Samurai vs. Shaman

I'm not at all familiar with the Shadowrun universe -- aside from a basic idea about the mix of fantasy and cyberpunk -- so when I started playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall, I looked over the available classes for something that would spark my interest. I opted for the shaman. The shaman was my favorite class in Fourth Edition D&D, despite its many drawbacks, so I thought it would be fun to try out a shaman in Shadowrun. Maybe it's just me, but the Shadowrun shaman seemed as underpowered as its 4e counterpart. I started the game over as a samurai, and the fights have been a lot easier!

Wedgie

Whew! Wedge got behind the Imperial Raider and gave it a wedgie, so to speak. With Wedge shooting it from behind, and my other ships tight up against its starboard side, the Raider was unable to fire its powerful forward guns or any of its aft-mounted weapons that can only be used at long range. We ran the risk of crashing into the Raider, but it was preferable to getting caught out in the open and obliterated by a turbolaser. Flying along with the slow-moving Raider, then, my three remaining ships -- two X-wings and one Headhunter -- strafed the aft section until it was crippled, and then the Raider was toast. I had some very lucky dice rolls on my side, though, so I won't gloat over the victory!

Ouch!

I'm playing X-Wing against Matthew and his new Imperial Raider, and my poor Rebels are really taking a beating. We shot down the TIE Advanced fighter escort, but the Raider's ability to unleash multiple long-range weapons is proving...troublesome. I went into battle with a full squadron of X-wings -- top-notch pilots and astromech droids for each -- and a few Z-95 Headhunters for cannon fodder, and already I've lost a third of my forces. My only hope is to get a ship or two behind the Raider, where it can't return fire. Come on Wedge, let's see some fancy flying!

Imperial Reinforcements

It was a Star Wars Christmas at our house, with the boys scoring a Lego Star Destroyer and TIE Fighter along with a TIE, TIE Advanced, and Imperial Raider for Star Wars: X-Wing. The Rebel Alliance is in serious trouble now!

Ignore the fact that the Lego TIE and the Star Destroyer are really, really not to scale...

Holiday Game Action

It's going to be a fun holiday vacation. We aren't going anywhere this year (staying home for Christmas for the first time in eight years!), but we'll have plenty to do. We'll have The Cloud Dungeon and Ghostbusters for new tabletop options, an old Lego Heroica game that Matthew desperately wanted for Christmas, some new Imperial ships for X-Wing, Shadowrun: Dragonfall (thanks, Matt!) on the computer, and, if I can muster the fortitude, the last round of battles in the iPad Injustice: Gods Among Us. Can't wait to get started!

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

Star Wars Prep

I'm taking the boys to see The Force Awakens tomorrow, so today we're doing a bit of X-Wing action to get in the mood. Well, as if we actually needed to get in the mood!

This battle is taking place in a "graveyard" of destroyed ships. We'll see how it goes, but so far there's been a lot of stalking and not much heavy-duty combat. I think the odds currently are tilting in favor of Nathaniel's Imperial Decimator and TIE Interceptors. Matthew brought in the seldom-used Hawk to support his Millennium Falcon and A-Wing, and so far it's been a non-factor. Of course, anything can happen in a galaxy far, far away...

I Have Seen It...

...and I can confirm that it is good!

I'd Buy That for a Dollar!

You have less than 24 hours to join me in supporting a wacky Kickstarter in which you can contribute as little as a dollar to get a new RPG...details here!

T-70

So...I hear there's some big fancy-dancy movie coming out this weekend. But now does this mean I'm going to have to replace my fleet of X-wings with the new T-70 model?

Kickstarter Delivered

I've now supported four Kickstarter projects -- three of them funded and the fourth has more than met its goal with a few days left in the campaign -- and the first to deliver a product is a family-friendly RPG called The Cloud Dungeon, which arrived this weekend. With Zombicide occupying much of our gaming time and our long-languishing Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign in serious need of some attention, I don't know when we'll get to Cloud, but I hope we can give it a whirl over the holidays.

Zombie World

"It's...Zombie World," Nathaniel sighed.

Indeed it was. The boys and I played a pretty epic Zombicide scenario today, with each of us controlling two human survivors. Our objective was to navigate through a city neighborhood and reach the exit on the opposite side of the map. Things started innocently enough when we began to search a building for gear. Unfortunately, Amy (the purple mini below) was killed by the building's undead occupants. The rest of the humans hustled back outside and started to head up the street, with Phil (dark gray) and Josh (orange) taking the lead.

Soon we were confronted with a choice: keep to the streets or try to find a shortcut through a zombie-infested building. I wanted to play it safe and avoid opening any more doors, but Matthew was intent on going through the building, so that's what we did. While the others moved through the building, clearing it room by room, Phil hung back to guard the rear and slow down the advancing horde.

It was curtains for Phil, but the shotgun-wielding cop took a whole lot of walkers with him before he died. The others managed to slip out of the building through another door and scurry to the exit zone, but not before Matthew's trigger-happy characters had drawn out even more foes. The pic below shows only the active zombies on the board at the end of the final turn -- it doesn't show the legions that were cut down during our frantic race to safety.

So, four of the six humans survived to see another post-apocalyptic day. It's the zombies' world, as Nathaniel said, and we're only living in it.

Raider Envy

My parents just ordered the Star Wars: X-Wing Imperial Raider set for Matthew for Christmas. Totally awesome? Yes, of course. But I'm wondering how Nathaniel is going to react. Granted, he didn't have any X-Wing sets on his own Amazon wishlist, but I foresee a five-star freak-out when he realizes that he'll only be able to use the Raider when his big brother allows it...and how often is that going to happen?

Legendary!

Tonight I completed Sword Coast Legends, and, all things considered, it was an enjoyable game -- if a bit too much like an MMO in terms of game mechanics. It's not in the same league as the Baldur's Gate family, but it's a solid D&D video game nonetheless. I would definitely recommend it.

For what it's worth, my final foursome consisted of my human paladin PC, the derro rogue Izhkin, the elf cleric Illydia, and the drow wizard Dalanir. This party configuration offered a nice balance of melee and ranged attackers, and all three NPCs had powers that allowed them to summon creatures. The back-to-back boss fights at the end of the game turned out to be kind of a long slog, but we chugged regeneration potions while spamming the bosses with summoned creatures, and I never really felt like the party was in serious jeopardy. There are tougher battles in the game -- including one against a mind flayer, its thralls, and a red dragon that pops in to breathe fire from time to time -- but the final showdown did have a certain cinematic feel to it, and there's a cool bit between the two fights where you have to make a choice that dramatically alters the way the end of the game unfolds. Heh. One NPC was really pissed at me...but when the fate of the Sword Coast is at stake, you've gotta do what you've gotta do!

Treason Season

'Tis the season...for treason! I'm nearing the end of Sword Coast Legends and just discovered that one of the main NPCs -- one I've been leveling up relentlessly and equipping with top-notch gear -- is actually a traitor. D'oh! There goes my ideal party configuration. At least I have another solid NPC who can fill that party role, but still...

Brains!

The name of the game is Zombicide, and it delivers what the title promises. You kill a lot of zombies in this game -- the base set comes with sixty-five plastic zombie minis, for cryin' out loud! -- and no matter how much firepower you're packing, there are always more brain-eaters than you can possibly defeat. You can't win the game by fighting alone, so you need to choose your battles carefully and keep moving toward your mission objectives.

The game plays fast, too. A typical Mansions of Madness adventure would take us at least two sessions, but in one afternoon today we played Zombicide's tutorial game twice and then a custom scenario that Matthew created. In all three games, I played grizzled cop Phil (very similar to the grizzled cop from a certain zombie-themed TV show you might have heard about), Matthew played young punk Josh, Nathaniel played Wanda the waitress, and Amy played...Amy, a feisty goth gal. Here's a pic from Matthew's custom scenario: Wanda (the light blue mini in the foreground) is looking up the street at the advancing horde while the others (in the upper right) hustle to the map's exit zone.

Wanda was far and away the most memorable character from the adventures. It's hard to see in the photo, but the Wanda mini depicts a waitress on roller skates, carrying a chainsaw. The character never begins the game with that weapon, but in two out of the three scenarios, Nathaniel managed to draw the chainsaw as an equipment card while searching buildings. The roller skates give this character incredible movement capabilities, so Wanda was zipping all around the map, churning her way through multiple zombies with every attack.

This game was definitely a hit in our household. I don't foresee Amy clamoring to play it regularly -- she's decided that she's more of a Eurogamer -- but the boys and I, at least, will probably dig into the vast online library of free scenarios and come up with more of our own, as well.

Zombicide

Zombicide arrived at our house today and despite my best intentions, I don't think I'll be able to hold out until Christmas. Sorry, kids, I guess you'll just have to get an early Christmas present! 

I think this game may work out a bit better than the excellent but fiddly Mansions of Madness. Like MoM, Zombicide is a cooperative game, but this one doesn't involve a DM-like player who is working against the others; instead, all players are on the same team, and the zombie antagonists move and attack according to a simple script. As players explore the city streets and buildings (set up using double-sided cardboard map tiles), they can battle the ever-growing zombie horde or try to outwit and outmaneuver their undead foes. I hope we'll be able to give it a whirl this weekend. Stay tuned for pics of our first foray into the zombie apocalypse!

Ameritrash...and proud of it!

A term I wasn't familiar with until I started getting heavily into board games is Ameritrash, which refers (disparagingly, as you can probably guess) to games with a strong genre theme (sci-fi, fantasy, zombies, etc.), usually involving individualized characters and a kind of narrative that unfolds during gameplay. Mansions of Madness, for example, would fall into this category. In contrast to Ameritrash games are the more "critically acclaimed" (scare quotes added to be snarky) Eurogames, such as the members of the Catan family and Carcassonne. Eurogames tend to have streamlined rules and very little dice rolling, and focus on competition for resources rather than direct combat. I don't have anything against the Euro style, and I own and enjoy many such games, but I'm kind of getting sick of the board gamers who look down their noses at anything that comes with plastic minis. I've got
Ghostbusters and Zombicide on order, and damn, they both look like a lot of fun. Isn't that the whole point of board games, anyway?

"We got one!!!"

Thanks to a nifty Amazon deal, the new Ghostbusters board game is now on its way to our house. Will I be able to hold out until Christmas, or will I drop this big box of ectoplasmic awesomeness on my boys as soon as it arrives?

Midway

Ah, the '80s! So much to love...including arcade games from Midway. The boys and I recently discovered an iPad app that gathers some of Midway's classic quarter-gobblers, including Spy Hunter, Rampage, and more. The only downside to the app is that the greatest '80s arcade game of them all -- Gauntlet -- remains locked. If I can pry the iPad away from Matthew and Nathaniel, I may just figure out how to unlock it!

d14...?

Okay, I'm intrigued. An ancient Chinese board game was discovered (click here for details) that involves rolling a fourteen-sided die. Dang, I wish the rules for this game still existed!

Mmmm...Pie...

So there's a baker in the Underdark who sells pies...fungus pies...

Roadhouse!

In our Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign, the heroes are inching closer to discovering the headquarters of the Cult of the Dragon. In the next session, they'll reach a remote inn known as Carnath Roadhouse. The challenge for me will be getting through this episode without breaking into the "Roadhouse" bit from Family Guy...

Roadhouse!

SCL Survey

This month's survey on the Wizards site is about Sword Coast Legends. If you've played SCL, you can give your feedback here. I was pleased to see a question that asked about favorite NPCs and which ones we'd like to see in future D&D products. Bring back Hommet!

"I love it when the kittens explode!"

So says Nathaniel, who really digs the latest addition to our game library. Our first foray into Exploding Kittens was a three-player game with Matthew, Nathaniel, and myself. I amassed four of the six Defuse cards (the only cards that allow you to stop the little kitties from exploding) en route to a victory. In the second game, we managed to rope Amy into the action (she finds the game's humor to be rather puerile -- duh!), and a clever bit of card-counting allowed her to kill me off early in the game. Nathaniel, a notorious card-hoarder, outlasted Matthew and Amy for the win. The boys are eager to introduce their cousins to the game, so I suspect we haven't seen the last of those volatile felines.

Exploding Kittens

I was tempted to support the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter earlier this year, but ultimately didn't. I saw the game at Target yesterday and it just looked so tempting, so I picked up a copy. Looks like a hoot -- can't wait to play it with the family!

Sword Coast Map

Beautiful...high resolution...drawn by the remarkable Mike Schley...click here to download the best map of the Sword Coast you'll ever see!

Cool SCL Plot Twist

Spoiler alert! I don't want to give away anything specific, but I thought it was a cool plot twist in Sword Coast Legends when you're given the opportunity to recruit a character who has been bitterly opposed to the party. I figured this character would be a mid-game boss rather than a potential party member!

False Alarm!

Okay, never mind! I found another way to get where I needed to go, so -- bug or not -- I'm back in business.

Buggery!

Drat! My progress in Sword Coast Legends has come to a halt due to what may be a bug in my copy of the game. If I'm forced to start the whole thing over, I may just drop it entirely, despite the overall experience picking up considerably since I first started.

Rolling Thunder!

Okay, okay, Sword Coast Legends may be winning me over. I love the hilarious NPC wizard Hommet, and he's turning out to be something of a badass with his growing necromantic powers and new quarterstaff that has a flaming skull at the end of it. And he's not the only party member who's acquiring some interesting gear; my main character, a paladin, is now the proud owner and wielder of a rolling pin called Rolling Thunder -- in game terms, a club that inflicts massive lightning damage.

Star Wars Saturday

First an epic game of X-Wing (won handily by Nathaniel's Imperials), followed by some Lego Star Wars ship-to-ship combat, followed by setup for tomorrow's X-Wing battle, capped off by an episode of the amazing Star Wars Rebels. It was a Star Wars Saturday to be sure, and poor Amy was left out of everything!

Battle of Attrition

The boys have had a big X-Wing game going this afternoon, and ships are falling left and right. Nathaniel's Imperial fleet has lost all its TIEs, and Matthew has lost his beloved Luke/R2 combo. The Imperial Decimator and Boba Fett's Slave I are now hammering a lone B-Wing, but the remains of Matthew's Red Squadron X-Wings are just a turn away. This one is still anyone's game, but my money is on the Imperials...

Thoughts on SCL

I'm still not sure what I think of Sword Coast Legends. I suspect I'm still fairly early in the single-player campaign, and I haven't fooled around with the DM tools yet, so there's still a great deal to explore -- and I'm looking forward to it. Still, the game thus far has left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed. I had hoped for the second coming of Baldur's Gate -- an unreasonable expectation, I admit -- but what I'm finding is that SCL is more like a single-player Neverwinter. 

SCL really does feel like an MMO to me. The storyline is linear with bland side-quests ("Find me eight ooze samples!" and such) and the gameplay hardly resembles Fifth Edition (or any edition) tabletop D&D. Instead, characters have powers with cooldown timers as in any MMORPG, they never need to rest (electing where and when to rest is, of course, a major strategic component of "real" D&D), and they never truly die unless there's a TPK.

It's a fun game, though, and I have every intention of playing all the way through the campaign and then building modules with the DM toolkit. Creating my own digital Troya Nova -- or some other location from the Druid Cycle world -- will probably win me over to liking SCL more than I do now.

New 5e Options...Rangers, Take Note!

In this month's Unearthed Arcana post, we get some new Underdark-themed options, including a couple of new fighting styles for fighters, paladins, and rangers. The "Closed Quarters Shooter" style seems like a great fit for the chronically under-powered 5e ranger.

Farewell, Stumpley!

We made a bit more progress on our Tyranny of Dragons campaign tonight, and it was a memorable session indeed. The heroes continued to follow the Cult of the Dragon in the hope of finding their lair, but a wizard affiliated with the cult summoned a troll that killed off our wacky halfling NPC, Stumpley. It was a sudden and sad end for an NPC the boys loved (Amy, not so much), but I was kind of sick of the monk class and wanted to switch the main NPC to a fighter. So, alas, the Stump-meister had to go! Now the players have even more reason to despise the Cult of the Dragon, and I can introduce a new NPC ally the next time we reach a town...and Waterdeep is only a few miles away...

Map-tacular!

Now this is a map of the Sword Coast! I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mike Schley is an amazing artist!

Sometimes You Get Lucky; Sometimes You Get Eaten

We returned for more Mansions of Madness this weekend, and right from the get-go we had problems. The setup instructions for this scenario included only one ladder token (the rulebook indicates that ladder tokens appear in pairs, allowing characters to travel from one to another as if moving between adjacent spaces), which we found to be confusing; making matters worse, I misread my own story selections, so when the second ladder token eventually appeared midway through the story, it was in the wrong place. To make the scenario playable, the ladder had to be able to transport characters between three different rooms, so it ended up being more of a portal. Whatever. A weird ladder that leads to multiple locations isn't exactly out of place in the world of H. P. Lovecraft.

The excitement really started to increase once the team realized that an evil cult was sacrificing its own members in a blood ritual to summon horrific eldritch monsters from another world. As the investigators raced to save their old friend Marie -- who had attempted to infiltrate the cult, but was subsequently captured and imprisoned in the crypt of the old monastery -- they had to deal with monsters hunting them through the hallways. Tough-as-nails gangster Michael McGlen (Matthew) took one look at the shoggoth lumbering toward him and decided to challenge it head-on with his Tommy Gun.

Meanwhile, occult writer Gloria Goldberg (Amy) and socialite Jenny Barnes (Nathaniel) managed to rescue Marie from the crypt, and they decided to make a break for the exit. Michael, however, stayed behind to battle the tentacled monstrosity. He riddled that thing with bullets, but the creature broke his arm and inflicted so much horror on him that he was only one Sanity point away from going insane. Realizing he was likely beaten, he at last elected to flee.

As the ladies raced for the exit, with monsters hot on their trail, they encountered the cult leader guarding the only way out of the monastery. Jenny's ax broke as she hacked away at the frenzied foe, but at least he was down to only a single Health point. It was likewise for poor Gloria, who had been mauled by a zombie moments earlier. She raised her pistol to fire at the cult leader, knowing that safety was only a few feet away. All she needed to do was score a hit, and then she could use her move action to escape with Marie -- and the investigators would win!

Alas, it was not to be. When Gloria opened fire, she missed...and her own bullet ricocheted back at her, ending her life. What fate befell Michael and Jenny? We may never know...

Random SCL Thought

I'm enjoying Sword Coast Legends. It's a worthy successor to Baldur's Gate and other such classic D&D video games, and despite having very little time to devote to it, I think I'm making pretty good progress. But for whatever reason, whenever I hear the voice of NPC necromancer Hommet Shaw, I picture Ricky Gervais...

Desert Dude

Nathaniel played two games of Forbidden Desert with Amy today, and then another one tonight with me while Matthew was at a swimming lesson. Desert has become Nathaniel's go-to game, and I've never seen him so quiet and attentive as when he's setting up the tiles and cards for a game.

SCL Is Here!

Sword Coast Legends is out! (Hat tip to Matt for the news!)

4th to 5th Conversion

Driving one final stake in the heart of Fourth Edition D&D is a new document that explains how to convert 4e characters and adventures to 5e. Click here to download...

Kickboxin' Kate

The investigators made great time tracking down the clues, and soon they found the insane, poltergeist-possessed homeowner -- and his zombified wife, of course! -- in the garden. A massive battle ensued, with Jenny and Joe pumping hot lead into their foes. As the battle dragged on, however, Amy's character, the scientist Kate Winthrop, had little to do; we hadn't found a weapon for her, so she was forced to punch and kick, to no avail. The clock ticked toward the investigators' defeat, but Kate somehow landed a kick -- and here I'm thinking a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick -- that dropped the crazy dude and won the game for the investigators.

All in all, though, Amy wasn't a fan of Kate, so I suspect she'll try a different character next time. My hope is that she'll opt for reformed gangster Michael McGlen; he has a low Sanity score and his weapons include a tommy gun and dynamite...what could possibly go wrong?!

Beware of Ax-Wielding Maniacs!

We're well into our first game of Mansions of Madness, and the intrepid investigators are hot on the trail of a man who was driven insane by the death of his son and may well have murdered his wife. The clues suggest that he's out in the garden, but first the investigators are going to have to get past the ax-wielding maniac in the laboratory.

Kate the scientist (played by Amy) was able to use her flux stabilizer (yes, that's a thing!) to hold off the maniac for a while, but now he's coming after her. Fortunately, gruff detective Joe Diamond (Matthew) and gun-toting socialite Jenny Barnes (Nathaniel) are on their way. Let's hope they reach Kate in time!

The game has some interesting combat mechanics, including long-lasting physical and mental traumas (poor Joe, for example, is now seriously claustrophobic, and I have a "broken leg" card that I'm itching to play against the next hero who gets hurt). In addition to conventional hit point damage, characters can take horror damage that reduces their sanity; an insane character can be a major threat to his fellow adventurers -- possibly turning against them at the worst-possible moment. There's a magic spell that can restore sanity, but the most readily available "cure" for horror damage is our old friend alcohol. So, after Jenny took some horror damage, I heard a sentence I never expected a five-year-old to say: "Well, at least I have a bottle of whiskey!"

Mansions Unboxing

We cracked open Mansions of Madness this evening, and the boys were really excited to get their hands on the puzzles and other mini-games that are an integral part of Mansions. Meanwhile, I set up the minis and checked out the map tiles. As one would expect from Fantasy Flight Games, the components are all top notch. In this first pic, Sister Mary runs afoul of a Chthonian. She'll need more than her trusty crucifix to defeat this eldritch monster!

Next, Jenny Barnes, Michael McGlen, and Joe Diamond get ready to throw down against a band of evil cultists!

The sheer amount of stuff in this box is kind of intimidating, but it all looks super fun. Expect to see posts from our first game at some point in the next week or two.

Lex...in Limbo!

I had planned on making my final push in Injustice this weekend. Lex, Hawkgirl, and Catwoman are just one level away from winning! However, Mansions of Madness has arrived at our house a few days ahead of schedule (you rock, Amazon!), so I anticipate spending much of the weekend going through all the Lovecraftian awesomeness. I think it's going to take a while to get up to speed with this game, and in the meantime we also need to continue our Tyranny of Dragons campaign. Perhaps we'll do Tyranny this weekend and then dive into a full game of Mansions the following weekend, after I've had enough time to get familiar with the rules. From what I've seen, though, it looks like it's going to be an amazing game experience!

Mansions of Madness

The next addition to our family board game collection is Mansions of Madness (thanks, Kevin!), a cooperative game set in the world H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories. It looks very complicated, but it comes with tons of cool minis. Can't wait to give it a try!

If Someone Asks If We're a God, We'll Know What to Say

My boys love all things Ghostbusters -- the movies (even the second one), the '80s animated series, the Lego Ecto-1 set, etc. Now, as if in answer to prayers we had yet to pray, there's going to be a Ghostbusters board game...with minis! Click here to see some preview pics!

Game Time!

Kevin is in town for the weekend, and already we've inundated him with games. He squared off against Nathaniel in X-Wing and then we all played a game of King of New York, in which Kevin's giant robot was the last monster standing. Next up, we'll bring out Forbidden Desert, Ticket to Ride, and probably some form of Catan.

5e Prestige Classes

The latest Unearthed Arcana article focuses on the Fifth Edition version of prestige classes -- my most un-favorite part of Third Edition. There were some seriously broken options out there, and I rarely allowed them in campaigns of that era. Has the concept of the prestige class improved in the new edition? Click here and judge for yourself.

Last Level!

I've made it to the last level of the iPad Injustice game! Now it's time to beef up my team -- Lex Luthor, Catwoman, and Hawkgirl -- for the final push to victory!

Playmobil...Hockey?!

When I was working in Germany for a couple of weeks last year, I enjoyed wandering around the local Kaufhof -- a truly epic department store -- and perusing its massive toy section. I picked up a few pirate- and medieval-themed Playmobil figures for the boys as souvenirs, and every once in a while we set up all our Playmobil stuff for some genre-bending battles. 

Well, those pesky Germans have done it again. There's now a line of officially licensed NHL hockey Playmobil sets. Mein Gott, they're cool! There are skating players, goalies, referees, and even a Zamboni, but the centerpiece of this line is an arena playset. Kids -- and, let's face it, grown-ups like me -- can control the goalie with one hand and a skating player with the other. The skating players can actually shoot the puck (mit echter Schussfunktion!), so two players can go head-to-head and compete for the little plastic Stanley Cup. Team selection is limited to the NHL's Original Six, so I foresee Matthew as the Canadiens (his favorite team since he was a wee lad), Nathaniel as the Rangers (his favorite team as well as mine), and myself as the Maple Leafs. At least this way we can be sure that Boston will never ever win the Cup...

Epic Auto-Correct

The Druid Cycle guys have been doing a Shattered Realm mini-campaign lately, and like many of our games, it's conducted via email. With participants scattered across three different time zones, it's handy for players to be able to respond asynchronously using their computer, tablet, smart phone, etc. Smart phones, though, have that pesky auto-correct feature. In the current encounter, the heroes' wagon has been ambushed by bandits, and here's what I got from Kevin for his character's action on the first round of combat:

Hiring will use his Xbox trying to use the wagon as cover.

Ticket Record

Huge win for Amy today in Ticket to Ride. She set a family high score with 120 points. It was the first time we've had anyone break 100 points in a single game.

Escape!

After our weekly D&D session in the Tyranny of Dragons campaign -- Nathaniel's rogue purchased a wagon and learned some information about his missing father, and Matthew's warlock purchased a magical rod thanks to a loan (at an outrageous interest rate!) from Amy's paladin -- we decided to give Forbidden Desert another try, but this time as a two-player experience. While the boys busied themselves elsewhere, Amy and I entered the desert once again, and this time we were victorious! Here's a pic of the final game map...

Amy, as usual, was the water carrier (blue) and I was the navigator (yellow). We managed to locate all the components of the steampunk airship and get to the launch pad before we ran out of water. It was our first-ever victory at this game!

Two More

Just two more levels of iPad Injustice...the grim march to victory continues!

Progress!

Strong showing last night against the local instructor in my first-ever bout against him. My comeback is going in the right direction!

Dylan's Dad

We continued our Fifth Edition Tyranny of Dragons campaign today, and the player characters met with representatives of some of the key heroic factions in the Forgotten Realms world -- the Order of the Gauntlet, the Lords' Alliance, and the Harpers. As they discussed the growing problem of the Cult of the Dragon, the assassin Dylan (played by Nathaniel) spoke up and asked that these powerful organizations help him find his missing father. It was an unexpected request in a scene that was largely about setting up the plot for the next stage of the campaign. It was also rather poignant. Nathaniel wasn't trying to "act", as an adult gamer might; he was just saying what his character would say, and from the beginning Dylan's quest has been to find his long-lost father. I love how he works that background -- simple enough for a youngster to grasp, but still emotionally powerful -- into the adventures. I plan on rewarding him with a nice resolution that inserts Dylan's father directly into the Tyranny storyline. Dear old dad, I fear, has run afoul of the cultists...

Week Two

Week two of my return to fencing went well. Most of the folks who showed up for the "free play" night were historical fencers (lots of walking around in circles -- I don't quite get it), so they did their own thing while I worked one-on-one with a young classical fencer. It was a combination of drills and sparring, as much for my benefit as hers. I still have a long way to go before I get my precision and endurance back, but it was a good step forward. Give me a few more months and I'll be ready to take on Aldo Nadi himself -- of course, it helps that he's been dead for fifty years!

Bring on the Fun (and Pulled Muscles)!

My new fencing gear arrived today! Check it out...

I picked up an epee (the one with the thicker blade and the larger guard) as well as a foil because I think I'd gravitate toward epee if I ever got back into competitive fencing. Foil has all those wacky right-of-way rules, but epee is as simple as it gets -- whoever hits first gets the point, and the entire body is a valid target. Now I just need to convince someone at our local club to give epee a try...

The Cloud Dungeon

I just backed a cheap but cool-sounding Kickstarter game called The Cloud Dungeon. It seems like a great family game experience.

Chicago to...Chicago

It took us three sessions and nearly a week, but we finally completed our first game of Ticket to Ride. Amy (green) and I (black) pulled away from the boys in the latter stages of the game, but I ended up winning because of the bonus points for having the longest route -- a massive loop that started in Chicago, went all the way to LA, and ended up back in Chicago.

Etes-vous prets? Allez!

Well, I'm officially back into fencing now. This is a blog about gaming, of course, and fencing isn't exactly a core topic here -- but then again, neither is Hawkman. So, etes-vous prets? Ready or not, here comes a post about fencing!

Though I haven't been involved with the sport for as long as I've been involved with D&D (the latter has about a five-year head start), it's been a part of my life since childhood. I fenced for fun, I fenced competitively, and I even did a bit of instruction when I got to college and there wasn't an existing fencing program. After college, though, came graduate school and various part-time jobs, and research, and teaching...fencing just kind of fell by the wayside. For a long while, for many years, I didn't miss it. 

Then I did. 

Earlier this summer, I got back in touch with my old fencing coaches, a couple of guys I hadn't seen or spoken to in about fifteen years. During our family's recent visit to New York, Matthew and I dropped by one of their practices. It was great to reconnect with those guys, and by the end of the session I knew that my interest in the sport had been rekindled. I found a couple of fencing clubs in Reno -- an hour's drive from my house -- but then a nascent group emerged at the local community center, no more than five minutes from home. Last night I joined them for a bit of sparring, and although I've got fifteen years' worth of rust to shake off, and I'm fifteen years older now, and I had nowhere near the endurance or the precision of motion that I had in my prime -- I did okay. More importantly, it was fun. Next Thursday can't come fast enough!

Mace to the Face!

Ah, for Hawkman and Hawkgirl fans, there's nothing like a good-old mace-to-the-face to put a bad guy down for the count. That's Hawkgirl's "finishing" move in the iPad Injustice game, and there aren't many guys who can get up after taking a hit like that. Indeed, the Hawks' over-sized medieval weaponry is as much a staple of their characterization as their wings or their Nth metal belts. So why is the CW's bad-ass new Hawkman wielding such a dinky little mace?

See for yourself here.

I'm getting a live-action Hawkman and Hawkgirl on TV, so I realize that I have no right to complain, but...seriously, bro? Go back to the museum and get yourself a better mace. Otherwise, the costumes are pretty cool. It's not the classic yellow and green from the comics, but the style fits well with the costume design in the Arrow/Flash TV universe. Hawkgirl's helmet, in particular, is spot on. Can't wait to see these heroes in action!

Shaman-y Ranger

Wow, in today's Unearthed Arcana article (download it here), they're previewing a ranger build that kind of draws from the shaman of 4e in that it has a spirit companion. It's an interesting build, but they haven't revealed the higher-level features yet, so I'll reserve judgment for now.

Soo!

If nothing else, Ticket to Ride is going to teach my boys a much-needed lesson in the geography of North America. Everyone should be able to point out Sault Ste. Marie! (Full disclosure: I was only aware of the Canadian city of Sault Ste. Marie until I saw the Ticket game map -- I didn't realize there was a corresponding US city in Michigan!)

Ticket to Ride

Amy's parents got her Ticket to Ride for her birthday -- can't wait to give it a try!

Legos vs. Minis

Tim W., this one's for you!

Kids and Board Games

Parents, there are tons of great board games out there to play with your kids...and 538 has the data!

Double Down

Double XP for the next 72 hours?! Damn you, Injustice!

Force Friday

It's Force Friday, so I stopped by my local Target this morning to take a peek. There was indeed more Star Wars stuff than you could shake a lightsaber at. However, I'm soon to invest a lot of money in new fencing gear -- taking up an activity I abandoned many years ago -- so I resisted the urge to grab the new Lego Millennium Falcon and X-Wing sets. (Christmas is coming, boys!) I was pleasantly surprised to find the new Force Awakens-themed core set for the X-Wing miniatures game, with new pilot cards and upgrade cards, and new paint schemes to correspond to the ships' appearance in the upcoming film. I already have two of the original core sets, though, so the likes of Poe Dameron and BB-8 will have to remain a mystery to me until some Rebel (now Resistance?) player fields those cards against me someday...

Pathfinder Online

Sad news today about Pathfinder Online...see EN World's article here.

Huge X-Wing Fun

Amy is visiting friends in San Francisco this weekend, so the boys and I are on our own. We've been keeping busy with a lot of games. We had some raucous King of New York action yesterday, when Nathaniel won the game and yet still freaked out anyway (apparently he thought we were just letting him win). We also played some X-Wing, bringing in the huge rebel transporter (from the Hoth evacuation scene in The Empire Strikes Back) for the first time. 

Maneuvering the transporter is a challenge, to say the least. In X-Wing, huge ships automatically destroy small and large ships if they ram them, and that rule came into effect when Matthew plowed his lumbering cargo vessel directly into a TIE Interceptor that was tangled up with one of Matthew's own X-Wing fighters. The transporter obliterated friend and foe alike, and we all learned the valuable lesson of keeping the hell away from that sucker.

The battle ended in a draw when Nathaniel and I spent numerous turns chasing Matthew's transporter around the map, only to watch it regenerate its shields every time. So, we all jumped to hyperspace, vowing to return and resume the fight another day...with reinforcements!

Batgirlin'

Oh Injustice! You've thoroughly monopolized my time! Just when I thought my ultimate team of Luthor, Catwoman, and Hawkgirl was set in stone for a run through the final stage of battles, you now offer a new Batgirl as a special challenge character! So, naturally, I had to get her, and she's totally awesome...not unlike the heroine of the recently revamped Batgirl comic series. But will she replace one of my Big Three? I guess only a few more days (weeks?) of leveling up will tell...

Hollow Mountain

Interesting...I may add Pathfinder comic books to my pull list once again.

Injustice Indeed!

I've been playing the iPad version of Injustice: Gods Among Us here and there for the past couple of months, and today I finally made it to the last stage of the game. Looking ahead to some of these battles has filled me with dread! It is indeed an act of grievous injustice to pit so many seemingly invincible beefcakes against even my A-Team of Lex Luthor, Hawkgirl, and Catwoman. I have no idea how I'm going to win these final battles, but I've invested so much time in this game that I won't quit until I win! (And yes, I'm very aware of the concept of the sunk cost fallacy, thank you very much!)

Uh Oh!

Must resist temptation...must resist temptation...

Imperial Assault Carrier

Drool! The TIE-toting Imperial Assault Carrier (click here to see preview pics) is going to be part of the X-Wing miniatures game. As a guy who loves to swarm TIEs, I'm thinking this huge-sized expansion is a no-brainer.

Water...Water!

Damn, Forbidden Desert is a very unforgiving game! We've played twice (using a different mix of characters each time) and in both cases we lost when one or more heroes died of dehydration. I'd say we were on the right track (having acquired or at least located all the airship components) in both games, but luck was against us and we drew so many sun cards that we croaked. D'oh! Well, Amy is fired up to keep playing until we win...

Book of Vile Darkness

Remember a few years ago when a third D&D movie was announced? No? That's okay. The Book of Vile Darkness was essentially made-for-TV fare that, to my knowledge, was not released on DVD in the US. Today I found the complete flick on YouTube, in all its hammy glory...

I'm glad that the rights for D&D films have finally returned to Hasbro, who, in partnership with Warner Brothers, are now working on a big-budget D&D movie set in the Forgotten Realms world. I plan to follow the development very closely, so I'll keep you posted on the latest news.

Sandblasted

We're well into our first game of Forbidden Desert and the storm is really picking up! We've explored most of the ancient city and have discovered the location of the four missing components of the airship (three of which are visible in the image below, and the fourth has already been collected).

We have adventurers (Amy is blue, Matthew is green, Nathaniel is white, and I'm yellow) in position near the remaining airship components and our Water Carrier (the equivalent of a cleric or other healer-type in RPGs) is in a good position to keep our team hydrated, but the storm is dumping huge amounts of sand all across the map. Can we collect all the pieces and make it back to the launch pad (which is also buried under the sand!) before the storm traps us in the ruins forever?!

Hillsfar Adventure

Free D&D! Click here to download a full-length Fifth Edition D&D adventure.

Forbidden Desert

Our family D&D night -- featuring the Tyranny of Dragons adventure path -- was on hold for the past couple of weeks while we were vacationing in New York. It's Friday again, but it looks like Tyranny will have to wait yet another week -- we've got Forbidden Desert on tap for tonight, and everybody is pretty stoked to try it out.

I knew we had a winner as soon as I opened the metal box that contained the game's many goodies. There's a cool little plastic airship (the objective of the game is to find the ship's missing components and repair it so that you can escape from the desert before you die from dehydration or get buried by the raging sandstorm), cards for the various adventurers (each with their own special abilities, as in Pandemic), equipment cards featuring a nifty steampunk design (sorry, Amy!), variable tiles to ensure that no two game maps are ever the same (like Settlers of Catan or the various D&D cooperative board games that have been released over the last five years), and more.

But is it a good game? We won't know until we try it, but the rules are simple and elegant, and I think we'll be up and playing in a matter of moments. I anticipate it will be loads of fun, but also very challenging -- our adventuring party may well die many horrific deaths in the scorching desert before we at last escape on that airship!

Post-Vacay Blues

After a long and very enjoyable trip to western New York, it's now back to the grind for me. How to cure the post-vacation blues? Order a new game, of course! We're going to try out Forbidden Desert, from the creator of Forbidden Island and Pandemic. I'll let you know how it goes!

Museum of Play

We spent today at the National Museum of Play (click here for their official website) in Rochester. The place is chock-full of fun stuff; in particular, the whole family got a kick out of all the classic arcade games. Here's a shot of us getting ready for a four-player game of Gauntlet.

The kids tended to shoot the food -- rookie mistake! -- so we didn't survive many levels.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see all the nods to D&D history. They had the first-ever D&D video game, which, as I understand it, was a pretty basic and generic dungeon-crawler -- but at the very least a spiritual ancestor of the many awesome D&D games that have followed in its wake.

Elsewhere, a display case included some notes about RPGs in general and the foundational role played by D&D itself. They had some of the earliest D&D products as well as a sampling of modules, dice, miniatures, and non-D&D RPGs. Here's one side of the display...

And here is the adjacent side...

I kind of feel like I could have pulled a better display of RPG history out of my ass...ets. My own assets, as it were. Even after discarding so many RPG products from yesteryear, I still have a lot of the most iconic items, such as the First Edition D&D PHB and the first Basic set. Still, it was great to see D&D featured in as amazing and wondrous a place as the Museum of Play.

Hawkman Cast

As if the D&D movie news wasn't amazing enough, we also learned today that the CW's Hawkman has been cast. Click here to meet the guy who will basically kick everyone's ass.

Holy Crap, Here Comes a New D&D Movie!!!

Click here for the scoop, yo!

Back on Home Turf

It's good to be back! Breakfast at a Tim Hortons in Buffalo, lunch at a different Tim Hortons (at the new HarborCenter ice hockey facility), and dinner across the border at Harvey's. In between this delicious fast food fare we had enjoyable visits to the Buffalo Naval Park and Niagara Falls. Tomorrow, we've got all sorts of fun stops in Rochester -- not the least of which will be Millennium Games. I've visited game stores all across America and in Canada, England, and Germany as well, but nobody can top Millennium.

2015 ENnie Wins

Congrats to Fifth Edition D&D for its massive haul of ENnie awards! Click here to see the roundup.

Flashback

I've played tabletop D&D three days in a row, and the Yankees are sitting on a 6.5-game lead in the American League East. It this the 1990s all over again?

Level Up...Again!

After missing two weeks due to our trip to SoCal, we sat down again last night and tonight for more of our family's Tyranny of Dragons campaign. The heroes completed the second chapter of the story, bringing them up to third level. Everyone is excited about how their characters are progressing -- perhaps none more so than Matthew, whose warlock -- Edgeren Strongstaff, a name that Matthew is quite proud of -- just acquired an imp familiar. I have a feeling that Edgeren and his imp sidekick are going to get themselves into a lot of trouble!

Handy 5e Resources

Click here to download Fifth Edition character sheets (in various formats) and pre-generated characters.

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Following the release of the Sword Coast Legends video game is a promising D&D supplement called Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide -- click here for details.

It Never Rains in California in July

Holy crap, is it raining! I've never seen such a downpour in California before. We had planned on going to the park today -- our last day of vacation before driving back to Nevada -- but instead we're staying inside, playing Injustice. I'm reminded of something Amy told me, eleven years ago today, on our wedding day: "No need to worry about having an outdoor wedding. It never rains in California in July."

Got Her!

We got Hawkgirl! She's really amazing -- a perfect fit with my "A Team", which also includes the uber-suped-up duo of Lex Luthor and Catwoman.

Hawkgirl!

Hot on the heels of Hawkman's addition to the upcoming CW TV series, now the iPad version of Injustice: Gods Among Us has added Hawkgirl as a challenge character. Matthew and I are already well on our way to acquiring her. Are we entering a new era in which the Hawks once again take their rightful place as prominent DC heroes? Probably not, but I'll take what I can get!

Like Father, Like Son

Serious action figure collectors (like yours truly) are all about army building. If I'm interested in a line of toys, nothing makes me happier than finding a generic-looking soldier or vehicle of which I can buy multiple copies.

I think Nathaniel has inherited some of my tendencies. With his precious Legoland souvenir money (we spent a couple of days at Legoland this week and it was freakin' awesome!), the little dude elected to buy two identical Lego TIE Advanced fighters rather than two ships of different types. As he puts it, he's working on building up his Imperial fleet -- just like I'm doing for the Star Wars X-Wing game.

Hawkman!

This has nothing to do with gaming, but I can't even begin to tell you how stoked I am that my favorite DC superhero, Hawkman, is going to be a character on the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow CW TV series!

More on Siege

Click here for lots of additional info -- new NPC allies! new locations! -- about the upcoming expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. There's even a trailer!

Siege of Dragonspear

Hat tip to Matt for the scoop: There's going to be a new expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. Click here for details. I can't wait to see the shaman character class!

Mystics

Click here to check out the latest Unearthed Arcana article, which provides a draft of the Mystic character class along with rules for psionics.

Bath Time

It's bath time, and the boys are stalling by playing King of New York. Damn it! They knew my one weakness!

SCL Campaign Creation

Hell yes! Click here to watch a couple of videos about creating campaigns in Sword Coast Legends.

Level Up!

Our weekly family D&D campaign hit a milestone on Saturday when our fledgling heroes from the Tyranny of Dragons storyline reached second level. Amy was pleased to have the opportunity to start shifting her paladin into more of a striker (apologies for the Fourth Edition terminology!) role, while Matthew loved getting a boost to his warlock's Eldritch Blast spell ("I can do 19 damage if I roll the maximum!"). Nathaniel didn't quite understand all the options now available to his rogue as part of the Cunning Action feature, but he really latched on to the idea of avoiding opportunity attacks. In his brief D&D career, he's been kind of paranoid about opportunity attacks, so gaining the ability to move around without incurring them was pretty exciting to him.

Syrinscape

My favorite freebie from this year's Free RPG Day was definitely the voucher card for three free sound sets from Syrinscape. Between those and the two free sets that I got for signing up for an account, I now have a pretty robust set of sounds -- battle noises, magical effects, and even environmental sounds like rain and wild animals -- that I can cue up on my iPad during game sessions.

"Free RPG Day? Nobody Told Me!"

We showed up at A-1 Comics in Sacramento about an hour before their 10 AM opening time and we still weren't the first ones there. Even so, I managed (ahem) to end up first in line at the front of the store. When the dude opened the doors, a dozen or so diehards (not including my two little henchmen) filed into the store. Then the guy turned around, looked us up and down, and wondered why the hell we were all staring at him. None of his colleagues had told him that it was Free RPG Day! I explained what was going on -- or rather supposed to be going on -- and he rummaged around until he found the box of Free RPG Day stuff. Huzzah!

Once again, Paizo ruled the day with an adventure module, a new character for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and a card with a product code for a few of the new Pathfinder RPG PC Soundsets from Syrinscape. Can't wait to check it all out!

Free RPG Day...Today!

Remember, today is Free RPG Day!

Free RPG Day 2015

Mark your calendars! Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 20. Visit your friendly local game store for some free stuff!

Stumpley

It's hard to believe that Fifth Edition has been out for about a year now. I had promised Matthew that I would run a family campaign once Nathaniel was old enough to contribute, and now that time seems to have come. We're doing the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, with Amy as a half-elf paladin, Matthew as a tiefling warlock, and Nathaniel as a human rogue. For a little added levity, I've incorporated a churlish halfling monk NPC named Stumpley, or "Stump" for short. Only too late did I realize that his voice -- I still try to do unique voices for all the major NPCs -- sounds rather too much like MODOK from The Super Hero Squad Show. So I've adjusted it a bit and now he sounds like the unholy offspring of MODOK and Fozzie Bear. Oy. Well, at least the campaign is off to a good start!

You, Sir, Should Unmask.

Indeed?

Lots o' D&D Today!

Wizards just posted several new PDF downloads on their site:

• Click here for an update to the free D&D Basic rules for players.
• Click here for PHB errata. (Woo-hoo! The Polearm Master feat wasn't nerfed!)
• Click here for a free D&D adventure geared toward younger players.

SCL Release Date

Sword Coast Legends has a release date: September 8! Check it out here.

Hail to the King, Baby!

Nathaniel seems to have become obsessed with King of New York. And why not? It's a top-notch board game, right up there with X-Wing or any of the Catan series. He and I have played quite a few one-on-one games of King over the past week, and I'm impressed by his emerging tactical acumen. He doesn't always make the optimal choices -- but then again, he's four-and-a-half. Most kids his age are playing Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. It's fun to watch his mind grow -- even when his T-Rex develops web-shooting powers and ensnares my gigantic fish-piloted robot.

DMing For Kids

As the father of two little boys who are endlessly fascinated by their dad's vast array of miniatures, maps, dice, and other RPG paraphernalia, I really appreciated today's D&D article (click here) on DMing for kids. I've done a lot of such DMing over the past year or so, and I think this article is spot on.

Science Fantasy

Click here for a really interesting article on the history of science fantasy in D&D. Speaking of which, there's a bit of science fantasy in the Shattered Realm setting, as the players will discover if they decide to play through a second adventure in this campaign world before returning to their regularly-scheduled Druid Cycle heroics.

New (Old) Blog Address

Heads up, yo! The www.virtualfrontporch.us URL that you've been using to access our delightful bloggery is going to change. Please find us again at our original URL, frontporchgg.blogspot.com.

Sword Coast Legends Interview

Click here for an interesting interview about the upcoming Sword Coast Legends computer RPG. Plus, there's a nifty map of the Sword Coast!

Thanks, But No Thanks

In the game design world, the stars don't get much bigger than Monte Cook. The dude is a legend. His latest venture is a Kickstarter for a kid- and family-friendly RPG called No Thank You, Evil! (click here for details). It looks a bit too tame and PC for my household, but for others it may be just what they're looking for to get their kids interested in roleplaying games.

King of...

Nathaniel, still in a huff over not winning the game, declared himself King of Nevada. I'll have to write to Iello Games and suggest it as a sequel to King of New York. And why not? Nevada is full of larger-than-life personalities! I've got dibs on the giant Elvis impersonator...

Drakonis is King!

It took us three days, but we've finished our first game of King of New York, and it was quite an epic conclusion. I (as the giant ape, Kong) was able to occupy Manhattan for the last several turns (racking up benefits along the way), but Matthew (as the cyborg dragon, Drakonis) had a combination of cards that granted him lots of points on his dice rolls. In a last-ditch effort to stop Drakonis, I managed to get the right dice rolls to bring in a massive strike by the US military. (The Statue of Liberty also came to life and joined my side, but that's another story!) All the monsters except for me were badly injured in the military attack, but it wasn't enough to knock out Drakonis. Amy and Nathaniel were likewise unable to bring him down before Matthew's turn came up, so Draknois, from his power base on Staten Island, easily managed to get his last victory point and was thereby crowned King of New York!

For now...

It's Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day is today! Get to your local store, pronto!

I'll be coaching little leaguers while my fellow rabid comic fans are lining up at our store in Carson City, but Amy has graciously agreed to brave the nerd hordes (I've actually seen more uniformed military personnel at our store than classic Big Bang Theory-type nerds, but whatever) and pick up my freebies. I made her a list of the ones I wanted, and provided a description of the covers. How cool is it that my wife knows who Darkseid is?!

City-Wide Smackdown

For those who'd like to see an illustration, here's a photo from our first King of New York game. I'm playing Kong -- in the Bronx, natch, for this Yankees fan! -- with Amy as Mantis in Manhattan, Matthew as Drakonis on Staten Island, and Nathaniel as Sheriff the T-Rex in Brooklyn.

King of New York

Giant monsters run amok in New York City, demolishing buildings and battling the military! If that sounds like your idea of a good time (or maybe if you just enjoyed the classic '80s arcade game Rampage), then I'd highly recommend King of New York (click here to see the official website), a fantastic new(ish) board game. Each player controls a monster (my favorite is either the King Kong knockoff or the cyborg dragon) and the object is to defeat all the other monsters or to earn enough victory points to be crowned the king of New York. The rules are pretty easy to learn, but there's a lot of tactical complexity and a lot of different paths to victory. I don't think this game is going to displace X-Wing or the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game as my favorite non-RPG games, but it's unequivocally one of the best board games I've ever played.

Dragon+ ... and it's Thursday

Oy. I keep thinking it's Friday. Anyway, click here to learn about Dragon+, a new iOS app that provides the latest D&D-related news.

FCBD 2015

Just a reminder...Free Comic Book Day is coming up this Saturday (May 2)! Click here to visit the official website. I think last year's event was the biggest and best ever, and this year promises to be even better!

Catan Dice Game

So among the many Settlers of Catan products there's a dice-based Catan game (click here). We picked up a copy today at Target -- seems like a fun game for road trips and such.

Imperial Raider

The boys and I are in the midst of yet another X-Wing battle. This time, I'm the Rebellion and they're each controlling a large Imperial ship (one of which is our brand-new Slave I!). Speaking of big Imperial ships...today I saw a preview of the upcoming Imperial Raider. Freakin' awesome!

Good Game, Eh?

I beat Mass Effect yesterday, bringing down that hoser Sovereign in a hail of assault rifle fire. The game's greatest mystery, however, remains unresolved: Why do so many people in the future have Canadian accents? Should we be worried?

Simplify, Simplify

Thoreau advises us to simplify our lives (as I learned from a Calvin & Hobbes strip -- I've never actually read Thoreau), and I'm taking that advice to heart. First up, I'm going to put my plans for the massive Quintessence War storyline on hold. I still intend to run this adventure someday, but I'd like to wait until there's an opportunity for more people to participate. Likewise, it's time to hit the ol' Pause button on The Druid Cycle and take a break from that campaign for a while. Those battle-tested heroes have earned a rest, and I need to invest some time in converting that world to Fifth Edition. Blog posts, which have been pretty sporadic lately, will continue to be sporadic, although I'll still pop in here and there to share game news and whatnot.

In the meantime, I'm going to start up a short-term Fifth Edition adventure with some of the regular Front Porch players. It's going to take place in the Shattered Realm setting and will serve as an introduction to 5e. I also plan to play a lot more Star Wars: X-Wing and 5e D&D with my boys, chip away at Neverwinter, finish up Mass Effect, and of course jump into Sword Coast Legends the nanosecond it gets released. Wait, wasn't this post supposed to be about simplification?

Map Time

At long last, the revamped Shattered Realm campaign setting has a map. Another map (for the second continent) will be needed, and I still have to create the interactive digital version (akin to the Druid Cycle map that displays pop-ups when you hover your mouse pointer over the various points of interest), but at least I've settled the basic geography. How far is it from Marcher Keep to the Herberage? Well, now I know -- and you will, too, if you play in the upcoming Fifth Edition mini-campaign...

Holy Sophie's Choice, Batman!

It seems that I'm rapidly approaching the climax of the first Mass Effect game. During the frenzied assault on the villain's main base, I had to choose whether to save Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams -- the two NPCs who have been with my main character since the beginning of the game. When confronted with the choice, I googled various Mass Effect game guides and walkthroughs to confirm that players cannot, in fact, save both of them; the game forces you to decide which NPC lives and which one dies. Damn!

In the end, I chose to save Kaidan. Ashley seemed more like the die-in-a-blaze-of-glory type anyway, and earlier in the game she had mentioned wanting to restore the reputation of her disgraced family. In game terms, though, I sacrificed Ashley because she was...redundant. As a gun-toting, front-line warrior, her skill set exactly overlapped that of my main character. Kaidan has all those wacky biotic and tech powers that my main character will never have, so it makes more sense to keep him around. Sorry, Ash!

Modifying Classes

Some cool notes today from Wizards about customizing 5e character classes, including an example of a ranger that lacks spellcasting capabilities. Click here to read the article.

5e Behind the Scenes

Click here for some fascinating insider info from Jeremy Crawford, a key member of the Fifth Edition team.

Catan Kids

We went over to my sister-in-law's house for dinner last night, which gave Matthew and Nathaniel the opportunity to introduce their older cousins (ages nine and thirteen) to Catan Junior. Matthew jumped out to a big early lead by buying up lots of parrots -- sounds weird if you haven't played the game, but a lot of people consider it to be an optimal strategy -- although his progress stalled when he didn't have enough resources to buy the ships and forts needed in order to win the game. It was four-year-old Nathaniel who earned the victory, defeating the three older kids to the astonishment of everyone but himself. He may be the youngest of the bunch, but he can hold his own in board games.

Game Card Holder

One of the dudes in our local board game group has started a Kickstarter to manufacture a game card holder for collectible card games, board games, and other games that involve lots of cards. Click here for the details...

The Falcon's Last Stand

We played on and off throughout the weekend, but our epic X-Wing battle at last came to an end a little while ago when the Falcon -- the last of the Rebel ships -- went down in a hail of blaster fire.

I'm really proud of Nathaniel, who, at just four years old, has learned the game well enough to play alongside Matthew and me.

Classic Showdown

Matthew's Red Squadron is facing my TIE swarm, while my Interceptor stalks Nathaniel's Millennium Falcon...

At Last...

It is, after all, the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.

Squee!

We've been waiting for this since 1998. In issue #5 of IDW's Legends of Baldur's Gate comic book, Boo actually goes for the eyes!

Big Bug

I was playing Mass Effect earlier and demonstrating to Matthew how the six-wheeled transport vehicle can drive around on the surface of the various planets that you can visit. My main character and her team were investigating a mysterious distress call from some fellow marines and, suspecting something amiss, they hid the vehicle out in the hills and then moved in on foot. As they approached, some sort of gigantic worm-like creature -- think Tremors or Dune -- burst up out of the ground and started spewing acid at us.

TPK.

Next time around, I approached in the vehicle. When the worm popped up, I opened fire with the vehicle's cannons. Then came the acid.

TPK.

Hoping that the third time was the charm, I again approached in the vehicle, but instead of parking it, I just started driving around in circles. The worm ducked underground a few times, and whenever it surfaced, I hit it with cannon fire, all the while zooming around to avoid the nasty gunk it was spitting at me. This cat-and-mouse game continued until the beast at last went down and never came back up.

The worm's appearance was a real surprise -- I haven't read any spoilers or walkthroughs for this game, so I genuinely have no idea what's coming. I don't think this critter has anything to do with the main storyline, but it was a cool encounter, and one I won't soon forget.

Princes of the Apocalypse Review

"Apocalypse" may be spelled incorrectly (as of this writing) in the title of the review, but hey, it's still an early review of the second Fifth Edition adventure path. Click here to read the brief but interesting notes on Princes of the Apocalypse. I hope it's at least the equal of Tyranny of Dragons, the first 5e adventure path and a story that started out well but then kind of petered out.

Sword Coast Legends Demo

Drool! Check it out!

New Edition of Catan

A new edition of Settlers of Catan is in the works...just in time for my boys to graduate from the children's version to the full game! Click here for more details.

Catan Junior

Amy is out of town this weekend, so the boys and I have been toolin' around on our own. We paid a visit to the game store up in Reno (I may have increased the size of my Rebel fleet, so don't tell the Emperor...or Amy...), where I inquired about Catan Junior, the kid-friendly introduction to the Settlers of Catan series of games. They were sold out, so we picked up a copy at our local Target instead. The Target checkout lady (no, not that Target Lady) was mystified by my obviously inadequate attempts to explain Catan and similar board games and their appeal to young and old alike. She just shook her head and said, plaintively, "My son is twenty-eight and he still asks me to buy him Captain America stuff."

Elemental Evil Player's Companion...Free!

The Elemental Evil Player's Companion for Fifth Edition D&D is now available for free online. Click here to get yours!

Lunchtime D&D

A lunchtime D&D campaign at work? That would be pretty sweet. Click here to learn how one DM got started.

City Builder System

Dwarven Forge is back with a new Kickstarter project -- this one is a modular system for building cities for RPGs and wargames. Looks awesome, but it's super expensive. Click here and commence drooling!

Games, Games, and More Games!

So now that I have a new computer, the floodgates are open. I'm playing Mass Effect (thanks, Matt!), Darkest Dungeon (ditto!), and Neverwinter -- all at the same time! I think I need to focus on one at a time or I'll never get through any of them. But with all this gaming goodness at my fingertips, I'm no longer pining away for Sword Coast Legends. Well, at least for now...

More Sword Coast News

Check it out, you guys! More info about Sword Coast Legends can be found here.

Tesla

Players from the late-'90s conspiracy campaign The Other World -- which lives on in the Front Porch multiverse through several recurring characters -- probably recall that the overarching storyline involved control of the wireless power technology developed by Nikola Tesla. Turns out that wireless transmission of power is now a reality! Click here if you dare...but beware that the infamous G might be watching you...

Mass Combat!

More free D&D! Click here to download the new rules for mass combat. Great timing, too -- as the title implies, mass combat will figure prominently in the upcoming Quintessence War storyline.

Neverwinter

The last time I bought a computer, Amy was nine months pregnant...with our first kid! So, after more than seven-and-a-half years, it was time (past time, actually) to upgrade. I purchased a bunch of parts from Amazon and New Egg, and then some of my engineer pals from work came over and put the thing together for me.

The first game I downloaded was the basic version of the Neverwinter MMORPG. It's a lot like World of Warcraft, of course, but it's free and it's fun, so I'll give it a whirl. I think the most important outcome from trying out Neverwinter was that it got Matthew interested in playing D&D again. He immediately scurried off to come up with a new storyline for his campaign, which we haven't touched in several months. An hour later, Nathaniel and I sat down to the continued adventures of our rogue and bard, respectively. Halfway through, Matthew wanted to ditch the adventure and start a different one, but at least he's keen on paper-and-pencil D&D again!

Illusion Spell

Damn, it really looks like a white dress!

Free D&D Adventure!

Remember my "Blast From the Past" series? No? Well, it was a series of posts in which I reflected upon favorite adventures from past editions of D&D. My pick for Third Edition was The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde. I'm happy to report that this adventure is (temporarily) free! Click here to download the module, but act fast! It's only free until noon (Pacific time) tomorrow, February 21.

D'Oh!

Dang! I wasn't fast enough to get the $20 Falcon. Well, at least I can pick up another Starter Set for a great price.

X-Wing Re-Stock!

A new shipment of Star Wars: X-Wing products has reached online (and, I assume, brick-and-mortar) stores! I've never seen prices so low for some of these ships. Millennium Falcon for $20! Starter Set for $27! Click here to see the deals on Miniatures Market. I'm about to go on a binge...

Fun With Tocharian

While working on plans for the multiverse-spanning Quintessence War storyline, I found myself needing a set of names for a group of ascetic individuals who live in a remote, rugged environment. I usually use real-world languages -- everything from ancient Egyptian to medieval Welsh -- as the basis for campaign cultures, so I considered a number of possible linguistic candidates. I settled on Tocharian (a bastardized version of Proto-Tocharian, to be exact) as the source of names for this group, and even just a quick perusal of the Tocharian lexicon has given me lots of ideas for cool characters. Spoiler alert! Quintessence War players are going to meet a dude named Daksinake, and he's going to be pretty important...