ScareFest preview 2016

Scarefest 2015 – no filter

Fall is here! That means that AVLscarefest is only about a month away. Last year was a really fantastic time, and the organizers are going out of their way to apply feedback and make this year truly fantastic! From October 21-23 add set in the picturesque mountains of Montreat, NC, the old stone buildings of the campus and convention center set the mood for some spooky games of all types. Beyond the truly staggering amount of Pathfinder Society games, you’ll find thematically appropriate games of Call of Cthulhu, Dread, Ghostbusters, D&D adventurer’s league,  Dungeon Crawl Classics, Lankhmar, Cryptworld, Savage Kingdoms, Bolt Action, and many more! Get your ticket and sign up for games at the warhorn.

Last year I had an absolute blast trying games I had never tried before like Deadlands Noir, Bolt Action, and Shadowrun. I also ran a pretty creepy table of Star Wars which became the impetus to get the Star Wars bounty hunter game going. This year I’ll be running Masks of Lankhmar and two sessions of Star Wars bounty hunters. Mike will be running the Shambling Un-dead and the Arwich Grinder!

New this year is a token system, in which players and GMs are all provided tokens that can be used to reward awesome role-playing, helping out around the con, and can be used at the end of the con to win some awesome prizes from local vendors. This encourages both excellent games and excellent community spirit. I can’t wait to see the results!

Don’t miss out on this fantastic con in the mountains. Try a game you have never played, or bring your favorite game to run. I’ll see you there!

Wiz Dice – Series II Alchemic Oddities review

My wife approached my desk holding the mail, shaking the noisy manila bubble-wrap mailer incredulously. “What is this?”

As a man who may or may not own too many dice, I replied, “I think you know.”

It was a bag of 105 dice in the amazing vibrant and uncommon colors that make up the “Alchemic Oddities” series of dice that I’ve had my eye on ever since Wiz Dice had a naming contest for the new colors. I’ve purchased a few bulk dice collections in the past like the Chessex Pound o Dice, and the first Wiz Dice collection of 100+ “random” dice. The Chessex dice had some really interesting dice, but were mostly just factory mistakes, some of which were d6s that were missing numbers and there was only one complete set of the same color. Not bad if you want a ton of random dice, but not great if you are looking for sets. I had seen other people’s accounts of ordering from Wiz Dice and receiving tons of complete sets with only a few odd dice out. I was pleased to have a similar experience in that first set and now own just about every typical color of opaque dice, as well as some interesting marble-like and translucent colors.

This most recent set has very unique colors with  fan-suggested names like Dwarven Brandy, Faerie Fire, Boiled Bile, and Abyssal Mist. With this second set, I received 105 dice or 15 complete 7-dice sets for $26.34 shipped. That comes out to about $1.75 a set, and they are some of the coolest sparkly, marbled, vibrant colors I have ever seen. If you want specific colors, you can order individual sets at $7+shipping, or just let them pick for you and “roll the dice.” There is something for everyone in this set from oranges, neon yellow, pink, black sparkly, translucent grey, and a gorgeous marbled dark green they call Basilisk Blood.

If you want a lot of unique awesome dice and you aren’t picky about colors, this is an awesome value. Highly recommended for people like me who can never have enough dice.