Free Pizza at Leprecon!

Thanks to Tygerkrash for pointing this out…

A recent post on the Leprecon blog has revealed that there will be free pizza for guests thanks to Just-Eat.ie

This is absolutely awesome and should be encouraged! Sponsorship of this kind is exactly what games conventions in Ireland need. Hmm – they cover my area too… I think I’m going to have to start using Just-Eat.ie

Fate/40,000

In September 2008 there was a rush of content on a certain Irish Gamer’s LJ that many of us thought could be the birth of a book online… Shane Carr was pouring out a huge flow of Science Fantasy in a series of chapters he entitled “Fate/40,000″. This is an unfinished piece of work that may some day (given enough pressure) be completed. Several chapters are linked below Read on and judge the quality for yourself!

Fate/40,000: Prelude
Fate/40,000: The opening move
Fate/40,000: The magic number
Fate/40,000: The board is set
Fate/40,000: A flow of bodies
Fate/40,000: Secrets and Sins
Fate/40,000: Dark Alleyways
Fate/40,000: Unexpected
Fate/40,000: Circles
Fate/40,000: Interference
Fate/40,000: Revelations in steel

The Adventuring Party – Podcasts

I found an interesting series of podcasts over here http://www.theadventuringparty.net/ about gaming and the Irish Gaming scene… Will be syndicating on the right if / when I get the ok! I especially like the “Downtime” podcast about Character creation…

[edit 10th March 2009 : Updatd the link to http://www.theadventuringparty.net/]

Green Ronin “Winter is coming”! A Song of Ice & Fire has gone to print!

Two years ago, after the demise of Guardians of Order, George R.R. Martin made the exciting announcement that Green Ronin would be publishing his new “A Song of Ice and Fire” RPG…

Now, finally, after a long wait, Green Ronin have announced that “A Song of Ice and Fire” has gone to print!

(Ed – Opinion: Woo-Hoo! I can’t wait… I already have a lovely shiney special edition of the d20 / tri-stat “Game of Thrones” RPG from Guardians of Order but I’m keen to see what Green Ronin do with the setting as I think they do a great job with dark settings. The quick start rules which have been available for a while look pretty good!)

Poison and Remedy

If you know anything about Magic: the Gathering (MtG) then you know there are several ways to win the game.

Over the game’s 15 year history, more and more cards have been printed that say something like, “If you control 1, 2 and 3 and an X, Y and a Z you win the game.” As a result, there are now all sorts of conditional winning effects.  Wizards of the Coast (WotC) even expanded the rules to use conditional effects for not losing the game.  Platinum Angel is a prime example, the card text of which says, “You can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game.” To avoid the obvious confusion when effects interact or contradict with one another and occur simultaneously, there’s a primary rule in the game which states that: “102.3e If a player would both win and lose simultaneously, he or she loses.”  That such a rule is necessary is a sign of how crazy things became.

Streaming CONFESS Live on Qik

I was going to be streaming some of CONFESS live on Qik this weekend… I still plan to; assuming that the service comes back up (otherwise I’ll just have to make do with recording on the N95 and posting up here later)…

I was inspired to this by Omegar’s post about using technology in our games; why not use more technology in ourr gaming community? We’re a pretty tech savvy bunch (gamers in general I mean) and we do a load of stuff online (as proven by this blog and the tons of other gamer blogs) so why not give people who can’t make it a chance to watch what we’re doing at cons and laugh at us (comments and live chat on Qik are pretty cool!).

So – I’ll be editing this post as the weekend goes on with links and (hopefully) embeded video from CONFESS all thanks to Qik. For those of you who won’t be at CONFESS – watch the video and come next year!

Breaking News – MTG PTQ Kyoto will be at Gaelcon!

Small details have yet to be decided but the Gaelcon Con-Director (Hugh Lardner) confirmed today that Martin Kenny of Models Inc in Dublin has organised this year’s PTQ to run at Gaelcon.

That’s pretty good news for the card gamers who go to Gaelcon and great news for the Gaelcon Committee. Last year saw a resurgence of CCGs at the IGA’s annual convention but this will hopefully give the Con a boost and get the “Card Flopper” numbers right back up there!

While Hugh Lardner doesn’t “do quotes”, he has gone on the record as saying he’s very excited about this and more than happy to accomodate the hordes of Magic players who will be beating down the castle doors!

For more information see www.wizards.com (particularly helpful page here).

“World’s Largest Wargaming Table”

Whenever I see the words “World’s Largest” used about anything, outside the Guinness Book of Records, I start thinking of ways to find / make one bigger! Accordingly this post from Ethan Ham on Tim Hutchings’ art installation “The World’s Largest Wargaming Table” got me thinking…

Surely, with all the people who go to Irish Conventions and the amount of major gamer activity we have in this country, we can do something like this (but bigger and better). We would need a delegate or independent viewer from Guinness World Records there to verify it of course but we should be able to do it! Even if it was just for an hour or so at next year’s Gaelcon, CONFESS, Warpcon, Itzacon, Leprecon or any con where there is enough hall space and enough tables!

It could be a group effort with Irish Gamers from round the country bringing a part of the terrain and assembling it in situ… We’d need someone to co-ordinate and make sure the terrain was all suitable and everyone knew where their peice was intended to go etc but it wouldn’t really be all that much work…

Oh – and obviously we’d need someone to come up with a game to play (so it won’t just be sitting there useless *grin*)

Anyone interested..? I’m going to start plotting right away! I know some pretty cool terrain crafters round the country!

[Ed: Thanks to Tygerkrash for sending me the original link from BoingBoing]

Confess 2008 is just around the corner!

Jonny M. Confess 2008 Con Director

Time for a bit of con-promotion (hopefully we’ll be doing that more often now – all I need is to start tracking down Con-Directors around the country – or if any of you want to do an interview and email it to me that would be great!).

Jonathan McGowan (Confess 2008 con-director) has kindly done a quick interview with me online (he was way too hard to pin down in person). Many of you will know him from cons around the country and some of you may remember him as the “First General – Coffee Boy” from the first Flat Earth Soc games day over four years ago now! For those of you who don’t know him, make time to talk to him at CONFESS this year (we all know Con-Directors have nothing better to do!) I promise he rarely bites!

Now, as a warm up, let’s look at the con-director’s blurb from the website and all remember to eat, even at conventions!

More D&D 4E Gossip

I have not got round to checking out 4th Ed yet… I am practically foaming at the mouth with enthusiasm but again and again I’m coming across little items online that really, really worry me! Greywulf says here that it’s as if “they’ve stolen our first three levels to get to that much-vaunted ’sweet spot’ right from the start” and that there’s no sign of “starting heroes with single-figure Hit Points and their father’s rusty sword”. That would be a real shame! I have always loved the “starting mook” feel of D&D and AD&D. You are the cowering kid hiding behind the bar for your first few fights (if you’re a mage) or a bravo who has more guts than go if you’re a fighter… You don’t start off with butt kicking abilities, you start off just learning the ropes and survival is a struggle! People who don’t want to go through that have always been able to accelerate and bump their starting characters a level or two in character generation (DM approving of course).

That said – even as starting mooks with little or no oomph you’re still harder than the average group of city watchmen (NPC: soldier – 1HD Thac0 20, AC 9 or to modernise a bit 1st level soldier CR2) who have on average 4HP and can just about beat up a dock worker. That brings me to another point that terrifies me however – the idea of scaling the NPCs so that the same NPCs get harder as the players progress… Why would you want to do that? (I’ve heard speculation but have no basis to assume this is in 4E – I’ll just keep hoping it is not until I get myself a copy!)