I'm still here!

I just finished the final chapter. Wow ... that was a lot of rat fights.

In reply to Ezra (msg # 27):

LOL
I know. Rats are the go-to minion in this world.
You and I may have to go on a mini-side adventure while we're waiting. I got all pumped up about playing again and I feel like I"m holding my breath.

I think whoever wrote Evernight had a serious fear of rats.

We killed so many rats through the course of this adventure! I actually feel kinda sorry for them.

I've been listening to Overly Sarcastic Production videos in the background. This one made me think of Buzzby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyp2-Ol6MD8

As an aside, her summary of the Journey to the West is one of the best things on youtube.

Are we just waiting on everyone to get caught up...

The dog is ready to go!

In reply to Ben the Mastiff (msg # 30):

That's why I asked what I asked. I didn't know if maybe I missed something somewhere or maybe I said something that ran everyone away. Kassidy can be mean like that.

I assumed we were still waiting on the other players. Is there an status update, Paul?

We are still waiting for Brett, Jay, and Nathan. I've asked all of them multiple times to post and say they were ready, and I can't even get one post from them. That is not giving me a warm fuzzy on actually having regular postings.  :)

I'll send another email this week and texts and a few carrier pigeons to see if I can get things moving.

Daryl and Cam, I'm glad you too are so excited about this. I am too!

The others are still standing around gazing off into the distance, not saying anything. Of course, I've done nothing to prompt deep conversation, but that's on them. I climb the nearest tree and settle myself in for a long nap. I wish I had a lute. I wish I could play a lute. Maybe I'll have to visit that little tavern I saw on the way here. There's got to be some good music I'd imagine... and if not I can get some kicks by taking down the largest guy in the place. Exercise would do me good. But for now... (yawn)... I'll just settle down for a little rest... (yaawn)... and wait for these nimrods to... zzzzz

Woof! Woof! Ben barks at the woman up in the tree. Why won't she come down and play with me! The least she could do is to throw down a stick. Soooo many sticks in the tree! I could chew on a stick ... Wait .... was that a Squirrel!

So apparently, there is a Talisman Star Wars coming out. I'm not sure what I think about that...

Emerging from cloud of thick greenish smoke a confident gnomish wizard strides.  cough cough hack hack ptoiii!   Oi, I 'ope your not waitin on me. I just needed to finish off some business with Muther 'arkness.  She don't like it win I scurry off wit'ou finishin the job.

Ben the dog, overcome with emotion at seeing the mighty Buzzby zooms around the cavern. Ultimately, he jumps up and down, licking the remains of lunch off the wizard's face and peeing on his shoes.

Anybody playing any good games lately? I'm always looking for good ones to play with the family.

I somehow got a copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, so I've been burning my hobby time putting together the miniatures for that. They're beautiful, but not for the novice/faint of heart. I'm planning on making my kids play with me (that's why I had them after all! :-)).

I also pulled out my old copy of Magic Realm the other day/month (the 1970's was the pinnacle of boardgame design donchaknow) and it was a pretty big hit too! The Boy played the Woods Girl and sniped monsters in the Deep Woods and the Girl played the Berserker and berserked her way across the Realm. I played the Dwarf and got eaten by Giant Bats...

Oi, its good ta see ya again ol boyo!  Whar's yer pappy at now eh? Oi ya mangey kur wots this now?  Buzzby shifts from his delight to disgust as the hound relieves himself on his boots. First ya treed Kassi now ya peed me! Whars yer manners!

My family is playing a lot of poetry for Neanderthals lately.  You get to whack your partner with an inflatable club  and yell "NO!" when they do something wrong.  It is a good way to release pent up rage.

Ben gives a goofy smile, his butt going out of control for a moment or two. Then sits down and looks up expectantly for some form of snack.

Poetry for Neanderthals comes with an inflatable club! I'm sold. The boy needs a good beatin'.

We played Wingspan for Mother's Day. It's a good game, and after having played it a few hundred times, I'm starting to learn the names for a bunch of birds!

Played a game of Blitz Bowl with the boy yesterday. Literal Fantasy Football that takes place in a dungeon. My Undead Team against his Skaven/Ratmen team.

I was down 5 points going into the last 2 plays. I managed a clean sweep of the scoring objectives (taking all 3 ... gives a bonus of 2 points) after my Ghoul threw an obstructed pass for a touchdown to a Skeleton on a 6 on a d6! The crowd went wild as I scored 8 points in a single turn, putting me ahead by 3.

The devious Skaven came back strong on the final play though, sneaking a Rat lineman into the endzone and using their speed to scoop up the ball. A long pass needing a 5 or 6 to tie up the game ... and it goes wide!

The buzzer sounds and the Undead wins! Woooooohoooo!!!

This message was last edited by the player at 00:23, Wed 26 May 2021.

Sorry everyone, I sort of forgot about this for a bit there.

Daryl, finding a Cursed City is supremely lucky. Good jorb on that!

Is Blitz Bowl a variation of Blood Bowl or a competitor to it?

Talisman Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman and Kingdom Hearts are kind of killing my love of the game. One is great. Four (and more on the way) is a bit much and frankly I don't have enough time to play the original.
I got the super special edition Talisman RPG but the thing is so riddled with editorial issues it's hard for me to read. It look pretty on the shelf next to all my 2nd and 4th edition Talisman boxes though.

We've been doing a lot of low to medium weight cooperatives. My girls do not get along so competitive play doesn't work in my house anymore. So the Funko Back to the Future and Ravensburger's Horrified are the current "most played".

Blitz Bowl is the "starter" Blood Bowl that GW sells exclusively through Barne's and Noble. It's a surprisingly fun beer and pretzel's game. It doesn't hurt that I've somehow managed to pick up a few (like 8-10) blood bowl teams over the years ... so I can field a pretty large swathe of the optional content that comes in the box.

I also got Lord's of Waterdeep recently, I like it. It's very much a simpler (and easier to understand) version of Agricola. Since one of my issues with Agricola is it's difficult to grasp how "well" you're doing wrt score at any particular time ... I think it's a slight improvement.

The current big hit is "Marrying Mr. Darcy". We went through a Jane Austen kick with the kid's a few years back after listening to Pride and Prejudice during a long car trip. When we got home we saw the Kiera Knightly movie, and then the "Death at Pemberly Hall" on Netflix. When Ethan can handle it, maybe we'll watch "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies". Last game three of the four of us all tried to marry Col. Fitzwilhem and he turned us all down! Then to add insult to injury we ended up as bitter and alone Old Maids ... it was hilarious!

In reply to Ezra (msg # 42):

That would explain why I'm clueless on the Blitz Bowl. The Target and B&N exclusives have been a massive thorn in the side, not because of lack of sales but lack of information. Games Workshop, as one example, does not send out alerts to us that they're doing a new product with X exclusive contract, so all we get is random call from customer saying "can you get this in? I'd like to buy through you" and then I spend a week trying to figure out why it exists on BoardGameGeek but not in any catalog or website. The industry keeps coming up with new ways to use my time.

Waterdeep and Darcy are definitely modern classics. I miss the story driven games like Darcy. Most everyone I play with wants heavy thinkers. I'm all for puzzle games from time to time but I need to mix it up too.
Chris moved back to New Mexico so I'm out my normal "lighter faire" gaming buddy.

Any word from Paul and the others?

No word from Paul in a while.

I still check in here occasionally though.

We've been revisiting Love Letter while we eat lately. It's probably the best game of its style out there. It's alway fun when you make a lucky guess with a Guard on the first turn and take someone out.

I also picked up GW's Dominion box set (mainly for the cool old style orcs ... they look like they'll fit in well with the 100+ Grenadier Orcs I painted when I still lived in Colorado Springs).

Boulder currently has 3 game/hobby shops! I don't know how long that will last for, it doesn't feel like we're big enough to support three.

In reply to Ezra (msg # 44):

I sent him a personal email and reached out through facebook but got no reply. I'm still on board so I check everyother week or so.

I keep imagining doing a narrative side story with just Kassidy and Ezra but not sure how to do it beyond just "add on a story" style which can get stale fast with two people.

GW has been pumping out the amazing large boxes. The Orc set was astounding and the new Kill Team box is pretty amazing too. I'm glad I'm not a miniaturist or I'd be drowning in "to do" lists.

Colorado Springs is up to 9 game stores, 3 comic shops with gaming, 2 hobby towns, and 6 strictly comics that still sell pokemon/magic cards. Throw in Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart selling designer games and the total number of competitors in this market is well over 30. I'm ASTOUNDED that I'm still in business.

I'm here! Sorry I went dark for a long time.

I started a new job in AWS that has been more stressful and I've been busy enjoying the 3 months of a summer we get here in Seattle at our lake cabin.

Give me until the end of September when things wind down (and rain becomes the norm) and we will get this party started!

As for games, I've been playing a lot of Shadows of Brimstone/Forbidden Fortress which is now my favorite game. I've also been playing Eldritch Horror, which would be so much fun to play with all of you. Morgan and I continue to play two-player Marvel Munchkin (I created a two player variant that is more fun than playing with 3 players), but I'm losing her to teenage years as I did with Ella. I need friends nearby but it just isn't in the cards. It makes me sad.

I'm still here! (I know everyone was very concerned).

I drove through Longmont last weekend (Ethan had a Cross Country Meet there) and they have 4 specialty game stores (not including the Barnes and Noble).

We haven't played anything new recently, although I got a hold of a copy of the Poetry for Neanderthals game. So I might try breaking that out this weekend. Both kids are almost always swamped by homework ... wrecking my board game fun.

Shadows over Brimstone looks interesting, but I already have too many minis to paint.

In reply to Ezra (msg # 47):

Yes, activity here once more that is encouraging.  I'm please you're giving poetry for Neanderthals a try.  I find giving my kids a good bonk with an inflatable club is very satisfying.    Hope you enjoy.

In reply to ohoh7 (msg # 46):

I had given you all up for dead. So glad to know you all still live!

For the kids, I can get Erin to do brain games... abstracts, Ingenious, Chess, Cathedral... but to be honest I think I am the problem there. It doesn't interest me as much as it does her. Still, she spends time with me, so that's a plus. For Claire, it has to have a tie-in to Anime or Video games. So I can get Kingdom Hearts Talisman on the table but not regular Talisman. Stardew Valley the boardgame sometimes... And with the release of the My Hero Academia card game, she's now in to a CCG... back to money-sink gaming for me! Yeehah! But generally, it's me doing the begging now. Solo gaming is becoming more my thing. Although Reed and I have been doing a TON of Marvel Champions at the store. Store gaming is a practice in patience and non-concentration so mainly it's Reed playing the game and me distractedly reacting.

I like Atomic Goblin in Longmont. I've worked with them indirectly and I have the impression they're really cool. They also have a better HobbyTown IMO.

Okay, so, let's get this party rolling!!!

Checking in. Hope all is well.

I'm doing well ... still here! I check in a little less frequently now, but I'm still checking in.

I somehow missed the part where Paul said he has a Lake Cabin. I now want to go visit Paul, and sit on a dock playing board games! I have a new-ish house (3 years ago), which is actually in Boulder. It's about 100 meters from a trail head. So that's been an awesome change. It also has a huge game room/bar in the basement, in case anyone wants to visit.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we also got a dog. Rosie Posie Laikha. I will not confirm whether or not she was named after one of the 3 named female characters from Lord of the Rings (and the love interest of the main character!). She's mostly hyper allergenic, so if anyone visits it's unlikely she'll set off allergies. She just turned a year old.

On the game front, I bought "Space Marine Adventures: Countdown" from Barnes and Noble recently. It's another one of the bookshelf games that GW only sells through B&N. It's a 20-ish minute cooperative/solo game. The boy puts up with playing it with me, although he says he like the theme of Crypt-Hunters (a similar game ... but with paladins and ghosts) better. It uses hexes ... and I have a thing for hex based systems.

I also got a chance to play D&D. A couple of people at work run a Halloween D&D game every year (a one-shot). It always pulls in a bunch of beginners, so it's kept very kid's glovey. I think we had one combat (which lasted a single round ... I got to swing my axe twice) over the 8 hours we played. I had fun making my 5th level Goblin Maniac (i.e. Berserker Barbarian) though. I got to eat a lot of snacks too! So that's a win!
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Wed 03 Nov 2021.