Oh Balls!

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Quirkworthy

The Farce is strong in this one. As is the innuendo. I’ve been trying to resist mentioning it, but I can’t. It’s just too silly.

I’ve mentioned Macrocosm Miniatures a few times, and shown off some of their retro-SF style sculpts, like these ones:

DiggersMy own retro-SF skirmish game got put to one side while I moved, and hasn’t resurfaced yet. It’s that sort of thing I’d be using them for though, along with the Colony 87 figures, and a number of other, carefully chosen models in that nostalgic style. Can’t beat a little bit of nostalgia 🙂

For their latest trick, Macrocosm have gone for something completely different: floating balls.

Because… um…

Well, just because.

Macrocosm balls.jpgI have a strong feeling that this began as a joke in a pub. However, let’s be fair to the guys: they’ve run (or floated) with it all the way. Now on Kickstarter at 30 times their initial target, it’s still got legs (and wings, arms… ) with a variety of different shapes and sizes and embellishments to pick from, including large, small, swarm, horny, and, of course, great balls of fire. I suspect we’ll see a lot more groanable jokes before the curtain falls on this one.

So what on Earth are they for, I hear you ask? Whatever your fevered imagination can contrive, is (I think) the best answer. Certainly they’re not a specific army for a specific game, and that I think is where their real interest lies. They are about imagination. With the various different add-ons you could easily make them into ersatz Squigs, Beholders or just weird Chaos things.

Balls with arms.jpgI expect a plague of them to be inflicted on unfortunate role-players across the globe, and I’d imagine someone will do an army or two of them. We’ve seen rock-based HOTT armies, so why not a load of balls?

Army of balls.jpg

 

Posted in Kickstarter, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 6 Comments

Game Design Competition Is On!

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Had a long chat with Chris today about what to do with the 30th Anniversary of the Battle of the Halji next year. We’ve decided to run a game design competition, and will announce the rules later this week. Just got to get some bits ready to go with that and type up the rules neatly.

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun 🙂

Posted in Battle of the Halji, Competition, Random Thoughts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A Bit More Lost Patrol

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Quirkworthy

60010699005_LostPatrolENG01So now we have some more photos of the new version, courtesy of GW’s pre-order page.

What I find interesting is that they’ve reused the original tile artwork. Pleased though. I’ve always been really fond of Nuala’s art, which conveyed exactly what I wanted for the deadly, spiky, green hell that is the jungle. When I find my original mock-ups you’ll see how good a job she did of translating my rambling into something really cool.

I remember that this was her first go at board game art and she was a bit nervous, though she’d no reasons to be. This time I’d been a little apprehensive myself about what they might replace it with, so I’m happy that they’ve kept her work in place.

Mildly amused that it’s more recycling. Recycling of a game that was, itself, designed to recycle stuff. Very green of them 🙂

Posted in Lost Patrol, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 15 Comments

Or Do We Make It A Competition?

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Quirkworthy

One of the comments on yesterday’s post was that we could have a game design competition around any 30th anniversary edition of Halji. Thanks to edenchanges for that suggestion. I’ve been looking at competitions to enter myself, as a sort of design equivalent to speed drawing and don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Great idea.

Will we actually run a competition? Still undecided. Chris is travelling between the UK and Japan at present, so I’ll have a chat with him when he’s settled in one place again.

What do you think? Would anyone be interested?

 

Posted in Battle of the Halji, Board Gaming, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 6 Comments

Battle of the Halji 30th Anniversary Edition

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Quirkworthy

It’s funny how things happen.

The first game I ever had published was the slightly strange Battle of the Halji. This was designed in cahoots with friend of mine called Chris Hunt, way back in 1987.

Halji box cover.jpgLooking back, it was a bit slower than it should have been, and over the years I’ve occasionally pondered what I would do with the idea now. Certainly I could do a better job. However, I wasn’t expecting to ever get the chance…

Then Chris’s dad died.

During the ensuing sorting out, Chris discovered a couple of hundred original copies of Halji, that we’d thought had long-since gone the way of the dodo. Stacked in boxes in the spare room of his parent’s house were a few finished copies (complete with crumbling 29-year old shrink wrap) plus some boxes of components, ready to assemble.

Interesting.

So over the last few weeks we’ve been discussing what we can do with them. Obviously, the simplest thing to do is chuck them all in the recycling. After all, that’s where we thought they were anyway, so no loss. Then I realised that it was the 30th anniversary next year. Maybe we could or even should do something more interesting with them.

After some discussion, the alternative to the recycling bin that we are pondering is this: we take the existing components and add a new rulebook. That’s got the charm of the retro bits, allied to the fun of a modern game. Sure we could do something completely new from scratch, but I don’t think either of us really has the time or the inclination to run the logistics. Too dull. If, on the other hand, we’ve already got the components and all we have to sort out is a new rulebook, then that’s much more manageable. It would be a fun side project to commemorate the game.

We did work out a few parameters for the project. If we did a 30th Anniversary edition it would be limited in number to however many we can make out of what’s left. That’s also got a perverse charm to it. And, because I don’t really want to be faffing about with stock, it would only be available for the 30th year (i.e. 2017), even if we ended up with spares. Again, fits the anniversary bit nicely. Anything left over gets to be recycled after that. Anyone who knows the premise of the game should find that entirely appropriate.

So there it is. Today’s strange thought. Not a definite plan yet, by any means. More a topic for consideration. I thought I’d mention it here to see what you guys thought.

And no, this isn’t an April’s Fool joke.

Honest 🙂

 

 

Posted in Battle of the Halji, Board Gaming, Nostalgia, Random Thoughts | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Lost Patrol Found Again

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Lost Patrol new ed.jpg

Yesterday I’d gone exploring the wilds of Whitley Bay, visiting a games club I’d just discovered was only a short distance away. I returned to an inbox full of people telling me that Lost Patrol had resurfaced, and did I know any more about it. That was a bit of a surprise.

The short answer is “no”.

Yes I did design the original version, as part of a project to reuse existing plastic figures in new products. This was an intriguing challenge as I couldn’t get any new models made at all, and had a very limited budget for the rest of the components. Even so, I came up with a total of 6 finished games before the whole thing was canned. Sadly, only Gobbo’s Banquet (by Gav) and Lost Patrol made it out of there alive. I suspect that none of the other ones will never appear, which is a special shame for the waste of Ralph Horsley’s lovely board art for my version of Formula Waaagh! Ah well.

Now I like a lot about Lost Patrol, but it isn’t without its faults. Frankly, they irk me a little more every time I play (probably that’s because I think I could do better now, with an extra 16 years’ experience as a designer). Over the years I have asked both GW and FFG whether anyone was interested in a second edition as I’ve got some definite ideas about what I’d do to finesse it. From these queries I knew that FFG didn’t have that license, and as GW specifically kept it I guessed that it might resurface someday.

What looks like a press release has turned up on a number of sites (eg. ICV2, ACD Distribution), and doesn’t tell us much. But I’ll be keeping an eye on the news and I have to get myself a copy when it does come out, if only to see whether they’ve changed what I thought needed improving.

It’s a little bit of a shame not to be able to have any input myself, though to be honest as soon as I found out it was something GW were keeping for themselves I knew it would be that way.

Overall though, I’m excited about the prospect of getting my paws on a new copy to see what they’ve done with it 🙂

 

Posted in Lost Patrol, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 9 Comments

Twisted Almost Over

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Quirkworthy

I’ve mentioned the Twisted Kickstarter a couple of times before, and I’ll be coming back to them again, I’m sure. Hard to resist such lovely figures.

Twisted comparison resin-metal

As you can see in the picture, they offer these 32mm models in both resin and metal, and in both materials the detail is nice and crisp, capturing the high quality of the original sculpt. Painters should have a lot of fun with these, and that’s not all: there’s a jolly little game in there too 🙂

Anyway, I just noticed that it’s the last weekend of their campaign (it closes in 3 days), so if you haven’t had a look you might want to. It’s gone very nicely and they’re pleased with the results so far. I’m sure that they’ve got more up their sleeves though…

Posted in Kickstarter, Random Thoughts, Twisted | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Dungeon Saga Question…

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Quirkworthy

DS-logo-badge…and answer.

This one came up yesterday, and I thought I’d pass it on before I forgot 🙂

The following follows my usual Question, Answer, Discussion format.

Q: What happens when a Hero that starts without any Shooting skill gains a Shooting dice through levelling?

A: The Hero gets to write 1 Shooting dice on their sheet and can now take Shoot actions. The range is the appropriate one for the weapon they have (see below). When they make a Shooting attack, note that they will often get an extra dice because they cannot roll fewer than 2.

D: This is a compromise between either two or three earlier versions of the rules (I can’t remember which now) and is slightly less harsh than the original DKH version. If you want to add a bit more realism, then play that you don’t get the 2 dice minimum if the modifiers reduce you to zero dice or fewer – instead you cannot take the shot. As it stands, a Hero with 1 dice gets a bit of an artificial boost and is effectively immune to problems like being injured or partially blocked targets: he’ll always get 2 dice to shoot. Like I said, it could be more realistic. However, it is fairly heroic, and that’s quite appropriate, which is why I don’t mind. Plus it’s not exactly a common issue, and compared to Heroes who are good at shooting it’s not much of a benefit. Professional archers are still going to be a lot better, and Heroes that only dabble in Shooting are still likely to have better things to do most of the time anyway.

Regarding the choice of Shooting weapon, personally I’d let people pick what they wanted, with the caveat that they must model the weapon on their Hero model if they want it to be long range. Short range throwing knives, etc could be hidden under robes. Not so with bows and similar weapons. If you want the extra in-game benefit then you should make the extra modelling effort 🙂

 

Posted in Dungeon Sagas, FAQ | Tagged , | 42 Comments

A New Gaming Magazine Coming Soon

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Quirkworthy

The folks who do Figure Painter magazine are branching out into gaming with their upcoming title Initiative Magazine.

Initiative magazine logoI rather like Figure Painter (even when I’m not daubing myself), and have found a number of great models and companies in there over the years. I’ll be interested to see how they pitch their gaming version. Personally, I’m hoping for coverage of the smaller games – in terms of publicity – because there’s a load of col stuff out there which deserves more attention and fails to get it because of marketing rather than game quality. I suspect that they’ll have to include some GW games, Warmachine, etc to get people looking though.

What would you like to see?

I don’t envy them the challenge. It’s tough doing magazines these days (on any subject) because the internet is already full of so much stuff. What they need is a unique voice, so we’ll see if they can find it.

Here’s hoping they can 🙂

 

Posted in Magazine, Random Thoughts | Tagged , | 35 Comments

A Moment’s Interruption

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Sorry if you tried to connect this morning and couldn’t find quirkworthy.com. The auto-renewal for the domain name was linked to an expired credit card and I’d forgotten to update it.

Oops.

All sorted now.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 2 Comments