WARNING WARNING ... anti Hermit-nard rant!!

I want to introduce a term to the gaming vernacular ... don't forget you heard it here first! 

Hermit-Nard- Definition: Based on Grognard. A hermit-nard is someone who becomes stuck on an out of print game system and endlessly proclaims it as superior to all future game systems and any other form of game. They are irrational, dense, stupid and stubborn and have been known to suffer from delusions of being correct.

Grognard, which   is French for "grumbler".^[1] It is not necessarily pejorative and is sometimes used as a compliment. Historically it meant a soldier in Napoleon's army, particularly a member of the Old Guard.^[2] "Grognard" came to mean a veteran wargamer in the early 1970s.^[3] It was first used by John Young, at that time an employee of SPI, and subsequently popularised by Strategy & Tactics magazine.

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Ok ... lately I've been reading many "classic" D&D game blogs and comments regarding posts on those blogs and I'm somewhat dismayed. I'm really honestly upset and displeased at how many grumpy old jerk gamers there are out there who just don't get it. They apparently have their nerd-beard gaming groups that have been gaming together for 30+ years and are basically gaming hermits who are entirely out of touch with gaming. (Also there are many dyed in the wool Grognards out there who DO get it and I'm following their blogs and really enjoy hearing what they have to say).

Do people realize that face to face gaming is under assault?? More than ever! Video games from the dreaded World of Warcrack to console gaming to other forms of PC gaming are siphoning off players and interest ... away from face to face gaming in all of its forms. SO being stupidly critical of gaming companies that are doing whatever they can to stay afloat in these tough times (not to mention these tough economic times) is just dumb. I got fired up about a post on one of these blogs from one of these gamer hermits living in a Gary Gygax world that never existed ... refusing to see reason and refusing to use logic. Its worse than the crazy right wing Palin fans or the Tea Party fools ... bah!! So this is a reply to those types of anti-4E people out there and those people who think old D&D is superior. Old D&D was great in its time and its fun to be nostalgic about those old games and even play them sometimes ... but they are not better. They do not do a better job of delivering RPG fun than many, many other newer systems INCLUDING 4E.

First I agree that classic D&D from White Box to 2nd edition are just that "classics" and those games deserve some reverence and nostalgia. Does 3.0 and 3.5 ... no ... not now ... maybe in 5 or 10 years time and besides Pathfinder is still being supported so there is an outlet for people who actually like 3.5 and think its worth playing (more power to you ... I don't but if it floats your boat have fun).  My own gaming groups have all come to the conclusion collectively that if you have a good group and GM/DM ... you don't even need rules. You can just sit and collectively weave an interactive story. One could sit cross legged in a circle with other players ... passing the water pipe ... incense burning in the background ... seeking RPG nirvana. Yet with our busy lives, variable quality of players and GM/DMs that rarely happens. What you often end up with is a DM who doesn't have enough time to give you nirvana and players who are either nubs, or are unemployed and stressed out or going through a divorce or just jerks ... and people don't bring 100% of what they can to the table. So you need rules and systems that  in spite of all that facilitate reasonably fun gameplay and weave cool and interesting authentic feeling storylines that the group enjoys. That is what an RPG should do.

Talk to game designers and people who aren't afraid to try other systems and really get into the nuts and bolts of game design elements. Guys like John Wick, Monte Cooke, Jared Sorensen, etc. etc. Any of them will tell you there is a world of RPGing out there and I'm not talking about 4E. Games like Spirit of the Century, Dogs in the Vineyard, Savage Worlds, Houses of the Blooded, Sorcerer, In a Wicked Age, Burning Wheel, Mouseguard, etc. that are new and fresh and cool. Don't get me wrong I've been playing D&D since around 1984ish and before people jump around with oh well I actually inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D ... I don't care!  I didn't make that statement as a brag ... I'm sure many of you are older and more Grognardian than I am ... just saying I've been playing for more than a few years and I haven't been afraid to jump right in on new types of games. I see that there is a segment of the "classic" D&D fans out there who are  acting like cranky old farts who don't care about the continuation or growth of the hobby of role playing. They choose to bury their heads in the sand and rant and rave about anything new. To me that is as distrubing as the people who won't pry their nearly cold dead fingers off of WoW.

New products with new approaches bring in new players ... period. I don't like WoW it is a drain on the gaming community in general ... I have to admit I've played hardcore though in the past. I play 4E but I also play 3.5 and occasionally 2nd and even 1st Ed D&D. 4E has an appeal for new players ... I'm 35 ... been there done that with every version of D&D since 1st (Basic, 2nd, 3.0., 3.5). I own a small used bookstores worth of stuff from TSR to White Wolf to Hogshead (GW), etc. etc. and have a nostalgia for the classic stuff. Yet I am not a hater of new products that bring new younger players into the hobby. I want to be playing RPGs when I'm 80 and I like playing with a diverse group ... I agree WoW is evil but I think its really stupid to say 4E is as bad as WoW. Its idiotic in fact. 4E is a pen and paper face to face RPGing ... PERIOD. Once you get people to love pen and paper RPGs and get it into their blood ... you have a new RPG fan. Many of them will inevitably seek out other RPGs and learn about the history of D&D and maybe one day they'll turn in up one of your 1st ed games. How can an 18 year old who doesn't have a parent or relative who raised them on D&D be expected to automatically find some old out of print game and immediately declare it superior??? You think they are going to take some cranky old guys word for it?? I doubt it. This rational is like being a fan of classic cars from the 50s or 60s and being angry at any new car ... your justified in your belief in your own mind ... but your very unrealistic. 4E is here to stay and its been popular, its bringing new players to the game and providing existing D&D fans with continued entertainment via a PEN AND PAPER RPG ... therefor .. love it or hate it ... you need to learn to deal with it and accept that it will not go away. I think that many of the people out there bashing and hating would be better served in seeking the best revenge and that is to lead by example. Talk about the old games and what is good about them, don't tear down, don't hate, don't rant. Keep what you love alive. I like reading blogs that do that ... I'm not a fan of the endless D&D vs. 4E ranting ... its pointless.

There was a time when I loved GURPS and RIFTS and Shadowrun and 3.5 D&D. I loved big robust simulator games that "could do anything" ... and had a complex detailed rule for every occasion. Back when I was in my early 20s ... wasn't married ... didn't have kids ... and had a gaming group that wanted and could handle games like that. Now that I'm 35, married, 4 kids, big mortgage, car payments, stressful work, yada yada ... I find myself wanting fun, light, low DM prep, low player prep (i.e. you don't need an IQ of 160 and committed study time to learn the rules), etc. So I now find myself having most fun with Savage Worlds and some of the FATE system mod ups. Yet I still play D&D in whatever form I can get a group together in. Finding people who want to play 1st edition D&D on a continual basis in my area has been a non-starter ... new players don't like Thaco, they don't get negative AC ... and old modules have a sometimes kooky, crazy ecology that one has to appreciate in order to get.  I own everything I'd ever need to run said game ... also for 2nd and basic if there was a desire ... yet I never have any takers. So I play what I can get and I have played and currently am playing 4E. I find that most of the critics who refuse to play 4E and thus have no idea what they are talking about. Most of the 4E haters draw their criticisms mainly from their reading of other grumpy, smug people who also haven't really played. Its easy to tear down systems ... every version has its flaws. Is 4E the best D&D ever? No. Is it so bad its unplayable. No. Is it WoW on paper. It can be ... but then again its all in how the DM runs their game. Is it enjoyable and does it provide great hack and slash type RPGing. Yes ... again if run properly. Is it the death of all life on earth? No. I'd argue that it is bringing new players to RPGing and therefor it isn't all bad. Am I selling all my other RPG stuff and going all in on 4E? No. I still own all my classic stuff and hope to get all that out from time to time too. I also actually like Savage Worlds and Spirit of the Century tremendously (even more than any version of D&D ... GASP ...) and try to play those whenever I can.

I anticipate that there will be a 5E sometime in the next five or so years and people will hate it too ... and others will love it ... and new people will try it. I will be playing RPGs then I hope and I'll probably try 5E too. What I will then do is take the 5E players (like I have with 4E) and get them to try stuff like Savage Worlds ... then maybe do a one shot of Tunnels and Trolls ... then run one of the cleaned up versions of 1st ed D&D.

My current gaming groups have players in them from a player who is nearly 70 to 18 and 19 year olds. I have four kids that I do modified RPGing with basically I give them 3 stats, Smarts, Strength and Personality and run fairytale type adventures more akin to choose your own adventure books than D&D. There are actually systems out there tailor made for young players that I have looked into but haven't picked up yet.

To me the bottom line is players and DMs can flame and swear and rant about the "evil" companies that are making money from gaming (OMG how dare they!!) ... and as someone whose personal politics are something along the lines of Socialist-Anarchist ... I hear ya! Power to the people!! Yet ... as a greedy gamer who likes new shiny stuff and who likes to have lots of different people to game with ... I support companies like WotC in their continued efforts to attract new players to role playing games. I'm also a mini game fan (GW mainly) and a board game fan. Game companies like Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games and Privateer Press are engaging in many of the same practices that WotC are and that is bad and good. To me any efforts to pry people away from WoW ... to ANY type of face to face gaming ... is good and I will do what I can to support such efforts. This same argument can be applied to the GW games ... you hear the same stuff with 4E 40K fans vs. 5th ed. etc. etc. and its the same situation ... ANYTHING that keeps new players coming to the hobbies we know and love should be applauded and supported ... if you really like older games ... fine get a group together and do that on the side ... but don't smack new people over the head and drive them away from the hobby!! Besides people your never going to find large numbers of non-European gamer girls who are going to play 1st edition D&D!! FFS!!! If you want the % of female gamers to increase you have to have new systems that cater more to their interests!!

DEATHWATCH???

What!! Do my eyes deceive me!

Fantasy flight games IS going to add a Space Marine role playing game to the Dark Heresy line!  WHOA!! Looks really hot! The release is "this summer" ...  It looks like the price will be 59.95 for the core book and I'm assuming it will be similar in size and scope to the Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader books. I'll be pre-ordering this one!!

ORKS! Weirdboys or not??

YA YA ... I know ... I've been inexcusably remiss in posting pictures, etc. of my ork project. Well one of these days mon ... one of these days ...

Anyway this mostly a request for advice.  Recently I've noticed that at least on paper it looks like weird boys (warpheads in particular) appear to be just what a boy heavy ork army could use. The possibility to get a second or even third waaagh! in during a game seems really nice ... and the other weirdboy abilities seem to have some amazing vehicle destroying, unit moving potential as well. If I took 2 in a list would that be over the top? I'm already running Ghazghkull Thraka and I care not a fig for any "special characters are cheesy" ... with the way 5th edition plays the orks need to use their strengths and in my opinion their main strength (and really its very fluffy as well) are the boyz and lots of them. The only way a big mostly on foot list is viable is by maximizing that waaagh! special rule and Ghaz does that. All in all ya he is brutal but he is pretty expensive ... his main use to the list is giving the foot troops a guaranteed full waaagh! move ... that is it. If I wanted to min max I wouldn't take him.

STRATEGICON

Well I had a somewhat safe return from Strategicon ... only one minor vehicle malfunction on the way out of LA which delayed us about 5 hours or so. It wouldn't be a con road trip without something like that happening. At any rate I had an absolute blast!! It was huge fun ... I saw old friends and had a chance to play some great indie RPGs. I managed to wander around and BS with some of the attendees at the 40K/WHFB tourney as well. They seemed to have a decent turnout . Overall it was again well worth the trip down. I managed to do the con (including travel, room, food and spending money) for around $300.00. For a raucous four day game romp ... in my book that is money well spent.

I played:  

Friday at 8 PM

House of Cards: The Russian Mafia is sending $500 million to Beijing on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Your crew is going to steal it. You'll either end up rich or dead - it's a no risk, no reward proposition. Come playtest my quick-play heist game. GM: Eric Boyd (actually he is the creator of the game).

Ok this was a really interesting concept for an RPG. We played with the creator of the game as this game is still in playtest but should be out this year sometime. The game uses a standard deck of cards in place of dice for all game resolution.

Saturday at 9 AM:

4th Edition D&D, DOGS OF WAR: The paladins of Elturgard cannot tolerate a threat from the gnolls of the Reaching Woods at this time. Will heroes step forward to undertake a risky mission to foil the gnolls and their demon allies? A Living Forgotten Realms adventure set in Elturgard for characters levels 4-7.

This one was a "Special" mod which means more loot, etc. again ... next September there will be NO LFR mods for me ... in my book at strategicon its a waste of time with other really good GMs running indie games, rare board games, gamer flea market, etc. etc. its just a waste of time. However playing this one mod sold me on attending Neoncon this next year in Vegas because I had a blast playing it, but again there are just too many other cooler activities at Strategicon going on for me to waste my time playing D&D again. To give a quick recap I was playing a tooled up Paladin who my friend Scott built for me right before the con. He was combo heavy and did alot of damage for a defender, I really enjoyed playing that chr. The mod itself was interesting our group managed to overcome the skill challenges which allowed us to avoid several minor encounters thus enabling us to get to the end boss fight where we had to stop a demon summoning in progress. We managed to save the captive who was about to be sacrificed and kill the boss ... just barely ...

A game that I missed playing at that time but wish I would have played in was one by a great GM named Mike Olson called Leftovers which is "a roleplaying game of post-apocalyptic survival in a horrific world but with a heart. More Information: http://rollsomedice.blogspot.com" That is my only regret of the con is that I didn't play in this game instead of D&D. Again I had fun playing D&D but Mike is an amazing GM and this is his own system. I really didn't pay enough attention during registration in terms of this game. I'm hoping to make it down to Hyphen-Con this year so I can play in a session of it run by Mike.  

Saturday at 2 PM:

A cool Savage Worlds game run by Andy Blanchard who is someone that I've played in games run by and as a fellow player with for several strategicons in a row now.

"Fan of Jim Butcher? Love his Codex Alera fantasy series? Dream of playing an element-controlling furycrafter? Well then join the fun! Playtest the Savage Worlds tweak for the Codex Alera fantasy setting, and maybe even save some slaves from cruel and uncaring bastards while you're at it!"

Andy did a great job combining the awesomeness of Savage Worlds with what seems to be perhaps an even better series of Butcher novels than the Dresden files. The backstory for the world is pretty interesting and it has  a  Roman feeling combined with sort of a Last Air Bender twist.

Basically the PCs are elemental casters who draw upon the elemental powers of the world in order to cast their spell like abilities, heal, and generally manipulating their environment. The party was balanced and though everyone is a "caster" ... the classic RPG party roles can be filled as in addition to the four elements there is a wood bender and a mental bender. The metal bender in particular is a melee damage and/or tank class, the water bender is the healer, air controller, fire ranged damage, wood ranged damage with a bow, etc.

Andy's Savage Worlds mod is awesome and I had a blast.

Saturday at 8 PM:

Fate: Final Exam Crisis

"Are you ready for some exciting but essentially non-lethal Silver Age-type action? When supervillainy threatens Pacific City, it's up to Seaside High School's motley assortment of teenage superheroes to put a stop to it. And during finals week, no less! Come playtest this new superheroic version of FATE, the ruleset that powers Spirit of the Century, Diaspora, and the upcoming Legends of Anglerre.

More Information: http://spiritoftheblank.blogspot.com" GM: Mike Olson

The game was hilariously awesome!! It had a classic silver age teen comic hero spirit with an edge to it. The player builds were: Brick, Multiplier, Speedster, Empath/Telepath, Sonic Blaster. I won't go into the other characters but the character I played was named Clique and she was basically the hot mean girl from high school who always managed to start the rumors, maintain her domination of the in-crowd, etc. etc. and that personality blended with a multiple-girl hero had some hilarious and fun application potential. Really having played this game I have realized that for my tastes FATE does supers better than anything. Mike managed to build a mod for SoTC that captures the feel of comic super heroes with the open cinematic potential of FATE. Its an awesome combo and I'm really inspired by it. I'm hoping to get more info on this from Mike so I can run it in a home game. I just can't say enough good about this game ... but honestly I'll save that for another post later when I attempt to break this out for my home game group.

Sunday at 9 AM:

We were registered for a West End Games classic star wars RPG game where we would have been playing as Jawas .. the game description was: "You are the renegades which no clan wanted... you drink, you carry weapons, you look for trouble. An imperial shuttle has crashed in the dune sea and everyone wants it..." it sounded hilarious but the GM canceled all his sessions for the con. So we ended up with a free slot on Sunday which actually was rather nice it gave us a chance to walk around and recover. 

Sunday at 2 PM

The Collapse of Villengard, Burning Empires

"The leaders saw the warnings but were too distracted by their petty concerns. Even when the Vaylen began landing troops they tried to maneuver things to their advantage. Now all that remains is a choice save yourself, take some Vaylen with you as you die, hold onto the slim hope for reinforcements, or evacuate as many people as you can." GM: Will Huggins

Ok I'm going to be somewhat blunt here. This game is really a steep learning curve and running it at a CON is not a good idea. The description said familiarity with the burning wheel mechanics was preferred and I didn't see that until after we'd registered. I really didn't have a good time in the game. The GM knew two of the other players and the banter focused on them. I did set a few scenes and had a chance to see how the game worked but overall the experience was pretty dry. It was a good kick the tires type experience though for the game, and I know fully appreciate the utter complexity of this system. If people want to play it they need to study the rules like its a final exam in a college capstone course ... this is RPG quantum mechanics or calculus IV.

Sunday at 8 PM

Spirit of the American Hero! (Read CLASSIC GI JOE PEOPLE!! YES GI JOE!!)

"SWORD-ARM is the code name of America's daring, highly trained special mission force. Its mission to defend human freedom against CHIMERA a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world! Join the Top-Secret, covert, military operatives of SWORD-ARM in this high-octane game of modern military action. A GI Joe and modern Military & Adventure fiction inspired Spirit of the Century game." GM: Morgan Ellis.

Ok now my two favorite GM's of all time are Morgan Ellis and Mike Olson ... these guys are masters of pacing, game flow and generally maintaining fun and hilarity in a game without letting the pot boil over. I aspire to be half as good a GM as either of them one day. Anyway Morgan managed to capture the spirit of classic GI Joe in a mod of Spirit of the Century.

The pre-gen characters were hilarious mods of Duke, Snake Eyes, Gung-Ho, Airborne, Scarlet, The Baroness, Destro, Cobra Commander and on and on.  I played the Spirit character named "Geronimo." Morgan left two aspects blank for us so we could select two custom pieces of whatever we wanted. I selected a peace pipe and an animal companion (a bald eagle named Freedom!).

The game was a hilariously raucous, over the top romp ... we killed ... yes this wasn't the parachute out of the plane style GI Joe this was ADULT FUCKING SWIM (we used that as a table aspect in the game) style GI Joe ... at least 100,000 Cobra ... *cough* ... I mean Chimera operatives ... blew up their base and sent Cobra Commander .. *cough* ... I mean The Golden Pharaoh fleeing in his escape pod away from a self destructing Egyptian sphinx base.

After a horribly funny, yet unavoidable GI Joe testimonial by nearly everyone at the table (seriously there was a 45 minute GI Joe BS session ... which wasn't Morgan's fault) ... the game got rolling and again I can't use hilarious enough ... it was so god damn funny. I'm very glad I got a chance to play.

On another note I had a chance to glance over a game that is a leading candidate for my SPACE MARINE RPG mod ... Diaspora ... it has alot of promise. What I like about using that game is that if the mod worked out I could run a full campaign not just a con one shot. I also picked up an out of print game that I meant to buy years ago Railroad Tycoon.

A jump to be remembered ... WHFRP 3rd Edition

Ok ... the UPS fairy did arrive last week with lots of goodies ... but what I want to focus on right now is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition

It looks to have the makings of an awesome game .. so far (again had the thing for a week and have voraciously read through it but have yet to play a session). Ok I'm going to complain a little (it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't eh!) ... while I found the game online around 65 bucks the MFRP is 99 bucks. For that kind of money ... while the books yes ARE full color ... they are of a cheap board game instruction/video game manual quality. They are not bound for the wear and tear of long term RPG use. The cards are great, the dice are great ... BUT ... its ALOT of stuff that people are going to have to pick up and fumble around with. I'm an old, old school RPG player and yes I remember the old red box D&D days. I will say those books used a heavy stock page and had a soft cover book cover ... this stuff is the quality of a brochure/game manual/board game rulebook ... they WILL NOT withstand constant use. The cards will have the same problem and therefore I will probably use card sleeves with mine.

The next basic observation I have is the way the rules work. The core mechanic is super easy, declare what you want to do, calculate the dice pool ... roll. The complexity lies in calculating the dice pool ... which is pretty simple. But having the rules for the game and the rules for the classes broken up between books and cards is sort of difficult. The way this is set up is ... realistically ... one person will buy in on the system and people will just show up and play. Like a board game. Now I have played in RPG campaigns like that, but even in those ... the players generally showed up with their own dice, a players handbook and their character sheet. WHFRP 3E is going to be ... one person owns the board game ... people show up ... play. Is that a show stopper? I don't think so ... but its a somewhat different model if your a hardcore RPG player.  So again ... if your a hardcore board gamer who dabbles with RPGs ... this will probably rock ... if your a hardcore RPG player who is used to dice and players handbook with a chr sheet ... get ready for a entirely different style of game. 

I bought the game, I'm a super hardcore GW fanboy who buys and plays all of their games ... yet I am reserving cautious optimism. I think that due to the barrier of entry vs. most other RPGs (lets face it most people torrent the PDFs these days and the GM is the only person with real books) coupled with a slightly more complex way of playing an RPG physically in some ways ... could turn some people off. I will say in some ways this system is a paradigm shifting game that could be harkening the future of RPGs. Its easy to see how FFG will make money on this, torrenting the rules will do you no good ... you'd have to torrent the rules  and the cards ... then print them out ... etc. by the time you do that you just might as well buy the game. BINGO! That is the ONLY reason this game has been designed this way ... screw FFGs fluffy designer note BS ... this entire game system is DESIGNED as an anti-theft device. Its like a whole game designed like the old video games were with a single code page in the box that was on hard to photo copy paper (anyone out there remember those days). FFG will make as much money or more on this game than they do on their board games ... and that is ALOT more than your typical RPG is netting these days. 

I think it will either catch on and become somewhat popular in the same circles that partake in FFG board games and GW based mini games, RPGs, etc. OR it won't sell very well and just sort of limp along until the license expires between GW and FFG and then just die. Again I'm reserving cautious optomisim and I'm going to be running a test/demo game of it next Monday evening down in Las Vegas for a group of friends as I return from attending Strategicon (Orccon) down in Los Angeles and I'll grab some pics and do a little actual play review of the game.

Incidentally I'm going to try to grab some pictures and do a recap of what I'll be doing at the con. I'm registered for all RPGs as usual and I'll be playing everything from classic West End Games D6 Star Wars to 4E D&D to Savage Worlds to FATE based games etc. with some of the best GMs on the west coast!

Warhammer 40K MMO

Ok there has been an "announcement" regarding a Warhammer 40,000 MMO. On one hand I have to say this has been a dream of mine for years and years ... so I should be excited eh? Sadly the game company that the game would be developed under is one of the worst on the planet THQ. If THQ is going to be making the game .. I'll take a pass ... and I'm as much of a FANBOY of 40K as one can be. THQ makes bad games. Dawn of War (the original Relic PRE-THQ buyout) was great ... but the sequels have been some of the worst games of all time.  Anyone remember a game called "Fire Warrior." THQ makes bad games and they have ZERO MMO experience. Mythic and EA couldn't even pull off a game that could draw huge numbers of players and with a MMO player base is very important. Bottom line is if GW lets THQ make  40K MMO ... it will suck and it will fail. If Mythic/EA ends up developing the 40K MMO ... that would excite me. Despite Warhammer online not knocking WoW down ... the game was a solid effort and for the most part well done and enjoyable to play.

IT LOOMS ON THE HORIZON LIKE A FAT WHEEL OF GLORIOUS CHEDDAR

Alright first of all anyone planning on taking a similar plunge ... I'd advise you look to a source like The Warstore as the retail price of the new WHFRP set is 99.00 United States Dollars. You can pick it up at the warstore for around 70.00 United States Backs of Green as of the authoring of this blog entry.

As stated in previous entries here ... I am torn about the revision of the WHFRP system. (for a very detailed review check this out ... thank you for the link Scott!)  The 2nd edition of the game was based in no small part on the classic 1st edition of the game which was in publication in one form or another from 1986 until around 2002 or 2003 (ish). It had a tremendously long run. In 2005 Second edition was published by Black Library directly and the game preserved much of the first edition mechanics. The game continued to be one of high player mortality, dark, dark old world fantasy that any true lover of the Warhammer universe craves.

Fantasy  Flight if they do nothing else well ... seems to be adept at adapting licensed products in a satisfying manner. Over the past five years I've gone from being a naysayer to a fan. I know that capitalism demands all that is good and pure must be periodically recast in a shiny new package ... especially in the RPG industry where the average lethargic, basement dwelling, be-gutted denizen ... spends a whopping ZERO dollars a year on their hobby.  Don't take my word for it ... RPGs are a dog in general in terms of game company profit but its neither here nor there if your interested in that topic delve into it yourself and on that note there is another blog post which really delves into that issue (along with massive numbers of other similar posts, board discussions, etc.). Suffice it to say that I believe this is potentially a new RPG model, is it the first attempt to break the mold on the old pen and paper RPG .. hell no ... I think 1977 had witnessed dozens of attempts. Everything from MTG to Dragon Dice to Video Game RPGs and MMOs can be seen as offshoots, but this is a board game/RPG hybrid being produced by one of the more successful board game manufacturers in the US market. Not just that ... but using one of the more successful gaming brands with decades of history and a legion of very loyal fans. At this point all I'm saying is perhaps this hearkens more either good things or bad things to come.  I must however ... check this stuff out for myself and therefore I ordered my copy and shall be DMing a game of it myself in the very near future. I will do my best to chronicle my assuredly haphazard, certainly half-assed ... foray into the world of board-role-play-games. I hope I receive my wondrous package before this weekend. One can only hope the UPS fairy is kind ... (ah yes she is also bringing me Invasion, Chaos in the Old World, Marauder and ... way behind the times here ... Battlestar Galatica the FFG board game ... which I have yet to play ... tisk tisk ... so 2008 .. I know).

Potpouri O' RPG ... look at the hot girl with dice ... woot ... random ... SPAM SPAM

Ok ... I realize I haven't posted for awhile and I also realized that my original intention for this blog was to discuss my personal thoughts on the games I'm playing in/running/etc. Yes yes I've made unfullfilled promises pertaining to 40K army pics, etc. no good excuse other than I've been working on the armies yet too lazy to take pics ... at some point ... in the future ... I will indeed post such fabled pics.  Until then I've been playing in two D&D games, adding many new members to the home gaming group and still tilting at the windmill of forming an actual gamers club for my area.

One thing that came up on my home game board was a discussion about RPGs. Now to preface what is largely a re-post, I'll say that I've been looking at A) picking up with full intention of running the new WHFRP system from Fantasy Flight Games. In fact I put the order in to the Warstore for it today. B) I'm still in the formative (Bullshitting, almost to a point of commitment) stages of coming up with a SPACE MARINE RPG. Dark Heresy is not designed in any way shape or form to handle an actual Space Marine game. So using Dark Heresy without large amounts of alteration to that rule set isn't possible I'd prefer to just find a rules lite, ultra cinematic system to use. That need sparked a discussion regarding what system(s) would be the likely candidate for such an undertaking.

Out of some of these discussions regarding what system to use for such a game the larger, much more broad discussion of what RPG systems people in my gaming group like came up. I thought I'd post my response to that.  Basically the earlier posts in the thread sort of trashed the Savage Worlds system which I took a little umbrage with.  But really this mindset that I'm laying out here is where I'm at in terms of selecting a system for a Space Marine game. I'm really leaning towards Awesome Adventures, Sorcerer, In a Wicked Age, or a game like those. Burning Galaxy would be a dream to do such a game ... but I don't think I have the GM chops to pull that off yet (if ever) and I don't have a group with the desire/wherewithal at the present to handle such an undertaking either. 

At any rate this repost picks up in response to a post that basically stated Savage Worlds is a blah game system ...

While from a hardcore indie game fan perspective I understand perhaps not liking SW as much as other systems. But I do have to tout its utter versatility. It is the Swiss army knife of RPG systems IMO. You can do anything with that system. There are simpler systems that you "could" do anything with ... but for me things get to generic at a certain point. If your fortunate enough to play with a group of improvisational actors who are witty and really get indie RPGs ... well there is no reason to play anything but open ended rules-lite games. But your average game group is not comprised of such folks. I've experienced those uber, witty, high-IQ groups and its rockingly good fun ... but for me mostly that has been a conventions. My home games tend to be your standard D&D groups with a variety of players with variable RPG skills, interests and attention spans. That isn't a criticism of those groups ... I myself tend to be more distracted in my home games. At a convention I'm all business and really focused, at home I tend to be more casual. Its hard to pull off hardcore, ultra in character, role playing week after week. That is where a game like Savage Worlds shines I think and that is why games like 3:16, Tunnels and Trolls and InSpectres are AWESOME for one shots ... but will never make my top ten list.

To me those games and many indie RPGs are akin to a board game, something to run at a convention or to keep on the back burner for the times when a few people can't make your D&D night that week or as a special one shot, yet not as a long campaign. Savage Worlds could be run as a one shot or as a longer campaign it has that depth and versatility. Anyway what I like about Savage Worlds is it has the crunch and mini-pushing-around-ness of a 3.5 or 4E .. yet its not an overwhelming powergamer susceptible rule set. It has the low DM prep and plot point oriented focus of your standard indie RPG. Last but not least there are some great settings with many modules in print. The overall package of SW is hard to beat. Now game design, game mechanics, etc. etc. I have yet to play anything that knocked FATE/Spirit of the Century of f its pedestal in my all time favorite RPG system ranking.

Larry's (entirely opinion folks) Top Ten RPG list ...

Spirit of the Century/FATE
Mazes and Minotaurs
Arabian Sea Battles (insanely hard to find ... ultra out of print and I have been trying in vain to track down the rules which were printed in a small gaming magazine back in the early 1990s).
Dogs in the Vineyard
Savage Worlds
Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (2nd Edition)
Dark Heresy
4E D&D (Yes I like it this much)
3.5 D&D (I'd likely prefer pathfinder but I still haven't played it).

I have yet to experience Mouseguard/Burning Wheel and I'm sure if I ever experienced it in its full glory it would be on this list. I still haven't played many many critically acclaimed indie RPGs and I'm eagerly awaiting the chance. I love both the Rifts and Shadowrun universe ... hate the rules ... I think GURPS is cool ... but its an antiquated overly complex game system that is very much a product of the late 80s early 90s. D20 Modern, many Call of Cthulhu supplements, games and settings are cool. There are some really awesome games like Montsegur 1244 and Houses of the Blooded ... but it would just be pretentious to put those on my list. I've played them at conventions with game designer types ... and they are amazing ... but really unrealistic for your average home gaming group ... and therefore not really a top ten game. Overall though I was talking about RPG engines not really settings or genres ... that is my list as today ... now if you ask me next year at this time its likely to be different.

WARNING ... WARNING ... DANGER ... DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!

Ok ... my first rant of the year. I will preface this by saying that hobbies are expensive. Whether gaming, antique cars, hot rods, maintaining hot women, vintage clothing, beer stein collecting, taxidermy, hunting, bird watching, hiking, etc. etc.  ... all hobbies are expensive in some way or another once you really get into them. Miniature games, RPGs, Video Games, Board Games, CCGs, etc. etc. can all become rather spendy. But if one is mindful of their spending and they target their spending ... one can really maximize what they get for what they spend (trust me I'm still working on this, but its logical ... remember attack the argument not the person ... that's logic!).

The DANGER DANGER ... rant is against army transports. Now I will not deny that BATTLE FOAM is an improvement over some of its predecessors, from the looks of it ... awesome stuff. My question is simply, do we need battle foam or any army transports? Or are there perfectly acceptable alternatives, that are much cheaper. Are these fancy carrying cases simply (and I've owned my share of spendy army transports people ... just posing the question) another status symbol? I know if you spend 1,000 hours painting an army its your baby and you want to protect it, yes indeed. If you have a golden demon quality painted army with tediously done, super fragile conversions ... ok ok ... maybe for you a $400.00 carrying case is in order. However for the average hobbyist out there ... come on people ... admit it ... the vast majority of us are not in the catagory of needing such an extravagance. There are alot of options that would do the job just as well yet cost 1/10 as much ... ranging from magentizing all the bases, to tackle box trays to cheap gun cases, to just buying the foam and making the trays and using an old suitcase. Are these alternatives as pretty or as trendy ... well depending on the amount of time you want to put in ... probably not. But even here if you want to get creative ... you might come up with an even cooler way to protect your minis and transport them ... yet at a much lower cost. Just food for thought ... before you take the expensive plunge into designer mini transportation.

The Return of the King ... AKA ... THE LORD OF EXCESS

FREEDOM ... from the tyranny of the all consuming holiday season!

Yet such freedom comes with a heavy price ... the ravages of xmas have ended ... the feasting has subsumed. The hearkening of a new year, rather a new decade has come and gone and what order there was is returning to my world. As the illustration aptly denotes ... I am the true master of all that I survey, lord of my manor, etc. etc. and as such I have complete control over all that stands before me ... indeed :)

Well the reality of the matter is as all kings and tyrants before me, the power of the purse strings as well as those pesky heirs to the throne seem to thwart me at every step. If only I had more funds in the warchest, and if only those heirs would mind their manners.

TYRANIDS!! They loom upon the horizon and my Orks are still on the bench (well phase II). Speaking of which!! I have a new camera (its nothing fancy ... as low quality as its predecessor) on the way and once it arrives pictures shall be uploaded of the orks, including the beginnings of phase II. I'm also going to desperately try to finish off some terrain before the bugs arrive. My camera will simply not work I thought it was the batteries, nope ... then maybe the flash card ... nope ... apparently its just done (either that or one of the kids dunked it in the potty while I wasn't looking). We luckily had several relatives over on xmas morning to capture the carnage on film. 

Anyway back to the bugs ... I have something on the order of 5k bugs sitting in a box, 6 carnies included. The new Trigon model is a must have ... I want 2 .... (really I'd love 10, *see purse strings comment above) ... I think I'll also pick up one of the new biovore models as well as 2 regular tyrant guards and 2 of the new shooty variants. Maybe a venomthrope or two and the death leaper ... other than that though I'm pretty solid on my endless swarm. I have a separate genestealer army that my wife has actually been working on with me that I'm also hoping to have in a playable state in the next month or two so I can take advantage of the new codex and the wave of excitement :)

Seasons Greetings! Also .. I'm not dead!

Ok first I want to explain that I have four children all five and under. So I have been extraordinarily busy for the holidays ... hell just shoping for that many kids is an adventure ... let alone all the activities that we have had going. I've had more time this year to do that sort of thing than I ever had with them and I'm taking advantage of it. So that is my excuse as to why I've not been very active posting here. My own projects have gone on the back burner and making the holidays magical for the kids has become all consuming. After the holidays I get to go back to being my grumpy old gamer self :D  Until then ... may from the bottom of my heart (and that's a long way down) I wish you all a splendid, wonderful, truly fulfilling holiday season ... perhaps I'll post before the end of the year but if not ... see ya'll in 2010.

I plan to fullfill my Ork promise I'll get picks up of where I am at and picks of what I have lined up for phase II. Also I plan to do some more board game reviews of some of the games I've picked up.

One last thing to give folks a heads up on is that Fantasy Flight Games is releasing a HORUS HERESY GAME ... WOOT!! Also they had a sale on 2nd edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay books (five bucks each vs their old 30 and 40 buck prices) and I bought a bunch ... but now the prices are back up so I don't know what is going on anyway you still might want to check it out.

Peace on earth and good will towards man!!

Another GW oriented FFG offering and quick updates

I know this system has been out for awhile however I thought I'd post about it because recently I was half tempted to start up Magic again ... but fortunately stumbled upon perhaps a less potentially destructive alternative over at Fantasy Flight Games.

I plan to pick up the core set and the first expansion. The way FFG has it laid out ... you could use it as a board game essentially ... so unlike Magic which is hard as hell to get your old cards out and use with other people ... years after that set has grown obsolete. This game looks like even if it doesn't become collectible for someone (and I hope it doesn't for me honestly) its a nice "board game" style purchase that can go on the shelf and be used years later. So I'm all in on this one instead of jumping back on the tired old magic bandwagon.

Quick updates on a few other projects:

Warhammer Online ... du duuu duuuuuuuhnnnnnn ... I'm done. It was somewhat fun but I just couldn't stay focused on the game itself due to extremely low player populations, poor community for new players and a really rather glitchy, half-done looking game. I wanted to love it, I wanted to be able to tell everyone its better than World of Warcraft ... but alas I can not. So I bid a fond farewell to Warhammer Online and likely forever (unless they did some amazing revamp of the game with a huge expansion).

ORKS!!  I AM DONE DONE DONE!! With Phase I ... just lazy about getting pics up (sorry). Actually I've been having trouble with my camera and might need to replace it. Hopefully I can get some completed phase one pics up by next week and some shots of my phase II stuff.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!! I'm stuffed ... yet I hear a round 2 ... 3 ... perhaps even 4 calling me. Then there is the inevitable smorgasbord o' delectable Thanksgiving leftovers ... ahhh. I feel the childhood memory of Charlotte's Web ... Templeton at the fair.

THANKSGIVING IS a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord After the crowds have ceased Each night when the lights go out It can be found in the fridge and all around Oh, what an excessive feast!!!! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

2010 the year of Games Workshop Ultra Competition

Ok ... I'm sure many of you have seen the announcement on the GW page (link).  No Gamesdays ... no real GTs ... just a bunch of random events leading to a special GW run event. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong but at this point I'd wager that the people at that end event all hail from some group or club that are running the "Indy GTs" ... the Adepticon groups, BOLS groups, etc.

I have to say that in some ways this sounds exciting and enticing ... but once I hold myself in check by reminding myself that I'll never move in these circles. I am not part of an inner circle GW group nor do I have a relative who is a GW employee. We all know the way things work at the higher levels of GW competitive events in North America  ... its not just a matter of how much you spent on your Blue Table Pro Painted army but who your buds with.  So one of those GW "insiders" will be the ones dining with Mr. Johnson.

From the GW perspective I see this move as something nice to put in White Dwarf to excite the 15 year old fanboys and give the stores something to try to sell new customers on. The reality is a more inclusive system that gives the average joe gamer something for spending their hard earned dollars on this hobby ... would be much better.

I recall the days that the GTs were simply about braging rights and a plaque. You'd get your army and your mug in White Dwarf and that was it. Attending the GT was a chance to see amazingly themed armies from the hardcore to the hilarious. It was a chance to get BITZ BY THE OUNCE (SIGH!!!) ... it was a chance to play a cool mix of players and a damn good excuse for a road trip. Sadly those days are gone and now the competitive side of GW feels more like Magic the Gathering ... with endless net min max lists of doom and a sea of "professionally" painted armies. So the 15 year old kid and old duffers like me ... really have no place in the GW tourney circuit anymore. I see this announcement by GW as yet another nail in the coffin of the GW tourney scene that used to be. GW has opted to farm out all of the tournaments to random local clubs, some well run ... some very greedily run. I've heard many stories of the obscene amount of terrain and prize support GW is giving to some of the "Indy GT" organizers and I've heard how much of it ends up in some of their own collections. Those resources apparently GW doesn't care about ... yet they could be used helping new players and giving more people an opportunity to experience well run tournaments. GW used to take the attitude that there were certain standards for events involving their product. They would run some marquee events regionally to give people reasonable access to some cool very well run tournaments and mini-con type events.  Now it seems like they are simply looking to cut costs and quell the anger of internet vocal power gamers.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh ... but for anyone outside of those big "important" clubs and those "inner circles" of GW chosen ... this move really is disappointing as going more "exclusive" GW is doing just that ... excluding their fans. Great for the inner circle GW guys in the big "important" groups... very very disappointing for us average Joe gamers. 

Update on the Orks and Tanksgiving!!

Well to give a quick update on the Orks, I just finished dipping 10 Nobs and 30 Boyz ... bringing the post dip total up to 170 Orks! I'll matte coat those tomorrow and try to get the last 30 and Ghaz done up this weekend. So hopefully I have pics of the completion of phase one of the project early next week. I'll try to post some picks of the new squads tomorrow or Saturday as well.

As for my trials and tribulations with Warhammer Online ... I am still very casually playing. I have been playing maybe 3 or so hours a week. My Ork Choppa is nearly lvl 20 and I'm excited to see how the game plays once you have a mount. Overall I'm still having fun but I've experienced the game enough to see why millions of WoW players didn't make the switch. The world is really amazing the game itself has some really cool MMO innovations, I like how PVP is a fun part of the entire game, but the PVE options in the game (Instances) are really lacking. Many of the cool features that were awesome when the game first launched (and had reasonable player population) are now almost useless, things like Public Quests. The concept is awesome, you can be playing solo ... out rumbling around a zone and enter a public quest area and A) grind up influence so you can get some cool rewards B) earn experience C) Have a shot at a drop from the boss at the end of the quest. Its really an awesome idea, however ... when there are ZERO players in the zone your in ... public quests designed for 10 players are not an option. So what people end up doing is just grinding up the influence for the reward and to work towards achievements I assume. Its fine ... but I'm missing alot of the content due to low player population. At this point I've agreed to simply stay playing until I hit 20 or my card runs out and then decide if I want to keep going. As a GW fanboy I'd like to say I finished the game ... but honestly I don't know if I want to spend the time doing so. We'll see.

Last and not least I'm in the process of setting up the agenda for family board game day ... otherwise known as Thanksgiving ... or Tanksgiving (if your a GW fan ... waka waka). This year I am leaning towards a game called Shadows over Camelot (if you haven't played it ... either buy it and get a group together or find someone who owns it ... its a blast) ... I own the expansion for it but I think I'm going to leave that out as I haven't played it yet and I hear its brutal.  I'm going to have Space Hulk set up as well and I'm going to run my nieces through a few games of it. If we have time I think I might try to get people to do a game of Arkham Horror as well ... that is a bit more iffy.

Orks Phase II continued ...

Some pictures of the next two squads of Orks. I am in the homestretch now ... just three squads to paint along with ole Ghaz and bada bing ... I'm done with my paint challenge. The following pics are a hodgepodge of the last squads I got done in the pre-dip and post-dip stage.

This is a shot of them after the dip and during the matte varnish. The rest are pre-dip and pre-touch up shots. What I'm going to try to do is get the remaining 70 orks done by the end of the weekend ... and then I will really try to get some good shots with a recap of why I did them how I did, how I did it, etc.

Gamesday 2010 GW Annoucement Rant!

Ok ... this rumor has been bouncing around for some time and I think as long ago as June I'd heard people talking about this. Tonight I was surfing the GW site and happened upon this announcement. The decision to host only one Gamesday by Games Workshop. For those GW fans who live on the Eastern seaboard in the US ... no one would really care ... how does this impact you right? It doesn't really. But for everyone else in the US especially those of us on the West Coast .... all I have to say is what the hell? GW axed the 2009 Gamesday events for those of us out west ... but now they are doing it in 2010 too? This is utter and absolute BULLSHIT! As a hardcore GW fan I'm very unhappy about this. I attended every single LA Gamesday and GT that GW offered. I lived in Las Vegas during the Las Vegas GTs however I have to honestly say I didn't attend one ... it just didn't seem worth it to pay that much to pay ... and by then the nature of the GTs had changed dramatically since the early 2000s GTs. Too many Adepticon organizer types showing up en mass with Tour De France type tactics ... just too much hardcore competition from guys who don't even paint their own armies for my taste ... anyway I digress. I really am saddened by GWs continued pullback on their product support. White Dwarf thoroughly sucks these days ... no Gamesdays, no GW GTs only random "indie events" largely put on by greedy game clubs siphoning off the obscene amount of prize support GW is sending their way into their own private hobby collections. The old outrider, GW run GT and RTT systems were really much better for the hobby in my opinion. All this "do it yourself" GW support is rather lame. I only wish we had the UK level of support from GW here in the US.

Phase II of the Ork Project

Well I got quite a bit done over the weekend. I finished painting a squad of choppa slugga boyz another warboss and 2 trucks. I'll get some pics of the boyz up later but for right now here are the trucks. To go over the technique ... I used just a random can of metalic spraypaint over a black prime, I did some slight detail painting, blocked the fields red, did touch ups and did a wash as heavy as a full submersion with minwax ebony. I wiped off really bad pooling but pretty much left it as it looked. Again remember my two goals with this project are: painting speed and ease, and a dirty, grimy, gritty look that I feel orks would have. They aren't electric neon clown color orks of yore. Nothing wrong with that by the way ... I actually might go for an old school look when I do my WHFB orks next year .... I am just going for a certain look here (again with speed and ease in mind). As for vehicles in this project at the end of the project I'd like to have 5 trucks, 2 battlewagons and 20 bikes along with 10 copters or so. That way I can field a speed freaks/mechanized ork list or a big foot heavy list (or both for a big game). But the mecha part of this project is actually part II as I won't likely get to that until December.  So here are pics of the trucks ... please bare in mind my camera work sucks (as does my camera) ... and again I think it might be the dip, matte varnish method ... it just doesn't come out well in pictures ... both the orks and the trucks look better in person in terms of depth and detail.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Ok I wanted to share some thoughts on the move by Fantasy Flight Games to completely redo the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system.  Here is a cool video on third edition BTW ... undeniably cool stuff. Its old news they announced that back on August 9th so that isn't the nature of this post as for the actual release of 3E I don't know ... haven't heard and would speculate sometime next year. I'm just lining up things I want to do this coming year and DMing a WHFB game is on the table for me ... I really want to do it. If I can pull that off I'm going to try a Dark Heresy game as well. But thinking about that got me thinking about why I'm so sad to see such a good game get ground into hamburger at the feet of the almighty alter of the dollar.  While I always applaud new GW related products ... and I generally am a FFG fan. I hate collectible gaming and FFG has pushed board games and Non-CCG games in that direction more and more. Actually look at this product and you'll see it ... what 3E is going to be is a boardgame-RPG hybrid ... where you can't play the game with regular dice ... you need to drop the 100 bucks (or how much ever for a player pack or whatever) just to play the game. No buying the books and OWNING the entertainment ... nope ... FFG doesn't like that ... they want you to have to come to them and give them money more often than just at the initial buy in.

 

My theory is that FFG picked up the GW boardgame license in February of 2008 WHFB was already rolling pretty heavy the core rules already released as of March of 2005, the big surge of purchasing into the system already gone by. Dark Heresy had only just released. So FFG has made alot more money on the Dark Heresy stuff and probably not so much on the WHFB stuff. Not to metion I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Dark Heresy outsells WHFB two to one as there are soooo many other fantasy roleplay systems and D&D is the granddaddy of em all ... so competition for gamer dollars is more stiff on the fantasy side. So there is my conspiracy theory ... I see this move to revamp a system that is amazingly good ... doesn't need an update, etc. as just that. A way to boost sales as they have this under a licensing agreement that I'm sure will expire sometime over the next five or so years ... so I bet they want to grind every nickle out of their license. GW is probably even pushing them to do so.

Unfortunately RPGs are now competing with World of Warcraft and that is undeniably where 4E went and I think WHFB will be going the same direction. Will I buy into the new system ... probably ... but only after I acquire a complete collection of the current WHFB stuff and that will be my WHFB Advanced game forever ... its a beautiful system that is really enjoyable to play and I will be sad to see it go. I really do hope though that new people are brought to GW products and to RPGs because of the new FFG system.

Warhammer Online Continued ...

Ok I thought I'd just do a post in response to comments from the last post. I really am right there with you guys in terms of fearing having it get out of hand. World of Warcraft honestly got pretty bad ... it took over as the only hobby in my life for quite some time. I really have no desire to ever let a video game get like that again. I sincerely love mini games and other types of games. WoW really makes me angry as it has co-opted a huge segment of gamers ... I'm sure ya'll know people who practically live their lives around that damn game. It makes me sad that so many people are totally ok with settling for a really mediocre game and forsake all other gaming whether playing other games like WAR or playing real games like 40K, board games, RPGs, etc. I honestly feel like WoW has taken a negative toll on gaming maybe more than any other single phenomena over the past six years ... save only the recession.

My goal is to try to do what BJ has been doing ... just play for an hour or so a night ... if even. Maybe a couple hours at a time here and there on the weekend. One positive aspect of MMOs ... again like BJ mentioned ... is that the wife will actually play those with me. She will not touch a mini game (though I did get her to play Space Hulk with me .. woot!!) and will sometimes do a board game but no RPGs either. So any gaming I can do with her is cool and that was actually one of the few positive aspects of WoW ... we did play together and have some common fun with it.

Anyway I've got the toon leveled up to 10 ... looking forward to a boar mount at lvl 20. One cool thing about the Orks is the grow as they lvl up ... so the higher lvl Orks are perceptibly larger than the lower lvl ones. Pretty cool if you ask me. Anyway I'll try to chronicle my trials and tribulations with the game over the next few months.

Warhammer Online

OK ... OK ... OK ...

Let me preface this by stating for those friends of mine out there who feel I should avoid MMOs like the plague ... I'm sorry ... I have to do this. When Warhammer Online first released I got the limited edition version of it (kick ass WHFB Warboss model in there btw ... along with some cool hardbound art books). I played for a few weeks and went back to World of Warcraft (which I thankfully stopped playing last May ... for good) as few friends wanted to play WaR with me. So it was shelved and I'd forgotten about it ... the other day my wife expressed interest in playing a MMO over the winter ... and bada bing ... WaR returns! I am a GW fanboy through and through ... dyed in the wool ... a G tattooed on one butt cheek and a W on the other (kidding kidding ... but hey that's a good idea ... hmmm ... then when GW raises their prices again they know where to stick it eh ... LOL). Anyway you get the picture I'm a hardcore fanboy. So I need to lvl up one character to 40 and see at least the main content of the game. Its going to be a cold long winter and I'll have more time aside from my many gaming projects to get into an MMO in a casual way. My plan is to play through January/February-ish and then let the account lapse. I didn't re-fire up WoW ... or plunge into Champions ... I'm doing this as a GW fan who wants to experience the virtual world Mythic and EA created based on the WHFB universe ... plain and simple. I might do the occasional post here on my experience. Leme know if any of ya'll are playing on the Badlands server on the disorder side.  My main chr is named Eadbuzta ... he is an Ork Choppa.

Update on the Orks!

Ok phase one is done ... the pics aren't horrible ... but the Orks actually do look better than the pictures are turning out. I think the flash gives them an odd look. Anyway ... part one of a 3 part project done. In addition keep in mind I do need to still do some minor touch ups. 

1 AOBR Warboss

3 - 30 Shoota Boy strong squads, with a Nob with powerclaw and 3 big shootas. The paint scheme is basically the same, and each unit has a different uniform color. I went with a mustard color, a redish, and black. The colors somewhat approximate clan colors ... however I wasn't going for Evil Suns, Bad Moons, etc. something somewhat generic with each squad different to make combats smooth on the tabletop. 

Very simple paint scheme. I used the minwax dip method for two reasons. First and foremost to get my painting done on a big project somewhat quickly. Secondly I wanted a gritty, dirty look. I have never envisioned orks as the rainbow bright 2nd edition orks. I don't like clean, super bright orks ... its kinda lame IMO. I like gritty, oily, grimy orks ... as they would be per the fluff. They are constantly looting things, digging around on the battlefield looking for something worth taking. When in battle they love to be up close and ripping their enemies appart in hand to hand. Those things tend to dirty one's uniform :) Thus my iteration of what orks should look like. Again .. not Golden Demon quality ... but I'm pleased with the results. Considering when I'm done I should have somewhere around 250 infantry models ... I really needed something easy to repeat that wasn't insanely time consuming. I do have to finish up the bases ... but I'm waiting on some dead grass flock ... and I'm going to be doing a display board ... so I was going to wait until that is done to give the bases their final drybrush and static grass flock (so it matches the board exactly).