Christmas is approaching fast as always, now thankfully I tend to plan ahead and have all the presents I need by November but I think in every family and gaming group there's always that one person who won't give you a hint and you have to get creative.
I made a post way back in 2013 giving ideas for those last minute Christmas presents and imagine my surprise when I received an email asking for more this year so here are some of my favourite Christmas stocking fillers of 2015.
My first choice is for groups with young children, now most groups prize their personal character figures especially those made by hand or services like Hero Forge but often the kids want to play with them but because they are delicate then tend to break.
A nice alternative for the younger kids to play with or use in their own games are these Packs of Plastic Knights, cheap, easy to replace, these are great to bulk up your battles or teach kids how to paint models. These packs also come in three different sizes 20 models in a basic pack, 45 in agiant pack, and a mixture of knights and siege weapons in the jumbo pack.
Another present for those gaming parents is the I've had it with Elves baby suit by Crazy dog Tshirts, with is shirt you can get their child both a Christmas and Roleplay jumper in one.
My own group had a heap of fun with these and the cry of "I claim this sausage
roll in the name of Sir Geoffrey of Azure Court" could be heard for quite a few sessions.
For those players who Gm's pet keeps ending up on the gaming table, now they can join in and be a monster too before falling asleep on your character sheet.
Critical Hit and Critical Fumble spice up the traditional natural 1 and natural 20 rolls giving a deck that the players draw from and apply all kinds of new effects to these tides of fortune.
The Buff Deck and Condition Deck act as player aids providing quick reference cards for bonuses from spells and various conditions such as grappling, pinning, sicked and blinded, useful for new players and veterans these save a lot of time otherwise spent searching through books for that one rule reference.
These cards are your spell book in a box with each spell in full detail on the card (and for those that don't quite fit a reference to the players handbook page), rules on scaling and made durable for long term use (though personally I would put these in card backers regardless). The price does vary wildly between decks with the Paladin and Ranger decks costing much less than the others and its worth shopping around between game stores.
Here is a example of the the wizards traditional fall back through the ages Fireball:
Finally for that player that always loses his dice there are lots of deals on a Pound of Dice, now just a bit of warning with these as you should be aware quality can vary between these sets so checking reviews is well advised but for this post I've done some searching and Chessex Dice seem to have high reviews so far.
Hey all I had hoped to have posted this on the 16th but its been a little hectic recently but the big gaming news this month is I have manage to purchase a copy of Boss Monster thanks to Ben down a The Battle Bunker.
I was intending on writing a review for it this month but I've only managed to have a few two player games of it so far and every time my group have attempted to gather to play it for the full four player game experience we've had random events of life suddenly prevent us. So far it been illness, car problems and work overtime if this keeps happening I'm going to suspect my copy is cursed, on the bright side the delay has resulted in me obtaining Boss Monster: Tools of Hero Kind as well so I'll be able to review both at once. For those unfamiliar with Boss Monster and Brotherwise Games they are Chris and Johnny O’Neal a pair of brothers currently living California, the concept for Boss Monster was created in strange fashion when the two had a bet on who could create an original game first. After spending two years creating their concepts and play testing the end result was the rule set that would become Boss Monster however requiring fund to hire artists and print the game the two turn turned to Kick Starter with staggering results and on November 19th 2012 the $12,000goal was met by a pledge of $215,056.
For the basic gameplay mechanics see the video below:
In addition I've managed to get a hold of the Boss Monster Card designer so look forward to some custom cards to download in the future.
Other than Boss Monster my groups regular DM has had to suspend our usual game due to increased work load from his Open University Course so I'm taking up my role once as High Programmer.
Its been a few years since the last time I ran a game of Paranoia but I'm sure I can lure them all back to Alpha Complex as after all failure to attend is treason.
My group knows the style of adventure I like to create for Paranoia, typically the Trouble Shooters are assigned a mundane task such as changing a light bulb which turns out to be far more dangerous than first expected. So since its been a while I thought I would share my adventure with you all once the write up is complete.
November is normally a very busy month for myself as many of my friends have birthdays spread throughout the month often leading me to be involved in various parties events and general mayhem. This year in particular with myself struggling with sciatica and other health issues and the various other commitments of my friends have led us to abandon large activities so instead we put aside some days for some monster gaming sessions.
Collecting together on a Sunday just after lunch at the house of our host and Dungeon Master told us that he had managed to get a number of dungeon tile sets and a number of pre-made dungeons so we were going to do some 4 Edition Dungeon Runs and see how far we could get before we ended for the day or party wiped.
We decided to avoid wasting half the day creating a character we would use pre-generated characters, unfortunately due to our DM providing 30 to choose from it still took us 30 minutes of debating of what to pick.
Most of the characters came from the handy Pre-Generated Character Library of Dungeon Master's.com (Thanks guys) with myself selecting Belgos | Drow Ranger (Hunter) backed up by a Psion, a Sorcerer and a Warlord then an hour later after our first two encounters by two more players who chose Alvenor the Human Paladin and Jarren the Human Wizard (Evocation Mage).
Thankfully with the Pre-Generated Characters coming with clear move description we got into the play quick smashing our way clumsy through the first few encounters. Now there is something about my gaming group I have come to recognise while we work together well and respect one another's ideas and strengths we do not in fact have very good teamwork synergy on the board. This was very obvious in 4th Edition which now I've played it felt very much like a pen and paper MMO, however once we stopped treating it like a Pathfinder game and started using MMO tactics we started making progress.
Midnight at the gaming table
Twelve hours, a mountain of dead kobold and a slain white dragon with an arrow lodged in its behind later I can honestly say I enjoyed 4th Edition even though I must admit I've often frowned upon it.
However the fact I had to treat it like a game of HeroQuest rather than a roleplay game kind of puts it in perspective, and I admit the group as a whole started getting rather bored with the mechanics due to the limited movepool and cool downs.
Coming straight from Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 I found the rule books to both be well labelled and clear in some sections but completely bare in others, in particular the levelling was rather confusing at first with it been so different from the standard Dungeons and Dragons layout and one moment of the day stands out to me was the lack of any random magic loot table. Combined with the minimal magic item examples made the rewards rather disappointing as initially our DM wished to avoid giving out custom loot for balance reasons.
All and all a fun distraction but there is no way we could really go through a long term campaign with the system due to it repetitiveness and feeling of lack of freedom.
The other game that caught our eye over the week has been The Resistance 2nd Edition.
This novel little game was a real mind screw and as a devious spy I got to wreak havoc on my friends discovering that I am rather the decent manipulator.
Resistance is a rather simple game and a version of it that can be played with playing cards is actually on wikipedia. In the game you are all members of a resistance cell that is attempting to topple a corrupt organisation or government however depending on the size of your cell (the number of players) there is a number of spies within your cell. The resistance win by succeeding in three mission while the spies win by causing three missions to fail, if this has peaked your interest below is a video of Wil Wheaton's Tabletop showing a play through.
Hello again folks, well do you remember I was ill last month and I was thinking that I should make a large back up of draft posts just in case it happened again?
Well I'll be honest I got a little side tracked...
However I did get to try out a massive amount of amazing PC mods for Skyrim (which regrettably broke my 97% complete play through but it gave me a reason to start all over again.), some of which I may just post overviews of next month as small bonus posts.
Also with the steam workshop finally working for Crusader Kings 2 I found myself been eventually dragged away from my Skyrim binge to a political web of deceit and regicide, which ended in me causing the collapse of most of Europe after I murdered the King of Italy so I could take his lover as my wife. It hasn't been all fun and games though (well not all games anyway) I was given the Cold Steel Medieval training sword for my birthday back in March and I've had time to really put its paces now so here's the overview as promised First of all when ordering the blade there were two websites coldsteel.com and coldsteel-uk.com, at the time of purchase I will say the UK site was terrible as every training blade description was a copy paste of the katana and the blades were lacking any relevant information. Thankfully this has improved somewhat but its still a little bare bones compared to the American site or even their Amazon page.
The blade is 39 inches in length including the handle and weights about 30.oz however when swinging it the centre of balance feels a little too high (roughly an inch or two above the guard.) but it does help build control and arm strength.
The blades material I was originally sceptical about as it was Polypropylene which is the same stuff they uses to make plastic chairs for primary schools but its held out amazingly well and has bare suffer a scratch after the initial few that any training blade suffers and even those vanish with a layer of boot polish.
In comparison with using a real sword the training blade feels slightly heavier however this may be because of the centre of balance been a little high as previously mentioned. Given the price difference between a Cold Steel Polypropylene training blade (£37.20) and the average metal renactment blade (£120) I can recommend anyone who wants to try blade training should pick one up.
Just for a little visible display what Polypropylene blades can do I've attached this video:
Finally one of the DM's of my gaming group who I will refer to by his Obsidian Portal name Seidgaldr has been wanting to try running a Cortex system game since we completed our last World of Darkness campaign.
If anyone is interest the campaign will be available to read at Obsidian Portal and I hope to doing a few updates regarding it here. Read more »
I must apologise first of all for posting this rather late in the day, my plans to update were rather up heaved by the sudden appearance of a few members of my old gaming group which has resulted into a weekend of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (3rd Edition) and Only War the latest of Games Workshops stand alone systems.
For those of you unfamiliar with the systems there are some in-depth reviews available at RPG.net for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplayor for a more personal review And She Games is a nice alternative view on the system.
I do rather enjoy it however my own personal annoyance with the system is that any race that is not human find themselves lagging behind in class progression, and that many of the expansions are horribly expensive and the game is designed for the maximum number of extra card sets to be required to purchase on top of the original game.
Only War on the other hand is much harder to find reviews for (as well as an actual copy of the game) but my main recommendation is that done by Simon at Fifty Shades Of Geek. In all honestly it mirrors most my own options on the game from my experience playing it but in the future I do hope to share some of the custom regiments that my group have invented.
In other news I want to give a little call out to a recently opened hobby shop in my local gaming area, there are far and few independent shops of this type anymore so I feel like I should do my part as its little off a beaten path.
Beggarz Kanyon owned by a Mr Andy Vallely a Star Wars Collector himself stocks a variety of original pieces such as Action Men and Rock Em Sock Em Robots to modern toys like Minecraft Papercraft and Adventure Time books and figures.
The website is available Here
While a Google Street View and address is Here
Regarding progress on Encumbrance things have been slow this month as I have recently have been enquiring about taking further training course or education, however once I have a work pattern once more progress with increase as I can better plan my time spent upon it.
Finally as the day approach to me been another year older and hopefully wiser, I am trying to decide to what to spend my short lived income increase upon. While I no longer do medieval reenactment as a hobby I do enjoy still performing my sword training for exercise. However after my bastard sword was damage due to a weakness in the hilt cause by a forge error I have been force to use Bokkens which don't feel right when using a European fighting style.
However I recently discovered this which are apparently training blades made of the heaviest grade polypropylene (The stuff plastic chairs are made of). So hopefully I'll get my hands on one soon and give some feedback.
Well once again Christmas is catching up with us all but that's no reason to give up on the gaming, so for those still struggling to fill their parties loot sack here are some of my favourite ideas for gifts this year.
If your Dungeon Master is anything like me they have mountains of maps which they have spent hours drawing and never seem to have the right on, for them I recommend the Ye Olde Map Maker a cheap little program that is a great time and space saver.
Alternatively no space on the table, tired of cocked dice or accusations of roll fudging perhaps a Dice Tower will help and some of the designs for these are becoming quite impressive and entertaining. Though my own firm favourite has always been the classic Leather Dice Cup, I've linked to one of the more expensive and ornate examples but there are plenty available at much cheaper price. While I used to use normal cups or a plastic containers these both made a horrible racket and I've known dice to chip in ceramic cups but if neither of them suit you perhaps you just need Smaller Dice.
I've found dice have always been a popular gift amongst role players ranging from the Ornate Pieces of Art to the Plentiful Lucky Dip but two rather unique examples have been brought to my attention (as well as heavy hinting) by my gaming group.
The DICE+ at Firebox is a electronic dice that can Bluetooth to various tablet games, the list of which seems to slowly and steadily growing. Unfortunately the Firebox site doesn't provide much information but there is a review available at The Verge.
The second little piece that caught the eye of my group was the D20 Spinner Dice Ring, I know if had one of these I would most likely not be able to stop playing with the thing though I can't seem to find anyone who has tried one of these so if anyone has any first hand experience of using one let us know in the comments.
Of course for those wishing personalisation of their tools of the trade you could always give them the means to make their own with a Blank Set Of Dice.
While our focus is on jewellery I recently been hearing a lot from the ladies in my group about Chainmaille, which appears to be chainmail jewellery and other assorted items. With a bit of help I was directed to Etsy and found a rather nice Dice Bag made in the style though I do think the plastic lock spoils it slightly, there are a fewotherexamples of the style but I think the next item I saw was far more my tastes. Clockwork Firebird's collection of leatherwork and costume pieces really caught my eye but for a cheap little Christmas stocking filler the Made To Order Runic Snap Bracelets seem to perfect. Personally I think I will be getting one of these for each of my group and there will be a challenge to see who can translate it first and write it out with the Feather Quill Pens they will also be getting. I only wish these were available as pencils more regularly but for those games where a character isn't likely to change these biros will do.
Now my group likes to give presents based on the characters we've played (or at least the most memorable and amusing one) but for Dungeons and Dragons people always seem to struggle with ideas for Rangers and Druids players so I suggest a nice Microwaveable Warmer of their animal companion to snuggle up to over the cold winter period.
Now not everyone likes fluffy toys and that's understandable but in the spirit of my first series of articles perhaps they might enjoy Canned Unicorn Meat or Insectilix Lollies?
Finally what to give the more naughty players for Christmas, the rogue that pick-pocketed the party and pawned off the valuable plot item, the wizard that experiments on the local village or the fighter that just won't stop punching the vital NPC contact? What better than some Christmas Coal Popcorn which is tasty as well as giving a slight hint.
Well I hope at the very least I've helped give you all some ideas so now I guess its time for the mail article. Initially I had hoped to post this on Halloween but I decided not to interrupt the posting of the "Survival Out In The Wilds" series so I guess here is my very own nightmare before Christmas the heartless mage.
