Stately Play

Tag: Wizards of the Coast

D&D Beyond is the bee’s knees

December 1, 2017 David Neumann 4

Tabletop • Back in August, Wizards of the Coast made a grand proclamation that D&D Beyond was up and running and was, finally, their method of getting books into digital format. Sure, every other gaming company figured out how to release PDFs in about 2003, but WotC has been plagued with dumb decisions and things like Gleemax. Never forget Gleemax. Much to my chagrin, D&D Beyond is a browser based compendium and it will cost you through the nose if you want to see everything it has to offer. Digital books are full price and, on top of that, there are optional subscription models for additional stuff. It sounded like WotC had dropped the ball again, but I’ve been using D&D Beyond almost every day for the past few weeks and, I have to admit, it’s worth the price.

D&D board game, Tomb of Annihilation, appears on Steam

October 13, 2017 David Neumann 13

PC/Mac • While I try to stay on top of all the digital board game happenings out there, I do tend to miss some. Okay, more than some. This one’s not my fault, though. Having never heard of developer BKOM Studios before today, I had no idea they were in the digital board game biz. Thankfully, a reader over at BGG tipped me off that not only are they making board games, but they’ve translated one of the most anticipated dungeon crawlers out there: Tomb of Annihilation.

The new Lords of Waterdeep ready for action…today

September 1, 2017 David Neumann 24

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac • Way back in August we assured everyone that the 64-bit update to everyone’s favorite Playdek game involving questing with cubes, Lords of Waterdeep, would be released on August 23. For those of you without a working sundial, that means the new LoW was supposed to be here over a week ago. Making software is tough, things happen, bugs are found, and sometimes even Wizards of the Coast gets involved. All that is over now, though, as we can expect the new Lords of Waterdeep to arrive later today.

Magic Duels on life support

June 20, 2017 David Neumann 6

iPad, PC • I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t give Magic Duels a lot of love. If you don’t remember, Magic Duels was released in 2015 as the successor to Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers, which was an annual release from Wizards each summer from 2009-2014. It was slated to be THE final release of Magic on your iPad, and would be updated when new sets were released rather than scuttled and re-released each year. From everything I can gather, it worked rather well; I just realized that playing Magic wasn’t really my thing. Didn’t hate it, but couldn’t justify the amount of time to really learn and understand the complexities of the game, so, it’s really my fault that we didn’t give it its due here at Stately Play. That said, it’s now dead, so I guess we’re off the hook.

WotC updates Magic Duels with Aether Revolt expansion

January 24, 2017 David Neumann 0

While I know some people can’t get enough of digital Magic: The Gathering, I can safely say that it’s not my cup of tea. Part of the issue is the gameplay of Magic in which you can interrupt your opponent’s turn, casting spells whenever you damn well please. I wish I could tell you that I prefer my turns to be clean and free of interference from others, but the truth is that I just can’t pay attention to both my cards AND what you’re doing. On the tabletop I can sit and ponder a bit, but in the digital word there are timers and hounding and screaming [I think the hounding and screaming might just be in Dave’s head -ed.] reminiscent of my freshman gym teacher when he learned I couldn’t do even one pullup. For those of you who still love Magic on your tablet, Wizards of the Coast has a surprise for you.