In this episode, Ethan, Noah, Jeremy, and Nathan talk about what you can do to reward your players, and how you can punish them, and how to translate that into your game. From the piles of loot to those chancy role-playing rewards.
In the Three Parter, Noah raves about Pinnacle Entertainment’s Deadlands Noir, Jeremy talks about What We’re Into with Civilization V, Ethan finally gets around to reviewing Space Hulk: Death Angel from Fantasy Flight Games, and Nathan starts off cordial and ends up Ranting on a few random things when he talks about Guild Wars 2 and Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition.
Things wrap up with some Random Encounters – wherein a goal is set for 50 pins on the Minion Map by the 100th episode!
Kickstarters featured in this episode:
- Pathfinder Online
- Guide to Glorantha
- Blackwater Gulch: Rebels & Reinforcements
- Dizzy Returns
- Tiny Barbarian DX
About Deadlands Noir
New Orleans, 1935. Whoever called this the Big Easy sure got that one wrong. Things are tough all over. Honest work is hard to find, and even dishonest jobs are getting scarce. The one thing that’s not in short supply is trouble. From shady thugs to crooked cops to Mafia soldiers, there’s plenty of characters out there looking to give an honest Joe a hard time.
And that’s not the worst of it.
There are stories going round about things that go bump in the night. Things you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley on a darker night. And those stories aren’t just coming from rummies or saps who read that Epitaph rag.
Still, there are a few heroes left in the concrete jungle. Steely-eyed private dicks, fast-talking grifters, wild-eyed inventors, and shadowy houngans still struggle against the encroaching darkness. With enough moxie—and more than a little luck—they might just be enough to turn the tide.
Deadlands Noir is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the world of Pinnacle Entertainment’s award-winning Deadlands universe. It includes new Edges, Hindrances, and powers, as well as new rules for handling detective work, the state of the Union and the CSA in the Depression-era, a complete Plot Point campaign, and of course, more monsters and ghouls than you can shake a smoking .45 automatic at.
Update! Since we started, we’ve added a number of additional products and rewards, including the Deadlands Noir Companion that adds four new cities with their own dark secrets: Chicago, Lost Angels. Shan Fan, and the City of Gloom!
Deadlands Noir uses the best-selling Savage Worlds rules, and you will need a copy of those to play. Check out the Test Drive version of the rules for free at www.peginc.com! Our Explorer’s Edition of the rules is only $9.99, print OR PDF!
Learn More About Deadlands Noir
About Civilization V
Sid Meier’s Civilization V (also known as Civilization 5 or Civ 5) is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game developed by Firaxis, released onMicrosoft Windows in September 2010 and on Mac OS X on November 23, 2010.
In Civilization V, the player leads a civilization from prehistoric times into the future on a procedurally-generated map, achieving one of a number of different victory conditions through research, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. The game is based on an entirely new game engine with hexagonal tiles instead of the square tiles of earlier games in the series. Many elements from Civilization IVand its expansion packs have been removed or changed, such as religion and espionage (although these were reintroduced in its subsequent expansion). The combat system has been overhauled, removing stacking of military units and enabling cities to defend themselves by firing directly on nearby enemies. In addition, the maps contain computer-controlled city-states as non-player characters that are available for trade, diplomacy and conquest. A civilization’s borders also expand one tile at a time, favoring more productive tiles, and roads now have a maintenance cost, making them much less common.
The game features community, modding, and multiplayer elements. An expansion pack, Civilization V: Gods & Kings, was released on June 19, 2012 in North America and June 22 internationally. It includes features such as religion, espionage, enhanced naval combat and combat AI, as well as nine new civilizations.
About Space Hulk: Death Angel
The corridor seemed to be shrinking as the squad pushed forward, forcing the Blood Angels into a single file line. The shadows on the walls clawed at them, beckoning them into the darkness. As they moved away from the door, the sounds of scratching and shrieking faded to silence.
“They are moving to the vents,” Brother Lorenzo warned. “Watch our flanks!”
But it was too late. The Genestealers appeared all at once from every direction. The Space Hulk erupted into fire and death.
Genestealers have infested a remote Space Hulk called Sin of Damnation and a small squad of Space Marines have been sent to purge this alien threat. The odds are overwhelming and survival is unlikely. It is a bleak undertaking.
Enter the Blood Angels.
Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game is a cooperative card game set in the grim darkness of Warhammer 40,000. Players must work together as an alien menace threatens to devour their hopes of survival. If all Space Marines perish, the players collectively lose. Likewise, if at least one of the surviving Space Marines completes the objective, the players all win!
Playable in under an hour, Death Angel takes 1-6 players straight into the action. Each player takes control of a combat team (or two combat teams if playing with less than four players). If playing solo, the single player controls three combat teams. Combat teams are made up of two unique Space Marines, each with his own flavour and style.
Learn More About Death Angel
About Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny’s Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in the time since the original Guild Wars. The game takes place in a persistent world with a story that progresses ininstanced environments.
Guild Wars 2 claims to be unique in the genre by featuring a storyline that is responsive to player actions, something which is common in single player role-playing games but rarely seen in multiplayer ones. A dynamic event system replaces traditional questing, utilising the ripple effect to allow players to approach quests in different ways as part of a persistent world. Also of note is the combat system, which aims to be more dynamic than its predecessor by promoting synergy between professions and using the environment as a weapon, as well as reducing the complexity of the Magic-style skill system of the original game. As a sequel to Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2 features the same lack of subscription fees that distinguished its predecessor from other commercially developed online games of the time, though a purchase is still required to install the game. As reported by NCsoft and ArenaNet, by September 13th (about 2 weeks after launch), despite temporarily halting first-party sales, the game has sold over 2 million copies. The game’s peak concurrency exceeds 400,000 players.
About Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition
Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is a remake of the role-playing video game Baldur’s Gate and its expansion Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast. The game is set to launch on the PC, iPad, Mac OS X and the Android operating system tablets.
The series, due to contract obligations, is set to be launched on Beamdog for the PC Edition and the Mac App Store for the iPad and Mac OS editions, with it being confirmed that the game will not be available for purchase from Steam or GOG.com. It would later be further confirmed that the game would not only utilize the Beamdog client, but also a launcher available from the Beamdog site.
The remake of Baldur’s Gate is being developed by Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog, which includes many of Bioware’s ex-employees. The game is being published by Atari and was scheduled for the summer of 2012 but the release date was later changed to November. The release will include remastered versions of both Baldur’s Gate and its expansion pack, Tales of the Sword Coast. Overhaul Games is also working on the enhanced edition of Baldur’s Gate II, planning its release in 2013, after the release of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition.
Overhaul Games has clearly stated that the games are more than just remakes of the classic RPG and said that there are many differences between the two versions. Downloadable content will be made available, as well as the ability to mod the game. Overhaul Games has decided to automatically update the game and also to modify it based on suggestions made by users. Beamdog would go on to credit that the Overhaul team had featured over 400 improvements.