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...

I creep through the darkness, feeling my way along the wall of the building until I reach the corner. A sliver of a moon shines wanly above in an otherwise empty sky. The light it gives is just enough to make out the shapes of other buildings against the horizon. Thick black against an even thicker black. I'm walking almost blind here. It's going to be hell trying to move around in near pitch. I can't figure out how to light my way without giving up my location so I squint hard into the inky night and will my eyes to adjust. Thinking back to when I awoke in the grass, I vaguely recall the layout of the complex. There was a small shed on this end of the building and I think it's almost directly ahead of me. With no other viable options I might as well go for it. Pushing myself away from the cooling wall of the building I start to cross the void, moving in the remembered direction of the shed. After what seems like forever my outstretched hands...

I thought I'd do something completely different and post up a little piece of ongoing fiction I recently started working on. The concept was conceived simply as a creative writing exercise. I don't know much more about the world itself, the characters in it or what's happening any more than you do. The few restrictions I've placed on the work are simple: 1. It takes place on Earth, set in the modern day. 2. Anything can happen. I started with the simple premise of a man who wakes up alone somewhere. Everything after that just sort of...well we'll see. Want to come along for the ride? Part 1 Dazzling sunshine strikes my face as I open my eyes. I'm lying on my back, staring up at a clear blue sky. Tall, golden grass waves in a gentle breeze all around me. I sit up and look around. I have no obvious injuries that I can see or feel, no blood or anything around me to indicate why I was unconscious at all. Come to think of it, I have no idea how I got......

I finished up a few more figures. The first one is a Heroclix conversion that I'll be using for games of SuperSystem : Snowbird. Obviously I re-based the figure onto a custom 30mm round base. The rest of the work was simple. I used an Asurmen Blue wash on all of the white and blue parts of her uniform and cape. Afterwards I applied a Gryphonne Sepia wash to her hair and face, and then finally painted a few view thin coats of white over her body suit to give her a nice smooth finish. The figure I'm planning to use for her alternate form is in progress. I'm hoping to have it finished tomorrow. My next completed piece is one of the figures from the villains starter box for Pulp City : the Gentleman. The paint on this figure was pretty simple. I used blue, red, black, metal and flesh from my Army Painter  starter box. I used a light citadel grey for the suit. Once I had my base coat applied I covered the whole figure in Strong Tone ink...and was promptly ...

Yesterday afternoon a few people dropped by to try out a role-playing session. It's been at least six months or longer since we played any RPGs. That would have been a session of Savage Worlds using a modern horror one-sheet adventure. We didn't finish the adventure, but it seemed to go well. The biggest issue with playing a role-playing game is that someone needs to be the game master. Invariably that would be me. However on this occasion Collin had something we were going to try; the Mythic RPG game master emulator. We were going to try using the emulator to play without a GM, and decided to use the new DC Adventures (based on Mutants and Masterminds) to play it. We had four players and used pre-made character sheets for Green Arrow, Nightwing, Mister Miracle and John Constantine. As the adventure played out we ran into mystical barriers, shape shifting cultists, Barbara Gordon and were successful in stopping a nefarious plot at the Gotham Museum of Modern Art. After ...

So yesterday I made it to the game shop a little early. Usually I'm not able to get there until 6:30, but I arrived a full half hour earlier than that. I grabbed one of the boards for Strange Aeons , some terrain and took possession of a table. The other regular Strange Aeons player was there and had his figures. Things were looking pretty good. Digging into my bag I found that my regular dice tin had been forgotten at home. Not really a big deal, as I had a few others in my box of tokens. I'm not one that subscribes to any kind of luck being inherent in little plastic cubes; the games would go on. Worst case scenario I could have used Brandon's for the game. Not too long ago I picked up a Chessex medium sized figure case because the number of figures I have for Strange Aeons had outgrown the smaller box I was using. I hadn't been in love with the new case, but now I have decided I dislike it quite a bit. The hole cuts for the figures are actually too big, so they r...

Well, even though I can't really afford it, I splurged out the $135 (including taxes) for the new sixth edition limited version starter box for Warhammer 40,000 : Dark Vengeance . As to why it's called that, I don't really know. I haven't read through all the paperwork in the box to find out if there is something dark and spooky and...vengeful going on here. As anyone who has even a passing interest in 40k knows by now, the regular edition starter box comes out next week but Games Workshop released the limited one a week early. What do you get in the limited box that's different? A one-page card stock sheet detailing the stats and construction diagram for a chaplain figure. According to the young fellow at the local Games Workshop, you're getting "a $20 model for only  $9!" I'd be inclined to disagree that this is a $20 model, but it is pretty nice, and in reality only set me back $9. On the other hand though, that's about the maximum I'd...

I little while back I stumbled onto a post on LAF ; a user there was looking to get rid of his entire collection of Pulp City models for a very good price. I'd had Pulp City on my radar for a while, and eagerly jumped on the offer. We quickly struck a deal and I impatiently awaited the arrival of a huge box of new toys. A big thanks to Nate for hooking me up with all the awesome stuff below. The character cards and some assembled figures are that were also in the box are not shown. I went through all the boxes and sorted out the cards, which were already sleeved. After going through this massive pile I realized with some disappointment that there were almost a dozen figures missing. However, Nate did a double-check and found them hiding away in a closet. They've been sent in the mail and I'm trying to be patient while I await their arrival as well. Once they get here I think there are less than 10 figures from the entire Pulp City line that I'm missing; some of ...