Twitter!

Good morning world!

I have added my Twitter feed to the blog! It's on the left side of the page above the Link-o-rama!

Follow me! http://twitter.com/#!/Matt_AndrewsX
Matt

Coming Soon (again!): MTG Decklists

gonna be posting a few new decks soon. here's something to get started: MYRS!!!

Matt

Coming Soon: ZOMBIES!!!!!

Post us some links to your fave zombie pics and other undead-related stuff and I will feature them in a special post sometime in the next few weeks!

OPERATION PAYBACK

Remember5

Star Wars TCG Primer: Background Links

Note: This is a Primer article- I will often post these during the week before particular Features are published, to 'prepare' you as readers and inform you about any background information that might be helpful.

Hello everybody!
Next week's Feature will be on the Star Wars TCG and the IDC (Independent Development Committe), and I have decided to post some 'Primer' articles throughout this coming week to explain a bit about the SWTCG to those of you who have no prior knowledge of the game. Today's Primer contains several links to websites than contain helpful information about the SWTCG:
IDC Homepage

(Temporary!) Home of the Rebelbasers' Forum

WoTC SWTCG Homepage (Slightly outdated, but still helpful)

Wikipedia Page for SWTCG

WoTC Community Forum: Star Wars

I hope these links help, and I will be adding them to the Link-o-rama!
Matt

Magic: The Gathering Card Spotlight on.....

AURA GNARLID!
Yes, we are kicking off our new articles about underrated, underplayed and just plain awesome Magic cards with Rise of the Eldrazi's own furry Aura-collecting little rascal, and staple of every G/W Auras deck ever built, Aura Gnarlid!

So what makes this little critter so special? Just the fact that for each Aura you enchant it with (and every other Aura on the battlefield!), our Gnarlid here gets an extra +1/+1, as well as the benefits from all the enchantments we feed to this hungry beast! Maybe a well timed Back to Nature (or whatever other your enchantment-trashing kill spell of choice you may be using) can completley destroy an Auras' deck strategy, but how can you not love this awesome Gnarlid???!!!??!?!??!?!??!?????!!!!?!?!!!!!????

Suggestions for future Card Spotlights or any other MTG articles are greatly appreciated, and I will also be including the odd snippet about Magic deck archetypes in my weekly 'Features' section!

Thanks for reading!
Matt

Feature: CJ Carella’s WitchCraft

Note: this is the first of the weekly Mana Screw ‘Feature Articles’, which will be posted every week (duh!). I will aim to post these by the Thursday of each week, but as the blog grows and expands we could be looking at more ‘involved’ articles and maybe even interviews! (oooohhh! there’s an idea!).

The WitchCraft RPG, written by CJ Carella, was first published by Eden Studios in 1999. It was the first RPG published to use Eden Studios’ Unisystem (which can now be found in All Flesh Must Be Eaten, among other games). New to Unisystem? Don’t worry, as there will always be posts about Unisystem games on Mana Screw (N.B.- if anyone has any good links for helping those new to the Unisystem, just paste them into a comment and I will put them on the List-o-rama!)

Now, that’s the basic background information out of the way. The following interview is taken from Flame Rising.com:

How did you get into gaming?

I started roleplaying in college, mainly GURPS. I had been trying my hand at writing fiction for a while, and amassed a nice collection of rejection letters; my girlfriend suggested I tried submitting a gaming article, and next thing I knew I was writing GURPS Martial Arts for Steve Jackson Games. Fifteen years and twenty-odd books later, I’m still writing games…

How did the Unisystem develop?

I wanted a simple yet versatile game to use with WitchCraft, Armageddon and eventually all types of genres and subject matters. My goal was to design an intuitive and quick game system that got out of the way of storytelling and roleplaying. If people weren’t thinking about the system but about how their characters should behave, I figured I’d have succeeded.

What has been your most challenging work in the RPG industry?

Hard to say… the historical books (GURPS Imperial Rome) required massive amounts of research, but I thrive on that. The licensed properties (like GURPS War Against the Chtorr and the Buffy RPG) required me to immerse myself in the pre-existing works. On the other hand, I love doing that. It’s often been hard work, but it’s always been fun.

How did Witchcraft develop? Where is it headed?

It started as a “what if” exercise – what if the creatures from every horror movie and novel ever made existed in the same world? I wanted to create a coherent cosmology that allowed for the vampires of Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” to coexist with Friday the 13th’s Jason or the werewolves of “The Howling.” I also wanted to take several religious and mystical bodies of belief (from paganism to Christianity) and meld them into a world where every religion holds a small piece of a greater truth. Add in a dash of Lovecraftian horrror, and you’ve got WitchCraft.

Eden plans several releases for the WitchCraft game line – the Book of Geburah (dealing with the Death Realms) is in the finishing stages; I’m also slated to write to more supplements, the Secrets Codex (dealing with the Combine) and the Book of Yesod (which develops the concept of the Fey races, mythical dragons and other esoterica).

What challenges do you face when writing for an established setting such as Buffy: the Vampire Slayer?

The main one, of course, is getting it right – conveying the feel and themes of the show or novel or movie, which can be challenging since RPGs are a very different medium.

It helps a lot when you’re a fan of the setting in question (I was a Buffy fanboy from Season One) – in fact, given the amount of work and attention to detail you have to do to make a license come alive, I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t a labor of love. It’s also very important to have a property that can be used in a game – many if not most movies and TV shows would not work as roleplaying games.

What makes for a good night of Horror gaming?

Player involvement – they need to care for their characters, so when terrible things happen to them, they will be affected.

What’s next for you?

Beyond Human (the definitive Unisystem corebook, dealing with non-humans of all types, from supers to fantasy, horror and science-fiction races) is in its final stages. After that, the two WitchCraft/Armageddon books I described above, and then probably a couple more Beyond Human supplements (a book of technology and one of magic) which should give Unisystem coverage for just about every genre out there.

Thanks to the guys over at Flame Rising for that interview, which can also be found at: http://www.flamesrising.com/interview-with-cj-carella/ .

Next week: Star Wars TCG and the IDC .

Feedback and any Unisystem links and stuff- shove it in comment!

Matt

D&D Poll

New to Mana Screw: Polls! found at the bottom of the page.
This week's poll is: What's your favourite edition of Dungeons and Dragons? you have until 11:58pm on 15th November to cast your vote, as the winning edition will get a feature article in the next few weeks!

I'm always open to suggestions for future poll questions, just shove a comment on this post if you have any ideas.
Matt

Hello and Welcome!

Hello!
Welcome to my new blog, Mana Screw and Other Gaming Goodness! It's all about Magic: The Gathering, D&D, CCGs, a bit of Wargaming stuff, games for plenty of RPG systems (d20, Unisystem etc.), and random posts about even random-er stuff!

Your feedback is always appreciated, so just sit back and enjoy the strange world that is about to unfold before you!!!

Enjoy!
Matt