$14.95 right now at gamersgate.com.

[tags]video games, mount & blade[/tags]

So, down to business.  Is Half-Blood Prince a good film?  In my opinion it is not only a great film, but might just be the best of the series to date.  It is as faithful to the source material as can be done in 2.5 hours.  In fact, my only complaint about content is that the sub-plot about Tonks and Lupin is cut, a cut that was necessary as it was a side story largely (okay, fine almost entirely) irrelevant to the main story.  Really I only complain because Tonks is my favorite character from the franchise.  While the story of Half-Blood Prince is darker than the previous film it doesn’t feel that way because it is also one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in recent memory.  Little jokes are sprinkled liberally throughout the film, yet I don’t remember any of them failing to be at least amusing.  My favorites I’ll refrain from repeating to avoid spoilers, but very early in the film Dumbledore takes Harry somewhere and then says,

You’re probably wondering why I brought you here Harry.

Honestly, Professor, after six years I’ve learned to just go with it.

It’s not laugh out loud funny, but with so many similar exchanges in the film (and some that are good for a big laugh) it saves the tone from being too dark for kids.  Oh, on that note, the potential scenes of blood and/or gore in the film are shot carefully for the little kids sake, though there is still a fair bit of violence and blood in the film, to the point that it pushes the PG rating towards PG-13. (For those of you using a different rating system, PG means Parental Guidance Suggested, so good for kids but not little kids, while PG-13 means parents with kids under 13 should think carefully about taking them to see it… not that many do sadly)

Anyway, if you love Harry Potter you’ve probably already seen it or were planning to anyway.  For those that aren’t, I urge you to see it.  It is a great, fun, film appropriate for all ages, something we’ve been lacking recently; with films like Transformers 2 and Land of the Lost that in theory are for kids but in reality ended up too crass and inappropriate to really enjoy, especially for parents taking their kids to see.  For those of you that have never seen a Potter film, I would actually suggest you read up on the first five on wikipedia and go see it, there are certainly worse ways to be introduced to Harry Potter and it is better seen on the big screen.

See if you can spot it.  Click the picture for a bigger version.

I can also tell you that no, it’s not really a ghost. It’s not even close.  I enjoy fiction as much as the next geek but I’m not terribly convinced there’s much to any supernatural claims.  So I made my own ghost pic.  It sure was fun though.

[tags

PC gamers will get the ultimate Resident Evil package in the new PC version as new features will include NVIDIA®’s new GeForce® 3D Vision technology (wireless 3D Vision glasses sold separately), new costumes and a new and improved mercenaries mode with three times as many enemies.

Click the image for a larger version.

Fans that pick up the PC version will be the first to experience stereoscopic 3D out of screen effects as their living rooms are transformed into the world of Kijuju. Infected Majini coming at players from every angle, dust flying in and out of screen and the scariest bosses to date are taken up a notch. Resident Evil 5 PC is a whole new level of fear players will never forget. The game also supports Stereoscopic 3D in all of its cut scenes – an industry first.

These groundbreaking stereoscopic 3D effects were developed in close cooperation with NVIDIA, which resulted in the game being part of NVIDIA’s “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” partnership program. Resident Evil fans can check out the 3D action for themselves today as a new stereo 3D tech demo with benchmark is available to download today on NVIDIA’s official site at -http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_re5_downloads.html.

[tags]resident evil 5, quotes, FSM, 3d, video games[/tags]

Here are 10 of them.

1. Charisma doesn’t just mean “looks”.
2. It’s not about winning.
3. Staying up all night to have fun isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
4. Some times you just have to risk it and roll the dice.  Even if you fail, you’ll probably still gain experience
5. Money may not buy happiness but it can pay for henchmen.
6. When you try to show off, your chances of a critical fumble increase ten fold.
7. It’s good to know the rules well enough to know when to change them.
8. Being kind to NPCs can lead to some interesting and rewarding experiences.
9. No matter how well you plan an adventure, those going on it will find a way to take you in a different direction than anticipated.
10. Subtlety and intelligence can take you just as far as strength and forcefulness.

Take them for what they are, axioms that have helped me and may help you as well.

[tags]role playing games, rpg, dungeons & dragons[/tags]

I can’t vouch for their content but the price is great.

[tags]free, books, amazon[/tags]

Cross-legged and straight-backed I bowed my head and gazed at the threadbare rug beneath me. Smoke and the scent of incense whirled inside the faded tent walls making my nose itch.

A disturbance – the tent-flap opened; sun scorched earth and dry grass replaced incense and smoke. I sighed quietly.

A boy, barely nine summers, fell to his knees before me cradling something gently in his hand, eyes downcast awaiting my permission to speak. I knew him. His father had been one of our best, certain to command until those from the east had come with their savage need for control and conquest. This boy’s father had died defending our herds from their avarice, his many wounds showing how fiercely he had fought, the trail behind him showing how many days he had dragged himself towards our camp before death took his soul. For that I would allow the boy to speak.

“Yes my son.”

He held out his cupped hand showing me what he held so carefully.

A feather.

I shifted position, reaching out to pluck the feather from the small, trembling hand. His prize relinquished, the boy scuttled backwards out of the tent and I was once more alone.

It was not just any feather. This was a primary feather from our clan bird; mottled brown and gold, its paler tip the colour of the sandy shore of the Revered Lake. I puzzled as to where the boy could have found this. We had no sight of our clan spirit guide for many, many moons.

We, the Eagle Clan, had lost our spirit as we had our spirit guide. When those from the east had driven through our land as a plague, thieving and killing our herds and clan alike, our clan bird had been absent. Despite prayers, pleas and fasting he had remained so. Our clan was losing – our men killed or so injured they could not fulfil their place, our women often no longer carried to term. Being harried from place to place, further from our sacred grounds and rich hunting spaces meant privitations for all but it was our future that we lost the most. Babies slipped from their mother’s womb moons before they should. Those that waited for the allotted time were born stick-thin and grew little; their mother’s milk being scant through lack of food.

I was their Chief; for them, in this place, I would make the ultimate sacrifice in hope of appeasing our spirit guide and returning it to us together with prosperity.

But now here was this feather in my calloused hand. Was it a sign? Approval of what I was about to do or to show me I need not pay the blood price; that I should continue on, trusting myself to find the path through these harsh times.

I was still young. I so badly wanted to believe this was a sign that I could live. My wife was barely showing the life growing inside her that we had created. I wanted to be there when our child was born. I wanted to watch and teach and love this continuation of my line. But what is a sacrifice if there is no sacrifice? I had at least been allowed to create this life; my line would carry on now. It would not die with me.

Or would it?

If I did not pay the required price perhaps my child too would die like many of the rest. Perhaps my sacrifice was necessary to allow him (or her, I smiled at the thought of a girl-child sat on my knee and twisting my heart around her finger) to live on, to grow strong, to lead our people to safety and plenty.

My legs protested at the movement as I stood. I brushed the dust from my leggings and straightened my best tunic, a bride-gift from my wife, heavily embroidered and beaded with the colours of our clan guide. I gazed again at the feather, wishing I could have definitive proof that what I was about to do was the correct path to take. I pushed the tent-flap to one side and stepped into the bright sunshine.

The whole clan sat waiting patiently, from the youngest babe suckling at his mother’s flaccid breast to the elder mother leaning on her daughter, my wife. We were so small in numbers now. I knew what to do.

I smiled happily at my beautiful life-mate. Her brown hair shone in the late morning sun, I felt the warmth of her eyes as they met mine, warmer than the hottest flame and just for me. I felt blessed to have been chosen for her and her for me.

As the sun rose to its mid-point I walked through the gathered clan-folk towards the edge of the cliff that marked the end of our known territory. We had been pushed so far from what we knew. I gazed down the red rock face to the trickle of river below. Except that was no trickle, it was a mighty river of white water and fast rapids. That river was our hope and our fear. Hope that we could cross it to the grasslands beyond and flourish in a new territory far from eastern marauders. Fear that the way down would be too much for our people, that many would die either then or in the crossing, that there would not be enough clan left to be a clan, that the Eagle Clan would die on foreign plains without the spirits of our clan guide and ancestors to watch over us.

My right foot was reluctant to step forwards but my will was strong as was my belief that this was right, this would bring our spirit guide back and our clan would continue on growing and living and laughing and working. I stood with my toes on the very edge and closed my eyes in preparation for what I must do. Gripping the feather stem in my fingers I held my arm out over the edge of the precipice. And let go.

The feather circled downwards on the breeze and my soul circled upwards to meet our clan guide.

“Follow”.

I opened my eyes and looked downwards, my toes on the edge. The feather was no longer borne by the breeze. It flew straight down and to the left, following the curve of the river. As my eyes followed the feather they noted something missed before; as the river curved it also widened and gentled.

I took a step backwards and turned to my people, our clan guide again hovering above them.

“Prepare. We descend tomorrow. I see a place to cross.”

Sports in general I get. There were times when I was an avid Frisbee player, a collegiate fencer, a 5-days-a-week weight lifter and a paint ball fiend. I get exerting your body in a quest to be better than you were before. I get competition. But I don’t get many of the current popular sports and why people are paid millions upon millions of dollars to participate in them.

Would I take a six million dollar deal to play on the Patriots? Yes sir, in a heartbeat. I’d take my money, do my best and go away after my contract scratching my head and wondering why anyone would want to give me that much money to chase a ball in tight pants.

There are a lot of potential debates in this essay and probably some hate mail but I’d like to skip all of that and move directly to my take on the current popular sports and what perhaps could make them more interesting. It shall go without saying (after I say it at least once of course) that I don’t believe anyone should be paid massive amounts of money to play a game – be it football or WoW.   If that is going to happen and let’s face it, most highly paid athletes aren’t just in it for the game, then they should at least give us more bang for our $120 tickets.

1. Football. This to me has always been a game that’s loosely based on hunting pigs. You got this slippery ball that two groups of men are clambering after, just to get the honor of bringing it home. I expect there’s a lot less ass-slapping and a lot more goring in real pig hunting than in football but honestly I’ve not done either myself. It certainly would be a lot more interesting to me if there was a live boar with seven inch tusks and a demonic hatred of all Mankind facing off against twenty guys with spears and loose bowels. Somehow I don’t think that will happen any time soon, unless it happens on Survivor.

I’d also find myself feeling sorry for the pig who never signed on for the gig and who wouldn’t get a paycheck at all. What would really make football more interesting to me would be a no salary rule. Players could play for the money they’d make in endorsements and from fan donations. Then we’d have a game worth watching and players who cared about their fans.

2. Cricket. I don’t know what the hell is going on here. This is the only professional sport I’ve ever witnessed that features snacks. It reminds me of playing soccer as an 11 year old and getting into the sliced oranges at halftime or half-game or whatever the hell it was. I don’t even pretend to understand cricket but I will admit to a certain joy in watching it. I can pull in three of the most rabid football fans and watch as they scratch their heads for a change and wait for someone to hit someone else with that big stick.

Yes, Cricket needs a bit more depth I think.  My vote would be to add badgers to the pitch.  Those critters are nasty when it comes to defending their territory (the pitch) and would add some much needed action and excitement to the sport.

3. Basketball. Okay, here’s a sport that I do admit to a certain joy in watching. It’s an elegant game of catch the ball and put it somewhere. But it’s still a bunch of people, tall people mostly, chasing after a ball. I think this game would be a lot more interesting if the shot clock was reduced to say 12 seconds and the ball was set to explode on second 13. Not a bomb type explosion but more of an exploding cigar explosion, with streamers and red smoke. Just enough to make a grown man scream like a little girl and go running in the other direction for three or four steps before recovering his composure. That and widen the courts by about a hundred yards. Throwing some zero G in there would be nice or is that just my geek showing through.

4. Wrestling. I’ve seen real, Greco-Roman wrestling and this is something that for once doesn’t involve balls. It’s got two people trying their best to subdue each other. It’s a test of strength, speed and endurance. Unfortunately this isn’t what I’d call a popularly televised sport.  To make the sport more popular, each match should begin with a nice dance routine, move into the realm of burlesque and end with both opponents in brightly colored,  form fitting wrestling spandex.

WWF wrestling on the other hand, I just lump this under theater and move on.

5. Any Martial Art. Martial arts are for me a thing apart from other sports. There’s just something about driving your body well past what many people would think of as good conditioning into doing things that most people would consider plain, flat out impossible. These folks have their bodies trained to the point where they do most of their thinking about 2.7 seconds after the fight is over. BAM! Tut… tut… say, did that gentleman just swing at me? Need a hand up mate?  Matches are lacking a certain something though in appeal to modern television audiences.  I would therefor suggest immersing both contestants up to the neck in clear gelatin.  Fruit accents can be added as deemed necessary. This would bring the match down to a speed readily followed by us mere slap fighters.

6. Fencing.  Having fenced for a year I can say that nothing I’ve ever done compares to having your body react as a machine. Your eyes see something, it goes straight to the motor part of your brain, bypassing the consciousness completely and then to the bit of your body trained to do something. It’s a true joy to experience and can be dead boring to watch.

Watching a fencing match is like watching two people simper up to each other, make whooshing noises while blurring their hands in frenzied motion and then suddenly standing still and glancing about. Other martial arts are a bit more fun to watch when people get thrown about or do dangerous moves with extremely pointy things. Alas, I don’t think this will ever catch on as a mainstream sport unless a few changes are made.  Replacing  all of the fencing blades with replica light sabers is a good start.  That alone would bring in a wider audience and a sweet licensing deal for Lucasarts.

7. Baseball. This is like a rational version of cricket. It’s so rational that most of it involves sitting on a bench or standing around waiting for someone to do something with a ball. There are bursts of action followed by more sitting and standing. This goes on for a few hours and then the team who runs fastest and hits balls furthest wins.

It is my heartfelt belief that one minor change would make this game infinitely more interesting to watch and to play. Simply place large numbers on the bases, 1-4 and then rearrange them before each at-bat in a random order. Watching players scramble about trying to find out where the hell third base got to would be wicked.

8. Hockey. Take the ball and flatten it, take the bats and flatten them, then take the noses of players and flatten them. Throw the whole mix on a near frictionless surface and mix liberally with some non-denominational martial arts and that to me is hockey.

What would make this sport better? I’ve got two simple suggestions. The first would be to remove the skates and replace the ice with about three inches of clear, lime flavored Jello. That would add a certain element to the game, as well as providing for a snack a la cricket. Another suggestion would be to keep the ice, but require that any player take 3-4 shots of either vodka, tequila or blended whiskey before they hit the ice. Each time they entered the penalty box they’d also have to chug a beer.  Now the fans can identify more directly with the players at a game and if we were to throw a table out on the ice, there’s a good chance a player would be dancing on it shortly.

9. Bonus paragraph.  Make Blood Bowl real.  Sure, real races other than human may be hard to come by, but I’m okay with an all human league.   That is all.

[tags]sports, ben, ramblings[/tags]

Defy hostile alien abductors and fight your way off of the massive Mothership Zeta, orbiting Earth miles above the Capital Wasteland. Mothership Zeta takes Fallout 3 in an entirely new direction – outer space. Meet new characters and join with them in a desperate bid to escape the Aliens’ clutches. To do so, you’ll wield powerful new weapons, like the Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrator, and Drone Cannon, and deck yourself out in brand new outfits, like the Gemini-Era Spacesuit and even Samurai Armor.

A strange Alien signal is being broadcast throughout the Capital Wasteland, originating from a crashed UFO. Is it a distress call, or something far more sinister? That question is answered when you find yourself beamed aboard an enormous Alien spacecraft, with only one alternative – to fight your way to the bridge of the ship and secure your escape.

[tags]fallout 3, dlc, mothership zeta, video games[/tags]

Now we want to pass this enjoyment on to you, our readers!  Z-Man Games has generously given us two copies of Bridge Troll to hand out to you!

We’re going to make this pretty easy on you.  If you want a chance to score yourself a copy, mailed directly to you, here’s what you have to do.

1. Go to our Interview with Alf and Ryan.  Find out which film is one of Alf’s favorite Bollywood films.
2. Email us using our contact page – put Bridge Troll in the subject and be sure to use a valid email so we can contact you if you win!

That’s it!  This contest will run for one week, closing on Tuesday, July 21st at midnight, EST so get your entries in before then!

• The winners will be chosen at random via a random number generator.  Here are a few rules and declarations:
• You must be at least 13 years of age.
• You can’t work for Troll in the Corner or Z-Man Games.
• You have to be in the US.
• Only one entry per person.
• Contest ends July 21st at Midnight, EST.
• All decisions by the TC team (which includes the random number generator) are final.
• We won’t do anything with your email address.  After the contest is over, all entries will be deleted.  We don’t sell, give away or otherwise exploit emails.

Enjoy!

[tags]contest, bridge troll, free board game[/tags]

Currently on episode 62, the 20-something minute podcasts are spanning the entire history of the Roman empire, from Aeneas’s (Aeneaus’?  The grammatical evidence I’m finding points both ways) arrival in Italy to currently Claudius taking control after Caligula’s interesting time in power.

Mike’s podcasts are extremely accessible, with just the right dash of humor thrown in to lighten the sometimes weighty subjects being dealt with.  Even the non-history buff will be entertained.  For me, as a lover of history, Mike delivers his almost weekly take on Roman history the way many of my favorites history professors do.  With interesting anecdotes, great storytelling and a flair for finding the ‘neato’ points throughout the long Roman rule.

[tags]history, rome, podcasts, literature[/tags]

Image:  CC licensed

Did you ever want to know what it takes to make a game?  I know I’ve spent a lot of time playing them, in my spare time I’ve even outlined and toyed around with some game designs myself.  There’s a lot more to it though than a quick idea and a few test plays.

We’ve announced and then reviewed the game Bridge Troll here previously.  Now I’ve sat down with it’s designer, Alf Seegert and the fellow responsible for Bridge Troll’s wonderful art, Ryan Laukat.  We passed a whole truckload of electrons back and forth and I ended up with an excellent conversation on what makes folks like Alf and Ryan tick and how that evolves into a game you and I can play on our dining room tables.

Alf and the Fremont Troll (click the picture for more info)

TC: When you designed Bridge Troll, what came first – game mechanics or the idea of a troll living under a bridge?  Can you tell us a bit about your design process?

Alf: For me, themes almost always show up first—and they seem to find me rather than my finding them. I bump into something in a story or the real world and ask myself “how might that be turned into a game?” Even mundane things can evoke interesting game mechanics. My wife and I were walking Mia, a friend’s Great Dane/Labrador, and we noticed how deliberate she was (the dog, not my wife) about where she peed and where she didn’t. Before long I had a game design about rival dogs competing to mark their territory. I came up with what I thought was a clever little bidding system and used shiny little glass pieces as, well, urine drops.

Bridge Troll came out of encountering a statue in downtown Salt Lake City depicting a woman leading sheep across a wooden bridge. It struck me as (perversely) funny imagining someone putting one of those crazy-haired naked troll dolls under the bridge to extort and eat those above. That led me to ask the simple question “what would it be like to BE that troll under the bridge?” Stories about trolls tend to take the perspective of the Three Billy Goats Gruff or of Bilbo and the Dwarves in The Hobbit, or of some other outsider. But it’s a lot more interesting (I think) to consider how the miserable troll has to actually make a living! If you’re stuck living under a bridge, what do you eat? What use do you have for money, anyway? And if travelers crossing your bridge become your bread and butter, how do you decide which travelers to eat and which to extort? And how do you get travelers to cross your bridge in the first place? It’s those sorts of dilemmas that can suggest interesting game mechanics.

I guess I was aiming to do with Bridge Troll as a game what John Gardner did as a novel with Grendel, which takes the narrative point of view of the monster in Beowulf. (I should note that with respect to trolls, the Moomintroll books are a delightful exception to the “outsider” point of view, though these trolls are domesticated beyond all recognition. Both Neil Gaiman’s and Terry Pratchett’s independently crafted “Troll Bridge” stories do brilliant work making you see things from the troll’s point of view as well. And remember the vicious Cave Troll in Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring? Peter Jackson actually felt bad for him, and imagined this poor troll was always mistreated by the Orcs and that his Troll-mum was waiting for him at home, cookies and milk awaiting, but after a nasty encounter with terrible elves, dwarves, and men, he somehow never makes it back….)

TC: Do you generally work on the mechanics of a game first and then fit that into a theme, develop the theme first or find some combination of the two at once works best for you?

Alf: Again, for me it’s theme that leads the way. So far, anyway. I’m a big fan of games that integrate theme and mechanics tightly. For me, mechanical problems in a game design are usually solved not by tinkering with the mechanics but by going back and re-examining the thematic elements. Sometimes an entire game can shift by re-theming it and closely inquiring into the new thematic elements (consider Richard Ulrich and Wolfgang Kramer’s game El Grande, which was originally set in the Trojan War). Certain designers can design a game purely with mechanics and then paste an interchangeable theme on top of it. Reiner Knizia, for instance, is good at this (his brilliant Through the Desert game with camel trains was, I believe, a hotel-chain game originally). I just can’t do that. To spur creative excitement I need concrete images and some sort of story. The particular theme and images sometimes do get discarded and replaced—but that doesn’t mean I didn’t need them in the first place to get me moving.

TC: While you were in Seattle, standing on the actual bridge troll, did you ever feel a moment of trepidation wondering if the universe was about to take you out in an extremely ironic twist of fate?

Alf: Ha! I love that Fremont Troll. I made sure to empty my pockets beforehand, and because I’m a skinny guy, I had to trust that I was worth neither extorting nor eating. But based on what that troll is grasping in his left hand, I am going to be particularly careful next time I’m driving a Volkswagen Beetle across a bridge.

TC: How long did it take for Bridge Troll to go from a twinkle in your eye to a product announced by Z-Man games?

Alf: It took a long time. I remember playing an early prototype of Bridge Troll while waiting in line for The Two Towers. That was 2002!  Bridge Troll was a finalist in the German prototype design competition Hippodice in 2005 and spent a few years bouncing around from publisher to publisher before finding its true home with Z-Man. I’m not by nature a patient person, but stuff like this is training me to have to be!

Z-Man first expressed interest in Bridge Troll about two years ago, during which time they suggested further developments as I worked to tighten and improve the design. Some of that help came from fellow designers. Ryan Laukat and I are members of the Board Game Designer’s Guild of Utah (www.bgdg.info), whose members meet regularly to play and provide feedback on each others’ games. At one session, Dave Bailey pointed out that trolls are far less polite than I made them out to be, and suggested that the game involve throwing boulders somehow—which led to my changing the bidding mechanic from cards to wood cubes, which are “thrown” as boulder-bids. Mike Compton liked my die-rolling mechanic for determining the number of traveler cards each day, but thought it needed thematic improvement and suggested using weather—and voila, now we have a nifty weather die. Steve Poelzing, Shane Smith, Ryan Laukat, and many other members provided helpful feedback on my changes to the bidding system, my addition of the Billy Goat cards, etc., by playing and (in Steve’s case) attempting to “break” the game by invoking ridiculously unintuitive tactics. Ryan’s artwork is unbelievably funny and charming, so it felt great to work with him on this title. Being a member of the Board Game Designer’s Guild has been tremendously helpful to me as a designer, and I am very grateful to be a part of it.

TC: Can you tell us a bit about how the game works and why this particular title was appealing enough to you to develop into a game we can all play?

Alf: In Bridge Troll, players are bridge trolls who make their living eating and extorting the travelers who try to cross their bridges. Each day, depending on the roll of the weather die, a certain number of traveler cards are drawn. The players compete for first pick of available travelers by bidding boulders in a single color. After turn order is determined, each player has to pick one of the available cards. Each card has a toll value (used if you choose to extort the traveler) and a food value (used if you eat the traveler instead). Some travelers are cash-poor, plump, and tasty (for example, the “Monk” or the “Serf ‘n’ Turf” cards) whereas others are thin as a rail and better for turning over and shaking out their pockets (the skinny “Priest” for example). The “Fat Merchant,” of course, presents a dilemma because his pockets are filled with coins and his belly jiggles as he walks, so he’s good for both. But you have to pick only one action—eat OR extort—for each card you take. (I guess trolls actually have a sense of honor and will not eat someone they extort for cash?) You improve your bridge’s value (thereby scoring points) by trading in cards from both your food supply (energy for repairs) and tolls collected (building supplies), scoring the lesser valued set of cards you trade in. So to succeed, you have to keep your card supply well-balanced.

The card interactions in the game can get fairly intricate: what do you do with the Fat Princess? She’s worth 5 food if you eat her, but you can’t extort her for money without first claiming a Royal Messenger who brings a ransom. Do you risk someone else’s beating you to a Messenger or do you just eat the Princess? Do you close your bridge and collect extra boulders from the supply all in one color (good for bidding) or in different colors (good for driving off Billy Goats)?

The biggest catch, however, is that not all travelers are the kinds you want crossing your bridge in the first place. Bandits steal your money, knights rescue captives, and dragons are even worse. Billy Goats have to be driven away with boulders for you to avoid damage to your bridge (though you score points if you succeed in defeating them). If you bid, you must draw a card, and when your turn comes around the cards available might not include a card you want. Thankfully, a handful of special cards, ranging from Fortune Teller (who reveals hidden cards) to Garlic Merchant (who drives away Bandits, Knights, and Dragons) can help you succeed in your troll-bridge operation.

My first inklings of encouragement came from testing early prototypes with friends, who enjoyed it. My friend Shane brought his copy to campus (the University of Utah) where he shared it with student groups who much enjoyed it. With this encouragement, I tinkered a little further with the design and sent it off to the annual Hippodice game design competition in Germany, where it became a finalist.  Such positive responses made me think that I might have a publishable game on my hands.

TC: In the spectrum between hobby and job, where does game design fall for you?

Alf: Right now I’m a doctoral student in English at the University of Utah, so game design is a hobby. But the amount of energy and time it requires to design and test games can make it sometimes feel more like a job (only with less pay!). But as a creative outlet, game design can’t be beat. Of course, if enough people end up liking my games enough to buy them, then maybe I’ll be able to make more and more titles. If that happens, designing might start to become a lot more like a real job.

TC: How has the publication of Bridge Troll affected your personal life?  Do you find yourself receiving fan mail or being stopped in gaming shops?  Does your voice now carry a certain weight of authority (both online and off) when speaking with other gamers?  Has anyone bought you a drink yet?

Alf: Ha! Well, the biggest difference I discovered is that when you actually have a published, professionally-made, shrink-wrapped game on a shelf for sale, everybody who for the past ten years thought you were just some kind of abstract dreamer finally takes note and goes, “Hey–wait–you’re a game designer!”

Other publishers have taken notice as well (I was offered a contract on another game of mine yesterday; the timing to me suggests that publishers are way more likely to bet on a horse after they’ve seen it race.) All these things are, of course, welcome developments. As a failed rock star, I find it strangely gratifying to finally be signing autographs. But where are the groupies? (Yes, I’m being ironic.)

Fan mail? None so far, unless you count the generous souls who have posted comments and ratings for Bridge Troll on Boardgamegeek. If you like the game, please do visit there, rate it accordingly and give comments–game designers depend on such “word of mouth” to get their game noticed. If you don’t like the game, well, you’re still entitled to rate it and say what you will. But please check out the FAQ first! There are a couple ambiguities in the rulebook that can result in a much less enjoyable game if played improperly.

TC: At what point were you brought into the process?

Ryan: I started getting involved a few months before Zev at Z-man Games started looking for an artist.  Alf told me that Zev had been looking at the game and was interested in publishing it.  Alf and I are good friends and he did all he could to try and get me on-board for the art.

TC: How many pieces of original art did you create for Bridge Troll?

Ryan: I’m not quite sure but one of the things that was really fun about Bridge Troll is that there were so many fun characters to draw.  The traveller deck is filled with every kind of character from billy-goats to royalty.  I tried to make each character and troll unique.  I love games where on the tenth time playing, I notice some new detail in the art that makes me laugh.

TC: Can you tell us a little of your creative process and how it meshes with designing art for a product with a set of preconceived images?  Most of us know that a Troll may look like – how did you decide what these particular trolls WILL look like?

Ryan: The first thing I did was sit down and play the game with Alf.  That was really helpful in determining the kind of feel the game had.  Bridge Troll is a fun, light-hearted game meant to appeal to a wide range of players.  Alf had used clip-art in the prototype so we knew we were going for a fairy-tale, whimsical feel.  I remember looking at bunch of different styles of trolls to try and figure out what we wanted them to look like.  Everyone seems to have their own ideas.  I was inspired by what I thought would be the most iconic and fun parts of each.

TC: How long did it take you to develop all of the art used in Bridge Troll?

Ryan: The process from beginning to end took about three months.  I started with sketches in December and did most of the painting the next month.  It’s always a bit of a rush at the end to try and meet the deadline, and I was really happy with the final result.

TC: When I was last in China I witnessed (and subsequently purchased work from) a number of artists composing landscapes using only their thumbnails.  Would you ever consider doing this and if so would that precipitate a move to China?

Ryan: Oh, I am definitely open to new types of art!    And moving to China goes without question.

TC: Have you designed art for games before?

Ryan: It’s been my hobby from a young age.  When I started, I was drawing with colored pencil and taping the drawings to playing cards.  I liked to invent my own games so I could do the art for them, a practice I’m still doing today (when I have a spare minute.)  Before Bridge Troll I had done work for Rio Grande Games on two projects: Dominion and Strozzi.  I was extremely happy to work on those games.

TC: How did you and Alf come to work together on this?

Ryan: We met through the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah and soon became friends.  Alf did all he could to promote my work and soon I was working on Bridge Troll.

TC: What’s next on your plate?  Do you have other commissions or designs you’re working on? 

Alf: I have several other game designs currently under consideration by publishers, so I hope you will be seeing more games from me very soon! I’m also working on two new designs, one with fellow Guild member Phil Kilcrease, that I have yet to submit anywhere.

A brief note to fellow designers: Bridge Troll, as well as two of my games that publishers are currently considering, are former Hippodice contest finalists, so I do recommend Hippodice as a way for aspiring Eurogame designers to get their games noticed. I have had a total of five finalists there: The Vapors of Delphi (second place 2004), Bridge Troll (finalist, 2005), Ziggurat (finalist, 2005), Mont-Saint Michel (end round recommended title, 2007), and TEMBO (3^rd place, 2008). See http://www.hippodice.de/

Ryan: Recently I’ve been doing work for the new Dominion expansion.  I’m also involved in some other projects but I don’t think I can talk about them as they aren’t announced yet.  And then I’m always working on my own projects, hoping they’ll get published sometime soon.  I’ve been thinking about putting some of them online for free print-n-play.

When you’re creating something and it’s just not going the way you had planned, have you ever considered breaking into song as a way to search for an answer through a different but equally valid art form of the musical?

Alf: I’m happy you asked this, actually. I play the guitar and write songs, so I must confess some temptation here of the very sort you mention. Your suggestion sounds like a solid Bollywood solution—virtually every film from India is a musical, so even the violent action sequences go from everybody fighting terrorists one moment to the next with everybody dancing around and singing in Hindi. On that note: one of my favorite Bollywood films, Main Hoon Na, is equal parts Die Hard and Grease (with a small helping of The Matrix)—highly recommended if such a wonderfully deranged masala of genres appeals to you. The films Lagaan and Dil Se are great, too. Very inspiring, though I have yet to come up with a game about them….

Edit:  Alright folks.  I’ve received a bunch of entries for which I’m very grateful.  Thanks for entering!  Even more interesting though, I’ve received a bunch of independent reviews and praise for the Bollywood title in question.  I’ve now added it to the top of my Netflix queue, which will probably be a surprise to my wife.

Ryan: Definitely, I’ve been known to do so on many occasions.  And actually, I grew up on musicals and am a big fan.

TC: What do you find least satisfying in the whole process of creating?  What keeps you going when you have to make it through this point?

Alf: What keeps me going? You mean other than caffeine drips and sublingual infusions of chai? Yes, sometimes a game design will take years to develop and still seemingly go nowhere, publication-wise. Feeling “stuck” is, of course, discouraging. But in contrast, even one little victory like an actual publication brings about a huge improvement in morale (thank you, Z-Man!). I suppose that what keeps me going, even when working on an obscurely-themed design that might seem hard to publish, is the sense that a story-world is nevertheless “out there” waiting for players to breathe life into it, and that it’s my job to not get in its way. Beyond that, the long and short of it is that games bring me joy. My wife and I have enjoyed regular game nights with a close-knit group of friends for ten years now. With so much laughter and playfulness emerging from the games we play, I guess I can’t help but want to make some myself.

Ryan: For me, I love the initial, concept and creative thought part of the process.  I’m a beginnings sort of person and endings are always a bit harder.  When I find myself struggling, a little Oingo Boingo or maybe my favorite movie soundtrack helps. But just knowing how rewarding it will be when it’s all done is the real motivation to finish.

We’ve featured the game now on TC and we’ve got a great interview with the designer and artist.  I guess the only thing left to do is give a couple of copies of this great game away!  Z-Man Games have graciously given us two copies to hand over to our readers!  We’ll be back soon with info on how to win them!

Bridge Troll is published by Z-Man Games (who have published lots of cool titles).  You can catch up with other like minded gamers including Alf at the Board Game Geek Bridge Troll page.  Also look there for  some rules clarifications (under Files) and updated news.

Photos of the Bridge Troll release party credited to Mike Compton of Game Night Games.

[tags]board and card games, bridge troll, z-man games, interview[/tags]

In celebration of the fact that a new MechWarrior is on the horizon, and that Battletech has turned 25 – Mechwarrior 4 will be available free with all it’s expansion packs in the very near future.

Smith and Tinker are also working with Piranha games to retool the new MechWarrior for us.  THAT is a game I’m eagerly anticipating.

Check back at the BattleTech site soon for the download.

[tags]battletech, mechwarrior, video games, free[/tags]

Pre-order Special: Red Faction Guerrilla and get Red Faction 1 and Red Faction 2 for FREE

Game of the Weekend (July 10-12): Titan Quest Gold Edition 50% OFF

Game of the Weekend 2 (July 10-12): Eve Online 50% OFF

Throughout the month of July, GamersGate is also offering a “Daily Deal.” Each “Daily Deal” features a great title at a savings of at least 50% off.

I can’t wait for this to hit the theaters.  I’ll be seeing this one on opening night.  It looks like one hell of a film!

[tags]movies, district 9, scifi[/tags]

As another aside, when I find individual deals not worthy of a full post, I’ll often tweet them.  Feel free to click the twitter link  over there to the right and follow me.

First it’s the end of an era.  The Lego Star Destroyer looks to be running out of stock.  The Lego store doesn’t have it for sale anymore and as of this writing there are just three extremely expensive Star Destroyers left at Amazon. If this is your thing, buy it now or forever pine for the days of taking in stray blockade runners.  Note though that you can still get the lesser but still cool Lego 6211 Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer for a mere $199.99.

If you’ve heard of the new game Prototype you’re probably interested in a 33% savings for the Xbox or PS3 version and a 40% savings on the PC version.  I hear it’s not bad.

There is a vast SciFi DVD sale going on right now where you can save up to 56% on hundreds of titles, both standard DVD and Blu-Ray.

More specifically in the SciFi arena, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Series (Seasons 1-7) is 51% off.  It’s $254.99 where it would normally cost $519.99.

Lastly, the Kindle 2 has dropped to $299.99.  Wonder of wonders, it’s even in stock right now.

[tags]deals[/tags]

Do you think of me,
When I do not touch you?  Do not drive
You into frenzied states of pleasure?
Rolling on the floor, mouth agape.
Sleeping silently after, smiling.

I often wonder,
As I bend to my inevitable task,
Would you love me if I did not feed your needs?
Then I smile, reminded of your face,
As I change your litter box.

[tags]pleasure, poetry, meow[/tags]

From his MySpace page: The most important thing about me is that I really am me. I’m not some weirdo, sitting at home, thinking I’m great for fooling people on the internet. BTW, if you are going to pretend to be somebody, pick someone cooler than me, like Christian Bale or something.

Or from Twitter:

Rock on Nathan, rock on.

[tags]nathan fillion, awesome, movies and television[/tags]

Did you know that some garderobes (a fancy name for a literal crap-hole carved into the stone over a longish drop to the bottom of a castle) featured iron bars just below sitting level?  Their purpose?  To discourage enemies from clambering up said crap holes for easy access to the current occupants.

We’re hampered a bit by the fact that Hollywood (and independent films) are more interested in reaching an audience then they are in historical accuracy. This isn’t really a bad thing when you think of the purpose of movies after all, these aren’t documentaries. It does mean that most movies won’t paint a historically accurate picture unless there is a sound artistic or monetary reason to do so.

Our first candidate is a movie that came from the 90s, and stars the now slightly wonky Mel Gibson. Braveheart is in one sense the quintessential medieval movie. It’s got star power, it’s got Scot power, it’s got a gritty feel about it.  Speaking as a partial Scotsman myself, I am not surprised.  We come to empathize with the Scots over the English because the English are just evil. Bad, naughty English!

But that’s not why I like it. I like it for the chaotic, extremely well choreographed and bloody battle scenes. Never before this movie had I seen an on screen battle depicted in a way that historical and archaeological records hold as true. Battle was a maddening, frenzied, bloody experience that could well get you killed. This movie is why I gave up any of my last pretenses of building a time machine and hopping back seven or eight centuries.  That and modern dentistry.

Braveheart as historical record jumps about quite a bit, stripping out decade wide swaths between major battles and giving historical credence to events which are most likely made up.  Which brings us to my next pick, although it takes place beyond what I would consider the medieval period, it’s still one of the more historically accurate films I’ve seen yet.

Rob Roy also takes place in Scotland. Released around the same time as Braveheart, it doesn’t feature any sweeping battles but does have a very accurate time line in place. Beyond that however, everything jives right. The costumes, the attitudes, the division between commoner and Scottish nobility which is at times a wide gulf and at others just a piss-pot away. I believe that Rob Roy captures much of what a seventeenth century Scot’s life would have been like, albeit a famous Scot who got into much more than a simple farm or a trade.  Again a film about Scotland and those who call it home and grittiness.  There’s something about the history and legends that have come out of that land that are appealing.

Let’s leave Scotland for a bit and go on to a movie that, while decidedly English was actually filmed in Scotland. For this movie, we’re going to throw accuracy out the window, allow props and costumes that are so far from the reality of the times that they may as well be jeans and wristwatches. We’re delving now into a myth that makes up so much of the medieval English psyche that it can’t be Ignored. And a group of film makers who spent a great deal of time and energy researching this myth, so much so that when they make light of it, they get everything right. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is an absolute must for any medievalist.

Even if you’re not a Python fan or just don’t get that British humor, you owe it to yourself to see this film if you’re at all interested in Arthurian myth. The foundations of English, Welsh and French world views can all be dug out from this script.

The Pythons have gotten everything right in this. A perilous quest, inspired by god, involving fools who must mature and live through countless otherworldly tests and threats. Finally our heroes acquire the ultimate quest object, the Holy Grail, only to have it snatched away from them again in the end. The grail is timeless, and not likely to be available to mere mortals for any length of time.

The Holy Grail makes lampooning these cornerstones of the mythical universe seem effortless, when in fact if you’ve read extensively on the subject, you’ll find they’ve incorporated every major element of Arthurian myth into their tale and many minor ones as well. They’ve done it so well that the unaware public has no idea they’ve just received an extensive education in Arthurian myth.  Plus you get to see a young man dressed as an old woman beating a cat against the side of a wattle and daub hut. Now that is film making.

There are many other films that deal with the medieval subject, many of which are pure Hollywood drivel which may be fun for a night out or a night on the couch but don’t do much to satisfy my need for a wonderfully accurate movie. A few others that I will mention in brief:

The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco strikes again, this time with the movie created from his novel of the same name. Here we have an accurate microcosm of the medieval world recreated for us. According to Mr. Slater, he lost his virginity on film in this move. Worth the watch for everything but that but more worth the read.

The Kingdom of Heaven : Ah, the crusades. Love them or hate them, they’ll always be the subject of films. This movie may not be a great movie in its own right, they’ve gotten the costumes spot on, as well as the locations. They’ve also done a half-decent job of showing the Muslim populations of the middle east at that time as not savages but as an educated (far better than their western counterparts) people who did much to advance western science. Saladin is portrayed not as an evil villain, but as a leader in both the military and social sense. In this, Kingdom of Heaven does a good job.

Excalibur: What can I say about this film. Accurate? Absolutely not. Epic? Hell Yeah. It’s the first (and hopefully the last) time I’ve ever watched a sex scene where at least one of the   participants is in full armor. For all it’s faults however, it is a great retelling of the Arthurian myth. It’s got the grand scale that I suspect many a medieval mind felt when reading the works on  Arthur in their own time and for this alone is worth watching.  Add to that about seven hundred pounds of aluminum armor, epic battles, the best played Merlin ever and Captain Picard.  Now you’ve got one hell of a mess but it’s pretty to watch and fun.

Coupled with the books I’ve recommended in an earlier article, these items are sure to get you into the proper mindset for such enjoyable tasks as being repressed, getting stoop backed hoeing crops or longing for the day when you can get bled before you die of the plague.

[tags]medieval, movies, film, arthurian myth, python, monty, excaliber, braveheart, rob roy[/tags]

[tags]4,5,6,7,8,9[/tags]