Ahoy, Mates! Time to look around the web to see what all of the game companies are putting out there for this year’s silly season (plus all the usual nonsense you’d expect to find in the Roundup)

I haven’t played A&A for a while, but I have played all of the recent years’ variants. This year, Hasbro (which gobbled up the Avalon Hill brand a few years back) is releasing Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition. This thing looks awesome. A full size board measuring 24″ x 46″ (that two feet by almost four feet, folks) is sure to take up your whole kitchen table.

The new Axis & Allies game box

The game was designed by Larry Harris, creator of the original Axis & Allies. Italy is introduced as the third Axis nation, there are two set-up options: Spring 1941 and Spring 1942, cruiser class ships join the naval unit line-up, China is now included as US controlled ally, and new there are new sculpts for Italy and China. Can’t wait to see if Santa leaves this one under the nest.

Long time readers will know my personal affection for Star Wars and the Star Wars Role Playing game. There are two books out now that should help you run interesting Star Wars games (you know, just in case you don’t already have holographic encyclopedic knowledge of the universe already):

The ST:KOTOR Campaign Guide

There is also a new Scum and Villainy sourcebook out now too. Either or both should enhance your Star Wars RPG game (when you’re not playing Hacktastic, of course).

Also, our friends at Green Ronin, Troll Lord Games, Goodman Games and KenzerCo are all having holiday sales. RPG Overstock is chock full of discounted games. There. That’s enough for my “Miracle on 34th Street Macy’s style” referrals for now. Cause we all know you should all go buy fresh, crispity, unstained versions of our new books:

Fantastic Treasures

Fantastic Treasures Vol 2

Now for the roundup:

Wizards is killing their Minis line with stats for sanctioned play. And that’s fine by me. I don’t know anyone who plays the Minis game. They are going to relaunch the minis as RPG aids. Alas, it looks like someone out there is trying to license the rules and put out the product anyway.

Speaking of dead minis, citing the tough economic times, Topps announced it will be shutting down Wizkids. For those of you who don’t know, Wizkids was the company that made the first clicky-base game MageKnight, and then made HeroClix. They had a string of other clicky-base games, the construct-a-ship game Pirates of Spanish Main, various collectible card games, a board game or two, and a few other miscellaneous products.

I guess lulu has gone Koo-Koo Puffs. Remember, you can buy all of our stuff directly from us now and at select St. Louis area merchants.

From our Why Can’t Roost Master shut up about Star Wars dept, here are some links to help you out for your games. SWAG is a good place for you to go and find character ideas for any type of creature (creatures and lightsabers, IMO, make Star Wars) you can imagine. At Star Wars Deckplans Alliance there’s not a ton of ships, but there’s a nice selection for you to check out. Another decent site is Colonial Chrome which has a bunch of great deckplans as well. Saga-Edition also has a lot of fan-made ships, vehicles, races and characters for you to use in your Saga Edition games.

The first electronic-only book for Shadowrun, Digital Grimoire, is now available on DriveThruRPG. Expanding on Street Magic, it includes information on Egyptian, Rastafarian, and Psionic traditions, as well as a variety of magical threats, magical groups, spirits, spells, and adept powers.

Go check out Star Trek done up FASA style.

Also check out Danger Magnet. A Pulp RPG Magazine.

Check out Zack’s guide to being smart with RPG PDFs. Please note that BigE and Roost Master are always bickering as BigE likes nice, high res PDFs that take up too much damn space on the server…

From our More Misc. Crap Dept., the D&D Insider Character Builder was opened up for beta testing this week. If you don’t have a D&D Insider account, you can see what you missing with this video of the Character Builder (thanks to Questing GM). Common sense in RPGs is discussed in You Don’t Have to be a Brain Surgeon to Build a Realistic Dungeon from Dungeon Mastering. The Gamer Dome is Staring at Maps of Stairs. Resurrecting Non-Violent Magic Items. Sword & Shield is looking at post-apocalypse games in How Soon Is Now? Enworld carries news of the new version of Twilight 2000, imaginatively called Twilight 2013. Also from Enworld, an announcement of RPG Objects/ Amazon’s BookSurge print-on-demand deal. Fantastic materials for fantasy worlds in Netherworld Stories’ Magical Material Science. How to excite your players with a wiki from Critical Hits. A handy resource for any GM: Crime Library. Greywulf gets old-school with 4e by producing a random monster encounter table. D20 Source has a good breakdown on the difference between Pathfinder and D&D 3.5. As discussed in the message boards, George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones has been greenlit for a pilot episode. We wish this project the best of luck.

Media Roundup:

Dateline! Texas USA! Parents upset Miss Teen Texas Pageant hosted by Drag Queen and held in a Gay Bar.

You knew it was coming. Can't wait for Symantec's Antivirus for Roost Master 1.0

Video Roundup:

Vote for Lando

Van Damme

Obligatory Star Trek Trailer Post