RPG-a-Day 2024 - Day 3 Most Often Played RPG

Like THIS YEAR...? or of ALL TIME… !? I guess that’s up for us to interpret… 

I haven't done much role-playing this year. As mentioned yesterday we've started playing Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal. 

Earlier in the year I played a bit of Five Parsecs from Home. 

Neither are truly RPGs

Of ALL TIME...?! 

I don’t know… I played a LOT when I was a teen in the 80s. Like in high school we played daily at noon hours and/or after school . Before High School I played a LOT of D&D and Top Secret and Star Frontiers… By High School I was playing a lot of Twilight: 2000 and Revised Recon and the Palladium system (TMNT, Robotech, the Superhero one… Heroes Unlimited? and Palladium Fantasy) and Cyberpunk….  and later Role-Master and Space Master, Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer Fantasy Role-play and SO MANY other games.. we jumped around a LOT though, so I don’t know which one we’d played the MOST of or if it ended up being MORE than any of the ones I played later… 

There was a period I played a LOT Of GURPS… Like, noting but GURPS… 

But I’m pretty sure it was a MUCH LONGER PERIOD that I played exclusively Savage Worlds… 

I would have to guess that’s the SYSTEM that I’ve played the most, but in a bewildering amount of different campaigns and settings… 

RPG-a-Day 2023 - Week Three

 Here we go with WEEK THREE!!!

15) Favourite Convention MODULE/ONE-SHOT

I don't think I've never played a role-playing game at a convention...?

Finnegan has run a few one-shots that were fun - especially Dungeon Crawl Classics/Mutant Crawl Classics funnel adventures.

I think the funnest I remember in recent history that I ran was a FATE one shot I called "Dude, Where's My Warhorse" wherein the very hung over retinue and attendants of the knight that won the king's tournament the previous day scramble to locate their masters prized warhorse that is discovered to be missing upon awaking after a night of drunken debauchery.... I've run it twice with different groups and WILDLY different outcomes.

I guess I have run miniature games at conventions... and the ones that went the best were ones where all the players were on one side and played against a common enemy run by ME... which is very similar to a role-playing game....? 

The favourite one...? probably the last one I ran - Necromunda where each player controlled a group from a different gang. They each got a character and a small handful of regular gangers. They had all sort of banded together to stop Karloth Valois and his band of zombies and scavvies from getting to a populated area of the underhive and infecting large numbers of (relatively) innocent people and growing his power. Collectively, they had to stop him, If he got through - ALL THE PLAYERS LOSE... Players gained points for taking out Scavvies and Zombies and a bunch for taking out Valois (so a "winner" could be determined), but each were handed a card with a secret agenda on it - something only they got points for and only they knew about. Most of them were "take out the leader of X gang"... which gave them points... but the leaders were very powerful and if they did that too soon, it could affect their collective strength and ability to stop Valois. People REALLY got into it!

I ran it twice, actually, once as a play-test on my birthday and once at ToonCon:

The Return of Karloth Valois - Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

ToonCon 2020 - Part 3 - Sunday - Necromunda (and Power Grid!)

16) Game You WISH You Owned

I feel like at some point there probably were games I wished I owned or wished I'd never gotten rid of... but I've either tracked them all down or lost interest...? 

Now, there are so many games that I OWN that I'd LOVE to play, but just never get around to it... there really aren't any others that I really long for. Not many that I wish I still had... (board games, miniature games, specific miniatures.... maybe... but not so much role-playing games I really, really wish I had...). 

I guess I wouldn't mind checking out the NEW version of Twilight: 2000. I've really enjoyed reading through Blade Runner, and the new Twilight: 2000 seems to use the same system, and I have SO MUCH STUFF for the original... I have just about all the first edition adventures and sourcebooks in print - as well as pdfs... so... Also have PILES of painted modern troopers and civilians and vehicles and terrain I could use... 

(edit/update... between typing this and posting it... 

...so... not really ANY games I wish I had...)

17) FUNNIEST Game You've Played

Again, Teenagers From Outter Space or the "Dude, Where's My Warhorse" adventure I ran with FATE. 

18) Favourite Game SYSTEM

Ehhhh... I don't know... 

There are things I like about a LOT of different systems. None of them really stand out as better than all the others. My favourite system at any given moment is usually the one I'm currently planning to play. Which changes all the time. 

Right now... FATE seems really elegant, but I just don't feel like I have enough experience with it. Blade Runner and Wrath & Glory seem like they have the right balance of crunchy and streamlined simplicity. 

I really, REALLY liked Savage Worlds and ran that EXCLUSIVELY for YEARS....

I guess, in general, I like anything that's fairly simple and generic and the rules get out of the way of ROLE-PLAYING. Character CONCEPTS are more important to me than number crunching and optimizing within a complex system of rules and chaff. 

I guess I could also say my favourite game system is the ONE I'M PLAYING RIGHT NOW! (which really isn't any, at the moment, so.... maybe in the fall... or winter... when the game room is accessible again...) 

19) Favourite PUBLISHED Adventure

I have a really hard time with published adventures... I like the idea of published adventures... because I feel like it should give a sense of how the game should be run - especially if you're just starting out.. But I always find holes in the plots that I just can't seem to fill. 

Or, if *I* don't find them... my PLAYERS WILL!!! 

The first Wrath & Glory adventure I ran from Dark Tides - the first anthology of adventures. There's a murder of a high-ranking nobility of a hive world, way up in their private spires, players have to investigate. The first thing one of them asks is "well, what's on the security camera footage"... There is ZERO MENTION of security systems or cameras, which, OF COURSE they'd HAVE....!? but if there WERE, that would make it INSANELY EASY to figure out who it was... Oh, they were taken out (how did they access that)... ugh... ground the adventure to a halt when I had to suddenly come up with reasons why there was no security camera footage. 

First game in the Dragonlance series of games. They find the Disks of Mishakal... the GOAL of the adventure... a set of 160 platinum disks, each one-sixteenth of an inch thick and eighteen inches in diameter, held together with a big rivet that runs through one side so they can be shifted out and examined... One of the players asks,  how HEAVY is that... nevermind, they'll figure it out, gets out phone calculates volume of this pile cylender of disks... looks up the density of platinum... Yeah... it's only a few tons... HOW THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GET THESE OUT OF THE COLLAPSING CAVERN!? I tell them if someone of good alignment carries them, it is as if they are weightless... (making shit up on the spot, at this point) because... MAAAaaaaaGIiiiiic! but wait, what if that person gets in a cart (or a gully-dwarf-powered elevator, is the person carrying them weightless... can a person of good alignment even USE a gully-dwarf-powered elevator - knowing using it will send those gully dwarves to their CERTAIN DOOM!!?? 

I guess I liked the Free City of Krakow for the old Twilight: 2000 - it was less of an adventure, per se, than a detailed location with lots of potential... 

There's a nostalgic little hit of dopamine when I think back to Keep On The Borderlands (and maybe Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh)... the excitement of those first adventures all back in the day, when everything was NEW! But I haven't looked at it in 30 years.... and... I'm a little afraid to in case they SUCK in the light of modern reexamination. I mean... Dragonlance didn't hold up... 

20) Will Still Play in TWENTY Years Time...

I have NO IDEA. I have no idea what I might be playing in a year, let along TWENTY!? 

I just hope I'm playing SOMETHING. 

(I have to admit, I have a difficult time with future predicting. I have a hard time imagining I'll even be alive in five years, let alone ten or TWENTY!? I've been this way since my teens. It's honestly led to some not great life choices... and you can well imagine my shock and disconcert at realizing I'd made it to fifty and had an adult child - all in the same year - last year!? So, at this point, I have to acknowledge it's a possibility... but it's still hard to imagine) 

21) Favourite LICENSED RPG

Right now I'm really loving Blade Runner... Maybe once I try to RUN it I'll be less enthralled. 

Wrath & Glory is, technically, a licensed product... but a licensed RPG based on a miniature skirmish game that I've played like a role-playing game... so it feels more like an extension of a game I've already played and less like something someone else made up... Regardless, it is a licensed product, I do like it... so...

One of those two, I guess. 

I really liked the CONCEPTS in Tales from the Loop... but it just didn't work out for me running it... 

Who else has a favourite one-shot or a game you wished you owned, a favourite system or tell me the funniest game you've played? What's your favourite published adventure? 

WHAT GAME DO YOU HOPE YOU'LL STILL BE PLAYING IN TWENTY YEARS?!!

Do you have a favourite licensed game?

Please let me know in the comments!

February Gaming Weekend.

 I've started thinking about a February Gaming Weekend. For the past 17 years, i've organized some sort of gaming event around my birthday at the end of February - the Annual Wargaming Birthday BasH! Sometimes its been a single afternoon or evening - usually a multiplayer miniature game of some sort with a few friends. Other times it's been and entire weekend of gaming - either a campaign or a mini, invitational con. Other times, just a few games with the family... 

I’m really trying to stay positive and plan as though we WON’T be in a FIFTH Wave of Covid… or STILL Be riding out an extended (never-ending) fourth wave!?   (Not that there are going to be any more restrictions of movements or visitations, regardless of how many die, this government had made clear!). But, these things often work out better if there has been some planning beforehand…. So I am thinking about it and trying to make plans… 

To get started, I recently catalogued all of the previous events on a separate page, recently...

Wargaming Birthday Bashes

A couple predate this blog - I was lucky to find a couple pictures of one of the pre-blog games (going through back-up CDs from previous computers, sifting through piles of old pictures)... but could find nothing for the first one... 

Putting this together and reviewing all these events, brought up a rollercoaster of memories ranging from pure joy to total despair. These constitute some of my favourite gaming memories, ever. Simultaneously many bring up feelings of soul-crushing misery and utter  despondency… 

Every year there was that one person (or two, or three) that insisted on RUINING ALL THE FUN (for ME, at least, They probably still had a great time!).  Whether it was the constant complaints about the system (the tabletop game itself and/or campaign rules), or their constant demanding for rulings about stupid bullshit they should have known the answer for if they read the rules and weren’t trying to seek advantage through rules lawyery, or just finding loopholes in either the game rules or the campaign rules and totally exploiting them…. 

There are more than a few of these people that have also showed up at many of these events that ALWAYS caused trouble and made me never want to run one again…  I've tried to stay positive in game reports and not mention these things plainly... Ignore it… "Let it go"... But it happened and, looking back at them, even now, I wonder, is the stress they cause worth it?!

Some I can simply NEVER invite again (finally got that solution through my thick head). A big problem is a few of them still live here in Saskatoon and THESE are the people that are almost ALWAYS available… and worst part is... some of them are truly generous, fantastic human beings… Y’know, OUTSIDE of gaming… 

On the flip side, there ARE about a dozen people that have come to multiple games over the years that totally make it worthwhile and never cause any sort of trouble or headaches. They are the reason I have carried on. They would be my DREAM TEAM of players for a game weekend… Unfortunately, over half of them don’t even live in Saskatoon and it is a big deal for them to get here… especially in February… especially in the middle of a pandemic… 

How does one get a Dream Team of players to show up, while not hurting good friends (who are terrible people to play games with)? 

That being said…. Problem Person(s) played in the Necromunda game (the last big one I ran in 2020, both at my Birthday Bash and again at ToonCon… I won’t say which it was the Problem Person(s) showed up at…) and didn’t cause much trouble… I think this was largely due to scenario design. There was a need to work together, to a certain extent (if the common enemy, played by me, was not stopped, EVERYONE LOST!! And Karloth Valois and his horde of Scavvies and Plague Zombies were NO PUSH-OVERs!), and there was no great benefit to being a dink (each had secret, individualized objectives and victory points - mostly points were awarded for dealing damage to Valois and his crew... but each gang had ONE other gang or gang memeber that they had some sort of vendetta against and could gain points by taking ONE specific character out.).… so… no one was really THAT much of a dink… 

I also find it hard to make plans and get things prepared when I get a luke-warm commitment from many people… Which I've gotten a lot of over the years, and especially the last few. “Well, I’d LOVE to… but we’ll have to see… I can’t plan that far in advance…” when it’s, y’know, just two months away…. Somehow people can make plans to go on holidays, or go to weddings, or go to (AND/OR ORGANIZE) larger conventions up to (and sometimes more than) a YEAR in advance on a specific day/weekend/week… but can’t say if they can make it to my thing until the week before…?! WTF!? 

The last wargaming weekend I'd planned (a Necromunda campaign in the fall of 2019) which I had done SO MUCH WORK FOR (painting multiple gangs for people to use if they didn't have one and a bunch of terrain)... got cancelled because I got a bunch of "maybes", which turned into "NOPEs" in the last week or so coming up to the planned weekend for the event. (Luckily I was able to make use of it all in the following Birthday Bash/ToonCon event) 

(Except for the problem people… they can ALWAYS commit and will definitely make it…) 

Anyway…. 

I digress... 

Back to THE PLAN…

This also happens to be a BIG ONE - as this will be my FIRST HALF-CENTURY celebration! 

(Seriously, how the fuck did I actually make it this far!?) 

(Ooh! Maybe I should start the day with a half-century ride!) 

(but, like, a metric half-century... and only if its NOT -40°C!?) 

AND, my Birthday IS on a Friday, so it seems like it would be fun to use that to kick off a whole WEEKEND of festivities! 

But what format to take…? A weekend long campaign of some sorts - either tabletop miniatures (which could be competitive or co-op/semi-co-op) or a role-playing game? Or something more like a mini-con with a number of different events/games over the weekend. 

I think my favourite option is a co-operative, tabletop miniature adventure campaign - where the “players” are all on the same side and have one character/hero and/or a small unit of some sort, that fight against antagonists controlled by a GM (i.e. ME!) - and play through a series of linked adventures - possibly requiring collection artifacts or clues or completing objectives before they can move on, and culminating in a BIG BOSS BATTLE at the end of the weekend…?

But a lot of that depends on who is available that weekend, how much of that weekend they are available, and what they are interested or willing to commit to playing.  

Over a weekend I generally, mentally break it down into 5-7 game "slots":

1. Friday Night
2. Saturday Morning
3. Saturday Afternoon
4. Saturday Evening
5. Sunday Morning?
6. Sunday Afternoon
7. Sunday Evening ?

So... Campaign or Mini-con?

CAMPAIGN

Role-Playing Game or Miniatures?

ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Advantage to role-playing games - if things do go sideways, Pandemic-wise, I could always switch to Online… like I did for my birthday this past year. 

• Fate? 
• Wrath & Glory? 
• Something Else!? (unlikely) 

MINIATURES

Competitive campaign/mini-tournament OR a co-op/semi-co-op tabletop adventure (like RPG - but miniature combat focused where all the Players are on the same side fighting enemies controlled by a game master - i.e ME!) 

Competative Campaign/Tournement

Competitive campaigns/tournaments I could potentially run... 

• Hordes of the Things
• DBA
• Necromunda
• Kill Team
• 40K Combat Patrol
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• Warcry

• The Silver Bayonet

While a LOT of fun... there are almost always a LOT of problems with these... 

Co-op/Semi-Coop

As mentioned before, this is probably more most favourite option. Running a series of tabletop miniature adventures where all the of the players are (more or less) on teh same side, battling against foes controlled by ME - ultimately culminating in some kind of "Epic Boss Battle"!  Some of the games I have and could again run as a cooperative or semi-cooperative :

• Savage Worlds
• Age of Sigmar
• Warcry
• Kill Team
• 40K
• Necromunda 
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Frostgrave
• Stargrave
• The Silver Bayonet
• Warhammer Quest (like Blackstone Fortress or any of the Age of Sigmar ones...) 

Team Option (Semi-Coop/Competitive)

The "All Quiet Campaign" - two teams with multiple players- each player commanding a squad or Kill Team within a platoon or similar larger formation... it uses set terrain representing a stagnant part of the front where the fighting has more or less ground to a halt. The teams are holding that section of the line for a period of three days and three nights. A series of six scenarios are played over that time period. Not all troops are used for each mission. Some are active (on the mission out in No Mans' Land), some can be on stand-by (sentries, holding the trenches or whatever), some are out-of-the-line and resting... Quality of troops degrades if they are used twice in a row (i.e. without resting)...?

MINI-CON

There are definitely some advantages to running a "Mini-Con". I can mix it up and play some different things. There could be somewhat less prep involved - especially if a few of them are board games and I dont have to worry about an airtight campaign system. Also, no one has to commit to WHOLE weekend - people could “sign up” for just ONE slot. 

The weekend could look something like:

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Board Game 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

OR

• Friday Night - One-Shot Role-Playing Game
• Saturday Morning - Miniature Skirmish 
• Saturday Afternoon -  Board Game 
• Saturday Evening - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Morning -  Board Game
• Sunday Afternoon - Miniature Skirmish 
• Sunday Evening - Board Game 

Just to mix it up a little... 

OR... have the one-shot RPG on the Saturday evening, half-way through...

OR... it could be ONE board game on Sunday... but, like, a bigger one with many players taking all day to play... 

Lots of possibilities here... 

COME-AND-GO CAMPAIGN

A third option I've been considering since I started this planning and writing this a week or so ago is a "Come-And-Go Campaign. This would be a semi-co-op miniature campaign - involving a number of linked scenarios played over the weekend that create a bit of a narrative... BUT... it could involve DIFFERENT characters/groups - played by different participants that could show up for just one session, or ALL of them. Ideally, there would be one or two that would play the entire weekend and would be the "Lead Heroes" that assemble the varied groups of allies to fight... whatever it is that they are fighting...? 

OR... 

...maybe I'll just play some games with my family again, like I did last year... 

Kind of still leaning towards co-op tabletop miniature adventure... possibly with come-and-go option... 

September Games

In previous years I've done a Game-a-Day challenge... This year.... not-so-much this year. 

Still.... Games were played. 

I can't complain. 

Wednesday, 1 September 2021

Kicking things off, I played a quick game of the new Kill Team with Orion. 

You can read the full report and see more pics here:

Kill Team - Game Two

Friday, 3 September 2021

Friday evening Amanda and I planed Century Golem Edition: Endless World. 

She won. By lots. 

Saturday, 4 September 2021

Originally I was supposed to run Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera... but then some Ikea furniture arrived on Friday (which was supposed to have arrived a week earlier) and Amanda was FREAKING OUT about it getting assembled.... so I assembled that instead of preparing the game... 

In the end a couple of the guys just showed up to chat for a bit... talk about our respective kids first days back at school and what a crazy sh!t-show the Covid situation has been in our respective provinces.... 

Thursday,  9 September 2021

Another Game of Kill Team - starting off our campaign. You can read the full report and see all the pictures here:

Kill Team - Welcome (Back) to the Jungle

Friday, 10 September 2021

Friday evening we had a few friends over to play Sidereal Confluence. The last time we played had been nearly a year ago (13 September 2021). We had placed with almost the exact same group - Brent Kurtis, Amanda, Finnegan and myself. Rob was the new edition - a fellow I met in high school and knew through Youth Parliament and then later served with in the Canadian Forces. I kind of lost track of him for a couple decades - but reconnected through Facebook a few years back and just happened to run into him earlier in the week while I was out for a ride and he was out walking his dogs and we got to chatting and I invited him to join us! 

It's a fun game with a LOT of moving parts - mostly a trading/engine-building game... I guess... I like it, but it's a little overwhelming at times - with six people all trying to trade stuff and get the things that they need - which others are also trying to get...  I also feel like we need to play it a little more often than once a year to really GET IT!? All the different species have their advantages and things they do and recourses the produce... but they all lack... other things... 

This is the largest game I've played in... well... a long time! Probably since the beginning of the Pandemic! I was a bit anxious about getting people together with the covid numbers on the rise again - this week smashing all previous records for new infections and hospitalizations - but this time with NO Public Health Order in place!? Everyone here is fully-vaccinated and have pretty tight bubbles, so... 

Saturday, 11 September 2021

Initially I was supposed to run Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera this evening... AGAIN?! but once again... life happened... so instead Amanda and I decided to play Terraforming Mars.

I played the Mining Guild with Smelting Plant and Dome Farming from the Prelude expansion. I took the Builder Milestone and Landlord, Miner and Thermalist Awards! Probably the best game I ever played... I can't say it was all me being brilliant - I was exceptionally lucky in my card draws - pulling a lot of things that really worked together... sometimes... (Most of the time) I just draw crap and can't get ANYTHING working together... but this time it totally worked out. 

Amanda played Inventrix with Business Empire and Early Settlement and took Mayor and Planner Awards. The game went 13 Turns. This was the 38th game I've played - of Terraforming Mars. 

Sunday, 12 September 2021

Finnegan and I played another game of Kill Team - furthering the narrative of our little campaign. 

This time the Ebony Vipers Genestealer Cult faced Maesenir's Rangers. a full report of the game and loads more pictures can be found on a separate report:

Aeldari Ambush

Tuesday, 14 September 2021

Amanda, Keiran and I played two quick games of Retro Loonacy in the evening. 

I think Keiran had had a rough day at school and needed some cheering up... 

Thursday, 16  September 2021

Orion came by to play Kill Team. We played a game involving Maesenir's Rangers and some very nasty Space Wolf Primaris Intercessors were looking for an ancient relic amidst the ruins of an Inquisitor's lander. 

The initial game I had set up went so quickly, we actually had time to play a second! 

Friday, 17  September 2021

Rob came by again this Friday and Amanda and I introduced him to Terraforming Mars. 

Rob did pretty good for his first game - especially considering he hasn't done much board gaming at all (save Risk)! He took Robinson Industries with the Mohole and Mohole Excavation from Prelude and pretty much single-handedly raised the temperature on Mars... He also cleaned up on the Cities and Greenery - AND took the Planner and Gardener milestones! 

We totally covered the planet with Greenery and cities! I was red, Rob was blue, and Amanda was green. 

At the end of the game Amanda was leading with the Terraforming Rating (with 46), Rob had 31 and I had 32!? 

Even after counting Greenery and Cities (which I didn't do TOO bad on) I was trailing - then we started counting points on cards and I scored an astounding 46 points from cards alone - rocketing me into first place!? 8 of that was from Pets - which I managed to get out in the first turn before 16 of the 17 cities were built! I got another 8 from a card that scored one per Jovian tag... That's two games in a row I've won!? 

I did get insanely lucky with a few of the card draws. I got research station with my initial cards (Every Card cost one less to put into play) and Space Station as one of the Space Tag Cards I drew along with Acquired Space Agency (every Space card I put into play cost two less) and then in the second or third turn I drew Earth Catapult (Every Card cost TWO less!?) - so all cards cost me 3 less than their printed value - except space cards which were five less... OH, AND I got Advanced Alloys which made all the steel and Titanium I produced worth one more (Steel = 3 MC, Titanium = 4 MC)! so I was able to put a LOT of cards into play. Amanda and Rob kind of dragged getting the last few oceans out - extending the game a few rounds longer than it could have -mostly so they could get more cities and greenery.... but every turn they did that I just kept putting more and more cards into play - I was also drawing extra cards per turn with AI Central... and I'd just put ANYTHING into play that had points on it - and those points all REALLY ADDED UP!? 

Saturday, 18 September 2021

I FINALLY got to run Last Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera... Well... STARTED to run it, at least. We got as far as discovering the entrance to the Lost Tomb.... and had to call it a night. It was fun, though. It has been a LONG time since I've played Savage Worlds. I forgot how fun and simple it is. 

Sunday, 19 September 2021

Sunday evening, Amanda, Keiran and I played Viticulture... Originally Finnegan had said he'd play, but as he often does these days, decides he'd rather just watch videos on YouTube in his room... or whatever... 

Amanda just destroyed us - scoring 24, when Keiran and I couldn't even make it to 20... One thing I was pretty excited about was the fact that I actually had all three fields planted - which I almost NEVER do... I usually sell one at the beginning of the game to make money for building infrastructure and I don't know... I find that it's rare that I ever harvest all three in a year, so... why would I ever bother planting all three!? 

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

After school, Keiran and I sat down to play a few quick games of Kindomino, as they'd been suggesting it for some time and somehow it just hadn't happened... There was nothing specific planned for the evening. Amanada would be out for hours, Finnegan was monopolizing the computer working on his school-like-stuff... 

I won the first game and then - because a 2-player game uses exactly half the tiles, we just used the ones we hadn't used in the first game for the second. Keira won that one. 

Then I got the idea of curating the tiles we used. Like, "all odd ones" or "all even ones or" or "all the highest numbered ones".  The latter sounded fun, but I worried it might now work out with NO double ones - it might be insanely hard to out things together... So we did tiles 1-6 and 30-48... a mix of the highest numbered tiles and the lowest... 

Keiran won that one by PILES - like, 75 points, or something!?) 

Wednesday, 22 September 2021

Quick game of Retro Loonacy before bed. 

Thursday, 23 September 2021

Thursday Orion came over for another game of Kill Team and we started off a new campaign... 

Details and move pictures can be found here:

Kill Team - a NEW New Kill Team Campaign

Friday, 24 September 2021

And Friday evening, Finnegan and I continued our Kill Team campaign on Xoxigar Tertium.

That Game Report can be found here:

Kill Team - Destroy the Ruins

Saturday, 25 September 2021

We WERE to finish off Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera... but life got in the way again and few were available so we decided to wait until next week/month to finish up the game. I'd really hoped to get started again on Wrath & Glory in October... I guess I still can... it'll just be LATER in October. 

Thursday, 30 September 2021

The very first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

In the evening, Amanda and I played a game of Azul. 

And that's September. 

I'm working on Game Plan 2021-Q4, which I'll probably be posting later this evening...

August Games

Mondays and Thursdays, amirite?

Sunday, 1 August 2021

Amanda and I played another game of the Arrival. 

That's four times I've played it, so I think that's going on the 5x5 challenge. 

Tuesday, 3 August 2021

Finnegan and i played a game of Age of Sigmar... I'd have a link to a game report here... if ever I had FINISHED the game report... still sitting as a draft.... 

whoops.

Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Another game of Necromunda with Orion and Nic. Full report can be found here:

Necromunda - Of Spiders and Scavvies

Saturday, 7 August 2021

After a year and a half, Finnegan finally got to run an in-person D&D game. I think it was a bittersweet reunion, as it was one of the players last game. She graduated from High School this year and will be going off somewhere to college in the fall and just got a job for the rest of the summer and has to work on Saturdays... 

He's currently running two other D&D games - every week - but not all the players in those games are fully vaccinated, so he's not inviting them over just yet. Maybe in September. Or, maybe we'll all be isolating in September again and he'll be back to running ALL his games online again... 

I'm trying to stay positive and hopeful, but there are SO MANY people refusing to get vaccinated around here, and it seems like everyone just thinks it's "over". There have been festivals every week since restrictions were lifted and there have been just crowds and crowds of people and hardly a mask in sight... Numbers going up...

Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Keiran actually suggested playing a game and I wasn't about to pass up that opportunity! 

We played Just Desserts which is a quick and fun little game, though it makes me very, very hungry... 

After nearly a month of 30+°C temperatures, it dropped into the 20s this week and suddenly it's all sweaters and toques! 

Friday, 13 August 2021

Friday Night - Game Night

I've been trying to re-establish Friday Nights as GAME NIGHT around here. Around supper time, as I was about to ask if anyone wanted to play, Keiran actually asked if we could play Retro Loonacy!? 

We played six games in the end. Usually I take a moment and organize my cards, but this time I just started throwing down the first ones I saw and the game was over in less than a minute!? Everyone was just kind of shocked. I actually ended up winning three of the six. 

Keiran won this last one. Won it before I even put a card down. Mind you, I was busy trying to take a picture! 

After Loonacy, we played a game of Splendor. Amanda won. Of course, if you know anything about us and our history of playing Splendor, you would have already known that by the fact that Amanda is sitting at the table with a game of Splendor in front of her. Keiran was close... but I had, like, 7 points...? 

Saturday, 14 August 2021

Saturday evening i finally got in a game of Warhammer Underworlds. I think it was the first game we've played since Amanda got Wingspan in May.... There are more pictures and a brief report here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Return to the Nightvault

Tuesday, 17 August 2021

Speaking of Wingspan... 

We introduced some new friends to Wingspan - super fun to play some new people - and birders! 

This was the 21st game we've played since May. 

Friday, 20 August 2021

Friday Night - Game Night

Kids weren't interested in playing anything, so Amanda and I played another game of Warhammer Underworlds. This time I tired out Ironskull's Boys. They played a little better than the Sepulchral Guard, straight out of the box.... but I still totally lost... More pics and a full report can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds 

Saturday, 21 August 2021

Saturday evening I got the gang back together and we made some new characters...

We were using the Savage Worlds Fantasy Character Generator Toolkit. It's a book that lets you roll up a totally random character for a Savage Worlds fantasy game. I've always had a lot of fun using this - it doesn't always make playable characters - and you can't really use it hoping it will create a party that has any business knowing each other - let alone adventuring together... but we're making them for a one-shot adventure that I'm expecting will be rather tongue-in-cheek... 

I backed the Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera sometime last year (I've been a HUGE Dead Milkmen fan since Big Lizard in my Backyard came out when I was in high school... so... how could I NOT!?) and I was just notified that it has finally shipped (I've actually had the PDF for some time.. but haven't really bothered to look at it..). The adventure is written for D&D5E, but I figured rather than learning a whole new system, I'd just use Savage Worlds which I used for years for every setting I felt the urge to run a role-playing or skirmish game in!

The plan is to do another round of character making the following week and maybe pick the best one - or the one that seemed funnest - and I'm going to run the game in September. After that, I'm kind of hoping to get back to Wrath & Glory - possibly picking up the campaign where we left off. 

Tuesday, 24 August 2021

And look what showed up on Tuesday. (Well... technically it showed up on Monday... but they didn't bother delivering it to me, just dropped it at the local Post Office and I had to go pick it up on Tuesday... but... whatever...). I spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading through parts of the adventure and giggling. I'm not sure if anyone else is going to get all the references. But it was entertaining enough just to read. 

In the evening Keiran suggested playing a game and we weren't about to pass on that opportunity. There was a bit of what-do -you-want-to-play-i-dunno-what-do -you-want-to-play, but eventually Kingdom Builder was settled on... 

Amanda had had a LONG day - getting up to attend a live, online conference that was being hosted in the Netherlands... When we started it was like she had never played and had to have EVERYTHING explained to her at least twice... three times, for some of the things... 

And then she proceeded to win, scoring almost as many as Keiran AND me COMBINED!? (In the picture above, those are her Orange settlements screaming across the board. 

I just couldn't get it together this game. Maybe it was because I spent so much time explaining and reexplaining I didn't really have any time to think things through... maybe it was because the first three cards I pulled were grasslands and I just coudn't get OUT of the area I was in. We each had one bonus action on the first turn... but the only other one I even got close to was snapped up by the others - by midway through the game Amanda had FIVE of them, and Keiran had three. And, being locked into one little area, I coudln't even really make USE of the one I had!? 

As I'm sitting here typing, I realized we forgot to add in points for castles... and that probably woudl have given enough that she WOULD have had more points than me and Keiran combined. 

Wednesday, 25 August 2021

Nic and Orion stopped by for another quick game of Necromunda! 

You can find the full report and a bunch more pics here:

Necromunda - Sump Croc Hunt!

Friday, 27 August 2021

On Friday evening, at the suggestion of Keiran, we played Lords of Waterdeep!

Amanda played the Silver Stars and Durnan the Wanderer. I played the Harpers and Kyriani Agrivar. Finnegan Played the Red Sashes and Piergeiran the Paladinson. Keiran played Kinghts of the Shield and Nindl Jalb. Playing with four is HARD as you only get two agents to start off and a third part way through the game it's really hard to DO some of the high point quests, but if you can pull one off, it pretty much secures you the game. I had a hard time as my Lord gave bonuses for Piety and Arcand quests... but there were NONE available for the first half of the game!? I did manage to pick up three later in the game and finish them off - which brought me up from trailing by 35+ points to... well... I was still about 20 points behind Keiran  and Finnegan... but only 14 behind Amanda, who's had a pretty commanding lead for much of the game.  

Saturday, 28 August 2021

NEW KILL TEAM!!!!

Later in the evening, we did Round Two of character-making with the Savage Worlds Fantasy Character Toolkit.  Everyone was there. Hilarity ensued. I actually posted the characters we rolled up on Savage Timmy's Playhouse - the Savage Worlds blog that I haven't posted on in over a decade. you can see them all here:

Savage Timmy's Playhouse: Lost Tomb of the Bitchin Chimera Characters

Next Saturday I'll be running the adventure! 

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

Finnegan and i got in our first game of the new Kill Team this afternoon. Took a bit of figuring out, but I have a feeling it will play MUCH faster when we do get it sorted and is going to be SUPER FUN!!!

Stay tuned for a game report! 

And more game reports! I have three more games lined up this week!