DC Season 3

I've been having so much fun with my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer that I've started Season 3 well ahead of schedule. Two new squads join the league as expansion teams, bringing us up to eight total franchises across the three main human nations of this campaign world. 

Team Name	City	Nation	Season Joined
Defenders	Caer Eurfryn	Teyrnas	3rd
Gauntlets	Riverton	Southern Principalities	2nd
Golden Dragons	Prifddinas	Teyrnas	1st
Imperials	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Navigators	Liminia	Troya Nova	3rd
Paladins	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Pioneers	Prospect	Southern Principalities	2nd
Racers	Riverton	Southern Principalities	1st

The Paladins won the coveted Thaler Cup in Season 1, followed by the Golden Dragons in Season 2. Who will claim this year's prize?

DC Season 2 Championship

Prifddinas Golden Dragons (2nd place) vs. Troya Nova Imperials (4th place)
With an all-time record of 3-0-1 against the Imperials, the Dragons were confident, but also wary; they had come this far last season, as well, only to suffer a heartbreaking loss in extra time. In this game, in front of their roaring fans, the Dragons jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead authored by Niall and Luaran. The real story of the game, however, was the Dragons' midfield: Huwcyn, Daithi, and Ederyn absolutely dominated the center of the pitch. The Imperials found themselves unable to break through and get clean scoring chances, and a frustrated Agrippa even picked up his first-ever yellow card. It was more of the same in the second half, and midfielder Huwcyn put the game away with a goal that made it 3-0 for the home side. Huwcyn, the heart and soul of the Dragons, had atoned for his ill-timed red card in the Season 1 championship game against the Paladins. There would be no such mishap in this contest. The Golden Dragons played a nearly flawless game and have won their first Thaler Cup!

DC Season 2 Playoffs

Semifinal 1: Troya Nova Paladins (1st place) vs. Troya Nova Imperials (4th place)

In the brief, two-season history of this league, the Paladins were a perfect 4-0-0 against their crosstown rivals. Easy win for the defending champions? Not so fast! The Imperials came right at their foes with a relentless attack that tested goalkeeper Zeno early and often. In front of him, the Paladins responded to the pressure with unruly behavior that earned them three yellow cards. The Imperials' Agrippa scored midway through first half to put fear into the hearts of the Paladins' faithful, while keeper Primus made huge stops before and after the midway mark to preserve the visitors' slim lead. When Julus tacked on an insurance goal in the 88th minute, it was game over. The final was 2-0 for the Imperials, who will now vie for their first league championship.

Semifinal 2: Prifddinas Golden Dragons (2nd place) vs. Prospect Pioneers (3rd place)

This year, the expansion Pioneers went 2-0-0 against the Dragons, winning those games by a combined score of 7-1. Prifddinas didn't want that trend to continue any further. They dominated ball possession from the opening whistle, picking up early goals by Niall and Finan. Josias cut the Dragons' lead in half, but Niall tallied his second of the game as the first half came to a close. The second half featured a lot of exciting back-and-forth action, but no more scoring. Prifddinas held on for a 3-1 win and will face the upstart Imperials for the Thaler Cup.

DC Season 2 Awards

In Season 1 of my Druid Cycle soccer league, Agrippa of the Troya Nova Imperials and Niall of the Prifddinas Golden Dragons shared the scoring title with 6 goals over the brief 6-game regular season. Midfielder Nicephorus of the Troya Nova Paladins won the MVP trophy as the best all-around player. 

This year, with two new teams and a 10-game regular season, there were many more players and many more opportunities for those players to demonstrate their skills. Star forward Belisarius of the Paladins won the scoring title with 10 goals, well ahead of Agrippa (8), Niall (7), and Belisarius's teammate Apollonius (5). The MVP award, however, was not as clear-cut as it was last season. Belisarius finished  third in the MVP race on the basis of his incredible offensive season. The MVP runner-up was goalkeeper Meilir of the Riverton Racers, who blocked a league-best 13.4 shots per game (well ahead of the second-most-tested keeper, Giles of the Riverton Gauntlets, who blocked 10.8 per game), but Meilir's case would have been stronger if his team hadn't been in the cellar. Ultimately, the MVP award went to Agrippa, who scored a remarkable 42.1% of his team's goals; as the Imperials faded down the stretch, Agrippa almost single-handedly dragged them into a playoff spot.

Fingers Crossed...

Wizards called it One D&D for a while, and others are calling it 5.5. Call it whatever you want, I just hope it's good. Here's the review from EN World.

DC Season 2

Shortly after completing the first, I moved right in to a second season of my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer. Two new teams have joined the mix -- the Riverton Gauntlets and the Prospect Pioneers -- giving us six franchises in all. To accommodate the larger number of teams, the regular season increased from 6 games per team to 10 games per team.

For the second straight year, the Troya Nova Paladins and Prifddinas Golden Dragons finished first and second, respectively, while the expansion Pioneers and the Troya Nova Imperials claimed playoff spots as the third- and fourth-ranked teams. Both of Riverton's franchises brought up the rear, with the Gauntlets squeaking past the hapless Racers. Among individual performers, Belisarius of the Paladins led the way with an astounding 10 goals in 10 games, followed by Agrippa of the Imperials with 8 and Niall of the Dragons with 7. 

The first-round playoff pairings will be really compelling. In one matchup, the two teams based in the sprawling metropolis of Troya Nova will duke it out for a spot in the finals. The Paladins had the league's best offense (2.40 goals per game) and best defense (1.30 goals against per game), but the Imperials were surprisingly stingy as well, with only 1.50 goals allowed per match. If superstar striker Agrippa can work his magic, the Imperials might just upset the defending champions. In the other first-round contest, the Dragons have a nightmare matchup against the expansion Pioneers, who went 2-0-0 against the Prifddinas side during the regular season, outscoring them by a total of 7-1. The Pios don't have a star of Niall's caliber, but they come at you with a balanced and relentless attack; forwards Remi, Josias, and Vico each had 4 goals, and the slick Siriano led all the league's midfielders with 3 tallies. 

The playoffs begin later this week!

Update Complete

I've now completed a massive update to my Druid Cycle notes based on the archives I discovered on the old Tandy computer at my parents' house. So much rich detail added to my spreadsheet! I think this information is really going to enhance the experience for this new generation of players.

Paladins Claim the Thaler Cup!

Donated by Thaler, the wealthiest merchant in the Druid Cycle campaign world, the Thaler Cup will be awarded to the winner of my fantasy soccer league each season. In this first campaign, the first-place Paladins duked it out with the second-place Golden Dragons for the inaugural Thaler Cup.

The championship game was scoreless through a full 90 minutes of play. The Dragons' keeper, Morcan, was phenomenal, as he kept his team in the game despite a 17-2 shot advantage for the Paladins during regulation time. In extra time, however, Gratian and Apollonius both scored to give the Paladins a 2-0 victory. (In keeping with soccer's FIFA World Cup, I'm using full periods of extra time and not a sudden-death "golden goal" rule.) The Paladins have won the first title, but the Golden Dragons have proven themselves to be a powerhouse as well. Looking forward to Season 2 and the addition of two expansion teams, bringing us up to six franchises.

First One in the Books!

With only four teams, and with each team playing their opponents only twice, the first season of my Druid Cycle soccer league (a custom league in Sensible Soccer) is already in the books. The Paladins paced the circuit with a 5-0-1 record. These lay brothers of Mithras led the league with 3.00 goals per game, and tied for the best goals-against average with 0.83 per game. In the championship game, they'll host the second-place Golden Dragons, who went 3-1-2. The Imperials (1-4-1) and the Racers (0-4-2) both have a long way to go before they're ready to compete for a title. 

For the individual awards, forwards Agrippa of the Imperials and Niall of the Golden Dragons tied for the league lead in goals with 6 apiece, so they'll share that trophy. The League MVP award goes to midfielder Nicephorus of the Paladins, who contributed top-notch offense (5 goals) as well as elite defense; he was arguably the main reason why the Paladins allowed a league-low 5.83 shots against per game. 

Next up, the championship match between the Paladins and the Golden Dragons!

Tomb Raidin'

The boys and I finished up the two remaining scenarios in the original Dark Tomb mini-box prior to returning to Nevada. Once we optimized our tactics, we breezed through the combats. We had a lot of fun along the way, and there were plenty of epic moments when all three characters got their opportunity to shine. I'll be sure to pack the Dark Tomb sequel box into our luggage for our next trip!

The Lost Archives

Once upon a time, I was the proud owner of a Tandy 1000 SX. From Christmas in 1986 through my high-school graduation in 1995, it was the only computer I owned, and it held up remarkably well. My parents used it for many years after I left home, and then it sat in the basement for many more years. During our trip back to New York this past week, Nathaniel and I managed to get it running again. We found a treasure trove of old games -- Spy Hunter, anyone?! -- but most importantly, the mother lode of Druid Cycle archives. All of my adventure summaries, gamemaster notes, and well, everything I had ever typed up for that campaign world during its original development in the early '90s was still right there on that massive 20MB hard drive. The printer doesn't work anymore, and I had no way to export the data from the ancient PFS File program, but I took a photograph of every screen so that I can sit down one day and revisit all those old notes. There's so much I've forgotten since those early days, and I have absolutely no doubt that a deep dive into that material will yield tons of great stuff that I can apply to today's campaigns.

Narrow Escape

The boys and I delved into the first scenario of the mini cooperative game Dark Tomb the other day. (All components fit within a tin about the size of a modern smartphone.) Nathaniel is playing a spellcaster with a pet raven, Matthew is a rogue-like character, and I'm something akin to a ranger. The game plays quickly and we had fun discussing optimal tactics, but some lousy rolls set us back and nearly cost us a victory. As it stands, all three characters managed a narrow escape from the first dungeon. On to the second!

DC League

Next on my Sensible Soccer agenda is a league set in the Druid Cycle campaign world. I'm going to start small, with just four teams representing the three largest human cities in that setting: the Paladins and Imperials (Troya Nova), Racers (Riverton), and Golden Dragons (Prifddinas). That should be a manageable undertaking for the inaugural season, but I already have plans to expand the league with four new teams (a second franchise in Riverton along with three other cities) starting in Season 2. 

Free RPG Day

Get to your local game store for Free RPG day -- today!!!

Dark Tomb

We'll be doing some traveling this summer, but the boys and I will nevertheless have plenty of game action to occupy our downtime. A recent Kickstarter called Dark Tomb is perfect for travel: It's a cooperative, d20-based game that literally fits in your pocket!

D&D 2024

Over a decade ago, I invested countless hours in playtesting what would ultimately become Fifth Edition D&D. I submitted vast amounts of detailed feedback through many rounds of playtest materials. (Click the "5e" label and dive in to those earlier posts, if you dare!) The game that was published in 2014 was, in my opinion, an absolute masterpiece -- the best version of D&D in the game's long history. 

Fast-forward to the present. I wasn't terribly enthused by the prospect of the 2024 revamp of Fifth Edition, and some of what I was seeing in the Unearthed Arcana playtest PDFs was as troubling to me as anything from The Edition That Shall Not Be Named. But you know what? I watched this video and now I feel a bit better.

All I Really Want...

Random Thursday thoughts! All I really want -- aside from some patience, a way to calm the angry voice, and maybe deliverance -- is MultiVersus, but as a miniatures game. The obvious answer is CMON's Mayhem system, but it doesn't offer the full range of WB characters. In fact, it pales in comparison to what Restoration Games is doing with their Unmatched series these days.

Evercade Alpha

Evercade launched a revamped website today and it includes a bombshell development: They're getting into cabinets now! I don't know if I'll purchase the Evercade Alpha when it comes out in the fall, but damn, it's a pretty cool concept!

Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany...

As part of my years-long (okay, decades-long) expansion of Druid Cycle history and lore, I've identified the reign of every Emperor/Empress of Troya Nova and every King/Queen of Teyrnas. Running through the lists of names, I can't help but speak them aloud in the cadence of the esteemed Cletus Spuckler when he calls to his prodigious brood...

Evercade Hall of Fame

Adding up all the games on all the carts, I probably have upwards of 200 retro games I can play on my Evercade systems. Of those games, I've completed probably about two dozen. Of those two dozen, only a select few merit inclusion in my new Evercade Hall of Fame -- games so awesome or so memorable that they rank among my favorite video games of all time, regardless of the era or system. 

Here is the inaugural class of Hall of Famers, presented in alphabetical order:

• Brave Battle Saga
• Captain Commando 
• Dragon View (Drakkhen II)
• Drakkhen
• Final Fight
• Flashback 
• Sensible Soccer

What's likely to be the next entry in the EHOF? Well, the first three Tomb Raider titles come out for Evercade in July...

Meet the Argos Achaians!

I had a lot of fun with a custom Sensible Soccer team featuring my childhood buddies from Horseheads. Although we lost our first World Cup tournament in the finals, we roared back the next time around to claim the Cup! For my next fantasy soccer experience, I'm going a bit further back in time...all the way to the Trojan War! Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax (the Greater and the Lesser) and all their companions from the Iliad will take the soccer world by storm as the Argos Achaians!

FCBD 2024

Heads up! It's Free Comic Book Day today!

A Sensible Obsession

Sensible Soccer is pretty much my new obsession. I have a huge list of custom teams, games, tournaments, and leagues in mind. One idea I'd love to explore is to create a soccer league based on the major human cities of the Druid Cycle campaign setting. Perhaps even a famous NPC or two might show up on the rosters! In the short term, however, I'm working on a Team USA -- complete with my 8-bit approximation of their real-life 2024 home and away kit -- populated by my neighborhood buddies from when I was a kid. Can't wait for my friends and I to start on the road to a World Cup!

Sensible Soccer

Sensible Soccer -- named for the company, although the game is pretty sensible too -- may just be one of the most perfect sports games I've ever played. I picked up an out-of-print Evercade cartridge basically just to get this game, and it hasn't disappointed. It's infinitely customizable and the gameplay is intuitive and fun. I foresee many, many tournaments and leagues in my future...

Back to the Tomb!

Just when I was wondering what else Evercade had up their sleeves...

Game Time = Family Time

Between Matthew's swim practices and meets, and Nathaniel's Boy Scout activities, and all the schoolwork for both of them, it's been tough to keep up any kind of momentum on our campaigns. It doesn't help that we're also juggling three campaigns at the moment, with the zombie-themed Dark Enigma (which also includes Amy) and two Druid Cycle games (one of which includes the boys' cousins). I've found myself kind of stressed out by the difficulty of getting everyone to the table, and when I gave it some more thought, I realized that game time is a proxy for family time. With the busy pace of life these days, we don't seem to have much time to sit down and just be together. 

Welcome Home

After their long trek through the snowy wilderness, our intrepid heroes have returned to the small town of Wenro, New York. Here's what awaits them...

Does this scene include all the zombie minis I have in my horde? No. No it does not.

Season 10 Awards

After an epic championship series, all that remains is to hand out the individual trophies for Season 10. 

Scoring Champion: Alf Smith, RW, Thistles
With a league-leading 18 goals and 36 points, the fiery forward won his first scoring championship, finishing five points ahead of runner-up Cyclone Taylor. Smith has always oozed with talent, but this season he put it all together -- and in doing so, he jumped from fourth all-time in goals to second, behind only the great Frank McGee of the Comets.

Forward MVP: Alf Smith, RW, Thistles
Bearcats phenom Joe Malone was the frontrunner for the first half of the season, but Smith sailed past him with an absolutely dominant finish. For the first time in his career, Smith was defensively responsible too, as evinced by his strong plus-minus (+8). 

Defenseman MVP: Dickie Boon, Bearcats
For the first time ever, the Victorias' Cyclone Taylor was not a top-three finalist for this award. Wow! This year's worthy runners-up were Fred Whitcroft of the Thistles (7 goals, 5 assists, +9) and Art Ross of the Bearcats (2 goals, 3 assists, and a league-leading +16). The winner, however, was the Bearcats' Boon, who put up Taylor-esque offensive numbers (8 goals, 9 assists) and finished second in the league in plus-minus (+12).

Goaltender MVP: Hap Holmes, Bearcats
Last season, the Vics' Bowse Hutton edged Holmes in the closest finish of all time for this award. Well, this season it was even closer! Holmes and Hutton both posted a .927 save percentage, but Holmes had a slightly better goals-against average (2.20 vs. 2.30). I don't track all high-danger/high-leverage saves, but I do make note of key moments when a goalie absolutely robs someone, and this year Holmes certainly had a lot more such "highlight reel" saves. So it's really a tossup, but I'm giving it to Holmes, who claims his second such trophy in his four-year career. 

Rookie of the Year: Frank Fredrickson, C, Bearcats
Fredrickson put up solid numbers across the board (7 goals, 13 assists, +6), although he definitely benefited from playing alongside Joe Malone. Even so, I'm very comfortable giving this award to Fredrickson over number-one draft pick Mickey MacKay of the Millionaires, who had good offensive numbers (7 goals, 6 assists), but had the second-worst plus-minus in the league (-17) and was a healthy scratch twice on a last-place Millies team.

Playoff MVP: Hugh Lehman, G, Thistles
Lehman outdueled the league's best goaltender, Hap Holmes, and finished his postseason run with a 2.25 goals-against average and a stellar .940 save percentage. He becomes the second player to win multiple Playoff MVP trophies (after -- who else? -- Cyclone Taylor) and he also has the distinction of being the first player to win major individual awards with two different teams; his first Playoff MVP trophy came when he was a member of the Millionaires. Had the Bearcats won the championship, this award would likely have gone to Malone (8 goals, 7 assists) for his offensive wizardry.

Quite a Saga Indeed!

Today I beat Brave Battle Saga, finishing off the final boss in a slog that took about a half-hour just for that one combat. 

I was rewarded with some fun cutscenes that wrapped up all the personal storylines. Families reunited! Old wounds healed! It was very sweet.

Yes, the main character's name is Tim, and yes, I had that Monty Python bit from Holy Grail running through my head the whole time...

The Curse Is Broken!

The Thistles are Creighton Cup champions! After ten seasons of futility and heartbreak, the league's most snakebitten team has finally won a title. In true Thistles fashion, they did it the hard way -- the really hard way.

Playing on the road in Game 1, the Thistles held a 2-0 lead late in the third period, but Bearcats captain Harry Trihey put his team on his back and scored twice to tie the game. In overtime, Scotty Davidson beat Hugh Lehman to give the Bearcats an improbable series-opening victory. The Thistles came home for Game 2 determined to get back on track. They got off to a great start when Jack Darragh scored on the team's very first shot. The teams traded goals throughout the game, with the Thistles managing to stay a goal ahead. In the waning moments of the third period, the Bearcats tied it yet again. This time, it was superstar Joe Malone tallying just seconds before the horn sounded. The stunned Thistles headed to overtime facing the possibility that they could be down by two games in this best-of-five series despite playing with the lead for about 90% of the time across both games. After two overtime periods, the game remained tied. Lehman and Bearcats netminder Hap Holmes made incredible saves, but at some point, one puck was bound to sneak through. Darragh ended the contest with his second goal of the game in triple overtime. The final score was 4-3 for the visitors. It was the longest game in league history, and Lehman set a record with 49 saves. Back in Bearcats territory for Game 3, the Thistles continued to roll by scoring again on their first shot. The Cats, however, notched the next three goals and skated away with an easy 3-1 win and a 2-1 series lead. Facing elimination, the Thistles had a must-win game at home, and they gutted out a 4-2 victory to force a winner-take-all Game 5, hosted by the Bearcats. 

Game 5 would prove to be an all-time classic. Late in the first period, the Thistles were hit with a double whammy when star defenseman Hod Stuart went down with a serious injury and the Cats' Dickie Boon scored after a desperate flurry of chances in front of Lehman. Stuart was ruled out for the remainder of the game, so the Thistles had to continue without one of their best players. Fortunately for them, their star forward stepped up his game; Alf Smith scored in the second period and racked up another one early in the the third to give his team a 2-1 edge. As the clock ticked away, I wondered if the Cats could manage to stage yet another amazing comeback to force overtime. Well, they sure did! The peerless Malone scored late in the frame, just as he had done back in Game 2, and the contest went to overtime. The first OT period was a quiet affair with only a couple of quality chances. In the second overtime, however, Smith broke in on Holmes with a chance to end the game and deliver a championship for his long-suffering team. (By this point, both Matthew and Nathaniel had come over to the table to witness these final dice rolls.) Smith knifed a shot past past Holmes's outstretched glove, and the game was over. It was a hat trick for Smith, but more importantly, it was a Creighton Cup for the league's unluckiest team. The curse has been broken!

Dune: Part 2

Dune is among my favorite novels. I love it on so many levels, not the least of which is that it's the primary literary inspiration for the Warhammer 40k universe. I'm such a Dune fan that I even adore the much-maligned 1984 movie, although it pales in comparison to Denis Villeneuve's more recent film. I'm so pleased that Dune: Part 2 is now premiering in theaters. The first part won six Oscars and introduced this story to a whole new generation -- including my own family! I can't wait to see what Villeneuve et al have in store for us in the second half!

First Contact

In our Dark Enigma campaign, a blizzard had trapped the heroes at a remote compound deep the wilderness. Today they received some unwelcome guests...

Clearly, something is amiss back in Wenro! The heroes will now begin a treacherous trek back through the snow to see what exactly is going on...

Crunch Time

First play of Game 1 of the Finals. I mean, the first play, right after the opening faceoff: Thistles winger and Season 10 scoring champion Alf Smith absolutely crunches Bearcats superstar Joe Malone. It's gonna be a series...

It's Finals Time!

The first round of the playoffs is in the books!

The Thistles will return to the Finals after last year's heartbreaking collapse against the Victorias. This year, the Thistles got a measure of revenge by dismantling the Vics in the first round, sweeping them 3-0 in the best-of-five series and outscoring them 10-5. Key players for the Thistles in the opening round (and strong contenders for the Playoff MVP trophy) included sophomore winger Didier Pitre (2 goals, 3 assists, +3), offensive defenseman Fred Whitcroft (2 goals, 3 assists, +4), and netminder Hugh Lehman (1.67 goals-against average, .956 save percentage), whose 44-save gem in the third game sealed the series win.

In the other series, the home team won every game, resulting in a 3-2 triumph for the top-ranked Bearcats over the Comets. Joe Malone led the way offensively (4 goals, 4 assists, -3), followed by Scotty Davidson (4 goals, 2 assists, -3), Harry Trihey (0 goals, 7 assists, +3), and Dickie Boon (1 goal, 5 assists, -1). Bonus points if you noted that most of the Cats' leading scorers had a negative plus-minus; they eked out a win in this series only because their power play clicked at a fantastic 26.67%. The Comets were the better team at five-on-five; they fought until the bitter end, coming up just one goal short in the fifth and decisive game. 

Next up, the Bearcats will host the Thistles in Game 1 of the Finals. These two contenders are the only remaining teams that have never won a Creighton Cup, so one way or the other, we'll get to witness a franchise win its very first title.

Plot Drop

I'm moving steadily toward the conclusion of the surprisingly wonderful Brave Battle Saga, and there are revelations left and right! In one cutscene alone, secrets were revealed about two of the four party members; one turned out to be the half-demon niece of a queen, and the other is...a cyborg, maybe? Now we're off to recover his memory chip, so...

Season 10 Playoff Preview

It's playoff time once again in Strat-O-Matic hockey! The Millionaires and Bulldogs won't be joining the dance this year, but here's how the other teams stack up for the first round of the tourney...

Bearcats (1st) vs. Comets (4th)

The Bearcats finished in first place for the first time in franchise history; their pennant is well deserved, too, as the Cats had the league's best goal differential (+18), best goal prevention (2.20 goals against per game), and second-best offense (3.10 goals scored per game). They were unequivocally number one at five-on-five hockey, and the top six players in the league in plus/minus were all Bearcats. Special teams were a different story, however, as the Cats ranked second-to-last in power play and their penalty kill was middling. Their first-round opponent, the Comets, had a hot second half, but still finished as the only playoff team with a negative goal differential (-11) and mediocre rankings in all major offensive and defensive categories. Head-to-head, the Cats were 3-1-0 against the Comets this year, so I'm picking the Bearcats to make their inaugural appearance in the Creighton Cup Finals.

Thistles (2nd) vs. Victorias (3rd)

It's a rematch of last year's Cup Finals! The Thistles allowed the Vics to come back in that series and thus were denied their first-ever Creighton Cup. Could it be time for revenge? The Thistles were a goal-scoring machine this year, with a league-best 3.25 goals scored per game, but the Vics counter with elite goal prevention (number two at 2.30 goals against per game). The Thistles had a league-leading penalty kill (89.16%), but the Vics had the top power play (21.67%). It seems that each team can counter the other's advantages. Not surprisingly, I guess, their head-to-head record was 1-1-2, and they both finished with a +9 goal differential overall. This one is a coin toss, folks!

Friends Knocking Down My Door

I'm at a natural pause point with Brave Battle Saga, so I've put that game aside for a few days to explore an Evercade cartridge containing nothing but Commodore 64 classics. How come no one has knocked down my door yet?

BBS -- TLOTMW

As titles go, Brave Battle Saga -- The Legend of the Magic Warrior is kind of an awkward jumble. (I'm sure its original Mandarin title has a nicer ring to it.) As games go, however, it's kind of a blast! BBS -- TLOTMW (wow, the initialism seems almost as long as the actual title!) is the latest game I'm working through on my Evercade. It was originally a Sega Genesis game released only in Taiwan, but now it has a full English version. The endless random encounters add unnecessary length and monotony, but the story is pretty fun (and occasionally downright funny) and there's a funky science-fantasy vibe that's getting stronger as I get deeper into the game. Anticipating later classics like Baldur's Gate, it opens with a single protagonist, but ultimately you pick up a rag-tag band of companions who all have their own personal storylines and motivations. Can't wait to see how it all plays out!

Milestone

Today's Druid Cycle adventure marked the one-year anniversary of the campaign I've run for my boys and my niece and nephew. (Well, technically, tomorrow is the calendar anniversary.) To celebrate this milestone, I invited Tim W to join the game session as his esteemed wizard Cathbad. It was awesome to have this new generation interacting with a living legend. They all participated together in a weighty discussion of how to protect their nation and avoid becoming embroiled in a burgeoning continent-wide conflict that I've dubbed "World War Druid Cycle." Considering that I've been laying the foundation for this storyline for the past year, I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time that Cathbad and the younger heroes will cross paths!

The Compound

In our Dark Enigma campaign, the companions have trudged through a Western New York snowstorm to a remote survivalist compound in search of information about the main NPC's missing sister. The compound and surrounding area are depicted in the photo below.

You can see Amy's stealthy huntress hiding behind a large bush in the foreground. The heroes managed to defeat the guards, and next they'll explore the compound for clues. Another storm is rolling in, however, so they'll need to wait it out here at the compound before they can hike back to town. I wonder what will have changed when they finally get back to Wenro...?

Welcome to Wenro

We're inching closer to starting our zombie apocalypse game! I set up the buildings that form the core of Wenro Center, a small community off of Interstate 86 in western New York. All the buildings (as well as the smaller terrain elements and townspeople) were printed on our 3D printer and -- for better or for worse -- painted by yours truly. 

Nary a zombie to be found! Well, at least, not yet...

This story is set in the same world and time period as our Tales of the Ternion campaign, but it's a horror/survival theme rather than comic book superheroes, and the title will be Dark Enigma -- named after a spooky campaign of yesteryear. Can't wait to get started!

All-Star Break

It's almost time for the NHL All-Star Game, and here in Season 10 of my historical Strat-O-Matic hockey league, we've reached the midway point of the campaign. The Bearcats and Victorias are vying for the top spot, the Thistles and Comets are jostling around in the middle of the pack, and the Bulldogs and Millionaires are in a race to the bottom. Some interesting team stats include the Cats' astonishing penalty kill (96.3%) and the inability of the run-and-gun Comets to dent the twine (a league-low 1.80 goals per game and an abysmal 8.33% success on the power play). 

Looking at player performances, I'm intrigued by Thistles star Alf Smith, one of the league's all-time greats but a player who has yet to win any sort of individual trophy; at the moment, he's leading the league in goals (11) and points (18), so he could snag a scoring title and possibly a Forward MVP award, although in the latter case he'll face a tough challenge from Joe Malone (9 goals, 3 assists, +4) of the Bearcats and quiet workhorse Dubbie Bowie (6 goals, 6 assists, +7) of the Victorias. The Cats' Hap Holmes seems like a lock to win his second Goaltender MVP in three years (1.90 goals-against average, .940 save percentage). Can he and Malone lead the Bearcats to their first Creighton Cup in franchise history?

It's Our Trophy Guy!

Here's a great article about Jim Creighton, the man for whom the championship series in my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic league is named.

2023 Goal Achieved

Looking back on the year that was, I could rattle off any number of gaming-related accomplishments. (Yes, granted, it's all recreational, but I view anything I learn or do as an opportunity to accomplish something.) I painted tons of 3D-printed terrain, delved into retrogaming, and ran a Doctor Who campaign that was pretty dang cool, but I think I'm most proud of reinvigorating the Druid Cycle world. Matthew and Nathaniel had played most of their D&D in my Shattered Realm setting, but in 2023, they leveled up to the big leagues. We started one campaign just for them, and then a separate one where their two older cousins join us via Zoom, and in both cases it's been absolutely fantastic. It's like 1998 all over again!

OUTRAGEOUS!!!

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

Rise of the Cavilliverse

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

Domino Draft

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

Season 10 Awards

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

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

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

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

Season 10 Championship

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

The Resolutes!

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

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

Flashback

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

Season 10 Championship Preview

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

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

The Knight...Monsters...?

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

EXP Stands for "Expired"

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

No Running Allowed

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

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

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

TWD DOA

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

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

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

Butts and Zombies

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

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

Opening Day

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

Season 4 Championship

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

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

Five.

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

One Last View of Dragon View

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

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

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

Hail to the king, baby!

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

Season 4 Playoffs

It's playoff time! Here we go!

Wild Card: Champions at Reavers

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

Championship: Reavers at Giants

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

Season 4 Recap

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

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

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

Quadruple Digits

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

Back to Basics

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

TWD Inbound!

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

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

Which Universe Is This?

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

Saved By the Save

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

Baldur's Gate 3

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

Hard pass.

More Retro Fun

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

Lost Relics

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

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