July Round-Up, Mummy's Mask Poster Map Folio, and Doctor Who Teaser

Sometimes time goes by way too quickly. At one moment, it's July, and the next, it's suddenly August and you wonder where all the time went and why you haven't completed everything you planned to complete. But at least August means we're edging ever closer to the première of the new season of Doctor Who! Peter Capaldi gets his first outing as the Doctor and I can't wait! I've been critical of the scripts in recent years, but even if they don't improve, I'm confident Capaldi will be a great Doctor.

Of course, as we get closer to August 23rd (the première date), the danger of spoilers becomes more and more a reality. The Doctor Who World Tour starts in just a couple of days and will bring with it special advance screenings of the first episode in various locations around the world. This will mean lots of people will have seen the episode before the 23rd—but then again, some people have seen it already, what with the episodes leaking and all. I talked a bit about this and spoilers just last week. In other Doctor Who news, a new teaser trailer that I haven't mentioned yet came out last week. You can watch it in the player below. There was also a cut-down version of the full-length trailer, but really, if you've seen the full-length one, you don't need to see the cut-down.

In the world of roleplaying games, the big thing in July was the release of the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I took a look at the Basic Rules here. I also took a look at a few of the latest Pathfinder products: Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars, Risen from the Sands, Secrets of the Sphinx, and People of the River. To round up July (and actually catch up with August), here's a quick mini-review.

Mummy's Mask Poster Map Folio

The Mummy's Mask Poster Map Folio comes with three full-colour poster maps suitable for use with the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path. However, like other adventure path map folios from the past few years, all the maps are easily usable in any campaign set in Osirion. There are maps of the cities of Wati and Tephu, and one of the country of Osirion. The map of Osirion is designed as a player map in the style of something characters might actually acquire in the game world. However, the two city maps are also safe as player maps as well.

All three maps are beautiful, but accolades really must go to the map of Osirion. I really love these player-oriented, in-world maps. They truly are wonderful to behold, and this one is no different. However, there is a difference with this one and some of the others that have appeared before: This one has no labels, not even of cities. The odd part is, this is exactly the same map from the centre of People of the Sands, except larger and that map had not only the names of cities, but also rivers and mountains, as well as roads and common travel routes complete with the distances from one location to the other. This map completely lacks all labels, except for the name “Osirion” in the top right corner. This severely limits its usefulness during game play. While cities are marked (and are wonderfully illustrated to look like the actual cities rather than just having one common symbol for every city), players will still have to go to other sources to find out which city is which. This is rather surprising, considering that similar maps in other map folios (such as the maps of Varisia in the Shattered Star Poster Map Folio or Irrisen in the Reign of Winter Poster Map Folio) have had labels on them. I'm not sure what the motivation for removing the labels on this map might have been (or indeed if this is due to an error or oversight), but it does mar what is otherwise a gorgeous product. I hope the lack of labels will not be a trend in future map folios.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition) Basic Rules

In my May Round-Up, I noted that the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons finally had release dates, starting with the Starter Set in July. That set is already available at select stores and will be in wide release on July 15. What I didn’t know at the time, though, was that Wizards of the Coast would also be releasing a free pdf of the game’s basic rules (you can download it here). Although I stated that I wouldn’t be switching to the new game (I’d be staying with Pathfinder), I did say that I might pick up the rules at some point. Well, with a price point of free, there really wasn’t any reason not to. So I downloaded them.

I haven’t changed my mind about sticking with Pathfinder, and my reasons are the same as I stated before. However, I will say that I like what I see in the new D&D, and if this had been 4th Edition, I might have stuck with the game at the time. One of the things that turned me away from 4th Edition was the radical departure from so many of the things that made D&D identifiable uniquely as Dungeons & Dragons. After downloading the D&D Basic Rules, I first skimmed quickly through the book just to get an overall feel of how it looked, and right away, I could see things that looked like D&D. It was a good first sign, and it held up upon reading thoroughly.

June Round-Up Plus To Be Takei

June was a very busy month for me—in the non-virtual, non-internet world, that is. Consequently, it was a very slow month here on Of Dice and Pen. I was only able to get a few things posted, but July looks to be a quiet month, so I envision much more productivity here.

I did, however, get three Pathfinder review posted: Occult Mysteries, Shifting Sands, and Blood of the Elements. Coming soon, you can expect to see reviews of Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars and Secrets of the Sphinx, the fourth part of the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path.

June also saw the final couple episodes of Cosmos: “The World Set Free” and “Unafraid of the Dark”. It's only been a few short weeks, but I already miss seeing new episodes each week and writing about them. As I've said before, I think it's amazing that a science series has gotten such a high-profile showing, and I wish more science and documentary shows could receive the same treatment. Of course, just because they're not high-profile doesn't mean we can't seek them out and watch them. There are lots of options out there, and many very good ones, including Carl Sagan's original Cosmos series.

In the realm of science fiction/fantasy documentaries, here's one about Star Trek actor and LGBTQ icon and activist, George Takei: To Be Takei. I'm really quite excited to see this one, as George Takei is a fascinating and funny man.

And this Kickstarter for The Great Kingdom, a documentary about Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, looks like it could be interesting. (Edit: Something weird was happening with the embedding of the preview for The Great Kingdom, so I've removed it. You can watch the preview at the site linked.)

But back in the realm of pure science fiction and fantasy, the exciting news is that Doctor Who will be returning on August 23, as reported in this post.

Have a great July everyone!

May Round-Up, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and Doctor Who News

May and June are always busy months for me. It’s the end of the school year and that keeps me occupied preparing students for exams and final projects. Then comes the quiet of summer. I like the quiet of summer.

But no matter how busy I get, I always make certain to get some gaming and writing in. Here on the blog, I took a look at several Pathfinder products in May, including the hardcover release, Inner Sea Gods, as well as the Undead Slayer’s Handbook, the very good Alchemy Manual, Empty Graves, Inner Sea Combat, and my favourite of the bunch, The Harrow Handbook. I also got (and still am) very excited over the trailer for Dark Dungeons.

In related gaming news, the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons now has release dates for its initial products, beginning with a Starter Set in July, the Player’s Handbook in August, Monster Manual in September, and Dungeon Master’s Guide in November. A couple of adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, both from Kobold Press, are interspersed with the other releases. Similarly to 4th Edition, the new edition is not being marketed as “5th Edition” or “D&D Next” or anything else, but simply as Dungeons & Dragons.

While the release of the new edition is likely to be big news, I’ll be honest and state that I won’t be switching to it, even though D&D was my first ever roleplaying game and I’ve been playing it in some form for over 30 years now. This isn’t because I don’t expect it to be any good. I haven’t actually been keeping much track of news about it, so I have very little idea what to expect from it. It might be good, it might be terrible, or it might be anything in between. However, the fact is, I’m quite happy with Pathfinder at the moment and see no need to change. I’ve also invested a lot of money in Pathfinder and have enough products now that, even if Paizo stopped publishing tomorrow, I’d have enough material to last me for decades yet. New stuff is fun, it’s true. I love getting new stuff. But I’m also not made of money and I have to decide carefully where my money goes. I will likely look at the new D&D in the store and I’m certainly not averse to playing in a game one day (although limited time will make that difficult), but I won’t be running games of it myself. I may well pick up one of the books one day, though, and if I do, I might just post a review.

In non-gaming news, I continue to be super excited about Cosmos, and I was disappointed that it was pre-empted on May 25th, which is why I haven’t posted a response in the last couple weeks. However, over the month I did write responses to 9th, 10th, and 11th episodes, “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth”, “The Electric Boy”, and “The Immortals”. My review of this week’s episode, “The World Set Free”, will hopefully be up shortly after I get this post up.

The big Doctor Who news for the month is that the new series will première sometime in August (exact date still to be announced). The BBC released a very, very short teaser trailer for the series, which I mentioned in this post, along with the much more interesting Doctor Who parody production from the Hillywood Show. In the world of missing episode recoveries...no, no more missing episodes have been announced; however, an early recording featuring Jacqueline Hill (who played Barbara, one of the Doctor’s very first companions) has been found. It’s a production of the play Requiem for a Heavyweight, and also features a young Sean Connery from before he became famous as James Bond. You can read more about it on the Doctor Who News Page.

Have a good June, everyone!

Dark Dungeons Trailer

A teaser trailer was released a couple of months ago, but now the full trailer for the movie Dark Dungeons is out! Based on the Jack Chick tract of the same name, it teaches the world the evils of roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. It premieres at Gen Con on August 14 and will be available on DVD after that. I can't wait!

That said, I'm still waiting to be inducted into the inner circle of D&D players, those who get to cast real spells. Jack Chick promised me thirty years ago that it would happen if I played D&D and I'm still waiting. Why's it taking so long?

Anyway, here's the trailer. RPG! RPG! RPG!

Dark Dungeons: The Movie

It’s really happening. Coming this summer is Dark Dungeons, a movie based on Jack Chick’s infamous tract of the same name. The movie had a successful Kickstarter last year and the finished epic will see release in August. If you’re unfamiliar with the original, it is one of many comic-strip tracts from Chick Publishing. These tracts aim to teach people about the evils in the world (such as Dungeons & Dragons), but really just spread hatred and bigotry. Dark Dungeons tells the tale of Debbie, who joins a D&D group, only to slowly learn that the game is a gateway into real occult power. But when her friend kills herself after her character dies, Debbie repents and returns to the Lord. The tract was originally published in 1984 and is still in circulation to this day.

As I commented when the Kickstarter was running last year, I’ve been playing D&D and other roleplaying games for over thirty years. No one’s offered me real spells yet. I’m very disappointed.

Dark Dungeons, the comic, is hilarious for its absurdity, but also disturbing and frightening because it’s written in full seriousness. It’s pure fear-mongering. Thankfully, Dark Dungeons: The Movie is fully aware of what it is. It is from JR Ralls and Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, makers of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (one of the funniest movies about tabletop roleplaying games ever) and JourneyQuest. It will be glorious and I can’t wait!

Check out the new trailer below and the movie’s website!

January Round-Up

I’m a little late with the round-up this month. I’ve actually decided to move them from the last day of the month to the first day of the next month (yes, I know that still makes me late!). That keeps them visible in the site’s archive links to the right (the default of which only has the current month open).

The big thing in January was, of course, the return of Sherlock after a two-year hiatus. I have reviewed both “The Empty Hearse” and “The Sign of Three” so far. I have now watched (twice) “His Last Vow” and will have a review for it in the next day or two. I will make no comment on it until that time.

In the world of Doctor Who, filming has started on Series 8, the first with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. We have also been treated to the first official picture of Capaldi in costume—a costume I like a great deal. The first pictures from the filming have started to show up as well. I tend to avoid most of those as I don’t want to get too spoiled. However, the picture at the top of this post is a pretty non-spoilery one.

In the world of roleplaying, I reviewed several Pathfinder products in January, including Magical Marketplace, the Inner Sea NPC Codex, Wardens of the Reborn Forge, and The Midnight Isles. I also reflected a little on the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons.

I usually include a little something extra with these monthly round-ups, but I must admit I don’t have anything this month. All things considered, it was a pretty quiet month and I wasn’t sure what to include. So, have a great February, everyone!

40 Years of Dungeons & Dragons

It’s hard to believe that Dungeons & Dragons has been around for just about as long as I’ve been alive. It’s hard to put an exact date on its anniversary, but according to this analysis, the closest approximation would be this past Sunday, January 26th. With so much focus on Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary last fall, I almost let this one pass me by—indeed, it was only seeing people tweeting about it on the weekend that reminded me! But roleplaying has been a major part of my life since I was 9 years old, and I could hardly let D&D’s 40th anniversary go by without at least mentioning it.

A couple of years ago, I prefaced my review of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box with a recollection of how I first got into the game, so I’ll let people read that rather than repeating it here. Of course, I don’t strictly play Dungeons & Dragons anymore. My game of choice is Pathfinder. I was not particularly taken by Fourth Edition D&D, so when the Pathfinder option presented itself, I was an easy convert. But Pathfinder is really just a revised Third Edition D&D, published under the Open Gaming License, so in that sense I’ve never really left D&D. But it does also mean that I haven’t really kept up with what is current with the game that still carries the name Dungeons & Dragons. I know Fourth Edition is out and “D&D Next” is on its way in, but I’ve not been keeping up with news about the new edition. I sometimes regret that a little, but it’s a matter of time that I just don’t have.

What I can say, though, is I will be playing Dungeons & Dragons in some form (either as Pathfinder or some future regeneration of the game) for the rest of my life. When I die (assuming I don’t manage to live forever), it will either be watching Doctor Who or with a d20 in my hand. In the meantime, here’s an early (and kind of scathing) 1974 review of the original Dungeons & Dragons game that was posted this weekend on EN World:

RPGs are Evil!

This is really quite awesome.

Those of us who have been around for a while may remember Jack T. Chick, publisher of Chick Tracts, short comic books aimed at saving people’s souls and bringing them to Christianity (very fundamentalist Christianity). What we might not realize is that Chick is still around and there’s a whole pile of his tracts. They’re actually kind of funny to read, made all the more so by the seriousness with which they’re delivered. Amongst roleplayers, the most famous tract is without a doubt Dark Dungeons first published in 1984.

You can read the tract at the link above, but in short, it tells the story of Debbie, who plays the character Elfstar in a Dungeons & Dragons game. Her dungeon master tells her it’s time for her to learn real spells and introduces her to a witch’s coven. Meanwhile, her friend Marcie’s character Blackleaf dies in the game and Marcie can’t handle it. Marcie kills herself and this causes Debbie to rethink her association with the occult and turn back to Jesus.

In the tract, we learn a few very amazing things, particularly that playing Dungeons & Dragons teaches you real magical power! Or it’s supposed to. Hmmm... I’ve been playing D&D and other roleplaying games for thirty years now and I haven’t been introduced to the true power yet. I’ve also been a DM/GM for almost all that time. I feel a little cheated. Where’s my magical power? I could use a few handy spells right now!

Oh well. I guess I just haven’t been playing it right or something. I’ll learn the powers one day.

Anyway, fans of Dark Dungeons will be pleased to know that an intrepid, devout soul is now running a Kickstarter to raise the funds for Dark Dungeons: The Movie! He’s very nearly made his goal too. This movie promises to bring the truth of roleplaying games to a modern generation, much like Mazes and Monsters did back in the 80s. This movie will be absolutely glorious—and I’m completely serious with that comment. I can’t wait to see it.

In all seriousness, while at first glance the project may look serious, if you watch the video all the way through or read the website in detail, it becomes more and more obvious that Dark Dungeons: The Movie is a parody, and a brilliant parody at that. Alas, the 80s’ madness isn’t completely dead; there are still people who really believe the whole “D&D is satanic” thing, as evidenced by this clip from The 700 Club that’s been making its rounds on the internet recently.

Isn’t it wonderful to have people like this to look out for us?

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box

My first introduction to role-playing games came when I was about 9 years old. A friend (we’ll call him Bob) had acquired a new game called Dungeons and Dragons and invited me and another friend (we’ll call him Fred) over to play. My first character was a thief. He had no name. Even my use of the pronoun “he” is just a convenience because we had no idea that we should give characters such details. We really didn’t have any idea what we were doing. I don’t think Bob had bothered to read much, if any, of the rules. He had bought the game because he had played it once before with someone else and was now just trying to play from memory.

We encountered a goblin that attacked and knocked out Fred’s character (something not actually possible under the rule-set we were using, but we didn’t know that). My very first decision in the game was to grab Fred’s character and run away. I don’t remember what happened after that, other than we had a great deal of fun and I was totally hooked by this unusual game. It was completely unlike anything I had ever played or heard of at the time. There was no board for a start, and all these bizarre, funny dice.

Celebrity Dungeons and Dragons

Several years ago, I was involved with a podcast series called, Screaming Halibut. It was a sketch comedy series, and for a little over a year, we produced a new episode almost every week. I was one of the writers for the show and also did voice work.

For one of the early episodes, I wrote a sketch entitled, "Celebrity Dungeons and Dragons". It had three parts to it that were spread out over the episode it was part of. The sketch became so popular with our listeners that later, Gord Zajac (who was the show's creator and central guiding force) made animated versions of the first two parts to go along with the original audio. I present those here for you now. Part One stars Jordan Gross as the voices of Christopher Walken, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sean Connery. Alicia Land is the voice of Emma Thompson, and I voice the narrator. Part Two stars Jordan Gross as the voice of Don Cherry (a well-known, opinionated and controversial sports commentator in Canada) and I play the host. Enjoy!