Running a Play-By-Post Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game

I think I talked a while ago (sorry for the bad memory - like I said, it's been a while ago!) that since moving to another state and away from my weekly gaming group, I'm going to need to turn to some alternative options to get my gaming on. While I've found myself pursuing a hobby I really never had any intent pursuing in the past, it's not exactly the kind of gaming that will really scratch my itch. So I turn again to trying to find a play-by-post forum game that will work for me. A recent obsession, thanks to c2e2, is Margaret Weis Productions' Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game (MHRPG).

Fast forward to me trying to figure out when I can get home to run a game to do some research on the system and get down to the nitty-gritty, and I'm not having much luck getting it figured out. So, now I'm thinking a play-by-post would be a good way to at least get a bit of the economy of play down.

MHRPG is a bit of an odd duck when it comes to supers roleplaying. I don't at all mean this in a negative way. I like odd ducks, and that's especially true when the oddness comes from a more narrative-based rule set. I love narrative-based games when compared to a highly-tactical or strategic style of play like that found in D&D 4th.

Anyway, that's off topic, the real oddness comes from the fact that, while characters and NPC's are actually quite simple in their representation and general amount of junk to remember, there's an awful lot of record keeping that goes on in the game. This isn't a big deal when everyone's at the table, but when everyone is posting at different times of the day and never actually say anything in person, it's important that me, as the GM, has a really strong and overtly obvious understanding of how the table is going.

There's plot points, the doom pool, scene distinctions, stresses, assets, and more to keep track of when running an action scene. It's not at all insurmountable, but it is something to keep in mind when launching such a game. If you're wondering what inspired this post, it's from this short thread over at rpg.net where someone was asking for a GM for a Marvel game. After some hemming and hawing, I've decided to step forward and give it a chance.

It looks like I'll be running some kind of widescreen Avengers story with a feeling more towards the movie than any of the comics. This is fine by me, and something I can definitely give a shot to in order to learn the system, but in my heart, I'm an X-Men guy through-and-through. My dream game I'd like to run someday would have to be a heavy-hitter style X-team game that hops around the planet (and at times the galaxy) investigating the truly weird, alien, and possibly paranormal things that no one else can or wants to handle. Basically the current incarnation of Uncanny X-Men meets Planetary set firmly in the Marvel Universe. As much as I love Cyclops, he'd be no where near leading this team since there probably wouldn't be enough punching and kicking of the people.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Looking for sci-fi setting inspiration? Forget Mass Effect and head to your local comic shop.

Ever since the New 52 launched last August, I've been buying comics weekly digitally from Comixology and have been loving it. I've been focusing on superhero books and only buying three of four different issues each week after I've figured out which would work in the long run, and I've noticed a real trend in the books I keep on buying and enjoying - Science Fiction!

SF has always been more core genre since Star Wars as a kid, and even my love of Lord of the Rings can't quite push me over the edge to say I prefer fantasy over science fiction. Of course, if you can mix it up together, all the better. I find that the titles I'm buying even from the larger publishers tend toward more science fiction-y tropes and settings. For example, it being Wednesday, I picked up three issues from series I started with and haven't quit - Green Lantern, Batman and Robin, and Wolverine and the X-Men. While all three books are definitely superhero books, they also all tend toward high-tech gadgets, outlandish villains, and quirky aliens.

Even more so, this seems to be the year of Image Comics, and two books that recently launched have really captured my imagination. Even better, they're both very firmly rooted in the tradition of mashing-up science fiction and fantasy, although the first one is more of the swords and planets variety while the second is looking like it might be a definitive space opera.

Prophet is just two issues in (starting at at #21 with pretty much a complete revamp of the character from the 90's), but it's AMAZING when it comes to new ideas. Conan meets Rip Van Winkle meets Planet of the Apes (but weird), The art from Prophet is one things that sets it apart from everything else I'm reading right now.

At times it can be weird, down-right gross, and uncomfortable, but the story is amazing. It's set in the extreme far future and our main character is only slightly more aware of what's going on than the reader is. In just two issues, Prophet has presented an amazingly weird world that defies genre expectations. It's cryptic, constantly throws new ideas at you, and you are desperate but eager to keep up with the pace. I really recommend picking the first issue up digitally for $1.99 to give it a shot and see if you it's your thing. Then, do your best to not be incredibly motivated to play a traditional swords & sorcery game out of the setting.

Saga, which heralds the return of Brian K. Vaughn to comic writing, is probably one of the biggest hyped books to come out in a while. It's actually a fairly traditional story of star-crossed lovers, and while the characters are likable and interesting (something fans of BKV will come to expect of his writing), it's really the outrageous setting that drew me in.

Saga presents a world (galaxy really) of two races who have always been at war. You can see a representative of each race just by glancing to the left there at the cover of the first issue. And yes, that's a baby, so you probably think you've got it all figured out. Truthfully, you probably do have a lot of it figured out regarding the story, but the setting itself is something different.

Magic and tech exist just as equally viable methods to get your way in the universe of Saga. I was quite taken aback when early on in the issue we were shown some truly cool D&D style magic showing up in the middle of this clearly science fiction setting.

Also, there's robots, or some kind of weird mechanical guys with TV's for heads. It gets kind of hard to explain, but it's safe to say that Saga will be published as long as BKV wants to do the work. I would love to see an officially-sanctioned RPG for this universe (yes, even after only one issue), as I feel like there's a lot of meat on the bones and a TON of room to play around and create something original with your playgroup.

So there you have it! Mass Effect is great, but for real science fiction inspiration, comics has taken a turn for the awesome. Don't miss out.

GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG - What I'm Getting

I'm as big a fan of made-up holidays as the next guy, especially when they give me a day off from work. While GM's Day doesn't quite carry the magnitude of Labor Day (even though we might put more effort and stress into planning our games than doing our day jobs), a close runner-up to having the day off from work is having a big old sale of things I love.

And that brings us to GM's day. Thanks to Gary, we have a date - March 4th -  to celebrate the hard work our GM's put into providing weekly, monthly, annually, or whatever-ly gaming entertainment. While I'm not sure what kind of celebrating actually happens (if I had a game store, I would whore the hell out of GM's Day - just saying), there's one thing that comes up like clockwork every year now since GM's Day started - the annual DriveThruRPG sale in honor of the new holiday!

I freaking love me some gaming pdf's. They're great for a lot of reasons, and not the least is that a site like drivethrurpg can easily through huge sales up which I can benefit from immediately upon purchase. Go check the link above for the general sale page. There are over 8,000 products up for sale. This is pure insanity. Virtually everything they have is for sale from Margaret Weis Productions to Savage Worlds books to Legend of the 5 Rings to tons of World of Darkness books. Well it's easy to get lost for hours searching through all 8,000+ products, I've grabbed some books that I'm excited to pick up at just the right price. Keep reading below for my top five picks of the sale (or at least five products I'm going to have a very, very difficult time not shelling out cash for in the next week)!

Iron Fist - Role: Striker. Hulk - Role: Heavy Tank: What the Marvel U. can teach us about 5th Ed. Roles.

I haven't had the chance to get a copy of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Basic Game yet (I'm holding out for the freaking Age of Apocalypse one-and-done book for all my childhood comics dreams to come true), but I do know that A.) it looks awesome and B.) plenty of people have been raving about it. I grew up on the Marvel Universe, specifically the X-Men, and although my recent foray into buying weekly comics centers on DC's New 52, I'm no stranger to Marvel's immense digital library thanks to my Digital Comics subscription. X-Men will always be my corner of the Marvel Universe, so of course I was interesting in checking out the Avengers Vs. X-Men event program guide which Marvel put out for free digitally this week.

Right when I opened it up, I knew that whoever was writing it either is already into role-playing games or should be introduced to them by a role-playing friend. For each of the teams you get a roster showing the main team members, their name, their power, and most interestingly, their role. These rosters seemed to be screaming for some attention as they seemed to be great ways to think of these classic iconic characters in terms of what role they would play in D&D 4th Edition. In case you're somehow unaware of these roles and how they work in 4th Ed. (and good for you if you are! way to play something other than D&D!), 4th Ed. takes the approach that all classes are assigned one of four roles to better summarized what role they might play in a party. Leaders are buffers and healers (Cleric), Defenders are essentially tanks and guys who can take a beating (Fighter), Strikers are the ones who do big splash damage or are extremely reliable turn to turn with average damage (Rogues), and Controllers are ones who debuff enemies, move creatures around in a fight, and generally do whacky stuff (Wizards).

While I think only having four roles - and having them all be oriented based on their role in combat - is a bit limiting, I do like them. They're short-hand for a given classes' general ability structures, durability in a fight, and what kind of things they tend favoring over others. I really like how the event program for Avengers Vs. X-Men plays with this concept of figuring out where a given team member fits into the team (or in our vernacular, a party). It's especially appropriate given Marvel Heroic Roleplaying's recent debut.

Some of my favorite roles are Dr. Stranger: Caster, Colossus: Tank, Magneto: Nuker, Hope: Mutant Messiah, and of course the best role is Wolverine: The Best There Is. I'm not one to talk about or really care even much about D&D 5th Edition, but I do know that I'd love to see roles worked on more for the next edition. I want to see roles worked out on the same level mechanically (meaning essentially they don't give a bonus so much as let you know which classes are your peers and work as a short-hand description to what the class can do) while being fleshed out more creatively on a fluff level. Much like talent trees, I like the idea of role trees. For example I'd like to see Striker with maybe three branches - Nuker, Sniper, Infiltrator. The nuker does big blasts periodically, the sniper does more precise damage each turn, and the infiltrator is less damage-oriented and more focused on getting behind enemy lines and messing up their plans. The key here would be that each Striker still does the most damage of any role, but it's easier to describe with a little more specificity.

I don't know what we'll see in D&D Next. I'll probably pick up the handbook but don't care to spend much more time or money on it than that. I'd love to see some ideas from Fate and Mouse Guard ported over, but I'm really not holding my breath. Until we know, I'll simply say Make Mine Marvel! 'nuff said.

Comics Review: Wolverine & The X-Men #5

Growing up on X-Men, when I started back in on weekly comics with DC’s New 52, I knew it was just a matter of time before I tried my hand at reading a monthly X title.

Not long after DC’s month of #1′s we got an announcement soft reboot on the X-men universe, and I couldn't have been more excited. Five issues later, and I’m still reading Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-men and still looking forward to getting to the next issue.

W&TXM is the perfect self-contained X-book (for now at least). I was worried that we’d be seeing so many cross-overs with Uncanny (both X-men and X-force), New Mutants, Generation Hope, etc, etc. While there’s been a little bit of that, this issue shows that you don’t really need anything else before diving into the Jean Grey School, it’s staff, and it’s oddball class of students. The Brood storyline seems like a classic 80′s/early 90′s X story, and combined with the direction of Wolverine and Quentin Quire, the book feels like it’s not aiming to fit into a big event but rather wants to tell its own stories. Considering this is the only Marvel book I buy weekly, I truly appreciate that.

While I belong to the school that enjoys Bachalo’s art, Nick Bradshaw is a nice fill-in and offers a different look from what you get in a lot of superhero books nowadays. Ironically, it really reminds me of Bachalo’s work on Generation X back in the 90′s. It’s cartoony, a little busy, but really jumps off the page.

I’ll keep buying Wolverine & the X-men as long as Jason Aaron keeps writing it. Or until they get Greg Land to draw it. Those are really my only two conditions for this book.

Review originally posted over at iFanboy.com.

Just in time for Christmas.

So, quick post today, and it seems random (mostly because it is an unplanned), but I did want to say for those of you who might actually have given it a second thought - I'm still alive. I'm just taking a break from the regular posting as I've had to take a mental break from the whole exercise. Anyway, THG is not dead, I'm not dead, and gaming is, I might add, most definitely not dead. In fact, I've been continuing to work on my own pet project. It's a project that, I'm not afraid to admit, has just exploded and grown much quicker than I would have expected since I started the blogging break. Apart from my own creations, I've been playing some Dragon Age tabletop (and DA 2 for the ps3) and tons of Lord of the Rings LCG still. I've also been continuing to buy weekly digital comics since September. Outside of that, I don't have a whole lot more to talk about (another legitimate reason I've been holding off from much blogging).

And lastly, because I always love to post pictures of cool stuff, you should go over and get the details on FFG's new announcement on Star Wars themed card sleeves.

These are just awesome, and I wish I had an excuse to start using them before the Star Wars LCG comes out, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the Spring.

DC Comics Review - Batman & Robin #3

Between Batman and Robin, Batwoman, and simply Batman, it’s a good time to be a fan of amazing art and story-telling in Gotham City. I wasn’t originally sold on B&R, but thanks to Patrick Gleason’s incredibly clean, crisp art and John Kalisz’s sharp (and surprisingly bright) coloring, I decided I had to come back for number two. By the end of this issue, I’m so very happy I did.

Tomasi has taken the peripherals of the world of Batman and really shined a light on them. In particular, I feel like this is the Batman book that really gets Alfred. B&R is generational in nature given that it focuses as much on the “grandfather” generation of Alfred as it does the “father” of Bruce and the “son” of Damian. By this issue, the father and son relationship between the two titular characters is really shining.

Behind it all though, is Alfred’s subtle, quiet guiding hand as Bruce has to learn all over again how to be a father. Bruce never had it so hard before with kids he could hand-pick to be Robin. B&R exemplifies the old saying that you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family. He’s stuck with Damian, and honestly, the ten year-old has the potential to be the greatest challenge Batman will ever face.

But, back to issue #3. The biggest achievement of this issue is that Tomasi pulls off the impossible and makes you really feel like both Bruce and Damian may be in legitimate danger. He also shines a light on the fact that Damian, arguably the deadliest Robin yet, can still be just as big a liability as Bruce’s adopted sons – if not more so.

While I love Batman by Snyder, B&R offers a simpler, more personal tale focusing on Batman’s two closest relationships, and it’s a nice change of pace from the epic, city-spanning adventure found in Batman.

The New 52 in Review... What Comes Next?

Over the past month I've been picking up a ton of the New 52 #1 issues from DC. You can find all my review posts here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, and Week Five. It's the first time I've fallen into a routine of buying new comics every Wednesday, and I'm happy to say at this point that it's a very fun habit. I've also bought every single book this month digitally through Comixology. Overall I picked up 22 of the 52 #1's which is a huge amount of comics for me to buy in a single month. I'm more used to picking up a couple of trade collections every couple of months, so it was really cool having so many comics to read every week.

So with today I'm going to be giving some feedback on my experience. I want to use this opportunity almost as much for myself to reflect on the past month and how I want to proceed with comic buying as much as I just want to share my opinion with the ether. I'm going to try to rank the top 10 books I bought, identify which books I'm excited for buying #2 next month, and finally which books aren't going to see a second issue in my Comixology collection. Let's get on with it!

DC Relaunch - Final Week! - Teen Titans, Aquaman, Green Lantern New Guardians, Flash, and Justice League Dark

It's the final week of the bold experiment undertaken by DC Comics to relaunch an entire comics universe, and I've got another five #1's to round out the month with. It's been a great ride this month, and I hope to have one more post by the end of this week to discuss all the new #1's I picked up and what I plan on sticking with to see through #2. Reviews can be found over at iFanboy as always.

Teen Titans #1

I wasn't originally going to pick this up. Then came Superboy, and I knew that even though the art really turned me off, I'd have to see where Teen Titans (TT) would lead me. I've wanted to like TT for a long time. I love the concept, and can't really get enough teen books in my life. I passed on Red Hood and the Outlaws last week (also written by Scott Lobdell) since I don't care about any of those characters, but the combination of Superboy's quality combined with really liking Tim Drake - Red Robin as a character meant I was willing to give this a chance.

So that's the long sordid history of my relationship with the book building up to its release. This being the first book I read this week, I'm starting to realize that #1 fatigue is finally setting in for me. I love team books, I love covert/conspiracy books, and I really like teen superheroes, and all of that still didn't save me from starting to realize that I'm actually starting to get sick of reading the very beginning of a story. I don't think I would have noticed this as much if TT wasn't just incredibly mediocre and quick to read, but it just wasn't that great.

I still haven't warmed up to Brett Booth's decidedly 90's Image-influenced style. Everyone's bulging with muscles and the style, rather than doing something interesting with Jim Lee's redesign of the costumes, seems to enhance all the bad parts of the redesigns. I will say this about the art though. There are moments where Booth really nails a character's facial expression that were refreshing. I also enjoyed his rendition of Superboy's costume almost as much as R.B. Silva's from Superboy #1. The black and red capeless design is really badass and menacing. I have no idea why the cover shows pretty much the worst Superboy design ever, because I don't think it's going to show up anywhere in the new version of the DC Universe.

The story felt slight in a way that wasn't still satisfying. What I mean is that with Supergirl #1 last week, it was an incredibly quick read, but it felt like a very tantalizing tease. I wanted to know more about the main character and how she would interact with the world. In TT #1, we get a faceless clandestine group messing with teen heroes named "N.O.W.H.E.R.E." that, in a post-Nextwave world feels like a parody of itself. I don't care about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. even A.L.I.T.T.L.E. The group is so generic, and I feel like Lobdell missed the boat on throwing us a bone or any hook at all that would make me care about this story line. Alas, we got nothing, and that's kind of how I feel about the book overall - just a whole lotta nothing.

Story - 2 out of 5 stars
Art - 2 out of 5 stars

DC Relaunch Week 4 - Birds of Prey, Nightwing, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Batman

It's Wednesday! More reviews of DC #1's! This week has probably the most middling excitement for. Last week had Batwoman and the week before had Action Comics and Animal Man, but this week, while I'm exciting for the titles I bought, none really stand out as a truly "event" of a release. Still, let's see how the five titles I picked up ended performing. As always, these reviews are also posted over at iFanboy.

Birds of Prey #1

I wasn't sure what to expect for Birds of Prey (BoP). It hasn't ever been a title I've been interested in and wasn't going to be on my list to buy for the relaunch. Still, the preview pages I saw online really grabbed me, and there's something about the costume redesign of Black Canary that really spoke to me. The new costumes have been very hit or miss, but one of the things that I really liked about BoP were both Black Canary's and Starling's costumes.

Like I said, I don't know a whole lot about the original BoP. I know that Barbara Gordon as Oracle was always the Professor X of the team and that it was made up of female superheroes, but beyond that, I never really knew the mission of the team or even the tone of their stories. The new BoP presents a budding team of female bad asses who work street-level conspiracies and crime. In this first issue, we're only introduced to Black Canary (the blonde on the cover) and Starling (the corset-wearing superheroine in the center). I really adore the little bits of relationship we get between these two characters.

The art (by Jesus Saiz) is clean and the action looks amazing. Both of the female stars look like they could easily kick Batman's ass while laughing about it the whole time. They both look very distinct, and Saiz makes their personalities shine through his art. It's a very exciting book to look at, and even the quieter scenes have a quick pace that makes it feel like an action movie. Unfortunately, it does end up feeling like a quick read, and I could see an argument that you don't really get your money's worth. However, the story is tight and complete (especially for being a #1) while opening up a whole world of story possibilities. On a side note, we do get two pages where Barbara Gordon makes an appearance, and I'm more intrigued and interested by this depiction of the character than I was with the entire issue of Batgirl #1. I'm excited to see how she will continue to interact with the team she originally founded and would be more than happy if this was her only corner of the DC universe and she didn't have to carry her own book from month-to-month.

Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars

Riffing on the Military Campaign.

For some reason, no one volunteered to play the Scuba Steve Trooper.

One of the things I've wanted to do since getting into tabletop role playing has been a military campaign. The first adventure I planned for my group was a Star Wars Saga Edition game that was a follow-up to several sessions running the free campaign Wizards was producing at the time. It was a huge learning experience, those early days of our group's trying out what turned out to be one of the best versions of the d20 system. We had a lot of fun, but I was itching to run my own game.

DC Relaunch Week 3 Reviews - Batwoman, Batman and Robin, Demon Knights, Grifter, and Superboy

It's Wednesday which means it's time for a fresh batch of comics for DC's New 52 #1's! Don't know what I'm talking about? You can find Week 1 here and Week 2 here to get my takes on those week's releases that grabbed my fancy. As always, I'll be posting these reviews over at iFanboy as well since they have a really nice database of user reviews.

Batwoman #1

For some reason, Batwoman has constantly been running under my radar in all these months leading up to the big relaunch. It's pretty inexplicable for a variety of reasons. The first is that you cannot ignore the sheer brilliance of artist J.H. Williams III. His work in comics never disappoints and never fails to wow me. Secondly, Kate Kane (secret identity of Batwoman) is my favorite bat-family character as well as my favorite female character in any comic. I fell in love with her in reading the collection of the story Batwoman: Elegy by writer Greg Rucka with Williams on the art. The story was inventive, deeply emotional and personal, and also down-right creepy at points.

Maybe I was ignoring Batwoman because I didn't want to get my hopes and expectations up for the book. DC is giving several artists a chance at writing their own books with the relaunch, and with every one of them I've been really hesitant and nervous about the results. With Batwoman, I can happily say that Williams carries on not only the look of the Elegy story but the quality in character interaction and quick, snappy dialogue that made Elegy work so well.

I'm not exactly sure why I like Kate Kane so much. Maybe it's the fact that she's a female version of Bruce Wayne that breathes a fresh kind of life into the character. It could be her strict military background, her Westpoint training (which makes her sound a lot like old man Batman from The Dark Knight Returns), and her relationship with her father (a retired colonel). Whatever it is, the way Rucka - and now Williams combines this realistic interpretation of a modern high tech superhero with super natural and truly horrific villains. The story presented here follows a very creepy track of kidnapped and murdered children all from the same block by a villain who you might recognize if you're a fan of urban legends and modern ghost stories. The villain is the perfect opponent for Batwoman and match for the style of the book due its relatively dreamy, drippy disposition.

Williams and co-artist W. Haden Blackman dazzle with some jaw-dropping double-page spreads that are both bewildering and yet easy to follow the intended flow of dialogue and story. I've had a generally positive reaction to the New 52 #1's that I've purchased, but nothing has impressed me or made me more excited for next month than Batwoman #1. It's even more exciting than Animal Man, so go figure.

Story: 5 out of 5 stars
Art: 6 out of 5 stars (I realize this is impossible, but Williams is the best out there, bar none)

DC Relaunch - Reviews of more #1's! - Batgirl, Justice League International, Action Comics, Animal Man and Stormwatch

It's Wednesday so that means it's time again for some fresh new DC Comics reviews. Last week I reviewed Justice League #1 which, although was fun and light-hearted, did disappoint me a bit. This week I picked up four more #1's from DC's massive relaunch going on all month which resets the entire universe at the first issue with a whole new continuity. These reviews for this week (and likely for the rest of the month) will be shorter than my Justice League review just 'cause there's more to do, and I do my best to avoid being long-winded (and often fail). Just like last week, these reviews are also posted over at iFanboy.com - the best site out there for comics news, reviews, and discussion that I can find.

DC Relaunch - Review of Justice League #1

I've been a long-time fan of iFanboy for all my comic booking needs. I regularly listen to their podcast and always try to stop by their booth and say hi when I'm at a convention where they also happen to be attending. Anyway, I wrote a review of the new Justice League #1 released just today from DC Comics. This is the first book in their controversial and exciting (at least to me) relaunch of their entire line. I plan on buying more and will likely be posting reviews of the various #1's both here and over there over the course of the next few weeks. Note: I bought this digitally this afternoon, which was awesome, and now my comic collection goes everywhere I go, which is all kinds of awesome.

More Gencon Pictures! General Fantasy Flight Games

Gencon may have been two weekends ago now, but there's just too much to share to move on quite yet. Today's post includes the left-over Star Wars LCG pictures I didn't get into my first grouping as well as a lot of the new stuff on display at their booth. One of the neat things I will mention that, I'm not sure has been really discussed at the other places I've gotten to read about the Star Wars LCG is that timers. In the Lord of the Rings LCG, each player has essentially a timer or reverse life-counter that automatically ticks up a little each turn and possibly a lot depending on negative game effects. In Star Wars, players share this timer as well as their progress track. I enjoy how strongly this reinforces the cooperative aspect of the game by really forcing an all-or-nothing win condition.

Other pictures include some amazing looking Dust Tactics giant miniatures, a picture of the Blood Bowl Team Manager card game, all six Adventure Packs lined up for the first cycle of expansions for the Lord of the Rings LCG, and contents of the next Adventurers game (the original which, by the way, is a Hopeless favorite). I hope you enjoy!

The Sedition Wars at Gencon

I got a chance to talk to Mike McVey of Studio McVey this year at the Cool Mini or Not booth at Gencon. It was a special occasion because this year marked the tenth anniversary of Mr. McVey teaching me how to play Warmachine back when Gencon was still in Milwaukee, and I was but a wee child still in high school. Mike's one of my favorite industry guys and has a resume with sculpting, painting, and other design work as long as his arm. He and his wife Ali broke out on their own from Privateer Press (of which they were founding members) a couple of years ago to start Studio McVey. I was first won over when seeing the first mini in their sci-fi line and hoped desperately for a mini's game to go with it. My hopes have come to fruition, and I got a peak at the board/mini hybrid game, Sedition Wars last week.

We'll definitely be providing more coverage to the game as the rules are going to be put up online this week for free to try, and I was able to pick up a copy of the poster game board they had at the convention. For now however, take a look at the painted mini's they had on display for the main forces in their starting set to be released next year. The last two pictures, while not from the Sedition Wars line, are just of some awesome minis from Studio McVey. Enjoy!

New From Gencon - Star Wars the Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games Picture Megapost!

As a quick follow-up to my X-Wing post from Thursday, today I wanted to take the time to post some pictures of the card game for Star Wars that I have been told we can expect "early next year" from Fantasy Flight games. I did get a chance to talk over what all these neat cards do, and just as with X-Wing, I'll be taking more time with this later to explain things better. For now, just enjoy the pictures!

Just in from Gencon - X-Wing and Star Wars the Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games

Obviously we're all crazy busy here, but I want to drop some photos for everyone to check out the great-looking components FFG brought in today for both X-Wing and the new Star Wars the Card Game LCG. The Card Game will be detailed in a post in (hopefully) a little bit, but here are my X-Wing pictures. I did some interviews and will have a ton more specifics about the games themselves, but for now, enjoy the pictures! Also, check back frequently as I plan to continue to mega-dump some photos throughout the next three and a half days of Gencon.