Why is the Platypus?

blogging

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000+08:00

My sporadic blogging has been interrupted...or rather my life has been interrupted by one word...

SKYRIM

Books by Post

2011-10-17T16:25:00.001+08:00

So all the above arrived in the mail courtesy of the people at Amazon, whom I now have to support since Borders has gone bankrupt and left only stores that tend towards poor when it comes to shelves of US History. But this should give me a bit of a start, or should that be a re-start into the period as I look to use this,

...which hopefully will offer a bit better game than On to Richmond, if only to appease my regular opponent.

Terezin

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000+08:00

I saw this on Flintlock and Tomahawk and feel a little inspired to get back into American War of Independence, or even (as in the video) the French Indian Wars...but I do really need to finish just a few more units for ACW and get my painted stuff back from Phil Greg Painting in Sri Lanka before I get too carried away on a new period.*

* NOTE: Thomo you need to take note of this plan and not try to be too evil in your attempts to subvert me ~grin~

Browncoats...

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000+08:00

Introducing the gf to Firefly that's all I am going to say about that...

...save, one thing...

"This is the captain. We're having a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then... explode."

hahaha, loved this show, can't believe short sighted pencil dick bean counters cancelled it before it had a chance to really get going, but I guess that's what made it such a cult hit with the uber-geeks.

Photographing WWII

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000+08:00

The Atlantic is doing a feature on WWII in photographs, and while they do tend to be a little American, this gallery gave me reason enough to get excited again about doing FOW in the Pacific.

On a side note, a series of ankle injuries (one following on the other) has put pause to my hex-project...though I do have the whole project planned, so it is happening. Just slower than I had hoped.

Major Rethink

2011-08-26T06:00:00.032+08:00

I guess I should just come to the point and lay blame at the door that it belongs...so thanks Thomo!

Although I have not yet succumbed to the pressure to go to 6mm I have decided to abandon what 1/72 (or 20mm) WWII I have in favour of 15mm and Flames of War. The obvious two advantages I can see are that terrain I am already accruing for Napoleonic Europe and Spain will not look too out of place as a substitute for Europe in the late war period or even Italy in the mid. The other is that as a scale 15mm is probably the best of both worlds: large enough to look good and therefore be fairly easy to paint, but small enough so that battles of a reasonable size can be fought without needing a table bigger than my apartment, and all while keeping the budget reasonable. The major disadvantages are that I need to decide what to do with all the stuff I already have, and perhaps more of a disadvantage is that the whole thing has got me thinking.

Work of the Wargaming Cave has sort of stalled. My original design called for a square table, and this was dropped in favour of a longer table once a new home had been found. But lately the flexibility of the smaller table (on wheels no less) has begun to see merit. While it would mean longer battle-fields would have to be fought in stages, it has the advantage of allowing 4 sided access, looking "right" for 15mm and even ok for 25mm fantasy, especially given that I plan to play much more Mordheim than WFB type games. It would also be large enough for future (planned) 40K games and any other 15mm period expansions (thinking AWI and/or maybe Renaissance Italy) would still work.

But it means I have to re-plan the room and look at how to mount the table on said wheels, while keeping maximal storage space and book space. (Though I guess if I bought an iPad and just had digital versions of the all the rules then this would be moot)

...this is simply the bane of those of us without the massive amount of space that some gamers* seem to luxuriate in.

* Yes, I am jealous. ~grin~

"Crunch" Time

2011-08-19T06:00:00.000+08:00

I have decided after much thought that it is time to rid myself of my 20mm WWII. This is not to say I am abandoning the period but it is to say that I am moving to Flames of War and 15mm. Since I already game in this scale it will reduce the "double ups" of terrain, and let me use all those generic pieces for more than just Napoleonic (esp. for European and Italian theatres). And although FOW don't do the Pacific campaigns I figure I can jury rig some army lists and take advantage of Old Glory's Miniatures to provide the bits on the table.

Though I really do need to finishing basing my ACW stuff and then start on my Mordhiem modular stuff...after I also clear out and get rid of some of my Fantasy terrain...esp. the stuff that I did early on and know that I can now do better. ~grin~

Does the cleaning out and replacing ever really end in the life of a Wargamer?

ACW - A Bridge Too Far

2011-07-05T06:00:00.022+08:00

So Thomo (of the hole fame*) stopped by to help christen the table, since the hexes are nearly all finished, or at least enough of them to play on are. I set up a small ACW scenario for no other reason as its one of the only periods in which I have both sides for an engagement.

Basically a reinforcement action with a bridge choke point to slow the attack enough it seems, and with a lucky roll (or unlucky from my POV) that ensured early reinforcements and a loss for my first battle on home turf as my troops could not get a solid footing on the far side of the bridge and were driven off much the same as 2 Para half a world away and in some future conflict.

Being a typical war-gamer, a single game has reignited my interest in ACW, and thus I spent the morning locating some more Union guns, another Union Bde, as well as a few more generals for both sides along with a whole pile of "dead" to turn into the all important casualty/morale markers.

Not to mention that I think I really need some train track...if only to offer another reasonable objective for scenarios. ~grin~

* Have to wonder if it's as nice as a Hobbit hole or something dark, dank and nasty...

Hex Tiles - II

2011-06-24T06:00:00.001+08:00

Well I have almost finished a complete set of tiles...or at least enough to cover the table once. Which means I am about 2/3 of the way complete. Some things I have noted throughout this project:

You will use far my white glue, green paint and flock than you imagine. Get more.
You need to stick to the plan you make otherwise you will need more sheets of polystyrene to cover your "creativity"
Double siding the hexes gives you greater flexibility...if all tiles are double sided, then you don't have to worry about a few standing "proud" on the table.

NOTE: Because of (2) I need to get more polystyrene to ensure I have enough "basic" hexes to cover the table without the need for having a river. And because of (1) I can't complete the hexes I have cut out, or even look at (3) to solve my problem. Which means, the whole project will take another week or so to complete...but only after I work out what "special" pieces I need to give me total flexibility.

Hex Tiles - I

2011-06-19T06:00:00.001+08:00

So inspired by a tutorial for hex terrain tiles and my own recollections of some great evenings of gaming on a friends full table of Geo-Hex I decided (as I mentioned last post) that one thing my gaming room was going to have was a table that gave likewise flexibility, whether I wanted to game Fantasy, WW2* or ACW. So, while I plan to put together a more detailed tutorial here are four images showing the production line progress on my Hex Tiles.

* As soon as the Hex-tiles are done my focus for the summer (northern hemisphere) is rebasing my European theatre WWII 20mm soldiers and expanding that period to include Malaya/Burma** and the Pacific island campaigns.
** What I would really like to do is the "Fall of Singapore", after all I live here, so it's pretty easy to get out and see the actual places. ~grin~

Gaming Room - A Start

2011-06-16T07:00:00.000+08:00

Some quick images of how the room is coming together, and one to show the terrain tiles I am making that are inspired by, the now defunct, GeoHex.

Click to Enlarge

One thing I have noted while unpacking and sorting everything is that I really need to just focus on 2-3 periods for the moment and not spread myself so thin ... so I guess this means my 40K plans will be put on hold, especially since I am pretty keen to put together some forces based around the WW2 Malaya Campaigns, the Fall of Singapore and then some "island hoping" amphibious actions.

Moving is Over

2011-06-15T07:00:00.001+08:00

So the move to a new place went off like all moves have. That is to say it was stressful, there was weeks of work before to try to minimise the hassle on the day, and now there are lots of boxes to be unpacked, sorted into "junk" and "memories" and new "homes" to be had for things deemed necessary, and things deemed not so, need to be wither sold, or resigned to the rubbish.

But the good news is, I have a gaming room.

It is almost 100% dedicated to me. Since the gf has laid claim to the wardrobe in the main bedroom, the wardrobe in this room has to house my clothes, so it cannot factor into my "space". Hopefully I can figure everything I want into my plan and still give my self enough shelves, drawers and wall space to not feel overly crowded out.

Let the planning begin. (bring on that IKEA Catalog)

In bad news, I might have to play a "joker" this month in the Terrain Building challenge. But since I get a table and a room out of it, I am not too fussed. ~grin~ But I better get the gf's study area sorted first, so she stays happy ~bigger grin~

Fencing In

2011-05-02T07:00:00.002+08:00

So Warseer has been down for over a week...erm...I wondered why I had not received any email alerts of forum thread updates?

In the mean time I have spent a little bit of time making fences for 15mm ACW. Thus far I have completed, 60cm of stone walls, 300cm (or 3m) of split rail fences, 120cm of "rocks&rail" fences and finally 180cm of more regular looking fences.

In all hopefully enough to add some textured obstacles to my ACW Battlefields.

My Gaming Path

2011-03-30T07:00:00.003+08:00

70's: I guess my path to miniature wargaming and RPG's was laid long before I even realised. War gaming at this time was limited to water pistols, running around the yard, and those $2 bags of soldiers (usually British, American and/or Germans) a few period non-specific tanks and a really sad tree or two. Set up across the front yard a tennis ball made the perfect projectile, if the figure fell over, he was dead, still standing and it was "just a flesh wound". And of course this decade was the one of Star Wars.

80's: The earlier part of this decade was punctuated by two three things Geek: discovering The Hobbit (and through it the LOTR), being introduced to D&D and getting my first computer. Of course there was also the forays into Eddings and Donaldson, early Ral Partha, and of course Dragon, and before it simply became an in-house advertisement, White Dwarf. There was spending allowance on the school photocopier to get more character sheets, not to mention pilfering grid paper when my Math teacher was not looking.
The later part of the 80's held much of the same, but before High School ended it was filled out with Medieval re-enactment, making arms and armour, ESCI Napoleonics, WRG 7th Ed. and then DBA Greeks, offering my real introduction to rules that did not include a tennis ball or something exploding. I could also sprinkle this time with things like WHFRPG, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, MERP, and lets not forget Fighting Fantasy.

90's: This was a period when RPG's became simply books on a shelf replaced (albiet only for 10 years or so ) by the computer. It was a period of getting a degree (in IT) and finding work, moving away from home and my regular gaming group and then finally moving abroad. It was also for the first 6 years a great time of weekly wargaming. Nearly every period was covered, while rugged up against the cold we played in a large garden shed or in the luxury of a dedicated room. From 5mm to 25mm, my interest was fueled and I even started the possibly never ending sinkhole that is known as "getting into a period" as I jumped aboard what was the flavour of the month and tried to overcome my hatred of painting the little buggers.* It was also a time where friendships drifted as life simply got older and many of my armies found a place to be stored at my parents and simply gathered dust until recently.

00's: This was a period of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, and though I had dabbled in the previous decade this one was where I played the most. The few wargames I tried disappointed and being abroad and living as an expat I never really had the space nor the opposition** to play anything serious or get back into it in a manner I would like. Though it was at this time that my good friend Justin got into Dwarven Forge, and slowly at first but then with more regular drunken revelry a group would gather to roll some dice and move our characters through a dungeon inhabited by all types of nasties just minding their own business and therefore waiting to be killed.

Present: What can I say? DA2, Mass Effect, Oblivion, a return to pen&paper D&D with a small group (who could be better at meeting more regularly ~hint~) meeting the Napnuts guys and getting my wargaming mojo back. It's a time of Hirst Arts, Warhammer, and trying to limit my periods to a manageable 4 or 5, so far 15mm Napoleonic, ACW, 25/28mm Fantasy (I might need to limit this from Dwarfs, Orcs/Goblins, Undead, Elf, Human and Skaven, to something less space taking), and 20mm WW2. I could throw in 25/28mm Sci-fi, but apart from gather the "bits" I have done nothing with this so far so it really is only a couple of shoe boxes worth of sprue. This is a time, when disposable income has allowed me to do what once I could only dream, and so the main change for the present is that as I come to the end of my current lease and start to look for a new home, one priority is a spare room that can be "my shed" and therefore my gaming home. ~grin~

* What can I say? I hate painting the soldiers, but love scratch building and making terrain.
** I have decided that the best way to circumvent this is to make sure that I build both sides of any period that I get into. My good friend Greg did this, and I think its the best way to go as it means I just need to find a wargamer to play against, not one who is also into the same periods.

Tempus Fugit*

2011-03-29T07:00:00.004+08:00

Being a little bored at work today, and given that I had a bit of time to kill before I had to pretend to be productive, I spent most of the afternoon flexing my Google-Fu and randomly searching for wargaming terrain/scenery in the hope of finding inspiration with mixed success.

One blog I stumbled across was Lair of the Uber Geek, and doing as I usually do in such circumstances I started trolling his archive, admiring the pictures, skim reading posts and then adding him to my RSS. I think it was this post, The Path to Miniature Wargaming, that reminded me that;

I have a blog, where I planned to actually write about my resurgent Geek, and,
I have not really done much of the later.

Now I could wax somewhat lyrically about how I have been distracted by life, Dragon Age 2, trying to finish my monthly build for the Warseer, Tale of Terrain Builders** and find a new place to live, but in truth that comes nowhere near really offering a reason and rings rather more of an excuse. So, I guess ~grin~, I will hereby resolve to, at the very least, visit here more often...and maybe even write something.

* Latin: Time Flees
** My own thread at Warseer is here.

Life

2011-02-08T07:00:00.001+08:00

"The average life is full of near misses and absolute hits.
Of great love and small disasters.
It's made up of banana milkshakes, loft insulation and random shoes,
and its dead ordinary and truly truly amazing.
What you got to realise is that its all here now.
So breathe deep and swallow it whole,
because take it from me,
life just whizzes by and then all of a sudden its..."
- Torchwood. S01E09 Random Shoes.

Kinda reminds a bit of this one,

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
- Ferris Bueller.

Lately I seem to think that I have got the stopping part pretty much down pat, but the looking around could do with some work.

Battle Joined

2011-01-31T07:00:00.006+08:00

A couple of shots from a recent Warhammer game at my place. Both teams basically fought to a bloody standstill but the Dwarfs may have just had the edge as sunset on the field of cloth.

Click to Enlarge
Note: The Dwarfish forces are bravely deployed, ready to die in defence of the tower of Heineken...I promise I am not racially profiling at all. ~grin~

A Reason

2011-01-20T07:00:00.000+08:00

Probably the best way of explaining why I don't Blog or game as much as I would like...

[ Reposted from Geeks are Sexy ]

One Great Thing...

2011-01-19T07:00:00.007+08:00

...about rekindling my inner-geek, is that I now have the money to indulge all those adolescent geek dreams.* It's great to be able to walk into a games shop and not have to decide between which figures, or dice or module to buy...I just get all three! ~grin~

* Well obviously not the one about going into space...because that would just be an obscene amount of money, and my bank account does not love me that much.

Console RPG

2011-01-17T07:00:00.000+08:00

I liked Morrowind, loved Oblivion, and remember that Baldur's Gate changed everything. But for me, it all started with Eye of the Beholder,(unless of course you include Zork) which I much preferred over Ultima III, though I do suspect that it was because the "concept" so mirrored the pen and paper experiences I was hoping to have with my friends.

After I "faded" from the hobby in the early nineties it was these digital versions that kept my "foot in the door" and kept the interest slowly burning as other hobbies and interests took over...namely, girls, skiing, girls, diving, girls and maybe the occasional bout of time spent studying and that unfortunate thing that gets in the way of our interests, i.e. work. And while I love the return to this more nostalgic D&D I really can't wait for Bethesda to come out with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrm.

Some House Rules

2011-01-14T07:00:00.001+08:00

In order to make the "old school"* experience a little easier for the players to lean toward the heroic, these are some of the house rules adopted, mainly during the character creating process.

Attributes:
Players roll 4d6 and discard the lowest the result. They do this 6 times, and then rearrange the attributes to suite the class they wish to play. They can also adjust the attributes as per the "-2 + 1" rule.

Hit Points:
All Players start with their maximum Hit Points, including, if/any, Constitution bonus. Applies for 1st level only.

Clerics:
Start with a Potion of Healing.

Magic Users:
Start with 4 spells in their Spell-book, one MUST be Read Magic.
May use any magical weapon after 5th level. (Gandalf got to wield Glamdring)

Some other thoughts...

I have also been thinking that thieves need to get a "leg up" to help them on their road to master criminal, so I am thinking of "borrowing" the Dexterity bonuses and the penalties from AD&D. Thus,

Click image to Enlarge

I also know that Gary used to also give Fighters a +1 for damage if their Strength was greater than 14. This was on top of the bonus already existing for Strength and was seen to be reflective of greater training in combat arts. Not to sure how I feel about this, as the lack of weapon and armour restrictions coupled with high Hit Points already makes the fighter formidable.

But then he also gave a similar bonus of +1 to a characters Hit Points if they had a Constitution greater than 14. This was per level, and again on top of the existing bonuses and was supposed to reflect the characters heroic potential...or at least keep them alive long enough to realise it. And this one I tend to feel would not unbalance the game too much and might even increase the heroic aspect without turning it into a "god mode" cake-walk.

* Yes we play "Old School", which for us is Moldvay Red and Blue Box editions...I never played (in terms of Editions) beyond a brief dabble in AD&D 2nd Ed. and for many reasons, most of them nostalgic, prefer to keep it where my experiences first began.

DMing 101

2011-01-11T07:00:00.013+08:00

According to the guys at Penny Arcade as a DM you can either quit in a huff, or just kill your players. and revel in their pain and suffering.

I know which one I have more fun with?

So after a hiatus of 21 years* I returned to the table as a DM, and with both a world and adventure that I created myself, albeit with lots of very Geeky references. So what happened...

Well basically, not a single PC died. The treasure remained largely intact due to a lack of searching and/or a reticence on the PC's part to "adopt a heroic pose" and instead cower behind discretion. Also no NPC's were killed in the making of the adventure. So I have to wonder, have I lost my touch? Maybe I need to add a Dragon?

Perhaps more importantly, in terms of campaign planning, what did I learn about my players approach to play?

Well, they are, generally,

Cautious, and fearful when there is no danger.
Eager to rush headlong when there is, and,
No body (is wise enough) to carry a 10' pole.

So the big question now is, what do I do next with the party? How do I toy with their petty lives? Or rather how do I lead them too dance to a tune of my making?

* It might actually be 22.

Wargaming Lego

2011-01-10T07:00:00.000+08:00

A few close-ups of some of my terrain...

...and a simple LEGO inspired crane. Simply because everything works better with LEGO.

A Geek Anthem?

2011-01-08T07:00:00.001+08:00

Seth Green and Clare Grant, two geeks proving that it is now mainstream...

"Browncoats represent! We aim to misbehave!"

Classic.

Venezia - I

2011-01-07T07:00:00.019+08:00

Venezia

version 1 - without labels

Click image to enlarge

Every campaign needs a city for the PC's to call home, a place to buy supplies, sell loot, find training and perhaps most importantly, to listen for rumours of adventure. For my players the City State of Venezia fulfills that function, modelled after the state of Venice and inspired by the maps from Assassins Creed II, I moved the city to a river mouth so it could dominate a trade route and have slowly been fleshing out its districts and history.

Not sure how it will go...but the map above is a start.

Writers Die

2011-01-06T07:00:00.001+08:00

One of the problems with loving to read is that eventually you form an attachment to a particular writer. Often this attachment begins with a character, an intriguing plot, or maybe a setting, but the result for the reader is the same: a hunger to devour, to follow the adventures and with each page the attachment gets stronger until,

"Finishing a good book, is like leaving* a good friend"
- William Feather

But what happens when in the midst of that friendship if the author dies?

Unfortunately, one fo two things tends to happen,

1. The torch is passed to some other writer, which is fine in the case of something like Thieves World, but in most it provides for a, while not always inferior product, none the less one that deviates from the comfort of attachment. Much like any who tried to follow Sean Connery**, the characters are slightly changed and the fabric of the spell that was weaved is pulled in directions that just fail to ring true of the original work. Or,

2. The work remains unfinished, a trilogy, for often they are such, that just ends, the characters lives left hanging and on which with a final period, we the reader are left in limbo our imaginations so carefully strung along the path of plot find no recourse, no solutions and rather are left to wonder, to tire, and then to drift to other works and other weavers of words.

I am not sure which is the worse fate for the story whose teller dies. To be picked up for what is often financial gain rather than from any sense of noble completion or to be discarded, destined for, if lucky, cheap reprints, but more likely to fade into a cornered obscurity of word only visited by those whose interest lies in the genre of ilk.

* Often misquoted as losing.
** Until maybe Daniel Craig, though I did also like Timothy Dalton's more literary correct interpretation

Terry Pratchett

2011-01-05T07:00:00.037+08:00

It all started with a failed Wizzard, and after a roller-coaster ride that jumped from parody to parody along rails of irreverent humour that poked fun at life in general, and sometimes the world of fantasy authors.

My experience began with The Colour of Magic, I have to wonder where my adventures with Anhk-Morpork and Discworld will end?

Building a Space

2011-01-03T07:00:00.009+08:00

Years ago I was fortunate enough to wargame with a friend who had the kind of space we would all desire. A purpose built room, a big table (loaded down with the now defunct Geo-hex), armies for both sides for any period he was interested in (usually in 25mm), a wall of military and wargaming books, prints, swords, and even the odd rifle and helmet for ambiance. It also didn't hurt that he had published a set of rules (also here), a range of figures (and rules) and used to wargame with his friend, Paddy Griffith. All in all a great, albiet very spoiled introduction to the hobby.

So like most gamers I have always wanted a dedicated space, not only for storage but for a table that does not have to be shared with food and packed away for breakfast, i.e. a space that is all about gaming. I always wanted it to be a multiple-purpose space, where both D&D and Wargaming could exist side-by-side on the shelves and with ample drawer space for both armies and terrain for whatever period I decided to pursue.So I decided to flex my Google-Fu and see what inspiration I could find online. And hopefully get some idea of what is needed, or rather should be included in a gaming room.

Backyard Shed/Garage | Lord Ashrams Room | Pike and Plunder | The Dungeon

So what are the "essentials" for a gaming space, or at least what do I deem them to be?

Table: Obviously, not so obvious is that the biggest question to be asked and answered here is, size? Two factors most affect the answer to this question, the physical room you have and then the scale and type of gaming you prefer. For me this will result in a table that is 160x80, perhaps not the largest I can fit in the space, but of a size big enough to play "grand tactical" 15mm games, Mordheim/Fantasy/Skirmish 25mm games (albiet with a much reduced deployment zone), plus the odd game of Diplomacy or Risk.

Storage: If you game in more than one period, especially if one happens to be 25mm, then terrain is something you gather that just seems to take up lots of space. Hills, woods, rivers, roads, bridges and the whole slew of buildings needed to create flexible layouts with differing objectives need room. Surprisingly armies can be stored rather easily, (25mm cavalry less so) but buildings, towers, windmills, and churches need a certain depth to the place you want to keep them if they are to remain damage and dust free. My plan is for three sets of drawers for terrain storage and three sets of shelves for books, rules, boxed games and smaller drawers for my armies. Two of the shelves will in-fact form the end supports for the table.

Decoration: This is obviously rather personal in taste, and unfortunately I live in a country where swords (even if replica) are rather hard to get, not to mention rifles. So for me this will be limited to some prints I picked up 10 years ago in Europe and some other Geek paraphernalia that I just happen to have laying around. Who knows, I might even be able to pick up some WW2 memorabilia, though not sure where to look in Singapore?

Other: Since I have both a spare TV and a DVD player, all I will need to do is move the war/geek/game DVD's into the room and I will have distraction/motivation while I construct terrain and avoid painting figures.

Given that options to DIY are limited due to difficulty in both sourcing of the pieces and then having the space to turn them into usable options, my plans include a rather big shop at IKEA. This should include: 2 * EXPEDIT Shelving units (90185495), 3 * MALM Chest of three drawers (90158227), a GALANT Table top (90161885) and an ALEX Drawer unit (70167708). The latest being to store paints, brushes and all the bits used to build terrain.

So now all I need to do is go shopping, and do a major spring clean to get the space ready. But only if I ignore the major downside to all this, which is the sad fact that I will, in all probability, be hunting in the near future for a new place to live so anything I do now is really just a mental exercise and a checklist of items to add to the apartment desires list.

Office Steampunk

2010-12-16T07:00:00.006+08:00

Totally inspired by here, and because I too would love to do nothing more than sometimes shoot the people I work with...and what better than to do it in such a Geek way.

Not my photos, but totally inspiring. From above link.
Plus, you have to admit it looks a little like something Mal Reynolds would carry.

Sewers

2010-12-14T07:00:00.009+08:00

Click to enlarge image

As a one page dungeon (OPD) [ view/download pdf ]

A Were-Rat led group of thieves is spying on the city from a sewer built hideout, called "The Hand" to honor their leaders missing appendage. Tthe human members (thieves) are not aware of the true nature of their leaders, but they are aware that they are spying for an "evil" power, and gathering supplies for a larger infiltration of the city.

Barad Tur

2010-12-10T07:00:00.010+08:00

Click to enlarge image

As a one page dungeon (OPD) [ view/download pdf ]

The idea is to have an old tower that a clan of Goblins are using as a base while they raid a trade road. The Upper floors have all collapsed leaving the ground floor in ruins with the Dungeons/Catacombs acting as a home for the Goblins. The party is attacked by the Goblins (while guarding a caravan) and then track the Goblins back to their lair.

The catacombs bit comes from A Character for every game [ actual page ].

Fantasy freaks...

2010-12-07T07:00:00.087+08:00

This book is a must for anybody who ever played Dungeons & Dragons and then put aside that part of themselves as life simply got in the way.

Ethan Gilsdorf's* journey back into the Dungeon, in no small way mirrors my own, a box of old maps, books and dice, that opens a floodgates of memories, wonderings and perhaps more importantly, new images of wondrous places, strong heros and dungeons filled with the vilest of the underworld.

I read this book, as I read many, either on the throne or as a diversion from another activity...only now those activities included graph paper and pencil, or rather a tablet PC and a new way of drawing maps and crafting a small corner of a world for me to dust off my DM skills and test the mettle of my players.

"As I met more and more gamers, particularly those my age, a pattern began to emerge. They'd tell me after years of playing only online, they returned to in-person paper-and-pencil games. "Soloing" on adventures in WoW and other MMO's made them lonely. They missed the face-to-face-ness of low-tech, tangible, tabletop gaming. I knew I had missed D&D's weekly ritual of camaraderie and fellowship."
- pg 52, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

And maybe as a passage that's what any return to youthful fun is, our simple desire to engage, to share camaraderie, to connect in a world that is, thanks to the very thing that has made Geek mainstream more and more separate and distant. Or maybe, on some level, we all yearn for that child-like enjoyment we had before life and the world at large become the Orcish warrior threatening our way. Maybe, returning to D&D after all these years is a quest to return to something or rather sometime when everything was a little simpler, and the world focus was not so $$$.

* Sounds like a great name for a Dwarf...the Gilsdorf, not so much the Ethan.

Beer grown here

2010-12-06T07:00:00.005+08:00

What's a Dwarf town without a brewery...heck for that matter what is any town without a brewery?

So let the battle, or rather, the defense of Bugman's begin.

A rekindled geek

2010-12-03T07:00:00.000+08:00

The person, I most have to thank for my re-embracing of my Geek, did so with almost no preamble and seemingly secure in the knowledge that he was right,

Him: D&D or AD&D?
Me: Both, but I preferred D&D for its emphasis on Role not Roll.
Him: We should play.
Me. I'm in. When?

And thus inspired, I started (again), buying books, sorting through old modules while home visiting the parents, buying dice, armies (the Warhammer bug bit again, as well), building terrain, creating a bits box, buying dice, getting back into the Fantasy Lit. that I had missed, which my aforementioned friend as a writer of such was eager to share and generally embracing all the best parts of growing up, even Lego made a comeback. The second person I should thank is my girlfriend who is as eager in her support of my Geek as I am in supporting hers.

But this is now, and it all started some when else...

...when I was 7, an over budget Space Opera filmed in the African Desert change movie history and fired my imagination. The internal debate between whether I wanted to be Luke or Han was one that I still feel slightly conflicted over. On one hand you get to wield a light-saber and use the Force, but on the other hand I would get to fly the Millenium Falcon.

A few years later a friend introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons, the same friend who a few years after that would lead me to Napoleonic Wargaming, add to that mix a Commodore 64 (at first), a 300Baud Modem, Tolkien, a part-time job in a computer store, Eddings, mix in some Howard, a lot of BASIC, a little piracy by way of 5.25" sector copying, Warhammer (all three: FB, 40K & RPG), White Dwarf, Pools of Radiance, Krull, a major crush on Sorsha and my high school label was cast in carbonite.

Later I added to this a degree with majors in History and Comp Sci, let my RPG roots lead me into re-enactment groups, War gaming replaced the mixed polyhedrons, Dragon, computers got upgraded and smaller, "Cowabunga", and eventually, though probably reluctantly, I joined the realm of those who "worked" for a living. Sadly this development led me away from my fellow geeks even as computers, thanks to the invention of a really smart guy from CERN were first starting to make us mainstream.

Over a decade passed with only the odd, at first computer then later console game, to keep my Geek credibility in a pathetic lost wilderness. The "work" part took me abroad, thankfully working in IT, but it always seemed to be just before a geographical jump that I would meet like-minded souls who craved to roll dice and slay dragons, and MMORPG didn't really, no matter how good, come close. As such I lived, or rather existed as something less than I wanted to be, until one day thanks possibly to age and maybe a shaky international economy the regular moves slowed and a friend asked a simple question...

...oh, and while I got to wield the closest thing to the Force I could (so far) with KOTOR and Force Unleashed I am still not sure it would trump getting to fly the Falcon, so I am still undecided.

So what have I...

2010-12-02T07:00:00.008+08:00

...been doing?

Basically, thanks to Hirst Arts, eBay and a local Arts/Craft Store I have been making terrain for war gaming, more specifically, I have been making 25-28mm stone European/Fantasy buildings. I have been getting my geek on making forests, rivers, hills and whatever took my fancy, ergo:

Now I just need a place to setup and store it all...

...maybe its time to move non-digital homes again with a view to creating a man-cave.

So why the why?

2010-12-01T07:30:00.001+08:00

Last year I walked away from a carefully crafted online persona, I deleted the blog, deleted the email account and abandoned the digital world of writing for a freelance gig with a magazine. Increasingly as I was, and continue to be paid to write, the mojo to put down my musings waned. Writing for multiple mistress's around the same topic became, quite frankly, tiresome, and so I walked from online thoughts. I reduced my digital footprint, especially the anonymous one, to that existing only in cache, I began to comment under my real name on the blogs I still followed and perhaps most importantly in a series of "fits and starts" I rediscovered and rekindled my inner Geek.

So why the "Why is the Platypus?"...well...

...quite simply it has to do with Rincewind, a place called Buggerup and a writer called Terry Pratchett. It might also have a little to do with the fact that it was the first blog I ever wrote, the first anonymous identity I crafted and the first I walked away from when the fourth wall threatened to fall. Besides, I had to call a blog about my Geek interests something, didn't I?