WizKids is No More
Wow, I’m at a loss for words. After eight years of producing nice, well made miniatures and a number of different tabletop games, WizKids is no more. Here’s their official release from their website…
Announcement
The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines.
Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.”
Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.
For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.
Have they been in financial trouble recently? Was there suddenly a stoppage of Clix purchases? I played with Halo Actionclix at PAX last year and it was very fun, I suppose I’ll be able to get them really cheap now. This is a shame, and my heart goes out to all of the fans of the different product lines that are now without a future. The Heroclix also seemed very fun, such a shame. The admin of the WizKids Blog posted the following:
“The following announcement is being released from Topps today. We’re all in a bit of shock and at a loss for words right now.”
I wonder if any other companies are this close to the edge. I know gaming is getting bigger, but with World of Warcraft pulling some tabletop players away and Warhammer Online taking up the time of Warhammer players, who knows what the future holds for our undigital gaming needs.
At least we still have our dice, friends, at least we still have our dice.
GenCon Auction Money Rejected by Charity
As I am sure you all remember, earlier this year, we lost Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax. It was a sad moment for gamers in general, but hit closer to home for pen and paper players, for whom Gygax was something of a spiritual leader. Gen Con (short for Geneva Convention), the annual gaming convention first organized by Gygax in 1968 in his hometown of Geneva, Wisconsin, decided that this year they would hold an auction in honor of Gary’s passing. The event raised over $17,000, which Gen Con organizers decided to donate to Gygax’s favorite organization, The Christian Children’s Fund. Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, not to everyone. More after the jump.
Dragon Art Gallery Composed Entirely of Awesome
I love the art in the Dungeons and Dragons books, though they can be hit-or-miss. Sometimes they are wonderfully illustrated, bringing vivid representations to the words on the books, enhancing the RPG experience. Other times they look like they were done by caricature artists, exaggerating unnecessarily and turning it into a parody of itself. Some of the later 3.5 Books were awful, but I assume it was because the artists knew their books would be the least read in the edition. Or they were busy playtesting 4E. Or they were playing WoW, I don’t know.
Luckily, the art that just hit Wizards Website is the former of the two, and features some crazy high-resolution art from the past few weeks’ worth of updates including some amazing looking Barbarian images. Some of these are instant wallpaper material, mainly the Dragonborn Barbarians that graced the cover of Dragon Magazine this month – that guy is ragingly angry. The dwarven one is awesome too, because dwarves make good barbs too, remember.
Check it out here, and let me know which one tickles your fancy the most.
When to Play: You Can’t Please Everyone
It’s freaking hard to find a group of people who can consistently give up a night or afternoon for any reason, let alone gaming. Over my time as a player and Dungeon Master I’ve found it extremely difficult to ever find a specific time to play. Someone is out of town, another person has relatives visiting, this guy is sick, this girl’s busy, there’s always some reason that the same people cannot meet. It’s not that those reasons aren’t good, they make sense and it happens to everyone once and a while, but when there is a group of five or so people everyone’s once and a while seems much, much more frequent.
The best way is to get a weekly group, I suppose, agreeing to set aside time on X day at Y time, but even that has its hiccups. I’ve also noticed that less frequent groups have a hard time keeping players, and most newcomers need a very regular meeting to become involved in tabletop RPGs.
It takes a very devoted group to really get a weekly game going, and semi-weekly games are missing a certain “oomph.” Infrequent meeting groups often work better with single-shot sessions, but players will also grow bored of not feeling any continuity between sessions, which is another problem. I am wondering if anyone has found a certain way to keep semi-frequent meetings interesting, despite the problems listed above. I’m still fairly new to this, is there a way to tie together stories in groups that meet on a monthly basis that keeps them interesting without players forgetting everything by the time the next session rolls on?
Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide Review
Name: Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
System: D20
If the failed MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies taught us anything, it is that SW fans want to play as Jedis. Sadly, this doesn’t really have a place in most games, either on the table or on the screen. Jedi are simply too powerful, and a group of them together goes against the things we all love so much about the original trilogy. Luckily, BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic showed the world of game developers how to handle that issue, and brought a new era to the world of Star Wars, one where the dark side of the force was existent, but small, and the Mandalorian horde is slowly spreading like a virus throughout the system.
Hit the jump for the full review.
The Night Before a New Campaign
Tomorrow, I start my first serious Dungeons & Dragons campaign in several months. Truth be told, it’s a smaller group than I prefer, weighing in at three players and myself, but I am excited nevertheless. Despite a few weeks of planning, writing up campaign ideas I’m, as usual, back to square one, rethinking the campaign from the ground up. Here’s a short list of campaigns I’m considering, but will likely end up changing:
- A series of linked adventures based on the Canterbury Tales
- A sea based adventure
- An air based adventure
- One based off of a recent movie I saw
- One based off of several games I have played recently
I didn’t want to go into too many details, but many of them will likely be written up and end up here sooner or later. But I’m stressed, I know that the best campaigns usually stem from great beginnings, and I know how easy it is to screw those up. The night before a new campaign is very important to a DM, and as nerve wrecking as anything else.
That said, I can’t wait.
The Balancing Act: Loot
I’ve always had a problem with balancing my Dungeons & Dragons games. Its hard for me to figure out what loot should go to what people, and my experience as a player first, Dungeon Master second reminds me that seeing an ally pick up an awesome sword better translate to me getting similar loot soon. That said, I often find myself randomly giving players fitting loot on a consistent basis. It feels cheap to me, and I know the players must feel it too. Why did the Rogue happen to find a +2 Dagger? Why was the chest full of gold and +1 Intelligence Goggles? I can’t find a tactful way to do it, but I think I have a plan.
Never give them anything.
D20 Cake is a Critical Hit
It’s a piece of cake to bake a nerdy cake,
if the way is ha-zy!
You gotta do the cooking by the PHB,
you know you can’t be la-zy!
Never use a messy D20
the cake would end up cra-zy!
If you do the cooking by the PHB,
then you’ll have a cake!
We gotta have it made!
You know that I love cake!
Finally it’s time to make a cake!
Thanks, Nikkita!
Minions in 4th Edition Kinda-Sorta Suck
One of the first changes I noticed in the 4th Edition Monster Manual (which I reviewed here) was the inclusion of Minions, 1HP enemies to use as fodder in large-scale battles. At first I loved the idea, and it made every fight just a little more epic. Some of the first encounters my players had were against a group of Kobold Minions and their leader. It let the characters know that there was a threat, but gave them an opportunity to sharpen their weapons on some flesh before making their way to the boss. At early levels it makes complete sense, but once the players level up and enemies become more difficult the issues grow worse.
I first noticed the problem when planning an encounter against Vampires. Vampires are one of the most different creatures from 3rd to 4th Edition because of their complexity. Most of the differences I was fine with, but adding Vampire Minions really changed the dynamic of the game. Hit the jump for more observations, and possible solutions.
Before He Dies, He– I SNAP HIS NECK! — …ugh.
The idea of a villain soliloquizing his dastardly plans before death might be cliché, but it can often be used to dribble details of the plot into the eager minds of the players. Sure, not every enemy is a Republic serial villain explaining their masterstroke while there is still time for the players to alter the outcome, but from time to time they might want to explain their sins in hope of claiming redemption from whatever god they believe in.
But it often doesn’t work like that, does it? On two separate occasions that come to mind I’ve had players deliver a finishing blow to a stuttering, dying enemy before their breath was due, and both times I’ve needed to adjust the campaign accordingly. Be it their suspicions that they might whisper a curse with their dying breath or that they went to end the battle before more combat, it’s become an ongoing theme in my D&D campaigns. The funny thing is, the scenario has happened with two different groups, neither having knowledge of the others history. Why do players feel the need to deliver a premature finishing blow?
