Best $7.50 I've spent in a while

Like more than a few wargamers, I started in Role Playing Games. D&D specifically back in its hey day. Painting miniatures for the game led to painting armies. We still play D&D, as you can see by my Beyond the Wall blog.
So I still pick up the occasional RPG related work. I read great things about Barbarians of Lemuria. I have a soft spot for the true Sword and Sorcery stuff like Conan, as opposed to the high fantasy of Tolkien. BoL fits into this, but is more than just a great background setting. The illustrations are really nice for what should be a cheapo pdf download. It's a really nice set of rules. Very simple. Very elegant. It emphasizes the story telling and not the mechanics.
At the heart of it is a career mechanic. I've played dozens of RPGs where the entire back of the record sheet is the mammoth list of skills my character has acquired with their numerical value.
BoL just has you pick four previous careers. I was an escaped slave who became street urchin, who became a sailor, who turned to piracy. Done. Now, in the unfolding adventure, if i run into a situation that I think one of these careers would help me, I just let the Game Master know, and he/she decides if it indeed applies. For example, the last little excursion didn't pay off, so I need some cash while in the big city. My previous time spent as a street urchin taught me how to pick pockets. GM concurs. It's that easy.
After a long lunch yesterday with Lead Addict, we discussed what we want and don't want out of wargaming. I was one of those guys who spent many a late night drawing dungeons and building worlds. I don't have that time anymore. Even if I find a set of rules that works for me, I don't have time to stat up entire armies from scratch. Especially since my group can have 6-8 players every week. Not saying you have go the GW route and have the entire thing spoon fed to you and you can't operate outside of cannon, but don't make me work so hard.
In summary, if like RPGs, pick up Barbarians of Lemuria. And I need to focus.

Weekend Gamefest report Pt I

Four wonderful days of gaming (with a couple of chilly soccer games thrown in), what could be better?
Thursday night, I thought we would have a smaller crowd due to everyone cashing in their passes for Friday and Saturday, but actually had six people show. I've had the Perfect Captain's Shadows over Byzantium for years, but never payed. If you haven't visited the Captain's site, you're truly missing out. They do high quality board and miniature games for FREE! (other than they ask you make a contribution to one of the many charities on their site).

I like this particular game because:
1- It's a cool under used period. Right after the early Crusades in Greece and Asia Minor, so Frank-Norman type cavalry mixed with eastern style armies.
2- Lots of treachery, ripe for a play by e-mail campaign, with possible mini battles.
It took awhile to get placed and started, cutting out counters, learning the rules. I think most players would have set up different if they knew how the rules would unfold. I started in Sparta, more or less, and spent most of the game getting hammered from the north. I have a few questions into the supporting Yahoo group because of some missing rules, but otherwise a decent first play.

Friday night was some good old fashioned Role Playing games. My kids have been begging me to play Mutant Future ever since we rolled up characters months ago. MF is basically Gamma World from the early days of RPGing. I look back on my Gamma World days with great fondness. It was a crazy post-apocalyptic world of mutants, robots and fun. This time, I got to be on the other side of the table and actually play. I was the only Pure Strain Human in the group. As such, I got none of the fun mutations, but have better resistance to radiation and can understand ancient tech better. I named him Bili the Ax after a favored character from the Horse Clans book series.
There were 5 kids and 3 adults playing. One was a friend of my daughter's who had never played any kind of RPG. She must of liked it, because even after her parents picked her up, she kept texting my daughter for updates on what was happening.
Highlight: Slothnug, a slow slug-like mutant with no pain receptors (so the Gamemaster keeps tract of damage, not the player) had been getting hammered by fire from some Pigzies (militant fascist pig creatures). After taking them out by use of weather control (ever see Twister?)he finally able to assess his damage. He was described as "swiss cheese", with holes all through his body you could see through.
Pt 2 to come tomorrow.....