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The Saving Throw
Save vs Latte October 3rd, 2010
I wish I had me a real job like waiting tables, no more vans and travelling bands, I need something stable. I wish I had me a real job at the diner across the street, where I could meet a late night girl who doesn't eat meat

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Real men fight with dice!

Welcome back, folks.

Last week I went to the most remarkable cafe down in The Annex (AKA hipster-ville) called Snakes and Lattes, a hole in the wall that combines a gaming con's board game library room with a french cafe. Five dollars at the door gives you a pass to play any of the games until closing time. The space is well lit and floor is crowded with nice big tables and cushy chairs, but the first thing you notice and the star of the show is the wall of games. I'm not kidding about it being a wall. Shelves dominate an entire side of the restaurant. The selection of board and card games is amazing; several versions of classics like Risk or Monopoly, euro-games like Settlers of Catann and Puerto Rico, some good nerd-friendly games like Ninja Burger, a whole pile of things I'd never even heard of and a complete set of Fireball Island! There's even one member of the staff whose only job is to help guests pick out what games they want like to try. Speaking of the staff, they're friendly (like honestly friendly, not the fake, smart alec-y friendly that I am when I'm working) and excited to be working with people who love games. They also make a mean roast beef on a baguette. All in all, it's a great idea paired with good atmosphere and I see myself whiling away many afternoons there.

But enough me playing restaurant critic, this time I've got some GMing advice and light load of news.

For a place to game, check our Roleplaying Forum, with lively forum-based gaming, as well as the opportunity to meet up with gamers in your area.



Features

The Elevator Pitch
News Briefs

If you're like me and enjoy a good afternoon with Arkham Horror you might like reading about the origins and history of the game over here on the fantasy flight games site.

Paizo has begun round one of their Ultimate Magic Playtest, an open playtest of the content of the Ultimate Magic sourcebook for Pathfinder, with a look at the Magus, a fighter/mage hybrid base class. Check the link here here.

Speaking of playtests, you can download the beta of the second boxed set of the Dragon Age Roleplaying Game over here.

Another bit of Green Ronin news: if you're a fan of their book and are in Bellevue, Washington on October 3rd you can attend their 10th anniversary party at Dragon's Lair get all the details here.

If you didn't already know, The Escapist does stuff other than host Yahtzee's reviews. Like, say, doing epic-length interview with Mike Mearls about the new Red Box. Read it all at thislink.

One last bit of GenCon news: All Games Considered released their GenCon interviews with Vincent Baker (of Apocalypse World), Margaret Weiss (of Margaret Weiss Productions), Robert Bohl (of Misspent Youth), and Robin D Laws (of Skulduggery and other awesome things). Listen to it here.

Rob from The Bearswarm Podcast sat down with Jared Sorensen for a lengthy fireside chat about games and movies and life and everything. Available in king or fun size.

Lastly, the World of Darkness countdown from last time was for the announcement for the MMO we all knew was happening already. I don't have a link if want more complain to the newsies.

Featured Link

Sometimes there are real life people who you could swear sound exactly like characters from an rpg. There's a whole website for these guys called Badass of the Week. There's a lot of great fodder for gaming in here, but I'm going give special mention to Jack Churchill a Scottish commando who fought WWII with a sword and bagpipes. I swear that man is a character my buddy Dirk made up.



Outro

If any of you commented on this thing I'm sure someone would have eventually asked me why I talk about small press games and indie developers so much in the news? I will tell you why, hypothetical questioner: Munchkin repellent. Every so often you will encounter a fellow gamer who will do nothing but talk about his necromancer's spell list or how mad owning his goliath warlock/monk build is. And after about twelve seconds of this you would rather take this guy's half-minotaur character's +4 flaming burst spiked chain (sized for a huge creature) and jam into an orifice my editor would rather I not mention than listen to his gaming stories for another moment. But because you now have knowledge of odd, obscure games you can counter his ramblings by talking about how you hacked Dogs in the Vineyard to be a Yakuza game or how excited you are with your upcoming Mouse Guard campaign. The munchkin, now confronted with strange, new ideas, will recoil, this gives you the opportunity make your escape.

Hipster beats munchkin, munchkin beats beer and pretzels, beer and pretzels beats hipster.


Scott Wachter, proprietor of the Purple Zombie Inn.



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