November 27, 2011

RFI & FDG is this week's gamer fix

This week I've had to go without gaming.  I'm not sure if it was the holidays, but the GM of my Wednesday night online HackMaster game cancelled the last minute and two of the players had to cancel for tonight's HackMaster session.

I guess that I'll have to just wait in suspense to see if Bolburd survives the Dusk of the Dead adventure.  With half the party down, I hope we managed to clean the zombie infestation.  If we face much more I think we'll be screwed.  Technically we aren't doing that well now, but I'm simply referring to those that are still alive and upright.

Today I got back into cleaning up my home office, which has pretty much served as a dumping grounds for crap and half-started/finished projects.  I have some particular project plans for this winter and I need to have access to my tools and supplies.  As I sorted and boxed things for the dump, donations, and possibly ebay, I listened to episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, which is Roll for Initiative.  I might not play 1st Edition AD&D anymore, but it still holds a large influence in how I game now.  It doesn't hurt that one of my associates is one of the show's hosts.  Listening to those guys helps move things along while I work.  I used to rip the podcast to a CD and listen in my car, back when I had a work car...with a CD player.  Without that listening time I had become delinquent in my listening.  I still have 5 episodes to play and I'll be caught up.

As I was sorting things in the office I came across some printed files for my gaming group.  A lot of printed files.  Last winter I believe it was my intention to put together a lot of the paper minis I had in my electronic gaming files.  I printed probably two reams of cardstock in preparation of working on these models.  The bundles of printed buildings and terrain are all bundled together now, just waiting for me to get to them.

Just a few minutes ago I went to one of my favorite paper mini publishers, Fat Dragon Games, and looked to see if they had anything new.  Last time I was at GenCon I purchased a good portion of their fantasy models and I have since gone back to get more.  There are several publishers in this genre and most of them are quite good.  I'd dare say that some have better looking models, but in my opinion there is a trade off between the overall looks of the files and their complexity.  If I'm going to tax my printer making models I want the finished product to be something I can easily put together and not have issues.  I also want something that looks good.

I do sometimes work with Hirst Arts bricks, but that is a lot of work.  It can be worthwhile work, but the results are heavy and difficult to use outside of my dinner table.  Since I have the plaster and paints I'll probably do a little with that stuff this winter also.

In the meantime, I noticed about $10 worth of Fat Dragon's Copper Dragon 2D tiles I did not have.  I like this set because it is simple to use since there are no walls.  I can also do some very basic modifications in Photoshop that let me use these tiles in my online game.  Not many gaming supplies do double duty like that.

I highly recommend the entire Fat Dragon line.  I'm considering writing some convention adventures with the assorted available rooms from the Copper Dragon line specifically so I can easily provide terrain for all the GMs.  Anything that makes my life easier as an organizer AND the GM's job a bit easier is generally worthwhile.


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