And so another great year of gaming draws to a close. 2012 was an important year at Snackbar Games, and for me personally as well. A couple months ago I hit the 100-column milestone here at Gaming Unplugged, and earlier this month the site itself observed its tenth anniversary; I’ve been on staff for seven of those years, and writing this column for the last four and a half (starting July 2007). It has certainly been an interesting ride, and it shows no sign of slowing any time soon.
I keep wondering how I will continue to find new topics to write about in this space, but the wealth of gaming just keeps giving. I have three or four boardgaming projects that I backed via Kickstarter that should start shipping in the early part of 2013 (one of which will actually pay off twice over the course of the year). I have also experienced several games this year that I have yet to cover, some new and some old — and that’s not even counting the ones I’ve played that didn’t impress me enough to discuss them (or were actively bad, but those are thankfully rare). READ MORE
Releases for Ascension come in two sizes: large four-player sets and small two-player sets meant to compliment the previous large set. Earlier this year the second large entry, Storm of Souls, arrived, and brought several new mechanics to those introduced in the first large-small pair. After a few unfortunate delays, Storm of Souls now finally has its companion set in Immortal Heroes. READ MORE
To save myself a ton of time, I wanted to start this by stating that just about everything Andrew mentioned in his review of Trine 2 still applies to the Wii U edition. This game looks just as amazing and plays just as brilliantly as it does on other systems, and all of the puzzling adventures contained there are here as well. But that isn’t all, as Director’s Cut includes much more. READ MORE
Staring into a fireplace while various toys and items burn to ash seems like an unusual concept for a game. And it is. But it’s also strangely hypnotic, in large part thanks to the bizarre story lurking behind the otherwise-mindless pyromania. Besides, the guys behind both World of Goo and Henry Hatsworth are no strangers to making bizarre game concepts shine. READ MORE
The twenty-sided die, or d20, is such an iconic symbol of pen-and-paper RPGs that this column was named in reference to it (or perhaps in reference to a Penny Arcade reference to it). Over time, an entire modular system has been constructed around it (aptly named “the d20 System”), releasing it from its origin as one of a half-dozen oddly-shaped dice in a standard Dungeons & Dragons kit and giving it a life of its own.
When I agreed to revisit this column for Snackbar’s ten-year anniversary, I knew that I would have to overcome one fundamental problem. You see… my preferred RPG system of choice, back when I had time for such things, doesn’t use d20s. Or indeed any dice at all that are not ten-sided (d10s).
Welcome to White Wolf’s The World of Darkness (WoD). READ MORE
