Is WAAC Wack? Part 1 - "What is Casual (to me)?"

This is part 1 of a multi-part article series that will explore the idea of casual vs. WAAC (Win At All Costs) play. This series will not be objective - I'm speaking purely from my experiences and how I view the assumed dichotomy of the two.

In this article I will explore the goals (and pitfalls) behind my time as a "casual player." Keep in mind that this is my experience of trying to be an extreme case of casual, and this is not an indictment of other casual players.



For years I've seen myself as a casual player. That's a broad and rather undefined term, but here's what it always meant to me:

• Play for fun
• Don't "metagame" This is a bit of a loose term, but most people would consider a powerful deck or army with no real "theme" to be metagaming. If you mash together a bunch of powerful, unrelated pieces and turn it in to a winning list (especially if it's built to directly counter what others are doing), there's a good chance you're metagaming.
• Rules aren't important if they get in the way of fun (this will be important later)
• Don't use things that are considered "broken" or "overpowered." This differs from metagaming in that you can use "overpowered," game-changing things without breaking a theme.
• If I didn't have fun, I've failed in playing casually.
• If my opponent isn't having fun, I've failed in playing casually.

Being a casual player in things like Magic and Warmachine aren't the same as "poker night with the guys." Despite sharing the goal of winning, the means of winning are quite different.

In poker, your goal isn't necessarily to beat an individual opponent. True there is the aspect of "reading" and "bluffing," but for the most part you win by doing better than everyone else. As a player, you exist in a vacuum with no direct hand in your opponents' successes or failures. In short, you have very little to do with your opponents' loss.

Competitive games like Magic, Warhammer... heck, even Pokemon thrive on you working directly against your opponents. In Magic you destroy their creatures, make them discard cards, or shoot massive fireballs at their head. You don't win the game by winning - you win the game by making your opponent lose.

It's a primal thing, and it's hard to balance it with the criteria I stated above. After all, how can I make it my goal to wipe my opponent's Space Marines off the board while making sure everyone has fun? Do I not take advantage of an opening they left me? Do I leave a powerful vehicle behind for fear of it being "too good," and therefore unfun?

But let's pretend my last criteria doesn't apply to most people. If your overall goal as a casual player is to "have fun," how do you accomplish that? How can you even gauge that if winning isn't the goal? Here are some ways I've tried to define a successful game:

• I put up a good fight, or the game was even
• I pulled off a combo or tactic they wanted to try
• The game ended in a big way for either player
• I got to relax and play a game, no matter the result

As the years have gone on, I've found one major problem with this: my enjoyment is generally dictated by my opponent. If I am constantly stomping or getting stomped in a casual game, it starts becoming tedious. You know the end result before going in, and the game's anticipation is lost. It becomes two hours of "going through the motions" as the night progresses the same as it always does. Even the last one requires that you only play with people you don't hate.

But perhaps you haven't lost the anticipation because despite a negative win record, there are still those times when you pull out a win and feel great about it. Awesome! But why not do it more? If you are playing something that is obviously inferior to other choices, why continue?

That's a bind I found myself in. Unless you have casual play imposed on you (usually due to financial limits), it's hard to justify being a purely casual player. I was rather stubborn about this for years, even when I started playing things like Warmachine where I could spend 2 hours playing a game where I know I'm going to lose - not through any fault of my own, but simply because I didn't want to "bring it."

During a rather intelligent online discussion of this topic (which I can't locate, but an intelligent online discussion did happen!), someone posed a simple question to me. He told me to look at it from my opponent's perspective - if I'm going in to a game knowing that my inferior choices are going to lose me the game in the name of casual fun, am I not robbing my opponent of his fun? Even if he enjoys the win, I've done nothing to challenge him in a friendly, but competitive, way.

As I thought about that, I realized I couldn't argue. If I ask someone to play a 2 hour game of Warmachine with me and my basic plan is "have fun, maybe win," then all I've done is lock my opponent in to a 2 hour game of eventuality. Instead of making him work for the win, all he has to do is put in the time.

Is it fun for him? Sure, the first few times will be a lot of fun because everyone loves winning. But after 4 or 5 games, fun turns to drudgery. Even if I try to win with a poorly-made army, the onus is on him to find his own fun. If he wants to have an even game, he has to bring an equally bad list, and if he's really good he'll have to dumb himself down so that his "bad list piloted by a good player" doesn't stomp my "bad list piloted by a player who doesn't care."

Doing that makes me a poor opponent and a poor friend. The worst part is that I knew I was doing it. I knew I was a horrible Magic opponent because I brought $10 casual decks against $200 competitive ones and acted like it didn't matter. But I wore that "casual player" classification like a badge of honor. I'd tried my hand at being nothing but competitive (which you can hate me for me part 2), and somehow I felt that not actively trying to win made me more honorable than those dirty rotten players who played competitive games... competitively.

And now, at age 27, it finally hits me:

If you don't play to win, why play at all? 

If you're new around here, be sure to like my Facebook page. I post various gaming-related content every single day, and Facebook is the best way to stay up-to-date on it. It's also the only way to qualify for my monthly giveaways! Next time I'll explore my brief stint as a Win At All Costs (WAAC) player. (Part 2 here)

See you tomorrow!

Conflicting Sewer Ideas

I'm having second thoughts about the sewer.



Don't get me wrong, I don't think putting Hamelin in a sewer scene is a bad idea. However, I was browsing through Wyr'd website and found this little beauty:

This is a full set of sewer terrain made by Wyrd Miniatures. Naturally flat scenery printed on cardboard won't be better than a hand-crafted sewer. However, the fact that this would utilize another Wyrd product may not be a terrible thing. The picture obviously wouldn't be taken of the entire thing - just a small section that looks really nice.

As a reminder, here's the beginning stages of my sewer:



And I won't lie, the thought of getting to move on to my charity project sooner is very appealing. Plus I'd have a sweet piece of terrain for IKRPG.  However, I don't want to completely destroy my project if the hand-crafted sewer idea is just that much better than the Terraclips terrain.

So let me know what you guys think. Should I stick with the plan, or deviate and have everything but the rat swarm be made by Wyrd Miniatures?

See you tomorrow!

Hunt for Goreshade - A Hat-Wearing Third Wheel

The magic-wielding priest and relentless mage hunter squinted as they emerged from the deceptively simple hunting shack. With enough evidence to prove a dire threat was coming to this small town, the two silently picked their way through the forest.



When they reached town, Fallofel immediately sought out the mayor and explained what he saw while Mercir met with John and then went to bring news to the widows. The mayor sat in shock as the elf explained everything, not pausing to allow him to absorb it all. As his mouth flopped around worldessly, Fallofel hinted that he should send a runner to the nearest city, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.

As he turned to leave, the mayor finally found himself and called out about a lone Cygnaran soldier of some sort who just arrived, in case he was still looking for work. Although he found enough gold on the corpses to keep his belly full for awhile, he and Mercir agreed to see what work could be found with the Cygnaran soldier.

Upon entering the tavern, they needed no help locating their target. A large, expensive three-point hat almost seemed to fill the modest, small town tavern. As the two made their way to the hat, the figure underneath lifted his eyes to the two adventurers who clearly didn't belong here.

Fallofel inquired about any work the soldier might need. With a strong voice of one who was well trained, Doulos explained his current mission. Aggression on Cygnaran posts stationed at the edge of the Thornwood were increasing. A single soldier was being sent to check on a small trading post to make sure everything was in order. The post's location made it nearly impossible for any army to march through unless they walked in 5 or 6 man columns, nevermind the difficulty of navigating the many large tools of war.

With no leads on Goreshade in weeks, the two saw no reason to say no to marching toward one of the most hostile areas in the Iron Kingdoms.

The three traveled in a silence they had all grown used to. During their stops, the priest and mage hunter had tried chatting up the straight-faced Doulos about the events they'd just discovered, but the soldier, who they finally discovered was no mere soldier but a gun mage, only had a mind for his current mission. Several times during the journey, Fallofel felt quite certain that a strange, diseased-looking crow was following them, but it never stayed around long enough for even his trained eyes to see it.

As they rode along a small path past several isolated farmsteads, the familiar sound of gunfire and shouting jolted them out of their silence. They agreed it came from the other side of a nearby hill, so Doulos and Mercir waited at the bottom while Fallofel quickly scrambled to the top. Not far from him, a Cygnaran in a dirty grey coat leaned against a large tree, clutching a gunshot wound at his side. Farther out, three men in unimpressive clothing confidently advanced on the wounded man. Fallofel realized the wounded one was from the famous Order of Illumination, a small group of church-sanctioned witch hunters. Knowing who to side with, he quickly motioned to his two partners and without thinking made a mad dash to the bottom of the hill, unslinging his crossbow as he ran.

Two of the men saw him coming; one unsheathed a short sword and ran toward him while another brought his rifle to his shoulder and took aim. The rifle shot went wide, but Doulos and Mercir arrived at the top of the hill in time to see the the mercenary catch their friend with a deep slash to the arm. It wasn't fatal, but it was enough to put him at a serious disadvantage, and he rolled with the slash and beat a quick exit away from his attacker.

With a bit of a smirk, Mercir called upon his faith and made a quick healing prayer for the impulsive elf, mending his wound enough to let him shoot without pain. Seeing the wounded Illuminated One and Morrowan brother, the priest ran down the hill to stabilize the man, trusting his partners to cover his advance.

Doulos couldn't believe the madness he'd invited to his journey. Unconcerned for the elf's lesson in foolishness, he made a quick plan to split their defenses to cover the priest. The gun mage mentally cast three quick spells on a bullet he crafted to hold them. He took aim at the man who'd attacked the elf and pulled the trigger. His accuracy spell corrected a sudden gust of wind, his brutality spell made an unnaturally large entrance wound, and his thunder spell caused the organs to turn to liquid from the impact, sending the mangled body hurtling through the trees.

Fallofel's target was able to get one shot off on the wounded Illuminated One before putting a bolt through his chest. As the gun mage and mage hunter set their sights on the last survivor, they could only see a whisp of his cloak as he disappeared through the trees and ran toward a small farm in the distance. Knowing he was out of range, they quickly went to Mercir as the priest-turned-field-medic attempted to revive the man. He was fortunate to close the most recent wound with ease, but his more initial wound started to bleed out even worse.

Calling upon Morrow to help aid his follower, the god seemed to answer as Mercir's hands seemed to work with a skill that would have left the greatest surgeon in Immoren speechless.

Mercir's medicine roll.

As he clipped the last stitch and stabilized the unconscious witch hunter, Mercir cleaned himself and then joined his fellows. He arrived just in time to hear Fallofel explaining that the men they fought were known by some as "Dark Contractors," men who wore green and grey to symbolize to clients that they could keep any secret they were privy to during their service, which made them ideal mercenaries for those who practiced darker magic and needed some hired muscle.

The hunter from the Order of Illumination finally awoke, but would only speak to the priest. Despite their shared service to Morrow, Mercir could tell the Illuminated One was hesitant to give him any information. When the two finished speaking, the only thing the priest knew was that his name was Jarad, and he and two others were investigating rumors of a vile tome located somewhere near here. They were ambushed at the farmhouse, and he doubts his brothers survived. Despite Mercir's flawless work, they both knew his current condition would slow them down once bullets started flying.

The three companions set off to the farm house. Knowing there would likely be heavy resistance, they scouted the house from deep in the woods. Sure enough, it was crawling with several Dark Contractors, both in the windows of the barn and the ground around it. Familiar with many combat scenarios, Doulos took charge and ordered them to approach a broken wall on the side. Doulos took up position beside the wall and spotted a guard. He signaled for the elf to move to position and take out the guard. Unsure of what caused the sudden crack, none of the other guards noticed their dead companion beside the barn. However, stealth soon turned in to a firefight as the three maneuvered into optimal attack positions and started picking off the rest of the guards.



Mercir's forehead wrinkled in confusion as he heard a guard in the barn shout "we're under attack, let him loose and kill the hostages!" However, all questions were answered when the front of the barn exploded as an old steamjack ran into the open. The rest of the guards fled for their lives, leaving the three adventurers frozen in their tracks as they realize this warjack was behaving more like a frightened animal than an autonomous 'jack.

It was with some horror that they saw a limp body cradled in its arms - a whithered old man in the tattered robes of Cygnar's Fraternal Order of Wizardry. Knowing they stood little chance against a creature made of metal, Doulos holstered his pistols and stepped forward, trying to speak to it. He had no idea why, but the thing's behavior made him hope that there was some intelligence controlling it. Meanwhile, Fallofel crept to the other side of the barn in hopes of finding some way to diffuse the situation if needed.

Doulos was surprised to see that the steamjack had no indication of moving, and instead it seemed to stare at him silently. Doulos seemed to be asking the wrong questions as he tried to understand what was happening, but things started falling in to place when the steamjack responded to "who are you" by taking the dead body and smashing it against its metal body.

Seeing the body flop around against the metal giant, Mercir noticed some faint markings that seemed to go from the crown and straight down the torso. Realizing that the marks' placement had something to do with the dead man's soul, he silently followed after Fallofel, leaving the gun mage to keep the situation calm lest the 'jack crush him in a single blow.

Inside the barn, the two men worked quickly to uncover what was happening. They found where the 'jack had been held, although they weren't sure what the giant glypth or the pile of dead bodies could mean. They found the "prisoners" - two teen boys who had likely been tied here for days without food and little water. The priest unbound their hands and gave them bread and water while the elf started shifting through a table stacked precariously with all manner of strange notes and books. They knew they'd found the book sought by the Order of Illumination as soon as they saw it and felt the evil rituals contained within.

Without opening it, Mercir knew that it was only a copy of the book called the Libram Mechanikrus, something neither had heard of. That made the book no less dangerous, but it also meant that there was an original out there somewhere. After briefly reading through a few notes, it was apparent that the 'jack outside wasn't run on coal, but souls. And the pile of bodies had likely been used to fuel it before someone else took control of the 'jack. The elf wrapped the book in cloth and put it in his bag, both realizing what had happened.

Hastening out the door, the two were almost shocked to see the gun mage and 'jack conversing as it used its spear to write very basic words in the dirt. As the two explained to the gun mage what they'd discovered, Doulos filled in missing parts with what he'd learned from the 'jack. The body belonged to Bowden, whose soul was trapped in the 'jack. They all assumed that something about the ritual had gone awry and destroyed most of the wizard's intelligence and soul in the process.

They knew they had no choice - Bowden had to go with the Order of Illumination. Although they might punish him for the dark ritual he used, it was impossible to let such dark magic run rampant. Taking the book and the compliant 'jack, they found Jarad looking much healthier than they'd left him. After explaining everything, Jarad assured them he'd do what he could to fix the broken soul. No one said it aloud, but the broken body cradled in the 'jacks arms would likely never house a soul again.

Jarad left with the book and 'jack and set off to join some hunters nearby who were investigating other nearby farms for the book. After resting for the night, the three companions set off for Greenfoot Fort. As they packed up their camp and set off on the road, all three were almost certain they saw a diseased crow flying off toward the Thornwood.

Stolen in the Deep

Pretty standard contest update today guys. Also the title is an Adele reference... my apologies.

As my anticipation to start working on my charity army grows, I'm finding new motivation to get this Hamelin thing wrapped up nice and pretty so I can tackle other things. The work won't suffer, but the time spent on it will increase.

I finally finished the colors and some highlights/shading on the four models. I took a shot at the red eyes, and after some work I think they'll work really well. Otherwise the faces haven't been messed with too much - I wasn't in a "fine detail" state of mind today. I'll get back to other details at some point, but once I finish the faces I think I'll put them aside and get cracking on my sewer.




See you tomorrow!

"OVERBYTES" Takes On The PS4

Playstation 4 has been announced. Underwhelmed? You could say that.

IKRPG Has Ruined Me for D&D

If you're a hardcore roleplayer who finds the combat system of an RPG to be tedious, stop reading now.


When I first started playing D&D a few years ago, I was enamored with how well a combat situation could play in to a story. From the tactics enemies took, to the terrain the fought in, to interactions with terrain pieces, everything let me tell a story while also trying to kill my friends. I know many people criticized 4th edition for those reasons, but I grew up on video games and THEN discovered D&D, so a good story + good combat was ingrained.

After seeing several months of the "Edition Wars," where fans of the various D&D editions would... well, wage writter war with one another, I decided to take a gander at some gameplay of the various editions out there to see how different they were.

Basically, my version of D&D enjoyed visual combat more heavily than other versions. There's more to it, but I never realized that D&D could be played without a grid and miniatures, and it seemed that the big complaint was that people didn't want to be pressured in to that play style.

For veterans of the game, I could absolutely see where they were coming from. 4e was my true intro into pen and paper roleplaying, so to me D&D was about cool combat encounters that were strongly supported by the rules, and then out-of-combat storytelling that didn't rely on rules as much as player interactions.

That's what appeals to me about the IKRPG. The combat is tight, creating unique fights that allow me to use terrain dynamically. The story aspects of the rules are light, but I think that allows the players and GM to create a story together, rather than having a situation in a story that characters need to "beat" to progress.

After playing my second game of IKRPG last night, I realized that just as 4e made it hard for me to play without miniatures, IKRPG has made it nearly impossible for me to be locked to a grid ever again. In 4e, combat is played out on a grid of 1" squares, like a giant game of chess with terrain. The problem with that is that everything eventually becomes very exact. A hallway is usually 4" wide, a table is usually 1"x2"... nothing can exist at an angle without causing logistical problems.

On the other hand, here's where my players had a shootout last night:


I'll explain the situation in my story writeup, but look at how simple and unrestricted terrain layout can be. Although much of the terrain is squared off for sake of realism, it didn't matter how things were placed. If you look at the top, you can see a hill and a circle of shubbery. Likewise, the green balls ("hay bales") were placed with reckless abandon.

I love setting up and using terrain for the IKRPG because my only concern is how fun it is for the players. Instead of a weird 8-bit blob, I can actually use circles for circular terrain. Or an oval... I mean really, the geometric possibilities are practically endless!

And that's why I may never go back to a grid-based system. I love my combat, and I love my combat to exist in a 3-dimensional world.

See you tomorrow!

Charity Announcement #1

I thought I would share the smaller charity project I'm doing this year.

The charity is called the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) which is a charity that helps our injured service men and women both rehabilitate and come to grips with any life changing disability. I happened upon this charity when I was searching for a single large charity project that I could do this year. As I was doing research on ways that I could participate with WWP I found an option that would let me do small donations any time I want using my love of painting. 

EBay is working with WWP (and many other worthwhile charities), allowing you to label an auction under the WWP name and then allocate any percentage of your sale to be donated to WWP. I am still trying to figure out exactly how much participation I will have. The current plan is to buy and paint one model every month starting in April with 100% of the proceeds being directly donated to WWP. The reason I am skipping March is because that month will be dedicated to finishing the contest piece I promised you. 

The reason I chose WWP is because I have always had immense respect for anyone in any branch of the armed forces. And a charity dedicated to helping those wounded in the line of duty is a charity that I can get behind. having not heard much about WWP previously I turned to my brother-in-law hoping his time spent in Afghanistan with the Marines could give me a more educated view beyond what the website says. My brother-in-lay doesn't tend to be very emotional but his response was packed with pure enthusiasm and praise for WWP. 

He shared with me about his time spent at camp leatherneck, where he got to see what wwp did for wounded soldiers who were still over seas. At the camp they had a comfortable tent set up where soldiers could hang out with their wounded friends; hearing that cemented my decision to do something with wwp. As April draws closer I will be back with more info as well as the first model chosen for my donation. 

When I first wrote about my desire to participate in a charity, I was excited. But now that I've decided on WWP and a soon-to-be-announced charity, I'm positively giddy. Stay tuned for a more ambitious charity announcement in the coming weeks. 

See you tomorrow!

Bodgering Apps for IKRPG

The iPad arrived today, which happened to coincide nicely with me being under the weather and taking it easy. With an IKRPG game tomorrow (health permitting), it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring my game to the next level.

Zach, also known as Mercir the Undead Smacking Priest of Morrow, found a neat little app after my post about finally getting an iPad. DM Minion, an app designed specifically for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, looked good on paper (well... you know what I mean), but I wondered how well I could make it transfer to an entirely different system. As it turns out, it handles it quite well.

I've only messed with the free version, but right now it looks like it can at least handle basic enemies, encounter notes, treasure, and initiative tracking.

Here is the basic screen of a Human Thug from the IKRPG Core Book. If you're at all familiar with Warmachine, you'll notice number by a lot of stuff not found in the game. It took a bit of trial and error, but when looking at the finished "creature" it actually flows pretty well.

If you hit the button in the upper-right, you are taken the the following screen. It's here that I'm handling all the unique stuff like weapons, abilities, and stats that aren't easily covered in the previous screen. I've used both XP and the creatures level to remind me how many encounter points they're worth.

And when you tie it all together in an encounter, it looks like this:

The program handles initiative automatically. In the green area I can look at the 3 important stats of my Human Thug 1: HP (7/7), Defense (the first 12) and Armor (the second 12). The letters next to the numbers are irrelevant, especially since "A" in D&D represents a creature's Armor.

To the right, I can see any abilities I've created for each creature. If I click "stats," it brings up the Human Thug's Detect, Sneak, Willpower, and any other stats unique to him (in his case, intimidation). If I click Anatomical Precision, it brings up a description of the ability.

It's not perfect, especially since it won't let me track bosses or warjacks who use more than just a set amount of HP to determine their health. However, I hold no illusions about finding an app that will give me everything I want unless it's designed specifically for IKRPG. Still, I'm excited to fire up the app tomorrow and put my players through a world of hurt. It gives me everything I need for basic encounters, and I think it will save me a lot of wasted time in the long run.

See you tomorrow!

Glenn Beck: Video-Games Responsible For Sandy Hook Massacre

Oh, fudge.

(Hey, while you're hear, have you watched our new episode yet?)

Y'know, for awhile there I was a little worried that the American right-wing might've been doing something very smart in regards to their relationship with video-games. While it's not a perfect alignment, it's my observation that the worst aspects of gaming culture right now - centered, as these things tend to be, around the multiplayer-shooter genre - line up pretty well with The Right's most poisonous elements: Misogyny, angry-white-man paranoia plus the attendant homophobia plus "Men's Rights" lunacy that goes with it and, of course, worship of (but complete lack of respect for) the gun culture.

So when I saw things like Ollie North pimping "Call of Duty," my worry was: "Oh great, they've figured it out. They'll never regain footing in the rest of the entertainment industry; but gaming having any kind of ideological bent is such a nascent thing that they could easily slip in and claim this medium for their own without much resistance - and the only thing worse than the bro-gamers dominating the market would bro-gamers as a voting bloc."

Fortunately, The Right has demonstrated rather completely that they prize the short-term financial and electoral gains they get from being the obedient lapdogs of the gun industry FAR more than they do their long-term relevance as a political force; and so they've enthusiastically jumped onto the "Guns Don't Kill People, Violent Video-Games Kill People!" bandwagon - anything to prevent gun manufacturers' from losing business. In the latest salvo: Glenn Beck, preaching the "medical facts" of the Great Desensitization Lie:

Well, that was unpleasant. Hey, why not watch some Shameless Self-Promotion to wash your brain out?

The Hunt for Goreshade 1 - The Odd Couple

I thought it might be fun to do a sort of session recap of my IKRPG sessions. As you know, I played my first game Saturday with two players. Keep in mind that I had an entirely different adventure planned until I was left with 2 people, so a lot was made up on the fly.


First, the cast!

Fallofel - A Mage Hunter/Bounty Hunter from the kingom of Ios. Fallofel has a particular hatred for the lich Goreshade who is responsible for killing Fallofel's family. As such, this cold hunter has determined to stop at nothing to bring justice to the elf-turned-lich, even if it means working with a human whose irresponsible use of magic is slowly killing his god.

Mercir - A Priest/Arcanist from the Church of Morrow. Mercir was trained to battle the undead, and it was almost serendipitous that he should be tasked with joining the violent and haughty Fallofel in his quest to put an end to Goreshade. Although the two have run the gauntlet together as they chase leads and fight evil, Mercir holds no illusions of friendship. Fallofel is dangerous, but useful. Should he become more trouble than he's worth, Mercir will have no choice but to take him down.


And so it was that the two warriors found themselves once again riding in silence. It had been some time since they'd dug up a good lead, but they hoped that journeying closer to the Thornwood would turn something up. With Fallofel's stomach growling, they were relieved to spot the tiny town of Sirus.

As usual, the two went their own ways immediately. Fallofel tried drumming up any potential bounties to help fill his empty coin purse, while Mercir went to see his old friend John at the local Morrowan church. After spending quite some time catching up, Mercir could tell John had something on his mind. It was at this point that Fallofel burst through the doors, having been unsuccessful in finding work.

John explained that two local hunters hadn't returned from their hunting cabin for several weeks. Although no one in town was concerned, John suggested speaking to the wives, hinting that they may find a soft bed and hot meal if they agree to find the husbands. The two left the church and headed straight for the local tavern and inn.

Mercir sat down, tossed a gold to the owner, and smiled when his hot meal was delivered. Fallofel could only sit and watch his partner eat - too broke to buy anything and too proud to ask Mercir. As they discussed what John had told them, a rather drunk woman approached them and introduced herself as one of the hunter's wives. After sharing her concern, Mercir found it impossible to help, and they accepted her offer to stay at her home for the night.

The next day the two set out in the direction of the cabin. The path was soon lost, but after some clever tracking Fallofel was able to get them headed in the right direction. After several hours the cabin came in to view, and they two could just make out a man sitting outside. Wary as always, the two decided to creep through some bushes to get a closer look. Mercir hung back a bit, knowing stealth was never his strength, while Fallofel crept close enough to barely notice another person on the opposite side of the house. The cabin had no windows that opened to him, so Fallofel set a clip in his repeating crossbow and signaled for Mercir to go back and approach them from a distance.

Little did Mercir know that a third person had been watching him from high in the trees. As the priest doubled back, Fallofel heard a faint, unmistakable sound of a body softly landing on the ground. Blending in perfectly to the forest, the elf's crossbow followed a man as he slowly followed after the clumsy priest. As Mercir finally cleared the dense forest growth and began approaching the man by the cabin, Fallofel remembered that he should probably wait to see how things played out before murdering someone.

As Mercir drew closer, protection runes flared around him as he once again trusted is life to the crazy elf. The man outside the house called out and demanded he identify himself. Mercir could only start explaining himself before the man behind the house joined his friend. The two men started muttering together, and Mercir noticed that one kept looking at something in the brush.

It was clear that no good was going to come of this, so Fallofel took aim and let a bolt fly at the man trying to get the jump on the priest. The brush caught the bolt and sent it in to the man's shoulder, eliciting a shout of surprise before a second arrow caught him in the chest. The two by the house ran up and let off two quick shots at the priest, missing both shots in their haste. As they tried closing the distance, Fallofel popped up and sent a bolt in to the head of each man.

Mercir saw the door of the cabin swing open as a 4th guard had clearly been woken up by the gunshots. Mercir ran up and threw out a bolt of energy that took a chunk from the door. The guard tried to orient himself enough to retaliate, but it was too late as the priest let loose a second spell that put the man back to sleep for good.

As soon as they looked through the door, Fallofel's eyes immediately saw something wrong with the bear skin rug. There was a patch of dried blood on the floor in front of it, but the blood didn't continue on the bear as it should have. Suspicious, he tossed the rug aside and was greeted with a strange, black piece of metal set in to the floor. Knowing he should leave it to the priest, he began searching the cabin.

Under one of the mattresses he found a very strange letter rolled in to a piece of leather. The language wasn't something he'd ever seen, but after a quick glance Mercir realized it was something that needed a key to be translated. The priest then sat down and started analyzing the black metal. It was clear this was a magical trap often used on doors and chests. After some careful rune manipulation, Mercir was able to easily disable the trap, causing the black metal to become immaterial and reveal a ladder reaching deep below the earth.

Shrugging, the two climbed down and prepared for whatever was to come. The ladder ended outside a wide room with boxes piled all around. The walls looked like they'd been carved with fingers, although they weren't sure how that was possible. With only a handful of torches doing a poor job of lighting the room, the priest focused and sent runes spinning around his head, causing the entire room to be easily visible. As he feared, their battle upstairs had alerted whomever was working down here. He saw three men hiding behind boxes around the room, and felt a bit of rage as he saw a few undead forms in a poorly made cell in the back of the room.

Signaling to the elf, the two quickly exploded in to action. Mercir went left, surprising a man behind a large pile of boxes with an energy bolt to the chest. Fallofel went right, flushing two men from their cover with a few well-aimed bolts. As he drew closer to the cell, Fallofel saw an older man in a blood-covered surgeon's gown moving to release his six undead minions from their cell.

The elf tried to put them down, but six mindless forms rushed him too quickly and he found himself trapped. Mercir summoned a beam of radiance that tore through several bodies while his partner finished off the rest. At this point, they noticed the strange arcanist from the cell was trying to escape. Not bothering to take prisoners, they blocked his escape and promptly ended him.

Satisfied that there were no more surprises, the two went to work trying to figure out what was going on. The poorly made undead made it clear that this person was an amateur, and they found the ritual book he'd been fumbling through in order to make them. Mercir found the key for translating the letter they'd found and started working through it while Fallofel started going through crates.

Piecing together the contents of the boxes, as well as a rough sketch of what this room would eventually look like, it appeared that this was destined to be a production facility for the masses of thralls that Cryx used in their battles. Although it was fortunate that they found this, it was also a bit concerning, They didn't know what it meant until Mercir finished the letter.

"Axen, you are expected to have your facility up and running soon. I expect Goreshade to make his way here in only a few months time, and you don't want him to be disappointed."

How could Goreshade get all the way up here in only a few months? The border of the Thornwood was well guarded by mountains, and any area he could move through was guarded by Cygnaran towns. What on earth have they gotten themselves in to now?



And that's my long writeup of our first adventure. It's been ages since I've done much creative writing, so expect it to get better.

See you tomorrow!

Rollin' with the Stolen

Just a quick update on how my competition piece is coming along.

I've been slowly getting my rat swarm compiled. Greenstuff is still looking like my go-to material.

I grew weary of Hamelin and his crew of creepy kids glaring at me while I painted my PIP2k13 pieces. Yes I could have moved them, but if you've ever seen the Puppetmaster series, you'll understand why I chose not to escalate the situation.

I got down as many basecoats as I could. I held off on the little details until I knew I was satisfied with the clothes and flesh.



Before you freak out about the Stolen's skin color, hear me out.

Ready?

Leptospirosis.

In short, Leptospirosis is a nasty little disease that is most often seen in occupations dealing with exposure to animal urine. You know, like rats. Think of the worst flu you've ever had, and then add jaundice, red eyes, and possible renal failure. Taadaa, meet my Stolen!

I will of course wash their skin so they don't look so radioactive, but I'm excited about the added bit of realism. The idea came to me as I was talking to a septic tank inspector. He explained to me how sewer gasses had so much funk that they actually ate away at concrete.

[[Pretend I took a picture of his example, and thank me for not actually showing it to you]]

That got me thinking about my project. I'm pretending Hamelin is exempt from sewer funk because I think he's a mirror image of Robert Knepper and that dude pulls of creepy using a regular skin tone. That just left his little buddies.

My first thought was to do the concrete effect and have them a bit... overripe. But then that gives the idea of zombies, which for once isn't my goal. After looking through my Minitair paints, I saw the "jaundice" color and then monstrously started hoping a sewer could give someone jaundice.

And after spending countless hours pouring through every medical book ever made, I happened upon leptospirosis. After looking up other potential symptoms (hello red eyes!), it was decided that a leptospirosis-ing I would go!

Tomorrow's goal is to finish my colors and get working on highlights and shadows. My son is determined to pass his cold on to me, but I will do my utmost to continue resisting. Until then, remember to wash your hands after handling animals or I'll send Hamelin your way.

See you tomorrow!

EPISODE 82: "Never Grow Old"

The recent East Coast blizzard slowed production a little bit, but the show must go on! Here, The OverThinker responds to Warren Spector and David Cage's controversial DICE lectures:

I've Got a Golden iPad!

I'm finally getting hip and jumping off the bridge with everyone else.

Namely, I'm getting an iPad. It's not gold, but that's the most creative title I could come up with.

The biggest problem with spending the money on one (even if it's not gold) is that your wife needs to be convinced that it's a worthwhile purchase. To be fair, I originally never had much of a need beyond "bigger Angry Birds," but as I've seen friends use them I am continually coming around to how versatile they are. Audio, video, games, apps for every day life, books and other PDFs out the wazoo .. it seems impossible that I'm just now getting on board with this.

With two kids turning 3 and 5 soon, they too can appreciate the fun of a tablet. Granted their appreciation won't extend far beyond "bigger Angry Birds," but it's still something! On top of that, they can also watch Netflix without hogging the TV the Xbox is connected to. Granted I haven't used it for anything but Netflix for the past two months, but the theory of having time to play is pretty exciting.

Personally, I can't wait to supplement all my hobbies with a single device. Warmachine has an app that has been atrocious to use on my iPhone, but our Cygnar player seemed to use it to good effect. Plus when their digital media finally releases I'll be able to carry it all with me.

As a Dungeon Master at heart, I can only see the benefits of having everything at my fingertips. Initiative tracking, campaign notes, monster stats with functioning health bars (if I can talk our programmer in to figuring that one out for me). The possibilities seem endless, and I haven't even received the darn thing.

But with all of that, how did my wife get sold on an iPad? I think it was a combination of two things. The seeds were sown when we had dinner at our pastor's house and she saw how great it was for entertaining kids. The idea seemed to be locked in when she realized she could watch her girly dramas anywhere.

I hope to report back in a few weeks about some amazing way the iPad has somehow made my plethora of geeky hobbies even better. Is it possible? I hear there's a comic book reader, so it just may happen.

See you tomorrow!

Addiction and Progress

As promised, here's my second PIP2K13 February pledge.

Wolds were the popular choice, and ol' One-Arm was the winner.

After posting my pledge on the Muse on Minis thread, I decided to get a quick basecoat down. I had some time, and I prefer doing my airbrushing all in one go so I only have to clean it once, so I did some highlighting and shading as well.

Well at that point it was just a hunk of grey. I still had some time, so I started adding white to the runes on his stone plates. Although it looked neat having blazing white runes, I figured I should just get the stone work done, so I finished his runes with some glazing..

He's literally made of sticks and stones and magic, and at this point I couldn't really see the sticks because they were grey from the stone plates' overspray. I hit those with some brown, but wouldn't you know it? The whole thing really needed to have the ropes look distinct, so I lightened up the ropes as well.

This month's No Quarter had tips on painting a huge model with very similar features to this one. I saw an interesting tip on using inks on all the wood and ropes. Up till now I'd only used inks on small things like glow effects, so I had to test that one out.

And after a few more highlights and details... well, see for yourself.

It's not done yet, but I certainly fell victim to my painting addiction and its "just one more color" prodding that is responsible for painting up my Khador army in a relatively short time. I'll probably finish up tonight so I can get him sealed, based, and on the table.

See you tomorrow!

IKRPG - First Impressions

Last night I ran my first game of the Iron Kingdoms RPG. I'd like to give some initial impressions on the game.


In essence, the IKRPG takes the tabletop game of Warmachine and lets you play out adventures in the Iron Kingdoms setting. In the most basic sense, its a cross between Warmachine and Dungeons and Dragons.

This isn't the first iteration of the IKRPG. Years ago they released a supplement book that converted the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons into a steampunk setting. I never played it, but the popular opinion is that this caused a bit of a disconnect for Warmachine fans because it A) used a d20 instead of d6 and B) was grid based (moving 1 square at a time) whereas Warmachine allows you to move in any direction.

Having already learned the rules for the war game, the transition in to the RPG was rather painless. The core game is still the same, with a few changes for the sake of balance. I think this is a great design choice because it makes it readily accessible for their fans who don't want to learn an entirely new game.

Originally I was anticipating having 6 or 7 people for our first game, and then settling at around 3 or 4 as people decided it wasn't for them. So after preparing an adventure with several plot hooks, it turned out that only two could play. It was a bit of a bummer, but as an ace GM I didn't let that deter me.

I didn't want to use the adventure I'd already come up with in case the larger group ends up happening in the future. Fortunately for me, Josh had created a handful of characters that anyone could use. He chose a character and then had Zach, a guy with no Warmachine experience, choose another. While they did that, I quickly sat down and pounded out a quick adventure with two combats and a skill challenge. And that leads me to the thing about IKRPG that impressed me most...

Creating an adventure is ridiculously easy. I've seen discussion about how non-combat situations aren't covered in-depth in the rules. While true, I found that very refreshing because it allowed me to craft a short narrative that didn't get bogged down by constant skill checks and abilities. Instead, I called for a few generic skill rolls, but for the most part it allowed me and the players to come up with a much better story that wasn't dominated by non-combat skills.

Combat, however, was simple to create tons of fun to play out. After jotting down a sentence or two for each part of the adventure, I had to find bad guys. In D&D, you tend to be limited in what you can take because a level 20 character can't be touched by a level 1 creature. You can fudge stats, but for the most part it was always a bookkeeping nightmare to make level-appropriate encounters.

In the IKRPG, however, you get a much simpler chart. Instead of an XP budget for each encounter, you get a guideline for encounter points. It ranges from 3-7 characters, and gives you an idea of how many encounter points to spend based on the average number of XP each player has. After browsing through several higher-level enemies, it looks like a zombie they fight at level one could still pose a threat later on. If need be, all I'd need to do is bump up its stats across the board or give it a simple ability.

That's all a bit vague, but my basic point is that I created a decent adventure in 15 minutes with no problems on my end. I had my skeleton of a story, which Josh and Zach helped me fill in based on what they did and how they responded to characters. When it came to combat, I felt like I had more control of the game in 1 night than I did after a couple years hosting weekly D&D games.

Why? Because things flowed smoothly. Characters didn't spike up and down, making me add arbitrary pressure or fudge a die roll to keep combat interesting. Characters don't seem to range from deific to laughably useless. If characters are built with a bit of planning, everyone seems able to contribute.

Granted, that's said after only seeing 2 characters in action. But what amazed me is that both characters were made to crumble if they got it. They both dealt ranged damage, and had to get in to my threat range to kill my characters. But thanks to some brilliant teamwork and improbably-good rolling they managed to take down the final encounter with an appropriate amount of edge-of-your-seat action.

I will say that I'm not so sure about the encounter points budget they recommend. After they decimated my first encounter, I added 5 more enemies to the final one. I didn't add up my points at the time, because as I said I felt like the mechanics gave me so much control over the game that I felt confident in my estimates of what they could handle. When combat had ended and I added all the points together, I realized that they managed to take on an encounter with a budget built for four people! I felt a bit evil when I saw those numbers, but it really spoke to how much players can be pushed in a final encounter.

I am witholding my final verdict on the game until I get some more play time with a larger group. But after last night, I'm already talking my wife in to letting me host a weekly game at my place. The Iron Kingdoms setting is a lot of fun, and I can't wait to create another story within it.

See you tomorrow with another PIP2k13 pledge!

Choose My Own Adventure

Sorry guys, no giveaway for me missing my PIP2k13 pledge... yet.

Taadaa! Like I said, this one was a bit of a sissy pledge. I'd never paid attention to how long it takes me to paint my own models, since my level of concentration and speed on personal pieces is much lower than when I'm doing commission work. But after several episodes of Big Bang Theory, they're done.


But hey, we still have 10 days left in February! So I'm going to pledge another model, and I'd like you guys to pick which one. I'm working on painting the core models for lists I want to play, which means I need to paint a warlock and warbeasts. Despite the nightmare that goes in to placing 3 forests a turn, Baldur and is Wolds are the first models I'd like to paint. So on the picture below, I'd like you to tell me which one you'd like to see painted first. 

• Model #1 is a Wold Warden. He summons forests on himself and annoys my opponent. I will consider attaching his arm when I paint him.
• Model #2 is Baldur. He's the warlock that drew me to Circle Orboros simply because he can drop a forest on the table and totally hose an opponent's movement. And when he's going for the kill, he can teleport to a nearby forest (say one by the enemy warcaster) and issue a tree-hugging beatdown.
• Model #3 is Megalith, Baldur's best friend. He's basically a walking beatstick (and beatrock). 

So let me know which you'd like to see painted next. I'll tally it up Sunday night or Monday and then get to work.

See you tomorrow!

Thumbs Up for Badger

I just wanted to give a little shout out to Badger Airbrush Co.

If you remember my last video, I had received my box of Minitair paints from Badger. The company wasn't prepared for the wave of people trying to get their stuff, and as a result it took them about a month to get the product out.

A week or so after placing my order I received an email from Ken Badger explaining the delay and asking that I email him when I received my paints. I was curious where this was going, so I kept that in the back of my mind while I waited.

After my unboxing video, sorting my colors, and testing out a few, I sent him an email thanking him for the great product. What impressed me was what followed. He asked me for my address so he could send me a thank you gift. And today I received a thank you note, a gift code, and this:

Now I realize that some mixing cups and a good sized bottle of airbrush lubricant (which I used right away!) didn't cost them too much. But the fact that the owner of Badger wanted to make things right with everyone, not just those who emailed him complaining, is very respectable.

Maybe I'm just a sucker, but it's things like this that make a company stand out to me. I wasn't concerned that my paints were going to be delayed - stuff happens, and they can't work miracles. But Badger wasn't happy to just have my money, they wanted me to be a satisfied customer without me even asking. It's refreshing to see, and I let Ken know that he had a new loyal customer.

And what great timing on his part, because I'm looking for a new airbrush. When I was initially looking for an airbrush, I told people I just wanted a workhorse to do my basecoats for me. My Iwata HP-CS does a beautiful job, but unfortunately that's all it's ever going to do. And as experienced painters predicted, I fell in love with airbrushing and I'm ready for more. So it looks like the airbrush I purchase for doing detail work is going to come from Badger!

I really recommend you check them out. They're having a 25% off sale on the Webair site where I purchased my paints, just use the code Winter2013.

See you tomorrow with my finished Play It Painted models, and maybe a new pledge!

Nintenception

It sounds like a backhanded compliment, but really the "Mario & Luigi" RPG series (Superstar Saga, Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, thus far) for portables have probably been the story/humor highpoint for Nintendo franchises for the better part of the last decade. Sharp, funny, self-aware, perfectly balancing sincere "quiet awe," unobtrusive fanservice and a knowing self-awareness. The first 3DS installment has now been announced as "Mario & Luigi: Dream Team," with the now-standard alt-dimension storyline taking place partially in the realm of Luigi's dream...



Dream-world, eh? Hm...

Nintendo? I don't ask for much - which is good, since you're kind of the opposite of generous when it comes to this stuf... But if Wart (the dream-world heavy from the U.S. SMB2) turned up here in some capacity it would make me just about the happiest boy in the world. Bonus points if he brings Mouser, Triclyde, Fryguy, Clawgrip or any combination thereof with him.

Rats and Stolen and Shifting Stones (Oh Yeah!)

Just three updates and a teaser today. 

First is my progress on my Play It Painted 2013 models. Admittedly I went with something pretty simple, but I figure if I set an easy goal for my first month I'll have good momentum going in to it.

The grey was unsurprisingly easy. In this month's No Quarter, a magazine put out by Privateer Press, their painting feature had a part about painting runes for Circle Orboros. How fortunate that I had runes to paint!The green you see is a glow effect. I'll get closer on the final piece so you can get a good look at the ridiculously small area I had to paint.

I'll probably give them a once-over before I start my basing, but it's nice to know I'm mostly done with this month's pledge. I may grow impatient and pledge to paint one of my warlocks too, but we'll see how busy my competition piece keeps me.

Next are the actual models for my competition piece. I just did some zenithal highlighting while I decide how I want to paint them. I thought about doing 100% washing with them, but I may take this opportunity to fully try my hand at glazing. Decisions...

Finally, despite last night's hissy fit, my rat swarm is looking achievable once again. After letting the molds sit for over an hour, they were hard enough for me to pull them out, while still being soft enough to trim away the excess bits. What that means is that I'll be able to fit them together rather well, and when I'm done I can start hacking new molds apart and fitting them in all the gaps. Sadly it's going to add several more hours to the process, but the utility of epoxy over resin is worth it.

I also tried using some Milliput I had lying around. Although cheaper, it didn't grab fine details like I hoped, and also developed small cracks. I'm casting a second Milliput mold now, but I may end up sticking with greenstuff.

And finally, the promised teaser. As you recall, I have some goals I'd like to accomplish as a painter. One of those is to use my painting to take part in a charity. I've found two charities that I'd like to support. One is going to be a highly ambitious and expensive project that I'll begin as soon as my competition piece is done. The second isn't an event per se, but it's one my brother-in-law really believes in after witnessing their work in Afghanistan.

I'll be back another day with a full writeup, but it's great to know that if I achieve nothing else on my list, I'm working towards the one I want to accomplish most.

See you tomorrow!

Ah, Rats!

I've run in to a rat-sized road block.

I decided to try out the rat mold I made. I grabbed my tubes greenstuff and made a small ball by mixing my blue and yellow.

 Here was the process I had in mind:

1. Mix  a huge batch of greenstuff
2. Press a bit in to my mold for a minute
3. Remove it and start forming my rat swarm

Sadly, here's what happened on step 2:

Oh physics, you cruel taskmaster!

Within the circles (and in small places elsewhere), you can see that the greenstuff isn't fully filling the mold. It was actually much worse until I went at it with my sculpting tool. But still, this particular piece took me several minutes just to get mostly in the mold. 

Step 2 also falls apart because I can't remove it from the mold. I chose greenstuff over Milliput (a softer, but weaker, epoxy) because I imagined greenstuff's density would allow me to safely remove it from my mold while being pliable enough to fill it. Instead, here's one of those mathy things to explain my frustration.

I'll see how things turn out in the morning, but odds are good that I'll be moving to Plan B, which is to make a silicone cast of my rats followed by an eternal series of small amounts of resin. While simpler, it's unfortunate that it will lack greenstuff's ability to be easily cut and formed to fill gaps.

As it is, the resin idea will give me a series of mounds with spaces in between. It's doable, but the amount of work and potential finger-slices are the reason this was Plan B.

I have my models primed and ready, so I think I'll take a break from all this nonsense and actually do some painting.

See you tomorrow!

Musings of a DM

My group will be starting an Iron Kingdoms RPG campaign. For the uninitiated, think Dungeons and Dragons with a steampunk vibe. In keeping with the idea that I'm just a giant geek, I'd like to talk about  my history as a Dungeon/Game Master.

I honestly don't remember how I came across it, but one day at the age of 15 I found myself cracking open the 3rd edition D&D starter box. I had 0 experience with tabletop role playing games, but for some reason I saw fit to purchase this thing. 

After digging through the rules and doing a solo-play of the adventures, I managed to convince a friend to try it out with me. I barely understood the rules, and explaining to another 15 year old how to play 5 characters was, in hindsight, a mistake. But we pushed through it, and after a few hours we managed to knock out a few of the adventures. That the only time I played it, but for some reason I was never able to get rid of it, I tried selling it in a garage sale once, but fortunately no one was smart enough to buy it for a buck.

I tried getting some cousins to play with me when we went to visit them, but that was a nightmare. They made it through one adventure, but when almost every piece of DM dialogue ended with "what do you do?" the game quickly got away from us and we instead had a Nerf war. After that I didn't think much about D&D. I'd look it up once in awhile on the internet, and even bought a 3rd edition Player and GM book that I opened a handful of times. Seriously, there was a lot to read and it terrified me!

Fast forward 8 years. I wasn't able to sleep one night, so for whatever reason I went digging through our gaming shelf and found my old D&D game being squished by... well, everything else. After doing my best not to send everything crashing down and waking my newborn, I took the box to the living room and jumped into nostalgia as I read through the rules, admired the character sheets, and once again ran myself through the first adventure.

And I still haven't gotten rid of it!

At this point I wasn't completely cut off from the rest of the geeky world. Google was a thing, and I abused the heck out of it that week. And wouldn't you know it? A brand new edition of D&D was releasing in about two weeks! I jumped on the Wizards forums and got every piece of info and advice I could from experienced gamers (all while learning about the "edition wars" when they were in full swing).

I talked to my eternally supportive wife, who agreed to play the game with me. Then it was a matter of getting a couple more people to join me as I closed my eyes and blindly swung my way through something I'd never done before. My brother-in-law Brian and best friend Schick were gracious enough to come hang out one Saturday (with the promise of free food) and try the game with me. I still remember leaving my last college class of the day, racing over to Barnes and Noble, and picking up my reserved copy of "Keep on the Shadowfell," and full-fledged introductory adventure for people like me.

After our first game, I felt energized in a way I'd never experienced. I was creating a world for my friends to adventure in, and they had loved every minute of it. To this day we still joke about their most hated foe - a kobold slinger that they just couldn't kill. He wasn't a boss or even a very powerful character, but it's one of those memories that only a tabletop RPG can create.

I've always been a big fan of cooperation over competition. It's hard to tell when my portfolio includes Warhammer 40k, Warmachine/Hordes, Magic the Gathering. Call of Duty... but honestly, I'd rather spend hours working with a friend toward a common goal rather than working against them in a game that sometimes leads to one of us getting frustrated.

And that's what makes being a DM/GM so exhilarating  It allows me to get together with friends as we work together to create a story featuring characters that they care about. It's not like a cooperative video game where you're enjoying someone else's work. I create the framework for the story, and my friends help me create the story around it. 

I realize being a DM isn't for everyone. Many people approach it as "me vs them," and try to "beat" the players. Others don't want to put in the surprising amount of time it takes to prepare a game session. And to me, that's totally fine. For awhile I was envious of my players. Not in any mean way, but because they got to work together in combat and role-playing while I was on the other side of the table.

Then Wizard of the Coast (creators of D&D) started a weekly event called "D&D Encounters." It was an event every Wednesday that was sort of like a TV series. You had weekly "episodes" (called Dungeon Delves) that stood on their own, but also had enough story bits that eventually wove together to create a final encounter. It was here that Schick and I got to experience playing on the same side of the table.

I went for most of the first season, and I learned that being a DM was much more satisfying. It was fun to craft a character and see him come to life, but it felt so limited. Here I was, a man who'd created an entire world, and now I was only in charge of one person whose story only existed in a small bubble.

I thought that perhaps this was just because of the nature of D&D Encounters. Getting matched with 3-5 random players made roleplaying a bit difficult. But after going through a couple of games with other DMs (including one who, in my opinion, is the best DM out there, and my wife who killed us all in our first game), I realize I'm just not made to be a player.

Don't get me wrong. It's a blast to have a character that is 100% yours, who you care about as he goes from a humble adventurer to someone who saves villages and kills the greatest evils out there. It's an experience that's wholly different from being a DM. But to me, it's the difference between eating a delicious meal, and being the one who made it for everyone to enjoy.

So with my new IKRPG campaign only a few days a way (I hope), I continue to get more and more excited about sitting behind the DM screen and watching as my friends cheer at victories, groan at failures, and threaten to kill me after a plot twist they weren't expecting.

I'll let you know how things go. Although I feel like a rather seasoned DM, I've never strayed from 4th edition D&D, so this will be a bit of a new experience. I'm feeling pretty confident, and I hope my players will enjoy the story I've prepared.

See you tomorrow!

The Sewers that Ray Built

Today I played construction worker and began working on the sewer for my contest piece.


Years ago I bought a Hirst Arts brick mold for the Dungeons and Dragons game I was running. 

I made a bunch of them using Plaster of Paris, and I was fortunate to have saved them all this time because all I needed to do was grab some Elmer's glue and get to work.



Hopefully this gives a better idea of what I'm going for. You can see the three Stolen in front (bases won't be in the final piece), with Hamelin elevated on his blue blob (that won't be either). Rats will be moving in from the top of that T intersection and swarming down the main path.

The black circle indicates where the sewer pipe will be spilling all kinds of nastiness into the trench. The walls need to be built 1 or 2 bricks higher, but I wanted to let the glue dry overnight before I tested its structural integrity.

Tomorrow I'll (hopefully) finish up the walls and start planning out the layout of my swarm.

As promised, here's my pledge for painting my Privateer Press models this month. The only time consuming part will be getting the glow effects just right, but I think I have enough practice from Cryx commissions that it won't be much of a problem!



See you tomorrow!

Playing It Painted for 2013

Just when I thought I couldn't be convinced to dedicate any more time to painting in the coming months, Muse on Minis has found a way to convince me otherwise.


"Play It Painted 2013" is an initiative led by the guys at Muse on Minis, the best Warmachine/Hordes podcast out there, to "see more fully painted armies at tournaments and game nights, and create a place where the community can give each other encouragement and feedback."

The idea behind it is simple.

1. You start the month with a pledge of models. You take a picture of your bare or prime models, along with the date and your username. You have until the end of the month to paint those models for them to qualify for the raffle (explained below).
2. Post a picture of the fully finished/based model.
3. Show a picture of your painted models on the table during a game night.

Raffle points are based on how many in-game points your models are worth, and how far in to your pledge you got. What's really exciting is that they have gotten some good prize support, including painting kits from Privateer Press itself!

This will be a great push for me to get my models painted up for my battle reports. I really want to be one of those snobs who only plays painted models; not to be a snob, but just so I can push myself to use my down time to work on my hobby, rather than be lazy and watch TV or mess around on the computer. Now I have the tiny hope of getting more than just personal satisfaction from painting my stuff, so how can I say no?

So when I make my pledge on the forum, I'll also make a pledge to you guys. And if I don't get my pledged models fully painted by the end of that month, I'll try to talk my wife in to letting me have another giveaway. I make no promises for now, but I'll do what I can.

So wish me luck. Considering I only have 18 days this month, and my contest entry to work on, I'm not going hardcore this round. However, I will commit myself to something.

See you tomorrow!

Going Postal

This week's mail has been very kind to me.

Also, I received my Hamelin box, complete with creepy kids.

Good stuff. Oh, I also received my models for my rat swarm.

And those battle reports that are coming up? Here's my new army I will use when I get them painted up.

And what am I going to base them with? Why my handy dandy... basing materials! And also paints used for the 15mm commission project.




I just don't know what I'll do this week without a box outside my door almost every day.

See you tomorrow!