Robot Viking

Small correction, the Twitter Magic thing doesn’t start Saturday morning, it started this morning. It’s on! Go to TweetMTG to play along. Current effect: “Until next tweet, creatures Ajani’s team controls gain double strike.” They’re also posting some fun flavor about the power of bogs and marshes, and creature vs. creature trash talk.

In part 2, our exclusive interview with the men in charge of Heavy Gear somehow gets even better, as they discuss the role of battle armor in real-world warfare and building an RPG world from the foundation of a wargame. Plus, they pitch a hypothetical Heavy Gear TV series, and to top it all off, [...]

What if a card created counters that didn’t actually do anything? You’d have to rely on other cards to make those counters function. The real twist: those counters don’t always do the same thing. That’s the concept we’re exploring with this edition of Crash Test Magic.

One of the fun things about multiplayer Magic games is introducing a few random elements that can radically shift the game in weird and fun ways. It keeps one player from getting a runaway victory, or everyone from ganging up on one player. This weekend, by following a special Twitter feed, you can experience wacky [...]

The head honchos at Dream Pod 9 talk up their top notch mecha wargame, Heavy Gear, discuss the anime origins of the giant battle robot genre, and reveal the company’s unexpected connection to the movie 300 in this amazing “virtual roundtable” interview. And this is only part 1.

It’s time for another Pathfinder review from Billy Gibbs. If you have the blood of a deity flowing through your veins right from 1st level, you might want to take a Godling for a spin.

“Snows of an Early Winter” takes your group of Call of Cthulhu investigators on a harrowing adventure set in modern-day New York City. Someone is trying to get into city politics the easy way — if occult research, obscene rituals and human sacrifices are easy, that is. Of course, you can’t go messing around with [...]

Robot Viking is taking a bit of a summer break this week (if you hadn’t noticed). See you all next week as we get ready for Gen Con!

In part two of our interview with game designer Owen K.C. Stephens, he discusses what it’s like to design games based on pre-existing intellectual properties and delves into the connections between D&D 3.5, Star Wars Saga system, and D&D 4E.

Talking about new Magic core sets is so much more fun these days. Now that the sets are 50 percent brand new cards, there’s a lot more to talk about than, “what did they leave out/bring back?” My favorite thing about M11? Fun.

Wizards of the Coast plans to donate as much as $20,000 to the Child’s Play charity, which provides games, toys and books to sick kids stuck in hospitals. You can help make it happen just by playing Magic this weekend.

Our influx of Pathfinder (and, specifically, Super Genius Games) material continues today with Billy Gibbs’ review of the second Loot 4 Less volume, Pretty, Pretty, Rings. How’s that for a perfect example of the difference between 3.5 and 4E — magic rings for 1st level characters!

Any idiot with a staff or a wand can sling a fireball. For seriously indomitable power, try being an earth mage. Billy Gibbs returns with a review of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide to Earth Magic for the Pathfinder system.

Owen K.C. Stephens has some impressive RPG writing and design credits to his name. From articles in Dragon Magazine (back when it was actually a magazine), co-designer of the Star Wars Saga system, a year at Wizards of the Coast, to his current position as Pathfinder-Compatible Product Developer for Super Genius Games, he’s been there [...]