Another Month of Meeples (April 2026)

 It was an early morning for me, one where I was pondering grabbing some overtime before my shift.   Just some coffee and checking e-mails while I ponder just how much scanning and printing I'm going to do over the weekend with my new printer beside me.

And despite losing all hope for any consistency with my old projects, I clicked on ACD, and lo and behold, the latest issue of Meeple Monthly is on it.

ViscountEric's Want List

Nothing

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Issue Want List

Critical Kit

All Night Breakfast at the Midnight Owl .......... $20.00

A solo RPG where you are a host of a supernatural podcast oddly hits right for me. 

Severed Books

Sickest Witch RPG Core Rulebook .................... $49.99

The Imaginary Store List (Infinite Shelf Space Games & Hobbies)

25th Century Games

Bullesye ........................................................... $24.99

Alderac Entertainment Group

Misfit Heroes ................................................... $39.99

AMP Adult 

Prose & Cons ................................................... $24.99

Arcane Wonders 

Pyradice ........................................... $44.99

Aquatica Duellum ........................... $44.99

Archon Studios

World of Tanks TCG:  Twinfire  Boosters

Asmodee

Castle Nightingale ........................................... $29.99

Arkham Horror RPG:  Kingsport Mysteries ... $44.99

Ghosts Galore ................................... $29.99

Carnuta ............................................. $27.99

Atomic Mass

I'll just make a note here that despite my desire to stock game that require low figure counts, that Marvel Crisis Protocol and Star Wars Legion are simply NOT game I can justify stocking on my shelf (special orders are always accepted from my imaginary customers).  The vehicles are barely acceptable price-wise and there is no universe where I want any customer paying sixty bucks for three figures...  or fifty for ten freakin' ewoks. 

Catalyst Game Labs

Battletech: House Kurita Ranger Lance Force Pack .................. $34.99

Critical Kit

Weird, Whimsy & Wonder .............................. $27.00

Dead Punks Society Vol 1 ............................... $20.00

Cubicle 7 Entertainment

The Laundry 2nd Edition: Supervisor's Guide.................... $49.99

The Laundry 2nd Edition: Operative's Handbook .............. $49.99

The Laundry 2nd Edition: Introduction to Applied Occult .. $34.99

The Laundry 2nd Edition: Black Bag Jobs Reopened ......... $39.99

Victoriana Corebook ....................................... $59.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Player's Guide ........... $44.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Gamemaster's Guide .. $44.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Collector's Edition ..... $159.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Character Sheet Pad ... $14.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Allies & Antagonists Card Deck ........ $29.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Prayers & Miracles Card Deck .......... $19.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Weapons & Armour Deck .................. $19.99

Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Wounds & Conditions Deck .............. $19.99
Warhammer: The Old World RPG - Grand Duchy of Talabec Dice Set ..... $19.99

Warhammer 40K RPG: Imperium Maledictum Voll Adventures ................ $39.99

Deep Dark Games

A Perfect Rock ................................ $25.00

The Rock Oracle Deck .................... $30.00

Dolphin Hat Games 

GOAT (Greatest of All Time) ........ $14.99

Risky Rolls .................................... $ 9.99

Dyskami Publishing Company

Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): Imago: Realitypunk Anime Adventures .... $34.95

Ikarion Bane:  A LitRPG Adventure ............. $39.95

Anime 5e: Dungeon Crawl: Labyrinth of Lysandra ........................................ $34.95

Tri-Stat Refined: Universal RPG ................... $24.95

Hearth Attack RPG ........................................ $49.95

EN Publishing

What's Old is New: Bestiary .......................... $50.00

Free League Publishing

Vaesen: Adventure: City of My Nightmares ...................... $39.99

Heltung Storytelling

Pilgrimage RPG .............................................. $25.00

Konami Digital Entertainment

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG - Rarity Collection 5 Booster Display 

Loke Battlemats

Add On Scenery Pack: RPG Maps Cyberpunk ............... $14.99

Magpie Games

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Corebook .................... $39.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Clearing Booklet 2  .... $24.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Clearing Booklet 3 ..... $24.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Dice Bag .................... $14.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Faction Dice Set #2 ... $ 9.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Dice Tray ................... $19.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Map Pack #1 .............. $19.99

Root RPG: Ruins & Expeditions Map Pack #2 .............. $19.99

M Allen Hall

Mausritter:  The Baron's Grip .......................... $29.00

Mayfair Games

Oliva .................................................. $44.99

Makoto .............................................. $24.99

Media Lab

Game Master's Book of Magic & Mayhem for Kids ......... $16.99

Mongoose Publishing

Traveller 2300AD: Invastion Part II Campaign ................ $49.99

Traveller: Cluster Truck .................................................... $49.99

Modiphius Entertainment

Five Parsecs From Home: Planetfall ............................... $54.99

Monte Cook Games

The Magnus Archives: Make Your Statement .................. $44.99

Mr B Games

Nuclear Destruction ................................ $49.99

Osprey Publishing

Kings Mountain 1780 ............................... $25.00

US Soldier vs Japanese Infantryman ........ $23.00

Beaufighter vs German Flak Ships ........... $23.00

D-Day Fleet 1944, British Sector ............. $23.00

Nagato-class Battleships 1920-1946 ........ $20.00

Renaissance Polish Armies: 1492-1569 ... $20.00

The House of War ..................................... $18.00

T-72 Main Battle Tank .............................. $40.00

Italian MAS & MS Boats ......................... $20.00

Iraq 2003 ................................................... $25.00

Pelgrane Press

(Gumshoe) The Paragon Blade ................. $54.95

Pokemon

Pokemon TCG: 2025 Pokemon TCG World Championships Deck

Pokemon TCG: Mega Evolution 3 Perfect Order

Portal Games

Race to Berlin ....................................... $89.00

Renegade Game Studios

Werewolf the Apocalype 5th Edtion:  Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth .... $40.00

Mycologist's Primer ................................... $59.99

Mycologist's Primer Flash Cards ............... $39.99

Heroscape: Elites of Ultar and Ranoc Vipers Army Expansion ................... $50.00

Heroscape: Chain Gruts and Ramosaur Rider Army Expansion .................. $50.00

Herocaspe: Forest of Valhalla Terrain Expansion ....................... $40.00

D&D Lords of Waterdeep Board Game ...................................... $55.00

D&D Lords of Waterdeep Scoundrels of Skullport Expansion .. $40.00

Scryptid Games

Assemblage .................................... $30.00

Severed Books

Oldest Child .................................... $21.00

Sickest Witch RPG Core Rulebook .................... $49.99

Sickest Witch RPG Players Guide ...................... $22.99

Sickest Witch RPG Blood Property Adventure Zine .. $21.99

Sickest Witch RPG Hayride Adventure Zine ............. $21.99

Sirius Dice

D&D Castle Ravenloft Treasure Packs 

Space Penguin Ink

Thievin Gitz .................................... $20.00

Stations 

An Infinity of Ships ......................... $35.00

Instant Star Ships Card Deck .......... $20.00

Steve Jackson Games

Munchkin Vox Machina: A Critical Role Game ............ $39.95

Wonderful World Board Games 

Dragonarium .................................... $39.99

(Kickstarter) Idols of the Neon Dark: A D&D 5e K-Pop Adventure and Setting

There's not much that's been tickling my fancy on Kickstarter recently.  This doesn't hit many of my buttons either, but Idols of the Neon Dark: A D&D 5e K-Pop Adventure and Setting does that the tropes of something recently popular and puts them in an easily digestible form of Dungeons and Dragons.

...and let's be honest, the music you can play in the background is pretty addictive. 

(Gamma World) Not a Test #107 - Miner Treasures

The De Facto Explorers have found a tribe of Hoppers, right next to an underground facility in the Glow Zone wilderness across the Big River. They've entered an area that was once a mine.  An area populated by hostile bestial primitives.

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

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 Thunnelda Haycock.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"

Sonny Helianthus: a nearly 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. 

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 gave birth to a pile of baby worms. 

Luna of the Restorationists:  Recent recruit of the Restorationists, who had uncovered artifacts across the River.  

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

The Children's Alchemical Laser had worked... like it always did.  

Sonny Helianthus, mutant sunflower, had meant to liquify the giant leader of the mine troglodytes.  Instead the machine had a mind of its own and transformed it into some cylindrical monstrosity encased in the Ancient's plas-tek.   It bit the sunflower with terrifyingly straight and white teeth, and swung at him with his new white bulbous hands, but the attacks were ineffective, the leader not knowing his new body.  

Meanwhile, the other simply couldn't finish off the initial prong of the counterattack.  Energy cells depleting, melee weapons just not causing enough damage, the cuts and scratches from the trogs' claw were simply accumulating.  

Sonny and Luna were getting overwhelmed, but Sonny held only the limited commitment to his fellow Restorationist and teleported away from combat....

... far enough that he could pull out his blaster and miss wide right were the giant, grinning cylinder's shoulder would be.  

The was enough for the leader, who looked back, astounded to the feat the sunflower just performed, and ran away with the trog fighting Luna.... running right out the main doors for the mine and into the facility... or worse yet, the Hoppers' lair. 

Once the other trogs were dispatched, they let Lathar lead the group backtracking through the facility.  There was little sign of the odd duo in the rooms, so they went under the stairs and through the portal back into the Hoppers' lair.  A single Hopper guard was napping near the entrance, with no trace of an intrusion.  Going back into the facility, Pete noticed the odd shaped footprints of the leader going up the stairs. 

The stairwell went up to a small room, which emptied out into a vast manufacturing room, Multiple conveyor belts lined the room, with a host of deactivated living metal alongside it.  The ceiling stood 50 foot tall with gangway and windows to other levels visible.

At one point, this place was manufacturing.... energy cells. 

The ones most interested in the tech were distracted by the missing agents of chaos.  Pete had follow the disturbances in the dust to a metal open stairwell, and the open grate third story gangway which wrapped around half the room before disappearing into the rooms and windows above.  There was a second metal stairway that looked like it led to the space behind the glass and walls on the second story.  

Lathar had boldly stepped forward, going along the back wall of the massive room to investigate.  A bolt of some kind of substance flew from the center of the room and hit Lathar in the chest.  

A huge, mutant spider emerged from out of the hole in the floor, flanked by lengthwise two conveyor belts....

GM Notes:  Gamma World is a tough enough setting when you're cryptically describing somewhat common items in modern society as magical curiosities after the apocalypse, but the lack of artwork can make things even more difficult.  You can argue what type of orc or kobold is attacking you for D&D.  But a post-apocalyptic population where just the normal humans have strange mutations.  Troublesome.  

We're in the midst of Batteries Low, Getting Dark by Thom Wilson and I'm quite appreciative of the artwork provided in this 40-page module.  

Like I just said, even a well produced adventure won't cover all contingencies, so as the alchemically transformed leader of the troglodytes retreated from combat by leaving the mines, the players initially worried about a giant walking-talking tube of toothpaste rampaging through the hoppers' lair.  

The best efforts of Pete and Squiggles have ensured them that was certainly NOT the case, but at the end of this session, a single picture popped up in the chat from ChatGPT: 

Next: #108 - Lair of the Spider Man

Make the Best & Free! Table Top Terrain by 52 Miniatures on YouTube!

Another video I stowed away for future washing (and now caught up with) was "Make the Best & Free! Table Top Terrain by the YouTube channel 52 Miniatures.

Different types of cardboard, a few nice tips, and healthy use of oil paints for weathering creates a simple system for the "holy grail" of fantasy wargaming. 

Dungeons & Defense?

I know I saved this two months ago, but I finally got the chance to watch Dungeons and Defense posted on the Kansas City Chiefs Youtube page.   

Nerds... jocks... nerd/jocks, it doesn't matter, it's all too familiar.  Fabulously familiar. 

The Gnomes of Steven Tickner

As I casually descend the rabbit hole known as kitbashing with junk bits, I do follow Poor Man's Tabletop Miniature & Terrain Crafting on Facebook.  

I was pleasantly surprised two posts by Steven Tickner that happened to prominently display Gnome Wars figures! 

I absolutely adore the "Michael's Rocket Birdhouse" getting the German science experiment it so richly deserves.  Kudos, Sir! 

Staying Close to Home

While the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January and the impromptu #RPGCampaignTour filled up my blog with daily goodness, it hid and ugly truth:  I would only have 33 posts over those 59 days without them, a veritable desert compared to my normal production. 

I'm writing this because, I have no material.   Sure, I have my draft posts overwhelming me with ideas, and a painting bench getting gleefully cluttered, but it's a winter of taking care of my mom, trying to see the kids, and a new job.  

Finally.  It's nothing glamourous, but I'm back in insurance operations. And while I may hate it everyday, it's enough money covers bills, it's cheap on gas, and apparently I'm beloved by my team.  A nice reminder that despite problems in previous jobs, I do know what I'm doing. 

Gamma World is still going on Monday nights.  We're almost to the climax of the big epic quest that started thirty weeks ago, and I need to relax with a beverage and perhaps ChatGPT to figure out the options and ultimate fates of a few characters after this week's session.   

Contrary to the title, I am heading out to Upstate New York to see Maja in a volleyball tournament, then the following week in the school play.  Nothing like some dedicated Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff time, plus a Spotify DJ list that adding a lot of Bad Bunny and 90's chick rock.  Hopefully, I will add some Upstate game store reviews on my Sunday afternoon drives home. 

You start listening to the Spanish station for a couple weeks and the algorithm just knows...

I'm definitely locked in with my events for Mepacon 50 in April.   Part of the appeal of my convention games have been their quirkiness, but it is fun to see old school folks and newer folks sign up for my stuff. 

Historicon registration started on Monday, but the Stout Gnomes are at a bit of a standstill, with some logistics issues (beyond the normal hotel chaos).  The goal is to get Maja's Mepacon registration paid for,  then start setting up the Thursday-Saturday games.  

And beyond scrouging up the funds for Macrocosm's latest Kickstarter, there isn't much else I'm actively looking for.    I am still trying to rid of my uncle's wooden model ships kits, as well as the last of my Alpha Magic cards...

Games:  The consensus from the girls is a return to Savage Showdown for our Mousling game.  We're finished with part one of Temple of the Serpent and I can break out my desert terrain once again.  Once more terrain and figures are finished (see below), I'm certainly returning to the Fistful of Lead games for Death Planet Iota. 

Painting:  I now have three buildings for Death Planet Iota sitting on the bench, as well as two new vehicles for the Gnomish Space Marines that just scream "kitbash!" After that is an old Star Wars boxed set of minis, then heaven knows what.  

Project 350:  #RPGCampaignTour and some good episodes of Ken and Robin added some ideas to the backdrop of the blog, thus a stagnant/negative  453 (283/170)  from  451 (284/167) in mid-February.