I managed to squeeze in quality gaming with my friends Phil and Jess yesterday. Phil, of course, is of Adventurous Endeavors fame, while his wife Jess has done a bit of writing here, as well other places. That matters for naught when one is playing a double shot of Call of Cthulhu!
The goal of running two short scenarios was to get their characters deeper into the Mythos than their single foray during the last and only session that they had played thus far. Unfortunately, the results were wildly different than anyone had in mind, with an entire city block either leveled or gutted by flames. Let's just say, when the scenario spells out the consequences of only one die roll in the entire game, and said die roll occurs, I stick with the author's intent. I am in no way a killer CoC Keeper, but a) it's Cthulhu, and b) if the roll had succeeded, it would have been glorious!
I also managed to play Munchkin for the first time, specifically Axe Cop. I understand why everyone has so much fun with this. It's a simple game wrapped around sheer wackiness. I won my first game ever by fighting... a level one duck to achieve level 10.
Today is the big gaming palooza at my friend Steve's. What started out as a simple "let's get together to game before Steve's kid is born," has evolved into "let's run a min-con in Steve's bar and hope his 38 week pregnant wife won't notice." It should be an epic event, just like this random picture:
From L to R, Nicole, Steve, the back of Phil's head, and Dalcin circa 2000.
It's sad that my memory is failing me. I thought initially that this pic was taken during the epic final game of the college D&D campaign, played after hours at Girffon Games. Upon further review, that is impossible, because a) Dalcin is wearing a completely different shirt in other confirmed final game pics, and b) Steve's then girlfriend/current wife would have killed him for cozying up to Nicole in April '00. I must of offered the store to the group some other time for some Sunday night after hours gaming in 1999.and completely forgot about it. Funny thing is I don't remember Dalcin playing in any session of the college campaign outside of the final game.
That all being said, look at the pegboard behind them! Ral Partha Fantasy, RP Battletech, Mordheim, Necromunda, and even some Shadowrun minis (purchased at 90% off and quickly sold out at retail). And the Reaper selection! Funny to think that 12-13 years ago we cringed at a $6 single GW figure, but now that's the bottom price range for Reaper metals. Not bad for a little hole in the wall store in the middle of nowhere.
Outside of Warhammer/40k, we regularly outsold other much larger area stores in the miniatures department. People would drive 90 minutes just because we stocked at least the first 100 Reapers in the catalog AND had the audacity to reorder them, plus a few more to expand the range. Most stores, if they even cared about non-GW core minis, would order one of the full racks from the company, to save an extra 3%, and never restock any items that sold, only to be stuck with the 20-25 remaining figures that they would dump into a corner of the store for a year before selling them off at 90% off. Sure, there's profit in that, but no brand loyalty, no attempt at management, much less regular store staff to learn the the product line. Back when they were at the $2-$4 price point, individual minis were like Magic boosters, the "candy display at the checkout" of a gaming store. A regular might bitch and moan that we weren't discounting some $50 rulebook for him, but he would buy a mini after his rant...every... single... week.
Enough of that for now. I have to prepare for more Cthulhu, Munchkin, and hopefully kickass Gnome Wars today!
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