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FFG Rants Archive — Early 2006When the FFG Rants page gets too full the excess is dumped here to rot. After fermenting for a while the updates will be rendered down to their component letters and recycled. Files will be transferred to the Archives at random intervals, whenever we remember to do it. 12/20/06 - Dan and Peter
More to come later! Hope your holidays prove as happy as ours have been to date!
12/15/06 - Eric Editor's Note: We have taken mercy on your load-times, gentle reader, and removed the images from the Shoe War rant. If you can brave the download, then feel free to click here for the Shoe War in all its photographic glory. I like shoes. I don't actually go shoe shopping frequently, but I have a lot of shoes for a guy. Many of them are interesting shoes that I like to wear when I go out dancing at clubs, including shoes by Fluevog, Muro, Underground, Bedford Stu and such. I regularly go dancing at a couple of goth/industrial nights here in the Twin Cities. (Minneapolis/St. Paul, for those who don't know.) For context, I should also mention that John G. and I have known each other since elementary school and were roommates for many years. (That would be business development manager John G., not game designer John G.) So he knows about my shoes. I share an office with Michelle, the company accountant. In late September, John was in our office talking to Michelle when someone else came in talk to him. They noticed the shoes I was wearing and commented that they were cool. This was all that was needed to set John off. This isn't word for word, but it's close: "Yeah, Eric has a lot of shoes. He might even have more shoes than you, Michelle. In fact, I think you two should have a shoe war." A shoe war? "Yep, a competition to see who has more shoes. But you can't just go home and count them. Here's what you should do: starting at the beginning of October, you'll wear different shoes every day until someone runs out. And we'll have Peter take a picture of your shoes every day, too." Now, rules and parameters were discussed, of course... we're gamer geeks, we have to clearly define all the rules from the start, and a few of the notable ones were:
From the very beginning, I was pretty confident that Michelle would win. I may have a lot of shoes for a guy, but on average, women in our society have more shoes. This is not a sexist statement, it addresses the idea that women have a much broader range of fashion options and a wider range of shoes styles that correspond to those clothing choices. Off the top of my head, I'd guess that the average woman has three times as many shoes as the average man in the US. So even if I have more than the typical guy, it's no guarantee that I'd have more than a woman who has a relatively normal amount of shoes. A few days in, I started printing out the pictures and posting them on the door of our office. This made it so that anyone in the office who didn't already know about our competition became fully aware of what was going on. I explained it many times to different coworkers. And there were a couple of our coworkers who took an active interest, stopping and asking to see what we both were wearing each day. In an amusing coincidence, I conceded defeat on election day, November 7th. That is when I came to the office wearing shoes that I had worn before. I got to the office a bit early that morning and took off my shoes and socks. I left them off until someone noticed and commented on my being barefoot, then officially announced Michelle's victory. After taking the final picture, I put my socks and shoes back on right away, as my feet were getting cold. I wore a total of 24 different pairs of shoes, including the boots that I wore on Halloween with my Original Star Trek uniform. I wore both of the pairs of boots that I have for working at the local Ren Fest, which I've done for over two decades. I also got this idea in my head that for my last day, I should save the shoes which sparked the comment that started this whole thing. To me, it had a nice feel of bringing it all full circle. Lastly, it turned out that as of November 7th, Michelle only had shoes for one more day, so she would have only lasted two more days than I did. A dramatic finish, right down to the wire!
12/05/06 - Scott Till next time, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars, and keep your stick on the ice. 11/30/06 - Two Rant Thursday!
Zoë I hope all American readers had a splendid Thanksgiving. I have a bunch to be thankful for. Everyone has toys and movie posters up in their offices. People keep asking me if I want to play games over lunch. I have an office. It has a door. An office with a door (/glee!). Across the hall, Scott and Brian cheerfully debate over which was the worst X-Men plot of all time (Gambit's name is Remy LaBeau, you two). Thaadd lends me Swedish music. A heckuvalot to be thankful for. I keep pinching myself, expecting to wake up working in a place where no one talks about anything but Weight Watchers points and their babies. I just end up with widdle pinch marks on my arm, still in my office. You know, the one with the door (substitute in World of Warcraft for Weight Watchers and babies). To be fair, everyone here has an office with a door. I'll get over the joy it brings me eventually, I'm sure. So my first day, this Andrew guy was supposed to train me in. He didn't show. Apparently there was some kind of key kerfuffle ... I guess hitch-hiking from Wisconsin wasn't quite an option. SO! I've been making up for it ever since, scuttling over to Andrew's lightless dwelling about every ten minutes or so with a "Hey, Andrew...?" He's very patient with me. Oh, and hey! For those of you participating in the holiday sale, our server has had all four of its stiff little paws in the air since Thanksgiving, and we had to rally together and get things done by hand. So if only the first three letters of your last name is on the side of the box your stuff is in, it might have been packed by me! With a little bit of love….aw. Affection to the 2158 crew, me.
Keith So what am I doing here? Well, the long and short of it is that I'm overseeing all things related to the Midnight Chronicles movie that FFG greenlit way back in aught five! Some of you may already know that we shot a feature length movie in HD over 47 days between May and August this summer and that that movie is based on the Midnight roleplaying game. What you may not know is that feature post-production is a monstrous beast, especially for something of this magnitude, and must be lovingly tamed into submission over a slow, painstaking process (or, failing that, flogged into a corner with a Cat O' Nine Tails and kicked in the teeth with size twelve Lugz). In any case, between editing, sound mixing, maintaining a dedicated Midnight Chronicles website, creating documentaries, working on visual effects, coordinating pickup shots and re-shoots, figuring out a way to get this sucker out the door and into the public's DVD players, and learning how to play Blue Moon City (So WHY exactly do I want to collect Dragon Scales again?) you could say my hands are pretty full, which so far has been nothing short of gangbusters. I'm having a blast and looking forward to sharing more Midnight Chronicles content with y'all! Back to work! And now - Five Fun Keith Facts:
11/15/06 - Brian I'd like to give everyone a taste of the amazing upcoming Mutant Chronicles Collectible Miniatures Game, but most of the project is still under wraps. With my hands tied on revealing any significant details of this futuristic solar system-based techno-fantasy battle I can tell you that things are preceding and soon Mutant Chronicles playtesting will return as a popular lunchtime activity. (Sorry, the actual game isn't available to everyone else until May 2007). You may remember previous rants that mentioned our lunchtime mutant wars, but back then playtesting involved pushing spare Runebound or Doom figures around on a hex grid, with each of the little proxy figures wearing "My name is ______" stickers declaring his faction and name. Now everything has changed! Andrew and myself (mostly Andrew) have gathered a group of talented artists to illustrate all the figures in preparation for sculpting the game pieces. And they look awesome! Finally, I know what these characters and creatures are supposed to look like. And it beats pushing a paperclip around the table and calling it a hoverbike. Pictured here are silhouettes of the three of the Mutant Chronicles figures from the first release. The larger figure isn't a mistake. That piece does tower over the other two and keeps them awake at night.
11/13/06 - Dan No, I'm not going to break out a copy of Twilight Imperium Third Edition and say "hey, who wants to play a 6 hour game?", although I thought about it. I'm going to limit myself to Drakon and Citadels, and see where we go from there. ... maybe I'll bring Fury of Dracula. Just in case. 11/10/06 - Bryan's office Bryan wins the "Quote of the Week" award! I (Jeremy) had been needling him about how excited he is about Perikles (very), and asked him if he was going to buy two copies - one to play and one to keep in pristine condition, sealed on a shelf. His response: "That's just wrong! Boardgames are meant to be played, not left to collect dust in a museum! Well, unless it's a boardgame museum."
11/08/06 - Jeremy Ryann has been going around the offices taking photographs of us and our desks. He says it's for a neat project, but I'm sure there is some sort of blackmail about to happen. GenCon SoCal is next weekend! Be sure to swing by the FFG booth and play game demos or just say hi! There will also be a MIDNIGHT CHRONICLES presentation, Q&A , and mini-trailer with new footage that I just saw down in Tod and Keith's office about three minutes ago!
11/06/06 - Peter
Click here for a full-size ve rsion.
11/02/06 - Eric YOU'D THINK THAT AT GEEK-ORIENTED COMPANY THAT PUBLISHES GAMES, MORE THAN 20 PERCENT OF THE EMPLOYEES WOULD WEAR A COSTUME FOR HALLOWEEN.
Ok, I've calmed down now. Sorry. That's me in the blue original Star Trek shirt, a costume that I made two years ago to be Spock. I obviously didn't bother with the ears and makeup this time. The others are Michelle, Tony, Dan and Thaadd. Everyone else in the company is a punk. I'm just sayin'. I've always enjoyed costumes and Halloween. I've worn costumes to work when I knew it might have minor negative ramifications. A few years back, I was working two different food delivery jobs. I went to my lunch job wearing the shirt from my other job, and some sort of regional supervisor happened to be in the store that day. When he noticed, he asked me, "Why are you wearing a shirt from (other delivery place)?" I responded cheerfully with, "It's my Halloween costume, I'm an (other delivery place) driver!" He got an unpleasant look on his face and said, "I don't care what you dress up as on Halloween, but do not ever wear a shirt from another restaurant again." I considered trying to come up with something super-offensive for the following year, but Halloween didn't fall on my work days at that job for the next couple of years, so I never did it. I did find out later from my direct supervisor that the regional guy didn't believe me: he thought that I'd put on the wrong shirt that morning and was trying to cover my mistake. No, I actually have that kind of sense of humor. And for the record, not a single customer I deliverd food to that day noticed what I was wearing. Back to FFG: I should also relate that Thaadd failed her geek check not once, but twice. Upon my arrival in the morning, she said, "Um, Captain Kirk?" Sheesh. I expect better from someone who has worked on running a local sci-fi convention for about six years. Ok, ok, she's not very media savvy, she's a literary geek, but still. Captain Kirk? The second failure was later in the afternoon when she asked, "So, that's engineering, right?" OMG, with a little WTF thrown in for good measure. Someone else commented that with Next Gen, they changed around the uniform colors and maybe that threw her off, but the problem with that theory is that science and medical was still blue. Three strikes and you're out... next time, I get to cut up her geek card. I also heard that at one point, Thaadd was talking to another employee about some work related thing and in the middle of it, they just stopped and said something like, "Sorry, I just can't take you seriously in the makeup." But really, that's the fun of Halloween, isn't it?
10/26 - Andrew At the behest of Mr. Daniel Clark, I've created for you, dear Descent fans, a wallpaper featuring the artwork for the two new expansions, Well of Darkness and Altar of Despair. Enjoy!
Click here for the full-size version! Click here for the extra-funny version!
10/25 - Dan Again Obviously a source of potential conflict in a climate such as Minnesota (especially with as many out-of-staters as we have), the thermostat has gone through many incarnations. When duct tape and a Post-It reading "Do not adjust the heat!" failed to have the desired effect, it has recently had a clear plastic box installed around it. Complete with lock and key. You'd think that would be the end of the whole affair, but now Thaadd is trying to slip Descent figures in through the cracks and I just looked and saw that Gollum had set up residence inside the casing ...
10/20 - Dan This has always been what really attracts me to the games I play. It's why I prefer RPGs to action games when it comes to my computer; why I prefer Descent: Journeys in the Dark to Chess or Go. This is also why I was so extraordinarily excited to be offered a chance to write some flavor text for Fury of Dracula and Dunwich Horror. It's why my A Game of Thrones decks tend to be not very good, So it turns out that WRITING a scenario for Descent: Journeys in the Dark is one of my new favorite things to do. Hopefully you'll all get to see what I'm talking about in a few weeks.
10/17 - Thaadd This last week or so, I've found myself doing all sorts of things I never thought I'd ever do in a random paid employment situation. I might start the day fighting with software, then spend a half hour talking with the postage meter people. I might move on to making mock game pieces, cards, boards, cutting up Sanity Certificates by the score for the Call of Cthulhu… I process tournament support requests, so I mail out the Sanity and Gold Dragons, and redeem them for goods when they get sent back in.
Other stuff. Customer service. I actually like doing this - which is likely how I ended up with this job. When I get to work each morning, I have a slew of emails, which I sort out, and a lot of them can be solved with a quick answer, forwarding to the appropriate rules person, or perhaps a missing part. Some people I have to turn down – no we can't send out replacement boxes. No, we're not able to handle your World of Warcraft MMORPG account problems. I get to do this while listening to my weird music, drinking coffee, and keeping an ear out for the phone. I also end up on a fair amount of special projects. You know those Game of Thrones house counters? They came in and were in big, messy, mixed up heaps in the box. I had to sort them out, and count them out for inventory. I also get to assemble binders for the cards. I pack up stuff to send along with the somewhat roadworn CCG guy Luke (this is now three weekends in a row he's gone to a different state to play/demo/run stuff – driving.) . But yes. That's basically my job. Do what needs doing. Hopefully I'll get to go to some of the conventions in the spring. (Hint, hint, hint…) This fall I get to mind shop while the other kids go to GenCon SoCal. It's totally not what I went to school for – I'm waiting for FFG to make the calcareous fen board game ... or perhaps not. (Thaadd literally has a degree in swampology -ed.) In any case, I get to play games, but now I do it at work on lunch (current Sealed Deck league standing ... uh, 1 win, 2 losses) or after work (playtesting Descent scenarios) or after a hard day's GenConning… It's also the only job I've had where having read a slew of fantasy books means I have an advantage in understanding some work related stuff.
10/16 - Dan For starters, the first thing I had to learn once I started working in the marketing department is that we marketing types use the word "copy" to mean things that others do not. For example, you common folk out in the world might make a copy of a document. You might employ a Xerox-brand machine to do so, which is certainly not a bad method to use. In your case, the word "copy" can be both a verb ("I am copying this document on my Xerox-brand photocopy device!") and a noun ("Bring me a copy of the document that you have duplicated using your Xerox-brand photocopy device!"). However, what do you call those words and letters and numbers all over websites, ads, and other marketing-related things? You, uninformed plebian that you are, probably call it "text." I know I did. I have since seen the light. The arrangement of words to communicate an idea via a textual medium in a marketing context is called ... "copy." (No, I have NO idea why.) There's ad copy and website copy and press release copy, but it's all copy. AND it follows an entirely different set of rules from all the text I've written before. For starters - and thank you if you're still reading this far - this rant would be a LOUSY example of ad copy. Why? Because I had to thank you for reading as much as you did. It's FAR too long. I've spent far too much verbage dithering about the point in an effort to be amusing. (I'm reminded of a complaint I heard about certain writing in college: "Too much good writing." In that case, it was used to discourage young authors from focusing too much on the language and not enough on the content, which is particularly appropriate for ad copy, as well...) Copy is directed at communicating information as effectively as possible to an audience that is not necessarily interested in reading it. To this end, it must be short and to the point - without being dry or boring. Best copy I've written so far? "Big Treasure. Bigger Troll." By the way, there's a new edition of Cave Troll coming in the not-too-distant future.
10/12 - Tony With fall upon us and a change in the temperature it also brings with it containers. Lots and lots of containers. We are expecting somewhere in the area of 8 containers this month alone. And poor Evan and Jason are the ones who get to figure out where we are going to fit it all in our warehouse. I realize some of you might not realize just what a container full of games looks like so I will include some pictures. I'm looking forward to an exciting winter of shipping and hope you are all looking forward to all the games we will be providing you. Oh on a side note since I was put back into the Rant queue I decided there needed to be a change with out rant creature. The Cow has outlived her term and so I have fellow employees bringing in new ideas for a Rant creature and we should be announcing what it is soon. Thanks and happing gaming. (Hang on. That's MY Rant Cow and they're MY Rants! Don't make my Rant Creature murder your Rant Creature in a Rant Royale... -ed.) Picture 1: This is the only picture I have on hand of a container with product in it. This is one I took because it was poorly stacked and some product had fallen. Normally they are full to the door and make a big wall. (Don't worry. All those injured games find a happy home in our Replacement Parts department. -ed.)
Picture 2: This is the inside of an empty container after we get the games unloaded
Picture 3: This is the outside of a container.
10/09 - Marketing Office "I just typed the longest text message ever." "What?" "'Neutrinos. Muon neutrinos to be exact.'" "What about them?" "They disappear between Chicago and here. Well, not Chicago, and not here." And in other news: "Oh man, I just realized that the name of that image is 'babycatalog.jpg'." Sometimes working here really is that bizarre.
10/06 - Jeff & Isaac We received the Spring 2006 Catalog at FlatCon (Bloomington, IL) last weekend. On Sunday, my 3 month old son, Isaac, and I read the catalog together. It was the first book that he actually smiled and laughed at. What a joy to see him smile at strategy games! We look forward to many father and son match-ups in the future.
Thank you for producing quality games,
10/06 - Dan Hopefully it'll hit all of you the same way. Pow! My gaming life is unusually rich at the moment, between our office Sealed League for the A Game of Thrones CCG, playtesting some secret projects, our after-work D&D game, the other D&D game, and the adventures of my guild the Raging Warlords (Maelstrom, Horde) in the digital version of World of Warcraft. And this is all aside from one-off games of Drakon, Blue Moon City, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and others. I am actually so deeply immersed in various forms of geekery that OTHER forms of geekery have been struggling to compete - I've been on the same novel (this one called The Engines of God) for weeks now, I haven't finished season six of The West Wing yet, and I'm fairly certain that I haven't been helping my girlfriend study for her exams with my constant game playing. Truly, there aren't enough hours in the day to be as geeky as I want to be. And staying up until 3 AM is just not an option for me anymore ...
10/05 - Tod I'm back on the rant schedule after my months-long exile into the realm of filmmaking where I worked as the production designer on the Midnight Chronicles. We're hard at work on the post production end of the film project and ready to start showing off a bit more of what we've been doing since the beginning of the year. Here's a quick sneak peak at some behind the scenes images you can look forward to in the weeks to come at www.Midnight-film.com
Beginning work on the multitude of sketches and designs.
Christian off to a good start.
10/03 - Corey (MWAHAHAHA! Little does Corey know that his rant, while ASSIGNED on Friday, was scheduled for a MONDAY posting! The poor fool won't even know what to think when he frantically refreshes the page over and over again ... last ... weekend ... okay, this is sorta breaking down so I'll shut up now. -ed.) Following my standard for rants, I talk about all the wonderful games I have been working on lately. For the past couple of months, we have been on full CRC. No I am not referring to Creedence Clearwater Revival, or the Center for Constitutional Rights (those would be CCR silly). I am referring to Christmas Release Crunch time. In addition to working on Cave Troll: Second Edition, the Warrior Knights Expansion and helping out on Tide of Iron, we have also received the first pre-production samples of Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire Expansion. Second up is Cave Troll: Second Edition. We just wrapped up work on this project and besides being gorgeous and a lot of fun, this game provides an amazing value for your gaming dollar. Not only do you get a beautiful new game board, cards and over 60 plastic figures, but you also get two games in one. You can either play with the original game characters or decide to play the alternate game with brand new hero and monster abilities. Last up is the Warrior Knights: Crown and Glory Expansion. We've had a lot of fun play testing this expansion so far. There are many great additions including some classic rules such as Garrisons that stay to help defend your city. This game is still in development so I can't provide too many details, but I have included a small preview from the new (larger) fate deck.
9/29 - Darrell The tall blue mug was a gift from my brother-in-law. Christmas, I think. About ten years ago. It has a picture of Dogbert on it, wielding a cartoon mallet, standing over the caption, "Time to Reboot the User." I was working in a different office at the time, and was by far the most technically-minded of my coworkers, so I brought the mug to work, where it got a few chuckles… once I explained the joke. When I finally convinced Chris to hire me at Fantasy Flight, I brought the mug to my shiny new office. After putting my desk together, I placed the mug on top of it, beside my computer monitor. It looked good there. I'm in a new office now, in a new building, but that same trusty mug is still sitting beside my monitor. Dogbert is scratched and faded almost to oblivion. The coffee stains inside the mug have evolved to industrial strength, and I keep thinking (as I have for years), that I should really take that thing home and run it through the dishwasher again. (I suspect my hardy constitution is a result of my body's daily battle with whatever germs and microbes call the mug their home.) The mug has seen better days, but I'm retiring it not because it's old and possibly toxic, but because where I'm going, I already have a cupboard full of coffee mugs. It's an office mug, designed and trained for the world of florescent lights, fax machines, and the low chattering hum of office life. And as of today, I'll be leaving that world behind. Oh, I'm not leaving the hobby games industry. I've got too many friends here, too many years invested, and too much love for really cool games to just walk away. But I'll be working the industry from a different angle over at www.darrellhardy.com and blazing my own path, no longer directly connected to Fantasy Flight. We've had a good, exciting ride, the old blue mug and I. I'd like to thank Chris for bringing me on board way back in the day, all the professionals who've made my job easier, and especially all the FFG fans, who made it all worthwhile. It's been a joy, a privilege, and a lot of hard work. And now it's time to move on… and retire my faithful blue coffee mug.
9/28 - Dan We're firing up our Iron Throne Edition sealed league here around the office, and I'm just here to brag about my current record: six wins, zero losses. Now, I don't claim that I'm very good at this game - I would describe myself as competent - but my record cannot be denied. So what's going on? Am I just picking on the people who've never played or who haven't played in years? Well, two of my victories were against Luke and Nate, so that's clearly not the case. Are Corrupt Goldcloaks really that good? Maybe. Anyway, the point is that we're putting together a regular feature on our R&D corner section of the AGoT website which should go up either tomorrow or Monday, so you can read all about our exploits there!
9/27 - Dan and Peter - More!
9/25 - Dan and Peter - Even More GenCon Photos!
9/22 - Dan and Peter - A Tale of Two More Games
9/21 - Dan and Peter - A Tale of Two Games
9/19 - Dan and Peter, Round Two!
9/15 - Dan and Peter
9/11 - Brian So here it is. Ta-da!. This series of photos is the FFG desks a game would pass over in it's journey from a list of components to the finished game files being shipped off to the factory and being promoted on our website. In everyone's defense, the photos below are taken as I barge into their office mid-workday and order them out of their chair. They didn't have time to clean their desk or even tidy up. These photos show game-making's harsh realities without the glamour and glitz. Beware.
9/5 - Thaadd
Hallo – I'm yet another new kid at FFG. Thaadd. I'm yet another transplant from the movie. There, I had a fairly clear cut job – do what needs doing. A ‘grip'. Mostly that was getting dirty, playing with lights, climbing ladders, and hauling heavy stuff around. There, the joking title for me was ‘Filth Wrangler'. Here, I am seemingly the mistress of little pieces of plastic, stamps, email, and all other small tasks that need to get done. Redemption. Art Prints. I think the term is Marketing Assistant. It's a fair amount to learn, especially when I'm not terribly familiar with a lot of the games at FFG. I'm a gamer, but much more a pens and paper rpg'er. Currently I'm waiting for a certain Wolfboy on the staff here to get 2 hours to rub together, and start up the Midnight group that we have made characters for. (As an aside, I'm the tank.) (As another aside, yes, that's the cast and crew of the Midnight movie playing the Midnight RPG - worry not, this film is in loving hands - ed.) I'm not really sure what to rant about. I went to Gencon, but the only rant I had was mostly about trying to find food. Next year I'm packing a cooler, no matter what they say about 10 passenger vans and having to share space. That was a lot of fun, and much bigger than any of the other Cons I've been to. I'm looking forward to going to more events. I'm looking forward to learning more about this industry. I'm still not quite over the ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop' – I spent a summer making a movie, and then got a job at a games company. (Yes, Thaadd - sometimes we do get that lucky - ed.) 9/1 - Jeremy
Last night, we completed principal photography on MIDNIGHT CHRONICLES. It was kind of bittersweet, because a lot of us have spend more than half a year (and some of us even longer) bringing the Legates to life. Most of the core crew was able to be there, but a few were not, and they were sorely missed. Landroval Digital has been working on CGI since before we started shooting, and we're hoping to have the completed film ready in early 2007. Keep watching the website for more updates. Hail Izzy!
8/30 - Dan Where was I? Right. Mom. Citadels. So, my family's place in Cape Breton is this creaky old house that used to be the Post Office for a modest town on the coast. The town is long gone, now, but the century-old house still survives. I can't stress enough how much I love this place, but it does lack certain ... qualities that many people consider essentials. For example, indoor plumbing, or a phone line, or cable television. What this means is that while the sun is up, there is swimming and hiking and birdwatching and sitting on the porch drinking tea and watching the whales through your binoculars, but after sunset, one must fall back onto amusements that do not require electricity. Did someone say "Board Games?" Yes, there was quite a bit of Blue Moon City and Cribbage and even some Three Dragon Ante played around the kitchen table in heart-achingly gorgeous Cape Breton while I was away, but the game that got the strongest response was Citadels. And by "strongest response" I mean "I hate this game!" from my mother. Let me try to explain. My mother is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a "Gamer" in the sense that we use the term. Not that we haven't had a long-standing tradition of playing games on vacation - one memorable summer we played a month-long game of Rummy for a penney per point and I won $18.00 I don't think I ever saw hide nor hair of. Or maybe I did. Not the point. Scrabble and Monopoly are the games that most people in my family think of when you say "board games," or maybe Stratego if you're lucky. So when I introduced my parents to Ingenious last Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they liked it. But Citadels is a totally different animal. The problems began when I tried to explain to my mother that no, she couldn't be the Queen, because we only had three players. It got worse when I finally got her to accept that she would be chosing roles secretly in turn and then had to explain that she'd have to do that AGAIN for the next round. Then something awful happened. I found myself with the Assassin. Now, my friend Becky commonly chooses the King early in the round, because she likes the income bonus and the ability to choose her character early. Seems like a safe bet, right? The Assassin is called, I assassinate the King. Wrong move. I just assassinated my mom. The woman who gave me birth, who first introduced me to the highlands and beaches of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and who I was really hoping would bake me some blueberry muffins before I left for home. This is about when cries of "I hate this game!" erupted. It all turned out well, though. Two days later, at my mom's house on the other side of the island, my mouth full of blueberry muffins (yeah, fresh blueberries), my mom was heard to remark "so, I was thinking that we could play some more Citadels..."
8/25 - TWO-RANT (Andrew was supposed to write the Thursday rant, and he said he sent it, but I didn't get it until today… hmm… - ed) Scott: Well as you can guess the mad rush to get games out the door so that Santa can be all stocked up for Christmas is in full court press (whatever the frack the means). So I can only provide a short and sweet rant cause you don't want me to hold up your goodies for Santa do you? First for all who are interested, my daughter turned one year old in May and I bought her first piece of gamer wear at Gen-Con. It is a lavender onesie the say LEVEL ONE GAMER. She is so cute, almost walking and causing all kinds of trouble for mom and dad.
For those of you who got to play the Tide of Iron playtests at Gen-Con and mention how cool the cards looked I thank you. This game is very special for me because if I am not playing miniature war games then I am probably playing something WWII themed. I have really had fun doing the research and looking at great photos of the men and women involved in that great struggle. I hope everyone likes the game and the look. For those of you who didn't get to see some of the cool graphics and such here is a sample:
Well I am back to it, don't want to keep Santa waiting. He gets angry and you wouldn't like Santa when he is angry.
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Andrew: Hello, dear FFG rant readers. The new Descent expansion, The Well of Darkness, will soon be on the shelves of your local game store. So what does that mean to us in the Production Department? It means that we're currently wrapping up work on the *second* Descent expansion, The Altar of Despair. I've had a lot of fun designing the cool new traps, effects and terrain pieces that Kevin's come up with, and I thought, for my rant, I'd share one with you. I present to you: The Spiked Wall.
These pieces (there are two this size) will stand upright on the table like a door, and move together to meet in the center of a corridor to crush the heroes in a spiky sandwich of death. I've been told that there is a way to disarm this devious trap before it squashes you, but it requires a comlink and an R2 unit -- two rare commodities in a dungeon.
8/21 - Nate It was all going on just about a week ago, and I still haven't had enough time to catch enough sleep to sort it all out in my mind. Instead of a comprehensive, moment by moment run-down (which would take longer to write than it did to live), I'd like to take this opportunity to share a few of the unexpected moments that made this year's GenCon both memorable and unique. While I'm used to writing about A Game of Thrones (AGoT) cards, the metagame, and the process of designing and developing a set, GenCon is primarily about people, and the emotions we bring to the table when we play our favorite games. With that in mind, I'm going to take a small step back from the cold, detached world of AGoT development, flex my narrative muscle (with apologies in advance for its lack of fitness), and give you the hint of a taste of what this year's GenCon meant to me. Lang Bluetooth, Eater of Decks… A few days before the convention, in the midst of assembling community decks for the multi-player civil war event, I received a request (OK, you can call it an order) from our game's designer, Eric Lang: "Nate, make me a deck to play at GenCon." Now, if I wasn't such a nice guy, I very easily could have made Eric regret dropping such a request in my lap at the last minute, and had a lot of fun building the Worst. Deck. Ever. At the same time, I realized that Eric has quite the reputation for his (lack of) skills, and this presented a situation that was no risk (any game he lost would obviously be his fault) and high reward (any game he won would just be a credit to the deck I built him). Little did I realize how much I had to lose. Instead of giving Eric just any deck, I wanted to make him something he'd enjoy playing. I asked him a few questions about what he was in the mood to try, and what kind of decks best fit his style. It turned out he didn't care too much about House or Agenda, but he was hoping to play a roguish combo deck that had an unconventional win mechanism that also used some cards most people wouldn't consider for top tier play. I remembered some discussions with Luke and some of our Iowa playtesters about what a worthless rare Captain Bluetooth was, and the seed of Eric's GenCon deck was planted. Using Greyjoy Warship synergy as a base, I decided to amplify the Gevin Harlaw/Fleeing to the Wall/blow-up-your-own-influence power grab combo with a secondary trigger, namely, Captain Bluetooth himself. Now we can use a Warship for an effect, weaken an enemy's character, and claim a power… pretty good deal! The final touch on the deck was a couple copies of the Martyr For the Realm, used to grab or recycle the Martell Iron Throne, which in turn was used to recycle King Balon's Command or Wrath of the Kraken. Fast forward to GenCon. I give the deck to Eric and we play a couple games, one of which he almost wins. He seems pleased with the deck and its general purpose, and heads off into the realm of the gunslinger. The following day I am stuck at the front table in the tournament hall, and between rounds I find myself tweaking my decks. All of them, that is, except the Bluetooth deck. A few hours later, Eric returns to the room. When I ask the inevitable question, his reaction is telling. "I… didn't…. give… you… the deck?" He asks, hands frantically patting his pockets. And before I could respond: "Don't worry! I'll find it!" With which he made a U-turn, and fled from the room. I think I was supposed to envision him prowling the convention, looking under tables and up skirts until he found the deck, but it was easier to laugh it off, say "That's Eric for ya," and joke about the possibility of a random AGoT initiate finding a cool Greyjoy deck that he'd use to enter and win the following day's World Championships. Can I Help You… As I was heading back to our hotel at about 2:00 AM on Thursday night (well, Friday morning if you want to get technical), I realized I hadn't eaten anything but a handful of chips all day. As if on cue, with my stomach voicing its protest, the shining florescent lights of the downtown Steak N Shake entered my sight…. In the summer of 2003 I worked for a Steak N Shake in Cleveland, OH, on the graveyard shift. I was also learning how to play a card game, my initial foray into the world of the CCG. Wednesdays and Thursdays were my regular nights off, and I drove down to Columbus, Ohio, with a couple friends, for the Origins convention and the Thursday Game of Thrones events they had scheduled. This was my first gaming convention ever, and it opened my eyes to a new world… I never before realized there were so many people who were so into games, nor did I realize the strength of the gaming community. When I got back to work on Friday night, I couldn't push the convention from my mind. As I flipped burgers, refilled drinks, washed dishes, and cleaned the restaurant, memories of my single day at a gaming convention assaulted my mind, and these thoughts were aggravated by the knowledge that Origins was still going on, and people were still playing games, as I sloshed the mop across the floor. I had known for a while that I was wasting my time in the restaurant industry, but it was a job that paid the bills, and sometimes it's easier to follow inertia than it is to make a change. As I worked, though, the sparkle of an idea entered my imagination: I'd be off at 7:00 AM, I could drive down to Origins (Columbus is about 2 hours from Cleveland), play in the AGoT tournament that started at 10:00 AM, and be back to work that night. Sure, I wouldn't get any sleep, but Origins only happened once a year…. That morning, our general manager came in, and as I was preparing to leave he asked me if I'd be able to stay over and help out with the breakfast crowd. Well, he didn't exactly ask, and with my mind set on going to Origins, I told him I couldn't, as I had afternoon plans. So he instead told me that I'd need to come in a little early that night, and it all came together. I was pouring myself into a black hole, and my heart couldn't take another night, and I resigned from my job to play AGoT at Origins… Sitting at a corner table of the Steak N Shake in downtown Indianapolis, I couldn't help watching the once familiar bustle of the restaurant at work, and note the quiet sorrow behind the smile our waitress used to keep the world at bay. I couldn't help but realize how easily I could have still been wearing that same mask. It's an unlikely story, but poetic justice nonetheless. Family, friends, managers, and co-workers were always telling me it was a mistake to take off work to play in local tournaments, at Regionals, or at GenCon, but sitting in that restaurant, watching the workers circling about, I realized I was only wasting my time when I wasn't playing A Game of Thrones. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder… I've made a number of acquaintances with some of the game's top players, and over time these acquaintances have turned into friendships. Back then, it was the spirit of competition, and the respect of a worthy adversary, that drew me to the likes of future world champions Casey Galvin, Greg Atkinson, and John Bruno. As much as I love the AGoT CCG as a game, I love it even more as a medium of competition between two individuals. Cards, decktypes, combinations, and metagame aside, at its core AGoT pits one person's anticipation, preparation, and concentration against another's, with a slight element of luck thrown in to keep the competitors on their toes. Since taking on the role of developer, I have not had the occasion to play straight up competitive AGoT (you know, the game where it's my anticipation, preparation, and concentration against yours, with everything on the line…) . Instead, I have learned to play the game critically and analytically, with a detached perspective that is more focused on the game itself than the struggle occurring between its participants. Is my opponent having fun? Why or why not? Is the game-state interactive? Why or why not? Is this situation thematic? Why or why not? Is there a way in which this game can be improved? It's easy to lose one's self in such issues, and overlook the simple, basic competitive allure of sitting down across from a top player at a major event. Before the World Championship tournament, I had the opportunity to talk with our 3 former world champions, and the eventual winner of this year's event, Matt Ley. Through these talks, I was able to vicariously experience the thrill of competitive AGoT, and it really did drive home the point that not being able to play in major competitive tournaments is the sole drawback to working on this game. As much as I loved the experience as a player, I think I'm even more fond of the idea of purely competitive AGoT now, having watched the World Championships from the sideline. So much so that the ghost of an idea called the "Developer's Invitational" is flickering around in the back of my mind….
8/16 - Rob To all and sundry, I'm moving on! Well, not really. I'm moving my physical presence, from FFG's midwest offices to the outdoor paradise that is the west coast. My first stop will be Portland, OR, though I may eventually settle in the Bay area or in Seattle. But that's just the physical shell that houses this hard-working, devoted, always-excited developer of Midnight, Arkham expansions, Runebound decks, and all the other projects I've been lucky enough to work on in my four (FOUR!?!?) years here at FFG. The mental presence housed within that shell will continue to haunt the offices, however, and I will in all probability be developing board game expansions and Midnight supplements from afar. It will be hard to say goodbye to the friends I've made here, and it will be challenging to forge a new place for myself in the freelance world. But I think the ratio of excitement-to-trepidation is 90% vs. 10%, and I know that the things I've learned here at FFG will see me through many trials and tribulations. I'd like to thank Chris and Greg for inducting me into the world of professional gaming, to Darrell, Schomburg, and Tod for imparting their "old men of the office" wisdom, and to everyone else for being awesome peers with whom to work. Our post-GenCon dinner (pictured here) was a great sendoff and a fun way to close out my time here.
And now I realize that this rant is beginning to sound like a yearbook signature, so I'll sign off before I get any more maudlin. Good gaming,
Rob
8/9 - Jeremy A lot of the calls today asked why I'm not at GenCon with everyone else. Believe me, the rest of the folks in the office have been making fun of me for not going, too! You see, I help run a scooter rally. Scooter rallies are like sci-fi or gaming cons, only we spend slightly more time talking about carb jetting and sweet restoration jobs on 1963 Vespa VNBs rather than to-hit rolls or who was the better Captain, Kirk or Picard. (Answer: Han Solo) It's actually not too different, we're just a slightly different kind of geek. And a lot of us straddle multiple geek worlds. Tonight, for instance, after we stuff the freebie bags that the rally attendees get with their registration, we're playing Blue Moon City. I hope a lot of you are reading this in or on your way to Indianapolis. It's going to be a blast. We've got a lot of really neat new stuff that you'll get to see for the first time there. You can check out the aforementioned Blue Moon City, get two new decks for Wings of War...You might even be able to sit in on a playtest of Tide of Iron, something I haven't even been able to do yet.
Next year, though, we'll be changing the date of the rally, because I'm not going to let everyone at work tell me how good of a time they had at GenCon without me two years in a row.
8/8 - Bryan
8/2 - Eric Knight I'm officially a sales associate, which includes such tasks as invoicing orders, handling redemptions of Gold Dragons and Sanity Points for our CCGs, answering emails and catching up with other random tasks that have fallen behind in recent months, as the offices were a bit shorthanded of late. But with GenCon coming up, we're pretty much doing whatever's needed to get stuff done. Such as... This morning I was given the task of finalizing our passenger van rental for GenCon. "Passenger vans," you say? "Why would FFG need that?" I hear you cry. Just about everyone in the company goes to GenCon and flying is obviously expensive. Our advance crew leaves Tuesday with two rental trucks of stuff and a rental car with some more people. But then the rest of the group comes Wednesday in two passenger vans, which we rent for the week. There was some confusion as to price because the vans were reserved later than last year and as their availability wasn't as open, the price was a good bit more than last year. To the tune of a few hundred dollars. This is actually from a car dealership. (Did you know some dealerships rent out vans? I didn't.) I then did pricing research with some standard car rental companies and one of them would rent passenger vans with unlimited miles. Very cool. The total price with tax would end up being within ten dollars of what we spent last year. I thought we were set. I called the dealership to let them know we'd found a much better price and give them the option of matching it. I was informed of a piece of the puzzle I didn't know: the dealership has a cancellation fee within two weeks of the rental. Yikes. Fortunately, they did come down more on their price and we went with a one week rental instead of six days, which includes more mileage as part of the rental. With the additional miles we will have to pay for, we'll only end up paying a little more on this than we would have with the car rental company. We also maintain a good working relationship with the local dealership, since we'll most likely need to rent passenger vans to get to GenCon for many years to come. And what does all this have to do with games? Not much, except that we actually have to be there in order to do anything at GenCon, be it demo-ing or selling games, or simply hobnobbing with the gaming fans that show up. I bet I'll see some of you there.
8/1 - Andrew
7/28 - Dan
7/27 - Jeremy I may be new to the FFG offices, but I've been toiling next door on our Super Secret Project since February with Tod, Christian, Other New Guy Eric, and a whole host of other really talented people. That's right, folks, I said those magic three words: "Super Secret Project." What is it? Well, if you show up at our booth at GenCon in a couple of weeks, you'll get a preview. If I do say so myself, it's really, really, really cool. Since I started here, I've been working on getting the backlogs of replacement part orders back to a reasonable amount, sending out Night's Watch and Servitor packs, responding to your emails, learning about my place in FFG's marketing department, and becoming familiar with a whole bunch of Fantasy Flight games that I haven't played. On that tangent, Blue Moon City is awesome, and I don't even play the original Blue Moon game. Definitely watch for it when it's released next week. In a week and a half, the office pretty much empties except for me. Everyone else is going to GenCon, whereas I'll be here in the Twin Cities running a scooter rally that weekend. What will I do when everyone else is gone? Sure, I'll be organizing the replacement parts area in the warehouse, sending out more replacement parts orders, responding to emails and taking phone messages, but I'm thinking that a big warehouse is the perfect place for the world's largest solitaire Wings of War game. (I expect photos - ed.) *Dan leaves a small foam cow toy on the desk of whomever has the task of writing that Day's Rant. Tony in the warehouse once gave it a name which no-one can recall right now. Bryan just said "Yeah, but that's before she lost her hat, so she's effectively a different person. Er, cow."
7/26 - Corey A Storm of Swords: Fans rejoice! The latest expansion for the A Game of Thrones boardgame should now be available on store shelves worldwide. All of the reviews I have seen so far have been extremely favorable. TI3 Expansion: We almost had to break the laws of time and physics to fit in all the wonderful goodness of this expansion. There are practically as many cards and hexes as the original game as well as enough options to appease even the most needy gamers. This game is getting some final tweaks and will be sent to the printer very shortly. If anyone wants a sneak peak of the expansion, ask me about it at Gen Con in a couple weeks. Cavetroll: My current project is the new edition of Cavetroll. I have been receiving artwork over the last few weeks and all I can say is that we have some really talented artists working on this. This game will also be receiving many gameplay tweaks, plastic figures for all the characters and an alternate set of characters with new powers and abilities. I think old and new fans alike will be extremely happy with this edition! Tide of Iron: When the Cavetroll isn't dismembering me (Corey has alarmingly well-developed regenerative powers - ed.), I have been helping Johnny out with Tide of Iron. I am currently working on a wide variety of scenarios. I pitched the idea of recording a soundtrack to include with the game (composed of me screaming "MEDIC!", "GO GO GO!" and "SNIPER IN THE TREES!") but unfortunately the idea has been shot down. Even still, I highly encourage players to add their own soundtrack to the game. (Note Corey's definition of the word "help" might not actually extend to doing anything helpful ... -ed.) Upcoming releases that I am anticipating: Drakon 3rd Edition: I saw a production sample of this game and all I can say is wow (‘wow' represents excitement and not the massively multiplayer online boardgame). I have a feeling that this new edition is going to be a surprise hit. WoW Board Game Expansion: Here is another game that I saw the pre-production sample of and was amazed. Every square inch of this box is crammed tight with cards. This expansion enhances the game in so many different ways that I can't wait to add it to my personal collection. Dunwich Horror: The madness and injury cards alone make this a must-have game for me. Speaking of Lovecraftian horror games, let me recommend the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. Like Arkham Horror, you have to keep an eye on your sanity level; if your sanity gets too low, the game starts playing mind games with you. Now if only we could find a way to emulate that into a boardgame... (No, Corey, for the last time, we are not going to lace the cards with psychotropic drugs, I don't care how "immersive" you think it will make the play experience ... -ed.)
7/25 - Luke The anticipation of a new set of cards for a CCG always brings a healthy crop of speculation. What will the new mechanics be? Which characters will make this set? Never more than when you're changing the card template like we did with A Game of Thrones. Once you've begun spoiling the masses with tantalizing glimpses, whetting their appetites so to speak, there's a whole new round of questions. How will that card work in this rules set? Won't New Card X be broken in combination with Current Card Y? Who approved that artwork? Well, the first two questions should have been answered in playtesting, but I can take the third one. Or take the blame. Once we have a list of card titles for the set (a creative process in and of itself), Nate and I take the time to write up art descriptions based on our understanding of that tiny datum and our knowledge of the card's ability, both of which can be highly fluid). For a more detailed discussion of this subject, check out Nate's rant back on 4/24 As art director, it is my responsibility to assemble the artist pool and parcel out the descriptions based their ability, interest, and availability. This leads us into a flurry of e-mails going back and forth with attached descriptions, sketches, revisions, colors, references and final submissions. This is where some of the fun starts. When the powers that be determine that a submitted piece is substandard, or they don't like the artists approach, there are two choices: I can go back to the artist, or turn to another illustrator for an even quicker conceptualization. This lets me share the enviable roles of cheerleader and goon when it comes to artist relations. Somewhere between "That's looking good, now if you could try making this a little brighter, or give that character a deeper glower, or check out this piece of text from the book…" and "Sorry, I think this is pretty good, but my boss wants to try a different approach," I can usually remain on good terms with those people that bring you these scenes from one of our favorite stories come to life. One of the few difficulties I have run into in this process has been my lack of foreign language skills. Quite a few of our favorite illustrators are from overseas, and for many of them, English is a second language. In my case, it's the only one that I speak fluently (and Google Languages can only do so much). So I end up with some images that are in many ways very fine, but slightly askew from the vision of GRRM. And that's where my other job, as Ned-itor, gets me in trouble. What lengths do I go to eliminate these discrepancies, especially when we're having something of an impasse in communication. If you check out my discussion here, you can see a couple examples. There's a fine balance between what's being nit-picky and what avoids a bushel of complaints from the fearless readers. I need to get back to my other jobs, before Nate takes all the glory for himself. Have a good week everyone, hope to see you at Gen Con Indy.
7/24 - Rob I'm happy to say, friends and neighbors, that upon getting the book back, I was wrong. Dead wrong! You know how I know? Because this book makes me want to use it in my game today. Not after work, mind you, or during lunch . . . I want to grab Andrew and Dan, call up our other two players, and say "I don't care if you work the night shift! We're playing an evil Midnight campaign, durnit, and you're gonna like it, 'cause it's so COOL." Sure, it's subjective, but I've learned to trust my instincts. This book makes me want play a loyal hobgoblin guard, who both idolizes and hates the orcs who are Izrador's chosen. It makes me want to play an insane halfling, broken by his masters and now little more than a feral beast used to hunt down his own kind or get into small spaces that the ogres can't reach. It makes me want to play a zealous legate, righteous and confident, whose job is to hunt down practicers of magic or, even cooler, his own brethren who have abandoned their faith. And hey, look a prestige class created just for that archetype! Other than raving about our latest Midnight book, I'm currently browbeating the graphic design for Runebound: Sands of Al-Kalim out of Schomburg . . . It's an expansion that I think provides a fun variant from the tried and true "level up and kick butt" strategy of Runebound. This one is much more heavily quest-based, making it (I hope) more roleplaying-intensive for those who like to blend their board game and roleplaying experiences. It also lets you focus on a particular strategy beyond simply what combat values to increase and what weapons to purchase, because the reward for each quest available to your character gives you special abilities. You might decide that your Hero needs a Legendary Mount so he can travel more easily through the punishing landscape of Al-Kalim; or you might wish to explore a Legendary Location to perfect your fighting skills against a specific type of foe; or perhaps you prefer to control the environment around you, so you quest for a Legendary Rune or Legendary Artifact. Oh, and watch out for that sandstorm. It moves about the board of its own volition, and before you know it you might be trapped in the middle of the sucker ; ).
7/21 - Dan So when I was called upon to name the first expansion for Iron Throne Edition for the A Game of Thrones CCG I didn't expect it to be ... well, I didn't expect to be the one to name it, is all. There were six or so of us standing in a huddle throwing out suggestions, many of which had been rejected weeks ago the first time we did this, and some of which were pure nonsense, as Jeremy didn't seem to be quite up to speed on what was going on and seemed to prefer it that way. We knew that the expansion would focus on the Tyrells, and of course we have a set pattern of A Blank of Blank in naming of these sets, much as Mr. Martin does when naming his books (it suddenly occurs to me - I hope that we haven't accidentally taken a name he wanted to use ...). Alright, so we know that we're dealing with the Tyrells, and we're going to name the set A Blank of Blanks - you know what I mean. We did A Flight of Dragons back when Targaryen was new, A Sea of Storms around about the time we introduced Greyjoy, and A Crown of Suns for Martell (note: we're not introducing Tyrell as a seventh House, we're just focusing on them and their part of the world for this set), and so on. So with the Tyrells, naturally we're going to do something having to do with their House crest, the Rose. Roses are a particularly apt symbol for this House, because while they seem sweet and appealing at a distance, once you come to grips with them you quickly discover that they have thorns ... and this is the aspect of House Tyrell that we want to highlight in the title. So A Blank of Thorns is our starting point, and we've been through quite a number of them - A Web of Thorns? Too spider-y. A Crown of Thorns? Too biblical. A Throne of Thorns? A Crest of Thorns? A Shield of Thorns? A Helm of Thorns? What do these even mean? Are we straying off-message? Well, the short answer is "yes." Iron Throne Edition thematically focuses on the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and that means that our A Blank of Thorns set was going to focus as much on Highgarden and the Reach as on House Tyrell, on the Kingdom that their House never ruled, and so our name should perhaps suggest that - so having some sort of geographic reference in the name is a plus. We've almost settled on name that I'll withhold because I don't want our fans to know how close we came to a bad name, but none of us are really happy with it, and suddenly I blurt out "A House of Thorns." Bam, just like that I've named the next A Game of Thrones CCG set. And that whole giddy fanboy squeee!ishness just came back.
7/18 - Bryan I've played Runebound quite a few times but this bit of trivia has totally escaped me. Dan was shocked that I did know the name of the world I was fighting to save. That's because when I play a game I'm paying more attention to the mechanics than to the flavor. I'm far more intrigued by Runebound's movement system than the story. I can understand why some people like the flavor parts of games, but for me, when I crack open a new game I'm most interested in what cool new rules and game mechanics there are. If that makes me a soulless robot so be it, but this robot still has just as much fun. Ignore the soulless robot. If the game doesn't bring you in to the world and the story it's telling, what is the bloody point? I've got a game with good mechanics for you - tic tac toe. That's elegant as anything. How about Checkers? Philistine! Okay, I'm done. - ed.
7/17 - Brian At each step, we review the artwork and suggest any changes we think might make the image more attractive or thematically appropriate. Below are the various stages of the upcoming Twilight Imperium expansion: Shattered Empire, by Scott Schomburg. Here in the sketch stage, the artist has already dropped in color. More often, the sketch is only black and white. You might note that the artist dropped in some spaceship reference from a different source. These are only placeholders until he finished his 3-D spaceships that match the TI3 plastic pieces.
Here is the next stage submitted by the artist. In this case the spaceships that belong in the lower right still aren't finished and are left out. Some of the figures have moved slightly and the characters have much more detail.
More suggestions are made; most notably that the green alien needs to look more alien. He gets a new hat and some fancy jewelry. Spaceships are painted into the cover image and the artist signs the work and drops in on our FTP site.
All that remains is for the graphic artist working on the project to retrieve the cover art from the FTP site and place it into his box template; then add the proper game cover text and logos. The file is sent off to the printer and in two to three months it will appear on the shelves of game stores everywhere (Please note what Brian is NOT saying - namely that Shattered Empire is at the printer and 2-3 months away, because it isn't either of those things - ed.).
7/14 - Dan In news related to that OTHER convention, you know, the one I just got back from (I'm going to have to stop saying "just got back from" one of these weeks), you can hear my sultry tones at TavernCast, a World of Warcraft podcast that interviewed me at Origins. Check it out - I hate my voice 80% less than usual in this one!
7/12 - John Goodenough The Shadow of War expansion (formerly known as Shattered Kingdom) for the World of Warcraft board game is currently at the printer, but advanced copies will be available at GenCon. For all the gamers that won't be able to attend GenCon, here is the first preview of the expansion. The box contains 468 cards, which astute readers will notice is the same number of cards included in the original board game! One of the expansion's biggest additions is that each class receives 10 new powers and 10 new talents. The new class cards flesh out the characters' strengths and compensate for some of their previous weaknesses, not to mention adding a ton of flexibility and replay value to each class. Some of the powers are not combat-related, but are just as powerful and add variety for players that are looking for interesting new tricks.
Another new feature is Power cards with a spellbook icon.
One of the most anticipated features is the new blue Quest deck. These cards reward players for defeating independent creatures and can be used by either faction. Remember the Hunter's Track Beasts card mentioned earlier? This power is even more useful, since you may be able to place independent creatures directly on your character to quickly complete the blue quest.
All of the Item decks receive a stack of new cards, including Special Item cards. A new type of item is also introduced in this expansion. Bonus Item cards are gained primarily by completing the new blue quests, but players may also receive them as rewards for resolving Destiny cards.
Bonus Items are mostly trinkets or items that you store in your bag. The items are not as powerful as most weapons or armor but can be equally useful in the right circumstances. Bonus items also have the advantage that you can stack up to seven of them in your bag before they count towards your bag limit. The new Destiny cards are similar to Events, but they will have a dramatic impact on your games and tend to make the overlords even more challenging. Some of the Destiny cards can make life easier for the heroes, but those only stay in play a few turns. The small hourglass symbol on the bottom left corner of each card shows how many turns the effect lasts. Several of the Destiny cards are Bosses, which means players must defeat them before the timer runs out or pay the consequences!
Destiny cards also introduce six new overlord-specific cards, similar to the Kel'Thuzad event cards from the original game.
The best part of the Shadow of War expansion is that you can use any of the elements you want. If you want to play the standard game but give your character more options and flexibility, just add the new power and talent cards. If you want a bigger challenge, add the Destiny cards. Of course, I highly recommend that add all of the new cards if you want to truly enhance your gaming experience!
7/6 - Dan (Yeah, that's why no Rants lately - I've been either prepping for Origins, driving to Origins, at Origins, driving back from Origins, or a crumpled shell of a man in the aftermath from Origins for the last however long.) It was my first time running the booth for any FFG con, and only my third con appearance in any capacity, so it was a learning experience for me. Here are some things I learned:
I joke about how exhausted we all were when we got back from Origins, but in truth we had a great time - well, at least I had a great time. Talking with fans of our games is a great experience, and I love the enthusiasm they bring to the booth. Talking to industry bigwigs and members of the press was pretty fun, too. Having people sit in on my World of Warcraft the Board Game demos and then seeing those same people later in the board game hall, playing the game, made me smile - and so did the family from Eagan, MN, who sat down for a quick couple of turns of Blue Moon City near the end of the Con. Start 'em young, that's what I say! There's lots more I could say about Origins, but maybe I'll save it for later - say, after our gentle readers have had a chance to e-mail me their own impressions? Speaking of e-mail, several alert readers weighed in on the subject of spoilers. Winter Edition Catelyn Stark for the A Game of Thrones CCG came up twice from Andy Mills and Joel Wheeler - I cannot reccomend reading her flavor text if you haven't finished A Storm of Swords! Further, the A Game of Thrones board game has a (in my opinion) fairly minor spoiler in its very game concept, as pointed out by Joe Becker of the Gamer's Den. I will, of course, say no more for fear of even MORE spoilers!
6/20 - Rob Here's the intro text to give you an idea of what I mean:
Welcome to a Land of Mystery!
The Legend
The Adventure
6/19 - Dan Let me clarify. I am a human being who considers a work of art such as, say, a film, a novel, or a television series (and I admit I am stretching the definition of a work of art for that last) to be best enjoyed with as few preconceptions and foreknowledge as possible. This is not a universal law – Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is better if you know the story of Hamlet, for example, and Brian Michael Bendis has taken what we know about Spider-Man and twisted it to his own ends in Ultimate Spider-Man. These are cases where foreknowledge is assumed (if not required), but even so they can be ruined by spoilers. (I've just thought of another classic example – Vonnegut's Galapagos tells us well in advance when a character will die, but that doesn't really count because the spoiler is contained within the body of the work. At that point, I think we're just talking about foreshadowing.) So, in essence, I like to be surprised by my art. And I am a geek, so my artistic tastes heavily overlap with the pool of available science-fiction and fantasy licenses drawn upon by the games industry. AND I do not have a functional television apparatus at home with which to watch TV as it debuts, but must resort to DVDs well after the fact. AND I'm slow and not very bright, so when John Grams says "You must watch Battlestar Galactica" I fail to do so for months and months. Now, the reason that all this is problematic has to do with the fact that I work in the Marketing department here at FFG. As a consequence, copies of nearly every relevant magazine affiliated with our industry pass through my office. As you geeks out there may know, many of these magazines come packaged with promotional cards for various CCGs. And if, for example, there were a card from, say, the Battlestar Galactica CCG with a key main character printed on it, as well as the fact that said character were a Cylon Sleeper Agent printed RIGHT THERE IN THE GAME TEXT… well, the oomph of the big reveal at the end of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries might be… lessened somewhat. Man, I really hope we haven't done that to thousands of A Game of Thrones fans with our own CCG and board game. Let's hear it, people, have we spoiled anything for you?
6/16 - Corey So as a sign of our appreciation to you, I present one of four brand new races from the Twilight Imperium Expansion. Hailing from their fiery volcanic home world, let me present to you The Embers of Muaat!
6/15 - John Goodenough & Darrel Monsters of Terrinoth
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Hi RantWorld! Keith here from Landroval Studios (i.e. "the last office on the right at the end of the FFG hallway"). I'm affectionately known around here as "That One Guy," "Kevin," or my favorite: "The Dude Who Worked Next Door All Summer On That One Movie - What's It Called Again? Midnight Chronicles? And Is Now Barricaded In An FFG Office Doing God Knows What On A Sweet Ass 30-inch Apple Cinema Display That Should Rightfully Be In The Hands Of The Game Designers."
Which reminds me! Oh beloved players of our nifty CCG games, you can earn my gratitude (but no real bribes) if you neatly arrange the little points symbols on the back of the game packs. Some people send the order form in an envelope, with literally hundreds of loose thin foil-plastic circles. Static electricity from all the mail processing (and the very dry fall/winter air here in Minnesota) make these a super pain to count. Heck, they're hard even to get off me – I find them stuck to my arms, clothes, and they drift around my desk area. We strive for a neat workplace, and my office (being the home of bit parts, card redemption, hospital to ailing plastic figures and mail/packing stuff) is starting out pretty dang challenged. When I get an order, I slit it open on a cleared section of my desk, count it up, and then try to scoop it into the special ‘not for dumpster' garbage. Some people glue their circles to sheets of paper – a challenge considering the foil-like package. I think tape works better. One person recently took these tiny little inch square baggies and stuffed them full of circles in groups of 25. Where do you find baggies that size!? For earrings? Stamps? In any case, it's nice to have organization. And good handwriting. I've had to email people because I couldn't figure out their written address or names… Remember kids, you can't get your promo cards, if I can't figure out who you are!
Shattered Empire is surprisingly heavy for an expansion, and contains tons of cards, plastic, rules and 7 entire sheets of punchboard! I am hoping to do some design articles for this in the near future.
I hope you've all enjoyed our photo-essay (I choose to call it a photo-essay) of our GenCon experience, but it's time to return to a more ... textual form of Rant.
The Hunter's Track Beasts power, for example, allows you to track independent (blue) creatures that are spawned from your quests. The Rogue's Pick Pocket ability allows you to increase your quest's reward, depending on whether you need gold or items. Of course, each class also receives an arsenal of new combat powers, including a new demon for the Warlock, new totems for the Shaman, feral powers for the Druid, Stealth buffs for the Rogue, some defensive spells for the Mage, and much, much more.
This icon allows you to equip the power at the beginning of any of your character actions, instead of waiting until the character management step. This allows you to equip more situation-specific powers when you actually need them the most.
Not only does this give the overlords a powerful advantage, but it also builds their identities and defines their strengths and weaknesses. Each overlord-specific deck feels different from the other and guides your character to different goals and challenges. This will add a lot of variety and a bit of strategy for players that plan ahead.
