Haste! Reaper Bones 2, Numenera Licensing, Reforging Updates!

This is without a doubt the best general podcast to keep you up to date with what is going on with RPG's.

Ennie award winning podcast is back with another great episode. This one is almost 30 minutes long--which feels a lot longer than previous episodes. I like that they go more in depth and personal into their campaigns and their insight into the issues.

The basically vote against the Reaper Bones II kickstarter because no one painted the last batch & the game table is impacted by having too many mini's. They are jaded & wrong about this--these are amazing deals and we are blessed to have Reaper offering them. Everyone should do these.

Numenera licensing gets a bad review--mostly because of the crowd funding issues. This is unfortunate, because Numenera is so great. I am glad that the system is getting discussed, but wish that it would be more positive & focused on the actual RPG which is awesome. I have not really been following this topic--I stopped reading Monte's blog when he disabled the comments and the conversation on Ninth World was mostly positive.

And then we get a campaign update from the guys--which is always fun.

The 'how to use Obsidian Portal' part of the podcast which was so strong when this started has really moved to the background, which I am not completely stoked about--I really did like how gave 'tips' on using the site.

In any event, another great podcast well worth listening to.

WotC Customer Service

So I am canceling my Wizards of the Coast monthly account.

I started this blog when the community site was updated & I could not figure out how to use the new site--I could not find my blog or groups, I could not upload images, etc. Then I stopped participating in the WotC Novel club [which I loved] because the new site was so hard to navigate & get notified when things were  updated, basically the members could not find a way to talk about the book. Then my D&D Encounters group switched to D&D Next so I did not need the online character builder any more. Combine this with the fact that I really do not have time to read Dragon much these days & the articles on D&D Next Design goals & decisions are not really that interesting to me and appear to be the majority of what the articles are about.

I could not longer justify spending money monthly on  a service I was not using.

I am sure I will renew my subscription once the D&D Next character builder comes online since that will be a really helpful tool.

In any event, I logged into my account four times & tried to cancel my subscription. I was unable to remove my 'default credit card' or remove the numbers to guarantee that I am not charged next month. So I opened a case with support to ensure I will not be charged this month, what I thought would be a simple question:

Hola, I wanted to confirm that I have successfully canceled my account. I do not want to be charged on this billing cycle. Thanks, David S.

my guess that those of you used to dealing with Wizards know where this is going:

Hey David,
Thanks for contacting Wizards of the Coast Customer Service!
We have received your request to make sure your account is cancelled and would be happy to look into that for you. In order to further investigate your request, please reply with as much of the following information as possible:
Email address registered to the account:
Zip/Postal Code registered to the account:
Security question registered with the account: mothers maiden name
Answer to Security question:
We take your account security very seriously. Therefore, while we want to assist you, we will require that you be able to answer certain pieces of information as registered on your account. Once we verify that you are the account owner, we can proceed with your request.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact us!
Until then, take care and happy gaming!
We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.
Alexander
Online Response Crew
Wizards of the Coast
1-800-324-6496 (US and Canada)
425-204-8069 (From all other countries)
Monday-Sunday 7am-7pm PST / 10am-10pm EST

Looking past the fact that you are sending me an email asking me for my email address [which I guess could make sense because I could have multiple email address or something] & that I was logged onto the system when I submitted the question so you should have my zip code; I thought that Security Question was something that 'a member of support will never ask you to verify via email', right?

I am assuming that this process is to prevent kids from fiddling with their parents account settings or something, but even that does not make much sense to me.

At this point, I feel I have already had to try to hard to ensure my account is canceled--it would have been easier to just have my credit card company remove the charge then trying to deal with WotC customer service.

I am blogging about this primarily so that when things go even worse I will be able to maintain my sense of humor about the whole thing...

Evan the Canadian, Slivers win Again, GW Two Headed Giant SMACK DOWN

Another great morning of Magic for Jack and the South Lake crew. 

Tuesday's is late start day & we live across the street from the Junior High so the kids come over for a little Tuesday Morning with Magic. 

And Lisa cooks muffins--this week it was pumpkin!

we are in training for the Theros Game day, so Alexander made everyone these great labels for their deck boxes.

Andrew forgot his deck box, so he wore his on his head.

Alexander started his first match against Evan who was running my Sliver deck. Even standing at the table did not help him--Evan won easily.

Jack started off against Matt--it was a great match which Matt actually won.

After that we went into the Two Headed Giant match which is really what the boys come over to play--they love the head to head team action. Also, Matt & Evan were both undefeated, so having them on opposing teams set up a great match.

The stage was set for a huge match.

All possible tokens were found.

The match started off fairly slowly.

But Jack was quickly able to build up a 25/25 trample, life link creature.

Alexander & Matt resigned at 15-90; but not because they were loosing--but because the boys needed to get back to school.

This week we only had one rules question.

Matt cast Riot Control to stop Jack from doing 22.

The issue came when we tried to count the number of Creatures. 

Jack had Bestowed three Creature Aura's onto his Creature. 

Does this count as four creatures or is it one creature with three auras?

we ruled that it was four creatures, mostly because the game was over and we wanted everyone to have fun, but I thin that the correct answer is that they are bestowed as Aura's and are not Creature's and the correct ruling was that it was one creature.

Penny Arcade/PvP Series 6: Ark of the Mad Mage

I listened to this podcast at work while typing.

Chris Perkins is a Great DM. 

His relationship to other great DM's--in fact, legendary DMs like Gygax & Cook is well documented, but his influence on every living  DM cannot be stressed enough. When one listens to Perkins run a game, every DM I have ever meet has the same response--they want to become a better DM!

Perkins is just a stud and his table is absolutely fantastic. For this adventure of Acquisitions Inc, Wil Wheaton is absent, which allows the other players to really stand out.  Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins are able to run out gags longer and Scott Kurtz's trademarked one liners are delivered with even more impact. Combined with the amazing addition of author Patrick Rothfuss and you have just about the dream table.

The adventure is solid. The recording is incredible. This is a very very good actual play podcast.

I think one of the goals of these is to introduce people to the D&D Next mechanics. I am not sure that goal is meet, mostly because these players are not really the kind of people tied to rule sets, which is likely a good thing, but the fact that WotC is making these available is awesome.

Removing a Planeswalker

Jack and I were playing Magic at the Pokemon X&Y release event. 

Jack cast Ajani, Caller of the Pride

I had reacted at Instant speed with two Spark Jolts

and a Magma Jet

assigning all damage to the Player Ajani.

Jacked rightfully questioned this play. 

We ruled that this was not legal since Ajani is not a creature & not a player.

Is this the correct ruling?

Is there a general guide to Planeswalker removal?