Mad Brew Labs

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The Encountered

Mind Storm Labs was nice enough to send me a physical copy of their new creature catalog for their sci-fi game, Alpha Omega. If you are familiar with the Alpha Omega rulebook, then you will find the same attention to detail and production quality in The Encountered, Volume 1.

If you’re not familiar with Alpha Omega, I recommend you check out the core book. It has a fresh rules system that looks crunchy but plays smoothly. The production values are of the highest quality and it also establishes an original post-apocalyptic setting. For more information, you can check out other articles I’ve written about AO.

The Encountered is a hardbound with thick, glossy covers while the pages have a nice weight about them. The interior is full color and clocks in around 300 pages. The Encountered, Volume 1 retails for 39.95. You can even grab a preview of it here.

The Encountered introduces 200 monsters for use with the Alpha Omega roleplaying game. They are broken down into 5 categories (Freaks of Nature, Tech Fiends, Spiritual Creatures, Abominations, and Demons). They are also presented in order of magnitude of relative power, so if you want to step up the opposition, just thumb a couple more pages into the section.

It also gives Game Masters 40 new templates to play with (which means something like 8000 variations of creatures). Another feature is advice spread throughout the book that should help both new and experienced GMs manage their encounters. In fact, there is even an entire chapter dedicated to encounter management.

Their mastery of page navigation (a good example of web UI influencing books) is in force with a sidebar that helps you easily identify where you are at and where you want to go (digital copies, if they exist, should definitely take advantage of this navbar). I mentioned their order of magnitude above and this number is also laid out in an easy to find section of the monster template.

The art in the book maintains a very consistent feel. The art also has its own style, setting it apart from your standard fantasy or science fiction fair. Quite a few if the illustrations are epic and beg to have adventures built around them.

What is pretty cool is that you can also pull fan-made creature resources (which follow the same format as The Encountered) from the fictional The New World Science and Engineering Commission. You can even follow the intrepid researcher, Roger Traffler, in his journey of discovering new life forms on his twitter account.

I love creature compendiums. They are the one type of supplement I am most likely to purchase even if they belong to systems and settings that I do not have any inclination of using. The reason I like creature manuals so much is because one cool monster can inspire me to create entire campaigns or adventures around them.

Even though I have only been able to do a one shot with this book using the Alpha Omega rule set, I heartily recommend this book for AO groups. And if you’re just a fan of creature books, I also recommend you pick up The Encountered!

Listening to: Cavo – Bright Nights, Dark Days – Champaign

RPG Bloggers Network

If you read this blog, you are mostly likely aware that I belong to the RPG Bloggers Network, but you may not have been aware the operators of the network have decided to step down and possibly transfer ownership of the powerful feed aggregator.

If you’re an avid fan of the RPGBN, I wouldn’t worry about anything. Chris Tregenza of 6d6 Fireball is creating a proposal to submit to the soon to be defunct operators. Since his team is the only other proposal I was aware of (the other one having been withdrawn), it seems likely that 6d6 will be hosting the RPGBN soon. Even if the network just closes shop, there are many new feed aggregates popping up such as the Savage Bloggers Network (for Savage Worlds) and RPB Bloggers.

The withdrawn proposal was created by Berin Kinsman of UncleBear. I am going to assume that the RPGBN carried too much baggage (technologically & otherwise) for Berin to want to seriously invest anytime with. So instead, fresh off introducing a new social network for New Mexico fan communities, he has created the Role Play Media Network using the Ning platform.

The RPMN (always room for another acronym) targets podcasters, bloggers, publishers, and their audience and fans. While feeds can be found on the network, its job is not to be a feed aggregator. Its job is to serve as communication hub for RPG fans. So I recommend you go over there and sign up, it already has 220 or more members and growing fast.

Listening to: Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls, & the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool - Sick Bubble-Gun

I have talked about emerging and established technologies and how they could be harnessed to enhance table top roleplaying games before. The digital gaming table is one of my favorite concepts and there appears to be a trend of resourceful individuals and groups developing more examples of these tables.

Previously, I wrote about Shane Deseranno’s interactive game table that worked with Wii technology. Recently, I have seen a few more digital game tables appear on the radar that are using multi-touch technologies. Multi-touch allows users to interface with a program via pressure sensitive screens that can be manipulated with your fingers.

DragonEye: DIY Multi-touch Table

The first example I want to highlight is a DIY multi-touch created by repurposing a PS3 Eye Camera and using Rear Diffused Illumination projection and reacTIVision software built by SpynalTom.

The best part of this build is that SpynalTom is part of a larger DIY community called NUI Group (Natural User Interface), “an open source interactive media community researching and creating machine sensing techniques to benefit artistic, commercial and educational applications.” They have a very informative and active forum where you can follow project builds like SpynalTom’s.

SurfaceScapes Proof of Concept

SurfaceScapes is a team out of the Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University. They have developed a decent proof of concept (prototype) of software/user interface for Dungeons & Dragons on the Microsoft Surface table.

This probably the most polished software I have seen designed to be with a roleplaying game on a digital gaming table. Obviously, the UI needs some tweaking, but I really like what I see. I think it would be even better if you had the option of using traditional dice which could be programmed to be recognized as fiducials (and therefore tracked by the software).

Tomorrow: Touchable Holographs

I am obviously talking about nextgen equipment that has yet to go mainstream with the multi-touch tables. But what is the next logical progression? Touchable Holographic or Augmented Reality displays.

I have also touched upon Augmented Reality (a different, yet similar technology than holograms), but before, where virtual realities are layered atop the real world… now imagine if you could touch it. I’ll leave you to wonder at the possibilities with this video that highlights while I ponder the ways to integrate Google Wave with these things…

Other Technology Focused Articles:

• Untapped Potential of Technology
• Future Potential of Technology
• Augmented Reality “Boardgame”

Listening to: Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls, & the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool - What!?

Well, after almost a week of being down, due to massive server difficulties, the Labs is back up and running. While the Labs was suffering from implosion, I received some interesting emails. One is the following Press Release from Nicolas Logue’s Sinister Adventures:

Announcing The Anarchist Gamemaster Cookbook: Recipes for Games That Don’t Suck

The Anarchist Gamemaster Cookbook

Peer into Nicolas Logue?s demented mind and taste his darkest sanity-shattering gamemaster tricks from a decade teaching theater in NYC, China and London. These forbidden fruits come screaming through the interwebs straight to your home gaming table. For use with any game or system.

Anarchist Gamemaster?s Cookbook is packed full of terrifying advice on gamemastery that Nicolas Logue has never dared share before with man or beast. Secrets that will transform novice gamemasters into towering Gods of Gaming and supply even the most grizzled veteran storytellers with new tricks to slip up their sleeve before the next time the dice hit the table.

What do your favorite movies, books and TV shows have in common? Story, Drama and Action! Don?t let the rules rule you. If story matters then the Anarchist Gamemaster?s Cookbook matters to your game.

Put your humanity at risk with lessons including Improv by the Skin of Your Teeth, Murder Death Kill, Ultimate Climaxes (you know what I mean), Fates Worse Than Death, Soundtracks, Romance, Redemption, God Like Powered Player Characters, Why Dragons Should Always Win and more collected here in one master tome.

• New Twists and Sage Advice on?
• Plot
• Setting
• NPCs
• Villains
• Adventure Design
• Pacing
• Cut Scenes and Fade Outs
• Gripping Backstories
• Hooking the Players
• Spotlighting the PCs
• Improv by the Skin of Your Teeth
• Cinematic Action
• The Art of the One Shot
• Epic Length Campaigns
• Ultimate Climaxes (you know what I mean)
• Motivating Your Players?and Their Characters Too
• Suspense
• Soundtracks for Your Game
• Amnesia
• Nightmares
• Drug Addiction
• Flashbacks
• Fear
• Mind Control
• Romance
• Redemption
• Twists and Turns
• Mysteries
• Noir
• Traps
• Wizard?s Duels Done Right
• God Like Powered Player Characters
• Murder Death Kill!…or?Bringing Combat to Life
• Why Dragons Should Always Win and other Fine Truisms of Good Gamemastery

Besides being a veteran game designer and adventure writer for DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (3&4), DUNGEON magazine, and PATHFINDER, Nicolas Logue is a Professor of World Theater in London, a full instructor with Dueling Arts International, a produced playwright, award winning stage director, and has taught improvisation and acting all over the world. Anarchist Gamemaster?s Cookbook combines Nicolas Logue?s most potent techniques from over a decade in theatre and his demented weekend RPG ramblings into one very extreme tour de force of gamemastery. A must have for any gamemaster of any system, novice or veteran.

ANARCHIST GAMEMASTER COOKBOOK SHIPS IN MARCH 2010. PURCHASE A PRINT COPY AND GET A PDF FREE. PRINT COPIES ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR A SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE. ORDER NOW FOR ONLY $16.99

Check out the first preview, You?ve Got the Fear: http://tinyurl.com/ybuen2v/

To join our mailing list, visit: http://tinyurl.com/yd3482h/

For more, please visit: http://sinisteradventures.com/

Thoughts About the Book

I have read a handful of books dedicated to Game Mastering, including:

• Master of the Game by Gary Gygax
• Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering by Robin Laws
• 1st Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide
• 2nd Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide
• 3rd Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide
• 3rd Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide II
• 4th Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide
• 4th Edition D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide 2

I’ve even thumbed through Hickman’s X-treme Dungeon Mastering book not mention loads of articles about game mastering in magazines and on the web. So when a new book comes along I always wonder if it has something new to say worth investing my money and time.

I think Mr. Logue’s book might actually provide something I think will be worthwhile: his notes on improv. I believe the ability to improvise during  game mastering is the key difference between great GMs and good GMs. So I definitely want to take a look at the Anarchist Gamemaster Cookbook when it releases.

With the XDM, 4e Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, The Anarchist Gamemaster Cookbook, and the upcoming Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide, we appear to be in the  Age of Gamemastering.