Oh Noes D&D!

Well there's been a lot of talk and speculation on the blogosphere and among my friends at the local comic book store due to all the things that Wizards is cancelling, discontinuing and changing with D&D. I honestly don't know what to think about it. While it sucks that the business model doesn't seem to be working for their shareholders, etc I doubt it'll effect me too much unless I let people who are very passionate and vocal on the subject effect me.
Yes, I've put in about $600 into 4E material over the last year and a bit but it still works as long as I still feel like playing the game and can find others who would too. The thing with the minis don't bother as I've never used the prepainted plastics for my own campaigns anyway.
I'm however trying to figure out if I'm not too bothered because I'm a little meh about D&D at the moment or because I'm not allowing myself to get caught up in the speculations and change is bad side of things. Besides, most of the blogs I follow on here are from people who play older editions of the game. I look at blogs for the spirit of the game and for ideas, not rule mechanics.
I'll worry about all this when someone WotC Officer barges into my house and tells me that I can't play blah blah blah because it's non-compliant with the current edition. Then I'll be looking to bust some heads.

An Army Of Metal?

So I was thinking of how I might get my Legion of Everblight models painted as quickly as possible without making them look like they were just dipped or like something from the pre-painted miniature department a la D&D or Heroclix. I'm thinking of painting my models to be metallic pieces as in gold, copper, bronze and silver. To me it'd be something I can achieve pretty quickly and at the same time have them look very distinct. There'd still some distinctions between skin, armour, etc.

I'm guessing that if I went this route, the deployment zone would look like a fancy chess set or a trophy cabinet.

What do you think?

Snow Day

We got dumped on in the snow department since Friday. Well, Sundays are traditionally what we lovingly call Craft Day at the store I go to but I'm not feeling like making the trek and risk having the Mustang get stuck while trying to get in or out of the parking lot. Think I'll be doing Craft Day at home today or having a solo "Nerd Sunday" reading an expansion book or by watching some Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Counted my stuff and I've got over a hundred Legion of Everblight minis that need to be painted. Will have to go on the quick and easy route if I ever dream to be able to boast an entirely painted army... Base coat, one highlight and one shading wash.

2011 Gaming Resolutions

I'm noticing fewer and fewer New Year Resolutions being made among people that I know. I've personally never bothered to make them, but since I have a blog, why not.

My goals for 2011 gaming consist of:
1. Paint all of my Guild/Malifaux miniatures
2. Build a gaming board with full set of terrain for Malifaux
3. Play at least one game with my Anima Tactics stuff
4. Launch my Mouse Guard campaign
5. Assemble all of my Legion of Everblight miniatures
6. Actively read and post on the forums and blogs that I frequent instead of just wandering aimlessly through them and wasting precious time.

What're you guys planning to do this year?

Breaking Into The New Year With Craft Sunday!

So what better way to welcome the New Year than by hanging out with some of my gamer friends and painting our little toy soldiers that we wage battle with? Well this afternoon I did just that as we watched the entire first season of Gargoyles. That's pretty much all I did there besides socializing. Some of the guys also played the Magic card game and a game of Warmachine was had. All in all a good day and I think it's time to make some lobster tail!

The figures are from my Guild faction for Malifaux. Starting with a Witchling Stalker, then Lady Justice and Sonia Crid the Witch Hunter.

Happy New Year my friends! May 2011 bring health, wealth and amazing gaming!

Craft Sunday!

So I spent the day at my local comic & games store, Warp 1 in Edmonton. T'was a good time as I got to sit down and paint my first Malifaux minis with others, give some tips to the new hobbysists and watched a few games of Warmachine/Hordes take place. It's really rewarding to see people now showing up at the store to play mini war games as well as paint or assemble their minis. We've played RPG's and CCG's at the store all along but the mini war gaming aspect was something really lacking in the area. I remember bugging Kris, the games manager to special order stuff for me then later on, stock miniatures for Warmachine/Hordes while I was bugging my friends to start playing Warmachine with me and now he himself has recently started playing and has tackled the hobby aspect too. It's a big deal because he was very very guarded against the hobby side of things.

The close ups are the Judge and Death Marshals that I painted this afternoon for my Guild crew.

Dinner Really Does Make A Difference

Yes, it's been forever since I've posted anything on this blog but in my defense, I've been really busy at work, went on holidays last week and playing instead of writing. Knowing that bloggers like Christian over at Destination Unknown makes lunch/dinner for the good folk at his game table. I wanted to get into that hanging out while eating side of things. Now I'm not talking about snack and liquor runs before sessions. I wanted proper meals. My group at this point does not prepare dinner but once everyone gets to the place of gaming, we leave in my van and go have supper. It's been really good especially with one of our players being new to the group and we really get to know each other outside of the game environment.
A huge perk is that the games run a lot smoother. Less emphasis on snacks being an interference while playing, we seem less distracted and long drawn out rabbit trailed stories show up less and less as I believe we get a lot of the need of personal chit chat done at the dinner table. Oh and no in the middle of a lull spot where someone goes "Who wants to order pizza?" and then you lose 20 minutes to figuring out what toppings you want, looking for phone numbers and gathering cash for whoever's chipping in.