The Bulwark

On Saturday, March 13th we will be rolling out our characters, learning to make boffer weapons, and trying the system out a little in Bidwell Park.

Sheets will be provided, as will a copy of the pertinent rules from the PHB. Character creation is incredibly easy, so that won’t take long. If you would like to try out character creation on your own, there is a PHB on the Dying Kingdoms official site. Remember our background is a pirate crew.

During all of this, we will be creating boffer weapons. Designing boffer blades is pretty easy, and inexpensive. That said if you would like to use the available supplies, please bring a small donation (about $10) to throw at the group. If you are not a store member this will go to help pay your dues, if you are it will be used specifically for the LARP group.

Finally, if we have daylight left, once everything is said and done we will have a bit of a skirmish and try out the rules system, make any PC adjustments, and be on our way.

This will be a fun afternoon full of goofiness and the beating of many foam swords.

The shop has acquired a copy of the core set for A Game of Thrones the Living Card Game. Now all we need is people to start playing! I am looking forward to getting into this game, and I know some folks are looking for alternatives to Magic. The Living Card Game format offers a good break from a CCG. LCGs do not have booster packs, rather sets are released once a month through a “Chapter Pack” which contain all the cards in the sets. This means, no more rare chasing! Instead the players can focus on deck construction and core strategy rather than buying booster boxes to get that Planeswalker card.

After the unboxing, the decks will be on sale for $10 a piece. The accessories will stay at the shop for open play.

We have a very aggressive RPGA schedule over the next few weeks to prep our ambassadors to Conquest Sac and really want to give them a good showing of our judge capabilities.

Help us up by signing up for tables listed now through 3/17.  If you are interested in judging feel free to replace one of the current judges and let me know.

Also we are going to try to run a 1-4 game this coming weekend Sunday at 1:00pm.  We will fire off if we get at least four players by tomorrow afternoon otherwise I’ll fold the table and send an email announcement.

I look forward to the upcoming weeks of gaming,

Chris “The Don” Boucher

Thanks Don! I have added all the games to our schedule on the right.  To see all of Team Chico’s schedule use this Google Doc.

Amy will be hosting an informational meeting for the Dying Kingdoms LARP. This game will have a lot of activity and isn’t just sitting around playing Ro-Sham-Bo. If you have ever wanted to leap from your D&D table, and smack the rogue with a sword because you are tired of her stealing your stuff, now is the time to do it! Just make sure the sword is foam.

Live Action Role Playing in this context can be a lot of fun if not taken too seriously. Take the “Get together, roll some dice, have fun” mentality reserved for D&D and replace it with “Get together, beat each other with pieces of foam, have fun”.  If you have any questions post them in the comment field, and for more information check out the Dying Kingdoms website.

Release day can always be tense. You have studied the lists and spoilers; you have an almost celestial knowledge of the combinations, tricks, you just hope the spoilers were correct. You gird your facial expressions as you draft, and scowl across the table like a hawk leering at a mouse in a field, he has no idea what is coming, now the next decision is crucial to making the best deck that will win you the day.

In all regards, that situation will not play out this weekend. On March 6^th, the cunning and confused will collide as each player saddles up to make the worst deck possible!  The object of this tournament is to win, of course, but you will never play with your deck.

Since you won’t ever play with your own deck want to design it to lose no matter what.
Deck design constraints will ensure that every deck can win, but you get points for your deck losing.  The format is constructed of course, with the following constraints and restrictions.

So come by the Bulwark for this special event March 6^th at 3:00PM.  Bring your own deck, Invite friends, anyone who has ever played Magic has a stack of crummy cards, and anyone can be a winner.  Winners will get a special prize, and some sort of awkward bragging rights.

Design Constraints for the WMD Tournament Decks
———————————————–
1. All cards from all expansions (except Unglued & Unhinged) may be used.

2. Deck must contain exactly 75 cards – no sideboard.

3. Deck must contain exactly 30 mana-producing lands.

4. Deck must contain at least 20 Summon Creature spells.
a. 75% of the creatures in the deck may not have the champion ability, require a sacrifice to remain in play for at least one phase, have the defender ability, or be a wall.

5. The sum of the basic power of all the creatures must be at least 40.
(*=1, X=1)

6. No duplicate spells – only one of each. No duplicate lands other than basic lands. Snow-covered lands are considered basic lands.

7. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of dealing unconditional* direct damage to your opponent.

8. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of destroying a
creature. These can overlap the previous requirement.

9. Must be able to play every spell card using only basic lands – i.e. must include minimum number of each type of basic land to be able to play the most expensive (in that color) spell.

10. For each color, count the number of spell cards that use that color. You must have at least half that number (rounded up) of basic lands that produce that color.

11. Must be able to play every card in the deck.

12. No Ante cards.

*unconditional = can be conditional as long as you can be assured that the condition will always be possible in every game. For instance, a spell or ability that depends on your opponent having a particular land type will not count, but if it depends on *any* player having a particular land type, and you are playing with that land type, the card would be OK. A card that does damage based on the number of cards in the opponent’s hand would be OK because it is always possible for any opponent to meet the condition. Of course, direct damage spells (like Fireball) will always be OK.

A fun event newbies and veterans alike, 40K for Pinkslips, is a game where you get to see some odd unit combinations and a quick escalation as the tournament continues. Bring two, painted, 200 point legal units from any valid Warhammer 40k codex, force org doesn’t matter. They don’t have to be from the same codex, but they can be. Play a few high-stakes game of 40k. Winner will take all.

First game will be using one of the 200 point units with your other in the pot. Winner get’s first choice of the pool – both players advance. Second game you will have two 200 units to play with – winner advances with the spoils, looser doesn’t. The games will continue until there is one winner.

And yes, at the end of the event you will get your models back.

“An epic board game of galactic conquest, politics, and trade” these are the words that greet you as you pull up Twilight Imperium on Fantasy Flight Games’ website.  Arguably this game made Fantasy Flight the company it is, and it has a sort of unflinching quality to it. It’s a massive game with 200+ pieces, 400 cards, and details of every race you will find in the game. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Diplomacy like simplicity, 10 being the ostentatiously discursive complex systems like ant hives, the US military, and War! Age of Imperialism, Twilight Imperium is an 11.

Even though it’s complex, it has a flow to it that seems to fit. The most recent edition refined the rules, and made the process more natural.  This game is constantly hailed for its depth, and some have called it a new standard in adult board games. The Bulwark is proud to let you be the judge.

Andrew Flicker will be running a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend. He recently acquired it from the mad genius behind Alien Overlords, and acquired it with a challenge.  He was challenged to not only learn the game himself, but teach others to do play; like some sort of esoteric alien race Dave Zumerwalt, who sold the game to Drew, threw down the gauntlet.  He will return at some unspecified moment in time to measure us, to see if we had been not only enlightened but honed and to meet him on the intergalactic field of battle.

This is a fantastic game Drew will be running this weekend.  The game starts at 1:00 and should end by 6:00 at the latest.  If you are interested in playing please contact myself or Drew at drewflicker@gmail.com.

Don Boucher will be hosting a casual night of Magic the Gathering at the Bulwark. Don has been regularly hosting launch parties at his house, and we are glad to host his next gala. If you are new to magic, or an old hat this new set has it all. As someone who personally wanted to see a return to the core principles which made Magic a fun game to play, this set gets a thumbs up.

Don has listed the price for your packs as below, and has offered a discount to Bulwark members. He has slots for 18 players, but people are welcome to bring their own 4 packs (BYOP).

Member: $12
Non Member: $15
BYOP: $3

Again this is a casual night of gaming with good people, the tournament is not DCI rated, and folks are encouraged to come, relax and meet some new faces. This tournament will take place February 21st at 1:00 PM.  Don has promised prize support, and a big thanks goes out to Chico Magic for the product.