Here we are, 8 months into what was originally conceived as a 90-day experiment to gather RPG-related links into a weekly digest. This is the 35th Weekly Assembly post, and the last one we’re scheduling for the foreseeable future. We’ll publish a retrospective on what we learned from the Weekly Assembly at some point fairly soon, so stay tuned.
If you’ve gotten anything out of the Weekly Assembly or will miss it when it’s gone, please let us know about it. Sure, there are many ways to get your RPG news – what works best for you?
We tried to go out the same way we came in – with a bang. So without further ado, have some gaming links.
At Home
Articles posted here on The Gamer Assembly.
Away
Content from people involved with The Gamer Assembly posted elsewhere across the Internet.
- Blob and Toad – Marvel Double Datafile by Brian Liberge at Stuffer Shack: Here are two more classic X-Men villains for your Marvel campaign.
- What is the Classics Return Blog Carnival? by Adam Page at Daily Encounter: The Classics Return Blogfest runs during GenCon this year – August 16-19, 2012. This post presents a sneak peek at the type of content they’re hoping for – Mystara’s Orcs of Thar updated for D&D 4e.
- A Norse Mythic Campaign Setting by Matt Maranda at Monsters, Mazes, and Magic: What if the nine worlds of Norse mythology were actually separate planets?
Product Announcements
New products and special events announced this week.
- Re-Creating my Artwork from Original Dungeons & Dragons! by Jeff Dee — Kickstarter at Kickstarter: Want to help fund artwork remakes by Jeff Dee from the D&D Basic and Expert boxed sets? Sign up here.
- Mayan Number Dice by Paymaster Games at Kickstarter: To celebrate the end of the Mayan Long Count, why not pick up some dice with Mayan numbers?
- Stark City: Setting and City Building Toolkit for ICONS RPG by Mike Lafferty at Kickstarter: If superhero RPGs are your thing, check out this setting for ICONS.
- Dynamic Online Character Sheet by Dungeon Master Pro at Kickstarter: Like to play tabletop games with your tablet or smartphone? Take a look at DOCS from Dungeon Master Pro to keep track of your Pathfinder character electronically.
- Fang & Talon – Fantasy/Comedy/Action Webseries by Kyle Dekker at Kickstarter: The title says it all. This looks like a good time, and very heavily RPG-based.
- Monster Tokens by Devin Night by Devin Night at Kickstarter: This project aims to create 150 monsters for use with your favorite virtual tabletop application.
- Machine Age Micro Games Mega Project by David A Hill Jr at Kickstarter: Take a look at this if you’re into old school games. Here’s a dozen games for you in one shot.
- Narosia: The Sea Of Tears fantasy RPG by Silverback Press & Legendsmiths at Kickstarter: Gritty fantasy in the HERO system? Sounds good to me.
- The Gassy Gnoll: What’s in *your* backpack? at Game Knight Reviews: Here’s the kickoff post for the RPG Blog Carnival running in August. Empty your PC’s backpack and blog about what you find.
- Swords & Wizardry: The Actual 1st Edition Roleplaying Rules by Frog God Games at Kickstarter: This is no retroclone, it’s a compilation of the original rules in one volume.
- The 2012 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction: Like writing gamebooks? Submit before September 7, 2012 for a chance to win cash and publication in the Windhammer Prize competition.
- Axes and Anvils by Mike Nystul at Kickstarter: If you like dwarves, then an all-dwarf RPG should be right up your alley.
Notes From Abroad
Other interesting articles and cool links.
- Have You Seen? – Roll20 at The GSA: If you’re looking for a virtual tabletop program to run games online, this review highly recommends Roll20.
- The Geek Girl Problem at The Golden Lasso: “The problem with the geek girl subculture is the unrelenting expectation of uniformity.” Geek out however the heck you want.
- Save vs. Player vs. Player at TheSheDM: Never allowing character vs. character conflict in your campaign prevents incredibly cool sessions and plotlines, as this anecdote illustrates. It’s not for everyone, but it can motivate your group to roleplay with abandon.
- People doing shit in abandoned buildings at Meanwhile, back in The Dungeon…: Need a random table for what’s happening in an abandoned building? Got you covered right here.
- Reality Makes the Best Fantasy: Country vs. City at Troll in the Corner: Do your game’s PCs come from the city or the country? There’s no right answer, only great questions to help you flesh out your world.
- Dear Gaming As Women: GMing for Women at Gaming as Women: What considerations should be made when trying to engage women players in your next game? Several of the Gaming As Women crew chime in with ideas.
- Bulk Quantities at Kickstarter: Kickstarter clarifies the “No bulk rewards” rules in this blog entry. Turns out it’s not as bad as the initial reaction to the news.
- This is Not the Seclusium of Orphone: Random Wizard\’s Tower Generator at Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque: An awesome collection of tables to generate a wizard’s tower. You can roll for the name of the place, what’s on each level, and even why not to touch something.
- Why do humans rule the world? at The Wisdom Frog Croaks: If demihumans live so long, why do humans run so much of the world?
- The Bloodstone Pillars at Iron Canyons: Take a look at this rough map of a campaign set in and around the pillars rising out of a huge canyon. The overview text really sparks some adventure ideas. Nicely done!
- Bonded to the World at Swords of Minaria: Experience rewards are one incentive to get your players to act in a certain way when they play in your game. Pay attention to what actions you reward and what you use as rewards, and try out one of these alternate ideas to change the feel of your game.
- The Inquisition: Why Modules Rock at Troll in the Corner: If you don’t have time to get inspired or create your adventure from scratch, published adventures fill in quite nicely.
- Calling All Minds at FATE SF: The folks over at FATE SF are compiling their list of General SF Links, and they need your help. If you have a link to an online SF resource that inspires you, pass it on.
- Taking a Bullet in Arkbound at SoogaGames: Balancing the power of firearms against the survivability of a player character when designing a combat system.
- The Five-Minute Workday by Sage LaTorra at Syntax Error: A look at potential design changes to avoid the five minute workday phenomenon in D&D Next.
- 5 Common Sense Things Burning Wheel Taught Me at The Kitchen Sink: Some lessons about role-playing games through the lens of a first-time Burning Wheel GM. These are good things to keep in mind no matter what game you play.
- I Like My 20-Sider by Monte Cook at Monte Cook Games: On dice pools, bell curves, nostalgia, and ease of calculating bonuses.
- Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, a zero-prep OSR roleplaying game you can play in an afternoon – Flatland Games: Download this zero-prep OSR adventure system, currently looking for playtesters.
- Marvel Update at Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.: Since the basic rules went over on page count, some of the prices for future Marvel products will increase. And there’s so much good stuff yet to come for Marvel.
- Episode 7: Killshot, 1001 Nights, In Harm’s Way: Pigboats at Roll for News: Quick interviews with designers of very cool games. What more could you ask for in a gaming news podcast?
- DCC RPG Critical Hit Trap Table at The Iron Tavern: What do you do when traps roll a natural 20 on an attack? Check the Trap Crit table, of course!
- Weapon Mastery in Classic D&D at Greywulf’s Lair: A look at weapon proficiency system from the Rules Cyclopedia.
- Using Classic Adventures with DnD Next: ToEE and Relationships at Wizards of the Coast: Adapting the Temple of Elemental Evil for use with the D&D Next playtest rules and adding character relationships from a Fiasco playset.
- Fun Magic at Project Perko: On using magic to change the world in a meaningful and colorful way. Focused on electronic RPGs, these ideas are applicable in tabletop RPGs as well.
- Megadungeon – The Citadel at Yellowdingo’s Appendix: Need maps for a 13-level tower for your next game? Look no further.
- New Edition of Tunnels & Trolls Announced at Trollish Delver: Ken St. Andre announced he’s working on the next evolution of Tunnels & Trolls.
- Graffiti from Pompeii: It’s nice to know that scribbling on bathroom walls hasn’t changed significantly in 2,000 years.
- Dwarven City of the Black Mountains – Level 2 at Big Ball of No Fun: Here’s a homemade map of a dwarven city, originally created for AD&D.
- Howling Tower: Imagine a World… by Steve Winter at Kobold Quarterly: Building a world can be a game for everyone at the table to enjoy before the role playing campaign starts.
- Alignment Tongue at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms: Check out a new angle on the language of alignment, and learn why the assassin can speak every alignment tongue.
- LotFP: RPG: Recap and Analysis: The Adventure Campaigns: How did running Kickstarters for 19 separate adventures for Lamentations of the Flame Princess work out? Read on.
- Warning: long post in which I speculate about designing a… at Google+: Peter Borah analyzes the good and the bad about Lamentations of the Flame Princess’s 19 simultaneous Kickstarters.
- More Thoughts On My Cyberpunk Game at Gaming All Over The Place: Max Headroom inspires a Cyberpunk/Traveller mashup? Where do I sign up?
- Chitty Realm Worldbuilding Tool at Blue Boxer Rebellion: This looks like a great system for worldbuilding and mapmaking. Arrange the chits on a blank piece of paper and a map grows like magic.
- Kickstarter: This Is What A Mistake Looks Like by Fred Hicks at Deadly Fredly: It looks like Kickstarter will be prohibiting rewards in “bulk quantities”. That change could prevent small publishers from reaching out to retailers in a Kickstarter campaign.
- Nerd Culture As Suicide Intervention – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic: RPGs provide escapism which works as great nerd therapy. A great commentary on an episode of This American Life.
- Rules For Optimum Gen Connery, 2012 Edition at Critical Hits: Vanir gives us 5 rules for an awesome GenCon, or any gaming con.
- Why I Love Saving Throws at Untimately: Saving throws can do many things, including fix the drawbacks of hit points, especially with high-level characters who can’t die from a fall at terminal velocity.
- (A)D&D hardback spines at Robert Fisher: Thinking out loud (3.0): A field guide to the versions of D&D/AD&D, and a pitch to label D&D Next books as something other than simply “Dungeons & Dragons”.
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 Summer Olympics Edition to see a huge list of 0-level occupations for Dungeon Crawl Classics, tables for randomly-generated ruins, and some tips for good communication between everyone at the table.
- Roving Band of Misfits publishes their Weekly Roundup column every Sunday. This week's My GenCon 2012 Schedule Edition gives us the 200th episode of The Tome Show, thoughts on what a villain should be, and 10 games to take to a desert island.
- 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 researching spells using grimoires and other books of magic, barely-understood tech as the basis for Vancian casting, and a culture centered entirely around various oozes.
- 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 fundraising for the Micro Games Mega Project, harassment in video games on the cover of the New York Times, and a definition of accessibility in games.
- Critical Hits aggregates their Twitter feed and publishes it on Sundays under Critical Bits. Huh. Looks like no Critical Bits this week.
