Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Custom Slash Ally Card

Well it has only been a few days since the end of IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Board Game Kickstarter but people have already started making customs for it. You can check them out on the Facebook group; which inspired me to make my own custom to kick things off. Here is my custom Ally card for Slash:

Slash is one of my absolute favorite characters in the IDW comics. I will probably be making more customs for the game once it is released this summer, along with a bunch more TMNT customs for Heroscape which you will find on my Heroscape Blog.

Settlers of Catan Oil Springs Modification

Settlers of Catan is one of my favorite board games. We always use the Seafares, Cities and Knights, and Fisherman expansions. We have also enjoyed using the Volcano expansion on occasion. Why am I telling you this, well because I have been working on my on custom expansion for Catan for many years that would be compatible with all of the expansions I play with. During my work on this expansion we came across and started playing with the Catan Oil Springs Scenario, which was great to mix things up and make the desert useful. However, I felt the contents were cheap and needed to be improved. I also started trying to incorporate Oil into my own expansion, but as others have pointed out the theme of Oil doesn't fit with the medieval theme of Catan.  

Since I no longer plan to include Oil in my own expansion I thought I would share the improvements I made to the Oil Springs Scenario pieces. First, up is an actual resource card for Oil.

I don't mind the idea of tokens, like for fish that aren't considered resources, but it really bugged me that Oil is a resource and counted towards your hand limit but was a token.

Second, was making the Desert Oil hex one piece instead of the small piece that you just put on top of the deserts.

Next thing that needed changing was replacing the metropolis tokens with metropolis pieces that match the ones from Cities and Knights. Along with that the trade-in/build guide needed to be updated.

Lastly the Champion of the Environment token needed to have a card that was similar to the Longest Road victory point card.

Unfortunately because of the theme brake I haven't printed any of these but I do plan to barrow these ideas and the ideas of others to keep many of the elements introduced in this expansion. For those that like the Oil Springs Scenario I hope you enjoy these improvements.

Pandemic Custom Role: Bacteriologist

I am a little late to the Pandemic Board Game scene, but it is a really fun co-op game. I have had a lot of fun playing it and using the expansion On the Brink. My gaming group isn't the biggest fan of the Bio-terrorist Challenge, so I decided to make a custom role for the unused Black pawn. I present the Bacteriologist:

When designing this role I wanted it to be useful even when not playing with On the Brink. I also wanted to encourage team work and encourage the building of research centers; because in most games we only build 2 to 3 research centers total.

The Bacteriologist isn't as strong as the Scientist, but the Bacteriologist helps other players use their City cards without just discarding them.

Right now this is the only card I have made and I am not sure I will make more but if I do I will continue to use my custom symbol:

Who knows maybe I will have my own small expansion at one point.  

BANG! Cusp of Carabelli Expansion

NOTE: All images and names used in the official BANG! (and its expansions) are copyright © dV Giochi.

Cusp of Carabelli is an unofficial expansion to BANG! the card game, designed by Quincy Thompson (me) and tested with the help of my friends at dental school. Cusp of Carabelli is a comparable expansion to Dodge City. Besides adding 17 new characters, it also adds 36 more playing cards to BANG!. It is named after a dental term along with many of the character names coming from famous dentists and current faculty at my dental school. Many of the other cards are inspired by and use the artwork from the custom cards made in the various unofficial expansions created on The BANG! Blog.

PDF downloads: 

Rule Book

Deck Cards

Character Cards

The Cusp of Carabelli Rule Book provides detailed explanation of the new symbols, rules, and characters; and card by card explanations as needed.

NEW BROWN CARDS

Blood Pact. Lose a life, and then give any other player a life.	Investment. Discard a card with this card and then draw 3 cards.	Loan. Lose a life, and then you draw 2 cards.
Molotov Cocktail. Gain a life, and then BANG! a player at a distance of 1.	Moonshine. Discard a card with this card then gain a life and draw 1 card.	Rob Grave. When you play this card, turn as many cards from the top of the discard pile face up as the number of players still playing. Starting with you and proceeding clockwise, each player chooses one of those cards and puts it in his hand.
Showtime. Each player, excluding the one who played this card, may discard a Weapon card (from in play or in hand), or lose one life point.	Showdown.With this card you can challenge any other player, regardless of the distance. The challenged player may discard a BANG! card (even though it is not his turn). If he does, you may discard a BANG! card, and so on: the first player failing to discard a BANG! Loses two life points, and the Showdown is over. You cannot play Missed! or use the Barrel during a Showdown. The Showdown is not a BANG! card. BANG! cards discarded during a Showdown are not accounted towards the “play 1 BANG! card” limitation.

 

NEW BLUE CARDS

Bulldog. Range of 1. When you play a BANG! you may discard a second BANG! to Gatling. This BANG! card is not counted against the limit of one BANG! card per turn.	Gamble. Play this card in front of you: the Gamble will stay there for a whole turn. When you start your next turn (you have the Gamble already in play), before the first phase you must “draw!” • if you draw a card showing Clubs, the Gamble pays out. Draw 1 additional card at the end of phase 1; • otherwise pass the Gamble to the player on your left (who will “draw!” on his turn, etc.) Players keep passing the Gamble around until it pays out, with the effect explained above, or it is drawn or discarded by a Panic! or a Cat Balou. If you have both the Gamble and a Dynamite or a Jail in play, check the Dynamite and/or the Jail first. If you remain in Jail the Gamble will stay on you unti your next turn.	Hill Top. Others view you at a distance increased by 2.
Pack Mule. You may hold in your hand up to 6 cards at the end of your turn.	Reward. Play this card in front of any player regardless of the distance: you put a reward on him! When a player with Reward is eliminated draw two cards. Reward cannot be played on the Sheriff.	Walker. Players need 2 Missed! to cancel your BANG! card.

 NEW GREEN CARDS 

Bar Fight. Play Bar Fight in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, discard another card to force each other player to discard a card from their hand or in front of them.	Fur Trade. Play Fur Trade in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, draw to cards then each other player draws one card, proceeding clockwise.	Hatchet. Play Hatchet in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, BANG! target play at a distance of 2, may be used at a distance of 1.
On the House. Play On the House in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, discard another card to gain 2 life.	Pilfer. Play Pilfer in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, draw one card from a player at a distance of 1. May be a card from their hand or in front of them.	Plunder. Play Plunder in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, discard another card to draw 1 card from each other player. May be a card from their hand or in front of them.
Rciochet. Play Ricochet in front of you. Starting with the next player’s turn, you can discard it for the effect: Missed! then you BANG! a player at a reachable distance.	Roulette. Play Roulette in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, starting with the player to your left each player discards a Missed!(all cards with the Missed! symbol qualify; i.e. Barrel, Dodge, Ten Gallon Hat, etc.), until one player does not: he loses two life points and the Roulette stops.	War Party. Play War Party in front of you. During one of your following turns, provided you still have the card in front of you, starting with the player to your left each player may discard a BANG! card, or lose one life point. Neither Missed! nor Barrel have effect in this case.

THE CHARACTERS

Adam McCormick. (4 life points): he may force any other player, regardless of the distance to play a card randomly from their hand (if the player cannot play the chosen card they must reveal it) or in play.	Auntie Angelici. (5 life points): once during her turn she may use any card as a Saloon.	Burke Soff . (3 life points): each time he plays or voluntarily discards a card when it is not his turn (e.g. Missed!, Dual, Beer, or BANG! during Indians!), he takes one gold nugget from the heap. Cards that he is forced to discard due to cards like Cat Balou, Brawl, or Can-Can are not considered voluntarily discarded.
Bushido Bill. (4 life points): if he has no cards in hand he will not lose any life points from cards played by other players, even Dynamite.	Capt. W. Carroll. (4 life points): after drawing during phase 1 of his turn he may discard any number of cards from his hand and redraw the same number of cards. He may use this ability once during his turn.	Clockwork. (5 life points): at the end of his turn he must “draw!”, on a Club or Spade reverse the order of play. However, Dynamite and Gamble continue to pass to the left.
Crazy Skull. (4 life points): whenever any player, including himself, would “draw!” (i.e. for Barrel, Dynamite, Gamble, or Jail), he may discard a card from his hand in place of the card that would be drawn.	Edward Angle. (4 life points): during his turn, he can swap places with the player on his right, the player who he swapped places with will skip his next turn.	El Fantasma. (3 life points): when he is eliminated, during his turn he returns to the game with 1 life point.
G. V. Black. (4 life points): he may discard Bang! cards against cards in play in front of any player, regardless of distance: those cards are discarded unless the player controlling them plays a Missed!.	George Richards. (4 life points): he may discard 1 golden nugget as a Missed!.	Gordon Christensen. (4 life points): during his turn he can discard a green-bordered card from his hand to draw 2 cards from the deck. He may use this ability twice per turn.
Hal the Collector. (4 life points): he gains all the abilities of each player’s character he has eliminated from play. He will keep the powers gained even when players that he eliminated are returned to play (e.g. El Fantasma).	James Donahoo. (4 life points): before drawing during phase 1 of his turn, he may discard 1 gold nugget to draw the top card of the discard pile. He may use this ability twice per turn.	Joel Janis. (4 life points): he may play green border cards just like brown border cards.
Llewellyn Powell. (4 life points): he may discard 1 golden nugget as a Beer. This ability can only be used during his turn. Important note: Beer has no effect if there are only 2 players left in the game.	William Harman. (4 life points): during his turn he may “draw!”, on a Club or Spade he may look at the hand of another player, regardless of distance, and draw one card from their hand.

My Heroscape stuff

As you know I really like the game Heroscape and for the past 2 years have been posting all of my Heroscape customs here on this blog. You probably also noticed that I have removed all of my Heroscape related posts from this blog. Well I have decided to create a new blog that will be strictly dedicated to my Heroscape customs. Not everything that I had here is there yet but it will be.

Check it out here: http://heroscapewargame.blogspot.com/

Tangled Tower Cake

Well it has been a long time since I made a cake involving this much detail...so it took me about 4 hours to complete. It is completely decorated with cream cheese frosting.

I made this cake (2 or 3 weeks ago) because at my church we had a service auction and I gave a custom birthday cake as my service. The winners of the auction requested a Tangled theme and left the rest up to me. At first I was simply going to do a 2D tower, but as I thought more about it I really wanted to do a 3D tower like some cakes I had looked at as references online.

To start I placed a complete 11x13 cake as the base and then put I 9in round cake covering just less then half of the 11x13 to create the hill the tower will sit on. Then I cut away the excess 9in round and frosted it all in a light green.


Next, I frosted on the river and inserted the paper towel roll (covered in aluminum foil) for the tower. I was going to use cup cakes for the tower but I decided that it would not be stable enough when transporting.


Next, I frosted the tower. This included a the "stones" and vines of the tower. I also added small leaves for flowers on the grass.


Here is a close up of the tower showing the leaves on the vines.


Next, I add pink dots for flowers on the tower vines and the leaves on the grass. Also, I added the shore to the river for some added detail.


Here is a close up of the top of the tower which is made with 3 cup cakes. I placed them on a octagon base that was slightly bigger then the top of a cup cake. Notice that it is on top of a Mt. Dew can...this is what kept me going until 4am to finish this beast.


Here is the top of the tower placed on the the cake.


Okay, time for the finishing touches! Rapunzel's golden hair flowing out of the tower window.


I decided to continue Rapunzel's hair and have it form the words on the cake. I liked the idea but I was so tired by this point that the writing wasn't my best. But it still looked decent.


So, there you have it. I was pleased with how it turned out but I think it is time that I learned how to work with fondant for the next time I make a cake similar to this.