Warmachine is back! And I forgot about having a community O.o

WARMACHINE!.. Ok I don't have a problem... its a lifestyle 😎

Ok so I have been absent from gaming in general due to heavy work travel, not playing anything even video games. Well, that has all changed. Work travel has reduced, I am re-engaging with games, and in particular Warmachine.

The status of the game

Warmachine had all but fallen off of my radar, and often other people's from what I can see. I recently spoke to a friend of mine prior to Adepticon as I was going to attend this year, albeit working in an exhibitor booth. He asked me to look for Warmachine which caught my interest. He was getting into Warmachine? Well.. that was the initial shove that caused me to tumble ad dive off the cliff.

Within a few weeks of our LGS stocking the game, they sold out of the book and most of their stock. They have been getting more in, including the P3 paint line which was recently revamped. Now, nearly 2 months later, we are just now starting our journeyman league with 18 people signed up and more showing interest!

Even at the Adepticon keynote we were made aware of how everything has doubled for Warmachine in the last year, games played on LongShanks, stores supporting the game, and even people attending the keynote! Long story short, Warmachine is definitely back!

My own start

I got back into the game with Old Umbrey, a split of Kahdor focusing on beasts instead of the warjacks. I will do a few articles over them both for my hobby and list building. But that was the start... 

Next Steam Forged Games announced they were taking 3 of the old factions, Convergence of Cyriss, Grymkin, and Infernals, and releasing them as stls for people to purchase and print. I had always wanted to play Grymkin, so I jumped on this opportunity. 

Then I got a wild impulse and decided to buy a lot of old Talion Charter Pirates from a guy in Canada. I am stoked about this army as a hobby project although admittedly they are not the strongest. This will be my first focus for hobby and tactica blog posts for awhile. 

I have gone deep at this point, donating printed terrain and objectives to my local store, providing a couple playmats, etc. I am all in now.

What I forgot

One thing that has become clear from the rush of Warmachine in our area is we have a clear and growing community. Every week I have been showing up, I stay later than intended because of the conversation and community . I have not had this in what feels like years and had forgotten how valuable it is. At our first journeyman league night we had 6 games played and over 18 people signed up. 

Going forward..

From here, my main miniatures focused articles will be on Warmachine, but I will have a splattering of other things from time to time.

Another Year, A Few More Articles....

A beginning again...

I am always trying to force myself to blog, journal, write, etc. I have never been good at consistency, but I enjoy the practice as an outlet for creativity. I am, once again, going to attempt this. So here is the update of things I am working on:

TTRPGs

I am playing a couple different TTRPGs at the moment. The main one I have my hands in is a play-by-post I am running using the Legend in the Mist system set in my own setting, Aislion. I will be doing additional articles dedicated to this as it is going well!

The second I am playing in as a play by post game as well, but this is set in the L5R setting and system (FFG). I won't be sharing details until a certain point as the beginning is still developing.

In person, I am hoping to get a small group going, or at least a one-shot. We will see what happens!

All of these generally involve my setting and I have been developing my World Anvil too! I will share articles and short stories her with a discussion about them!

Wargames

I have historically played a lot of Malifaux, but I have really put that down for now, but not forever. What I have really gotten into is Warmachine now that is has come back! I will be sharing painting, games, lists, tactica, etc while I relearn the game after over ten years. Stay tuned!

I am excited to start blogging again. I am setting an alarm every day to do this, so hopefully I can work on a post every day, publishing once a week at least.

The Student of the Game Master Screen

 Passion for the Hobby

As a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) player and game master (GM), I have a lot of things I love about the hobby, but one particular facet has held my attention over the last 5-6 years: The idea of mastering the GM role. My passion for the hobby has begun to focus on this particular role and set of skills. Yes, I too enjoy rolling dice and acting the part as a player, but there is a different level of satisfaction that comes from being a GM.

Being a GM for years with very little time as a player has given me several different habits and thought patterns. I have grown to value many things about the games as a holistic hobby. I have learned a great deal about many things from history, to craftmanship, to the narrative arts. These all together has led me to understand something I am calling "the Student of the GM Screen."

The Process

Throughout my time I am developing a process to become better as a GM. This involves a lot of aspects and for some people, these will be different in priority based on your own table and personal style. With that in mind, below are the main processes I will be diving into.

1. Play Games - The most important aspect of becoming a better GM is actually running the game! You will make as many mistakes as you will make great memories and often those go hand in hand. Focus on having fun and you will learn a lot along the way!
2. Consume Book/Videos/podcasts - By reading, watching, and listening to media you will both gain a massive number of tools and inspiration to use in your games
   
3. Explore the different side hobbies involved with GMing - Map making, miniature painting, and other side hobbies can be incorporated into the GM role. I want to explore many of these I am unfamiliar with and find what I enjoy doing and develop those skills!
   

What's Next?

I have the following items I am doing to pursue my goal:

1. I have a game with my family I am running using Mouse Guard. It will be my first true campaign with my oldest two and my Wife's first time playing any kind of TTRPG. This is going to help me explore teaching the game and making shorter sessions to accommodate their attention spans. 
2. I will be running a monthly Genesys game within my own homebrew setting. This is where a lot of my hobby time will be put as a month between sessions will allow for a lot of artistic exploration in preparation. This campaign goes along with the next activity.
3. I will update my World Anvil. I have many years' worth of details and notes about my homebrew setting and I have used World anvil to keep them all. I am working to update it and bring everything into sync with the current evolution of the setting.
4. I will begin my Deep Dive series on the Adventure Syndicate discord again. I love to dive into new games and share them with other. I will be starting with Mouse Guard and work to explore these games including revisiting old ones. I want to record and put them on YouTube for reference. This is more for my own sake but maybe others will find value in it as well.

This will be a fantastic journey, and I will be sharing all the fun along the way! If you have any suggestions or ideas to include in this process, feel free to leave a comment! Let's roll some dice!

Guild Ball is Back! Here to Stay?

 

It has been over 3 years since Guild Ball was ended by its publisher, Steam Forged Games (SFG). however, several weeks ago SFG made an announcement that they were opening their models up for print on demand service. This is huge as this allows people to get ahold of models and play the game. But does this mean that the game is alive? What has happened since SFG stopped supporting the game? Do people even want this anymore?

The Shattered Glass

SFG announced that their flagship game of Guild Ball was no longer going to be supported. This was something that came as a shock to some and as an outrage to others. The company had been making promises, giving sneak peaks at future plans, and otherwise stoking hope and excitement for this gladiatorial soccer game. This announcement shocked those who had thriving groups and greatly angers a large portion of the passionate community, leaving them feeling betrayed and lied to. This wasn't what killed the game, however, but rather confirmed the fate that many did see coming.

SFG had a dismal time trying to get product into the market. They had moved away from the metal miniatures and to a PVC plastic, and then to a resin all within a couple years. This amount of rapid change saw problems with quality but even worse with product availability. For over a year the game struggled as new players could only find teams in the form of used models or a select few that had been over produced. In addition, SFG had been focusing on their successful big IP games such as the Dark Souls Board Game which were proving to be financially successful to the contrasting financial losses of Guild Ball. At this point, Guild Ball was struggling to stay alive and SFG decided to put the final nail in the coffin... or so they intended.

Picking up the Pieces

At this point many put their models in boxes or on eBay, forever thinking they would never touch the game again. Another group stubbornly decided to continue playing the game they loved instead. This group over time created the Guild Ball Community Project (GBCP). The GBCP sought to further the game through internal game balance and even created, tested, and crowdfunded a brand new minor guild, the Lamplighters, including STLs for people to print. This passionate group kept the game alive in much the same way other games such as Blood Bowl by Games Workship was kept alive for well over a decade. This allowed many to continue to enjoy their beloved game, but that was about all that was to happen.

The New Mosaic

A little less than a month ago, SFG announced something that no one thought would happen. SFG would be moving their miniature line for Guild Ball to a print on demand service. This was a massive move as it achieved several things: 

1. The company communicated it is not opposed to supporting the game if it can make sense. Guild Ball cost more money than it made the year they ended its support. The move to print on demand would be a litmus test if they were willing to allocate any resources to Guild Ball moving forward.
2. The company admitted things could have been handled differently at the time of the original announcement. Many fans took what SFG as the company blaming players for "ruining the game" and "making it too competitive." While their statement here did not melt the hearts of many fans, this was at least a good step forward in their communication. They have since been upfront with the uncertain nature of the game's support but hoped it would do well.
   
3. They acknowledged the work and passion of the GBCP, stating that they passion and work are responsible for keeping the game alive.
4. The most important factor is product availability. This was the real reason Guild Ball could not be profitable in the past and why it was becoming harder and harder to get new people into the game. With this, the logistics of getting product into gamers' hands was finally a real possibility.
   

The Current View

The first official update from SFG has been released. They announced that the launch of the print on demand exceeded expectations. In addition, they are expanding the models available to certain special models the community expressed interest in (alternate minor guild versions). They made it clear that they are working with the GBCP to release a new, official errata coming this next month.

In summery, the game is far from dead and has a real hope of being fully supported by SFG once again! While there is still a lot of time needed to see if the game will fully come back, these are exciting time for us fans. Not all will trust SFG, and arguably with justification. However, I am excited, eager, and ready to get some more games on the pitch!

Stay tuned for more about this!

2024 and Gaming for Me

 

Well, 2023 came and went and my blogging is pretty much non-existent. That changes now! At least that is a new resolution I am having for myself..

Here in 2024 I have some goals for myself and my hobbies. And what better way to start then to just go through them all! 

1. Blog Regularly - No one really is going to be reading these blogs unless it is a random individual here and there. This is for my own sanity and determination to have some discipline in my gaming. I will blog about everything from painting minis, playing wargames, running or playing TTRPGs, and anything else my hobbies bring! I need to determine frequency but I will start with this post.
   
2. Paint Models - I have a LOT of models I need to paint. I need to have at least one miniature painted per week. I have multiple games to pull from so I have no lack of options.
   
3. Play More Competitively With Malifaux - We have had a new community spring up around Malifaux and it is exciting as a large factor is due to a prominent member of the wider community moved here. It is encouraging to see more people play and I want to really sharpen my skills and grow as a player. This includes attending tournaments locally and abroad! Family and work will limit this, but I will make the effort.
   
4. Make Game Reports - I used to enjoy making game report and I am going to attempt to do this more often for casual games.
5. Read/Listen to Books - I used to be an avid reader and I have not gotten into some god books in ages. This will play a part in a later resolution. I am starting with some fantasy books, but I also have goals to read some self-help books.
   
6. Sharpen My GM Skills - I want to dive into getting better as a GM. This will include a blogging series I will name something clever later. This will mean the following: I need to read more books, both for content and for skills; I need to run more games, including ones shots, short series, and maybe long-term campaigns; I will need to play more often!
7. Find My Favorite Games - I used to think I knew what my favorite roleplaying games and game styles were, but I honestly have learned I need to revisit this and find the games that I not only want to run but the ones I want to play. This will require both running and playing more often.
8. Play Some Single Player Video Games - I have done a good job in ceasing to just buy each cool game that comes along as I have not been playing them. My goal is not only to play them but to finish them. I will likely write up my thoughts on each afterwards.
9. Other Various TTRPG Content - I have loved getting more into TTRPGs and I will be doing a variety of projects related including things!
   

There are a lot of things going on but I am determined to get this discipline down! Here's to a new year!

RPG Deep Dive: Bunkers & Badasses

 The RPG Deep Dive

I am now starting up a new series on a particular Discord community. I am taking non-mainstream TTRPG games and taking four sessions to learn and explore them. The community on the discord is jumping in with me and we are doing the following:

• Session 1: Lore and character creation
• Session 2: Combat and game mechanics
• Session 3: Session zero (prep for the one-shot)
• Session 4: One-shot led by me usually

The purpose of this is to allow me to actually play the many TTRPG games I have collected (and continue collecting). It also allows the community to try out games they otherwise would never have heard of. 

Bunkers & Badasses

The first TTRPG for this series is Bunkers & Badasses! This is the rpg that was inspired by the videogame Borderlands, and the DLC "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep." The lore is super fluid as it is a parody of fantasy TTRPGs allowing you to create pretty much whatever experience you want.. as long as you include guns! It brings in all the crazy antics of the Borderlands with a fun fantasy spin.

For the first session, we just went through the lore (not much there) and did some fun character creation. We had 2 other people including myself, and we went through creating characters using the tables in the book. Normally the players have some choice over backgrounds, but since I was the only one with the book we did pure dice rolls. Each had a different character and class which was fun to show off. You can watch/listen to the recording here: 

Note!! I am a novice when it comes to recording so the video is almost no help when following along. Feel free to listen more than you watch. I hope to have a better result next time.

That was the first dive into Bunkers & Badasses! I am excited for what the future will bring with this series so stay tuned!

Return to Gaming

The Plague and the Comeback

Greetings after multiple years of inactivity! Talk about a wild ride. New kid, job change, a worldwide plague forcing people to avoid in person gaming and activities.... no big deal...

TTRPGs and My Addiction to Books

Anyways.. so there have been a lot of things going on and gaming fell to the side as a focus and priority. Thankfully things have continued to change, just this time for the better! I have rediscovered my love for gaming, but it has taken a turn more towards ttrpgs. I am now unofficially collecting a wide variety of systems and setting to the point i would normally not have time nor resources to play/run them all. But I have found a solution to this problem!

Recently I have discovered a cool online ttrpg community at the Adventure Syndicate on Discord (link in the side panel). They run a variety of games periodically including ones-shots and short series. I have already run one game there playtesting my own setting (will discuss later). I am now going to be running a series of event called "RPG Deep Dive." The whole point with this is to take 4 sessions to dive into non-mainstream games and settings. This gives me the chance to explore and run all my games and it gives others the chance to check out materials and games they normally wouldn't have. Come join the community!

This comes to my next RPG endeavor: my custom settings. I have been working on two separate settings over the last couple years. One space opera and one fantasy, these two setting have been passion projects of mine as I pulled influences from my favorite inspirational sources. I will be doing features on each setting discussing them in more detail.

As I collect more ttrpgs and expand my own settings, I will be doing more and more ttrpg related content.

A Departure from Wargames

I have taken large amount of my wargame collection and sold it to reduce clutter. I owned more systems and armies than I could afford time or resources to paint & play. I struggled spreading myself too thin and was unable to truly enjoy the hobby or have satisfaction with the games. I would play one game a month of a system, then bounce to another, then another. This meant I couldn't actually gain any skill leading to much frustration. I also started to see that I had an insurmountable number of miniatures I would never take the time to paint. By reducing what I owned I was able to make my painting que much smaller and more appealing to paint.

I haven't given up playing miniature wargames, but I almost never play army scale anymore and really only play two skirmish scale games. This change has shaped a couple rules I follow when considering starting a new game:

1. Is there a community already in my local area? I no longer have the time to focus on starting a new game community. If no community already exists, I will not play.
2. Is it a high model count game? I do not have time to paint hundreds of models anymore. My patience is low, and I enjoy painting very specific models now. If it needs me to have more than 20-30 models, I will not play.
3. Is it more fun than what I play already? When playing games, I have two areas I organize them into: competitive and casual. Competitive are games I seek to play and own what is most optimal. I seek to have a high level of play and that challenge drives me. Casual games I play with the intent to enjoy narrative or "theme" more than what is considered optimal. These are games I will play how I want even if that way has a lower chance to win. If a new game is not as enjoyable as the game I currently have for that purpose (casual or competitive), then I will not play.

This is all under the understanding that I have limited time as is, I am getting pickier with my time expenditure, and I have several real-life things happening that are priority.

Hobby Expansion

I have purchased a resin 3d printer and have begun to expand on several RPG enhancing hobbies like wax seals and even fountain pen calligraphy. Multiple projects will mean I will have multiple things to share as I learn and expand my hobbies! At this point even my kids are wanting to get involved!

This does mean I have slowly stopped playing as many videogames. I will be putting a much high emphasis on tabletop games and the adjacent hobbies.

Exciting Future

I am excited for what is coming as gaming and other hobbies are explored! This has been a great way for me to find new communities and friends and I am looking forward to creating more blog content!

Current State and Going Steady

Alright, so I have been inconsistent with posting due to life always throwing kinks, however I have hit a point where I am gonna start ramping up what I do even if I do it slowly. First of all, I have been playing a lot of Guildball lately so expect lots of content from there, I will be recording games soon and posting those, I have several kickstarters that have come in and I will be doing some reviews of those, and I have a big one on its way. A lot of content to write about so I am excited to get started! 

First of all I wanted to cover the upcoming topics in detail as I have so many I want to do:

1. Hobby: I have recently been painting a ton including some commission pieces. I want to cover the models individually and will be documenting future projects much better.
2. Kickstarter and game reviews: I have a ton of games I have either been trying or buying and there is a lot of things to talk about! This is more of a fun topic than anything as board games are my casual side.
3. Game reports: So I have been trying to play as much as possible of whatever I can but it can be limiting. I dont like to play with unpainted stuff so this will be in combo with the hobby projects. I want to eventually do video reports but I am a novice there at making higher quality stuff so we will see what happens. The games I will be reporting on as I play them are as follows:
• Guildball
• Malifaux
• Warhammer 40k
• Warhammer Killteams
• Warhammer Underworlds
• FFG's Legend of the Five Rings
• RPGs (if I can run/participate in one)
4. Guides and other articles related to strategy and gameplay: This one is where my time will really be spent digging deep into my thoughts and experiences in a games particular strategies and details. 

This is the upcoming road map and I am excited to get started! 

Streaming and Gameplay Videos: Trial of Dawnfall

So I am starting to make game-play videos for YouTube as well as streaming games on twitch. Now these are only digital versions of the tabletop games I play so I will still be focusing on the tabletop. The digital medium is a convenient way to create content especially when I have no one around at the time. 

This video is our initial trial in preparation of doing regular streams and videos of The Edge: Dawnfall. It is unedited and originally was not planned to be posted but we decided to do so anyway as to provide some actual game-play to people who are interested in the game. I will be adding music in the background of future videos and try to be a bit more polished in general :P 

He I am playing as the Faceless vs the mod creator, Ken and his Reborn. The reborn are the druid-type faction that like to play with special terrain tokens they create. These allow them to block off area and make them hazardous for opponents. Ken failed to really make use of them here which is due to inexperience in general. The Faceless are a faction of cheap meat that you use to "evolve" your bigger units. Let me know how you think the game looks and any feedback for improving video or streaming quality is welcome!

In future updates I will be providing a breakdown of each faction and my opinions of models and cards. The next update will be covering a new deck for L5R so stay tuned!

The Edge: Dawnfall and My Plans

Hey everyone! Soon this Kickstarter will ship! The Edge: Dawnfall has been a game I have been super excited for for awhile. Once it arrives I will almost exclusively be painting those minis for a time. Here is the unboxing video of the core content being sent out (I have pledged for more content but this is the main chunk).

The components look incredibly high quality and I am stoked! My shipment will be in the second wave of shipping and the shipping starts next Friday. Due to their estimations, I am guessing my copy will be shipped within two week of that (unless delays) and I should receive it in two weeks or so if my past experience with Polish shipping is anything to go off of.

I am soon going to be doing "lets play" videos via Table Top Simulator with another member of the community for The Edge: Dawnfall. I will be following and participating in the competitive side of the game so expect more content there!

Also, more L5R content incoming from me :) I have a couple new decks I am working on.

Hope to post soon!

Back into the Fray

So its been a long time since I actively blogged as I have had a lot going on. Moved states, had a second kid, life got busy enough that at one point I didn't touch my games for what felt like an entire year. I am now back into it and I have really been painting a massive amount lately, particularly commission painting. I had even started up a second blog here: https://imightbeabitcrazy.blogspot.com/. I will not be continuing with that blog but I will be continuing here. I will start to share all my current works once they are done but here is an update on current games and projects:

Age of Sigmar: I had originally started this up with Tomb Kings before they discontinued the line, so I switched to Sylvaneth but I sold them all since I was not playing the game and didn't make time to paint them. I had heavily customized multiple models, however and it really opened up my skill level to army modding. I have now picked up the Idoneth Deepkin book but have no models. I will update as I gain more of those and get them painted. It will be some time as this is more of a hobby/fun project than most everything else so I am not in a rush.

Warhammer 40k: So I had sold off my Tyranids a long while back to a good friend of mine (http://www.ragnongaming.com/) and haven't touched the game since really. Well 8th edition has taken a good hold in my local game community and I decided to get back in as that very same friend is moving to town soon (yay! gaming buddies <3). This time I decided originally to do Necrons as they were my original army when I started wargaming, but I decided instead to pursue the hobby project I wanted to for years.. Samurai marines! That means I needed some heavily modded minis and custom parts. I decided to go with minis from Puppets War which I will share in a separate posta long with a review. I have also taken a model from Eden the Game so make my dreadnought conversion (super excited for that one). I am currently working to convert GW Thunderwolves into a sort of oni-wolf cavalry. And on that mention, I plan to be using space wolves as my core rules. The nice thing will be that As custom minis I can use them as multiple different factions including chaos if I want. It is a long term project that I will be doing a lot with.

Arena Rex: I still have my minis for Legio XIII but will be updating with models I have yet to paint. I sold my Morituri (which you can see on my other blog), but will likely be picking up another faction in the future.

Malifaux: So just a few months ago I went on a crazy Malifaux painting spree so I have a ton to update here and still a lot more to do :)

Wrath of Kings: I now own a set of Goritsi and Hakar but have not even played a game. They are on the back-burner but I love the models and will be painting them at some point. If I can get other people playing then even better.

Warhammer Shadespire: So I got into this game quite a bit and painted up a set of the Sepulchral Guard and Skaven. I will be both sharing my hobby photos of those as well as deck builds and tactics.

Guildball: I have recently been playing this a lot and even submitted my application to be a Pundit. I bought the Ratcatchers and have LOVED them both painting and playing. I will be making a couple posts about these guys. I have the new resin Obulous box coming in so I will be posting about that as well.

Warmachine and Hordes: I had gotten into Circle about a year ago just after the new edition came out but rage quite after trying to deal with the low quality of certain older minis of theirs that did not have nay new sculpts. I have officially dived back in with the Grymkin faction as they are all new minis and beautiful. I don't know how much I will play the game but will update on hobby progress.

Legend of the 5 Rings: So the living card game came out last year and I have dived deep into it. I will be sharing a post about my Scorpion deck but I have some other thoughts to share and decks to experiment and try out :)

Kickstarters: I have three coming in.. Village Attacks by Grimlord Games, a cooperative miniatures board game, The Other Side by Wyrd Miniatures, a competitive miniatures game, and The Edge: Dawnfall by Awaken Realms, a competitive miniatures game. All of these have a lot of minis for me to paint and I am super excited as one of them ships this month. I will be updating on gameplay and painting with all of these.

Commissions: I have really picked up on my commission work and will post the pieces as I work on them. Some are of lower quality that others but none the less they are current projects :P

That is my general update! I am back trying to get into full swing and have a lot to do! Stay tuned!