When Two Worlds Collide!

I've made great progress on my sci-fi Shattered Realm campaign setting, but I'm not quite ready to launch it yet. In the meantime, the boys are finishing up a big storyline with their fantasy-era Shattered Realm characters, but they wanted to take a few moments over the weekend to create characters for the upcoming sci-fi saga. Not surprisingly, they both insisted on playing the direct descendants of their current fantasy characters. Matthew whipped up an elf rogue who's essentially a carbon copy of his existing character -- just swap out the longbow for a sniper rifle. Nathaniel, however, was determined to play a Strength-based fighter, despite my recommendations that a Dexterity-based fighter would work better in this futuristic environment. I asked him to describe the character concept he had in mind, and it quickly became apparent that what he really wanted was a D&D version of a 40k Space Marine. In fact, he was particularly inspired by one of the Ultramarine Assault Squad models that I had assembled the day before. So...what do you figure the D&D stats would be for a chainsword?

Storm Strike

Nathaniel and I have been having fun this weekend trying out Matt's Necrons. Yesterday we played through four or five battles before it was time to head up to Reno for an Aces game.

On the way, I popped into the Games Workshop store and picked up the Storm Strike starter set for Age of Sigmar. Today I've only had the opportunity to skim through the books and put the models together, but thus far I can honestly say that Storm Strike is the most attractive starter set for any miniatures game or wargame I've ever purchased. The art in the books is beautiful and the models are stunning -- some of GW's finest sculpting.

Why take my word for it? Check out the assembled (although as-yet-unpainted) minis below! First up, the heroic Stormcast Eternals...

And now their hated foes, the ghostly legions of the Nighthaunt...

Sigmar Starters

Huzzah! On Saturday, Games Workshop will release two smaller Age of Sigmar starter sets, Tempest of Souls and Storm Strike. As it happens, I will be passing right by the local GW store on my way to a baseball game, so I will definitely pick up the smaller of the two sets to get a feel for the game.

What a Trip!

We've had quite an eventful few weeks of travel. Starting the last week of June, I embarked on a cross-country business trip in Pennsylvania while Amy and the boys were visiting her parents in SoCal. After a couple of days together at home, the others flew out to Chicago to visit Amy's sister as I put in another week of work, whereupon I joined them in Chicago for a day. And then we all flew together to Buffalo, picked up our rental car, and drove to Toronto to spend a lovely evening with Matt and his wonderful family. After a quick trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame the following morning, we drove down to my parents' house in western New York and have made various day trips around the area -- Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Corning Museum of Glass (best museum ever!), and some of our old haunts in Rochester. Tomorrow we fly back to Reno and (gulp) I find out how many emails have been amassing in my Inbox at work.

Several gaming-related notes to report. At various game stores along the way, I've managed to pick up more Starfinder Flip-Mats for use in our upcoming futuristic Shattered Realm campaign. I still have a lot of work to do with the setting and game stats, but the whole thing is really starting to take shape nicely. Nathaniel and I have also dipped a toe into the intriguing world of Strat-O-Matic, the most celebrated baseball simulation game of all time. Nathaniel was quite tickled to discover that the Strat-O-Matic set we picked up at the Baseball Hall of Fame includes a code that allows him to get a free Strat-O-Matic player card of himself. (Look out, Aaron Judge, there's a new Yankees legend on the way!) By far the greatest highlight, however, was when Matt bequeathed us a vast Necron army for our growing 40k collection. The monetary value of the models is staggering, of course -- this is Games Workshop, after all -- but what's even more significant is care and skill with which they're painted. Matt is a true artist, and we will treasure this gift forever!

Shattered...Space?

Lately I've been picking up Starfinder Flip-Mats and minis from the old Star Wars Miniatures game in preparation for an upcoming project that the boys and I will embark upon. Inspired by Matt's innovative 5e adaptation and his Gamma World-esque campaign, we're going to create a sci-fi 5e system that will allow us to explore the future of the Shattered Realm campaign setting. I need to get the story squared away before we dive too deeply into the rules, but so far it's been a fun exercise. More to come!