D&D Summer Campaign: Update #2

The photo has nothing to do with this posting other than the fact that it was cool and the first thing I was able to locate that had a D&D Party of Adventurers in it. :) Brandon and I have decided on the three characters for our Summer Campaign.

We'll have a female human Paladin and a male half-elf rogue teaming up with a Warlock (race undecided). This isn't set in stone yet, but it is probably going to be close to what we end up with. More information to come!

Free RPG Day was a Success!

I managed to spend about 45 minutes in Rooks (the local gaming store in Bozeman) this Saturday for Free RPG day, which seems to be the most free time I have had there in ages. It was a great success for sure and I got some super products.

The owner (Lincoln) had setup a table as you walked in, it had all of the Free RPG stuff out for everyone to see and flip through. I didn't want to be greedy, so I took one of the WOTC modules (Khyber's Harves), the Goodman Games Suppliment (Immortal Heroes/Amethest: Heart of Chaos) and the Paizo Publishing book (Bonus Beastiary) and a few other odds and ends I will also comment on here.

After taking those items and browsing the store, I picked up about $75 worth of merchandise (A few Pathfinder Modules, the new Ebberon book, a pack of Boosters and some misc. stuff). Rooks was offering a 20% discount on all RPG items and WOTC also had free mini boosters for anyone spending over $15 on WOTC products. So truth be told, I probably had about $150 of merchandise when I left and spent just under $80 in total.

With today being Father's Day as well as a day I had to work on a rush project in my studio, I haven't yet had the time I want to look though things, but I did manage to get a quick overview.

Wizards of the Coast - Khyber's Harvest

This is an introductory and short adventure. Lincoln told me it is essentially for people to hook in new players with a fairly fast and fun adventure. It has several pregenerated characters in the back of it as well as comes with an bonus Dungeon Tile. As a collector for the Dungeon Tiles and a fan of their use in the game, this was a very nice and unexpected bonus for me. I was quite impressed by my quick overview of the module, but haven't given it a solid read as of yet. I will officially state for the record that I am disgusted that people are already selling this item on ebay for $15 - $20 buy it now prices, especially some DEALERS that obviously got them for free. These are supposed to be used to get people into the hobby, not to be blood thirtsty and scalp them the day of the "Free" give away event. You dealers disgust me and will never get my business. Lincoln over at Rooks was actually kind enough to let me grab a second copy for my oldest son who is visiting his Grandparents and unable to get one of his own - Two thumbs up for honest store owners like Lincoln!

Goodman Games - Immortal Hero's Handbook and Amethyst: Heart of Chaos Adventure.

I am a huge fan of Goodman Games. They have rapidly become one of my favorite "third party" D&D companies on the market today. I have to be fair and say that Paizo has been a favorite of mine for quite some time, but Goodman has stepped up into that slot and is actually neck and neck with Paizo right now (in my book at least).

This booklet is a double sided book (the kind where the back half is printed upside down and you have to flip it around), the front is one of the Hero Handbooks, this one being Immortal Heroes. I am not a fan of these books (nothing against Goodman Games, the books are excellent, I just prefer to stick with official WOTC material for everything other than modules/adventures). I skimmed it over and it appears to have some nice material in it.

The reverse size has an adventure Amethyst: Heart of Chaos. Holy cow, this was a little gem waiting to be found, and one of the more exciting things I found at Free RPG Day for sure. I thought it was going to be your every day run of the mill D&D adventure, but in fact, it is so much more. I haven't kept up on the 'news' as of late, but it appears as though Goodman Games has a new Campaign Setting coming out and this module is a sneak peek. Again, I have only skimmed it over due to time, but essentially it is a 'what if' setting, where the D&D world has basically merged in some way with Modern Day Earth (that may not be the correct info, but you get the idea), so there are guns and science as well as swords and magic. Quite a cool thing to uncover.

This adventure is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD from Goodman Games at this web link: http://www.goodman-games.com/downloads/HeartsofChaos-Download.pdf

Paizo Publishing: Pathfinder Bonus Beastiary

Essentially this is a sneak peek at the Paizo's new "Monster Manual", the Beastiary. It has some quite neat monsters in it, check out the last one in the book, holy sweetness Batman! :) I am looking forward to reading this cover to cover. Never a let down from Paizo!!! Aside from looking at the 'pretty pictures' and reading 2 or 3 entries, this book has a bunch of time with my name all over it. :)

I also picked up a few more items as I had mentioned, the Castles & Crusaders company (Troll Lords) offered a module and quickstart rules. I don't know if it was just the batch my local gaming store got, or the entire run, but the quality on this was HORRIBLE. There were ink smears all over and the pages were all stapled crooked. It was quite a let down for me in quality. Perhaps it was just the batch this shop had, I don't know, but with my background in Commercial Art and Printing, this product wouldn't have even been allowed out of my door if I was the printer.

One other thing I did pick up was the Rogue Trader RPG Adventure Module from Fantasy Flight Games for the Warhammer 40k universe. I really REALLY wanted to like this, but something about 40k and Games Workshop has really turned me off in the last couple of years. I used to love playing Traveller back in the mid/late 80's, and a similar game in the 40k universe just seems like something I SHOULD like, but DON'T. I have had a bad taste in my mouth with 40k and GW though, so I can't fault Fantasy Flight. The module itself looks top notch, excellent layout and printing with nice art, but for some reason it just isn't doing it for me.

Well, that's it for my short review of the products I brought home. I wish I had more time to read through things more thoroughly, but unfortunately time has not yet permitted it. Too bad I own my own business or I could call in sick tomorrow and give all of the items a solid read though. :)

D-Rock signing off!

D&D Modules from the Idiot

I typed in Idiot on the internet and this photo was the number one result in Google Images, so I have decided to use it in this blog posting to show what I think of the guy I just got a shipment of D&D Modules from.

Ok, here is my story... I'd love to hear comments on this. I recently bought some modules from a dealer online (I am not mentioning any names because that is not what this is about, this is more about the situation in general and not calling out the specific person as an idiot, although I am tempted). So back to the story, I ordered a few D&D modules from someone online, and I paid extra money for Priority shipping. I personally like Priority shipping because you get a Delivery Confirmation number and can look online as to when you can expect the package to arrive, or track it down if it is lost. The shipping charge from the seller came to $8.50 which I thought was a bit excessive for a few modules, but I didn't complain about it and paid.

The payment I made was through paypal June 3rd... the seller actually didn't ship the package until June 9th though. The only reason he did send it, is apparently because I emailed him on the 9th (just about a week after I paid) to get the tracking number since I hadn't gotten the box yet. The seller replied "Oh, I just sent them out!" (which looking back probably meant "oh, I forgot, I'm shipping them today".)

So they went out a week after I paid, but that is still NOT why I am mad.

The modules shipped on the 9th, and I just got them TODAY (June 18th), a full 9 mailing days later, and guess what, they were NOT even shipped priority, they were shipped PARCEL POST. (Parcel Post is USPS Code for SLOW ASS SHIPPING!)

Ok, now here is where my problem is. Follow me for a moment here, and take these numbers all in to truly get a sense for my reason for being disappointed.

SHIPPING TIMES

Priority shipments takes 2-3 days.

Parcel Post shipments take 2-9 days

(in this situation it was 9 mailing days for me to get it)

SHIPPING WEIGHT

The box weighed in at 1 pound 1 ounce.

SHIPPING COST

For a package of this size and weight, from the seller's zip code to my zip code:

Priority cost: $4.80 (remember, I paid $8.50)

Parcel Post cost: (drumroll here) $5.09

So the idiot actually paid MORE to ship it to me SLOWER.

But wait, it gets better...

The box was wrapped in brown grocery bag paper and taped up. Upon opening it, the box he used under the brown wrapping paper was an INSIDE OUT Priority Box.

So just to summarize this...

1) The IDIOT charged me for Priority Shipping.

2) The IDIOT went out and got a Priority Box (since I paid for Priority shipping)

3) At this point, the IDIOT could have shipped it out for $4.80, with tracking, and I would have had it in 2-3 days.

4) The IDIOT cut up and turned the Priority Mail box inside out and packed my modules.

5) The the IDIOT took the time to repack the box wrapped in brown paper bag material

6) Then the IDIOT paid MORE money ($5.08) to ship it to me Parcel Post with no tracking.

UGHH... It was so frustrating. I considered saying I never got the package and getting a full refund, he would have no way to prove to PayPal he shipped it, having no tracking and seeing clearly my option paid for was Priority... PayPal would have instantly refunded my money. It is a good thing for the IDIOT that although I'm pissed, I'm not an ASS!

At least the modules inside were as described.

Free RPG Day This Weekend!

With the weekend rapidly approaching, I was happy to learn that Free RPG Day fell on a day I'd be heading into the city (which I usually only do once every other month or so), this opportunity will allow me to hit my FLGS (Rooks - their link is in the right column) and see what they'll have to offer for Free RPG Day!

Although most stores are limited to a certain amount of products, there are some great things on the horizon that are to be on the look out for!

Wizards of the Coast

Khyber's Harvest - 4e D&D Adventure set in Eberron

Goodman Games

Hero's Handbook: Immortal Heroes - 4e D&D

Amethyst: Heart of Chaos - 4e D&D Module

Paizo Publishing

Pathfinder RPG: Bonus Beastiary

White Wolf

Geist RPG Quickstart Rules

Q-Workshop

Unique Dice

Lone Wolf Development

Hero Lab Demo (CD Rom)

Mongoose Publishing

Paranoia: The Troubleshooter Reference Manual

Introduction to Dragon Warriors

Corporation: Grab the Cache

Troll Lords

Castles & Crusaders Quickstart and Adventure Module

Claymore Entertainment

Hero's Bane Quickstart and Adventure.

Chessex

Commemorative Dice with Store's Name

Exile Game Studios

Hollow Earth Expedition Adventure

Fantasy Flight Games

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader RPG Adventure Module

I am looking forward to any Dungeons and Dragons compatible products, so the items being produced by Goodman Games, Paizo and Wizards of the Coast are on my priority list to try and get copies of.

If you have a gaming store near you, don't miss out on the offerings this weekend!

Filling in the Gaps!

Now that I am settled in after my very big move last year, I have had a chance to re-evaluate a lot of items in my gaming collection (board games, miniature games, role playing games, etc.). I have come to realize that I am very close (VERY) close to having a complete collection of 1e modules.

I am mainly missing a bunch of the older mono covered modules, and some of the UK release modules. But for the most part, I'd say I am missing only about a dozen or so with another couple dozen that should probably be replaced.

So, I decided to try and fill in the gaps! I am buying the ones I am missing and replacing the ones that are in less than desirable condition. Based on current prices, it probably will be less than $100 for the to complete my collection, so that isn't bad at all! A nice piece of D&D History to have.

I just bought module T1 (The Village of Hommlet) on ebay. It was the Mono cover version (I already had the full color one). The module I am getting is actually the third printing (still Mono but has the ISBN number added to the cover).

D&D Summer Campaign: Update #1

Update! My campaign plans are going well, I have the basic layout of the summer campaign planned, however, I don't think we will be able to make it through all 30 levels this summer. I think I am going to shoot for a solid 1-20 advancement, then postpone the remaining 10 levels for the Christmas/New Years break at the end of the year. Really try to get us to a good and memorable stopping point (the assembly of the weapon and the start of the quest to locate the dragon).

I am trying to determine what characters I want to run as an NPC. I really like the idea of a Dwarf Rogue, and flavor him as an Assassin type of character. (I typed in "Dwarf Assassin" into Google Images and the image at the top of this blog was the first one I saw that I liked) Almost along the lines of a Mercenary. But, this will all depend on what Brandon takes. I am thinking I may need a healing character of some sort. But it is up in the air at this point. Only 3 or so more weeks until we start.

I did get MM2, but it is a father's day gift, so I can't really look at it yet. My 6 year old son Parker got it for me last week when he went into the city with Mommy and he is really excited to be giving it to me for Father's Day... so, as much as I want to peer into those pages, it will have to wait! :P

NOTE TO READERS: Since Brandon does read this blog, I can't give too much information out ahead of time in fear of ruining the campaign for him, but once the games start I'll post brief session reports and 'spill the beans' after the fact! :)

Dungeons & Dragons 4e: Overdrive

So this summer we have a Dungeons and Dragons game planed for my oldest son, Brandon, and myself.  I am going to DM and he is going to play. He will be taking 2 PC's and I'll be taking an NPC to help him out, depending on what he is lacking in the party (healing, defender, etc.)

Our idea is to play 3 sessions per week, in the evenings, using the Dungeon Delve scenarios (Dungeon Delve has become one of my all time favorite D&D books). These should be fast and fun, taking between 1 and 2 hours per, and the Dungeon Delve book has 1 scenario (mini dungeon) for each level, 1 through 30.

The plan is to play the short scenario and then at the end of each session, regardless of how much experience we did, we'll level up our characters, I'll award a generic treasure parcel as needed to compensate for the lack of adventuring... then, the following game it will start off with a short narrative "It has been several weeks since your last adventure, and you have gone up a level..." and we'll continue this way from level 1 to 30.

I am not giving Brandon to much info on my plan, but I do intend to tie the entire set of Delve adventures together into a long string and ongoing campaign. My idea is to have his main character (whichever of his two he likes the best) on a life long quest to slay the dragon that killed his (insert relative here). Brandon has a fascination with Dragons and really wants an epic battle with one in D&D. So my idea to tie the Delves all together is to make him on a quest following clues along the way (leading from one Delve to another), sometimes he'll get nothing out of the Delve, but other times he'll get some clues.

My idea is that a wizard who knew how to defeat the dragon had died before Brandon's character could track him down, but the Wizard had a journal. Over the first 10 Delves (or so) the party will be searching for the journal. Maybe finding it in the 3rd or 4th Delve, only to discover key pages were missing, etc, etc.

Eventually the journal would lead them to a set of magical blueprints to create a (insert weapon here) that can be enchanted to kill the Dragon. It is the only weapon in the land capable of beating it, etc, etc...  Once he gets the weapon (level 20 or so) and assembles it. He will then need to hunt down rare and magical components, finally leading him to the grand finale (in 1-1/2 months time) where the group of level 30 adventurer's will face and battle the Dragon.

I'll post more as it happens, this campaign isn't starting until the second week of July, so I have time to plan more.

 

In the middle of nowhere...

It has been quite some time since I have had a chance to update, and some people have asked why, so I thought I'd make this into a blog entry. 

First, business is going great, we have three national ad's going now and a large direct mailing and new clients are just coming out of everywhere, keeping me quite tied up with the commercial art, and we have begun the first steps at building our new home, in the middle of nowhere. :)  It is great.

I will update more later, but wanted to at least put something up. :)

Oh, side note, I am down to only needing about six modules to complete my 1e D&D/AD&D Module collection.

Battle for Armageddon with my oldest son.

Earlier this week my oldest son and myself decided to play Battle for Armageddon. He is old enough now to do well at games and I no longer need to hold back or let things slide. It is usually every effort on my part to win a game against him now.

We got out the games and gave the rules a once over... he decided to play the Imperial Guard because he saw the Space Marine units that come out in the middle of the game and liked the sound of it.

We set up according to the rules and the Ork's got the first turn. We quickly made a full out assault on his front line and the fate of the game was decided before the halfway point as the Orks plowed their way through the map taking factories as they went.

A nice moment in the game (for me at least) was his deployment of the Space Marines amidst several units of Orks. I was able to take him down to only one token by the end of my following turn.

We felt the game was a lot of fun, and has some great potential, especially with the expansion (which I only have the PDF of). However, I think we may have been doing the resupply rule (reserves or build or whatever it was called), it seemed like there was a ton of stuff the human player had being built that never made it out into the game, and the one time I drew my build card I was in a position where I was not able to built.

I think the game would have gone much better had we been able to get an extra build phase in there (especially the IG player), so I need to read over those rules again to see if I can figure on anything I did wrong.

In any case, we both had a blast and really enjoyed the game. I'm going to get the expansion all printed out so we can also use that in future games.

Take a leap and a bound into Runebound

This is my oldest son's favorite game and has been for the last 3 years. He is going to be coming back from school next week for Spring Break and has specifically asked that this game be ready for some play time. If you are a fan of fantasy, then this is the game for you!

From the Fantasy Flight Games Website:

"The dark lords are gathering, ancient powers are awakening, and a chill has fallen across the land. It is a time of danger and rising evil. It is a time of fear for the weak and powerless. It is a time of heroes willing to face the darkness and bring the light of hope to a realm covered in shadow.

The world of Runebound is a magical, dangerous world of powerful wizards, noble knights, vicious monsters, and power-mad tyrants. It is a world of great quests and mighty deeds. Above all, it is a world of legendary heroes, and the time has come for you to join them"

Despite selling well, Runebound (First Edition) received criticism that forced Fantasy Flight Games to rework several basic concepts and adjust the game balance. First released in 2004, Runebound was quickly updated and re-released as Runebound Second Edition just over one year later. Customers who had purchased the original game were given a limited-time offer to upgrade at half the normal cost via the Fantasy Flight Games website.

Since it's updated release, the game has taken the industry by storm and become a popular favorite among fantasy gamers and has been consistently ranked in the top 200 games on Board Game Geek. It's ability to play with two or several people really allows this game to be played with a variety of groups, and it's solo play ability makes this a good game to play it you can't seen to find a group!

In addition, it is easily one of the most expanded games of all time, with 4 big box expansions and 25 (or more) deck expansions which change the games plots, add characters and items and much more!

Looking for a new fantasy game to play? Try Runebound! (Note: If you decide to purchase this on ebay, be sure you are purchasing the 2nd edition... if you are not sure, the second edition had plastic minis and the first edition just used cardboard tokens for the characters). 

Ebay Again

As I had mentioned a few times over the last several weeks, I've been slowly going through my game collection and 'trimming the fat'... this weekend I made a decision to get rid of some games that I really like (a lot) but doubt I will ever play again...

My Catan Series of games.

Catan is a great game... it is hard to sum up in only a few words, and with this not being a review, the best thing I can say is head over to BGG and read up on their Catan Series of articles which has a wealth of information.

All in all I have nearly all of the Catan games that have been released, and the only one I am keeping is the "Kids of Catan" which is a game for 3-5 year olds (with my now having 3 boys falling close to that age group, I thought I'd keep that one around).

Tonight I listed the following auctions:

1) The Settlers of Catan base game (plus 5 expansions for it including Seafarers, Cities & Knights and all 5-6 player expansions).

2) The Settlers of Zarahemla

3) The Settlers of Canaan

4) Candamir The First Settlers

5) Settlers of the Stone Age

It is going to be sad to see them go, but I can't see them getting any table time in the next several years. My wife isn't a fan, my oldest son isn't a fan and my parents only like to game things like Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.

One thing I do want to do though, is locate the deluxe 3-d collector's edition of Settlers that came out a few years back, it is fetching over $300 on ebay right now, but it is sweet! Wooden box, 3-d tokens, etc., it would be nice to have one Settlers game on hand for when an opportunity arises to play the game, so I might as well do it in style and try to locate that one.

Flock you...

Two updates tonight...

First is my Battle of Five Armies terrain piece:

I spent some time tonight working on the terrain hills. I painted them with a nice dark brown which will be a good base. I can honestly say that games workshop large brushes suck the big one. The cheap-o Ace Hardware brush is much nicer, so don't waste your money on GW's brush. One other comment I wanted to make now, something I didn't notice while using the primer... the hills don't really lay flat. They are kind of warped. it is more noticable now that I have them sitting on a flat table while getting their base coat of paint.

This makes me wonder about that large (and extremely expensive) gaming table that GW has out, it is essentially made of the same material, hooks together the same way, etc., and I for one would be super pissed if I spent the money on that and it didn't lay flat.

I am going to have to read up on Flocking a bit because I am rapidly approaching that stage of this project. Actually, the correct term is "Static Grass" because I am not using the flock... the Citadel Scenery Pack I got awhile back had Static Grass in it... 

I haven't used it in years, so I think a little brushing up (no pun intended) would be a good idea before getting too deep into that part of the project.

The Second is my Warhammer Quest project. I've decided to completely redo the game from the ground up... new minis painted at a pro level, 3d terrain of each room (I haven't put too much effort into this yet, but probably through Hirst Arts), I'm going to redo all of the cards (like digitally remaster them, etc.)... and basically just create a "Deluxe" Warhammer Quest set.

I currently have scans of every book, every card, every expansion, every tile set, every white dwarf article, etc, etc. So I am set to go on this project! I am going to realistically estimate it will take me a good year to complete. So a year from now be on the looking for it. :)

Can't touch this - du du da du - Hobby Time!

Ok, so I have been thinking that a lot of time I blow in the evenings, I wind down from a long work day by either watching television, surfin' the web or playing World of Warcraft... so I decided yesterday that I'd put in a good 1/2 hour each night on my hobby... anything with games, miniatures, terrain, etc.

Well, last night I used the time to unpack and organize all of my hobby supplies in this killer tackle box my wife got me at Wal-Mart... and tonight? Well, tonight I have the speckles of paint on my arms from spray paint to prove it. :)

Not too long ago, I got two sets of the terrain from the Games Workshop game "The Battle of Five Armies"... the terrain is supposed to represent epic scale cliffs for the 10mm figures, but they actually look great as smaller rocky hills for games such as Warhammer, 40k, Hordes or WarMachine. In the image below you can see the unpainted hill sections. It comes with two sections which can be put together two different ways, forming a half hill or a long cliff face.

Now the cool thing about these hills, is that you can get two sets (total of 4 pieces) and make a complete mountain range (or in the larger scale figures a full size hill). So I took the four pieces that I got the other day, trimmed then down and primed the black!

Here are two more photos (I found these on the web, they are not mine)... They show the 4 pieces (two sets) assembled and with both 10mm and 25mm minis for comparison. I think these hils will make sweet additions to my terrain collection and only enhance my future games.

Now I also had ordered the 'terrain hobby kit' from Games Workshop awhile back as well...  For some reason I thought it had grey paints in it. I had thought I'd paint these to have grey rocks and grass, but when I opened up the kit from Games Workshop (image below), I realized it was all set in tones of brown. I prefer grey rocks, but brown will be just fine too.

...finally, here is a photo of a finished piece (one set of terrain). My plan will be to continue my progress on this tomorrow night by painting it all brown, the following night by dry brushing the tan on top, then the night after that flocking with static grass.  When my terrain pieces are done, they should look similar to this (in color) but have static grass and not just the green painted areas like shown here. I assume they didn't flock this piece because the flock would look way out of scale with the 10mm minis shown here.

Wish me luck! I will post photos of my progress as I continue and hopefully have finals by the weekend.

Warhammer Quest - The Quest for the Quest

I remember when this game came out years ago, it was 1995 and I had some gaming buddies, but at the time we were mostly into RPG's, not miniature games or board games, which this was a combination of the two... I remember thinking it was cool and thinking it would be neat to play, but I can't actually remember playing it.

Years later, as I got more into board games and miniature games and thought it might be neat to get into this or at least try it out... no go. The price was just through the roof, even today on ebay this game goes for several hundred dollars, and good luck if you can find it complete or not.

We ended up getting into Descent and it scratched the dungeon crawl itch we were all having. I have always kept this game in the back of my mind, thinking it might be neat to get one day, but again, the price is just too high to justify trying to hunt it down. I have seen some people list this as their "Holy Grail", I suppose it is more for nostalgic reasons than anything else, but still, the demand is high and getting a copy is not going to happen.

Well, tonight I had an idea... I managed to get high res scans of the entire game. Every tile, every card, every booklet, etc... everything! Basically I now 'own' Warhammer Quest, complete with everything except the miniatures. Luckily for me, Games Workshop still sells all of these minis as singles. They are newer molds and not the 'same' figures that were originally released with the game, but they will still be similar enough... I mean a "Goblin Archer" is a "Goblin Archer" who cares if it is exactly the same mold as it was 15 years ago... same for everything else, in fact, the newer sculpts actually look nicer on some of these.

So, now I have a plan... I can reprint all of the books form the original game and the expansion, I can print the actual game cards and other items as well as purchase and paint nice minis from Games Workshop... since there are not a lot of minis to 'complete' this game, it won't be expensive, and the lower amount of minis means I can put more time into painting them and making them each much nicer.

One other thing I found, on BGG, someone was making 3-D terrain for this game (see the image above to compare the original and the custom), now that is truly awesome! 

War of the Ring 'o Rosies, a Pocketful Full of Pre-Orders

WARNING: The below blog entry uses language and descriptive commentary that may not be suitable for children.

This is one of my favorite games, and with the expansion "Battles of the Third Age" it just can't be beat... In fact (little sneak peek here) this game is on my planned top 10 list of games in the very near future. It has won awards in 2004 and 2005 (Lucca Games Best of Show and Best Original Game as well as the International Gamers Award), it has been on the top 20 of Board Game Geek consistently since it first came out in 2004 (and at the time of this writing it is number 15).

Now here are some hard cold facts... On Board Game Geek there are 5,309 people listed as owning the game and 472 listed as wanting to purchase the game. Now we know for a fact that not everyone who owns it lists it as being owned, so the actual numbers are probably quite a bit higher, and with that being said, those nearly 6,000 people are only Board Game Geek users... The majority of ratings are an 8 or 9 out of 10, with over 650 people giving it a solid 10 out of 10... That is just unheard of folks!

Ok, so now that the facts are out of the way... when it comes to board games, we can honestly say "War of the Ring's shit don't stink"... So WHY in the name of all that is holy in Middle Earth, is Fantasy Flight/Phalanx Games limiting the production run of the upcomming deluxe edition to ONLY 250 PIECES with no way to pre-order... Like the Risk Black Ops special edition deal last year, this is a game that if you want to get a copy of it, you are going to be screwed... Even if only 1/3 of the people who voted it a 10 out of 10 on Board Game Geek want to buy a copy there won't be enough available for those people alone (and that is a very fair estimate, especially with the number of people who actively take part in the forum for this game there).

I guarantee... in fact, I'd be willing to be my left nut, that there will be plenty of game scalpers (I call them Game Ferengis - in reference to the ugly/greedy Star Trek aliens) on ebay that will be selling MULTIPLE copies of this game for 2-3 times retail price. It happened before with other games (can you say $400 for a copy of Risk Black Ops?) and it will happen again... Who in the hell is running things over at FFG to limit this game to 250 pieces??? WHY???  It makes no business sense in my mind. 

Ok, I see WHY they are doing it... they apparently want to give the 'true' fans a special bonus by making it a "limited" game, so the ones who get it can pat themselves on the back... well you know what? You have OVER 3,000 people alone on Board Game Geek who have rated this an 8 out of 10 OR HIGHER... Even if only 10% of those people want a copy, forgetting about the rest of the world, there WILL NOT BE NEARLY ENOUGH!!!

(Above is a prototype photo of the Deluxe edition on display at a convention... the game is rumored to have a full assortment of painted miniatures (from both the original game and the expansion - a handful are shown in this photo) as well as an all new (larger) illustrated map and a real wooden box painted to look like a large Middle-Earth book and more!)

It doesn't make sense to me for things be handled the way they are, the smart thing from a business point of view (in my opinion if it is worth anything) is for FFG to have a preorder on their website, they give people somewhere between 30 and 60 days to make their preorder, then they take THAT NUMBER (How many people have pre-ordered it) and they double it, then that is the production number they should shoot for. Everyone still gets their 'limited edition' hard-on and everone is happy they are not having to make some back alley crack-like deal to get a copy.

You know damn well that the games produced by Fantasy Flights games cost them less than half of what they sell them for to the end gamer... There is nothing wrong with that, it is smart business. I want FFG to make money so they make more cool games for me to buy, but the point of that statement is this...

If FFG puts up the preorder and they presell 1,000 of them (just a random number for this example). Then the money they generated from those 1,000 presales will actually PAY for 2,000+ copies of the game with no money out of pocket for FFG... the games arrive, they ship the 1,000 copies to the people who preorderd it, and they now have a warehouse with 1,000 copies of the game that are 100% paid for and pure profit for FFG as they sell... this is the stock that the dealers should have access too, gaming shops can order 2 or 3 for their stores, online dealers can grab a few to put in their online stores, and the Game Ferengis? Well fuck the Game Ferengis.... it is only moves like limiting this to 250 by Fantasy Flight that fuel their 'fuck-you-over-fire' anyways.

Ok, enough of my raving for now. I really hope Fantasy Flight reconsiders their plans for an extremely limited distribution on this game, it would be a disappointment if only a small handful of the loyal fans (both of LOTR and FFG fans, of which I am both) are able to get this while many are left with their hands held out asking "why?".

A refrehsing experience...

I feel like the lady (man? sorry!) in this photo... I look around at the hundreds (literally) of games that I have and think "why in the hell do I have this?"... ok, let's be fair. Some games (Britannia comes to mind) are excellent games, they have great game play, unique mechanics, excellent opportunity for strategy... but will I ever play it again? Now that I have moved, some games just don't make sense to keep. The nearest gaming groups are over 90 miles away, according to Board Game Geek I have only 1 person within 100 miles of my house. So aside from a monthly trip to the game shop 90 miles away, I am going to only be getting in game time with family members.

Now that isn't necessarily a bad thing... playing games with my wife and folks is great, but we seem to play more family type of games such as Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, etc., and that doesn't scratch my itch.

Now the main thing I got going on my side is my boys. I have four of them, and the two oldest art already getting into gaming. Brandon is almost driving now and I can get a hard core game of Axis and Allies, RuneBound, Warhammer or more in with him and it is at a point where I really need to think before moving, it isn't a guaranteed win like it might have been 5 years ago.  Parker on the other hand is almost 6, and he is picking up games like HeroScape pretty quickly, so I know I'm in for some good gaming with him in the near future.

As I sort through games, I'm finding games going into two categories "Gotta have it!" and "Doubt I'll play it!"... the second category of games are getting traded out to other geeks on BGG and if I can't find any trades I'm going to ebay... I have actually managed to secure a few good trades online and currently think I have a lead for Helden in der Unterwelt (Heroes in the Underworld) and Die Rückkehr der Helden: Die Gralssuche (Return of the Heroes: Quest for the Grail), two non US release games that are expansions to Return of the Heroes which is an amazing game. So I'm not only getting rid of a lot of 'crap' (crap also could mean a good game that I just don't see myself playing again), but I am also adding new games that for the most part are expansions to games I already have and know my kids already enjoy.

This deal isn't done yet, but it looks promising and could really get me going with some games I've been wanting for awhile.

I seem to have broken my collection down into three types of games... first are the Role Playing Games (D&D), then come the Miniature Games (such as Warhammer, WarMachine, WoW Minis, etc.) and finally the board games (everything from Risk to RuneBound)... it really is nice to be able to go in and just streamline. I thought I'd be sad or depressed, but for some reason it just seems like the right thing to do.

It's called Perudo you liar!

Looking back at my blog entries, we last played this game on March 31, 2008... so it has been almost exactly a year since it has seen that table! We had a gaming group meeting yesterday (Saturday evening), and this was the first game we took out.

It is actually quite fun, and a 4 player game took about 20 minutes or so... it makes for a nice filler game or starter game. It is based on an earl 1970's game by Richard Borg named "Liar's Dice", which he in turn based on a game originally from Spain in the 16th Century. It is believed the Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro brought the original game to Spain from South America, and that it might have originated with the Inca! So all in all, it is quite an interesting game with a nice bit of history.

To make this game even more interesting and have an even more unique back story, it was featured in the 2006 film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. In the film it was called "Liar's Dice" and is essentially the same game with more simplified rules.

This is a great game of betting and bluffing and trying to convince other players you either have or don't have the call you have made. Once you get a game or two in under your belt you will quickly catch on and this game will become a lot of fun.

Lego my Lego

When I was a kid I was really into Lego... back then they pretty much just had block pieces and little men, no 'themes' like they have now. I do remember in the early 80's though, when the 'Space' them came out and I really loved building those and playing with them.

My 5 year old son Parker is really getting into Legos. It started with Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets, and recently he has gotten into the 'Castle' theme and is looking at 'Pirates' as well... the Castle theme Lego's are pretty neat. I know a few adult collectors that get Legos as a hobby and are really into building the sets and displaying them, but this blog post is more about my five year old and his interest in them to play with.

He grew up watching me play miniature war games like Warhammer, and the Castle Legos kind of give him a feel of playing 'big boy' game, but with toys he can easily use. I noticed the other night he was rolling dice as he played and giving units of guys 'wounds' and stuff like that. It was quite neat. It is also nice from a financial point of view, because the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets are so dang expensive!!!  So it is refreshing to spend money on these Castle sets and feel like I'm not getting bent over and taking it in the arse for some crappy Lego set that doesn't feel like it is worth what you are spending.

Anyhow, I took some time the other night to really look at the Legos that Parker was playing with. There were carts, wagons, horses, knights, goblins, trolls, catapults, cannons, dragons, etc., it certainly is quite an exciting line for a kid his age to be getting into and really opens up his imagination for new ideas and role-playing.

If you have kids or know someone who does, it would probably open a whole new world for them to get into the Castle Legos, Pirate Legos, etc.

*** UPDATE *** A quick search of the internet located photos of my favorite Lego space toy. It looks quite basic by today's Lego standards, but this is by far a piece that brings back a lot of memories for me. Here are some pics for Memory Lane!

This Lego set was called "928" and was the Galaxy Explorer ship, which, at the time, was probably one of the most amazing Lego sets to ever be released. I must have gotten this in Christmas of '81 or possibly '82. (The photo below was a result of a google search, it is not me)

Here are some instruction scans I located online, man oh man this brings back some real memories...

And finally, here is a full spread of the ship and playset... a quick ebay search reveals this to now be going for around $200 - YIKES! I guess I'll have to be happy with photos, because purchasing a set is too expensive...