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My inner teenager is fulfilled.
Sep. 8th, 2008 09:26 amI touched a Lamborghini last night.
I go fast now!
ZOOOM!
Tom
I go fast now!
ZOOOM!
Tom
Sep. 8th, 2008
Castle Reviewing
Sep. 8th, 2008 11:34 amHi,
Read through Castle Waiting written and illustrated by Linda Medley. Castle Waiting is a graphic novel that takes a new spin on fairy tales. Which isn't to say that it's all dark and angsty, quite the opposite in fact. The story opens with a basic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but then quickly runs off in new directions after she runs off with her prince leaving everyone behind. The castle becomes a refuge of sorts for the odd and unlucky.
Into their midst comes Jain, a strong-minded woman from an unhappy marriage. She joins the human, anthropomorphic and magical people who inhabit the castle. Although Jain might appear to be the protagonist, she's really just the author's way of introducing us to the castle and its inhabitants. The book slowly rotates through the various members of the castle as they get into various adventures or relate tales from their past.
The artwork is excellent. All the characters are strong and clearly drawn and it effortlessly pulls the reader through the book. The actual stuff the characters say is a bit weaker. The strongest section of story was in the last half where a rather unusual nun describes her past. So it appears as though the writing was getting better. Sadly, this volume collects all the issues of Castle Waiting, the author stopped the series at this point due to disappointing sales.
Happily, in 2006, she started doing more issues through Fantagraphics Books. Hopefully the hiatus has helped her hone her craft further because there's clearly a lot of great material there and it certainly deserves some more loving attention. So I'll probably check into getting some back issues from this recent run.
later
Tom
Read through Castle Waiting written and illustrated by Linda Medley. Castle Waiting is a graphic novel that takes a new spin on fairy tales. Which isn't to say that it's all dark and angsty, quite the opposite in fact. The story opens with a basic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but then quickly runs off in new directions after she runs off with her prince leaving everyone behind. The castle becomes a refuge of sorts for the odd and unlucky.
Into their midst comes Jain, a strong-minded woman from an unhappy marriage. She joins the human, anthropomorphic and magical people who inhabit the castle. Although Jain might appear to be the protagonist, she's really just the author's way of introducing us to the castle and its inhabitants. The book slowly rotates through the various members of the castle as they get into various adventures or relate tales from their past.
The artwork is excellent. All the characters are strong and clearly drawn and it effortlessly pulls the reader through the book. The actual stuff the characters say is a bit weaker. The strongest section of story was in the last half where a rather unusual nun describes her past. So it appears as though the writing was getting better. Sadly, this volume collects all the issues of Castle Waiting, the author stopped the series at this point due to disappointing sales.
Happily, in 2006, she started doing more issues through Fantagraphics Books. Hopefully the hiatus has helped her hone her craft further because there's clearly a lot of great material there and it certainly deserves some more loving attention. So I'll probably check into getting some back issues from this recent run.
later
Tom
Castle Reviewing
Sep. 8th, 2008 11:34 amHi,
Read through Castle Waiting written and illustrated by Linda Medley. Castle Waiting is a graphic novel that takes a new spin on fairy tales. Which isn't to say that it's all dark and angsty, quite the opposite in fact. The story opens with a basic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but then quickly runs off in new directions after she runs off with her prince leaving everyone behind. The castle becomes a refuge of sorts for the odd and unlucky.
Into their midst comes Jain, a strong-minded woman from an unhappy marriage. She joins the human, anthropomorphic and magical people who inhabit the castle. Although Jain might appear to be the protagonist, she's really just the author's way of introducing us to the castle and its inhabitants. The book slowly rotates through the various members of the castle as they get into various adventures or relate tales from their past.
The artwork is excellent. All the characters are strong and clearly drawn and it effortlessly pulls the reader through the book. The actual stuff the characters say is a bit weaker. The strongest section of story was in the last half where a rather unusual nun describes her past. So it appears as though the writing was getting better. Sadly, this volume collects all the issues of Castle Waiting, the author stopped the series at this point due to disappointing sales.
Happily, in 2006, she started doing more issues through Fantagraphics Books. Hopefully the hiatus has helped her hone her craft further because there's clearly a lot of great material there and it certainly deserves some more loving attention. So I'll probably check into getting some back issues from this recent run.
later
Tom
Read through Castle Waiting written and illustrated by Linda Medley. Castle Waiting is a graphic novel that takes a new spin on fairy tales. Which isn't to say that it's all dark and angsty, quite the opposite in fact. The story opens with a basic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but then quickly runs off in new directions after she runs off with her prince leaving everyone behind. The castle becomes a refuge of sorts for the odd and unlucky.
Into their midst comes Jain, a strong-minded woman from an unhappy marriage. She joins the human, anthropomorphic and magical people who inhabit the castle. Although Jain might appear to be the protagonist, she's really just the author's way of introducing us to the castle and its inhabitants. The book slowly rotates through the various members of the castle as they get into various adventures or relate tales from their past.
The artwork is excellent. All the characters are strong and clearly drawn and it effortlessly pulls the reader through the book. The actual stuff the characters say is a bit weaker. The strongest section of story was in the last half where a rather unusual nun describes her past. So it appears as though the writing was getting better. Sadly, this volume collects all the issues of Castle Waiting, the author stopped the series at this point due to disappointing sales.
Happily, in 2006, she started doing more issues through Fantagraphics Books. Hopefully the hiatus has helped her hone her craft further because there's clearly a lot of great material there and it certainly deserves some more loving attention. So I'll probably check into getting some back issues from this recent run.
later
Tom
Rulebook Reviews
Sep. 8th, 2008 11:35 amHey,
So I've been reading through my haul of GenCon purchases and I thought I'd discuss them here a little bit. Again, this is mostly just me reading through the books, I haven't played any of this stuff.
First up, I got a copy of Little Wars by H.G. Wells. It's regarded as the first published set of rules for a miniature wargame. It's an interesting read. When Wells and his friends were figuring out how to conduct their games, they seemed to run into every problem that plagues any wargame system and they often found their rule fixes tended to encourage some rather un-warlike behavior. Eventually, through a number of playtests they worked out most of their issues and wound up with an interesting little set of rules. Probably the most interesting concept is that each player must move all their troops and fire all their guns within a strict time limit. After movement and shooting, players take a moment to resolve close combat (which is incredibly deadly, you just pull one guy off each side until one side is eliminated). Then it's the other guy's turn.
Oh and about the shooting. Wells was using a spring-loaded toy cannot that shot a small wooden dowel. You fired at the soldiers and whatever you knocked down, was out of the game. There were a few rule amendments about bouncing shots and how many men could get knocked down (you had to "kill" your first target or subsequent victims were immune). This dependence on a turn of the last century toy is the biggest obstacle to playing a game of Little wars today. Also, you'd really want plastic soldiers, because miniature soldiers are either a.) too small (Wells was basically playing with 50mm figures) or b.) too pricey to be knocking over with cannon shot. Still, a fun look back.
Next I had a full read-through of 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars by Gregor Hutton of Box Ninja Games. As I mentioned in my GenCon report, this was the hit of the indie games out there this year. After the read through, it's easy to see why -- this is the ultimate con game. It's super easy to grab 4-6 players, get their characters made up, give them a mission to work through and just play. In 3:16 you play a member of the Terran Expeditionary Force. It's your job to go out and kill all intelligent life in the universe so Terra will be safe. Your trooper has two stats -- Fighting Ability (which lets you kill aliens) and Non-Fighting Ability (which lets you do everything else). Characters can also call on Flashbacks to either let you win an encounter or let you lose an encounter, but on your terms.
On the GM's side of the table, you've got Threat Tokens. Each planet is broken up into a series of encounters and you assign threat tokens to each encounter. Threat tokens are eliminated when the PCs successfully inflict "kills" on the enemy or they can be spent by the GM to activate some alien power (an ambush, extra damage, etc.). It's a great pacing mechanism and keeps the gameplay short and zippy. An average planet will be cleansed within 1-2 hours I'd guess.
There's also a long-term campaign system where characters slowly work their way up the chain of command and improve their weapons and gear. If a PC dies, there's a fast system to get a new one in play. The random planet generators are good for 20 unique worlds and creatures and it'll be fun to see how longer campaigns run, but really -- the payoff here is that if you want to be play a zealous space marine out to cleanse the universe and you don't have a lot of time, this is a great game to pull out and just run. I'm giving this one a spin for gaming weekend.
Finally, I got a copy of Spione by Ron Edwards of Adept Press. This is basically a game of Cold War espionage in Berlin that tries to recapture the spy game as depicted by Le Carre. There's a lot of great up-front information on the history of Berlin and the espionage agencies that were active in the area at the time. Two players run a spy, everyone else basically NPCs the people close to the spies and the rest of the world at large. Players go around setting up scenes for the spies and then ratching up the tension and isolation until they enter a "Flashpoint" (a moment when their ideals are conflicted and they are alienated from the things they love). Once both spies are at a Flashpoint, Players conduct a sort of group solitaire game and then use the results to determine the order and effectiveness of the narration used to resolve both Flashpoints. Gameplay continues basically until everyone the spy loves or cares about is dead or otherwise removed from the game. "winning" in any sort of sense is liable to be difficult for the spies.
All in all, it's an interesting game. I'd be curious to give it a whirl.
And there's still a pile of GenCon goodness left.
later
Tom
So I've been reading through my haul of GenCon purchases and I thought I'd discuss them here a little bit. Again, this is mostly just me reading through the books, I haven't played any of this stuff.
First up, I got a copy of Little Wars by H.G. Wells. It's regarded as the first published set of rules for a miniature wargame. It's an interesting read. When Wells and his friends were figuring out how to conduct their games, they seemed to run into every problem that plagues any wargame system and they often found their rule fixes tended to encourage some rather un-warlike behavior. Eventually, through a number of playtests they worked out most of their issues and wound up with an interesting little set of rules. Probably the most interesting concept is that each player must move all their troops and fire all their guns within a strict time limit. After movement and shooting, players take a moment to resolve close combat (which is incredibly deadly, you just pull one guy off each side until one side is eliminated). Then it's the other guy's turn.
Oh and about the shooting. Wells was using a spring-loaded toy cannot that shot a small wooden dowel. You fired at the soldiers and whatever you knocked down, was out of the game. There were a few rule amendments about bouncing shots and how many men could get knocked down (you had to "kill" your first target or subsequent victims were immune). This dependence on a turn of the last century toy is the biggest obstacle to playing a game of Little wars today. Also, you'd really want plastic soldiers, because miniature soldiers are either a.) too small (Wells was basically playing with 50mm figures) or b.) too pricey to be knocking over with cannon shot. Still, a fun look back.
Next I had a full read-through of 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars by Gregor Hutton of Box Ninja Games. As I mentioned in my GenCon report, this was the hit of the indie games out there this year. After the read through, it's easy to see why -- this is the ultimate con game. It's super easy to grab 4-6 players, get their characters made up, give them a mission to work through and just play. In 3:16 you play a member of the Terran Expeditionary Force. It's your job to go out and kill all intelligent life in the universe so Terra will be safe. Your trooper has two stats -- Fighting Ability (which lets you kill aliens) and Non-Fighting Ability (which lets you do everything else). Characters can also call on Flashbacks to either let you win an encounter or let you lose an encounter, but on your terms.
On the GM's side of the table, you've got Threat Tokens. Each planet is broken up into a series of encounters and you assign threat tokens to each encounter. Threat tokens are eliminated when the PCs successfully inflict "kills" on the enemy or they can be spent by the GM to activate some alien power (an ambush, extra damage, etc.). It's a great pacing mechanism and keeps the gameplay short and zippy. An average planet will be cleansed within 1-2 hours I'd guess.
There's also a long-term campaign system where characters slowly work their way up the chain of command and improve their weapons and gear. If a PC dies, there's a fast system to get a new one in play. The random planet generators are good for 20 unique worlds and creatures and it'll be fun to see how longer campaigns run, but really -- the payoff here is that if you want to be play a zealous space marine out to cleanse the universe and you don't have a lot of time, this is a great game to pull out and just run. I'm giving this one a spin for gaming weekend.
Finally, I got a copy of Spione by Ron Edwards of Adept Press. This is basically a game of Cold War espionage in Berlin that tries to recapture the spy game as depicted by Le Carre. There's a lot of great up-front information on the history of Berlin and the espionage agencies that were active in the area at the time. Two players run a spy, everyone else basically NPCs the people close to the spies and the rest of the world at large. Players go around setting up scenes for the spies and then ratching up the tension and isolation until they enter a "Flashpoint" (a moment when their ideals are conflicted and they are alienated from the things they love). Once both spies are at a Flashpoint, Players conduct a sort of group solitaire game and then use the results to determine the order and effectiveness of the narration used to resolve both Flashpoints. Gameplay continues basically until everyone the spy loves or cares about is dead or otherwise removed from the game. "winning" in any sort of sense is liable to be difficult for the spies.
All in all, it's an interesting game. I'd be curious to give it a whirl.
And there's still a pile of GenCon goodness left.
later
Tom
Rulebook Reviews
Sep. 8th, 2008 11:35 amHey,
So I've been reading through my haul of GenCon purchases and I thought I'd discuss them here a little bit. Again, this is mostly just me reading through the books, I haven't played any of this stuff.
First up, I got a copy of Little Wars by H.G. Wells. It's regarded as the first published set of rules for a miniature wargame. It's an interesting read. When Wells and his friends were figuring out how to conduct their games, they seemed to run into every problem that plagues any wargame system and they often found their rule fixes tended to encourage some rather un-warlike behavior. Eventually, through a number of playtests they worked out most of their issues and wound up with an interesting little set of rules. Probably the most interesting concept is that each player must move all their troops and fire all their guns within a strict time limit. After movement and shooting, players take a moment to resolve close combat (which is incredibly deadly, you just pull one guy off each side until one side is eliminated). Then it's the other guy's turn.
Oh and about the shooting. Wells was using a spring-loaded toy cannot that shot a small wooden dowel. You fired at the soldiers and whatever you knocked down, was out of the game. There were a few rule amendments about bouncing shots and how many men could get knocked down (you had to "kill" your first target or subsequent victims were immune). This dependence on a turn of the last century toy is the biggest obstacle to playing a game of Little wars today. Also, you'd really want plastic soldiers, because miniature soldiers are either a.) too small (Wells was basically playing with 50mm figures) or b.) too pricey to be knocking over with cannon shot. Still, a fun look back.
Next I had a full read-through of 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars by Gregor Hutton of Box Ninja Games. As I mentioned in my GenCon report, this was the hit of the indie games out there this year. After the read through, it's easy to see why -- this is the ultimate con game. It's super easy to grab 4-6 players, get their characters made up, give them a mission to work through and just play. In 3:16 you play a member of the Terran Expeditionary Force. It's your job to go out and kill all intelligent life in the universe so Terra will be safe. Your trooper has two stats -- Fighting Ability (which lets you kill aliens) and Non-Fighting Ability (which lets you do everything else). Characters can also call on Flashbacks to either let you win an encounter or let you lose an encounter, but on your terms.
On the GM's side of the table, you've got Threat Tokens. Each planet is broken up into a series of encounters and you assign threat tokens to each encounter. Threat tokens are eliminated when the PCs successfully inflict "kills" on the enemy or they can be spent by the GM to activate some alien power (an ambush, extra damage, etc.). It's a great pacing mechanism and keeps the gameplay short and zippy. An average planet will be cleansed within 1-2 hours I'd guess.
There's also a long-term campaign system where characters slowly work their way up the chain of command and improve their weapons and gear. If a PC dies, there's a fast system to get a new one in play. The random planet generators are good for 20 unique worlds and creatures and it'll be fun to see how longer campaigns run, but really -- the payoff here is that if you want to be play a zealous space marine out to cleanse the universe and you don't have a lot of time, this is a great game to pull out and just run. I'm giving this one a spin for gaming weekend.
Finally, I got a copy of Spione by Ron Edwards of Adept Press. This is basically a game of Cold War espionage in Berlin that tries to recapture the spy game as depicted by Le Carre. There's a lot of great up-front information on the history of Berlin and the espionage agencies that were active in the area at the time. Two players run a spy, everyone else basically NPCs the people close to the spies and the rest of the world at large. Players go around setting up scenes for the spies and then ratching up the tension and isolation until they enter a "Flashpoint" (a moment when their ideals are conflicted and they are alienated from the things they love). Once both spies are at a Flashpoint, Players conduct a sort of group solitaire game and then use the results to determine the order and effectiveness of the narration used to resolve both Flashpoints. Gameplay continues basically until everyone the spy loves or cares about is dead or otherwise removed from the game. "winning" in any sort of sense is liable to be difficult for the spies.
All in all, it's an interesting game. I'd be curious to give it a whirl.
And there's still a pile of GenCon goodness left.
later
Tom
So I've been reading through my haul of GenCon purchases and I thought I'd discuss them here a little bit. Again, this is mostly just me reading through the books, I haven't played any of this stuff.
First up, I got a copy of Little Wars by H.G. Wells. It's regarded as the first published set of rules for a miniature wargame. It's an interesting read. When Wells and his friends were figuring out how to conduct their games, they seemed to run into every problem that plagues any wargame system and they often found their rule fixes tended to encourage some rather un-warlike behavior. Eventually, through a number of playtests they worked out most of their issues and wound up with an interesting little set of rules. Probably the most interesting concept is that each player must move all their troops and fire all their guns within a strict time limit. After movement and shooting, players take a moment to resolve close combat (which is incredibly deadly, you just pull one guy off each side until one side is eliminated). Then it's the other guy's turn.
Oh and about the shooting. Wells was using a spring-loaded toy cannot that shot a small wooden dowel. You fired at the soldiers and whatever you knocked down, was out of the game. There were a few rule amendments about bouncing shots and how many men could get knocked down (you had to "kill" your first target or subsequent victims were immune). This dependence on a turn of the last century toy is the biggest obstacle to playing a game of Little wars today. Also, you'd really want plastic soldiers, because miniature soldiers are either a.) too small (Wells was basically playing with 50mm figures) or b.) too pricey to be knocking over with cannon shot. Still, a fun look back.
Next I had a full read-through of 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars by Gregor Hutton of Box Ninja Games. As I mentioned in my GenCon report, this was the hit of the indie games out there this year. After the read through, it's easy to see why -- this is the ultimate con game. It's super easy to grab 4-6 players, get their characters made up, give them a mission to work through and just play. In 3:16 you play a member of the Terran Expeditionary Force. It's your job to go out and kill all intelligent life in the universe so Terra will be safe. Your trooper has two stats -- Fighting Ability (which lets you kill aliens) and Non-Fighting Ability (which lets you do everything else). Characters can also call on Flashbacks to either let you win an encounter or let you lose an encounter, but on your terms.
On the GM's side of the table, you've got Threat Tokens. Each planet is broken up into a series of encounters and you assign threat tokens to each encounter. Threat tokens are eliminated when the PCs successfully inflict "kills" on the enemy or they can be spent by the GM to activate some alien power (an ambush, extra damage, etc.). It's a great pacing mechanism and keeps the gameplay short and zippy. An average planet will be cleansed within 1-2 hours I'd guess.
There's also a long-term campaign system where characters slowly work their way up the chain of command and improve their weapons and gear. If a PC dies, there's a fast system to get a new one in play. The random planet generators are good for 20 unique worlds and creatures and it'll be fun to see how longer campaigns run, but really -- the payoff here is that if you want to be play a zealous space marine out to cleanse the universe and you don't have a lot of time, this is a great game to pull out and just run. I'm giving this one a spin for gaming weekend.
Finally, I got a copy of Spione by Ron Edwards of Adept Press. This is basically a game of Cold War espionage in Berlin that tries to recapture the spy game as depicted by Le Carre. There's a lot of great up-front information on the history of Berlin and the espionage agencies that were active in the area at the time. Two players run a spy, everyone else basically NPCs the people close to the spies and the rest of the world at large. Players go around setting up scenes for the spies and then ratching up the tension and isolation until they enter a "Flashpoint" (a moment when their ideals are conflicted and they are alienated from the things they love). Once both spies are at a Flashpoint, Players conduct a sort of group solitaire game and then use the results to determine the order and effectiveness of the narration used to resolve both Flashpoints. Gameplay continues basically until everyone the spy loves or cares about is dead or otherwise removed from the game. "winning" in any sort of sense is liable to be difficult for the spies.
All in all, it's an interesting game. I'd be curious to give it a whirl.
And there's still a pile of GenCon goodness left.
later
Tom