At Will

Welcome to Time Stop, your week in review for fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons news.  This week I bring you previews of the new Hero Minis out of Wizards of the Coast, a wrap up of the Origins Game Fair, some great article from RPG Bloggers Network, a few excellent podcasts from RPGPodcasts.com, and a few resources to help your D&D game.

Miniatures Previews

The second series of Player’s Handbook Heroes minis will be released on July 21st, and Wizards of the Coast has been previewing them over the last few weeks.

• Divine Heroes 2: Male Genasi Paladin, Female Human Cleric, Male Human Invoker
• Primal Heroes 2: Male Human Swordmage, Female Human Wizard, Warforged Artificer
• Martial Heroes 4: Male Tiefling Fighter, Female Human Warlord, Male Shifter Ranger
• Arcane Heroes 3: Male Halfling Barbarian, Female Human Barbarian, Male Human Druid
• Divine Heroes 3: Male Human Paladin, Female Human Avenger, Warforged Cleric

Origins Wrap-up

The Origins Game Fair was held during the last weekend in June.

• E from Geek’s Dream Girl attended the convention and she has detailed her escapades in two parts.  Part One.  Part Two.
• Shortly before the Origins Awards were handed out, The Brilliant Gameologists offer their insights into who they thought would win.  They discuss many of the games that were nominated for awards, and tell you which are good, which are bad and which are great.  WARNING: The Brilliant Gameologists is an explicit podcast.
• Last week I linked to the list of the winners from the Origins Awards, but no wrap-up would be complete without it.
• Dave the Game from Critical Hits has provided a detailed look at the Ultimate Dungeon Delve that was run at Origins.
• Dave also provides details on Monte Cook’s seminars titled “Being A Better Game Master” and “Designing A Better Dungeon”.
• The RPGA ran a seminar on D&D 4e Villains, hosted by Rodney Thompson and Robert J. Schwalb.
• Ken Hite offers his thoughts on the upset of the awards, Mouse Guard beating out D&D 4e for best RPG, over at the Indie Press Revolution.

Articles

• June 30th saw the final article posted to The Core Mechanic, an audio montage titled “I am a gamer”. While, its sad to see such a great blog shutting down, I wish Jonathan the best of luck with his new venture over at Nevermet Press.
• Dungeon magazine has released an article by Chris Sims about party generation titled Party to Build Character.
• Save vs Pointy Stick just released an article on world building.  In the article they detail some ways to randomly generate aspects of your game world.
• ChattyDM and Chgowiz recently hosted a contest to design the best one page dungeons.  The winners can be found here.

Podcasts

• After last week’s recommendation by Wolfgang Baur I had to give the Open Design Podcast a listen this week.  It was definitely worth it.  Their most recent episode features an interview with WotC’s Bruce Cordell, a discussion with Phil Menard (the ChattyDM), an interview with Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief James Jacobs and regular features by Monte Cook and Skip Williams.
• Radio Free Hommlet released their 25th episode last week.  In this episode they delve into the new primal defender, the Warden, and provide a build for a Human Cleric.
• The Tome Show episode 108 features a review of Goodman Games’ Hero’s Handbook: Dragonborn.  If you plan to use Dragonborn in your campaign, then take a listen to this episode to find out if this book will be valuable to you.

Resources

• How to make your own Tact Tile.  Use some form board, self-adhesive laminate and an Exacto knife to make your very own portable, configurable battle grid.
• Gelworks D&D Combat Manager is an application that is designed to help you manage your character at the gaming table.
• 50 Legendary Dragon Illustrations You Must See.  If you ever need inspiration for using a dragon in your campaign, then one of these illustrations should do the trick.

Think I missed something?  Or perhaps you have a suggestion for next week?  Then drop me a note!