. What is going on?

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In Alone Against the Flames You Face the Horror of Cthulhu the Way the Universe Intended: By Yourself

In Alone Against the Flames You Face the Horror of Cthulhu the Way the Universe Intended: By Yourself

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Alone Against the Flames-small Alone Against the Flames-back-small

I’m a huge fan of solitaire role playing adventures. They’re a great way to exercise your imagination and sample an immersive RPG experience when you can’t find any other players — or just can’t convince them to try out a new game with you.

Of course, the biggest drawback of solo RPGs (aside from the fact that they’re relatively thin on the ground these days) is that most expect you to be fully conversant with the system. That’s why I’m so delighted with Alone Against the Flames, the newest solo adventure for Call of Cthulhu. You don’t need to read the (rather daunting) rulebook before you start playing. Just settle in a comfy chair with some lucky dice, open the book, and follow the instructions. It dumps you right into the story and teaches you the game as you go.

Call of Cthulhu is a horror RPG based on the work of HP Lovecraft, and Alone Against the Flames is a complete tale set in the 1920s in which you are the main character, and your choices determine the outcome. Although it’s designed to walk you through the basics of the game as you go, a copy of the Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition QuickStart Rules (which you can download for free here) is required to play.

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Modular: Dungeon Delving Tips – Part II

Modular: Dungeon Delving Tips – Part II

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Delve_ESEarlier this year, Modular looked at the first dozen tips for dungeon delving from Creighton Broadhurst of Raging Swan Press. Today, we follow up and tackle thirteen more to get to 25. Good dungeon delving used to be a lot more important than it is today.

While characters seemed to die at a great pace in Gary Gygax’s original campaigns, for most of us who grew up on pen and paper, our characters were not disposable. We tried hard to keep them alive. Necromancer Games (who you surely read about here!) even put out a 3rd Edition D&D supplement, Raise the Dead, containing party quests to bring back that lost character.

In today’s MMO/video game world, death is simply something you undo by reloading the most recent saved game. A character can die dozens of times and we still get to play them over and over again.

But when death is a real threat, that party delving into the dungeons deep needs to employ strategies and tactics to accomplish the goal and get back out alive. Every character mattered (Kinda like, ‘No one left behind’ as a party slogan). So, here are thirteen more tactics to add to the first dozen to help keep your party alive.

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Dungeon Delving with Colorful Characters: Krosmaster Quest

Dungeon Delving with Colorful Characters: Krosmaster Quest

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Krosmaster Quest-small

I’m fascinated by the explosion in dungeon crawl board games. The best of them capture the sense of adventure and social aspects of tabletop role playing better than I would have thought possible. The ones I’ve tried — like the Pathfinder Adventure card game Rise of the Runelords, HeroQuest, Talisman, and Munchkin Quest — have been a blast. But they barely scratch the surface of what’s happening in this dynamic new genre.

In fact, the subgenre has gotten large enough that it’s starting to innovate in surprising ways. One of them, of course, is with components. I can’t be the only player who’s purchased a $70 board game just to get my hands on the miniatures (Asmodee’s Claustrophobia is the most blatant example — hours after I opened it, all the minis ended up on my D&D table. I’ve never finished a game of Claustrophobia, but the minis have seen countless hours of adventure.)

Krosmaster Quest is my most recent acquisition in the dungeon questing space. It’s derived from the hit Krosmaster Arena, the French player-vs-player card game that (among other things) spawned the Netflix anime series Wakfu. Arena is a turn-based arena combat game with a colorful set of cartoon chibi-style miniatures; Krosmaster Quest allows players to re-purpose those minis in a tactical adventure game for 2 to 6 players.

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GenCon 2017 Pt. 3, Youth Edition

GenCon 2017 Pt. 3, Youth Edition

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StuffedFablesDemoI’ve been making my through the games that I saw at this year’s GenCon, first of fantasy deck-building games and then some science fiction games, but I’d like to focus now on games with a particular audience focus: games for kids.

Stuffed Fables

Over the years, I’ve become a huge fan of RPG-in-a-box style games. While I love my old school Dungeons & Dragons, the fact of the matter is that I don’t always have the time to create an ongoing, engaging storyline, create NPCs, and so on. Games that can generate  the storytelling experience that I love from role-playing games, but eliminate much of the up front work, are definitely things that catch my eye. One of the knockout games of this type is Plaid Hat Games’ Mice & Mystics (Amazon, Plaid Hat), which I first learned about and discussed at GenCon in 2012. My youngest son was a mere 2 years old at the time, so too young for the game, but now it’s one of his favorite games, and one of the more epic games that are enjoyed equally by myself, both my kids, and my wife. The game has two expansions, Heart of Glorm and Downwood Tales, as well as a spin-off Tail Feathers (Amazon, Plaid Hat), which is more of a tactical wargame in a box, as you play mice and rats who wage war on each other by riding on the back of sparrows and ravens. There are also infantry troops, and the heroes and villains from Mice & Mystics can be incorporated as solo units in Tail Feathers.

Jerry Hawthorne, creator of these games, has a new release coming up from Plaid Hat Games, which seems like it will be equally endearing. The game, Stuffed Fables, tells the story of a group of stuffed animals who, upon the first night that their child owner is in her big girl bed, learn that there are evil forces that seek to draw her into a world of nightmares. The first in Plaid Hat Games’ AdventureBook series, Stuffed Fables is an adventures that takes place by proceeding through pages in a book. The book contains both the map for the scene that is unfolding, as well as the storyline you follow as you play, giving you directions of what encounters take place on the given map, what happens when villains are defeated (or not), whether any new information is provided about the storyline, and so on. (This is one advantage over Mice & Mystics, which includes an expansive tile-based game board but then has you flipping through a separate story book to figure out what happens on a particular tile.)

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