I knew I couldn’t keep from compiling gaming links. I also toyed with naming this article “Invasion of the Cyber WereDrow”, but restrained myself. Enjoy!
Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.
- The Call To Assembly, Volume 1, our collection of the first 2 months of Gamer Assembly posts is now available as a free PDF at RPG Now and as a not-free printed magazine at Lulu! Volume 2 is now available at RPG Now as well. The printed version of Volume 2 is in progress.
- Brent Newhall wonders aloud if the alignment axes of good/evil and law/chaos make sense in all settings by asking the simple question, What If Each Setting Had Its Own Alignments?
- Science Skill – Modern Assembly by Brian Liberge Defines and explores the new Science skill for the modern-day 4e D&D hack we call Modern Assembly. Useful for monster knowledge, programming, and computer hacking.
Away
Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.
- Building a Dungeon in Classic D&D by Brent Newhall at Troll in the Corner takes a more scene-based approach to dungeon design. This information in this article originally appeared in Brent’s Dungeon Raiders.
- There has been talk about lycanthropy in 4e D&D this week on Twitter. Adam Page adds his take on it in A Different Take on a Werewolf Theme at Daily Encounter.
- Ghosts of Cyberpunks Past by T.W.Wombat at Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity rants about the dystopian future we’re living in, and how we let it happen while we were focused on trying to prevent the dystopian future portrayed in Cyberpunk games and fiction from the ’80s and ’90s.
Notes From Abroad
Other interesting articles and cool links.
Wizards of the Coast went public with their announcement about the next edition of D&D on Monday 09 January 2012. We’re collecting D&D Next links in our wiki. If we’ve missed any good ones that you’ve read, feel free to let us know in the comments or join us in the chat.
- Playing Drow Part 1: Embracing the Evil at Dungeon’s Master sheds some light on playing an effective character who just happens to be evil. Thinking about motivations, selfishness, and boundaries can make any character spring to life, evil or not.
- While we’re on the subject of drow, check out the UK D&D Drowathon Promotional Blog. If you’re anywhere near Nottingham on Saturday 12 May, get yourself over to Mondo Comico by 11AM to play The Sun Never Rises, which starts the whole Rise of the Underdark storyline, and the first session of the Web of the Spider Queen encounters season.
- Going Last jumps into the land of RPG Blog Carnivals by hosting May of the Dead. If you like the undead, hurry on over and sign up. Guest bloggers welcomed.
- Big news this week. Monte Cook left Wizards of the Coast. That news prompted other defections as reported by Blue Box Rebellion.
- Bat in the Attic gives us some thoughts and reactions to that news in D&D Next, Monte Cook, and All That.
- The End of a(n) (Eclipse) Phase at This Is My Game shares insights on the abrupt end of an Eclipse Phase campaign as part of the post-mortem discussion process.
- Liz at Character Generation shares some great advice in GM Tactics for Sidelined Players.
- Truth of the week: “Roleplaying is a team sport.” Read more sage advice for players who want to GM in Your Time Is Now at Gnome Stew.
- Food for thought: “Being Very Good at Anything Involved Being Somewhat Addicted”: Hard Truth on the Sheer Difficulty of Making an Impact.
- Artist Jenna Fowler sees some large expenses looming on the horizon, so she’s rustling up some business by having a Commission Sale! Take a look around Art By Jenna Fowler, especially the Gallery, and see if you can’t throw some work her way before the end of May.
- After the success (and physical therapy bills) of emulating women in excessively-sexy cover art Striking a Pose, Jim C. Hines takes a look at beefcake cover art poses in Posing Like a Man.
- Apparently Wizards of the Coast is releasing the Dungeon! Board Game Refresh in October. Sweet.
- Over the Edge 20th Anniversary Edition will be a limited print run of the enhanced Over the Edge 2nd Edition core book from Atlas Games. It’s coming in August, but you can reserve your copy now.
- Dungeon World is now available on GitHub for hacking under a Creative Commons license.
- The Board Games Edition of Tracy Hurley’s Joining the Party takes a look at favorite board games for gamers, including an overview of all the D&D-themed board games from Wizards of the Coast. Also be sure to check out the links to articles across the D&D community in the Tavern Tales section.
- And like we need another distraction, there’s a new lazy MMO fantasy RPG based on your Twitter traffic called Tweenk. Lazy or not, I want better loot.
MetaRoundup
A roundup of roundups featuring links of interest to the tabletop RPG community.
Please let us know about other weekly roundups in the comments!
- Game Knight Reviews comes out with Friday Knight News articles on Fridays. Check out this week’s Gaming Edition to see a Lego dice tower, photos of New Your City from the 1880s, and enforcing your game setting’s laws when characters turn vigilante.
- Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week’s May of the Dead is Coming Edition gives us ways to bring non-gamers to the table, a brief look at the forthcoming book Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophy, and giving some unexpected real-life professions to your fantasy NPCs.
- Keith Davies maintains In My Campaign and on Mondays he publishes a collection of Links of the Week including recommended Kickstarter projects and interesting YouTube videos. Take a look at this week’s collection which includes silly putty for potholes, a Coat of Arms Design Studio, and two takes on analyzing and building random encounter tables.
- Gaming As Women gathers links in their This Week in Gaming and This Week in Feminism series of articles on Sundays. Both series are collected under the News category. This Week in Gaming features Dungeon World’s switch to a Creative Commons license and the finalists for the 2012 Game Chef competition.
- Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. This week’s Critical Bits mentions the Dungeon! board game reprint, the Dice Tower Gaming Award nominees for 2011, and Monte Cook leaving Wizards of the Coast.
