Season 13 at the Halfway Point

I'm playing through the thirteenth season of my old-timey Strat-O-Matic hockey league, and we have some interesting storylines developing at the midway mark. The reigning Creighton Cup champions, the Millionaires, are comfortably in first place, although not quite as dominant as they were a year ago. They're followed by the Bearcats, who have continued their strong run from the second half of last season; the Cats are the league's best five-on-five team, but they're held back by a power play and penalty kill that are both dead last -- by a lot! -- in the league. The Thistles have climbed into the playoff picture on the strength of all-around improved play, just slightly ahead of the fourth-place Bulldogs, whose offensive woes in last year's playoffs have continued, especially after an injury to Jack Adams temporarily robbed them off their best playmaker. The Victorias and Comets, at fifth and sixth, respectively, are currently outside the playoff picture. Fortunately for the non-playoff teams, there's some amazing talent available in the Season 14 entry draft. The Victorias got started early with their rebuild, shipping five-time Creighton Cup winner Billy McGimsie to the Cats for a talented but penalty-prone young center named Frankie Fredrickson. 

Looking ahead to the end-of-season awards for individual players, the Scoring Championship is shaping up to be a two-way race between Bearcats superstar Joe Malone (5 goals, 9 assists) and last year's titlist, Mickey MacKay (5 goals, 7 assists) of the Millionaires. These two stars are also vying for the Forward MVP trophy, although I'd say the frontrunner is Malone's teammate Didier Pitre, whose 7 goals lead the league. The race for Defenseman MVP is wide open, as no blueliner has yet to distinguish himself from the pack. The Millies' Harry Cameron might pick up a second straight trophy, but Frank Patrick of the Bearcats is tops in the league in plus-minus at +9. A rejuvanted Hod Stuart of the Thistles, the winner way back in Season 3, might also make some noise. In a lackluster year for freshmen, Thistles blueliner Sprague Cleghorn will likely win Rookie of the Year by default. Saving the most striking stats for last, can I just declare that all six starting netminders should share the Goaltender MVP award? Goalies are dominating even more than last season; in fact, the average save percentage for all goaltenders has risen from .908 in Season 11 to .917 in Season 12 to an astounding and utterly unsustainable .931 this season! Hap Holmes of the Bulldogs leads at .942, followed by Riley Hern of the Cats at .936; both men are two-time winners of the Goaltender MVP. 

A Novel Approach to Video Games

Torment: Tides of Numenera is great at world-building and presenting unique, complex NPC characters. It does, however, share a drawback of its spiritual predecessor, Planescape: Torment, in that there's a lot of text to read. As with the prior game, I find myself skimming the dialogue until something triggers an update to the Journal, where I can get a more concise version of what's going on. It's still fun, but man, it's like reading a novel.

A New Torment

Once upon a time, I played through the highly regarded Planescape: Torment, although I have little recolleciton of having done so. (It's referenced on this blog, however, so it must be true!) Since it's a kind of spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, and since I'm a big fan of the Cypher System, I've had my eye on Torment: Tides of Numera for a while. The game was massively discounted on Steam, so I decided to pick it up. It's pretty cool to see Cypher represented in a computer game! I'm only about an hour into the campaign, but I'm enjoying it so far. 

Sanctuary

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have undertaken a new mission to the barren but mineral-rich world of Elysion. After being separated from their transport ship, the companions make their way on foot to the nearest settlement, a ramshackle mining community known as Sanctuary. Here's a shot of the group and their Sanctuary Militia escorts approaching the town...

And now a zoomed-in view of the community. Note the cute little outhouse! Aside from that a few other items, the rest of the stuff was 3D printed and painted by yours truly. Inside, the buildings are all stocked with beds, tables, chairs, etc., and plenty of NPCs for the heroes to interact with.

Here's a shot of Sanctuary from the front...

And a side view...

I wonder if any wasteland-dwelling raiders will attack this place while the heroes are here...?

Dune 3 Trailer

Oh baby...

Numenera

I'm not a huge fan of the Numenera setting, but I backed the Numenera: The Amber Archive crowdfunding campaign at the lowest level so that I could pick up some of the intriguing add-ons. There's still another week or so before the campaign ends.

Run Completed

I finished up Shadowrun Returns and overall it was a pretty solid game, although a bit shorter than I expected. The first-act mystery -- someone is killing people who all received organs from the same donor -- was a creepy and memorable premise. I also really enjoyed a combat that occurred right after confirming the identity of the master villain behind that killer. I'll set the stage without giving away the plot. You and various NPCs are attending the funeral of an old friend. After some guests depart, you confront the master villain, who is also in attendance. That character escapes and unleashes mercenary teams that attack you and your NPC allies from multiple directions. It's a wild, chaotic battle, where you're hiding behind tombstones, sneaking around mausoleums, and trying desperately to avoid being surrounded. And then, to make matters worse, the gunfire awakens a pack of ghouls, who burst from their graves and start attacking everyone. Ah, good fun!