The Pain of Adepticon

I may have mentioned before that I enjoy miniatures.

Often the companies making them are making them for use in role playing games or I can draw inspiration for my role playing games from them.

One of the local conventions is Adepticon.

They moved the convention this year, much closer to me. I used to live in Mt. Prospect so it's new location was in a regiion well known to me.

The hotel has some nice art outside of it as well as some nice ponds.

But the place was rammed.

And that meant walking.

Walking when I have a bad back.

Ugh.



This year, among the vendors, was +Scale75mm , +Games Plus , #GamesandGears, +CoolMiniOrNot and numerous others.

Games and Gears sold out of the brush I was looking for. I backed a few of their Kickstarters. At the convention they were very humble, talkative and friendly.

Scale 75 sold out of all of their fantasy colors in their new paint range except for Steam and Punk. They mentioned that they had distribution in the United States now and I suggested they hook up with Games Plus among others since Games Plus is one of the local stores.

Wyrd Miniatures was not there in their own booth, but had their own section in the Coolminornot area. The Coolminornot, CMON, is really just almost an advertising venue for their Kickstarters at this point with a ton of Wrath of Kings, Dark Ages, Sedition Wars, and of course, Wyrd.

There were a LOT of games going on. Lot of people playing. Some fantastic scenery, some fantastic paint jobs. I snapped only a few because every minute of standing was unpleasant. These are from #Antimatter Games who do a Shadowsea and Deep War, games based off of #Ganesha Games and their Song of Blades and Heroes.

I like messing with different things so I did buy some pigments and fixer from #SecretWeapon as well as a few other bits.

A few other places I stopped, say to get some scenery, didn't have exactly what I was looking for. THAT one item I said, "Gee, that looks cool" was sold out. This happened when I was looking for some stencils too.

For me? The whole thing was a mild disaster. If Scale 75 had their full range of Fantasy & Games paint, it would've been worth it. See, I have a pinched nerve in my back. Walking for any length of time? Disasterous. Leg, knee, and foot get numb. Had to take several rest stops.

Now on the other hand, if Scale75 is able to take advantage of there being multiple local vendors there, because the #DiceDojo was also there... Then I wouldn't have to order them online and my desire for instant gratification could be meet!

Seriously though, everyone was great to talk too. The whole Kickstarter event environment has made everyone more 'neighbor' like in that you don't want to poison the water in such a small environment. Lots of great products.

Just hopefully next year, you know, they'll actually bring them to the convention!

Afterwards one of my friends saw how bad I was hurting and took me to Buno Beef. Got a combo with an Oreo shake! Almost made the pain worth the trip.

No, not really, but it was a good beef and sausage anyway.

Prep Work for Kingmaker

I know I've got a heading for Kingmaker, the Adventure Path from Paizo, while posting the Lost Mine of Phandelver image, but it's because I'm using the two in one setting.

For the last several weeks, I've been doing a survey at Woodfield Mall that takes place at 4:00 PM. It finished about 5:00 PM. I got home around 6:30 PM. Eat and it was 7:00 PM. At this point I've been awake since 4:00 AM so yeah, I wasn't going to run any games and to be honest, didn't even leave my house.

But I did have time to catch up on some stuff. I've been reading the whole series over to try and get a better feel for things. I've also been making some 'internal' notes if you will. Kingmaker has a lot of situations that assume the party is going to negotiate with the enemies they're fighting. For example, in the first book, the kobolds are one that the party can opt out of fighting. In the second book, lizard men and a hill giant fall into those categories.

I'm reading this like "Really? Unless the party is severely getting stomped, I can't imagine the party leaving either of these two encounters without wiping out the opposition. They are flesh eaters. They kill people and eat them. In the initial encounter with the lizard men, they're torturing a child. "Well, you know, they were just going to eat it and that's okay." Wha? I get it that 'neutral' is often used on monsters to indicate that hey, if you happen to be made out of meat, they're going to try and eat you, but at the same time, when you apply such alignments to thinking creatures who KNOW that the things they are eating are sentient, well, you've got a problem.

And the hill giant? Yeah, I can't see the party doing anything but pumping that guy for information before fighting him to the death or retreating. "No dude, it's perfectly okay that you attack wandering humans and elves because you're a hill giant and want to eat them. No, go along now."

While I've been doing that, I've also been trying to hunt down a copy of the map folio. I initially started buying the map folios when the Adventure Paths started but wasn't impressed with their actual use. Reading the reviews of this one though, seems like it's actually useful. So of course it's out of print and the Amazon sellers are crazy in the prices they're asking. Damn internet making people crazy with that stuff.

I've also been painting up some miniatures. While 5th edition doesn't require them and I've run several combats without them, I always enjoy using them. It also gave me an excuse to start hitting up some old and new miniatures and get some paint on them.

So outside of that, what's everyone else been up to? Any good deals you picked up for X-Mas? I ordered miniatures from Miniature Market and FRP Games. I've already painted a boxed set from Miniature market and still haven't got my order from FRP Games. Sigh.  I was supposed to have that order sometime last month and well before X-Mas. Problem with ordering stuff on sale I suppose although I'd rather someone just go, "We have to hold this for four weeks or we can ship it now and you can cancel the backordered stuff or cancel the order." Several contacts by me later and it's finally shipped. It'll be here after X-mas.

Outside of that, things are moving at the same clip as they have in the past but I myself may have to rethink the whole role playing on Friday nights. I hate to say it, but waking up so early and trying to play with the guys on Friday, a day when I've worked, isn't really working out for me. And I hate saying that because I know a lot of the other people come from far away and also work. I guess my bum factor is kicking into high gear or something.

Oh well, happy holidays everyone! Enjoy your Christmas and have a great New Year if I don't post again till then!

Kingmaker: Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Second Session

I continue my bastardization of running the Mines adventure that comes with the Dungeons and Dragons starter box set mixed in with the Kngmaker Pathfinder adventure path that takes place in the River Kingdoms.

This week's adventurers included:

Gerak: Thief halfling: The player is using an old prepaint from the Dungeons and Dragons miniature line.

Kantos: Dragonborn Fighter: The player is using an old prepaint from the D&D line. He's lucky that my friend, Tom, whose house we're playing at, has a ton of these. Tom was quite the collector back in the day.

Amun Ramas: Druid: Using a metal Reaper cleric with an Ankh staff to represent his Osiron (Egyptian) character. I painted this for him a few campaigns ago but thanks to the Army Painter dip I used, it's still in great shape. That stuff keeps a nice hard shell around the figure.

Erdan: Elf Monk. Using a prepainted figure from the batch, but that prepaint is not an elf. I just finished painting an actual elf monk from Stonehaven, but the gloss coat I threw on it to protect it hadn't dried yet so I'll bring that over next week. Note, there aren't a lot of figures that fit this race and class combination. I think that Reaper has one and that's about it. Too bad I'm personally not a fan of either sculp but you take what you can get.

Erik, who is playing the elf monk, was running late so the group decided to do a little exploring and to hunt down Tuskgutter, one of the side quests in the adventure. This would be one of the things that set the tone for the game in that monsters look like they have a lot of hit points but that tends to be countered with poor Armor Class values.

The group killed the giant boar and make their way back to the encampment as Eric had arrived at that time. With their elf monk in hand, they made their way down to the bandit hideout, which they knew its location from capturing a bandit in an attack against the outpost. On the way, the encampment leader, Olog, asked the party to check in on the hermit who provides the outpost with potions.

The party had an encounter with some wild hogs, rolled off the random encounter table, but after fighting Tuskgutter, I didn't want to fight out another combat with pigs so I ruled that the party made short work of them and that they continued on their way.

Meeting the eccentric potion maker, they did him a little favor, gathering some various berries, during which time I described a few of the local bits of fauna and flora to give the players more information on the River Kingdoms region. The eccentric old man offered them 25% off potions but hey, when they looked at information on Potions of Vitality, no actual prices. I ruled that if a potion of healing for 2d4+2 was 50 gold, that Vitality, which does a lot more, was 100 gold.

Looking real forward to that Dungeon Master's Guide. The current download also didn't have prices, not does the starter adventure.

A few set encounters on the way to the bandits included some kobolds that were resting in a field of radishes, and a huge trap door spider, both of which the party made relatively short work out of. One of the players got a little too enthusiastic in his cleaning of the trap door's spider lair by using his dragon breath on the lair and set aflame the webbing and some paperwork that was down there.

Ooops for him. It's like when players smash open a chest with potions. If you insist on doing things the violent way...

I had an NPC cleric join the party while they were fighting the bandits. I figured that they were short one character so it shouldn't be that big of an issue. The fight was run with generic bandits and a bandit captain and the players did fairly well although the dice sometimes turned against them.

The party returned to the outpost and encountered a few more travellers who'd either come here due to visions, a priest looking for an ancient temple, or because they were here to 'officially' fight bandits from the home kingdom.

I had the druid of the party have a vision of the White Elk, a herald of 'Old Deadeye', a farmer's god of battle so to say. The White Elk showed the druid where the ancient temple was and the party managed to clear out the cursed individual there who was a maddened Polar Bar (aka Cave Bar variant from the Monster Manual.)

The party made enough XP to get up to third level.

In terms of the original starter adventure, the I switched out the Forgotten Realms city for Pitax, a city of scum and corruption in the River Kingdoms, and the party will probably head there after fighting against the 'Stag Lord', the main antagonists of the first chapter of Kingmaker.

While using the 5th edition Monster Manual, not a fan of it in some instances. In many ways, 3rd edition brought animals into a meaner place with the various 'Dire' versions of things. There's no template for that in 5th edition that I saw but I was able to use various animals like the giant spider and polar bear to make up for most of the things I needed. Running kobolds and bandits also proved easy.

Another quirk of 5th edition? And it could be I'm missing it, no masterwork items. I could have introduced them to the game but m'eh. I'll live with those not being available.

The relatively low armor class of the characters, the highest being the dragonborn fighter with a shield and his armor, was 18. Everyone else tends to be in the 14-15 range.

Still haven't handed out any inspiration. Think I'm going to have to ask the players to write the various bits that they get inspiration for and use it for reference or something. The Dragonborn player described his handling of Tuskgutter well and I probably should have given him a point for that. But to be honest, I'm not feeling the love for this mechanic. It seems very limited, especially if you can't have more than one at a time.

Maybe I'll offer to give them a point if they write up campaign session recaps? Not sure. How's everyone else handling it?

In terms of props, I used the old map tile set Ancient Forest. Let me say that I'm thankful Paizo figured out a better way to store and keep those tile sets? The new one, Forest Trails for example, the new forest pack and it comes in its own holder and has a miniature version of itself on the back. This allows you to see which tiles go with which set and allows you to keep them together without having to rubber band the package? Fantastic work there! It's an actual evolution of a product.

Compared to the flip mats, the tiles are still a pain in the ass. The flip mats, you bust out the mat and slap it down. These you still have to assemble. Mind you, I like a little variety so I have both but in terms of easy of use? Yeah, the flip mats take the cake here. I have the old one by Gale Force 9, but as we're playing at a friend's house, I'm not carrying my whole library over there every week.

Note for those who might be interested in the Pathfinder setting in this region, Paizo offers for free, a Player's Guide that's supposed to allow players a bit of customization to fit in the region here: http://paizo.com/products/btpy8dqh?Pathfinder-Adventure-Path-Kingmaker-Players-Guide

In terms of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition itself, I'm actually kind of disappointed and okay with it at the same time. The dearth of support coming from WoTC, especially in terms of content that would keep me interested in coming back to the site, is amazing in this digital day and age.

On the other hand, the game system, from a few plays so far, seems a lot easier to wing. It seems a lot more compatible with the material that's already available. Good for me, bad for WoTC. I wasn't impressed with their previous hardcover adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen and am seriously thinking about cancelling my preorder for The Rise of Tiamat.  If I can run any of the hundreds of older bits I have, if not completely free range it, my need for actual new product drops pretty close to zero.

How's everyone else finding the system? My players haven't complained about the lack of fiddy bits like Prestige Classes or Feats, which is surprising in it's own one as one of the guys is a master of manipulating game systems. To see him 'cool' with the relatively limited amount of options in the Player's Handbook is interesting.

I still need to find my old make your own game master screen and put together a few of the rules on combat, although we didn't run into any show stoppers this session.

Next week I imagine that the players will take on the Stag Lord and then move back into the starter adventure so I'm curious to see how that goes. They may be a little more powerful but I doubt they'll be much higher.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: The Meta-Support

I've been playing in a Warhammer Fantasy RPG now for many moons. Long enough for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition to hit the shelves. A few of the players didn't buy it, but were soon swayed by those who had purchased it.

Rule wise, it hits some of the things I like but not all of them. For example, my group had a very short discussion about the benefits of random rolling character bits, like stats and hit points and almost unanimously went with point buy and fixed hit points.

In terms of gaming, I've been reading Hoard of the Dragon Queen, it's the first 'separate' adventure for the new edition. I know that the basic set has it's own adventure mind you but I figured I'd start with something that Wizards of the Coast has been promoting on their home site.

Bad news is I'm not too thrilled with it. It's a little too open and feels incomplete to me. Others have less kind things to say about it on such regular locals as RPG.net.

My dislike of the only print adventure, only 'official' print adventure, has me wondering about the 'meta-support' if you will.

First off, there appears to be no OGL or even GSL. Mind you, that hasn't stopped some like Goodman Games from offering 3rd party support and Necromancer Games has decided to disregard waiting for a license and has already run a Kickstarter to fund some support for the game. Honestly wish that Necromancer Games had the conviction of their legal ground when they had the license to do Tegal Manor mind you but what can you do? The past is the past.

Now the other thing, is back 'in the day', Dungeon and Dragon magazine acted as useful tools in order to bring hype, previews and all sorts of other fun things to the game. I know that during the transition from 2nd to 3rd they were very handy to have and even had things like the game stats for Bahamut and Tiamat.

More importantly, it also acted as a monthly source of adventurers.

Now Wizards of the Coast, in my opinion, has always been weak about supporting its games with print adventurers. 3rd edition had the OGL and SRD and all sorts of other things that meant Wizards of the Coast didn't necessarily have to put those resources in place. But when they killed the print version of the magazines and then when 4th edition didn't engage a lot of 3rd party interest due to its restriction license, WoTC did NOT step up the published adventurers. Sure Dungeon magazine continued its online support but WoTC did weird things in that era.

So you'd think with a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons coming out, that we'd see some new incarnation of either magazine? Something that might allow Game Masters, who at this point don't have the Dungeon Master's Guide or the Monster Manual, some quick adventures.

No such luck.

This to me is a failure on Wizards of the Coast part.

I remember when 3rd edition came out. There was a conversion document. It was a nifty little thing. Wasn't perfect by any means mind you but it was handy.

Anything like that on the WoTC home site? Nope.

Failure again.

Mind you, it's not like WoTC didn't KNOW they were coming out with a new edition for oh, say the past year.

But what about miniature support? While the new game doesn't require miniatures, Wizards of the Coast is doing some new Dungeons and Dragons miniatures thanks to Wiz Kids help. Something like Icons of the Realms?

And it's possible my own internet skillz are failing me here because I can't find a listing of what those miniatures actually are. I see a brief product synopsis on the WoTC site, but in the past, they'd have a gallery of what the miniatures actually were. I GET that it's a Wiz Kids product but sending people to another company's website is stupid.

And even the Wiz Kids website is terrible. Maybe I'm missing it but there are supposed to be like 44 figures (50 counting the non-random pack) and I count 24 images including the non-random pack and a picture of the booster pack. Argh!

Fail!

One of the things this set is supposed to do, is support the adventure.

If so, it doesn't do a fantastic job of it.

This being the first miniature pack of the game, you need to have miniatures available for players to pick from. So with a LOT of ground to cover, because the Player's Handbook is jammed with race and class options, every pick for a miniature should be important.

Eight of the miniatures are 'invisible', see through plastic. Out of 44 miniatures, eight of them are duplicates to be 'cool'.

Imagine that you're a game company. You pay people money to illustrate characters in a setting book.  Say one of them is Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, a halfdragon, blue, champion of the bad guys.  A named character that makes several appearances in the adventure. You have a great illustration of him in the book. Perfect for making into a miniature right?

Nope. They have a 'generic' half red dragon. So you PAID someone to make miniatures that should probably have some type of visual reference and for the adventure itself you PAID someone else to make numerous illustrations that you don't bother using for the miniatures that the game is supposed to be supporting?

Okay, but at least all of the 'core' races are supported right? It's not like 4th edition, where again, Wizards of the Coast KNEW they were introducing dragonborn to the core rules and we have a few Dragonborn miniatures to select from right? They're not going to have to reprint an old dragonborn that looks nothing like the current version of the race right?

Wrong! You may get an invisible gnome that's a copy of the visible gnome, but ain't one dragonborn in the whole pack. And yeah, any of you drow players who aren't doing the whole two scimitars thing aren't going to find anything useful either.

It's like the guys making Dungeons and Dragons want to push the 'standards' of the game by including different things like tielflings and dragonborn but then FAIL to support it.

You want to make some fixed packs? Since the Dungeon Master is probably the one whose going to be buying a lot of these, how about, oh, I don't know, some kobolds, cultists, and ambush drakes? A pack for those times when you need 'em? To me, the whole thing is like Wizards of the Coast going, "Yeah, let's tap into that Star Wars and Star Trek market with this Attack Wing stuff but throw a bone to the miniature players of the role playing game".

To me, they're essentially saying, "Yeah, go buy the Reaper Legendary Encounters line and we'll blame the lack of sales on a soft market or something." For those who can paint, the Reaper Bones, while not prepainted, offer an even better value.

In terms of 'support', on one hand, WoTC has a supplement online with all the monster stats. They need this because you know, those stats aren't in the book.

On the other hand, if you're not going to support the game with miniatures, despite having a miniature set dedicated to it, perhaps, like Fiery Dragon and other companies have done, there can be some counters made? A nice little download for either stand up or lay flat counters since in many cases you already have the art made?

While miniature mapping isn't required, some like it in order to simply keep marching order straight and area of effects straight. When you buy the product, you don't get large resolution sized files that you can print out and use for your game. I've seen some people buy them directly from the artists and make their own maps that way.

I have no problem with an artists supporting themselves through secondary use of their work, but maybe, just maybe mind you, Wizards of the Coast, and Paizo and other companies for that matter, can pay the map makers a little more and get scale sized maps that the people trying to support the companies can then download for their own games? Just putting it out there.

Another venue of what I'd consider failure on the part of Wizards of the Coast is the lack of a PDF product. "Hey, we're sorry we abandoned PDF years ago and stomped off like children who didn't like the way the game was being played. We're back and have a ton of old material for you to buy. Oh, you'd like to support the new material or want it for reference? Uh... no see, we have this digital thing that is not ready yet even though, you know again, we've had something like a year or more to have a product launch..."

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that these elements will "doooom..." the new Player's Handbook. Sales have been very brisk in various online stores and it'll have its moment in the sun. I've never argued against that. I've argued that due to the lack of official product that initially sales will be awesome and may even be some sell throughs of the first printing.

But long term I don't think WoTC is going to be able to compete.

Let me boil down my "you fail" list for Wizards of the Coast.

1. Miniatures that don't actually support EITHER the player's options from the core rulebook or the adventurer that they were designed to, you know, support.

2. Lack of adventures.

3. Lack of Dragon/Dungeon magazines as marketing tools.

4. Actual digital tools that people can use.

5. Conversion documents.

6. OGL/GLS/something official to let third party companies know what they can do. Mind you, Necromancer Games and Goodman have already given WoTC the finger on this one so maybe it'll be irrelevant in the future.

7. PDF support.

8. Adventure Support with full scale maps that people can use in their home games.

9. Better website. When you're sending readers from your website to Wiz Kids website, you fail. Get a gallery up and some real information.

10. Price. Still think that $50 bones for three books is too high a buy in.Sure Amazon and other methods of acquiring the books can reduce that but that slaps the whole "play in your friendly local store" in the face.

I'll be curious to see where 5th edition is this time next year because once the shine wears off, if WoTC isn't firing on at least a few of those cylinders, people have a TON of options out there including supporting companies that, you know, DO fire on those cylinders.

How about other games out there? Everyone happy with how WoTC is handling the Dungeons and Dragons line outside of the rules? Any of these points strike home or are all these just minor things? Let me know what you think!

The Grey Citadel Adventure Prep

Many moons ago I reviewed The Grey Citadel over at En World. The individual reviews look like they're now in some type of feed system over here.

I've been thinking of running some D&D and nothing too deep. One of the problems with me is that letting my players know I'm doing an Adventure Path is they get all up in character creation from 1st-18th level and have these unrealistic expectations. The Grey Citadel is much smaller but still meaty and I can probably get over a month's play out of the thing.

So I've been rereading it and trying to determine what the best methodology for setting the game up is.I've been downloading stuff from Dark Loch, the original website that supported the adventure. It still has all sorts of goods on it.

One of the problems is that while not absolutely required, 3.5 and Pathfinder in general, use miniatures. As I look through the book, I count up some of the monsters. There are several encounters with striges, one encounter having eight of the things. In terms of skeletons, one with something like 15 of them. Ouch.

But skeletons aren't bad. I've messed with skirmish style war gaming enough to easily have twice that level covered. There are a lot of encounters with thugs as well. And if I wanted to use city guard? Something like ten to an encounter. Ouch again.

Mind you I can use say Fiery Dragon and their digital counter collection. I know somewhere around here I have one of the CD's. Hell, I've used those magic life counters for miniatures in the past.

Still, there's nothing like the physical presence of miniatures on the table. Of course it helps that I like painting too mind you.

I'll have to start going through the old collection and seeing what I can find.

Another 'problem' is that I like having maps. Mind you there are some fantastic maps in the book but I'm talking full scale maps. There are also a few potential fights that don't have maps so I'll have to figure out where those could happen and review my various Paizo Pathfinder maps. Love those suckers as they have so many of them that might fit some of these scenarios.

In terms of the adventure set up, because I'm probably just going to run it as a one-off, I'm thinking of two itnroductions. The players have been summoned for their skills to the Citadel, they happen to be in the Citadel for their own business, or, the more likely possibility, is that they were escorting a caravan here.

I say most likely because The Grey Citadel includes a bit of information outside of the city and it appeals to me that I can use that information already included in the book to get some more mileage out of it and act as a way to introduce the characters to the city.

I've also started to make a few notes outside the book where I think the players would ask for more information. For example, there's a 'celebration' of a rival party of adventurers and I know the first thing the players are going to want are details on what they look like, weapons, etc... so I'm cribbing that in a separate piece so I can have easy access to it outside the book instead of flipping through it.

If the group does decide they're cool with it, and that's a big if as right now they're doing some World of Darkness stuff, which frankly isn't my cup of tea which is why I'm not playing with the amigos at the moment, (yeah, I know I'm a bad sport), I may have to make some more changes deciding on what character class and races the players pick.

The Grey Citadel is available from Drivethrurpg in a few formats. In e-book it's $7.98, in print it's $19.95, and combo is $20.95 The combo is probably the best value and I admit to being a little shocked at the print price as that's what it was when it first came out in 2003 and I assumed there would be some cost association with printing it.

For those who run prewritten adventurers like this, how do you go about it? How many read throughs? How much customization? Do you prefer to have specific miniatures that match the adventure or are you okay with substitutions?

Black Friday Gaming Sales

In America, Black Friday is when retailers pop up massive discounts to get bodies into the stores. It was added by Cyber Monday when online shops decided to get into the action. Now? Now it's pretty much all week, if not all month.

But that's also good new for gamers as there tend to be a lot of sales around this holiday season now anyway.

Miniature Market has a ton of stuff on sale. I placed an order there for some various Warmachine stuff and if funds were no problem, would have ordered a lot more. They have numerous board games for great prices too. The service is usually very good, and if you order more than $99 worth of stuff, the shipping is free.

Fantization does numerous sales throughout the year. In this instance, they're 15% off everything, and 20% off if you spend more than $250. I've used them many times before and they have a wide selection of materials. It's one of the few places for example, you can get Scale75 paint.

Michigan Toy Soldier is a true hobby store with paints from companies I just don't see at other vendors including Life Color. Their doing 20% off if you're a preferred vendor. Shipping is relatively fast and the selection can't be beat, especially if you're trying to get hold of say, Andrea paints or figures.

CoolMinorNot is having a 15% off. Perhaps not the highest discount but they have a wide range of miniatures that you're not going to find in a lot of places.

The War Store, another place I've done business with on several occasions that delivers fairly fast and doesn't have crazy shipping prices, is also doing their sale. Some heavy discounts on a lot of different things.

There are numerous others out there. Goodman Games is doing a sale for example, where you can get the PDF at a discount or even some physical copies of the variant covers. Catalyst games is having some. Litko if you're ooking for dice towers. Military books more your think, Osprey has a ton of stuff in their online shop for 25% off.

I hit my $$$ limit pretty eary between Miniature Market and the War Store picking up a bunch of Convergance stuff for Warmachine that I don't even play, but at those prices figures I could start too.

Anyone have any particular deals they found too good to pass up?

Gen Con 2013: The Loot

Remember when I talked about resellers? Bam! That's what this pile is. From left top to bottom right.

First pile is some high elf lion axe men on top of some Freebooter assassins that were on massive discount from the Warstore. Remember when I was talking about resellers? Yup. They had a ton of Freebooter stuff, a lot of other small company stuff that wasn't moving, and some of the larger company stuff that wasn't moving. Guy was taking offers on lots of stuff because they didn't want to carry it back.  I wasn't going to buy them at all but I have a fondness for high elves from the Warhammer world. I probably have a thousand points or so of them and one day may actually play. The Freebooter assassins? The box was $20 bones and some of the individual figures can run that cost.

Second pile is paint. I'm always looking to expand my paint collection with stuff I don't have or in the Winter Weathering set, techniques I'd like to try. That pile of L5R stuff? Three for ten or one for five. I'll probably never use it but I've had an itch to rum some Samurai action and if nothing else, it may prove inspiration for something else.

Second row is a metal mule. While I love Privateer Press, I hate that new plastic mercenary model in and of itself, especially for the mule. I've been looking for a metal one for a while and this one was like $18. Speaking of the mule, I picked him up in the auction hall across from the dealer's room. Another pitfall to being a game publisher and creator of content coming to the con to sell, is having to pit your wares not only against the resellers, but against your former buyers who are selling your stuff at the auction. I went twice to the auction hall and it was rammed both days.

That pile of historical books? Got it from the same place I picked up the paints and it was buy one get three free. I've just started on the Samurai and the Sacred and it's pretty good, but at this point, I think anyone whose read any Osprey books on Samurai is expecting to see Stephen Turnbull's name on such a book. 

On the left is the new edition of Wyrd's Malifaux which sold out quickly. On top of that is the Nightmare Edition. I'm disappointed by how small it is. In theory, Wyrd moved to plastic because of the price of metal. They've made larger metal models than this sucker. I admit to 'suckertude' because I bought it due to the limited nature along with the book so I could get the last one on top, Miss Step, a female cyborg con exclusive that you had to spend $100 bones or more to get. I was thinking about getting some more stuff but to be honest, I'm not playing the game yet. One of my friends does though and I'm hoping to get into it in that way but as I've noted, other sellers had the other material Wyrd did, sometimes at rock bottom prices. I figure I'll try and finish some stuff this way and see where it goes.

In the center on top are three decks, all illustrated the same, with some dice. They're like zombie cards. I figure I'll keep a deck for Wyrd, as it uses normal cards, and give one to my g/f who is a fan of all things gothic. I picked it up because they were inexpensive and I don't want to say novelty, but I haven't seen them outside the con.

In the center under that is the limited edition adventure being sold by Gale Force Nine. Ugh. It looks like crap on the inside. By deliberate design, they've taken art and other elements from every edition and put little 'cute' yellow sticky notes all throughout the book with rules, by their own admission for DnDNext that are outdated. And they decided to make it a con exclusive that costs $30. You know, when most of the rule material is actually online for free eh? Yeah... I'm thinking they should have charged less, made it vastly widely available and put it online to download for free. When you're boasting in the interior how the new game has 140,000 people on it but you've noted in previous discussions that MILLIONS of people have played, well, I wouldn't be talking about those numbers and would be trying with much more effort to get the game out there. Here's an idea, go see what Paizo did with some of their playtesting and improve on that. Ugh. Ugly ass book.

The Grex is me being a sucker. I have a Patriot 105 that I've been using for base coating and three layer coating where you basecoat one dark color, spray from a slightly higher angle a lighter color, and then almost from the very top an even lighter color. Do that and a wash and some touch ups and you've got some good table top miniatures going. The guy running the Grex booth allowed us to actually use it. Not so the guy running the Badger booth. He also didn't have a credit card minimum.

Don't misunderstand me, the guy running the Badger booth was a wellspring of knowledge. He had a lot of information on how the different types of brushes work, he, unlike the Grex booth, had the new line of paint as well as cleaner and other bits Mind you I didn't see any air compressors but I could have just missed it,  Still, not having a sample of the tool available for people to use, and having a minimum to charge... those things struck me wrong. We'll see if I made the right decision as time goes on but hey, at least I'll be using some of that Badger paint in the machine eh?

 

 

And the last pile of loot starts with some Doctor Who goods from Cubicle 7. While I'm not a huge fan it's an easy system to run and the reading is easy. The books on top are Never Unprepared and Odyess, both by the guys who do Gnome Stew. I bought the former because of store credit and the later because they were relatively inexpensive impulse purchases.

Next to them are some miniatures for the Razor Coast by Center Stage miniatures. I enjoyed razzing the guy about the late 28mm Demons and Devils stuff but he took it in the spirit it was meant and tossed some right back at me. I enjoyed the banter and hope I didn't come off as too much of an ass.

I initially was going to buy some GCT studio's Bushiod but they only took cash so I returned to the OSR booth and got in an order for the giant frog demon. The other miniatures there are some Bombshell Babes. When the guys doing the Bombshell Babes initially did their Kickstarter, I thought it was too T&A. It's not that I've got anything against T&A but let's face it, for most female miniatures, that's ALL they've been. There are exceptions of course but the vast majority is T&A so I've been well covered for years on that front. I was glad to be wrong thought as there are several great figures here including one that would be a perfect female version of Solomon Kane. I bought these miniatures because I haven't seen them in the store and hey, I can save on shipping and handling.

Above them is a book that's like City State of the Sea Kings or something. A massive tome for the old City State of the Invincible Warlord setting. I'm a sucker for that setting. While I was introduced to it through the 'vile' version by Mayfair, I've since gone back and picked up a lot of the older Judge's Guild stuff. I haven't looked at it yet though.

That map and the little booklet under the Gale Force 9 miniatures is proof that Dwimmermount is still chugging along. While the book itself was supposed to be available at the convention, that fell through but at least something made it to the wilds eh?

Speaking of Gale Force 9, the miniatures I bought because I haven't been able to get them from Games Plus. All Games Plus, a normally fantastic hobby shop, has been able to get, was 'Wave One', the purple worm and mind flayer raiders. Now here's the 'funny' thing. They were supposed to have some other figures as well and even had a price sheet for them on the main sheet. These weren't large banners or anything so I'm puzzled as to why they didn't just take those price sheets down and remake them. They were standard sized sheets for Gumby's sake.

In addition, they also got hit by the 'shipping demon' as many of the figures didn't make it the first day. That worked out for me thought because the line to buy was around the booth. The next day it was pretty much a walk in and buy. A 'funny' store about my purchase. I told the guy that I was buying so much because my FLSG couldn't get the Wave 2 and later releases. He told me NONE of the material had actually been shipped. Uh... I may have mentioned above that I already have some of them and heck, even painted the purple worm. He actually argued the point with me. Why he would do that I have no clue. Heck, unless I'm misremembering, some on RPG.net swear they got Wave 2 stuff. Ah well.

I didn't even look at the Privateer Press limited release bit. While I've actually been painting up stuff and am prepping for actual play, the limited mini did nothing for me and it's going to have a more general, and to me, more useful release down the road.  I'm sure I missed some other opportunities like Coolminiornot had options to get some limited figs if you spent X but I'm not playing Hell Dorado, and despite having a good selection of Anima figures, not playing that so no need to buy those at full price to get something I'm not going to probably ever play.

While I spent more than enough money, I'm pretty happy with the fact that most of the stuff I bought falls into a few small categories. It's either stuff I could only find at Gen Con, or stuff that was so inexpensive that buying it at full price later would mean it's simply not going to be bought.

Anyone score any awesome swag? Anything you missed that you wanted to buy?

Tome of Horrors: What Monsters Would You Have Picked?

Center Stage Miniatures is closing in on their Tome of Horrors Kickstarter.  They have exceeded their initial funding goals and have unlocked a nice variety of bonus figures and add on figures.

The Tome of Horrors is a classic monster tome as it updated a ton of creatures from previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons to first the 3.0 rules, then 3.5 and eventually Pathfinder. Reaper Miniatures did some figures based off the initial art. Now Center Stage Miniatures is taking their shot at it.

I pulled the last version, the Tome of Horrors Complete, down from the shelf today just to page through it and see what monsters I would have went with for miniature purposes.

Amphisbaena: The old snake with a head at each end is very old school. It's also a relatively simple creature. Maybe too simple?

Cat Lord: This would have to be a two part figure. One in the nature version and one in humanoid version.

Bat, Doombat/Mobat: Maybe a slight twist on the figure since they are both large bats? The good thing about something of this nature, is it could work in many situations requiring a giant bat. Often vampire based games tend to have these types of monsters.

Bonesnapper: In some instances, this could work nicely as a raptor.

Cerberus: Depending on how it was made, especially since he's described as being 'Huge', this one could be an interesting 'bonus' style figure.

Cooshee: Come on man, it's an elf dog! A great companion for rangers and other forest walkers, it could also sub as a cool looking dog. It's been in multiple sources from it's credit section.

Daemons: It's possible that Center Stage will do a Kickstarter just for these bad boys as there are quite a few classic bits there.

Dark Stalker: I was kind of surprised this one didn't show up. They have the Dark Creeper but no Stalker? The Stalker is like the boss man!

Demon Shadow: I admit, this one might be kind of hard to capture in miniature form. At least it would be easy to paint.

Demonic Knight: Okay, not quite the Death Knight, but the illustration in the core book is a nice one with a black plate suited knight with a vicious looking two handed sword.

Dragonnel: It's dragon like, could probably be used as a wvyvern but is a HUGE creature so it's feasibility isn't really there.

Eye of the Deep: Not quite a beholder but...

Four Armed Gargoyle: Depending on the sculpt and the paint job, could probably be used for a few different types of creatures ranging from demons and devils to well, gargoyles.

Half-Ogre: The picture by rjt is a great one and would be fun to see cast up.

Khargra: I don't think this one would be popular at all but I don't recall ever seeing a miniature for it. It's also small sized so there could be a few of them.

Greater Medusa: While the whole medusa becomes half snake thing has been done a few times now, it's still a great concept and could be used for some of the various snake races out there.

Skeleton Warrior: Like the Death Knight, a classic from the old Fiend Follow. The illustration by rjt would look good in lead too.

Troll, Ice: The ice troll, like the two headed troll, is an old classic.

Personal favorites... the ones above are mainly real old school or could sub for other monsters. These are ones I just like the look of.

Brass Man: A large construct with a solid picture? Sold!

Golem, Mummy: A medium sized cloth bound creature that players might mistake for a mummy instead of an undead and waste precious undead killing resources against?

Obsidian Minotaur: I like the way the illustration looks. Might be another one that's boring to paint thought as it has no real areas to 'detail', just a huge minotaur shaped hunk of obsidian.

Reliquary Guardian: While it's large, with the 'weeping angels' being so popular from Doctor Who might make some people happy.

Ronus: A wolf with the head of a falcon? Score! I could use a pack of them.

Soul Reaper: A large undead with a scythe? Could also make a great Dread Wraith sub.

The N'gathau: Hellraiser meets D&D. Mind you, this might be better done as a separate Kickstarter to judge interest but it's something I would hopefully be able to back.

Mind you those aren't ALL the ones I'd like to see done up, just the ones I'd most like to see done up. The book is a huge bastich after all.

Kickstarter April Edition

Ramble ramble ramble...

Kickstarter for me has turned into a place where money goes either to die or enter into a state of hibernation like Ripley in the Aliens movie where she misses her pickup by such a long time that when she wakes up her kid is dead of old age.

I know, we're "supporting the arts!" but I have to tell you, for that, we're getting some of the lamest updates I've ever seen when talking about 'behind the scenes! "Man, I had a head cold you wouldn't believe! Nothing updated. Sorry dog! Can't help you."

Here's the thing for me at least. A lot of the ones I initially backed were for role playing games. If you can't get some previews, some art, some discussion about your research into the product, where your inspiration is coming from, what made you select some artists, or any number of useful things, don't come to me as a backer with "you're supporting the process!" because most of these process posts are so incredibly lame that if you approached a project manager with them you'd be fired on the spot.

With the advent of the Internet, with YouTube, twitter, and so many other social media options, the fact that most of the ones I've backed hide from their backers and only respond to individual posts instead of, you know, updating the Kickstarter itself? Your doing it wrong.

Onto the late projects!

28mm Demons & Devils: While it's only now officially 'late', remember, no one PROMISED anything would be done in March. That was only an estimate dude. You can't be holding anyone to that stuff. And in the meantime, they haven't sent out the old pledge backing so you know, we can actually order what we've paid for. Then again, I went in for their Facebook exclusive miniature which was done after their Kickstarter so yeah, good work Joe.

1650s Rulebook: Supposedly printed. Will see it in American shores... soonish?

Imbrian Arts Miniatures is now late. Miniatures were supposed to start flowing in Feb and follow up the rest of the year for people who were at a certain level. Turns out Jody isn't going to do that method he initially was in Trollcast due to timing issues. Some have said there's a lot more going on behind the stages and Ed needs to step up and clear his name so to speak. Between this and Red Box I'll be very curious to see how Assimiliation by Ed goes. I'm also curious to see how the Cthulhu Mythos I'm backing, also using Ed, goes. Good luck to everyone involved here. From an outside perspective, it seems a mess.

Reaper Miniatures Bones:Okay, not really late, but late for me as I'm one of the people that backed at a higher level so no generic level and that means more stuff to pack later. One day I will understand the mentality's of the Kickstarter worker. "This person has spent more than 90% of my other customers. I will ship his shit dead last. Screw this guy for supporting me at this level. Dumb bastard!" No, seriously, I get that there are complexities involved in dealing with orders that are not standard or normal, but often, in that dreaded 'real world', when you put in a large or deluxe order with a 'real' business, you generally get taken care of BEFORE the people who are ordering one or two offs. This whole methodology will probably never happen but a man can dream.

Red Box Games: Love Tre's figures but man this has turned into a disaster for the guy. Not only this Kickstarter but the one that followed. Seems to be 'bad blood' between Tre and Ed now in terms of whose responsible for the fiasco.

Note in the comments Tre mentioning one of the things I pegged almost at the start. That if you're a business doing small batches for large orders, you and the person you are serving are screwed. Everyone has to put in more man hours to make it work. If you have an order for 800 broken up into one hundred separate orders instead of one order, or any number under that total number, more trips to the post office, more time packing, more packing supplies consumed, and so forth and so on. It's an ugly situation to be in. This doesn't include things beyond your control like say, a postal hike.

It's one of the reasons why where I work, the large orders are preferred in terms of 'getting the work out' because its more productive to 'touch' a bin once for one hundred pieces then it is to touch that same bin one hundred times for one piece each time. Oh well. Looking forward to seeing it whenever it hits.

Tectonic Craft Studios: Going on a year late. In the meanwhile, he's been doing conventions, setting up trade with internet stores, and selling stuff online. While one can understand the need to do these things, telling the customer in the meanwhile how lucky they are to be getting such great deals didn't fly over to well and I'm actually not the worst jerk in this supporting faction now. People getting tired of reasons and wanting to see their goods. I myself find that its going to be an uphill struggle for him because of things I've mentioned in the past. Comparitive prices to Games Workshop terrain for example.

Tentacles & Eyeballs: The dude here has taken, what for him, was a bone breaking punch to the jaw, got up and said, "Win!". He's turned some of the material that was taken out from the C&D into some fantastic monsters with some great paint jobs.  He made more than he should have and then allowed people to buy in at kickstarter prices. While it's late, he's keep everyone in the loop, no one's had to hunt him down for information, he's provided pieces as they were being done, and has gone above and beyond in my opinion.

Dwimmermount:More drama than your favorite soap opera. I'm glad that the guys have got the rights they need to take care of things. Tavis has been class act here while James deals with a terrible situation. Should have been done months ago in my opinion but hey, people don't want to intrude on such a terrible scene and I can't blame them.

It Came From the Stars: Supposedly on its way. Looking forward to seeing the end result as I'm actually having time on the weekends to do things. Painting and role playing may make a comeback in this life yet!

Midgard Tales: Honestly have no clue what's going on there. I'm actually not worried about it NOT coming out and not really interested in the project any longer. Too few updates, not a lot of clarity for my dumb ass as to what's going on and well, it's something I wish I'd just waited on and maybe bought in the store.

Pathfinder Online: Not late but there were levels with rewards that included PDFs that already exist. They were deliberately put into a special level to encourage people that even if you weren't doing the game, you'd be getting a good value. Those should have already been sent out and maybe it has, but this is another one where I'm not digging through comments and other things to see where things stand in terms of the pledge manager.

Steampunk Musha: Hasn't been updated in months. The game site for Fat Goblin Games, last time I checked, was down. The company has a web presence but hasn't made mention of this game yet. Dead?

In terms of "new" Kickstarters, I've let a ton go. There were MANY miniature ones I wanted to back and a few RPGs. The only one I have backed recently is Wicked Fantasy by John Wick. I like some of the ideas we've seen and he's been good about updating the page with you know, the actual material that will be going into the book. Oh, maybe Fate too? Didn't know if I mentioned that one.

John's I backed because I like a lot of his work. I might pick it up in the store. Fate I backed because it was a fantastic deal and it looks 'fun'. There appears to be community build up around it.

For the most part, I'm done with Kickstarters until I see and hear a rapid improvement. As I've heard things the opposite though, I don't think that will be an issue. For example, let's take Nystul's Infinite Dungeon. I did not back this one at the time. I already had a mega dungeon and more on the way. However, look at who recommends backing it..

"Support this Kickstarter. I'm sure you won't be sorry. Mike's incredibly creative."

- Monte Cook

"For all you gamers wrapped up in the old-school revival, you don't get more old-school than Mike Nystul. How many other gamers were around early enough to get a D&D spell named after them? How many designers were writing sourcebooks about demons back when TSR had banned the word from the game? Let Mike haul you back into the dungeons that thrilled you as a kid and remind you why you were afraid to go in there in the first place!"

- Matt Forbeck

"Mike Nystul is a brilliant designer and the best DM I ever played with. Imagine someone with the ability to peer right into why you play D&D in the first place, who can then create a game with the perfect balance of challenge and reward -- that's the work of Mike Nystul."

- Aaron Loeb

How do you then look at anything these guys say in the future about a Kickstarter? Couldn't Monte have given Nystul a copy of his book on running Kickstarters? The whole thing, from an outsider prospective, looks a mess and it's one that was supported by many industry insiders. I don't think that any of these guys are going to take a direct hit on their rep, but then again, if you backed one of these projects because you were like, "Man, Monte Cook says I will not be sorry! Awesome!" Anyone know if Monte is stepping up with free PDF's of his latest game for those backers?

Anyway, that's enough rambling.

2012 Lookback aka "Not in the Face!"

2012 was a year that put a lot of challenges to me.

For one, my job kicked into overtime. There were bits that I could have done better but I've tried to run the show as a guy who keeps things moving as opposed to smashing one particular group over another because the blow back for such deeds is usually not worth it.

I initially wanted to pull back and do less in terms of the amount of hours I worked. Turns out this year I've worked more hours than I ever did in the past. Working seven days a week was not an unusual thing. Wasn't necessarily a bad thing either but I did fool myself into thinking I was making more than I was. Damn you taxes! Anyway, that cut seriously into my 'me' time.

This meant less reading, less gaming, less painting, less watching movies, less going out, less socialization, and well, more being a sarcastic crab ass just when I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of my skills in that field.

I don't know what 2013 will bring in those regards but I'm going to try and achieve a finer balance in the home life and work life.

Another problem with the dreaded mom. She visited my sister for a few months and neither one of them is used to the other. This lead to some interesting situations and while I tried to give my sister some advice, it was too couched in my smart ass ways for her to take it as seriously as she could have.

And then there are other complications with my mother's health right know which I'm not going to delve too deeply into but suffice it to say it's been stressful for both my sister and I, and I'm sure much worse for my mother herself.

Thankfully, my boss has been very supportive in terms of allowing me to move my time around. Mind you, as it's only recently been an issue and I've been doing a LOT of overtime, we'll see how that scales in 2013. Hopefully things continue going well in the field at least.

Fiction wise, while I enjoyed several books, none really 'broke' out for me. I can name some characters and some bits, but for the most part, it's mostly a blur of 'grimdark' or pseudo grimdark where the author didn't really have the stones to push it to that next level.

Not that they necessarily need to. Even the most harsh of novels and deeds and characters can just get boring after a while. You have to wonder why not one just goes, "Really? Really?"

In terms of gaming it's been a bad year. I've hung out with my friends on numerous occassions and played in the Shackled City. One of my friends has had a few near TPKs and some interesting times with it but again, it's not his DMing style or skills that have kept me from the game, it's been work.

One of the things that's odd, is that the guys I play with went from 4e to Pathfinder without missing a beat. It was like returning to visit a really cool old friend. Turned out some interesting learning experiences for me with the cleric and wizard I played as they were different enough from their 3.5 versions that there were some, "Oh that's cool".

In terms of 5th edition or Dungeons and Dragons Next... no habla. I've thought WoTC has done a terrible job with the mantle of D&D for a while now and well, I figure I'll just let the new edition surprise me.

In terms of new games or games outside my range... didn't happen. There were a ton of games I wanted to check out and play like Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics. No time. I even have the Adventurer Conquror King first book and will soon have the companion. Again, no time.

Strangely enough, that hasn't stopped my supporting of the Kickstarter model. For me, it's a preorder system. I know some people have pointed to KS itself and their words of wisdom that it's not a preorder system despite the fact that KS itself says you HAVE to deliver the goods or pay the money back. So it's not a preorder system but you have to deliver something? Yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

I initially thought that RPGs were money went to die in terms of the KS model. Still do. Way too many projects absurdly late on these things. So late that if these were people you know, you'd be wondering why they're walking across the street pretending they don't hear you.

But now I'm starting to think most niche things, like miniatures as well, are going to have further problems. While Coominiornot has done some good things with Zombicide, their second project is late. Will their third and fourth be late? Reputation is going to start being a HUGE thing on KS, especially if you switch backers and partners to try and look like you're now 'professional' while still not delivering on the previous KS. It'll be interesting to observe while I can.

For miniature games, one of the people I know from my friend's old store, Black Sun Games, has been a machine. Me? I've gotten like two games of Song of Blades and Heroes in. Over the course of the year. Can you say pitiful? What's worse is the amount of money I keep spending on the hobby like I'm really going to delve into Warhammer with my Elves or Deepwars with the Dark Mariners or any of the other games I'm painting or backing.

For painting? Again, time not there. I bought an air brush and while I love using it to lay down base coats, I haven't had enough time to do anything else with it. No time to practice and no time to try out different techniques. I'm happy if I can do three layers and a wash or two.

In terms of buying locally from say, stores like Games Plus, man did that take a hit. I deliberately went then on their Thanksgiving Saturday bit to throw some money their way because I'd be spending so much on the whole KS model. Ouch. My wallet is still recovering.

I know I sound like I'm bitching a lot. On the other hand, I could afford to spend money on my hobbies. My mom is still kicking and while not doing well, is on the road to recovery. Her being sick has actually brought my sister and me a little closer. Work is busy but I'm glad to have a job where I can work overtime and still get paid for it. There are many good things about life and while I've had some challenges, I'm hoping to make life more to my liking in 2013. I hope everyone else has that opportunity as well.

Not onwards 2013 and remember, "Not in the face!"

The Art of Jason Engle

So I'm painting a miniature that comes from the old company, Magnificent Egos. They didn't necessarily make a big splash but they had some great figures. Some excellent assassins.

 

 They were even doing miniatures for the d20 game Oathbound as well as Monte Cook's Iron Heroes. I'm a bit unsure about what happened to the company, but they became Valiant Miniatures and even went to a resin or plastic casting way before it became the in thing to do.

One of the artist they had on hand for the visuals included Jason Engle. While looking for an upclose of one of those assassin miniatures, I stumbled across his deviantART galley. I know art is highly subjective and if you don't like Jason's style, then his art gallery probably isn't going to move you much, but there are some great named scenes in there and some potential names for different things in the campaign.

Sadly, I did not find what as I was looking for, as Koyote, the second miniature here, the painted one, really only has that one painted example and while I could have searched a bit more or hunted down some other painted examples, I didn't want to spend a ton of time on something I was just doing to knock out a few more rogues in my collection.

Heck who doesn't love a place called the City of Twilight with such colorful characters eh?

Gen Con 2012: Overall Impressions

I was running a lot of games. So many that I didn't necessarily have enough time to take in the rest of the con to provide anything other than a brief look at some things.

For example, I wasn't hip to any new product announcements or any of the various panels. Heck, I didn't even go see any of the movies the Con usually has playing.

Last year I would've swore that laptops were on the way out and tablets in. Maybe next year. Most of the people I saw were still using their phones for a lot of things and no one at any of the games I ran actually used a tablet outside of myself. For me though, it did replace my laptop. See, my laptop actually died right before Gen Con. I thought about getting a new one but with the convention itself being a place where I spend a lot of money and with the new Windows coming out supposedly at the end of October... yeah, I was going to wait on that one.

And that worked out fine. I was still able to read my PDFs and everything so that worked out well.

In terms of free wifi though? Man, last year it seemed to be everywhere. This year every hotel I was at had some premium membership you had to be a member of to have it or pay some outrageous fee to buy it. Suffice it to say that did not happen for me at least.

My purchases this year center around a few spots. As I was working for Cubicle 7, I did receive some credit for every game I ran. They make some great and beautiful games but alas, those games are not inexpensive so I went well over my credit limit. Many of these I bought because I wanted either a hardcopy reference, like the new Doctor Who boxed set or Yggdrasill, or they were new and might be handy to show players of the sesson like the Loremaster Screen for the One Ring and the new adventure. Some of it was just stuff I was interested in for a while like the new Runequest and one of the setting sourcebooks as well as some Legends of Anglerre, which some of my friends swear by, although we never play it. Oh, and dice for the One Ring. While its not a HUGE deal to use regular dice, having the special d12 does give it a bit more visual appeal.

I also stopped by the auction hall this year. Twice even. Apparently the material starts at one price Thursday and often is marked to go down Friday and Saturday. Mind you, this is in the 'store' part of the auction. I didn't stay in the auction proper or do any bidding. I still managed to spend quite a few dollars in the hall on miniatures I don't need but at the price was thinking... why not? Some of these were from lines I've bought before because they're a little off the beaten path and are nice simple casts while others were for good old Warmachine.

One of the biggest booths I stopped in had to be Cooliminornot. They were promoting the hell out of various games and had some fantastic set up all around them. Being a huge miniature game fan, I spent not as much money there as I would have liked, but more than enough. I picked up a Kingdom Death Flower Knight, which I haven't even meseed with yet as I'm still cleaning up my apartment, as well as a Dark Young.That sucker is huge. I bought it almost entirely on the strength of the paint job and its size. Looks like it could easily be a prime monster for any type of campaign.

At the Paizo booth, I saw a ton of third party Pathfinder material including one I helped Kickstart, Rappan Athuk. That pissed me a little. Some other Kickstart projects allowed you to pick up the book. I could be smoking dope here, but I don't recall that being an actual thing here. It's not the first time a Kickstarter I've backed has allowed the product to be put on sale before the people who you know, made it possible to actual exist got their copies first and it probably won't be the last but it is annoying as hell.

I also stopped by the Warstore, another miniature specialty place. Here I just picked up a ton of bases from Microart that were on sale. Maybe a few other things that weren't standard either but nothing out of touch with things.

Another place I spent money on was the Something Positive store based on the webcomic. I wanted to pick up the Super Stupor comics for a while and finally managed to do so. I'd still have prefered to pick these up in digital format from say Comixology but hey, if the guy isn't going to do it, have to get 'em any way I can right?

Games Workshop had a presence this year and were selling Forgeworld stuff. Everything that I wanted was out of stock and the guy was practically grabbing my leg and begging me to buy it now and they'd ship it free to my house later on. Uh... no thanks.

I was going to pick up Dungeon Crawler and the miniatures and the maps but they weren't set up to take credit cards. In the year 2012, when people are pulling out tablets and letting me sign for my toys on these tablets, or phones in some cases, to not have that ability well... it cost him a sale of over one hundred bones. I know someone is going to say that I should carry excessive amounts of cash on me for the chance that yeah, someone is not going to take credit but... here's the thing. That company takes credit online so if I really want to buy it, I'll just order it online. I don't. It was a "hey, this looks neat thing' and now sanity has returned so no sale for him. Maybe next year.

I also spent a lot of money on shirts and goofy hats for my girlfriend. She likes some of the stuff they have and its not quite so 'corporate' funny like a Simpson's tee-shirt so I wound up picking her some odd five shirts and two different hats. She likes them so that's great.

There were a few bits in the hall that I didn't get to check out as much as I wanted. For example, Gale Force 9. Apparently they had some new miniatures that they weren't selling for WoTC but did have on display. I went there to pick up a bunch of pressed wood bases that you get to shop out in a Chineese take out container. I was hoping to pick up some terrain as well but too busy.

The art gallery is another spot I didn't get to check out. It was huge and had a ton of people there but I had limited time so, like the author's alley bit, maybe next year.

In terms of my own patterns, I'm an early riser thanks to working first shift where that means getting up at five AM every day so I was always up even without the alarm clock. Meant I also always went to bed early too. Or at least as early as I could.

I find it interesting that the hall is dominated not by publishers, but by stores these days. The two miniature stores I was at had huge presences. Mind you, that could be because, at least for Coolminiornot, that they were demoing Relic Knights, Super Dungeon Explorer, Dark Ages, Wrath of Kings, Confrontation, and other games and needed that space. Still, there were multiple shirt sellers and video sellers as well. I guess its a consequence of the convention having a name for itself where you can make some money if you have the right mix of products. I expect that aspect of the convention to grow.

The convention also seemed very crowded and apparently broke more attendance records. Most of the people seemed pretty well behaved but man, there needs to be a course on learning how to walk. I know that sound stupid but there were numerous times when people walking in front of me would just stop and start to look around at a booth or pick up their phone or engage in conversation. Don't like, you know, move to the side and do any of those things. Just stand there like a slack jawed dumb ass and do it. Ugh. Ah well, crowds have that effect one me regardless and I'm sure I'm exaggerating a bit but not much.

Another pisser for me, is in the past, my mom would take the car and go visit her relatives also in Indiana. She hasn't been doing too well these last few years so in the garage the car goes. So almost one hundred bones to you know, park the car. And gas. I remember back in the day Indiana used to be far cheaper for gas than Chicago. Mind you, it's still cheaper, but the comparative price is nowhere like it used to be.

Foodwise I didn't do bad. We have a 'biggest loser' contest going on at work and since I am a fat ass, I've joined just to see what I can do. We get free breakfast at the hotel so it was a few eggs, always bad, some fruit, some juice, and some coffee and then for lunch and dinner, most of the time it was power bars. Ugh. Not the most tasty convention I've gone to but that did save me a LOT of money compared to how much I've spent in previous years on food.

Don't know if I'll be going next year, but one of these years I figure I'll have to go just as a jack ass who isn't running any games or manning any booths and just roam about. I have a hard time justifying that 'sell' though because I get to game on a fairly regular basis and don't really need to leave the state for that. However, I would like to go to some of the various painting sessons or enjoy the paint and take itself again some time. I'd like to check out some of the other games I never get to play thanks to my group's love of Pathfinder. Still, the whole hotel and pass fees can be daunting. Something to think about next year.

August Kickstarter Notes

Well, it's August and I can tick down the Kickstarters again or go with what my gut is telling me.

RPGs and Kickstarters are not a good combination. When the game companies themselves can't make their release dates for various reasons, for Joe and Jack Smoo to boldly seize the Kickstarter model and put a date on that there has NOTHING to do with reality, well, it's time for me to realize that as much as I'd love to support the hobby directly and as much as I admire some of the people involved with the games coming out and as much as I'll miss some really cool stuff, it's just not my thing on the RPG side.

I can tick off three that are months late and the people running it have already said, "Uh yeah, it's going to be done when it's done." So business as usual. Why would an individual running stuff have a better track record then a company that usually missed it's deadlines? Or any gaming company that missed them? Ah well. Hopefully the whole thing doesn't turn into another 'Razor Coast' fiasco because some of these individuals are decent people and I'd hate to see them ruin their online reputations. If people start asking for refunds, that will be the real test.

So I'm pretty much done with RPG kickstarters. A little annoying really and maybe when the RPGs I've backed finally do come through maybe I'll be like, "Oh wow, that was so awesome having to wait months and months and months for it that I'll support your project in the future."

But probably not.

But for whatever reason, I'm still doing the miniatures:

http://www.indiegogo.com/drakskullsmenace Picture a Games Workshop Vampires Count Army. Now picture it with Games Workshop Orcs but still for Vampire Counts. Some pretty cool stuff coming out here.

http://www.indiegogo.com/pirate-goblins Pirate goblins? Pretty good prices? Yeah, down with that.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-an-evolution-of-gaming-min?ref=live People want to see Reaper Miniatures come out with more Bones, their inexpensive plastic variants of their miniatures. This Kickstarter is going to be friggin' huge.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103158358/red-box-games-helsvakt-horde?ref=history Tre Manor is a Reaper sculptor who has his own line of goods. He's switching over to a new material.

Historical note here: I thought that as soon as Games Workshop went to 'Finecast' that it was over for metal. I posted on RPG.net about it. The price is too much in flux and almost always going on way. Looks like I'm pretty much right on the money. It'll be interesting to see what happens as this trend can only continue.

Kickstarter For July 2012 Review

I've been a backer of quite a for quite a few projects on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Figure I'd talk about where I'm feeling they are now.

Barrowmaze II I like some of the old school vibe, especially in the art field so I went in with it and even paid for a hardcover of the first Barrowmaze. It's essentially too soon to know how its going to fly but there have been some good notes thus far.

Blackwater Gulch: Cowboy miniatures. The updates have been coming with a fair degree of frequency but I'm not too thrilled by one of the latest updates where we have to order the material from the store using a special section. Maybe if I didn't go "all in" so to speak on the starter set and feel I'm doing a bit of "WTF" work. Still, everything has been good so far in terms of updates.

Bushido: The Ito Received all the current information we can but I'd like to see some more stuff on what's coming down the pipe in terms of greens and other goods. However, this doesn't appear to be a fly by night company or anything so I'm okay with it.

Deepwars:  Very pleased with the results so far in terms of how they're approaching it and the updates.

Dwimmermount: James is going to have to blow my socks off before I pledge anything for his projects again. Plenty of time for his blog, his WoTC work, and G+ hangouts but actual updates to the Kickstarter proper? And maybe it's just me being my own anti-social self but the project is already announced to be late and well, we'll see at this point.

It Came From The Stars: another case where there may be more going on in their own forums and what not but the posting updates have been slow, the project is already admittedly delayed, the bonuses for doing the higher level subscriptions don't look like they're going to amount to much outside of future promises. This will be another company that is going to have to pull a rabbit out of its hat if it wants my Kickstarter money in the future.

King For A Day: Jim has been providing a fair amount of updates including samples of the interior, maps and other bits. Looking forward to it.

Kings of War:    I've bought stuff from Mantic before. This was their kickstarter to do some more stuff. I'm into it for way too much but they've been pretty current with updates including previews of the shirts, model designs and other bits. As this is a company I've done business with as a physical entity I'm pretty comfortable with my pledge although the wounding to the wallet did require hella overtime.

Midgard Tales: I'm getting that sense of being a bit of a douche again. Another bit where the majority of the updates seem to take place on the forums. Yawn. Open Design has been using a patron system since before the whole Kickstarter though so I've got no worries about the final product. I know that may seem unfair to say company X is going to have to work hard for $$$ but company Y in a similar position doesn't but... here's the thing, company Y has already done it's share of these things in the past and company X talks a good game but talk is cheap.

Sedition Wars:  Thank god I don't have children because they would starve. A little too early to tell where the updates and such will be here, but again, an established company, using an established formula, with great perks.

Steampunk Musha:  I'm a fan of the genre and the game system but updates have been lax. Like some other kickstarters, the updates have often fell into the comments area.

Tectonic Craft Studio: They've stayed on top of their updates including photos, samples, demos, and keeping the people in the loop. I can't stress this enough. If you're going to be late with the project, DO NOT MAKE THE BACKERS ASK YOU. You need to be in front of that. You need to take ownership of it.

I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere.

Again, it seems the miniature companies take their projects very seriously and the RPG crowd is doing it as a one off or something. That's just my opinion. Too many delays, too many people having to ask what's going on, etc... I suspect that Kickstarter will be the place where reputations are made are broken and that companies are going to quickly learn the utility of conversation and communication on the internets.

But hey, I've been wrong before.

Quick Note on miniatures

I blather about miniatures too. I used to use them a lot in my RPGs now I mess with them because I enjoy painting them and trying out different ways to paint them. If miniatures interest you, my yakking can be found over here.

http://myminiaturemadness.blogspot.com/

Let's Talk About Kickstarters

I've back a few kickstarters so figure I'd pop out and talk about why, my impressions, and a few random rants.

It Came From The Stars:  This was the first one I did. I just asked if it's going to meet its initial completion date. Answer? No. Here's another kicker, I backed at at a level that's supposed to provide me with everything the company does this year. Uh... they haven't done anything. They're working on 'making it right' but this one sets off the 'vibes' detector. Still, it looks cool which is why I backed it in the first place and I've got some hope. The updates they have provided feature some great art and I like Pathfinder so here's hoping.

King For A Day: Jim has done a lot of great stuff. Toolbox is one of the best supplements out there period. He did a lot of good stuff in terms of what you get from the actual pledges. However, "I've been busy finishing freelance projects for clients who actually pay me (weird, I know) and as soon as those are put to bed (around end of this month), you'll get more updates from me, here." Uh... here's me being an ass on the internet. If you're going to treat a kickstarter like some part time get to it when you have time thing, then you really need to make that as clear as possible. Now mind you, it could just be Jim saying that he's working on some material and he doesn't mean it to sound like "that pay him" as opposed to the people on the kick who are you know, paying him but it just sounded off to me. This is part of the problem with the dreaded 'internets' where language isn't as clear as it could be. But again, Jim's done some great things and the hope is high again. Hell, he increased it from 200 to 300 pages!

Blackwater Gulch: Not the first miniature game I backed, which I'll get to in a minute but let me point out what seems to be a very 'real' thing to me. The guys doing the miniature games are doing a lot of communication with the crowds. They are showing 'real' progress of models, of painted models and have a lot of stuff going on. This one added a ton of things as they went through their levels and I'm impressed with what I've seen so far.

Bushido, The Ito: Okay, not a kickstarter and still in process but again, the miniature guys are showing a lot of movement very quickly. Lots of art and models being shown off here and the rewards have some quickly visible tangible effects. Good stuff so far.

Deepwars: The first miniature project I backed. I like a lot of the concepts and figure there are a lot of figures here that can pull double duty. One of the things that was impressive, is how well the company appears to be taking care of the backers from the initial pledge. Mine started off with three factions and got kicked up to another starter set when they hit one of their goals. In addition, like with the other miniature companies, a lot of previews, a lot of material coming out. Pretty sure this is going to be awesome.

Dwimmermount :I like a lot of stuff going into the product in terms of maps and play aids. Their bonus for various stretch goals were incredibly stingy in my opinion and the stretch goals were like double and triple the initial funding goals. Updates have not been frequent but they've been doing other stuff on Google + and I really haven't been paying too much attention.

Midgard Tales: This is just me but I wish there were more options for getting involved in Open Design without some of these levels charging you to ask for your ideas. I'm not into the whole scene as far as that goes. The product looks interesting and I'd like to buy it but working and having a real live keeps me out of deep involvement in these things. The guy behind this has been doing these before Kickstarter showed up so I'm sure that of all the RPG ones, this one is as close to a done deal as you can possibly get.

Tectonic Craft Studios: Another one of the early miniature supplements I backed. Lots of updates, lots of information, lots of visuals. Looks to be a good bang for the buck assuming it comes out. Pretty happy about this one again.

Order of the Stick: I backed this one for the unique PDFs as I already own most of the books with the exception being the collection from the days of Dragon magazine. One of the most successful kickstarters around.

Steampunk Musha:More Samurai but this time with some Steam Punk and hey, it's for Pathfinder. Looks like it's going to hit some impressive goals. It's another one on the 'good' side of stretch goals and rewarding those who back it. Too soon to see which way the wind is blowing here in terms of updates.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King Player's Companion:  I missed out on the initial book but heard a lot of good things about it so went in for the Companion level where I got the first book. Which I did. So hey, one of the first things I've gotten out of the Kickstarter projects eh? Looking forward to the book.

Recreating My Melnibonean Art: I'll be honest and that I supported this one out of pure nostalgia as I actually own the original Deities and Demigods. 'Nuff said.

Zombicide: Some fantastic perks for the buyers, blew through a ton of its stretch goals, is by a well known miniature shop, has had a ton of reviews and information. Again though, miniature based. I'm seeing a pattern here.

Overall most of the kickstarters were willing to cough up some decent wards. The Dwimmermount seems the least useful for that venue.

Miniature companies seem to provide a lot of updates of actual stuff getting done. I suppose with other written material its not as easy.

Updates after the kick starter tend to wind down. Companies should really work on reversing that trend cause it's much harder to get buy in and go, "Me sorry" then "Hey, remember how awesome I was at updating things around last time? I've learned a lot and its going to be better this time around!" People want to know where they're money went. They want to know what your doing. They want to know whats going on.

A sponsor should NEVER have to ask, "So... uh... where's the project" when the due date is going to hit. Rather, even if it's late, you need to be front and center and revise and update and offer people a refund right there and then.

Gee, it's not wonder I'm working ten hour days, six days a week eh? Damn you kickstarter!