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!