Name: Underdark
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
System: 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

There are few places in the world(s) of Dungeons & Dragons as ripe for exploration as the Underdark. As the home of the Drow, Mindflayers, and other shadow-dwelling horrors, it’s one of the most disturbing, dangerous places unfortunate adventurers can end up. Despite this, past 4th Edition books only briefly touched on the caverns, something the release of the supplement, Underdark, hopes to fix.

For those looking to explore the dark, underground world, the book definitely comes packed with plenty of content. The opening pages deal with the violent creation of the Underdark, which hinges on the dark god, Torog, and his descent into the ground and battles with primordials. Though, for as detailed as it is, the writers are sure to include the fact that there’s really no way the average adventurer would know this. In fact, it might not even be the way it happened, as different legends tell of different ways the world was created. It’s left open for interpretation, something that Dungeon Masters can easily use to their advantage when throwing their adventurers into the Underdark.

Part of the reason the origins are left vague is because of one, simple fact: it’s not that important. Odds are most campaigns that take place in the Underdark will barely touch on the creation, as there’s so much to do without even touching on the beginnings. In the supplement, Wizards gives plenty of ideas for adventures, with available options for Heroic, Paragon, and Epic Tier characters. It even gives ways to start campaigns in each of the different Tiers, including some possibilities of how a campaign can begin with level 21 players awakening in the Underdark. It would be a challenge, that’s for sure, but for those interested Wizards has you covered.

In order to make things easier to understand, the Underdark has been seperated into The Shallows, The Deeps, the Feydark, and the Shadowdark in the book. Each section is given its own descriptions, creatures, and areas to explore, which should make a delve into the depths more interesting. At any point, players can run into one of the nearly 40 new monsters within the book, many of which are deformed monsters that likely wouldn’t be encountered outside of the Underdark. It’s less new monsters than are usually contained within supplements, but still enough so that there’s likely a unique creature for any situation.

Though, for as strange as it might sound, the real star of the book is Torog, the King that Crawls. He’s been denied access to the Astral Plane, he’s been cursed to never heal his wounds, and he’s bitter at all the creatures that surround him. The level 34 immortal will likely never be encountered by anyone delving into the depths of the Underdark, but his story, description, and character are simply so strong that it’s hard not to want to build a campaign around him.

All in all, there’s a lot to like about Underdark. It’s filled with useful information, and should serve as a perfect handbook for any DM looking to send his players to an unfortunate doom. The stories, adventures, and new monsters all fit well, and the book is filled with fantastic art that should help players really envision the hell they’ve entered.

Thrift stores are good for a few things. Getting props for Gamervision’s videos, finding stuff for cheap that can be sold on Ebay for profit, and, of course, getting awesome nonsense like Miami Vice: The Game. No, we’re not talking about a video game, or even some sort of SCENE IT? – “Miami Vice”. We’re talking old school. Cardboard, plastic, and paper. A few years back, Sarah purchased a copy of the game for Luke, and recently we sat down to play it for the first time. What we found was a surprisingly well thought out game with a few key issues that keep it from being anything more than a silly experiment.

It starts off well, with an incredibly detailed game board depicting a map of a small chunk of Miami. Players split into two teams: Miami Vice and criminals. Each player has ten plastic cars at his disposal, which can be used to cruise the streets and move down the pre-determined roads. At the start of the game, the criminals choose Drop Cards, labeled with a letter to show where they need to land in order to win. This location could be incredibly close to their starting area or far away, something that proved to be extremely important in practice. At the start, the criminals each roll a die, moving that many spots on the board. On subsequent turns, they’re able to either move the same vehicle or add a new one to the board, moving that one instead.

The Vice, too, have a similar ability, though without the trouble of needing to land on a specific area to win. Instead, they’re supposed to try to stop the Criminals, which can be done in two ways: landing on the Drop Location first, or landing on the Criminals’ cars. When landing on a Drop Location, the Criminals must admit if it’s theirs. If it is, the game is over. If any vehicle lands on another, the confrontation wheel is spun, and the outcome usually favors the attacker. Beyond being literally covered in black dots, indicating paths that players can take, there are also red circles. If a player lands on one of these “Gamble Points”, a card is drawn. The cards have a number of different abilities, from being able to place opponent’s cars back at the starting point to escaping a confrontation.

This, in theory, sounds fairly interesting, and could have made for a surprisingly good game. The idea of several cars going on chases through the streets of Miami could have made for a fun, strategic experience, even if the cars included are too large to actually fit on the game’s roads. Sadly, issues are abundant, the biggest being the win conditions. In our first game, a criminal drew the closest Drop Location to her starting spot. Within three turns, the game was over, and it would have been physically impossible for the Vice to stop her from reaching her goal. While this was a fairly isolated incident, it proved to be a major issue, since the starting locations are so far from each other that a lucky (or unlucky) draw could ruin the game. After over an hour of play, which included over half a dozen games, most ended in a matter of minutes, with only one or two actually extending to an amount of time that allowed the elements of Miami Vice: The Game to really shine. Those games saw decoy vehicles, chases, and a number of confrontations, proving that, at its core, there’s something interesting in the box. Sadly, it’s not the instruction manual.

Later, we discussed some modifications that might make Miami Vice: The Game worth investing time in. The Criminals drawing multiple cards and the Miami Vice not being able to win by landing on a Drop Location would make the games longer, more interesting, and allow for all of the mechanics to thrive. At this point, however, it’s nearly an entirely different game. As it stands, playing Miami Vice: The Game isn’t really worth the effort, managing somehow to be drastically worse than the sum of its parts.

Still, if you see it at a thrift store for a few bucks, the game board itself is awesome. Talk about a conversation starter.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of dragon sex in Dungeons & Dragons. Not two dragons doing it, mind you, but dragons doing the deed with other creatures. It’s never moved beyond that, I’ve never considered purchasing a finely made Bad-Dragon.com product, I’ve just been… curious. Maybe it’s because, despite Wizards of the Coast leaving out everything that has to do with sex (for obvious reasons), the worlds of D&D are filled with half-dragon creatures. Half-orcs, half-elves, and other half-breed usually make sense, since the creatures don’t differ too much in terms of everything, but dragon? It’s strange. It means that many citizens of Ebberon and Faerun simply enjoy having sexual relations with dragons. After some time, I figured it was me and the Bad Dragon crowd that was curious, and no one else.

And then I saw this picture.

A friend of mine picked up a “Dragon a Day” calender for my girlfriend, and she showed me the image above. It’s a woman and a dragon, and it most certainly looks like they just got finished doing the “nasty masty.” A dainty human female boning a red dragon. It could be argued that they didn’t, in fact, get their groove on, but come on, the afterglow is apparent. It’s obvious the two decided to celebrate MLK day in style.

This means there are others interested in figuring out how humanoid/dragon relations work. Anyone out there have any theories that don’t revolve around shape-shifting?

Recently, I was given a pack of cards from the newest Magic the Gathering set, Rise of the Eldrazi. Over the course of the next few days, I played with the deck in dozens of games, seeing how the new mechanics work against previously established MTG rules. While I wasn’t able to get time in with all of the cards (naturally), my time with the ones I did have gave me a good insight into what Wizards of the Coast was attempting with the new set, and I’ve already found myself playing more Magic, and eagerly anticipating new releases.

Rise of the Eldrazi has a number of new mechanics, but the standout success is one that I actually wasn’t able to get too much time with: leveling up cards. It seems like something that should have been in MTG since the beginning, and is as simple as paying an amount to put a level counter on a creature. Each counter upgrades the card, adding new abilities, stats, or other modifiers.  Some might end up taking issue with this addition, as it slowly shifts Magic towards the realm of video games (which, for many, is a no-no to end all no-nos), but it’s balanced well enough that it shouldn’t ever be an issue. Often, leveling a card costs more than the original mana spent on it, so it’s not a cheap way to get a more powerful creature. On the contrary, it simply adds legs to early-game attackers past defender bait. It’s remarkably intuitive, and the cards included in my set seemed to be balanced fantastically. I’d really like to see this mechanic stick around for years to come.

Besides that, the largest (no pun intended) addition are large, Eldrazi creatures. In the new set, a majority of the big creatures are colorless, with many of them packing extremely powerful abilities. Some destroy permanents on every attack, while others simply have lower mana cost if creatures are sacrificed. These will likely find their way into a number of pre-mades for the series, as well as a good amount of custom decks. Their colorlessness works in their favor, and even though it usually means you’re paying a few more than you might normally, it should add  some additional muscle to multicolor decks.

Endrazi does some new things with Magic the Gathering. Both new mechanics, the leveling and colorless non-artifact creatures, are wonderful additions. Players will likely be able to find something to add to any deck in their library from the new set, and we’re eagerly awaiting new releases that incorporate these wonderful changes.

Cryptic, developers of the recent Champions Online and Star Trek Online, will be announcing a new property later this year, according to Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer, Bill Roper. While he didn’t go into details, rumors are already flying around that the developer is going to try their hand at a Dungeons & Dragons MMO, maybe even one based on BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights.

In an interview with MMORPG, Roper dropped a few cryptic clues:

“I can’t speak to the specifics of what we’re doing, but it’s true that we have another game in the works. We won’t be making an announcement until late summer, and we’re still a ways off from launch. I can say that this is a game and a franchise we’re very excited about. I think people are going to pleased and a bit surprised with what we’re doing in terms of the game, how we make it, and even how we sell and support it. The game is being developed around new design principles merged with Cryptic’s community-first approach to ongoing development.”

The prospect of another Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG is an exciting one for fans of Wizards of the Coast’s IP, there’s no doubt about it. Still, it seems strange that the developer would attach itself to that IP, especially considering the success of Turbine’s move to free-to-play version. Then again, as anyone who has ever cast a magic missile could tell you, there’s plenty more to D&D than has been explored in gaming. Hell, the world of Eberron, which is found in DDO: Stormreach, isn’t even the main world of the universe. It’s a more recently created one, and Turbine’s game focuses on just a small fraction of that. A huge, sprawling D&D world would be fantastic, especially if done right. The mind races. I could literally go on for an hour with what could be accomplished in a full-blown D&D MMORPG…

Then again, Cryptic’s last two games were Champions Online and Star Trek Online, neither of which were really all that well received. We’ll keep you posted, and we’ll be sure to actively seek out more information.

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J!NX, the nerd clothing website best known for their massive supply of shirts with the word “geek” worked in to different puns, has launched a new wave of Dungeons & Dragons shirts. For the most part, they’re damn cool, with each being worth a purchase for anyone who enjoys rolling die from time to time. It’s hard to pick a favorite, since I love them all for different reasons, with the winner being “Not All Goblins Are Minions” for the awesome art, and a joke that hits on a number of levels. Then again, the idea of a Rust Monster turning gear into “poop” makes me laugh as well. Topping it off is an image from the Player’s Handbook 2 that makes me want to roll a Goliath so freaking hard. I mean, look at him, being all awesome…

You can check them out here. With Mothers Day coming up, it’s surely the perfect gift for any geek mom or grandmom out there. It’s also the perfect gift for me. You know, J!NX, technically this article counts as an advertisement. I’d say you owe me at least ten of each. At least. Maybe twenty of each, just for good measure. I’ll be waiting here.

At the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, Wizards of the Coast and IDW announced plans to create a series of comics based on the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The debut issue will be released this August, with new monthly comics and reprints launching in November. Plans are to include well-known characters from the Forgotten Realms universe and offer new stories and playable characters to existing game campaigns.

“We are delighted to partner with IDW,” said Liz Schuh, Brand Director for Dungeons & Dragons. “Together, we will bring great D&D stories to our fans, told through IDW’s high quality comics.”

For those who don’t know, IDW is best known for publishing Transformers, G.I. Joe, and a number of EA franchises in the comic world. They’re no Marvel or DC, but it’s still good to see D&D expanding out of the hobby shop. Well, actually, they’ll likely be in the same store… Anyway, the full press release is below, and be sure to check back for more news as it develops.

Hasbro, Inc., IDW Publishing and Wizards Of The Coast to Launch Dungeons & Dragons Comic Books

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (April 16, 2010) – IDW Publishing, under license from Hasbro, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast, will launch several all-new comic book series based on the many worlds of the hugely popular roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. Following IDW’s previously established comics model, the first new series will begin with an introductory debut issue in August 2010, with new monthly comics and deluxe reprints of past series launching in November.

IDW’s Dungeons & Dragons series will each offer new stories and playable characters to existing game campaigns. The Dungeons & Dragons title will take place in the core world, as seen in the gaming supplements and upcoming novels, followed by a Dark Sun series starting in January 2011. Plans also include a series for the longtime fan-favorite Forgotten Realms setting. Each comic book will also be collected at intervals into graphic novels. The many planned projects will be distributed to a wide audience through comic book outlets, trade bookstores and mass retailers.

“We are delighted to partner with IDW,” said Liz Schuh, Brand Director for Dungeons & Dragons. “Together, we will bring great D&D stories to our fans, told through IDW’s high quality comics.”

IDW Publishing and Wizards of the Coast will work closely together to offer another layer of experience for Dungeons & Dragons. Acclaimed fantasy painter Wayne Reynolds will supply covers for the launch of the new series. Specific creative teams and information about each new series will be forthcoming.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Hasbro and bring Dungeons & Dragons to comics,” said IDW CEO, Ted Adams. “Hasbro is a great company to work with, and we value our unique partnership with them.”

IDW Publishing is Hasbro’s comic book licensee for Transformers and G.I. Joe. IDW also recently entered a deal to create comic books with the worldwide bestselling author James Patterson, and publishes licensed comic books for many other hugely popular brands, include Fox’s Angel, The BBC’s Doctor Who, and EA’s Dragon Age. In March, IDW was given premier publisher status with Diamond Comics Distributors, in recognition of the company’s success.

About Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is the iconic roleplaying game of fantasy and imagination that is part storytelling, part social interaction and part chance. Players take on the role of characters that go on a journey together through a fantasy realm to discover treasure, fight monsters and battle adversity while one member of the group (the Dungeon Master) creates, narrates and referees the game. Together, the Dungeon Master and the characters bring the game to life.

About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renown for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The Transformers and G.I. Joe, Paramount’s Star Trek; Fox’s Angel; the BBC’s Doctor Who; and television’s #1 prime time series CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studios; and is the print publisher for ComicMix.

IDW’s original horror series, 30 Days of Night, was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. More information about the company can be found at IDWPublishing.com.

About Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS) is a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services with a rich portfolio of brands and entertainment properties that provides some of the highest quality and most recognizable play and recreational experiences in the world. As a brand-driven, consumer-focused global company, Hasbro brings to market a range of toys, games and licensed products, from traditional to high-tech and digital, under such powerful brand names as Transformers, Playskool, Tonka, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Cranium and Wizards Of The Coast. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com.

I’ve always found that looking at a map of Faerun can help give me ideas. Just today, scanning accross the hills and valleys of the fictional world reminded me of some lingering concepts in the back of my brain, and got the creative juices flowing right proper. The problem is, with so many maps in the game’s history (and so many websites going down every day), it’s sometimes hard to find the same one again without saving them. I figured I’d throw them all up, here, for anyone who needs to find a good Forgotten Realms map for their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Or, you know, for whatever other reason you might have.

Does using an actual map help any of you? I like to have a map for every area my players encounter, though I hardly ever do. It gives a good visual basis for whatever is going on in the fiction of the game. Below are a few more, from 3rd Edition and… an older one. There’s something about having one that I like, and, at this point, I think I’m just going to go ahead and make it my computer wallpaper. Yeah, that seems like a thing I should do…

At the Penny-Arcade Expo in 2007, Gamervision had a chance to sit down with the D&D Game Table. I was there, and I saw a prototype of the program, which was supposed to launch with D&D 4th Edition. It didn’t. It was supposed to come out a few months after. It, again, didn’t. Months went by without any word on the program. Months became years, and now here we are, still without the game table. At this year’s PAX East, we pressed the question, asking if Wizards of the Coast was finally ready to say what we’d all been dreading. They aren’t. 

According to a Wizards of the Coast representative, Game Table is “still being worked on.” She couldn’t go into more details, but said that they weren’t scrapping the project, they just wanted to release it when it worked as well as they wanted. This is the same line we’ve been hearing for nearly three years, though it’s still good to know that somwhere, someone is working on the next evolution of Dungeons & Dragons. In the meantime, I suppose we’ll all still try and figure out how to use it on Google Wave. Or try and make friends. Aw, I made myself sad. 

We’ll be sure to continue to ask everyone who has even been near a coast or cast a spell about the Game Table. I figure we’ll find out more eventually.

During the Penny-Arcade Expo, I had a chance to play a little of the second expansion pack for Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalker. As you might expect, it felt very similar to the core game, to the point where it’s hard to accurately point out differences. That’s because most of the changes come in the form of new decks and cards, and I doubt any of you have memorized the cards that were in the first game to begin with. There were some other elements, however, that did stand out, and are worth getting excited for. Namely, the avatar rewards, which might drive some people to pick up the game and expansion solely to get the gear.

For unlocking three decks, players will be awarded with a Planeswalker shirt. That, alone, isn’t all that special. It’s good to show off nerd pride, but a shirt is, in the end, just a shirt. When all of the game’s six decks are unlocked, however, that’s when things get a little spicy. Players who finish that content will be rewarded with a dragon, that flies around their character, ready to burninate the countryside. Magic the Gathering fan or not, that’s several thousand types of freaking awesome. Packing it with DLC makes sense, since it’s great incentive to buy, since not enough games give away Avatar Awards. I could get used to this. Next step? Bundle it with a D20. I mean, it’s a life counter, it sort of works, right?

While we don’t have any images right now, we had a chance to see a cardboard standee of what it’s likely going to look like. In short, it’s cool. In long, you’ll see for yourself soon.