Yeah, I think that's the best place to start. I used to get really good deals on e-bay, haven't looked in ages.Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel
Sorry! HMGS is the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society; they have chapters and meetings all over the place, I'm told.
And people say a Cyberpunk future didn't happenTell me about it. Let's face it - modeling Tekumel means that there's going to be a lot of scratch-building that's going to get done. I used to run big open games at the biggest local game shop, but there were a couple of incidents with the staff that really put me off.
One was one of the guys telling me that I needed to bring my work up to the standard of the GW 'Eavy Metal' crew, because the store wanted to use my games as a way to promote miniatures - which don't sell all that well, for them, as they are in a local market dominated by RPGs. Well, all right, I said, but you do know that the pictures you see in the GW magazines are usually by their professional and well-paid in-house crew? God as my witness, he didn't know that - he thought that it was done by 'local gamers', or something. I told them that I would be happy to paint to the GW standard, if I was getting GW rates. Never heard anything back about it.
Second 'Great Moment In Retailing' came when I was buying some Reaper Pathfinder figures for use as PCs in my campaign, and the nice young man behind the counter was kind enough to point out that the store was running an Officially Sanctioned And Authorized Pathfinder Tournament in the game area. I thought this was fine, but made the mistake of mentioning that I didn't play the game. The lad asked me why I was buying the miniatures, then? if I wasn't playing the game; the other bright young lad behind the counter, at the other register, told the first one that I was famous for not playing any games, which he said was pretty weird. I just stood there and looked at the two of them for a bit, and asked if they would simply ring up the purchase for me. I felt like I needed a letter from the shop's owner, who I know, allowing me to buy figures I like for a game that I don't play, so that I can use them in a game I do like.
The third 'Great Moment' came when I was standing next to the miniatures racks, and a guy shows his friend a pack of generic Sherman tanks. The friend says "We can't use those! They aren't made by the company that did the rules that we play!" These were, I gathered, not the Official, Authorized, Sanctioned Sherman tanks allowed in game play.
Scratch-building in gaming may just be extinct. I don't think I'd be allowed to use my Airfix models - let alone my Tamiya ones! - in a game, any more...?
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward." - Rocky
I think it did, from where I'm sitting...And people say a Cyberpunk future didn't happen
* cries *
I don't care if you respect me, just buy my fucking book.
Formerly known as Old Geezer
I don't need an Ignore List, I need a Tongue My Pee Hole list.
The rules can't cure stupid, and the rules can't cure asshole.
Aw, JEEZ, I'd forgotten about that monster! Sarah Prince, bless her, actually could use it without total self-immolation, but it scared the whey out of me!
I don't care if you respect me, just buy my fucking book.
Formerly known as Old Geezer
I don't need an Ignore List, I need a Tongue My Pee Hole list.
The rules can't cure stupid, and the rules can't cure asshole.
I can understand being fussy about scale. But the zombie consumer gamer makes me cry. Had another kid in asking for help assembling his brand new Warhammer 40k models that he bought at another store today. I can't even carry them because that store has an exclusive contract with Games Workshop.
And I smile and help them out because I want them to come into my store and be comfortable in my store but damnit! Sixty bucks for a ten man, two drone, one pillbox thingie squad.
I'm despairing of the competitors ever competing though. Warlord is damn good, they should be, they're the guys who created Warhammer and made it huge. Beyond the Gates of Antares looks fantastic, but it's pretty rigid and non-inclusive. I don't think you can just bring your own figures. And while Bolt Action is one of my favorite games that's because I'm not a big World War II guy and reducing it to a minimal level of complexity permits me to focus on other things. I have tons of Warlord and Bolt Action on my shelves and it doesn't move. This makes me fearful of ordering their new zombie game and BtGoA.
Prodos is pretty cool but Mutant Chronicles is a three time loser already and frankly they've made some scary mistakes. Even so, if I learned anything from the Alien Dungeon / All's Quiet on the Martian Front fiasco it's that the on-line fans will buy up my remaining stock in a frenzy if Prodos is sucked under by the Alien vs Predator kickstarter fiasco.
Mantic is very hit and miss. Kings of War is fast and fun and has a surprising amount of depth for such a small ruleset. But I miss the simulationist aspects of Warhammer, in particular I miss charge responses. But I also miss the sense of detail and individual casualty removal. I suspect one day Mantic will surpass Games Workshop solely on the strength of ideas they swiped when GW abandoned them, but a week later they'll vanish due to their first and last failed kickstarter. Mantic's running on a kickstarter a quarter and I fear it can't end well.
Privateer Press is more anal retentive and gamist than GW and their fans hate three dimensional terrain. Honestly the only thing that appeals to me in their entire line is the press gang set with the tramp and the sack of recruits, that's a fun diorama piece there.
At last! The big revision! More monsters! more magic! Two page hit location table!
The Arcane Confabulation
Tell me about it. Let's face it - modeling Tekumel means that there's going to be a lot of scratch-building that's going to get done. I used to run big open games at the biggest local game shop, but there were a couple of incidents with the staff that really put me off.
One was one of the guys telling me that I needed to bring my work up to the standard of the GW 'Eavy Metal' crew, because the store wanted to use my games as a way to promote miniatures - which don't sell all that well, for them, as they are in a local market dominated by RPGs. Well, all right, I said, but you do know that the pictures you see in the GW magazines are usually by their professional and well-paid in-house crew? God as my witness, he didn't know that - he thought that it was done by 'local gamers', or something. I told them that I would be happy to paint to the GW standard, if I was getting GW rates. Never heard anything back about it.
Jackass! Even if it were done by local gamers the amount of work involved takes time, not to mention supplies. I would have said no problem, but either pay me by the hour for my painting or I'm sending you an invoice for a cut of all sales generated from my miniatures. Wow.
Second 'Great Moment In Retailing' came when I was buying some Reaper Pathfinder figures for use as PCs in my campaign, and the nice young man behind the counter was kind enough to point out that the store was running an Officially Sanctioned And Authorized Pathfinder Tournament in the game area. I thought this was fine, but made the mistake of mentioning that I didn't play the game. The lad asked me why I was buying the miniatures, then? if I wasn't playing the game; the other bright young lad behind the counter, at the other register, told the first one that I was famous for not playing any games, which he said was pretty weird. I just stood there and looked at the two of them for a bit, and asked if they would simply ring up the purchase for me. I felt like I needed a letter from the shop's owner, who I know, allowing me to buy figures I like for a game that I don't play, so that I can use them in a game I do like.
Really? Inconceivable! Customer Disservice 101.at its best. Unfortunately this happens a lot. My buddy used to own a model shop and he couldn't figure why sales were so erratic. When he and the missus were there business was good, but when only the staff were there not so good. It turned out that his employee was spending most of his just time sitting on his ass behind the counter, and primarily getting into arguments with the customers and bad mouthing the owner.
The third 'Great Moment' came when I was standing next to the miniatures racks, and a guy shows his friend a pack of generic Sherman tanks. The friend says "We can't use those! They aren't made by the company that did the rules that we play!" These were, I gathered, not the Official, Authorized, Sanctioned Sherman tanks allowed in game play.
Scratch-building in gaming may just be extinct. I don't think I'd be allowed to use my Airfix models - let alone my Tamiya ones! - in a game, any more...
This is the GW brainwashing that has spilt over into other games. Let me guess were they playing Bolt Action? All they are doing is ruining it for themselves. The sad thing is that the detail on the Airfix, and Tamiya kits are probably a 1000 times better than the official ones. I still build the old Tamiya and Italeri armour from the 70's. They go together like a charm, are painless to put together, provide an amazing platform for super detailing should you so desire, and when done right can often even fool the so-called "experts" and "rivet counters". Like the time I entered an Italeri model kit from 1974 into a local model show and won gold. All it took was about an hour of minor corrections, a hatch here, some screens there... Nobody would believe that it was the "crumby old Italeri" until I took the turret off and showed them the company logo inside the hull. A lot of red faces and grumbles from these self important so and so's. That was the last show I ever entered.
Some people's kidsIt's funny how things have changed in this and other hobbies.
Warlord and Italeri have a deal and some Bolt Action stuff like stone walls and sandbags are just repackaged and repriced Italeri 1/72 stuff. But I'll put in an argument for Bolt Action's kits, they're plain but they're gaming kits with very few pieces those lovely Airfix tanks require the assembly of individual bogeys and I'm afraid that's more effort than I want to put into a wargaming unit. Plain kits are also easier to dress up with stowage.
Even so, I often feel the gaming industry has some ridiculous pricing expectations. I can understand why a hand injected resin Warzone tank is a hundred bucks, but if they went to injection moulded plastic I'd be wondering why it didn't drop to 25. If they weren't making enough of them to sustain that price and profit why did they move to plastic in the first place?
It's a problem I see across the industry. The expectation that people will pay whatever you ask for that full color rulebook. The cost of entry for D&D these days is absurd. They wonder why people aren't getting into roleplaying games and assume it's because video games siphon off the customer base. But video games only really affect the more affluent end of the customer base.
I've had a few schemes in mind over the years but with the store soaking up all my time and money they've fallen by the wayside.
At last! The big revision! More monsters! more magic! Two page hit location table!
The Arcane Confabulation
Yeah. What you said. Welcome to what our hobby has become.
It was very good at raising blisters, and sometimes the photo prints from the typesetting machine would stay stuck to the page. When I recovered a lot of the keylines from the wreckage of AGI, quite a few of the pages had come loose; good thing I made photocopies of everything, back in the day...
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