I have just received my two Captains Chair boxes after a years wait, the second core and the smaller expansion.
This almost ends my long, long wait for some finishers and allows me to play CC somewhat “on genre”.
Most projects are now considered complete or I no longer care to continue.
I added Gotham Knights to the DCeased intro set to get minis for the secondary characters and add some more characters and boards (Zombie Batman!). Not bothered about getting the Core set as I will make this work.
Glory and Zeal, an expansion for ITU I did not think I would go for has been added, because it does close the loop for Klingons and the Dominion. If they do a Romulan based expansion (basically following the DS9 timeline), then I will probably be drawn in, but that will be enough for sure. Love to see a huge D’Deridex squeezed into that box (or the table for that matter).
I might look at another Captains Chair set if they fill some holes (early Klingon like Chang or Gorkon, an early Romulan like Valdore, maybe Xindi like Dolim, a Shinzon, some Voyager characters etc**) and I anticipated a Borg thing, but otherwise I have enough of a game that is excellent, designed to play solo or 1v1, but it is also a heavy lift.
I will continue to get anything released for Unmatched (Hellboy is coming) because basically it is the most played of my games.
There was a surprise grab of Holland ‘44, one of the ‘40 series GMT war games, probably the only one I will get as the bulk are Regimental scale, not battalion level my preferred scale, but the Musket and Pike dual pack is also of interest. These heavy war game simulations were a thing of my past, many Avalon Hill, GDW, SPI and others coming and going over the decades, but I kept a few and the spark is still there for the right game.
For Dragonbane, there is possibly a Storm Bringer expansion. Maybe I will also follow it with Trudvang, but we will see. It does seem like a neat little game as is and that is not nothing.
For Cthulhu there are three new books and an adventure anthology for Rivers of London (which it needs) and Marvel Multiverse is now complete enough with the Secret War. I started buying this out of habit to expand my gaming based knowledge of Marvel characters for my own game, to go with all the other DC and Marvel RPG’s that I have, what price research?
There is a Justice League rpg on the horizon, which will likely tempt, but I wait to see how it unfolds.
My real interest at the moment and this surprises me, especially coming from winter when all things crafty fall away, is painting war game miniatures. ECW, WW2, Arthurian, maybe some AWI or Napoleonic, scales from 6 to 28mm, they are all in the picture.
The odd new game jumps out, like Monty Python’s Co-curricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme, a game probably closer to my and many other’s first DnD experiences than most of us realise* and one that I would find hard to do with other systems.
These days a TTRPG (hate the “TT” bit, they came first for heavens sake!) seems to need to have a theme and connected mechanical application, something that I can do with a generic system I already own (D100/D20 derivative, Savage Worlds, Cortex etc), so the trend is to take the seed of an idea, often just from the blurb or cover illustration and let my imagination run.
Not much these cannot do if a little effort is applied.
Nothing slows this down more than having to buy, vet and learn another system every single time, but I have been known to buy the odd support element to support that, like the Vaessen Mythic England or Tales from the Loop maps (love maps).
Savage Worlds Pathfinder, my late re-entry into the Pathfinder world (I had 30+ PF1e books at one time and liked them, just disliked the D20 system), has been tied off with the Crimson Throne adventure path that has dropped to half original price and Advanced Players Guide 2, the last two bits.
I find SW hard to source sometimes in Australia, Amazon being the best way unfortunately, but the range can be patchy and elusive, often I have added a book to my cart before I have noticed it is the German edition. Throne arrived in all its weighty, glossy glory in a paper envelope! Somehow it survived the trip from the U.S. in reasonable condition, but if I were a collector….. . Try harder Amazon, really poor.
I kept the map sets I bought for the 1e PF adventure paths (have I said I love maps) and it turns out they match in perfectly with both PFSW versions (i.e. they are the same), so a win there. I feel that is all there will be for this spinoff hybrid apart from the Fantasy Companion which I guess acts as a second bestiary and adds lots of depth.
That is plenty and I have toyed with the idea of getting some of the old PF adventure path books as they can apparently be modded easily enough.
There always seems to be something on the horizon, but the lead times, full shelves, seemingly less time as my photographic career seems to grow might be putting natural breaks on it all and I am ok with that. The demise and finalising of X-Wing, Attack Wing, Armada etc and the natural filling-out of other games are a relief even.
*I read a quote the other day that “most players start out wanting to be the party from Lord of the Rings, but by the end of session one are playing Monty Python”. Too true. The Python game is an example of a theme and system that are just too cohesive and specialised to be done another way, something I cannot do with other systems or if I did the cross-over still requires the original game.
**Just announced, two more packs with what I am after, but over a year away and on recent track record, that might only be the start of the wait.