strange gaming: Kickstarter

Showing posts with label Kickstarter. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Kickstarter. Show all posts

(Kickstarter) Starbowl Revival Fantasy Football Figures

I'm not a Blood Bowl player, but I understand the simplicity and attraction of the GW game. It seems that every week, some bloke is trying to crowdfund another team for the greater community, and most surprisingly meet their goals.

The latest that I've seen that actually tickled my fancy is the very unsubtle Starbowl Revivial Miniatures for Fantasy Football by Rykar Jove

The team seems to be completely fleshed out, with star players, coaches, tokens, etc. and the prices are comparable with other teams. Plus the theme is outstanding.

I'm not a Blood Bowl player, but I understand the simplicity and attraction of the GW game. It seems that every week, some bloke is trying to crowdfund another team for the greater community, and most surprisingly meet their goals.

The latest that I've seen that actually tickled my fancy is the very unsubtle Starbowl Revivial Miniatures for Fantasy Football by Rykar Jove

The team seems to be completely fleshed out, with star players, coaches, tokens, etc. and the prices are comparable with other teams. Plus the theme is outstanding.

(Kickstarter) Flash Gordon RPG for Savage Worlds

It's a bad week for Kickstarters I should otherwise love. It must be the upcoming holidays blues.

Shane Hensley and Pinnacle Entertainment Group have recently launched their Flash Gordon RPG for Savage Worlds.

I'm thinking the Savage Rifts Kickstarter hit my sweet spot. The softcovers/pdf from Savage Rifts for just over $30 hits that middle ground between Flash Gordon's $20 pdfs and $45 (+$9 S&H) for the limited edition hardcovers. The baubles, add-ons, and trinkets do nothing for me.

It's a bad week for Kickstarters I should otherwise love. It must be the upcoming holidays blues.

Shane Hensley and Pinnacle Entertainment Group have recently launched their Flash Gordon RPG for Savage Worlds.

I'm thinking the Savage Rifts Kickstarter hit my sweet spot. The softcovers/pdf from Savage Rifts for just over $30 hits that middle ground between Flash Gordon's $20 pdfs and $45 (+$9 S&H) for the limited edition hardcovers. The baubles, add-ons, and trinkets do nothing for me.

(Kickstarter) Ducks Lost in the Dungeon of Doom IV: Quack Keep

Some things are great concepts, but are a little harder in ther delivery such as Darcy Perry/Star Hat Miniatures/5th Wall Games and Miniatures Ducks Lost in the Dungeon of Doom IV: Quack Keep.

The core of this campaign is in three parts. First, an adventure module Quack Keep by the famed Jennell Jacquays riding on her on a slightly warranted professional theme that she "was pretty much labeled as that designer and artist who did the ducks."

Second, is a re-offering of the original five duck miniatures from the Dungeon of Doom III Kickstarter with five new duck characters rounding out the final portion of the offering.

I like them all, but after finally figuring out the conversion for Canadian Dollars, Euros, and British Pounds, converting from Kiwi Dollars (with the even with Kickstarter's help) is hurting my tiny brain. It takes a bit, but the ten dollars for the pdf of the module and six dollars or less per figure (plus shipping and handling from New Zealand) isn't too bad.

Some things are great concepts, but are a little harder in ther delivery such as Darcy Perry/Star Hat Miniatures/5th Wall Games and Miniatures Ducks Lost in the Dungeon of Doom IV: Quack Keep.

The core of this campaign is in three parts. First, an adventure module Quack Keep by the famed Jennell Jacquays riding on her on a slightly warranted professional theme that she "was pretty much labeled as that designer and artist who did the ducks."

Second, is a re-offering of the original five duck miniatures from the Dungeon of Doom III Kickstarter with five new duck characters rounding out the final portion of the offering.

I like them all, but after finally figuring out the conversion for Canadian Dollars, Euros, and British Pounds, converting from Kiwi Dollars (with the even with Kickstarter's help) is hurting my tiny brain. It takes a bit, but the ten dollars for the pdf of the module and six dollars or less per figure (plus shipping and handling from New Zealand) isn't too bad.

(Kickstarter) Russian Village from Things From the Basement

Tales From the Basement has produced some wonderful laser-cut buildings and accessories, but now they've launched their first-ever Kickstarter for a Russian Village.

Whether you want the full set for $220, a mix-and-match for at least $100, or a mix-and-match starting at a buck (plus increased shipping), there are plenty of options to choose from.

The Russian cabins are calling my name, but the campaign ends a week before Christmas.

Tales From the Basement has produced some wonderful laser-cut buildings and accessories, but now they've launched their first-ever Kickstarter for a Russian Village.

Whether you want the full set for $220, a mix-and-match for at least $100, or a mix-and-match starting at a buck (plus increased shipping), there are plenty of options to choose from.

The Russian cabins are calling my name, but the campaign ends a week before Christmas.

(Kickstarter) Kids on Bikes RPG

A love for Stranger Things and Eighties nostalgia has made the "Kids on Bikes" trope a actual game genre, so it's no surprise to find such a blunt title used in the Kids on Bikes RPG: Strange Adventures in Small Towns Kickstarter, recently launched by Infectious Play.

Kids on Bikes is a 60 page, rules-light, fast-paced storytelling game in the spirit of games like DREAD, Perseverant, MONSTERHEARTS, and other great indy titles. Kids on Bikes is perfect for game nights in which you want to get a game in RIGHT NOW.

A love for Stranger Things and Eighties nostalgia has made the "Kids on Bikes" trope a actual game genre, so it's no surprise to find such a blunt title used in the Kids on Bikes RPG: Strange Adventures in Small Towns Kickstarter, recently launched by Infectious Play.

Kids on Bikes is a 60 page, rules-light, fast-paced storytelling game in the spirit of games like DREAD, Perseverant, MONSTERHEARTS, and other great indy titles. Kids on Bikes is perfect for game nights in which you want to get a game in RIGHT NOW.

(Kickstarter) Acheson’s Kongo-Afrika

Acheson Creations LLC has teamed-up with Two Hour Wargames to bring their new Fortunes Won and Lost rule book to life on the game table.

Kongo-Afrika is 25-28mm accessories for adventures in Africa, including animals, river boats, and natives. There are a few sets available to save money, but for a $10US base pledge to cover shipping, everything can be done a la carte.

Acheson Creations LLC has teamed-up with Two Hour Wargames to bring their new Fortunes Won and Lost rule book to life on the game table.

Kongo-Afrika is 25-28mm accessories for adventures in Africa, including animals, river boats, and natives. There are a few sets available to save money, but for a $10US base pledge to cover shipping, everything can be done a la carte.

(Kickstarter) Marauder Task Force Role-Playing Game

Marauder GR, maker of 1/18th scale action figures, has launched a Kickstarter for a skirmish and/or role-playing for those figures.

The Marauder Task Force RPG allows for basic skirmish action, or a campaign mode to customize and improve on the soldiers in the unit.

Marauder GR, maker of 1/18th scale action figures, has launched a Kickstarter for a skirmish and/or role-playing for those figures.

The Marauder Task Force RPG allows for basic skirmish action, or a campaign mode to customize and improve on the soldiers in the unit.

(Kickstarter) OGRE Miniatures Set 2

My pledge for the first set is still floating around Pennsylvania by USPS, but Steve Jackson Games has launched their second set of plastic OGRE Miniatures.

While the first campaign took awhile for the stretch goals to turn it into a steal, the second wave jumps out the gate firing on all cylinders. A $40 pledge for 60 minis and FREE US SHIPPING is a steal, but the real glorious chaos is at the $75 level:

Let's not talk about the higer levels, cause I can't ponder that sort of craziness.

My pledge for the first set is still floating around Pennsylvania by USPS, but Steve Jackson Games has launched their second set of plastic OGRE Miniatures.

While the first campaign took awhile for the stretch goals to turn it into a steal, the second wave jumps out the gate firing on all cylinders. A $40 pledge for 60 minis and FREE US SHIPPING is a steal, but the real glorious chaos is at the $75 level:

Let's not talk about the higer levels, cause I can't ponder that sort of craziness.

(Kickstarter) MBA Shanty Town

Miniature Building Authority has expanded there already popular shanties with the Shanty Town Kickstarter.

Miniature Building Authority has expanded there already popular shanties with the Shanty Town Kickstarter.

(Kickstarter) 5th Annual Chess & Science Festival & All-Girls Tournament

Since I never venture far from the Games section of Kickstarter, I rarely see the more philanthropic efforts the website can offer.

Although the 5th Annual Chess & Scicence Festival & All-Girls Tournament is in Tucson, AZ, I have no problem pitching at least a buck towards the effort. Heck, it shouldn't matter what the rewards are, if more people simply pledged a dollar because this promotes chess, science, and/or the promotion of such activities among girls, they would easily hit their target.

Since I never venture far from the Games section of Kickstarter, I rarely see the more philanthropic efforts the website can offer.

Although the 5th Annual Chess & Scicence Festival & All-Girls Tournament is in Tucson, AZ, I have no problem pitching at least a buck towards the effort. Heck, it shouldn't matter what the rewards are, if more people simply pledged a dollar because this promotes chess, science, and/or the promotion of such activities among girls, they would easily hit their target.

(Kickstarter) Alpine Dwarfs by Old School Miniatures

After successfully completing an Alpine Gnome campaign, Old School Miniatures has move onto their larger brethren with the Alpine Dwarfs Kickstarter.

These look to be closer to the Gnome Wars-sized gnome than the the previous campaign, and the sweaters and tooks might make them appropriate for Scandinavian or Canadian gnomes. However, that alphorn and St. Bernard available in most of the pledge levels (and the fact that their Alpine Dwarfs, scream Swiss Rangers).

After successfully completing an Alpine Gnome campaign, Old School Miniatures has move onto their larger brethren with the Alpine Dwarfs Kickstarter.

These look to be closer to the Gnome Wars-sized gnome than the the previous campaign, and the sweaters and tooks might make them appropriate for Scandinavian or Canadian gnomes. However, that alphorn and St. Bernard available in most of the pledge levels (and the fact that their Alpine Dwarfs, scream Swiss Rangers).

(Kickstarter) Tragedies of Middle School

9th Level Games, the deviants behind such games as Knuckle Sammich and Kobolds Ate My Baby (ALL HAIL KING TORG!) have launched a campaign into the darkest recessess of personal horror.

Junior High.

Tragedies of Middle School is an anthology of tabletop role-playing games, story games, live action games, and other strangeness inspired by the greatest HORROR of all… junior high.

9th Level Games, the deviants behind such games as Knuckle Sammich and Kobolds Ate My Baby (ALL HAIL KING TORG!) have launched a campaign into the darkest recessess of personal horror.

Junior High.

Tragedies of Middle School is an anthology of tabletop role-playing games, story games, live action games, and other strangeness inspired by the greatest HORROR of all… junior high.

(Kickstarter) The Ruins Of Glendale Village

Nord Games has recently launched a Kickstarter for their Ruins Of Glendale Village line of terrain.

Twenty-five dollars gets you one of four unpainted sets of village ruins in a gray plaster that you could easily give a wash and set on the table.

Nord Games has recently launched a Kickstarter for their Ruins Of Glendale Village line of terrain.

Twenty-five dollars gets you one of four unpainted sets of village ruins in a gray plaster that you could easily give a wash and set on the table.

(Kickstarter) Midlam Miniatures Garden Gnomes!

Midlam is at it again with another Kickstarter that hits my demographic like a sniper: Common (or Garden Gnomes)

A forty dollar pledge (with shipping from the UK) will get all thrteen of the sculpts. The miniatures are between 24-28mm head to foot.

Midlam is at it again with another Kickstarter that hits my demographic like a sniper: Common (or Garden Gnomes)

A forty dollar pledge (with shipping from the UK) will get all thrteen of the sculpts. The miniatures are between 24-28mm head to foot.

(Kickstarter) Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse RPG

Apparently the Kickstarter developers are smelling the extra overtime in my paychecks, because October has simply overwhelmed me with campaigns that hit my odd demographic hard.

Derek A Kamal has launched a campaign Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse a tabletop roleplaying game where players make mice characters, found their club, and hit the streets.

These are mice with the gusto to build their own motorcycles and set off into an intimidating world where they are outsized, but never outclassed.

(Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse) uses the rules of Fate to tell stories about the drama of city mice and their motorcycle clubs. It's an RPG that works best with 2-5 players (plus the GM). It's fit for episodic play (sessions last about 3-4 hours) and epic campaigns!

Your stories are set in Thunder City, USA, a fictitious city of the real world. For small creatures existing in a place which doesn’t belong to them, these stories will be filled with the drama of their lives, and the trouble, both inside and outside, of a biker gang. Will your gang be Robin Hood-like doers of good, springing cheese from unwatched refrigerators and delivering it to needy widows, or will you be thugs and thieves exploiting the weak? Your mouse, your bike, and your gang all belong to you and the stories you tell at your table.

Alright, already! Take my money and give me the pdf!

Apparently the Kickstarter developers are smelling the extra overtime in my paychecks, because October has simply overwhelmed me with campaigns that hit my odd demographic hard.

Derek A Kamal has launched a campaign Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse a tabletop roleplaying game where players make mice characters, found their club, and hit the streets.

These are mice with the gusto to build their own motorcycles and set off into an intimidating world where they are outsized, but never outclassed.

(Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse) uses the rules of Fate to tell stories about the drama of city mice and their motorcycle clubs. It's an RPG that works best with 2-5 players (plus the GM). It's fit for episodic play (sessions last about 3-4 hours) and epic campaigns!

Your stories are set in Thunder City, USA, a fictitious city of the real world. For small creatures existing in a place which doesn’t belong to them, these stories will be filled with the drama of their lives, and the trouble, both inside and outside, of a biker gang. Will your gang be Robin Hood-like doers of good, springing cheese from unwatched refrigerators and delivering it to needy widows, or will you be thugs and thieves exploiting the weak? Your mouse, your bike, and your gang all belong to you and the stories you tell at your table.

Alright, already! Take my money and give me the pdf!

(Kickstarter) Baby Bestiary 2018 Calendar

Andreas Walters, known for the Baby Bestiaries through Metal Weave Games, has launched a Kickstarter for the annual installment known as the Baby Bestiary 2018 Calendar.

Now, I'm usually the guy who snags up new calendars in February when they're on clearance for a dollar, but one signficant fact made me take a look at, and support the project.

The artist is Travis Hanson, famous for such works as comic Bean, Tanner Jones and the Quest for the Monkey Stone, and Life of the Party.

Andreas Walters, known for the Baby Bestiaries through Metal Weave Games, has launched a Kickstarter for the annual installment known as the Baby Bestiary 2018 Calendar.

Now, I'm usually the guy who snags up new calendars in February when they're on clearance for a dollar, but one signficant fact made me take a look at, and support the project.

The artist is Travis Hanson, famous for such works as comic Bean, Tanner Jones and the Quest for the Monkey Stone, and Life of the Party.

(Kickstarter) Mini-Gangs Skirmish Game

Curtis Fell at Ramshackle Games is at it again. This time, it's Mini Gangs, a sci-fi skirmish game with minis, designed to appeal to new or young gamers, casual players, and even hardcore fans of the genre.

$100 US

Curtis Fell at Ramshackle Games is at it again. This time, it's Mini Gangs, a sci-fi skirmish game with minis, designed to appeal to new or young gamers, casual players, and even hardcore fans of the genre.

$100 US

(Kickstarter) Frank Mentzer's World of Empyrea

Very little in the Fantasy RPG genre tickles my interest anymore, especially when it comes from the Johnny-Come-Lately mentality. No matter if it's 5e, OSR, or something in the middle of the F20 strata, the demand for $20+ books that I would barely look at if they were cardstock and typeset, and one-fifth the price boggles my mind.

But when you throw in the name Frank Mentzer into the mix.

Frank's World of Empyrea Kickstarter looks like a sure thing. A long-running campaign with some Greyhawk roots, but the serial numbers filed off. A veritable "super-team" of writers and support staff to flesh out this massive boxed set. Heck even the maps have that Greyhawk feel, with a little Known World influence.

But I realize that the market has changed. If Frank had somehow gotten this printed in the days between Gary's removal from TSR and the Rise of 3rd Edition, it would have been a generic setting without stats and we would have eaten it up. Now, they have to cater to the diluted masses, including statting out for TEN game systems.

1) D&D 5E
2) Pathfinder
3) Runequest
4) Savage Worlds
5) Dungeon Crawl Classics
6) Castles & Crusades
7) Swords & Wizardry
8) Hackmaster
9) D&D BECMI
10) D&D 1E/2E

I've already expressed displeasure with the system dispersion with Talislanta: The Savage Lands, which was reaffirmed by their recent announcement to drop two of the five systems from their production schedule.

This is somewhat different, as the systems will be built into the boxed set, rather than separate printings. And to make a comparison to cars, most would not only be GM products, but just different Chevy models. Sure, Runequest is Peugeot, Savage Worlds is Kia, and Hackmaster is a relaunch of the Saturn line, but the rest were pretty easy to convert between the others. Heck, some are essentially the same model, the only difference is an Oldsmobile or Buick logo.

As much as I jumped with glee with the early announcement of this Kickstarter, I have a library full of material that I've barely scratched the surface on, so a $70 investment in a campaign world I probably won't use (much), doesn't seem practical. My game worlds will never be professionally published, but they are mine, and that's all that matters.

Company website http://worldsofempyrea.com/

Very little in the Fantasy RPG genre tickles my interest anymore, especially when it comes from the Johnny-Come-Lately mentality. No matter if it's 5e, OSR, or something in the middle of the F20 strata, the demand for $20+ books that I would barely look at if they were cardstock and typeset, and one-fifth the price boggles my mind.

But when you throw in the name Frank Mentzer into the mix.

Frank's World of Empyrea Kickstarter looks like a sure thing. A long-running campaign with some Greyhawk roots, but the serial numbers filed off. A veritable "super-team" of writers and support staff to flesh out this massive boxed set. Heck even the maps have that Greyhawk feel, with a little Known World influence.

But I realize that the market has changed. If Frank had somehow gotten this printed in the days between Gary's removal from TSR and the Rise of 3rd Edition, it would have been a generic setting without stats and we would have eaten it up. Now, they have to cater to the diluted masses, including statting out for TEN game systems.

1) D&D 5E
2) Pathfinder
3) Runequest
4) Savage Worlds
5) Dungeon Crawl Classics
6) Castles & Crusades
7) Swords & Wizardry
8) Hackmaster
9) D&D BECMI
10) D&D 1E/2E

I've already expressed displeasure with the system dispersion with Talislanta: The Savage Lands, which was reaffirmed by their recent announcement to drop two of the five systems from their production schedule.

This is somewhat different, as the systems will be built into the boxed set, rather than separate printings. And to make a comparison to cars, most would not only be GM products, but just different Chevy models. Sure, Runequest is Peugeot, Savage Worlds is Kia, and Hackmaster is a relaunch of the Saturn line, but the rest were pretty easy to convert between the others. Heck, some are essentially the same model, the only difference is an Oldsmobile or Buick logo.

As much as I jumped with glee with the early announcement of this Kickstarter, I have a library full of material that I've barely scratched the surface on, so a $70 investment in a campaign world I probably won't use (much), doesn't seem practical. My game worlds will never be professionally published, but they are mine, and that's all that matters.

Company website http://worldsofempyrea.com/

2016-17 Year in Review

Like a weird government agency, I track my gaming progress from October of one year to September of the next. Don't ask why, it's just the way I've done things since I started. Too late to change now.

The Blog
This year was full of milestone's 250,000 hits (mostly non-Ukrainian-robot humans) and 2,000 posts overall.

The Top Ten Blog Posts of the Last Twelve Months
#1 (Review) Lettow Vorbeck by Decision Games (Reviews)
#2  Pre-Cruise Post (General Blogging)
#3 Fall-In! 2016 AAR (Conventions)
#4 (Kickstarter) Rifts Board Game *CANCELLED* (Kickstarter)
#5 Donald Trump: Presidential Nilbog (Risus)
#6 New Pulp Arrivals at the Kriget Rum (Pulp)
#7 That Silly Dog (Pulp #1.9)                                    (Pulp)
#8 Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming (Blogging)
#9 Don't Miss the Boat (Pulp #1.10) (Pulp)
#10 It Crashed Upon the Desert Sand (Pulp #1.11) (Pulp)

Seriously, if I knew there were that many multiple chit-based wargame news aggregators that created legitimate traffic, I would have reviewed the game months earlier. I'll also make a note that 90% of the traffic for the Rifts Boardgame Kickstarter has come since they cancelled it (and I noted so on the post).

You'll notice one glaring ommission on a top ten list from a blog called Gaming with the Gnomies. No Gnome Wars (Save the inclusion under the Fall-In AAR). To be honest, I've got the same number of posts year-to-year and a consistent ammount of traffic to those posts. It's just that my other posts are seeing an increase in traffic year-to-year. The views on a "good" gnome post equal the average views of any other topic.

The Best Laid Plans that Didn't Pan Out:
Mousageddon: I had planned a grand Mousaggedon kid's game for Cold Wars and Mepacon, but the fates did not favor that. Then I slotted it for November, and between minor kerfluffles with Fall-in! con staff and the latest Reaper Kickstarter, my personal passion for the project waned.

The FLGS: While it's nice to have two FLGS in the area, most of my game purchases are still at cons and online. I went two for four with special orders at one store and I just don't get over to the other one often enough to follow through with the orders. I've been working up a dual review of the stores on my drives home. I just haven't had the time to type it up coherently.

Cold Wars 2017   - Messed up weekends plus kids gymnastics meant I skipped my favorite con, where a childless ViscountEric can act like a childless ViscountEric. Already working on next year.

Highlights of 2017:

THE JOURNAL!: The true brightest star of the year was the shocking discovery of the players' journal from my college AD&D game, which ran from 1998-2000. It was missing random entries, abruptly stopped just prior to the final run towards the climax, and was written in multiple character perspectives, but I've cobbled that together for The Ballad of the Pigeon God. Its re-appearance has sparked my interest in my homebrew World of Georic. Whether I act on my desire to play more is a whole different story entirely.

Since the initial discovery, even more material has been unearthed.

Live N*de Video Chat: Can't wait to see what garbage traffic those words pick up. ViscountEric has expanded his online footprint with some gaming over at Roll20. It started as just some 5e as a player to bide the time, but two hours into that campaign and I already added placeholders to run games. Plus it's a great venue to try my sillier or stranger concepts Two sessions of Risus: Terraforming Mars was just the beginning! Actually running Illuminati University, has a long hiatus was a feather in my cap.

Fall-In 2016! - Another weekend with Maja, filled with Gnome Wars, painting, and swimming at the hotel pool.

Mepacon Fall 2016 - My "Cthulhu Comes to Springfield 2" relaunch of a time-honored con game failed to garner any players, but my first-ever kids game (Mouslings!) worked fairly well. I did get to jump into a Cthulhu Dark Ages game and finally learned Fiasco. Maja had a great time as always.

Mepacon Spring 2017 - I did get an afternoon reprieve from the girls gymnastics so I could travel to Scranton and cosplay as an actual paying attendee! Ran into an old classmate from high school, got interviewed by the local paper, snagged up some cheese and gravy fries at Chick's before the caravan of cartwheeling girls finally got home that night.

"The Weekend" 2017 - My true mixture of family vacation and gaming worked out well. Got to physically hold some Hinterland figures, then get them slaughtered by dervishes.

Kickstarters-
Pyramid of the Lost King and the Reaper Bones 3 Kickstarter arrived after significant delays!

Song of Blades: Axe and Brimstone - Arrived. Great Halflings
OGRE Miniatures - Set 1 - Delayed, but coming to America
Jet Bike Construction Kits - Arrived
Psi-Paladins and Techo Barbarians 28mm Miniatures - Arrived
Talislanta: The Savage Land - Delayed
Pizza Dice - Delayed
Cat-Men and Dungeon Scenery - Arrived
Reaper Bones 4 - Pledge Manager for a year just started. A buck reserved me Wave 1 shipping no matter what I decide on.
OgreZine! - I can afford three bucks for more OGRE stuff
Macrocosm - Legion of Steel - Processing.

The Kid's Painting! .
A twice flooded basement and crazed gymnastics/baseketball/life schedules for the girls has curtailed their painting projects.

My Own Painting
I'm as scatterbrained as always with my projects. Lots of pulp figures got finished, dominated by, erm... Pulp Figures. I finally finished a German Gnome unit, plus I have a good chuck of my Blue Martians/Goblins/Monkey Men done.

Games
Savage Worlds of Showdown: The Pulp Game completed Season Two, a journey to the Lost World.

Family Games: With our schedules, we had a little dust accumulate on our pile of family games, although every time one of my friends came over, Maja was quick to whip out Dungeon Roll or Car Wars the Card Game. The big successes for the family that games together front were Rory's Story Cubes (a successful diversion on our Bahamas cruise), the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game, and like many things this year, an amusing Family Decathalon they we just can't finish.

2017 Gaming with the Gnomies Awards!
Best Kickstarter: Song of Blades: Axe and Brimstone Kudos to many of the smaller Kickstarters who arrived on time. I may not use the actual rules for the setting, but the halflings are great figures that I can use in the Mousling games, plus it arrived EARLY.

Worst Kickstarter: Pyramid of the Lost King. When comparing the logistical nightmares of millions of pieces from China for Reaper's Bones 3 and complicating delays of a lone man producing a book, I'm actually giving the massive project the benefit of the doubt. Given that I had written it off as vaporware, I was amused that it actually saw the light of day... if you paid printing and shipping costs for it. I will say that it is on my pile of products to review and might garner some positive marks for content.

Best Game: Rory's Story Cubes. The concept was an instant hit, and be it five minutes or even a half hour, the girls have made some great sessions.

Best RPG: My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria - It's not only the first game my daughter Maja is wildly excited about, making up new Pony characters whenever she gets the chance, but she actively wants to run this game, which gives me as trepidation as the first day of driving lessons, many years from now.

Best Minis: While the Axe and Brimstone Kickstarter produced some great models, the Reaper Bones 3 items I picked a la carte through the pledge manager were right up my alley to paint up.

Stormwing

Mystic Circle

After years of gnomes and mice, the big models were a pleasure to paint. Storing them, on the other hand, has been problematic.

Best "Other" Purchase: Going through my tiny list of purchases this year, my biggest "other" gaming purchases have been a few forays into the jungle known as Jo-Ann Fabrics. Sure, our one cat puked all over the jungle cloth I used for the lost world game, but I have a surplus of felt for roads and terrain at a fraction of the cost of the "good" stuff. I might even venture some Pony-themed cloth for all the MLP games I'm running at Mepacon.

Like a weird government agency, I track my gaming progress from October of one year to September of the next. Don't ask why, it's just the way I've done things since I started. Too late to change now.

The Blog
This year was full of milestone's 250,000 hits (mostly non-Ukrainian-robot humans) and 2,000 posts overall.

The Top Ten Blog Posts of the Last Twelve Months
#1 (Review) Lettow Vorbeck by Decision Games (Reviews)
#2  Pre-Cruise Post (General Blogging)
#3 Fall-In! 2016 AAR (Conventions)
#4 (Kickstarter) Rifts Board Game *CANCELLED* (Kickstarter)
#5 Donald Trump: Presidential Nilbog (Risus)
#6 New Pulp Arrivals at the Kriget Rum (Pulp)
#7 That Silly Dog (Pulp #1.9)                                    (Pulp)
#8 Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming (Blogging)
#9 Don't Miss the Boat (Pulp #1.10) (Pulp)
#10 It Crashed Upon the Desert Sand (Pulp #1.11) (Pulp)

Seriously, if I knew there were that many multiple chit-based wargame news aggregators that created legitimate traffic, I would have reviewed the game months earlier. I'll also make a note that 90% of the traffic for the Rifts Boardgame Kickstarter has come since they cancelled it (and I noted so on the post).

You'll notice one glaring ommission on a top ten list from a blog called Gaming with the Gnomies. No Gnome Wars (Save the inclusion under the Fall-In AAR). To be honest, I've got the same number of posts year-to-year and a consistent ammount of traffic to those posts. It's just that my other posts are seeing an increase in traffic year-to-year. The views on a "good" gnome post equal the average views of any other topic.

The Best Laid Plans that Didn't Pan Out:
Mousageddon: I had planned a grand Mousaggedon kid's game for Cold Wars and Mepacon, but the fates did not favor that. Then I slotted it for November, and between minor kerfluffles with Fall-in! con staff and the latest Reaper Kickstarter, my personal passion for the project waned.

The FLGS: While it's nice to have two FLGS in the area, most of my game purchases are still at cons and online. I went two for four with special orders at one store and I just don't get over to the other one often enough to follow through with the orders. I've been working up a dual review of the stores on my drives home. I just haven't had the time to type it up coherently.

Cold Wars 2017   - Messed up weekends plus kids gymnastics meant I skipped my favorite con, where a childless ViscountEric can act like a childless ViscountEric. Already working on next year.

Highlights of 2017:

THE JOURNAL!: The true brightest star of the year was the shocking discovery of the players' journal from my college AD&D game, which ran from 1998-2000. It was missing random entries, abruptly stopped just prior to the final run towards the climax, and was written in multiple character perspectives, but I've cobbled that together for The Ballad of the Pigeon God. Its re-appearance has sparked my interest in my homebrew World of Georic. Whether I act on my desire to play more is a whole different story entirely.

Since the initial discovery, even more material has been unearthed.

Live N*de Video Chat: Can't wait to see what garbage traffic those words pick up. ViscountEric has expanded his online footprint with some gaming over at Roll20. It started as just some 5e as a player to bide the time, but two hours into that campaign and I already added placeholders to run games. Plus it's a great venue to try my sillier or stranger concepts Two sessions of Risus: Terraforming Mars was just the beginning! Actually running Illuminati University, has a long hiatus was a feather in my cap.

Fall-In 2016! - Another weekend with Maja, filled with Gnome Wars, painting, and swimming at the hotel pool.

Mepacon Fall 2016 - My "Cthulhu Comes to Springfield 2" relaunch of a time-honored con game failed to garner any players, but my first-ever kids game (Mouslings!) worked fairly well. I did get to jump into a Cthulhu Dark Ages game and finally learned Fiasco. Maja had a great time as always.

Mepacon Spring 2017 - I did get an afternoon reprieve from the girls gymnastics so I could travel to Scranton and cosplay as an actual paying attendee! Ran into an old classmate from high school, got interviewed by the local paper, snagged up some cheese and gravy fries at Chick's before the caravan of cartwheeling girls finally got home that night.

"The Weekend" 2017 - My true mixture of family vacation and gaming worked out well. Got to physically hold some Hinterland figures, then get them slaughtered by dervishes.

Kickstarters-
Pyramid of the Lost King and the Reaper Bones 3 Kickstarter arrived after significant delays!

Song of Blades: Axe and Brimstone - Arrived. Great Halflings
OGRE Miniatures - Set 1 - Delayed, but coming to America
Jet Bike Construction Kits - Arrived
Psi-Paladins and Techo Barbarians 28mm Miniatures - Arrived
Talislanta: The Savage Land - Delayed
Pizza Dice - Delayed
Cat-Men and Dungeon Scenery - Arrived
Reaper Bones 4 - Pledge Manager for a year just started. A buck reserved me Wave 1 shipping no matter what I decide on.
OgreZine! - I can afford three bucks for more OGRE stuff
Macrocosm - Legion of Steel - Processing.

The Kid's Painting! .
A twice flooded basement and crazed gymnastics/baseketball/life schedules for the girls has curtailed their painting projects.

My Own Painting
I'm as scatterbrained as always with my projects. Lots of pulp figures got finished, dominated by, erm... Pulp Figures. I finally finished a German Gnome unit, plus I have a good chuck of my Blue Martians/Goblins/Monkey Men done.

Games
Savage Worlds of Showdown: The Pulp Game completed Season Two, a journey to the Lost World.

Family Games: With our schedules, we had a little dust accumulate on our pile of family games, although every time one of my friends came over, Maja was quick to whip out Dungeon Roll or Car Wars the Card Game. The big successes for the family that games together front were Rory's Story Cubes (a successful diversion on our Bahamas cruise), the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game, and like many things this year, an amusing Family Decathalon they we just can't finish.

2017 Gaming with the Gnomies Awards!
Best Kickstarter: Song of Blades: Axe and Brimstone Kudos to many of the smaller Kickstarters who arrived on time. I may not use the actual rules for the setting, but the halflings are great figures that I can use in the Mousling games, plus it arrived EARLY.

Worst Kickstarter: Pyramid of the Lost King. When comparing the logistical nightmares of millions of pieces from China for Reaper's Bones 3 and complicating delays of a lone man producing a book, I'm actually giving the massive project the benefit of the doubt. Given that I had written it off as vaporware, I was amused that it actually saw the light of day... if you paid printing and shipping costs for it. I will say that it is on my pile of products to review and might garner some positive marks for content.

Best Game: Rory's Story Cubes. The concept was an instant hit, and be it five minutes or even a half hour, the girls have made some great sessions.

Best RPG: My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria - It's not only the first game my daughter Maja is wildly excited about, making up new Pony characters whenever she gets the chance, but she actively wants to run this game, which gives me as trepidation as the first day of driving lessons, many years from now.

Best Minis: While the Axe and Brimstone Kickstarter produced some great models, the Reaper Bones 3 items I picked a la carte through the pledge manager were right up my alley to paint up.

Stormwing

Mystic Circle

After years of gnomes and mice, the big models were a pleasure to paint. Storing them, on the other hand, has been problematic.

Best "Other" Purchase: Going through my tiny list of purchases this year, my biggest "other" gaming purchases have been a few forays into the jungle known as Jo-Ann Fabrics. Sure, our one cat puked all over the jungle cloth I used for the lost world game, but I have a surplus of felt for roads and terrain at a fraction of the cost of the "good" stuff. I might even venture some Pony-themed cloth for all the MLP games I'm running at Mepacon.

A Few More Bumps in the Road for Talislanta: The Savage Land

I pledged a single $5 pdf option for Talislanta: The Savage Land on Kickstarter. Despite my love for the setting, I had two concerns towards the actual completion of this project. First, was the sizable workload on other outstanding Kickstarter that Stewart Wieck had on his plate. Second was the FIVE systems the game was promised to be written for, all with separate hardcopy editions.

The Stewart passed away unexpectedly, and I pushed this project into the near-vaporware status. Heck, up until this week, I had it slated as the absolute last Kickstarter that would make good, even after the three campaigns I'm in right now... that are still going on!

But this week did bring some updates... and some bittersweet vindication of my opinions.

In a statement to the backers:
"The amount of orders required to justify the expense of printing and creating the Savage Worlds and Pathfinder editions of Talislanta: The Savage Land is unsustainable for Stewart's estate and the future of Nocturnal Media. "

So after careful analysis, they realized the late add-ons weren't financially feasible and will stick the original three promised: Fifth Edition D&D, D6, and the original Tal/OMNI system. That's still an ambitious undertaking, but it's far more realistic to all parties involved. Backers wishing for SW or Pathfinder could either accept a 90% refund, and re-routing the funds to other product offers in the campaign.

So with that out of the what, the layout isn't my personal black and white cup of tea, but it is gorgeous to the demographic that matters.

I pledged a single $5 pdf option for Talislanta: The Savage Land on Kickstarter. Despite my love for the setting, I had two concerns towards the actual completion of this project. First, was the sizable workload on other outstanding Kickstarter that Stewart Wieck had on his plate. Second was the FIVE systems the game was promised to be written for, all with separate hardcopy editions.

The Stewart passed away unexpectedly, and I pushed this project into the near-vaporware status. Heck, up until this week, I had it slated as the absolute last Kickstarter that would make good, even after the three campaigns I'm in right now... that are still going on!

But this week did bring some updates... and some bittersweet vindication of my opinions.

In a statement to the backers:
"The amount of orders required to justify the expense of printing and creating the Savage Worlds and Pathfinder editions of Talislanta: The Savage Land is unsustainable for Stewart's estate and the future of Nocturnal Media. "

So after careful analysis, they realized the late add-ons weren't financially feasible and will stick the original three promised: Fifth Edition D&D, D6, and the original Tal/OMNI system. That's still an ambitious undertaking, but it's far more realistic to all parties involved. Backers wishing for SW or Pathfinder could either accept a 90% refund, and re-routing the funds to other product offers in the campaign.

So with that out of the what, the layout isn't my personal black and white cup of tea, but it is gorgeous to the demographic that matters.