Summary: Welcome to the raggedy edge of human space, The Orion Frontier. This is the edge of human exploration. Rimward from here, There be Dragons! No star chart or encyclopedia tells us what lies beyond, only whispered tales of scouts and pirates provide us myth- inspired answers. In this episode, Ethan, Nathan, and Jeremy are joined by Mike Cross and Chris Stevens from Terra/Sol Games. The topic of discussion in the show are their line of products featuring the Twilight Sector setting, and, to a lesser extent, Netherell, a setting contained within Twilight Sector. They talk game design, and setting evolution, as well as hit upon developing hard science fiction settings. In the Three Parter, Jeremy takes some time to rant a bit on his application to join a server in Minecraft. Nathan takes a look at the new Ogre Kingdoms book for the Warhammer Tabletop Battles game. Ethan wraps up the Three Parter with a short review of the newest addition to the Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons. Finally, they wrap things up with a catch-up on Random Encounters! Total Running Time on this episode is 128 minutes. About Terra/Sol Games Terra/Sol Games evolved out of a long running RPG campaign. The reason that’s important to note is because the fact that we evolved from a RPG campaign colors the philosophy of everything we do. RPGs from the beginning have been defined by sets of rules. To me that has always seemed backwards. While we love to see a movie in IMAX, if the movie isn’t any good no amount of IMAX magic is going to save it. I think the parallel to RPGs is obvious. At Terra/Sol Games we want to help change that. We’re about campaigns, hence our motto: “Because the Campaigns the Thing”. Terra/Sol Games will strive to bring our customers the best in RPG campaigns. From settings to adventures we will bring to you deep, coherent, ongoing campaigns. So whether you want to sit back and let us do the driving or you want to play in the sandbox yourself, we will give you the tools to run a campaign the way you want, and hopefully you’ll come to agree with us, that rules are nice, “But the Campaign’s the Thing”. Buy Twilight Sector from RPGNow, Amazon.com, or Noble Knight Games Buy Netherell from RPGNow. About Warhammer Tabletop Battles Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles (formerly Warhammer Fantasy Battle and often abbreviated to Warhammer, WFB or WHFB) is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting. The game has been designed with regiments of fantasy miniatures. It uses stock fantasy races such as humans (The Empire, Bretonnia, Kislev), Elves (Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves), Dwarfs, Undead, Orcs and Goblins, Vampires, as well as some more unusual types such as Lizardmen, Skaven and the daemonic forces of Chaos. Each race has its own unique strengths and flaws; Wood Elves, for example, have the most powerful archers in the game but have poor overall defence and Bretonnia have the strongest cavalry but weak infantry. Since first appearing in 1983, Warhammer has been periodically updated and re-released with changes to the gaming system and army lists. The current official version is the eighth edition, released on 10 July 2010. About the Ogre Kingdoms An Ogre is a large humanoid creature in the Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe. They are based on the ogres of mythology. Prior to the release in 2005 of Warhammer Armies: Ogre Kingdoms for Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game Ogres appeared only as mercenaries or Auxiliaries to other armies. The Ogre Kingdoms book expanded the history and character of the Ogres and they can now be fielded as a single army of their own, although the option to use them as mercenaries in other armies remained. However, the option to field allies or use mercenaries in general has since been dropped from the core Warhammer rules, with the discontinuing of the Dogs of War and the Regiments of Renown. Furthermo[...]
