Two Way Battle

We finally got around to playing our side-by-side 40k games, so we covered table area twelve feet wide by five feet across. It worked out well, except we each kept trying to ask rules questions or draw attention to cool action on our table when the others were all too busy with their own game to be interrupted!

Living the Dream!

I always wanted to say to one of my players upon the start of the game, "Why don't you just grab a suitable figure out of the many in my display case." Now, I can. Gamer Achievement unlocked!

Plastic Zombies

Wargames Factory now has their zombie sprues up for sale.

GM On Hold Music

A little something for your next bathroom break when you're the GM...

Chain Reaction 3.0

Two Hour Wargames has updated their Chain Reaction rules and released them for free. There are some really good ideas in there, everybody should check them out if they like modern skirmish gaming.

Warlands

I ordered the new Warlands box from Aberrant. I love the idea of gaming with lots of modded Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Like most guys my age, one of my first games was Car Wars. I probably still have the old Steve Jackson plastic case around here somewhere ("Kong triggered the tail guns once more...that would teach HIM not to tailgate!") along with the Midville supplement (which featured a guy standing up in a convertible, blazing away with a rifle, while still wearing his SEAT BELT!! Awesome!!). Lots of great memories of Car Wars...you just can't beat the feeling of watching those damage boxes go away as you drill through the outer armor, through the crew and internal components, and then start to wear away the armor on the other side!! Man, I remember buying a tablet of huge graph paper and making all those old arenas...good times!

Curio Cabinet

Got my curio cabinet in and managed to find a little time to put it together. Looks nice! I need to get two extra shelves cut and hangers for them, plus install a light, but so far I'm fairly pleased! Too bad they sold out, doesn't look like I have a chance for a matching one...

Doomsday

I read about the movie Doomsday on a post-apocalypse project blog recently, and stuck it in the Netflix queue. It was, as expected, mostly mindless fun, but still fun. Imagine Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior meets 28 Days Later and Resident Evil, with a sprinkling of Escape From New York, Conan the Barbarian and Silence of the Lambs thrown in. How could it be bad? If only they could have squeezed in Aliens and Big Trouble in Little China...but there's always the sequel, I suppose!

D&D Podcast Special

The latest D&D Podcast is an all-star session, featuring Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PvP and Wil Wheaton with line developer Chris Perkins as DM. Despite this geek-celeb lineup, it is strangely comforting to see that their sessions are absolutely no different than ours-- the GM struggling to wrangle the characters who mock each other, cut jokes, quote movies and TV shows, use obscenities and make suggestive comments. This is role-playing!

X-Cam Campaign Rules

The latest d6 Generation episode discusses Russ's X-Cam Campaign framework. It's designed to be something between a league and a traditional campaign, and sounds interesting. You play small scenarios to accumulate Recon points. You can exchange Recon points to play a strategic scenario to try and win Strategic points, which you in turn spend to play control games to accumulate Control points, which are the goal of the campaign. Craig has posted an X-Cam campaign for Uncharted Seas.

Curio-sity

I have been enviously eyeing Lord Ashram's beautiful house of war, including his nice display cabinets. I really like them, but at almost $300 a pop, I didn't really feel like buying one. However, my dear wife found this nice little curio cabinet at around 1/3 that price, so I ordered one. It has already shipped, so hopefully I'll have it soon and can get some pictures up. I'll have to hack in a light, and I'm hoping to add some extra shelves to it, but I'll just have to wait and see once I get it.

Play By Email Miniatures

The Rattrap Productions forums have sections for Play by EMail (PBEM) sessions of their games. Looking through the Fantastic Worlds section, I think they look like a lot of fun, and I almost got in on the last one-- but who am I kidding, I don't have time for that. I am looking forward to getting the new FW supplement, Planet X: Terror From Across the Universe.

Know Your Own Strength

I just got an order in from em4. I ordered their Combat Zone rules, which I've had my eye on for a while. Since I was placing the order, I picked up a few of the old Grenadier Future Wars troopers, just to double check how they mixed with the newer Copplestone Castings troopers (just fine, which is what I suspected). Anyway, one I picked up was this cyborg. As I was forcing the figure into a slottabase, the whole figure broke at the waist! It was a thin part, certainly, but that's the only figure that has happened to in thirteen or so years of putting figures in slottabases. I wonder if the metal composition contributed?

Corporate Babe

Another of the Copplestone Casting Future Wars Corporate Babes.

Another 5150 Game Report

Mik has posted another fun 5150 game report from a game we through together this week.

What I'm Working On

I've started on my February terrain for Trucidos. While that is strictly true, unfortunately, this was done in January, and I have yet to actually work on anything this month. That will change soon.

Rhino!

Just watch.

Project Threads

I've been hanging out on the Lead Adventure Forum lately. There are lots of really talented people there, and I've enjoyed these very cool project threads in the Future Wars section-- the Fallout conversions thread has some very impressive work, the Scruntian Slavers is very creative, and a relly cool STARGUARD! project with a fully pink gaming table. Really. Anyway, the site is full of high-quality stuff. Check it out.

Without Warning

I've been doing more reading lately, and have posted my review of the new book, Without Warning. The year is 2003 and the Iraq War is on the verge of kicking off when the majority of the USA is suddenly wiped from the face of the earth... There are some great wargaming scenarios in here-- from a Marine brigade defending Guantanamo Bay and the remaining part of Cuba against Chavez's power grab, to the troops of France's illegally-installed head Sarkozy battling a civil war against the "loyalists" allied with the arab intifada in the streets of France, the remnants of America's invasion forces defending themselves in the Middle East, and Israel's launch of Operation: Megiddo...

Supersystem Third Edition

I was catching up on older WAYWO podcasts, and a while back, maybe epidsode 14 or 15 (so, Spring of '08), Scott mentions that they're playtesting a third edition of SuperSystem. I look forward to that. The SuperFigs site also notes some new miniature releases soon. May be time to renew my Old Glory Army subscription...

She's Got Legs

...and a broom handled Mauser... One of Copplestone's Future Wars Corporate Babes, looking not really that corporate, but very nice nonetheless.

Ape-X, Super Villain

Got around to finishing my Reaper Chronoscape Ape-X, Super Villain figure I talked about before. He really is a very cool figure, and I like how he turned out.

Just Another Bug Hunt

Mik posted pictures and a report of our recent 5150 bug hunt game. I go back and forth over Two Hour Wargames rules-- there are some real golden nuggets inside the rules, but they are still annoyingly poorly edited. Still, we had a blast with this game. We didn't lose a man, but we did decide that prudence was the better part of valour...

2085: Warlords of the Wasteland

Just stumbled across Skankgame.com, home of 2085: Warlords of the Wastelands. I haven't taken a look at the rules yet, but based on the quality Galleries (complete with Thundarr conversions) and very useful Articles pages, it's probably worth a look. I remember seeing his high rise and rubble articles before, but I never noticed this, the absolute coolest terrain idea I've seen in some time-- wrecked cars in plaster!! Absolutely the coolest!! More here.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I just posted my Amazon review of the classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I thought it was a pretty good book. Very different from the movie, but I thought it felt a tad dated, being 40 years old already.

Game Design & Development

I just discovered the Game Designo & Development forum on RPGnet. The focus is generally on role-playing games, but there's a lot of general info in there, especially in the sticky Games Designers' Resource Thread.

Wasted Roads

The Blog of the Wasteland...the Ayatollah of Paint and Converter! "I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me paint up my dogs of war. Look at what you made of your old figures. Why? Because you're talented! You hoard your bits."
"Don't listen to him!"
"Now, my prisoners say you plan to take your rules into the Wasteland. You sent them out this morning to find a set of rules. A game big enough to haul those fat conversions you made. What an awesome plan!"

What Have You Been Working On?

What Are You Working On has been out a while, but I'm just now catching up on it. I really enjoy it, as it covers both RPGs and miniatures in about the ratio I game. Plus, one of the hosts is Scott Pyle of SuperFigs, an awesome system and a very nice guy, based on my meetings with him at Historicon.

Awesome 3D Space Hulk

SpaceHulk.BeckerF.com is the home to an awesome 3D Space Hulk set up. He also includes a lot of info about how he made the terrain. And he's from Stuttgart, my wife's home town!