Stuff! In the Mail! And a Game!

We're in the week between the end of my daughter's summer day camp, and the start of school. So we've made assorted arrangements to keep her occupied & supervised. Today was, as she called it "daddy & daughter day" -- I took a day off work to spend with her. Unfortunately, bad weather blew my initial plans (mostly outdoor activities) away. But I did have some indoor backup plans. We went out for most of the day and had fun, then came home around dinner.

She's been asking about the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame, since I've had the box out. We played Dungeon! again a few weeks ago (with my wife as well) and I described it as "kind of like Dungeon! but with a lot more rules. Recommended age is 14+, my daughter's only 8, but she's really bright. A couple days ago she suggested we could play it today, and my wife told me she was talking about it last night & this morning, so who am I to disagree!

We played the first scenario from the campaign. I left out the background about murdered friends and switched the "Massacre Site" tile for the "Oubliette" tile. She played the ranger, I played the cleric. She took to it like a pro -- making me do the dangerous work & act as a tank, while using her archery to pick off all the monsters (and collect all the treasure.)

Her good tactical sense combined with her strong imagination and still being a great age for "pretend play" make me wonder if I should introduce her to some kid-friendly RPG-ing. I follow a few other parents running RPGs with their kids & friends on their blogs & social media. Maybe I should take the dive?

Today I got Stuff! In the Mail! that will supplement several of my ongoing projects. (Thank you Shadespyre!) Half orcs (and one will fit perfectly for a character for which I've been hunting for a figure lately!), high/sea elf, what appears to be a robo-clown (who I'm already generating backstory for) and a witch-hunter.

Also more of the old Citadel "armoured skeletons" which I can probably never have enough of. But this is especially good timing since I recently won an absolute bargain on some of the Black Tree knock-offs, who can serve as back rankers. Add in a few other stray skeleton figures, and I think I've now got a solid sized unit for this year's Deadcember tradition!

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.

Two New Little People

Two new additions to the household. One significantly more important than the other.

First is our daughter, Abigail, born Thursday morning at 12:08am. She's beautiful, healthy and happy -- as is her mother. She is our first (only?) child, and has already captured her fathers heart.

On a less profound note.... the day before the baby arrived, I painted a hobbit figure I picked up from Reaper Miniatures, to use as my character in our RPG campaign. Nob Scrobbleton, rustic but ambitious hobbit trader of herbs and other exotic commodities, turned adventurer.

Wanted: 15mm fantasy, medieval, ancient odds & ends

We're still trying to hang on to the old-school RPG group. At 7 people (6 PCs and a DM) it's hard coordinating free time, especially once summer hits. We're hoping to maintain once a month games until the fall. We've only met twice in the past two months, though it's been a great deal of fun!

The DM has been using dice and some plastic Risk figures for trying to visually organize the battles. I'm thinking of suggesting figures, but because of space considerations I'm tempted to try 15mm instead of the usual 25/28mm. The problem, as I see it, is tthat most 15mm figures come in larger quantities of 12-50 per pack.

So I am looking for your 15mm odds and ends. For sale (preferably cheap) or trade. We could probably use a variety of generic human fantasy archetypes (either fantasy or historical figures - some armoured, some barbarians, some "rangers" etc.) as well as typical fantasy RPG figures (skeletons, orcs, goblins, dwarfs, elves, etc.) That would be the best place to start, I think. Maybe we can work on some big critters after that.

WAB & RPG & HE

I finally played my first game of WAB2.0 today. My Romans solidly beat a FotW Warlord army. Maybe it's the backdrop of the drastic (and more familiar to me at the momen) change between WFB7 & WFB8, but WAB2.0 doesn't seem much different (nor play much differently) than it used to.

After the game, my opponent spoke of doing an all skirmish army, to which I set up my reply:




This weekend I also tentatively dipped my toes back into the world of RPGs after 20 years away. The rest of the group are a mix of returning old-time RPG players and totally new players. Half the group got together for character creation. I will be playing a slightly dishonest hobbit drug dealer named (for now, unless I can think of something better in the next week or two) Nob Scrobbelton. :)

My slacker sidekick/familiar for character creation day...



I continue to paint. Finished some commission elves last week:


Except for the army standard bearer (red & white) the figures are plastics from the latest WFB boxed game. I was quite impressed with the quality of the figures. I'll be painting some of the new swordmasters next, and they look quite nice as well.