In Which The Warlock Ushers in a New Year...

Ahoy, fellow gamers!  Sorry on the delay, but I was doing my best to enjoy my holiday and recover to the best of my ability.  Both the PlatinumChick and I have been fighting through upper respiratory infections since around the 20th, which we're only now starting to get over.  However, we did manage to have a geek-tastic holiday, which is what matters!

Always the enthusiastic Savage Worlds player, the PlatinumChick got me a copy of the SW "Action and Adventure" decks for Christmas.  I'd been eyeing these up for a while, ever since The JourneymanGM started using the cards in his "Heart of Darkness" trilogy.  They'll definitely make for a great addition as my players finish out "The Flood".

I also managed to finally fight my way through the remainder of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins, in anticipation to start the sequel.  While I'd love to spill the beans on my opinions here, I'm going to hold off until this weekend, to better accumulate my thoughts.

However, I do have something special for you!  Following last year's culinary experimentation, I felt that I needed to one-up myself at this year's New Year's Eve party.  As such, I decided to go whole hog...or rather, whole bird, so to speak:  a bacon-wrapped Turducken roll!  I'd originally intended to wrap a full turducken, but with only 15 or so party-goers this year (compared to the nearly 30 last year), it was simply more prudent to use the roll.

So, take a look, and make sure not to drool on your keyboard! 

The fully wrapped roll, pre-cooking...

That same roll, fresh out of the roaster!

A victorious PlatinumWarlock!

The many delicious layers...laid bare for all to see...

In Which The Warlock Nukes Catan!

So, at our New Year's party, I came upon the idea of a variant for a certain game that I typically can't stand--Settlers of Catan--to make it a little more "active" in terms of competition.  That's my biggest problem with Catan...there's very little active competition with other players.  Rather, you simply race to beat your competitors, occasionally hindering them by inflicting "The Robber" on them.

As such, I came up with the "Nuclear Option" for Catan.  Simply put, a character could spend 2 Stone and 2 Clay to build a Nuclear Missile, which would be launched immediately.  Launching a Nuclear Missile would perform one of three tasks:

• Destroy an opposing Settlement.
• Reduce an opposing City to a Settlement.
• Destroy any two adjoining Roads.

Advance the Doomsday Clock!

We also used a few limiting factors.  Players could not use a Nuclear Missile against a foe with only 2 Victory Points, and usage of a Nuclear Missile would add to the "Doomsday Clock".  Starting at 1:00, the Doomsday Clock increased by 1 hour with each Nuclear Missile launch.  If the clock struck Midnight, then Catan would officially become unliveable, covered in fallout and nuclear radiation.

With FridayNightWill, Chris II, and the PlatinumChick alongside me, we broke out this variant for the first time last night, and the results were...pretty impressive, really!

By and large, gameplay was unchanged.  Clay was a premium in our game, due to our utter inability to roll an 8 or a 10 on 2d6, but that didn't stop Chris II from unleashing a nuclear salvo at my roads!  After crippling my motion for several turns, he was able to jump out to an early lead, grabbing the Longest Road and tying with FridayNightWill for the lead.

However, I had some plutonium of my own to share!  After nuking some of Chris II's roads back to the Stone Age, I managed to slip in, and connect my two original settlements, thereby splitting the map and giving me both the Longest Road, and the victory.

Was it worth it?!

Now, while I said earlier that gameplay was "unchanged," I don't mean that totally.  Rather, an interesting conundrum was introduced.  You see, with Clay at a premium due to scarcity, an opportunity cost was required in order to build that Nuclear Missile--the ability to build either a Road, a City or even both, depending on the contents of the player's hands.  Was it worth it to tear down an opponent, or to spend those resources to catch up to them? 

Overall, I was very pleased with the results of this variant, and would be eager to play it again.  I can see some problems already, in terms of the various Catan expansions, but for the base game, it's a unique, PvP-centered expansion that adds a much more pleasing dimension to the game.  Try it!  You'll like it!

In Which The Warlock Makes a Semi-Obscure 80s Movie Reference...

Even our New Year's Eve party--complete with the aforementioned Bacon Weave--isn't totally without a dose of nerd-dom.  From the usual gang clustered around the coffee table to play Battlestar Galactica, to others tossing down drinks to a game of Red Dragon Inn, we had quite the dice-chuckin' lollapolooza going.



Catan.  We meet again...



However, after a few drinks, I made my way back to our game room where four of our friendly neighborhood geeks were gathered around one of my perennial nemeses:  Settlers of Catan.  "Ugh," I said to myself.  Not again.  To this, Board-Game-Karen scoffed.  Naturally, she's of the opposite opinion.  She even spent four days at last year's GenCon playing through the Catan National Qualifying rounds.  Needless to say, she's a much bigger fan of Catan (and Eurogames in general) than I. 

 I've blogged before about my problems with Eurogames in general, and Catan and its numerous expansions are the granddaddy at the top of that heap.  So, while watching the game unfold in amongst refereshing snacks and the like, I was stricken by a novel concept: 

While Catan, at its core, is a passive-aggressive sort of game...it doesn't have to be that way!

Rather, it would make so much more sense if the Settlers on that happy little island actually decided to take matters into their own hands and blow their adverseries off of the map!  And, to do so, all you'd have to do is make one little house rule...



Two Brick + Two Ore = Nuclear Silo!

Simply put, you just have to add one additional build option to the typical Road/Village/City/Card combo.  The addition, naturally, would be a Nuclear Missile, and would cost a mere 2 Brick and 2 Ore.  When a player builds the Nuclear Missile, they must immediately choose either a rival Village, a rival City, or two adjoining Roads.  If targeted at a Village or Roads, they are "destroyed" and removed from the board.  If a City is targeted, it is reduced back down to a Village.

However, some restrictions should be put on this.  I would add that a player cannot be reduced below his starting number of Villages, simply in order to keep the game competitive.  I would also add that a player can only play a Nuclear Missile once per turn, so that they can't simply go on a killing spree, attempting to demolish all of the other players simultaneously.

On a casual--and totally unplaytested--level, this seems pretty balanced.  On a traditional Settlers of Catan board, there are one less Brick and Ore producing tiles than the other three resources, which makes them somewhat more difficult to get.  Ore is most often used in the end-game for building Cities and buying Development Cards, while Brick (which is really important early on, as Roads are a priority) gets put to the wayside.  Essentially, it rewards a player wiling to invest in Brick on a significant level, while simultaneously providing an opportunity-cost conundrum:  do you build the City with that Ore, to build up resources and victory points, or do you nuke your nearest opponent, reducing his ability to catch up to you?

So, what do you think, fellow gamers?  Would you like to play a game?  :D

In Which The Warlock Weaves a Delicious Web...

While my holiday break has been full of gaming goodness--I've managed to pack in playtests of both Dungeon Slam! and SunnyVale Acres, in addition to several other games--I want to go off on a bit of tangent, geeky though it might be.

My love of food is pretty well documented on this blog, but when I won a ham at the holiday party at work, I knew I wanted to do something special with it.  As such, I stumbled upon a mythic addition to any protein:  The Bacon Weave!

I had seen it online first, done with a turkey, and then again with a mighty Turducken, but never with a ham.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I could be the first!  Besides, what could make a tasty, delicious ham more yummy than more pig!?

The Bacon Weave, pre-cooking.

Surprisingly, the Bacon Weave was not too hard to accomplish, taking only about 20 minutes to perform.  I used a basic 'over-under' technique, similar to any basket or the like that you might have.  I used a package and a half of bacon, which was just long enough to cover the 7 pound ham.  I assembled the Weave first on a large platter, then slid it on top of the ham.

I was a bit worried about burning the bacon before the ham was done, but my fears were utterly unfounded.  The bacon came out crispy and browned, dripping their goodness down into the ham deliciously.  Even better, I used a center-cut, maple-flavored bacon, which added sweetness and richness to the ham. 

And now...the finished product:




The Bacon Weave in all its glory!

 This made for massive hit at our New Year's party, particularly as I carved it live for everyone.  There were only a few pieces left, after we were finished with this delectable treat!

Want a slice?

In Which The Warlock Winds Down the Year...

If it's one thing I've not been very good at, it's concluding.  In writing, in projects, in...well, life in general, I've never been particularly good at finishing out.  I suppose that includes this year's blog entries, even.  As I sat down to put in this entry, I was at an utter loss.  Do I talk about the year that's gone by?  Perhaps what I'm looking forward to in 2011?  Maybe the swag that was part of this year's Christmas haul? 

No.  None of those would fit.  Rather, I decided to take a page from last year's entries and provide some resolutions for what I can work in next year.  I'm not big on New Years' Resolutions, but this is the one venue where they make sense.  Plus, y'know...if the resolution's public, it's a lot harder to back down on!

--Keep Up the Layout!  One of the things I'm most proud of, in the past few months, is the formatting that I've been able to put forward on this blog.  I'm hardly an HTML guru, but I've been able to make this blog much more visually appealling with images and links, as well as various formatting changes.  It's been exciting for me, particularly, as I've been able to watch my readership slowly start to pick up.  Hopefully, that means I've been doing something right!

The current progress on Dungeon Slam

--Revise, Revise, Revise!  While I've been working hard on new ideas, new scenarios, and new games, my older projects have been gathering dust behind me.  This, my lovelies, is a real shame, as I think I really have some good stuff there.  Dungeon Slam! is still waiting on its fifth revision, while SunnyVale Acres has been aching for some more playtesting, now that I've instituted some changes to each of the factions.  Lumberjack Wars has been off to a good start, but needs to be completed.  I have the basic rules finished, and am nearly finished with the lumberjacks themselves, but still need to complete the vehicles/gear and the "Screw You, Buddy!" cards. 

Finding time during the busy scholastic year isn't easy, but I'll find a way...

Swinging the Pendulum...

--Swing the Pendulum!  Speaking of projects on the back burner, my Pendulum Method has actually been much more to the forefront than my other pieces of work.  I'm hoping to finish out the Pendulum and submit it to Digital Kat for full revision and layout within the first half of this year.  Ideally, by this time next year, I'll be able to put out a 64 page PDF detailing The Pendulum Method with several examples of Pendulum-style adventures.  This one, probably moreso than any of my board games, is closest to completion.  With any luck (and a good bit of work), I can actually finish out this project!

The future of Wittenberg Gaming?

--Start the Archive!  One of the biggest, most ambitious projects that has come out of the Wittenberg Role-Playing Guild was an idea from Will the ManMan.  You see, after running games at convention after convention, the Guild has a massive list of games that we can run, with characters already generated and plots already conceived.  Part of the issue is that they're not consolidated.  That, my lovelies, would be the change.  Ideally, we could consolidate all of our one-shots, all of the games run by Wittenberg gamers, as a massive consolidated document full of ideas, characters, and adventures.  Perhaps someday, once we get enough material in one place, we could even publish a volume of our materials...

We'll see, really.  2011 looks to be massively exciting, with another trip to Origins and GenCon on the docket, in addition to WittCon, FOPCon, DenCon and more.  Here's to another year, fellow gamers! 

In Which The Warlock Looks Back, Then Forward...

Man. Who knew?

After all this time, I actually managed to hit 150 posts since starting this blog. Even posting once a week, it seems like a massive number--something that's taken me, in real life, over 3 years. Hard to believe!

I still don't exactly have a lot in the way of readership--about 10 people, in all--but it at least lets me get out my thoughts on gaming and the like. Plus, it keeps me writing, which is something that tends to get lost in amongst the chaos and mess that takes up 'normal life'.

What's harder to believe is that all this started with a simple character blog. My old dwarven sorcerer from Eberron, Harrigan Grimgem, provided the bulk of the first few entries, with things expanding from there. Being able to show off the pictures at our various Origins trips, as well as the other cons we've made it to, really provided a great change of pace.

It's kind of funny. As the new year dawns, I've been absolutely aching for a "normal year". Between the wedding, a new job, a new car, a new house, and all of the other madness from 2009, 2010 looks like a wonderful change of pace.

That said, I know better. As it stands now, 2010 is going to be even more packed with gaming opportunities, with the Witt-Wegger crew hitting even more cons than last year: FOPCon II, AnCon, WittCon VII, C2E2, and even GenCon! It's going to be one heck of a year, no doubt.

All of this on top of my work on SunnyVale Acres (which is a board and some playing pawns away from being playtestable!) and Dungeon Slam!...man, oh man. No rest for the weary gamer.

Mind you, in the midst of all of this comes our normal campaign, which is restarting after the New Year. This time, though, I actually get to play! Now, what type of character I'm playing....no idea yet! We'll see how that goes.

I guess, all in all, I just want to thank you, readers. O noble few that you are, you keep me doing this and ready to chuck the dice once more, if for no other reason than to report on the carnage.

Enjoy your New Years' festivities, and have a good holiday all! There's more to come in the new year!