Find a feeling, pass it on
Oct. 5th, 2003 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyToday was fun.
Yesterdayed came round, which was more complicated than it sounded. Halfway here from London he realised that he had forgotten his phone, which scuppered his plans to call ahead for more detailed directions upon arriving in Manchester. Somehow he managed to contact a friend and get them to email me. Thus, armed with only a vague arrival time, we travelled to Picadilly Station (Manchester, not London) in the car. After navigating the one-way system, we turned out to be only ten minutes late, and so proceeded home with one extra person.
It was good to see Ed. He has many interests in common with myself, so we were able to chat about comic-book minutae such as the differences between the Flash and Quicksilver, and how they will fare in the upcoming JLA Vs Avengers crossover. We also spoke of Superhero LRP, which would be cool. He then sold me on HeroCliks (Kliks? Clix? I don't know). It appears to be a version of Games Workshop type miniature combat, with a few vital differences. The rules are greatly streamlined for ease of play; you only move one or two pieces in a turn, for example, making large teams a liability (though teams of one are at a disadvantage because a character take damage for moving twice in subsequent turns, and can't move three turns in a go). Also the mechanism of having the character's stats built in to the playing piece fulfils a number of functions: it gives each character stats that change with their health level, without requiring reams of tables or too much keeping track of; and it makes it worth buying the pieces. One of my main objections to wargaming was that the pieces could easily have been replaced by cardboard pictures, bits of string or well-trained hamsters, and yet most people insisted that you had to actually own the pieces you wanted to put in your army, so you were basically funnelling cash into Games Workshops' pockets. (Of course, to many people collecting and painting the miniatures was a large part of the appeal. I never got that, but I can respect it.)
So, yeah, Ed sold me on the idea of miniature superhero battles. I accompanied him into town at about lunchtime, because he needed to catch a bus to the LRP event; it was easier to go with him that direct him to the bus stop, and I needed to pay in a cheque or two anyway. After seeing him off I popped into Forbidden Planet (which I still call Oddessy Seven in my mind, despite the fact that it's not been called that since about 1996) and picked up the DC starter pack. HeroClix comes in three flavours: DC, Marvel and Indie. Apparently (and this is what sold me) the Indie pieces are different in the UK and US; over the pond they have characters like Witchblade and The Darkness (not the band), whereas UKside we get a number of 2000AD characters, which I thought was cool.
The eagle-eyed may have noticed that while I am interested in the Indie figures, I bought a DC pack. This is because I plan to buy more Indie booster packs at a later date, but I wanted to start off with DC. I am a DC man at heart. I am pleased I did, for there would appear to be Legion of SuperHeroes characters to collect. Yay Legion!
That is all for now.
Yesterday
ed came round, which was more complicated than it sounded. Halfway here from London he realised that he had forgotten his phone, which scuppered his plans to call ahead for more detailed directions upon arriving in Manchester. Somehow he managed to contact a friend and get them to email me. Thus, armed with only a vague arrival time, we travelled to Picadilly Station (Manchester, not London) in the car. After navigating the one-way system, we turned out to be only ten minutes late, and so proceeded home with one extra person.It was good to see Ed. He has many interests in common with myself, so we were able to chat about comic-book minutae such as the differences between the Flash and Quicksilver, and how they will fare in the upcoming JLA Vs Avengers crossover. We also spoke of Superhero LRP, which would be cool. He then sold me on HeroCliks (Kliks? Clix? I don't know). It appears to be a version of Games Workshop type miniature combat, with a few vital differences. The rules are greatly streamlined for ease of play; you only move one or two pieces in a turn, for example, making large teams a liability (though teams of one are at a disadvantage because a character take damage for moving twice in subsequent turns, and can't move three turns in a go). Also the mechanism of having the character's stats built in to the playing piece fulfils a number of functions: it gives each character stats that change with their health level, without requiring reams of tables or too much keeping track of; and it makes it worth buying the pieces. One of my main objections to wargaming was that the pieces could easily have been replaced by cardboard pictures, bits of string or well-trained hamsters, and yet most people insisted that you had to actually own the pieces you wanted to put in your army, so you were basically funnelling cash into Games Workshops' pockets. (Of course, to many people collecting and painting the miniatures was a large part of the appeal. I never got that, but I can respect it.)
So, yeah, Ed sold me on the idea of miniature superhero battles. I accompanied him into town at about lunchtime, because he needed to catch a bus to the LRP event; it was easier to go with him that direct him to the bus stop, and I needed to pay in a cheque or two anyway. After seeing him off I popped into Forbidden Planet (which I still call Oddessy Seven in my mind, despite the fact that it's not been called that since about 1996) and picked up the DC starter pack. HeroClix comes in three flavours: DC, Marvel and Indie. Apparently (and this is what sold me) the Indie pieces are different in the UK and US; over the pond they have characters like Witchblade and The Darkness (not the band), whereas UKside we get a number of 2000AD characters, which I thought was cool.
The eagle-eyed may have noticed that while I am interested in the Indie figures, I bought a DC pack. This is because I plan to buy more Indie booster packs at a later date, but I wanted to start off with DC. I am a DC man at heart. I am pleased I did, for there would appear to be Legion of SuperHeroes characters to collect. Yay Legion!
That is all for now.
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-04 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-04 05:11 pm (UTC)I have The Joker, Bane and Black Manta. Black Manta is the Aquaman of villains.
ps Get to bed!
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 06:20 pm (UTC)