Doomtrooper : Mutant Chronicles The CCG

Doomtrooper! So after the summer of 1994 when I got the Mutant Chronicles game I still looked at it but moved on the Magic The Gathering. Just after Christmas there was a new magazine at the local book store about M:TG called SCRYE (Issue #4 to be exact) and inside was incredible, it had pictures of Mutant Chronicles, there was a new game based on it, it was just released but I had not seen it anywhere in my small local area. The pictures were amazing, new Imperial people, Sunset Strikers, cool! but more then this flyer on the back page was a 5 page spread with all the rules and a full list of cards.

With cool stats so you compare your favorites characters and some big revelations. What there is a new faction the Brotherhood! It has some cool Magic with different styles called The Art. There's even a Cardinal! Imperial caused all of this with a plant Nero they went to, say it ain't so. And the rules felt they matched, actions, promotion points, different citadels, I know Algeroth who are these other names, 4 new apostles. I need a starter and some Necropaks (booster packs)! I don't think it was until 6 months later a few starters came to our local store, Wilkies, which was a regional chain of maybe 5-6 stores that's pretty well defunct. So they would split up starter deck and booster boxes and only send 2 starters and 6 boosters to each store. I only got to see the starters and Inquisition the first expansion sold there. So take a look, and think of how amazing it would be to see this when you never had the internet news like it is today. But the early internet is a whole topic for another day.

Magic: The Gathering and the CCG Excitement

 When I was into D&D and Heroquest there was/is a magazine that came out at the local bookstore called Games Magazine that is still being published. It had a variety of puzzle games, the 3d image that was crazy in the mid 90's and a few reviews. Somewhere in there must have been an ad for what I believe is Toad and Trolls that would send you a free catalog. Some how I ended up with a catalog at the time and among the games for sale there was a fascinating one described called Magic: The Gathering.

Shortly after the game showed up at my local game store and i was able to get one deck of revised edition but they were quickly sold out. The other game store in the local mall also got packs so I got a 2nd deck weeks later and maybe a booster or two and they were sold out. I loved the deck boxes as they looked like magic books. Here are the two decks I still have (but not all the cards that came in them). I remember getting two Nightmare cards and thinking they were common but they turned out to be rare. I also ended up with one of the fabled dual lands which are now $1000.. and once I got out of magic early on I traded it for $15-20 store credit to get a couple of wyvern decks. It's one of those things you kick yourself over now, but who knew then. After a number of months Fallen Empires finally came out for $2 a pack and everywhere had them, and I mean everywhere. You still couldn't get a revised pack. The sports card shots were now Magic shops and dabbled a tiny bit in other CCGs until Pokemon came around but I was in University by this point. 

The Magic novel Arena came up and I gobbled it up. I picked up Scrye #4 and was amazed at all the new games coming out. I grabbed the odd pack of 4th edition and by Ice age I had moved on to other games. I wish I would have dug into Ice Age more but there was so little M:TG that you could by in stores other then Fallen Empires and with limited funds I found other games like Spellfire and Doomtrooper to fill the void. And countless others along the way. So that was my CCG Start!

Pre-History Collections

This seems like the perfect time to do some prehistory on my gaming history prior to the passion for CCG/TCGs and Mutant Chronicles.

I've always been a collector, I remember collecting stamps in grade 2. Then those amazing Panini Sticker books that I would never get enough sticker packs to complete. In grade 5 (1989) I was in to Donruss Baseball cards. When I moved to Nova Scotia we found out there was a card / comic / hobby store in town and they had Donruss cards. Interest few into their comic books and I dived head long into Punisher comics for a year or two, comics and sports card were huge at the time, before the bottom fell out. 

Around the same this time my neighbor was into Dungeons and Dragons and what they could find at the library. That lead me to the original D&D Cyclopedia as well as the Fighting Fantasy book Titan that showed a fully detailed world, I only seen this book at this point so I had no idea about the FF books until much later.

Shortly after HeroQuest showed up in the toy section of the defunct small regional department store Peoples. I think it was pretty inexpensive and I got it for my birthday that year. It is pretty rough looking but I still have it:

I'll do a follow up article on HeroQuest. From this to D&D Black box / Mutant Chronicles: Seige of the Citadel then very shortly after a new game came out, maybe you've heard of it...Magic:The Gathering.

Mutant Chronicles: Siege of The Citadel

    With the 2nd Edition of Mutant Chronicles Shipping now it's time to go back to the my Beginnings with this game, and focus of attention for almost 30 years.

    When I was in Grade 8 (93/94) the big excitement was Warhammer 40K 2nd edition. Kids spent their hard earned paper route money on minis. I had received HeroQuest a year or two before but this was something new and exciting. The cost to get started with Warhammer 40K was way beyond my means. At the same Hobby / Comic shop they had a new board game on display, the box was open set up. It was Mutant Chronicles Siege of the Citadel but the cost was something like $50-60 Can (About $90 today), still pretty hefty. During the summer after Grade 8 I went to visit my family in Newfoundland. On one of our trips to down in Stephenville at the small Walmart I went to the toy section and there on the bottom shelf of the boardgames was stacks (maybe 20-30, I can still see it now) of Mutant Chronicles SoTC for only $9.99. I was so excited picking up this copy that you can see below. It's the Canadian Edition in both languages and has you call Playtoy Industries that produced the game here. I remember opening it up and tossing out all the French parts and spending the summer playing the game with my cousins and setting up battles with the minis.

With the Story / mini comic parts it seemed so much bigger then any one off game:

And all these Named Characters, What was Edward S. Murdoch's story. Who were the Blood Berets? Without knowing there was more to come, an RPG out there it was an exciting time for just this one game. Even the art, what amazing are with all kinds of stuff and equipment, so much detail you could feel you  were there.

At one point I sadly tried to paint them a little with Testors Paints, fortunately this was all I did. For some reason I still have the stickers I never applied hoping to one day eventually paint them up.

So that is the Origin story.. and in 1994 something was just launching that was crazy to the gaming community....

Mutant Chronicles: Clan Amis

 Greetings,

With the full release of the 2nd Edition of Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel board game I decided to look back at one of my favorite settings.

Clan Amis is a new Minor Imperial Clan featured in Mutant Chronicles: 3rd Edition RPG. Canada has been mentioned a few times in the setting, It was mentioned in the novel Frenzy as part of the founding of Capitol. Now a full clan (even if it's Minor) has been attributed. 

Amis has a home location of Amis Tower on Luna. It would be great if they expand the Luna Map at some point to show more minor details where you could Zoom in to different sections. 

In typical Canadian tropes the clan is centered around the Imperial Gendarmerie (aka Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Founded by John Paul Amis the family links back to old Earth before the exodus. Part of the clan is connected to Amis & Khan law firm. Also there is a current character mentioned Head Judge Sir Martin Amis. 

Building background stories around Imperial Security Command  protecting key Imperial Leadership, maybe even Her Serenity are very cool. Some Policing and Legal stories are also intriguing. 

Other Famous citizens mentioned are Detective Pete "The Shark" Amis - Yard Detective. He uses his violent tactics to make sure the street scum get what they deserve.  The ISC Gendarmerie Commissioner is Sir Rupert Amis-Dunsim.

ISC official motto is "Defending Imperial Law", popularized by the Radio show "Officer Gordon of the Gendarmerie" who always get his man.

Next time we'll take a look at Canada on Dark Eden (The Destroyed Earth Wasteland).

In the Year 2020...

So 15 years (and 2 kids and a beautiful wife later) this site still works, who knew

I was looking for a place to put my random musings about my hobbies that some out there share as well, so during the Quarantine lock down why not dig through my games, some I haven't looked at in a while and put some observations.  So if you enjoy dead collectible card games and Mutant Chronicles you should find this interesting and if not.... see you elsewhere.

The Legend of Zelda

So no one was able to get the puzzle (except me I guess), but Kudos to Steph for making it the closest. I've only played them off and on. So my latest big interest (other then Kim) has been video games. I've finally beat Zelda Windwalker, which i started just before Univ Grad. I'd digging away at Zelda Four Swords and excited about the release of Metroid on Ds tomorrow. Horray for online death matches!!!


In exciting gaming news more Mutant Chronicles game stuff on the way. I think most ppl who would read this know about my obsession with the Mutant Chronicles story line, even more then starwars. I've accumulated all of the books and games that have been produced finally = )

For the Cardinal!!!

SODUKU, Christmas & Cool Things

Well it has been a little while. Much work and Crazyness has past. Kudos to Kim who got me a bunch of cool things for christmas, a book on soduku the excellent new puzzle craze of logicial positions of numbers. Gift it a Try. I also loved the season 3 of Sliders which Ryan got me hooked on... The last best season. Also cool is the Nintendo DS game, I also picked up 2 additional ones.. Full motion video in splinter cell is too cool.

Pluging away here getting ready for the next term at work while looking to see what else is out there for jobs. I've also finished a huge Mutant Chronicles rule/plotline book (over 500 pgs). I think only felicia or ryan know what I am talking about. At least the movie is finally going to come out... 12 years after it was accounced.

I went home for christmas and I don't think I really know anyone there anymore. Just faces in the crowd I vaguely remember.
Spent new years in amherst which was fun with lots of food and a ton of movies. At some point it would be cool to go to yarmouth to hang out with the group.

Oh and Congrats to Steph for finally getting a Blog!

Oh and the first person to finish this puzzle and send it to me will get a prize. This is good until the end of the month. So good luck.

Until next time,

Keep Flyin'

Flash Gordon

So I was up at Walmart and picked up 2 dvd's in the $1 discount bin, each had 3 episodes of the 1950's classic Flash Gordon, Campy Sci-Fi at it's best... Just look at the evil super villians. akim the Terrible isn't terrible for only one reason. Very much worth the $1 for 3 shows.

Lookin around at various jobs and who knows where I may end up. Hopefully in Atlantic Canada. But it seems like everyone else took off to Montreal, that might be a fun place to go, lots of game stores there. At least we finally got one in Antigonish, the town has definetly gotten a lot better since I came here, esp with a staples and a wal-mart now. I will soon have to take weird pics of the town, maybe even take pics of the crazy people like the guy with the pink shirt, captain canuck, the troll under the Wheel Bridge who kills drunk univ students when they come home from the bar, or Capt. Big Beard. Lots more too...

Robb you need to come and see the place, make you appreciate Middleton...well maybe not.

Oh and I love the NSCC ads. "I thought the way to go was university" but no NSCC gets all the jobs over Univ students... like at McDonalds... Anyways...later

Whats New!!!

Well I finished the Dune Prequal Prequal Series (yup a prequal to a prequal). Very good back ground to the world. So what is next, well I've started watching Stargate SG-1 that I haven;t seen since I was in grade 12 (it was season one). I think it will be good but hard to watch 9 seasons in a row. I think the next series I watch will be more of sliders or Highlander.

Battle star Galactica Season 2 just ended and it was one of the best introducing Battlestar Pegasus. Very cool stuff.

Kim will be down for the next 2 weeks on Tuesday for Homecoming. Super busy time at work and too many X rings floating about. I must wear Acadia stuff in defiance. Well perhaps not. I am sure it will become another of Kim' s rules = ) One of my crazy ideas based off the rules of aquisiton from DS9 (which i think only Ryan will figure out).

Until next time keep flying!

Novels of Might

Well another installment. I guess I skipped last week already but with good reason. It was super busy at work with Froshweek. It's kinda weird hearing all the old frosh songs but with different building names then I'm use too. Almost wants to make me go back to school again. Sigh. Anyways onto the Blog.

The topic this week is novels and what I'm reading. At the moment I just finished book 2 of the Legends of Dune prelude. It shows the starting of the House Atreides and the great Jihad against the robots. Very interesting stuff if you liked dune or one of the two movies. (althought the 80's movies is pretty wierd esp with that strange screaming girl). The more recent movie series was excellent.

Other book series I am delving into include the New Jedi order series for Star Wars with the most up to date story set like 25 years after the movies, Chewie's dead and so is Anakin Solo... it was an interesting 20 book storyline meant for a more adult audience . A new book just came out after that series so i must pick it up soon.

A game of thrones series is fantasy at it's best but each book is very long and moves along very quickly and i highly endorse it. Lots of battles, intrigue, and royal houses fighting for the throne. Much better then the highly spoken of Wheel of time series by Jordan which just drags on and on just to get anywhere. i am on book 8 of that series and will finish it just to find out what happens but grudgingly. I guess those are my big 4 novel series at the moment but I have a few more i;d like to start but may not have enough time for them all. I have been intrigued by the Honor Herrington books about space navel battles though. We shall see. any suggestions of good novels or series that you have read?

Rocketmen

So I think sunday will become update Blog day because I rairly seem to do it, and I always have sunday off. That's my hope anyways. so what's my latest interest? Rocketmen the new collectable ship game. This pic is off a few that i've collected, venus battling a mercury fleet. The game is really simple and faily cheap ($6 a pack for 2 ships, rules, dice, playing pieces etc.) but you need a few packs to really play. There is also an online flash video with a few 2 min stories about the game universe here. (click here for link) I think its a cool concept the story like is like 1940-50's pulp scifi with a chessy super hero fighting the bad guys like commander cody and the space martians or captain proton from star trek voyager (yup Uber geek here). As well I just finished my summer off by watching all of the Voyager episodes over the summer, half of which I have never seen. What TV series should I watch next? Highlander, Star Trek the original series, Stargate SG-1. Comment and let me know. I'm guessing robb will say dukes of hazards. Next week's show... Novels and what I've been reading.

Well Well We Meet Again!!!

Well it seems I have a total of three blogs and none I really keep up. I think this will be the main blog because I can do the most stuff with it and anyone can access it.

This pic is from one of my favourite cartoons/toys as a kid, centurions. About 3 heros that could call up to a space station to get equipment beamed down that would attach to them like missiles and jet packs and stuff. One of my better memories is of having the activity book, i'd love to get that again just for memories. But I also had the toy of Ace Macleod the middle guy that i got for christmas when i was like 7. Half tempted to try to buy the toy in original packing on ebay with all the add ons i never got as a kid. oh well if i see it at a yard sale for $1 i'll pick it up.

I guess i will have to post a blog on all the other blogs to redirect ppl here.

Until then, have fun!

A new home

Well I am at a new home... my hard drive died with all my files, maybe i'll eventually be able to salvage something. But with it all my bookmarks, and bookmark to my blog on TVOR.NET, although that was kinda dead and i couldn;t figure it all out. So now I will be able to throw in pictures and stuff with this new page, if i can advertise it to friends. So bare with me... the neg gen of blog is comming.

thanks a bunch

Adragan Firewolf