Gift Guide

Are you selfish? Got some brats? Some near dead? A window licking cousin maybe? Or some needy friends? Chances are you have someone in your life and what better way to calm them down or back them off so you have more time to work on your death ray or meth lab then buying them off with an item. Bribery has worked so long, why stop now. If you didn't get them, or yourself for that matter, one of those $150 dollar black friday junk TVs from Walmart you probably need some ideas. I am here to save the day.

First off let's talk alcohol. New Day Meadery is a wine and hard cider joint at the heart of Fountain Square in Indianapolis. This is the place to be on any given night. Great snacks that go perfectly with great drink while having great conversations is what this place lives and breathes. With a glass at $5 and a growler at $12 you won't break the bank having a fun night. Buy a growler for someone or bring a friend and have a blast, just go there. www.newdaymeadery.com

Who doesn't love Star Wars? Well if you were able to answer that with a name you might want to dust off the brass knuckles and beat some ass. Everyone loves Star Wars and released in early November was the latest creation to come out of the Rovio camp, Angry Birds Star Wars. If you are a hold out or say that Angry Birds isn't for you or that it is just for kids, go and get this game. If I had to say that any one Angry Birds game was clearly the best it is this one. You will love the Star Wars world that unfolds before you as Luke meets Obi Wan and learns to use his light saber, then they have to leave the planet with Han and Chewie to go to the Death Star to fight Vader. Yup, all that. Gift it to someone in need.

Speaking of movies, if you know a nerd then they know about The Hobbit coming out in a week or so. It looks amazing and, like all Tolken stuff, imaginative. Take a nerd to see it, even if he has already seen it they will appreciate it.

If TV is more your style go with the American Horror first season. Hell, I want to back and watch it. The show is so good you will fall I love with it. With the second season having a very impressive showing right now, I don't think the show is going anywhere for a while. Add this to a friend's collection so you can come over and watch them again.

While on TV, if you own a gaming console, you should own the new Call of Duty Black Ops 2. The company behind the other half of the CODs is back at the helm since Infinity Ward went under. But honestly this outing is very slick thanks to some unique refinements. The "Pick 10" system in multiplayer is amazing and you can expect to see it copied. Get this for the gamer in your life.

Ok they are into games, but not video games. Get them Eaten By Zombies the card game. Picture a typical zombie movie where you hunt for weapons and try to fight off a hoard of zombies and you got this game. It can be customized so each game is different and with new expansion packs the fun just grows. www.eatenbyzombiesgame.com

They like games, but are also into miniatures. Well Leviathans is an amazing game that has you commanding tons of flying ship, making maneuvers and firing cannons. With a steampunk feel and high quality miniatures this game is like playing a work of art. A core set carries a hefty price tag, but will give you more than enough options for two players. With new nations coming out and a Leviathans Online option on the way, expect this game to take off. www.monstersinthesky.com

Maybe your shopping for someone much harder to please. This kind of individual is ripe for The Inventorialist. The Inventorialist is a shop in the Mass Ave district of Indianapolis that specializes in the artistic antique. Picture an antique store without all the crap that clutters everything. Then the few pieces that are left are taken care of and loved as art, you will have what this small shop is trying to accomplish. While a piece may not be for everyone, you are sure to find something for nearly anyone. www.theinventorialist.com

Lastly some shameless self promotion is to be expected. Instacanv.as has made possible the art gallery for the struggling artist. You can order prints and cell phone cases that look simply amazing. Go on over and check out some of my art, it is mostly Draw Something drawings, but they look great on a wall.
http://Instacanv.as/herrgeist

Snap Dragons

New page up at http://SnapDragons.thecomicseries.com/ Will post it here soon.

Comic Hosting

My Snap Dragons comic will also be hosted on http://SnapDragons.thecomicseries.com/ so make sure your subscribe and rate for me, as well as check out some other really good comics. Be sure to swing by www.themediumbus.com to get a jump on the next page.

Snap Dragons in color

I will be releasing a page a week, so stay tuned!

Snap Dragons: Issue 1, Page 1

Coming Soon

I have been very busy with a move to downtown Indy and my many projects.

Lost of new posts coming soon. Full color issues of SNAP DRAGONS are being finished up and I feel some more ideas bubbling to the surface.

Also working on rules for vehicles in The Everything RPG. And something I can give away for free The Everything Battles.
The Everything Battles is a rules set to play any miniature or figure with any other.

Keep an eye out for lots of cool stuff.

Snap Dragons Wish Another Happy Birthday

Sasquatch Cometh

Vote For Me

http://artvsart.net/voting-2012-live/index.php

Snap Dragons wish Tyler a Happy Birthday

Downtown

We've done it, we have finally got a place in downtown Indy.

Gen Con Indy 2012 Part II

Gen Con was amazing, but here are a few things that stood out. Dungeons & Dragons, the flagship of GenCon is alive and pumping. Dungeons & Dragons Next will be arriving soon, but we were able check it out. D&D Next includes simple rules that make sense. We were able to make characters and play a scenario in two hours. I made an assassin and was able to detect a trap and dodge a purple worm, if you don't know, but that is good stuff. It was fun and will be looking forward to seeing what else comes out of D&D Next.  D&D Dungeon Command was also a big draw and is rightly deserved. As I have already reviewed, Dungeon Command is amazingly fun.  We also checked out D&D Online which was pretty cool. D&D also had a unique set of dice to get for the con. You had to go to each of their events to get one, it was much harder getting into some of the events than we thought. But in the end we were victorious and got them all. Dungeons & Dragons isn't going away anytime soon and they have enough going on to have their own convention. With new and creative changes if you haven't looked at D&D in years, it is time to look again. www.wizards.com/dnd Good Red Dragon Inn, a drinking game built around fantasy role playing games. Basically you are a group just getting back from an adventure and you are gambling and drinking, spending all the money you just earned. If you get too drunk or can't pay your bar tab, you are out. Plenty of opportunity to mess with your friends and the ease in which this game can become an adult drinking game make it great for a party. After a few turns your friends will be laughing and never know how nerdy of a game this is. This game is an absolute blast, but if it wasn't so expensive I feel like more people would have it. At nearly $40, I feel like this game is a bit overpriced. Though this is a game I would own. www.slugfestgames.com Good Leviathans, basically battleship on steroids. This miniature game is played with air ships that battle each other. The minis look awesome and the game is pretty easy once you play it a little. Colored dice indicators let you know what you roll for your attacks. And easy to read armor slots let you see if you hit and what will be destroyed when you do. This game could be played with as many units as you wanted depending on what you have time for. For fleet versus fleet games, you might be talking two hours. This game just came out, playing at Gen Con you might have been able to walk out with a few ships, but the street date on the boxes was Aug 22. I was able to play this game a few times and really got a feel for it, now I can't wait to get it. I am holding out though, the current fleets French and British, are only mildly appealing to me. There are a bunch of factions in the works, including what's am waiting for, ze Germans. This game is great, the rules make sense, the minis are amazing but the price is steep. At $100 for both factions, rules, dice and game boards, it is for serious players only. Though a little looking will get it to you for $70. A smaller beginners set should be made to draw people in and get them hooked. Other than that, individual factions can be picked up for $50 each and there will be ways of buying the rules, dice and game boards separately in the future. I loved this game,  I will play more of and plan on owning this in the near future. www.catalystgamelabs.com or www.monstersinthesky.comgood God Dice, like Yahtzee only better. This game pits you as a commander of a few warriors that fight to the death a round at a time against another commander and his warriors, as you hope for favor from the Gods. You choose your heroes to battle, roll for favor then roll the attack dice. The attacker has to match up the three colors for the different attacks but you are able save the dice you want and re-roll the dice you didn't want. The trick is knowing when to press your luck and when to keep a solid attack. A fantastic and easy to learn game with enough strategy to keep a family or non nerdy friends playing. I met the creator of the game Rick Maxey, and he is a super great guy that just loves his game. And when you go to GenCon and play a cool game and it turns out you just played with the creator it makes for a magical experience.  I hope this game does well enough Rick thinks about expanding it or making different versions for different audiences. As it stands this game is super fun and quick for when you need to get your game on. Maxveld Games. Good The Everything RPG, a role playing game for any role player. Simple rules and stats, drop in and out play, no class restrictions, make any character you want, play any genre and only needs two six sided dice. This is a perfect starting point to role playing games or for the seasoned vets of any genre of role play. This game is still in development, but really has promise. This game is made by Evil Press, which does art, stories and games. www.facebook.com/evilpress Good Redneck Life, as the name suggests it is like life but rednecked out. This hilarious game has you getting most likely a single grade education, a job, a bunch of young ins, a trailer, a wife, a divorce from her bad mouthing your NASCAR driver, re-married, more young ins and a side job stealing wheelchair or a trip to Dollywood. This game is perfect as a drinking game or something the whole family can have fun with. My only complaint with this one was it took nearly two hours plus to finish a game. But they will soon be putting out a board that is 20 spaces shorter, which may help a lot. All the games from Gut Bustin' Games are so much fun and easy to learn. www.gutbustingames.com Good Trailer Park Wars, another Gut Bustin' Games classic. This game has you filling your trailer park with tenants and amenities to earn you points, which are pink flamingos. You can cause accidents, pests and bad tenants to people you are playing to screw them over. This one is again easy and hilarious  but a game can be played in just about 15-20 mins, so is better if you don't have a bunch of time. www.gutbustingames.com Good Flapjacks and Sasquatches, this independent card game pits players as lumberjacks trying to chop down trees. Along the way you can screw other players over with blisters and Sasquatch cards to scare away help. This was pretty fun and got to demo with the creator, which is always great. This game runs about 20 minutes, so it is something to whip out for a quick game. www.flapjacksandsasquatches.com Good Eaten By Zombies, the new stand alone expansion for the hit card game just came out from Max Holiday and Mayday Games. This an be played as a two player stand alone, or be added in to your Eaten By Zombies set you already have. The rules have had a great overhaul and read better and more clear than before. The small size and packaging of this game make it really portable to play pick up games on lunch or whenever. The new cards and zombies add great twists to an already awesome game. More stand alone expansions would be really great to see in the future. If you don't already have this game, first off you are dumb, but you can now get this intro style version and carry it with you making all your friends get eaten by zombies. I highly recommend this game. www.eatenbyzombies.com and www.maydaygames.com Good Last Night On Earth: Timber Peak expansion, is a stand alone board game expansion from Flying Frog. This game has players scrambling to find weapons to fend off an endless supply of zombies. This game has lots of versatility with ways to play and comes with a lot of components to change up the game. Games can be different lengths and complexities depending on which scenario  is chosen. A great game, but as with component games it is pricy. I could seriously picking this game up though. www.flyingfrog.net  Good Munchkin, who doesn't love Munchkin. And if you don't know about it, stop reading this and go out and buy a copy today. It is basically the go to card game for fun. With so many different versions out there you are sure to find one you want. www.stevejacksongames.com Good Magic The Gathering, the card game that paved the way for collectible card games everywhere. Magic is a game that is easy topics up the rules, but one can spend years, and thousands, on mastering. The object is simple, your opponent has a deck and 20 life, make it so he doesn't have one of those. But with all the creature summoning and spell wielding it is easy to get lost. This game is amazing, but requires a huge commitment of money. New sets come out twice a year and legal play requires the latest three sets to be played. That is the only reason I don't play today. www.wizards.com Good Gen Con, yeah, the convention itself. Gen Con is one of the largest conventions in the world, and the largest for gaming. If you play physical games at all this place is your mecca. There is a sensory overload when you walk around the exhibit hall and your inner nerd is frothing at the mouth. No matter what you are into, you can find a game for you. Comic Con may get all the press, but If there's a better convention than Gen Con, I haven't seen it. www.gencon.com  Good

Snap Dragons - Back to School

September is back to school month, and for Snap Dragons, it's no exception.

Art vs Art

Just got done painting at Art vs Art at the city market in downtown Indy. http://www.artvsart.net/index.php I'll keep you posted as to when voting begins.

Snap Dragons comic

The inspiration is like really raunchy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If it ever goes on tv I have a song to go with it. Expect to see more Snap Dragons in the future. 

Enjoy. 

Jeff

GenCon Part 1

Gen Con was amazing, but here are a few things that came in just less than amazing.

Wil Wheaton, what can I say, the guy was kind of a prick. First he refuses all interviews, then he only shows up half the time. I wasn't impressed. He could have been very friendly to Indiana and he just didn't come across that way. Wilwheaton.typepad.com 

Not Good.

X-Wing, the hot game at this year's convention. I didn't demo it cause it took too long to go over all the pieces and how they interacted. This game needs an overhaul, and it just came out. I hate to be a asshat and say I could make it better, but I could really make it better. All the tokens and rules just sucked the fun right out of it. Sorry Fantasy Flight, but you didn't do a good job with this one. But since it is Star Wars people have, and will buy it up. www.fantasyflightgames.com 

Not Good

High Noon Saloon, I really liked this one from Slugfest Games until I was dead in 5 minutes and had to wait 20 for the game to be over. This may not be typical for every game, but the fact that it can happen is a real flaw in the game. It is a real shame too, this game was fun. There needs to be something so that when you die you can do something, otherwise you might have to sit around while players shoot and run for cover. www.slugfestgames.com 

Barely Good.

Dystopian Wars, was a decently cool miniature game from Spartan that was based in steampunk. You controlled ships that raced toward each other cannons blazing. But sadly I feel like that is about it. The large ships simply demolish and when you are rolling 9 dice at a time you get plenty of hits. The major drawback for me is the company itself. I had heard about another game by Spartan a couple of years ago and saw it well represented at Gen Con last year, however I didn't see it at all this year and the minis were in the bargain bin. Even though the value is good, I don't know if the company will drop this line in a year. www.spartangames.co.uk 

Barely Good.

Pirates Of The Spanish Main, this game was one of my favorites and the new Wizkids has ruined it. They took the  collectible punch out ships that you move and shoot to get treasure and turned it into a card game. Why would you do this Wizkids? The guy demoing actually said "It is everything you love from the old Pirates.", well I guess he is right if you take out everything that was awesome about Pirates. I refused to stay 5 minutes. www.wizkids.com 

Not Good.

Wrath of Kings, is another miniatures game I tried out. You control an army of land based units like swordsman that fight another side. The figures were cool enough, but the guy showing off the game didn't explain the units and rules very well. The game didn't offer much sense of strategy like most minis games and seemed to be really hard to kill other units. Games like this could use tweaking, mini games done have to be multi hour epics. www.wrathofkings.com 

Not Good.

True Dungeon, ok maybe I just don't know what the fuss is about. There was an elaborate setup for this True Dungeon game. It was dark with red, blue and green lights on faux stone walls. There were tables set up and their own food area. So are the people that play this anti-social? Why not make it an open play area to any games. It would bump my rating up some notches. So, it looked cool, but was really just an exclusive club. wwwtruedungeon.com 

Not Good.

Zombies!!! The Card Game, this card game which is based on the hit board game is lame. Cards that don't do anything or require you to know every card make me feel like they just rushed this product. Avoid thinking this is really fun simply because of the board game. www.twilightcreationsinc.com 

Not Good.

Post Gen Con

I know it's been a few since I posted, there will plenty more to come. I've been busy writing reviews that cover everything we experienced at Gen Con. People liked my game, so I don't feel like I have been wasting my time.

Closed

Dennis looked up at the clock and saw it was nearly 6 pm. His coworkers had left to enjoy the holiday weekend, since there wasn't much work. He volunteered to stay and close up. The quiet of the office hung heavy among the noise of the air conditioning kicking on and his typing. Dennis's pale boney fingers showed their age as they moved across the smooth black keyboard. Like a rusty typewriter he worked on finishing up his last bit of work.  The paper he was looking at nearly glowed in the fluorescent lighting making the black lettering nearly leap off the page. Dennis had to adjust his thick glasses because of the brightness bothering his bifocals. A click of the mouse brings his work to an end just before the top of the hour and he decides to pack up. He makes a few clicks and his monitor shows his computer shutting down. He rolls his chair back and gets up. He grabs a set of keys that lay under a calendar on the wall of his cubicle. He turns, heading to the warehouse. It is a large room with a table for shipping out products. Along one wall boxes lay on a skid waiting to be made and taped. The far wall has two large garage style doors for the docking of trucks picking up or dropping off and a side door for emergencies. He walks over to each of the doors and locks them. As he leaves the warehouse he turns out the lights. The light from the office shinning behind him casts a shadow into the dark warehouse giving him a tiny startle. "Silly," he said to himself, as he closed the door to the warehouse and locked the door with the keys. He turned and headed to the bathrooms to turn the lights, when he heard what sounded like a voice. He stopped, looked around and listened. There wasn't anything but he yelled out anyway. There wasn't any response. He opened the bathrooms and turned out the lights. Dennis headed around the cubicles and toward the front door. Hey turned out the lights for the office, but heard a noise behind the door to the warehouse. He stepped forward and called  out. Nothing came as he listened. He turned back to the door out and then a thud from the warehouse. Dennis hurried to the door yelling out, "hello?" he said. He reached in his pocket pulling out the keys and fumbling them into the lock. He opened the door and looked in. His shadow was the only thing he saw, and as the keys jingled to silence, nothing else was heard. Dennis stepped in and turned on the lights. Just as the room was illuminated a pop made the lights go out. "Damn," he said. He walked into the warehouse a few feet, knowing there was a flashlight on a desk near the door. His hand met plastic and his thumb flicked the torch on. The circuit breaker was located on the far right wall by the shipping table and he managed to find his way there. He opened the panel and pointed the light inside. He scanned all the switches and didn't see one tripped. He checked the panel door to see which breaker number went to the warehouse. A box made a thud as it hit the floor across the room and Dennis swung around shinning the flashlight around. He didn't see anything except the box on the floor, about three feet from the skid of boxes. He knew something had to have moved it off of the skid and onto the floor. He was frozen briefly half confused, half scared. "W-who's there?" he asked the dark. He stepped away from the wall and toward the closest dock door. Dennis had to put the flashlight under his arm in order to work the lock that kept the garage door closed. But just as he was working it, he felt a brush of something across his shoulder. Paralyzed with fear his arms went stiff and the light dropped onto the floor. Dennis whirled around yelling, "hey!". His eyes tracked through the dark room looking for someone that stayed behind and was playing a joke on him. He bent down and picked up the light and as he got back up a hand reached for him in the dark. Terror gripped him. This hand was like nothing he had ever seen before. As white as paper and nearly entirely skeletal, with cloth remnants as white as the hand they partly covered. Dennis flung backward in horror and hit his back against the dock door. The hand was no longer in front of him so he ran for the door to the office to get out, his flashlight streaking around in front of him. His heart was pounding as the door came into reach. And as his hand pulled the door open he felt a pain in his chest like no other. His hand went to clutch at his heart and he saw the hand coming out of him, through him. He felt breath on his shoulder and turned. A bleach white skeleton looked back at him as his whole body throbbed. He was unable to hold himself and fell to the floor. His eyes fixed on the two voids on an otherwise blindingly white face. The two bottomless pits grew to encompass Dennis's entire view and he was gone.  Two days later a woman came in to open and found Dennis's body sprawled out in the doorway to the warehouse. His eyes as white as paper. She called the police and the owner, and after a little while it was determined that he died of a heart attack. The owner called all the employees and told them what had happened and explained that the office would stay closed a few days. After, he went around and locked everything up. As he walked his way through the cubicles in the office from the back there was a thud from the warehouse door.

Dark Knight Rises (spoiler free)

The conclusion of the Nolan Batman trilogy is a wonderful movie. A great story with a slew of interesting new characters that work well, save for Catwoman. Bane as the main bad guy is ominous and merciless. All in all this is everything one could want to close out the series, a few minor grips aside. On my scale of Good to Not Good, it gets a Good

GenCon Bound

I am so excited to find out my event at GenCon has finally found a table. I don't have to worry about that anymore. And come to find out 10 of my 12 tickets have already sold. I am so psyched I nearly climbed the wall. I have a lot of work to do to be ready. As we speak I am feverishly working on my cover for the book and doing rewrites for my game master section. I signed up for Kickstarter and as soon as my cover is done I can push that art piece as the game's masthead. If everything goes well at the convention I can drum up enough interest to at least get started on full color production by October. 

To Have And To Hold

John gets up from the bed and pauses. He turns back and looks at her. Her naked figure interrupted by tufts of sheet. Her outstretched arm strung across his pillow from where he had to lift it off of him to get up. On it, her ring reflected the streetlight glow from the window, in an otherwise dark room. He turns to the dark room ahead and steps onto cool tile. He pulls the door closed a little going in. Even in the pitch black he is able to navigate his way to the toilet. John begins to piss causing the silence to be broken by his stream. His mind wanders to far off places and times. Back to when he was just a boy and was afraid to get up and pee in the night because of the dark closet that he thought contained a grisly beast of some sort. "How silly," he said to himself as he finished. The bathroom door opened and the silhouette of his wife stood before him.  "Jesus, you scared me," he said, shaking the last bit of urine away. "It wasn't so silly John," she said. "Whaa...," is all John managed. Two yellow orbs opened where his wife's eyes were. "It wasn't silly to be afraid John," she said. She reached for him and the light from outside gleamed just right on her hand and John went back to being 6 in his bed staring at the closet as a scaly claw emerged from the abyss, yellow eyes staring back at him.

American History X

This is a fantastically acted and well thought out movie about the choices you make and the ripple effect of them. The story follows a Neo Nazi and his brother following in his footsteps after their father's death. The older brother goes to jail for killing two guys that were robbing him. Locked up for three years he learns that nearly everything he was wasn't all he made it out to be. Meanwhile his younger brother on the outside was well on his way to his brother's fate. The older brother gets out of jail and sees the world with fresh eyes and tries to make amends to his family and stop his brother down the road of hate.   On my scale of Good to Not Good, it gets a Good

Friday the 13th Part II

No matter what comes of today people will be extra conscious of the bad simply based on a number. Fear paralyses people and makes them slaves of simple things. Numbers have mathematical meaning, but other than that people find ways of making them significant. Do something for yourself for just a moment, go look up the history of Friday the 13th. Then pick another day of the week and number and look that up. You will find that people jump to conclusions and think that a day is "bad" more than another. And while a lot of people do associate today with the popular slasher film series of the same name, they are works of fiction that prey on the subtle fear and magically have a Friday the 13th every year around the same time of year. 

The Shadow

The heat of the Midwest pours into me as I step outside, the sun baking all that lay before it. I step towards my car and reach for my keys. A soft breeze blows and I look up into the brightness. Fear grips me as I see it. My heart begins to pound as I am frozen, eyes fixated on the searing sun, the nearly invisible object holding its position in the center. Tears welling up from the pain I am forced to blink. When my eyes open only darkness.

Friday the 13th

Greetings Reader, This blog will be an interactive journey through my mind. Along the way stories, reviews and rants will fill the space.  Enjoy H