July MMOverse

For the month of July I decided to get real ambitious. I decided to design and run my own role-play game (RPG). I had set out not to just design a setting, but to design my own mechanics as well. This project started simply, as these things often do.

I wanted to decide what sort of setting I wanted to design. I wanted to go with something simple, easy to understand, had room for good storytelling, and could be easily adapted to pen and paper RPG’s. I played with a lot of different settings: horror, mindscape, dreams, romance, humor, and the afterlife. I settled on fantasy.

My vision of a game setting was a MMO that had been crashing, the players would be non-player characters that would be attempting to save the world from external forces. Using an MMO model, would give me a built in mechanics system, a fairly simple progression setup, and a setting that most people would be somewhat familiar with. As a starting point, I thought this would be simple and easy to focus.

As for mechanics, I decided on a system using six sided dice. The system revolved around rolling a number of dice and choosing two of them to use as your roll. The dice being chosen would be picked by the player, but a few effects would allow the game master to choose one or more dice instead.

Characters were simple. All stats started at 2 and were then modified by what fantasy race you chose. Classes gave you access to skills, weapons, attacks, and special abilities. Weapons were designed with several stats including speed at which you attacked, damage, critical hot modifiers, and more impressive magic items would have bonuses and special effects. Then it went off the rails.

I designed an initiative system not only worked on how fast your weapon or skill was but how quickly you would be able to use it. I basically instituted the cooldown system from MMO’s. At the point where I was designing a special sheet for each player to track all of their initiative’s and when their skills would be ready again, I realized I had gone a bit too far.

I took a step back and walked away for a week. I find this helpful on any project where I think I might have made a mistake. When I came back to my notes I started to examine everything. That’s when I saw the cracks. The initiative system was an overcomplicated mess. The critical hit system required unintuitive math. The action system wasn’t useful. The skills were over powered. The setting had built in plot walls preventing the players from the freedom to really be their characters. In short I hadn’t designed a Role-Play game as much as a Roll-Play game.

I haven’t completely scrapped it.

I stepped back and went through it to find the bits I liked, the lessons I could learn, and the things I wanted to do with my next attempt. What were they? I liked rolling multiple six sided dice and only choosing two and who gets to pick being based on different things going on in the game. I liked the simplicity of the character builds in the beginning, before I piled two tons of crap on top of it.

I learned that I want a freer story telling experience. The idea of creating MMO characters and going forward with them was decent but blocked the characters from having backgrounds and goals. It took away past and future from the characters and left only the now. I find that tedious and dull. I want them to have goals, something to strive for, and the freedom to attempt it.

What else do I want? I want the players to explore the setting and find out what’s there. I want to let my players expand the world to their liking. I want fun characters and places for the characters to interact with.

Also, I’m scrapping the idea of fantasy. There are thousands of games out there with fantasy themes, I want my own setting and story. I don’t want people to finish and say, why didn’t we just play game X. I want my setting to be something they can’t get anywhere else. Right now I’m looking at an afterlife or slasher movie themed game. Hell, I may even do a game about Teddy bears who protect children from nightmares…or have I seen that somewhere before?

Will I try again? Yes. This isn’t a project I’m just stopping, but it will take time. More than I originally thought. As for August, what will I do? I had hoped to go to Gencon and help one of the booths, however, that seems to have fallen through. It is now too late to purchase tickets, get a hotel room, and all of the other things necessary to attend Gencon. So I’m not going to. Instead for August, I think I shall try and play an RPG over skype using Roll20.net. Now what game to play?

June: Free RPG Day

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure how to handle this piece. My intention was to write about spending a day at my friendly local game store (FLGS) and how I spent free rpg day. A problem occurred that makes that a bit difficult. However, I’ll get to that a bit later.

First, what is free rpg day? Well, almost ten years ago, several members of the gaming community came together and created free rpg day. It is a celebration of role play games and the community that supports them. Every year groups of game developers and publishers create special adventures, products, and suplements for their games and make them available through the free rpg program. FLGSs order a box, I’m unclear on if it costs anything. Once they receive it, they set up the day, arrange people, like myself to, to run demo games. People come to the store and spend the day learning new games, playing old favorites, and spending time relaxing with friends.

This year I was asked to run an adventure, I chose to run a module from Through the Breach, which had been included by Wyrd Miniatures. Through the Breach is a game set in the 1800’s it’s a *deep breath* Victorian, western, gothic, Lovecraftian, fantasy, horror, bayou, wuxia, comedy setting. *breath out* I really like the game, it focuses on story telling over character stats and has a bunch of fun little systems built into it.

I got to Epic Loot in Centerville and set about getting ready to play. There was a small amount of worry in that no one had set up for my session. However, that ended up not being an issue. We had several people who had wanted to play, sit down and join me at the table. This was fine with me. I then got to spend the next few hours introducing five new people to a new game they had never played. In this instance, the group was playing a team of miners nearing the end of their shift when the mine is invaded by a group of molemen. I’m not going to say too much more in case someone reading this will play it one day. We had fun, everyone got to experience the different characters, some of the classes, and a few of the skills and abilities from the game. In the end at least one person purchased the rule books for the game for his home group. Everyone got a copy of the module. It was a ton of fun.

After that I went from the person running the game to someone playing the game. I sat in on a game of 13^thAge. 13^th Age, is a fantasy adventure with wizards, knights, and archers. You fight monsters and battle the forces of evil. All of the characters seem to start with a high level of power and an impressive amount of ability. The game is built around your character doing massive amounts of damage and feeling pretty bad ass about it.

We started in a tavern that was suddenly invaded by skeletons. I’, not going to say much about this game either. This is partially to avoid spoilers and partially because this is where that problem I mentioned earlier came in.

I have a couple of medical issues that cause me to go off if my blood sugar goes too far in the wrong direction. Mid way through the fight my hands got shaky. This was most likely due to spending a day eating nothing but junk food and snacks. It wasn’t long after that that I needed to leave to get some real food in me. Sadly, that was the end of my day. I wasn’t able to return to the store and take part in any more of the day. My Free rpg experience ended part way through my second game with my having to leave.

Other than that, it was a good day and I had tons of fun. I’m looking forward to next year and hope to have a better amount of food in me so I don’t have to leave early. I hope I get to see you there.

May CMoN Expo

It was two years ago when I first heard about the Cool Mini or Not Expo. The Expo sounded like a fun experience. It was a small convention, featuring only two to three hundred people. Podcasters, YouTubers, and game designers gathered together for a three day weekend and played games. The atmosphere, was calm, informal, and quiet. It was an event I wanted to try. This year I got to go.

For a little bit of background, Cool Mini or Not (CMoN) started as a rating site for people to post miniatures that they had painted and get people’s opinions on the job they had done painting them. Basically, a hot or not site for mini’s. Eventually, CMoN started producing their own games. They mostly made board games that typically included some very beautiful miniatures and other pieces. I’m not sure when they first decided to hold an expo.

My adventure this year was mostly well planned. I used to travel frequently and fell back on many skills I had used for the conventions I used to go to. I got a good deal on a hotel room, got my badge well in advance, and saved money for any extras that might crop up. Unfortunately, there were some new experiences that I had to contend with. I needed to rent a car, the expo was in Atlanta, Georgia and I live in Ohio. My weight, makes air travel impractical and expensive, so a car it would have to be. I also forgot to check on how expensive parking would be. Fortunately, I had enough extra cash to cover the surprise expenses.

Now for the good parts of the weekend. I’m used to going to large scale conventions with thousands of people. CMoN Expo had roughly two hundred people total. The crowds to get in during opening tend to meld, shoulder to shoulder, into a large seething mass. CMoN Expo had maybe twenty people waiting for the doors to open. We stood in line and had quiet conversations, not having to yell to be heard over the throng of people whose voices had been raised to a cacophony of noise. When the door opened, no one sprinted for the vendor’s booth or table they wanted. We simply strolled inside and looked for a game.

Once inside the Expo, I looked for an open seat. At larger cons, you have to schedule most of your time. Here, I simply walked up to one of the many tables and asked if they had room. More often than not, the answer was yes. There were a few events and opportunities that required signup’s. These were a few tournaments, special play sessions with a games designer, or a chance to play with some podcasters and streamers.

Most of the games I played weren’t out yet. Several should be out for GenCon in August. A few should be out before that. Even fewer should be out after. I signed up for three events; one I missed. One that I made was a game of Zombicide, a board game about surviving a zombie apocalypse. The game typically features teams of 6, this one featured thirty-two players. I also signed up to play the Godfather board game, still in prototype form, with the Designer Eric Lang. The other event, the one I missed, was a tournament for Arcadia Quest.

I played several games, and while everything was fun, a few games really stood out to me. The Others, a game I backed on Kickstarter (due out later this year), was massively entertaining. The miniatures are fantastic, and the rules were quick and easy. It’s about the end of the world. Humans have been losing the world to the forces of Revelations, there is only one human city left, Haven. The players take the role of humanity’s last hope to avoid utter extinction. The game has a wonderful mechanic where the players can voluntarily corrupted themselves for temporary bonuses. The more corrupt you become, the more likely you are to fall to the forces of darkness, but the extra boost may be just what you need for a clutch success.

An expansion for Arcadia Quest that adds pets to the game, was fun and fast. It added only a slight change to the rules, with no increase in difficulty. Additionally, the figures they include are super cute. As unmanly as it was to type that, it’s really the only way to say it. Plus, they have a panda, so, a solid win.

I got to play a party game, the Unusual Suspects. The game involves a rather fun experience where one person is a witness to a crime and everyone else are detectives. You get to ask a series of yes or no questions like, “does the culprit ride a bike,” “does the culprit live with their parents,” or “have they ever been to a rock concert?” Then from the answer, you look at a series of mug shots and try and figure out, for example, who, amongst these people, would ride a bike. Basically, it’s profiling the game. I’ve seen it get both politically incorrect and stay super family friendly. It’s really up to the group playing the game. Either way, the laughter came fast, and exuberantly.

I was also one of the very few people who got to play Massive Darkness. MD is a dungeon crawler that will go up on Kickstarter in June. The game won’t be released until late next year. The game was a ton of fun, even if it wasn’t anywhere near finalized. They were actually taking notes of things that were broken or not working as intended as we played. The rules were fast and easy. They allowed for epic moments where your heroes felt incredibly powerful. I’m looking forward to watching the campaign, and seeing the game next year.

I also had a bucket list of people I wanted to meet and play games with. I didn’t get to check everyone off my list, but the ones I did were amazingly polite and friendly. I played the Grizzled, and Kreos with Teri Litorco from That Terri Girl. I also played Kreos with Rodney Smith from Watch it Played. As I stated earlier, I played Godfather with Eric Lang. I got to play Zombicide: Black Plague with Mark Streed from the Dice Tower. I spoke with Sam Healey about Zombicide. Thaigo, the designer, ran the game of Massive Darkness I played in. Meeting every one of these people was a treat, regardless of how long we were able to spend talking and playing, they were all very busy over the course of the weekend. Not a single one of them was dismissive, rude, or abrupt. Even beyond the personalities, there wasn’t a single person I met that was rude or unkind. I had an amazing experience the entire weekend.

The only regret I really have of the weekend was that I went alone. It would have been nice to have someone along to talk to and play some of the games with. It would have been nice to have a person to eat meals with. I would also have liked someone who could have used my phone to take pictures of some of the games we played, or in the case of Ta-Da, video.

All in all, the experience was amazing. I look forward to going back next year, if possible. If I do return, I hope to see some of you there as well.

You can check out my pile of photo's on Instagram.

April: Paint Quest

I suppose this could also be called March part 2. First, I know this is going up a few days into May. The final piece of this was done on the last day of April and went until very late in the evening. We played for far longer than I anticipated. That, is enough apologizing. You didn’t come here for that you came to hear about the minis, the painting, and the game.

Most of the month was dedicated to my painting everything I still had to get finished for the game. I was nearly half way finished when I started and not sure how much I would finally get by game time. There was a bit of a rough start at the beginning of the month. Real life reared its ugly head and distracted me from my figures. Once I had gotten some time again I went straight back to work. Still, I was worried that I wouldn’t get finished.

And yet, I went forward. I placed everything I could in groups and painted as I was able. Some of the models were surprisingly easy. Darryn and Chaz, being in mostly metal armor, required very little work on my part. While the Queen of Beggars, whose outfit is made up of several pieces of mismatched fabric and assorted bits of trash took significantly longer. Despite this, most of the paining went very quickly. However, with only two days left to the event, disaster struck.

Heading out for an evening with the family, I still had a small number of models that needed to be base coated in white. It was dark out and the light on that side of the house had burned out. I quickly went outside and without being able to see, sprayed the minis down. I was gentle with the coat, and was confident in my ability to not over paint the models and obscure details. What I wasn’t aware of, was that the spray paint nozzle had become partially obstructed and caused the paint to come out splotchy. Not only that but Schmetterling the Troll had become gritty and rough.

I should explain this. To prep a model for painting I usually coat the model in paint, typically while or black. This helps give the models a more uniform look, allows the paint to stick better and more consistently, and allows the paint to shade either brighter or darker depending on the base color I use. For Arcadia Quest, I was using white as I wanted the colors to pop and appear brighter. To base models faster, many people will use spray paint, myself included. The danger of this is, sometimes the nozzle gets covered or blocked and it causes the paint to come out in splotchy spurts. While painting in a well-lit area it’s easy to tell this is happening and to make immediate changes to fix it. However, I was doing it in the dark and ended up giving Schmetterling a coating that had the consistency of someone mixing sand in the paint first. Of course this is easy to fix when the paint is still wet, so is usually not an issue. Except, it was dark and I was in a hurry.

I discovered this several hours later when I came home and checked the models. There are ways to remove spray paint. Most of them include very abrasive and corrosive substances. These are not ideal for plastics, especially the soft plastics that Cool Mini or Not used for Arcadia Quest. This led to several hours of me scanning the internet for ways to remove the paint without damaging the model. Eventually, I ended up soaking it in water with dish soap and then going over it with a scrub brush used for cleaning dirty dishes. This got rid of most of the grit, the rest I used a very light touch with a file to get rid of. In the end I was able to paint Schmetterling and get a very fine result.

I finished the last of my models and put them away. I learned two things that helped me get my models to a place where I really liked them. The first was to take pictures of my models from all sides. On a couple of models, the pictures I took for Instagram led me to notice details I had missed or mistakes that I had inadvertently left behind. I was then able to go and fix these things. For example, on Spike, the picture I took to show off his tartan kilt also revealed that the wash (a thinner paint used to fill in cracks and shadows) I had used for his hair had spread out across the top of his head. I was able to go in and fix this with a small amount of skin tone.

The second lesson I learned was a nice trick for doing black. Most of the time when I paint something black I try and pick the details out in grey and end up leaching the depth of the black that I really like. I never get the rich dark coloring that black should have. In a way I picked up a rather nice trick for this one. Wanting my models to have a more cartoon or bright feel, instead of painting something black, I painted it a very dark blue. I would then go over it with a black wash to add depth and shadow. The secondary effect of this was to darken the blue up even more. This made the character who were in black have a deeper color that came off richer and more vibrant. It still looked like black, but a better black. Models like the King of Thieves, Lord Fang, and Scarlet look more pronounced now.

I did one last piece of prep for the day. I wanted to make sure I knew the rules of the game and started to reread them. Then I abandoned that idea and watched the video Rodney Smith from Watch it Played put together.

Then came the day of the game. We played on April 30^th, or International Tabletop Day. This is a fun little day invented by Wil Wheaton to share and promote his love of board games. I have an entire post about it you can check out here. The day was well received. I made one mistake, I forgot what time I had told everyone I wanted to start and at the last minute rescheduled the beginning for three hours before I had initially told some of the people coming I wanted to start. Other than that the day went fine.

We started at noon and played till eleven at night. One person was sick, one person left early, in both cases someone filled their position. The game was fun and fast. People were brutal and hard hitting. But more than that we were forgiving and laughing. No one took the attacks personal, no one got angry, and no one gave up despite a seemingly hopeless situation. While we were only able to get through five of the six scenarios that make up a complete campaign, I was still able to use all of the minis. The final mission required that we face Lord Fangs shadow and thus place the model on the board.

In the end Bobby and his Panda Guild defeated the rest of use with one extra title beyond the Lori in second place. The day was won, and Arcadia was saved. True we didn’t play the final mission, and we decided to not use the mission record to record our match and come back to it later. We had a good day. We called it because it was good enough to be a great memory. Next time, maybe we can finish the match, since we won’t need to learn the rules.

Well, that’s two months of project. Next up, I’m preparing to leave for the Cool Mini or Not Expo in Atlanta. I know that I will write the event up and let people know how it goes. I personally can’t wait to get to the con and see what happens there. Until next month, game well.

If you'd like to check out the photo's from the process and the day, you can see them on my Instagram. 

March Painting, Final Results

The end of the month has arrived and I have not made my goal. I won’t lie, while disappointed, I’m not surprised. I came very close and encourage you to check out my finished models and works-in-progress over at Instagram. I’m proud of the work I’ve done and anxious to finish the few pieces I have left.

Of course this also means I haven’t played my marathon of games in an attempt to advance through the campaign. I have a couple of interested parties but two things factored into my ability to hold a day of gaming. First, I wasn’t finished painting. To be fair I might have considered playing with some unfinished or unstarted figures but then something else happened; Easter. I was actually unaware that Easter was in March this year. As such, the last week of March ended up being so busy I fell off of my painting and hit the inevitable wall of people doing family things for the holiday.

I’m sad I din’t finish the challenge this month, but I’m happy I tried. In the end, I think that’s what this entire project is for. I will continue to try new things. I wil lkeep challenging myself to new highs and harder goals. For April I have a tournament coming up. It’s a road trip and while I’ve already taken part in a tournament that I’ve written about this year, I may try and do something new for this one. Maybe, play a faction I haven’t used except for some pickup games. Maybe instead of the Guild I’ll play Ressers, or even Gremlins. I don’t know yet. I just know I’ll enjoy the challenge.

March Painting Challenge

This is a short post because I’m done with this month yet. This month, I’ve decided to take a page from the Dice Tower and complete their February challenge. Last month Sam Healey and Rob Oren painted every miniature in the board game Arcadia quest. Once finished they played a game and streamed it live over the internet. I’m trying the same thing this month.

There are a couple of things that make the challenge different for me. First I got the game on Kickstarter. This means that in addition to the base game I have several additional miniatures, boards, scenarios, and expansions. Because of this, I’m limiting myself to only painting the monsters for the base campaign. Additionally, I have lots of extra heroes, so I’m only painting twelve mostly randomly chosen heroes. Second, I said Rob and Sam painted the base set. There are two of them and only one of me. This means that I may not be able to finish. I hope I can; I really want to. Part of my attempt to accomplish this is leading to another gaming first for me, but more on that later. The third problem I’m having is finding enough people who can commit to spending a day playing Arcadia Quest. While I don’t think we’ll finish the campaign, I’d like to at least play deep enough to use all of the figures once. A full campaign consist of six games, I think I can play every mini once in four scenarios. At ninety minutes a game with a break for dinner, that’s a whole day. The original Dice Tower challenge involved streaming the game. I’m just not going to be able to do that. I do not have the cameras, equipment, or experience to accomplish the feat. I wish I did, I’d love to try. I just don’t have the necessary things.

There’s a lot stacking up against me here. I’m going to try very hard to accomplish as much of it as I can. Right now, I’m not sure how much I’ll succeed at.

There are a couple of things I’m doing to help me accomplish my goal. One of them is something I’ve often talked about but never done. Several of my friends play various miniature games. For those games we like to have painted figures. Over the years we’ve talked about having a painting party. A day where we all get together at someone’s house and paint all day. We’ve talked about this for probably twenty years and yet, it’s never happened. This Saturday, it’s going to occur. I will be painting some figs with my friends. They will bring their own minis and projects but we will all hang out, chat, paint, and watch the live stream of Heroes of the Dorm. Go Chicago! (I picked HeroesMeon for the bracket.)

We’re half-way through the month. I still have time to get some people together to help me play. I have a couple of tentative ideas but need to start really nailing people down for the day. Hopefully, I can get done and be ready to go with a completed game.

I’m giving myself a little leeway on this one. I’ve accepted that it is possible I will fail at this in some way. I hope I don’t, but I realize I might. I will post here again as I grow closer to talk about what I might or might not be capable of. Hopefully, I’ll have some pretty good news for you. If you want to follow along, I’m posting pictures on Instagram. I will also try and periscope at least a little of the days in question. If I can accomplish the periscope, I’ll see if I can load them to my YouTube channel. Hopefully, I can succeed. Only time will tell.

Cowboy's & Demons

My year in gaming continues. I rode out to Columbus with my friend Sean. We were going up for a local Malifaux tournament at the Guardtower, a friendly local game store (FLGS). Before I get too deep in, this is not a review of the tournament, the Guardtower, or Malifaux. That said, everyone was great, if this were a review, it would be glowing. I enjoy getting to spend time gaming and I have wonderful friends to do it with. Sean is one of those people I truly enjoying hanging out with and welcome his addition to any event.

For those of you who don’t know, Malifaux is a miniatures games. It’s a cross-genre, skirmish affair with small numbers of models. What genres you ask? *Deep Breath* It’s western, steam-punk, gothic, Lovecraftian, Victorian, fantasy, folklore, hillbilly, comedy, horror, wuxia setting. I’m pretty sure I got them all. The game takes place over a series of five or more rounds where two players take turns activating and using one of the figures in their crew. We use a deck of cards as a randomizer to determine the outcomes of actions such as shooting guns, casting spells, resisting the terrors of the world, or causing someone to dig up a useful dead body. Each game revolves around a mission with set goals. They also include a list of five side missions that each player may secretly choose two of to gain additional points from. Over the course of the game both players attempt to complete their goals while stopping their opponents from completing theirs. Points are awarded for how successful they are and, as in most cases, most points at the end wins.

There are seven factions in the game each with dozens of different models. For the purposes of this tournament we were to choose a faction for the entire tournament. We could bring with us any models that would be legal for that faction to play. After being assigned an opponent we would tell them what faction we would be playing. Then decide what models we would be using from the ones we brought. I brought the Guild. Basically the Pinkerton’s meet the weird west. They’re a totalitarian bunch of douchebags who have managed to get some fairly heroic people to work for them in order to defend the populace.

My first game was against Patrick; he was also playing guild. The mission was interference. It involved dividing the table into quarters and controlling as many as possible. The side missions were all about getting to the middle of the table or onto my opponents side. For this reason I chose Lady Justice, an undead hunter, as my master, the games term for leader. Lady Justice is a hand-to-hand monster and quite capable of ripping an entire crew to shreds with a little luck. I backed her up with a number of equally focused models that would do well in a melee. Patrick chose the Ortega’s. The one crew I’d hoped he wouldn’t. The direct counter to Lady Justice in the Guild are the incredibly shooty Ortega clan, a family of demon hunters.

I did okay for the first two rounds but the early loss of my executioner, high value target and the picking off of several of my smaller models led to an eight to zero loss. The match went well and despite a shellacking in the points I think I held my own pretty well. I was able to contain him for most of the match and take out several of his smaller models that he used as a shield for his more valued ones. The use of long range attacks from Austringers, a type of falconer, kept my crew pinned and weakened for much of the match. Still Patrick was a great opponent and a lot of fun to play against.

In round two I faced John and his Outcasts, a collection of mercenaries, outlaws, and independent horrors. John chose to take his crew from the third group and used Jack Daw, the animated and angry body of a man hung by the neck till dead. Jack and his crew of animated convicts, murderers, executed, and tortured were a challenge. Knowing that I was going up against Outcasts and that several of the masters in that faction have access to undead, I had once again chosen Lady Justice. In this mission we would be fighting over the center of the board; another factor in my Lady Justice decision.

This was a close game, scoring three to five in my favor, mostly due to an unfortunate placement by John in the last round. In the first round I got extremely lucky and managed to take out one of his high cost models. I was able to use my forces to get in a couple of long range kills against smaller models. Though John was able to thrash into my team with fairly decent abandon. In the end it was a bloody victory that came about by John accidently placing his leader too far from the center to get credit for one of the mission goals. It cost him three points and the win. It was good for me, but I’ve been in his shoes and it sucks to see that. It had been a great game with a fun opponent marred only by an unfortunate win.

In the final round I played Max and his Neverborn, a faction of demons and horrors. The mission was headhunter and involved killing members of the other team and then collecting their heads from the ground. It was going to be an intense and bloody fight with both teams having to move in on one another. For this I chose Ortega’s. As stated before they are a family of demon hunters and as such are able to deal a bit more efficiently with the special rules many of the Neverborn have.

My opponent Max chose, Lilith, a blender with legs. Lilith is a Hand-to-hand master with a couple of nasty spells in her arsenal. Her ability to summon forests was particularly useful. I took Nino, a long range sharpshooter who can rip a model to shreds. Unfortunately, there was a forest in his way for most of the game. Even with that, I never felt like I was out of the match. I think I was able to keep up with Max in his kill streak that was leveled against me. But he was better able to control the battlefield and get the points than I was. It was a good solid win by a player who just did a much better job than I did.

Max ended up beating me ten to zero, both ends of the maximum number of points. He was still friendly and I don’t think he ever felt like he had the game in the bag. I believe I gave him a good game, I just wasn’t able to score the points I needed to win. Despite the trouncing, Max was fun and engaging the whole time.

All in all, I had a fantastic time the whole day. I loved getting to play with each of my opponents. The looks of all the models put out for the painting competition were fantastic to look at, including a beautiful Ten Thunders army that got put out. I won a door prize, which was nice. I have a Whisky Golem to use with my Gremlins crew.

It was a great day and if you ever find yourself in the Columbus area and looking for a FLGS to hang out in for a couple of hours I can’t say enough good things about the folks at the Guardtower. Thanks to all of my opponents, even the ones I didn’t play against. To the tournament organizers, thanks to you as well for a fantastic day. Sure I lost a lot, but I had a good time.

Now I need to plan my March gaming event. Perhaps I’ll try a D&D adventure league game, trying an online roleplay session, or even something new I haven’t thought of. Any suggestions?