Natural Twenty Games

I needed to take a break from my previous book, Reign of Madness: King’s Dark Tidings, Book 2 (it’s an okay book but I am getting a little tired of the Mary Sue main character and some incessant whining from the lead female character) and saw that a couple of books by Larry Correia and John Ringo (John is the author writing in the now shared universe of Monster Hunter International (MHI)) had been released that I either missed or glossed over during the summer of ’16.

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge  is what I’m currently listening to.  It’s got all of the hallmarks of the previous MHI series; guns, guns, more guns, military tactics and surprisingly good prose that makes me chuckle (and makes my wife look at me like I’m crazy:)).

The ‘memoirs’ referred to in the title are the found archives or diaries of former MHI members and delve into past missions (Grunge encompasses the mid to late 80’s) that take place prior to the first novel, Monster Hunter International.  Readers of the previous novels will recognize mentions of events that are referenced by Grunge’s main character, Chad “Iron Hand” Gardnier.  Note that the author has succeeded in leaving teasers not spoilers so it all works out.

From a gaming perspective I always thought that the HERO System was not the most ideal choice to emulate the MHI ‘verse – MHI Employee Handbook and RPG.  While the novels are gun porn to the extreme most gaming systems that have that much focus on the weapon aren’t “fast” enough to emulate the level of action necessary.  Something more akin to Savage Worlds or All Flesh Must Be Eaten would be my recommended systems of choice.

I’ll post some stats later this week for some scenarios.

After a 12-year hiatus, summer convention gaming returns to the city of Milwaukee with the inaugural show of Nexus Game Fair, which is set for June 19-22, 2014. Nexus Game Fair is a multi-genre game convention focusing on role-playing games, board games, CCG/CMG, and miniature events. Their mission is to run a convention that focuses on optimizing the attendee experience by giving them a full schedule of the best possible events.

Nexus Game Fair is the collaborative effort of a group of gamers from all walks of life. Their growing team of organizers has a myriad of backgrounds, educations, day jobs and gaming experience that came together to address what they perceived as a growing lack of concern about the attendee gaming experience at larger game conventions.

Event Manager, Harold Johnson, is the former director of Gen Con who led that show to grow to over 20,000 attendees during the 1990s. “We’re very excited about our inaugural year,” says Johnson, “and we’re confident in our ability to run a well organized, event focused show. We’ve already committed to 3 years worth of show dates and look forward to extending our stay in Milwaukee indefinitely.”

Nexus Game Fair has already signed a number of industry special guests, including Jolly Blackburn (Knights of the Dinner Table), Mike Carr (Dawn Patrol), Chris Clark (Inner City Games Designs), Bob Coggins (Napoleon’s Battles), Dave “Zeb” Cook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition), Jeff Easley (Staff Artist, TSR, Inc.), Todd Fisher (Revolution & Empire), Matt Forbeck (Deadlands), Tim Kask (Dragon Magazine), Dave Kenzer (Hackmaster), James Lowder (Author, Prince of Lies), Frank Mentzer (Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set), Merle Rasmussen (Top Secret), Jim Ward (Gamma World), Skip Williams (Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition) and more.