All-Star Break

What a difference a few more games can make! We're at the halfway point of my first season of nineteenth-century baseball -- with each team playing a 16-game regular season -- and the Canaries are no longer looking like a world-beating powerhouse. After eight games, the Haymakers have pulled out in front with a 5-3 record and a +12 run differential; they've scored the most runs in the league and also allowed the fewest. Ace pitcher Cy Young is looking like our league MVP, and his work includes a 13-inning complete-game victory. The red-hot Blue Legs have moved up to second place, with a 4-4 record but a -5 differential that reflects their early struggles. The Canaries have fallen into the basement, with a 3-5 record and an ugly -7 differential. I'm still not confident that the teams are balanced appropriately, but I think we're pretty close. The teams are starting to exhibit their own unique flavors and character, so it will be fun to see how things shake out in the second half of the season.

Small-Sample-Size Alert!

Each team in my nineteenth-century league has now played four games. In baseball, that's not a lot. Intellectually, I know that the sample size is so small that I can't draw meaningful conclusions about the relative strengths of my three teams...but I can't help it! It feels like the Canaries are significantly better than the others. They're sitting at 3-1 with a +5 run differential. The Haymakers are next at 2-2 with a -2 differential, and the snakebitten Blue Legs are 1-3 with a -3 differential. (For the boys in blue, the only highlight of the season has been King Kelly's home run -- the only one hit in the league thus far!) I've made a minor swap of pitchers between the Canaries and Blue Legs to try to even out the staffs a bit, but otherwise I'm just going to keep playing and see what happens. Are the Canaries really good, or just really lucky?

Game On!

In the first game of my nineteenth-century league, Cy Young of the Haymakers opened the first inning by giving up back-to-back extra-base hits to the Billy Hamilton and Nap Lajoie, but then settled down to toss eight straight shutout innings. Meanwhile, Blue Legs starter Kid Nichols had a few shaky frames and allowed the Haymakers to string some hits together. The end result was a 4-1 win for the Haymakers, with Wee Willie Keeler flashing a big bat despite his tiny stature. Next up, the Haymakers try their luck against a Canaries team that features the legendary Honus Wagner, one of the five original Hall of Famers.

Team Names

They had some pretty wacky baseball team names back in the day. I've decided to use the names of real-life Major League baseball teams for my league of nineteenth-century Hall of Famers, although with the stipulation that the teams can't currently exist in MLB under a different name (sorry, Brooklyn Bridegroom at St. Louis Perfectos!). So, without further ado, say hello to Cap Anson's Haymakers, Nap Lajoie's Blue Legs, and Monte Ward's Canaries.

Movie News

A bit of news on the still-in-development-hell D&D movie.

Pitchers Are Hard

My little three-team Strat-O-Matic Old Timers' League is now taking shape! I started with position players. After a bit of finagling around the diamond -- for example, Deacon White was primarily a catcher but I'm using him at third base, where he played far fewer innings -- I ended up with between three and five Hall of Famers at each position. Ranking the players at each position was fairly easy. Looking at their game stats, I weighed offensive prowess, defensive abilities, and base running skills (super-duper important for nineteenth-century ball).

As for the pitchers, well, they're another story. I've got 14 of them, and although poring over Strat-O-Matic game stats confirms that, say, Cy Young is better than Amos Rusie, it's been challenging to rank them with any confidence. For one thing, even within the narrow span of nineteenth-century baseball, the earliest stars -- Al Spalding and Candy Cummings -- don't correlate well to their peers in the latter part of this era. The biggest question mark, however, is Rube Waddell, whose real-life dominance as a strikeout artist doesn't (in my estimation) come across in the game stats. I've tentatively broken them all up into staffs of five, five, and four pitchers (the team with innings-eaters Cy Young and Old Hoss Radbourn will have to make do with four), but it still feels like a shot in the dark. I'll draft my ranked position players next and add them to these teams, and then we'll see what we get.

Old Timers' League

I've had a passion for nineteenth-century baseball since I was a kid. I have distinct memories of my twelve-year-old self trying to create a text-based baseball simulation game in BASIC, and then using it to replay the first recorded organized baseball game -- a dust-up between the New York Knickerbockers and the Nine York Nine from way back in 1845.

Fast-forward to today: The Strat-O-Matic Hall of Fame edition has given me the opportunity to explore the simulation of nineteenth-century baseball in a far more realistic fashion. You might have seen posts last fall about our Hall of Fame League, in which the boys and I divvied up the all-time greats into teams based on twenty-year time periods. We had some very memorable games, but Matthew and Nathaniel don't have quite the same zeal for baseball that I do, so it's been hard to get them back into Strat-O-Matic.

After reading another baseball history book while I was on a business trip in Seattle last week, I decided to create a new historical league that I can run all by myself. For this one, I'm using all Hall of Famers who debuted between 1871 (the beginning of Major League Baseball) and 1899. I have just enough players to create three full teams. I'll rank the players at each position and then conduct a draft with the hope of getting three relatively equal teams. Then we'll play ball!

Shadowspear

Shadowspear, the new 40k boxed set, was unveiled today -- and damn those models look cool! Not sure I want to buy yet another boxed set, but I really dig those Primaris scouts!

Halo Honcho

Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Matthew completed the Halo game that he's been working on. It's funny to see them arguing over which franchise -- Halo or Call of Duty -- is better. I like to pipe up that the Baldur's Gate series is the best of all, but no one ever seconds that motion.

Duty Done

I'm proud to announce that Nathaniel successfully completed his Call of Duty game on the Xbox, and with very little assistance from Matthew or myself!

The Adventures Begin!

Today we received our copies of the first two books in the Warhammer Adventures series. I'm excited to have a fun series to share with Nathaniel!

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Matt, this one's for you! Keep those nautical-themed characters handy!

TV D&D

I don't quite "get" The Big Bang Theory. I've caught bits and pieces over the years and it seems amusing enough, but I'm not sure why people go gaga over it. At any rate, apparently they had a D&D-themed episode tonight. You can read about it here. 

This Is a Thing I Must Have

Sunday's Simpsons episode included a Stranger Things riff that the boys totally didn't get because, of course, they haven't seen the show. During a commercial break, I gave them a quick overview of the series and its connection to D&D. Turns out that was a timely discussion because there's going to be a new D&D starter set that ties directly into Stranger Things. Very cool indeed! And here's hoping that the upcoming season of Stranger Things features more D&D and less Dig Dug.

How Irons-ic

Nathaniel is playing one of the many Call of Duty games on our Xbox, and a major plot twist in this installment is that a character played by Kevin Spacey -- military contractor Jonathan Irons -- turns out to be the villain. "You're a monster!" one of the characters shouts at him. This game came out in 2014, so the twist is rather ironic today.

Hot Stove Season

Not saying that the Xbox was a bad idea, but there's definitely less interest in board games these days at the ol' Sutton homestead. (Halo is definitely the flavor of the month!) In particular, I'm really itching to get back to our Strat-O-Matic Hall of Fame League. Somebody needs to take down Nathaniel's as-yet-undefeated juggernaut of stars from the Live Ball Era. 

Bestiary Notebooks

I'm not sure who the intended audience is for this product, which means that it's probably me! I can see the boys (and even Amy?) enjoying these little D&D notebooks, each of which features a different iconic monster from D&D lore. But will they include my favorites, the hook horror and the owlbear?

"Sticks to Snakes!"

I'm definitely not a Halo guy, so after the boys blew me up a dozen times in a multiplayer scenario, we decided to switch over to Chronicles of Mystara for some cooperative Xbox action. The first game in Chronicles is called Tower of Doom, and it involves heroes battling against a lich called Deimos. There's probably more to the story, but Matthew clicked through all the dialogue, so we were a bit fuzzy on what was going on. Nevertheless, our stalwart party -- with Matthew as the cleric, Nathaniel as the fighter, and me as the spell-slinging elf -- hacked and slashed our way through hordes of kobolds, skeletons, gnolls, and other classic D&D monsters. (Shout-out to the owlbears, yo!) It took us a couple of hours, but we defeated the lich and saved...whatever we were supposed to save!

The hands-down most entertaining aspect of this game, however, is the cleric spell Sticks to Snakes. When Matthew would cast that spell, his character would call out "sticks to snakes!" in a very authoritative voice as he tossed some brown rectangles onto the ground (remember that this arcade game first came out in '93, so the graphics aren't that great!). The sticks then animated into snakes that zipped around and attacked the party's enemies. Matthew would often burn through a full day's allotment of Sticks to Snakes spells in a single battle, giving us legions of slithering allies. I'm not sure how effective they were (especially against flying foes like the lich), but it was definitely hilarious to watch! 

Russian Revenge

It was a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon, so we decided to start World War III. In the alternate-'80s setting of Tanks: The Modern Age, Nathaniel took command of an American M1A1 Abrams, while I led a pair of Soviet T-64s. As we rumbled into a quiet village in West Germany, my attempt to flank the Abrams resulted in the quick, merciless obliteration of my first T-64. Figuring the game would soon be lost (the Abrams is far superior to the T-64), I just plowed ahead with my remaining tank and chased Nathaniel out of the village and into the forest. Along the way, I was lucky enough to score a critical hit that injured his crew, which helped to even the odds a bit. Our tanks traded devasting shots as I charged toward his position. Here's a photo of the final turn, when my resolute Russians destroyed the Abrams and avenged their comrades.

Nathaniel was none too pleased to lose after what had seemed like such a certain victory. I'm sure tomorrow will bring a rematch!

Chronicles of Mystara

Remember those awesome D&D arcade games from the '90s? Neither do I, because they never made it to Horseheads, New York. I learned about them years later, after coin-gobbling arcade games had gone the way of Blockbuster Video. At long last, I have the opportunity to scratch that itch, thanks to our Xbox. Last night I downloaded Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, which contains both arcade games from that series -- Tower of Doom (1993) and Shadow Over Mystara (1996). As old-timey side-scrolling games go, they're not half bad! I think the boys will enjoy joining me for some multiplayer action.

Tank-You Gift

I got some very good news at work the other day, so to thank the boys for their patience these past several weeks as I've been busy and distracted, I let them each pick out a gift. Nathaniel opted for Tanks: The Modern Age. Can't wait to give it a try! 

Captain Cheapo

I was chatting with a Games Workshop store dude recently and talking about the randomized packs of Space Marine Heroes. I mentioned that we were lucky enough to get a captain in one of the boxes that I gave to the boys as stocking stuffers. I asked him about the rarity of that figure, and he said that captains make up only one out of 36 boxes. Moreover, given the roughly $8 price of each figure from the Space Marine Heroes line, that's the cheapest captain Games Workshop has ever released!

New Year, New Games!

We've had tons of fun over winter break trying out new games like Forbidden Sky and logging lots of time on the Xbox. One of the top experiences has been Betrayal at House on the Hill, which provides a memorable story with each and every game session. Betrayal has thematic elements that make it similar to Mansions of Madness, but it's far simpler and faster to set up and play. In our first game of Betrayal, Nathaniel played a plucky twelve-year-old boy who ended up alone in a house full of zombies. Unable to overcome them in physical combat, he had to rely on an eerie music box to lure the undead into rooms where he could trap them. After each play-through, I'm eager to try it again to see what new stories we'll discover -- that's the hallmark of a great game!

What the Halo?

The boys received quite a few games to go along with their new Xbox, but about 95% of their game time thus far has focused on an anthology of games from the Halo series. The whole Halo thing seems kinda like a 40k ripoff to this uninformed non-video-gamer, but the boys are really digging the first-person shooter stuff, especially the player-versus-player options. I'll circle back with them when they're ready to explore other titles; among the games in their stash is Warhammer 40000: Inquisitor - Martyr, which even Nathaniel hasn't spent much time checking out yet.

At last...the tide has come in!

Super stoked to take the boys to see Aquaman tonight!

Merry Merry!

Hope you all have a great holiday season with your families! Here at our house, we'll have the most gaming-filled Christmas ever, as the boys are getting a long-overdue modern video game system (an Xbox One) along with a handful of games.

I'm still not a big-time video game fan, however, so I'm even more excited about some of the other gifts. They've got one of the Zombicide sequels coming, along with the highly acclaimed Betrayal at House on the Hill and an additional expansion box. Best of all, perhaps, is Forbidden Sky, the newest entry in the "Forbidden" series (following Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert, which may be the two most frequently played board games in the Sutton household). The boys will also find their stockings stuffed with the new Space Marine Heroes line of individual randomized models for Warhammer 40k. Perhaps we'll paint them up as Blood Angels in honor of the upcoming 40k animated series, Angels of Death.

Christmas can't come soon enough!

Angels of Death

Holy Terra! Games Workshop just announced that they're working on an animated series set in the 40k universe. Angels of Death, following the Blood Angels chapter of the Space Marines, will be coming our way in 2019. I know one eight-year-old boy who is totally going to flip out when he hears this news tonight!

It's Good to Have Land

Poor Matthew is under the weather -- and, speaking of weather, it's pretty gray and windy outside -- so we've just spent a quiet day building Magic decks. Nathaniel and I have been discussing the optimal percentage of land cards to include in a single-color Magic deck. He consistently prefers to include a lower percentage of land than I would include, so I need to remind him that...it's good to have land.

The Jongleur

Sometimes a villain is defeated, only to return again and again to oppose the heroes' plans. Sometimes a villain is defeated decisively but is remembered forever. Other times a villain just...fades away.

I was looking for a bad guy to use for a story with the boys, and was hoping to link that character in some way to the Front Porch multiverse. After wracking my brain for foes from long ago, I recalled a classic Druid Cycle villain who fits perfectly as a multiverse-hopping antagonist: the Jongleur. Somewhat akin to inscrutable cosmic weirdos like Q from Star Trek or Mister Mxyzptlk from Superman stories, the Jongleur was among the most powerful and prominent adversaries of our '90s-era campaigns, but then basically disappeared from the storyline. I couldn't find any notes indicating what happened to this guy or when he last appeared in a Druid Cycle game, but I think it's time to recycle him and give him the chance to plague a new generation of adventurers!

As a side note, if any longtime Druid Cycle players remember anything about the Jongleur's fate, please let me know!

The Boss

Hey, the branches on that huge tree kind of look like claws...

Sunday Morning Zombies

Ah, there's nothing like Zombicide on a cold Sunday morning!

Zoom in on the photo and take a look at that horde (gray minis) coming up the street to face the heroes (colorful minis). I haven't been following this scenario too closely, but I think the boys might be in trouble!

Mystery Woman

What's the deal with this green-skinned elf?

Rules Revamp

A new version of the D&D Basic Rules has been released. Click here to get yourself a free copy!

Friendly Faces

Well, they don't look friendly, but the dragonborn who live on the outskirts of the Gloaming Hills are important allies for the heroes as they mount their second expedition into the jungle.

Here we have Domhnall, chief of the clan, and the proud sorceress Nereida.

One-Shot Man

Never done any of this crazy Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping before, but here I am standing in line at Kohl's to get a deal on an Xbox for the boys for Christmas. As I'm freezing my ass off, I'm also chuckling about a funny moment from this morning's future Shattered Realm adventure. I'd been building up this as-yet-unseen villain, a mysterious ghostly presence who's been responsible for all sorts of bad stuff in this solar system. Today the heroes encountered him for the first time.

And Matthew one-shot him.

His laser rifle-toting rogue got the drop on this foe, won initiative, rolled a critical, and piled on tons of Sneak Attack damage. Before vanishing, the ghostly villain cried out with a vow to return and destroy Matthew's rogue. I'll bring this villain back, of course, but now he's lost all his mystique!

Blightmare

This adventurer has run afoul of the blights, small but bloodthirsty plant creatures who lurk in the darkest corners of the jungle.

Those well versed in D&D monster lore will notice that I'm using vegepygmy miniatures for the blights, but, well, blight minis are damn expensive on eBay!

Beware

Here we have the skeletal remains of some hapless traveler who didn't believe the stories that the vegetation in the Gloaming Hills is literally trying to kill you.

Spectaculars

I just learned about an interesting Kickstarter game called Spectaculars, created by longtime D&D designer Rodney Thompson -- with assistance from a bunch of other folks who worked on D&D products at one point or another. Spectaculars is a superhero roleplaying game in which the players build the setting as they play. As someone who enjoys the world-building aspects of RPGs, I think it's a cool idea. I'm not sure I'll plunk down the $65 needed to get a copy of the boxed set, but I still have 12 more days to decide. And if I do end up backing, I suspect a reboot of Earth Commanders -- the original Front Porch campaign from 1988 -- would be the next logical step.

The Wyvern

Here's the aforementioned airship that will feature heavily in the upcoming "Return to the Gloaming Hills" storyline.

But who's that brutish, ax-wielding fellow on the deck?

New Website

Strat-O-Matic has a new website. For anyone who loves sports and gaming, these guys are the top of the line!

D&D Patrol

Doom Patrol is one of the best comics out there today, and it's been on my pull list since Gerard Way started his trippy run on the book as the flagship title in DC's Young Animal line. I had to chuckle when I picked up my pulls today and saw this awesome cover, which is intended to evoke those classic D&D adventure modules of the late '70s and early '80s.

Mash Up

It's been a while since we've had a Strat-O-Matic game with our Hall of Fame League -- the pendulum has swung back toward the sci-fi Shattered Realm campaign -- but I was thinking the other day about an amusing genre mash-up from many years ago. Back in the pixelated '90s, I had a primitive baseball video game that allowed you to create players, so one day, on a whim, I whipped up a team consisting of characters from the Druid Cycle setting. Now, that was a real fantasy baseball team! (Sorry.) 

NPC All-Stars

The initial expedition into the Gloaming Hills featured only one major NPC (Ironside) as it introduced a host of new (though minor) characters during that long trek into the jungle. The upcoming sequel widens the scope considerably. Now that the champions of the Druid Cycle campaign world are aware of the threat festering within the Gloaming Hills, they're coming back in force. All the major NPCs -- heroes and villains alike -- of the past three decades will play a role in this story. And when I say "all", I mean it. That includes the dead ones...

500 Stores

This Saturday, Games Workshop is celebrating the opening of their 500th store. I'm sure it won't be as exciting as Arthur Fortune opening his 112th store in Springfield, but it's going to be a party nonetheless. Click here for details.

Little Green Men

I have an order of new D&D miniatures on the way. Little green plant-like creatures...

Gloaming Hills

Iskander has a steampunk airship...because of course he does.

And what does this admittedly cryptic statement have to do with the title of the post? Druid Cycle players, get ready for the next chapter...

Okay, okay...

So I guess I don't hate Pathfinder: Kingmaker. I still laugh every time the load screen comes up and it says that first-time loads will take several minutes (spoiler alert: all load times are atrocious) and I still have no idea when said kingmaking will actually occur, but for the time being the game is at least as enjoyable as Sword Coast Legends. Damning with faint praise, perhaps, but Kingmaker is worth a look for anyone who needs a D&D(-esque) fix.

D Plus D?

I woke up this morning to Nathaniel climbing on the bed chanting "D plus D, D plus D!" Yeah, he was definitely experiencing D&D withdrawal! Fortunately, we had time before lunch to log an hour or so catching up on our sci-fi Shattered Realm storyline -- just long enough for a cool reveal in which Nathaniel's character learned that one of his closest friends was secretly a high-ranking member of an evil thieves' guild.

After that, Matthew had to get ready for Lego League, where he's leading a rather inexperienced and squirrely team. Nathaniel and I faced yet another afternoon without the third member of our little trio, so I decided to start up a new solo campaign for the little lad. I'm putting him through The Sunless Citadel, a classic Third Edition adventure that was revised for Fifth when it was included in Tales From the Yawning Portal. This will give Nathaniel his D&D fix as well as a fun way for the two of us to pass the time when Matthew is at his Lego League meetings. 

Strongholds & Campsites

One of the best parts of Baldur's Gate II was the stronghold. At a certain point in the game, your main character would get the opportunity to obtain a permanent headquarters where the party could rest safely, stock away surplus magic items, and even resolve local issues that were going on in the area around the stronghold. The coolest stronghold of all was the one that fighters could get -- a massive castle, complete with a great hall, guards and servants, and plenty of secret passages and hidden chambers. (Side note: During my last play-through, about four years ago, my party lacked the magic items necessary to defeat a powerful golem, so we basically just locked him in one of the many castle bedrooms -- and there he remained for the rest of the campaign!) The castle stuff in Baldur's Gate II remains one of my all-time favorite bits from any video game I've ever played.

So, that brings us to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. This game has the same play style as Baldur's Gate and its ilk, but it seeks to take that castle experience and flesh it out so that it becomes an absolutely integral part of the game. You don't just end up with a stronghold -- you build and manage your own kingdom! Super awesome, right? I assume so, but I may never see it.

I'm stuck in the campsite.

Resting rivals the long load times for the most annoying problem with this game. Your characters consume rations when you rest (fine) and often you get attacked while resting (also fine), but
camping is so tedious and time-consuming that it seriously detracts from the experience of the game. You're sending out hunters, you're appointing a cook, you're camouflaging the tents, you're setting the shifts for your watch, you're sharpening your weapons....you get the idea. I have no doubt that some folks will find this added realism to be enjoyable -- I thought it was kind of cool the first time around -- but as I'm traipsing through dungeons and finding myself in need of rest to replenish hit points and spells, I just dread the whole process of resting. I think I need to give this game a rest.

Multifaceted Martin

As I'm adding the remaining Hall of Famers into our Strat-O-Matiac league, I'm absolutely flabbergasted by the flexibility of Negro League player Martin Dihigo. This dude is a switch hitter who hits for both average and power, and he's eligible for a staggering seven defensive positions. What's more, his defense rates as a 1 or a 2 (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the best) in all of those positions except for one, where he's a 3. You can play this guy all over the diamond -- including pitcher. The multifaceted Martin can also take the mound as a starter or as a reliever. And the one thing he can't do? He can't suit up as catcher. Come on, Martin! Give it a shot!

Expansion Issues

Matthew is really getting into Strat-O-Matic, which is fantastic except that it's further pushing out the return of our space-age Shattered Realm campaign. I've sunk a considerable amount of time and money (for minis, maps, etc.) into that game, so I hope we don't lose momentum. Still, it's great to see Matthew's enthusiasm for something baseball related, as he's been rather cool on that sport for many years.

At Matthew's request, we're going to divide up the remaining Hall of Famers to create two more teams for our league of legendary baseball stars. That would give us seven teams in all -- each with a full 25-man roster and a pool of reserve players. The problem with using all the players, however, is that the Hall of Famers are not evenly distributed across history. The early and modern periods are considerably underrepresented when compared to players from the '20s through the '40s -- especially when Hall of Famers from the Negro Leagues are included. Building balanced teams would be a snap if we were using an open draft of all Hall of Fame players, but I'm not quite sure how to deal with this problem in a league where the team rosters are determined by discrete twenty-year time periods. I'll try not to overthink it; the main thing is just for the three of us to have fun and for the boys to learn about the richness of baseball history. We'll figure something out!

Big Train's Big Hit

An epic battle of Tanks ended prematurely when Nathaniel flipped out at his (perceived) bad luck on dice rolls, so we shifted gears and introduced Matthew to Strat-O-Matic. His team, the Montreal Comets, faced off against Mickey Mantle's Chicago Magnificos. In a nail-biter of a pitcher's duel, Montreal's Walter "The Big Train" Johnson edged Bob Gibson by a 2-1 margin. By far the most memorable moment of the game occurred when Johnson homered off of Gibson to aid his cause.

What a Load!

I have no idea whether or not Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a good game -- mainly because the game took forever to load. The first few times I tried to launch it, I thought the game had actually frozen on the loading screen because the progress bar refused to budge. Only after a bit of frustrated googling did I learn that the load time for this game is just crazy long. Once I was finally in the game, I used up the rest of my time creating a character, so I still have yet to experience any of the story. Hopefully better luck tonight!

King Me!

Ages ago I backed a Kickstarter video game called Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and today it releases! 

Ouch!

Tough day for Rochester! Not only did we drop a 6-5 heartbreaker to Nathaniel's New York Gothams, we lost starting center fielder Hugh Duffy to a long-term injury. Duffy is an elite defender in center, he hits for good average and decent power, and he's got major wheels. I can slide Big Ed Delahanty from left to center and then add a solid corner bat in Sam Thompson, but Duffy's versatility will be missed. 

Expansion Team

Turns out I really enjoy building 25-man rosters chuck-full of Hall of Famers! I've now added a fifth team to our Hall of Fame league -- the Chicago Magnificos, comprised of players debuting between 1950 and 1971. They've got Koufax, Seaver, and Gibson on their pitching staff and the two-three-four hitters are Mays, Mantle, and Hammerin' Hank himself. Yikes!

Hall of Fame League

I think our Strat-O-Matic Hall of Fame League is ready to rock and roll! I ended up adding a fourth team that we can use as an opponent for solo play or as a team that guest players can use. Here are the four clubs:

• Montreal Comets (Matthew) -- Players debuting 1891-1910
• New York Gothams (Nathaniel) -- Players debuting 1911-1930
• Rochester Lilacs (John) -- Players debuting 1871-1890
• Washington Monuments (N/A) -- Players debuting 1931-1950

Yes, "Lilacs" is totally a goofy name for a baseball team, but I'm keeping with the theme of nineteenth-century baseball, when teams often had wacky names. Heck, the Dodgers were once known as the Bridegrooms and then later as the Superbas, so why not a team called the Lilacs?! Just imagine the uniforms! Okay, let's not imagine the uniforms...

Anyway, tonight I ran a solo game to kick things off, with my Lilacs facing the Monuments. The first at-bat featured Jackie Robinson against Cy Young. I honestly felt some genuine jitters as I rolled the dice. Robinson drew a walk off of Young, and the game was underway! The Flower City boys rallied from an early 0-3 deficit to win 8-5, surviving two homers from Ted Williams and one from Joe DiMaggio. King Kelly and Deacon White -- who grew up a stone's throw away from my hometown of Horseheads, NY -- delivered the big hits for Rochester.

I'll recap the game tomorrow for the boys and hopefully they'll be eager to jump into the action -- if, that is, I can tear them away from Tanks...

Tanks: The Modern Age

It was only a matter of time.

Gale Force 9 is getting ready to rock our world with Tanks: The Modern Age, a game that brings the action of Tanks into the Cold War era. The boys are going to flip out when I tell them this game is just a month away from release!

However, I hope the rules will be backwards-compatible with the original game, as just yesterday the boys played an Amazon order for some WWII American and German reinforcements...

The Old-Old Timers

It's time to take our Strat-O-Matic play to the next level. I'm creating a Hall of Fame League and dividing up the players according to time period. I'll be controlling the players from the earliest days of baseball (those debuting between 1871 and 1890), Matthew will take the Dead Ball era guys (1891-1910), and Nathaniel will get the players of the Live Ball era (1911-1930). If we end up needing more teams, we still have all the players who started their careers after 1930.

The boys have yet to decide on their rosters (although Nathaniel has already stated that Ruth and Gehrig will be batting third and fourth in his lineup), but mine was easy enough. I had only 27 players from my time period, so it was a matter of cutting two of them to get to a 25-man roster. I have an abundance of first basemen and outfielders but a dearth of pitchers -- just 10, in fact. Here's hoping the Strat-O-Matic versions of Cy Young, Kid Nichols, and Tim Keefe can eat up innings as well as their namesakes!

Pershing Hunt

We're back to Tanks this weekend, and Nathaniel decided he was going to load up a single Super Pershing with an elite crew of heroes and upgrade cards. He's now driving all over France while Matthew's German tanks are trying to track him down. Here's a cool shot of a Panzer ready to strike.

Not depicted in the photo, however, is the fact that the Panzer's engine is on fire, having just been hit by a shell from Nathaniel's Pershing!

Great Weekend

Surprisingly, we didn't have anything major on the calendar this past weekend, so it was a perfect opportunity to spend time gaming with the boys. We made great progress on our new futuristic Shattered Realm campaign, started up a gigantic X-Wing battle (the boys are captaining a couple of very large Imperial ships, opposed by swarms of Rebel fighters under my command), and played a couple of Strat-O-Matic baseball games with Nathaniel. I really cherish these quiet times together!

Happy Birthday, I Guess?

A package arrived at our doorstep this afternoon, and I suspected it was the full version of Strat-O-Matic baseball, which I had ordered for Nathaniel for his birthday. Now, every other box that comes from Amazon arrives in their generic packaging, but for some reason, this box had "Strat-O-Matic" emblazoned in big red letters on the front of the box. Nathaniel immediately knew what it was and requested that we open it today -- more than two weeks before his actual birthday. Why force the kid (and me) to pine for it? So he ended up getting an early birthday present, and now we're deeply involved in lineup construction for our first game. We selected players randomly from across baseball history (this boxed set includes all 250+ players who are in the Hall of Fame), so it's quite an eclectic mix on each team. Nathaniel's guys are led by Ty Cobb, whereas my best player is Hank Greenberg. Tomorrow, it's game on!

Liftoff!

Over the past week the boys and I have managed to get started with our futuristic Shattered Realm campaign. They aren't taking it quite as seriously as I would like -- I did invest a lot of time and money into this setting, after all -- but hopefully things will settle down and we'll get into some solid roleplaying. I've designed this campaign as kind of a sandbox, so I'm curious to see which plot threads they'll pick up and which one's they'll defer or ignore. Here's to something very, very different from our usual adventures!

Strat-O-Tastic!

At long last, Nathaniel's personalized Strat-O-Matic card has arrived!

Sorry, Mom, but getting ready for bed just had to wait. First we needed to pore over the game stats to see how Nathaniel stacks up against our Strat-O-Matic teams filled with MLB All-Stars. Short answer: He's pretty damn good because we used Derek Jeter's MVP-worthy (he totally got jobbed) 1999 season as the basis for Nathaniel's stats. The kid can't wait to get this lil' slugger in the lineup tomorrow morning to see how he fares. I think I'm going to start Scherzer...

One Day Only!

If you head over to Humble Bundle and sign up for their newsletter, you can get a free copy (via Steam) of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, a third-person shooter that reminds me of Mass Effect. However, this freebie is available for only one more day, so act fast!

Blessings of Nurgle

Nurgle has smiled upon us! The boys came down with bad colds during the first week of the new school year, and now Amy and I are afflicted as well. The Sutton household is now full of poxwalkers.

As such, it was a quiet weekend -- quiet aside from the hacking coughs -- so I had the opportunity to make some good headway on painting 40k models and adapting Fifth Edition rules for the upcoming Shattered Realm sci-fi campaign. (I sincerely hope the boys have not lost interest in that!) Being cooped up in the house also afforded us an opportunity to watch the first half-dozen episodes of Matt Groening's Disenchantment on Netflix. Love it! Highly recommended for Simpsons fans who also enjoy a bit o' fantasy.

Warhammer on Film?

So at some point maybe we'll be getting 40k and/or Age of Sigmar live-action films or TV series? Yes, please!

Birthday

Do you remember what you wanted for your eighth birthday? A video game, maybe, or Lego sets, or a new bike? Nathaniel wants Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines...

Culmination

Matthew and Nathaniel have been experiencing D&D in some form for the past several years, but they didn't really get into it big-time until May of 2017. That's when we started our first Shattered Realm campaign, "The Lay of the Lost Horn", which was a brief prelude to a much longer narrative, "The Lay of the Emerald Tablet". (Side note: All Shattered Realm campaigns are titled "The Lay of the [Adjective or Participle] [Noun].) That sprawling, year-long storyline reached its culmination over the weekend when the heroes at last succeeded in assembling the six pieces of a cosmic MacGuffin known as the Emerald Tablet. As it turned out, the legends were true -- the tablet had the power to rewrite reality itself. Although warned by the gods and wise NPCs that the tablet was dangerous, the heroes nonetheless used the tablet to start creating magic items for themselves.

It wasn't long, however, before they learned that the Emerald Tablet was more a curse than a blessing. To their horror, the heroes found that the tablet cannot create without destroying. In a cruel, zero-sum fashion, the tablet exacts an ironic price for whatever it creates. Realization came only when the companions decided to conjure magic weapons and armor that they had earlier planned to purchase from their friend and ally, a dwarf smith named Byrnie. When they used to tablet to create those items, however, Byrnie's eyes disintegrated in her head, rendering her unable to create any magic items ever again. No magical healing known to mortals could restore her sight.

Matthew, in particular, was deeply affected by this turn of events. He and Nathaniel both scrambled to find some way of undoing what they had done, but their prayers elicited a stern response from the gods: You made the mess -- you clean it up! The next phase of the campaign, then, will be driven entirely by the heroes. Drawing from their past experiences with NPCs and storylines from this world, they will need to find someone or something that can help them restore Byrnie's eyes.

I dare say this is a game experience they will never forget!

New GW Board Games

Games Workshop just announced a ton of new board games. Check out the full list here. I'm going to tag Blitz Bowl (a streamlined version of Blood Bowl) and Space Marine Adventures (a cooperative 40k board game) to remember to check back for them in a few months!

Pathfinder Playtest

The public playtest for Pathfinder Second Edition launches today. Click here to download the materials for free. (You can also order the playtest materials in hardcover, but according to EN World, there are delays in shipping.) In contrast to my near-maniacal obsession with the D&D Fifth Edition playtest (click the "5e" topic in the list of labels to sample the hundreds of posts indicating exactly how obsessed I was), I don't expect that I'll participate in any sort of formal way. Still, I'm looking forward to reading the new rules to see how Pathfinder continues to evolve from its D&D 3e roots.

When Two Worlds Collide!

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

Storm Strike

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

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

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

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

Sigmar Starters

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

What a Trip!

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

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

Shattered...Space?

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

Drukhari Take the Field

They still need a lot of touching up, but at least I have a serviceable paint job on my new Drukhari army.

First up, their leader...the Succubus!

Next we have a squad of Reaver bikes, led by an Arena Champion.

The third unit is a group of ten pain-loving Wyches. I'll show a few individual models and then the group shot.

Last but definitely not least is our big gun, the fast and deadly Venom!

One Thousand!

This, my friends, is the 1000th published post on the Front Porch blog. Thanks for reading!

FRPGD Today!

Rise and shine! It's Free RPG Day, y'all!

Free RPG Day

Free RPG Day is this Saturday. Click here to see a list of the goodies.

Hawkerrific!

Good news in the comics world: My favorite superhero, Hawkman, is back in action with his new series debuting today!

Soul Wars

Head on over to the Warhammer Community for lots of info about Soul Wars, the upcoming Warhammer Age of Sigmar boxed set. Looks awesome...and looks expensive. I hope that (as with the current edition of 40k) they release a couple of smaller starter sets for folks who want to get their feet wet without taking the plunge. 

Strange Bedfellows

So I'm nearing the end of the original single-player Neverwinter Nights campaign and my intrepid heroes are traipsing around a fiery lair of fire-loving fire giants. What else do I find in this dungeon? Trolls. Lots of trolls. Say whaaaat? A fire giant stronghold seems like the last place you'd find hordes of trolls.

That Worked So Well!

Thus far, when I've painted Warhammer 40k miniatures, I've applied the primer coat using a paintbrush. Yesterday I picked up a can of spray primer from our local Games Workshop store and...well...let's just say I'll never hand-primer a miniature again as long as I live! 

New Edition

I'm very late to the party with this post, but in case you haven't heard yet, coming up in June is a new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. I feel like there should be a colon in there after "Warhammer", but I guess the only colons you'll find in the Mortal Realms are the guts strewn about the bloody remains of your disemboweled foes...

Warhammer Adventures

Awesome news today out of Games Workshop: They're doing a series of Warhammer novels aimed at kids. The series is called Warhammer Adventures, and Nathaniel is super stoked to get his hands on these books!

Let's Go, Knights!

Yesterday I finally got around to assembling my Drukhari army. (Still need to buy the right paints, though...) I was gluing torsos and limbs together while my family and I were cheering on the Vegas Golden Knights as they clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals in their very first year of existence!

Wargamin'

Sometimes Nathaniel disappears for a while and I'll find him upstairs in our game room, deeply engrossed in wargame strategy. He'll set up a game mat with X-Wing, Tanks, or, most often, Warhammer 40,000, and then play both sides of the battle. He'll test out different tactics, or how certain units play against other units, and he files all that information away in the seemingly limitless databanks of his seven-year-old brain. I need to hurry up and build my Drukhari army for 40k, because there's nothing I can do with the Death Guard that he hasn't already anticipated...

FCBD Today!

Remember, today is Free Comic Book Day at your friendly local comic book store!

Free Comic Book Day

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Enjoy it while I'm yelling at (sorry, "coaching") seven-year-olds playing baseball.

New Campaign!

Matt's new Gamma World-inspired campaign started up over the weekend and we faced off against cuddly, spear-wielding little bears and a skyscraper-sized chicken. Can't wait to see what Matt cooks up next!

Oh, and my character is a surly badger...

Drukhari

I'd better finish painting Nathaniel's Space Marines drop pod soon, because my very own army of Drukhari is on its way! Up to this point I've been playing as the Death Guard because they came with the 8th Edition starter sets and Nathaniel quickly staked his claim to the Ultramarines, but now at last I'll have the army of my choosing! Can't wait to unleash these fiendish psychos on Nathaniel's unsuspecting Smurfs...

Gamma-rific!

Matt has been cooking up a Gamma World-style Fifth Edition variant and it looks amazing! We're now going to put our transcontinental Shattered Realm campaign on hold while we test out his rules and campaign setting.

This campaign isn't Gamma World, but whenever I think of that radiation-infused post-apocalyptic setting, I'm reminded of a classic '90s tune from one of my favorite bands, Fountains of Wayne. Here they are with "Radiation Vibe"...

Horsing Around

It's been ages since I last played Neverwinter Nights, but I really don't recall paladins being able to summon a warhorse. Perhaps it's a feature that was added for the new Enhanced Edition? Anyway, I discovered this delightful fact the other day, and now this trusty creature is an integral member of my party. There's something very satisfying about summoning the horse inside of a small room packed with zombies and watching the horse destroy every last one of them with its hooves.

Easter Goodies

The Easter Bunny brought some gaming goodies for the boys this morning. Nathaniel got a couple of booster packs for our seldom-played Star Wars: Destiny card game and a drop pod for his Ultramarines army, but it was the new board game that Matthew got that really blew us away. It's called Downforce, a re-re-release of a race car game that's been around for ages. All four of us loved it -- it's a masterpiece of game design. Highly recommended!

Perfect Timing

Last night I finished up Temple of Elemental Evil. It was kind of a lame finish because Zuggtmoy and her fungal friends spent the entire battle attacking my cleric's spiritual weapon rather than the party, so the characters just stood back and whittled her down with spells and wands. Anyway, it turned out to be perfect timing -- Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition has just been released!

Elemental Mayhem

In my quickie replay of Temple of Elemental Evil, I'm at that stage of the game where I've completed all the quests for the four sub-temple high priests (Earth, Air, Water, and Fire) and now I'm just wiping out their organizations one by one. The party's alignment is Neutral Evil, so that works, right?

Time for Some Jammin'?

I'd be cool with it.

The Horus Heresy: Legions

Sigh! Looks like Nathaniel and I will be playing yet another 40k game on our tablets...

ToEE

Maybe it's because I'm keenly awaiting the release of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, I'm playing through Temple of Elemental Evil again. Warts, bugs, and all, it's still a great game and a great D&D experience -- and this guy agrees with me!