October Games

 

Sunday, 1 October 2023

We FINALLY got around to trying out the Crow game I spotted at Meeplemart last month when I was in Toronto and then ordered when I got home... but, like, in a second order, because I forgot to include it in the first one... 

These are actual crows and have nothing to do with the game other than Keiran and I saw them while we were out earlier in the day... 

Tyler Sigman's Crows - The actual name of the game - is a pretty slick tile-laying game... You play a tile and then place your marker and then once everyone has placed their tile and marker crows flock to the nearest marker in a straight line. You get points for each crow you attract. Then you take off your marker and start all over again. 

Amanda (Green!) catching on rather quickly... 

TOO quickly.... 

Keiran got a couple of good placements in, attracting a few large murders of crows... this was on a double-point tile and put them just ahead of Amanda by the end of the game! 

Despite the one that always has to read the rules and explain it to everyone... I came in dead fucking last... 

Wednesday, 4 October 2023

I sat down and tried to figure out Five Parsecs From Home. I rolled up a completely random crew, just for giggles and see what came of it. If I could find figures that were "close enough" I might try playing through a game... If it were too outlandish, I'd just discard the team and go with the "Miniatures Method". 

The crew didn't seem too weird and I figured I could probably find some minis that would work... and I got really into trying to figure out the story behind these characters - based on the Backgrounds, Motivations, and Classes rolled for each... You can read all about that here:

Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Campaign - The Crew

Of course I fussed around and couldn't just go with ALREADY FULLY PAINTED miniatures that were CLOSE ENOUGH... 

I had to go through the lead pile and find things that were a little closer to WYSIWYG... and that meant painting a few of them and rebasing the lot of them - for CONSISTENCY!!! So... I didn't get to playing a game right away... 

Saturday, 7 October 2023

Met with Chris and Woody online to roll up ANOTHER crew of Five Parsecs From Home for an ONLINE campaign that I thought I'd run for them. 

You can read about what we came up with here: 

Five Parsecs From Home - Online Campaign - The Crew

Monday, 9 October 2023

Monday I played the first game in my solo game of Five Parsecs From Home!

I had a GREAT time playing this! You can read the full report of the game HERE:

Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Campaign - Round One

Satruday, 21 October 2023

though we originally planned to play on the 14th... we didn't. 

Woody and Chris and I got together on Discord, but because they hadn't really gotten the info I needed early enough, I didn't get the character portraits done that I wanted to used as tokens in Roll20. 

In the intervening week, Christian decided he would like to play and wished to reprise his role of Mad Willie!? 

On the 21st we finally got to play a game (though Woody ended up not being able to make it..). You can read the full report of the game here:

Five Parsecs From Home - Online Campaign - Round One - Deliver the Goods

The following Saturday I was out at a halloween burlesque show, so we didn't get to continue... 

Also haven't had an opportunity to play the next game in my solo campaign... as I was busy with a 1:1 scale terrain project... 

What I DIDN'T Bring Back From Toronto

 Back from a trip out east. Well... east from where I live... Amanda had a work thing in Niagara Falls, and for the first time EVER, I got to tag along! We also had a few days in Toronto on either end of the trip, which was nice. While in Toronto I popped into two games stores - 401 Games (on Younge Street) and Meeplemart. For both I had a few things I was lookng for... but in the end decided I could just wait until I got home and MAIL ORDER it!? And that' what I did... 

401 games was INSANELY BUSY when we popped in. They had a LOT of stuff... but for the most part it was the same stuff I could get anywhere - including my own FLGS.

they also had a My Little Pony deck building game that I had not seen before. I took a picture to send to Finnegan... He didn't reply... I didn't get it... I figured we could get the Dragon's Den to order it in if anyone was THAT interested. 

They also had a shelf of smaller "indie" RPGs that... maybe if it wasn't so insanely busy and it wasn't so late in the day and I felt like I had time to fart around, I might have had a look through those for giggles. There was one I remember called Sapphic Space Pirates that I briefly thought of picking up thinking ONE of the kids might think it's fun... Kind of regret not picking it up now... 

The only thing I'd really been LOOKING for was a copy of Wrath & Glory: Redacted Records... which they had online, but they didn't have at that location... 

Later I got to pop into Meeplemart. Holy CRAP did they ever have a LOT of stuff there... it was a bit overwhelming. like boxes and boxes of miniatures in blister packs. I had a longer list of things to look for but didn't even know where to start with some of them and quickly decided it would be easier to just mail order the stuff when I got home - save me having to spend hours looking for things, save us having to try and figure out HOW to get it all packed into our luggage!? 

One of the first things I saw that hadn't been on my list was a copy of Pax Viking! Now, my local store has a copy of it... but this was nearly half the price they're selling it for locally. I realized later it was on the "Ding and Dent" shelf and there was a "ding" in the back of the box. I do LOVE the Pax series of games and ... HALF PRICE!? Amanda said we could figure out a way to stuff it into the luggage... I have my doubts it would have fit and it was at that point I for sure decided i'd just order stuff when I got home. 

Also saw this neat looking game called Crows (or... "Tyler Sigman's CROWS"...?) 

Keiran is ALL ABOUT crows these days, so I took some pics to remind myself to look it up and ask about it at the Dragon's Den. 

When I got home a week ago I placed an order for Pax Viking and a few of the miniatures and bitz I'd wanted. It arrived today!

The miniatures are a Turtle Warrior from Darksword Miniatures and a trio of Space Dwarf Special Operators from Kromlech Miniatures. the other packs are kilted legs from Kromlech... somehow I have a BUNCH of Imperial Guard Catachan torsos and arms and heads... but no legs!? I think they came in some used lot I picked up at some point. I thought it might be funny to make a Kill Team of Catachans in Kilts... 

There were a few more miniature items I had wanted to look for, but by the time I got home I'd talked myself out of them (some Tau and Aeldari aircraft for Aeronautica Imperialis, and the Cruel Seas core rulebook and a Vosper and S-Boat flotilla!? Maybe a few more things from Kromlech and Darksword miniatures...)

Of course I'd ordered this BEFORE checking into the availability of the Crows game... and it turns out it was a Kickstarter game from a few years back and is NOT-so-available and Meeplemart was selling it for quite a bit less than it seems most places were selling it for... so I placed ANOTHER order for that a day or two later (and a Wrath & Glory book...) 

Speaking of having to place extra orders... I also stopped into The Beguiling the same day (AMAZING comic book store!) and I'd had a list of things to look for there... but forgot to LOOK at the list... and I did remember a few of the things ( a couple of books by Ralph Steadman) I forgot to look for an art book by John Blanche their online catalogue said they had in stock... so now I've had to order THAT from them... Ah, well... 

While there (on the same day we went to Meeplemart and The Beguiling) I was able to meet up with one of my favourite humans in the whole world, my old pal Christian! He took the train down from Barrie (which is near CFB Bordern, where he is currently posted) and, in addition to checking out Meeplemart and The Beguiling, we played a bunch of games at Snakes and Lattes on College... but more on that in the Monthly Games Wrap-Up!