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On the Cover:
Cover:
Shot on location at Game Night Games in Sugar House Utah by Adrian
Broadhead and Dennis Lundstrom. Custom painted metal figurines by Bear
Putnam.
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Executive Editor
Adrian Broadhead
Contributing Writers
Don K. Brown
David J. West
Carter Reid
Daniel Swenson
Deborah Moore
Zac Johnson
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Page 4
Raising Geeks
A parents guide to raising children in geek culture
Word Games
Dragon Words and is geared toward older children and
grownups. It is a game I created and involves an average
knowledge of spelling and of fantastical characters. You dont have
to be an Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were, just use the
creatures you are already familiar with.
It starts off with you choosing one of the following fantastical
creatures: Dragon, Unicorn, Witch or Wizard. You say your
creature out loud, and then think of another creature that begins
with third letter in your first creatures name.
For example, if you started out with Dragon, your second
creature would need to start with the third letter in that word,
which is A. Say you choose Aphrodite as your second creature, you
could then say aloud Dragon is the starting word. The clue is the
goddess of love. No need to say what letter the second creature
starts with because spelling is part of the game. Whoever guesses
Aphrodite first goes next.
The second person now has his starting word, Aphrodite, so his
second word would need to begin with an H. If he wanted to use
the word Harpy he could then say, Aphrodite is the word, and the
clue is winged female monster. Whoever guesses correctly
would then choose a creature that begins with the letter R and play
continues. The clues dont have to be that obvious, just adjust the
difficulty based on your family. The importance is to have enough
challenge to keep everyone interested, but not so hard that
everyone gets frustrated. Theres something blissful about the
silence that comes from everyone being deep in thought.
In the end, who could ask for more than a trip mixed with quiet
contemplating, discussion and bouts of silliness? I know I will be
using this and my other methods during my family travel this
Holiday season, even if our only trips are just to the store or to
catch a movie.
Utahs Year-Round
Costume Store
718E 3900 S Salt Lake City
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Page 5
By Don K. Brown
Running a role playing game can be challenging in any game
system. Rules are intricate across systems and they all have
layers of complexity. Running the game, whether it is
Dungeons & Dragons or Star Wars Edge of the Empire, takes a
lot of work. Add to that the challenges of managing the players
and the campaign, and any game master can quickly feel
overwhelmed. Ive developed a few ideas to help you, the
tireless GM, make the managing of the group easier so you can
run the game and allow everyone to have fun. I call them The 7
Attributes of Awesome GMs.
# 5: Say, Yes
A game will run into problems when
the sense of wonder and surprise is
leeched from the game because a GM
says you cant or theres no rule for
that or just plain no. This usually occurs because GMs try to
limit rather than expand their game. Keep the sense of wonder
Page 6
# 7: Be Fair
Keep things fair. This goes for treasure distribution, stage time,
and even character death. The fair and right thing to do is make
sure that each player has an equal chance to affect the game.
The rules go a long way toward doing that, and this is a chief
responsibility of the GM. The game is supposed to be fun.
You're not creating some tense piece of post-modern
performance ritual, and you are not creating a world that
actually exists somewhere. You're creating instances of fun.
Anything in your game that fights the fun by any means should
be discarded immediately.
Gweedos
Comics
www.gweedoscomics.com
42 N. Main Street #2
Layton, Utah
atari2600@comcast.net
(801)719-6631
Comics, Toys,
Vintage Video Games,
Action Figures
by David J. West
The story so far:
In the City of Tolburn, young Kenaz has been using his gift
of out of body travel to gain information and sell such to the
highest bidder, this has attracted unwanted attention
http://david-j-west.blogspot.com
Inside the hollow lair a variety of tokens, fetishes and
herbs hung about. What is it with witches and herbs? A
small fire coiled in a central pit making shadows dance
lasciviously upon ragged walls. Smoky tendrils escaped
between exposed branches like a thief.
I have brought Kenaz. Aeoni proclaimed to the
darkness. A soft grunt was the only response.
A sextet of honey-comb candles granted weak light. As
my eyes adjusted to the dimness I saw a withered crone
upon a seat of thatch. Behind and beside her a dozen
sisters materialized from the gloom.
The lower half of the crones face stuck out from her cowl
while the top half remained in shadow. She almost looked
dead and for a brief moment I thought she was until the
most painful ragged voice this side of a torturers
convention crawled its way out of her cavern of a mouth.
Thou art Kenaz, known as the Mind Walker.
Yes?
Coughing, she stretched forth a gnarled old hand. I am
the Mother Superior of The Sisterhood of Vavath. We wish
to employ you.
If the price is right.
She smirked. Never a good sign. People only smirk when
you mention price because they have so much gold its
meaningless or they have no intention of paying you. Either
way, it makes for sour conversation.
She continued her offending rasp. Something was
stolen. We wish the Reliliqy returned. Thou knowest where
it be?
Not really a question I felt like answering honestly. I have
lots of fingers in lots of pies. No, but Ive an idea. Perhaps
enough to be worth putting me on retainer. I must admit
that others are interested in that same article. I may as
well try and round up the asking price on the chance she
has too much gold.
There is no time to trifle with the likes of the Sunsari
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Page 8
warlocks.
How did she know who my clients were?
We need the Reliliqy by tomorrows risen moon.
I already told Aeoni. I looked at her. Aeoni shook her
head violently. I told her I gather information. I never carry
out the task itself. I deal in secrets, not operations.
Whether the old crone coughed, laughed; or gagged I
wasnt sure. My senses screamed as the sisters surrounded
me in the gloom, closing in with their prized obsidian knives.
They always used natural weapons and tools. To the witches,
forging things of metal a vile habit of men and witches dont
particularly like men.
Thou act as if a choice was thine. Thou will accomplish this
feat shortly or thou shall not see the day beyond. Give me thy
hand.
I backed away but was quickly snatched up by no less than
ten of the witches. Aeoni was not among them but did it
matter anymore? Held firmly by three sisters on each side, my
right arm was extended palm up to the crone. She drew the
largest obsidian knife I had ever seen. It may as well have
been a short sword. I expected a death blow. I thought to run
and my spirit stepped out.
My body went limp in their arms as my spirit was floating a
dozen paces away. Sometimes my out of body impulse is too
strong and I momentarily forget that it doesnt do much good
to run away from yourself.
Vavath, blessed be her name, has told us of thy tricks and
deeds. We are quite aware of thy abilities and indeed that
thou are likely yet present looking down upon us in thy soul
form. Know this! I consecrate to divine Vavath thy body and
do hereby make covenant with thou! She raised the knife
and I expected the worst, the loss of a limb but no, she poked
a terribly small laceration across my palm. This was nothing, I
cut myself worse cooking. Turning my limp hand, she dripped
blood into a brazier in the central fire pit. The flames flared to
life as if alchemist fuel flowed through my veins.
The witches all strained backward as the once tiny flame
burst into a pillar of monstrous proportions and something
something crouched within the diabolic burning! Something
unscorched and horrid. It looked like a worm, but a worm
larger than any man born under heaven or beneath the nine
hells. Its jaws unhinged and roared in coagulating silence. The
flames instantly died as the monster rapidly shrunk down to
the size of a mere slug. If I wasnt already floating a dozen
paces away, I would have been. The demonic worm radiated
slick fear.
The Mother Superior reached into the now flameless
brazier. The fat gross worm writhed in her fingers. It was
white and thick yet smaller than a wood grub. She dropped it
upon my palm where it swam in the pool of blood, before
rearing and diving into my wounded hand.
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Page 9
Next time:
Chapter 3. The Enemy of My Enemy
Luxurious Necessities
Barry Sharp
Business Advisor
801-696-5275
BarrySharp35@gmail.com
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Epic
Puzzles & Games
www.epicpug.com
Three Locations:
Page 10
The Look
Ill say it flat out: I love the art in this book. Since its a
Players Handbook, most of the art focuses on the playable
characters. It includes character portraits for different races
and classes, a small sampling of famous characters (a certain
Drow ranger, for instance), and some illustrations that I
swear are from existing D&D minis.
This book does a much better job than previous editions
for representing a wider range of character traits, such as
more female characters, more heroes of color, etc. Its not
perfect by any means, but I appreciate that theres a much
wider range of inspirational art for showing truly what the
range of characters should be.
Races
The available races in the Players Handbook are just
about what you would have expected: dwarves, halflings,
elves, and humans as base classes, each with their own suboptions such as the different flavors of elves. Also included
are more uncommon racial options: dragonborn, tieflings,
gnomes, half-orcs, and half-elves. (Bonus: non-gross
backstory for Half-Orcs.) Most of the uncommon races have
fewer options than the core races, since their niche often
comes pre-defined. Each of the entries contains snippets
from different D&D worlds, a good way to connect each one
to the different D&D worlds of possibility.
Classes
There are 12 base classes, each one having multiple subclasses, some of which are very different from the main class
(e.g. the spell-casting fighter). Each class gets a standard
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Equipment
No surprises here, the gold-metric system makes a
comeback with its 10:1 exchange rates, except for electrum,
which sits in the middle of gold and silver. Some aspects are
cleaned up a bit (there is only one kind of shield, for
instance) while others use similar tags to describe weapons
youre probably used to by now.
Feats
Feats are greatly simplified and expanded, and optionally
replace your ability score improvements that you receive
every 4 levels. Previous editions required multiple feats in
order to be good at particular abilities, such as two-weapon
fighting, often overlapping with feats granted by classes.
Now you just take a feat called dual wielder and it grants
you three useful abilities for fighting with two-weapons all at
once. There are 30 feats in all, and most are satisfying as
character-defining options, but some are still weak.
Combat
Combat works on the same basic principles it has for a
long time: see bad guys, roll initiative, go in order, and take
actions. Your turn consists of a move and an action. During
your move, you move your speed, which you can split up
(e.g. move, attack, move again). Your action will usually be
an attack or a spell, but could also be a dash, disengage,
dodge, help [another], hide, ready, search, or use an object.
During either your move or your action, you also get one
free interact with something opportunity, which could be
drawing or sheathing a weapon, or opening or closing a
door. Finally, you may also have a bonus action during your
turn, and a reaction out of turn, either of which can be
granted by other abilities or conditions. This mechanic keeps
the essence of the standard/move/minor mechanic while
being a bit more manageable.
Spellcasting
Spellcasters prepare a number of spells at the start of a
day as determined by their class. This forms their menu of
options that they can cast during that day. Some classes just
know a smaller set of spells and ignore preparation entirely.
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Each class has a certain number of spell slots that they can
use to cast their spells, but these spell slots are not fixed to a
particular spell after a long rest. A 1st level spell takes a 1st
level spell slot, and thats it. No more figuring out how many
fireballs to memorize in a given day. You just choose fireball,
and as long as you have 3rd level slots or higher, you can
keep throwing them as often as you have slots. You can even
expend higher level slots on some lower level spells for
greater effect. This is almost unbelievable to me because
solves so many of my issues with spellcasting in other
editions.
Playing it Safe
The organization and content of the book will be much
more accessible to readers who have already played D&D
before. It purposely leaves some gaps and encourages you to
fill them in based on your experiences playing the game. It
features a wide breadth of choices, which may be great for
veteran players, but they may be overwhelming for a new
player. The refined spellcasting system definitely takes risks,
and is better for it. And Eldritch Knights, Dragonborn, and
Wild Mages all push some boundaries of what some
consider base D&D. There are places I wish it had taken
some more chances, such as not using the six saving throws
to their fullest, and having the barbarians rage at exactly 1
minute long, but those are probably pretty minor.
This is supposed to be the D&D Greatest Hits album, and
Id say it succeeds. The front cover of the book stakes the
claim as the worlds greatest roleplaying game. This book
is deceptively packed with generations of D&D melded into
one coherent game. It knows its audience: D&D players. It
doesnt push a lot of boundaries, and leaves plenty of room
to adapt and cross-pollinate with other game systems to
make your best game. It is a game that I am excited to play,
and I hope to run a campaign as soon as possible. And for
that alone, I recommend it.
Wizards of the Coast provided a complimentary copy of
the book for review purposes.
Be sure to visit our website to see the
full version of this review.
http://bit.ly/UGM-DandD5e
Page 13
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or call Dennis at 801.839.4581
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Page 14
By Zac Johnson
B) Destroyer
D) Cruiser
B) Broly
D) Goku
B) Ikki Tenry
D) Kabuto
B) Nurgle
D) Khorne
B) Pignite
D) Blazekin
4: In Pirates of the Spanish Main, which of the 9: Who tried to wish that the Saiyans were
following is not a faction?
defeated before they reached Earth?
A) Chinese
C) French
B) Vikings
D) German
B) 691
D) 834
Answers at www.UtahGeekMagazine.com
A) Bulma
C) Piccolo
B) Oolong
D) Napa
B) Bakura
D) Atem