Some recent arrivals

new arrivals

There have been some new arrivals to add to the pile of shame and list of games to get to the table.

First up is the latest cinematic adventure from Free League for the Alien RPG, Destroyer of Worlds.

Next up was the arrival of the gaming equivalent of lotto cards, or loot boxes, MtG booster packs. I’ll talk about the pulls in another post.

Finally I was one of a lucky handful (if your definition of a handful goes up to a hundred) to get the Cy-Gull promo for King of Tokyo/New York that was done for the UKGE (well its virtual replacement) this year.

I was pleasantly surprised to find included with Cy-Gull another promo for the game X-Smash Tree. Which until I saw it I didn’t know I needed.

I do like the promo monsters but they do have one drawback. They don’t have power up decks. So they can’t be used in a game using that expansion.

Still to arrive at some point is the Tapestry expansion Plans and Ploys. Tomorrow I pick up the new D&D adventure, plus the Zendikar Rising prerelease kit. So I’ll bore you with those over the weekend.

A rare MtG Post

Commander, magic, MtG

This feels real odd writing a post about MtG. I’ve not written anything about it for what seems an age.

With the Zendika Rising prerelease due to happen this coming weekend, I ended up splashing out for some singles to go into a couple of my Commander decks. Don’t ask me how that happened or what the thought process was.

The three decks that will be seeing these cards as tweaks are my Scarab God Zombie tribal deck, Big Green Stompy, and Mono Red Aggro.

Ayara will be so dangerous in the Scarab God deck. It can generate lots and lots of zombie tokens. This card is definitely a threat if allowed to stay on the battlefield. Damage/life gain for just doing what my deck is designed to do! Add in card draw too. This card could be amazing.

Tectonic Giant should be a nice card in my mono red aggro deck. Especially if I can trigger it’s abilities.

Shamanic Revelation hopefully will give some card draw and life gain. Which I think I’m missing from my Big Green Stompy deck. Whilst Garruk’s Uprising will also do that, it’s another source of trample for my creatures. Both cards will easily be triggered, iirc there are hardly any creatures less than 4 power. And if my hydras or any X power creature is coming in at less than 4 power I’m in a very bad position. Liege of the Tangle just gives me another big body that can turn lands into even more big bodies.

As I said these cards are tweaks, with only one being a major game changer.

The big question for me this Autumn/Winter is, will I jump on board the MtG Arena bus when allegedly it arrives on mobile at some point before the end of the year?

Obviously I’m a bit sceptical about WotC being able to do this.

At the moment I’m not feeling very warm and cuddly towards WotC and MtG Arena. I’m not expecting that to change anytime soon. But we will see.

Still have a pulse…

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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.

More DM tips from social media

D&D, DM/GM Tips, RPG

Thought I’d capture on here one or two DM tips that I decided to capture for future reference.

Hopefully I’ll remember these once we start our campaign back up.

I don’t think any of the spellslingers in our campaign currently have counterspell as something they can cast. But it’s handy to bear this in mind.

One thing I do need to improve are my descriptions of locations. But I agree with the tip below. So I need to get the balance right.

I think I’ve shared this one before. But better save than sorry.

The nice thing about this one is that you can create tables before hand to roll against, or buy one of the many pdfs that have such tables to save the effort of creating your own. Although I do like the personal touch of creating my own.

What I’m looking forward to game wise this Winter

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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?

D&D Names on the fly

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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.

Inspiration for airships in Eberron notes

D&D, Eberron, RPG

A few posts back I wrote a post with some inspiration notes for playing a campaign in the D&D Eberron.

The focus of that post was the lightning trains and movies and tv shows that could be used to inspire plot lines based around trains.

This post looks at another aspect of the Eberron setting, airships.

So what I have below are movies that feature zeppelins, airships of some kind. Some of them have a similar feel to them as the Eberron setting.

Some of these movies are based on other media such as books and manga. In those cases going back to the original source is recommended. Some are so much richer than their cinematic offerings.

I particularly like that these sources of inspiration show air travel as part of the story, and not the whole story.

The airships act as major scenes within the story. Which is how I think I’d use them as well. Not just as a device to get from a to b, but also the location of some plot development.

What movies or tv shows would you add to the above?

Gifts from friend computer

Paranoia, RPG

Having backed the now fully funded Kickstarter Project Infinite Hole Paranoia project recently. (Which by the way is “…a sourcebox full of tasty tidbits from Alpha Complex’s most thought-provoking service group, Research & Design! And yes, it will provoke a lot more than just thoughts.”)

I was reminded that there was some card decks that I didn’t have for the game. Ok there are three adventures I don’t have either. But they will come at some point.

At this moment in time I’ve prioritised getting the card decks. My thinking is these will add the most to game play per buck (once I get the game to the table with some unsuspecting troubleshooters).

Out of the four available I went with the RAM deck, and the Perfectly Safe Gear deck.

The RAM deck has 50 cards containing words of wisdom from friend computer, a blank card to create your own words of wisdom for, and a how to use card.

As you can see from the example cards above the top half of the card has “humorous” inspiring words of wisdom from friend computer. A banner across the middle with the cards name/title. And the lower half describing the actions the group has to complete, some maybe be triggered by particular events during game play.

They look fun, and will certainly shake things up. I like the idea of handing these out as a “reward” for a player doing something good.

“Well done troubleshooter. Friend computer has decided to share some sage advice with you.” And then hand them a random card from the deck. Obviously if the troubleshooter doesn’t act on that advice it’s obvious they are a traitor and should be dealt with severely.

The Perfectly Safe Gear deck is all about gear that troubleshooters can be allocated to “help” complete their mission.

In the deck you get 50 new pieces of perfectly safe equipment, a blank card to add your own designed piece of perfectly safe gear to, plus a how to use card.

What can I say? More equipment, some more useful than others. There are bound to be some WTF am I meant to do with this? moments.

The remaining two decks for me to get are the Mutant Explosion and More [redacted] Societies. Which as their names suggest add more secret societies and mutants to the game.

Surprise Delivery

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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.