Crowdfunding with Kickstarter

Kevin Nicholson — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:23:51 +0100

Crowdfunding is a blessing to the gaming community. We the gamers are now in complete control of what we will play. Take a browse through the Games section on Kickstarter. People out there are waiting for backers for games that they spent countless hours dreaming over. Their entire future rests in fingers typing up credit card numbers and PayPal accounts.

It is absolutely stunning to look at the numbers. 85 cents of every dollar funded has gone to a successful game. H...

My Observations; Games with Pax

Simon DeSmet — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:41:19 +0100

Pax, I'm told is latin for peace. I'm not sure why its so popular for titling games about war though.

I don't know anything about the Con Pax east, thats not what I'm yattering about there. No its games with the word Pax in them

Pax Porfiriana, and Pax Baltica, two reviews below;

F:AT Thursday - Fury of Dracula and Cornerstone

Jeffrey Luce — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:29:44 +0100

Many years ago, in a small nowhere town in a tiny nowhere state on the Eastern side of America, a small baby was forcibly ejected from his mothers womb and entered the world. An event that happens millions of times a day the world over and fairly unremarkable. However, every year since then, the people in my life have insisted that the event be commemorated in one fashion or another.

So it was that last Sunday, my mad scientist wife and I invited the True Believers and sundry others ov...

D&D S-Series: Dungeons of Dread

Pete Ruth — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:02:30 +0100

Many, many moons ago, I was an RPG adherent, drawing detailed topographical maps on graph paper and using Ral Partha miniatures that I'd painted when I was ten years old. I loved the idea of Dungeons and Dragons, although I was only lukewarm on the actual role playing. I think, in my heart of hearts, that my dabbling in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as my theoretical physicist cousins' love of war gaming, is what influenced my lifelong love of miniatures, fantasy war gaming, and really, board...

My Observations; Planet Side 2’s micro transactions and power creep

Simon DeSmet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:28:42 +0100

My Observations; Planet Side 2’s micro transactions and power creep

Sooner or later I will post a positive post here on the FAT, but until then I will continue to be a Grinch in this corner of the internet.

I’ve been playing a lot of Sony Online Entertainments Planet Side 2 lately. It’s a good gam...

Three hats: the three parts of creating games

Lewis Pulsipher — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:44:55 +0100

(While I begin by talking about RPGs, I am later going to generalize to all kinds of tabletop and video games - “sit-down games”.)

When I used to write lots of articles about RPGs for White Dwarf, Dragon, and other magazines three decades ago, I mostly wrote two kinds of things: game rules, and advice about how to play and especially how to referee Dungeons & Dragons successfully. I rarely wrote settings; and only occasionally in the ma...

F:AT Thursday - Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage and Clash of Cultures

Jeffrey Luce — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:47:54 +0100

Ok kid, come over here. Take a knee. I want to discuss something with you.

You see that guy over there? The one in the dark robes, kinda boney, got a big scythe?

Yah? Well he was looking for you. Yes you specifically. It's lucky for you he still relies on Mapquest for his directions. Otherwise he'd have found you rather than standing over there with that puzzled look in his dark empty eye sockets.

Settle down. I didn't tell him where you were. I gave him the old "At...

Buyers versus players

Lewis Pulsipher — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:26:26 +0100

It’s going to take a while to get to the point of buyers versus players: please bear with me.

In earlier posts I’ve wondered what the effect of free to play (F2P) video games would have on tabletop gaming. We already know that it’s a disruptive force in video gaming. F2P games have helped put pressure on AAA console games and have helped ruin the market for mid-level console games. They also put video game developers in a dilemma, becau...

Settlers of Catan - So Long, And Thanks For All The Wood

Pete Ruth — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:27:47 +0100

I'd heard about Settlers of Catan a hundred billion times, at least, as it's widely called "The Fazzer Of Ze Euroz Gaming", and I've heard it panned by Ameritrash folks as a gaming atrocity. Although not as widely hated, at least publicly, as renaissance farming or weenie trading games, it has been the su...

F:AT Thursday - Merchant of Venus

Jeffrey Luce — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:55:05 +0100

"I want to blow some shit up!" was the statement made by Uba in a post put up on The Fort earlier this week.

Now normally when a person says this or, more foolishly, posts this on line, the fiery all seeing eye of our federal government swivels upon it's tower focusing on the the foolhardy perpetrator and emits a deep grunt of dismay. I can only assume that our little web site, much like The Shire, is such a backwater of no significance that they couldn't be bothered to dis...

F:AT Thursday - The Republic of Rome and Teaching Games

Jeffrey Luce — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:11:19 +0100

Teaching a new game is a skill. I like to think I'm pretty good at it especially with games I know very well. Hell, I've taught games so often that I should hope I've developed some ability. I imagine most people that read my blog or visit the Fort are the same, drivers of the hobby rather than riders.

I don't mind teaching, really. Oh, we all know the types of people that we hate to teach. Mr. Cellphone who is very intent on texting rather than listening. Mr "Thousand-ques...

If you really want to give me a present...

Dave Denton — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:12:43 +0100

Yes, tomorrow is a landmark in my life. 45 years ago from tomorrow, my mom was white knuckling some unfortunate nurse's or doctor's hand while she gave birth. To me.

Do me a favor. If you are on Facebook and happen to be my Facebook friend, you can wish me a happy birthday if you like, but you don't have to. In fact I prefer that instead, the next time you see me at a game convention, we have a nice chat or play a game or have a be...

Comic discoveries

Jackwraith — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:33:13 +0100

I owned a comic studio with a friend in the 90s during the black-and-white/indy explosion. We called ourselves 5th Panel Comics and we had a stable of artists throughout the Midwest doing creator-owned material, much of which we collected under an anthology book called Razorwire - Twisted, Convoluted, Cutting Edge, but we also published a handful of standalone titles, as well. After reading comics since the mid-70s, I'd begun to tire of the constant superhero output of the major entities and ...

F:AT Thursday - Podcasts and Wargames

Jeffrey Luce — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:33:30 +0100

This F:AT Thursday was mostly devoted to Matt and Josh doing the vocal work for the upcoming F:AT Cast. It's been close to a year since they put one out so it was cool to see them back at it.

They tried to get me to do a segment/rant for them but I don't think it turned out too well. Wasn't near as funny as I would have hoped. Perhaps Al will have mercy on me and just leave it on the cutting room floor where it belongs.

We then broke out Cyclades again but as I've talked about t...

Talking politics at work: when you just can't help it (about gay marriage)

Dave Denton — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:23:11 +0100

I try VERY hard not to talk politics. However, when someone shoves an opinion in my face, I'm hard pressed not to say something.

The other day, I was working an assembly line, and a very polished older Asian lady told me she wanted to show me a picture on her Iphone. I figured it was a picture of her kid or something, so I said OK. Besides, our line had stopped working (a rather common occurrence in our line of work at the USPS.)

The lady clerk (we'll call her Judy fo...

My Observations; The Characteristics of Games (it's a book!)

Simon DeSmet — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:17:20 +0100

My observations; The Characteristics of Games by George Skaff, Elias, Richard Garfield and K. Robert Gutschera.

Its 04.20 am and I can't sleep. Usually when I can't sleep I read, and lately I've been reading this book. Fortunately I’v...

2012-13 Game Designer Survey

Lewis Pulsipher — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:04:12 +0100

Game Designer Survey Results

In the last half of December through the first part of February I distributed a survey for game designers on the Internet: "This is a short (10 questions, five minutes or less) survey for people who call themselves game designers, video or tabletop (which is as good a way to define who game designers are as any other)." In the end, 142 respondents have had a game published commercially, along with 46 self-publishers,...

Relic: talisman of the new

Jackwraith — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:42:11 +0100

I probably wasn't going to get it at $60, since I've grown averse to roll-and-move games. I'm fine with Runebound, because you can move in more than two directions and adding one deck of cards can radically change how the game is played, while any of the large expansions do so, as well, rather than just adding on to the main game a la Talisman.

Caveat: As I've mentioned several times before, I owned a full set of 2nd Ed. Talisman and played it to death. I loved it, but I wasn't ...

Blog entries

Crowdfunding with Kickstarter

My Observations; Games with Pax

F:AT Thursday - Fury of Dracula and Cornerstone

D&D S-Series: Dungeons of Dread

My Observations; Planet Side 2’s micro transactions and power creep

Three hats: the three parts of creating games

F:AT Thursday - Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage and Clash of Cultures

Buyers versus players

Settlers of Catan - So Long, And Thanks For All The Wood

F:AT Thursday - Merchant of Venus

F:AT Thursday - The Republic of Rome and Teaching Games

If you really want to give me a present...

Comic discoveries

F:AT Thursday - Podcasts and Wargames

Talking politics at work: when you just can't help it (about gay marriage)

My Observations; The Characteristics of Games (it's a book!)

2012-13 Game Designer Survey

Relic: talisman of the new