The EPI-log

 THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THEY ARE BACK! Ladies, gentlemen, guys, gals and my non-binary pals. The benevolent and almighty owners of EPIC Ipswich have returned.  For those who hadn't visited the premises since last Wednesday, Trevor the Founding Father and Trish the Queen of Crafts, left EPIC Ipswich in the very reliable and most capable hands of their staff whilst they were out plotting... erm... I mean planning changes to the business in a conference down in Sydney. After the store nearly burnt down from a fryer being left on over the weekend and its panicked cover-up. The Benevolent and most gracious power couple of the store touched down Monday morning to say and I quote "Yup. That's a mighty fine store we have. Were the garbage bins emptied? Did someone eat my truffle? Did someone forget to feed the work experience people we have locked away in our office?". After finding all the staff members answers acceptable, they finally let me out of the cardboard box they'...

 Announced earlier in the year was the Dominaria United Jumpstart boosters. These were derived from the popular set (Jumpstart) where players shuffled together two boosters and started playing. With the discontinuation of Magic the Gathering's Theme Boosters, MTG is introducing jumpstart boosters for each set, replacing theme boosters. Each set will have a total of 10 different themes that players can purchase from jumpstart boosters instead of theme boosters - and no, you don't need to play to the one theme, you can merge two separate theme packs and still play a fully functional deck! Each colour has 2 different themes in the Dominaria United (DMU) Jumpstart release. The themes are as follows: Coalition Corps: White Coalition Legions: White Mystic Mischief: Blue Arcane Mischief: Blue Totally Merciless: Black Totally Ruthless: Black Ready to Attack: Red Ready to Charge: Red Beast Territory: Green Monster Territory: Green This means you can play against another deck with the sa...

  If you've been following the blog you would have noticed all the recent posts pertain to Wizards of the Coasts recent announcement of their upcoming projects through to 2023. I had already gone over most of the content especially with D&D, today however is about something very close and dear to my heart - Magic the Gathering. I'm not caring about the universes beyond sets, this is focusing on the core sets, the story and my excitement! We saw how wrong I was with the Dominaria United story predictions and with the Magic 30 celebrating the 4 story arc - Dominaria United, The Brothers War, Phyrexia All will be One, March of the Machine  and a follow up set March of the Machine Aftermath . It is no surprise that there is plenty of speculation and concept art and hype around the fate of the multiverse. The Brothers War Continuing the story from Dominaria United, The Brothers War sees Tefari travel back in time to learn the truth about the sylex and all the secrets left behin...

  If you have not been following the last week of Dungeons and Dragons  (D&D) or Magic the Gathering  (MTG), the parent company of both major games - Wizards of the Coast, just announced their next lineup of 2023 projects including the titles of D&D's upcoming books. Here's all the details we know about the upcoming releases. Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Dragonlance has been a long demanded set that D&D 5th edition returns too. Set in the world of Krynn, this setting has proven to be quite popular in previous editions of the game. What makes the module unique is that it takes place during the war of the lance and has a board game releasing alongside it that may be played independently or incorporated into your campaign. The board game " Warriors of Krynn " plays out alot of mass combats (something D&D as an RPG has failed to do accurately) and will enable players to move between the D&D RPG and Warriors of Krynn game with equiptment and...

 As mentioned in yesterday's post, parent company of Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast , broke the internet by revealing all their upcoming projects through 2023. The biggest news outside of the reprinting of 'The Legend of Drizzt' novels was the titles of their upcoming book releases and the Beta testing of their new D&D vision 'One D&D'. Heres everything we know about the in development One D&D. One D&D One D&D is a three stage release the first stage is a revising of the core 5th edition (5E) rules including the Player Handbook, Monster Manual & Dungeon Masters guide. These rules are all backwards compatible with current 5E rulesWhat does this look like? Monthly/Bimonthly releases of playtest material in Unearthed Arcana. The current version derives the Pathfinder second edition  of the character creation. Players can make up their own background (no generic ones anymore) and races no longer have bonuses to...

It was 2AM on the 19th of August and whilst the rest of my household was sleeping, I was watching YouTube. Am I a chronic insomniac? Yes. Am I currently typing this in my cardboard box that I now live in at EPIC? Also yes. Am I excited to tell you about the new and upcoming stuff from Magic the Gathering and Dungeon and Dragons parent company Wizards of the Coast?.... If you haven't been able to infer what I'm saying, Wizards of the Coast recently did a live stream to promote their upcoming material they're releasing for their major games MTG and D&D, this was at 2AM Australian Time on YouTube. Some super exciting things on the horizon for both games and some that left me scratching my head. There were the reveals of upcoming sets and books, guest appearances from Jimmy Wong and Ginny Di and some surprising reveals.  D&D Announcements Teases for the next edition of D&D codenamed One D&D  and brings together an updated version of core rules, backwards compa...

 It has been busy busy busy behind the scenes here at EPIC Ipswich over the past fortnight. Prep work for the Benevolent Owners shared vacation, juggling the change in the store's layout, new til systems, new television menus, and becoming increasingly popular. This isn't even factoring in the change in menu, or the upcoming events planned. We have been busy and you can trust I'll give you, loyal readers, a store update once we get time. In the meantime, our website has been updated by yours truly. When I first did the original website home page I had the essential elements, with a lot of my working hours, I've been making the website more streamlined and more friendly to our bandwidth. Please note, that the game pages are still to be updated to provide you more information about what we do here. In the mean time, anticipate big things on the horizon. I saw some streaming gear in the offices.... I suspect it will have something to do with videos on the social media end....

  You may recall that I recently wrote about the return of Call of Cthulhu to EPIC Ipswich, one of the most popular articles one the blog since it changed from our website to Blogger. This is a follow up to that article and if you haven't done so I would recommend reading it first before continuing this article to help with some context. You may read that here , and for those not wishing to have the Call of Cthulhu module Blackwater Creek  spoiled, this will recount key plot points from that module. Character Creation Call of Cthulhu Character Sheet Unlike when players had previously played Call of Cthulhu  on Free RPG Day , players got to experience the joy of creating their own unique characters from scratch. Credit Rating, Stat Score interactions, Skills and Occupations were all learned and combined for each player to have a unique character to begin the game. This was not only insightful but a necessary skill to learn as character death is very very high in Call of ...

  For any Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts the wait is over! For those who are confused as to why I have attached a picture of a soldier riding a dragon, with a hamster on his shoulder, avoiding the destruction of a planet, whilst a incorporeal humanoid is riding an alien fish to fish the alien fish - this article is also for you. What is Spelljammer? Spelljammer - for an oversimplified explanation is Dungeons and Dragons in space. The setting or style of game, Spelljammer, is the name of the spaceships that adventurers travel on to get to other solar systems. Yes these are like nautical ships and not actual rockets. They are called Spelljammers as they're powered by magic/spells.  Think of Spelljammer as a seafaring D&D adventure that takes place in the void of space with lots of aliens trying to eat you, highjack your ship, or take you prisoner. Whats new in this setting? A bunch! This setting is released in a 3 part book set that comes with its own DM Screen to help DM'...

  Thursday nights at EPIC Ipswich are arguably the busiest in terms of customer and distribution. We house Yu-Gi-Oh!, Star Wars Legion, Magic the Gathering Modern, some private D&D Games and the Ipswich Tabletop Association (ITA). The later mostly specialising in Warhammer (40k, Age of Sigma and now Horus Heresy). After sharing space for ages, the ITA and Legion community have decided for mutual benefit in merging.  The ITA is a community and social group of Tabletop Wargamers that love Warhammer to the point they create their own terrain and purchase maps for their members to use. With the joining of Star Wars Legion, both groups can now share resources to the benefit of both communities.  On the surface to the general public, this shouldn't change much. Behind the scenes it makes managing the community of war gamers more streamlined for EPIC, reducing the amount of backwards and forwards to communicate to the separate communities. If you're interested in learning to...

  As mentioned last week, we were locked in and ready for our store qualifier on the last Thursday of August.... Notice the use of past tense in the former sentence. Yeah - Yup. It came to our attention that our excitement to house you all blinded us to the logistics of the event. A minimum 5 round qualifier that starts at 7 PM with a tonne of people. That wasn't going to finish til maybe 12 PM if not later. YUP. Our bad. We definitely needed to fix this and fix it we have. Changes to Prizes! Thats right, in addition to the prizes provided (See our last post here ), EPIC Ipswich is proud to announce that we are also awarding 1st place covered cost of entry for finals and $200 to assist them in their journey to represent our community and the Ipswich region in the finals! You Benevolent Owners at EPIC are truly generous and live up to their titles. Changes to our Store Qualifier The time and date for our store qualifier has been moved to Sunday the 11th of September. Starting at 11 ...

  For those that partook in the original Modern Masters League, you will recall that one of our beloved community members Vaughan designed t-shirts for the entire league, continuing into the Aus Magic League, he once again got shirts for his local playgroup at EPIC. I'm pleased to announce that we will continue carrying this torch for him. Ordering through a friendly local t-shirt shop. EPIC Ipswich will be making and taking on all future orders of the current shirt run for the EPIC Modern Community. As our way of saying thank you to our community, shirts will be $17 if ordered on Thursday the 11th of August. Beyond that, we will be running them at a total price of around $39 (price isn't locked in yet). Tshirts have a number of different designs on the back. Sizes for this run include: small, medium, X Large, XX Large & XXX Large This may be the future of many more custom t-shirts EPIC does to celebrate our different social groups, so even if you aren't in our modern o...

 EPIC Ipswich has hosted many Wednesday Night Pioneer nights over the past couple of weeks to varying success. If you haven't turned up frequently, now is the best time to do so. The ANZ Magic Super Series is right around the corner and our store qualifiers for finals is Wednesday the 31st of October.  What is the ANZ Magic Super Series? A new program for Magic the Gathering for the Australian and New Zealand region. The finalists all receive win cash prizes and invites to the Magic Pro Tour - in essence, the world championships for Magic the Gathering. The program is run in cycles with the first being Store Qualifiers. Players may partake in as many qualifiers as they like with the store qualifiers allowing the following formats: Standard, Pioneer, Modern or Sealed. Rules Enforcement Level (REL) for the Super Series is Competitive REL, meaning decklists must be submitted and expect random deck checks throughout your events. The Finals has one format - Pioneer Constructed, and...

  It seems like the  Magic the Gathering  (MTG) community haven't finished processing the craziness that was Double Masters 2022, yet already within the past couple of weeks, they unveiled a lot of new information about the upcoming set that returns us to the plane of Magic's origin - Dominaria. Join me in this two-part blog post covering the first 30 years of magic and speculating the story accompanying the set release. Dominaria United Story There have not been many confirmed details about the set given that we haven't even commenced spoiler season. There have been marketing materials, products and a couple of cards to speculate over, outside of what WotC has confirmed. What is confirmed? Dominaria United is going to be showcasing a lot of the epic heroes and historic villains as was confirmed in the MTG 'Magic Showcase 2021'. We also know the set takes place on Dominaria as they prepare to face off against an enemy that is already on the plane and it's only a...

 It seems like the Magic the Gathering  (MTG) community haven't finished processing the craziness that was Double Masters 2022, yet already within the past couple of weeks, they unveiled a lot of new information about the upcoming set that returns us to the plane of Magic's origin - Dominaria. Join me in this two-part blog post covering the first 30 years of magic and speculating the story accompanying the set release. ABOUT THE SET 30 Years of Magic the Gathering MTG has been around for nearly 30 years, their 30th anniversary will be a year-long and starts with Dominaria United. When players register for prerelease before the event, they will receive one of three 30th anniversary promos. These promos are cards from magics' earliest printings that aren't on the reserved list. Expect more promos like these to come in the future months. Lost Legends Cards from the reserved list are returning to boosters. If you're hearing alarm bells ring you're not alone, there i...

 After many iterations and popular demand - EPIC Ipswich has refined a new menu! Since EPIC Ipswich opened it's doors, our menu had changed very little with only a couple of changes here and there. The most obvious of these changes were our patrons coming up with meals they desired to be added that have become staples on the menu ever since - The Monty, The Garbage Plate and The Lords Plate. Still, the menu consisted mostly of deep-fried food and burgers; you asked and we listened! The new menu now showcases all the drinks we provide in our cafe, more salads, pasta, platters (if ordered ahead of time for functions), vegetarian options, filos and CHICKEN PARMI!!!! Here's a look at the new menu: All I can say is... WOW! The kitchen staff and The Benevolent Owners really knew how to make me hungry. Your Friend and Ally, Lachy

 If you read our previous article about the riveting success that was 2022 Free RPG Day, you may recall that we mentioned the overwhelming demand for Call of Cthulhu . You can read that previous blog post here . In that article, I had hinted that Jon was running games of Call of Cthulhu on Saturdays at 4 PM, I can now confirm this is true! But what is Call of Cthulhu and did EPIC run games before? Let's dive into the insanity! What is Call of Cthulhu? If you're familiar with the popular game of Dungeons and Dragons , the premise is very similar. There is a game master (much like a Dungeon Master) referred to as The Keeper of Arcane Lore, it is their responsibility to ask players to make dice roles and narrate the story. Players will rely more on role play in Call of Cthulhu  as it primarily takes place using 'theatre of the mind' or your imagination. Unlike D&D, Call of Cthulhu  doesn't use a lot of combat, and if you have entered combat, it is very very likel...