It’s a beautiful, sunny day at the track in Monaco, a popular racing destination lately. Indeed, it’s almost as if the fans refuse to watch races anywhere else. There are three teams entering this race, two Yellow drivers under Team Bney, two Red drivers under Team Branduan, and two White drivers under Team Adesazz. One yellow driver takes pole position, the other brings up the rear, and everyone else fills out the middle spots.

And they’re off!

Welcome to the world of Formula D, a 2008 boardgame from Asmodee that emulates the speed of Formula racing. On a recent day, several NWARPG members pitted their skill against one another at Bears at the Maul.

Into Turn 2 and White is in the lead followed by Yellow. Yellow attempts to pass but is cut off, cut off again, cut off a third time! The Yellow car starts making funny gearbox noises as the driver desperately pulls out the stops in trying to take the lead. The remainder of the pack enters Turn 2, with Team Branduan bringing up the rear, er biding its time.

The battle for Loews

Going into the trickiest turn of the race, Loews is a 3-stop corner that proves to be decisive; White is able to gain a gear against the frustrated Yellow and come out of the turn at high speed. The slower Yellow car (3^rd) and the faster Red car (4^th) are just entering into the turn – and it looks like they’ve collided. Debris on the track, smoke and brake fluid everywhere.

The slower Red car (5^th), along with the slower White car (6^th), weave in and out of the hazards in a race to the bottom. At this point poor Team Branduan’s rolls are so reliably low that this team is consistently in one higher gear than anyone else.

It’s a drag race out of Loews! The White car is comfortably in the lead as the pack comes up to the rear of the grandstands. On his heels is the Yellow team, neck and neck. Far behind in a cloud of smoke is the other White car and the two Red cars. Reminds me of those cartoons where all you see is a cloud with speech balloons containing punctuation coming out of it, folks.

Looks like lead White is finishing up Lap 1. The Red Team leaves the other White car in the dust, but looks like they’re being awfully hard on their brakes and tires to do it. The Yellow drivers have a mix-up and trade paint – I’m getting worried there may not be many cars left to finish this race.

That’s what pit stops are for!  Both Red cars, as well as one Yellow car elect to familiarize themselves with pit stop rules. It seems to work for them, and by the time Lap 2 is underway we find a closely-packed mob, with the exception of the leading White car. Thankfully, the venom and insults coming from the other drivers seems to have no effect on his performance.

"Loews II: The Debris Edition" - We ARE getting the stabilizers for next time, John, I’m feeling sick

Five battered, bruised, angry drivers enter Loews for the 2^nd time. Loews II: The Debris Edition. Pieces of car bodies, brakes, engine parts (that looks important…) are flying everywhere. Looks like the first Red driver just brake-checked the rear White car, and the 2^ndRed driver rammed him from behind. Are these guys serious?? The rammer has to downshift to avoid the ensuing debris, and it looks like he’s going to have an agonizingly slow ramp-up going into the straight.

We’re going back to the grandstands for one last time – OHH White overcompensates! He got a little too cocky with his lead and overshot the corner! He’s down to some frayed, 2^nd-lap tires and the sorry leftovers of an overheated braking system. At the same time RED comes out of the straight HOT! He nails the S-curve and comes into the final series in 2^nd place! Followed by the Yellow Team, I mean talk about a Team that plays together, stays together. Followed by who cares. I hope White enjoyed his daunting lead, because 3 drivers are close on his heels and he has no margin for error!

Pictured: The finish line. Not Pictured: Margin for error

It’s a nail-biting series of turns to the finish, and all drivers expertly maneuver through them. White, true to form manages to hold his car together and even widens the gap. Coming into the last turn it’s White by a long margin. Followed by Yellow. Followed by Red – and the second Yellow peeling around the turn after him! They drag race to the finish and in a hail of engine smoke and rev limiters…It’s Yellow by a nose! The driver squeezed 110% out of Bney Engineering there folks.

Oh geez, the last two cars are ambling quietly down the last turn. White’s tires have finally had enough and he spins out!  The Team Adesazz chief is over in the pits with his hand over his eyes. Just as all hope is lost, Red spins out!  It might just be faster to settle this rivalry with a fistfight… (you remember the whole ramming debacle)… OH NO! White in trying to capitalize makes a miscalculation and spins out AGAIN!! Red putts across the finish line just as White finishes up putting holes in the floorboards so he can run on the track.

Will the champion be able to compensate for the pitiful performance of his teammate?? In a word, no.

FINAL RESULTS – Winner: TEAM BNEY!!!

Team Bney (Yellow)…….…8+6 = 14

Team Adesazz (White)….10 + 3 = 13

Team Branduan (Red)…..4 + 5 = 9

via Initial Impressions of the New D&D : Critical Hits.

Brendon, Anders, Ron, and Takuma playing Formula D.

The holiday season was a slim time for our meetings, with 3-6 members attending the events through mid-November and December.

I was disappointed, but years of experience kept me (mostly) hopeful for the new year, especially with the strong Game Day showing on November 12th.

January – opening with an ambitious Game Day on the 7th – has seen a resurgence in attendance.

The meeting this Friday night pulled around 13 people.

Gamer Utopia hosted us again, and we claimed the round table at the back of the store.

As members trickled in, we were forced to pull over another, long table as well. We shared the store with a Magic tournament, but that worked to our advantage. A few of the players came by to see what we were doing, and one – curious about RPGs – even sat down to hear about them and our group.

Initial discussion focused on hot forum topics.

We talked about the upcoming Game Day, NWARPG promotion, and the various editions of D&D.

Anders reported on his research into RPG group sites (apparently ours is a good one), and his desire to help out with the forums and wordpress blog. Of course there was the usual talk of our favorite systems, with one of our members astounded at the sheer number of RPGs on the shelves.

Mouse Guard

Mouse Guard, however, captivated much of the discussion. Anders had a set of cards he’d made from a fan-created file, with Petersen’s evocative artwork; Ron had a borrowed hardcover that we passed around. I was surprised to hear about the research some of our lurkers had put into the system! One of our members even bought the hardcover on the spot in anticipation of Ander’s Game Day adventure. I will be shocked if a campaign does not develop out of this enthusiasm.

There was some frustration from our newer members that there weren’t enough LFG posts and that they were unable to get into a game. I understand this disappointment, but the passing of the new year and the frequent Game Days should bring together campaigns.

There was also some consternation with the events section of our site and its lack of Game Day information. Hopefully the Meetup plugin that Christopher quickly installed (seen on the right margin) will alleviate that confusion.

Formula D

The second half of the meeting was dominated by Formula D. I didn’t participate, but 5 or 6 of the others did, and it looked surprisingly intense. Ron finished in first, with Takuma close behind. In traditional NWARPG fashion, my idle curiosity netted me a brief and coherent explanation of the basic and advanced rules and a sudden interest in a theme that didn’t previously appeal to me!

Those of us who didn’t play had pleasant, meandering conversation.

It was a nice close to January for NWARPG, with an encouraging show of investment in its future.

Everyone had a good time last month playing Winterwall, an Old School Revival game

It’s time again for our monthly Game Day. This is our second one of 2012 and we expect (and hope) for a good turn out again.

You only need to show up to Castle House Hobbies and Games on Feb 25 to play. The Game Day runs from 12:30 to 9 p.m.

Some games encourage registration if you want a guaranteed spot at the table, but it’s not required.

Also, there will be quite a few board games in play. Last month, we got some Dominion and Pandemic action. Who knows what will be offered this month.

Look in the forum for more information on the offered games:

Winterwall 

Jade Regent 

Did you see our flyer? Well here’s another copy.

“What I will try to look at are what I see as the general trends rather than specific rules. (Some of these trends I have brought up in past articles in different contexts, so if I repeat myself much I apologize. Just consider it practice for when I will start embarrassing my family. More than I already do.) AD&D (sometimes called First Edition) was a mess of a rules set, in terms of mechanics of a game—and yet it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had gaming. I’m sure some of this is nostalgia, but not all of it is. I’m sure some of this is the newness of the game and the genre, but not all of it is. Looking back at that edition from the perspective of a designer and through the lens of countless RPGs, the game just excelled at getting to the stories. It might be because the game “borrowed” from so many great works of fiction that you couldn’t help be in a story as you played. Part of it had to be because there were so few choices that a character could make in terms of game elements that all of the decisions were made in the game.”

via Where D&D is Heading; or, How the Internet Changed a Game : Critical Hits.

Bad news: We have to wait a year.

Let’s pull this bitch apart:

-It deals with something that’s already in the game but isn’t usually dramatized in the game. Your PCs don’t have to do some new thing or behave in a different way to use this table. It’s assumed that characters are always drinking and wenching when they’re not punching giant rats. It’s also usually assumed that the game is about when they’re punching giant rats and not about when they’re drinking and wenching.

via Playing D&D With Porn Stars: Anatomy Of A Good Houserule.

via Turn-based strategy RPG Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land coming to iPhone on January 30th | Call Of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land news | iPad & iPhone Universal | Pocket Gamer.

There are at least a half-dozen gaming shops in the city, but I was mainly focused on wargaming and had limited time. Still, I thought a quick ‘review’ of the two shops I explored might be of general interest.

The Hussar

My first visit was to The Hussar (http://www.thehussar.com/ | Facebook) which proved not to be a gaming shop, at all. This surprised me, because I’d found it by googling “wargaming Tulsa.”

So, The Hussar doesn’t really do gaming, but what it does do is modeling, finished figure sales, and reference materials for militaria ranging from ancients to modern.

You might pick up some exquisitely painted miniatures in any scale, 1/35 armor kits, browse some Osprey Publishing reference books, or pick up a detailed academic treatise on German WW2 small unit tactics while you were there.

I wish I had taken pictures, because the shop is very….tidy and well put together. The decorations consist of vintage (or perhaps they were reproductions, I didn’t ask) military uniforms and helmets and the exquisitely painted minis I mentioned above.

Even though it’s in a no-name shopping center on a typical urban sprawl commercial street, when you step through the door it’s like you enter a little magical realm in another world. Shoppe, even.

It’s a very cool place and worth a visit, even if historical military miniatures are of no interest to you. The proprietor is an extremely friendly man who loves to talk about his hobby.

As an aside, I would think any game shop owner/manager would benefit greatly from visiting The Hussar. It’s an extremely pleasant place to visit. I would even use the term ‘professional.’

Top Deck

The second visit was to Top Deck (http://www.topdeck.us/) which bills itself as “Tulsa’s Best Game Shop.”

Top Deck’s owner is very gregarious and helpful. He assisted me in picking out three color 1944 German armor camouflage patterns while fielding multiple entries into a very-well-attended Magic tournament.

If that’s not patience, I don’t know what is.

Top Deck is definitely a more stereotypical game shop experience than The Hussar. I’d say they lean more towards boardgames, warhammer, and other miniatures games than RPGs, though they do have a fairly healthy RPG section. Top Deck has a great selection of board games.

They carry everything from Apples to Apples to a rather extensive selection of Command & Colours. I would have totally picked up a set of C&C Ancients, if I could have somehow hidden the amount from my girlfriend. 

The entire Warhammer line is well-represented, including the various RPGs. They have a good selection of Napoleonic miniatures and rules (minis are all 28mm Victrix…also sorely tempting) and all the Flames of War you could possibly want.

Top Deck’s gaming space had at least 10 tables, all of them full. I saw guys playing Warhammer 40k, euro board games, and the aforementioned Magic Tournament. Looked like a thriving community of gamers.

——————-

In summary, both of these shops are well worth a visit next time you’re in T-town.

I have to say, I’m a bit jealous of the volume and variety of gaming that appears to be going on there. I suppose it’s the population difference, though I wouldn’t think it would be that great if you take NW Arkansas as one semi-urban region.

Continue the conversation on the forum …