Demo of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ on Microsoft Surface

courtesy of geeksofdoom

The emergence of popular CCG’s like Magic: The Gathering and a plethora of MMOs have all but killed the player base for old school tabletop games, but that could change in the future.
A digital version of tabletop RPG Dungeons and Dragons that uses Microsoft Surface technology was recently developed by a group of students from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, who uploaded a demo video of the project. [Scroll down to watch it.]
The students created the demo as part of the SurfaceScape project that is “taking traditional tabletop role-playing games to the next level, adding a new layer of immersive and intuitive gaming to the Microsoft Surface Table and assisting both GMs and players in enjoying exciting and engaging adventures,” according to their Web site.
I’m not suggesting that tabletop games are going to immediately become popular again. Microsoft does not have a consumer version of the Surface tech ready to launch in the marketplace and even when they do, I’m guessing it’ll be hellified expensive — enough so that probably only one out of seven of your geeky friends might pony up the cash to get it.
But when that happens, the other six geeks would conceivably meet up to play a Surface tabletop game like D&D. Alternately, the comic shops around the country would have a new way to generate money by charging for tournaments. This of course is all a pipe dream at this point. However, if I were working for Wizards of the Coast (which owns the rights to Dungeons and Dragons), I would be feverishly calling Microsoft to set up meetings. *Video Below*

Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

Priceless Treasures in Zendikar Packs?!?!

courtesy of mtgsalvation

Two prominent magic journalists spoke with this individual personally, and both of them (still in disbelief) agree he is not lying.

What we think WoTC did:
In very few packs, the basic land was replaced with an old, 'priceless' card. This card is not newly printed, and not legal in standard. It was an existing card purposefully inserted into packs.
We can't yet confirm the approximate rarity of these, but a member opened TWO in ONE box...so maybe this is more common than we thought?

Rule changes were recently rolled out that specify that cards not in the set you open the booster of are not limited legal, and you keep them even in a deck swap. (Cards like the candle stick...)

The prerelease is soon, even sooner for some countries, (assuming this is a world-wide promotion) so time will tell.

Edit: This has been confirmed to be happening worldwide.

Cards claimed to have been opened include:
-Mox Diamond
-Lion's Eye Diamond
-Ancestral Recall
-Bayou
-Underground Sea
-Taiga
-Lich
-Candelabra of Tawnos


Certainly is exciting, at any rate.

MTG expansion Alara Reborn rumored to be a completely multicolored set

The rumors have become one step closer to becoming a reality since WotC (Wizards of the Coast) previewed Ardent Plea, a card (well, just the picture for the card) that will be available in the next MTG (Magic the Gathering) expansion - Alara Reborn. For a couple months, people have been speculating that WotC was going to make an entire multicolor expansion considering all the emphasis on multicolor in Shards of Alara and Conflux (the 2 previous expansions). Those predictions are now one step closer to being confirmed.