Running Games at Conventions

My game club has a discussion going right now about running games at the local conventions.  We haven't really done so the last couple of times.

I had to cancel my games at the last one due to work pressures.  I was the only club member running games and mine isn't a game the club actually plays but I put it as a club game since I'm a member and wanted our name in the program.

Because of this I really had to think about why I run games at conventions.  Canceling was a hard decision.

I don't play games at the conventions.  I just prefer not to do so.  I don't know or meet many people there.  Since those are the two main reasons to go to a convention it seems a bit of a waste to go just to run games and then leave.

In the balance I think I would much rather run my games at local stores.  I can support the stores and run games when I want to.  I've also got much more of a chance of getting to know people since I know where they hang out.

The game club has a harder decision since it has to do with relying on the members to put in the effort.   I don't see myself running games for the club again.  I don't know that I'll run them at the conventions at all.

Discuss your thoughts on running games and where you like to run them.

I've been challenged

Well then.  Boardgame Colosseum from the Hirst Arts forum has presented me with a challenge.

He purchased a mold for me off my wanted list!  All he's asking in return is that I start building stuff again.  Reasonable enough.

However the problem is that I haven't thought of building in quite a while.  I'm not playing any games that require terrain (well, not playing any games at all to be honest) so I haven't thought much about building.

I'll start pondering a new project and if you've got any suggestions post them in the comments below.

Who knows.  Maybe this will break me out of my funk.

Quick updates, no pictures

Sorry - no pictures right now.  Nothing really picture-worthy at this point.

I did base up some of the 15mm so they would be safe and take up less room.  Unfortunately the basing glue and flock shrank oddly so now I have to figure out how to fix it.  I'm still trying to figure that out since I'll need to make sure the rest of the army matches.  And there's no way to remove the minis from the base and start over.

I have over 100 minis prepped for my revised dungeon crawl but none of them are painted.  I canceled my games and my classes for the convention over Labor Day.  With everything going on there was no way for me to be ready enough to give value to the people who signed up.  So I'll bow out this time and try to get things going for the convention in February.

I feel bad about canceling my painting classes because the only other person teaching a number of classes also had to bow out for work.  There's a slim chance he can make it but he's not counting on it.  A few people have offered to pick up his classes.  The coordinator is thinking of not having any painting classes this year because of the two of us canceling.

Why did I back out of everything? Honestly, no time or inclination to prep.  I did build the additional wall sections for the dungeon but haven't painted them.  I prepped almost all the minis I could (missing bits and pieces for 8 of them) and they're ready to be painted.  I just have zero motivation to sit down and paint them.

I haven't worked up the new rules, the new tables, the new treasures or anything else for the dungeon crawl.  I certainly haven't play tested it.

I'm pushing the reason off on work since that really is taking up more of my time but I think there's more to it than that.  I don't plan on going to the con at all, honestly.  I have no reason to go.  When the only thing I do is run games and teach classes then go home it's hard to look forward to it.

Otherwise not too much happening in the hobby world for me. Our local game store was seized by the state for back taxes so we have no home.  A group of people is trying to get the capital and business plan together to open a new store with a new name in the same location.  But that's not certain and there's no dates.  What little interaction I had with the game club is going to be much more difficult as they move around the game stores for different days.

My gaming group hasn't met since April.  I don't miss it all that much. I didn't get the time to try and fit it plus this was a group that has been playing together for about a decade.  Very difficult to mesh.  That and trying to get used to how the GM runs his game made things hard for me to relax and enjoy.

The 40K hasn't interested me at all.  I think the pressure of wanting to get the dungeon crawl minis done killed a lot of motivation to paint at all.  They're off to the side so I don't need to see them.  Except for the ones still in the process of being assembled or waiting for parts.  I cleaned off the paint table pretty well.  That started when my friend came over to paint one evening and I needed to make room.  Then as part of a "tidy up" mood I worked on cleaning off more and generally cleaning up the hobby area.  It's pretty bare now.

I still have 15mm to paint but the problem with basing the ones I did have painted has discouraged me.  I know I'll figure out how to make it better but expecting 6 nicely finished stands of minis and getting what I got didn't help the entire situation.

So yes. Things are going on but there's not a lot of progress to show.  Maybe I'll post some pics when I have something to show.

Stupid weather...

I've been saying that for about a week now.  Rainy season, it seems.  That means spraying isn't possible.

The weather finally cooperated this morning and I got all my painted 15mm varnished.  I'm going to let them set up until tomorrow and then I can actually put them on bases!  My very first ones.  That will make room on the paint table for the next set but also brings up the question of army storage.

Also, I got most of the dungeon crawl minis cleaned, based and primed.  I still have to finish the ones that require assembly and in the hectic world that is Reaper boneyard shopping not everything was correct.  So I'll be sending an email to them so I can get the last ones ready.

I have a lot of painting to do and the dungeon crawl takes priority over the 15mm.  Sadly.  But it has to be done.  Luckily they just need to be tabletop quality and it looks like I'm going to have more free evenings than I had planned for.

Finally I bought a plastic storage container/shelves that should hold all my paint and a fair amount of my commonly used basing supplies.  Since my paints don't need to be portable any more I wanted to take them out of the plastic shoe boxes and put them into something more suitable for my paint area.  And it turns out they will still be portable since this particular item has separate plastic bins instead of drawers.  Of course the space where I want to put it is about 1/2 inch too short so I need to move the storage units out just a little bit.  Go figure.

15mm Napoleonics - Continued

Now that I'm more involved with painting these things and how they're based (Thanks John!) I'm sorting out the sticks so that I know just what I have to do.

The regiments have 4 stands each:

1. 4 grenadiers and 4 fusiliers with green poms


2. 4 fusiliers with blue poms and 4 fusiliers with orange poms


3. Command stand  - 1 mounted commander (2 spaces), standard bearer, drummer, 4 fusiliers with red poms


4. 4 voltiguers and 4 fusiliers with purple poms

Turns out the way I have them set up to be painted will work for painting parts of regiments at a time.  I'm a big fan of painting the same kind of minis in batches.  The only difference in the fusiliers is the color of the pom so I can paint 32 at a time (8 regiments of 4) at a time and then paint the poms to make a base.

I was going back and forth about mixing up the marching poses on the stands and decided on keeping the same pose per regiment.  With one exception - advancing fusiliers.

I have enough advancing fusiliers to make up 2 regiments with them in the front of the line.  That makes the configuration slightly different but not much.  Again, pom color makes the difference.

So here's the sticks of fusiliers.  This is 5 regiments of fusiliers, as listed above.



Command figures - line commanders, drummers and fusiliers.  The standard bearers are carefully tucked away so they can get converted to holding their standards.

3 regiments of fusiliers are also on this flat.



Finally the skirmishers, grenadiers and voltigeurs.



I have stands left over from my original counts and prepping.  But I think that had a lot to do with me not completely understanding the way the game works.

You can see that some of these actually have paint on them.  The way I'm working I should have 6 of stand 1 (see above) ready to be based in the somewhat near future.  The other 2 need the advancing fusiliers that haven't been painted.

Regardless with some work I can actually have MINIS ON BASES.  Yes, that's an accomplishment.

My friend Brian gave me some great hints on how to do the basing but I need to get some flock first.  I do plan on getting the flock in the next day or five but I also have to finish painting the minis (damn straps) and then varnish them before basing.  So I have time.

I'll post Brian's basing method on the main website once I figure it out and get pictures of all the steps of the process.

It's an addiction..

I swear I just can't help myself.  When I see a nifty porcelain palette I must have one.  I must.  Obviously if it's one I can't or won't use then I can resist but if there's even a chance that I'll use it I must have it.  Since they're functional items and I don't get the ones I can't use it's not all bad, is it?  Is it?

Anyway.  I have 3 new palettes on their way to my stash, err, home.

I saw someone using this fabu traveling palette when I was at ReaperCon.  He ordered it from Amazon and then I ordered all that were in stock.  No, I'm not going to hoard them.  They were simply too cool not to share and already I have 3 of the 4 "extras" sold to fellow club members.  And the last one will go quickly to someone who doesn't follow our forum.

Note the very nifty lid which can double as a quick wet palette if you carry a few pieces of baking parchment.  Handy, isn't it?  It measures about 3 x 4 inches so it's quite portable.  With the addition of a rubber band, I think.

Next on the block is the big one for when I'm working with lots of colors.  I don't know if this one will travel or not.  I do need something that stays on my paint table more regularly.

This sucker has, count them, 28 wells and a large area for washes or a teeny wet palette if you're into that kind of thing.  It's more of a beast at 7 1/2" by 6" so I think it's going to become my at-home palette.

Then, because I saw them and couldn't resist (addition, remember?) I got these nifty little suckers.

I honestly don't know how useful they will be.  They're 3 3/4" in diameter and stack up to about 4 1/2" including the lid.  The height of the stack makes them a little iffy to transport but again they might turn out to be very useful for army painting or other things that need a lot of paint in few colors.  Rubber band for these as well.

To round out the order I picked up some more brushes.  I've been meaning to order another Size 1 and kept forgetting so I got that and a few different brands of Size 2, just to see what I like.  I did that with Size 0 only to find they're too small to really compare.  So I splurged.  Then added another brush to get a discount.  I think it ended up as a wash cost-wise but if you think about it I got a free brush.  Makes my head hurt too.

The big palettes are on back order so I don't know when that order will show up.  The covered palettes should be here sometime soon and I'm looking forward to trying it out.  It may end up as a permanent part of my travel kit.  Right now I have a regular 12 well palette that I take with me but occasionally pull out for my paint table.  And to clean.

Oh, um.  I forgot that I got one of these too.

It's a bit large at 9" but I can see using it for some of the minis I paint with lots of dabs of color and for terrain when I need more paint on the palette.  Yes, those are complete justifications for buying yet another palette.

So now you know.  I'm a palette junkie.  If you know of any other cool palettes please put the links in the comments so I can spend more of my hard earned money on them.

FYI - everything except that first covered palette is from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff if you're interested in what else they have to offer.

Dungeon Bash Layout

I took a lot of pictures while running the game but haven't cleaned them up.  As a tease, here's what one of the large layouts ended up as.

The last of the room floors and better shots of the others

OK - the last of the room floors are done.  I still need to varnish them but they're painted and DONE!  That leaves 2 door frames and if my friend doesn't paint them this week I will.  He said he wanted to paint them but we just haven't hooked up so he can.  If he doesn't come over this week then I'll just paint them and the entire dungeon will be complete.

Enough talk.  Pics!



Yes, I could have just painted the tiles plain or followed the grid but where's the fun in that?



The real problem for me with these highly detailed designs is finding a color pattern that accents it without being too busy.  It would be so easy to make this look cluttered.

Here's some better pictures of the ones from the last post.

Insomnia + OCD + Deadline

I had one of my infrequent bouts of insomnia last night and around 2am I decided that I wasn't going to sleep so I might as well do something that would be relaxing and possibly soothe me to sleep.   I chose putting the Celtic knotwork design on my small floor.  Yeah, I know.



I think it turned out OK and should be a nice addition to the dungeon.  Yes, seriously.  I painted this at 2:0oam.  The red and white floor tiles were already painted and only needed a little touch up work to finish the piece.

Some more room floors

I've been terrible about getting pictures of the layout but I have my reasons.  They're not good reasons but they're reasons.  The pieces are all painted.  They're also neatly packed away.  So to take layout pics I need to unpack them, lay them into a pleasing pattern, take pictures, then pack them again.  And I'm trying to get the minis painted for the game so I have to budget my time.

But I did get a couple more of the room floors painted up.  I took these pictures at night and I can never get the white balance correct when I do this.  But you can see the general painting.



It's rough to get a nice repeating pattern when you've got odd-by-even tile counts.  I try.



I did a little freehand painting in the center.  It isn't perfect but I think it gives a nice effect.

Quick update on progress

No pics tonight.  Sorry.  But there will be soon.  Promise!

I've got the last of the small rooms assembled and the edges painted, waiting for the detail painting.  One more small room has the gold lining done on the medieval floor pattern.  I'll probably be painting that one but a friend of mine has some vague interest in it.  He does have interest in painting the last 2 door frames.  Especially since I'm out of ideas.  If he can't get them done I'll figure something out.

I'm also building 1 x 2 corridor pieces.  I actually need those for dead ends (odd by even, remember?) and I can use them with corridor sections to build extra rooms if necessary.  I can put them together to make more corridors.  And they fill in a space in the floor tile layers in the boxes.  All kinds of uses!

I think there's one more set of 1 x 2 pieces after these are done unless I get ambitious and use up all the cast floor tiles.  Why not?  I can always cast more.

I also pulled out the filler pieces I need to complete the gaps between the room and corridor walls.  I may need a few more than I seem to have but there's another mold that makes them so I need to pillage that box for the remaining few.  Those just need to be painted.

I'm painting prepped minis now.  Tonight I finished up 8 skellies and got the base coat on their bases.  Tomorrow I can dry brush them up, touch up the base edge, number them, and then they're ready for varnish.  Skellies are easy.  I couldn't resist some fancy stuff (comparatively) but it didn't take long and I like it.  I think I'll add a little flock as moss to the bases to break up the grey.

I also got started on the drow but just wasn't in the mood to work on them so at least the skin base coats are on.  Once I get involved they should go pretty quickly.  I see a little freehand practice on cloaks but I need it anyway.

I have 2 minis about 2/3 done and need to finish those off.  The whole list of what I need is sitting in a file somewhere so I'll need to get it out and start checking things off.  And get the player characters painted up.  Those get more paint love than the monsters.

Oh yeah.  The spiders.  I just need to figure out the freehand on the second one and they're done.  Attaching them to bases takes a little different work because they need epoxy but it's nothing I haven't done before.

More floors

Yes, I'm getting to the point where all there is left to do for the dungeon is the room floors.  All of the dungeon components have been painted, varnished and carefully put into their storage boxes.  I know I'll be pulling them out to do a display layout but first I need to make sure they fit in the first place.

I added gold to some of the sections on this floor.  Now if you look at it you'll also see a circular pattern that wasn't obvious before.



Then I got the chain floor done.  This room is a bit of an odd shape and I didn't make any more like it.  Technically it fits the requirements of the game.  I just didn't like it.



The white is still a little uneven to me but from gaming distance it should be fine.

Another fancy floor

This one is from the A&K Medieval Floor mold and has been a bit of a challenge to build much less paint.



It's kind of difficult to see that there's silver sections that I used to try to define more of the design.  I may have to paint them gold or some other color to make it stand out.

Dungeon Bash Small Room and Vindication

Turns out I was right about the room scale, I just have to have them oriented a particular way for it to work.  Not a problem and now I know.  The side with the even number of tiles needs to be along the edge with the corridor/door.  Again, I still need to put together a larger layout to see if that's going to cause issues with assembly but I doubt it.



Yes, I still need the small pieces to fit the gaps where the walls meet.  They're on the list to be painted.

A very quick setup

I couldn't resist showing off this painted room since I had to move it up out of harm's way anyway.  I couldn't get the corner and wall segments to work and that's frustrating since I thought I did the math right.  I'm going to work with the layouts more since that might be part of the problem.  Otherwise I figure out how to correct (make 1 inch wall sections?), add more cracked floor tiles to make it work, or just work around it.  I have half the rooms to make yet so no matter what the fix is those will be "right".



I can never resist a PC level shot.  Enter if you dare ...



Yes I see the gap between the wall and the door frame.  Again, quick layout.  And if people are looking at that kind of detail then I'm not running the game correctly.

Dungeon Bash Storage and Transport

I need some way to store this monstrosity as well as easily transport it to and from the convention.  Considering it's a lot of cement in little pieces I'll be carrying around boxes of rocks.

I was looking at various sizes and shapes of plastic storage bins but they're never actually square and they tend to have style aspects that make it difficult to use all the space.  Plus I was worried about how sturdy they would be, considering the aforementioned boxes of rocks.

Instead I found some 12 x 12 x 6 cardboard boxes that are designed to transport up to about 70lb of material.  I'll just leave it at that as to what kind of boxes these are.

I bought some of the large size bubble wrap, which turns out to be perforated in handy 12 inch lengths and is 12 inches wide.  Things started coming together.

The final piece that came together was finding a foam core display board that was being tossed away at work.  Free foam core is not to be taken lightly.  It's to be taken quickly. :D

Tonight I wanted to see just how this would work out.  I put bubble wrap along the sides of the box, then made "flats" out of foam core with bubble wrap on one side.  Then it was a parfait of foam core level, walls, foam core, corners, foam core, corridors (Note 1), bubble wrap.  So I was able to get 2 layers of walls/corners and a double layer of floors in a box.  It's not too heavy at all and I used lengths of foam core between then rows of pieces to fill them out and minimize damage.  I didn't go so far as to put them between each piece.

I'm guessing the walls and corners will take just over 2 boxes and then the other pieces will probably spread it out to 4 boxes.  I'm hoping to have room in that last box for the minis but given how many they are they might get their own box.

I need to get some sticky back velcro so I can seal the tops of the boxes and I'll get one of those portable luggage carts and a ratchet strap to put the whole thing together.  I just don't trust bungies for this because they don't have enough surface area.  A ratchet strap will hold things more securely.

Tomorrow I should be able to pack up one more full box and clear off the mantle of finished pieces.  I think the room floors will all go into the last box since it will have extra room.

Note 1 - The 2mm foam I use as a base also lets me stack the floors and not worry about them scratching.  Bonus!