It’s 5AM and I’m on a train, heading to the 25th reunion of a save the children crew that worked in Central Africa. I was not at all sure I would be on this train.

I’m still struggling with going to this reunion. With my mother just out of the hospital, my father unwell and my children all dependent on me I’m having trouble justifying the trip. I’m only going for three days- two of which will be spent on a train. I certainly could better use that money.

On the other hand, it’s a unique opportunity. People I knew 25 years ago gathering together- all of them- we spent about a year together working overseas in central Africa.

More than catching up with them it will be a grand catching up with myself. What have I done in the last 25 years? How have I changed? Can I consider my life mostly positive, mostly successful? How do I now measure success?

I know I went because I felt an overwhelming need to be of use...

One my favourite Scaping activities is map building.

We play a slightly different game than you do- and we either use tiny maps (which are about the size of your normal maps) or great big mother lovin’ maps.

We have a “big game” that we play between civilizations. Army movements are pegged on a large bulletin board on the wall and usually there at least three or four battles per turn. Some of them are just feints, and nothing happens, some are skirmishes and some are sieges and large battles.

For our “big game” we have evolved a quick map set up so we can spend more time fighting and less building.

First shake of the 20d tells us which base map- plains, swampy or the river. We have these three base maps prebuilt and stored in a stack with thick cardboard in between. They’re easy to store and the cardboard makes them easy to move. We don’t have as much terrain as some on this site, but we have enough to keep...

It has been a harrowing few weeks. My dear old sweet mum had a pair of heart attacks and was in hospital for observation for too long.

They say the medical industry ‘round here is staffed by butchers and if you go in, you come out in a box.

My father is not well and could not make it to the hospital, so I was my mom’s only visitor.
Fortunately her memory has started to go, so even though I went every day we still had things to laugh and talk about, even if they were things we’d already laughed and talked about an hour earlier. She’s a sweet lady and any time spent with her is time well spent.

While they held her for observation I made a few observations of my own concerning hospitals. Here they are:

1) Only blonde nurses wear makeup.

I thought all of the nurses were pretty. I’m especially fond of brunettes, but they didn’t wear makeup. The blonde nurses always did. And they were always...

You may remember that my sons and I discovered that a neighbourhood kid named William had a box of Scape that his mom had picked up a yard sale. William is four and he plays with my four year old sometimes.

We were happy to see another kid enjoying Scape- but then we saw he had the Heroes of Durgeth- specifically Kaemon Awa, Eldgrim and Kee-Mo-Shi - figures we have never even seen before.

So a plan was hatched to trade William 20 ratmen for Kaemon Awa. I was tasked with finding cheap Warhammer Skaven and painting them. William has been to our house and likes playing with our little rats- and so he agreed to the trade.

I tried to find some sturdy skaven- the ones from the most recent boxed set- The Island of Blood are pretty good- they are all one piece and just one arm and the base must be attached. I managed to get twenty for $15 and painted them up, ready to go.

It took me a while to find them and paint them so...

No, I don’t hunt elephants or rhinos – I’m actually a vegetarian - but I do try and find folks to play games with. I have decided to document some of my more memorable hunting experiences trying to find others to shake dice with.... (but not too many dice)

Years ago when I lived in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, I tried to play some RPG games. I had a couple friends- nice guys with beards who were heavy regular players and even to this day, they still play- I read about them on the internet.

Back then they ran a weekly D and D game and were starting a new one and my bearded friend Mikhail (name changed) invited me to play because he knew I was interested. I’m generally a shy person but I said yes. I was nervous and excited. The guys were kind of mysterious, you know, they never said much and they all had beards. I talked too much to fit in with them and didn’t have a beard but since they were taking the risk of inviting me I decided to take...