Episode 60: Schemes and Plans for 2013

Episodes 60: iTunes

Episodes 60: Non-iTunes

Hosts:  Duck Sauce, T-Bone, Chick-o-Sticks, Biscuit, and Americano

In what seemed to be an aimless, meandering episode the hosts pull it together and get some concrete plans for the podcast down on paper for 2013.  Plans are made, schedules are set, hemming and hawing ensues.  There's a little 'Around the Horn' thrown in there for good measure.  Enjoy!

Second Anniversary and the Third Season

Both events, the third season of the podcast, as well as our second year anniversary, crept up on us like a ninja in the night, stabbing us in the necks!

So, Halloween marks the show's beginning and we were all surprised after last episode that another one was upon us. So yeah, two years. Wow. Of course another season is in order, so the last Deathwatch episode you heard was the end of season two. Just last night we recorded an impromptu world creation session of Microscope, so look for that to kick off season three. We're working on a new intro as well.

Oh, and we added a new host to boot.

Winners, New Episodes, and Such

Heya, just a quick post to let y'all know that episode #34 is finished and in the can. We also announced the winner of the "win a painted Deathwatch" miniature but with a twist, so make sure you tune in.

What else? T-Bone freaking spilled yet another beverage on Gyro's carpet. Duck Sauce bought doughnuts. Biscuit was distracted from the game at hand by his own sketchbook and Chick-o-Sticks refused to get beer from the fridge for his colleagues. Americano just kind of did his own thing.

The Tale of Two Game Shops

So Sunday, I go into a local game shop located in a shopping mall here in town. I often buy gaming supplies online, and I often feel a little guilty about it, so I decided to visit a real gaming shop.

I am dragging my 7-year old son by the arm, and carrying my one-year old daughter, both of whom are not excited to be there. I'm there for one specific thing - a card box for my son's Pokemon cards.

When I walk in, the two store employees are talking to each other. I say in a loud voice to my son that we will only be there a few minutes, as soon as I find the card boxes (plenty loud enough for the attendants to hear). They continue their conversation, oblivious to my presence.

I walk through the store, saying several times, loud enough for them to hear, what I am looking for. They continue to ignore me. I could have asked them, but I didn't. I went through a lot of trouble to physically drive to their store, wasting gas, with two annoyed children, just to buy something I could have bought online with a click of a button, and these gentlemen ignored me. So I left, deciding that this store did not deserve my business.

An hour later, I was on my way home (still with grumpy kids), and as an afterthought pulled into another game shop located downtown in the old district. I walk in, the employee immediately asks me if I need help, he gets the stuff I need, which involved climbing a ladder to a top shelf, and to boot, gives me a copy of the free Black Crusade adventure.

I ended up buying a couple of extra Pokemon packs from him.

T-Bone & the Colossal Penguid of the North Pentagram

Behold the massive beast known as the Penguid. Part giant penguin, part extra-large squid this gargantuan creature plagued the waters of the North Pentagram and was responsible for the disappearance of an unfathomable number of sea faring ships and their devoted crews. After a long arduous battle with just a rusty flail and the yearning for titan's blood, the great T-Bone felled the monster with a crushing blow to the side of its three-pronged beak and impaled it upon the shattered mast of a wrecked and long forgotten viking vessel.

To this day not a single ship sails the North Pentagram without the tale of T-Bone's feat upon the lips and ears of its crew. Some even claim that on rare storm-less nights you can hear the screams of the damned Penguid as it relives its own death night after night while others fear it is the cries of the tentacled younglings as they weep for their slaughtered mother and grow with revenge in their hearts.

As for T-Bone you say? He cares not for such tales as he is too busy venturing forth slaying much larger, and some smaller less important, creatures.

I figured I'd try something a little different this time around with the banners and focus on each member of the Minion crew. By the roll of a die T-Bone won the first rendering!

I Hope you Enjoy!

In His Wedding Suit

Because I'm a complete knucklehead and posted the same art twice now, I thought I'd make it up to you and post another pic of some hosts. Namely me and Biscuit. You know, that guy who keeps drawing everything? As you can see, he cleans up rather well. He may be the youngest amongst our cadre, but now he joins the ranks of matrimony. On behalf of the rest of the Minions, let's wish him a hearty congratulations on getting married!

You've Seen the Art...Now Here's the Artist

The Minions of the Monster Master are proud once again to claim one of their own as the visual powerhouse behind Santa Cruz Warhammer's most ambitious project to date; the Heroes of Armageddon. Promising to be no less than FOUR times more epic than the amazingly successful Storm Wardens project last year, the Heroes of Armageddon project is pulling out all of the stops. And Bi3cuit has once again been handed the reins to put the visual touches on what promises to be another memorable charity event.


Here's Bi3cuit's banner from last year's project, but it doesn't stop there. If you want good ole 40k imagery (with a helping of humor) look no further than our current blog banner above! Just strolling through the "ART" label below you'll see probably 90% of the work belongs to him as well. It's always good to have a 'doodler' in the gaming group to turn to for sketches, but to have someone of this kind of talent, well that's even rarer than having a good GM!

Episode 28: Holiday Around the Horn

Episode 28: Three Hosts go Around the Horn for the Holidays
RSS Feed Located Here

Hosts: Duck Sauce, T-Bone, and Gyro

Duck Sauce and Gyro are joined intimately by T-Bone in this holiday special. These three stalwart gamers hang out and go around the horn for your listening pleasure. There's no actual play, just the three of them hanging out and shooting the breeze. It's an action-packed episode for not having any semblance of a plan, the topics are below, enjoy!

Show Notes:

• Happy Festivus
• Texting on Air
• When the Navy Walked
• 5150 UN40k Game
• Two Hour Wargames
  
• AE Bounty Overview
• AEB Crew Composition
• Ice Volcano on Titan
  
• D20 Sci-Fi Classic Game
• Fighter Pilot, Call Sign: Mallard
• Santa Clara County
• Gears of War 2
• Eye Impaling Palm Plants
• Assassin's Creed 2
• NetHack
• First Videogame Experiences
• Xenophobe Arcade
• Time Pilot '84
• Dark Forces
• Shining Force
• Star Wars 1983 Arcade Game
• Lego Star Wars
• Transport Tycoon Deluxe
• Large Flames of War Game
• Dominion
• Cabins and Drinking
• Motley Crüe

Episode 27: Fall-In! Convention Wrap-Up

Episode 27: Fall-In! Convention Wrap-Up
RSS Feed Located Here

Hosts: Duck Sauce and Gyro

Duck Sauce and Gyro. Gyro and Duck Sauce. These two stalwart Minions discuss, in depth, their experiences and the grandeur of this past Fall-In! gaming convention, all on the road trek back to the Minions lair. Within you'll find day-by-day discussion of the games they played, the games they loved, the food they ate, the stuff they saw, the people they hung out with, and so much more. So check out this episode, it's chock full of gaming goodness and the usual banter you've come to love. Having listened to it already I gotta say it's "not too shabby"!

Show Notes:

• What Would Patton Do?
• Giant Stompy Robots
• Fireball Forward
• Litko Aerosystems
• Duck Sauce's Anti-Hangover Techniques™
• Kryomek
  

The Chimp of Judgment...

...frowns upon the post-gaming shenanigans by Gyro and Duck Sauce.

Duck Sauce and Gyro Reporting In

Foiled by the auto-timer!


Fall-In! Continues on and our intrepid hosts buckle down for another evening of gaming, socializing, and imbibing. More detailed wrap-up to follow on the next episode.

Minions Road Trip...Fall-In!

Going to Fall-In! this year? So are we! Contact us through email or leave a comment here and we'll share a pint! Duck Sauce and myself, Gyro, will be there and we may just do some on-the-spot reporting from the front lines!

Episode 18: Gamestorm

Episode 18: Gamestorm
http://www.cowell.org/~andy/motmm/64k-podcast.rss

Hosts: Bagel

Show Notes:

• Gamestorm Con Report
• I See Lead People
• Worhmole
• The Adventurers
• Retreat from the Lost City
• The Great Space Race
• Dealer's Room Report
  

After some technical delays, we are proud to present a "very special episode" of MotMM! Our very first Meandering Minion, Eli from I See Lead People gives us the inside scoop on this gaming convention up yonder in Vancouver. Hopefully Eli, who will from now on be known as "Bagel", is just the first in what will be a long line of...well, whatever it is that you call the minions of minions. So enjoy the show, I know we did, and marvel in our cunning plan to inflate our episode count; just have other people do the show for us!

The Difference Between Bi3cuit and T-Bone...

...is that Bi3cuit makes this look good!

A Model's Eye View

Flounder makes his in-sight check, literally

This last game night I was able to pull off some candid shots of some of the hosts getting their LOS groove on. We were playing a Two Hour Wargame, and as you may or may not know, a large mechanic deals with reactionary shooting. This is all based on the in-sight test, and that requires line-of-sight, thanks to this we got a lot of squinting and checking. I was able to snap off many of these without anyone realizing what I was doing (obviously).


Duck Sauce lines up his [EDIT: MG-34!]


Bi3cuit gets uncomfortably close to help Pinto, ahem, line up his shot


Bi3cuit kicking out the product placement in the background


Pinto sidles into a terrain shot, I didn't see this 'til I downloaded the pics!


Checking out flanks and cross-fires


A female tommy gunner guards the font of golden elixir

The difference between T-Bone and lil' Gyro...

....I make this look good. OK, actually, this is a horrible shot of me, but the shirt looks sweet! The colors are vibrant and clean, and the shirt, while light, [is] very high quality.

Family Chemistry

A comment from Eli on our chemistry at the table sparked me to reflect on the history of the podcast hosts in gaming. Consider this:

Mystery Meat*, Chico Sticks** and Lil' Gyro have been gaming together for, I believe, 23 years.

I (T-bone), first gamed with Lil' Gyro and Mystery Meat on Superbowl Sunday, 2001, almost 20 years ago. Lil' Gyro blew up New Jersey and ended the campaign the very first night.***

Lil' Gyro, Duck Sauce and I played in a Bloodbowl League, starting around 1995, I think.****

Although we didn't start gaming with Americano until later, we have known him through a mutual friend since roughly 1990. (Bief!)

So Eli, our chemistry comes from 20 years of gaming together, hanging together, in many cases living together, drinking each other's beer, sleeping with each other's wives...wait, I've said too much...

______________________________________________________

Great post T-Bone, I'll throw in a few tweaks, just for posterity:

*Little Gyro has been rolling dice with Mystery Meat a shockingly long amount of time, going all the way back to fourth grade with Twilight 2000 and moving on to classic D&D, and classic Battletech (except back then we just called it "Battletech"). So that's 25 years of gaming together.

**Little Gyro met Chicko Stick during Gyro's junior year in high school, and began gaming instantly with Rogue Trader and AD&D. So there's another 20 year gaming relationship.

***That's just bad game mastering. Don't blame the player, blame the lazy GM!

****That Blood Bowl league actually started in 1994, but we had played Necromunda and Star Grunt II even prior to that with Duck Sauce, so there's another seventeen years right there.

Welcome the Newest Minion!

Just this morning one of our hosts multiplied! Congratulations to T-Bone and his family's newest eight and a half pound addition. Don't let the above pic fool you, their [real life] new baby came out cute and cuddly, all fingers and toes intact!

Throw Another Host on the Pile...

Welcome Aboard Biscuit!

Meet Your Hosts!

T-BONE!


GYRO!


DUCK SAUCE!


FLOUNDER!