D&D Is a Hall-of-Famer!

Dungeons & Dragons has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in my beloved second home of Rochester, New York. Click here to read all about it!

Revenge!

The boys and I have spent most of this dreary, rainy Sunday building models and playing Tanks battles. The U.S. Sherman tanks (Nathaniel and myself) have largely had the upper hand over their German Panther or Jagdpanther (Matthew) foe. Below is a photo of the final turn of our most recent battle. One of our Shermans was temporarily disabled -- although completely undamaged -- so Matthew drove his Jagdpanther right up and destroyed it at point-blank range with a single shot. Our other Sherman, hiding in the forest, then immediately blew up the German tank with a well-placed side shot. It's been a lot of fun, but we definitely need more tanks!

Tanks

Tanks is a hot new World War II miniatures skirmish game from Gale Force Nine. People usually describe it as Star Wars: X-Wing but with tanks instead of spaceships. Indeed, the mechanics are similar enough that if you know how to play X-Wing, you basically know how to play Tanks.

Here's a look at all the goodies that come in the box...

As you can see, the models come unpainted and unassembled, which is great for artistically-inclined Warhammer 40k fans, but not so great for folks (like yours truly) who prefer their games to be playable right out of the box. In any case, a core set gives you enough bits to build two American tanks (Shermans) and one German tank (Panther). Other tanks (including those from the UK and the USSR) are available in reasonably-priced expansion sets.

And now a closer look at one of the two identical sprues containing the Sherman pieces...

Finally, here's an image of one of the sprues that contains the pieces you can use to build either a standard Panther or a Jagdpanther...

Amy and the boys come back tomorrow after a week-long trip to Los Angeles, and I can't wait to introduce them to Tanks...as well as Oregon Trail! How about that? Two games to help teach the boys about history!

Oregon Trail!

As a Gen-X kinda guy, I have fond memories of playing Oregon Trail on Apple II computers in elementary school. Now, as if in answer to a prayer I didn't know I'd made, there's an Oregon Trail card game!

As you can see, the design adheres to the old-timey graphics of the '80s computer game. I picked up a copy (it's a Target exclusive) on my lunch hour today, and I can't wait to play it with Amy and the boys. Amy, sadly, does not share my enthusiasm. She had never heard of this game. What the hell were they teaching in those snooty California private schools, anyway? Where else were kids going to learn about dying of dysentery?

Basket of Deplorables

Okay, I just had to come out of hibernation today to comment on the latest presidential election meme: basket of deplorables. Sorry, Hillary, but I'm totally going to use the Basket of Deplorables as a magic item in my D&D campaigns -- it will be the cursed version of a Bag of Holding. On a related note, Basket of Deplorables is also the name of my Cradle of Filth tribute band.

Hibernation

According to the almighty Blogger, we have over 870 published posts (hat tip to Chris B. and Tim W. for their contributions). I guess I don't have any point of reference for comparison, but it feels like that's a lot of posts. It's probably enough for now.

This blog has been a great forum for writing about various topics that have come up over the last couple of years -- the Fifth Edition D&D playtest, creating a campaign-spanning Front Porch multiverse, and my family's burgeoning interest in board games, to name a few. However, I think the time has come to put the ol' game blog into hibernation for a while. Perhaps I'll resurrect it again when there's a lot of cool gaming-related news to discuss (like the upcoming D&D feature film).

Thanks for reading, and keep those dice rolling!

Git Yer Game!

Head over to your local game story today for Free RPG Day. I think the event has kind of gone downhill in recent years, but I'll never pass up free RPG stuff!

Free RPG Day!

This year's Free RPG Day is this Saturday, June 18. Look, here comes yet another goblin-centric Pathfinder adventure...

Local History

Our Druid Cycle storylines these days tend to have a strong historical component -- connections to the actual adventures played out over the 23 years that this game world has existed, as well as connections to the world's fictional history that stretches back for centuries more. In fact, when I design new D&D adventures, I'm always looking for ways to tie them into both "real" and "fictional" campaign history. (The same goes for other Front Porch multiverse campaign settings, such as Torchlight and Shattered Realm.)

There's already a lot of material from which to draw, but that hasn't stopped me from trying to generate even more. My new policy for world-building is that each community on the map needs to have at least one historical figure (in the form of a named NPC) associated with it -- the founder of the town, a legendary hero or villain from the past, or whatever. I'm not quite there yet with a historical connection for every community in every campaign setting, but I'm well on my way, and I'm seeing a lot of cool opportunities for future adventures. So the next time your characters are passing through Such-and-Such town, be sure to stop and study that crumbling old statue of Sir So-and-So!

Slippery Victory

Zombicide ended with a rather anticlimactic victory last night. Matthew's characters were up first, and he has one hero (Josh, the young street punk -- see the bright orange miniature in the photo from my last post) who has an ability called Slippery. This ability allows the character to move out of spaces that contain zombies (normally, it's very difficult for a hero to leave a zombie's space on the game board). So, Josh simply waltzed into the building and picked up the final objective token. Game over!

Undead Showdown

Every night this week, the boys and I have been plugging away on our big Zombicide scenario. Miraculously (or perhaps due to the ridiculous amount of firepower that we're toting), all six characters are still alive. Tonight we recovered the fourth supply depot and then hustled up the main north-south street toward the building that contains our fifth and final objective. Unfortunately, there's a horde massing around us...

Three characters are in the thick of it, with another (Wanda, who has found a chainsaw to go along with her submachine gun!) right behind them. Not pictured are two other heroes who are guarding the rear and picking off zombies that are coming up behind us. If we can carve our way through this group during our next turn, we stand a pretty good chance of getting that last objective token and winning the scenario.

Zombie Stomp

Well, I've come to the end of a long vacation, and tomorrow I'll be heading back to work to face whatever horrors have been festering in my absence. What better way to prepare for my return to the office than to jump into a massive Zombicide scenario?

The boys and I have chosen an adventure in which the survivors need to recover supplies from various buildings across the city. The supplies are represented on the map by red "X" tokens. We've claimed two of them thus far, and, as you can see from the map below, we have three more to go.

Thanks to some lucky draws on equipment cards, we're armed to the teeth. Wanda the waitress (Nathaniel) is packing a submachine gun, survivalist Ned (Matthew) has assembled a sniper rifle to go along with his katana, and high-strung desk jockey Doug (yours truly...and does that character choice say anything about me?) is wielding a pair of machetes and a pair of sawed-off shotguns. The other three characters have pretty solid gear as well. The gang is currently holed up in an abandoned diner, as you can see below.

Our biggest challenge is that the three remaining objectives are spread out all over the map, and there is a large horde of zombies -- including the nigh-unkillable Abomination -- milling around an intersection between us and the furthest of the objectives.

The horde will move as we start to make noise, but we're going to be in big trouble if these guys corner us somewhere. In any case, it's shaping up to be a really fun adventure!

Princesses for the Emperor

Totally awesome. But no Elsa?!

X's and O's

After finishing up our hockey action on Monday, we've spent the rest of the week with my in-laws in the Los Angeles area. My nephew Daniel is also here with us, so that makes four guys -- just enough for some two-hand-touch football! Each night after dinner we've tossed the ball around, with Matthew and Daniel taking on Nathaniel and myself. And, because my boys are gamers, they also spend a lot of time coming up with exotic new plays to run in the next game. Check out Nathaniel's latest effort below.

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but I suspect the taller guy is me and the shorter guy is Nathaniel. Aside from that...well...I guess we'll have to wait for tomorrow night's game!

Storm King's Thunder

Breaking news! The next Fifth Edition campaign is Storm King's Thunder. I'll post again when I see more details.

Poll Closed!

The Druid Cycle poll has closed...and look who emerged victorious! It's Team Iskander by a landslide!

It Might Be Giants

The next Fifth Edition campaign is going to be announced in a couple of days, and it sounds like the theme might be giants. I'd love to see Against the Giants revamped for the current rules, but whatever they do, they'll have a hard time topping Curse of Strahd, the new incarnation of Ravenloft.

Behold...the Inland Empire!

To this native New Yorker, the term "Inland Empire" conjures up images of a distant, fabled land -- like something out of the Forgotten Realms or another D&D campaign setting. As it turns out, the real-life Inland Empire is a smog-choked urban sprawl to the east of Lost Angeles. We've come down for Matthew's ice hockey tournament -- let's go, Grizzlies! -- but the prospect of spending four days here got me thinking about writing a new D&D adventure: Escape from the Inland Empire.

Rebirth

Today, DC comics reboots its line with an event called Rebirth. Here's hoping that this latest continuity revamp fixes all (heck, I'd settle for some) of the problems introduced in the "New 52" reboot that debuted in 2011. Kind of like how Fifth Edition D&D has restored our faith in the brand after the brief but troublesome Fourth Edition era.

I can dream, right?

Settlers

Check out this brief CNN video about the creator of Settlers of Catan.

Poll Closing

Just about a week to go in our Druid Cycle poll. Be sure to vote before it's too late!

SCL DLC

I had heard that Sword Coast Legends was dead -- or, at least, the studio that created it -- but apparently there's at least one last hurrah. A new module of downloadable content is available; click here for more details.

Tourney

This post is kind of off-topic, but damn it -- I'm going to share it anyway!

The local fencing group that I'm part of, DCCSC Fencing, held its first-ever tournament on Saturday. Our students are teenagers who are relatively new to the sport (some have been fencing for as little as two months, with no one having more than about a year's worth of experience), but they did very well against fencers from other clubs who were often older and almost invariably had more experience. I'm really proud of these kids!

Druid Cycle Poll

Only three votes so far in the Druid Cycle poll. No love yet for Team Cathbad?

Druid Cycle: Civil War

From both Marvel and DC, we've been treated to a couple of recent cinematic showdowns between heroes. As a fan, I rather enjoy these narratives because I think they carry a lot more dramatic weight than the usual superhero fare in which the obviously good heroes beat up on the obviously evil villains. (For the record, my favorite tale of internecine superhero strife is DC's Identity Crisis.)

We have a similar situation brewing in the Druid Cycle campaign world. In what has been the "B" plot in our 2016 adventures thus far -- but will almost certainly explode in the coming weeks -- we have two iconic heroes who have put forward very different and very incompatible philosophies about justice and morality. Cathbad wants a world in which the champions of the realm are held accountable to international laws, while Iskander opposes such restraints.

Which position do you agree with? Be sure to vote in the poll on the right-hand side of the page!

Comics Haul

Thanks to some creative scheduling, I was able to make it to Free Comic Book Day after all. It was a pretty good haul this year, so I'll have plenty of reading material for Matthew's next ice hockey road trip!

Free Comic Book Day!

Today is Free Comic Book Day! Go get yourself some free comics, yo!

5e Adventure Poll

Got a favorite Fifth Edition adventure thus far? Vote here in the EN World poll! I think my favorite is Curse of Strahd (the new version of Ravenloft), and as of this writing it has a big lead on the other storylines.

FCBD 2016

Here's your annual PSA: Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 7!

A double dose of kid sporting events (hockey for Matthew and baseball for Nathaniel) will prevent me to partaking in this year's festivities, but perhaps I'll be able to catch some of the offerings in digital form.

New D&D Comic

There's a new D&D comic book from IDW. Minsc of Baldur's Gate meets Strahd von Zarovich of Ravenloft! Horrific hilarity ensues!

Eh...

I bought the first issue, but I'm not especially hopeful it will improve upon the last several iterations of D&D comics. Bring back Fell's Five, I say!

Zendikar!

Wow, fantasy worlds are colliding! I never thought I'd see the day, but D&D and Magic: The Gathering are (sort of) crossing over. The world of Zendikar from Magic is now a playable Fifth Edition D&D setting -- and best of all, it's free! Click here for the scoop.

Games on the Go

Matthew is now on a traveling ice hockey team (the Tahoe Grizzlies) so we'll be hitting the road periodically for away games in exotic locations. (Hey, now I know where Vacaville is!) We also have a few trips planned for the summer, including my sister's wedding back in New York. With all our travel coming up, it's great that we have card games like Magic and Exploding Kittens to while away our down time in hotels and such. Huzzah for portable games!

Tyrants of the Underdark

There's a new D&D board game on the way: Tyrants of the Underdark, from Gale Force Nine. If you like drow, you'll like this game...

Shadows Over Innistrad

I picked up a couple of Intro Packs for the new Magic series, Shadows Over Innistrad, during my lunch hour today. Looks like cool stuff, and I think we'll finally have enough cards for a blue deck!

Magic Morning

While Mom and Dad paid the bills and fertilized the lawn, respectively, the boys got involved in a pretty epic Magic duel. I have no idea to what extent they were following the rules, but it sure looks impressive. As I write this, they're still locked in battle...

Magic Showdown

Still raining cats and dogs...so we dragged Amy into a couple of Magic duels. She used my best deck (white/black) and defeated a wretchedly unlucky Matthew and his top deck (black/red) in the first duel, but then got annihilated in the rematch when Matthew was able to demonstrate the full power of his deck. The new Magic series, Shadows Over Innistrad, comes out this week, so I shudder to think what new horrors Matthew will be able to add to his deck!

The Thin Line

There's a thin line between sanity and madness -- in Mansions of Madness, at least. On this rainy Saturday afternoon, we finished up the adventure that we started last weekend. Over the course of the scenario, I had been whittling down Michael McGlen's sanity points until he had only one left. At zero, I could have played a card that would have turned the gangster against his companions. Alas, the heroes won the game before I could find a way to turn him insane, but it certainly would have made for a memorable ending if McGlen had machine-gunned his friends right when they were about to achieve their goal...

Fiery Doom!

The madness continued tonight with the second part of our current adventure. As fire spread across the grounds of the estate, hard-boiled thug Michael McGlen (Matthew) cut down a couple of monsters with his trusty tommy gun, clearing the way for our heroes to search for clues. A box buried in the garden pointed toward a clue in the most distant corner of the estate (the small room in the upper-right corner of the photo below).

With every outdoor map tile already ablaze, the players knew that someone would have to make a mad dash through the flames to the distant building. While cursed heiress Gloria (Amy) and plucky glamour girl Jenny (Nathaniel) hid from the flames in the caves beneath the estate, Michael McGlen raced across the lawn. Unfortunately, fire causes a hero to lose sanity as well as life, and poor Michael has little sanity to spare. He reached the building, obtained the clue, and then sprinted back to his companions -- but arrived dangerously low on sanity! Gloria has some magic that can restore lost sanity points, but the clock is ticking, the estate is burning, and the final clue remains to be uncovered!

The Madness Returns!

It's been quite a few months since our last foray into Mansions of Madness, but Nathaniel has been begging for more Lovecraftian horror -- as five-year-olds are wont to do, I suppose -- so I spent a good hour setting up the board and cards (user-friendly this game is not) and we jumped into a new scenario after dinner.

We're still in the early stages of the adventure, but it's been quite eventful thus far. While investigating the gloomy, run-down estate inherited by the occult writer Gloria (played by Amy), we've learned that the family long ago made a blood pact with eldritch forces, and now Gloria is expected to renew the bargain. Oh, and the grounds of the estate are on fire...

Santorini

There's a cool Kickstarter board game in the works called Santorini (click here for the page). The project has already funded (and then some!), so they're now going for various stretch goals. It's a Euro-style game (with a Greek mythology theme) in which players build buildings and try to reach the highest level first. It seems like a great game for families, and the various deity and hero cards add a lot of variety to the gameplay. I think we'll back this one!

D&D Movie Director

A bit of news about the upcoming D&D movie can be found here.

Siege of Dragonspear

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

D&D Pre-History

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

"I Thought You Were a Warrior!"

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

Holy Mother Box, Batman!

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

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

BvS: DoJ: SVU: OMG: LoL

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

Batman Bested!

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

Lazy Sunday

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

Epic Comeback!

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

Comic Book = Booster Pack

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

BG Expansion

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

First Magic Throwdown

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

Curse of Strahd

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

Magic Dreams

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

Magic Duels

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

MTG for Me?

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

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

ThingMaker on EN World

I'm not the only one who thinks that the upcoming ThingMaker 3D printer is going to be a boon for gamers everywhere. Click here!

Our Five Minutes in Nerdvana

Well, Nerdvana didn't quite live up to its name. The selection was mediocre, with a lot used books and games that looked like they had been sitting in someone's garage since the 1980s. Plus, the location -- right next to a sex toy store -- made it kind of difficult to keep two little boys from seeing stuff that would raise a whole lot of questions...

Tarokka

Sorry, Gale Force Nine. As much as I would like to buy the Tarokka Deck for the upcoming Ravenloft D&D adventure module, there's no way I'm paying nine bucks in shipping for a pack of 54 playing cards. What the funk, yo? Are they importing those cards directly from Barovia?

Nerdvana

So I learned from my friendly local comic book store guys that there's a gaming store in Carson City. Who knew? Nerdvana is kind of a hike from where I live, but I think the boys and I will need to check it out this weekend!

Movie Update

Click here for a minor (but interesting) update on the upcoming D&D movie!

Roadhouse Reached

We got back to our family Tyranny of Dragons campaign today for the first time in several months. At last the heroes have reached Carnath Roadhouse ("Roadhouse!"), and now they're hot on the trail of the lizardmen who will lead them to the headquarters of the Cult of the Dragon. It's awesome to get back into this campaign, and I hope after this one we can give the new Ravenloft module (Curse of Strahd) a try.

Ravenloft Preview Adventure

Free D&D! Click here to download the official Ravenloft preview adventure.

Cycle Time

Last spring, we put the Druid Cycle campaign on hold while I converted that massive world to Fifth Edition. In the meantime, the Druid Cycle guys have been playing in a mini-campaign in the revamped Shattered Realm setting. Today that mini-campaign came to an end, so very soon we'll return to Druid Cycle action. This ten-month hiatus between Druid Cycle adventures represents the longest gap in play since that world debuted way back in 1993.

ThingMaker

Okay...okay, dude...take it easy...

I'm having a hard time not freaking out about the upcoming ThingMaker 3D printer from Mattel. Wow...I foresee creating a lot of minis for D&D, board games, etc.

Zombie Fever

We've been sick all week, and no one more so than poor little Nathaniel. When he woke up this morning, still feverish and coughing, all he wanted was to play Zombicide. I was disappointed to have to make him wait -- Zombicide isn't exactly a "before work" type of activity -- but as soon as I got home, we grabbed Matthew and played through a scenario. He's not fully recovered yet, but board gaming is definitely a step in the right direction!

DCCSC Fencing

Hooray for Peyton! Anway...our fencing club now has a Facebook page! Douglas County Community & Senior Center (yikes, that's a mouthful!) Fencing, or DCCSC Fencing, can be found here.

Back on the Strip!

We had fencing last night for the first time in over three months because the leader of the program had been recovering from an injury. During that hiatus, I submitted the necessary paperwork to become an instructor at the local community center that hosts our fencing group. I think (I hope!) that process is nearing completion, so now our fledgling club will have two instructors for classical foil fencing, and I'll be able to step in whenever the leader of the program is unable to teach. I haven't taught fencing classes since Colgate, so I'm looking forward to it!

Snowy Sunday

It's a lazy, snowy Sunday here in western Nevada, so while we're waiting for the Pro Bowl (yes, some people still do watch the Pro Bowl!), we're playing King of New York and Star Wars: X-Wing. Just wish I had more takers for Zombicide and Ghostbusters.

Want!

Check out these awesome custom game tables that transform into regular tables! Or, are they regular tables that transform into game tables?

What's New?

Not much gaming news to report these days. The guys in the online group (Kevin, Scott, and Tim W) are coming to the end of their Shattered Realm mini-campaign and will be returning to Druid Cycle action thereafter. Otherwise, it's been pretty quiet. I've used the extra time to start reading up on the instruction of fencing, as I hope to get into coaching again at some point.

Dark Tower

Dark Tower was a D&D-like board game from the '80s and it totally needs to make a comeback. Don't take my word for it, though -- ask Orson Welles himself!

Heroes Have Landed!

The Amazing Heroes have landed!

Shown above are the figures in the standard packaging. The plastic is easily removed without damaging the card backs. I also received special "Artist Edition" card backs showing these classic heroes drawn by top-notch contemporary artists like Mike Allred, Sonny Liew, and Tim Seeley.

And here are the figures removed from the packaging. Back row, from left to right: Silver Streak, Captain Action, Champion of Mars, and Blank Slate. Front row, from left to right: Golden Age Daredevil (unrelated to the later Marvel character), Black Terror, Green Turtle, and Stardust. I've only included one Blank Slate figure in the images above, but I actually purchased a lot of those guys to use as villains and -- if I'm feeling brave -- to paint my own custom heroes.

Heroes Are on Their Way!

"We've been waiting for, like, a year!" Matthew tells me. It's actually been a lot longer than that, but the Amazing Heroes action figures from two successful Kickstarter campaigns are now on their way to our house. The boys -- myself included, of course! -- are excited for the action figures, but I'm also eager to introduce them to a related RPG mini-campaign (recycling the title Tales of the Ternion) that I've cooked up using these and other public domain Golden Age superheroes. The idea is to give the boys some more experience with roleplaying and cooperative storytelling outside the usual venue of D&D. I'm not sure how it will go, but it should be an interesting experiment.

Curse of Strahd

Ravenloft is back! The fan-favorite D&D setting comes to Fifth Edition in a new adventure called Curse of Strahd. Click here for details.

End of an Era

Today I cancelled my D&D Insider subscription, meaning that I'll no longer have access to the Character Builder software for Fourth Edition characters. There's no going back! In the past year I've converted the Druid Cycle campaign world to Fifth Edition -- all but the player characters, that is -- so it feels as though the brief, troubled 4e era is now over.

5e SRD!

Huge news! There's now a Systems Reference Document (SRD) and Open-Gaming License (OGL) for Fifth Edition D&D! There's also a Dungeon Master's Guild for those who want to self-publish D&D adventures!

Getting It to the Table

Every Monday evening, Matthew (and, starting in two days, Nathaniel as well) has hockey practice at the outdoor roller hockey facility up in Carson City. Yeah, outdoor...in January. It's cold. Fortunately, I can share my shivering with another hockey dad who's also a big board game fan. We chitchat through the practice, discussing our favorite games and whatnot. He's always looking for the opportunity to try out a new game with his family and/or his game group, but often laments that he has a hard time "getting it to the table."

I know how he feels. Our Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign hasn't seen any movement since around Thanksgiving, or perhaps even earlier. We try to find time every week for some family game action, but with a growing library of games, and strongly different preferences among the four of us, I'm finding that it's hard to get any particular game to the table. I'm glad to live in a house full of game enthusiasts, but, damn, when are we going to get back to D&D?

Kits

Veteran D&D players who played Second Edition -- the edition we used during the earliest days of our Druid Cycle campaign setting -- may be familiar with the "kits" that offered customization opportunities for the core character classes. Some kits were completely and utterly broken, while others did little more than add a bit of flavor. The current D&D designers are toying around with the idea of kits for Fifth Edition. Click here to check out a draft of kits for the blade (bard), jester (bard), cavalier (fighter), and scout (fighter).

"He's an ugly little spud!"

Although the map tiles are kind of bland in comparison to the flavorful maps from Zombicide, the Ghostbusters miniatures are top notch. Each of the four Ghostbusters has his own distinct color, and the ghosts are generally translucent. Below, you can see Slimer flanked by some of his ghostly compatriots.

One of the main boss villains, of course, is the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, shown below with Peter for a size comparison.

And yes, it is possible for the Marshmallow Man to step on a Ghostbuster...

"Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."

The boys and I tried out the Ghostbusters board game this morning, and it was a lot of fun. Here's a pic of our team as we successfully completed the first mission (by closing all the portals to the spirit world)...

Each hero has a limited number of actions per turn, and you really need to consider the most efficacious way to spend them. Do you work toward shutting the portals (the most common way of winning any given scenario) or do you try to hold down the rapidly increasing ghost population (your team loses if all available ghosts arrive on the map)? If a fellow hero gets slimed, do you spend your own precious actions to clean him up?

In our game, we ended up with three heroes (Winston, Peter, and Ray) on portal duty, while the last (Egon) was bustin' ghosts and attempting to deposit them back in Ecto-1. We had parked the car so far away, however, that Egon spent half the game trying to reach it. In the future, I think we need to do a better job of actually driving the car closer to the action. In any case, we're now ready to move on to the next scenario in this campaign.

Wow, It's 2016!

I woke up to a new year this morning, because somehow last night I had forgotten that it was New Year's Eve! I hope you all have a wonderful 2016!

Samurai vs. Shaman

I'm not at all familiar with the Shadowrun universe -- aside from a basic idea about the mix of fantasy and cyberpunk -- so when I started playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall, I looked over the available classes for something that would spark my interest. I opted for the shaman. The shaman was my favorite class in Fourth Edition D&D, despite its many drawbacks, so I thought it would be fun to try out a shaman in Shadowrun. Maybe it's just me, but the Shadowrun shaman seemed as underpowered as its 4e counterpart. I started the game over as a samurai, and the fights have been a lot easier!

Wedgie

Whew! Wedge got behind the Imperial Raider and gave it a wedgie, so to speak. With Wedge shooting it from behind, and my other ships tight up against its starboard side, the Raider was unable to fire its powerful forward guns or any of its aft-mounted weapons that can only be used at long range. We ran the risk of crashing into the Raider, but it was preferable to getting caught out in the open and obliterated by a turbolaser. Flying along with the slow-moving Raider, then, my three remaining ships -- two X-wings and one Headhunter -- strafed the aft section until it was crippled, and then the Raider was toast. I had some very lucky dice rolls on my side, though, so I won't gloat over the victory!

Ouch!

I'm playing X-Wing against Matthew and his new Imperial Raider, and my poor Rebels are really taking a beating. We shot down the TIE Advanced fighter escort, but the Raider's ability to unleash multiple long-range weapons is proving...troublesome. I went into battle with a full squadron of X-wings -- top-notch pilots and astromech droids for each -- and a few Z-95 Headhunters for cannon fodder, and already I've lost a third of my forces. My only hope is to get a ship or two behind the Raider, where it can't return fire. Come on Wedge, let's see some fancy flying!

Imperial Reinforcements

It was a Star Wars Christmas at our house, with the boys scoring a Lego Star Destroyer and TIE Fighter along with a TIE, TIE Advanced, and Imperial Raider for Star Wars: X-Wing. The Rebel Alliance is in serious trouble now!

Ignore the fact that the Lego TIE and the Star Destroyer are really, really not to scale...

Holiday Game Action

It's going to be a fun holiday vacation. We aren't going anywhere this year (staying home for Christmas for the first time in eight years!), but we'll have plenty to do. We'll have The Cloud Dungeon and Ghostbusters for new tabletop options, an old Lego Heroica game that Matthew desperately wanted for Christmas, some new Imperial ships for X-Wing, Shadowrun: Dragonfall (thanks, Matt!) on the computer, and, if I can muster the fortitude, the last round of battles in the iPad Injustice: Gods Among Us. Can't wait to get started!

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

Star Wars Prep

I'm taking the boys to see The Force Awakens tomorrow, so today we're doing a bit of X-Wing action to get in the mood. Well, as if we actually needed to get in the mood!

This battle is taking place in a "graveyard" of destroyed ships. We'll see how it goes, but so far there's been a lot of stalking and not much heavy-duty combat. I think the odds currently are tilting in favor of Nathaniel's Imperial Decimator and TIE Interceptors. Matthew brought in the seldom-used Hawk to support his Millennium Falcon and A-Wing, and so far it's been a non-factor. Of course, anything can happen in a galaxy far, far away...

I Have Seen It...

...and I can confirm that it is good!

I'd Buy That for a Dollar!

You have less than 24 hours to join me in supporting a wacky Kickstarter in which you can contribute as little as a dollar to get a new RPG...details here!

T-70

So...I hear there's some big fancy-dancy movie coming out this weekend. But now does this mean I'm going to have to replace my fleet of X-wings with the new T-70 model?

Kickstarter Delivered

I've now supported four Kickstarter projects -- three of them funded and the fourth has more than met its goal with a few days left in the campaign -- and the first to deliver a product is a family-friendly RPG called The Cloud Dungeon, which arrived this weekend. With Zombicide occupying much of our gaming time and our long-languishing Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign in serious need of some attention, I don't know when we'll get to Cloud, but I hope we can give it a whirl over the holidays.

Zombie World

"It's...Zombie World," Nathaniel sighed.

Indeed it was. The boys and I played a pretty epic Zombicide scenario today, with each of us controlling two human survivors. Our objective was to navigate through a city neighborhood and reach the exit on the opposite side of the map. Things started innocently enough when we began to search a building for gear. Unfortunately, Amy (the purple mini below) was killed by the building's undead occupants. The rest of the humans hustled back outside and started to head up the street, with Phil (dark gray) and Josh (orange) taking the lead.

Soon we were confronted with a choice: keep to the streets or try to find a shortcut through a zombie-infested building. I wanted to play it safe and avoid opening any more doors, but Matthew was intent on going through the building, so that's what we did. While the others moved through the building, clearing it room by room, Phil hung back to guard the rear and slow down the advancing horde.

It was curtains for Phil, but the shotgun-wielding cop took a whole lot of walkers with him before he died. The others managed to slip out of the building through another door and scurry to the exit zone, but not before Matthew's trigger-happy characters had drawn out even more foes. The pic below shows only the active zombies on the board at the end of the final turn -- it doesn't show the legions that were cut down during our frantic race to safety.

So, four of the six humans survived to see another post-apocalyptic day. It's the zombies' world, as Nathaniel said, and we're only living in it.

Raider Envy

My parents just ordered the Star Wars: X-Wing Imperial Raider set for Matthew for Christmas. Totally awesome? Yes, of course. But I'm wondering how Nathaniel is going to react. Granted, he didn't have any X-Wing sets on his own Amazon wishlist, but I foresee a five-star freak-out when he realizes that he'll only be able to use the Raider when his big brother allows it...and how often is that going to happen?

Legendary!

Tonight I completed Sword Coast Legends, and, all things considered, it was an enjoyable game -- if a bit too much like an MMO in terms of game mechanics. It's not in the same league as the Baldur's Gate family, but it's a solid D&D video game nonetheless. I would definitely recommend it.

For what it's worth, my final foursome consisted of my human paladin PC, the derro rogue Izhkin, the elf cleric Illydia, and the drow wizard Dalanir. This party configuration offered a nice balance of melee and ranged attackers, and all three NPCs had powers that allowed them to summon creatures. The back-to-back boss fights at the end of the game turned out to be kind of a long slog, but we chugged regeneration potions while spamming the bosses with summoned creatures, and I never really felt like the party was in serious jeopardy. There are tougher battles in the game -- including one against a mind flayer, its thralls, and a red dragon that pops in to breathe fire from time to time -- but the final showdown did have a certain cinematic feel to it, and there's a cool bit between the two fights where you have to make a choice that dramatically alters the way the end of the game unfolds. Heh. One NPC was really pissed at me...but when the fate of the Sword Coast is at stake, you've gotta do what you've gotta do!

Treason Season

'Tis the season...for treason! I'm nearing the end of Sword Coast Legends and just discovered that one of the main NPCs -- one I've been leveling up relentlessly and equipping with top-notch gear -- is actually a traitor. D'oh! There goes my ideal party configuration. At least I have another solid NPC who can fill that party role, but still...

Brains!

The name of the game is Zombicide, and it delivers what the title promises. You kill a lot of zombies in this game -- the base set comes with sixty-five plastic zombie minis, for cryin' out loud! -- and no matter how much firepower you're packing, there are always more brain-eaters than you can possibly defeat. You can't win the game by fighting alone, so you need to choose your battles carefully and keep moving toward your mission objectives.

The game plays fast, too. A typical Mansions of Madness adventure would take us at least two sessions, but in one afternoon today we played Zombicide's tutorial game twice and then a custom scenario that Matthew created. In all three games, I played grizzled cop Phil (very similar to the grizzled cop from a certain zombie-themed TV show you might have heard about), Matthew played young punk Josh, Nathaniel played Wanda the waitress, and Amy played...Amy, a feisty goth gal. Here's a pic from Matthew's custom scenario: Wanda (the light blue mini in the foreground) is looking up the street at the advancing horde while the others (in the upper right) hustle to the map's exit zone.

Wanda was far and away the most memorable character from the adventures. It's hard to see in the photo, but the Wanda mini depicts a waitress on roller skates, carrying a chainsaw. The character never begins the game with that weapon, but in two out of the three scenarios, Nathaniel managed to draw the chainsaw as an equipment card while searching buildings. The roller skates give this character incredible movement capabilities, so Wanda was zipping all around the map, churning her way through multiple zombies with every attack.

This game was definitely a hit in our household. I don't foresee Amy clamoring to play it regularly -- she's decided that she's more of a Eurogamer -- but the boys and I, at least, will probably dig into the vast online library of free scenarios and come up with more of our own, as well.

Zombicide

Zombicide arrived at our house today and despite my best intentions, I don't think I'll be able to hold out until Christmas. Sorry, kids, I guess you'll just have to get an early Christmas present! 

I think this game may work out a bit better than the excellent but fiddly Mansions of Madness. Like MoM, Zombicide is a cooperative game, but this one doesn't involve a DM-like player who is working against the others; instead, all players are on the same team, and the zombie antagonists move and attack according to a simple script. As players explore the city streets and buildings (set up using double-sided cardboard map tiles), they can battle the ever-growing zombie horde or try to outwit and outmaneuver their undead foes. I hope we'll be able to give it a whirl this weekend. Stay tuned for pics of our first foray into the zombie apocalypse!

Ameritrash...and proud of it!

A term I wasn't familiar with until I started getting heavily into board games is Ameritrash, which refers (disparagingly, as you can probably guess) to games with a strong genre theme (sci-fi, fantasy, zombies, etc.), usually involving individualized characters and a kind of narrative that unfolds during gameplay. Mansions of Madness, for example, would fall into this category. In contrast to Ameritrash games are the more "critically acclaimed" (scare quotes added to be snarky) Eurogames, such as the members of the Catan family and Carcassonne. Eurogames tend to have streamlined rules and very little dice rolling, and focus on competition for resources rather than direct combat. I don't have anything against the Euro style, and I own and enjoy many such games, but I'm kind of getting sick of the board gamers who look down their noses at anything that comes with plastic minis. I've got
Ghostbusters and Zombicide on order, and damn, they both look like a lot of fun. Isn't that the whole point of board games, anyway?

"We got one!!!"

Thanks to a nifty Amazon deal, the new Ghostbusters board game is now on its way to our house. Will I be able to hold out until Christmas, or will I drop this big box of ectoplasmic awesomeness on my boys as soon as it arrives?