Journeys & Maps - A Review

Heya folks,  I'm back with ANOTHER The One Ring product review (I'm a bit obsessed with this game)!  Are you people sick of these yet?!  Today I'll be taking a look at a new product, Journeys & Maps.  This book is a little different from what we have seen so far, the most important part of this product is the maps, and boy are they beautiful!  More after the break!

Fall Gaming Sale - UPDATED!

Heya folks!

PRICES HAVE BEEN UPDATED AND SOME NEW RPG ITEMS ADDED!

My wife and I are currently in the process of turning our basement into a rental property so all my gaming stuff needed to find a new place to reside.  Faced with carrying it all up two flights of stairs I decided to thin out the collection a bit and save myself some physical labor.  Below is a list of items I am offering for sale.  If you're interested in any of these items please post in the comments section, first come first serve.

Just a couple of points:

1. All prices are final, I am not interested in haggling, just looking to move this stuff.  All prices will be very competitive.

2. Shipping prices are inside the USA only.  If you are outside of the United States I will work with you on the shipping costs.

3. Payment is via Paypal ONLY, this is important!  Once you pick your item you can make payment to me at jasonc1976 (at) gmail (dot) com.  Shipping costs may err on the high side, once I ship the item if I am able to do so for less that what is listed I will send you back the balance via Paypal.  I'm not looking to gouge anyone but also done want to loose my butt on shipping costs.

So I think that's it!  Have fun and enjoys browsing my items.  Take care everyone!

FOR SALE:

1. The World of Indiana Jones Role Playing Game.  Looks brand new, box is in great condition.  Includes all off the cards which are still in plastic wrap. $10 + $7 shipping.

2. Bounty Head BeBop Role Playing Game.  Also brand new and in great condition.  This is an rpg based on the Cowboy Bebop Anime in all but name.  $5 +$5 shipping.

3. Force on Force Modern Wargaming Rules.  A fantastic rule-set printed by Osprey Publishing.  Hardcover, full color rules is great condition.  $20 + $5 shipping.  I also have several of the expansion books that cover different areas/eras;

•    Bush Wars: Africa 1960-2010 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Day of the Rangers: Somalia 1993 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Cold War Gone Hot: WWIII 1986 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Ambush Valley: Vietnam 1964-1975 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Road to Baghdad: Iraq 2003 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Classified: Special Operations Mission 1940-2010 - Softcover, full color.  $10+ $5 shipping.
•    Fallujah: Iraq 2004 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.
•    Enduring Freedom: Afghanistan 2001-2010 - Softcover, full color.  $10 + $5 shipping.

If your interested in purchasing all of these books as a lot I'll sell them for $85 + $20 in shipping.  All of the books combined are pretty heavy, if the shipping is less than $20 I'll refund you the difference.

4. Blackbeard: The Golden Age of Piracy Board-game.  Richard Berg design.  This is the redesign of the original Avalon Hill version.  Its in great condition, the box looks new with no damage.  All parts are included and all the cards are still in their original plastic wrap.  $15 + $10 shipping.

5. Third Edition Dungeons and Dragons Books.  These are all used but in good condition, no missing pages or anything falling apart. The covers look good as do the insides.  The Players Handbook has someones name written on the inside of the front cover and some of the pages in the spells section have creases in the pages.  Other than that I cannot find any damage.  Here's what I have:

•    Players Handbook - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Dungeon Masters Guide - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Monster Manual - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Monster Manual II - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Monster Manual III - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Fiend Folio - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Arms and Equipment Guide - $7 + $5 shipping.
•    Stronghold Builders Guide - $4 + $5 shipping.
•    Red Hand of Doom Adventure - $4 + $5 shipping.

If your interested in purchasing the whole lot I'll sell them for $50 + $20 in shipping with any balance on the shipping sent back.  They're pretty heavy so I'm not sure what the shipping will cost.

6. Dread Pirate Family Adventure Game.  This was produced by Front Porch Classics, its a super simple game that is beautifully present. The plastic piece holder inside is cracked but still functions, otherwise no damage.  The box is a heavy wood and the map is printed on cloth.  The ship playing pieces are all metal, the dice are wooden and there are four bags with colored glass pieces and a bag of metal gold doubloons.  The rules are are simple and fun for the young ones!  Great craftsmanship in this product!  $20 + $15 in shipping (its a heavy one!)

7. Arkham Horror Board-game by Fantasy Flight Games.  This is being sold ONLY as a set!  The reason I am doing that is that all of the expansions have been mixed together and I don't want to spend the next week picking apart all of the pieces!  These boxes are all in great condition and as far as I am aware all the pieces are accounted for.  My wife and I have only played this game twice, she was not a fan so we won't be playing again.  Bad for me but good for you!  Here's what I have;

•    Arkham Horror Base Box Set (there is a split on the cover, otherwise no damage)
•    Dunwich Horror Expansion (large box)
•    Innsmouth Horror Expansion (large box)
•    Kingsport Horror Expansion (large box)
•    Miskatonic Horror Expansion (large box)
•    The Lurker at the Threshold Expansion (small box)
•    The Black Goat of the Woods Expansion (small box)
•    The Curse of the Dark Pharaoh Expansion (small box)
•    The King in Yellow Expansion (small box)
•    Plano box full of counters and dice (including the black and green Arkham Horror dice set)

I'm getting rid of the entire set for $160 + $30 in shipping.  Again if the shipping is less I will refund the difference

8. Song of Ice and Fire Role-playing Game.  This is the Game of Thrones edition and uses the Chronicle System.  Create your character, your house and go to war!  All of these books are in great condition with very, very minor scratches.  $30 + $10 shipping and they're all yours!

•   A Song of Ice and Fire Role-playing Core Book - A Game of Thrones Edition (hardcover)
•   Peril At Kings Landing Adventure (softcover)
•   Nights Watch Source-book (hardcover)
•   A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide (hardcover)
•   Chronicle Starter (softcover)

That's it!  Please post in the comments which items you are claiming, first come first serve.  Please contact me at the email above once you have claimed an item (make sure you are the first to claim it!) and we can work everything else out from there.  Take care people!

Horse-Lords of Rohan - A Review

Heya folks!  Welcome to another The One Ring product review!  Today I will be going through the new region guide that covers the the lands of the Rohirrim.  This book is in the same vein as The Heart of the Wild and Rivendell in that it describes the history, people, places and monsters of a specific region.  Horse-lords of Rohan covers the regions of Rohan, Fangorn Forest, Isengard and Dunland.  More after the break!

Random Stuff

My wife's first Car Wars game!  Killer Karts roam the arena!

Heya folks!

There will be no The One Ring review today, I'm running behind this week.  I promise it will be out in the next few days!

My wife and I are in the process of fixing up our basement and clearing out lots of stuff we've accumulated over the years.  I've thinned out some of the games that I own and will probably never play again, so in the next couple of weeks I'll be posting some stuff for sale so keep an eye on this space.

I celebrated my 40th birthday this week with my wife and daughter, we spent two days in a cabin at Westmoreland State Park in Virginia.  It was beautiful, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and we were stuck indoors for much of the time.  I coerced my wife into playing some Car Wars, we did a Killer Kart vs. Killer Kart battle.  We both enjoyed it greatly, I forgot what a fun game that is.  Next time we will be designing our own cars for a Division 10 fight!  I still love that old Deluxe Edition set that I have.  I really need to do a Car Wars review, especially with the new version coming out next year!

Anyway, take care everyone, watch here for more in the next few weeks!

Ruins of the North - A Review

Ruins of the North is an adventure book that uses the material presented in Rivendell as the backdrop to a series of six adventures that range all over Eastern Eriador.  The adventures in this book are not directly linked but can be played out as a thematic campaign, one that sees the influence of the Witch-king of Angmar returning to Eriador!  This is a 144 page hard cover book, it's full color and contains more beautiful art by my current art idol, Jon Hodgson.  The adventures in this book are not for a new and inexperienced fellowship, you'll need a salty group of heroes or one that's composed of the new heroic cultures, the Rangers of the North or the High Elves of Rivendell that were introduced in the Rivendell supplement.  Let get to it, more after the break!

Rivendell - A Review

I know that I've said that previous The One Ring books are amazing and fantastic and blah, blah, blah.  I'm here to tell you that THIS book is is a standout among a whole line of rich products.  This is an outstanding resource, there is so much history and world content, new rules, new enemies and new cultures that Rivendell stands above its predecessors.  Rivendell is the first supplement that takes the players outside of the Wilderland region, you get to head over the Misty Mountains and explore Eastern Eriador which includes the ancient kingdoms of Arnor, Angmar and Eregion.  The map covers from the Misty Mountains to the Brandywine Bridge.  This opens up a whole new area with new challenges and lots of new ground to explore.  Lets get into it, more after the break!

Loremasters Screen and Lake-town Sourcebook - A Review

 

Welcome back folks!

Time for another The One Ring product review!   The Loremaster's Screen and Lake-Town Sourcebook is super handy product for all you Loremaster's.  There are two pieces to this resource, first is the screen, a four paneled piece that stands around 11 inches in height.  Its just the right height and should not be in the way of your game, unfortunately you will still have to look at the ugly faces of your players.  The flip side that faces your players has a beautiful painting by Jon Hodgson of Lake-Town in all its glory, if you look closely in the background you can see the bones of the great Smaug, groovy stuff!  Facing the Loremaster is a TON of information, although not everything that I would have liked to have seen makes the cut.  More after the break!

Tales from Wilderland - A Review

Tales from Wilderland contains seven adventures that sends your Fellowship all over the Wilderland region of Middle-earth.  These adventures can be played separately or linked together to form a longish campaign that escalates to a big finale.  I enjoyed all of the individual adventures, they are varied and interesting and work well together.  The first four can be played separately if you want and only the last three need to be played together.  The book is 160 pages long, has a softcover and is full color inside.  The adventures here are much more fleshed out and complete compared to The Darkening of Mirkwood which are more like adventure ideas.  More after the break!

New Art - Caradhras

Heya folks,

I just finished up this piece.  It was created in ArtRage4 and edited in Photoshop.  I've always had a fascination with the mountains and wanted to paint one but I also wanted to make something that resides in Tolkien's world.  Meld the two together and voila!  Caradhras, one of the mightiest peaks in the Misty Mountains!

ArtRage is a really neat program, the digital oil's really flows like real life oils, they blend and meld together to create all kinds of unexpected colors and they leave these wonderful brush strokes that give the painting some depth.  All of the mountain and foreground were done in digital oils, the sky was done in digital watercolor.  If you look close on the left hand side you can see a Ranger and a small Hobbit admiring the view.

Unfortunatly the final image is very small, only 6x5 inches at 150dpi.  I started drawing this in ArtRage on my iPad and was not aware that the resolution was so small.  Once I transfered over to my full blown PC I become aware that it was such a low resolution.  Well live and learn, I won't make that mistake again!

Thanks for looking!

The Darkening of Mirkwood - A Review

Heya folks!

I'm back with a review of another The One Ring RPG product; The Darkening of Mirkwood campaign.  Lets start off by saying this is another wonderful TOR accessory.  It's a hard cover, full color campaign that clocks in at 142 pages long.  This book has enough material in it to keep your fellowship playing for months if not years depending on how frequently you get to play!  More after the break!

The Heart of the Wild - A Review

The Heart of the Wild is a resource book for The One Ring Roleplaying game that focuses on the Vales of the Anduin to the west of Mirkwood and also Mirkwood itself.  The One Ring has been releasing a series of resource books that cover different parts of Middle-Earth followed up by an adventure book that focuses on that same area.  The Darkening of Mirkwood is the adventure book that coincides with this book.  I'll cover The Darkening of Mirkwood in a separate review later on.

The Heart of the Wild is a hardcover color book that's 128 pages long.  The cover was done by Jon Hodgson and shows Radagast the Brown facing off against the Children of Shelob.  This is another beautiful book by Cubicle7 in the same style as the core rule-book.  The three main chapters are; The Lands of the River, The Greatest of Forests and Monsters of the Wild.  More after the break!

The One Ring - Character Creation

Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain

Heya folks,

Today I will be walking you through the process of creating a new character in The One Ring RPG.  I've decided to make one of the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and I think I am going to make him a Treasure-hunter.  First lets start off with a name, each of the cultures in The One Ring comes with a list of names appropriate to that culture.  I think we'll go with Nár Goldflame.  Being one of the Dwarves of the Lonely mountain his standard of living is considered Rich, all that dragon-gold enables him a comfortable lifestyle!  Bling, bling!  More after the break....

The One Ring RPG - A Review

 

I'll start this review by stating the following: I am a huge fan of Tolkien's work.  I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy many, many times (and am currently in the middle of Return of the King again).  There have been a number of RPG projects involving his work over the years, the biggest being Middle Earth Role Playing or MERP.  I loved that game mightily.  To be able to play as a Rider of Rohan or one of the Dunedain was just an awesome experience.  Tolkien's work is what inspired me to start role-playing in the first place and I suspect this is the same with many other young people who have encountered his books.

While MERP provided a way to play in Tolkien's world it never really felt connected to his work.  To me the magic system was too much and the magic items felt to plentiful and common.  The supplement books contained a wealth of information and are wonderful to read even for people that are not interested in role-playing but just in Tolkien's world.  It was a very robust system that was well supported, books for it were published from the early 1980's though the late 1990's.  My friends and I spent many hours thwarting the enemies of the Free Peoples.

After death of of MERP came Decipher's The Lord of the Rings RPG, It was published in 2002 and was abandoned in 2006.  I cannot comment on this game as I never played it but it does not seem to have ever achieved the same level of success as MERP.  More after the break!

I'm back! (sort of.....)

 

Heya folks!

Its been a little while since I've been around these parts, but as the title explains, I'm back!  Well as much as I can be with a six week old baby.  On 06/27/2016 Amelia Jieun Carter was born, she was a healthy 8lbs 11oz and is growing like crazy!  My wife an I feel very blessed, everyone is healthy and doing well.

Needless to say that this new little one leaves me with very little free time, so this blog dropped down the totem pole of things to keep up on.  I have no intention of abandoning this blog though, I still enjoy hopping on here and talking all things gaming.  I will be posting a review soon, I have recently been enamored with The One Ring RPG and I will be doing a review of it and several of the expansion books.  I am also still working on a few new artist interviews, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!

I hope you all are well.  Stay tuned, more to come in the next few days!

Happy Memorial Weekend

Lily stopping by to say hi!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe memorial weekend.  A very hearty thanks to those that have served or are still actively serving our country.

It's been a busy weekend for me, in the last twenty four hours I have gone for a seven mike bike ride - and walked the last mile as I took a bit of a tumble and snapped my derailleur hanger - dropped off my bike at the bike shop for repairs, attended a three year old's birthday party, cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, cleaned my garage and basement, spent some time painting on my cosmic horror piece and did some human gesture drawings.  Thanks goodness I have one additional day this weekend!  We have a party/cook out tomorrow and I can't wait for burgers!  RED MEAT, nom, nom nom.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy whats left of the weekend, take care!

P.S. I'm thinking about watching Deadpool tomorrow, is it worth the time?

Minutes before the crash

My Favorite Artists - Skinner

 

I'm very excited to introduce today's featured artist!  Known as Skinner he is a full time artist that creates some of the most imaginative, interesting and bizarre art I've ever seen.  He has pieces inspired by Lovecraft and D&D and works in multiple mediums including print, sculpture, painting and many others.  You might have seen his work on Adult Swim or if you live in the San Francisco/Oakland CA areas you may have seen one of his many shows there.  I'm very happy to introduce you my readers to a true original and a very talented man, Skinner! 

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with me, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio:

My name is Skinner and I make art for a living. I do a bunch of different stuff. I write stories and paint and make music videos and conceptualize shit and theorize about life and stuff.

• When did you first discover your creative talents?

When I was a little ass kid trying to figure out how to draw monsters and dinosaurs. I wasn't conscious of it being anything other then an interest in trying to emulate stuff that a little ass kid likes. You just draw sharks and hulk hogans and enjoy it. No one thinks it's art really.

• How would you describe your style and where do you draw your inspiration from?

Describing my style is weird because I do so many different kinds. Illustrative comic book style or fantasy paintings but mostly my style is just little kid trying to make something look good. My inspiration comes from fantasy artists and comic book artists and old illustrators. Marvel comics back in the day. Stuff like that. Jack Kirby.

• Who is your favorite artist? What draws you towards his or her artwork?

One of my favorite artists is Louie Cordero from the Philippines. I love a ton of artists but he's alive and still doing stuff and since my favorite artists are dead I thought I'd mention him. His shit is so fucking weird and great! It's like a surreal Ghana movie poster mixed with Japanese vibes and Satan.

• Is art a full time occupation for you, if not what do you do for a living?

I do art full time. Always on the grind!

 

• What projects are you currently working on?

 

Finishing an animated music video for high on fire. Commercials for adult swim and my own illustrations and paintings. I have been writing a lot of stories and show pitches these days. 

• What type of work do you enjoy doing most?

 

My own weird fantasy paintings or inking. Writing is fun as fuck too but painting lovecraftian fantasy shit is probably the best.

• You've created art inspired by D&D, are you yourself a gamer and if so what are your favorite games?  How did being a gamer influence your style? 

I wish I had time. I grew up memorizing every little detail of my monster manuals and fiend folios and shit. I loved it so much. Now I just kinda honor it in my work! Old AD&D art was so crazy. Trampier was a standout and Errol Otus. I got to hang with Larry Elmore at comic con! He's great!

• Who is your favorite musical artist and why?

I'm into Melvins! Always pushing subversive rock and fuck it attitude in the face of a world that wants to contrive everything and make a buck. Melvins make art not products.

• What was the last book you read?

Alan Moore biography and some Clark Ashton smith. Just finished Mezolith which is an amazing book full of prehistoric folk tale stuff! 

• What is your favorite place that you have traveled to?

 

Cuba hands down. 

• What superpower would you have and why?

 

The power to make people shit their pants at my behest. Whenever I want. Any distance. Don't cross me. 

• Where can the readers go to see your art?

http://www.theartofskinner.com/ or http://shopcriticalhit.com/

• Are there any books, videos, or other forms of media that you would recommend to new artists to help them learn? 

Oh shit man everything's so available now. I wouldn't know where to start. Shit I don't know. How bout anatomy by Burne Hogarth, Frazetta paintings and drawings and maybe " How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way".

• Lastly, any words of advice for aspiring artists?

 

Well, don't get lured in by the validation that comes from people liking your stuff on the Internet. You can't base your growth on that. You have to put in an insane amount of work before you don't even kinda not suck let alone before you've developed an even small level of your own style. Just don't be lazy about putting in work. Put your heart into it ya lazy bum! It's the best!