Origins 2013 Loot and a Word about Shadowrun RPG

Greetings once again InterWebs!!! Finally getting back into the swing of things from my recent trip to the Origins Game Fair and I finally found a little bit of time to spend on some hobby stuff. I managed to gather up all of the stuff I purchased while at the convention (which was a little hard to do with a certain item).

First off I managed to swing by the Forgeworld booth and pick up a few items for my upcoming Heresy-era Salamanders army.

The Event-only miniature:

10-man Squad of Mk IV armor (not the new legion style which I have a bunch of already):

5-man Squad of Mk IV Recon Marines:

Close-ups of the awesome looking 'Scout' Marines in full Mk IV armor:

After Forgeworld I wandered the dealers hall a bit and stumbled on the booth for one of my favorite independent miniature companies.....Mercs Minis:

 I got a 'show-special price on the box set I have been wanting for quite a while!

SHADOWRUN RPG:

Most of my time was spent playing the brand new 5th edition of Shadowrun RPG at Origins. The company behind the Shadowrun game is called Catalyst Game Labs and they went all out with their 'living campaign' of Shadowrun. This was my first experience with Catalyst and Shadowrun and was quite simply blown away by the professional approach of the company and the awesome fun that is Shadowrun RPG. Here are some pictures of the game area where we played the RPG:

 The tables we played on!

 Huge artwork everywhere!

I had so much fun with my 28 hrs of Shadowrun RPG (7 games at 4 hours each) that I knew my home group would also enjoy the system and setting; that of course meant I had an excuse to go a little wild with at the Catalyst booth in the dealer's hall:

Signed by the author (and awesome guy):

 Special Shadowrun marked dice:

The one item I have not had a lot of time with because all my friends wanted to look at it! Yes indeed I snagged one of the extremely popular (and quickly sold-out) 5th Edition rulebooks:

Signed by the Shadowrun Line Developer and really nice guy:

If you are a fan of 'Cyber-Punk/Near Future Sci-Fi roleplaying I would highly recommend giving Shadowrun 5th Edition a try! Almost forgot about the special Origins dice I also picked up:

That is all for now folks! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Now back to the hobby desk as I prepare the Mercs Texico minis for painting!

Origins 2013---A Recap of my Miniature Experiences

Greetings once again InterWebs!!!! Well I am finally back from Columbus, Ohio and the Origins Game Fair where I met up with a bunch of friends who happen to be scattered all over the States. Good times was had by all and I even got to help a good friend propose to his now-fiance! I did manage to snap some pictures while I was there:

First off, especially for Mordian 7th who I know is eagerly awaiting the arrival of OGRE!

The above picture (taken with my phone) is of the special charity game of Ogre with Steve Jackson himself.

 That box is huge!

For me Origins is spent wandering around the various halls and playing roleplaying games with friends. Here are a few random tables that caught my eye during my wanders:

A version of X-Wing played with Star Trek ships instead and played on the floor!

 Note the chair in the picture below, it should give you a sense of scale:

I am not sure what game this was for but it was very cool looking!

 Look at all those rope ladders!

There was a huge game of X-Wing being played across several large tables. The game looked to be the Rebel assault into the Second Death Star. There were a ton of people around this game but I tried to sneak some pictures.

 

 
 There was a neat looking game of BattleTech being played as well:

There was a massive Flames of War landing assault game that needed 4 very long tables to play it all out. It was quite impressive!

The very popular BattleTech Virtual Reality Pods! I so want to try these some day with a group of friends!

For my better-half! A huge Settlers of Catan game played on the floor:

An awesome looking table full of gorgeous 15mm American Civil War miniatures and terrain.

That was a look at the miniature side of Origins 2013. I will talk about my roleplaying experiences and my purchases/loot in the next post. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look through all these pictures. Take care!