Archive for the ‘ general ’ Category

Romics 2013 fall edition

This year we had two Romics. It is the main comics fair in Rome. It is always nice to walk around huge piles of comics and gadgets. Together with Andrea (Ganesha Games) we came here for a full day (10.00-19.00), watching stands and buying stuff. We met some people too, and we had interesting chats with a medieval style fencer and with a games vendor. It is a 4 days long fair, but I visited it the first day because I will be very busy for work in the weekend. Moreover the fair is pretty overcrowded the other days.

A blast from the past: once upon a time comics fairs were populated mainly by middle age people.

Nowadays this kind of fairs are full of young people with costumes. And half naked young girls with exhibitionism symptoms.

I like so much this world of cosplayers, a touch of colour in life, comics and animes in the real world.

A big organised group is the 501th Legion, local imperial forces inspired by Star Wars.

The usual Nintendo stand with young girls as hostess.

Among comics a huge presence is for gadgets and statuettes. These are very nice!

A choice of pillow-cases for lone people pillow to hug during the night.

More gadgets and another kind of pillow among them: the pizza pillow!

The food choice in the fair were good but we opted even for a more exotic flavour as these Japanese sweets.

Really a beautiful day, the time fled away smoothly and we had fun.

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Narnia Fumetto 8

Narnia is not only a matter of chronicles. It is the old name of a city exactly in Italy geographical centre. It is a beautiful little town on a hill and inside walls, with a distinct medieval appearance, and now it is called Narni. Fun fact: the coat of arms of the town is not a lion but a red griffon!

This is the 8th edition of Narni Fumetto, a nice convention about comics. And this one is the access to the town council inside a ancient stone building raised on the more ancient Roman forum of the town. In the atrium there was the games section of the convention.

I stayed two days with Andrea to playtest some new rules, to assist
him with free game session, to visit the town and the convention. In the background a well and along the wall some volumetric food measures carved in stone.

We tested some new ideas for BattleSworn future supplements. I think that it is better to work on the rules that Andrea have to complete, but in the meantime more games are in our minds.
In the background our friends of “La locanda dei giullari”, a live roleplay group. Very gorgeous girls inside!

On the table, to assist our creative efforts, another weird soft drink that resemble a more famous one: the Ben Cola!

Archery is another passion for Andrea. He diverted attention from games to assist people using his long bow.

The main comics area was inside a deconsacrated church now a cultural centre. You could find vendors, authors and some presentation.

A weird view. An altar transformed in a comic vendor stand. And some iconic images from cinema and comics are superimposed on saints on the walls.

The church is huge. Frescos remains on columns and cellars.

Accidentally blasphemy! The central figure is watching a comic on the upper shelf on the left. A Totem comic magazine with a sex scene just on the cover.

More accidentally blasphemy! A Crucifixion scene and on the left a soft sex scene on a comic named “the wait”.

There was another vendors space for comics and some games in another pavilion along the road. Wonderful food at bargain prices was sold at the convention and in shops in the town centre.

Cosplay is a vital component of comic conventions of the last 15 years. But I was amazed of the large wings of this chap. Not very handy to have a walk along the narrow streets of this town.

Sparkling colours add a tone to the white stone walls of the town.

Photo sessions around the town for cosplayers. Here they can use an unique location for their costumes.

A cosplay contest was held inside a theatre built in 1856 among medieval buildings. A real gem! Pity, I didn’t take a photo of the inside.

Gundam is always a classic. There is a young man inside. An heavy costume, movement is very demanding with it.

Well, two relaxing days while living a little but international comic convention. And more holidays will follow in the next days…

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Female armours

Today is Ferragosto time again! This day is dedicated to holidays at sea and pig out with really heavy food, sometimes dangerously deadly for the extreme temperatures of the day.

Bikini is the dress for girls during these days. And I have to confess that I saw the last Star Trek film only after I saw this picture. I don’t mind about pointed ears, this is better. The right advertising campaign, I believe.

Always on the girl dressing, I wish to speak about female armour. How we know it from comics and films it is obviously useless. But crucial if they want to have a male public who read comics and watch films. Yes, these female armours are unreal, but even females that wield a sword is an inconceivable thing. Please, turn off your political correctness and enjoy the spectacle.
And now a fun video about the protective capabilities of a female armour!

For a more deep debate on this topic go here.

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A birthday and an anniversary

I’m decisively busy these days. My two jobs and other things keep me outside the blog and the miniatures. However the 3th of July was even my birthday time! 44 and more on arrival…

Among various celebrations (at home with my family, at main job with colleagues, at home with friends) I went to Terni to have a “miniature” party with Andrea and Sergio, together with Diego that celebrates his birthday the day before mine. An entire day with some playtests for Ganesha Games’ next releases. And pizza at bargain prices that only in Terni you can find. For dinner we eat more pizza along the main road, bought from a really gorgeous girl!

Samurai Robot Battle Royale is not dead. A year after we thought it is finally almost ready. You have only to wait after the Summer.

More games with the game of the moment. I know what it is but I cannot say what it is because it is a secret.

Almost a week after, today, it is my parents’ golden wedding. A marriage for 50 years and still on. Tonight we are going to have a party with relatives. Here my mum and dad during a holiday in Venice, 46 years after the honeymoon.

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Turin

This time only an holiday report, there aren’t miniatures here. But only a three days trip in Turin, a city in the north of Italy.

I begin with this cupola, the symbol of the city. When I went here some 15 years ago, it was only an empty building, after it was converted in a cinema museum. Under there is a photo of the elevator inside the cupola while it is going towards the roof terrace. It is realised all in clear glass, so you can have vertigo symptoms. And you pay 4 euro for this too.

Canyons made of bricks, in a raining night, with lights from the streets. After the trip to the roof.

My friend tied up with a 19th century 3D peep show experience in the cinema museum.

The Po river full of water. It is the biggest river in Italy. At the deep end of the photo you can see the Mole Antonelliana cupola.

Turin under the rain. The castle inside the city and the cupola again. It is like the Eiffel tower in Paris, in every photo you have to have the symbol of Turin.

The monumental door from Julia Augusta Taurinorum, a piece of the Roman ancient times.

Black stones from Egypt in the famous Egyptian museum of Turin. Pity, it is in refurbishment so I could have only a partial vision of the collections.

We had a fantastic experience in Pietro Micca museum because of a guided visit, thanks to a retired official. We lived the moments of the 1776 French siege of Turin, looking to weapons and models of the fortifications. After we walked for 300meters under the citadel walls inside underground galleries that are 31km long!

The main event in the city was the biggest fair in Italy about books. It is held inside an old car factory. Cars were the motor of Turin development, and decline, in the 20th century.

I prefer the smaller fair in Rome about small editors because you can find some unknown gems. However even dimensions are important, so this fair is a must see. I bought only two books (60 euro…), one on a Gothic manuscript and another one on sacral and ritual aspects of Bisanzio’s hippodrome.

Me together with a green cow-man… Well, it is a bull, like the totemic animal of Turin, city which name means “city of bulls” indeed.

The new underground made for the winter Olympic games of 2006. It is pretty small inside the wagons, like a tram. But stations are big.

The new train station of Porta Susa. It is still in the making. We arrived and left here.

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La storia per gioco

I’m so tired and replete! Sunday I was in Canino (VT) for a wargame convention organised by Narciso, my wargame club mate who lives there. The opportunity was a countryside festival about asparagus. The municipal authorities gave us a building in the town centre to place our tables. So some demonstration games ran all the day.

The Napoleonic rules by Di Bartolo in a mastered battle. Only for grognards.

The Clan Conan of LuccaGames fame was there. Romans versus late Macedonians with easy rules: Battle of Cynoscephalae (364 BC).

The best demonstration table. Diego has got a real feeling for children. So he took Song of Blade and Heroes, mastered and simplified the rules to baby level, and a lot of fun were spread.

Vlad the Impaler always by Clan Conan. Playable by common men.

Another preview for Of Gods And Mortals. In these days I’m studying the rules to build a new mythological pantheon expansion.

This is a demonstration game season. So I was there with my Ferrum et Gloria. Now I’m writing the rules, at last! In this phase I’m editing all the game mechanics to add more fluency to the play and to clarify some situations. The goal is to have the published version in the late 2013.

Narciso is an artist too. His first attempt to make something about miniature sculpting: two 75mm gladiators that he sculpted with Milliput and realised with resin. I think that they are great! Remember, his first attempt…

And now, back to the countryside festival. Part of the long historical parade. Sorry, I didn’t captured the feeling of the thing, it was better than what you can see here. There were three horses too. Canino is a little town, so it is a big effort to have a lot of people with medieval costumes.

Asparagus, oil and artichokes, sold at bargain prices, especially the asparaguses, something like one euro for one bundle! This place has got an agricultural vocation, and they are famous for high quality oil and early production of asparagus.

All wargamers together for the lunch. And a multi courses menu exclusively based on asparagus recipes: with oil and vinegar, with pasta and fish, with potatoes and meat, with calamari, au gratin. Two hours and half for this duty. The ladies around the table (girlfriends, Andrea’s mother and Di Bartolo’s wife) went in the morning to visit an ancient Longobard stronghold in the surroundings, in a trip leaded by Narciso among tuff rocks and high grass. Narciso is the chap with sideburns.

In the main square of the town, the traditional Guinness omelet with asparagus, the topic moment of the festival. An eggs massacre for the joy of people.

And here a close-up on my slice of omelet. A great day, fun with friends and some dices rolled around. Later, after the greetings to the wargamers, we reorganised the place and the materials. After we take the dinner with some Narciso’s friends, again asparagus, but on pizza this time.

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Ding dong!

The right thing to do is the privatization of the state funeral, that would be more according with her school of thought!

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Magnetic tape by Tiger

Vikings strike back again! Tiger is a sort of Ikea from Denmark. They have got lots of stores around Europe, maybe you can find someone around you. However I live 400 meters from one of them. Well, they sold all those sort of things that could be useful at home, as boxes, decorations, spices, St.Valentine gifts, candies, toys, stationery, toothbrushes and so on… Among these items I found an adhesive magnetic tape. A little thin but I try it with miniature bases and it has a considerable attraction power. It is cheap, 3 euro each tape. Everyone is 3 meters long per 2 centimetres wide, as almost equivalent to a full A4 surface. I’m thinking to use it as magnetic strips on the bottom of the cardboard boxes where to store miniatures with metallic bases. Try it!

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