Rebel Scum!

After a short break, we resumed our first Star Wars X-Wing battle and it ended moments later in a fiery conflagration. My lowly TIE fighter was the only survivor, and two very frustrated little boys stormed away from the table. Matthew cooled down and wanted to play again, so we opened up the other ships I had bought and set up our forces -- two Rebel ships for Matthew and three Imperial fighters for me. I put several hits on his ships and started thinking I had him on the ropes, but his plucky X-Wing shot down two of my fighters in quick succession and won the day for the Alliance. Damn Rebel scum!

Dogfight

We opened up the Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game today and I made a frantic attempt to process the quick start rules while the boys punched out all the cardboard counters and argued over who was going to be the X-Wing. Ultimately, we settled on Nathaniel as the intrepid young X-Wing pilot, with Matthew and I playing as the cruel Imperial TIE fighter pilots. The boys quickly picked up the play sequence of plan > move > attack, and in minutes we were zigging and zagging across the cosmos (as represented by my in-laws' coffee table).

Nathaniel hasn't quite mastered the maneuvering, however, so he often ended up in situations where a TIE fighter was directly behind him (as in the image below). Much frustration ensued when he found himself unable to open fire on his big brother.

We've called a temporary truce, but after we fuel up (with snacks for the pilots, of course, and whatever fuel the X-Wing and TIE fighters use), I hope we'll jump right back into the action. It's a fun game!

Happy Holidays!

This will probably be my last post of the year, unless some exciting game news drops between now and January 1. I hope you and all your loved ones have a safe and happy holiday season! If you need me, I'll be playing Icewind Dale and Star Wars X-Wing...

Coming Soon, To a Campaign Near You...

As 2014 draws to a close, I thought I'd preview some of the big events on tap for next year...

• The epic-tier Druid Cycle heroes hope to conclude their war against the Movement and its allies in the great cities of Troya Nova and Prifddinas.
• As these adventures begin to wrap up, we'll see indications of a much broader conflict that is brewing across the multiverse...the Quintessence War.
• Along the way, expect to see more multiverse madness with characters crossing campaigns in unexpected ways. 
• And maybe, just maybe, we'll have a real, honest-to-goodness superhero campaign. There's a ton of great public domain material from the Golden Age and...wait, Captain Battle, look out behind you!

Funded...Again!

We did it again! Amazing Heroes Wave 1.5 is now fully funded. Bring on Wave 2! We need some villains now!

Amazing Progress

The Amazing Heroes Wave 1.5 Kickstarter has made some amazing progress over the past couple of days. With 61 hours to go (as of this writing), we're 94% funded. I can't wait to see all these awesome old-timey superheroes in action figure form!

Battle Master

Over the last few days, while waiting for my DMG to arrive (Amazon says today!), I've been working on various 5e character builds. There's a lot of cool stuff in the PHB, but my top choice is an old standby: the fighter (battle master). Unless I'm playing in an extremely low-combat campaign, I think a polearm-wielding human battle master is favorite build. And for his background, I've chosen to make him an acolyte; I envision him as a Solomon Kane type of guy, roaming the world and dispensing his own brand of harsh justice!

Board Game Fun

A colleague at work invited me to join the board game group that he and his wife host a couple of times each week. Today was my first time gaming with them, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Good folks, good games. Among others, I tried out The Great Snowball Battle, Fact or Crap, Pandemic, and Star Wars X-Wing. I may just have to invest in that X-Wing game...

Glorious Dung!

Click here for a nice article about a chap who recently rediscovered D&D thanks to Fifth Edition. Bonus! The URL includes the following: ...the-awesome-glory-that-is-dung.html

DMG Day!

Although some lucky folks (myself not included) were able to get their hands on a copy through a preferred store, today the Fifth Edition DMG goes on sale all across the country. From what I've heard, it may well be the best damn DMG in D&D history...

Victory...Again!

For the second time in a week, I've played through the sixth and last adventure deck of the Rise of the Runelords campaign for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. This go-around, it was Kyra the cleric and Sajan the monk who pounded the stuffing out of Karzoug, and despite my earlier reservations, this pair had a much easier time with the final adventure than Val and Seoni did. In fact, the encounter with Karzoug was a bit anticlimactic. The coolest part was when Sajan's charmed red dragon betrayed us (a 1-in-12 chance whenever you play that card) and attacked the party with its fire breath -- both heroes managed to escape taking any damage from the fiery ambush en route to bringing down Karzoug on the first try.

And now that I've played through all of Rise of the Runelords twice, I think it's time to put this game aside for a while and concentrate on Fifth Edition D&D...

Cartography

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Mike Schley's D&D art and cartography? I don't think I've ever encountered a D&D artist whose work so closely matches what's in my mind's eye.