Just a quick post to reassure folks that I’m still alive.

Just not a lot going on gaming wise naturally.

But as folks that stalk me on other social media platforms will know I have been playing around in the kitchen. I’ve been concentrating more on the sweet side of things, cookies, no bake cheese cake, panna cotta, you get the idea. I do bake a fresh sourdough loaf twice a week. Plus my plain chow mein and sweet and sour pork is pretty tasty.

One or two of my friends in our gaming group have also been playing around in the kitchen (Jeff and his curries). When things become reasonably safe for getting back together for a game or two I think there might be a bring and share type thing that needs organising.

I started to create a character to use in a Strontium Dog adventure. I want to create three more so they can be used in one shots etc for those wanting to try the RPG. I think a one shot adventure will also need to be written. But the way things are going I have time to do this. No pressure!

In the meantime enjoy the amazing song from the end of Portal by Jonathan Coulton.

Until the next post, enjoy the cake.

With the Tapestry: Plans and Ploys expansion going on preorder later today on the Stonemaier website, it got me thinking.

This Winter period there are no games I’m really excited about getting (with one exception), it’s all about the expansions for me. No game has grabbed me, inspired me, and made me say “I’ve got to get this game”. In fact the recent announcement of Splendor getting a Marvel reskin for me sums up the direction the industry seems to be moving at the moment. It’s a sweeping generalisation. Especially considering the number of games that get released each year. But the high profile ones from the big boys are the ones that generally grab peoples attention and the headlines in publications. Heck I wasn’t even excited about the new Stonemaier game Pendulum. It just didn’t fire my imagination!

Obviously considering the opening sentence of this post I’m excited about the Tapestry expansion Plans and Ploys.

Plans and Ploys adds new landmarks, tapestry cards, civilizations, new space tiles (plus a replacement tile for a misprinted tile in the first printing), landmark tiles, landmark cards, a bag for territory tiles to go in, and automata cards.

So more variety, a new mechanic with the landmark cards, a new tiebreaker rule. It looks like a great addition to a game I like.

I wasn’t expecting an expansion for Civilization A New Dawn to be announced. So it was a nice surprise when FFG did announce it at this years Flight Plan.

Terra Incognita changes the game up a little bit by the looks of it. This expansion allows up to five players, you can now explore during the game and dynamically create the game board as you play. The combat rules have been tweaked, new leaders, and other additions.

I liked the original version of the game. But the exploring does sound really cool, and more like the video games. Will this change the way I play this game for ever? That’s an exciting prospect.

Then there is a massive expansion coming for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition called Prophecy of Kings. This increases the player count to eight players! New tiles, races, mechs, plus much more. It may be a while before this gets to the table (I need a table big enough for starters), I’m still excited for what this is going to add to the game.

The only game I’m excited about is Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals. Which is an expandable card game from Renegade Games set in the Vampire Masquerade/World of Darkness. Ok the setting isn’t the bit that excites me. But a multiplayer card game, where politics is part of the game play. That does. All the sounds coming out of Renegade about the game had me thinking they are approaching the game and it’s development the right way. The Kickstarter $100 tier was amazing value, and included a copy of the first OP kit. And is scheduled to be delivered in December.

What are you looking forward to or planning on buying this Winter?

Mike Shea aka Sly Flourish has an article just published on his blog called “The Most Valuable DM Tool: A Good List of Names“. I’ve embedded his YouTube video discussing this below as well.

The blog post and video contain links to some random generators that you can use to create random lists of names.

What Mike forgot to name is a couple of his own resources that also have lists of names you can use. The first is page 10 of his The Lazy DM’s Workbook that has fantasy first and last names. Followed by the very useful D&D 5e Campaign Worksheet that Mike created.

The worksheet is a nice thing to have to hand during a session anyway. But it’s random names section is very useful. I’ve used it during prep for a session to name NPCs, and during play to name an NPC on the fly.

Another source that Mike didn’t suggest, and it’s most likely because the book is no longer in print, not available digitally, and copies go for that stupid money now on sites like eBay, is Gary Gygax’s Extraordinary Book of Names. Just to get a digital copy involves looking on the shadier side of the internet.

I like the official book sources (Players Guide and Xanathar) plus the Gygax book. They are great for species related names. But I find they are best suited when planning or a session zero where time is less than an issue.

But for on the fly use during a session a list of names on a sheet of paper is in my limited experience the better option. No hunting around, reaching for a book etc. It’s just a quick look at a sheet of paper and marking off the name as used. So much quicker.

Yesterday my friend Sam wrote the following post.

I’d been the recipient of one of Sam’s surprise deliveries before. So I responded with the comment “Lightning doesn’t strike twice” knowing it wouldn’t be me.

This morning there was a knock on the door, and when answered the delivery person handed over a parcel.

I thought it was the two decks I’d order for the Paranoia RPG.

But when I opened up the packaging I was greeted by a surprise box. See photo below.

I laughed out loud.

This was funny.

Sam had sent me a joke present.

So I opened up the box to see what was involved in making this Bunny decoration.

To my surprise inside were two dice bags that had been made for me by Sam’s mum and cake making genius Doreen. You’ve seen Doreen’s cake skills on here before, granted a couple years back now.

This had me in stitches.

This was sooo funny.

What a great surprise. Lightning had indeed struck twice.

A big thank you to Sam and Doreen. This was very generous. And they will have pride of place in my DM bag and be the envy of the table.

There was a delay between the release of the documentary Gamemaster in the US and coming out in the UK. That delay meant that I forgot all about the film.

As far as I’m concerned there was no fanfare or reviews pointing out that the film was finally available outside of the US. Or if there was then it didn’t surface into my consciousness through whichever media channels I follow.

It wasn’t until I heard the Secret Cabal folks talk about the documentary on this weeks podcast that I thought I’d see if it was available in the UK.

It wasn’t on Amazon digitally except as a region 1 DVD!

Google showed up a tweet from the director/publisher mentioning it was on iTunes in the UK. Otherwise if I hadn’t seen that I’d have assumed that this was still only a US film.

Luckily being an Apple fanboy I could purchase the documentary. Which is something a rarely do. The majority of my digital purchases are on Amazon. I’m assuming that like the documentary Never Surrender that eventually Gamemaster will end up on other streaming services.

Gamemaster is a documentary about the boardgame industry.

Format wise its standard fare. They follow/interview four game designers that are at various points in their game design journey. Interspersed with talking head segments with various established big name game designers dispensing nuggets of wisdom and industry insights.

The four designers that get followed are a guy who was trying to kickstart a game he designed called Thug Life. A Pakistani female designer who had designed and published a game about arranged marriages and avoiding them. The creator of the Parks board game, and the video game designer, ex-Disney Imagineer Scott Rogers and his boardgame Rayguns and Rocketships. The director of the documentary seemed to have forgotten to mention Scott’s past experience. Heck he’s written one of the best, most accessible books on video game design, Level Up!

The female game designer was an interesting inclusion. Her story and the personal experience that formed the inspiration for her game was interesting. Naturally the theme isn’t one that appealed to me. But I loved how personal it was. It was also interesting to see the blow back she got from friends and family when she returned home to Pakistan.

The Thug Life designer also had a personal story that fed into his game design. However it didn’t feel as personal or as well executed as the arranged marriage game. His story within the documentary felt more to do with his Kickstarter journey and ultimately failure.

The talking heads were your usual suspects, Lang, Knizia, Vassel, Leacock, and Cathala, to name a few that instantly come to mind.

They briefly dealt with diversity and representation within the game industry and in games.

On the whole it’s a competent put together documentary up there with Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary, and miles better than The Next Great American Game documentary.

After a day or two without posting I thought I better post something as proof of life. Plus by using the post title that I have, and the obvious (for a gamer) music choice at least you have some quality entertainment before getting to my drivel.

I thought in this “come back” post I’d briefly look at the two new apps I’ve been playing. Or at least discuss my experience of them so far.

About three weeks ago I got accepted onto the beta test for the Roll for the Galaxy app. It’s something I’d forgotten I had applied for. So when the email arrived in my inbox telling me I was in, was a pleasant surprise.

Basically being part of the iOS beta test means I get to play the game for free until they are ready to release it officially to the general public. That’s when I will have to delete the beta version and pay for the release version. When that moment happens I will gladly part with the money.

I’m really enjoying the experience of playing the app. I’ve not played against anyone else yet online. But my games against the AI have been fun.

I do own the physical game and I like playing the game. How ever I’d not really considered it a filler game. Games had typically taken around 30 – 60 mins depending on number of players and experience etc.

What I’ve found with the app and playing against the AI is that I’m playing the game as a “I have 5 minutes to fill” type game. Which surprised me a little. In fact since getting the app it’s been my go to app for those moments of “I want to play something, but not invest lots of time playing” moments.

In fact this beta version came out within a day or so of the Imperial Settlers Roll and Write app, and apart from an initial play, I’ve been playing this instead.

Nearly two weeks ago now the digital version of Viticulture was released.

Sadly for Viticulture it was after the Roll for the Galaxy app, and it has taken me just over a week before I even fired the app up and played a game.

Since then I’ve played a couple of games against the games AI. I’m liking the implementation but I’m missing the Tuscany expansion. It’d be nice to play a game or two against friends. But not likely to happen for a while.

But like the Lords of Waterdeep and Manhattan Project apps it will allow me to scratch a gaming itch. After all these are my three top favourite worker placement games. So having the option to play all three of them now digitally against AI is a god send.

I still have the Charterstone app to start playing, and I want to learn Race for the Galaxy using the app. So plenty to keep me going.

As promised my prize from the Osprey competition arrived this morning.

Naturally the boxes didn’t remain sealed for long. As you can see the production quality is top notch, great custom insert, the now usual washed miniatures (that look great).

I may actually play this solo! Something I rarely do.

I also decided this morning to quickly organise my other (not D&D) RPG bits.

So instead of separate deck boxes containing the decks for Thunderbirds, Genesys, Paranoia and Alien. I’ve put them into a single large deck box, separated by dividers.

The custom dice for Alien, Genesys and the Paranoia computer die, along with some d6 dice (WOIN and Judge Dredd) have been split between two boxes. One of which also has some tokens and counters. I need a better solution for this. But for now it’ll do.

This will stop that little nagging feeling that was beginning to develop that I was going to lose one of the deck boxes.

There are also another couple of organising projects I need to do. The first is D&D related and involves getting the cards such as monsters, spells etc stored better.

The second is to create a “grab bag” for game nights that contains filler games such as Love Letter, Coup, D-Day Dice Pocket, and others. It just means I won’t have to hunt around, and make being organise easier. I may write a post about what is going into this.

A friend on twitter this morning said that they had a craving for fish and chips. I replied I missed playing board games with my friends.

Yes there are the app versions of some, and the various virtual table tops. But they are not the same as playing in person. Although I do prefer the app version of a game over the virtual table top equivalent. Plus most of my “gaming” has been against the AI. Not much online gaming has taken place for a while now, outside of my usual Star Realms, Epic the card game and Lost Cities games.

Now I realise that the time when it’s safe and allowed to get together in a social setting is still a little way off. But it doesn’t stop plans and lists being made.

For instance I have the games below that have been added to the collection (although technically the Targi expansion is on it’s way) during the madness.

For those wondering, yes that is another copy of Love Letter. This time it’s the latest version of the game printed by it’s new masters Z-Man games. This latest printing now plays up to six players, instead of four. Has new art. Which we could debate for ages whether it’s an improvement or not. Plus a couple of new cards with new abilities. So with all those changes it was inevitable that I’d get this.

Apart from Targi and it’s expansion, there is a theme in the above games. You could argue they are “filler games”. Games that play quickly in under 30 minutes.

Naturally I’m also keen to get back to having the D&D sessions running again. Plus with the new ikora themed Commander decks hitting playing a game or two with them with friends, which would be real cool. Plus having the opportunity to get a first game of Last Days is something I’m also excited about.

What games are you excited to play once this mess is over and it’s safe to do so?

It’s that time of year again.