Piddingworth

BEING, YET AGAIN, AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE SENSE OF THIS WORLD WIDE WEB THING.

Or.. "DAMMIT, MAN, WE NEED A SYSTEM!!"

The META-site of Walt's WWW contributions over the years.

NEW!  PAGE 2 and SITE ARCHIVES (click on the appropriate icon)

Note Bene: A link with a Yellow T (T) is to a Tripod site.  A link with a Lime Green 5 (5) is to a 50megs site.  Both providers utilize popup or banner advertising.  Fair warning.

:: Welcome:

This is Walt O'Hara's latest homepage, thanks to the good people at Bravenet.  To tell you the truth, it's one of many.  Someday, I'll create the definitive roadmap of ALL the junk I've larded the web with.  In the meantime, this'll have to do.   Now, I warn ya in advance, I'm linking a lot of old Tripod/50megs stuff to this page, so expect SOME popups.   I can't afford to move those files to Bravenet (too much stuff!), so I will retain most of the big stuff on old sites and link to them.  If you don't like popups, invest in (free) popup stoppers, they work!  This is me, after playing around with an image filter.   MORE DETAIL HERE

"WHAT A CARE PACKAGE!!" written by: Walter on 12.08.04

Happy ChrisKwanzakah Courtesy of some contacts with a certain magazine, I got one fine CARE package last night.   AGE OF NAPOLEON, by CSW's Renaud Verlauqe.  Hugely impressive.  My first Phalanx Game.  When I think of the grand strategy games of the Napoleonic Era (Empires in Arms, La Grande Armee, even La Guerre de l'Empereur), "simple" doesnt' come to mind.  I have great hopes for this one. BORGIA, aka THE PRINCE.  Beautiful cards and components.  Rules seem pretty straightforward at first glance.  Far "lighter", given the subject matter, than I expected.  I wish there were more cards.  GETTYSBURG, BADGES OF COURAGE, by Columbia Games.  Blocks do tactical battles, too.  I kibbitzed this one at HISTORICON, and was generally pleased with it, though I though the Fog of War that blocks do so well at operational levels might be overplayed at this level.  LIBERTY by Columbia Games.  Perhaps a more fitting application of the block concept, a blockhead view of the American Revolution.  Reminded me of their 1812 game, only a tad more complex. ATTACK! and ATTACK! EXPANSION.  I guess these didn't sell well, because I'm starting to see them in budget bins.  This looks pretty much like a WW2 version of RISK or perhaps a less intelligent AXIS AND ALLIES.  No matter, though... lovely components and it's something that I think Little G. might enjoy down the road. THE SEARCH FOR POSEIDON'S GOLD, by the "Wilcot Group".  I'm awestruck.   This is a self-published work with fairly exceptional production values.  For all of that, I can't imagine playing it even once.  Whatever the designer's intent was, the little submarine treasure hunt game on buildable, ever changing hex pieces doesn't float my boat (if you'll pardon the intentional pun).  The designer must have taken a horrendous loss on every item sold.

"Deathmaze" written by: Walter on 12.08.04

One of my favorite subgenres of gaming is the old lowcast microgames put out by METAGAMING, TASK FORCE GAMES, DWARSTAR (see article below), OSG and even SPI.  SPI put out a series of keen-o "pocket micros" which were there old Quad series done as cheap single games.  I especially liked their standalone efforts such as GONDOR, SAURON and DEATHMAZE, the little tile laying maze and monster game that was ahead of its time.  No map, not pencils and rules, just build a dungeon with counters..  Recently I had opportunity to ressurect DEATHMAZE and have discovered it as a PDF.  Here you go. DEATHMAZE (zipped PDF file)

"LITTLE G is a Cub Scout" written by: Walter on 10.29.04

Crafts... Learning socialization... More Crafts.. Holy smokes. Garrett attends his first Tiger Scout Pack meeting.  This was pretty hysterical.

"NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH" written by: Walter on 10.29.04

Dang, haven't posted on here in a month of Sundays.  I'll remedy that right now.  Do you have a burning desire to write a work of fiction??  Fancy yourself the next J.K. Rowling or Steven King?  Then check out NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH and submit your magnum opus in hopes of winning everlasting fame and big big prizes.

"Sighted: One SpyBlimp" written by: Walter on 09.30.04

Homeland Defense currently has their own blimp in the air, circling the Pentagon endlessly.  This is going on RIGHT NOW outside my office window.  Fortunately, I had my camera handy!

"Another year older" written by: Walter on 09.23.04

I beat the Reaper for yet another year.  Happy Birthday to me!

"ESSEN 2004" .. written by: Walter on 09-15-04

One of the few times I wish I were European.. Essen Spiel Despite the occassional embarassment our national political scene and present foreign policy creates, I like living over on this side of the pond just fine, until October rolls around.  Why?  Because of the ESSEN SPIELE festival, that's why!!  I can't afford to go to this thing-- not for a game convention.  Still, it's the WOODSTOCK of German/Euro and lately even American board games.  Some year, some year.... hey, maybe they have a scholarship to send poor kids to Essen, huh?  What a great idea.  Look at those crowds.  We don't have anything like this over here in the USA... DRAT! CLICK HERE

"Flight Stands, Labor Day, HMGS, and GAMECON 20" written by: Walter on 09. 08.04

We had a fun Labor Day Picnic, but boy, was it no picnic... :-D  Drey, Anne and I worked the Saint Mary's Rummage Sale (her on Sunday with me, me also on Thursday and Wedensday).  I like working this sale because there ALWAYS somebody with good taste in boardgames selling something cool and this time was no exception... I found Milton Bradley's long out of print FORTRESS AMERICA (1986) for next to nothing.  Woo-hoo! See the link for more on this.  On Labor Day itself I volunteered to cook chicken with the Knights and the Men's Club.  Unlike last year, this was rather pleasant!  I actually didn't almost pass out from dehydration.  See below for a current project of mine, called SKY SMASHERS.  It will be a single-man air combat game for flying units in a VSF universe.  The flight stands have been... errr.. problematic.

"School Daze" written by: Walter on 09.08.04

Little G and Annie... first day of school.  Annie: Bright and bubbly and very nervous.  G: fierce frowns his face.  I hoep everything works out. Kudos to AUDREY for getting hired by the local public school system.  Hoorary!  Good luck with high schoolers.

"PIRATES... my little captains" written by: Walter on 08.16.04

We broke out the Pirates of the Spanish Main game from Whizkids last Saturday night.  We set up a fairly easy to understand scenario (see first page map).  One island with six pieces of loot in the center, each of us with three on our islands.   it started out incoherent as usual (what can you expect when your audience is ten and six?), but the kids both got into the game mechanics very quickly.  Sorry about that glaring orange popup, but I'm storing these things on my 50megs site these days.  Fortunately it goes away reasonably promptly.

"Pirates of the Spanish Main Arrives" written by: Walter on 08.13.04

Pirates of the Spanish Main from Whizkids showed up last night.  Garrett (who is going through a pirate phase) is going to love it.  I'm sold on this one, I think it's fantastic.  Whizkids is sold out until September, so I'm glad I got what I did (See below) BRITISH SHIPS Oxley Wycliffe Bolingbroke SPANISH SHIPS Joya Del Sol Asesino de la Nave PIRATE SHIPS Greyhound Muerta La Corona Victory

"Back from HISTORICON" written by: Walter on 07.25.04

Dunno what it was about HISTORICON, but I found myself stumbling about in a depressed, fatigued fug for a couple of days. Definitely things improved after I started running games. I had to "find my zone" I guess. In terms of convention management, the front desk area did the usual sterling job. Events, however, were hit and miss. The "NOVAG area" was suboptimal at best. I had my table given away on a whim, for starters-- which delayed my setup and start of LE GRAND CIRQUE DU YUCATAN by half an hour or more. I was frosty- furious, and the altercation I had with the gentleman who took my space did little to improve my temper. I calmed down later, and ran what I have to characterize as one of the better Grand Cirque games. It won a "battle streamer" award, which was surprising. I know what I like, and HMGS isn't exactly supportive of what is called "alt- gaming" (choke, gag.. hate that term) Things went better the next night for SERGEANT SLAUGHTER IN BUN-BUN LAND-- which would win no accolades beyond the occassional "tsk tsk tsk", "what sick bastard came up with this idea?" and "That's just WRONG!!!" Surprisingly, some of the players caught on to the basic idea reasonably quickly and had a very good time despite their enforced moral lesson. I signed up to help Howard W. with his Pulp Adventures game -- I ran one scene in a corner and 'assistant directed'. I definitely was feeling "the juice" at that point.. Good GMing is like street theater.. you'd better be good AND you'd better be quick-witted or you'll be touring palookaville real quick. For the nonce, I was in the groove sufficient for my players to have a good time. I really enjoyed running that. I had also signed up to help out with the giant Dewey LaRochelle/John Camarano Arnhem thing, but had a screwed up schedule due to my brother in law never showing up to shoulder some of the burden of staff work. Me: "Dude, you're supposed to be here already! " Him: "I'm in Fort Lee, doing reserve duty.. you didn't know that?" Sigh. Sorry, fellas. Looks like it went alright despite all that. Got a chance to meet Mr. Chick Lewis at last, a regular on ColonialWars and other lists. He ran in the Le Grand Cirque game, and was very pleasant. Also got a chance to talk horror movies with Bob Murch and a few others, just for kicks. Got over to the Distle-stink sometime later, hoping to get into an 8PM game. I was at the point of exhaustion then, but wanted to eat and then play. Various HMGS types conspired to take up my attention and focus by discussing the latest scandals until I was ready to drop. Missed the game, ate real late, went right to sleep. The fezzes and flyer standups that Otto made for us were superb attention getters. Del even started an (otherwise regrettable) Membership meeting wearing our fez, borrowed from Dave Luff and myself. Did not buy much. some Gnomes from Peter Pig, Prussian lancers from Castaway, Zeppelin Truppen and Shadowy Avengers from Pulp figures. A few other dits and dots. Recaps! LE GRAND CIRQUE DU YUCATAN SERGEANT SLAUGHTER IN BUN-BUN LAND NAZI ZOMBIES MUST DIE!

"Ooohing and Aaahing not required" written by: Walter on 07.07.04

Garrett turns six!  News at eleven ooooh... ahhhhh... Yes, he's pretty danged cute.

"Witch Trial" .. written by: Walter on 07-01-04

The Sutcliffe Twins are Charged with Smuggling!  They always prayed too much... I'm playing in the WYNDHAM game of Witch Trial on Psychopath server in the U.K.  I'm keeping track of it all on a local page on this server. CLICK HERE

"Bowling for Truth" written by: Walter on 06.29.04

Admittedly, I am no great fan of Michael Moore, but then again I'm not hugely hostile to him, either.  I had heard rumors about the intentional distortions in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, but had not seen them collected in one handy location prior to finding this website.  It's worth a visit-- and very much the eye opener.  If Fahrenheidt 9/11 is as staged and spun up as Bowling for Columbine allegedly is, it'll be a cold day in hell before he gets a nickel from me.  In any event, BOWLING FOR TRUTH is a refreshing alternative to the lineup to kiss this guy's ass.

"WikidPad and things Wiki" written by: Walter on 06.28.04

You can't say I'm an early adopter, can you?  I've stumbled on a build-on-the-fly Wikki editor called WikidPad that I wholeheartedly endorse; Wikis, in case you have been under a rock lately, are the new rage in using hyperlinking text to grow a more coherent, intelligent document.  The Wikipedia is an example of just how far the concept can grow, but there are some amazing, more focused examples of wikis out there-- check out JHorman's Wiki Links .  In any event, for 12 bucks, this JHorman feller has placed a very powerful and useful tool in my hands.  Check it out by clicking on the graphic.

"PROOF POSITIVE" written by: Walter on 06.21.04

...that I'm warping my happless children's brains?  Well, you can decide for yourself.  Here's a snippet of Annie on the little excursionary toy train we ride on in the park.  VIDEO

"We need YOU!" .. written by: Walter on 06-16-04

CHARIOTEER(s) Needed I've signed up to play in one of my favorite racing games, CIRCUS MAXIMUS (Avalon Hill), being run online by Mike Dean at PSYCHOPATH.  Problem is, we're short that critical last charioteer needed to get the game going.  If you like blood, sand, and sudden mayhem, this is the game for you.  Drop on by Psychopath and sign up! CLICK HERE (locate the WAITING LIST link on this page)

"Card Games for one and all!" .. written by: Walter on 06-15-04

CARD GAMES UPDATED I've updated the Card Game Review Page (Tripod side), adding more thumbnail  reviews for Balloon Cup, Witch Trial, Chrononauts, NanoFictionary, Citadels and Draco and Co. CLICK HERE T

:: Barbarian Prince PBeM replay: written by Walter on April 12, 2004

UPDATE So Long, Prince, it was nice to know ya Barbarian Prince Gamebox Days 1-6 Days 7-11 Days 12-20 Days 21-37 Day 38 Days 39-43 Days 44-54 Current Locale If you follow the log on here, you know that DWARSTAR microgames are now being offered for free download (most of 'em anyway).  I downloaded Barbarian Prince, a game I own in paper format, to play a scenario with in electronic format.  So I created a GAMEBOX in Cyberboard and have uploaded it to the Emporium.  The Gamebox, combined with the documents being available in PDF format, have enabled me to play the game without writing ANYTHING DOWN or rolling a single die.  I rather like that... it's quite elegant.  So... for your enjoyment, I share the first few weeks of the Barbarian Prince's journey to recover his kingdom, in log format.

"Some Updates" written by: Walter on 05.05.04

Some little changes... more links here and there.  I added a chess game (see the rook graphic in the menu above).  Added a couple more reviews in my Reading BLOG (see BOOKS above).  I'm playing in a few PBeM games which can be followed on these sites: Cycloops (TransAmerica), e-boardgames (Battle Cars, WS&IM), and Psycopath (Circus Maximus).See the links to these sites in "Repeat Viewing" top right.  Work progresses on the CIRCUS GAME, and on the Le Grand Cirque Boardgame.