"Invisible Stalker" lead mini by Grenadier: Now where'd I put that darn thing?

Ah-ha! There it is...

Backstory:
So I took my son to a local gaming convention this past weekend: MichiCon 2009. It was held on the campus of Oakland University, here in Michigan, a pretty common spot for some of these local gaming/comic cons (well, besides the Motor City Comic Con...that's been in Novi, Mi for a number of years now).

At any rate, these guys (Metro Detroit Gamers) put on some nice get-downs, IMO. They are usually pretty quaint, but they had a particularly nice offering of tabletop fun this time around. There were several setups of wargames in some gaming systems I had not heard of, a couple rooms of RPGing (a Savage Worlds version of the TV show "Heroes" was one that stood out), and a few decent vendor booths to which I immediately flocked.

Overall we had a great time. My son got to see some pretty heavy duty miniature gaming in action, and we also got some pretty decent loot, and most of it was at a very nice (cheap) price. I may post some of it in a separate post, as some of you might dig a few specific items. But for now I'll just throw this dude some blog-love....ewwwwww!

Here's a little better shot of the intense and intricate detailing on this "Invisible Stalker" fig by Grenadier:

Silly? Yes. Fun? Sorta. Gotta have? Not really. Wanna have? Yep!

$1 later and he was mine. That may sound stupid to pay a buck for a little splat of lead... ok you're right, it is stupid. Still I've spent $1 in many, much more stupid, ways before, so I figured WTF?

See, I already have Grenadier's 1988(?) Comedy Lords box set in my collection, and allegedly this Invisible Stalker fig was a special free bonus fig? Dunno. I truly don't recall that being the case, but I found that claim as I was googling it. So as we all know, everything on "the internets" is true, so there we have it.

** EDIT **
I checked my own box set and insert sheet when I got home tonight, and it most certainly does state "SPECIAL BONUS INVISIBLE STALKER FIGURE" right there on the sheet, although it doesn't show this little base/fig slab that I pictured in the post here....weird.

It's seeming more and more familiar, as I think I read that a while back when I got this set, and just figured that it was a joke (ie, no figure, just that statement). It wasn't until I saw it at the con this past weekend that it started to jive.

Regardless, I'm glad to actually have it now, so I can box it with the rest of the set. Cool!

See?, the internets really don't lie. Really!
** END EDIT **

Anyway, here's a shot of the Comedy Lords box cover:


And here's the insert sheet showing the figs:

I don't recall the exact naming of each fig there, and I don't have my box/sheet in front of me at the moment, so I'll save that listing for another post or for a late edit. They do include some along the lines of "Halfling in Fullplate," "Half-an-Elf," "107th level Fighter," and "Napoleon Bony-Parts," to name a few. Again, those names may not be exact...I just can't remember and I'm tired of googling...ha!

** EDIT **

Seeing how I checked the insert sheet in my box set when I got home (see above edit), I figured I'd add the list of fig names, according to that insert sheet. Here they are, top row L->R, then bottom row L->R:

• Half Orc Slime
• Napoleon Boneyparts
• Undead Gamer/Game Board/Undead Gamer
• Half Elf
• Armored Idiot
  

• F19 Pegasus Fighter Bomber
• Wererat
• Halfling in Full Plate
• 107th Level Fighter, etc.
• Pizza Deliveryman

** END EDIT **

Anyway, some of these are very funny and cool, others are kinda just...well...dorky. I snagged this box a while back in some clearance sale, so maybe the "Invisible Stalker" was missing from the box set that I bought, or maybe he's still hiding in the foam packaging....hhmnn.....

Oh Stalker.....where are you?.....Stalker? STALKER!

                                                            
You hit the invisible stalker.                              
You hit the invisible stalker!                              
You hit the invisible stalker!                              
The invisible stalker hits!                                 
You die...                                                  
                                                            

Dungeon! - Fantasy Boardgame: an old-school vet vs a 5 y.o. newb

The time had come to introduce my boy to the wonderful world of Dungeon! the boardgame. He had been eyeing the box and he's been progressing nicely through many of my other old D&D related games and toys, so why not Dungeon!... the uhm ... fantasy boardgame.

So after taking a little time to review the rules (hey! it's been a long frakkin' time since I saddled up to this one), and taking a long walk down memory lane with the artwork on the board, the cards, and in the rules, I did my best to explain these rules to a boy who anxiously looked ready to solo The Temple of Elemental Evil itself:

Don't ask about the yellow duck hand-puppet...I guess it's part of some bizarre dice-rolling ritual.

One quick shot of some pure Erol Otus coolness in the pages of those rules:

We chose to play the Basic version of the game for now. Once he gets the hang of it, he'll no doubt wish to play one of the additional classes in the Expert version. Heck, he was thumbing through the Spell cards (expert version, Wizard class) while I was wasting our precious playing time reading rules. My fellow old-school gamers would have my head for that diversion. Rules-shmules! Oh the humanity!

Anyway, going the basic route, I let him pick his class. He liked the sound of being "better at killing crap" much more than he did being an "improved secret door finder." Silly boy.

So he took the Hero (blue pawn), and I chose the Elf (green pawn) and we were off to the Main Staircase/Start. Oh he also said that he'd take the blue one, because blue is his favorite color. In reality, red and brown (but mostly red) are his favorite colors. But I willingly suspended my disbelief. After all, we were playing Dungeon!... the "Fantasy" Boardgame, right?

Actually about half way through the game, I thought we needed a prop upgrade. So I snagged the two Reaper minis I've been using a lot lately in some 4e sessions (one of them for my current 5th level Cleric of Kord, and the other for my current 8th level Ranger). These two fig actually made perfect sense for use in place of the blue Hero pawn and the green Elf pawn. Bam! Cool game just got cooler.

At any rate, we took turns taking the lead, piling up our gp total with sweet treasure, while beating the smack out of the baddies. He luckily looted a "Secret Door" card, so he basically instantly became my Elf...just better. Bah!

Fate certainly didn't help me out either vs some Green Slime, as captured here with a pair of 1's:

I must say once he started to pile up the treasure, and we both were about to the midpoint of the 10,000 gp required to win, he developed a pretty brash strategy of dropping his buffing loot (+1 sword, secret door card, etc), in favor of keeping the highest gp worth loot. He took some major risks in doing so, and several times felt the pain of the monsters' attacks. However, we both passed 10k gold and beat-feet back to the beginning - with the 10k gold, whomever got back first would win.

Well, he had a clear shot back, all except for a secret door blocking his way. Without his cool "Secret Door" card, which fell victim to his boldness, he sat there for quite some time failing his rolls, and thus not being able to progress.

I on the other hand was a master secret door finder but I had to get past a few baddies on my way back to start. This was mainly due to being "slid" to a different level as part of a trap that tripped in one of the rooms. It turns out my Elf wasn't very skilled at taking on either of these two dorks, the Evil Wizard and the Black Pudding:

See that tiny little dash "-" there after the word Elf on those cards? Yeah that means I can't kill them. WTF?!?!?!?

I had no other way I could go to make it back to the beginning, so it was just a matter of time before my son put the final smackdown on me. And that he most surely and most triumphantly did, taking all of the glory and all of the loot!:

Guess who's lined up to beat sorry ol' Daddy next? You guessed it...

Free loot! - from Adventure the Card Game creator K.R.Bourgoine

Wowzerz! Presuming it's really him, K.R.Bourgoine himself read my short (but sweet?) review of his very cool card game, "Adventurer the Card Game"...and he liked it!

As he states in his comment on the blog entry, he's going to send me the refer-a-friend bonus card "Crown of the Immortals" just for doing the writeup here....sa-weetness!


So, maybe it's time for me to do some more product reviews. I mean, free loot rules!

Look for a review of the newest, baddest, costliest, Alienware gaming PC coming soon. I'm just sayin'.

"The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games": a book by Rick Swan

I found this tome in a local used bookshop, and figured I'd snag it just for some fun easy reading of some quick reviews of various RPGs thru the years. This book is dated 1990, so it covers tons of games up until that point.

The book is by Rick Swan, who has also written some 2nd edition AD&D supplements ("The Complete Barbarian's Handbook", among others) and various modules for Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Al-Qadim, Planescape, Forgotten Realms, and even some Marvel Super Heroes.

I have yet to get much into this book...just browsing a few entries covering games for which I have a particular fondness. At any rate, the format looks pretty nice, including for each game entry: a game title, a # of stars rating, complexity rating, publisher info, a game review/synopsis, buyers notes, and suggested supplements. The game order is A-Z, and there is a nice subject index grouping the games by genre.

Here's just a brief summary of a few reviews Swan has given for some of my faves:

AD&D
****
1st and 2nd editions
This is one of the more lengthy reviews in the book, from what I've seen. A good portion of the entry deals with 2nd edition, possibly due to the fact that Swan contributed to many of the settings in that edition. Regarding AD&D in general, he writes "A role-player who's never experienced AD&D is like a board-gamer who's never tried Monopoly or a kid who's never played baseball." - Now that's some solid marketing...I like it.

Boot Hill
***
1979 edition
Rick writes "fire order is crucial; slowpokes don't last long in Boot Hill." - Nice! He also recommends Lost Conquistador Mine as "not only the best of the Boot Hill supplements, it's also the best Western adventure ever published." - Now, I only have the original box set, so I can't comment, but he sure makes me want to track that one down.

D&D
***1/2
1974, 1977, 1983 editions
This one is kinda tough to cover fully, as the different revs (OD&D, Holmes, Moldvay/Cook/Marsh, Mentzer BECMI, RC) all have their unique coolness, and could warrant an entire book to that discussion alone. One biggie though: Swan skips right over my all-time fave 1981 Moldvay/Cook/Marsh B/X edition. Major points lost from me on that one, Rick...ha! However he makes up for it with this gem (discussing folks who claim that D&D is too simpleminded, illogical, meaningless, abstract, juvenile, etc): "These grouches completely miss the point. Complaining that Dungeons and Dragons is an unrealistic RPG is like saying that chess is an inaccurate wargame. We're not talking about delving into the social structure of medieval Europe here, we're talking about tossing fireballs at lizard men and swiping gold pieces from ogres." - Agreed...simple (and sometimes silly) counts too.

Gamma World
***
1st and 3rd ed
He says "the third edition is the one to buy." - I personally totally disagree. 1st, 2nd and even 4th are much better, IMO...leaning on 2nd as my fave, although 1st ed was my 1st copy back in school. I do like this line by Swan though: "It's a bang-up job by designers James Ward, David James Ritchie, and Gary Jaquet; that is, if you don't take your nuclear holocausts too seriously."

Top Secret
***
1980
Swan advises "Top Secret is good, but Top Secret/S.I. is better." - I personally have only played the original. However, I have heard this same opinion of the 1987 sequel from other gamers, so maybe I should give it a go someday. There is quite a bit of the S.I. source material, mods, and such floating around my local area game shops and used book stores, so it wouldn't be tough to snag some. Actually, I might even have a little bit of the S.I. stuff in piles of geekgoodies, but I know for sure I only have play experience in the original. And even that is pretty marginal XP.

Tunnels and Trolls
***
1975
In his Suggested Supplements section, Swan comments that "With its simple rules, Tunnels and Trolls is a natural for solo play, and the solitaire T&T supplements are among the best of their kind." - I personally love the fact that T&T has such a huge amount of Solo/Solitaire mods published. I have a pile of them, and they are very nice for a gamer who has limited resources as far as grouping goes. I just recently have been able to play some real PnP D&D (4e) with real people at a real table so I am literally (and figuratively) "geeked" about that. But, prior to my recent gaming, solo mods...true "solitaire" mods were all I really had with which to get my game on. So I applaud Flying Buffalo (notably Rick Loomis) for this portion of the fantasy RPG genre. I only wish more game systems and other genres would follow suit. Sure there are a few solo/solitaire TSR D&D/AD&D modules in the mix, but IMO not enough.


Well that's really all I've checked out so far. There are over 150 games reviewed by Swan in this book, some more lengthy than others. I don't have a real grasp on how I regard the author's reviews yet, and how much faith I'll put into his advice, so I will withhold that judgment until I give the book a fair shake.

Thus, I will be reading some more entries, to see his take on some more games that I have played, but more interestingly some that I have yet to try, or even yet to hear of. First in that list: Macho Women with Guns. Sounds hot!

"Adventurer - The Card Game": simple yet fun

Adventurer - The Card Game, by K.R. Bourgoine.

So I snagged the "Limited Edition" of this sweet card game a while back (sometime early last year, IIRC) and only got to play a couple times before I packed it up in a moving box (we moved to a new house). At any rate, this is a very cool card game that has some expansion packs/decks and some very cool designer cards. I have the "Shade the Trickster" card, designed by Gary Gygax, himself. Here's that card:



Oh and here's a fave of mine...wonder why? Oh yeah, cuz I like vampires...right? RIGHT?!?!?



Ok, well enough of the "goodies"...how does it play? Very funly (yes, I just made that word up).

All seriousness aside, it's a very fast play, and you can dork around solo or bring along up to 3 friends. It's an every hero for themselves "dungeon crawl" though, so leave the teamwork at the portcullis.

Basically you have 4 stock heroes to choose from, a deck of dungeon cards (loot, baddies, traps, etc), a pair of d6s, and if you bought the Limited Edition version you get an extra card. In fact if you snagged any of the designer cards, you obviously have those to use as well.

So pick your hero, then go hunt down the Vamp, Count Lordrac! BTW, (per usual) you'll need a "stake" to defeat him. For heroes, you have this crew to choose from:

Princess Aeria - can unlock a locked door
Izgar the Goblin - can pass any collapsed area
Lalliard the Wizard - can open any Magically Locked Portal
Macal the Swordsman - can jump past any Failing Floor


You draw cards and act on those as needed. If you encounter a baddie, battle ensues. It's basically a roll-off, but you can use items to help, including your weapon.

If you defeat the baddie, you get some loot (weapon, locked chest, key, etc). You can also find mad lootz just by drawing them as cards. You can equip an item to use in your next battle, or use healing potions, etc.

You may also draw a card resulting in a trap...yikes!

Baddies include skellies, zombies, ghasts, etc (undead), along with 3 vampire brides ("ambushes!" which prevent you from running away from their massive undead cleavage... err... badness), and then the big boy himself, Count Lordrac. As noted above you will need a stake to beat him for real-realz. If you defeat him without a stake, he gets shuffled back into the deck, and you're back on the trail to find him again (preferably this time with a stake).

Anyway, I won't go all into the rules here, mainly because they are posted on various sites, including the main product site and it's forums, and frankly because it's been a while since I played it and I'd hate to botch it up too much in a simple post like this.

The artwork is somewhat reminiscent of "back in '81" (or thereabouts), and old timers will most likely dig it. I sure do. Here's a shot (from the main site) of some other cards in the deck:



There is a simple little promo comic here, and a user/player's Gladitorial Variant ruleset, which is approved by the game's creator himself (here's his response).

There are also two newer expansions ("Portal" and "Chaos") to add to the main "Castle Deck," along with some additional designer cards. For $55 you can get the whole lot:

Complete Adventurer Bundle One of each item:

* K.R.Bourgoine’s Adventurer Card Game
* K.R.Bourgoine’s Adventurer: Portals Expansion
* K.R.Bourgoine’s Adventurer: Chaos Expansion
* Gary Gygax Guest Designer Card #1: Shade the Trickster
* James M. Ward Guest Designer Card #2: Warden’s Pool of Darkness
* Chris Clark Guest Designer Card #3: BlunderBuss
* Tom Wham Guest Designer Card #4: Slooch the Cleric
* Lodrac’s Twin Hero Card
* Extra Count Lodrac Card

The main ordering page is here.

Back when I got mine, there was really only the main Castle Deck (LE) and a few of the designer cards (Gygax, Ward, Clark). I think I paid $20 or so for my stash...not bad. I'd like to get some more of the extras, but first I think I'll try to find my lowly basic set (Castle Deck), somewhere in one of those boxes in the basement.

Ugh, I hate the after-move effect, but it can lead to some serious dungeon crawling treasure finding on it's own. Heck, just yesterday I looted my old OD&D OCE white box (little brown books) set down in those basement depths of doom! What will I find the next trip down there? Stay tuned...

"YOU HAVE FOUND A STAIRWAY"

-------------------------------------------------------------------
3355 IFRND(1)>.6THENPRINT"IT USES IT'S SWORD!!!":MB=4:DB=3:GOTO3305
-------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU HAVE FOUND A STAIRWAY
YOU SEE LIGHT ABOVE
DO YOU WANT TO GO UP
OR STAY ON THE SAME LEVEL?
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone feel like firing up the old C-64?...Ok, Trash-80s are welcome too, I guess.

If so, I'll meet ya over at "The Worthy Meade Inn", ok?

That pesky demon...on level 1!


Oh and yeah Zork, Rogue, nethack, Adventure....etc....all great games, back in the day.

Man I used to work in the geek...err..computer lab on campus back in my college days...the main lab was mainframe based, and on the unix system we would play the ol' text based, ASCII layout type...I just can't recall eaxctly which game it was...ugh.

I'd be right in the middle of some heated dungeon crawling...hehe..and some dork would come up with some lame question about their code. I mean, couldn't they see I was doing something important?!?!?


Anyway, yeah that was circa 1990 or so. Taking the way-back machine a bit further, my bud that first introduced me to D&D (Basic Set), "back in '81"...he had a C64 and we would fire up Adventure and Telengard, and many others.

Around that same time (highschool though, so '83-'86) our computer science class/group had a full Cromemco mainframe at our disposal...and of course when we weren't pounding code, or typing up our D&D character sheets in the horrific yet cool for the times editor/WP, to printout for the coming weekend's session, we all would play it's version of "Adventure".....awesome times.