Ogre Kickstarter - Canadian shipping listed!

With just under two weeks left, they have locked down the pricing for the shipping up to Canada.  Shipped to the States would be $100, shipped up to Canada would be $152.  It seems a bit high – but they softened it a bit by including the PDFs from the $30 level.  Plus with gas, it would almost cost that to make the trip down to the States to pick it up.

It’s going to be a big hit in duties.  Thankfully not as big as it could have been had it been a UPS solution but it will still be up there.  That will be future-David’s issue though.

Now I just have to get a prepaid card to make the payment.  That’s going to take a bit of work convincing the wife to allow me to temporarily use some of the set-aside money now and replace it over the next month or so.

Two Two-Faced coins acquired

I popped in to Giant Tiger again on the way home Monday and was able to pick up another Harvey Dent and two Two-Faces.   

These are from The Dark Knight movie.  Even though they both list accessories as scarred coin only the one with Two-Face is actually scarred.  The coin with Harvey Dent is a double-sided coin.

So now I have a pair of double-sided coins and a pair of scarred Two-Face coins.  I might repaint them as they look like plastic, but they have a great weight and both flip well.

Two-Faced coin

While out and about on the weekend, I picked up a Harvey Dent figure at Giant Tiger. They were blowing them out for $3. It had the Two-Face coin so I figured for that price I could live with a nice plastic one.

When I got it home and opened it I noticed two things:
First, that it was actually metal instead of plastic.
Secondly, the coin that came with the Harvey Dent figure was double-sided but not scarred.

So I need to pop back in on the way home and pick up at least another one and probably another pair on top of that.

The Hunger Games

We saw The Hunger Games. Shan had read the book but I haven’t yet. It was easy enough to pick up the plot and follow along. Jennifer Lawrence carries off the role of Katniss very well. She seems believable and likable enough. She seems to handle the bow believably.

Woody Harrelson pulls off the role of Hamish very well. He looks younger than he has recently and easily comes across as a bitter drunken survivor who gets sucked into believing in Katniss.

The Games itself are well handled. The CG is a bit odd in the environment – how do the creatures get created in a way that they can spring from the ground and still be able to interact? Aside from that, not much else seems odd or jarring. It really makes me think that they could easily do a Dream Park movie or series finally.

We didn’t take the kids with us. A lot of the violence was handled just off-camera but there were still a few scenes that might cause some of the younger ones some alarm.

We liked it. We look forward to the sequel and it will probably make me read the books. The arena costumes are simple enough for costuming and are even available online. It has also sparked a renewed interest in kids taking archery – which is always a good thing.

OGRE - Designer Edition - snubbed from Steve

Back in 1977 a young designer named Steve Jackson released a ‘minigame’ called OGRE through a company called Metagaming. It came in a zip-lock bag and dealt with a massive nuclear-powered tank attacking an army of tanks and soldiers. One side had infantry, tanks, GEVs, howitzers and the other side had one counter – the OGRE. It cost a mere $2.95.
Based on the strength of this game he created Steve Jackson Games and published many other games – including Car Wars, Illuminati, GURPS, and lately, Munchkin.
I got into OGRE with the 1982 SJG edition. I always liked it and have picked up many versions – including the computer game for my Apple IIc – which allowed you to play against the computer controlled Ogre.



Last year word came around about Steve wanted to do an Euro-style version of the game with bigger counters in a solid box for $100. I was definitely in for a version and signed up for info. Yesterday I got early word about a Kickstarter program where they were raising money to gauge interest in the new Designer Edition which would be released in November. They only sent this out to those who had signed up for Ogre info.
When I checked yesterday, they easily had reached their goal of $20,000. Today, they sent out the information to the masses in their Daily Illuminator email. When I checked this morning they were now at over $70,000. As I post this, they have currently reached over $95,000.

I would be in for this in a big way, but due to shipping and Kickstarter, they are only shipping these ones ordered through Kickstarter to addresses in the US. Unless I want to pledge almost $3000, in which case they will ship three copies anywhere in addition to some cool goodies. Sadly, unless I hit the lotto before May 11 I will not be able to get one.

I might still get in for some extra dice or pins just to show my support for the project, but this feels like a bit of a kick in the chest Steve for those of us across the border. I'm going to have to see if I can get it from one of the local games stores (because I still want one) but would have been all over this if I could have.

Darths & Droids - a New Hope

Those of you who have been following along with the Darths and Droids comic strip already know that they have moved on to the First film - A New Hope.

For those of you who haven’t been following, it is a good time to jump in.