2017 Games Played Overview [draft]

see https://boardgamegeek.com/plays/bygame/user/zorcon/subtype/All/start/2017-01-01/end/2017-12-31

maybe do a 2016 post retroactive or later in january?

Small World Rules Index

A board game rules reference sheet to round out the month!

I have compiled all of the Small World Rules, Variants, Races, Powers, Relics and Places into a quick reference document.

Small World Realm came with some Righteous Relics and Popular Places tokens that did not have corresponding rules. I have included my home brew rules ( a few were taken from the interwebs) for these items.

The Crypt of Hen: The player who discovers the Crypt of Hen immediately places the Rooster Knight on the same region. Once per turn (including the turn discovered), the Rooster Knight may move to or conquer an adjacent Region using a single Race token, regardless of the number of enemy tokens defending it. The Region is now immune to enemy conquests as well as to their racial and special powers until the Rooster Knight moves. During each new turn, you may move the Rooster Knight to a different adjacent Region. When you go into Decline, the Rooster Knight goes back to the Crypt of Hen and is placed back in the storage tray.

The Crystal Amulet of Yeti Summoning: Once per turn... use amulet to summon a yeti... must be on or adjacent to a mountain region... amulet remains in adjacent space?... yeti disappears at the beginning of next turn... may not summon to same place twice... use amulet to mark previous region.

The Head of the Skeleton King: During your Troop Redeployment, take 1 new Race token from the storage tray for every 2 non-empty Regions you conquered this turn, and add it to the troops you redeploy at the end of your turn. If there are no more tokens in the storage tray, you do not receive any additional tokens.

The Immunity Idol: At the end of his turn, the player who controls The Immunity Idol, may place it on any of his controlled regions. The Region is now immune to enemy conquests as well as to their racial and special powers until the Immunity Idol moves. The immunity Idol remains (but can no longer be moved) even if the troops that occupy that region are In Decline.

The Windmill of Fortune: At the end of the turn, the player whose troops occupy the Windmill of Change Region rolls the reinforcement die. Receive one Victory coin for each pip rolled.

You can download a PDF of the file here. It is formatted to print as an 5.5"x 8.5" booklet.

Let me know if you find any omissions or mistakes. That's all for now!

Talisman 2ed Figure Collection (part 2)

Here is part 2 of the look at my Talisman Figure Collection.

30 years later, I am still impressed by these sculpts. Yes they are comical and disproportionate... but THEY HAVE CHARACTER!!!

The Knight, Warrior, Soldier, and Gladiator

At some point, I replaced the Knight's shield with a newer style--I believe it originally came with the same shield that is on the Soldier. Back in the day, Citadel plastic shields were ground breaking! They had holes smack dab in the middle, which were never as big as the bulbous knob on the shield bearer's wrist. I jest--They really were cool in their day.

The entire range of original Citadel plastic shields!

Speaking of the Soldier, at the time, I was very proud of my freehand shield design. Heck! I'm still proud of it--I'm not sure I could do any better today. The Solder was painted around the same time as the Knight and the Warrior.

The Gladiator was painted more recently and is sporting 3 paint jobs! (I shamelessly admit I'm lazy and rarely strip the paint off my figures when doing a repaint).

The Zulu Warrior, Highlander, Saracen, and Samurai

When I re-re-painted the Zulu Warrior, I spent some time converting him. Actually he is the only original figure that I modified at all (excluding shield swaps). I replaced his horrible spear with a other brand metal one in by bitz box, placing his hand farther back on the shaft (the back part of the spear has broken off). I also made the shield out of plasticard as there was nothing in the GW range that resembled the character's image. lastly, I attached a sword hilt and a toothpick behind the shield.

The Highlander and the Saracen were re-painted at the same time. I never got the plaid to look right, but I passes on the table. There is a little freehand on the Sarecen's shield that I wish I had black-lined. These two were the unfortunate recipients of a near fatal accident--I accidentally grabbed a can of white primer instead of mate cote!! The damage is not terrible, but is noticeable.

I never finished the Samurai. I actually got a little farther painting him the first time around. I hit him with white primer and plocked out a little color during the re-re-paint stage.

That's all for now. See you next time!

Ultimate Monopoly

I came across this fan-made variant for Monopoly the other day while researching my own fan-made variant of Monopoly!

Much like my Risk Omega Project, I have been working on a Monopoly Omega project. My aim is to combine Mega Monopoly, Monopoly City, Super Add-on, Monopoly Stock Exchange, and a few ideas of my own. While I was compiling data, I came across this board.

Jonizaak from Deviant Art created this Ultimate Monopoly board as well as rules to go with it. Another artist created a set of cards. To my amazement, this project is about 85% of what I was in the process of developing!

The main element I would like to add is Monopoly City Bonus Buildings, Hazards, Industrial Buildings, Stadiums and Railroads.

That's all for now!

Star Wars Monopoly

Back in October, I acquired a copy of Star Wars Monopoly at Goodwill. It was missing Han Solo, so I turned to eBay to find the missing piece.

While looking for Han, I discovered there were three versions of a classic Star Wars Monopoly with some variation in the selection of pawns. I was able to pick up a Han in a set from a different version as well as a few other characters. The game comes with 8 pawns, and I have assembled 15 uniqe characters.

We played a game the other day and they were easily knocked over. So I based them on 20 mm MDF bases from GF9.

I would like to paint them up similar to how I painted my Clue pawns. The base edge with be color coded to Empire or Rebel as there is a mechanic in the game that plays off which faction you are playing.

Clued In

Here are my finished Clue figures. This project was started about 2 months ago I posted Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Obviously, these are the men. I really fought against adding more detail. But I wanted a more cartoonish look, and honestly, I didn't want to commit any more time to this project.

I am very happy how the conversions turned out. A quick rundown: Sculpted a barrett on Mon. Brunette; Removed top 1/3 of head and sculpted a new one on Prof. Plum; Sculpted shoulder straps, tie, and holster and added new hand with gun on Sgt Grey; Sculpted a sun hat on Miss Peach.

Colors are close except for Miss Peach, who's dress has a little more pink. Job well done (IMO!), except in hindsight I would have made the tiles on the base a little smaller--Almost half.

If you have any C&C post 'em below.

Clueless

So here is a little update on my Clue figures. I started laying in color on all the accessories. I am keeping this to 2 color (3 on the skin). No blending--Just simple cuts. Some of the detail is nice, but most of the hands and faces are terrible. I do not think I could make sense out of it if I was blending the colors.

This is taking me much longer than I anticipated. Partly due to my botching the spray primer. I must not have shaken the can enough as I got this weird powdery rough texture all over. It grabs the brush and absorbs a lot of paint, making the process take longer.

Painting a squad of 10 guys at the same time is not new to me, but this is 10 individuals with many unique colors. While I tried to reuse the secondary colors as often as I could, there was still about 40 colors that went into this project!

One change I made was to remove Sgt Grey's left hand and add a HeroClix Hydra Medic's hand with gun.

This isn't the best picture, but the colors are actually quite close (on my monitor).

Bloodbowl Showcase - Greenfield Packers (Halflings)

Almost 3 years to the day since my last Blood Bowl Team Showcase! In writing this post, I also made some updates to the Dwarf Warhammer's post.

I really enjoy playing this team. Simply for the rare chance of pulling off a one turn TD! I love the Throw Team Mate skill!! The full team roster consists of:

• Coach
• 2 Assistant Coaches
• Wizard
• 4 Cheerleaders
• 14 Halflings
• 2 Treeman
• Puggy Baconbreath
• Deeproot Strongbraanch

Here is a group shot. I don't know why I didn't include all the regular player nor why I included the Star Player, Puggy Baconbreath (the is the right most Halfling with the big spike on his shoulder pad. All these figure are 2e with one or two 3e Halflings.

These two were apparently late showing up for the team picture.

This is the Star Player Treeman, Deeproot Strongbranch. He is an old figure I had (Grenadier I think). I made the shoulder pads out of plasticard and made the rivets out of plastic tubing.

Here are two Assistant Coaches and the Halfling Master Chef. I made the assistant coaches out of old GW metal Halfling spearmen and fabricated the clipboard (plasticard and paper) and trophy (Eldar weaponry).

Halfling Apothecary is a D&D miniature that came out around 2000.

The female cheerleader is also a 2000 circa D&D figure with greenstuff pom-poms. The Halfling Master Chef's assistants were promoted to cheerleaders where they launch "The Flying Hobbit" into the air every time the Greenfield Packers score.

Blood Bowl Progress Chart

I love what Admiral Drax does with his visual progress charts and I am going to blatantly rip off his idea! :)

To start off with, I have a chart for my Blood Bowl teams--My favorite GW game!!

I haven't made any progress on these figures for many years, although I did send part of my Orc team to a painting service thinking it would jump start the effort. (check out this article on the subject)

The Dwarf, Halfling, and Dark Elf teams are essentially done (not counting figure needed). The Chaos team's second paint job is close to completion, and the Goblin, Human, Orc, and Skaven teams have been re-primered and their second painting is underway. The other teams are in complete disarray!

In future posts I will continue to document my progress with similar charts for Necromunda, BFG, Space Marines, ad Tau. I will also post group shots of teams/units as the are completed (or for previous un-posted work) and as I make progress. I would like to chart my RPG projects, but I'm not sure how to implement that (yet).

Hopefully this will make a little more sense to the viewer as I tend to jump around a lot from project to project.

Munchkin Swag Generator

I love card games. I love lots of expansions. I love being a power gamer... I loves me some Munchkin! 

Taken off interwebs without permission

I don't get to play Munchkin very often, but in the last few months we got a number of games in. After the first couple games, something started gnawing at me that hadn't bothered me before. Over the years, I have accumulated quite the treasure trove of extra bits and bobbles, marketing swag, and blatant money grabs ( :) ) all granting special rules to the owner of said item in a game of Munchkin. I never used them, as no one would EVER play if I started every game at level 3, a +5 combat bonus, and a handful of various bonuses.

So after these recent games, it started bothering me that this shoe box full of "swag" (some purchased, some freebies) was never going to get used. It dawned on me that we (my gaming group) like charts and tables, and I like spreadsheets! I set out to create a sheet that all the players could roll on before each game.

The right most column is the quantity of each item and is used in the formula to create the d100 spread. In the future, it is simple to add more swag to the list. I simply insert a new row, copy the formula, and fill in the new item(s). No re-calculating the percentages! The items that I have more than one copy of have a proportionally larger percentage on the chart. Essentially every item I own has an equal chance. Because this is munchkin, I included results to get two or three items! 

On the second page there is a simple table to determine who gets what level counter. We actually use the game board (from Munchkin Deluxe) to determine everyone's level, but there is an in-game bonus if your level counter matched the game.

If you want to make your own Swag Generator, here is the Open Office file.

Braaaaiiiins!!!

I just got myself a box of brains!!! Even better they were free! A friend of mine bought them for $2 at a garage sale and gave them to me. I haven't counted them yet, but I estimate there about 100 of 'em.

Here is a 16mm die for scale. Oh, I guess I for got to say why I am so excited to get a box of brains. Well, I play Zombie Dice by Steve Jackson Games. I started out using glass beads. That was certainly functional, but I wanted something more thematic. It quickly switched to using HorrorClix Victim Tokens (a sort of POG representing typical horror movie victims). This worked very well and fit the theme. They also fit in the Zombie Dice cup. I had quite a selection of tokens and we placed them upside-down in the middle of the table, so your victims were random.

But what I really wanted was more of these. I bought this set of pewter brain beads while I was really into Magic: The Gathering in the mid-'90s. There are only 20 brains, and usually not enough for a game of Zombie Dice with 6 players. I have been trying to find another set of these for years (even before I bought Zombie Dice). But in the last year, I have really tried to find another set of these cool "beads".

Well, now I have brains in spades!! The only down side is they wont fit in the Zombie Dice can. I think I can live with that! Now, I have to decide if I am going to paint these!!.

Get a Clue

Taken from interwebs without permission

I always loved the game Clue growing up. I discovered in my research for my Risk Project that it is common for Parker Brothers/Milton Bradly/Hasbro to significantly change the content of a particular game (both in quality and quantity). So I researched Clue a bit to see if there was a particular version that was "better" than another. I was surprised at the many variations throughout the years and differences between countries.

Clue Master Detective (CMD) came out on top in all but one category...no figures. CMD was published in 1988 and "upped its game" (compared to the version I am familiar with) by the following changes:

• The game is played by two dice instead of one
• Added 4 characters (10 total)
• Added 2 weapon (8 total)
• Added 3 rooms. (13 total)
• The Lounge, Study, Hall and Ballroom are replaced with other rooms in the original edition. The Lounge, Study and Hall are returned in the later editions.
• The rooms are much closer to each other
• All characters now start in the Cloak room, and must return to the Cloak Room to make accusations.
• Snoop spaces allow you to read one card of your choice from any other player's hand
• When making a suggestion, ALL players in order must show a card if they have one or more of the cards mentioned. In the original, as soon as a single player showed a card, the turn was over.

This sounded perfect to me! Except for no figures. I knew there was a "deluxe" version that has figures, but there were only 6 characters in that game. Fortunately, I found the 2006 edition Clue DVD game came with 10 figures! I found the figures on eBay for $6!! 

The original 6: Mrs. White, Prof. Plum, Col. Mustard,
Mr. Green, Miss Scarlet, and Mrs. Peacock

The new 4: Sgt. Grey, Mme. Rose, Miss Peach,
and Mon. Brunette

I do not know the names of the 4 new characters in the DVD game, but they are obviously different than the 4 characters in CMD. I plan on painting all of them anyway, so that wasn't a bid deal. But 3 of the 4 new characters, and one of the original, needed a little modification to better match the artwork in CMD.

For Sgt Grey, I added shoulder straps, a tie and a holster (I am still looking for a pistol to put in his hand). For Prof. Plum, I scalped him and gave him a bald head. For Mme Rose, I added a large sun hat. Lastly for Mon. Brunette, I added a baret.

I am not a sculptor, and IMO these additions are by far my most "complex" green-stuff work. I am not saying this is fantastic work, but simply acknowledging my achievement!

A line-up of all the suspects

For the bases, I wanted to add some weight and thickness. So I glued 2 pennies and a 20 mm wood base to the bottom of the figure. This has made them very difficult to knock over, and they have a nice feel when moving them around the board.

Taken from the interwebs without permission

Lastly, I thought I would throw in a shot of the brass weapons included in CMD.

Risking the Map

Mock game in progress

I have printed a temporary map. I want to play test a couple of games and specific mechanics as well as make sure that all the territories are large enough.

One change I noticed immediately, well actually I didn't notice it but everyone else did, that the font I used for the territory names is too hard to read from across the table. I am on the fence about changing the font. What I have now is perfect stylistically, and in game, functionally, one could point to the territories attacking to and from.

In case you do not recognize the components, I will give a run down:

• Colored army pieces are from the 1993 Risk set
• Grey city pieces are form the 2008 Risk set
• White castle/tower is from LOtR Monopoly set
• Grey castle/keep is from LOtR Monopoly set
• Ship is from Pirates of the Caribbean Game of Life
• Colored "dome" capitol pieces are from the 2008 Risk set

I bough the 2008 Risk game (still available on store shelves). All the other components were bought off eBay on the cheap except for the Caribbean Life game that I picked up at a thrift store for $1.

Why are maps the most comfortable place for a cat to sleep?

So far everything is looking good. I have enough tokens made to run through a game. Having the map in hand at full scale, I already have a bunch of new ideas that will fine-tune some of my floundering mechanics.

Next step is to assemble all of my notes into something that can be referenced in game and play!

Token Risk

Part 7 in my Risk Omega project... Click here for past posts on this project.

I started designing, printing and assembling tokens needed for the additional rules I am writing. As I have said before, in game design/mod I often design the end product before the rules are even made. This is one of those cases. I have ideas for mechanics, but have not yet finalized them, but here we are looking at completed tokens.

When I say design, I mean that loosely. Basically I took images off the interwebs, cut them out, flopped them, added a white outline and placed them on a star shape and a circle with a gradient color fill.

I bought these laser-cut MDF bases from GF9 awhile back specifically to make tokens. Although I hadn't thought of this project yet.

Pairing up the fronts and backs. In most cases they are identical. one-sided tokens is one of my pet peeves in board games!!! I printed the tokens on label stock and simply peel and stick.

This is the underside to my circle punch. It makes a 1" hole. I hold the punch upside down so I can see the image and center it before cutting it out. You can see a set of completed red player tokens on the upper right.

My first page of tokens. The top "heads" are the leaders/generals. There is one 3-star, two 2-star and three 1-star leaders for each color. The 1-stars will be on the back and the 2 and 3-star leaders will be on the front.

The next images represent a Palmerston Fort style defense. They were built around the time of Napoleon III by Britain, but other countries built similar forts.

The next image represents a spy. These will be available only after achieving an objective. I originally planned on using a grey background, but later decided on making one for each color.

The ship is an example of a token with out a rule. I have 3 different rule mechanics in mind so will be play-testing the best option. Again, I originally printed the ships with a grey background.

Next is a desert. I have an idea to have weather and geographical elements to the game. At the moment, my thought is when the event is "triggered" the appropriate token is placed in the effected territory.

Lastly, are the red stars, or victory points. This will be the way to win the game.

This is my second sheet of tokens. The blue background wound up printing too dark and too similar to black, so I remade them lighter. Then I printed more forts, spys, and ships in player colors, as well as more stars.

Risky Business (part 6)

Here is a quick last minute post...

Many of you have asked for the files I created in my Risk project. I have poorly responded to you requests and I apologize. My attempts to provide links have been haphazard; Party because of misplaced files on a secondary HD, and partly because the project was off my radar.

The fonts used in the InDesign file are: Aquiline Two, Romantiques, UglyQua, and Wingdings. The first three fonts were downloaded for free at Fonts2u.com.

Hopefully the links that follow will be complete and actually work!! Both files are Zip'd (ZIPX) containing the original files.

PSD map file with all layers
InDesign file with images and fonts

I have been working a little bit on the rules recently. Last week, my wife and son and I played a standard game of Risk (2008 rules). Hopefully, I will soon be printing a copy of my map so I can start play testing it!

Risk: The Table (Part 5)

The map burned into a coffee table!

A reader of this site, Cass Jones, etched a version of my Risk map onto a coffee table!! WOW! How great it looks! I am amazed and privileged to have had a hand at such a glorious creation.

Game in progress

If you are interested in reading more about my project, below are links to the previous posts.

Risk: An Unexpected Journey (part 4)

Fine tuning a Risky Venture

Two Risk or Not Two Risk

Risk Reward

Poll Results: Classic Game Boxes

I posted a poll back in December asking you if it was worth selling my old game boxes. Well, 85% of you thought it was worth it.

So, they will be added to the growing pile of items to be sold on eBay. If any of you are interested, I will entertain any reasonable offers!

Thanks for your feedback!

Risk: An Unexpected Journey (part 4)

I recently started working again on my custom Risk board (and rules). You can see my progress that I started over a year ago here (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

The most notable change is the addition of 19 territories (up from 51). But another change is that I redrew the entire map! The continental proportions are loosely based off the Risk 2008 board, but I used various global maps for the actual drawing. Other changes are adding more regions, more "ancient map" detail, and rules/component insets.

Inspiration for this project came from the desire for a lite world domination game that can be played within 2 hours or less that has good replay value (my two biggest issues with standard Risk). I love the Napoleonic pieces that came in the 1993 edition, so that is where I started with the style of map art.

I enjoyed designing the map much more then putting all the rules together. In fact, some of my rules ideas have derived directly from the map design process! With that said, I have done very little with the rules, apart from taking notes--Nothing playable. Oh well, I am still having fun with this creative process!!

[EDIT] If you would like the hi-res files, they can be download here:

InDesign File
InDesign Support Files (Including a PSD of MAP)
PDF

POLL: Classic Game Boxes

I have a stack of empty game boxes. Many of them are vintage, and most are from expansions or miniatures.

My question is, are they worth selling? I no longer want to keep them, but hesitate to recycle them.

I usually don't keep these boxes--Once I build a model, or cram the expansion into the main game, I toss 'em.

But for various reasons, these boxes have hidden well enough to evade their destined demise.

 I have a feeling the vintage GW boxes could get some attention, but the rest are not worth it.

Please post your opinion below, or click on the poll at the top right of the site.