Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

I'm watching the Kill Lupercal animated series on Warhammer+, and this is my review of it.

This review contains major spoilers.

Given that we all know that Horus is definitely not killed before reaching the Emperor, much less by a bunch of wandering titans, the title of the series is as enti...

Planning ahead for future adventures, I found myself in need of some dwarf miniatures. Citadel miniatures may well have top tier models, but they're very specific to Games Workshop games (I do wonder sometimes why they don't expand their line to include common mythical creatures). For that reason, m...

In 2023, Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30-ish year anniversary. I bought a copy and I've read it all the way through, and I've been reviewing it chapter by chapter. This post covers the final "chapter" called Summa...

Buried within the mostly forgotten Magnamund Companion gaming supplement, there's a quirky little roleplaying game called Ragadorn Ale-House Brawl. Since acquiring a copy of the Magnamund Companion, I've been crafting a tavern-in-a-box and painting miniatures so I could play the game both solo...

Like many geeks, I'm a fan of a well-designed system. When I look at something and see harmony and cohesion and logical dependencies, I consider it a thing of beauty. I also enjoy a system that's robust, and built to last. It's why "my" edition of D&D will likely always be 3rd edition (in the form o...

I helped fund a Kickstarter for dice with unusual number ranges. I ended up with several sets that include a d22, d19, d18, d17, d15, d13, d11, and d9, plus a hexadecimal dice (1 to F), a d3 in Roman numerals, and a d26 alphabet dice. My intent was to spring them on my players when their character h...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 15: The gathering of the clouds and Chapter 16: A thief in t...

Recently, Mantic Games released the PDF version of the Epic Warpath rulebook to Kickstarters. I appreciate this, because it means that while I wait for my game assets to arrive, I can start learning the game. As a player of Firefight, I predicted the rules would be at least a little familiar, bu...

In 2023, Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30-ish year anniversary. I'm a sucker for nostalgia for things I missed out on, so I bought a copy and now I'm reviewing it as I read. This post covers Chapter 4: The Advanced...

I recently saw the movie Ready or Not (2019), and these are my notes about it. This isn't a review, it's honestly just so I remember what the movie was about 3 months from now. This post does contain spoilers.

A young couple go to the groom's family home for their wedding ceremony. There, the br...

As obvious as it may seem, when I play a tabletop game with a roleplaying element to it, I never lose sight of where I am. I'm always aware that I'm sat at a table, manipulating game tokens or character sheets, flipping through pages of rules, rolling dice, and so on. After the game is over, and I'm...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I roleplay as a Tolkien scholar in an attempt to understand Middle Earth, its lore, and its effect on modern gaming. I'm reviewing each chapter of the book as I read, and this is my review of Chapter 14: Fire and water.

This review contains spoilers.

What h

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Back when I bought my first box of Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, I naïvely expected to open the box, follow the assembly instructions, and end up with a valid battle unit. What I found instead was that every soldier in the box could be assembled with any one of several weapons, heads (helmet and no...

Combat Heroes was a fun experiment in game design by Joe Dever and released in 1986. Each book was a pick-your-path story told mostly through illustrations. Each Combat Heroes book showed you a fantasy world, which you explored through a navigational system that guided you to a corresponding page...

Games Workshop re-released the first edition (titled Rogue Trader) of Warhammer 40,000 to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary, and I'm reviewing it chapter by chapter. This post covers the second half of Chapter 3: Age of the Imperium.

So far, Age of the Imperium has provided a little lo...

There aren't any simple armies in the Warhammer 40,000 game. Even if you field 4 units of the same one-trick soldiers, there are army rules and enhancements and detachments and stratagems to consider. Simply put, Warhammer 40,000 is a game designed to provide options to the player and force diff...