Chris Snyder, Play Unplugged

The West is a durn dangerous place; some folks, like them down at the Tombstone Epitaph, have even takin’ to callin’ it the Weird West. Bloodthirsty outlaws terrorize law-abidin’ citizens; Indians raid those foolish enough to settle too close to their lands; soldiers from both sides continue to fight that damned war; and them’s only the natural ways to get yourself killed. Now them fools down at the Epitaph have went and written some “guide” to the some of the West’s strangest towns. One of these days, them folks is gonna stir up some real trouble. Anyhow, I’d ride clear of them towns and just mind your own business. Get me there, pardner?

Yeah, OK, enough of that.

Ghost Towns is a recent addition to Pinnacle Entertainment’s Deadlands game line with the purpose of detailing seven towns from around the Weird West. And, in brief, it certainly lives up to the standards of quality that I’ve come to expect from Pinnacle over the years. See, I saved you some time there: you can just stop reading and go pick it up.

Deadlands: Ghost Towns

What, you want to know more? OK….

Layout

The book comes in at 126 pages in the 6.5” x 9” format and is broken down into 3 main sections: An Epitaph Special Report, the Marshal’s Section, and the Encounters.

The Epitaph Special report, written in the same familiar tone as other such sections found in earlier Pinnacle works, speaks to both the Marshal and the players. Each 3-5 page blurb describes the highlights of a particular town from the view of an investigative reporter, introducing major characters, locations, and possible plot lines.

The second section, the Marshal’s section, goes into much more detail on each of the locales. Usually between 8-12 pages, each entry starts with a brief history of the town before delving into a detailed description of the local personalities and important locations. Finally, each town description ends with a few roughed out scenarios for the Marshal to torture, err, excite the players with.

The third section, Encounters, simply describes the stat-blocks for those critters or locals that can’t be summed up with a reference back to the Deadlands or Savage Worlds main books.

Finally, nestled in between the Marshal’s section and the Encounters section is a random locale generator. I know a lot of you folks out there on the inter-tubes don’t like tables, but these work very well to spark the imagination. I tried it out a couple of times for my retro Deadlands game (or should I call that ODL?) and quickly came up with a few small towns that I’m sure my players would just loooove.

Quality

The book is printed on quality paper and features full-color art throughout. While I’m certainly no art expert, it all looks great to me. The writing in both the Marshal’s and Encounters section is simple and straightforward, making the book a pleasure to read even if you aren’t planning on running the game.

Oh yeah, and it has an index! Woohoo!

The Breakdown

Positives

+ Entries are concise
+ Locale generator is very in depth and full of great ideas
+ Fits the tone of the established Deadlands universe

Negatives

- Entries are not referenced by page number between the Epitaph Special Report and Marshal’s Sections

All-in-all, Ghost Towns is an excellent addition to the Deadlands line and should appeal to anyone serving as Marshal, fans and collectors of the game, or just folks who want ideas about things to add to their own games.

So, the next time you’re in your friendly local gaming store, swing by the Deadlands section (it does have one, doesn’t it?), and check out Ghost Town.

And don’t forget to Play Unplugged!

(Look, it’s late, OK? Sorry I couldn’t come up with some cutesy way to push the name of the site. I’ll try to do better next time and you folks will just have to come back to see what I did!)

Deadlands: Ghost Towns was provided to us by our sponsor Noble Knight Games. You can purchase this product at a discount by clicking on this link! You can also browse their vast selection of games by clicking on their banner located to the right of this article.

Enrico Nardini & Andrew Lotz, Play Unplugged

This post marks both Play Unplugged‘s 500th piece of gaming content and our 100th episode of Play Unplugged TV! How awesome is that?!?! Well, we have just the video for such a special occasion. Origins Game Fair 2013 featured many fantastic artists working in the industry. Play Unplugged’s Andrew Lotz got to take a few minutes to speak with one who can truly be called an industry icon: Larry Elmore. Larry Elmore’s vision forms the basis for the way in which many fantasy gamers picture their worlds. In this interview he discusses his recent and future Kickstarter projects, as well as what it is like to work in the fantasy game industry as an artist.

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged

Who doesn’t want something for nothing? Free RPG Day is one of those great new traditions that shows us how much the industry and our friendly local game stores want our business and want to support a community of gamers. Check out the schwag Enrico was most excited about. Do you agree? Did you like something else? Tell him in the comments!

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged

Play Unplugged‘s intrepid adventurer can’t be held back by a little surgery. Enrico is back, and he had better remember his pith helmet, as he is set to explore the mysterious continent of Kumanjaro. Why? Well, to bring us the scoop on what’s inside Mage Wars: Conquest of Kumanjaro of course! Wait… Did you just hear something in the brush over there?!?!

Conquest of Kumanjaro

Enrico Nardini & Andrew Lotz, Play Unplugged

Play Unplugged‘s Origins 2013 coverage starts with a journey full of magic, mystery, and wonder… Arcane Wonders that is! Andrew Lotz vists the Mage Wars team (Mage Wars is one of our awesome sponsors; click their banner to find out more!) and interviews Bryan Pope and Micheal Mirth about the current state of the game, their newest expansion Conquest of Kumanjaro, and what is in store for Mage Wars fans in the future.

Monson “Tony” Borzok, Play Unplugged

The saying goes, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” But, what happens when they are one in the same? This is the case in Smirk & Dagger’s Cutthroat Caverns. Cutthroat Caverns is a card game that is part dungeon crawl, part cooperative game, gamble, and all fun. The game balances some intricate but quick–to-pick-up game play with old fashion conniving and treachery. Players take part in a classic adventuring party crawling through a dungeon, but are the heroes out to save the world or rescue the princess? No, they are after the biggest shiniest treasure of all and just like Highlander, there can be only one.

Now, while the players are ultimately after the final prize for themselves the dungeon is full of dangerous creatures and traps. So if the party goes all Ayn Rand and begins fighting just for themselves, the dungeon will devour everyone and the game wins. The only way for anyone to win is to work together, in an uneasy alliance waiting for the chance to strike. The goal is to gain the most prestige, and that player wins the game. There are several ways of gaining prestige, like giving another player your healing potions hopefully for a favor in return, but the main way is by landing the killing blow on a monster. Now while it might sound like a good strategy to hold back until you can finish the monster in one shot, if everyone in the party holds back, the monster wins. There lies the conundrum. What makes this game unique is deciding when to let loose on an encounter and when to hold back.

Cuttroat Caverns

Before we get too far into the game play let’s take a look of what makes up Cutthroat Caverns. The game does not lack for components. There is a life tracker for the current monster, that also displays the current encounter number for the game. There are the character cards with life trackers and the game provides glass beads to track the players and the creature’s life. Amongst the goodies are several punch counters for the various monsters, and my personal favorite, a heads and tails coin. It’s the 21st century after all, who actually has spare change to resolve coin effects. Since there are coin flips in the game, it is a nice touch that a coin token is included. Rounding out the components are two decks a small communal deck for the players and a large encounter deck that provide rules for the monsters and traps.

I will say that the character sheets and the large encounter deck feel a little thin compared to most card stock, but they will hold up to normal game use. Just make sure no one takes out their frustration on the cards once they are double-crossed. Other than that the rest of the components are of good quality. One cool feature is that the artist’s name is clearly visible for each of the monsters in the game. Several artists worked on the creatures and they each added their own style. While some may find it annoying that the art is not uniform, I liked the fact that there are several styles to look at throughout the course of the game.

Cutthroat Components

The game begins by dealing nine cards from the face down event deck. These nine cards are flipped over one at time and represent the nine encounters of the dungeon. The monsters revealed are obstacles to overcome but also a resource for prestige that characters must combat —not only to survive but also to win the game. Each encounter randomly drawn cards determine initiative. The rounds keep going until the encounter is defeated or the players are wiped out. The monsters themselves usually attack a set initiative number but some attack multiple players and there are often nasty side effects like discarding cards. Some monsters throw out minions to every player for a side mini encounter and some even add more encounters to the game. While the monsters are the focus, there are a few traps in the encounter deck to spice things. My favorite is one that makes everyone shuffle their hands together and then make a grid of cards to play a game of Memory. As the game progresses, the later encounters have, a decent boost to the prestige awarded. which means you only have to survive to the end to have a chance at winning. Your chances of survival can be greatly increased if an alliance is formed to take down the current front-runner.

To defeat the obstacles and get the upper hand on each other, players are armed with three types of cards. The first are item cards mostly potions that are set next to a character as soon as they are drawn. The potions fill the classic potion roles of healing and giving strength buffs. Be careful not to sit on your potions to long as a sneaky player can steal un-drank potions.

The second type is used to damage monsters. Players must choose which attack to use and then they are all revealed simultaneously, so if you have a lower initiative you can’t adjust to what others have played already. Attack cards have different damage values printed on each side of the card and add a unique twist on the game. When they are played the top damage value is used then throughout the round different cards or monsters can rotate the card to cause more or less damage. Some attack cards have a portrait of a character that allows a player using that character to play the normal damage or the extra damage for that character.

It is the third type of card that I think are the most fun. These are the action cards and they cause players to affect each other. Now there is no direct damage between players, but action cards can cause a killing blow to harmlessly whiff or for that flaming arrow with your name on it… well your “friend” just stumbled in front of you and took the hit. The action cards add the spice to Cutthroat Caverns allowing players to take advantage and keeping everyone on their toes trying to decide who actually has the upper hand.

The Breakdown

Positives

+ Good variety in the encounters, this can be played many times without getting stale
+ Mix of co-op and competitive lets you tap into your devious side
+ Lots of twists and turns in the game keeps everyone engaged every round

Negatives

- Some of the playing pieces are a little flimsy.
- Hour and a half playtime may be longer than people may want to invest in the game.

At $34.95 Cutthroat Caverns is at the upper price range for a beer & pretzels casual card game, but the money is well spent. Due to the nature of the backstabbing, the game will play differently each time, and there are enough encounter cards to keep the game from feeling routine. Cutthroat Caverns fits a niche between dungeon crawls, cooperative games, and the everyone-for-themselves aspect of a competitive CCG. So if you are looking for a new game and want an excuse to turn on your friends check Cutthroat Caverns out.

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged

Grab your pick or shovel Play Unplugged fans! It’s time to strike it rich! In this episode, the intrepid Enrico grabs his spelunking gear and digs in to Gold Mine: A Game of Exploration, Riches, & Peril from Stratus Games.

Gold Mine

This product comes from our sponsor Noble Knight Games. You can purchase Gold Mine from Noble Knight Games by clicking on this link! Or browse the rest of their selection by clicking on their banner!

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged

Play Unplugged’s unboxings keep on rolling! In this episode Enrico throws a C-block on Impact City Roller Derby from Impact! Miniatures. It’s time to slap on the skates you Jammers and Blockers!

Impact City Roller Derby

This product comes from our sponsor Noble Knight Games. You can purchase Impact City Roller Derby from Noble Knight Games by clicking on this link! Or browse the rest of their selection by clicking on their banner!

Andy Hopp

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged, 6/11/13

Andy Hopp is the dementalist, danged wrangler, and hocus poker when it comes to all things Low Life: The Rise of the Lowly, the weird, whimsical, and wonderful (as well as other adjectives beginning with “w”) roleplaying game he has created for use in conjunction with the Savage Worlds rules. I cornered Andy smack dab in the middle of a Kickstarter for a new edition of Low-life in the hopes of learning more about this latest project.

Enrico Nardini (EN): First and foremost, why a new edition of Low Life? How does this new edition improve on the previous?

Andy Hopp (AH): That’s an extremely intelligent and handsome question, Enrico. It has been seven years since the original Low Life book was released. I feel my skills as a writer and illustrator have expanded considerably since that time, as has my vision for the lands and denizens of Mutha Oith.

The newly redredged edition of Low Life: The Rise of the Lowly contains all new art (in color!), all new writing, new rules, new magic, new items, new monsters, new arcane backgrounds, new adventures, rules for using Low Life miniatures in your game (for normal RPG play, skirmish fights, and large scale battles), LARP rules (for Playing Dirty, the Low Life Live Action RPG) and new everything else. The original book isn’t obsolete, it’s just getting a facelift and packing on a few pounds.

EN: You now have numerous successful Kickstarter projects under your belt. How has Kickstarter changed how you do business?

AH: Thanks to the generosity and support of my friends and backers I am now able to produce my games and products independently, without having to depend on another publisher. I’m able to focus on Low Life and my other projects full time, while in the past most of my time was spent doing freelance work for other people (Although I still do freelance work, in case anyone in interesting). I never had the startup capital to get my own publishing company going in the past. Now I do, thanks to all the wonderfully supportive peeps out there.

The way I look at it, when people back a project on Kickstarter they are basically preordering the product (and usually nabbing some sweet rewards as well). It lets me gauge how many to have printed and also helps build buzz before the actual release. It’s a good thing.

Low Life – The Rise of The Lowly

EN: How about the creative process? Does it have any effect on that?

AH: In many ways it does and in many other ways it does not. Yes and no. No and yes. Maybe. A little bit. In a manner of speaking. Possibly a bit.

What it does is it allows me to get feedback from my friends and fans before I actually print anything. This is very helpful. I also get a lot of great ideas just from talking with the backers and the peeps who visit the forums at Mutha Oith Creations. They offer some great tips and a lot of the names of peeps and critters come from them.

EN: What do you like most about Kickstarter?

AH: Well, bluntly, it gives me money so I can continue to do the things that make me happy. Without it I have no idea how I would even attempt to fund these projects.

The other thing, and really the most exciting to me, is the incredible sense of community it creates. I have made dozens of new friends, either by backing other projects or having them back mine. My circle of Oithlings (Low Life fans) is growing every day and that’s in thanks largely to the word of mouth spread by my backers and friends.

Just some of the sights you can expect to see, if you decide to adventure in the world of Low Life!

EN: What has been your greatest challenge using Kickstarter?

AH: It’s exhilarating, but it can also be extremely stressful. When someone pledges a large amount, it’s awesome. But then a few days later someone might cancel their pledge, which is a bummer. Of course I understand everyone has a budget to work within, but I’d hope they would consider that before pledging $700 and then cancelling it later on.

EN: Why Savage Worlds? What attracted you to the system?

AH: Low Life was originally made as an official Savage Setting for the Savage Worlds game. In that sense, Shane Hensley (Savage Worlds creator) came to me and asked me to make a setting for him, so it was Savage Worlds be default. I’m very fond of the system and I think it works very well. It’s easy to write for and very versatile.

As Stretch Goals in the current Kickstarter campaign, we are hoping to nab Pathfinder and Fate Core versions as well. The way the books are formatted makes conversion very easy, since all the rules are confined to the appendices.

EN: What excites you most about the world of Low Life?

AH: It’s completely different from any other setting I’ve ever seen, but what I dig most is the fact that everything in the world is completely ridiculous. The thing is, though, the peeps don’t know they’re ridiculous. To them, this is how the world is supposed to be. It’s all about attitude and perspective. The toilet jokes aren’t funny because they’re toilet jokes. They’re funny because of the context. Everything serves the narrative, even the absurdity.

EN: In a previous interview you said that if you could be any creature from Low Life, you would be a werm. Is that still the case, or have you changed your mind?

AH: Well, I think maybe I said I liked werms because they are the easiest to draw. My favorite character species is probably the tizn’t, which are badly cobbled amalgamations of extinct animals. They are a challenge to draw, since they have to actually look like animals people are already familiar with, but they are a blast to play and they’re very quirky.

EN: What Low Life creature would you least like to meet in a dark alley?

AH: There are a buttload of new beasties introduced in the new book. The dreaded squiggly mass is probably the most horrific. There’s a creature known as Zonkle who is introduced in The Whole Hole, he’s pretty terrifying too.

Squiggly Mass

EN: Do you have any advice for other aspiring artists and creatives?

AH: Probably nothing they’ve never heard before, but I’ll give it a shot. Do your thing and keep doing it. The more you do it the easier it will become and the better you’ll get at it. Don’t limit yourself by the bounds of somebody else’s imagination. Be into what you’re into and don’t apologize for it (unless you’re a pedophile or a serial killer or someone who really digs having stinky feet).

EN: PLUG YOUR STUFF!!!

AH: We have some really fantastic pledge rewards and Stretch Goals happening right now in the newly redredged Low Life: The Rise of the Lowly core rulebook kickstarter. The Dementalism card game is tons of fun and will be in stores in October. The Whole Hole is a thing. Low Life miniatures! Art! Other Stuff! You can nab it all at Mutha Oith Creations.

Also, come see me in the art show at Origins and Gen Con this year. Get your shiny wazoo to Con on the Cob!

Please, please, please check out the kickstarter. There really is some fantastic jazz waiting for you there.

EN: Thank you for spending some time with us!

AH: The pleasure, I assure you, was mine.

Mike Eaton, Play Unplugged

Modern Masters is happening. But it’s expensive and highly competitive. Although if you can get into an event that you think is worth it, drafting around Boros Giants will be awesome, I’m sure.

But here on the janky, once-a-week end of Magic, I’d like to focus on the heart of a different matter; the essence of the upcoming Core Set, if you will. And a topic that is dear to me, having started playing in 1997, with a little (big) set called Tempest.

Today is for Slivers.

The sliver triple threat!

Here’s the funny story: When I started, there were plenty of things that compounded to draw me into this game. Slivers weren’t really one of them. In fact, I found them to be needlessly complicated. Remember, this was back then; I learned to love them within a year.

But when the Wizards of the Coast tell us that beginners don’t like “downside mechanics,” I get that. I certainly didn’t want to build a deck with my favorite Slivers, only to have my opponent leech off my best stuff! Experienced players realize, though, that you’re only looking at half the equation. Unless your opponent is running an all-Changeling deck, any Slivers on the other side are certainly contributing to your success, too, right? A few removal spells, picking off the problems, and you can keep the overall tide on your side.

I’m talking about this because there’s been a considerable amount of harumphing (this link is PG, folks) about the Slivers that are coming in Magic 2014 Core Set. One point of contention is that, for the first time ever, Slivers are one-sided; that is, they grant abilities only to your own Sliver army. This is . . . this is just . . .

Stop being different!

Different!

Think of it this way, though: Does Magic 2014 Core Set take place on Rath, the setting of Tempest? Nope. Does it take place on Dominaria, Magic’s main plane and the setting of Legions, the second Sliver set? Probably not. Core Set settings are kind of universal, and aren’t easily boxed into a particular time or place. Slivers can evolve differently on different worlds, like any other creature. Some vampires fly, and some don’t; does that mean one style is right, while the other is an abomination?

But Slivers aren’t just new mechanically; the art on these new creatures makes them look less globular than they have in the past. They look far closer to humanoid. In some cases, the Internet is still seeing them like a Rorschach test, though, because you’ll hear comments like, “This is such a ripoff of [some video game that I'm sure is very good].” My question to the Internet at large is, do you think Magic art design spent hours and hours coming up with a new, interesting look for a beloved creature type, and then just said, “Forget that! What other thing do people like? Let’s just riff on it.” Coincidences happen, even when they’re worth pointing out, but I think the folks behind this game have done too much to earn our respect just to write them off like that.

A new (and more humanoid) sliver.

I think the new Sliver decks are going to be really fun. I think tribal decks are great for new and old players. Standard decklists are always in danger of becoming piles of junk (in the original sense of the term — cards with no synergy that are all just powerful and slapped together into a deck). It will just be nice to see a coherent and flavorful deck put together. As much as I love to pair Falkenrath Aristocrat with Silverblade Paladin to deal eight (billion) damage, a small part of my brain (not the part that ever wins) shouts, They do not like each other. She will devour him.

I mean, I guess maybe that’s cool, too. But some decks feel like they were just meant to be have a certain appeal, and Slivers absolutely still get that.

In any case, I, for one, welcome our new Sliver overlords (No, it’s not being reprinted). I don’t think one-siding their abilities takes away from their core identity as a team that plays together and stays together. I don’t think specifying their art to look vaguely like the Xenomorphs in Alien 3 suddenly crushes the flavor out of them. They’re Slivers; they’re icons. And sometimes, they’re going to be what they want to be, on their own time.

This is because Slivers, like so many of the rest of us, like to shake their limitations and Play Unplugged.