50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
I love these alignment charts that are currently going around the Internets at the speed of meme; it isn't very often that D&D and pop culture references overlap, after all. As you can imagine, I especially love this one:
There are several other charts at Mighty God King, where they're in the middle of a week of alignment charts.
(Thanks, Melissa!)
Munchkin, from Steve Jackson Games, is a fairly polarizing game, especially at BGG, where people tend to love it or hate it. I love it, mostly from playing some truly memorable games with my kids over the years.
Nolan was to my right. He kicked in a door and didn't find a monster, so he looked for trouble, playing a level 3 something from his hand. "Does anyone want to mess with me?" He asked, avoiding looking in my direction.
"It's funny you should ask," I said. "That's an illusion. You're actually fighting a level 18 Squidzilla." I played the appropriate cards.
"Oh, okay." Nolan pulled a card from his hand. "It's now enraged, so it gets an additional treasure." He pulled another card from his hand. "And with this Polymorph Potion, it turns into a parrot and flies away." He paused dramatically. "And I take five treasures."
"OHHH!" Ryan and Michael said.
"Man, that's a really great move," I said. "Too bad I'm playing Annihilation on it."
He was forced to discard the potion, and face the Enraged Squidzilla on his own.
"OHHH!" Ryan and Michael said."
"Okay, then." Nolan said. "I guess I'm running away."
We all laughed. Nolan rolled a one. He stopped laughing. We looted his body. There was much rejoicing. (Well, there was 3/4 rejoicing.)
I've talked to lots of people at cons and stuff who haven't played Munchkin, but have read about me playing it, and were curious about it.
The best way to learn a new game, in my extremely humble and unassailably correct opinion, is to jump right in and play it with experienced players (note that this is yet another reason the Friendly Local Gameshop is such an important part of our ecosystem). But sometimes, that just isn't possible or practical … and the webmonkeys and interzombies at SJ Games have created a playable flash demo of Munchkin, based on the Rigged Demo they've been running at cons for years, just for you.
Somehow, I forgot to mention that the third series of D&D podcasts featuring Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz, and Wil Wheaton (that's me!) has been available for a couple of weeks.
Here are links to the episodes that are currently online:
It's Fallcrest, midwinter, and snow has settled over everything. Acquisitions Incorporated has been holed up in their favorite sanctuary, The Silver Unicorn, enjoying the warmth of a fire. All is calm… until they meet their old acquaintance, Nathan Farringray—looking troubled and with a tale of woe that can only be solved by Acquisitions Inc.
Over at Five League House, Farringray's companion, Barton has been keeping on eye on local bandits. A number of merchant wagons have been besieged in recent days, and the trade route has become jeopardized.
Acquisitions Inc. agrees to perform this small favor, checking on Farringray's friend… with the assumption that adventure will soon find them.
There is something on the roof… a guy on the roof…
Or is there? Sometimes houses just have guys on their roof…. at least so goes the theory so far as what Acquisitions Incorporated saw as they departed Barton's on the way to the Dawnforge Mountains. Hammerfast lies ahead, as are the bandits Acquisitions Inc. is determined to face.
Once at Hammerfast, dwarves are seen milling around… along with the occasional spectral apparition. It seems, the dwarven clan lords who wished to build this place needed to strike a compact with the indigenous—and often cursed—residents.
Marcinda Goldspinner, leader of the dwarven merchants guild, meets with Acquisitions Inc. to discuss the bandits. The Ambershard dwarven bandits!
Through the front doors, Acquisitions Inc. enters a snow-covered yard surrounded by a 20-foot wall. In the middle of the yard, a cabin waits, smoke rising from its chimney. A giant boar lies sleeping alongside the side of the cabin. And inside, they know, lives Thazin Stormbellow.
How well can an angry dwarf carrying a shield and a hammer sneak past a sleeping boar? Answer: Not very.
Roll for initiative.
I loved playing in this adventure, not only because I got to sit down and hurl polyhedrons with some of my favorite people in the world, but also because we all did a ton of roleplaying this time around. In fact, there isn't even a combat encounter until the third episode.
And for those of you keeping score at home, his name is AEOFEL. Not Al. Godsdammit, I swear to Melora.
New episodes come out every Friday, and while you can subscribe in iTunes or whatever to have them automatically show up, I strongly encourage you to actually visit the podcast page at Wizards, so you can see the artwork that accompanies each episode.
Until next time, Jim winks!
Well, you can't exactly play with Acquisitions, Incorporated, but you can go on one of our adventures, because Wizards has put Storm Tower, the adventure that Chris Perkins wrote for the D&D/Penny Arcade/PvP/me podcast online.
I can't wait to read this, find out about the stuff we missed, and see how the adventure was designed.
NB: You have to be a D&D Insider subscriber to get this, and speaking as someone who is a DDI subscriber, I can tell you that I think the membership is entirely worth having.
So you've listened to the D&D podcasts I did with Scott Kurtz, Gabe, and Tycho…
You've read my series of posts about playing 4E with my son and his friends…
You've read my post about being a Dungeon Master…
You've read my other posts about gaming, especially how much I love D&D, how surprised I was to actually like 4E, and the backstory for my Avenger…
You have an appetite for gaming, and the only thing standing between you and actually giving 4E a try is the not-insignificant investment in core books and stuff….
Well you're going to dig this news quite a bit, I think: Wizards of the Coast is making D&D 4E's quickstart rules and its first adventure, The Keep on the Shadowfell, available as a completely free download. They've also thrown in the free version of their 4E Character Builder, because that's just how they roll (up new characters, yo.)
Still not interested in 4E? No problem. This is also a good time to point out that my friends at Green Ronin have had the True20 Quickstart Rules and Death in Freeport online as free downloads for a million years, and my friends at Steve Jackson Games do the same thing with GURPS Lite.
Now go forth, my friends, and hurl many polyhedrons.