Tabletop Gaming News for Tuesday, 23 April, 2013 [St. George, Dragons, and Eliminating Weak Players;

[h=3]EN World News[/h]

• IT'S ST GEORGE'S DAY! Not only the patron saint of England, St. George famously slew a dragon - which makes him pretty much the patron saint of fantasy gamers! Celebrate it by including a dragon in your gaming today! PLUS - reply to this post with a dragon-related anecdote, tidbit, gaming goodie, picture, statblock, idea (anything really, as long as it's dragon-related) and I'll choose one lucky poster and send them a softback colour copy of the upcoming and imminent TO SLAY A DRAGON!
• ENnies Publisher's Karaoke! Just one more week left to bid! Support the ENnies and force publishers to humiliate themselves publicly at the same time!
• This week's Pretty Darn Fun (a look at new PDFs) includes 9 new PDFs, 4 new WotC rereleases, 8 new adventures, 1 Rewind PDF and a Spotlight for the old school crowd. As usual, the products run the gamut of new systems, supplements for old systems, bundle packs, big page counts and useful but cheap stuff. Every week there is bound to be something for almost every type of player or group.

St. George & the Dragon by Gustave Moreau​

[h=3]Dungeons & Dragons News[/h]

• Heirs of Gith by James Wyatt -- "The githyanki and githzerai have quite a history in D&D, and James is here to explore that, plus ask you questions!"
• 2nd Edition Excerpts: PHB -- "In today's 2nd Edition excerpt, we wanted to look at the druid. After all, the druid, ranger and paladin have all been added to the latest D&D Next playtest packet. Let's also consider the 2e version—including their ethos, shapechanging, and duels to gain admission to the upper levels!"

[h=3]Community News[/h]

• In their latest article on Blackfen, The Kyngdoms takes a look at the important subject of religion in city and its impact on people and politics. With nine legal religions to choose from, and two illegal ones, there's no shortage of talking points and arguments amongst the devout!
• Over at Geek's Dream Girl you can read an article about preparing for LARP (Live Action Roleplay).
• Change is a part of life; it can also be part of your gaming life. Gnome Stew discusses what happens when FLGS (friendly local game stores) close or gaming friends move away.
• Kobold Press continues its series on character backgrounds. "Welcome to the second part of the article that covers character backgrounds for GMs!.... This time, Brian discusses weaving together the backgrounds and more, so take a look."
• Roleplayers Chronicle has reviewed Raging Swan Press' village backdrop, Bossin. "Overall, this product is a sound product. It’s light, affordable, and quite really nice. Bossin, can fit into any campaign, adventure or small skirmish and it gives the players and the GM, the maneuverability to play with the city as much as they like."
• Sarah Darkmagic brings up the issue of sexism in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.
• I don't quite understand what this is, but it has something to do with Scott Pilgrim, guitars, character creation, and a competition.

[h=3]Roleplaying Games News[/h]

• Green Ronin has posted a preview of DC Adventures Universe! It's the final book in their DC Adventures line for Mutants & Masterminds. "We're hearing words of approval from a certain really big licensor in California, so it's time to post a PDF preview of the fourth and final DC Adventures book, Universe! This preview includes the Table of Contents, the Foreword by Marv Wolfman, and the Introduction. Enjoy!"
• Cubicle 7 has dragged Victoriana Line Developer Walt Ciechanowski away from his keyboard to answer some more questions about Victoriana 3rd Edition.
• Check out a preview of Tales of Power, an upcoming adventure collection for Ars Magica. "Many Ars Magica fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the newest book, Tales of Power! This anthology of high-powered adventures is coming soon, but in the meantime we've got a preview posted. It's the spoiler-free Introduction chapter."

[h=3]Boardgaming News[/h]

• Fantasy Flight Games has a preview of the Humanity's Shadow Data Pack for Android: Netrunner. This preview focuses on two new sysops, Bernice Mai and Simone Diego, each of whom do their jobs very well yet differently.
• Campaign Book: Icarus, a supplement for Dust Warfare, is now available for download. Campaign Book: Icarus introduces new aerial rules, along with a focus on the airfields of Zverograd.

[h=3]Eliminate the Weak[/h]
The Dungeon Bastard returns once more! Every once in a while you have three friends who want to play, and then another buddy, and then a guy and his wife, and the next thing you know you’re pulling the sofa up to the dining room table because you ran out of chairs. What do you do when your game gets TOO popular?

[video=youtube;ss44GyQSuJ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ss44GyQSuJ4[/video]​

 

[GuJiaXian]

I've actually been telling my children a serial bedtime story every night (made up as we go). Currently, Prince Jack and Sir Errant the Knight are seeking the dragon that captured Princess Brenna.

 

[Phil Nicholls]

The imaginative play for my boys this morning (ages 4 1/2 and 3) was to call down their "pet" dragons to attack the "monster wolves" on the landing. It seems that the dragons were effective, breathing fire and biting those naughty wolves.

 

[CAFRedblade]

I still think one of the best movies featuring a Dragon is the '81 movie DragonSlayer. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082288/
Corny, filled with tropes, yet down to earth. ( I think the budget helped there )
Always felt that the Dragon was a real threat in that movie.

 

[Alzrius]

My dragon anecdote was that it wasn't until I switched over to Pathfinder from 3.5 that I learned that 3.5 dragons had their CR artificially inflated (that is, they had a CR that was a few points too low for their actual statistics; all in the name of making them exceptionally challenging fights).

 

[Kannik]

During my visits to China, I bought a few nice dragons carved from jade. Some I gave away as gifts, some I still have... one of these days I'll have to mischievously plant one of them on the game mat as a mini, and thus the epic battle vs the jade dragon will begin!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

After seven years of a pbp campaign, we JUST wrapped up my Midwood game with an army of kobolds and urds invading the heroes' home town, led by a half-green dragon kobold king.

The kobolds' weapon of mass destruction was an Aspect of Tiamat they summoned. The heroes were unable to stop the ritual, so they countered it by summoning an Aspect of Bahamut. The two tussled and tumbled around in the town, breath weapons going everywhere, as the heroes fought multiple waves of kobold elites. (The regular troops were dealt with by the militia of both their hometown and another they'd saved on a previous adventure, along with nearly all of the NPCs they'd helped over the course of the campaign.)

After defeating the kobold king -- who reduced two of the four survivor characters to negative hit points during the battle -- they had to deal with a nearly dead Aspect of Tiamat, who'd barely survived her duel with Bahamut to put an end to the threat to the town and surrounding barony.

This all started, long ago, with the roguish characters deciding to hustle the more noble characters, accidentally leading them all into a kobold party exploring the same ruin they were exploring, which snowballed into this epic plot. Aren't sandbox campaigns grand?

 

[Ketherian]

Gaming goodie:

Some 60 legionnaires (including 12 knights/officers) have hunted down a red dragon and successfully bypassed or secured numerous traps and killed 5 wyverns, losing only a few horses and all their mules. At long last they enter a cave and come out into a cavern so vast its ceiling is beyond the reach of their torchlight.

Milities Primus: OK, this is its lair, it's got to be in here somewhere.
Fabrica: Um... Primus..
Milities Primus: You two, check in the wreck of that ship over there, I'll look in this... what is this? A barn?
Fabrica: Primus!
Milities Primus: What?!
Fabrica (pointing straight up): Found him sir!

It was an epic battle. The dragon's first move was to try and land on the party. It squashed 8 soldiers. The ensuing battle cost another 9 lives and archers and javeliners were scouring the battlefield for ammunition before it was done. One foot soldier was swallowed (and survived), and another cut his was through the dragon when it tried to crush him. The dragon was beheaded and still managed to bite a soldier in two after it was beheaded but before it died.

 

[rpchronicle]

More Community News

In addition to our reviews, Roleplayers Chronicle is running a giveaway for a sealed copy of AD&D: Dungeons of Dread Premium Edition. Just visit the website and go to the "Special Giveaway" page at the top and follow the instructions. Entry is super easy and the giveaway runs for 10 days.

 

[TarionzCousin]

What I should have done is cast Celerity, then Wall of Stone. Sorry, Knuckles; we hardly knew ye. Dragon breath may be an extremely painful way to die, but it makes for a good story!