![Make Your Own Star Wars: Legion Heroes! Rebel Agent & Officer Set Review [7 Days Early Access]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/12/unboxing-atomic-mass-games-star-wars-legion-rebel-alliance-agent-_-officer-coverimage-225-127.jpg)
Weekender XLBS: D&D 5th Edition First Impressions & Scooby Doo!
September 14, 2014 by dracs
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Vids not working yet, but that’s ok cos I’m out of coffee and need to pop out and grab some quick.
its fine here 😀
yay- coffee done
armchair done
lets rock ! happy sunday!
Great show guys, I have to agree with Sam, D&D 5th edition is wonderful. I’ve bene playing Pathfinder for years, but 5E has me sorely tempted to jump ship.
Another interesting show. 🙂
Personally i’ve always thought that maps and figures should just be used as a visual aid for role playing games so that you can keep track of the who-what-where.
Wizards of the coast forgot this and turned it into the be all and end all of DnD 4th edition and totally missed the point of a roll playing game.
It’s good to see that they’ve realised their mistake and gone back to being more like Advanced DnD 2nd which was always the best itteration of the game for me.
Fair enough. In terms of my D&D “career” Maybe 5% of that was with Red Box, 25% on AD&D, 45% 3 / 3.5, 20% 4e and 5% on 5th edition.
The combat in 3/3.5 was leaning strongly towards miniature use, but combat itself did not appear to be the focus of the system as a whole because there were *so* many splat books with so many new rules on them that you could cobble together a version of D&D that focussed on one thing you really liked using just the (official) rules.
In 4e there is no arguing that the combat system became even more of a tabletop miniatures game and that combat itself was much more important to the system as a whole. To quote the Sword and Fist book.. “Combat isn’t everything. Its the only thing!”
However now that I have read through all the available 5e material and I applaud many of the changes that WotC have made, I also realise that the combat system presented in the book – and thus the system it tries to emulate from old school D&D and 3.5 to a certain extent – is actually kind of.. boring IMHO. Take the barrel / rat interaction example from the video. In 3.5 and 5th, there are rules for falling objects that can be applied to the barrels but there was rarely any point in doing so because although it was a cinematic action you could take, it just wouldn’t do very much damage RaW. While you could absolutely rule that it just killed them, or come up with some other system for determining how much damage it did, the same is true of 4e or 5e so I don’t think you can consider it a benefit of the system.
HOWEVER, it remained the kind of action you might want to take in 3.5 simply because.. unless you had heavily invested in combat (or were a wizard) your combat options were basically to move and hit it with your sword. Maybe you had power attack, but that just tweaked the numbers. So no matter how well the DM described the hit, it was still just.. 10 damage. So tipping some barrels onto the rats was a good option because it broke up the monotony of “I move and I hit it”.
In 4e, kind of as Warren suggests, it was my experience that those options were still there and – just as with 3.5 / 5e – it was up to the DM to either follow RaW or male up something.. but from the players perspective, you just didn’t have to. Every single class had a bunch of awesome things they could do in combat (not just the Wizard!) and it always translated into a very tangible result. So yeah, it didn’t require – or encourage – as much imagination on behalf of the players but from the 50 or so sessions I put in to that edition, I never felt like the fifth wheel who was waiting for the combat to be over because my character was built around social interaction and investigation. Sure it was a bit jarring to see that spells and abilities I might have had in AD&D or 3.5 suddenly translate into damage or combat status effects in 4e but it meant I was always participating and always having fun.
So in the matter of combat, 5e is small step backwards IMHO. But when considered as a whole.. yeah, 5e gets a thumbs up.
I’ve played 3.5 and 4th edition. I remember 3.5 as a convoluted journey through modifier hell. Sure, it had some fun and original moments, but on many occassions it took about half an hour to come up with the result of a certain action.
4th edition is indeed more combat focused. But what you can do is clear from the start. And our DM often presented the events as interesting combat puzzles. Beside just using our printed abilities there was always room to get ‘original’. One particular example was when I used magic paint to draw a ballista, then drew a light arrow to drop into it and shoot a huge deamon-like beast my fancy sword wouldn’t have been able to handle.
I also used my Fey Step ability for all kinds of interesting tactical teleportations.
So from personal experience I’m in favor of 4th edition. I’m curious to see how 5th will play though.
Happy Sunday!!!
Wife an daughter making breakfast an i am watching xlbs in bed….. Life is good
The perfect accompaniment to assembling some DZC starter set minis 🙂
Video not working. It says server, network down or format not supported. Hope its sorted soon.
Man I have been on a bender here and caught this early sunday usa time. I have only been a member of xlbs for a few days but I watch this all the time now. as far as race is concerned I am latino is america and can tell you that part of the reason is that all these types of games are geared to at least in america to the middle class regardless of race. wargames tend to be in america to the outcast. I do not know how wargames are viewed overseas, but here in america it is viewed by nerds who are not “cool”. I dont see it as a race thing but a money thing.
Aw, it won’t load for me :'(
Video not working for me either. It’s almost 3am here so I dunno if that has something to do with it lol.
Not working for me either.
Working here on an iPhone
It may have been an issue with amazon cloudfront
Please remember to list what you are watching on so we can spot a more specific issue 🙂
It works on my iphone though not on my laptop.
I’m using Firefox on my laptop.
same here
Never works in Firefox for me either but is runs fine on… IE! *gasp*
Mornin all still an issue for me on PC running Linux using firefox browser, error is
Video not working. It says server, network down or format not supported
Im watching on a windows computer, with a high speed connection in Sweden. And its still not working.
I’m on Firefox on a mac laptop and it isn’t currently working.
It could be the browser…when I changed from firefox to Chrome it started to work
Changed browser and it works as well for me.
Ok I suspect there is a mime type issue (Firefox is very picky about that – @dignity may have forgot to set it properly)
I advise using chrome until I can get hold of one of the guys to change/fix it.
I wound up watching it on my iphone and I’m hoping you can clear something up. Were you all far away, or just really small…
I see what you did there !
FIREFOX ISSUE SHOULD BE FIXED NOW
Happy Sunday
We had a great LOTOW campaign a few years ago, not only did we develop characters, every session we would also bring along a new papercraft town house or shop to add to the terrain, so as our characters grew so did the town.
We fought over control of the town and all the buildings gave a bonus to the gang if you controlled it, was great fun.
Waren. How old is Savanna? I play a simplified version of DreadBall and KoW with my 4.5 year old boy. He’s still not happy about losing (which, rather embarrassingly for me is not often!) but seems to understand the dice concept etc.
Start them early!
I couldn’t agree with you more @applemak. I got my son to start playing when he was 5 with a few space marines. We too played a simplified version of 40k in which we still use today all be it more advanced.
Again start them early, it’s the only way to keep our hobby evolving
She’s just over 3.5. At the moment we are still role playing (with dice and decisions and now modifiers) rather than war gaming per se.
But over the next few week myself and ‘uncie @lloyd‘ have a grand plan for that 🙂
I thought it was a weakness of the Warhammer Historical line that so many of the games were saddled with a system that didn’t suit what they trying to do. The gladiator game was worse again. Blackwater Gulch and Dead Man’s Hand both do Old West with systems that are designed from the ground up to suit it.
Hmm I’m still getting a format not supported message, odd, never had a problem before.
Not working for me on Firefox but appears to be fine through Chrome.
Scenario suggestion:
An evil wizzard has something like a dungeon arena for adventurers. Youncan win an awful lot of gold if you survice the dungeon by eaching the exit before all the traps and monsters in there will kill you.
Some decadent society members have fun watching the game and placing their bets on the most promising member of the group. Most of the time, the evil wizzard finds enough volunteers, but sometimes, when there are note enough of them or if the party is looking for something special, some visitors of the town get hijacked and teleported to the dungeon.
This time, they piked the wrong bunch! Warren, Lloyd and Justin only have one goal – survive the dungeon and kill the wizzard in an epic endfight to stop this cruel game for ever.
You can use the wonderful terain to build a very special setting, use traps, riddles and evry possible kind of dangerous encounter on your way through it. Save the dragon, kill the maid and grab all those worthy artefacts! 😉
Happy Sunday (working on Chrome/Win8.1)
If there was a theme to this week it would be about how to enjoy gaming, the good old British mantra “It isn’t the winning, it’s the taking part” (or should that be ‘taking apart’). In order to do that then participants (the clue is the first 4 letters) need to be comfortable with what’s happening; rules and objectives just provide a framework. We can all propably call to mind those players who we don’t enjoy playing with and if we ask ourselves why it’s probably that they sulk if they lose and are slaves to the rules.
My new club plays a lot of historic and we’re soon going to run a session for a very interesting group of people (can’t say who, let’s just say ‘professional leaders to be’) and are re-running a Napoleonic battle – several players each side. We’re using Black Powder and tweaking the scenario and rules slightly to ensure round 1 begins as per historic record – what happens afterwards is then the ‘competitive’ part. Can either side beat history? The conversation and brainstorming continues all week before prototyping at the next session. What fun!
On the inclusivity issue – it’s not a criticism as most of us are guilty of it… could we regard Jason’s Western band of sisters as mysoginistic, especially referring to them as ‘broads’. If Jason was a card-holding feminist would that be OK? As for Sam’s comment – they’re called Native Americans not Indians now. Does it matter? It’s not intentional I know, but might we have accidentally offended someone and inadvertently ‘excluded’ them from the group? You are right about some people being over-sensitive; but in a week that the Sun is considering putting clothes on Page 3 girls, an NFL player is video’s punching out his girl’s lights (his girl) in a broad community some may feel the right to be.
This from someone awaiting his Infinity starter set to paint up…
It took me a few reads to realise you meant Justin lol. Focusing in on whether “Indian” is okay to say is a good example of where what Warren calls hypersensitivity comes into play, what I would call lack of context. Not that I’m suggesting that you are doing it, it’s just a good example. Both Indian and Native American are just words and obsessing over which label is the one that’s okay to use totally misses the woods for the trees. What’s more important is the context each evokes. Without meaning to speak for Sam, I would guess that he would use Native American to describe an actual person of that descent, but is using Indian because like many white folks in the west, we’ve grown up on stories of cowboys and Indians in the old west, and that’s the context in which he’s playing the game. The question then becomes, is that stereotype a harmful one? Does perpetuating the Indian stereotype cause harm to the Native American community. That’s a big question and not one I want to tackle, but it’s what’s really at stake when we discuss what words are okay to use. If we miss that we get stuck in a pointless squabble over semantics.
Again, not suggesting this is any way what you were doing, it was just a good jumping off point for me 🙂
” it’s what’s really at stake when we discuss what words are okay to use”
I apologise for my awful grammar; “which words” not “what words”. For shame lol
Lol – I have to make allowances for others’ spelling and grammar issues when using a non-correctable forum editor – to do otherwise would be hypocritical and hypercritical.
To that end… Justin – I apologise… you remind me of someone called Jason… not that I’m stereotyping the hair deficient, builder type though 😉
I too grew up in the world of “Cowboys and Indians” – it was also a very mysogenistic world and in a society that bandied the ‘N*’ word casually (to my shame I only ever used it once in anger and lost a friend as a result – 35 years ago). I was just playing devil’s advocate pointing out that what might be ‘casual banter’ in a closed group can easily be over-blown out of context in a broader environment. The watchable, casual chat nature of the weekenders and the inevitable foot-in-mouth moments HAS to be slightly tempered by the prospect that people of all shapes, creeds, races and genders might be your audience.
I think that Warren’s comments about games being designed to fit an audience – undoubtably. I don’t complain at the fact that when I walk into Claire’s Accessories (as banker for my teenage daughter I hasten to add) I don;t feel that there’s anything for me! If, however, we want to grow the market then these new demographics need to be designed at too and not put off.
I meant “I don’t complain there’s nothing for me” in the penultimate line.
To clarify, I’m not suggestiing Claire’s Accessories (other shops available) start addressing my needs by adding a range of Dark Blue hair-grips and manly plastic bead bracelets.
PLEASE can we have editable posts?
“The watchable, casual chat nature of the weekenders and the inevitable foot-in-mouth moments HAS to be slightly tempered by the prospect that people of all shapes, creeds, races and genders might be your audience.”
Most definitely :). I was picking up mainly on the question of whether the term matters and using it as a climbing on point for my soapbox lol.
” I don’t complain at the fact that when I walk into Claire’s Accessories (as banker for my teenage daughter I hasten to add)”
No need to justify yourself lol. Interestingly, Claire’s Accessories are a company that doesn’t advertise and intentionally keeps a low profile. They rely on people finding them in shopping malls and high streets. Does that sound like another company to anyone here? The difference between CA and tabletop gaming is that one is a specific company and the other is an entire industry. The jewellery and accessories industry appeals to many different demographics, CA just zeroes in on one of them. I could go out and get a watch and a bag that are designed to appeal to me from a different shop. Tabletop gaming is nowhere near big enough a market to have that kind of granular appeal in its component parts so as you say, growing the market will require broader appeal first 🙂
Happy sunday!
If you want to add a simple gambling element to a 2 player game look at the doubling dice in Backgammon. Agree to play for 50p say, either player can double the game to £1, his opponent agrees and takes the dice, or surrenders the game. Only the owner of the dice can then then double again.
As far as capturing pieces as a mechanic, in Shogi, Japanese Chess, when you capture a piece it can then come onto the board in a future turn as your piece. Supposed to represent a captured Samurai joining your side.
That might free up some tables sooner – however, I suspect the ‘table-tipper’, sore losers may soon struggle to get a game if they keep sulking off!
Strategy would be to take on the new guy who hasn’t bought the rulebook yet!
The idea for a money bet goes completely against the grain, better to have a laugh and buy your opponent a beer, whether you win or lose!
Worked on IE so all is good, great show and loved that wee trailer at the end.
Great vid guys, when are you going to start releasing the Scooby Doo game!
The scenario is….
As the players haven’t been introduced yet , they are all in your town meandering about when summoned by the mayor.
The town has a big necropolis that is very heavily worded by the necromancers guild. It is part of there plan to offer safe burial of your loved ones , and as is the custom , your buried with some loot.
Somehow someone is bypassing the wards and getting the dead to rise and give them said loot instead of the necromancers collecting it in 15to 20 years time after people stop really visiting the graves!
Who it is , that’s up to you , why…….is it the loot , or is there somegting more sinister afoot!
@dracs @warzan I think a bog standard dungeon crawl using the Warhammer Quest dungeon tiles (from the unloved box sitting on your shelf!) would make for a good starting BoW DnD adventure!
Great episode guys , I would love to see you guys play around with D&D 5th edition..
My vote would be for a scenario where you guys have to investigate people disappearing from or around the old abandoned Church…. only to find out there is a small brood of fledgling vampires inside….MMMuuuaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Brill video guys
Why not just run the adventure in the D&D starter box?
Still got issues on firefox…
I love running D&D and playing in it. I’ve been doing it since 1st edition (when my Dad introduced me to it at 6 years old) and have loved every edition as it’s kept the game fresh.
Here’s my scenario;
A town is under siege; the Blue Dragon, Corthrax, is laying waste to it while his minions try to invade the city. The only way to stop the dragon is to make your way up through the tallest structure in the town; the wizards observatory. At the top of the tower is a mysterious weapon used by the wizard to protect the town from local marauders, known only as the Peace Keeper.
Unfortunately, in the chaos, the observatory has become the most dangerous place in the town; all those mystical contraptions and summoned entities the wizard was working on are now running amok, not to mention the band of goblins, lead by the gruesome Shaman, Lucktart, who have stormed into the tower, looking for loot.
The players only have so much time to ascend the tower, fighting their way through the magical minions and vicious goblins to reach the summit and face Corthrax before the town is destroyed!
I’d genuinely love to run this for you – then all of you could play! Fancy paying for a flight from London? 😉 Or skyping it in?
As an addendum, I do voices and everything.
7th ed D&D idea
5 days ago all the dead that had been buried in the graveyard during the last 5 years return alive and well. They are all in a good state of health for the age that they died. There are no traces of any diseases, any broken missing limbs have been replaced by artificial ones.
On examining the graveyard each grave had been dug into from below where a network of tunnels reach out towards the desert!
Not working on chrome on my Android tablet. It ran fine last week and the weeks before did you change something?
It ran on my android phone. Great episode. I’m glad to hear that 5th edition is an improvement. I dropped D&D after 3rd edition I couldn’t afford to keep replacing the books.
Errmm… Legends of the Old West is basically Lord of the Rings re-skinned and Necromunda campaign system added on top.
Now I’m going to say something that will probably be taken the wrong way, but whatever…
I love the Warhammer historical games and I own almost all of the books they put out.
BUT…
There is very little in the way of innovation in them.
And that is really the whole point of it. Play the rules you already know with a new background. Feel a little too old to be playing with faeries and goblins anymore? This is the ticket for you.
As sad as I am to see it go, I kinda understand the business point. GW does not sell games, they sell models. They make games (and books etc.) to sell more models. So why would they make a game they don’t sell models for?
Warhammer Historicals was there to provide a creative outlet for certain key people in the company. Once those people were not there anymore, Historicals got to go as well.
Great post. Warhammer Historical probably brought a lot of people across into historical gaming and it was a shame to see it go. Even if it made no sense for GW to keep it around.
5th ed is really very good, excellent system for beginners as well, takes a lot of the number crunching out. Will still predominantly play pathfinder, but I can see myself playing a bit of 5th ed on the side, especially when pressed for time or not with a regular group.
Sam, I would beseech you to add more to your scenario than simple combat – a good RPG, in my opinion, has a social aspect, a puzzle aspect, an investigation aspect and a combat aspect… Combat should be about 1/4th your time… In any case I humbly present:
The Trials of Zarok, the Repentant
The village of Heiveldale is not a particularly large village, nor is it particularly important; it lies a far distance from any crossroads or river ways, and it produces nothing unique in the way of goods. In fact, no one would know Heiveldale at all, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was the birthplace of one of the greatest kings the land had ever known: Zarok the Invinvicle. Of course, Zarok was known by many names in his time, Hero, Slayer, Usurper, Defiler, but the people of Heiveldale remember him best as the old man who returned to them, after so many years of rulership, and desired to live out his final days in the peace and comfort of the rolling yellow hills, warm summer nights, and bowlfuls of red-root tobacco. When his time finally came to cross over into the shadow lands, King Zarok commanded that a deep catacomb be built beneath the village; it would be his final resting place and the stronghold of his greatest treasure. It was his desire that one day, worthy souls might delve into these catacombs, seek out his treasure and learn the secrets of his victories; in turn, he prophesied, they would inherit his destiny, and unite and rule the lands of Atalon.
He summoned ancient builders and wizards who sealed the catacomb with powerful magic – allowing it to open only once per year, when the sun travels it’s longest journey through the sky. For 400 years, soldiers, theives, princes and scholars have travelled from the far corners of Atalon, to test their strength and cunning in the tunnels below; and in 400 years, not a single soul has emerged victorious. No one is certain what dangers or treasures lie in wait for the intrepid souls who delve into the darkness; some whisper it holds the Atalonic Crown, an item of immense power, protected by the spirit of Zarok himself; others claim it is nothing more than an endless pit, spiralling downward toward eternity. Whatever the case, the crisp winds of winter have begun to recede, the days are growing longer, and it is time again for stalwart companions to gather their gear and travel northward, to discover their destiny in the darkness below.
**This is a scenario for 3-4 players, comprising of any number of encounter/events and can suitably adjusted for characters level 1-5. For the purpose of BoW I recommend a short, 3 encounter scenario, Sam can contact me for more details if desired, as I would hate to give anything away to the players – I can also give you a hand with how to GM the scenarios if you desire Sam, this is introductory for both player and GM.**
Great show, stunning game trailer can’t wait to see more.
if I could win once in a while, I would be so happy … :p
talking about colour and the lack of it in gw I remember back in the late 90s I think when the plastic catachans came out I was talking to one of the shop staff who’d been told by the manager to repaint the black catachans white after a directive from head office because somebody complained that the only black soldiers seen in white dwarf were in the jungle fighters set and somebody made the connection with a number of derogatory terms that are well known
how true this is I don’t know its what I was told as an explanation which seems to follow as I cant remember the last time I saw a black catachans in anything official.
DnD Scenario idea:
Sam, while your Halfling character is off adventuring, something has gone awry in his old stomping grounds. Larders have been broken into, cellars have been raided, dairy farmers across the realm are under siege by the most insidious of thieves.
Some say, that this thief is neither man nor beast, who wears ornately decorated breastplate of gold, and that he will go to any lengths to hunt down the perfect cheese. All we know, gained from tavern whispers, hearsay, speculation and the ramblings of a beggar on the road, is that he’s called… “Darrel”
Inclusivity is important and I’m pleased that you are addressing it. I was very happy to see Dawn and Gianna join the team. In addition to the added US coverage it is an indication to other women that girls play these things too and have a great time doing so.
Race can also be an issue. When there are no black or brown etc faces I can understand why it might be difficult for a person of colour to easily identify with characters being represented. I have been particularly impressed with the more recent D&D and Pathfinder games in their wide ethnic and racial representations, plus (Justin aside) the reduction in the chain-mail bikini count. Girls get cold too although Barbarians may be the exception to this. 😎
I recently had the good fortune to take part in a megagame of Operation Market Garden that was run in Nijmegen in The Netherlands and I was struck at how welcoming and friendly the whole event was, so I am somewhat encouraged by the direction gaming is going, especially since we are seeing many more female and different cultures actively engaged in playing computer or console games. My mother-in-law is a keen World of Warcraft player and is also a player in our 2nd edition AD&D group.
I think my point is, talking about it and even making some mistakes while trying to address issues of fairness and openness is a good thing.
DnD Scenario idea:
Sam, while your Halfling character is off adventuring, something has gone awry in his old stomping grounds. Larders have been broken into, cellars have been raided, dairy farmers across the realm are under siege by the most insidious of thieves.
Some say, that this thief is neither man nor beast, who wears ornately decorated breastplate of gold, and that he will go to any lengths to hunt down the perfect cheese. All we know, gained from tavern whispers, hearsay, speculation and the ramblings of a beggar on the road, is that he’s called… “Sanguinious von Ratticus”
That old west game sounds awesome. I don’t have a big gaming group and the friend I play with will only play games like mordheim, that have a campaign system. I’m also looking into carnivals for that reason.
I love the idea of an “Actual Play” of D&D 5th. I would strongly suggest getting the “Starter set”. It has an adventure that will take characters from 1st to 5th and has 5 pre-gen characters and everything you need to play and all for about 12 GBP.
I’d vote for that too. I’m a dyed in the wool 2nd edition guy but from what I’ve heard of 5th it’s worth a look. Perhaps a return to the more abstract nature of the game that I’ve always preferred.
Or free as I’m never going to use my starter.
Great show again, guys. Really… the Scooby Doo thing was awesome.
I used chrome – all good great show, great coffee, great sunday.
@warzan Your Scooby Doo game sounds great, get it published! Actually, what about making it available on here for other gamer parents to have a crack at it? 🙂
I’d like to have a go at D&D, but after reading about Mutant: Year Zero and seeing the trailer, I want to have a go at that too! The trailer looked good enough for a film, let alone a game. I’d love to see more about that.
i want to buy scooby doo starter set 🙂
Come on warren publish the Scooby Doo game for backstagers! I don’t have any kids and I’d like to play it!
I know this may come over as very ‘analy retentive’ but please! Please! Please! There are no such terms as ‘would of’, ‘could of’, ‘should of’, they should be ‘would have’, ‘could have’ and ‘should have’. I’ve managed to get this across to my 13 year old granddaughter, so please, no more ‘ofs’. ;
erm… where are these terms?
You should’ve done a better job with your grammar, though I’m sure you would’ve if you could’ve been alerted to that fact before the show.
Were those terms written down somewhere, @phalanx58? If you’re going off speech then the way I say “would’ve” sounds like “would of”, it’s not bad grammar, it’s my accent.
Scenario suggestion:
Your characters have just returned from a victorious but gruling quest/mission to retrieve/steal/aquire the holy thingy or whatsit or some such… they wander into a shop to sell their misbegotten goods to the usual fence when the trap is sprung. Apparently the shop owner is tired of paying for goods, jewels, weapons and armour… when he can let people come to him and he can let the monsters in the cellars deal with them…
So your characters tired and wounded and dumped by trap door into a cellar with a series of cellars full of things between them and freedom.
enjoy
Enjoyed the show today! It seems like inclusiveness, and feminism, and other such related topics are popular online fodder these days. But I can’t help but notice, when you start talking about marketing and target audiences, you’re speaking about advertising 101 stuff, and I mean no offense with this, but like most gamers you’re almost immediately out of your depth on the subject. It’s like if you started discussing which experimental treatments for cancer have the most potential, but none of you have been to medical school. There’s nothing wrong with talking about it, but the conversation will be facile no matter how strong your emotions or convictions on the subject are.
I think the Scooby-Doo game is a brilliant idea, though it definitely looked great thanks to that Carnevale terrain. I often hear people talking about trying to get their kids involved in gaming when they get old enough, but there seems to be an untapped market for miniatures games and roleplay-lite systems designed for little ones to play with their parents.
That analogy only works if Warren is the one trying to treat cancer. Rather, it’s about identifying an issue and bringing it to people who can do something about it. If you want to apply the cancer analogy then it would be that the medical industry is doing very little to treat cancer, and we recognise that more should be done. We don’t need to treat cancer ourselves, just get people to realise that more needs to be done and that there are people who can do it.
I see your point, but I didn’t mean facile in a pejorative way. And people telling medical researchers that they should try and cure cancer or any other disease is exactly facile.
I’m not saying they should. I’m saying that if you wanted to introduce an analogy of curing cancer, that is what it would be.
“when you start talking about marketing and target audiences, you’re speaking about advertising 101 stuff, and I mean no offense with this, but like most gamers you’re almost immediately out of your depth on the subject”
So my previous 20 years working in Marketing and Digital Media don’t count then 😉
I’m sure you’re an expert on many subjects, if you feel you’ve got it down pat, then you would know. But I’d be interested to see what you guys have to say about the issue in that case.
My take on actual cash in tabletop games: I’m totally opposed. For me gaming is a laugh and introducing even small bets adds seriousness that I find unwelcome. Just like I enjoy playing pool but even betting the price of a pint on the game makes it less fun. Folks might enjoy (and I don’t want to tell anyone how they ought to play games) that but it’s not for me.
Just my 2p (did you see what I did there?)
C’mon guys, 5th ed. is really 2nd ed. with a little of the good parts from 3, 3.5 and 4. Loving the game again, but maybe this is just that I’m in it at its start. 4th ed. was a skirmish game agreed, but it was MMO-lite as well. To sell more books, etc. I hope Wizards of the Coast don’t succumb to the power-creep that was 3.5 and made entering that version all but impossible except at the beginning.
Warren, where did you get those Scooby-do figures? My wife and teen age daughter (who grew up with Mystery, Inc) would love those. A game would be even better.
Oh, Sam could just pick up the D&D Starter box for GM and scenario help. The actual DMG won’t be out until November I think. The whole, initial release schedule is a little weird, imo,: Handbook out already, then Monster Manual in mid September, the Dungeon Masters’ Guide in November and the DM Screen in January.
That pop out terrain looks great. It would be perfect with, my use to be collectors, Space Hulk.
On a dark and gloomy night 3 travelers seek shelter from the rain in what at first glance appears to be an abandoned hut. Once inside their torches reveal the full extent of the building. Part of the building is like an alchemists workshop, strange utensils and everyday objects with hidden darker uses litter benches. The rear of the building is like a warehouse, shelves loaded with boxes of ancient material, some contain rare metals such as tin and pewter, others house what look like exotic maps and documents..
As the travelers begin to explore they hear a noise from a dark corner, a figure is gently rocking backwards and forwards mumbling the same words repeatedly. Although they can not understand him as he is speaking in a foreign tongue, they marvel at his ornate body decoration and amazing facial hair.
Suddenly from outside they hear a noise through the steady stream of rain on the poorly maintained roof. They strain their ears and are able to discern several voices raised in angry chanting. Peering through grimy windows they can see hooded figures with flaming torches and pitchforks, the black and yellow tabards that they wear are adorned with skulls. The chant is the last thing that they hear before the the door splinters under the weight of the angry charge, “Article 9.4!”.
great video!! love the terrain
check out http://www.youtube.com/user/itmeJP there are lots of examples of live steaming rpg such as d and d and dark heresy
When does this scooby-doo game hit kickstarter?
Loved Dnd 5th.
Just finished the first adventure. Back to how Dnd should be.
Cant wait to see the video of you guys having a go.
Great show as always 🙂
Hey Warren, you just never seize to amaze me, telling that story of your “Scooby” game was just brilliant you had me captivated, your daughter is lucky to have a dad with what seems to be a great deal of patience, WELL DONE ! This has just sparked a thought, I think gaming or hobbies in general could be a bit “shellfish” in some ways in that it could be (not necessarily saying it is, but it could be) a “dad’s” or “husbands” only type event and perhaps the future of the industry does need to look at getting some focus back to families spending time together playing games. Life seems to have become so frenetic and in some ways we tend to live past each other and perhaps missing some vital moments we could spend together and just enjoy who we are as a family. I think you need to do a show focused on family type games or games that could potentially involve the family more as a whole, there’s a challenge for you.
A great show.
Little bit late but cracking show as always guys. Loved the scooby game, our kids loving gaming and we’re playing around with skylanders models on the tabletop.
All I can say is Gamer Dad Warren….. you are in a unique place with tons&tons of opportunity, hope you work some GRAND things out for gaming as a whole….
The battle system set looks awesome!
Great show liked the Scooby doo game sounds great fun.
Only just got around to watching this, but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the scooby doo report and how much I support getting your kid involved in your hobby in such a fun way – for both of you.
It does appear to me that conventions like Salute and Alpha Ares in Barcelona are attracting kids coming with their parents (usually, but not always their fathers), and that this is a good thing.
I feel that 10 years ago most of wargaming – at least historical wargaming – was getting old along with the generation that played them, and so the future looked pretty dismal. But things look a lot more positive now.
I think a range of simpler, cinematic, characterful roleplay-lite skirmish type games is a big part of this. They make it so much easier for ‘non-gamers’ to try out gaming.