Image via Wikipedia
Tempo in Magic the Gathering is what two or more players enter in while attempting to gain control of the game. It is a race that revolves around who can play better cards or more cards faster. Basically it is a race about gaining the upper hand. In other words the player who is winning the race usually sets the tempo of the game. The reality of it though is the tempo of a game can be one sided, balanced, or up and down like a roller coaster.
For those of you that don’t know what Silvervines Game System is you can visit their website here. For those of you that don’t want to leave (thank you) Silvervine is basically a RPG that incorporates thematic character creation with a cinematic narrative of almost dice-less roleplaying. At least that is the best one sentence description of he game that I can come up with.
Moving on, in the not so distant past Ryan and I had the opportunity to interview the gang from Silvervine. When I say gang I mean the creator’s and designers of the game. If you like what you hear here I am sure you will meet them all. At that point in time I was a little bit lost about what the system had to offer. In fact I thought it was probably a bogus system. The stories they told us in the interview were just too ridiculous for this game to work. I mean how can anybody (not on acid) play a sandwich? That’s right somebody created a sandwich as their character. But, Ryan wasn’t as preoccupied as I was at Con on the Cob – he gave them far more time than I did. In fact he was sold on the game. I was leery, very leery. Continue reading »
It all started on a rainy Saturday morning. I was spending the weekend visiting my cousin Lance. We were supposed to ride four-wheelers, but the bone-chilling downpour dashed those plans. So, we did what most adolescent males did in 1988. We turned on that 8-bit wonder, the Nintendo Entertainment System. After some Ninja Gaiden and Contra, we slid in Final Fantasy. The music entranced me, the graphics befuddled me, the gameplay bonded to me. The game touched me mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. It was a whirlwind weekend romance that I would never experience again. A few years later, I received a Super Nintendo for Christmas, and by Easter had finally saved enough money to purchase Final Fantasy II. I ate, slept, and breathed that game; until Final Fantasy III came out.
Those games, and others like them (oh ChronoTrigger, how I miss thee), engaged me unlike any other. Undoubtedly, it is the level of story-telling which goes into those games which makes them the best. And as great as they were (and still are), and as much as I loved them (and still do), I always felt like something was missing – as though the experience could be so much more personal and interactive in a way that would really allow me to be a part of the game, and not just an almost passive observer. I didn’t know it at the time, but video game RPG’s had become my gateway drug to a deeper addiction.
“Space, the final frontier…these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise…it’s continuing mission…to explore strange new worlds…to seek out new life and new civilizations…to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
You are the Captain of a small Starship with a standard crew and basic weaponry. Will you use your crew’s experience to improve your ships systems or to recruit more experienced crewmen to your ship? Will you form diplomatic relationships or conquer civilizations in battle?
Build your deck and explore the Star Trek universe! Play these different scenarios or create your own!
[Free For All] Exploration – Explore the universe, interact with alien races, complete missions and experience the mysteries of space. Gain knowledge and power to become a legendary Captain!
[Teams] Reunification – Team-up and determine if you are in favor of peace or war in the Alpha Quadrant! What will be the future of the Federation?
[Co-op] Borg Invasion II – “I am the Borg.” This time the Borg Queen has arrived to assimilate planet Earth! Work with your fellow players to defeat the Borg and the Queen.
2-4 Players
Game time: 60-90 minutes
Game contents:
• 300 cards
• 5 Twenty-sided dice
• Game manual
• Additional information available at www.bandaicg.com/startrek
Check out this play mat
Just out from WizKids
Quarriors! Rise of the Demons Expansion
Corrupted Quiddity! Demonic Overlords! Corruption Spells! Epic Goo Burst! Do you have what it takes to overcome the corruption, or will you succumb to the demons? The choice is yours! This expansion to Quarriors!, the game of “Uber Strategic Hexahedron Monster Combat Mayhem,” comes complete with 20 custom dice, 19 playing cards, and a rules insert.
I had the opportunity to play Quarriors at Gen Con this year. I liked it. I can definitely see it in social scenes
Coming soon from Fantasy Flight Games
The Greenskin horde is gathering under a banner of war, eager for fightin’, slayin’, and lootin’ – and unless they are stopped, their Waaagh! will leave the Old World in ruins!
Prepare for the onslaught with The Iron Rock, the third Battle Pack in The Capital Cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game. Featuring three copies each of 20 cards, this 60-card expansion boasts half of its cards devoted to the warmongering greenskins, while fans of other races will also find a variety of useful tactics, units, and support options.
Warhammer Invasion: Iron Rock Battle Pack
SRP: $14.95
It has been a long time since I have role played. I am getting ready to start a campaign in a system yet to be determined . I am leaning towards Rifts or Ninjas and Superspies. I haven’t played Rifts since 1998 and I am longing for a session.
Enough about what game system we will play. The thought of playing has reminded me that sometimes things that shouldn’t need to be said must be said. Huh? hat in the world am I talking about? Well, you’re a player what do you think?
Have you ever been sitting around a game table and caught a wiff of something that just doesn’t belong at the game table? Have you ever been frustrated out of your mind because another just won’t stop talking? Have you ever not wanted to play your character because one character in the part just makes you feel inferior? If so you just might want to read this article.
The Silence of the Lambs (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
Wow, I just saw this article written by Joelcool7 at gamrConnect. Basically, the article states Hollywood is going after board game licenses for movies. One of the games he mentions is Magic the Gathering. I didn’t like that fact that Joel lumped MtG into the board game genre, but he didn’t really speak about MtG either. He just mentioned that there is a possible movie out there.
Joel’s article talks about how board games lack plot. Well, That is actually a good thing. A good story isn’t about plot alone. In fact, a good story is really told by the characters. If a writer doesn’t develop the characters the plot will fail. Stories are far more about a balance between plot and character with character carrying the weight.
Lets look at a couple of movies and see if I can get my point across. The Expendables was an intense action packed movie with a lot of characters. Who were played by some really big names (Jet Li, Sylvester Stallone, Mickey O Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, and Jason Statham). I liked it. It would have been a lot better if it was 45 minutes longer and all the characters had a chance to develop. Better yet, start with 3 characters and introduce the rest in a sequel. In the Expendables the plot was there but there was just not enough time to develop the characters.
The Silence of the Lambs is probably the best plot verse character success I can think of. The characters DR. Lecter and Clarice played by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster have plenty of time to develop. As a watcher you really get to know them and you want to feel what at least one of them feels. Understanding a characters feeling in a story gives the viewer a more enjoyable experience.
In the world of Magic the Gathering the characters already have so much detail it’s a no brainer to turn this IP into a movie. The only question is with so much story development already done, where would you start the movie? I would love to see the Brothers War saga turned into a movie or three. It would be far more realistic for WotC and oh we will say Paramount (first to pop in my mind) to start with some of the more recent planeswalkers. The Shards block storyline would make a good storyline. Who would play Nicol Bolas?
I am pretty excited about this. And it is not all speculation as this article from MTV’s Movie Blog seems to indicate.
It looks like we are in for some really cool promos at the theaters in the future.
Two days ago, I wrote about White and how it received some really great new creatures giving White Weenie a fighting chance again. Today, I am going to focus on Liliana of the Veil. She is pretty amazing. Being the other 3 drop planeswalker in the game I expect to see some great things from her. I was hoping that her +1 ability that forces each player to discard a card would be able to take advantage of Flashback. It seems that the best card to do that with is Unburial Rites. Which is not the best idea. It could work, but it would be difficult to make a good combo with the two in T2. Here ability to target player sacrifice a creature does have some promise though. The combination of hand control and and board control is an excellent representation of black and a better combination. Her last ability “-6: Separate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of his or her choice.” is going to be used. It kind of reminds me of Fact or Fiction, but only because the player has to chose his pain.
Liliana is pretty wicked good. There is already a really good BUW control deck built around her and there will be more. here is a link to that deck list WUB. Since that is a really great deck I will focus on a simpler deck for a thirteen year old player.
4 Distress
4 Despise
24 Swamps
My sideboard is yet to be determined
Now that I have built this deck I am thinking it might have too much hand disruption. What about you? Do you think it has too much? Here is what I like about this experiment. It has good creatures for a themed deck. It has a descent amount of control. Right from the start. There are just enough mechanics like , discarding, planeswalkers and Grave titan triggers to make this deck a good teaching deck. Wouldn’t be great if on the first turn you cast despise and surgical extraction? While it won’t win a PTQ it is a great deck for my son to have fun with at FNM.
Black has a lot more cards to offer from Innistraad. We will look at them tomorrow, along with some red cards. I am hoping to design a new version of Red Deck wins this week. Any ideas as to what I should play?
Hey again, welcome to Revising Standard. In this set of articles we will always discuss the impact of the most recent set. The goal is to make this a living document that changes as the format matures. I will attempt to update each article by using the comments section of the blog.
The first installment of Revising Standard will discuss some of the impact Innistrad has on Magic the Gatherings standard or T2 format. More specifically we will start discussing how white is being influenced or becoming an influence.
White has long since been known for its one and two drop creatures. It also has a history of having one or two good reset buttons at any given time. White is often splashed or used as a support color. In fact blue and white have become a tradition among the deck archetypes of our day.
