The Quick & The Dead Vs. The Vampire Circus

I was pretty spent when I got around to my MinBlogIsode this week.  I was really run down, tired, and honestly down.  Sometimes when you are down that melancholy existential rabbit hole you can lose sight of all the amazing shit going on around you.  Then David & Michael arrived for the newest Shuffle Sounds - Podcast episode and immediately I felt the funk that was hanging over me like a dark malaise slip off.  We recorded a damn fine, really quick paced for us, episode about an album that I absolutely LOVE.  So go check it out.

Last night we did some painting with my favorite dwarf, Edgar, his fantastic wife, Tiffany, and their walking adorbs machine, baby Vincent.  It didn't hurt that we tried to eat our body weight in really damn good ribs, or that they are awesome people to hang out with, or that playing with a baby is one of those things that just make you happy, OR that I truly do enjoy painting, but by the end I felt like I was on the upswing of things.  I really felt that after a few weeks of being on the verge of being a miserable bastard that I had turned a corner.

Then today came.

AND IT RULES! 

The place that pays me has gone smoothly, and cross my fingers it'll stay that way for the last few hours I have left.  Tonight is an insane Movie-A-Thon where the flicks are Basement Of Sleaze APPROVED!  Add into that the fact that I'll be slugging back Butter Beers, surrounded by my Homies, and wearing the best gawd damn robe known to man leads you to believe that the good times may never end.


Enough of this blithering happiness though, let's rock out some...

RANDOM CRAP!

- Feel better Electric Elyssa & Master Ked 4.0!

- If you are playing D&D, any edition, then you should be checking out the Dungeon Master's Guild.  It is a great open licensing area to cheaply purchase PDF's.  I've spent a little scratch there, but today I gleefully dropped some cash on Elemental Magic Of Zakhara! 

This was created by Komrade Kevin and was helped through its development by our own Antagonist Relations brother-in-arms the one, the only, Zack Attack.  It is a pay what you want PDF, but for whatever you want to pay you get;
"This product both brings elements inspired by the southern continent of Zakhara up to the Sword Coast of Faerûn and updates them for native 5th edition Al-Qadim games. Inside you’ll find over 50 spells of the four elemental provinces of Zakharan mages (more than 10 for each elemental province), updated from AD&D Second Edition which complement those found in both the Player’s Handbook and Elemental Evil Player’s Companion to enhance any Elemental Evil or Forgotten Realms campaign. Wizards who focus on elemental magic will find new elemental traditions, and monks who follow the way of the four elements will find new elemental disciplines. In addition, the Brotherhood of True Flame emerges in Faerûn as a mercenary (or perhaps villainous) faction with designs on controlling fire magic and stopping their elemental rivals. A list of Zakharan wizard spells, including each elemental province, and four elemental monoliths for high-level wizards to summon round out the appendices."
I have already given Komrade Kevin my money.  And yes I paid far more than the average, because this is a truly awesome bit of work we're being practically given.  You should do the same!  Go out there pay some of your hard earned scratch, add some Middle Eastern flavor to your D&D, and support a TRULY talented guy who always creates truly fantastic labors of love.

- My lovely wife and I are going to Deadpool on Sunday.  So romantic...

- If you are in Minnesota then you should hit up The Source Comics. 

Go there, see and talk to The Geneious, and take advantage of their crazy Reaper miniatures (metals) sale where everything in these bins is simply $2.00!  We can't get there till Saturday and I'm desperately hoping there is still some swanky stuff left, but that is a damn fine price either way, and totally worth the drive and hunt.    

- I think I'm going to attempt to avoid the news for two weeks and see if this doesn't help make me feel better, because every time I read it I feel like leaving this mortal plane.

- Speaking of things to purchase There are three Kickstarters that are either going or that are starting in the next week that are going to be taking my money.  First up is the expansion to World Wide Wrestling; International Incident. 

This one got funded basically immediately, because let's face it the game is AMAZING!  This what we use for Full House Wrestling.  This expansion is going to give us more builds, and some other really intriguing additional rules.  I highly recommend getting in on this and if you don't have the original game you can pick it up in this Kickstarter as well.  On a side note, the creator, Nathan Paoletta, is a really great guy, is open to any suggestions you post on his site, and should be someone all of us out there who dig games support.  Next up would be the World Architect Cards Kickstarter!  This Simian Circle Games Kickstarter, creators of Far Away Land, is going to take what they did with their flat out incredible Dungeon Architect Cards and give us a tool set for quick world building.  That set of cards has been invaluable for me when I have to improve a dungeon, and I think it'll be eve more useful once I start running a bit of Adventure Maximus for the younglings in our circle. 

On another side note, I've been fortunate in that the internet can bring you into contact with people who produce things you admire, use, and whose art you frequently purchase.  The owner of Simian Circle Games, Dirk Stanley, is much like Nathan Paoletta in the fact that he's a creative force of nature and just a nice human being.  So again, support these two gentlemen with your hard earned chedda'!  Last but not least, Privateer Press is putting out their expansion for their board game The Undercity on 2/16/16.  The Widower's Wood will have more of a Hordes feel rather than the Warmachine feel that The Undercity had.  They will be compatible which is super cool!  Casual Doug and I played The Undercity on Monday and we both dug it! 

I dug it enough to seriously contemplate this Kickstarter next week.  The main deciding factor will be the buy in cost.  I picked up The Undercity for around $30.00 and for that price the miniatures alone are a steal, much like picking up another Privateer Press Iron Kingdoms' board game, Grind, for $6.00.  Hell, for the miniatures alone in that game I would have paid three times that.  The components in the game are gorgeous.  Like I said, the miniatures are simply fantastic.  The game itself plays like a very supped up version of the D&D Adventure Board Games, which to me is a compliment.  We only played the first adventure in the campaign and I, for one, am excited for us to revisit it as soon as possible.  Well there you have it.  Three Kickstarters that I feel are worth their weight in coin.  So, go forth and support the games, music, and art you love! 

That's all I got today....Go forth and have a great weekend!