There may not be a free lunch, but there are some free RPGs

It's that time of year again.

Right around mid-June, a group of gaming companies band together to promote Free RPG Day.

No, really.

FREE.

Even have the logo to prove it!

The Free RPG website even has a Retailer Locator, where you can find game stores providing the Free RPG Day games. Odds are also good that those game stores are promoting gaming all day* by running demos and hosting game groups.

If you're not close to a game store, you can even find some freebies on RPG website DriveThruRPG.com, free for the downloading. 

I've spoken of them before, but Evil Hat games has PDFs of their FATE Core rulebook and the FATE Accelerated Edition available at their website in a pay what you like format. Try it out, and if you like it you can shell out a few dollars for it. If you want a game that's quick to pick up and try out, FATE Accelerated is likely the one for you.

So get out there, roll some dice, and hang with some friends!

Sometimes victory or defeat comes down to a single roll...
From The Big Bang Theory

EtA:  NOTE:  This is not restricted to the US. I punched in Vancouver BC, London UK, Munich Germany, and Singapore and got results.

*Not as if they don't do that normally, you know, but....

Knights of the Fallen Empire, or Don't Mess With THIS Emperor

Well, SWTOR's moment in the E3 presentation has come and gone, and while the trailer isn't out on YouTube (yet, wait for it on this space), but there's a few things we do know now courtesy of the Knights of the Fallen Empire website:

• The expac starts at L60, and includes Nine Chapters starting at that point. These are all new chapters, not continuations of the old ones. Now, I'm not sure if that means that the old game disappears or whether the old game remains*, but this expac seems to be much much larger than what we've become accustomed to with SWTOR.
• The new faction, the Empire of Zakuul, has an Immortal Emperor (Valkorion -- which is uncomfortably close enough to Vitiate's name to make me wonder), and is the dominant faction in the game. 
• The Sith and Jedi have retreated to their homeworlds, so this is essentially a reset of what things were like at the beginning of SWTOR with the Jedi having retreated to Tython.
• How this meshes with the new LucasFilm canon is unknown, but I assume that LucasFilm does have some approval process in place.

Am I intrigued? Hell yes.

I am what we Cincinnati Bengals fans call "cautiously optimistic".** It looks big --very very big-- and I don't think that anybody who plays the game expected this expac to be as big as it is. Between what happened on Ziost and this....

Well, it looks like Bioware might just have some mojo back.

And no, I don't mean the teaser reveal of Mass Effect Andromeda.

EtA:  And here's the trailer:

EtA: A much better trailer:

*Unlike Cataclysm's rewrite of Old Azeroth. I honestly hope that's the case, because I really do enjoy the original class stories.

**One of our two favorite phrases, right up there with "wait 'till next year".

How'd I Miss this Noon (EDT) Press Release? Oh right, work....

Okay, NOW I'm curious.

EA's press release ahead of the E3 presentation promises a major new expac for SWTOR:

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ – The largest story-driven expansion to date, Knights of the Fallen Empire, marks a renewed focus on cinematic storytelling in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The expansion will deliver on the hallmarks of what makes a great BioWare™ game: new worlds to explore, new companions to recruit, and a dynamic story that players will be able to shape based on the choices they make.

I know EA has taken their lumps --and deservedly so-- over the years, but maybe they're actually learning something from what their customers are telling them.

And here all I was interested in at E3 was what Nintendo had up their collective sleeve: a new Zelda game (likely), another major property (given the success of Splatoon), and some other new games for the Wii U. I don't have an XBox or a Playstation so their press conferences don't interest me, and anything new from Blizzard (likely) will be announced at Blizzcon.

Now, if some other MMO companies can get out there and generate some buzz, I'd be fine with that too...

The Return of Attunement (sort of)

Apparently while I was away on vacation*, Blizzard backtracked and decided to allow flying in Warlords.

BUT.

You have to do a few things, first.  Like gather an eye of newt and have Birnam forest come to Dunsinane, or something like that.**

Seems like they're saying "FINE! You can have your flying, but you'd better be willing to bust your ass for it." Which means that all of those who run straight to L100 and then want to raid will actually have to go out and do some of this "out in the world" stuff.






*NO, I WAS NOT BLOG FADING!!! I went on a real vacation for the first time in ages, so that's that.

**According to the Dev Watercooler post, the requirements for the Draenor Pathfinder achievement are:

• exploring Draenor’s zones
• collecting 100 treasures in Draenor
• completing the Draenor Loremaster and Securing Draenor achievements
• raising the three new Tanaan Jungle reputations to Revered.

And please tell me that they still teach MacBeth in high school.

Wildstar Going F2P Soon

This Autumn, actually, according to Massively OP.

The real question for me is whether they waited too long to go F2P and save the franchise. That, I'm not sure of, but I'd be more than willing to check it out again when it does.

SWTOR was almost too late in its timing, but Bioware was able to staunch the bleeding and actually bring the game back from the brink. Now, I'd say that SWTOR is steadily thriving; it has found its player base, built its brand, and is adding new content on a regular basis.

Star Trek Online followed a similar trajectory but without the EA brand name behind it. Same with Rift and LOTRO. So, it can be done, and more importantly HAS been done before.

Good luck, Wildstar. I think you're going to need it.

I Knew This Day Would Come... Eventually

The other day I was printing out some documentation* when my son spoke up.

He was somewhere deep in the bowels of the Dune Sea on Tatooine --if you've played the planetary story there for SWTOR, you know exactly what I'm talking about-- and apparently something had occurred to him.

Turning to his older sister, he said, "Say, what level is your Jedi Knight?"

"The one on the shared account is in Alderaan," she replied, "but my new one on my own account is only on Coruscant."

"Oh," he said, deflating a little. "I was wondering if you'd do a group quest with me."

My ears perked up. I knew what was coming next.

"How long do you think it'd be before you got your Knight to Tatooine?"

"Really? I've got all this homework to do and you want to know when I can get on the game?"

"Oh, okay." He swiveled his head around until he saw his younger sister on the couch, reading with her headphones on. "Hey," he called to her, "what's your Smuggler's level at?"

"Um, about 14," she replied.

"Oh man. I guess I'll have to wait."

Hello, I thought. I'm right here!

"Dad..." he began.

Finally!

"...I noticed that the free account's XP rewards really cut down after L20. It's taking me longer to level up than I expected."

He then turned back to the screen and kept playing.

I blinked twice. That's it? No 'can you help me out, Dad?'

"You know, I could help you out with some heroics."

He kept playing. "Um...." he said, drawing it out. "Okay, I guess."

***

Apparently, the older two decided to visit the younger one while she was working on her Consular on Tython.

Without telling her, naturally.

So, they snuck up behind her and kept following her around. She was so focused on the story, she didn't even notice them there for 15 minutes.

Then, hilarity ensued.

"What are you--"

"HA!! YOU DIDN'T SEE US!!"

"I was jumping around and saying 'Hi!' all this time!!"

"I didn't SEE you at all! How long have you been there!"

"Forever!!"

Ah, Fridays.





*Paperless office, my ass. I've printed out more documents for work these past few years than I'd done in the decade before it.

Happy Anniversary, Leeroy

The infamous Leeroy Jenkins Upper Blackrock Spire YouTube video is 10 years old.