AICN TABLETOP: DUNGEON DELVE! CREATURES ANATHEMA! ROGUE TRADER RPG! WAR OF THE RING WEEKEND!

Hola all. Massawyrm here.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DUNGEON DELVE The latest in D&D4E’s DM focused hardcover supplements, this handy tome combines a few of the ideas of previous products and manages to fix a lot of the problems that plagued them. Incredibly simple in concept, this book is a collection of 30 single session dungeons – one for each level. Now when I say dungeon, they aren’t all necessarily underground. But they are all inside and can be assembled using WotC’s Dungeon Tiles product (but isn’t required, of course.) Each is very small, comprised of a couple rooms and/or hallways and holds three different, perfectly balanced encounters. Complete with a small story connecting the whole thing together, treasure, traps and 42 new monster statblocks, each DELVE has everything you need to pull this off the shelf and use it immediately. And that, for the most part is what this product is for. It’s not a free standing product at all. It won’t take you on a campaign, and nothing here will take you from one level to another (unless of course you’re already on the cusp of leveling up), but what it WILL do is provide you with an adventure to run when something prevents you from setting up a proper game, when your players throw a monkey wrench into your plans requiring you to make up a whole new side adventure or when you just want to run something fun and quick. In fact with this book and the Character Generator, one could create an evening’s entertainment for a seasoned crew or introduce new players to how the game works. I LOVED the old Fantastic Location series this is loosely based upon – but when those changed from being small, self contained modules into something like this, well, it became a lot less useful. The encounter range all over the map, seemingly without rhyme or reason. You couldn’t just pick it up and make it work right away. Here, you can. Run each micro adventure stock, or substitute your favorite monsters of the same level, and you’ve got yourself an adventure. Every statblock you need is here – even those you’ve already got in the Monster Manual (MM). So there’s no additional bookwork or going back and forth. A great resource for new DMs – and a handy tool for seasoned DMs who enjoy this sort of thing.
DARK HERESY CREATURES ANATHEMA Hell yes. I love this book. Thus far I’ve enjoyed the Dark Heresy series of books – all of which have been reprints – but this is the first one that Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) has had their hands on themselves. And it shows. This thing is killer – a Warhammer 40K monster manual chock full of great art, some of your favorite creatures from the 40k universe, but most importantly, enough fluff to not only craft great stories, but to tickle the imagination of long time fans. And really, that’s what the product excels at. It is a big, beautiful piece of fiction for you to immerse yourself in, detailing how each of these aliens, demons and misfits of science can be used to tell terrifying stories in the far flung future. This MM has pretty much everything you need to run a standard campaign, up to and including stats for every major race with which your PCs could feasibly survive and encounter with. Eldar, Orks, lower level demons of Chaos, as well as tons of stranger creatures from the long and rich history of the Imperium. There are few game books I recommend to people who don’t play the specific game in question, but this is definitely one of those. Anyone who enjoys 40K and/or its storyline/universe will love flipping through this book and reading about the threat these creatures pose to the man on the ground. Often times we see them as swarms from above the battlefield. This does a very nice job of changing that perspective and giving you ways to incorporate somewhat stale opponents like Eldar Rangers or Ork Nobs, and makes them scary again. A great showing for FFGs handling of the line. Which leads me to…
ROGUE TRADER RPG We-he-hell. Lookie what we have here. It looks like FFG is following with Black Library’s previously discussed RPG release model. For those of you unfamiliar with the backstory, Games Workshop has a printing offshoot called Black Library. Up until last year, they were responsible for DARK HERESY. And the plan was to begin with that (which is about the adventures of Inquisitors, their underlings and their quest to root out evil traitors, heresy and the demonically possessed) and then to follow it up with two other lines. The second, ROGUE TRADER, has just been announced and I spoke with some folks at FFG about the upcoming release. Here’s what details I could get out of them. The game will be based on the same system as Dark Heresy. While the idea is that these are separate games, all of the supplements will be compatible and RT will contain a section on how to convert characters over seamlessly. You play a Rogue Trader and his crew – profiteering star farers who will do anything for a buck. Smuggling, mercenary work. You name it. Think Serenity/Firefly and you get an idea of what these folks get themselves into (although it should be noted that Warhammer 40K was originally built upon this concept and predates the Whedonverse by over 2 decades.) The adventures will bring them into contact with many exotic races – mentioned directly was Ork freebooters and pirates of all sorts. Dark Eldar maybe? Couldn’t get that confirmed, but it seems like a no brainer. One of the big focuses will be on the various types of starships, their background and the options they have. In other words, what type of ship you have should play heavily into the stories you end up involved with and what you can do. I assume upgrading or trading up might also be on the agenda for the upwardly mobile mercenary Rogue Trader crew. This is due out later this year, with a batch of books being available at Gencon this summer. I won’t be able to see the book until about that time, but I look forward to trying to see if I can wheedle out any more details as the date draws closer. So what’s the third book? DEATHWATCH. That involves playing Space Marines (and about freaking time.) Deathwatch is the xenos hunting, Space Marine branch of the Inquisition and is probably as perfect as it gets for telling stories from inside power armor. Unlike most SMs, they don’t end up in protracted campaigns on worlds. They are surgical teams sent in on very specific, alien killing missions. THAT sounds awesome. And far away. FFG wouldn’t give me a date – but if I had to hazard a guess I’d say NEXT summer. Kind of like the old White Wolf one-setting-a-year release strategy. Consider me eager – for both.
LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR OF THE RING WEEKEND This is my current obsession. Just hours ago my copy of the book arrived in my mitts, just after I’d played my first game over at Battleforge Games (no relation to the video game I’ve been writing about) with a 1000 point Mordor army I’ve scratched together since last I wrote. I’ll be going into much more detail about this next week. But needless to say, I’m in love. It’s quick, it’s strategic, there’s plenty of nuance to it – but mostly, it’s vicious, frenetic and fun. And if you live anywhere near a Games Workshop store, this is the weekend to see it for yourself in the flesh. They’re hosting demos of all sorts all weekend in what they call WAR OF THE RING WEEKEND. The game has stripped a lot of the complication of GWs other games out, and left a simple, but carefully structured game that really focuses upon fun play that can both easily recreate the classic battles of the books and movies as well as allows you to tell your own stories at any point during the Third Age. It’s the perfect game for beginners. So if you’ve been reading these columns and thinking to yourself “Man, how do I get started in one of these games,” here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of a new system – but one that already has everything you need available in stores. So find yourself a GW store this weekend – or check out next week’s column which will have a full battle report and a detailed account of the system.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. Massawyrm Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.