Anxiety for me can be a real prick for me sometimes. An excellent example was yesterday, in which during class it struck. Having been force to leave class and head for the campus Councillors, I had to take a ten minute detour to a bathroom and empty my stomach. Shaking and cold sweat is also a memorable experience, which is usually followed by an hour or two of severe Depression as one blames themselves for having the Anxiety attack.
The thing is, I was fine up until the attack and for the life of me, I'm still not exactly sure what brought it on. That's the worse part for me, the fact that it hits you out of nowhere and it hits hard. Social Anxiety is something I've lived with for years (Hell, I've lived with Clinical Depression for over nineteen years now), but I've really only suffered these physically violent Anxiety attacks for the last year (from what I can remember at least, my memory about such things isn't the best) and it's the fact they can strike me at anytime that really concerns me.
Naturally, time spent both with the Councillor and alone helped calm me down, but had to go home and rest as I was in no state to start working on future solutions. Did get to spend my afternoon painting as part of my recovery, so yesterday wasn't a total waste.
Thursday, 1 September 2016
Monday, 29 August 2016
Through the Breach: Into the Bayou Short Review
So it's in and I've been reading and re-reading it since I got it. Now, I want to point out that I've never played the Malifaux RPG Through the Breach, mostly cause I don't know a lot of people or anyone who would want to play it. That said, I absolutely love Gremlins and this book really gives me a good insight into them, but also helps me define that Gremlin character I've been working on. So lets get into this.
Obviously, this is an expansion to the rules set out from the Through the Breach core rulebooks. It's broken into several parts from Lore and character creation, new pursuits (classes), advanced pursuits, talents and skills, gear and stats for a number of creatures your party might encounter while in the Bayou.
Lore
This got me giddy with excitement as many of the books Wyrd releases for the Malifaux miniatures game really don't give much lore, other then a few stories, for the Gremlins. This gives a nice description of the Bayou area, the creatures in it and some of the more famous locations with in it (There are even rules to gamble against the Hag Witch Zoraida, though be aware that such a thing is very much in her favour). Gremlins get the most detail in this, such as their beliefs, habits and their love for booze. Family names are something they hold dear to themselves and work much like a community or tribe, so every Gremlin belongs to a family (or at least until they are thrown out). Life for a Gremlin child is rough, as a mother can sometimes forget you exist and can end up rounded into small groups that can form gangs. Some are more favoured by their mother (particularly girls, due to their rarity) and they tend to get better treatment (until the next back of children are born anyway).
Marriage and Love are also slightly bizarre. Love is fine, but the very romantic type many of us enjoy is seen to go a little too far, so they prefer you keep that level of affection at home. Marriage is more of a reason to just throw one massive party and booze up, but it's also to bring one member of another family into one's own. As such, a female Jones marries a LaCroix male, the female will change her family name to LaCroix and depending on her memory and booze tolerance, it will determine how much time it'll take for her to forget she was ever a Jones. Even Humans can marry Gremlins, for they are not overly against this as after all, once you are part of the family, you are treated as one of the family. It's not rare that a Gremlin can get so plastered at these events that they can end up marrying a Pig or even an attractive looking rock.
As mentioned, Family is important and the book give a page worth of detail for each of the major Gremlin Families (lesser families are mentioned, but they are kept unknown for the Fatemaster to expand upon). There is also some interesting information on the families from the Three Kingdoms region and they defiantly sounds like there will be problems with the Ten Thunders and the Black Dragon. I get the feeling the Gremlins will end up in a massive war amongst themselves when things go to hell.
There is also some brief information on Kythera, but more importantly, the Red Cage. While I'm not sure when this happened (was it due to the Nythera campaign or is it part of Ripples of Fate, I don't know), the Red Cage is the giant crater that housed one of the legendary Tyrants, which occurred when one of the other Tyrants called Plague tried to steal their power, but failed. Needless to say, it's an important part to the ever growing story unfolding in Malifaux and it's nice to see us Gremlins being dragged into it.
Pursuits
There are eight new Pursuits to pick from in this book, with the focus that Gremlin characters are more likely to be these compared to other factions like Humans or Neverborn. These consist of:
All have their related Talents added to their descriptions, so no flicking between pages like in the Fated Almanac. But if that wasn't enough, there are five Advanced Pursuits to go along with it, with these first two being common in Gremlin lands, while the last three are very much Gremlin focus and will be extremely difficult for non-Gremlins to obtain.
Conflict Talents
Unlike the family history card flip for Humans entering through the Breach, Gremlins flip for a Conflict Talent. These are a special Talent as a result of your characters childhood, which grants them both a positive aspect and a negative one. The character creation example for instance give the character the Gator Bait Talent, which gives the character +1 Damage to creatures with the Swampfiend characteristic, but they also treat creatures with the Swampfiend characteristic as if they had Terrifying (All) 11. This represents their fear of such creatures, but also their desire to see them dead. Many of them are quite good at fleshing out a nice backstory.
There are also a few, more Gremlin related Talents (we have Squeal) and there are three new skills that anyone can use, but again, Gremlins will probably benefit from them depending on the Pursuit chosen.
Gear
Gremlin gear isn't known for their fine craftsmanship nor their reliability. It's no surprise then that some items lend themselves more to the comedic aspect of the Gremlins. Such items I'd like to point out are things like Fryin' Pan, Pig Prodder, Backwater Pepperbox and the classics like Metal Pot as a helmet and the old Whiskey Barrel.
Magic
They have a few new spells, but since I've never played the game, I can't tell you how effective magic is in it. That said, I do like the spell 'The Kitchen Sink' (summon a large, heavy and comedic item to fall on your enemies head) and the Bokor's own advanced spell 'Animal Hex' (transform a person into an animal for a number of rounds, with a trigger called 'Princess Clause', meaning they need someone to kiss them to turn them back to normal faster). There are also a few new Grimoires that tend to be located in the Bayou and are more likely to be useful to Gremlin casters.
References
As mentioned above with the 'Princess Clause', there are various references to other, more pop culture related references. Wyrd is well known for doing this and it's great to try and find a few of them. Obviously, the Rocketeer has the ability called 'Blasting Off Again', which clearly references Team Rocket and their iconic phrase as they are hurled into the distance. There's even a reference to that singing frog gag from the loony tunes cartoons. They even threw in a MLP gag with the Big Honkin' Gun, which states how Gremlins prefer this weapon as it's 20% Cooler then other rifles in the Bayou. Yep, seems they beat me to a Friendship is Magic gag.
Bayou Beasties
The end part features a story of a Human taking notes on their journey into the Bayou and the various stories and creatures they encounter. Designed to help Fatemasters by giving them the rules/stats of the various encounters one might have in the Bayou along with a quick sketch of what said creature looks like. For me, I really want them to make an Ahool model, those things sound bloody awesome. For that matter, why haven't they made Whiskey Gamin miniatures yet. Maybe they will in the future.
Overall
If your a Gremlin fan then you'll love this book. It gives you a lot to work with for both Gremlin lore or even to do a story campaign for the miniatures game. If you play the RPG and want to add Gremlin players or just some neat Bayou stuff, then you'll most likely get this book too. If you play the miniatures game (or even the RPG), but have little to no interest in the Bayou or it's inhabitants, then you can pass on this. For me, it was well worth the wait and cost. As a Gremlins fan, a must have.
Obviously, this is an expansion to the rules set out from the Through the Breach core rulebooks. It's broken into several parts from Lore and character creation, new pursuits (classes), advanced pursuits, talents and skills, gear and stats for a number of creatures your party might encounter while in the Bayou.
Lore
This got me giddy with excitement as many of the books Wyrd releases for the Malifaux miniatures game really don't give much lore, other then a few stories, for the Gremlins. This gives a nice description of the Bayou area, the creatures in it and some of the more famous locations with in it (There are even rules to gamble against the Hag Witch Zoraida, though be aware that such a thing is very much in her favour). Gremlins get the most detail in this, such as their beliefs, habits and their love for booze. Family names are something they hold dear to themselves and work much like a community or tribe, so every Gremlin belongs to a family (or at least until they are thrown out). Life for a Gremlin child is rough, as a mother can sometimes forget you exist and can end up rounded into small groups that can form gangs. Some are more favoured by their mother (particularly girls, due to their rarity) and they tend to get better treatment (until the next back of children are born anyway).
Marriage and Love are also slightly bizarre. Love is fine, but the very romantic type many of us enjoy is seen to go a little too far, so they prefer you keep that level of affection at home. Marriage is more of a reason to just throw one massive party and booze up, but it's also to bring one member of another family into one's own. As such, a female Jones marries a LaCroix male, the female will change her family name to LaCroix and depending on her memory and booze tolerance, it will determine how much time it'll take for her to forget she was ever a Jones. Even Humans can marry Gremlins, for they are not overly against this as after all, once you are part of the family, you are treated as one of the family. It's not rare that a Gremlin can get so plastered at these events that they can end up marrying a Pig or even an attractive looking rock.
As mentioned, Family is important and the book give a page worth of detail for each of the major Gremlin Families (lesser families are mentioned, but they are kept unknown for the Fatemaster to expand upon). There is also some interesting information on the families from the Three Kingdoms region and they defiantly sounds like there will be problems with the Ten Thunders and the Black Dragon. I get the feeling the Gremlins will end up in a massive war amongst themselves when things go to hell.
There is also some brief information on Kythera, but more importantly, the Red Cage. While I'm not sure when this happened (was it due to the Nythera campaign or is it part of Ripples of Fate, I don't know), the Red Cage is the giant crater that housed one of the legendary Tyrants, which occurred when one of the other Tyrants called Plague tried to steal their power, but failed. Needless to say, it's an important part to the ever growing story unfolding in Malifaux and it's nice to see us Gremlins being dragged into it.
Pursuits
There are eight new Pursuits to pick from in this book, with the focus that Gremlin characters are more likely to be these compared to other factions like Humans or Neverborn. These consist of:
- Bokor (A Shaman like character who prefers to manipulate minds)
- Boomer (A shotgun fanatic)
- Boozer (Yes, alcoholic is now a playable class)
- Buckaroo (If it's big and not defiant, you can ride it)
- Copycat (Start with imitation, end with short bursts of becoming that person)
- Pugilist (Fist fights and Wrestling, what more could you want)
- Swineherd (Raise cute pigs to become killer pigs)
- Trapper (You use a variety of traps and trapping techniques)
All have their related Talents added to their descriptions, so no flicking between pages like in the Fated Almanac. But if that wasn't enough, there are five Advanced Pursuits to go along with it, with these first two being common in Gremlin lands, while the last three are very much Gremlin focus and will be extremely difficult for non-Gremlins to obtain.
- Virtuoso (Music that can effect allies and enemies)
- Rocketeer (Slap a rocket to your back and away you go)
- Lightning Bug (Beg Wong to teach you and learn just how dangerous you are to your friends)
- Taxidermist (You stuff animated dead animals.....with explosives)
- Big Hat (Get the biggest hat you can find and force them to make you the Boss)
Conflict Talents
Unlike the family history card flip for Humans entering through the Breach, Gremlins flip for a Conflict Talent. These are a special Talent as a result of your characters childhood, which grants them both a positive aspect and a negative one. The character creation example for instance give the character the Gator Bait Talent, which gives the character +1 Damage to creatures with the Swampfiend characteristic, but they also treat creatures with the Swampfiend characteristic as if they had Terrifying (All) 11. This represents their fear of such creatures, but also their desire to see them dead. Many of them are quite good at fleshing out a nice backstory.
There are also a few, more Gremlin related Talents (we have Squeal) and there are three new skills that anyone can use, but again, Gremlins will probably benefit from them depending on the Pursuit chosen.
Gear
Gremlin gear isn't known for their fine craftsmanship nor their reliability. It's no surprise then that some items lend themselves more to the comedic aspect of the Gremlins. Such items I'd like to point out are things like Fryin' Pan, Pig Prodder, Backwater Pepperbox and the classics like Metal Pot as a helmet and the old Whiskey Barrel.
Magic
They have a few new spells, but since I've never played the game, I can't tell you how effective magic is in it. That said, I do like the spell 'The Kitchen Sink' (summon a large, heavy and comedic item to fall on your enemies head) and the Bokor's own advanced spell 'Animal Hex' (transform a person into an animal for a number of rounds, with a trigger called 'Princess Clause', meaning they need someone to kiss them to turn them back to normal faster). There are also a few new Grimoires that tend to be located in the Bayou and are more likely to be useful to Gremlin casters.
References
As mentioned above with the 'Princess Clause', there are various references to other, more pop culture related references. Wyrd is well known for doing this and it's great to try and find a few of them. Obviously, the Rocketeer has the ability called 'Blasting Off Again', which clearly references Team Rocket and their iconic phrase as they are hurled into the distance. There's even a reference to that singing frog gag from the loony tunes cartoons. They even threw in a MLP gag with the Big Honkin' Gun, which states how Gremlins prefer this weapon as it's 20% Cooler then other rifles in the Bayou. Yep, seems they beat me to a Friendship is Magic gag.
Bayou Beasties
The end part features a story of a Human taking notes on their journey into the Bayou and the various stories and creatures they encounter. Designed to help Fatemasters by giving them the rules/stats of the various encounters one might have in the Bayou along with a quick sketch of what said creature looks like. For me, I really want them to make an Ahool model, those things sound bloody awesome. For that matter, why haven't they made Whiskey Gamin miniatures yet. Maybe they will in the future.
Overall
If your a Gremlin fan then you'll love this book. It gives you a lot to work with for both Gremlin lore or even to do a story campaign for the miniatures game. If you play the RPG and want to add Gremlin players or just some neat Bayou stuff, then you'll most likely get this book too. If you play the miniatures game (or even the RPG), but have little to no interest in the Bayou or it's inhabitants, then you can pass on this. For me, it was well worth the wait and cost. As a Gremlins fan, a must have.
Friday, 26 August 2016
Malifaux: Divergent Paths - A New Campaign?
So Wyrd has announced their latest global event coming in September. Called 'Divergent Paths' (or at least, that's what the image states) it will no doubt probably be related to the Ripples of Fate book that is coming out (unless you got it a GenCon).
I don't know if I'll participate this year, as last years event I had my Brother to play against, but we really haven't interacted much over the last few months. Plus he now lives further away. I don't think there will be any major gaming groups forming in this area just yet, but who knows. If I do join in, you can expect my Gremlins will be going full on in. That said, we still won't be getting those Banjo playing miniatures for some time. Pity about that, am really looking forward to those models.
Given the way the last event went, I feel we'll just get a sort of repeat from last year, with the top three spots being contested by Guild, Arcanist and Ten Thunders. As much as I'd love to see my beloved Gremlins on top, I do hope that the Outcasts give them a run for their money.
Wild Ones Play Style (One Way to Play Them)
(I will refer to the models by their 'count-as' names as it will make it easier for referencing)
So spending some time going over the models and their rules, I think I've got a feel for the play style this box set gives. While the style of McCabe, Luna and Sidir have their usual connection, though I feel that McCabe would work well supporting his crew either through upgrades or combat support, it's Luna that would be useful when you throw in Guild Hounds. This idea was brought about by the two other models in the set, the count-as Mounted Guard.
Mounted Guard have a few good abilities (though their attacks are good) that when I looked over them, made sense when working with the hounds. First off, Luna removes their Insignificant problem (Guild Hounds need other Guild Hounds nearby to ignore this issue), which removed problems they have with schemes. With this in mind, sticking them next to a Mounted Guard will let them benefit from their Cavalry Charge ability. Cavalry Charge lets the charging Mounted Guard to pick a friendly non-leader model within 2" and LoS with a Cg value of 7 or more (Hounds have Cg 9) to be placed within 2" of the Mounted Guard after they've made the charge move. This means you can either move the Hound into combat with the same enemy target as the Guard or move them just out of range so the Hound can run off to drop more scheme markers or something else. As far as combat after the charge is concerned, the Mounted Guard can use his 0 action to discard a card to give a 3" aura that gives friendly models a positive flip to Df flips. Not only that, but the Guild Hound also has the Companion ability, meaning he can then activate after the Mounted Guard is finished. This would let them benefit in that they are a killer combat combo or it means the Hound can just run off straight away to take any advantage that shows itself. Hell, if you really want, throw the Hound a Strangemetal Shirt to activate in harder combats and you have one mad tag-team.
This means I'll have to get myself a few Guild Hounds to go with them. Still not sure what format to use, such as if I should replace both Guild Guard for two Hounds or one Guard and the Effigy or what. Perhaps when I finally get them all done I'll get a chance to play test and see what happens.
So spending some time going over the models and their rules, I think I've got a feel for the play style this box set gives. While the style of McCabe, Luna and Sidir have their usual connection, though I feel that McCabe would work well supporting his crew either through upgrades or combat support, it's Luna that would be useful when you throw in Guild Hounds. This idea was brought about by the two other models in the set, the count-as Mounted Guard.
Mounted Guard have a few good abilities (though their attacks are good) that when I looked over them, made sense when working with the hounds. First off, Luna removes their Insignificant problem (Guild Hounds need other Guild Hounds nearby to ignore this issue), which removed problems they have with schemes. With this in mind, sticking them next to a Mounted Guard will let them benefit from their Cavalry Charge ability. Cavalry Charge lets the charging Mounted Guard to pick a friendly non-leader model within 2" and LoS with a Cg value of 7 or more (Hounds have Cg 9) to be placed within 2" of the Mounted Guard after they've made the charge move. This means you can either move the Hound into combat with the same enemy target as the Guard or move them just out of range so the Hound can run off to drop more scheme markers or something else. As far as combat after the charge is concerned, the Mounted Guard can use his 0 action to discard a card to give a 3" aura that gives friendly models a positive flip to Df flips. Not only that, but the Guild Hound also has the Companion ability, meaning he can then activate after the Mounted Guard is finished. This would let them benefit in that they are a killer combat combo or it means the Hound can just run off straight away to take any advantage that shows itself. Hell, if you really want, throw the Hound a Strangemetal Shirt to activate in harder combats and you have one mad tag-team.
This means I'll have to get myself a few Guild Hounds to go with them. Still not sure what format to use, such as if I should replace both Guild Guard for two Hounds or one Guard and the Effigy or what. Perhaps when I finally get them all done I'll get a chance to play test and see what happens.
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Malifaux - The Other Side Preview
So Wyrd has started their applications for people to play test their new game - The Other Side. Sadly, I have to skip this due to the ever increasing stress from study and the like. That said, they did provide a preview sheet for the game, along with the request to support their Kickstarter campaign for the game when they get it up, most likely later in the year.
The game is somewhat different to Malifaux, with different stats and the like. It still uses the Fate Deck, though it appears that damage flips are no longer a thing (at least, not from the character card in the preview). Stratagems will give your commanders useful tools to use during battle, though most a one shot effects, so you have to play smart with them. There's even a special type of moral system which you can build up to activate Glory, which lets you use the other side (or Glory side as it's known) of a miniatures card, usually giving it better effects like more damage and stuff. The game has you picking one of two sides it seems (Earth or Outsiders), but this may change when they increase the number of Alliances. Yep, Alliances are a major feature, as they seem to grant you special game effects and help you better focus on what units to take.
Ah, Units. Yes this game has more of a group based focus this time, with small units being a focus, along with a large monster-like miniatures and command characters. While the units themselves don't seem to be big in number like some other games, they are still making it more unit focus and even plan on adding special movement trays to help out. While I'm not a really into the idea of this game, from what is planned the miniatures will look amazing. The humans have that great Steampunk cross magic feel, while the other worldly creatures feel like they are terrors from the Abyss.
Obviously being an alternate Earth set in the 1900's, I would really like an Australian faction (or at least a unit or two, even if they are serve under The King's Empire alliance), little is known about this Earth other then mentioning Brittan, China and Abyssinia as locations. Beyond that it's hinted America does exist, but not much else sadly. Hopefully we'll get more information the closer they get to starting the fundraising (We know The King's Empire and The Gibbering Hordes will be the first alliances to be released). As for which side I'll pick? I like some of the humans look and would defiantly pick up any Aussie miniatures, but then given my character of Zargooran and the love of monstrosities, I may also take on one of the Breach alliances.
I'll make a real choice once we have a lot more details on it, but the game sounds good.
The game is somewhat different to Malifaux, with different stats and the like. It still uses the Fate Deck, though it appears that damage flips are no longer a thing (at least, not from the character card in the preview). Stratagems will give your commanders useful tools to use during battle, though most a one shot effects, so you have to play smart with them. There's even a special type of moral system which you can build up to activate Glory, which lets you use the other side (or Glory side as it's known) of a miniatures card, usually giving it better effects like more damage and stuff. The game has you picking one of two sides it seems (Earth or Outsiders), but this may change when they increase the number of Alliances. Yep, Alliances are a major feature, as they seem to grant you special game effects and help you better focus on what units to take.
Ah, Units. Yes this game has more of a group based focus this time, with small units being a focus, along with a large monster-like miniatures and command characters. While the units themselves don't seem to be big in number like some other games, they are still making it more unit focus and even plan on adding special movement trays to help out. While I'm not a really into the idea of this game, from what is planned the miniatures will look amazing. The humans have that great Steampunk cross magic feel, while the other worldly creatures feel like they are terrors from the Abyss.
Obviously being an alternate Earth set in the 1900's, I would really like an Australian faction (or at least a unit or two, even if they are serve under The King's Empire alliance), little is known about this Earth other then mentioning Brittan, China and Abyssinia as locations. Beyond that it's hinted America does exist, but not much else sadly. Hopefully we'll get more information the closer they get to starting the fundraising (We know The King's Empire and The Gibbering Hordes will be the first alliances to be released). As for which side I'll pick? I like some of the humans look and would defiantly pick up any Aussie miniatures, but then given my character of Zargooran and the love of monstrosities, I may also take on one of the Breach alliances.
I'll make a real choice once we have a lot more details on it, but the game sounds good.
Sunday, 21 August 2016
What I've Learned From Video Recording
Trying to get good footage is very difficult. Sure, recording inside is easy enough, but I need to obtain footage from both parklands & the city and from my experience so far I have got very little that someone might consider 'usable'. I have another run tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.
It gets worse as I then have to use that footage to form a montage, which means getting that footage to somehow blend well enough that the scenes look right and don't stand out like a sore thumb. This has been a real eye opener and I'm going to need a lot more practice if I plan to go ahead with video making.
It gets worse as I then have to use that footage to form a montage, which means getting that footage to somehow blend well enough that the scenes look right and don't stand out like a sore thumb. This has been a real eye opener and I'm going to need a lot more practice if I plan to go ahead with video making.
Saturday, 20 August 2016
More Project Uploads
While I'm still waiting for my damn Gencon package to arrive (Seriously, how long does it take for Sydney to deliver that bloody package to Brisbane), I have uploaded a few new uploads to my DA page, including the updated Skith 2.0
I'll link my page here: DeviantArt Page
I'll link my page here: DeviantArt Page
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