Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter: Living The Dream Baby!

Back when I was a kid I stumbled across an RPG at our LGS that instantly caught my eye.

 

 

Then... the cover of the original Robotech RPG

At the time, I'd never even heard of Robotech but the concept of giant mecha tearing across the battlefield captivated me.  I even toyed with the idea of making a my own mass combat game but it never made it beyond a few counters.  Now a miniature game, that would really be awesome.  As it turns out I'm not the only one that thinks so.

And now... the cover of Robotech RPG Tactics

Just a week ago, Ninja Division and Palladium Books unveiled their Robotech RPG Tactics miniature game and within a day it had already blown past its funding goal.  Now over 500% funded with more undoubtedly still to come, its just a matter of seeing what they can do to expand their Kickstarter.

They have also posted a short game play demo and it looks pretty cool.  They only show the basic mechanics but they look like they've done a good job capturing the fast paced action of the series.

If you are a fan of the series then I definitely recommend you check this one out and even if you are new to the series I'd recommend taking a look.  The miniatures are looking pretty sweet and the Kickstarter is a great way to get into the game and save some money at the same time.  Until next time...

Family Slumber Party For The Win!!!

A couple of months ago I was getting ready for work when my wife and daughter started busting out the popcorn and M&Ms.  Normally their not quite so happy to see me leave so I asked what was going on.  "We're having a slumber party," was the reply.  "We're going to watch movies, stay up late, and eat popcorn."

I thought this was an awesome idea and was really glad that my wife and daughter were going to have so much fun but part of me really wished that I could join in too.  Several vacation requests later, I finally was able to get the planets in alignment to get a day off and yesterday we had our family slumber party!

We started off the night with a game of Forbidden Island by Gamewright.

In this cooperative game, the players are all part of a team sent to the Forbidden Island to recover four artifacts.  This would be a easy enough task if only the island wasn't sinking!  We decided to make things a little harder for ourselves and started the game with the water at a higher level than normal which definitely made the game that much more intense but we still managed to pull out the win!

Next we dug into Small World Underground by Days of Wonder.

As this was only our second time playing (and my wife's first...), the game started a little slow but it definitely picked up as we went along.  Overall still loving this game though I can see how getting a handle on all the special powers could be a little tricky for new players.  And who dominated the depths of the Small World in the end?  Yet again the Munchkin managed to pull out the win... by one point!  Argh!!!  We definitely need a rematch!

After that, my wife decided to head to bed and the Munchkin and I crashed on the living room floor to watch Dinotopia on Netflix.

This miniseries from 2002 by Hallmark Entertainment (one of the companies behind Farscape...) tells the story of two boys who wind up stranded on an uncharted island inhabited by a lost civilization of humans and dinosaurs.  Fun series though unfortunately I fell asleep about halfway through the second episode.  Mental note... when you're going to stay up late, make sure you get more than four hours sleep the night before.  Still its an interesting setting and story so I'd recommend checking it out if you have a chance, especially if you have kids who love dinosaurs.

Overall, it was a great night with the family and I can't wait to do it again!

Trading One Homebrew For Another?

Next month one of the local gaming groups is having another game of Colonial Sharp Practice, this time involving that mysterious golden box that you should never look into.  You know the one...

The Ark with its Turkistan Tourism Board Welcoming Committee

While this does some like its going to be a lot of fun part of it does leave me a little uncertain.  Right now I'm still not sold on the idea of using the Sharp Practice rules for a Colonial setting.  I suppose it kind of worked for our last game in a very ham-fisted sort of way but I can't help but wonder if the next game is going to push it beyond the point of being manageable.  There is talk of Russian steam walkers and I will be adding another armored tractor to the mix plus who knows what else might show up at this point.  Hopefully we can muddle through but just in case I've started looking at some other systems out there, the first of which is G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (short for Glorious Adventures in Science Loosely Involving Generally Historical Times).

Steam tractors, dinosaurs, and ostrich riders?  Sounds like an interesting combination to me!

After looking at the quick start rules on their website (which you can find here...) it seems like it covers all the bases that we are looking for but it's all based around a d20.  This just seems a little odd, especially since a lot of the rolls look like they could break down to a d10 without loosing too much detail so I'm going to do a small solo game to see how that pans out.  Admittedly this is effectively just trading one homebrew for another but I'm hoping that this minor switch with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. works a little better than the complete overhaul we are attempting with Sharps.  Only time will tell but fingers crossed, right?  Until next time...

Oh Boy, A New Box Of Shinies!!!

Well it's definitely been a while since I wrote anything but things have been just a little busy here in Snowman's Land.  Unfortunately barely any gaming to speak of but I just received a package from Miniature Market that I'm really excited about.  So what's in the box?  Let's take a look, shall we?

 

First up we have a Stormrage Shambler from the D & D minis line.  It's a little hard to tell in the plastic but this is a large organic tentacled beastie that I picked up for use in a Call of Cthulhu adventure that I put together.  Miniatures are not really necessary for CoC, but given my background I just couldn't resist picking some up.  For this particular adventure I actually picked up four of the Fantasy Flight CoC miniatures from Arkham Horror to represent the investigators but I was missing some good figures for the mythos critters I needed, in particular the dimensional shambler.  Since I originally picked up the investigators, Fantasy Flight has actually released a miniature for the shambler as well but I'm really not a fan of it so I decided to go for something a little different.  No idea when I'm actually going to be able to run this one but I'm sure I can find a use for this guy in a Fear and Faith scenario in the meantime.

Next up is Get Bit by Mayday Games.  This is a filler game about robots being eaten by a shark.  We've actually gotten this one to the table already but I'm not going to say any more because I'm going to try to get up a review of it next week.

After that we have reinforcements for Summoner Wars, specifically the Mountain Vargath and the Swamp Orcs.  The Munchkin and I have been waiting for this one for a while since we both like the Vargath so I can't wait to see just what their new troops are like.

Then we have one of the most popular games out there, Small World Underground by Days of Wonder.  Rather than getting the original, I decided to get Underworld first as I've heard some of its mechanics provide some interesting twists on the original mechanics.  I'm sure I'll still get the original soon enough though as this just looks like an awesome game.  Expect a review of this one soon as well.

Finally the is Cadwallon: City of Thieves by Fantasy Flight Games.  Set in the old Rackham universe, this game pits gangs against each other and the city watch as they try spirit away the most spoils before the end of the night.  I've had my eye on this one for a while but as soon as I mentioned playing as a bunch of thieves the Munchkin got really interested so I had to get it.  And yes, there will be a review of this one once we get it to the table as well.

Anyway, that's about it for now but I'm really excited to try all of these out.  Plus I've ordered another tank for my Colonials and I'll be doing a review of that once I have it in my grubby little paws as well and there is a new Kickstarter coming soon that... looks... AWESOME!!!  But more on that soon.  Until next time...