Monthly Archives: July 2016
GrogHeads Interviews Craig Stern of True Messiah
True Messiah is coming soon on Kickstarter; designer Craig Stern sits down for a chat ~
Brant Guillory, 15 July 2016
OK, so True Messiah has a totally off-the-wall-crazy backstory. Where did it come from? What was the original inspiration and how was it refined over time as it developed?
I thought it up in the shower one morning. (The ideas underlying the backstory had been percolating in me for a long time prior, mind you—they merely chose that moment to congeal. Maybe it was the steam?)
Anyway. You might think that this this game’s premise is meant to critique extremist religious groups like ISIS, people so certain in their beliefs that they are willing to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent people in the name of prophecies that they want to be (but have no good reason to believe are) true. You wouldn’t be wrong.
But True Messiah is really about magical thinking in all of its forms: about people privileging subjective beliefs over empirical facts, about valuing tribal loyalties over shared humanity. “What if,” I wondered, “we lived in a world in which believing something—and nothing more—really did make it so? What if ‘speaking your truth’ were literal?”
Gaming Nostalgia – Battlescape
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Tabletop gaming accessories. Compare these prices to what you’d spend today!
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Screenshot Feature: Combat Mission Red Thunder
A quick visual trip through the Eastern Front ~
Boggit, 13 July 2016
This Red Thunder article is a sort of screenshot AAR. I only started taking the shots just after I realised I was playing an exceptional scenario.
It’s AD Amongst the Ruins designed by Seinfeldrules, and available from The Few Good Men. A tiny sized but intense scenario. You play a German Pioneer company at 80% strength tasked to clear an industrial area from a half strength Soviet infantry company. The surviving Soviets have kept a lot of their automatic weapons, so they’re tough, but fragile. The Soviets are very well set up with good lines of fire, and the German player who only has an infantry force with no supporting assets must use good infantry tactics to win. A highly recommended scenario, I give you some of the highlights of my game.
Amongst the Ruins. A most intense battle fromThe Few Good Men
A Place 2 Play tiles – First Look!
The Origins Award-winning accessory hits the table floor ~
Brant Guillory, 09 July 2016
What do the new geomorphic hex tiles look like in action?
click images to enlarge
We’re using some Mage Knight figures just for perspective.
This is a mix of meadows, paths, large trees, hedgerows, and edges.
The verdict? Very cool and very easy to physically put together, but don’t do it on carpet (just like any other puzzle).
The challenge can be finding roads, hedgerows, and paths that link together well to actually move in the direction you want, or create the intersections you need. Some of the graphics on the pieces don’t fit together quite as geomorphically as some wargamers will be used to.
Overall, if you’re going to set up a big terrain table for a larger battle, and have the time to put it all together, these are a great accessory. If you’re going to try to change the map on the fly as you move from encounter to encounter in an RPG, you will want to spend some prep time making sure you have all the tiles you need and that you know how you want them all to fit together.
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Gaming Nostalgia – Adventures for your TRS-80
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Old-school ‘adventure’ games for software. You want that on cassette?
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