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Witchblade 135-136 Comic Review
When we last left off (back in March, embarrassingly enough), Sara Pezzini — aka, the bearer of the re-united witchblade — was facing off against cyborg assassin Aphrodite IV, who has previously tried to kill her. Twice. But being surrounded by enemy robots does a lot to make you rethink your position on being enemies, so as Witchblade 135 opens, the two team up. It’s clear that something is not right here at robots ‘r us — I mean, assassin robots should clue a person in on laws being broken — but while Aphrodite’s mission is about killing the traitor to her programmers, Sara’s determined to bring the law down hard instead. Surprisingly, the cyborg assassin agrees. But, of course, it’s not that easy — there are more robots to face, and, in the final panel, a whole lot more sexy cyborgs than anyone knew existed.
There’s a whole lot of great banter in #135. Back in the War of the Witchblades arc, it was hard to tell if Sara’s snark and sharp tongue came out of her being temporarily evil. We see here that the caustic wit is all Sara. (Who else could deliver the line “I don’t care if you are just R2-D2 with nice tits” with a straight face?) The artwork, as usual, is fantastic — there’s a great page where Sara and Aphrodite face off for three panels before one of them is willing to lower a weapon to talk. The moment is really captured — you can almost feel the heartbeats while Sara’s deciding what to do. The witchblade also does some cool new stuff — Sara’s armor is more elaborate, and both the weapons and tools used in this issue expand what I’ve seen the witchblade do. There are fewer unique panel arrangements in this issue than in earlier parts of the series, but that’s rectified as the story continues in issue #136. Sejic breaks out some more non-traditional panel divisions and layouts to emphasize the action — and action is required when Aphrodite’s cyborg sibs bring the fight to our new super-team. The witchblade continues to evolve, using some of the same style moves we saw when Sara was evil. Here, however, they’re controlled, and Sara doesn’t feel the need to hold back, since her foes are human facsimiles, not actual humans.
But even great team-ups have to come to an end, especially when missions and duties collide. Aphrodite can’t let law prevail over her work (killing her target), and Sara can’t let her assassinate someone without trying to stop her. This time, Aphrodite has the element of surprise, since Sara’s convinced of their bargain, but even though the cyborg gets the best of Sara, both of them live to walk away (and continue on in different series — Sara’s story keeps going in Witchblade,and Aphrodite is moving over to the new Artifacts series). The three-part arc ends up stronger than the first issue led me to believe it would. It’s hard to follow an amazing arc like War of the Witchblades, but Almost Human comes together at the end, showing that even when she gives every appearance of being inhuman, it could be that Aphrodite has human emotions after all. And Sara, after having been consumed by darkness, has learned to value her own humanity. (Gleason gets the short end of the stick in this arc — he makes appearances in these issues, but mostly to remind Sara that they’re partners, and she ought to count on him. I wonder how many times he’ll be able to give that lecture before he realizes that part of Sara’s life isn’t going to change.)
So, it’s a short arc that’s definitely worth the read, and a nice bridge into whatever the next big story is for Sara and company. Ron Marz is also doing a great job writing threads to be taken on by other series in the world, making it easy to get interested in the several titles that launched this year.
Review by Alana Abbott
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GamersCircle Comics Labor Day Sale September 6th
LABOR DAY
STORE WIDE SALE TO
(Excluding items already discounted)
September 6th, 2010
50% off Back Issue bins
20% off Cards and accessories
20% off Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels
20% off Statues and Toys and more Store Hours:
Saturday 10am – 8pm
Sunday Noon – 5pm 608-B E. Bidwell St.
Folsom, CA 95630
916-357-5615
(No other offers, rewards, or coupons
will be accepted during this sale.)
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Zombie Pirates (Collector’s Edition) Available Now!
Once upon a time on the Shimmering Seas…
…a terrible figure called Gruesome George rose from the depths. In his wake arose untold legions of ravenous zombies, and other strange creatures. But who or what is Gruesome George scouring the oceans for? Who is the Red Widow? Join Smilin’ Jack O’Hurlihan, Esmeralda, and Dr. Theopolis as they attempt to solve this mystery and defeat the Zombie Pirates!
Zombie Pirates is a unique adventure-strategy game in which players sail the Shimmering Seas battling ravenous hordes. Along the way, they gather treasures, unlock new ships and characters, and build fleets to defeat wave after wave of relentless enemies.
This Collector’s Edition includes the entire game plus new challenges, achievements, a Rum Running mini-game, and an all new adventure: Jack’s Nightmare!
“Sometimes you gotta save the world before you can plunder it!”
Features:
* A colorful, cartoon-style game with something for all ages
* An engrossing story with a surprise ending-”The Curse of the Red Widow”
* Dozens of unlockable friendly and enemy units, including giant monsters!
* 8 locations ranging from tropical Cannibal Isles to the frozen wastes of Polaris
* 42 scenarios with Boss Battles
* 16 Upgrades available at Tortuga Sally’s Trading Port
* 43 Achievements
* Replay levels for higher Ranks after completion of Adventure Mode
Zombie Pirates (Collector’s Edition) is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.
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Alpha Protocol - Another Look
Compacts and Conspiracies (Hunter) Review
A good PDF should be more than just a scanned version of a book. Okay, so many of them are laced with hyperlinks and bookmarks, which are great. Some PDF releases really explore the potential behind pure digital media.
When the second edition of Vampire: the Masquerade came out, I didn’t care about the Tremere at all. They were, to me, an excuse to make sure yet another RPG had a wizard hidden within it. I’ve grown to appreciate them over the years (mostly due to the evil machinations of my dear friend Ashley), but that’s another story.
White Wolf realizes two key things with this release:
1. You can’t please all the fans all the time, so why force them to buy a book full of compacts they’ll never use.
2. Lots of fans are, by nature, collectors and will go ahead and buy all the stuff anyway.
Yes, those two factors seem to fly right in the face of each other; however, they appear to be the guiding light behind this endeavor. In today’s review, I’m not going into artwork or layout on the grounds that much of the artwork comes from earlier sources. For a pure PDF release (an experimental one at that), this makes perfect sense. We’re just going to jump right into the material and how the developers laid it out.
There are two ways to pick up this product. You can buy it piecemeal for less than a dollar apiece. Each of these pieces cover nine or so pages. There is also the complete option, which comes in at $6.99 and 84 pages. I’m behind this tactic even though I’m nerdy enough to want the extra material (even though I may not read it). There are times though that a quick dollar spent to upload ten pages on, say, the Ashwood Abbey could make for some quick inspiration when prepping for a game.
And these are good prepping materials too! There is roughly a page devoted to an overview of the compact or conspiracy. From there, three sides (and secrets) are unveiled so that no group gets pigeonholed. After this setting-strong material is finished, some system-strong material steps forward. Endowments is the most common new addition to the groups; however,the sections also provide some “bonus material” that can include some interesting directions. I most enjoyed reading the section in Null Mysteriis regarding CSI on the supernatural and the Union’s section on mapmaking.
Some might find the material in this PDF to be a bit redundant of the corebook, so I would suggest picking up a favorite compact/conspiracy first. After that, attack the others with abandon (sadly you would have to repurchase the single unit again with the complete set). The “repeated” text is, to me, delivered in a fresh enough approach that I found it worth a second look.
This book does what iTunes offers. You sometimes don’t want a full CD – just the two or three good songs are enough, Mr. One-Shot-Wonder. Sometimes you don’t want a full book either, so you get what you have here. It’s a great idea. I’m leaving you without my usual scoring this review since I didn’t look at all the things I generally do. My overall for Compacts and Conspiracies is five out of five dice; it’s an ingenious direction to explore large gaming projects.
Review by Todd Cash
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Inside ACD Games Day
ACD Games Day is an annual tradeshow put on by hobby games distributor ACD Distribution LLC that connects retailers with the top publishers. This year’s show was bigger than last year and offered exhibitors and attendees to explore a brand new location in Downtown Madison.
Industry veteran Boyan Radakovich, who is ACD’s new Marketing Manager, had this to say about his first ACD Games Day.
“I wanted to make sure that ACD Games Day had the feeling of a marquee tradeshow. We moved to the beautiful Monona Terrace Convention Center and Hilton Madison for our event programming. We also increased the number of seminars to sixteen total, including key manufacturer seminars like the Wizards of the Coast track, the Mayfair Demo-2-Demo program, and many others.”
Having attended a show the previous year, I could definitely tell the difference between this year’s and last year’s show. This venue was bigger and well laid out. There were demo tables set up with games throughout the hall and there was a lot of attention to detail — included projected exhibitor and sponsor logos above the exhibition hall.
This year, there were a ton of horror-related games and publications that were demoed on the floor. From Steve Jackson Games, I was able to get my first look at Munchkin Zombies, both the green and purple version of the Cthulhu dice bag, Munchkin: Santa’s Revenge, the anniversary edition box set of Give Me The Brain, as well as the Cthulhu and Zombie Dice games, too. Steve Jackson wasn’t the only exhibitor that had horror-themed games on hand. Wizards of the Coast was displaying its brand new Castle Ravenloft board game which I was able to demo at GenCon. (More on Castle Ravenloft in an upcoming post!) Mayfair Games is giving players the chance to open portals in its new Lovecraft-inspired game called Witch of Salem, which was inspired by a German horror author’s book.
Other items of note for horror fans are: an upcoming deck building game from Bandai based on Resident Evil, several horror-themed T-Shirts from OffWorld Designs, and the Nightmare Before Christmas-themed editions of Monopoly, Jenga, Yahztee and Trivial Pursuit.
In addition to these titles, I also had a lot of fun expanding my gaming horizons by sitting down with the folks from Sandstorm Publishing to play Poo (which could be horrifying, depending upon how you look at it) and had a blast.
In my opinion, I thought the show was very well organized and gave everyone an opportunity to try out new games and make connections. For more about ACD Games Day, check out these links:
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Sword of Justice Fiction Review
Sword of Justice by Chris Wraight
Black Library Publishing
414 pages
Fresh from the slaughter of the Emperor’s enemies in the north, Ludwig Schwarzhelm, Emperor’s Champion, is sent to Averland to oversee the inauguration of a new elector count. Beset by greenskins, and hampered on all sides by the ambitions of rival magnates, he is soon fighting to keep the fractious province together. But the rot runs deep. Powerful forces in Altdorf seem determined to see him fail, and suspicion falls on even his most trusted allies. When all is at its bleakest, the mark of Chaos and the full horror of his task is finally revealed. Alone, doubted by those closest to him, this will be Schwarzhelm’s greatest ever challenge, one on which the destiny of the Empire itself depends.
Review:
Sword of Justice is the opener for the Warhammer Heroes series of novels featuring the Emperor’s Champion Ludwig Schwarzhelm. The novel starts out with a bang and really never lets up. Short of spoiling the novel I’ll say that like many stories set in the Warhammer universe, the opening scene revolves around a battle. This is handled in a very deft manner showcasing some pretty ordinary, grunt-level characters that grow in to something more as well as some characters that we know little about, but grow to really admire as the story goes on.
One thing I have to point out is the superb manner in which the author describes the characters, the scenes and how the characters are …human. One thing that I feel sets a good novel apart from a great one is having characters that are fallible, that make mistakes; especially when we see them coming and even when we don’t. I loathe Mary Sue characters, Golden Child characters, “the Chosen One” who really is a superhero in all but the cape…usually. Putting it mildly, the characters in this novel are all flawed in one way or another.
Another thing that sets this apart from other good novels is that we see some of the plot coming, and knowing the characters aren’t omnipotent, they blunder in to things. Not stupidly (or overly so) but in ways that any of us would. Add to this Chris Wraight throws us a few curves – nicely handled ones, I must say. Not in the M. Night Shyamalan velveeta-kind of way, but in a well thought out way that we stub our toe on…look down and realize we just lost a foot-kind of way.
There are some fun twists and exceptional descriptions of the setting. Actually, the description of the empire from top to bottom is the best I’ve seen yet; especially those of Altdorf and the other main cities. Brilliant! The descriptions throughout were really well done. From the thought blurbs, to scents, sights, all the senses were covered without seeming overworked or trite.
Cover art: Wow. Cheoljoo Lee really pained a fantastic cover piece. It would make a beautiful poster. Man, it really is gorgeous. Well done!
There is a map at the beginning: good. I always like a map so I can keep an idea of where things are but there is no “Cast of Characters”. It’s a fairly good sized cast and it can be a bit confusing. Thankfully the main characters are pretty distinct.
I have to admit; I’ve fallen in love with the characters, and added their figures to my GW wishlist. Now I need to work on my Empire guys. I’m painting up some Reiksguard and Averlander troops! DAMN!
Rating:
Just…wow. Blew my doors off. I’m anxiously awaiting the next book in the series!
4.5 out of 5 Stars.
Review by Jeff Preston
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First Look at Munchkin Zombies
Last week, I was able to sit down with Steve Jackson from Steve Jackson Games and a group of playtesters at ACD Games Day to play a round of the upcoming Munchkin Zombies game.
Having played several flavors of Munchkin, I thought I knew what to expect when we started to play. I couldn’t have been more wrong. You see, I thought this game would be like Munchkin: Cthulhu, where you play humans that have the potential to turn into zombies. Boy, was I off-the-mark! In Munchkin: Zombies you play…a zombie! Immediately, I was struck by how disgusting and wrong the cards were. Class cards cover all the different zombie types from your favorite movies, books and world myths. There are Strong Zombies, Fast Zombies, Plague Zombies — even Atomic Zombies! There’s also also the chance you can pick up different types of zombie Mojo, too, which functions as a special ability.
Our playtest group consisted of people that had played the game before and people who hadn’t. It took about two rounds for everyone to pick up on the game, even with the new “official” rules. Yes, you did hear me right. If you’ve been following along with the Munchkin expansions, you should know that there have been some tweaks that have occurred since the original Munchkin was released. For example, we started with four cards from each deck rather than the original two. I didn’t encounter any other tweaks that I hadn’t already been familiar with, but if you’re confused you can always hop on over to the Munchkin forums and ask your questions there or download the official Munchkin rules.
We had a lot of fun reading the cards while we played because the weapons, armor and items were so disgusting and bizarre you couldn’t help but laugh. I had an “Arm” that my zombie used as a club. Another player had a “Toilet” as their armor, and someone else had a “Garbage Can.” Of course, as luck would have it, the gods of Munchkin caused the deck to be shuffled oddly, so we ended up pulling a lot of low-level monsters. As you would expect, there are some zombies in the mix that are just too wrong (stripper, anyone?) or too evil to be left standing. In our game, when we did reach some of the higher-level monsters, a few of them didn’t have a “won’t attack Level 4 or below.” I have to tell you, it was pretty frightening to face the possibility of certain death when you had nothing to defend yourself with — especially when you couldn’t get any help. Fortunately, with the help of some nice bonuses and a Cheat card right out of the gate, I was able to survive until the bitter end in true Munchkin fashion.
For those of you who haven’t played the game before, the goal of each player at the table is to increase their level from 1 all the way up to 10 using a counter. There are two types of cards: door cards and treasure cards. At the start of the game, you receive four of each card. Some treasure cards (Armor, Headgear, Footgear) you’ll be able to put in front of you, signifying what your “zombie” is using in a fight. Other cards give you or the monster a temporary bonus. Basic gameplay is really straightforward. You kick down a door and show that card to everyone at the table. If it’s a monster, you fight. If it’s not, you put the card in your hand and either take another card or play a monster you can beat from your own hand. When you play a monster, you can ask for help from the other players or they can gang up on you. When you beat a monster, you go up a level (or two) and take your treasure. When you don’t, you have to try to Run Away otherwise bad things will happen to your character. Any unusual cards that you may encounter have rules printed right on the card, so if you pay close enough attention you can get the gist really quickly.
I have to say that from what I saw, this particular flavor of Munchkin is definitely my favorite. It’s definitely the most creative and free-form version that I’ve played. Steve Jackson Games has taken what we know about zombies and have made this undead creature their own. Even though zombies are everywhere, I can pretty much guarantee that you have not seen anything like this.
Just how twisted is this particular version of Munchkin? Flames Rising is thrilled to present you with an exclusive look at the very first Munchkin: Zombies card that was given to us courtesy of Steve Jackson Games for your viewing pleasure. What you see here is a Smart Zombie. You can also check out the draft sketches that artist John Kovalic posted on Twitter to catch more previews of their brainstorming session.
I’d also like to mention that Steve Jackon Games were also giving out green Munchkin: Zombie coins at their booth at ACD Games Day. I’m guessing we’ll probably see some Munchkin coins posted on their website at some point.
There’s also this really cool Munchkin: Bookmark of Braaaaaaaaaaains that you’ll be able to use along with your Zombie Dice, too, in your existing game.
If you like black humor and if you don’t mind being grossed out for a ton of laughs, then I think you’ll have a blast playing Munchkin: Zombies. But hey, if you don’t want your zombie wielding a shotgun and casting some of that zombie voodoo mojo…can I have your spot?
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Sunken Empires RPG Review
The work opens with a foreword by David ‘Zeb’ Cook in which he muses on the durability of his invention, the aboleth – a monster with an almost-thirty year history and which features large in this book. A fascinating muse on how the aboleth came to be later, Chapter 1: Lost Cities of Myth and Legend explores the inspirations for this setting. Legends of fantastic civilizations lost to the deeps provide plenty of ideas, after all, as well as a compelling lure for characters looking for somewhere to explore. For that’s the intent of this setting: exploration, rather than somewhere to actually live as a denizen of the deeps.
The legendary civilizations of Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu are detailed, along with thought-provoking ideas on how to use them as inspiration for your own sunken empire, before the text launches into the design of a new lost city called Ankeshel for your characters to research and explore. Ankeshel draws on both real-world myths and the Pathfinder setting, with some Theosophist theories mixed in for good measure, including the concept of vril. The original human inhabitants were taught magic and mathematics by a strange tentacled, 3-eyed amphibious race. Needless to say, it all ended in tears and the city was lost… until recent discoveries began to bring tantalizing glimpses of what once was back into general knowledge. Meanwhile a modern settlement has arisen on top of the ruins to provide a base for adventures.
Chapter 2: Pelagic Characters starts with a new race, the Meareans or half-merfolk, ideally suited to underwater exploration and with a few other ideas to make maerean characters predisposed to wish to explore! The discussion moves on to adapting existing classes to better suit such exploits, basing the adaptations on such concepts as modifications due to being raised or living in coastal areas where great familiarity with the sea would be an advantage. There are new clerical domains, for example, and plenty of water-oriented class skills and new underwater feats.
Next, Chapter 3: Aquatic Equipment and Lost Technology is a heady mix of gear you might use exploring under water and goodies that you might find there. Delightful ideas abound: such as using an unseen servant to pump air to your diving suit whilst underwater! The ‘ancient technology’ is even more fascinating, and the rationale used in its design is discussed, empowering you to come up with more along the same lines. When you are playing a fantasy game anyway, to come up with concepts that will be ‘fantastic’ to the CHARACTERS rather than the PLAYERS can be quite a challenge, but one that is well met here. This is followed by Chapter 4: Spells and Magic Items. Most of the spells have some aquatic connection, some are to do with glyphs – wound into the ancient writing of the original denizens of Ankeshel is a system of magic glyphs and some astute spell casters may learn the art of their manipulation. The magic items section concentrates on those which survived the fall of the ancient civilization, with many suggestions as to how to make these as wondrously strange as the lost technology described earlier. How about a shield with magic tentacles mounted on it that reach out to disarm your opponent?
Chapter 5: The Sunken Environment looks beyond the specific challenges to the sheer wonder and strangeness of adventuring underwater. While players might watch the Discovery channel or be SCUBA divers themselves, it is a wholly new environment to their characters. Likely resources available to adventurers are discussed by level, a handy approach both in planning adventures or when planning to undertake them. This moves on to a look at the various environments from coastal zones to deep depths, detailing precisely what you’ll find there, challenges and opportunities alike. Next, Chapter 6: Creatures of the Deep provides some interesting new beasties to populate the depths… and a full-blown ecology of aboleths to complete the chapter, and the book.
More than merely presenting a novel adventure setting, this book sets out to equip the GM with the tools to set his own stamp on what could well become memorable adventures, demonstrating how to create a feeling of wonder even amidst what is already a fantastical alternate reality.
Review by Megan Robertson
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