Round 1 Recap

We're all set for the Season 9 Creighton Cup Finals! The first-place Victorias will take on the second-place Thistles in the best-of-five championship series. How did we get here? Round 1 recap below!

Victorias over Bulldogs, 3-0

Yes, it was a sweep, but it wasn't as easy as it looks. In Game 1, Newsy Lalonde picked up a hat trick, only for the Dogs' Tommy Dunderdale to score twice in the third period to tie the game at three. Lalonde then ripped his fourth of the game in overtime to give the Vics a crucial series-opening win. Game 2 was also close, with the Bulldogs again scoring twice in the third, but this time coming up just short. Hobey Baker notched four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in that one. Only in the third and final game did the Victorias earn a decisive win, skating to an easy 4-1 triumph.

Thistles over Comets, 3-2

This was, hands down, the most entertaining and exciting postseason series I've ever played, in any sport, in any medium. The Comets and Thistles are both run-and-gun teams with questionable goaltending, so no lead was every truly safe. In Game 1, the Comets' Frank Foyston racked up four points (1 goal, 3 assists) as the visitors seemed destined for an upset win, until Thistles rookie Didier Pitre scored in the final two minutes to force overtime. A Thistles penalty brought a stunned silence to the hometown crowd, but captain Tommy Phillips ended the game with a thrilling shorthanded goal. The final score was 6-5 for the Thistles, but Game 2 would feature even more scoring. Pitre had four points (2 goals, 2 assists), but the Comets twice overcame two-goal deficits to stay in the game. Former MVP Blair Russell tied the game in the closing seconds, setting up another overtime contest. This time, defenseman Mike Grant tallied the sudden-death winner in a wild 7-6 triumph for the Comets. The Thistles pulled away late in Game 3 to win 4-1, but star winger Alf Smith left with an injury and missed Game 4 as well. That fourth game was do-or-die time for the Comets, who were now facing elimination. Both teams held leads, but the score was tied at three in the third period until Foyston scored late in the frame to give the Comets a season-saving win. Back at home for a decisive Game 5, the Thistles found themselves in an early hole before righting the ship and taking a lead they wouldn't relinquish, clinching the series with a 4-2 win behind two goals from Playoff MVP frontrunner Jack Darragh. Home-ice advantage was critical in this series, as the home team won every game. 

On to the Cup Finals!

Retail Therapy

Although I'm not a big video game guy, comparatively speaking, I've always been a fan of handheld systems -- most recently the PlayStation Portable (PSP), but going back to the GameBoy Advance SP and even the ahead-of-its-time Atari Lynx. 

I've had a hankering lately for portable game action, and today's "freemium" style of mobile device gaming just kind of annoys me, even when the games are D&D or Warhammer or DC or some other brand I would otherwise be interested in. As such, my hope was to find a high-quality, modern handheld platform that plays retro games. Given that work is just, well, ugh these days, I decided on a bit of retail therapy and ordered the Evercade XP. Super excited to revisit some classic games from my childhood!

Sheer Dominance

Cyclone Taylor may be the best overall player in the nine-season history of my Strat-O-Matic hockey league, but for sheer offensive dominance, Taylor's teammate Newsy Lalonde might just take the cake. Now with four seasons under his belt, Lalonde is second to Taylor in career points per game and second to Frank McGee in career goals per game. He won numerous awards over his first three campaigns, and this year, he had a shot to capture a scoring title and/or Forward MVP trophy until an injury derailed his season. 

Fortunately for the Vics, Lalonde was healthy in time for the playoffs and got things started off with a bang. In the first game of the opening-round series against the defending-champion Bulldogs, he scored a natural hat trick, only to watch his teammates squander a 3-1 third-period lead. No matter. In overtime, Lalonde scored again, delivering the first four-goal game in playoff history.

Playoff Preview

At long last, the playoffs for Season 9 are here! A quick preview of the first-round action...

Victorias (1st) vs. Bulldogs (4th)
Wait, the Vics finished in first place?! Shocker! Once again, the league's most successful franchise cakewalked through the regular season, pacing the circuit in goals per game (3.25), goals against per game (2.25), and goal differential (+20). Led by Forward MVP candidate Hobey Baker, this team was dominant at five-on-five hockey, but special teams could be their undoing in the postseason: they were middle-of-the-pack in penalty killing and dead last in power play. The Vics will take on the Bulldogs, the team that dethroned them in the Creighton Cup Finals last year. The Dogs finished with a +1 differential despite being the only playoff team to have a sub-.500 record (6-7-7). They were carried by the dominant top line of Bruce Stuart, Gord Roberts, and Tommy Dunderdale, as well as Defenseman MVP frontrunner Si Griffis.

Thistles (2nd) vs. Comets (3rd)
The Thistles missed the playoffs last year but turned things around here in Season 9. I suspect some of their success was the result of luck, however, as their gaudy 8-4-8 record is undercut by a middling +1 goal differential. But with the league's best power play and legions of attacking forwards (including star rookie Didier Pitre), the Thistles can run and gun with anybody. They'll need to be at their best to defeat the Comets, who came on strong as the league's hottest team in the second half. The turning point for the Comets was bringing back former franchise icon Billy Gilmour, who played at an MVP pace once he cracked the lineup midway through the year. 

900

After adding a couple of new NPCs to flesh out one of the world's major organizations, my Druid Cycle spreadsheet now sits at an even 900 named characters. It's kind of fun to filter the list by location, affiliation, time period, etc. How many cultists of Deimos & Phobos are active in the Imperial Palace of Troya Nova right now? Wow, more I would have thought...

A New Millennium

I had the opportunity to pass through my beloved Rochester last week and, needless to say, I planned to swing by Millennium Games -- aka the greatest game store in the history of humankind. However, I experienced a moment of panic when I saw that Millennium's familiar storefront was empty! I soon realized that the store had moved to a new location (1125 Jefferson Road, for those who know the city), which is bigger and better than either of their previous locations in that little Henrietta Townline Plaza off of West Henrietta. Millennium continues to impress me with every visit. They're a true gem of the gaming community!

Milestones

I ran my first campaign -- Earth Commanders, a superhero game using the Champions rules -- back in the summer of 1988. Although I don't have the specific start date, it was sometime after school ended, so maybe right about this time of year. Today's as good a day as any to celebrate thirty-five years of gamemastering Front Porch campaigns. I'm grateful to all the players who've joined me on this journey and shared their boundless imaginations to bring these games to life. Here's to 35 more years (at least!) of roleplaying fun!

There are a couple more milestones in 2023 that are also well worth mentioning. It's a big year for the Druid Cycle setting. Although, technically, I created this world in 1991 for the Fate of the Grand Duchy campaign (marking the first appearance of Tim W's Lwcus, one of the most important Front Porch characters of all time!), that storyline took place in the early history of the Druid Cycle world. The first campaign set in the "current" time period started in 1993 -- thirty years ago! -- with the rise of Jason's paladin Sir Roberts and Scott's cleric Stalker. If we skip ahead five more years, to 1998, we come to another milestone: the introduction of Tim W's wizard Cathbad and Kevin's cleric Senchan, who both helped shape the course of world events. A big shout-out to Scott and Jason on the thirtieth anniversary of their iconic characters, and likewise to Tim and Kevin on the twenty-fifth anniversary of theirs!

It's fitting, then, that 2023 is the year I brought my kids into the Druid Cycle setting. Why did I wait so long? Well, when the boys started playing D&D six years ago, I used my Shattered Realm setting for something a bit smaller and less complex than the Druid Cycle world, and they grew to love their characters so much that we just kept going in that world. Now I feel the time is right to get them into the big leagues, so to speak. Their first introduction to my largest campaign setting came a couple of months ago when we started an online campaign with their older cousins in Chicago. However, I have something special up my sleeve just for Matthew and Nathaniel: a second game in this world that will be a true sequel to the original 1993 Druid Cycle campaign. As the late lamented Sir Roberts might say, "Bring it on!"

Perfection!

In the most recent championship series of my nineteenth-century baseball league, Haymakers starter Mickey Welch flirted with a perfect game. Welch retired the first 21 batters he faced before allowing a walk and a hit and then leaving with a series-ending injury. Yikes! Things unraveled pretty quickly. 

The perfect game is indeed a rare and special occurrence. It's true that the unassisted triple play is even rarer -- only 15 in major-league history! -- but it's more the result of being in the right place at the right time. The perfecto, on the other hand, is a grueling, full-game gauntlet where the pitcher and his fielders must be absolutely locked in and, yes, get some good luck along the way. In the long history of the major leagues (which I date back to 1871, but others prefer 1876), there had been only 23 perfect games.

Now make it 24.

Huge congrats to Domingo German of my beloved New York Yankees for twirling the fourth perfecto in team history!

Done!

For better or for worse, I finished painting all the 3D buildings that I printed out last year. It's a big milestone that gets us closer to the massive zombie apocalypse campaign that I've planned for Amy and the boys. It will be our first-ever all-3D campaign, with three fully-fleshed-out locations (a sleepy town in upstate New York, a military base, and a survivalist compound) and enough random odds and ends to create ad hoc wilderness settings as well. I'll share photos here on the blog as the players encounter each of the major locations. 

And now that Matthew and I have repaired our 3D printer, we can actually print more buildings. But that would be crazy, right...?

Free RPG Day

It's Free RPG Day! Enjoy some free gaming goodies!

Better Late Than Never

Back in the day, there was a recurring gag that Barry Allen, the second (and most famous) Flash, was chronically late. The Flash solo flick is arriving so long after it was announced that many DC fans thought it would never make it to the screen. Nonetheless, I have high hopes for this one...

Owlbear...Beard Oil?

Well, owlbears are my second-favorite D&D monster (right after hook horrors), so maybe I need to start growing a goatee again so that I have a reason to partake of this wondrous product.

Cup Champs!

Our team won the Cup last night! Huge congrats to the Vegas Golden Knights on their first Stanley Cup championship, and the first-ever major-league sporting title for our adopted home state of Nevada! I'm so glad that I got to share this experience with my family. (Even Amy was a little bit excited.) My boys aren't old enough to remember the last time one of our teams won a championship (hint: Eli Manning was involved), but they will definitely remember this one!

A (Sort Of) Dream Final

Hey, in addition to fantasy historical hockey, there's also real NHL hockey! My boys and I are pretty stoked for this year's Stanley Cup Final, which pits our beloved Vegas Golden Knights against the plucky Florida Panthers. Neither team has ever won a Cup, and both are competing for professional sports' greatest trophy for the second time in their respective histories. 

The last time the Panthers made it this far, way back in 1996, I was a hard-core fan. Scott "Rat Trick" Mellanby, the Beezer, JovoCop -- I mean, come on! That was a fun team to root for! I've followed the Panthers on and off in the years since, and although other teams (including the once-hated Islanders and Devils) have moved higher up my list of favorites, I'm still something of a Panthers fan at heart. My true dream match-up for the Final would have been the Knights against my all-time favorite team, the New York Rangers, but I'll take what I can get!

A Year Already?

I used to keep detailed game session notes back in high school -- probably still accessible on the hard drive of our old Tandy 1000SX in my father's basement! -- but I got away from the practice as an adult and always regretted it. I resolved to start drafting session notes again when the boys and I started Tales of the Ternion, a superhero campaign that was, essentially, a sequel to my first-ever campaign, Earth Commanders. I was just looking through some records and noticed that Tales began exactly one year ago today. Wow, a whole year! I'm surprised it's been that long. 

I'm really proud of Tales, and would rank it among my top ten or even top five campaigns of all time. It was character-driven, dealt with a lot of weighty and topical issues, and featured some really nifty plot twists -- all while stitching together the most important threads from our modern-setting campaigns of the '80s and '90s, bringing them fully into the Front Porch multiverse. We'll be returning to the setting of Tales in a few months with a follow-up campaign, for which I'll be using all that 3D-printed terrain I've been painting...

Middle of the Second Period

I'm hustling a bit to get through Season 9 of my historical hockey league before our summer plans, so the games are coming fast and furious. At the halfway point of the season, the Victorias, Thistles, Millionaires, and Bulldogs are in playoff position, while the Comets and Bearcats are on the outside looking in. As is often the case, the Vics occupy the top spot in the standings, and their +12 goal differential suggests they're for real, whereas the second-place Thistles (only a single point behind them) are just breaking even, so we might see some regression from this year's surprise contender. Speaking of surprises, the Bearcats have taken a big step backwards in their third season of play, but they're tracking toward a historically good penalty-kill percentage (currently north of 95%!). 

For the individual awards, two races are really standing out. Looking at Forward MVP, all the buzz is on the starboard side. Three-time runner-up Newsy Lalonde (10 G, 6 A, +3) got off to a hot start, but he has some tough competition coming from his own locker room; the Vics' captain and second-line right wing, Hobey Baker (9 G, 7 A, +9), is playing a phenomenal 200-foot game this year. Meanwhile, Bulldogs right wing Tommy Dunderdale (9 G, 5 A, +3) is lurking in the background, ready to pounce if the two Vics begin to falter. Turning to Defenseman MVP, in a down year (relatively speaking) for perennial winner Cyclone Taylor, Hod Stuart (2 G, 9 A, +8) of the Thistles and Si Griffis (3 G, 8 A, +7) of the Bulldogs are neck-and-neck for frontrunner status. 

The second half of the season begins tonight!

Raiders Rule!

The Cylon starship, that is, not the football team.

The boys and I have played a few skirmishes in Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles and the player controlling the Cylon Raider(s) has won every time. Granted, we haven't added in all the optional and advanced rules yet, but it's tough out there for Colonial Viper jockeys right now!

Which Team Reigns Supreme?

I've been solo-playing a lot of sports games over the past couple of years, so I thought it might be interesting to take a broader look across the three leagues -- baseball, hockey, and football -- to see how all the teams have fared. Who are the lordly Yankees or Canadiens of my fantasy leagues, and who are the title-starved Mariners or Senators?

In the table below, I've listed the teams in order of championships won. Each entry also includes the sport, the number of seasons the team has existed, and the number of seasons the league has existed (the latter two numbers are different only if a given franchise is an expansion team).

 

Team	Sport	Titles	Team Seasons	League Seasons
Haymakers	Baseball	5	9	9
Victorias	Hockey	4	8	8
Reavers	Football	2	3	3
Bulldogs	Hockey	2	8	8
Blue Legs	Baseball	2	9	9
Giants	Football	1	3	3
Millionaires	Hockey	1	5	8
Resolutes	Baseball	1	5	9
Comets	Hockey	1	8	8
Canaries	Baseball	1	9	9
Champions	Football	0	1	3
Grasshuggers	Football	0	2	3
Bearcats	Hockey	0	2	8
Avengers	Football	0	3	3
Thistles	Hockey	0	8	8

Where we have ties -- for example, with all the teams that each have won a single championship -- the tiebreaker is a lower number of team seasons. A team that has achieved a certain level of success in fewer seasons is more dominant than one that had more opportunities to do so but failed. 

Some good news, at least, for the lowly Thistles: As of this writing, in Season 9 of my hockey league, they're in first place. Could this be the year they rise out of the basement?

"Set Condition 1 throughout the ship! Launch the alert fighters!"

Recently the four of us finished watching all ten seasons of Friends, and it sparked a conversation about acclaimed television programs that either had a pitch-perfect ending (like Friends) or a complete dumpster fire (like Seinfeld). Of course, one man's trash is another man's treasure -- defending the final episode of Game of Thrones is absolutely a hill I'll die on! -- but in this conversation, Amy and I both agreed that our favorite final episode is from the modern Battlestar Galactica. The boys weren't familiar with BSG, so I provided a little context and then, before I knew it, I was ordering the complete series on Blu-ray. 

It's been a pleasure to revisit this top-notch program, and as soon as I saw the boys starting to design Vipers and Raiders in their 3D-modeling software, I figured it was time to check out the BSG gaming scene. I recalled a semi-cooperative game in which players try to figure out who among them are secretly Cylons (Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game), but I lamented that there was never any sort of miniatures-based game along the lines of Star Wars X-Wing. That would've been super cool! So I ran a quick search to see if I could track down a copy of the aforementioned board game, when I suddenly realized that, yes, Virginia, there is a Battlestar Galactica miniatures game! And it looks frakkin' awesome! Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles seems to have come and gone without my notice and is no longer being manufactured. Fortunately, there are still plenty of copies of the core set and the various ship expansions floating around. Can't wait to check it out!

FCBD '23

Heads up! Today is Free Comic Book Day, y'all!