A couple of years ago (end of 2016) I had discovered Arkham Horror the board game was a thing. I don’t remember exactly how, though it may have had something to do with me going to a hobby game/comic shop looking for horror and sci-fi comics in the vein of Stranger Things after binge watching the entire first season and becoming obsessed. As I was discovering Harrow County and Papergirls (I’ll talk about those in another post eventually), I was also discovering Milton-Bradley was not the be-all and end-all of board gaming.
This was a revelation! There are strategy games that make Risk look like Chutes and Ladders. Games so complicated the rulebook is over 100 pages. Games so simple but with so much depth that the two page rule leaflet can trick you into believing you’ll get bored with it after a couple of plays. I’ve discovered card games that have become my obsession, that I’ve played multiple times in a row and require a certain ability to look several moves in the future or abruptly lose the game.
My board game “collection” went from one copy of Clue and a few sets of poker cards I’d gotten from video game special editions to more games than I care to count right now. I discovered Scythe and something just clicked. Here was a game with no dice and seemingly very restrictive rules (who ever heard of only taking one action instead of being able to move in a board game?!?!?) and I knew I couldn’t go back to Risk or Monopoly ever again. Here was a game that took the essence of both – world domination from Risk, money management and economics from Monopoly – and combined them into one game that did both better. And the art. Oh, man, the art. It’s what caught my attention in the first place. Jakub Rozalski. Look him up.
Enter Gallant Knight Games (GKG) in mid-2017. I had been a part of a tabletop RPG group for a couple of years off and on at this point. I liked it, but it wasn’t what I would have considered a hobby. I was very casual about it. Then Larry Correia announced on his blog that his Monster Hunter International series was going to be made into an RPG for the second time, this time using the Savage Worlds ruleset, by Alan Bahr and his company (GKG). I had no idea what most of that meant, I just knew it had to do with MHI (which I love) and that, even if I never had a group to play it with, I was going to get it. That started my Kickstarter obsession that has led to me pledging for over 30 projects in less than a year.
I started out pledging for board games. I found Folklore and was immediately intrigued. Now, if you’ve gotten to this point, you have probably figured this out, but when I get into something, I go all-in. I don’t pussyfoot around the edges dipping my toe in the water. Case in point, when I decided to try paddleboarding, I went out and spent the money (almost $1000) on a decent board, paddle, and lifejacket. It’s a hobby I still dearly love. So when I saw that Folklore, which multiple sources billed as the closest thing to an RPG you can play in board game form, had a tier that gave you everything, I pounced, damn the price. To this point I’ve pledged for rules-heavy boutique board games that start at $50 but will really end up costing over $100 because of all the add-on fiddly bits, TTRPG campaign books I’ve never even had the core books for (of course I then get them as add-ons or order them online), and simple card games that cost $10. I do have a budget, but I don’t really care about the price as long as I get the value.
Then I randomly found out that not only was there a Fallout board game (my moniker and avatar aren’t just random!), but that some company that goes by the name Modiphius (these guys will get their own post) was getting ready to release a Fallout miniatures wargame that could be played solo. Holy cow! I spent hours perusing their site, looking at the price for the whole shebang and realizing I couldn’t justify pulling the trigger on that. Someday. Anyway, eventually I saw that Star Trek Adventures was out as a TTRPG. My mind almost exploded.
As time went on, I finally started really digging into Modiphius’ catalogue and eventually ran into Symbaroum. Ho. Ly. Shit. This was the game I’d been looking for when I hadn’t even known I’d been looking for anything. It was dark. It was mysterious. It was surprisingly beautiful (Martin Grip, you magnificent bastard!). Where I’d been casual about TTRPGs in the past, I dove headfirst into the hobby.
I suddenly wanted to GM a game, where I’d never wanted to do that in the past. I wanted to introduce people to this world I’d found. I was invited to join the new D&D gaming group some co-workers decided to start up. I agreed immediately. When my friends from my initial Friday group broached the subject again of me taking a turn at GMing something, instead of being coy, I said, “Hell yeah!”
So now here I am, talking about games like I know anything. To me it feels slow, but I’ve realized I’m acquiring TTRPGs and board games at a ridiculous pace. A pace much faster than I can play them all. The greatest thing about all of this? I’ve discovered my dad, who I knew played D&D when he was much younger, still has the itch. My mom is willing to give it a try even though she doesn’t understand any of it. My niece, who is a carbon copy of me personality-wise, is super-into the idea of role-playing. And even my somewhat ditzy sister who thinks we’re all just a bunch of nerds can be convinced to join in. At work, my section, which has always been known as the one with, as our boss would say, “all our collective shit in one sock”, has gotten even closer as a pretty good chunk of us game together. And everybody is interested in trying new systems.
By this point you’ve got a pretty good idea of who I am in the gaming world. Mostly just a nobody who found a hobby that I love and want to spread to other people. But I’d also like to think that I’ve done my part in pushing this hobby just a touch farther, at least in my own little sphere.
I plan on writing about all of it in this blog. Reviews of games (video, board, and RPG) I’ve played, previews of games I’m going to get, and a look at what has caught my eye on Kickstarter. I also plan on adding a fiction feature. As I’ve put together a Coriolis campaign for my Friday group, I’ve realized it’s also a story I want to write, so I’ll be including it as a serial. As of now I’m not sure if I want to do that weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. Monthly seems like a lot of time between posts, but I really don’t want to over-promise anything and then not deliver if I say there will be a new part every week and just can’t get something done at that pace.
I hope you will decide to stick around and add to the discussion. Give me tips on new games coming out. Tell me why you think [insert name of game] is the best game ever instead of [insert name of other game]. Or to just tell me that I’m late on posting the next part of my Coriolis story.
Wasteland Sniper 