Registration starts at Noon, first round is at 1pm. This is a standard constructed, type 2 tournament.

All entrants get a foil Stranglefoot Geist (while supplies last). The top eight players get a foil Zombie Apocalypse along with prize packs based on number of entries.

The first place winner takes home the exclusive Dark Ascension playmat (pictured at the top), along with a full box of 36 Dark Ascension packs!

All prizes can be taken as store credit if preferred.

Long ago, the Sabrak clan of dwarves, in an effort to restore their clan’s lost power and status, meddled with dark forces in the Sunset Mountains. The dwarves succeeded only in creating their own isolation and madness. Their clan grew smaller and ever more degenerate—so that today, only the three brothers who lead the clan and a handful of other dwarves remain. Of the three brothers, Zarnak, the eldest and most powerful, is a seer whose mind shattered long ago when it came into contact with an ancient evil known as the Elder Elemental Eye… and who now plots to spread the abyssal plague throughout the world.

Session 0: Prior to the adventure, players have a sesion set aside to create 1st-level characters.

Bring a Hero

If you’re like most players, you’ll want to build your own 1st-level character to bring to D&D Encounters, using the standard character creation rules presented in the Rules Compendium, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, or Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.

Of course, you can also use the D&D Character Builder to create your character as well.

Generate ability scores for your character using the standard array (method 1) or point buy (method 2).

Leveling Up

Each week, as you face monsters and overcome obstacles, you’ll gain experience points that will enable you to eventually level up your character. If you manage to play most or all of the sessions this season, you can hit 3rd level by the conclusion of the story.

At the end of each session, your DM will award your Experience Points, as well as your Renown Points (which earn you Rewards). You can track your character’s progress from week to week by asking your organizer for a Play Tracker or by downloading one here.

Earn Renown, Get Stuff

Players, as you progress through each season, you’ll earn Renown Points you can use to get exclusive Fortune Cards. Dungeon Masters, as a way of thanking you for your invaluable work, you’ll get exclusive game aids you can’t find anywhere else.

RENOWN POINT AWARDS

Bring a New Player: These points are awarded to existing players for each new player brought to D&D Encounters that has never before participated in the program (current and past seasons included).

Moment of Greatness: These points are a discretionary award given out by the DM or through party vote to a player for doing something inventive, daring, or just plain cool during a session of play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5An7056mrOQ

The Rules

The big event is Saturday, March 3; registration starts at 10am, first round starts at 11 sharp. This is a 2000-point tournament. You may change army lists and Codexes freely between rounds. All lists must be Codex-legal; no Forge World exclusive models. Any proxies must be approved; avoid them whenever possible!

This is a three-round, Swiss-style tournament. Each round will last two hours. We’ll take a half-hour lunch break after the first round.

Each battle will have three goals in play. The Primary Goal will be worth a maximum of 15 Battle Points, the Secondary a maximum of 7 Battle Points, and the Tertiary a maximum of 3 Battle Points. Ties for goals are worth 7, 3 and 3 respectively. After each round, you will be paired against a new opponent with the most similar score.

You also gain 2 Battle Points for each round if you provide your opponent with a copy of your army list and 2 Battle Points each round for playing with a fully painted army.

Prizes

We’re giving out a ton of prizes! We’ll have awards for best scores, best attitude, and best painted army. First place will take home their choice of a Battleforce or Battlefoam P.A.C.K. 432 with custom loadout*, along with the extremely limited 25th Anniversary Crimson Fist model!

Awards for second and third place, best attitude and best painted army will be based on how many enter.

*Custom foam will be supplied within two weeks after the tournament if chosen.

Attitude

Best attitude will be done via secret vote by all players. You’ll choose one of your three opponents as your favorite for the event. The player(s) with the most votes get a secret prize!

If your opponent shows a remarkably bad attitude such that the organizer must intervene they will be docked three points for the first infraction, seven more for the second, and a third incident will get them disqualified. Any attempt to cheat will get you disqualified immediately!

Scenarios

The tournament will use three unique scenarios. All scenarios use standard rules for reserves, deep strike, infiltration and game length. Determine first to deploy/first turn with a roll-off, high roll choosing to go first or second. Objectives are worth the above-defined Battle Points unless stated otherwise.

Round 1: Ground Control

Deployment: Table quarters. Each player places an objective at the center of their quarter.

Primary Objective: Control table quarters and objectives. Each controlled quarter is worth 2 Battle Points; your home objective is worth 2 Battle Points; your opponent’s objective is worth 5 Battle Points. Table quarters are held by having the most units present in the quarter. Objectives are held by having the most units within 3″ of the objective. A unit is counted for quarter control if a majority of its units are inside the quarter, and each unit can only count towards one quarter.

Secondary Objective: Keep your highest-point value unit alive. If more than one unit qualifies, announce one during deployment.

Tertiary Objective: Kill Points (as described in the Warhammer 40,000 Main Rulebook).

Round 2: Grudge Match

Deployment: Deploy within 12″ of a long table edge. Each player designates one HQ or named character as their Hero. If your army list has neither you may use a monstrous creature.

Primary Objective: King of the hill; the player with the most units within 6″ of the table center (as objectives in the Main Rulebook) gains 15 Battle Points. If it’s tied, both gain 7 Battle Points.

Secondary Objective: If your Hero kills the opponent’s Hero, you gain 7 Battle Points. If you kill your opponent’s Hero any other way, you gain 3 Battle Points.

Tertiary Objective: Kill Points (as described in the Warhammer 40,000 Main Rulebook).

Round 3: Bad Moon Rising

Special Rules: Rounds 5 and later use Night Fighting.

Deployment: Deploy within 12″ of a long table edge. Each player places an objective marker at least 12″ from any table edge and at least 12″ apart.

Primary Objective: Victory points. The player at game end with 200 more VPs gets 15 battle points, Otherwise both players both get 7 Battle points.

Secondary Objective: Control of your objective marker is worth 2 Battle Points. Control of your enemy’s objective marker is worth 5 Battle Points.

Tertiary Objective: The player with the most surviving HQ units gains 3 Battle Points. If the result it tied, both players get 3 Battle Points.

You’ll play with one unmodified Emperor Edition starter deck. On entry you’ll get a random deck. You can trade freely before opening your deck. The first round will start at 6:30.

We have the official L5R storeline kit for this pre-release, so your gameplay will affect the course of Rokugan. All participants also get the unique Peace promo card. We’ll have prize packs for our top players based on number of entries.

For further rules reference, check the L5R Wiki entry.

We’ll run two workshops again, one on Thursday, February 23 at 6pm and a second on Saturday, February 25 at 3pm. Late-comers welcome. All participants will need to register by Sunday, February 19. Registration is $5, which gets you Goldar the Barbarian (pictured) from Reaper Miniatures. You can bring your own figure if you prefer, just make sure they have plenty of skin showing!

For this workshop we have a few smaller subjects adding up to one gorgeous model. We’ll cover working with metal figures including filing mold lines and cleaning, spray priming, painting in layers, washing and glazing, and painting faces. Bold painters can even attempt eyes!

What makes skin so special? Real skin is both slightly transparent and reflective. You need a wide range of tones to get great looking skin. And if that didn’t make sense, this workshop will help!

What Do I Need?

You will need to supply your own brushes and paints for this one. The demonstration model will be a prototypical tanned Caucasian using the following colors for the skin:

• Citadel Foundation Tallarn Flesh
• Citadel Wash Devlan Mud
• Citadel Colour Dwarf Flesh
• Citadel Colour Elf Flesh
• Citadel Colour Bleached Bone

For other skin tones – darker, lighter or even alien colors – talk to a +1 Gaming staffer about alternate color choices.

For brushes, a range of round brushes is recommended, from mid-sized basecoat brushes to smaller detail brushes. Your selection is up to you.

If you can, please bring a hair dryer to speed drying times, especially for the Devlan Mud wash! Washes dry very slowly, so anything to cut down on wait times is a big plus.

State championships will use the current modified format: HeartGold & SoulSilver through Black & White: Next Destinies. All Players in good standing are eligible to play, so come join us for a great day of competition!

From the Privateer Press website:

The kickoff to the 2012 WARMACHINE and HORDES league season launches worldwide in February! The War-Torn Alliances league throws players into the heat of battle in the Iron Kingdoms with a wholly immersive experience as they fight for glory. Each season focuses on a specific location in the Iron Kingdoms that players worldwide will battle to control, and each season brings players new, original fiction detailing some of the warriors, machines, and beasts of these conflicts. Join the fight and determine the fate of the Iron Kingdoms with War-Torn Alliances league events!

The first season of War-Torn Alliances takes place in The Gnarls, a region blanketed by vines, especially along the Dragon’s Tongue River. Venturing too deep into the Gnarls can be a dangerous proposition, thanks to several secluded trollkin and bogrin communities.

Fighting in The Gnarls will be a dangerous undertaking despite the assistance your forces will receive from your allies. Tread cautiously in No Man’s Land, beware the Black Spot, and move with great care lest the Whirling Gauntlet rip your forces asunder.

Standard drafting procedures apply, so you must open a pack, select one card, then pass the rest of the pack to your neighbor, selecting a card from the new pack just passed to you, then passing it on, repeating this process until no cards are left. You then open a new pack and repeat this process, alternating the direction you pass with each pack.

We’ll have weekly events every Monday after the Pre-Release, starting with drafts until the starter decks are released. Then we’ll mix up constructed and draft formats based on player feedback.

Some other rules of note:

• Decks are 20/20 minimum, though you may make them larger if you choose.
• When you run out of one of your decks, you reshuffle your appropriate discard pile, making a new deck. After a Celestial or Event enters a discard pile, it is removed from the game.
• You begin the game with four provinces and five fate cards in hand.
• The player who goes first does not draw a card at the end of his first turn.
• At the start of the tournament you declare two clans for which you belong. You may bring personalities into play from those clans following all standard rules for a personality of your clan enting play (Clan discount, Proclaim, paying extra to ignore honor requirements, etc).

If you’re unsure of how to play, Eric will be on hand to give demos and teach the game. Feel free to dive in as well! Drafting is a great way to build your collection and start playing.