Re Summoning Summoner Wars, King of Tokyo, and the Ho Crain Passes Through

After watching a series of reviews by the Dice Tower on the final series of Second Summoners for my favorite board game, Max and I were inspired to make our way back to the battlefields of Itharia. 

We each won a game. Good times. 

The Ho Crain stopped by for some Cardfight Vanguard goodness. I won three of four games and taught Crain how to play my solo version.

The boys and I keep breaking out King of Tokyo when we get the chance. It really is a great filler game.

On to more games. See you all next time.

Mage Gets Married: 2nd Edition. And Lazy Saturday CoC LCG

This past Friday, Mage (last featured in this post) got married for the second time. And I must say, he did it right this time. The bachelor party started off with IMStuds, Mage, and I in the Geek Cave with some Dead of Winter. We won! Love this game!

We ran out for lunch and brought Zoltar back with us for more gaming. IMStuds and Mage faced off across the battlefield of Itharia while Zoltar and I had a dog fight. Zoltar won our fight, but it was close. A couple of miscalculated maneuvers turned out to be my doom. We started another scenario in Dead of Winter, but didn't get to finish before the schedule of the agenda of the bachelor party took precedence. 

The rest of the bachelor party did not involve games, so now we leave its tale to the mists...

Throughout the past two days, though, Maximan and I got in a game of Epic (can't wait to get the entire game!) 

And I managed to get in a game of Call of Cthulhu solo. I played my Hunter deck vs. Cthulhu. I really like the way that game plays. Looking forward to the fall when the weather will inspire the theme.

Hopefully, I can get in some more gaming before school starts. D&D tomorrow, though. That will be great. 

Until next time, gamers, keep on gaming!

Summer Games

Lots of gaming going on here. Just haven't posted in a while. Maximan and I have played Summoner Wars, Epic, and Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. I also played Ashes with SurfMonkey before our weekly Starshield Gaming Society D&D game. 

On the RPG front, I stumbled upon an OGL superhero RPG I really like! RPGNow Christmas in July is an amazing sale. So, I picked up this gem:

The boys and I have played two sessions of it, and I am running it using my ExampleofPlay Solo RPG Engine. Character creation is random but tweakable. Loving it. My print copy should arrive tomorrow.

We have also continued playing D&D every few days. Great times! 

SurfMonkey Mania

SurfMonkey came over Thursday night for our monthly game night. This night was particularly busy as the boys joined us for a few games at the beginning of the evening. While SurfMonkey and Max played Star Realms, Jasper and I played some Vanguard!

Then we played a game of Sentinels vs. Kismet (Setback's nemesis). In the end, we kicked her butt. 

After the heroes took down the supervillainess, we continued superhero action and played a couple of games of Marvel Dice Masters, using a roughshod draft mechanic. 

We split our wins. 

We finished out the evening with a head to head battle of Star Realms and then played a co op vs. the Nemesis Beast. We took it down!

Overall, a great night of gaming. Next month: We brave the arena and finally break out Mage Wars!



Summer Gaming with the boys: When not hanging out with SurfMonkey, the boys and I have been revisiting some of the great games.

In the Sentinels game, Plague Rat defeated us. Next up: Ambuscade invading The Block.

Our Origins Journey: 2014

My birthday weekend was one for the history books as Max, StormBringr, and Kato Katonian piled into StormBringr's Tesla S and headed for the second largest gaming convention in the country: Origins! This trip was the three big people's second trip to the convention and Max's first. It was an amazing time. We met up with Feecha and Joe for dinner on Thursday night at Easton, then played games in our hotel room. As we stayed at the Hilton across the street from the convention center. That is the only way to go. We were able to get way more out of our time at the convention because of our close proximity.

Food at the North Market and Barley's was amazing. Can't wait to eat at either of those places again! 

We got to meet Issac Vega, Sam Healey, Ryan Metzler, Rob Dougherty, Darwin Kastle, Vito Gesualdi, Tom Vasel, Mike Selinker, Mike Mearls, Rodney Thompson, and Colby Dauch.

We also met up with Shaftshooter on Saturday!

The following is a pictorial history of our time there:

Feecha bought us breakfast Sunday morning, and we made our way back to the North. A grand time was had by all. 

My Recent Gaming Adventures in Pictures...

Games Played Update...

I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much as I like. I lost my drive to post here, but fear not, I am still playing a ton of games.

Here is what I have been doing since I last posted:

Three nights of SurfMonkey gaming.
A board game night with the Starshield Gaming Society.
Several meetings of the Red Dragon Gaming Society.
Discovered a couple of solo print and play games.


Games I can remember playing:

D&D Next
Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game
The Duke
Warhammer Invasion
Heroes & Perils RPG (my homebrew)
Summoner Wars
Space Hulk: Death Angel
Rune Age
Dungeon Command
King of Tokyo
Zombie Mod of solo game Thermopylae with Fear and Faith mechanics. I call my mod The Last Stand. I have played it four times.
Dino Hunt

There may have been more games, but I think I got them all.

I will return to more regular postings here eventually, but until then, folks, enjoy the remainder of the holiday season. I will see you again in 2014!

IMStuds Memorial...er...Birthday Gaming Weekend

Once again it was time for the annual game night at the home of StormBringr: Tiny House. This year was billed as the IMStuds Memorial Gaming Weekend, but IMStuds surprised no one by showing up! StormBringr and Beowulf's birthday present was plane fare for him. 

The Dramatis Persona:

me: magehammer

StormBringr

IMStuds

Beowulf

Mage

Shaftshooter

KatoKatonian

He who lived closest, KatoKatonian was last to arrive. But that was okay because many of us spent the time checking out StormBringr's newest acquisition: A Tesla car. Speaking of which, five of us piled into it and headed to the traditional dinner spot: Chipotle. After returning from the delicious dinner, KatoKatonian had prepared a surprise for us and had us purchase an app called Artemis, a space ship bridge simulator which essentially allows the players to be the members of a starship crew ala Star Trek and run their station from their personal iPad. The scenario prepared by KatoKatonian involved us saving an ailing ship from certain destruction. Our mission was successful under Captain StormBringr. I was the Weapons  officer. The night was off to a stellar start. 

After Artemis, we cracked open Risk and had at it. This year I changed my strategy and started out berserking and didn't stop, which in the end led to me achieving victory!

The night ended after a few refresher games of Summoner Wars, my favorite game.

The next morning, IMStuds made eggs for people. Well...let's say things got sticky as the video below will show.

While we waited for IMStuds and Beowulf to return from an errand and Kato to return, Mage, Shaftshooter, and I played a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse. I played Legacy and Tempest; Mage, Bunker; and Shaftshooter, Ra. We trounced poor Baron Blade in his bid for the Ruins of Atlantis. Soon the entire gang was sitting down to play most recent home brew RPG, Quests & Bones. The newest recruits of the Vigilants of Starshield were called upon to investigate the strange silence of a Palanite monastery at the base of the Wyrmspan Mountains. 

The journey there was fraught with peril, with rampaging orcs and hungry ogres at every turn...

After arriving at the Monastery of the Sun, they found it deserted with only giant spiders to greet them, complete with web-wrapped bodies of a monk rescue team...

After vanquishing the giant spider guardians and further investigating the monastery, they are ambushed by ettercaps in the basement...

After making their way into the monastic tomb below the monastery, they soon discovered the true reason for the deserted monastery: drow had emerged from the Dark Beneath to wreak havoc and evil and gather slaves for their subterranean city. The heroes prevailed but now face a decision: return to Northgate and report their discovery, or descend into the Dark Beneath to rescue the slaves or avenge them?

I am really happy how the game played, and I think everyone had a great time. Next year, I am planning on adapting the system to a pulp adventure game at the request of our host. Can't wait!

We played a game called We Didn't Playtest This: Legacies, a game I bought StormBringr for Christmas. It was crazy but fun. 

Next up was the long-awaited Summoner Wars tournament. I played Swamp Orcs and then The Filth the rest of the games. I lost to Beowulf in the semi finals when I missed four opportunities to take out Sundreved. 

I love that game!

The next morning all said their farewells and headed off into the noonrise. I had dinner with my parents and brother as they had come up to take IMStuds to the airport. 

A huge Thanks to MEM and StormBringr for hosting and allowing us to disrupt their lives for a couple of days in the name of friendship and gamesmanship. 

I hereby declare the third annual Tiny House Gaming Weekend a success. Already plans are being made for next year. Will IMStuds show his face again and ruin yet another pan? Will any of us go to sleep before 3:30 a.m.? Will Shaftshooter be living in a house? Answers to all these questions and more await next year.

In the mean time, friends, play more games!