You can read the details of the announcement at ICv2 here, or from Crytozoic here.

These decks, which according to the press release will be geared toward casual and competitive players alike, will have a MSRP of $11.99.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the pre-constructed “Class Decks” that Cryptozoic has been releasing since 2010. These decks appear to be in the same vein, but include “monster heroes” or two iconic leaders from World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner. I find the fact that three of the five decks announced will be “monster” decks exciting. The monster faction debut in the Throne of Tides set. This will give players that wish to run a deck with a monster hero an inexpensive means to do so. I can’t wait.

Thoughts? as always, let me know in the comments!

Source: 'World of Warcraft TCG: Champion Decks' From Cryptozoic This Spring (http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/22005.html)
Source: Cryptozoic Entertainment™ Announces New World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game Champion Decks for Spring 2012 (http://www.wowtcg.com/articles/2012/01/26/announcing-world-warcraft-trading-card-game-champion-decks) by Michael Sacco

The best beginner RPG product ever?

Presentation

The first point I have to rave about this boxed set is that it is simply stunning to my eye. Beautiful high-fantasy artwork is all over everything, from the cover of the box to every full-color page of both the Player and GM books. The box itself is a sturdy, heavy duty cardboard box. The books, both softcover, are very clear in their presentation, and lavishly illistrated. Tables of magic and mundane equipment, which could have simply been dry text lists, included many small illustrations. This is a fantastic aid in capturing new players’ imaginations!

The character sheets included in this set are also very good. The set includes four pre-generated characters (wizard, cleric, rogue, and fighter), replete with illustrations of the the characters, back story, and all of the character stats relevant to a new player. The pre-generated character sheets benefit from sidebars on either side of of the main stats calling out key elements of the four characters. These sidebars could be organized a bit better, but this is a minor concern. The included blank character sheets are also very nice. The spaces to write information are big and clear, and well organized. 

Additionally, the set includes four sheets of thick cardboard stand-ups to represent the characters, NPCs, and of course, many, many monsters. The thickness of the cardboard is great, as the stand-ups are not easily tipped on the table. As with everywhere else in this box, the artwork on these stand-ups is first rate.

Lastly, the box includes one of Pazio’s GameMastery Flip-Mats. This poster-sized, thin but glossy 24” x 30” cardboard surface, is a blank grid surface on one side and a detailed layout of the box set’s included adventure dungeon on the other. The glossy surface handles wet and dry erase markers well. The beautiful dungeon layout side is great for just getting into the action, while the blank side is an indispensable tool for a new GM drawing his or her own encounters. When the mat is first unfolded onto the table, it takes a bit of smoothing out, but it will lay flat after a few minutes.

Below is a video from Paizo detailing the contents of the box:

Rules

The Pathfinder game system is based on the d20 system that brought the world the Dungeons & Dragons 3.0/3.5 era. As such, it claims complete compatibility with that system. However, it is clear the designers of Pathfinder took care to streamline it. The list of skills has been pared down, monsters have clearer stat blocks, and the the spell-casting classes included here have more abilities. These remind me somewhat of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition “at-will” powers. This is a good thing. Both the player of the cleric and the wizard loved that they had more options for their characters, and felt these abilities complimented the classes’ more powerful spells well.

As the the Game Master, the player tasked with “running” the game, I found the presentation of the rules, the descriptions of terrain, magic items, monsters, and information about the proposed starting location, Sandpoint, clear and interesting. More importantly, I found them inspiring. As I read descriptions of locations and monsters, rather then scratching my head about how to implement rules, I was increasingly excited about building adventures and encounters of my own. This is probably the highest compliment I can give any Role-Playing product.

One last note on the rules: This boxed set does pair down the more strategic (complicated) elements of the full Pathfinder game. While the players at my table found this refreshingly fast-paced, other groups with some experienced players may find it a bit crippled. Being a beginner product, I think it was a very wise choice. In two sessions, none of my players missed the rules for attacks of opportunity or grappling. They were too busy having a good time.

At the Table

As a way for me and my friends to celebrate my buddy’s birthday, we gathered to try out the adventure and characters included in this box. My three friends were familiar with the the D&D 3.5 rules (and regular D&D 4th players), so they weren’t coming at this as completely new RPG players. I was the only one that had read all of the rules included in this box, however. It could not have gone better. After giving the players some time to review their characters and ask questions as we ate some pizza, we got into the game. As a group, we were impressed at how fast-paced the game was. We concluded the ten encounter adventure in about two and a half hours. Combat moved quickly, and satisfyingly. The group started getting into the role-playing of their characters rather quickly, and enjoyed some banter between themselves and eventually with some of the dungeon’s more comedic residents. I thought, and my players agreed, that the experience felt like exploring a dungeon, full of open-ended mystery, rather then just moving from combat to combat.

When the adventure concluded, and I asked for feedback, it was overwhelming positive. So much so, we decided to play again the following night! (Paizo has some free supplementary PDF material for the box set at pazio.com/beginnerbox). One of the players could not make it for this second adventure, and in his stead, my other friend’s wife opted to join us. This was her first role-playing game ever. She took on the mantle of being the party’s fighter for the evening, and rapidly got the hang of it! She caught on so well and so fast that by the adventure’s dangerous final battle, she was berating the party’s somewhat craven Wizard - IN CHARACTER!

Conclusion

This box set is an incredible value. At $34.99 MSRP, you get a lot of role-playing. The box provides challenges and character options through 5th level! Through our two games, Two of my players had characters that had 2/3 of the experience points they needed to get to level 2. As I’ve had time to look over the material, I don’t feel restrained by the subset of materials offered here. This is a nice change from the last starter product I explored, the new “Red Box” for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. The quality of the content in the Pathfinder Beginner Box is something I absolutely recommend to any curious players of another RPG system, or someone looking to get into the hobby.

I’m hooome!

Wow.

He seems really playable. At the very least, you do NOT want to get him angry!

What are your thoughts on him? How does he rank in the spectrum of Planeswalkers that have come before him? Let me know in the comments!

This has been met with all kinds of reactions on the web and also major media outlets. Of course, these reactions run the spectrum from pitchforks and torches to excitement. My initial reaction, I’ll admit, was “are you kidding me?!” Upon reflection, however, I’m cautiously optimistic. As I’ve said elsewhere, a new edition doesn’t cause my materials for previous editions to spontaneously combust. Will this edition bridge the gap, and give fans of all previous editions something to like? Perhaps. Perhaps not. In his announcement article, Mike Mearls asks fans of all editions to sign up to help provide input. If you care about D&D and its future, I encourage you to do so.

I’ll be following this story closely. I’ve played D&D since it’s 2nd Edition days, and continue to do so now. Check back here later for links to reaction articles and news!

MageKnight returns!

I have very found memories of the game from it’s CMG roots, and I’m very intrigued by what I’ve seen. If I have the opportunity to play it, I’ll be sure to post a review here. 

• Link the boardgamegeek.com review.
• Link to WizKid’s product info.

First up, some Magic: the Gathering

I have been an avid fan of Magic since I opened my first two Revised Starter Decks and The Dark booster packs, so many years ago. Through the years I have been a fanatic, absorbed in competitive play, and more recently, I have simply been enjoying Commander or Planchase or pre-constructed decks at the dinning room table. As a much more casual Magic player, I absolutely love Wizards of the Coast’s push towards multi-player formats, the return of Intro Packs, the various Vs. decks, and the Premium Deck series. These products keep me excited about the game, despite my lack of time or resources to play at the more competitive levels of play. So, that’s where I’m coming from as a Magic player these days.

Without a doubt, the Innistrad set has been one of my favorites of all time. It is just dripping with flavor. Gothic, spooky, horrific flavor. More then any set before it, when I play with the Intro Decks, I feel like I’m getting a taste of this dark plane, not just some new mechanics. It’s also worth noting that as a group, my friends and I have played more with these pre-constructed decks then with the ones from any set before. If you haven’t played Magic in a while, and have at least one friend to play with, I strongly recommend picking up two of these Intro Decks, and going from there. If you’re already an avid Magic player, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know about this set.

My friend Shawn and I played several games. I used my slightly enhanced “Carnival of Blood” vampire deck, while he alternated between his “Deathly Domain” (a Green/Black deck) and “Spectral Legions” ghost deck. The games were great fun. And again, just looking at the artwork and flavor text of the cards is a treat.

There’s a Reason It’s Called Forbidden Island

Shawn and I were joined by two of our friends, and we all decided to play some Forbidden Island. In this board game, the players have to work together to search the island and recover four artifacts and then escape, before the Island is swallowed up by the ocean. It is very much a cooperative game. You either all win together, or fail together. We failed. Four times. This is not a knock on the game. We have succeeded on other occasions. This just wasn’t our night. The game is quite unforgiving, and it has to be, otherwise it would lack replayablity. For this evening’s games, we used my copy of the iPad app. 

How does the iPad app compare to it’s traditional tabletop cousin? It has a mix of strengths, and only one weakness I feel is worth mentioning. First, the strengths: It’s very easy to set up a game. Just input the number of players, let the app randomly assign the players roles (such as Engineer, Pilot, and Messenger), and you’re off and running. The app tracks most of the “business” of the game, and enforces the rules. Three of us had played before, but this enforcement was a good refresher. The other great thing about this application that other iPad versions of board games need to imitate is the “undo” button. With four of us sitting around a single iPad, there were plenty of accidental “mis-taps.” This undo button saved the game on a number of occasions. Being electronic, there were several amusing touches. It was fun (and somewhat disconcerting) to watch parts of the island sink into the abyss. It was also nifty to use the “helicopter” card and be greeted by a graphic of the helicopter, which allowed us to place our pawns inside for take-off. Lastly, the fact that it was on hand, because I happened to have my iPad in my bag, was great.The physical game is preferred, but when it’s the choice of playing it some other night or right now, it’s well worth the $4.99 to have the app. The only negative is simply the size of the board. The iPad is just slightly too small an interface for prolonged play with four players.

 And Then the Night Went to Poo…

After our crushing defeats on the Forbidden Island, we decided to close out our evening of gaming on a lighter note - by flinging poo at each other. Shawn brought a new game to the table: Poo the Card Game. In this entertaining casual game, the players take on the roles of monkeys in a zoo, doing what monkeys are known to do. After being the recipient of a certain amount of “projectiles,” your simian is eliminated. The last monkey standing (hanging?) is the winner. Despite the dubious premise of the game, it’s strictly PG. The illustrations are comical and lighthearted, rather then overtly crude. It’s a fast-paced dodge ball sort of game. We played several games before calling it a night. It’s certainly fun. Just prepare for terrible puns, and well, potty humor.

The game, and its sequel Diablo II, were great manic clicking fun.

Blizzard, on the run-up to the release of Diablo III, has posted a great retrospective on the franchise here.

Enjoy!