Thinking Outside the Box

Wow it's been a long time since I started this blog. Over ten years. Most of that time has been spent writing about games and hobby activities, but occasionally I dive into event reviews, the odd rant and even gotten political a few times. All of that writing has resulted in over 75,000 page views. So I know some of you out there are reading this stuff, even if you're largely silent. I always have several posts in-progress and had actually resisted posting anything, trying to find the right item to include in my 500th post. Today I decided that it would be Pulp City . The guys from Pulp Monsters  are running a small campaign,  Pulp City: Cold War , to expand the rich world of Pulp City with two new teams of awesome looking supremes. I pledged on the new campaign because I think almost all of the new characters look amazing, and I want to support the game. I've been hard on them in the past because I'm still waiting for quite a few missing items from my Collector...

A little history Long ago I acquired most of a Pulp City  collection from someone over on the Lead Adventure forums. Despite getting screwed out of several figures it was still a pretty good deal. I painted some figures and gave the original rules a spin on my own to get a feel for the game. A few of my friends were mildly interested in the game, but I never got it off the ground. Last year Pulp Monsters ran a Kickstarter campaign to get their new Supreme Edition of the game printed and out to customers. After looking at the costs to add the models I was missing, I instead chose to go with the Collector's Pledge level as it ended up being almost the same price, but with twice the models. When it arrived a few months back I was very excited to see it arrive. Dampening my excitement was the sheer amount of time it took to sort through the bags of unlabelled figures, only to find that several things were missing. Both sets of my add-on dice, an entire set of cards, the resin m...

A bevy of new stuff has arrived at my door since the month started. In my excitement I didn't take much in the way of photos, but here's a quick recap. Mantic Games sent a combined package with the final pieces from the Dreadball Xtreme Kickstarter campaign. It included the season 5 and 6 books, loads of new teams, a campaign set, a lovely mouse-mat style Dreadball original board and all the stuff for building new teams and playing multiplayer in Dreadball Xtreme. The amount of stuff I have for these two games is embarrassing, and a little sad, since I've not played Xtreme yet despite having it in my possession since last December. That same package also included a few bits and bobs from the more recent Kings of War  second edition campaign. No army sets yet, but some tokens and templates, the KS-exclusive Blaine and Ronaldino the Bard all showed up. Additionally I received both the hardcover and the gamer's edition of the rule books. I have an older starter set ...

Pictured here are painted examples of the core set hero miniatures from Guardians Chronicles . These are not the replacement figures that backers received, but rather, the miniatures that anyone buying the game at retail will get (I think). These languished on my painting table for quite a while. In retrospect I'm not sure why I punished myself with the task. Quite simply, they're bloody awful. While I was able to make them look somewhat respectable, it just wasn't worth the effort. The replacement figures are miles better, although admittedly still a disappointment from what was promised during the Kickstarter campaign. I'm uncertain as to whether the better figures are now being included with copies of the game. If they are I've not heard anything about it. So, don't buy the game for the figures! However, I quite enjoy the game and would suggest it to anyone looking for a one-vs-many superhero adventure game. The rules are a bit of a task to surmount...

Ok minor rant time. I use Kickstarter a lot. I've supported many a project over the past few years, and today I happened upon something that, as a software designer, drove me absolutely insane. After over five minutes of searching, it's fucking impossible to submit feedback to Kickstarter. You might ask what the hell I'm talking about, so here's a little more detailed information. I was reading an update from the creator of one of my supported campaigns on my iPhone. It had some nice info and images in it, so I wanted to add a comment stating my appreciation. When I clicked on the "Leave a Comment" button, the page simply reloaded and I was right back where I started. Yes, I was logged in. Now, this is odd, so I went to the support section on the site. There's no way to submit a bug report or feedback. I can submit specific things about "My stuff" or "General Questions" like pledging and payments. But a simple "hey thi...

If you're like me, you have a huge pile of boxes, models and various other figures and terrain bits awaiting construction, painting and (hopefully) time on the gaming table. Kickstarter may or may not have affected the size of your pile. If you've been able to resist some of the games providing masses of models on KS in the past few years I commend you. I keep a big wish list / to-do list related to my miniature hobby. It serves a few different purposes: GOOD: Reminds me of what project(s) I'm working on and keeps me on track (sometimes). GOOD: Give me ideas about stuff I could do next. GOOD: Is a place to put things I need to buy or do for specific projects. BAD: Reminds me how much stuff I have spent money on. BAD: Makes it pretty apparent I'll never finish all this stuff, or play all of these games. In May I started posting up monthly progress reports to keep myself motivated and serve as a reminder that building and priming models is progress too. As muc...

I've posted a few times about Incursion  by Grindhouse Games . The campaign offered up some excellent looking figures and an update to a game I quite like. They (as most campaigns do) got caught with shipping and production delays, but things are finally here. It was a bit of surprise as I hadn't received any shipping notification. That's certainly not worth complaining about. Good job on getting the game out to backers folks! The box for the core game is massive and has a ton of stuff inside. With all the stretch goal zombies we got there is something like five dozen  zombies to use in your games. The Snafu expansion box isn't quite as large as the core game, although it is still a rather hefty package. Both boxes contain a copy of the new submarine tile as well as the new 'Assets' book. It's nice to see that all the extra items come in a standard size box with a nice tray. I've put the extra dice into the other boxes, but otherwise haven'...

Next up we have the modular Tablescapes terrain tiles from Secret Weapon Miniatures  which arrived early last week. It feels like it has been a very long time since I put my money in on this campaign. Secret Weapon had HUGE delays in shipping due to some cash flow problems and short-ordering the number of tiles they needed to fill backer pledges. I think the most frustrating part for me was seeing people who had pre-ordered the tiles commercially receiving them nearly a year ago. I understand that mistakes do happen but it was challenging to stay patient. One thing to note would be that Justin at Secret Weapon was very transparent about the challenges he was facing with the product fulfillment, and that transparency bought him a lot of goodwill with the backer community. It's something that other companies running, or thinking about running, campaigns should think about. Even when things are going sideways, it's always in your best interests to tell your backers the truth ...

More stuff keeps arriving these days. It's cool and slightly disturbing at the same time. Cool because it's new toys, new games, and plenty more hobby to undertake. On the other hand it reminds me that there is money long-since spent only now turning into real items and it makes me think about the other things not yet delivered. Too much stuff in the long run. Anyway, you're here to hear about my recently received items. Let's start with Guild Ball . This package of stuff wasn't very large but it had a lot inside. The figures and a few other items were individually bagged, but the cards and all of the resin base inserts were rather unceremoniously dumped loose into the box. The absolutely great looking book suffered some minor scuffing on the cover and several of the cards were pretty dinged up. After some time spent to sort everything out showed only one set of tokens was missing. A replacement set is being sent by the folks at Steamforged Games shortly. I h...

A box I wasn't expecting arrived a few weeks ago: my Pulp City collector's pledge from their Kickstarter campaign! I wasn't expecting it because I hadn't received any shipping notification for it. I didn't think to take any photos while I was going through stuff, but I really should have. First off, the stuff in the package was a little hammered. The heroes starter and package of cards were squashed and had obviously rattled around a fair bit. On the up-side, the book was nicely covered in bubble wrap and had suffered no damage when I removed it from the box. The character cards were also wrapped and protected well enough. The resin models were nicely packed in a small box of their own and all but two arrived unscathed. The "Yeti" model has some very fine spikes that obviously broke off during transport, and are small enough that even had I found them it would be unlikely I'd be able to glue them back on. I might consider trying to sculpt some new...

The second shipment for the Guardian Chronicles 2013  Kickstarter  campaign arrived last week. The package I received in the mail included three expansions (Terror Trio, Night Squad and True King of Atlantis), replacement figures for the core game (the core heroes and Skarov) and the backer-created characters. I was excited to hear this had shipped and am slightly ashamed to admit it. There has been a lot said about the Kickstarter campaign, the quality of the original figures, the abysmal campaign communications and the clarity/quality of the rules. Since I put my money in so long (two years) ago, just receiving more of the product I pledged for is a pleasant surprise. We've played the game on three different occasions and while not without its problems, Guardians Chronicles is an enjoyable super-hero game and I'm happy to see the expansions arrive. The Terror Trio expansion contains three new lieutenants for Dr. Skarov to enlist in his pursuit of his evil plans. Th...

When I completed my pledge for the DreadBall Xtreme campaign on Kickstarter a while back, I added a Martian team. It sounded like fun, having the scrawny little dome-heads running around the pitch shooting at people and/or getting smashed to death. The team pack came with the shipment that had all of the Season 4 items. It included a set of ten Martian figures equipped for DreadBall - 2 strikers, 2 guards, 4 jacks and 2 down markers. The figures aren't a huge departure from the ones in my Mars Attacks! core game, at least the jacks aren't. The guards and strikers look to be different, but I think they might be based on the science team from one of the expansions. Sadly I only have the Mars Attacks! base game so I can't really be sure. I wanted to make them interesting, and always try to think about who the coaches might be for a team. In this case I decided that DC Comics' Martian Manhunter would be a fun choice. It's a departure from my Masters of the Univers...

This figure has been rattling around in the big box of stuff in my Vampire Package that I got from the first Kickstarter campaign for Reaper Bones . I was given a version of this Bones model painted up in green and purple to represent the Hulk by Uncle Mike a while back, and decided I'd use mine to do a Red Hulk. While I don't know anything about Red Hulk or Red She-Hulk other than who their alter egos are, I think it's a cool look. I painted this figure in less than an hour, including drying time for the washes. Highlighting took another 10 to 15 minutes. Very simple paint recipe: - P3 Skorne Red for all the skin - P3 Greatcoat Grey for the shorts - P3 Menoth White Highlight for teeth and eyes - Black to simulate some hair - GW Fortress Gray for the nails Once the base colours were applied I did some rough dry brushing: P3 Midlund Flesh on the skin and some P3 Trollblood Highlight on the shorts. Following that I splashed on some GW Badab Black wash on t...

With 2014 winding to a close I thought I'd post another Kickstarter  round-up, because I find them interesting. Move along if you don't care...but happy holidays regardless! :D Achtung!Cthulhu These guys have done a great job putting together all the materials they promised during the campaign. I'm still waiting on a few books: - Shadows of Atlantis campaign - Assault on the Mountains of Madness campaign - Editable Dossiers - Dust mashup - Godlike supplement Age of Conan expansion Just last week I went through their web site to submit my "order" and paid the shipping fees. I'm hopeful that this one will actually be delivered on time. Carnevale 2nd Edition Fees have been collected, and their 1st survey was made available a few days ago. I've already filled mine out, but I'm not sure when the second one will show up, which will allow us to select all of our add-ons and other goodies. Deadzone This one has been pretty lengthy, w...

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...

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 received a shipping notice and tracking number late last week, and after a few failed delivery attempts I was finally able to pick up my Kickstarted copy of Sentinel Tactics - Flame of Freedom  by Greater Than Games. This was the first product of theirs that I've chosen to Kickstart, but I do own all of the Sentinels of the Multiverse games and expansions. In fact I had to order the original game directly from the publisher, because at the time there were no Canadian distributors even carrying it. Well that's all changed and the publisher has grown up. Ah makes me so proud! Back when the campaign was running I almost didn't pledge, which would have been a shame now that I've seen the awesome stuff that came in the box. My hesitation stemmed from the SotM expansion "Vengeance" which I found to be overly complicated without adding a comparable amount of fun. Now I'll qualify that by saying that Sentinel Tactics is NOT an expansion for the card game; i...

Whew it's been a while since I've cracked open my box of Sedition Wars . I think the last time I set it up to play was in September back at Fallcon 2013. That's not to say it's a bad game, but I'll admit that I experienced some frustration with the original rules and the rapid number of "no this is the last and latest rules update" coming out of Studio McVey . In fact, the folks over at the Esoteric Order of Gamers  have provided a set of cards and rules summary that, in my opinion, is far superior in layout and brevity than the actual rules from the publisher. However I digress, I'm here to talk about the second wave of models sent to backers of the original Kickstarter campaign. I've had these mostly constructed for a while now (you'll have to forgive the lack of photos today, sorry). So just what did I receive? Firebrand: - Vokker Dargu - Jade Lily - Dead Space dude and strain version The Strain: - bone crabs Vanguard: - Rami...

While the Kickstarter campaign for SuperSystem 4th Edition  was still running earlier this week we got together to play a game of 3rd Ed. I stat-ed up some characters to play with and we set up the table. I chose to play the  Legion of Super-Villains : Saturn Queen, Cosmic King and Lightning Lord. William was playing Exiles : Blink, Nocturne and Sasquatch. Starting off the game Lightning Lord grabbed Cosmic King and flew up over a building to keep an eye on the Exiles. Sasquatch moved up and Nocturne ran towards another building and hid in the shadows. Saturn Queen and Cosmic King moved over towards a lower building to avoid Blink's cowardly hit-and-run maneuvers. The following round Saturn Queen lands a mental attack against Sasquatch but isn't able to slow her down. Nocturne stays in the shadows and fires some hex-bolts at Lightning Lord with no success. Cosmic King moves towards the source of the hex-bolts but is unable to determine their exact origin. Sasquatch char...

Over the family day weekend I was able to get some time to myself to catch up on some TV. I've been using my Sunday (well, in this case it was actually Monday) evenings to plunk down and do some multi-tasking. Next up for construction were the  Plague  figures for Deadzone . The basic box game comes with eleven plague figures total: - 1x stage 1A - 3x stage 2A - 4x stage 3A - 1x stage 3A with heavy machine gun, and - 2x stage 3D "hellhounds" With the Kickstarter level that I pledged at I got some bonus troopers as well: - 4x stage 3A - 2x stage 3A with heavy machine gun I do wish that a few of the bonus figures had been hellhounds, or even an extra stage 2A instead just to add some more variety. Here are a the hellhounds and some knife-waving stage 3As. With the bonus figures I essentially ended up with triplets of three different figures. Since the main bodies are one piece, and the arms are keyed to a specific body, it's a little tough to modi...