Welcome to the first Saving Throw of July, and the opening of the first Hall of Fame Contest. I'm afraid we weren't able to arrange the kind of prize I was hoping for, but you can compete for up to $10 worth of dice from DO or DICE Game Supplies.

The short version is that the contest is based on hall of fame stories with three endings, one of which is the true ending. The other two are false endings designed to deceive you into believing they are the true ending. To participate, you can try to guess the real endings of these stories, earning points for yourself and earning more for everyone else who guesses wrong. That said, the true path to victory in this contest is to submit your own hall of fame entries for it; by fooling other participants with your false endings, you can gain many points very quickly. If you are interested in participating, more details and participation instructions are available on the contest page.

I've made the first submission into the contest, though, of course, as I'm the one hosting the contest, I can earn no points. After all, I have to know the true endings to all the submitted stories anyway. It's a long one this week, and I apologize for that.

Aside from the contest, today's featured story is from Macstorm, one of our editorialists, where he tells of an unusual situation where popcorn saved the day. There's also a fair amount of release information and a lot of news for you, so with that, it's time to move on to the column!

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design has announced the winners of the 32nd Annual Origins Awards for 2005. The 2005 Game of the Year is WARMACHINE: Apotheosis from Privateer Press, LLC. Ravnica: City of Guilds, a Magic: The Gathering expansion, won the award for Collectible Card Game or Expansion of the Year. Artesia RPG, from Archaia Studios Press, won as Role-playing Game of the Year. The choice for Role-playing Game Supplement of the Year was GURPS Infinite Worlds, Fourth Edition.

The Gamer's Choice Awards were given to different games, however. Serenity, from Margaret Weis Productions, was chosen as the Gamer's Choice Best Roleplaying Game of the Year, and Anachronism, from TriKing Games, won as Gamer's Choice Best Collectible Card Game of the Year. Winners in other categories can be found here.

Amazon.com has a listing for Star Wars Role Playing Game Saga Edition scheduled for release on March 20, 2007. An inquiry on the Wizards of the Coast forums has led to confirmation from the moderator that this new product is not a hoax. Little more is known about this new edition at the current time, but the description of the Star Wars Miniatures seminar for Gen Con 2006, quoted below, indicates that more information will be released then.

Want to find out what's coming up for the Star Wars Miniatures Game? Come to this discussion with the Star Wars Miniatures design team and find out the latest information on the starships set, competitive play, the RPG, some surprise announcements, and more.

Coldsnap, the next expansion for Magic: The Gathering, is scheduled for release on July 21. Prerelease events for the expansion are being held this weekend, July 8 and 9. The cost of entry into prerelease tournaments gets participants five Coldsnap booster packs per person for single player fights, seven Coldsnap booster packs per Two-Headed Giant team, and ten booster packs per three-person teams. Prizes include special commerative prerelease cards for each participant while supplies last, additional packs of Coldsnap cards to top players, and possibly other items.

CCG Workshop, the developers and maintainers of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Online, started running a beta test on July 1, 2006. The test is scheduled to run until October 1, 2006; until then, play is free and unlimited. Currently, the Anarchs, Camarilla, and Final Night sets are available online. The Legacies of Blood set is scheduled to be released for online play on July 15, 2006.

Octopi, Inc. is releasing a new online strategy game, PoxNora, on August 1. The game is reported to draw from the best elements from collectible card games, tactical miniatures, and fantasy roleplaying titles. In the games, players collect Runes that allow the summoning of champions, equipment, relics, and spells on the battlefield, where Nora, a vital resource used to summon more runes, is fought over in turn-based combat. Runes gain experience, allowing them to learn or upgrade attributes or abilities. With the basic set, gamers can play the game without cost, but players can get more Runes by buying starter packs or boosters. Starter packs will cost $9.99 and contain 30 random Runes. Boosters will cost $4.99 and have 10 random runes.

The official website for the upcoming animated DragonLance movie went live last week after Lucy Lawless, the voice for the character Goldmoon, informed her fab club about the movie before the official announcement. The website has revealed that a commercial release is planned in August 2007. The movie will be based on the first book in the Chronicles series, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," which is also the title of the movie.

Remember to send in your contest guesses, and even more importantly, your contest entries. That's it for this week; I'm outta here!

Shawn "Yes! Finally!" Bruckner