DC Season 4 Championship

Prifddinas Golden Knights (2nd place) vs. Caer Eurfryn Defenders (4th place)

For the first time ever, the teams vying for the Thaler Cup come from cities in the same country, in this case the Kingdom of Teyrnas. Prifddinas and Caer Eurfryn are only about 75 miles apart on the Great Caravan Road, but the political and cultural rift between them is enormous; these cities have a long rivalry and a deep animosity that goes far beyond sports. There were no fireworks in this game, however, just some great soccer. The first half was dominated by goalkeeping, with the Defenders' Primus and Dragons' Morcan matching each other save for save. Early in the second half, star midfielder Edern scored to give Prifddinas a 1-0 advantage. The Defenders tried to push back, but struggled to maintain consistent pressure in the offensive zone. As time slipped away, defender (yes, in retrospect, it's kind of awkward that there's a team that shares a name with a position on the field) Cadawg turned the ball over right in front of Primus, leading to an easy goal by Prifddinas superstar Niall, the league's all-time leader in playoff goals. The final score was 2-0, and now the Prifddinas Golden Dragons have their second Thaler Cup!

The Battle of Ellicott Ridge

Some real-life challenges had prevented Amy, the boys, and me from playing Dark Enigma for the past month, but today we managed to convene for a special two-part finale to wrap up this zombie-themed campaign. There was nary a zombie to be seen in this climactic battle, however, because the heroes were facing off against government forces seeking to silence them and obtain the secret formula that had turned the residents of a quaint town in western New York into ravenous undead. In a classic siege battle, the player characters and their NPC allies unleashed withering fire on agents advancing up toward the clifftop compound where the heroes were holed up. There were some pretty epic moments, and all three of the players got a chance to shine: Nathaniel's cleverly placed traps slowed down the advancing agents, Amy saved the life of a major NPC with a critical healing roll, and Matthew took down the leader of the foes after hiding in the brush and ambushing him once most of his men were already well on their way up to the compound. I hope we return to these characters for a new storyline at some point in the future, but next up on the agenda is my long-gestating Vanguard Saga campaign. I just hope it isn't another month before we can get it started!

DC Season 4 Playoffs

There are eight teams in my Druid Cycle soccer league, and only the top four quality for the playoffs. We've now said goodbye to the Troya Nova Paladins (snapping their three-season playoff streak), Riverton Gauntlets, Prospect Pioneers, and the woeful Liminia Navigators. Better luck next year, guys!

Semifinal 1: Troya Nova Imperials (1st Place) vs. Caer Eurfryn Defenders (4th Place)

The Defenders and Imperials will forever be linked by the blockbuster trade they completed prior to Season 4, a deal that sent promising youngsters Tiarnan and Aleyn to the Imperials and star keeper Primus and veteran forward Amulius to the Defenders. Coincidentally, these two teams also happened to play each other on the final day of the regular season, with the Imperials claiming a 2-1 win on their home pitch. I expected this rematch to be a similarly tight contest. The Imperials were heavily favored -- with the league's best defense, tied for the best offense, and the best goal differential (+11) -- but the scrappy Defenders seemed to be peaking at the right time. Here's how the semifinal game went down. Imperials superstar Agrippa scored early in the first half, but Ardghal, the Defenders' best midfielder, tallied the first playoff goal in franchise history to even things up before the end of the frame. Just moments into the second half, Camedyr gave the Defenders their first lead, after which they played keep-away for much of the remaining time. Tiarnan, a player involved in the aforementioned blockbuster trade, scored for the Imperials on a corner kick with just three minutes remaining in regulation. It looked like extra time was inevitable, but then Defenders striker Amulius -- the player for whom Tiarnan was traded -- blasted home the game-winning goal. The final score was 3-2 for the visiting Defenders, who earned a spot in the Thaler Cup championship game. The first-place Imperials, meanwhile, lost in the first round for the second straight season.

Semifinal 2: Prifddinas Golden Dragons (2nd Place) vs. Riverton Racers (3rd Place)

The Dragons won the first-place pennant last season but lost in the playoff semifinal. They were strong this year, too, with an offense that tied for the lead league, as well as the second-best marks in defense and goal differential (+6). The Racers, meanwhile, were a solid team with no real weaknesses and were keen to defend their shocking Thaler Cup championship from Season 3. Riverton came out flat, while Prifddinas maintained strong pressure in the first half and led 1-0 on a goal by midfielder Daithi. In the second half, Luaran made it 2-0 for the home team, but former Dragons midfielder Amren brought the Racers to within a goal. However, this year's League MVP, Donnan, made an end-to-end rush and scored to restore the two-goal advantage. The game ended 3-1, so the Golden Dragons will face the Defenders for the Thaler Cup. Get ready for the Battle of Teyrnas!

DC Season 4 Awards

I've come to the end of the fourth campaign of my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer. The Imperials finished in first place with the best regular season in league history (9-3-2). They were led by superstar striker Agrippa, whose 10 goals tied with Camedyr of the Defenders for the league lead; as such, these two gentlemen will share the Scoring Championship award. In a season of good-but-not-great performances by scorers and goalkeepers alike, the League MVP trophy goes to the Golden Dragons' Donnan, the best defender in the game. Donnan played top-notch defense in front of his keeper and also chipped in 4 goals (only one other defender in the league had as many as 2). Next up -- the playoffs!

Broken Sword

Anybody know anything about the Broken Sword game series? I checked out the Legacy of Kain series on my Evercade and found them to be kind of ho-hum, so I'm on the lookout for something else. Broken Sword is the latest classic game series to debut on Evercade, and it looks like of cool!

Edge Quest

I love fencing. I love board games. Wouldn't I love a fencing board game?

Well...

Enter Edge Quest, coming soon to Kickstarter. It's got cards, dice, and all that board-gamey goodness, but there are also fully articulated action figures representing the fencers. Awesome in principle, but can you imagine having to stop play to adjust the arm and leg positions of both fencers with every thrust, parry, riposte, and whatnot? Fencing is fast, but the manipulation of the figure seems like it would make for an agonizingly slow game experience. I'd be up for static miniatures that enable players to show the position of their fencers on the game board (especially if the arena is more diverse than a simple fencing strip), but fiddling around with the figures seems kind of ridiculous.

Phase 2 Complete!

With 555 named characters, my Front Porch Multiverse spreadsheet is a paltry 41.3% the length of my behemoth Druid Cycle character spreadsheet. Even if I added in all the Shattered Realm characters to the multiverse sheet, the Druid Cycle spreadsheet would still have nearly twice as many names as all other campaigns combined. Wow! 

Anyway, I now have Cypher System levels for all multiverse characters and, for most of them, stat blocks from the Cypher System Bestiary and other sources. All systems are go for the first campaign to use this ruleset!

Strange Times Indeed

As if anyone needed further proof that we're living in strange times, there's an article on the Monte Cook Games website about tariffs. This strident opponent of tariffs tips his cap to Monte and friends!

Three Nations Kick-Off

Hockey's 4 Nations Face-Off has been a delight to watch over the past couple of weeks. It got me thinking that I might run a similar tournament in Sensible Soccer using the players from my Druid Cycle league. Thus far, each player has suited up for one of eight teams from cities across the three major human nations (the Kingdom of Teyrnas, the Empire of Troya Nova, and the Southern Principalities) of this campaign world. Why not have a best-on-best tournament that would allow the players to represent their respective homelands? Perhaps I'll set something up for after the completion of Season 4. It's an intriguing idea, and at the very least, it would be fun to see a stacked Troya Novan lineup with superstar rivals Belisarius of the Paladins and Agrippa of the Imperials playing side-by-side for the first time.

Monster Manual

Amazon says the new Monster Manual will be out on February 18. Once I have a copy, and I've read through it fully, I won't have any more excuses to put off converting the Druid Cycle world to 5.5. Let me make it clear, however, that I don't relish the thought of reviewing (and probably in many cases changing) the stat block for all 1312 named NPCs.

The Forgotten Realms

Wow, looks like we'll be getting a D&D TV series at some point. Perhaps I won't cancel our Netflix subscription just yet! Check out the news here.

Phase 2 -- Stat Blocks

I now have a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet compiling the names, places, factions, etc., from non-5e D&D campaigns of today and yesteryear. These campaigns include:

• Alien 
• Cyberwars (with all of its prequels, sequels, and spinoffs)
• Dark Enigma
• Doctor Who
• Earth Commanders
• The Ladder
• The Other World
• Project Descartes
• Tales of the Ternion
• Torchlight
• The Vanguard Saga

Putting the spreadsheet together was the main objective of this phase of my project. However, in order to create a true multiverse where characters from various campaigns can cross over and interact with each other, the characters all need compatible game stats. The list above reflects a wide range of rules systems, from the Alien RPG (Alien) to TinyD6 (Dark Enigma) to 4e D&D (Torchlight). As I noted in a previous post, I've opted for the Cypher System as the common platform for the Front Porch multiverse. As such, my last step for Phase 2 is to assign a Cypher System level and stat block to all the characters in the spreadsheet. The core rulebook is a huge help, but I also picked up a copy of the Cypher System Bestiary, which looks like it will give me enough examples to balance characters from such wildly different genres.

DC League Season 4

Sensible Soccer is one of my favorite retro games on Evercade, and lately I've been using it to play through a fourth season of my Druid Cycle soccer league. This league must take place in some sort of alternate version of the Druid Cycle campaign setting, however, or perhaps is set at some point in the future, because, as the PCs know quite well, it's not all fun and games on the continent of First Home these days. The looming threat of war hangs like a storm-cloud over the continent, and it seems inevitable that there will come a day when differences will be settled not on the soccer pitch, but on the battlefield.

Tomb, Raided

I played through the original Tomb Raider on my Evercade and, well, I don't think I'll play through the two sequels that are bundled on the same cartridge. I'm sure I played at least one of these titles back in the day, but this time around, the whole experience just felt kind of...tedious. I constantly found myself scouring YouTube playthroughs to find some hidden switch or lever that I needed in order to move forward. At this point, I think I'll go back to some Commodore 64 classics.

Season 11 Creighton Cup

Another campaign comes to a close with the conclusion of the Creighton Cup championship series! In Game 1, the Comets held a 2-0 lead until the closing minutes when Billy McGimsie scored to give the Victorias a glimmer of hope, but the game ended 2-1 with the road team picking up a surprising win. Game 2 started off with fireworks as Marty Walsh (Victorias) and Mike Grant (Comets) traded goals in the first minute; things settled down after that, and the Vics rebounded nicely from their series-opening loss, doubling up the Comets in a 4-2 win. The road team had won the first two contests, and Game 3 would continue the trend; the Comets demolished the Vics 5-1, but it was a costly victory: left wing Frank McGee, the league's all-time leader in goals scored, suffered a season-ending injury. The series shifted back to the Comets' rink, and they were determined to win the Cup on home ice. The Vics took the lead twice, but both times the Comets answered back. With the score tied at 2, we headed to overtime! The Vics hoped to extend the series to a decisive fifth game, but Comets were relentless in their attack. Finally, dynamic young defenseman Eddie Gerard, who had been struggling throughout the postseason, blasted the puck from the blueline and beat Bowse Hutton for the Cup-clinching score. The Comets won the series 3-1, with top center Duke Keats taking home Playoff MVP honors. The Comets now have their second Creighton Cup in franchise history, and the first since way back in Season 3.

Season 11 Playoffs

Playoff time! The Thistles and the Millionaires finished fifth and sixth, respectively, so they missed out on the big dance. In the opening round, the first-place Victorias faced the fourth-place Bearcats, while the Comets and Bulldogs duked it out as second and third. 

The Vics got quite a scare in Game 1 when they surrendered a goal on the first shot and superstar blueliner Cyclone Taylor was injured and left the game shortly thereafter; however, they rallied for a 3-2 victory in overtime on a goal by captain Hobey Baker. Game 2 was a 5-0 laugher for the Vics on the road, with Taylor returning to rack up four points. The third game, back at the Vics' rink, was a tense affair that remained 1-1 into the final minute of regulation time, when Newsy Lalonde struck with a game- and series-ending goal.

In the first game of the other series, the Comets and Dogs went back and forth in a wild shootout that ended 6-4 for the hosting Comets. Riley Hern, the goalie who had lifted the Dogs into the playoffs, was so terrible in Game 1 that the Dogs opted to start Paddy Moran in Game 2. Moran performed well, but the Comets prevailed in a nailbiter 3-2 finish. In Game 3, the Dogs built a quick 2-0 lead, only for Frank McGee and Duke Keats to score on three consecutive shots (Keats got the second and third tallies). By the end of the third, the contest was knotted up at three goals apiece. Moran turned aside a number of tough shots in overtime, but Dick Irvin managed to sneak one past him late in the frame to give the Comets a win and a series sweep.

Next up: The Creighton Cup championship series between the Victorias and the Comets!

Season 11 Highlights

I've been playing through Season 11 of my Strat-O-Matic historical hockey league and although I haven't been posting updates, the regular season is now complete and I've moved on to the playoffs. Season 11 was full of fun and surprises: the defending-champion Thistles failed to reach the postseason, Bulldogs rookie Jack Adams finished seventh in the league in scoring, third-year Comets defenseman Eddie Gerard took a huge step forward (9 goals in just 16 games!), and Newsy Lalonde of the Victorias won a season-long duel over the Bearcats' Joe Malone to claim his first MVP trophy. In perhaps the coolest story of the year, hard-luck goalie Riley Hern was unemployed at the start of the season but signed with the floundering Bulldogs around the midpoint and absolutely saved their season -- his 2.22 goals-against average and .929 save percentage were both second-best in the league, and the Dogs made the playoffs largely because of Hern's netminding heroics.

Phase 2 Underway!

I finished pulling together a spreadsheet with characters, locations, factions, and other data from recent campaigns -- the ones for which I have really comprehensive records. The next phase of this project is to scour my earlier notes for similar data from the campaigns of years past. I went back to faded copies of Front Porch newsletters from the early '90s, handwritten stat blocks for NPCs, player guides printed from the old Tandy 1000 SX, and everything else I could track down. Sadly, it wasn't as much as I had hoped to find. 

Players, if you're reading this, I'd love to get your thoughts on campaigns of the past and anything that really stood out to you -- characters, themes, storylines, anything!

2025?!?

Wait, is it really 2025? That's a date I would have used in an '80s campaign to represent a dystopian near-future setting that was rife with corruption, power-hungry tyrants, bitter political strife...oh, wait...

Happy Halodays!

Howdy, everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. 

The boys got some fun gaming stuff for Christmas this year, including D&D miniatures, a copy of the new 5.5 Player's Handbook for each of them, and the cool new Halo miniatures game. We also played through one of the adventures from the Cypher System Starter Set, which required a lot of deep dives into the rulebook, but it turned out pretty well. We're still a long way from starting a new campaign using this system, but at least it's another step in the right direction!