JimmyJango

MMO vs. SandBox

2010-06-12T07:28:00.002-04:00

Ahh, I've got it now.

I realized a difference between Red Dead Redemption's sandbox play and my experiences in LOTRO, a MMO.

BTW LOTRO has gone free to play. So come on in the water's warm!

So Red Dead Redemption is the best sandbox game I have ever played. I always have loved the idea of being able to do what one wants in an open world but have never been able to get behind or "role play" a gangster in GTA's and for some reason it did not work in Just Cause either which was superheroes. I always got a little bored after about 3 hours into the game.

I absolutely love Red Dead Redemption and yet that bored feeling is coming on? Why?

I figured it out.

In RDR, (1) you have to wait until the mission you may want to do comes available again. SPOILER.....After Bonnie gets hanged, I really wanted to follow up with that story line, but I can't. Also, I had to redo that mission like 4x before I finished it, because "I ain't so good with a six shooter." I was like well in LOTRO I would just get to finish the story line without redoing it 4x over. Now some would say, that is why MMO's are boring it takes no real skill. And they are right (I am not talking about raiding, that is a different story). I guess I like it having no real skill. I like being able to "role play" my way through the story without repeating the mission. It breaks the illusion that I am a "real" cowboy, which is awesome fun.

Also, the side "crafting" goals, becoming a sharpshooter, skinning animals, collecting flowers. I keep wanting to be able to make a cool potion or an animal skinned cloak I can wear. Now that would be cool. So, those "crafting" goals, sure you get an achievement, but I like it when it then becomes something I can wear to the world in multiplayer, and it says to the world: "This dufus spent 100 hours picking flowers so he could have this cool bandelero".

As for multiplayer, I like Borderlands much much more because again, I am not the quickest on the draw so in RDR I just run around aimlessly looking at all the dead bodies my friends just shot only to then be shot by the enemy I cannot even see. In Borderlands, because it is co-op and the enemy are NPC's, no matter how bad I am, I am still part of a team. Now, RDR is getting a co-op version so I am sure that will be cool.

Now, I started out saying I love this game and I do. I am so into the main character John Marston. Very good voice acting, very cool plot line and story arc. I like that you get to play a rough and tumble bad guy that is good. Even the side missions with Irish, Seth, the Sheriff, and Wes are fun and again great voice acting. Basically if they made a cowboy MMO on the xbox I would jump into right away.

Speaking of that some people on the LOTRO forums who are upset over the f2p option of LOTRO are mentioning checking out: Fallen Earth, A FPS Shooter Role Playing MMO set in Post Apocalyptic Earth. Hmm that could have legs.

HD

And then there was WFRP 3.0

2010-03-10T09:32:00.004-05:00

So, back in college I ran the most memorable campaign ever. It was using the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play rules (WHFRP 1.0) because everyone knew DnD like the back of their hand. Using WHFRP let me create a whole new world, with all new monsters, and even better the players had no idea how hard it was to kill an Orc, so player tension was always nice and high. It was a grand adventure because it was so new.

And after that, I tried playing fantasy role playing games, and don't know if it was because I was older or not, but playing role playing became "Yeah, yeah, I go down the corridor, check for traps, open the door, look up, burn the blob with my torch, open the blob for the gem, blah blah blah. Ie. It became boring. My imagination seemed to be gone.

I have had some successes, I played in a very fun email DnD 3.5 campaign and my Dark Heresy "Dungeon" was also a huge success.

Needless to say, I had high hopes for my WHFRP 3.0 session. I still think the game mechanics are very cool, but I don't know...the session was just not as fun as I thought it would be.

I mean I thought the precanned adventure was the best I had ever seen. So, why was the playing session meh? Well I think several reasons.

One, it was not my own creation, so that can tend to make the adventure a little blander. Also, my player characters were not really role playing they were more "boardgame" playing a role playing game. You know, there was no "I smite the demon with my Sigmarite Hammer" kind of stuff. And, the player characters were pre-made which always leads towards a non-caring attitude about one's character.

So, all in all, I liked the rule set very much and the players admitted to having fun. So, I am going to try again and make my own adventure and have the PC's make their own characters. I think that will give us all the ownership I feel might infuse the game with some vigour. Or I am just old and my imagination is worn out.

HD

Noam Chomsky and Lucy the Chimpanzee

2010-04-20T07:18:00.007-04:00

Ok:

So my turn to chime in on the use of words like "whatnot"; "anyways" or "irregardless".

In college I had the "misfortune", to take a linguistics course. :0 I thought this would be cool being an English major and relatively easy. This was one of the hardest courses I ever took!

If you don't believe me, look up linguistics or Noam Chomsky on wikipedia.

My professor back in the day mentioned there was Theory A of grammar and Theory B of grammar. Theory A is Craig's position on grammar. There are distinct rules to language and language in use, and the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) is the Truth with a capital "T" of what word is "correct" and which word is not and is less formal or slang. Theory A are words that you can use in a interview.

I remember back in the day. "Got" was not a word to use, "Like" used like this "She was like, I will go to the store"; and my father's pet peeve when I said. "I should have went" when proper grammar is "I should have gone". And of course, "really" the adverb is supposed to have an "ly" at the end, but really who says that anymore. No one. We all say, "Wow, the game was real close".

Theory B, is language in use: that language evolves and forms its own rules as it gets understood and accepted by others. You will see that the words above are probably all used today without any distinction. Meaning you can probably use "got" in an interview and not get tagged for it. I remember newscasters on the air, people we tend to think speak perfect English, even started to use "got".

I subscribe to Theory B. Words are fun. I like using words and phrases in new ways. Like my jimmyjango catch phrase or "like a squirrel to a flame". In college a friend of mine created the word "zow".

No theory is right or wrong. Both are equally valid. In Theory B's defense, it "wins" in that eventually Theory A people will admit a word is "proper" once it hits the OED which supports language in use. And in Theory A's defense, I don't think the following would be heard in an interview if one is smart. Interviewer: "So tell me about your award for academic excellence". Interviewee: "Well, winning that felt real jimmyjango".

Regarding "irregardless" or the use of a double negative. In English it is not considered proper to say "I don't have no money". It is considered to be a double negative as the two negatives "don't" and "no" cancel out to mean you DO have money. But in Spanish "No tengo no denero" means I don't have any money. The two negatives are use for emphasis. This makes sense to me. The same goes for irregardless. I think emphasis in our language is just fine.

So in the end, I subscribe to Theory B. Why? Because logically it allows for Theory A to exist as well as Theory B at the same time. Whereas Theory A does not allow Theory B to exist. And I like language, I am fascinated by things like computers using language and other species using the human language.

On a side note, anyone hear of Lucy the chimpanzee? I just heard a great NPR article on her and her owners, and it reminded me that Lucy dispelled the notion that only humans can use language. Now I do not mean communication. Scientists have known that animals like bees and dolphins communicate, but I think I recall scientists at some point did not think other species used language by forming words to describe its world.

Lucy learned to speak to humans with sign language. Now at first people said, well she is just "copying" signs to communicate to humans like in a Pavlovian kind of way. But she then started to use and combine her signs to express her own meaning including lying, once thought to only be a human trait. For example, and these are my own made up examples, not exact usages that Lucy may have done. Let's say she knew the sign for "dirty" and the sign for "banana". She might have said on her own when given a rotten banana to eat, "dirty banana" to mean she did not want it.

Also I find it interesting and full of human hubris to think, dolphins for example communicate with their sounds but do not use language. Well that is as far as we know. Until we have a universal translator, we may never know that what Dolphins are communicating is not just a "Danger!" noise but really are saying: "Nah, I don't want to go over there due to the tuna nets, lets go play Agricola."

And that is my two cents on language.

HD

For Whom the Pit Falls....

2010-03-28T17:27:00.003-04:00

So, this may be the end of role playing fantasy wise anyway for BCG. Why? Because, Descent may have just taken hold. So as you may know, Dave was a little bored with WHFRP and was like, eh, why are not playing a Descent campaign. We have the perfect makings, a small group that shows up, we like RP, but we can do a campaign without all the fuss. I have never played in a Descent campaign, and I was game even if it meant that my RP session would die. But truth is there was no zing to it that is for sure.

Well, we played Descent today and had a blast. (Craig if you are reading this close your eyes) :) I did not intend on it, but I ended up with an uber tank char. I wanted to pick a character that most people might not pick. He had two melee blocks and one range block, and a move of only two. Brother Glye, But his special ability gives him two movement re:less of the action he takes. At first, I thought he would be slow, but noooo... with fatigue he was just fine. Then with my plate mail and special shield I was nie damagable much to Dave's consternation.

It was just plain old fun. I mean not much political intrigue that is for sure, but a good dungeon crawl feel. We all had good action, all played well together, and Dave was a good Overlord outta the chute. I can see why Russ and the gang and Craig wants in all the time. Craig, is invited to the next empty chair to fill as Spence and Brian will be away.

And that probably is the death knell for poor WHFRP. The Dave liked the DH campaign the best, and the rest did like WHFRP but also liked DnD too. So, not being a pack rat I am really thinking about passing along WHFRP to a happy new owner. But I am not sure.

Let's see what else, why I love Khador. Yes. It is very Russian themed, which I normally do not go for, for fluff, but in this case I like the idea of frozen northern man and women of ice. My favorite part of Khador is proving false the following statement WM players sometimes make: "If you are just beginning, try Khador they are easy to learn as they have high armour". Hah! Although very true, they do have high armour, they are just a simple or challenging to play as any other faction. Any WM player worth their steam now how to tie a Khador jack up in knots, just standing there slowed in their tracks as that all so mighty armour is chipped to bits. It can be very very frustrating.

I also love the casters and the fluff of the casters. I like playing with winterguard especially with the winterguard attachments.

Uh...what's that...oh dinner is here...gotta run...

HD

A new pardigm and potpourri

2010-01-14T07:33:00.005-05:00

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)

Well that is it for now.

HD

So here we are

2010-02-23T07:47:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-02-05T13:02:00.002-05:00

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....

2010-01-28T16:16:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-01-28T08:13:00.002-05:00

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...

2010-01-27T08:18:00.004-05:00

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.

That was interesting.....

2009-12-30T08:03:00.003-05:00

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

Remind me to never....

2009-12-29T08:32:00.006-05:00

Buy an XBOX roleplaying game. Yep. You guessed it I traded in Dragon Age: Origins. Don't get me wrong it still is the best RP xbox game I have ever played. But....it just was not enough to get me back to play it after about 15 hours in. I, guess what, would play LOTRO when I was in the RP mode. And it is not RP. It is questing, getting loot, and seeing a story. Well, I do that in LOTRO and I like my MMO space better I guess. Now I do love the solo action/ adventure/ story line in xbox. Those I play all day. Bioshock, Thief, Splinter Cell, etc...So I picked up Assassins Creed II. I hear it has a better and more detailed mission and story line.

I regret trading in Arkhum Asylum. I have never kept a video game as a keepsake but I may just pick this up again. As, I did not know, that Mark Hamill does the voice of the Joker. I had no idea, and the Joker rocked in that game. Here is a clip on the cartoon. (cut and paste in browser) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gBWpWwIBKw&feature=related

Let's see what else, oh an errata. Nils's diaroama (see pic) Russ as the big headed cowboy, Craig as the Wolf for his penchant to play Werewolf all the time, and I...I was a dwarf but of course! Very cool. And Spooky's pic is up here as well.
The D6G in space!

Working on some more writing pieces, stay tuned.

HD

Merry Xmas!

2009-12-25T10:23:00.002-05:00

Well, all the gifts have been opened. A very good haul this year it seems. My wife and I did something different this year, we picked one special gift as a surprise to the other and the rest we just felt free to spend and then wrap for ourselves. It was more fun that I thought, saving them to Christmas. I decided to splurge and bought the army deal from Wargamers illustrated/ Battlefront. The full US 7th Cav comes with three Hueys "Slicks" one Huey "Hog" Gunship, one special downed Huey marker, GF9 US Army Tokens, and of course platoons of guys. I think it was a steal at $145USD and FREE shipping. When I put some of the models together I will throw up a pic. The special surprise gift was some J.R. Miniature 15mm dirt road segments. These roads really are jimmy jango. I mean the detail on them is amazing complete with little rubber boulders sticks, etc...all fully painted and bendable.

Really really psyched about these roads. They are bigger than I expected but actually when you think about it are the right size so that when tank is on it, it does not look like a bike bath. Can't wait to break these out on the next scenario.

Also picked up PowerGrid Factory Manager and WHFRP 3.0. Excited about both of those as well.

Ok, that is all for now. Merry Xmas.

HD

ChapterOne

2009-12-07T19:42:00.001-05:00

Darcy Rogers parked the rental car in the darkened lot across from her law office. She turned on the radio, hunkered down in the seat, and waited for the late night overworkers to abandon ship. An hour later the last car to leave her building pulled out of the law office lot and turned left—Arnie, she thought--such a hardworking guy. Too bad he was an incompetent fool. She wondered for a moment if the cops would grill him first--maybe even arrest him as the likely perpetrator, but she dismissed the thought. Nobody would ever suspect Arnie of anything, not with those baby blue eyes and a penchant for spilling his guts over the least little sin.

She got out of the car and opened the trunk. The canvas toolbag she’d stolen from her brother had opened during the ride from the airport and now her tools were scattered all over the back end of the car. Cursing to herself she pulled on her gloves, found the flashlight and methodically searched for every item she’d so carefully packed earlier in the evening. She pulled the drawstring on the sack and lifted it. It was heavy—heavier than she’d remembered. She must have stuck something extra into the bag. It didn’t matter. She was strong. She slung it across her back and slammed down the trunk.

She walked across the street and headed for the back of the building where the dumpster sat stinking with the week’s garbage and a ream or two of Arnie’s badly written drafts. She didn’t mind the smell of rotting food, but Arnie’s putrid reasoning made her ill. Arnie the idiot, she thought to herself. If only he knew.

She tramped down into the weeds behind the dumpster and pulled out the ladder she’d hidden during one of her late night practice runs. She maneuvered it into position against the building. She picked up the tools again and started to climb, one hand on the ladder, the other holding on to the sack. It was a two storey climb, but she wasn’t afraid. She was too bent on revenge to be afraid. When she got to the top she opened the sack and drew out the first item she could get her hands on. It was the tire iron—the one thing she hadn’t intended to use—but it would work just fine. She hefted it a couple of times, then she closed her eyes and swung.

She broke the window—shattered it, actually. The shards traveled further than she expected and for a moment she regretted the power she’d put behind her swing. No regrets, she thought to herself. No room for musing, either. The die was cast.

She pulled the remaining pieces of glass out of the window and tossed them to the ground where they landed and split apart against the gravel with a sound that reminded her of the time she and her brother smashed a case of beer bottles against the high school. They were empty, of course. She stopped for a moment, took a breath, listened and looked around at her surroundings. No alarms, no dogs, no lights flicking on against the darkened sky. She was ready for the next part of the plan.

She tossed her canvas toolbag over the broken window and hoisted herself up and through the opening. She set her feet down on the plush carpet of Adam Nolan’s office and stood for a moment to get her balance and survey the room. Other than the glass scattered acros the expanse of the room the place was in perfect order. Perfect, she thought, just like Adam. She felt bad, ruining the order of the place with all the glass making a mess. When she walked out of the room she kicked over the wastebasket, just for fun. Crumpled paper rolled out and settled against the desk. She paused for a moment, taking in the scene. She hoped no one would touch the place until Adam had a chance to see it this way—disheveled, out of sorts, maybe a little dangerous—he’d know it was her, just from way the room looked.

She went to the second floor alarm and punched in the code. She checked her watch and frowned. She’d planned for three minutes, but she’d taken six. There was a good chance the silent alarm had already activated. She had to assume the security company would be pulling into the parking lot in fifteen minutes unless she called, and she couldn’t call—so she had to work fast.

She raced down the hall to the back stairs and pushed open the fire door. She practically flew to the first floor landing and pushed open the door leading to her destination. The office safe was in the back room where Laurie Dunton spent her time pouring over billing records and writing snippy notes about expenses. Darcy hated the snippy notes and hated Laurie—hated her with a passion. She thought about how upset Laurie would be in the morning when she discovered the open safe—she’d probably cry, maybe even faint. Darcy wasted a good five seconds gloating, then she got back to work.

She fished the flashlight out of the bag and focused the beam on the closet. The door was closed and locked, but she was prepared for that. She took a step forward, but then she paused.

It wasn’t a noise, really, but a sense of something—something located off to her left, something large and dark rising up from Laurie’s chair, growing larger, breathing in heavy sighs. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up; she whipped the flashlight around to get a better look, but the beam fluttered and died and she could see nothing except the great shadow moving closer, smelling like Old Spice and cheap whiskey.

In the end, there was nothing she could do but scream.

The Big Sheew....

2009-12-03T08:36:00.003-05:00

Up early. Was dragging my carcass around yesterday. Stayed up late playing LOTRO with Brian A. Don. P, Michele A. and Me on Monday in Fornost. A huge instance. Then had game night the next night. Even though the launch of Seige of Mirkwood came out, I still went gaming with humans. Russ owes me a muchkin donut. Had a blast played Scenario II in flames of war. My co-general Brian had his jimmyjango on he was very cheery not worried at all at the doom and gloom of the german tanks about to crush our poor infantry line. He rolled an assualt charge like a champ and one team took out a Panther! We hung in there our reserves never arrived and eventually the germans took our entrenched positions.

Prepping for the show now. Gerie is eating a lego, and I am not getting it. I mean come on what is one lego lost among thousands right?

Got a HUGE show planned for FOW. My bullet list would put any of Russ's to shame. When Craig sees them he is going to pass out. My plan is to keep Russ sitting on his hands as much as possible with Russirruptions but very much looking forward to his input. Craig has read the rule book and wathced me and Don and Brian A play.

Well that is it for now, see you all tonight as we record. Of course you won't hear it until after the weeksend.

HD Out

Happy TanksGiving!

2009-11-27T19:09:00.002-05:00

Ok:

So as I prepare for the vaunted FOW episode recording soon. I have been immersing myself in the FOW of universe. I have been reading the rule book of course. Reading my new Fortress Europe "codex". Finally getting time to read up on my enemy, the Germans as played by Don. And as time would have it, this afternoon, I broke out the painting table. As we speak a whole entire US Infantry Co. is based and drying with PP spray primer. I love that primer.

Andy was here for his first invite to BCG. (Breakfast Club Gaming). He flew solo with Dave wimping out, something about holding his wife's purse whilst she shopped, I don't know. And Brian and Spencer are down visiting family in CT. Andy and I played BattleLore and Memoir 44. I wanted to see if the Memoir would hold up to tactical play with an Adult. I really liked both games and I think both hold up to fast WWII play and fantasy play. It really made me itch bad for FOW though hence, I finally got to priming.

Well that is it for now.

HD

A Wet T-Shirt

2009-11-23T17:58:00.002-05:00

Ok, you know what I hate. When I am washing a big pot like lets say one that I cooked my potato's in for my potato and leek soup. Yes. Folks I cook in real life too! Well, I hate it when you are washing said pot and you slosh the water up over the rim of the pot onto your shirt right onto where your gamer gut lies. I hate that as I am too lazy to change my shirt. So all night your shirt remains cold and wet against your skin. Not good.

You know what I like. Hersey's kisses. My favorite MMO food is Hershey's kisses and pretzels. Your online friends like it too especially the crunch crunch into their ears on the headsets.

I am looking forward to some nice time off here. We are hosting T-Day at my house this year. Now what is normally interesting about this is Marisa and I battle over the dishes. I have my opinions and she has hers. You know which family's dishes are appropriate and the like. Her stuffing comes from store bought stuffing cubes. Mine comes from stale italian bread and sausage and mozzerella cheese. Mine is nice and moist. Her's dry. I mean come on what is better than sausage and cheese! But this year we are trying a new tack with each other. We are treating each other with the upmost civility and compromise. Like this, Raef: "Are we having your Mom's stuffing recipe this year or my mothers?" Marisa: "You, know would you mine if we had my mother's recipe, I do not really like sausage." Raef: "I think that is just fine, dear."

I do not know who the hell we are this year, but it is rather nice.

Gaming, is very very busy time of year. There is Left 4 Dead II which I have not even touched yet. Dragon Age: Origins which is awesome. I ordered Grind from Navin fully painted as an Xmas suprise for Dad and Son under the Xmas Tree. I am really jonsing to paint my FOW but...just...cannot...bring...my table...upstairs...I keep plugging into LOTRO or DA:O

Well those are my ruminations for now.

Ciao.

Raef

Good Morning Web Heads

2009-11-15T07:52:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I just have to say. That ASM #611 is really cool this week. When I first looked at the cover, I said wait a minute what is going on here. It is drawn with what I call abstract comic art. You know when the feet are really long the ankles impossible skinny and stuff. Inside the art is kinda weird but I really really liked. There is the one main page splash where Spidey's knees look like they are all out of joint and he is in this impossible position. It was cool because, I realized sometimes it is boring to just see all the same spidey web body positions ya know. The artist is Eric Canete

And the story is really wacky too. It has Deadpool in it, and the book pokes fun of itself, the comic world, there are really funny editorial comments. I say to any comic lover, spidey or no, this is a must read.

I also have been still enjoying the Walking Dead. I have a love hate relationship with Wolverine. Loved the Old Man Logan story arc. Hate what comes after. Love the Wolverine Weapon X story line by Jason Aaron.

And to my surprise, Punsiher MAX is getting a reboot in Nov. with #1. People have been saying it has not been cool since Ennis left. I liked it and liked the last writer, but even cooler is the same Jason Aaron of Wolverine above is coming to Punisher MAX where kingpin is making an appearance so that should be cool.

Try listening to Paulo Nutini's New Shoes a snappy little song.

That's all for now!

HD

PS. Stoni has been back to the Oven and made Beef Delights, Shepard's Pie, Hobbiton Omelets, and several small and large repasts.

Ding!

2009-11-14T12:49:00.002-05:00

Ok, so Stoni has hit level 60 level cap in Lotro. It was hard fought. He had entered the Library of Steel to save the forges from the forces of Sauron but had failed. He then entered a deep deep spider lair, fought crystalline spiders. Barely visible but yet detectable by the stout dwarf. For you see these Spider Ravagers had bound up his fellow dwarves in silken cocoons. These dwarves lay cocooned and entombed to the walls of the lair. It was up to Stoni and Stoni alone to save his fellow dwarves from becoming Spider food. Save them he did, and in his redemption he reached the maximum level of Guardianship. For now.....He still fights Sauron in the detphs of Moria. Will he ever surface to see the light of Erigon again?

As for Stonai, well he is a Noble dwarf in the lands of Dragon Age: Origins. He is still mastering his party mechanics as he attempts to save the world from the blight.

As for HD. Well he hopes to bring up his painting table and actually paint some FOW models. It is rumored that Sir Craig and his British will be gracing the halls of HD'dome for some FOW action next Breakfast Club meeting.

As for Raef. He does feel a sense of accomplishment reaching level 60. I thought once I hit endgame, I would be instantly like a squirrel looking for a new tree to climb. But alas no, I still have an interest in the Lands of Tolkien it seems. I look forward to helping level Dauph his good friend from Real Life. And of course, cooking pies to raise my cooking guild levels.

Well that's all for now.

Oops...I did it again.

2009-10-28T20:00:00.001-04:00

Ok, so careful listeners not only heard we did not list the winner to the Space Hulk Competition, but may also notice (or maybe not at all) that I did not give out the details to the special Hollywood Minature Competition. To win my signed hardbound copy of Rogue Trader you have to make a three person miniature diorama that somehow represents the D6G. It can be no bigger than 12x12x12. Any tasteful ideas will fly you do not need to be a Golden Demon winner to win. Ie. You could make it out of legos. The goal is for this to sit on my shelf in all its glory and you will be known to all who enter my office that YOU are a winner indeed. Shipping date is Nov. 24th, 2009. Mail to: Raef Granger, 250 Commercial Street, Suite 2013, Manchester, NH 03101. It just has to be postmarked by that date. Good painting and good luck.

HD

Who Let Russ Out???

2009-11-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

Ok, Folks so Epie 43 just hit the airs, and we recorded Epie 44 last night. Wooh. Feels like we just did one as we did. So you all know Russ' penchant for bullets points, well the FOW scheduled interview and bullet points did not come together in our expedited schedule sooo We did a year in Review. As you all know I love the chance to just hang back and talk. Craig and Russ did the bullets but I was kept too much away at work so could not put my two cents in until.....the end.

So Russ in the beginning was a little off his game (I think because we were bulletless :) ) so I poured on the heat, well that got my friend all fired up and there was no holding him back. Woah he was off to the races folks. I think we put a really cool show in the can even if Craig and I had to fight for every word.

Look for our thoughts on a gaming year in review. That has got my juices flowing on Euro Style games. I am jonesing for either Power Plant: Factory Manager or the third in the trilogy: The Gates of Loyang. I will see what the breakfast club has to say.

Also, all fired up about flames of war, if I can get off my lazy butt and bring my painting table upstairs I would be all set. You see with my daughter being 2.5 I cannot leave my stuff out plus my wife hates it. Which by the way I have something in the works with my neighbor who just happens to be a furniture maker. My concept is a painting table that can stay in the den or living room and has a scroll top or flip down lid. Simple. I checked out Geek Chic they have nothing of the sort yet, and they are on the West Coast so shipping could be an issue. I will keep you posted on that development.

For some reason I feel like playing Grind and MonPoc right now. Also, had a chance to play Dragon Age: Origins again. It really is a cool story. For the first time, I am even interested in managing my party which I usually never have the patience for.

Stoni is 3 bars away from 60! At this point, I am waiting for my RL friends to be on so we can share in the moment.

Also really beginning to look forward to TempleCon. I am wrestling with the idea of running a fast and loose Le Havre game or actually contacting Ximon to schedule a time. Check out TempleCon here. http://www.templecon.org/10/

Also looking forward to hearing Sherry Yeary on TFG. Have not heard that segment yet.

Well that is it for now.

Hollywood.

Not Much To Do About Nothing

2009-10-30T07:53:00.000-04:00

A BIG shout out goes to Tyler Crowley who did up my new JimmyJango Avatar. Thanks Tyler!!!

I've also opened up Comments. I guess I will see what you yahoos think. :)

Well, made another step forward on the super secret T-shirt project can't say anything more yet. Also working on a special appearance on a certain podcast, but that is still in the works.

Was too tired to level Stoni last night. It is getting close. Expansion hits on Dec. 1, and I am only level 58 and 1/2. Did bring up Arkham Asylum and had a blast with that. Also strangely looking forward to playing Fallout 3 again too. Sadly I traded that in.

Oh, had an idea too. So as you may know, I do like to collect comic books but I am not a pack rat. So I now have a box of comics that I want to get rid of. They are all current ones not lamos. Anyone know how I go about shipping this to our troops overseas?

Also want to try the inking method for my FOW guys but I am too lazy to bring up my painting table.

Alright so, second post

2009-10-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

Just finished a bowl of frosted mini-wheats. Dang I love those things. I mean its fiber mixed with sugar and it holds in the milk in little bite sized chews. How can you go wrong with that? Whoever invented this cereal should be kissed.

Another goal of this blog, is to put the different things I have written here as links or something, but I don't know how to do that.

Really excited about FOW. Have my late war book, and Don and I are thinking of some good campaigns to run. I have a whole rifle company to paint still. I am going to try dipping them.

Dan hooked me up with my very own copy of Descent I am looking fwd to seeing how that works with Lou in a scaled down version.

My painted figs of space marines came back. Very very happy. www.paintedfigs.com There as good as the level of detail I would have given it myself. Since I am not infatuated with 40k anymore this lets me field a nice army when I want to just play with friends.

Had a blast playing Le Havre with the breakfast club. Brian and Dave.

And lets see reading World War Z still the Walking Dead. Still love the Walking Dead. WWZ is eh still IMO.

And listening to Shawn Colvin (Live) and Paolo Nutini.

Raef out

You found me!!!!!

2009-10-22T18:02:00.000-04:00

Ok, folks visit here for all things random Raef. I will post my musings at the time, my comics that I like, music that interests me, items I want to buy etc. What I also hope to be able to do is also provide the links to these items or where to find them in one convenient place. Ok here we go.

* Bitten by the Flu Bug...er I mean the FOW bug. Played SkirmishCampaigns (thats the google search you use) for FOW. It was soooo fun. I played the British saving tankers from destroyed tanks in the middle of a desert dust storm. The mission has a nice random element to it. Don and I fiddled with the rules to make it "FOW" compliant. I contacted the writer of the scenarios on that point so I hope to be able to talk more about that later.

* Dan www.myriadgames.com is hooking me up with Fortress Europe so I can play late war. Also getting the Skirmish Campaign: Normandy.

* Looking forward to my big Descent purchase at you know where? Myriad Games. I am trading in my copy of Starfarers of Catan. Did not know I could do that. That is a concept for a different day.

* T-Shirts. I love nice, soft organic, eco friendly T-Shirts. I am currently in the works with some Big Names with some Big Ideas on special T-Shirts that I would wear. Stay Tuned.

That's all Raef out. Have to podcast now.