Summer is time of holidays. And if you want a budget holiday you can go to Terni to visit your friend Andrea that needs some holidays too. So we travelled in a few days in a lot of towns, small towns and villages around Terni. This is the photographic report.

Perugia
In the first couple of days we went to Hydracon, a boardgame convention around Perugia held in a luxury hotel. No swimming pool use for games, pity. I played 5 games of Fortebraccio, and I lost all of them.

Bevagna
The last day of Mercato delle Gaite, when during a couple of weeks this town turns into a medieval town with various markets, celebrations, games, stages.

Labro
A gem all made of stones on top of the hill. A fairy village with a castle. Its calm is unreal, but all is real.

Piediluco
A lake, a small town, a past tourist vocation, the centre for agnostic rowing in Italy.

Castel Fiorentino
An Etruscan city, then a medieval city with its castle and a tower built over the ancient acropolis. And a view on the valley.

Cortona
Another Etruscan city, larger than the other one. In the local museum a great special exposition on Etruscan writing. A collection of all available Etruscan inscriptions around. Pieces that you can view on books were all concentrated here. A must see!

Castiglione del Lago
Along our road we arrived to Trasimeno Lake. Yes, that Trasimeno Lake. A hill on marshes with another Etruscan city, after a walled medieval city with its castle, after again no more marshes but only the lake. Now a pleasant tourist place. Dinner with lake view.
If you remember in a past post there was a pennant from here. If you can’t notice it, the photo is that with the girls…

Rocca Albornoz di Narni
This castle was built when on Papal coat of arms were put two keys. Over Narni. To control the city, the road, the State.

Poggio di Otricoli
Another castle, but this one is in ruins. Around a village where there is a medieval festival every year. Otherwise a bunch of small houses.

Calvi dell’Umbria
The name is something as “bald people from Umbria”. It was lunch time, it was hot, so none was around. Andrea was the only available balding person from Umbria. I’m from Lazio…

Otricoli
More hot, more hunger. No restaurants. We leave.

Otriculum
Along the road we find a bar to eat something. Surprisingly it was outside the archaeological city of Otriculum. Wrong weather (full Summer) and wrong time (two and half in the afternoon) to visit it without dying for the hot. So only a view from the bar. And this satellite photo of the local arena, with plantation inside.

Civita Castellana
It was late so we didn’t visit the castle built on a ravine. However there was this beautiful church with some marble pieces added.

Then the train for Rome, with a late in the travel almost equal to the time needed. And so these were my Summer holidays for the 2016. Maybe next year we will visit other towns in Terni surroundings.

Among other things I’m a militaria collector too. I focus on WWII Folgore items to act as reenactor for Folgore historical group. There are a lot of militaria shows and this is the bigger and nearer in my area.

Here some items of a friend of mine. Some are materials founded with a metal-detector.

Another view of the fair. Collectors are buyers too. And lots efforts are made to buy something and then sell it for a better or newer thing. You can make a profession of it, but I think the main goal is to reach real pieces of history in your hand. Prices are generally important so every trade is not a simple one. I even found a lot of interesting books, but I applied the formula “or all or none”. So I postpone purchasing to a late time, when I will have more money than now.

Daggers and medals: memories of past killings.

A desert kubelwagon it is always a pleasant view.

And now a couple of customised 1/6 action figures on Folgore theme.

To close, some young models with a standard of a fascist feminine group and helmets from another age. I think that they don’t know what these things were. A photo was took at every stand. They were advertising a power drink and their model school, I suppose. And more beautiful girls with high heels were in the fair. So you had to decide what to watch, or military items or something else. A difficult choice, indeed.

So it is spring and time for another Romics, the comic fair of Rome.

Bigger every time but not so great and big as Lucca Comics & Games. However there were a lot of things to do and watch. 5 enormous pavilions to live. We started at the 10 in the morning and we left at 19 in the evening. And our feet were aching. As our wallets.

Here Andrea caught in the act as victim of a sinister comic seller. That people are terrible chaps…

Gadgets are sometimes more important than comics in comic fairs. Since a couple of years we are flooded by Funk vinyl toys. I watched hundred of them to find a Chrome Blue Flash for a friend of mine.

Romics is a place fulfilled with cosplayers. Sorry, I haven’t photos of young girls with costumes. Too busy with other things. But I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…

Always in hormones topic, after mousepads with tits, smartphone covers with tits!

As usual, statuettes with big tits and asses. However this time I saw less art pieces as these around.

Another kind of statuette. On the right a Sturmtruppen, comic characters of some time ago by Bonvi.

Lego minifigs are huge numbers now. The collecting market take advantage of pieces from first series so some of them are now sold at 45€ each! But they are very cute.

Some lego bricks together.

This edition was dedicated to Go Nagai that was in Rome for a prize. In these days, in newspaper kiosks you can find new edition of statuettes, dvds and comics by Go Nagai.

Some original animation cells by Grendizer aka Goldrake Atlas Ufo Robot in Italy. This is like a religion for my generation.

Gadgets from 35 year ago. Among them, evaporators for heaters!

Other gadgets: sweets box and processed cheese. At that age I eat chupa chups and cream chocolate only to have gadgets with anime characters.

So, we have an interesting long weekend, an holiday at home. More Ganesha Games duties will be next. For another Romics we will wait Autumn.

Here the report of a long weekend with Andrea in Rome at my new, and still almost empty, house. We rallied a lot of things and events in 4 days. To begin, we held some playtests about next Ganesha games. This one is about mutant apes.

And this one is about that old project that we are developing through these last years. Maybe this one is the final effort. However we are speaking about 2017.

Other things were tested and other ideas were submitted. Diego join us for a couple of half days and this is a moment of relax in a patisserie.

We passed the Friday night at a game shop in the opposite part of Rome. Andrea presented his kind of games with a demo of Advanced Song of Blade and Heroes.

Here the Mjolnir shop and an exposition of Ganesha Games books. They are too much to show, indeed. Free apple pie for everyone. However chatting went from Friday to the first hours of Saturday…

Saturday afternoon was the time for the class on game design. In this photo Andrea seems a priest on a pulpit.

After the lesson, a direct check to the game projects of the people. There are very different ideas and kinds of games, with Andrea and the organisers that are trying to address them to their realisation.

And the Sunday was the time for Romics. But that is another post…

After the overall part in the previous post, here the focus is on wargame relate part of Modena Play.

We stayed two days, the first as visitors and to speak with people. This is true even because we are preparing a new game for Lucca Comics & Games together with another editor here present. The second day we were guests in the space of roleplay editors, so Andrea could run some demos of Advanced Song of Blade and Heroes.

Wargame part is not so historical hardcore oriented as other convention where we go usually. Here there was a WH40K tournament: masses of mega tanks that shoot each other at 10cm distance…

Following, another tournament, with Flames of War: masses of historical tanks that shoot each other at 10cm distance…

Inside the tensile structure there was the two-dimensional wargame section. A place where cardboard pieces are positioned with tweezers.

Wings of War games. The author flew around the tables.

Lego imitators do what Lego have to do: historic Lego sets as Romans or WWII.

At this point Gundam kits is a modelling genre in and of itself.

There were some dioramas with German WWII theme full of details and with mixed settings. Really beautiful things!

More wargames were around. As more boargames and interesting things. This is only a partial report of what you can find in Modena Play. I hope to return here before another 5 years.

After 5 years I’m in Modena Play again. A lot of things changed in my life but some are always the same.

Here I’m with an anthology of adventures for roleplay game Kata Kumbas on Savage Worlds game engine. I’m one of the 8 authors. Out just for Modena Play. Read and play in an medieval Italy where Brancaleone da Norcia rode.

Modena Play is the annual appointment for boardgames and roleplays in Italy. Furthermore you can find card games, 2D wargames, 3D wargames, videogames, reenactment and cosplay. Players illustrate games so you can play with it freely after few minutes. And in these two days you could play even 20 games if you are an hardcore player.

While I was walking around I was approached by two chaps who were playing around. It is so simple to find mates to play here. So we formed a temporary player group of 3 people to play with what we could find around. This was a game about the management of Roman provinces.

Another game that we played was about the training to be a knight.

Sometimes there is someone that do it bigger.

Card games can be designed for adolescents with hormone storms. Like this one with an ass as advert. More sexy poses inside…

The ritual auction for games. Gems and garbage mixed in a crowded and fun moment.

I met Paolo in the fair! Now he is full involved with videogames as profession. Here he was in a play-by-play together with a mate of his. Good luck! ; )

A more traditional game than games on videos: a foosball table, but a very small one.

A more traditional game than foosball: wooden tops. Bigger ones were made on request with a lathe. Cool!

A more traditional game than top: war!!!

I found this book in the reenactment part of the fair on fighting with armour in ‘500. He is the curator of the modern edition of an ancient work. I bought Fluxx Cthulhu, MDF terraces for a new gladiatorial arena and 35 vallejo colours too.

After 5 years I could eat tigelle again, a kind of soft bread made with lard filled with a mix of lard and parmesan cheese. Available only in Modena. A long wait…

Here can view people who eat and the corridor between the two main pavilions. Moreover there were the upper storey, another pavilion and a tensile structure.

Unexpectedly you could find a lot of cosplayers around. A stage was setted for them. Every opportunity is good to show your costume. Even during the play of games.

And now some of the best cosplays that I picked from an unofficial photographic report of the event:

Next time Modena Play and wargaming!

A new location, an old convention: Hellana. Here again, year after year. But this time I didn’t bring with me gladiators. Moreover I wasn’t interested in tournaments. So only chatting with people about our lives and little soldiers.

Maybe the new location is a little larger than the old one. More space among tables.

One of the tables. A pause in the war.

Another view on tables. In the crowd a lot of known faces.

Le Granadier and its Napoleonic rules.

People from Macerata. And little people from North Indian Wars.

Flames of War tournament.

DBA 3.0 tournament. Old faces from North clubs involved in DBA. The South clubs now are on L’Art de la Guerre.

Learning table to play with L’Art de la Guerre.

WA.SP. table on WWII. They won a prize for it.

Beautiful trenches for WH40K.

The South and the North at distance.

The best of show scenario. Glamorous vessels here.

Canyons made of bark for a western scenario with Redskins and U.S. forces.

Roman legion stand strongly against cataphracts. In 28mm scale.

Civil war at the end of the Empire. In 1/72 scale. Magna Acies rules by Appius.

Ganesha Games table with Andrea and Miraz.

Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes table in a dungeon scenario.

Cute scenario for Heel Creek, the Ganesha Games’ western rules. Still only in Italian language.

The prize as best participation table for Heel Creek.

Next year another Hellana. I hope I present something new for the event. However this weekend we are going to Modena Play. A longer trip than Hellana one, for an huge convention about boardgames and other kinds of games. See you there!

Another day of work on games. My new house as playtest studio. As first game we tried one of those you saw a couple of weeks ago. Game mechanics need some tweaks, but we are on the right path. We have to show it in April to another game publishing company. The other game is ready, book format too. Today I will print my beta copy. A supplement is ready too, and another one is playtested in these days. I’m thinking to add a supplement with gladiators in the future. This new game series is a surprise. Out in 2016 among other projects as kickstarters.

As second playtest phase we played with the newest version of Song of Spear and Shield. This is a very old project that is on development since the firsts years of Ganesha Games. Now we found another game mechanic for it. Are we satisfied with it? I dunno, however I think that this is 2017 matter, even if I wish to play with it.

Later in the day Andrea spoke at a class on game design here in Rome. In some weeks he will keep a full 3 hour lesson for it. It is a class about developing personal games, teaching notions about marketing, game designing, graphic realisations and all these elements. An interesting thing.