And the centerpiece of that snippet, the Hand Grenade itself, is now available from THINKGEEK DOT COM.



The perfect gift accessory for the 2007 Christmas Season! Just click on the Grenade, and count to 5, no 3, and go to ThinkGeek to get one for yourself.

I had a bad experience with an online vendor of a certain sort of product some years back. (Shrug) It happens. The thing is, it was one of those "It'll be a cold day in Hades before I do business with that guy again" kind of things. That is solely my own opinion, based on my experiences. I won't name the guy's business, as it is pretty much a one-man band kind of thing. I don't wish the guy ill, I just choose not to do business with him.

So, the vendor puts me on a mailing list and I get his annual clearance email once a year. I pretty much made it clear that I would never do business with the guy again after our last transaction, and when I got the first email, I asked to be removed from his mailing list. Dunno if the email got lost or ignored intentionally, but once again, I would get the semi-annual emailing from the guy. I don't believe I ever bothered to repeat the request again-- I just deleted them out of hand. That is, until the recent mailing.

My request was courteous enough, I thought:

At 11/XX/2007, you wrote:

May I be removed from this list, please?

Thanks,

(Nizz)

To which I get this response.. it starts off somewhat corporate-smarmy but the real zinger, in my point of view, is the last sentence:

(Nizz),

While we hate to lose you as a subscriber, we have unsubscribed you from our services. You'll not receive any further emailings from us except in reply to something you send to us.

I'm sorry that we could not be of greater service to you. But by all means please think of us should you be looking for a game of some form, whether new or used.

Thanks, (Nizz), for your one order three years ago. (emphasis mine -- MrN)

(initials)

Now, he did what I wanted and I no longer care, but I do find this really funny as a response. It sings to me.. "What, you bought ONE FREAKIN' ORDER from me and you have the temerity to not want to be on my little email list that generates two emails a year?? How dare you!" Yes, I'm reading into things here but my original dealings with this vendor give me a firm foundation to speculate about the intent.

Now, if it were ME at the other end of that, I might be asking something like.. "Hey, (Nizz).. you only ordered ONE order from me three years ago, and you seem to have had such a negative reaction about it that you've: A) never ordered anything again, and don't even wish to hear from me one or two times a year. Is there anything I can do to regain your future custom? Was it price? customer service or the lack thereof? the website? my e-commerce model? TALK TO ME, (Nizz)!!!"

But hey, he is he and me is me.. It's a funny old world. Perhaps I'm just reading too much into it.

A Good Round IF...

... you were fond of the Amazon River, Robert E. Lee, the movie Braveheart, and York Peppermint Patties.

Categories for Round 3 tonight.

Boardgamegeek recently published their GIFT GUIDE FOR 2007, featuring boardgame recommendations for all ages and tastes. This list is certainly geared towards the family or euro game customer, primarily, but if that interests you, have a look

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Board_Game_Gift_Guide_2007

I would find it useful if I were looking for an easy entre into the boardgaming hobby (say, beyond the Parcheesi, Monopoly, and Checkers).

Enjoy!

(warning: contains sequences not intended for children or office spaces)



There's nothing like that holiday feeling.

Woo-HOO! I am once again participating in the Secret Santa club on Boardgamegeek. The premise is very simple. Once a year, the denizens of BGG get together and virtually put their names in a hat and shake it up, then dole the names out to strangers, and the strangers buy them a present, usually anonymously. Now, me, I blew it last year and revealed my gift to my "target" I promise I wont' repeat that mistake. Secret Santa is far more entertaining when you give in secret.

I view the process as a sort of pay it forward... my target fellow is a younger guy, maybe not with a lot of funds, and he clearly likes a lot of stuff I do. I'm hoping I can make his Christmas happier.

Round Two

The Keyword is BAILEY

Topics:

1) In a classic mystery plot
2) Seen at a computer trade show
3) An American Civil War general
4) Won an Academy Award for Best Picture
5) A Great Big River
6) A Confection


Good Luck, Chaps! And Chappetis!

Saints Alive.. It might almost be here.

Check out this demo game on an after action report page!



That looks pretty functional to me! Mayyyybe (fingies crossed) by Christmas.

After Action Report Page here

We'll see...

And they are OFF! Karen and Peter C. are in the lead, with Gloire, Bill, Eva and Jason snapping at their heals.

Obviously, if you were on the Elvis, Nagashino, or Microsoft Office Bandwagon this turn, you were going to score high.

Attached is a graphic of the game spreadsheet.

My Fall-In! 2007 Vacation!

(Belated, I know.. and as always, all commentary is my own)


(crack Events staff Pat Shields, Cleo Hanlon, and a somewhat blase Mike Hillsgrove)

I had a pretty good convention overall. I showed up a little early to work the con, and I schlepped a few things here and there, and fetched wood and carried water Thursday.


(Convention Director McWee and Gruppenfuhrer Mattes)

Friday, my friend Ed came down from central PA and we did a battlefield walk and had lunch, then I did the staff thing on the afternoon shift. I worked the Flea Market, briefly, and also spelling the guys at the front desk of the Vendor Area. More work than I thought it would be!




(Dan Muraski, the only flea market guy in HMGS history who got a VENDOR table to sell on)

There were tons of games put on at this convention and lots of activity, to judge by the impossibility of getting a parking spot in the lot. That's a GOOD thing.. I was struck by the influx of boardgaming in various nooks and crannies of the con, here and there, and sometimes right out on the main tables as bona fide events!



Permanent Link


(Hal Dyson, running perennial favorite AERODROME)


(DBA competitors in the New Ballroom, Friday)


(that Featherstone Cup you've heard about...)


(.. and some folks who japed that it was rightfully theirs..)


(and MORE games)


(and even MORE...)


(son of MORE games..)

I did very little shopping, but got a pretty nifty game of Pulp Adventures! in late in the evening, run by Chris Vaughn.

F-174 On The Shoulders Of Giants
Pulp; 7 PM;
Length: 4;
Hosted by: Chris Vaughn;
Scale: 25mm;
Sponsored by: Rattrap Productions;
Rules: .45
Adventure/Super Science Tales;
No. of Players: 4.
A dense, low-lying fog blankets The City, reducing familiar objects to menacing shadows, when you feel a low rumbling in the pit of your stomach. It gradually becomes an earth-shaking tremble as out of the swirling mists appear monstrous mechanical creations - robots taller than many of the surrounding buildings! The diabolical Dr. Kroon is at it again and it's up to you and your fellow pulp heroes to stop him on the rooftops high above the city! Rules taught. Beginners welcome.

Alas, no pictures of this game were taken, but it was a hoot. Chris, who has a great sense of humor and creativity, was running a sort of micro-scenario of giant robots invading New York City. We only got to see the tops of them, see, as the rest of the robots are hidden below fleecy white clouds. The idea was to leap from robot to rooftop as the robots march by, searching for the mcguffins that would turn off the robots. Of course, it's never quite that easy. There were different groups in New York together, trying to turn off giant robots, and some of them were bad and some of them were good. I played a baddie.. the Purple hood, an overarrogant intellectual genius with followers that looked like klansmen in red robes. I played the guy with a Boston Brahmin accent, looking down my nose at my evil minions. Unfortunately the clean cut hero of the story had homicidal followers that decided it was best to shoot first, ask questions later-- so instead of working for the common good, they attacked my poor minions (and myself), changing what could have been a historic alliance of major proportions into bloody internicine warfare. Typical goody two shoes stuff. and they'll blame it on ME in the papers. Sniff! It was a fun little game, very well done visually. I particularly liked the robot heads, which were simple plastic bowls balanced on white plastic powdered laxitive jars. I was concerned.. not only was there enought to balance a robot head on, but enough to run SEVERAL robots on.. I mentioned the benefits of more salad to Mr. Vaughn but he didn't see the humor in it. Seriously, great game, sir! (Update: Chris has since contacted me and provided details of how to view pictures of this game. His Fall In! 2007 album is viewable HERE).

People, places and games...


Saturday I worked the Flea Market thing and did some front desk work for the vendor hall. Then I ran my own game, Return to Lilliput, from 2-6, when we got kicked out. I'm going to take another pass at the mechanics. I got a complaint that they were too fiddly and slow to look up everything. (if anyone wants to take a look at them, let me know, I'd be happy to have a second opinion).



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I opted to eat in.. not great... chicken and mashed potatoes. At least it wasn't incredibly greasy. Then I played in Ed Watts' Pulp Action game Saturday night, as Professor Rick Ruthless and his fleet of giant walking metal men. Pretty danged funny game. A tad chaotic.. Ed probably could have used some assistance.

S-182 Sand Seared Rugged Adventures, North Africa, 1930s.
Inter-War;
8 PM;
Length: 4;
Hosted by: Edward Watts;
Scale: 25mm;
Sponsored by: Monday Night Adventurers;
Rules: Rugged Adventures;
No. of Players: 8.
Enigmatic characters, steel visaged Nazis, square jawed heroes and plucky heroines in pursuit of McGuffins mysterious and arcane midst dune and palm tree.
Teens and adults preferred.



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There were some great games run Saturday night. HMGS President Panzeri was running a multi-table, Lewis and Clark thing that I personally found very intriguing. The design was run off a series of random event tables. Here you see some of them being set up.



Some other games being held Saturday:







I then went to the MST3K event hidden in one of the far rooms. I missed the first movie but caught the second.. "Crippled Masters". Hilarious! A guy with no arms joins up with a guy with no legs to become kung fu masters! And they used two memorable actors-- one who was a thalyidomide baby and one who had withered legs as a result of birth defects. They started the movie with prop (real) arms and had the props "chopped off" or "burned away with acid" during the course of the movie. It was pretty over the top funny and perfect faire for MST3K. COuldn't stay awake for anything more, so hit the hay.

Sunday, I was up early and attended the TriaDCon planning meeting. Not much was accomplished, as we only had Mike, Otto and myself attending. One thing we seemed to agree on was that we wouldn't be eager to put on another con without more volunteers stepping forward. The same six guys have done most of the work for the last two, and that is getting old.

So, with that inconclusive note, I nosed my car into traffic heading south, and fall in! was done for another year.

With great sorrow and humility, I must report the passing of Mr. Dave MacRae of the Baggage Train. He suffered a disasterous stroke while setting up at Fall In! last weekend and was medevaced to a nearby hospital. His condition did not improve and he was unresponsive until late Sunday. The following official notice was made on the HMGS "Official List" the other day by FI! Assistant Director Mattes:

It is with great sorrow that I have to report that Dave MacRae
owner of the Baggage Train and long time friend and supporter
of HMGS-East passed away Sunday after suffering a stroke in
Gettysburg on Friday evening. Our prayers go out to his family.
I have called left amessage of condolences for his loss. If I hear
anything back I willpost to the forum.

Very Respectfully
James Mattes
Fall In! Deputy Director

I did not know Dave personally all that well, though I had both played games with him and bought stuff from him over the years. His was one of the countless faces that I have catalogued in my head where I could not pleasantly and strike up a small conversation about .. well, just about anything. There's a lot of guys like Dave in this hobby; people I wished I knew better but likely never will have the chance to. Thanks for your contributions to the hobby, Dave, we will all miss you.

V/R

Mr. Nizz

PS: Fall-IN! travelogue post (traditional for me) has been delayed somewhat... I'm clearing some space off of my picturetrail account. I took about 63 pictures.

Just to clear things up about how to play BRPD, I will attempt to explain it through the use of an example. It is turn one, and I have posted the following hypotheical categories, and provided QUARTZ as the keyword for this round. The users have the letters from Quartz to choose from.

Q U A R T Z available at start

Category 1: Presidents Reagan I have Q U A T Z left.

Category 2: Garden Vegetables Zucchini I have Q U A T left.

Category 3: Automobile Makes Testarosa I have Q U A left.

Category 4: Treaties Ushant I have Q A left

Category 5: Battles in Mexico Queztacoatalsburg I have A left.

Category 6: Flowers Azalea I have used up my letters.


There we go. Does that help?

As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives
And every wife had seven sacks
And every sack had seven cats
And every cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?

Well, we didn't see any sacks, cats, kits, and only one wife.. but we DID see these things:

Gar and I took a Saturday to go to the Captial Hill toy soldier show a month back, and I just found these in the camera. These shows are always loads of fun and well worth the paltry admission of five bucks for me, free for him.



(I apologize for the fuzziness of some of these pictures; my camera was not up to the high focus required for this kind of detail, plus the lighting was not great)



Star Wars Flats











Judges working the painting contest



An entry: John Paul II



More fun stuff..

I was a bit disappointed with the vendors (this is primarily a trade show). Many of them did not have what I was looking for or even reasonably complete lines. For 5 or so dollars, I'm not complaining!

Yet, somehow.. when that sweet siren voice on the Matrix playtest posts something like this:

Dare I hope again???

The Keyword is ORANGE.

Categories

1: Something Lethal
2: Found at a Shopping Mall
3: Microsoft Software
4: Disease
5: Famous Musician or Singer
6: A Battle in Japan

Good Luck!

ANNOUNCING BY REASONABLY POPULAR DEMAND
GAME 1 "Heathcliffe"

I am starting the first round of By Reasonably Popular Demand this week.

The rules are quite simple-- basic BPD (by popular demand) with a keyword added to provide secret letters (plural). There are no theme rounds our game themes in Heathcliffe, though there's no reason why there couldn't be in future games.

Basic BPD: every turn I post six categories, and usually a magic letter to guide the answers. Every player sends me secretly (via IM or email) the answers to each category. Players score by having the most similar answers. For instance, if the secret letter is C and the category is "Vegetables", if 8 people answer CARROT and 2 people CUCUMBER, 8 people would get 8 points and 2 people would get 2 points. Thus, the answer that is "By Popular Demand" gets the most points. We go TEN ROUNDS, about a week each unless I get all the answers early, and then I tally up the scores to give the winners.

By REASONABLY popular demand is only a very little bit different. Each turn I provide an entire keyword to derive answers from. You can use ONLY the letters in the keyword as the first letters for your answer, and only ONCE per category-- you USE UP the letters as they get used. This increases variability somewhat but can also limit you. Thus, if the category is "Presidents" and the keyword is QUARTZ, you could answer Adams, Reagan, Roosevelt, and possibly Quincy Adams if I am in a generous mood, but if the next category was "Garden Vegetables", the person who answered Reagan for President couldn't answer Rutabega for this category, he's already used the R. Scoring, rounds, turns, etc. are all identical to Basic BPD.

See an example of an entire turn, HERE.

COMMUNICATIONS: by email (hussar (at) hotmail (dot) com) or the little IM thingie on Consimworld. The idea is not to make your answer viewable by others.

MISSED TURNS: I'm pretty easygoing about this, but I do give a week, and I think that's plenty of time to come up with something (It IS a pretty simple game, people!), even when on travel. If you miss a deadline, you are NMR (no move received) which is zero points. If you send an incomplete turn, you get zero points for the questions left unanswered. I'll give a little extra time this week to give people time to adjust.

COMMUNICATING RESULTS: I post the results of the round's play here in this blog, and on CSW.

Hmmph... they never had stuff this cool when I was a lad!

I noticed this piece in the latest NOVAG NEWS written by a long time enthusiast of one Harry Paget Flashman, central character of the FLASHMAN SERIES by George MacDonald Fraser. The list was generated by a fellow Flashy fan and may have appeared somewhere on the Royal Flashman Society pages (see sidebar).

Born in 1822 - one Sir Harry Paget Flashman, whose collection of medals includes the following as worn on his chest.
Click on the hyperlinks to see the illustrations of the medals.

First Row

Victoria Cross Indian Mutiny
Knight Commander of the Bath for services during the Indian Mutiny 1858

Second Row

Knight Commander Indian Empire
Queen's Medal for Afghanistan 1841-42 (ribbon very faded)
Cabul 1842

Third Row

Jallalabad , Afghanistan . Awarded to the defenders of Jallalabad 1842
Sutlej , India 1846
Crimea 1856
Indian Mutiny 1858

Four Row

Second China War 1860
Abyssinia
South Africa , Zulu War 1879
Egypt 1874

Fifth Row

Queen's Sudan 1896
Third China War 1900
Queen Victoria 's Jubilee
Edward VII Coronation

Sixth Row

Edward VII Delhi Durbar
George V Coronation
Order of the Elephant ( Denmark )
Turkish Crimea Medal 1856

Seventh Row

Congressional Medal of Honor (USA, post-1904 ribbon)
Civil War Campaign Medal ( USA , second ribbon)
Southern Cross of Honor (awarded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to Confederate veterans)
San Serafino Order of Purity and Truth (4th class) (no image found, fictional)

Eighth Row

Possibly Iron Cross (Germany, 1870 variety) or Commemorative medal of the Congress of Berlin 1883.
Legion of Honour ( France )
Franco-Prussian War Medal ( France )
Franco-Prussian War Medal ( Germany )

Ninth Row

Indian War Medal ( USA , first ribbon)
Khedive's Star ( Egypt )
Khedive's Sudan Medal 1896 ( Egypt )
General Gordon's Khartoum Star

It need not be said that I heartily recommend the Flashman series to any 19th century history enthusiast. Each volume is a history lesson in itself, as well as a highly engaging, humorous and well-written tome.