Happy New Year!
Happy new year to my friends in the blogosphere! Here's hoping that 2009 treated you well, and that 2010 treats you even better! All told, it was a good year for me - I find myself more than a little disappointed that we are almost a decade into the twenty-first century and I still don't have a flying car or a robot sex slave, but what can a guy do? A new year always makes me feel both nostalgic and hopeful, and this morning I'm sitting at a coffee shop this morning looking back on the year gone by, and thinking a lot about the year to come, and I thought maybe I should put some of those thoughts to digital ink. So here goes...
Last year was my first full year playing Warmachine, and it was a great year. I've made some great new friends down at my FLGS, and I've learned a lot about how important a good community is to the health of a game. When I first started getting interested in Warmachine I was really intimidated. The game had been out for years, and was on it's fifth expansion. I hadn't really played tabletop games before, and I thought there was no way I would be able to get involved in any competitive way - but thanks to a great local community and an outstanding press ganger, I've been able to jump in with both feet. I've won more than I've lost, I've been in the hunt at several tournaments, and even placed third in out Breast Cancer Brawl!
Of course this year looks to be one of the best ever for Warmachine players. Mark II promises to clean up much of the sediment that has built up in the system over the years, and new models and books will revive interest after what felt like a long draught in 2009. We should see even more new players as the new rules level the playing field - at least for a short time. I know that I personally can't wait to get my hands on a Cyclone and a Firefly and put them to work!
I picked up a couple of started fleets for Firestorm Armada, and I'm hoping that game catches on (and that Spartan Games doesn't errata the rules to death like they did with Uncharted Seas). I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi fleet combat stories like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series or David Weber's In Death Ground and Shiva Option, and I love the idea of playing out my own fleet-scale broadside battles in deep space. I have no idea if the game will even catch on locally, but I'm hoping I can find at least a few other folks with an interest.
I also finally got my D&D game back on track last fall. I DM a long-running Eberron game that went on hiatus late in 2008 when 4E hit the scene. Between D&D and Warmachine, it has become abundantly clear that a change in core rules (even for the better) is a disruptive thing, and the shift to fourth edition had quite an impact on our game. It was only after playing in a couple of RPGA events at PAX that everything clicked for us, and everyone finally decided that 4E was going to be a good thing. When we got back, we rebooted the game, and we've been having a blast ever since.
So, what's in store for 2010? We'll, I still have the goal of paining my entire Cygnar army (as well as their supporting mercs). I didn't make as much progress on that as I wanted to last year, so I'll have to keep working on that. I like to get a regular schedule and play Warmachine at least one time a week, and I need to do a better job of planning for (and defending) that time. I'd like to get my Khador army on the table and get some play time in there.
On the roleplaying side, I'd like to see my D&D game push well into the paragon tier and finish the current story arc of their campaign. I'd like to host of couple of "NanoCons" and run one-shot games of couple of other systems that I have a lot of interest in - most notably Spirit of the Century and CthulhuTech. I'd love to go to GenCon (I've never been!) but I need to figure out how to do that while still being able to attend PAX (GenCon is a convention, PAX is more like a family reunion.)
Ah, so much opportunity. There is nothing like the first day of a new year. Hope springs eternal, and none of my best-laid plans have had a chance to go completely to hell yet. Here's to a great year!
Last year was my first full year playing Warmachine, and it was a great year. I've made some great new friends down at my FLGS, and I've learned a lot about how important a good community is to the health of a game. When I first started getting interested in Warmachine I was really intimidated. The game had been out for years, and was on it's fifth expansion. I hadn't really played tabletop games before, and I thought there was no way I would be able to get involved in any competitive way - but thanks to a great local community and an outstanding press ganger, I've been able to jump in with both feet. I've won more than I've lost, I've been in the hunt at several tournaments, and even placed third in out Breast Cancer Brawl!
Of course this year looks to be one of the best ever for Warmachine players. Mark II promises to clean up much of the sediment that has built up in the system over the years, and new models and books will revive interest after what felt like a long draught in 2009. We should see even more new players as the new rules level the playing field - at least for a short time. I know that I personally can't wait to get my hands on a Cyclone and a Firefly and put them to work!I picked up a couple of started fleets for Firestorm Armada, and I'm hoping that game catches on (and that Spartan Games doesn't errata the rules to death like they did with Uncharted Seas). I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi fleet combat stories like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series or David Weber's In Death Ground and Shiva Option, and I love the idea of playing out my own fleet-scale broadside battles in deep space. I have no idea if the game will even catch on locally, but I'm hoping I can find at least a few other folks with an interest.
I also finally got my D&D game back on track last fall. I DM a long-running Eberron game that went on hiatus late in 2008 when 4E hit the scene. Between D&D and Warmachine, it has become abundantly clear that a change in core rules (even for the better) is a disruptive thing, and the shift to fourth edition had quite an impact on our game. It was only after playing in a couple of RPGA events at PAX that everything clicked for us, and everyone finally decided that 4E was going to be a good thing. When we got back, we rebooted the game, and we've been having a blast ever since.
So, what's in store for 2010? We'll, I still have the goal of paining my entire Cygnar army (as well as their supporting mercs). I didn't make as much progress on that as I wanted to last year, so I'll have to keep working on that. I like to get a regular schedule and play Warmachine at least one time a week, and I need to do a better job of planning for (and defending) that time. I'd like to get my Khador army on the table and get some play time in there.
On the roleplaying side, I'd like to see my D&D game push well into the paragon tier and finish the current story arc of their campaign. I'd like to host of couple of "NanoCons" and run one-shot games of couple of other systems that I have a lot of interest in - most notably Spirit of the Century and CthulhuTech. I'd love to go to GenCon (I've never been!) but I need to figure out how to do that while still being able to attend PAX (GenCon is a convention, PAX is more like a family reunion.)
Ah, so much opportunity. There is nothing like the first day of a new year. Hope springs eternal, and none of my best-laid plans have had a chance to go completely to hell yet. Here's to a great year!
Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, Firestorm Armada, miniatures, MKII, PAX, wargaming, Warmachine
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Living Forgotten Realms: I'm going to be playing in my first RPGA event while at PAX, and a buddy and I are signed up for a couple of different sessions. I've been running a game of D&D on-and-off for the last few years, but I haven't been on the player's side of the DM screen in almost 20 years. I'm realtively new to 4E, having just switched over about a month back, but I think I have a good enough handle on it for this kind of deal. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect from this format, but it should be a good time.
Cutthroat Caverns: "Without teamwork, you will never survive. Without betrayal, you’ll never win." A simple card game that puts the players in the role of an adventuring party that has discovered the "Sacred Item of Unimaginable Marvel" - and of course, you each want it for your own. Unfortunately, nine monsters (randomly drawn from an encounter deck) stand between you and the exit to the dungeon. If you don't work as a team, you won't have the horsepower to make it out, but if you don't backstab the others at just the right moment, you can't claim the prize for yourself. It's straightforward screw-thy-neighbor gaming at it's best.
Infernal Contraption: This is a game I bought at PAX last year in the Privateer Press booth. It's definately a beer and pretzels affair, but is surprisingly fun to play. Another card game, this one has you trying to assemble an "infernal contraption" with the goal of forcing your opponent to consume all of his resources (cards) before you run out of cards yourself. This quickly became our go-to game inbetween events.
Battletech: An old favorite that I haven't played since I was a teenager. This is the granddaddy of big, stompy robot games, and is an interesting mix of board game, wargame and RPG. The game itself has had some rough years, passing from FASA to FanPro, and ultimately to Catalyst Games Labs. The good news is that Catalyst seems to be doing well by the series, and has put out a Introductory Boxed Set that is a great introduction to the game. (You you read my impressions the boxed set, along with my glowing fanboyism 
