Search Results for: Games Plus auction

A Sure Cure for that Listless Feeling

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As we segue (stagger, stumble, reel, crawl, stop-drop-and roll) from winter into spring, we are faced as always with the never-ending question: “What in the world am I going to read next?” Everyone will solve this dilemma in their own way. Dart and ouija boards, animal entrails, tarot cards, various dice systems, and the blind recommendations of pimply, pasty complexioned clerks in chain bookstores have all been resorted to by readers desperate for guidance. For many people (Black Gate followers no…

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GenCon Update: Day 1, Part 2 – Gaming Sequels and Expansions

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The Best Four Days of Gaming have passed. I began my 2016 GenCon coverage with an earlier discussion of a handful of new and upcoming games. There will be more of those to come, as there was no shortage of new games worthy of attention, but a lot of great games at GenCon this year weren’t entirely new, they were either expansions to existing games, or sequels or variants. Not all of these games are quite available to the public yet….

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A Weekend With the Greatest Talents in Science Fiction: Report on the 2016 Nebula Awards

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Carlos Hernandez, CSE Cooney, Alyx Dellamonica, and Kelly Robson at the 2016 Nebula Awards banquet I spent last weekend at the 2016 SFWA Nebula Conference in downtown Chicago. The Conference is the big annual gala for the Science Fiction Writers of America, and it culminated in the Nebula Awards ceremony Saturday night. It was a very special weekend for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the nomination for one of our own — C.S.E. Cooney, Black Gate‘s Website…

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Cast Your Spell on a Medieval Town in The Village Crone

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I’m something of a collector (this may not come as a surprise). I collect vintage paperbacks, pulps, science fiction digests, comics, and lots of other paper ephemera. But chiefly what I collect is games. Goodness, I have a lot of games. I hoard them in the basement. I drive to games auctions (like the marvelous Games Plus auction in Mount Prospect, IL), I track down obscure Amiga games on eBay, and I compulsively hunt every solitaire role playing game ever made. I’m…

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Catching Up With Numenera

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I got to know Monte Cook back when Black Gate was still publishing fiction. He’s a talented writer, and he sent me a short story I would have loved to have published. Alas, the magazine was already dying at that point, and we weren’t able to do business. But I’ve kept an eye on his publishing ventures and, like everyone else, was astounded when his Numenera Kickstarter raised an almost unprecedented $517,255 in September 2012. He used the money to launch…

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Keep Your Blaster Close: The Many Horrors of Outbreak: Deep Space

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Being at the Games Plus Fall Auction can be an exhilarating experience. Take my discovery of Outbreak: Deep Space, just as an example. There I am, sitting in the second row of the auction on October 4th, ninety minutes into the auction, wondering if I’ve blown my budget already. I’ve just made the decision to add up my purchases when the auctioneer holds up a brand new copy of Outbreak: Deep Space and starts the bidding at $5. What the heck…

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Taking Five Worlds Before Breakfast: The Pleasures of EVE Conquests

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I have a real weakness for board games, and especially large-scale space strategy games. It’s one thing to punch that Pop-O-Matic bubble and move your little green marker around a Trouble board; it’s something else entirely to stealthily assemble an unstoppable fleet and launch them en masse towards the unsuspecting alien armada in orbit around Sirius. Ah, I get a thrill just thinking about it. Sometimes a great space game will sneak up on me. It’s not my fault — I can barely…

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The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in March

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You Black Gate peeps sure are a reliable bunch. You love vintage fantasy paperbacks, 80s horror movies, and gaming news, and with a noble passion. But you know what you really crave? Tales of People Behaving Badly, that’s what. Figures. And thus we find that the #1 article on the Black Gate blog last month was our report on John Campbell’s ugly KickStarter implosion, a sad tale of comics, hubris, and book-burning. (It was my favorite, too. I’m not throwing…

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Reenact Clash of the Titans on Your Kitchen Table With Mythic Battles

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When you’re a collector, your enemy is the impulse purchase. Unless you’re independently wealthy — or you collect caterpillars or something — you need to budget carefully, and make every purchases count. Your goals are ambitious, and one or two impulse buys can leave a carefully thought-out acquisition plan in ruins. All this goes out the window at an auction. Auctions are all about the impulse buy. A tantalizing treasure is on the auction block for a scant 15 seconds…

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Rally Your Armies, Dominate Your Foes, and Give a Boatload of Commands in Warmachine: High Command

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All right, so five minutes ago I won a copy of Hordes: High Command at the Games Plus Spring Auction and I’m feeling pretty good. Sure, who wouldn’t? Looks like a sweet game and it’s mine, all mine, thanks to my killer auction skills. That’s right. And then, before I can even enjoy my victory, the auctioneer calls out the next item up for bid: a brand new, still-in-the-shrinkwrap copy of Warmachine: High Command, starting at the low, low opening bid…

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