My 2025 Tabletop Gaming Plan

My 2024 plan was a measured success. Improving on it seems like a better idea than starting over. Or maybe it's just easier. In either case, it's the way I'm going.

In 2024, I went back to where I started tabletop gaming - role playing games. I intend to maintain my focus on TTRPGs in 2025, but there might be room to squeeze in some miniatures wargaming here and there.

Get more of my collection off the shelves and onto the tabletop.

By collection, I'm referring to my miniature wargames as well as TTRPGs. Solo wargames are simpler to schedule. Another Five Parsecs From Home campaign is the most likely contender.

As for TTRPGs, I should have adventure module X1 The Isle of Dread ready to go when our group gets over our holiday hangovers. I'm planning on posting my notes on converting it to Old School Essentials, but only after we've played it.

The most likely game after that is Tachyon Squadron for FATE Core. Sci-fi in a more narrative system should be a good palette cleanser before diving back into OSE. I'll have whichever classic D&D module I want to run figured out by then. And after that, maybe Lancer?


Do something with the games I've Kickstarted or preordered as they come in.

This was a 2024 goal that no longer applies. I exercised some restraint and don't have any Kickstarted or preordered games on the way. I'll count that as a win here. We'll see if that holds out for another year.


Presenting more of my tabletop gaming thoughts online.

My ideas and opinions aren't special. They do have a way of bouncing around the inside of my head until I find something to do with them. Posting them online qualifies as something. It also spreads the misery by making them other people's problems.

I plan on continuing to make a nuisance of myself on Mastodon and Bluesky.

I've found ways to increase the post count on this blog. The first is getting more organized and posting more regularly. The second is cheating. Publishing the Character Creation and #RPGaDay Challenges as daily updates is a guaranteed sixty-two posts! Seriously, I'll be shooting for weekly or biweekly posts outside of those special challenges.

As for YouTube, I may end up taking the "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" approach. At least I'll be posting something there.


Make a dent in my pile of unread books (and not just TTRPG books).

One thing I might try is to favor fiction for awhile. Non-fiction can be challenging for me to get through. I have the same issue with the mechanically crunchy parts of game rules. Fiction seems to flow better. And it's been a long time since I demolished a novel over a weekend.


Make a dent in my pile of shame (miniatures and terrain).

This demands a direct assault. I need a direction to work towards. A specific goal to focus my efforts. In 2025, I'll be looking at using my long neglected 15mm scale collection for Five Parsecs From Home. That means painting many tiny 15mm dudes and terrain to match. On the bright side, nobody expects better than tabletop standard at that scale.


And that's the plan. I'll circle back and report on my progress around the middle of the year.

How Did My 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan Go?

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (paraphrased)

The end of the year approaches! Let's see how things went with my 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan.

The games I ran and the miniature I painted in 2024.

Back to where I started with tabletop gaming - role playing.

As mentioned in the Midyear Update, our group finished D&D adventure module B4 The Lost City by June. My general approach to converting it to Old School Essentials and the specific decisions I made can be found elsewhere on this blog.

The other game I ran with our regular group was Mothership. My impression of the game is favorable. My opinion of the adventure in the boxed set - Another Bug Hunt - is mixed.

I also got the chance to play a couple sessions of D&D 5e run by my son. He has some rough edges as a gamemaster, but didn't we all at that age? D&D 5e is not my game, but I'll cherish every chance I get to roll dice with our family.

My goal to focus on TTRPGs was a success. I didn't run or play in as many sessions as I hoped, but even that was a marked improvement over 2023.


Getting more of my TTRPG collection off the shelves and onto the tabletop.

Okay, this could've gone better. I was planning on running FATE Core, Night's Black Agents, or Modiphius' Conan this year. None of that happened. I'll have to work harder to make the schedule come together in the future.


Do something with the games I've Kickstarted or preordered as they come in this year.

This was a mixed success. Mothership hit the table. Lancer did not. That's still much better than my average, so I'll take it.

Presenting more of my TTRPG thoughts online.

Not that my ideas and opinions are anything special, but getting them out of my head makes me feel better. This is my 25th post on this blog in 2024. That's much better than 2023. I'm also babbling about this kind of nonsense on Mastodon and BlueSky.

YouTube, unfortunately, is where I fell down completely. I just couldn't put together the wherewithal to draft a script, set up the gear, talk to a camera, edit the raw video, add music, make a thumbnail, write a description, upload the video, wait for YouTube to process it, and watch as the algorithm tries to figure out what to do with it. It's more work than it looks like and I'm not sure what I can do to make it less demanding.


Make a dent in my pile of unread books (and not just TTRPGs).

I read more books this year than the previous one. It barely made a dent in my book pile of shame, but some books read is better than no books read.


Make a dent in my pile of shame (miniatures and terrain).

I got (checks notes) one miniature painted this year. Something had to give to make progress everywhere else and this was it. I'll need a new plan for next year.


"Strategy is a system of expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline. It is the translation of knowledge to practical life, the improvement of the original leading thought in accordance with continually changing situations."
- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Given how poorly 2023 went for me as far as tabletop gaming is concerned, the modest improvements I made in 2024 feels great. But there's obviously room for more. Next year: new plan.

2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan - Midyear Update

We're halfway through the year. Which is as good a time as any for me to take stock of how I'm doing with my 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan.

Kick things off with a blast of nostalgia by revisiting some classic D&D and AD&D modules using Old School Essentials.

Our group just finished B4 The Lost City after a late start. The delay was to give me time to read through both OSE books and the module. Running it was a taste of how things were back when we got started with role playing games - both good and bad. The next module will be X1 The Isle of Dread, but we'll be playing through something else first to avoid campaign fatigue. I'll go into more details in upcoming posts.


Getting more of my RPG collection off the shelves and onto the tabletop.

OSE technically counts, but I'm planning on breaking out the likes of FATE Core or Night's Black Agents later this year.


Do something with the games I've Kickstarted or preordered as they come in this year.

The first of these - the Mothership boxed set - arrived last month. I'm reading through it now. Which is a large improvement considering all the times I left Kickstarter rewards collect a layer of dust before getting to them.


Make a dent in my pile of unread books (and not just RPGs).

I've made a dent. It's a smaller dent than I was hoping for, but it's more than I read in all of 2023.


Make a dent in my pile of shame (terrain and miniatures).

Yeah, not everything can be a win. Or even a qualified win. I need to put some paint on something soon.

Overall, I'm making progress in almost all areas. The OSE campaign is off to a great start. I'll likely run Mothership before marooning our group on The Isle of Dread. I'm reading more than I have in years. I just need to break out the brushes and get back into the habit of painting again.

My 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan

2023 was not my year for anything related to tabletop gaming. I don't want to get into details. I'm going to put it all behind me and start fresh with a new plan. It may not be a good plan, it might be pie in the sky, but it's a direction to go in until I come up with something better.

In early 2024, I'm going back to the place where I started gaming. I enjoy setting up terrain, measuring distances, pushing miniatures around, and cursing my poor die rolls. But wargaming isn't where the journey began for me. My gaming origins involve a purple boxed set with an Erol Otis cover, rules by Tom Moldvay, and an adventure by Gary Gygax.

So it's back to roleplaying games for awhile. I picked up the Player's Tome and Referee's Tome for Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy during Necrotic Gnome's Black Friday sale. It's looking like a good way to revisit some classic adventures without too much conversion work. After that, I have a bunch of other TTRPGs that are either sitting on the shelves or are on the way from Kickstarters or preorders. Maybe I'll alternate between fantasy and sci-fi with a modern setting thrown in here and there.

Related to all the TTRPGs sitting on the shelves is my massive backlog of books to read. Making a dent in it is an overall 2024 goal. Quite a few of those books are gaming related, so it's fair to mention it here.

Another backlog is my pile of shame. Although I'll be kicking off 2024 with TTRPGs, I'm planning on getting to know my brushes and paints again. Not every miniature and terrain piece has to be used for wargaming, after all. There's also some junk in storage for when I try my hand at scratch building and trashbashing again.

Finally, I could use a way to keep my thoughts and ideas organized in 2024. Maybe I could publish them in some format? Perhaps a blog? Or a YouTube channel? I'll have to look into it.

Tying Up Loose Ends

With the end of the year rolling at us at full speed, it's time for me to follow up, wrap up, or otherwise update some of the incomplete aspects of the ol' blog.

The Last Call crew. It was fun while it lasted.

The Last Call

The end of my Five Parsecs From Home campaign was ugly.

The battle of turn #2 didn't go well. Painting up a set of figures to use as Psychos was taking too long, so I resorted to using proxies to move on with the campaign. The battle turned against The Last Call crew due to a combination of poor die rolls, the opposition performing better than expected, and admittedly suboptimal tactical decision making. The result was a bitter grind as The Last Call crew put up a spirited, but futile struggle.

If I were gamemastering it as a RPG campaign, I might have fudged a few die rolls and had the Psychos fumble around a little to give The Last Call crew a chance to pull things together. Even using the options in "The Stars of the Story" section only mitigated things to a point. The outcome wasn't a true TPK, but was still a demoralizing setback. A hole that big would take a long time for The Last Call crew to dig their way free. I would have to bring in a bunch of newly painted miniatures to represent new crew in order to continue. Why not end it, call the whole thing a learning experience, and start fresh later?

I started a draft of the final stand of The Last Call crew, but left it undone. Few of the photos came out well. This would make the resulting battle report an almost unbroken wall of text. The writing alone would have to keep a reader engaged. I know the last stand has a long tradition, but I couldn't come up with a narrative that made the fight anything other than a depressing grind. I ended up abandoning the draft. Everybody only has so much time. I felt that mine would be better spent doing other things.

Beginning a new Five Parsecs From Home campaign is in the cards for next year. The ubrupt end of The Last Call campaign was rough, but it was fun while it lasted! And it fulfilled the goal of motivating me to paint more miniatures. Next time, I'd like to have a model to represent the ship and more terrain, but neither is a requirement that's cast in stone. Any decisions about the ship model or terrain will ultimately come down to time and cost. Having some more miniatures painted up and ready to go would also be prudent. Or I could just wing it. Let's see what the new year brings!

The Last Call - A Very Short Five Parsecs From Home Campaign:

Turn 0 - Crew generation

Turn 1 - Pre-battle steps, also includes campaign start steps

Turn 1 - Battle report

Turn 1 - Wrap up

Turn 1 - Error correction

Turn 2 - Pre-battle steps

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with this thing.

The YouTube Experiment

I'm still messing around with the YouTube Channel I started this year. Learning how to record audio and video, editing it, and finding ways to present it has been an engaging challenge. I think I'm closing in what to do with it, but I also want to experiment with the subjects I cover a little more.

For now, some links and short descriptions of what I've posted over there as of this post are below:

Coffee Bag Freebie Greeblies & Bits?

Short video on the scratch building parts that can be pulled off a bag of coffee.

Fixing a Squishy Based D&D Beholder Miniature

The base on this unfortunate miniature from Wizards of the Coast was far too soft to hold the figure up. Even a mighty Beholder isn't that scary if it's falling over! Fixing it by replacing the base was a quick and fun little project.

Plastic Soda Cap Greeblies & Bits?

Short video on trash bashing with these parts that come with a tasty drink!

Weathering Terrain with a Silver Marker

A quick guide on producing the appearance of bare metal exposed by wear and tear.

Soy & Teriyaki Sauce Bottle Bits

Short video on the junk build parts that come with a bottle of salty, umami flavor.

Some glass I got on my birthday. Both are helpful in the making of this blog.

More Miniature Photography Posts

Writing follow ups to The Post Where I Go On About Photography Gear and Kenko Extension Tube Set - First Impressions has been an exercise in hitting a moving target. There were several times when I thought that I had a handle on a process and started drafting a post, only from something new to upset the whole apple cart.

The simple truth of the matter is that I'm still learning and refining. How I approach miniatures photography has changed radically multiple times since I wrote those posts back in April 2021. A specific piece of gear might come and go and come back again. The camera settings have gone from one extreme to the other as I play with what works. This isn't a good place from which to teach others. I have tried to document my learning experience, but every draft has been tossed aside as no longer reflecting what I do by the time it's nearing completion.

It's going to be awhile before I dial into a preferred method and turn it into a time-tested formula. When I do, I'll be happy to share it so that others can benefit from my experience and improve their own methods.



These three were the glaring examples of unfinished business that I feel I should address. If there's anything else I've left undone that folks are curious about, feel free to fire off a question in the comments. Note that some projects are on hold due to the holidays. They will be resumed when time and weather permits - spray painting in the cold and wet is questionable at best.

Back from a Blogging Break

I made the conscious decision to take August off. Things at work have been changing non-stop since my place of employment changed hands a year ago. 2020 has been weird and stressful for everybody. Putting paint on plastic and metal figures seemed a little meaningless. I couldn't focus enough to put words on the screen. I took a month off blogging and hobby stuff to recharge a bit.

During my blogging break, I realized that I need a plan. In March, I started posting more regularly to this blog. My goal was modest - two posts a month. I achieved posting twice a month in March, April, and May. June and July each saw an increase to three posts per month. It was going well. Then I hit a wall. I had been dusting off old projects, reviewing a few things, and sharing thoughts about tabletop games. But just doing whatever came to mind could only go so far. Without direction, I drove off a cliff.

I still don't have a solid plan. That's coming together. Right now, I want to continue to gradually increase the number of posts I put out per month until I find a comfortable and sustainable pace. I've barely put a dent in my mountain of miniatures, so slinging more paint is in my future. My reviews seem to be well received, so I'm happy to offer up more opinions about the products I purchase. I can discuss tabletop gaming all darn day, so more posts about whatever game or gaming topic that catches my attention seems like a good outlet. I'd like to experiment with more tutorial posts. I did a post on electrical box terrain quite a while back and I've been thinking about revisiting the idea in more detail. Finally, I have almost as many old projects that need finishing as I do unpainted miniatures, so that's a bunch of stuff that needs doing.

It's not a plan, but it is a direction to go until I come up with one.

A Little Overdue for an Update

Yeah, so... it looks like I missed out on updating this blog for... all of February. I'll take all the blame for that one. There was alot on my plate last month and something had to give. Blogging had to take the hit to free up the time I needed to get things done. I'm sorry and will do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Until next time.

I did spend time thinking about this little blog, though. Up until now, I've done little more than chronicle my painting and terrain projects with a few reviews on the side. Those are worthy pursuits and will continue. But I do have ideas on other topics to add to the mix. I hope that you will enjoy the greater variety of posts.

2012 - Looking Back at My Gaming Goals

It's as good a time as any to take a look at the plans I made for gaming this year. Things didn't go as planned, but that's how life works.

Role Playing

The idea of running quarterly RPG games hit scheduling issues and go tossed to the side early in the year. But the underlying concept of promoting variety did work. I got three games off the ground during 2012.

Unfortunately, two of those games died off within two sessions. The first fizzled out. My issues with the ruleset (Palladium) caused me to trash the second.

The third, an AD&D campaign partly motivated by nostalgia, lasted for the planned half-dozen sessions. My gaming group will likely revisit this one later in 2013.


Terrain Projects

I tried my hand at creating my own terrain and learned quite a bit. Of course, some of that knowledge came at the cost of failure. Still, I feel better about trying, failing, and learning something than not taking the chance at all.

I have also been looking at sources of terrain for purchase. Expect some more reviews in 2013.


Painting Projects

I got a fair amount painted this year. Certainly the projects that were hanging over my head from 2011 were all completed early in the year.

Not buying more miniatures went out the window with the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. The summer and winter sales from various sources were also too tempting to resist. The end result is that my pile of unpainted metal, resin, and plastic is bigger than it ever was in 2011. Things will get even worse in March 2013 if Reaper stays on track.

So, yeah, more painting.


Overall, not a bad year.

Checking In

Just a quick check-in and an observation. I've made progress on some terrain pieces since the last post. Expect pics as soon as I can find the time to take them.

In the meantime, an observation – wipe down your work area regularly. I had just finished applying a nice, smooth coat of paint on a flat area of my latest project when I noticed a problem. A cat hair was stuck in the middle of it! Fortunately, the paint was still wet enough for me to fish out the hair with a spare brush and reapply the paint. Unfortunately, a quick check of recently worked on pieces revealed more cat hair. At least none of it is visible at table top distances. Looks like some touching up is in order...

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.