Toyin' Around Game Session Pics: October 19th 2005 (Part 1 of 4)
Three reasons for shock:
1) It's been ELEVEN YEARS since I ran this Toyin' Around game session with Nolan, Mike Cataro & Amanda.
2) I'm posting the photos from the October 19th 2005 game session on Wednesday, October 5th 2016. Last time I posted any game session photos was 2 years and 3 day ago (at least I've been consitent in posting them in October right?).
3) The 2005 Calendar year mirrors the 2016 Calendar year, meaning the dates for October this year fall on the exact same days they did in 2005 when I was running this Toyin' Around Campaign. *MIND BLOWN*
That being said, please take a moment for all this to sink in and then we'll continue.
.....
Okay, good? Let's get to it.
First off, I'd like to state that I never should have taken this long to edit, text and upload these game session photos. The fact that it's taken me the better part of a DECADE to do this is beyond acceptable to me. Now, I'm a husband, father to a little 18 month old boy and work a full time job. Free time is less but my brain is still over loaded with crap by holding onto these stories mentally. Albert Einstein used to write everything down so as to keep his mind clear and allow him to focus on important thoughts. As I've got game sessions from 2005, 2008 and 2010-2011 still in my head it's no wonder I have a hard time remembering things these days.
After talking about this with my wife, she agreed with me and said completing these long-time projects of mine needs to happen. "It's like a computer" she told me, "You haven't finished these projects yet but the windows for them are still open inside your head and using memory just like on a computer.". Plus, the toy RPG is closer to being a fully printed, for-sale, honest-to-goodness RPG very soon and finishing this before then would be great.
Now, this campaign did start earlier then the 21st of September. In fact, if memory serves, it started on September 14th but I think our first actual playing session was on the 21st; September 14th was when we went out to Toys'R'Us to get Nolan and Mike their characters then came home and rolled them up. There were no photos taken on the 22nd as the idea had not yet occurred to me, same goes for the 14th.
This campaign was one of my longer ones of the time that stretched all the way to early November before switching gears to the pen & paper Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangness RPG by Palladium Books. I believe it was Py-Roh's player Mike that had wanted to play a more traditional RPG so I paused this game and we switched to that one. We had a lot of fun there too, but I always hold this campaign with the 3 of them more fondly.
Below are links to all of the other Toyin' Around 2005 Game Session photo LJ posts, so you all can more quickly catch up if you forgot what our rag-tag group of action figures had been up to last time:
September 21st 2005
September 28th 2005 (Part 1 of 2)
September 28th 2005 (Part 2 of 2)
October 6th 2005 (Part 1 of 3)
October 6th, 2005 (Part 2 of 3)
October 6th, 2005 (Part 3 of 3)
October 13th 2005 (Part 1 of 3)
October 13th 2005 (Part 2 of 3)
October 13th 2005 (Part 3 of 3)
Last time (week? year? DECADE??) the Insiders found Castle Grayskull and made it their official base of operations nestled inside the Swamp Zone. After finally striking it big, they took the time to unwind and explore their new home. Commentary is under the photos:
The Hall of Secrets was just a fun way for me to just toss a ton of cool Masters of the Universe themed accessories at the players. I think Amanda provided those smooth stones to help provide more ambiance and mystery to the cardboard box I used. I had a limited time span to get it set up, scenery I was good at but sets not so much.
I loved taking Poke'mon from the Hasbro toy line and tossing them into the game. They make great creatures for the players to fight and as companions/attack pets for the players to use. As Mike's character is made of living flames, I figured Torchic, the Fire Starter Poke'mon for Poke'mon Ruby/Sapphire would be the perfect companion for him.
I think Mike liked having the little fire bird as his pet, but I can't remember if it ever showed up in combat at all. Mike had slew of gadgets and fire powers at his disposal normally so having a small fire-bird as an attack pet might've been a bit redundant. Hrmm....maybe Beth would play in the Toyin' Around RPG in 2016 if she could be a Poke'mon trainer.....
The Stilt Stalkers could be a really goofy weapon, or really freakin' useful in the right hands. Kurt was the only character large enough to fit inside them properly so they were a natural fit for the blue-skinned mutant. Plus the colors matched his color palette too. This picture was originally in the discard pile, but when I got an idea for a funny bit of dialogue....
...it was the perfect set-up picture for this one. The sculpting detail on Nightcrawler's face is just amazing, such stern emotion and toughness is sculpted on there. Marvel Legends definitely cranked out a few top-notch hits back in the day.
I believe Mike was also getting a little tired this game session so he began to snuggle up on the Couch of Gaming and may have even nodded off later on in the night. As Py-Roh took a back seat to things after this point, I think my theory is a sound one. I'll have to check the backgrounds of the rest of the pictures from this session and see if I can spot a sleeping gamer in the background..
If you are wondering what is the deal with the sharp angles around Kurt and Donny I will explain. Often I took these photos with little to no light which was just a side affect of gaming in this room of my parent's basement (not much lighting to be had). This forced me to years later go over the images and have to select out the areas I needed to have the brightness turned up in, leaving other already bright areas out for normal viewing.
This was a Super Villain Stikfas figure I got as a part of a 2-pack back in the day. Since then, Stikfas are no more buy back then they were the perfect little customizable action figure kits. The clear flying stand came with this figure as did the purple, soft plastic cape.
Minds-I is a nod to a Dino-Riders character called "Mind-Zei" and for a while I found files with both "Minds-I" and "Mind-Zei" on them. So, I just figured I'd leave it as Minds-I and make it a tad more original then it was. This picture came out a little on the blurry side so I figured it'd also make a great image to show off Minds-I's mental powers.
Despite being easier to stand up then Amanda's previous Donatello action figures, Storage Shell Donny was not a winner in that department either. With the Megalaser on him just made him even more top-heavy so she had him essentially straddling a seat-shaped rocky outcropping just so he would not fall down completely.
That Mega Laser did have some serious fire-power but they rarely used it for whatever reason. Now, if you are wondering HOW these technological devices are working inside the Swamp Zone I will explain. Castle Grayskull created these items and so they are an extension of it, allowing them to work and be powered and circumventing the Anti-Technology Curse afflicted on this place. This is very very VERY rare but even then it did not let the players use these items more often. Ah well, I tried dang nabbit!
Stay tuned here in the coming days and or weeks while I busily try and finish up October 19th's photographs. I have all of the 26th's done already, mainly because I did them out of order on accident so you will see those up on their 11 year anniversary on October 26th 2016.