Friday, March 29, 2019

Amulet Of Spell Immunity

Here's a full write-up for an item mentioned in passing in Supplement IV: God, Demi-Gods & Heroes by Robert Kuntz and James M. Ward.

Amulet of Spell Immunity

An ancient goddess of magic and motherhood whose name is now lost to antiquity first bestowed the method of creating these potent magical defenses upon humanity at the dawn of its first civilization. The secret procedure for the creation of Amulets of Spell Immunity were lost--as was much early magical lore--during the Revolt of the Battle Pyramids. Therefore any Amulets of Spell Immunity discovered today are at least 5,000 years old.

The amulet takes the form of a small round or oval medallion of old gold, slightly larger than the largest coins. Both sides of the amulet are covered with ancient pictograms, now well worn. An off-center hole pierces the medallion, allowing a cord, leather thong, or very fine chain to be threaded through it. A full 50% of all encountered Amulets of Spell Immunity show signs of past use in the form a brittle texture not usually associated with gold and one or more thin cracks along the surface.



When worn around the neck, an Amulet of Spell Immunity grants the wearer immunity to a single spell. The spell is not cancelled; if more than one person can be targeted (such as an area effect attack), the others are still subject to the spell.

Each time the Amulet protects a wearer from a spell, there is a 50% chance that the enchantment wanes and the amulet becomes damaged. A fully intact amulet becomes brittle and cracked, as described above. An already brittle and cracked amulet (whether found in that condition or through repeated use) crumbles into pieces of a dry, spongy material not unlike old cork.

Since these Amulets were created in the earliest days of Magic Use, they only protect from a narrow range of possible spells:

01-08 Charm Person
09-16 Sleep
17-23 ESP
24-30 Hold Person
31-37 Fire Ball
38-44 Lightning Bolt
45-51 Slow
52-57 Polymorph Others
58-62 Confusion
63-66 Charm Monster
67-72 Magic Jar
73-77 Cloudkill
78-83 Feeblemind
84-88 Flesh to Stone
89-92 Death Spell
93-96 Geas
97-00 Disintegrate

The alchemist Grumthrap Viloodle theorizes that the strange residue of a destroyed Amulet of Spell Immunity is not entirely useless. In his work Secrets of Alchemy Revealed Viloodle speculates that this substance can be used as a substitute material component for the spell the amulet previously protected against and/or as the key ingredient in a potion of similar effect.

Oceanhorn 2: Development Update

All the roads lead to Capital

It has been too long since we gave you guys an update on the development of Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm. Well, all five of us have been focusing on the game, and when you're really concentrated on your work, the time flies!

Grand Core: The city sized machine in the heart of Capital.

It feels like it was only yesterday when we released our first gameplay video of Oceanhorn 2 and even let people play the game at Nordic Game, but the truth is it has been months! The reception of the gameplay video was awesome. We could not get enough of all the impressions from youtube and forums. The excitement of our audience really inspired us to work harder.  After we came back to our studio, we were determined to move to the next step with the production!


Capital's seedier backside

So, what have we been up to? We have been building an adventure! More gameplay, more story, more levels, more worlds. A city. Capital is one of the central locations of Oceanhorn 2's story and it offers tons of open-ended exploration for curious adventurers. In the heart of the city is the gigantic machine Grand Core.


Meeting with friends at Master Mayfair's penthouse study

We hope to bring you more updates in the future, along with some video teasers to give you a real good look at the game! Productions like this require a lot of time and effort, but the outcome will be a cool video game so it is all worth the trouble! When you are making your dream project, you don't count the hours.

Enjoy these iPhone screenshots folks!




EGLX, Day 1: Come Find Me This Morning At The Mentor Lounge!

#SuzyCube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity
The EGLX developer conference kicks off today! My first order of business is to help warp young minds at the Mentor Lounge! Come find me and all the other mentors in room 713B at 11:00 this morning to partake of our pearls of wisdom! Hope to see you there!

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Welcome To Flights Of Fantasy Books & Games!






Flights of Fantasy is Now a
Pokemon Go Destination!



MTG RAvnica NEWS!
Ravnica Allegiance is a 264 card set. Darkness is coming to Ravnica. A conflict that could tear apart the world itself looms large, and the fragile peace between the guilds is strained to its breaking point. Now, with everything on the line, it`s time to step up, prove your loyalty, and fight for your guild.

BUY-A-BOX



For MTG trade/buy/store credit please contact Maria or Dave thru the store or availability (excluding Saturday mornings) 
If you want cash, you must accept Paypal! 

MTG PLAYERS! 
We have millions of MTG cards in stock from Alpha thru current set and will be online soon with a TCG E-store at www.tcgplayer.com. 

Come on by and check them out!

CHECK OUT OUR EXCITING NEW FEATURE!
Games with James!



Flights of Fantasy's Store Clerk James gives you the low-down on great games available right in the store!

Flights of Fantasy now has signed copies of the following authors' books:

Elizabeth Bear
Anne Bishop
Ben Bova
Peter Brett
David Brin
Kristen Britain
Terry Brooks
Lois McMaster Bujold
SC Butler
Patricia Bray
Chelsea Cain
Barbara Campbell
James Cambias
Cinda Williams Chima
David Coe
Glen Cook
Larry Correia
Julie Czerneda
Charles De Lint
Stephen Donaldson
David Drake
Sarah Beth Durst
Ian Esselmont
Steven Erikson
Charles Gannon
Max Gladstone
Alex Gordon

Charlaine Harris
Eloisa James
Les Johnson
Jack McDevitt
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Gregory Maguire
L. E. Modesitt
Kim Newman
Garth Nix
Joshua Palmatier
Rachel Pollack
Robert Redick
Mike Resnick
John Ringo
Kim Stanley Robinson
Pamela Sargent
Robert Sawyer
Alex Shvartsman
Rik Spoor
Kristine Smith
Allen Steele
Carol Stevermer
Charles Vess
Jo Walton
David Weber
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
George Zebrowski 

Check out our web store of  collectibles here. To waive shipping, email us at fof.net@gmail.com, then visit the store to pay for and pick up your item!


Find us on www.tcgplayer.com with our online store

Search Sellers :  FlightsOfFantasy or: https://shop.tcgplayer.com/sellerfeedback/13dc220f



We are located at 381 Sand Creek Road, Albany, NY 12205.
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And check out our weekly gaming events!



[VIDEO] Misrepresentative Content

For the next few weeks we'll be releasing several videos, providing a more in depth look into various policy topics.

This week, our video takes a deeper dive into our Misrepresentative content policy and describes how this policy helps to enable a healthy digital advertising ecosystem for users, advertisers, and publishers. Click the video below to learn more:


After each video goes live, we'll be on hand to answer your questions related to the topic for a few hours on the YouTube channel. So be sure to subscribe to the channel to ensure you don't miss an episode.

We hope this video helps you to better understand our Misrepresentative Content policy. For more information, you can learn more about AdSense policies in our help center.


Posted by:
John Brown
Head of Publisher Policy Communications

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy - The Don Has Landed!


The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy - Territory
The Commission: Organized Crime Grand Strategy - Logo

  "The Commission - Organized Crime Grand Strategy" (let's just say "The Commission" from now on), is a strategy game coming from the little indie studio 302 Interactive, which gives you the opportunity to control a mafia family in the 1930s city "New Shore". 

  Sharpen your bullets and iron your fedoras, it's time to explain our little friends the physics of cement and water!


Tuesday, March 26, 2019

McGuire House Rules For Cartegena

Cartagena is a board game for 2-5 players. With the simple McGuire house rules modifications described below, it works well as a strategic family game for players as young as five.

The game features teams of pirate markers racing through a random board depicting a tunnel. The pirate theme continues through the main commodities in the game: rum, guns, swords, hats, and flags.

The strategic decisions made by players are largely timing. The two main moves are pushing forward by playing cards, and dropping back to accumulate cards and establish tactical positions. There's no direct player vs. player conflict.



(There is a 2nd edition called Cartagena II that can be played with the same pieces if you're willing to mark the face of a few cards. It differs primarily in the end-game rule and that "dropping back" is now "advancing an opponent". I think that it is a little better balanced but also a little less kid-friendly because of the complexity. You can download the new rules from the Rio Grande site and play with the original set.)

The game suggests two variants in the rules. Even with all adults, I never play the "strategic" variant in which the draw deck is visible. That variant allows (i.e., forces) players to consider too many options and slows the game too much.

McGuire House Rules
Some simple changes make Cartagena a fast and fun game to play with young children without sacrificing its core strategic value.

1. Remove a few tunnel pieces during setup to reduce game length. The base game takes about 20 minutes with handicapped players. It can easily be reduced to about 10 minutes plus setup time by removing two tiles. That means that you can play two games in half an hour, including setup and cleanup.

2. Give weaker players extra cards during setup to give them a lead. Don't change the number of pirates or advance the pirates--because of the leapfrogging mechanic, moving pirates affects the game in complex ways. I currently grant my elementary school children six cards each at the start of the game.

3. For players having a very hard time with strategy, a simple rule change can reduce the worst case that players can get themselves into with poor play. The minor version is to add the retreat rule:
Retreat: A pirate may drop back out of the tunnel to the start and draw one card as an action. A player with no pirates currently in the tunnel may draw two cards as an action.
A more dramatic version also adds the cave-in rule to increase the bonus for retreating:
Cave-In: When a tile at the start end of the tunnel has no pirates on it, it is removed from the game. Any pirates who aren't yet in the tunnel or the boat move up to being just before the end of this tunnel.
I found that using a physical boat instead of the boat card/tile greatly increases the enjoyment of children when moving their pirates off the board. We use a Lego boat hull, but any toy about 8 cm or longer will suffice.


Morgan McGuire (@morgan3d) is a professor at Williams College, a researcher at NVIDIA, and a professional game developer. His most recent games are Project Rocket Golfing for iOS and Skylanders: Superchargers for consoles. He is the author of the Graphics Codex, an essential reference for computer graphics now available in iOS and Web Editions.