Chaos in the Old World

In the Warhammer world, four Gods of Chaos battle for supremacy. Khorne, the Blood God, the Skulltaker, lusts for death and battle. Nurgle, the Plaguelord, the Father of Corruption, luxuriates in filth and disease.Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, the Great Conspirator, plots the fate of the universe. Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure and Pain, the Lord of Temptations, lures even the most steadfast to his six deadly seductions. In the Chaos in the Old World board game, 3-4 players take on the roles of the malevolent Lords of Chaos. Each god's distinctive powers and legion of followers give the controlling player unique strengths and heretical abilities with which to corrupt and enslave the Old World. Yet, as the powers of Chaos seek domination by corruption and conquest, they must vie not only against each other, but also against the desperate denizens of the Old World who fight to banish the gods back to the maelstrom of the Realm of Chaos...for now.

Chaos in the Old World is a fast paced interesting spin on the world conquest genre set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. It is for 3-4 players, but ideally 4 players as the balance issues crop up a lot with only three. Each player takes on the role of one of the gods of chaos who is intent on corrupting the world, and the game has a phantom fifth player which is the world and all its pitiful mortal denizens who are trying to survive and stave off the apocalypse.

Pros:

-Short: It's a relatively short game, taking 2-3 hours to finish (about 3 hours for your first game). This is great if you don't have endless time to kill and are petrified of more daunting wargames like Axis & Allies or Twilight Imperium which could suck up a whole day.

-Immersion: The flavor text and personality for each chaos god is excellent. Each chaos god has unique winning conditions and powers that fit his idiom. For example Nurgle plays a Rain of Pus card on a battle to gain defense. You have to alter your strategy to fit your particular character's strengths if you want to win.

-Pick up and play: The game mechanics are pretty easy to pick up and play compared to many other army combat board games; making it easier to bring this up with casual gamers who are intimidated by giant rulebooks and stacks of chits.

-Randomness: Good and bad. I like the randomness of Old World card events, but they tend to cripple certain players if they fall just right and sometimes they never recover. It does make every game unique, but that is not always a good thing especially when you win or lose at the whim of fate. I like how Slannesh's cards allow you to take over other players' units temporarily and Tzneetch can teleport units around-- they are both very fun mechanics that also fit the chaos gods' personalities.

-Figures: The plastic figures for units are great and a welcome change from cardboard chits (of which there are plenty in this game). The figures are also unique for each god's higher cost followers and are very detailed.

Cons:

-Balance: Because the chaos gods are each unique there is always the question of game balance. There are two ways to win: get 50 Victory Points or advance your Threat Wheel (or the game ends when you ruin too much of the world and compare Victory Points, or Old World cards run out and the game wins). The problem is that each player's Threat Wheel advances with different conditions, some of which are easier than others, and some players have to advance it more to win. Nurgle really only can win by Victory Points and Khorne can only win by advancing his Threat Wheel. The other two gods are a toss up, but I have found that the Threat Wheel advancement is easier in general for both.
My first game I played Khorne in a 3 player game and it was ridiculously easy to win. Khorne's units are just much better than everyone else's and as you upgrade them it gets even easier. I don't like that only Khorne wins by attacking other players: everyone else is avoiding combat and trying to complete their own agendas while Khorne is picking fights.
The next game I played Tzneetch and we kept Khorne out because he seemed unbalanced. The problem was that the Old World cards that came up this game made Tzneetch's winning conditions much easier and through no fault of my own I was winning again. With four players it evens out a bit, but mostly because there are more people to gang up on the winning player when it unbalances.

-Lack of variety of cards: The power cards for each chaos god repeat a lot. The powers there are nice, but I would have appreciated a more varied deck. It stifles replayability.

-The Map: For a Warhammer game it has a pretty boring map. It is the Old World, but the regions are all generic with a number rating and whether they are populous or not. The map never changes and many random events always target the same map areas. Your units don't actually move: they just get summoned into a space adjacent to an area you already have a unit. When you run out of units you have to summon them out of other areas (paying the same cost as if you summoned them from scratch). So it really doesn't feel like you're moving around in a medieval world as much as plopping demons down on a cosmic chessboard.

-Too many cardboard chits with no place to put them all: BYOPB (bring your own plastic baggies).

So a lot of nit-picking criticisms but overall I like Chaos in the Old World. If you're looking for a light wargame with a lot of Warhammer personality that can be finished in a night then this is a fun choice. I wouldn't play this every day though as the strategies will get old. You will find that you like one chaos god's powers and winning conditions more than the others', and everyone might end up fighting to play one of them unless you assign roles randomly. 

Unicorn city trailer

The Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan- need I say more? This game has it all. Strategy, chance, trading, persuading/manipulating (however you see fit), interaction between players, and rules that can be learned in less than twenty minutes and will stay with you for a lifetime! I have worn in my 3rd edition board so much within the past year and a half. No matter what games are out there, my friends and family always go back to Settlers. There are just so many ways the game can change that no two games are alike. Also, once you think you have mastered it you will still always find obstacles in your path to never achieve an easy victory. Settlers is an addiction that everyone needs to get turned on to! Be sure to get yours right away!

Yes, In a creepy vault full of nerds, I discover a jewel of great value. She's a pro on Settlers and I take some very good time with her! Don't be so curious, you're cats, and you know what curiosity mean for furry ones like you!!!

Rogue Trader

I'm a big fan of 40k RPG, and Rogue Trader is an awesome addition to it. I was around for the original RT, so it's nice they're keeping the tradition alive. The artwork is really impressive and seems like a natural evolution for a line that produced such fantastic art pieces as seen in older works like Lost and the Damned and Slaves to Darkness.

The only two issues I have with the products, this one included, are character integration between RT and Dark Heresy and editing issues. Both issues are relatively minor--it's pretty easy to integrated DH characters into RT, but I'd like a better sense of everything being one big RPG, rather than this being a separate game. I'm hoping this continues when Deathwatch comes out. I would much rather have DH, RT and DW as parts of one big, expanding universe. Playing a space marine in a large campaign eventually is something I'd like out of this series, and it would be cool to be able to work a character all the way from DH through.

The typos and other such editing errors are just a distraction from an otherwise beautiful work. Then again, I've edited professionally.

Campaign Option: Council of Wyrms Setting

This was my first AD&D book. I bought this book for the sole information on dragons, but lo-and-behold when I read it further, I got information I never expected. If you're looking for the fifteen kinds of dragons located on the remote land of Io's Blood Island Chain and a good campaign option based on dragons and their kindred, this is your book. I found some things that could help me in my writings like the Great Wyrm info, the body lengths of the dragons, and the extended text on the the Metallic, Gem, and Chromatic dragons. This book explains everything you need to know about Io's dragons, from hoard treasure to proficiencies to Dragonic combat to dragon kits. It includes character sheets, marvelous illustrations, size charts and three adventures for the players.

The Council of Wyrms made me believe that AD&D wasn't just some game, and that I should look into it a little more.

As Attila...

As Attila, I made an incursion with my Huns on Dragonflight, and the result was not pretty ... for the sellers!!! That's my loot after one day; free D&D figures, awesome minis for my hoard! This convention was incredible, and I let her with tears in my eyes, so happy to bring such a treasure!

Christmas gift... Please!!!

It's an artwork of Bob Basset, great artist who work on leather! It's a Cthulhu head like I prefer, not those plushes ugly ones, but a real freaky head of squidish monsta!

Pages of Pain, by Troy Denning

The Lady of Pain, vigilant defender of Sigil, keeps an ongoing memoir of her existence. Here, in her own words, is her eternal story. Interspersed with these memoir passages is a story that takes plae in the maze where threats to Sigil are incarcerated for all eternity.

In a genre overfilled with narratives of treasure-seeking elves comes a truly original work. "Pages of Pain" spins the story of a man with no memory, ordered by a god to deliver a "gift" to the enigmatic and terrible ruler of Sigil, a city more or less at the center of the universe. The Amnesian Hero hopes that the task will lead to the restoration of his past -- but the mysterious Lady of Pain intends to show him that desire is what makes anguish possible. Denning's novel is told from a shifting point of view and is unlike any other in the AD&D mythos. A must read.

The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary

The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary by Merriam-Webster... Because it's important to be ready for all games!!! Thank you to Kely, who met me a couple of days and gave me this useful book!

I know... sometimes, it's hard to think !

... Hard choices for my pure lady, but she was okay on this huge table of the UberCon!

The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea

Not surprisingly this book is very similar in format to The Plane Below, but whereas the Elemental Chaos book jumped right into specifics and rules for how to adventure in that plane The Plane Above begins with a bit more of an overview of what the Astral Sea is and why it exists. Just like the previous books it is almost 160 pages deep and contains 45 new types of monsters. The Astral Sea is presented as many things, including a former battlefield from the Dawn War, the home of the gods, the setting for the afterlives of mortal worshipers of the gods, and the home of native astral races such as the couatls, githyanki, maruts, and the quom. A relatively small amount of time is spent on the physical geography of the Astral Sea versus what was described of the Elemental Chaos and the Underdark, but that’s a good thing because the sea itself is relatively simple and the diversity of the plane comes from each individual island and dominion that sits in that sea.

The reason I had a negative reaction to this book at the beginning was because a lot of the early chapters contain references to things later in the book, which gave me a feeling of reading a glossary rather than a detailed supplement. I feel that the book probably could have been organized and set up in a better order. Many of these references are to specifics deity’s plans that are detailed later in the book in the section that pertains to that deity, so that makes sense and any problems I have with the book’s organization are easily outweighed by the awesomeness of the story ideas presented for many of the deities. For example there is a lot of detail given to Erathis’ new plans to reunite the astral sea by rebuilding the “Lattice of Heaven” that was damaged and mostly destroyed during the Dawn War. The book also presents some of Bane’s larger scale plans despite his ongoing battle with Gruumsh in their crashed together/merged dominions. Another overarching story that is mentioned several times in the book and detailed later on is the story of the god Lakal’s accidental death at the hands of Bahamut while trying to defeat a primordial named Nihil, which ties into the race known as the Quom and their backstory. In order to get a complete picture of the story, you have to read several different places in the book and put them all together, so at times it is hard to piece everything together from the book.

Yaaayeee!

Hey dude! Stop the rain please, it's fallin' on me even in my home!

Snow monsta !

It's like that when I became angry, not green, not dumb, jus furry white!

Nope, I don't know him...

You think he's look like my bro??? Nope... His name is the same??? Maybe a relative, distant cousin... He eat like me??? Uuuh... Yes, but it's not a proof he's my bro Mikee Mikee!!!

[It was during a B Contest, and he win, he's just a stomach with a mouth... Not fair game]

Avatar synopsis...

DMing!

I wait you buddies!

My name is... Cleaner!

Cleaning day is so important, and when you want to clean your room very well, call me, call...

THE CLEANER

MedFest !

Great moments on this fest with Clara! she try the chainmail and discover that this "little armor" is pretty heavyweighted! Nice battles and most of all, very coolish music!!!

Balloon fest!

It was awesome, with weirdiz in the sky and many people who want to climb in this huge gizmoz!!! Great!!!

Little Red hood

Nop, the wolf was not here this night, but men was all around until late morning, for this sexy red hood! This is Elkie, my young sister from Columbia's years!

Fast and Furious 4

EVA WIDERMANN

This german cuty girl rocks!!! She an illustrator for all the games we play for many years!!! This is Eva Widermann, great pencilers and painters for D&D and many other games. I suggest you to watch her gallery, HERE.

Dark Heresy, the WH40K rpg...

Overview
Dark Heresy is a lovely book, it evokes the feel of the Imperium all over again and it’s a heavy book, topping out at nearly 400 pages while WFRP tops at at nearly 250 pages. It’s also remarkable in that, for all that extra page count, it somehow manages to accomplish far less than WFRP does. WFRP is a complete RPG, it contains everything you need to get going and playing in a broad variety of scenarios and set ups. Dark Heresy isn’t, and doesn’t. It is extremely tightly focussed on one mode of play - one that should be familiar to players of the half-arsed pseudo-rpg Inquisitor. This is basically Inquisitor with brass-knobs on and a fresh coat of paint, moved away from the miniature figures set up. In Dark Heresy you ARE servants of the Imperium, you ARE human (no abhumans) and you ARE the retinue of a Mary Sue Inquisitor, running around as his dogsbodies. You’re also restricted to a very tight career path, limited in equipment and hemmed in and railroaded on all sides.

Artwork
The layout and artwork is stunning, I can’t fault it on any level but it does lack some of the grand flair we’ve seen other companies being capable of in their presentation. When you compare Dark Heresy to something like Qin or Cadwallon it no longer looks quite so accomplished or polished and, I would say, even lacks some of the brilliance of the old Rogue Trader, alas. That said the actual artwork is all up to modern standard with the Clint Langely pieces being particularly stand-out. There’s still something ‘missing’ a bit though, it’s just not quite as ‘crazy’ or quite as gothically baroque as many of the old Warhammer art pieces were, not that it isn’t good, but there just isn’t quite as much coherence of vision.

Writing
The writing is clear and workmanlike, so no complaints here. It does what it needs to do capably and well and, other than a few hard to read typefaces, the actual physical writing is clear and the book doesn’t succumb to ‘Ostentatious Border Syndrome’ (OBS, which is an affliction I just made up that affects many RPG companies).

Rules
The rules… well, what can you say about the rules really? If you know Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay then you pretty much know what you’re going to get in Dark Heresy so far as combat, skills, abilities and so on are concerned. It works well, the combat is fast enough, deadly and gory and the Psi Powers stand in - pretty much - for magic. All well and good, proven system, perfectly capable and great for a more gritty sort of game. Huzzahs all around and back home for tea and medals then.

Except…

Rather than the wide open nature of WFRP the character creation and career options Dark Heresy has a ‘class’ based system where you’re locked into a career type from the moment you’re out of the gate, all you can do is specialise and select sub-classes, you can’t swap around and you don’t get the same wonderful background progression that you got in WFRP. Look, the comparisons are inevitable and, frankly, Dark Heresy falls down on this one. It actually manages to accomplish LESS in 400 pages than WFRP does in 250. Less options, less understanding of the universe, less character creation options, instead largely replaced by 40 pages of an adventure, 40 pages of background on the Calixis sector - which we don’t need and more specifics on the Inquisition, which are part of the problem of the constriction of the game.

That 100 odd pages would have been of far more use giving a more complete career system, one with a lot more options, some details on playing Abuhumans or expanding the bestiary to include some of the better known Xeno races.

The character paths etc are a massive leap BACKWARDS for RPG design without even a saving grace of ‘multiclassing’ which even D&D has made just about standard. From the inspiring possibilities of WFRP we’re pared down to a handful of ‘character classes’ all of whom have to play second fiddle to an off-screen Inquisitor and it will take a hell of a lot of work for anyone to salvage the game to be a truly open RPG again. Of course… that’s the hook to sell you their upcoming ‘games’ in the same line, including a Rogue Trader one - but each of these seems to fall victim to the same problem. Each game book details a particular specific instance for a character group, but it doesn’t look like any of them will be open enough to be a truly open RPG.

I’ve nothing against specifics in certain games, SLA Industries has you - in a standard campaign - as being operatives to SLA. But it doesn’t take much tinkering at all in that game to run different campaigns. Dark Heresy is hardwired all the way through to constrict, confine and channel and that’s like being railroaded even before you start playing.

We are Itchy and Scratchy!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR BOYS AND GIRLS!!!

Crab feast!!!

Take some crabs... take many crabs!!! Go with a beautiful but very hungry girl (like... Her, miss Tuong), and you see at the end of the hour what happen!!!

Bran Van 3000 ~ Astounded

MY FRENCH MAN!!!

This is the DA gallery of my french friend and crazy cook, aka DAVID!!! A huge friend of mine and also an excellent DM on many worlds. He cook, He draw, He write pretty good books, an important guy in my weblife.

Incubus - Love Hurts

Without a doubt... my best player!!!

This is SiDious, the nastiest cat in the world!!!

Yeah! Bunch of Freakies!!!

RAGNAROK REBIRTHING

Swordman Ragnarok by Gustavo

This impressive picture for my friend, NILE, aka The Ragnarok Rebirthing!!! A greeny man (lol), he love our big apple and also many kind of pastas!!! This is a very good guy, a good player and also my oldest friend in this city.

Green Lantern Trailer

ANEE

My Bleach tribute

Ichimaru Gin

Yeah...

Yeah, it's true for two on three!!!

The... Fucking and useless Fourth!!!

Read my mind, by The Killers!!!

Read my mind, by The Killers!!!

Beer & Pretzels 2006

Many gamers, Many dices on desks!!! Good convention for me, less for Loren and Nathanael!!! lol!!! Greenies are absolute weapons!!!

They are the Greenies, my deadly dices for D&D... In fight, only big and nasty monsters resists in front of the Greenies... If I play a small halfling bard... With the Greenies, I'm sure to kill a white dragon!!! lol!!!

My little rpg library... USB keys are more easier for daily uses!!! lol! But books are valuable ressources and I prefer to turn pages and smell old paper...

Protectorate Battlegroup