Free RPG Day - June 18, 2011

FREE RPG DAY - June 18, 2011

by Derek Brown

In case you missed it, Saturday, June 18th 2011 was FREE RPG Day. Participating games stores gave away a adventures and quick start rules to promote our favorite hobby. One item in particular caught my eye. I'm a Savage Worlds nut and Pinnacle offered The Wild Hunt as their free RPG. I couldn't stand the thought of something I couldn't buy slipping thru my fingers. It's a great intro for a newbie to Savage Worlds. 

[note: at the last minute, Pinnacle has posted The Wild Hunt online! The link above is to a pdf.]

There were over a dozen publisher participants this year and here was the lineup of freebies:

• Amarillo Design Bureau
  Sample (1 per box), Prime Directive Adventure "Starship Aldo" (both d20 & GURPS)
  
• BlackWyrm Games
  Sample (1 per box), XDM Adventure: "Laser Squid Nemesis"
• Blue Panther
Sample (1 per box), Dice Tower
• Chessex
  Silver (4 per box), Commerative Dice For Store Owner
• Eden Studios
  Silver (5 per box), All Flesh Must Be Eaten Quickstart & Adventure
• Exile Game Studios
  Bronze (3 per box) ,Hollow Earth Expedition Quickstart & Adventure
• Fantasy Flight Games
  Gold (10 per box), Black Crusade Quickstart and Adventure
• Flying Buffalo
  Sample (1 per box), Tunnels & Trolls Solo Adventure, "Rescue Mission"
• Goodman Games
  Silver (5 per box), DCC RPG Quickstart
• Green Ronin
  Gold (10 per box), DragonAge Quickstart
• Paizo
  Platinum (15 per box), "We Be Goblins!" Pathfinder Adventure
• Paradigm Concepts
  Bronze (3 per box), Arcanis RPG Quickstart & Adventure
• Pinnacle
  Bronze (3 per box), Savage Worlds Quickstart & Adventure, titled "The Wild Hunt"
• Q-Workshop
  Silver (5 per box), Unique Elven-themed Dice
• Stone Tablet Games
  Bronze (3 per box), Aspect Quickstart Adventure
• Troll Lord Games
  Sample (1 per box), Castles & Crusades Quickstart and Adventure
• Valkyrie Games
  Sample (1 per box), Stellar Horizons Quickstart
• White Wolf Publishing
  Gold (10 per box), World of Darkness Quickstart
• Wizards of the Coast
  Platinum (15 per box), "Domain of Dread: Histhaven" D&D 4th Edition Supplement to the box set "The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond"
• Mayfair
  Free Bonus Item, Settlers of Catan: Catanimal Variant rules (single page paper insert)

I live in Southern California in North County San Diego. It's the most temperate area of the continental United States keeping an average temperature of 70 degrees with beautiful, blue skies. It's paradise! Which is where one of my Favorite Local Game Stores is located. Paradise, or, as their name implies: Pair - A - Dice Games.

I arrived at 9:55am and there was a line of 40-50 already. Rob, the owner of Pair-A-Dice, was out side giving instructions for Free RPG Day:

1. One "freebie" for anyone
2. A second "freebie" for Pair A Dice Games Royalty Rewards members
3. A third "freebie" if you bought $10+ of product in the store. 

I took the opportunity to buy "Daring Tales of the Space Lanes Compendium One" That qualified me for my 3rd freebie.

When I picked up the Daring Tales Compendium, there was a group of kids going thru the Pinnacle section. One was going thru the Savage Foes of Solomon Kane!  Wow, at his age I was playing Monopoly, Sorry, and Clue. I didn't get into DnD until I was 16. So many kids are into the collectible card games that it was a pleasant surprise to see one looking at a real RPG. 

I ended up getting 3 freebies and spent some time with fellow gamers. Some folks had driven

quite a distance as Pair-A-Dice was the only San Diego store participating. One gentleman just moved here from the east coast and was getting back into gaming. He purchases a pile of books so I can see how Free RPG Day was a clever idea.

 A little bit of excitement above and beyond getting freeies occured when a crew from the Pixelated Geek podcast. They interviewed those of us in line, including yours truly, and asked which freebie we wanted and why. I shared that I wanted to make sure I got the Savage Worlds product you couldn't buy! The big guy in the green shirt ran the camera/recorder, another gentleman did the interviews, and a lady ran around taking pictures everywhere. I can't wait to see their show.

Right down the road from Pair-A-Dice games is the 15 screen Krikorian Theatre and Green Lantern has opened. "In brightest day...in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lanter's light!!" I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

You couldn't have planned a better Geek Gamer Weekend.

Hellfrost Character: Seamus O'Thay

The following character was used in Bryan Meadows Hellfrost scenario from Triple Ace Games. I had fun with the character who played well against Matt Jackson's muscle-bound Bullwolfie character. Seamus managed to get Bullwolfie into a fist duel with three warehouse guards while he taunted the guards from the sidelines allowing their dwarf companion the chance to search the grounds for clues.

He was a good character and I'm sad I didn't get a chance to play more of him. Feel free to use and abuse Seamus as you please.

Rank/Race: Novice (0 xps)/Hearth Elf
Attributes: Agility (d8), Smarts (d6), Spirit (d8), Strength (d6), Vigor (d4),
Skills: Fighting (d6), Guts (d4), Intimidation (d6+2), Notice (d4), Persuasion (d4), Shooting (d6), Taunt (d6+2), Throwing (d4), Faith (d6)
Derived: Pace 6, Parry 6, Charisma 0, Toughness 7(2), Faith Power Points: 20
Hindrances: Major: Curious Minor: Novate, Black Sheep
Edges: AB-Miracles(Priest of the Unnamed God), Strong Willed
Gear: Arrow x40, Arrow - Armor Piercing x20, Arrow- Flesh Ripper x20, Bow, Leather Shirt, Long Spear
Powers: fear, shape change, mimic

Seamus is a priest of the unnamed god who delights in tricks and learning through hardship. Seamus follows his gods' example attempting to trick his opponents early in each combat. He believes, sometimes erroneously, that his is smart enough to get out of any situation his mouth gets him into.

2010 ENnie Nominees

The ENnie nominations are in. Voting begins this Friday (7/16). Drop by their web site to see a full list of nominees.

Sadly, only the Hellfrost Bestiary made it from the Savage Worlds game system. Its a scandal, a scandal I tell you. Good Luck to Wiggy and the other Triple Acers. Wiggy produces incredibly rich content and I highly recommend the entire Hellfrost series.

Congrats also to Hero Games for multiple nominations in the Best Interior Art, Best Game, and Best Rules category for Hero System 6th Edition and a nomination for Best Supplement titled Lucha Libre Hero, the game of heroic, horror fighting, masked, Mexican wrestlers.  Jack Black would be proud.

Interview with Paul 'Wiggy' Wade-Williams of Triple Ace Games

Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams is one of the most prolific writers in the gaming industry. If you don't believe it, just Google his name and count the products he's authored. Wiggy has played RPGs for over twenty-five years and has been a published author since 1998, having written for Atlas Games, Eden Studios, Britannia Games Design, Kenzer & Co., Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Green Ronin.

He and his wife of seven years, Maggie, live on the Shetland Islands where life is slow, the community spirit is strong, the folk are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful. While not participating in the annual tradition of burning a Viking Longship, Wiggy serves as the creative director for Triple Ace Games, producing such titles as Hellfrost, Daring Tales, Necropolis, Sundered Skies, and Wonderland No More.

Recently, Wiggy took time out of his busy production schedule to answer a few questions for The Dice of Life.

Sundered Skies - Triple Ace Games

Author: Dave Blewer

Producer: Triple Ace Games (originally produced by Pinnacle Entertainment Group)

Genre: Fantasy

Price: Setting $34.99 (book) $24.99 (pdf), Players Guide $14.99 (pdf)



While killing time the other day I went into the Dragon's Lair in Austin, Texas. I remember now why I don't go into game stores often: cuz I buy stuff. At one point I had Deadlands: Reloaded, Rune Punk, Pirates of the Spanish Main and Sundered Skies in my Troll claws. Eventually I put two of the books back and walked out of there with Sundered Skies and Pirates.

The Pirates book still sits on my bookshelf, waiting patiently while I devour the contents of Sundered Skies. I have to admit, I really like this settings.

The Premise

The history of Sundered Skies involves a god's war between the gods of the elves, dwarfs, humans, orcs and drakin and the Demon King. Five heroes, one from each race, rose to the challenge and defeated the Demon King cutting his indestructible heart out. The gods then shattered and reformed their world around the heart.

The gods named the new world Heartland and created a Soul Shield around it with the souls of those who worshiped the Demon King. The five heroes paid the ultimate price and also merged with the shield to ensure its integrity.

Millennia passed but the demons finally found Heartland. Heroes once again rallied to save the world but realized, too late, that the demonic attack was a trick. The demons real goal was to suck the world of Heartland into the Abyss. They succeeded.

The Demon King's Heart, sensing its body nearby, began beating again. This shattered the world of Heartland killing millions. The gods were cut off from most of their power and were weakened by the lost demonic battle but still they did what they could creating the Sundered Skies from the remnants of Heartland.

Some of gods went insane. The god of the oceans became the Glow, an ever present light in the Skies. Prolonged exposure to the Glow drives one insane. The god of the elves has been corrupted and while the elves aren't completely evil, they are lead by a queen with dark intent creating slave races of Ferals and Wildlings.

Other gods took their race in a new direction. The god of the orcs tamed (somewhat) the race. While the orcs still enjoy battle and cloak themselves in honor they have, for the most part, given up their lives of nomadic raiders and live alongside the other races in relative peace.

The god of the dwarfs did the most to save those it could and was the chief architect of the Skies.

Now islands float between the icy above and a fiery below. Sky Ships sail the winds between the islands held aloft by some unknown force of the gods. Each race has its own type of ship. Elves grow their ships that have huge leaves as sails. Dwarfs have steam driven iron clads complete with cannons. Human fly galleons much like those of Europe's 1600s. Orcs have huge war rafts powered by goblin slaves. The draconic Drakin build ships shaped like their dragon cousins powered by large wings.

The Book

I found the book well laid out with nice artwork. The pages are parchment colored with clearly readable text (something that is not always true of the Solomon Kane production). Note that the book does not contain the core rules. You'll need to purchase those separately.

Only half the book contains rules. The remainder is setting and scenarios (lots of scenarios) and creatures. Many of the creatures are those affected by glow madness and transformed into raving, rending versions of their former selves.

Quite a few pages contain information about the trapped gods, both sane and helpful and insane and baleful. Each god/goddess has specific trappings for the spells they grant the priests of their order. Since the gods are trapped within the Skies characters chances of interacting with them is higher than a normal fantasy setting.

Inside Baseball

The creators of Sundered Skies recently separated from Pinnacle forming their own company named Triple Ace Games. They have two product lines: Sundered Skies and Necropolis. In my opinion this will hurt Pinnacle due to the loss of two very talented writers but the fact that Triple Ace only has these two product lines (at present) I suspect that means lots of supplemental products for Skies and Necropolis will surface soon.

Conclusion

I don't like the fact that the core rules aren't contained in the setting book. SW rules are fairly brief and so it wouldn't have added greatly to the cost. At the same time I understand leaving them out due to space and cost considerations. It will be interesting to see if the rules are contained inside the Players Guide.

Sundered Skies is a quality product. The setting is incredibly rich but has an incredible amount of room for a GM to claim as his own with new sky islands and ships.

The product gets four out of five dwarf skulls for quality and content.