So it begins.

The playtesters and some people who live near certain FLGS' have already received their Master Set 3: Battle for the Underdark. Sandra over at HMG reported earlier that she'll get hers in today, ready to ship out soon. I'm sure that WGHQ and the other online retailers will follow suit shortly, and we'll start seeing them in Wal-Mart before too long.

There has been a lot of discussion over the last few months, ranging from people being ecstatic to enraged over the proceedings. But once the previews started coming in, and hints were dropped, it seems (to me at least) that the community response has been more and more optimistic.

Having the set in hand has helped me too. Setting up cave systems with shadows and stalagmites has been pretty cool. I don't think that adding fun new scenarios should in any way detract from the game we all know and love. It'll just give us a new way to enjoy it, and for some, it might be just what...

I don't talk about them much here, but I've got an older brother and sister.

While my sister and I were growing up, I'd drive her crazy every time we'd go to a fast food place. You see, she did something which I absolutely couldn't comprehend.

She never ate ketchup. Ever. She still hasn't to this day.

But for many years, I'd ask her why.

"Why don't you eat ketchup?"
"It's gross."
"But you've never tasted it."
"It smells bad."
"But it tastes good." Then I'd put my fry into some ketchup and eat it for emphasis.

I didn't get it. She ate spaghetti. She liked tomato sauce. She liked dressing, and some other things made with vinegar. Yet she arbitrarily decided at some point in her life that she would never eat ketchup.

Now, she lives a perfectly fine life sans-ketchup, but I think about her every time I enjoy that...

So yeah.

If Raelin is Bacon,

and Deathreavers are Parsely (or lettuce),

and Major Q9 is Cheese...

are 4th Mass/Stingers beef?

Great as a stand alone meal, but perfectly viable with this other stuff?

Is Isamu tomatoes? Special sauce?

Some of you may wonder why I’ve been less vocal than I used to be in the numerous speculation threads surrounding D&D Heroscape. When I do butt in, I usually say something cryptic, like, “if Wave 9 and 10 are any indicator, I expect more good stuff out of MS3, Wave 11, and Wave 12.” Now I’m breaking my silence. I don’t expect more good stuff. I know that there’ll be more good stuff, because I’ve played it. It’s a blast and a half.

Earlier this year, I was brought on to help playtest new Heroscape stuff. A lot of people are worried that the new figures won’t fit well with existing Heroscape units, or that it’s not staying true to its roots. The designers and I thought it might be cool if I gave you a taste of the kind of thing you might be expecting out of the figures you’ll find in the new master set.

Skirmish at Steam Alley

My friend “Kang” and I played an upcoming scenario which uses standard terrain- lava, jungle, swamp, and...

It's late, and I'm tired, but I can't quite sleep.

One thing I've been thinking about tonight, is something that has almost become a throw-away phrase when describing heroscape games. I'm sure a number of you have heard that some of the top players rarely, if ever, make mistakes.

In a broad sense, a mistake is a move that you can easily see a better alternative for when you watch someone else play. When you see someone routinely make moves that you weren't expecting, but are actually better than what you were anticipating, you're probably watching someone better than you.

When spider was the scaper of the week, this next quote stuck out to me a bit:

...