2012 – Looking Forward

I'm not in the habit of making New Year's Resolutions, but I do have plans for early 2012. Bear in mind the old saying about how long plans survive in the face of opposition, though.

Quarterly RPG Campaigns

Divide the year into quarters and run a new game every quarter. This puts a hard deadline on story lines and promotes more variety.

I ran this past my regular gaming group and they all approved. Now comes the tough part – what to run first?

Terrain Projects

Look into low-cost alternatives to commercial terrain pieces and kits. Not that there is anything wrong with well-made, good-looking terrain being produced these days. Many of them are available for reasonable prices. However, limited funds are forcing me to choose between buying terrain and buying miniatures. Given the difficulties of playing miniatures games without miniatures, I'll be trying my hand at creating terrain rather than purchasing it. Not that I'll pass up good deals on commercial terrain if I find them.

For the immediate future, this means preparing more trees for the tabletop. I picked up a package of plastic pines suitable for 15mm or 28mm scale at Home Depot's after-Christmas clearance sale. A little paint, some flock, and new bases will make them ready to go.

There are also some odds-and-ends that I've collected that would be good for creating futuristic terrain. That will be a little further down the road.

Painting Projects

Knock down the amount of unpainted models in my collection. No more impulse buys. If I have no immediate plans to put it on the table, I don't buy it.

Clear off the desk. There's a couple of models that were repeatedly pushed aside in favor of other projects last year. Got to get them done before moving on.

Base and paint my 15mm ARC Fleet troopers from Critical Mass Games.

Base and paint miniatures appropriate for upcoming RPG projects – pirates and sci-fi at the moment.

2011 – Looking Back

2011 brought changes in how and what I play. There wasn't as much gaming as I wished for, but that's something that I've come to accept as time passed. Getting more out of the limited time and funds that I could put into gaming inspired me to look for new options.

Role Playing Games: I was planning on running more RPG campaigns and one-shots in 2011. Some of them stalled out in the planning stages, others ran aground on conflicting schedules. I've got some thoughts on how to address these issues, but the basic principle is to simplify. Long running campaigns are out, campaign ideas that can be developed in a mini-campaign or one-shot are in.

Miniature Wargames: The chance to play Tomorrow's War at Millennium Con has left me wanting more. 15mm wargaming is going to play a bigger role for me in 2012.

Board Games: Give to Game, the Board Game Bash, and (most of all) the board gaming group that took me in showed me that board games can deliver a satisfying game experience. Part of my Christmas money went to Arkham Horror and Pandemic. More will likely follow in 2012.

Post Holiday Clean Up

It never fails. I manage to catch whatever is going around almost every holiday season. This despite getting a flu shot, monitoring my diet, and getting better about exercising regularly. Maybe it has something to do with living in one of the allergy capitals of the world.

The good news is that I'm getting my energy back. It was taking everything I could muster to make it through a day of work. Now, I can get some things done at home before looking for a place to lie down.

The first order of business was digging out my office and hobby area. Something about a flat surface tends to attract every loose paper around it. Cleaning up turned into re-organizing. My hobby tools and supplies are back in place. Next up will be the bookshelves – I haven't even looked at some of that stuff in years. It might be time for a trip to Half-Price Books to sell some of it off.