Tag Archive for gamestorm

Gamestorm 14

March 29, 2012 Conventions and Events, Featured

Last weekend was another exciting gaming convention, sure wish I could go to more of them.  As it is nearly bedtime for me this will be short and sweet.

For those that don’t know, Gamestorm is a gaming convention held each year in the Portland/Vancouver area of the PNW.  The last few years it has been at the Hilton in Vancouver, WA.  For 3-1/2 days we take over the entire convention space and fill it with RPG, RPGA, Miniature, Indie, Board/Card Games, LARPs, LAN, CCG, and console gaming.  There is something for everyone and all have a great time.

This year I ran one session of Horror Rules, and played in a number of RPGs.  I played Faery’s Tale, Monsters and Other Childish Things
, Zombie Cinema, Teenagers from Outer Space, and a d20 modern set in the old west.  My weekend was full of all sorts of great stories and I plan to share them over the coming days.

But for now I will end with one of the many great quotes from my gaming weekend.

“I’ve been snasquatched by the hideunder!”

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Ultimate Character Sheet Site

June 7, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games

One of the things about role-playing is that it tends to be something you do for years and years. It also seems to be that most gamers move through a myriad of gaming systems depending on the tastes of their gaming group over the years. Of course this means an ever growing collection of gaming books and character sheets to keep track of. Recently I picked up an old copy of the 1983 TSR Red Box and needed to find a character sheet for my boy to make his first character with.

Thanks to modern advancements we no longer need to do them all by hand or make our way to a copy machine, we can just go online and find them. And in my searches I stumbled across what is to my knowledge the ultimate character sheet site on the internet, RPG Sheets. They have everything from 2300 AD to Wraith: The Oblivion. I suggest you check them out next time you need a character sheet for pretty much any game.

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My month of change

March 21, 2011 Featured
My Dad 2010

My Dad 2010

This month has proven to be an opportunity for change, doors have closed and others have opened and from the beginning to the end of this month my life is forever changed.  I won’t say for the better or for the worse, as the reality that the answer is both just like any change is really both.  It is in the end the Yin and the Yang finding a new balance in our lives.

The month started out with my father being in the hospital again, his health over the years has been in a steady decline so this was not a shock.  However, after two days in the hospital the morning of March 7th found him notably worse and the doctor called us to his bedside for a chance at goodbye.  We were incredibly lucky in that he got to say his last words to us and we got to wish him off surrounded by loving family.  Really if someone has to die, what better way to go then surrounded with love.  A thank you to the great doctor and nurses that gave us time to get to Dad and took such good care of him to the end, blessings to them.  Needless to say this has shaken my world quite a bit this month and is the number one reason I have been so quiet with my postings.

But as they say for every door that closes another one opens, and for me this was a new job opportunity that I feel is a step in the right direction and moves me away from the acidic workplace that I am currently in.  Not to say that my current employer is all bad, just that after many, many years we have grown apart and it is clear to me that it is time to split ways.  And who am I to question the wisdom of the Universe that brought this opportunity to me.  Thanks to the invention of social networking I can easily stay in touch with those people I have formed a bond with over the last 13+ years far easier then I have from any previous job.  My how times have changed.

Add to this that it was the end of Cookie Sales for my Girl Scout Troop and the end of the term in college and my month has simply not had time for posting.  But now it is Spring Break, which also means that GameStorm is next weekend.  I am excited that I will be running two sessions of Horror Rules at Gamestorm this year.  The adventure is called Terror in Tarrytown and it should prove to be a frightful good time for all.  I think having Invader Zim playing in the background while I put the finishing details on the write-up is just the right touch.

So here is to change, both the good, the bad, and the inevitable.  May it always make us stronger and our soul stronger then it was before.

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Gamestorm – a quick rundown

February 8, 2011 Conventions and Events, Featured

So I know I keep mentioning Gamestorm so I thought I would take a moment to explain what it is and why I love it. So to star the explanation, Gamestorm is a convention held annually in the Greater Portland area and is currently on its 13th year. The convention is dubbed “The Pacific Northwest’s Premiere Social and Strategic Game Convention” by their website. I am not sure I agree fully with the tag line, at least not the social part, but it is a great gaming convention.

The convention currently runs for 4 days from Thursday through Sunday and is held in March. This year it will be March 24th through the 27th and is being held at the Hilton in Vancouver, Washington. While the location is not ideal for those without their own wheels it is a nice area and does have a number of restaurants of decent quality and pricing within walking distance.

During the 4 days there are 5 different tracks of gaming that go on.
RPG games for those table-top gaming fans
LARPs for those who are a bit more socially inclined in their gaming
Miniatures for those who like to really watch the combat happen
Board Games for all of the board game geeks out there
Panels for those who want to discuss gaming further
CCG for the Collectible Card Gamers out there, I would take my magic decks if I still had them
There are also Indie games and prototype testing of new board games that goes on at the convention as well.

So if you are in the Pacific Northwest and are looking for a way to stay up much too late gaming only to get up bright and early the next morning to game all day again then Gamestorm is the place for you. I just really suggest you take Monday off from work too as you will need it.

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Old school dungeon mapping

February 2, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games
Old School RPG Shirt

Old School RPG Shirt

So to kill some time today I was on Cafepress again cruising for new shirts to wear to this year’s Gamestorm Convention. I have already found my shirt for this year (see earlier post), but now I need a new on for my husband and our friend that comes too. It is one of my little traditions around the gaming con each year is to pick up a new shirt. Being that the ratio of men to women is so high, especially when you don’t count LARP land, I get plenty of attention. But having a new cool shirt each year just helps it along. Generally I don’t like that sort of attention, but when it comes to a gaming convention I enjoy it, after all these are my sort of people.

So while there are always plenty of good finds on Cafepress, today’s shirt goes to the old school dungeon mapping shirt. I haven’t seen this one on there before and found it with a very generic “rpg” search. And I think the wording on this shirt describes it well, for if you are not hard core, old school gamer enough to recognize this for what it is, you will be lost, confused and probably bored with the translation. Especially as any of us that do know the answers to this shirt are quite likely to trail off into no less then three different gaming stories as we attempt to explain the various symbols and what they mean.

On another note my tabletop rpg session has been officially approved for this year’s Gamestorm. I will be running my Horror Rules session at 10am on Saturday. Hopefully I get enough players that early, on the upside the players I do get will be more hard core about their roleplaying and desire to play the game or they won’t be functioning that early. Good thing the game doesn’t require being fully awake either, as the rules are simple and character creation is quick. Now I just need to figure out some neat counters to use for tracking points in the game. Guess you know what I will be cruising the web for tomorrow.

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The Perfect Gamestorm Shirt!

January 19, 2011 Conventions and Events, Featured, Nifty Gadgets & Gizmos
Awesome Con Shirt

So as I am sure you are well aware I will be attending Gamestorm again this year in March. So I am looking to find a new shirt to wear at con, to go with my collection of gamer girl shirts. This year we are adding to our collection of friends that are going, one of our additions is a couple that we game with. So since this time there will be a female friend for me to hang with I am most excited about the awesome shirt I just found on Cafepress, I am going to show it to my friend this week and see if she will go in with me and get us a matched set to wear around Gamestorm. It is sure to attract attention, draw comments, and may even help us win a couple games.

 

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Cheeky Monkey

January 8, 2011 Board Games, Featured
A Fun Family Game

A Fun Family Game>Another game we added to our ever growing collection this Christmas was the Cheeky Monkey Game
. This is a kids game that my in-laws picked up for my 6 year old daughter. The game is one I discovered at this last Gamestorm and was excited for us to add to our kid game selection, as it is one that adults can enjoy as well.

The game is a tile based game and requires no reading making it ideal to play with younger kids whose reading skills are not ready for heavy game play. Game play goes quick and is based on collecting the various animal tiles that are included with the game. The tiles are placed in a bag (also provided) and each player takes turns drawing animal tiles one at a time as many times as they want to round out collections that they have, but if they draw the cheeky monkey then they have to put their tiles back. A great lesson for the kids and a hard strategy for them to master right away. Very similar to Pass the Pigs in general concept.

For families with younger children I recommend this game. The copy we have was purchased from Rainy Day Games for $30, which is a bit steep but the quality is better then the standard big box store games that you buy, this one will be in our collection for years to come. And Rainy Day Games also has online ordering capabilities in case you live somewhere without a local gaming store.

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Potty Humor Card Game for kids

January 3, 2011 Board Games, Featured
Great card game for younger kids

Great card game for younger kids

Do you have kids to shop for that are in elementary school?? Well, then do I have a card game for you!! I highly recommend the card game, Poo Second Edition.

The basic idea is that you are a monkey throwing monkey poo at the other players. There are a number of different poo value cards, dodge cards, clean-up cards and other specialty cards. The game play is simple and the overall length is fairly short at about 15 minutes. I first played this at Gamestorm in 2010 with a mother, her son, and another girl. We all had a good time and the basic plot is rather entertaining to the potty humor age group found in elementary school. This year I made sure it was under the tree for my kids.
Gamestorm is coming up again this coming March. It will be another great chance to gather some more game ideas for my brood as they grow up.
Come back tomorrow for a review of Cheeky Monkey, another Gamestorm find that made its way under our Christmas tree this year.

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Man vs Dice – Part 1

September 18, 2010 Featured, From the Gaming Table, Roleplaying Games
Dice Shirt - Cafepress

Cafepress - Dice Shirt

In my twenty years of gaming experience, trailing over a good number of gaming groups, I have found one thing to be true. At the gaming table there will always be someone whose dice simply hate them. Now I don’t mean the guy whose dice are just cold that night and can’t pull themselves together enough to take on a squirrel in a staring contest. I mean the sort of person whose dice feel that perhaps a new hobby is in order altogether. Though these gamers are truly dedicated for the forage on despite the odds being stacked against them, even and especially by their own “random” number generators. I should know, I am one of them.

But this post isn’t about me, I solved this problem by running games more often then I play them. Though perhaps in the future I will post on the great saga that is my relationship with my dice. This is about a member of my current gaming circle. But first a bit about this gaming circle; it is the circle of guys that my husband has been gaming with since his college days (and in one case before even that), so one could say they have a history and know each other well.

At their suggestions I am adding this ongoing section to my blog to chronicle the love/hate, but mostly hate, relationship our luckless player has with his dice. In fact it is so bad that in honor of attending his first Gamestorm in 2009, I bought him a shirt that said “Help my dice are trying to kill me!” Which he wore to con for both the warning to other players as well as the general humor of it all. I will call him “Player X” out of thoughtfulness of his need to still have people sign up for the games he does when he attends Gamestorm next year.

Over time he has been working on a number of different theories to further prevent his dice from working on racking up a string of TPKs (Total Party Kills). In my next post on this I will cover his last three attempts to find a cure for the affliction of CPDR (Consistently Poor Dice Rolling).  Seeing as we are unsure if the current method will work, but 99% sure it won’t, I will keep you briefed in the saga as it progresses.  Perhaps one of the hair-brained, Wile E. Coyote schemes will work for you!

Do you have someone like this in your group, lets here about it!!!

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Gamer Shirts

August 25, 2010 Nifty Gadgets & Gizmos
gamer shirt

Another girl gamer shirt I own

What Sci-fi Convention trip is complete without appropriate t-shirt, hoodies and other clothing to wear during the day before costume time his in the evening? Even more so for gaming cons like Gamestorm. My personal shopping favorite for my con day wear comes from Cafepress, sure the prices can be steep, but the slogans can be priceless.

Take this story for example. My husband, who loves to play a thief, was playing in a cleverly run game by one of my favorite DM’s in which he was playing a paladin. And not just any paladin, a teenage, male paladin. The group started out as orphans and ended up saving the world and being a key force in the war. Now as if a standard paladin isn’t bad enough to deal with, try one that is 16, trusted by the army, and is wielding an artifact sword of his deity. So while this was going on (and back when we were still dating), I found the perfect shirt at Cafepress on the front it had hearts and a unicorn and said “Crazed Paladin Groupie” and on the back it said “So worth the atonement spell…”. So I bought the shirt and dressed in it and plenty of glitter (even glittered my kids too) and we made a special, surprise trip to his game and brought his favorite peanut butter cookies. He was quite surprised and rather enjoyed the “groupie” attention he got that day.

Nothing I can wear to my day job, but it has caught many peoples attentions at conventions, which is the point. The number of shirts, hats, hoodies, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and even underwear you can get at Cafepress is nothing short of shocking and they cover a vast array of topics. I have also found great shirts there for the gamer guys in my life. Happy hunting and I would love to hear what great gamer clothes you have found out there on the web.

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