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...