Comfy Chair Games ... interesting range of minis

Comfy Chair Games

These guys seem to have quite an interesting range of post-apocalyptic/gang wars 28 MM figures.

What was perhaps even more interesting were their cool spider mechs!


THEN look at the bare pewter over on noted mini sculptor John Bear Ross's blog ... you'll see they seem to be some decent sculpts ...

Shadowsea ... it could have been so cool!!

Sadly it is an incomplete range and the guys making it seem to have ADD they are frittering off into other things and now I see Cavalcade is producing their stuff (likely meaning the game is about to die as Cavalcade seems to exclusively make money selling defunct ranges, like Ironwind Metals).

These guys did manage to make one of the coolest terrain pieces of all time (the Cthulhu temple) and the entire concept and feel of the game could have been really interesting, but they just didn't seem to produce a large enough range to make it worth buying in on. They had some really hit and miss sculpts, etc. as well.

Ah well I still am toying with the idea of buying the temple ... its pretty damn awesome looking actually ...

Antimatter games

http://www.antimatter-games.com/shadowsea/html/

Too much elitism in gaming? Me > You ... :(

Clearly this is going to be a rant but I do this blog almost exclusively for catharsis and as a mental place holder for myself.

That said here goes ... my take on the state of gaming in general and I have to say
I'm tired of elitism in gaming. I've noticed it creeping in over the past several years and its just gotten to the point that its really overwhelming those things that I once found dear and refreshing in gamers and most the gaming communities out there. I don't know if its 15 years of sustained internet influence, building up these micro celebrities and giving people forums to puff their chests out in, but all in all it really just recently hit me that this is the root of what is bothering me about gaming.

More and more I can visibly see the winners in gaming both literally and metaphorically feeling like somehow they have proven they are superior. Whether that is for the evening or permanently in the gaming community depends on the case. But my point is that isn't what drew me to gaming. If I wanted that then I would have stayed with sports, golf, etc. etc. To me tabletop games of all kinds aren't about winning or losing, they never have been. Its cliche to say but really and truly they are about playing the game and having fun. It is all just about having something to do while you socialize with some people with common interests. That is being lost in gaming today I believe.

For me I came to gaming in 2000 after being away from it since middle school. Sports, booze, school, graduate school, getting married ... all those things were what my life was about. Then in 2000 I had a decent job, was done for the time with school and finally had some disposable time and money to go out and use. I gravitated to gaming because of the inviting nature of gamers, the down to earth fun geekery that I encountered sold me. I started out with war gaming via the venerable Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000. I had some very fun times with a good group in Las Vegas. But as time passed more of the old guard from our group moved away and eventually so did I. So 40K's star faded. Then came RPGs and eventually Euro-board games. But what I've noticed over the past three to five years is a trend towards elitism even in those areas.

By this I mean more war gamers are now buying their armies pre-painted and its all about graphing out numbers breakdowns for statistical superiority with army lists. For RPGs its all this factional crap with D&D, there is the old school camp, the 3.5/Pathfinder camp and the 4e camp .. some crossover but mostly those people hate each other. The indie fans for a long time seemed like a bastion of hope for me, but now with the podcast and blog-o-sphere influence mostly all of those people seem like name dropping and specialized jargon is what they are after as a way to feel superior to other gamers.

Now board games ... well ... even that once hopeful area of light has now faded for me. More and more the same issues I have with say Games Workshop games has come to play with board games. Sites like boardgame geek have turned it into a contest to see who owns the most games, who has played the most, and you have ever increasing release schedules from game companies just churning out semi-collectible products (I'm looking at you FFG!). Its just not worth even trying to keep up anymore. My only hope here is to convert some non-gamers into a little fun board game group and hope that it stays that way. I'm really tired of board gaming with war gamers and actual board gamers ... its just not fun ... the entire concept of a social board game is lost on those people anymore.

So whats left? I know historical war gaming has long had its elite camps, hell the entire concept of it is a little elitist. That said ... historicals has sort of been the "outsider" gaming pass time. There are some crossovers but generally speaking with games that might not even have a points system and are entirely "gentleman's games" ... essentially just an excuse to paint toys soldiers and get them out and look at them and push them around in little interesting historical scenarios. Well maybe there is hope there yet. Who knows.

Other than that I'm wondering if my days of gaming with people other than my kids in general are numbered. Maybe I'll just go back to being one of those boring main stream sports fans again ... honestly there is less elitism and really probably no more boorish-jerkism (probably less per-capita). Besides sports are still more main stream than gaming so it makes for better water cooler talk.

I'm a geek, I always have been, but I went from a sports geek to being a game geek and now I'm sad that the negatives that seemed to plague my fellow sports fans has crept into gaming. I'm sure its in part due to just the growth in gaming. We are seeing a wider more diverse audience and we are no longer in the fledgling "community formation" stage, so those innocent friendly days of the past are long behind. I just miss those times and miss gaming with those kinds of people.

I made this post in no particular reaction to anything or anyone I just was surfing the net as usually and facebooking and had a little ah ha moment for myself. I really don't think many people read this blog. I will be the first to admit that its not of high quality or particular interest to anyone but me, but this was something I just felt like putting down in writing to perhaps see if anyone else out there felt like this at times.

15 MM D&D? I'm serious !!

Ok one of my favorite blogs anymore is Tiny Solitary Soldiers and recently there have been some posts over there regarding copplestones new 15 MM fantasy range. Ya you sold me ... I'm in.

I honestly wish there were more complete ranges for 15 MM fantasy in general. I have really been thinking about 15 MM D&D ... 15 MM is really a better scale for the way that many DMs run their games. Some really cool secondary benefits for going smaller, such as you could use dragons that were actually in scale to the adventurers (and it wouldn't cost you $500.00 to do so!). Terrain would be easier to do up and you could do larger rooms and scenes with less effort than you do in 28 MM. Doing large dungeons would really be a snap even by comparison to small to medium sized 28 MM dungeons. You could represent hordes on a 1 to 1 basis ... 100 goblins ... hmm ... ok no problem guys! Terrain would be easy and actually on this front I do believe that there are some decent options out there for 15 MM terrain with all the ancients terrain for Roman and Dark Ages stuff not to mention the north African stuff for WW II gaming (that would still work perfect for D&D), etc. etc.

We just need more in the way of D&D monsters, adventurers and a little bit more in the way of high fantasy style terrain options. I'm on a quest now to find more of this stuff and acquire it and use it.

Ok and speaking of using 28 MM dragons ... perhaps best of all is that some of the 28 MM monsters would work as "ancient" or "giant" variants of the said monsters. So you could probably use some figures selectively from 28 MM ranges as well (I'm thinking things like demons, wyverns, trolls, etc.).

I'm very excited about the future of 15 MM based D&D!!

Warlord Bolt Action WW II rules!!

Warlord is going to do a 28 MM WW II game go go along with their bad ass Bolt Action minis! Bodes well for weird WW II as well!! They are apparently partnering with Osprey which is friggin awesome!! Check it out!