sean.blog

Wyrmwood Dice Vault

2013-12-24T16:44:00.000-06:00

When I am not busy buying way too many miniatures from Mantic Games kickstarters I like to look around for others items to invest in. One of those items was the handmade dice box from Wyrmwood Gaming.

Dice Vault in Rosewood

These boxes are all hand crafted and stained. The carry a full standard set of polyhedral dice with room to spare for a few extras. There is not enough room for a full set of Fate Dice, but you can get a good number in there (all but two i think). The fit is really quite nice. The boxes come with a magnetic closure which holds very well. The kickstarter boxes also included a foam insert to keep dice from shaking around too much.

These really are very nice, and I highly recommend them as a gift item for gamers. I hope to see them start another Kickstarter with a new product once they get this one "in the box".

Snap, Snap, Click, Click Terrain

2013-12-13T10:27:00.000-06:00

I spent some time assembling some of the terrain I received with my Mantic Deadzone kickstarter shipment. It was a huge box of stuff which I will cover in some detail later. I got a lot of terrain through the Kickstarter because it is one thing I am just not good at creating and I knew that it would be super important to this game. I figured it would also work for 40K or any other science fiction based skirmish miniatures game.

A Bit of Scenery and a few Plague models

A couple of things I will note, as there seem to be some issues floating around the forums about the shipments and functionality of the terrain pieces:

I appear to have gotten all the sprues that were coming to me for terrain. I need to go back through one more time to be sure, but I am 90% sure that things are good.
Using a flat screw driver I was able to assemble off of these pieces quiet easily without breakage. The one thing that is hard to deal with are the flat connectors when trying to put the cubes together. It is hard to lay them down to get the correct leverage. Luckily, the flat connectors are also far easier to get in with just your fingers and a bit of pressure.
I don't think I will need to use glue. These are well connected. In fact, they are so well connected that even using a small screw driver to try and push the connectors out has been a challenge.
I did find that you can get away with fewer connectors and still maintain stability when you have more walls.

Overall I am very happy with how it is turning out. I will be building the landing platform tonight along with a control building which will represent the first set of terrain pieces I plan to play with. There are still a bunch of pieces that I have no clue how to use. Hoping to find more sample builds so I can see how others used the bits. If you know of some good examples, please post links in the comments.

...again to 40k

2013-12-10T08:46:00.002-06:00

Nothing like finding a group of people doing something you really love to make you take a head first dive off a cliff to join them.

A few years back I started a blog called ...again to Warhammer. My plan was to re-imagine my hordes of undead. It worked well for a while until I got distracted with other things. I have the army though, nearly finished with assembly, and i am thinking of pulling it out and getting it done. This post isn't about the WFB army though.

This post is about ...again to 40k, after spending the night Saturday dusting off my Necrons for an attempt at 6th edition. The game was fun, and reminded me that for all the board and roleplaying I do that I am a miniatures gamer at heart.

On the way home I thought and thought about what army I wanted to play. Keep and enhance the Necrons or try something new? I really have always loved IG, but they are sort of boring. Space Marines are also a favorite, I love speeders. Then I started thinking about Tyranids. I got home and saw some of the newer models, huge. Then I saw some of the rumors for the new codex and was pretty well sold.

The small group we have includes another Necron player, a Tau and a Blood Angel. I think some enormous bugs will fit right in. Look for more posts and pictures as I get started over the next few weeks.

Catch Up TV: Sarah Conner Chronicles

2011-03-12T23:47:00.000-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

My favorite thing about Netflix is that it gives me commercial free access to old TV shows that I missed when they were on the air. The most recent show for me has been The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I wrapped up the series tonight, and in general think it was very well done. Some spoilers appear below about how the series ends.

The added benefits of Summer Glau walking around in her underwear aside, the show was well cast and the acting was quite good. The story line picked up after the second Terminator 2 movie and follows Sarah & John Conner as they try to stop Skynet from ever forming. They are joined by Cameron who is a 888 terminator sent back from the future to guard John. Various other characters play into the series including a number of other terminators in both the 80x and 100x (liquid metal) lines. Plenty can be read about all this at the Terminator Wiki, better than I can do here.

I would not call myself a big fan of the Terminator movies, nor have I kept up with all of the fiction spawned from the story line. I do now the general story though, and after watching this series I was a tad disappointed in how it ends. Don't read any further if you want to keep the surprise.

We end the series at the end of season 2 with John Conner in the future, after the war has started, with no one knowing his name. Now I fully understand that multiple timelines (universes) exist in large part to all of the damn time travel going on, and I understand that he has jumped forward in the future and not had a chance to make a name for himself. That said he has got to be kinda pissed. His whole life up to this point has sucked ass, and he now finds himself in a world where he is unknown and all the hiding and running was for nothing. I am sure it feels good to not be in the sights of every walking tin can, but still sort of a let down from everything else we have ever heard about John.

As Weaver gets ready to make the time jump Sarah backs away leaving her son to go to who knows where with a terminator that only moments earlier she accused of building Skynet. She spends 15+ years protecting her son day and night from cyborgs and then just lets him disappear into nothing with one that she clearly doesn't trust? Talk about destroying continuity. At least have her beg and plead for him to not go. This was my biggest disappointment.

I do really like the John Henry/Weaver/T1001 story line though. It was sort of obvious for a lot of season 2 that Weaver was not completely bad. When they tried to kill Savanna though, it became more obvious that she was being hunted by the true bad guys. You also discover that very few people realize Weaver is not human, maybe just John Henry. That there are terminator models that do not have to blindly follow SkyNet makes good sense for this story overall, because without some help it is hard to imagine that any humans survive. This series makes it plain that John keeps lots of cyborgs around him. Building a computer to match SkyNet, but teaching it how to "be human" is an interesting idea. Having John Henry painting miniatures and playing D&D was just icing on the cake. I would very much like to have the ability to always roll a 20.

One thing I found interesting was that in the episode where Cameron goes bad she prevents John from killing her by telling him that she loves him. Obviously, she cannot because she is just a cyborg. However, when John sees Allyson (the human who's form is used for Cameron) at the end of the series you get the idea that they will hit is off good. Makes me think that it was some memory of Allysons that made Cameron tell John he loved her. Perhaps they become close. Though it would be hard to imagine him turning her over to be assimilated then.

With only 2 seasons this show was certainly cut way short. It is amazing to me that shows like this die and all of the reality garbage stays on the air. I suppose it is people like me who are to blame though. I didn't lend my eyes to the viewer-ship when the show was on the air. Watching 4 years later on Netflix doesn't count for much in that regard. The show is worth watching if you like science fiction, and likely worth a glance even if you don't.

Catch the WFRP Disease

2011-03-07T23:50:00.000-06:00

If you were to ask me what roleplaying game I was most interested in playing I would have to say Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition. I think my background as a board and miniatures gamer plays a role in thinking this way, I like the visual aspect of the game. However, it is not just that this game has a lot of pretty looking bits to it. The components in this game are actually really useful to game play, and help to set a tone that I have never seen in the other games in my collection.

I was reminded of this while re-reading through the disease rules last night. If you are not familiar with the game I suggest that you check out either the Outsiders You Tube channel or the Reckless Dice podcast. In summary, the 3rd edition of Warhammer makes use of cards to track player characters. Each career (think class) of PC has a number of slots that can hold talent cards. Talent cards are similar to Feats from 4e D&D, they allow PC's to do better at tests of various kinds. The mechanic works well especially since a PC can have access to more talents than he has slots for, and swap them out as the situation warrants.

The power of the components really shines though when you look at something like the disease rules. The Warhammer world is a dirty place, rife with disease and other nastiness. In the game you can contract diseases in any number of ways, and if you fail your test to resist you fall ill. What's great is that when you fall prey to the disease, represented by a card, you slide it in to one of the slots normally reserved for your talents. Until you get better, you cannot use a talent in that slot. Each disease has it's own nasty effects, but in addition, your illness prevents you from operating at 100%. This is all very visual, you can actually get a sense from just looking at your character sheet that you do not feel good, that your sick. In D&D, even if you contract a disease, you never get a feel like your sick. You operate the character the same for the most part. There is no visual representation to remind you that you should feel like crap, and it is easy to forget to roleplay the illness. WFRP goes a long way towards keeping the condition front and center, and hopefully enhancing roleplay as a result.

I recorded a quick video to demonstrate how it all works.

A Game of Thrones Thoughts

2011-03-07T23:47:00.000-06:00

I am anxiously awaiting the start of A Game of Thrones on HBO in April. In preparation for the series I thought it would be a good idea to actually "read" the book. Rather than read it, I have actually been listening to it via Audible during my commutes. I finished the book today, and really cannot wait to see the show. If you have not taken a look at some of the previews for the show on You Tube I suggest you do. Really does look amazing.

I did buy a couple of games from Fantasy Flight now that I am all into the stories. I picked up Battle for Westeros and the Game of Thrones living card game. I might pick up the board game when reprinted as well. I think these two will hold me over.

A few thoughts on the book (spoilers ahead):

The Audible book is read by Roy Dotrice (who also plays the character of Grand Maester Pycelle in the series). He does a good job of narrating, bringing lots of life to the characters, though there are a few places where the wrong voice is used and you have to think carefully about who is actually saying the part. Good job reading though for a fairly complicated text.
It really is amazing how much changes from beginning to end. I knew from reading the description of the Game of Thrones board game (before I started the book) that the king died. That was not much of a shock regardless. Killing Eddard though was a huge shock. It seems that the story going forward will focus on Robb and Arya and Jon Snow. While they did have pretty major roles in the book, I would not have thought they would be the main characters at the end.
There is not much fantasy in this book. The dire wolves, and the 700 foot wall are pretty fantastic (I cannot wait to see the wall and the wolves in the series). Otherwise, you really don't get to much fantasy until you get to the end of the story of Daenerys. The blood magic and the dragons hatching start to bring a lot more fantasy into what was otherwise a story of intrigue at a medieval court.
Low fantasy yes, high sex yes! The sexual tension at court, the rape occurring as a spoil of war seem to fit fine. However, many of the descriptions of Daenerys seem to be overly sexual without any real purpose. Do we really need to know in such detail everywhere her handmaids place her perfume? Should make for an interesting series on HBO. Rome was not shy with the sexual content.
I have a feeling that Arya will play a fairly major role going forward. He makes an effort to point out that the Mormonts send women into battle, and Arya seems to have a talent for the sword. I also have a feeling that Jon Snow will do something to save Catelyns life, or otherwise endear himself to her. Not sure how that will work with him on the wall, but they spent so much time letting us know how much she hated him.
The book does such a good job of letting you alternately like and hate certain characters. Tyrion is made to be a character that you love to hate. He has the best lines.

I have not decided if I will wait till the series is over before starting the next book. I am very anxious to hear what happens next as so much has been left hanging. I also don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I have a feeling though that I will start the next book soon.

3 hours from sprue to glue

2011-02-23T00:02:00.000-06:00

I think I might have found the perfect set of fantasy miniatures for me. In fact, I think I might have found the perfect set of mass battle rules to go along with those miniatures. I mentioned in a previous post that I had ordered the Mantic Games Elven Warhost. This is a set of miniatures for Mantic's Kings of War (beta rules are free) game, and comes with 53 plastic figures.

The figures form a good basis for an army for the game. The box set includes a unit of 20 spearmen with command, 20 archers with command, 10 scouts, and 1 bolt thrower (with two crew). They are nice figures, but more importantly they are incredibly easy to assemble. Sunday night I sat down to try and assemble a few of the models. I decided to start with some of the scouts. I figured I would get the scouts done at the most, likely not even all 10, as I only had about 90 minutes. Much to my surprise I complete not only the 10 scouts but all 20 spearmen as well. Monday night I assembled the 20 archers and the bolt thrower, took about 90 minutes as well. I am pretty sure I have never assembled so many miniatures in such a short amount of time. There are some extra bits I can add if I want, but for me and my needs the models are done. I recorded a quick, well 5 minutes quick, video last night where I basically said everything I just wrote here.

I am going to grab some army painter spray to get them painted up using the army painter dips. I think I will include a few more models to go along with these as well. Kings of War is all about big games, with lots of models, and I think I can oblige.

I will cover the rules for this game in a different post, but I am very excited about them. They have a great feel to them with enough crunch but only 12 pages of rules. It is one of the first games that I feel I know how to play fully after a single reading of the rules. Hopefully I can find someone in Houston who is interested in playing.

Prime Time

2011-02-20T16:00:00.002-06:00

Pulled a whole bunch of miniatures out of my storage closet earlier in the week. These are mostly miniatures that I forgot I had. After cleaning out the garage today I decide if would base them up.
Pictured are a Necron fleet for Battlefleet Gothic, a Syntha strike team for Urban War and my new Malifaux crew.
The Necrons should be pretty easy to paint up, my Necron color scheme isn't that fancy. No idea what to do with the Syntha though. I doubt it will ever play, maybe they will just go back into their foam and into storage.
Iain is ready to see Teddy painted for Malifaux so I will be working on him first. He is playing in the jumping house while I clean, and paint and blog.

To Vanquish a dragon - Gaming Recap

2011-02-20T10:45:00.000-06:00

We played 4e again on Thursday, making the decision to move on from the battle against the trees. The party found themselves in an ancient tree fortress, long since lost to forces other than those of good. The trees lower levers resembled the Sziezlock fortress in basic design, but the remainder of the enormous tree was made of a series of levels. Stairs curved around the edge of the tree, and openings in the walls led out either to balconies atop huge branches or into the middle of huge branches. The interiors of the the branches form massive living chambers.

The party rushed to the top of the tree, following who they thought might have been their former party member Pax. When they arrived they found themselves in brilliant sunlight, above the tree line of the Feywild. Keyleth and Jack notice the figure they saw as Pax slip through a portal before it closes. He looks back right before slipping through, and Keyleth is sure it is Pax. The party investigates a bit more and they find it is a place like the top floor of the Skiezlock tower. An energy field divides the top in half and one arm of a massive orrery can be seen. Beyond the field are two containers, each housing some disembodied body parts, they are in less than good condition. As Uthal investigates he hears a voice he does not understand. Keyleth and Jack perk up to the voice in Elven, especially his words about how hungry he is.

The party finds themselves facing an Adult Mirage Dragon. The dragon was the traditional guardian of the top of this tree and the ceremonies conducted here. In recent decades though, he has guarded the work of Malachai. The dragons attacks are Willpower based, and the party has a hard time with Willpower. The dragon in general was quite effective against the party. As with all large solos, I removed about 1/4 of the hit points from the monster and increased his at will and one encounter powers by an additional dice type. I also added a few points to all of the At-Will static damage. This works especially well with higher level monsters, and is a good way to challenge this party (who has an uber-Cleric). The party did miss 4 Eladrin archers on the lower branches as they made their way up, and they came up the stairs after the party. The appearance of the archers, and the effectiveness of their bows, caused a round or two of disruption, but in the end the party was able to dispatch all but one. One female Eladrin made her way back down the stairs in the middle of the battle. I wonder where she went?

Overall, it was a close battle, and the party had to work hard to keep themselves in the right position. The top of the tree didn't leave much room for maneuver. The party did learn that a convergence of the Material, Fey and Shadow planes happens tomorrow. Can they figure out how to open the portal and race through before the alignment occurs? And does the alignment even mean anything to the party or their goals.

It was a good session. I didn't get much painting done this week, at least not as much as I had hoped. I dipped the snakes I painted up last week, as well as a group of mummies for my Nefsokar Warlord army. They really are the perfect models for dipping. My order arrived from the Warstore and I got my first look at the Malifaux rules and models. The rules are way different from anything I have played before, and I am excited to give them a try. The models look good, but Baby Kade and Candy are much smaller than I had thought they would be, will need a very steady hand. Hopefully I will get a chance to paint one or two of them this week.

I played a game of Guillotine at work this week, the first game I have played at work in ages. Iain and I tried out our new copy of Duck! Duck! Safari this week. We played a couple of games, though one of them was on the edge of his skill level. We will keep working on it as he loves the idea of the games.

Dystopian Scenery

2011-02-17T14:39:00.000-06:00

Oh these look very nice. My book for Dystopian Wars should arrive today, and I am sure that an order for a fleet will not be too far behind.

Jumping to Malifaux

2011-02-13T22:44:00.000-06:00

Malifaux Rules Cover

It really is all about the miniatures. They just look so damn cool, and creepy, and you cannot EVER go wrong with a giant killer teddy bear...EVER! So I have watched with great interest the discussions around the skirmish miniatures game Malifaux for about a year now. I have not been playing many miniatures games though, so I figured I would just skip it.

Since OwlCon my interest in miniatures games, especially Skirmish level miniatures games, is at an all time high. I mentioned in my weekly recap post that I had ordered up the rules and a starting crew for the game. The order has shipped, and I will have my new toys in hand on the 18th. Very excited.

Like many people, I was drawn to the awesome weirdness of the Neverborn. It really is the giant teddy bear that seals the deal, but the fact that many of the miniatures are kids, with knives, does not hurt. When the models arrive I will be visiting the doll house section at Hobby Lobby to see if I can find some suitable toys to include on the bases for my new crew. While I have heard she is not the easiest to start off with, I decided to grab the Pandora crew, Legion of Sorrow. As I understand it, she is all about tormenting the minds of her opponents. She opens the box, and all hell breaks loose. There is a great thread on the Wryd Games (publishers of Malifaux) website with all manner of tactics and tips for Pandora and her crew. It was actually a very informative read, even though I have not read the rules to the game yet.

Teddy Model for Malifaux Neverborn

Pandora's crew comes with Baby Kade and Candy. As sweet a little boy and girl as you will find in this world. The box also comes with a few smaller minions called Sorrows. Apparently, they exist solely to amplify the torment caused by Pandora and the rest of the crew. There was no way I would start off without the big guy himself, Teddy.

Looking at the other available models, and reading some of the tactics I am pretty sure I will be getting a doppelganger and some terror tots to grow the crew.

I talked to a few gamers at OwlCon this year who said they were playing Malifaux, but I know that at least two of them were not from Houston. Hopefully, I will be able to find a game.

Really looking forward to the this game because of:

the cool models,
the interesting setting (and terrain options),
the fact it is another skirmish game to try,
the unique card based resolution mechanic (pretty sure it does not use dice at all).

Here are some resources for the game if you are interested in finding out more:

Wryd Games Home (Check out the forum)
Battlefoam Custom Carry Case
World Works Terrain (should be available in March)
Board Game Geek Page

Malifaux Podcasts & Videos of Interest
D6 Generation Malifaux Review Episode
D6 Generation Rising Powers Discussion Episode
The Aethervox Podcast

Gaming Weekly Recap

2011-02-13T14:08:00.000-06:00

Fairly typical week for gaming this week. We played D&D a little bit on Thursday, still trying to wrap up the modified Tear of Ioun campaign. Due to a late start again we are still in the midst of a combat in the Feywild. I am tempted to simply call the fight a success and move in, in fact I think that is what I will do. Really don't want to drag out the same set of tiles for a 3rd session. I think that over all interest in 4e has become non-existent. I am reading through my materials for Hellfrost, a Savage Worlds setting, and would like to run an adventure in that world sometime. I am still quite fond of SW in general, especially how easy it is to just run.

Speaking of roleplaying games I started looking at the 6d6 rpg this week. I was planning to buy the game that had available, but issues with Google Checkout and my recently updated card prevented it. The game does look interesting though, using a deck of custom cards to help resolve things in game. Sounds interesting, and the site has some dates for public playtest sessions, which i might try and get in on.

I am continuing to make a dent in the huge amount of bare metal I have in my miniatures cabinet. This week I was able to paint up a good number of the models in my Reptus warband for Warlord. I also started painting ships for my Sorylian fleet for Firestorm Armada. Iain bought me some paints for Christmas this year and I used those paints for the fleet. He was glad to see them put to use. My goal with all of my painting is basic tabletop quality, and these ships are not taking long at all to get done to the degree. I need to dip my Reptus models and complete the bases this weekend, but the warband is well on its way.

Sorylian Ships - Firestorm Armada

Reptus Snakes for Warlord

Just a couple of more weeks until my Song of Blades and Heroes game day. Jeff, from 6 arrows and my weekly RPG group, bought a copy of the rules and tried the game out. He has also invited a couple of friends along, so we should have a good turn out. I plan to have one graveyard board setup as well as a larger wooded board with a ruined castle in the middle. I spent some time re-basing a lot of my trees so that they look more consistent and are on more stable bases. Really looking forward to playing miniatures for a whole afternoon.

Graveyard table for SoBH Game Day

Speaking of miniatures games I ordered up a new load from The Warstore this week, should be here on Friday. I bought the Dystopian Wars rulebook, but decided against getting a fleet right now. I am pretty sure that I will be going with the Blazing Sun though. I ordered up an Elven Warhost from Mantic Games as well. I finally had a chance to read through the rules for Kings of War, and I really like the simplicity. Having read them, and looked at some of the models, I am not sure why I thought it was a good idea to buy back into Warhammer. Oh well, the VC army should still look nice if I get it completed. I am looking forward to the Elves though. I have never had an Elven army, and in general am not a fan of elves, but I like to get different armies with different games. Last thing I got was the rules and a starter crew for Malifaux. I have been on the fence for a long time on Malifaux, but decided to take the plunge. I will write more about that decision, and why I am so excited about it in another post.

The Mobile App Dilemma for Legal IT

2011-02-08T22:31:00.000-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

The opinions presented in this post are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer.

There is no question that mobile technologies such as smartphones, tablets and netbook sized computers have changed the way IT must think about the technology they provide. It is no longer enough to think about how an application or service will run on a Windows desktop or laptop computer. We must consider how to make a similar experience available to our clients on a device they can carry in the palm of their hand. If we cannot replicate the experience, we must endeavor to provide access to the same information.

I think these challenges are especially hard for IT departments in the legal industry that have spent the past decade or more building up a staff that is knowledgeable about Microsoft Office, iManage, document comparison and table of authorities generation. It is quite a radical shift to no longer think about how to provide a service like metadata cleaning just through Outlook, but through the Blackberry, iPad and multiple Android devices as well. IT has not been immune to staffing changes through the economic down turn, and must make due with less staff. The pace of technology change, it would seem, forgot to slow down with the economy.

We are past the time where we can argue whether or not we need to get into the "mobile mindset". Mobile devices are here to stay and will only continue to increase in numbers, and variety. The challenge now is to decide which path we walk down in mobile. There are really two choices we can make:

Develop web based applications.
Develop device specific applications.

Neither of these choices are ideal for legal IT staff as they both will require the acquisition of skills not currently available in the department. Neither choice is clearly superior to the other, each offering a unique set of benefits and challenges. Web applications should run on most modern smart phones, meaning that coding can be done once for all devices. However, web apps need to be written using the newest HTML 5 standards in order to provide even a fraction of the functionality that native apps can provide. Device specific apps have the opposite issues. They are great for building rich, data driven applications but you need to write a different app for each platform. Cash and time strapped IT departments will have a hard time making that work. I think it is a real problem that will require a fair bit of discussion internally to determine the right path to walk down.

I don't know that I have a great solution to this problem, but I do have a couple of points I would like to raise.

Blackberry Rules: Regardless of how fast the iPad and other devices rise in legal, the Blackberry is still the king. A mix of familiarity, a great keyboard, and easy enterprise integration make this device the undisputed leader in terms of smartphones in legal. I don't hold out great hope for the Blackberry Playbook, but I think we will see some firms adopt them. With this in mind, the solutions that IT provides should work on the Blackberry. The legal IT community should encourage vendors to focus development efforts on the Blackberry (at the very least).
Web Apps: Where possible we should be looking to see how we can use native web apps to meet our mobile needs. We should encourage vendors to do the same. There are some good examples of web apps right now that provide an amazing UI experience in the browser. If you have not checked out PostPost I suggest you do. They have done amazing things in the browser for displaying Facebook information. Use Google Chrome if you can to see what they have done with the UI there, quite impressive. I have talked to a couple of vendors that understand the need to keep things web native, even for them developing for iOs, Blackberry and Android is too cumbersome. Legal IT needs to encourage vendors to move down this path.
iPad Fevor: There is no doubt that the iPad is the king of the tablet space right now. I think we need to be cautious though that we do not put too much emphasis on one device. I would be surprised to see even 20% of lawyers using a iPad for work at any given firm, likely far less. I fear that if legal IT puts too much focus on the iPad vendors will see that as a sign to push development efforts in that one direction. I think that is a bad move for legal in the long run.

I am excited to see the sessions for this years ILTA conference. I am hopeful that we will see sessions covering the issues of mobile development, and see some new mobile offerings from vendors. I also hope that sessions do not focus too heavily on any single device. The iPad is a great tool, but it is not the only tool. I would love to come back with some information on how to use mobile technology in the legal industry, iPad or not.

It is my intention to start posting more articles of interest to me professionally. That is not something I have done much, but I think it is time. Expect to see more short articles of interest to those in the legal technology field over the coming weeks and months. Use the legal IT tag to find these posts. I will include a feed link on my Subscribe page in the next couple of days.

The Lure of Cool Minis

2011-02-06T14:46:00.001-06:00

Mechanical Squid..how awesome is that?

I was pretty sure I wanted to buy an army for Dystopian Wars, and I was pretty sure it was going to be the Blazing Sun army, mostly because of the cool train look to the vessels. Now I know for sure! Spartan Games has a preview up of some of the sea vessels for the game, including the mechanical squid. Looks way too cool.

Dystopian Wars - Mechanical Ika [Squid]

Warhammer RPG got you confused?

2011-02-05T19:30:00.001-06:00

If you have even a passing interest in the Warhammer Fantasy RPG I suggest you take a listen to the 2nd episode of the Reckless Dice podcast.

They do a great job in this episode of talking about the various dice in the game and how they can be used. The dice are such a unique and key component of the game, and they do a great job of explaining their importance in this episide.

They also address a few of the misconceptions of the game that you can find on the Internet. You really get a sense for how well this game helps players build a story. Even if you focus on combat, you cannot help but to let the dice build the story.

Give the show a listen if you have not. Hopefully you will get a sense of the game and the desire to play. Houstonians look me up if it does.

Episode 2 – Dice and Misconceptions | Reckless Dice

The Cult of Cuska - A Warband for SoBH

2011-02-05T00:18:00.002-06:00

I cannot wait for the end of the month. I have scheduled up a game day with my game group to introduce them to Song of Blades and Heroes. I have spent a bit of time today pulling out some of my old warbands for Song of Blades and started putting them down on paper. I want to be ready, and I want to make the game as easy as possible since most of the players are not really familiar with miniatures gaming.

I think making warbands for this game is actually about 50% of the fun for me. I have so many miniatures lying around from old Warhammer armies, D&D miniatures and a number of other games, that I just have to try and build a warband from all of them. Each army is getting a brief write up, and a detail page for each models statistics. I highly recommend using the warband builder available online. You can output a text file with the saved warband and keep it in a document along with the write up, makes for easy army list maintenance. I keep all of mine in Google Docs, and when combined with the online warband builder makes for a perfect cloud based system.

D&D Minis work great for this game

As a sample, I completed the Serpent Cult of Cuska warband earlier today (Cuska is the Latvian word for serpent, love Google translate to get names for things). Below is a sample of what the write up looks like. The printed write up also includes a chart with all of the Special Rules for the warband included. This warband is made up of models from the D&D miniatures line, and focuses on the use of poison and a few other tricks. Perhaps the weakest part of the army is the overzealous leader, Arwelnydd (another name from translate). Losing your leader in SBH can be a disaster, and he likes to run right in and mix things up.

The Serpent Cult of Cuska (293)

For many years Cuska, the self proclaimed king of all serpents, has been building an army. From the lowliest garden serpent to the might dragons of the sea he has quietly built his power. He now sends roving bands of his minions out to steal, kill and otherwise create mayhem in the world. This warband represents one such band.

Arweinydd y Sariff (90): Half man and half snake. A fast poison coated blade is his weapon of choice. He prefers running into combat to make a quick kill before moving on to his next target.

Quality: +2 Combat: 3 Special: Dashing, Evil, Poison, Leader

Tywyll Neidr (44): A large snake, super intelligent with a deadly poisonous bite. Uses his huge tail to knock down his enemies after an attack.

Quality: +4 Combat: 4 Special: Big, Evil Poison, Tailslap

Death Rattle Viper (33): This small rattlesnake packs a serious mean streak and deadly poison in his fangs. His small size gives him great stealth ability, and he always finishes off a downed victim.

Quality: +4 Combat: 3 Special: Animal, Evil, Opportunistic, Poison, Stealth

Viper Fiend (38): Watch your feet, because the Viper fiend can burrow under the ground. When he attacks he uses his vicious fangs, and sharp spiked body to savagely maul his prey.

Quality: +4 Combat: 3 Special: Evil, Burrowing, Savage, Poison

Spitting Vipers (22x4): Working together as a team, a group of spitting vipers can quickly take down enemies. Not as strong on their own, and far more likely to act as a group.

Quality: +5 Combat: 3 Special: Animal, Evil, Gregarious, Shooter: Long

OwlCon Day Two Recap

2011-02-03T22:16:00.001-06:00

Realized I never posted up my thoughts about my second day at OwlCon. I only attended a single 4 hour session on Sunday as I needed to get home to take part in the weekly rituals of laundry and house cleaning. The session I attended though was well worth it, and I was almost tempted to stay around for a second 4 hours (they ran the session twice back to back).

The game I played is called Song of Drums and Shakos. This is a skirmish miniatures game set during the Napoleonic era. The rules are based on the game Song of Blades and Heroes, and both are published by Ganesha Games. These rule sets are awesome for two reasons: 1) they are cheap at $8 for the PDF and 2) they allow the use of any miniatures you want. Song of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy based game and works well with pretty much any fantasy figures you might have from Games Workshop, Reaper, WoTC you name it. Song of Drums works equally as well with Napoleonic miniatures from a variety of manufacturers. Both games work well in 15mm and 25mm scales.

The scenario for the con was a group of British riflemen had retreated to a position in a burnt out village. A group of french infantry and dragoons followed and prepared to engage. I played on the side of the french with two others. I took up the center, and control of our sides commander. I did not play him well. The game did last most of the 4 hours we were scheduled, and it was very bloody. In the end, the loses suffered by the French were too great and we had to retreat. Throughout the game I tried to kill one single rifleman who had climbed up into a building. In hindsight I should have gone around one of the building and left him there, but I didn't. I shot at him almost every turn during the game and didn't manage to hit him once. I think he killed 3 of my guys including the commander. He was basically superman, and it drove me crazy that I could not take him out. There had actually been two guys in the building, but the first one I was ale to kill in one or two shots. Of course, it is this unpredictability that makes this game so much fun.

As I played I was reminded of everything I liked about this game system. The games actually play quite fast compared to something like Warhammer or 40K. The rules are easy enough to teach to someone in a 5 minute overview and new players are comfortable with the game after one or two rounds of playing. There is enough depth to the rules to allow good tactics to impact the outcome, and enough luck of the dice to make sure that the game cannot be gamed. Best of all this game is about combat, and it is bloody. Once combat starts it can be over very fast. The games is deadly, and that's how it should be.

One thing I will say for OwlCon this year is that all of the people I gamed with were awesome. In years past I have always seemed to find at least one player who wanted to argue rules or otherwise generally be unpleasant. Not so this year. The wide variety of gamers is what makes a convention like OwlCon great, and this year I got to game with the cream of the crop.

If you want to read more about the game at OwlCon check out the write up on the Tactical Miniatures Gaming blog. There are some additional pictures of the game in my OwlCon album on Picasa.

Amazon Extras - Amazon sites you might not know about

2011-02-03T16:57:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

When it comes to online addictions, most people know me as pretty addicted to the tools that Google offers. Those who have been to my house know how regularly boxes from Amazon show up on the front step, and it is no surprise that I am about as equally addicted to the tools that Amazon offers. I wanted to talk about 4 tools from Amazon that you might now know about. Amazon has become much more than just an online book store, and you can really see that in some of these Amazon extras.

Kindle: Most people know about the Kindle e-reader by now. The device is vary popular and you see them everywhere these days. What I want to talk about though is the http://kindle.amazon.com site. One of the benefits of the Kindle is the attached keyboard. The keyboard makes it possible to easily annotate the books you read. You can highlight passages and make notes. It is a great way to help make sense out of what you read. Getting back to all of these great highlights and notes on the Kindle is not always the easiest, which is why the URL above exists. When you visit kindle.amazon.com you will see all of your books, along with your annotations, from any web browser. You can add new notes to highlights to further think through what you read, delete unwanted highlights, and see public highlights from others in the same book. There is also a tool for rating the book and marking the book as read or unread. The tool is simple to use, and very powerful.

My Highlights Page for Kindle

SoundUnwound: This is a wiki based music catalog that Amazon runs. The service has been around for a while, and allows you to help edit a library of information about music. They have some tools for music discovery based on the music library you have imported. They have a tool to sync Amazon purchases to your music library which is nice if you buy a lot of music via Amazon. If you are up to the challenge there is a music quiz you can take based on the music in your own library or a set of generic quizzes for various genres of music. Editing the site is easy, and the more you edit the higher you rank. I am not sure there is anything to rank other than seeing your name on the list of top editors. Likely not the best music discovery site on the net, but a useful tool especially with the Amazon sync.

My Library View on SoundUnwound

Shelfari: What SoundUnwound is to music, Shelfari is to books. They have recently merged logins from the original site to use Amazon accounts and have enabled book syncing with Amazon. Like SoundUnwound, Shelfari is a collaboration style site. They encourage users to add Facts to the books in their shelves. Things like authors are usually filled in, but other details like first sentence are asked for. You can tag, rate, review and and other personal metadata to books on your shelf. Groups and sharing options add a social aspect to the site. Shelfari works well for me now as I purchase 99% of my books via Amazon. Kindle and traditional books both show in the sync which is nice. I really like Shelfari. It is similar to Good Reads and other book reading tools. The collaborative bits go a bit further though, and the Amazon integration standout.

My Shelf on Shelfari

Amazon Console: I make use of Amazon's S3 storage service, in conjunction with Jungle Disk, to save backup copies of files to the cloud. The Amazon console is one tool I can use to access the files I have stored online. I use the service purely as offsite backup, but you could store anything on S3. Jungle Disk integrates nicely with my desktop running Windows, but when I get onto other computers I turn to the web console when I need access. The S3 part of the console looks very much like browsing files stored on your computer. You can also use the console for Amazon's other cloud based computing tools, but my usage is limited to S3 currently. If you are interested in inexpensive offsite back up I suggest taking a look at Jungle Disk and Amazon S3.

There it is, four tools that Amazon has that you may not have known about. If you use SoundUnwound or Shelfari give me a shout. Audible, the audio book store, is now owned my Amazon, but I figured enough was known about that service. Are there any Amazon run tools that you like to use?

Blogging from Android

2011-02-03T14:26:00.001-06:00

Google just filled with huge hole on the Android platform with the introduction of a native Blogger app.

The app has basic Blogger functionality including the ability to share pictures from the phone. This post written with the new app, we will see how it turns out.

I am noticing that there does not appear to be a way to see/select from the list of labels.on a blog. Hopefully, that is something that can be addressed.

Blogger Buzz: Introducing Blogger Android App

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.blogger

Uncharted Seas - Iron Dwarves Fleet

2011-02-01T20:56:00.000-06:00

I was just so excited about getting a chance to play some Uncharted Seas this past weekend that I speed painted my way through my Iron Dwarves starter miniatures. Certainly not an expert paint job, but more that adequate for me to play with. Just a few other ships to paint and I will have a complete fleet. Now to find more games.

If you are in the Houston area and play Uncharted Seas (or any of the other Spartan Miniatures games) give me a shout.

Iron Dwarves Fleet for Uncharted Seas

Playing Crokinole - Have I been following the rules?

2011-01-31T23:34:00.001-06:00

My Crokinole Board

One thing I learned at OwlCon this year was that I was not playing Crokinole 100% correctly. I was not sure where the issue came from so I spent some time trying to figure things out. The three rules I was not playing correctly were:

the ability to do a combo shot to hit an opponents piece. I have been playing that the first piece touched must be an opponents piece.
the rule that when your opponent has no pieces on the board your shot must land at least touching the 15 point (center) circle.
that you move pieces down to the lower score, not up to the higher when they are on the line.

Number 3 was plain and simple me not remembering correctly, and just going with what I thought was right. No excuses there, I was just doing it wrong. Number 1 and number 2 though are interesting. I had recently read the rules about shooting when the board did not have an opponents piece and it did not say anything about number 2. We were trying to decide if it was legal to try and land your piece behind a post so that your opponent has no shot.

I went back to my source for rules at the website of the guys who made my game board. Here is what I found out looking for these rules in particular. On number 1, the rules clearly state that:

Relay and carrom shots are allowed, but if an opponent's disc is not touched, then all of your discs that have been touched are removed to the ditch. This includes any of your discs that may have landed in the 20 hole. You are not required to strike an opponent's disc first.

Not sure how I missed that one. I am getting the impression that I didn't read the rules closely enough. On number 2 though, I don't find anything in the core rules of the game which states the shot must touch the 15 point line. However, there is a variant (common in tournaments) which states that:

Any free shot (there are no opponent's discs on the board) must come to rest entirely within the 15 circle or be removed from play. Any other discs you strike are unaffected. That is, if your access to the 15 circle is blocked by your discs, you may carrom your other discs toward the 20 hole, but your shooter disc must remain in the 15 circle or be removed. This rules is used in most tournaments.

I think this is a good alternate rule, even if it is not part of the official rules. The game really is not any fun if someone tries to just park pieces where they cannot be hit. I don't think it matches the spirit of the game. I would play though that as long as it is partially in the 15 point zone it will count. If it is not, the piece is removed to the ditch.

I checked a couple of other sites and the rules seem pretty consistent, I just needed to read more closely. I don't feel to bad though since there was another guy standing with us at OwlCon watching, and he had similar misconceptions about the rules. Looking forward to playing the right way!

OwlCon Day 1 Recap

2011-01-29T23:22:00.000-06:00

Had a good time today at OwlCon in Houston. Owlcon is not a large convention, but it is very well run and always offers a lot of gaming opportunities. I played a couple of games today and did a bit of painting. Not a bad way to spend the day at all.

A wise old mouse

Started off the morning at the Reaper Paint & Take booth where participants choose a free miniature from a selection of Reaper miniatures and use supplied paints to paint it up. You can get advice on how to paint, and it is in general good fun. I chose to paint up a small mouse, which looks like it would be perfect for the Mouse Guard RPG. I am thinking that it will also make an awesome figure for Song of Blades and Heroes. I chose what appears to be some sort of mouse mage or druid. He has an acorn staff and is smoking a pipe. I was able to add a few highlights to him, and I think he turned out well.

After painting, and bit of looking around in the vendor area, I sat down to have some lunch with Jeff from my game group (who also joined me at the painting area). Jeff published the 6 Arrows blog, and is responsible for recording all of our weekly game sessions. Lucky for us we ate while most people were still gaming, and we avoided the long lines.

Next up was a game or 3 of Crokinole. Playing Crokinole at OwlCon means playing against Tony Elam. Tony is Houston's resident Crokinole Master, and he offers a prize to any person who can beat him or score the most points against him. Typically, the winner has simply been able to score more points than anyone else. He is very good. Jeff sat down to play him first, and fared quite well. He lasted 4 rounds before being defeated. He gave up his seat after one game, and I was destroyed in a single round. Tony beat me 120 to 0 in that first game. Everyone has the option to play two games though and I did. I didn't win the second game either, but I was able to score 25 points on him. Turns out that 25 points was enough to be today's winner. I got to select from a set of games, mostly older RPG stuff, as a prize. I chose the board game Seismic, by Atlas Games. Looks to be a pretty simple little path building game.

My battleship is in position

When 3 o'clock rolled around it was time for my main event of the day, Uncharted Seas. This is a fantasy naval miniatures game published by Spartan Games. I have had the game for a long while, but never had the chance to play. When I arrived I was able to select from a number of fleets and choose to use the Iron Dwarves. I own an Iron Dwarves fleet, though they are unpainted, and I welcomed the chance to see how they played. You can check out some pictures of the game, and the awesome models we go to use, on Picasa. As for the game? I am very happy to report that except for some minor damage, I came through the event unscathed. I was the only player out of 8 to not loose any ships. I wiped out 3 frigate squads, part of two cruiser squads and sunk one of my opponents battleships. It was a good game for me. The game itself is so fun to play, and easy to learn that I cannot understand why I have not plyed sooner. The game is not expensive to get started with, about $45 online, and plays very quickly. I need to convince others to play.

OwlCon does not disappoint when it comes to providing a fun atmosphere for gaming. This year was no exception. The Uncharted Sea's game especially was well run. We had 8 players, and everything ran smooth as silk. There were not arguments, not disagreements, no hurt feelings, it just worked. Great experience that has me really excited about playing the game more. I am also very interested in the two other games from Spartan, Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars. All three games share the same basic mechanics, so learning one helps to learn the others.

Overall, it was a great first day. I am back again in the morning for a couple of more games.

Headed to OwlCon

2011-01-28T23:47:00.000-06:00

I am heading to the local game convention at Rice University tomorrow. I have gone for the past five years, and OwlCon is always a good time. It is always my goal to play games that I might not otherwise get a chance to play. However, this year I am actually preregistered for two events, both games that I actually own.

Tomorrow I will be playing Uncharted Sea's from Spartan Games. I actually have a bunch of miniatures, and the rule books, but have not had the chance to play. I am bringing my, sadly, unpainted Iron Dwarves miniatures with me tomorrow so perhaps they will see some action. The game is a fantasy naval combat game. Spartan seems to have done a good job of creating a simple, fast play game. I am looking forward to this game quite a lot.

Sunday morning I will be playing a game that I own the rules for, but have not played, Song of Drums and Shakos. This game is in the Song of Blades and Heroes line of miniatures skirmish games from Ganesha Games. I have a number of the games in the line, and picked this one up because I really want to get into some historical miniatures gaming. I tried Flames of War, but it was a bit too much for me. The Napoleonic Era is not one I am overly familiar with, so it seemed like a good choice. The game itself is super simple, but places a good amount of emphasis on making good command decisions. I have played a fair bit of the fantasy game Song of Blades and Heroes on which this is based. Looking forward to this as well.

I am planning to get in on a game (or two) of Warlord tomorrow and well as play Tony Elam in some Crokinole. Should be a good time. Pictures and updates later this weekend.

Game Night Recap: Back to 4e

2011-01-27T23:46:00.000-06:00

Due to some "staffing issues" we decided to put our Savage Worlds game on hold and swap back to 4th edition D&D this week. Not sure how many weeks this will last but I expect we will finish up the adventure we are playing before moving on again. It was not quite as difficult to switch back to 4e mode as I had anticipated, but the amount of prep time is just huge when compared to Savage Worlds. I spent a few evenings writing up some notes on what would be happening, and got some names and places down on paper. That was not too bad, and likely not more than I would have had to do for SW. However, then I had to plan out the encounters. This really takes way to long in D&D. My basic procedure is:

Pick a Theme (monster type, basic environment)
Draw up the map, and consider what to add in from a terrain standpoint.
Search through the various books, or use online tools to find monster types I like.
Modify the monsters to fit my needs. I often make Minions out of normal creatures and change the HP's of big monsters to help shorten combat a bit. Lots of little changes.
Download copies of the monsters from the Adventure Tools for import into inCombat via iPlay4e.
Print copies of the monster sheets for power reference at the table (I find the paper easier than the PC for tracking powers, but the PC easier for Init and Status tracking).

Overall, this takes me about 45 - 60 minutes per encounter. This is especially true now that the party is more advanced in level. This is just way too long. Perhaps I need a better system, it would certainly save time to switch back to all paper, but I fell that combat runs smoother with the PC helping.

Who will win?

Anyway, we got a late start tonight, and rushed though some of the potential roleplaying bits to try and get to some combat. The party has journeyed to the Feywild and are locked in battle with a group of Eladrin and two huge treants. It should be a challenging encounter for the party, one I think they will have to work together on to be successful. I am not sure they have faced two huge creatures like this.

The adventure we are playing started off as the published Tear of Ioun adventure from Dungeon Magazine. The adventure reads pretty good, but I messed up some of the bits early on, and then got bored with where the story was going. I decided to change it up a lot, and shorten the over all adventure. I still had enough to work with and making modifications has not been difficult. We should wrap this adventure up in 3 or 4 more sessions. I think after that I will be done with D&D for a while. I am very interested in running a game of Grimm, or a Hellfrost based Savage Worlds game, or give another try to Warhammer Fantasy.

The recording for tonights session should be up on 6arrows.com sometime next week. Most of us will be at the OwlCon game convention at Rice University this weekend.

Organizing the Bits - Warhammer FRP

2011-01-25T06:32:00.000-06:00

WFRP 3 Shelf

The 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is not your typical RPG. It is not just an assortment of books, instead it comes with cards, markers, card board stand ups, and more. No question, the game has a lot of bits. The recent release of the hard cover books for the game has given me the opportunity to reorganize all of the bits for the game in a way that I think will be far more useful. Prior to the release of the Players Guide, I had my cards for the game arranged in binders for easy scanning. Since the players guide has the text of all of the cards printed in the book I have decided to remove the cards from the binders and shrink my storage back into the core set boxes. I currently own 2 core sets and one of each of the expansions. I did not buy the GM or players vaults though. I keep the books on a shelf next to the components, but everything else fits in the two core set boxes and a home made tray. I have plenty of expansion room for the foreseeable future.

I thought I would walk through my storage setup for the game, and describe a bit about why I am doing it the way I am.

GM's Tray

Homemade GM Tray

I picked up a nice wooden silverware tray on sale at Target one day thinking it would be a good way to organize the cards, dice and other bits needed while I was running a game. Turns out I was right, it is perfect. I used a bit of foam core to create some extra dividers, and some spare index cards to create some labels. The tray has all of my wound, miscast, insanity and condition cards available at my finger tips. I also have 4 sections divided up for dice storage. Some extra containers near the back store counters and stance trackers. I also have all of my mutation, talent, focus and reputation cards stored in this tray. This is a nice way to keep things organized, especially if you do not need to travel with the game.

Core Set Box #1

This box containers the majority of the cards needed for game play. With the release of the books and the "lite" character sheet I have decided to store my cards unsleeved. I have sleeves for use in game as needed, but storing thim this way is much easier for me. I have four large plastic boxes which store 1) Action Cards, 2) DM Reference Cards (including from the Creature Vault), 3) Spell Cards amd 4) Blessing cards. They fit well with plenty of room for expansions. I have three small paper boxes for use on the table which contain stress/fatigue tokens, tracking tokens & corruption tokens. The box is rounded out with all of the large party and career type cards. I have not gotten them all organized yet, but will be using some 4x6 photo albums to keep them in good shape.

Core Set Box #2

This box holds the rest of the game components. I have divided up the various monster, npc and pc standups into trays and boxes by types. This works well for monsters as I have them divided up by type and can quickly find undead or chaos or whatever I need. I also have the adventure specific components divided up into plastic bags.

While I was at Michael's grabbing some of the stuff used to organize all of the bits I picked up a new tray with some felt and paint and built a dice tray for use with Warhammer. I chose a purple color that looked a lot more Tzeentch'y before I painted it on, but I think it still looks nice. Cannot beat the $2 I spent for it though.

Homemade dice tray

I recorded a short video overview of the setup as well to give you a closer look at how it is all organized (mostly to try out my new camera).