Jericho…

We learned a lot last night, first, Death loves Jake. This guy killed two people in a crash on day 1 of the Post apocalypse and on day two he was shooting for PAR however his old sweet heart downed one of the convicts robbing him of his score (Drat). Then there is the strange case of Mr Hawkins, the “ex-cop from St Louis”, Is he simply a Plotontic device ( he seems to know everything) or something else. I can buy that a cop may know all the facts about Nuclear explosions ( training after 9/11) but Morse Code?? I kept half expecting him to leap up a perform surgery. So a lot of the town is now buried in the Salt Mine, some in Town Hall and the rest in there basements. I am liking this show so far, Yes I am partial to the Post Holocaust genre, but its been good TV so far. The big thing came at the end of the episode, when the mysterious Mr Hawkins keeps pushing pins into the Map of the United states, each pin, we assume, represents a nuclear blast…Poor Phili.

Powered Armor….

Many many years ago, I picked up and read a novel called “StarShip Troopers”, And ever since then I have had a love for powered armor. Now “Starship Troopers” was nothing like the movie of the same name, yes some of the character’s names were the same, but after that the similarity ends. In the novel, The troopers were encased in suits of heavy armor with jump jets and a staggering array of weapons (including the famed Mini Nuke). The Japanese have been the masters of Powered armor since, including it in many Anime and Manga. I need to make sure that it is understood for the record, I don’t like the towering Huge suits, no I prefer the suits under 10 feet tall, like “appleseed” and the works of Masamune Shirow and the superlative work of Kow Yokoyama on his legendary SF3D line. In fact, the Japanese so rule this line of Sci-Fi that most western entries into genera these days is a copy of the look and feel of the Japanese ( I.E. Heavy Gear), I do not fault the authors for this as I believe they are merely paying homage to these fantastic visual.

Poseidon…

Yep…that’s right, I watched the movie on demand last night….and I have been regretting it ever since. Man oh man I think it was 10 minutes into the movie I started thinking “ This damn boat can’t sink fast enough for my liking” I hated everybody. First, besides the people in the ball room and 4 people in the disco, the entire population of this huge ship seems to have been wiped out. Ug then there was the cast, Kurt Russell ( who normally gets a pass because of BtiLC) obviously collecting a pay check, then the Hard guy, who guys from a card playing tough guy to crying his eyes out Pansy (no offense to pansies) in a period of minutes. Then there is the daughter and the her fiancé stinking up the screen like a lump of rotten cheese. The woman and her son, I would like to tell you there story, break your heart with the reason why she was on the boat, or even why she was at the captains table…but I can’t….I DON’T KNOW, we were never told, Just POP! “Here are to new characters, bon appetite!”. Then there was Richard Dryfus ( Heck lets call him Sir Richard Dryfus, if he was English he would be one of those underpaid ultra actors knighted by the queen) well, I think he was Gay, I think he invited some guys on the boat or something, I think he may have been upset…But then again I can’t tell you for sure because we weren’t told. There were some neat death scenes, but besides that it was a stinker. They should have had the Sci Fi channel make it, they would have spiced it up with Giant Mutant Bunnies or something, or giant Mutant Bunnies and a Volcano.

Post Weekend

Thomas the Tank Engine, that right folks, we went to see Thomas again, although this time there seemed to be more of a “Evacuation of Saigon” Feel to the whole thing. When Kevin chose to go through the little maze I started to realize that all I was hearing was the screams of children, the yelling of Parents and (oddly enough) Dixie land jazz. Parents were physically pulling their children here and there, Children were kicking and screaming, it was near about as close to the apocalypse as you can get without a mushroom cloud. Then there was the pushing to get on the Train…not Thomas mind you, but the longer train. We did get a chance to meet Cousins Robin and Mike and their son Daniel and Daniel and Kevin were very good all day so that was a bonus.

I picked up the new Star Wars Limited edition, I watched some of the original release and I stand by my earlier comments that George really cluttered things up to much with what he added. Some of the scenes are, IMHO, allot better without the Flying Driods, huge Lizards and horribly rendered CGI Stormtroopers.

Uh....and I got a Shoofly Pie :o)

The Weekend…..

At last, At last! The weekend has arrived. Looks like we may be taking young master Kevin up to see Thomas the Tank Engine so that should be fun ( Maybe we’ll come home with a Shoofly Pie!). Besides that I thought I would try to work on my Ptolus campaign and try to forget about work for a couple of days. I have bought a number of non-armored figures for use in the game, now lets see if I can paint them ( I have painted one).


Star Wars
I built a Millennium Falcon kit to use with my miniatures, its just shy of 25mm but look good when you place some figures around it. I am hoping to put together a scenario where the Rebels have to hold off a Imperial attack while the Freighter takes on vital cargo and passengers ( I am not painting it to be the Falcon, just a YT1300). The fellow I have contacted in regards to “Operation ST” has received my package so I should know the results in 30 to 60 days. Miniature Building Authority had some SCI FI proto types that would look cool but they aren’t even scheduled for release. The new WOC SW miniatures expansion is due out in a week, that would be Bounty Hunter, I have seen the poster of what it contains and it has some good models, Yes I prefer Metal to soft plastic, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Speaking of Miniature Building Authority…

The Castle that we pre ordered is scheduled to come out sometime this month, I saw it at Historicon and it looked great

Jericho…

I watched the first episode of the new CBS show Jericho on Yahoo last night. First off, the Post Apocalypse and Zombie Films are a favorite genre so they had me hooked to begin with. The Show is set in the Mythical town of Jericho Kansas, Jake Green, The son of the mayor returns to town to try to collect his inheritance. He meets old friends, fights with his family and the whole time Im thinking “oh sweet lord let the bombs fall”. It isn’t to long before my wish is granted as ( what they believe to be) Denver goes up in a mushroom cloud ( they latter find out there may have been a second bomb in Atlanta). Now the post Apocalypse gets to roll’n, Fights at the gas pump, escape convicts, yokels with guns, the pieces begin to fall into place. I know they cant go right to Green Mohawks and super chopped cars with spikes everywhere so I will give it some time.

The “Unaltered” Star Wars DVD’s are out…

Of course Ill buy them, I just wish I could mix and match to make the “Clockwork Mix”.I would ( of course ) have the Han firing first scene, I would also get rid of some of the Stupid Mos Eisley CGI stuff like the giant creature that walks across the screen during the road block. I don’t like the CGI crowd stuff, they don’t look real to me, the CGI Stormtroopers stink on Ice. On the Other hand I do like some of the improvements to the final space battle and I like the overhead shot of the Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley. It would be cool to be able to pick and chose what you wanted.

Questions about God….

The G man, the big man, He who knows all and lead singer of the Trio, My son started Catholic school a week and a half ago and he had some questions for my wife about God and Jesus. In retrospect its better that he asked her….


How did Jesus Die? Well, HE WAS PERSECUTED BY THE MAN!!!

Can God Touch the Sun? Hell Yeah!! If God wanted to, he could set up a lawn chair and catch some rays….If he wanted.

Does God have gun’s? If God wanted gun’s he have really cool ones with scopes and laser sights.

So you see its best that I allow the professional catholic in the house to answer these questions. I don’t want to confuse the kid.

My Mind is at ease….

I finally got some sleep the other night, I attribute this feat to the fact that Princess Kiko has given birth to a Little Boy. Can you imagine my relief, A male shall ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. WOW! I just have to say “ good for you Prince Akishino”. But what about Dads mustache? Im not sure he is pulling it off, it sort of looks cheesy. Now Tashiro Mufune could pull off a mustache but his Highness needs to be told he looks like a villain from a bad episode of Miami Vice.

Labor Day Weekend

It was a alright weekend, I saw two movies, The illusionist and V for Vendetta. I thought both films were really good though the Illusionist had the benefits of being a ell costumed period piece.
My wife had her second ultrasound on Friday and Our little one was there swimming away. Kevin seems to be doing well so far in his Kindergarten, he has had Two half-days and seems to be making the change fairly well.
We went to the reine- faire on Monday and Kevin got his first bee sting, not once but twice. The First aide guy was really nice and took care of our little guy, since it was his first sting they kept him around for a few minutes to make sure he didn’t have a allergic reaction and that made me feel a lot better.
Sunday night I didn’t sleep a wink, well actually I think I may have slept from around 4:30 to 7:00 but it was aggravating, fortunately I slept well Monday night.

The Campaigns of Yore.

When we started playing D&D way back in 79, I remember the weekends we spent. We would gather around a kitchen table as Eddie White ran his brother and I in a dungeon. I played Zimbad, its amazing I still remember my first characters name, He was a Half Elf Fighter/Magic User. The dungeon was our game, it was a huge affair, oddly all its room’s conformed with the squares of the graph paper it was written on. We would push hard into the maze of rooms and corridors, occasionally we would reach a area that wasn’t designed yet and run into a wall of gray fog until it was designed ( then the fog would lift).
I remember these games being immensely fun, lasting for hours. Before hand we would travel up to the Arco station and buy Soda and chips to last us through our adventures. I remember having so much equipment that my inventory sheets far surpassed that of the vital Character data, Folding boots, Ladders, Countless feet of rope, for some reason we could carry it all.
As time went on, say the Mid 80’s, It was all about the published modules, I was at this time playing with a larger and different group of friends. We would descend into the wood paneled basement and utilize the train table as our gaming area. I seem to remember these games taking up entire weekends. These games were epic, we got to the point where we were maintaining Holds and had armies of hirelings.
A Game store opened in our area, The Days Of Knights and I began to play at there, That’s where we learned more about role-playing and less about gathering the most gold and items. It was there, in a room we jokingly referred to as a “ smelly, Fly Infested, Sauna” that we would play campaigns that would last years.
Ahh when I think of those grand Campaigns, what fun we had.

Starting School

Yeah I know, Its only Kindergarten, but in some ways it is still kind of sad. The Little guy who it seemed like a few months ago was laying on the changing table is going to School. I get sad when I think he is leaving his friends behind, and the Teachers at his day care that have been part of his life for so long. Part of it is, I guess I know how scared I would be, Big new school, new friends, new teachers It all most seem a lot to a 5 year old. I’m sure he’s probably not even thinking that much about it. His mother went to the same school he is going to, as did her brothers and sisters, Her uncle is there, and her cousin is a teacher so I guess its ok. I guess I just don’t want my little guy to grow to fast.

Having a cold

That’s right…I have a cold, in the middle of August in Delaware, In the immortal worlds of Winston Pooh “Oh Bother!”. I makes me grumpy, I haven’t slept much and Im down right out of sorts. Hopefully It will break soon and I can get back to being my normally grumpy self.

Star Wars Stuff

Many many years ago in a time called the 80’s, Game companies were bidding for the gaming rights for the Star Wars Franchise. The original trilogy had ended and it look like it was the end. West End Games won the rights to the RPG, and the rest was history…but what might have been.

Grenadier was chosen by WEG to do the Miniatures for the game. There was a mixed result, some passable mini’s and some not so good. Well it seems that Citadel/ Games Workshop was interested in doing a line of Star Wars Mini’s. I first stumbled on this rumor a few years back on ebay when I came across a superb Stormtrooper figure, The seller stated that it was from a unreleased GW Star Wars run, produced when they were trying for the license. My head spins when I think about what Miniatures they could have produced. I may be able to get a hold of one of those rare pieces this week. I am crossing my fingers.

Olde Tyme Days

That’s right, the Days of yor, when I was a thoughtless teen. We had Nextels, we called them Walkie Talkies and could reach about 30 feet before you descended into a fog of static. When I was a Teenager, phones were anchored to walls and believe it or not you had to walk over to the phone to answer it. We had remote controls, they were called “ the youngest child” who proceed to turn the knobs ( with resounding clicks) of the TV ( after it had warmed up) to his fathers verbal direction. Yes we may have cable today, but we had UHF and VHF. We also had text messaging, it was taking your Stylus (back then we called them Pens, pencils, Crayons etc.) and wrote down a message on a sheet paper, then you slapped it on a bulletin board or Refrigerator via a large Magnet. Our CD’s were large black affairs, and our players had a multi disk function to, in the center of the record player was a large silver pin you could stack your records up on, when one record was done, the next record ( with a loud thwap) would drop on the turn table. Life was simpler back then, we weren’t in constant contact with friends, when you left the house ( we did that back then) and a friend called, you simply called them back when you got the message when you returned home. We actually would walk next door to talk to our friend…its true….I kid you not. Oh well, welcome to the future.

Ptolus

I picked up Monte Cooks new Ptolus game supplement, or should I say Mondo Deluxe game supplement for it is huge. It is nearly 700 pages on and about the city of Ptolus ( btw we have decided to pronounce it Tolus…the P being silent as in Pneumonia).

First things first, The extra folder included in the book has a lot of neat stuff, Citzenship papers, calendars and a copy of the local paper as well as some extras to make Gming in the big city little easier ( encounter tables, cheat sheet etc). Two things I didn’t like were the big map of the city, it’s the same graphic we have seen X times before enlarged. The other was the CD ROM, yes it does give you Mondo material in fact it gives you whole supplements in Adobe format including color cover, but I was expecting a little better on the format of the CD maybe with a Ptolus interface. I also was bummed they didn’t give me the template for the paper so I could make my own additions.

The book itself is very very cool, the artwork ranges from good to great. I love the illustrations of the streets and areas in the city. Every person referenced in the tome appears to have stats or a reference on where the stats can be found. There is just a ton of information in this book. In some ways I am reminded of Middenheim, the GW book that came out during the Hey Day of Warhammer FRP ( that I loved BTW), but this book is about 6 times the size. The Chaos angle is played up in the book ( And there is a source book on the DVD in regards) and truthfully I haven’t read enough to form a opinion. The flavor of the town and its many aspects is a joy for a GM. A CON, I was a little disappointed on the dungeons, for some reason I was expecting vast mazes on the scale of Waterdeep, there are numerous dungeons included and certainly a GM can insert his own, But I was expecting something a party could spend months trying to conquer.

All in All I am still giving this product an A despite the CONs listed. For sheer reference and completeness it is a work well done. My big sadness is I will probably run this world and never get to take a character into Delvers Square myself…oh well.

Started back up my Friday night game a month ago, its going ok, I may move it from my setting to the new Ptolus setting just released from Monte Cook. The old Eagle Cove campaign was primarily a urban campaign and the players seemed to enjoy it, and truthfully so did I. Some of the best Campaigns I played in were Urban Campaigns. The Middenheim Campaign that Dave ran was a absolute blast ( though the mob killed my horse.) so I’m thinking it could be cool.
We are still playing DDO regularly, we all have Drow now and are bringing them up one slow level after another. We are trying to do some of the high level content with our High Level guys but its kinda tough, for the 10th level stuff you really need everyone on and that’s tough.

Man oh Man, I have realy let this page go for a while! Allot has happened, lets see…

My Wife is pregnant (Yeah!), we hope for a happy healthy addition to the family in the February, March time frame.

My Son is now a strapping 5 year old.

My Friend Justin Hoover passed away recently, he was 25 and I had known him for some time via re-enacting. He died of yet unknown causes. I had been with him the week before for our display in Lancaster for Historicon and we had a good time, well now he is gone. Matt read a great quote from TR that really hit close to home at his memorial. Justin wasn’t religious and had stated that he wished to be cremated, in keeping with his wishes and the essence that was Justin his memorial was held at a sports bar and a number of friends showed up.

My brother Is out of the Army, Two tours in Iraq is enough for anyone.

Ok….Its been a month since my last blog, My bad.

In April I attended the Great War event in Newville. First it rained the whole time, a soaking rain but for some reason I had a great time. Normally when that kind of rain falls in any other period the event stops, people go home. Yes some people bugged out ( don’t hold anything against them) but a lot of our folks stayed in the trenches. The rain soaked through my rain cape, and my trench coat but I didn’t seem to mind. The event sort of re-energized me a little.

I ran Two miniatures games for the first time at a convention. I think people had a good time. I have a middle- eastern village now that can double for a few things ( Tatooine anyone :o).

My son is a total Star Wars nut right now, its cool to hear his take on everything. He fights light saber battles and we have what we call our “Made up Movie” staring his old creation, the famous Jedi Cedee Mancha. We are planning a vacation to Disney and all he wants to do is Star Tours.

My Wife and I celebrated our 10 year Anniversary ( though we have been together for over 20).
Well I think that’s it for the catch up…now back to our regularly scheduled blog.