Jeff. Last name: “From Game Kastle”

September 18th, 2009

I am Jeff from Game Kastle.

If you’re reading this, the odds are very high that you know me or at least what I look like. It has been three years since I started working at GK, and I’ve always worked the busiest times. If I don’t know your game, I soon will

I started down this path when I was in 4th grade, when I had a Wizard in a DnD Advanced 2nd Edition game. We never got past first level. I had one HP. I tried to GM when I was in 6th grade. I didn’t even have a Monster Manual. I was a child with no assistance trying to understand THAC0, Kits, Psionic attacks and defenses, and how to track encumbrance. We had no idea what we were doing. We broke the rules all the time. We had a blast.

Then came the great dry spell of my analog gaming life. Throughout Jr. High and High School my only board gaming experience came from my family’s monthly board gaming night. I cut my teeth playing games like Set and Sequence; Sorry and Cribbage. I learned how to compete with people without ostracizing them, and how to realize it’s just a game. I learned to focus on the fun.

College was next. During my freshman year I made a fantastic discovery. I was walking by a conference room that had the door open and overheard someone ask, “Can I re-roll my Intelligence?”

I stopped, turned around, and entered the open door. “Are you guys playing D&D?”

3rd edition had just begun. I learned anew. Feats and Prestige classes; Bonus Spell Slots and Grapple rules; a new version of Psionics and how THAC0 had actually worked. I crafted characters, sprawled in the common area amidst a sea of books and papers, with other students asking me what I was studying.

Time passed. 3.5 came, and with it the Ebberon campaign setting. I tried Exalted 1st edition. I tried Settlers of Catan and realized that there were more good board games than just what my family had played. I kept on watching 40K games and even bought a Tau codex.

I found a solid job and had disposable income. It was time for WARMACHINE. Escalation had just hit the table, and I purchased a large, potent Cygnar army. I poured time and money into every aspect of the hobby save one: Painting. I played every week.

The solid job eroded. The vaporware faded and I was unemployed. I went down to my childhood comic shop and applied for a job, as I had every time I had started a job search since High School. They had always lied to me, told me that they would hold onto my resume, and sent me on my way so that I could find a real job.

“Excellent!” proclaimed the assistant manager, “I’ll show this to my boss.” And suddenly I was in. I was living my childhood dream, selling comics.

But I came to understand that very few comics rise above the rest; that monthly serial stories are jilted and difficult; that years of dross can be ignited by a brilliant flash of excellence before fading into mediocrity again.

It was in this environment that I learned that gaming was my passion. I found a new place to play WARMACHINE, Game Kastle. I found a place where my particular nerd focus was understood and encouraged. I found myself shutting down the comic store as quickly as possible so that I could drive over to GK and hang out for a half hour before going home to sleep.
It was after two weeks of doing this that I realized I was working at the wrong store. It was two months after that that I started working at GK. It has been three years, and I’m still here.

I have seen games come and gone. I have seen companies fall and rise again. I have seen children born and walking in the time I have been behind this counter. I have absorbed entire rulesets and forgotten them. I have competed nationally and goofed around for the fun of it. I have made friends and lost relationships in this store. I have probably played your game, and if not, I know what it is.

I am Jeff from Game Kastle. And I have one last thing to say:

Have Fun!

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After a very long hiatus….

September 16th, 2009

After a long hiatus, I’m pleased to say the GK blog is back. More than back, we’ve expanded our social networking presence!

Find GK on Facebook, just search for Game Kastle

Or how ‘bout Twitter? We’re GameKastle (www.twitter.com/GameKastle)

So what’s been happening at the store? Lots.
We did inventory, which had us shut down for a day. On the upside, we don’t have to do it for another year!

Pokemon League is exploding. We finished up our summer Thursday league when school started again, but our Sunday league is regularly filling up all available space, and then some.

Actually, we’re fast filling up our available reservations in general. Almost every night of the week we’re packed. I’m trying to make sure I hold some space aside for drop in games, but you’re still better off if you give us a call or schedule the event in advance. It’s a rush to get to hang out at a store that rocks constantly. Keep comin’ in, you’re making my job fun.

Speaking of fun. We have about seven million different events, leagues, tournaments, and demos going on in the next few months. We now have an active Legend of the Five Rings community that grows weekly (and has some really kick ass players!). We’re running a demo for Arcane Legions, which swept everyone away at Origins. Not to mention our standard weekly stuff. Check out the calendar. Be amazed.

Three things worth highlighting
1. Our Halloween Game Sale.
We’ll be selling a bunch of board games for 30% off on Saturday, October 31st. We’ve got a bunch of great titles (no, I don’t know them yet, but Ray promised) that we’ll be discounting. Perfect time to get something new for your Halloween party.

2. The Flea Market!
Our third go at this, and they just keep getting bigger and bigger. This takes place on Saturday, November 3rd. We’re taking signups for sellers now. We’ll have tables both inside AND outside this year ($10 to sign up outdoors, $15 indoors). As always, shopping is free. Some come down and hang out, maybe pick up a new game/book/model/toy/thing. (My secret hope for the next go ‘round? Food vendors!)

3. The First Ever GK Painting Contest.
There’s a whole lot of detail to be found here I’m not going to rehash it.

But! Come! Enter a model! Show off your painting! Win! Brag!

Or if you’d rather not, show up Oct 24 (aka Judgment Day) and participate in our other painting-related events.

This concludes our re-introductory blog update. Expect more soon.

~samantha

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Gamers 3.0

July 23rd, 2009

How would your perception of gaming change if you knew your grandfather was a LARPer? If your Grandmother could calculate THAC0? I was driving in to work today and was thinking about getting my niece her first Pokemon starter deck when it hit me. First generation gamers are now old enough to be grandparents.

First off, nobody panic. Games have been around since the first cavemen played rock, rock, rock (widely regarded as unsuccessful). Even King Tut was a gamer, his game board is on display up in SF this week. And who can resist the old guys in the park playing chess? But we are the first to roll for saving throws. We bold few who enjoy games so much we adopt the title of “gamer” as part of our collective identity. Every generation that follows us is yet another wave of humanity who will ask “Am I in range to cast fireball?”

So what this means to me is that someday if I am lucky, I will get to explain D&D basic to my grandchild. “You see Billy, it came in a red box and a dwarf was both a race and a class.” And watch him scamper off into the next room where he will say that the game really lost its center when the 8.7edition came out. Oh and that the new holominis are so much better than the old holominis.

Yours truly,

Your Girl Friday

~Jason

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Introducing Samantha- Whereas Being a “Gamer” is a Point of Pride

July 20th, 2009

They say that the majority of girl gamers are introduced to role playing through White Wolf’s Vampire. For me, it was 2nd edition Masquerade. The pathos! The juxtaposition of an evil nature and a good personality! The exquisite, elegant, story lines! The black velvet!

My friends turned me on to role playing when I was in high school, and for a while I was playing fairly regularly. But I wasn’t a gamer. I was just someone who played role playing games. They aren’t the same thing.

I blame 1920’s Call of Cthulhu for turning me from “someone who plays games” into “gamer.” It was the first game I played with people that cared more about the story they were telling than about power gaming their build. I’d always done improve theater, but I’d never realized how much I adored the effort of collaborative story telling. But with this group, I was able to design a complex character with her own quirks and personality twists. They say you never forget your first character. She was 34. She had turned her parents home into a boarding house to support herself after her husband left her for a telephone switchboard operator and run off to Sacramento. She developed a pathological fear of children due to her inability to have them. And, of course, she inevitably went insane when faced with the eldritch horrors that peopled her world.

That game hit the switch. It flipped me into the world of the gamer. I stayed with that until I moved, and when I got to San Jose, one of the first things I did was locate a group. With them, I tried White Wolf games for the first time since I discovered Vampire. Then I took the plunge and offered to GM. My first Scion campaign ran for nearly a year. Turns out, I’m a GM at heart.

Now, I GM at least one game a week, and play in at least one more. I have an opinion on the pros and cons of a variety of systems, and can discuss them intelligently. I have a bookshelf full of RPGs, and a want list that would fill another.

I’m a sucker for the highly narrative games, that are built around telling a story rather than completing a goal. I adore new World of Darkness as a system, and most of their re-vamped games (except Requiem. Don’t get me started.) Independent RPGs, especially ones with unique premises, make me happy.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, I just got a tattoo based on role playing game book art.

I think that means I’m a gamer.

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Meet Susan: the Ravings of a Pokemom

July 14th, 2009

When you’re young you plan your future down to the smallest detail. But it very rarely turns out the way you planned. Take me for example, I never thought as a middle aged woman I would be working part time in a game store. I never even really used to like games. Sure I used to play monopoly as a kid and I was forced to play yahtzee with my mom almost daily growing up(I now hate that game with a passion), but actual gaming? Not me. I was going to be a “professional” and make a ton of money. Enter real life, or kids, whatever you want to call it. I quit my “professional” job when my son entered kindergarten and never looked back.

It started small, candyland, chutes & ladders, you know, baby games. Then it all changed when my son was around six. What were these things called Pokemon that he kept going on about?? Monsters that fight?? What?? This couldn’t be good.

I bought him some cards. I didn’t know what to do with the cards.

I took the starter deck back to the little card shop I bought it from because I thought it was defective. “It has too many of the same cards” I said. “It’s supposed to” the guy behind the counter said. I took it home again and read the rulebook so I could show my son how to play. I didn’t understand the rulebook. I called a friend and asked if I could borrow her teenaged nephew to show me how to play. It sounds funny, but that actually changed my life! I loved the game, I loved the cute little monsters and I loved that my son always wanted to play with me! We began looking for places to play and found a Pokemon league. When that league closed down, I found another store and started my own! I even started running real Pokemon tournaments and getting paid for it!! Imagine that! Getting paid to play. Not what I would call real money, but still. When that store decided to stop Pokemon League, I found Game Kastle. When I first approached Ray about running a league at GK, he replied with “We don’t have a big Pokemon following.” I said “You supply the space and I’ll supply the players.” It seems to have worked out pretty well in my opinion.

Enter real life again. It was time for this PokeMom to get back in the work force. The problem was, I didn’t want to be a “professional” anymore. So I bounced around a few part time jobs and one day out of the blue Ray asks if I want to work at Game Kastle.

So I have been here for a awhile and though I may not know tons about everything we sell, I am learning more everyday and I can pretty much answer any question about

Pokemon. I’m not even sure how long I have been an actual employee as opposed to a customer running events here as it all blurs together. Some things I do know though are

that I LOVE my job. If GK ever wants to get rid me, they will have to drag my dead, bloody body out of here, or fire me, one or the other. I’m not quitting.

I love ALL my co-workers, even the scary ones.

If Pokemon were real, I might be a dog person.

I’m glad Pokemon are not real because a giant three headed bird would terrify me!

Things always have a way of working out, don’t they?

See you in the shop!!

GK PokeMom

~Susan

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Warhammer 40K, ‘Ard Boyz

July 13th, 2009

Saturday, July 11
The ‘Ard Boyz Come to Town

The horde swept down on Game Kastle with a sound like approaching thunder. The wounded dragged themselves from the field, their blood soaking the scorched earth. Victors, triumphant, raised the banners of their nations, and losers crept out of the light.

When the dust cleared:
First place: Joe Fancher, Eldar
Second place: Julian Houghtby Orks
Third Place: Jeff Kaminsky, Chaos Marines

Our next 40K Event- Planetstrike: Desperate Last Stands

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Card Sleeves for Euro Games

July 10th, 2009

I know that if you are like me, many of you like to keep your board games in as prestine condition as possible. The problem is that until recently, the only sleeves available for board and card games tended to dwarf the card being protected.

Well now there is a solution… Mayday Games offers a few different sleeves for your gaming pleasure:

MDG7028 Euro Penny Card Sleeves $2.25
These sleeves are the perfect size for many popular euro games such as Agricola, Dominion, Stone Age and Balon Cup! They measure in at 59mmx92mm and come 100 sleeves per pack.

MDG7029 Premium Euro Card Sleeves $2.50
These sleeves are the same size as the above sleeves, except they are 125% thicker! They measure in at 59mmx92mm and come 50 sleeves per pack.

MDG7028 Mini Euro Card Sleeves $1.75
These sleeves are the perfect size for many popular games such as Ticket to Ride! They measure in at 45mmx68mm and come 100 sleeves per pack.

Currently we are well stocked on everything but the Premium Sleeves (we hope to have these soon). It is important to keep in mind that Mayday Games is a small company and takes them a long time to print and ship out their stock, and sometimes their supplies are low and allocated. So if you are looking for a lot of these, please let u know in advance and we will do our best to keep them in stock.

If you like these sleeves, you should definitely check out MaydayGames token sets, they offer replacement and extra tokens for a variety of game pieces. Many of the game pieces are shaped to represent the actual gae piece… for instance, why should your sheep in Agricola look like a white cube when they can look like white sheep!

Let us know if this article was helpful at all or if you have any comments or suggestions!

~Ray

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Seasonal Basing kits

July 9th, 2009

Often the base of miniatures are overlooked as last minute things to rush, and finish as quick as possible. Despite the plethora of basing material, too many times I have seen a beautifully painted miniature stuck onto a round base covered in bright green flock. What we all must remember is that a miniature’s base can set a mood for the piece. When a unique basing method is applied across a whole army, it serves to both thematically set your army in a certain theatre of war as well as unify the army as a whole. However, it is often difficult to assemble ass the disparite basing material into a single, themed kit. With the arrival of a new and very nice line of basing material by Ziterdes, I’ve compiled their various materials into seasonal “kits” with which you all can use to spice up your army’s base! I recommend putting the substrate down first before priming, and painting that in whatever color you would like. The flocks/extras can be added on without paint, or colored/tinted with inks to further blend them into a single cohesive environment for your bases. I’ve included the product codes that we employees use in our system. Give one of the many friendly gk employees the list of codes for your kit of choice, and they can happily and easily compile it for you.

First, we start off with the very base material. This would be rocks or gravel of your choice. How rocky or how soft you want the earth to be on a miniatures base is up to you, so for each of these seasonal “kits” I’ve included both Brown gravel and modelling sand. The choice is yours! For a varied look, try combining both! To even further your variety of substrates, add in boulders and rocks

Now that We’ve dealt with substrate, it’s time to truly add some theme for that base. I’ve included a flock in each for grass or bark, as well as extras like tall grass and lichens.

Spring: Everything is in bloom, so all the colors are lush greens. Try combining different tones of green to demonstrate the myriad of plant life in bloom.
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Forest Ground–very lush, bright green and/or Forest Ground –this has more of a natural green tone. This contains a small amount of the other forest ground, giving it a multi-tone look
Extras: Lichen This bag contains excellent, realistic looking lichens in a few different green tones.
Field Grass. This is a bag of lush green reeds/ tall grass.

Summer: There are two different routes you can take with this season. You can use lush green tones, similar to spring, or go a dryer route and use more tan colored grasses. I’ve included both.
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Light Green Flock Great for grass and/or Light Brown Flock This would be good if your going for the “dry” or “brittle” Summer look
Extras: Lichen This bag contains excellent, realistic looking lichens in a few different green tones.
Field Grass This is a bag of lush green reeds/ tall grass.

Fall: I’ve compiled rich browns as well as dry khakis for this season. To drive home the feel, use reds and ochres in your pallet if you choose to paint the base
Substrate:Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Dark Brown A very rich brown that could work for grasses, barks, or loose tops soil
and/or Veld Grass a light tan flock, great for dried/dead grass
Extras: Field Grass Brown This is another color in the tall grass/reeds series. It has a rich orange-brown color that works great for any fall base themes

Winter: Keep your tones dry, and cold. I’ve included two grasses i encourage you mix together. These would work well for a Tundra theme
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Veld Grass and/or Swamp Grass great dark green grass that looks “dry”
Extras: Winter Lichen it’s just like the green lichen bags, except it is all in tan and khaki tones. Great for Tundra themes Field Grass Biege another color in the tall grass/reeds series. A great dry tan color
Snow flock/paste: Ziterdes does not currently have a snow flock, but fear not! For freshly fallen snow i recommend i healthy dose of GF9’s Snow Flock. Try mixing it with equal parts white glue for a thick, heavy layer of snow.

Happy Basing!

-Shane

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Introducing Jason

July 8th, 2009

I used to think I was a nerd. A Kirk vs Piccard Han shot first nerd. I was very wrong. I mistakenly thought these were just labels but now I know that they are ranks to be earned.

I am slowly earning my stripes, with each game played, each mini painted and every new rule memorized. Blogging is a new and awkward experience for me as well. I always thought that a diary was something a person would want to keep secret but that’s another blog.

I know that I will never be a gamer. I lack the energy level, attention to the most minute of details and don’t care for Mountain Dew. I do however enjoy the company of gamers and this job allows me the opportunity to spend time with you folks and get to hear the gamer perspective. When I am old and grey I will fondly think back on the time that Jeff talked about Transformers or the late nights losing yet another game of Dominion.

I still feel out of place here from time to time. I still cant tell the difference between Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines and for this I fully expect to get my truck egged this Sunday. To date I have only painted one mini and as far as rules are concerned, I am still reading my first non Star Wars set (Spinespur). But one tries and if I want to stand a chance in another game of Power Grid I had better do my homework.

Toodles,
Your Girl Friday.

~Jason

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The forums are back!!

July 7th, 2009

The Game Kastle forums are back, and better than ever.

Please check them out re-register, and get the conversation going.

~Samantha

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