OUTRAGEOUS!!!

 It's outrageous that we've had to wait so long for a sequel to one of the most surprisingly fun superhero flicks I've ever seen. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom premieres today!

Rise of the Cavilliverse

Finally! Gotta admit, I was getting worried...

Domino Draft

In preparation for Season 10 of my historical Strat-O-Matic hockey league, I conducted another draft to add new players to the league. This year, the top two rookies are both enormously talented centers, a coincidence that ended up having a domino effect on the league. With the top pick, the Millionaires selected pivot Mickey MacKay, giving them a glut of middle-men on their roster. In need of scoring wingers and stay-at-home defensemen -- and seeing that the Comets had a surplus of both -- the Millionaires pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade. They shipped center Duke Keats (himself a former #1 draft pick) and longtime captain Art Farrell to the Comets in exchange for offensive dynamo Frank Foyston and steady blueliner Lester Patrick. There was a lot of additional wheeling and dealing afterwards, with all teams except for the Thistles making at least one trade this offseason. The Millies and Comets made the biggest changes, but when the dust settled, I think the most improved team may be the Bearcats, who raised their ceiling by drafting skilled center Frank Fredrickson, and raised their floor by adding solid veterans Joe Hall and Fred "Steamer" Maxwell.

Season 10 Awards

Another season, another set of year-end awards! Who took home the hardware? 

Position Player MVP: Dan Brouthers, Blue Legs
Although his teammate Jimmy Collins was an early favorite for this trophy, Dan Brouthers earned his first MVP award with a season of solid all-around play. Brouthers led the league in total bases, tied for second in home runs, and even bested Cap Anson as the top defensive first baseman in the league. Sam Thompson of the Haymakers and Roger Connor of the Canaries were also in consideration. 

Pitcher MVP: Cy Young, Haymakers
The Haymakers floundered this year, but you can't blame it on Young, who nearly carried this team to the playoffs all on his own. Sporting a 6-4 record on a team that went 11-13 overall, Young pitched a league-leading 86 innings with a sparkling 1.88 ERA that was not only the best among all starting pitchers, it was one of the best in league history. Young outdueled the Resolutes' Christy Mathewson (4-3, 2.57 ERA) and the Blue Legs' Old Hoss Radbourn (6-1, 2.78 ERA) to claim his record-setting third Pitcher MVP trophy. 

Playoff MVP: Elmer Flick, Resolutes
The Resolutes are not a team of superstars, at least not among the position players. They work the count, take bases-on-balls, get slap hits, steal bags, bunt each other over, and hit sac flies. No one exemplifies Resolutes baseball like right fielder Elmer Flick, who got on board more often than any of his teammates and absolutely ran amok on the base paths. Connie Mack had that huge home run in Game 4, but Flick was quietly brilliant throughout the series.

Season 10 Championship

The winner of the James Creighton trophy in Season 10 is...

The Resolutes!

Game 1 was an absolutely incredible pitchers' duel between Old Hoss Radbourn of the Blue Legs and Christy Mathewson of the Resolutes. The two aces matched zeroes inning after inning. The game was scoreless in the bottom of the eleventh -- Mathewson was still pitching for the visiting Resolutes, while Radbourn had given way to Al Spalding for the Legs -- when King Kelly doubled home Nap Lajoie to give the hosting Blue Legs a 1-0 victory and a matching series lead. Adding to the sting of the loss for the Resolutes was a serious injury to starting third baseman John McGraw. In Game 2, Jake Beckley's RBI double ended the Resolutes 24-inning scoring drought (going back to the regular season). Meanwhile, this time the injury bug bit the Legs, who lost shortstop Monte Ward and right fielder Wee Willie Keeler, the latter of whom had recently homered to tie the game at 3. The visitors pulled ahead in the eighth on second baseman Bud Fowler's run-scoring single, and the tally held up as the winner in a 4-3 contest. With the series tied at one game apiece, the action shifted to the Resolutes' home park. Mathewson took the mound again but was not as sharp, giving up three runs -- including two on a single to reserve outfielder Harry Wright -- in the second inning. He was stingy thereafter, however, and his teammates started to chip away at the lead. Right fielder Elmer Flick drove in runs with three separate hits, including a walk-off double in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Resolutes now found themselves in a position to claim the championship on their home field if they could win Game 4. John Clarkson was good for the home side, but the Legs' Tim Keefe brought his very best stuff, striking out Resolutes left and right. A solo home run from Lajoie seemed like it might be enough for the Legs to even the series, but Beckley drove home Flick in the seventh to tie the game at 1. In the eighth, light-hitting catcher Connie Mack stunned everyone in the stadium by crushing reliever Spalding's pitch for a two-run shot. With the score now 3-1, Clarkson took the mound in the ninth and sent the Legs packing with three quick outs to end the game and the series. 

Congratulations to the Resolutes on their second title in franchise history!

Flashback

I won Delphine's amazing Flashback today, and the game was just as fun on my wonky Evercade as it was on the ol' Sega Genesis. At this point, I can put the Evercade EXP hardware aside and now load up carts on my new Super Pocket. First on the list is a collection of Atari Lynx classics!

Season 10 Championship Preview

The Canaries won't be able to end their title drought this year, nor will the Haymakers be able to add to their overflowing trophy case. This year's championship series will feature the game's best rivalry, the Blue Legs against the Resolutes. These teams have met twice before in the finals: In Season 6, the Resolutes trailed 2-1 in the best-of-five series and then stunned the Legs with back-to-back shutout victories to steal the title, and then in Season 8, when the Blue Legs savored sweet revenge by sweeping the Resolutes in three straight. 

This year, the Blue Legs finished in first place with a record of 15-9, while the Resolutes came in at 13-11. Both teams had identical +10 run differentials, however, with Pythagorean records suggesting that the Legs were a little lucky and the Resolutes a bit unlucky. Despite the identical run differentials, the teams had very different approaches. The Legs led the league with 3.92 runs scored per game and, not surprisingly, had more home runs (and extra-base hits of any kind) than all other teams. They had solid pitching, but their run prevention was bolstered by a defense that was perhaps the best in league history. The Resolutes, meanwhile, posted a spectacular 3.04 runs against per game, thanks to a diverse pitching staff that limited hard contact. Offensively, they played "small ball," leveraging their plate discipline and speed to manufacture runs. It will be fascinating to see how these two very different teams fare over the five-game series!

The Knight...Monsters...?

Over the summer, we learned that western Nevada was getting a minor-league hockey team (owned by Tim Tebow, to add a little dose of "huh?" to the news). The team's name and logo were revealed yesterday. Ladies and gentlemen, the Tahoe Knight Monsters will be taking the ice next season and filling our brains with cognitive dissonance. So they're both knights and monsters? I'm not quite sure how a dragon can also be a knight. (Okay, okay, I'll admit there's Ironside from the Druid Cycle campaign world.) The "Knight" part of the name clearly is meant to evoke Nevada's other two professional hockey teams, the STANLEY CUP CHAMPION Vegas Golden Knights and their top minor-league affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. Is Tahoe angling to become Vegas's ECHL-level team? I sincerely hope so, but if that's the case, why choose a teal-based color scheme that's so obviously linked to Vegas's bitter rival, the San Jose Sharks? Would any self-respecting Knights fan (of the Golden or Silver variety) be caught wearing teal? Well, this guy will, because no matter how much I detest the name or colors, I'm here to support our team, and I'll be completely decked out in Tahoe gear. I'll also be even more eager to get my hands on next year's EA Sports NHL hockey game for our Xbox, as that series includes all ECHL franchises, so my boys and I will be able to play as the local team!

EXP Stands for "Expired"

The good news is that I completed the Bond-esque Operation Stealth, one of Delphine's cinematic titles of yesteryear. The bad news is that my Evercade EXP now only works if it's plugged in -- a distinct disadvantage for a handheld game system. I'm going to try my luck with the Blaze Taito Super Pocket, which also plays Evercade cartridges. Here's hoping the lil' guy will give me portability when I need it. Next up on my list is Delphine's masterpiece, Flashback, which I absolutely adored on my Sega Genesis back in the early '90s.

No Running Allowed

It's hard to keep pace with all the wacky rule changes in Major League Baseball. From in-game rules to the ever-evolving (and now suddenly very controversial) playoff format, baseball feels like it's in a state of flux. (How long until it evolves into blernsball?!)  

Larger bases and limitations on pitcher disengagements led to a significant increase in stolen bases this year. It's kind of ironic, then, that in my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic league, stolen bases are at an all-time low because starting catchers are throwing out runners at a ridiculous rate. Roger Bresnahan of the Haymakers has gunned down nearly three-quarters of would-be thieves, with fellow first-string backstops Buck Ewing, Connie Mack, and King Kelly all above 50% as well. In contrast, big-league catchers in 2023 were at just under 20% in throwing out base stealers. 

As I hit the halfway point of Season 10 of my historical league, the drop in base-stealing success is just one of the storylines I'm tracking. The Blue Legs got off to the hottest start in history with a 5-0 record, 26 runs for, and just 8 against, but then quickly fell back to the pack. Here at the midway mark, the Legs, Haymakers, and Resolutes are all sporting identical 7-5 records, with the Canaries bringing up the rear at 3-9. No team has pulled away thus far, so I think all four have a legitimate shot at reaching the championship series. As we look ahead to the second half, however, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Resolutes claim first place, as their actual winning percentage (.583) is below their Pythagorean (expected) win percentage (.624), which is by far the best in the league.

TWD DOA

Sometime this week, we'll be receiving a package that contains various materials for The Walking Dead RPG, which I was glad to back on Kickstarter. It will make for some fun reading material over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately it won't serve as the rules system for our upcoming zombie campaign. 

Nathaniel and I have spent many hours combing through the PDF version of the core rulebook, and we both came to the conclusion that the system really needs to be used for "theater of the mind" gaming, and is altogether impractical for a fully 3D campaign like the one I've been cooking up. The rules are fast and fun, and -- like its sister game, the Alien RPG -- shockingly lethal to player characters. They are also abstract. Like, really abstract. This is not a game for maps and miniatures, let alone an entirely 3D environment. Nathaniel and I went down some house-ruling rabbit holes but ultimately were rewriting the game. We even explored the possibility of re-skinning Alien for a modern setting, but that don't work out very well either. 

As such, I've landed on the TinyD6 system, which we used for the Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign and then again more recently for our Doctor Who game. I really wanted to make TWD work, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Butts and Zombies

With Matthew and Amy at a swim meet this weekend, Nathaniel and I have been keeping ourselves busy with some gaming fun. I completed Delphine's renowned Another World on my Evercade, albeit with some assistance from the internet to get past some of the more opaque puzzles. I gave Future Wars a go, but the port to Evercade makes a certain early section of the game unplayable due to the Evercade's controls, so I'm wondering if users of this recently released cart will complain loudly enough for some sort of patch to be released. Undaunted, I moved on to a third Delphine title, Operation Stealth, a James Bond-style adventure that's been loads of fun so far -- even though I haven't yet managed to get my secret agent through customs and out of the airport!

When Nathaniel finished his homework, we got down to business with a few hilarious games of Butts in Space, and then turned to more serious business: adapting the brand-new The Walking Dead RPG rules for use in our upcoming family campaign (a loose sequel to the recent Tales of the Ternion) that will utilize all the 3D buildings I've printed (and laboriously painted) and hordes of zombies from Zombicide (also laboriously painted). The TWG rules don't quite meet our needs; the main sticking point is that combat with walkers is abstracted and not played out round-by-round, whereas our fully 3D campaign will require much more precise rules for how many walkers there are, how far away from the heroes they are, etc. Nathaniel is always up for discussing game rules, however, so I think we'll land on some solid house rules before our packed calendar affords us time to get the campaign started.

Opening Day

With the World Series getting underway tonight, baseball is coming to an end in 2023, but in my fictional nineteenth-century universe, we're just getting started. After the Canaries' devastating championship series loss to the Haymakers last season, will we see the Birds recover and end their title drought, or perhaps will the Blue Legs or Resolutes surprise us? The tenth season of my Strat-O-Matic league begins tonight!

Season 4 Championship

Season 4 of Blitz Bowl madness has come to an end! Who walked (or, rather, limped) away with the coveted Sigmar Cup? Read on!

After my debacle the other night with a miscounted score, I started the championship game over from the beginning. This time, the game couldn't have played out more differently: In my first attempt, the teams grappled in a gritty grudge match, while the rebooted game featured touchdowns on the game's first three turns! The Reavers connected for a passing touchdown during their first sequence, then the Giants ran for a score on their first possession, and then the Reavers notched a running TD on their second turn. Madness! The excitement didn't end there, however, as the Giants made some aggressive plays to rack up challenge cards, and we were all tied up at 9 before the dust had settled. Both defenses held firm for the middle portion of the game, and as the clock started winding down, the dwarves ran for a touchdown to open up a 15-10 lead. Their defense pulled back to guard against a big TD, forcing Reavers to go after challenge cards in the hope of picking up enough points to chip away at the Giants' advantage. By the final turn, the Reavers still trailed, 15-13. They put themselves in excellent position to score two points on a challenge card to tie the game and send it to overtime. It all came down to one dice roll: An armor saving throw by one of the dwarf players. If he failed the save, the Reavers would claim the points and tie the game, but if he made the save, the Giants would hang on for the win. The odds? The dwarf needed a five-up on a D6 check. Oh, the drama! I must have let that D6 rattle around in my closed fist for at least half-a-minute before I hurled it down on the board.

Five.

The dwarf held his ground, the Reavers failed to claim the points, and the Giants won the game and their second Sigmar Cup in franchise history. Congrats to the Giants on winning the most exciting game of Blitz Bowl I think I've ever played!

One Last View of Dragon View

After overcoming countless foes -- and one very nasty real-life game glitch -- I completed the Drakkhen sequel Dragon View today. Here's a photo of my character, Widsith, about to take on the final boss...

The game concludes with a lovely (and lengthy!) series of cutscenes showing what happens across the game world after the hero's victory. Spoiler alert! Don't look if you want to play through and be surprised by how the story turns out.

The defeated villain is redeemed, and the hero is proclaimed king of the realm!

Hail to the king, baby!

Next up, I'll be putting the world of Drakkhen aside and delving into a new Evercade cartridge dedicated to the "cinematic" games of Delphine Software International. I remember playing Delphine's Flashback on my Sega Genesis long ago and just being blown away by the story and the silky-smooth (rotoscoped!) animation.

Season 4 Playoffs

It's playoff time! Here we go!

Wild Card: Champions at Reavers

After being humiliated 11-1 by the Avengers in their first-ever playoff appearance last season, the undead Champions came into this Wild Card matchup determined to have a better showing. The red-hot Reavers, however, jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead. The Champions made things interesting on a rare five-point touchdown (three points for the TD plus a two-point challenge card) midway through the game, but they never threatened again. The Reavers put the game away with a late touchdown and the final was 15-6 in favor of the two-time defending titlists. The humans then set their sights on a threepeat, but first they would need to defeat the rival Giants -- who are, ironically, dwarves and not actual giants -- the only other franchise in this league that has claimed a Sigmar Cup.

Championship: Reavers at Giants

These two titans were meeting for the Cup for the third time in four seasons. Early in the contest, the Giants got the ball deep into Reaver territory, and it was all the humans could do to keep it out of their end zone. The teams picked up a few points on challenge cards over the next several rounds, until, around the halfway point of the game, the Reavers managed to heave the ball to midfield in the hope of mounting an offensive push of their own. The Giants briefly took the lead on more points from challenge cards, so it was 5-4 in their favor until the Reavers picked up a card that made it 6-5. And that's when I realized something was wrong, as I couldn't account for the score. Somewhere along the way, I had miscounted the points. (Either that, or Tzeentch is up to his old tricks!) In such a tight contest, a single point might well be the difference. With no clear resolution that was fair to both teams, I decided to toss the whole game and start again. We'll try again tomorrow!

Season 4 Recap

Tonight was the final regular-season game of my Blitz Bowl league. Here's how the five teams fared in Season 4:

• Giants (9-5-2): The dwarves set a new league record for wins and denied the Reavers a fourth straight first-place finish. This dominant team boasted the league's best offense (10.50 points per game) and second-best defense (8.81 points against per game), and tied the Reavers for the best point differential (+27).
• Reavers (7-5-4): Their quest for a third straight Sigmar Cup will continue, but first they'll need to get past the Champions in the Wild Card game. The Reavers didn't muster much on offense this year, but their defense (8.06 points against per game) was the best in the circuit.
• Champions (7-8-1): It took a nerve-wracking win in their last regular-season game to secure a Wild Card spot for the second straight year. With a point differential of exactly zero, this team is the very definition of average.
• Grasshuggers (6-8-2): The halflings remain the only team in the league that has never reached the postseason, but they made things interesting in the last few games and narrowly missed out.
• Avengers (5-8-3): They led the league in touchdowns (14) yet again, but there isn't much else I can say about this team. Last season's runners-up for the Sigmar Cup finished dead last this year, and their point differential of -29 was the worst for any team in league history.

Next up: The Wild Card game between the Reavers and the Champions for the right to face the Giants in the championship!

Quadruple Digits

I added the complete list of Troya Novan emperors to my Druid Cycle spreadsheet this evening, bringing me up to 1002 named characters. Quadruple digits, baby!

Back to Basics

My boys spent the early years of their D&D careers adventuring in the cozy little Shattered Realm campaign setting. The clock is ticking on their time with us at home, however -- Matthew is already sixteen! -- so I was feeling a bit of urgency to get them into the Druid Cycle world. They're now involved in two campaigns, one with their two older cousins and one just with the three of us. Although the campaigns are set in different countries, both are plugged in to a broader narrative about an impending succession crisis in Troya Nova. It's been a lot of fun to get back to basics in this game world, as I had been focusing on world building for the past several (many?) years; it was awesome to add new characters, locations, and cultures to this world, but I felt that I was shortchanging the "core" that has made the setting so special. It's been amazing to reconnect with the roots of this campaign world and share it with a new generation of players!

TWD Inbound!

I received an email indicating that The Walking Dead RPG that I backed on Kickstarter is going to be shipping soon! We'll be using this system (which features the same core game mechanics as the Alien RPG) for a Front Porch Multiverse campaign that is, in some ways, a loose sequel to our recent Tales of the Ternion superhero story. The intrepid heroes of this new game will be trapped by a devastating winter storm in a remote corner of upstate New York just as a zombie outbreak is occurring all around them.

This campaign will also be the first we've ever done that uses entirely 3D terrain. As I've mentioned over the past year or so, I've printed out and painted numerous buildings and countless smaller objects (tables,  beds, garbage cans, etc.). The campaign will feature three distinct settings -- the "downtown" of a small community, a top-secret military base, and a survivalist compound in the wilderness -- that the players will explore. The final task in my long list of preparations is to round up the zombies because, well, you know, you kinda need zombies for a zombie campaign! The minis from the excellent cooperative board game Zombicide are the same scale as the minis we use for our RPG campaigns, so I've pressed them into service. And, yes, I'm painting them. I was able to repurpose fifty-six miniatures from Zombicide, so I'm now in the midst of slapping some color on them. They won't be great, but no two will be the same, and at least they'll look better than flat gray plastic.

Which Universe Is This?

Did I somehow stumble into a weird alternate dimension? Because in the universe in which I currently find myself, celebrated sci-fi author H. G. Wells basically invented the modern wargaming hobby with the publication of the Little Wars game system in 1913. Among the game's fans was beloved actor Peter Cushing, who owned thousands of soldier minis and spent hours staging elaborate wargames. 

Saved By the Save

I've been working my way through the Drakkhen sequel -- known by many names, but called Dragon View on my Evercade cartridge -- and digging the unique blend of side-scrolling beat-'em-up action and open-world roleplaying. Everything was going great until the game started crashing every time I entered a particular room. A bit of googling revealed a known issue with the original '90s programming. The bug is related to how the game is saved, and from what I learned on Reddit and other sites, I would need to start the game over (farewell, 30th-level hero!) and save it differently in order to avoid the issue on subsequent play-throughs. I didn't relish the thought of starting over after completing about three-quarters of the campaign, so I fired off a quick email to Evercade's tech support and let the game sit for a few days. Evercade responded with an overview of the issue and a recommended workaround. I gave it a try, and voila, the game no longer crashes! My hero can now continue his quest with a renewed sense of purpose, optimism, and confidence in his ultimate victory. How's that? Well, when I tried over and over and over to enter that room, there was one time when the game didn't crash. For whatever reason, it skipped all the way to the final cutscene that plays when you win the game!

Baldur's Gate 3

So apparently there's this D&D-like game out now where the objective is to have sex with all the NPC companions and you can win the game in five minutes by stuffing one of those companions into a box.

Hard pass.

More Retro Fun

I'm taking a few days for much-needed R&R, and with the kids busy with their schoolwork, I have the opportunity to just bum around the house and do my own thing. That means lots of Evercade time! I played through Final Fight, one of the all-time classic Capcom beat-'em-up games, and I've also started a new campaign in Drakkhen II, or Super Drakkhen, or Dragon View, or whatever it's called. It's the sequel to Drakkhen, and it seems pretty damn cool so far, with a nice mix of new stuff and familiar stuff.

Lost Relics

During our recent summer trip to New York, I had picked up a copy of Lost Relics, the latest in the Warhammer Quest line of cooperative dungeon-crawlers. Lost Relics is a smaller (and cheaper) game than its celebrated predecessors Blackstone Fortress and Cursed City, and it uses a modified and simplified version of the game engine that the boys and I have come to know and love. Matthew and Nathaniel weren't terribly interested in this one, so I solo-played it in the evenings as a way of getting a little break from my usual Strat-O-Matic fare. Tonight I completed the last scenario in the campaign, as illustrated by this image of the game's final turn.

Here, my hammer-wielding tank has just killed the evil sorcerer who had trapped this warband of heroic Stormcast Eternals in his bizarre vault of relics. The sorcerer and all other adversaries are represented by tokens, unlike the larger and more expensive Warhammer Quest games. I'd prefer to have miniatures for all the characters, but in this case, I think the flat token is quite appropriate for the last combat sequence, wherein my warrior absolutely squashed the sorcerer with two devastating hammer blows.

Frakkin' Drakkhen, Man!

I plugged my Evercade into the TV with an HDMI cable so that I could play out the last few minutes of Drakkhen on the big screen. Spoiler alert: Here are some pics of the game's ending!

You can see my fighter and scout on the left. What of the priest and wizard? Fear not! They didn't perish in the final battle; they have magic items that render them partially invisible, so they appear as the sparkly white mist to the right of the scout. 

And, for some reason, there's an electric guitar in this world!

I'll be ready!

A Triumph 32 Years in the Making!

Drakkhen is about as unforgiving a game as you'll find. Touch a gravestone and a horrific, invincible monster emerges from the underworld to destroy you. Step on a flashing road and a dragon god comes down and rips you to shreds. Take an idle step into any body of water and you drown in seconds. Hell, even the constellations in the night sky sometimes coalesce into living creatures and attack you. We're talking Oregon Trail-level dangers here, people!

Well, approximately 32 years after playing Drakkhen for the first time and experiencing death in all its many, many forms, I've completed the game on my spiffy new Evercade. I expect a return trip to the world of Drakkhen sooner than later, however, as Nathaniel is already talking about starting it over so that he, Matthew, and I can all play through it together.

Blue Beetle

The Blue Beetle movie opens today. As with the last couple of DC flicks, it's a kind of awkward leftover from the Snyderverse era -- and yet James Gunn has indicated that the character is part of the new DCU. Whatevs. I just hope it's a good movie. The Blue Beetle movie I'd really love to see would be an adaptation of the (in)famous Blue Beetle #5 from 1968, in which Steve Ditko crafted a powerful statement about art, creativity, and individuality.

Victory Is Mine!!!

During our week here in Los Angeles at my in-laws' house, the boys and I got the opportunity to play an absolutely epic game of Conquest of Nerath, an Axis & Allies-like wargame set in the Fourth Edition D&D world. My brother-in-law Ben joined us for the fun. He took command of the undead realm of Karkoth (black), Matthew led the seafaring elves of Vailin (yellow), Nathaniel played as the humans and allied races of Nerath (silver), and I reigned over the monstrous hordes of the Iron Circle (red), as shown in this pic taken on the game's final turn.

In this free-for-all game, a player needed to amass 20 victory points to win. On the first night of our game, Ben jumped out to an early lead, unleashing the necrotic powers of Karkoth upon those hapless humans in Nerath. Matthew, then, started to mass elven forces on the other side of Karkoth's territory, so I was perfectly happy to let the boys worry about their uncle while I quietly built up my troops in the Iron Circle's desert wastelands. The game proceeded slowly for the first two evenings of play, with all of us scoring a few victory points here and there, primarily by raiding dungeons for magic items. I ended the second night in the lead with 10 points, but the others weren't far behind. 

Tonight, which was our last night in LA, I decided to unleash my master plan. When my turn came up, I launched six separate attacks and one delve into a dungeon for treasure (and, more importantly, the prospect of precious victory points!). Although the troops I landed on the shores of Nerath were repulsed, every other mission was a success. The most glorious moment came when I sailed a strike force across the sea to mount a surprise attack on Matthew's poorly defended capital city. In a single turn, I went from 10 victory points to a crushing 21, thereby conquering the world!

Season 9 Awards

Another hockey season has come and gone! Let's see who took home the hardware... 

Scoring Champion: Cyclone Taylor, D, Victorias
Although Taylor has won his sixth scoring title in nine seasons, I was thinking at first that it was a bit of a down year for the league's all-time points leader. When I checked the numbers, however, I found that Taylor's 36 points (11 G, 25 A) were the second-best single-season total of his illustrious career. The guy just makes it look that easy. This time around, he bested runner-up Gord Roberts of the Bulldogs by six points. 

Forward MVP: Hobey Baker, RW/C, Victorias
First-time winner Baker finished third in the league in points (29) and tied for second in goals (14), but his contributions go far beyond the scoresheet. Baker is arguably the game's best defensive forward, matching up every night against Roberts, Frank McGee, Joe Malone, and other top snipers to prevent them from scoring. As a testament to his two-way play, Baker posted a league-leading +18 plus-minus this year. Bulldogs teammates Gord Roberts and Tommy Dunderdale came in a distant second and third for this year's trophy.

Defenseman MVP: Si Griffis, Bulldogs
Taylor (36 points) and the Comets' Mike Grant (26) finished first and fourth, respectively, in the scoring race, but Griffis takes this award despite racking up far fewer points (4 G, 12 A). What gives? Well, Griffis was a dominant shutdown defender this year, and his +13 led all blueliners. It's especially eye-opening to compare his plus-minus to that of the other two Bulldogs defensemen who logged as many minutes as he did: Jack Laviolette finished at -5 and Frank Patrick at a dismal -11. The Dogs were elite at five-on-five with Griffis on the ice, and utterly hapless when he was on the bench. 

Goaltender MVP: Bowse Hutton, Victorias
In the closest race of all time, Hutton reclaimed his title from young star Hap Holmes of the Bearcats. Hutton edged Holmes in save percentage (.924 to .923) and goals-against average (2.25 vs. 2.30) to earn his fifth Goaltender MVP award.

Rookie of the Year: Didier Pitre, LW, Thistles
Pitre was not as dominant as recent freshmen like Newsy Lalonde or Joe Malone, but he's the clear choice for this year's trophy. He had great offensive numbers (10 G, 11 A), played well at five-on-five (+5), and, considering that he suits up for a team that generally suffers from excessive goonery, Pitre was a perfect gentleman and took only a single minor penalty all season.

Playoff MVP: Cyclone Taylor, D, Victorias
So many great candidates: Jack Darragh (6 G, 9 A, +4) and Didier Pitre (6 G, 8 A, +3) of the Thistles, Newsy Lalonde (7 G, 7 A, +6) and Billy McGimsie (4 G, 9 A, +7) of the Victorias. In the end, the trophy went to Taylor (4 G, 13 A, +7), who led the league in playoff points and tied for the league lead in plus-minus. What put him over the top was his virtuoso performance in the decisive Game 5 of the finals, where he showed the world that he truly is the best player in hockey. Taylor becomes the first player in league history to have won multiple Playoff MVP trophies, as he also took home this award way back in Season 2.

Season 9 Finals

Season 9 has come to a close with the crowning of a Creighton Cup champion. Here's how it went down!

After such a high-scoring opening round, I was shocked that the Thistles and Victorias were scoreless through two periods in Game 1. The visiting Thistles were struggling to generate quality chances, while the Victorias were utterly discombobulated after losing key defenseman Gordon "Phat" Wilson to injury. The clock continued to tick toward the end of regulation when Billy McGimsie scored on the power play to give the Victorias a 1-0 lead. A crushing blow for the Thistles? Hardly. After the ensuing faceoff, rookie winger Didier Pitre skated in and scored a highlight-reel goal to tie things up mere seconds later. Then, moments into overtime, Tommy Smith tallied to give the Thistles a stunning victory. Chuffed from this win, the Thistles returned home with the hope of taking a commanding lead in the series. Dan Bain scored twice early in the first period, but the Vics found their footing and fought back to earn a nail-biter 4-3 win. Wilson returned to the Vics' lineup for the third game, another back-and-forth contest that was knotted at three going into the third. The Thistles' Alf Smith scored his second goal of the night midway through the frame, and it held up to give his team a 2-1 series lead. Now the Victorias would need to win on the road again in order to keep their championship hopes alive. In Game 4, they scored early and often, with two goals from Marty Walsh pacing the team to a 5-1 triumph. 

So we were all tied up at two games apiece! The decisive fifth game would be on the Vics' home ice, but thus far the visiting team had won every game in the series. At first, it seemed the trend would continue, as brothers Tommy and Alf Smith staked the Thistles to a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Cyclone Taylor and Newsy Lalonde, however, answered back before the end of the frame, and the game remained 2-2 heading into the third period. Taylor scored again to give the Vics their first lead of the night. As the desperate Thistles pressed, Vics' winger Marty Walsh scored a backbreaker of a goal that made it 4-2 for the home team. Time was slipping away for the Thistles, but as it turned out, these two teams weren't nearly finished lighting the lamp! Around the halfway point of the period, Thistles captain Tommy Phillips scored a power-play goal to draw his team within one, but Walsh notched his second goal of the game a minute later to restore the Vics' two-goal edge. Taylor tacked on a late marker to complete a playoff hat trick and run the score up to 6-3. When the final buzzer sounded, the Victorias had completed their series comeback and earned their fifth Creighton Cup in nine seasons of play. As for the Thistles, this snake-bitten franchise has experienced yet another heartbreak. Maybe next year, boys, maybe next year!

Retro Fun

My new Evercade EXP is totally rad! I'm really digging the retro gaming fun, so much so that I can overlook the system's piss-poor battery life. (Seriously, it's that bad.) With some vacation time coming up next week, I picked up a smattering of cartridges, each of which is a collection of ten to twenty retro games. 

I bought one particular cartridge, I have to admit, solely for game Drakkhen. I have such vivid memories of playing this D&D-inspired fantasy RPG on my old Tandy 1000 SX back in middle school. The game was revolutionary for its time, and mind-bendingly difficult. I never finished it, and it aggravated me to no end, but I always had a healthy respect for this game. I'm delighted to be able to give it another go on the Evercade. I've already rolled up my party, and we're on our way!

Round 1 Recap

We're all set for the Season 9 Creighton Cup Finals! The first-place Victorias will take on the second-place Thistles in the best-of-five championship series. How did we get here? Round 1 recap below!

Victorias over Bulldogs, 3-0

Yes, it was a sweep, but it wasn't as easy as it looks. In Game 1, Newsy Lalonde picked up a hat trick, only for the Dogs' Tommy Dunderdale to score twice in the third period to tie the game at three. Lalonde then ripped his fourth of the game in overtime to give the Vics a crucial series-opening win. Game 2 was also close, with the Bulldogs again scoring twice in the third, but this time coming up just short. Hobey Baker notched four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in that one. Only in the third and final game did the Victorias earn a decisive win, skating to an easy 4-1 triumph.

Thistles over Comets, 3-2

This was, hands down, the most entertaining and exciting postseason series I've ever played, in any sport, in any medium. The Comets and Thistles are both run-and-gun teams with questionable goaltending, so no lead was every truly safe. In Game 1, the Comets' Frank Foyston racked up four points (1 goal, 3 assists) as the visitors seemed destined for an upset win, until Thistles rookie Didier Pitre scored in the final two minutes to force overtime. A Thistles penalty brought a stunned silence to the hometown crowd, but captain Tommy Phillips ended the game with a thrilling shorthanded goal. The final score was 6-5 for the Thistles, but Game 2 would feature even more scoring. Pitre had four points (2 goals, 2 assists), but the Comets twice overcame two-goal deficits to stay in the game. Former MVP Blair Russell tied the game in the closing seconds, setting up another overtime contest. This time, defenseman Mike Grant tallied the sudden-death winner in a wild 7-6 triumph for the Comets. The Thistles pulled away late in Game 3 to win 4-1, but star winger Alf Smith left with an injury and missed Game 4 as well. That fourth game was do-or-die time for the Comets, who were now facing elimination. Both teams held leads, but the score was tied at three in the third period until Foyston scored late in the frame to give the Comets a season-saving win. Back at home for a decisive Game 5, the Thistles found themselves in an early hole before righting the ship and taking a lead they wouldn't relinquish, clinching the series with a 4-2 win behind two goals from Playoff MVP frontrunner Jack Darragh. Home-ice advantage was critical in this series, as the home team won every game. 

On to the Cup Finals!

Retail Therapy

Although I'm not a big video game guy, comparatively speaking, I've always been a fan of handheld systems -- most recently the PlayStation Portable (PSP), but going back to the GameBoy Advance SP and even the ahead-of-its-time Atari Lynx. 

I've had a hankering lately for portable game action, and today's "freemium" style of mobile device gaming just kind of annoys me, even when the games are D&D or Warhammer or DC or some other brand I would otherwise be interested in. As such, my hope was to find a high-quality, modern handheld platform that plays retro games. Given that work is just, well, ugh these days, I decided on a bit of retail therapy and ordered the Evercade XP. Super excited to revisit some classic games from my childhood!

Sheer Dominance

Cyclone Taylor may be the best overall player in the nine-season history of my Strat-O-Matic hockey league, but for sheer offensive dominance, Taylor's teammate Newsy Lalonde might just take the cake. Now with four seasons under his belt, Lalonde is second to Taylor in career points per game and second to Frank McGee in career goals per game. He won numerous awards over his first three campaigns, and this year, he had a shot to capture a scoring title and/or Forward MVP trophy until an injury derailed his season. 

Fortunately for the Vics, Lalonde was healthy in time for the playoffs and got things started off with a bang. In the first game of the opening-round series against the defending-champion Bulldogs, he scored a natural hat trick, only to watch his teammates squander a 3-1 third-period lead. No matter. In overtime, Lalonde scored again, delivering the first four-goal game in playoff history.

Playoff Preview

At long last, the playoffs for Season 9 are here! A quick preview of the first-round action...

Victorias (1st) vs. Bulldogs (4th)
Wait, the Vics finished in first place?! Shocker! Once again, the league's most successful franchise cakewalked through the regular season, pacing the circuit in goals per game (3.25), goals against per game (2.25), and goal differential (+20). Led by Forward MVP candidate Hobey Baker, this team was dominant at five-on-five hockey, but special teams could be their undoing in the postseason: they were middle-of-the-pack in penalty killing and dead last in power play. The Vics will take on the Bulldogs, the team that dethroned them in the Creighton Cup Finals last year. The Dogs finished with a +1 differential despite being the only playoff team to have a sub-.500 record (6-7-7). They were carried by the dominant top line of Bruce Stuart, Gord Roberts, and Tommy Dunderdale, as well as Defenseman MVP frontrunner Si Griffis.

Thistles (2nd) vs. Comets (3rd)
The Thistles missed the playoffs last year but turned things around here in Season 9. I suspect some of their success was the result of luck, however, as their gaudy 8-4-8 record is undercut by a middling +1 goal differential. But with the league's best power play and legions of attacking forwards (including star rookie Didier Pitre), the Thistles can run and gun with anybody. They'll need to be at their best to defeat the Comets, who came on strong as the league's hottest team in the second half. The turning point for the Comets was bringing back former franchise icon Billy Gilmour, who played at an MVP pace once he cracked the lineup midway through the year. 

900

After adding a couple of new NPCs to flesh out one of the world's major organizations, my Druid Cycle spreadsheet now sits at an even 900 named characters. It's kind of fun to filter the list by location, affiliation, time period, etc. How many cultists of Deimos & Phobos are active in the Imperial Palace of Troya Nova right now? Wow, more I would have thought...

A New Millennium

I had the opportunity to pass through my beloved Rochester last week and, needless to say, I planned to swing by Millennium Games -- aka the greatest game store in the history of humankind. However, I experienced a moment of panic when I saw that Millennium's familiar storefront was empty! I soon realized that the store had moved to a new location (1125 Jefferson Road, for those who know the city), which is bigger and better than either of their previous locations in that little Henrietta Townline Plaza off of West Henrietta. Millennium continues to impress me with every visit. They're a true gem of the gaming community!

Milestones

I ran my first campaign -- Earth Commanders, a superhero game using the Champions rules -- back in the summer of 1988. Although I don't have the specific start date, it was sometime after school ended, so maybe right about this time of year. Today's as good a day as any to celebrate thirty-five years of gamemastering Front Porch campaigns. I'm grateful to all the players who've joined me on this journey and shared their boundless imaginations to bring these games to life. Here's to 35 more years (at least!) of roleplaying fun!

There are a couple more milestones in 2023 that are also well worth mentioning. It's a big year for the Druid Cycle setting. Although, technically, I created this world in 1991 for the Fate of the Grand Duchy campaign (marking the first appearance of Tim W's Lwcus, one of the most important Front Porch characters of all time!), that storyline took place in the early history of the Druid Cycle world. The first campaign set in the "current" time period started in 1993 -- thirty years ago! -- with the rise of Jason's paladin Sir Roberts and Scott's cleric Stalker. If we skip ahead five more years, to 1998, we come to another milestone: the introduction of Tim W's wizard Cathbad and Kevin's cleric Senchan, who both helped shape the course of world events. A big shout-out to Scott and Jason on the thirtieth anniversary of their iconic characters, and likewise to Tim and Kevin on the twenty-fifth anniversary of theirs!

It's fitting, then, that 2023 is the year I brought my kids into the Druid Cycle setting. Why did I wait so long? Well, when the boys started playing D&D six years ago, I used my Shattered Realm setting for something a bit smaller and less complex than the Druid Cycle world, and they grew to love their characters so much that we just kept going in that world. Now I feel the time is right to get them into the big leagues, so to speak. Their first introduction to my largest campaign setting came a couple of months ago when we started an online campaign with their older cousins in Chicago. However, I have something special up my sleeve just for Matthew and Nathaniel: a second game in this world that will be a true sequel to the original 1993 Druid Cycle campaign. As the late lamented Sir Roberts might say, "Bring it on!"

Perfection!

In the most recent championship series of my nineteenth-century baseball league, Haymakers starter Mickey Welch flirted with a perfect game. Welch retired the first 21 batters he faced before allowing a walk and a hit and then leaving with a series-ending injury. Yikes! Things unraveled pretty quickly. 

The perfect game is indeed a rare and special occurrence. It's true that the unassisted triple play is even rarer -- only 15 in major-league history! -- but it's more the result of being in the right place at the right time. The perfecto, on the other hand, is a grueling, full-game gauntlet where the pitcher and his fielders must be absolutely locked in and, yes, get some good luck along the way. In the long history of the major leagues (which I date back to 1871, but others prefer 1876), there had been only 23 perfect games.

Now make it 24.

Huge congrats to Domingo German of my beloved New York Yankees for twirling the fourth perfecto in team history!

Done!

For better or for worse, I finished painting all the 3D buildings that I printed out last year. It's a big milestone that gets us closer to the massive zombie apocalypse campaign that I've planned for Amy and the boys. It will be our first-ever all-3D campaign, with three fully-fleshed-out locations (a sleepy town in upstate New York, a military base, and a survivalist compound) and enough random odds and ends to create ad hoc wilderness settings as well. I'll share photos here on the blog as the players encounter each of the major locations. 

And now that Matthew and I have repaired our 3D printer, we can actually print more buildings. But that would be crazy, right...?

Free RPG Day

It's Free RPG Day! Enjoy some free gaming goodies!

Better Late Than Never

Back in the day, there was a recurring gag that Barry Allen, the second (and most famous) Flash, was chronically late. The Flash solo flick is arriving so long after it was announced that many DC fans thought it would never make it to the screen. Nonetheless, I have high hopes for this one...

Owlbear...Beard Oil?

Well, owlbears are my second-favorite D&D monster (right after hook horrors), so maybe I need to start growing a goatee again so that I have a reason to partake of this wondrous product.

Cup Champs!

Our team won the Cup last night! Huge congrats to the Vegas Golden Knights on their first Stanley Cup championship, and the first-ever major-league sporting title for our adopted home state of Nevada! I'm so glad that I got to share this experience with my family. (Even Amy was a little bit excited.) My boys aren't old enough to remember the last time one of our teams won a championship (hint: Eli Manning was involved), but they will definitely remember this one!

A (Sort Of) Dream Final

Hey, in addition to fantasy historical hockey, there's also real NHL hockey! My boys and I are pretty stoked for this year's Stanley Cup Final, which pits our beloved Vegas Golden Knights against the plucky Florida Panthers. Neither team has ever won a Cup, and both are competing for professional sports' greatest trophy for the second time in their respective histories. 

The last time the Panthers made it this far, way back in 1996, I was a hard-core fan. Scott "Rat Trick" Mellanby, the Beezer, JovoCop -- I mean, come on! That was a fun team to root for! I've followed the Panthers on and off in the years since, and although other teams (including the once-hated Islanders and Devils) have moved higher up my list of favorites, I'm still something of a Panthers fan at heart. My true dream match-up for the Final would have been the Knights against my all-time favorite team, the New York Rangers, but I'll take what I can get!

A Year Already?

I used to keep detailed game session notes back in high school -- probably still accessible on the hard drive of our old Tandy 1000SX in my father's basement! -- but I got away from the practice as an adult and always regretted it. I resolved to start drafting session notes again when the boys and I started Tales of the Ternion, a superhero campaign that was, essentially, a sequel to my first-ever campaign, Earth Commanders. I was just looking through some records and noticed that Tales began exactly one year ago today. Wow, a whole year! I'm surprised it's been that long. 

I'm really proud of Tales, and would rank it among my top ten or even top five campaigns of all time. It was character-driven, dealt with a lot of weighty and topical issues, and featured some really nifty plot twists -- all while stitching together the most important threads from our modern-setting campaigns of the '80s and '90s, bringing them fully into the Front Porch multiverse. We'll be returning to the setting of Tales in a few months with a follow-up campaign, for which I'll be using all that 3D-printed terrain I've been painting...

Middle of the Second Period

I'm hustling a bit to get through Season 9 of my historical hockey league before our summer plans, so the games are coming fast and furious. At the halfway point of the season, the Victorias, Thistles, Millionaires, and Bulldogs are in playoff position, while the Comets and Bearcats are on the outside looking in. As is often the case, the Vics occupy the top spot in the standings, and their +12 goal differential suggests they're for real, whereas the second-place Thistles (only a single point behind them) are just breaking even, so we might see some regression from this year's surprise contender. Speaking of surprises, the Bearcats have taken a big step backwards in their third season of play, but they're tracking toward a historically good penalty-kill percentage (currently north of 95%!). 

For the individual awards, two races are really standing out. Looking at Forward MVP, all the buzz is on the starboard side. Three-time runner-up Newsy Lalonde (10 G, 6 A, +3) got off to a hot start, but he has some tough competition coming from his own locker room; the Vics' captain and second-line right wing, Hobey Baker (9 G, 7 A, +9), is playing a phenomenal 200-foot game this year. Meanwhile, Bulldogs right wing Tommy Dunderdale (9 G, 5 A, +3) is lurking in the background, ready to pounce if the two Vics begin to falter. Turning to Defenseman MVP, in a down year (relatively speaking) for perennial winner Cyclone Taylor, Hod Stuart (2 G, 9 A, +8) of the Thistles and Si Griffis (3 G, 8 A, +7) of the Bulldogs are neck-and-neck for frontrunner status. 

The second half of the season begins tonight!

Raiders Rule!

The Cylon starship, that is, not the football team.

The boys and I have played a few skirmishes in Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles and the player controlling the Cylon Raider(s) has won every time. Granted, we haven't added in all the optional and advanced rules yet, but it's tough out there for Colonial Viper jockeys right now!

Which Team Reigns Supreme?

I've been solo-playing a lot of sports games over the past couple of years, so I thought it might be interesting to take a broader look across the three leagues -- baseball, hockey, and football -- to see how all the teams have fared. Who are the lordly Yankees or Canadiens of my fantasy leagues, and who are the title-starved Mariners or Senators?

In the table below, I've listed the teams in order of championships won. Each entry also includes the sport, the number of seasons the team has existed, and the number of seasons the league has existed (the latter two numbers are different only if a given franchise is an expansion team).

 

Team	Sport	Titles	Team Seasons	League Seasons
Haymakers	Baseball	5	9	9
Victorias	Hockey	4	8	8
Reavers	Football	2	3	3
Bulldogs	Hockey	2	8	8
Blue Legs	Baseball	2	9	9
Giants	Football	1	3	3
Millionaires	Hockey	1	5	8
Resolutes	Baseball	1	5	9
Comets	Hockey	1	8	8
Canaries	Baseball	1	9	9
Champions	Football	0	1	3
Grasshuggers	Football	0	2	3
Bearcats	Hockey	0	2	8
Avengers	Football	0	3	3
Thistles	Hockey	0	8	8

Where we have ties -- for example, with all the teams that each have won a single championship -- the tiebreaker is a lower number of team seasons. A team that has achieved a certain level of success in fewer seasons is more dominant than one that had more opportunities to do so but failed. 

Some good news, at least, for the lowly Thistles: As of this writing, in Season 9 of my hockey league, they're in first place. Could this be the year they rise out of the basement?