Siege of Dragonspear

If you're looking for more action in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, you can now purchase the new expansion, Siege of Dragonspear. Click here for more details.

D&D Pre-History

Click here for an interesting summary of the DNA of D&D.

"I Thought You Were a Warrior!"

In Injustice, that's what Wonder Woman sometimes says -- in a tone that sounds like a disappointed schoolmistress --when she lays a savage beatdown on someone. I just finished up the Dawn of Justice Wonder Woman challenge, so I've added this character to my roster. She doesn't look like Gal Gadot to me (my Batman Returns Catwoman, in contrast, is very clearly Michelle Pfeiffer), but she has a lot of cool powers. Her best attack is one that summons a couple of other Amazons to gang up on your foe and pound him into submission. Now that I've completed this one last challenge, perhaps I'll be finished with this game...

Holy Mother Box, Batman!

Batman v Superman kind of kicked me in the nads, and I mean that in the best way possible. This was not a great movie, and by all rights I should feel disappointed, but it was full of amazing ideas and seeds for future storytelling. I mean, the movie had a freakin' mother box, for Granny Goodness' sake!

The movie also reminded me a lot of Injustice (which I'm still playing...oy!). At one point, Superman hurls Doomsday all the way up into space -- I've done that in the game many times!

BvS: DoJ: SVU: OMG: LoL

I'm taking the day off today to (among other things) see the new Batman v Superman flick. The "serious" critics apparently don't like this movie, but, frankly, it wasn't made for them. It was made for people like me. Fingers crossed!

Batman Bested!

I had been one battle away from winning the iPad version of Injustice: Gods Among Us when the app started crashing every time I tried to open it. Fast-forward a couple of months and I finally figured out how to fix the game without losing my data. Today, at long last, I beat the uber-super-duper Batman at the end of the game. Although Hawkgirl took one for the team, Lex Luthor and Catwoman survived to taste the sweetness of victory. Now I never have to play this stupid game ever again! Eh, who am I kidding? I'll probably load it up again next week to start working on getting the Dawn of Justice challenge characters...

Lazy Sunday

Well, we didn't wake up in the late afternoon (Google it if you're not getting the reference), but with the time change, it certainly felt like it. We've just been having a lazy Sunday of Magic duels (including Amy!) and deck-building, which is arguably more fun than actually playing the game. Matthew is working on a black and red deck, Nathaniel has green and white, and I'm sharing a white and black one with Amy.

Epic Comeback!

In Magic, Matthew plays a black deck, and his strategy is to amass enough mana to bring in his powerful monstrosities late in the game. My white deck, meanwhile, is built around lots and lots of low-cost creatures, which I use to nickel-and-dime Matthew in the early turns. In our most recent game, I got Matthew down to just 1 point of health, while I still had the full 20. And then...I stopped drawing mana cards. Without the mana to continue putting creatures in the field, I just had to wait and watch while Matthew started deploying his big guns. It wasn't long before we were both down to 1 health point, and then he wiped me out with his flying demons. Can you believe it? Just a single point away from victory, and yet he managed one of the most epic comebacks I've ever seen in my gaming career!

Comic Book = Booster Pack

I'm usually not one to complain, Grandpa Simpson-like, about how things have gotten more expensive over the years, but damn, comic books really have gone up in price! When I was a kid, we'd walk down the hill to J&L Dairy and pay 75 cents for the latest Batman or Spider-Man. Now your standard superhero fare is a whopping $3.99 -- and that's just for a regular 22- or 24-page issue! I had a bit of a revelation this morning when I stopped by my local comic book store and realized that a single issue from my pull list is costing me as much as the Magic booster packs that my store is now selling. Maybe I ought to pare down my pull list...

BG Expansion

Another Baldur's Gate expansion is on its way (click here for details), but I'm starting to think I've reached something of a Baldur's Gate saturation point over the last couple of years. I may need to let some time pass before I jump into this one.

First Magic Throwdown

Matthew and I fumbled through a Magic duel this evening using single-color decks (white for me and black for him) cobbled together from the small assortment of cards that we own. I'm not sure we got it entirely right from a rules perspective, but we had fun and I think we'll give it another go very soon. We both suffered from a glut of land cards and not enough creatures, so I think we'll modify our decks accordingly. Matthew also pointed out, rightly, that the black deck I built for him had hardly any high-powered creatures, so we'll need to rectify that situation as well. Why do I get the feeling that my Wednesday trips to the comic book store are now going to involve picking up Magic boosters along with my pulls?

Curse of Strahd

There's a storm coming in, but Nathaniel and I made it up to Reno to grab a copy of Curse of Strahd, the new Fifth Edition version of the classic D&D adventure Ravenloft. I can't wait to run this campaign!

Magic Dreams

I've been playing Magic Duels online -- it's a great way to learn the game -- and I'm starting to pick up the basics. Last night, I actually had a dream about Magic. In the dream, I was looking at a card (an artifact card, maybe?), which depicted a shield granting +2 to Armor Class. I kept staring at the card, wondering why a Magic card was using a Fifth Edition D&D rule. Weird. Anyway, it's funny that I had a Magic dream after buying my cards at a store called Dreamwell...

Magic Duels

Well, the MTG Duel Deck that I picked up earlier today doesn't really include enough information to play the game. I've looked around online, but the best option to learn the game seems to be a video game called Magic Duels. I'll give that shot!

MTG for Me?

I've played a lot of games over the years, but one type of game that I really haven't gotten into is the collectible card game (CCG). The most famous example of a CCG, of course, is the grand-daddy of them all, Magic: The Gathering. This game has been out for more than two decades, and yet I don't think I've ever even watched a game of Magic, to say nothing of playing one.

Well, perhaps that's about to change. My local comic book store is now starting to sell some game products, and I'd like to help them out. So far, they're only selling Warhammer 40k and Magic, and since I've already dipped my toe into the world of Warhammer, I figured I'd give Magic a shot. I bought a box that includes two decks of cards -- I'll rope Matthew into trying it out with me -- but not much in the way of instructions, so it may be slow going for a while, but it should be an interesting experience nonetheless.