Thursday, August 13, 2009

Nostalgia

Sorry for the few people who may be following this blog; I somehow thought that having more free time this summer would encourage me to post more often and get some work done on my painting projects, but it turns out having nothing but free time does not encourage productivity very much.

I'm one of those people who need structure to be productive. I'll have to remember never to get a job where I have to work from home...

Something that happened recently though, is that I got my hands on a bunch of Dark Heresy books. I may not like Warhammer 40K as a game, but it makes for a fantastic setting, RPG-wise, and Dark Heresy can best be described as Call of Cthulhu on steroids in the 40K universe.

Given that there are absolutely no players here (none I know, at least), I don't think I'm going to be running any game any time soon, but I'd have to look at the upcoming new edition of the Heavy Gear RPG before I decide what game I'd lean toward.

Dark Heresy got me thinking, though, about the miniature game that I always liked best: Necromunda. Oh, sure, it hasn't been around for a long time now, but in the late 90's, I used to play a lot. Necromunda had a great balance of fast-paced, action packed gameplay and a very strong narrative element where your gang gained experience and exploited the territories it controlled for cash.


Some of my fondest gaming memories are from a campaign I played in with my cousin André and a few others. The crazy thing was that André was always both a good painter and a great terrain builder, so that made for a truly great gaming table. I played Escher, my cousin played Cawdors, as did Karl. Shawn played Delaques. Phil played Scavies and Dom played Spyrers. But the most active players were my cousin and me. Eventually, we also got some Ratskins, but I only remember my cousin playing them once. He lost pretty badly.

One time, I went to my cousin's place and my friend Karl hinted that we'd have a treat for the game that night. When we got in the gaming room, my cousin showed us his latest creation: a ruined cathedral, complete with stained glass windows and frescoes. It was crazy. I wish I had pictures, but that was before anyone had digital cameras

I dug into my old miniatures and I found I still have four whole gangs, with ALL the minis that were available for them: Eschers, Ratskins, Delaques and Spyrers. I also have a few special characters. I stripped them of the old paintjob.

Maybe I'll get around to painting them sometime...