How Tall Do You Need to be to Ride Dragons?

How tall do you need to be to ride the dragons of Skyrim?

Now that my daughters, my nephew, and all of their friends are hitting the big age 10 mark, I’m getting a lot of questions about video games. “My son really wants Halo for Christmas, but it’s rated M is it too gory for him?”

These are genuinely concerned parents who are not gamers and sadly don’t know their Skyrim from their Gears of War.  They’re not necessarily opposed to their kid playing a game with a weapon,  they just don’t know why I’d let my kids play Halo at age 10 but perhaps not Gears of War or Mass Effect despite the fact that all three games are rated “M for mature”.

Armed with the knowledge that all parents are different, all kids are different, and that parents know what their kids can and can’t handle, I struggled with a way to explain it to them.  Then it hit me... MOVIES!  

A 20 minute video on how to paint a model in 10 minutes

Folks were asking me for a video of how I 'quickly' paint up a model for Dust.  So here's my experimental first video...please be gentle!

A Euro and Ameritrash Game Walk into a Dungeon

Lords of Waterdeep Box Cover

There are few hobby board games that you can buy, pop open, punch out the bits, read the rules, and play a 5 player game with all new players in under 2 hours. Even more impressive if all the new players are focusing on strategy from turn one because the rules and graphic design are so clean.

Of these games, even fewer have BEAUTIFUL components, wooden bits, linen boards & cards, and fantastic artwork. Fewer still have a near perfectly organized rule book with slick quick reference on the back. And EVEN less games actually have a box insert that holds all the bits for transport, but also keeps them organized and convenient for play.

If you'd asked me to make a list of games that had all of the above in them, my list would be very, VERY short. In fact the only game I own in this category is Small World by Days of Wonder.

Now I have a second: Lords of Waterdeep.