By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

THE NEXT Open Gaming Meet has been set on May 10, Saturday at the airconditioned cabana on the rooftop of Residencia 8888 at Pearl Drive,
Ortigas Center.

“We usually hold the OGM on the first Saturday of the month, but to give a breather to us, since we had the last one on the third week of April, we’re holding it a week later,” said Victor Cabazor, one of the organizers.

“The OGM is an informal gathering of tabletop games enthusiasts from various groups to try out new games and/or play favorite games, be
it boardgames, miniature war games, RPGs (role-playing games), card games, or board wargames, with friends, new or old,” Cabazor added.

An entrance fee of P50 will be charged to help the organizers with the rental of the cabana. Simply inform the front desk upon arrival that you are
going “to the tournament at the penthouse” to gain entry to the building.

NEUTRAL GROUNDS will hold a World of Warcraft Tabletop Tournament on April 27 at their Robinsons Galleria branch on the third level of the Expansion Mall.

This constructed format tournament will have an entrance fee of P200. Registration is from 10-11:30 a.m., and early registrants will have the chance to win one of four World of Warcraft shirts in a raffle.

Late registrants will suffer penalties to their standing in the tournament. Round 1 will start at 12 noon. Redemption Cards are not allowed.

You may check out the Neutral Grounds site for more details.

By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

MAGIC: THE GATHERING is set to release its Shards of Alara set on October 3. This is their large set, and was code-named “Rock” during its development process. The tagline for the set is “Five worlds share one fate.”

The first of three in the Shards of Alara block, this set will have 249 unique cards. Pre-release events are slated for September 20-21, with previews beginning at magicthegathering.com by the first of September. Bill Rose is the design lead with Devin Low as development lead.

Magic: The Gathering is the most successful collectible card game (CCG) in the world, and is the basis for most of the newer CCGs in the
market today. It boasts of over 6,000 different Magic cards and six million players in over 75 countries in the world.

THE HERO from Hell is back in action. Check out this “”Hellboy II: The Golden Army” courtesy of Solar-UIP Philippines.

Did you love the first movie? And are you looking forward to this sequel? And have you read the Hellboy graphic novels and books?

I’ve got to admit that I’m relatively new to the world of Hellboy, after enjoying the first movie, and have just begun saving up for the graphic novels. So let me know which ones you’d recommend.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THEY’VE been fans of Hasbro’s Transformers toys and cartoons, but now they’ve had a change of heart and embraced the GoBots. TransFormers Philippines is now GoBots Philippines, complete with a logo and slogan change: “We changed our name, we changed our fandom, we are no longer Transformers Philippines…” and a link to http://transformersph.blogspot.com

Of course, there’s more to this than meets the eye.

TransFormers Philippines is playing a week-long prank starting today, April Fool’s Day. In an interview with hackenslash.net, TransFormers Philippines  moderator Azrael Coladilla said the prank is targeted at the more specialized fans of the GoBots, a short-lived cartoon and toy series that was itself a minor success.

He said they also did an anti-Transformers prank last year when the site “shifted allegiance” to the Decepticons, led by the evil Megatron.

Like the Transformers that came after them, the GoBots involved a war between two groups of alien robots, the Guardians led by Leader-1, and the Renegades led by Cy-Kill. The cartoon and toy series only lasted from 1983 to 1986, compared to the Transformers line that started in 1984 and spawned a series of cartoons as well as last year’s live-action movie.

Coladilla said the Philippines has a small group of GoBots fans that has always wanted to have its own online community.

“We do this prank every year but it doesn’t mean it’s only for laughs. We’re actually planning to have a GoBots Day soon to feature the toys and cartoons owned by some of the fans,” Coladilla said.

Still, Coladilla said the TransFormers Philippines community will remain as it is and will continue to feature all toys and cartoons related to big robots and mecha. Of course, it will still be a Transformers world.