[unofficial weekender] Making it work

[limburger 22520xp 0]

Back to hobby … local delivery guys decided that dropping a package in front of my door is ‘delivered’.
So lucky it didn’t get stolen, because I’d have some choice words for them ..

What was in the box ?
SixMoreVodka’s latest project : Orken
There is no game or system attached to it. It is pure world building and background.
And it is glorious.
Best of all is that it is not a traditional ‘good’ vs ‘evil’.
Both sides within the setting have their ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things.
The ‘civilized’ invaders aren’t exactly knights in shiny armour.
And the ‘uncivilized’ savages aren’t exactly ‘noble’ either.

ok … technically there is a game attached as they do have a 3rd person game in development, but again … it is not the focus of the project. It is more of a showcase for the art, but I’m sure the game itself will be able to stand on its own as it matures.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sixmorevodka/orken

 

[sundancer 44676xp 1]

Is this thing on?

Yesterday evening it all went to sh*t. Couldn’t show of the shiny projects. Sad.

Now coffee.

[limburger 22520xp 2]

Surely no one can finish these kinds of solo rpg books without cheating, can they ?

Anyone following the GW 40k ‘campaign’ for 11th edition ?
Not sure if anyone in charge understood what the heck they were doing when they released blue smurfs as a ‘prize’ for the tin boyz winning the first two rounds when the armageddon box itself was covered in red spac marines.
In this week dissapointment the Orkz got multi-part ork infantry … not sure if that means there will be actual new multi-part ork infantry kits or these are the same single-pose models that came in the box.

It’s not like I had high hopes for what GW would be posting about this thing, but man … they ain’t even trying.
Anyways … it’s too hot to think and have any emotions other than a big ol’ “meh”.

Music that fits the mood of todays’ ramblings :

[zoidpinhead 12985xp 2]

Surely no one can finish these kinds of solo rpg books without cheating, can they ?

No.  That’s why we all cheat 😀  I used to play them a lot when they first came out as I was a teenager and very much a member of the target audience.  I tried every possible technique and there isn’t any way to get through a book without dying if you play following the rules.  The best technique is to never fight anything but even then you are likely to get to a 50/50 die instantly trap at some point.
Cheating.  This is the way.
The second article of my series on starting Kings of War is out.  Do check it out:

https://www.ontabletop.com/kings-of-war/veteran-wargamers-kings-of-war-journey-part-2/

 

[grantinvanman 10386xp 0]

@limburger so far, 11e has been underwhelming. More like a 10.1 – not even a 10.5 midway mark. Models are bland. Theming is bland. Terrain is bland.

Definitely oriented at the tourney players, the lifeblood of GW these days it seems – for example, 500 players at the big Tacoma, WA, tourney for the competitive side; 100 players on the narrative side, with the first errata being specific to this tourney. Seems… unappealing to me – and I am a die-hard fan, going back decades. The excitement has left the building.

The literally only model I’m thrilled for is the Wartrakk. That’s pretty thin pickings…

Or maybe it’s just that it’s grossly hot again for Calgary, but AC is on, and I have a ride planned. I always ride armoured and full face, so it’s fine when I’m riding, but when I stop, it’s like a blast of heat.  Gross.

 

[limburger 22520xp 0]

@grantinvanman
I’d say it’s not that 40k is aimed at ‘tournament players’.
I’d say it is aimed at sucking wallets dry.

It only aligns with ‘tournament players’, because the goals of both align as they want to play games while only ever engaging with the hobby-side of things as little as possible. That’s why tournaments need to have prizes for ‘best painted army’ as that forces them to paint them. Without that challenge they’d happily field gray rectangles with names … (*)

I do see a net-positive: 40k tournament tables may finally start to look like they’re meant for (fun) games …
No more L-shaped bits of cardboard and styrofoam pretending to be ‘terrain’.

It does suck that a setting with as much potential for fun has to suffer this, but it’s been what GW has been doing since their idea of ‘hobby’ devolved into ‘paint by numbers’ and less like ‘encourage creativity’.

Maybe that’s why I find Mantic’s approach to its games so much more enjoyable ?

(*) I remember how in videogames we used to have all sorts of crazy skins and characters. Playing a game of Quake or Unreal Tournament with a cartoony professor in a wheelchair ? Yay.
Then the ‘tournament’ and the ‘win at any cost’ crowds descended onto the games like locusts. Player characters were created to wreck gameplay by taking advantage of engine limitations. Developers struck back by killing modding options and making all characters the exact same size and with skins where a single neon-glow colour … Creativity was killed in favour of min/maxing shareholder value as well as pleasing the fickle tournament crowd. You can’t even play games without the games installing big brother style monitoring tools that kill the game if you even dare to install something unauthorised onto your system that could be used to modify the game to your liking.

Me bitter ?
What gave you that idea … 😉

Anyways … I never expected 11th edition to be anything other than 10.0.0.2 in disguise. GW is not the kind of company that cares about the games they create. That doesn’t mean that we as customers can’t make it our own. It may not be the 40k that GW wanted to be, but it will be the 40k that I’d like it to be when I’m done with the contents of that box. I will find a set of rules that makes 40k fun (again) some day.

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