May the odds be ever in your favor.

I thought I would try something a little different today and tell you about a movie that you might enjoy.  I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard of it.  It’s called The Hunger Games.

Now, I know that this seems like a no-brainer to recommend a blockbuster movie based on a bestselling novel.  I beg to differ.  If you saw last year’s travesty Clash of the Titans or any movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, you would know that these are not safe criteria for deciding to go see a movie.  I’m going to assume you’ve never heard of the Hunger Games and give you a quick explanation of the basis for the movie and tell you why I enjoyed it and I think you will enjoy it as well.

The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where a rebellion has ravaged the nation of Panem.  The nation was composed of 13 districts and the capitol, but district 13 was destroyed to end the rebellion and the Hunger Games were instituted as a reminder of the outcome.  The Hunger Games are a televised game where two children between the ages of 11 and 18 are taken from each district and forced to fight to the death until there is one victor.  The movie begins by providing this exposition and giving a glimpse of the game show itself before showing us District 12 on the day that children are chosen called the reaping.  The movie follows Katniss Everdeen and her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark through the 74^th annual Hunger Games.

The obvious reason that you would enjoy this movie is that is a well done adventure/thriller.  There are points throughout the movie where the tension just builds until it is released like an explosion.  Interspersed with these moments are deeper character moments that allow you to see the strengths and weaknesses of both Katniss and Peeta.  The movie does not shy away from its ancestry either.   It comes across clearly that this movie hails from the same arena as that of movies such as the Running man and Hard Target.  It takes what these movies had done and adds a greater character depth combined with a more subtle social commentary than these antecedents.  It is this social commentary that I enjoyed and I think will make this movie enjoyable for you as well.  It makes a point about our current cultural fascination with reality TV, but it also has this quieter thread that runs throughout the movie.  Katniss and Peet are from District 12, but they are not the lens through which we see everything.  The movie provides two differing types of people from the capitol.  We are shown President Snow and the Gamesmaker as one group and Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman as the other.  The difference between the two is telling.  President Snow and his group are implicitly involved in the horrible spectacle that is the Hunger Games.  It is there device for maintaining a tyrannical grip on the populace.  Trinket and Flickerman provide an image of people much like us, the viewer.  They are so immersed in their lives that they are not completely able to see or comprehend the horrors that are occurring around them.  This dichotomy is quietly showcased behind the other tropes that are given the foreground.  It is given more power for the simplicity with which it is shown.

The Hunger Games easily provides what it promises.  It is a good science fiction thriller with plenty of action and suspense to keep you entertained.  It isn’t empty entertainment  as it has several messages that are very thought-provoking in how they are portrayed.  I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen and picking up the book afterwards.

Going Cardboard is a movie about the world of designer board games. For more information visit http://www.boardgamemovie.com/index.html

Dallas Comic Con is approaching fast!  It will be May 19-20, 2012 at the Irving Convention Center.  Some of the guests scheduled are Stan Lee, Patrick Stewart, and Adam West!  For more information visit   http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/dcc.html

NEW YORK, March 26, 2012 – Wizard World, Inc. (symbol: WIZD) (“Wizard World” or the “Company”), one of North America’s most diverse digital entertainment and events companies, announced that John Macaluso, a successful businessman and entrepreneur, has been named the Company’s new Chief Executive Officer.  He had previously been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) in May 2011.

As a Board member, Macaluso has been instrumental in Wizard World’s growth and expansion in the Comic con event space in the last year.  Event attendance at Comic Cons in New Orleans and Chicago have risen, while the Company has refocused on its core assets, added new stars to its events and cut costs.  The latest example of that revamped face was announced last week, with “Thor” and “The Avengers” star Chris Hemsworth added to a star-studded list of Philadelphia Comic Con guests in June, along with headliners such as Stan Lee, William Shatner and dozens of other stars of the pop culture industry.  The Company’s next event will be held in Toronto, April 14-15.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the appointment of John Macaluso as Chief Executive Officer,” stated Mike Mathews, Wizard World Chairman.  He continued, “John’s previous experience at founding and building a hundred-million dollar apparel company, contacts and entrepreneurial skills will certainly help the Wizard World brand expand its operations and sales base.”

John Macaluso stated, “I am excited to continue the momentum that the Wizard World Comic Con shows have built, and to help develop new strategies to take us to new levels of success.  We have an outstanding lineup of events on the schedule with highly talented celebrities and artists and an outstanding team of professionals in place to maximize the Wizard World experience.”

A California resident, Macaluso has a long history of startup and entrepreneurial success.  Most recently, his business reputation garment manufacturing company, California Concepts, sold its products to many of the major retailers in the United States, produced a private label for Wal-Mart and Target, sold branded goods to Federated Department Stores, serviced specialty chains such as Charming Shoppes and Maurice’s and purveyed an upscale label to Barneys New York.  He sold the business in 2007, with Wizard World combining his great interest in both an entrepreneurship and the fast-growing world of pop culture and event entertainment.

Since it’s March we did another Sweet 16 bracket.  This bracket is for the worst villains.  There are a lot of bad villains out there but which won our bracket? 

Goin” Postal has a warning that reads : This game is only for well adjusted Players that can separate reality from fantasy.  If for any reason you as a Player feel that you can not find the defining line between Fantasy and Reality; please put this game back on the shelf so that other well-adjusted Players can buy themselves a copy for their enjoyment.  Warning ends here.

With a warning like that you have my attention.  Can this game hold my attention?  We will see.

Goin’ Postal is a board game from Stardust Publications.  You are attempting to stop Harvey( a formerly mild-mannered postal carrier that lost his job, his wife left him, and she ran over the dog as she took his truck) from spelling doom to the workers at a post office.  It is a fast paced game of kill or be killed that takes only 20 rounds.  One player plays Harvey and the rest play the workers of the post office.  The game requires at least two players but can handle up to eight.  I received a pdf as a review copy so I will explain what you get in that pdf since I did not get a physical copy.  The pdf comes with rules, a sheet of tokens, a page of Harvey’s weapons, a page of improvised weapons, and a map of the post office.

 After playing a game of this I felt kind of let down.  It hyped up the ” mature players ” aspect , but the theme and hype just wasn’t there.  I forgot what the theme was during the game.  It just became a roll, move, and stay away from Harvey game.  My friends felt bored which is never a good thing.  This started when I showed them the  game board.  It was a plain board with squares and some dark lines that were walls.  The weapons cards were nothing special.  One of my friends said that it felt like we had no chance of winning with the weapons available.

I was hoping this would be a good game for my group.  This game has the potential to be so much more.  Right now though, I can’t recommend this game.  It’s not because of the mature warning but because of the fun factor.

Menace of the Underdark for Dungeons & Dragons Online will launch June 25th 2012.  The launch will have a new playable class.  The Druid class!

At last, players can challenge the Drow of the Underdark as a Druid from the wilds of Eberron. Starting with Menace of the Underdark, DDO’s first shape-shifting class, the Druid, will be available as a premium playable class — and free to all VIPs!

Proficient with staves, daggers, clubs, sickles, and more; the Druid is a powerful caster who is able to fill a variety of party roles.

Take the Druidic oath and get closer to nature. Shed your heavy metal armor in exchange for resistance to the harsh aspects of nature like entanglement, poison, and other natural dangers.

Harness animal instincts to transform yourself into a vicious Winter Wolf, or defend allies as sturdy Dire Bear. Expand your physical limitations and rain down lighting as the Water Elemental, or incinerate the foes of nature as the Fire Elemental.  Each wild shape has its own specialized set of spells to cast!

Last time I talked about DC and how they helped me get back into reading comics.  The same can not be said for Marvel.  I had thought that nostalgia would make for an easy transition back into the titles of my youth with Marvel.  I was sadly mistaken.

I was lucky that Daredevil was restarting at the same time as the DC reboot.  I picked up the first issue and the writing was very good.  I ended up staying with the title for seven issues,  for the most part, due to the writing.  The problem for me was that Daredevil was never a character that I really enjoyed and the stories themselves were always about street-level crime.  What I enjoyed about comics was the over the top action and sometimes cosmic scale of the stories.  I also noticed that the X-Men were rebooting in Marvel’s Ultimate line.  I talked to my friend at the comic book shop about the title a little before deciding to pick it up.  I was under the impression that as a number one, I should have no trouble picking up the story line and moving forward.  I was wrong again.  Even though they were starting from a somewhat different beginning than what I was aware of, the previous back story was still necessary to have a grasp of what was going on in the title.   I gave it four issues to win me over but could never lose the feeling that there was a significant amount of the story that I was missing.

Having  no sense of the continuity of a title isn’t my only issue with Marvel either.  I was told to give two titles a read as one was the beginning of the Age of Apocalypse starting over and the other was the return of Cable. The issue of Avengers in which Cable returns still suffered from the problem of not understanding what was going on, but the larger problem for me in this title was that Cable was attacking other heroes.  I’m not looking for gray heroes in my four color comics, but that is what I received when I picked up this issue.  The story itself left me cold and learning that it is the lead-up to the summer event of Avengers versus X-Men only makes me even less likely to pick up any new titles.  The Age of Apocalypse story line also suffers from the same hero versus hero problem.  In this iteration of the story, some of the X-Men are trying to save the remnants of humanity while Wolverine is the primary weapon of the opposition.  Watching Wolverine beat-up and kill Magneto is not something I count as a good reading experience.  I know there are people that are saying “Don’t you want to know why he did that?” and my answer is no.  I enjoy the anti-hero as much as the next guy, but I can get a much better one of those from a novel.

My nostalgia is more of a double-edged sword for me in regards to Marvel titles.  It has made it very difficult for me to get back into the X-Men and Avengers as I have fond memories of them fighting their enemies instead of one another.  The flip side of this is that it has made it easier for me to pick up two titles that I didn’t initially think I would enjoy.  Defenders recently restarted with a new team roster but still included Dr Strange.  I have always been a big fan of his and was very pleased to see him again.  He is portrayed a little differently that I am accustomed to but instead of being jarring, it provides another layer to an interesting character.  Instead of fighting among themselves  they are trying to undo a problem created by the Hulk which is also a good call back to the old Defenders title.  The other was Future Foundation.  I know that this is a completely new title created after the apparent death of Johnny Storm but It was nostalgia that spurred me to pick it up.  You see, the issue I picked up had the Power Pack on the cover along with all the Reed children.  I have fond memories of the Power Pack  and really enjoyed when they crossed over with other heroes in the Marvel universe.  I was not completely familiar with the story that was unfolding in the issue I picked up but these characters provided a touchstone for me to take the time to better see what was going on and decide that I would like to see where it was going.

I would really like to get back into Marvel.  The new event that will be linking all their titles will make this very difficult for me.  My main hope is that it will not spread to either FF or Defenders and that when this is over it may make for a better entry point for me into one of their books.

If you know of any Marvel books that I might enjoy, please enlighten me.

Remember that 42 is a good answer, no matter what the question.

For this episode we are joined by Jenn from the Jennisodes Podcast.  We talk about Magic The Gathering and the awesome power of a cat deck.  We somehow branch off and talk about Power Rangers too.

You can check out Jennisodes here  http://www.jennisodes.com/

I mentioned earlier that I am a fan of comics.  You may have also noticed that Michael is also a fan, particularly Batman.  His blog on here is Batcave Gamer and I highly recommend you giving it a read.  The thing is that I had been out of comics for several years.  I had stopped enjoying the story lines that were being put out and the constant change in artists had begun to wear on me.  So, I just stopped buying them.  I would still pick up the occasional trade collecting a story, but that was the extent of my foray into comics for awhile.  It was two things that got me back into comics.  The first was listening to Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie on Ideology of Madness.  If you look to the bottom right of your screen, you will see a box where Michael has listed the podcasts that Zero Fortitude enjoys.  You will find a link to Ideology of Madness there.  I’ve gushed about them over at my blog and you can read that here.

What I want to talk about today is the second thing that brought me back into comics.  This would be DC Comics new 52.  In September of 2011, DC comics restarted 52 of their titles over again at issue one.  It was a complete reboot for some of the titles, some titles just carried on from where they had left off, and some titles were starting something new that hadn’t been done either before or in awhile.  When I heard about this, I was interested.  The big lead up event to the new 52 was Flash Point.  I started picking up the Flash Point mini-series and some of it’s supporting titles over the summer.  I enjoyed the issues that I picked up and ended up looking forward to the new 52.  Since I was a lapsed comic fanboy, I didn’t pick up every new title that came out in September.  I picked up the old favorites that I remembered from my youth as well as pulling the titles that seemed to be the most interesting to me.  Even without picking up every title, I still had a pile of 15 titles by the end of September.  I will admit that not all of them were big hits, but it was nice to be back into reading comics.

One of the things that I would hear from people at the comic shop and on the internet was that DC comics had really failed at what they had set out to accomplish.  The complaint that I kept hearing was that DC was trying to bring in new readers but that the reboots were not really targeting that demographic.  I was used as support for these arguments as I was not really a new reader but someone that had stopped reading a while back and was being enticed back by the media frenzy.  I will admit that I at first was an adherent to this new call for blood against the mighty provider of entertainment for the geek masses.  It is very easy to get swept up in the nerd rage that sometimes sweeps the net like a wildfire.  Thankfully, I have taken some time to ponder the red rage that surrounded the new 52 and can say that I disagree with the thought that DC missed the target that they had set for themselves.  The underlying assumption of this whole argument is false.  DC wasn’t looking for new readers.  They were looking for readers of any stripe and were doing their damnedest to get eyes on their product.  They achieved that goal.  I would say that I am proof for this argument as well.  I said earlier that I was a lapsed comic fan, but I think a better term would be a disaffected fan.  The constant change up in writers and artists had made me stop reading titles I had loved and made it difficult for me look at comics with anything other than a rheumy eye.  There had been media frenzies driven by comics before the new 52, with the assassination of Captain America being the one that comes to mind first.  Those types of stunts were not what I was looking for as a gateway back into comics.  The new 52 presented an easy access point back into the hobby without having to have consumed all the prior stories that had gone before.  It also didn’t penalize you for having some knowledge of previous story lines as some titles didn’t even reboot.  Hell, I don’t even have to spend a long period of time hunting through the back issues if I want to pick up one of the titles that I didn’t originally pick up as most shops are maintaining a shelf of the new 52 back for several months.  The barrier for my reentry into the hobby was removed and I was met with open arms.  This is how you get readers and DC did it well.

One of the things I have noticed is that some of the more progressive titles from the new 52 are getting little Bandwidth.  I am a fan of Animal Man, Demon Knights, and Red Lantern but here very little in regards to these titles outside of the greatest comic podcast in the world, Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie.  Yes, that was a gratuitous plug.  Each of these titles is doing something I find unique and hope that others give them a read so that they keep coming out.  Animal man is a family horror comic that just happens to be set in a world full of super heroes.  Demon Knights takes several interesting second tier characters and puts them into a setting more appropriate to them.  It is also a very progressive title for DC.  Finally, Red Lantern gives us a look into a Lantern Corp without guardians and what that would mean.  Yes, I know that doesn’t sound all the groundbreaking.  It is for me as my one problem with all the Lantern titles is the damn annoying little blue men.

I have to give kudos to DC.  They not only brought me back into the fold as a fan of their product, but they have made me want to talk about it with others.  This is an accomplishment in my book.  It ends up not just being good for DC, but for other comic companies as well.  I want to try out some new titles and I am now straying further afield.  Which leads easily into a future post about Marvel.

So, go to your local comic shop and pick up a few issues.  I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Remember that 42 is a good answer, no matter what the question.

In this episode we discuss the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie trailer.  For the first topic we talk about racing games.  Our second topic is games we want to see remade.  Enjoy!

Going off the rails on a crazy train

I am sure that Ozzy Osborne never thought that a line from Crazy train would be used in regards to table-top role playing games.  But I think it is a very appropriate title for a post about games that are on the rails.

Rails you say?  Why yes, rails I say.

Now, you are obviously familiar with RPG podcast as you are here on Zero Fortitude’s website.  From the results of the RPG listeners’ survey, I can extrapolate that you listen to between 2 and 6 RPG podcasts in total.  I assume you’ve heard the statement, “This game is on rails.”  On the off chance that you haven’t though, allow me to explain.  It is a reference to a game where the decisions of the players have no impact on the progress of the story.  It doesn’t matter where you go as the antagonist will be wherever you end up regardless.  This statement is very derogatory, and rightly so.  Table-top role playing games are inherently cooperative endeavor and when the players have no impact on what is going on you are doing them a disservice.  The argument has been made on several blogs, on twitter, and other podcasts that there are systems that inherently require this rails style.  This is not the subject I want to discuss.  I want to explore how the idea of rails could be used to increase the collaborative nature of a game.

This is a particularly intriguing idea for me as I am getting ready to begin a Scion: Hero game.  I struck upon Scion as the system to use as we wanted to do a modern setting with fantasy trappings.  I want to ease the group into a more collaborative style with a system that they are already somewhat comfortable.  Scion covers all these bases and touches on the idea of rails with the idea of Fate that winds its way throughout the narrative and mechanics of the series.  Fate is the tool that will allow me to play with the idea of rails while giving authorial control to the player over that fate.  I understand that this is not something that is implicitly dealt with in the rules of Scion, but it is something that is easily tweaked during the obligatory prelude portion of every White Wolf game.

From the outset, I’ve used the idea of the rails and made it implicit in the process.  I’ve framed the character creation in terms that give the players a solid base to start with and allows for a broad range of choices while not being overwhelming.  I’ve made sure to explain the idea of Fate somewhat before we do our character creation session, but I am going to make a larger presentation at this point.  I am making it explicit that fate is what brought the group together while explaining that the player is control of this fate.  I’ve had to struggle with the players’ general style of character creation away from the table and bringing what they want to the first session, but it is well worth it to get everyone on the same page as well as ensuring that everyone is comfortable with their character.

There are several mechanics in this system that lends themselves to making the rails explicit and giving control over to the player.  Legend itself has a bit of built in authorial control in the nature of its recovery.  Legend is recovered by being actively awesome.  This is reward with bonus dice ranging from 1 to 3.  In the description for stunts worthy of 2 or 3 dice bonuses, players are encouraged to edit the scene to make it more dramatic without having to roll for every little action that is described.  Outside of Legend, there are several purviews that deal directly with Fate.  Prophecy, Mystery, Magic, and Samsra all deal directly with Fate and its impact on characters.  Here is where I’m going to be making tweaks to once again play with the idea of rails and increase the collaborative aspects of the game.  The descriptions of each of these explicitly leave it to the storyteller to decide what information is given to the players and this is what I plan on altering.  Giving the player the ability to tell me what is going to happen in the future with Prophecy or what is going on right now with Mystery puts the tails out in the open and gives the player control of where they go.

I think this combination will provide a good way to look at rails from a new perspective.  You have the idea of Fate, the rails in this case, and you give up control to the players to increase their power in a more traditional game.  This takes the negative connotation away and turns it into a player empowering tool.  I think this is both a good way to think about problematic gaming styles and provides a method of easing traditional gamers into a more modern style.

What do you think?

Also, don’t forget 42 is a good answer no matter what the question.

I have a lot of things to do as it is.  I have things I do for the podcast, work, and stuff for me.  When I get free time I have many things I could do.  Why would I want to add more to that list?  I can’t really answer that but apparently I do.  I took on playing Final Fantasy XIII.

I have heard good things about this game, but could never force myself to buy it.  The last Final Fantasy game I bought I never finished it.  During the middle I just got bored with it.  I just couldn’t stay focused on it.  I still wanted to at least try it.  I decided to ask around to see if I could borror it from somebody.  With the release of XIII-2 I knew Jason was done with his copy.  I asked to borrow it and he said I could.  One more thing added to the list.   I don’t like borrowing games for a long period of time so I’m trying to finish it as quickly as I can.  So that means when I get some extra time I should be playing the game.

One good thing about getting something else to do is that now I have something to post about.  I get to play a new game and got a new blog post about it.  It is not a long post but hey I got a game to finish.

Jason and Rainford talk about their first game of Dread.  We go over the news of Star Trek Catan and the announcement of D&D 5th edition.  Our main topic is cheating in games.  Have you cheated during a game?

 Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, Inc  announced the launch of a new franchise entitled Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. Kaijudo will provide multi-platform entertainment that the whole family will enjoy, featuring an online game, trading card game (TCG), and a television series produced by Hasbro Studios and airing in the U.S. on The Hub TV network.

 “As a world leader in creating compelling entertainment featuring stories and fantastic artwork in a variety of expressions, Wizards is looking forward to unleashing the excitement of Kaijudo this year,” said Greg Leeds, President, Wizards of the Coast. “We are thrilled to be working with the talented team at Hasbro Studios and leveraging the growing popularity of The Hub to bring this unique franchise to the U.S. market.”

Kaijudo offers an inspiring story about a young hero, Ray, who possesses the rare ability to befriend and duel alongside fantastical creatures from a parallel dimension. It’s up to Ray to master the ancient art of Kaijudo in order to protect both worlds.

Through the online game, the TCG and the TV series, kids will be immersed in a world of fast combat and deep strategy where they will develop strong, unique bonds with powerful and edgy creatures, leading them in a battle to save humanity from annihilation.

The Duel Masters TCG is a perennial Japanese market leader for boys 8-12, with millions of fans playing the Duel Masters TCG in Japan over the past 10 years. Kaijudo adapts this highly successful TCG to a new story and product line that are sure to connect with a new generation of kids around the world.

For more information about Kaijudo, visit www.Kaijudo.com or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kaijudodojo.

Greetings Programs!

Welcome to Deep Thought.  My name is Rob and I’ll be your host  for this and many more posts here at Zero Fortitude.  Michael was kind enough to invite me to do some posts and I was glad to accept.  The plan is to have at least two posts a month for your reading enjoyment.

I think the best way to kick off this new blog is to introduce myself and tell you a little about my gamer/geek DNA.

Like I mentioned before, My name is Rob.  I’ve been a table-top RPG gamer for over twenty years.  I am both a player and a GM, though I have tended to wear the GM hate for the past several years.  I have played a range of systems from Second Edition D&D to its current incarnation.  I’ve also played Shadowrun, Mutants & Masterminds, Champions, Pathfinder, Legends of the Five Rings, and a whole host of other systems.  I am a big fan of the hobby.  I am also a fan of board games and video games.  My tastes in board games tends to run in the vein of Catan, Carcassone, and Ticket to Ride.  I will sadly admit that my video game experience tends to run in the MMO arena.  I played Everquest for a long stretch of time and also played WoW, City of Heroes, Final Fantasy Online, Dungeon and Dragons Online, DC Universe Online, and Star Wars: The Old republic. My console experiences are somewhat limited until recently.  I’ve just picked up a PS3 and have had my Xbox 360 for just about two years now.  I’ve really enjoyed Arkham City, Red Dead Redemption, and the Dynasty Warrior series.  Yes, I just said I liked the Dynasty Warrior series.  I hope you can see that I have quite a varied background when it comes to the gaming side of the equation.

I think my long list of role playing games does a pretty good job of placing me in the geek circle if we were drawing a ven diagram, but I feel that my penchant for sci-fi and fantasy will easily cement my position there.  I am a big fan of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and Harry Potter series by J K Rowling.  I highly recommend giving Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and Richard Kadrey a try as well.  I will admit to having read the required Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance fiction for being a gamer but found that I enjoyed the L5R fiction more than it really deserved.  My taste in TV and movies is eclectic, though that is being kind.  I am a big fan of Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, Justified, Game of Thrones, Dexter, and Alphas to name a few.  I will also admit to enjoying the Underworld franchise despite its myriad flaws.

There is a brief insight into the headology of your host here at Deep Thought.

I can hear you asking what can we expect to see here at Deep Thought?  I would like to tell you that brilliance will be dripping from every single pixel that you set your poor benighted eyes upon, but I would be lying.  Realistically, I will be posting about table top games, books, movies, and anything that you would like to hear about.

I look forward to you reading what I have to say and hope to hear from you in regards to what you have read and what you would like to hear about.  So, make sure to leave a note in the comments or drop me a line on the forums here at Zero Fortitude.

Remember, it doesn’t matter what the question is because 42 is always a good answer.

RJ and I review NCIS.

This a different episode of the podcast.  For this episode I am joined by my daughters and RJ.  We do a 16 bracket of favorite games at family game night.  After that I let them talk about Plants and Zombies.

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST UNVEIL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE^®: MENACE OF THE UNDERDARK™

January 19, 2012 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast unveiled today Dungeons & Dragons Online^®: Menace of the Underdark™, the first expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine.  Menace of the Underdark launches in the Summer of 2012 expanding for the first time into the beloved Forgotten Realms setting and the vast subterranean world of the Underdark, an increased level cap, the new Druid class and much more!

“2011 was a year of growth for Dungeons & Dragons Online as we celebrated our fifth anniversary and completed a successful launch of the game in Europe,” said Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online.  “2012 is going to be our biggest year yet with a wealth of new content throughout the year including the launch of our first expansion pack.  We are very excited to expand into the Forgotten Realms setting with a whole new storyline, level cap increase and the new Druid class!”

NEW FEATURES:

·         Journey to the Forgotten Realms- Experience the classic fantasy and adventure of D&D’s most imaginative and renowned setting. Arrive in the village of Eveningstar and adventure through the surrounding King’s Forest wilderness area where the citizens of the nation of Cormyr must unite to face a new threat to the Realms.

·         Brave the caverns of the Underdark- Come face to face with the Underdark Drow and Lolth, their Queen and goddess, as you explore this vast and twisted, subterranean world.  Infiltrate the Drow stronghold of Shindylryn – the city of portals – where Lolth’s forces work to further her schemes.

·         Attain Epic levels to 25! Forge your Epic Destiny and create a unique Epic hero with powerful character customization options as you advance beyond level 20 to epic level 25.

·         Play the Druid Class- Play as the all new shape-shifting Druid class! Wield nature’s magic or transform into a powerful animal form with this classic D&D class.

Dungeons & Dragons Online®(DDO) is a free-to-play MMORPG featuring the industry’s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based MMOs. DDO offers an innovative pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content. Players can download and play DDO Unlimited for free by visiting http://www.ddo.com.

Eight Eisner Award Winners and Nominees, Including Hall Of Famer Stan Lee, To Attend Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con, January 28-29

 A total of eight Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards winners and nominees, including Hall of Famer Stan Lee, are among the more than 170 comic creators scheduled to attend Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con, January 28-29 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.  Lee, who co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and dozens of other classic and world-famous characters, will be joined by Eisner winners George Pérez (“Superman,” “JSA”), Rob Guillory (“Chew”) and John Layman (“Chew,” “Puffed”).

The four Eisner Award nominees scheduled to attend are John Dell (“Ultimate Spider-Man,” “X-Men”), Joe Eisma (“Morning Glories,” “Existence 3.0”), Jesus Merino (“Avengers Forever,” “Superman/Batman”) and Alex Saviuk (“Spider-Man Newspaper Strip,” “The X-Files”).

The creators will be on hand to meet fans, sign autographs and sketch.  Many Greater New Orleans and Louisiana-based artists will be in attendance as well.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry. Established in 1987, they are named for renowned cartoonist Will Eisner (creator of “The Spirit” and several award-winning graphic novels).

Other superstar creators scheduled to attend include Tyler Kirkham (“Green Lantern Corps,” “Amazing Spider-Man”), Barry Kitson (“Uncanny X-Force,” “Iron Man”), Greg Horn (“Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” “X-Force”), Mike McKone (“Avengers,” “Fantastic Four”), Michael Golden (“Batman,” “Spider-Man”), Clayburn Moore (The CS Moore Studio Ltd.), Norm Breyfogle (“Batman Beyond,” “Life with Archie”), “Zombie King” Arthur Suydam (“Marvel Zombies,” “Army of Darkness”) and Scott Clark (“Batman Inc.,” “Brightest Day”).

New Orleans Comic Con will also feature popular celebrities such as William Shatner, Adam Baldwin, Mary McDonnell, James Marsters and Michael Biehn.

New Orleans Comic Con is the first stop on Wizard World’s 2012 North American tour.  Hours are Saturday, January 28, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; and Sunday, January 29, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.  Tickets are available in advance online at http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/neworleans.html at a savings over tickets purchased at the door.  Advance adult single-day tickets are priced at $30 ($40 on site); weekend all-session tickets are $45 ($55 on site), and tickets are free for children age 10 and under when accompanied by a paid adult (limit two children per adult).  VIP packages with special entry and exclusive items are also available on a limited basis.

About Wizard World:
Wizard World produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests.

The full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com.

We talk about our resolutions for this year.  Some resolutions for us and some for the podcast are discussed.

Our first video review!

For more info http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/355940000

For my first blog post of the year I decided to make a list.  I wanted the list to be my favorite board and card games that I have played.  This list will be updated every three months.  To see more changes during the year I did a top 20.  I am curious and excited to see how my top 20 games change during the year.  I will give a small explanation for my top 10 this post.  My next list will have comments for the changes.  Let’s start my list of TOP 20!

 1. Ticket To Ride  ( This is my number 1 game because I really enjoy playing this any time.)

 2. Dominion  ( It is so much fun playing this with anybody.)

 3. Lords Of Vegas  ( Since getting this game for Christmas it has quickly rised to the top choices to play on game night.) 

4. Heroscape  ( I love playing this game with my family.  It’s easy to play and the figures are great.)

 5. Balderdash  ( I always have fun playing this party game.)

 6. Mystery Express  ( My favorite deduction game so far.)

 7. Settlers Of Catan  ( This is just a really good game I enjoy playing.)

 8. Run For Your Life Candyman  ( I played this game at GenCon and can’t wait to buy this for my collection.)

 9. Last Night On Earth  ( My favorite zombie game to play.)

 10. Arkham Horror  ( I like the Cthulhu mythos and this game brings that out.)

 11. Truth Be Told

 12. Formula D

 13. Forbidden Island

 14. Bang!

 15. Apples To Apples

 16. Pandemic

 17. Legend Of Drizzt

 18. Telestrations

 19. Aargh!Tect

 20. Wits & Wagers

Making this list was harder than I thought it would be.  In three months I will do this list again.  There are new games I’m looking forward to playing and see where they rank on my list.  I also want to see how some games move on my list the more I play them.  This should be interesting.

This is a repost of the episode because the old one had an echo.  Very sorry.

Jacob and I talk about how our Christmas went. We discuss an article talking about the best years of video games. We go over the list and talk about some other good years.

You can find the article here

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/five-no-six-best-years-video-game-history-160038889.html

I enjoy the game of soccer and there aren’t enough games that have a soccer theme.  I heard about StrikerZ from The Dice Tower.  From their advertisement they said StrikerZ is not a game ” about ” soccer.  It IS soccer!  After that statement I had to play this card game and show it to my family.

StrikerZ is a soccer card game for two players ages seven and up.  A game can be played in around 20 minutes.  Inside the box you get two full teams, two managers, whistles, offsides, yellow and red cards.  The point of the game is to collect cards that you need to shoot for a goal.  You collect those cards by picking and discarding through a full deck and looking for one of the three combinations for shooting a goal.  Shooting a goal is easy and has no strategy to it.  You play a shoot left or right card and your opponent plays a block left or right card.  If symbols on the corner of the cards are on the same side there is no goal.  If the symbols aren’t on the same side a goal is scored.  The other special cards such as whistles, yellow, and red cards add to the game different effects.  They make your opponent  skip their turn or sometimes lose cards in their hand.

This game has a soccer theme but it is not a soccer simulation.  If that is what you’re looking for then this may not be the game for you.  One thing that might turn you off is the 50/50 chance of scoring a goal.  You play to shoot and when you get a chance it’s like a coin toss.  The most common complaint I heard was that there were too many whistle cards.  You might notice this when your opponent goes on a run and you have to keep skipping your turn.

This game plays quick and easy.  You can play this game while another game is being set up or waiting on friends to show up .  It comes in a small card box so you can take this game anywhere.  I have taken this to work and got to play a few games during lunch.  My kids like it because it’s about soccer and easy to play.  This might not get played at every family game night, but when it does get played it’s enjoyable.

( You can find more info here   http://www.strikerzgame.com  ).

This is our last episode of the year.  So for this episode we take a look back at what we did this year.  We are looking at becoming bigger and better next year.  I also set a goal to get more likes on our Facebook page.  Enjoy! 

For this episode our main topic is politics in gaming.  We discuss our experiences so far with DC Universe Online.  We bring up that we haven’t seen a Wapeach with Wario games.  Jacob talks about the blog a fan did about his rant on the Occupy movement.  Enjoy!

Wapeach!

News from Game Informer mentioned that a South Park role playing game is in development at Obsidian Entertainment.  The game will be released sometime in 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC.  More information and a closer look will be in the January issue of Game Informer.

The game‘s story is about a new kid in town which you will be playing as.  You will be defending the town from threats.  This being a South Park game,  I can’t wait to see what kind of threats we will be dealing with.

After reading a friend’s blog where he gave an update, it inspired me to do the same.  It has been some time since I last posted anything.  I kept telling myself that I should post something, but that never happened.  This post has taken me almost two weeks to finish.

 Let’s start with the podcast itself.  It has always kept me busy.  Recently we tried out a new host.  I have been told by a few people that we could use another host and I started looking.  Jacob introduced me to his cousin Jason.  Jason has played many video game rpg’s , but no tabletop games.  He brings a different viewpoint to the podcast and he isn’t shy on the mic. 

Audio is another problem I’m working on.  Audio is a learning process.  I got a new mixer and that will take some time to get used to.  I’m trying not to mess up our audio and make it worse.  I feel we are getting where we want to be slowly.

I wanted to try and get more content on our website.  We are paying for it so it makes sense to get content on it.  I started again with posting some reviews up.  It’s not as easy to write a review as just talk about something.  I think the more I do and get a system worked out I should be fine.  I have even kicked around the idea of doing some video reviews of games.  It should be fun to do at least one and see what all I need to do to publish a video.  I’m nagging the other host to do something on the site as well.  Crossing my fingers on that one.

Work has me very busy at the moment.  I’m so tired when I get home that I don’t really want to work on anything.  My projects keep building up, and they are getting done.  A few have been started at least.  It’s the finishing part that needs to be done.  I got to follow through with these things.  Once work lets up some, I should be better at working on my list of things to do.

I know this isn’t much really , but it’s a start!

For this episode we talk about trying out DC Universe Online.  Jacob goes on a rant about Black Friday.  For our main topic we talk about playing with new people.

Everybody gives three concepts for their own superhero character.  We then give feedback on which we like best.

Looney Labs were kind enough to send me a review copy of Star Fluxx.  Most gamers have probably played a theme of Fluxx before.  I have played Eco, Monty Python, and Zombie Fluxx before so I was curious to see what is different with Star Fluxx.  I was mostly excited to introduce Fluxx to my family.

Star Fluxx is a fast and fun card game for 2-5 players ages 8 to adult.  A typical game goes for 5-30 minutes.  Star Fluxx still plays the same way.  Each player is dealt a hand of three cards.  You draw one card and play one card.  That sounds normal but it doesn’t stay that way for long.  Cards are played that change the rules from how many cards you draw and play to what it takes to win the game.  Just when you think you can win the rules change on you.  It can get crazy but that is what makes Fluxx so much fun.

Star Fluxx has a few changes in this version.  First, they added the Surprise card.  These cards can be played at any time to interrupt the game.  They also have another effect like an Action card if played on your turn.  Second, Creepers are a little different.  Instead of placing a Creeper in front of you they attach themselves to Goal cards.  They are like status effects in the game.  For example, the Brain Parasite requires you to attach it to a Keeper with a brain.  Keeper cards will have a symbol to show if they have a brain or are a robot.

The theme for Star Fluxx is the sci-fi genre and it is there in full force.  There are references to Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, and many more.  It’s hard not to take notice of all the references.  When I saw the card It’s A Trap, I had to say it in my best Admiral Ackbar voice. 

I showed this game to my family and asked them if they were ready to play something different and fun.  At first the rules changes were upsetting them.  I got worried but they quickly got into the spirit of the game.  They were laughing and making jokes as cards were being played.  My kids didn’t get all the references , but that didn’t make it worse.  Star Fluxx may not be a game we play every game night , but they would like to play it again.  That makes me happy to hear.  If you have played Fluxx before or never played a Fluxx game, give Star Fluxx a try.

If you’ve never played Fluxx before, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. In fact, I would go as far to say every gaming home should own at least one copy. The franchise can take a lot of heat from the hardcore hobby gaming crowd, but those detractors don’t realize that sometimes a game can serve as a social lubricant more so than as a challenge or skill or a series of interesting decisions. If you need a game for those situations, then check out the different versions of Fluxx to see which one is right for you. Star Fluxx doesn’t separate itself from the pack as a must-buy, so it’s really up to what your group prefers. At the moment, you can also grab the classic edition, or different versions themed with zombies, martians, pirates, and even Monty Python.

We tell some urban legends for this episode.  We try out a possible new host.  We review the game Last Night on Earth.

 We apologize for the audio quality because we now have a new place to record.  Jacob and I cover many different topics since we weren’t sure what we were going to talk about.  Sorry for being a day late since I had no internet.

We do a Sweet 16 bracket of weapons.  Weapons were picked from anime, comics, cartoons, movies, and everywhere else we can think of.

When I saw the Angry Birds Knock on Wood board game by Mattel at Gen Con this year, I knew my nine year old daughter would want it.  She plays the app on my phone all the time.  The board game has the same concept as the app.  You try to take out those pigs and collect points.

 Angry Birds is for 2 to 4 players and ages 5 plus.  The game comes with 3 Angry Birds ( Red, Black, and Yellow ), 4 Pigs, 2 Bonus Points ( Egg/Star), 14 Building Blocks ( 2 squares, 2 triangles, 4 small girders, 6 large girders ), 1 Bird Launcher, 40 Mission Cards, 16 Points Cards, and Instructions.

To start the game you pick a mission card and pass it to the next player to build.  There are different levels of missions where the higher levels get you more points.  Each mission card has a different structure on it that you have to build.  You have to build what is on the card and you can only use which birds it shows.  After the structure is built you use your bird launcher and birds to get those pigs.  These birds do not have any of the abilities from the app.  I tried tapping the table to make the yellow bird go faster with no success.  The first player to reach 1000 points wins the game.

The game is fun and easy to understand.  You build, take out pigs, build, take out pigs, and repeat.  The building part will get tired after a few times.  If you’re not careful it will fall before you finish building it.  That did upset my daughter when she was almost finished and it fell.  After a few games, I asked her what she thought of the game and she said the game was just alright.  I agree with her that the game isn’t bad.  I like that if you want you can just build what you want and start playing.  We may not play it alot but people are always wanting to check it out and play.  If you are interested in Angry Birds Knock on Wood ,you can find the game for around $20.00.  My grade for Angry Birds is a B-.

Here is a video of Sagefight!  For more information visit here  http://www.sagefight.org/

Check out Jerry Grayson’s new Kickstarter for Hellas.  Spread the word!  Check it out here

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1269000670/hellas-wine-dark-void

We don’t follow our new format in this episode.  I review Shark Night 3D.  Jacob talks about Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Jacob also sends out a message to Skybeam.  We then talk about the game Settlers of Catan.

We are giving away a copy of RIFT the PC game on our Facebook page.  Just leave a comment under the post to enter.  The Contest ends Sunday night 9-11-11.  Winner will be announced Monday on our page.  Good luck.

You can get to facebook page here

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zero-Fortitude/156877214361121

Seven Dragons is the newest game from Looney Labs.  It plays like a fast game of dominoes where you want to be the first to connect seven dragons.  It may sound simple but as is with most Looney Labs’ games it can change quickly.

Seven Dragons is for 2 to 5 players and ages 6 to adult.  It plays in about 10 to 30 minutes.  You can find this game for around $15.00.  The game comes with 72 cards.  There are 51 Dragon cards, 15 Action cards, 5 Goals, and 1 Silver Dragon.  The art for the dragons features the  work of Larry Elmore.  You may recognize his work from Dungeons & Dragons.

The Action cards let you do things like switching hands, switching goals, and zapping other cards.  The Goals are the colored dragon you are trying to connect seven of to win.  Your goal may be the Blue Dragon and if you can connect seven Blue Dragons together you win.  Each card has one to four pictures on it and as long as a Dragon matches it can be placed beside each other.  The Silver Dragon is a dragon that starts off the game as any color but it changes when Action cards are played.

I played this game with my friends and family and everybody enjoyed it.  The game was easy to learn and teach.  We played several games very quickly and each game was different.  Seven Dragons is fun for everybody and offers just enough luck and strategy for both kids and adults.  Any game that I can pull out at any time and play with anybody is a good game in my book.  If you haven’t played any of the Looney Labs games you should try Seven Dragons.

News – Playstation Chat / Star Wars MMO / Burger King Retired King

New Segment – The Price is Right

New Segment – Comic Book Theater

Main Topic – Do game awards matter?

I had the pleasure of talking with Scott Hill from Flying Frog Productions about his new game Fortune and Glory. 

For more information visit http://www.flyingfrog.net/fortuneandglory/fang_about.html

News – Wal Mart mp3 , Madcatz Rock Band , Fantasy Flight Got Star Wars, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

I talk about my trip to Gen Con 2011.

Interviews

Chris Pramas ( Green Ronin Publishing ) -  DC Adventures Heroes & Villains Vol 1 / Dragon Age RPG      http://greenronin.com/

Curt Covert ( Smirk & Dagger Games ) – Run For Your Life Candyman  http://www.smirkanddagger.com/

I had a chance to talk with George Strayton at Gen Con about his new role playing game  ” The Secret Fire”.  Here is my interview.

For this episode

News – Goat in Apple Store 

 Portable Nintendo 64 

 Shark Week

Main topic – Netflix and other streaming media

Gen Con is getting closer and it seems my to do list is getting longer.  I know I could have been working on my list sooner but  I just wasn’t motivated.  Now that Gen Con is so close , that is giving me motivation with just a little panic.

I got the important things done like my flight,hotel, badge, and events.  I got my press badge and I’m planning that out.  I need to decide who to interview and what questions to ask.  I want to get some new and different interviews done.  My plan is to put out those interviews and some other Gen Con coverage while at Gen Con.  To do this I’m getting my laptop ready and making sure I have everything I need to record, edit, and put out shows.  I bought a camcorder so I can release some videos too.  I’m trying to get familiar with that and the software.  There is alot I want to do for the podcast and I hope I didn’t forget anything that I need to do or bring.

My budget is another thing to plan out.  I need to make a list of what I want to purchase at the convention.  Since I’m flying this year whatever I can’t bring back on the flight I have to mail home.  I got to keep this in mind.  There are a few games I’m looking to get there that I can’t find here.

There are some events I signed up for which I’m excited about.  I’m looking at demoing a few games in the dealer hall.  I did this one year and found a few games I purchased because of the demo.  I think I might run a game too.  I’m considering running Dread in the hotel room for some friends one night.  It all depends on if I finish up everything.  I could be working on it while I type this.

I am counting down the days until Gen Con.  I need this vacation so much.  My list for what needs to be done is growing smaller.  Crossing my fingers that I get everything done.  Bring on Gen Con!

You could win a Zero Fortitude shirt just like this one.

I will be giving away a XL shirt at Gen Con.  To win just find me during the convention while I’m wearing mine and ask for one.  Please don’t ask when I am in my hotel room.  I only have one to give away so first come first serve.  Good luck!

News – Playstation Pass , Planetside 2 , Thundercats

Soundbytes – Ideology of Madness

Game Night – Wits and Wagers review

Main Topic – We talk about Anime Conventions

This weekend I went to play some games at a friend’s house.  This friend has many games that I have never played before.   I was like a kid in a candy store trying to decide which game to suggest first.  There were four of us so I was looking around for a game that could play four well.   While I was looking  he grabbed Cosmic Encounters. 

Cosmic Encounters is not a bad game and I do like it.  I can play it when I want to and I was looking at trying something new.  I said that I didn’t want to play and that they can play while I look at all the other games.  I didn’t want to play but got talked into playing anyway.  I decided that I would play to lose and hopefully this game would end quick.  I haven’t played to lose in a long time.  The game was moving quickly and I kept thinking about why I was playing to lose.  Why should I play like that and possibly ruin the game for everybody else?  I couldn’t keep playing like that and decided to play better and try some new strategies.  The game got better and we finished quickly.

After Cosmic Encounters I suggested playing Settlers of Catan.  I have wanted to try it for some time now and for a while it looked like the only way to try it was to purchase the game.  They have played Settlers and didn’t mind teaching it to me.  I felt bad for my actions earlier.  I was being selfish.  I could have ruined their game time.  I acted like a player I hate playing with.  I should have passed on playing  instead of playing to lose.  I will remember that the next time.

In this episode

*RJ auditions to be part of Zero Fortitude

*News – California video games, World of Warcraft, Star Wars MMO, The Toilet, Resident Evil 3DS.

*Game Night – Telestrations review

*We are Super Villains!

I am always looking for new party games to play with my family and friends.  While looking around a store I came across Truth Be Told from Buffalo Games.  I didn’t recognize the company or game so I decided to purchase it and try it out.

Truth Be Told is for 3-8 players ages 14 and up.  The game contains 564 questions, 8 dry erase markers, 8 fill in the blank cards, 8 paddles, 1 scoreboard, and instructions.  You can find the game for between $18 to $25.  Each round one player is the host and reads a question card.  A question would read like this – Truth Be Told , my favorite movie is ________.  The host writes down the real answer and the players write down what they think is the correct answer.  After the host collects all the answers including his he reads them aloud.  Players then try to guess the correct answer to score points.  Players also get points if another player  chooses their answer as the correct one.  The first person to 15 points wins.

The game was simple to learn and fun to play.  My family took to this game quick and wanted to play another round after the first.  There were lots of laughs all around.  I do like using the dry erase markers and paddles.  It worked better for us instead of using pen and paper.  I would recommend you get better markers for the future.  With so many questions the replay value is good.  If you are looking for a new party game, I suggest you try Truth Be Told.  My grade is B+.

Robin ( Tim Drake ) will be playable in Arkham City as a pre-order bonus from Best Buy.  You will only be able to use Robin on the challenge maps though.

For more info read an article here 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/20/first-look-at-robin-in-batman-arkham-city.aspx

For this episode

*News – Texting at the movies, Crystal Skull, E3 rants

*Review – L.A. Noire

*Soundbytes – X-Men First Class

*Reality TV

I haven’t done a blog post in a long time.  I’ve been busy with other things.  I have been changing the design of the site and forum, working on new shirt designs, and working on what to do for the new format.   I thought about putting up something before we changed our format, but that didn’t happen.

I am really liking our new format change.  We all wanted to do more than games since we haven’t had a chance to play much together.  So, we decided to branch out into more of a ” geek ” topic podcast.  Everybody is into different things and can bring that to the show.  I would also like to get some more listener participation.  Crossing my fingers that it helps bring in more listeners too.

When I decided to start Zero Fortitude I imagined it going in a different direction.  I wanted it to be a serious podcast that would be up there with the other top gaming podcasts.  I was trying to be serious and too perfect but was losing that battle.  That wasn’t us and I knew it.  I found myself asking the same question over and over. Why?  Why wasn’t Zero Fortitude climbing the ranks?  Why were we not getting much feedback on anything?  Why am I doing this?  It felt sometimes like a job instead of a hobby.

I am glad I started Zero Fortitude with my friends.  I have met many cool people that I probably wouldn’t have.  I can’t wait to see where this new change takes us.

I saw this and thought of Steven.

Munchkin now has a shot glass for only $4.00.  This glass can be used during an actual game of Munchkin.  You can drink your (strength potion) liquid to gain a +10 combat bonus.  That should help in any game of Munchkin!

For more info visit here  www.worldofmunchkin.com/shotglass/

Our friend Jerry Grayson is doing a project on Kickstarter.  This is an Action Deck for the game Hellas.  Check it out and spread the word!

Visit the site here! –>

This is our first episode under our new format.  For this episode we cover

*News – X-Wing Soapbox Derby, PSN, Conan MMO, Minecraft App

*Soundbytes ( Rob ) – Dresden Files RPG

*First Impressions – Rift

*Movie Trailers – Super 8, Green Lantern, Bad Teacher, Horrible Bosses, Fright Night

Hope you enjoy our new format.

Check out the new trailer to see Catwoman in the new Batman Arkham City game.

Green Lantern First Flight is an animated movie about Hal Jordan’s origin story.  A dying alien gives a powerful ring to test pilot Hal Jordan which transforms him into a Green Lantern. It also gives an introduction to the Green Lantern Corp and the Guardians. The Guardians aren’t ready to let Hal keep the ring because he is a human. One of the most honored Green Lanterns ( Sinestro ) asks to train Hal and see if he deserves the ring. Hal catches onto what Sinestro is really up to and tries to prove his worth by stopping him. 

This is one of my favorite DC Animated Universe movies.  If you just can’t wait for the release of the new Green Lantern movie I suggest you watch this.   My review grade for First Flight …. A-

For this episode we do some trivia.  I came up with questions for a game for bragging rights.  Who won?  Listen and find out.  Sorry for the audio on this episode.  Enjoy!

Rainford and I talk about playing games with our kids.

  For this episode we discuss our thoughts on D&D 4th edition.   

We also talk about our PS3 purchases.  We went and saw the movie Your Higness and give our opinions on it.

We talk about the evolution of consoles and how fast technology has come.

Grimgoroth and Shey from the forums join Steven and I for an interesting topic.  We talk about the Seven Deadly Sins and Gaming article I found here  http://rpgcentric.com/the-seven-deadly-sins-and-gaming-part-one.html

Sorry it’s been awhile since I promised this part of  podcasts I listen to.  Let’s just get into it.

Jennisodes Podcast

I enjoy this RPG podcast with Jenn and her guests.  She has a different guest every week and the interviews aren’t boring.

Save Against Frostbite

This is a podcast with Canadian geeks who rant about a variety of topics.  Sometimes the audio isn’t as good but they do make me laugh and keep me entertained.

Thaco

A group of friends that talk about different topics of games and sometimes geek stuff.  They do come out weekly which is a huge plus for me.

The Atomic Geeks

This is another group of geeky friends from Canada.  They cover movies, tv, comics, gaming and everything in between.  Their shows are great quality and very entertaining if your a geek. 

The Bear Swarm!

This is an explicit geek and rpg topic podcast.  Each host brings something different to the podcast especially Rob Justice.  He will tell you what he thinks and sometimes with no filter.  I laugh alot when I listen to these guys.  This is one I usually listen to as soon as I can.

The Dice Tower

This is a boardgame podcast with some card games thrown in too.  Each show the hosts do a Top Ten of something.  They also have alot of listener  participation which I don’t see on many other shows.  I find out alot of game information through this show.

The Podge Cast

They talk about movies, music, books, games, whatever’s on their minds.  That is a very true statement.  You never know what they are going to talk about.  It’s an entertaining weekly podcast that I have listened to since the beginning.

The Spiel

They say its a show about games and the people that love them.  This is another boardgame podcast.  They have different segements like reviews, news, and a walkthrough and detailed explanation of one game.  If your a boardgame fan or new to boardgames give them a try.

Well that is all of the podcasts I am currently listening to.  I enjoy all of them and will always be on the lookout for new podcasts.

We talk about sex in games and our experiences with some of those games.   We go over a list of games that have sex in them.

We talk about which companies we trust and which ones we don’t.  We discuss what companies need to do to earn our trust.

Check out or new Facebook page Here!

For this episode we talk about super heroes.  We talk about the movies we are interested in.  Jacob also reviews DC Universe Online.

Steven is back for only a week and joins me for an episode.  He tells me what he has been doing and his thoughts on our episodes without him.  He will be back full time in a few weeks.

We review the game Descent: Journeys in the Dark and

Descent: Road to Legend Expansion

Promo – Conglomeration  – http://www.conglomeration.info/

I announce the winner of the Hellas contest.  Thank you to everybody that entered.

I am joined by Jsica from Cosplay Deviants.  For this episode we talk about Final Fantasy and cosplay.  Visit Cosplay Deviants to see more.  You can find more information here

Cosplay Deviants   http://cosplaydeviants.com/

Jsica’s page on Cosplay Deviants  http://cosplaydeviants.com/girl_profile.php?girl_id=60

Jsica’s cosplay.com profile  http://www.cosplay.com/member/222052/

This is part 3 of our actual play.

This is part two of our Hellas game.

I’ve been asked many times what podcasts I listen to.  I got asked this question a few days ago.  At that time I was also needing a topic to write about.  Here is what podcasts that I listen to along with a little information on why I listen.  This will be split into two parts.

All Games Considered
I like that they now break their show up into seperate small episodes. I don’t have to wait that long for something new. They are the only podcast that does gaming news well.

Anything Ghost Show
Anything Ghost is about paranormal experiences and ghost stories shared from people. People can send audio or the host will read it and add his own music to enhance the show. I was looking for a ghost stories show and came across it. I enjoy hearing about other people’s experiences with the unknown. If you like ghost stories you should give it a try.

Brew City Gamers
They cover more video games and miniatures which I don’t really play much of but they are still fun to listen to. Their episodes are closer to two hours which I break apart into two shows.

Brilliant Gameologists
I have heard them described as the Howard Stern of rpg podcasts. I like their new episodes they call BGShorts. It’s a shorter show around 30 minutes which is enough for me.

Fear the Boot Not as good as when I first started listening years ago. I still listen because they are consistent and their audio quality is great.

Game On! with Cody and John They call themselves the uncommon podcast for the common gamer. They cover tabletop gaming and do it well. They do talk about alot of games that I’m interested in and do a very good review of a game every episode.

GeekNights GeekNights is a talk radio show that covers a wide area of topics. They cover technology, anime, gaming, comics, and other topics they care to talk about. They split their shows where certain topics are on certain days. You can choose which days to listen to. The quality of their episodes is very high.

H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft you should listen. Each week they have somebody read parts of a story and talk about it in detail.

Ideology of Madness They have different shows in this feed. Funnybooks is about comic books which I haven’t read any in years. They are still entertaining to listen to. Cardboard Crack is about Magic the Gathering. It’s new but getting there. Knights of Reignsborough is about a superhero game they will be running soon. They designed the city and characters over the show. It gets me in the mood to play a superhero game.

This ends the first part. The second part will be coming in a few weeks. Sorry for the delay.

Jerry Grayson was kind enough to run Hellas for us over skype.  Our game will be broken up into three parts.  Here is part one of our game.

For Episode 50 we asked for your favorite moments of the podcast.  We took some of those suggestions and put them together for this episode.  Enjoy!

Fantasy Flight Games is having a holiday sale.  There are over 150 products on sale.  If you are looking for some games or other ideas for a gift visit Fantasy Flight.  Visit their page here  http://store.fantasyflightgames.com/client/client_pages/sale2010.cfm

We review Poo the card game and Cosmic Encounters.

I have found this news from the Wizards of the Coast web site.  I am very sad about this.

By Wizards of the Coast

After a thorough evaluation, we have made the decision to discontinue our Heroscape line in order to focus our efforts on our core brands. While this decision means that we will no longer be developing new content for the game, existing Heroscape products will still remain available from Wizards of the Coast and sold in the hobby game channel while supplies last.

The next and final Heroscape expansion, Moltenclaw’s Invasion, will be released on November 16, 2010. This final assortment, which is playable with the Heroscape D&D Master Set, will include the best and most iconic creatures from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Orcs, bugbears, dragons and frost giants will all come together to join the greatest battle of all time.

New features are as follows!

Two New Playable Races

Adventure as one of two new races–the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.

Level Cap Increased to 85

Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.

Classic Zones Remade

Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.

New High-Level Zones

Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj’ir beneath the sea.

More Raid Content than Ever Before

Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.

New Racials!

Worgen

• Darkflight : Activates your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 10 sec. 3 minute cooldown.

• Viciousness : Increases critical strike chance by 1%.

• Aberration : Reduces the duration of all Curses and Diseases used against you by 15%.

• Flayer : Skinning skill increased by 15, removes the requirement of having a skinning knife and increases skinning speed.

• Two Forms : Turn into your currently inactive form. 1.5 sec cooldown.

• Running Wild : Drop to all fours to run as fast as a wild animal. Serves as the worgen “mount”.

————————————————————————–

Goblin

• Rocket Jump : Activates your rocket belt to jump forward. 2 minute cooldown, shared with Rocket Barrage.

• Rocket Barrage : Launches your belt rockets at an enemy, dealing X-Y fire damage. (24-30 at level 1; 1654-2020 at level 80). 2 min. cooldown.

• Time is Money : Cash in on a 1% increase to attack and casting speed.

• Best Deals Anywhere : Always receive the best discount regardless of faction standing.

• Pack Hobgoblin : Calls in your personal servant, allowing you bank access for 1 min. 30 minute cooldown.

• Better Living through Chemistry : Alchemy skill increased by 15 (and you gain bonuses for healing/mana potions you made; 25% more mana/hp from potions).

Join the forums and get more info and join our dicussion!

TheNxtLvl is announcing the Fan Pick’em section of the forum.

In order to please the fans here @ ZeroFortitude.com I would like to give everyone the opportunity to share what they would like us to talk about.

If you have any ideas or things you would like discussed on TNL please join our forums and post your feedback >HERE!<

And now another random picture for your viewing enjoyment!

I bought Killer Bunnies at Gen Con for my daughters hoping they would enjoy it.  Bunnies killing other bunnies is the game.  What’s not to like?  Just by the title alone my kids couldn’t wait to try it.  After playing it a few times my kids seemed to enjoy it.  Here are my thoughts on the game Killer Bunnies.

Killer Bunnies is a fast paced card game where the goal is to have  the Magic Carrot at the end.  To also win you have to have a bunny alive.  That is where the fun is.  You are trying to protect your bunnies while killing off your opponents’ bunnies.  There are alot of different weapons and other cards to kill a bunny.  You can also choose which bunny you can go after.

The Magic Carrot you need to win is different every game.  There are Carrot cards numbered one to twelve.  After all the Carrots are taken a second pile is shuffled up and drawn from.  If you have the Carrot that is drawn and have a bunny alive then you win.  It’s like a lottery.  Just because you have alot of Carrot cards doesn’t mean that you will win.  It does mean you have a better chance.  One Carrot and a little luck is all you need to have a chance at winning.

I’m not as into the game as my kids are.  My kids like it and don’t take the game serious.  They also think the art on the cards is silly.  For me though,  it’s a game I wouldn’t want to play alot.  It’s a fun game but wouldn’t be my first choice to play on game night.  I’m also not thrilled with the luck factor at the end game.   That doesn’t bother the kids.  When it’s time to draw the winning Carrot everybody is crossing their fingers hoping their number gets drawn.

If you are looking for a fun and different card game that allows you to attack others,  and no real strategy is needed to win then try Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot.

What would we do if we won $250 to spend at  Amazon?  That is what we talk about.  Enjoy the episode.

We review the Quickstart for Hellas.  We also talk about how Jacob did running his first game.

 Bandai and Capcom Entertainment, Inc.  have announced that a Resident Evil deck building game is scheduled for release on November 19, 2010.  The price will be $29.99.

The game will have you choose one of the characters from Resident Evil and start you with basic items and weapons.  As the game progresses you will build your arsenal with other weapons, ammo, items, and action cards to defeat ” the infected “  You will have to build your deck well in order to survive.

The Resident Evil DBG will consist of 250 cards and hundreds of different scenarios for different play every time.  It will also have three different game modes you can play.

* Story mode is the main version of the game.  Players will race against each other to claim the best stuff first to help them escape.

* Mercenary mode is similar but rewards you for going on the offensive.  You have to defeat as many zombies as you can in a limited time.  This mode can be played with teams.

* Versus mode removes ” the infected ” from the game.  The human characters are against each other in a battle for survival.  Players must try to survive while defeating others.

For more information visit http://www.bandaicg.com/residentevil/index.php

This is an actual play of the Hellas Quickstart.

You can download the quickstart rules here http://hellasrpg.com/downloads.shtml

For my birthday I have a tradition.  I save money during the year so I can spend it on whatever I want for my birthday.  For the past few years I purchased a game.  This year is no different. The game I got this year is Last Night On Earth by Flying Frog Productions.

I have always thought about getting this game.  Whenever I had the money to spend I usually got something else instead.  I have had this in my hands and put it back many times.  I wanted to try it first before purchasing it.  Nobody I knew had it so the only way to play was to buy it myself.  Today I finally pulled the trigger and bought it.

I should get a chance to play this game on my birthday.  I am excited and I hope it lives up to all my expectations from the reviews I’ve read.  I’m not sure how my family will do with it but I know they will try it.  My gaming group will want to play this one as soon as they can.  After that our review will follow.

This episode is not like our normal episodes.  We do not talk about a topic but instead talk about random things.  Enjoy!

Well, as Steven and I mention in the following level. We want it our way! I apologize for the extreme delay in episodes but Steven is out of town for work until december most likely and I have been swamped at work also. We should have episodes coming regularly regardless but they might be a little less frequent for now. I hope you enjoy the episode and keep spreading the word!!!

*****  Also don’t forget to check out our WebStore and Join the Forums! *****

We review the game Dominion by Rio Grande Games.

Here is what the storage tray looks like.

For more information visit http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=278

Bumper – Flash from Cosplay Deviants

I picked up this game from Margaret Weis Productions at Gen Con because I’m a fan of the show and can’t wait till the full game comes out.  Here are my thoughts and opinions on The Quickstart Job.

First the book is only 16 pages and it contains a quick job and stats on the main characters from the show since that is who you will be playing as.  It explains the five scenes well and what the characters need to do and roll.  It will tell you what happens if they succeed or fail.

The system for Leverage is Cortex Plus.  The book says you need d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, and d12s.  Your attributes and roles have different value dice for each.  For example, the hacker Hardison has a d10 in Hacker but only a d4 in Hitter.  When a player wants to do something he rolls an Attribute Dice and a Role Dice based on what they are trying to do.  The Guide rolls two or more dice depending on what they are up against.  Whoever has the highest after adding the dice together wins.  It’s very simple and didn’t take long to get used to.

The Job was fun and like the show.  The target was having a party and the crew was surveying it while the the thief was trying to get into a safe.  I don’t want to spoil anything and go into more detail.  The one bad thing about the Job was how short it was.  I ran this for my family and they wanted more after it was done.

I do like the Quickstart Job and got an idea on what the system will feel like.  If you are a fan of the show Leverage or movies like Ocean’s Eleven this game is one you should try. I can’t wait to pick up my copy!

You can get the Quickstart Job here    http://www.margaretweis.com/mwp-online-store/leverage/29-leverage-the-quickstart-job

Grimgoroth, Saintdave22, and Shey from the forums join us  to discuss deal breakers and deal makers in games.  Meth gets talked about too.

Promo -  Bear Swarm!    http://www.bearswarm.com/

The other day I was going through my gaming collection to see what I wanted to keep or sell.  If there is a game that I have that I know I won’t play I usually sell it to make room for other games.  Close to the bottom of my stack was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness by Palladium.

This was the first tabletop role playing game I played.  A friend of mine showed me this game and asked if I wanted to play.  Of course I wanted to play!  I made up a mutant wolverine.  The picture in the book sold me right away.  I played that for a year before my friend moved.  To keep playing I went and bought my own copy.  I had no clue what I was doing but the games were fun.

I eventually sold all my gaming stuff to buy any video games I could.  I didn’t do any tabletop gaming for a few years.  Playing just video games wasn’t doing it for me so I kicked around the idea of playing tabletop again.  After a trip to the gaming store I owned TMNT for a second time.  The second time around didn’t last long at all.  I just didn’t have time to play as my life got busier.  I needed money and to free up space so I sold it again.

A few years ago I found gaming podcast.  It made me miss all the fun I had in the past.  The more I listened to other stories the more I wanted to play again.  After a few minutes on ebay I saw TMNT for sell.  I didn’t even think about it and clicked the buy it now button.  That makes three copies of this game I owned.

This time I am not getting rid of it.  It will sit on my shelf for me to look at even if I won’t get to play it.  When I do look at it though, it brings back some good memories.  Why can’t I quit you TMNT?

Here is my interview with Jerry Grayson and Eric Wiener.

You can get more information at

Hellas – http://hellasrpg.com/joomla/

Paradigm Concepts – http://paradigmconcepts.com/

Steven and I talk about what we did at Gen Con 2010.

Flash from Cosplay Deviants

We can Dream cant we?!

On this Level,  we talk about shooters from the past and present and our wonderfully shitty internet connection. This show if very lightly edited and remember we are explicit!

What is explicit you say?

<————- THIS IS HOW WE ROLL!!!

Check out our webstore @ ZeroFortitude.com and join our forums if you haven’t already!!!

Let’s look at the definition of the word scam.     scam – noun – a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, esp. for making a quick profit; swindle.   Now we got that out of the way I’ll explain what happened to make me think of this.

Steven and I both ordered our badges for Gen Con early.  I chose will call and he chose to have his sent USPS for $3.00.  A week before Gen Con his badge still wasn’t received.  He went to his post office but that didn’t do much good.   He also called Gen Con and they told him that if it has not come in he would have to buy another badge.  Buy another badge?!  Are you kidding me?  Badges aren’t cheap to begin with and now he has to buy another one. Does Steven get a refund?  Not unless they get it back or it shows up and he sends it to them. 

Gen Con has no proof they sent the badge or any way to track it.  So I buy a badge that you say you mailed but can’t prove and you tell me to buy another one and hope it comes in to get a refund.  That doesn’t seem right does it?  From what some people told me at Gen Con and on the forums Steven wasn’t the only one this happened to. 

I don’t know how many people this happened to.    People I talked to used  the word scam.  Is this a scam?  I’ll let you decide but it doesn’t sound fair to me.

The last week i went to gen con and had a good time beside the stuff i will take about in the next show. In today’s blog i am going to take about why is it faster for me to check my safe out at store thin having some do there job and do it for me  i think it is sad at i and most of people and get out of the store faster by doing someones job for free and it is not limited to big box stores but fast food to cause it is faster for me to get by drink my safe the guy to do it i am sorry but if i am pay for something i wont them to do it and it is not like they lowed the prices to make up the labor cost to me so we pay more get less food and less service that is not right so went you go out and eat make the people do there job that’s right there job they will not come to the office and help you out so do not help them and that going for tipping to if you do i shitty job i am not going to tip you and do not tell me they make shit for money if your money goes off tips you need to kiss my ass i am sorry if what me to pay for something your are doing it in need to me a good job and i do not care if you are busy you are there to be my servant that’s right you are my servant you get my food and my drink so if you what more money you going to have to me good at it so if i walk in and they tell me i have to tip i will get up and leave because i will not tip some for doing a crappy job look at stripper they work for tips to and yes i make them work for it to cause i do not think you would a shitty stripper so do not tip shitty people so if you are a service job and you are not getting tips here’s a tip for you i think you suck that you job(exception is you stripper suck may help) so that is all for now and fun and yes i know the blog’s grammar may not be right but thin i am not looking for a tip or getting payed so i do not care later

NO! NO! NO! NO!

What makes a good game?  We talk about what makes a good game for us.  

PROMO  -  Gamer’s Haven Podcast  – www.gamershavenpodcast.com

Post 666 belongs to ME! MUAHAHAHAHAHA

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I have OCD ( Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder ) but not real extreme.  At least I don’t think I do.  If you ask my friends they might say I go a little overboard which inspired this blog post.

When I buy a new game I want it to last a long time and try to take good care of it.  I show the games to friends and family and try to get them to play.  While we are playing the game I watch and cringe at how my game gets treated.  That is where the OCD kicks in!

If hands aren’t CLEAN  and getting cards dirty I get upset.  I just bought this game and already its getting messed up!  The table we are playing on better be clean and not sticky!  It doesn’t have to be real clean just nothing that will mess up the game.  Pieces to the game should be treated with some respect to the owner of it.  I mean DON”T and I repeat DON”T put the pieces in your mouth or near it.  This comes up more than you might think, especially with cards.  I just spent my own money on this game so don’t treat it like crap. 

I let others know when it is getting bad for me.  Most of the time they can tell by the look on my face.  I try to keep from screaming  when it gets really bad.  I do think I’m getting better though.  People put up with me and continue to play so all is good.

Dungeon Master: Jason ( Kelgoth – Drow Seeker – NPC Guide )
Characters: Immeral (Jacob) , Thard (Steven) , Belladane (Amie) , Adrik (RainMan) , Thorn (Michael) , ****** MORE *********

Backstory on Kelgoth: From a realm of Drow’s forced out because he cannot let himself be as the others. An outcast by choice he left to establish his own home. Knowing full well his kind is hated by all other he sought a remote location where he can be safe. Upon finding a good area to stay deep in the forest he was captured by an extremely powerful mage. The mage seeing the arrogance but good in his heart he was spared and taken in by the mage. Years passed as the mage shows Kelgoth ways to hone his abilities always giving him tasks, Kelgoth one day returned only to find the mage has passed at the hands of someone unknown to him. A dagger, with a symbol unknown to him protruding from the mages back. From this point on Kelgoth studies the arts and collects information in hopes of finding this killer of his Pseudo-Father.

A day in a vast city near the northern most part of the world, Thard and Adrik set sail from the lives they have known looking for adventure… Little do they know what awaits them! Belladane and Immeral travel south in search of a new life away from the tediousness of a normal life only to find an army of monstrous creatures awaits them! Thorn a ranger who is deeply angered by the misuse of nature by careless ingrates chooses to stay in the wilderness where he can have some semblance of peace. One day he is fletching his bow near the coast enjoying the tide and sounds of the ocean, he rubs his eyes while looking into the ocean only to see something coming forth. He drops his half-fletched bow shaft and descends toward the water. As the things appear to him he cannot believe it seems to be people floating toward him. What the hell is going on he thinks…

Thard and Adrick swim for their lives after their boat passed a large spire sticking out of the water carved with foreign markings and was sunk by what? No one knows… As they cling to a bundle of drift wood paddling for their lives with a stranger aboard the ship with them, the unthinkable happens something snatches the stranger below the waves. Seeing this they paddle faster then ever thought possible a man appears to be walking into the water near a beach they can only hope he can save them…. As Thorn watches in amazement yet horror he sees the men struggle to escape the beast so he walks as far as he can into the water to aid the possible enemy’s! Thard and Adrik finally are able to muster up one last rush of energy at the last moment to escape the beast with Thorns help and rush of out the water as the beast snatches up the driftwood bundle and recedes into the ocean…

After forging some sort of comfort with eachother Thorn, Adrik and Thard all make their way to Thorn’s makeshift home in the forest only to see the village far to the east appears to be buring. Shortly after a man runs to their camp asking for help spouting out “THEY’RE COMING” as the men try to question the strange man he is trying to convince Thorn to give him a weapon, Thorn refuses to give up his armerments and fashions a pike out of some wood to appease the strange man… Trying to get information out of the man he runs off, strangely in the direction from which he came… Knowing that he may be a spy or whatnot the men abandon Thorns came and push north deeper into the forest… They find a path running east to west and begin to hear things.

UNFINISHED – MORE COMING SOON!

On The Nxt Lvl we discuss gaming companies and their flops whether it be in concept or in budget… And as usual some good rants and things going on in our lives…

From HYPE to FLOP lets see whats going on in The Nxt Lvl!

Hello all this my first blog so bear with me today i am going to talk about people that cry about shitty game and move sequel will we all are the one to blame because we keep going a see or buy the shitty games and moves and if we know some one that made the game we tell them it is a good game whin we know it is crap because we do not wont to hurt there filings so people all i am say is help use all out and if you friend has a grate game idea and you are like that is stupid please tell him or her that is stupid it is ok we all need to stop care about peoples filing and tell them what we think about yes they may not like you at first but think of the rest of use and that is all for now and if you see a missed spelled word or two i do not care or if you do not like the post gusse what i do not give a shit

Sony has had a tremendous year with its Playstation 3 console. Thanks to a renewed marketing push, a series of blockbuster exclusives and a very strong E3 conference, the company looks set to dominate retail once again in this console generation. But despite all of the great headlines, why do sales of the PS3 continue to lag behind Microsoft’s arguably under-powered console?

This past month the Xbox 360 managed to outsell Sony’s competing Playstation 3 console by some 145,000 units in the United States. The total number of 360 consoles sold at retail was 451,700 and this number was undoubtedly helped along by the launch of Microsoft’s new slim version of the 360 hardware (See June NPD results here). Revealed at E3, The Xbox 360 slim comes with a 250 GB hard drive and built-in wifi, but doesn’t really add anything new that the PS3 slim doesn’t have. Microsoft did give its new product a solid (if uncreative) marketing push, which helped to drive sales in a month that is traditionally fairly slow for video games.

The company chose a fairly straightforward tactic to market the new hardware, choosing to focus mainly on the slick and shiny design of the box as well as its diminutive size (see video below). We actually rather like the new design, and it gives the machine more of a high-end consumer electronics look than the old computer-case colored predecessor. But again, this is something that the PS3 console has been doing for several years already.

Microsoft has its eyes on the even more lucrative holiday shopping season which begins in late September. The company hopes that its new Kinect motion controller will help drive even more sales:

“Retail demand for the new Xbox 360 250GB console remains high, and retailers continue to order as many units as Microsoft is able to supply. Collectively, Microsoft has also heard from retailers around the US that Kinect and its related games are a top priority this holiday,” the company said in a prepared statement.

We’ll see if Microsoft can hold on to its sales lead in North America, but if ever there was a moment for Sony to turn the tables on its competitor, this is it.

Everything you need to know about Starcraft II

On July 27, Blizzard Entertainment will releaseStarcraft II, the sequel to the real-time strategy game so popular that it’s still the gold standard of the genre 12 years later. Today, we’ll be looking at Starcraft as a scifi narrative.

Starcraft is military science fiction that focuses on three warring species: the power-armor-clad Terrans, the monstrous bio-engineered Zerg, and the technologically advancedProtoss. Starcraft‘s first (and most obvious) narrative antecedent is Starship Troopers. It’s almost impossible to write military science fiction that escapes the shadow of Heinlein’s classic novel, and the debt here is mostly to the novel’s aesthetics.

The Terrans of Starcraft may wear power armor, but their culture and history is a far cry from the Terran Federation of Heinlein’s novel. These Terrans are hard-drinking, hard-fighting descendants of criminals and other undesirables that Earth shot off into space. Besides some typical shady government stuff (like experimenting on their own citizens to develop their latent psionic abilities) the Terrans also set up a society that is more Appalachia and less Heinlein’s military utopia. They even go so far as to name their government the Terran Confederacy and revive the Confederacy’s flag.

The Terrans are not entirely sympathetic as a society and spend just as much of their time fighting each other as they spend fighting the Zerg or the Protoss. Most of their storyline in the first game concerns Jim Raynor (left), one of the few truly stand up guys you’ll meet among the Terrans. Raynor overthrows the corrupt Terran Confederacy for the mysterious Arcturus Mengsk.

The species of Starcraft may resemble familiar sci-fi creatures, but this resemblance is only skin deep. The Zerg visually descend from the buggies of Starship Troopers by way of H.R. Giger influence. However, their culture and story once again set them apart.

Instead of a typical hive-mind, the Zerg seem more to network together into many groups. This allows for political maneuvering and betrayal at the top levels of Zerg society in spite of their hive-mind culture. In fact, the Zerg cerebrates that control the species often plot against each other during the course of Starcraft.

The Zerg also have an obsession with absorbing the unique genetic abilities of any new species they come across. Their current leader is a powerful human psionic named Sarah Kerrigan who was converted into a Zerg during the events of the first game, and there’s been some indication that they’re working to create hybrids of the Protoss and the Zerg.

The Protoss are the warrior/poet race of the Starcraft universe — they mix the looks of the Eldar from the science fiction miniature game Warhammer 40K with the history of the Vulcans from Star Trek. The Protoss are now highly devoted to their religious code, but they were once an incredibly warlike race. In their ancient past, the Protoss were created and watched over by the Xel’Naga, who turned their back on the Protoss when they descended into warfare — the Protoss wanted to show who was most worthy of attention from their creators.

After the Xel’Naga ditched them, the Protoss eventually got it together with the help of an ancient religious leader named Khas who united all of the warring Protoss with a psionic link. This link allowed them to empathize with each other as a single peaceful species. The Protoss now try and make amends for the actions which drove away the Xel’Naga, whom they kind of consider to be the Protoss version of Original Sin.

During the events of the first Starcraft game, the Protoss are forced off their homeworld by the Zerg, find a new religious leader, and reunite with their prodigal heretic clan that severed the psionic link to preserve their individuality.

Despite the unique aspects of the Starcraft universe, the game‘s creators are good sports about the similarities to other scifi works and often name characters after their scifi forebearers or give them dialogue straight out of sci-fi history. For instance, the Terran dropships quote Aliens obsessively (i.e., “In the pipe, five by five!” and “Hang on, we’re in for some chop!”). But what makes Starcraft an exciting part of the military science fiction canon is the way it lets you play around — both literally and metaphorically — with the story universe.

The storytelling of a novel tends to be deep but not broad. By the time you get to the end ofStarship Troopers, you know almost everything there is to know about the military culture of Heinlein’s future Earth. However, the Buggies are still largely a mystery and the Skinnies are utterly unknown outside of their brief appearance at the start of the novel.

Starcraft‘s story shifts between the viewpoints of all three species, giving you a full look at the way each of them operates. Characters from one species often appear later as opponents or temporary allies. For example, the player meets Sarah Kerrigan for the first time as a Terran, but she’s later converted into a Zerg as you play through her story, giving both you and her a chance to adapt to her Zerg persona.

The result is a universe that feels almost too full to explore with a traditional story. Many of the most interesting elements of the Starcraft universe, such as the Xel’Naga and the discovery and development of human psionic abilities, are only briefly mentioned in the game proper, leaving the player to explore those ideas outside of the core narrative.

Unsurprisingly, Starcraft has spawned quite a few spin-off stories. There’s a novel that explores Kerrigan’s rise to power among the Zerg. More recently, Blizzard has released a series of manga stories set in the Starcraft universe that cover topics only briefly touched upon in the first game, such as Terran research into the Zerg and the Protoss.

Currently, the Starcraft universe is pretty screwed up. The Protoss are in bad shape and trying to set up a new homeworld. The Terrans aren’t doing much better after Earth rediscovered them and — just barely — failed to conquer them. Meanwhile, Kerrigan, the new undisputed leader of the Zerg, is poised to take over the galaxy. So what new directions is the story taking in its sequel? Since it hasn’t been released yet (and most of the previews have been of the story-free multiplayer version), we don’t know the whole of the storyline, but we do know a few things.

**STARCRAFT II SPOILERS BEGIN HERE**

Starcraft II’s initial release is going to concentrate once again on the Terrans. The revolution from the first game has come back to bite Jim Raynor. After helping overthrow one government, Jim Raynor’s former ally Arcturus Mengsk has set himself up as the totalitarian leader of a new Terran Dominion and branded Raynor as a terrorist and traitor to the state. As a result, Raynor has fled to the edges of Terran space and become a mercenary accepting missions from anybody of any species as long as he deems the goals acceptable.

The big news concerns the return of the enigmatic Xel’Naga, the ancient alien race that helped spur the development of both the Protoss and the Zerg. Initially, this may sound like good news considering the nasty state of affairs at the end of the first game. However, from what we know, the Xel’Naga aren’t very fond of any of the game‘s many species. The Protoss are a failure in their eyes, the Zerg are a plague upon the galaxy that actually attacked them and drove them away, and who knows what they think of these weird pink-skinned Terrans that have shown up since they left. It seems likely that their plan to fix the situation will be some variation on killing them all and letting God sort them out. This plan’s unlikely to go over too well with any of the game‘s major characters.

Gen Con 2010 is two weeks away and getting closer.  Every day I’m counting down to my vacation.  For a vacation, I plan on being busy.

This year my goal is to spread the word about Zero Fortitude and get plenty of interviews.  I would also like to try getting some sponsors for giveaways.  Everybody likes giveaways!  Of course I plan on getting lots of pictures and some video too.  There are some people that I’m going to meet up with and hang out.  I’m getting excited just typing this!

I got in some games that I’ve never played before.  I am especially ready for the WOD game because I plan on buying the book if the game turns out well.  I need to demo more games and get some reviews put up too.

Just a short post as I am getting everything ready and counting down every day until my friends and I make the drive to Gen Con!  Hope to see you there!

We talk about console gaming vs pc gaming.  We discuss the pros and cons of each and which we like and prefer.

Welcome to TheNxtLvl, I am going to try and put out this show weekly and if you haven’t guessed this show is about gaming and entertainment topics. Not limited to just one aspect of gaming but gaming as a whole. I hope everyone enjoys the show please do leave feedback on the forum or email me at Jason@ZeroFortitude.com

Which one will win!?

This is where I will be posting my rants and raves and all things ” STEVEN ”

COMING SOON!

We play and review Bankruptcy the card game.  This game is a fast and lite game where you try to empty your hand and get rid of your stocks.

Just a quick FYI.

I was accepted into closed beta, upon the NDA being lifted I will share my experiences with the new system…

Regards, Jason

Our new promo! Please let us know if you play our promo so we can return the favor! Thanks and Enjoy!

We review the game Pandemic by Z-Man Games.  Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out.

This game is a co-op game so we had to work together.  That is probably why we didn’t win.  We had fun trying though and you will too.  Get this game right here at ZeroFortitude and GOOD LUCK!.

For those of us who can’t con, there’s KantCon!

We interview Ethan from The Gamer’s Haven podcast about KantCon.

KantCon will be held at the Johnson County Community College Regnier Center  in Overland Park, Kansas July 9-11.  For more information visit www.kantcon.com 

In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can’t get an agreement on the slpit! It’s time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!

We review the game Cash N Guns. Steven was a little upset when we played this because we mostly pointed our guns at him. Don’t worry no Stevens were harmed during this review.

Welcome to The Bat Cave Gamer blog.  As you can tell by the title I’m a huge fan of Batman.  If you can get past the title lets get on with the blog.

I must confess that I am not a professional writer by any means but I’ll do my best. I will also try to keep this blog updated. By updated, I mean trying to post something once or twice a month. At least for right now, I think I can manage that. I plan on having fun with this project and I hope you enjoy reading it. Now that I got that out of the way let me tell you what this blog is going to be about.

Since getting back into the gaming hobby and starting a gaming podcast I’ve been playing many fun and new games.  Those experiences that I have will mostly make up this blog.  That can involve learning, playing, or something new I tried.  I will also talk about my family game night.  We usually do this once or twice a month and my family has a good time.  I always enjoy playing games with my kids.

Well that’s my introduction and a short detail about my blog.  Thanks for reading and please leave comments if you want.  Thanks.

This is an interview I had with Karl Pajak ( VP of Texicon ). I got to ask him a few questions and he was kind enough to answer them.

1. What is Texicon?

Texicon is a table top game convention that takes place the third full weekend of May each year. It focuses on all aspects of gaming: Miniatures, Board Games, Role Playing, and Seminars. We offer 24 hour gaming and many special events, such as special guests. This year our guest of honor is Rick Loomis, owner of Flying Buffalo and one of original gaming industry founders.

2. How and why did Texicon get started?

Texicon began as a concept while Kevin and I were hosting games at Anime Fest several years ago. We were always supporting games at non-game conventions and none of the conventions took place in Fort Worth. We decided that it was time for this area of the country to have a true game convention. And Texicon was born.

3. What kind of events are there at Texicon?

What can I say, there are every type of events at Texicon. But each year we focus on a specific region of gaming. This year we are focusing on miniatures with an emphasis on historical miniatures games. Next year we’ll be focusing on role playing games. Year three we’ll focus on board games. We’ll continue to cycle through the different types of games as the years roll on. To be more specific we host miniatures games, role playing games, and board games…I’m sure your audience is familiar with the differnt types of games. But we see a future where we include all game types. For example, this year I had attempted to include the Fort Worth Widowers Society. They host dominoe games for the elderly that have lost their spouse. I ran across them at a restaurant one evening and asked the board game Magnate to invite them to the convention and we would give them space to host thier dominoes. It didn’t work out but why couldn’t you include something like that? If we don’t start looking out side of the box we …what I mean is that to increase the number of gamers we need to look outside of the box. We are looking at gaming as a pie, and saying “how much of that pie can I have”. The reality of it is that we can make a different pie, create a larger community by bringing into gaming anyone that is interested in joining us.

4. When and where is Texicon?

Texicon, as I have mentioned, takes place the third full weekend of May each year. Next year it takes place on May 20-22. It is currently being hosted at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.

5. Where can people go to get more information?

People can email us: texicon@texicon.net, for more informaiton or visit our website: www.texicon.net.

6. Is there anything that you would like to promote?

I would like to promote a gentleman that is doing, in my opinion, great things for the game community in Houston. That gentleman is Blake Radetsky. He’s working with the schools in his area to promote gaming. I’d also like to thank LSHM society for their work and what they do, as well as Reaper Miniatures for helping to support Texicon.

We talk about what MMOs could do to become better.  We debate no monthly fees versus having a fee.  Steven thinks some games should have a longer beta testing period to make sure game is ready before launch.  Are there too many of the same type of game?  Can a fantasy game be different and compete with World of Warcraft?

From LOTRO.COM:

Announcing The Lord of the Rings Online’s Move to Free-to-Play!
Today is an important day for LOTRO: we’ve announced that this fall, LOTRO will begin offering a Free-to-Play option! Players will be able to download the game and adventure in Middle-earth for free. With Free-to-Play comes the addition of the LOTRO Store, where players will have immediate in-game access to a wide variety of special items, account services, and convenience items.

The best part is – as existing subscribers you’re automatically enrolled in our VIP program! As a VIP you’ll continue to get unlimited access to the game and all of the content you already enjoy, in addition to some extra perks! We know you’re curious how all of this will work and what it all means for you personally, so here are some handy links to all of the details:

Official LOTRO Free-to-Play Press Release
A letter from Kate Paiz, Executive Producer LOTRO
FAQ
VIP Chart
Still have questions? Here’s a quick FAQ about the key points of LOTRO Free-to-Play:

Is this the same model you used with DDO?

It’s very similar in a large number of ways. The basic structure is the same with some changes made to support LOTRO’s different game world and wide-open environment. Customer levels, the LOTRO Store, and other aspects of LOTRO Free-to-Play are all very similar to those of Dungeons and Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™.

I already subscribe to LOTRO. Is there any benefit to staying a subscriber?

Of course! Once the game goes live you’ll keep all your current privileges, and also accrue 500 free Turbine Points per month to spend as you wish. We also have a set of Loyalty Reward Special Offers just for our veteran players – as long as you maintain your subscription in good standing you may be eligible for up to 3,000 points. If you stay active over the summer you will also earn an additional bonus of 500 Turbine Points per month until launch! For more details see the Loyalty Reward Special Offer Terms & Conditions for full details.

I have a lifetime subscription to LOTRO. What will Free-to-Play mean for me?

As a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO, you will keep all of your membership privileges and are automatically upgraded to VIP status. You will receive 500 Free Turbine Points every month like the other VIPs, but you do not have to pay a monthly fee since you are a lifetime member. All you have to do is keep playing the game and visit the LOTRO Store to spend your free Turbine Points. Lifetime members may also qualify for a special one-time Loyalty Reward of 1,000 Turbine Points. See the Loyalty Reward Special Offer Terms & Conditions for full details.

I am a LOTRO Founder. What will Free-to-Play mean for me?

As a LOTRO Founder, you automatically become a VIP and will keep all of your membership privileges as long as you pay your monthly fee. You will automatically receive 500 Free Turbine Points every month and you can spend them at your leisure in the LOTRO Store. Founding members may also qualify for a special one-time Loyalty Reward of 500 Turbine Points. See the Loyalty Reward Special Offer Terms & Conditions for full details.

Will there be a Free-to-Play Beta and when will it start?

Yes! The Beta will start in the very near future. We’ll begin accepting signups immediately at www.lotro.com/betasignup!

I’m a new or returning player. How do I sign up for Beta?

Start by registering at www.lotro.com/betasignup. We’ll select entrants from that list once beta starts.

I’m an existing customer. How do I sign up for the Beta?

Existing subscribers do not need to register to apply for the beta – we’ll randomly invite subscribers who have been active in the last 30 days and have an account in good standing throughout the beta. If you wish to register at www.lotro.com/betasignup that will count as an extra entry and may increase your chance of being selected for participation.

Is there any way to increase my chance of getting into the beta?

Sure! Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook! We’ll give out special beta entry codes to our fans via social media – so give yourself the best chance of getting in and make sure to keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Are we under NDA during the beta?

Yes. What happens in beta stays in beta! Once you receive your invitation and apply your beta key to your account, you will have access to the private beta forums. This is the only place to discuss anything you see or do in beta. Remember, the first rule of beta is you do not talk about beta!

What can I still talk about on the public forums?

Our NDA specifies that no materials related to the beta (including updates, gameplay or user interface) may be discussed or posted without Turbine’s express permission. The NDA remains in effect whether you remain in the program, or the program ends.

When does LOTRO F2P go live?

Free-to-Play will go live when Volume 3, Book 2 releases this fall.

Is Free-to-Play the only thing to look forward to for Volume 3, Book2?

No! Volume 3, Book 2 will continue the Volume 3 Epic Story as the Rangers head south. An all new area, Enedwaith, will be available as well as some exciting new features and many updates to the game including DX11 support! We’ll have more information about Volume 3, Book 2 as we approach launch. Keep an eye out for Developer Diaries and other information throughout the summer!

I still have questions. Where can I ask them?

If you still have questions after reading the full FAQ, please use the LOTRO Free-to-Play discussion forum for questions and comments!

We’re very excited about LOTRO’s move to Free-to-Play and we can’t wait for you to see all the incredible changes the team has already made to the game. Make sure you read Executive Producer Kate Paiz’s letter to the community for some great information on where LOTRO is going!

For episode 34 we talk about Maxim’s top 100 and go over our top five.

We also discuss starting our own convention.

We talk about music in games and other stuff.

We talk about gaming freak outs.

We talk about the long year it has been since we started. David on our forum also joins us for the fun. Enjoy the show.

For this episode the hosts are asked random questions. Rob Justice from The Bear Swarm! podcast joins us for the fun. Enjoy!

The guys talk about villains and share their favorites.

We review the game Dread. You can purchase Dread here Indiepressrevolution.com

We talk about our new website and plans for the future of Zero Fortitude…

We review the party game Quelf. Then we talk about First Person Shooters. The new game MAG gets reviewed too.

For this episode we talk about our weeks.

Steven rants about wieners in movies.

We then go over the cost of gaming and complain about it.

We are back from our holiday break. We discuss how our holidays were and what we played. After that we review the Munchkin card game. You can get more info @ WorldofMunchkin.com

We end this year by reviewing the podcast. We go over our favorite moments and plans for next year.

We discuss what we put on our Christmas wishlist.

We do some different beer tasting and talk about random stuff. There is not much talk of games and it is explicit.

We played Heroscape and instead of sleeping we recorded the review. Enjoy!

This is the last part of our show with Save Against Frostbite.

Save Against Frostbite joins us for our topic of games to play during the Halloween season. We don’t stay on topic too much for this one. This is part 1 of 2.

For this episode we discuss the relationships of games and movies. We remember the awful games that were based off of movies and movies that came from games. Good times!

For this episode it’s just Steven and I with a bad mic. We wanted to put something out so we cover what games we are playing right now. Sorry for the sound quality. Thanks and enjoy.

For this episode we played and then reviewed four card games. We review Monty Python Fluxx, Lunch Money, Pimp the Backhanding, and Family Business. For more information visit these websites:

Monty Python Fluxx

Lunch Money

Pimp the Backhanding

Family Business

Also check out these podcast we played promos for:

The Bear Swarm! Podcast

Role Playing Public Radio

Our topic this episode is gamer stereotypes. We discuss the past stereotypes and about what being a gamer means now. Steven learns when we are recording hopefully….. Don’t forget to email us to win a two player starter set of Spoils the card game. Enjoy the show.

Episode 13 Gen Con 2009 Review

I go over my trip to Gen Con. I also play the interviews that I was lucky to get. Thanks to everybody for taking time out and letting me interview you. Our intro is done by the lady in the picture. I give a shout out to 20 Weeks of Hell podcast. We are doing another giveaway this time for a Spoils starter kit. Listen for details on how to win.

Visit everybody mentioned on the podcast at the following:

20 Weeks of Hell podcast

The Game Crafter

Spartacus Publishing

Gamer Adventures

Midnight Syndicate

Eden Studios

Spoils card game

We review Don’t Rest Your Head by Evil Hat Productions. We also review the GM Paul. You can find more information about DRYH at www.evilhat.com

We finally finish up our Don’t Rest Your Head game!

This is an interview I had with the group You Too Can Cthulhu. You can visit their website at http://www.ytcc.org/ .

Also check out these other pages:
Chaosium
H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
You Too Can Cthulhu Facebook

If disasters that are in our games came true what would happen? Would gamers have an advantage in this situation? We talk about what we would do to survive or what we would do to prepare for the worst. Enjoy!

Paul runs Don’t Rest Your Head. This is his first time running a game. The players are :

Steven – John Smit a thief running from the law

Rainford – William a security systems specialist

Michael – Joe a bodyguard with a troubled past

This is the first part of our actual play. Enjoy!

We needed a show so we hit record and just started talking. Eventually we decided to design our own mmorpg. Enjoy the show.

This episode is our second part of discussing World of Warcraft. Hope you enjoy.

Our topic this show is World of Warcraft. We invited some friends to help us discuss the topic. We had lots of fun ranting, reviewing, and going over our World of Warcraft adventures. The show was long so we split it into two parts. This is the first part of the show. Hope you enjoy it. For more information visit WorldofWarcraft.com

In this episode we played and review Zombies!!! by Twilight Creations Inc. After all the brains were eaten and all the zombies destroyed who reached the helipad first and survived?

You can check out the game Zombies!!!

We apologize for the audio problems lately. This episode is just a bonus show where I ask 20 questions to the group.

In this episode we review Slasher Flick by Cynthia Celeste Miller published by Spectrum Games. Listen and find out how you can win a signed copy of Slasher Flick.

You can purchase Slasher Flick pdf version @ Drivethrustuff.com

or you can purchase the hardcopy @ Lulu.com

You can also check up what other games are available from Spectrum Games @ Spectrum-Games.com

1. How did you get into writing role-playing games?

I was introduced to “red box” D&D on my 13th birthday in November, but I quickly became dissatisfied with it. In January, I decided to design my own game; theoretically one that was better than D&D. It was called Intergalactic Wars and in retrospect, it was purely derivative garbage. Seriously, I borrowed from every source imaginable, from Star Wars to Flash Gordon. Hell, I even included Wookalars from the Tim Conway/Don Knotts comedy, “Private Eyes”. But as bad as the game was, my friends loved it and we played the hell out of it. That’s what got me into designing games.

2. What was your inspiration for writing Slasher Flick?

The obvious answer is the slasher films, particularly the ones from the 1970s and ’80s. However, there’s something a bit deeper than just that. The truth is, I’m a sucker for the underdogs and the characters in Slasher Flick are the ultimate underdogs — normal people trying to stay alive while being stalked by an unstoppable killer. So, I guess my inspiration comes from the classic underdog story.

3. How many slasher movies did you watch while writing Slasher Flick?

More than is probably healthy. I’m well-versed in slasher movies to begin with, since I’ve been a fan for as long as I can remember, but I wanted to watch or re-watch as many as possible so that I could analyze them. Luckily, I didn’t have to do this alone. Shelly Bateman, Eric Hudson and Brian Wylie helped me out a lot. We would watch slasher movies and take notes. They were picking up on things that I didn’t sometimes, so between the four of us, we hit pretty much everything. We studied the length of “kill scenes”, how many characters died during the first attack made by the killer, how often kill scenes happened, and of course looked for all the cliches and tropes associated with these films.

But to answer your question more fully, here is the list of slasher movies we studied: Rest Stop, Halloween, Black Christmas (both versions), Shredder, Midnight Meat Train, Midnight Movie, Popcorn, Friday the 13th parts 1-6, Cruel World, Amusement, Alice Sweet Alice, Prom Night, Student Bodies, Christmas Evil, The Burning, Girls Nite Out, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine (both versions), Happy Birthday To Me, Cry_Wolf, Dark Ride, Evil Laugh, Vacancy, Stump the Band, See No Evil, Serial Killing 101, Hatchet, and likely a few more that I can’t recall.

4. Did you consider any other way of doing character creation?

Not really. I’ve always wanted to design a group-based character creation system, so I saw this as my golden opportunity to do it. The character creation system went through some changes, but the overall format stayed the same throughout.

5. What made you decide on using a dice pool system?

When I design a new system, the first thing I do is sit down with a huge pile of dice and start hashing some rough ideas out. While tinkering around, the dice pool mechanic just kind of happened. It felt right, so I ran with it. I wish I could give you a more technical answer, but that’s the truth.

6. How did you come up with the “kill scene” mechanic?

One the first things I decided was that I wanted to avoid traditional combat, as the slasher films never really had that element when the killer hit the scene. Plus, I sought to devise a system that actually created its own suspense. The idea of obtaining a certain amount of survival points in order to escape a kill scene came to me right off the bat.

7. Do you play any RPGs and have you ever run Slasher Flick for anybody?

I don’t often get the chance to play RPGs. I’m almost always the Game Master for whatever game my group and I want to jump into. Not that I mind.

As for running Slasher Flick, I’ve acted as Director numerous times, especially during our marathon playtest sessions.

Recently, I’ve had a few opportunities to be a player in Slasher Flick, which felt odd (in a good way), because I have never been a player in an RPG that I designed.

8. What advice if any would you give to new players of Slasher Flick?

I would advise them to read the Players chapter of the rulebook. Also, watching a lot of horror movies will help give new players a great working knowledge of the slasher sub-genre.

9. What supplements and other follow-up material do you have planned, if any?

The first mini-supplement is already out. It’s called Deleted Scenes and offers a lot of new options for your games of Slasher Flick. We have an adventure coming out in a few weeks called “Midnite Cinema: Horror Island”. Another planned sourcebook is “Casting Call”, a book that offers dozens of pre-made characters that players or Directors can use without having to go through the character creation process.

10. Is there anything coming up that you would like to promote if you can?

Spectrum Games has a lot of upcoming products.

Wild West Cinema (June/July) is an RPG based on big screen western movies. It’s going to offer a fresh take on the Old West, in terms of RPGs. It’s designed by the talented Dave Bezio.

In late summer, we’re releasing a non-collectible card game called Urban Manhunt that pays homage to films such as The Running Man, The Warriors and Escape From New York.

We have a plethora of supplements coming out for Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2 as well. The most ambitious of these is “After These Messages”, a supplement that really expands the horizons of the game.

Early next year, we will release AfterShock, a card-based skirmish-level miniatures game set in a bleak and desperate post-apocalyptic future.

Please stop by our website at www.spectrum-games.com and discover what we have to offer.

For our first Actual Play we selected Slasher Flick by Cynthia Celeste Miller published by Spectrum Games. See what happens when teenagers find a cool place to have a party but first they have to survive

In this episode we discuss CCG’s. We tried some new programs so the sound should be better. Any feedback is welcome at zerofortitude@gmail.com

This is our first episode and we are trying things out. We introduce ourselves and review Apples to Apples.