RPG PDFs: An Indulgence!

Thanks to a post over on the Evil DM's blog, I have just spent a hour fighting my way through the RPG Now website and spent around $70 on PDF downloads!

But it was all worth it in the end!

Basically, Adamant Entertainment, an RPG publisher is having a sale over the next three or four days and selling all it's PDF products for $1 each.

They produce the Thrilling Tales Pulp rules for the d20 system* as well as various other games and accessories.

Anyway, I couldn't resist. I already had 3 or 4 of the Thrilling Tales books, just to see what they were like, but now I have the whole lot!

I also picked up the Sword and Planet rules called Mars , and it's two supplements.

Finally, while looking through Adamants listings I saw that they also do a series of PDF books for a steampunk RPG system called The Imperial Age. I couldn't resist them either!

I have to say, I have used RPG Now before and it has worked perfectly well. However, today as I was filling up the shopping basket (remember, we are talking approximately 70 items) the shopping basket reset itself several times and I had to start over!

That would not be to much of a problem if you could add multiple items at once, but no I had to re-add each item individually aarrgh!!!

Anyway in the end I got around it by placing several smaller orders, instead of one big one!

*Anyone who knows me will know I have a strong dislike for the d20 system. However both Thrilling Tales and The Imperial Age offer so much potential source material that could be used for both pulp/steampunk table wargaming or alternative RPG rules, I felt I could not miss them.

Games Night

Last night we had a couple of games of Reiner Knizia's King's Gate.

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago a TARGE, a wargames show I was at, my purchase being mainly based on the fact that it looked like a quick and easy game and generally I like any game that Knizia has designed.

King's Gate is a tile laying game, where players attempt to gain control of different locations in an Medieval city.

The game play is fairly simple and as a four player game it was good fun. I have seen reports on Board Game Geek saying that the 2 player rules are a bit disappointing (each player basically takes the parts of two players each). However as a four player game we really enjoyed it!

Once you are familiar with the rules and the card symbols the game plays very easily and there was a minimum amount of check back with the rule book.

Images courtesy of Board Game Geek!

There is a problem with the artwork on the game! Once a lot of the tiles have been played the the confusing artwork makes it quite difficult to see all the detail. It would have been better if the buildings around the edge of each card had been faded or bleached out a little, to make the main features of the cards more prominent.

However as each round of the game focuses on one small area of the city, it is not too much of a hindrance to play!

So overall, a worthwhile purchase, even if the card art is a little annoying!

Armistice Day 90th Anniverary

Not a lot to say really...

Lest we forget

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Toy Soldiers: Targe 2008 Wargames Show

My second wargames show in a fortnight (and for the year as it happens), was TARGE at Kirriemuir (just north of Dundee) this weekend.
The show seemed busy (I was only there for an hour as we went shopping in Dundee afterwards), and the display/participation tables all looked great.
I wasn't looking for any figures in particular, although I nearly bought a pack of the new "hard plastic" Celts from Dave Thomas's stall.
I did end up buying a new board game Reiner Knizia's King's Gate.

Image via Wikipedia

It is a tile laying game and looks like it should play quite quickly. I must admit, as soon as I see Knizia's name on the box I am usually happy to buy any game. It is usually a guarantee of a fun evening.
Anyway, as with Skelp a couple of weeks ago, I took several photos and here are the best of them!

The nice chap on this table actually gave my son a set of coloured pencils, some pictures of Knights to colour in and a bag of sweets. What a great way to make the day memorable (for a 4 year old who was generally bored by the whole thing)!

I am not quite sure what this one was about but the players seemed to be having fun! RAFWA (Leuchars) Toy Story:-

East Kilbride Wargames Club's Wings Of War game! (I really must get my WoW stuff out and have another game).

Anyway, I am not too sure of the rest, but here are the photos!





My son liked the burning houses on this one!



 

Pre-Halloween Games Night

Mike and Del came over last night for our (nominally) regular weekly games night.

None us us are particularly interested in celebrating Halloween, we all come from the generation before the UK was hit by the commercialism that is the American style Halloween.

Still as it is Halloween this week and we have several horror themed games it only seemed right that we play one!

Del brought along All Wound Up, a wind up zombie game and I dug out my copy Munchkin Bites! (although we didn't get around to playing it).

All Wound Up has each player taking a wind up zombie and then through the use of cards to control the play, try to get around the board (a grave yard) and get to the cemetery gates!

 

What tend to happen is that each player soon discovers that his zombie tends to veer off in one direction or another and this can cause some tricky problems. There are also cards that allow a player to alter the direction of the other players zombies, causing them to go off the board, or fall into an open grave!

It is a fun simple game and great for Halloween. There is nothing to gory or scary about it so i would also suggest that it is a fun game for the kids!

Games Night

Last night was games night and we played a couple of games, first off was our first play of New World, the latest Carcassonne incarnation.

Between us we have all the previous editions and it is always interesting to see how the new versions vary and how they stand up against previous ones!

Well I am glad to say that we all felt that this was one of the more successful editions. Rating up there with our other favourites, Hunters and Gatherers and Carcassonne: The City.

The game does have some new twists, with tile laying generally moving in one direction across  table, rather than being totally at the players discretion. The new mechanics all seem to work well and drive the making it possibly more competitive that previous games, good fun and well worth a try.

Secondly I got out my copy of Mensa Connections (also know as Ingenius). This is an excellent, abstract dominos style game and was great fun without too much brain hurting going on!

Toy Soldiers: Skelp 2008 Wargames Show

I paid a visit to the annual Skelp wagames show in Forfar today and I must say, even though I was dragging my 4 year old around who was continually getting bored and wanting to move to the next table, I had a really good time.
I bought three rule books, Tooth and Claw a dinosaur hunting skirmish game, and then two Rattrap rule-books, Thrilling Expeditions: Valley of the Thunder Lizard and Broadsword Adventures.
I was also tempted and gave and a starter set of the new Monsterpocalypse from Privateer Press. It just looks so much fun, and I am hoping that I will be able to start teaching No.1 son a stripped down version of the game in a few months, once I have got my head around it!
Anyway here are a few photos I took today:-

15mm Berlin City Fight Game


Halo Game

10mm WW2 Game

WW2 game

Colonial Game

Colonial Game

Colonial Game

Monsterpocalype!

RC Panzer running around outside the show!