Goodman Games’ Hero’s Handbooks provide the expected extra options—monsters, magic items, powers, feats—but also culture and  history for Dungeons & Dragons player character races. The first was Dragonborn. The latest two are Eladrin and Tieflings.

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I know I’ve mentioned the line before. You’ll just have to live with it. I like them.

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Open Design is working on two Pathfinder RPG projects. One, “From Shore to Sea,” will be an adventure set in the official Pathfinder Golarion setting and published by Paizo. The other, “Sunken Empires,” will be a Pathfinder-compatible sourcebook with “adventure hooks, spells, monsters, and variant rules for exploring lost and sunken ruins in any campaign.” They’re not available yet, but for a minimum contribution of $24.95 you can buy in to the development process. Status as a Patron will give you copies of draft materials, access to playtest reports, the ability to comment and make recommendations, credit as a patron, and eventually copies of the final documents. Senior Patrons ($74.85) can participate in private discussions and access all drafts, including text and artwork. Major Donors ($145.70) will receive autographed copies of the final work.

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Winning Moves has a few new games out, or coming out soon:

CirKis: A Blokus-like abstract where each player in turn places a piece on the board. Only a) the board has weird circles and stars, b) each piece you play must touch the last piece played by RHO, and c) you score points whenever you complete a circle or star, or have a majority in that circle or star. Looks somewhat less elegant than Blokus, owing to the shapes and placing requirments, but easy to understand and decently cerebral.

Take A Chance: A Yahtzee-like game, but you get to buy scorecards with better payouts and combinations as the game progresses, so a lot more planning and progression. Looks fun.

See other new games on their site or Youtube channel.

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The Cincinnati Enquirer pimps Philip duBarry and his new game Revolution. (source)

WUWM, Milwaukee radio, pimps Mahjong. (source)

The Iowa Globe Gazette pimps the card game 500. (source)

Here’s a little something that isn’t really pimping, but I thought it was nice: A woman in Tulsa saved the life of another woman in Nebraska via an online card game (Canasta). A chimney had fallen through and pinned the legs of the 70 year old Nebraska woman, who couldn’t reach the phone but could type into her console. (source)

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Over 200 Indian gambling operations produce more income than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. The largest sites are currently in the Northeast, namely the Foxwood Casino in Connecticut (which, like all American casino operations, has been hit by the economy). Jack Abramoff also didn’t do Indian casinos any good.

These gambling operations have been one of the best sources of income for Native American tribe members, but have not been without controversy:

• Gambling itself is still controversial to many people; not so much when it takes the money from the wealthy, but when it takes too much money from middle-class or low-income gamblers.
• Native American teens can get addicted to gambling, as they sometimes get addicted to alcohol, owing to the independence of tribal jurisdiction laws.
• Also due to independent jurisdiction, non-Indian operations complain about unfair competition.
• Owing to the large amount of money involved, there are fears of criminal interference and corruption.

And other controversies. Many of these have been addressed by federal legislation over the past few decades. For instance, other than small-stakes traditional games, gambling must also comply with the laws of state and be run in agreement with the state. Typically, this results in a massive amount of profit for the state.  See Wikipedia for more information.

Anyhoo, Florida’s Seminole tribe’s gambling establishments were the first. Now, the Seminal tribe has reached a deal with Florida governor Charlie Christ, which would send $6.8 billion to Florida over 20 years in return for give the exclusive right to 7 Florida casinos to run card tables and games.

The deal still has to pass the state legislature, and faces opposition: legal, moral, and other. Trouble is, if the state turns it down, the federal government might just force it anyway, only this time without the state reaping a share of the profits.

(source)

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