Graph Paper Games

 I decided to get my own domain name: strangevistas.org and have been posting there for over a year.  When Adam at Barking Alien mentioned that he wanted me to start blogging again, I realized that he might not know, and that likely others didn't as well. So, now you do.  See you soon!

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.

For the time being, I've moved my blogging here: https://strangevistas.wordpress.com/

So far, my decision to use Waterdeep: Dragon Heist  appears to be a wise one.  The group is enjoying the rich tapestry of personages the book has to offer, and I find myself freed up from stressing about what to do next.  Without getting into any spoilers, the group is in the second chapter of the adventure, a curiously low-key exploration phase before beginning ratcheted back up in chapter three to a pace that will continue for the rest of the book.  The long-time GM in me is mildly disappointed that I'm not creating my own material, but this has given me the time to focus on a lot of other projects, including renovating the game room.  I will have to see if I transition from Dragon Heist  to Dungeon of the Mad Mage .  In November two of my players will have a baby, while after Christmas break another player's schedule changes so he is no longer available on my game night.  That leaves me with three players, all youth rather than adults.  At...

This post may contain spoilers to the D&D Adventure "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" I think the last time I used a pre-generated adventure was the prior time I ran D&D a couple of years ago, and that was an old Goodman Games module for 3E that I updated for 5E (which wasn't without its challenges).  But with several of our regular GM's in my gaming group unavailable, but my still having a lot on my own plate, I thought I would consider doing it again, only this time trying out one of WotC's up-to-date publications. After doing some research, I decided on their most recent product, Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist .  I'm a big fan of "caper" movies and the whole premise seemed to be a nice change from your typical murder-hoboing.  The whole adventure takes place in a city, there's a ton of investigation and roleplaying, and it serves as the prequel to their release of the latest iteration of the Undermountain megadungeon, which is being relea...

It has been years since I joined my Ohio friends for their annual three-day RPG micro-con called "End of the World" or EOW.  They have literally been doing this event for 29 years, and have it down to a science.  This past weekend was EOW, and I was able to make it out to Ohio to join them for three days of gaming one-shots all featuring their homegrown (and somewhat suspect) system. One of the cool things about EOW is that you can end up with a pretty wide variety of scenarios, each run by a different member of the group.  The first one was a post-apocalyptic adventure where a group of villagers have to travel beyond the valley into the greater, scarier world to try to find a cure for a plague killing off their tribe.  The second was set in 1959, with the PC's being a combination of FBI and CIA agents and the staff of a powerful congressman trying to prevent an attack by satanic Nazis on Nikita Kruschev's visit to Disneyland in California (a visit which nearly hap...

I've featured Phil Cho's work on my blog before.  I'm a big fan, and frequently am inspired by his work to create superheroes or villains for my own campaigns. I thought it was only right, and a great way to make a present for my daughter, to commission him to draw her character in our Champions Now campaign.  So, presenting, Dark Matter!

As the days pass at Waterford College, Jackie begins to develop the idea of her heroic identity, "Ultraviolet" and how she might use it to further her own agenda.  But before that can get too far, Professor Richter introduces a guest to the Guided Studies class: a supervillain named the White Flame.  The White Flame is part of Raven, an elitist group of European nobility committed to reestablishing monarchies throughout the continent "since it appears democratic rule as failed."  Richter explains that while most of the students already are affiliated with supervillain organizations, part of the what the Guided Studies program does is help young supervillains build networks with other factions.  As such, the students will be proving themselves to the While Flame by stealing the most impressive object they can find within 24 hours. The White Flame, art by Phil Cho Jackie is surprised when she is approached after class by her old classmate/rival Bronze Behemoth, ...

My daughter and I played our fourth session of the solo Champions Now campaign set in my daughter's "Dark Matter Universe" featuring the novice super-villain/unwilling superhero Dark Matter.  In the last session Dark Matter had ended up fighting alongside local superhero to fight a monster threatening her college campus.  In the process, she's being touted as a new superhero in the community. In this session, Jackie (Dark Matter's secret identity) finds herself being asked out on a date by fellow supervillain-in-training Joseph Kane, aka Ronin.  Later Kane calls to say he hasn't seen his roommate, another supervillain called The Face.  Jackie, who has always had a bit of a soft spot for The Face, scours the campus, eventually finding him in conversation with two mysterious figures who are clearly bullying him into being part of a job. Ronin, by Phil Cho After doing some research and talking to some other people, Jackie finds out that The Face is p...

Between the last gaming session of Champions Now with my daughter and this one, she hatched a pretty inventive plan to help Dark Matter out of her mistaken identity problem.  Because the mysterious attacker on Waterford College's campus had similar powers to a character from her graphic novel, a young man named Plague, she decided to ask that character (as basically an NPC) to help her out. The plan was this: Plague would show up, shoot a video claiming that the attacks on the campus were the work of a rival, and that he had attacked Captain Hollywood in an attempt to hunt down the monster.  Furthermore, he would state he was giving up on the chase and leaving town (hopefully getting Hollywood to stop looking for Dark Matter).  In turn, Dark Matter would continue looking for the monster. Things, however, did not go as planned.  Plague was captured by Captain Hollywood leaving town.  And when Dark Matter freed Plague from UNTIL custody, Captain Hollywood mana...

My one-on-one Champions Now campaign with my daughter had its second adventure.  It began with her PC, Jackie "Dark Matter" Lee having the usual college experience: suffering through boring classes with her frenemy Ashley "Dark Elf" Mason, awkwardly talking to a boy she likes (Ben "the Face" Rodriguez), and fending off the unwanted advances of another supervillain classmate (Joseph "Ronin" Kane). But all the teen drama is interrupted when several students at Waterford College are found suffering from a mysterious malady that leaves them weak and sickly.  Jackie suspects her friend Plaque from her old school, but discovers a strange, tentacled monster is stalking the campus instead.  Unfortunately Jackie, in her Dark Matter costume, is spotted near one of the victims by Captain Hollywood, a minor local superhero.  Now she is a prime suspect in the attacks and dangerously close to having the Guided Studies program exposed. Captain Hollywood, ...