My Summary of 2011 and what 2012 may be.

A new year is almost upon me.  A year is almost over.

With the New Year I am faced with the conundrum of my life. 

I need to make a decision whether I should be investing my money in my hobby when there are so few with whom I can share it with.  Indeed there are a lot of people at the club I frequent whom I know and do so dearly hope are my friends.  Yet my, perhaps clumsy, attempts to encourage contact outside the club have amounted to little.

So I surround myself with my hobby.  I go through the process of believing that I have lots of people to engage me with my hobby, but the sad evidence of truth is that there are few.  Few if any phone me and have chats with me on any regular basis.  I have very few visitors that aren’t related to some form of transaction.  I have little but the constant pain I live with and the loneliness that comes from being a recluse. 

2011 has not been a good year for me.  My pain has increased exponentially along with my feeling of isolation.  So my days are filled with nothing to do but suffer in silence and solitude.  I normally paint to take my mind of things but for this whole year I have not even been able to find any joy in this activity.  I let a number of people down by my malaise, yet in the end I have no control over this darkness.  I apologise to those who were affected.

So you may ask what my days consist of.  My day starts with me waking to the depressing awareness that I’m still alive. I scoff five different forms of prescribed drugs and then hope for the best.  I then spend a day brooding with pain and suffering.  Yet for all that I suffer I still place the needs of my wife and children ahead of any thought of care for myself.  I am husband, father, decision maker, problem solver, peace-maker, magician, priest and bard.  Somehow I manage to get through the day until the evening when I take another batch of drugs that allow me to sleep.  This routine is unending.  With little contact outside of my immediate family you can only wonder why I’m not any more unbalanced than I already am. 

So I come back to why bother?  Why should I bother spending money on things that are ultimately only going to sit on a shelf and stare back at me with accusatory eyes?  What is the point of feeling smug and conceited with what I have accumulated?  So I sit here at this crossroad wondering where my life is going to take me in 2012.  Do I continue my sad existence, or do I decide that I’ve had enough.

I guess 2012 may be about me.  Maybe that’s the decision I have settled upon as part of the process of writing this piece.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this as it is not in my nature to be self-serving.  I will however be trying to enjoy life, I’m not sure how that will happen – but I will give it a go.

As I wrap up my waffling for another year I think that I need to make a few comments for 2011.  I need to thank Rebecca Weir for her generous kindness to me this year.  It made all the difference to me and I appreciate everything she has done.  I’d also like to thank Luke of Phoenix Forge and all of those anonymous people (although I can probably guess a fair number of you) who contributed to my birthday present in July.  I was gobsmacked and humbled that people thought I was worth something. Thank you.

A Quote that I like.

Do not waste your tears. 
I was not born to watch the world grow dim.
Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.
                                 Rogue Trader, p113

Necromunda table

Well here's the first table layout.  This is the contents of two of the original Necromunda boxes (and may supplements I'm not sure).  Two gangs are on the set, my Scavvies and Pit Slaves.

Talisman Figures Wanted: Citadel produced

OK, below are some of the Talisman figures I am chasing to complete my collection.  I don't have a lot of cash but I think I can do some trades of one sort or the other.  If you can help, please post in the comments.

Super Dungeon Explore: What's in the box, Part 1

OK I've been waiting to get my grubby paws on this game for a while now.  My main motivation was the figures that come with the game.  I enjoyed Urban Mammoths "Warheads" miniatures, the bobbly head style.  The figures in this game are rather nice.  What struck me when I opened the box was that all of the figures (with the exception of five treasure chests) are muti-piece models. This was a surprise as I was expecting one piece figures which is fairly much the norm with board games.
The plastic is hard not the rubbery type that cheaper game publishers supply.  They are brittle in places and some care needs to be taken with the spear "men", and with the grey character figures.  I think that the figures deserve being painted.  I think that if you bought the game only to play the boardgame then you will not be getting the full value of what I think will prove to be a nice addition to your boardgaming library.
I obtained my copy through the helpul service of Warpuppy, although I am sure you can pick this up from other reputable stores and online business'.
So my recommendation is give it a try.  My next job is to read the rules.  Stay tuned for more in due course.  The pictures below show the game at various stages of opening.

The above is the box sealed and waiting for the joy of being cracked.

First view inside the box.

The rulebook.  Full glossy colour. Nice layout, and nice artwork - which appears on the game cards as well.

After having taken the mapboard out this was what greeted me.

Oh and these are the dice.  Not every face has a "score".

Super Dungeon Explore: What's in the box, Part 2

This has pictures of the boards and cards.

A picture of one side of the double-sided map boards.  All bar the bottom right board are double-sided.

The other side!

The tokens used in the game.  Nice thick card.  Although I had a couple of the tokens split while punching them out.  However a bit of glue will sort out that problem. 

Just an over-view of the cards that come with the game.

Super Dungeon Explore: What's in the box, Part 3

These are the hero's for game.  They are grey in colour as opposed to the red-brown colour that are the Consul's creatures.

I must have spent twenty minutes trying to work out which parts belonged to which models.  I could not find any instructions as to how to assemble the figures.  As you can see each model has multiple parts, which is nice.  The only model I'm not too happy about is the barbarian as that axe looks a little short.  Due to the tiny proportions I'm not sure if some of the figures appendages are correct or poorly moulded.  Won't know until I examine under my jeweller's light.

Super Dungeon Explore: What's in the box, Part 4

OK Part 4 is the Creatures.  As you can see the figures are for the most part multi-part figures.  This is nice as opposed to one piece pieces.

The above is the Dragon.  Nice enough scale to suit any game system.

Spawning tokens, the dragon skulls on the columns.  More multi-piece creatures.  Not sure what they are yet.

One of the big "ogre" type monsters (you get two in the box) and two flying "dragons".

More multi-piece creatures.  Note the two boo-chests in the top right corner.  More of them a little further down.

These are the cannon fodder miniatures, why because there are a few of them and I'm too lazy to investigate what they are.

These chests, you get two, are brilliant.  Anyone who loves discworld could easily do the Luggage.  I like them indeed.

Talisman

Well here are some photo's of my 1st edition Talisman which includes, City, Dungeon and Timescape.  I even have 35 metal figures of the characters you could play.  Of course now you can get Talisman from FFG, which is just as good and the figures are plastic.  I am wondering if I shall paint them one day?  Mind you there are a couple of expansions I haven't acquired yet from the contemporary set. 

From memory the usual players were Alex, Michael, Gary, David, Anthony and Michelle, plus me.  I think that Gary was the only one who ever rushed to get to the center of the board and end the game.  The rest of us I think just enjoyed wandering around, beating each other up, dying, picking a new character, and continuing on.  It's a game I enjoyed as the group gamed at my first home and were really good friends.  Michelle is of course my wife and she's still with me, and I only hear occasionally from Anthony, Michael I can get in contact with easily enough but the others have all moved on.  Sigh, I'm getting melancholy.

Read into this what you will.

Game Room now clean and ready for business

Here are the pictures to show it's all done.  Now for some friends!

Below is my smaller DBA style game boards.

Those below are my sea and space tables. 4'x4'.

Working Studio Finished!

OK I have done it.  I have finished one room completely.  See for yourself!

Ignore the piles of clutter that is at the back of this shot.  I have got to get to that next.

This is the other view of what I have to finish clearing up.  Then my gaming table will be free and I can actually think about entertaining people again.  That's if they'll have me? 

(small pityful whimper and a sad face...)

Almost there!

Yes the new and improved on work desk.  I just need to add another shelf and I will be able to hopefully keep my hobby area clear for at least a week.  While cleaning up I worked out that there were at least 30 unfinished projects that had been pushed off to the side (this being my way of moving on to other projects - it has been my intent to come back to them...).  I have just got to clean up and sort the "creative clutter" on the floor and I should be halfway back to painting again.  Here's hoping.

Home snapshots from the early 80's

Here's from a time when I had lots of friends.  We used to meet at my parents home, where my mother would even feed them all.  All much missed. 

A quiet game amongst friends.  From left to right: Bruce (I think), Alex, Anthony, and Michael.

One of the usual nights.  Must have been a role playing night, Top Secret I think.  Towards the end I think we were playing more boardgames.  Star Fleet Battles was most popular.  Who was there?  I can name most of them except the chap on the extreme left.  The usual gamers were Anthony R, Michael M, David K, Dick W, Tony M, Rob M, and Alex M.

Here is what happens when the party decide to solve the adventure by killing (well maybe seriously maiming) the GM.  Top Secret would appear to be what we were playing.

Yes, there were 8 of us in this vehicle.  Not sure where we had been or how we didn't get pulled over.  Happier days.

Queensland Role Players - A blast from the past

I have been cleaning up my studio and I found several boxes of old photo's.  I thought I share them.  Enjoy!

Not sure where this photo was taken but clearly this group won a D&D competition.  Steven Twine was the DM, and the older gentleman was a professor, the rest I can't even remember their names.  The curse of old age - memory goes all too soon.

These shots were from a promotional QRP did back in 1982 (I think) at a shopping centre (Wynnum somewhere).

The committe sometime in the early 80's.  From left to right and back to front. Russell (I think?), Greg L, Rob M, Michael M, Keith D, Steven T, John M (Me, yes I was thin once), Anthony (I think), Angela M, and Russel P.