The dog days of Summer are upon us, and I, for one, welcome the implementation of #RPGaDay for the month. Wanna know a little secret? All but two of them have already been written. As we ramp up next month for our busy season, I'll be happy to casually check TMP and Kickstarter for news and other tidbits, confident that I already have 31 posts for August.
That doesn't mean I won't be posting painting updates or action reports from games, but there's no guarantee that I'm going to get around to them in a timely manner. With general family chaos and the heat wave gripping the East Coast, we couldn't get quick game of Dungeon Roll in to half-heartily celebrate #GygaxDay. At least last year we got in one of the D&D Kids scenarios.
To complicate things at work, I'm getting all the keys to the kingdom while everyone desperately uses up their maxed out vacation time. I anticipate waking up early, tagging my posts on Facebook, Twitter (@viscounteric) and Google Plus, and not checking anything until a late lunch. I do anticipate using my newfound power and earlier schedule to check out Suicide Squad at a late matinee. I give myself a 20% chance of that actually happening.
The best gaming-related work I've been able to do this week is (a) send out another pbem update for the Call of Cthulhu campaign. Time is against me getting the players up to speed with certain details and NPC interactions necessary to start the finale with about 30-45 of bookkeeping and double checking, before we drop them near the start of the finale already in progress.
I've also decided to do the novel idea to review all my blog drafts and see what figures I need to finish for the next dozen or so games I want to play. The Savage Saga of Maja Millie is in an unfortunate holding pattern as I simply need to construct some inexpensive Middle Eastern Buildings for the next six or seven sessions. Shoeboxes, cardstock, and balsa are at the ready. I just need two full nights down at the bench to take care of them. Miniatures Building Authority they will not be, but they'll be generic enough for other games/settings as well.
While I still have a good pile of Pulp Figures to paint up, most notably sailors and female heroines, the next few games look to require a number of different figures I don't yet own. The bad news is that Arab civilians, marketplace stalls, and some new pre-made terrain pieces all require me using different companies and paying shipping on small orders to each one. The good news? Like the buildings, they will be used extensively over many sessions. I don't want to buy a one-shot miniature, unless of course, it's a fabulous sculpt.
As I reviewed each future scenario and noted what figures and terrain I needed, I set up separate list for each company and the items I needed. Like I mentioned above, I'm disappointed that the next few sessions will require tiny orders from Old Glory, Iron Wind, an eBay vendor, and a small order from Brigade Games before I unleash my wish list for them to my wife for Christmas (Amazon worked well last year, although I haven't gotten to play with most of them. This time I hope to get these based, primed, and into the queue before New Years.)
The nice thing about this review was it finally documented to me the expansion or evolution I want from my gaming. Don't get me wrong, we've got some renewed interest from the group in Gnome Wars again, and I still intend to run the Mous-ageddon/Ratnakrok game at Cold Wars this year, Upon reviewing my notes, I actually have eight "Pulp Egypt City" games, including a Christmas one, then the games split off in three different directions.
The Pulp Egypt game expands out into the desert with Arab Irregulars and a leader that looks like a very tanned Peter O'Toole harassing the heroes. Second is an African jungle/lost world game appears to evolve which may involve a lot of Askaris and Polynesian natives to fit the roles. Finally, once those storylines play themselves out, I see I'm hitting the Back of Beyond stuff I've accumulated.
Rather than work on accumulating Russians and Chinese, I've decided to tweak the storylines and only collect one additional army on the cheap, and a few choice models.
In an alternate pulp history, the White Russians score a literal coup over the Bolsheviks and rule Russian with a certainly non-democratic iron fist. Instead of Chinese warlords and Mongol horseman, the Russians look south into the splintered Ottoman lands. A great opportunity to mix up the Arabs I already own with the British and French figures I have slated to buy, plus pad an order from Brigade with some of their cool new Ottoman figs.
For the Russians, I'm going cheap, converting Mexican Federal Troops from Reviresco as generic soldiers in service caps.
If I stop there, I'm looking at a big game every month for the next year, plus whatever short or side projects pop up.
I've recited the same list for my painting queue ad nauseum since Memorial Day.
Hopefully I can slide in a few Battlemechs and other miscellaneous work in before I need to dedicate what little time I have to painting dozens of Arabs and "White" Russians. The queue is never ending..
That doesn't mean I won't be posting painting updates or action reports from games, but there's no guarantee that I'm going to get around to them in a timely manner. With general family chaos and the heat wave gripping the East Coast, we couldn't get quick game of Dungeon Roll in to half-heartily celebrate #GygaxDay. At least last year we got in one of the D&D Kids scenarios.
To complicate things at work, I'm getting all the keys to the kingdom while everyone desperately uses up their maxed out vacation time. I anticipate waking up early, tagging my posts on Facebook, Twitter (@viscounteric) and Google Plus, and not checking anything until a late lunch. I do anticipate using my newfound power and earlier schedule to check out Suicide Squad at a late matinee. I give myself a 20% chance of that actually happening.
The best gaming-related work I've been able to do this week is (a) send out another pbem update for the Call of Cthulhu campaign. Time is against me getting the players up to speed with certain details and NPC interactions necessary to start the finale with about 30-45 of bookkeeping and double checking, before we drop them near the start of the finale already in progress.
I've also decided to do the novel idea to review all my blog drafts and see what figures I need to finish for the next dozen or so games I want to play. The Savage Saga of Maja Millie is in an unfortunate holding pattern as I simply need to construct some inexpensive Middle Eastern Buildings for the next six or seven sessions. Shoeboxes, cardstock, and balsa are at the ready. I just need two full nights down at the bench to take care of them. Miniatures Building Authority they will not be, but they'll be generic enough for other games/settings as well.
While I still have a good pile of Pulp Figures to paint up, most notably sailors and female heroines, the next few games look to require a number of different figures I don't yet own. The bad news is that Arab civilians, marketplace stalls, and some new pre-made terrain pieces all require me using different companies and paying shipping on small orders to each one. The good news? Like the buildings, they will be used extensively over many sessions. I don't want to buy a one-shot miniature, unless of course, it's a fabulous sculpt.
As I reviewed each future scenario and noted what figures and terrain I needed, I set up separate list for each company and the items I needed. Like I mentioned above, I'm disappointed that the next few sessions will require tiny orders from Old Glory, Iron Wind, an eBay vendor, and a small order from Brigade Games before I unleash my wish list for them to my wife for Christmas (Amazon worked well last year, although I haven't gotten to play with most of them. This time I hope to get these based, primed, and into the queue before New Years.)
The nice thing about this review was it finally documented to me the expansion or evolution I want from my gaming. Don't get me wrong, we've got some renewed interest from the group in Gnome Wars again, and I still intend to run the Mous-ageddon/Ratnakrok game at Cold Wars this year, Upon reviewing my notes, I actually have eight "Pulp Egypt City" games, including a Christmas one, then the games split off in three different directions.
The Pulp Egypt game expands out into the desert with Arab Irregulars and a leader that looks like a very tanned Peter O'Toole harassing the heroes. Second is an African jungle/lost world game appears to evolve which may involve a lot of Askaris and Polynesian natives to fit the roles. Finally, once those storylines play themselves out, I see I'm hitting the Back of Beyond stuff I've accumulated.
Rather than work on accumulating Russians and Chinese, I've decided to tweak the storylines and only collect one additional army on the cheap, and a few choice models.
In an alternate pulp history, the White Russians score a literal coup over the Bolsheviks and rule Russian with a certainly non-democratic iron fist. Instead of Chinese warlords and Mongol horseman, the Russians look south into the splintered Ottoman lands. A great opportunity to mix up the Arabs I already own with the British and French figures I have slated to buy, plus pad an order from Brigade with some of their cool new Ottoman figs.
For the Russians, I'm going cheap, converting Mexican Federal Troops from Reviresco as generic soldiers in service caps.
 |
| It might be the paint job or the sculpts, but a buck a fig is the right price. |
I've recited the same list for my painting queue ad nauseum since Memorial Day.
- Mouslings
- Gnomes
- "Blue Martians"
- Pulp
- Terrain (Trees and the aforementioned Middle East buildings)
Hopefully I can slide in a few Battlemechs and other miscellaneous work in before I need to dedicate what little time I have to painting dozens of Arabs and "White" Russians. The queue is never ending..
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