Writing blog now set up

I have created a writing blog for information or discussion about my book “Warrior”. Here is a link to TheWarChronicles.wordpress.com.

It is ready

Yes, finally. Four months almost to the day after moving to the new house, I have finally gotten my basement set up so that I can game in it.

As you can see, it’s a pretty small basement. Should be big enough. Hope so anyway. Looking forward to it. First game is this Thursday. 🙂

Death at the Gaming Table

A Magic:The Gathering player was murdered in his home, apparently after playing Magic with his “friends” who beat him to death and sold his estimated $25,000 – $100,000 card collection for profit.

William Cormier, 31, is accused of beating Dugas to death Aug. 27 at his home in Pensacola.

Dugas’ cards, valued at somewhere between $25,000 and $100,000, ultimately were sold in Pensacola, Georgia and Tennessee, police said.

Dugas’ body was taken to Winder, Ga., where it was found Oct. 8, buried in a plastic container in the backyard of a home. Now held in Georgia, William Cormier and his twin brother, Christopher, will be returned to Pensacola to face charges in the homicide.

Re-evaluation of goals/approach…

Arg… so this will be somewhat revealing of my personal nature, but oh well.

I posted a few days ago how the response to me linking some of my quick and dirty furniture resulted in somewhat less than laudatory responses on the Hirst Arts forum from several regular posters on that forum.

My initial reaction was a somewhat petty and snarky explanation that my goals have been more to create usable gaming material than it has been to create high quality items that would be suitable for dioramas or for entry into art contests.

But of course it stung. And because it stung, it has caused me to re-evaluate my approach entirely in terms of quality vs quantity.

I have gone through all of my miniatures, my terrain, my buildings, etc., and with this new focus on quality I am afraid that I must admit that I am very disappointed in the level of quality of the huge majority of my work.

Yeah, the vast majority of my stuff is perfectly usable for gaming. But it does look sort of sad at worst and somewhat cartoonish or repetitive at best. Many of my painted miniatures have blobs of different colored paint splattered on the bases, or bases that are unpainted entirely. Since I was using cheap poker chips for some of my bases, I am forced to realize that many of those minis now look like they are perched on cheap poker chips.

Now, it’s highly unlikely that I am going to be redoing bases or painting of over 1,000 miniatures, and I will eagerly use them in games with no embarrassment whatsoever, BUT, I think that my approach going forward is now going to shift much more from quantity to quality. I had already begun that shift with my miniatures, but my terrain is still very much in the “throw it together” realm. Or most of it is. But no longer. From now on my terrain is going to be focused on quality as well.

The subterranean cavern I built, I think, satisfies this “quality” approach, although of course I can always get better. The wizard’s tower, ruined tower and bridge also all satisfy those goals, so I’ve got some pretty good stuff already. However, many of my huts and furniture and wagons do not. So I’ll be thinking about what to do about that. For example, I’ve got a bunch of tables I’ve made, but they are all sort of cheesy. Do I use what I have or do I take the time and trouble to create a high-quality table (or tables) and then use them to make a mold and cast dozens of them?

Same for bookshelves, wagons, etc…. Sigh. I suppose having open ended activities which constantly improve the quality of my collection is a good thing from a hobbyist perspective, but it also leaves me feeling somewhat daunted by the amount of work needed.

Change of plans…

Hmm… it looks like our moving plans have been put on hold indefinitely. Other things taking precedence.

But, that means I don’t have to pack up the rest of my workshop, at least not now, and I can unpack some of what I’ve packed up. Plus I’ve been doing some more casting lately, so I’ve got quite a collection of blocks I can use to make stuff.

Now it’s just a matter of making stuff. Plus buying a couple more molds from Hirst…

Sigh… life is happening…

So, I’ve really been ignoring this blog for the past month. No excuse, just too much else going on in my life lately.

Now we are getting serious about moving, which means I have to clean up all the junk I have laying around and turn my workroom/office into a pseudo fourth bedroom so we can sell the house.

That means I am packing up the vast majority of my miniatures, terrain, tools and other stuff and probably won’t get it back out again until we either sell the house and move, or give up and just go back to the way things were.

In the meantime I will try to keep some activity going on the blog, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing much terrain or miniature work for a while.

Not enough blogging

The last month has been a very busy time for me. Between work and family stuff I’ve really not spent any time at all on my terrain, minis or buildings.

Unfortunately I don’t know if it will improve much anytime soon. We are now trying to get the house ready for putting on the market, and once it is on the market that will probably mean even less time to post.

Plus I am probably going to have to box up most of my minis and my tools and even my hobby desk to make this room I work from look like a bedroom so it helps the house sell.

All for no purpose probably. The housing market sucks so bad that we would be lucky to be able to sell the house for a $50K loss.

Oh well, I’ll try to get some stuff posted from time to time.

D&D reboot

Yet another reboot of D&D is afoot. The rapidity of this reboot after the 4e release is quite revealing in my opinion. If 4e were doing well in the marketplace, I don’t believe a total rewrite would be contemplated, much less be in full execution.

The rumors of the “D&D Next” version are that it is abandoning many of the key 4e concepts that make 4e what it is. Those rumors also suggest a return to a more traditional model of spellcasters vs combat classes.

It will be interesting to see what finally emerges from the playtesting.

My guess is it won’t look much like the current 4e game.