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We couldn't let January slip by without our annual predictions for the up coming year. What does 2011 hold for the world of gaming? To be honest, we've got no idea, but it's fun to try and guess.

Later it's back to mulling mechanincs! This time it is scenario design. What makes a good scenario? How do you design one yourself? Raef, Russ, and Craig give there thoughts on this fun way to enhance your gaming.

Be sure to catch Total Fan Girl as well, as Nicole interviews Jessica Mills, one of the minds behind the hit web series "Awkward Embraces."

All that and our other not-too-horrible segments including:
- The Hollywood Minute
- What's in the News
- Do You Ever Notice
- & More

Please let us know what you thought of the show.

Link: http://www.thed6generation.com/d6g-ep-72-2011-predictions-scenario-design

25 minutes in, and the Daddy-Daughter story is very sweet!

Great episode, as always.

I I think Queensland's floods is about as much of a disaster to us in Australia as Katarina is to you guys in America.

Just because it hasn't happened in America doesn't make it not a 'huge disaster' fyi....

Craig: relax, old chap! I think you need a nice cup of sweet tea to take away some of that pessimism.

Roleplayer wrote:Just because it hasn't happened in America doesn't make it not a 'huge disaster' fyi....

I concur.

Russ: the fellow who narrates the Harry Potter books is Stephen Fry. Jim Dale used to be in the British 'Carry on...' films of the 60's and 70's, amongst other things. Stephen Fry also does the voice-over on the 'Little Big Planet' games.

Thanks for the kind words, gents. Don't worry, I'm not nearly as neurotic as I sounded in that DYEN . . .

As for the Australian floods, I've been following closely, as well as corresponding with several of our listeners in the affected areas, and I'd like to apologize if we in any way seemed to down play the seriousness of the situation. I was caught on my back foot by the question.

As a quick aside, in a particularly US-centric news show they were interviewing some 'expert scientists' about some fictionally 'future storm of the century' that was 'guaranteed to destroy most of California in the next 90 years' (this was on a serious news story on CNN . . . ), and they were using images of the Australia floods while saying how much worse THEIR 'super storm' was going to be. It was disgusting. I always want to throw something anytime some 'legit' news outlet uses terms like "leading scientists say" . . .

So, anyway, our thoughts and prayers are with all the people, listeners and otherwise, being affected by the floods, and we trust that the people of the Queensland area and the local and federal government responses will rise to the needs of the moment.

Again, sorry if we (meaning I) was insensitive to the situation.

~Craig

Actually, in the US it is Jim Dale that narrates the books so that is who we know as the voice of Harry Potter...in Britain it's Stephen Fry.

No problem Craig. I figured you were just cught off guard by a question and fired off an answer without thinking it through and the conversation moved along too fast for it to be reconsidered on show, that's why I felt I should bring it up in the comments

As Nicole said, to us yanks, it is indeed Jim Dale as the voice of the Harry Potter books.

For more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Dale#Voice_work

From the wikki:

He also holds two Guinness World Records: one for having created and recorded 146 different character voices[6] for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and one for occupying the first six places in the Top Ten Audio Books of America and Canada 2005.

If you've never heard an American audio CD of Harry Potter you should give it a listen. Jim is quite good.

Hi guys,

I am sorry to potentially spoil one of your preditions, but Warhammer historical are due to launch 'Warhammer WW2' in the spring!

It has been featured in the news pages of Wargames Illustrated and has appeared as demostration games at games shows/events in the UK. Its likely to be 20mm scale

It is thier move to grab back some ground for Flames of War I imagine.

No worries . . .

Ah, well, that's the 'fun' of 'predictions'

Roleplayer wrote:I I think Queensland's floods is about as much of a disaster to us in Australia as Katarina is to you guys in America.

Just because it hasn't happened in America doesn't make it not a 'huge disaster' fyi....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12187985
It's all relative though. At least the Australian floods got on the regular news because they speak English.

Great show again guys. I think that the "Mulling Mechanics" sections are probably my favourites, and this was no exception. I felt it was a really good exploration into scenario design, although I was surprised that you didn't mention the Battle Missions book for 40K.

In regards to the predictions, I'd love to see the Iron Kingdoms naval game, and I'm sure that the models would be great. But could the rules be better than the exploding d6 mechanic?

Finally, I bought the Lost Chapter, enjoyed it, and will continue to buy as long as you chaps keep putting them out. You will need to put a short description on them in the future to avoid confusion at checkout. Is there any chance of putting a message out on the Facebook page when you put the new one up, or twinning the show's twitter feed to the Facebook page? (I don't use twitter!)

Holdenstein wrote:
Great show again guys. I think that the "Mulling Mechanics" sections are probably my favourites, and this was no exception. I felt it was a really good exploration into scenario design, although I was surprised that you didn't mention the Battle Missions book for 40K.

Glad you enjoyed it! We were focusing mostly on designing your own, but you are right, there are some great mission resources out there for the 40k player.

In regards to the predictions, I'd love to see the Iron Kingdoms naval game, and I'm sure that the models would be great. But could the rules be better than the exploding d6 mechanic?

I think I'm more interested in Iron Kingdoms naval combat for fluff and models more than rules. I'd expect the rules would be more 'boost mechanic' driven as found in Warmachine, Hordes, Grind, and M-poc. I'm not sure it would play better, I just want the models. I love boats I do.

Finally, I bought the Lost Chapter, enjoyed it, and will continue to buy as long as you chaps keep putting them out. You will need to put a short description on them in the future to avoid confusion at checkout. Is there any chance of putting a message out on the Facebook page when you put the new one up, or twinning the show's twitter feed to the Facebook page? (I don't use twitter!)

Going forward we are going to put descriptions on Lost Chapter books to help navigate the back catalog, so look for that when book 2 comes out later this week.

We do the following when new episodes or Lost chapter books come out:

A) Post it on our web site
B) Tweet it via @TheD6Generation
C) Post it on our Facebook page which is http://www.Facebook.com/TheD6Generation

(Note that our Facebook page has changed, which may be why you missed it)

Thanks Russ. I was "liking" the other page.

RussWakelin wrote:As Nicole said, to us yanks, it is indeed Jim Dale as the voice of the Harry Potter books.

OK. As young persons like my son say; pwned (why is it spelt like that? I don't understand. Nor do I wish to.).

On the Stephen Fry thing; I wonder why? Is it a popularity thing; do you chaps know who Stephen Fry is over there?

Back to the show; I loved the section on scenarios; I've got a game of Firestorm Armada at my club on Sunday, and I was planning to adapt a scenario from a Call to Arms. That's a great resource for scenarios (with which I am sure Craig is very familiar).

Holdenstein wrote:
In regards to the predictions, I'd love to see the Iron Kingdoms naval game, and I'm sure that the models would be great. But could the rules be better than the exploding d6 mechanic?

Since we're never going to see Flames of War in the Pacific, I'd love to see Battlefront do a naval WWII game. I wanted to like the Axis & Allies Naval game, but the booster pack sales model killed my interest...

Thought this might be interesting re: gaming among the masses (predictions, etc).
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/614031/my-day-talking-board-games-with-mo-rocca-for-cbs

I fully agree! i enjoy the banter of the preditions and it gets players/gamers thinking about what they are provideed and what the would like to be provided with by the industry.

My predition for this year would have to be we will see the first popular online customisible miniature design system. With the growth and affordability of 3D printing technology, miniatures are a well suited product to allow a customer to design or customise a template miniature and have it made (printed), even in colour and sent straight to them.

This could even lead on to designing your own miniatures on a website, and then printing them out at home yourself! This is a few years away, when the technology trickles down to household pricing.

Listening to the predictions now. Wyrd is releasing a PDF of the updated rules manual in Feb and there is a pirate minis game coming out from Black Scorpion Miniatures called Cutlass.

Also, I stopped watching The Cape after the car blew up in the beginning... the main villian (in his costume), in broad daylight, personally drops off a bomb during a major event and no one notices...

Switchback wrote:Hi guys,

I am sorry to potentially spoil one of your preditions, but Warhammer historical are due to launch 'Warhammer WW2' in the spring!

It has been featured in the news pages of Wargames Illustrated and has appeared as demostration games at games shows/events in the UK. Its likely to be 20mm scale

It is thier move to grab back some ground for Flames of War I imagine.

It hasn't happened 'til it's happened. It's been in production for years now. It could still get cancelled yet - GW have done more random things in their past after all.

And even if they release in the spring and do nothing else for the rest of the year, Craig's prediction still stands.

Since WH was rolled up into FW GW have shown very little interest.

bbb wrote: and there is a pirate minis game coming out from Black Scorpion Miniatures called Cutlass.

I'm in the midst of the predictions segment (aka Craig's Woes to the World 2011) and haven't gotten to a pirate minis prediction yet, but I just wanted to point out that in addition to the upcoming Cutass! minis game from Black Scorpion (which is scheduled for a Salute 2011 release) there is also Freebooter's Fate from Freebooter Miniatures. It's out now, and features some spectacular artwork from some ex-Rackham folks and card-based (no dice) mechanics.

There's also Ron & Bones from Tales of War.

Carry on.

Nearly done with the show... Regaring scenarios:
I think the story based and asymectrical scenarios work well with veteran groups with large inventories as Craig suggests. I think they work best when "pre-released", i.e. people can build to them.

Escalation leagues and campaigns should start with balanced and/or symetrical scenarios so that people can get rolling. Once you are down the road and people are comfortable with their forces, you can drift....

Oh, and having ALL of the War Machine league scenarios end their victory conditions with something like "or when you kill their last warcaster" you just end up with pretty chess. (Yes, that is hyperbole... I just dislike it). Folks tend to ignore the scenario and just go for the caster-kill. Folks don't have to re-tool their lists at all, and in fact it penalizes people who do.

I just finished watching the “Awkward Embraces” talked about in the Total Fan Girl segment. Really great stuff.

lousydiceroller wrote:I just finished watching the “Awkward Embraces” talked about in the Total Fan Girl segment. Really great stuff.

Isn't that a fun web show?

By the way:

We've just released Book 2 of The Lost Chapters. We've also decided to reveal what the previous book was about when a new book is released. You know, just for some fun.

Book 1 was a one hour Deathwatch session report.

Both books are available here: http://www.thed6generation.com/category/D6G%20Lost%20Chapters

Thanks again for all the great feedback everyone.

Raef -

My wife gets her hair cut by Susan Sarandon's sister. No joke. Does this mean I can try and set up your coffee date with Susan Sarandon? No. No it does not. Sorry...

(Oddly, the woman who cuts my hair on occasion is the wife of Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley. In my family, we have some bizarre connection to famous people through the people that cut our hair.)

Great show again guys! I too liked the scenario discussion; as someone who has dabbled in this area before, it was great hearing your thoughts on it.

I'm also halfway through the first Lost chapter, and I'm loving it! I've never played a tabletop RPG before, but this segment really makes me want to try Deathwatch. In any event, I'm definitely going to be picking up the book now based on how awesome the background in it sounds.

Is it possible to download the Lost Chapters directly to my iPhone? I ask because this is the way I listen to the regular D6G episodes and not having the bonus material on iTunes is throwing me off.

Great show, again.

Just have to say: I'm with Russ, I hope 3-d (as it currently is) goes by-by and fast! 90% of the movies out there are in no way benefitted by "3-d". I wouldn't have a problem with the cost if it actually added a benefit.

Ozymandias wrote:Is it possible to download the Lost Chapters directly to my iPhone? I ask because this is the way I listen to the regular D6G episodes and not having the bonus material on iTunes is throwing me off.

Not easily, but we hope to offer this someday. The best way now is to download it on your Mac/PC then drag it to iTunes for sync.

Just have to say: I'm with Russ, I hope 3-d (as it currently is) goes by-by and fast! 90% of the movies out there are in no way benefitted by "3-d". I wouldn't have a problem with the cost if it actually added a benefit.

I think we should start a grass roots movement.

Ranger that not-so sneaky git, great show guys like always!

Finished the episode this morning.

Russ, I'm right there with you regarding the 3D fad that's running rampant at the moment. Fortunately, I live in a small town with a very old 3 screen theater that's been showing movies continuously for 95 years now. It's a fantastic place (best popcorn in Central Ohio) and their prices are way better than the nearest multiplex down in Columbus. They also are not equipped for 3D...at least, as of now. I think 3D is a cheap ploy...the cinematic equivalent of slight of hand...to fool moviegoers into believing they're experiencing more than they really are. But, alas, it's not going away anytime soon.

I found y'all's predictions interesting...and time shall tell who prognosticated with the greatest accuracy. I landed squarely in the 'no opinion' category on most of them...but, I do hope to see a swell of (quality) pirate gaming in 2011. Here's hoping the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie strikes a chord with movie goers and gamers. But, the existing (and soon-to-be-existing, in the case of Cutlass!) games should tide (heh) me over well. I would, however, dearly love to see a licensed POTC game such as POTC Heroclix....

BTW, for anyone interesting in Black Scorpion's upcoming Cutlass! game, check out this rules preview: http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/pages.php?page=cutlass

Good episode, guys. Looking forward to the next episode (no rest for the weary)...

Jeff