Mr. Smith Goes to Wargate-ton!

Sunday the 1st of May, 2011 - Mr. Smith will be starting his first campaign here at the Wargate, so don't miss the festivities that night!  It's sure to be an awesome game, and I for one am so STOKED my head is about to pop right off my body.  He dropped us a line to go over the proceedings:

Palladium FRPG: Upon an Oaken Throne

     This is Smith and I will be taking you on an adventure in the Western Heartlands of Forgotten Realms. We begin at Castle Daggerdale where our heroes have been summoned before Members of The Harpers, Randal Morn, and Elminster himself. What drives the Zhents to their evil ends? What other forces are at work in The Dales? Throughout our adventure we will try to uncover threats and keep our homeland safe.

     We made characters over the last two weeks and I believe we have a very powerful, well rounded party. Some of you will find my style different from some GM's. I want to have fun and create an enjoyable experience for everyone. Any dispute in rules that cannot be easily resolved we will come to a common agreement to continue the adventure with minimal interuptions. Everyone will have thier turn and things like good ideas - even if unsuccesful - will help you gain levels in my game. Please try to be at Dave's and ready to go by 6 P.M. Sundays. Aside from any tabletop battles that may run long I would like to start by 6:30 to 7:00 and run until 10:00 to 10:30.

     Palladium is without a doubt my favorite RPG system. It has stood the test of time and is versitile and realistic. My adventures will be in depth and entertaining.  It has been 10 years since I last ran an adventure and I must it's been a long time coming. Over the summer I hope you enjoy my series of fantasy adventures and look forward to a Robotech adventure to follow for the fall and winter months.

Shawn will be hosting a fajita dinner tomorrow night for everyone involved, so if you're quick you might get to them before I do.  Many thanks to Mr. Smith for jamming out some adventures in the Forgotten Realms.  His enthusiasm is as high as ever, and his tenure as GM promises to be filled with plenty of awesome Palladium jazz.

As for me, I'd better be going to the hospital - I'm totally OVER STOKED at the moment!

Spirit Magic at the Draft Tournament!

We had a blast Thursday night out at Jerry's spot, where we decided to have our draft tournament.  Plenty of parking and room for notorious deck building and general plotting of Magic mayhem.

This tournament was crazy right from the get-go, as many folk weren't very familiar with the block, but we had a ton of fun.  When it came down to it, some of the more experienced players actually fared worse than the relative newcomers!  In fact, not a single player went home in defeat - everyone won at least a pack!  I think this is a clear sign that the club is beginning to benefit from the constant battle!

My friends are here to see you.

I was really pleased with how well we acclimated to the old format.  There were cries of "WTF?!" all over the place as players looked through the draft packs and discovered spells for the first time, often with abilities they didn't really know all the repercussions for.  The decks that took shape were surprising.

The big winner was Mark Mark, who totaled all three of his opponents (including me).  His Green / White deck was mostly mortal monks, backed  up by some powerful kami and support spells.  I drafted Blue, same as Matt - who deserves special mention as not only is he a newcomer to Magic, but it was also his first competitive tournament!

It was a grim and bloody day.

Everyone got at least one match, making this the first time all eight players drew from the prize pool!  That is, it was quite a balanced dust up,  with more than one awesome story for the books.  This has cemented our resolve to do these "backdrafts" - the next one is coming soon!

Our next draft will be New Phyrexia, at the Captain Video Invitational.  More on this soon.  For now, lets just say we plan to show our appreciation to our contributing members in a very real way, very soon.

Until then, keep your katana strapped and at the ready, and draw steel as soon as you reach the Wargate!

What Lies Below!?

The Darkmoon Vale

It is the Age of Lost Omens.

The old empire of Azlant has fallen beneath the ocean.  The god Aroden is dead, somehow destroyed on the eve of his deific return to the world over one hundred years ago.  Ruined civilizations dot the globe. In the lands that border the Inner Sea, a sense of exploration and discovery is driving civilization forward from the precipice of oblivion.

This is Golarion, the world of the Pathfinder Chronicles.

You will venture forth, into the Age of Lost Omens, to the continent of Avistan, in the country of Andoran, on the northern side of the Inner Sea.  There we find our group of intrepid heroes traveling through the land known as the Darkmoon Vale, where strange things are afoot.

Darkwood is a magical hardwood that is prized and rare.  It is something very important to the people of the Vale, and the Lumber Consortium whose influence is felt througout the entire area.  There are two towns of note: Olfden and Falcon's Hollow.  Olfden is a larger town, and Falcon's Hollow is a rustic backwater on the edge of the woods.

Numerous cutyards line the trees, and the Lumber Consortium estimates there may be twenty or so years before the entire forest has been destroyed.  However, a large number of factors are beginning to slow down production...  

Wide Overview

The Valers (natives of the Darkmoon Vale) divide the land into three areas:  the Uplands in the south, Lowlands in the middle and the Highlands in the north.  The most important part of the area is the Darkmoon Wood, which  is the largest concentration of the fabled darkwood in all of Andorhal.  It was once part of the Arthfell Forest, but the constant logging over years and years separated them by miles.

To the North, the Vale is bordered by the mighty Five King's Mountains, the ancestral home of the dwarfs.  Foothills in the Highlands border the Vale and Five King's and lead to the volcano called Droskar's Crag.  The volcano has been largely dormant for quite some time, but is always burning ash and steam whenever it is beheld upon the horizon.  To the South is the Elberwick Rise, a large, rising plateau upon which sits most of the Arthfell Forest.

Darkmoon Plain is the largest area of the Vale, and is also called the Lowlands.  The place is ridden with geological activity such as geysers, mudpots and other such events.  The activity happening below the earth near the volcano means that most of the events on the surface are irregular, but quite common.

The area's largest river, the Foam, is ridden with rapids, waterfalls and alligators.  There are but two fords and a single ferry (at Falcon's Hollow) to cross the foam, and no boat can negotiate the nasty rapids upon the tormented waters.  The area's waters are the main danger, but certain sorts of nasty creatures such as naga and other aquatic monstrosities see a golden opportunity for lairs in this area.

In the east, the Wolfrun Hills are made up of series of rocky, rolling rises that are topped with trees and rimmed with basalt.  There are tons of wildlife in the area, including pack animals such as the (you guessed it) wolves that plague the area.  The monster-ridden peaks of the Aspodell Mountains to the west mark the tenuous border between the kingdoms of Cheliax and Andoran. This mineral rich area is patrolled vigorously by the Aspodell Rangers, who work to clear out the beasts that infest the land.

---

Bignutt's time as GM is over for now, but that doesn't mean the adventure is over!  

We'll be giving him a short break from the mad responsibilities of Game Mastering for the rabid gamers here at the Wargate, but what's happened to our brave adventurers?

We'll be picking this game back up when his time comes around again, and he's left us with a doozy of a cliffhanger!  When we begin anew, the game will pick up where we left off for several months of Pathfinder action!

Angbornh, Boris the Beautiful, Brother Mentok and the rest are beneath the ruins in the forest, searching for the remaining children.  The impression they have is not good - the children were to be sacrificed to the worthless and conniving god of the kobolds.  The party is strong, and it's members won't rest until they see justice done.


There are questions that need to be answered.  Why are the werewolves helping the kobolds?  Which evil god do the kobolds truly worship - could it truly be the dwarven god of toil and suffering?


Can our warriors act fast enough to prevent a tragedy, and perhaps avert a supernatural disaster?

Only time will tell!

Rogue Trader Begins!

The Ariadni, birthright of Captain Sheen.

Howdy folks!  Sorry for the delay in posting, too many projects to even post about!  What with all the secret stirrings and rumors of the coming wars, the members of the Wargate are gearing up for summertime and a slew of new campaigns!

Thursday evening,  Captain Video started the adventures for his new Rogue Trader event, Xenos Conundrum!  We've been anticipating this event for quite some time, and now we're on our way to Pandaemus subsector for what promises to be a classic set of adventures!

So how'd we get here?


Well, I'd like to start of by addressing a point that others on the internet don't seem to agree.  My opinion is that Rogue Trader itself is a worthy addition to the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay line of games.  For those of you that don't really care for the way Fantasy Flight is handling the line, I say POPPYCOCK to you.

It's been argued on countless forums between countless roleplayers that Rogue Trader is somehow "off the mark", somehow failing to deliver anything both in terms of roleplaying opportunities and adventures that the characters would reasonably take part in.  I'm not going to dignify those opinions by further elucidation, but lets just say we'll let those dogs fall asleep.  What I'm here to tell you is that the game is awesome.  If you're a fan of roleplaying AND of Warhammer 40,000 then you're in for a real treat.

If not, stay off my lawn!

In the past, I've kinda made it my mission to deal with internet fervor over the direction of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay line.  I'm not arguing with anyone anymore over whether or not the package has been delivered.  I don't want to have another flame war with some fool who invariably thinks some ill-plot by Fantasy Flight has ruined the potential we have for a Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay system.  I'm not going to defend FFG's decisions with the line, even though I wholeheartedly agree with every design choice made so far.

It's just pointless to attempt any kind of discourse with people who have it in their head that somehow Warhammer 40,000 could be shoehorned into a few manuals, or that the manuals should be cheaper because they are overpriced, or that the game assumes you have miniatures, or that this or that that....

There's just no point.  A person of the right gaming pedigree is going to understand the facts just by looking at the book.  The game is quite elegant, the book itself is beautiful and I believe the target audience to be Warhammer 40,000 players, not players of conventional roleplaying games.  There's a difference in philosophy between those two groups that's hard to see.

On the one hand, roleplayers are miffed that everything in the universe isn't represented in the product line.  Some of those players, who openly tout that they don't even play Warhammer 40,000 (due to price / time constraints - WTF?), seem to have a problem with how some of that material is presented.  When you tell them you're a Warhammer 40,000 fan and that their perceptions are skewed by their addiction to pointless games no one plays, somehow you're instantly mutated into a rabid GW fanboy berserker who can't listen to reason.

On the other hand, players of the wargame are treated to something we've never had - a roleplaying game based in our wargame world.  For those of us that are also roleplayers, this is a way to integrate our games one more level - beyond Battlefleet Gothic, Epic 40,000 and Warhammer 40,000, now we can also integrate Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay into the Mardannon Sector.

This is something players of Warhammer 40,000 (who are also roleplayers) have been missing since the beginning.  I'll use this line to give kudos to Fantasy Flight for taking our game to the next level.  Don't mind what other fools are saying, listen to the fans of Warhammer 40,000 who've bought every book in the line since you've taken over from Black Industries.

Bleh.  I could go on about that, it irritates me so much.  I feel I must champion the cause, because if I don't, the ignorance might spread.  All of you out there who can hear me - I BEG YOU - help with this!  Don't let FFG be swayed by the masses of the nay-sayers!

Commander Oliver Maximilian Sheen, until a few weeks ago, was the commander of a Cobra-class destroyer named the Rattler, operating on the fringe of Magnum Sierra near Hollow Rock.  While on picket, expecting a dangerous attack order from Battlefleet Command, the Rattler was approached by an imposing figure of Imperial authority - a Black Ship of the Inquisition.


Inquisitor Mobius and his entourage boarded the ship and explained the new situation.  Vladimir Sheen, bearer of the renowned Warrant of Trade for the Gulf of Acherus, was no more.  Unorthodox as it was, the Inquisitor was very interested in the well being of the ship - the Ariadni.


The Inquisitor explained the situation.  Captain Sheen was to take his birthright (by way of the Black Ship) to Pandaemus, where the ship must be wrested from the hands of those factions who would claim it for their own.  As a reliquary of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Ariadni was filled with fantastic devices and arcane technology that could not be replaced.


So, the good Captain and his arch-militant, accompanied by a lucky tech-priest and a member of the Navis Nobilite who's destiny is to pilot the Ariadni on it's fantastic voyage trek to Pandaemus, on the other side of the Mardannon sector.


Only one thing is for certain - Captain Sheen will be 'winning' the Ariadni shortly, and the spirits of his Adonis ancestors will breathe fire over the plasma coils.  After washing off any daemons or nymphs that have taken up residency inside the ship, we'll garnish with the secret ingredient - the Warrant of Trade.  


And perhaps a little Tiger's Blood.

Saviors of Kamigawa Draft!

Konnichiwa!

The next back-draft is just around the corner!  I thought I'd give everyone ample time to research the block by spending some time alerting everyone to the mechanics of the Kamigawa block, since we'll be drafting Saviours of Kamigawa in just a week or two!

So what's up on this expansion?  Saviours is the last of the three expansions in the block, and as such you're liable to draft any of the mechanics in the block.  Kamigawa block has some interesting special rules, and will be a blast to draft.  So what's the skinny on what's inside?

Spirits!  Half the creatures in the set are Spirits, and if you've ever been to the plane of Kamigawa you'll know that it's absolutely suffused with Spirit magic...that's sort of the point of the set.  You should be prepared to use some of these Spirit tricks, because they will certainly be used against you!

Saviours is widely regarded as a difficult set to draft from.  Expect a slower format than current Standard, with a lot of back and forths...the spells in this set are generally seen as utility spells, but not the best ones of the block.  I disagree with that sentiment, and it promises a really nice Limited environment with lots of themes to check out.  The game finishers usually tend to be huge and powerful Legendary Spirits, or other sort of Legendary Creature.

Samurai are in!  With their Bushido special ability, which gives them +X/+X until end of turn, these guys are the warriors to watch out for.  There are a few in Saviours, which means we're sure to cross blades with a few of these guys in the draft - the only Legendary Samurai is Iizuka the Ruthless.  Other creature themes you'll see are Snakes (the Orochi - snake men) and Ogres, who need Demons in play.

Spirit Magic comes in many forms.  Saviours will make use of a lot of these, but to a more limited extent.  It's tough to find a victory condition in just one of these themes, so you'll have to use everything you can get your hands on to bring about a win!  There are many Spirit cards, and each will have one or more of the abilities below, and other powers besides!  Understanding and exploiting this Spirit magic will be crucial to victory.  Spells that are not Spirits can be considered "Spirit" magic if they are marked as Arcane.

1. Arcane Spells have the Arcane designator.  They can have spells Spliced into them.  Certain spirits react when you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell (see Spiritcraft, below).
1. Spliced spells are cast with another Arcane spell (usually for reduced cost), but return to your hand.  They effectively "hitch a ride" on the main spell, which has to be an Arcane spell.
2. Soulshift returns Spirits to your hand from the graveyard when they die.  They "shift" a creature (casting cost X) out of the graveyard.
3. Channel lets you use the Spirit as an Sorcery spell, gaining a specific and concentrated effect.  It goes to the graveyard, where it can be revived with Soulshifting.
4. Spiritcraft is the word given to triggered abilities that activate when you cast Spirit or Arcane spells.  This can be getting +1/+1 until end of turn or more permanent bonuses.  Chaining these abilities can be deadly.

Sweep is on very few cards in the set, but they are mostly common so we'll see this.  It allows you to return basic lands to your hand as part of the casting cost of the spell, amplifying it's power.  This allows you to exploit another mechanic, called "Wisdom".  Wisdom is the term used to describe the cards in the set that focus on hand size, a prevalent theme.  If you have more cards in your hand than opponent (some demand you have a full hand) then drastic things may occur.

Also be on the lookout for Flip Cards.  These are permanents that change after fulfilling a condition.  The card will tell you what the condition for flipping is, and there are some strange things in this category...how bout a Legendary Enchantment or two?

I'd like to mention one card here, just for trivia.

To the left here is the spell Evermind.  This is the first Magic card to be printed without a casting cost.  Kamigawa block was adding some new rules, and modifying others.  Legends became Legendary, and they made a whole lot of Legendary permanents that weren't creatures in this set.

Note the casting cost isn't 0...there simply isn't a casting cost.  It's intentionally uncastable.

There's more than one way to cast the spell, but in Limited the only way you can get it's effect is to Splice it!

In closing, I'd like to say this draft is going to be a blast with the Limited environment.  Spirit warriors, unite!

The Wargate Treasury

A few months ago, Warmaster Laserwulfe started badgering me about setting up a tip jar here at the Wargate.  I recoiled in horror, thinking about how it would look if we did that, but he insisted that it could be a good thing that would eventually aid the club in a sustainable manner.

It took a few other club members chipping in their opinions before I began to consider it...but it sort of happened anyways.  Skim brought over a big ol' jar, and Laserwulfe cut a hole in it and pasted a message on the side that read: "The Wargate Thanks You - Donations / Tithe".

I was pretty embarassed at first...but started throwing all my loose change (that aren't quarters - those go to my daughter) into the pit.  In just a few weeks, the jar was quite full of coins and singles...over $100, actually.  Then the bills started to creep in.  I was elated at the support the community was showing, and vowed from that point on to be the responsible steward of the club's trust.

As I write this, I'm about to use the funds we have collected to make some purchases for the club that's going to help out with new terrain this summer!  Following Laserwulfe's idea, we'll be getting a box of Magic: The Gathering boosters from back in time, and performing another club draft!  The entry fees more than pay for the box (and 1000 extra lands that will be going in the land pool for the club), and absolutely ALL of it will go back into the treasury.  I won't bore you with the actual math, but that ends up being a profit for the club treasury!

That's right...the Wargate's draft tourneys are more than paying for themselves, and we're not pocketing that extra change.  Our club members have divested a lot of time and effort to bring you the best gaming experience possible, and that fact isn't lost on the staff here at the Wargate.  In fact, we are hoping to amp up the number of events available.  These drafts allow folks to build the core of competitive decks for those old blocks.  This is important since we play a lot of block constructed here at the Wargate!

The idea is that all of that gaming will actually create more gaming!  We'll be able to get a Witchfate Tor for the club, just by playing Magic!  Let's be honest, you were going to do that anyway.

I'd like to close out by advising any other clubs out there to start a club fund to help pay for terrain, supplies and other club items like templates and counters.  All those tables, pencils, erasers, clipboard, papers, printer ink, basic lands and other overhead things that go into making a gaming club can pile up to be a powerful deterrent to ambitious club leaders, but if your group is dedicated and willing to help a tip jar can generate a large amount of cash in a short period of time.

So, warriors of the wargate...prepare yourselves to do battle across the multiverse - more Magic drafts coming your way!  Sign up Thursday night and don't miss your spot!

Megaversal Flavor

Flavor?  What flavor?  I thought you said Palladium was bland as a paper plate on cardboard sandwich, Dave Bone??

Well, it is, taken by itself.  It takes some good ol' luvvin to get that old engine warmed up, but we've got some GM's who are capable and ready to take us back in time to when the rules didn't always connect, because they weren't really well thought out.  That's a huge penalty to it's credibility as a system, and thus raises questions as to it's longevity here at the Wargate, because rules are bread and butter to us - we love them, and they love us.  However, we're done talking about rules today because...

Today's topic is flavor, more specifically, the kind you sprinkle (pour by the bucketload) into Palladium's Megaverse to get it to taste like anything resembling something you actually want to have.  We're going to talk about a few different incarnations of the Megaverse, and their respective flavors - you're going to have some of it, so we might as well warn you about it!

We've recently done Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition.  Mechanically speaking, it's basically the same as some other Palladium games, and at the Wargate we combine Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas & Superspies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness into this category because they are so similar to each other. These games depict an ordinary world fraught with extraordinary things.  They are also S.D.C. worlds, putting them all on the same base power level.

The different flavors can be appealing!  For basic Heroes Unlimited, the style can be any kind of superhero adventure.  Beyond the Supernatural can have a Cthulhu-style bent to it or be more "orthodox" in it's approach to horror.  Ninjas & Superspies is fraught with James Bond style intrigue and action, but also brimming with 80's style ninja assassins!  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may be the epitome of gonzo comic action.  You can take the basic system and alter it a lot by changing the flavor, mixing and matching any of these games or using the system to do a different kind of genre, like pulp action from the 30's or even stranger settings that you find or dream up.  It's quite adaptable on the base level.

Palladium Fantasy has a lot going for it, as there's a ton of books out there.  It's your basic D&D adventure setting, with a lot of character types to choose from.  The setting material seems as good as any other Palladium books product, maybe better thought out than a lot of the Rifts line.  The characters and information in this book could fuel a number of campaigns in any number of different lands, just like other games of it's type.  In fact, the first time we play this, Mr. Smith will be running us through a game in the Dalelands...

Rifts has a strange setting and flavor that can't be easily explained.  It's post apocalyptic, but it can be all sorts of genres.  It's a melting pot of settings and conventions, and has a massive amount of support and material.  In fact, of the material available, most of it makes the setting more diverse by exploring new areas and worlds, introducing new classes and powers and generally doing as much as possible in as small a space as possible.  Depending on which of the many settings you choose, you can have a very different game every time.

What it all means is that as we explore the Palladium Megaverse, you're going to get to see a lot of these different games and genres pop up, but by no means can we get to all of them.  Don't be confused by the disparate rules spread throughout the Megaverse, and just try to accept it for what it is - wildly chaotic and all scrambled up.  If the combat rules are bothering you, cheer up - we're going to be stabilizing our part of the Megaverse with a compendium of rules for use in our games.  

We hope this will clear up some frequently asked questions and put a finer point on the combat mechanics, as well as spice them up a little bit to bring them into the 21st century.  Until then, you can place requests for items to enter the rules compendium here on this post.

Adios!

Coldsnap Booster Draft!

Howdy folks!

I know it's been a couple of days since the actual draft, but we've been really busy at the Wargate creating new terrain!  More on that project at a later time however, because today we're going to talk about Coldsnap!

A draft environment is a really fun event, but what if you're not familiar enough with the draft pool?  A few of our folks didn't play in Coldsnap when it was in Standard, and a few more didn't know about Ice Age or Alliances - or had long forgotten about them.  It was quite a different time in Magic, even just five years ago.  Power levels weren't quite what we're used to now, and overall I think the draft proved difficult for most of our warriors.

A few of us, however, have hoary memories when it comes to our duels against our planeswalker brethren, remembering all the way back to 1995 and the beginning of Terisiare's Ice Age, which was fully eleven years before Coldsnap was released.  Indeed, many of us learned to do battle in that far off time - and there was only a small adjustment to be made to your mentality when beginning the draft.  An advantage, yes...but one that can be circumvented by wizardly research.

Not knowing what to expect when drafting can make our draft decks unwieldy, to say the least.  It's a similar experience to drafting a new block that no one has played, perhaps at pre-release or the first area draft tourney.  For new expansions, you can assume that no one knows anything about the block, and everyone will be drafting on the rumors they've heard and stuff they've kept up with.  Daily MTG is pretty much there for this exact thing - research.  Researching just this one site can save your bacon when fighting in the arena of the Wargate.  Knowledge is power, a truer maxim never uttered.

So, what to do when you know your opponents are better armed with knowledge and experience, such as the new trend for Backdrafting at the Wargate?  You can expect drafts from all across Magic's rich history, maybe someday as far back as the Ice Age itself, and any(every)where(when) in between.  The short answer is...do your homework and prepare for battle.

You'll know a week or two in advance what the draft will be, so start at the wiki for that expansion.  Check out the Gatherer for it, look at the cards, do a google search for "top decks xx" where xx is equal to the expansion name, or "top decks 19/20xx" where 19/20xx is equal to the year the expansion was released (which you can find on the wiki).  This will give you an idea of what cards were hot, which were not and some other commentary besides.  You can find troves of this life-saving knowledge on the Daily MTG site.

As for our draft, it was bitter and grueling...the tough snow mechanics of the block didn't help, but we saw plenty of Ripples helping out. I was surprised, but the value of Ripple in a Limited 40 card deck can't be overlooked no matter what color you drafted.

Jerry, Josh and myself won all three matches, effectively tied for the top spot.  Our draft matches are all randomly selected, and this time none of us met any of the others in battle - but rest assured, everyone will be hungry for our blood at the next draft!

Marky Mark deserves honorable mention for joining us for the first time, putting an opponent down and winning a pack on his first outing!

There will be an invitational draft tournament later this month.  We'll keep you posted on the events as they crawl by.  Until next time, adios!  Salir y hacer su investigacion para que no se mueren como si se congelaron hasta morir en la Ola de frio!