Graph Paper Games

Boy, it feels good to see a project through to completion.  The color scheme looks really good.  It was a good first run, especially in getting an idea about much terrain a single box can hold. So what's next?  A dungeon?  A crypt?  Science fiction?

For all you 80's kids out there, do you remember the idea of "playsets," like Castle Grayskull or the GI Joe Command Center or the Death Star where you could set it up like a action-move dollhouse and create story after story? So here's what I am doing: Creating kits using the boxes that PLA filament comes in to hold thematic terrain for roleplaying games. For those of you who do not know, PLA filament is the plastic thread a lot of 3D printers use to make stuff.  The box is roughly 8" by 8" by 3".  Half of the box can hold about 48 floor tiles that are 2" square while the other half can hold walls, corners, and other assorted pieces.  Fully assembled, the kit would hold enough terrain to cover a square roughly 16" to 18" on a side, which for a small table is a pretty good layout.  It can also handle three or four small rooms easily.  By re-configuring the kit once or twice, you could theoretically handle eight to twelve encounters,...

For a while I was really getting into Kickstarter for various 3D printing options, and while there are still some out there, I found myself often getting more than I could ever reasonably print, but still paying for the files. To compromise between being practical and still enjoying the thrill of finding new things to do with my printer to support my hobbies, I decided to explore Patreon instead, finding a couple of artists who do work I like who could then keep me in a steady flow of new material for a reasonable rate. Four artists I support are Aaron Mulder , Rocket Pig Games , Pinyo , and PrintYourMonsters .  Of those four, Aaron Mulder tends to make items to use with Fat Dragon Games' modular dungeons and Pinyo tends to make buildings (incredible ones). It's Rocket Pig and PYM that ship out monthly designs of miniatures, which I want to incorporate into my games somehow. In August, Rocket Pig released a ton of undersea creatures.  I'm not entirely sure how those get ...

I'm continuing to run my two separate D&D games, but yesterday's session (my original home game) surprised me what I thought was going to be a sparse player group (four) turned out to be a larger than normal-sized group (seven).  Because I'm using a pre-gen adventure and wasn't really expecting a group that big, that meant that the group tended to blast through more challenging encounters and got bogged down in long initiative orders.  I think the only time the group felt really concerned was the one time the zombie beholder managed to get his turn on the initiative order, and ended up NOT rolling the disintegration ray.  One shot, didn't kill anybody, and that was it for him. The group plows their way through two (owl)bears In the past when the players have begun drifting back into the group because of lighter schedules, babies growing up, etc. I have opted to split the group or restrict the number of times per month they can play to keep the table size dow...

I've managed to get some painting time in, and it's going pretty well. Designed by Brayan Nafarrate Designed by Pinyo All of these were 3D printed on my Ender 3.  The "flameskull" was painted using the new GW contrast paints, literally only two of them, in about twenty minutes.  More on those paints later. In addition, I'm still running a game weekly: every other Tuesday for my "house group" and every other Monday for my campus ministry group.  Here's a shot from the latest session of my house group. Thanks for reading.  Comments always welcome.

It's been a bit, but I've been keeping busy. The new D&D campaign has been going very well.  It's been nice being able to work with a different group with new personalities and styles. That's in addition to the regular campaign, which has been getting back into the swing of things with some solid gameplay.  They managed to clear most of the first level of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage , and are now making serious headway into the second. Finally, I've been printing and painting a bit.  Here are some examples: So lots of good gaming and more stuff than I have time to paint.  Thanks for reading!

The boss monster...or is he? Back in May a local denominational-affiliated campus ministry group asked me, a pastor, if I would be willing to run a Dungeons & Dragons game for their members.  I'll admit I was flattered, intrigued, and most importantly excited because of the entire group, only one person (my son, Mac) had played D&D before.  Many of them had heard about the game, researched it online and watched videos and listened to podcasts, and a couple had even gone so far as to buy the Player's Guide , but that was it. So I began to put together a campaign with the intent of "converting" people to becoming gamers.  My goal?  In one or two sessions to get them hooked, not to mention up to speed on the game's rules.  In addition, I wanted to try to instill my own ethos about what good roleplaying and group culture looked like. And that was why I was excited.  And last night, we finally had our first session, and it was a blast. I used "T...

Last Christmas, I was given a 3D printer as a present and began immediately building the type of gaming items I used to use Hirst Arts molds to create: terrain for wargaming and modular dungeons for roleplaying games.  When I researched the topic, going online and talking to friends, I found first one company, then a second who provided the "patterns" for making modular dungeons. The first was Fat Dragon Games , which makes not only files for modular dungeons but also fantasy buildings, the odd sci-fi terrain pieces, and most recently a huge batch of fantasy monsters to be printed out on your printer.  In addition, the owner of the company, Tom Tullis, created a huge support network through social media and YouTube on maintaining and getting the most out of your printer, tips and tricks, painting guides, etc.  Recently FDG participated in a great Humble Bundle charity program where you could buy a significant amount of their product for a ridiculously low price, of all o...

So, as you may know if you look at the last post, I moved over to my old Wordpress blog for several months.  The thing is, it felt like nobody moved with me. In addition, for whatever reason I found the Wordpress blog interface to be full of bells and whistles that not only did I not want, but also made it harder to write. So I blogged less.  And nobody read it.  Around the same time I stopped reading blogs, which meant I was losing a lot of inspiration as well.  So this part of my hobby life basically dried up and died. But, I am gaming, probably more than I have in a while.  So what have I been up to? Roleplaying Games My regular gaming group has been slogging slowly through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage , and honestly it has really not hit its stride.  We are only on the second level, and the odd bits of randomness is getting to be a bit much sometimes.  For example one room is full of water, which rushes down upon the players when the door opens...

I checked the stats, and my last post telling people I moved has gotten over 120 views, while at the new blog I'm lucky to get single digits.  So what have you missed over there? Over 20 new posts. Descriptions of the D&D campaign I've been running since 3Q2018. Several painted miniatures A whole bunch of things I have done on my new 3D printer, including a modular dungeon and a cosplay Star Wars blaster. So go check out Strange Vistas , unless you're a Russian gambling robot, whom I am suspecting made up more of my readership that I had feared.