Running GAGG XXX: After (In)Action Report

 Another Running GAGG is in the books; the 20th since my first visit as a college freshman in 2006, and I think my 18th year in attendance overall. It's no exaggeration when I say that Running GAGG weekend is the best weekend of the year for me; I'm surrounded by friends I get to see only rarely from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and the Geneseo Area Gaming Group and its alumni really are a second family for me. This year I got to play a couple of RPGs I've been interested in but didn't feel up to the task of running without some experience under my belt, stayed up way too late at night and ate like a college student. Which is why I took Monday off work to physically recuperate from the weekend!

I even had the singular experience of being bought a drink by the current owner of the bar we favored when I was 21; Kelly's Irish Saloon is a salt miner's bar, catering to the guys mining rock salt in nearby Retsof. The drinks are strong and inexpensive - two big perks for college kids. Why pay $8 (in 2009 dollars) for a rum and coke with just enough rum to taste, when I can go to Kelly's and pay $4 for a rum and coke with just enough coke to tint the rum? 

Kelly's burned down a few years ago and was rebuilt, rising like a drunken phoenix from its own ashes. My regular group of rascals at Running GAGG visit Kelly's every year on Saturday night, and the owner recognized us from past years and bought a round to thank us for making Kelly's our watering hole every year. I don't really drink any more but I made an exception for this. 

My table set-up.

The one downside was that my Perilous Tales demo didn't attract any players. I'm not terribly surprised - between the agonizingly bitter cold, the fact that the coffee shop in the student union (where the convention is held) was closed due to a burst pipe, and reduced availability of rooms at the nearest hotels, convention attendance was slightly down this year and general foot traffic through the student union was greatly reduced. Plus, as I've said, it's just not a big wargaming-centric convention at the best of times. 

My friend Boe's "Burrows & Badgers" game, which is usually packed with a wait-list, was similarly unattended this year, though his 8am Bolt Action event was well-attended. There was some Battletech going on about 50 feet away from me, but I think the team of guys who showed up to demo the game were just playing each other to pass the time. 

I did have about a dozen people stop by and ask, "What is this?" - either completely unfamiliar with the concept of wargaming, or only familiar with Warhammer 40K, which my table pretty obviously isn't. I gave my spiel explaining Perilous Tales, and also found myself fielding a lot of questions about the very idea of miniatures agnostic rules and small miniatures companies that aren't Games Workshop. People listened politely, asked follow-up questions and showed interest...but getting them over the hump to trying the game just didn't happen. That's fine. Hopefully I planted some seeds in some minds and next year people will give it a try. 

I'm really grateful to the convention organizers for putting the various wargaming tables in the wide open hall of the student union, putting our visually-appealing tables in full view of the populace passing through. 

All in all, it was a great weekend even if wargaming didn't happen. 

Perilous Tales - Refresher Game

 Next weekend I'll be at Running GAGG, my alma mater's gaming convention. This year is their 30th show, and my 20th since I started attending (I think I've missed it once or twice, so I won't say it's my 20th show). I got involved with the Geneseo Area Gaming Group my first week of freshman year when I was a student there, and held a number of officer positions before graduation, culminating in club treasurer; I probably could have been club president if I'd wanted to, but in my senior year I was really trying to focus on finishing my degree (plus when I was treasurer my signature got forged to a purchase order for Magic cards). I served as club minister for both wargaming and role-playing games. Running GAGG isn't a big wargaming convention, being mostly focused on RPGs and board games, but there's always a few demo tables and they've recently resumed hosting a Warhammer 40K tournament. 

This year, I'm taking a break from running RPGs to do a wargaming demo table; the last time I tried this was with Buck Surdu's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. in 2006, and the only guy who showed up for that misread the event listing and expected it to be a roleplaying game. This year, I'm showing off Perilous Tales, building off what I learned demoing the game last September at Wargames Among the Warplanes. I'm going to be in the lobby of the student union, so I'll have lots of people passing by my table - hopefully I can entice a few people to stop!

Today I experimented with table set up, focusing on making it eye-catching to attract the passerby, and gave myself a refresher game while I was at it. The villain today was the Demon Butcher, which can inflict some decent damage but is supported by minions that can de-buff the heroes in tricky ways. Our heroes today are Officer Bob (Leader), supported by Billy Ray the mechanic, Cliff the mailman, Larry the Lousy Bum, and Sandra the wilderness tour guide (all Teammates). Their objectives are Collect Evidence (take a picture of the Master Villain and still be holding it when the game ends), Call for Rescue, and Escape (move three figures off the villain's side of the table). 

The game started slowly, with the heroes fanning out and moving up the table. Officer Bob used his "Eyes Peeled" skill to check the first visible threat marker, confirming it was an environmental hazard. And then Sandra triggered an ambush, coming within 6" of a threat marker. In fact, two.

She managed to defeat the cultist (the Demon Butcher villain list includes "Urchins" that prevent heroes from using their skills within a certain radius; I'd previously looked at using imps of some sort for these but the Ill-Gotten Games cultists work just as well!), but the rats proved to be a much harder challenge.

And about the rat swarms - At the start of the villain's turn, as long as there's one rat swarm active on the table, another spawns on an unengaged hero. In this case, one popped up on Officer Bob as Billy Ray was running for the pay phone to Call for Rescue. Officer Bob also failed a Horror Check while in base contact with the rats, which means he fell prone.

Billy Ray failed his initial roll to try and Call for Rescue. A cultist spawned in front of him and another rat swarm attacked Larry. Ultimately, the rats ate Sandra.

Billy Ray bashed the cultist out of his way using his wrench, and successfully called for help - which spawned an additional two cultists on the table! Rats and cultists both swarmed now.

Larry and Cliff both succumbed to the onslaught of opponents, while Billy Ray had enough and bolted off the table (fortunately, the Villainous edge, so a victory point scored there!). With multiple cultists and rat swarms converging on him, and the threat level about to hit its maximum, Officer Bob thought about how he'd only been two days from retirement...

The master villain, the Demon Butcher, never showed up! There was one unrevealed threat marker left on the table, slowly working its way in from the back corner turn by turn, but nobody survived long enough to activate it. Which means there was no scoring the "Collect Evidence" objective. I tried getting more characters off the table, but everyone kept failing their rolls to escape from combat, keeping them stuck in melee and taking wounds.

All in all this was a brutal game, but it gave me a better understanding of how the minions (Urchins and Rat Swarms) under the Demon Butcher work. Sometimes just reading the listing doesn't give you a full sense of how they function as part of the villain's network and you really need to see them in action for it to click. Depending on how spaced out the heroes are, it's potentially possible to end up with 4-5 rat swarms on the table after a few turns, and both rats and Urchins will move around and bolster each other, providing bonuses to hitting the heroes. The Demon Butcher isn't as strong as something like the Wolfman or the Gargoyles, but he doesn't need to be - his henchmen do a lot of heavy lifting for him, as seen here. 

I think I'm in good shape for next weekend - we'll see if I get anyone to stop at my table! 

Latest Figures Painted

 As soon as I saw these "FBI Agents" from Crooked Dice, I knew I had to have them; X-Files scared the tar out of me as a sensitive kid in the 90s, but I've since become a fan of the "Monster of the Week" episodes (the overarching mythology episodes, not so much). Having Mulder and Scully on my table was a must for the demo games of "Perilous Tales" I'm hoping to run on February 1st at a localish gaming convention. 

These are another two from Crooked Dice, though maybe less familiar; the armed cheerleader is a dead ringer for Kelli Maroney's character in the 1984 cult classic NIGHT OF THE COMET, while the teenage metalhead is just as clearly intended to be the character Eddie Munson from Netflix's "Stranger Things" series. I even freehanded the partial skull and crossbones on the bandanna he's wearing around his head. 

Finally, I needed multiple rat swarms to represent the lowest grade of minion serving the master demon; these are 3D resin prints from GreenStuffWorld that I found on a spinner rack at Harlequin Hobbies. I like the little extras on these; the king rat directing his fellows, the wedge of cheese, the stack of newspapers. It gives each base personality. Each one is glued to a 25mm Renedra round base. Hopefully half a dozen will be enough for my demo games; I think the Perilous Tales rules actually have Rat Swarms appearing on the table two at a time. 

And this brings me up to current; everything I've finished painting to date has been posted on both the AHPC blog and here.

Miniatures Acquired: 4

Miniatures Painted: 18

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Last Miniatures for the Year: Brotherhood of the Boomstick

 Now that they've had time to be seen on the AHPC blog, I can share them here as well; and these, it turns out, are going to be my last finished miniatures for 2025. 

These are some cultists with shotguns, produced as STLs by Ill Gotten Games; they also offer cultists armed with knives, pistols, flaming swords and even rayguns. My years running the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game have given me a soft spot for cultists with shotguns, however, and these were the ones I first brought to my printing guy.

I also grabbed an STL of a big, goaty demon for them to summon/serve:

And a group shot of everyone together. As you can see, the demon's a big boy.

Robes are base-coated in Reaper "Ultramarine Shadow" before being drybrushed with "Ultramarine Blue," while the demon's skin is a coat of "Coal Black" drybrushed with "Midnight Blue." I have another demon and another five cultists in the bag of prints from Dave so I could built an opposing force in red robes for struggles of an ecumenical nature. 

I'm planning on bringing these to Running GAGG in February for a demo table of Dracula's America. Just need to paint some rat swarms! 

And that puts me at 213 miniatures finished for 2025! Not too shabby!

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 213

Wargames Among the Warplanes Fall 2025

 Yesterday I spent a pleasant few hours at the National Warplanes Museum in Geneseo, NY, attending my second Wargames Among the Warplanes show (write-up of the first here). I was scheduled to run demos of "Perilous Tales," a solo/co-op game from Mike Hutchinson, the creator of Gaslands about heroes taking on supernatural threats and trying to fulfill objectives before time runs out. 

I'd optimistically hoped to squeeze three games into my time slot (9am to 1pm), but ultimately managed two; the first with three players, and the second with two (who stuck around from the first game). I did not take nearly enough photos.

The first match was against the Gargoyles, which in my experience have been a tricky villain to fight. The heroes had to Stop the Ritual, Rescue the Prisoner and Call for Help as their objectives. They opted to largely ignore the objectives and clear the board of enemies; by staying in groups and planning their actions carefully, they were able to eliminate both master Gargoyles and the various bat swarms flocking in their wake. With all enemies eliminated and time left on the countdown clock, they then easily rescued the prisoner and called for help. 

The second match was against the Wolf Man and his lycanthropic minions. This time, the objectives were Flip the Switches, Get the Evidence and Kill the Master. Again, the players focused on killing villains - to their own detriment, as they killed the Wolf Man before they could take a photo of him! The players tried to argue for taking photos of the Wolf Man's corpse, but I reminded them that upon dying he just turns back into a human and if they want trophy shots of that then the police are going to get involved. 

I once again didn't give myself time to play in anything, but I had a really nice chat with the guy running demos of Osprey's Zona Alfa on the next table over. He had an incredible set-up and like me he likes to furnish the insides of his model buildings. He'd shifted the setting from Eastern Europe to Zanzibar and listening to him pitch the game to players made me pull the rulebook down off my shelf when I got home and give it another look. 

I did a little bit of networking and got in touch with some local wargamers who aren't beholden to Games Workshop and the Warhammer juggernaut, which was very nice, and spent some time in conversation with an older gentleman who'd been wargaming locally since 1976 and he walked me through the history of wargaming clubs in the Buffalo-Rochester area and how they've largely disintegrated into small groups of guys meeting at home versus any sort of larger community. We do have new clubs that have formed - the Whiskey 7 Wargamers, the Greater Niagara Wargamers, etc - and events like this one suggest we're working our way back towards that larger community; he described a time when the clubs consisted of some 200 people between the two cities, with about 10% traveling from one to the other in any given week for game.

I had a really good conversation with the organizer for the event, and he made a point to thank me for running these smaller indie games, and showing players that there's more out there than just Games Workshop and Bolt Action. That really meant a lot and made me feel good; I'm thinking I might run a similar demo table of Perilous Tales at Running GAGG next year as well. Maybe finally pick up some winter terrain like I've been meaning to, since the convention's in February. 

All in all it was a really good day; I don't stay for the whole show because I hate being away from my wife for very long given her health issues, coupled with a 2 1/2 hour round trip drive. I do need to invest in some good inserts for my shoes for next time though; only six hours standing on a concrete floor and my feet were feeling it! 

Perilous Tales Refresher Game

 With me running Perilous Tales this coming weekend at Wargames Among the Warplanes, I thought it best I run myself through a refresher game to make sure I knew what I was doing! It's not an endlessly complex game but it never hurts to remind myself how it goes. It also gave me an opportunity to try out the character cards I made for the assortment of heroes I'd selected.

In Perilous Tales, figures are divided into two types: Leaders and Teammates, with the number of each appearing on the table being dependent on how many players are involved. Playing solo, you have one Leader and four Teammates; if two players are playing a co-op game, each of them has one Leader and one Teammate, while with three players everyone has two Teammates and no Leaders. I made eight character cards, each with both a Leader and Teammate version of each character.

My wife supplied the index cards out of her colorful stationary collection, saving me a trip out to the store. I also had her select five characters for me, and decide which one would be Leader. 

So we ended up with:

• Billy Ray, the Mechanic (Leader)
• Lisa, the Veterinarian (Teammate)
• Larry, the Lousy Bum (Teammate)
• Cliff, the Mailman (Teammate)
• Klaus, the Thug (Teammate)

I got the table set up, and selected my villains: the Gargoyles, who are a fun and unusual menace. They operate like the "Weeping Angels" in the modern incarnation of Doctor Who - if two heroes can draw line of sight to a Gargoyle (there's two in the villain roster), it's incapable of moving. If they manage to successfully hit a hero, it's an automatic kill, and they are accompanied by bat swarms that limit heroes' line of sight. The villain roster also includes "Darkness Falls," which once activated limits line of sight to 6" for the remainder of the game. 

The heroic objectives were to Kill the Masters, Flip the Switches and Call for Help. The environmental hazards were Putrid Stench, Utterly Horrible (everyone in 6" takes a Horror Check at reveal) and Earthquake (everyone within 6" falls down automatically at reveal). The Threat Markers (covering both the villains and the environmental hazards) were arranged in the "Aggressive" pattern as determined by a die roll. 

I'm going to cut to the chase.

This game did not go well for the heroes. 

FIVE of the eight Threat Markers revealed at once. Both Gargoyles, a Bat Swarm, "Utterly Horrible" and "Earthquake" all went off at once. 

"Go ahead, Klaus. Try flipping the switch."

Klaus and Billy Ray were taken down by Gargoyles almost immediately. Lisa, Larry and Cliff spent most of the remainder of the game getting swarmed by bats as the Gargoyles crept forward slowly but surely. Cliff, especially, kept getting swarmed by bats, failing Horror Checks, falling down because he was being swarmed, and then getting up, getting a new swarm of bats on him, failing another Horror Check, and falling down again. He was up at down like three times. All three of them were killed "death by a thousand cuts" style by endless bat attacks. 

The heroes were all wiped out and didn't score a single victory point. 

I haven't laughed this hard during a war game since last Wargames Among the Warplanes when the taco truck got weaponized. 

I do think I may have unwittingly penalized the heroes with the big moving truck in the middle of the board. The heroes might have been able to do more against the Gargoyles if that hadn't been protecting the villains from heroic line of sight. I may replace that with the taco truck or leave it off all together. 

All in all, the game took about 45 minutes so I may be able to squeeze in more games on Saturday than I'd originally planned. Or I can wrap up early and finally play that Biplanes vs. King Kong game! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Wargames Among the Warplanes Fall 2025 Show Next Weekend

This coming Saturday is the fall show for Wargames Among the Warplanes, my localish (about an hour and 20 minute drive each way) twice a year one day wargaming show. It kind of feels like this one snuck up on me; I feel like the spring show was just a couple weeks ago! While I'd initially planned to bring Devilry Afoot to run a demo table of at the fall show, I feel like I haven't practiced enough with the system to feel confident teaching it. So I've pivoted, and will have a demo table of Planetsmasher Games' Perilous Tales going. I figure I can get at least three games in during my time slot, so I'm bringing three different villains and an assortment of modern figures to respond heroically. I'll keep the terrain set up the same between games so that I only need to bring a couple of buildings and a 2x2 mat.

Perilous Tales: Wolves in the Streets

 I'd left my set-up from last night's game in place on the table, and was able to have a second game of Perilous Tales tonight. I removed the ponds and added a bit more scatter; I kept my crew of heroes largely unchanged as well. After selecting the Wolf Man as tonight's villain, I used the recommended method of selecting my objectives, by drawing cards.

The results that came up were "Set the Explosives," "Call for Help," and "Destroy the Idol." A narrative began to suggest itself...

The Las Lobos used to be just another street gang. Then they stole the Cursed Idol of Ish-Kabibble, and things got...hairier. The Las Lobos were soon living up to their name, possessed by wolf spirits and terrorizing anyone who approached the blocks they claimed as their territory. A group of concerned citizens have taken it on themselves to deal with the Las Lobos once and for all - destroying the Idol, dynamiting their hideout and calling the police to clean up the mess. 

Our heroes began to advance across the board cautiously, with Maria moving ahead to trigger the nearest threat marker - a wolf darting out in front of the bingo hall and lunging at her. 

Maria disengaged and stepped back, shooting at the wolf before Jean-Baptiste finished it off. Moving forward, Larry triggered the next threat marker - another wolf, quickly dispatched.

Maria continued towards the pay phone to begin calling for help, while Billy Ray hefted his wrench with an eye towards smashing the Cursed Idol. Unfortunately, Maria triggered three threat markers at once - all three of which were Perils instead of Villains. I drew three cards to see what they would be; "Unsteady Underfoot" (revealer has to make a skill check or be knocked prone), "A Thousand Cuts" (revealer takes a skill 3 attack), and "Creeping Horror" (skill checks at disadvantage). All three of these are persistent Perils, creating a zone surrounding the payphone AND the Cursed Idol where anyone entering has to check against being knocked prone and has disadvantage on that check, AND potentially takes damage. 

Let's call that a ruptured sewer line to cover all three Perils. 

Larry and Cliff both failed Horror checks and started to retreat towards the starting board edge, while Maria advanced towards the pay phone and Billy Ray approached the Idol. Jean-Baptiste approached the taco truck to plant explosives but failed to do so before another wolf lunged at him. 

Meanwhile, Cliff quickly ran afoul of a Young Werewolf, quickly getting bitten:

Billy Ray took a swing at the Cursed Idol, but in so doing drew the attention of the Master Werewolf.

The Master Werewolf swung ineffectively at Billy Ray; meanwhile Maria and Larry managed to plant batches of explosives. 

Cliff, stumbling back from the Young Werewolf, managed to shoot it enough times to kill it. 

Larry ducked around the fight against the Master Werewolf to try and plant the final set of explosives, but failed to do so before time ran out. 

So let's tally up points! One point for all of my team members surviving, another for my leader surviving, another for the "Thrown Together" template. Two points for the two bundles of explosives planted. And another three points for team members alive after the successful Call for Help. That's 8 points! That qualifies as "A Tale Fit for the Telling," and I'm pretty happy with that. 

I might manage another game on Saturday, but we'll see how things go. 

Perilous Tales: Storm Warning

 With my wife Gina's encouragement, I got the table set up tonight for another game of Perilous Tales from Planetsmasher Games. With the release of the rulebook at long last, a return to this solo game was long overdue. Somehow I'd gone more than a year without playing Perilous Tales, with the last game being cartel soldiers vs. gargoyles in July 2023. 

I set up an urban table with a battlemat from Mats by Mars and a mix of 3D-printed and precolored MDF buildings. Selecting my villain, I got inspired and added a few ponds from Monster Fight Club to represent flooding in the streets. A few vehicles and some scatter rounded things out, and my heroes would be the five armed civilians I posted yesterday. Perilous Tales now offers team templates you can apply to a group of heroes, and I chose "Thrown Together" -- the leader can no longer use the "Pep Talk" or "Call Over" actions, since the rest of the crew doesn't have a history of trust with them, but the group gets +1 victory point when the game is over and results tallied. 

I chose objectives, instead of generating them randomly, and gave myself "Call For Help," "Obtain Evidence," and "Escape." So my heroes needed to reach the pay phone and call for help, take a photo of the Villain, and then escape off the villainous board edge. 

And who is that villain? The Swamp Fiend, here portrayed by a Reaper Bones Gator-Man. He'd previously appeared in another game of Perilous Tales. Tonight, he was less a Swamp Fiend and more a Sewer Fiend. 

With the streets of Anyville, USA flooding and a torrential storm rolling in, Jean-Baptiste and a handful of fellow citizens cautiously began to investigate strange shadowy shapes lurking and mysterious bellowing noises. 

Unfortunately, Cliff the mail carrier triggered a profoundly noxious belch of trapped gas from the sewer (peril, "Putrid Stench") that hung over the bingo hall. As he staggered back from the smell, he drew the attention of two shadowy figures...

An alligator and, worse, a hulking alligator-humanoid hybrid, lunged. Cliff was dead before he hit the ground. Jean-Baptiste shot the alligator twice, killing the brute, while Larry took a shot at the Sewer Fiend. Billy Ray, the mechanic, charged towards the Sewer Fiend with his wrench, and Maria tried to skirt along the front of bingo hall to reach the pay phone to call for help. 

Another alligator spawned and attacked Maria; she managed to slip out of combat and try to make it to the pay phone despite being injured. Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste tried to take a photo of the Sewer Fiend but fumbled it, and Billy Ray tried his best against the Sewer Fiend in hand to hand combat. 

With Maria in trouble, Larry tried to make it to the pay phone as well; more alligators spawned, and Maria was quickly eaten while Larry (possibly protected by the stench of BO and despair radiating off his stained undershirt) managed to make it to the pay phone.

Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste managed to snap a photo of the Sewer Fiend and tried to sneak past it to safety.

"Yeah, hi, I'd like ta report some big bitch gator-man in downtown Anyville..." Larry's phone call was interrupted by a humanoid figure in white coveralls and a respirator emerging from the shadows.

"The experiment must not be interrupted," the figured intoned in a muffled voice. 

"This just ain't my day," Larry thought to himself as the alligators convened on him.

(I needed to spawn two additional minions when Larry called for help, but all my painted crocs were already on the table, so I improvised. What experiment is he talking about?)

A second coverall-clad figure appeared in the doughnut shop and began silently observing Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste gave him the slip and managed to take only a glancing hit from the charging Sewer Fiend. Escaping from combat, Jean-Baptiste took off running for safety. But will it be enough?

So let's add up those victory points, shall we? Jean-Baptiste successfully took a photo of the Sewer Fiend and was alive at the end of the game, so that's 3. He escaped off the villainous board edge, so that's another 1. We called for help and not everyone was dead at the end of the game, so that's another 1. And my leader was alive at the end of the game, that's another 1. And +1 VP for the "Thrown Together" team trait. So that's a score of 7, which is "Adequate!"

I always enjoy Perilous Tales, and I'm so glad to see Mike Hutchinson return to it and put out a finished version. I like the addition of team templates, and I like that Perils are now officially randomly determined instead of tied to specific battlefields. I miss some of the Villains that didn't make it into the final book, but I can recognize the utility of restricting it to 10; maybe there will be a supplement at some point to bring back villains like the Blob, Triffids, the Witch and the Robot Master. 

The idea to have the streets be flooded - even if it was largely just a cosmetic thing - came from my favorite horror movie of the last decade, 2019's CRAWL. A fairly "simple" but well-done killer animals film, it's the story of a woman and her father trapped in a rapidly-flooding house during a hurricane, menaced by voracious alligators in their efforts to reach safety. Once I knew I wanted a city streets battlefield and I'd be facing alligators, I immediately thought of CRAWL and nearly derailed my plans to play tonight in favor of giving it a rewatch. 

Gina has suggested I keep the table set up and play another game tomorrow - and yes, I agree, I did marry very well! I've left the scenery in place, though whether I get a game in tomorrow night or not remains to be seen. It might have to wait until Friday. 

Either way, this was an evening really well spent, I'm happy to be playing Perilous Tales again and I'm very happy with the finished rules. I highly, highly recommend taking this game for a spin.