In Which The Warlock Taps, Swipes, and Pinches...

A few months ago, I mentioned that I'd come into possession of a certain tablet device, as part of a program through my school.  Now that I've finally had some time to play with the darn thing, it's round about time to give some opinion on the various toys that I've been playing with!

GoodReader

PDF viewing and editing comes foremost for me, in terms of utility on the iPad.  With so many books nowadays coming out in digital and dead-tree versions simultaneously, it's often a lot easier for me to just carry a tablet to my various games around the Ohio Valley, rather than lug books around.  While I still love books while at my home table (and to read before bed!), the convenience of a PDF really trumps a book when elsewhere.

GoodReader's tools are intuitive, easy to use, and usable with any number of cloud storage utilities out there.  Pllus, the PDF mark-up tools allow you to annotate, copy, and denote texts easily and quickly.  I actually used a character-sheet from Cold Steel Wardens to demonstrate GoodReader's PDF mark-up tools to my fellow teachers!  It's that quick and easy.

Hands down, GoodReader is worth the $4.99.  It's gotten rave reviews from numerous sources, and the praise is well and truly due.

Gamer Dice

This one, however, I was much less a fan.  One of the biggest draws for me, as a gamer, is the social and visceral feel of sitting around a table, rolling dice.  While Gamer Dice provides a stable replacement for the actual art of rolling dice, it can't replace that tactile feel of letting your d20s tumble between your fingers, clatter across the table, and roll to a stop.

Now, obviously, there are situations in which polyhedrals simply aren't realistic, but Gamer Dice doesn't do much to make me want to use it.  The app's base configuration is a flat, matte gray.  While its interface is functional, it has no visual appeal and no ability to simply input a number--rather, you have to tap the plus or minus button numerous times.  While this isn't a problem with small dice pools, rolling 5d12+22 would take a huge amount of time.  Plus, Gamer Dice doesn't allow for rolling of multiple types of dice simultaneously, which means that games like Marvel Heroic Roleplaying aren't playable with this app.

I'm sure that there's got to be a better dice roller out there than this one--save your time and effort.

Elder Sign:  Omens

Now, here's a real winner!  Fantasy Flight Games--producers of Arkham Horror and numerous other games--decided to take their card-based Cthulhian race-against-the-clock and build a version for the iOS and Android systems.

ES: O, as a product, is really polished and smooth, using art from its various Cthulhu lines and smooth mechanics.  Visuals and sound effects are evocative and immersive, drawing the player in.  While some have criticized the game for being a "trumped up version of Yahtzee", the more recent patches and the addition of two more Ancient Ones--Yig and Cthulhu himself, to go with the default Azathoth--have really expanded gameplay.

I find myself playing this one anytime I have nothing to do and have my iPad close at hand.  It's addictive, has a good deal of depth, and is outright fun to play.  Pick this one up and splurge on the expansion.  It's worth it!

In Which The Warlock Tosses Dice for a Full Day...

If there’s one bad side about livin’ “la vida gamer”, it’s that you occasionally have a weekend or so where all you do is sling the dice. Not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily-—heck, we play how many dollars a year to do just that, at Origins and GenCon (well, not really, now that I think about it…I haven’t paid to go to Origins since the first time I went). But, it does tend to make for exhausting days and long nights—much like this past weekend!

You see, gamer nation, this weekend marked the first real weekend for the Witt RP-Guild to be back in full swing. And, with it, we had a whole slew of events on deck, leaving your Friendly Neighborhood Warlock pretty drained!

This Friday got things off with a bang. With our weekly “Tear of Ioun” game cancelled, the PlatinumChick and I were free to join some of the newbies in Kat’s intro game—a variation on Dragon magazine’s “Dead By Dawn”. Our 2nd level heroes took on the horror of the classic zombie-survival movie, as we were besieged by undead on all sides. My paladin, Alain, was up to his eyeballs in heresy to smite!

Friday Night: "Dead by Dawn!"

The game ran particularly well, especially considering the number of players at the table. D&D, much as I love it, tends to break down with more than 6 players, and the 8 we had around the table did slow things down a touch. However, Kat kept the game moving efficiently, which did a lot to keep people active and enjoying. My only real complaint would be that the pre-gen characters were a little underwhelming; the half-elf ranger had a feat that he couldn’t even use, and both my paladin and the cleric were utterly inept at the Religion skill! But, these were minor quibbles in the midst of a grand time.

The next day meant an early rise, so that I could get prepped for a day of WEGS demos at Champion City Comic Con in Springfield. I’ve typically enjoyed CCCC, as it’s staffed by great people who have a real commitment to providing an excellent con experience. The vendor hall, much like last year, was fully stocked, though I must say, I didn’t find much that I really wanted from them. But, then again, I didn’t come to CCCC just to buy comics—there were Cold Rolls to throw down!

Saturday, all-day: Champion City Comic Con--2010

Throughout the day, I ran 3 of my 4 scheduled WEGS demos—providing two groups of unlucky Arks a confrontation with a dragon, while another group headed down to the Tongue o’ Dung for for some rest, relaxation, and pyromania. This was the first time since Origins that I ran game using the revised rules and, man, do they make things easy on the Arks! Both groups managed to take down my Dragon with few problems. So much for that vaunted 88% Invulnerability! It's time to up my game!

I did manage some better luck in “Dwarf Walks…”, as the Mage player set off a Molten Storm in the midst of the bar! No self-lovin’ Ogwhump is ever gonna let that stand! In fact, as the Mage was running from the Ogwhump, he managed to get cornered by Borkfu, and splattered all over the wall! Off to the Spheres you go, mon ami!

I must have been doing something right, because two of the demo players stuck around after the Con for a delve into madness in my playtest debut of “WEGS + Cthulhu = WEGSthulhu!” Joined by Savage Chris, Will the ManMan, and Jake the Frosh, we broke out the d10s and d6s once more…

I’ve gotta say: I’ve played a lot of WEGS in my day. I’ve been on-board since 2005, and have played almost every scenario El Willy’s put out on the con-circuit. This one, WEGSthulhu, is going to be a classic, up there with “Dwarf Walks…”, “The Yawlamoo,” and “Dingbitt’s Dunge-o’-Doom”. The Hero/Cultist mechanic worked perfectly, providing just the right dash of Paranoia to the game. All hail Friend Cthulhu!

Unfortunately for the Arks (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it!), the Arks failed to stop Randolph Carter from opening the portal in Carcosa—apparently he was a Cultist the whole time! Who knew?!—and Mighty Cthulhu rose up. Carter, of course, was awarded the highest of honors: being devoured first! Due to a well-placed “Fear My Lyrd” spell by Will’s (secretly Cultist!) sage, the heroic Arks could only flee for their lives before the combined cultist might.

Even after a late night—we wrapped up around 12:30am—I was up the next day, dice and poker chips in hand, for our first session of Deadlands. After rolling up characters, which was surprisingly fast, considering that over half of the group has barely played in Savage Worlds and were starting with “Seasoned” characters.

Sunday Afternoon: Deadlands--"Doomtown or Bust!"

After only about an hour, the group was ready to throw down. Starting off in The Busted Mug Tavern and Saloon, in Amarillo, the group made the unfortunate acquaintance (via a botched Spellcasting roll as the PlatinumChick attempted to cheat at poker) of Josiah Riggins, a self-absorbed layabout way too eager for a bar-fight.

For “disturbin’ the peace”, the group found themselves all together in the Amarillo drunk tank, cooling off, while Deputy Wingard wrangled some favors to avoid having charges pressed against the group. Released in the morning, we'll see exactly how much trouble they can get up to next Sunday!

By the by, I've already started an Obsidian Portal wiki to chronicle all of our intrepid gunslingers' actions. Check it in the links tab on the right side, or at the following link: Deadlands--"Follow the Walkin' Man"