Wargaming Recon

Peter Saloom and Jonathan recorded this episode LIVE in the seminar room at TotalCon 2024.  The two of them have over 50 combined years of gaming experience & decades of running games at conventions.

Peter published his first licensed adventure.  It is Shadows of the Sacred Hills for the RPG system Savage Worlds.  Buy Shadows of the Sacred Hills (affiliate link).

Tips

Be prepared

Be welcoming

Engage the players

Make the game visually appealing

Be kind

Know the rules (or at least the core rules)

Be succinct with initial explanations (say what the players need to get going, leave everything else for when or if the situation arises during the game)

Adhere to the time slot times

Playtest your game at least once

Provide enough player aids for each player

Have helpers/assistant GMs if needed

Practice good hygiene

Make sure players have something to do at all times

Take breaks

Let players know they can leave the game at any time if it isn't for them

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by the incomparable Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Jonathan J. Reinhart.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

This contains the fixed podcast episode.  Use THIS one, and not the old one.  Apologies for the error and inconvenience.

 

Peter Saloom kicks off the episode with his 2024 goals for tabletop gaming.  Jonathan discusses using the SMART criteria.  SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.  Jonathan's goals serve as starting points to engage with larger change.

Pete's Goal

Double the number of hours spent gaming in 2024.

Jonathan's Goals

Find a good home for the Yamashiro Mountain Fort terrain (by Things from the Basement) by the end of 2024.  If you're interested in it, contact Jonathan.

Jonathan wants to divest of tabletop gaming items that aren't used or won't be used.  This will clear physical and mental space so that other projects can be accomplished.

Bring my family to one gaming convention by June 2024.

Jonathan's girls are getting to be of the age where they're interested in what their Dad does when Dad goes out to gaming events.  This is an opportunity to expose them to new places, people, and hobbies that may be of interest to them.  It also fits a core value of the podcast by attempting to grow the hobby.

Play 1 solo wargame by Thanksgiving 2024.

Jonathan has multiple GMT games still in shrink wrap.  Many are from the P500 program.  Instead of constantly purchasing new games, Jonathan wishes to play what Jonathan already has.

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Jonathan J. Reinhart.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

This contains the BROKEN podcast episode.  Click HERE for the fixed one.Apologies for the error and inconvenience. Peter Saloom kicks off the episode with his 2024 goals for tabletop gaming.  Jonathan discusses using the SMART criteria.  SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.  Jonathan’s goals serve as starting… Read More»

In this episode Jonathan is joined by Peter Saloom to talk about Carnage 26. Carnage was held Oct 27-29, 2023 at Killington Grand resort in Killington Vt. Jonathan, Robert Dunn, and Peter Saloom all attended Carnage on behalf of Wargaming Recon.  Jonathan & Peter discuss the games played by all three people.

Robert:

Fri 1:00 PM: Learn to Play Star Wars Shatterpoint

Sat 1:00 PM: Alpha Strike, Battle at Caph

Sat 7:00 PM: Blade Runner RPG: Electric Dreams. Run by Jake Babineau

Sun 8:00 AM: Pathfinder Society RPG

Jonathan:

Sat 1:00 PM: Carnage in San Miguel. Run by Mark McKinley and played on side of the witches.

Sat 7:00 PM: Capt. Benson vs Hanghai Raiders, run by Mike Paine.

Peter:

Friday 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM: Ran 2 games of Shadow of the Sacred Hills adventure in in the Deadlands setting.

Saturday 1:00 PM: Carnage in San Miguel. Run by Mark McKinley and played on side of the witch hunters. (Yes, against Jonathan)

Saturday 7:00 PM: 13th Annual Dominion Tournament.  (Buy Dominion from this affiliate link)

There was a live recording on Saturday morning of Wargaming Recon. If you have not listened to our last episode, then you can listen to episode 297 here.

Everyone stayed onsite at Killington Grand Resort.  We talk about the hotel experience and how it compares to other convention hotels.

There is even a general discussion of favorite and least favorite parts of the convention.

If you have any thoughts about this years Carnage, we would love to hear from you at [email protected], or you can reach out through any other our social media.

If you want to see any of the Wargaming Recon crew, they can be found at TotalCon 2024 on Feb 22-25 at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marlboro, Mass.

The next Redemption Con Game Night will be 6pm EST December 21, 2023 at Redemption Rock Brewery.

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

This episode was recorded LIVE at Carnage 2023 in Killington, Vermont.  Jonathan is joined by co-hosts Robert Dunn and Peter Saloom. The trio sit down and talk about miniatures agnostic gaming.

Peter and Robert begin by defining what minis agnostic gaming is.  We talk about our thoughts about this type of game and what sort of pros and cons you might have trying out games of this type.

Peter's game of choice is Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games and you can find more about it here.

Robert's game of choice is the solo game by Modiphius Publishing and Nordic Weasel Games call five Parsecs from Home, and you can see about the game here.

We would love to know what your thoughts are about minis agnostic games and if you have any personal favorites.

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

In this episode Jonathan is joined by co-host Robert Dunn. Robert writes the show notes.  He has been on the podcast before and travels with Jonathan to conventions.

Jonathan and Robert get into a very long talk about what they think about the multitude of eras available in our wargame hobby. They use the list that from the Wargaming, Soldiers and Strategy magazine's Great Wargaming Survey 2023.  The survey has been ongoing for about 10 years now. We do take a few liberties on how we organized some of the eras, but we talk about all of them; we did almost miss Pike and Shotte, but we caught it before the end. We recap our favorite eras and add the one era that we would add to our collection if we could.  We would love to hear your favorite eras to play in and hope you reach out through social media or email.

Before we end we talk about our upcoming trip to Carnage 26 on October 27-29 at the Killington Grand Resort in Killington, Vermont, USA. Preregistration will be over by the time this podcast is live but you can still register onsite.

The Wargaming Recon crew will be doing a live recording on Saturday October 28 from 10am-11am in the Roundabout. Our topic is going to be figure (or miniature) agnostics rules. If you are at the convention come by the live recording or say "Hi" if you happen to see us around.

For more info on Carnage 26

For info on the Great Wargaming Survey

You can find our Mech on our website

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Email: [email protected]

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Jonathan J. Reinhart. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

In this episode Jonathan is joined by Peter Saloom to talk about two recent 1-Day gaming events called Leveled Up and the Hobby Bunker Games Day.

Leveled Up is part of Redemption Con and might sound familiar to our listeners. Peter talks about about the turn out and the games played along with other details if you are interested in attending next time.

The other event is the Hobby Bunker Games Day. The pair talk about the new location and the new playing space. Jonathan and Peter discuss how this event stands out from others and what games they played.

One game that was played is Devil in San Miguel. Jonathan explains the details and how it is related to Devil in the Wilderness. Jonathan made a YouTube video of the game played at the Hobby Bunker Games Day. You can see the video here.

If you want to see the Wargaming Recon team in the future you can find can find us at Carnage 26.  Carnage is October 27-29 at the Killington Grand Resort in Killington, Vermont. There will even be a live podcast  recording at the convention that you can participate in. The recording is event #273 and will be on Saturday October 28 at 10am. Peter is also running some 2 Deadlands RPG's that you can also check out at events #77& #78

Carnage 26

Website

Event signup

If you want to stay up to date with Peter you can find him at the following:

Facebook (as Peter Bostwick)

Redemption Convention FB page

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Email

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

In this episode Jonathan is joined by Peter Saloom. You might remember Peter since he was on recently and was talking about growing community at Redemption Rock Brewing in Worcester, Massachusetts. Peter is a published writer with the Stingers & Spores setting in the Savage Worlds RPG ruleset.

Peter starts off by describing the Savage Worlds rules and what about them drew him to using those rules for his own adventures.

Peter walks us through his writing process and where his ideas and inspirations come from. Jonathan asks about what adventures he loves and what makes them special for him. Peter moves on to the adventures that he has written, which ones have been published and how people can get them on DriveThruRPG.

Peter is published through Twitchy Butcher Studios LLC; and Calvin Thomas is the owner and creator of their products.

DriveThruRPG(affiliate Ink)

Peter's Adventure(affiliate link)

If you want to stay up to date with Peter you can find him at the following:

Facebook(as Peter Bostwick)

Redemption Convention FB page

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Email

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Joshua Shoobridge. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

In this episode Jonathan is joined by counselor, author and professor; Dr. Allan Hunter. He has written 12 books including The Sanity Manual (affiliate link), Life Passages: Writing Exercises for Your Life Journey (affiliate link), and From Coastal Command to Captivity: The Memoir of a Second World War Airman (affiliate link).  Dr. Hunter has a PhD in Literature from Oxford and Jonathan had him as a professor in college.

Last time he was on the podcast they talked about how tabletop gaming can help those living with anxiety and depression. See: Episode 245. This time they talk about toxicity and and what it looks like.

Jonathan and Dr. Hunter cover some of the notable examples of toxicity in the tabletop gaming community. The big three that they cover are the Satine Phoenix incident; the Wizards of the Coast potential change to the Open Game License; and the Wyrmwood Gaming allegations.  They will discuss the negative catalysts of each and healthy ways people can move forward having lived through such awfulness.

The will then talk about how, and if, trusting them again would be possible. There is even talk about forgiveness and how it can help with healing and if it is right for someone to consider forgiveness.  It is highly likely that all these incidents are are not unique, and Dr. Hunter offers some potential red flags to look for in order to protect yourself.

If you would like to contact Dr. Allan Hunter; you can find him at the following locations:

Website

Amazon (affiliate link)

YouTube

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Jonathan J. Reinhart. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.

In this episode Jonathan is joined by Robert Dunn to talk about Huzzah! Con 2023.  Huzzah was held in South Portland, Maine during the weekend of May 19-21, 2023. Robert writes the show notes for each episode over the past few years.  He is an invaluable member of the team and a friend.

Robert and Jonathan talk about Huzzah! Con and give some details about the convention for those who might be interested in attending in the future.  Jonathan had some medical issues and sadly was unable to attend at the last moment.

Thankfully Robert was there and reports back on the games he played.  He shares his thoughts about this year's convention. The pair even spend some time talking about the hotels and local food options. This leads to a few issues that have not fully been cleared with the ongoing supply chain issues.

Robert talks about some of his convention purchases and what games he is playing currently.

If you attended Huzzah this year and have any other thoughts or comments about your experience then share them with Jonathan and the rest of Wargaming Recon community on any of the below listed social media links.  Robert does not really use any social media, but if you want to reach out to him you can reach out through Jonathan' email address, also listed below.

You can contact Wargaming Recon using the following:

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Join our Patreon community and provide support to Wargaming Recon starting from just $1 per month, which is less than a paintbrush.

Credits

Our theme song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. The podcast logo was created by Peter Bryant. Audio editing was done by Jonathan J. Reinhart. Show notes for this episode were written by Robert Dunn.

This recording is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive commissions or bonuses from your interactions with those links.

Wargaming Recon pays tribute to Andrew, a cherished listener whose invaluable support inspired the show's name. Let us observe a collective moment of silence to honor Andrew's memory.

We deeply mourn the loss of Adrian, a longstanding co-host of Wargaming Recon. Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Adrian's contributions and the impact he had on the show.