Archived News - February, 2001
Handheld Utilities
010228 - RPG Commando is a new site dedicated to bringing RPG utilities to those of you rich enough to have a PDA.
Star Wars Character Conversion
010228 - Wizards of the Coast has a "quick & dirty" online conversion tool to bring your old system Star Wars characters into the new system.
Tavern Generator
010226 - Wizards of the Coast is offering an online tavern generator.
Swagfest in Freeport
010226 - Green Ronin is offering Holiday in the Sun, a freely-downloadable adventure for Freeport.
Cthulhu Ships
010226 - Chaosium has (finally) received the latest Call of Cthulhu and it will be shipping out on Wednesday.
Eden Contest
010226 - Eden Studios is hosting not one, but two, contests. One is their biggest fan contest, and the other is their biggest new fan contest. The prize for each is two full years worth of Eden's releases. Detail can be found here.
Bostonia in PDF
010224 - The free post-apolyptic game Bostonia is now available as a free .pdf download.
Mage Knight Army Sets
010223 - WizKids released some Army Sets for their MageKnight table-top combat game.
Cute & Fuzzy Adventure
010223 - Guardians of Order is offering a free Cute & Fuzzy (Cockfighting) Seizure Monsters adventure for Big Eyes, Small Mouth. Download it from their website.
Guardians of Tekumul?
010223 - Guardians of Order has reached an agreement with Professor M.A.R. Barker to publish a Tri-Stat Compatible RPG line, Tekumul: Empire of the Petal Throne, based on Barker's classic science-fantasy world. The new game is scheduled for release at this summer's GenCon. Details can be found here.
Freelancers Wanted
010222 - Grey Ghost Games is looking for freelancer editors, authors, co-authors, artists for the following products: Terra Incognita: The NAGS Society Handbook, Terra Incognita: Deepest Darkest Africa, The Deryni Roleplaying Game, Atlas of the Eleven Kingdoms (for The Deryni RPG), Deryni Magic (for The Deryni RPG), Brother Theo's Guide to Gwynedd (for The Deryni RPG), The Fudge Companion book, Friend or Foe, and Game Mastering Secrets, 2nd Edition. Additionally they are looking for an unpaid assistant webmaster (wouldn't that be a "webslave"? :) for gmsecrets.com.
White Wolf Preview
010222 - White Wolf Games just posted a preview for Veil of the Night, a supplement for Vampire: The Dark Ages and part of the Year of the Scarab series. Veil of the Night deals with the world of medieval Islam.
"New" Traveller Reprint
010222 - Far Future Enterprises has released Double Adventures 1-6+, The Classic Short Adventures. Fans of "Classic" Traveller should rush out and buy it now!
MageKnight Beta
010222 - WizKids announced that MageKnights product line is being updated to the Beta release. For full details read the announcement.
Also from WizKids is a peek at the new Lancers Booster Box.
Playtest Sitcom Wars
010222 - Arcnus Magicus is in search of playtesters for Sitcom Wars: The Alien Menace. The game is a sci-fi spoof of classic American television shows. Further information can be obtained by e-mailing Arcnusm@aol.com or arcnusmagicus@yahoo.com.
Dominion Rules 2.0 Update
010221 - The folk at Dominion Games have posted a status update on the upcoming Dominion Rules 2.0.
Official Traveller Chat
010220 - Far Future Enterprises announced the opening of the Official Traveller Message Boards! The boards are touted as a central location where Traveller fans can get together, meet other players, and interact directly with those involved in bringing us the Traveller universe! Most intriguing is the prospect that participants can have a voice in the future of Traveller. Traveller's creator, Marc Miller, is slated to be a regular contributor, and discussion is said to include that holy grail of science fiction gaming, Traveller's 5th edition (T5).
It's All in the Mind
010220 - Wizards of the Coast is now accepting pre-orders for the upcoming D&D supplement Psionics Handbook. The book is scheduled to be available on March 1.
Return to Ravenloft
010220 - Arthaus Inc, White Wolf's small press publishing affiliate, announced that it has acquired the rights to publish the Ravenloft campaign setting. Arthaus plans four books a year for Ravenloft fans. The first release will be the Ravenloft Core Rulebook. The Ravenloft campaign world will use the D20 rules and be fully compatible with 3E. The Ravenloft Core Rulebook is scheduled for a Summer release, with supplements releasing quarterly thereafter. Details can be found here.
Peek at Mystra
010220 - Wizards of the Coast is offering the slimmest of sneak peeks of upcoming Forgotten Realms. This peek is at the goddess Mystra.
Budget Battlefield
010219 - MicroTactix has released Budget Battlefield, a universal tabletop miniatures ruleset, as a downloadable PDF file. The company says that the $9.00 file is focused on ease of play, and works with any genre or time period. It also covers both individual combatant figures and fighting vehicles, and allows players to easily create game stats for any miniature figures they may already have.
Playtest Rules
010219 - Agents of Gaming has posted some playtest rules for Babylon 5 Wars.
Shadowrun Lives!
010219 - WizKids announced a partnership with Fantasy Productions of Germany to continue the publication of Shadowrun. The full press release can be found here.
Harn.com
010215 - Columbia Games says that there's a new Harn site up at www.harn.com.
RPGA Offers Kickbacks
010214 - The RPGA is now offering members a chance to "cash in" the club's "Service Points." Details can be found here.
Exalted Unveiled... Somewhat
010214 - White Wolf Games has posted some information for their upcoming World of Darkness rulebook, Exalted.
Principia Malefex Crosses Pond
010214 - Principia Malefax, described as "modern gothic horror" RPG, is now available in the United States. The game was formerly available only in the United Kingdom, but Noble Knight Games is now offering it on this side of the Atlantic.
FASA Clean-Out
010214 - FASA begins their last duty, and starts to clean out their warehouse. The final deals can be found here.
New Features for RPG Gazette
010213 - The RPG Gazette is preparing to add discussion boards to its site. This new feature will allow readers to comment on each story individually. A working sneak preview can be found here.
Because of my belief that people are basically good, readers do not need to give their e-mail addresses or other personal information in order to post messages. If this gets abused, I will (sadly) be forced to change this.
Anyway, take a look, and let me know what you think!
Ewww! It's Scarabs!
010213 - White Wolf Games has posted information for the upcoming Mummy: The Resurrection product. This time the offering is called Year of the Scarab.
Star Wars Mini-Adventure
010213 - Wizards of the Coast also has a Star Wars mini-adventure available free for the download. The adventure is called Operation: Clodhopper.
Miniature Silliness
010213 - Wizards of the Coast has started a new monthly web-feature called Miniatures Playhouse. This is a silly, silly little online comic made by photographing miniatures in a diorama and adding text bubbles. Did I mention it was silly? It's so silly that it has a cute campiness to it, and I found myself actually enjoying it. Check it out!
Melnibone Adventure
010213 - Chaosium announced that development has begun on Slaves of Fate, their first adventure for the Worlds of the Eternal Champion product line. The adventure is slated for an April release.
More AEG d20 Adventures
010213 - Alderac Entertainment Group has announced that four new titles in their Adventure Keep line of D20 adventures are to be released this month. The new titles include The Last Gods, Bring Him Back Alive, The Heart of Amun Khonshu, and The Murder of the Seven Points.
New MageKnight Miniature
010213 - WizKids announced a new miniature, the Great Fire Dragon, for use with their MageKnights game. The dragon is scheduled for a hatch-date of June. Details can be found here.
Dream Myst Problems?
010213 - I have been unable to connect to Dream Myst's web site or IRC servers for the past week. Anyone else experiencing this?
Oscar Snubs D&D
010213 - In a move that will surprise almost nobody, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed to nominate the Dungeons & Dragons movie for even a single award.
That's right, the Academy thinks that even The Hollow Man had better visual effects.
Eden Operatives Update!
010212 - Eden Studios has updated their Eden Operatives Program. This is Eden's version of the growing industry practice to support those who support the company's product line. Eden is offering merchandise discounts (in the form of what they call "Eden Bucks") to their operatives! Right now they seem to be wanting playtesters, amateur writers, and demonstrators.
As for demonstrators, this is just my guess, but I'm willing to bet that they want people to show off their games, not to protest in front of their offices. :-)
Points in Space Preview 2
010212 - The Gaming Outpost is offering a free preview of Cumberland Games' generic space gaming supplement Points in Space.
This preview is different (and expanded) from the one offered at Cumberland's site.
Decipher Acquires the Star Trek Fan Club
010210 - Decipher announced that it has hired the entire staff and acquired the assets of FANtastic Media. FANtastic was the founder/operator of the Official Star Trek Fan Club and publishers of the Star Trek Communicator magazine.
Decipher also announced a long-term license from Viacom to continue to build the Star Trek Fan Club.
Among the assets acquired from FANtastic Media is the Fan Club's online
store, hosted on startrek.com (the
official Star Trek web site), the Star Trek Communicator magazine and catalog, all the
Star Trek Fan Club's membership base, and the staff that created and managed both the Star
Trek and Star Wars Fan Clubs. Decipher plans a dramatic upgrade of the Fan Club's offering
over the next year with exact details yet to be announced.
FANtastic Media will continue to operate out of its current headquarters in Aurora,
Colorado, and is retaining all of its 40 employees.
The full press release can be found here.
More SJG Submissions Calls
010210 - Steve Jackson Games has put out a call for submissions for an upcoming release entitled GURPS Monsters. Details can be found in today's Daily Illumniator.
Hasbro Financials
010209 - Hasbro, owners of Wizards of the Coast, announced that the company lost just over $180,000,000.00 during the last three months of 2000. This will lead to 100 more job losses. Wall Street had apparently been expecting an even worse performance, so Hasbro's stock jumped at this news. Details can be found here and here.
From the various stories it does not appear that their RPG business unit (Wizards of the Coast) was responsible for any of the loss, but we won't know for sure until the company's annual report is released around April.
My personal take on this? This is no indication that Hasbro is in trouble. If you been following the news in general for the last four months or so, you'll notice that a lot of big-name non-gaming companies are also having losses and been forced to invoke massive lay-offs. What we're seeing here is that Hasbro is just being affected by that same great economy that former President Clinton seems so proud of. Like I said, that's my personal take. Your mileage may vary.
Cthulhu Reprinted
010208 - The Call of Cthulhu rulebook has been reprinted, and is on it's way back to the offices of Chaosium.
Penumbra Adventure Preview
010208 - Atlas Games is offering a free preview of The Tide of Years, an upcoming adventure in their Penumbra line of d20 supplements.
SJG looks for Submissions
010208 - Steve Jackson Games is planning a new GURPS supplement called GURPS Dark Places. The new book will be filled with horror- or conspiracy-related locations. The company is looking for submissions for this product! Details can be found in today's Daily Illuminator.
Wizards to Raise Download Prices
010207 - Wizards of the Coast also announced that their online store will raise prices for their Electronic Software Download products. Classic products will raise from $2.95 to $3.49. Other Electronic Software Download products will raise from $12.99 to $13.49. The new prices go into effect on February 15, 2001.
Free D&D Adventures
010207 - The latest free Dungeons & Dragons adventures are available from Wizards of the Coast. This month's offering in their Free Original Adventures section is called One Last Riddle. Today also marked the release of Episode 1 of their latest Cliffhanger Adventure, The Proper Count. I love freebies.
DragonBallZ Excerpt
010206 - R. Talsorian Games has posted an excerpt from their upcoming DragonBallZ accessory, Dragon Ball Z: The Frieza Saga.
RPG Gazette Polls
010205 - If you look in the lower left corner, you'll see that RPG Gazette now has an online poll! Feel free to participate!
New Fudge Dice Packaging
010205 - Grey Ghost Games is now packaging Fudge dice is plastic "clamshell" packages rather than plastic baggies. Also, the company is now stocking dice bags bearing the "Just Fudge It" logo. The bags are available separately, or bundled with dice.
RPG Host Up Again
010205 - You can't keep a good site down, it seems. RPG Host has been down for the last few days, but it's up and running again. Apparently the problem was with the DNS server...
Freelance Traveller Updates
010205 - Freelance Traveller, fan supported Traveller site, has been updated.
EarthDawn RPG Lives On
010205 - Living Room Games has announced that the EarthDawn RPG will not be affected by the closing of FASA. Indeed, the second edition of that game is still scheduled for release within the next few months.
Fudge Conversions
010203 - Grey Ghost Games has posted a bunch of new "Whatever-to-Fudge" conversions here.
Babylon 5 Wars Ship of the Month
010203 - Agents of Gaming has posted their Ship of the month for Babylon 5 Wars.
Ars Magica Index
010202 - Atlas Games now has a very complete, downloadable index (in Microsoft Excel format) for Ars Magica. You can find it here.
Free Warlord Preview Decks
010202 - Alderac Entertainment Group has announced that they'll be giving away 400,000 Warlord: Saga of the Storm Preview Decks in the March issues of Dragon, Games Unplugged, Inquest, and Scrye magazines.
GAMY Awards
010202 - Games Unplugged released their list of GAMY awards winners in the most recent issue. Amongst the big winners, Eden Studios walked away with the Best Theme Game of 2000 and the Most Violent Game of 2000 for All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
Baron Munchausen Online
010202 - Marcus Rowland, author of the shareware Forgotten Futures RPG, has posted the entire text of The Travels and Suprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a very old parody that was itself the inspiration of a similarly named RPG.
Free DragonLance Module
010202 - Wizards of the Coast has posted DragonLance module DLA 1: Dragon Dawn to their Dungeons & Dragons classics download page.
Dragon Wizards - Free RPG
010201 - I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of free role-playing games. Indeed, it's how I discovered Fudge, the best known game that most closely matches my style of play.
Anyway, Dragon Wizards is a freely available "pen-and-paper" RPG that also utilizes a graphic card deck to help drive the game. The cards and complete system--basically everything to play and create your own games by simply plugging in your own monsters--are available to download free.
Dragon Wizards does hold back a list of their created monsters. These "Monster Packs" include 200 monsters, 100 treasures and 100 traps, and are available in four sets for $5 each.
I haven't tried it yet, but it looks interesting.
Points in Space Preview
010201 - Cumberland Games has a free preview of S. John Ross's Points in Space: Volume I: Starport Locations available for download. This volume is part of the company's All-Systems RPG Library, a series non-system-specific gaming supplements.
Slow Day Featured Site
010201 - Yep, it's a slow day in the world of gaming news. I thought I'd take advantage of the lack of other news to plug a favored gaming related web site. Maybe this will become a regular feature on "news-less" days. In any case, today's featured site is Winchell Chung's 3-D Starmaps page. It's a wonderful page for anyone doing a science fiction campaign set in our own universe.
If you have a gaming site that you want me to feature on a slow day, click on the "Contact Info" button, and send me an e-mail!
