NTRPG Gaming Weekend

This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since North Texas, so I had to go. 

I didn't take a single picture during the event and while it seemed like a bit of a mixed bag, I'm quite glad I attended. Now I travel a fair bit for work, which has been mentioned at least a dozen times here, but I don't think I've indicated that I stay at Marriott almost exclusively, for about 80 nights a year. Works out well for me that NTRPG holds their event at the Westin and this is about the nicest property I stay at....and also one of the most problematic. There were a couple of surprises I didn't appreciate and a couple of associated hoops to jump through....

It didn't help that there were easily 1,000 Black Bikers & Biker Chicks/Babes/Whatever they prefer to be called attending a convention at the property. They were loud and the air was far heavier with smoke and pot than you'd expect inside a hotel these days. Fortunately they were all pretty cool and I had nothing but good interactions with those I came across. They were just having a good time and aside from the smoke (I do not think anyone smoked inside, well not inside the main areas at least), I didn't have any personal issues with the group (despite how I might sound). I wasn't able to get into a game Friday night and I was just a little bit pissed off. It took me a while to realize that I was overly bothered by having to wait in line for the Registration desk....twice. Once I figured that out, Friday night was much more enjoyable. I wandered down quite late and hung out to have a few drinks and BS with other gamers I hadn't seen since Summer.

Saturday I was able to get into two games where I ran a Dwarf. In the first game my dice pretty much sucked, enough most everybody commented on it, but I knew that's just how it works. My dice can run quite cold, but they do not disappoint when needed. My PC died right at the end of our gaming time-block and it wasn't due to my die rolls. The second game the rolls flipped and I'd say 75% of my initiative rolls were about as good as possible. I was hitting most of the time and doing decent damage. Both games were fun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I ended up going to bed early though because I was quite tired from the night before and I had forgotten to bring most of my meds, so I wasn't batting 1000.

I could've stayed later and maybe slung some dice or even GM'd on Sunday, but I was stiff & sore and knew it'd only get worse until I got home to do what I needed to do. Saying goodbye was a bit more emotional for me than I expected, and it just told me how much I needed the camaraderie and fun gaming...need to start planning for June now.

TL;DR Gamed in a hotel this weekend and likely will now show up positive on a drug test.

FGM Review: How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps

I've had my eye on this one book for a while now and I was hesitant to pick up How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps: Step by Step Cartography for Gamers and Fans by Jared Blando. While I do not have a problem dropping $23 on a book, I was hesitant to do so for an art instruction book without getting my grubby little hands on one to preview first. Amazon has it cheaper, like Amazon does, but....

...OK time to be a little real here. I actually bought this book once from Amazon....and lost it. I never even got to log it in the database where I keep track of such things, and I do not even remember every getting a good look at it then, so a 2nd blind purchase wasn't going to happen....

Anyway, I found a copy at The Hobbit Hobby Shop and decided I'd grab a copy I could actually review and hopefully use, after giving it a quick view. I think some of the contents I could probably find in YouTube tutorials, but I wanted something I could read offline and use for both hand-drawn and digital maps. I'm not that artistic and kind of need some directions......I assume that my own particular style will/would develop over time, but I have to start somewhere.

Over all, a lot of the instructions basically boil down to 3 steps:

1. Draw a thing
2. Add details
3. Final details

Of course this is an oversimplification. There are actually a lot of good deets that I would never think of, like a description of types of pencils and what pencils are good for what. For me the value of the book is really more in these extra details outside of the 3 steps. The whole time I'm looking at these directions for various map aspects I'm thinking how I could apply the directions for hand-drawing to using my drawing tablet and Photoshop.

Wouldn't you know it, later on there is like a two-page discussion on using a computer to draw/paint the maps, but I do not think that went into enough depth. It seems clear to me the author/artist is explaining their processes which are largely hand-drawn.

My only real criticism for this book was that I felt that a lot of the font was undersized. I'm near-sighted and if I'm wondering if I need to put on my glasses, then the font is too small. For a casual read it might not matter, but if I was trying to actually follow along...way too small. 

Now this review might be a bit premature because maybe I should draw a few maps before uploading a review. Let's be real here....there are going to be a lot of copies that are never used to make maps, or maybe they're used once before the owner decides to hire an actual artist with talent to create a map....

If that might be the case for you I do not recommend purchasing via Amazon or some online site, but instead go to Jared's website and pick up a personalized copy for $30.

FLGS: The Hobbit Hobby Shop (Fayetteville, NC)

Recently I was on a business trip to good-old Fayettenam....er, Fayetteville (NC), home of the 82nd Airborne and Fort Bragg, I mean Camp Liberty. I usually come here at least twice a year and when in town I have to visit my FLGS: The Hobbit Hobby Shop.

Now I've been to hole-in-the-wall game stores and they usually.....well, they usually suck. The Hobbit Hobby Shop is a narrow storefront you'd blink and miss among the various pawn shops, military shops, "adult entertainment", and fast food places just outside an Army post. You walk in and the shop feels like it's 20 feet wide and 100 feet long? The left half of the shop is pretty much just models of all varieties and the gaming stuff is on the right side, along with the register and a little bit of workspace for maps.

Maps?

Yep....maps. If you don't do models or gaming, but happen to be a soldier at Ft Bragg, the Hobbit Hobby Shop is the place to go to get your maps laminated and Ranger cut. If you don't know what that means, you probably need to spend more time outside, definitely more time trying to not get lost in the woods.

For such a small shop, it is really packed with stuff. More dice than I'm used to seeing. About the same amount of minis as I'll see at most shops, but there is always a small box with some minis on special sale. There was just as much D&D whatever-the-current-edition-is as I've seen elsewhere (maybe more), but there is a LOT of older game stuff to be had. I never fail to be surprised in finding something unique that isn't readily available elsewhere.

Last time I got some comics for my collection that have been OOP for a while. They were pretty much priced the same as when they were newly printed and really.....I scooped them up because I just can't find them elsewhere. One series I got most of as a bundle and I've never seen them in the wild before.

This year I found some D&D 3.0/3.5 Kingdoms of Kalamar products, which is a great find because most of the stuff is pretty much system-generic, so it's still relevant to today's gaming table. I also found some HackMaster 1st Edition Hacklopedia of Beasts. If I had room in my luggage I'd be sorely tempted, but to be fair I do not recall which ones I might be missing.

I also found some Fairy Meat products, most notably Sugar & Vice and Clockwork Stomp, both of which I never had. Fairy Meat was a fun miniature battle and my 1st KenzerCo game. I think I have some of the minis still, but I don't have the game or any of my set-up.

In the end I got a book on drawing maps I'd been eyeballing on Amazon, but wasn't ever going to purchase, along with a cool Dwarven Fighter mini and another mini that was of a torchbearer hireling.

I do really try to pick something....anything up, when visiting a FLGS. If you happen to be making a stop in Fayetteville, you really need to stop by the Hobbit Hobby Shop.

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)