Apathy of the New Releases (OCT '13)

Another month, another Game Trade Magazine from Alliance.  After the big releases of summer, now is the time to regroup, restock for Christmas, and make sure your heating bill is piaid up for the snowy days of winter.

There's nothing I would want, even if money's no object, so I'll move the the imaginary store list. Lots of $12 individual minis.  If you play those games, than this is  month you pay your FLGS's rent.

AEG
Legend Of The Five Rings Ccg: Matter Of Honor..........................................$24.99
Another beginner boxed set for L5R, hopefully better than Beiden Pass was when I first learned it.
Legend Of The Five Rings CCG: Aftermath Booster Display
Legend Of The Five Rings Rpg: Secrets Of The Empire ................................$39.99
Legend Of The Five Rings RPG: Secrets Of The Empire - Naishou Province $19.99


Anitmatter Games
I had mentioned Deep Wars a month or two back, underwater skirmish level wargaming with a Verne-esque feel.  The individual figures are solicited this month, and while some are quite intriguing, the $11-25 price tag per figure would kill any though of stocking it.

Days of Wonder
Ticket to Ride: Nederland ...........................................................................$25.00
Two things I hate: people who can't tolerate Euro boardgames, and the Dutch.  More maps and special tokens for TTR.

Evil Hat Games
Fate Dice  (12)... multiple colors and designs................................................$15-18

Fantasy Flight Games
Eldritch Horror ...........................................................................................$59.95
Only War: No Surrender .............................................................................$39.95

Goodman Games
GM Gems HC ............................................................................................$19.95

Jolly Roger Games
Kremlin .......................................................................................................$32.00
The classic game updated with new art.. and extra Putin!

Konami
Yu-gi-oh! Tcg: Shadow Specters Booster Display (24)

Looney Labs
Early American Chrononauts.......................................................................$16.00

Mantic
The Basileans (Empire?) are offered this month. The prices are reasonable (40 figs for $40 for one), but there is that niggling GW pricing creeping with a single $10 high priest when a dude on a freakin' battle lion is $20.

Minion Games
Sets of seven 2" squishy dice ......................................................................$19.99

Osprey Publishing
In Her Majesty’s Name: Heroes, Villains And Fiends ................................. $17.95

Paizo Publishing
Pathfinder Adventure Card  Game: The Hook Mountain Massacre Adventure Deck ........  $19.99
Pathfinder Adventure Path: Wrath of the Righteous Part 5 - Herald of the Ivory Labyrintha $22.99
Pathfinder Map Pack: Dungeon Dangers .......................................................................... $13.99
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Osirion, Legacy of Pharaohs ................................................ $19.99
Pathfinder Cards: Tides of Battle Deck ............................................................................. $10.99
Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the Sands ........................................................... $12.99
Pathfinder Tales: The Dagger of Trust ............................................................................... $9.99

Pelgrane
Gumshoe: The Esoterrorists  (2nd Edition) .....................................................................   $29.95

Q-Workshop
Sets of 10 L5R d10's, but it's Q-Workshop, for the "Please inquire" listed means they're freakin' expensive.

Steve Jackson Games
GURPS Zombies ...........................................................................................................  $29.95
Holy Crap, a physical GURPS book!

Wizkids
Dc Heroclix: Batman Arkham Origins 24-count Gravity Feed Display
DC HeroClix: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes The Legion of Doom Fast Forces Pack
DC HeroClix: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Expansion
Tease me with the Jack Knight Starman on the sample pic.  Well played Wiz Kids, well played.

Hello Kitty: Collectible Figurines  24-count Gravity Feed
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Heroclix 24-count Gravity Feed

(Kickstarter) Olley's Armies Victorian Scrunts

Another week in the life, just add a little more overtime to the work equation.  I haven't been run ragged, thanks to just enough time for "oil changes and tire rotations,". But it's now been over a week since I've wanted to order some Pegasus Banana Trees in bulk through Amazon and I've barely thought about that. 

Olley's Armies planning a Kickstarter campaign for, of all things, Victorian Scrunts, warms my heart of better days ahead:

While this initial offering looks combat ready, Olley has hinted that civilians may be offered, and more genre specific characters may be offered in a second Kickstarter.  I may have to bite the bullet and finally support one of these projects just to have a "Sherlock Gnomes" on the table.

He also showed off one of his custom built Scrunt tanks, made from a bit o' wood and some excess parts from model kits: 

Not too shabby.

Motivation and Availability

We got ANOTHER puppy on Friday.  I know everyone else loves to post the required pic of their lovable scamp on the blog, but I'm so sleep deprived that between dogs, kids, and weekend overtime, I'm pondering asking Michael Vick for advice.  

Okay, it's not that bad, but as I slowly got ready this morning for the last gaming day in awhile, I had to wonder (a) when I'm going to get anything done for the cons in November and (b) if I'm going to see any blogging time, much less gaming time for the remainder of 2014.

Those first couple of lines I cobbled together this morning, and like most days at the Casa de Viscount, I rarely get to finish a coherent thought.  But I have returned from another Cthulhu game day with a smile on my face.  This time we only had the "core four" who have played since session #2 and still retain their original avatar characters.   While four or five characters plus a keeper, feels optimal, three plus a keeper is an intimate feel that allows for wild goose chases without ruining the fun for others. Needless to say, the group made some progress for the larger team, even if two of them needed hospitalization. The best part is that I managed a quick recap for the other players on our Facebook Cthulhu Message thread and immediately copied it to here, so while episodes #19, 20, and 21 are the normal slow as molasses, #22 is already halfway there. 

On the work front, I'm trying to cozy up the joint I'll be seeing far more than my actual home over the next few months.  The latest addition is the original concept art for Squirrelly from KoDT.

I snagged this up as a freebie from a Kenzerco holiday grab bag many moons ago when I still played Hackmaster 4th.  Drool, fanboys, drool!

I, For One, Welcome Our New Door Overlords

Sunday was our CoC game, and in keeping with the worst kept secret on the blog, we advanced the plot to 1925 and started with a telegram from our good friend, Jackson Elias.

Masks of Nyarlahotep has begun, thank you Jesus.  

Masks is an epic campaign, but for the Keeper there's an epic amount of bookkeeping to handle.  Despite my previous experience as a player, dozens of readings, tons of hours analyzing how to integrate this onto my campaign, there are so many angles and options, that I could barely hold on, much less enjoy the ride.  Throw in the Masks Companion and I had a case of gaming TMI.     

The good news the group only suffered one bout of insanity at Elias' hotel.  Bad news was it was initiated by yet another death of one of Aaron's characters.  This time he simply met his match with an African cultist with a big ass knife to sever his hands.  

For a biased first hand account of how yet another NYC door kicked everyone's ass, check out Josh's take here.

(Cthulhu) 1925 is Upon Us!

This Sunday begins another set of back-to-back gaming weekends! 

Although we still have some loose ends for Cthulhu (I completely reorganized and edited most of the list from here), with two players as Dads of burgeoning toddlers, I've got to schedule the big storyline transitions around their availability.  The good news is that we can return to the skipped scenarios, as they are unrelated to the major arcs and can be used at any time. 

The better news is, after two years of real time, the campaign has moved to 1925. 

With the disjointed campaign structure from this summer (see campaign journal #18,  plus #19 and #20, when available), some investigators have had a seven-plus month layoff from "active" investigating.  It's been fun trying to justify such a lull, especially after adventures in Maine, Crete, and Queens, but a few unanticipated deaths and a bit of healthy paranoia might have provoked a desire for a return to normalcy.

I also await with gleeful anticipation of our youngest player, Aaron's,  new characters.  No major spoilers here, but with his Turkish Librarian deported at the end of The Dreamer, he's brought in new characters to each of the two sessions he's played in since, and needs another one for Sunday.  Chalk up to youthfull inexperience some concepts that don't always work:

• Japanese Communist Hobo
• Canadian Syrup Salesman

I don't want to force some random antiquitarian investigator into his hand if he's not into it, especially since we have the following:

1. Pulp Writer / Paranormal Kook
2. Professor of Physics
3. Crooked Bookkeeper/Talent Agent
4. Professor of History
5. Chemical Engineer
6. Female Private Investigator/Former School Teacher

...and even the tradional professions are played with a unique twist.  I consider it more a challenge to me as a keeper to adjust and adapt the game to provide a reason for these folks to get together.  

My buddy Mike is also bringing in a new character, but asked me to put one together for him.   I hope he appreciates who I'm giving him, as it's a character from one of the one shots we ran long ago.  No, he's not "Lite Beer" from the Texas Fried Cthulhu game, but does provide enough reason to justify part of the group asking "Can we bring him along? He might help!"

I'm hoping to survive a full week of training new hires next week to get #19 and #20 of the actual plays typed up, before the world blows up at work, and I may get a few hours of solace for the job sometime in late November.

I'm also hoping the group learns to appreciate the man on the right in the picture below.  Let's just say that in my twisted version of Cthulhu Campaigns, he is The Interesting Man in the World, circa 1925.

Stay Thirsty for Knowledge, My Friends!

Nerd Rage Syndrome

Alright followers of the Frog God, it's time I finally tackle this monstrosity. 

"Fake geeks, nerd rage, and general idiocy"

It seems that this undercurrent in the "geek community" has always been swirling beneath us, but the last six months seems to have brought this subject to a head.  Articles, blog posts, even Youtube videos of women claiming they're being slighted by the community at large because they're a girl/lady/woman, or worse yet, a cosplayer to boot!

Now, let's get this all squared away before I go wild on this like a drunken bear on a motorcycle, if someone comes up to a woman and claims their 20+ years of comic knowledge is invalid simply because they're female, that person is a complete idiot.  If someone claims that girls can't play rpgs/video games/boardgames/etc because of the lack of a Y chromosome, they're jerks.  If they say derogatory comments to a cosplayer based entirely on looks, they're probably a misogynistic bastard.  Worst case, these people are all assholes, and to reverse the saying, Assholes are like opinions, everyone has one, and we usually don't want to see or hear any of them.

If you don't have even indirect proof that any of those scenarios apply to you and you're still feeling slighted?

Welcome to club, my friend.

A quick visit on Google defines "Nerd Rage" as taking something entirely too seriously, and seems the most references are towards multiplayer online console games like HALO.   I'm going to pare down the criteria for that term a bit, as despite a lively nerd demographic, the average man on the street would lump most popular first person shooters into the same same "mainstream" video game category as Madden. 

Nerd Rage Syndrome has been around since the first two over-educated social outcasts met. It's a game of one-ups-manship with none of the guidelines of societal mores.


Lets put it another way, anyone can be the Sheldon of the group, it just depends on the construction of said group.

The geek/nerd/dork community (Yes, I know there's a vast difference between the three, but for this, the average person doesn't care about them.  In their eyes, you're a dork.  Just ask my wife.) might have a few larger than life personalities, but it's populated by introverts who cling to their sense of self harder than any member of the Raider Nation who dresses up like an extra from The Road Warrior.   It does not matter if their focus is on Star Wars, some particular style of manga/anime, or the 15mm Napoleonics, any affront to the sanctity of this comfort zone will not be dealt with diplomatically.    Why not?  Have you seen the social skills of the geek community?  While most of us can deal with day to day interactions, there is a higher than normal number of socially maladjusted people in our hobbies, and I'm not even including the people with legitimate physiological reasons. 

So, if the "normal" people are concerned about a new demographic affecting the hobby (i.e. These silly fantasy creatures and games infiltrating our Medieval Wargaming Club,  Cardfloppers taking over a role-players, Goths in general... Sorry it's true), and they might have a word of two with this entity, imagine our socially awkward brethren

Place this on a large scale, such as even old school GenCons in Milwakuee, and it's a recipe for some terse situtions.

Now let's add the largest demographic to sweep into our little niche...

Women

Yes, yes, yes, women have been part of the culture from the very beginning, but they've been under-represented and usually fell into three neat, if horribly stereotypical categories:

1.  The Nerdy Girl:  Just replace the Y chromosome with an extra X. 
2.  The Hot Girl:  At the table, we have a case of "One of these things is DEFINITELY not like the other." Be it a hot girlfriend, sister, cousin, etc, she can be a newbie, a casual fan, well-groomed nerd in disguise or (internet hate begin...NOW) loving the attention of a table of drooling nerds.  Sorry people, that one I've seen more confirmed cases of than confirmed all 18 's when someone's creating a character.  They're out there, usually moving from the geek flavor of the week.  The classic Vampire storylines in KODT illustrate the issue well, with just enough hyperbole to make you laugh.
3.  The Booth Babe:  There was a time that the hottest girls at a convention were guaranteed to be wanna-be models who were dressed in skimpy clothing to attact attention to the sales table.  They catered to the base desires of the teenage mindset still stuck into a large number of the adult gamers at the con, and tended to alienate a number of female attendees, much less mudane parents, and people with more conservative attitudes. Back in the day, these ladies were largely there to collect a paycheck and had little experience, if any, with the game they were hawking.

Now, the success of "geek" properties is a double edged sword.  More success means more future products, but it also means more mainstream acceptance.  And you know who are part of the mainstream?  Women.  With a larger number of women getting into the community, however the means, those stereotypes get pushed away by "real" women.  We can know see the full diversity between the proud nerdy girls, and the hot gamer girl. 

Again, a number of people assume that since they didn't seem them at ComiCon in '03 or Origins in '98, these women aren't "veterans" of the hobby, paid their dues, etc.  While it's short-sighted, this is the attitude that pervades every social group I can imagine, it's just more noticable when the (supposed) incoming group is so large.  It's the simple case of taking one's lumps, "razzing", so to speak.  It's just when a new ingredient is added to the homogenous group that we notice the problem.   Throwing an insult to a Vampire LARPer isn't cool, but the LARPer can usually respond with an equal, if not greater one in return. If that's the issue, then ladies, welcome to the fold (and I've seen plenty of women on both ends of that equation.)

 Focus on the Vampire LARPer being a woman?   Not cool. 

Guys need to understand that for all our silly little hobbies to flourish, we need to be inclusive, and that even includes... (some form) of cosplay.

My opinions aside (at least costuming in LARPing has a use), cosplay is evolving from a cottage industry into it's own solid arm of geekdom.   Gone are the days when the outfits are a mere step above some Halloween costume from party city.  A LOT of people are spending considerable time and money on their costumes. 

At larger conventions to upper tier of cosplay have their own tables, and some are even the guest of honor.  This confuses me to some extent, but then again, they do sell professional photographs/posters/etc.  I'm just wondering who buys the stuff, fans of their craft, grown men with adolescent fantasies (and not the type that was in Amazing Fantasy #15), or the same crowd who trivializes other cosplay females because their rivets are 16mm off from the original design, thus making theirs inferior... thus she's a stupid girl who knows nothing?  

I going to admit that I've tried to follow some of the female cosplayers, and I get ridiculously mixed messages.  Despite the fact that the female geek manifesto claims that "I do not not have to prove my geek cred to anyone,"  I see a lot of veiled attempts at promoting their geekiness just for their own credibility.  They only way it could feel more forced was it the items were located in their online store (and sometimes... they are). 

Perhaps the one thing that I stumble over is the "professional cosplayer." To me, costuming should be an accessory to the activity, not the full activity itself.  Dressing up like a drow in a LARP at some remote campsite is acceptable because it aids in the activity, but dressing up like the Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man as a paying attendee at a con boggles my mind, so it's got to confuse others who are bit less...tactful than I am. 

The second area of the professional cosplayer that gets derision is the fact that some of them like geek-genre models.  What is this?

They're hot as hell.  Even if their normal alter ego is a Nerdy Girl #1, professional make-up, lighting, costuming, and photography should turn the heads of most men (and some women) on the planet.  And a lot of the cosplayers start higher on my three tier stereotype list.

Empowered Hot girl + socially awkward geek = intimidated geek who lashes out.  And while "Why is there even cosplay at this event?" can be a valid question, this advances to hurtful comments far too easy.

Now, I've had a LOT of hunches that some of these people (male/female) are more attention seekers who realized some mundane level enjoyment of Doctor Who or other geek favorite could turn into a lot of time as the center of attention, but you know what?  Every other facet of society has the same type of people.  Geekdom has never been so ostracized from society that we don't emulate it.
Here's my problem with geekdom:

Both sides here are absolutely right.

This woman decided to cosplayers one of the two dozen itrrations of Joker's Daughter, a character comic writers insist on bringing back over and over again since the 70's and most have failed with barely a whimper.  There's a good chance that outside of a DC press day, a majority of people at the even could not tell you who she was portraying, outside of a female Joker in a Willy Wonka hat.  I can't believe she's such a fan of the character, the costume is elaborate, steampunkish, and so busy that peole can't complain about the bosom. (Seriously, the first thing I noticed were the goggles.)

Good God, I'm in my own version of full out Nerd Rage, damn it.  See, it's just that easy.

*erases full blown rant on the DC Universe, and Affleck/Damon Batman movie, and a reference to the Elektra movie... seriously, you guys thought Daredevil was horrible... oh wait, that's why I'm erasing this*

After all of this ranting and testifying to the mountain top on this blog (which is my own expession of ME ME ME ME ME ME! afterall), remember this.

No matter how much pop culture, the media, and society claims to break down the walls of bigotry and general, people are naturally judgemental. There's a reason why that Jesus needed to say "Don't judge, lest you be judged."   

We will find whatever flaws (real or imagined) in others whenever we can, no matter how hard we try.  Hell, we judge ourselves, sometimes even a bit too harsh.   If we admit that we are imperfect beings, let's judge people on their actions rather than characteristics that we can't always control. In return, accept that people won't judge us as we actually are, and remember the true Golden Rule:

Sometimes people are idiots.

I am a people.

Ergo, I could be an idiot.

Try not be an idiot. 

Time to go back to wargaming and gnomes...

Donald Featherstone (1918-2013)

Although I've yet to get a confirmation outside of message boards, it appears that Donald Featherstone passed away on Tuesday.

Mr Featherstone was of the godfathers, if not THE godfather of modern wargaming.  Thousands of players, young and old, played out battles using his rules when the only available figures were essesntially model kits from your local hobby shop. 

Why is he so important?  Plenty of men wrote a pile of books on our obscure little hobby, except his were actually in libraries, opening up a world to whatever person happened upon it... and they are still there today.  We may see a few random D&D books or classic graphic novels on the shelves, but essentially his War Games is as complete a set of rules as the average person needs (notwithstanding the Advanced War Games, War Games Campaigns, etc that he also wrote).

It can be said, without stretching the details, that if H.G. Wells Little Wars allowed Featherstone's War Games, allowing for the proliferation of wargaming, and creating a much larger and hospitable environment for D&D. *

Wikipedia Page


*Gary Gygax had been playing historical boardgames and miniatures during this time period as well, but without the growth and exposure of the hobby, those first 1,000 copies of the D&D boxed set may have gathered, or even worse, still been a pipe dream.

Get Thee to a Library!

I actually started last week's post on podcasts as today's topic, but as blogs do, it mutated into the podcast discussion.  

I finally broke down.

After over a decade I finally had a relapse.

I started writing. 

Now, I'm was never a prodigious writer of fiction.  I'm not using this blog as practice for my writing talents, or as a record of my work, as some of my friends do.  The historian-in-training in me loves the research and writing involved in a serious non-fiction work, but this time I'll be using my skills for evil. 

Time to write some Call of Cthulhu scenarios. 

After scratching out some outlines, I put pen to paper and started writing the background.  Now I just need an afternoon in the library to reference a few maps, a little local history, the comparative histories of gelogical surveys, and we may have up to three scenarios to playtest and fill time during low-player gaming days. 
Two are Atomic Horror in era only, and the other is Colonial/Revolutionary War America. 

*scribble scribble*  Okay, there are now TWO Colonial scenarios... or at least a two part adventure. 

Oh yeah, Tomahawks, I need info on mother freakin' tomahawks.