Sin City Dispatch

Through The Breach Once Again

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Waaaaay back in June 2010 I first posted pictures of my Witch Hunter minis for Malifaux but I was never able to get them to the table... well, not for Malifaux anyway. The LGS that I had been going to was not at all interested in expanding beyond Warmachine and Hordes at that time so my stalwart Guild enforcers have had to find other employment in my Songs of Torments Reach games (aka Song of Blades with cowboys...) but it looks like that is going to change.

After much debate, SpacerGal finally decided to take the plunge and has ordered not one but two starter crews! On top of all that, he even went out and bought a set of the elusive and often out of stock Terraclips and man am I glad he did. Just what did we think about this mysterious mass of cardboard construction? You'll just have to watch and learn my friends....

And there you have it! We hope you enjoyed our further forays into video and if you have any comments we'd love to hear from you. That's all for now but you can expect more soon. Until next time...

Look Out! Grandma's Gunnin' For Ya!

2012-01-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

And My Plan Would Have Worked If It Wasn't For Those Meddling Kids...

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Having finally returned to RPGs last year I have to say that I'm having a blast with it. In fact my wife has even joined our Pathfinder game and now my daughter has asked to play as well. The question is which game to play. I've actually been thinking about bringing the family into gaming for a while and I've been looking for games besides the typical mainstream ones that we might have fun with. I've managed to find a few so far and I wanted to share my thoughts on them. This week we're going to look at one for all the Scooby Doo fans out there.

Meddling Kids was released in 2004 by Pandahead Productions as an introductory role playing game and I have to say that they've done a good job with it. The mechanics are simple enough for anyone to grasp quickly and the writing is very well done for an intro to the hobby. It breaks it all down into simple concepts and explains everything from character generation to skill challenges to experience points clearly and concisely.

Basically the game revolves around a group of kids investigating some mysterious goings on in their hometown. In addition to running the game, the GM also controls their own character called the wild card who is part of the group and also helps with the investigation (basically the Scooby Doo for the gang). The resolution mechanics revolve around rolling 3d6 plus the relevant stat and any modifiers from abilities either against a target number set by the GM or your opponents roll for opposed tests. The rules also include a very thorough list of examples for all the target numbers making it easy for even the newest GM to pick a reasonable number.

A sample investigation with pre-generated characters is also included to give you an idea how to set up and adventure but I have to say that this is the weakest part of this product. The overall impression that I got from the game is that the players are trying to solve mysteries involving monster in the vein of Scooby Doo (meaning its really just some guy in a mask) but the sample adventure ultimately focuses on the origin of Captain Bingo, the groups possessed chimp. Yeah, I said possessed chimp. I suppose its not really a big deal but it just doesn't seem to fit with the overall feel that they were trying to get so it just seems awkward.

Even with this drawback I still think that the game overall is nice gateway for players and GMs just getting into the hobby. As far as where to get it, the PDF is currently available from DriveThruRPG.com and there is also a Kindle version of the rules available from Amazon.com.

Social Skills For Fighters

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Adventurers Assemble!

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Back to Leviathos we go!!! After a really long break we finally were able to get in a game of Pathfinder again. As an added plus, we even had miniatures for most of the party thanks once again to the incredible search engine on Reaper Miniatures. If you haven't checked them out and you're looking for miniatures then get on over there and give them a try. They have a great selection that is thoroughly tagged so its very easy to find just what you are looking for. In our case we have two half elves and their companions.

My character for this adventure is Caladrel, a Stormborn sorcerer with a little bit of wizard thrown in for good measure which is how I managed to get a familiar.

Great detail on both of these miniatures made them really easy to paint though Caladrel's face seemed slightly off. It still painted up well enough but something just seemed a not quite even about its proportions. I also slightly modified his familiar Jhori by taking off the end of his spear as I mentioned before.

After all the glowing talk about Reaper I unfortunately had to break away for the next pair to get the right familiar.

Keiyendora is the Nature Warden miniature from the Pathfinder range which just keeps getting better with each new addition. Its great to see this line continue to expand even as the Pathfinder pre-paints hit the shelves giving people tons of options. For her ape I actually had to get an old Heroclix figure because orangutans are just not that easy to find unfortunately. Unsurprisingly there is not a lot of detail on this one but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

There was one other character who we had to use a random mini for but hopefully she'll be able to get hold of a figure before the next game. This session was our first using the figures (and a white board for an impromptu battlemat) and it definitely helped keep the whole thing in perspective.

Definitely looking forward to adding more minis to my collection plus I'm hoping to get back behind the screen soon as well. Until next time...

Ah Ha! The Real Inspiration For That Iconic Metal Beast!

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Snowman's Year In Review!

2012-01-06T08:00:00.001-08:00

Boardgames and RPGs and CCGs, Oh My!

Total Games played in 2011: 131

Well its been quite the year for me in gaming. Lots of boardgames and a return to role playing for me, plus my first time behind the screen and I even got my wife to join in on our latest Pathfinder game! All and all, I'm pretty happy with with it but man there were some serious dry spells in there. So which games were the big hits this year? Lets take a look.

Top of the list is Unspeakable Words with ten plays (you can find my review of it here...). This game is a lot of fun so not surprised to see it on the top of the pile. It's also a great gateway game so if you're looking to bring some friends into the gaming fold I'd give this one a try.

Next up are the Ganesha Games family of games with nine plays split between Shadow Sea, Fear and Faith, and Mutants and Death Ray Guns. All of these use variations on the Song of Blades and Heroes mechanics are make for fun and quick games. I've been playing these games solo but I'm aiming to have SpacerGal give it a try some time soon as well.

The Red Dragon Inn series comes in third with eight plays split between the original RDI and RDI 3 (and here's the review for this one here...). These are great games and I'm actually surprised we didn't get it to the table more though we didn't get our own copy until August. Can definitely see us getting more out of this one in 2012.

Fourth place is a three way split between Guillotine, Pokemon, and Sorry Sliders. Guillotine and Sorry Sliders are both quick filler games but fun to play. Then there's Pokemon. I used to laugh at this game but after playing it I can see the draw. After all, five of those seven plays were between Christmas and New Years so that's gotta say something for it. Add in the fact that there are a number starter decks available and you have a great entry point for the game without having to spend the usual fortune for a CCG.

Finally in fifth place there is another three way split, this time between Clue, Club Penguin CCG, and Mr. Jack. Clue was something of a surprise for us as its been in our closet for years but we haven't played it in years until Pat and Seren suggested it. I'm actually working on putting together a Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated mod for it as well but I have some more work to do on it. The Club Penguin CCG a real life version of a game you can find on the Club Penguin website. Fun and quick to play but really expensive considering it basically an advanced version of rock/paper/scissors. Still might pick up some more cards for it (crazy as it sounds it is really fun...) but we'll have to see. Mr. Jack is a deduction game where one player takes the role of Jack the Ripper while the other plays everyone trying to catch him before he escapes. Definitely one of those games that makes you think (especially as Mr. Jack) because if you play it wrong you'll quickly find yourself out of options.

Let Us Look At Zee Vurld... Miniaturized!

Miniatures bought in 2011: 44

Miniatures painted: 32
Terrain pieces built: 4

In sharp contrast to my boardgames is the lack of miniature painting, purchasing, etc. that happened in 2011. In fact the only reason that I painted so many miniatures was because I painted some 15mm sci-fi figures from Ground Zero Games!

The big change here for me was the fact that I stopped playing Warmachine and Hordes. I still own the miniatures but between scheduling difficulties (having Tuesday and Wednesday nights off makes it difficult to get to an LGS...) and not being thrilled with the Mark II rules its not something that I see changing any time soon. In fact I almost painted more minis for RPGs than I did for anything else and I can see that trend continuing in 2012 as I want to broaden my miniature catalog more. I also want to get more miniatures for the various Ganesha Games systems that I dabble with as well, especially Mutants and Death Ray Guns.

And Now... On To The Future!!!

So what am I looking for in the New Year? There were some months in 2011 that I did almost no gaming at all. This is something that I want to change by bringing in more gaming with the family. Not only is it fun to do its also a great way to spend time together besides just sitting there staring at the TV. In fact I'm also hoping to introduce my daughter to RPGs as well but that's one that is still up in the air. I've found a number of kid friendly RPGs that look really interesting but scheduling is the problem as always since you really need a group for role play. Hopefully with the Christmas season behind us our gaming group is going to get more stable in the coming weeks. There are also a number of boardgames that we have in our closet that have never even made it to the table and I want to remedy that as well. I mean really, why hasn't Galaxy Trucker been played yet? That's just crazy talk!

That's enough of my rambling nostalgic about 2011 but what about you? If you have any thoughts or comments about your gaming in the year past or present I'd love to hear them so feel free to leave a comment here on the blog. Until next time...

Damn you Harris!!!

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

While digging around iTunes for something to listen to I stumbled across something a little different. I've found podcasts of D & D, Call of C'Thulhu, and Dark Heresy to name a few but this was one of the few Fate actual plays I've found.

Focus: Actual play sessions

Audio Quality: Three and a half out of five Tesla coils (FYI this is s Skype game which is why the audio quality is just above average)

Content Quality: Four and half wrenches out of five

Average Length: about two to two and a half hours

Release Schedule: pretty much weekly

Of Steam, Steel, and Murder is a Fate game set in an alternate history where electricity and steam engines abound. Set in the city of Metapol, this storyline follows a group of Guild investigators (kind of like PIs but with a little more clout) as they delve into the dark conspiracy that is building within and threats to pull the world back into war. I'm up to episode 20 out of the 40 plus that they've released so far and the paranoia is building every session as the PCs start to question just who is part of conspiracy and who isn't. Definitely can't wait to see how things develop!

One of the great things about this story is the emphasis on investigation instead of combat and the Fate system does a great job supporting it. With its quick and descriptive resolution system, the group is able to keep the game moving along very smoothly where a lot of other systems can start to really get bogged down on the crunch. In fact I like how the system plays so much that I'm even thinking about giving Fate a try in the future as well. As for the storyline, the GM reveals some of the information that the players might have missed in the wrap up for the episodes but there are ongoing complications as well. Overall this podcast has a very rich plot and I definitely recommend giving it a listen. Until next time...

Quick addendum... I recently finished listening to episode 21 and just had to make a quick comment. Overall I'm still enjoying listening to the game but there are a few in character debates that occurred during the last three episodes that really slow down the action. If you listen I'm sure you'll see what I'm talking about. While these are a bit of character development but they do tend to become rather repetitive and drag some so you might want to skip over them.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well the insanity is in full swing here in Sin City but we'd like to take a break from the revelry to wish everyone out there a safe and happy New Year!

As just a sneak peak what we're mulling around here at the Dispatch for 2012, Spacer and I have been talking about doing more board and card game video reviews and possibly even some actual play podcasts of our role playing games as well. No definites yet but thought I'd share. Time for me to dive back into the craziness! Until next time...

Time To Do Some Camping!

2011-12-30T08:00:00.003-08:00

I recently ordered a bunch of Star Wars minis from Miniature Market that I'm going to re-purpose for Mutants and Death Ray Guns by Ganesha Games (pics to follow soon). This also got me looking at my terrain collection. Though I have pretty good selection available the one thing that's really missing is some post apocalyptic pieces so I've decided to start building up that end of my terrain spectrum.

Shelter is one of the basic necessities of life so it seems like a natural place to start. Rather than doing more permanent structures first, I decided to focus something more mobile such as tents. This also gave me an excuse to try out some new modelling techniques so it was off to the workbench I went!

For my tents I'm using some pretty common household items. The frames for the tents are actually some of those one serving fruit cups (minus the fruit of course) though you could also use some of the one cup plastic containers that you can find in the grocery store. You could just leave the cup intact use the side of the cup as a door but the plastic is soft enough that you can easily cut them with scissors.

Now to actually have a tent you need a cover for the "frame". For this I grabbed an old t-shirt and started cutting! You could just use scraps of cloth instead of chopping up your clothes but you need to make sure that the fabric isn't to stiff since it's going to be draped over the cup. Just make sure that you cut a slit in the fabric so you have an entrance, otherwise your tents are going to offer much shelter.

Next I put a liberal amount of glue on the cup and set it aside while I prepped the fabric. An important thing to do is make sure you put some around the edge of the cup so that the fabric will stick firmly to it.

With the cup set aside its time to get some glue onto the fabric as well. To do this I spread a liberal amount on one side of the fabric then crumpled it up and ran it under water. This gets the glue to permeate through the fabric which will make the whole structure much more durable once it dries.

While its still wet, put the fabric onto the cup making sure to press it down so that it sticks closely to the "frame". Also make sure that you press it down around the edges otherwise it might pop off later. After this its time to put it down and walk away. I'd give it at least a day to fully dry though you might want to trim off any excess fabric during this time before the glue completely dries.

This gives you plenty of time to make the rope that runs around the bottom of the tent. For this I used thin gauge floral wire twisted around itself. The easiest way to do this take a good length of wire and fold it in half.

Then stick a pen, pencil, dowel (you get the idea...) through the loop and hold the other ends with some pliers. While you hold on twirl the pen around to get the wires to wrap tightly around itself and voila! Somewhat instant rope!

Once the fabric is dry, its time to thread the rope around the base of the tent. The easiest way to do this is use a drill to make holes through the hardened fabric and the cup.

Once you have holes spaced all the way around the edge of the cup thread the wire through. I originally tried to do this by threading it through the way you would by sewing but I found it much easier to use several separate lengths of wire around the edge. You can also do this up the sides or anywhere else you want but that's up to you.

With the wire attached, its time to paint! I originally went for just dirty browns as I like how it fits with the whole apocalyptic feel but I then I decided to through in a green as well just to mix it up.

And there you have it! Yes, you too can have your own post apocalyptic tent city! This project is a little time consuming because of the drying time but overall its really simple and I'm very happy with how they turned out. If you give it a try yourself I'd love to know how it turns out or if you have any improvements I'd love to hear about those as well. Until next time...

Sometimes One More Option Is One Too Many

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

"So where should we go for dinner?"

"Well, I could do Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill. We haven't had Tony Roma's for a while. Oh, and there's Applebee's or Joe's Crab Shack. I guess I could do Sweet Tomatoes as well. Or there's Beanos or Denny's."

"Ummm... okay?"

Having options is a good thing but there does come a point when too much is just that. As I alluded to last week, this is something that I tend to think the Pathfinder game suffers from. Now don't get me wrong; I've enjoyed every Pathfinder session that I've played in and I'm really looking forward to get back to SpacerGal's homebrew campaign setting. The really daunting thing about the system, especially for new players, is the sheer number of options that you have available to you when you are trying to build a character.

The core rulebook contains eleven different classes. This is not too bad really as the choices run the typical gamut for fantasy from spell slingers to sword wielders and everything in between. Where things start to get a little more complicated is when you bring in the Advanced Players Guide. Six more basic classes to choose from and more than half dozen alternate class features to apply to each the original eleven classes. Then throw in Ultimate Magic which only adds one new magic class but gives all the existing magic classes half dozen or more additional options and Ultimate Combat which does the same for the martial classes.

Now that is a ton of options which is great... unless you have no idea what you want to play and you are just trying to see what your options are. Then you're looking at potentially having books worth of material to go through as you try to figure out what works best for you which can be kind of overwhelming, especially for new players.

So how do you deal with this glut of information that has been handed to you? Well, as a player I'd suggest really thinking about what sounds like something you want to play and then asking the GM for their advice. Which kind of a magic user would you enjoy exploring and which would fit best in their campaign? The GM is also usually very familiar with the game system and can really help you fine tune your choice.

From the other side of the screen, I'd suggest the GM offer some guidance and maybe even limitations on the options available to players. Setting these kinds of guidelines can also be helpful for laying out and shaping your story. Maybe you're aiming for a low magic setting. Take some of the magical classes off the books right from the start so you don't have to worry about fitting a wizard or sorcerer into the world you've created. The same can be said for a more civilized setting. How exactly would you fit a barbarian into that kind of game? Admittedly that sounds like it could be an interesting twist but unless you were trying to focus on that character fitting into a completely different world you run the risk of either leaving that character our of the loop or leaving the rest of the characters hanging out to dry as you focus too much on that story.

Ultimately communication is the key to making sure that everyone buys in and has a good time with the game so ask the GM and if you need to put them on the spot. Likewise as a GM don't be afraid to say "No" if someone is trying to pull something into your game that doesn't fit in. You're all in this together so make sure that everyone is having a good time with it. Until next time...

Listening To The Pipes Of Peace

2011-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

When I was much younger I saw a video that stuck with me even after all these years. I always remembered the story but I never could remember the name of the song. It was sung by Paul McCartney but other than the story that played out in the video I couldn't remember anything else.

This year I decided to look around to see if I could find it and after a quick Google search it popped right up, along several other pages about the historic Christmas Truce of 1914.

As the first year of the Great War drew to a close, thousands of British and German soldiers along the Western Front engaged in an unofficial ceasefire. Rifles set aside, soldiers from both sides sing Christmas carols across No-Man's Land and in some stretches of the Front they even exchanged gifts and souvenirs.

British and German soldiers meeting in No Man's Land during the Christmas Truce

High command on both sides were furious when they heard about this happening and issued strict orders forbidding friendly communication with enemy troops. Though a few units disobeyed these orders later in the War, it was never on the massive scale that occurred that first Christmas. Even so it's good to know that during one of the most brutal conflicts in the history of man people were able to set aside their differences for even just one day in celebration of the season.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, and we hope that all of you have a joyous and safe holiday season.

Skinning One Cat To Re-Skin Another

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

With our latest Pathfinder campaign I decided to break out of the mold and try something that I've never done before; I'm playing a spell caster. I've always stayed away from these classes in the past because of the limitations of the spells. "Okay guys, I've cast my one spell for the day. Guess I'll just hang back and read a book while you guys finish exploring the dungeon." I mean really, what fun is that?

Thankfully Pathfinder addresses that problem by giving you access to some minor spells that you have unlimited use of. Sure they're not going to stop a raging demon out of the Nine Hells but something's better than nothing. Of course the problem after that was which kind of spell caster. After all, one thing that Pathfinder isn't lacking is a ridiculously variety of classes to choose from (but more on that another time...). After digging around (and listening to what everyone else was playing...) I finally decided to try my hand at being a sorcerer. Of the magical classes it seems to be the one that's easier to grow with. Wizards need to be able to spend some time researching and studying to really advance themselves whereas sorcerers just have the stuff more or less pop into their head. Gotta love that, right?

Next I choose my race, bloodline, what color socks I'm wearing, etc, etc... All the little details that go into making a Pathfinder character. Then I hopped right over to Reaper Miniatures to search for the perfect mini. Not a requirement for an RPG but I really like having my own little mini me to call my own so its a must in my book. It was while I was searching for my round 25mm bases that I stumbled on this little blast from the past.

This figure is one of a familiar set that was released by Reaper years ago. I love all the figures in the set but this one was always my favorite. With this old treasure in hand, I headed right back to my character sheet to rebuild my sorcerer so I could somehow have a familiar which of course is where the problem came in.

This little guy is obviously not an animal which is the "normal" familiar for the magical classes. In fact the closest that I could come up with was a homunculus but that's a higher level spell than we were starting with and I wanted to make sure I could use the little dude in the game right from the get go. That's when the old gears really started grinding away in my melon and I came up with a plan.

Getting SpacerGal on the horn I explained my dilemma and asked him if I could re-skin one of the familiar types into something completely different conceptually but leave it the same mechanically. He thought for a second and decided why not so off I went to the books again to figure out just what he was going to be. After much hemming and hawing I finally decided to base him on the cat familiar that wizards have. This makes him somewhat effective in combat and makes him ridiculously stealthy which I really liked the idea of. One second he's there and then he suddenly seems to vanish and reappear somewhere else. After some minor tweaks, my new wizard/sorcerer character was ready to rock... along with his own version of "Toto" too.

The idea of re-skinning some aspect of your game is something that I don't think many people think of but its always an option you should keep in mind. Just because the rules say "You have a dog that obediently follows you around wherever you go" doesn't mean that you can't change it up and make it some kind of manservant that your family sent out to keep an eye on you. Doing this not only gives you more creative freedom to make an exciting and interesting character but also makes that character your own. Talk with your DM/GM/Keeper/whatever they might be this week and tell them your ideas. Work together and not only will you be able to create a character that you're really interested in playing but you might even throw the GM something to play with too. Just think of how many times has Batman had to go save Robin's butt over the years or vice versa.

So remember; just because you can't find exactly what you have in mind in the book doesn't mean that you can't do it. Look beyond the confines of the rules and talk it out so that you can make it a great gaming experience for everyone at the table. Until next time...

Gettin' Fancy With Technology

2011-12-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all! Once again I return from the Warp with a big review, this time in video form! Get crazy, right? This one is a Child at Heart review looking at Marvel Slingers from UDE, a fun little fast-paced dexterity game aimed at that ever-so-valuable 8-12yo demographic. Hope you like the review, and maybe we can get a steadier camera for next time. This is from my Windows Phone, so I apologize for the low quality in advance. Catch me next time with a playthrough video and review of the World of Warcraft TCG Dungeon Decks and the corresponding Fall 2011 Starter Decks geared towards play with the Dungeon Decks. 'til next time, Vegas gamers. SpacerGal out!

Now This Is Pretty Awesome

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Someone on Google+ posted this one and I just had to pass it along. Very cool action and effects, not to mention the little surprise at the end. Check it out!

What can I say? I'm a Star Wars geek. More coming soon, including an article of some kind about something or other by the ever elusive SpacerGal. Until next time...

'Tis The Season Folks!

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Getting Back To The Torment

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately our gaming group is still on hiatus (ah, the joys of Christmas retail...) so I decided to go way back and start looking at some of the things I've touched on before here to try to find a little bit of gaming inspiration. Took a bit but after doing a bit of digging I remembered my Songs of Torments Reach hack I was working on and decided to dust it off and give it another run through.

So where is all this going?

To a battle report of course!

Once again I had my Guild crew take the field against my Arcanist crew. A very small game (only 400 points total...) but still enough to try some stuff out. So how did it go? Read on to find out!

Sonnia and her small band of enforcers had tracked down Sasha Dubois and her gang at a small cabin on the outskirts of the bayou.

Sneaking forward they hoped to gain the element of surprise... and almost managed to do it! Sonnia ordered the two Guild Guards forward but appartently they weren't expecting to lead the way and instead did nothing at all.

Hearing the attempted battle cry from Sonnia, Sasha and her crew quickly sprang into action. Sasha ran over to activate Boomer before taking cover behind the cabin while Taryn took a covering position. Valeria boldly strode forward and let loose a barrage of shoots at Sonnia but her magical screen proved to be too much as she effortlessly deflected the bullets.

Boomer then thundered forward on his massive iron feet, getting into position to attack the next turn.

Realizing the threat that Boomer posed to her crew, Sonnia moved into the open and let loose a blast of magical flames which sent the metal beast hurling back into the building and knocked him to the ground, but did little else.

Samael and one of the guards opened fire on Valeria but their shoots went wild while the convict gunslinger Jeremiah Smythe quickly moved around the far side of the cabin to try to flank the Arcanists.

Valeria charged towards Samael with her guns blazing and pushed him back into the small copse of trees while Taryn clambered over the prone form of Boomer and let loose a couple shots at Sonnia. Once again her shield proved to be too much and the bullets were harmlessly deflected.

Boomer then sprang into action. Virtually leaping to its feet, the metal monstrosity charged forward and smashed into Sonnia, sending her crippled form to the ground.

With their leader dead, almost all of the Guild crew paniced and headed for the hills. In the end only Samael remained and with blood in his eyes he quickly moved to attack his prey.

Effortlessly skirting through the woods, he made a beeline for Sasha and his volley of shots drives her to the ground.

Her quickly regains her composure and returns fire at the trapper but to no avail. The rest of the crew was also caught offguard and only Valeria is able to react to this new threat. Even so her shots go wide and Samael remains undetered.

Again Samael opens fire on Sasha and again he forces her to the ground but isn't able to get a solid hit on the Arcanist. Having realized what was happening, Taryn runs forward and helps Valeria finally take Samael down.

Overall, I liked how the game played out. I used the ranged combat modifiers from Flying Lead this time and it actually did make the guns more effective over all. Not too many shots connected but unlike my first play through with these groups they were at least able to try shooting at each other. I am thinking that Boomer might be a bit too overpowered at the moment. Currently he has a Combat 5 which makes him nigh unstoppable to most attacks so I think I'll knock him down to a 4 in the future. I also liked how Sonnia was such a glass cannon. At range she was virtually untouchable but as soon as Boomer got into hand to hand it was over.

Now I just have to see what other crews I can scrounge together to get to the table. Several are in the works but none are finished yet. Still gives me something to do until we can get the group together again. Until next time...

Talk About A Blast From The Past

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd do something a little different for this Monday's pictures. I was recently sent this link and I just had to pass it along.

Aluminum Overcast

Yeah, who's going to trust some random link you happen to find on someone's blog, right? There's just a few too many mentally scaring images out there that are the last thing in the world you would want to see but this one is different.

The Aluminum Overcast is a restored B-17G-VE operated by the Experimental Aircraft Association. This group tours the country and gives people the opportunity to tour or sometimes even fly in this WWII aircraft

The photos on the site were taken by amateur photographer Bernard Zee and you can find more photos at his home page. Even if you don't take a look at what else he has there, I definitely recommend taking at look at his shots of the Aluminum Overcast as they are really impressive.

Interested in finding out more about this historic aircraft? Well I've got a link for that too! You can find more information about this plane, tours dates, and prices at the Fly The Fortress website. Hope you all enjoy!

Throwing In A Touch Of Home Brew

2011-12-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

For our games of Gamma World and D & D 4e I've decided that I'm going to throw in a little bit of a home brew on the rules. Not sure exactly how well it will work but I like the idea so I figure I'll give it a shot and see what happens. The first of these has to do with hit points.

I think this is one of the things that bugs people the most about D & D. You hit somebody with a huge sword and they stand there, smile, and then return the favor. Doesn't really make that much sense when you think about it even for a fantastic setting. I mean come on, its a frickin' sword! No two ways about it, that's gonna leave a mark.

What I've decided to do is take hit points in a slightly different direction so that they make a little more sense. Instead of them representing purely how much physical abuse you can take, they are also going to represent fatigue in the battle. If you think about it, parrying or dodging that massive sword is going to start wearing you down almost as much as being hit by it. This isn't to say that the players lose hit points just for moving around or being missed; that would be a little too harsh in my mind. No, instead this will represent them blocking or dodging the blows in the narrative though they'll still take some damage. Only hit for 5 hit points? Well, that's probably at best a scratch and might even just be a solid punch.

So the question is "Where's the house rule?" That comes into play when players (and monsters... gotta be fair after all...) take a massive hit, say equal to their bloodied value. A blow like this is truly devastating and it makes sense that you're not going to be performing up to par after that. In game terms this is represented by a -2 modifier on all rolls except for damage (seems like that would be a little too harsh). Of course its not too easy to inflict that much damage in one blow so I'm also going to apply this when a creature becomes bloodied as well. To me the name says it all; you're bloodied. You've taken a beating and while you're not ready to lie down and die, you're not going to be as nimble as you normally would. This also helps the idea of the second wind make a little more sense. It isn't some kind of magical healing that is flowing through your body, its you pausing in the fight to catch your breath for a second.

My other idea is a little more... dramatic. Normally in 4e your character earns action points that you can spend to take another action on your turn. I really like this mechanic as I think it really pushes forward the idea that the characters are supposed to be big damn heroes and helps them live up to it. In addition to the regular action points, I'm also going to introduce drama points (though I might call it something else...).

Unlike action points which have a limit on how often you can use them, the drama point is more open ended and can be spent to give you a re-roll any time you want. Choke on a crucial to hit roll? Spend a drama point and re-roll it! Fail that diplomacy check and make an ass out of yourself to the dragon? Pop a drama point and try again!

So what's the catch? A free re-roll? Heck yeah I'll take that! The catch is that you have to earn them with role play. It could be something as simple as a good concept in character generation or strong back story to some solid role play around the table later in the game. This is supposed to be a role playing game after all so why not encourage it?

Of course the real question is how do these ideas work in practice. Theories are wonderful things but until they're successfully applied they don't really mean much. For that we'll just have to see what happens when we get back to the table. Until next time...

Martians And Monsters And Ravens, Oh My!

2011-12-01T08:00:00.001-08:00

For some reason just started getting links to movie trailers on my FB page. Must've clicked something somewhere but that's neither here nor there. I did what to point out two of the trailers though as they look incredible. First up is John Carter.

Based on the character from the Barsoom novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the trailer just blew my away. I must admit that I've never read any of the novels (though I'm looking to rectify that asap...) but visually this just looks stunning. Here are a couple of shots that I managed to scrap up.

Martian cityscape

Some kind of martian flyer

Just these two look beautiful to me but I really recommend checking out the official trailers here. Not only do they look to be good to watch but man the gaming ideas you can rip from these! The crazy thing is there are already miniatures out there for most of the main characters and creatures from the movie. Where can you find these you ask? Bronze Age Miniatures. Not only do they have a John Carter mini in their catalog (though not under that name), they also have the four armed apes and martians as well! Just an FYI though, apparently the folks at Bronze Age tend to feel that tops are definitely optional for women so don't say I didn't warn you. Now I just hope that somebody makes toys/models of those martian flyers....

Oddly enough the next movie is not from Disney though they did make it popular the first time around. This time the story has a slightly different spin as the Snow White appears to be something of a badass.

This is probably a good thing for her too as this time the evil queen isn't just trying to kill her, she wants to eat her heart too! This is another trailer that looks really impressive and it sounds like an interesting twist on the old story. No link to the trailer for this one I'm afraid but I definitely recommend checking it out when you have a chance. Oh, and make sure that you look for Snow White and the Huntsman as there is another Snow White movie called Mirror, Mirror which comes out next spring as well. Unlike the SW&H which has a dark and grim feel to it, the other one looks like more of a mindless comedic take on the whole thing.

Until next time...

Look Out Drizzt! He's Coming For You Next!

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

And We Go A Frolicking In The Vale

2011-11-25T08:00:00.002-08:00

I have recently been picking up some of the "new" Dungeons and Dragons Essentials books and I have to saw that I really like what I see. In fact Spacer has even expressed an interest in trying it out so this is another game that I've added to our gaming queue. Unlike the Gamma World or Leviathos adventures, I want to run this game mostly right out of the books. I like the setting and the stories that that the folks at Wizards have created for the Essentials products so I'm really excited to explore them. They have also thrown enough other juicy tidbits into the setting that it would be very easy to build on them and create some really interesting stories.

That said I really don't see running this one past tenth level which is the end of the Heroic tier in the game. Once you get past this point it seems like things start to bog down as the number of powers and hit points and effects all pile on top of each other. Of course this opinion is only based on what I've heard of actual plays that are way up there in level and don't feature the Essentials products but I'd rather end things with a pleasant taste in everyone's mouth instead of the bitter pill of rules grind.

So what's so special about Essentials that could make it different? Well it seems somewhat trimmed down from the regular 4e experience based on what I've read and heard on podcasts. Rather than bogging you down with tons and tons of choices for your characters, they've really slimmed things down but still give you the option of adding more from the other products if you want.

I really like this approach as it makes the game seem much more approachable (go figure...) and gives a pretty reasonable gateway for people interested in taking a look at this game. In fact I'm even thinking about making a couple of adventures that I can run to introduce my daughter to this part of my hobby. Probably somethings with goblins since I have all those minis already... but more on that later. Until next time...

Are You Ready For The Ultimate Prize?

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001-08:00

While flipping through recommendations on Netflix I stumbled on something that really surprised me. Sit down and strap in because we are about to race for the ultimate prize.

This is an anime with a twist. It's not just Japanese... it's also French! Created by Savin Yeatman-Eiffel and first airing in 2006, this anime follows the story of a team of star racers from Earth (think podracers from Phantom Menace but much, much cooler... and they have guns too!) that have been invited to join the Great Race of Oban. The prize for winning the Great Race? Well, to find that out you'll just have to watch!

With lots of action and characters that really pull you into their personal struggles as they work together to win the race, this is an incredible series. When I first started it up I was a little skeptical but I found that it quickly drew me in and left me wanting to find out more of the story, not to mention the crazy Car Wars like action of the race itself. I definitely recommend checking this one out if you haven't already!

Mother Nature's Version Of Fast Food

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Leviathos Arises Again!

2011-11-18T08:00:00.001-08:00

This week we finally managed to get role playing back to the gaming table! We are once again returning to Spacer's wonderful, watery world of Leviathos but this time with a twist. Originally Spacer had been running this as an open world campaign; basically just laying out the sandbox and letting us run wild in it. He did plan out a few parts of it but he really tried to give us a ton of free reign.... which seems to have been part of the problem.

Things were flying along at a breakneck speed! We were about to betray our former employer as she prepared to start a war against a powerful empire, that same empire had just found the hidden cove that served as one of her bases, we were running to get onto a ship to head to the frozen waters of the north with a crew that we didn't know if we could trust and even other party members we didn't know if we could trust... and then the writer's block hit. Spacer had a mental overload and sadly the story ground to a halt.

Time has gone by and inspiration has struck for him again but this time he's looking at things a little differently. Instead of the open ended epic campaign of all eternity he has scaled it back to a more manageable size and I have to admit that I'm glad. Sprawling epics are all well and good but as I've mentioned before having an ending is so much more satisfying. That's not to say that we can't revisit these characters in the future, far from it. It just means that one story can finish before another begins... and hopefully means that I can get some more of my games to the table but more on those later.

The thing that I really wanted to mention was what Spacer did to tie up the infamous "you meet in a tavern" loose end that plagues so many games. Just why the heck is this random band of misfits together anyway? I mean really, a dwarven barbarian, a half-elven druid, and a very refined half-elven sorcerer of extremely high caliber? (bet you can't guess who I'm playing...) Why in the world would they have anything to do with each other?

To tie us together (and give us a little mechanical perk as well), the story Spacer is telling focuses on a dwarven archaeologist and anthropologist (aka tomb robber) turned tavern owner who we all dealt with at one time. The barbarian has worked in his bar before, the druid has helped on some of his digs years ago, and I was also in his employ in the past as well... no doubt doing something scholarly and noble as fits the skills of one of my high quality and distinction. (yep, this time I'm playing egotistical bastard) The tavern owner went missing and his wife sent us letters asking us to come to the tavern and find him. Three totally random people who have nothing to do with each other except we all know the same guy... who actually isn't missing and asks us all to help him.

Personally I love this idea as the one thing that always seems to be lacking in the beginning of an adventure is a reason for the group to be together in the first place. Our first foray into Leviathos and my Wastelands game had both lacked this and it was really something that bothered me so I'm really excited to see how he's addressed it. Now we just have to do the job and not kill each other. Ah yes, good times.... But more on that later. Until next time...

Back To The Wastelands

2011-11-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Its time to hope on the role play tour bus to start looking at some of the ideas that I've got floating around. The first stop on this little whirlwind expedition is Gamma World.

Though it's been months since my group sat down for our one (and unfortunately only) game of Gamma World, we have been looking at bringing it back to the table again with a few modifications. When we first did it, the players had a really hard time with the completely random nature of the character generation system. Random equipment is one thing but random everything made it really hard to get their heads around the characters so I've decided to make a few changes.

The first thing is the whole random origin system. Not even being able to choose your origins made developing a character concept really hard for my players so I've decided to introduce some free will to the process. Instead of using the random tables, I'm going to let the players pick their origins so they can get into the character's heads a little easier.

Next up is the rolling the abilities themselves. According to the rules you roll up most of the stats in order using 3d6 which is all well and good but it leave you with a really erratic bunch of scores. Instead I'm pulling in the point buy system for abilities from D & D 4e as it gives the players more control and puts most of their scores at a minimum of 10. The characters are supposed to be heroes after all so it only makes sense that they wouldn't have a bunch of scores that are below average. How the origins relate to the abilities has been tweaked as well. Instead of giving them an auto 18 in their primary and 16 in their secondary I've changed it to a +2 and a +1 for each so that it fits better with the point buy system.

I'm also not a fan of how the skills are handled. According to the rules, you have a +4 in skills relating to each of your random origins and a +4 in another random skill. Again its all just a little too random in my opinion. Instead each origin gives a +2 bonus to their related skills and then giving the player eight points to apply as they see fit.

Last but not least (as far as character generation anyway...), we are going to choose the alpha mutations instead of randomly drawing them. We did this in the other game and the players really like having control over at least that one aspect and really helped them start to develop characters a little.

Overall I'm really hoping this will help my players get more into their characters as I've got a few ideas for Gamma World campaigns that I'd really love to run. Just what are these ideas? Well I'm glad you asked! Right now I have three different setting/campaign ideas that I kicking around.

1) The Wastelands Campaign: With the Kaiute tribes moving south into the United City States of Texas, its only a matter of time until the new south of Merica erupts into a massive bloodbath. Preparing for war, the future looks grim until a lone wanderer staggers back from the wastelands to the west with stories of tombs of the Ancients. Could this blasted land hold the secret to their salvation?

This campaign is actually the one that we had already started and is the most fleshed out. Basically its a mix of wild west and post apoc all rolled into one. Can't go wrong with that, right? This gives the region a somewhat lawless feel while still having some semblance of civilization.

2) The End of Times Campaign: Life is almost idyllic in the Dah-Koh-Tah territories of old Merica until rumors begin to circulate about an ancient menace coming from the north. Is it just idle chatter or have the evils of the End Times returned to finish the job they started all those years ago?

This was actually my original idea for our Gamma World campaign though I didn't get it as fleshed out as the Wastelands idea. I was also trying to set it in the region of the published adventures so that I could easily pull those in if I wanted to. Nothing like having a published adventure on hand just in case your feeling a little lacking in the creativity department. Even so these are just fall backs as I've already got some pretty solid ideas for this one as well.

3) The Rise of Empires Campaign: While most of Gamma Terra struggles to maintain some kind of order, the self proclaimed Empire of Humanity has risen out of the ashes to the east. Is this a benevolent power that can restore order to the broken land or just another tyranny that will threaten the world with its grab for power?

I went seriously old school for this idea as I've pulled a lot of the initial concepts from the old After The Bomb supplement for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG from years ago. I'm definitely going to tweak it to give it my own flavor but this is a setting that has always been near and dear to my heart.

So which one will it be in the end? Well, I'm not sure. I've sent off the three ideas to my players and right now I'm just wanting on some feedback from them as to which one interests them the most. Hopefully they'll let me know soon and then I'll be sure to pass along the good word.

That's about all the radiated goodness for now but there is more to come as the ideas just keep bouncing around my noggin. Until next time...

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

So Many Ideas, So Little Gaming Time...

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

As we move into November work is slowly building up for two members of our group. Ah yes, the joys of retail Hell... Black Friday, the last minute sales, the returns... Esh. Sometimes I'm glad I'm not in retail. Unfortunately this means that for gaming the next two months are going to be sloooowwwwwww... As I said, esh.

In the meantime I've got a some time to brew up and fine tune some role playing ideas so I thought I'd throw them out here on the blog. Not only does this give me a chance to get the thoughts down on "paper" but I can also let them stew around to see what cooks up. Some of these are fairly well developed (such as the Gamma World game that we're talking about possibly rebooting) while some of the them are just pipe dreams that I want to fine tune some more (such as the Toon one shot I want to run). As you can see the games cover a broad range of genres and game systems but they all have two things in common.

1) I want to be able to run them all in chapters (except of course for the one shots). This doesn't mean that I want every adventure to only last for one night but I really want to make sure that each session ends with a logical stopping point. I know it seems pretty obvious but with as erratic as our gaming schedule sometimes gets I want to make sure that we end sessions at logical breaks in the story in case we miss some sessions or are missing a player in the next session. Hopefully this will let us pick up and continue onward without too much difficulty.

2) All of the stories have an end. Be they a short campaign or a one shot, I want to make sure that there is a definite story arc to the overall plot so that we don't wind up with the whole open ending on a campaign. Stories are more satisfying when they have a definite end to them rather than just rambling on and on. This isn't to say that the stories can't continue but I want that to be a group decision and not some desire to get closure to the story.

Hopefully keeping these two aspects in mind will make it easy for the group to getting into the games and give the stories enough life to play out to the end. Of course only time will tell but ya gotta start somewhere, right? Until next time...

The Wench Thought That Was Her Tip

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

There's been a bit of a lull around here lately as I've been busy with Halloween but I'm back, this time for a look at some drunken revelry. Grab your gold my friends because its time to go to...

Spacer first introduced me to this little gem and I was instantly hooked. Yeah, it's really that good.

In this game the players are a group of adventurers. Having entered the dungeon, slain the monsters, and defeated the evil warlord there's only one thing left to do... get drunk! But not before everyone else of course.

At the start of the game each player has their own deck of cards (different for each character to reflect their various classes and races), ten gold pieces, a Fortitude of 20, and an Alcohol Content of 0. In addition to this there is a communal drink deck which gets passed out (and "drunk") as the game goes along. Using your cards (and the drinks of course) the players are trying to make their opponents pass out by making their Fortitude equal to or less than their Alcohol Content. As an added twist you can also knock out another player by making them loose all their money gambling (the only thing worse than a drunk is a drunk with no money). The mechanics are very straight forward and the flavor text and artwork are hilarious.

Currently there are three different versions of this game available and they can all be played together for a massive twelve player game if you wanted to. Don't know if I'd recommend it as the potential down time between turns would be a little much but it's possible if you're crazy enough to try! Personally I think the sweet spot for this game is four players but I've never tried it with two. I imagine that would make for one fast and furious drinking game!

It should be noted that all three versions are not the same. The third iterration includes some additional mechanics for each character which makes them play somewhat differently than characters from the first two sets. Nothing too complicated but it does change the game and we have wondered if they might not be very balanced against the other sets. I don't think it would really boil down to a massive advantage but its definitely worth pointing out.

Overall these are really fun games and I can't recommend them enough. Interested in picking it up? Well then give your FLGS a call or hit our Amazon link at the top of the page.

That's about it for this time but I've got more in the works, including that Halloween Fear and Faith session. Might be a Thanksgiving game at this rate but it really is coming soon along with some other goodies. Until next time...

Yep, I'm Hooked On That Mini Game Too

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

A Mini Review for a Mini Game

2011-11-05T02:23:00.000-07:00

I promise, I'm not repeatedly dying and rerolling, I just totally space on writing here, hence the nickname I suppose. Anyways, I am pretty tired at the moment but I had to get in here and post real quick before i forget. If you haven't already, go check out Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook. That's right, I am violently opposed to Facebook time-waster games, but this one stands out, and does a great job selling a simplified D&D flavor to newbies, brand new players, and veterans alike. You can choose from prebuilt characters or customize one, complete with stat point assignment, then take your character on adventures with the hired help of your friend's heroes. Each adventure is comprised of a bunch of mini-encounters, including combat, traps, and of course, good ol' slow D&D levelling. After three beginner adventures, I hit level 2 and am 100 points in to the 2500 I need to reach level 3. There's a neat random loot system, an intuitive user interface for spells and abilities that appear from characters and targets as radial menus, and it's all turn-based, based on initiative scores. The maps are cutely detailed grids, and the sprite graphics are nice and moderately custom. All in all, it's worth at least a quick peek.

Hope y'all have as much fun as I have!

Spacer

Halloween... Traumatizing The World One Child At A Time

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Wait... It's happening NEXT weekend?

2011-10-29T08:00:00.001-07:00

There are gaming conventions all around the world. Some are big, some are small, but all of them have one thing in common; a need for organization. A few years ago Las Vegas had the distinction of getting its very own "big" gaming convention called Neoncon. Last year, they even hosted the Iron GM event and I was really excited when I heard that they would have the Iron GM again this year. I subscribed to their site and eagerly waited to find out more.

Time went by and very little information appeared so I set a message to one of the event organizers asking specifically about the Iron GM event. If I could make it to the whole con I really wanted to make sure I at least made it to this.

More time passed.

Now the con is one mere week away and instead of being giddy with anticipation, I was mildly surprised to hear that it was happening so soon. The Neoncon website still says to pardon their dust and that the site will be tested and ready to go by August 24th.

Is this really a way to host a con? Maybe a local event, but for one that (as I understood it at least) was trying to become one of the bigger gaming events this is an utter fail in my book. Too bad as I had been really excited to get back to a gaming convention as its been years. Ah well, maybe their site will be ready for next year...

One Of Those Defining Moments

2011-10-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Opening Up With The Beginning Of The Path

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

It turns out that this video has been up for a week or so but I definitely wanted to share it in case anyone missed it. This is the unboxing of the new Pathfinder Beginner Box by the folks over at Paizo Publishing. So without further ado, let's check it out!

Personally I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this one. I will admit that I have some concern about the stand up pieces instead of the counters that you find in most of the 4e products nowadays but they look like they are extremely durable so I'm more than happy to give them a try. It also sounds like you get a good amount of other things in the set as well. In particular I was surprised at just how many monsters they stat up in this Beginner set. Almost 100 monsters is a pretty impressive number and shows that this set has a lot of potential for replay and customization.

This is one that I'm definitely looking at picking up soon so I'll post more about it once I actually have it in hand. Plus if you're interested in getting this yourself and haven't done so yet there's good new! Just click on the Amazon link at the top of the page and it will take you right there so you can get your own copy. Until next time...

Wait... What The...?

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

More On The Pre-painted Paizo Goodness!

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Way back in August I posted about the soon to be released pre-painted miniatures that are being produced by Wiz Kids for the Pathfinder RPG. (Here's a link in case ya missed it.) With the release now lurking on the horizon, Paizo has released pictures of the actual production run of the hero miniatures from the Beginner Box.

As you can see these minis are really nice looking for pre-paints especially since these are actual production miniatures. Are they Golden Demon winner quality? No, but considering you get all four of them for about $13 they are really nice.

As for the rest of the line they are going to be blind box purchase which normally I'm dead against but in this case they really have me interested. The price isn't too bad for what you get and it sounds like there is a good mix of minis within one case so you probably won't wind up with too many repeats of the more powerful monsters. This does mean that getting the more common beasties will be a little tricky but Paizo has mentioned doing encounter packs in the future that won't be blind box so it shouldn't be too hard to fill out the ranks of cannon fodder.

Ya just gotta love the Pathfinder goblins!

Personally I'm definitely looking forward to getting some of these once they come out. Who knows, maybe I'll really luck out and Santa will throw me a brick of them for Christmas! All I can do is hope he doesn't aim for my head. Until next time...

Preparing For The Scaring

2011-10-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

A few posts back I mentioned that I have been preparing a one shot Call Of C'thulhu adventure for my gaming group so I figure its time to take a look at just what I'm talking about. The adventure that we are going to play is actually one of the most played adventures for CoC ever written (makes sense since it has been their introductory investigation for years). Only seems fitting since no one in my group has ever played the game, not to mention you have to figure they would have the bugs worked out of the adventure by now.

In the book they give you a basic layout of the story (including plot hooks for further investigations if your players want to pursue them) but a lot of it is left open so that you can give the adventure your own personal touch if you want. To do this I decided to focus on a few things so that I could add a little flavor to the game and also make it easier for my players to get into the swing of things. The first thing I did was take a look at the location.

The investigation is set in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1920 and I decided to stick with this. The game can easily be changed to other time periods but I like the idea of using the twenties. Technology was definitely on the rise but no where near as advanced as the present day. As for the location I really like the idea of this all happening near Arkham since it is the heart of Lovecraft country and Boston does have a rich history to draw form as well. A few quick Google searches were enough to not only help me find some of the key locations but also give me a basic idea what the city was like then.

Another point in favor of setting it near Arkham was the fact that most of us had played Arkham Horror recently. This made coming up with the mostly pre-generated characters a snap as I based most of them off of characters that we'd used in that game. This gave me a loose background for each of them that I was able to work into a back story so the investigators actually had a reason to be together. With it being a one shot the last thing I wanted to deal with was trying to get everyone out of the tavern and into the adventure.

You may have noticed that I said the characters were mostly pre-generated. In Call of C'thulhu your character has occupational skill points that are assigned to specific skills and personal skill points that can be used for anything. To give the players some freedom to add a personal flair to their character I left most of the personal skill points unassigned so that the players can add their own personal touch without having to go through the whole process of building the character from scratch.

I also took their character sheets one step further by making them into small files about the different characters. In addition to their character sheet I included a one page bio about each investigator complete with picture. This was all put into individual manila envelopes that were labeled with the character's name and occupation. Since they are based on the Arkham Horror investigators, I was also able to get some pre-painted minis for all for of the characters as well.

When it comes time to play I'm going to lay out the four envelopes on the table with their respective minis, let the players choose which one they want to be, then crack open the envelopes to see just who they are playing. All of this was very easy to do and I'm excited to see just how the group reacts to it.

This particular investigation also makes reference to some newspaper articles that the players might stumble upon that could give them clues about just what they are dealing with. Unfortunately there isn't an actual handout for these bits of information but after a few minutes on Word I was able to whip up my own articles instead. Admittedly I could have just verbally given them the information but I really like the idea of being able to actually hand them to the players.

With all of these bits of prep done, the only thing left is find a time when we can get the group together for a game. Not exactly sure when that will be but I'll definitely be doing a write up for it so expect more on this in the not too distant future. Until next time...

Man Does This Look Familiar...

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Me be Vorka and you be dinner!

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

The goblin goodness continues! With the party finished, its time to take a look at the critters those lucky goblins will get to meet on their quest for fireworks! First off is Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many. Bet you can't guess what she is!

Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many

Technically Lotslegs is only a giant spider so this figure really is too big but I like the idea of at least making the spider visually scary and what better way than making it frickin' huge? Unlike most of the other minis, this one is not from Reaper Miniatures though they do have a very good selection of spiders to choose from if you're looking for them. Instead I decided to use a spider from my Descent game as it seems appropriately creepy, not to mention the fact that I already own it (always a plus in my opinion).

Next we have Scabtongue, Tickletooth, and Cuddles. Don't they sound lovable?

Scabtongue, Tickletooth, and Cuddles

According to the scenario these three are a group of vicious dogs. Reaper does have some pretty sweet looking figures for war dogs but I decided to go with the slightly more fantasy generic wolf pack. With wolves and goblins almost going hand in hand for most fantasy worlds it just seemed more versatile. I don't know how often I would have players encounter guard dogs but wolves? I'm just wondering if three is enough....

Finally there is the crazy cannibal herself, Vorka, and her pet frog, Lord Longtung.

Vorka the cannibal and Lord Longtung

Vorka is yet another mini from the goblin pyro pack. This is another one that could be easily modified so that it has a more human looking hat but I decided that the goblin "helmet" would work for her in this case. To differentiate between the PCs and Vorka I painted her clothes grey plus she has a pretty distinctive pose which is always a plus.

For Lord Longtung I actually went to another Fantasy Flight Game and pulled out one of the frogs from the Talisman Revised 4th Edition game. Again this was a case of convenience for me but if you don't have this and are looking for giant frog minis I'd recommend hitting Reaper for them first.

And there we have it! Well, almost anyway. There is one mini left for the adventure but when my daughter saw that I was prepping a horse she asked if she could paint it. Haven't had a chance to sit down with her to get it done but I plan on doing it soon and then we can have the big reveal for the final critter in the game, Stomp.

With all of these now finished I just have to wrangle the group together for a game. Hopefully that will be in the next couple of weeks and I'll be sure to pass on the word of just how successful this "merry" band of goblins makes out. Until next time...

The Ultimate Celebration Of Beer

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

He be Mogmurch! Chuffy be me!

2011-10-01T08:00:00.003-07:00

The goblin goodness continues as I have more minis painted! Here's the rest of the party...

Chuffy the rogue and Mogmurch the alchemist

As I mentioned before I'm trying to use the paint schemes to make the different characters really pop though I must admit that I really didn't do anything special for Chuffy. He has the wonderful goblin feat pustular which means he has a serious case of teenage acne. I was going to paint his face so that it looked pretty nasty but I like how he turned out so I'm just going with the generic goblin look. The only other one that is close to being so generic is Poog but he is easy to pick out as he has the spear.

Mogmurch is a different story. He has a skull face mask so I went with skull face paint for a quick and easy solution. Of course he's also supposed to have a club instead of a sword but I think that the face paint is enough to make him stand out.

With the party done, now its time to get to the various NPC critters but more on them later. Until next time...

Me be Reta! He be Poog!

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, things have been a little quiet around here, at least on the blog anyway. I've been working on a few different projects lately including the We Be Goblins game that I mentioned last week. So for painting for that is coming along very well. Why here are two of the little knee biters now!

Reta the fighter and Poog the cleric

For the We Be Goblins characters I wanted to try to stay as true to the characters as possible without having to do a lot of modding so I decided to focus on different paint schemes instead. Reta for example is supposed to be wearing a wedding veil and a halfling ladies' corset. To keep it simple I picked out one of the goblins wearing a headpiece (complete with feathers even!) and armor that almost looked a little like a dress then I painted it white-ish. Poog on the other hand is the only goblin wearing a chain mail shirt and carries a javelin so I used on of the spear wielding goblins for him and painted his chest armor like it was made of metal. I've still got more to do but so far I'm really happy with how they are turning out so far.

In addition to painting up these little suckers, I've also been prepping a special Halloween game of Call of C'thulhu! No one in my group is very familiar with this game so I decided to go with the pre-gen character route. This will let us sit down and get right into the game plus it gives me a chance to get creative with the scenario prep work. In addition to making some handouts for the game I'm also making up some character files for the different pre-gen characters and I've also managed to get my hands on some minis for the game as well! Of course all of this isn't necessary but I happen to love Halloween and if I'm going to do a one-shot for it I want to make sure I do it right.

But wait, that's not all! If you call now you can also get... oh wait... sorry. Got carried away with myself though there actually is more. I'm also putting together a Halloween Fear and Faith battle report plus there is still more to come for the Mutants and Death Ray Guns mini campaign. Lots of stuff in the works so I'm off to do more work. Until next time...

We Be Here!

2011-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year Paizo released the We Be Goblins module for Free RPG Day. I loved the look of it so I made sure to download a copy as soon as it went live on their webstore and unfortunately there it has sat since then. I've skimmed through the adventure and I really want to run it but the timing has just never seemed to line up with my group. We went into a strictly boardgame phase for a while plus there were scheduling issues for part of the time... Ah, the joys of herding cats! (Actually our group isn't anywhere near that bad but its fun to say...)

Recently we started to swing back around to getting RPGs back to the table so I've been looking around for quick things as additional options. SpacerGal and I both has Pathfinder campaigns in the works and I've got a good portion of the arc for my Gamma World game plotted out and ready to go. Even so I wanted to have a few things that we could throw on the table for one shots so I dug into my hard drive and pulled out We Be Goblins again.

For those of you that might not have heard about it this is a first level goblin adventure. That's right, to heck with being paragons of virtue, the characters in this game are a bunch of vicious little green bastards... well, except the one in the wedding dress. And no I'm not kidding. For this adventure I decided to pull out all the stops so it was off to the Warstore I went looking for minis. Here's a quick look at what I picked up....

Two packs of Pathfinder goblins and a pack of wolves by Reaper Miniatures (also in the pic are a couple of adventurers for SpacerGal's Pathfinder game). Add to this a spider from Descent and a really old horse miniature from Games Workshop and you've got yourself an adventure! Now I just need to get them primed and painted but that will have to wait until next time...

Arrrr Matey!

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

As Above So Below

2011-09-17T08:00:00.002-07:00

Welcome to London Below

I recently had a chance to watch a BBC television series called Neverwhere. Released in 1996 the story was created by Neil Gaimen and has also been released as a comic series and a novel as all under the same name. The story in the television series opens with Richard Mayhew heading to dinner with his fiancee Jessica when they come across a young woman who lying on the ground and bleeding. Richard feels that he must help her and much to Jessica's annoyance he picks the girl up to take her to the hospital. The girl regains consciousness long enough to ask Richard not to take take her to the hospital so he takes her to his house instead and thus begins his fall from London Above to London Below.

Personally I really enjoy these kinds of alternate reality shows and movies so I really enjoyed Neverwhere. I can really see either pulling the whole setting or even just parts of it into some kind of modern horror setting like World of Darkness though there already is a Neverwhere RPG out there and you can't beat the price; free. Just head on over to RPGNow.com and you can find both the original version of the game and also the third edition as well. I haven't had a chance to take a look at either edition so I'm not sure how good they are but I definitely plan on checking both of them out.

As for the television series, I really enjoyed it but it is an English series and some people might have a hard time getting into it. Must admit that I don't know why it is but there's just something about English shows that some people just don't enjoy. Kind of like anime, ya know? Even so I definitely recommend at least giving it a shot as it is an interesting story. Until next time...

Seeking Shelter In The Wastes

2011-09-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

In the last MDRG battle report, the Enforcer Leader Gabriel was able to grab the artifact and left the Survivor's camp with Rebecca in tow. The rest of the Purists did not fare so well, including the vaunted Saint Mark who was cut down by Darius, a former member of the Purists.

As the two of them traveled across the wastes, they stopped at a nearby settlement where they meet up with a couple of Enforcers that were scouting the area. Realizing that they are seriously lacking in their ranged capability, Gabriel also enlisted the service of two human mercenaries; one who calls herself Kali and carries a massive chain gun (mechanically its an assault rifle though I don't think that even begins to cover it...) and the other is Celina. Having left the settlement earlier in the day, the group decided to take shelter in some ruins for the night. Little did they realize just how little shelter that had actually found...

For this scenario, the board is laid out as you can see below.

The Purists are taking refuge inside one of the ruins in the center of the board while the rippler bugs are coming on from the two long edges of the board. I also decided to use the twilight rules from Fear and Faith just to add a little something different into the mix.

The ripplers with the first turn as they are surprising the Purists.

The two from the southern side of the board swept forward to engage the Purists while the two bugs on the northern side remained at a distance, watching their new found prey.

On the Purists turn, Kali attempted to disengage from the rippler that is next to her but she slipped on some rubble in the ruin and fell to the ground where the rippler was able to make short work of her. Rebecca and Gabriel both charge forward seeking retribution and together they are able to dispatch the flying insect. Meanwhile Lucius moved out of the ruin towards one of the bugs still hovering in the distance and Sarah is able to stun the bug that is threatening her.

For their second turn the two ripplers from the north both swept in, one attacking Lucius while the other attacked Celina. Both of the humans were driven back by the giant insects but neither one was wounded. The other rippler was able to stagger to its feet and eyed Sarah warily.

Celina opened fire on one of the ripplers but the bullets bounced harmlessly off its thick chitinous shell. Lucius moved back into the ruin to try to block either of the bugs from charging Celina as she prepared to take another shot. The rest of the Purists held their positions as the last few rays of sunlight disappeared and night started to settle in.

After watching the bugs skitter about for a minute (yep, two failures on the first activation for the bugs!) the Purists decided to launch themselves against these abominations.

Rebecca and Gabriel both let loose their battle cries and charged the lone bug to the south. Still its thick shell proved too strong but they were able to stun it and drive it to the ground again.

The two bugs to the north dashed forward to engage Lucius but he was easily able to hold off their blows. Meanwhile, the other bug again clambered to its feet and tried to decide which of its opponents was the biggest threat.

Sarah attempted to swipe at the bug and had to dance backward from its slashing claws. This left it open for Rebecca to return the favor as she tried to pierce its shell. Lucius was also able to force back one of the two ripplers facing him which Celina then tried to shoot but again to no avail.

Trying to single out their prey (and because I forgot that one of the bugs was actually locked in combat with Lucius... ah the joy of oversize bases...) two of the ripplers pounced on Sarah but she was able to easily avoid their blows for now.

As the rest of the Purists gathered round to keep one of the insects distracted, Gabriel was able to leap onto one of the ruined walls and bring down a fatal blow on the insect!

With their opponents distracted, the two remaining ripplers pounced on the humans. Sarah was able to drive one of them back but the other swooped in behind Gabriel and knocked him down off the wall!

Enraged by the giant bug, Gabriel leaped to his feet and smashed the bug that had knocked him down. With only one bug left, the rest of the group surged forward at least keep it pinned down.

The rippler lashed out and was able to knock Rebecca to the ground but Sarah was able to rush to her aid and destroyed the last bug with one mighty blow. With their ambushers destroyed the Purists returned to their camp and passed the rest of the night uneventfully. At least until next time...

"One more thing..."

2011-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

While sifting through the myriad of options that are available on Netflix streaming I happened to stumble on a cartoon from 2000 that is definitely worth checking out.

I remember watching some episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures years ago but never the full series. I've recently been able to remedy that (well, I've seen most of the series now...) and I'm glad I did.

The story revolves around Jackie Chan (go figure) but in the series he is your average archeologist who finds himself pulled into a race to prevent a ancient demon from being released from his prison. And that's just the first season! The supernatural twists continue in the second season as the demon tries to release his brothers and sisters from the extra-dimensional prison. Even though this is definitely done as a kids cartoon series, I can see a lot of potential for ripping ideas into your own game... plus its fun to watch which is always a good thing. Until next time...

Ya gotta admit it is kind of awesome

2011-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Battle For The Future Begins Now

2011-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

With my Purist and Survivor warbands made up it was time to get them to the table! The question is what kind of a battle should I have them fight.... The rule book for Mutants and Death Ray Guns (or MDRG for short) comes with suggestions for six different scenarios for campaign play. While I like the look of all these scenarios I decided to just make up my own after looking over my terrain. For this scenario, the Ranks of the Pure are raiding the Survivors base camp.

While scrounging through a nearby ruin, the Survivors uncovered some bits of Ancient technology. They haven't been able to figure out exactly what they do but they are keeping the for now until Darius and KROM-89 can figure them out. Meanwhile the Purists have heard about this discovery and Saint Mark has some suspicions about what they might be. Knowing that such artifacts should not be left to the mutant scum that roam the wastes, he quickly gathers a small group and launches a lightning quick raid so they can "liberate" the artifacts.

The camp consists of a couple of shanty style buildings (think random bits of steel and wood attached to posts), a couple of scrap piles, a couple of small woods, and a couple of old craters. To keep things simple all of these terrain pieces count as rough terrain while the woods use the normal rules from the book. The shanties are handled a little differently though. They are treated as woods as far as models shooting out of them but unlike normal woods these models can be shot at though they do have cover. For movement purposes they are treated as rough terrain but models can freely move through the walls as they are too flimsy to slow anyone down much.

Next the Survivors are placed inside their buildings and then three markers are placed in the shanties to represent the artifacts the Purists are looking for. These are represented by the neon green flags on the board. These represent the possible places the artifact are located. To actually find it a Purist must spend an action to search. If all three markers are on the board it is the right one on a one in three, if there are two markers then it is on a one in two, and obviously if only one is left it must be the one.

For their first turn, the Purists charge forward. Saint Mark charges into the shanty and opens fire on Mordac. Catching the mutant completely by surprise, the Saint is able to quickly burn him down with his laser gun. Acolyte Rebecca swings around the southern end of the shanty to explore one of markers while Enforcer Jacob smashes through the wall to search the other marker. Finally, Enforcer Delilah charges forward to engage Jorchak.

The Survivors are stunned by this sudden attack and are momentarily stunned, missing any opportunity to act (ah, the joys of failing on the first activation...).

The Purists continue to press their advantage as Saint Mark and Delilah are able to force Jorchak to the ground. Jacob tore through the pile of junk and couldn't find the artifact so he headed off toward the other shanty along with Gabriel. Meanwhile, Rebecca moved up to the pile she was supposed to search and apparently saw something she didn't like the look of as she just stopped and stared.

Darius and KROM-89 both manage to finally shake off the shock of the attack and move themselves into position to attack the Purist intruders.

Darius doesn't have the range with his flamethrower but KROM opens fire with his pistol, driving Jacob back into the other shanty in search of cover.

The Purists opened turn three with Enforcer Delilah slaying Jorchak while Rebecca finally dug through her pile of junk only to find... nothing.

With only one possible spot left, the rest of the Purists quickly turn their attention to the remaining shanty and the Survivors therein.

With the Purists rushing their position, Darius and KROM opened fire on Saint Mark and are able to drive him to the ground while El-lea bursts through the wall of the shanty to engage Enforcer Jacob.

Enraged by the insolence of the mutant scum, Saint Mark rises up and opens fire on Darius. Only by a stroke of sheer luck was Darius able to dive back into the relative safety of the shanty and avoid being burned down like Mordac. Delilah and Rebecca both rush forward to help their Saint while Jacob and Gabriel are both overcome by El-lea alluring pheromones and are unable to do anything.

Knowing that Saint Mark will stop at nothing short of slaughtering them all, Darius moves forward and lets loose a blast of fire from his flamethrower. Again his luck holds out and Saint Mark drops to the ground dead. Meanwhile El-lea tries to take advantage of the confused state of Enforcer Jacob but he is able to shake it off long enough to block the killing blow.

Jacob again succumbs to El-lea's allure but Gabriel is able to shake off the effect. Running forward, he grabs the artifact and makes a break for it. Rebecca stalks forward toward Darius and KROM while Delilah charges El-lea and forces her back.

Confused by Gabriel running away from the battlefield, the Survivors were again stunned into inactivity.

Jacob is able to shake off El-lea's allure long enough to rush forward to attack her but only manages to drive her further back into the shanty. Meanwhile the rest of the warband begins falling back to meet up with Gabriel.

Realizing what the Purists were after, the Survivors quickly recover and lash back out at the Purists. KROM tries to shoot at Rebecca but isn't able to get a clear shot off. Darius decides to take the bull by the horns and runs forward to blast Delilah with his flamethrower, burning her down on the spot. Finally, El-lea moves forward to lock Jacob in combat again.

This renewed ferocity catches the Purists by surprise and leaves them momentarily stunned. (Yep, it was their turn to fail on the first roll.)

Trying to press home their advantage, KROM opens fire on Rebecca and strikes true but her force field cuts in and saves her. El-lea continues to trade blows with Jacob while Darius tries to see where Gabriel went to with the artifact.

The Purists continue their retreat with both Rebecca and Gabriel managing to make it to safety.

Jacob is not so lucky as KROM and Darius both move in to help El-lea finish off the Enforcer. Surrounded it was only a matter of time until he finally fell under El-lea rain of blows. Even so, it is a hollow victory. The Ranks of the Pure managed to escape with the artifact and two of their companions had been seriously injured in the raid. The only thing left for the Survivors would be to exact their revenge. Until next time...

But Only The Strong Shall Prevail

2011-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Now that we have the Purist party it is time to create someone for them to cleanse. While the previous party was all based around one faction, this party is going to be a mishmash group of survivors who have banded together for mutual protection.

The nominal leader of this motley little group is Mordac the mind manipulator.

Mordac (re-based Star Wars CMG mini)

Mordac is a human mutant with telepathy and light projection, and is equipped with a force field. With this telepathy to potentially stun targets while he blasts others with his light projection, Mordac is actually a pretty potent all-round fighter.

Next in the group is Darius.

Darius (Dark Age Forsaken Weaponsmith mini)

Darius is a pure human who used to be a member of the Ranks of the Pure until he realized the true evil they were willing to perform in pursuit of their goals. Equipped with a flamethrower and trained as a gunsmith, he provides the human technical support for the group.

Next is the maintenance robot KROM-89.

KROM-89 (Mongoose Publishing Paranoia RPG mini)

A useless husk when they first found him, KROM has become a pet project for Darius. So far Darius has been able to reactivate this old robot and trained it to assist him with maintenance. Just like Darius, KROM also is trained as a gunsmith and has a pistol built into its arm. Between him and Darius this will let the Survivors ignore the first two malfunctions with their ranged weapons which could come in handy.

Jorchak the reptilian bounty hunter is next.

Jorchak (re-based Star Wars CMG mini)

Jorchak is a mutant human who is trained as a sharpshooter and equipped with both an assault rifle and flak jacket. His scaly skin also makes him more durable than your typical human as represented by the tough mutation. This combination makes him one of the most potent in the party as he can not only dish out a lot of damage, he can take quite a bit as well.

Last but not least is El-lea .

El-lea (Rackham Confrontation mini)

El-lea is also a mutant human but her specialty is close combat. In addition to her massive sword, she is skilled as a hand to hand specialist and her mutations let her move faster than normal and also exude a pheromone that intoxicates those who get too close to her.

In their explorations this group has also managed to scrounge together nine food points and six energy cells that are shared amongst them all and rounds them out at 284 points for the warband. This won't hold them for long but its definitely better than nothing.

Unlike the Purist group, this ragged little band has a little bit of everything but definitely has an emphasis on ranged combat. This will make them a potent adversary for the Purists at least until they are able to get into close combat. When that happens we'll just have to see how things play out, starting of course with a battle between the two groups... but that we'll get into that next time. Until then...

The Pure Shall Survive

2011-08-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Doesn't it figure? SpacerGal comes back and then I disappear for a bit! It looks like things should be back on track for me now as well so without further ado its time to get to that post-apocalyptic goodness that I'd alluded to earlier and what better system than Mutants and Death Ray Guns by Ganesha Games. For my first party I decided to make a Purist party using the construction rules that Ganesha recently released. I happen to have some Dark Age Forsaken miniatures that will work out very nicely for this so without further ago I started crunching the numbers. For those of you who might not know, the Purists are just what they sound like; humans devoted to continuing the human species as it has always been, without mutation. Fanatically devoted to cleansing the world of those they deem impure, the Purists are will to work along side androids and robots as these have not been touched by the corrupting force of mutation. Sound like a fun bunch, right?

First and foremost in the warband is Saint Mark, hero of the Ranks of the Pure.

The heroic Saint Mark (Dark Age Forsaken mini of the same name)

Now I don't normally like copying the miniature names but in the case of Saint Mark it just seems to make sense. He's obviously better equipped than the rest of the Forsaken minis I have and I kind of like the idea of the leader of the Purists calling himself a Saint. In this case he is also going to be a major points sink as he is one of the most potent members of the party as well. He is a hero which guarantees that he will have an automatic success on his quality rolls and he is equipped with a powered hand weapon, a laser gun, and heavy armor. This should make him very durable, not to mention that his ability to deal out some serious damage as well! I had also toyed with the idea of also making him a champion as well but that would have driven his points right through the roof so I decided to just make him a hero. Hopefully between his high combat and armor he will be durable enough as is to last through the campaign though only time will tell.

Next in the warband is Saint Mark's loyal attendant, the Acolyte Rebecca.

No picture as I'm not happy with her paint job yet (Dark Age Forsaken Reaver mini)

Unlike Saint Mark she does not have any ranged weapons as she specializes in close combat. In addition to being the champion in the party she is also a hand to hand specialist. This makes her very potent in close combat but leaves her vulnerable to ranged attacks. In an attempt to mitigate this she also has a force field to give her some protection.

Finally are the three who make up the bulk of the party, the Enforcers Jacob and Delilah who are lead by the Enforcer Gabriel.

Enforcer Leader Gabriel with Enforcer Jacob and Delilah (Dark Age Forsaken Coil minis)

All three of the Enforcers are hand to hand specialists and are equipped with the frenzy combat drug. This makes them very potent in close combat though it does leave them potentially vulnerable to ranged attacks.

This leaves the warband with three more available equipment choices which I'm going to use to get a bunch of food and energy cells (eighteen of the former and nine of the later to be specific) which will be distributed evenly though the warband. All told this rounds out the party nicely at 291 points and all the food and e-cells should make them very survivable for campaign play as they won't have to worry about scrounging up more of the essentials right off the bat.

Don't these just sound like a bunch of fun loving individuals that you'd want to invite to your next family picnic? Yeah, didn't think so. Of course the game wouldn't be any fun if the Ranks of the Pure didn't have someone to "cleanse" so next time we'll take a look at the motley band of survivors that I managed to cobble together. Until next time...

Back With a Vengeance

2011-08-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Ground control to SpacerGal your circuit's dead, is something wrong? Can you hear me SpacerGal? Can you here me SpacerGal?! Here, I've been floating 'round my tin can, far above the world. But, I'm back, rock references in full force, bringing you a roleplaying update, a big boy game review, AND a Child at Heart review! I figure I've been gone for far too long, so why not come back with a bang? So without further ado, let's get things started!

Saurian Insanity

So, as the Snowman mentioned, the addition of the Saurian druid variant in Pathfinder's Ultimate Magic book really made me want to step out from behind the screen and be a PC again. The concept was a little bit more Land of the Lost than Conan, with me never speaking English while in character. Instead, whenever using first-person dialogue, I plan to use the (ready for this under-rated reference point?) Star Fox Adventures saurian language spoken by all the dinosaur planet inhabitants during cut-scenes. Pretty crazy, right? But hey, that's how I do, getting wacky for experimentation's sake. As far as settings go, the Snowman and I have been collaborating on both a high- and low-fantasy versions of dinosaur inhabited worlds for characters to explore. Full write-up on that to come once we finish fleshing it out in it's entirity.

Returning to Raccoon City...

I was down at one of the local game shops lately and stumbled across the Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game. I still had some fun money, and the box has my main RE squeeze on it, so we picked it up and gave it a whirl. Turns out, Bandai and Capcom have turned out a pretty great, fast-paced, (kinda) balanced DBG that I think can definitely stand up with the other big boys coming out this year from Fantasy Flight.

Look at Leon Kennedy all silly with his bangs all around. Yay!

Normally, with a game in a genre getting as crowded as the deckbuilding genre, I'd make a comparison to another game, but I've never actually played Dominion, or Thunderstone, or any of the other hyped up titles. Being my first encounter with a DBG, I didn't fully know what to expect other than a slightly "different experience with each game." So let's dig in and see what makes this game stand out in my collection.

First off, this game is easy to learn, and easy to play. Obviously there are certain strategies to it, what to buy for your deck and when, but overall, anyone can play this game, and I think that's nice. I have a ton of friends who aren't tabletop gamers, but would give this a try simply because of the franchise, and they wouldn't be lost or confused. Every turn, you get an Action, Buy, and Explore to use, and can earn more depending on what cards you play. Actions are used to gain extra damage, draw extra cards, score more Buys, and other cool effects. Buys are pretty obviously when you spend money to add a card to your discard pile, which shuffles and resets as your deck every time you run out of cards. Exploring lets you hunt zombies to kill and score points, but don't get too hasty to score, because if you can't kill the random zombie that flips from the top of the Mansion deck, you'll end up with damage, and that can mean loss of turns, or even the whole game.

We most often play Mercenary mode, one of the three different game modes provided in the rules. It's the fastest played and the least based on stalling and grinding up a ridiculous deck, plus all the characters are more unique, in that they get specific staring decks instead of the stock one used in Versus and Story modes. In Mercenary, you have 15 rounds to score as many points worth of dead zombies as possible, giving it a rapid-fire arcade type feel. It also removes the three super-huge zombies from the Mansion deck, so you don't have to be worried about being one-shot. In Story, the first player to kill the one copy of the biggest infected monstrosity wins. With him coming up at random, and being ludicrously powerful, it can be a frustrating game when you get blasted for 70 damage out of your 80 health on turn 2, but the duration means you can spend more time fine-tuning and customizing your deck. Versus is just what it sound like. Instead of using your Explore action to fight zombies, you shoot at other players, aiming to be the last one standing. With how powerful some of the character abilities are, it seems this mode can get unbalanced really fast, but it is a fun little diversion if you feel like really mixing things up a bit. No matter what game mode you are playing, you use a Scenario to determine what cards will be used. There are certain basic resources that are always there, which are the Knife, Pistol, Green Herb, and three levels of ammunition/gold. The Scenarios add 12 more cards to the available purchasable pools, called resources, and they are usually themed. For example, the Special Forces uses a lot of higher-powered specialty weapons and bonus ammo and damage actions, whereas Mobility uses less super guns and more actions that draw cards and add to your deck. This added variety on top of three included game modes makes Resident Evil remarkably replayable, and a blast for anyone into zombies, the RE franchise, card games, or fun.

I Wanna Be the Very Best

Pokemon. I love it. Look at me however you want with those judging eyes, but this 24-year-old is all about Pokemon in whatever form she can get it. Video games, plushes, figures, and of course, the card game, which is what we're here to talk about. Having not played the card game since my middle-school years, I figured I'd pick up some new theme decks and give it a whirl. Needless to say, I still find it as fun as I used to, but I do have some criticism for it.

Two new theme decks from a brand new set, featuring Krookodile and Scolipede. I'm positive you can figure out which is which.

One of the first major things I noticed when in the store was the sheer size of the deck box. I thought, this thing is huge for just housing a 60-card starter deck. But when I got home and cracked it open, I discovered that it didn't just have a deck of cards in a huge plastic insert. Take a look at this craziness!
That's a deck, a sheet of surprising decent quality damage and status counters, a set checklist in poster format, that giant two-player starter mat everything is sitting on top of which has the rules printed on the back, a 16-character code card that unlocks the deck for online play on the Pokemon TCG website (more on that later), a shiny little coin for all the coin-flip effects in this game and my favorite part, the thing I think should come with EVERY boxed card game product......Oh em gee, a deck box. Cardboard yes, but still, a nifty deck box themed to the deck to hold your new cards in when not using them. I could kiss whoever thought to include these in the marketing department. Now that I've gone over what you get in the box, let's actually look at playing some Pokemon TCG.

The rules to the game are simple. At the start of the game you put out a basic pokemon as your "active" pokemon and may place as many additional basic pokemon as you like in your "bench" area as "bench pokemon." If your active is defeated, one of these is chosen to step up and replace it. After you've got your pokemon out, you take the top six cards of the deck and set them aside as "prize cards." For each pokemon of your opponent's you defeat, you pick up a prize card. Pick up all six and you win! Each pokemon has at least one attack printed on it to start walloping your opponent. These attacks require energy cards to use, and you can only attach one energy per turn, much like lands in magic. Think your active pokemon is going to get dropped in one more attack? Maybe you should attach the energy to something on your bench so it can come in powered up, or do you take the risk and build your active up further in the hopes of riding it out? Energy management can make a huge differences in these games. Also, you can evolve one pokemon per turn by placing a higher stage version of it on the basic form. For example, that Scolipede up there is a stage 2 pokemon, so I'd have to have his stage 1 out in order to put him into play. And in order to get to the stage 1, I'd need the Basic pokemon that the stage 1 comes from. This keeps the game from slamming out too fast, but I did notice that, with a handful of exceptions, the first person to get out the big stage 2 beasties tends to sweep from that point on. We did have several games in which a player stabilized and managed to turn it around, but in general, big guy first usually means the win. In addition to pokemon and energy cards, there are Trainer cards, things that function like sorceries and instants in Magic, one-shot abilities that help you draw more cards, or search for things you need, or even heal your pokemon. From what I've seen, these are what REALLY make or break the game. A well placed extra draw or hand replacement can change everything in a heart-beat, and while all decks have access to them, it makes it feel like a very luck-based game now that I'm older and more versed in card gaming.

So, all in all, the game is still a blast, but the fact that almost the entire game is hanging on who scores the better draw can get a little frustrating. I've been reading up on the super-competitive aspects of the game, and it's almost all dependent on accelerating draw, so even above the casual level it's a pretty luck-based game. If you're looking for something light, or have someone in your life who loves pokemon, it's at least worth a look with a couple theme decks.

Oh! That's right, the online thing! This is a really cool new thing implemented in the last couple months, and I think it's a fun way to get more bang for your buck out of card gaming. When you sign up on the website, they give you three basic decks to play with that can't be modified. There are currently several different NPC challengers to play against, and if you're really feeling daring you can play against other live players. The new theme decks all have codes in them to add them to your digital collection, and with the deck-builder system currently in beta, it won't be long before you can use fully customized decks to play computers and challengers alike online. yeah, Magic's had MtGO for a long time, but it's nice to have my physical collection digitized without having to rebuy digital copies.

Last Transmission

Ah, it feels good to be back. I hope you all enjoyed my giant return as much as I have, and from now on I'll try to keep my Warp-wandering to a minimum. Next week's post is up in the air subject wise, but as always, you can expect something kiddie and something random. Oh that's right! I'm running a Beyblade tournament at the North 5th Street Toys 'R Us this Saturday, so if you're in the North Las Vegas area, come check it out. Who knows, maybe you'll even make it into the Dispatch!

Now That's Just Disturbing...

2011-08-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Perfect Prelude To Some Post-Apoc Gaming...

2011-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Song Of Blades And... Death Rays?

2011-08-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Recently Ganesha Games announced that they are working on some changes for their game Mutants And Death Ray Guns (or MDRG for short), a post-apocalyptic miniature game that uses the Song Of Blades system. The game currently uses a random system to generate your warband. You choose the basic types (human, mutant, mutant plant, etc.) but any skill, mutations, and equipment are all rolled randomly. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it really captures the post-apoc "scrounging to survive" kind of feel but with my own WYSIWYG background with 40k I have stayed away from this particular rule set.

Now they have announced that they are working on some construction rules for MDRG so I decided it was time to check it out. From first impressions it looks pretty interesting and the random nature actually doesn't look like it would really cause that much of a problem as few of them are so extreme as to require some vast alterations. Don't get me wrong; I still like the idea of being able to choose just what I'm going to use but I can see doing a random campaign over a couple of evenings just for kicks to see how it plays out. But more on that later...

As for the rules as written in the book they look pretty good. The game includes a simple campaign system that lets you add some flavor to your games instead of just fighting random battles. I can also see ways to expand it using a simple map to track territories that you control and potentially collect resources from which would add an interesting element in my opinion. Gonna have to start working on that 'cause it sounds like a lot of fun....

Overall, I like what I see so far. I haven't given the game a test drive to see just how it all fits together but as the Song Of Blades system is a pretty sound one I can't see there being much wrong with this one. Now I just need to put it through its paces which means more battle reports soon! Until then...

"In a way, Batman, this was the site of your first great failure."

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

As I continue my quest to watch some of the movies on my Netflix streaming queue, I decided to go with one that I'd heard was good but never watch. Let me tell you I'm glad I made the time.

Batman: Under the Red Hood is definitely not your afternoon cartoon fare. Starting with a beating and heading full steam into a bag full of heads, this movie is a grim portrayal of the Dark Knight which makes it pretty awesome in my book. The plot weaves around as Batman tries to deal with the latest crime lord of Gotham. I'll admit that the identity of the main villain isn't much of a surprise but it was definitely fun to watch the story play out. If you haven't watched this movie yet and you are a superhero fan, I definitely recommend checking it out.

I Mean Seriously... Who Wouldn't Want One?!?

2011-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Force Is Strong In This One

2011-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Now who doesn't know that line, right? It turns out that Fantasy Flight Games is very familiar with it as they are currently working on two different Star Wars games. First up is the Star Wars LCG.

Following their fine tradition, FFG has made this an LCG instead of a CCG. For those of you who might not know the difference, a CCG is a collectible game so each booster you buy contains a random selection of cards. Some of the cards are more common than others so it can quickly degenerate into buying tons of packs just to try to find one card or spending a ton of money to buy it on eBay. An LCG is different though as each set contains a set selection of cards. If you and a friend each buy a set you will both have exactly the same selection of cards to choose from. Personally I prefer the later as I've seen the former turn a group of mild mannered gamers into a ravening horde. Not pretty, let me tell you...

In this case, the Star Wars LCG will focus on the original three movies as it pits the Rebel Alliance (that would be you) against the evil Empire. There is not that much information available about it yet but it does look like it could be interesting. Plus its meant for 1 to 4 players which gives you tons of options. We'll definitely have to take a look at this one when more information is available though I have to say that it already has me intrigue.

The second game is X-Wing which is a game of starfighter vs starfighter combat in the Star Wars universe.

From what I've dug up it uses mechanics similar to the WW I dog fighting game Wings Of War at the heart of it. I've never played Wings but I've heard good things about it so that bodes well for the game in my opinion. The starter box also comes with "stunningly detailed and painted miniatures" which is another huge plus. I mean really what Star Wars fan wouldn't want something like that even if they never played the game? The one thing that really makes me wonder at this point is just how many of each ship they are going to include. The X-Wing is markedly better than the TIE fighter so you really couldn't field one against one and have an even battle. Unfortunately this bit of information is has not been released yet so all we can do is wait and see.

What's more is these are only the first two releases that FFG is looking to do. No details yet but their site says that they will be announcing more Star Wars card, role playing, and miniature games in the coming months. Looks like another one that we'll have to keep our eyes on.

Finding The Path To The Painted

2011-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Paizo Publishing announced that they were going to be working with Wiz-Kids to release a set of four pre-painted player character minis for their new Beginner Box set. Well yesterday they announced the full line of 40 different pre-paints that will be available in their new Heros and Monsters set. Among the 40 minis will be a mix of large, medium, and small creatures that should cover the basics that you would need for a solid RPG mini collection.

The bad news is that they are being done as a blind purchase instead of open package so you won't know what you've gotten until you have it open. The price point is also a little high in my opinion with the large booster (containing 1 large base critter) running $5.99 and the standard booster (containing either 1 medium base or 2 small base critters) running $3.99. No these are not horrible prices but for a blind purchase it seems a little steep to me.

Hold your horses though as the doom and gloom don't have to carry the day. The initial set only includes 40 different minis and by Paizo's estimation you should be able to get almost the whole collection if you buy one of the factory sealed cases. Yes this will run you about $275 but when you consider that includes 12 large base monsters which would normally cost more than the $6 price point the random booster has I'm inclined to think that it starts to balance out. For those who say "but I want a horde of goblins not just one" Paizo has an answer to that call as well as they are planning to release Encounter Packs which will not be random. They haven't said officially but I'm assuming that these will feature the more common critters that people would want to have en masse (such as orcs, goblins, etc., etc.) so you don't have to buy a ton of cases to get a handful of goblins. There is no price point for these yet but they should average about six figures in each Encounter Pack.

In addition to all of this, Paizo posted a FAQ that explains their reasoning behind doing the random route from a business perspective and it honestly makes sense. This doesn't make it cost any less but I can understand why they are doing what they are and I can respect that kind of open communication from a company.

So what's the final verdict? Well based on what I've seen so far I think that these are a good option for whatever RPG game you might be playing. The examples that they've shown look nicely sculpted and painted, plus it sounds like it will be a nice entry point for those looking to get a good assortment of RPG minis for the first time. Add in the Encounters Packs and I see a huge potential for building up a good selection of minis for a fairly reasonable price.

It Only Seems Fitting...

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

"I suppose nothing hurts you." "Only pain."

2011-07-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

One of our RPG group has recently been going gaga over dinosaurs with the release of Ultimate Magic by Paizo Publishing. One of the class variants listed in it is the Saurian Druid and she's just crazy excited about it. To help her scratch the itch for that class I've been trying to think up some kind of setting that I could throw them all into where dinosaurs would make sense but I've been having a hard time finding something that fit the bill. To try to get some inspiration, I decided to bust out the popcorn and hit NetFlix streaming for some old fashioned sword and sorcery adventure.

The Conan movies and stories are something that I just never got into when I was younger. I liked fantasy as a setting but just never thought about even taking a look at the works of Robert E. Howard until recently. Since I had some time to kill and no book to read I went with the next best thing which was the old Conan movies with Arnold. Unfortunately the original is not available for streaming so I went with the next best thing, Conan the Destroyer.

I must admit that I went into the movie with pretty low expectations. As I recall this was one of Arnold first movies so I wasn't expecting any fantastic dialogue and being made in the early 80's... well like I said; low expectations. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised when I was proven wrong.

I'm not saying that this is some award winning movie but I definitely think that it worth taking a look at. The acting was much better than I was expecting and it was pretty entertaining overall. Even the special effects were better than I expected especially considering when it was done. The story is kind of predictable but even so it was fun to watch it play out.

One of the things that I found really interesting was actually the climactic battle at the end of the movie. Near as I can tell there this story is not drawn from the Robert E. Howard original works but there was a definite Lovecraftian overtones to it. Given that Howard and Lovecraft actually corresponded with each other quite a bit it makes me wonder if this feel was something that the script writers actually drew from the novels or if this was just something they wanted to put in. Might be time to hit the library to do a little "research"...

But I digress. If you are looking for some sword and sorcery mayhem on the big screen I'd definitely recommend checking this movie out. I've heard the original is better but I still think this one is worth watching.

Ain't It The Truth...

2011-07-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just Don't Say A Word...

2011-07-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Recently we have been bringing a truly insane game to the table more and more often with our friends. Perhaps we should not expose them to such madness for fear of what it might do to them. Perhaps it was our own madness drove us to do such a thing. No matter for now we must tell the world of that which is... unspeakable.

Unspeakable Words
published by Playroom Entertainment

Unspeakable Words is kind of like Scrabble in some ways and like Boggle in other ways. Basically you have a hand of seven letter cards that you use to make words which are worth a number of points depending on which letters you use. Oh and you also have to roll to see if you go insane. Yes that's right, we are talking about Scrabble with a Lovecraftian twist.

The inspiration for this game comes from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos as you are a researcher trying to find those words which man was not meant to speak. The hounds of Tindalos are coming for you as you seek but you have totems which will protect you... for a time.

In this game you are using the cards in your hand to try to makes words which are worth a number of points depending on how many angles are in the various letters. For example, an O is worth nothing while an A will get you 5 points each. To win the game you have to be the first player to reach 100 points... and still be sane. Each time you play a word, you score the value of the word and then you need to roll a sanity check on a d20. If you roll equal to or higher than the value of the number then everything is fine. If you roll less than the value then your grip on reality is starting to slip and you need to sacrifice one of your totems to remain sane. You still score the points but you are one step closer to losing your grip on reality and the game. The only exception to this is when you are scoring the winning word. For this one you have to pass you sanity check or you don't get the points which adds a nice bit of tension to the game. Your about to win but you have to make sure that you can make the die roll or else it will all be for naught and you'll have to try again next turn.

There are also a few optional rules which add even more Lovecraftian feel to the game such as the Unspellable Oath or Psychotherapy. The Oath lets you play any combination of letters when you only have one totem left (its amazing what crazy people say...) while Psychotherapy lets you discard your had to try to earn back a totem.

Overall I really can't recommend this game enough. The game play is fast and fun, the components are really nicely made, and its even still in print! That's right folks, I actually talked about something you can go pick up without spending a small fortune. So go check it out... but be careful what you say...

Icarus Rising

2011-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

For my first game of Warcosm I decided to break out some Cold Navy miniatures that I'd picked up years ago. These minis were originally produced by Xtreme Hobby but they have changed hands a few times since then. Currently the line is being produced by Ravenstar Studios and they have been expanding the ranges for all four of the races that are covered. I haven't picked up any of the Ravenstar minis but they look very nice on their website and I think I'll look at picking up some more to flesh out my rather small "fleets". The two different factions that I'm using are the Terran Navy and the Kharadorn Royal Navy.

One of the things that the Warcosm rules includes that I really like is a random scenario generator. If you don't have a specific scenario in mind all it takes is a few rolls to breath a little life into what could otherwise be a fairly stale battle. "My ships are gonna blow up yours because you stink. So there." Now that's a great reason for to interplanetary navies to fight each other...

For this first game the scenario is a blockade run. The a couple of Terran warships are trying to break through a Kharadorn blockade to deliver vital information and are attempting to take advantage of an increase in solar flare activity to do this. The flares are disrupting sensors for both fleets but also make entering hyperspace a risky proposition. Their only hope is to break through the blockade before any more Kharadorn ships are alerted and move beyond the flares so they can make good their escape.

From a mechanical perspective, the mission was a blockade run with the Terrans trying to escape the far side of the board. The time limit on the game was triggered when two ships on one side were destroyed at which point the game would end in two turns (this number was determined by a die roll so it could have been much higher). The board was affected by solar flares which effectively reduced all the to hit rolls by one and can make hyperdrives malfunction.

Now that the the stage was set, it was time to unleash the fleets and see who would prevail.

The game opened with the two battle groups approaching each other. Between the limited ranges and the solar flare activity there was no way that either side would be able to hit each other even after they moved so we move swiftly on to the next turn.

The Terrans lost the reaction roll for the second turn so are forced to move first and fire second. As anyone can imagine, loosing the reaction roll can put you at a massive disadvantage as you attempt to guess where your opponent will end up so you can keep him in your firing arcs and then hope you survive the incoming shots so you can return fire. In this case there is little for the Terrans to do but drive straight across the board as they tried to break through the Kharadorn lines. In response the Kharadorn ships sweep into position to launch their opening attack. Combining their firepower, the Karria destroyer and one of the Gerrakk frigate are able to pound through the armor plating on the Masada destroyer and score a critical hit that disabled one of the forward laser turrets. The second Gerrakk focused it fire on the Northhampton frigate but only managed to score a minor hit on its shields. The Terrans were quick to retaliate as the Masada and the Northhampton both focused on the Karria, destroying its shields and armor in one fell blow. Meanwhile the Northhampton also let loose a missile on the first Gerrakk and managed to take down its shields and destroy its armor. Finally, the Terran fighter squads opened fire on the Kharadorn ships. The attack on the Karria failed to inflict any damage but the second squad managed to rip apart the already damaged Gerrakk scoring the first kill of the game.

The Terrans finally managed to win the reaction roll for the third turn which left the Kharadorn at a major disadvantage as they struggled to get into the best position to attack. Meanwhile the Terrans continued to rocket forward toward the far side of the board. As they were not in position to get off the board yet the Terrans were forced to hold back most of their firepower this turn though one of the fighter squads managed to damage the second Gerrakk. The Kharadorns were under no such restrictions and let loose with all their available firepower. The Northhampton managed to escape unscathed but the Masada started bleed out atmosphere as it took damage to its frame.

The Kharadorns won the reaction roll for the fourth turn which left the Terrans in a very poor position as they would be firing second. With little else to do the two captains blasted toward the far side of the board and safety. This was short lived though as the Kharadorns were able to swing their ships into the perfect position to let loose a barrage against both of the Terran vessels. The Northhampton lost its armor plating and the resulting explosions swung its nose to port but the essential systems remained online but the Masada was not so lucky. Laser and rocket fire from the Karri ripped into its hull and blasted the ship apart.

At this point I called the game as it was clear that there was no way for the Kharadorn to stop the remaining Northhampton from escaping to safety making the whole scenario a minor victory for the Terrans.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really enjoyed this system. It is fairly simple in its execution but not so much as to be dull and boring. I realized towards the end of the game that there were some rules that I was misplaying as a few of the rules are a little unclear as to exactly how some things are defined but these were relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. I also quickly noticed that it seems like this system would be able to handle anything from small skirmishes like this all the way up to a full fleet action with relative ease which is impressive in itself. Combine all of this with the very open framework that the game is built on and you have a fun light space combat war game.

Space... the final frontier...

2011-07-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Blasting Out Of This World For Some Interplanetary Action!

One of my oldest loves when it comes to gaming genres is space combat. Whether its fighter vs. fighter or fleet vs. fleet, I've always had a soft spot for space games. While digging around I recently unearthed some star ship miniatures that I bought years ago so I decided its time to grab a rule set, stat them up, and get them on the table! Of course the real question is just which rules should I use?

The first system I decided to try is Warcosm which is available from the fine folks at DriveThruRPG (psst... there's a link at the top of the page). This game has some setting elements slapped on but it is basically just a rule set which is fine with me. I think its more fun to dream up the fluff myself so a skimpy setting is perfect. The other thing this rule set has is construction rules which in my mind is a must and also a major factor in staying away from some of the bigger names in the space genre.

Next up after that I'll be taking a look at one that was released almost twenty years ago but the company is still producing minis for it to this day. Which one is this? None other than Full Thrust which is now available as a free download at the Ground Zero Games website. Unlike Warcosm, Full Thrust has a very well developed setting and covers a number of different factions most of which even have their own lines of miniatures that are available from their web store. It also has a ship construction system so if you are not interested in using the canon universe you can easily create your own faction, race, or entire universe if you want which as I've said before I consider a huge plus.

After that... well, I'm not sure what I'll look at after that. There are a number of other space combat systems out there but for now I think these two are as good place as any to start. But more on that soon...

Well crap...

2011-07-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well it turns out that my slight scare from yesterday had more to it than I had originally suspected. Today we lost access to our external hard drive again though I don't think that any information has been lost (keeping the fingers crossed here...). Unfortunately most of my gaming information is currently trapped in the Purgatory of the inaccessible hard drive which might put a bit of a spanner in my posting schedule but I'll see what I can do to keep things coming. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogcast already in progress...

Nooooooooo!!!!!

2011-07-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it Tuesday? So why a motivational for today of all things? Well, after thinking that I'd lost all of the information on my external hard drive yesterday morning this was definitely how I felt.

Thankfully it turned out to be a glitch so it was alright in the end but damn if it didn't scare the piss out of me!

Really Diggin' Dem Bones

2011-07-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

At our last gaming session SpacerGal kept raving about this game she'd picked up for her Nintendo DS, saying that it was even better than Pokemon. Personally this is like saying that strychnine is better than cyanide but after listening to her go on about how great Pokemon was it got me thinking that maybe I should check this game out. Just what game was it? Why none other than Fossil Fighters.

In this game you play a budding young fossil fighter hoping to prove that you have what it takes to become a master fossil fighter. To do this you have to find and clean fossils of various dinosaurs which are then used to create a vivosaur copy that you can battle with. Kind of an odd concept but it sounded intriguing so I decided to bite the bullet and pick it up to see if it was as good as SpacerGal said.

I still don't know how it compares to Pokemon but I have to say that Fossil Fighters is a fun little game that challenges you on several levels. Finding the fossils is relatively easy but before you can make use of them you have to clean them. This is done using the touch screen on the DS to break and drill away the rocks from the precious bones within but be careful! If you just go at the rock willy-nilly you will not only break the rock but probably the fossil as well. At best this will make you vivosaur weaker than it should be but it could make the bones completely useless as well.

Once you have created your vivosaurs from the bones that you successfully cleaned it is time to fight! To do this you must choose which vivosaurs you will have on a team and then pick which team to use. In my opinion this is one of the places where the game really shines as you can either just pick whatever looks cool to you or you can get deeper into the mechanics of the whole thing to create a balanced team to take to battle. Each vivosaur has different strengths and weaknesses and its up to you to create a team that you can take to the "table" that is strong enough to beat you opponent and get you one step closer to becoming at Fossil Fighter Master.

This game is definitely worth picking up in my opinion. There is more depth to it than first meets the eye but even that depends on the user. Feel like just screwing around? Go for it. Want something a little more in depth as far as strategy? This game can give you that as well. And the really cool thing about it? You can get it for less than $20. A fun game at a great price is a combination that you just can't go wrong with.

Here's Hoping You All Have A Happy And Safe Fourth Of July!

2011-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Gulo Gulo Gono Gono

2011-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

After several months of role playing games, our little group has decided to take a short break from the play acting and bust out some board games. Mind you we are not talking about the more traditional games like Monopoly or Life here but something with a little more depth to them (Yeah, I admit that I'm a board game snob) so I thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of them.

Gulo Gulo
published by Zoch Verlag and Rio Grande Games

Okay, so maybe Gulo Gulo doesn't necessarily have more "depth" than you typical mainstream board game you can buy from Wally World but I would be willing to say that it's more fun. This is a dexterity game which might turn some people off but in my opinion it makes a great game for kids and adults. The fluff behind this game is that the baby gulo (aka a wolverine) was caught by a swamp vulture whose eggs it was trying to steal. Now the grown up gulos are trying to save him and grab a few eggs for themselves along the way.

The game "board" is constructed of a number of hexagonal tiles that are laid out face down on the table. During a player's turn, they can either try to move to tile further along the track by doing one of two things. They can either flip over one of the face down tiles and trying to take the wooden egg of the same color out of the "nest" without setting off the alarm or they can try to move to further along to a tile that has already been flipped by attempting the same thing. The catch is that you can only move to the next closest space of that color so if you flip over a yellow tile, you can only move to the next closest yellow tile in the path. This adds a little bit of strategy to the game as you try to decide whether to chance the random tile flip or go with what you can already see. To win the game you have to move the length of the track, find the baby gulo and take the purple egg out of the nest, thus saving the poor little baby who was just looking for a good omelet.

Of the kids games out there on the market I really think that Gulo Gulo was one of the best ones at crossing the lines between the something mindless like Mousetrap and something more advanced, making it an ideal game for families. Or at least it would be if it was still in print. As I was writing this I hoped over to Board Game Geek only to find out that the game sadly went out of print at the end of last year. Truly a shame as this is great children/family game. That said I'm sure that there are still a few copies floating around out there that have yet to find a home. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones to find it hidden away on a shelf in your LGS be sure to snatch that sucker up before it disappears forever.

Something My Gamma World Group Won't Have To Worry About...

2011-06-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Out Into The Wastelands

2011-06-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

First Impressions Of The Gamma World 4e RPG

We managed to have two firsts this week in our gaming group. We finally got Gamma World 4e to the table and it was run by none other than yours truly! I've never actually GM'ed a game before so it was an interesting experience. There was a brief moment in the beginning when the three of them were just sitting there looking at me and it was like "Crap! Now what do I do?!?!?" After a brief moment of panic, I was thankfully able to shake it off and get things moving along.

As for the game system, it worked as smoothly as I'd hoped. I threw in a couple of skill checks early on but for the most part we just focused on the role play element for the first half of the game (and let me say that anyone who says you can't role play in 4e has never tried). As we moved into the second half we got into the crunchier part of the game with few combats and some skill challenges to mix things up. While combats are fully covered in the rules, the idea of incorporating skill challenges is something that they never mention. Overall I think they worked fairly well though they didn't seem to be too much of a challenge as the group passed them most of them with ease (might have to crank up the DCs next time...). Even so they are definitely something that I want to keep incorporating as they add something different instead of just having the group grind through combat.

The one thing that we really did notice was the need for a battle mat which I suppose isn't too surprising. I had decided to try to free form the adventure that they ran through and it worked fairly well for the most part. There were some moments that having things laid out on a map would have been easier though, especially since one of the characters is a pyrokinetic (burn baby burn!). Then again he really doesn't mind setting the other PCs on fire so that's one less thing to worry about (his quote of the night "I hate you all.").

The only other thing that I was kind of surprised by was how quickly the players can potentially level up. After one just one session the group is already up to level two which is what I was hoping for but with the way that the levels are laid out in the game it will be very easy for them to keep moving up the ladder very quickly. Definitely not a complaint as I want them to be able to reap the benefits of higher levels but it was slightly unexpected.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend giving Gamma World 4e a try if you haven't already. The system does work really smoothly and the setting is so wide open that can really do almost any take on the post-apocalyptic future that you want to use, be it something a grittier or just madcap hijinks, Gamma World 4e has the potential to cover it all.

We Be Licktoads, You Be Food!

2011-06-22T08:00:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was Free RPG Day at local game stores. Not familiar with it? Basically it is a chance for people to come down to their local shops and try out something new, plus get something free from the store for coming down. Have a friend that's been thinking about getting into gaming? Bring them down so they can sit in on a game and see just what this crazy things is that you do with your other friends, Twizzlers, and Mountain Dew. Who knows? They might just like it...

One of the products that caught my eye as soon as it was announced was the free adventure being released by Paizo Publishing for their Pathfinder game. I wasn't able to get down to one of my local game stores but you can still get the adventure right from their website.

What is this marvelous masterpiece of fantastic exploration? Why it's none other than We Be Goblins!

In this adventure for four players, the adventurers get to play... have you guessed it? That's right! Goblins!!! Packed with four pregenerated characters, this little adventure makes a great one shot and also serves as a prequel to the upcoming Jade Regent adventure path. Even if you aren't using the published adventure paths in your gaming group, there's no reason not to pick up We Be Goblins. You can't beat free for a price and come on, who doesn't want to play a goblin one time, right?

Fun With Fully Automatic Weapons!

2011-06-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I Didn't Mean Ta Bug Ya...

2011-06-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

More Critters From The Desert Lands

In the scorching heat of the Desert Lands, various new species of insects and reptiles are some of the most commonly encountered forms of animal life. Most of them run wild but there are a few that have been domesticated in one way or another.

Kafer

Kafer are very large, very territorial insects in the wild. They typically travel in small groups and will attack virtually anything that enters their territory. To make matters worse, the fully grown kafers are extremely protective of the young and they will go onto a rampage if any young are severely injured near them.

Kafer Runt (Level 3 Brute)
Medium terrestrial beast, 150 XP

HP 36; Bloodied 18
Initiative +4, Perception +3, Dark vision
AC 20, Fortitude 14, Reflex 14, Will 11
Speed 6

Standard actions
Gripping mandibles (physical) at-will
Attack: Melee 1; +6 vs AC
Hit: Target creature takes 1d6+3 damage.

Str 16 (+3), Dex 12 (+1), Wis 10 (+0)
Con 12 (+1), Int 1 (-4), Cha 8 (-1)

Kafer Bull (Level 5 Brute)
Large terrestrial beast, 200 XP

HP 68; Bloodied 34
Initiative +4, Perception +5, Dark vision
AC 22, Fortitude 17, Reflex 13, Will 14
Speed 8

Standard actions
Rending mandibles (physical) at will
Attack: Melee 1; +9 vs AC
Hit: Target creature takes 1d10+4 damage.

Move actions

Trample (physical) at-will
Effect: The bull moves up to 6 squares and enters enemy squares. This movement provokes opportunity attacks and the bull must end its move in an unoccupied space. When it enters an enemy's space, the bull makes a trample attack.

Attack: Melee 0; +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: Target creature takes 2d6+4 damage and is knocked prone.

Triggered actions
Protect the young! (physical) at-will
Trigger: A kafer runt within 4 squares is bloodied or killed.
Effect (Free action): The bull shifts 4 squares while using trample.

Str 18 (+4), Dex 10 (+1), Wis 12 (+a)
Con 14 (+2), Int 1 (-4), Cha 8 (-1)

As dangerous as they are in the wild, it is fairly common to see kafer used as domesticated beasts of burden or even as mounts. Before they can be used in this capacity, however, they must be "spiked". This process involves driving a long metal electrical device into the back of the creatures head. Once inserted and activated, the spike reduces the kafer to a docile and compliant state.

Domesticated Kafer (Level 3 Brute)
Large terrestrial beast, 150 XP

HP 50; Bloodied 25
Initiative +0, Perception +0, Dark vision
AC 20, Fortitude 15, Reflex 11, Will 10
Speed 8

Traits
Gentle As A Kitten: A domesticated kafer is an incredibly passive animal due to the spiking process. Unfortunately this also means that they are completely useless in combat.

Str 18 (+4), Dex 10 (+0), Wis 8 (-1)
Con 14 (+2), Int 1 (-4), Cha 8 (-1)

Bringing The Pain To A Planet Near You!

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Spicing Up 3:16 Carnage Among The Stars

One of the games that we have waiting in the wings is 3:16 to be run by yours truly. For any of you who aren't familiar with the game, it's a sci-fi role playing game where all of the players are members of the with a simple mission; kill every alien they encounter. When you enter combat, you are supposed to use some kind of marker so that you know what range the players are from the enemy as it affects how many you can kill if any. The rules recommend using glass beads or something similar but I decided to dig up some old minis that I have instead.

These are some Space Rangers minis that I happened to find a few years ago at one of our local game stores. When they were originally released, they were sold in giant sets of 30 per box but nowadays they are a much more conservative 5 per box. Must admit that I wish I'd grabbed some of the big boxes back when I was in high school but just the five will work for me now. The mini with the sword and pistol is sergeant, the one with the big gun is the corporal, and the other two are just generic troopers. As you can probably tell, they are still a work in progress at this point but I'm not planning on going too heavy on the detail with these guys. They are effectively just fancy game pawns so all that really matters is that we can tell who is who for the game. Expect to see more on them once they are finished.

It May Be Cute And Fuzzy But It's Still Creepy!

2011-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

So What's The Deal With This Place Anyway?

2011-06-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Expanding On My Gamma World Setting

So here I've made up a bunch of new and borrowed critters to populate my wasteland setting (one of which I showed you last week), but what exactly is going on in this place? Helps to know that part too, doesn't it? Lets take a closer look at it to see just what's going on.

In the decades since the Big Mistake things have changed. Anarchy ruled for a while but in the end Humanity always tries to give things order so he can make sense of it all. Sure random chaos can be fun but in the end there is that part of the brain that demands structure and order be imposed on the world, preferably with that individual at the top of that structure. It doesn't end that way for most people but some of them have got the knack to make it happen.

Even after everything was blasted away it was these individuals that started beating back the chaos and imposing their order on the world, or at least this corner of it anyway. The years ground by and some semblance of civilization started to claw its way from the ashes. Whether they were benevolent leaders or ruthless dictators, most people were just glad to have some kind of order to cling to.

Through all this time, Desert Lands stood as an impenetrable barrier between the Texas Territory of Merica and the far west. A blazing inferno by day and a frozen waste by night, it long served as a natural defense for the various powers of Texas. Few have been mad enough to try to cross it and none have returned to tell the tale... until recently. One lone survivor of a small group that set out to find a path through the Desert Lands came stumbling back, raving about forgotten tombs of the Ancients and the treasures they contain. Of course no one believed a word he said but then he showed them what he'd brought back.

Within weeks, the strongest powers of the Texas Territory had set up the first of the border towns and groups of fortune hunters were being recruited and sent out into the wastes. Most of them were never seen again, but enough came back that word got around and more came to take the place of those who had been lost.

At the same time, the Kaiute tribes from the Okayhome Territory to the north began pressing down into Texas, ravaging any human settlements they encountered. The various human factions tried to unite and stop them but overcoming years of distrust can't be done in a day and for now all they can really do is hope to slow down the advances of the tribes.

Months have past since the survivor returned and almost a half dozen border towns now sit along the eastern edge of the Desert Lands. They send out a steady stream of explorers into the wastes seeking lost technology that the might help turn the tide and stop the Kaiute advances or at least line their own pockets for a while. Do the Desert Lands hold the key to turning back the tribes? Will the answer be found by these ragtag groups of mutant bastards before its too late? Only time will tell...

I still need to work out some of the details pertaining specifically to the characters (such as the border town they'll be operating out of, some of the places they'll explore, things like that...) but I'm really excited at how its pulling together so far.

And Now We Move... Into The Third Dimension!

2011-06-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Quest For Minis For Our Pathfinder Game

After doing some exploring in the wide world of Leviathos, we started to realize that we were having a little trouble keeping track of just where everyone was during combat. Sure we could have just used some spare dice or something similar but we wanted to do it right. Off to the internet!

Our party consists of a dwarven monk, a gnome rogue, and a gnome summoner. Kind of a wacky mix but surprisingly enough it was pretty easy to find the minis we needed. If you head on over to the Reaper Miniatures homepage you can search by specific key words that let you really narrow it down to almost exactly what you are looking for.

Between the massive range of minis they produce and the ease of using the search engine on their site, I definitely recommend hitting Reaper Mini for your fantasy mini needs. In fact you might want to check them out for other genres as well since they recently added in the Chronoscope line of figures that expand their range even further. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already!

Welcome To The New West!

2011-06-03T08:00:00.001-07:00

Developing My Post-Apocalyptic Setting

Ever since I first read the original Gamma World rulebook years ago, I've loved the setting. Exploring a world that's been devastated by technology more powerful than Humanity was meant to wield, picking through the detritus of a future society that was destroyed in ages past.

I was never able to get into a game all those years ago but when I heard about the new edition of Gamma World coming out I was excited at the possibilities. I finally had a group that I would be able to role play with again so exploring the ruins of Gamma Terra was at last an option!

For those of you who might not be familiar with the latest iteration of the game, it uses a variation on 4e for the game mechanics. Some aspects have been drastically changed (no feats, a very condensed skill list, etc.) but at its heart its still 4e which is actually one of the problems that I'd been running into.

Even though the basic rules have a wide variety of creatures to draw from to populate your world I have never been one to take the easy route for such things, plus I have some pretty specific things in mind as well. Unfortunately one of the things that GW 4e is lacking is a system to make your own creatures, at least in some kind of a balanced fashion. So how do you get past this rather annoying hurdle? In my mind there are two options that are available.

Number 1: Use the tools that you have at hand. Try to focus on the options that have already been presented to you and possibly re-skin some of them into something closer to what you have envisioned. This is all well and good but for someone as stubborn as I am the other option is more appealing. Can you guess what it is?

Number 2: Wing it! If all else fails, just make shit up!

To that end, I've decided to post some of the critters that I've concocted (or found) to live in the Desert Lands that are the American Southwest in Gamma World. Are they balanced? Hell no... but hopefully they won't be as completely out of whack as they could be. With all that said, lets take a look at what we can find...

Cactisaurus

A particularly nasty mutation of the Saguaro Cactus, these monster plants grow in a single column up to 20 feet in height, topped by a hideous set of gnashing jaws. The plant is surrounded by a network of tangle vines that grow just beneath the surface of the ground. When hapless victims blunder too close and become entangled, the main body attacks them with vicious bites. On top of all of this, the Cactisaurus Rex can let loose a sonic blast when it is wounded as it tries to stun those near itself. Every year the Rex releases small number of mobile seed pods which are called Squealers by the locals because of the weaker sonic squeal they make when they are wounded. While no where near as dangerous as the parent plant, even the squealers can cause some serious damage if left unchecked.

Cactisaurus Rex
Level 4 Lurker
Medium animate plant 175 XP

HP 48; Bloodied 24 Initiative +4
AC 17 Fortitude 17 Reflex 14 Will 15 Perception +5
Speed 0 Tremor sense 5

Traits
Hide in plain sight: The Cactisaurus Rex look like a regular cactus to the untrained eye. Players must make either a DC 20 Perception check or a DC 16 Nature check to recognize them as a threat. Otherwise the cactisaurus automatically gains surprise.

Triggered actions
Tangling Vines (physical) at-will
Trigger:Creature enters or starts its turn within 2 squares of the plant.
Attack (Opportunity Action):Melee 1 (triggering creature); +9 vs. AC
Hit:Target creature takes 1d6+2 damage and becomes immobilized (save ends).
Miss:Target creature becomes slowed (save ends).
Special:Any creature that starts its turn immobilized within 2 squares of the plant takes 2d8+6 physical damage.

Sonic Boom! (sonic) encounter
Trigger: Cactisaurus becomes bloodied.
Attack: Close burst 4; +7 vs. Fortitude
Hit:Target creatures become dazed (save ends).

Str 14 (+2) Dex 10 (+0) Wis 12 (+1)
Con 16 (+3) Int 2 (-4) Cha 10 (+0)

Squealer
Level 1 Skirmisher
Small animate plant 100 XP

HP 34; Bloodied 17 Initiative +2
AC 15 Fortitude 13 Reflex 13 Will 11 Perception +1
Speed 6 Tremor sense 5

Standard actions
Nom nom nom... (physical) at will
Attack:Melee 1; +5 vs. AC
Hit:Target creature takes 1d8+2 damage.

Triggered actions
Sonic Squeal! (sonic) encounter
Trigger: Squealer becomes bloodied.
Attack : Close burst 2; +4 vs. Fortitude
Hit:Target creatures become dazed (save ends).

Str 12 (+1) Dex 12 (+1) Wis 10 (+0)
Con 14 (+2) Int 2 (-4) Cha 10 (+0)

A quick side note... I must admit that the Cactisaurus (along with some of the other critters you'll be seeing in the future) is not an original creation from my diseased imagination. You can find the original creature at the Mutant Bastards New West page which I've mentioned before. New to you? Then go check it out! Lots of interesting ideas, some of which I'll be borrowing in the future, but more on that later...

Okay, Kind Of An Inside Joke But Still...

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Wait. You Want To Do What?

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Argh!!!

2011-05-14T17:38:00.001-07:00

Well crap. There was a post that was supposed to go up on Friday then apparently blogspot decided to delete it. Argh!!! I'll have get it retyped and post it soon. Until then I'll just have to sick dog-bunny on blogspot to get my revenge.

Until next time...

Hey It's National Barbeque Month! Who Knew?!?

2011-05-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Songs Of Silence And Torment

2011-05-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Silence From Space

First off, I just wanted to let everyone know that SpacerGal is still with us in spirit if not in text. In case you hadn't noticed, she has been doing her post on Tuesdays but just like Mrs. Brisby, moving day is almost upon her so there might be a slight delay as she gets settled into her new digs. No worries though as she will be back with more of her insights into RPGs, kids games, and anything else her fevered little brain can conjure up.

Singing The Songs Of Torment
A Song of Torments Reach Battle Report

Yes, the much alluded to but often postponed battle report is finally here! I finally managed to squeeze in some time to break out my own take on the Malifaux setting using some home-brewed Song of Heroes rules. So how did it go? Let's break it down and take a look...

Assembling The Crews

For this battle I decided to go with the two crews that I've already talked about here on the blog, the Guild and the Arcanists. For more details on just who is in each, you can click here for the Guild or here for the Arcanists. Now place your bets because its time to throw down!

Setting The Scene

As this is basically a playtest of the rules that I've added into the game, I decided to keep the terrain pretty basic. Just a couple of buildings and a couple of forests is all.

The defending Guild crew are deployed along the right side of the board...

...with the attacking Arcanists along the left.

The Arcanists activate first and thanks to Sasha's leadership ability are able to make some serious headway on the first turn, using the building and the forest to provide them with some cover as they advance.

The Guild followed suit on their side of the board as most of the crew moved up by the house while Samael moved through the forest to see what he could see.

Going into turn two starts with Boomer rushing one of the Guild Guards but despite the odds being heavily against the unfortunate Guard, the giant mechanical menace only manages to force him back!

Unfazed by this turn of events, the rest of the Arcanists advance as well, trying to get themselves into position to attack next turn.

Faced with the awesome combat power of the Boomer, Sonnia launches an potent arcane bolt at the machine but fails to make it even flinch as the energies surge over its armored hull. Stunned by this, she orders the two Guards to concentrate their fire on it and amazingly enough they are actually able to force it back under a maelstrom of flying lead.

Turn three opens with the enraged Boomer barreling forward to smash one of the Guards while Sasha lets loose her own arcane bolt to fry the other Guard and the rest of the crew moves forward to get into position to take out Sonnia next turn..

Gathering her arcane powers again, Sonnia unleashes another bolt at Boomer but again fails to do anything to it! Knowing she is no match for the machine in close combat, she retreats behind the nearby house where Jeremiah Smythe, the convict gunslinger, has taken up position.

On the other side of the board, Samael has been busy trading shots with with gunslinger Valeria for the past couple of turns but neither of them have managed to do anything to the other. This continues yet again even though Samael closed the gap between the two of them first.

For turn four, Taryn lets loose a flurry of lead as she rapid fires at Jeremiah on the opposite cover of the building but he is able to duck back before any of the shots can strike home. Feeling heady with the success of her crew so far, Sasha moves herself up into the open and lets loose another arcane bolt as she tries to remove Jeremiah from the equation. Bearing the brunt of the blast, Jeremiah simply grits his teeth and stands his ground against the magical onslaught.

On the other end of the board, Valeria opens fire on Samael and finally is able to break the standoff as she forces him back into the forest.

Seizing their advantage, Sonnia and Jeremiah both let loose against Sasha and are finally able to bring her down under a tempest of lead and fire. With their leader dead, the rest of the Arcanists start to fall back but none of them flee the battlefield.

Paralyzed by the lose of their leader, turn five opens with the Arcanists doing nothing as they try to assess their chances. Meanwhile, the Guild try to capitalize on the situation with Jeremiah and Sonnia attacking Taryn but their heady success against Sasha made them overconfident as they again failed to do anything to their new target.

Samael chases after Valeria and attempt to bring her down but just like the rest of the crew manages to do nothing at all.

At this point, I decided to call the game with the Guild winning. Sasha Dubois had been brought to justice and the rest of the Arcanists headed for the hills to lick their wounds and plot their revenge.

The Dust Settles

Overall it was not a bad game though a number of bad die rolls made it much longer than I'd expected. From Boomer failing to kill a simple Guard to the Guild failing to connect in all of turn five, both sides were plagued by bad die rolls for combat though almost all of their activation rolls were phenomenal. There are a few things that I'm going to change though as I noticed they really were limiting the game, the biggest offender being the range limits.

For this game I was using the penalties and limits that are laid out in ShadowSea which effectively caps your ranged combat at three lengths from the attacker. As a majority of these crews were equipped with pistols, this was a massive disadvantage as it meant that the had to almost get into melee before they could effectively shoot. For the next game I'm going to use the range penalties from Flying Lead which will almost double all of their ranges and should make them that much more deadly... provided everyone doesn't choke on their die rolls again.

I also want to add some flavor to the arcane abilities as right now Sonnia and Sasha are both technically flinging around the same type of energy. Instead I want to add some kind of aspect to their individual magic types, in this case electricity for Sasha and fire for Sonnia. I also am going to modify the energy resistance special rule so it is more specific and add in a energy weakness rule as well to make models more susceptible to other types of energy. For example, I am thinking of making Sonnia resistant to fire but giving her a weakness to ice to really play up her whole fire mage flavor. Not sure on the details but I definitely want to give it a try. I guess we'll just have to see how it works out in the next battle report!

The Parting Shot...

And there's another one in the books! Since I have my new photo editing program program up and running there shouldn't be any more delays in the future (knocking on wood...). If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here on the blog or you can drop me a line at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Remember, feedback is always welcome! SpacerGal should also be back with her insights either this week or next, so be sure to come back and see what other insanity we can get up to here at the Dispatch! Until next time...

You Can Only Deliver So Many Eggs...

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I Guess I Could... No. Maybe? No, Not That Either...

2011-04-23T08:00:00.001-07:00

A Look At The Wondrous Joy That Is Writer's Block

All of us have run into it at some point, be it in gaming or that mythical thing known as "real life". You're sitting down to get your next adventure or scenario ready. You've got your drink, a snack, your notebook or computer. Everything you need to just sit down and crank out the next great piece of the story. The last session was a blast with a lot of really close moments in there so its time to add the next chapter to this epic thing that you are a part of! All you have to do is sit down and start writing it up.

It sounds so easy doesn't it? To just tap into that vast sea of creative knowledge and let the inspiration spring forth. The only problem is that sometimes the spring runs dry and you are left with nothing but dust. So now the question is, what do you do?

DON'T PANIC

These words are just as true for you as they are for the average intergalactic hitchhiker. There are lots of sources of inspiration right at your finger tips. All you have to do is look for them.

Looking Backward To Walk Forward

One of the first things to consider is what you've done so far in your game. Was there some point where the party went right instead of left? Some contact that they either dismissed or maybe didn't even encounter? Tapping into one of these ideas does require more work than some of the other options but they have the advantage of already being part of your overall campaign which should make them easier to weave into the story.

Another thing to keep in mind is to keep the adventure hook challenging. Maybe you had this idea jotted down early in the campaign but now your players are more experienced. If this is the case make sure you buff up any encounters they might have so that it isn't a cakewalk for them. An easy encounter every now and then isn't a bad thing but there is such a thing as too easy.

Ripping From The Media

Another great source of inspiration is the one that bombards us on a daily basis. Be it books, movies, TV shows or even current events, there are millions of ideas out there just waiting for you to tap into. The only trick with this one is making sure its not too obvious to your players.

For example, let's say you are playing a World of Darkness game and the latest episode of Supernatural really caught your eye. Wouldn't it be awesome to see what your players would do if they were in that situation? Sure it would... as long as they didn't just watch the same episode you did.

If you are going to rip an idea from the media, it is always a good idea to find some way to tweak it, preferably early on in the session. This will keep the players that might be familiar with your inspiration from zoning out and just following the script of the episode to solve the challenge. By revealing your twist early in the session it lets them know right away that you've not just spitting out exactly the same material which should also keep them from mentally checking out of the session.

Prepackaged Goodness For Your Enjoyment

Yet another option is grab one of the many prepackaged adventures of your shelf and crack it open. Sure, it might not be the Shakespearean level of adventure that your accustomed to running but if you're tapped out at the moment it doesn't mean its a bad idea.

With everything laid out in front of you it gives your creative juices a chance to recharge some and it might even inspire you in new directions. Maybe there's a character in the adventure that really strikes your fancy and you decide to bring him back in again in the future. Could be your characters really like some part of the setting and decide to spend some more time there exploring their options.

Just how easy these are to find really depends on what system you are running but if you search around a bit you might be surprised at what you find.

Hey! I'm Talkin' Ta All Y'all Out There!

By now any miniature gamers who are reading this might be thinking "Man, more RPG stuff?" but these ideas can apply to mini games just as much as role playing games. Most people that I talk to prefer the idea of a story based campaign over just throwing their minis on the board to see who can kill who first. Porting these ideas over to a mini game might require a little more effort but it doesn't mean that it can't be done. One of the big changes would be in the form of prepackaged adventures as most mini games don't have access to these kinds of resources available... or do they?

Instead of looking for an book, look at the minis you own instead. Maybe there's one figure that you've been dying to get onto the table or some piece of terrain that you built but have never had a chance to use. Stop and think about what you already have and you might be surprised at what you can come up with.

The Parting Shot...

Well, that wraps up my post for this week but be sure to come back and see what SpacerGal and I are up to. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them here on the blog or send them to SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Feedback is always welcome! Until next time...

Players? Oh, you mean my guinea pigs!

2011-04-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks! Yet again I have procrastinated my post up to the wire, but it's all good as long as it's posted in time. This week we're going to talk more about some of the new experimental methods I am using in my Pathfinder game with the Snowman, and will be briefly introducing a new ongoing subject in the SpacerGal postings. So without further ado, here we go!

Director's Cut: It's... breathing!

Let's get this out of the way first. I really enjoy online gaming. More specifically, the free to play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game side of things. F2PMMORPG... Even the acronym is a handful. But anyways, my love of the genre has led me to want to try and sort of simulate an open world style game for my players, basically leaving them in charge. Is it hilarious to let the kids babysit themselves? You bet it is. Can it be remarkably more mess than you anticipated? Sure can, but in this mess is where some of the best players will truly shine. But before we get to the PC, let's take a look at the GM side of this endeavor.

Part of my ability to do this successfully comes from the fact that I am wildly scatterbrained and have about thirteen different possible story ideas flying around in my head at any given time. To get started, I sit down and lay all those snakes out straight and figure out how to fit them into my setting without breaking the feel of the campaign, usually by plopping a PNPC, or Prime NPC into the story. Then I have to concoct how not to kill my players on what could be a very high level challenge by either scaling the threat back to a more appropriate danger or taking the quest and placing it in the "High level stuff I hope players play long enough to reach" part of my GM binder. The last step is hands-down the trickiest, especially as other stories in the world progress. How do I make my players choose to take these paths?

In order to give players control while still holding the carrot-on-a-stick, I place what I call Adventure Hooks into the world, just waiting for an interested nibble to trigger some kind of event or NPC interaction that will lead into a full-blown story. Often these involve some kind of crowd gathered around something, or a flyer being handed out advertising something of exceptional interest. If it's an adventure hook within an adventure, there are usually a few ways to find it, whether that be finding an item that someone will take interest in or simply poking and prodding an NPC until he or she gives in and decides to take you on the next big journey. But what if a journey takes longer than anticipated? What happens to those other hooks? Well, some of them may still be around, but because Leviathos is a living, persistent world, some hooks can literally be completely missed, never to be seen again. Unless the game resets of course...

Space-Age Roleplay: Welcome to Cyber-space

Many podcasts and die-hard P&P roleplayers naysay the potential of roleplaying in MMORPG environments, saying it can't be done, there's not enough control, there's not enough customization to do what they want, et cetera. To all of you out there who have said or thought this, I say are you out of your mind? Did you even try to roleplay in an online game? If so, which one, and how long did you spend in your attempt? Did you make sure you chose an RP server? Did you log on during prime hours? Did you make sure you were open, approachable, or available for RP interaction? Are you familiar with the lore and flavor of the game in which you attempted to RP?... And the list goes on for quite some time more. But anyways, I'm here to say it can be done. And not just in a "Well that was an alright experience" kind of way, but rather in a "Some of my best RP experiences have been in MMORPG" way. That's right. When approached with the proper mindset and with the proper tools in hand, it can be both a fun and rewarding pass time for all players involved, without the need of a GM. This isn't to say it doesn't have it's fault, no no no. Far from it actually. There are glaring weaknesses to RP in a GM-less computer world, but these weaknesses can be mitigated by players willing to try. That list of questions should be asked of one's self before diving in, and we will be touching on the subject more in weeks to come.

Final Transmission

Space-Age Roleplay will be an ongoing topic of mine, covering the right and wrong ways to approach MMORPG as sources for RPG outlets, some of the general do's and don'ts of roleplaying in these settings, and some of the best ways to get roleplaying going with a community or even random people out there on the interwebs. I do hope our readers will enjoy a new perspective on the subject, as well as gleaning advice and tips to enjoy their own MMO roleplaying. Of course, more kid games are on the way, one in particular I know most of you have had some interaction with in some form or another, but it requires pictures and my camera is on the fritz. So until next time, this is SpacerGal, signing off. Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

He's Coming... To Get... You!

2011-04-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Actual Perplexing Polyhedron Actuality!

2011-04-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

From Actual Plays To Actually Playing

For the longest time I was getting my RPG fix by listening to various actual plays. Some of them were really good, others... well lets just say not so much and leave it at that. Still it was fun to listen to the shenanigans even if I wasn't actually able to take part in it.

Then I was able to hook up with a gaming group and do the real thing and let me tell you.. serious difference! Don't get me wrong. APs definitely help to scratch the itch but if you're not currently gaming I'd definitely recommend getting out there and doing the real thing.

That's not to say that APs aren't useful to listen to. If there's a game that I want to find out more about, the first thing I do is look for any actual plays that might be out there. It's a great way to hear how the game plays out. In fact there are several podcasts that do APs just for this reason, The Walking Eye and Actual People, Actual Play being two that I've listened to in the past.

Another reason to listen to APs is to see what does and doesn't work, which can be invaluable to new GMs. Maybe there is some aspect of the mechanics that can cause you trouble. Hearing how someone else handled the situation will prepare you to avoid those issues in your own game and keep things running smoothly.

All in all, actual plays are a great way to wrap your head around a system and game vicariously through others but if you have a chance to get into the real thing I say dive in head first and give it a try!

The Paralyzing Perplexity of Polyhedron Performance

In sharp contract to the relative dice-less nature of our previous Pathfinder session, this week the whole thing seemed to revolve around that most commonly used of the more exotic dice, the dreaded d20. Why the sudden change in our game play? How did it go from being a non-existent aspect of the game to a critical cornerstone on which our lives hung in the balance? Easy, this time there were ancient hieroglyphs and traps!

Unlike the social skills, mechanical skills usually still require you take out that die to see how you do and there is nothing wrong with that. Unlike social interactions, it is much harder to recreate these other aspects of the game in real life. That's not to say it's impossible because SpacerGal even has a little bit of experience with that but it does require a lot more work on the part of the GM.

The interesting thing is that while taking the dice out of the social mechanic makes the game better, keeping it in for the challenges that we faced this week made the game that much more intense. Even with some pretty hefty bonuses on the skills that we were using the die rolls simply were not there for the first half of the session which added a definite level of tension. For example, there we were facing a number of obvious traps but with no apparent way to disable them all we could do was try to avoid them which sounds easy enough. At least until you are staring at five giant pendulum blades that are swinging across the hallway with two sword wielding statues on the far side of that and a locked gate behind you leaving you all alone with one way to go... yeah, it can get pretty intense.

So what's the moral of the story? Just because taking the dice out of some things makes the experience better doesn't mean that you should get rid of them completely.

The Parting Shot...

And another one in the books from the Snowman! I know it went strictly role play this week but right now hanging out with SpacerGal has got that front and center in my mind. There is more stuff waiting in the wings from both of us but we'll look at those in the future. If you have any comments or feedback, as always feel free to post them here on the blog or you can shoot us an email at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. And if you're enjoying what you're reading tell a friend! The more the merrier is always the case here on the interwebs. Until next time...

Missing Dice and Twirling Tops

2011-04-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hello world, I'm your wild girl! And this is your first real post from me, SpacerGal, the latest contributor to Sin City Dispatch.

Social Interaction Dice-ectomy

The Snowman really dug into one of the things that has become a signature of my GM style, and that is the removal of social interaction skills in 3.5 OGL/d20 system games. I've never been a fan of the Intimidate or Diplomacy rolls, as they just don't make sense to me. Granted, I like a more abstract game with less emphasis on rules and more emphasis on both storytelling and character development for my players, but even setting my distaste of rules lawyering aside, they seem so counter-intuitive to roleplaying. In my mind, the purpose of a roleplaying game is to, you know, play a role, and using dice to determine how NPC feel about you detracts from this.

Part of removing these dice actually lies heavily in how detailed an environment is, and it does take going an extra couple of miles on the GM's part. Not going to lie to you, I spend hours upon hours developing even the most minor of NPC, delving deep into imagination to forge histories, personalities, quirks, and flourishes for the people my players will be meeting. Creative writing has helped make Leviathos feel more like a living, breathing world, and I have several very lengthy stories about the adventures of my main NPC that I'll probably end up sharing here.

As far as game elements are concerned, I find my players open up much more when they have to actually talk down a furious guard captain or frighten a native into telling them about an ancient secret. This opening up leads to better player chemistry, deeper, more interesting characters that players want to come back to time and again, and a fuller world for the GM to dig into.

I ultimately decided to start trying this method out a while ago. I had kind of a falling out with D&D after a very poorly run game, and most of the problems came from the heavy-handed book ruling. After wrestling with myself about what could be done to get away from the rules without completely stripping them away, I decided to do two things. The first was to remove those interaction dice, and the second was to remove alignment (but that's a story for a different time!). I sat down and started collecting all the characters I had ever played, reworked them into a new world of my design, and ran with it. After further developing this place, I thought about all the best roleplaying experiences I had ever played out, and realized they all happened when the players were entirely in control of their path. And that, my friends, is also a story for a later day. More on my style coming soon!

Childlike Nature: Let It Rip!

I work at a toy store, so naturally I see all of the kid's games, fads, and the latest anime tie-ins. And of course, I buy these things! Occasionally, there's a real gem in the midst of the loads of crap spewed out by the major distributors. One of those gems is Beyblade, the game of high-performance top battles. On the surface, the toy line and game elements are just a cash grab based on the new show, but when you dig a bit, it's actually a surprisingly deep game with a certain appealing simplicity.

The goal of the game is to make sure your top is the last one standing in the "Bey Stadium," a big plastic bath tub with a bowled bottom and two side pockets in which your tops can get stuck. You and your opponent count down in sync and on the last count, you both launch your tops into the stadium from a launcher powered by a toothed rip-cord. They clash against each other, breaking down each others speed until one falls over. Simple enough, right? Now let's look a little further.

There are three types of tops, and your choice can literally make or break the game before you even launch.
Attack types are super-aggressive, ripping around the beveled stadium at ridiculous speeds, often fast enough to fly out and hit bystanders if they aren't careful. They hit hard enough to knock most tops over or into the pockets, making them lose. But of course, this speed and striking force come at a cost. They have little to no staying power, so if they don't win quick, you're going to be outspun.
Defense types are heavy, wide-bottomed tops designed to withstand the brutality of attackers. It's rare that an attacker will be able to even make a defense top budge further than a few inches before running out of steam, and while these have more staying power than attack types, they still suffer from higher friction due to their bottoms and weight.
Stamina types weigh in at almost nothing, stand very tall compared to other tops, and can spin for upwards of 3-4 minutes when not being hit. The obvious weakness here is the lack of weight and high profile. Attackers will eat them alive, whereas defense tops will be struggling to keep up with the speed of these lighter contenders.
Balance is self-explanatory. They draw from the strengths of each of the other types, but this blending of strategies more often than not ends up in expanding weaknesses or lower performance compared to specialized tops.

So it's kind of a rock-paper-scissors, where Attack beats Stamina, Stamina beats Defense, and Defense beats Attack. Where this can really get interesting is in the customization. Oh, did I not mention all of these tops can be stripped down to five parts and reassembled in whatever configuration you find fits? This is where all of our physics lessons come into play, and savvy players will spend time digging through parts and testing all sorts of combinations to find what works best. There's more to it than this, but I'll get into that next time.

Last Transmissions

There ya have it. I hate dice outside of combat and I enjoy silly kid games. You'll definitely be seeing more of me in the coming days, as we have another Pathfinder session with more wacky elements coming into play every week, including a discussion about my "persistent world" experiment. And of course, there's more to say about high-performance tops, so be on the look out for your favorite space-faring gamer! Ya'll have a good one now, y'hear?

Think About Delivering Millions Of Eggs And See How You Feel...

2011-04-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Anarchistic Arcanists Without Rolling Dice!

2011-04-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Constructing An Arcanist Crew

For my next crew I decided to go with one of the natural enemies of the Guild, the Arcanists. Unlike my Guild crew, these "guys" aren't already painted but I really like the minis so it'll be fun to get them to the table. First up is Sasha Dubois, the leader of the crew. Unlike Sonnia, Sasha is a little more effective in regular combat but not as much so with magic. Even so she can still pack a nasty punch with what she can bring with her to the table.

Sasha Dubois
Quality 2+
Combat 3
Special abilities: animist (steam), leader, pistol, tough, unique

Being the master of the crew its no surprise to see the leader and tough abilities in there and a pistol is always handy to have. Rounding it out is the animist ability which gives Sasha access to the combat magics and also lets her control Boomer.

Boomer
Quality 4+
Combat 5
Special abilities: artificial (construct), big, heavy armor, sunder, tough

Boomer is Sasha's guard dog, following her onto the field and loyally protecting her from danger. Admittedly he's a giant metal guard dog but it really fits in with the Arcanist feel of using constructs to fill the ranks.

Next up are the vicious guns of Taryn Rose.

Taryn Rose
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, ruthless, stealth, unique

With her pistols in hand she sneaks around the shadows of the battlefield looking for that perfect shot no matter who might be in the way. Nothing really new here as far as abilities other than ones that I've already covered.

Rounding out the crew is Valeria Alvaro.

Valeria Alvaro
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, slippery, steadfast

In sharp contrast to the treacherous Taryn, Valeria is a much more get in your face kind of gal while the slippery ability ensures that she can slide away just as easily. As with Taryn, more familiar abilities with the exception of slippery though this ability really is nothing new. In fact slippery is actually just free disengage under a new name which is an easy way to change the feel for a game.

As with the Guild crew, this crew also really pushes for ranged combat over melee which really does fit with the theme that I've aiming for. This is an alternate wild west after all and the revolver did rule the day for most people then. This also means that you can expect another battle report soon as these two crews hit the table and we see just how well (or not so fell) my special rules work. But more on that later...

"My Eyes Glow Red As My Robe Erupts Into Magical Flames And I Say 'While I live and breath you shall not pass!!!'"
And... I rolled a 23 for my intimidate check. Did it work?

SpacerGal spoils us so. After all the actual plays I've listened to it seems that she has developed a very unique way of running a role playing game; you don't just get to role play, you actually need to if you really want to do anything.

Want to be intimidating? Bust out the angry voice and hit him with it! Diplomacy more your style? In that case do your best to be charming so that you can win her over to your side of the argument.

Our latest session of Pathfinder is a prime example of what I mean. Over the course of a four hour session I rolled my dice less than a half dozen times and at least half of that time was spent interacting with the crew of the ship we were sailing on. By comparison, during one of the actual plays I was recently listening to the players had almost twice as many roll playing die rolls just when they were interacting with two people! No combat at that point, just talking back and forth between the two groups.

This is not to say that having access to these dice mechanics is not useful because I really think it is. For brand new players and GMs it gives them something mechanical to latch onto as they get their head around the system but for any experienced players I definitely recommend that you try putting down the dice and talking it out. You'll be amazed at how much more it adds to entire experience.

The Parting Shot...

That's all for now but be sure to come back soon for more gaming goodness from the Sin City Snowman and SpacerGal. He's told me some of the ideas that are bubbling around in her brain and I can't wait to see what finally comes out! In the meantime if you have any comments feel free to leave them on the blog or you can drop us a line at SinCityDispatch@gmail.com. Until next time...

An Introduction Before I Talk Your... Eyes off

2011-04-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

See, because it's a blog. It wouldn't really be your ears being deluged, but rather eyes, what with this text based media. Ah, you get it...

Anyways, hello all! The name's SpacerGal, and I'm the one who made the Snowman play Monsterpocalypse, got him to restart Warmachine/Hordes a year or so ago, and am now running his weekly Pathfinder adventures. I was very excited when he invited me to contribute to the blog, and I already have several ideas swirling around in my head for regular programing. Get used to seeing this star-faring gamer!

I'm currently doing a lot of role-playing work, both with maintaining my experimental persistent-world Pathfinder game and trying to grow an RP community within a new MMORPG I am playing called Forsaken World, but more on that later. So for now, expect to see at least a decent chunk about RPG, some occasional TCG talk, miniature gibberish when I get around to painting the ridiculous number of figures on my work desk, and other assorted whatnot as it comes.

So there you have it, a quick "This is your co-pilot speaking" from the newest author on Sin City Dispatch. I'll develop my own little clever quip like the dragon dice thing eventually, so for now, a simple "ya'll come back now, y'hear?" will have to suffice.

- SpacerGal

Hey, We're Just Trying To Blow Off Some Steam Man!

2011-04-04T06:00:00.001-07:00

Finding The Path To The Reaching Guild

2011-04-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Dispatch!

We just had our first session of Pathfinder this week so I want to share my first impressions on that system but before we do that I thought we'd take a look at one of my crews for Torment's Reach.

Raising The Guild In Torment's Reach
Converting A Guild Crew To Song Of Blades

For my first crew I decided to just go with the Guild crew that I already had for two very good reasons. One: I already own them (always a plus that) and two: they're already painted (an even bigger plus!). First up is Sonnia Criid who I think I took the most liberty with as I made her much less effective in close combat and instead focused on her magic and ranged ability.

Sonnia Criid
Quality 2+
Combat 2
Special abilities: channeler, magic shield, leader, pistol, tough, unique

As is fitting, she is a leader and I also gave her tough as well since crew masters are should be harder to kill than your average joe. Finally I also gave her a pistol which is one of the new things I had to add into the system. This give her a +1 to her combat with a short range. Not only does this improve her combat score to an average level it also lets her reach out a touch someone without just relying on her magic. After all, a girl's gotta have options right?

Next up is Sonnia's able cohort in crime busting Samael Hopkins.

Samael Hopkins
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: entangle, hunter, pistol, scout, tough

I basically boiled down the special rules for Samael's huntin' tools by giving his the entangle ability. This lets him pin a target down (at least temporarily) and really keeps the feel of the character. He also has hunter and scout, both of which are new abilities I created. Hunter lets him choose an enemy personality mini before the game starts and Samael gains a +1 to his combat against it plus an extra victory point if he kills it in single combat while scout lets him ignore the movement penalties from ruins and woods. This makes him a very mobile mini in some situations and a potent personality killer as well.

Next up are the two Guild guards, Kyle Swift and Jacob Weaver.

Guild Guard
Quailty 4+
Combat 2
Special abilities: gregarious, pistol

These guys are really quite straight forward in my opinion. One thing of note is the fact that these guards are not actually personalities. Yes, they both have names but that is purely for fluff reasons and has no effect on the game mechanics.

Last but not least is the convict gunslinger Jeremiah Smythe just to round things out. Like the guild guards, he is not actually a personality but I wanted it there for flavor.

Convict Gunslinger
Quality 4+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire

Of the whole crew this one took the most creative license on my part for his special abilities. The gunfighter ability lets the mini use his pistols in hand-to-hand combat, giving him an effective combat score of 4 all the time. The important thing about this ability is that it is tied to the pistol ability and no other type of ranged weapon. If you've got a rifle then you're out of luck but with a pistol you're all set. Next is the rapid fire ability. Normally a mini can only make one combat per turn but this ability lets the mini make two ranged attacks for one action. This is a pretty potent ability but I tried to offset it by giving them a penalty of -1 to its combat score when it does this.

And there you have it! I haven't had a chance to try them in a game to see just how balanced (or unbalanced) the new special rules are but I'll be doing that soon and I'll be sure to pass along the experience. I also have a few more crews in the works as well so y'all come back now and we'll see how they're shaping up.

Trying To Find The Path
First Impressions Of The Pathfinder RPG

This week my role playing group set aside Mutants and Masterminds and we delved into the world of Pathfinder. This was the first of several sessions in our GMs custom world of Leviathos, a world that has been devastated by a magical disaster (caused by the elves... go figure) that flooded large portions of the world. There are still large islands scattered around and our adventure opened with us arriving on Corvaysa, a very large island (bigger than New Zealand but smaller than Austailia to give some perspective) that is the home to the strongest of the human kingdoms.

So what about Pathfinder? Overall, it seems very much like the D&D of old which isn't that surprising since that is effectively what it is. I never played 3.5 but from everything I've heard it is basically the same thing. We haven't actually had any real combat yet so I can't comment on that but other than that it seems like a pretty good system. I can see how character creation can get kind of crunch especially when you are picking your feats. There are no where near as many as 4e but there are still a pretty hefty helping of them to choose from but I had a very specific concept in mind so I was able to just skim the lists and pick what fit my character. Equipment was another story as Pat is being quite specific about this part but that is more his style and I can see a GM playing this aspect either strictly or loosely depending on preference.

So overall, it looks pretty good so far. Not a raving review but so far the system hasn't struck me as anything innovative which I really don't expect it to. Then again that familiarity also makes it very easy to get into and the Pathfinder books are beautifully done and come in pdf as well as hardcovers. If you really want the physical copy of the core book you can plunk down the $50 and get a gorgeous looking full color hard bound book or you can spend $10 and get a pdf of the same thing, all depends on your preference which is a really nice option in my opinion. Don't get me wrong; I love the book but being able to get all the info for $10 sold me on the pdf instantly.

So if you like 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons, are an old time gamer from earlier editions, or you just want to try something different from 4e for a while I definitely recommend checking this one out. The production qualities are great and having the pdf option makes it extremely affordable plus Paizo (and a good number of other companies)is coming out with new stuff for the line all the time. Well supported, high quality production, and affordable price; ya can't really ask for more can you?

The Parting Shot...

And there's another one in the books! I had wanted to put in pictures of the various models for the Guild but I'll have to add that later. Be sure to come back again as we look at some of the other crews that I'm working on (think I've got three more in the works right now...) plus I'm going to get a battle report up for Torment's Reach as well. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them here on the blog or you can email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Until next time...

Beware... For They Are Coming...

2011-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Are they fluffy and sweet? Cute and cuddly as they go hippity hopping along? Or perhaps it is all an illusion designed to lull us into a false sense of security. Perhaps they are something much... much... worse.

Beware. The Month Of The Bunny Starts Now...

But Is It Really?

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty common concept in our society. "Something is changing? That's horrible! There's no way this new thing could be as good as the original! What in the world are they thinking?!?"

Then again, it can be a good thing sometimes. Imagine if video games never changed. We'd still all be playing Pong on our Atari 2600. Or clothing. Anyone feel like hitting the town in some nice and comfy Puritan outfits? Talk about hitting it off with the ladies!

What makes change scary and confusing is that it forces out of our comfort zone. We can't hide from the world behind that old familiar thing and know that we're safe because suddenly we don't recognize it anymore.

The real key is to embrace that change and try it. You might be right; it could be the worst thing in the world but you will never know if you don't let down your guard just a little and give it a try. After all, it could be the next best thing since sliced bread.