Monday, December 2, 2013

How the time does fly...

I can't believe I haven't written since September. Mostly busy with 'real life' stuff added with the collapse of my gaming group made it hard for me to find not only the time but also topics to write about. Let's go over some of the things I usually talk about, shall we?

Wargaming:

Not much going on here, due to lack of time to play. Spinespur is on the shelf until I finish up the last of my queue (which I had hoped to have done before the new stuff arrived...) plus I wanted to make some more terrain to use for the game.
As for Warhammer, I find myself just not motivated to play. Don't get me wrong, I like the game and have fun playing, but I just don't want to play. And when I don't want to play, I don't want to paint. I'll keep chugging along, however, and try to at least finish my Chaos Space Marines before too long. Once I get those guys finished, then it's on to the Imperial Guard... Oh, god, why did I buy so many minis and not paint them? Why, god, why?
Moving on to Malifaux, I've been putting my forces on hold while I waited for the 2e update as well as my Happy Seppuku base stamps (which I will discuss in a little bit here). Now that my stamp has arrived, I hope to get them standing and buy the new book so I can finally get a game in. I'm hearing some really good things about the game so I am very much looking forward to it.

Kickstarter:

Now it's time for a run down of the various Kickstarters I'm waiting on and have received rewards from -

SpineSpur:
Merv just sent out the Street Chum mini-game, so be sure to check your updates. I got mine and my computer refuses to figure out exactly what kind of file it is. I'll try a few more things before I send an email, but if you have any advice, let me know. As for the rest of the rewards, the minis, Merv has said they'll be a little late. That's fine. He's communicating the issues as they happen (books misprinted, screw up in the drafting program, etc) so I was expecting a delay of some kind. I can't hold the mistakes and just general bad luck of others on him. I'm looking forward to my minis and playing some bigger games.

Cyberpunk playing cards:
I got these a while back and they're pretty good. Good art, good quality cards and on-time rewards. These guys know what they're doing. I'm glad I backed the project and look forward for finding an excuse to use them. My only complaint, and it is a small one, is the box doesn't look like it'll take much abuse before it starts to fall apart. Like I said, small complaint.

Base stamps:
Well, again, these guys delivered on time, which is a point for them. I'm not so sure about the base stamp, however. I got the Old World: Flagstone stamp and I'm not 100% impressed. A friend pointed out that things got a bit rushed and they weren't able to spend as much time working on the stamps before they shipped them. The problem with my stamp is some flash and a large crack on the side of the stamp where the letter "R" should be. I can go over the stamp myself and clean up the flash, but the crack worries me about the longevity of the stamp. If I had bought this from them without a Kickstarter, I'd politely ask for a replacement. But since it was Kickstarter, I'm willing to cut them some slack. I'll write up some more about the stamp when I get a chance to work with it.

Tears of a Machine RPG:
Looking forward to getting my PDF and my little card thing. The scheduled release of the product for us backers is this month, but with the holidays going on, I'm guessing it's going to miss it. So long as the creator keeps communicating (which he does okay at), that'll be alright. Once it does it, I think I'm going to try a new semi-regular article trying to be 'journalistic' about RPGs. Something that goes in to the art, the content of the game, the mechanics and just trying to be fair about the thing. After I do that, I'm so going to run a game of it! This will also be a test for future backing of RPGs as I've never done it before this one.

Deck of Legends:
Well, this one has missed delivery date, and I'm not sure what's going on. I've been so busy (and had a problem with my email account), so I could have some gaps in updates. I do know that there have been a few changes with the art as well as a massively delayed stretch goal (which was something from another person, not the creator). But, since the art is fantastic, I'm willing to quietly wait a few extra weeks for a quality product.

Other articles and etc -

I haven't done another Past From The Past because I can't decide if I want to do Teenagers From Outer Space or Cyberpunk 2020. I'll be putting up another poll for you to vote on.

In other news, we found out a while ago that the World of Warcraft TCG went under because of Blizzard. I think it's a damn shame and shame on Blizzard for pulling the plug. I never played WoW but I do have fond memories of the RTS games, as well as knowing several people that got into the card game because of the MMORPG, or went back to it after playing the card game. I don't know what prompted the end of the project, but I wonder about it. I don't know if Blizzard didn't think they were making enough money off of the game (possible) or if they thought that Cryptozoic wasn't able to focus enough of their line as they wanted (again, possible). Either way, I'm bummed and haven't really played since I got the news. Because this is just what I needed: another dead card game to take up room in my place.

As some of you may have noticed, I commented that I had backed the Bones II Kickstarter but never wrote about it. Well, thanks to 'real life' I had to cancel my pledge and deal with some stuff. I could have kept it at $1 and then upped it later, but I didn't want to tempt myself to blow all my money on little plastic men, especially when there are several hundred others that need paint and bases and primer and... Well, you get the point. I'll gladly buy more Bones from Reaper when they get released in addition to the metals I already want. If there's a Bones III, I'll look in to backing that one, too.

There you go, folks. Let me know what you think and for those of you choosing to celebrate the holidays a merry 'Bah Humbug' to you all!

Edit: I'm also thinking about putting out some setting ideas for games up here. If you're interested in those, please leave a comment. I may or may not include rules, that will depend on the legality of doing so.