Archive for April, 2016

Playtest, demo and class

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…

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Modena Play 2016: wargaming

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.

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Modena Play 2016

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!

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Last 20 hours for mutants

The end is nigh! The third Ganesha Games’ kickstarter is almost to its end. I remember you the new edition of MUTANTS AND DEATH RAY GUNS together with the add-on PROJECT SIMIAN ULTRA X. And the 14 new miniatures about mutants for this radioactive age, mostly humanoid apes mixed with flying squirrels.

With $30 you can obtain these 5 miniatures. But if you pledge $60 you can pick up your choice of 15 miniatures on ALL miniatures, EVEN UNLOCKED miniatures!






This one instead is free.

Quick, you have only 20 hours…

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MUTANTS AND DEATH RAY GUNS is a fast-paced, skirmish level, post-holocaust, science fantasy miniature system for two or more players. Based on the popular Song of Blades and Heroes mechanics, the rules are simple and, above all, FUN.

With the kickstater a new print run of the game is available with a new cover. And more rules and scenarios are in an 80 page new book. You can find inside it the mutant apes and the other miniatures created with the kickstarter.

Moreover in the following hours there will be a news about the miniatures that we developed for the kickstarter.
Stay awake!
Look at the kickstarter page for it!
The last 24 hours before the end will be surprising…

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Mutant Koala Bounty Hunter

Slowly than before, this kickstarter was funded. Not so big amounts of money to invest in miniatures, so one hundred of backers don’t emerge with their force. However there is still time to pledge here: PROJECT SIMIAN ULTRA X

In the meantime two chaps are pledging for 2 special figures that Ganesha Games realised following their desires. It is the GENETIC ENGINEER pledge. So Andrea design your very own mutant/engineered animal or plant miniature. The miniatures must be approximately “man size” (36mm high) but can be almost anything from your imagination. Then the sculpting of your creation. And you have 3 pewter copies, plus the original colour design artwork of your creation illustrated by Andrea.

The former is Til the Mutant Koala Bounty Hunter. Protected by partial scrap armour and a studded helmet, this dangerous, eucalyptus-chewing bounty-killer is an hyper-evolved koala with near-human manipulative paws. His paws let him use firearms and other equipment but are still animalistic enough to deliver nasty clawing and raking attacks. Til comes equipped with a chem slug-thrower, a short ranged, high-impact weapon that can fire a variety of ammunition. Boba Fett meets koala…

The latter is Jimbot-3000. Tasked with infiltrating human settlements, but not too bright, its idea of disguise was to rip off the face of a human and wear it as a mask. Needless to say, that did not work well. It is armed with a vibro-glaive that can easily disarm opponents or chop their heads off. Jimbot features a self-repairing ablative armour that can easily shrug off bullets, a super strong servo arm to crush opponents or move rubble out of its way, and legs equipped with shock absorbers for increased stability. For ranged combat, Jimbot-3000 has a four-barrel multilaser on its chest plate and a smaller pop-up needle-pistol hidden in an arm compartment.

More news on this ongoing kickstarter in the following days. In the meantime, after Play Modena, other appointments are on the way. This night a Ganesha Games demo at Mjolnir games shop, tomorrow the game design class held by Andrea, Sunday a full day at Romics comic convention. And in spare time, playtesting sessions at my new home.
Full reports in the future!

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Project SIMIAN ULTRA X

The new Ganesha Games’s kickstarter is here!

In the not too distant future, a secret military project was initiated to create a genetically engineered soldier that was specialized for stealth, reconnaissance, infiltration, and assassination. The project was known as SIMIAN ULTRA X and combined the DNA of ape, human, and flying squirrel.

You can now have these strange bio soldiers available in 28mm pewter miniatures to use in your favourite wargame or RPG system, or better yet, play the SIMIAN ULTRA X campaign which we have written along with this project using Ganesha Games, fast, fun, and exciting MUTANTS AND DEATH RAY GUNS post apocalyptic miniature skirmish rules.

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