Hi all! Happy February. February is that most sacred month, which
serves as bringer of Surly Gamer's birthday! Yes, in just 0-21 short
days (depending on when you read this) I'll be the big 24; send women
and job offers. In the meantime, here's some gaming stuff...
Oh, good for Precedence. They managed to get Great War Starters
into stores, a mere four weeks after the boosters! Now Babylon 5
fans can find out what to do with these new cards from the new,
updated rulebooks! Except...This rulebook has a missing page! Oh,
that's just not nice. Thank goodness I am net-connected, and can get
the contents of the page from !
And shame on the printers and quality control guys, on behalf of all
non-net connected players.
What's next? Oh! Of course, I almost forgot America's sweetheart,
Billy Tucci. I really should leave him alone for a column, and I will,
as soon as he gets any fraction of his act together. Over two months
late, he finally finishes off the first batch of Battlebooks! Upon
discovering this new set of deformed hybrid comic/games, I had to
inspect them personally. The art's improving, based on the Spider-Girl
book (I really should be harder critic on that count; they had plenty
of time to turn out something really amazing). But Iron Man, oh
goodness...I hope nobody buys this under the impression that they will
get to play Iron Man! At best, this book will let you play someone who
looks like Iron Man, and has attacks somewhat similar to Iron Man's.
For four dollars, I expect better (or at least more, that'd also be
nice).
I swear, printers are more retarded than editors! (And, if that
sentence makes it past the editors, I'll start writing a second
column.) (Editor's note: caught it, but this retarded editor wants
that second column)
Cheapass games finally shipped my poor siblings' Christmas
present, previously delayed by evil, stupid printers. It's a very nice
game board, and I'm looking forward to playing lots of games of Kill
Doctor Lucky () with it, maybe
even on my birthday. Yes, these are the best 9 pieces of paper I've
ever waited five weeks and disappointed my siblings at Christmas for.
Pokemon. Gotta catch `em all! For some unexplainable reason, I've
fallen victim to the cute little critter craze. This is terribly
unfortunate, because Wizards of the Coast
()
felt it wise to release the collectible Pokemon card game in retail
outlets (like Target) first! First by about six weeks! I would gladly
give Target my money, or wait for a month and a half for them to
arrive at my local game stores, except for one small matter. Target (I
don't mean to pick on them, unless they don't hire me, but they are
the only place I have seen Pokemon cards) stores must have no
experience ordering card games to demand, because all I can find are
the beginners sets (which I do recommend to Pokemon fans who might be
interested in trying out this game...it's affordable, and it contains
all the information you'd need to develop an informed opinion about
the game), and I'm getting crazy with the same 61 cards, over and
over! Variety is the spice of card games, okay?
I have to say, the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG
()
must be the most successful RPG ever edited by a group of monkeys.
These guys let stuff be released that could be published by Marvel!
The sad thing is, I knew this, when I picked up Way of the Crab! Silly
Gamer. Fool me twice, shame on me. Here's hoping I can remain strong
later this year, when they release Tao of the Naga. I don't wanna find
out what comes after "Fool me thrice..." But really, my own primitive
vocabulary is no match for this book. Allow me to direct you to a
much better review (which, I guess I stole part of that last paragraph
from):
This month's recommendation isn't a game, it's a web site:
www.rpg.net; home to a variety of reviews from many folks, for
practically every game under the sun. If ever you're in doubt, check
out this place. (Or, write me. I'll be glad to help!)
Finally, I have a wish. A hope for the future, if you will. In the
next week or two, I'll be purchasing Trinity Battleground. It'll be my
first tactical game. I won't be painting the miniatures, but I plan to
otherwise throw myself into the system wholeheartedly. And I
wholeheartedly hope it's a great game. If all goes well, I'll dedicate
next month's column to a review/report on Trinity. If it doesn't, I'll
be back with another super-surly column for all to ignore!
And, as usual, thanks to Nurse Roberts and her cast of critters for
putting this article on their snazzy web page, and if you've read this
far, please visit http://www.innocence.com/~squiddy/squid-ballot.cgi
and vote for Collector's Times in the Squiddy awards!
