2014 Ten Games, Ten Times Challenge Results

I heard about this idea after nearly half the year had gone, but threw my hat in the ring anyway it seemed to me that there might be something to the idea of playing a game ten times.

As I've noted previously, it has absolutely been a worthwhile experience. I have found, for instance, once and for all, that Nuts! is not for me with respect to multi-squad per side engagements, but the Chocolate & Cigarette rules in 3.0 are fantastic and just what I want them to be. And I have found Blitzkrieg Commander to be among my all time favorite commercial rule sets (joining G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. as a go-to game) - it has seen action far beyond the initial 10 games.

In total, I played 62 of 100 games for the challenge (I played more games than that total), but given my late start, I'm happy with it.

The 6 games that received 10 plays were:

• Nuts! Final Edition
• Blitzkrieg Commander (1st ed.)
• S&W White Box
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Urbion (Z-man Games)
• Battle Over Britain (Minden Games)

Adventure Maximus was played 2x and while I think there is potential there to make an interesting solo game, I found it hard to muster the enthusiasm to play a 3rd game. I haven't given up on it though and will try it again at some point.

I've already mentioned Nuts! and BKC, so what of the others?

S&W White Box - There is a great deal of freedom owing to the lack of actual rules here - the trick is to not just fall back on B/X but try to imagine how someone in 1974 might approach the situation (not how I would have done it in '74. I was 2.) I will continue to use these for a little while longer for the the Ever Expanding Dungeon. I am on the hunt for an actual D&D White Box, so that may replace these, or I may try Seven Voyages of Zylarthen which I have downloaded and like enough to consider purchasing the paperback copies.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Initially I was put off by all the special rules and having to use the online war band builder to figure out points easily, but the former was resolved by copying and pasting the necessary rules for a given war band into a word doc to print as a QRS for use at the table. The latter isn't that terrible, because you can just reuse forces over and over again after their initial creation. It successfully scratched my fantasy war game itch, and  got me to paint up some of my Reaper Bones.

Urbion - I really like this card game. It took me several plays to win - a result of luck and skill- and that was just the basic version. I have only scratched the surface of the advanced games and look forward to playing them at some point in the future.

Battle Over Britain - This is a fast play game (less than 15 minutes a game, usually much less) and loads of fun, which is surprising when you see how sparse the set up is. Maybe it helped that I watched Angels One Five, Blue Max and Aces High before I played the final 8 games but I felt immersed in the games as I played. I stuck to the basic rules for all but one game, where i pitted my loan Spitfire against two ME-109s and had to figure out how to handle 3 planes in play (it was surprisingly simple). There are still a load of optional rules and I also have the Solitaire pack  to try, which expands the solitaire rules further.

I will absolutely be participating in the challenge again in 2015.

Did I Do What I Said? 2014 Review

If I were to provide an executive level summary of my gaming related activity in 2014, it would be that, although I don't have accurate accounting, I believe I played more games than I have ever before. Although thoroughly enjoyable, it was not without some cost - this very blog has seen a decline in posts. I felt I was becoming stretched too thin with demands on my limited free time and when given the choice between writing up a game session or playing a game, I chose the latter more often than not.

But how did I fair with my goals for 2014 (half-year review here )?

Great Northern War - This was a lot of wishful thinking at the end of 2013. As I noted in the 1/2 year review, I had to accept that this would be a long term project, which was my way of saying, this just wasn't gong to happen as planned. The figures just take too long for me to paint to really knock them out with any kind of volume. Still, my Swedish infantry are now at 48 figures, which is just how many I need to start basing them.

Fantasy gaming - I call this one completed successfully (although slightly modified from the original).

• My Japantasy social game never realized but I did play a solo Japantasy adventure using Swords & Wizardry: White Box that was a good bit of fun. I took notes as I played, so I could write it up if you need proof, but note that it gets a little weird.
• I ran 3 sessions at DragonCon.
• My campaign at the FLGS has had 15 sessions. Even better, most of the players seem really into the campaign and happy to take advantage of its sandbox nature (despite being centered around a mini-mega dungeon).  I have a core group of regulars and although technically I am still running an open table, I'm not advertising our sessions anymore.

WWII - 

• I managed to play the following Guadalcanal scenarios: The Goettge Patrol , The Brush Patrol, The First Battle of Matanikau, Battle of Bloody Ridge, Koli Point. That's more than half of the 8 I listed originally and I played some of these multiple times and with different rule sets. I certainly got my money's worth from the Britton Publishers scenario book.
• As mentioned in the half year review, I am short some Soviet riflemen. It turns out, it wasn't just slothful painting, but that I don't have the figures to even paint. The Airfix sets feature primarily SMGs (which is great if you want to build SMG squads), but the scenarios very explicitly are centered around rifle squads in July, 1943. 

Helvetica - Well, you would't know it from my blog (save for one picture), but I am four turns into a Featherstone style "domestic" campaign. I cobbled together some campaign rules from issues of Lone Warrior, Featherstone and Bath, and I use my own Generic Skirmish Rules for Colonial-ish Games: Celebrating the Exploits of Heroes, Military and Otherwise, in Lands Foreign and Fantastic While Glossing Over the Role of the Ordinary Person for combat resolution. All encounters so far have been patrols being ambushed by lizard folk. Keeping the tribes in line is bloody and dangerous work.

************
So, despite the big goose egg that is the GNW project, I am happy with what I accomplished. Having these goals didn't entirely limit my gamer ADD, but they did help focus me on areas of the hobby I wanted to spend time on.

Plus, there were other hobby related accomplishments to make up for not entirely hitting every goal as laid out:

I put out issue two of 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer and to my shock, it sold out. It wasn't immediate, but still. Issue 1 is still in print - because it's far cheaper and easier to reproduce and still sells.

I released not one but two free sets of rules this year, World War Risus and Featherstone's Nuts. The latter was quick to make (it is maybe a page long), but World War Risus was more involved. Never the less, it went from idea to a living document in a short time, provided a number of enjoyable games, and got me listed as a Risus SuperFan. My feelings about the rules vary depending on the day, but the experience was enjoyable and I don't regret the time spent. 

The b/x campaign with Ariale that features her violence prone, self-interested elf, Fjorgyn, began this year, and continues even now. Although I have stopped doing write ups for these games, or the Trelleborg games for that matter, take my word that Fjorgyn isn't as totally evil as she seemed, and recently took action that might even be deemed heroic.

I played dozens of games that received nary a mention; my WWII collection is almost always out on the table, I have played several solo RPG one-shots, and even did some figure painting.

And, of course, there was the 10 Games, 10 Times challenge that I took up in June, but that will get its own post.

Half-Year Goal Review

It's that time of year when it makes sense to review the goals we set for ourselves for the year, to track our progress or to update them to reflect who we are now and not who we were when we came up with them in the first place.

I am relatively happy with my hobby accomplishments thus far this year although not all of them are in line with the post linked above (World War Risus and issue 2 of my zine are two obvious examples). The driving force for the 2nd half of the year will be the Ten Games, Ten Times challenge. However, I think a good bit of my original plan is still intact. 

My social game at the FLGS is well underway - although I switched from Labyrinth Lord to b/x since the PDFs are readily available over on DriveThru - and is moving to 2x a month starting, well, this month. I have what I would say are four core players, three semi-regulars, two who seemed to enjoy it but have missed the last two sessions, one new person who seems like he'll be back, and a handful that I never expect to see again (either due to distance or in two cases, because they just happened to be at the store that day and sat in). This goal is basically on autopilot at this point (not the actual gaming itself - I work hard to study all I can about being a better DM. Although I tend to laugh and joke a lot, people are looking to me to provide them with a rewarding experience, and I take that very seriously).

I have yet to sign up to run a game at DragonCon, although the event system just recently went on-line. One of my playes (and the GM for the GURPS campaign I'll be playing) is a volunteer with the gaming staff and he confirmed that I have pretty much up until the con to do this, but I want to do it sooner rather than later so the game is listed in the program. My problem is that other than the writing seminars, most of the panels aren't finalized yet, so I don't know what's going on when. I'm planning to run at least The Purple Worm Graveyard, but it has the possibility of ending quickly depending on the choices the players make, so I'll definitely need another short adventure to fill the time slot for those who want to keep gaming.

The Japantasy game, well, that is going to require some thought. There's practically no way I'll be able to run that for my home group since they are totally absorbed by M:TG and Guild Wars 2. I would like to run it at the FLGS, but see above re: running 2x a month already. This will probably be a mini-campaign run in 2015, possibly as a brief hiatus from Trelleborg.

For WWII gaming, I have played The Goettge Patrol, The Brush Patrol, and The First Battle of Matanikau (which I never wrote up). If I'm understanding the rules correctly, Blitzkrieg Commander will let me play the rest of the engagements (fielding a company per side with support, max, using 1 base = 1 squad) I planned to play. Coincidentally, that's about five of the ten games I plan to play using BKC in the next 6 months.

I have not yet gotten around to even thinking about The Red Surge campaign from The Red Guards at Kursk scenario book. If I recall, I'm short a few Soviet riflemen, and they aren't really near the top of my painting queue at the moment. They might work their way up, but I'm pretty enamored with the Western Front right now. I would say this is not likely in 2014. On the other hand, Nuts! would be a good ruleset for this.

Return to Helvetica - I want to do this, the question is, how much time do i have and am I motivated enough? I did manage to find a hand written copy of the organization table for the Riesling forces, so at least I know who my commanders are again. GASLIGHT is my choice here, but there are some other rules that could make an appearance. I have been jonesing to play GASLIGHT again, so perhaps at least one game in this campaign will happen.

As for the Great Northern War, I have accepted that this is a longer term project for me. 

Right now, I can field something like 70+ Russian infantry, and 24 or so Swedish. The odds of me getting Dragoons and artillery enough for both sides to do any combined arms scenario anytime soon is rather slim, let alone finishing all of the Swedish infantry. ON THE OTHER HAND, I can do some very very very small skirmishes using Songs of Drums and Shakos (modified for the early 18th C.) or the old THW rules Mayhem: Warring Nations (again, modified) or Mayhem: Muskets and Mohawks (arguably less modification required). And, in fact, that's my plan, just to get them on the table before the year is out.

And then there are the new periods that seem to have sprung up out of nowhere that weren't on the horizon at the end of 2013:

• World War I (1/72, very early war BEF cavalry vs German cavalry, mid-late war Italians vs. Austrians)
• Medieval (1/32 semi-flat Russians vs Teutonic Knights)
• American War of Independence (1/32)

I don't expect any of these to do more than hit the painting table this year, but you never know.

Ten Games x 10

Inspired by Itinerant Hobbyist: 10 Games Challenge (which goes back to a boardgamegeek challenge if you follow the links), I put some thought into the games I'd like to play 10x to really learn this year. 

With only 6 months left, it's going to be a tight squeeze, but fortunately, a few of these are already under way and at least two take less than 15 minutes to play.

Now if a game is just not fun after a few plays, you can abandon it and replace it with another one.

Miniatures:

• Nuts! Final Edition - I've played this 1x (not counting just testing out the rules). I'll probably play several one-offs (including the Chocolate & Cigarettes section), before using the included campaign system.
• Blitzkrieg Commander - Similar in coverage to ‘Tactical Combat’ WWII rules  which I like and are pretty simple.  I'll see if there's enough special about it, and whether or not I like the chrome, to make it worth changing systems.
• Song of Blades and Heroes - I have had this for awhile. I even got the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter so I could field warbands for it. I also have Drums and Shakos, and Flying Lead, so this will be my gateway drug for Ganesha Games stuff.

RPGs:

• Swords & Wizardry : Whitebox - As the new rule set for The Ever Expanding Dungeon campaign, this is a gimme. It also sets the length of Season 2 (if you will) to at least 10 "episodes", no matter how many TPKs.
• Tunnels & Trolls - 5.x. Ariale has been playing some solos and it's got me wanting to play. Plus, I have the freebie PDFs from the Kickstarter that are calling to me.
• Adventure Maximus - My Kickstarter reward arrived yesterday and I really really really want to play this!

Board/Card/Dice Games:

• Urbion - Solitaire card game from Z-Mann. I've already played several times (I'll say 5x, which is probably an underestimate). I want to bring in the advanced options.
• Battle Over Britain - I've played this a few times this year, but I'll say twice. I want to try all of the options though, and the additional solitaire enhancements.
• Mice & Mystics - I have only played this once, and it wasn't this year, so that doesn't count. The rules aren't complicated, but I remember it took watching the video in order to really grok it.  My goal is to play the included campaign solo.
• Pathfinder Card Game : Rise of the Rune Lords - I admit, the box is kind of intimidating

January 2014 Updates

This is one of those updates where I just lump everything together: role-playing, wargaming, zine-ing, etc.

A scene from a favorite song on Adventure Time
It has nothing to do with this post.

• Of late, I've been working on issue #2 of 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer as often as possible. I'm deep in editing and revising - I seriously feel that I have to step up my game to accompany the amazing artwork I received.

• The majority of my hobby time not spend on the zine has been spent on finishing a mere six Swedish infantry for the Great Northern War by 11:59 PM tonight. Clearly, there's no consequence if I don't, it's just something I want to do. As it is, I've had to revise my original painting plan, and allot 3 months for every 2 months of GNW painting goals.

• Inking in of the Ever Expanding Dungeon map continues. It's tedious, not difficult. Once done, I'll scan it and post it with each session summary and indicate where the action is taking place.

• I've tentatively scheduled the first game of an ongoing open table dungeon crawl campaign for my local meetup group for later in February. The dungeon is not one of my own design, but I still have prep work to do.

• Finally, the budget tally:

January Budget: $15.00

YTD Budget: $15.00

January Actual:  $37.35

• BMC Iwo-Jima 32 Piece Set 
• Britain's Kublewagen

YTD Actual: $37.35

So, as you can see, not a great start on the budget .On the other hand, if I don't buy anything in February (not counting any birthday funds I might receive), I'll be back on pace in March.

It looks like I have 28 really long days coming up!

The Ugliest B-word of All: Budgets

I went quite a bit overboard last year, and so this year I'm keeping a strict gaming budget: $15/mo (out of pocket, gift money doesn't count since it's usually earmarked for gaming stuff anyway)- that's minis, rule books, modules, and other sundry hobby items (does not include zines or my Lone Warrior renewal).

That's still a sizable sum for most of the world, although for wargamers and role-players on the whole, it's probably a pittance for many. My motivation isn't really about saving, so much as spending it on other things but that motivation is quite strong and I see sticking to the budget as being a near sure thing. Still, budgets aren't known for their high CON scores.

And that's really the whole point here: to publicly track spending on gaming so that I hold myself accountable to my peers (or my betters as the case may be). It also has the advantage of helping me remember just what the heck I purchased the past year.

So here we go!

January Budget: $15.00
YTD Budget: $15.00
January Actual:  $9.25

• BMC Iwo-Jima 32 Piece Set 

YTD Actual: $9.25

The Much Ballyhooed 2013 Review

Since I spent such an obscene amount of time contemplating 2014, I figured I should spend a little time looking back on 2013. 

I had a rather short list of goals for the year:

• New wargaming setup -Well, I got the MDF,  and painted it on one side and made all of 1 building and a few trees. Adding the grid to one side should take half an hour at most, and yet it eludes me. Partial success. 
• Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session - Although I did get some painting done, it was not nearly consistent as I had planned or as productive. Fail.
• Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group - Not only did I do this, I did it TWICE. Frankly, this is the thing I'm most excited about. Success.

As the song says, two out of three ain't bad. Or is that 1.5 out of 3?

There were two projects I wanted to tackle but I wouldn't exactly call them goals:

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - This was a game involving as much of what I got under the tree as possible last Christmas. Completed .

Save a Dead Tree Project - This is an ongoing attempt at making headway into the massive backlog of materials I've acquired. This was probably among my top endeavors for the year and the end result is that I read 21 different items (and even played some of them!), including Disposable Heroes and the Red Sun/Red Death supplement (here and here), The Purple Worm Graveyard. and Space: 1889 :Soldier's Companion.

There were some other "nice to haves", none which happened and that's OK. All in all I'm happy with how the year went hobby wise and I'm looking forward to 2014!

My Finalized List of 2014 Hobby Objectives

Once again, I realize that having objectives or goals for a hobby might strike some as being directly at odds with the fact that it is a hobby we're talking about. However, I have a tendency, like many, to have gamer ADD and thus, I find this a useful exercise. 

My list posted previously was quite enormous. It was too much, despite the fact that many of them were rather easy to knock out. More importantly, looking at the list didn't excite me.

So, after much contemplation and effort to suss out from my giant list what's important to me, what I would find satisfying, and what I might not do without the added kick in the butt publicly declaring a goal gives,  I've settled on the following for 2014:

Great Northern War Project

• Play The Advance Guard Action Teaser by June 30, 2014.
• Play a historical scenario by 12/31/14 - Roos attack on the 3rd redoubt at Poltava seems a good candidate.

Details for how I'll get my forces to this point are here.

Fantasy Gaming 

• Run a monthly Labyrinth Lord episodic campaign at an FLGS for the Atlanta Gamer's Guild meetup.
• Run 2-4 sessions of Labyrinth Lord at DragonCon (I'm waffling on running 4 sessions now, worrying I won't have any energy left to play in other games or go to any panels). 
• Run "Japantasy" game for home group

WWII 

• Rising Sun: Operation Watchtower (Britton Publishers)- Play the following Guadalcanal scenarios: The Goettge Patrol , The Brush Patrol, The First Battle of Matanikau, The Battle of the Tenaru, Battle of Bloody Ridge, September Matanikau, Paige's Platoon, Koli Point
• Red Guards at Kursk (Skirmish Campaigns) - Play"The Red Surge" 4 scenario campaign, which covers July 11 and 12, 1943. 

Helvetica

• Play 6 campaign encounters.

Much of what I have mulled over previously is included there, but it's a layer or two down;  I decided to keep the end in mind, rather than the means. 

It's purely psychological.

I most enjoy playing wargames, not the preparation to play them. Whereas, for RPGs, I love the planning. This way, my goals focus on the parts that I most enjoy and find most satisfying.

Thinking Outloud: Another Mulling Over of 2014 Goals

As the title says, I've been doing a little more thinking about what I want to do, goal-wise, in the upcoming year. Honestly, when I think about it, perhaps what I really mean is, as of today, here's what I want to do by this time next  year. "2014" may, in fact, be a red herring.

I decided to break down my gaming into three periods/genres that I want to actively pursue in the next year: WWII, Great Northern War, and Fantasy (which I've stretched to include VSF/Imaginations). None of this requires additional purchases, save starting the FoW Polish Late War Tank Division.

Great Northern War: 

• Finish 20 - 36 more Swedish infantry
• Finish 12 - -18 cavalry each
• Finish 2 -4 guns  + crew each, 
• Finish 1-4 officers each
• Play

These numbers will allow me to play, in a much stylized and small fashion (the lower numbers represent the bare minimum I think I would be OK with), Table Top Teasers/Scenarios for Wargames, etc. instead of being in a holding pattern. Then as I finish more figures the nature of the games can change accordingly.

Fantasy: This is all over the place as it covers solo and social gaming, RPGs and miniature wargames.

• Ever Expanding Dungeon, at least 12x
• Ruins of the Under City - at least try it out 1x.
• How to Host a Dungeon - try it out at least 1x.
• Paint up remaining figures of goblins and kobolds, 9 more each, to try Song of Blades and Heroes
• Run a Sisters of the Sword - Japantasy for home group with Yamato M20
• Run 4 sessions of Labyrinth Lord at DragonCon 
• Run an open table campaign with LL 1x per month at FLGS for meetup group
• Release issues 2 and 3 of zine
• Reread and run a TMNT game - solo or social - by 12.31.13
• Paint Malifaux factions
• Helvetica campaign - finish setup (the thieves took my laptop and much of my background info is now lost) and play a game turn at least once per month

Now that I see it all bullet-ed out, I'm disturbed by the length of that list! Some editing may be necessary.

WWII:

• Pacific 1/72
• Assemble and paint USMC tanks
• Paint USMC infantry to fill out specialist troops (M1917A, mortar, grenade launcher, BAR, etc). 
• Play through some Britton Publishers scenarios for the PTO.
• Finish remaining palm trees, make craters, hills, etc.
• European Theater 1/32
• Trees, hills, buildings, etc. 
• Play.
• Eastern Front 1/32 
• Finish painting Airfix Soviets and Germans, including tanks. 
• Play Skirmish Campaigns, Red Guards at Kursk modified for my collection and table. 
• Build Eastern front farm houses (3-5) for villages. Trees as above.
• European Theater 15mm 
• Finish US Airborne, 
• Assemble/paint tanks. 
• Learn FoW rules. 
• Paint Germans.

The yellow highlights above represent items that are questionable and are dependent on other factors.

2014 Musings and Thoughts on the End of 2013

Still riding the high from Saturday's game, I'm throwing myself into the process of finding the next one shot to run for the session I'm hosting in December

And as I'm doing it, my thoughts are turning to hobby goals for 2014.

My goals have traditionally been solo oriented, since that's my preferred mode of play, although I did include one social game goal this year, to run an RPG session for the local meetup group (done and done!).

For 2014, I already know I want to run something monthly for the meetup. Candidates include:

• An "open table" fantasy RPG sandbox campaign  (maybe b/x, maybe LL + AEC, or maybe Basic Fantasy RPG).
• A sandbox Japantasy campaign, or perhaps a multi-session mini-campaign centered around a single goal. This is basically what I'm working on for my home group, and this way I could get double duty out of the prep.
• Running series of only loosely connected one shots with rules light systems like Searchers of the Unknown, one of the many M20 fantasy variants or one of the Dungeon Squad editions. Character generation takes a few minutes tops in these games.(an episodic campaign essentially)

Perhaps the biggest thing I am considering for 2014, is running up to 4 sessions at next year's DragonCon for Labyrinth Lord / AEC (I'm thinking LL rather than B/X, because I want to see if I can get some Goblinoid Games stuff to give away). Biggest in that I'd be exposed to potentially 30+ different players in a few days, running 16 hours of gaming.

Planning 2014 also has me considering the remainder of 2013.

Looking over my 2013 goals, of the actual goals portion (as opposed to projects which I only wanted to make some progress on), I have not done terribly but with 45ish days to go, I'm not likely to make any major in-roads either, not with NaNoWriMo and the holidays.

Although I'm nowhere near completing the Save a Dead Tree project, I have made my way through a good chunk of material. That said, I have also acquired more stuff so it's probably a wash in that respect. Still, I ought to be able to knock out a book or module or something before the year ends.

In fact, The Purple Worm Graveyard fits this description and will also work as a one-shot module for December. Problem solved!

Gridding the MDF and building some scenery and terrain should take precedence over painting minis, but we'll see. I'm 1/2 way through my US Airborne starter force for FoW Open Fire! and just picked up some Cygnar Blue basecoat for my GNW Swedes, so painting is calling me. 

Mostly, i really just want to get some minis on the table and play - since, you know, that's a big part of why I play tabletop wargames and not video games.

Weekend Plans : May Change Without Notice

With the weekend fast approaching (but not fast enough  I thought I'd take a minute to lay out my plans.

Earlier in the week, I was set on playing the Martian Messiah scenario tonight, but I really want something more like huts for the buildings in my lizard villages. Some searching of the internet last night gave me a few ideas and so I may spend some time making a few, and play Saturday night.

Plus, I've been on a bit of a painting kick lately. 

I don't know why it took so long to see the virtues of having multiple painting projects going on simultaneously, but I finally gave it a try. I now have GNW 1/72 Sweden, WWII 15mm U.S. Airborne, WWII 1/32 Soviet infantry, and Fantasy 28mm kobolds and goblins all in various stages. 

It really helps break up the monotony of painting identical uniforms, figure after figure.

There will be reading and writing and possibly some watching of movies as well, depending on the time I have.

In the meantime, I look forward to the mail arriving today because I'm getting these:

(It's for, ahem, research for my feudal Japan game)

A Look at My Project List

by jordan clarke

Other than reading a short story by J.S. Le Fanu (The Drunkard's Dream), last night was the first night in awhile where I didn't have any idea what i'd do with the free time afforded to me.

What would help, I thought, is a list of my ongoing projects and the next action (I read Getting Things Done once. The system wasn't for me, but the ideas and vocabulary stuck with me) for each.

So, I grabbed a fresh notebook and jotted down the following in no particular order (some non-hobby projects are listed since they have to be considered too):

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story
• The Ever Expanding Dungeon - 9Q session
• Flames of War - clip U.S. airborne figures from sprues
• Solo RPG Guide - write 500 words
• Zine issue #2 - finish write up of dungeon
• Malifuax - assemble figures
• Pacific Theater WWII - make shell craters
• Eastern Front WWII - finish painting 5 Russians previously started
• European Theater WWII - make 6 more trees
• Great Northern War - paint pants on 1 12 figure unit of Swedes
• Save a Dead Tree - finish reading Dragon #82
• Learn to Draw - draw for 20 minutes
• Certify as MCSA SQL Server 2012 - review topics covered on database test for MTA
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion - read wargame rules from The Soldier's Companion
• Sell Gaming Stuff - take pictures of items
• New Year, New (Social) Game - write Pa Ku's player to find out what they are doing during the next 6 months of game time
• Dungeon crawl for others - schedule next session with my test group

It was then a matter  of picking something based on the time available.

I ended up reading some Japanese ghost stories I found online, the relevant rules from The Soldier's Companion and I finished Dragon #82 (the section on spell research has a d100 list of book names that I will definitely want to use at some point).

Of course, that means new next actions for those projects:

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story (I intend to read most of those in book mentioned)
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion  - walk through a simple scenario to learn rules
• Save a Dead Tree - Read Dragon #86

As my many previous posts on my goals/plans should have taught you, it's unlikely I'll stick to this for long, but for now, I'm going to run with it.

2013 Goal: Run a Dungeon Crawl for my Local Meetup Group

One of my goals for 2013 is to run a game for my local RPG meetup group. While I have met some people in the group, it's a large group and there's no telling who would come out for an old school dungeon crawl.

Time is running out and I need to get a jump on this.

After some arm twisting, my regular players and some additional friends agreed to "play test" a couple of dungeons to help me pick the most enjoyable one. If I'm going to go out and run a game for strangers, I'd like the adventure to be interesting enough to give the players something to work with.

We started last night and didn't even get inside (they opted to go in via the roof rather than the front door, but that led to some hilarious complications), but already I have learned a few things:

It's best to use pre-gens or have players create their characters before the game session. We lost over an hour and that's even with my menus of equipment packages that were intended to speed up that part. 

I want to use physical representations of resources - torches, oil flasks, arrows, etc. Maybe glass beads or pennies or some other token, to give the player a real world representation of their diminishing resources.

Spells, per one of my players suggestions, should be printed out on an index card that the player turns in when its cast. Again, resource representation.

Another player suggestion, make the character sheets modular. The idea is to have the basic equipment lists on index cards, character stats on another, weapons and armor on another, special skills (thieves, turning for clerics), saving throws another (create several for each class in case mulitple players play same class). They could be laid out in a rectangle on the table in front of the player, like an ordinary character sheet.

Since it's a 1 shot, all PCs have the same chance to hit, make that a hard-coded piece of the character sheet.

***

I'm really trying to step up my game after DragonCon - just going all in. I'm excited about the next session and seeing how they'll approach the dungeon.

In addition to determining which crawl I'll run for the meetup group, I'm on a mission to show my regular players that a dungeon crawl is neither necessarily hack-and-slash or a railroad. Already, I have dispelled some of the players' misgivings about dungeon crawls, just by letting them go in through the roof.

Race for Vader Rock: Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge

This is my The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge  game. I was able to use a good number of the gifts pictured in this post. The rules used were Featherstone's WWII rules from his Wargames, which was under my tree this year. Both sides were Christmas gifts as well, and, although not very creative,  the hill in the middle table is a pile of the books and a DVD I got as gifts. Vader Rock, well, that should be obvious.

October 1944
The Nazi's have discovered the location of an alleged ancient occult power source - the Death's Head - located in a secluded location known only as Vader Rock. Two platoons of German infantry have been moving quietly towards Vader Rock with orders to locate and return with the Death's Head.

Fortunately, for the Allies, a spy was able to report this just prior to his being discovered and subsequent execution. Lt. Grimlock and Lt. Slag have been sent with a platoon each to recover the artifact if it exists, and barring that, stop the Germans if they get there first.

Lt. Grimlock has orders to move directly to Vader Rock and avoid a protracted engagement with the enemy.

Lt. Slag has been tasked with providing support for Grimlock's platoon. They are to engage the enemy and harass and eliminate the Germans above all else.

The race is on.

Lt. Slag arrives on the scene. Grimlock orders his men towards the objective.

The 2nd German Platoon arrives in a favorable position to reach Vader Rock.

German 2nd Platoon reaches Vader Rock first. When they exit, a shoot out ensues.

The bullets fly. Men engage in Hand to Hand. The German officer has the Death's Head!

The Germans try to flee, but they drop the Death's Head as they disappear into the forest In the foreground, Slag's platoon cuts down the German 1st platoon.

Lt. Grimlock poses with the Death's Head.

********************

The rules are quite simple and I found them quite fun to play, 

I used Featherstone's suggested variable movement for the US, which found my platoons bogged down, unable to move, several turns in a row. I adjusted the German's variable move to use 1 - No Move, 2-4 - Normal, 5-6 Double Move, to give them a slight advantage.

Featherstone, judging by the scenario he presents in his book, used 10 figures for a company. That wouldn't work for me, given I only have 16 figures for each side, without resorting to non-Christmas purchases. I opted to use 6 figures total per unit, and 1 for the leader. I really didn't think 2 companies would be sent on a mission like this, so I decided the units were, in fact, platoons.

In my opinion, the game would have looked better if the figures had been mounted 2 to a base for each section, but that wouldn't have been true to Featherstone.

I used the ranges as given - 6" infantry move, 12-24" rifle range. Due to having fewer figures on the table per unit, I halved the casualties for all fire results. 

I enjoyed the morale mechanism. Slag's platoon failed morale in a fire fight early on, but recovered. The 2nd German Platoon failed, and the failed on subsequent turns as well, leading to their leaving the table.

The game took about 1.5 hours to play, which includes time for pictures and note taking.

The Halfway Point Review - 2013 Gaming Goal Progress

Yes, yes, I know it's a hobby and goals and such kind of wig some people out when it comes to "down time" activities, but I like to have a plan, generally speaking, even if I end up abandoning it entirely.

Probably because I enjoy making lists, but that's neither here nor there.

Or maybe it is, because this itself is a list:


Save a Dead Tree Project

Making my way through all my unread printed game related material is going to take some work for sure. 

Read:

• Dragon issues - Best of I and II, plus several other issues
• The Purple Worm Graveyard
• Peter the Great's Army: Infantry
• Poltava: 1709
• Currently reading Warfare in the Age of Marlborough

Read & Played:

• Nuts! War Against Japan
• Disposeable Heroes
• Red Sun, Red Death (DH supplement)
• Traveller (Starter Traveller book)

New wargaming setup 

• The basic MDF boards are done, but I do want to paint the backs and grid them for Morschauser/Cordery-type grid games. 
• 10 palm trees in progress, and my 5th 1/32 Seuss-ian pine tree just needs to be glued. 
• Made 1 hill, although not my favorite. I'm experimenting with foam to see if I can't make an old school step hill, without the jagged edges of my first attempt.

Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session
I hit Jan - May, and then didn't paint at all in June (to my recollection). I foresee a return to the painting table in the near future.

Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group
I've been reading 1 pager dungeons to see if I can find something I want to run as a one-shot. I really wanted to run The Purple Worm Graveyard, but I think it's better saved for players who are familiar with old school play. Otherwise they probably won't make it past room 2.

Projects (they don't have to be completed, but progress made): 

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - I won't be able to use everything unless I turn the books into hills, but I have a silly WWII / Pulp-ish scenario in mind. Maybe I'll play this tonight.

A WWII PTO campaign -  I have two PTO campaign PDFs from Britton Publishers that are surpassing the Nuts! War Against Japan campaign generator in terms of likelihood of play. 

• I've acquired some much needed heavy weapons for the marines to use once off the beach as well as some tanks, that admittedly, will see little service. The tanks and heavy weapons need to be primed and painted.

A three battle mini campaign for the GNW Russians and Swedes usingScenarios for Wargamers or Programmed Wargame Scenarios. This is simply not going to happen any time soon. I don't even have the Swedes cut from the sprue yet, let alone painted.

A VSF campaign that returns us to the island of Helvetica. 

I am thinking that it will start with  consist of the two sample scenarios presented in the Space 1889: Soldier's Companion, and utilize those rules to fight the battles, but feature Riesling and lizard-folk, not British and Martians. Very likely to happen this year sometime, but I can't say when. Probably should call this a "micro-mini campaign."

Celebrate the centenary of H.G. Wells's Little Wars. This is definitely happening. In part, my zine's first issue was part of this, but I would like to get the 1/32 figures out to the mosquito-infested backyard - maybe with a Nerf gun. I'll probably do it in July, to coincide with the anniversary of Kursk.

Zine Ordering Info - Shipping Worldwide!

For those interested, I've finally set up ordering for 6 Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer here: 

http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/p/6-iron-spikes-small-hammer.html

Or, if you prefer :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DanjousHandPress

For now, only print copies are available.

Believe it or not, this is in honor of the centenary of Little Wars.

Organizing and a Slightly Disturbing (to me) Realization

Yesterday, for no real reason, I decided to make some checklists of what needed to be done on various projects (including some 2013 goals), as a way to help guide me when I have a free moment. I dislike turning on the TV or web surfing simply because I couldn't recall the things that might fit into the same time frame.

Doing that, I noticed that May is nearly over. I know, I was shocked too. 

What this means is that I'm way behind on where I wanted to be on my zine's first issue. Fortunately the checklist helped me sort out some quick items I could get done and now I'm ready to do some layout today.

While reviewing the projects, a stray thought popped into my head, "How much print material do I have that is waiting to be read?"

So, I picked   pencil and pad and went through my bookcase to identify all of the gaming related items that either had never been read, had only been skimmed, or read so long ago and sat unused as to effectively be unread.

Warning: Do Not Attempt This at Home. 

Trust me, you will regret it.

My list, to my surprise, is some 71 items long and includes things such as old Dragon Magazines, 4 fiction titles, Osprey titles, other history books, D & D modules and rules for wargames and RPGs. This does not even include the books that don't in any way relate to this hobby of ours, items like The Basic Bakunin and a compilation of Wittgenstein's writings entitled Major Works.

Here I had been thinking I might buy an e-reader so I could make better use of all of those game related pdfs I have and move away from print for everything. I don't need an e-reader; I need a machine that stops time so I can read my way out of this pile.

To put this in perspective, when I first got back into the hobby after a 2 year hiatus, my gaming related books took up some 9" of shelf space, nearly all of it read, if not used. Today, they take up 45". That's a 500% increase - most of which occurred in 2012, either as gifts or as purchases (and sometimes, gifts with purchases as the case may be). Most of which is unread, never mind unused.

I had planned to sell some of these items (6 or so) and now, I think, I may increase that number a bit.

Now to go and have a look at that lead and plastic pile.

2013 Goals: The Officially Sanctioned Version

As I try to learn from what worked for me and what didn't this last year, I've settled on the following four goals for 2013, three I've mentioned before, but the first is new:

Save a Dead Tree Project - This is actually one of two challenges posed over on the Wampus Country blog (follow the link). Essentially, you pledge to try and make use of those rule books, modules, source books, etc. that line the shelves but have never been properly used. In the words of Erik from Wampus Country himself, "This is a throughout-the-year challenge, to utilize and repurpose the stuff I already have. "  I think it's a fantastic idea - this year alone I acquired a number of sets of rules, history books, zines, modules  and rpgs that I've made no use of yet, not to mention items from previous years, Space: 1889 and The Soldier's Companion, I'm looking at you.

New wargaming setup - I plan to use 2' x 4' MDF painted in some inexpensive shade of green paint that screams toy soldiers and game playing at the expense of realism. Home Depot sells the MDF pre-cut in a pack of four, so I will paint three and grid one side on three of them with a 6" grid, and a dot in the center of each space so I can also use it as a 3" grid. The fourth may serve as a makeshift desk with some saw-horses. For gaming, they will be placed on the kitchen table or my desk/table and stored in the closet when not in use. Other items include hills, felt for forests and fields, and some balsa strips for roads.

Paint 2x per month, at least 60 minutes a session - I don't want to set a figure goal, but I do want to make the time to paint. Figure goals, I have learned, end up overshadowing game playing even when I'm really inspired to play. The result is either a game session sullied by some guilt about not painting or a painting session that I am not wholly interested in, and the painting suffers for it.

Run an old-school dungeon crawl for my local RPG meetup group - I've had the pleasure of playing three different systems with this group this year and I would like to return the favor. I will probably run this with Labyrinth Lord and using a published module.

In addition to goals, I have some projects I'm working on that I'd like to make some progress on. What that means exactly, is open to interpretation.

The Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge - Simply put, take everything you got under the tree for Christmas and try to mash something from all of it into one game/set of rules/scenario/module/etc.

A WWII PTO campaign - I'm leaning towards using the campaign system included in Nuts! War Against Japan.

A three battle mini campaign for the GNW Russians and Swedes using Scenarios for Wargamers or Programmed Wargame Scenarios.

A VSF campaign that returns us to the island of Helvetica. I am thinking that it will start with the two sample scenarios presented Soldier's Companion, and utilize those rules to fight the battles, but feature Riesling and lizard-folk, not British and Martians.

Finally, I will do something to celebrate the centenary of H.G. Wells's Little Wars. A chance read through this on Project Guttenberg is largely responsible for why I wargame, if not how. I may try to tie this in to the 70th anniversary of Kursk and fight a 1/32 battle in the backyard. To .that end, I've located and ordered a used copy of SkirmishCampaigns Red Guards at Kursk.

I will continue my delves into the Ever Expanding Dungeon, of course, but that is already running and in place and will serve as a regular outlet for my dungeon crawl needs and experiments.

And speaking of, I'll probably have one more post for this year to follow - a write up of the most recent sessions.

In the meantime, in case that falls through, Happy New Year and thanks for reading!

2012 in Review and One of Those "Best" Lists

The year is almost over and now is as good a time as any to look back and see how I did on my goals for the year that is ending.

My goals were:

• Weekly painting/terrain making/scenery construction/etc.
• Monthly solo gaming
• 100 posts to this blog

I'm happy to say I was able to complete all of these - and I present this blog as a documentation of the effort. If anything, I may have been a little excessive in my documentation: this is the 190th post for 2012!

As for the projects I hoped to make progress on:

1/72 WWII Pacific Island Assault - Completed.

54mm Morschauser Horse and Musket - Switched to 1/72 and the painting has begun.

2mm Napoleonic - This was placed on hold indefinitely.

And where would we be without a year end "Best" list. Since I covered posts on the blog's anniversary, I'll look at the crass consumerism I displayed this year:

Best Set of Rules Acquired (and Played): This is a tie. Unbelievably Simple Role-Playing, Chain Reaction 3: Final Version, and Bob Cordery's Memoir of  Battle. All have provided a ton of fun for only an investment of the time required to read the rules and play the game. If more free rules were this good, publishers would lose a lot of business.

Best Previously Acquired Rules that Got Use in 2012: Moldvay D&D Basic book. Honorable mention: G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

Best Rule Purchase with an Eye Toward the Future: Nuts! 2.0 - I'm reviewing these at the moment and I can't wait to use them in 2013. Honorable mention: Tunnels & Trolls is a top contender for this spot - had I read it sooner, I'd have used it as the basis for my aborted group Labyrinth Lord game (no slight to LL, which I love, but rather, the magic rules would have suited my players better).

Best Miniature(s) Purchased: Khurasan 15mm Ursids. Four bears in sunglasses, chomping cigars and carrying big-ass guns. What's not to love?

Best Non-Rulebook Book Purchase:
For wargaming, Featherstone's Solo Wargaming - I was late for the party on this one, but I finally got it. To be honest, I haven't used anything from it directly, but I find it inspiring and revisit it often.

For RPGs, I'm going to say the small stack of old Dragon magazines that I acquired for a song. Even though I haven't read them yet, in the condition they are in, I can get about 20x what I paid for them.

Item I Most Wish I Purchased: The rest of the stack of those aforementioned Dragon magazines. The rest of those 1/32 Panzer IVs and T-34s at 1/3 their retail price.

Favorite Gaming Accessory Purchase: My purple and gold d30. I cherish it like the heirloom it could never be.

Purchase That I'm No Longer 100% Sure I Should Have Made: 1/300 Panzers, Tigers. and T-34s. As much as I love how they look and how many you can fit on a small table, I have to ask myself, do I really need to do WWII in yet another scale? You'd think I'd ask this about 1/32, but that would be logical and let's face it, scale preferences are anything but.

Next up, 2013 goals.