So as I look over my last few blog posts, I realize I am still not writing exactly what I want. The post about Marc was just want I wanted to say. Again I could have written so much more and I DO look forward to telling more stories. But one of the biggest thing I am missing is what I am playing/reading/listening to. Without that I just feel like I am missing a big chunk of what I am doing when I am relaxing. Because of all of this I want to start out with Games Played, Books Read/Listened, Music on my Mind, etc. So at least once a week I will just talking about what I have played lately.
To start with I got to play a new game on Thursday. Thank you Tim for bringing it in. Revolution! along with the expansion Revolution! The Palace is a quick bidding game. You have a little screen in front of a card with 16 different "jobs" on it, like General, or Priest, or Spy. You bid either gold, force or blackmail so that you can place cubes in areas of the board that correspond to buildings like the Tavern, the Cathedral, the Harbor, and others along with the expansion the Palace. For a better idea of the game you can check here or you can always check boardgamegeek to get a fan based idea how it plays. By adding the expansion we got to play with 6 players. This led to a LOT of tied bids and if you tie, no one wins that particular job/reward/location. It was a lot of fun as there is a nice reveal at the end of each bidding phase where you pulled aside your screen and everyone can see who won which jobs. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone as a quick filler game or a party game for non gamers. The bid system really makes it feel like a party kind of game.
As for books, I very rarely have time to read any more. The time to lay on the couch and just spending a few hours reading is a rare commodity. So I spend most of my book time listening to audio books from audible. The link included will get you a free audiobook. Even after that 14.95 a month for a new audiobook is a great price. The last book I listened to was Jim Henson's biography. It reminded me of everything I enjoyed about The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, and Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. There are so many thing I remembered that I enjoyed that came directly from the mind of Jim Henson. The world really is a poorer place because he is gone. I don't often listen to non-fiction book, much preferring science fiction, fantasy, and detective novels, but because it was about Jim Henson and The Muppets, I had that book pre-ordered for months. Harry Bosch and Jack Reacher are two of my favorite series.
Music is a BUNCH harder to describe what I like. About the only thing off limits for me is country music, which causes other trouble since that is my wife's favorite. There are even a few country artists I like though...Brad Paisley, Dixie Chicks to name the big two. Besides that I like funny or story music best. It is why The Final Cut is my favorite Floyd album. Right now the album I am listening to over and over is The Muppets: The Green Album. It is a remake of a lot of the muppet classics redone by alternative artists. Halfway down the stairs is what I am listening to first every time, although Mr Bassman is a close second. Besides Muppet music, Jonathan Coulton, Garfunkle and Oats, The Lonely Island, Lily Allen, and The Flight of the Conchords are some of my favorites. Most are dirty or strange, or funny or all of the above.
Well those are the big three, gaming, music, and books. Of course movies should be in that list too, but we will have to talk about those another time. This is at least a part of what I have been wanting to talk about. I actually wrote a different blog over the last couple days, and put it to the side, just so I could write this about the games I am playing. Don't worry, the other blog post about miniature assembly will be up in a couple days. I just wanted to write about the gaming I am doing now, and get the other stuff in over time as well.
Hope you are having a good day and are enjoying the read. Speaking of which, I know mostly it is just my friends reading this, and if you have any good stories about Marc, or in general stories about music or gaming you like, please leave a comment and let me know.
Until next time!!
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Mr. Moralez
This is going to be a tough one. I knew that once I started talking about the Olde World Warriors and Blood Bowl that I would be talking about Marc. We lost Marc in September of 2013. I had to go back to Facebook to double check when it was, it seems like it was forever ago, and yesterday that it all happened. I have known Marc for about 4-5 year before he passed. He worked at Lourdes College lighting shows performed there. Marc always had a great opinion about music, theater, and movies. He could look at them all both as performances and with an eye to the technical side of it as well because of his schooling and job. The number of times even outside of gaming when we would just sit and chat about anything are always some of my fondest memories of him. We would spend a few hours of relaxing and chatting about everything and nothing around The Game Room. Some of the best nights up at the game room started and ended with that.
Marc was always a lot of fun to game with and he had one of the best gaming rules around. He would be trying out a new game, and if Marc won, which happened more often then you would think, he would then claim that he would never play that game again, to keep his 100% win record. There were occasions when he didn't care for the game that he would keep that rule, but much more often he would be playing again the next time that game came up.
Marc always enjoyed Blood Bowl, bringing us back to our last discussion, and played a team called Amazons. They are a good team in general, as they have a skill that makes it very hard to hit them, and makes it hard to stop them from moving. It is called dodge and it is one of the better skills in the game. Every Amazon as dodge. After that, or maybe equivalent is the block skill. With that skill any time the dice are rolled if the "block" result comes up, instead of both players falling down, the attacking player falls down. When Marc was playing Amazons, he would work toward getting everyone with dodge, to have block. After each game he could usually improve one player, which means he would get a character who was very difficult to hit, to stop, and was good at hitting you too. They were still easy to drop IF you could hit them and Marc would complain about that weakness forever. He would also talk about how many games it would take for the team to become "good". It was to much fun to play against him. Bitching the whole time. I have a picture or two of the team of girls that he played with. All nuns in bikinis.
God I miss him.
As usual this just scratches the surface of both the games I am playing and the friends I have. The one big advantage I have is that I can just keep posting and sharing all the stories of the people I love. The more games we played, the more talking we did, the more bitching we still do, all adds up to some of the best times I have.
As time goes on I will get to talk more about the games we played and the people I played with and the stories will just be more and more fun to talk about. I am including a link to Marc's obituary just as a reminder, Marc Moralez. I know he will keep coming up, because he was an important part of my life both within gaming and without.
More stories to come.....
Marc was always a lot of fun to game with and he had one of the best gaming rules around. He would be trying out a new game, and if Marc won, which happened more often then you would think, he would then claim that he would never play that game again, to keep his 100% win record. There were occasions when he didn't care for the game that he would keep that rule, but much more often he would be playing again the next time that game came up.
Marc always enjoyed Blood Bowl, bringing us back to our last discussion, and played a team called Amazons. They are a good team in general, as they have a skill that makes it very hard to hit them, and makes it hard to stop them from moving. It is called dodge and it is one of the better skills in the game. Every Amazon as dodge. After that, or maybe equivalent is the block skill. With that skill any time the dice are rolled if the "block" result comes up, instead of both players falling down, the attacking player falls down. When Marc was playing Amazons, he would work toward getting everyone with dodge, to have block. After each game he could usually improve one player, which means he would get a character who was very difficult to hit, to stop, and was good at hitting you too. They were still easy to drop IF you could hit them and Marc would complain about that weakness forever. He would also talk about how many games it would take for the team to become "good". It was to much fun to play against him. Bitching the whole time. I have a picture or two of the team of girls that he played with. All nuns in bikinis.
God I miss him.
As usual this just scratches the surface of both the games I am playing and the friends I have. The one big advantage I have is that I can just keep posting and sharing all the stories of the people I love. The more games we played, the more talking we did, the more bitching we still do, all adds up to some of the best times I have.
As time goes on I will get to talk more about the games we played and the people I played with and the stories will just be more and more fun to talk about. I am including a link to Marc's obituary just as a reminder, Marc Moralez. I know he will keep coming up, because he was an important part of my life both within gaming and without.
More stories to come.....
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Now back to the previous topic......Gaming History.....
One of the things I am looking to do now, is to mix up a bit of history along with a bit of gaming discussion. So the history will slow down a little, but the gaming chat will increase. So I am hoping for the best of both worlds. I am also going to chat a bit about books and music, as those are also two things I really enjoy.
So when we last left the story I was talking about the Olde World Warriors. This is the gaming group that I joined after hanging out at The Game Room for a few years. I know that sounds like a long time to hang out in a place without getting to know everyone. You find that you hang out with the people you game with on the night(s) you game, and while there is some Hi/Hello/How ya doin interaction, you kinda hang out with your group. Now once you find someone in YOUR group, that is also hanging out with OTHER groups, you get to meet a lot of new friends. It was Matt who reintroduced me to gaming outside of Heroclix. Matt was a clix player, actually he will play anything, and talked to me quite a bit about other games outside of Heroclix. If I remember correctly, and it has been a number of years, it was a game of Blood Bowl that started me down the road to gaming.
So what is Blood Bowl you ask? Blood Bowl is a board game loosely based on football. You field a team of 11 players on the board which is called the Pitch. There are 8 turns to a half, and 2 halves to a game. A normal game of Blood Bowl takes about 3 hours to play. The game company who designed Blood Bowl back in the 80's, Game Workshop, no longer supports the game, but fans of the game have put together the living rulebook for Blood Bowl. They call it the living rule book because they are on the 6th version of the rulebook since they started. They add new teams for each major iteration and work on improving the rules. For a link to the rules click here Blood Bowl Living Rulebook. I don't remember the team I played for my first game, odds are it was either the human or the orc team as they come as the standard teams in the box, but the team I learned to enjoy the most is called "The Nurgle Rotters".
There are two reasons I enjoy playing that team over any of the other 16 teams you can pick. The first is that as a Chaos team they have strong armor and hit hard. It makes them very durable. The second reason is a special rule called Nurgle Rot. If you have Nurgle Rot then when you kill an opposing player, you get a new lineman player called a rotter for free and add it to your team. A kill roll is rare, as you need to roll to break armor (usually a 8+), injure the player (a 10+ die roll), and then roll a 6 sided, and an 8 sided die (needing a 6 on the 6 sided die and anything on the 8). As most player will tell you, getting three good rolls in a row sounds easy, but is usually a real challenge.
In the OWW we regularly play a Blood Bowl league each year that mostly follows the regular football season. We have finished the full league in some years, and we have fallen off in other years and not finished. This is the way a long running league setup runs sometimes. This year we did a special season for our departed friend Marc Moralez. Next time I chat with you, I will talk more about the group and Marc. He passed away not very long ago, and it can still be a bit tough to talk about, but we all miss him daily.
Until next time....
So when we last left the story I was talking about the Olde World Warriors. This is the gaming group that I joined after hanging out at The Game Room for a few years. I know that sounds like a long time to hang out in a place without getting to know everyone. You find that you hang out with the people you game with on the night(s) you game, and while there is some Hi/Hello/How ya doin interaction, you kinda hang out with your group. Now once you find someone in YOUR group, that is also hanging out with OTHER groups, you get to meet a lot of new friends. It was Matt who reintroduced me to gaming outside of Heroclix. Matt was a clix player, actually he will play anything, and talked to me quite a bit about other games outside of Heroclix. If I remember correctly, and it has been a number of years, it was a game of Blood Bowl that started me down the road to gaming.
So what is Blood Bowl you ask? Blood Bowl is a board game loosely based on football. You field a team of 11 players on the board which is called the Pitch. There are 8 turns to a half, and 2 halves to a game. A normal game of Blood Bowl takes about 3 hours to play. The game company who designed Blood Bowl back in the 80's, Game Workshop, no longer supports the game, but fans of the game have put together the living rulebook for Blood Bowl. They call it the living rule book because they are on the 6th version of the rulebook since they started. They add new teams for each major iteration and work on improving the rules. For a link to the rules click here Blood Bowl Living Rulebook. I don't remember the team I played for my first game, odds are it was either the human or the orc team as they come as the standard teams in the box, but the team I learned to enjoy the most is called "The Nurgle Rotters".
There are two reasons I enjoy playing that team over any of the other 16 teams you can pick. The first is that as a Chaos team they have strong armor and hit hard. It makes them very durable. The second reason is a special rule called Nurgle Rot. If you have Nurgle Rot then when you kill an opposing player, you get a new lineman player called a rotter for free and add it to your team. A kill roll is rare, as you need to roll to break armor (usually a 8+), injure the player (a 10+ die roll), and then roll a 6 sided, and an 8 sided die (needing a 6 on the 6 sided die and anything on the 8). As most player will tell you, getting three good rolls in a row sounds easy, but is usually a real challenge.
In the OWW we regularly play a Blood Bowl league each year that mostly follows the regular football season. We have finished the full league in some years, and we have fallen off in other years and not finished. This is the way a long running league setup runs sometimes. This year we did a special season for our departed friend Marc Moralez. Next time I chat with you, I will talk more about the group and Marc. He passed away not very long ago, and it can still be a bit tough to talk about, but we all miss him daily.
Until next time....
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
So now lets talk a little bit about the blogging stuff......
I have been writing the blog for about a week now.....8 days really, and I expected to have 2 posts. Instead I am working on post number 6. No one is more surprised then I am. Part of the reason this has happened is because I am riding on the excitement of my first posts. I have had friends who I never expected to even look at any posts make actual comments (on facebook). It is practically an instant celebrity feeling and so I posted more. However, that is not the reason I keep posting.
I have found that every time I post, I get started with a topic and get to about the length I want to post, and I have not said even close to what I want to say. It isn't that what I am posting is not true or how I feel, it is just not complete. For instant, in my last post, I discussed why I enjoy Malifaux and I brought up two or three little points. It is just not enough for this game to say the least.
I started this blog (referenced in lots of history) because of work, and some days another coworker and I end up discussing his blog (Steve's Travel Blog), blogging in general, and what we can do to improve our blogs. One of the things we talked about was how much should go into a blog post. I try to keep my blog posts down to about a page of text. My friend Steve says you have about 1,000 words before you lose the average reader. Because of that I am going to TRY to limit myself to a single idea for each post. I hope that it will make it much easier to get my full point across without feeling like I have to stop every time I get talking.
I hope you are enjoying these posts. I was going to say something about not really caring what you thought, because these posts are for me, but the more I think about it, I do care. I hope that you enjoy what you are reading and by thinking about the people reading this, I try and make it better. At the end of the day, that is what we all want, something interesting to read about something new.
I will keep what feels like almost a daily schedule, but try to keep it to a interesting small post about one thing. Of course, small post is about 1,000 words right?
I have found that every time I post, I get started with a topic and get to about the length I want to post, and I have not said even close to what I want to say. It isn't that what I am posting is not true or how I feel, it is just not complete. For instant, in my last post, I discussed why I enjoy Malifaux and I brought up two or three little points. It is just not enough for this game to say the least.
I started this blog (referenced in lots of history) because of work, and some days another coworker and I end up discussing his blog (Steve's Travel Blog), blogging in general, and what we can do to improve our blogs. One of the things we talked about was how much should go into a blog post. I try to keep my blog posts down to about a page of text. My friend Steve says you have about 1,000 words before you lose the average reader. Because of that I am going to TRY to limit myself to a single idea for each post. I hope that it will make it much easier to get my full point across without feeling like I have to stop every time I get talking.
I hope you are enjoying these posts. I was going to say something about not really caring what you thought, because these posts are for me, but the more I think about it, I do care. I hope that you enjoy what you are reading and by thinking about the people reading this, I try and make it better. At the end of the day, that is what we all want, something interesting to read about something new.
I will keep what feels like almost a daily schedule, but try to keep it to a interesting small post about one thing. Of course, small post is about 1,000 words right?
Monday, January 20, 2014
So what is it about Malifaux
In my last blog post, I said at the end that I would like to keep writing, so I am continuing to write tonight, and I will just post it sometime soon.
I know that everyone is really excited to hear more about Malifaux (lol), so here we go. Malifaux at its most basic is a miniatures game. What this means is that you buy models that work with the game, and build them, paint them, base them, and then hit the table to play. So the first thing that jumped out at me are the models.
So to start playing you need anywhere from 6 to 12 models, the rule book, a deck of cards, a tape measure, and a table with some terrain on it. I could go into a LOT more depth about how you play, but if you really want to know the rules go to the website, or ask me for a demo game.....now don't all rush at once, I have time for you all, single file line!.....A different question that I would like to look at is why this game when there are a large number of other games I could be playing. Even other skirmish games.
For me there are a couple of reasons that I prefer Malifaux over other miniature games that I have played. The first is that Malifaux uses cards rather than dice. What this means is that you have your rerolls in your hand. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but I don't do great with dice, I have some bad luck in that department, and seeing my "rolls" in my hand makes it a better system.
The second big difference, and the one that is hardest for most game players to deal with, is that even if your crew is wiped out to the man, you can still win the game. When a player usually played a game, fighting and destroying the other guy's crew is usually a very easy way to win a game. I can also tell you from a personal perspective that it is also a very satisfying way to win. In Malifaux, it is the objectives you are working toward and as long as you get the three "mission objectives", called schemes and strategies, complete, you win.
I am going to wrap this up for this post. Those are the big two reasons I like Malifaux, and I am sure I will go into more next time. There is a lot of territory for us to cover yet, even just for Malifaux, let alone the other games I am playing. I hate to skim these so much for something I love playing, but I am trying to keep these down to a page each. I will just have to write a bit more often then I planned. I know, I know, you cant wait. So looking forward to diving in deeper with you all.....until next time......
I know that everyone is really excited to hear more about Malifaux (lol), so here we go. Malifaux at its most basic is a miniatures game. What this means is that you buy models that work with the game, and build them, paint them, base them, and then hit the table to play. So the first thing that jumped out at me are the models.
Quoted from the back of the Malifaux rulebook: "Based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux uses gothic, steampunk, victorian horror with a dose of the wild west to inject fun and depth into the magical lawlessness of a world rife with monsters, necropunks, man-machine hybrids, gunslingers, and power-hungry politicos. Actively using character-driven stories to define the world of Malifaux, seek your fortune in this fast paced and brutal 32mm tabletop miniature skirmish game. Assemble your crew and stake your claim!"It was the monsters that drew me into the game. They are called Neverborn. The very first model I saw was called Baby Kade. It is literally a baby wearing a diaper with a little teddy bear in one arm and a knife in the other. I saw that and had to look into the game. I got the rules and picked up a full crew. Once I looked at the rule card, I saw that Baby Kade actually had a power called "The Kid has a Knife". I have been hooked ever since.
So to start playing you need anywhere from 6 to 12 models, the rule book, a deck of cards, a tape measure, and a table with some terrain on it. I could go into a LOT more depth about how you play, but if you really want to know the rules go to the website, or ask me for a demo game.....now don't all rush at once, I have time for you all, single file line!.....A different question that I would like to look at is why this game when there are a large number of other games I could be playing. Even other skirmish games.
For me there are a couple of reasons that I prefer Malifaux over other miniature games that I have played. The first is that Malifaux uses cards rather than dice. What this means is that you have your rerolls in your hand. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but I don't do great with dice, I have some bad luck in that department, and seeing my "rolls" in my hand makes it a better system.
The second big difference, and the one that is hardest for most game players to deal with, is that even if your crew is wiped out to the man, you can still win the game. When a player usually played a game, fighting and destroying the other guy's crew is usually a very easy way to win a game. I can also tell you from a personal perspective that it is also a very satisfying way to win. In Malifaux, it is the objectives you are working toward and as long as you get the three "mission objectives", called schemes and strategies, complete, you win.
I am going to wrap this up for this post. Those are the big two reasons I like Malifaux, and I am sure I will go into more next time. There is a lot of territory for us to cover yet, even just for Malifaux, let alone the other games I am playing. I hate to skim these so much for something I love playing, but I am trying to keep these down to a page each. I will just have to write a bit more often then I planned. I know, I know, you cant wait. So looking forward to diving in deeper with you all.....until next time......
Friday, January 17, 2014
It has been a lot of history....let's take a little break
Just in case you want to see from the beginning Part 1
Ok, so after thinking about it for the last couple days, I am going to take a break from history for a minute and chat about what I am playing now and clear up a thought or two from the last time. There are two reasons I started writing this blog. The first is really just the reason that I am starting now. At my company we are trying to drive traffic to our website, and increase our search engine optimization. Because of this, anything we can do that links to the website (www.data-binder.com just as another link) is a good thing and doing it through Google+ drives as up in the ranking in a Google search.
The second reason I wrote this is to talk about what games I am playing and want to play. Up to now I have only talked about what I used to play. While that is interesting, I want to chat about my games right now and then I will get back into how I joined the OWW group and that is the one thing I want to clear up real quick. The OWW was around before I joined. As far as the history of the OWW before I started hanging out there, I will have a guest blogger on to give that part of the history, but I joined because of a guy named Matt who also played Heroclix. He was the one who introduced me to the other OWW gamers. I will go into some of my OWW history in my next post.
So here in my fourth blog post I finally get to write about what I was hoping to write about for the last week. (After writing almost another post about getting to write a post...lol)
What are you playing? It is something I walk in and ask, or get asked, almost every week. Right now I am playing Kill Zone, Malifaux and played Discworld last night (which is a board game). When I first started gaming, I only played Heroclix and it was the only game I collected. To talk about my number one game right now, it is Malifaux (www.malifaux.com). Malifaux is a character driven skirmish game. What this means is, much like Heroclix, you bring a team together to get something done. Unlike Heroclix you can be destroyed to a man, and still win the game as long as you get done what needs to be done. The other difference in Malifaux is that the models are not pre-painted or assembled, so when you start your crew you begin with a number of metal or plastic pieces that you have to clean, assemble, prime, paint, and then base. While you can play with a number of those steps undone, the game is more fun with better looking models. So now instead of just a game I play with plastic pieces that are the same as everyone else who plays, I have a customer crew painted just the way I want. It adds a hobby aspect to the game, so now not only am I playing the game, I am showing off my painting and modeling. This is a very light description of a game I have been playing for a few years now.
I will go into more detail about Malifaux and more history of my gaming and the OWW group in the next post. I am enjoying writing this a lot more then I thought I would. I feel like I could just keep writing, but I am trying to keep these posts to a "reasonable" length.
Chat at ya next time...
Ok, so after thinking about it for the last couple days, I am going to take a break from history for a minute and chat about what I am playing now and clear up a thought or two from the last time. There are two reasons I started writing this blog. The first is really just the reason that I am starting now. At my company we are trying to drive traffic to our website, and increase our search engine optimization. Because of this, anything we can do that links to the website (www.data-binder.com just as another link) is a good thing and doing it through Google+ drives as up in the ranking in a Google search.
The second reason I wrote this is to talk about what games I am playing and want to play. Up to now I have only talked about what I used to play. While that is interesting, I want to chat about my games right now and then I will get back into how I joined the OWW group and that is the one thing I want to clear up real quick. The OWW was around before I joined. As far as the history of the OWW before I started hanging out there, I will have a guest blogger on to give that part of the history, but I joined because of a guy named Matt who also played Heroclix. He was the one who introduced me to the other OWW gamers. I will go into some of my OWW history in my next post.
So here in my fourth blog post I finally get to write about what I was hoping to write about for the last week. (After writing almost another post about getting to write a post...lol)
What are you playing? It is something I walk in and ask, or get asked, almost every week. Right now I am playing Kill Zone, Malifaux and played Discworld last night (which is a board game). When I first started gaming, I only played Heroclix and it was the only game I collected. To talk about my number one game right now, it is Malifaux (www.malifaux.com). Malifaux is a character driven skirmish game. What this means is, much like Heroclix, you bring a team together to get something done. Unlike Heroclix you can be destroyed to a man, and still win the game as long as you get done what needs to be done. The other difference in Malifaux is that the models are not pre-painted or assembled, so when you start your crew you begin with a number of metal or plastic pieces that you have to clean, assemble, prime, paint, and then base. While you can play with a number of those steps undone, the game is more fun with better looking models. So now instead of just a game I play with plastic pieces that are the same as everyone else who plays, I have a customer crew painted just the way I want. It adds a hobby aspect to the game, so now not only am I playing the game, I am showing off my painting and modeling. This is a very light description of a game I have been playing for a few years now.
I will go into more detail about Malifaux and more history of my gaming and the OWW group in the next post. I am enjoying writing this a lot more then I thought I would. I feel like I could just keep writing, but I am trying to keep these posts to a "reasonable" length.
Chat at ya next time...
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
But where do you game?
But where do you game?
So we were talking about what happened when I came back from the convention in 2004. There was a website for Heroclix that had a store locator on it, and I used that to see who else in the area played that game. That is how I found "The Game Room" in Toledo, OH. The Game Room is a store that meets a lot of geeky needs for me. It is both a comic shop, and a game store. In it current form, it is split into thirds, with a comic book section, a large gaming area with a lot of miniature models for sale on the wall, and a smaller gaming area with board games on the walls.
Now we may as well stop and talk about The Game Room for a minute. Ever since the first night I visited that store, it has become the central place where I game. It is also the place where I eventually met the game group that would bring me in and has since let me to some of my best friends. When I first visited, it was in a smaller location then it is now, and on a night when more then one game/tournament/group was in the store, it could get really cramped. Imagine 20-30 gamers in a two section store that was maybe 24x24 for floor space, along with tables and product....it could get like a sauna in there some days, and not in a good way at all. The new store is much bigger so when our group gets together, which can be 10-15 people on our own, we have some room to play and stretch out a bit. I know that "The Game Room" will come up again as I talk, but lets move the story along, at some point I would like to talk about what I am doing/playing now....
Before the first visit to the store I contacted a couple people who played Heroclix to make sure they were still actually playing and that Thursday nights (my normal gaming night to this day) were when they played. After I got confirmation that everything still happened that way, I drove myself out to the store and met some new people so I could continue my old hobby.
To say it was a great night would be an understatement for me to be perfectly honest. You have to remember that I was 34 at this point, and when I walked in, there were not a lot of other people my age just hanging around playing that particular game. Not that there were not other adults there, just not a lot playing Heroclix. But there were a few, who are still my friends and occasional game players as well. As I played and got to know all the people there (I lost all three games I played that night) some of then gave me tips to play, and a few even game me new models just as a way of saying welcome to the group. Well I have to say that obviously I was hooked and kept playing Heroclix for about 4-5 years after that first night. I don't play that particular game now, although I still have all the models I had then, I have just moved on to other games. The way I was brought into that group from the first night really made me feel like part of a community, and that is the biggest reason to go somewhere and play games the way we do. That is what gaming is to me, which is why I prefer social gaming over computer gaming any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Because I felt so accepted right from the start it made me really change how important I felt gaming was to my life.
The "history" portion that I thought I would write has gone on for much longer then I expected. Getting to talk about how I started back into regular gaming has changed my life in a lot of ways, including at its most basic, starting me writing this blog. I will probably have one more history post where I will talk about the gaming group I hang out with. It is called The Olde World Warriors (OWW for short) and they have introduced me to more kinds of gaming then I was ever involved with as a kid. Once I talk about them, it will get me into what I am playing now, and that is really where I wanted this blog to go.
So until next time.......
So we were talking about what happened when I came back from the convention in 2004. There was a website for Heroclix that had a store locator on it, and I used that to see who else in the area played that game. That is how I found "The Game Room" in Toledo, OH. The Game Room is a store that meets a lot of geeky needs for me. It is both a comic shop, and a game store. In it current form, it is split into thirds, with a comic book section, a large gaming area with a lot of miniature models for sale on the wall, and a smaller gaming area with board games on the walls.
Now we may as well stop and talk about The Game Room for a minute. Ever since the first night I visited that store, it has become the central place where I game. It is also the place where I eventually met the game group that would bring me in and has since let me to some of my best friends. When I first visited, it was in a smaller location then it is now, and on a night when more then one game/tournament/group was in the store, it could get really cramped. Imagine 20-30 gamers in a two section store that was maybe 24x24 for floor space, along with tables and product....it could get like a sauna in there some days, and not in a good way at all. The new store is much bigger so when our group gets together, which can be 10-15 people on our own, we have some room to play and stretch out a bit. I know that "The Game Room" will come up again as I talk, but lets move the story along, at some point I would like to talk about what I am doing/playing now....
Before the first visit to the store I contacted a couple people who played Heroclix to make sure they were still actually playing and that Thursday nights (my normal gaming night to this day) were when they played. After I got confirmation that everything still happened that way, I drove myself out to the store and met some new people so I could continue my old hobby.
To say it was a great night would be an understatement for me to be perfectly honest. You have to remember that I was 34 at this point, and when I walked in, there were not a lot of other people my age just hanging around playing that particular game. Not that there were not other adults there, just not a lot playing Heroclix. But there were a few, who are still my friends and occasional game players as well. As I played and got to know all the people there (I lost all three games I played that night) some of then gave me tips to play, and a few even game me new models just as a way of saying welcome to the group. Well I have to say that obviously I was hooked and kept playing Heroclix for about 4-5 years after that first night. I don't play that particular game now, although I still have all the models I had then, I have just moved on to other games. The way I was brought into that group from the first night really made me feel like part of a community, and that is the biggest reason to go somewhere and play games the way we do. That is what gaming is to me, which is why I prefer social gaming over computer gaming any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Because I felt so accepted right from the start it made me really change how important I felt gaming was to my life.
The "history" portion that I thought I would write has gone on for much longer then I expected. Getting to talk about how I started back into regular gaming has changed my life in a lot of ways, including at its most basic, starting me writing this blog. I will probably have one more history post where I will talk about the gaming group I hang out with. It is called The Olde World Warriors (OWW for short) and they have introduced me to more kinds of gaming then I was ever involved with as a kid. Once I talk about them, it will get me into what I am playing now, and that is really where I wanted this blog to go.
So until next time.......
Monday, January 13, 2014
Writing more then I thought...
To read Part 1
So we were talking about my great wife, Jennifer. She is the one who got me back into regular gaming as a gift for Valentine's Day in 2004. I don't think she knew that she was getting me back into gaming on a regular night, but you know what they say about the best plans....
So, if you have never been to a gaming convention, you might wonder what happens there. Typically you either sign up for specific games, or you walk around the vendor hall and try various games in quick demos. Playing demos are a good way to get a feel for a game that you are thinking about picking up. The more demos, the more fun you have. I found a game called Heroclix, which is a game where you play a team of superheroes battling another group.
If you are thinking that sounds really geeky, you are right. It was great.
So Heroclix reminded me of all the comics that I read in the 90s. Of course I loved comics. We can talk about that later....first dice....then comics....this could end up being a thing. Just sayin, I am a Marvel fan boy, much more then DC. Now back to the game....
In Heroclix you select a group of heroes to want to fight with. They have a variety of powers and the interesting part of the game, is that as you are hit or healed, your stats and powers change when you "click" the circle on the base around. In most cases your stats change for the worse as you take damage, however there are some heroes who get better before they get KOed. Hulk is a good example of that. He gets better and better (madder and madder) right up until he passes out. By playing that demo game, I got a free starter box, so I even got free stuff for playing....I am telling you the demos just keep getting better and better. I had such a good time playing Heroclix that once I got home I started looking around the website to find a store in the area where I could play.
I found a store in the Toledo area where I could meet some new friends and try to play more of a game I enjoyed....
So I wasn't expecting to create another blog post this soon. I figured that with a once a week post schedule was as about as aggressive as I was going to get. Then I posted about this blog on facebook. Well lets just say I can understand why people do this. Almost immediately after posted, a few of my friends began asking question about my gaming past, and more people looked then I ever thought would be interested in hearing me talk about anything. It was both flattering and exciting and made me want to post more. I am still planning on a once a week schedule, but I am going to ride the tide of excitement and see where it leads.
Talk to you again soon.....
To read Part 1
So we were talking about my great wife, Jennifer. She is the one who got me back into regular gaming as a gift for Valentine's Day in 2004. I don't think she knew that she was getting me back into gaming on a regular night, but you know what they say about the best plans....
So, if you have never been to a gaming convention, you might wonder what happens there. Typically you either sign up for specific games, or you walk around the vendor hall and try various games in quick demos. Playing demos are a good way to get a feel for a game that you are thinking about picking up. The more demos, the more fun you have. I found a game called Heroclix, which is a game where you play a team of superheroes battling another group.
If you are thinking that sounds really geeky, you are right. It was great.
So Heroclix reminded me of all the comics that I read in the 90s. Of course I loved comics. We can talk about that later....first dice....then comics....this could end up being a thing. Just sayin, I am a Marvel fan boy, much more then DC. Now back to the game....
In Heroclix you select a group of heroes to want to fight with. They have a variety of powers and the interesting part of the game, is that as you are hit or healed, your stats and powers change when you "click" the circle on the base around. In most cases your stats change for the worse as you take damage, however there are some heroes who get better before they get KOed. Hulk is a good example of that. He gets better and better (madder and madder) right up until he passes out. By playing that demo game, I got a free starter box, so I even got free stuff for playing....I am telling you the demos just keep getting better and better. I had such a good time playing Heroclix that once I got home I started looking around the website to find a store in the area where I could play.
I found a store in the Toledo area where I could meet some new friends and try to play more of a game I enjoyed....
So I wasn't expecting to create another blog post this soon. I figured that with a once a week post schedule was as about as aggressive as I was going to get. Then I posted about this blog on facebook. Well lets just say I can understand why people do this. Almost immediately after posted, a few of my friends began asking question about my gaming past, and more people looked then I ever thought would be interested in hearing me talk about anything. It was both flattering and exciting and made me want to post more. I am still planning on a once a week schedule, but I am going to ride the tide of excitement and see where it leads.
Talk to you again soon.....
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Trying to Start
So now I am one more person yelling in the dark. I like to yell about gaming. It is a relaxing way to spend to many hours sitting around a table with my friends. Just to give a little history, I started gaming when I was 12 years old. That means I just passed my thirty year anniversary of gaming. There are usually 2 paths that a gamer of my age takes through there early gaming, either they went with miniature games, think toy solders, or they role played, which was Dungeons and Dragons in the day. D&D is the route that I chose with the red box edition of the game.
Role play gaming is just what it sounds like, you take the role of a person who is involved in the story you are telling with your friends. There is no dressing up. There is no swinging actual weapons. Gaming is half a dozen people sitting around a table with a lap full of books and paper and dice (dice are the best we will talk about that another day) describing what your alter ego is doing. The books are for the rules, the paper is stats about your character, and the dice are used to determine if what you wanted to do happened. Those stories we tell are still just as clear to me now as when I was that kid sitting around the table.
I role played when I was a kid and through high school and college. Then life catches us and we lose that time we used to role play. One thing about role playing is that is it not a quick activity. A good session can go for 8 or 9 hours and finding 4-6 people with that kind of time is a challenge. So after college the gaming got a lot more sporadic. Computer gaming took care of some of that itch, and the rest was taken care of with books and movies.
While I always enjoy those substitute activities, I was always reading more rule books for more games. I found a few people over the years to try new games with. Everything from Medieval Role Play like D&D and Middle Earth Role Play, to Space like Star Wars and Star Fleet Battles, and even Super Hero like Marvel and DC role play. There is really a game/world for any kind of role playing that any person might like.
So I am trying to explain in this first blog how I got from a 12 year kid sitting around a kitchen table (not all gaming happens in a basement) to a 42 year old sitting in front of a computer. Even though I have always gamed, it was not a regular occurrence, not something I did every week or even every month. I would find a game group, or a couple friends and it would last for a few months and then move on to other games. It wasn't until my wife bought my a ticket to a large gaming convention that I really began regular gaming again.
I, like many other bloggers, have great plans for how often I am going to blog. I am going to attempt to write this weekly on Sunday nights. Especially right now I might try to post more often, while the energy level is high, but best plans and all, so there you go.
Thanx for taking some time and talk to you again soon.
Role play gaming is just what it sounds like, you take the role of a person who is involved in the story you are telling with your friends. There is no dressing up. There is no swinging actual weapons. Gaming is half a dozen people sitting around a table with a lap full of books and paper and dice (dice are the best we will talk about that another day) describing what your alter ego is doing. The books are for the rules, the paper is stats about your character, and the dice are used to determine if what you wanted to do happened. Those stories we tell are still just as clear to me now as when I was that kid sitting around the table.
I role played when I was a kid and through high school and college. Then life catches us and we lose that time we used to role play. One thing about role playing is that is it not a quick activity. A good session can go for 8 or 9 hours and finding 4-6 people with that kind of time is a challenge. So after college the gaming got a lot more sporadic. Computer gaming took care of some of that itch, and the rest was taken care of with books and movies.
While I always enjoy those substitute activities, I was always reading more rule books for more games. I found a few people over the years to try new games with. Everything from Medieval Role Play like D&D and Middle Earth Role Play, to Space like Star Wars and Star Fleet Battles, and even Super Hero like Marvel and DC role play. There is really a game/world for any kind of role playing that any person might like.
So I am trying to explain in this first blog how I got from a 12 year kid sitting around a kitchen table (not all gaming happens in a basement) to a 42 year old sitting in front of a computer. Even though I have always gamed, it was not a regular occurrence, not something I did every week or even every month. I would find a game group, or a couple friends and it would last for a few months and then move on to other games. It wasn't until my wife bought my a ticket to a large gaming convention that I really began regular gaming again.
I, like many other bloggers, have great plans for how often I am going to blog. I am going to attempt to write this weekly on Sunday nights. Especially right now I might try to post more often, while the energy level is high, but best plans and all, so there you go.
Thanx for taking some time and talk to you again soon.
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