Racial Class: Brownie Warrior

Certainly a class you'll want to play!

In Brownie communes, their are always those that, for some reason or another, seek glory beyond the small world of the Brownie community, a world outside filled with excitement, danger, and riches beyond their wildest fantasy. However, it is a world of death and cut-throat competition, where only the strongest and smartest live to reap the benefits. As expected, most Brownie adventurers don't make it far before death; carnivorous giant rats, terrible ogres (halflings), and the occasional cockroach mean that those who do decide to leave probably won't make it back home alive for rice and stwinger dinner. Amongst these soon-to-be-dead individuals, there are the champions, the wild cards, the ones who survive and go on, to bask in the fortunes that crawling through labyrinths in the dark provide.

BROWNIE WARRIOR
Prime Attribute: Dexterity 13+ (5% experience)
Hit Dice: 1d6-2 hit point/level (minimum 1 per level)
Weapons/Armor/Shields Permitted: see below

Brownies have darkvision up to 60 feet. Also, due to their tiny size, brownies are unable to wield larger weapons, such two-handed swords and battleaxes. brownies can only wield daggers and clubs, and must do so two-handed. They can also use sharpened shivs (1d3), sharp sticks (1d2), and rocks (1d1), which can be easily made and are free.

Armor and shields meant for humans, elves, and dwarves are simply to large and bulky for a brownie to wear.

At 10th level, a brownie warrior can establish a commune, with like-minded brownies joining in. eventually, he may even become king of the brownies!

Brownie warriors have thac0 and saving throws per level as fighting-men.
Lvl Experience Hit die
1 0 1
2 1000 2
3 2000 3
4 4000 4
5 8000 5
6 16,000 6
7 32,000 7
8 64,000 8
9 128,000 9
10 256,000 10

Hopefully this post will make up for the last three months inactivity.....

First, in order that I might get it out of my system and not subject anyone to further inanities by it.....

--------------------------GRATUITOUSLY UNNECESSARY PLUG----------------------


Schwarzenudel 3D, the first encounter is 2 weeks (or months) away from completion, with only the text files, sound effects and a few levels (which I will half-ass to the best of my ability) to complete. Not only that, order now, and we'll send you the Schwarzenudel\Wrath of Shangri-La double pack at no extra charge! Wow!

----------------------------END SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION----------------------


First, let me state that I consider my time with all of you to have been a privilege and that I hope it will continue well into the future. However, as of late, I have finally accepted the fact that any and all notions of formality or centeralized authority with regard to the LPGS are no longer relevant (that is, if they even existed in the first place). In accuality, the LPGS came into existance and continues to be built around the interpersonal relations of those classified as members, that is to say, the LPGS exists at different place at different times with different people, that it is in fact the much scorned "massive inter-friend party" we have all been critical of since its first mention in the original LPGS blog about 2 years ago. The trick is in scheduling carefully as to avoid interpersonal conflict. We are united by common interest, not common action and its time we treated our interactions accordingly. Simply put, I think we have all come to the realization that we cannot achieve this level of cohesiveness


However, with this in mind, it shouldn't be too much trouble to ensure that we don't end up like this.


So, with that out of the way, let us proceed to something a bit more relevent to our interests, rather than our actions.

With Games Workshop a distant memory and video game fatigue setting in, perhaps it is time to return to a simpler time, a time of great and powerful heroes, and sinister villians, of exotic creatures, where glory and honour dwarf in value even the most precious of treasures....





Oh......Wait. No.

Well, in any case, I propose a return to one of our most long-standing and universally favoured standbys, the tabletop RPG. As of this time, we have no less than FOUR active campaigns, with more being concieved of all the time. A return to
these realms, chivilrous or otherwise, should prevent further activities based drama, with the fringe benefit of being so universally accepted by just about everyone in our circle, likely offering the most enjoyment of any of our regular activities.

Closing fun fact



Weww Hewwo Evwybody!

Pwesent gwoup Brownie Mortawity wate (estimate): 263 and awways cwimbing....

A fond farewell to Games Workshop

I suppose this was going to happen sooner or later, as it probably did with many of those before me. Games Workshop has consistently produced good looking models and fun (if tactically simple) games, but price-wise, they're pretty much a rip-off. While there are those who have the means and desire to continue their hobby, my time playing and purchasing their games has come to a close. Me and others like me no longer are the target demographic of their company, unwanted customers that don't have the means to continue to support them. My days as a Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy player have ended. I'm sure that everyone who has given up on GW probably has written some rant on why their favorite miniature company is the ultimate force of darkness, along with some allusions to Nazi Germany and the evils of capitalism. Rather than lash out, instead I'd rather take a short time to analyze exactly why I am no longer content to play, and how they could've avoided this situation.

I have to admit, that even before I got into 40k at the age of 14, GW had always had expensive miniatures priced ahead of the inflation rate. But there is a reason for this, that being the scale of their games at the time. Back in the 80's Warhammer 40k 1st and 2nd edition were both considered skirmish games, meaning that you probably had 50 models at most per side. In those times, you were allowed to have around 25% of your points dedicated solely to your HQ units, meaning that with the wide variety of wacky weapons and gadgets, you could bulk up on points fairly easily. In a 2000 point game between Space Wolves and Eldar, you'll probably get around 25 models per side, because of all the additional add-ons and elements represented in the game's rules, rather than the pieces of play on the field. An Ork warboss loaded with mega-armor, various cyborg attachments, and perhaps a grenade launcher loaded with vortex grenades could be around 1/8th or 1/4th of your entire points budget (depending on how many points are agreed upon per side). Mind you, the aformentioned game between Eldar and Marines could take 4 hours of play, but that's alright and to be expected, because the rules are balanced around you using that many models, and add the tactical options available with each playing piece. Yes, the models were pricey, but it was fair, because you didn't need that many to play.

Not so in 2010. With each new edition released (c'mon, you're supposed to update all the codexes for 4th edition before moving on to 5th!) the average game size increases. I don't mean that in the sense of points values, since the worth of a model changes from edition to edition. With the exception of perhaps the Imperial Guard, armies in 2nd edition consisted of 3 or 4 squads reinforced with a plastic tank or two. In 3rd edition, the average army size is a reinforced platoon, 5 or 6 squads, not including command, with 3 or 4 armored vehicles. With this the rules are simplified, but the scale has been increased to accept a platoon-sized game in about the same amount of time it took for the 20 models to duke it out. Plus, these troop choices are now in plastic, so it's not too much of an increase in price, since you're getting more in each box. The problem comes in the fact that in recent editions, with the focus on apocalypse sized games, that 2000 points could very well be an entire company. In current codex updates, the points value of individual models are reduced, with army wide special rules not being represented in "invisible" points that effect the entire army. So the average points allowance of a wholesome "balanced" game is upped to 2000 or 2500, while the points value for units and troops decreases, and the monetary cost of these models of decreased game value goes up all at the same time.

The rules for 40k are now not too tactically exciting or really get me thinking and strategizing. Subjectively, it now feels like games are decided by little personal skill, at least compared to 2nd edition. This is okay though, because modern 40k is what we consider a Beer & Pretzels game. The focus is not on a slide-rule simulation of speculative future combat, but seeing power armored space marines with chainsaw blades, giant electrified Nintendo Power Gloves, and machine gun rocket launchers fighting space elves, demons, and green-skinned football hooligans, all while you and your friends are having fun cathartically rolling buckets of dice and trash-talking! That's totally awesome! There's no other sci-fi universe like it! But let's look at this from a different perspective. Twilight Creation's Zombies! is a Beer and Pretzel game, rules-light and a ton of fun. Initial investment? probably 20 or 30 bucks. Gorka-Morka is a Beer and Pretzel miniatures game with those green-skinned football hooligans in dune buggies with big guns and axes. Initial investment? around sixty bucks for the starter box, enough for 2 players. A complete Warhammer 40k army? Six Hundred Dollars. Alternatively, you could get 2 new XBOX 360s, a budget gaming computer made DIY, or 10 brand new video games. The point I'm trying to make is that you probably won't spend a lot of money for a strategy game where you won't get too much opportunities for strategy, and, after all, you're playing strategy games because you're a big enough nerd to find thinking and strategy fun.

Alright, so 40k isn't worth it to me anymore. But what about the company itself? surely it would go out of business if people woke up and realized what a waste of money their games are. The thing is, I don't think that's who's buying and playing their games. When GW raises the price, the more reasoned and casual players opt out, but the hardcore fans keep buying and playing, because they feel it is still worth it, and thus put up with the price. So even though there are less customers, the ones that remain are paying more, making up the loss. While this may be good for short term growth, it's not good for sustainability. As time goes on, even the hardcore will no longer be able to afford it, and by 2040, Games Workshop's customer base will consist of a club of about five hundred insane, eccentric billionaires that meet at their secret chateaus in the Swiss alps to play 10,000 point games with their armies of space marines and demons bought for $200 per tactical squad or rhino APC.

As it stands, GW is in a delicate neutral point, having a large enough following to remain somewhat profitable, but having no idea of how to actually invite new players except by trying to hide the sticker price of their model kits and hope the customer doesn't notice. They might now be a niche industry since miniature gaming is to board gaming, what board gaming is to video gamers. It doesn't have to be that way though, the 40k universe being so cool that liscensing it out to video games, comic books, movies, and board games could likely be far more profitable than miniatures. GW may have re-released Space Hulk for the absurd price of $100, but Fantasy Flight Games is replicating the experience to the best of their power in the form of the Space Hulk card game, at a reasonable price point. If they keep things like that up, they could be the Tengen to GW's Nintendo. Games Workshop may die or become the TSR of the new millenia, I'm sure the 40k universe has enough fans to continue on in a format that won't break the bank, and is also more accessible to a larger audience of potential customers.

So in conclusion, goodbye Games Workshop. I had a good time playing your games with my good friends, but it is time to depart. There are new horizons and games to explore and embrace.

Miniature Wargaming on a Budget

Miniature wargaming may have the hardest time staying relevent in the 21st century. While pen and paper role-playing games are outdone at the point hack and slash styled games by their computer counterparts (I do love me some Diablo), the options of the players are still only limited by imagination. Even if they are in nature a social activity, play-by-post or Google wave games prove that the activity can still thrive in a new format. Not so with miniature wargaming. The hobby, is bulky, expensive, and requires patience that the conveinences of electronic gaming have drained away from even the nerdiest people. It doesn't help that Games Workshop, the face of the hobby, has helped to turn more folks out of it with prices rises way ahead of the inflation rate. Why spend your money on a single Land Raider when I could have days worth of easy entertainment from a copy of Red Dead Redemption or Fallout 3 for the same price? What do miniatures have left to run with?

The spectacle of it all, of course. There is little cooler than seeing two completely painted up armies numbering in the hundreds, each model painted with love, fighting it out over on a battlefield of barricades and ruined buildings. At its best, miniature wargaming is an exciting museum diorama that you get to command and control in a game of wits and tactics against a like-minded individual.

With that in mind, we need to look at the cost of these games, and what one would get out of them. A complete Warhammer 40,000 army costs about 600 dollars, give or take 100 depending on how much of a horde army you're playing. What about Flames of War, which is at this time the premier WWII game? About $300. For the price of the former, I could get a Playstation 3 or a budget gaming PC, and the latter, perhaps a Nintendo Wii. Warmachine is around $200 for a playable force, which is probably the most I could imagine the average person being willing to spend without buying the aforementioned Playstation. However, I think we can go even cheaper than that. Here's the plan. For our purposes, let's say we want to play out WW2.

#1 Go with 15mm, individually based, platoon to company scale
Big enough to be visible to the human eye and small enough to be bought cheaply, 15mm scale is perfect for our goal. based on pennies or smaller, 15mm figures can be picked up and moved around a battlefield with little issue. you could also put them with 2 per a small sized Flames of War base so they don't seem so spread out over a huge area, in case you wanted to compact them into some ruined building, or play a Soviet horde with about 50 models per squad (Za Stalinaaaagh!!!). Actually, that two models per base thing was something I just thought of moments ago. I'm totally going to do that for my next squad. As an extra bonus due to their scale, weapon and movement ranges don't have to be halved and abstracted to fit a 6' by 4' table, adding the sense of mass combat on a grand scale. a whole company of infantry can be bought in flames of war company boxes at your local store for only about $50, leaving only tanks and miscellenia. point-wise, buying a squad of 3 tanks is like getting 3 Leman Russ' for much less than the price of one.

#2 Find an applicable rule set
The Warhammer WW2 mod availible from its respective yahoo group, which covers battles at a company scale (army lists are organized simialar to the Imperial Guard, with a platoon being a troop choice). For smaller scale games, Disposable Heroes by Iron Ivan Games will fit the bill, with half a squad operating as a single unit. They've stated that they've run games upwards of battalions with the rules, so it might fight our goals well.

#3 Start painting it up
Dude, they're 15mm, it can't take too long to paint them up. All you'd need is a basecoat, followed by a quick citadel wash of black or brown

#4 Start playing
You are now ready to go out and proves yourself a masterful general. Go forth. I have shown you the door, it's up to you to open it.

Looking Back: Street Fighter II

This is it: The original, the first, the grand-daddy of the competitive fighting game. Since 1991, Street Fighter II has been considered a classic of arcade goodness and a mentionable milestone in video-game history.

Its formula is simple: two characters out of a colorful and mildly racist cast 8 (or 12, or 16) World Warriors duke it out on a 2d plane. Utilizing a variety of punches, kicks, and unique special moves, both attempt to reduce their opponents energy bar to zero. First to do so twice wins the match.

Apparently, people liked this enough to continually pump quarters into the game's machine at the 7-Elevens and arcades across the country, inspiring continued updates and expansions (4 more, in fact), merchandise, and a terrible movie with Raul Julia as the all-awesome M. Bison, master of Shadoloo (and totally sweet shin guards). Sadly, people would have to wait until 1997 for Street Fighter III (the Third Strike edition in 1999 being my favorite fighter of all time), and by then people had stopped caring, this being a combination of the decline of arcades as a whole and rise of 3D competitors like Tekken and Virtua Fighter.

though basic by today's genre standards, Street Fighter II brought untried complexity for its time. You had around 36 special moves per character, 8 of them playable and unique, and the whole thing could be learned and enjoyed on different levels. Though the balance of power may have rested with the first of your friends to discover the mighty projectile attacks, others will soon follow. The high jumping attacks of Chun-Li countered by the anti-air Shoryuken, the cheapness of constant defensive blocking undone by the realization of throwing (that's forward and a heavy punch or kick, for those who don't know). This system of checks and balances within the game proves incredible to those who take the time to notice it. Even with the increased complexity of fighting games over time, Street Fighter II has remained relevant specifically because of its simplicity, continually being played in master tournaments like EVO. No EX attacks, assists, parries, or dashes: a balance of straight offense a defense, a straight-faced game of feints and dexterity between two individuals.

It hasn't aged as well as games like Super Mario Brothers or Tetris, but when I want an excellent brawler, Street Fighter II will always be there.

Round One...