In The Pipeline: June 2017

Hi Everybody!

Hi Everybody!

It's been a bit of a delayed start to the months blogging what with one thing and another. There was the "wonderful" 48 hour long headache that felt like my frontal lobe was having a hot knitting needle driven through it via my left eye-socket (so whoever has the voodoo doll, could you please remember to take the pins out when you're done), a day long boiler replacement, and of course my annual trip to the UK Games Expo yesterday.

But I'm back to blogging now, and boy do I have a fair bit planned for the month ahead; including a new regular feature - Meeple Madness!

So what's in store for June?

10 x 10 Challenge

Top of the billing (but only because I insist on doing these posts alphanumerically) is my 10 x 10 Challenge; which I hope I really hope that I can keep the momentum going with following my recent gaming flurry (I managed to get another three games of Dark Dealings in on the Bank Holiday).

Following on from my prior post  I have done a recalculation of just how many games I need to play and, with what frequency in order to keep myself on target for completing the challenge.. and it's still three a week. Well, technically it's 2.5(ish); but it seems more sensible to just round up and finish a little early.

Something that I do need to be mindful of however is the backlog of play reports that is beginning to build up (currently five); so the aim is to bring this down to zero by months end (all being well).

Meeple Arcade

Speaking of things that I have fallen behind with. At the beginning of May, I had planned to post up three new games to Meeple Arcade; but managed only one. It wasn't for the lack of material either; just a lack of time. So given that the only issue was time; I'll be more realistic with this months plans (especially given my late start to the months blogging), and set myself a target of only posting up two new games.

Meeple Madness

One of the great things about the UK Games Expo, is the chance it gives you to meet new people; and discover new things. Games you never knew existed, and new twists on the games you already know and love. So when I discovered that there was a darker (if such a thing was even possible) version of Cards Against Humanity on sale yesterday, I was intrigued (and being the sick puppy that I am, naturally I bought it).

Now I know that Cards Against Humanity is a game that has quite the polarising effect when it comes to gamers. People either love it, or they hate it; and I can see arguments for both sides, although I am firmly in the "love it" camp. With good reason too.

A few years back I had a truly crappy job that made me miserable day in, day out; not to mention a boss who was riding my ass like Seabiscuit. Then one weekend the gaming group I was a part of at that time broke out Cards Against Humanity, and it really lifted my spirits. The open forum of abuse that was all in good humor really helped let go of all of my negativity in a positive way; and I laughed so hard my head was still hurting days later!

So, without a doubt, I'm firmly in the "love it" camp; but that doesn't mean I don't respect people might be offended by the content of Cards Against Humanity, and equally so it's darker cousin that I purchased yesterday, Guards Against Insanity.

I care about my readers, so I would ask that if you feel you are likely to be offended by the material contained in Guards Against Insanity; PLEASE avoid the Meeple Madness posts. Each these posts will feature a randomly drawn black card, and a randomly drawn white card; which I WILL NOT be censoring in any way, shape or, form.. You have been warned!

Warnings aside, these posts should be very quick and easy to produce; so once I get going you can probably expect one every day.

SCRAWL

The material that I am working on for SCRAWL (classes, races, spells, and items currently) is still very much at the drawing board stage; but I have made some really good progress with it in the past month. Just not to the point where I can release it unfortunately.

The revised version of my alternate classes should almost certainly see the light of day this month though, as all that remains to tweak is the starting equipment; and the development of new items (which will cover this) is the aspect of SCRAWL that I'm currently working on. 

Tunnels & Trolls

There's really no way of sugar-coating it; I've done bugger all work on the solo I'm planning to write over the last month, and quite honestly the whole thing has stalled. So rather than swim against the tide, I'm sadly going to shelve this project for the time being to focus on other content.

UK Games Expo

I'm planning to write a short series of articles (three in total) this month covering my personal highlights of the expo experience; and additionally a couple of posts on top of that looking more in depth at some of those highlights.

At this point I'm not too sure just how many posts this will end up running to, but I can say with absolute certainty that there will be no less than three; with the aim being to get those initial three posts up within the coming week.