Halloween, boys and girls, is upon us once again. With that in mind, I started to think about why I like Halloween so much. Was it just the candy? No, there was more to it. Perhaps then the costume? Yes, that was getting close….but then it hit me! I love Halloween because I am a gamer. I realized that my years of D&D, and especially White Wolf trained me in the art of intricate character and costume creation. Distant memories on this nervous night in Game Kastle of dressing up like my latest (in a long line of) Vampire characters came flooding back, or dare I say…the hours I spent planning to make a werewolf costume for my short lived Werewolf: The Forsaken game. My life as a gamer has armed me, to the teeth, with the knowledge I need to have a great time on Halloween. I can LARP…which is really what all this costume shenanigans is about. I already know all the names of the old ones( I’m looking at you Shub-Niggurath). I’ve read the Necronomicon, I mean I have an 85 in Library Science!! Halloween, boys and girls, is the day we gamers can bring our games to the world…even if nobody understands that my costume is not JUST a Viking…but rather Hroth my level 25 paladin.
Archive for October, 2009
I am the clown with the tear-away face
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Painting Contest Winners!
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Game Kastle is proud to announce the winner’s of it’s Innagural Painting Contest
In the Master’s Class
1rst Place
Shawn Tienken, Goblin Shaman
2nd Place
Scott Bodine, Undead Baby with Bear
3rd Place
Chinh Tran, Ultramarine Captain
In the Open Class
1rst Place
Bryce Kingman, Chaos Space Wolf Lord
2nd Place
Dominic Campisis, Confrontation Wolfen with Rifle
3rd Place
Peter Hoover, Nurgle Lord
Youngling Class
1rst Place
Griffin Bajor
Player’s Choice
1st Place
Daniel Rachels
2nd Place
Peset Tan
3rd Place
Aaron Bajor
Game Kastle’s Choice
Carlton Frisch
The New Guy
Thursday, October 15th, 2009As someone who wants to successfully work in a gaming store, I feel like I should both introduce myself and provide a short description of my ‘cred.’ My name is Kenneth, the FNG fellow at Game Kastle.
I’ve been gaming pretty much as far back as I can remember. My parents were big fans of board games and pretty much as soon as I could distinguish colors from each other my mom was playing Candy Land with me. Not the most noble of beginnings, but we all have to start somewhere, right? From there it escalated quickly through word expanding games like Boggle (not that great a game when you’re young and your vocab consists of words you’ve read in a Richard Scarry book) to Yatzee, Life, stuff like that. The pinnacle of my first phase of gaming culminated with Monopoly and Risk, both of which helped shape how I view games through today. Monopoly really helped sink in the social aspect of gaming, and the give and take nature of negotiating to score that last coveted orange; Risk instilled a love of war games and helped me look at the meta-game between the games (If you habitually backstab an ally in a game, people remember it and won’t trust you in future games.)
Games really kicked into high gear for me in middle school (phase 2), when I was leap frogged up into the big leagues. Different groups of friends introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition, the horror!) Magic: The Gathering (so addicting!) Battle Tech (zomg giant robots!) and Warhammer 40k (I sometimes wonder if I’m the only person out there who didn’t start with Space Marines.) This quad-force of gaming sucked me in, many of my nights where spend hammering through my homework as quickly as possible so I could make a new deck to try out that weekend or speccing out a new 100 ton mech to see how it’d match up. While I was developing a deeper appreciation for gaming as a whole, it still wouldn’t compare to the third phase of my gaming life.
Everquest. Love it or hate it, it changed people’s lives and how games were viewed. I really feel that this game helped kick start gaming becoming a phenomena. Everquest led straight to World of Warcraft, and between WoW and frat boy’s insatiable love of Madden 20XX and Halo X, gaming has become, dare I say it, mainstream. Getting back on topic, I started Everquest in high school, went from that into my swank druid in Wow. Post high school I found myself with a bit more free time on average, and I started getting heavier into raiding in Wow, and very consistent D&D (3.0, 3.5, then 4.0.) I even started painting my Warhammer figures, which was a huge step as they’d played years worth of games in their sexy pewter silver coloring.
That takes us to now. I’ve recently restarted Magic, I’m casually playing Wow, the new Skaven book looks like I’ll be dragged kicking and screaming back into Warhammer Fantasy and the new Guard Codex has kicked my interest in 40k back into high gear. My friends and I are trying out a bunch of new board games, and League of Legends + Halo ODST are getting some good multiplayer play time. In short, I have way too many interests and not nearly enough time to spread between them and I’m loving it!
Look for the red haired guy next time you head into Game Kastle, that’d be me, Kenneth the new guy.
It’s not skill, it’s paint
Monday, October 5th, 2009The first time I tried to paint a miniature, I absolutely and totally botched it. The poor model (a Cryx Cephalyx Overlord) game out blotchy, spotted, and all together horrible looking. I thought that I had no talent, and pretty much swore off painting models, figuring that an otherwise decent artistic skill didn’t actually apply to things on a 24mm scale.
I came into work and complained to everyone about how hard it was, and how much I sucked.
Monday Night Painters to the rescue!
“What kind of paint did you use?”
“Uh…I dunno? It came in bottles? My friend loaned it to me.”
“Ah.”
The next Monday::
“The paint I used? It’s [very very very off brand]”
“That might be part of why it was so hard. You said a friend loaned it to you?”
“Yeah, it’d been sitting around in his garage for something like three years…”
“Ah.”
Apparently, this was my problem. Old paint, as it turns out, doesn’t work very well. Especially old paint, stored in the heat, that was an off brand to begin with. You can’t mix it, and it goes on all lump. With decent paint? I’m actually half decent at this model thing.
My color schemes are non-traditional. I’d rather paint my models bright green with orange highlights, or shades of turquoise, or Avril Lavigne pink and black with glitter. Sue me. I’d rather have something pretty to look at on the table. And pretty, in my book, means color.
My personal preference is the P3 paints from Privateer Press. They’ve got incredibly intense, bright color, which I adore. I like that they have wide mouthed pots as opposed to droppers. They dry out faster, but given that I like to paint straight from the bottle, it’s a lot easier to use.
Anyway. I don’t suck at painting, and thanks to the Monday Night Painters, I’m actually getting pretty decent at it.
Consider this a generic and long winded plug for beginning painters to come down on Mondays and get ideas!
Karl’s Diary
Sunday, October 25th, 2009From the desk of Karl October 25, 1924
I had an encounter with Security from Callahan Industries. I fought four guards and was able to defend myself with my .38, stopping three of them including one head shot. It is now clear to me that I need more firepower both in rate of fire and caliber effectiveness. To the gun store I go.
Hi readers, I have had the good fortune to be part of an ongoing Call of Cthulhu game. I realized that I needed to stack the odds in my investigator’s favor and started doing research on 1920’s small arms. By the late 1890s people were already experimenting with hollow points in rifles as a means of reducing bullet weight and increasing velocity. The also had the side effect of causing greater wounds.
By the 1920s it was not uncommon for hand loaders to create ammo that was faster and higher pressure than factory ammo for use in stronger, new production revolvers. These faster velocities combined with a hollow point bullet can increase the power level of the handgun with acceptable drawbacks. If your GM allows it, try adding this to your game.
Hollow point ammo: +2 to damage at close and point blank range, +1 to medium range. Increase the armor of your target by 50%. Revolvers only
Over pressure or +P ammo: +1 to damage, lower reliability rating by 5%
Tags: commentary, Jason
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