2019 in review
It's the start of a new year, so I was thinking on what I did gaming wise last year.
The obvious answer is "not as much as I would like". Time has a way of slipping past. Life presents things that make it difficult to get time for gaming or painting. Still, I did do some fun things. A lot of this is already recorded on here, but some isn't.
One of my favorite things this year was writing my new "shooting rules". They were intended for modern combat, so I could use my modern figures and terrain, but over the course of play I found that they work just as well for westerns and there's no reason they wouldn't work for sci-fi. So they are "shooting rules", and not confined to a single genre. They still have no name.
I continued with my Five Leagues campaign last year. That's actually been the thing I played the most. I am really enjoying that, the rules are great and the story that's unfolding is pretty cool.
The game requirements (figures, terrain, etc) have been serving to push me into completing some things I otherwise wouldn't have. In that photo above the shroud covering the body was made just for this scenario. Most of the bandits were painted just for this game, and so on.
Some new Fantasy terrain was built up. I have realized that I am seriously lacking in good terrain for a lot of periods, this being one of them. The sty was an exercise in making the fence, and it came out ok I think. The house was a test to see how a solid piece of foam would come out, and I think it's pretty nice. Both techniques are viable for future use.
Super Mission Force is a great set of rules, I've posted AARs of those games here many times. It occurred to me that while the rules are written for superheroes, they would probably work just as well for fantasy mass combat. Both have low level henchmen/soldiers and mighty individuals. So I tried it, and they do! The game played really good. Admittedly I made a few simple tweaks, mostly to "allowed traits" for the henchmen, but mostly the game was played using the straight rules.
So I'm happy to know my assumption was right, and I'm glad to have access to a ruleset for this game type, but it also reminded me that there's a reason I don't play a lot of"mass combat" like this. While fun, it doesn't excite me as much as the smaller skirmish games. Still, it worked well and gave a good game.
This past year I really upped my sculpting attempts. These are the two I took photos of, but there were more. I'm getting good at hair and torn clothing, but I'm making progress on other items as well. Minor modifications are still the limit I'm able to accomplish, but I'm getting better at it.
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| Bad Company |
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| Mister Midnight |
I completed quite a few new super figures, both hero and villains, for a campaign I'm planning. Along with them I finished some furniture and other assorted bits for a super game. I created a bunch of reference sheets and collected a bunch of charts I need to consolidate for random events.
As with fantasy, it turns out I have quite a lack of good terrain for this sort of thing.
I finally finished the TOS figures I had sitting around for a really long time. I haven't had a game with them yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so. Right now I'm not sure how to generate the scenarios. I'm thinking something like the campaign from Five Parsecs, but I'm not sure yet. The rules are also up in the air somewhat. I was thinking TheDeep: Mine would work well, and I'm considering pulling in some ideas from The Department as well.
Last year I completely redid the rules for TheDeep:Mine, the old west dungeon crawl. The previous rules worked, but were cumbersome in some areas. The new rules play faster and convey the right feel. I also completely remade the terrain tiles for the game this summer. The tiles came out really well, and I'm quite proud of them. I wish I had a few more, but I just ran out of time to get them done (since I was also building a swing set, a bathroom stool, stuffie town, and resizing a portion of the deck). Construction is quite messy, so it's not something I want to do inside.
I have been collecting, creating, and painting figures for the Mine monsters as well. That's progressing much slower than I want, but it is progressing. Why is it so hard to find 28mm kangaroos?
Finally I got a hold of The Department rules, and played some games with those. I'm really enjoying that. For that game I needed a bunch of Crowd Markers, contacts, and suspects, so I had to paint up 75+ civilians for the game. Finishing the main characters was also needed.
I pushed myself on the main figures, giving each of them patterned clothing to try and sell the 70s vibe. Painting detail designs is not something I normally do, but they came out pretty well I think.
So that's pretty much it I guess. I used photos to remember what I did over the year, so anything I did that I didn't take pictures of I forgot about. I know I finished a lot of figures, though not for anything in particular. I sometimes like to paint things just to paint them, and there's no specific or immediate need. They just go onto the shelf without fanfare.
2020
A lot of folks like to lay out a plan of things to do. I don't really work like that. I go with whatever takes my fancy at the moment, so while I may plan on playing westerns, I may end up playing dinosaur pirates or something, and I'm good with that.
That said, I plan on continuing the "Kracker Jack Justice" and "Five Leagues" campaigns. I am really enjoying both of those games and will continue with them.
I'm gearing up for a superhero campaign, and I hope to get to that sometime this year. TheDeep:Mine is also something I will continue painting for, and will probably play some. It doesn't take a lot of setup, so it's one of the games I can play relatively quickly.
I have a set of knights with a unique look that I want to paint and start a game with. It's planned as a sort of over the top Hearts & Armour kind of game. It will probably be similar to the Five Leagues one, but I'm not sure how it will end up.
Some sort of new city terrain (new buildings, benches, etc) is something I wish to do.
The one thing I do really need to plan out is what I would like to do this summer. Whatever it is (I think city) I dedicate the garage table to it and rip through it all as fast as possible.
I'm also knocking around ideas for Pirates, Pulp Adventure, and a Pulp Scifi game using the great Hydra Miniatures retro raygun figures. Working in games of TOS Trek would also be great.
Whatever I end up doing I am looking forward to things!
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