Gaming Goodness for the New Year

With the coming of the New Year, and possibly in time for my birthday, two new interesting gaming products will be released. The first is based on an entertaining, but soon to be cancelled, television cartoon series. The second sees the return of a cornerstone Role Playing game into the market.

Though the television series may be cancelled at the end of this year, that hasn't stopped Bandai from releasing a new Teen Titans "miniatures game." The game is not collectible in the random sense and it doesn't appear that it will be ultra-complex, but it is a Teen Titans game. Naturally, I must own all three sets. According to ICV2 the game will "come packaged in sets of four characters along with a comic book page that doubles as a game sheet, a character-shaped die for game play, and one third of an inte

rlocking piece that forms an exclusive Communicator when consumers collect all three sets in the series. Each Teen Titans Comic Game Heroes package (MSRP $5.99) also includes a game card for the "Battle Communicator" LCD game."


I wonder what Matt Forbeck, whose Marvel Comics based Marvel Battle Dice will also be released next year, will think about this? (You can read all 6 of his articles about the dice here).








For those of you out there who love three things -- Westerns, Evil Dead Movies, and Role Playing Games -- great news for the upcoming year. Pinnacle Entertainment has made it's official announcement regarding the Deadlands: Reloaded game. Deadlands will see release early in 2006. Sure this is four or five months behind schedule, but fans of the RPG have been waiting years for the update (since the d20 synthesis/crisis).



The Deadland game is set in an alternate version of America's post-Civil War past in which ancient spirits have been awakened and where the Supernatural is a regular threat. The threat is less in the civilized areas of the East (but still present), but the Supernatural thrive in the West where brave adventurers, hearty homesteders, and wealth seekers journey forth.

To quote the Pinnacle Website:

"Each epic tale features detailed information on a specific place or event, and puts your posse smack in the middle of things for a customizable campaign of horror and glory! They’ll ride with Wyatt Earp, protect Deadwood from the all-too-real Ghost Dance, learn firsthand about the Reckoners and their servitors, and maybe even take some of ’em down."

For those interested in the earlier incarnation of Deadlands, the majority of the rulebooks (there are over 50 of them) are available as PDF files from the Pinnacle Website. Pinnacle will include a conversion guide for newcomers who wish to use older material. Shane Lacy Hensley is one of my favorite game designers (he is also working on City of Villains for the PC), so someone looking for a combination of Lovecraft and Deadwood should make Deadlands there first stop.