Der PigDog's PigBlog

195 pieces. Took me maybe 15 minutes to build? I haven't played with Legos in 15 years or more. By the end of it, my fingertips were sore, a familiar Lego feeling. I had some compunctions about buying this, because I don't want to support Harry Potter or Joanne in any way. I asked the Lego store people for the biggest spider they had, and this was it. I'm not sold on my decision either way; I knew I would regret it, if I bought it or if I didn't. But this way I also get the fun of the thing. My partner has been in India for the last month, so I plan to surprise her by hiding the spider in a corner. Hopefully she's see it and freak out. On to the set. Lego has become much slicker in the past 15 years. For instance, now they have the pieces divided in separate numbered bags, and they tell you which one to open when. This is a great improvement from an organizational standpoint. In my youth I would just dump all the pieces on the floor and hunt around until I found the

These are the player-facing rules for a game about exploring a spooky haunted house. One player is the House. Everybody else is on a team trying to investigate the house. The House will tell you its exoteric history. As a group, figure out why you guys are exploring the house and plumbing its mysteries. Then, individually: Choose if you are hot or cold in your dealings with other people Choose if you are open or closed to psychic phenomena Say your role in the group Come up with a dark secret for yourself, and tell the House Come up with a secret you know about somebody else. Tell them and the House Figure out what you personally want out of your dealings with the House Then you'll work with the team to figure out your method of approach. Depending on how much you know about the place, you might get a blueprint from the House. (It might not be fully accurate!) You have a couple of "moves" you can do whenever. Roll 2d6. If you have a stat matching the move, add +2 to your

I've played a lot of games over the last 15 years, but I haven't had many individual decisions that stuck with me, as in, decisions that I agonized over, even briefly. In Arkenwood. I played Jimmy Buzzard, a wannabe bandit magically teleported in from 1800s Appalachia, the youngest of the Buzzard Boys (a real gang). All he wanted to was to fit in and gain respect. As Jimmy, I had the idea for an adventurer's guild, to help newer characters get kitted out. Then I missed a few sessions and the guild moved on without him. Most of the players were focused on building a covert resistance to this politician, the details aren't important. I had Jimmy betray the guild to the politician. Unfortunately, the game ended literally right after that, so we never got to play it out. In Alfheimr. My character Sibyl was (in my eyes) this ultimate badass. She had overcome death, unlocked two new specialist classes, and led an expedition to recover the eye of a god. She found the eye, ripp