Monday 22 December 2014

Further Geekfest announcements


Gentlemen (and any ladies who happen to be wandering by at the moment), further updates on Geekfest 2015!

There will now be free form al fresco Magic: The Gathering bring-and-play sessions (basically a designated MTG area where people can bring their decks and seek opponents.)
There will also be an area for Pokemon and YuGiOh! on similar lines. Anyone rocking up with Card Fight Vanguard! or Future Card: Buddy Fight! will get bonus marks for hilarious game names, and probably will also find an opponent.

Also, there is now a Floor Games Arena! There we shall run Winterloo in the morning, followed by Pirates' Treassure and Peg Flight later in the day.

I am currently looking for GG members to help staff these events. CCG/TCG supervision can be done by unskilled Coal Creek persons, no need to know the game. The floor games stuff needs a highly trained GG member - or at least someone who can grasp the VERY simple rules of these games, which mostly involve throwing dice at things and trying to hit them with the dice...

Details!
Other Details!
Event Schedule!

Wednesday 17 December 2014

The Night Before Orcsmas

Tis the night before Orcsmas, most significant of the green-skinned mid-winter festivals, when old Father Orcsmas delivers presents to all good little orcs and gobbos in Scrundor, the foul Orcish kingdom. In the tiny goblin hamlet (named with striking imagination Goblintown...) there is much anticipation of the arrival of old Wandering Wazzak, the pedlar and his Orcsmas stock. But what terrible news is this? Wazzak has been slain by Tholian soldiers, his stock destroyed and his venerable pack-hippo Bob roasted by those pesky humans down in Pinevale! There shall be no orcsmas present this year for Tiny Tug! With mere hours left until the festival, with the lamentations of the women and children ringing from the rocky cliffs above Goblintown, old Skuzz the village elder calls the tiny hamlet's greatest heroes together... there is nothing for it but to attack Pinevale and steal the Human's christmas presents!

The Night Before Orcsmas is a special, one-off stand alone RPG session for Thursday 18th of December. Using pre-generated goblin characters and the Dice Chucker V.3 ruleset, players will attempt to save Orcsmas by any means necessary!
Take up the shabby mantle of Zoggy the Nomad, Captain Skabnose Konkface, Hulk Huggak, Boomer, Bazza, Squeezy, Boggo the Biffer, or Gaston D'Gobbeaux and fight for truth, justice, and more importantly... LOOT!

Monday 15 December 2014

TONO: the biggest loser.

Tono's Drastic Weight Reduction Diet has been a success! Using the bulk of his great girth, the club has now become the proud owner of:
A Magic: The Gathering 2014 Core Set booster box
A Magic: The Gathering 2014 Land Station (an epic quantity of land cards needed for the draft)
Seven spiral life tracking D20s (used to track how alive you are)
This Thursday will be focused on a Christmas themed RPG session, we will start the MTG draft league in January.

Geekfest game details released!

Details of some of the Geekfest game sessions have been released.
The Battle of Coal Creek:
A wargame using the Fanticide rule set, and fought over a scale replica of part of the Coal Creek park itself.
Murder on the Transvaal Express:
A Role Playing game held in a railway carriage - can you discover which of your fellow players in the murderer?

Further details forthcoming.

Friday 12 December 2014

Clubberation and Christmass

What with the holiday season settling over us like a very large red cloud lines with white fur and bedecked with baubles, there will be some changes to the club's normal schedule
Next Thursday (the 18th of December) will be the last meeting for the year. It may even be suitably christmassy.
Christmas Day is a Thursday. There will be no games club. You can all play with all your new shiny games in the privacy of your own homes.
New Year's Day is ALSO a Thursday. I will be in Melbourne officiating as the scribe for a 30,000 point per side Warhammer battle report (Warhammer is usually played as 2000-2500 points per side). There will be no games club. You can simply keep playing with your shiny new christmas games.
January 8th will be the first day of the new gaming year. And there shall be much rejoicing!

Sunday 9 November 2014

Tono's Drastic Weight Reduction Diet

Image via deviantart
Tono has become morbidly obese with the constant diet of $2 coins we've been feeding him for over a year now. It's time for Tono's Drastic Weight Reduction Diet, and I think I know exactly how to do it.
We will hold a Magic: The Gathering Booster Draft.
For those of you who don't know, MTG is a collectible card game in which you play powerful mages trying to kill one another. You do this by playing land cards (which give you mana) and spell cards (which do fun stuff like summon creatures or just plain damage people). It's actually pretty easy to learn, but fairly complex to play.
Now the thing about doing a Booster Draft is that it means we are all on basically the same level - no one has access to their collection of 1000 hand picked super hardcore mythic rare cards, all of us start new decks, and all of the cards come from the same pool. Basically, a Booster Draft means that Tono funds the purchase of a booster display box. This box contains 36 boosters. These boosters contain 16 cards (two of which are not important to the draft). The idea is that every player is given three boosters, they open one, pick one card to keep, and pass the rest on. This keeps going until all three boosters are exhausted, and you have a stack of cards in front of you. We then add some extra lands (because boosters never give you enough!) to these decks, and start playing.
This way, every GG member gets their own deck, and since draft games can only be played with the cards from the drafts, everyone is at about the same power level. When Tono gets fat again, we can buy another box, and add more cards to our decks. And so on until we get sick of it.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

No club meeting 16/10

Due to commitments to videographical recordings of the LSC performance evening on Thursday 16th, there will be no club meeting.

Tuesday 23 September 2014

September/October School Holidays

Due to the disruption caused by people going of on holidays, we will not return to the Burning Sands of T'Ash Khan campaign until the term starts once more. But there will be plenty of board and card gaming going on.

What's more, there will ALSO be the school holiday program!
On September 25th, take to the skies in Peg Flight!
On September 28th, take to the seas in Pirate's Treasure!
On October 4th, take to the filed in Winterloo!
Take to the events page for details!

Wednesday 10 September 2014

No club on September 18th.

Due to the dreaded parent teacher interviews at LSC, there will be no Gippsland Gamers meeting on Thursday 18th.

Tuesday 26 August 2014

But Wait, There's Kickstarter!

Just thought I should let everyone know that But Wait, There's More is up on Kickstarter. There have been some improvements and changes to the cards, some new rules, and there'll be a timer (so we won't have to worry about my phone locking itself all the time!). What's more, there's an expansion as well! I have backed it, and the estimated delivery is December this year.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Shifting Sands of T'ash-Khan: Dice Chucker returns.

It's time for Dice Chucker! Since we've lost vital members of the gaming group, it's not really feasible to continue with Skyships of Harran at this point, so it's time for a new campaign!
Shifting Sands of T'ash-Khan takes place in the harsh desert realm of T'ash-Khan, a burning sea of sand and scattered stone. Here, humans and the hippo-like Tamus have carved out a civilisation at the very edge of the known world. The story commences with our heroes hiring on as caravan guards. We'll be creating characters and setting the scene on Thursday, and beginning the actual campaign next week.

Sunday 20 July 2014

GeekFest 2015 and Pirate's Day

Two announcements of the most earth shattering importance must be made today!


First, the GeekFest website is now open, and you can go there to find out all that is currently known about Gippsland's premier pageant of geekery! You can even rate posts as 'Huzzah!' 'Woot!' 'Meh' and/or 'Bah!'!
Allow me to quote from the GeekFest page:

For countless eons of time the geekly population of Gippsland was without form and purpose, without organization and without a single, unifying event to bring them together to glorify and praise all forms of geek culture. And then into this darkness strode a shining colossus of colossal shininess, and looked upon this dreary situation and declared ‘Let There Be Geekfest’ in words which bore almost no resemblance to thunder.
            And there was.
            And it was good.



Secondly, I have just concluded negotiations with the masterful management of Coal Creek about running more Pirates Treasure sessions on Pirate's Day (September 28th)
Allow me to quote from the press releasey thing:

In the middle of the Seas of Skullduggery - Skeleton Island, hiding place of Cap’n Rumblebelly’s buried treasure! Around the outside of the sea, the islands of six pirate kings desperate to get their hands on the treasure! Take command of one of the pirate’s ships and try to get to Skeleton Island first to dig up the treasure, and then get it back to your own island to claim it forever! But beware, five other pirates have the same idea as you, and even if you get the treasure, you might not be able to hang onto it!
For further information see the events page (unless you are reading this in the futuristic year of 2015 or something, because by then the contents of that page will have changed. And you will feel such a fool for missing this event!)

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Peg Flight: The Great War



Thursday July 3rd sees the return of the highly successful Peg Flight system, as used in our Air Pirates game over easter. Come along and build your own squadron of three great war biplanes from pegs, matches and paddle pop sticks, paint them up, and lead them to victory in the clear blue skies over the Mechanics' Institute floor!
All materials are provided, and what is more, you get to go home with:

  • Your squadron of three planes
  • A special game die used when you shoot
  • Medals for valour (and a pilot badge even if you get wiped out before you can shoot anyone!)
  • Chocolate!
Bookings essential via Coal Creek or 03 5655 1811.

Monday 16 June 2014

Lates start 19th June

Due to an excursion at school, I will not be able to get to GG until about 6pm. I will try to pass some games on to a proxy of some sort, and the venue will be open from 4 as usual.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Terrain for Hippos Annual Terrain Compometition 2014

Yes! A contest of terrain building excellence with... A JUNIOR CATEGORY! At last all those who have only started taking the first tentative steps in the manufacture of miniature landscapes can win shiny prizes and feel good about themselves in general without having to beat grizzled veterans with knee-length beards! If there's enough interest, I will also run some 'how to make terrain real good' sessions at Gippsland Gamers, possibly during the upcoming holidays.

Exhaustively detailed details can be found here.

Sunday 8 June 2014

July holiday program announced!

Yes! It's almost time for the July school holidays, which means it's almost time for some more awesome holiday program sessions! Check out the freshly updated events page for details!

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Little Wars 2014 (and why you should care)



Little Wars 2014 is on June 1st in Moorabin town hall in the fair city of Moorabin (which is a suburb of Melbourne, noted for it's magnificent town hall and fun-size airport).
Little Wars is Melbournes greatest wargames, board games, RPG and geek-related gaming event organized by bald men. It might just be the greatest full stop, but I'd have to compare it with some others before making that call.

This year, Little Wars will feature:

  • More participation games than you can shake a stick of shaking +1 at.
  • Demo games of Warhammer involving more figures than you can comfortably contemplate.
  • RPG sessions.
  • A Board Game break out area.
  • Lego, because why the hell not?
  • OzPainters painting competition.
  • TFH Demo table (now with extra Grot!)
  • Traders selling things at outrageous prices (the good kind, not the bad kind)
  • The incredible, awe-inspiring Bring & Buy stand in all it's groaning glory!
  • Also geeks!
  • And more geeks!
You may choose to read more detailed detail on this highly detailed website.  Just ignore Little Wars Adelaide. You'd have a lot more trouble talking your parents into going to that one than Melbourne.

Did I mention the geeks?

Monday 28 April 2014

The Curious Incident of the Interviewer in the Night-Time

I've just been contacted by a journalism student from Monash Churchill who wants to do some interviews and write a story about Gippsland Gamers for an assignment. He will need parental permission for those under 18 to be interviewed. I've told him to bring the permission forms with him when he comes - probably this week.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

EASTER WARS


The Terrible Toads of the Swamps or Surpassing Stench have banned Easter. Bad news for the oppressed Teddy Bear Peasants. Luckily, teams of Commando Ninja Easter Bunnies are determined to see Easter comes to the swamps. By any means necessary.
The Toads in question.
Easter Wars is on this Thursday, 17th of April from 13:00-15:30.
Come along and paint up your own crack squad of Ninja Commando Easter Bunnies and battle through the Terrible Toads to deliver your cargo of eggs, using a simplified variant of the FANTICIDE rules.

  • Learn how to paint your own 28mm Wargames figures.
  • Learn how to lead them in combat using simple, but versatile rules.
  • Take home three highly detailed Eureka Miniatures samurai rabbits and a D10 gaming die.
  • Also chocolate.
Ninja Commando Easter Bunny Team Red takes out a sentry.

The miniatures have kindly been supplied at a hefty discount by Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures, possibly the nicest bald man in Wargames (and that's saying something!). Check out Eureka's website for other cool figures.

As always, bookings are esential via the Coal Creek website, or PH: 5655 1811.

A frenzied melee in the middle of the swamps.

But wait... there's more!
On Sunday 20th, to coincide with the annual Coal Creek Egg Hunt, we'll be running FREE participation games of Easter Wars from 10:00. Come along and experience the fast-paced thrills of Ninja Bunny Commando Combat - you don't get to keep the figures, but you DO get to keep the chocolate and the rules.

And you don't need to book.

See you there!

Where have all our eggs gone?

Patience furry freinds -we shall bring them to you!
All eggs will be CRUSHED!!

Monday 14 April 2014

Peg Flight rules released.

The rules for Peg Flight, first used for our Air Pirates session have now been released online. The PDF contains the complete rules, plus a craft session explaining how to build your own planes, ground targets and clouds.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Easter Holiday Program: AIR PIRATES!

 The Air Pirates session is almost upon us, and there are still a few spaces open! Come on down to build your own fleet of three Air Pirate planes from pegs, paddle-pop sticks and other common craft materials, before joining in battle with your fellow pirates for the ultimate honour of destroying the Imperial Zeppelin and looting it's fantastic treasures!

Build your own trio of dashing Air Pirate planes! 
Lead them in battle and then take them home afterwards!

Bookings essential via Coal Creek or 03 5655 1811.

Saturday 5 April 2014

GG finds a path...

Well, it took a while because Milsims never seems to bother to restock things, but I finally got the Pathfinder Beginner Box (by going to Mind Games instead!) along with the Reaper Bones figures for the pre-generated characters included. Like the Star Wars Edge of the Empire game, this one teaches you as you play, so we'll certainly be having a shot at this in the near future.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Club not running, April 3rd.

It's Parent Teacher night/We know he's not to bright...
What? You have a different song in your head on parent teacher night?


Due to an inconvenient clash with Leongatha Secondary's parent/teacher interview night, Gippsland Gamers will not run on April 3rd.
Sigh.

Saturday 15 March 2014

Painting session Thursday 20th

Example painted figures from Eureka Miniatures website. Ours will not look quite like this. Or even much like this really.

In preperation for the Easter Holiday Program we will spend part of this Thursday's session painting the Terrible Toads of the Swamps or Surpassing Stench and some of the Ninja Commando Easter Bunnies. All paints, burshes etc. will be provided, and since the figures were purchased with club funds, all paintists will be able to lay claim to some of them for later use! Huzzah!
I have developed quick and easy painting techniques for both types of figure, so no experience with the brush will be needed to take part.

Monday 10 March 2014

A discovery of great importance...

I was chatting with a mate on Saturday about his plans for a Zombie skirmish game, and suggested he check out 7ombieTV, the zombie spin off of Crooked Dice's 7TV game which I'd seen so much about in Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine. Curiosity got the better of me, and I had a look at the website, only to dicover...

THE DOCTOR WHO MINIATURES GAME!

Yes! A free rule set which covers the whole 'classic' Dr. Who era! What's more, they make figures to go with it, and there's even a 2 pound introductory starter set which includes paper figures for a complete scenario! What's more, 7TV, which developed from the DWMG rule set includes such magnificence as Blake's 7 - Terry Nation's attempt to make Star Wars AND Star Trek simultaneously on the budget of Dr. Who!

Knowing how filled with Whovians the GG membership is, I'm sure we'll be playing this some time soon.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Easter school holiday program EXPANDED!


Through heavy bribes (ie: Ginger Beer and Chocolate), that cunning woman who runs Coal Creek has secured an additional Easter holiday session on Sunday 20th, timed to co-incide with the Coal Creek Easter Hunt. From 10am, we'll be running participation games of Easter Wars using pre-painted figures.  So you don't get to keep the figures, but you do get to beat up some of those Terrible Toads in the Swamps of Surpassing Stench and win the eternal gratitude of the oppressed teddy bear peasants.

And while we're at it, massive and heart felt thanks go to Nic Robson of Eureka Minaitures for the generous discount on the Pond Wars range and free replacement copy of the Fanticide Rulebook which are making this session possible. Go and worship his bald magnificence at the Eureka website. And while you're there, why not buy a set of clockwork war trousers, or an enourmous French dog?

Sunday 2 March 2014

Easter school holiday program announced!

Do your Easter holidays drag on forever? Are you lost in a see of endless time and ennui? Do you long for some geekery to break the monotony of existence and eggs? Well, your luck is in! Gippsland Gamers in association with Coal Creek Village and the South Gippsland Shire Council is proud to announce the Easter Holiday Program!

There will be two magnificent events running - a gritty modern reboot of our popular Pirate's Treassure session from summer involving monoplanes and chocolate dubloons, and Easter Wars involving crack teams of Ninja Commando bunnies trying to break through the defences of the Terribel Toads and deliver Easter eggs to the oppressed peasants. Both sessions will cost you a paltry $10, and you will walk away with shiny stuff, even if you don't win! If you do win, you get MORE shiny stuff! Huzzah!

For full details, see the newly updated Special Events page.
As always, bookings are essential via Coal Creek or 03 5655 1811.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Skyship Heroes and Grave News...


Good news! I've completed the figures for the heroes of the Skyships of Harran RPG campaign!

Eve, Jaques, Aurelia and Lonce.
Grave news... I've been commissioned to build $400 worth of Warhammer terrain in about three weeks. This means I will not have much time to spend on preparing Skyships material. So we might have to complete the current adventure arc and then hit the pause button for a while. This will, naturally, be an excellent time to get in other exciting games.
What $400 worth of Warhammer terrain looked like last time I built that much.
Artists impression of Acromion finding $400 worth of terrain.

Sunday 23 February 2014

Spending the club stash.

Your $2 per session is really starting to mount up, and Tono is becoming fat and sluggish. It's time to start thinking about what we're spending the club stash on!


  • If we play some tabletop battle games and skirmish games (things like Warhammer and Fanticide) we'll need some model terrain to play over. I can supply this free of charge (because it's my favourite part of the hobby) but we will need some storage boxes to keep it in.
  • We could spend some of the money on maps, figures and so forth for Skyships of Harran.
  • After we finish up Skyships of Harran and take a bit of a break from RPGs to recover, I wouldn't mind giving Pathfinder a go. The beginner box is well within our fiscal grasp, and looks very tasty too!
If you've got any ideas on things we need or want to spend the club stash on, post a comment letting me know.

Saturday 15 February 2014

The return of Duelling Paintbrushes (sort of)

Duelling Paintbrushes is back with a new format. Again.
For details of this auspicious event, and why you should take part, see the announcement on Terrain For Hippos.

Monday 27 January 2014

RPG session Thursday 30th

Image courtesy of the wonders of Google Image Search...
On Thursday 30th, I'll be running the first session of an RPG campaign set on the floating islands of the world of Harran. We'll generate characters and take them out on a short, learner adventure. In the coming weeks, we'll get stuck into some more extensive adventures linked into a campaign.
We'll be using OverSoul Games' easily learned and extremely flexible DiceChucker V.3 rule set, and a setting I've developed. Character generation is quite simple, but really needs to be done in the presence of the DM (the guy who runs the game, ie: me.), so come up with an idea for your character based on the setting background, and think about what motivates him or her.
I don't plan to run the RPG session every week - there are other exciting things to play, and I need some time between to plan and plot new adventures. We'll see how we go about developing a schedual.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Petunia?

Are you looking for an awesome game you can play even when the power's off? Are you after something social, which doesn't just involve having insults shouted at you by 14 year olds in other countries over a head set? Were you disappointed when Halo 4 ended with a quick time event instead of an epic battle? Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Petunia?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you should certainly come to Gippsland Gamers' final summer holiday program event of the year - The Roleplaying Taster Session.
Role Playing games use dice, rules and imagination to take you to far away lands, battle strange monsters, and do literally anything you can think of (or at least, attempt to do anything you can think of...) Join together with a group of other gamers, each taking on the role of a powerful warrior, wily thief, crafty wizard, pious priest of blood-thirsty barbarian. Work as a team to overcome fearsome foes, terrible traps and cunning challenges, and at the end of the day, be rewarded with fabulous riches and new abilities (er... your character gets these - you don't actually earn any money. Sorry.)

Take up arms and take on the challenge. Prove yourself to be a bad enough dude to rescue Petunia.
Only at Gippsland Gamers.

Thursday 23rd January, 1pm-3pm.
Bookings essential via Coal Creek Historic Village. Ph. 5655 1811 or email.

Thursday 16 January 2014

No meeting Thursday 16th either...

Coal Creek is closing early today due to the heat. As a result, I'm cancelling this evening's session.
We'll be back in two weeks once school's gone back, the heat's under control, and Cancon is over.

Saturday 11 January 2014

No meeting on Thursday 23rd.

There will be no club meeting on Thursday 23rd. We will be back in action on the 30th.

Thursday 2 January 2014

Moving from the Mechanics' Institute

The Anne Frank exhibition has ended, so the gallery space at Coal Creek is free once more. We'll be holding our evening sessions in there, every thursday starting on the 9th. Not only is there air-con, there's also CARPET! And an interactive whiteboard! And you can wander out the door, wander over to the fridge, and buy liquid refreshment!
If the venue got any more awesome, we'd have to put the price up.