Quick Convention Report: LongCon 2024

Last weekend I was able to attend LongCon in Longview, TX. I had a work trip to the Nashville area that ended on Friday and I figured it was better to do the 9 hour drive to LongCon than it was to fly home and then drive five hours back the way I came from.....

...screw that.

I only scheduled two games, one Friday Night and one Saturday night, but I did manage to get in some demo of how the Gladiator games went at NTRPG Con. Friday Night was Battletech, which I was so out of my depth I might as well have been functionally illiterate. I enjoyed the company and tried to enjoy the game, but I highly doubt I'll ever play it again. Hit a nostalgic bit in me as well, not necessarily in a good way, so......I'll pass. I do think there were some actual  game issues that made the table play a bit lop-sided, but that's the way the dice fall sometimes.

Saturday night was Crashvs Maximus (I think I misspelled that correctly) and I struggled a little bit on that game. It was a point-buy game where you got to build a custom racer and I thought the game was going to go one way and it largely didn't, which means my build was far from optimized. I expected a LOT more combat and my dice were not with me that night. Still very enjoyable and I managed to limp in a 3rd place win with one fatigue left. There were only two other chariot team left and they were speed demons, so they were actually racing. It was a learning experience for me and I only got as far as I did through dumb luck and persistence. Glad I didn't bail on the game when it was clear I didn't have a chance in hell in placing through my own efforts, which was obvious to me by the third turn.

I did a lot more gaming shopping than I expected and I did some extra off-site shopping as well:

I have noticed I am getting worse and worse at remembering names....I am 53 after all. Luckily I am reasonable sure I can figure out the first purchase was from Ettin Games out of Houston. He's a regular, and IIRC generous, vendor at NTRPG Con. I bought all these minis for a total of $20. There is an issue with the smaller dragon-like mini that I honestly didn't even notice, but the vendor made sure I was aware of (I kind of feel like an ass-hat since i can't recall names worth a damn)

There were several vendors that had laser-engraved items and since I
own a couple of laser engravers (just obtained a larger/stronger model) I don't look too closely at items I could conceivably make at home, BUT....if it's cool enough I'm going to take notice anyway. One guy had these cute little "chibi" miniatures that were not just laser cut, but engraved front & back. The package that was "one of each" was something like $15. They were small, lightweight, and cost effective.....i.e. they were Frugal!

I did check out a FLGS and they had a lot of board games and I was able to procure two expansions for Zombie Dice, which I had recently brought to game with my coworkers while on that business trip. I also found some minis I wanted to add to my largely unused and unpainted collection......

......oh, and as a general rule if I step into a mom & pop game store, I am going to be buying something as a matter of course.

I don't play OSE, although I'd like to. One of the artists there had a couple of OSE adventures that he had written and they were $15 each, which felt kind of high, BUT he had included a larger folded map, maybe 11" x 17" in size. I liked the fact there was a larger map so I was sold.

I also bought some of his art, which I now remember that the guy's name was Jacob Fleming. He had art for display, a note that it was for sale, but it was clear he's new at selling at cons and he didn't have prices or any means of handing over protected pieces that were sold. I try to buy a piece of art every convention and I love Black & White art. There was a fair bit of his work I didn't care for, but I can say that about pretty much any given artist. This one action piece.....I don't think I've ever seen depicted before and I had to have it. Luckily I wasn't gouged, or maybe I was.....I wasn't displease, so it wouldn't matter. I can't wait to get this framed and into rotation on my wall, or maybe in my new library.

Another game I don't really play outside of the odd convention game, but would like to change, is DCC. I think I have a DCC Handbook in print and I know I have a MCC Handbook, but when Goodman Games is selling softcovers of both for $10 a pop.....I stocked up. Definitely not Frugal, but hear me out. If I have enough books to supply potential players, then it is more likely that said potential players show up. I was given a freebie adventure and I also bought a quick reference booklet as well. $60 for all this? Helluva deal in my book.

I did also toss $40 in the kitty that was the convention raffle. LongCon's raffle was quick, down & dirty...and I liked it, but of course I would because I won what I wanted to win. Instead of raffling off individual items, they made stack of product, maybe 10 or so, and if your ticket was called, you got to go up and pick one of the remaining stacks of stuff as your prize. I had bought a couple of the aforementioned DCC/MCC books and I had my eye on this Dying Earth Box set. It wasn't really the box set, but a series of adventures for that setting, and a Kickstarter-only backer bonus box. If I need to get the *actual* box set, I will, but it was a lot of stuff for $40 worth of tickets. IIRC the hardcover book wasn't Dying Earth, but another setting book. Made me want to get the other MCC/DCC books I picked up.

Got my Summer Art Acquisitions Framed

This weekend was a bit of a catch-up/housekeeping period as I have gotten around to purchasing more frame parts & pieces for the acquired art pieces from this year's North Texas RPG convention, a Bowling for Soup concert, and a lucky purchase "from" San Diego Comic Con. No, I did not attend SDCC because I had to work. 

That's the official excuse, please don't question me on it!

Anyway I managed to get some cheap glass from my local Hobby Lobby shop, which I'm not using....but I will in the future. The bits I did need came in Friday from Frame Destination (I posted about my love of them from before)

Here's what I managed to frame (that a reader here might care about):

 I had this weird bit from the NTRPG auction that was a Guest of Honor banner from GaryCon that was discarded after the con, as is the norm. The main men behind NTRPG salvaged it from the refuse and brought it down from Lake Geneva. They had Darlene sign it (she also added the mermaid) and then auctioned off as a fund raiser for Darlene. I paid way too much money for what was literally some trash, so of course I had to spend more getting it framed and up on my wall. I know it's not a frugal thing....

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

― Oscar Wilde

Most of what I needed framed were pieces I picked up from my friend James Shield. I hope he considers me a friend, but I'll settle for acquaintance. 

I'm not going to post pics of every piece I framed as there were like five pieces this year (in addition to the five or so I already had) and I got them for me....

This one original was for an adventure and like the other pieces was something I really liked. It's a bit of an odd size so I went ahead and bought the whole frame as a complete kit with mat board and glass instead of just the frame chops. I knew I'd end up having to cut, and recut, the mat too many times to get it right as there wasn't a lot of border to work with.

At some point the alleged cost-savings is not worth the headache. Spending even an extra $20 (it was less than that!) to shave a couple hours of frustration off of a project is so worth it.

I had to get another Braun, er Jason Brauncowski piece. I probably hit his table a half dozen times, unable to figure out which piece to get. I ended up with this painting (it's not a print) that meshes well with another painting I have of his already. I also have some rather cheap prints I got at my 1st NTRPG....I think they were actual photocopies, but whatever (still cool).

I know where these two paintings are going to live, but I have to get the picture shelves mounted 1st.

I wouldn't say I'm burying the lead here, but a bit of a score was this limited edition print from Super 7 that was sold at SDCC. They didn't sell out and had some of the 200 prints still left. I managed to snag one when they went on sale. Luckily for me I was not in class and at my computer when the notification came. While it would've been a dick move I could've bought two and I'm wondering if I should have so I could donate one to NTRPG for sale.

Free GM Resources: Terrain 4 Print

I'm about to finally set up my newer 3d Printers in my hobby room and I'm almost done squaring away my .stl files from the big portable HDD crash a while back (oddly enough it literally fell to the floor and broke when I picked it up to back the files up!) 

I still have some files to restore off of Thingaverse and I found some freebies from one particular designer: Terrain4Print. 

A decent amount is SciFi, but there is a decent amount of fantasy stuff and if you like what is there, the designer has "moved up" from Thingaverse to a Patreon (here, but it's since been closed) and then later to their own website.

Sometimes I Wonder What is the Point of Collecting

As part of my daily morning routine, I tend to review my email before I get out of bed. I'm not obsessed with my phone or email or anything, but I don't always have enough time or sometimes even access at work (I work on a military installation and the internet can be wonky & phone service can be spotty for some reason...I'll just leave it at that) and even though I go through semi-annual email unsubscribe purges, I've learned that if I don't get in 2x a day at least I can just get overwhelmed by the overflowing inbox.

I know this is a lot of exposition, but this morning one of my emails was from USPS letting me know I have several packages inbound. At least one of these is a recent purchase...actually, all of them are recent purchases, but only one is something anyone here would care about as it's my most recent RPG acquisition. These past couple months I've been on a bit of a collecting binge and sometimes I'm wondering if it's worth it.

I do have some nice stuff and I don't really want to quit, but I know I'm a little too materialistic. I'm probably at least 34% hoarder and I'm always needing to play catch-up on just how I intend to display these acquisitions.  Artwork needs to be framed, boxed stuff needs to be propped up...do I need to pad the insides so shit doesn't knock about(?), do I have enough display cases, am I doing what I need to do to protect these "things" from degradation?

Lately a big thing on my mind is how/when should I start documenting this stuff so when I'm gone it isn't all just dumped or put in a garage sale. I have a set of Holmes Basic dice still in the plastic baggie and I'll fricken haunt anyone dumb enough to rip that bag open to play with them.....As far as I know I'm the only gamer in my family, so when I'm gone all these treasures of mine will be seen as....well probably junk.

Sometimes I just wonder if I'd be happier just getting rid of my stuff.....and NO!!! this isn't an offer or a feeble attempt to gauge interest, it's just the random musings of this old fart. I know that I really enjoy the hunt for stuff and finding some vintage dice (I'm thinking of my last trip to Seattle) in an antique shop, or a James Doohan autographed copy of Star Trek RPG during a quick stop at a used bookstore....that just straight-up excites me. It's fun to find a rare gem that a bunch of other people have overlooked.  

I think there are some other reasons I enjoy collecting, but those reasons are probably a little more personal and I'll keep them to myself. For now I'll just try to keep myself busy maintaining this quasi-addiction and pray I don't suffer from withdrawl should I go too long without making any more discoveries.....

Free GM Resource (and some cheap limited-time resources): Stars Without Number

Evidently I'm late to the party but there is a "Revised Edition" of Stars Without Number that is Free. That is a reason to check this game out, but another is the fact it is put out by Sine Nomine Publishing.

I've thought highly of everything these guys have put together and it doesn't help that they've released some good resources for the write-it-yourself GM (um, like me) that wants to make their shi....er, stuff to look "professional". 

Now free is good, great even, BUT if you like the "revised edition" you can jump over to this particular Bundle of Holding (for the next two weeks) where for about $22 you can get not just the Revised Edition plus:

• Sixteen Stars (16 setting locations for the GM)
• Stars Without Number Revised GM Screen
• Starvation Cheap (Military Campaign Supplement)
• Suns of Gold (Mercantile Adventures Supplement)
• Skyward Steel (Stellar Naval Supplement)
• Dead Names (Lost Civilizations Creation Supplement)
• Polychrome (Cyberpunk Supplement)

Working on my Gaming Maker Space

For a few years now I've been posting pretty much every Sunday over at Tenkar's Tavern and between that and a "secret" blog (that the average moron can probably figure out) I've been pretty much "tapped out" when it comes to posting, and this blog has suffered as a result.

This is one of the big reasons I have decided to stop posting at the Tavern. The other reasons...honestly I don't see any benefit to sharing and since the reasons are mine, that should be good enough.

I'd like to say that now I will be posting here every week and that is my goal, but not necessarily every Sunday. I'd like to get back into doing some reviews, Free GM Resources, and shout-outs to cool creators....probably ones I particularly like.

Anyway.....

This weekend has been game-less, not even video games, but I have spent a decent amount of time & money working on my gaming-project maker spaces. I have a shed out in my backyard that has power & hot/cold water, along with a small walk-in cooler (clearly set up to process deer). I've built out an enclosed space, with an exhaust fan, to house my resin printers and I had my laser engraver out in the shed as well. I had picked up an enclosure for the laser and while it worked well, it was a bit of a pain to switch between jobs. I had a bunch of 1x4's to stack up a build platform to set my stuff to be engraved upon, but odds are I'd have to change out the screw-in legs of the engraver and figure it out. I learned to tack down a piece of thin cardstock and burn in the outline of my stock in order to have that stock properly placed.

What I did was build out a large wooden enclosure that I can open up almost fully. The engraver is placed inside in such a way that it cannot move about and has all of the legs installed. The box is almost airtight, but there is a 2"x8" adjustable vent on the side to feed the exhaust fan which I was able to place in a better spot, hopefully keeping soot buildup on the engraver to a minimum. I have a set of 4 16" square platforms that can raise the stock instead of lowering the engraver itself. There are two stop blocks on the base so the bottom platform can be set into proper position. One of my platforms is covered in steel plate to that I can now pre-cut my cardstock placement paper to 16" square and held down with magnets.

The side of the enclosure has a tray to bolt down the air pump and hold the UPS I'm using as well. The only thing I have remaining to do is to add some weatherstripping for the cover, add a latch to secure said cover, and figure out how I'm going to add a wireless camera I picked up to keep tabs on progress. Since most of the jobs take hours, the camera isn't that important and I might just use it to check in on the shed in general. I don't plan on engraving when I'm not at home.

When I'm 100% finished and have successfully made my 1st (well, next) engraving using this equipment, then I might post pics.

My other project, which I'm taking a break from working on to type this out, is bringing my painting station inside. I had picked up this (HOLY CRAP....I did not realize it was so expensive...$180?!) paint booth "thing" years ago and hadn't got it setup. I was going to do so out in the shed and I realized that if I had to go out to the shed I wasn't going to be using it. Instead I got some wood to block out the window in my hobby room and cut out a hole for the vent. The rest of the window is sealed up and all I need to do is re-install the cat/window bed that now needs to be affixed to the wood blocking instead.

I also picked up a second paint station from this etsy seller. It was easy to put together and now I have all of my paints at hand. Before I'd used a giant spinning rack that was relatively compact, but was a bit awkward to use. I barely have enough 2oz paints to warrant a second station, but I like that I can spread my paints out more.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a "few" unpainted minis sitting around.....

Fat Dragon Games Kickstarter Appreciation Post

So it is no surprise I have a "strictly professional" nerd-crush on Tom Tullis of Fat Dragon Games. Tom's just straight-up "good people" who generally enjoys having the public persona of a bonafide asshole...which is funny to me because we have enough actual assholes in our hobby already.

Anyway, a little more often than once a year Tom/Fat Dragon Games puts out a Kickstarter for new 3d printing STL files. Now these files are well worth the investment and on top of everything Tom had a youtube channel  Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors. If you haven't subscribed & bookmarked....do so now.

Seriously

Tom is also rather active helping 3d printing newbs get their setups dialed in and I've seen him offer advice on Facebook several times. He's a one-man resource, but really that's all extra as far as the purpose of this post today.

This week FDG has released some files from the most recent Kickstarter and, as usual, Tom put together a simple listing of the status of EVERYTHING from said Kickstarter. I think this should be the defacto standard for STL creators using Kickstarter:

Free GM Resource: Prisoner 13 Adventure from D&D Beyond

This Free GM Resource is a D&D Beyond introductory adventure that can be used on it's own and seems rather easy to adjust to other TTPRG game systems.

Prisoner 13 is a special theft mission that can play out in several ways, which I like. As such though, it isn't a straight & straight out (i.e. railroad) adventure and any GM wanting to use this will really want to know the adventure front to back. No "winging it" if you want this to be successful.

If you like the adventure, it can start as a lead-in for an adventure path (series of adventures). You'll need to setup a D&D Beyond account if you haven't yet, but you don't need to pay anything (subscribe) in order to get Prisoner 13.