Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The First Lost Weekend of Winter

This past weekend was supposed to be a productive one.  The wife was working each day and outside of a basketball game for Maja we had zero plans.  Unfortunately a freak chance struck.  Saturday was incredible weather in the afternoon, so the children never set foot inside of the house after the basketball game.  I turned to a raking leaves and cutting back brush for the afternoon.  As my wife came home, ominous clouds and gusty winds appeared, so much so, that when I drove down the mountain to pick up pizza, breezy drizzle in the valley turned into biting winds and snow on the drive back up. 


I had planned at least a Blue Martian game Sunday using Legions of Steel, but THREE INCHES of unexpected snow forced the snow pants and gloves to emerge, and the children left for friends' houses, leaving Dad and a table, ready to play. 


Beyond being abandoned by frolicking children, my phone decided to finally give up the ghost.  It was an unexpected expense that we could luckily absorb right now, but the horror I received when I discovered that I was to last person to realize that Google no longer supported Blogger on the iPhone!  (along with a host of other apps I used).    Without even a netbook at home right now, it had been my easy way to upload pictures at home, instead of wasting valuable lunch time editing them at work.    On top of that, my stream-of-consciousness podcast for my audience of one, "ViscountEric Rambles on About Gaming While Driving Home From Work"  was recorded on the old phone and although there's lots of dead air and repetition, there's also over forty hours of recording that I can't access. 


After two mini-heartbreaks this weekend, I've been looking at the calendar, wondering what I can get done for the last few weeks of the year, and when I'm going to have the chance to do it. 


My games with the girls have not one, not two, but THREE open campaigns that need to wrap up before we move onto new storylines.
  • Legions of Steel - Blue Martians:  It was only supposed to be four scenarios, but we just can't around to getting the little fellas home (or shot to pieces).  The got through the first two games admirably, and their new leader, Gronk seemed intent on getting everyone to the launch pad to go home.   I have two pieces of terrain that I need to finish up. 
  • Heroclix - TMNT:   Despite the occasional random pack, the girls Heroclix craze was probably short-lived because it was premature.    The base game can be boring with the card stats, and the card abilities are a bit complicated for my gaming audience.  Still, I'd like to see the epic  finale from the Mouser Mayhem boxed set concluded
  • Savage World - Pulp Egypt:  With so many cool Pulp stories, and Maja's enthusiasm still on high, I wanted to finish up the first twelve-scenario "Volume 1" story arc before the end of the year.  That meant playing  FIVE Pulp games in this Fall (including the holiday game as "Annual #1")  before looking at a different storyline.  Unfortunately, I've been  extremely lucky to get in the two games I did, and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, the holiday game might be the only one I can sneak in.  Time to paint up that sleigh I bought at Fall-In!
Over on the role-playing with grown-ups side, we have our traditional SATLOF (Saturday After Thanksgiving Left-Over Feast) on Saturday, and we can discuss just what we're doing in a post-Cthulhu world (the game, not Cthulhu actually waking up).   Since no one else has volunteered to run more than a one-shot, here's my list of ideas, in order of preference. 
  1. "Home" using Basic D&D - If we want quick D&D fantasy, this might be my salvation.  Quick, dirty, with a few different storylines
  2. "Burning Trogs Redux"  We need a consistent schedule for Hackmaster, but the first few sessions of the restarted campaign are ready.
  3. Space 1889 - Snagging up this at Fall-In! has been a revelation.  Playing some classic pre-Steampunk Steampunk (?) would be a fun palette cleanser.
  4. Savage Rifts - Although I have stuff plotted out, the more I read the rules, the more I see where Savage Worlds begin to falter. 
  5. Talislanta/Omni - simple system, but we'd be wasting time getting used to the system, instead of immersing ourselves. 
No need for yet another poll, we'll hash it out like geeky men.


The painting table gets mixed up a bit, and not all of it is mini-related.  The remaining mice for the Mepacon kid's game will get packed up, as will a number of miscellaneous figures.   Blue Martians and Pulp Figures will remain, as I shift towards painting German gnomes for the Cold Wars Mega-Game (and the whatever I'm using them for Mepacon Spring).


But before all of that, I need to clean up the basement, get the Christmas items ready, and perhaps brew some beer.
Me scraping off the cars on Sunday....

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