D. Hunter Phillips's Blog, page 8

Gencon 2012 Revisit: Cards vs. Zombies

Last year at GenCon, I witnessed, amongst the many other fun and strange things, people playing a game throughout the entire time of the convention and all over the hallways and streets. It was… Cards vs. Zombies.

Here is the blurb from their website:

“Cards vs. Zombies is a new game we created specifically for Gencon. It’s heavily inspired by Humans vs. Zombies and designed to be played in the middle of a huge convention. Players will work together to survive against the zombie menace using card ammunition (conveniently given out by our booth). Once turned into a zombie, players will prowl the convention looking for fresh meat and new teammates.”

- http://humansvszombies.org/archives/1749

I wish I’d had the opportunity to interview some people that were involved or the booth itself, because it looked like people were having a lot of fun.

Images and details about this are pretty hard to find on the interwebs, which to me, seems kind of surprising based on the number of people that I saw doing it.



It seems like games such as this would be a really great way to meet people, especially if you weren’t good at that first approach of introductions. If I didn’t run around like a mad man from one game to another, I think I’d probably play this game too. Heck, I might even just give it a go and see if it fits into all those little 15-20 minute segments between games and shopping.

Rumors Buried Deep, Final print

Map of Guddereicht

The town of Guddereicht survives the barbarians… and a massive westerly tidal wave! Much of the western half of town has been destroyed by the massive wave that struck just as the warlord, Augrock Targon, and his entourage were swept from the battlefield by the Tidewall Militia. About a quarter of the population of town was killed during the battle and the natural disaster to follow. Sir Reigel, a loyal bannerman to Lord Lindthurst, was lost to the huge wave as his cavalry were caught outside of the town. Uriel, the loyal priest of Darioon was also lost, but him to the battle with Augrock Targon.

Keverrrn, the town drunk and thug, became inspired by his lost friend Uriel. He tried to fuel the creation of a new distillery and brewery, after it and his father were lost in the tidal wave. This wasn’t enough for him. He has left to travel to the one time capital of the Sargovian Empire to seek entry into the priesthood of Darioon.

Gerd Foyle, hero and one time apothecary, has been knighted by Lord Lindthurst and now retains responsibility to the estate of Sir Reigel in the distant farm lands. Rumor states that he soon will marry the sister of one time thug, Sargeant Bueregard, who was also lost in the tidal wave. WIth the help of Sir Grishom, this young newly noble man pursues a new prosperity for the farm lands, even in the face of the plague.

Uriel, priest of Darioon and spiritual leader of the Tidewall militia, is often spoken of fondly by the remaining Tidewall militia. Many of the senior members believe that the heroic feats that they achieved, leading up to the towns saving, would never have been successful without his leadership. A humble statue was made in his honor in the Virtue of Darioon of Strength of Character. A school has been rebuilt, next to the statue, in his honor.

Ka’shaan, war dancer of the bogs, has remained in the town of Guddereicht and married the priestess, Harriet of Gabriella. He seeks, through diplomacy, to try to better unite Greensedge, the Wood elves of the bogs and the forest with those of the towns people. He often travels the road and wild lands between Guddereicht and Greensedge.

Grolock Theoson, champion of the pit, fought valiantly, leading the common men in battle against the barbarian hordes and even led some of the men in reaching higher level buildings to survive the flood that hit the town. He has married, Gorta, the bar wench from the Angry Ogre and lives a quiet and simple life as a half owner of the now well renowned Soiled Petticoat. He and Gorta work hard serving fried crickets and soup with two for one beers to many a local and even some brave travellers.

2012 Gencon Review: Roll to the South Pole

This game came out in 2012 from Rio Grande Games.

Roll to the South Pole is a press your luck game involving dice and a few simple movement mechanics.

The object of the game is to plant your flag at the opposite end of the game board from the starting position.

Like a lot of Rio Grande Games and Euro games in general, when I saw the board and the playing pieces, I wasn’t really all that inspired to try out the game. They often look sort of boring or kids game like. Though, after playing them, they are usually quite fun and fast paced.

I did completely horribly in this game. The nice thing about quick playing, short, press your luck games is that you can go all out and lose and it can still be a fun time. I just couldn’t stop myself from rolling again when I really should have stopped.

Basically, you roll to attempt to move into a new hex and the rolls tend to get harder the further you go in one turn. On top of that, until you reach a camp or set up a camp to end your turn, if you fail to advance, you will have to fall back all the way to where you started your turn. So, me wanting to be all crazy and get super far, super fast, I pretty much never left the starting area. It was still fun though. I dug myself a hole that then forced me to keep being aggressive.

The only problem I might see with this game is that it might be the best strategy to play pretty conservatively and just make slow and steady progress. Since you can use other people’s camps, it might pay off to be aggressive early and then use the other player’s camps if you have fallen behind and need a little help to catch up.

In the end, I’d play this game if people offered it, but the theme didn’t interest me enough into buying it. It is definitely a good game for very casual or newbie gamers.

Star Wars LCG: Control control, you must learn control

I’ve been playing the new Star Wars LCG about once or twice a week since it was released. I have completely fallen head over heels for this game. I wish I could play ever day and that there were more people into it. I’m sure people will get into it more, but surely, it will never be Magic: The Gathering, the World of Warcraft of card games.

I have now tried a number of different deck themes and strategies on both the light and the dark side. I have definitely found that Control decks are the most reliable and powerful way to go. This is often the case with PvP games like this. Being able to control or manipulate the other players actions and disrupt their strategy is just a great way to foil any good deck of any other type.

For the Star Wars LCG, this is no exception. The Dark side benefits heavily from using characters like Emperor Palpatine and all of the Force power event cards.

Yoda might not have any good control abilities (other than his one tactics icon), but he is great for the light side to try locking down control of the force. Even the light side can win in a mostly defensive, control battle overall. If you keep the force on your side during the whole game, you only need to launch a couple of successful attacks against objectives to win the game.

Keep in mind that the Tactics icon on cards is a very powerful control element. Cards like the Twilek Loyalist are a great example that when you first look at a card, it could look weak, but then when you see how it plays out on the table, it is very powerful. With this guy only costing 1 and having a character damage and a tactics, you could win a fight against two enemies or take out one guy and lock down someone not in the fight, sacrificing this cheap, but awesome, character.

In Star Wars LCG, having a bunch of cards saved in your hand when your opponent takes a turn is incredibly powerful. I thought, when the game first came out, that it was best to play down to 0 cards by the time your next turn came around. There is still a lot of merit to having the control to save cards and wait to use them properly, and have tons of cards to win fate battles with when it is not your turn.

Backpacking Trip Report: Veach Gap

A couple weeks ago, I took a couple of friends on the first backpacking trip of the new season. It did indeed feel like the season intro episode. The pieces were falling into place. We started to talk on the hike up about the plot of the horror movie that we were going to be the main characters of. That story didn’t finish until we left the park, safe and sound. As the trip went on, we had to keep coming up with new twists. The movie must have been cancelled though, because I am writing about this trip and we all lived!

Here is Josh and I being goofy before heading into the park.

At the summit at the top of Veach Gap, there was even a camp site. It was a beautiful spot with lots of great views. There was even a Blair Witch Project style burial mound over the side of the mountain. Scary! The problem with this camp site is, there is absolutely no access to running water for at least a couple of miles. So, we decided to leave the views behind.

This was the first scenic overlook that I have ever come across where I could see such an impressive view of a body of water. The Shenandoah River really is quite wide and beautiful from the mountain tops.

We set up camp a couple of miles down in the river valley. Berta stayed there to rest and Josh and I went further down to check out a campsite we saw earlier on the circuit. We thought that the one further down was even more awesome and decided to move the site. Near the new site, there was this gem of a little pool of water and a pretty little waterfall.

When we found this camp site that we decided to make our own, it needed work. We found the logs for our seats. We built up the sides of the fire pit to make it twice as high. It was fun to build it up for the future residents.

I built the fire all by myself! Every other time I have gone, I had friends that were boyscouts with me. They always built the fire and I watched and asked lots of questions. Apparently, I asked all the right questions, because this fire practically made itself and we had it going all night.

Stand by Classic: Steak n’ Shrooms

I recently worked up a dinner of what is becoming a classic for my belly. First off, I know what some steak purists might say, “a true steak eater doesn’t use toppings or sauces.” Well, to those people I say, whatevs, I like my mushrooms, grilled onions, and horseradish.

I made a side dish of corn and peas, just because they were leftover and getting old (you’ll find that a trend with me). I added salt, pepper, a little tomato paste and jalapeno. I was less than impressed with it.

My salad though, was a hit. I did the classic tomato and basil salad, but I only had Romano cheese, so a shredded that over top. I also added some shaved carrot, cilantro, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. It really tasted great and went along with the juicy steak and toppings.

Oblivion: The Movie Review

I got the chance to see Oblivion (starring Tom Cruise) last Sunday evening. I’m giving the movie two dry and withered thumbs up.

There were a couple of very nice twists in the movie, but what really brought me into the fold with this movie was the ambient setting and the emotional connections and discoveries throughout the movie.

The flashback sequence near the end of the movie made my heart flutter with emotion. Its the great moments like those that take a movie from a movie to an experience for me.

There were moments in the movie that were obvious call backs to other treasured movies: Independence Day, I Am Legend, Robocop, Alien, and probably others I’m not remembering right now.

In the end, I like the way all of these elements were put together. The performances really helped understand the plot and direction, if you pay very close attention.

My reaction was quite a bit different from my friend who was also watching it there with me. She couldn’t stand it. And after further movie discussions and preferences, it was quite easy to figure out why she hated it and this really explains a lot about some polarizing movies.

If you don’t like movies that are slow and have only small segments of significant dialogue, this movie might not be for you. The movie does a lot to try to suck you in with visuals and a few repeated phrases between characters to get you into the lives of the two protagonists.

If you want a movie to be more of a Point A to Point B story, this one will put you in some stomach wrenching loops.

Conventions and Selling books

I’ve been setting a goal for myself to start selling my books and other associated items at conventions in the coming years. It didn’t really make sense to set up a booth for just my one novella. I’ve been trying to get back in to writing my next book or getting my already finished science fantasy novel into an editor’s hands and perhaps then onto my library of books to sell.

I know that I need to start paying better attention to con schedules (especially local ones) and figuring out the processes to getting a booth at them to sell them.

I know this is a shot in the dark, as most of my readers here are not the type selling things at cons, but if anyone does read this and has any advice into how to go through the process, what would be needed to make it a profitable (or at least successful in some way) venture.

Rumors Buried Deep Volume IX

Rumors Buried Deep

SPECIAL EDITION

Lord Lindthurst Crowned Protector of Guddereicht

The Tidewall Militia leadership has returned with the true heir to the town of Guddereicht. The ceremony for Lord Lindthurst was both short and lacking of the usual feasting and partying that a crowning of the town would normally have. In fact, as the Lord started his speech to the townsfolk, the horns of warning blew, giving the folk a sign that the barbarians had been spotted approaching the outskirts of town.

Paper Boys Running Messages

The young paper boys and girls have continued with their due diligence, but it isn’t just newsletters that they carry now. The youthful, quick-legged fellows know the streets and buildings of town better than probably anyone. Newly crowned Lord Lindthurst now receives their messages at his base of operations, the Tidewall Militia barracks.

On the Doorstep

Augrock Targon and his personal entourage have been spotted from the top of a siege tower moved into place to overlook the South Eastern Road battlefield. Though most of the raider forces are focused around that road entrance, Sir Bellsworth believes that the entire horde may march back to a different road entrance. The raiders have stumbled over traps and barricades at the town outskirts in frustrating fashion.

Weather Havoc

The rains have stopped. The air has grown to be quite muggy and the temperature has dramatically increased almost overnight. Clean, healthy water has become a supply issue for the soldiers as they exert themself on the frontlines. The aid station set up by the Shardborn Ascendant and Luminatus priests is overrun with sick and unconscious soldiers.

Plague Rumors

Vanusiil’s Brood and the Purged have crossed swords to the South. The two mercenary groups apparently came to blows over harsh words on the ways that each of the groups plan to deal with the refugees and with the plague itself. Accusations followed the harsh words that each group was infected.

DCLX Swing dancing in Dupont

I went to a single DCLX event this last weekend. Swing dancing (or probably dancing of any kind) on concrete is not fun to the feet or the ankles.

I’m sure my footwork was a bit off, but I had to adjust some to dancing with more people that didn’t necessarily know the proper footwork. I did a lot of experimenting with improvising various turns and grabbing the opposite hand from the usual connections.

The event was a blast and I saw a lot of classmates from the Hill Center, Capitol Hill classes.

I failed to get any pictures or video this week, sadly. I should have at least taken a shot of Dupont Circle with the small horde of people dancing. Sometimes, you fail.

On a slight side note, I also danced a whole bunch at my friend’s wedding on Friday. Most of the people I danced with had never done any swing dancing in their life. I told them all two things, keep your feet moving and follow my lead. Just that. After saying those two things I got people to do everything just short of Charleston. Sadly, couldn’t do my favorite move, but I got to tear up the dance floor all night, doing all kinds of fun things.