Thaw of the Lich Lord Campaign Open!

We've been waiting a long time for this, and Season 2 hits this weekend!  The new season brings a ton of new games to the table, and we return fully to our Dungeons & Dragons roots for a while.  Even more exciting is the prospect of awesome miniature games!

Thaw of the Lich Lord is the latest supplement for Frostgrave, and we've decided to use both the published books for this year's campaign.  In addition, this season will be the first to incorporate "campaign days" for both our wargames.  These will be event days set aside for the entire club to participate in the new games, and will be a ton of fun for everyone.

We have situated the Frozen City of Frostgrave to the north of Citadel Adbar, somewhere beyond the Ice Mountains.  This should give us plenty of terrain to move around on, from mountainous forests to the rocky crags of the topmost spires.  It's a time of hobby elation as we begin to both paint our warbands and build a new set of stark, cold and rocky terrain!

Our wizards are already prepared for battle!  Join us in discovering what the depths of Frostgrave holds by checking out the campaign page, and tell us about your wizard and warband.  We love to hear from everyone!

See you on Game Day!

No Oath, No Spell (Session 13)

April 17th, 6:30pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
January 24th, 1876

Further down into the cave, Juan and I find a man on collapsed in the white light of a glowing floor that was glassy smooth.  There was a floating cube that seemed to have changing lighted marks on its' faces.




Juan grabbed the cube, and the lights went off.  The man was able to get off the floor, and he wanted to go further into the cave.  He could barely walk, so we moved to take him.

On the way we find two of the shiny meta creatures, and they tried to stop us.  Juan shot them.

We headed further into the cave and the rest of the group came to join us and decided to help the man as well.

We followed the man down the cavern and found a silver disk that was very large.  The man went ito it after it opened into stairs.  We followed to see the white light inside the thing.  He turned the light red, and then signaled that we should go.

Jakey Wales, the Sheriff and John Skinner left the cave.  We followed the man further into the cave into a stream.  We follow him out, wading through the stream.  We find a lit grotto with a large, glowing stone.  The man turned into an orb and went into the stone.

The Red Band were there, all around the stone.  White Hawk as well.  He told us the little men were corrupted by the Snake Brothers, and made to follow their commands instead of those issued by the Ancient Ones.

White Hawk helped us find our way back to town.  It took over five hours.  We decided to have dinner, all together.  We had a rather uneventful night.

8:40pm

January 25th, 1876

A child came to tell me that Ms. Holmes wanted to talk with me.  She gave me a check for $10,000 and said she wanted to both renew my contact and make the paper more successful.

Later that morning, we ride out to check on the tree.  It was growing and green.

Late that evening a knock on the door at the sheriff's office brings Bass Reeves and two men he had captive.  He said that a band of men may be following.

D&D Attack Wing and the Rise of Flightpath

Our 2nd year of D&D Attack Wing is coming around in a few weeks, and I wanted to take this opportunity to address a few things regarding the phenomenal success of the Flightpath games not only with our club, but the entire gaming community.  We've seen our schedule shift, through multiple votes and meetings, toward including more and more of these games since we got our feet wet early last year.  Why?  Let's discuss.

We used to be aghast at even using pre-painted miniatures, but a few years ago Pathfinder Miniatures began releasing a new standard of pre-paint.  Impressed with the new standard and how some previously unavailable miniatures were now featured, we looked into Attack Wing when it was announced, and decided that even if the game turned out to suck, we'd still have the miniatures.  Now, miniature gaming here at the Wargate has really been about RPG's for the last few years - still had a sour taste in our mouth from all the GW Kool-Aid.  While warband / army miniatures is on the rise in popularity again, Flightpath has fundamentally changed our scheduling, and consequently our gaming experience.

I think we can point to the fact that in our case, we could chuck out all the cards and cardboard chits and still have the minis for whatever game we want to play.  That's one reason, but I don't think it's the main reason we've decided to keep three Flightpath games on our schedule for this year (and going forward).  Last week's meeting determined that Star Wars:  Armada would win out over the more traditional (for us) Tomorrow's War in Season 3 this year.  No, good sirs and ladies, it's not just the pretty miniatures.  The main reason for this shift is far more basic.

Flightpath games are fun.  That's it - four words describing why we support this game.  Basic, to the point and (generally) self-contained, these games are very attractive for a sort of beer-n-pretzels game that's also competitive and not grossly unbalanced, despite some ill luck with the dice.

Real terrain makes the games even better!

Add to that the fact that now our players can control a Tyranny of Dragons as their force, and you've got a recipe for success.

D&D Attack Wing occupies a special place.  It's a great "party" game, and like the other Flightpath games lends itself well to team play.  This is what we needed, and these games provided a sense of community during our recent dark days.  The entire club loves these games and are instantly engaged, and new players can be engaged just as quickly.  This is the real power of Flightpath, and the secret to it's success.

 New Attack Wing stuff is set to arrive this year, along with the new D&D story arc from Wizards of the Coast.  The publication schedule really suits us, and now that D&D is the mainstay of the Wargate once more we're very comfortable with that.  Boardgame Geek gives us a great place to get familiar with the line, including the Organized Play packages and upcoming releases.  Don't worry about the line fizzling out for a while.  Hopefully, with our support, the release schedule will have a great success with each push.

See you on Game Day!