Greetings!
I’m back from GenCon, and as always, it was a fun and exciting show. I wound up talking with various gaming media outlets several times during the show, so keep your eyes peeled—you can probably find me talking about Dark Sun or Gamma World in various podcasts and interviews around the Internet. The Dark Sun launch seemed to go very well, and people raved about the new books to me on numerous occasions (always a relief, you hope you haven’t screwed it up!) I saw a lot of interesting boardgames and a couple of RPGs caught my eye, but I was very conservative in my spending this year. I liked what I saw of the new Civilzation by Fantasy Flight, but I think I’m holding out for the upcoming Civ 5 release in a few weeks for my Civilization fix. I also had a great chance to chat with a couple of dedicated War at Sea fans, which is always fun. I can talk naval gaming for days!
Anyway, on to Gamma World, and then some discussion of War at Sea V and the units you’ll see in it.
Gamma World
My next bit of handiwork to hit the shelves is the Dungeons & Dragons Gamma World Roleplaying Game, which should be out in October. We’ve been showing off our new take on this classic RPG setting for several months, and I have to admit I’ve been surprised by the number of people who are delighted to see its return. Bruce Cordell (my co-author) and I remembered the game fondly ourselves. Applying some bold new design “tech” to an old classic was a ton of work, but at the end of the day I think we managed to do something special. The office games that are currently running seem to think so, anyway.
I’m very proud of the character chassis that Bruce and I came up with; basically, each character consists of two mutation themes, which you can choose or roll randomly. (Real men roll their mutations randomly, of course.) Each theme is a 10-level “half-class” that provides a couple of features, plus three powers (your novice, utility, and expert power). So at 1st level you have the features of both themes, and the novice powers of both themes. At 3rd level you gain the utility power of your first theme. At 5th level you gain the expert power of your first theme, at 7th level you gain the utility power of your second theme, and at 9th level you get the expert power of your second theme. If you’re an electrokinetic cockroach, you decide whether “electrokinetic” or “cockroach” is more important to your character concept, but eventually you’ll get the full set of powers for both. You gain a few other special benefits as you level up, but I’m going to save those for later—I don’t want to say too much right now! Anyway, you can produce your character completely through random rolls if you want, and it won’t take you much more than 15 or 20 minutes. Which is good, because Terra Gamma can be deadly!
Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures
Time for a War at Sea update. I had a chance to talk War at Sea with several of our devoted fans at GenCon, and it was really great to see the enthusiasm the game still generates. Of course, I shared a few tidbits of information about what’s coming next. We’re on target for a December release of Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures V, as in “V for victory” or just set 5. This makes two AANM sets in 2010, which is very exciting stuff. I’m starting to see a handful of final units crossing my desk as we’re moving into our collation checks. Mons Johnson, who’s doing the checks, says this is the best-looking AANM set so far. Some of the Set V units I mentioned at the show include the Sovyetskiy Soyuz, the Kaga, the Chitose, the Atlantis, the Il-2 Sturmovik, the Blyskawica, a Baltimore-class cruiser, and a pre-Fletcher US destroyer. Now that I’ve had a chance to look over my set list again, I’ll go ahead and add some clarification. The Baltimore-class is USS Quincy (CA 71), and the older US destroyer is USS Bagley (DD 386).
Overall, set V has a strong Baltic theme, with a lot of love for the Russians and the first appearance of the Poles as a navy. Sovyetskiy Soyuz is something of a hypothetical unit, in that it was never finished and didn’t see any action. The hull was about 75% complete when work was stopped late in 1940; she was likely a couple of years from completion in the best of circumstances. If Sovyetskiy Soyuz had been finished, she would have been a 70,000-ton behemoth comparable to Yamato, Montana, or the German H.39 design. Her appearance in AANM provides the Russians with a first-rate battleship that can take a ton of punishment, but doesn’t have quite the firepower it should. The Sturmovik gives the Russians a good attack plane noted for using skip-bombing tactics against naval targets, much like the B-25s in the South Pacific. For the Japanese, Kaga is one more piece of progress toward finishing the Kido Butai, the First Air Fleet of the Imperial Navy. Chitose represents the first appearance of a seaplane tender; it’s a beautiful model, and it has some very interesting mechanics with inherent air squadrons. The German Atlantis is also a new type of unit—a disguised commerce raider with some unique mechanics that let her skulk around the edges of the battle without being caught. The model also stands in for a German merchant ship if you want one for a scenario.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
One of the real shames of the I-pod age is that no one listens to albums anymore—not just vinyl, of course, but CDs of whole albums. The other day at random I grabbed a CD off my shelf and popped it into my player. It was Making Movies, by Dire Straits. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s an amazingly good album. Dire Straits is sort of a forgotten band these days; the classic rock stations play “Sultans of Swing” or “Money for Nothing” every now and then, and that’s about it. But there was a time when these guys were really at the top of their craft, and they were darned good. Making Movies was their third album, released in 1980. A lot of studio albums feature one or two very good songs, a couple of so-so tunes, and some filler. I can’t think of another album that strings together four top-notch tracks all in a row the way Making Movies does. “Tunnel of Love,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Skateaway,” and “Expresso Love” are all just outstanding. If you’re a classic rock buff and you haven’t given Dire Straits a look in a long time, I heartily recommend Making Movies. It’s great stuff.
Th-th-th-that's all, folks!
