Ya! ya! Yawm!

Dune project: done.

Tell me Muad' Dib, how you say "dorkwad" on your homeworld?

The Dune Project

Not quite sure how the whole thing started, but awhile ago I got the idea in my head to make a version of the out-of-print boardgame Dune.

Contributing factors would be:

• Secondhand versions of Dune cost north of $100 
• I loved the book. -I liked the later work of these game designers (particularly Cosmic Encounter, which shares a lot of game elements) 
• I like board games with good bits 
• The internet exists 

Of the items on that list, the last one is key. Any fool could have the idle thought that Hey, I could make my own… but you’d need to know enough about the game to want to even try. You need motivation. Enter this guy:


Seem like a game worth putting in a little effort for? Incidentally, a video like this kinda gives you the idea of the online community that exists for this game.

Next, you’d need access to the rules and a list of all the components to make a complete game.

No interwebs? Good luck.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) there happened to be an online community that was willing to make PDFs of pretty much everything you might want.

The bullet list was:

• Two decks of full-size cards (1 with 33 cards, the other with 21) 
• One deck of half-size cards (30 cards) 
• 120 stackable tokens 
• A large gameboard with a map
• A rulebook 
• Game wheels (two pieces of cardstock pinned together to make something akin to a decoder wheel)

Any one of those items might make a sane person turn back.

How do you make a deck of cards? What do you make them out of? What's the best way to get them printed?

But the online community is there with all sorts of advice, how to's and examples of successfully finished projects.

I managed to cobble together PDFs of all the pieces I wanted save for the map. An Italian guy named Neri had posted a really great design, but it was riddled with mistakes (English was not his first language). So I pulled his map into Photoshop and cleaned up the map the way I wanted it.

Wasn’t entirely satisfied with my efforts (the board surrounding the Map looks like what it was – a late design add) but it was an improvement.

I bought tokens from Fantasy Flight, printed the board and cards at FedExKinkos, spent a truly ridiculous amount of time trimming cards on a paper cutter and presto – I have my own Dune game.

Took forever to finally get a chance to play it. Getting 5 like minded gamers into a room isn’t easy when half of them have small children – but a run through was done and I thought the game showed its worth.

So then I’m going through the interwebs looking for clearer answers to some of the rules questions we came up with and I see a post by this Russian guy.

He’s put together a set of files for print that are just incredible… I mean, I think anyone who started a project like this will think, one day, I’ll get some free time and put together an awesome set of components and post them online and…

Ilya? The Russian Guy? He’s done that, and I think the rest of the Dune home brew crowd feels like Wile E Coyote watching the Road Runner vanish into a vapor trail.

Just look at this stuff

He made all the artwork:

And there are people linking to sites like artscow.com that will print playing cards for you. Hell, uploading preformatted sets of images so you just have to click to buy them. Then they link to shops in Germany where you can buy wooden tokens in bulk.

Want to know how to make a folding board? How about a video of a magnetic, modular game board? The geek out never stops!!

I mean, cripes, the original game didn't look that good:

Ye Gods...

Ilya even formatted a rulebook that was written by this Brit in Manchester who has seriously cleaned up the copy and made some mechanical improvements.

It's like looking for a bit of gum and being gifted a seven-course gourmet meal.

After the first run through of the game I was thinking of searching out a clearer version of the rulebook, now I'm thinking I need to print up some new components.

Not like I need to keep up with the Joneses, but c'mon... a board gamer sees that much concentrated awesomeness and does nothing...?

I think not.

My Kind of Place

This is a cafe I could seriously get into.

Monster Hunting With Your iPhone

Okay, this is a seriously cool idea.

Lawful Stupid

(Via Above The Law)

This just in - the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that prisoners can be barred from playing role playing games while in prison.

For security reasons. Because role-playing-games promote an alternate hierarchy that competes with the established order of the prison. They (and I'm quoting here) 'mimic the organization of gangs' in that they have a Dungeon Master in a leadership position.

I about fell off my chair laughing when I read that. But I thought, no- that cannot be their position. There's some legal nuance that does not translate well. So I read the decision (Singer v Raemisch, No. 07-3400 PDF)-

-and that's really what they are saying:

The sole evidence the prison officials have submitted on this point is the affidavit of Captain Muraski, the gang specialist. Muraski testified that Waupun’s prohibition on role-playing and fantasy games was intended to serve two purposes.

The first aim Muraski cited was the maintenance of prison security. He explained that the policy was intended to promote prison security because co-operative games can mimic the organization of gangs and lead to the actual development thereof.

Muraski elaborated that during D&D games, one player is denoted the “Dungeon Master.” The Dungeon Master is tasked with giving directions to other players, which Muraski testified mimics the organization of a gang. At bottom, his testimony about this policy aim highlighted Waupun’s worries about cooperative activity among inmates, particularly that carried out in an organized, hierarchical fashion. Muraski’s second asserted governmental interest in the D&D ban was inmate rehabilitation.

He testified that D&D can “foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real life, correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior,” which in turn “can compromise not only the inmate’s rehabilitation and effects of positive programming but also endanger the public and jeopardize the safety and security of the institution."

Speaking as an experience game master, allow me to respond:

Captain Muraski, you may know a lot about prison security - but when it comes to D&D - you have a lot to learn. The DM, or GM doesn't give directions - they provide a setting and enforce the rules. There may be legitimate reasons you might want to prevent inmates from gathering (or prevent particular inmates from gathering) in a social setting - but those reasons are pastime neutral. The idea that D&D somehow adds a new element of risk to inmate behavior is just comical.

Grown men sitting around a table rolling dice and telling stories... ye gods.

Elie Mystal nails it. This isn't about D&D at all...

...this is about...punishment. It’s not about rehabilitation, it’s not about security, it’s about old-school vengeance carried out by state actors. He killed somebody, and we as a society found something else he liked that we can take away. So we’re going to take it away. It’s Christopher Lloyd ...telling Kirk he won’t beam up Spock “because you wish it.”

So, to all of those reading this who participated in one of my games, I must apologize for my lackadaisical leadership over this past decade. I will now re-assert my natural rights and powers invested in me as your gang leader. In turn, I will forgive your lackluster performance as my willing minions over this same period. The past is the past.

Without further ado... ahem....

     *cue melodramatic music*

Go now! Rise up and cast aside those who cling to the establishment! Arise in fire and earthquake! Lay waste to the land, slay all who oppose you! This... your GM commands!!!!

     *sound of a needle scratching a record*

Aw, hey....c'mon now... do us a favor....just a little uprising? Old times..?

     *sounds of malevolent hand gestures*

Don't be like that... I just... How about spotting me some pizza money?-No? How about saying you would...?

     *door slamming*

Nah, it's cool... I... I'm...ah... still full from lunch anyway.

Tabletop RPG

This is cool, yet it somehow makes me feel old.



(H/t to Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Goo: name your price

The World of Goo had a promo where users were allowed to buy the game at whatever price they wanted to pay.

How did it go?

2D BOY made around $100,000 in a week. That’s $50,000 each for writing a blog post about a game they finished a year ago. By letting people pay whatever they wanted. That’s damned important information.

I'd say so.

Jet pilot

Okay, probably everyone in the world knows this but me, but Google Earth has a built in flight simulator.

I flew a falcon over Heathrow. How cool is that?

Death to Candy Land

Steven Johnson over at BoingBoing makes a good point: the kid games of my generation s-u-uu-uuh-ked.

Battleship, for example:

...there is absolutely nothing about the initial exploratory sequence of Battleship that requires anything resembling a genuine decision. It is a roulette wheel. A random number generator could easily stay competitive for the first half. But even when some red pegs appear on the board, the decision tree is still a joke: “Now select a co-ordinate that’s next to the red peg.” That’s pretty much it. Yes, at the very end, you might adjust your picks based on your knowledge of which ships you’ve sunk. But for the most part, it’s about as mentally challenging as playing Bingo.

Whatever video games do to our kids, they certainly raise the bar of interaction.

Just as a thought experiment: Imagine what the manual for Super Mario would read like were it structured like Candy Land:

To explore Super Mario Galaxy, just hit the “action” button. At that point the game will randomly determine what action you have selected, and whether it was successful. When the action is over, hit the button again to see what’s next!

Extend this analogy:

Super Mario Galaxy using the mechanics of Chutes and Ladders:
Press the button, and move a random number of units closer to a fixed endpoint.

...using the mechanics of Trouble:
Press the button, and move a random number of spaces closer to a fixed endpoint. But there's a twist! You have four pieces to move, you have to choose which one moves - each turn!

Bleah.

(H/t to TED blog)

I'm about to cost you $20

How?

Easy, three steps.

1) Go to World of Goo's website

2) Download their free Demo (For Windows or Mac)

3) Play

You get to the end of the demo, I defy you to not shell out the measly $20 bucks for the whole shebang.

Seriously, World of Goo rocks. The best games have simple rules and complex strategy.

World of Goo is both, plus it's hilariously maddening.

I do Goo, do you?

Is this really happening?

With the total collapse of capitalism nigh, I'd like to take this moment to just say:

The new version of Cosmic Encounter looks SOoOooooo good.

I know what you're thinking:  

They're really releasing a new version of Eon's classic game of alien politics?

Yes! Or at least, it sure looks like it.

FF's website is listing components and showing visuals like they're really going to do this.

 

 

I mean - I've been burned before... (Avalon Hill, you are SO on my bad list) but the bits look good.

Stacking spaceships (smart). I'm betting the massive board in the picture won't be in the real set, but it looks like they've recognized that there's not much point in crowding things up.

Come December (Assuming I'm not living under an overpass, eating government-surplus horsemeat) I'm gonna score me a copy of this.

Whoo-hoo!

E. Gary Gygax has passed away

(h/t to Oz)

According to Troll Lord Games, (and the AP) E. Gary Gygax passed away earlier today:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is almost too much to get my mind about. But I've just had news that our dear Dungeon Master has passed away. Ernie called this morning, he thought we should let the fans know. He's just sent an email out.

Gary was in his home when he gathered himself up to cross the great divide.

He was a very dear friend of mine. And I will miss him so.

God Speed My Friend.

Steve
------------------

I certainly didn't know the man - but he helped create a pastime that (without question) altered the course of my life.

True, a lot of things alter your life: the route you take to work could make you late for a critical meeting, or get you in an accident. But your recurring activity has more opportunity to change and define you.

By that measure, gaming has had an enormous impact on my life. I have spent countless hours letting my imagination create characters, settings, plots and intrigues - or sitting among friends playing them all out. Absent the outlet of gaming – it's unclear what I would have spent that creative energy on. Perhaps something more tangible (or strenuous) – but I don't regret the choice.

Gaming was where I made friends – still is.

I met E through gaming.

Despite this, I don't discuss it with people. The stereotypes make most gamers a little reticent. You let a gaming reference slip in front of the wrong crowd – you spend too much time imagining what kind of assumptions will forever more be running through their mind when they think of you.

I always want to explain it as a hobby – but most people's interest (or what they are willing to retain) does not extend beyond a sentence or two.

"Is that the game where you pretend to be an elf?"

On the innumerable highway trips I've taken – I've tried to come up with an explanation of what gaming is, and why I enjoy it so much. Like many speeches aimed at the universe at large, it will never be done.

But if a person has only room for two sentences – I'd offer these:

Gaming is interactive storytelling. You don't read a story – you and your friends participate in writing one.

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (and others) started the idea that a game shouldn't be limited to a gameboard or a set of playing pieces. It should have rules that adapt to what the players want to do.

The playing field is in your head – the setting is wherever you want.

This idea has followed a natural evolution and expansion, until we have OGL and GURPs and all the logical variants and derivatives. I'm sure some would argue that Gary's idea was inevitable, that he just happened to be the guy who got it out in front of the masses.

I'm fine with that – but I'm grateful he did it when he did.

It meant that my insane cousin had the opportunity to buy a game he didn't understand (and never took to) and then introduce it to me.

I remember looking at that Erol Otus art and wondering what on earth we had stumbled across.

If I'd only known.

Here's to the passing of E. Gary Gygax. Thank you for all the memories.

My graphics card trembles in anticipation...

Having seen the recent trailer for the latest Star Wars game: The Force Unleashed - I'm starting to get that vibe again.

Maybe it's the music, or Darth Vader's respirator resonating in the dark, but there's just an indescribable joy associated with the Star Wars universe.

(At least the one that existed before Lucas totally sh!tted himself with the last three movies.)

That fact seems to have influenced the creation of later Star Wars products and series, and here's hoping this game will continue to restore a theme and setting that most of us never really got over.

Fly the geek flag high!

The following is a geek test (specifically a board game geek test):

Fantasy Flight Games will publish Cosmic Encounter® in the Summer of 2008.

Scoring:

1 point for - "Who's doing what?"
2 points for - "Is that a book?"
3 points for - "New game?"
5 points for - "It's been done."
10 points for - "Whoo hoo! Hot damn-a-licous!"

Well.....?


(Whoo Hoo!)

Arrgh! Curse you, New England!

I only got 46.

How many states can you list in ten minutes?

Sans map, that is.

(Found on Sivacracy.net)