Thinking Outside the Box

I have a lot of Heroclix figures. Hundreds I'm sure. I don't actively play any more, but I do pick up extras from the current sets from my friends when I'm able. Most of these figures I'm showing off here are older ones from my collection. William provided me with a couple of newer ones like Sasquatch and Hyperion, so that I could do some conversions for an Exiles team to use with the  SuperSystem  v3 rules. This group has been in the works for a while now. We actually played a game using unmodified 'clix several months ago, which is what gave me the idea to jump in on the conversions. The first figure I painted was Heather Hudson: Sasquatch. You've seen this one before but since she's part of the team, here she is again. The other two Exiles we used were Nocturne and Blink. Both of these clix are actually very nicely sculpted and painted. I rebased them on 30mm rounds, and didn't do any initial paint cleanup on Nocturne. I added some detailing t...

Any of my regular readers will know how much I like Strange Aeons . It has a lot of great things going for it: top looking models, low entry price, great game play and a local designer who has become a good friend. Over the past few years I've been invited to provide some small input on rules and scenarios, which has been a ton of fun and I'm very happy to have helped out with the game in some little way. The game has grown and evolved a lot, and reached the point where Uncle Mike's Worldwide  has made the decision to create a second edition of the game. The campaign has run rampant, making its initial funding goal in 28 minutes. That's an astonishing fact for a small publisher like Uncle Mike. It hasn't slowed down much since that initial blast. Last I checked they are on track to top 50k before campaign end. I could regale you with tales of heroism and woe that I've experienced playing the game, but you really just need to go check it out for yourself...

I was able to move two of my board games off of the 'never-played' list over the weekend! Most of the time when I'm trying to tackle items off of that list we'll only get through one new game in a session. First up I thought we'd play a horror-themed game since it is so close to Halloween: Herocard Nightmare . This is one of the six Herocard games that I own, and I think is the fourth of them that I've actually had a chance to play. Like the others, the core combat mechanic uses the Herocard duelling system, but the game wrapped around it is very different. I forgot to take a photo of this one, so enjoy the random pic of the components from the internet. In a nutshell, Nightmare is a deduction game. All of the players are trapped in a shared dream of scenes (cabin, forest, lake, etc...) and killers (beast, zombie...). Each player knows where they will die and who will kill them there. The challenge is to move the scenes around in order to figure out who is s...

When the flooding hit our city last summer, I was evacuated from my home. This meant I didn't have much of my hobby stuff with me while I was displaced. I did have enough time to pack up some clothes and my kitty and still have a few minutes to spare. I grabbed a few paints and my Orx team, knowing that I'd have a fair bit of time to fill while waiting for news about returning home. Being without all of my regular equipment meant either suffering with bad lighting and crappy brushes, or finding some new materials. A trip to Wal-Mart yielded a $17 alternative to my Ott lamp. My two brushes didn't survive the escape from home intact, so a stop at the Michael's next to the Wal-Mart and a 40% off coupon got me a set of nice (albeit synthetic) brushes for $5. Finally the nearby dollar store provided me with the one colour I forgot to bring: black. Some excellent interlocking plastic cups and some small paint trays rounded out my materials. I was ready to go; for about $25 ...

If you stop by here with any regularity you already know that I'm a big supporter of Mantic Games . It all started with Dreadball for me, but since that original Kickstarter campaign I've ended up supporting several others. One that I didn't pledge for was Mars Attacks! When Mantic released their plans to put out a game based on the Mars Attacks! license via Kickstarter, I wasn't all that interested. Not having been a fan of the trading card games or other related materials, my exposure to the license was solely the Tim Burton movie. I remember at the time that I really didn't like it, so I glanced at the campaign a few times, then let it pass. Shortly thereafter stuff from my way-larger-than-it-should-have-been Deadzone pledge started showing up and I pretty much forgot all about Mars Attacks. Fast forward a few months and images and videos for the game start popping up. I like what I'm seeing, and since I already own Deadzone, I start thinking th...

Just because I think crowd-funding is interesting, I thought it would be worth going through some of the many campaigns I've supported and give a brief run-down on where they're at. If you're not into Kickstarter or crowd-funded games, you can click here to read something else . Coming Soon: Age of Conan expansion - Starting tomorrow (October 9th, 2014). This one is really interesting in the sense that FFG has let the original designer/publishers have their remaining stock. The expansion should modify Conan's role within the game, although I don't know how or to what extent. Disappointingly this expansion won't add space for additional players to the game. Currently Running: Carnevale - An interesting one here in that it's both and expansion and a second edition in one campaign. I supported Vesper-On a few years ago and picked up the entire range at that time. I'm in for the new book and Strigoi (vampires!) faction, but it's doubtful I'...

I haven't had much time for hobby and gaming lately. Well, perhaps that's not true. It might be more of a case time and motivation not aligning for me. Our Dreadball league recently started up, but I've only played one game. Without a set schedule it's up to the players to arrange their own games. While I can understand why that is being tried, I'm unconvinced that it will work. I have a feeling that I'll have to be the one contacting other players in order to play the games I need to for the league, and in all likelihood most players won't finish this one. That'll be a shame, because the game really is a good one. I should have some photos of my team (The Keldorian Krushers) posted this week, as I'm almost finished them. I just have some highlighting and numbers to add and they'll be all finished. In an effort to cross some games off of my waiting-to-be-played list I invited a bunch of folks over yesterday. It was a short-notice invitatio...