(Review) Kirwan's Game Store, Catskill, New York

It’s not often that I get requests for reviews and when it comes from my ex-wife, color me intrigued.

I received a single picture from her with the caption of game store somewhere in the Catskills…

It didn’t take much research to find out that she was talking about the game store actually IN Catskill, New York:  Kirwan's Game Store.   One weekend visiting the girls, I left at a decent hour and managed to swing off the exit off the New York State Thruway and venture into town. 

Catskill, New York is a perfect little tourist trap for the day, nestled along the Hudson River.  Of course, when I showed up, they were in the midst of a major downtown rehabilitation program, replacing all the sidewalks, parking turning a very Bougie Mad Max fever dream.

Greeting:  This has been my thing now for two years, but I was not greeted at all. Let’s assume I’m dealing with the tail end of the summer tourist season tons of people wandering en masse to stereotypical game store employees.  They're probably still recovering from retail shell shocked,  but still...

Cleanliness:  There's a few dark spot, due to lack of light, but none on the carpet.  For a weekend with gaming events, it was very clean. 

Comics: Standard disorder of new releases, back issues, a lot of collected in graphic models and discount books

CCGs:  They carry Magic, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh cards and a lot of singles in multiple display cases.  They do employ a simple idea that has vanished in most FLGS:  Everything in the case was actually priced .  That rare occurrence might allow me to forgive the lack of a greeting. I’m usually dismayed by a lack of pricing because I want to take the initiative and actually tell the staff I wanna buy something not forcing them through a rigmarole of looking up prices. 

Board Games:  A smaller than usual selection of the standards and some newer stuff too.

RPGs: Focused entirely on D&D

Miniatures:  Pretty much limited to Games Workshop and WizKids D&D minis.

Other:  You have your standard dice and GW paints, but I was amused by what I might call the correct amount of LEGO and plushies, offset by the large selection of Funkos

Amenities/Events:  A spacious area for open gaming separated and running parallel to the store front.  There is a separate area for war gaming in the back. 

I enjoyed my time, didn't buy anything and was soon on my way for another two hours and forty-five minutes of driving time.  

On the Gaming with the Gnomies Five-Gnome scale, I'm giving Kirwan's Game Store a solid 3.5 gnome out of 5.

+0.5 gnomes

If you're local... or looking at stopping by for singles... or you need an escape from the tourist trap part of the town, Kirwan's is perfect. 

I did discover that Kirwan's has a Poughkeepsie location as well, so I will plan out a side trek probably during the holidays.  

Their Catskill location is at 369 Main St, Catskill, NY 12414

🐭(SAVAGE MICE) Mouslings of Jinnai #2.1 - Collecting Wood

Normally, my "gaming year" starts October 1st, and I try to at least schedule a couple things regardless of whether or not I’m going to Fall-In!  This year, outside of a fun little bantha game, I haven’t gotten the time or motivation to do anything until last weekend.

And after much consternation, along with some hemming and hawing, we've returned to Savage Mice.

It’s been a while since there’s been a full-blown mouse game. In fact, the first four session mini campaign ran right during the height of Covid, culminating I believe an Easter game. 

I've compiled a lot of cool scenarios, and a lot of the future mouse games are re-interpreted from actual plays from the Realm of JiNNai.  He runs a bunch of awesomely painted figures, and fun scenarios, running from Songs of Blades and Heroes, to Pulp Alley, to even some Warhammer.    Due to the vast amount of inspiration is coming from him, the Mouslings for season two will all come from the Realm of Jinnai.

The Mouslings haven't been completely dormant, having come out of retirement for some experimentation using Mammoth Miniatures' Brutal Quest.  I really liked the first edition of the game's older brother, Planet 28.  All the games were amusing, but I decided to stick with something more my speed, if not my style.  Planet 28 ideas were turned to Fistful of Lead.   The Mousling saga returned to used Savage Showdown.

Savage Showdown are the skirmish based rules from Pinnacle Entertainment Group that are based off of the Savage Worlds RPG.   I started using these rules when my girls were six and four, running multiple seasons of their "Egypt Game"   They're a senior and a sophomore in high school today, and we're due for a few more episodes of Pulp Alley's Tomb of the Serpent using Savage Showdown.

Background

In the Realm of Jinnai, things have gotten dangerous outside of the town.  The twiglings, a normally peaceful group of tree people, have grown more and more hostile, forcing the authorities to establish bounties on the marauding ones.

With that knowledge, the "Original Guard" (OG) Mouslings have set up a trap at a farmhouse.  Setting small fires in the woods, agitating the forest-kin, and forcing the marauding Twiglings to fall right into their trap. 

Keeping with their experience in Brutal Quest, Scrye the wizard (center) and two of his henchmen were a sturdy crew, although a hit to the head caused brain damage, reducing his spell points in Savage Showdown from 10 to 8. 

Catching wind of their plans was a trio of Mousling adventurers, Scout, Swordmaus, and the ever-imposing Wakanda.  Years ago, they were part of a dastardly crew known as the Snakes, but eventual break-up between Wakanda and fellow adventurer Pinky caused the party to break-up.  Today was the day they would begin rebuilding towards the glory days again. 

Swordmaus, Scout, and Wakanda - They were named by a 9-year old. The names stick.

The final group venturing out was some common mice mercenaries, hastily calling themselves the "A-Ha!" crew.   While some, if not all of the other Mouslings were Wild Cards (Heroes, with "Bennies" for rerolls, wild dice, and three wounds),  these commoners carried their weapons and their dreams into battle.. and only one wound each, just like the Twiglings. 

Objectives: Crews get one point to each dead Twigling they are able to turn in.  There are also four objectives on the board, worth five points, and yes, the Twiglings can also go after them! 

Turn One:  Once he saw the Twiglings emerging from the countryside, Scyre left he protection of his henchman and stared down the marauding woodmen.  Without even blinking, he threw a Burst spell at the critters (aka Fireball). 

After the explosion, the Twiglings all survived!  Albeit a bit scorched and stunned, the wizard failed to drop a single one. 

It was going to be a long afternoon.  

The Maple Twiglings (darker ones) flanked the lone wizard quickly, stunning him.  

I hadn't rolled from any the special events charts I've collected from games over the years, but if I had the result might have been "Wet Grass."  While a one is not a critical failure in Savage Showdown, rolling the action die and the wild die and rolling snake eyes results in something so bad it should be "GM's Choice."   Rolling snakes eyes were so common, they I even made the Twiglings trip and slide on their single die 1's. 

Nary a scratch, nor a smolder

Scrye's one henchmen slid into the combat with the Maple Twiglings.  Wakanda suffered the same ignominious result.   Grey Hat, the Mousling responsible for retrieving the Golden Porcine during Brutal Quest, decided that treasure was far more important than glory in combat, and slinked off to a rumored lair behind the farm house. 

Wakanda falls! 

And after fireballs and falls aplenty, it's the A-Ha Mouslings with the first death, er... one of their kind was brutally killed by the Birch Twiglings.  

Turn Two:  One of the A-Ha! Mouse Mercs never made it to combat, slinking off to an objective: The farmer and his flute-playing son's hidden beer stash in the mushroom fields.   He was rebuffed, but no deterred. 

Across the farm, Wakanda recovered from his embarrassing slip, but it was SwordMaus, charging the Twiglings, while Scout snuck into the animal pen and grabbed the first objective, the Golden Bell of the Lamb. 

The center of the farm was terrible chaos.   The Twiglings had seized the arcane stone objective, and were desperately hoping to use it against Scrye, the "Slayer of all wood-kind." 

The "Slayer" realized his plans had not been well thought out, using his staff to prop himself up, stumbling back to the farm house while his henchman was overwhelmed by the Twiglings. 

Meanwhile, the greedy Grey Hat reached the lair and slew the mighty, if slightly miniature, beast.

The Rabbit of CarNotGoing was not very tough, especially when you roll a 17 for damage with exploding dice.

Turn Three: Something with the seized mythic stone didn’t settle well with the Twigling, instead of seizing great power, they were unsettled by an uncharacteristic war cry from Scrye.   The wizard raised his hands at the Twigling chasing him, and shot three Fire Bolts at it, incinerating it on the spot. 

Wakanda simply couldn't land a blow on the Twiglings, forcing Scout to hop the fence and chop the limbs off another creature.  

The A-Ha! Mercenary Mice flailed away at the Twiglings, but it was obvious: the 3-on-2 disadvantage they faced was going to be overwhelming.  

Meanwhile, their traitorous brother in arms had acquired the much sought after brew.

Turn Four:  Wakanda and his former Snakes, killed the last Twigling and carried their loot home (8 points)

In the center of the board, Scrye finally came into his own, again stepping forward, again unleashing a hellstorm of fire onto the Twiglings, killing all of the them coming near him.  

The A-Ha! Mousling Mercs did not fair well , everyone in combat dying a horrible death, only the one with the ill-gotten beer survived.  (5 points). 

The OG Mouslings, namely Scrye, had save the day for all, but outside the rabbit carcass, not enough of the Twiglings could contained to claim the bounty.  (5 points). 

Scrye's fire-filled rampage in another rule set, adds to his legend, begging the question.  Are the Twigling attacks forcing his brutality, or is the wizard rampage causing the wood-kin to rise up in greater numbers? 

Do we eat it, use it for spell components, or turn it into a zombie????

Wrap Up:   Overall a fun game to kick off a new "season".  It’s been a while since we’ve done Savage Showdown, and the rustiness showed, as well as the thought of how it would be done in Fistful of Lead.  I am on a mission to search for some missing mice, including the uberly powerful "Robin Mouse and His Merry Mice"

Like I said, we have a number of various fantasy scenarios hiding behind the scenes in the blog, and I’d like to continue on perhaps even giving me an excuse to paint up more mice, a whole collection wanting to be used.

The scenario was inspired and interpretted from "Defend the Farm" from the The Realm of JiNNai. 

(Kickstarter) Space Dwarves Commissars by Macrocosm Miniatures

 Macrocosm has rebounded quickly from their last Kickstarter and launched a small, quick one:  Space Dwarves Commissars!, 28mm resin dwarves.

Not particularly my jam, but the Triad reward is £20 for all 3 Commissars.

(Gamma World) Not a Test #134 - The Time Sonny Pulled Every Lever

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn. After side-quests, distractions, blue surges of strange auras, and beings definitely  not from around Riverbend, they've finally arrived at an odd softrock (concreate) planform with the water of the the Black Reeds... but by accident and incompetence, Squiggles and Poppy have been sucked into a pipe leading under the platform.

============================================================== 

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.   Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust.  Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock.   He had recently received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and stealth take center stage in their mission, although he is apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"

Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.   Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places,  and finding it often.   He  has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.  Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge.  Also pregnant for the third time, and due to deliver badly out of season

Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest.   And we have learned the Poppy... can't swim.

===============================================================

Two-thirds of group was in shock.  Sonny had attempted to teleport, with a passenger, across the open water to the concrete platform.  Sonny made it there.  Poppy the adolescent mutant earthworm spawn of Squiggles.  Made it more than halfway across before materializing int the water.

And then the current took the flailing worm.  Something hidden by the pristine surface pulled the worm around the side of the complex and was sucking him into an intake pipe.  

Squiggles panicked, realizing he had spent more time adventuring, or playing the bongos, than teach them how to swim, no matter how many times he had told them "Water is bad!" 

He dove in, valiantly tried to rescue his spawn, but he too succumb to the intake pipe. 

Sonny was helpless on the platform, his ten foot height afforded him a gret wingspan, but he didn't have the strength to pull either up... but their were options to hastily check out on the platform.

Back on land, with Speedy worm literally burying his head in the dirt, Pete and Lathar bickered like an old married couple as Sonny freaked out and their friend may have been drowning.  

Pete: "We don't know what's going on... I can't get a telepathic link with any of them.  It's obviously not a monster, but we don't know what your getting yourself into!  

Lathar: "I don't care...we need to try...."

All during the frantic discussion, he was removing equipment, stripping down to his barbarian skivvies,, and dove into the water... although he foolishly grabbed his trusty sword and shield and started awkwardly swimming.  

Meanwhile, Sonny was properly assaying the platform. There were railed off section that led to ladders... into the water nowadays, once to the lower levels....  There was a metal grid on the far end, displaced from its position.   And directly at his feet was a hatch....

The Concrete Platform

With a great pull, the sunflower... failed to dislodge the hatch, so he ran over to push the the grid over more so he could drop down and see if there was any access point  to save the worms.    

The room below was full of large pipes....   arching and twisting, obscuring some sort of mechanism that kept everything at a low hum.  Sonny located the corner with switchboards, and levels, valves, and wheels.  

Lathar kept swimming towards the platform, reaching the nearest corner, but swimming around... to this unseen intake pipe.  He was quite disappointed when he reached the far side.  Seeing the pipe sucking the waster in great quantities, only four or five inches of air at the apex of the tube.   He hung onto the top of the tube, the water trying to push him into the darkness, trying to make a plan for what he had no idea what was inside.  

Back in the pipe room, Sonny furiously tested the valves, levers and buttons.  The giant pipes behind him obscured the noises of what his actions were doing.  He knew they were out of time and tossed logic aside.  

Lathar whispered a prayer and let go of the pipe... he slid into darkness, desperately grasping onto the uneven side walls.  The water was cold, dark, save some vaguely red lights, small, some steady, some blinking, across the room.  He swam over to the lights, only to be blocked halfway from them by a giant pane of glass....  a control room... and no sign of Sonny.  

For Sonny was flipping switches, turning, and unscrewing with such reckless speed, that it was not too much of a surprise that on of the medium sized pipes burst, spray water in this service room.  He worked a few controls before abandoning the room, but not before grabbing some tools.

His lungs burning, Lathar beat against the glass with his shield, to no avail.  He moved further into the chamber to  see the target of his objective. 

Within three layers of devices which could best be describe as screens or filters, both worms were pressed against a four layer, metallic, spinning...  Squiggles was still conscious some how, frantic and wincing in pain his young worm ward in his arm, passed out.  It was difficult to see in the limited red light, but a large swath of fur on Squiggles' left side had been removed.  

Sonny pulled in from the chamber and made one last attempt on the hatch, with his new found tools.  He was able to break the seal, open it, and descend down the ladder, light flooding what was down below.

He wasn't prepared for the sight.

The sight of Lathar's ass, pressed against the giant glass window.  

The various control boards were a far more welcome sight.  

With the three flailing in the water on the other side.   Sonny was quick to figure out how to seal the intake pipe, let the pumps empty the room, and finally a level on the panel that set all sorts of red flashing lights and alarm and made the giant window retract into down in the floor.  

The group was rescued, but at what cost?  

An interpretation of the filtration chamber...

Next: #135 -

My Events for Fall-In! 2026

 It took a while, and I've already exhausted my rant, but my two events for Fall-In! 2026 are finally up on TabletopEvents.  

As has been an unfortunate tradition in recent years, there will be no Gnome Wars contingent at Fall-In!   It's just been a string of scheduling and personal misfortunes, and we may have avoided the Cold Wars visit to Gettysburg. 

I'll be running solo, even outside the purview of HMGS Next Gen, hosting two events to whet the whistle of a certain demographic. 

(241) The Joust!
Friday 7pm, 2hrs, Players: 25+, Period: Fantasy: Scale: 28mm, Rules: To Cry a Joust
The annual Fall-In Joust is here! All are welcome! Quick fun rules to complete the night!

LA-13 - Lampeter Room

I'll be hosting a three table joust, with my questionable bracketology skills.  As always, registration is appreciated, but a ticket is never required to play.  We simply won't turn you away, so long as you show up before 7:15.

(384) Christmas Counter-Attack! 

Saturday 2pm, 3hrs, Players: 8, Period: Fantasy, Scale: 28mm, Rules: Fistful of Lead.

All the holidays are encroaching on the town square for Christmas, and Christmas has organized a counterattack! Gnomes! Skeletons! Snowbrawls! Have the Gingerbread Men discarded their gumdrop buttons for a higher calling? Children welcome!

LA-13 - Lampeter

Yes, there will be a few gnomes joining the table, along with some other creatures from holidays all around the year.!  I myself am shocked that I only have to finish painting six things to be ready.

Some of the possibilities for the Christmas game... 

I will get around to reviewing the other events for the con.  There are over 600 games, demos, War College seminars, tournaments, and Hobby U classes already on the schedule!  

The only progress on the painting bench was simply the Hobby Lobby trees that I painted and snow-flocked the bases.  Like I mentioned above, I do have some painting for the next two weekends, as well as a few random bits as I keep clearing off the painting bench.  

I'm also happy to say that our little idyllic picture is the first taken with my new phone, a first since possibly COVID!  The old phone is turning on sporadically, so I just hope I can pull some more items off of it during those time, and probably bite the bullet for some repair shop, so I can cull what's not backed up during the winter months. 

(Review) Final Boss Games - Mount Pocono, Pennsylvnaia

 I've visted and written up a host of game store reviews for Thursday, but you don't often get a chance to check out a store on its actual grand opening, so Final Boss Games - Mount Pocono gets bumped to the front of the line.  

The first Final Boss location is located in Dickson City and I simply haven't been up around there while they were open.  

Hearing about the grand opening this past Friday, it was a great opportunity to swing by while on my way to check on my mother.  

Picture from their Facebook page - Not the the store sign hasn't been replaced yet.

Location:  The Mount Pocono Plaza is a classic busy strip mall location, just outside of town, just off of I-380.  I did have some problems that the customers driving around had no clue where they were going or what they were doing, but the location itself is a great choice. 

 Greeting:  My opening grade and it was a complete whiff.  Mind you, two hours earlier, and the store had just opened up to a crowd lined up outside its doors, but one staff member was tending to a customer, and the other two were doing.. something?  I also didn't see a transaction rung up while I was there...

Cleanliness:  Even with opening day, the store was still immaculate.

CCGs:  The bread, butter, and main course for the store's operations: Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece.  Plenty of singles for everything in the case, including a few interesting vertical displays that lit up.  

A bit of a spoiler about some of the future game store reviews in the pipeline.  In a world where no has pricing for items, these guys are pretty ingenious, using a QR code to reflect adjustable pricing, I guess.

Board Games:  Nothing

RPGs:   Strictly D&D, although I was impressed to see the cardboard mini set and the gimmick item with a d20 inside an old-school pop-a-matic bubble.

Miniatures:  40k, Sigmar/Warcry, and a few Mantic items. 

Other:  A small selection of affordable polyhedral sets, and a ton of accessories for CCGs. ... and the Squishable display, which must be the pre-requisite for any store nowadays. 

Amenities/Events:  Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece, possibly Riftbound and Gundam events to match the Dickson City location. 

Given the grand opening and my experience, I'm giving Final Boss - Mount Pocono  three out of five gnomes:

Three of out of five from me for a card store CCG game shop is great.  If you play, please frequent, but outside of that I don't have some great need to revisit the store, unless I'm in the neighborhood (or I-80 is bumper to bumper  and I decide to make a stop before I turn around and head home.)

Final Boss Games in in the Mount Pocono Plaza, between the Ollie's and the Dollar Tree.  Address provided is 3236 PA-940 Unit 9, Mount Pocono, PA, United States, 18344, although putting that address in two different GPS'es put me much closer to the Weis Market. 

I Can't Blame the Ukrainians For This Part

Over the weekend, there were reports of Ukraine using drone attacks on Yandex, causing a massive reduction in bot traffic across the internet.  While many credited the attack in silencing a number of right wing bot accounts, it's much more a small result of reduced overall automated traffic worldwide, good and bad.  

As I checked the blog earlier this week, I anticipated a drop in front page traffic, maybe a few declines in posts that just caught the  both algorithm somehow.  

I opened up to 100,000 hits... for the day.  More disappointing was that the repeated traffic was actually hitting newer posts from October.   Two day old posts that get 50 posts had 500... and growing.  

It appears there was a noon barrage, then a smaller 10k hit the following day, and a random influx of 800 views exactly at 4pm yesterday, inflating that day's Gamma World post to twice the traffic I would expect. 

And the true irony?  None of my traffic originated from Russia... allegedly. 

It's disheartening, I love to track my traffic, and now there's six posts that could easily crack last year's top 3... and no way to correct the current numbers, or anticipate what's going to happen in the future.  

I soldier on, with plenty of projects for the November conventions, to document. 

(Edit: And as I finished up this post last night, my phone apparently kicked the bucket.  When it rains, it pours.)