Ra Board Game

D&D: Neverwinter – Wizard's Fiery Phoenix?

At PAX Prime 2011, Loveless and I had the opportunity to sit down with Laura and Shelly from Wizards of the Coast and talk about their new line of products featuring the city of Neverwinter in the Forgotten Realms.

I started out the conversation by voicing my familiarity with the Dungeons & Dragons game and reluctance to proceed from 3.5 into the new D&D 4 edition of D&D. Much of the feedback I have received referred to D&D 4e as “tabletop WoW” or “a game focused entirely on tactical combat.” Laura’s response was both diplomatic and insightful, “The Dungeons & Dragons game has continually evolved since 1974 and it will continually evolve, forever. Wizards of the Coast is constantly trying to provide the best play experience for what people want.”

“It’s all about us listening to the community, having that feedback loop, the community actively involved.” Laura said.

Although everyone I know plays 3.5, we’re more than willing to gaze across the river at 4 edition. Maybe we just need a sturdy bridge to allow passage and find out if the grass truly is greener on the other side. Or perhaps a nasty mottled green troll lurks under the bridge, waiting to devour us alive!

I spent over two decades of my life playing the Dungeons & Dragons game. Given that fact alone, I was willing to give these products a second chance. I found a crack in the wall of my old school gamer mind, and began shaking loose the rusty nuts and bolts so I could see things in a new light. The judgmental DM who grew up with Gary Gygax, Arneson, Elmore, and Easley needed to loosen up a bit. This was after all, a completely new product with fresh faces full of passion and creativity behind it. Why not give them a chance?

“In terms of what edition of D&D people are playing, we’re just glad you’re playing Dungeons & Dragons.” Laura offered, which caused a smile to work its way across my face.

“The current campaign is all about the city of Neverwinter. There are vast universes in D&D, and it’s hard to have shared experiences with so many different settings. What we are trying to do going forward is provide a cross category approach.

Girl Geek Chic » Board games for all you girl geeks

If you’re not just a girl geek but also a girl nerd then, like me, you probably like playing board games. Traditional board game set up can be a bit tedious what with all those pieces that need counting out and setting up, not to mention the storage space required for all those boxes.

Luckily the iPad has amazing range of board game apps, meaning you can carry them around and it even sets up the pieces for you! Here are a few of the top contenders.

All classic boardgames from chess through backgammon to go and even Othello have many many implementations for the iPad. One of the most unusual is Game Table, which doesn’t implement the rules or force correct moves only but just lets you move pieces as you want.

EA Games do a great line in all the family classics you’ll have played when you were a kid: Monopoly, Yahtzee, Scrabble and so on. If you also have an iPhone or iPod touch, Scrabble has a lovely feature where you can use your phone as a tile rack, with the iPad as the main playing board area. However my favourite of EA Games offerings is The Game of Life – they’ve even replicated the 10 number spinner that you flick to determine how many squares to move.

Finally all the classic Eurogames are implemented, including the world famous Settlers of Catan, Spiel des Jahres winning Carcassonne and GAMES magazine’s board game of 2010 – SmallWorld (2 player only).

There’s also an increasing number of games from from Sage Board Games, the most significant Eurogame developer for the iPad: Medici, Ra and Tikal are already in the Apple store with Puerto Rico, Le Havre and Tigris and Euphrates rumoured to be coming soon.

It’s a board game girl geek paradise!

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