Brave New Worlds

Wizards of the Coast will launch D&D Encounters, a new global program of weekly organized play for Dungeons and Dragons, on March 17th. The program is designed to engage players in regular play with other local gamers, to allow them to try new characters, and to try DMing for the first time.

The program will be deployed through D&D Encounters Play Kits, which will be provided to stores beginning March 10th. The Kits will include materials to support twelve players and two dungeonmasters for one to two hour play sessions each Wednesday, including adventures, maps, tokens, rewards for players and DMs, and a promo poster which doubles as a play tracker.

The first mini-campaign, which will run from March 17th to June 2nd, features the dungeon of Undermountain in the Forgotten Realms. “It’s organized into three chapters of play, with each chapter including a few encounters/play sessions,” according to a WotC spokesperson. “It’s set up to be an ongoing narrative that continues through each session and chapter.”

Players can use their own characters, characters they create at the store, or one of six pre-generated characters that come with the Kit.

Participants will receive Renown Points for completing encounters, finishing quests, and engaging in other adventuring activities. Points will be redeemable for in-game rewards.

“Heroes will be heroes again. They’ve gone through hell and they’re back to being good guys — a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel.” says Marvel’s Joe Quesada yesterday in an announcement at USA Today.com about Marvels coming Heroic Age. Both Newsarama and Comic Book Resources covered this huge announcement yesterday amidst the hustle and bustle of one of the biggest new comic days in recent months. This news comes on the heels of the announcement from Brian Bendis, a few weeks ago, about all four Avengers titles ending at the end of the little four issue Marvel series, you may have heard of, Siege. Promising a more classic style storytelling, maybe along the lines used by Grant Morrison in both his current take on Batman and Robin and his All Star Superman series, it would appear from this teaser image that there will also be a major shake up in the Avengers lineup as well. With the return of Thor, Iron Man and Captain America to the team we seem to trade Wolverine, who’s on a ton of teams anyway, for Hank McCoy, who just conveniently just left the X-Men and has already been an Avenger in days past. Hawkeye’s putting on his old suit, guess Bullseye no longer has a need for it.  It’s smart to Black Widow on the team since they need a strong female character without Ms. Marvel and since shes in Iron Man II this summer. Spidey stays which is good since he adds a bit of humor to any situation but the Thing, West Coast Avenger and Avenger reservist, should be real busy being in the FF while the Gorila-Man, from the Agents of Atlas, just seems kind of out of place. And what happened to all the other guys/gals from the Dark, Mighty and New Avengers?! I guess we shall see after Siege in May when Avengers #1 hits shelves.

Both Brave New Worlds locations just received a major shipment of Ugly Dolls of all shapes, sizes and colors! Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell a total stranger! There are all sorts of Uglies (including the newest additions to the Ugly Doll family Picksey & Pointy Max) for all sorts of prices ($6, $10, $20, $50) and we’ve even got the blind box vinyl toy ($8.99) versions back as well! Awesome!

There are a lot of new comics out this week…Kick Ass #8, New Avengers #61, Batman and Robin #7 to name a few…but I want to read these two real bad… Read the rest of this entry »

Attention Twilight Fans! Brave New Worlds is now taking advance orders for the new Twilight manga! Check out how you can guarantee yourself a copy! Read the rest of this entry »

Fans of Eric Powell’s The Goon rejoice, the creator and mastermind has a new offering in the wings just for you  – a three-issue mini-series based on the beloved and mysterious character of Buzzard.

Following his brutal showdown with the loathsome Zombie Priest, Buzzard leaves his home, wandering aimlessly until he steps into the shadowy spirit realm of the forest. A dark path leads him to a small village living in fear of a bestial race of savages. More animal than man, these creatures hunt the villagers and drag them from their slumber in the depth of night.

“Buzzard has always been a personal favorite of mine from the Goon cast, and from the amount of requests I’ve gotten to give him his own series, I imagine he’s a favorite of the readers as well,” Powell said. “I’m really excited to finally be giving him his own story, along with the revival of Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities!”

Powell’s all-new Buzzard series will arrive on shelves later this fall.  Stop in Brave New Worlds and add it to your pull list today so you don’t miss out on any issue.

Our good friends over at Geekadelphia asked us to take part in an event they were planning at the Trocadero Theatre with the Philly Zombie Crawl and, well, we had to say yes when we found out it was for a showing of ZOMBIELAND!

This February 8th from 6:30-10pm The Balcony in the Troc [upstairs at 1003 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107] will be full of zombies for their Movie Monday screening of Zombieland! If you come dressed up as a zombie you will be eligible for prizes of all sorts [some from us and some from other upcoming movies] and according to the guys over at Geekadelphia there may be other surprises- so who knows. THIS JUST IN some of our friends from over at Teddy Scares have offered to supply some awesome prizes as well! Now this event cannot be missed!

If you do happen to see the guys from Geekadelphia then please be sure to tell them that BRiAN’s beard sent you.

The event is 21+ , sorry everyone <21, and if you show up before 7pm [ doors open at 6:30 ] you get a FREE beer and bag of popcorn! Otherwise $3 gets you in the door, then goes towards a drink, and if it fills up there will be additional seating downstairs.
So get your zombie on Feb 8th with BNW, Geekadelphia, the Zombie Crawl crew and a bunch of fellow fans of all things undead!

DC’s the Source blog posted this image of the Frank Quietly cover to Batman and Robin #7 last Wednesday. The comic will be hitting the shelves, in two days, this wednesday. [ Click here to see the whole list of comics that will be out on 1.27.10 ]

Batman and Robin #7

Knight, Squire and Detective Comics’ Batwoman guest-star alongside The Dynamic Duo in “Blackest Knight,” a 3-part story written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Cameron Stewart (SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICT0RY: MANHATTAN GUARDIAN). Readers who enjoyed BATMAN R.I.P. and FINAL CRISIS won’t want to miss this captivating new storyline packed with additional clues on the Domino Killer and the details surrounding the “death” of Bruce Wayne!

32 pages, Full Color, $2.99

The new releases hitting the shelves at Brave New Worlds on 1.27.10! Read the rest of this entry »

SHARON VENTURA…aka SHE-THING and Ms. MARVEL!

Sharon Ventura was created by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson and made her first appearance in The Thing #27 in 1985 . If there can be a She Hulk why can’t there be a She-Thing?!

read her wikipedia entry here

read her comicvine entry here

Be sure to check back next week to see who or what I pull out of obscurity to showcase here in A Character To Learn More About!
Also if there are any suggestions for whom you may like to see here in this section shoot me an email with any suggestions [BRiAN]