As a break from all the boring #RPGaDAY2019 stuff I thought I’d share some thoughts about my current reading material.

As you may have guessed it’s MtG related.

Thanks to my friend Duncan I was put onto this a couple of weeks ago.

Generation Decks by Titus Chalk brings to the collectible card game world it’s version of Masters of Doom and Jacked by David Kushner from the videogame world and The Monopolists by Mary Pilon.

Where Generation Decks differs from those books, is they are more biopic with a sprinkling of dramatic license? Generations Deck is more factual events broken up by the authors personal journey and memories of playing MtG.

I’m about three quarters through the book, and it’s enjoyable. The factual parts are part retelling the key events from MtG history peppered with quotes and recollections of events. I think it would be fair to describe the style of writing as very journalistic. Unlike the books already mentioned above or the likes Of Dice and Men, I don’t come away from this book feeling that I know anything more about the brains behind the game than I already knew.

The personal reflections of the author are interesting, and do a good job putting over what the game means to so many. That sense of belonging, community and friendship, all bought together by these bits of rectangular cardboard.

I have spotted the odd annoying grammatical error, that should have been picked up in proof reading and editing. But long suffering readers, and ok even recent ones, will know that’s a bit hypercritical of me to mention that.

Overall this has been an interesting read so far. Definitely worth picking up by fans of the game. Can I recommend it to a wider audience? I’m not sure I can.

One thing that has been eating away at me for my deck list posts is that they don’t link to card info on Gatherer.

I did try a plug-in for WordPress. But it wasn’t really that easy to integrate into my editing process. I had to tag stuff by hand. Plus the plug-in didn’t seem to be updating with WordPress releases to make sure it was secure.

So the plain lists with no links has been the default after that brief trial.

That sense of the deck lists could be better stuck with me.

So today I spent some time automating a process that takes a Deckbuilder deck list, and turns that into some HTML for me that I can copy and paste into a post.

Years ago I had a similar process for my “diary” when it first started up using vbscript to generate the HTML for my photos that I’d taken on walks and trips, and the updated menus for the site. All I had to do was take the HTML and copy it into the web pages. Which then got uploaded to the server. This was pre-Wordpress days. What I had was almost a very basic CMS made up of vbscript that I ran.

Today using Pythonista on my iPad I can write a python script that can read in a Deckbuilder deck list, go through the file and build up a line of HTML for each card used in the deck that when clicked takes you to the WotC Gatherer web page for the card.

For those interested or remotely curious here is the code (screen shot sadly, it’s the only way at the mo I can share the code so it is formatted correctly). Push comes to shove email me and I’ll send the file to you. Eventually I’ll put it on github once it’s finished.

The next thing to do with this script is to get it to present the information in the same format as if I’d used the Deckbuilder share deck text option. At the moment the list is ungrouped, no structure.

I hope some found this peek behind the curtain of interest.

Today saw one of the proudest moments of my life as a dad, as my son Nathan graduated with a degree in tv production from Portsmouth University.
Luckily modern technology gets around the limited hall space and distant family problem that has plagued graduation ceremonies of yesteryear. So for reasons, I was able to watch the ceremony and see that moment as he walked across the stage.

I hoping those reasons will allow me to get a photo of him in his gown.

What next for my boy? An Masters in the subject. Which will see him do the unthinkable for a Portsmouth football supporter and move to Southampton.

But it’s his day, and I hope he’s having a great time celebrating.

I’m starting this post off with a photo or two of Attack Chihuahua number two Loki snuggled up on my lap as he patiently waits for mum to wake up next door and let her dogs out. As soon as the backdoor opens he will be round there, and snuggled up with Nan quicker than a Tory MP pocketing the cash from their banker overlords.

So what is this post about?

That was it, just sharing a doggy picture today.

I’ve not mentioned anything about my plans for this years UK Games Expo over the previous months.

The reason mainly being I wasn’t sure I’d be going. Life events have meant that the usual plan of attending all 3 days, staying in a hotel etc were not viable this year.

However a shout out by White Wizard Games for people to help demo their games during the expo went out earlier in the year. To which I replied I’d love to.

Then until recently it all went quiet. So I wasn’t even sure that plan was going to pan out.

However it has worked out. Phew!

Which means I will be at the expo for all 3 days on the White Wizard Games stand demoing games that I love to play.

So if you are at the expo pop on by, say hi, and get a demo.

A update before this even goes live!

Received an official email that WWG has sent everyone on their mailing list letting them know what’s happening at the expo.

I’ve put in bold a rather cool thing they are doing at the expo.

“You can visit our booth 1-864 for demos of our games, play in our Legend Series tournaments to become a card in the game, and stop by and meet Rob Dougherty, White Wizard Games CEO, Game Designer and Magic the Gathering Hall of Famer.  

Learn to Play Epic and Get a FREE Copy! we will be giving out a copy of Epic Card Game to everyone that gets an Epic demo while supplies last. Get your copy and play sealed, draft, or constructed deck game play for up to 4 players. We have limited supplies so make sure to come early!!

We will also have Sorcerer which is our new and exciting game for sale and to demo at our booth!”

I’m hoping to pick up Sorcerer myself at the show.

In a rush to write the earlier post I couldn’t wait for the YouTube release of the movie that was showed at The Luxe as part of the Wisbech; Made in Minecraft launch.

I was in too much of a hurry to share with the world my I’ll thought out thoughts on the matter.

But better late than never. All good things come to those that wait (which will be a bloody long time for readers of the this blog waiting for something good to appear on here).

So here for your viewing pleasure is the Wisbech: Made in Minecraft movie.

The afternoons plan was to a) post a package, b) maybe go collect my copy of The Judge Dredd RPG.

I achieved the first part of the plan. And I was still undecided on the second and final part. Whilst making my mind up I thought I’d pop my head in The Luxe and ask my friend Nathan if he could get the link for the data that was used to make up the Minecraft model of Wisbech. Why would he have that?

Heck The Luxe was only being used to host the launch of Wisbech: Made in Minecraft project this afternoon.

But somehow I ended up watching the whole presentation instead of doing the second part of the plan.

From a technical stand point it was interesting how they did things. They even had an art teacher from the local secondary school there showing off their Minecraft creation that was the school fully modelled in the educational version of the game. It even had some educational use built in. The bit they showed was a ‘who done it’ murder mystery that was in fact a maths lesson!

The short movie of clips from within Minecraft of the Wisbech model with voice overs from interviews of citizens of the town, was interesting. And I think as a proof of concept was good. But I think something that expanded on that idea and used more interviews of a wider selection of the town, more memories of the older members of our community. Maybe even model some of those historical buildings no longer here (like the gas works). It also struct me a bit Aardman animation like with the animation and voice over.

I know they were pushing the education and intergeneration thing. But for me my real interest lies in using the world created for use with the The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse RPG. Instead of using a small A5 size street map of Wisbech. I could have the survivors navigating their way round the zombie apocalypse using the Wisbech Minecraft map.

Read the Official Announcement with out The Wisbech Standard copying and pasting it and passing it off as their words.

I don’t often just do a totally unrelated board gaming post. But from time to time I think it’s worth sharing the odd photo of the two little horrors I share the house with.

Loki is such a loving, caring little fellow. When I shared this on social media moments ago, I claimed he was guarding the remains of a postman. The spoils of war. But in reality and removing my over imagination it’s the remains of a hotdog.

The thing is that little bit of mystery meat will be at the centre of an epic mental tug of war, between Loki and Nico. The slightest sign of weakness and the prize will swap ownership.

A battle of wits that would be similar to the one below a few days ago over the remains of a chew.

That previous battle, Loki broke concentration and lost the chew to Nico.

This time once again he is starting off with the upper hand. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. But can he maintain the focus?

Yep this morning the second and final season of The Punisher hit Netflix. We all know within days that Netflix will announce there will be no further series of The Punisher. Just as they did after the other Marvel licences hit. We all know why they are being dropped. And we all hope that Disney/Marvel pick up the shows and run with them.

But in the meantime we get to enjoy the show and cry at the end that we want more, knowing we won’t get them.

Although I’m not attending the midnight one today, it’s the start of Prerelease weekend for Ravnica Allegiance tonight. I am attending the Prerelease tomorrow morning. Which starts at 11am, and runs to about 4pm. It’s looking like there will be over twenty attending the session I’m going to. It will be good to see some faces that I only get to see at these events, and hopefully the WotC tournament software will give us a chance to play against each other.

Plus there is the fortnightly Fenland Gamers meetup this evening at The Luxe. It’s promising to be a good one with plenty of banter. Especially between Jonathan and myself over a rule in the Wingspan Rulebook that some-one asked about this morning on Facebook. I hope Jonathan is going to be wearing fireproof underwear and clothes because he is getting burned tonight.

So that’s my current weekend plans, what’s yours?

It’s arrived! Preordered on the first day available, and under a week later it’s in my grubby mitts.

Naturally I took photos as I was opening the box. Which I bored people on other social media with yesterday. And now presented here in glorious technicolour for you just in case you managed to avoid them. There is no escaping some things.

I have to admire how the planning of the game storage takes into account the dice tower. There are far too many games out there that don’t put that much thought into things, and give you a dice tray or tower and don’t make room to store it.

Tomorrow once the sleeves arrive it’s sleeving around 200 cards time.

This Wednesday at the monthly meetup of Fenland Gamers they will get to play the first hot game of 2019 over two months early.