Games Review

If there's one thing about this hobby that might be a downside, it's the fact that there's never enough money to buy everything I want. For instance, I'm trying to collect enough old Citadel miniatures to play all the expanded monster tables in Warhammer Quest, and I love finding old RPGs at Half Price Books. I would love to have the prepainted miniatures for Okko, and I've been seriously considering buying a handful of cowboy minis and converting HeroScape into a Wild West setting.

And to make matters worse, I want other stuff, too. I really want to buy Midnight Club: LA for my Xbox 360, and there are a bunch of really cool downloadable games on there, to boot - but they cost Microsoft points, which cost money. And I want a nice Fossil watch, one that will look cool enough to wear when I'm showing off my tattoos, but stylish enough to go with a dress shirt. And let's not forget that I have a wife and two kids, and I love buying stuff for them, too. Put all that stuff together, and I need just a little more money than I have now.

It's not like I don't have an income. I have a day job that makes pretty good scratch, plus VixenTor Games and freelance design work. But I also have a phone bill, and a mortgage, and a car payment, and utilities, and by the time I pay all the bills, I usually have just enough to buy a rubber ball out of a grocery store vending machine.

So, to quote my good friend Baldric (obscure Black Adder reference), I have a cunning plan.

I have these tuck boxes that I've designed. I made them for myself, because so many games come with cards, and it's a rare publisher who gives you a good way to organize them. Hell, look at Fantasy Flight - most of the time, the box has one worthless insert that's little more than a folded piece of cardboard, and there are like 300 cards in a box the size of a Buick, and if you just toss them in the box after you play, you'll be sorting them for half an hour every time you want to play.

These tuck boxes were originally just a design I created so I could store my stuff. I made a couple of them that were just white, and then I decided they weren't nearly cool enough. I guess I just can't stand looking at a white surface that hasn't been decorated, so I slapped art all over the outside. Then I decided to pimp my own site to anyone playing with me, and came up with a design with the dice-breathing dragon.

At this point, I probably have a dozen or so of these boxes in various sizes and depths, stuck into games all over my office. They're handy, and I can put one together in about five minutes, so it's worth printing out a few and keeping them handy. I think they're pretty wicked, personally, but that might just be me.

So here's the cunning plan, and as you can probably see, it's not really a very good plan at all. Basically, I'm going to give away these tuck boxes to anyone who wants to download them. The main intent of giving away these designs is to thank all of you for reading. Without you, this site would have died out a long time ago. It's not just your love that keeps me going, either (though I do really appreciate the love, especially from the dickweasels who pretend they're only reading to find something to mock). When you read the stuff I write, it gets more hits, and more hits means companies are more willing to part with their games, which means when you read Drake's Flames, I have less trouble getting free games. That, and every time you click a link, an angel gets his wings.

But I really would like to buy some old-school savage orc archers, and I could seriously use a new pair of steel-toe work boots. So if you download the boxes, and you make a bunch, and you decide they're pretty awesome, you can feel free to PayPal me a couple bucks. If they're only worth a dollar to you, send a dollar. If they're worth ten, I won't turn it down. If you think they're worth a hundred, then you're completely insane, and need to keep your money for your therapist. And if you don't think they're worth anything, or if you just can't really afford it, don't worry about it. Just enjoy them.

And since the main reason I'm putting these up at all is to thank you all for showing up, if I get enough people sending me spare change, I'll make more. I actually have some designs started, including a dragon-scale box I made for my Warhammer Quest cards. I'll even take requests, whether you feel like shipping me cash or not.

A little advertisement for the tuck boxes has been added to the ad box over to the left, and it links right to the PDF of the tuck box file. Regardless of whether you ever intend to send money, please feel free to download them and see if they're any good to you. If you don't feel like paying anything, by God, don't.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back tomorrow night with a review of... well, something. I haven't decided yet.