So here we are

50 Episodes in the can folks...Yikes.

Here is a request I promised an answer to, a while ago. How to play Descent with young kids.

Well, here goes. I play DnD like with the goal of adding in enough elements to play the true game at some point.

First observation. My son hated the idea of monsters spawning "out of nowhere". I guess he felt like he'd kill a bunch of skeletons then why would more pop out. I can't blame him it is a frustrating feeling. The second thing he did not like was Me vs. Him. Also he really could not handle all four characters. And I worried about his attention level.

Now the good news: At the age of 8, he was totally able to comprehend the tracking of his one hero card. The weapons cards, boosts to his fatigue, counting his wounds, etc...100%. Tactic wise he still just wants to run and charge the monster but who doesn't?

Ok, so what did I do. Ok, We build the map together. He loves that part. I then look up a dungeon including the big bad monster. I use the money and the character beginning rules. No issue. I keep all the monsters handy, and put some more treasure in the dungeon. This gets him all excited and boosts the character strength. He plays just one guy.

Then that's it, I narrate a short scene from the get go. "The wizard in the town wants you to find his magic stone and bring it back to him. You will have to beat the Giant to do it." First one: "You enter the room and hear the sound of dripping water. There are two doors, what do you want to do?" Of course, there are two treasure piles in the room. So where does he want to do. TREASURE. Hey he is a boy after all.

"As you approach the treasure....A spider drops down from the ceiling" He jumps with glee. And the battle rages on per normal dice rules.

That is it, that is the whole game. If he squishes the spider easy. I boost the level of the monster right on the card. Just like a DM does.

What happens? Well, it for one amazing keeps his attention for waaaay longer than I thought. When I played this with his two cousins, who are not gamers by trade, they loved it and wanted to play for hours.

By narrating the monsters in, and not playing with a hand of overlord cards, they get the used to the feel of monsters popping in but don't quite feel like I am playing against them. As a matter of fact I mention I am NOT against them, I am just the storyteller. This helps too.

It really is that easy. As a matter of fact don't worry that the monsters will kill them without overlord cards, the monsters are easy to squish.

Next I intend to use some overlord cards to "help me". And we can ease into using them.

That's it, easy as pie.

Enjoy!

HD

And then there were leeks...

So as you have heard the Breakfast Gaming Club tried out Gates of Loyang thanks to Myriad Games, Netlix Gaming Option.

Man I am so torn on this one. The price is better it is 59.99 and you do get a massive bag of veggie meeples that would probably cost about 40.00 bucks retail. The game play was fun in a boring kind of way. I mean you start out and you are like man, this is boring, and then you get going along and then the game grows on ya. Pun intended. Do I like it better than Rune Wars, hard to say, different type of game. Do I like it better than Agricola? No. Le Havre. No? But I do really want to have it in my collection, but not if no one will play it 3 months from now. I think crazy as this sounds, my group will play it some more. It is not as much a brain buster as Le Havre and Agricola can be, so it has a nice relaxing feel to it.

Had a blast painting up my WM guys again. I need to decide what to paint next. I think I might actually try to do some terrain. I have always wanted to, now I can for my War Machine Battles. Matt Wilson has made just a nice sweet game. I mean the game is smooth. Plays well, plays hard, a good feel when you are done.

Also really looking forward to Stoni hitting level cap too. It will be my first. Still enjoy adventuring in Middle Earth. I am looking forward to Stoni hitting 65 though so I can then play some BioShock II.

Well Brian Aherne is here we are getting lunch!

HD out

And here's the more....

I was zonked out tired last night. Cooked some food in Lotro, made kindred within my cooking guild. Read Walking Dead trade paperback #9. Love this series.

At breakfast gaming club, we played RuneWars. Here is my take on it. I like the game. I want to love it but I don't. BCG we took 5 hours with lots of breaks for ummmm...you guessed it...coffee. I won and I do not love the game. Here is the thing and Dave agreed with me. Spencer and Brian loved it for the record. I am not sure I got my fun's worth for the 5 hours. I know I know it normally does not take that long, but it seemed a little to random for me. Yikes a shocker I know.

For example, I was able to get three dragon stones in one round, bam I won the game. Dave and Spencer and Brian really did not do anything wrong I was just luckier I felt after one game.

I don't know, maybe I am into solitaire games right now, but my thoughts are when I am farming and I lose, I still feel like I was working on and building something and feel good at the end vs. my opponent pulled that lucky card and got 5 cattle and bam wins the game. Just my two cents.

A great game, smooth, worth the money, but after my first play not my favorite but I wanted it to be.

Stoni is levelling nicely, having a blast with skirmish battles. I am currently working on getting some campaign marks so I can get a cosmetic dwarven work outfit. I really like this about this game, to me it is just fun to work towards something with absolutely no game significance other than props from your online friends.

Want to try Star Trek online, but not sure I am quickly running out of time in my life.

That is all for now.

HD

Russ Wins!

Ok, as of 8:13 EST, Weds., I have a twitter account. And it is not a business one, it is thed6ghollywood. So it counts in my mind! Russ wins! See my twit to see what tipped me over the edge.

I am working on a new super secret line of jimmyjango line of t-shirts. Just got access to a super cool digital t-shirt printer. What this does is let me print anything and even small print runs.

I am a t-shirt snob. I love those super soft, well fitted, organic tees that look like they have been washed 1,000 times. So that is what the jimmyjango line of t-shirts is going to have. As you know I like to support my hobby, I don't want to do it wearing a super stiff hot black t-shirt. I am working with some big names in the industry to work with their IP, I don't want to mention any names as of yet, because it is still in the works.

This is to fit the niche with Zazzle. Zazzle is still the place to go for nice affordable t-shirts for the d6g, but if you are looking for that custom gaming art that is so jimmyjango then stay tuned!!!!

I am hoping to have my first launch by TempleCon we will see.

HD

Mangled Metal and More...

Whew....where did those two weeks go?

Ok, got a lot on my plate here. Let's start with MKII. Russ and I played our inaugural game of MKII. And of course had Russ/ Raef confusion, but more on that later. The history of Russ and Raef facing off goes like this. (Enter Movie Memory Music Here). Back in the day I was introduced to Warmachine and loved it. The idea of a Magic Caster that can "animate" huge steam jacks and there were tons of choices and it favor's the aggressor....sign me up for that. I think I got into WM sometime after Prime. It was when I was feeling 40K was shooting fish in a barrel and one won when he mastered rules lawyering vs. playing.

So I tell Russ about it, he is not interested at all. Russ says "Eh, I heard it is like Magic the Gathering" One game later and he was hooked. He and I have been our main opponents ever since. As back in the day no one else would really play with us. So we played. Game after game after casterkill after game. We honed our skills to the point where Stryker knew Vlad's move's even before I did. Russ became synonymous with Stryker and I with Vlad.

The epic battles were born. Now whenever WM releases we are the first to battle fully painted and raring to go.

Now in the present day, I was thinking in our inaugural battle it was Russ vs. Raef and I wanted to go new page five and bring a brand new force....Sorscha and all new units. The rest of the world was expecting Styrker vs. Vlad and I can see that point. So Russ and I had fun whereby Russ would rub it in that I missed Vlad's abilities, and people would walk up and go where's Vlad. I forgot that people actually listen to the postcast. As I was like how do all these people know about our planned battle? And. I did miss Vlad.

In game one, I promptly lost. Ouch. I popped Sorcha's Icy Stare feat right into the face of his high armour feat. I knew it was not going to work but I did it anyway. I could not wait!!!! I still had Vlad's blood coursing through my veins. But in the second game, I had Vlad's lover's patience and waited until after Stryker's feat, then rained down bombards upon frozen Stryker's head. It was glorious. So Russ (1) and Raef (1). What will the rubber match be? Vlad? Sorcha? or Maybe Karchev. One never knows.

Here is the Behemoth that I painted for the game.

There is more, on other topics, but until next time....

That is my story.

A new pardigm and potpourri

Ok, well let's see....

My son has discovered the new paradigm of Youtube it seems. He likes to take our camera and record videos. So we found this on our camera the other day and laughed hysterically. Then he asked if he could load it to youtube so his friends could see, so there you go, a Granger has used a new paradigm of communication.

Ok, I need help, when I use the link button in this blog it is printing as above instead as a hyperlink, now what is weird is I have done hyper links before as you can see so I do not know why I don't have links. Help.....

Re: WHFRP. We played our first game and reading the dice pools was not exactly as speedy as I thought they would be. It still took some interpretation, but I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with it that is for sure. This weekend is BCG again and we are debating playing that again or playing Factory Manager or other board games.

Re: Factory Manager. I do like this game but it is going to require a few more play throughs before I decide fully on it.

Myriad Games. I am very excited about the direction Dan is going with his Myriad Memberships. I know for a lot of you this is moot as you do not live nearby, but what I like is, we can now "rent" out a game just like netflix. So for example, before I plunk 80.00 down on Gates of Loyang I can test it out and see if I or the group will play it. Now I asked Dan about this and thought he was making a big mistake. I said, right now I am planning on buying it, but what if I rent it, and I don't like it, now you have lost an $80.00 sale. He said, you know that may be true, but I have found that the bad experience of paying 80.00 for a game you don't like actually hangs around in your mind and affects future purchases and just leaves you with a bad purchasing feeling. And also, I may have lost the sale on Gates, but what is next on you list that you want to buy. Raef says Chaos in the Old World, FOW models, and something else I am forgetting. Right, he says, and you don't have a bad taste in your mouth of blowing 80.00 you have a happy taste in your mouth and am ready to purchase whatever you want. I am paraphrasing, and you know what that does makes sense. So I am looking forward to renting out the Gates of Loyang now.

Templecon. I am very much looking forward to this con. A chance to just hang out with the d6g crew and my gamer group in a nice relaxed setting.

Very Very excited for Ia Drang FOW Vietnam. I have to finish up my last campaign battle with Don in WWII to clear my head. Then I am looking forward to getting a "painting table" my mother in law has a small scroll top desk that she is giving to me so I can keep this in the living room and just pop the scroll top down. The issue is I do not like the looks of the table at all, it is wobbly as all sin, and I believe a little too small. BUT the wife has signed off on it being in the living room so I guess that is good. My neighbor is a furniture maker and he promises me he can tighten the desk up and make it good. So we shall see. I did send an email to geekchic asking for what it would be for a custom table, but got absolutely no response. Does he know who I am??????? :0)

I do not think Russ should get credit if my credit updater service RocketDog Reports gets a facebook page. That is my corporate side of Raef. Not Raef getting a facebook page. I am excited about the direction RocketDog is going in. It is the link between Bankruptcy Clients and Credit Reporting Agencies. I have actually attracted the attention of some investors that I am currently struggling on what to do with.

Well that is it for now.

HD

That was interesting.....

So, I was all ready to go to game night this past Tues, and chose to be good husband. The wife was in a bit of a funk. So we hung out together. She usually is not the needy type, she is very self sufficient. She is the type of woman I firmly believe could live without a Man in her life and be just fine. This reminds me of the struggle between a Man's wants whether it be going golfing, the casino, of going gaming. I really wanted to go gaming, but....the wife needed me so I gladly stayed. But I did miss it. :(

So, in its place I did some fun things. I broke out Factory Manager. I had already read the rules and were completely flumxed by them. I mean they made no sense to me. I read the supplement it comes with and that helped immensely. Then I played a demo game against myself. Success! One I actually had fun as weird as that sounds. And I beat myself. Yep, if that is at all possible that is what happened. So I played one board as my making conscious choices, I played the dummy board, following the rules but with no thoughts, and guess what the dummy board Won. Figures.

This game is FUN. And pleasantly short, at least to Le Havre standards. I think a 3-4 person game after the learning curve is 90 minutes. Of course you can get a step by step breakdown on BGG.com. So I am just going to give you my flavor. The rules to play are simple, but the game play will take a while to master to win.

You basically have this factory board, and the goal is to have both production and storage increase to earn money which is how you win. You pick the lowest value so if your production is up to 8 and storage is only 3, you only earn 30 Electro. Which makes fluffy sense, if you produce too much and don't have enough storage well you are screwed. To balance the earning effect you add your production/ storage and subtract the current energy costs.

Ok, how to produce, you buy tiles at the market of robots, machines, and storage. These tiles have production values, storage values, worker costs and energy costs. You try to buy efficient tiles to produce while lowering your worker costs and energy costs.

What I like is the game is intuitive. You look at your board and say hmmm...I have tons of storage but I need to produce. Oh look this robot, produces 3 and lowers my worker by one. I'll try to get that. Bam. That is the whole game. There is bidding, using workers to buy turn order, to work machines, and space limitations on your factory floor causing you to make timing and purchase decisions on what and when to upgrade robots, machines, control panels, etc....

That's it that is basically the flavor or the game. I am very much looking forward to playing this with the BCG. and Russ even mentioned this one he might like to try.

Also getting ready to host my first WHFRP 3.0 day at BCG on 1.02.10 Reading up on the rules and the dungeon. I might have a celebrity on deck to come too. Scott Wegner of Atomic Robo fame!

Also, created my Warmachine 25 point list and painting list to get ready for Warmachine Launch on 1.6.10. Ordered my hardcover book and Khador deck from Myriad.

And have reached out to two more editors on writing some articles, as you can see over the holidays I get to take a break from my day job and do some fun things!

Want to also build and paint up a Huey Helicopter.

Having father/ son day today. Playing with our fully painted Grind Set. I am looking forward to how the game plays "dumbed" down or at an 8 year old level. Don't get me wrong that is more for me than for him. Oh, here is a trick. Use a blow dryer on the Grind models and the arms pop right in.

And here is what is interesting, why can't 3 year olds hold their own trash?

I very much liked Avatar, a good Cameron film. Is the story original not at all, but I don't mind being told the same story again. But then again, I still read Spider Man Comics which is of course the same story. Hey I like the pretty pictures. :)

Phew, ok, I am done for now.

HD.

PS. Are any of the followers interested in Chapter 2 or Darcy's plight? Don't just say yes to say yes, just a wondering