Bits and Bobs

Loads of little things happening at the moment.

1. My self-imposed Duty & Honour rest period appears to be working. At least now if I consider looking at stuff for it again I don't feel like ramming a pencil through my eye. I think, partly, this has a lot to do with the remarkable success of the game now that it has been unleashed on drivethrurpg and rpgnow. Its been selling really quite well and the Almanac is flying out. I've also had to do a small reprint, all within budget, to see me through Dragonmeet and probably Conpulsion. Things are going very well indeed - I had no real data point for pdf sales so I didn't factor them into my budgets, so strong pdf sales are a welcome boost!

2. We kicked off a new G2 game on Thursday, using Fate 3.0 SRD to create a dark urban magic game based in Prague. The characters are all quite different and the background that we came up with was excellent, especially the idea of the magical iron curtain, which was inspired. I'm looking forward to sitting down and getting my teeth into it. That said, I'm not 100% convinced that Fate is the best system for it, but we shall see!

3. The preparation for Blood Bowl has began in earnest. We have our first date - hopefully for pre-season games - on the 16th November, and I have started what I think will become a marathon painting session, bringing the Marienburg Stealers to life. Its been twenty years since I have painted a figure in anger and it took a little while to get my eye worked in. Its great to know that Games Workshop have still not sorted their pigments out, so red and yellow refuse to make orange still... I have to admit that some of the fine detail work is shocking. I think I might have to accept that my eyesight, whilst still pretty damned good, simply isn't what it used to be!

20 Years Later...

Twenty years ago was the last time I ever bought anything from or took part in something from Games Workshop. I was seventeen and it was almost certainly some Warhammer 40k stuff. Just after that I seriously discovered girls, got a job and never had time to paint figures and do stuff like that again. Even if I say so myself, I used to be a decent painter - not Golden Demon standard - but I wasn't ashamed to whip out the odd model during a roleplaying game.

Twenty years on, we have been dragged back into the world of Blood Bowl in the latest of our gaming group diversions. Ben, who is acting as our Commissioner, is an enthusiastic NFL fan (who has incidentally rekindled my love of the sport) and he is running the league. Of course as money rich, time poor adults we are acquiring teams en masse. Some are coming painted, others are being processed through the Gow Paint Shop as it opens its doors again.

I shudder to think what this is going to be like. Some people have never played the game before. Others are hard worn veterans who can remember the stats of nearly every player on a team. Some have experience in board games and sports tactics. Others can barely remember which way the ball will go. Its going to be very interesting, hugely competitive and something quite unlike anything we have done before.

I'm playing humans, btw. I believe I could be getting squished quite regularly. I will keep you informed!