Hey all -
Made it back from Adepticon, I had a blast although I'm still exhausted. I'll have tons of pics & write-ups this week, but tomorrow is my birthday, I have the day off work, and I'm sleeping in!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Army Creator Mobile
Hey all -
Just a quick note - lars4life & JayHammons over at Funderhammer have been in contact with the developer of Army Creator Mobile. They were kind enough to send us a copy to check out - if you're at Adepticon, send me a message on my Twitter account if you want to check it out!
Just a quick note - lars4life & JayHammons over at Funderhammer have been in contact with the developer of Army Creator Mobile. They were kind enough to send us a copy to check out - if you're at Adepticon, send me a message on my Twitter account if you want to check it out!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Adepticon Ho!
By the time you read this, lars4life & I should be nearing the Windy City for AdeptiCon 2011! Next week I will be posting extensive reports & photos, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the next few days end in me collapsing on the floor of my hotel room each night after marathon gaming sessions and beer-fueled shopping binges! I should be checking both my email and Twitter accounts throughout the convention, so if anyone is attending and wants to meet up for dinner, drinks or just to say hello, send me a PM!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Say Cheese!
I got a very cool early birthday present from my wife the other day:
Y'see, a couple of years ago we took one of my nieces on a trip to the zoo. After getting out of the car, I set all my stuff on the trunk while we packed everything up, applied sunscreen, etc. - I heard a noise, and looked over to see the bag containing my pride-and-joy digital SLR slide off the trunk and go *crunch* on the pavement. (Needless to say, it wasn't one of my happier trips to the zoo, as I wandered around shell-shocked for most of the day). Luckily the camera still took pictures, but the LCD screen was broken - I contacted the manufacturer and sent it off to be repaired. I got it back, and I wasn't happy - the focus seemed to be fuzzy, and the color didn't seem quite right. The thing I forgot to consider was the lens. It was a not-so-great third-party lens in the first place, and I think the impact threw it off - I tested the camera with one of my older manual focus lenses that was a known quantity, and the pictures looked great. But, that had been my only autofocus lens, and my digital SLR isn't terribly user-friendly in manual mode. I couldn't afford to replace the lens, so the camera sat mostly untouched for the past year. (I've been using a ten-year-old point-and-shoot camera for my pictures on this blog). I mentioned to my wife that I wished I had the digital SLR up and running for my trip to Adepticon so I could get lots of pics for the blog, and she graciously offered to buy me a new lens as an early birthday present (my birthday is actually a few days after Adepticon). So if you notice a marked improvement in the images you see here, thank my wife!
Y'see, a couple of years ago we took one of my nieces on a trip to the zoo. After getting out of the car, I set all my stuff on the trunk while we packed everything up, applied sunscreen, etc. - I heard a noise, and looked over to see the bag containing my pride-and-joy digital SLR slide off the trunk and go *crunch* on the pavement. (Needless to say, it wasn't one of my happier trips to the zoo, as I wandered around shell-shocked for most of the day). Luckily the camera still took pictures, but the LCD screen was broken - I contacted the manufacturer and sent it off to be repaired. I got it back, and I wasn't happy - the focus seemed to be fuzzy, and the color didn't seem quite right. The thing I forgot to consider was the lens. It was a not-so-great third-party lens in the first place, and I think the impact threw it off - I tested the camera with one of my older manual focus lenses that was a known quantity, and the pictures looked great. But, that had been my only autofocus lens, and my digital SLR isn't terribly user-friendly in manual mode. I couldn't afford to replace the lens, so the camera sat mostly untouched for the past year. (I've been using a ten-year-old point-and-shoot camera for my pictures on this blog). I mentioned to my wife that I wished I had the digital SLR up and running for my trip to Adepticon so I could get lots of pics for the blog, and she graciously offered to buy me a new lens as an early birthday present (my birthday is actually a few days after Adepticon). So if you notice a marked improvement in the images you see here, thank my wife!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
It's All A Matter of Perspective
Note: My wife is a nursing student, and is currently assigned to clinical rotation at the psychiatric ward of a local hospital.
Me: Do you want to come to Adepticon with me, honey? You're welcome to come along.
Her: I can't. I have to hang out with crazy people.
Me: (pause) There's going to be two thousand grown men there, who will spend four days playing with tiny plastic spacemen.
Her: Oh yeah, I guess that would qualify!
Me: Do you want to come to Adepticon with me, honey? You're welcome to come along.
Her: I can't. I have to hang out with crazy people.
Me: (pause) There's going to be two thousand grown men there, who will spend four days playing with tiny plastic spacemen.
Her: Oh yeah, I guess that would qualify!
Monday, March 28, 2011
What Have We Here?
So lars4life has been corrupted by another member of our gaming circle and is giving Warmachine a try. Since I want to be like the cool kids too, I had to give in:
...I got a pretty good deal on the Khador battlegroup, so I decided to give it a shot. Originally I was interested in the Protectorate of Mentoh, but after reading about the play styles of the various factions Khador sounds like it might be more forgiving to a n00b. Privateer Press is one of the few companies that has managed to put out plastic models that rival GW's in terms of detail, so I look forward to painting these up - keep watching for pics of the progress!
...I got a pretty good deal on the Khador battlegroup, so I decided to give it a shot. Originally I was interested in the Protectorate of Mentoh, but after reading about the play styles of the various factions Khador sounds like it might be more forgiving to a n00b. Privateer Press is one of the few companies that has managed to put out plastic models that rival GW's in terms of detail, so I look forward to painting these up - keep watching for pics of the progress!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Deathwatch: Rites of Battle
Oooh, look what arrived at my door today:
...a shiny new copy of Deathwatch: Rites of Battle! I haven't had a chance to dive into much yet, but it looks fantastic!
...a shiny new copy of Deathwatch: Rites of Battle! I haven't had a chance to dive into much yet, but it looks fantastic!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
New Black Library: The Founding
I found myself with some time to kill the other day and wandered into a bookstore - they happened to have a copy of The Founding, so I picked it up:
...as I mentioned in my review, I enjoyed the first Gaunt's Ghosts novel, First and Only, tremendously - The Founding is a collection of the first three novels in the series (First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis) in one volume, plus a short story. I'm still engrossed in the Horus Hersey series (currently working my way through Fulgrim) but after that I may have to take a break and see what Ibram Gaunt and his men are up to...
...as I mentioned in my review, I enjoyed the first Gaunt's Ghosts novel, First and Only, tremendously - The Founding is a collection of the first three novels in the series (First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis) in one volume, plus a short story. I'm still engrossed in the Horus Hersey series (currently working my way through Fulgrim) but after that I may have to take a break and see what Ibram Gaunt and his men are up to...
Monday, March 21, 2011
New Board Games!
I got some unfortunate news last week: my FLGS is closing (more on that in an upcoming post). One of the first things the owner did was to put the store's board game library on sale at a steep discount - as I am a huge board game fan, I picked up a few titles:
...the first is Robber Knights from Queen Games. This looks like a fairly basic hybrid "card-and-token" -type game. I've come to appreciate games in this format since the wife & I attended GenCon last year - the games are usually good for two players, are a bit cheaper than full-blown board games, and don't take up a lot of space.
I also picked up a copy of World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game:
I have to say there are two main reasons I picked up this game: In my opinion, it's practically impossible to go wrong with a Fantasy Flight board game - everything about them is just so well done. Also, Fantasy Flight recently announced that they did not renew their license with Blizzard, so this game will be out of print soon. While I was only a casual Warcraft player at best, I have some friends who are WoW fanatics, and the wife is generally a fan of anything with a "fantasy" flavor, so hopefully I'll get some use out of it...
...the first is Robber Knights from Queen Games. This looks like a fairly basic hybrid "card-and-token" -type game. I've come to appreciate games in this format since the wife & I attended GenCon last year - the games are usually good for two players, are a bit cheaper than full-blown board games, and don't take up a lot of space.
I also picked up a copy of World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game:
I have to say there are two main reasons I picked up this game: In my opinion, it's practically impossible to go wrong with a Fantasy Flight board game - everything about them is just so well done. Also, Fantasy Flight recently announced that they did not renew their license with Blizzard, so this game will be out of print soon. While I was only a casual Warcraft player at best, I have some friends who are WoW fanatics, and the wife is generally a fan of anything with a "fantasy" flavor, so hopefully I'll get some use out of it...
Friday, March 18, 2011
New Arrivals: DeathWatch
As I mentioned previously, I got a copy of Deathwatch for Christmas. I also got a gift card, which allowed me to pick up a couple more items:
...a copy of The Emperor Protects, a book with three adventures, and the Game Master's Kit, which includes a quad-fold GM screen with reference table on one side and four beautiful color panels on the other, as well as a book containing NPC's and an adventure. I may try doing a dry run of the latter adventure, if it times out the way I want it to I'm considering running it for some friends.
The Deathwatch books are my first experience with Fantasy Flight's RPG line - I have to say that so far I am tremendously impressed with the quality of the writing, art, production... everything really. If this hold true across their entire line, I may have to look in to picking up the Dark Hersey books...
...a copy of The Emperor Protects, a book with three adventures, and the Game Master's Kit, which includes a quad-fold GM screen with reference table on one side and four beautiful color panels on the other, as well as a book containing NPC's and an adventure. I may try doing a dry run of the latter adventure, if it times out the way I want it to I'm considering running it for some friends.
The Deathwatch books are my first experience with Fantasy Flight's RPG line - I have to say that so far I am tremendously impressed with the quality of the writing, art, production... everything really. If this hold true across their entire line, I may have to look in to picking up the Dark Hersey books...
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