Mongoose Publishing Gary Gygax’s ‘Lejendary Adventure’

Mongoose Publishing has become the publisher of the Lejendary Adventure multi-genre roleplaying game system by Gary Gygax, the father of tabletop RPGs. Mongoose releases will include newly edited core books Lejendary Rules for All Players, Lejend Master’s Lore, and Beasts of Lejend, plus new world environments written and created by Gygax and never before published material, as well as new adventures created by a team of creators.

Gygax’s widow Gail Gygax of Trigee Enterprises (DBA Gygax Games) will lead the team of “Gygaxian” developers who will create the new products.

The first products, Lejendary Rules for All Players and the scenario A Question of Tribute, will ship in June 2009.

Lejendary Adventure products have previously been published by Hekaforge and Troll Lord Games.

Source: icv2.com

Video Review – The Call Of Cthulhu RPG by Chaosium

I started playing this game when it first came out in 1981 and I’ve had a blast playing it. Whether I ran games or just played characters in them, this is one of my favorites. Our group played this fast and loose, treating it more like The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser than a straight horror game.

The game is made by Chaosium and uses the Basic Role Playing system they are famous for. It’s very easy to setup a character and with the percentage numbers used for skills and abilities, it’s also very easy to get someone new to role playing into a game fairly quickly.

I haven’t played this in a while and currently I have the 5th edition set of rules. Kurt Wiegel of Game Geeks offers up a very nice review that explains the overall approach to the game a lot better than I can do so enjoy the review! Read more

Palladium Books Releasing Zombie RPG In October

Palladiuim Books will release Dead Reign RPG: The Zombie Apocalypse in October. In the Dead Reign RPG, hundreds of millions of people have died and become zombies, and civilization has broken down. Now zombies rule the planet, death cults promise protection, retro-savages sacrifice the living to the zombies, and human survivors struggle on. Palladium promises release by Halloween.

Written by Josh Hilden, Joshua Sanford, and Kevin Siembieda; with art by Amy L. Ashbaugh, Nick Bradshaw, Mark Dudley, and Mike Mumah, and cover by E.M. Gist Dead Reign RPG will be a 192-224-page, $22.95 trade paperback.

Source: icv2.com

Two More Role Playing Systems To Try Out

After playing the new 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons a few times, and integrating some the Arduin Grimoire rules into the gameplay, I’ve done some more research into other systems.

I’ve found two systems that I want to dive into and try out next… Read more

WotC to Revise D&D 4th Ed. Game System License (GSL)

Wizards of the Coast has announced on its Website that it is planning to issue a revision to the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License (GSL) and System Reference Document (SRD). Linae Foster, the D&D Licensing Manager, put it this way: “We recognize the important role third party publishing support plays in the success of the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. We have listened to the community and our valued colleagues and have taken their concerns and recommendations to heart. Our commitment to the health of the industry and hobby gaming lifestyle is reflected in the revisions to the Game System License.” The announcement indicated that the revised GSL and SRD documents “will be available in the very near future.” Read more

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: My Impressions So far

This August (2008) will the 30th anniversary of my introduction to Dungeons & Dragons and roleplaying in general.  I was 14 years old when I went to a friends’ house to try out a new game he was playing.  I was hooked after that and played pretty much every weekend for the next ten years.  Most of us in our group that played on a regular basis used a mix of rules from various systems to form our games, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Arduin, and a few others.

When Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition was released recently I thought it would be a great opportunity to celebrate my time in the game and to try out Wizards Of The Coast’s newest system. After receiving the 3 core rule books in a gift box set last week, I began pouring over those crisp new tomes one at a time.

So far I’ve rolled up your standard human fighter.  I’m going to roll up one of each class to get used to things and to become familiar enough to explain it to others.  My kids will be the first to go through the initial adventures with me (I’ve played various other role playing games with them already).

I’ve found everything to be pretty easy to follow.  Although I am glad I’ve had the experience in RPGs that I’ve had as it’s made it easier to jump into the character creation without pulling my hair out.

As I continue to progress in the new system, I’ll post updates on my thoughts as well.  I like what I see so far, and the real beauty of it is that I can change anything I want to make it fit my needs.

Romans Used 20-Sided Dice Two Millennia Before D&D

Many of us geeks take great pride in the ability to recite the history of role-playing games based on the 20-sided die, but what about the history of the die itself? Apparently it predates the original Dungeons and Dragons by almost two millenia.

Christie’s, auctioneer to the rich and famous, sold a glass d20 from Roman times. It was included in a collection of other antiquities that sold in 2003. The markings on the die don’t appear to be either Arabic or Roman numerals, but it’s probably a safe bet that it was used in a game of chance. As the auction catalog notes that several polyhedral dice are known from the Roman era, but remarks, ” Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.”

I wonder – how do you say “critical hit” in Latin? (Ed. note: “maxima plaga”)

The seller acquired this die from his father, who picked it up in the 1920s in Egypt. Sounds like the beginning of an Indiana Jones movie, doesn’t it?

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