Ish

I’m so happy these new sculpts are mostly just reposes and slight tweaks of the classic Jes Goodwin originals. Citadel knocked it out of the park with the Sisters of Battle back in the day, all we needed was for them to take advantage of plastics ability to get more dynamic poses...

Has anyone ever seen Doomrider and Mephiston in the same room at the same time...?

Loving the new season of the Jack Ryan series on Amazon, but find it a little creepy that Tom Clancy has an Executive Producer credit...

The music sounds like something straight out of an SNES-era Castlevania game...

A 2-3 player Death Race using just basic cars and without using any of the more complicated options can usually be completed in about an hour or so. Depends on how fast everyone picks up on the rules and the small-talk to game-play ratio... Gaslands is a pretty fast moving game.

I’m planning to be there, inviting new viewers to watch the greatest game show of them all: Gaslands! Stay tuned to this broadcast frequency and remain indoors.

They are laser guns, hence the name: lasgun. In principle you can burn through any reflective surface (like a mirror) if the laser is strong enough. The absorption coefficient of the very best mirrors is of the order of 1 part per million. The only canonical statement as to how much power an imperial lasgun has is from the Siege of Vraks books that says the Death Korps’ Lucius-pattern lasgun “operates in the 21 megathoule range.” But “megathoule” is a made-up word... If they meant megajoules, 21 MJ is equivalent to 0.005 tonnes of TNT. Less than one foot pound of force... Since lasguns can blow holes clear through a human body and even punch through powered armor on occasion, then a “megathoule” must be more (much more) than a megajoule. So there aren’t any Glitter Boys in WH40k. You’ll need to play Rifts for that.

My favorite part of the Nexos is that the building on his little holo-map is Games Workshop’s main headquarters.

Oh yeah, a 3D printer can make all sorts of Gaslands stuff for pennies... But that’s not exactly the sort of thing one wants to put on a “How to Get Started” list.

@Inquisitor66 is running a Shadowrun RPG campaign every other Tuesday, which I plan to play in. My plan is to play Gaslands on the opposite weeks... Although I'll probably still bring my cars and other kit on Shadowrun weeks, just in case. I've got the rule book, skid dice, regular dice, templates, and a crate load of cars... all of which I am more than happy to share, so there is not excuse not to come give it a try. The Gaslands Refueled rulebook is $30 hard copy and a mere $21 for the ePub or PDF if you buy directly from Osprey... Add a set of Skid Dice and some Hot Wheels, you're looking at $40. You can barely get a single squad of WH40k models for less than $50 these days!

Gaslands: Refuelled is a tabletop miniature wargame of post-apocalyptic vehicular mayhem, played with die-cast toy cars, competing in a deadly televised game show to win fame, glory, and a ticket to the off-world colonies. But what does a budding road warrior need to get started with Gaslands? Well, you really don't need much beyond the rulebook, toy cars, and some dice. #1 - The Rules (Must Have) Gaslands: Refuelled is the most recent version of the rules, having been released in late September 2019. It contains everything a road warrior needs to build and customize their vehicles, rules for how to race them, campaigns, sponsors, and so forth. The original Gaslands rulebook, which I call the "blue book," came out in November 2017. The rules haven't changed all that much between the two, with Refueled serving more of a "v 1.1" update than a whole new edition of the game. If you already have the "blue book" and only plan to play once in a great while, you don't really need to buy the new book. On the other hand, it has a greatly expanded page count, clarifies some ambiguous rules, and is much prettier... It's also only $30.00 MSRP. Where to Get It: You can buy it directly from Osprey Games or from a third-party like North Star Figures. You can also ask your Friendly Local Game Store to special order a copy for you. #2 - The Cars (Must Have) Gaslands is intended to be played with die-cast toy cars, the rule book never specifically names any particular brand, but basically they mean Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars from Mattel. Keep in mind that keep Hot Wheels and other die-cast toy cars are not precisely scaled models. They're usually about 1:64 scale, although individual cars can be anywhere between 1:54 to 1:87 scale (and a fair few are completely made up fantasy designs that don't really have any scale). This means you can use darn near anything you want as long as it is the approximate size of a Hot Wheels car. Brands like Green Light, Johnny Lightning, and Jada Toys are usually more true to scale (they also cost more) and some of the "licensed" Hot Wheels specialty lines like Star Wars or Pixar's Cars will also cost more and have funny scales. Where to Get `Em: You can buy Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars damn near everywhere: Wal-Mart, Target, Fred Meyer, 7-11, Safeway... Typical cost is about a buck. Special mention must also be made of thrift stores (like Goodwill) or garage sales which can often yield buckets of these cars for pennies a piece. #3 - The Dice (Really Ought to Have) Gaslands is played with garden variety six-sided dice (that most of us will already have bushels of) as well as special Skid Dice. The Skid Dice are a key part of game-play as you'll roll them every time you maneuver your vehicles -- which happens a lot in a racing game! It is possible to use normal six-sided dice in lieu of specialty Skid Dice, either converting them via a chart in the rulebook or even just printing out some stickers that you attach to regular dice. However, given that Skid Dice are so essential to game play and the fairly low cost of buying them, I'd call them a must have. Where to Get `Em: You can buy Skid Dice from North Star Figures (five pack for £8.50) or from any one of dozens of sellers on Etsy (varies between $5.00 to $10.00 depending on quantity, color, et.) #3 - Maneuver Templates (Nice to Have) Along with the Skid Dice, Gaslands' other main gameplay element is the Maneuver Template. Similar to games like X-Wing or Wings of Glory, movement of your cars in controlled by a series of templates. You can find a set of them in the back of the rule book for photocopying or download them and print them yourself. I played the game for over a year with just a set of paper templates glued to some thin card stock and cut out. But for the best durability and aesthetics, you can't go wrong with a proper set of "real" templates. Where to Get `Em: You can buy Templates dozens of sellers on Etsy (average price seems to be $10.00) or from third-party sellers like Litko #4 - Da Bitz (Nice to Have) Modifying toy cars into terrifying post-apocalyptic murder machines is as seriously fun part of the hobby. Although Gaslands does not have any WYSIWYG rules, it's generally good sportsman ship to have weapons on the model that somewhat resemble the weapons on it's sheet... Machine guns should look like machine guns, missiles should look like missiles, and so forth. Where to Get `Em: I don't think I need to explain to any of you the glorious things that can be done with a full bitz box, super glue, and a deranged imagination. That's probably the first stop you should make when looking for bitz. You can also get a lot of mileage from bitz of scrap packaging, old broken electronics, and other "trash" found around the house. But having said that, if you want to get some bitz specifically made for Gaslands models take a look at North Star Figures, Ramshackle Games, Ground Zero Games, Dice Mechanic Games, and of course: Etsy.

Ruth Vader Ginsburg

Today marks the moment when seminal sci-fi film Blade Runner stops being set in the future... Turns out the most fantastic element in this film of replicants, off-world colonies, and flying cars was the idea that 2019 California would still have functioning electricity.

I just hope it’s something a bit more punchy than World War III...

Slightly off-topic, but Team Yankee probably would benefit from a name change. The thirty or so people that have read the novel all liked it, but...

That Age of Sigmar art reminds me of the Xiticix from Rifts...

Three armed robbers break into a villa on the Costa del Sol, tie up the woman who lives there, threaten her and terrorize her into handing over the cash and jewels... Then they see some family photos, realize exactly who’s wife they just tied up, and quickly run the hell away. (I would legit watch a movie where he hunts them down for revenge. Wearing the Ivan Drago trunks and carrying his He-Man sword.)

As long as you’ve trained them not to eat the ball, you’re still doing pretty good.

At last, a fully semi-automatic rifle that uses belt-fed magazine clips!

"Moto Fanaticus" sounds like a nice name for the club's Gaslands campaign. Especially since the latin for "motor" and "dead" all stem from the same roots. I got bored at threw together a logo. I'm thinking that if we do make Gaslands a regular thing, the Televised Seasons rules in Gaslands Refueled (pp. 156 - 164) seem perfect for club play. Teams start at a modest 30 Cans, grow at a modest pace, and there's a hard cap of eight vehicles per player. It also has rules baked in for what to do if less than half the players show up for a scheduled game night. But in the meantime, there's plenty of fun to be had just playing pick-up games.

Running a bit behind. Hope to get there around six. Don’t start any massive firefights until I get there, chummers.

You should hear some of the conspiracy theories floating around out there about this symbol: Ⓤ That’s what’s known as a a hechsher ( הכשר‎ ) which roughly translates as “seal of approval.” Jewish dietary laws require various, packaged foods, beverages, and whatnot that are sold commercially to be certified as kosher by a rabbi. The Ⓤ symbol is the mark of the Orthodox Union, the largest certification group in the US. Go ahead and grab nearly any food packaging you have handy, if you look in the corners or in the “fine print” you’ll probably find a Ⓤ somewhere. Maybe even a ⓊD or ⓊP. Needless to say, when a certain sort of person learns about “secret symbols” being used by “the Jews” in cooperation with “big corporations” then all sorts of kookiness results.

I’m referring to the old adage that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” @WestRider got it. By the way, I’ve checked in with my family: Hell has not frozen over, yet. It usually does sometime near mid-December.