Turelio's Hobby Hoard

I've managed to play a few games over the past few weeks (or at least attempt to play them). I thought I'd do a quick run through of what I played. I played TMNT Shadows From The Past by IDW with some family over the long weekend. There may have been alcohol involved for a few members of the table, it may have been late, so it may have been a bit hard to understand, especially when 3/4 of the table aren't gamers... It was still a good chance for me to learn the rules live. I like the mission system and the way it evolves as you go, and think fans of the game could get a lot of replay out of it. I also really like the dice co-op mechanic, and that the Turtles all behave differently, so you quickly get situations where Mikey hands out movement, and Donatello hands out defence. I'm keen to play it again with a few of my regulars. The Others by CMON got played on Tuesday. Again, this is one I hadn't played live, so I stumbled over the rules a bit as well. I'm prett...

NB: This was written a while ago, but never published. When I say 'over the weekend', it was a few months ago... Over the weekend I encountered an RPG in play, and overheard one of the NPCs interacting with the players, and I overhead a snippet of the game which was something like: She waves her hands in a strange pattern and mutters some arcane words you don't understand. Her appearance is no longer disheveled. She thanks you for your help. When the players asked about her, she replied: "I am but a simple merchant, who was waylaid by bandits..." Wait a moment... I've heard this before... I've realised that there are some tropes about role playing characters that do get played out a bit. Quests turn into the murder-hobo tour, princesses are captured by dragons, magic swords are a standard first magic item reward. But I never twigged to the following formula being used so much:  I am but a (adjective indicating they do not think highly of ...

I have a two in one update! I've been really busy the last few weeks which has worn me out and stopped me painting much. On top of that, a lot of hobby time was spent prepping for the next chapter in the DnD game I run for my friends, The Band of Bakers: Currently the Band of Bakers are on the second of a series of trials set to them by several gods, each of which has an association with a member of the party. This weekend they faced the second trial, which usually involves a party member being separated to prove their skills while the others fight, effectively splitting the party for a few rounds. This weekend the party's ranger Varis faced the Trial of Melora, and the Bakers were victorious. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including myself, aside from the party wizard Miri, who wasn't able to make it, and was therefore planeshifted away for the game (With soon-to-be-mysterious results!). My friend Garry managed to nab some photos during the game, and kind...

At dinner tonight, I made the following post onto Facebook from the restaurant... I've never played or ran a Cyberpunk RPG. I have very little knowledge of the genre. But I feel I need to run one now with everyone starting with a similar set up. This popped into my head: You take your seat inside the small booth, sliding behind the table. Your Contractor slides into a matching seat across from you. The circular room houses another seven near-identical booths, and you watch them fill up over the next few minutes - Pairings of Contractors and Data Jockeys in each booth, glancing around at the others and tapping at menu screens the same way you do. Five minutes go by while you're forced to listen to a pop song from five years ago remixed to a digital beat that could possibly have been sourced from the latest stock market feed. That's been the rage lately.  Your drinks are delivered, ushered into your booth by a team of serving staff wearing the most up to date fashi...