Why-vern?

Recently, for whatever reason, I began to wax nostalgic for the card game Wyvern.

I'm not sure if anyone else really remembers this game. It came out in 1994 during the early days of the birth of CCGs. During these dark times, Magic crawled from the primordial cardboard soup and became an absolute powerhouse, making each and every game company out there shit their pants at exactly the same time. And immediately after wiping, each and every game company made a made dash to cash in. U.S. Game Systems was no different.

"We need a collectible card game NOW! And make sure it has goddamn DRAGONS!"

While I was huge into Magic at the time, I was still willing to try other games and I was always looking for a game that might unseat it and give me a little variety in my gaming group. Wyvern wasn't that.

There are two things I remember most about Wyvern. First, it was the only one of my games my sister would request playing with me. I could occasionally coax her into a game of Magic or HeroQuest, but other than that any games we played were along the lines of Uno or Monopoly. Wyvern, though, we would play for hours. This may have had something to do with her having better cards than I did. We were pretty much playing out of starters, and since U.S Game Systems found the idea of distribution laughable, we only managed to find 2-3 booster packs each before the game disappeared. Luckily the game was balanced reasonably and I had more game experience, so we were generally on even terms.

Second, was the art. The game itself was pretty ugly. Bland frames with only 4 different colors, a complete lack of icons aside from a couple gold coins here and there, and all game text on the cards was in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, SHOUTING THE CARD'S EFFECTS AT YOU EVERY TIME YOU LOOKED AT IT. But U.S. Games Systems had enlisted Peter Pracownik to illustrate the cards and I loved it.

Peter is a master of painting dragons. His art is both simplistic and nuanced, filled with mythology and color. His work has this wonderful feeling of "oldness" that makes it seem like it comes right out of the middle ages. Not everyone is a fan of his style, but I think it worked perfectly for Wyvern. He was the only artist for the first set and the few other artists that came after followed his lead. It made the game very cohesive in a way other CCGs were not. It has been described as "bland" or "samey" but I honestly think that those people were just plain expecting something different. I think all the similarities really tie the game together, like a rug in a bungalow.

I think he'd agree.

Ultimately, though, what kept me playing the game was the game itself. For those who haven't played this game, you had two decks of cards (regrettably with the same back). One deck had your dragons and some terrain that you would use to fight your opponent's dragons, and the other had actions and treasures that would affect the cards on the table. At the start you would deal out 6 cards from the dragon deck (Dragon Lair) and arrange them  on the table 3 cards wide and 2 deep, face down. Then you would draw 7 cards from the action deck (Treasure Horde) for a hand. You would start with 25 gold and pay for cards out of that.

During your turn you could play actions, turn dragons face up (using up gold to do so) and attack with them. At the start of the game, everything was face down, so you were often attacking blind. The card you attacked would get turned face up, and if it was terrain it might do bad things to your dragon, like a trap. If it was another dragon, the two dragons would fight and the bigger one would win, eliminating the loser. This would continue until one player ran out of dragons and lost.

I mentioned before that the game was pretty balanced, and there were a few things that contributed. One was that you started with a pool of resources that dwindled instead of getting bigger. This meant that you could turn over a badass 7 gold dragon early on, but if it got ganged up on or slain by a dragon slayer card, you were out almost a third of your resources for the rest of the game. There were ways of getting more gold, but they were pretty few and far between. Blow your gold early and you were doomed to failure.

The face down battlefield really helped as well. It created a fog of war that was hard to navigate, even with experience. You never really knew what was waiting for you and making those decisions blind was bound to end up with a mistake or two in your perfectly crafted plan.

"Another bastard-licking terrain card? Did you bring the entire Louisiana Purchase?"

You would have the occasional jackass that would make all dragon slayer decks or use nothing but terrain, but those were easily worked around once you knew their habits.

Ultimately, Wyvern failed and it wasn't hard to see why. Few CCGs became truly popular, besides Magic and those who were propped up by the itinerant, pre-teen spend-lust of the Saturday morning cartoon crowd. Wyvern was ugly, needed a mountain of editing, and was incredibly hard to get hold of in some areas of the country. There was tactical depth there, but not on the same level as Magic. 

Wyvern would have really benefited from being a boxed, single deck game. Hell, they even included rules for playing out of a single collection, with one Dragon Lair and Treasure Horde for both players. Luckily someone at U.S. Game Systems realized this and they put together Dragon Hunt, which is exactly that. It uses exactly the same cards and rules, but with different backs so you can't use your old Wyvern cards with them (because fuck you, that's why). It's like 8 bucks, so it's a great deal. It's a great game if you want something light but strategic.

I went looking for my own cards and found a small pile of extras, but not my actual deck. Still wanting to play and maybe use those cards again, I went on eBay and found 2 sealed starter decks for less than $11.00 with shipping. I can't wait for them to arrive. I definitely plan on using the one collection rules. That way my sister won't have better cards than me this time around. 

Crossing The Threshold

Strange Aeons is the first game where I vowed to paint all my figures before I started playing. I don't know why this is, but I suspect Song of Blades and Heroes is to blame for this. SBH got me into the habit of skirmish style games, where only a handful of figures are needed and having an all painted force was easy to accomplish. After many years of playing with great grey hordes in Warhammer and WH40k, these small, colorful battles were amazing and glorious.

How glorious? This glorious.

So when my SA figures were in hand and I only had 6 or 7 to paint up, I said "This'll be quick. I'll be done in no time." and set to work. I suppose in the grand scheme, less than two months isn't all that much time. I have been known to work on a batch that small or smaller for almost a year. But now I have a cast of heroes, some villains and a few ideas to work with.

I've already introduced my new bad guys, and have lots of other models from years past to use as Lurkers, but my Threshold agents were a totally new thing for me. I've already shown you one from my first Bones experiment, Agent Mick Francis. Now I have the rest of the team painted up and ready to fight extra-dimensional horrors and their servants.

First we have the team's leader, Agent Ashton Clarke. Born and raised in Arkham, Mass., Clarke is no stranger to odd happenings and the occult. Though brash and headstrong, he shows a real talent for leadership. Despite his impetuousness, he was promoted because he gets results, even if those results are sometimes acquired through the liberal application of dynamite.

Agent Lucy Shae, a former Providence journalist, is sort of the mascot of the group. She is usually the one asking questions and dealing with people. She is known for her incredible luck, and has often survived where other agents have not by sheer chance. Given Clarke's methods, she seemed a natural fit for his team.

Professor Arthur Haywood is the group's scholar and occult specialist. Also from Arkham, Haywood is cautious and measured, and rarely without a plan of some sort. He counter-balances Clarke's disposition, and though there has been some argument between the two, they are fast friends. Haywood is currently looking to acquire spells for study and eventual use against their foes.

Finally, we have the group shot with Mick. Agent Mick Francis was the former sheriff of Alameda, Texas. After the Alameda Incident, the town was abandoned and Mick inducted into Threshold. Mick never speaks of Alameda, but then he rarely speaks at all. The mysterious silent type, he doesn't go in  much for asking questions and studying books. He remains on the sidelines until his real skills are needed, then enters the fray with six-shooters blazing.

And that's the team. I'm hoping to get my first game of Strange Aeons in soon and I hope to have a report of sorts up to go along with it. I'm incredibly psyched for SA. It meshes my love for little toy soldiers with my obsession with Lovecraft. A better fit for my gaming, I cannot imagine.

Happy gaming!

Birthday Gaming Extravaganza 2013

So, a week ago I celebrated my 32nd birthday, and this year I decided to do something a little different. Instead of a big family get together or a trip to Maine, I sent some invites to my closest gaming friends for a weekend of laughs, gaming and ice cream cake.

It's frozen, frosted deliciousness knows no equal.

I enlisted the aid of my beautiful wife, Brigid,  to help decorate and chronicle the day. Little did I know that she had a plan, and while I was at work the day before, she set about decorating our porch with an Avengers theme. I was elated, because I am essentially 8 years old when it comes to superheroes.

 These are still up a week later. They may never come down.

Since the next day was going to be jam packed with games, my dear wife gave me my present early. I now have my very own copy of Arkham Horror! Being a big Lovecraft fan, it was a game I'd always intended to own but never got around to. Now it was all mine to devour my life with hours and hours of gameplay.

Fun fact: I have been playing the same game session for a week now.

The night before the big event, my friend Marc arrived to stay. We spent that night getting some extra gaming in, so I introduced him to X-Wing, Quarriors and DungeonQuest.

The next morning after breakfast we were joined by my friend Jay. Unfortunately my cousin and his wife ended up not being able to make it, so our group was a bit smaller than expected. However, I still had two games on the agenda that I wanted to make sure got played, and I wasn't going to let dwindling numbers stop me.

The first was Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre. I had recently acquired this game and it ended up being a blast. It is insanely random and ridiculous and worth every penny. I don't think we've laughed so hard around a gaming table in a long while.

My character for the game. Also pictured: Me losing.

Mid game madness.

Note the non-essential cardboard cut-out of Mt. Skullzfyre in the background.

The second and most major thing I wanted to accomplish was a game of HeroQuest. As my all-time favorite game, and the gateway drug that got me into gaming in the first place, it was essential. I whipped up a quick custom scenario and handed out some characters. Since we were short players, Brigid took both the Barbarian and the Wizard. She named them Jethro and McGee. She likes NCIS. A lot.

Seeing the perfect excuse, I set up my 3D dungeon terrain for us to crawl through and made sure there would only be painted miniatures so we could enjoy a beautiful game. Mentor was sending our heroes to fight an evil Chaos cult as a test of their abilities. Would they make it out alive?

Into the dungeon

The dwarf makes short work (heh) of the Cultist in the first room...

And the Barbarian crushes the Orc soon after. The Goblin stood no chance after that.

Another Cultist is surrounded and chopped to pieces.

The Dwarf finds a healing well, while the Elf finds a Mummy.

The Elf fights the Mummy alone...uh, a little help?

The Wizard wanders off alone and finds some new friends.

The cult revealed, and the Slaaneshi Chaos warrior behind it!

Slowed by the Elf's spell, the Chaos Warrior is defeated by the Barbarian.

The cult was swiftly destroyed and much loot was had. All in all, a great game. I saved the characters so when we do this again we can continue from where we left off. I have a whole year to design something fun and more challenging.

We wound down the day with a game of the DC Comics Deck-Building Game. It's not the deepest deck-builder out there, but it was great for coming down off the gaming high. It was also the only game I won all weekend, with Jay coming in second by sheer amount of cards in his deck. Apparently his strategy was "buy everything". And it almost worked.

And that was Birthday Gaming Extravaganza 2013. I had initially named it that as a joke, but honestly I like it. I intend to do this again next year and possibly for years to come. I will certainly plan it a bit better, possibly with further advance notice, and a better system for taking pictures. There are certainly a slew of games coming out in the next year I'd love to showcase!

See you all again at BGE 14!

I Have Altar-ed The Dungeon

It has been a while since I've done anything with my dungeon project, but today it's back with a little dressing to liven the place up a bit.

No, not this. But still tangy and delicious.

One of the things I was most excited to get in my Bones Kickstarter package was the dungeon dressing pieces. Up until now, the only real pieces I've had to feng shui the place up with have been my Mines of Moria pieces and the table I built. So I was really happy that some of the hundreds of pieces I was getting would be going straight into the dungeon.

First off, we have the altar and candlesticks:

The candlesticks were pretty straightforward, but the altar needed something extra to help it stand out against the grey of the dungeon surrounding it. To that end, I made the skulls "real" skulls instead of carvings and you really can't go wrong with a couple blood stains from previous sacrifices.

One interesting thing about the altar is that it is open on the backside. I kinda like that because it adds to the narrative of the area it sits in. It's a great place for loot to be stashed, a goblin to cower or a skeleton to be interred in (and possibly crawl out from).

Next up is the "Well of Chaos" as Reaper names it. Personally, I don't see it as very Chaos-y, but that may be from my many years upbringing in the Warhammer world. Personally I think it looks more ancient elvish. Like the altar, it needed some splash of color to make it stand out, so it got a little moss here and there.

Being a well, I added a little clear school glue to give it some stagnant water, with a little moss floating on top:

Finally, I have a non-Bones item to add to the dungeon. It's a resin chest from the early releases of Soda Pop's Super Dungeon Explore line. It came with some of their stand-alone metal minis produced before they went full board game with it. I have 4 or 5 of them and I'm sure I will add more later, but for now here's the one:

Nothing special, but easy to paint and it has some nice scrollwork on it. This one is kinda boring and natural. The next couple will probably be in brighter reds, blues or greens for a video game RPG feel. Still, it does the job.

Of course I had to set up a nice cozy room shot:

And my cultists giving the altar a workout with some worshipping:

That's all for now! Happy gaming!

EDIT: It also looks great with a little friend on top.

A Batch Of Beasties!

Last week my lovely wife and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. As everyone knows the first anniversary is the miniatures anniversary. Having the awesome wife that I do, she purchased me enough stuff to get me started in the Strange Aeons game of Lovecraftian horror and mayhem. I've done some painting in anticipation of this event (since I've known I was getting it for a while now), but I haven't had anything official to work on until now.

I received not only a Bundle of the Beast, but also the Threshold Agents I and the Fishmen I packs, plus a membership in the Cult of the Black Goat, complete with Giant Deep One (and a banshee, captive and submerged Deep One). Needless to say, I have a nice pile of stuff to work on. The Threshold agents are primed and in progress, but I couldn't help but knock out the Fishmen real quick. Being mostly robes, it was easy work. I chose turquoise robes to evoke images of the sea.

The pieces were easy enough to paint. The details are limited and subtle, and the sculpts pretty basic. I haven't worked with this particular resin material before, and I did notice some hefty flash/mold lines as well as some areas of bubbles. I'm not terribly skilled at removing/fixing such things, so I left them be. I don't think they are too noticeable. I really enjoy the sculpting style, but I will say that for the price ($12 CAD for 2 models plus $10 shipping from the great white north) I think I may be limiting my purchases. The quality to price ratio just doesn't hit as square on the head as I would like. Still, there are a few packs I will splurge on in the future if funds allow.

Slightly before I received my SA stuff, I finished off a model I've been meaning to paint for years. During my true love affair days with Warhammer (about 6-7 years ago) I picked up a box of chaos spawn for roughly half the price of what they cost now. I was a Lovecraft fan at the time as well, so naturally I built them up as Mythos-y as possible. I discovered them while searching through minis a while back and figured this was an opportunity to paint one up. I of course chose the one with the most tentacles.

The paint job on this guy is about as basic as you can get: base, wash and re-highlight with base color. The only thing I got "fancy" on was the eyes. I went for hourglass shaped pupils and huge yellow irises to give them a really unnatural look. I figure this guy will make for a great Formless Spawn or maybe The Horror if playing a Dunwich scenario. Here he is with a victim for scale:

I truly can't wait to get these guys on the table. I have to finish up my agents first though. Now if I could just get past the color choice on that splendid waistcoat...

Moonshine

My family has always been a clan of moonshiners. Myself, I haven't mixed up a batch in a few years. I don't touch the stuff anymore. I haven't had a drop of any strong drink of any kind in almost 30 years. Not since that night.

It was not uncommon, back then, for a group of us to gather out at my cousin's still to party and drink. Deep in the woods, we were far from the law and could hoop and holler as loud as we wanted. We would drink, fight, sing and laugh long into the wee hours of the night. Most of the time we would all crash on the floor of the shack that housed the still. If we were feeling particularly brave, some of us would pile into the old truck and drive, swerving wildly and dangerously, back toward our various homes for a warm bed. I am still amazed we all made it in one piece over the years, because each drive was a harrowing afterthought when dawn finally broke, bringing pounding heads with it.

One night, however, I decided that I was drunk enough and that I would walk home. I couldn't tell you now why I made such a decision. Walking home was something we never did. It would be all too easy to get lost among the trees and the area was famously known for bears and coyotes. And knowing I would be talked out of it, I didn't bother to tell anyone. I simply filled my flask with some shine for the road and toddled off out the door and past the treeline.

I do still miss that flask. It was a beautiful thing made of crystal with a stainless steel cap, purchased by my father in France after the Great War. It passed it to me after his death and I kept it as full as he did. I wish I could still pass it to my son, but then if it weren't for that flask, I probably wouldn't be here to pass it along anyway.

As expected, I was soon wandering among the trees, all turned about. I was more angry than panicked, filled with a fair amount of liquid courage already and taking the occasional bracing sip as I stumbled along through the brush. I was a lucky bastard, though, and soon ran across the old train tracks. Abandoned years ago when the old bridge finally gave in and collapsed, I knew I could follow them back to civilization without fear of being run over by a train in the dark.

I began walking along the tracks, occasionally tripping over the ties and singing loudly, though I don't remember what now. It was maybe 20 minutes before I ran into the old tunnel, black and gaping, which of course meant I had been walking in the wrong direction.

Cursing and swearing, I began to turn to go the other direction when I spied something down the tunnel. It was two pinpoints of light low to the ground, like the shine off of a cat's eyes in the dark. That must be what I had decided it was, because in my drunken state I crouched down and began making clicking and cooing noises, trying to coax it out into the open so I could pet it. And that's when whatever it was stood up.

The pinpoints suddenly widened to large, saucer-sized pools of pale light and began to rise from ground level until they floated about five feet high in the darkness of the tunnel. Spooked, I also rose, my hand clutched tight around my flask, my body tensed. I did not know what I was looking at, but I was scared to make any sudden movements.

Suddenly those round, pale saucers began to bob down the tunnel towards me at speed, and I could hear the heavy thumps of limbs pounding against the ground, belonging to something big. I panicked and hurled the first thing I had at hand down the tunnel toward it, my crystal flask. I missed it, but I must have come close because I heard it crash against the ground and the thing stopped short. The cap must have hit a rock or a metal spike because there was a spark and a sudden whoosh of flame as the moonshine inside caught fire.

In the light of the flame I caught of glimpse of a pale shape, something akin to a gaunt, naked ape with huge eyes and long, sharp teeth, its skin covered in patches of greasy black hair. The fire caught some of that fur and the beast began to burn, the flames quickly covering its body. Howling, it began to run away toward the other end of the tunnel, its screams echoing down the length. As it went, the orange light of the flames bounced off the walls in the dark, faintly illuminating other shadowy shapes that scurried away as it passed. More points of light appeared in the darkness.

I turned and ran. I do not remember how I got home, only that I was glad that I had. I tried for many days to dismiss it as a drunken fantasy, but I could not forget those pale eyes in the dark. I still can't. I don't go walking in the woods anymore. And I don't drink.

Agent Mick Francis, reporting for duty!

This is a reasonably historic post because two things are happening for the first time here:

1) I have painted the very first miniature from my Bones Kickstarter
2) I have painted up my first miniature intended exclusively for the game Strange Aeons

The miniature I chose was a gunslinger, who looked like he'd fit in perfectly with some 1920s Cthulhu Mythos investigators acting as some extra muscle for those candy-ass, four-eyed bookworms with all their scrolls and whatnot. I don't actually have my copy of Strange Aeons yet, but I feel confident I will find a place for him.

I am quite pleased with how he turned out. I am used to painting fantasy and sci-fi miniatures with bright colors and plenty of detail This more simplistic miniature with naturalistic tones was a minor challenge in that I had to create variation among various shade of grey/brown.

Given that he bears more than a passing resemblance to NCIS's Muse Watson, I chose to name him Mick Francis. I imagine him as a tough, no-nonsense gunman, a former law-man whose chance encounter with strange creatures from beyond got him recruited to Threshold. Gruff and direct, he isn't suited for a leadership role, but his fighting skills are invaluable when things go South (as they often do in his line of work).

As far as working with a Bones figure for the first time, I have to say I'm impressed. The figure was one of the lucky, unwarped ones, so no reposing was required. It took both paint and primer easily, without having to be washed  first. Though flexible, the paint doesn't seem to crack, so it should be pretty durable.

I only have two complaints about the material so far. The first is that the Bones-ification process seems to cause a fair bit of softening of the detail:

Original Figure (Picture copyright Reaper)

Bones figure (Picture copyright Reaper)

 It's not bad, but it is enough that I had a hard time not making the figure look like a D&D pre-paint repaint (and I'm not entirely sure I succeeded). The second is that mold lines are a real pain. While not excessive, the material can't really be scraped off like metal or hard plastic. Instead, you sort of have to carefully filet it off. I have difficulties enough with regular mold lines, so I left them on. That also doesn't help the pre-paint feel.

So there you have it. I still have 11 days until I receive my SA books and Mike here can go on adventures, but I'm glad he'll be ready for action at the drop of a (10-gallon) hat!

Happy gaming!