The Skinny On Dice Rule! (Part XII)

With all cons behind me for the year, I've dedicated my "game time" to the next WEGS book, Dice Rule! Well, that and the next module, Minotaur Meat... And of course, the long overdue Minion of the Month... These are the big three on my plate right now.

Dice Rule! is the one that consumes most of the time, and last week I found myself in the never-ending cycle of reading, editing, reading, editing the final chapter in the book: Chapter XII, Adventure! This isn't the first time I've been through that process with this chapter - more like the VI-th. It's a chapter that just doesn't want to play well with the others. Come the end of the week, on the XII-th to be exact, I put the finishing touches on the chapter and put it to rest (once again). This doesn't mean that Chapter XII is done by any stretch of the imagination. It only means that I've gotten it to a point where it is drying. I'll rip it all apart again when I start layout and design. And that point should be coming very, very soon! Boxcars!

GenCon Everafter...

Haven't posted since the end of Gencon, which pretty much summarizes how much the summer con season takes out of ya (physically, mentally, monetarily)! Gotta add even more conventions to the schedule next summer and see what kind of recovery time that incurs!

Since August, I've been working on the next book (Dice Rule!), the next Badderlands module (Minotaur Meat) and the next minion (Trolls). In order to make some headway, I went light on the fall convention schedule, details of which will be posted soon.

I'm back in the game, baby!

All work and no play...

Feb's been a busy work month for me, thus the first posting happening mid-month. There was some headway on the WEGS front in the fact that I was able to launch the first Master Minion, Mushpot the Great! The first WEGS module, B1 Hobgobble's Eve, will arrive on the wegsite later this month. And speaking of work... The Origins and GenCon event schedules are due this month, too. Hard to believe that it's that time of the year already! I always forget that Feb is a big push month for getting everything lined up for the spring and summer cons (this stuff just sneaks up on you). On the game front, the first convention of the year is hitting this week: Dreamation. Looking forward to throwing down some WEGS this weekend; it's the first chance I'm going to get to sit back and have fun in some time (and hopefully sell some product, too)!

Minion Of The Month-Column Golum

All fear the column golem!!! It's been a while since I've posted a minion of the month, but we threw down a new minion last month that caused quite a stir: the column golem. This is a bizarre rubber toy that is composed of roman columns!?! Figured you'd find this guy protecting a temple - so he appeared for the From Dusk Til Dead scenario at Wittcon. As an 88, this hulking minion of stone reduced all Damage Die by 2 points. He was limited to walking in straight lines and would take a full action just to pivot in square. He would automatically pivot any time he entered the same "line" as a target, then he would march toward them and crush them with two attacks per inning. His fists would do 12xD6 Enchanted Wounds (so an Ark had to rely on their Stealth score alone for protection)! The wizard you see behind him was armed with the fabled "chainsword". She kept hitting him with wicked failures and so spent a lot of time behind him in Lost Action Phase. So, the dice were on his side (but that's what you would expect when you are attacking stone!). Gotta love the WEGS dice when they behave like gods!!!

Roy, the Acid Spitting Dragon Mage

The first dragon has been unleashed on the Wegsworld! His name is Roy and he's one tough little liz. He was introduced in a modified version of Dragontrap, run by Todd from Dicechuckers, a local gaming group. I sat in and watched this game - the first WEGS game that I did not organize/set-up. The only thing I had to do was show up (and bring the copper pot).

Via email, Todd and I hammered out the dragon's details and stats. Roy is a Master Minion, of course, Level 8/88. He is a Mage (88%), Trickster (66%), Ranger (44%). Naturally, he can fly (as a special move). He possesses Acid Spittle, which he can blast as a Ranger, and doing so costs him spoints. For Wounds, he starts with 88, and has an additional 88 wound bonus giving him 176 wounds to start! To make matters worse, he has 4 Actions Per Inning and an AggDam of 30... Zoinks! For those of you who don't speak WEGS or Shaggy, this translates to "winged death".

Facing this monstrosity were four new players:

Humnz Warrior
Dwarf Warrior
Dwarf Sage
Elf Ranger

This was a fun game to watch, and from the start folks knew this was like leading lambs to slaughter (the title gave that away!). When we have played this scenario at cons, the adventurers only find a dragontrap sans dragon. This version led them right in to the dragon's mouth. All in all, the players put up an excellent fight against Roy, however he maintained the upper hand. Player dice rolls were pretty bad and Roy's defense rolls never failed. This was a party that tended toward Lost Action Phases and Wicked Bad Shots! Luck was not on their side. By the end of the game, every one was running toward the door - except the Elf, who made a dramatic last stand.

Roy is definitely a minion to be reckoned with! I look forward to rolling up an Ark and getting in the ring with him someday!

He's November's Minion O' The Month!

To-Gash! To-Gash! To-Gash!

To-Gash was released in minion form earlier this month at Origins in a little scenario called Pigskab's Skewl 4 Wizzerds (our little anti-Potter jaunt). To-Gash is a hulking brute (part-Orge, part-Dragonian) who serves as the skewl's head chef. He is the one responsible for keeping the maggots off the meat of the headmaster. Though the meals served to the students are one step away from rotting, there's never a peep of a complaint due to the cleaver that hangs on To-Gash's belt (right next to the scalp of a former student named Holiver...).

The name To-Gash comes from a wound one of the Wegshogs received from some sort of swimming accident earlier this summer. It is also a nod to all things Belushi...

To-gash!

To-gash!

To-gash!

Mushpot Amongst The Giants...

Since I posted on Mushpot yesterday, thought I'd follow up with a pic today. Here he is in all his glory amongst the literary giants of our time (Hemingway, Melville, Hawthorne, Python, Huxley). Notice the small Dwarf Lord game piece at his feet.

I don't know too much about this strange statuette. Found it at a garage sale a couple of years ago. Weird thing is that I stumbled upon a piece of art that he was based on. Seems he is a Bauer troll.

http://runeberg.org/jbauer/

Mushpot can be seen in the top pic (he's the giant on the right). There's something very Tolkien about Bauer (or vice versa). I think my next quest will be to find statuettes of the other trolls in the picture.

They gotta exist, right?

Mushpot The Great

The Minion o' the Month for June has arrived!

Mushpot is a big ol' angry giant with a taste for Gnobbit meat. He normally appears as the hired hand for nefarious parties (such as Quolmort or One Eye Gleebag) and has been encountered in the scenarios Hobgoblin Lunchbox, Spittrakk's Tower and A Giant Mess. He fashions himself a king among true giants and ridicules the everyday giant that you'd find in other adventure games.

Generally, Mushpot stands between the adventurer's and their exit, wielding one mighty big club (tree). At conventions we use a ceramic statue that I found at garage sale years ago. He is probably 20 times larger than the other playing pieces on the table and so brings a sense of shock and awe to the players when he appears...

Mushpot has been with us since the first con that we WEGS playtested. I'd make him a part of the pre-game set-up, surrounded by a host of miniatures and poker chips and dice. He was kinda the WEGS poster child... It was a great gimmick to catch the eye of the odd passerby. You just don't see things like that incorporated in games.

"This game has giants and poker chips?!? Dang, beam me up, Scotty!!!"

Of late, we've retired Mushpot from cons as he's kinda fragile despite mighty big size (he's ceramic afterall). He'll be on display at the WEGS Museum someday...

Borkfu

Borkfu - the name says it all.

Borkfu is one of the lead minions in our Dwarf Walks Into A Bar adventure. He's one mean ass Goblin warrior chieftain with a bad attitude. He's the player's bane. The villain.

When the adventure begins, the players find themselves in the Tongue of Dung tavern in the convict infested village of Ikkspat. What they're doing in this place is anybody's guess...

Borkfu and his family clan, the Goblins of Kraven Klaw, are found occupying a table in the back of the tavern. In front of them on the table is the clan's heirloom sword, on which the Goblins raucously swear oaths as is their custom.

Needless to say, the Goblins are none too happy to see the adventurers on their turf.

The adventure unwinds from there.