Wasteland Wondering

Hello and welcome back to another Wasteland Wondering.

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. Yes I am still alive and kicking. Apologies for the lack of posts. Real lIfe has been busy.

On the workbench waiting for pictures are a few finished 28mm vehicles. These will be counted in my figure count. Now all I need to do is get pictures of them.

On top of our usual Halloween celebrations we have had a horde of vehicle issues. My black thumb has really let standards slip. Every time he had fixed the car another issue would raise its ugly head. He should be thankful that we don’t live in a post apocalyptic wasteland as he would meet a sticky end with that level of incompetence. 

To rub salt into the wounds my back up transportation, the bike decided to stop firing up. Typically just after getting the car sorted the fault was traced and fixed. The new splitfire spark plugs I had fitted back in June had decided to stop working. 

Hobby wise things have been interesting. 

The post apocalyptic Wargames forum is having issues loading pages and pictures won’t display. The whole thing is annoying and is forcing users away from the forum. Apparently many of the forums Tapatalk grabbed are suffering in a similar fashion. 

The only way to fix it is to get a backup of the forum from Tapatalk and rehost it elsewhere. The problem is Tapatalk want to charge me for the privilege of getting a backup of a forum that I set up and ten years worth of peoples work, ideas and hobby fun which was free to set up in the first place. This is yet another example of greedy corporate types looking for ways to fleece poor old hobbyists like myself. If anyone from Tapatalk is reading this, get a grip and get it sorted.

I backed a kickstarter called Goregasm which is a post apocalyptic combat arena game. I liked the look of it and we need to support small hobby firms. My only gripe is that the scale of the figures is a bit larger than my usual 28mm. However every wasteland needs its supermutant types. I am looking forward to seeing the game when it arrives. Of course there will be a full review when it arrives. 

The new GW 40K Speedfreaks looked interesting. I have always like Orks. I must admit that my finger hovered over the buy button. What held it back was the fact that I only like one of the vehicles. The vehicles would have been used as post apocalyptic run abouts. Another thing preventing me from buying is that I don’t want another boxed game that I won’t get to play or be drawn into the whole drop feed of models, rules and other stuff that GW likes. 

One of the better bits of hobby news is that my teenage niece has asked if I can show her how to paint figures. I have to say that I am thrilled and look forward to sharing some hobby tips with her. The hobby needs fresh blood and many more of the female of the species taking part. I hope she enjoys miniature painting as much as I do. All I have to do is get it organised. 

Another interesting twist is that my good lady announced that she would like to try Dungeons and Dragons (I have Big Bang Theory to thank for that). Now while I am not a big fan of fantasy I do like RPGs. I played D&D 1st ed back in mists of time. As memory recalls I didn’t really gel with the rules, preferring the Warhammer Fantasy RPG instead. 

Still this didn’t stop me buying the 5e starter box set. There will be some issues. We will be playing one on one (ooh err) rather than the usual adventure party size of four to six. So the starter game will need some tailoring. DMing isn’t a problem as I have done it a few times with other games.

To be honest googling resources for DnD was quite astounding. It was like peering through a door to a new world. The amount of official and fan material out is amazing. Everything from stat sheets through to character generators, name generators, mapping tools and more. I could not see GW allowing such unlicensed materials for it’s games. It is refreshing to see this approach. 

As my better half is a rookie in Geekdom I have decided to create a unique RPG for her as a introduction. Something which I hope will appeal to her interests and sense of humour. I must admit that I am having a lot of fun creating the story, maps and sketches for the game. I can see why William McAusland, creator of the Mutant Epoch RPG has turned out so much stuff for his game. It is seriously addictive. 

Don’t worry wastelanders, I won’t be joining the dark ranks of fantasy fans full time. Fantasy doesn’t push my buttons like post apoc or sci fi backgrounds. 

Soon I will be packing my hobby up for the silly season. It won’t wholly stop. The Rad Light rules will be getting some more work. Hopefully I will make some progress the great terrain refresh.

That is all for now.  Thank you for reading. Be safe out there.