TABLETOP TALES: MTG ORIGINS DRAFT: "BW AURA IMPS"

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

MAGIC THE GATHERING: ORIGINS DRAFT #1 

BW AURA: IMP PIMPS

To check out my other decks, hit the link below:

ALL OF MY MTG ARTICLES!

This article serves two purposes: To share the nerd entertainment around with anyone who might find it interesting and, in this case, to share my experience with Magic the Gathering: Origins.

You can find Magic Cards in super stores (Ex. Walmart, Target) but the best place you can buy your cards, meet other players, and play in events is at your local comic book store or hobby shop. I buy most of my cards at The Comic Cellar. Here is a link to its Google Maps location at 3620 Austin Peay Highway #2 Memphis, TN 38128.

And here is a link to Comic Cellar's Website

This year marks the last core set with Magic the Gathering: Origins, a set covering the origins of 5 of the most prolific Planeswalkers, the planes that transformed them when they got their spark, and the other characters/events of their past. I'm excited for this to be the set where I'm rejoining the fold and can't wait to see what sort of deck I can build by the time Return to Zendikar hits. I have feeling it is going to involve elves!

...but anyway, let's talk about what you get and do in a draft.

In the draft, we had a pod of eight players. In order to draft, each player received three packs. You take a card from the pack and pass it to the right/left with each players taking turns taking a card from each pack until there are no more cards. Rinse and repeat twice. Everybody ends up with 45 cards and uses those materials to create a 40 card or greater deck with available lands. The draft is best of three against three opponents. Based on your outcome, you are placed higher in the standing and the winner gets a prize.

And I wanted to win! So, using my knowledge of the set and lessons from the pre-release, I set out to play a fun and competent deck. This often means turning down cards that seem like obvious picks in order to pick out cards that fit your theme. My theme?

"WHITE AND BLACK AURAS: IMP PIMPS!"

I didn't pull any planeswalkers or money cards. I didn't force an archetype that I knew would be popular-- looking at you elves and artifacts! I chose to pick an unpopular archetype, an underdog, and draft heavily into strong commons and uncommons with decent removal and even more decent combos. The core of my strategy creature base with a full set of Fetid Imps, a couple bombs and auras that overwhelm and control the battlefield. Let's check it out!

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/11/15!

MAGIC DUELS: ORIGINS TRAILER!

origins [ohr-ih-jins]
noun
1. A primary source from which things are derived.
2. The beginning of something.
3. Ancestry or parentage; birth; extraction.

EX. On Steam, PS4, XboxOne, and iDevices, Magic Duels: Origins is Wizards of the Coast's attempt to throw their hat into the free-to-play format of trading card games, in the vein of Hearthstone, and I gotta say that I like it.

The greatest strength of this game is that it is completely free to play and fairly intuitive. You can purchase packs with real money, but, by grinding against bots or real players and completing quests, you will get a collection pretty quick.

The biggest weakness is that the deckbuilder is a little clumsy and I think the packs should give you more cards. But that's my thoughts.

Oh... AND SCREW THE LILIANA CAMPAIGN!

TABLETOP TALES: ORIGINS PRE-RELEASE- "GREEN-BLACK ELVES OF LORWYN!"

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

ORIGINS PRE-RELEASE SEALED: 

GREEN-BLACK ELVES OF LORWYN

To check out my other decks, hit the link below:

ALL OF MY MTG ARTICLES!

This article serves two purposes: To share the nerd entertainment around with anyone who might find it interesting and, in this case, to share my experience with Modern Masters 2015.

You can find Magic Cards in super stores (Ex. Walmart, Target) but the best place you can buy your cards, meet other players, and play in events is at your local comic book store or hobby shop. I buy most of my cards at The Comic Cellar. Here is a link to its Google Maps location at 3620 Austin Peay Highway #2 Memphis, TN 38128.

And here is a link to Comic Cellar's Website

This year marks the last core set with Magic the Gathering: Origins, a set covering the origins of 5 of the most prolific Planeswalkers, the planes that transformed them when they got their spark, and the other characters/events of their past. I'm excited for this to be the set where I'm rejoining the fold and can't wait to see what sort of deck I can build by the time Return to Zendikar hits. I have feeling it is going to involve either artifacts or elves...

...but anyway, let's talk about what you get and do in a Pre-Release Sealed Event.

After picking the color of your favorite Planeswalker (I chose Green), you get a box with 6 Origins booster packs, a 7 card seeded pack with a dated foil rare (all of the color you chose), a spin-down life counter, and a small pamphlet with your planeswalker's origin story & tips on how to make a deck. With these materials, you build a 40 card deck and proceed to fight it out in best of three matches against the other players. And, depending on your placement in the competition, we received Origins packs as prizes.

So let's see my deck that, while I didn't place highly with, I came close...

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

ORIGINS PRE-RELEASE SEALED: 

GREEN-BLACK ELVES OF LORWYN

I was, at first, unimpressed by my green pool and actually built a white-red aggro deck that took advantage of my burn spells and creatures in those colors. But, after losing a round, my opponent asked to look at my pool and helped me make a working deck out of Green and Black based on a decent (but not fantastic) pool of elves. I went on to win my next two matches and, if not for coming up against an even better green-black deck, I might've placed!

Still I enjoyed playing this deck so much that I really want to play Green-Black elves in standard (if that can be a thing!).

Let's look at the deck:

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/28/14! (ALIGNMENTS PT. 2 NEUTRAL GOOD)

"MITHRANDIR, WHY THE HALFLING?"

neutral good [noo-truhl-good]
noun
1. The alignment that does the best that a good person can do. This alignment works for the greater good by striving for a prosperous and happy life the community. They uphold the values of pragmatism, balance and compassion, while looking for a balance between freedom and order that will promote the best outcome for all.
adjective
2. Anything that falls within the perimeter of the neutral good alignment (see 1. above).

EX. ALIGNMENTS PT. 1 INTRODUCTION & LAWFUL GOOD

"Serving kings and magistrates but not being beholden to them" describes Gandalf the Grey (and "The White" for that matter), in all but name, when it was used as a descriptor of Neutral Good in the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook. He puts the greater good, in his case the defeat of Sauron and the welfare of Middle Earth, above any selfish desires and often against the authority of man and elf alike, and is one of the most beloved and quoted mentors in fantasy (the fantasy equivalent of Obi-Wan and Yoda).

Fair warning: Neutral Good is my alignment and I think it is the best alignment (if there is such a thing). So, expect me to have some bias but, hey, as the goody good balanced alignment, I'll try my best to be fair.

Switching gears for a moment to Star Trek, let's talk about the legendary trio of Kirk, Spock, and Mcoy.

In Freudian theory, the psyche is made up of three components: the ego, the superego, and the id, which represent the struggle between emotions and logic when it comes to making decisions. The id represents the emotional and instinctual desires, the superego represents reason and obedience to social norms, and the ego represents the conscious self that seeks to strike a balance between the other two components.

In Star Trek, Kirk (Neutral Good) is the Ego, while Spock is the Super Ego (Lawful Good) and Mcoy represents the Id (Chaotic Good) in a positive Freudian trio. Kirk is the more balanced of three, and is the natural leader (as well as the official one as the Captain), and weighs the advice of his two comrades in order to make command decisions that, ultimately, most often leads to the best outcome for all parties involved in the, mostly, enlightened future of Star Trek and the Federation. The downside of this role is that the heavy weight that making such decisions, many of which are life or death decisions for countless sentient beings, takes its toll on Kirk. But between his love of his career and the his sense of obligation to do good, Kirk persevered and became the most legendary and long-serving captains in Federation history, despite multiple attempts to retire him or promote him by the Federation.

These are also the strengths and weaknesses of the Neutral Good character in general-- they are pragmatic benefactors but, in having less ethical bias, their actions are dictated by personal choice and therefore the outcome, for better or worse, often weighs more heavily and more personally than good characters able to hoist the decision-making on the authority they obey or to abandon the decision altogether if it restricts them too much.

It isn't easy being a do-gooder. And arguably neutral good is the most do-good alignment.

"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." -Frederick Douglass

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Also, more so than any other alignment, Neutral Good or "True Good" is the alignment that works for the greater good.

Neutral Good characters are not bound to a particular ethical bias but instead are bound to doing the most good; a neutral good character tries to do the most good for the most peoples in the right places at the right time in the right way by being flexible and pragmatic. They are not beholden to any higher authority or selfish agendas, but instead are beholden to the lives and freedoms of other people first.

Neutral good societies strive for a balance between harmony and freedom; they try to create a society where law and order exist to protect and promote the public welfare, as well as trying to allow for personal freedom of individuals, while creating a society that is vigilant of the abuses of authority over individuals and individuals against each other. Neutral good societies promote those that serve the people through professional and personal action.

Neutral good societies tend to be smaller since it is difficult to create balance in a larger society. Furthermore, due to their altruistic natures, neutral good characters are generally welcome in any sensible society, since they serve as natural problem solvers that are willing to compromise for the greater good (hence the nickname "mercenary good") and try to pick their battles wisely, since they know they can't fix every problem, and are less likely to butt heads with the local authorities.

A neutral good character must strike a balance to achieve the best results: they believe people should behave altruistically and attempt to meet the needs of their society and the individuals that make up their society. They are willing to ignore laws and curb freedoms that they believe are harmful to the greater good.

The greatest source of conflict for these characters is maintaining a balance that promotes the greater good and making decisions that promote the greater good. Choice is the neutral good character's greatest strength and greatest burden.

An example of a morality-ethics based conflict for a Neutral Good character is difficult to explain because of the Neutral Good character's flexibility. While the solution is often obvious or somewhat more straightforward for a LG or CG character, Neutral Good characters make their decisions based on the greater consequences of their actions. This doesn't mean they are likely to commit evil acts, but it does mean that they are less likely to take any decision lightly. Every mistake is their own-- they cannot fall back on following the law or following their heart, but instead must follow their head. Furthermore, their are neutral good characters that tend towards lawful solutions and some that tend towards chaotic solutions. But let's try an example from Gandalf's book:

A local king is over-taxing the citizens of a small town but he is using the funds to build a new fort. A Chaotic Good character would be opposed to the king's actions for his over-taxation and a Lawful Good character would probably be offended but might not necessarily oppose the king. A Neutral Good character would only wonder whether the king's actions were necessary for the greater good and try to find a solution that balances the welfare of the small town against the welfare that would come from building this new fort. If the new fort would stand in the way of a greater evil than taxation, he might overlook it but would probably search for an alternate solution that satisfied all parties to the best of his abilities. That is the struggle of NG heroes.

What are some examples of Neutral Good characters? Gandalf (of course), Harry Potter (and maybe Dumbledore), Spider-Man, Captain James T. Kirk, Goku, Wonder Woman, and Luke Skywalker.

So, why pick Neutral Good? Simple. You want to solve problems for the greater good by being proactive and pragmatic

Basically, you want to be a good person first.

SPOONY VS. BALROG

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/12/14! (ALIGNMENTS PT. 1 LAWFUL GOOD)

COUNTER MONKEY- WHERE HAVE ALL THE LAWFUL GOODS GONE?

lawful good [law-fuhl-gud]
noun
1. The alignment that upholds society and society's laws in the name of the greater good and prosperity for all. This alignment upholds the values of truth, justice and compassion, while striving to bring structure and security.
adjective
2. Anything that falls within the perimeter of the lawful good alignment (see 1. above).

EX. Holy crap! I am opening up a big can of worms by doing a word of the day about an alignment without explaining the other alignments but, if you have to start anywhere, I suppose Lawful Good is a good place to start.

Real life morality and ethics is complicated. So complicated that it has led many a philosopher to question the definition or validity of these terms in relationship to real humans. After all, real humans are far more enigmatic than most fictional characters because, hypothetically, we can know exactly how they feel and think about everything. In reality, one only knows one true self or that only one could possibly know one true self. Still, we categorize the way that individuals and organizations act based on what they espouse through their words and actions. In fiction, we can have debates about where characters fall upon the spectrum of good versus evil and chaos versus order.

Dungeons and Dragons uses these principles for the alignment system.

The purpose of the alignment system, at least in my opinion, is to give a guideline for players or DM in understanding character's ethics and morality to better translate them to roleplaying through the character's actions and motivations. Therefore, every character in Dungeons and Dragons is defined by their alignment. Their alignment is define along two crossing axis:

The morality axis (Good vs. Evil) and the ethical axis (Order vs. Chaos).

Good is most simply defined by altruism and the respect of other living beings and evil is by lack of altruism and a lack of respect for other living beings. Law is defined by a focus on honor and respect for society's rules and chaos is defined by a focus on individual freedom and expression. Neutrality defines the middle ground between these two extremes with true neutral having neither defined morals or ethics.

Today we're talking about the strict but idealistic alignment, Lawful Good or "the Paladin alignment" (despite the fact that a paladin can be any alignment but tend toward lawful alignments).

What's a paladin?

That's a paladin. In the literal sense.

A paladin is a holy knight that crusades in the name of good and order while wielding divine magic and martial discipline. In the dungeons and dragons sense.

A paladin, in a less literal sense or even Dungeons and Dragons sense, are righteous heroes who sacrifice their own comfort & safety to protect and promote the greater good. They can also be called "paragons".

Paladins and paragons are heroes. And (usually) they are lawful good. Because, arguably, lawful good is the most heroic alignment.

Lawful good characters strike a balance between law and good; good dictates their altruistic morality and motivates them to put others before themselves and law dictates their means to altruism through creating and/or upholding systems that promote the greater good.

Lawful good societies are built upon laws that protect and promote the populous. They build institutions to uphold the law and build further institutions to protect these institutions. The promote those that serve these institutions.

A lawful good character must strike a balance between justice and mercy and a lawful good society must strike a balance between placing importance on structures and rules creates to protect the people and the freedom of peoples these structures and rules are designed to protect.

An example of a morality-ethics based conflict for a lawful good character would be catching a hungry street urchin stealing an apple from a vendor. Law would dictate that they hand the urchin over to the authorities. Compassion would dictate a more merciful path, especially if the law is harsh on thieves, considering the specifics of the situation. After all, not all crimes are equal. A starving child stealing an apple cannot be compared to a thug robbing a carriage. As a lawful good society, it would be important to try and solve the problem on a macro scale by making sure punishments fit the crime while also seeking to create institutions that promote welfare and opportunities for the poor/downtrodden while also seeking to protect the innocent from suffering in the future.


What are some examples of lawful good characters?

Aragorn, Superman, Spock, Captain America, Robocop, Carrot Ironfounderson, Optimus Prime

So, why pick Lawful Good? You want to play a character that upholds the law, protects the weak, and serves as a paragon in his society.

And, if you don't know just how controversial alignments can be (trust me when I saw someone will take umbrage with my definitions), try to see if you agree with all of the characters in the following image. I don't. But I do agree with most of it. And that'll do!

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/30/15!

flumph [flumf]
noun
1. Dungeons and Dragons. First published in the 1st Edition Dungeons and Dragons book, The Fiend Folio, it is a Lawful Good aberration, from space/outer planes, resembling a glowing jellyfish with eye stalks that floats using air jets that make the noise that gives them their name. Surprisingly intelligent and wise, they live in well-organized and harmonious communities and communicate telepathically with other life forms. They, harmlessly, feed off the emotional energy of other beings and react to their emotions/behavior accordingly; they are attracted to good creatures and repelled by evil. Flumphs are quick to make friends with those that can look past their appearance and, generally, serve heroes in the fight against heroes by warning them of alien threats and assisting them in their own way.

EX. Out of all of the extremely silly monsters in Dungeons and Dragons history, the humble flumphs are my favorite.

The angle of appeal with these alien creatures is they look like some sort of random alien creatures that would swarm heroes and take part in something out of a bad Japanese hentai but, instead, are some of the nicest and most helpful creatures you will ever meet! These mini Flying Spaghetti monsters are like the pugs of D & D-- ugly, adorable and a little bit tragic. After all, most heroes would just assume they're horrible monsters and cut them down without giving them the opportunity to explain themselves. And that's a shame because, unlike many outer beings, Flumphs are not complete and utter tosspots.

My adventuring party in the Fifth Edition game I am currently playing in, as my human cleric of Lathander, Geth Dawnbraker, we met a Flumph! The pitiful creature seemed a little young, a little lost, and very distraught. It couldn't fly or, rather, it was afraid to fly! Immediately taking the little creature under his wing, Geth Dawnbreaker gave him an encouraging speech and, with a little divine intervention, sent the creature on it's way. And, with Geth making all sorts of deals and alignments with outsiders that might not have his best interests at heart, he'll need friends without ulterior motives that owe him a favor.

And a flumph is a good friend to have.

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES! HOMEBREW: DRAGON-TOUCHED! (PATHFINDER)

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

PATHFINDER HOMEBREW: 

MY CUSTOM DRAGON-TOUCHED RACES

Today I'm doing something a little different; sharing some detailed custom stuff I made for my Tabletop RPGs I run. As many of you probably know, for about half a decade now, me and my friends meet up about once a week to play Dungeons and Dragons, board games, video games, etc, and, once again many of you know this, I've shared content before. But I don't think I've shared like detailed mechanical stuff about my settings. So here, let's talk a bit about my newest setting...

I love Skyrim. But, ironically, it somewhat put a damper on two Dungeons and Dragons setting/campaign ideas I had swirling around in my head since as long as I've been developing my own settings/campaigns for Dungeons and Dragons:

1. It made me put off my Viking setting for a couple of years.

2. It kept me from making a campaign about dragon invasion.

Eventually, I made my Viking setting. The setting is based on the very first Dungeons and Dragons setting I ever made and I'll tell you guys about it another day.

Today, we're talking about dragons.

In my newest setting, Nyumeneera, dragons and "dragon-touched" races are an important element and theme. After all, the chromatic dragons and their servant races are part of the Tytanyan Pact, the most powerful empire that the world has ever known:

The dragons of Smolder, led by Red Typhon, live a decadent lifestyle where their chief concerns are maintaining their wealth from the mines of the island they inhabit and maintaining control over the prisoner/slaves/servants that work the mines. In order to maintain control, the dragons have three races that make up an administrative class in their society. The whip-cracking kobolds, the militant dragonborn, and the cunning and manipulative guivre.

These custom races are compatible with Pathfinder and, if you want to check them out in detail, there are links after the jump (hint: the links are under the pictures).

WORD OF THE DAY! 6/5/14!

TINY GRUMPY ARMIES TRAILER!

BUY TINY GRUMPY ARMIES TODAY!

grumpy [grump-ee]
adjective
1. Surly or ill-tempered; discontentedly or sullenly irritable; grouchy.

EX. Tiny Grumpy Armies is the latest fancy bit of fun from Human Person games and my old friend
pugfarts AKA Mapp Pears etc. (he has lots of aliases). The game combines his adorable art with his wicked sense of humor and just the right amount of game crafting to provide an experience that deserves to be on your game shelf. I got my copy a few days ago and I can't wait to play it and give it a proper review.

So, until then, I recommend you check out his blogs and videos to see what you're missing and what you should be investing into with your disposable income.

TABLETOP TALES: MY BORN OF THE GODS PRE-RELEASE: "WHITE & GREEN AURA VOLTRON!"

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

MY BORN OF THE GODS PRE-RELEASE PT. 1

To check out my other decks, hit the link below:

ALL OF MY MTG ARTICLES!

This article serves two purposes: To share the nerd entertainment around with anyone who might find it interesting and, in this case, to share my experiences with the Theros pre-release.

You can find Magic Cards in super stores (Ex. Walmart, Target) but the best place you can buy your cards, meet other players, and play in events is at your local comic book store or hobby shop. I buy most of my cards at The Comic Cellar. Here is a link to its Google Maps location at 3620 Austin Peay Highway #2 Memphis, TN 38128.

And here is a link to Comic Cellar's Website

It cost $25-$30 bucks to signs up and, for that fee, each player received 6 boosters packs, including two Born of the Gods packs, three Theros packs, & a special booster pack for their chosen hero's destiny,-- Lead (White), Outwit (Blue),  Dominate (Black), Conquer (Red), & Thrive (Green)-- and a promo card for your path (which you could use in the event) and with the materials each player was expected to build, with all the lands they need, a minimum 40 card deck. There was six one-on-one matches, each a best of three rounds, and the ranking in these matches landed you more packs (with the top player getting a box) and the Top 20, after those who got more than a pack, recieved a "pity pack". Then, at my event, everyone from the bottom up got to pick a prize from the "swag box". In the end, I think everyone, including my two friends (one of which who has played longer than me and the other was attending his first event), had a good time.

Let's take a look at the new mechanics of Born of the Gods:

INSPIRED- Activates an effect every time the creature card containing the keyword is untapped.

TRIBUTE X- Whenever a creature with Tribute X enters the battlefield, an opponent of the creature's controller's choice may choose to either put X +1/+1 counter on it or, if the "the tribute is not paid", another effect will activate.

To check out the other mechanics features in the Theros block, make sure to check out my article on the Theros pre-release HERE.

The story, this time, has a horde of minotaurs threatening the peoples of Theros and Elspeth rising to the occasion to lead them to victory against the murderous marauders. But all is not as it seems, as Xenagos put the situation in motion so that the victory would result in a riotous celebration and he could use the emotions/spirit of these celebrations to empower his quest to become a god. Achieving his new status as a god, the satyr has rocked the heavens and challenges the other gods for supremacy amongst the worshipers below. Can Elspeth stop Xenagos from pursuing the rest of his plans to achieve his cruel & secret plot?

The will of the gods is slowly turning in my favor because, with this event, I broke my lousy streak and went 3/3. I think I would've gone 4/2 if not for a poor hand I should've mulliganed. While I didn't stress myself out, I still took this event rather seriously to try to place. At the very least, I was in the Top 20 of over 50 combatants. The most interesting part of this pre-release is that I had a fairly interesting pool and could've played anything but red. The best colors I had were white and green, which was my build through the most of the day and that's the subject of this article. The other deck I built for the last round involved abusing two Ordeals of Erebos and lots of discarding.

Let's talk about...

MY BORN OF THE GODS PRE-RELEASE DECK

"WHITE/GREEN AURA VOLTRON!"

I chose white as my pre-release color and found an awesome batch of green creatures in my limited pool. My green pool provided me with three ways to get card advantage through drawing cards and even a way to mill my graveyard back into my deck. Then, my two Sedge Scorpions and a Bow of Nylea gave me a lot of aggressive removal. My white pool brought in some removal but, more importantly, a ton of white creatures, including flyers. But what brought the two colors together were all of the bestow creatures that, thanks to the strong early game, could hit the battlefield as enchantments with pretty good regularity. What sort of scenarios does this deck pull off to help you win the day?

There were several games won by simply pecking away at my opponent's health until I could net a bomb to finish them off, but the best case scenarios involved Bow of Nylea and/or my creatures getting enchanted until they were big enough to just be nearly unstoppable. Nothing quite feels as awesome as swinging a 10/10 trampling flying creature with deathtouch.

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES REVIEW! TICKET TO RIDE!

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

TICKET TO RIDE REVIEW!

Designers: Alan R. Moon
Artist: Cyrille Daujean & Julien Delval
Publishers:  Days of Wonder
Type: German-Style Board Game
Themes: Train-Themed, Transportation, Travel
# of Players: 2-5
Ages: 8 & Up
Time to Play: 30-60 min.
Approx. Price: $40-50

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES! GLOOM REVIEW!

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

GLOOM REVIEW!

Designers: Keith Baker
Artist: Scott Reeves
Publishers: Atlas Games
Type: Card Game
Themes: Gothic Horror, Story-Telling, Strategy
# of Players: 2-4
Ages: 13& Up
Time to Play: 30-60 min.
Approx. Price: $15-25

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES! ELDER SIGN REVIEW!

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

ELDER SIGN REVIEW!

Designers: Richard Launius & Kevin Wilson
Artist: Dallas Mehlhoff
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
Type: Card Game
Themes: Sci-fi & Fantasy, Horror, Adventure & Strategy
# of Players: 1-8
Ages: 14 & Up
Time to Play: 60-120 min.
Approx. Price: $40-50

MIXED BAG. TABLETOP TALES! SMALL WORLD REVIEW!

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

SMALL WORLD REVIEW!

Designer: Philippe Keyaerts
Artist: Miguel Coimbra
Publishers: Days of Wonder,
Type: Board Game
Themes: Fantasy, Humor, & Strategy
# of Players: 2-5
Ages: 8 & Up
Time to Play: 60-120 min.
Approx. Price: $40-50

TABLETOP TALES! NARUTO RPG! WORD OF THE DAY! 10/13/12. PT.1

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

CLICK CLICK BOOM: 

A NARUTO RPG BACKSTORY

zealot [zel-uht]
noun

1. A person who shows zeal.

2. An excessively zealous person; fanatic.

3. History. ( initial capital letter ) A member of a radical, warlike, ardently patriotic group of Jews in Judea, particularly prominent from a.d. 69 to 81, advocating the violent overthrow of Roman rule and vigorously resisting the efforts of the Romans and their supporters to heathenize the Jews.

This week I took part in a rather interesting RPG experience; I created a back-story, in a one x one role-playing experience, with the DM of a new Naruto Fan RPG he developed. The sessions were pretty unique, at least in my experience, as they were both intensive (it took several hours) and quite thorough in developing a character (from his family to his personality weaknesses)-- everything was covered.

The process began with the DM, Dayne, asking me to find a song, with lyrics, and an AMV of that song that he could use to develop the outline of my back-story session. I chose Saliva's Click Click Boom and, if you want to see the AMV, the link for the AMV is at the top of the article. As I go into the background summary below, you should be able to note and compare the points where he used elements from the AMV in my back-story.

Now, if for some reason you know nothing about the popular anime and manga, Naruto is a series about Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja, who is on a quest to earn recognition from the people that see him as a monster and to become the Hokage of his village. That is the very simplest summary of the main plot-line, but it hardly covers what makes Naruto so engrossing. The world is unique; with a rather unique art-style, Masashi Kishimoto managed to create a world where modern technology is available, but warfare stayed on the path of creating advanced warriors. The fights are Kabuki-inspired and are, in my opinion, some of the best choreographed and interesting fights I've seen in any anime. Finally, the characters that inhabit this world, with their unique abilities, are all interesting enough to get a back-story.

And maybe that's why a back-story is so important in a Naruto RPG. Just for all you continuity lovers, I think this setting is pretty removed from anything canon. Also, some parts of this story may seem a little strange or disturbing, but this is a fantasy; everything that happens fits within this universe's rules.

TABLETOP TALES! FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 3

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

 

FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 2

In the part of the episode we will be finishing the second act of Dirty Politics. To check out the first two parts hit the links below.

TABLETOP TALES! FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 1

TABLETOP TALES! FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 2

WEEKLY ROUND-UP! 7/23-7/29/12! POKEMON DRESS-UP WEEK!

WEEKLY ROUND-UP PRESENTS

POKEMON DRESS-UP WEEK!

7. WORD OF THE DAY! 7/27/12. Mushmouth.

I am still coming down from the Legend of Zelda overload that was Skyward Sword Week and I just got caught up on Futurama. No side-effects, honestly.

6. WORD OF THE DAY! 7/28/12. Dress-up.

I really think that dress-up/perform mini-game in Pokemon Black & White was pretty insulting to the intelligence of every pokemon player ever and probably embarrassing to everyone involved.

5. WTF WED: THE INTERNET, IT'S MY LIFE!

Sometimes, I just have to admit that I am going to go blind from staring at a computer screen...could be worse.

4. MUSICAL MONDAY! BABY CAKES: ROLE PLAY TOURNAMENT (BE AGGRESSIVE)

Until I see a new season of Venture Bros., my favorite show on TV is China, IL. Check it out on Adultswim.

3. WORD OF THE DAY! 7/29/12. Grump.

How much Game Grumps am I watching? I am listening to them play Mega Man 7 as I type this out, because their voices simulate company...what? I refer you to #5 above.

Also, they inspired me to toss my old copy of Goof Troop into my SNES and, now that I've grown up (I was video game-challenged as a child, basically, "This is hard. I'm gonna go read a book about magical objects and a chosen one or something. Pfft." )

2. TABLETOP TALES! FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 1

" I've been watching the, Tabletop, hosted by Wil Wheaton, since its inception a few months ago. Every episodes begins with me being curious about the games they will play and ends with me wanting to buy/play said games as soon as possible. The show's presentation mixed with my love affair with board games and role-playing make it the perfect hobby program for a nerd like me."

1. TABLETOP TALES! FIASCO! EP. 1 DIRTY POLITICS PT. 2

And that lead to our first game of Fiasco, which I'm talking about in Table Top Tales this week! I gave it the name "Dirty Politics" because of the themes of dirty business and a prospective mayor.