Trek Long Island

For the first time since COVID hit, I'm going to a convention. I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am to be doing this, especially as it's so close. Only for one day, but... I'm excited! Trek Long Island here I come! 

Post-ReaperCon Update

ReaperCon was online this year.

Stupid pandemic...

But it was free! Though the swag wasn't...



I signed up only for a couple of classes since I was a week out from my exam. First up was painting tartans. I'd attempted this once on my own, and... well, it wasn't a failure, but it wasn't a success. The end result of the class was a much more respectable showing than my first attempt. 

 

Following that was shaded metallics. This was an okay class, but I think the one that was the least helpful. A few tips and tricks I'll use going forward, but... eh. On the other hand, this was a mini I had very little interest in before, but he's the one I've actually finished from the weekend. Well, he still needs basing.







Following that was Galaxy Painting! This was a short but very fun class. Lasting only an hour, and using yet another mini I didn't really care about (how many bearded old wizards does anyone need?) I had a ton of fun. Probably not super useful, but sometimes fun is good enough.





Lastly I worked on a mini for myself that fit in with the theme of the con, pirates! Razig's Dark Maiden!



She isn't done yet, but I'm really pleased with her so far.

While virtual ReaperCon Live was fun, I missed seeing my friends, and all the other fun ancillary stuff that comes with it. With luck, next year will again be in person.

World Building Workshop! TONIGHT!

How to Build a Better Empire

To celebrate the re-launch of Steel Victory J.L. Gribble is offering her popular alternate history workshop online for the first time ever!

The workshop will be on Wednesday, July 15 at 7 PM Eastern and features three special guests:

• Jay Whittaker, actor/comedian
• Maria V. Synder, author
• Keith R.A. DeCandido, author

This event is FREE, but you will need to register and claim your ticket.

This presentation is intended for fans and creators alike from all genres and mediums. We’ll explore the different types of alternate history, common tropes in the genre, and what considerations are needed when creating your own. Time will be available at the end of the presentation to ask questions of the special guests.

Happy Towel Day!

Just because we're all dealing with the pandemic, and not really going out, doesn't mean you shouldn't know where your towel is!

Happy Towel Day!

Blogiversary: Double Digits Baby!!

Somehow... I'm 10 years on, and still going!

I'm honestly not sure how this thing keeps rolling along, but it does, and what a long strange trip it's been. When I started this thing, I hadn't played D&D in ages, hadn't played in anything that looked like a long term campaign in even longer, but there was that itch that never went away. The urge to create, to explore weird worlds and fill it up with even weirder things for people to play with. Then I stumbled onto the OSR, to G+, to open tables and flailsnails conventions, to anti-gencons, to now having run several long campaigns, playing in others both online and in person!

I'm still painting and building minis and terrain, but I've moved on from Games Workshop's 40K and Lord of the Rings to Reaper and to Frostgrave.

I've moved on from Star Trek to... wait, no, still into Star Trek. I've just added on Discovery and (soon) Picard and Lower Decks. Okay, yeah, and The Orville too.

And real life has been even stranger!

And in case you're curious about the stats:
2343 Posts
299 Followers
1 really salty reader who didn't like the fact that I said Fuck Trump, but Fuck Trump and fuck him.
Uncounted spam comments

What will the next year... or decade bring? Much more of the same I imagine.

As always, thanks for reading.

Happy Gygax Day!

Today is the feast day of Gygax, and the end of Read an RPG in Public week.



I haven't actually read anything RPG related this week, but I'll be making up for that today.

Free RPG Day and Captain Picard Day!

Get out there and game!




Yes, I know it's tomorrow, but I had to share the video...

Star Trek Discovery Season 2 Red Carpet Premiere

I attended the Star Trek Discovery season 2 premiere at Battery Park. I signed up for what I thought I was getting was to see the first episode of the season on the big movie theater screen for free…

What I got what the whole friggin Red Carpet with the cast and directors and composer, swag bag, signed poster, and episode one AND two!



























And if I’d have signed up for the 8pm show instead of the 6:30 show, all I’d have gotten was to see the cast briefly, and the first episode.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!

And best of all, the first 2 episodes were great. Seriously well written TV (I only have minor quibbles) and it was so much better than the first 2 episodes of The Orville’s second season... but that's a post for next week...

Read an RPG in Public Week!

We're already more than half way through it, but it's again Read an RPG in Public Week! And tomorrow is the feast day of St. Gygax!

Both of these are really solid products, FYI... reviews incoming!

Happy Captain Picard (& Free RPG) Day!

It's that most glorious day of the year where we celebrate one of Starfleet's finest: Captain Picard.

I reached out to the captain to find out his thoughts gaming...

I guess he was busy.

Upside, it's also Free RPG Day, so lay in a course for your nearest Friendly Local Gaming Store, and see what's out there!

Engage!

Free RPG Day is coming!

Saturday June 16th is Free RPG Day! I'll be running... something that afternoon. I haven't settled on what yet, but there's a fair chance it'll be a DCC adventure, or maybe a 5e adventure... I really need to settle on a game and lock in my time slot...

Anyway, you should totally find your participating FLGS and plan on attending. You can snag some really cool stuff.

As usual, I'm really looking forward to the Lamentation of the Flame Princess release. Last year's Vaginas are Magic is being followed up with this glorious member:

Sadly this is the best image of it I can find...

I'm also going to grab the Goodman Games DCC adventure, and maybe their 5e one... and I want to take a look at the Starfinder one, even though I have little interest in Starfinder as a system.

It's only a week away! See you there!

March Fo(u)rth for DMs Appreciation Day!

Shout out to the awesome Lauren who has been DMing Storm King's Thunder Wednesday nights!

And to all the other DMs out there who work tirelessly to bring their worlds to life for the enjoyment of their players!

So if you haven't already, take this anniversary of the passing of the Original DM - Gary Gygax, to say thank you. Maybe buy them a round? Or a new set of dice. Or that miniature that you really want to see on the table. But definitely say thank you! They deserve it.

ReaperCon SWAG!

As usual, the VIP package for ReaperCon was way worth the cost. Aside from the dinners (which were okay to good) you walked away with a whole bunch of minis and paint.



4 faction minis, 2 Mouselings, 1 Sophie, Con Crud the zombie, resin werewolf and scarecrow minis, 6 paints, a blister pack of extra bases, and 1 resin dragon bust. And if you visited each of the vendors, you got a free All Hallow's Eve mini. And that's just from Reaper!! Oh, and the paint cup!



PaintRack also gave out paint cups. Darksword tossed in an elven archer, badger tossed in an airbrush primer, Happy Seppuku gave a free base texture stamp, Frontline games gave a small tub of flock, and Mage Case gave everyone a free figure case...

On top of that, I got a few minis from the melt table, including the 2014 convention special figure and a pumpkin headed bugbear bottlecap!



A friend who won boxes of Bones minis tossed a bunch on a tray, and I snagged a few. Also got several of the Xmas holiday minis, and an Urban Legends Sophie from the factory shelves. I'll need to get her wings next year.

From the non-Reaper vendors I snagged a couple more base stamps (temple courtyard and splintered wood). From FreebladesI got a cool dryad and snake charmer sorceress. And from Bombshell minis I snagged 2 small familiars and a one eyed tiger space pirate.



And of course there was the auction where I won 3 more of the mage cases!

ReaperCon Wrap-up

My second ReaperCon has come to an end. The bags are unpacked. The pictures uploaded. The swag put away.

While it's only my second ReaperCon, that feeling of coming to a family reunion full of people you actually like and have things in common with only felt stronger than it did last year. Even more so, since I've been spending a lot of time hanging out and painting with a bunch of them on Google Hangouts.


Wednesday was flying in, and attending the meet and greet at the convention center, followed by staying up way too late at the firepit!









Thursday and Friday I ended up spending most of the time painting, desperately trying to finish my entry. I did, though only with a half an hour till the entry deadline...

Buglips getting his first taste of Taco Bell!

Saturday I took Fluid Filled Objects as my class for the day. It was a great class, and I'll be practicing the technique going forward. It's interesting how I don't think I learned something new exactly, just learned a new way to look at painting and a way to tweak techniques I already know. Or at least know in theory... Definitely need practice though.



I also played some Lord of the Rings SBG. The guy running it had set up a Laketown scenario with the 13 dwarves defending the townsfolk from an attacking Kraken. The things you come up with when you have a cool mini and no other use for it... I also spent a fair amount of time enjoying the small arcade that had been set up. The Ghostbusters pinball machine was particularly challenging and a lot of fun.






Saturday night the results of the painting contest were announced. Rather than judge the dragonborn sorceress, they went with the King in Yellow that I'd only just finished painting. I got Bronze again, but from what the judges said I'm getting closer to a silver. Kuro Cleanbrush said that if I can get the rest of the mini up to the level of the robe, I'll be good! Goals for next year.. I'll admit, I was a little bummed, but super happy for my friends who did amazing work.

Sunday I took Red & Yellow Leather and Monster Skin tones. Because Sunday is a shorter day, the afternoon classes start earlier than they do the other days, so I showed up late to the leather class, much to my shame. There were only 2 other students, so the teacher was able to give me the condensed version without taking away from the others. I haven't painted with sponges or stippling on a mini ever, so I got to practice 2 new techniques, which both gave good results for distressed leather. Monster skin tones was interesting, and was the class I took the most notes in. It's also the one that I'm going to have to digest the most. Of the 3 classes, this was the most advanced. The other 2 were very much "here's how to achieve this one effect" while Monster Skin was much more theory based with examples showing a whole lot of different things.

One class I didn't attend this year was the Bones Conversion class. However Reaper Bryan (who taught at least one session of it this year) dropped this former paladin, now sith lady at my table, and I managed to get a bit of paint on it before we wrapped up.

After the classes wrapped they held the auction. Unlike other auctions, you could only use funny money at this one, specifically Reaper Bucks which are earned by attending various events throughout the Con. I managed to snag some modular mini display/transport cases, and I got to snag 1/4 of a set of faction pint glasses that a friend won. Sadly my faction, The Bonehenge Covenant lost this year, and won't be returning next year, which means this was the last time I'd be able to get a glass with their symbol.

After the auction it was back to the hotel, and then to the steak place for one last group meal. We thought ahead this time and made a reservation for 30 instead of just showing up en masse and waiting for an entire section to clear out. We should have made the reservation for 40...

And then it was time to go home. I managed to hitch a ride to the airport once again with Matbar as she was heading home, giving me a few extra minutes of ReaperFamily time until next year.