Shaman-y Ranger

Wow, in today's Unearthed Arcana article (download it here), they're previewing a ranger build that kind of draws from the shaman of 4e in that it has a spirit companion. It's an interesting build, but they haven't revealed the higher-level features yet, so I'll reserve judgment for now.

Soo!

If nothing else, Ticket to Ride is going to teach my boys a much-needed lesson in the geography of North America. Everyone should be able to point out Sault Ste. Marie! (Full disclosure: I was only aware of the Canadian city of Sault Ste. Marie until I saw the Ticket game map -- I didn't realize there was a corresponding US city in Michigan!)

Ticket to Ride

Amy's parents got her Ticket to Ride for her birthday -- can't wait to give it a try!

Legos vs. Minis

Tim W., this one's for you!

Kids and Board Games

Parents, there are tons of great board games out there to play with your kids...and 538 has the data!

Double Down

Double XP for the next 72 hours?! Damn you, Injustice!

Force Friday

It's Force Friday, so I stopped by my local Target this morning to take a peek. There was indeed more Star Wars stuff than you could shake a lightsaber at. However, I'm soon to invest a lot of money in new fencing gear -- taking up an activity I abandoned many years ago -- so I resisted the urge to grab the new Lego Millennium Falcon and X-Wing sets. (Christmas is coming, boys!) I was pleasantly surprised to find the new Force Awakens-themed core set for the X-Wing miniatures game, with new pilot cards and upgrade cards, and new paint schemes to correspond to the ships' appearance in the upcoming film. I already have two of the original core sets, though, so the likes of Poe Dameron and BB-8 will have to remain a mystery to me until some Rebel (now Resistance?) player fields those cards against me someday...

Pathfinder Online

Sad news today about Pathfinder Online...see EN World's article here.

Huge X-Wing Fun

Amy is visiting friends in San Francisco this weekend, so the boys and I are on our own. We've been keeping busy with a lot of games. We had some raucous King of New York action yesterday, when Nathaniel won the game and yet still freaked out anyway (apparently he thought we were just letting him win). We also played some X-Wing, bringing in the huge rebel transporter (from the Hoth evacuation scene in The Empire Strikes Back) for the first time. 

Maneuvering the transporter is a challenge, to say the least. In X-Wing, huge ships automatically destroy small and large ships if they ram them, and that rule came into effect when Matthew plowed his lumbering cargo vessel directly into a TIE Interceptor that was tangled up with one of Matthew's own X-Wing fighters. The transporter obliterated friend and foe alike, and we all learned the valuable lesson of keeping the hell away from that sucker.

The battle ended in a draw when Nathaniel and I spent numerous turns chasing Matthew's transporter around the map, only to watch it regenerate its shields every time. So, we all jumped to hyperspace, vowing to return and resume the fight another day...with reinforcements!

Batgirlin'

Oh Injustice! You've thoroughly monopolized my time! Just when I thought my ultimate team of Luthor, Catwoman, and Hawkgirl was set in stone for a run through the final stage of battles, you now offer a new Batgirl as a special challenge character! So, naturally, I had to get her, and she's totally awesome...not unlike the heroine of the recently revamped Batgirl comic series. But will she replace one of my Big Three? I guess only a few more days (weeks?) of leveling up will tell...

Hollow Mountain

Interesting...I may add Pathfinder comic books to my pull list once again.

Injustice Indeed!

I've been playing the iPad version of Injustice: Gods Among Us here and there for the past couple of months, and today I finally made it to the last stage of the game. Looking ahead to some of these battles has filled me with dread! It is indeed an act of grievous injustice to pit so many seemingly invincible beefcakes against even my A-Team of Lex Luthor, Hawkgirl, and Catwoman. I have no idea how I'm going to win these final battles, but I've invested so much time in this game that I won't quit until I win! (And yes, I'm very aware of the concept of the sunk cost fallacy, thank you very much!)

Uh Oh!

Must resist temptation...must resist temptation...

Imperial Assault Carrier

Drool! The TIE-toting Imperial Assault Carrier (click here to see preview pics) is going to be part of the X-Wing miniatures game. As a guy who loves to swarm TIEs, I'm thinking this huge-sized expansion is a no-brainer.

Water...Water!

Damn, Forbidden Desert is a very unforgiving game! We've played twice (using a different mix of characters each time) and in both cases we lost when one or more heroes died of dehydration. I'd say we were on the right track (having acquired or at least located all the airship components) in both games, but luck was against us and we drew so many sun cards that we croaked. D'oh! Well, Amy is fired up to keep playing until we win...

Book of Vile Darkness

Remember a few years ago when a third D&D movie was announced? No? That's okay. The Book of Vile Darkness was essentially made-for-TV fare that, to my knowledge, was not released on DVD in the US. Today I found the complete flick on YouTube, in all its hammy glory...

I'm glad that the rights for D&D films have finally returned to Hasbro, who, in partnership with Warner Brothers, are now working on a big-budget D&D movie set in the Forgotten Realms world. I plan to follow the development very closely, so I'll keep you posted on the latest news.

Sandblasted

We're well into our first game of Forbidden Desert and the storm is really picking up! We've explored most of the ancient city and have discovered the location of the four missing components of the airship (three of which are visible in the image below, and the fourth has already been collected).

We have adventurers (Amy is blue, Matthew is green, Nathaniel is white, and I'm yellow) in position near the remaining airship components and our Water Carrier (the equivalent of a cleric or other healer-type in RPGs) is in a good position to keep our team hydrated, but the storm is dumping huge amounts of sand all across the map. Can we collect all the pieces and make it back to the launch pad (which is also buried under the sand!) before the storm traps us in the ruins forever?!

Hillsfar Adventure

Free D&D! Click here to download a full-length Fifth Edition D&D adventure.

Forbidden Desert

Our family D&D night -- featuring the Tyranny of Dragons adventure path -- was on hold for the past couple of weeks while we were vacationing in New York. It's Friday again, but it looks like Tyranny will have to wait yet another week -- we've got Forbidden Desert on tap for tonight, and everybody is pretty stoked to try it out.

I knew we had a winner as soon as I opened the metal box that contained the game's many goodies. There's a cool little plastic airship (the objective of the game is to find the ship's missing components and repair it so that you can escape from the desert before you die from dehydration or get buried by the raging sandstorm), cards for the various adventurers (each with their own special abilities, as in Pandemic), equipment cards featuring a nifty steampunk design (sorry, Amy!), variable tiles to ensure that no two game maps are ever the same (like Settlers of Catan or the various D&D cooperative board games that have been released over the last five years), and more.

But is it a good game? We won't know until we try it, but the rules are simple and elegant, and I think we'll be up and playing in a matter of moments. I anticipate it will be loads of fun, but also very challenging -- our adventuring party may well die many horrific deaths in the scorching desert before we at last escape on that airship!

Post-Vacay Blues

After a long and very enjoyable trip to western New York, it's now back to the grind for me. How to cure the post-vacation blues? Order a new game, of course! We're going to try out Forbidden Desert, from the creator of Forbidden Island and Pandemic. I'll let you know how it goes!

Museum of Play

We spent today at the National Museum of Play (click here for their official website) in Rochester. The place is chock-full of fun stuff; in particular, the whole family got a kick out of all the classic arcade games. Here's a shot of us getting ready for a four-player game of Gauntlet.

The kids tended to shoot the food -- rookie mistake! -- so we didn't survive many levels.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see all the nods to D&D history. They had the first-ever D&D video game, which, as I understand it, was a pretty basic and generic dungeon-crawler -- but at the very least a spiritual ancestor of the many awesome D&D games that have followed in its wake.

Elsewhere, a display case included some notes about RPGs in general and the foundational role played by D&D itself. They had some of the earliest D&D products as well as a sampling of modules, dice, miniatures, and non-D&D RPGs. Here's one side of the display...

And here is the adjacent side...

I kind of feel like I could have pulled a better display of RPG history out of my ass...ets. My own assets, as it were. Even after discarding so many RPG products from yesteryear, I still have a lot of the most iconic items, such as the First Edition D&D PHB and the first Basic set. Still, it was great to see D&D featured in as amazing and wondrous a place as the Museum of Play.

Hawkman Cast

As if the D&D movie news wasn't amazing enough, we also learned today that the CW's Hawkman has been cast. Click here to meet the guy who will basically kick everyone's ass.

Holy Crap, Here Comes a New D&D Movie!!!

Click here for the scoop, yo!

Back on Home Turf

It's good to be back! Breakfast at a Tim Hortons in Buffalo, lunch at a different Tim Hortons (at the new HarborCenter ice hockey facility), and dinner across the border at Harvey's. In between this delicious fast food fare we had enjoyable visits to the Buffalo Naval Park and Niagara Falls. Tomorrow, we've got all sorts of fun stops in Rochester -- not the least of which will be Millennium Games. I've visited game stores all across America and in Canada, England, and Germany as well, but nobody can top Millennium.

2015 ENnie Wins

Congrats to Fifth Edition D&D for its massive haul of ENnie awards! Click here to see the roundup.

Flashback

I've played tabletop D&D three days in a row, and the Yankees are sitting on a 6.5-game lead in the American League East. It this the 1990s all over again?

Level Up...Again!

After missing two weeks due to our trip to SoCal, we sat down again last night and tonight for more of our family's Tyranny of Dragons campaign. The heroes completed the second chapter of the story, bringing them up to third level. Everyone is excited about how their characters are progressing -- perhaps none more so than Matthew, whose warlock -- Edgeren Strongstaff, a name that Matthew is quite proud of -- just acquired an imp familiar. I have a feeling that Edgeren and his imp sidekick are going to get themselves into a lot of trouble!

Handy 5e Resources

Click here to download Fifth Edition character sheets (in various formats) and pre-generated characters.

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Following the release of the Sword Coast Legends video game is a promising D&D supplement called Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide -- click here for details.

It Never Rains in California in July

Holy crap, is it raining! I've never seen such a downpour in California before. We had planned on going to the park today -- our last day of vacation before driving back to Nevada -- but instead we're staying inside, playing Injustice. I'm reminded of something Amy told me, eleven years ago today, on our wedding day: "No need to worry about having an outdoor wedding. It never rains in California in July."

Got Her!

We got Hawkgirl! She's really amazing -- a perfect fit with my "A Team", which also includes the uber-suped-up duo of Lex Luthor and Catwoman.

Hawkgirl!

Hot on the heels of Hawkman's addition to the upcoming CW TV series, now the iPad version of Injustice: Gods Among Us has added Hawkgirl as a challenge character. Matthew and I are already well on our way to acquiring her. Are we entering a new era in which the Hawks once again take their rightful place as prominent DC heroes? Probably not, but I'll take what I can get!

Like Father, Like Son

Serious action figure collectors (like yours truly) are all about army building. If I'm interested in a line of toys, nothing makes me happier than finding a generic-looking soldier or vehicle of which I can buy multiple copies.

I think Nathaniel has inherited some of my tendencies. With his precious Legoland souvenir money (we spent a couple of days at Legoland this week and it was freakin' awesome!), the little dude elected to buy two identical Lego TIE Advanced fighters rather than two ships of different types. As he puts it, he's working on building up his Imperial fleet -- just like I'm doing for the Star Wars X-Wing game.

Hawkman!

This has nothing to do with gaming, but I can't even begin to tell you how stoked I am that my favorite DC superhero, Hawkman, is going to be a character on the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow CW TV series!

More on Siege

Click here for lots of additional info -- new NPC allies! new locations! -- about the upcoming expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. There's even a trailer!

Siege of Dragonspear

Hat tip to Matt for the scoop: There's going to be a new expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Click here for details. I can't wait to see the shaman character class!

Mystics

Click here to check out the latest Unearthed Arcana article, which provides a draft of the Mystic character class along with rules for psionics.

Bath Time

It's bath time, and the boys are stalling by playing King of New York. Damn it! They knew my one weakness!

SCL Campaign Creation

Hell yes! Click here to watch a couple of videos about creating campaigns in Sword Coast Legends.

Level Up!

Our weekly family D&D campaign hit a milestone on Saturday when our fledgling heroes from the Tyranny of Dragons storyline reached second level. Amy was pleased to have the opportunity to start shifting her paladin into more of a striker (apologies for the Fourth Edition terminology!) role, while Matthew loved getting a boost to his warlock's Eldritch Blast spell ("I can do 19 damage if I roll the maximum!"). Nathaniel didn't quite understand all the options now available to his rogue as part of the Cunning Action feature, but he really latched on to the idea of avoiding opportunity attacks. In his brief D&D career, he's been kind of paranoid about opportunity attacks, so gaining the ability to move around without incurring them was pretty exciting to him.

Syrinscape

My favorite freebie from this year's Free RPG Day was definitely the voucher card for three free sound sets from Syrinscape. Between those and the two free sets that I got for signing up for an account, I now have a pretty robust set of sounds -- battle noises, magical effects, and even environmental sounds like rain and wild animals -- that I can cue up on my iPad during game sessions.

"Free RPG Day? Nobody Told Me!"

We showed up at A-1 Comics in Sacramento about an hour before their 10 AM opening time and we still weren't the first ones there. Even so, I managed (ahem) to end up first in line at the front of the store. When the dude opened the doors, a dozen or so diehards (not including my two little henchmen) filed into the store. Then the guy turned around, looked us up and down, and wondered why the hell we were all staring at him. None of his colleagues had told him that it was Free RPG Day! I explained what was going on -- or rather supposed to be going on -- and he rummaged around until he found the box of Free RPG Day stuff. Huzzah!

Once again, Paizo ruled the day with an adventure module, a new character for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and a card with a product code for a few of the new Pathfinder RPG PC Soundsets from Syrinscape. Can't wait to check it all out!

Free RPG Day...Today!

Remember, today is Free RPG Day!

Free RPG Day 2015

Mark your calendars! Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 20. Visit your friendly local game store for some free stuff!

Stumpley

It's hard to believe that Fifth Edition has been out for about a year now. I had promised Matthew that I would run a family campaign once Nathaniel was old enough to contribute, and now that time seems to have come. We're doing the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, with Amy as a half-elf paladin, Matthew as a tiefling warlock, and Nathaniel as a human rogue. For a little added levity, I've incorporated a churlish halfling monk NPC named Stumpley, or "Stump" for short. Only too late did I realize that his voice -- I still try to do unique voices for all the major NPCs -- sounds rather too much like MODOK from The Super Hero Squad Show. So I've adjusted it a bit and now he sounds like the unholy offspring of MODOK and Fozzie Bear. Oy. Well, at least the campaign is off to a good start!

You, Sir, Should Unmask.

Indeed?

Lots o' D&D Today!

Wizards just posted several new PDF downloads on their site:

• Click here for an update to the free D&D Basic rules for players.
• Click here for PHB errata. (Woo-hoo! The Polearm Master feat wasn't nerfed!)
• Click here for a free D&D adventure geared toward younger players.

SCL Release Date

Sword Coast Legends has a release date: September 8! Check it out here.

Hail to the King, Baby!

Nathaniel seems to have become obsessed with King of New York. And why not? It's a top-notch board game, right up there with X-Wing or any of the Catan series. He and I have played quite a few one-on-one games of King over the past week, and I'm impressed by his emerging tactical acumen. He doesn't always make the optimal choices -- but then again, he's four-and-a-half. Most kids his age are playing Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. It's fun to watch his mind grow -- even when his T-Rex develops web-shooting powers and ensnares my gigantic fish-piloted robot.

DMing For Kids

As the father of two little boys who are endlessly fascinated by their dad's vast array of miniatures, maps, dice, and other RPG paraphernalia, I really appreciated today's D&D article (click here) on DMing for kids. I've done a lot of such DMing over the past year or so, and I think this article is spot on.

Science Fantasy

Click here for a really interesting article on the history of science fantasy in D&D. Speaking of which, there's a bit of science fantasy in the Shattered Realm setting, as the players will discover if they decide to play through a second adventure in this campaign world before returning to their regularly-scheduled Druid Cycle heroics.

New (Old) Blog Address

Heads up, yo! The www.virtualfrontporch.us URL that you've been using to access our delightful bloggery is going to change. Please find us again at our original URL, frontporchgg.blogspot.com.

Sword Coast Legends Interview

Click here for an interesting interview about the upcoming Sword Coast Legends computer RPG. Plus, there's a nifty map of the Sword Coast!

Thanks, But No Thanks

In the game design world, the stars don't get much bigger than Monte Cook. The dude is a legend. His latest venture is a Kickstarter for a kid- and family-friendly RPG called No Thank You, Evil! (click here for details). It looks a bit too tame and PC for my household, but for others it may be just what they're looking for to get their kids interested in roleplaying games.

King of...

Nathaniel, still in a huff over not winning the game, declared himself King of Nevada. I'll have to write to Iello Games and suggest it as a sequel to King of New York. And why not? Nevada is full of larger-than-life personalities! I've got dibs on the giant Elvis impersonator...

Drakonis is King!

It took us three days, but we've finished our first game of King of New York, and it was quite an epic conclusion. I (as the giant ape, Kong) was able to occupy Manhattan for the last several turns (racking up benefits along the way), but Matthew (as the cyborg dragon, Drakonis) had a combination of cards that granted him lots of points on his dice rolls. In a last-ditch effort to stop Drakonis, I managed to get the right dice rolls to bring in a massive strike by the US military. (The Statue of Liberty also came to life and joined my side, but that's another story!) All the monsters except for me were badly injured in the military attack, but it wasn't enough to knock out Drakonis. Amy and Nathaniel were likewise unable to bring him down before Matthew's turn came up, so Draknois, from his power base on Staten Island, easily managed to get his last victory point and was thereby crowned King of New York!

For now...

It's Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day is today! Get to your local store, pronto!

I'll be coaching little leaguers while my fellow rabid comic fans are lining up at our store in Carson City, but Amy has graciously agreed to brave the nerd hordes (I've actually seen more uniformed military personnel at our store than classic Big Bang Theory-type nerds, but whatever) and pick up my freebies. I made her a list of the ones I wanted, and provided a description of the covers. How cool is it that my wife knows who Darkseid is?!

City-Wide Smackdown

For those who'd like to see an illustration, here's a photo from our first King of New York game. I'm playing Kong -- in the Bronx, natch, for this Yankees fan! -- with Amy as Mantis in Manhattan, Matthew as Drakonis on Staten Island, and Nathaniel as Sheriff the T-Rex in Brooklyn.

King of New York

Giant monsters run amok in New York City, demolishing buildings and battling the military! If that sounds like your idea of a good time (or maybe if you just enjoyed the classic '80s arcade game Rampage), then I'd highly recommend King of New York (click here to see the official website), a fantastic new(ish) board game. Each player controls a monster (my favorite is either the King Kong knockoff or the cyborg dragon) and the object is to defeat all the other monsters or to earn enough victory points to be crowned the king of New York. The rules are pretty easy to learn, but there's a lot of tactical complexity and a lot of different paths to victory. I don't think this game is going to displace X-Wing or the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game as my favorite non-RPG games, but it's unequivocally one of the best board games I've ever played.

Dragon+ ... and it's Thursday

Oy. I keep thinking it's Friday. Anyway, click here to learn about Dragon+, a new iOS app that provides the latest D&D-related news.

FCBD 2015

Just a reminder...Free Comic Book Day is coming up this Saturday (May 2)! Click here to visit the official website. I think last year's event was the biggest and best ever, and this year promises to be even better!

Catan Dice Game

So among the many Settlers of Catan products there's a dice-based Catan game (click here). We picked up a copy today at Target -- seems like a fun game for road trips and such.

Imperial Raider

The boys and I are in the midst of yet another X-Wing battle. This time, I'm the Rebellion and they're each controlling a large Imperial ship (one of which is our brand-new Slave I!). Speaking of big Imperial ships...today I saw a preview of the upcoming Imperial Raider. Freakin' awesome!

Good Game, Eh?

I beat Mass Effect yesterday, bringing down that hoser Sovereign in a hail of assault rifle fire. The game's greatest mystery, however, remains unresolved: Why do so many people in the future have Canadian accents? Should we be worried?

Simplify, Simplify

Thoreau advises us to simplify our lives (as I learned from a Calvin & Hobbes strip -- I've never actually read Thoreau), and I'm taking that advice to heart. First up, I'm going to put my plans for the massive Quintessence War storyline on hold. I still intend to run this adventure someday, but I'd like to wait until there's an opportunity for more people to participate. Likewise, it's time to hit the ol' Pause button on The Druid Cycle and take a break from that campaign for a while. Those battle-tested heroes have earned a rest, and I need to invest some time in converting that world to Fifth Edition. Blog posts, which have been pretty sporadic lately, will continue to be sporadic, although I'll still pop in here and there to share game news and whatnot.

In the meantime, I'm going to start up a short-term Fifth Edition adventure with some of the regular Front Porch players. It's going to take place in the Shattered Realm setting and will serve as an introduction to 5e. I also plan to play a lot more Star Wars: X-Wing and 5e D&D with my boys, chip away at Neverwinter, finish up Mass Effect, and of course jump into Sword Coast Legends the nanosecond it gets released. Wait, wasn't this post supposed to be about simplification?

Map Time

At long last, the revamped Shattered Realm campaign setting has a map. Another map (for the second continent) will be needed, and I still have to create the interactive digital version (akin to the Druid Cycle map that displays pop-ups when you hover your mouse pointer over the various points of interest), but at least I've settled the basic geography. How far is it from Marcher Keep to the Herberage? Well, now I know -- and you will, too, if you play in the upcoming Fifth Edition mini-campaign...

Holy Sophie's Choice, Batman!

It seems that I'm rapidly approaching the climax of the first Mass Effect game. During the frenzied assault on the villain's main base, I had to choose whether to save Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams -- the two NPCs who have been with my main character since the beginning of the game. When confronted with the choice, I googled various Mass Effect game guides and walkthroughs to confirm that players cannot, in fact, save both of them; the game forces you to decide which NPC lives and which one dies. Damn!

In the end, I chose to save Kaidan. Ashley seemed more like the die-in-a-blaze-of-glory type anyway, and earlier in the game she had mentioned wanting to restore the reputation of her disgraced family. In game terms, though, I sacrificed Ashley because she was...redundant. As a gun-toting, front-line warrior, her skill set exactly overlapped that of my main character. Kaidan has all those wacky biotic and tech powers that my main character will never have, so it makes more sense to keep him around. Sorry, Ash!

Modifying Classes

Some cool notes today from Wizards about customizing 5e character classes, including an example of a ranger that lacks spellcasting capabilities. Click here to read the article.

5e Behind the Scenes

Click here for some fascinating insider info from Jeremy Crawford, a key member of the Fifth Edition team.

Catan Kids

We went over to my sister-in-law's house for dinner last night, which gave Matthew and Nathaniel the opportunity to introduce their older cousins (ages nine and thirteen) to Catan Junior. Matthew jumped out to a big early lead by buying up lots of parrots -- sounds weird if you haven't played the game, but a lot of people consider it to be an optimal strategy -- although his progress stalled when he didn't have enough resources to buy the ships and forts needed in order to win the game. It was four-year-old Nathaniel who earned the victory, defeating the three older kids to the astonishment of everyone but himself. He may be the youngest of the bunch, but he can hold his own in board games.

Game Card Holder

One of the dudes in our local board game group has started a Kickstarter to manufacture a game card holder for collectible card games, board games, and other games that involve lots of cards. Click here for the details...

The Falcon's Last Stand

We played on and off throughout the weekend, but our epic X-Wing battle at last came to an end a little while ago when the Falcon -- the last of the Rebel ships -- went down in a hail of blaster fire.

I'm really proud of Nathaniel, who, at just four years old, has learned the game well enough to play alongside Matthew and me.

Classic Showdown

Matthew's Red Squadron is facing my TIE swarm, while my Interceptor stalks Nathaniel's Millennium Falcon...

At Last...

It is, after all, the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.

Squee!

We've been waiting for this since 1998. In issue #5 of IDW's Legends of Baldur's Gate comic book, Boo actually goes for the eyes!

Big Bug

I was playing Mass Effect earlier and demonstrating to Matthew how the six-wheeled transport vehicle can drive around on the surface of the various planets that you can visit. My main character and her team were investigating a mysterious distress call from some fellow marines and, suspecting something amiss, they hid the vehicle out in the hills and then moved in on foot. As they approached, some sort of gigantic worm-like creature -- think Tremors or Dune -- burst up out of the ground and started spewing acid at us.

TPK.

Next time around, I approached in the vehicle. When the worm popped up, I opened fire with the vehicle's cannons. Then came the acid.

TPK.

Hoping that the third time was the charm, I again approached in the vehicle, but instead of parking it, I just started driving around in circles. The worm ducked underground a few times, and whenever it surfaced, I hit it with cannon fire, all the while zooming around to avoid the nasty gunk it was spitting at me. This cat-and-mouse game continued until the beast at last went down and never came back up.

The worm's appearance was a real surprise -- I haven't read any spoilers or walkthroughs for this game, so I genuinely have no idea what's coming. I don't think this critter has anything to do with the main storyline, but it was a cool encounter, and one I won't soon forget.

Princes of the Apocalypse Review

"Apocalypse" may be spelled incorrectly (as of this writing) in the title of the review, but hey, it's still an early review of the second Fifth Edition adventure path. Click here to read the brief but interesting notes on Princes of the Apocalypse. I hope it's at least the equal of Tyranny of Dragons, the first 5e adventure path and a story that started out well but then kind of petered out.

Sword Coast Legends Demo

Drool! Check it out!

New Edition of Catan

A new edition of Settlers of Catan is in the works...just in time for my boys to graduate from the children's version to the full game! Click here for more details.

Catan Junior

Amy is out of town this weekend, so the boys and I have been toolin' around on our own. We paid a visit to the game store up in Reno (I may have increased the size of my Rebel fleet, so don't tell the Emperor...or Amy...), where I inquired about Catan Junior, the kid-friendly introduction to the Settlers of Catan series of games. They were sold out, so we picked up a copy at our local Target instead. The Target checkout lady (no, not that Target Lady) was mystified by my obviously inadequate attempts to explain Catan and similar board games and their appeal to young and old alike. She just shook her head and said, plaintively, "My son is twenty-eight and he still asks me to buy him Captain America stuff."

Elemental Evil Player's Companion...Free!

The Elemental Evil Player's Companion for Fifth Edition D&D is now available for free online. Click here to get yours!

Lunchtime D&D

A lunchtime D&D campaign at work? That would be pretty sweet. Click here to learn how one DM got started.

City Builder System

Dwarven Forge is back with a new Kickstarter project -- this one is a modular system for building cities for RPGs and wargames. Looks awesome, but it's super expensive. Click here and commence drooling!

Games, Games, and More Games!

So now that I have a new computer, the floodgates are open. I'm playing Mass Effect (thanks, Matt!), Darkest Dungeon (ditto!), and Neverwinter -- all at the same time! I think I need to focus on one at a time or I'll never get through any of them. But with all this gaming goodness at my fingertips, I'm no longer pining away for Sword Coast Legends. Well, at least for now...

More Sword Coast News

Check it out, you guys! More info about Sword Coast Legends can be found here.

Tesla

Players from the late-'90s conspiracy campaign The Other World -- which lives on in the Front Porch multiverse through several recurring characters -- probably recall that the overarching storyline involved control of the wireless power technology developed by Nikola Tesla. Turns out that wireless transmission of power is now a reality! Click here if you dare...but beware that the infamous G might be watching you...

Mass Combat!

More free D&D! Click here to download the new rules for mass combat. Great timing, too -- as the title implies, mass combat will figure prominently in the upcoming Quintessence War storyline.

Neverwinter

The last time I bought a computer, Amy was nine months pregnant...with our first kid! So, after more than seven-and-a-half years, it was time (past time, actually) to upgrade. I purchased a bunch of parts from Amazon and New Egg, and then some of my engineer pals from work came over and put the thing together for me.

The first game I downloaded was the basic version of the Neverwinter MMORPG. It's a lot like World of Warcraft, of course, but it's free and it's fun, so I'll give it a whirl. I think the most important outcome from trying out Neverwinter was that it got Matthew interested in playing D&D again. He immediately scurried off to come up with a new storyline for his campaign, which we haven't touched in several months. An hour later, Nathaniel and I sat down to the continued adventures of our rogue and bard, respectively. Halfway through, Matthew wanted to ditch the adventure and start a different one, but at least he's keen on paper-and-pencil D&D again!

Illusion Spell

Damn, it really looks like a white dress!

Free D&D Adventure!

Remember my "Blast From the Past" series? No? Well, it was a series of posts in which I reflected upon favorite adventures from past editions of D&D. My pick for Third Edition was The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde. I'm happy to report that this adventure is (temporarily) free! Click here to download the module, but act fast! It's only free until noon (Pacific time) tomorrow, February 21.

D'Oh!

Dang! I wasn't fast enough to get the $20 Falcon. Well, at least I can pick up another Starter Set for a great price.

X-Wing Re-Stock!

A new shipment of Star Wars: X-Wing products has reached online (and, I assume, brick-and-mortar) stores! I've never seen prices so low for some of these ships. Millennium Falcon for $20! Starter Set for $27! Click here to see the deals on Miniatures Market. I'm about to go on a binge...

Fun With Tocharian

While working on plans for the multiverse-spanning Quintessence War storyline, I found myself needing a set of names for a group of ascetic individuals who live in a remote, rugged environment. I usually use real-world languages -- everything from ancient Egyptian to medieval Welsh -- as the basis for campaign cultures, so I considered a number of possible linguistic candidates. I settled on Tocharian (a bastardized version of Proto-Tocharian, to be exact) as the source of names for this group, and even just a quick perusal of the Tocharian lexicon has given me lots of ideas for cool characters. Spoiler alert! Quintessence War players are going to meet a dude named Daksinake, and he's going to be pretty important...

"Not Feats Again!"

Matthew is playing through the classic Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic on our iPad, and he really loves the ability to customize his character as he advances in level. (For those who are unfamiliar with the game, it's a d20-based system that closely resembles Third Edition D&D.) However, he often expresses exasperation when prompted to select a feat. He'll hand the iPad over to me, and I'll spend a few moments poring over the options to find the one best suited for his character. Matthew isn't terribly concerned about making a choice between something that would give him, say, a +1 to damage vs. a +1 to saving throws. Perhaps someday he'll turn into more of a power gamer like his old man, but for now he just wants to play the damn game and keep the story going. His experience with KotOR is further confirmation for me that Fifth Edition D&D strikes an elegant balance to accommodate both types of player. Players like me can scour the feat lists and look for ways to optimize, and players like Matthew can forego the feat to take the stat bonus instead. Everybody's happy!

More on Legends

Lots more info today about Sword Coast Legends...click here to get started!

Sword Coast Legends

How fortuitous that I just ordered the parts for a new computer...here comes a brand-new D&D video game! It's a multiplayer game based on the Fifth Edition rules, and it's going to provide an option for a real-time Dungeonmaster. Click here for more!

Mystara

World building...I love it. Click here for a fascinating read.

New DM Screen

After a hurricane ripped through our town on Friday -- the house next to ours had part of its roof torn off! -- we wanted to get out for a while, so we headed up to Reno, which is the closest thing to a big city in our little corner of Western Nevada. I finally picked up the new Fifth Edition DM Screen (along with an A-Wing and B-Wing for our Star Wars: X-Wing escapades) and, wow, it's easily the best GM/DM screen I've ever seen. It has the obligatory charts (conditions, cover, skill DCs, etc.), but what really sets it apart is the narrative stuff. This screen helps you create NPCs on the fly by providing tables for distinguishing characteristics, ideals, bonds, and flaws, and it even includes a fairly robust random name generator. In about thirty seconds, I created Kirondic, a fellow who's loyal to his family but also seeking redemption, perhaps because of the shameful secret from his past. Oh, and he's prone to squinting. The screen also features a couple of handy tables called "Something Happens!" and "Quick Finds," which help DMs move the story along if things begin to slow down or if the PCs need a bit of prodding. I just rolled a 19 on "Something Happens!", so now the PCs catch a whiff of a foul smell in the air. Actually, that sounds a lot like our Druid Cycle game sessions...

Eberron in Fifth Edition

I don't think we have a lot of Eberron fans in the Front Porch crew, but free D&D is still free D&D. Click here to access the first version of the Eberron rules for Fifth Edition. The materials are presented in draft form and are subject to change, but at least we get some cool new races like the warforged.

Pre-Super Bowl Battle

With a few hours to kill before the start of our Super Bowl party, the boys and I geared up a bunch of ships for a big Star Wars battle. The story so far...

The Imperials came through an asteroid field in a tight formation, while the Rebels advanced straight ahead. That little Z somehow survived a round of focused fire from the Decimator and its two TIE escorts. Luke's X-Wing, meanwhile, has swooped in to provide his buddy with some cover fire, while the Hawk is lurking on the outskirts and providing logistical support to the two fighters. To be continued!