Like many gamers – heck, most geeks – I’m a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel. I was a fan of the movie, and after a season or so I finally checked out the show and was hooked. Granted, it’s not always the greatest thing since sliced bread – I’m beginning to get that uneasy feeling I got about the X-Files a few years back, where it seemed like they’d covered everything and there was nothing left to do but fiddle with the metaplot – but it has a lot of good moments.

Nevertheless, although I’ll do a future column on adapting the Slayer herself to various game systems, and explain why that column doesn’t contradict this one, the show would make for a horrible campaign. Examining why is a good exercise in the art of gamemastering.

On Buffy: Willow finds a neat orb and uses it to give Angel his soul back so he’ll be all broody and charming again instead of broody and evil.

In your game: Player characters spend the next two sessions tracking down as many of the orbs as they can find so they can make a whole bunch of cursed-with-a-soul vampires. The next time a PC dies, the player petitions you to let his new character be an evil dark vampire lord who’s been given a soul so he can fight on the side of truth and justice.

On Buffy: When Buffy “dies” briefly, before being …

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A Chat with a Cornered Rat!

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Rodney ” Hatch” Hodge and Chris “Mo” Sherland of Cornered Rat Software. Hatch is the PR dude and Mo is the producer of WWII Online. WWII Online is a truly ambitious massively multiplayer online game due for release later this year based on, well…WWII. WWII Online will allow you to participate in land, sea and air wars. Some of the folks at Cornered Rat do have experience with this kind of endeavor, the teams’ last project was the highly regarded WarBirds! Read on to see just how WWII Online is shaping up and see how you will be able to participate in this truly unique game.

Q. First things first, let’s get that name out of the way. What does Cornered Rat mean? Is it some kind of private inside joke? It certain is distinctive.

LOL!!! It started as a joke based on experience but fit the bill so well that we decided to keep it..:)

As most of the online computer simulation community knows, we once merged our old company with another CD-ROM computer game company to help both companies through a successful IPO.

Unfortunately, it was pretty much an up hill battle from there. The long and short of the story is that we had a difference of opinion on the direction of game development, game quality, and community development, that unfortunately did not rear its ugly head until after the ink was dry …

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When we play a video game, we don’t want to sit there and fiddle with the controls; we want to be involved in the story, become overwhelmed and excited over our protagonist. Now, a new trend is entering the realm of video games. It seems the mystery buzzing around the real identity of ‘you’ is over. Revealing the face of the game’s main character seems risky, but it appears to be working in webbing a strong relationship between player and game.

Some developers do a subtle approach, such as Bioshock, plastering Jack’s face on a board with others from the game at its end. Others require gamers to put the pieces together. While you never saw Soap MacTavish’s face in Call of Duty 4, he was finally revealed as a Mohawked Scot in Modern Warfare 2. The same was applied for Singularity’s Renko during a flashback and Far Cry’s Jack Carver, whose faces were unveiled at the end of the games. Or some developers just throw the identity of ‘you’ right at you. One could name the Battlefield: Bad Company series as a culprit.

It was common and typical of first person shooters to keep the identity of the main character secret in order to maintain some imagination for the player, but even third person shooters are now getting in on the trend. Isaac Clarke of Dead Space fame had his face revealed at the game’s end, showing a battered, bruised and heartbroken man. This is continued in …

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The last couple of years have seen a revival in wargaming, due in no small part to the publication of Warhammer Ancient Battles. Based on the popular Games Workshop rules for Warhammer, this set of books (Ancient Battles, Armies of Antiquity and Chariot Wars) provides an opportunity to wargame large campaigns or small scale skirmishes with a range of ancient and dark age armies. It’s effect has been quite astounding. Stalwart historical wargamers, previously determined to ignore the Warhammer phenomenon have tried Ancient Battles and even been tempted to play Warhammer Fantasy or 40K! (see the recent editorial at Battlegames).

As with Games Workshop products, Warhammer Ancient Battles has a particular, closely related, miniatures manufacturer: Foundry. Beautifully painted examples of Foundry models are used as illustrations in the Ancient Battles rule book. Their 25 mm models are of exceptional standard and a widely available in blister packs in wargaming shops worldwide. I have found their mail order service to be helpful and fast, and as a first-time buyer was given a 25% discount on my first two orders. Unfortunately the Foundry online shop sucks. Alternative 25 mm miniatures can be obtained from many sources, but I recommend Gripping Beast for their range of Dark Age figures.

The success of this rule set has meant that the British Historical Games Society runs competitions using Warhammer Ancient Battles during its National Wargames Championships along side the more traditional De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM) and De Bellis Renationis (DBR) games.

Foundry were also behind …

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