26 December 2017

Christmas 2017



Merry Christmas, again!

I actually got some gaming stuff for Christmas this year, thanks in part to Netflix.


(Mini photographed on top of a Moorcok book for added oldschool gaming cred -- even if it's not one of his tradtional/pulpy fantasy books.)

To be honest, the mini was of no interest to me until Stranger Things. I've been wanting one since that first episode. And now I have it. Also have an old '80s Ral Partha hydra that was sold with it.


For Christmas, I usually buy one or two "from Santa" gifts for the whole family. This year I had the urge to pick up this...



...which I did. When I was a kid, a friend down the street had the original and I remember enjoying it. It wasn't exactly a gateway into D&D for me, but I enjoyed board games in general, and it predated my being introduced to RPGs.

For various reasons, I backed out on actually wrapping it & gifting it to the family and will probably return it to the store in a few days.


On the other hand, I have been considering picking up something for myself for solo play. I don't have the space for solo miniatures gaming any more, and I think I am close to admitting defeat in trying to force myself back into the hobby of playing games with other humans. (Same time & scheduling problems, etc.) So I've started looking into computer games and solo board games. Some of the modern D&D board games are supposed to be decent for solo dungeon crawls.


I'm torn, though. I like the idea of getting away from digital screens. And although they are board games, they still have a tangible element, including miniatures. Not wargames or battle games, though.

Computer games seem like they offer more in terms of depth & responsive AI, and I can find some larger tactical battle games. I'd rather reduce my time in front of a screen than increase it, though.

I guess each option has its pros & cons.


8 comments:

  1. Need to pick up one of those demigorgons myself. I, too, can't seem to get back into wargaming since the death of Warhammer Fantasy. Nobody here plays ninth age, and the fluff behind KoW just doesn't do it for me

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    1. I'm not crazy about the KoW fluff either. I don't pay it much mind. I do like the mechanics, though.

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  2. Awww yes, the Dungeon! game, what a classic. We played that loads as kids, though actually we bought it because I was already playing D&D. We've still got our copy in the dusty games cupboard, I wonder if we played the same edition? I'll send you some pics for nostalgia purposes...

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    1. The old one in the pics is what I remember. My understanding is that it's been revised several times, but is essentially the same game. The new components don't really look like much of an improvement, and the board even looks like it might be smaller. Of course, someone with at least a small degree of modeling & graphic design skills could probable build a custom board and find some suitable miniatures to use for the players characters... ;)

      I was on the fence about it, but this review is what motivated me to buy it: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/881263/why-bother

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  3. Looks like they changed the character classes and not much else! Still cheap and cheerful and incredibly random.

    To use 28mm minis with it, you'd need to double the size of the board, at least. A handful of 15mm Fantasy character miniatures would add a lot to it though. Monster miniatures too would become a big project, especially as most monsters are killed in one throw of the dice. A 3D version of the game board - which had 6 different dungeon levels - would be awesome if rather a lot of work, which to be honest the game as I remember it wouldn't really justify...

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    1. I don't know if I'd bother with a full 3d board, but maybe a larger sized one. And definitely just minis for the players, not monsters.

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  4. The more I think about it, the more I like the 3D board idea...

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    1. I have vague & distant memories of TSR doing one at GenCon long ago. It was significantly larger than the game board, IIRC.

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