The Stars Have Aligned

It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has been happening gaming-wise for me. Since my last blog post I've attended my second gaming convention. It was UberCon XIII held November 5th-7th in Edison New Jersey! Had a blast but didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked! Played lots of different games from minis, boardgames, console games through RPGs. UberCon didn't seem quite as big as DexCon but it had a very friendly vibe and I will probably attend again next year.

I also got a chance to play a demo game of Ex Illis while at that con and I've got to say I think it is a fantastic game, especially when used as a gateway game to introduce new gamers to the world of miniatures war gaming. It really abstracts the rules of the game and allows you to concentrate on strategy instead. The content-to-price value of the starter set really eases the start up cost of getting into this hobby and the hybrid use of computer software and physical miniatures is an interesting approach. I will be posting pictures and battle reports as soon as I'm finished painting my starter set.

The biggest news for me is that a brand new local hobby shop opened up! It's called Close Encounters Comics and is located in the Toms River New Jersey area. The proprietor, Marc, is an avid board-gamer and has opened the store with the goal of making it a place where people gather to play games of all sorts. He's been very amiable and open to new gaming suggestions which leads me to the biggest point of my post. I'VE GOT A NEW GAMING GROUP! Finally, after a ton of failure-to-launches, it looks like I've found a place and group of people to game with!

After a flurry of email exchanges we all met at the store (see pic below) and decided that we would start with Shadowrun. We are playing Saturday afternoons and once I get this group established and rolling I want to start another gaming group on Sunday afternoons!
I will be posting details and session notes from our games in the future so stay tuned for more!

Viva la Fasa or the Internet and All Its Friends

I got a bit excited this morning to find an e-mail from my dad with the headline "new mechwarrior game". I opened it to find the tinyurl link http://bit.ly/kOG7T .

The trailer looked amazing and I wondered when this would exactly be out so I could mark my calander like the little fangirl I am. I checked the sites for Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker but found nothing. I did a quick google search and was dismayed to find articles about the project being cancelled. I noticed that the year was 2003 and looked up at this:

Once I clicked the correction, I finally found what my wild goose chase on the internet was looking for. A site came up mentioning a teaser trailer that looked like a new Mechwarrior game. It said that IGN was going to interview Jordan Weisman who formed both Fasa and Smith & Tinker. I checked IGN and found a couple of articles, all recent. The first one showed all 3 teaser trailers practically confirming the new game. Another told how the newly formed Smith & Tinker is planning on rebooting other Fasa games such as Shadowrun and Crimson Skies. I died inside when I read that.

Now, I've never actually sat down and played any of the RPGs (with the exception of that one MechWarrior simulator at Chuck E. Cheese), but I did grow up with my dad having all the rulebooks and miniatures. I used to watch him play Mechwarrior all the time. We even bought the Shadowrun Duels figures and played that. All of this has given me a healthy love of Fasa games. When I heard that Microsoft was making a Shadowrun game back in 2007, I was excited. When I finally played it, I realized it had a cool concept and fit in with the story, but it didn't exactly have that "feel". So now that the game's almost back in the hands of Fasa, I can't wait to see how it'll turn out. Mechwarrior 5 looks very promising from the official trailer and I can't wait till it comes out. I just wonder if once you eject from the cockpit, you can use a sidearm for protection. I realize that would be useless, but if I'm going into battle inside a giant robot, a gun on my back or a pistol on my hip would make me feel better.

-GeekGirl

"It's like the Medigun. Sure it does, like, .5 damage, but it makes you feel better to contribute."