the Fanboy Comics webpage, other areas can be visited through the use of a Teleport Without Error spell, or the following links to the Main Page and the Newsletter Page.

FANBOY COMICS GAME ROOM

Characters of levels 1-20 have access to the Fanboy Comics Game Room, based on alignment as given in Table 5-7 in Chapter 20: Behavioral Codes and Alignment. The Fanboy Comics Game Room has events going on all the time, as can be seen in table 4-18, What's Going on in the Fanboy Game Room. While in the game room, all characters are expected to enjoy themselves and promote a fun atmosphere. (For more information on atmospheres and fun, see Appendix 4, Enjoying Yourself - Secondary to Attaining Victory.)

Players who search the Fanboy Comics Game Room will be able to find the items on the following table:

Fig. 1.11 - Troll Cave

Fanboy Comics Game Room Encounters

Collectible Card Games

Many varieties of Collectible Card Games can be found in the Fan Boy Comics game room. The various subraces are detailed below, but most CCGs, as they are sometimes called, share some common traits:

Customized Decks. To play a CCG, one constructs a deck out of cards. Different CCG subraces have different rules regarding the composition of one's deck, as detailed below, but all require the collection of cards through the purchase of "packs," which generally come in three varieties: Booster, Structured, and Starter. Booster packs usually contain a small number of different cards, one of which is a rare card. Structured decks contain more cards, but the majority of the cards in such a deck are the same for all encounters with the deck. Starter decks usually contain a random assortment of cards, and a preponderance of a certain card type that is vital to play the game, such as lands in the Magic: The Gathering subrace.

Drafts. Many CCGs can be played in a "draft" environment, in which a number of sealed booster packs are openend, and all the players take turns picking from this single pool of cards to construct their deck until all available cards are taken. The players then attempt to win a tournament with these cards, and the victor takes all. Similar to the draft is the sealed deck event, wherein the players receive a set number of booster packs and are forced to assemble their deck with only those cards contained within the purchased packs.

Incorporeal. CCGs, while ostensibly composed of physical materials, are more of a classification or idea than a concrete, physical thing. As such, +4 weapons or better are required to damage a CCG. CCGs can be affected by magic, psionics, and lawsuits, although some of the larger CCGs would require physical components well beyond the maximum wealth of most adventurers.

Fig. 8.28 - Abandoned ritual chamber.

Subraces

Magic: The Gathering. Created by Wizards of the Coast, Magic the Gathering is the largest and longest-lived of all CCG subraces, and is widely accepted as the progenitor of the Collectible Card Game. Magic decks are composed of spells, creatures, artifacts, and lands. Lands are used to play the other card types, which are used to attack your opponents in an attempt to lower his life total to zero. There are several major subtypes of Magic: The Gathering, which are outlined at the Wizards of the Coast Website, although a bit of the nomenclature has changed. Scholars posit that Standard format was once referred to as Type II, and as such those standards should be referenced whenever the Type II nomenclature is used. More information about Magic: The Gathering can be found on the Astral Plane, or the internet at www.magicthegathering.com.

Yu-Gi-Oh! From the mysterious eastern areas of Kara-Tur, Yu-Gi-Oh! is a mystery to many, although it can often be found in the Fanboy Comics Game Room on Saturdays. Yu-Gi-Oh is based on a cartoon, or, as the mysterious peoples of the far east call it, a "cartoon," wherein a boy possessed by an Egyptian pharaoh plays people at Yu-Gi-Oh. In every single game, the boy is on the verge of defeat, at which point the episode ends, and in the next episode, he draws the exact perfect cards to come back and win the game, as defined by Formula 4-13 in Chapter 7: GMing, or How to Get Them Into the Dungeon So Everyone Can Stop Thinking.

Fig. 7.91 - The wily Bugbear stalks its prey, the Owlbear.

Miniatures Games

Miniatures games are played on a standard playing surface with small, sculpted models. The individual models in miniatures games can represent many different things, as long as those things are fighting each other. Many miniatures games share the following traits:

Points-Based. In most miniatures games, each model costs a varying number of points based on their relative strength and usefulness. Players build armies where all the models cost under a predetermined points total. Kind of dark, placing an unchanging numerical value on a persons worth and potential, but such are the sacrifices we make for balanced gaming. The heavy, morally unsettling sacrifices.

Clix. Some games, specifically HeroClix and Mechwarrior, make use of a Clix base, where the various important stats of the characters are printed on the base of the miniature, and the base is rotated as the miniature takes damage, with the stats changing in response to the damage. A pretty fancy how-do-you-do, if you ask me!

Some Assembly Required. Some miniatures games, such as Games Workshop products like Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy, require the players to assemble and paint their miniatures. Some players seem to enjoy the possibilities for customization, but they tend to have way too much time on their hands, if you ask me.

Frost Breath. Miniatures games are capable of breathing icy cold onto their enemies, chilling them to the bone. This functions as a Cone of Cold spell centered on the miniature game's mouth. Largely being more of a classification than an actual living thing, most miniatures games do not have mouths, but if you find one that does, it can do this. Honest.

Fig. 4.01 - Otyugh in its natural habitat.

Subraces

Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer 40,000 is set in the grim darkness of the far future, where all hope is lost and horrible malevolent life forms battle each other on planets all across the universe, because it is a lot harder to write rules for miniatures hugging each other and becoming friends than it is to write rules for miniatures shooting each other in the face with superheated plasma and killing each other. Each army is composed of units from one of the various races in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe, which include Eldar, (Space Elves) Dark Eldar, (Evil Space Elves) Space Marines, (Big Mutated Armored Space Humans) Chaos Space Marines, (Big Evil Mutated Armored Space Humans) Imperial Guard, (Small Normal Unarmored Space Humans) Space Orks, (Space Orks) Necrons, (Space Zombies) Tau, (Space Anime) and Tyranids (Space Zerg). Warhammer 40,000 afficianados will probably get mad about that last one, but that is because they're social misfits with no real redeeming qualities. Ha ha, just kidding Warhammer 40,000 afficianados! You're okay in my book!

Warhammer Fantasy. Much like its sister game, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy is set in the grim darkness of a medieval fantasy past. It also has a wide variety of races, such as: Elves, (Fantasy Eldar) Dark Elves, (Fantasy Dark Eldar) Orks, (Fantasy Space Orks) Tomb Kings, (Fantasy Necrons) Vampire Counts, (Fantasy Undead) the Bretonnians, (Fantasy French British Knights) and the Empire (Fantasy Russia or Germany or something).

HeroClix. HeroClix comes in two varieties, Marvel and DC. (Some will tell you there are other varieties, like Indy HeroClix, but nobody cares about them.) Players make teams of their favorite superheroes, unless they are jerks who just want to win, in which case they play with the best superheroes. HeroClix is played on a grid map, making character movement simpler than games where you have to measure out movement, but you can't as easily use your measuring tape to lie to people and tell them that you're a contractor, and not carrying around a case of little plastic superheroes.

Mechwarrior. Mechwarrior traces its origins back to the old Battletech tabletop game, but everything looks cooler and you don't have to carry around all these sheets of paper and mark off heat every turn and you might actually finish a game, which is something I don't ever recall doing in Battletech. On the other hand, I don't think you can get a gauss rifle headshot in Mechwarrior and take out your opponent's most powerful mech on the first turn. Which was about as far as I ever got in a Battletech game before. So it's a tradeoff.

Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures. D&D Minis, as they are called by lazy people, are based on the popular Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Roleplaying Game. However they have removed all of the already meager roleplaying from D&D to turn it into what the D&D players really want: a miniatures combat game. I'm pretty bitter about D&D, though, so you should probably take this with a grain of salt. My life is pretty hollow and empty, and all I have is my seething hatred of D&D.