I’m catching my breath after a whirlwind week. First to Chicago for a week of training in the day job (with Inner Workings), a day to think of recovering, then off for another three days of family and funerals. For those keeping score at home, that’s two funerals in less than a month. They weren’t surprise funerals, but still… never fun.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about today’s Random Recommendation:
Roleplaying with Kids from Technomancer Press. It’s a collection of essays about gaming with kids. The essays cover a wide spectrum, and some delve pretty deep into the theory behind the roleplaying experience, but work together to create the first how-to book I’ve seen the the subject. The authors all have kids, and game with them, so the books is full of anecdotes and lots of “This worked for me” advice. As a gamer with an imaginative five year-old, I’m looking forward to applying some of this advice and seeing how it goes.
You know the old saying, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day, but give a top-tier board game publisher a full-blown digital movie-making studio, and they will turn out the freaking coolest game preview ever downloaded?”
Well, it’s true. The game being previewed is Fantasy Flight’s Tannhauser. And the video preview can be downloaded here.
I’m designing a new game. It’s nothing major, and might even turn out to be lame, but it’s more of an exercise than something I’m putting together for publication.
The game is STACKERS. It’s like checkers, but with a twist: You can stack your pawns atop each other to make them “stronger.” A piece can only “jump” a pawn or stack that is equal to or weaker than itself. For example, a single pawn cannot jump a stack of two pawns.
I’ve got a page of notes, which I’ll be posting as I go. It will be our own little journey of discovery. And at the end of the journey we’ll know the answer to the eternal question, “Is this a great new twist on a classic game, or just a lame variant?”
Outside of wargamer circles, not many people realize that H. G. Wells, author of War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and other sci-fi classics, also wrote one of the first miniatures rules sets: Little Wars.
As you can see by the link, my good friends at Skirmisher Publishing have released a new edition of that milestone work. And now they’re coating the whole thing in a savory glaze of fantasy sauce and releasing the new version as Little Orc Wars.
This is the introductory quick-play version. I actually didn’t do any writing, editing or layout on this, but I did read it while uploading it, so I can assure you it’s a fun game with a simple, yet strategic system.
And the image of the orc children in little sailor suits makes it worth looking at.
I spent vast swaths of Saturday ripping up my front yard in preparation for a minor landscaping project. With each shovelful of rock and topsoil I tore from the earth, I exposed hundreds of swarming, panicky ants.
While they didn’t, as Simpsons would have us believe, run around screaming, “Protect the Queen!” they were clearly pretty freaked out. And who can blame them? You’re puttering around in the colony, maybe snacking on a micron of Cheeze-Puff waiting for the game to come on, and SUDDENLY THE ROOF IS GONE! Blinding, burning sunlight pours in. The tunnels are collapsing around you. And your life as you’ve known it is over.
I finished the project on Sunday, replacing most of the dirt and rocks. I hope the ants are able to rebuild their colonies. But even if they do, you just know the survivors of my attack will suffer all kinds of post-traumatic stress. For the rest of their lives, their sleep will be interrupted with nightmares of giant pink fingers jabbing at them through the soil.
One of the many lines I have in the water (to revive my annoying fishing analogy) is managing and editing the new line of PDF products for Skirmisher Publishing.
My first contribution is The Old Man of Damascus, a new adventure for Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition. The adventure was written by the master of horror LARP, Robert McLaughlin, and his partner in darkness, Paul Janousek. I provided the editing, layout, and graphic design. (Fear my mad Photoshop skillz!)
Check it out: The adventure is set during the Crusades, in a French castle besieged by the armies of Saladin. Tempers flare, deals are made, and unseen horrors lurk about. Good times, good times.
