Last night, I managed a bit of time to finish up my write up on Faces Without Screams.
What spare moments I have been able to grab, have been spent:
1) Reading The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough. I am enjoying this book immensely - I only wish I had much longer stretches of uninterrupted time to read it. I'm learning quite a bit and the author's style is very readable for what could have been a very dry subject.
2) Rethinking mechanisms for The Ever Expanding Dungeon (you didn't think I forgot about this did you?).
Fitz-Badger's post about his approach got the wheels spinning - I have been a fan of card based encounter mechanisms ever since I first encountered them in Adventures with Jimland. One benefit of the cards is the ability to create a themed adventure but with a good bit of surprise. You can do something similar with dice, but it's not as slick (although I do like it and find it fun to use). More importantly, and a good bit more subjectively, is the "feel" of the cards and the act of shuffling. Something I find I like far more than rolling dice.
I already use cards for the dungeon layout, so first it's a matter of how I want to account for encounters - whether as a function of the dungeon layout card or a separate deck. I'm still undecided but I'm itching for another delve, so that may have to remain in limbo while I use the existing systems.
3) Finished proofreading and editing 6 Iron Spikes & A Small Hammer. I'm dragging my feet on layout, but it will be done before June 1 and absolutely ready to go for the Atlanta Zine Fest.
4) Also, in small bits of time here and there, I managed to finish up my first unit of 1/32 WWII Germans:
I love the flock. It's mint tea and to my eye, looks a thousand times better than any of my previous attempts with other products - including black tea.
5)Last Friday night, before the craziness really began, I did sneak in a wargame too (almost forgot) - which perhaps I'll write up tonight:
A platoon of USMC was assigned to take out a Japanese bunker:
Looks good. I'm putting together some ideas for what I want to take on vacation to play.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sean.
DeleteI love trying to figure what gaming material to take with me on a trip. I'm willing to sacrifice a change of clothes if it means bringing another gaming option.
-John
The Germans look good.
ReplyDeleteI know how it is with trying to find time (and/or energy) to game! Good luck.
Ah, yes, gaming materials when traveling. I often take stuff like miniatures to prep, or even to sculpt, or paperwork (notes and notebooks) for working on ideas. I don't often take games unless I know I'm visiting someone who will play games (usually not hardcore gamers, so it usually means a lighter game (in weight/size as well as complexity level). Solo gaming "on the road" is usually restricted to Civilization on the computer. Now that I'm getting into solo dungeon crawls I could take along the materials for that, too.
Thanks, Fitz-Badger!
DeleteFor on the road solo RPG, I have found that I can pretty much bring everything I need in a 2 pocket folder (character sheets, graph paper/dungeon map, my solo system blog posts printed out, my diy GM screen for Labyrinth Lord), laptop or phone with the LL rules PDF loaded, dice and a mini-playing card deck in a plastic case (the cards are from a $1 bin at Target some years ago). The laptop would come with me anyway and the rest take up little space + weigh next to nothing.
-John
Hi,
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, be sure to seal the stands with any ground cover which includes stuff like tea, oregano, etc. My buddy forgot to, and worse, stored the stuff in his garage. The next time he looked at them, he found that mice had enjoyed themselves immensely, and left behind a great many small black pellets as a thank you! :(
Best regards,
Chris
Ack! I hit mine with Testor's Dullcote. Think that will do it? Mine are stored in the man-cave but i'd rather not attract any unwanted visitors.
Delete-John