Seasonal Greetings folks! Yes, it's that time of year again, with Christmas just around the corner I thought I'd get my finger out and record another podcast before things got to busy. But what subject should I choose this time?

Well, I thought I'd start out easy and re-cap what I've been up to since last time. I've been busy in my own way; some painting, some wargaming and some rules learning. It's been a mixed bag albeit a very satisfying one. I briefly discuss my Anglo-Zulu project using both Osprey's 'The Men Who would be Kings' and 'Black Powder' before switching to fantasy using Warhammer Skirmish and One Page Rules' 'Age of Fantasy, Skirmish' system. The latter being a very rules lite and straightforward set allowing you to get stuck into the thick of battle right away. Check 'em out, the link is below.

Also I was coming to terms with painting the fantasy equivalents of Gregg Allman and Freddie Mercury. I kid you not!

Now, I had wanted to discuss a couple of things beyond the 'what I've been up to' side of things, but I ran out of time talking about the title of this podcast. Sure I could have just extended the running length, but for now the 40 or so minutes seems long enough, especially given the odd monologue I've chosen. Namely, my interest - nay obsession (!) - with dice.

Yes folks, today's episode is all about my dice. It's as simple as that, or is it? I've been collecting dice since I first got into gaming and now have hundreds of every type commonly used in wargaming and RPGs. But why do I have so many? There's no logical explanation for this. Sure, every time I buy a boxed set or RPG set it may indeed come with a set of dice, but this doesn't explain my dice mountain. Is there something wrong with me? Is it just me? Are there others who suffer from this eccentric affliction?

It's been one of those gaming things I've had floating around my head for some time, so I thought I would go ahead and try to collect my thoughts in audio form for the benefit of the gaming community. 

Plus, for me, each dice purchase usually has a reason - and a story - behind it, so it's not all random or crazy.

Am I talking sense, madness of revealing an un-diagnosed psychosis?

Listen on and find out.

...oh. And by the way that thing I was trying to describe is a 'Dice Tray'.

https://onepagerules.com/

Greetings folks!

I thought it was high time I recorded another podcast and the inspiration for this episode is a holistic assessment of my miniatures collection - the ones I've painted, the ones I hope to paint and the ones - gulp - I may never paint. But first the backstory - last weekend marked a milestone in my wargaming activities; I actually finished painting all my Pendraken 10mm miniatures (yay!). I ordered them just before the first lockdown of 2020 and promptly set about undercoating and using my newly purchased Citadel Contrast Paints on them. However, after I'd painted up a few units I kind of ran out of steam and flitted across to solo wargaming Frostgrave. Fast forward to earlier this year and I decided to have another painting drive which bore much fruit until I ran out of steam. Again. The saga finally ended last week when I finished off the remaining cavalry units. So altogether they took well over a year and a half to paint (eek...)

While I'm proud of the way they look and the effort I put into them, its the sheer fact I've finished a relatively major painting project that's giving me some elation. But, it got me thinking, I've got loads of unpainted minis - many of which have remained unpainted for years, decades in some cases - am I ever going to get around to painting them? 

Wargaming is like many other hobbies, the sum of many small purchases can get out of hand and morph into hoarding. We may not realise this and furthermore many wargaming forums have a kind of smirking acceptance that having an unwieldy lead pile is a natural facet and by-product of practicing the hobby. 

Like many wargamers I'm kind of torn between the Scylla and Charybdis of genuinely wanting to paint everything I have, but on the other hand feeling a pressing need to sell some things that I reckon I just wont ever get around two. These tidal forces are forever in turmoil.

It's not just me. I was recently listening to the excellent Across the Pond Wargamers Podcast and a couple of times on the episodes, guests and hosts have mentioned they may never ever around to painting everything they have. 

To compound matters, over the past few years I've been stripping the paint off some of the first minis I ever painted. Citadel and Grenadier figures I got way back in the mid-late 80s. That got me thinking too; I last painted these over 30 years ago, am I going to forget about some of them again for another 30 years?

It's thinking like this that makes me ponder minis, paint, the universe and mortality - I kid thee not. 

There's more to wargaming than dice, minis and rules.....

Greetings all!

It's been a while. A few things have conspired to keep me away from recording my random musings about my gaming collection; being away on holiday, not being able to decide on which game or product to talk about and wanting to get hold of a decent microphone. All these simple things have conspired to delay me getting my act together and making the latest episode.

Another conspirator were my actual gaming shelves...! Yes, folks, due to the amount of stuff on them I completely overlooked the fact my two shelves contain several doors and drawers, in many of which are yet more wargames, RPGs and adventure board games. Thus I opened one and was confronted with my sizable Osprey games collection - while some are out in the open - many were squirreled away in the dark recesses of my Ikea monolith. It this latter location was the first edition rule book and a couple of supplements for Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City.

Thus they are the subject of today's sonic ramblings. As is my way, this isn't a detailed assessment of the rules or discussion about the design history, but instead more of a how I got into the game and what it means to me. I think this is becoming my niche in a way.

I make brief mention of the fact I was a guest of Matthew McCloud on the 'Bedroom Battles' wargames blog and podcast - look him up!

Also I've tinkered with the introduction and 'outroduction' of the podcast with a few sound effects and music. Seems OK to me, not the best there is out there, but gives a bit of a buffer between clicking play and hearing my voice.

Anyway, enjoy!

It's been a while!

I've been absent from the podwaves on account of the weather being so nice - with the beach being but a ten minute bike ride away I've been catching up on my body boarding or honing my SUP skills. Also I was a bit of a loss about what I talk about next. Having quite a few games to choose from gave me a case of what I gather is now called 'choice paralysis'. However, fear not. Due to the fluke of nature, I decided upon the D&D Gazetteer, The Elves of Alfheim for this episode.

While I wanted to do something other than D&D, picking up the book suddenly game me a rush of nostalgia and emotions from those crazy days back in the early 90s when I'd just started University in London and bought the book in Oxford Street's Virgin music store. A bit earlier I'd joined a gaming group and it re-invigorated my RPGing to the point I decided to actually make a purchase with my hard earned student grant (them were the days, eh?)

In either case the Elves of Alfheim made me realise that this whole D&D thing was a huge world with endless possibilities. It illustrated how Dungeons and Dragons wasn't some random collection of non-related dungeon bashes, but rather a rich world to explore and get lost within. Heady stuff! I'd paid lax attention to the Mystara map in the Expert Rule Book. Only considering it dull background waffle you could ignore on your way to the Isle of Dread. Ah, the folly of youth. If only I'd paid more attention and hadn't been so focused on 'hack and slay' I'd have seen earlier that there's - literally - a whole world out there.

Anyway, only a short one today. Enjoy.

A 'sequel' episode to the last one. In this podcast Games Workshop's Blood Bath at Orc's Drift is discussed and poured over with much more attention and care than when I first bought the game. I specifically remember seeing this game either advertised in White Dwarf, or on display in the old Games Workshop on Liverpool's Bold Street some time in the mid-80s just after its release. I must confess I carry a certain burden of guilt with this product for the twin reasons of only really wanting it for its card buildings and also for not properly reading (or understanding) the mini-campaign until some time later. The shame burns into my soul even now.

Alas, such follies of youth were a feature of much of my earlier gaming career in that I only superficially enjoyed the various modules, rule sets and other RPG / Wargame products I amassed in my early teens. 

Well, that's one of the reasons why I'm doing this podcast I guess - it gives me chance to correct past wrongs and give the games the attention and appreciation they deserve.

Grab your sword, climb up to the stockade's parapet and keep your eyes peeled for them nefarious green skins. Oh! And check your codpiece thoroughly before donning...!

It's been a while! Everyday life has meant I've not been so active with my efforts to get another podcast together so I thought it was high time I got my finger out and recorded something.

The candidate for this episode is Games Workshop's 1985 product 'Blood on the Streets'. A great little package designed for the Role Player or Wargamer to use how they please. I'm a big fan of this period of gaming or Old School Gaming as it's known, particularly Warhammer as it seems to hark back to a time when wargaming was a low intensity fun hobby. Not the crushing business model it has since mutated into. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate businesses need to sell product to survive, but the near constant rules update, army list revisions etc. ad nuseum are things that send a shiver through my gaming soul.

Just give me a handful of minis, some simple scenery, dice and that's enough for me.

I also like this product, and its ilk, as there is humour a plenty throughout its pages. Something that seems to have been shoved aside with brutalist depictions of steroid pumped warriors wearing skull adorned cod pieces.

Before you press play, one error requires highlighting. I make reference to Bill Pertwee in this episode, please be advised I in fact meant John Pertwee aka the 3rd Doctor Who.

Enjoy.

Greetings listener(s) or indeed viewer(s) this latest episode is a bit different as the podcast audio comes directly from the video HERE The latest episode is a quickie for the board game I've currently got set up. A perhaps not so well known one by those Titans of gaming; Avalon Hill. Unlike many other of that great company's games, this one isn't about some detailed strategic or tactical situation from history, but rather a 'pulpy' adventure amid the dinosaurs and dangers of a lost world. It's a gas!

Welcome back listener(s)! 

In this episode I ramble semi-coherently about TSR's First Quest boxed set which was an introduction to role playing games using the 2nd Edition AD&D system. I remember seeing this product back in the day when my interest in the RPG hobby was starting to fade. Yet even so I didn't have any kind of idea how it fitted in to the larger AD&D gaming universe / multiverse and kind of wondered whether this was some kind of re-start attempt or even a means to bypass the expensive core rule books? I just didn't know.

(To be totally honest, at the time it looked like an act of desperation from a game and company that seemed to both be in decline)

Looking back on things, and having a general notion of the gaming hobby, I have to wonder if some kind of wonderful opportunity was squandered with this product? Rather than trying to steer new gamers into the TSR / AD&D fold, should they have made a clean slate situation and instead released something simpler and cheaper - a rules light or slimmed down AD&D if you like, instead of pushing this product expecting it to drive these people in turn towards the larger system. That's asking a lot of people don't you think?

Although for me the highlight of this set is the comical CD that came with it. While touted as a game aid to explain aspects of the game and having examples of 'actual game play' my mean cynical self was stunned into disbelief the first time I heard it. "Surely they didn't actually put this in an AD&D product? Oh, lordy!" No matter, by the time I'd first heard the audio, TSR was no more and thus the impact of this boxed set long since faded.

 In the episode I mention the Complex Games Apologist. Look him up if you can.

Welcome back listener(s).

Following on from my tour of my Two Shelves of Gaming and solo RPG experimenting, I'm switching systems this week and taking a closer look at Decipher's Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Adventure Game. Not just a role playing game, but a role playing 'adventure' game no less! Like many games in my collection this was a charity shop purchase I picked up for pennies and something that was many years old. Almost as if from another era. In many ways it was.

I first saw the Decipher's LoTR game back in the early 00s when I was working in Manchester. I would regularly wander around the large Waterstones on Deansgate during my lunch hour and while away the time leafing through books on the many floors inside. One of the areas I would peruse was the sizeable rpg and gaming section. However, at this time in my life I wasn't an active gamer yet still carried with me a residue of interest in the hobby. Thus I would take a look at things and 'umm' and 'ahhh' about maybe making a purchase. Anyhow, one of the products was said game, however as I wasn't up to speed with contemporary developments in the hobby I assumed that ICE's old MERP system has been re-skinned with flashy a production and stills from the Peter Jackson films. I didn't realise it was an entirely new game. In either case I didn't buy it and that was that.

Fast forward over a decade and a half when I picked up the boxed Two Towers set. I assumed it was a starter set or introductory set of rules connected to the larger game system. While it is, the core rules and other Decipher products aren't called out or clearly highlighted in the product. I find that a huge shame and mistake on the part of the company. Only a small line contained inside states the contents are a condensed version of the main rule book - blink and you'll miss it. There's no 'If you like this, then buy the full rules!' emblazoned on the box. Shame.

For this podcast I'm trying to get in the mindset of original owner of my game in an attempt to suppose what they thought of it all - so excuse me if things come across as negative or cynical. That's not what I'm trying to be. Was the original owner a superfan of the films? Someone with zero experience of knowledge of RPGs? Did they even know what the game was when they opened it? I can see from the unpunched counter sheets that the game was either never played or not tested out as fully as it could be. Also the actual adventure itself within the box may have lead to much head scratching or confusion. 

This is a quick skim through things and I dare say I may have gotten something wrong or misspoke in the heat of recording, yet overall it's an honest take on things. So without further ado, sit back and lets all go to Middle Earth for a while.

(Special thanks to Purple Planet Music, track 'Free Spirit')

Welcome back listeners!

Thank you for taking the time to click on this podcast and listen to my attempts to try and effectively solo an RPG game. Carrying on from last week's episode, the sketch map is delved into, wanderers encounters, hazards braved, creatures fought and foes battled - it's all going on! Upon reviewing the episode I realized I'd probably omitted a few game mechanics in the process of playing through things, not to mention a house rule I had come up with - alas, this is what happens in the heat of the moment when claw clashes with flint axes and the dice start to roll. So rather than go back and edit in various fixes etc., it is what it is. 

Toward the end of the podcast I quickly set-up what's happening next time. Oh, and below are links to some of the talented and creative YouTubers who have inspired me to fly solo, look 'em up:

"Stoneaxe Tabletop Gaming" & "Me, Myself and Die!"

(Special thanks to Purple Planet Music, track 'Free Spirit')