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...