Tomb, Raided

I played through the original Tomb Raider on my Evercade and, well, I don't think I'll play through the two sequels that are bundled on the same cartridge. I'm sure I played at least one of these titles back in the day, but this time around, the whole experience just felt kind of...tedious. I constantly found myself scouring YouTube playthroughs to find some hidden switch or lever that I needed in order to move forward. At this point, I think I'll go back to some Commodore 64 classics.

Season 11 Creighton Cup

Another campaign comes to a close with the conclusion of the Creighton Cup championship series! In Game 1, the Comets held a 2-0 lead until the closing minutes when Billy McGimsie scored to give the Victorias a glimmer of hope, but the game ended 2-1 with the road team picking up a surprising win. Game 2 started off with fireworks as Marty Walsh (Victorias) and Mike Grant (Comets) traded goals in the first minute; things settled down after that, and the Vics rebounded nicely from their series-opening loss, doubling up the Comets in a 4-2 win. The road team had won the first two contests, and Game 3 would continue the trend; the Comets demolished the Vics 5-1, but it was a costly victory: left wing Frank McGee, the league's all-time leader in goals scored, suffered a season-ending injury. The series shifted back to the Comets' rink, and they were determined to win the Cup on home ice. The Vics took the lead twice, but both times the Comets answered back. With the score tied at 2, we headed to overtime! The Vics hoped to extend the series to a decisive fifth game, but Comets were relentless in their attack. Finally, dynamic young defenseman Eddie Gerard, who had been struggling throughout the postseason, blasted the puck from the blueline and beat Bowse Hutton for the Cup-clinching score. The Comets won the series 3-1, with top center Duke Keats taking home Playoff MVP honors. The Comets now have their second Creighton Cup in franchise history, and the first since way back in Season 3.

Season 11 Playoffs

Playoff time! The Thistles and the Millionaires finished fifth and sixth, respectively, so they missed out on the big dance. In the opening round, the first-place Victorias faced the fourth-place Bearcats, while the Comets and Bulldogs duked it out as second and third. 

The Vics got quite a scare in Game 1 when they surrendered a goal on the first shot and superstar blueliner Cyclone Taylor was injured and left the game shortly thereafter; however, they rallied for a 3-2 victory in overtime on a goal by captain Hobey Baker. Game 2 was a 5-0 laugher for the Vics on the road, with Taylor returning to rack up four points. The third game, back at the Vics' rink, was a tense affair that remained 1-1 into the final minute of regulation time, when Newsy Lalonde struck with a game- and series-ending goal.

In the first game of the other series, the Comets and Dogs went back and forth in a wild shootout that ended 6-4 for the hosting Comets. Riley Hern, the goalie who had lifted the Dogs into the playoffs, was so terrible in Game 1 that the Dogs opted to start Paddy Moran in Game 2. Moran performed well, but the Comets prevailed in a nailbiter 3-2 finish. In Game 3, the Dogs built a quick 2-0 lead, only for Frank McGee and Duke Keats to score on three consecutive shots (Keats got the second and third tallies). By the end of the third, the contest was knotted up at three goals apiece. Moran turned aside a number of tough shots in overtime, but Dick Irvin managed to sneak one past him late in the frame to give the Comets a win and a series sweep.

Next up: The Creighton Cup championship series between the Victorias and the Comets!

Season 11 Highlights

I've been playing through Season 11 of my Strat-O-Matic historical hockey league and although I haven't been posting updates, the regular season is now complete and I've moved on to the playoffs. Season 11 was full of fun and surprises: the defending-champion Thistles failed to reach the postseason, Bulldogs rookie Jack Adams finished seventh in the league in scoring, third-year Comets defenseman Eddie Gerard took a huge step forward (9 goals in just 16 games!), and Newsy Lalonde of the Victorias won a season-long duel over the Bearcats' Joe Malone to claim his first MVP trophy. In perhaps the coolest story of the year, hard-luck goalie Riley Hern was unemployed at the start of the season but signed with the floundering Bulldogs around the midpoint and absolutely saved their season -- his 2.22 goals-against average and .929 save percentage were both second-best in the league, and the Dogs made the playoffs largely because of Hern's netminding heroics.

Phase 2 Underway!

I finished pulling together a spreadsheet with characters, locations, factions, and other data from recent campaigns -- the ones for which I have really comprehensive records. The next phase of this project is to scour my earlier notes for similar data from the campaigns of years past. I went back to faded copies of Front Porch newsletters from the early '90s, handwritten stat blocks for NPCs, player guides printed from the old Tandy 1000 SX, and everything else I could track down. Sadly, it wasn't as much as I had hoped to find. 

Players, if you're reading this, I'd love to get your thoughts on campaigns of the past and anything that really stood out to you -- characters, themes, storylines, anything!

2025?!?

Wait, is it really 2025? That's a date I would have used in an '80s campaign to represent a dystopian near-future setting that was rife with corruption, power-hungry tyrants, bitter political strife...oh, wait...

Happy Halodays!

Howdy, everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. 

The boys got some fun gaming stuff for Christmas this year, including D&D miniatures, a copy of the new 5.5 Player's Handbook for each of them, and the cool new Halo miniatures game. We also played through one of the adventures from the Cypher System Starter Set, which required a lot of deep dives into the rulebook, but it turned out pretty well. We're still a long way from starting a new campaign using this system, but at least it's another step in the right direction!