Gencon in Review

I was treated to a short adventure of my own on my way home from Gencon: my return flight was evidently booked for September 16, instead of August 16.  Of course, with a hundred thousand gamers leaving Indianapolis on Sunday, all of the flights out were fully booked.  Fortunately, a ticketing agent for Continental went beyond the call of duty and managed to get me on a flight out on standby.  I regret to say that I didn’t get his name.  I can only say that I was a bit stressed at the time.  Still, I’m very grateful and will definitely keep Continental in mind for next year.  I’ll also keep a certain ticket-brokering website in mind, in a less favorable light.

Enough about me, though.  I’ve got a couple of impressions about the convention to report about.  Some of them might merit further discussion later on, but best to get the bullet points down now, while it’s fresh.

This post is part of August’s RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by Chgowiz.

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Cryptic Offering Lifetime Subscription to Champions MMO

Cryptic Studios, formerly of City of Heroes, has been working on the Champions MMORPG set for release September 1.

They’re taking a page from Turbine and offering a lifetime subscription for $200.  They’re throwing in extra costumes, an in-game widget, eight extra character slots for alt-aholics like me, and access to the Star Trek Online closed beta later this year, along with the lifetime access.  The only catch:  the offer’s only good until the game launches.

In case you’re wondering, at $15/month, the lifetime subscription pays off in 13 months.  So if you think you’ll like the game enough to be playing it for years, it’s a pretty good deal, even without all the extra goodies.

On the other hand, it’s a lot to fork over for a game sight-unseen.  I played City of Heroes for over two years, and it was pretty fun, and I generally trust Cryptic’s game-development instincts (although I would hope Champions has a stronger endgame than CoH did).  But that’s a lot of trust.

They’re also offering pre-orderers a 6-month subscription for $60, which saves you $30, and also gets you Star Trek beta access and one of the bonus costume sets.  So if you like the idea but you aren’t sure the game’s going to hold your interest, that’s a pretty nice way to go.  Or if you’re interested in both Champions and Star Trek, I guess.

I’m going to need to think this one over.  I like the Champions universe, so it’s a very tempting offer for me, even though I’m mildly disappointed that the game won’t be using the HERO system.  Of course, it couldn’t use HERO fully, but I think HERO’s system of points, advantages, and disadvantages is practically made for an MMO setup, where you gain experience to become more powerful to gain more experience, and so forth.  A streamlined version of HERO might’ve been fun to see.

Even so, cheers to Cryptic for making a superhero MMO.  It’s a genre that’s sadly underrepresented at the moment.

Pathfinder Sells Out

Is it just me, or does that wizard look like the same one who's on the 4e PHB cover, aside from the hair color?

According to Paizo, as of Monday, their Pathfinder game’s core rulebook has sold out its first printing.  Now, this is mostly distributor orders — not actual sales — and there’s no indication of how large the first print run is.  Still, it’s a pretty impressive accomplishment.  I suspected that the initial sales would be very strong, and I hope it’ll bring people to the hobby, and not be confined to the existing 3.5 audience.

I have my doubts, though.

I haven’t seen the final revision of the rules, obviously, but the beta was not promising.  While the stated intent of the developers was to address some of the problems of 3.5e, and in particular to make melee characters a more viable choice, I found that the beta did the exact opposite — spellcasters were given a variety of bonuses.  Some problem spells were addressed, like Glitterdust and death spells, but there remained a wide variety of “I remove the enemy from combat” spells — including some new ones added by Paizo.  Fighters, on the other hand, were given more bonus feats… but they also need to spend more feats in order to achieve the same effect they used to get from a single one.  For instance, the +4 from Improved Disarm?  That takes two feats in Pathfinder.

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Of Possible Interest… (PDFs)

…EN World is offering a whole bunch of assorted PDFs for $1 each.  The sale runs until Gencon.  I know, I’m a little late with this one, but it slipped my mind.  My free time has mostly been occupied with writing a piece for Nevermet Press.  They’re a bunch of cool fellows.  Have you checked them out yet?  No?  Click the link, then.  Click it!  I’m watching you!

…Ahem.  Anyway.  You’ll see that piece toward the end of August, if all goes well.  More about that later, though.

The sale’s on 3.5e-era stuff, so it’s likely primarily useful to those who are sticking with that edition or Pathfinder.  A quick look shows at least a couple of options that would have utility in almost any game, though.  Need some inspiration for a thieves’ guild or two?  A city council to drop into your new city?  Ideas for some tournament or festival games?  Want to add some steampunk flavor to your game?

Maybe even try a new game?

There’s a lot of material on offer.  It’s worth a look through.

If I were still playing 3.5, I’d go for Everyone Else: A Book of Innkeepers, Farmers & More.  Almost 70 pages of ready-made statblocks for villagers, mooks, and other random NPCs in case that tavern brawl breaks out?  I’d buy that for $1 and save myself a whole chunk of work.

I may have to spring for Mutants & Masterminds…

I heard today that the new supplement, Mecha & Manga, is near release.  A little late, judging by Amazon’s publication date, but these things happen.

I don’t watch much anime these days, but I’m a fan from way back, and manga and anime style have informed my roleplaying for almost two decades.  A well-done anime RPG or sourcebook always catches my attention.  And this one is by my old friend Alejandro Melchor, who previously wrote the Kitsunemori campaign setting for third edition.  I know he does quality work.

All of that, on top of the good things I keep hearing about Mutants & Masterminds (and its previous sourcebook, fantasy-themed Warriors & Warlocks), makes this one very hard to resist.  Even though I doubt I’d play it any time soon, given my existing D&D, HERO, and Nobilis games, plus my Warcraft addiction (which might be “cured” when the Champions MMO comes out…).

Anyone have anything to report about Mutants & Masterminds that might help push me over the edge?  Or about Mecha & Manga specifically?