Thinking Outside the Box

The fine folks from Uncle Mike's Worldwide and Trilogy Gaming Club will be co-hosting a tournament of Strange Aeons on Saturday night at Fallcon 2012 . There will be four or five boards set up for demos and tournament play; some of which, if the rumors are true, are brand-spanking-new custom creations of the diabolical Uncle Mike himself. I'll be there representing the congregants of the Cult of the Black Goat , providing demos for new players and death, destruction and mayhem to all those pesky Threshold Agents. If you'll be in the Calgary on Saturday September 29th, 2012 drop by the convention (see the Fallcon link for venue details) any time between 8 pm and 12 midnight to join in the dark deeds! Links for you inquisitive types: More information about Strange Aeons . More information about Trilogy Gaming Club . More information about Fallcon .

Over the weekend I took a fairly lengthy road trip and ended up having a little bit of time to stop in at a game shop on the way. I won't go into my experience at the shop or say what shop it was, because my impressions were mediocre at best. However, I did pick up a few things while I was there. I had never been able to find the original The  Adventurers: Temple of Chac , board game, and so when I saw a decently priced copy I grabbed it. Having read through the rules, set it up and tried a few basic turns I'm not sure how well it will get received in my regular group, but we'll give a go sometime soon and I'll post up my thoughts then. What I was really looking for when I walked into the shop were some reasonably priced western-themed figures. When I asked for something like that I was told, without hesitation, to "go check a dollar store, I don't have anything like that here," but upon looking around a little I found two packs of nicely pre-painted 2...

Lots of little bits to share today so let's get started. One of my favorite card games apparently has a new lease on life! Warlord: Saga of the Storm has been picked up by another developer and will continue. I think this is the third or even fourth incarnation of the game. If you haven't played it I highly recommend picking up a few of the available decks and giving it a go. I'm not sure what the change of hands means to the existing US web store (but I intend to find out as I still have credit there). Click here to see info about the new developer/publisher/whatever. In all the miniature stuff I've looked at in the past few months, it never occurred to me to look into a wild west-style skirmish game. That is until I saw some recommendations for a game called Blackwater Gulch . I've only just skimmed through the rules, but it looks quick and easy to play, and best of all the rules are totally free. They can be downloaded on their website  and I suggest taki...

I finally finished the two figures on my painting table. They'd both been sitting at near-complete for over a week and I just never got a chance to sit down and finished them off. The first figure is a converted Heroclix Wendigo that I'm going to be using as an alternate form for my figure Snowbird . As far as conversions go this was an easy one. Swap from the clix base over to a 40mm round base, which I added some sand and rocks to. The paint work on the Wendigo was quite good to begin with. I used a quick wash of the Army Painter Strong Tone  and followed that up with a dry brushed coat of pure white. I would have preferred a grey wash with a slightly blue tint, but honestly...I'm not sure how to make one. I didn't want to be up all night experimenting with mixing something up, so I went the easy route. I've got SuperSystem statistic sheets made up for both figures and am looking forward to trying her abilities out in a game. I've already tried usin...

It would seem that I'm a total sucker when it comes to new games these days, especially when they have little plastic people/monsters involved. The latest (although in this case, not-yet-released) one that I've been following with high interest is Mantic Games' DreadBall . Upon seeing the initial teasers and game explanation floated around I, like almost everyone else out there, thought it just looked like a futuristic version of Blood Bowl . Now, I have never played Blood Bowl, nor do I have any interest in it whatsoever. I know it's got a huge cult following and has been around for a long time, but it looks way too fiddly and complicated for my tastes. Granted, I've only seen a few games played at my local shop and I have no idea what the rules are like or anything else. Nonetheless, I'm simply not interested. Then back to DreadBall, and why am I interested in this if it's just a Blood Bowl clone? When Mantic announced their Kickstarter campaign (som...

Friday, Sept 14th - 1922 ATTN: Director Silver RE: Civilian death incurred during Threshold operation SA-120913-F Director, While investigating the disappearance of several paleontologists on a dig near Drumheller, Alta we encountered several cult members attempting to gain control of a rampaging fishman. The two newest agents who joined us after the unfortunate deaths of Trisha Kellington and Arthur Hendry fought well, and we were able to kill the creature. The cultists seemed to go into a maniacal frenzy after the loss of the fiend and we were forced to retreat. I was able to keep our activities quiet, but I've enclosed an excerpt from the "Drumheller Mail" that appeared this morning. Carl Selinger ---- Man Found Dead After Vicious Animal Attack The body of a man was found near an excavation site early this morning by representatives from the Tyrell Museum . Police have identified the corpse as that belonging to a Calgary man named James Forester, Jr....

Outside, the two searching figures slowly return to the main building. As they approach the light from their flashlights reflects off of the building and their shapes resolve. They're wearing simple, nondescript military style uniforms and armed with automatic weapons. One of them snarls at the other, "There's nothing out here except coyotes, dirt and wind. Besides, if I were in charge I'd have come out here and checked it out myself!" "Yeah right! If you were in charge we'd all be dead already Carlson. That door was rusted shut, I'd bet money on it. Ain't no coyote cracking it open like that," says the second guard. They pause outside the door and turn off the flashlights and he digs a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket. Lighting up a cigarette he offers the pack to his companion. "So if it ain't a coyote what the hell was it? Nothing around here for miles!" "I don't know Staves, but I'm not taking that...