Ravings of ageing gamer

 RIFTS first hit the streets in 1983.  I started playing it in the late 80s. I had played the Palladium Role-playing game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ninjas and Superspies.  They all used the Palladium Role-Playing system which consisted of a D20 + Modifiers for Combat and a Percentage System for Skills, so if you had played any Palladium Books game you could play any other Palladium Books game. As an aside, Kevin Simbieda, who owns Palladium Books, used to do illustrations for Judges Guild back in the 70s. So what was RIFTS all about?  Well, everything.  A Rift is a break in Spacetime which opens a gateway, or Rift , to another place, time, or Dimension. The premise was there had been a nuclear war in which Millions if not Billions of people had died.  The release of Psychic energy blasted holes in our spacetime, Rifts to other dimensions which let magical energy flood onto Earth.  Atlantis rose from the depths in the Atlantic Ocean and many coa...

 Erich Von Daniken died recently and I realised I hadn't read The Chariots of the Gods or any of his works. So I picked up a copy and read it through. The following is a set of notes I jotted down after reading the book.  They represent my thoughts, my interpretations.  Yours may be different.  Don't have a hissy fit if they are different. My first impressions were that it rambled on and jumped about a lot.  It was hard to follow and made a lot of claims without any evidence. It tried to link different Ancient Cultures together and wondered where their technological advances came from.  The Author could not believe that Mankind could actually invent things themselves. The style was sort of chatty, like a friend trying to convince you of something odd.  He also phrased his suggestions in a way that we had to open our minds to these possibilities, almost like we had to disprove them and not the other way round. It was a hard read, as I say, it was jumpin...

So, how many Aardvarks is too many? Back in the 1980s Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop brought out a range of minis called Weird Fantasy or WF for short. This was a small range of unusual figures, a dwarf on stilts, a spaced out druid and others. See the complete range here: https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Weird_Fantasy_(Citadel) The range also had Aardvarks. Obviously based on the Cerebus the Aardvark graphic novels by Dave Sim. More about Cerebus here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebus_the_Aardvark Several poses were offered in the range including: Aggressive Aardvark with a sword. Aardvark Berserker with an axe. Aardvark Wizard. Angus the Aardvark with a Kilt and Claymore. And the Aardvark Adventurer with Pistol and Whip that was never officially released. Rumour is that the Aardvarks were removed from sale after a cease and desist letter from Dave Sim's Lawyers. The Aardvarks can be found on ebay from time to time and usually go for a...

The Judges Guild Wilderlands Campaign Setting  Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Judges Guild was producing a fantasy campaign world called the Wilderlands. It was an area around 1000 miles tall by 700 miles wide and included many types of terrain.  It was originally designed for Dungeons and Dragons but became part of their Universal Fantasy System when they lost the licence from TSR. In the late 80s Judges Guild closed down and the only remains of the Wilderlands were what could be found in the second hand pile in Games stores and eventually on ebay when it appeared. The d20 licencing changed all that and Judges Guild returned.  Along with Necromancer games they started to bring back the old Wilderlands campaign. They produced three products to cover the Wilderlands Campaign world and the City State of the Invincible Overlord, their most famous product.  Other modules were also reproduced in the d20 system. The production values on these items is excellent, u...

 Doom This is for the original Doom boardgame (2004) by Fantasy Flight Games and not the revised Doom boardgame (2016) also by Fantasy Flight Games. This game is similar to Descent.  All I had to make were Doors and Room and Corridor floors. I used the Hirst Arts Sci-Fi Moulds 270-273 for the floors and 301, 302 for the walls/doors. I have yet to paint my figures.  Those in the photos were supplied by my friend Alan Forsyth.

 The Legend of Drizzt First of all I painted all the minis for this game.  Then I set about making the board(s). The game has 4x4 inch card tiles that make up the dungeon as you adventure within it.  The usual mechanic is to draw from the prepared deck of tiles and lay them out.  To replicate this I numbered each tile and created a deck of tile cards.  The cards are prepared as per the scenario and then each player draws a card and locates the matching 3D tile and places it. I used the Hirst Arts Water Cavern Moulds (81, 82, 281, 282) as this game is set in the Underdark.