Goodbye 2023... You will not be missed... mostly

All in all 2023 was a pretty fucked up year but there were a few highlights for me.

My Collection

I added a few RPG things to my collection this year including:

• Caravans (Al Qadim) - One of the missing campaign box sets for my favourite D&D setting and getting rarer as every day passes.
  
  
• Citi-Block Floorplans for Judge Dredd - Completing my Games Workshop Judge Dredd collection has been a long awaited event.  Now Sector 55 can grow upwards.
  
  
• Flotsam: Adrift amongst the stars - A little indie RPG by Joshua Fox which has quite a cool refugees in space vibe going on.
  
  
• Cairn RPG - An interesting mini RPG which should be perfect for those inbetween sessions when the regular DM can't make it.  I also picked up the Cairn Bestiary to populate the forest with some pretty cool old school monsters.
  
  
• The White Box RPG - An OSR inspired mini RPG which looks like it might be a great first introduction to OSR roleplay.  
  
  
• Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master - I've been a long time follower of Professor Dungeon Master who highly recommended this tome of DMing Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks.
  
  
• Cthulhu's Vault - Not an RPG per se but a story telling card game of two halves where one player gets to become an Elder God and fight the other players to the death.  A lot of fun. 
  

Kickstarters Backed in 2023

• Ultracryl Paints - I just liked the look of these paints and  wanted to check out the ultra pigmented neon colours. 
  
  
• Tiny Epic Cthulhu - I have been a big fan of the Tiny Epic series of games since I first played Tiny Epic Galaxies back in the day.  I backed this without hesitation as there is definitely a space in life for another 

Movies I Enjoyed

Whilst Hollywood imploded upon itself this year, I got to see a few absolute gems: 

• The Dungeons & Dragons movie was a pretty good experience all round and whilst it is a shame that it didn't do more business than it did, I firmly expect this to be granted cult status and have a long life on streaming sites.
  
  
• Sisu - A goldminer makes a big score in Lapland and all he has to do is get from the mine to the bank in one piece.  In his way are a bunch of Nazis who are hellbent on capturing his horde.  Bloody good fun if you like a Tarantino style revenge movie or are a fan of Scandinavian movies.  Axsel Hennie doesn't dissapoint as the evil SS captain 
  
  
• Renfield - Who could pass up the combination of Nick Cage and Nicholas Hoult.  A popcorn movie which sheds a new light on Dracula and his man servant.
  
  
• Blood and Gold - If you enjoyed Sisu then you will love Blood and Gold which has a similar premise.
  
  
• They Cloned Tyrone - John Boyega stars in this made for Netflix sci-fi movie.  Done in the best possible low budget blackploitation style it's a really good story with an epic twist.  I really hope to see a sequel.
  
  
• Day Shift - Jamie Foxx lives a double life as a gardner come vampire hunter in modern day LA.  Good fun and a welcome antidote to the likes of The Walking Dead.
  
  
• Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child of Fire - I'm not a Zack Snyder fanboy but I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi version of The Seven Samurai.  Very watchable and I can't wait for part two where hopefully the world building will continue and we will get much more of Jimmy the robot.
  
  
• Glorious - If you enjoy strange tales of with strange premise you will love Glorious.  Effectively a one room play if your room is an out of the way roadside rest stop with a glory hole.  Full of twists and turns and epic bait and switch, so don't be afraid, watch it today.
  

Games I Played at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club

2023 saw the club continue to grow with a steady influx of new players and our future is looking very secure indeed.

• The Rivenlands - 2023 saw the culmination of this homebrew D&D 5e campaign which was an epic adventure for all.  The fun will resume in part 2 where we descend into Hell to retrieve our fallen comrade Derek.
  
  
• Delta Green - I haven't played this modern interpretation of Cthulhu in years and Mark did not dissappoint.  Some weird AF, X-Files inspired alien shenanigans occurred and I set the club record for having two characters die in the same session!!
  
  
• Where the Monsters Come From - A change of pace was in order as I joined our younger roleplayers band of misfits as Freddo the Frogling. Whilst we have not yet completed our epic quest to prevent the Arch mage from destroying everything to summon his demonic master, it has been a riot. 

Sadly I was unable to attend the Manic Tournament this year but well done to Josh who picked up the trophy.

The Nadir of RPG

As I get older I get more and more immune to being triggered by the manufactured "panic" which seems to be the currency of social media.  However, even I could not ignore some events.

The OSR Scandal which consumed social media in early 2023 until WotC realised they had just alienated their audience of both players and publishers. The jury is still out on whether WotC are going to see a resurgence in good fortune when they release the next edition of D&D and players buy into the new online experience.  I have it on good authority that the VTT is very IRL play inspired but as I do all my play IRL can I be bothered to subscribe to play the new version of D&D when 5e works well enough?  

I'm old enough to have gone through a few edition wars in my lifetime and know that whatever happens I will still be able to play great fantasy roleplaying games.

The Hasbro Lay-offs left a sour taste in the mouth with just 2 weeks to go before Christmas but I am sure that the talent will rise to the top and we will see a raft of new RPG projects and imprints as a result.

New Years Hobby Resolutions 2022

It's that futile thing we all do around this time of the year.  Some people might say that this only counts if you make your resolutions on January 1st but I say stuff that I had a 3D Printing hangover...

Blog More

I am in lock down until the Prime Minister says otherwise so this gives me ample opportunity to get ahead in the blogging stakes.  My goal is to brain dump at least one article a day and schedule the posts ahead of time.  

The name of the game is short and sweet with lengthier articles in between.  This is harder than it looks though so don't hold me to it.   

Play More

My List of Games I need to play in 2022

• Block Mania - One of my Games Workshop Bookcase Games and a Judge Dredd one at that.  Do I wait until I have the 4 player expansion Mega Mania? or do I just bite the bullet and try before I buy?
  
  
• Rogue Trooper - Another Games Workshop Bookcase Game which has never been played and really should.
  
  
• Dune - Another bookcase format game this time from Avalon Hill, with the re-imagined version launched to coincide with the Dennis Villeneuve 2021 movie release prices for punched but unplayed copy have plummeted to below the price of a new version so I should really work out if this is something I want to hang on to as I don't have the valuable version with Sting on the cover.

 

• Jaws - A gift from my old work colleagues which desperately needs to be played.
   
  
• Mow - A stupid little card game I picked up in a charity shop last year.  The box goes Moo and it's by Bruno Cathala (Shadows over Camelot, Cleopatra & The Society of Architects, 7 Wonders Duel)
  
  
• Shuggy Hall Brawl - A print and play game from the pages of Warlock Magazine back in the 80s which I am currently making a 3D version of.  This will require some 3D modelling work and I ought to learn how to use FreeCAD.
  

Print More

There's no point in having a 3D Printer if you don't use it.  Plus Jessie's Prints is always in need of new content so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  Here are some grail prints which I really should try and get done in 2022.

• Aliens Pulse Rifle (Thingiverse 2334265) - A truly iconic weapon from the Aliens franchise and one that needs to be on my prop wall. Wait a minute I don't have a prop wall.  Well that needs fixing.  I don't think I will go the whole hog of adding lights and sound but you never know...
  
  
• Judge Dredd Killdozer (Thingiverse 3840028) - An absolute must addition to my 15mm Judge Dredd Vehicle Fleet and a great objective or background prop for my RPG Campaigns.
  
  
• ABC Warrior Bust (Thingiverse 2568026) - Stallone Dredd rarely gets any love, but the set dressing and special effects were awesome.  I refuse to call this Hammerstein but it's a pretty iconic robot which would look fantastic on one of my floorstanding speakers.  The eyes must light up of course and it would be a good starting point for an arduino sound / IR remote project.  I promise not to use it in anger and especially not to kill off Ian Dury's character.
  
  
• 15mm Blank People (Thingiverse 1695396) - My 15mm boingers were a great start but they were let down by my pathetic sculpting skills.  What better way to learn mesh mixer than by reposing these blanks and printing them.  I could also do with some fatter fatties if you know what I mean. 

I think that's enough to be going on with right now.  If you have any suggestions of games I ought to play or things I ought to print, you know what the comments box is for.

2012 in Review and Some New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year to one and all. 

It's been a while since my last post here and I'd love to say it's because I've been busy creating new and interesting stuff or that my personal life has been one hectic social engagement after another, but I can't.  So in the spirit of New Year I intend to make some changes round here, but first we need to review 2012.

This Blog

Got 26,636 page views from 15,141 visits with the most popular content being:

1. Fantastic Locations: Mega City One (1495pv)
2. RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Dungeon Maps (1479pv)
3. Links to Free RPG Stuff (1096pv)
4. RPG Mapping Tools Part 2 - Battle Maps (1068)
5. I'm a Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (887pv)
6. Minions: My OSR take on the One-Hit Wonder (841pv)
7. A-Z of UK RPG in the 80s - D is for Dungeon Floors (725pv)
8. RPG Mapping Tools Part 4 - Planet and Star Maps (725pv)
9. Papercraft Gaming: Sci-Fi Vehicles and Terrain (639pv)
10. A Fresh-ish look at Goblins (637pv)

In 2012 I wrote a total of 45 posts (which is pitiful really), and half that of 2011.  Some of this I put down to the shift in my viewing/posting habits from blogs to Google+, but to be honest I've just been so distracted.  New Years Resolution #1  is to go back to Writing at least 2 posts a week.

Roleplay Geek Publishing 

I managed to publish only 1 additional product this year, bringing the catalogue to a total of 8 products.  In order of popularity these are:

• Item Cards Set 0: Free Sample - 135 downloads   
• Paper Minis - Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers - 87 downloads  
• Item Cards Set 2: Potions - 18 downloads   
• Sci-Fi Scenics - Set 1 - Hover Taxi and Hover Car - 18 downloads   
• Item Cards Set 1: Adventurer's Gear - 17  downloads
• Item Cards Set 3: Animals - 14  downloads
• GM Aids Set 1: Decision Deck - 10  downloads
• Paper Minis - Set 1: Animals - 7  downloads

Therefore New Years Resolution #2 is to get some of the things I've been working on out of the pending tray and into the catalogue.
 
Google+

Has become one of the most important sources of gamer news for me over the last 12 months and I see this continuing for the forseeable future.  The addition of communities has also seen an explosion of new contacts in the last few months and has resulted my eye being off the blogosphere.  New Years Resolution #3 is therefore to get my digital channels into some sort of order. 

Gaming Highlights

This years Dragonmeet was my only convention, and I've never seen it so busy.  I don't know if this marks a resurgence in interest in RPGs in the UK or as a reaction to the current economic slowdown, but you could barely move in the tradehalls.  It did give me the chance to play Fiasco for the first time and I absolutely loved it, rushing straight down to the trade hall to snap up my copy.  A big thanks to Fiasco's designer Jason Morningstar and the rest of the Google+ Fiasco community for making this my RPG of the year. 

I first saw Fiasco on Wil Wheaton's excellent boardgaming web TV show Tabletop which has become de rigueur viewing over the last 12 months.  If you like boardgames and haven't seen the show, you're missing out.  If there are any Game Publisher's listening, you need to help Wil and the Geek & Sundry Team to get this show renewed for another season.  I know it's responsible for me buying and recommending featured games as a result of watching.

Happy New Year and 2012 Resolutions

Happy New Year to all of you out there in RPG Blogging land, especially to those members of the RPGBN and RPGBA who have been along for the ride over the past 12 months.

RPG Resolutions for 2012

1.  Be a Player and not a GM - In 2011 I spent most of my time (33 weekly sessions) GMing my C&C campaign which took up most of my freetime.  I don't know how other bloggers manage to fit two or three campaigns into a year, but one was enough for me.  Playing games rather than running means that I have more time to put thoughts onto paper (or screen) and develop ideas for future games.  I suspect that I'm no different to a lot of other gamers in this respect, I need a playing sabbatical in order to recharge my batteries.

2.  Read More and Play Apps less - I have been seduced by a number of really cool app games over the last year which have taken over my daily commute and turned me into an iOS zombie.  I used to read on the train but now I can be found playing drawrace or some other equally addictive timewaster.  I have a huge stack of books beside my bed which I really ought to get through.

3.  Re-skin the blog - Although this blog is cool it looks pretty scruffy and amateurish in comparison to other blogs, my day job is in the web so it's actually quite embarrassing at the same time that I've not done anything about the CSS or branding on the site at all.  This year I hope to smarten things up.

4.  Publish more - becoming a self publisher has been a blast so far and I have a number of projects which are in several stages of completion.  This year I really must pull my finger out and get them published.

2011 in Review

2012 is almost upon us and its time to set some goals, but first I have to review 2011.

2011 Resolutions Progress

Last year saw me start blogging in earnest and for the first time in ages I made some New Year Resolutions:


1.  Take More Notes (5/10) - I'm counting this as a partial success.  I created the Lands of Dual website to act as a repository for session reports and to store all my campaign notes and maps.  I also began using record cards to take notes, but still relied far too heavily on players notes than I would have liked.  This became particularly troublesome when calculating the XP earned by individual PCs so I must come up with a better solution.

2.  Weekly Blog Series (5/10) - Another partial success as I managed to create two of the weekly blog series ideas I spoke of in my original resolutions article.  Unfortunately they petered out within a few articles.

• Monday Motivations - was an attempt to compile a list of mini-backgrounds for fantasy characters along class lines.  I managed to write 12 articles before the juices ran dry.  There's plenty of life left in this series though and I did promise to publish it as a collected series which will clearly need to be expanded upon.
  
  
• Citymorphs - Following in the footsteps of the Geomorphing community I successfully created 29 citymorph tiles over the course of 7 articles.   In retrospect I should probably have reduced the number of morphs per article and eked it out over more posts as the pressure to create 4 morphs per week quickly exhausted my creative juices.  However, I did manage to get them added to Dave's Mapper so you can play with them to your heart's content. 
  
  The focus for Geomorphs seemed to shift towards the Dungeonmorph Dice project founded by Joe "Inkwell Ideas" Wetzel but there were casualties along the way and the inspirational Dyson Logos has apparently gone off line for the forseeable future.
  
  I liked the concept a lot and as my attention drifts away from Fantasy (in the form of my current OSR clone Castles and Crusades) towards Sci-Fi (namely Judge Dredd) I think there are options for this in the future.

This was not theend of the story and a couple of other series ideas sprang forth.

• A to Z of 80s UK RPG - Was an attempt at nostalgically recording my gaming inspirations but stuttered at "I is for ....".  I intend to continue this series as I have written further articles along the line which have yet to see the light of day and it would be a shame to end it after only 8 articles.
   
• Mapping Tools - Was a little 4 part series investigating the state of free cross platform mapping solutions at different scales.  I enjoyed making this series and it led to the discovery of the sweet little tool TILED which I have now used on a number of occasions to construct classic blue style dungeon maps such as The Ruined Tower of The Archmage.

3.  Blog in Advance (3/10) - I have come to the conclusion that scheduled blogging really only works if you have an ongoing series combined with enough inspiration to easily create articles for it in advance.  This lack of inspiration has really been my issue and I don't want to end up with quality suffering for the sake of quantity.

Other Achievements in 2011

Blog Performance

2011 has seen Roleplay-Geek hit the 20,000 pageviews mark (woot) and I've written 96 articles.  I've even tried mobile blogging with limited success, if anyone has any suggestions for free iOS apps for mobile let me know in the usual way. 

 The top 5 articles of the year (by pageviews) are:

1. Minions My OSR take on the one hit wonder (697pv) - High interest in this article probably due to being picked up in Tracy Hurley's Festival of Lights article on the official D&D website.  I must namedrop 4e concepts a bit more...
   
2. Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 1 - The Design (193pv) - Where I set out the design to produce a cheap as chips and, more importantly, a useable 3D dungeon set.
    
3. Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 2 - The Build (189pv) - Building the rooms with foamcore.
   
4. RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Battle Maps (183pv) - Part one of my 4 part series exploring free cross platform mapping tools.
   
5. UPDATE: RPG Google mapping with MAPLib (159pv) - An update to my article on using MAPLib for your campaign map needs.

Top referrers are of course RPG Bloggers Network  and RPG Blog Alliance, thanks for all the visits guys.

Roleplay Geek Publishing

In April I became an RPG publisher and over the course of the year managed to create a total of 7 products which are currently available for download on RPG Now.  All the advice I gleaned from the various blogs I read forewarned me that this wasn't going to make me a millionaire, but I have enjoyed the experience so far and have been pleasantly surprised with the results so far.

Item	TOTAL SALES	TOTAL EARNINGS
Item Cards - Adventurer's Gear	57	$ 36.68
Item Cards - Potions	44	$ 26.18
Item Cards - Animals	32	$ 18.48
Paper Minis - Animals	28	$ 18.90
GM Aids - Decision Deck	18	$ 25.20
Item Cards - Free Sampler	391	$ 0.00
Paper Minis - Free Fungaloid Lurkers & Brain Vine	130	$ 0.00
Grand Totals	627	$ 124.44

RPG Now is a fantastic way to publish but consequently there are some 15,436 products available to download and standing out from the crowd is extremely difficult. Most of my sales occurred soon after products were added to RPG Now and so featured in the Latest Products list and I haven't worked out a marketing strategy yet.

PDF pricing seems to be a bit hit and miss, Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor recently wrote a neat article revealing his thoughts and research into pricing his own products.  It doesn't seem to be any easier for the DIY print publisher either, Chris Tregenza has started a new thread on his blog detailing his progress towards making a profit for the 6d6 RPG and I will be watching this with interest.

My philosophy with my PDFs is that I'm producing them for my own games anyway, so the personal effort involved isn't factored into the profit equation.  I'm under no illusion that I'm going to become rich as a result, but if I can gather up a few dollars along the way to buy the odd bit of swag then it's a success.

Miniature Painting

I returned to miniature painting and finally completed my Harlequin Giant Forest Troll and am part way through painting a Ral Partha Djinn and Efreet.  As I get older I have begun to have issues with painting under electric light (or it could be those god awful compact fluorescent bulbs we now have to use) so this restricts the time when I can comfortably paint to a small window on a Saturday morning.  I have a stack of minis which need a bit of colour so I need to ramp up production in 2012.


All in all a mixed year, stay tuned for the New Year Resolutions post.

Happy New Year and Roleplaying Resolutions for 2011

Happy New Year to you all.

And, as sure as eggs follow bacon, the time has come to make some New Year Roleplay Resolutions:

1. Take more notes - Over the last few years, with respect to note taking, I have become just plain lazy and has often resulted in me taking a back seat in games as a player when I should be taking the lead. When DMing, I've been relying on my player's memories and notes way too much and I need to start driving the scenario rather than it driving me. This has got to stop!! My new campaign starts in a week's time and I want to start writting session resports again.  I find they invaluable in helping me record the improvised detail I generate in-game that you don't get during normal worldbuilding activities.  If I don't record it, type it up and publish it on the campaign website, it will be lost forever.

2. Build a weekly blog series - Frankly I'm jealous of the likes of Dyson Logos: Geomorphs and Land of Nod: Deviant Friday and thought it was about time I created a weekly(ish) series which might possibly be gathered together into some sort of publication perhaps.  Ideas so far are:

• Monday Motivations: Inspired by the excellent Campaign Mastery: Character Hooks, this series of articles gives some suggestions for PC Background Motivations, why does a PC become an "adventurer" or embark on a "career class" in the first place?
  
  
• Tuesday Trailer: I get a lot of my inspiration from movies and TV although I rarely lift a plot from a movie.  It might just be a single object or a character or it may even be something as intangible as the art direction which gets the creative juices going and I want to share that with you all.
  
  
• Dramatis Pictura: I hate reading NPC descriptions which don't have a character portrait to go along with them, in fact I find it hard to visualise a fully rounded character without one.  Shouldn't be too hard to find some good NPC portraits in deviant art
  
  
• Serious Locations: On my travels round the interweb I stumble across some amazing photographs many of which inspire RPG locations.
  
• City Geomorphs: There's enough folks doing dungeon geomorphs to last me a lifetime and most of my adventures take place in urban environments so I'm going to take a crack at cities.

3. Blog in advance more regularly - At the moment I blog when I have an idea it's a cause and effect relationship.  I'd like to get in the habit of writing in advance and maybe even set articles to publish on a time delay.

Anyway, I think that's enough to be getting on with, if you have any preferences for series ideas let me know.