Warhammer Quest Is Here!

Warhammer Quest is here! I'm downloading it to my iPad right now!

Jack Vance

Sci-fi author Jack Vance passed away over the weekend at the age of 96. I've never read any of his work, but the early TSR folks were big Vance fans, and some of his ideas were adapted into the D&D game rules. The notion that wizards and other spell-casters must memorize spells that subsequently disappear from their memories once cast is an idea straight from Vance. He's honored in D&D mythology by the god Vecna, whose name is an anagram of Vance.

Warhammer Quest

Hat tip to Matt for alerting me to the upcoming Warhammer Quest game for iOS devices. Check out this video preview and this review.

OD&D

Confession time: I added this upcoming D&D product to my Amazon wish list. I know it's an extravagance and I know there's no way I'll find anyone willing to play it with me, but...in my defense...the Amazon listing is much cheaper than the price listed on the Wizards site.

Arena of War

There's a new D&D video game -- Arena of War -- coming soon for mobile devices. Check out the details here.

No More Maps

One of the best parts of the Pathfinder comic book has been the removable game map that was included in every issue. Alas, the maps have been discontinued! On the plus side, the book has a new artist and I think he's off to a good start.

Nomenclature

When I design a new game setting, I like it to have a reasonably consistent nomenclature.* I may well be the only one of us who cares about stuff like this, and that's fine, but I'm just not satisfied with a setting that I've created unless I make sure there's internal consistency in how people and places are named. (In fact, probably 90% of the retconning I've done over the years, in The Druid Cycle in particular, has been to "fix" names that didn't quite work.)

Most often my game setting nomenclature takes the form of proper nouns derived from everyday words in other languages. The names in Torchlight, for instance, are entirely from Anglo-Saxon (Old English). The Druid Cycle is a mix of language traditions: Ancient Greek and Latin (Troya Nova), Welsh and Irish (Teyrnas and Annuvin), medieval Italian and German (Southern Principalities), ancient Egyptian (Tadjeser), etc.

The upcoming Shattered Realm revamp will be based on obscure or antiquated English words. Again, because this is a shared world intended for multiple gamemasters, I don't want to burden everyone with a bunch of weird names that they may not want to use. The archaic words I've chosen have a nice fantastical ring to them, but they're generic enough to remain in keeping with my design goals for the campaign setting. I don't want to reveal too much at the moment, but I can say that one of the major NPC heroes is named Caitiff, after one of my all-time favorite English words of yesteryear. Look it up!


* - Dagnabbit! "Nomenclature" is a word with a very specific and idiosyncratic meaning in Front Porch lore, and yet I somehow failed to include it in "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes," which is filled with many such tidbits to amuse long-time Porch players. I apologize, especially to Scott, for this egregious omission!

Big Four

As you know, this year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Druid Cycle. Many, many people have played in Druid Cycle campaigns over the years, but no one has logged more time in this world than these four lads...

Jason, Scott, Kevin, and Timothy (shown here in a photo from way back in 1998!) are the "Big Four" players whose imagination and enthusiasm have shaped this game world into what it is today, and for that I am forever grateful (and even more grateful for their friendship). It's fitting that, in this anniversary year, all four of them are playing in the current epic-tier Druid Cycle adventure. It's been a very long time since we got all four of these guys together in the same adventure, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

New D&D Movie!

Big news! Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to make a new Dungeons & Dragons movie!

We're Back!

As you can see, we're back online! After some technical difficulties, the Front Porch blog is now firing on all cylinders. Big thanks to Timothy for getting us up and runing again.

DDO

After my recent dalliance with World of Warcraft, Matt reminded me that Dungeons & Dragons Online is still alive and kicking. He checked it out after a long absence and encouraged me to do the same. Last night I downloaded the files and created a character (a paladin, of course!). I had time for only a few minutes of the introductory solo adventure, but I'm finding it interesting to compare DDO to WoW. At first blush, I think WoW is visually superior and has more intuitive game controls, but DDO provides an authentic 3.5 D&D experience that has a strong appeal to me as a fan of that edition. It's free to play, so I recommend that my fellow D&D fans check it out!

WoW Graphic Novel

I'm already kind of bored with World of Warcraft, but I may check out DC's new WoW graphic novel.

Free Comic Book Day 2013

Free Comic Book Day is coming up this Saturday! Pay a visit to your friendly local comic book store and pick up some free goodies.