From the vaults!

Blast from the past, D&D, Judge Dredd, miniatures, RPG

Chance is a funny ol’ thing.

It was by chance that I stumbled across some old miniatures in the bottom of a cardboard box, that I had totally forgotten I owned.

These miniatures are over 30 years old now! We are talking circa 1988-89. That was a period of my life that had more than its share of life changing events.

I really don’t know how I ended up with a painted set of Dark Judges. I must of had them for playing the Judge Dredd RPG. But I never did get round to playing it.

I most definitely can’t tell you for sure who painted them either. I remember my good friend Chris Thompson did some painting for me. I’m pretty sure he did the minotaur below. And most likely he did the others too. The one thing we can be sure of is I didn’t paint them.

But I’m not complaining. How ever these came into my possession back then they will be perfect to use with the Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 A.D. RPG now (assuming I can get people to play that is, or will it be like the original RPG for me?) At some point in the next couple of years EN Publishing will be making the Dark Judges supplement. I can’t wait for that to be released. These will be perfect.

The minotaur is for Bloodbowl, and that would be first edition Bloodbowl. Naturally I don’t play Bloodbowl now a days or since I first owned this miniature back in the day. However I think I’ve just got my Angrath miniature for my D&D campaign!

I have no idea what so ever why I ever got these two ninja miniatures. They do seem a tad on the big side. But I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

Finally the two unpainted miniatures are Gandalf and Legolas from LoTR. If memory serves me right they were part of a set that made up the fellowship of the ring. Where the others are I have no idea. Unlike the ninjas these two figures seem on the small side!

I think these bits of my gaming history from when I was studying in Brighton bring back some fond memories from that time. Memories that often get over shadowed by the more life changing ones that were happening at the time.

Back then I played MERP on a Wednesday afternoon, as the hobbit Dram. It was the role playing society that taught me the secret to making alcoholic jelly, and introduced me to LARPing. Good times. Care free times. Maybe that’s why I’ve backed Free Leagues The One Ring 2nd edition. It’s a different system to MERP but maybe I’m hoping that it will recapture those good times once again.

A right mixture!

Animal Crossing New Horizons, apps, nintendo, online play, switch

I hope those of you who enjoy playing Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Switch have been keeping an eye on my daily Instagram posts about my progress in the game. I’m using Instagram so that I don’t spam here with it all.

I may write something more substantive about the game at a future date. But suffice to say that after 6 days playing it I love it.

I like the addition to the game of Nook miles. These are like loyalty points you can spend to get various items. You earn them by completing various tasks, like chopping trees, catching fish, etc. They are a bit like achievements.

Another addition I’m about to try for the first time is the push your luck turnip trading. I’ll share thoughts on that another time once I’ve tried the full experience. I’ve only been able to buy turnips for the first time today.

I’ve also got to experience the online play this morning by visiting another persons island, and then have them visit mine. That was pretty cool, especially seeing how a more advanced island looks.

The last couple of days Jonathan and I have been playing more Wingspan in its digital form.

Well we need to get our monies worth out of it. It helps that we both love the game.

The current game score is 2-2, and we started game 5 this morning. Below are the end of round scoring objectives for this new game.

I do love this view of them because as the game progresses this screen updates. So you get to see how you are doing in the current round plus all the other rounds as well. That’s so handy. Another nice touch is your current score.

But boy do the steam and Switch versions need some form of alert/notification implemented. Jonathan and I both missed new games because we weren’t aware an invite had been sent. I know it’s limitations of the platforms that Wingspan is currently on. And that the mobile versions when they appear will in all likely hood have notifications. But at current pricing I’m not likely to buy the mobile version when it’s released. It needs to be heavily discounted for that to happen. Let alone then wanting my games to follow me to whichever platform I’m playing on. But that is a possible problem for another day to discuss.

Gloomhaven has been sitting on my shelf of shame for over 2 years now. I don’t think I’ll ever get it to the table. So I was happy to find it a new home where it will be played and loved.

Acheron island paradise

coding, nintendo, online play, ranking, switch, Top 100

Just a quickie I’m still alive!

I thought I’d better post something if only to confirm the opening statement.

Decided to take a “break” from Bioshock for a day or two to play, well start Animal Crossing New Horizons.

I know I’m nearly a year late to the party. But I’m here now. I started my island adventures yesterday, and if you stalk me on Instagram or Twitter amongst chihuahua and coffee/food pictures (not much gaming to photograph at the mo) you will be able to follow my struggles with island life.

It won’t be more than a day or so more before I return to Rapture, and get into a daily routine of visiting Acheron between visits to that dystopian utopia!

If you wish to visit Acheron in a dream you can with the dream address below.

Also during this radio silence I’ve made a start rewriting my python game ranking program.

Once that’s complete I’ll repeat the exercise I did in 2017 of working out what my top 100 games of all time are.

Wingspan on the Switch

apps, nintendo, online play, switch

I don’t think it’s a secret (if it is I don’t hide it well) that I’m a big fan of more than one game from Stonemaier Games. Heck Scythe is still my favourite game of all time (I really must redo my code to allow me to run that exercise again).

Further in the interests of disclosure for this post I should point out I love Wingspan and it was my game of 2019 iirc.

So with that information firmly out there in the open you can make your decision about my initial flawed looked at the Nintendo Switch version of Wingspan.

Compared to other board games that have been turned into digital versions, at £17 Wingspan firmly sits on the expensive side. At that price I think more than a few potential players will be put off purchasing it.

One bug bear I have with Wingspan on the Switch is what seems an age for the app to load. Admittedly Wingspan is loading from a 256GB micro SD card. But from pressing my user id to having the main menu pop up I timed it at around 30 seconds.

Once you get to the main menu you can select the “Play” menu and play against AI/Friends, Automa or complete the tutorial.

Before I go on I should point out that I have not played Wingspan in any of those options. I’ve only played it against Jonathan the once. So make of that what you will. And once again feel free to dismiss what I am about to write.

You can also go online and play against other Wingspan owners, and here is the biggie those players can be on other platforms. Which currently means those that own the game on Steam, so basically PC.

I do like the tool tip help that can be switched off or on. As the two images below show.

Below I have highlighted a couple of touches on the online menu screen that I like. The first is the display of the timer showing how much time is left for the current player before they time out. The other is your id with your karma rating. I need to look into this whole karma thing, its a new thing for the app, and is used I think in online game matching.

Wingspan can be used using a mix of touch via the Switch’s touchscreen or the joycons. I like that I can using my finger drag a card from my hand on the reserve space I want to play it.

The game uses the art from the board game really well with some nice little animated bits. The music really compliments the art and game play. It’s so relaxing. Something you could just chill out to. I also liked that when you play a bird to your reserve this is a brief bit of audio that tells you about the bird.

Below is the final state of my game winning reserve. I got lucky and had the raven early on in the first round, and then got two cards that complimented it really nicely. After the gull joined it, I didn’t need to go to either of the other two areas of my reserve. I could take eggs, draw cards and get food at the same time. It was a pretty powerful combo. If my memory isn’t failing me the first time I have had the raven in a game.

A nice touch (sadly not captured) is the end of round objectives screen during the game. It shows you and the other players current positions when it comes to scoring the objective, plus your current total number of points.

The end of game scoring is nice and I like that you can view the scoring with or without points annotation.

At the end of a game you can save the end of game state which then can be viewed from the main menu via the preserve archive. Always handy for showing Jonathan how much you beat him by.

While I am talking the main menu again below are the two setup screens that the app gives you to change the settings for audio and for the game.

The bottom image below shows the birds menu option, which basically lets you see the cards you have seen during game play. It’s almost Pokemon like in you will want to collect them all.

The image above the birds screen are the options when you setup a custom online game. Which allows you to enter a players name (cross platform option) or select a friend from your Nintendo friend list.

One thing I do miss and this is also missing from the Steam version as well (I checked this with Jonathan), are alerts for when it is my turn. I would expect that these will be present when the mobile versions are finally released. However this is a limitation of the platforms that Wingspan is currently on.

During our game at the end of round 2 there seemed to be a glitch. I don’t want to call it a bug as the behaviour we saw may well have been correct. But the app skipped through from the end of round 2 to the start of round 3 without showing the end of round scoring, and the bit that threw off John’s plans tucked a card that he wanted to play!

I did find when I first started playing the game the screens to be a bit confusing. But that’s because I jumped right in. What I should have done is the tutorial first. But after a very short period I got used to the controls.

Like Jonathan I prefer the view of the complete reserve, as it shows everything on the screen, food, the food dice, etc. Although the individual reserve screen does look really amazing.

Overall my initial impressions are I like the app. It’s a nice implementation of the board game. But the price does seem excessive.

Meet thy Doom … memoirs of a classic

nintendo, switch

Visiting the Nintendo eshop is dangerous. Especially when they have stuff on sale to tempt you.

The latest temptation for me was something that I own or have owned on several other gaming platforms over the years.

And yet I found myself buying the game again on the Switch!

That game is…

I’ve been playing Doom since it came out in the early 90’s as shareware on the PC.

I owned an Amstrad clamshell 16Mhz 386sx laptop back then. Which had I want to say a 40MB hard drive and 4MB of RAM. I seem to remember that I did upgrade the RAM at some point as well.

At the time I was playing Doom for the very first time I was working in Byfleet for a credit card manufacturer, writing PC software to control desktop credit card embossing machines and cheque printers.

We were a young team, all of us in our twenties. Obviously one ore two were more mature than the rest. But the majority of us were not. Practical jokes were often played. Several times that involved strippers! Like the time I was told I was needed to give a demo of my new software and the hardware it controlled to a client. They let me do the demo for over 20 minutes before giving the signal to the stripper to start her act!

It was a different age. Times were a changing, but they hadn’t reached our office. You couldn’t do that sort of stuff now days and I’m glad. I was a different person then to the one I am now. I’m embarrassed and ashamed of who I was back then.

That was were I was when Doom came out.

I had played and completed Wolfenstein 3D, so Doom was a no brainier for me.

Where I got the game from initially I’m not sure. I think the shareware version was on the cover of a PC magazine.

But wow I was hooked, as were one or two in the office as well. I think we had more than one lunch hour that saw the definition of what a lunch hour was stretched a bit.

I think it would be fair that the competition between those of us playing the game drove us onwards. It was especially fuelled by the end of level stats that told you how many of the secret rooms you had found, and items collected.

The strange thing is we never networked up our PCs and played multiplayer. We played it solo at our desks or at home. Networking PCs together then was a bit of a hassle, which probably put us off the idea.

By the time I had completed Doom I think I was the only one in the office still playing it.

During the years after if Doom was released for hardware I owned then I got it. I had Doom on my HP ipaq pda, and on the gba. I rebought it on the PC. I have it on the 360 and PS3. It’s on a raspberry pi I own. You get the picture.

So it was no surprise that with the game and it sequels (Doom 2 and 3) on sale on the Nintendo eshop it seemed the right time to grab them all.

I like playing original classic Doom. Now days it is almost a comfort thing and like getting to know an old friend again. With the gap between plays being several years there is a haziness to what I remember, it is familiar and yet new!

Anyway I will look more into Doom and how it plays on the Switch in a future post. But first I have Bioshock and the underwater world of Rapture to finish exploring.

If you are a fan of Doom you really must read “Masters Of Doom: How two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture” by David Kushner, and “DOOM Scarydarkfast” by Dan Pinchbeck. The later is a more academic look at the game. There is a Game Engine book about Doom that I haven’t read and don’t own (it’s expensive).

Nan turns 94 today

Uncategorized

Today is a day of celebration as we celebrate Nan’s birthday.

Nan turned 94 today.

Below are some recent photos of Nan with her little guardian angel, Loki. He really is a Nannies boy. A bit like me I suppose.

Before opening Nan’s birthday cards, I asked her what day it was, and if she knew the date. Her reply was it’s not my birthday. So I pointed out it was.

Reading Nan her birthday cards this morning made me feel like those presenters on Anglia tv from my younger days who did the birthday club spot between programmes during the kids part of the tv schedule.

I’m wishing Nan many happy returns for the day. With many more ahead.

Bioshock The Collection – An early look

switch

It’s been a long while since I’ve talked about games on the Nintendo Switch. Mainly because life events meant I had to part ways with it. Boy have I missed it.

But events has bought one back into my life in the form of a Switch Lite.

I went with the Lite over the full blown Switch because of price, and when I previous had one I used it as a handheld only. I don’t remember ever connecting it to a tv.

One of the games I got with the Lite was an old favourite from the Xbox 360/PS3 days Bioshock The Collection.

For your money you get all three of the games that make up the Bioshock series. So that’s Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite. Which instantly makes it great value in my eyes.

One thing I hate is as soon as you put in the memory card and click to play the game you have to download an update. Which is exactly what happened when I went to play the first game in the series Bioshock. For some reason this took an age (I left it over night along with downloading some of the digital games that I have). Which meant this morning was the first chance I had to return to the underwater utopia that is a now a crumbling dystopia, Rapture.

As Bioshock went through its splash screens it sinks in that it is approximately 12 years since I played the original on my 360, whilst living up in the North East, in a small town called Crook.

That’s long enough that whilst playing the game it feels familiar but also new. Sometimes I remember what but not how, or vice versa. There is still a learning curve but less steep. I think the best way to describe it is it’s like getting to know an old friend once more.

I will say Bioshock looks amazing on the Lite. With the Lite having a slightly smaller screen (5.5 inches) than the Switch (6.2 inches) I think this works in its favour. Both models have the same pixel resolution 1280 x 720, but the smaller screen gives the Lite a better pixel density, so it is a little sharper.

I can easily read the text on the screen. It is small, and I do have reading glasses these days.

The controls work really well with the inbuilt joycons of the Lite. And this is more a comment of the Lite but the position of everything button and joystick wise is great for me.

I’ve only spent a couple of hours playing the game this morning. But Bioshock is still a great FPS with RPG elements. Big Daddy is just as scary as I remember him. The little sisters are still unnervingly twisted. I still love finding the audio diaries of various occupants of Rapture left scattered around the place. They add so much to bringing Rapture and the story to life. It’s still pretty frickin cool getting plasmids and the “super power” they bestow. Who wouldn’t want to shoot fire or electricity from their hands?

And I love that some decisions I make during the game have meaning and impact the game later on. Back in the day I did manage to finish Bioshock with the good ending. I need to decide at some point soon do I try and repeat that feat or do I try for the other ending? I’m not sure which way I will go. That’s almost exhilarating thinking about it. How will I feel at the time will impact the decision. But will there be regret and wishing I had chosen the other path once I make the decision? Although switching to the ending I haven’t seen is possible at any point it’s that struggle then not to be tempted to go for it.

What’s nice about this edition of the game is that there is directors commentary for you to unlock as you play. There is a museum to explore with concept art, models etc. Plus there are downloadable missions/challenges that are separate to the main campaign.

An aside: since owning my previous Switch Nintendo have made getting screenshots off the Switch and onto a smart device a tad easier.

Right time to get back to exploring Rapture.

Essential DM Reading For D&D

D&D, DM/GM Tips

Who am I as a newbie DM giving advice? How do I know what to advise another new Dm needs to read and pay particular attention to from the core books?

Luckily the Dungeon Dudes talked about this in a video Christmas Eve. Yes I know this might seem a bit late to be telling you about it. But to be fair I wasn’t going to do a post about it. Then Sly Flourish did a post about reading material for DM’s and I thought you know what I should make a record of this for myself (and share it with others).

So I have screen grabbed the summary from the Dungeon Dudes video (link below) of the pages that they think a beginning DM should read. I added the image to the notes app on iOS (it seems to be my go to note keeping place at the moment).

You can watch the video HERE, or jump straight to the detailed good stuff that they put into a Google doc HERE.

Personally I think I have distilled a lot of this stuff down to a single A4 page!

I call it a cheat sheet, and is something I can refer to quickly (it’s something I keep wanting to do for the likes of Genesys or Judge Dredd too). It’s basically all the dice based checks as simple formula (as the snippet above shows). You can pick up a copy from Dropbox HERE (it’s a word doc so you can edit to fit your own needs if you want).

In the DM Guide there is the infamous Appendix D: Dungeon Master Inspiration with a list of books to “help you become a better storyteller, writer, performer,and mapmaker.”

However Sly Flourish recently (in the last couple of days as I write this) wrote a post with an alternative reading list for DM’s (link HERE). Which I thought was a particularly good reading list (with links), and not just because I had more than one of the books on the list (and felt a little smug having them already).

I like lists like this because they often suggest titles that I may never have considered or even known about. And new sources of inspiration and knowledge are always welcome.

I hope folks have found this a useful post.

Check mate!

chess

Last year one of the couple of break out hits from Netflix was The Queen’s Gambit.

It tells the story of Beth Harmon during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and her struggle with drugs and alcohol to become a chess master.

Apparently the seven episode series is based on a novel of the same name. I’ve never read it naturally.

But this incredibly well told story about a flawed chess protege caught the imagination of the world.

It made chess the hip game to be seen playing. Chess set sales went up. And I’m assuming as did the download of chess apps.

I have to admit at the time even I was tempted to get into the game and all the hype.

What stopped me at the time is that chess is what we gamers call a “lifestyle game”. Well it is if you want to progress and get to a reasonable standard.

Usually a “lifestyle game” is a game that you not only play a lot of, but when you are not playing it, you spend a lot of time talking about, reading, researching, working on tactics, etc for the game. An example would Magic the Gathering (MtG). Chess easily fits into this for many.

At the time of Queen’s Gambit being dropped on Netflix and almost getting caught u- in the wave of excitement to play the game of chess. The one thing that stopped me was the knowledge that there is only really room for one “lifestyle game” in a persons life. And I already had one in my life, MtG (although later this year that may be challenged – but more of that later if and when it happens).

But before Christmas I gave in and bought a cheap travel chess set (less than a tenner – just) so that I could try running a game or two over on the Fenland Gamers discord server in an attempt to try and increase engagement over there. The games of Mastermind that I had been running had petered out, with just one participant taking part.

It would be me against the clubs hive mind!

I hadn’t played chess for decades. Potentially the last time being my teenage years. Even then it was very casual, I knew the basics, and there was no way I could have been described as anything but a novice (and that might be giving myself too much credit for my ability or lack of).

I found out how chess notation worked. Refreshed my failing memory on how castling worked. And relearnt what en passant was.

We ended up having two games of chess using the discord server over the Christmas and New Year period. Which ended up with them being me playing Jonathan. For the record I won both of them. I wouldn’t say our games were amazing, we made lots of tactical errors I’m sure. But we had fun.

I did get a couple of kindle books on chess opening moves (kindle unlimited was useful for once) that I need to spend time reading. Jonathan got his hands on a chess computer (which considering all things like apps, are surprisingly expensive). And we have both downloaded the chess.com app (I need to start using this).

I recorded all the moves from the two games in the iOS notepad app, plus added them to the comments in the bgstats app for the two games.

So as you can see even these casual game or two I started dipping my toes into those deep murky waters of what makes chess a “lifestyle game”.

Guess what? Jonathan and I haven’t played since!

When we do it’s Jonathan’s turn to be white and to go first.

Big Green Stompy v2

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these deck posts. There are more planned. After all I have two new decks nearly finished, and three other decks that need updating with new cards.

I thought after the post the other day about one of the upcoming Kaldheim cards that I was really excited about I’d finally update the Big Green Stompy deck this morning.

Some times it is so easy to update a deck. Especially if its one I built a long time ago and I wasn’t using “good” cards but ones I had at the time.

Other times it’s so hard to do, as you don’t want to take cards out. But you have to because you want to use the new cards.

Below are the updated decks stats. The AMC has crept up.

Ok according to the Decked app that I use and CardKingdom if I had to replace this deck I would not be able to. But below I’ve listed the top 10 most costly cards that the deck currently uses.

Like so many cards, The Immortal Sun is in need of a reprint. It’s almost a staple for me, and possibly many others too. If at the same time they could reprint Growing Rites as well I’d appreciate it.

Ok here is the bit you really want the cards that make up this version of the deck.

Note yes it might be on the low side for lands. But there are mana rocks, cards that reduce the cost, creatures that tap for mana, and cards that search for lands. Plus cards that increase the amount of mana that lands tap for.

Creatures:35

1 Boreal Druid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Feral Hydra
2 Hungering Hydra
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Leaf Gilder
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast (Alternative Commander)
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Voracious Hydra
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Lifeblood Hydra
1 Llanowar Tribe
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Elvish Piper
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Yeva, Nature’s Herald (Commander)
1 Gigantosaurus
1 Ohran Frostfang
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Aggressive Mammoth
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Gargos, Vicious Watcher
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Giant Adephage
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Khalni Hydra
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:43

1 Adventurous Impulse
1 Animist’s Awakening
1 Attune with Aether
1 Sol Ring
1 Bonds of Mortality
1 Emerald Medallion
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Land Grant
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Nylea’s Intervention
1 Thought Vessel
1 Charge of the Forever-Beast
1 Crushing Canopy
1 Cultivate
1 Garruk’s Uprising
1 Gift of Paradise
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Krosan Grip
1 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
1 Retreat to Kazandu
1 Rhonas’s Monument
1 Unbound Flourishing
1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
1 Court of Bounty
1 Leyline of Abundance
1 Momentous Fall
1 Return to the Earth
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Whirlwind
1 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Doubling Season
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Primal Vigor
1 Vivien Reid
1 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
1 Caged Sun
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Wave of Vitriol
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Praetor’s Counsel
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 The Great Aurora
1 The Great Henge

Lands:22

1 Detection Tower
1 Emergence Zone
1 Field of Ruin
15 Forest
1 Guildless Commons
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary