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The Saving Throw
Save vs Changes November 1st, 2010
Time may change me, but you can't trace time.

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Hi, Everybody!

I love Jim Butcher's novels for a lot reasons, but mostly it has to do with the pacing and how he manages to have his characters reach unrivaled levels of awesomeness. I have sold more people on Dresden Files with the phrase "zombie T-Rex" than anything else I could say about the series. It also helps that, unlike some other popular fantasy series, there manages to be a new entry every year. That said, I am going to say a great deal about Evil Hat's tabletop adaptation of the franchise; a game that took 5 years to create and has proven to be well worth the wait. Check out my reviews for the two books that comprise the game as well as a pile of news, the featured link, and a state of the column at the end.

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

Review: Dresden Files Volume 1: Your Story

Review: Dresden Files Volume 2: Our World
News Briefs

If my two thousand words on Dresden files wasn't enough for you the Atomic Array podcast interviewed Lenny Balsera (Lead System Developer), Fred Hicks (Publisher), Ryan Macklin (Lead Project Developer), Chad Underkoffler (Lead Setting Developer), Amanda Valentine (Managing Editor), Clark Valentine (Author) and the man himself Jim Butcher. You can check out both part 1 and part 2 on their website. Fred and Chad also put in an appearance on the Vigilance Press show over here.

ICv2 has released the top-selling RPGs for the third quarter here. The list looks remarkable like the Q2 top 5, save that Rogue Trader has bumped Shadowrun and Pathfinder is now tied with D&D. As for the fact that Dresden Files is sitting in fifth, well I'll let Fred Hick's twitter response speak for that: "This year Evil Hat has been called indie, not indie, the new White Wolf, and a harbinger of doom for the industry. Good year."

If you missed out on the Grand Masquerade, you can listen to a bunch of White Wolf staffer recap it over on this blogcast episode.

In an interview with Advertising Age, Paul Gitter, President of Consumer Products for Marvel in the context of Marvel building up to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, via Thor, Captain America and a world of licensed products including "A full line of action figures, vehicles and role-playing items from toy maker Hasbro." If you didn't know, Hasbro owns the Wizards of the Coast. With the way WOTC used the 4e ruleset to create the new Gamma World game, I could see that transitioning {minus the collectable cards for powers aspect) to a supers game fairly well.

Speaking of future products from WOTC, Kyle Sylvester posted two images from an upcoming product. I have no idea what it could be for, but they do look spiffy. Check it out here. More officially, WOTC announced that in February 2011 they'll release Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell a new Essentials supplement that includes rules updates for the original PHB classes as well as new feats, rituals and rules for multiclassing. They've also announced a partnership with Angry Alien Production, makers of 30-second Bunnies, to do something that's not fully detailed yet but probably involves short cartoons on the internet.

I didn't even know Chaosium was still in business until I found out that they were releasing a new far future science-fantasy source book for Basic Roleplay. Get all the details here.

After many years of waiting Catalyst Game Labs has finally announced that they've set up pre-orders for their version of the BattleTech RPG, which they are titling BattleTech: A Time of War. The minis game is a good way to pass an afternoon, but being able to bring character and narrative into big stompy robots just makes me all tingly in my gamer place. The game comes in both regular and super special awesome editions and promises to be out before Christmas. Get the full story right here.

Paizo has named Pathfinder Society Regional Coordinators for the following areas: Los Angeles, San Diego, Tampa, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Detroit, New York, Cincinnati, Seattle, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK. These people will "serve as local organizers and points of contact for members of the Pathfinder Society, the organized play arm for the award-winning Pathfinder Roleplaying Game." If you want to see one for your area just send an email to Pathfinder Society, for more information on the society in general check out their website.

In other Pathfinder News, Open Design is creating a Pathfinder-compatible anthology set in Freeport. Link for all the gory details.

A new company called Zakelro Story Studios, just put up the website for their upcoming free RPG, the HoneyComb Engine. Which promises to have simple rules, narrative control mechanics, and the rules laid out as a comic book rather than text. Take look over here

And to finish up on something that's just cool, the boys of Penny Arcade wrote a metal ballad based on Warmachine then put it up on the Rock Band Network, with all proceeds going to Child's Play. Go here to give it a listen.

Featured Link

The Dead Gentlemen are a team of indie filmmakers that make very cool fun movies, like Gamers, Gamers: The Dorkness Rising, and Demon Hunters (which got its own RPG), not only have started posting their older stuff on their website, but also a new web series called JourneyQuest, which has the same sort feel as the Gamers films but without the around the table sections. I've been loving this new series, it's the most hilarious thing to hit the internet since Dragon Ball Z: Abridged.



Outro

Some people believe in a mythical Game Master that can circumvent any problems that a game has to offer. Some say that such a GM does not exist, but I say nay, they are real but do you know the skill they use to achieve this power? Convincing their players to only play games that don't give the GM too many problems.

But enough of me philosophizing and down to brass tacks, this iteration of the column is called save vs changes not for the latest Dresden novel, but because the format of the column is going to change. For starters it's not going to be a column, you'll see me post news more or less as it happens it a format similar to the video game news, reviews and features will go up when they're done and I'll do a game designer interview round up at the end of the month and all of it will be archived in the saving throw archive, which means you might see that page updated more than once a month.


Scott Wachter, proprietor of the Chartreuse Hamster Inn.



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