Thursday, April 30, 2020

Good Games To Play While Homebound

Today's issue of the Southern has a lengthily interview with Scott looking at which games are good entertainment and why it really helps if you shop at one of the local stores, all of which offer curbside pickup.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Comics for May 27th

DC has announced the slate of titles releasing May 28th

Aquaman #59
Basketful of Heads #7 (of 7)
Batman Beyond #43
Books of Magic #19
The Flash #754
He-Man and the Masters of the Mulitverse #6 (of 6)
Justice League #45
The Low, Low Woods #5
MAD Magazine #13
Our Fighting Forces Giant #1
Suicide Squad #5
Teen Titans #41
The Terrifics #27
Wonder Woman Giant #4

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Comics for May 20th

Our long national nightmare is coming to an end. We will see new issues of DC comics arriving on May 20th. No word yet on when we will see new Marvel, Image or other books yet: The titles coming are (f it does not have a number, it is the next issue in the series):

DCeased: Unkillables #3 (of 3)
The Dollhouse Family #6 (of 6)
The Flash Giant #4
Plunge #3 (of 6)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #10 (of 12)
Red Hood: Outlaw #45 
Wonder Woman #755
Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 3rd Printing 
Also
Batman #89 3rd printing
Batman and the Outsiders
Daphne Byrne #6

Flash #753
Justice League 

Monday, April 27, 2020

QAGS

Talked about QAGS on the stores daily FB post last week, a very flexible and easy to learn RPG system Here is a summary of the rules:

How to Play
When you want to do something, roll a d20 and compare the result to your Number in the appropriate Word. If your roll is less than or equal to the Number, you succeed. The higher the roll, the better the success. If two or more characters are competing against one another, the highest successful roll wins and the difference between the rolls (failed rolls are treated as zero) determines the margin of victory.

Character Stats 

  • Body describes physical traits: strength, agility, and overall health.
  • Brain measures the character’s knowledge,education, and intellect.
  • Nerve is the character’s force of personality and covers social skills, willpower, and ability to handle pressure.
  • Job is what the character does or is. Describes the character’s basic skill set, resources, and contacts.
  • Gimmick is something special the character can do. Depending on the setting, this can be anything from a stupid human trick to a super power.
  • Weakness is something that causes trouble for the character. It can be a heroic flaw, an ancient curse, a bitter enemy, or anything else that ruins your day. When rolling Weakness, you want to fail the roll. If the roll succeeds, the Weakness takes effect. 
  • Body, Brain, Nerve, Job, Gimmick, and Weakness typically have Numbers between 6 and 16.
  • Skills are things the character knows or can do that aren’t covered by another Word--his extensive knowledge of Civil War history, his skill at pool, or his keen fashion sense, for example. Skills are rated +1 to +5. If a skill applies to a roll, add the Skill Bonus to the number the player’s rolling against. 
  • Tag Line is something clever your character might say.
  • Dumb Fact is just what it sounds like. 
  • WWPHITM? (Who Would Play Him/Her in the Movie?) helps everyone visualize your character a little better. 
  • Health Points are the number of points of damage a character can take. Initially equal to Body.
  • Yum Yums are delicious pieces of candy that players earn for contributing to the game. Yum Yums can be traded for automatic successes and re-rolls or used to improve rolls or reduce damage. They can also subtly alter reality in the player’s favor (the extent to which this is possible depends on how many Yum Yums the players have) and improve character stats.Yum Yums can also be eaten but this has no game effect.

Sunday, April 26, 2020

1st level Adventures

Seeing quite a run on adventures for 1st level starting characters for D&D 5e. Here is the pdf for one for 99 cents

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Ikoria Japanese Alternate Art Cards

WOTC has announced a problem with the collector boosters for Ikoria, which actually benefits the collector booster purchases. Each of the collector boosters was supposed to have a chance of containing a Japanese alternate art card but those got left out. Stores will now get 4 card packs, rather like the FNM promo packs., that contain 3 non-foil alternate art cards and 1 foil version of one of the three cards. If you buy 3 collector boosters, you get 1 random card from the pack. If you buy a full box of Ikoria collector boosters, you get the full pack.

This works out better for the collector, since before you only had a chance of getting a Japanese card, now you will certainly get one, if you purchase at least 3 packs. Unfortunately, these won't be available on the release date. We will keep track of your purchases as WOTC says they should arrive in late May.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Valuable Pokemon Cards

Following up on the last post, here are the 15 most valuable Pokemon cards in the world. #1 is a 1998 Pokemon Illustrator card, of which only 6 are known to exist. They start at $20,000 for an ungraded card and top out at $100,000 for a mint card.

Pokemon Rebel Strike Pre-release kits

Since we obviously cannot host a pre-release tournament for the new Pokemon Sword and Shield Rebel Strike set, The Pokemon Company has given us permission to sell the kits. They cost $24.99 each and come with 4 boosters and a 23 card Evolution pack. We are also adding 2 Rebel Strike boosters with each kit.  In addition, mention this post when you purchase a kit and we will add a 3rd Rebel Strike booster to your purchase.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

eBay Store

In case you want to see some of the stuff we have been listing online, here is the link to our eBay store.Note that we are listing out of print items on the website since a lot of it has been sitting around the store for years so we figured since we have a lot more time on our hands, we would go ahead and put it online so that other people outside of the southern Illinois region could see it. 

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Publisher help For Game Stores

If you want to help out a Local Game Store (could be use but almost any brick and mortar game store could use the help), the publishers at this link are, if you name a game store at the time you make purchase, donating pack a percentage of the sale amount to your selected store. It doesn't cost you anything extra and could certainly help your local game store to open back up when the shelter in place comes to an end.

Monday, April 20, 2020

New GW Miniatures

GW is taking orders for 2 new miniatures  that will release in October. Let us know if you want either of these:

Sister Tariana Palos and Lexicanum Varus, Terminator Librarian – on GW.com on Saturday the 18th of April.



Sunday, April 19, 2020

Pacesetter Games

Always interesting to see what happened to old games, in this case the 1980's Pacesetter Games line, which produced Chill, Time Master and Star Ace. When the company dissolved, the product lines were purchased by Don Bingle, who sold new materials for the systems at the Orphyte website. However, Orphyte has dissolved and the rights to the games sold off to three different entities

Saturday, April 18, 2020

RIP Bill Levy


 I was sorry to hear that small press publisher Bill Levy passed away from a heart attack last week.  Anyone who attended a SF convenstion in the Mid-South region for the past 40 years likely had at least one, and probably  many, encounters with Bill, usually in the gaming rooms or con-suite where he could  (and did) talk on dozens of topics for hours.  I have carried games from his Godiva Games imprint (Brandub, DeepSlieep, Club, Spirax) since the 90s and planned to restock when I saw him later this year. I was also a big fan of his Night Mart strip, which he had published off and on for years ( I still sit down and flip through the one collection of the strips he published whenever I run across it in my library). From what I understand, he had suffered from chronic pain for a number of years, but my last memory of him is him at a convention panel enthusiastically reading from his first novel, which he expect to see published sometime this year.  He was a big man, with a big personality and his passing leaves a big hole. Rest in Peace Bill.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Upcoming Comics

DC has announced release dates for a limited number of comics

New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 4/28
  • Batman #89 (3rd Printing) - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Batman Giant #4 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Daphne Byrne #4 (of 6) - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • The Dreaming #20 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Nightwing #70 (2nd Printing) - CLICK HERE for product information. 
New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 5/5
  • Batman and the Outsiders #12 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • DC Super Stars Facsimile Edition #17 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • The Flash #753 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Green Lantern Season 2 #3 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Hawkman #23 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • House of Whispers #20 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #4 (of 9) - CLICK HERE for product information. 
New Comics available for sale on Tuesday 5/12
  • Harley Quinn #72 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Justice League #44 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Justice League Odyssey #20 - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Lois Lane #10 (of 12) - CLICK HERE for product information.
  • Metal Men #6 (of 12) - CLICK HERE for product informatio

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Rental Library

Remember we still have the boardgame rental library available. You can rent almost any game from it for a week for $5 to $20. If you rent over $25 worth, we will gladly deliver them to your house, as long as you live within 15 miles of Carbondale and even pick them up when the rental period has ended.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Ikoria Addition

Got the OK from WOTC to add an additional bonus to purchase of an Ikoria booster box. While they last, get a regular promo pack from Core 2020 or Throne of Eldraine with your prepayment for a box by May 8th.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Arena Codes

We have received codes for unique backs for your Arena cards for the next three FNMs. Just play in WOTC's scheduled FNM event, email us or message us on Facebook a screenshot from your game and we will send you the code.

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Online Miniatures Contest Winners

Here are the winners in the online miniature painting contest. Congratulations to them all!! Take a look through the pinned post at the top of the page to see all of the entries.
1st Place Bill Sweidan $30 in GW store credit
2nd Place Krystin Calhoun $20 in GW store credit
3rd Place Kim Arena $10 in GW Store credit
This is good on instock merchandise, not on special orders, esp since GW is shut down for the immediate future. .

Online FNM

WOTC has announced the company will continue its online Friday Night Magic sessions in Arena. When ever you play a game, email or message us via Facebook a screenshot and we will send you a code for an unique back for your Arena deck.

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Zoombombing

Since so many people are using Zoom for meetings online due to the shutdown, Zoombombing has, unfortunately, become more common

Here is the original article is an article on what Zoombombing is


Here is what Zoom says to do to keep unwanted people out of your Zoom session

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Online Gift Card

If you would like to buy someone (or yourself) a digital gift card to the store, you can do so by clicking on this link.  You can use it to pay for a  purchase during the shutdown, send it to someone else or come in and use it once the shelter in place lifts.

Game Rental Library

If you want to check out the titles in our boardgame library, you can do so here. You can rent a title for a week. Titles cost between $5 and $20 to rent and, if you rent over $25 worth of games, we will drop them off free, within 15 miles of Carbondale. Otherwise, call the store and you can pick them up from our parking lot

Monday, April 6, 2020

Online Miniatures contest

Just a reminder that tomorrow, April 7, is the last day to vote in our online miniatures contest. Go to the pinned post at the top of our store Facebook Page, scroll through the miniatures displayed there and like one or as many as you want. The miniatures with the most votes  will receive Games Workshop Credit.

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time is a great interactive and cooperative card game from Atlas Games. Players have a hand of cards including an ending card and start off by saying "Once Upon a Time" . First play tells a story using the cards from their hand. For example, if  a player had a "princess" card in their hand, they could start "Once upon a time, there was a princess" and play the princess card. If another player had a card allowing them to steal after a character card is played, they could play it and take over telling the story.

The players take turns controlling the storyline through playing cards from their hands and stealing the story from other players with the object of telling a good story, emptying their hands and finally playing their ending card such as "And they lived happily ever after" or "And the enchantment was broken."

There are several expansion sets for the game, including Seafaring Tales and Knightly Tales. Games Magazine counted the game as one of its Top 100 games and Pyramid Magazine rated it one of the best games of the Millenium

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Godzilla Cards in Ikoria

Here is a list of the Godzilla themed cards appearing in the new Ikoria set. These cards will appear in what WOTC is now calling the draft (standard) booster and the higher end (and more expensive) collector boosters. None, apparently, will appear in the single color Theme Boosters 

Friday, April 3, 2020

Online D&D

Sys is not running the store game on Roll 20 due to allergies kicking up. Jason Mollett has offered to run a 2nd edition game on Zoom at 7 p.m. tonight. Create a 2nd edition single class good character or 6/6 multi class character and join the game. Jason will also have 2nd ed pregenerated characters for those who are not familiar without access to a 2nd ed players handbook.

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Magic Ikoria

Got some more info on Magic Ikoria today. WOTC has worked a deal with Toho Studios to incorporated classic monsters from the Godzilla movies into the set. No idea how many of the monsters from the movies will appear in the set but a total of 19 cards will receive what WOTC calls the Godzilla series treatment. 15 of these will appear in the booster boxes, 1 will appear as the Buy It Buy the Box card and 3 will appear only in Japanese series boosters.

So far, we know that Mothra, King Ghiderah, Gigan and Godzilla will appear in the set. No word yet on how many other creatures from the films will get the Magic treatment.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Store Layout

Brian has been doing a lot of work in the store this week, moving things around and relaying shelves. We will do a video walkthrough tomorrow afternoon to show you the changes in layout.