BoomMF

Had a chance to drop by the Music Emporium in Lexington, MA, and their killer, no filler stock. We're talking, this place has 4 Froggy Bottom guitars in stock. It's that kind of place. If you're ever near Boston, it's worth the 30 minute drive. Everything is the store is worth owning. Even finally got to play a Vemuram Jan Ray. It costs more so you know it sounds better. #science Because I'm a simple guy with simple needs, I was drawn like a moth to a sunburst to the 58 Fender Strat with the $45k asking price. I was even wearing a Fender shirt, so I had the fanboy cliche dialed up to a pretty intense level. Unrelated, dig this cupcake topper the in-laws had for my birthday. lol Too cool. It's made with sugar and completely eddieable.

Jokes on him. Still spotted because from 2 miles in the air, who needs haircut to positively id someone?

It's not early GoT, for sure. The world they are creating in House of the Dragon doesn't have that same authentic "lived in" feel. Some of the acting is GoT level (Rhys Ifans, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D'Arcy would have no problem hanging with the best of the scene chewers from GoT), some is CW (if you're a fan of Fabian Frankel's turn as Criston I feel sorry for your soul). The story has a lot of potential, but there is some ham-fisting of the narrative (episode 4 should begin with the death of Rhaenyra, any other outcome is plot armour and pandering, but what are you gonna do. This whole setup is bonkers.) that reminds me of the mid-story-telling of Season 6+ of GoT. If you're a fan of GoT, though, the show offers some highs that can compete with anything in late-stage GoT, while only having to trudge through lows that are far and away higher than the worst of the same.

I've been lax updating, but here's some recent games we've gotten to the table. I know some have tried to have less 7th Continent (people were selling it like crazy before this launch), but I'm over here trying to find time for more. 7th Citadel is a great 2.0 game that takes away the grindy bits of 7th Continent and favors more exploration, which is the whole reason for the season. We played a lot of Kingdom Rush's campaign and really enjoy the way it's bringing the app to the tabletop experience. It's a fun puzzler really and the production value is stellar. Age of Steam is still a game we play the most often and we just received the acrylic tiles as well as the latest map expansions. This is also the first time we played with the plastic train upgrades. Age of Steam is one of those games that should probably be in everyone's collection. More ISS Vanguard, this time with a reset! Zzzzz Another favorite, especially with normies is Foundations of Rome. We recently received the latest expansion but haven't had a chance to play with it yet since we had to play vanilla to accomodate noobies. It's on the list though. Carnegie is fantastic! @TexArcher thinks it's solvable though. We might have to find out. The newest Stonemaier game we have, Apiary, seems like the company getting back to releassing top-tier titles. Highly recommend this worker placement game. I still need to pick up Wyrmspan, but we have Wingspan's Nesting Box filled to the brim - Do we really need more? Probably. Kanban EV is now my 3rd favorite Lacerda, with a chance to rise. And there's something about Eagle-Gryphon deluxe games that just give me the warm and fuzzies. We finally got Galactus out and he started devouring almost right away. I love these silly over done epic CMON scenarios so much that it's the only part of the upcoming Game of Thrones tactical game I picked up. And keeping with the epic CMON games, we played Dune: War for Arrakis and had a blast. I've still never played War of the Ring, but now I wonder if I ever have to. The wife and I still play a lot of Kingdom Death, but this time we tried the latest Vignette of Death, Killenium Butcher. We promptly got butchered and a good time was had by all. But the game we've played the most by far is Oathsworn. I'll post pics here behind a spoiler shield because I know people are big on that. Don't click if you don't want to see very cool bosses being battled. You remember that dice tower inspired by the OG Player's Handbook cover. I thought it looked great but to my surprise it doesn't come painted like the cover. It's missing a gem eye, which is being stolen on the original cover, which is a cool detail, but if it's not lit red by the cauldron it's not the cover! So I painted it myself to match. It looks great when the fire is turned on. lol And we're now getting dangerously close to running out of space for neoprene mats. Is this just how it's going to be from now on, constantly having issues storing these things? Excelsior!

Instead of a 4'x4' internal playing surface I'd make it 6'x4'. I'd also put the power plugs off to one edge instead of in the middle of each side. Good luck and don't forget to post pics!

Came dangerously close to pulling the trigger on a Traveler Pro Mod-X to take with me on trips, but this came across my feed. Anyone have any experience with Journey Instruments (I think they are even outside of Austin)? https://journeyinstruments.com/product/overhead-electric-faded-blue-travel-guitar-oe990bl/

I believe @TexArcher plays on BGA all the time and recommends it. I know it's very popular compared to TableTop Simulator since the interface is more intuitive and simplified (or so I've been told).

That WHOLE album is a banger. I saw him once when I was in high school and he asked if anyone wanted to hear anything off his Kiss solo album expecting to hear a chorus of Rip It Out or New York Groove. I yelled "Ozone!" and he looked over at me seemingly shocked a kid would know a deep cut off that album 20 years after its release. He played Rip It Out instead because he's a notorious asshole. His whole show was killer that night. Ace till I die.

#plasticcrack

I think Warhammer is on the same path. Physical books are expensive to produce and store and they're hard to change after-the-fact. Digital resources can be changed on a whim, so I get it. I don't like the idea of not owning something because old. I get satisfaction looking over at the shelf and seeing a string of books, whether I play with them or not. I play primarily on Fantasy Grounds now, too, and I can't convince myself the experience is better than all of us sitting around a table, but a shit ton more convenient and at this stage in our lives convenience is the only thing that makes it happen anymore.

Dropped by and paid my respects to one of the greats. He's in Billstown, AR, where he was born, about an hour from the border in a family cemetery that's becoming more populated quite frequently these days. The cemetery is very well maintained and quite picturesque with a little pond off to the side. When you walk up to Glen's grave these is a motion sensor that trips and starts playing his version of Amazing Grace from a speaker mounted up in that large tree towards the back. I mean, come on. One of the other Campbells buried there had this emblazoned on the back of his headstone. I found it remarkable because as far as I know PRS hasn't invented the double-humbucker Stratocaster yet. I don't know which of He Stopped Loving Her Today or Wichita Lineman is the greatest Country song of all time, but it's one of those two.

Checkmate.

We've been enthralled with the story. If you have room for a campaign game in your life, this is the one to get imo. I've played Gloomhaven, Tainted Grail, ISS Vanguard, and a few other great ones, but this one captured me the way the others couldn't. If you make it to Chapter 3 and are able to quit playing, you're a stronger person that I.

I've been making moves recently. I've been using Emotiva gear in the theater room and out of necessity using it to play 2-channel stuff, too. I decided to stop fucking around and just get a proper two-channel solution for vinyl and CDs. Since I picked up the B+W 802Ns partly out of appreciation for the sound, partly out of nostalgia, why not just complete the setup that captured me all those years ago and pair them with McIntosh pre/pro/amp and not look back? So that's what I did. I've been hunting for an integrated amp in the 200W range, but I came across a deal for a 300W MA8000 in pristine condition and since the B+Ws will take as much as you can throw at them, I went for it. I'm pretty stoked. This is dream stuff for me. Gonna spend the awhile getting to know it and be in bliss. Added a cassette deck, too, because of course. I have an extra 4U space that needs filling... In the physical media realm, I finally stopped by Amoeba Music in Hollywood. The selection (and store traffic) is bonkers. It's cool just milling around in there. You can come across some very interesting things. Their stock is deep and dangerous. I'll not make the mistake of visiting L.A. and not going into Amoeba again. I've picked up way too much music to spam here, so I'll just post a pic of some signed records I snagged over the past few weeks. If the high school me saw that I now geek out over getting Loreena McKennitt's autograph I wonder how disappointed he'd be. I'd tell him to disregard the hurdy-gurdy at his peril.

Castles of Burgundy is turning out to be one of our most played games. Everyone we show it to loves it. It's not easy to bring around due to the size of the Collector's Edition, but it's worth it. Speaking of not easy to bring around, but worth it, we got Foundations of Rome back to the table. We had some family over for the holidays and chose this one as an "easy to get into" game. It was a hit. No surprise. Trying to catch up on the backlog I forced everyone to play 51st State Ultimate Edition. What a great game! I know it's Zee's favorite (his promo is even in the pic), but his are the tastes I'm least sympatico with. Turns out he and I agree on this gem. The game is fast but you feel like you accomplished quite a bit in that amount of time. And speaking of fast, we played Zee's compadre's Last Light KS Edition. It's supposed to be a 4X game that plays in an hour, and it does, but when you're through you don't feel the weight of having just played an epic 4X game. So, I kinda don't see the point since it doesn't really scratch the "4X itch," imo. However, the game that is there is great. Lots of fun decisions that don't make or break your strategy - or, at least, if you play something strategically wrong, you can usually recover quick enough. I dig the production, which is half the reason to even play modern board games obv, but the insert is something from the bowls of hell. Thank goodness for those Etsy designers who do a ton of work creating inserts and giving us the option to snag a cheap STL. The kids had some friends over that wanted to try a board game, so we busted Everdell on them and I facilitated. Suffice to say they were amazed at the experience. They came from a Monopoly-is-the-peak background and had no idea what modern gaming has become. It's neat watching that discovery flash across faces, which happens quite a bit! The wife and I play the app of Terraforming Mars when we travel so it's a game we're both very familiar with. Playing Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game KS is a pared down experience, but hits a lot of what we enjoy about TM. We finally played Ankh: Gods of Egypt. It's the all-in pledge so we were not for want of god or guardian options. This one also plays pretty quickly, but with a lot of simple yet impactful decisions. Your turn is pretty much about 4 main options and the stress of when to trip events. The map gets congested very quickly which is always good fun chaos. We played with the merge mechanic, but I'm not sure we'll play with it again. Everyone enjoyed it otherwise. But then we played Oathsworn KS and quickly played it again and again. The campaign is fantastic and the app narration is top notch. The music they play during the encounters is choice. I have a bluetooth soundbar below the table, so we crank it up and let the thematic brilliance wash over us. Here's a campaign we might actually finish!

Kids really get a kick out of Quacks and it's much easier to play than the rules make out. Like SHW said, rules videos and playthroughs abound, but if you play one round you'll see how it all comes together pretty quickly.

Azul is one of those games that I haven't played that makes no sense that I haven't played. I need to fix that. So much stuff has been delivered recently, I'm waaaay behind. In fact, one of the next up on the table this week, for the first time, is going to be Ankh which delivered a year and a half ago! Meanwhile, soon...

Word on the street is you're looking at a 2% drop rate from Duriel to get an Uber. There are 7 possible Ubers, so it's not unheard of to have 500+ Duriel kills without a Harlequin Crest. It was my 4th Uber and it dropped around the 700th Duriel kill or so. Of course, there are plenty of people who get it before their 5th run. Drops much more frequently than before, but can still be difficult to get.

Ther was a development over the weekend!

If anyone wants to run Duriel rotas, add me - Intricate#1497. I can carry, too.

We are in the shittiest part of the timeline.

Missed the window when everyone was showing off what they got from AUTF's Guitar Emporium and Pedal Peddler, but I did snag this from there: I'm immediately about 40% cooler, give or take, just by strapping it on. When I called to complain that there were no Bit-O-Honeys included in the packaging, he instead took me out to have honey barbecue wings. What a stand-up seller! 5 stars. (Note: This was the one game where GSW showed up and molly whopped the Lakers. It was also the last game they won that series, so this is a pic of a bunch of San Franciscans happier than they will ever be again.) And to the killer signature tele linked earlier in the thread - I came across this window on a walk to Geno's in Philadelphia because cheesesteak. How random, but I'm not complaining. There is no way the person living here is not cool. And speaking of teles made cooler than you might think possible, the Baltimore Hard Rock has this guitar hanging in the entryway. I think everyone who's ever cared about guitars or music should eat nachos in front of anything ever owned by Danny Gatton at least once in their life. And speaking of the Baltimore Hard Rock, check out the signage. That's a god damn PRS about the size of a 737 MAX. So if you're wondering why Hard Rock is having a hard time surviving, this is exhibit A. It's like they want the world to think they only serve orthodonists or wealth managers. Lawyers aren't going to buy your Messi Burger, Hard Rock! /end travellog

Surly meetup at the guitar event of the year watching the greatest blues guitarist of this generation and possibly any generation, who can say. #floorseats