Gaming goals for this year

OK, so here's a quick rundown of what I plan to do in various gaming projects this year. Let's go. We need a photo, so here are some models I've painted recently:

This robo-missionary is going to be a character in my post-apocalyptic junk market.

This Night Horrors wraith is my first Oldhammer model of the year. 

Another Chaos cultist for my in-progress Age of Sigmar army. 

I've done a few more models since I took these photos, so I'll try to find a time with good light to take some pictures. 

Anyway, so here's what I've got ongoing: 

Tabletop RPGs

I am going to conclude my long-running D&D campaign this year, hopefully with a suitably epic battle against a world-threatening antagonist. Before the end of the year, I will start a new campaign, although I haven't decided exactly what. Probably a post-apocalyptic game of some kind. I will possibly run a short game of something off-beat between the two. 

I am going to try to make my local one-shots group a little more often, but they meet on Wednesdays, which isn't great for me. 

I am going to try to complete a draft of The Magonium Mine Murders by the end of the year. And hopefully more!

Live games

I am going to continue to run my monthly game, and I'm going to make a serious effort to finally run the kind of event I really want to with the upcoming weekend event I'm currently writing for. I may try to run a short-run live-action Unknown Armies game, but no promises. 

Miniatures games

I am going to complete my Age of Sigmar challenge -- I need to complete a unit of 10 Marauders, a unit of 5 Chaos Knights, and a lord with a demonic mount. I'm currently partly done with both units, but I need to sort out the character. 

I am going to finish my Norman army for SAGA, which means painting another 8 archers and (sigh) a whole load of knights. I don't know why I hate painting horses so much. 

I am going to begin at least one new fantasy army project: watch this space. 

I am going to try to paint at least one just-for-fun model each time I put a batch of models in for priming. 

So those are my resolutions for this year. Manageable. 

An upcoming talk and some playtesting

Apologies to those of you who read both this blog and my history blog, but I wanted to take a moment to say that I am going to be at ExiliCon 2016 in Cambridge this coming Saturday 22 October. It's at the St Andrew's Street Baptist Church, it runs from 11 to 5, and it's free. People will be showing off and selling all kinds of stuff, from games to art to films to I don't know what all, so if you're in the area you should drop by and check it out.

I will be there playtesting B-Movie Mogul, the card game that fellow bad movie nerd Luke and I have working on fitfully (I have a busyish life, and he has a very busy one) over the last ... well, over a year actually. It is still very much a work in progress, but people seem to think it's fun.

Also, I will be giving a talk at 1:45 on "Myth, mystery and archaeology in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft," if that's your kind of thing. And I believe I'm moderating a panel on historical gaming and fiction later in the day, details TBC.

Anyway, if you're in or around Cambridge on Saturday, come on by. Like I said, it's free.

The Magonium Mine Murders: Things have slowed down

It's the start of the new school year, and I have a number of other projects on the go, so unfortunately I haven't had time to work on the Magonium Mine Murders project much. I'm hoping to push on and get at least a basic draft done within a few months, but at present it's something I'm struggling to fit in around other gigs. However, I haven't abandoned it, and I will try to update semi-regularly.

In the meantime, here's something I painted the other day: another Ramshackle Games miscast, in this case a simple barricade. I'll be using it in my upcoming Wasteman game!

An apology and a photo or two

So, once again, August is RPG a Day, when all sorts of bloggers and video-creators talk about roleplaying games. And while I've had a lot of fun with it in previous years, August is looking like a very hectic month for me. Also, a lot of the questions are much more personal, in the sense that they're about my campaign or people I know, and I'm not sure that would have a lot of relevance to anyone who doesn't know those people. I may try to be periodic recaps, like I did for the weekend questions last year, but I'm not sure I@m going to be able to do the whole thing.

Anyway, speaking of things that are distracting my attention in August, I finished the unreleased Foundry pig-faced space orcs I've been working on. I had to convert a few of the models up to make them work with my chosen theme, which is why the last few took so long (even though they were very minor conversions). I'm pretty happy with how they came out overall.

All 15 pig-faced space orcs, ready for battle. 

The MG team hustling into position.

We are on a first-name basis in this man's army ... and my first name is Herr Kapitan!

The rifle squad.

The assault squad ready to batter down a door or two. 

A relatively low-content post

I was unwell today, so I cancelled my D&D game -- with much regret! This means that I can't post the miniatures I was painting for it (a good thing too, as I haven't actually finished them), or the cool little mini-scenario I wrote for it. I haven't finished Maze of the Blue Medusa, so that review is going to have to wait until next week. And today I'm teaching for seven hours (well, just under six and a half, actually, but it's still a lot and then there'll be quite a lot of travel as well), so I just don't have time to write much that's very complicated.

But all is well and I hope to have some good posts for you next week.

Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, here's a photo of a Poundland purchase that's going to get turned into a piece of miniatures scenery. I don't know if I've posted it before, but hopefully not.

Quiet but ... not quiet?

I have not had a lot of time to paint recently, which means there have not been a lot of photos on this here blog. I'm hoping to get an evening this coming week, but you never know. 

But that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything game-related. In addition to running my usual games, I've been working on some longer projects that I'm hopefully going to be able to talk about soon. It's been a lot of work, but it's all led up to something I predict you're going to enjoy.

I guess that's just a way of saying "sorry it's been quiet lately, but it's going to pay off soon."

Also it's the end of term, work is demented and I'm sick as a dog, so that's not helping. 

A quick note about my new podcast!

So, I've been quiet the last couple of days, but I haven't been idle. Instead, I have been working on putting a new podcast online. I know nothing about the technical side of podcasting, so I'm afraid it's not quite as polished as it might be, but hopefully it'll be fun anyway.

Anyway, it's called Pledge Break, and it's about history (sometimes) and classic Doctor Who (always), and I'm hosting it with my lifelong friend, actor Jesse Merlin.

You can find the podcast on Twitter, on Libsyn, or on its own blog.

Our first episode is the classic William Hartnell story The Crusades.

A very quick post

I have left today's blog post too late, so here is a quick roundup of what's going on in gaming life at the moment:

• My D&D game continues to go well; tonight's session saw our heroes forge an alliance with a goofy old drunk, plan and execute a jailbreak and go to a big party. They started a fight, but it was getting late so we're going to handle that next session. 
• I have recently experienced a renewed surge of creativity (or just more things worth swiping coming across my desk) for my live-action Requiem game. I am going into the next session full of enthusiasm and hopefully with fun new things for everyone to do. 
• My first game of Frostgrave is tomorrow, and I'm very excited about it! As always, I'm late to the party, but I tend to wait to see if a game takes off first. 
• I am still playing and enjoying my Changeling character -- I didn't have the huge burst of keen that many of the other players in the society seem to have had, but that may just be because I was already quite enthusiastic. 
• I am working on a couple of gaming projects I don't want to talk about prematurely, but watch this space for future announcements. 

I promise a more detailed post on Friday, with plenty of pictures. 

I am back ... ish.

I have spent most of the last week moving house, and although the process is pretty much done it hasn't left me with a lot of time to write ... or maybe I've just got out of the habit.

Anyway, now that my study is all sorted out I'm feeling a little better about returning to blogging. I don't have a lot to say today, but I'll try to have a more substantial post for Friday.

This is the gaming cabinet in my study. Miniatures and things are in a closet, and there's a set of shelves for terrain -- a gaming table is coming soon -- but I have put a few selected groups of figures in the little display spaces just for looks. You can't see them very clearly, but I'll try to take a better picture tomorrow when the light is good. 

Anyway, it took a long time but finally we're in our new house and all my stuff is out and I can get back to work. I've got some exciting projects coming up during the rest of the year, and I'm looking forward to telling you about them!

Might be going quiet for a little while

We finally have a date for that long-awaited move, and everything is, as I've mentioned, being packed up. That means I might be a little preoccupied over the next week or so. Work-work has to receive priority for non-packing time (as well as things I've promised other people).

I am going to make up a mess of terrain tonight, as I don't want to take it with me in a half-finished state, so if I get the chance I'll stick some photos up later on. With luck, regular service will be resumed soon, and I may have some photos of my new gaming digs to show you.