For the past two years, and more rapidly over the past few months, I’ve been developing a tabletop game.
Ahadi is a synthesis of my loves both in and outside of the TRPG medium. It draws from history, wargaming, nation-gaming, and political simulations to create a game about the tools of power in the same way that D&D is about dungeon crawling or shadowrun is about extremely violent gig work.
And friends, it is going to be great.
Salaam!
So it’s out. Been talking about it with friends and following the discourse on twitter and sufficient velocity since I saw it, and have been thinking about it more or less non-stop as well. I knew I wanted to write something pretty much immediately, even if I wasn’t sure what exactly it was. Was kind of averse to doing so because of the entire horrible discourse issue.
But I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid, and while recent events haven’t marked the end of that they’ve marked a definite metamorphosis. I’m twenty-six, not exactly old enough to have watched the originals in movies, but my dad showed them to me and my brother when we were pretty young and they’re old favorites. I’m pretty sure I caught all of the prequels in movies and have fond memories of playing Rogue Squadron on Gamecube, reading EU comics and books, following the Tartakovsky animated series in the leadup to episode 3, and more-or-less twenty years of accumulated fandom.
And while that doesn’t make me different than most other western Scifi nerds, it’s still enough that I don’t think I can just turn up the chance to write this article.
So let’s talk about the Mandalorian! Read the rest of this entry
When I got into Infinity someone quoted me a go proverb. “Lose your first fifty games as swiftly as possible.”
If nothing else, I have excelled at following that advice. I have been absolutely destroyed by players vastly more experienced than me. I’ve been crushed by a veteran of the Interplanetario, the World Cup of Infinity. My weekly game is against a friend comprehensively more skilled than me. I have dozens of defeats, many of them crushing, some of them close. My victories have only recently become anything close to regular.
And I’ve been having a blast the entire time.
So let’s talk Infinity
Alien’s 40th Anniversary is coming up. Alien Day itself is today (April 26), and 20th Century Fox has been drip-feeding short films on youtube to set the stage for their big announcement. I’m a fan of the first two movies and so have been following the Alien Day preparations closely since I heard about the kickoff.
Unfortunately the announcements so far have been extremely disappointing. Alien will be in theaters for a few days in October, which I guess is kind of neat, but so far there hasn’t been a big announcement. It is, however, not a total wash because the shorts themselves are worth talking about.
They’re all available on IGN’s youtube account and have been released on a weekly basis since March 29th. I’ve largely avoided spoilers in the reviews below, but if you really want to go in with your eyes wide open you should check out that link before you proceed. Just make sure to watch Specimen, Alone, and Ore before you come back.
Before the movie came out a legion of haters, trolls, and assorted alt-right scum accused Captain Marvel of being some vanguard of political correctness. That it was going to be a feminist SJW movie putting politics in our comics, emasculate men, feature an overpowered hero, and be the vehicle for Disney to drain our precious bodily fluids for their own gain. They bombed the reviews, started on the smear pieces and personal attacks on Brie Larson well before the movie came out, and began crowing about the inevitable doom of Captain Marvel.
A summary of the pre-release captain marvel controversy
But now it’s out and smashing records. People can see the actual movie and put the truth to the lies. The best thing is, the reactionaries weren’t even wrong about it being a feminist SJW movie about politics. It’s just that that’s what makes the movie great.
Discussing that is going to involve some spoilers. If that isn’t your thing, I recommend you go watch the movie before you read on.
Fortnite has been the king of the Battle Royal for two years. Others have made their plays for the throne but none have succeeded. Its combination of accessible graphics, no barrier to entry, and early penetration into an enormous player base simply could not be stopped and nothing anyone tried to do would change that. Other early adopters like Player Unknown have lost market share, while the FPS titan Call of Duty has failed to dethrone it.
Then Respawn decided to take their shot.
They purchased no marketing, had no ramp-up to release, no gameplay demos or teasers, and a lockdown on information that only broke due to leaks. Their only sell was 48 hours of paying streamers to play the game.
It worked. They took their shot at the King of Battle Royal and if they have not dethroned Fortnite they have at least bitten off a sizable market share. They’ll have to keep it, monetize it, and fend off the next comers, but Apex Legends has a shot at it
All it took was making the best Battle Royale currently on the market.
It’s not Titanfall 3, but I’ll take it.
Supplies are low. With nothing coming in food can be hard to get in San Lazaro. Medical supplies, moreso.
But you’re in luck, Seeker spotted an overturned supply truck a few blocks away. Swarming with Crazies, sure, but you can handle that. Stick with your team, play it smart, and they’re not too dangerous.
Mist covers the intersection when you arrive. You can see the shambling forms of Crazies as you approach, but they’re not the real threat. The real threat are the other shapes in the mist, dark silhouettes creeping from cover to cover, just as hungry, just as desperate as you. Maybe they’re bandits, maybe they’re law enforcement, maybe they’re just normal people, ones you might work with in better circumstances.
A rifle shot rings out. A crazy drops, while the others snap towards the sound. Loping into the mists, weapons in hand. Whoever these strangers are, they’re probably not going to let you at the food without a fight.
This is the setting of Omicron Protocol. An in-development skirmish wargame by Dead Alive Games. Set in 2050, in the fictional city of San Lazaro, at the beginning of a cybernetically-styled zombie apocalypse. I was lucky enough to participate in a demo of the system on the 20th, and enjoyed it enough to write about it.
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