Category Archives: On the Tabletop

Adventures from cards, miniatures, pencil and paper RPGs, and other old fashioned games from before the internet ruined everything.

On the Tabletop

APBA Baseball Replay: 1933 MLB vs. Negro League All-Stars

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(Note: I don’t feel comfortable using the term Negro League, even though it may be historically accurate. Therefore, aside from the title and in this explanation, I will refer to the team as NeL. )

(Note:  The image at the top of the page is courtesy of http://apbagames.com)

Introduction

During my search for free or affordable cards for my APBA baseball game, I had to go no farther than the actual web page itself. They have some accessories for the game like scoresheets and a way to figure out how fatigue might affect pitchers. There wasn’t much in the way of actual cards, but what was there caught my eye and got me to thinking. They have the all-star teams for Major League and NeL baseball from 1933.

I think I mentioned in my article last night that I’ve heard all of the stories about the NeL players. In some cases, as I learned during my modicum of research on Baseball Reference, all we have are stories for some of these players. Look, I know that I’m just a hippie, leftist, snowflake, but it seems like an absolute travesty what has been done to African Americans in this country. Every time I think that I’ve found the bottom, I have to kick over the barrel and dig a little deeper.

Well, I wanted to put these stories to the test, so to speak. It’s not that I found them unbelievable. I mainly just wanted to witness it for myself. More recently, I found a page that has the cards for the 1871 National Association season (a precursor to MLB), so I went to Baseball Reference for some information and found way more for what amounts to a MLB prehistoric league than for the NeL in 1933. That’s shameful. Well, thanks to simulation, justice can at least be minimally served with regards to sports.

 

So, what happened in the games? Well, let’s find out. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited about this.

Game 1 (NeL 8, MLB 2)

The first game of the series started off close with the score 4-2 after 6 innings. Then the NeL exploded for 4 runs in the 7th inning and closed out the game for an 8-2 victory. Their pitcher, Bill Foster, who will turn out to play a massive role in the series, shut down the MLB team. Even though he was a bit wild with 7 walks, he only allowed 4 hits and struck out 5. The MLB 3-8, a group that includes Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, hitters went a combined 0-13. It was an inconsistent, but still dominating performance.

Meanwhile, the NeL team got 13 hits, including 2 homeruns, 4 doubles, and a triple. While just as dominant at the plate as their pitcher was on the mound, they were no less inconsistent in the field. They had 3 errors, though only one proved costly and drove in a run. Overall, a great start to the series.

Player of the Game: This was a tough one. Walter Davis, RF, 2-5, 2B, HR, 2RBI, 1 Run. Could have been Oscar Charleston, 1B, 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 Run, 1 BB.

Game 2 (NeL 6, MLB 3)

This game was close as well. The NeL led 4-3 after a 2 run 6th for the MLB and a scoreless 7th. It looked like the MLB might steal one before the NeL scored a run each in the 8th and 9th to close it out. While the bottom of the order picked things up, including an important pitch hit by Chick Hafey for the pitcher in that 2 run 6th, the top of the order was 0-17, including a collar in 3 AB with 2 Ks for the Bambino.

NeL starting pitcher, Sam Streeter, got tossed in the 5th inning for arguing balls and strikes. On short rest, Bill Foster came into relief. Even though he looked shaky in the 5th and 6th, he settled down to close out the last three innings and seal another important win.

While not quite the offensive explosion of game 1, the NeL batters put together more than enough offense. Just like in game 1, they spread the wealth around as no batter got more than 2 of their 9 hits.

Player of the Game: Bolstered by his game 1 and game 2 consistency, Oscar Charleston, 1B, 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 Run.

Game 3 (NeL 7, MLB 4)

In a do or die game 3, the MLB manager shook things up by batting Chick Hafey for Babe Ruth and shuffling his lineup. It looked like a good move as MLB charged out to a 3-0 lead in the first 5 innings. A 2 run 6th for the NeL gave the game the flavor of the series as it was close late. A 4 run explosion by the NeL in the 7th brought back memories of game 1. MLB started a comeback in the 8th, loading the bases and scoring a run, but that’s all they would get for the rest of the game. The NeL got back an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th and a scoreless 9th for MLB ended the game and the series.

Even though Chick Hafey performed no better than the Babe had, going 0-4 with 3 Ks, the lineup switch did have a positive effect on the MLB offense. However, the NeL just proved to me too much. Player of Game 2 and nearly player of game 1, Oscar Charleston, drove in 2 with a double. Rap Dion added two more RBI, and a costly error (one of 3 by MLB in the game) gave the NeL the 2 extra runs needed to win the game.

Bill Foster continued his domination. After allowing those 3 runs early, he shut down MLB before handing over batting duties to Vic Harris, who took a BB to spark that 6th inning rally. After that, Sam Streeter held the MLB to only that single run in the 8th and finished them off for good.

Player of the Game: Rap Dixon, CF, 2-4, 2 RBI, 2 Run

Player of the Series: Bill Foster, who got the win in all three games and kept the NeL fighting throughout the series.

Wrap Up

I was surprised that the series ended up being a sweep. In spite of some inconsistencies, it was also a definitive sweep in the favor of the NeL. Their players lived up to the hype and provided a lot of excitement. I was also surprised that some big names that I knew from MLB didn’t perform very well at all. Babe Ruth, in particular, was surprising. I know that he was at the end of his career and maybe shouldn’t have started, but you always hear so much about him that it is humbling to see.

I guess what they say is true. Father Time remains undefeated and even one of the greatest players of all time and a true legend of both baseball and America can’t even compete against aging. Lou Gehrig had one good game, one terrible game, and one great game. That’s more like what you’d expect, but still surprising.

Well, 3 games is not much of a sample size. Also, I still have the cards, so I can always go back to do another series and see if MLB can avenge their loss. If so, what’s stopping me from doing a rubber series to settle this once and for all? Well, all of that will have to wait. As I mentioned earlier, I found a page that has the cards from the 1871 NA season and I want to simulate that. It’s only about 30 games on average for 9 teams. Could be fun. See you then!

Box Scores (Series Stats Coming Soon):

1933 NeL vs. MLB All Star Series

On the Tabletop

There’s No Rerolling in Baseball!

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Introduction

Chris texted me a few weeks ago saying that he had been playing some chess. I chuckled and responded that I had downloaded an app for the New York Times crossword puzzle. More recently, I teted to him, “Speaking of old man games, I found my APBA Baseball game in a closet and started playing it.” He probably had no idea what I meant because he didn’t even reply. It made no difference. I was, and remain, excited by my discovery.

So, what’s the big deal? Well, my interest in sports replay/simulation started in high school. It would appear that the new year has me reminiscing. A trip to my old high school hangout in the Quarters, a year in review post, and now reliving my tie as a hockey league founder.

Inspired by my lack of a social life, I created a competitor hockey league to the NHL. I envisioned it like the USFL (another of my past and maybe future sports sim projects), but more ambitious. I went way back to the origin of the NHL and started my league there. In addition to games, I created rosters, rivals, and even dynasties.

The Good

With all of that in mind, you have probably deduced that the APBA baseball sim is right in my wheelhouse. You have deduced correctly. There is so much that I love about this game. Some of you might wonder why I prefer dice to computer simulations. While the computer games allow you to simulate many more games at once, there’s just something about rolling dice that brings me back to my wild and crazy high school days. Admittedly, I did simulate a season of the USFL on the computer, but the pace of baseball, as the saying goes, is much more deliberate and it fits in with the slow roll (so to speak) of the board game.

Plus, the game is very easy for as complex as it can be. I haven’t played it in probably 10 years, but I was able to pick it back up and play through a best of 5-game series in a few hours spread out over two days. While not at the level of simulating entire seasons in a couple of hours, it’s still a quick game and I could probably do an entire team’s season in a couple of weeks.

Aside from those, the game combines the two things that I enjoy about sports. I’ve played sports in middle and high school. I coached Aiden’s soccer team this past fall and might do it again in the spring. But, my interest in sports starts with watching games with my father and it is a legacy that I, sadly, haven’t yet been able to pass on to my children. Both Quinn and Aiden have sat with me during this most recent bowl season, but their heart isn’t really in it.

Not that I can blame them. I mean, this isn’t even a real game. But, would you have known that if I hadn’t told you?

I watch sports to have fun and unwind. I simulate sports to satiate my need for statistics. I’m so happy to have grown up in the era of advanced metrics, better statistics (both in the predictive and measuring sense of the word), and GPS on players. As a math guy, the more the merrier when it comes to numbers. APBA lets me get as deep as I want into the statistics. I didn’t think to do it this time, but my next simulation I’m going to keep score like it was a real baseball game. That score sheet tells the whole story of the game and keeping score when I was a kid was when I first started to fall in love with the game.

But, it’s not all about numbers. Even though I’m not much of a history person, I can appreciate the history of sports. I can’t tell you why I hate the Browns, their players, and their fans. Well, that’s not entirely true anymore. The Browns have been so terrible for so long that I don’t feel anything but pity for them lately.

The Bengals, though, can go straight to hell. And, I’ll tell you why I feel that way, too, if you want to hear.

APBA Baseball allows me to either rewrite or relive that history. I can explore “what if” scenarios. The one that haunts me to this day is “Slow” Sid Bream crossing home plate in the NLCS to beat my juggernaut Pirates. If only I could replay that game and the subsequent series. Oh, wait! I can! I haven’t yet, but it’s time to research the 1992 season card set and get to changing that result.

I could witness history. Maybe that game was just meant to be and no matter how many times I replay it, the Braves will always win. I would also love to be able to watch those same Pirates. Well, not really the same, but you get the point. Maybe I could watch them win either of the 70s World Series or the one against the Yankees with Bill Mazeroski getting the game winning home run.

During my brief stint as a student at the University of Pittsburgh, I saw the plate.

Or, I could just mash a whole bunch of players together in an attempt to create an all-time all star team. I sort of did that with the games that I played to acclimate myself with the rules again. I didn’t create either team, but I found all star teams for both the MLB and NeL from 1933. I got the idea to play them against each other in a series because I’ve always heard about how great the Negro League players were and what a tragedy it is that none of the players ever got to play against major league competition. Not that I ever doubted it, but I wanted to see for myself. I will include a link to that recap at the end of this article.

The Bad

Initially, when Christine saw me looking at the game, she mentioned that Aiden might be able to play it with me. I said, “No, it’s just a one player game.” It technically might be and everything that I’ve seen about the game would suggest that many people only play one player. And, that goes to show how much I know. I just looked up the game on the web page and they are designed for 2 players. It’s just that most of us must be loners and play solitaire. So, I missed out on an opportunity to play a new game with Aiden. That one is easily remedied.

Well, that’s embarrassing.

The only other negative is my fault, too. There’s a master set to the game that allows you to do things like account for wind and park effects. I used to have the master set, but I must have misplaced it. All I could find was the wind effects chart and that made almost no sense to me. If I’m going to keep playing the game, that’s definitely something that I want. It stinks that I will have to pay for it again.

The Ugly

Speaking of paying for things, this is where I discuss the worst part of the game. Usually, this is price and it’s no different this time. The game itself isn’t too expensive. You pay 50 dollars and get everything you need to play the game, plus you get the previous year’s two World Series teams to get used to the card layout. Even the Master rules are only 25 extra dollars.

After that, though, is when the cost starts to add up and become slightly prohibitive. Each replay season costs anywhere from 40-75 dollars depending on the number of player cards. Granted, you get all players for all teams plus any updates that might happen later, but that’s a crazy cost for some cards. I haven’t found any place that pirates them and I doubt that I would even take advantage if they did. It’s not that I’m above that sort of thing, as we’ve seen. I ‘m just impressed that they are still this little company plugging away at something they love and haven’t had to sell out like many of the other games from my childhood.

The Verdict

This game is so much fun. I had a blast simulating that series that I talked about earlier. I think that it could even be more fun playing against someone else and I plan to test that with one of the boys this week. Tomorrow might be good as everyone has a snow day. I don’t know how much historical replay I will be doing as the 75 dollar price tag is a bit too rich for me right now. However, I will probably get the 1992 season to replay that dang NLCS and I’ll keep on looking for free cards to keep me occupied in the meantime.

I mean, I may or may not have a few of these types of proxies lying around for my Modern/Legacy storm deck.

Click here for the 1933 MLB/NeL All-Star Series recap.

Digital Playground, On the Tabletop, Snap *censored* Pop Culture

2 Generations Gaming 2017 in Review

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Introduction

It’s the first day of 2018. This is the time every year that is traditionally set aside for reflection on the previous 365 (or 366) days. There are countdowns, marathons, and years in review. This article falls into the last category. While it has been difficult to maintain a consistent video or podcast schedule, I’ve done okay at updating the web page with at least one article a month. I’ve also kept busy with plenty of other geeky fun. Let’s reminisce on the best, the worst, and the ugliest.

The Good

APBA Baseball: I only recently rediscovered this game in one of my closets and I’m going to write an article this week about the couple of games I played last week. I know that others might prefer Strat-O-Matic or another simulator, but this is the only one I’ve played and it does what I want it to do. Overall, this has been a great addition to my gaming life again and I can’t wait to dive deeper into the baseball simulation greatness.

Mobile Gaming: Old school favorites like Candy Crush and Angry Birds. New favorites like Sim City Build It, Fallout Shelter, Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest, and Pokemon Go. All of these games have been played with great regularity over the past year on my phone. In fact, most of my video game time has been spent on my phone. That’s saying something for a person who used to denigrate all mobile games as shovelware.

Eternal/Hearthstone: Yes, these are both games that could have technically been included in the mobile section. However, they’ve had more impact on me than the other games included in that list. I started playing Eternal during one of my rage quits from Hearthstone earlier in the year. I had seen Brian Kibler playing the game on stream and figured I’d give it a chance. I’m glad that I did. While I don’t play it as much as when I first started, it still has a place in my weekly rotation. I have had an up and down relationship with Hearthstone. However, as I said to Chris a couple of days ago, I seem to have found my comfort zone in the game. I have little to no interest in competitive play of any sort. I generally just log in every couple of days to do quests, earn gold, and every now and then win a pack that I won’t open.

Comics: 2017 was the year that saw me get back into comics. Marvel’s Secret Empire event led to a discovery of the well executed DC Rebirth titles. Following them for a few months led right into Metal and sticking with Secret Empire to the end let me experience the start of Legacy. Almost all of these events were well executed, but it wasn’t all good for comics this year. More on that later.

Magic the Gathering: You wouldn’t think that I’d rank this so highly in the good category. Given that Chris and I discussed a few times how little we had played the game this year. I wasn’t even watching streams. It just looked like the game had run its course for us. Then, a couple of things happened. Well, on my end, one major thing happened. During one of our summer trips, I played Magic with all three boys. First, we played a couple of two headed giant games with decks that I had built over the years. Then, I picked up the Nicol Bolas box set and finally the Explorers of Ixalan. We haven’t played the Explorers yet, but there is time. Any game that gets me closer to my kids is a great game.

The Best: I know that it came late in the year, but any time a Star Wars movie is released and it is half decent, that will be the best thing about my year. When it is one of the best of the franchise, it will be the best thing of the decade. When I get to experience it with my kids and father in law, it just might be one of the highlights of my life. I won’t say much more because I have an article planned to go into more detail, but I absolutely loved this movie and it was a perfect way to start my holiday break.

The Bad

No New Console: This is the first year in a few that we haven’t gotten a new console. I was going back and forth for a few weeks on whether or not to buy an XBox One Minecraft edition. I’ve had my eye on it for a while. Then, there seems to have been a mix up with my last December check and unless I sub in January, I won’t get paid at all, so economics won out. Liam did buy himself a Gamecube and we found the Dreamcast (but it needs to be repaired), so there are some “new” games being played right now, but no new hardware makes me feel a bit sad. We won’t be down for long, though. We are looking at a Switch and I’m almost positive that I’ll get an XBox in February.

The Worst: Only two for this one? Yep, and only two for the next one, too. By now, you should know my very positive outlook on things and this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Also, the fact that I just talked so much about how comics were a good thing this year might also make this choice for “the worst” seem weird at best and probably perplexing. But, I have a valid explanation. I loved the stories and art of the comics, but hated the cover prices. I was spending far too much money on them and I couldn’t justify doing so anymore. At least with games, I get massive replay value from them and they allow me to spend more time with my kids. Comics did neither of those. It was 3-7 dollars spent on 10-15 minutes of enjoyment. That’s just awful.

The Ugly

Our Podcast Lineup: I was just talking to a friend (and one of the first fans of the page) about the 2 Guys Gaming podcast. He said something about how he thought it was damn good and that it could have been something. Not one to take compliments very gracefully, I changed the subject quickly. However, the podcasts are fun for me to do and I really want to get back to doing them. There have been a few that I listen to that have taken long breaks and come back stronger. One, in particular, stopped and started a few times, but it is again one of my favorites. So, our planning is ugly, but hopefully by this time next year, it will be good.

Nerd on Nerd Violence: This is something that I’ve often spoken against. However, as nerd culture has become popular culture, the nerd on nerd violence has increased to an unacceptable level. It used to be that when you were picked on by somebody, you always had your nerd buddies to get your back. If there was an actual fight, you’d all get your butts kicked, but they were there to take your mind off of being the brunt of some sort of physical or psychological abuse. Now, some of the worst abuse of nerds is coming from other nerds. It isn’t just good-natured joke fights about whether Star Trek or Star Wars is better. It’s full on attacks of each other and the things we hold dear. I’m going to talk about this more in my Star Wars article and it might just be that all violence is increasing, but this makes me incredibly sad.

The Verdict

2017 wasn’t all fun and games. It wasn’t all poorly executed puns, either. It was a good bordering on great year that gives us an excellent foundation to make 2018 even better. Happy New Year, All! Make it the best one ever!

On the Tabletop

Impressions of Ixalan

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Introduction

I was in Wal*Mart with Aiden a couple of weeks ago. That’s how most middle age dad stories start. Gone are the days of, “Oh, man, I was so drunk…” or “And that’s when the goat walked by!” I’m not saying that it is better or worse, just different. Oh, and much better. Getting drunk just leads to poor decisions and hangovers and goats stink.

So, Aiden and I were in Wal*Mart for some reason or another. Who the hell knows at this point? They put a Wal*Mart in town locally that then donned a cape to become a Super Wal*Mart (which are technically just regular Wal*Marts at this point and the regular Wal*Marts are K*Marts or Ames or some nonsense, I don’t exactly know) a few years ago. Ever since, because it is so convenient, I find myself at that store at least once a day on average. That’s not to say that I go there every day, but the days that I do go there, I go multiple times, so it probably totals at least 365.25 times in a year.

Okay, time to get serious about this. For whatever reason, a couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Wal*Mart with Aiden and I stumbled on the Explorers of Ixalan box set. With almost no hesitation, I bought it. We have played the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set (as mentioned in a few articles on the page) a few times and enjoyed it, so I thought it would be good to pick this one up, too. Due to the craziness of the holidays and end of semester, we haven’t been able to play it, but I have looked through it and will give my impressions of what I know about it so far.

The Good

I texted Chris to tell him that I bought the game. He responded with, “Never heard of it.” I explained it a bit to him and said, “I really like what they’re doing with casual Magic.” It has taken them a while, but it feels like they are finally embracing the casual player in more ways than just, “Hey, look, we have a semi-casual event every week called Friday Night Magic that plays exactly like the professional events, but worse because you haven’t committed your every waking moment to building meta decks.” Players like me who have absolutely no interest in Standard or Modern and only limited (ha, ha) interest in draft and sealed were left out in the cold.

Cold? Another Shining reference? Nah, the cold never bothered me anyway.

That started to change with some of the prerelease events. I think they might have listened to some of the players who started to wonder out loud what the audience for prereleases were. I took my kids a couple of times because I thought they would be less stress and more fun than a typical event (even FNM), but the competition was still fierce and the barrier for entry was still high. We haven’t been back since, but I’ve watched the events change and they’re making them a bit more varied and noob friendly from what I gather. Perhaps I’ll attend the next one to see if that’s true.

Aside from that, they have also started to run some new events that introduce players into the game. They give away a free deck, teach players the fundamentals of the game, and have a much more friendly atmosphere for newer players. I won’t go out as far as I have in the past to say that they were losing revenue, but both Chris and I (casual players, me much more so than him) were speaking like we’d never play another hand of Magic again. I doubt that we’re the barometer for that sort of thing, but I did start to wonder out loud if the game was suffering a little bit from ignoring that part of the player base.

What better way to hook ’em than with free? Even Heisenberg knows that.

Well, if recent history is to be believed, they aren’t ignoring us anymore. The Archenemy game put together 4 decent decks to play against an uber powerful deck in the same way that the WoW TCG had it’s raid decks. The price point was great for getting as many cards as you did and the game mode itself is fun enough for multiple plays. Looking at Explorers of Ixalan, it appears as if they were testing the waters with the Archenemy box and that they expanded it with this set.

In addition to the traditional card game, this one has a territory acquisition aspect in the form of cards. I haven’t looked closely at the cards, but they look to give bonuses like card draw or stats and keywords for your cards. So, in addition to fending off three other players (since it is a free for all not a 2 headed giant game), you also have to plan your strategy for how to approach the tiles in the game. Choose carefully and be the first to find the lost city!

The Bad

Personally, I think that this is a great addition and makes this game unique among Magic the Gathering. I hope that they plan on continuing to do this type of thing, but I’ve been wrong before. I really liked the Arena of the Planeswalkers game, too, even if the set up was a bit convoluted. They only made a couple of them and then stopped. I think it might have just been because the game played too differently from Magic, so Magic fans didn’t like it too much and it was a bit too complicated for non fans to get into the game.

So, while I worry that this might be a one off, I don’t foresee it falling into the same category as the board game. If that game “suffered” from not being close enough to Magic, this one doesn’t have that problem. It’s exactly a Magic game with this other piece grafted on top of it. Still, the possibility exists that this doesn’t sell and that Wizards will kill this arm of Magic before you know it.

I have no idea what the company’s thoughts are on games that don’t provide a return. I’m sure that Hasbro will be willing to let this division be a loss leader for a while similar to how Disney let Marvel comics division do the same. However, the mouse has come knocking and there’s a chance that this might end up just being a one off and I’ll have none of this to look forward to ever again.

The Verdict

This looks like a fun way to play Magic the Gathering. I will get the boys together next week over vacation to play it and then give my actual thoughts about the game. I don’t think it will happen next week as we are trying to get the podcast up and running again. If nothing else, it will be an annual tradition to talk about Star Wars. So, look for my review of Explorers of Ixalan in two weeks.

On the Tabletop

Recapturing the Magic

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Introduction

I did an article a few weeks ago about the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set after playing it with Aiden and Quinn. While we still haven’t had a chance to play all four of us, we did simulate the experience recently. I played as both Bolas and one of the Gatewatch decks. What I found is that the encounter is tuned for 3 players to face the dragon. Not a huge surprise, but fun to see how precise Wizards has gotten in tuning the game. There are still powerful cards and decks in all formats, but they have come a long way since the overpowered Tarkir block and Standard is the most open that I’ve seen in the 3 or 4 years that I’ve been watching. In either case, once we get a chance to play the game as it is intended with all four of us, I will give another impression. This article is about the latest expansion, Ixalan.

The Good

Chris and I have been texting a bit back and forth about the recent sets. Nothing really jumped out at us from Kaladesh or Amonkhet, even if he was excited about the theme of Amonkhet. I think I might have mentioned it in my last article, but it didn’t even look like Ixalan would get me back into the game. Then, a few things happened. One, I stopped collecting comic books again. I enjoyed the stories and the community that I was starting to build, but I just couldn’t justify the cover prices anymore, especially at the rate I was buying the books. That freed up some money for other nerd pursuits. Then, I ran the idea of the set by Liam and he said, “Cool!”

Pirates and dinosaurs?! What more do you need?!

So, I took that saved comic book money and I blew it on a booster box and Fat Pack (now called a “bundle”, I think) for Ixalan because that’s how I roll. Primarily, I’ve been a collector and that usually gives me the most bang for my buck. I get a majority of the cards from the set for my binder and usually enough to add some cards to the couple of decks that I still have.

Granted, I still have to open the product. Some of that is neglect on my part. It took me forever to open my Amonkhet packs. I might even have half of a box that wasn’t opened. I know for a fact that we have Dicemasters left to open from the box that I purchased for the draft that we did a few months ago. Most of it, though, is that Liam was so excited for the cards that I wanted to open them when he had a chance to help us. He’s been in play, which has been intense over the last two weeks because it was showtime, but now that’s all over. In addition, I’d like to capture some content for a YouTube channel that has been criminally ignored for the better part of 2 years.

Actual footage from our YouTube channel. Actually, this would get more views.

So, this whole review is a bit disingenuous. When has that ever stopped us? I can definitely say that it is a good thing that I’m back into the game of Magic, even if I haven’t actually played against Chris in several months. He, too, has seen his interest in the game grow through his online business selling cards, so it might only be a matter of time before we get together for one of our infamous nerd nights and bust out the Magic cards.

The Bad

Knowing very little about the set, I can’t really give much in the ways of honest impressions, as I said earlier. However, I will say that no matter my chosen nerd hobby of the moment, I tend to go overboard. I was spending almost 200 dollars a month in comics for most of the year. I bought a box of Dicemasters and Heroclix to prepare for a podcast episode that was supposed to be made several months ago (and finally hopefully will this weekend). I always buy a booster box and fat pack of every Magic set (including going back in history to the first Mirrodin set when I started getting back into gaming all those years ago) and I’m now trying to resist purchasing an XBox One, even though it would make for good gaming partners with Kevin, maybe Chris, and the boys.

Tom gets me.

So, it is bad that I’m back into Magic. It isn’t as bad as if I decided to start buying comics again. I think I might have even said as much to Chris during one of our conversations. Something along the lines of Magic might have been expensive, but at least it was only 200 dollars every couple of months instead of every month and the cards have more utility than the comic books. The comic books are easier to display, but who the hell do I have coming to my house to look at my comic book collection? At least with the cards, I can play the game against my kids even if Chris and I are too busy to hang out.

The Ugly

You know, I put together this format early in my blogging career…wait, can you call it a career if you’ve never made a dime from it? Nevertheless, this format worked well for my Steelers page because there’s almost always at least one good thing, one bad thing, and one really terrible thing that you can take from a sporting event, if it is properly framed. However, being critical of creative projects is a much trickier proposition and I don’t always have something terrible to say about them. I understand that people often put their hearts and souls into the creative pursuits and therefore try to find the good in them. Usually I can stretch to find a bad, but “The Ugly” is usually just me explaining myself or making an awkward joke.

Worst. Critic. Ever.

Maybe I will try a little harder to find things that I don’t like for these reviews. Maybe I will better research a product before posting a review of it. After all, Googling “Ixalan spoilers” isn’t exactly the epitome of responsible journalism. Maybe I will tweak the format to more appropriately match my overall optimistic and sunny demeanor. After all, it is based on a 50 year old movie and probably not speaking to the demographic that we should be courting.

The Verdict

Pirates and dinosaurs were enough to get me interested in Magic again. I can’t speak personally on the overall quality of the set, but having watched a few Twitch streams recently, I do think that the Standard meta is healthy and that Wizards has recovered nicely from the stale experience that the overpowered Tarkir block brought. It’s a bit bad for my budget that I’m into Magic again, but not nearly as bad as comic books were. Overall, I’m excited about the game again and that’s a positive.

On the Tabletop

D”Ice” Cold Hard Cash?

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Introduction

Later this week, we’re going to do another episode of Noob and Sons in celebration of the release of the new Thor movie last week. Coincidentally, Chris and I had a text conversation about how he has been unable to unload his Dicemasters. Regular readers of the page know that he and I had discussed if there might be a way to exploit inefficiencies in the Magic the Gathering market during Standard rotations mostly. Since new cards lead to new synergies and new decks, it would stand to reason that you could flip cards that gained value due to the rotation.

So far, he has found that the strategy works for the most part. This has inspired me to attempt the same. However, I’m probably already behind the curve for this set, so I’m going to wait until January and the release of that set to try my hand at the market. Since he was so successful with Magic and he doesn’t play Dicemasters as much because he doesn’t have a built in playgroup like we do here, he decided to unload the ones that he could on eBay, too. But, he has been finding little success in the Dicemasters market.

What am I going to do with all these dice?!

That got me thinking about the reasons behind the seeming lack of interest in Dicemasters and why he hasn’t been able to as readily turn them into a profit, even as he is attempting to unload what should be high value cards. They range from the good (I’m not completely tuned in to all of the competitive scenes, but I rarely see anything about Dicemasters tournaments except during releases of new sets), to the bad (Wizkids just tends to overproduce their product, so it doesn’t have much resale value), and always the ugly possibility that the game isn’t as popular anymore and will go the route of so many other promising games.

The Good

While I won’t necessarily say that any of these are good reasons for the lack of value of the cards, this is the best without question. Yes, it is true that games are mostly driven by their competitive scene these days. Therefore, it could be argued that a game that doesn’t have much of a competitive scene isn’t one that is worth following to begin with and could lead to a collapse similar to the one that I’m going to discuss in “The Ugly” section. It could be argued. Which, naturally, means that I’m going to argue in the counter.

Just when you think I’m going to zig…I zag! What a madman!

Bear in mind that I’m a fan of most competitive scenes. I watch more Twitch than anything else and split my time between Magic, Hearthstone, and Pokemon. I’ve never been able to get into RTS, FPS, or MOBA streams, but I have watched more than one Street Fighter match and today I was watching Yu Gi Oh with the boys. I am all in on watching other people play card games.

However, in the past, if I’m not careful, I find that getting involved in the competitive aspects of a game take away the fun of the game from me. A few times after watching Magic the Gathering GP or PT coverage, I’ve come away with the illusion that I might be able to build a competitive deck and “go pro”, so to speak. Luckily, reality is undefeated and has reminded me, in the most certain of terms, that I’m a father of 3 and a husband. Also, I have a “real” job. Sure, it’s one that offers me ridiculous amounts of time off, but during the school year (which has increasingly been more of the year) is busy beyond belief and I have no time to devote to a career in Magic. So, little to no competitive scene in Dicemasters removes all delusions before they have a chance to even form.

Besides, if I go pro, who will be teh Noob of All Trades?

In addition, the reason that cards generally become expensive is because they can be found in decks that are popular among the pro crowd. If there is not much of a competitive scene, then cards (or dice in this example) won’t be expensive and we can still afford to buy them. Keeping me from getting delusions of grandeur and keeping the game affordable are two very good reasons that I’m glad there is not much of a pro scene in Dicemasters, if any at all. Maybe it isn’t good for Chris’s pocketbook, but he’ll survive.

The Bad

Once again, I don’t agree with conventional wisdom here. Actually, I’m not sure if it is conventional wisdom or if it is just classic internet squeaky wheels squeaking for that grease. Chris and I have had more than one conversation about speculators in the past and I always argue that game makers should just drop all of this silliness like the reserve list in Magic and just release as much product as possible to kill the secondary market. Again, probably working against my interests what with my attempts in the future to figure out that market and make some extra money from it.

I also bought comics for the first time in a month because of the lenticular covers. I have become that which I hate most.

But, that just goes to show what a good guy I am. I am willing to risk potential future earnings so that everyone gets a chance at the cool cards that they want without having to pay the equivalent of the GDP of a small island nation for them. Alas, as it seems like Wizards of the Coast don’t care one way or the other about the secondary market, especially with recent reprints, they do care enough about rarity of cards to not completely overprint.

Their kids division seems to have no such respect for rarity. I noticed it first when we opened a box of the Pokemon throwback set to do a family draft/sealed event a few months ago. We opened what seemed like rare cards. When I went to check them on eBay to see if we could flip them for money for another box, I was surprised that none of them sold for over 15 bucks at the time. While that might seem like a hefty sum for a tiny piece of cardboard (and you might be right), having sold new Magic cards for upwards of 75 bucks, 15 is a drop in the bucket. I can’t be sure, but I think that a contributing factor is that lack of scarcity.

The Ugly

The worst of these possibilities is that Dicemasters is an idea that has run its course. Chris and I have discussed on more that one occasion that we enjoy the game, but it is quite limited in strategy and scope. I admit that I haven’t paid as much attention to the game as I should be, but they don’t release nearly as many expansions as other card games, which could cause things to get stale quite easily. Also, Magic uses the new sets to play with synergies between mechanics and cards in new and interesting ways.

Plus, dinosaurs eating pirates is always cool.

Maybe the lack of expansions in Dicemasters has caused interest to wane and people just don’t care about the game anymore. The tabletop graveyard is littered with the corpses of games that nobody cares about anymore. Heck, one game that I loved and was, by some accounts, still very popular, is dead and buried. All thanks to that abomination called Hearthstone. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Dicemasters may be suffering the same fate.

The Verdict

No competitive scene? Perhaps, but there might be a vibrant scene that doesn’t translate to streaming. Dying completely? Again, possible, but I highly doubt it. They have a new D&D set coming near the end of this month and I’m sure that they’ll try to cash in on the massive cash cow that the new Avengers movie is sure to be next year. Heck, they might even see what selling power there is in the Black Panther movie. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that WizKids just prints tons of cards because their stuff is geared to kids and they don’t care if there’s any secondary market. Further, kids aren’t going to be able to shell out ridiculous amounts of money for cards in a secondary market, so there’s not even an incentive to push for one simply in the name of keeping the game fresh in people’s minds. So, they just flood the market with cards, hope for the best when it comes to people buying them, and why fix what ain’t broken.

Well, then…
On the Tabletop

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Bolas?

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Introduction

Chris and I have been talking for a few months as if our time in Magic the Gathering is over. Regular readers of the page know that this is not unusual. Our interest in the game ebbs and flows as it does with most of you, I’m sure. However, this time felt different.

First, the Marvel Secret Empire event pulled me back into comics. I got to the point where I was spending almost $200 a month on them. That is not exactly conducive to having extra money for cards, too. Why do nerd hobbies have to be so damn expensive?

Back in my day, you could get a comic book, a loaf of bread, and a show at the nickelodeon (the TV network) for less than 4 dollars. Also, get the hell off my lawn.

Second, none of the recent sets have excited me. Usually when I’m going through a lull, I can point to a set that might have potential to get me interested. I still bought cards to collect, but going back to Innistrad and the return of the Eldrazi (even in their Annihilator-less form) left me flat. Amonkhet had some cool lore and Chris and I even did a Winchester draft with the set, but I never bought any product from the second set. That’s the first time that has happened since I got back into the game. It just looked like comics were going to be my hobby.

Then, some things happened and the tide turned. I’ve been writing for a couple of months now that I didn’t think 200 bucks per month was sustainable. Well, I finally discussed it with my wife and her opinion matched me and Chris. 3 out of 3 meant that I needed to reevaluate. Then, the kids asked me to play Magic a few weeks ago and we did. It’s the first time that they’ve all been old enough to understand and play by the rules. I’ve been looking for a reason to buy the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set and they finally gave me that reason.

I mean, other than the obvious reason of being able to play as a big ole dragon, of course.

Also, I have been listening to podcasts (as I do every day during my commute) and Planet Money has featured a couple of episodes on arbitrage. Coincidentally, Chris has decided to try his hand at exploiting inefficiencies in the MtG market after a conversation about how the release of a new set often sees old cards that were worth almost nothing gain value due to their inclusion in new decks. He keeps me updated on a semi-daily basis and he has inspired me to attempt the same.

Finally, I’ve take a look at Ixalan. My verdict? Pirates and dinosaurs are cool. Frankly, though, I came to that verdict after some discussion with the boys. I took my comic money, bought a box and a fat pack (bundle now, but it feels awkward to call it a bundle bundle) bundle and we’re going to open it as a family. There will be plenty of time to dissect Ixalan. This article is about our experience with the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set.

The Good

It is multiplayer Magic. When we played a few weeks ago, we played 2-headed giant with me and Quinn against the his two older brothers. It allowed everyone to play at the same time, whereas our “tournaments” often see one match end early, people get bored, and they eventually give up on ever finishing the tournament. Since we were all in the same match at the same time, nobody got the chance to get bored and walk away.

Nicol Bolas can be played as a four player game, but there were only three of us the night we played because Liam had play practice that night. Still, the three of us had fun even as Aiden complained about how OP the Nicol Bolas deck is. I was playing as the deck and I have to agree with him. Granted, you are playing against multiple players as the deck, but I feel like they might have overdone it a bit with some of the cards in the supplementary deck.

This is one of the milder cards. You cast them for free and some of them affect the remainder of the game.

But, this is the good section of the article. There is plenty of good to the set. The decks are each built around a planeswalker. In addition to that planeswalker, the decks contain some fun and interesting cards from the history of the game. Some of the cards are actually very good and with the right pilot and circumstances, the decks might even hold their own against the dragon. More testing is necessary to see if the decks should be tweaked a bit or if they will work right out of the box.

The Bad

As mentioned, we’ve only gotten a chance to play once. Aiden said that he’s played it with his friends at school during recess time, but that was the absolute first time that I’ve ever played it. As a result, my opinion might not be fully formed and there might be some bad that I’m overlooking.

Because, there isn’t much bad that I can say about the set. The decks seem to be fun. It is a different way to play Magic the Gathering with a larger group of players. Sure, Nicol Bolas is a powerful deck and made more powerful by his schemes, but that fits right into the lore of the character. He’s supposed to be one of the big bads and it wouldn’t feel right if any group of players could just get together and steamroll.

Hey, Buddy, show some respect. We’re not just “any group of players”!

This is so weird. I previewed the “bad” and “ugly” in my good section. I’m technically telling how good the game is in the bad section. This is pandemonium. What’s going to happen in the ugly section?

The Ugly

The only bad that I can say about the game is that the scheme deck for the dragon is overpowered, just as I said in “the good” previous section. It might be that the game really isn’t designed for less than 4 players, even though they have rules for less. The boys put up a decent fight, but my deck just steamrolled them with the free removal, card draw, mana, and everything else good about the game of Magic the Gathering. The one game that we played was just ugly for poor Aiden and Quinn. Bolas destroyed nearly all hope they had of ever gaining an edge, forget about even winning the game.

Aiden did say that he hadn’t seen the scheme deck before. I wonder if at school the kids don’t use the deck because it offers such a distinct advantage to a deck that maybe doesn’t need the help. In addition to trying to think of ways to improve the Gatewatch planeswalker decks, I might try to play a game without the scheme deck to see if it makes a difference and makes the game more even.

The Verdict

Even with the ugliness of the overpowered schemes, it seemed like the boys had fun with it. Just like 2 headed giant, all four of us can play at the same time. That makes it more likely that we will finish a game instead of losing players to complacency and boredom. Playing this has inspired me to get back into the game more. I have also inquired about Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh again and will be ready when Aiden goes through his phase again and wants to play those games. Right now, he and his brothers are all about some online Pokemon RPG that they are playing with friends. But, I’ll be looking forward to our games again, hopefully in the near future.

On the Tabletop

Building Heroes

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Introduction

Several years ago, Lego ran three or four Kids Fest events across the country. We visited the local one in Connecticut three years in a row. Then, they moved that one to Ohio for a year. It must not have done well there because they brought it back. We missed that revival, but no big deal. We figured that we could just catch it the next year.

Surely, by now, you must know us well enough that when a paragraph ends like that the next one is most likely going to begin with the tragic story of how we did not get to go the next year. And, so it was. After that event, Lego killed the Kids Fest. We have our suspicions that they stopped sponsoring the event because they put one of their Discovery Centers in Boston.

Besides, if the Sox have taught us anything, it’s that “next year” often doesn’t come for a long time.

I can’t confirm that it’s true that the Discovery Center is the reason for no more Kids Fest. However, Aide, Quinn, and I ended up visiting the Discovery Center one day during the spring and it doesn’t compare at all to the Kids Fest. Don’t get me wrong. They had a blast and there was plenty of Lego fun to be had. However, we often spent the entire day at Kids Fest. We covered the Discovery Center in less than three hours. We could have stretched it, but not by much. Second, we went to several times to the Kids Fest. I don’t foresee us ever going back to the Discovery Center. Of course, we might. I just don’t see a reason. Perhaps over the winter when we are all in full “Shining” mode.

No Legos makes 2 Generations Gaming something something….

The reason that I even mention all of this is that Kids Fest introduced us to a wide variety of new products and may have gotten the boys started on their interest in the toy. Yay, Capitalism! We learned about Ninjago during that first Kids Fest. Aiden and Quinn both still love the show and sets to this day. We went to the movie in the theater on opening weekend for family movie night. However, more relevant to this article is that is also when we discovered Heroica.

The Good

Lego sold the game as a family event with the strategy of a board game and the creativity of Lego. You probably think that this is where I counter argue against the claim. First, you will probably never hear me disparage Lego. Second, this is the “good” section and those are both very goo things about the game.

At the heart of Heroica is a board game. You roll dice and move pawns. Aside from that, there are RPG elements to the game. You collect weapons and armor. Enemies guard treasure chests full of gold and potions. Ultimately, the winner is the one who defeats the “boss” of the level.

Just do whatever you are supposed to do 3 times in a row, right? Easy Peezy.

While those added elements alone give Heroica a leg up on traditional board games, I haven’t even touched on the Lego aspect of the game. We have three or four of the sets. They come with instructions to build them and all of the pieces just like all Lego sets. Also, like Lego sets, you can choose to build them differently or set them up in a different order. Quinn, most recently, took the opportunity to show off his creativity by building his own levels for his own game. Usually, though, we set the game up as indicated by the instructions. Still, it is nice to know that the option exists.

The Bad

It appears as if we were only of only a few families that thought the game looked intriguing enough to buy because it was discontinued shortly after release. I remember looking for new sets and finding that there were new sets and the old sets were only available on eBay. If there’s one thing I know about Lego, it is that they will not pass up an opportunity to make money. So, unless there is a secret underground of Lego builders that has been developing new Heroica levels, the game is most likely dead. Come to think of it, after I finish this article, I might take a look to see if that exists.

It’s a shame that the game got killed so early. Because, it really is a fun game. We haven’t played it for a few years, but after buying it, we were playing one every other week. I already mentioned in the previous paragraph that we liked it so much that we wanted more only to make that terrible discovery that it had been killed.(Note: I couldn’t even make it to the end of the article. Homebrew Heroica may exist!)

That development makes the sting less severe. Knowing that there might still be life in the old game inspires me to dig out the other levels and see what pieces are still intact. As I mentioned, Quinn was playing with them a few weeks ago, so who knows the condition of any of the games. But, you may hear/see Heroica being played in the 2GG household soon enough. From every bad, there is a good.

The Ugly

I mentioned that before we play, I will have to make sure that all of the pieces are there. I have ordered replacements before and they were less than what people are charging on eBay for the sets, so it isn’t that big of a deal. That brings me to a thought. Perhaps people didn’t buy the games because they realized that they could build each set with Legos that they had lying around the house and didn’t need to spend the extra cash on the game itself.

Woah! I think I might have stumbled on something here. This thing is big. It goes straight to the top! Lego killed Heroica by making their toys flexible enough to create Heroica without needing Heroica. I have to get to the bottom of this!

That may be why the game fell out of favor with us. We were going to Lego Kids Fest when the big boys were much younger and they didn’t exactly treat the games with the utmost of respect. Being around Quinn’s age, they lost pieces and as parents, we lost our patience more than once at opening the box and not having the proper pieces for the game. It’s the ages old story told in the Lego movie where parents easily lose sight of the forest for the trees when it comes to everybody’s favorite building toy. Still, the game isn’t as much fun when there aren’t enough potions to collect or ogres to defeat. It’s just built into the enjoyment of the game, in my opinion.

Having lost all of those pieces in such a short time, replaced them, and then lost them again was frustrating. We put the games up in the game closet, forgot about them, and I honestly haven’t thought about it until this weekend when I was digging through the closet looking for games to bring to our weekend away and saw them in there. At first, I though, “I should bring Heroica.” Then, I remembered the possible missing pieces and left them behind.

The Verdict

Heroica was a fun game. We got many hours of playtime from the game even as pieces went missing due to kids having too much fun! It has been a few years since we’ve played as a family. However, I got inspired to play it again when I saw it in the closet. That led me to write the article, discover that there are possible homebrew sets for the game, and this all means that what I said earlier was true. Keep an eye and an ear out for more Heroica coming soon!

On the Tabletop

Mine! Mine! Mine!

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(Editor’s Note:

If we could, we would have used this picture as our headline for the article.

“There’s a Minecraft card game? What the heck?” Aiden’s question when he saw the game mirrored my exact thoughts when I saw the game in Target a couple of years ago. They must have anticipated that reaction from people because the official name of the game is “Minecraft Card Game?”

Because of our family’s enjoyment of the video game, I knew I was most likely going to buy it. However, I wanted to do some research. First, I wasn’t sure how they’d translate the video game of Minecraft into a card game. Second, I didn’t want to get involved with another collectible card game. It didn’t indicate anywhere on the package that it wasn’t a fully contained game, but I needed to verify. My Google search in the aisle verified it and I bought it.

I shouldn’t have worried about how they’d convert the game from video to card. Apparently there is a reason that people get jobs as game designers and I am not currently working in such a job. It isn’t a perfect translation and I don’t think that it ever could be, but it doesn’t need to be. They can capture the fun and creativity of Minecraft without actually including all of the aspects of the video game. They intelligently realized that the game is pretty much just collect materials, use those materials to craft items, and then use those items to advance by crafting more items.

Well, when you put it that way, of course it sounds silly.

The card game captures those parts of the game very well. Your turn consists of two actions. The two main actions are that you can “mine” resources by choosing them from the piles or you can “craft” items as long as you have the proper resources. The items that you can craft are the basic tools of the game; shovel, pickaxe, axe, and sword. Each of them serves a specific purpose in the game and are worth points you need to win the game.

If this sounds less than thrilling, trust me it isn’t. Just like the video game namesake, the thrill of the card game comes from unexpected sources. Although, instead of the one player conflicts of finding shelter and keeping yourself fed, in the game, you are playing against 1 to 3 other players. This leads to a scarcity of resources which means you need to think very carefully about how and when you mine or craft. A wrong move isn’t as punishing as in a more traditional collectible card game, but an opponent that is paying attention can really ruin your plans.

Sometimes it feels a bit like this. So far, no games have ended with a shootout at high noon, but it might just be because we play it in the late afternoon/early evening.

Aside from the other players, there are a couple of environmental hazards built into the game. The first, and decidedly less hazardous is TNT. In fact, due to the nature of the card, TNT can be both helpful and harmful to a player. When you reveal a TNT card, it destroys the top card from two of the piles. But, and this is where the helpfulness of the card shows up, you get to take the top card from the two of the piles, so it acts almost like a take an extra turn card.

The second card that can cause you harm is the creeper. Unlike the TNT, this one does not have a positive side effect. Instead, just like the video game, the creeper becomes one of the things you most dread to see. It strips you of one of your resource cards. Sure, you can mitigate it with a sword if you’ve crafted one, but that’s a pretty big if. Most of the time you just cry a little inside as you discard one of those valuable resources that you’ve been saving for just the right time.

You can’t have a Minecraft game without these guys. In this game, though, you don’t even get the “SSSsssss” warning before they blow you up.

We have played the Minecraft card game several dozen times at this point and it hasn’t gotten stale. While it is a stagnant set of cards and not collectible (something I actually didn’t want), there is enough variety in each play that you won’t quickly bore of it. You have to play your strategy against the other players and also against the deck itself. Both of those elements enhance enjoyment playing the game.

With all of that said, I think there might be room for an expansion to the game. I’m not sure how they’d do it and not make it just more of the same, but maybe they could set it in one of the other planes like the Nether or the End. Once again, I’m not a game designer. I don’t even play one on TV or YouTube. I just play games. And, this is a game that I absolutely enjoy playing.

On the Tabletop

Quick Update: Looking Back and Going Forward

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(Editor’s Note: We are back from our many adventures on Cape Cod and ready to get back into the business of bringing fun and interesting content.)

There are two games around here that we really enjoy, but often get pushed to the back burner due to my interest in other games. Most notably, Magic the Gathering takes all of my money and time and we don’t get a chance to play much else. One of those games, Dicemasters, has been given much more coverage recently due to my purchase of a gravity feed of the World’s Finest set and our rainbow draft of the set. The other game is Heroclix, and it might be one of my favorite games. Shame, then, that I don’t get to play it often.

Unlike Dicemasters, where my history is murky and forgotten, I remember exactly when and how I was introduced to Heroclix. I’m positive that I’ve told the story before, so I will give the abridged version here. We were in one of our favorite local gaming stores to pick up something Pokemon card related for Liam. While in the store, Aiden noticed the Heroclix and asked about them. I had wanted to get into miniature games for a while, so we picked up an Avengers starter set and played a few rounds with very limited rules.

Am I the only one who imagines that the miniatures have squeaky little mouse voices when they talk?

To be fair, we are still playing with limited rules. However, we are much closer to playing the actual game than we were back then. There are still minor rules that we have changed or outright ignore. But, hey, we’re just playing around the kitchen table (sometimes literally), there’s no stakes to our games, and if we screw something up really badly, there’s always the option to take it back. So, what’s a little rules manipulation between friends and family?

At the same time that I purchased the World’s Finest Dicemasters gravity feed, I also bought a gravity feed of Wonder Woman Heroclix boosters. The idea was to play both games in June and report on them as part of a huge DC blowout in that month. But, it’s summer and the best laid plans and all that. The Heroclix lie, unopened, in the playroom. I know that it’s been promised before and there have been many false starts and I can’t say that this time won’t be different, but we have honestly gotten better about keeping a schedule and only really fell off the wagon for the month of July.

I wonder why podcasts and blogs haven’t been our top priority in July.

As mentioned in the editor’s note, we are back from our many adventures on Cape Cod and I’m ready to commit to the web page again. I already recorded the test pilot for my new one man show, “Snap, *censored*, Pop Culture” and I’ve put together a schedule for the month of August that we should be able to follow without issue and that will let us keep updating on a regular basis. Again, I promise nothing, but it has to happen eventually, right?

If nothing else, I’m ready to crack into that box and see what goodies we got. I don’t know if we will do a draft or any such thing or just throw the new characters into the box and build some teams, but I have been wanting to play some miniatures. So, we will definitely play Heroclix this weekend and I’ll be back with a report of some of my favorite minis from the Wonder Woman set. Hope you all enjoyed the time off as much as we did and we’ll see you in full force next week!