Tsabo Tavoc, Herald
Posted on November 22, 2008
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Continuing our fun with the Strange Eons freeware, here is our Tsabo Tavoc herald for the board game Arkham Horror. This herald requires a special monster token. Take a mask or spawn monster not in the current game and use it in the monster cup as a proxy. You’ve proxied things before, right?
Independent Fan Site Figures Out Where Wizards Hides Content
Posted on November 21, 2008
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RENTON, Wash. — Independent Web site GoodGamery.com was the first to discover Thursday where Magic: The Gathering manufacturer Wizards of the Coast hides its Internet content on its mysterious and inscrutable Web site.
Using complex hacking software, GoodGamery webmaster PaZ found news, columns and even DCI ratings carefully hidden away on wizards.com where the company had hoped that no one would find them.
“They did their best to make sure that no one would read this stuff, burying everything under a mountain of firewalls, security passwords, animated planeswalkers and spinning pictures of planets, but in the end, they just couldn’t keep it a secret,” PaZ told The Magic Lampoon.
Details of the breach were posted on GoodGamery’s message board.
Wizards spokeswoman Tina Gaffney was angry to learn about the breach.
“Damn it!” Gaffney told reporters Thursday at a news conference. “Now we’re going to have to relocate all of our older articles and DCI information, hiding it all over again so that it won’t be discovered!” she said.
“Never before has so much of our content been compromised,” Gaffney said. “We just came dangerously close to much of our content being read,” she added.
Precon-Making Monkey Delights Local Children
Posted on November 19, 2008
Filed Under Articles, Flashbacks, Staff | 2 Comments
Bobo, the little monkey who makes the precons.
TOWN CENTRE MALL — Some local children didn’t want to say goodbye to their new friend Monday morning. He didn’t jump rope, and he didn’t play tag. But nonetheless, little Bobo stole about two dozen little hearts outside the Town Centre Mall — and some big hearts.
Bobo is a monkey, brought to the mall Monday by his handlers at Wizards of the Coast to entertain pupils on a field trip from Woodbridge Elementary. The 6- and 7-year-olds delighted in seeing Bobo, watching him eat and observing him design a Magic: The Gathering preconstructed deck.
“Can I pet him?” asked Corrie Williams, 6. “I want to pet the little monkey that designs the precons.”
Corrie and the other children did get to pet Bobo, who they learned likes being scratched behind the ears.
Bobo entertained the children for about two hours as he clung to his handler, drank from a baby bottle and threw together a preconstructed deck with way too much land, no removal and two each of the worst of the latest Magic set’s common creatures.
Spokeswoman Tina Gaffney said that Bobo is taken on such trips because he has a lot to teach children, and adults, about caring for the environment, and about the fun of precons.
“If people could see how adorable and wonderful these animals are, they might be prompted to take a more activist role with regard to animal research or deforestation,” Gaffney said.
“Also, they might understand why a 60-card precon with two copies of Airborne Aid has only nine birds if they could just see how much fun little Bobo has throwing the cards this way and that.”
Gaffney said that the purpose of the preconstructed Magic: the Gathering decks is to support Bobo’s lifestyle. The profits from the precons pay for Bobo’s food and care.
“I realize that precons normally appeal to the newest, least knowledgeable and most vulnerable of players, who might later feel victimized for having plunked down nearly $10 for a senseless pile of cards that wouldn’t stand a chance against a 12-year-old’s Angel deck,” she said.
“But if those vulnerable players knew how much love Bobo put into randomly grabbing fistfuls of cards and shoving them together, and if they knew that the money goes to pay for the enrichment of Bobo and wonderful animals like him, then they would know that it’s money well spent.”
- Oct. 24, 2003
Photochop - Global Warming
Posted on November 18, 2008
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Card Of The Week - Gerrard Capashen
Posted on November 17, 2008
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This week’s card is Gerrard Capashen. When Gerrard, hero of the Weatherlight Saga, finally faces off against his arch-nemesis, Volrath, he taps him.
Gix, Herald
Posted on November 16, 2008
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Continuing our fun with the freeware Strange Eons, here is our take on a Gix herald for the Arkham Horror board game.
Mo’ Money, Part I
Posted on November 14, 2008
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By Mark Rosewater
Welcome to Money Week! Finally, I get to write the column that I’ve been hinting at for months. How exactly did we come up with the idea to create the new “money” card type? I’m glad you asked.
It all began when Richard Garfield came up with the original design for Magic. At its core, the Magic game is about two things: wizards fighting, and printing money. The wizards-fighting idea is pretty easy to bring to the forefront, with players tapping territories for energy, casting spells and summoning creatures. The money-printing part, however, was seldom center stage.
This is why I was extremely pleased when Matt Cavotta came up with the idea to make a money card type. I immediately realised that he was correct. This was the right thing to do. It was strategically a very important move. It was going to be a creative challenge but an exciting one.
I started the design knowing we had a daunting task before us. Magic had never printed a new card type before. (Yes, yes, we had mana sources and tribal — I mean a new card type that did something the game had truly never done before.)
Because the design space was so wide open, I decided to follow my instincts and set a few limitations. First, I declared that money was going to be a permanent type. While instants and sorceries are nice, they’ve never been as iconic as the cards that sit in play. If we wanted to make money matter, I felt strongly that it meant it should influence everything about the game. Also, permanents are things. Money is stuff. It just felt right to insist on money being permanent. Wealth, after all, can neither be created nor destroyed.
Second, I stated that we were going to give cards money costs. The reason for this was a very practical one. If we were going to make money, it meant designing a lot of it over the long haul. Cash costs are a clean and simple way to make sure only the proper income class of player can play the card. If cards didn’t have a money cost, we’d have to work in other ways to make sure they stayed “in class.” While these other ways exist, they aren’t plentiful and thus only money costs would serve us for the long haul.
Third, we needed a way to make the money cards equivalent to real money. For this, we added a cash charge chip to the money cards. You can charge these at most large banks, and the charge is depleted every time you use the money to pay for a card.
More on the actual design process in part II!
I hope you all agree that the money cards turned out pretty neat!
Until then, may your dollar not run out of cents.
Mark Rosewater
- Nov. 15, 2007
Photochop - Village
Posted on November 12, 2008
Filed Under Photochops, Staff | 2 Comments
The Homelands Playtest Letter
Posted on November 11, 2008
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RENTON, Wash. — Wizards of the Coast is offering Magic: The Gathering fans a rare look at the behind-the-scenes workings of the early days of Magic with the release Monday of a rarely seen Homelands playtest letter.
The letter, which consists of recommendations by playtesters, was received by Richard Garfield and is cited as the primary reason for Homelands having the power level that it has.
Card Of The Week - River Kelpie
Posted on November 10, 2008
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This week’s card is River Kelpie. A kelpie is a mythical water creature that takes the form of a horse and drowns people. Look closely. Do you see the horse?
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