The End...For Now!

We played the epic conclusion of our Vanguard Saga campaign this evening. The heroes foiled the Anchorites' plans and, in doing so, got a few teasers for the upcoming Vesper campaign. I absolutely loved the player characters in this storyline, so we'll definitely revisit them in the future. Their main NPC ally was taken captive in the closing moments of the adventure, so they have an obvious next mission to undertake...

Free RPG Day

Today is Free RPG Day 2026! Swing by your friendly local game shop for some swag!

Cypher 2

The universe gives, and takes away, and gives again. Hot on the heels of my Knicks winning the championship, my Golden Knights flamed out in the Stanley Cup Final. Mere moments after their fate was sealed, however, I got the email from Monte Cook Games about the arrival of the digital version of the new Cypher System -- now just "Cypher" -- player's handbook. Nathaniel and I are already poring over the character creation rules in the new edition and looking ahead to the upcoming campaign set in Vesper.

Let's Go, Knicks!

When I was in high school, I used to play as the Knicks in NBA Jam and dream of the real-life team bringing home a championship. As a fortysomething adult, now owning my very own NBA Jam cabinet, I've played as the Knicks and dreamed of the real-life team bringing home a championship. Tonight, they're bringing home a championship for real. For the first time in my lifetime, the New York Knicks are world champions!

Endgame

We're nearing the conclusion of our family Vanguard Saga campaign -- or the first big chunk of it, anyway. After slipping around the Anchorites' battle lines by means of a hidden trail, the heroes have reached the ruins where their foes have taken control of a mysterious artifact.

To get to the artifact, they'll have to fight or sneak their way into the dusty temple where the Anchorites' chief archaeologist is preparing to reactivate this long-dormant device.

Can our heroes stop the Anchorites in time? It's going to be quite the showdown! 

(Oh, and a powerful but unpredictable assassin is going to show up at basically the worst-possible time with an agenda of her own, which is bad news for both the Anchorites and the heroes...)

By the Power of Grayskull!

YOU have the power...to see the new Masters of the Universe movie, which premieres today. Maybe it's time to break out Battleground again...

Battle Lines

Our heroes in the Vanguard Saga campaign are continuing their perilous trek across the arid world of Elysion. They're soon to reach the forward command post of their military allies.

Unfortuantely, some Anchorites -- a fanatical sect seeking to separate itself, violently if necessary, from the rest of the human race -- are encamped nearby in the outskirts of a ruined, ancient city. 

The heroes will arrive just as the Anchorites are mounting an attack. They'll have to assist their allies to repel the charge and then continue deeper into the ruined city, where their foes are now unearthing a long-buried artifact that will determine the fate of the planet.

Flawless Victory

Recently I got a hankering to play through Drakkhen again with a new party, and it was just as much fun as last time. The final boss fight was pretty hilarious -- we walked into the room, listened to his evil monologue, and then my wizard killed him two seconds later with a single spell!

Plataea Outpost

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have crossed a harsh, arid wasteland and at last have reached a remote military outpost where they will work with the local garrison to undertake their mission here on the planet Elysion. 

They've also caught up with the Demeter, their trusty transport ship, from which they were separated shortly after arriving on this world. That ship is, of course, is a Warhammer 40k Valkyrie. Cheers to 40k for a wide range of models that I can use in roleplaying campaigns -- but jeers to our 3D printer, which crapped out when I really could have used a few more chain-link fence segments!

Season 13 Creighton Cup

The Season 13 semifinals were pretty shocking! I didn't expect both series to end in sweeps or for both series to have such lopsided goal differentials. I was pretty excited, though, for the Creighton Cup finals matchup. This was the first time that the finals did not include one of the league's First Four teams (Bulldogs, Comets, Thistles, Victorias). Instead, it was a battle of expansion teams!

The semifinals also teed up some interesting themes that I wanted to monitor in the finals. The Bearcats' power play came to life (33.33%) after finishing dead last in the regular season (10.00%), and it was a major contributing factor to the Cats' upset win over the Bulldogs. So too was goaltending. Crusty veteran Riley Hern outdueled superstar Hap Holmes, finishing with an astounding .973 save percentage! For the Millionaires, Georges Vezina was almost as impressive at .961. Vezina's heroics, in fact, masked some of the Millies' first-round shortcomings: They failed to score a power-play goal after finishing first in that statistic during the regular season (24.07%), and the only player to score more than one goal in the opening round was defenseman Harry Cameron (4).

Who won the ultimate prize? See below for the recap!

• Game 1: The first-place Millionaires started the series at home against the third-place Bearcats. In the first, Joe Malone got the visitors rolling with a goal less than two minutes into the game. The Cats outshot the Millies 18-7 in the first period, dominating the time of possession just as they did against the Dogs in the last round. Scotty Davidson's power-play goal in the second made it 2-0 for the Cats. The Millies finally struck back in the third, on back-to-back goals by Mickey MacKay and Frank Foyston; in that sequence, Cats goalie Riley Hern gave up as many goals in three minutes as he did in three full games against the Bulldogs! There was no further scoring in regulation, nor in the first overtime. In double overtime, Malone tallied his second of the game to win it for the upstart Bearcats. 
• Game 2: The Cats came home with a chance to take a commanding 2-0 series lead. After a scoreless first, the game really opened up in the second period. Jimmy Gardner -- the former  Millies captain who lost even his roster spot late in the regular season due to lack of production and undisciplined play -- cracked the lineup for the first time in the postseason and scored his team's first goal. That lead was quickly erased by Joe Malone, however, but then restored by new Millies captain Harry "Rat" Westwick. The score was 2-1 at the end of the second. Billy McGimsie tied it early in the third, and then Bruce Stuart gave the Cats their first lead with a power-play tally. George Hay got the equalizer for the Millies, so it was 3-3 heading into the final few minutes of regular time. Star blueliner Harry Cameron continued his scorching postseason with his fifth goal of the playoffs, sealing a 4-3 win for the visiting Millionaires and tying the series at one game apiece.
• Game 3: The Millies were home for the third game, but as with Game 1, found themselves in an early hole. The Cats held a huge advantage in time of possession and peppered Georges Vezina with shots until defenseman Frank Patrick -- brother of Millies defenseman Lester Patrick -- got one past Vezina. That goal was followed shortly thereafter by a Billy McGimsie lamp-lighter. The Cats took a 2-0 lead into the second frame, in which there was no scoring. A desperate Millionaires team made a strong push in the third. Frank Foyston got them on the board, but McGimsie's second of the game restored the Cats' two-goal lead. Mickey MacKay scored on the power play to make it 3-2, but the clock ran out before they could get the equalizer. 
• Game 4: With a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series, the Cats had a chance to win the first Creighton Cup in franchise history on home ice -- of course, up to this point, the road team had won every game in the finals. In the first, defensemen Frank Patrick and Harry Cameron traded early goals in a 1-1 contest that quickly became 3-1 after linemates Didier Pitre and Joe Malone scored for the Cats. The Millies suffered a tough blow in the second when Bruce Stuart made it 4-1 in front of the Cats' ecstatic home fans. Although Barney Stanley got one back for the defending champs, they still trailed 4-2 going into the third. Malone and Stanley each scored their second goals of the game, both on the power play, in the third period. The end result was a 5-3 series-clinching victory for the Bearcats. 

It's the first-ever Creighton Cup for the Bearcats and their transcendent superstar Joe Malone, who edged the Millies' Harry Cameron for the Playoff MVP trophy. Classy veteran Fred Maxwell earned the seventh championship of his career, after racking up five with the Victorias and one with the Comets in years past. That's all for now! Season 13 is in the books.

Just When I Thought I Was Out...

 ...they pull me back in! It looked like Lumibricks (nee Funwhole) was wrapping up their cyberpunk line, but some new sets have dropped! I've supplemented the construction of my super-cool city of Vesper with sets from the steampunk and inner-city lines, but now it's back to straight-up cyberpunk to round out the city before staging the first campaign here.

32 Wolf Man

We're getting close to the end of this phase of the boys' Shattered Realm campaign, in which their high-level characters are undertaking a mission to help save the Druid Cycle world from a multiverse-level threat. In the penultimate combat of this storyline, the heroes needed to crash an evil queen's military rally, rescue some hostages before they could be executed, and obtain the magic item neeed for them to help their compatriots in the Druid Cycle world. Matthew's elf rogue manage to shoot the queen with his bow in the first round of combat, but the real challenge was saving the hostages, who were out in the open in the middle of the town square with enemy soldiers closing in on them from all directions. 

Enter...32 Wolf Man!

Nathaniel has long been toying with combat tactics focused on conjuring large numbers of creatures. He's been referring to this idea as "32 Wolf Man," because, using a ninth-level spell, he could conjure a ridiculous 32 wolves at once. And that's exactly what he did in this situation. Wildshaped into an earth elemental, Nathaniel's druid burrowed under the town square, popped up from below ground, and conjured this army of wolves around the helpless hostages. Now forced to hack their way through these two fill rings of celestial beasts, the enemy soldiers were delayed long enough for the heroes to figure out an exit strategy in which they retrieved the magic item from the queen's body and got away with as many of the hostages as they could.

Season 13 Playoffs

The Victorias and Comets franchises have won seven Creighton Cups between them, but they're sitting out this postseason. While they dream of drafting exciting young talent to rebuild for next year, the other four franchises were locking horns in the playoffs. Here's the recap of Round 1!

Semifinal 1: Millionaires (1st) vs. Thistles (4th)

• Game 1: Who notched the first goal of the Season 13 playoffs? Mickey MacKay, Jack Adams, Gord Roberts? Nope, the first tally was a fluky bounce on a shot by Millionaires blueliner Lester Patrick, who had zero goals during the regular season (and a measly two assists). Aging veteran Frank Rankin then scored to give the Millies a 2-0 edge. Early in the second period, Thistles superstar Alf Smith scored to make it 2-1, but Millies icon Barney Stanley restored the two-goal lead late in the frame. MacKay picked up an insurance goal midway through the third. Jack Walker scored late to bring the Thistles within two, but the game ended with a 4-2 victory for the defending Creighton Cup champs.
• Game 2: No jitters on the road for the Millionaires. They scored four times in the first period, ending the frame with a 4-0 lead over the shellshocked Thistles. Harry Westwick scored once, and star defenseman Harry Cameron notched his first playoff hat trick. Hod Stuart got the home team on the board in the second, but there was no further scoring, so the Millionaires left town with a 4-1 victory and a 2-0 series lead.
• Game 3: The Millies came home with a chance to clinch a spot in the Creighton Cup finals. There was no scoring in the first period, which featured some incredible goaltending from the Millies' Georges Vezina (the reigning Playoff MVP) and the Thistles' Hugh Lehman (himself a two-time winner of that aforementioned award). Rookie blueliner Sprague Cleghorn got his first-ever playoff goal to stake the Thistles to a 1-0 lead in the second. By the third period, the Millies were feeling some pressure; they were trailing, and they hadn't scored since the first period of Game 1 -- a stretch of four straight periods. The red-hot Cameron, however, came to the rescue and tied the game. In overtime, the Millies failed to convert on a power play, but sophomore winger George Hay scored moments later to give his team a 2-1 win and a series sweep. 

Semifinal 2: Bulldogs (2nd) vs. Bearcats (3rd)

• Game 1: The Bulldogs, the league's most-penalized team this year, started this series off with some seriously undisciplined play -- three penalties in the first ten minutes of the first period. With the league's worst penalty killing, the Dogs were playing with fire, but managed to kill off all three infractions. Outshot 10-2 in the early going, the Dogs struck first on a goal by Harry Trihey. Shortly thereafter, superstar goaltender Hap Holmes preserved the home team's slim lead with a highlight-reel save on a Scotty Davidson breakaway. In the second period, the Cats finally connected on the power play with a goal by Bruce Stuart. With the score knotted at 1-1 in the third, Joe Malone beat Holmes to give the Cats a 2-1 advantage. At this points, the Bearcats were outshooting the Bulldogs by more than a two-to-one margin, so the Dogs were lucky to be trailing by just a single goal. All hopes were dashed, however, when Stuart scored another power-play goal, driving a dagger into the heart of the team that had traded him for Holmes after Season 11. The final was 3-1 for the visiting Bearcats in a huge upset.
• Game 2: Penalties were devastating for the Bulldogs in Game 1. Could the Dogs maintain their composure in Game 2 on the road? Things got off to a rocky start for them in the first when the Cats' Billy McGimsie (acquired in a midseason trade with the Victorias) scored, followed shortly thereafter by defenseman Dickie Boon. In the second, Scotty Davidson extended the Cats' lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal. Moose Johnson, in a vain attempt to atone for his many penalties in the series, scored to bring the Dogs within two, but it was all Cats after that. Didier Pitre made it 4-1, and then Davidson scored again in the third to extend the Cats' lead to 5-1. Needless to say, superstar Bulldogs goaltender Hap Holmes had a bit of an off-day.
• Game 3: Up 2-0 in the series, the underdog Cats ("undercats"?) attempted to finish off the series on the road. They got some early momentum in the first when Dickie Boon scored on the power play after yet another careless penalty by Moose Johnson. Late in the second period, veteran speedster Fred "Steamer" Maxwell (who has suited up for more playoff games than anyone in league history) scored to make it 2-0 for the Cats. With their season hanging in the balance and one period to make up the deficit, the Bulldogs needed to come out strong in the third period. They didn't. Holmes was magnificent and finished with 34 saves, many of them spectacular, but his team let him down. The Cats' Riley Hern picked up the second playoff shutout of his career as the game ended 2-0.

Next up: The Season 13 Creighton Cup championship series with the Millionaires against the Bearcats! (And for the Bulldogs? An offseason of humiliation and finger-pointing after scoring just two goals in the Bearcats' three-game sweep.)

Secret Identities

Foxy Shazam was live in Reno tonight, and you'd better believe I was rocking out right up front!

They sure sound a lot like Clark Kent's favorite band. Hey, did I just discover the secret identity of the Mighty Crabjoys?!

FCBD 2026

Today is Free Comic Book Day!

Season 13 Highlights

Season 13 was exciting down to the very last game, which the Millionaires won to secure their second consecutive regular-season pennant (and thus home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs), denying the Bulldogs their first-ever pennant in the process. It was a frantic second half for the Millies (the reigning Creighton Cup champions), whose midseason swoon resulted in Jimmy Gardner being stripped of his captaincy as well as his roster spot, and Harry "Rat" Westwick taking over as captain. The Millies needed several late-game goals to salvage enough wins and ties to sneak ahead of the Bulldogs, who look like the league's strongest team (with a league-best +11 goal differential). I thought the Dogs would claim first place in the end, but the Millies' Mickey MacKay really elevated his play over the last few games and ended up winning the Scoring Championship (12 goals, 18 assists) for the second year in a row. MacKay also won the Forward MVP, edging out Bearcats superstar Joe Malone (last year's winner) and the Bulldogs' Jack Adams, who managed to rack up 22 points despite missing a decent chunk of the season due to injury. For the blueliners, stalwart veteran Hod Stuart captured his second Defenseman MVP trophy a full ten seasons after winning it for the first time; he delivered an impressive mix of offense and defense (7 goals, 11 assists, +8) to beat the Bulldogs' Moose Johnson (a league-leading +16) and defending trophy winner Harry Cameron of the Millies. Stuart's teammate Sprague Cleghorn won Rookie of the Year, becoming only the second blueliner ever to win that award. The season's most dominant performance, however, belonged to the Bulldogs' Hap Holmes, who claimed his third Goaltender MVP trophy after posting a 1.75 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage, which was the highest single-season save percentage in league history.

Cypher Musings

With a new edition of the Cypher System on the way this summer, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on how it's worked out in Front Porch campaigns over the past year. The first thing to note, however, is the small sample size. To date, we've done one in-person Cypher campaign (Vanguard Saga, with three players) and two email-based campaigns (another Vanguard Saga storyline and the revamped Torchlight, each with one player); compare those numbers to decades of D&D -- Druid Cycle, Shattered Realm, and so much more. That said, I think I have enough experience with Cypher to make some general observations about the rules and how we're using them. 

The most important point is that I'm very satisfied with Cypher as the default game system for the Front Porch multiverse. It's fast and easy, very flexible across genres, and well suited for narrative games. Long-running campaigns like the Druid Cycle setting will always be D&D, but at this moment I can't really imagine starting a new campaign that didn't use Cypher. My upcoming Vesper project, for example, is going to be our test run for the new Cypher edition.

So what else have I learned about Cypher from a year's worth of gaming? Below are some observations about how the experience at our table differs from the rules as written. 

• Back when I was just getting started with Cypher, Matt suggested a minor house rule to help ensure that ranged attacks at close range were not unequivocally superior to melee attacks. This house rule has worked out very well.
• In our family Vanguard campaign, Nathaniel created an android speedster whose many ways to ease Speed defense rolls has made him virtually untouchable by conventional attacks. Not everyone is out there trying to break the system, of course, but Nathaniel showed that even with a system designed by the best of the best in the gaming industry, it's quite possible to build unbalanced characters. 
• To help address the aforementioned problem, I created a house rule that enables certain low-level characters (such as troops who are part of a unit) to "gang up" on a single target more effectively. Nathaniel's android still runs circles around everyone, but at least now he has to be wary of large groups of foes taking aim at him all at once.
• No one remembers cyphers. I know it's supposed to be a big deal in the Cypher System, and it's right there in the name of the game, but cyphers still feel like a clunky add-on and not a core part of the game mechanics. 
• I love coming up with nasty GM Intrusions when players roll a 1 on their d20 checks, but all other GM Intrusions feel forced. When should something be an Intrusion rather than just a regular challenge for the PCs to overcome? Maybe I should think about Intrusions as "optional" encounters that players can either take on for the XP, or pay XP to avoid? Well, I guess, but that leads me to the final point...
• Players only use XP for advancement. In Cypher, players can spend XP for rerolls, for Player Intrusions, to avoid GM Intrusions, etc., but in practice, I've found that players don't use XP for any of these things. Only once -- and quite memorably -- did a player spend XP on a Player Intrusion, and that was when an NPC's life was at stake. Similarly, I think we've only had one or two instances when a player spent XP on a reroll. I guess it's nice to have these options in your pocket, but our experience is that players hoard XP for advancement. That realization, of course, has changed how I hand out XP; when players don't use it for all these other purposes, I have to slow down the XP rate or the characters will advance too quickly.

What changes will the new edition bring? I'm eager to find out. Here's to another year of Cypher gaming!

Another Torment Ended

I finished up Torment: Tides of Numenera, and found it to be...pretty fun! I'm still not a huge fan of the Numenera setting, and the game's voluminous text was a lot to get through (even just skimming it!), but I greatly enjoyed Torment as an example of the Cypher System translated into video game format. Spending points from your pools, applying levels of Effort, getting a "discount" from your Edge -- all that stuff felt very true to the paper-and-pencil game. I would love to see another video game make use of the Cypher System at some point.

Season 13 at the Halfway Point

I'm playing through the thirteenth season of my old-timey Strat-O-Matic hockey league, and we have some interesting storylines developing at the midway mark. The reigning Creighton Cup champions, the Millionaires, are comfortably in first place, although not quite as dominant as they were a year ago. They're followed by the Bearcats, who have continued their strong run from the second half of last season; the Cats are the league's best five-on-five team, but they're held back by a power play and penalty kill that are both dead last -- by a lot! -- in the league. The Thistles have climbed into the playoff picture on the strength of all-around improved play, just slightly ahead of the fourth-place Bulldogs, whose offensive woes in last year's playoffs have continued, especially after an injury to Jack Adams temporarily robbed them off their best playmaker. The Victorias and Comets, at fifth and sixth, respectively, are currently outside the playoff picture. Fortunately for the non-playoff teams, there's some amazing talent available in the Season 14 entry draft. The Victorias got started early with their rebuild, shipping five-time Creighton Cup winner Billy McGimsie to the Cats for a talented but penalty-prone young center named Frankie Fredrickson. 

Looking ahead to the end-of-season awards for individual players, the Scoring Championship is shaping up to be a two-way race between Bearcats superstar Joe Malone (5 goals, 9 assists) and last year's titlist, Mickey MacKay (5 goals, 7 assists) of the Millionaires. These two stars are also vying for the Forward MVP trophy, although I'd say the frontrunner is Malone's teammate Didier Pitre, whose 7 goals lead the league. The race for Defenseman MVP is wide open, as no blueliner has yet to distinguish himself from the pack. The Millies' Harry Cameron might pick up a second straight trophy, but Frank Patrick of the Bearcats is tops in the league in plus-minus at +9. A rejuvanted Hod Stuart of the Thistles, the winner way back in Season 3, might also make some noise. In a lackluster year for freshmen, Thistles blueliner Sprague Cleghorn will likely win Rookie of the Year by default. Saving the most striking stats for last, can I just declare that all six starting netminders should share the Goaltender MVP award? Goalies are dominating even more than last season; in fact, the average save percentage for all goaltenders has risen from .908 in Season 11 to .917 in Season 12 to an astounding and utterly unsustainable .931 this season! Hap Holmes of the Bulldogs leads at .942, followed by Riley Hern of the Cats at .936; both men are two-time winners of the Goaltender MVP. 

A Novel Approach to Video Games

Torment: Tides of Numenera is great at world-building and presenting unique, complex NPC characters. It does, however, share a drawback of its spiritual predecessor, Planescape: Torment, in that there's a lot of text to read. As with the prior game, I find myself skimming the dialogue until something triggers an update to the Journal, where I can get a more concise version of what's going on. It's still fun, but man, it's like reading a novel.

A New Torment

Once upon a time, I played through the highly regarded Planescape: Torment, although I have little recolleciton of having done so. (It's referenced on this blog, however, so it must be true!) Since it's a kind of spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, and since I'm a big fan of the Cypher System, I've had my eye on Torment: Tides of Numera for a while. The game was massively discounted on Steam, so I decided to pick it up. It's pretty cool to see Cypher represented in a computer game! I'm only about an hour into the campaign, but I'm enjoying it so far. 

Sanctuary

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have undertaken a new mission to the barren but mineral-rich world of Elysion. After being separated from their transport ship, the companions make their way on foot to the nearest settlement, a ramshackle mining community known as Sanctuary. Here's a shot of the group and their Sanctuary Militia escorts approaching the town...

And now a zoomed-in view of the community. Note the cute little outhouse! Aside from that a few other items, the rest of the stuff was 3D printed and painted by yours truly. Inside, the buildings are all stocked with beds, tables, chairs, etc., and plenty of NPCs for the heroes to interact with.

Here's a shot of Sanctuary from the front...

And a side view...

I wonder if any wasteland-dwelling raiders will attack this place while the heroes are here...?

Dune 3 Trailer

Oh baby...

Numenera

I'm not a huge fan of the Numenera setting, but I backed the Numenera: The Amber Archive crowdfunding campaign at the lowest level so that I could pick up some of the intriguing add-ons. There's still another week or so before the campaign ends.

Run Completed

I finished up Shadowrun Returns and overall it was a pretty solid game, although a bit shorter than I expected. The first-act mystery -- someone is killing people who all received organs from the same donor -- was a creepy and memorable premise. I also really enjoyed a combat that occurred right after confirming the identity of the master villain behind that killer. I'll set the stage without giving away the plot. You and various NPCs are attending the funeral of an old friend. After some guests depart, you confront the master villain, who is also in attendance. That character escapes and unleashes mercenary teams that attack you and your NPC allies from multiple directions. It's a wild, chaotic battle, where you're hiding behind tombstones, sneaking around mausoleums, and trying desperately to avoid being surrounded. And then, to make matters worse, the gunfire awakens a pack of ghouls, who burst from their graves and start attacking everyone. Ah, good fun! 

Blind Shot

We had quite the epic moment in our Shattered Realm campaign today. The champions of the realm were responding to an urgent call for help from some of their closest NPC friends, and they arrived to find a beloved community besieged by army of ogres led by a hideous, hunchbacked hag. When the ogres breached the town gates, the heroes rushed to hold back these monstrous foes, but the hag herself perched upon the walls and bedeviled them with spells. Nathaniel's ranger spent most of the battle stunned (although his loyal animal companion proved to be quite an effective tank in a pinch), and Matthew's rogue was blinded more often than not. During one turn in which the rogue was blind, he nevertheless managed to fire a crossbow bolt that not only hit the hag high atop the wall, but scored a crit. It wasn't the hit that defeated this foe, but it was an absolutely absolutely legendary shot that we'll always remember!

Shadowrun Returns

I mentioned recently that Nathaniel was playing through the classic Mass Effect, which Matt had gifted me many years ago. Another game he graciously gifted me was Shadowrun: Dragonfall. I've been thinking about cyberpunk a lot lately with my city of Vesper under construction, so I decided to check out the predecessor of Dragonfall, Shadowrun Returns. It's been a while since I've played any video game that wasn't on an Evercade platform, and I'm really enjoying a return to the Shadowrun universe!

What Happened to Dolorous Edd?!

As a guy who grew up doing some pretty spot-on (if I do say so myself!) voice impersonations of the Muppets and other pop-culture characters, I appreciate a good voice. I've always admired the work of voiceover actors like Frank Welker, Peter Cullen, and the guy with maybe the best voice in the history of humanity, Keith David. As a gamemaster, I like to incorporate custom voices for key NPCs in my campaign worlds, perhaps most notably in the Druid Cycle setting; Cyfrinach, Iskander, Cerdyn, Pyrrhus, and many others have had very distinctive voices. 

Over the past year, I've been listening to the Song of Ice and Fire series on Audible. The books were narrated by the late, great Roy Dotrice and -- wow! -- did this guy have an amazing reading voice! Over the first three books, Dotrice built an immense variety of custom voices for the main characters. His work on this series wasn't just a reading, but a true performance. 

I'm now getting into the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, and, well, it's a different experience. I understand that Dotrice wasn't available to record this book when it first came out and then returned to read it many years after he had narrated the others in the series. The result is pretty jarring. There are major changes in how he pronounces names like "Catelyn" and "Petyr", but also in the voices he uses for the characters. Some of the biggest changes are to major players like Arya and Petyr. The one that really hit me the hardest, though, was the voice of my absolute favorite supporting character, Dolorous Edd. A member of the Night's Watch and close friend of Jon Snow, Edd provides a lot of self-deprecating wit and comic relief. Dotrice's original voice for Edd always put a smile on my face, but the voice used in Feast is so bland and undistinguished that I almost wince when I hear it. 

If I ever screw up the voices in our campaigns, please call me on it. An unexpected change to the voice of a character can really take you out of the moment!

Mass From the Past

Over a decade ago, Matt gifted me a copy of Mass Effect, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nathaniel found the whole series on Steam today at a mass-ive (!) discount, so now he's going to give it a whirl. Brings back great memories!

BGTV

Super excited about emphatically not watching this show...

Vesper Is Growing!

Back into the Funwhole! I picked up another big cyberpunk building set from Lumibricks. The mysterious city of Vesper is growing...

Gratitude

These days, I'm especially grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my family. We had a quiet weekend at home, and free time enough to play all three active campaigns: the revived Shattered Realm campaign with Matthew and Nathaniel, the Zoom-based Druid Cycle game with the boys and their cousins in Michigan, and finally the Vanguard Saga campaign with the boys and Amy. Any weekend we can get together around the ol' RPG table is a blessing.

MotU Trailer

HELL YES!

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

The latest GoT spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, premieres tonight on HBO!

MotU Madness

The boys got the core set for Masters of the Universe: Battleground for Christmas, and we finally made the time to try it out this afternoon. For a game based on a kids' show that features fast, crazy action, Battleground plays about as fast as Ram Man trying to solve calculus equations. There's a lot of tactical depth, however, and the game reminds me a lot of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. 

In today's smackdown, Matthew played as the good guys (He-Man, Man-at-Arms, and Stratos), while Nathaniel had the baddies (Skeletor, Mer-Man, and my all-time favorite MotU villain, Trapjaw). He-Man claimed an objective token in the first round to give the heroes an early lead, but Mer-Man and Skeletor focused fire on the big guy and brought him down shockingly quickly. That's right, folks -- He-Man was the first character to get knocked out! Trapjaw and Stratos had also fallen by the fourth and final round, leaving just Skeletor, Mer-Man, and Man-at-Arms on the battlefield. Matthew had a chance to win the game by knocking out Mer-Man, but the slippery villain somehow dodged the attack. As such, the game ended in a draw. 

I'm sure Battleground plays a lot faster once you master all the rules and options, but it felt painfully slow and fiddly. Nathaniel really liked it, so I'm sure we'll give it another whirl with other characters -- I mean, we've gotta see what Orko can do, right?!

2026!

I just can't even wrap my mind around the fact that it's 2026. It should be 1989 -- and 2026 is the year of a cyberpunk campaign I'm running on Sugar Mountain BBS. 

2026 is also the year I hit the half-century mark. Yikes...