First Impressions of Risk: Godstorm

A few years ago, I reviewed (Internet Archive) Avalon Hill’s then-new Risk 2210 board game (Internet Archive) for SCI-FI. Our gaming group loved it how the game took the game’s core mechanic, added a great deal of complexity and strategy to it, threw in a sci-fi theme, and still managed to retain that bizarre Risk luck factor. … Read more

The Libertarian Gamer: Spycraft, Part 2

In The Libertarian Gamer: Spycraft, Part 1, I discussed the basic outline of the campaign and possible heroic organizations. But what’s a hero without a villain? The Villains Fortunately, when you’re running an espionage game, there are plenty to choose from! The traditional mad dictator, hellbent on world domination via some sort of super weapon, … Read more

The Libertarian Gamer: Spycraft, Part 1

Spycraft (Amazon) is Alderac’s d20-based game of modern espionage. It draws upon the classics of the genre — James Bond, Mission: Impossible, The A Team, Sneakers, Alias — to create a game that’s reminiscent of classic RPGs like James Bond: 007 and Top Secret. By default, the Spycraft source book assumes that the players are … Read more

NukemCon: Afterthoughts

Grey and white robot-like figurines battle on a hexagonal map.

NukemCon has come and gone, and now that I’ve caught up on my sleep and my caffeine twitches have faded, it’s time to evaluate our first-ever home-grown convention. Overall, I think it went quite well. We got to play a heck of a lot games, although not nearly as many as I’d hoped. The final … Read more

NukemCon: Day 2

Gamers gathered around a table playing a card game.

The Blackrazor Motor Pool was forced into action on Day 2 of NukemCon, as car troubles harried our otherwise excellent day of gaming. It started with Bill’s car; when we went to get the third television out for our Xbox network, he caught a glimpse of something gleaming in his tire. Yes, in his tire. … Read more

NukemCon: Day 1

Two men sit at a table. Small plastic HeroClix figures stand arrayed on a large wooden table while a much larger comic book figure (Galactus) holds a bagel.

Day One of NukemCon arrived yesterday, bringing with it HeroClix, Illuminati, Dungeons & Dragons and plenty of Halo. We kicked off 12+ hours of gaming by opening a case of HeroClix: Ultimates, the new latest expansion for WizKids’ superhero miniatures game. Then came three increasingly cutthroat games of Illuminati; Jon won the first one, Bob … Read more

NukemCon: The Schedule

This page contains a run down of the games my friends and I will be playing at our in-house game day, NukemCon. I’m very happy with this list — while it’s only meant as a guide (hopefully we’ll be able to fit in a few more games not on it) I think it provides a … Read more

Xbox Wins Converts with Game Play, Live Component

My friends and I have a problem. We’re scattered geographically and temporally, with jobs, families and commitments that keep us from gaming as much as we’d like. We’ve tried online gaming via Windows but have been disappointed every time. Poor net connections, aging hardware, and incongruent patches foiled us time and again. But the Xbox … Read more

WISH #95: How Many Colors?

WISH 95 question is (Internet Archive): How many colors do you like in your gaming? Do you prefer four-color games? Or should game morality be black and white or shades of grey, and if the latter, how many? Are “evil” characters acceptable? Does your preference depend on genre? Do your preferences affect the genres you … Read more