Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

While I couldn't manage to find it in a theatre near me, I finally got to see The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim and I loved it. This article contains minor spoilers about the lore of Middle Earth, which includes some well-known events that the movie also covers. If you want to see the mov...

Despite using miniatures in roleplaying games for years, it wasn't until I started playing wargames that I learned about miniature bases. And boy was I not prepared. A miniature base is the little plastic disc (or square or hexagon) that wargamers glue to the bottom of their models. To my great surp...

Since I was a child, I've been a fan of old cinema. Movies made before synchronised sound fascinate me both artistically and historically. I love that we can literally see, with our own eyes, what the world was like (or what filmmakers thought the world was like, in the case of fiction) 100 years ag...

I'm playing through all the Mansions of Madness scenarios I own, and reviewing each one as I go. Escape from Innsmouth is the second adventure listed in the app, and it's rated four-stars for difficulty. If you've ever read Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth and thought "that sounds terrifying,...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I live-action 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 11: On the doorstep.

This review contains spoil...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I live-action 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 10: A warm welcome.

This review contains spoile...

I recently saw the movie Abigail (2024), and these are my notes about it. This isn't a review, it's really just so I remember what the movie was about 3 months from now. This post does contain spoilers. Cutting to the chase: Abigail is an OK horror movie that starts strong and then levels out an...

Since getting a Steam Deck, I've actually been playing games in my Steam library. Recently I played and finished Journey, and these are my reflections on the game.

I have a little bit of history with Journey, in a roundabout way. When I had a Playstation 3 back in the 20-teens, a game got re...

Popular wargames like Warhammer and Frostgrave and Deadzone have specially designed miniatures for them. This allows rulebooks to refer to a specific and exact miniature, alleviating any confusion about what size that model is meant to be, what uniform it's meant to be wearing, what weapons it...

Battle at the Farm is the first Warhammer 40,000 scenario ever published, way back in 1987 as a sample adventure in Rogue Trader. Back then, it was assumed that you'd have a Games Master (GM) running the game, and the game system was basically just Warhammer Fantasy dressed in space suits. To...

If you'd told me years ago that LEGO sets and wargaming modelling were in many ways the same hobby, I wouldn't have believed you. But a few years ago, a weird thing happened and I stumbled into wargaming, and I started building models and painting and playing the game, and yes, they're basically the...

I've been playing a lot of Shadowrun (5th edition) and Imperium Maledictum and Call of Cthulhu lately, because some folks I play with seem to enjoy investigative adventures. I was discussing this with my partner (who herself is one of the players who generally prefers investigation and to comb...

I'm reading The Hobbit again, as I live-action 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 9: Barrels out of bond.

This review contains sp...

I recently saw the movie Barbarian (2022), 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. Cutting to the chase: It's an OK horror movie that starts stronger than any horror movie ma...

The second scenario in order of difficulty rating is Rising Tide, one of the adventures included in the main game. My short spoiler-free review is that Rising Tide is one of my favourite scenarios, full of investigation, mystery, and spooky atmosphere. For the rest of this review, there are mino...

Since getting a Steam Deck, I've actually been playing games in my Steam library. Recently I played and finished Hitman Go, and these are my reflections on the game.

The Go series of games by Square Enix are puzzle games set in popular video game universes. Hitman Go is set in the Hitman...