It's Father's Day today, so to all you fathers out there, happy birthday!

The title is a paraphrase of the great Ralph Kiner.

My father is a great man. Whenever I hear those Old Testament Bible verses about there being "giants in the earth," I think of my dad. Not because he's descended from the Nephilim, necessarily, but because that's the kind of stride his life has had across the landscape of my own.

So I decided to write up some stats for him for "In Her Majesty's Name."

Why? My dad's not a gamer -- he'll neither understand nor be able to appreciate what I've done here. It'll just join the other million, million things I've done during my life that he'll have to shrug at and go, "OK, if that's your thing ..."

I've left the era particularly vague. If you wanted to run him as a Victorian character, as I certainly do, he'll work, but you could just as easily drop him into his actual modern era using the stats and description I've written. My web fu doesn't feel particularly strong right now, but offhand I think the figure I might use for him as a Victorian mechanic/tinkerer would be Capt. Arland Strangewayes from the Cygnar faction of Warmachine. (Although then you'd need to up his Armor from jack/lined coat.)

The human field mechanik in the unit set might work as well, although Dad's not bald. He just has a mustache.

If you want to use him as a modern survivor, the nearest analogue as far as the kit he's carrying would be Raoul from Zombicide. Here's his picture. Just make him older and give him a mustache, but no beard, and that's a pretty close image for how my dad might face the zombie apocalypse.

Here's a Google Docs link to the pdf: My Dad

And in Dropbox: My Dad

So Happy Father's Dad, although I doubt you'll see this, unless one of your granddaughters points it out to you. Love you much!

Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue unboxing (pic heavy)

I was surprised today by the delivery of the box for Season 3 of Zombicide, called Rue Morgue.

The rulebook includes 14 new scenarios.

Cool Mini or Not had announced last week that delivery of the game had exceeded their warehouse capacity, so American backers of the game who confirmed by the deadline would receive their copies ahead of the expected fulfillment date in February. The remaining new expansion, Angry Neighbors, and the stretch goals and specialty figures remain on target for February delivery.

Rue Morgue is designed as a standalone game, but it can also be combined with the earlier sets for the game: Zombicide, Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall. Set months after the initial outbreak, Rue Morgue has players running teams of survivors who are more hardened, more ruthless than their predecessors.

The 12 new survivors for Rue Morgue gat more skilled the more zombies they kill.

And, as we know, when supplies get scarce, it's the other survivors who pose the greatest danger.

Opponents in this release include the new skinner zombies, who continue to fight as Crawlers once they've been cut in half.

Content includes:

12 Survivors: Louise, Maddie, Travis, Parker, Terry, Dan, Jane, Cathy, Joe, Laurie, James and Bear.

40 Skinner Walkers
8 Skinner Fatties
16 Skinner Runners
15 Crawlers
1 A-bomb Abomination
9 double-sided game tiles
12 Survivor ID cards
8 dice
12 experience trackers
11 tent cards
155 mini cards
9 Team Action cards
92 tokens

Let's take a look at the zombies.

And the tiles.

You'll notice there's one tile image missing. My eyes went swimmy trying to figure out which one I missed. So one will have to be a surprise for you!

Tent cards, front and back:

Dice and experience trackers:

I really like that the pips are bullets.

Character ID cards:

Mini cards for zombie actions and Team Action cards:

Dual-sided tokens:

This edition has the same consistently excellent artwork and sculpts we've come to expect from Guillotine. It's really the materials here that are the star. I swear you could build a strong house out of these tiles! And the plastic used for these minis is among my favorites. Certainly easier to deal with than Mantic's restic.

Hope you enjoyed the look at the contents of this early release. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.

And we're back!

Today is the second anniversary of the debut of "Dispatches from the Rim," and it marks the blog's return from a six-week  hiatus as I've dealt with some serious health concerns.

Although I took a break starting in late May, my health issues came to a head in late June, when I apparently suffered a heart attack. I was hospitalized for nearly a week and am still at home recovering. I'm going to try to go back to work on the 17th, provided my cardiologist clears me.

I feel worlds better than I did prior to my hospitalization, largely because I'm acting like an adult and actually following my doctors' instructions. We've got me on insulin now, even though we're still titrating the dosage. I'm following an appropriate diet plan and the weight is dropping off, although that's largely my body coping with the edema. I feel really good, although I have at times overestimated just how much I'm able to do. Given that Georgia and Alabama are already flirting with three-digit daytime temperatures, it would be draining even if I weren't recovering from a heart attack. 

On the hobby front, all that has gone on for me was finally receiving my Relic Knights Kickstarter rewards (after two years) and I've pledged for the Zombicide Season 3 Kickstarter. That's about it. Oh, and "Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun" came out for "In Her Majesty's Name." Couple that with the IHMN Gothic releases Craig's been posting on the official blog and I'm as happy as a clam. 

It's my birthday next week. I turn 46. In the words of David Niven, I believe, "If I'd known I would live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."

Take care, everyone. I'm back, and I'll soon be plunging you back onto my steampunk London creations for "In Her Majesty's Name."

Back to the boards, everyone, and I look forward to seeing you across the table soon. 

A few questions I had about Season 2 minis answered.

Since I posted my (very popular!) unboxing pics of Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak and the Toxic City Mall expansion, I had a question for CMON and wanted to share what I discovered.

When looking at my questionnaire responses, I knew I had ordered and paid for all the add-on characters Guillotine was offering during the Kickstarter. If you go to the KS page for Season 2, they have a link to a nice graphic explaining what all is available at the Fugitive pledge level (the sweet spot, pretty much.) At the bottom of the graphic it notes that some of the unlocked free survivor/zombivor pairs won't be shipped until the first quarter of 2014.

This includes Smith, Chuck, Mack and Mike -- not-Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) from "Escape from New York", not-Ed (Nick Frost) from "Shaun of the Dead," not-Cameron Poe (Nicholas Cage)  from "Con Air" and not-Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) from "The Shining."

I may be off on the Mack item. That's the look, but the write-up also reminds me of his character John Milton from "Drive Angry."

The graphic also notes that the Moustache Pack, an add-on three-figure set, won't be out until next year. The set includes Don, Frank and Bob, who resemble Basil Fawlty, Thomas Magnum and Sean Connery's character in "The Rock." (Thanks, Brian Roe, for letting me know this wasn't supposed to be Burt Reynolds!)

Other delayed add-ons include the three special guest boxes by artists Karl Kopinski, Adrian Smith and Kevin Walker.

So I contacted CMON to ask about the four additional add-on survivors that I paid for and didn't receive. It doesn't list on the graphic that these four won't be out until Q12014. But we have to wait on Helen, Ross, Will and Fred (and their zombivor versions.) I got confirmation from CMON customer service on Friday via email that these will be part of "Shipment 2." Why it doesn't say that at the bottom of the Season 2 graphic with the other information escapes me. Helen is a not-Clarice Starling from "Silence of the Lambs," Ross is a not-Walter Slobchak (John Goodman) from "The Big Lebowski," Will is a not-Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) from "The Big Bang Theory," and Fred is a not-Shaun (Simon Pegg) from "Shaun of the Dead."

So, as much as this shipment gave me a Christmas-come-early feeling, there's plenty more to be waiting for after the first of the year. And I have to commend CMON on their quick response time to my question, and taking the time to answer it to ease my troubled mind.

Back to the boards, everybody, and I'll see you across the tables soon.

Zombicide Season 2 (Prison Outbreak) and Toxic City Mall Unboxing (Pic Heavy!)

Received my giant box from Guillotine Games and CMON with the rewards from the second Zombicide kickstarter. That is the Toxic City Mall expansion for Zombicide, and then Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak.

I had to get to my ear via my elbow trying to get these photos posted, and there are plenty of them. So I've managed to get a little confused in between taking them, managing finally to regain access to them, and getting them posted here. If I don't have some labelled, or labelled incorrectly, please forgive me.

Toxic City Mall

Toxic City Mall includes four new survivors and their Zombivor versions,
plus the Zombivor versions of the six survivors from the original Zombicide.

Toxic Zombies!

The game includes four modular, reversible gaming tiles.

Kickstarter Fugitive-level pledge stuff

Survivors and their Zombivor versions from the Kickstarter -- Brad, Gary, Ralph, Thaissa, Aunt Rose, Kirk and Achille.

Thirty-one bonus Kickstarter Zombies!

Red dice, Orange dice, and additional spawn cards.

Kickstart Add-ons!

These are some of the survivor/zombivor add on sets.

Of course you get character cards of the characters!
Flip them over for their zombivor forms.

Prison Outbreak

Punch-out tokens.

Return of the Pimpmobile.

Six new survivors and their zombivor forms.

Nine double-sided tiles. These tiles are, like the tiles
in the original Zombicide, strong enough to build a house out of.

149 new cards, both zombie and equipment cards.

I'll put up more closeups of the minis once I get to dig into them. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the tables soon!