Black Science #1

As soon as I saw Black Science's rad cover art, I knew I had to check it out. That reminded you too a little of Frazetta's Barsoom pieces?  I was figuring this would be a pulp science-fantasy romp, but not so. It appears anarchist scientists have punched through the multiverse and are now trying to find their way home across the infinite parallel universes. Don't be afraid this is Sliders on mescaline; solid writing and beautiful art manage to make this an engaging read rather than some campy sci-fi shtick. Check it out.

Falling

The premise behind this card game is fantastic; everyone is falling from the sky and the winner is the last person to hit the ground. While that may pique one's interest into playing, it is Falling's combination of simple rules, a fast pace, and a large player group that make it such a great game. Even those who aren't gaming aficionados will find themselves enjoying this.

I've actually had a deck of Falling for quite some time. When I originally bought the game and sat down to read the rules, I couldn't wrap my head around it's turnless structure and real-time play. I ended up tossing it on a bookshelf, resolving to figure it out someday. Well, that day came this past weekend. Rereading the rules, it didn't seem as daunting as it did back then and I couldn't believe I'd procrastinated so long on learning how to play.

With a group that shifted from 5 to 8 people who ran the gamut of gaming experience, it took about 3 to 5 games before everyone started to feel comfortable with the rules and the gameplay style. Once things got going, the consensus was they were liking it. The combination of sort game length and large group involvement made it ideal for causal game, especially while knocking a few back. It's well worth tracking down a copy.

New toys...

So, these guys arrived in the mail yesterday from Onell Design. It's been a while since I've had any interest in toys, but recently I've had the casual desire to buy some to accessories my horrible, monotone-beige cubicle. After stumbling upon the Onell site, I knew I had to have a few. For those curious, from left to right these are: Neo Gatekeeper Reverse Glyan, Standard Crayboth MK II, and Stealth Buildman MK II. As rad as they all are, the Crayboth is my favorite. The orange with burnt pink accents is just a gnarly color scheme and then there's the sweet robotic, chitinous exoskeleton design. Gotta love it.

I do have one small complaint about these though; the lack of knee and elbow articulation. It's actually not that big an issue with the Crayboth due to it being smaller than the other two, but it bugged me with the Gylan and Buildman. There are apparently swing and axis joint additions you can get to add the extra articulation, but they make the figures look a little weird and bulky, I think.  Also, it's like another $8 per figure, which seems a tad steep. That aside, these dudes rule. I'm thinking about buying a small army of the Crayboth so I can arrange epic anachronistic battles against WWII green soldiers on my desk.

*pewpewpew*