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Email address: luke[dot]nguyen[hyphen]hoan[at]lnh[dot]id[dot]au

Last updated: 3 December 2012

I’m a somewhat addicted RPG and miniatures gamer who has been gaming for at least 8 years now, and play the following games and armies:

RPGs

Dungeons and Dragons

• I prefer 4th ed over previous editions, mainly due to the simplicity of character builds and streamlining of the rules
• I think it’s great for a hack-n-slash or any group which prefers combat to other activities
• Not so good for RP due to heavy emphasis on combat skills – trying to use the mechanics for non-combat isn’t very easy, although skill challenges do kinda work (just have to be very flexible with whatever your group can come up with).
• I’ve DMed a 16-session campaign with accelerated levelling. Good results and the players had fun! I’d like to play in a campaign sometime.

Exalted

• We’ve played >20 sessions with this system now, and I really like the system overall.
• We’ve mostly done combat, where the system mostly works (although its high dependence upon the dex stat is a bit annoying as anyone who didn’t max dex – such as me – is at quite a bit of a disadvantage).
• Social stuff we haven’t done nearly as much, so I can’t really comment about it as much.
• Currently playing a campaign run by a friend.

Dark Heresy

• The campaign is done and dusted, and it went okay. The ending was a bit of a fizzle (we were dragging on a bit, and I screwed up the difficulty level of the final fight).
• Advice for DH GMs: don’t hold back when trying to kill your players. DH is supposed to be deadly, and I think it’s nowhere near as interesting unless you play it that way (make sure your players know what they’re in for though!)

Deathwatch

• This campaign has fizzled as our GM’s life took over, but our one campaign was fun – playing super-soldiers who are actually really good at what they do is quite fun!

Adeptus Evangelion

• Currently GMing a campaign.
• It’s the same system as original Dark Heresy, so mechanics wise I don’t have any problems with it.
• I’m running this one as heavily character based – essentially, the Angels and NERV and the timeline are all there to begin with, and the bulk of the story is driven by what the characters do and how they react to events.
• Teenaged romance = hilarity ensues!

Miniatures Games

I have mostly been a Games Workshop game player, although that’s changed with the price hikes and the way GW has been treating their customers in general.

Warhammer 40,000

• Ridiculously addicted to Imperial Guard, owning the following armies:
  • All infantry “assault” guard, using Cadian models
  • All infantry “line regiment” guard, using Valhallans
  • Mixed infantry and tanks – my standard “all comers” army – using Valhallans
  • Mechanised infantry and tanks, using even more Valhallans
• Also own the following non-guard armies:
  • Deathwatch Space Marines (Kantor + sternguard in drop pods + scouts)
  • Dark Mechanicus using the Chaos Space Marines rules (mechanised marines)
• Plus, more imperial guard tanks that don’t fit into the above armies, a baneblade, a shadowsword, a valkyrie and attached veteran squad (who would be the start of an air-cav army, but valkyries are way too expensive), and a full 1st company of terminators.

• I like the game, but dislike the way GW releases new codexes at a snail’s pace and how old armies tend to get left behind in the power curve. I really like the models, and plan to buy nice models which I like rather than start any new armies.
• Still game occasionally, but tend to like faster, smaller games now.

Warhammer Fantasy

• I’m a Bretonnian player, although I don’t play much nowadays.
• Again, really like the models, the system is okay (although I’m not a fan of uber-magic), but I find I don’t enjoy the game as much as 40k.

GW Specialist Games

• In general, I’m a big fan of these: Battlefleet Gothic, Inquisitor, Blood Bowl and Mordheim are my favourites.
• I own a big Imperial Fleet for BFG, and would like to have smaller forces of Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marines as well (which match my 40k armies, by sheer coincidence…)
• Have GMed a bunch of mini-campaigns for Inquisitor, with great success. I also like Inquisitor as all those random 40k models I own can be put to good use !
• Play Orcs in Blood Bowl, who are always fun and smashy.
• I own a Monty-Python themed Bretonnian warband for Mordheim, and have previously played other human warbands. I want to collect some others, but that’ll have to wait until I play in a new Mordheim campaign.

Dystopian Wars

• I have Covenant of Antarctica and Kingdom of Britannia fleets (air and naval, since land doesn’t have much of a following around here).
• I really like this game – quick, fun, and random, I find it hard to take too seriously unlike 40k or Fantasy. Plonk some models down, roll some dice, and have a blast!

Infinity

• I’ve played a few games with Nomads, and have just started to collect a force. I really really like these models, and since there’s only a couple of them I’m putting in effort painting them, which is paying off!