This Week: Forges, Conferences, Blades & Art!

Welcome to This Week, a weekly series where I discuss all the gaming (both video and tabletop) content I've played, made, prepped, run and seen that's cool this week. If you want to see what I got up to last week, go here.

Let's jump in with what I've done This Week...

What I've Played

Smiths of Winterforge, a beautiful and highly strategic board game for 2-5 players went live on Kickstarter this week, and my partner (Amelia Sarif) wrote a review of it. Which means I got to play it! A few times, actually! You play as Dwarven forgemasters attempting to fulfil a royal contract before anyone else. It's pretty awesome, and Australian-made to boot (cheers Table Tyrant Games). Amelia says it a lot better than I could, so go check out her review over on Another Dungeon. And if you like what you see, go back it!

(Image from Table Tyrant Games)

What I've Made

As of Friday I discovered I'm going to GCAP! Wooo! GCAP stands for Game Connect Asia Pacific, the largest conference of its type in my part of the world. This is like our industry meet up, and Academy Awards rolled into one. It's a big deal. This means I'll get to rub shoulders with a lot of amazing people - some who I know by reputation, some who I only know online, and some who I have met before but haven't seen in a long time. It's a place to discuss ideas, and share projects.

(Image from GCAP)

Which means Do or Dice needs to be up to snuff! Whilst I'm not going to be hawking it there, I will be bringing along a copy of the rules - as trimmed down as possible - to share around. This is the first time I'm publicly sharing it, so I'm pretty nervous. But also very excited! After this, I'll be sharing it at PAX Aus as well, and then I might be posting it online... Who knows? Watch this space!

(Image from William McAusland, used with permission)

Whilst I'm trying to get that all sorted, I keep coming up with ideas for bits and settings to add onto Do or Dice. As I've mentioned before, the game is going to be setting-less - like Fate Core - and have several micro settings released for it afterwards. I'm calling these Playspaces for now, and I'm amassing somewhat of a list. Whilst I can't say much, I can tell you that they're weird and (hopefully) wonderful. Imagine Viking post-apocalyptic horror, AI Revolutionaries, and a world were ghosts outnumber the living... They're just three that will be coming!

What I've Run

The second session of my Curse of Strahd campaign occurred this week, and the party learned first hand just how dangerous the land of Barovia is. I'll be posting another write up, like last time, this week coming. Look forward to some horror goodness, and lots of angry shadows!

(Image from Wizards)

I also got to (finally) run another session of my Blades in the Dark campaign! Last time round we ended early because we just weren't getting it. This time round, we all made sure to read the Player's and GM's Best Practices, and get into the mood proper. It marked our 4th session, and we picked up where we left off with a little straightening and retconning.

(Image from John Harper)

And we nailed it! It was a lot more Blades and a lot more fun. Of any game I've ever played, Blades is one where I feel you can actually play it wrongly... Which is a great thing - because it means that right way to play is well crafted and delivers a stronger experience. Whilst I haven't started watching it yet, there is an example campaign of Blades in the Dark going on over on YouTube, which you can check out if you want to know what all the fuss is about.

Trust me, the game is amazing, and you should check it out if you can!

What I've Seen

Speaking of Blades in the Dark, I found this gallery which has some amazing Blades-like images in its depths. I'll be using many of these for character reference for my players, and I'm loathe not to share them. Even if they aren't relevant for your games, they're just amazing, so you should check them out anyway.

(Image from Zhang Jingna)

The gallery is called Motherland Chronicles by Zhang Jingna. Please beware that it might be NSFW. I wish I didn't have to disclaimer that, but thems the times we live in, right?

And because I can't get the damned thing out of my head, I better mention Porter Robinson and Madeon's new release, Shelter. It's a chillingly awesome track, with an amazing video to go along side it. It takes 6 minutes. Watch it...

(Image from OMOCAT)

Trust me, it'll inform a few of my future projects, if you know what it's all about!

That's all for This Week this week. I'll talk to you next week, and tell you of all my adventures again! In the mean time, fill your own week with as much awesome as possible.