Saturday, 25 November 2017
Slight Blog Changes
Just making a visual change or two. Mostly removing the background (until I can find or make are more suitable one) and altering a few colours. Slow start, but its a start.
Fun With Gremlins
So there are times when I get some energy and a burst of inspiration, during which I've slowly got work done on my Gremlin conversions. As a reminder, these pics are not the best as I am still working out the set-up for photo shoots and these were just quick shots anyway.
First off, I recently updated the Dimitri Benois page with the started conversion, but I'll throw up the shot just for this post. Still lots of work to do green stuff wise, but that will be for another time.
Also mentioned in said article was the Boozer character of Maurice. Well, work has started on him, using a Hog Whisperer model as the base and head, with the fist arms from a Bayou Gremlin I had (honestly, I rarely use more then one or two, so I could spare a model for use). I am mixing and matching parts of the two models, with the Banjonista hat to round him off. Still some wire (I use as rope) and green stuff work to go, but liking him so far.
Of Course, the Hog Whisperer comes with a Piglet model and after going over all my Gremlin books from the RPG game, I felt like one would make a good companion for Maurice. I'd imagine him getting one as a prize or reward and at first thinking about making it into a meal, before it got into his booze and got drunk. Finding it hilarious, Maurice would keep it, call her Wilma and she would not only carry his brewing materials, but be his drinking partner (most likely leading to some humorous moments, but probably also causing some trouble too). An Empire bottle and two of a three pack Space Marine pouch was also used (the third pouch is on Maurice) with a sort of green stuff pack saddle.
Finally, having looked over the Broken Promises upgrades for Jacob Lynch in which if you kill an opponent who has the Brilliance condition (within a short range of Jacob or Hungering Darkness), you can discard two cards to summon a The Depleted model (who takes damage and gets the Slow condition) where the enemy was. Given I usually play Gremlins and that I had some Gremlin parts and Illuminated/Depleted parts left over, I decided to convert a simple Gremlin Depleted (tentacle arms). Not overly great (a chance to repaint its crappy paint job though), but it's silly and I love it.
Also, as a side note, I am working on both Big Jake for my Outcasts and the female Thalarian Queller for The Wild Ones crew (her look just seems to match the theme I'm going for) along with these miniatures.
First off, I recently updated the Dimitri Benois page with the started conversion, but I'll throw up the shot just for this post. Still lots of work to do green stuff wise, but that will be for another time.
Also mentioned in said article was the Boozer character of Maurice. Well, work has started on him, using a Hog Whisperer model as the base and head, with the fist arms from a Bayou Gremlin I had (honestly, I rarely use more then one or two, so I could spare a model for use). I am mixing and matching parts of the two models, with the Banjonista hat to round him off. Still some wire (I use as rope) and green stuff work to go, but liking him so far.
Of Course, the Hog Whisperer comes with a Piglet model and after going over all my Gremlin books from the RPG game, I felt like one would make a good companion for Maurice. I'd imagine him getting one as a prize or reward and at first thinking about making it into a meal, before it got into his booze and got drunk. Finding it hilarious, Maurice would keep it, call her Wilma and she would not only carry his brewing materials, but be his drinking partner (most likely leading to some humorous moments, but probably also causing some trouble too). An Empire bottle and two of a three pack Space Marine pouch was also used (the third pouch is on Maurice) with a sort of green stuff pack saddle.
Finally, having looked over the Broken Promises upgrades for Jacob Lynch in which if you kill an opponent who has the Brilliance condition (within a short range of Jacob or Hungering Darkness), you can discard two cards to summon a The Depleted model (who takes damage and gets the Slow condition) where the enemy was. Given I usually play Gremlins and that I had some Gremlin parts and Illuminated/Depleted parts left over, I decided to convert a simple Gremlin Depleted (tentacle arms). Not overly great (a chance to repaint its crappy paint job though), but it's silly and I love it.
Also, as a side note, I am working on both Big Jake for my Outcasts and the female Thalarian Queller for The Wild Ones crew (her look just seems to match the theme I'm going for) along with these miniatures.
Election Day.....Hooray?
Queensland election day and the one thing I've learned is that the real issue is that we need a referendum on opening the voting booths from 8am to 7am. Seriously, some of the people you have to stand next too in the waiting cue makes me wonder just what the hell am I doing there.
Sorry, lack of sleep and the depression hitting back with a vengeance is really kicking me down. With luck my next few posts will have a more positive spin to them.
Sorry, lack of sleep and the depression hitting back with a vengeance is really kicking me down. With luck my next few posts will have a more positive spin to them.
Friday, 17 November 2017
Collecting the Classics
While I'm still struggling at the moment, it's always nice to get a few positive things. Today I got a few classic movies from my own youth. Cheap yes, but still good. My only complaint was just how difficult it is to find a copy of Young Einstein in Australia. An Australian classic and it's almost impossible to find, unless you have US iTunes (go figure). I get the feeling that it is getting harder to find Australian made movies and shows unless you live in America and I would love to know why (my guess it that it probably has something to to with company control and distribution rights).
Thursday, 16 November 2017
Could a One Player Miniatures Game Work?
So here was one I stumbled onto just recently, a discussion among miniature wargamers as to whether or not a one player miniatures game could work. After thinking about this (when I could think anyway), I do believe it could indeed work and the reason I feel this comes down to one game. That game is Games-Workshop's own Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower/Shadows Over Hammerhal. Let me explain.
From the games I've seen played with it, each quest has a set of rooms that a randomly generated through flipping cards and that rolls determine what event/encounter takes place. This works perfectly for a single-player game, a randomly generated style adventure, featuring enemies, encounters, allies and treasures. The tiles/rooms that get used is a perfect example of how to make the random style dungeon work, as they are all different and some have multiple doors, allowing for more options.
I imagine a set of miniatures that a player could pick from that appeals to them, before picking a class from a collection of options. This way, a player can play a mini they like, while playing them in a class style they like. From here, each class has a small deck of skills they can earn through doing missions and earn special items from treasures collected. The treasures would perhaps be one use items (either one use only or one game only), so as to ensure the player isn't too over powered, but also have extra rules to help ramp up the difficulty if the player felt they were having it too easy. Of course, there are plenty of options for expansions, but also co-op and multiplayer (as an option should players want too or as an add-on if the game got popular enough).
With a general rule set and various options, it could work regardless of the setting. The world could just be humans, a fantasy one with creatures like Elves and Dwarfs, a sci-fi one with aliens and mutants or even a world of anthropomorphic animals or mechanical objects. If you think about it, depending on the franchise, you could set up two types of games. If you were to take a single franchise (so let's say, Dr Who for example), then you could run with a scenery style game (games like the DC/Marvel ones for example) or go with a Shadespire like one which uses two boards and you just move them about to alter the grid. You could have the starters set and add additional miniatures and rules in expansions. On the other hand, if you had various movable game tiles to create random playing fields, you could take a multi-franchise option (so let's say Disney as the example) with an initial starters game and multiple miniature releases like Heroes and Villians from their various franchises.
So is there a market for this type of game? Well, yes. I could certainly see myself and many others playing such a thing. My only concern is more about things like the marketing and demographic. See, as mentioned above, I used a Games-Workshop product. Games-Workshop is a big company and they have both lore and other games to back it up. Take their Shadespire game. I've seen it played and it doesn't really grab me, but it's miniatures look nice (the Skeleton ones look particularly great) and they have rules to be used in Age of Sigmar. As such, it doesn't matter too much if it doesn't really take off as they will still sell based on the miniatures and their compatibility with their other game. However, most other companies or even a kickstarter may have some trouble promoting it and getting it out to those who would be interested. It would also have to have some nice looking miniatures (to help sell it to players who like to paint or those who want to convert, plus they might play it and enjoy it too), but also make it affordable enough, as this is a one player game first and doesn't have the kind of expansive options that other games have, like events and tournaments (as in, justifying the spending of money in a large miniature gaming marketplace). One could expand their game and lore into these areas, but the original game still needs to succeed for this to work.
That said, depending on the games look/feel, I do believe that there is a market for such a game and if you can reach such a product to those players, then it could work.
From the games I've seen played with it, each quest has a set of rooms that a randomly generated through flipping cards and that rolls determine what event/encounter takes place. This works perfectly for a single-player game, a randomly generated style adventure, featuring enemies, encounters, allies and treasures. The tiles/rooms that get used is a perfect example of how to make the random style dungeon work, as they are all different and some have multiple doors, allowing for more options.
I imagine a set of miniatures that a player could pick from that appeals to them, before picking a class from a collection of options. This way, a player can play a mini they like, while playing them in a class style they like. From here, each class has a small deck of skills they can earn through doing missions and earn special items from treasures collected. The treasures would perhaps be one use items (either one use only or one game only), so as to ensure the player isn't too over powered, but also have extra rules to help ramp up the difficulty if the player felt they were having it too easy. Of course, there are plenty of options for expansions, but also co-op and multiplayer (as an option should players want too or as an add-on if the game got popular enough).
With a general rule set and various options, it could work regardless of the setting. The world could just be humans, a fantasy one with creatures like Elves and Dwarfs, a sci-fi one with aliens and mutants or even a world of anthropomorphic animals or mechanical objects. If you think about it, depending on the franchise, you could set up two types of games. If you were to take a single franchise (so let's say, Dr Who for example), then you could run with a scenery style game (games like the DC/Marvel ones for example) or go with a Shadespire like one which uses two boards and you just move them about to alter the grid. You could have the starters set and add additional miniatures and rules in expansions. On the other hand, if you had various movable game tiles to create random playing fields, you could take a multi-franchise option (so let's say Disney as the example) with an initial starters game and multiple miniature releases like Heroes and Villians from their various franchises.
So is there a market for this type of game? Well, yes. I could certainly see myself and many others playing such a thing. My only concern is more about things like the marketing and demographic. See, as mentioned above, I used a Games-Workshop product. Games-Workshop is a big company and they have both lore and other games to back it up. Take their Shadespire game. I've seen it played and it doesn't really grab me, but it's miniatures look nice (the Skeleton ones look particularly great) and they have rules to be used in Age of Sigmar. As such, it doesn't matter too much if it doesn't really take off as they will still sell based on the miniatures and their compatibility with their other game. However, most other companies or even a kickstarter may have some trouble promoting it and getting it out to those who would be interested. It would also have to have some nice looking miniatures (to help sell it to players who like to paint or those who want to convert, plus they might play it and enjoy it too), but also make it affordable enough, as this is a one player game first and doesn't have the kind of expansive options that other games have, like events and tournaments (as in, justifying the spending of money in a large miniature gaming marketplace). One could expand their game and lore into these areas, but the original game still needs to succeed for this to work.
That said, depending on the games look/feel, I do believe that there is a market for such a game and if you can reach such a product to those players, then it could work.
The Joy of New Medication (Updated)
AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
My body can't stay still, my mind is racing at a million miles an hour and there are times where I feel like I can't seem to control myself.
Give a week or two and things should be back to where they were (I am so on edge right now). That's the problem with changing over to a new medication for depression/anxiety, it can take a few weeks for the body to adjust. Until then, you just do what you can (there are a number of things, whether they work is still up for debate) to try and not loose it & let the emotions take over.
Update 26/11/2017:
Nope, the side effects may have calm down but the depression and anxiety are back to their irritating levels. Until I can get a grip on all this (and a few other problems that have left me in limbo at the moment and don't forget the heat), most of my projects will be put on hold. Hell, I haven't even done an Animated Reflection in a while and that just makes me more disappointed with myself. That doesn't mean I won't be working on things (see more recent posts), but it means things will probably be here and there for a while.
My body can't stay still, my mind is racing at a million miles an hour and there are times where I feel like I can't seem to control myself.
Give a week or two and things should be back to where they were (I am so on edge right now). That's the problem with changing over to a new medication for depression/anxiety, it can take a few weeks for the body to adjust. Until then, you just do what you can (there are a number of things, whether they work is still up for debate) to try and not loose it & let the emotions take over.
Update 26/11/2017:
Nope, the side effects may have calm down but the depression and anxiety are back to their irritating levels. Until I can get a grip on all this (and a few other problems that have left me in limbo at the moment and don't forget the heat), most of my projects will be put on hold. Hell, I haven't even done an Animated Reflection in a while and that just makes me more disappointed with myself. That doesn't mean I won't be working on things (see more recent posts), but it means things will probably be here and there for a while.
Wednesday, 15 November 2017
A Great Day for Australia
Today has been a great day for Australia. The morning was filled with celebration as the marriage equality survey came back as a Yes result, moving us one step closer to getting it legalised (the footage of Penny Wong's reaction to the results and how the non-Labor senators supported her made even me emotional) and tonight was the sounds of celebration as the Socceroos won 3-1 to get us into the World Cup in Russia (I watched the second half and it was wonderful to feel the excitement). I admit I'm not a sports person, but things with big stakes sometimes get my attention (the last time I watched a sport game was the final of the Asian Cup, which we won).
Good times.
Good times.
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