New Year Promise to Myself: Chill and be Kind to Yourself

Note to self: 

I am going to forget or rather ban the terrible word "project", certainly with respect to everything that is related to my hobby. Two years of lock-down has seen me make such an overuse of this simple word. I am also going to forget the concept of timescales and deadlines for "hobby stuff" I was planning for this year (too formal by far). 

Things will either happen or not. If they are fun they will definitely happen, and they will happen all the more sooner because of how "fun" they are ;)  

If I remember correctly my hobby is there first and foremost there for fun and relaxation, or rather it is a catalyst for generating many fun experiences - with me, my family and my friends. I am therefore going to concentrate on things that help generate fun for me, my friends and most of all my family. 

For example Dungeons and Dragons in lock-down has been a blast. 

Re-fighting Ramillies was a blast.

Re-fighting Waterloo was blast.

Reading about the WWII early war Western Desert Force was a blast (all new to me).

Reading about the ACW (from Paddy Griffith's perspective) was a blast.  

The Netflix "Don't Look Up" film was a really big blast and made me laugh. 

Also the world needs more games of "Exploding Kittens".

Feeling guilty over looking at a big, bad, pile of lead; thinking to myself "Have I bought the right stuff?" was 'not fun' and in the end is just plain silly, as it is all the "right stuff" .. there is no "wrong stuff" in this hobby (scale, period or rules) - just stuff people chose to spend their time on :) 

If it all came to pass that the hobby journey was without generating fun "all along the way", then there would be no point taking the first step along the path and doing it in the first place. Enjoy the little things all along the way :) 

PS: Fun does not mean winning; "winning" is a rather random concept in the first place.

Fun does mean getting completely lost in the narrative of the game, rather than any sort of worry of "am I doing it right?" Making sure the game works!

 

Best wishes to everyone in 2022!

May your paint flow freely and your dice bounce untidily in a truly random fashion - enjoy it all the more for it ;)

Now if you can excuse me, I have to understand why these "Babies are attacking Bears" (See below, is this really a 'family game' my responsible wife bought to play with the children?):  

To be continued ... with fun ;) 

Beware the Wrath of the Elder Gods (Call of the Cthulhu)

When friends turn up at the door for a quiet "board game" night i was slightly taken aback with the "quantity of bags" they had brought. Their explanation, a kick-starter, stretch goals and multiple add-on kick-starters (see below, a big box of tricks):

The "world" but not as we know it (see below, Earth - divided up into pieces for the Elder Gods):

The ultimate goal - summon an Elder Gppd and vanquish all (see below, I ended up playing Green [The Great Cluthlu himself]):

Starting positions with only small minions, "Gates" and acolytes present - soon bigger monsters appeared and battles ensued (see below, I went "nuclear" first and burned power points to summon an Elder God):

Each faction had its own special abilities, fights differently and has plenty surprises up their sleeves which leads to a very entertaining and suspense filled game (see below, it had a strange feel of "mad" RISK):

I had the satisfaction of my Big Green eating a not-so-big Red Monster (see below, I was itching to see these resin figures painted):

Soon though I was backing away from a gang of "Blue Fiends" - whose speciality was to bring "other monsters from other regions" into the fight and abduct your monsters from participating in the fight (see below, the "Blue Elder God" was as strong as the magic capacity of both players in the fight - which meant he was going to do a lot of damage the later the game went on):

I decided to "chew bubblegum and kick-ass" on the slightly (or rather seemingly) less daunting "Fungi Red" monsters - but I soon run out of bubblegum and although I tried to kick-ass I soon ran out of gas. We went head-to-head for several battles [blood and guts everywhere] before breaking it off  (see below, unpronounceable monsters do battle [again]):

Finally my Elder God was slain, but my special ability is to re-spawn cheaply The Great Cthulhu was quickly back in the fray (see below, "Blue" caught me cold, partly by abducting my other monsters who could have soaked up the death and pain for me):

Who won? Certainly not humanity .. the "players" may a corny answer but is close to the truth. It was a great extended play-test. As ever, subsequent closer reading of the charts and rules meant that we learned we should have done certain things slightly differently but in the wider picture we got most things right. I think this one is addictive, particularly as you can play with up to eight factions.

The Lost Mines of Phalinder: 5th Edition D&D

The adventure rolls ever on. Rather than having scraps of paper stuffed into the back of books to be lost down the backs of sofas I kinda wrap everything up in a big roll of paper [£1 from the Pound Store or DIY Store]. That ways I can draw a map and move on chronologically, setting up little vignettes and scribbling things down. At the end of the night I just roll it up (see below, the lower portion of the map details the journey from NeverWinter - past the Goblin Ambush [spoiler alert] and arriving in Phandolin):

The adventures approach the camp-site of an Evil Mage and "bump" into his 'zombie bodyguards". Negotiations (assisted with a PC Charm Spell cast on the Evil Mage) are about to begin (see below, the four adventurers are approaching B, E, S, W which means three zombies each + the spell caster, all depends on an important saving throw):

The "New Guard" (my eldest son and one of his friends) of players were introduced to the "Old Guard" - my old school friends who last played D&D under AD&D First Edition, back in the 1980's. Boy that makes me feel old. The Old Guard were more than prepared or willing for the Young Guard to earn their spurs - as in do all the dangerous stuff ;)