Scythe Modular Board Announced

news

At the end of the month (29th May) fans of Scythe can preorder the final expansion for the game, the Scythe Modular Board from Stonemaier Games.

It’s not a well kept secret Scythe is my all time favourite game. So having the ability to shake things up even more. Wow. The replay ability goes through the roof. And it already scores high on that front with the other expansions.

The question I have about this is would it work with the neoprene mat? I suspect not.

But I’m excited about this. Can’t wait for it to hit. And if the Wingspan preorder is anything to go by, this will be in players hands before the end of June. But that’s a major assumption on my part. Naturally if you want to get it from your FLGS it will be in for a longer wait. It’s late Summer apparently.

War of the Spark Standard Deck Thinking

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s time for more thinking aloud about new deck ideas for Standard.

I’ve got a couple of deck ideas that have been kicking around my noggin recently.

The first is a black/white or Orzhov deck using lots of cheap 1 CMC creatures.

That was the original thinking. There are a lot of 1 CMC creatures between these two colours. Some have deathtouch, or can be given deathtouch and come in as 1/2 instead of a 1/1.

So my thinking for the initial version of this deck was to go with creatures that had lifelink, and have other cards that gave me a benefit for gaining life.

But because these small creatures will die easily I wanted to get a benefit from that as well.


Having a couple of chances to proliferate is also handy because that will allow me to pump up those creatures like Ajani’s Pridemate even more, and push up any Planeswalkers I have out.

God-Eternal Oketra is the “big hitter” for the deck. But sideboarding one or two of the black 6/6 flyers might be an option also.


I’ve not decided what removal spells to use. But at most that will account for 10 cards of the deck at most. Plus sideboard cards naturally. I’m thinking the sideboard will be mainly spells like duress or removal.

My main drawback at the moment is I don’t have any of the check or shock lands for this deck.

The second deck is returning to Simic to create a Simic Ascendancy deck.

An early if not the first version of my Simic deck had Simic Ascendancy in it, as did John’s merfolk deck. John tried to get it to work more than I did. If my memory isn’t failing me, I don’t think it made the cut into my second version of the deck. Eventually John also gave up on the card. The issue was it was too slow.

However with the re-introduction of the proliferate mechanic, I think it might just be viable.

This deck is not as advanced as the Orzhov deck. But I think I can get something together by the time our casual mtg night starts tomorrow.

Angrath‘s Raiders

D&D, RPG

WARNING TO ANYONE IN MY D&D GROUP: This has spoilers about the upcoming campaign. You may not want to read any further and experience the twists and turns as they happen. Assuming that is you come across what I am discussing in this post. It’s always possible you may never come across it.

Session zero is this weekend. This will be my first session zero as a DM. So once again I’m a little apprehensive about it. Not as much as I was for the taster session. But still the nerves are there.

However my thoughts aren’t really with that session zero. They are more with the start of the campaign and the first encounter and “dungeon”.

The plan is starting to formulate in my head. So now I need to start capturing those thoughts. Which brings us to this post.

From the player campaign intro sheet that I wrote (you can get it here) we know that the first encounter for the campaign will be the players and the ship owner and his crew. So I have that handled. Happy with that.

I’m thinking of having the players end up on a secluded beach somewhere. There will be cliffs too difficult to climb, trapping them on the beach. But they will discover a cave entrance. I’m toying with the idea of having an encounter on the beach with possibly a giant crab.

Naturally it would be handy if the players explore the cave. Inside they find it empty but at the back will be carved steps going up.

This will be the secret entrance to a pirate den (is that the correct word to use here?) And so the party will explore the den and fight some pirates, eventually they will emerge into a tomb. This tomb will be the secret room from the taster session. Yep they will be exiting the pirate den through the tomb of the Delian Order. There won’t be any goblins in it, just their decayed remains.

From there the party will… I’m not sure. So I have a plan, kind of.

Let’s go back to the pirates.

I had been wondering about what creatures to use for the first dungeon. Then it hit me this is a nautical, island hoping campaign. There will be pirates.

So naturally I’ve been sourcing pirate miniatures.

But my pirates are not solely humans. They are a mixed bag of races. I have human pirates, a dwarf, half elf, orcs, and some vikings (which are human).

Why vikings as pirates? Well I thought there were bound to be some in this band of pirates considering that a large part of the Moonshae Islands has a Norse influence. Which says to me viking. Or they look like them at the least.

The pirates do have a leader, and I’m blatantly borrowing the leader from MtG. The leader is Angrath the Minotaur pirate.


I’ve found a cool Minotaur mini to use for him.

Angrath is going to be a major character in this campaign. So I like the idea of introducing him early on. I’m also toying with the idea of having the half elf be his lieutenant. And also a recurring character.

I’d love to have a Vraska pirate mini also, as I’d love to have her as a character. But as I type that I’m thinking I can still do that. I can have Vraska and Angrath as two competing pirates, with the players always getting caught in the middle.

Now to design a pirates den!

3D Cave Entrance

D&D, RPG

My friend kindly printed off a sample cave entrance for me from the humble bundle 3D models I purchased.

So what follows is my notes of the steps I took. Basically so that I can recreate what I did for other pieces when I get them printed.

So Saturday night I primed it ready for painting with a light grey primer. It was the only grey I had. Mind you I like the light grey generally any way.

Then Sunday I gave it a coating of Black Grey paint. Which as I write this part of the post is drying.

I followed that base coat up late afternoon with a coating of grey paint. But I used a not dry brush technique! By that I mean the brush was more wet than it would be for dry brushing. Not much wetter, I didn’t want the paint getting into all the gaps.

I then applied a dark tone wash, which the following photo shows having just been applied. I’ve not used any washing up liquid with the wash either.

This is the completely dry model. The wash has dulled down the grey nicely. I’m not sure I need to do any dry brush highlights.

So here we have the finished tile. It’s not going to win any model painting competition but I’m happy with the final look. But I’m gobsmacked how cool to me it looks. A lot better than I thought it would. At the beginning I was very apprehensive and expecting it too turn out a total train wreck. But somehow I avoided that.

I’ve applied some varnish to finish it off and protect it. And that’s all he wrote!

Want to learn MtG?

magic, MtG, news

After Prerelease usually comes Release weekend when your FLGS holds draft events using the new set.

But WotC have been fiddling with the events, and the order they happen. So not only will your FLGS be doing the above draft events, they will also now be holding an Open House.

Open House events are great for those that want to learn MtG, or try it to see if they like it, or returning players who haven’t played in a long while.

At the Open House you will be given a free welcome deck (it’s free so will not have any cards of value in it) and taught how to play.

You then get to play some games of MtG against other players, and after about 4 games you get given a free promo card.

For the Open House I believe it’s this lovely full art Liliana’s Triumph.


The Welcome decks are great for learning, however they are not something you would use at say FNM or whatever event replaces Standard Showdown.

For those two events you really want to get one of the new Challenger decks. They are a great basis to build a deck from, plus straight out of the box unchanged competitive (ie you will win a game or two with them).

The Planeswalker decks are great for casual play, but once again not strong enough for the more competitive events.

So if you like MtG after trying it. Depending on if you want to just be casual or competitive you know what the next best product is to buy.

Obviously you could jump right in and build your own deck. But that requires buying boosters or singles, learning how to build a deck, and is a steepish learning curve.

With it also being draft weekend as well as the open house, you could always hang around and take part in the draft event.

If you did you’d get this sweet promo…

I won’t explain draft here, but it’s a fun format that doesn’t require you to have a deck or lots of cards to build one from. If you do decide to take part in the draft event the store owner and other players will be more than willing to help you and give advice.

So next Saturday head on down to your FLGS to learn how to play MtG, get a free welcome deck, play some games and get a promo card.

Airlines and Sparks

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, magic, MtG

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a Fenland Gamers gaming session. I’ve been boring you all with MtG and D&D stuff.

Last Friday was once again one of the Fenland Gamers fortnightly Friday gaming sessions.

Our first game of the evening was a game I last played with Jonathan and his Dad way back in 2016 (the BG Stats app is great for this sort of information). That game was Airlines Europe.

Like so so many games in our collections it doesn’t get nearly as much table time or love as it truly deserves. The modern gamers dilemma, too many great games, not enough time. And the problem just gets compounded as new games come out.

To be fair to Jonathan and myself the growth of our collections has dropped down to a snails pace (although I’ve never truly understood that phrase, those slimy little devils can sure shift). I know Jonathan is currently on a self imposed purchase ban. Whilst for me apart from the odd game nothing is really grabbing me, getting me excited. But I’ve felt that way for a couple of years now.

However Jonathan and I both have games in our collections that we haven’t played yet (our piles of shame as they are known), and games we want to get back to the table. So it’s not as if we need to buy any more.

Back to Airlines Europe. It does have a mechanic I love. A mechanic that adds suspense, even tension, an element of push your luck and the unknown.

Airlines Europe has 3 scoring rounds. How these are triggered is the mechanic I love. One scoring round card is shuffled in with 10 I think of the shares cards and that is the bottom of the share deck. The other 2 scoring round cards are mixed into the rest of the deck using a couple of rules.

So you have a rough idea when the scoring rounds will trigger but not exactly when. As you approach the part of the shares deck that the scoring round card could be in, the tension builds. Do you have time to get the shares out for scoring to give you that majority? Do you have time to grab that share on the trade row?

It’s a simple trick. Pandemic uses it as well to great effect. Sub Terra uses it for the exit tile. Yes it adds a little over head to the set up to a game. But I think the pay off is worth it.

Our second and final game was the classic roll and write Qwixx. Somehow Jonathan won this.

Well I know at this point Jonathan will stop reading.

Yesterday was Prerelease for War of the Spark (as was Friday and Sunday). But yesterday was the day I attended one of the 6 events my FLGS The Hobbit Hole was/is running over the weekend.

Prerelease is such good fun. It’s about opening boosters, playing with new cards early. Although technically for authorised stores it was release weekend, because they could sell everything a week early this time.

The atmosphere is also a bit different. I’d say more social, less competitive, there is an air of excitement.

It’s also the only time I get to see and play against some people. They might only do prereleases or FNM is their thing normally. So it’s a great time to catch up as well.

This Prerelease continued my run of bad results, and poor cards to build with. Well that’s the excuse I’m going with. My pulls had very few low cost creatures. I ended up with going white/blue with a couple of mountains thrown in so I could play Naheb.

I started off with 15 lands, but after getting mana screwed both games and losing in round 1. I went to 17 lands.

Round 2 I won. The deck was given a chance to hit it’s stride.

The next two rounds although losses, they were not walk overs. I was hitting land drops, once or twice mana flooded and not hitting creatures. But I was much happier with the games.

Here are the stats.

Casual Game

Simon: Draw 1-1

Prerelease Stats

Prerelease Participants: 21

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Simon Loss 2-0

Round 2: Jade Win 0-2

Round 3: unknown Loss 0-2

Round 4: unknown Loss 0-2

Record: 3-1

Final Position: 20th

Prizes: 2 participation packs

The nice thing is one of my ex-students won, going undefeated. And to top it off in his participation packs pulled a foil Liliana. So that is an amazing memory of a Prerelease for him.

But it was a great day, well attended. Maybe not as well as Guilds of Ravnica. But still for a FLGS in a middle of nowhere Fenland town, with MagicFest London doing it’s best to steal away it’s players.

Setting the scene

D&D, RPG

Well it’s a single page. But is it any good? I don’t know. Oh what am I talking about? The Player Intro to the campaign. Or the one-sheet.

This is technically my second one of these (first attempt at one can be found here). Although it is the first to be used in anger.

I’ve copied straight from the campaign pitch the pitch for this campaign. It sets up the over all campaign story arc. Or hints at what may come to pass. But it also sets up where the players will be starting (although I still have to place Saltmarsh along the Sword Coast) and why they are there.

It also details the source books we will be using for the campaign and any restrictions (spoiler there are none) on characters and classes.

I’ve also photoshopped (which in reality means that I used Photofox on my iPad) to create what I hope is a collage that evokes the spirit of the campaign.

For those interested here is a pdf of the one-sheet I wrote: dandd player campaign intro
Now onto the planning of the first adventure!

War of the Spark Prerelease Weekend Coming Up

magic, MtG, news


This weekend is a big weekend in the MtG world. It’s Prerelease weekend for the new set War of the Spark, and it’s also MagicFest London.

To allow vendors and the organiser to sell booster boxes and other War of the Spark products at MagicFest London WotC have relaxed the rules in the UK. So UK Stores can sell everything Prerelease weekend, and not have to hold off a week.

While WotC are taking valuable sales away from your FLGS, you are able to attend one of the many Prerelease events your FLGS will be holding.

In fact with all the top MtG players and competitive ones migrating to London to prove themselves, this is probably one of those times when the odds are in the favour of the average player to do well at their FLGS. While the cats away and all that over used cliche.

Oh and another token gesture thrown at the UK FLGS they don’t have to wait until midnight to hold their first Prerelease event this Friday. So many if not all will be holding an earlier Prerelease event also.

Me I’m attending my usual slot on a Saturday. Hope to see you there.

One Page Dungeon Contest

news, RPG

I was listening to a recent episode of The Tomb Show, that was a round table discussion with the brains behind the Uncaged Anthology and some of its contributors. It was an interesting discussion between those at the table. Well worth a listen.

But towards the end there was mention of a competition called the One Page Dungeon Contest.

So I thought that sounds interesting I’ll have a look to see what that’s all about.

Basically the name describes exactly what it is. A contest to create a RPG adventure that fits on one side of A4 paper.

If you visit the site you can find submission guidelines, there is a blog. But the most important thing to know at this point of time is that the deadline for entries for 2019 is 1st May. That’s not long if anyone is thinking of entering.

It’s something I’d like to try at least once. So maybe I’ll put something together for 2020. I’ll be more experienced by then.

Over on the DM’s Guild you can buy anthologies of previous years entries and winners ($3 per year). Which is probably the easiest way to get previous adventures. That price is dirt cheap. It’s also a good way to research what a winning entry looks like.

I look forward to seeing the entries for this year.

The players have spoken

D&D, RPG

You’ve read my thoughts on how my first time as a DM went. I think folks had fun.

So I shared the campaign pitch document with the group after the taster session on Saturday and also created and shared a google form to track responses.

The votes are in and the group has voted for…

In the wake of Pytheas.

So it looks like we are floating around the Sea of Swords and the Trackless Sea. Visiting the Moonshae Isles, Tuern, The Purple Rocks and all the other islands.

I’ve already started the player introduction document.

This campaign will be using the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, and The Ghosts of Saltmarsh source book (once released).

Looking for maps of the Moonshae Isles I stumbled across some adventures (4 in total) from the Adventurers League and a supporting region guide that are being used as the start of a new campaign called Rising Shadows. There is an old Dragon article that has some background info.

Although this next adventure isn’t set in the part of The Forgotten Realms I’m interested in. It does act as a useful inspiration for an adventure.

Shadows over the Moonsea

Naturally I do need The Ghosts of Saltmarsh for the finalised official rules for ships. However there is a ‘work in progress’ document that WotC used for play testing called Of Ships and the Sea. I’m going to assume that whatever finally appears in print will be some form of improved version of this. But this is enough to get started with.

There are also a couple of old AD&D supplements/adventures that cover the area too.

So with the extra information I’ve managed to dig up, the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide there is a lot of material to use for creating a campaign and adventures. And that’s before I even think of populating any undocumented islands with my own ideas or adventures that happen solely at sea, or exploring the depths of the Under Dark that exists here.


The boat above is the sort of vessel that I imagine them setting sail in from a small jetty in Saltmarsh.

The map does not do this part of The Forgotten Realm justice. I am so looking forward to exploring it with the players once they set sail.