Originally posted at : https://lastredoubt.substack.com/p/alpha-strike-setting-up-and-getting Initial setup What do you need to play? First: Rules You can get a lot of mileage out of just the main Alpha Strike rulebook. There's a "quickstart" set of rules as well that are freely available. The QS rules are worth downloading because they have print-and-cut templates for various terrain types, and some cut-and-fold standees reminiscent of the original folded cardboard and plastic stands. S…
Originally posted at: https://lastredoubt.substack.com/p/battletech-alpha-strike A long time ago I stood in a shop in a northern Virginia mall, and saw two cool-looking games in boxes. Both had awesome looking robots on the cover. Both looked to be basically the same game by the same company. And they were. As it turned out, Battletech, which I bought, was the updated edition of Battledroids, the other box. Battletech, and it’s expansions, especially Citytech that brought in vehicles and infan…
Originally posted at : https://lastredoubt.substack.com/p/old-ways Paper has a lot of problems. It’s bulky. It catches fire. More to the point, if I want to send something on paper to Japan, it can cost a pretty penny - for whatever those are worth today. Yet I find myself buying physical copies of things - even things that I have backed up from Kindle to EPUB if I truly care about it and backed p yet again offsite - because paper, and physical media in general, has several advantages. First…
Originally posted at : https://lastredoubt.substack.com/p/incentives-for-traveller In my previous post on Pathfinder, I’d discussed how the emphasis of killing monsters for XP warped the game and took options off the table, and discussed a few advantages of XP for gold. I’d also glossed over one of the more common complaints about “XP for Gold” - what about “achievements?” aren’t you just encouraging them to be murder hobos? OK - I never claimed it was perfect. It absolutely doesn’t even try…
Originally posted at: https://lastredoubt.substack.com/p/foucaults-pendulum I have a general rule of thumb when it comes to books that still holds true from my high school days - if a book outside of the true classics is beloved by the NYT bestseller/NPR/old ladies book club crowd, stay the hell away. It has stood me in good stead. Other knee-jerk preferences have fallen by the wayside. I no longer head straight to the SF&F shelves at the bookstore. Outside of authors I’ve gotten to know or re…