Didn’t get the Deathwing Terminators finished. 

Did get housework done, some work on The Fracture and a few key upgrades to the site. 

So an overall success.

Got a meeting with fellow NaNoers tonight.  A pre-NaNo meet.  I’m quite excited.

And I bought the wife flowers today because of a top class image she’s done for the site (which isn’t up yet).

Six days left until NaNoWriMo.

I’ll share a bit of info on what this years NaNo will be.

Title: Planet of Snakes

Plot: Searching for info about his lost loved ones our intrepid crew visit a planet off the beaten track and find more then they bargain for:  Treachery, Loss and Giant Snakes!

Heh.  Giant snakes.  What the hell is going on here… 

So today I’ll not be working on NaNoWriMo plotting much at all.  There are a number of things I was to get cleared away before next Saturday arrives, as I may have mentioned in yesterday’s post.

I’ll be painting my two remaining Deathwing Terminators and once they’re out the way I can clear my desk of painting and miniatures, and hopefully keep it clear until December arrives.

After that, housework beckons and I’ll be working on the Fracture story I started ages ago.  There’s some work on the website required before the 1st, I don’t want to be thinking about any of it during November.

So a busy day ahead of me.  I’ll check in later to say how wisely I’ve spent my time.

Had a most enjoyable game of Risk on Thursday evening with Edgy and AJ.

It was close with Edgy in control of the board for a good amount of the game and with Allen building up to be a force to be reckoned with.  Fortunately we ran out of time, it getting far too late on a school night, just as I managed to control the lion’s share of the board.

Just in time to secure a victory… 

(Found a old draft post after the last game of Cthulhu we had, in March!  Thought I’d post it anyway…)

So, no Call of Cthulhu adventure last night, but there was one last week.

The adventure - The Madman from the 6th. edition rulebook - was done in one night and almost saw Edgy (Logan Fletcher, investigative journalist) and Enzo (Montague Summers) meeting a rather unfortunate end…

Old Harny Rooger has gotten a touch eccentric. Tales are told off his involvement in mysterious rituals on hilltops and the possible involvement in goat sacrifice.

Oh dear, whatever can be done…

Enter Summers and Fletcher, the latter of whom knew a retired journalist who died mysteriously while investigating the aforementioned hilltop rituals.

Highlights of the game included Fletcher using his fake cop ID and failing every roll associated with using it. And his potential incarceration after it has been discovered as a forgery. And events leading up to that with Summers getting a bit physical with everyone on the way…

Anyway our intrepid investigators saved the day with what can only be described as the jammiest of dice rolls when dealing with Harny Rooger and a hilltop full of mi-go.

Recently I stumbled upon the website for the Christian Gamers Guild.

Here’s the blurb from the frontpage of the website.

We are an international fellowship of committed Christians who enjoy games of all kinds. Our activities include involvement in game design and publishing, game advocacy, and ministry at both game conventions and around our own tables at home.

Most of the people who are part of the CGG are just Christians who enjoy games, and most of our discussions are about gaming from a Christian perspective, both pro and con. If you have any interest in gaming, whether you are a Christian or not, we invite you to become a part of the CGG.

Excellent stuff.

It’s inspiring to find practicing Christians who are just as passionate about their gaming as secular gamers are.

Of course, the problem with Christians getting into gaming is the usual condemnation and judgement from others who just don’t get it.

Well, finally there is a decent resource for Chistians who want to keep their hobby alive.

And to educate those who just haven’t “got it”.

I found an excellent mod for the Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade game. Daemonhunters!

Now I can have a full Grey Knight army! Whooo!!!

To explain my excitement, in the Warhammer 40K universe the Grey Knight space marines are the ones brought out to fight the insidious hordes of chaos and are among the hardest troops in the game. And now some good lads have brought out a mod for Dark Crusade that adds them to the game as a playable race.

The mod rocks, but it’s just for multiplayer/skirmishes so no rampaging about the game map with the Emperors finest.

The mod can be found here.

Or, hello to the 14-day EVE Online trial.

As I mentioned here, my experience with Star Wars: Galaxies was less than impressive but I had heard good things about EVE Online ages ago from Kai.

As that was about a year ago and I know I’m a slow learner so here we go to another time losing experience.

There’s every chance that I won’t take this any further than the 14-day trial, and I’m not abandoning Guild Wars which remains my Number One choice for online gaming, but if you have access to a trial key it would be pretty dumb not to use it.

I’m down loading the client as I type this, so in 500MBs time I’ll be back on sharing what I think of it.

Ages ago (October last year, I think) I wandered in to the Games Workshop in Glasgow and (because I am an unrepentant geek) I bought a single Grey Knight Space Marine Terminator with the idea that it would be fun to paint.

To explain, when in my teens I had extensively played Warhammer 40K (an Eldar army and a Genestealer Cult, but not at the same time), enjoyed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and dabbled in Warhammer Fantasy Battle (with my impressively unpainted Skaven army).

Recently I’ve been getting back into my gaming in a serious way with semi-regular Call of Cthulhu games with Guy Incognito and Charming Manipulator. Before that I spent some time playing Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars (very possibly the greatest Customisable Card Game ever produced) and Call of Cthulhu (the card game, not the role-playing game).

All good fun, but it’s just not table-top. Table-top gaming is just sooooooooooooooo much more fun. And it’s not just the playing of the game. It’s the choosing/painting/customising of the models that’s all part of it. And other forms of gaming just don’t compare.

Hey what can I say, I’m a geek…

Myself, Guy Incognito and the Charming Manipulator had the first of (hopefully) many enjoyable Call of Cthulhu adventures last Thursday night.

(Quick backstory.  For ages now we have been thinking of getting into gaming of some form.  The previous week, by common consensus, we decided that horror roleplaying in the 1920’s should be given a fair chance.  I was particularly happy about this as there are loads of Cthulhu sourcebooks on my shelves, unused and annoying Ruth with their dust gathering ways.)

The first adventure was one from the back of the main rule book, The Haunting.  It’s pretty straightforward, which was ideal as none of us had done any roleplaying for years.

GI played a Freelance Journalist called Logan Fletcher and CM was an Occult Investigator called Montague Summers.

The story, for those of you who don’t know, is of a house that causes madness and/or death to its inhabitants.  The landlord is understandably upset.  After the most recent family suffered at the hands of this unknown evil, our fine detective duo were called upon to put a stop to it.

It was a slow start, with the guys getting used to the way the game is played (”no, DON’T go straight to the house!  Investigate!”) and myself taking a while longer than I expected to get re-aquainted with the rules.

Once we got in to the swing of things there were people to meet, places to go and mysteries to solve.  And the first visit to the haunted house merits special attention here…

Once our intrepid twosome were satisfied that they had a good angle on what was going on, they made for the house.  The ground floor was musty, dark and gave nothing away, the basement was checked once and a false wall was discovered and a visit to the first floor didn’t go well for Mr Fletcher.  The first bedroom from the top of the stairs once belonged to the bad guy and had been unused for a while.  And the bed from that room flew for GI’s character, knocking him though the closed window to the ground on floor down.  Heh.

A quick journey the the local hospital and they were both back the next day, this time to investigate the false wall in the basement.  Once though the false wall, beyond the rats and the second false wall they encountered and defeated the bad guy.  And there was much rejoicing…

It went well for the first adventure in many years.  We didn’t play last night as I’m still working out an adventure of my own.  Haven’t had the time recently to dedicate to it so a postponement is always better than a half-finished adventure.

Battlestar Galactica is a new collectable card game by the good peeps at Wizkids Games and it’s one of the better CCGs I’ve played.

I’m no better at this one than any other I’ve played though…

So last night there was a Battlestar tournament. Because it’s a new game and this was the first tournament there was a small turnout for it (6 of us).

Three games were played and three were lost. Oh well. At least for the second and third games I didn’t get totally gubbed and it was a close run thing.

The next tournament isn’t for a couple of weeks which gives me plenty of time for practice. And I did get a limited edition card for participation. Which was nice.