A-Wing for the Win!

I had a fantastic time playing X-Wing today. The highlight of the afternoon was a skirmish in an asteroid belt with two players as the Rebels and two as the Imperials. I was flying an A-Wing, and was joined by another fellow commanding a pair of Z-95 fighters. On the Imperial side, one guy had a couple of basic TIEs, and our host was zipping around in a sleek TIE Interceptor. Maneuvering around the asteroids was a challenge, and we had numerous ship-to-ship and ship-to-asteroid collisions. The battle raged for a couple of hours, and ultimately came down to our host's Interceptor against my A-Wing. Both ships were badly damaged and suffering from the lingering effects of critical hits. The Interceptor limped along with a malfunction that made it dangerous for him to execute any sharp turns, so I used his limited mobility to my advantage. Just about every turn I managed to get behind him and open fire, but he evaded everything my weak little guns could throw at him. At one point he risked a sharp turn for a chance to shoot back at me, and, well, the Force was not with him. The Interceptor exploded as he attempted to turn, and my A-Wing emerged from the asteroid belt victorious. Such a fun battle! I can't wait for another opportunity to play with these guys again.

X-Wing Battle

Tomorrow I'll be joining at least six other Western Nevada gamers for a huge X-Wing battle. Will I achieve the glory of Wedge Antilles, or get squashed like Dak Ralter? May the Force be with me!

Exploding Kittens

Have you seen how much money the Exploding Kittens card game Kickstarter has raised? At this writing, they're at $4.7 million with 20 days to go, and the goal was only $10,000!

First 5e Survey

If you have experienced Fifth Edition D&D in any form -- as a player, as a DM, or even if you've just read through some of the materials -- please take a few moments to complete the first official survey. Click here to get started.

Family Feud

When Mom is sick and needs a little extra sleep, it's a day for holing up in the playroom with X-Wing. Matthew and Nathaniel wanted to have Vader and Luke face each other in a battle, so here it is...a pic snapped before the two titans began to open fire! (Matthew is Vader and Nathaniel is Luke.)

So who won? As of this writing, the battle is still going. (We're taking a break to watch the NHL All-Star Game.) The ships are very evenly matched, and Matthew's greater level of skill at the game is offset by Nathaniel's R2-D2 upgrade card; R2 can repair Luke's shields, so Vader really needs to score a lot of hits to bring down his recalcitrant son.

Comin' Through!

That Imperial Decimator is quite a bruiser -- and one of its pilots even has the ability to damage other ships by crashing into them! Check out the pic below, where an X-Wing and a Z-95 are frantically diving out of the way to avoid becoming a hood ornament for the Imperial warship. Now I really need to buy a big ship for the Rebels...

Penguin's "Missile"

I love the Fisher-Price Imaginext DC Super Friends action figures. I think they're the most fun superhero figures on the market, and they're virtually indestructible -- perfect for two rough-and-tumble little boys who aren't exactly careful with their stuff. Fisher-Price also releases new figures, vehicles, and playsets on a regular (and frequent!) basis. Visions of the upcoming Solomon Grundy figure got me through a fourteen-hour work day today, but check out the new Penguin set. There's something about that blue missile...

Upcoming D&D Products

Wizards just announced a bunch of upcoming new D&D products, including a Temple of Elemental Evil board game (I'll buy it just for the minis) and a new adventure called Princes of the Apocalypse.

Intergalactic Freak-Out

Tonight we had our first all-family Star Wars X-Wing game. On the Rebel side we had Matthew as Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing and Amy as an elite Z-95 Headhunter pilot (the Z-95 is the ship that looks like an X-Wing, but without the X-shaped wing configuration). For the Imperials, Nathaniel played the VT-49 Decimator (the big-ass ship in the upper-right corner of the image below) and I took the controls of a lowly TIE fighter.

The Empire got off to a great start despite some questionable maneuver choices by the Decimator pilot (ahem). My little fighter zipped around, chipping away at the Rebels' shields. The climax came during a showdown between Luke and the Decimator.

Alas, when the Decimator vaporized Luke's ship, the game ended in an epic full-on scream-fest between Matthew and Nathaniel. Argh. Both of these guys have a lot to learn about being gracious in victory and defeat.

NPC Census

Lately I've been working on expanding the Shattered Realm setting, adding new NPCs and whatnot. This time around, I'm keeping track of everything in a spreadsheet rather than a simple text file. A spreadsheet allows me to sort and filter quickly, and because each row corresponds to a single entry, I always know how many NPCs (or locations or organizations, depending on the tab) exist in the game world. So far, Shattered Realm is up to 165 named characters, which is roughly 50 more than in the Torchlight setting. Not surprisingly, the largest number of NPCs in the Front Porch multiverse can be found in the Druid Cycle setting, where I estimate about 650 unique NPCs. Damn. That is a lot of NPCs!

A Well Traveled Package

I've always wanted to do a cross-country drive. If I ever get the opportunity, perhaps I'll follow the route taken by this Amazon package I ordered last week...

Wow. Pennsylvania to Ohio to Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming to Nevada to California (huh?) and then back to Nevada again. At least it's now at our local post office -- can I assume that it will arrive today? In case you're curious, the package in question contains an extra set of dice for the Star Wars X-Wing game and a totally rad Captain Cold figure and vehicle set for Nathaniel to celebrate his first week at preschool.

New Basic D&D Resource

The Fifth Edition Basic rules are now available in an easy-to-use website format. This should be a great resource for players and DMs alike. Check it out here.

The Front Porch...on TV!

The front porch is now on TV! Well, sort of...

Click here for a local news clip featuring my good friend Jeremy (a star of our late '80s Earth Commanders and Fantasy Quest campaigns), my father, and some footage of a very wintry front porch.

First Teaser

I sent the first teaser for the upcoming multiverse-spanning Quintessence War storyline today to the epic-tier Druid Cycle players. Waiting is going to be the hardest part -- I'm excited to get this story off the ground!

Happy 2015!

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope you all have a great 2015.