Holiday Crafts

One thing I truly enjoy is making gifts for the holidays. While some may see it as cheap, I see it as a way to create something really special and unique. Even if i am inspired by somebody else's work, I am still creating something for my friends. This year was no different.

I made a couple of ornaments for our good family friends who are, like all good and kind-hearted people, Star Wars fans.

        

Art Books and Video Games

Hey all,

Like many, I am posting the holiday roundup for this year.

This year's holiday yield included nothing in the hobby gaming category. While much of what I received is certain inspirational and related and a geeky, extended family sort of way, not a single die or adventure supplement was to be had.

Don't think I didn't appreciate what I did get, though and what I did receive was very nice. I received a video game i had been looking for - "Borderlands". I have purchased this game twice as a used copy but neither worked and this year i finally got a hold of a new copy that works fine.

The other items, the ones that were really nice were some art books (pictured above). Oneo f them was the impressive art book for Elysium. not only is this book full of great concept art, but the text really illustrate why Niell Blomkamp is a much a real film maker and an artist. I mean, come on, recruiting real tagger and graffiti artists from Mexico city to do the graffiti designs on his sets and props. Talk about legit.

The Halo 4 art book features some really spellbinding concept art for character and environments. It doesn't feature much in the way of vehicle or weapon concept, at least not in comparison to the other Halo art books I have read, but it's still wonderful.

Nuthin' But Mech is a nice sampler of concept art from various artists and a great way to check our to see who is doing what so I can seek out more of their work.

New Year

2011 was not a very productive year in the hobby realm for me but not for bad reasons. the 2010/2011 stretch was marked by my move into the realm of sculpting and miniatures design and I think that took up a lot of my creative energies. Though I still managed to get a few bits done here and there and things have started to get back into the groove at the end of 2011, I really haven't found myself doing much of anything on the player/hobbyist side of things. I hope to rectify that in the new year.

Sculpting will certainly still take up a good chunk of my time and energies once again. I do not plan on giving it up any time soon and, in fact, may even have some real regular work on that front. I'm still growing and improving my craft and, more importantly, enjoying it. Then there is the design work I'm doing for Mad Robot Miniatures which I am very committed to.

But it is the gaming arena that I want to make some headway. I've got a lot of projects that are either in various states of completion (or lack there of) and I'd like to bring them to playable levels. I think that shall be the theme of this year. Completion.

15mm Scifi

I've got the starts of or the majority of the figures I need for several small units in this area. A few packs toward each will give me several squads to a platoon of any one force. What I am lacking are vehicles, so I think a few vehicles purchases are in order for the new year. Terrain is coming along for this genre already.

20mm Modern

I almost gave up on this one, if not for a few friends who convinced me that I was going in the right direction with this. I have plenty of armor and some APCs. What I need are more infantry, terrain and some soft skin vehicle options for scenario variety. I'll have even MORE armor if I can ever buckled down and assemble some of the plastic kits that I have.

28mm Wild West

More of a side project than anything, I need terrain for this. I'll likely break down and just invest in some card buildings and I have woods. Need cliffs and some rocky terrain to make it all come together.

15mm 18th Century Alcovia

This is a project I started right at the end of 2011 and promises to be fun. I'll be recreating the war of unification fought by the first king of Alcovia to unit the disparate people of the Alcovian Steppes into a nation state.

28mm Dark Ages

Chuggging away n Dark Ages scenery to use with my Vikings.

Tis The Season

A little light thought and a quick post to look at holidays in gaming.

I think all of us have tapped into the holiday vibe either directly or indirectly in our games. Whether it's a scenario that directly involves a specific holiday or something that simply taps into the vibe of the season games can benefit greatly from some holiday coating. How you go about depends on the intended effect.

Direct Involvement

In these sorts of games, the character/players are involved in the activities or folklore of the holiday. The holiday is not just a backdrop for the story, but is a good part of the story. Characters can be helping a holiday spirit accomplish its task, or are making sure that the local holiday is observed properly.

Examples of this would be delivering gifts for Santa, saving Santa from evil-doers, making sure the mid-winter hobgoblin is sufficiently bribed so that he will not interrupt the festivities. Whatever it is, the players and their characters will have some direct effect on the holiday.

Holiday Backdrop

What can I say? This is every Die Hard movie. The characters are undertaking action using the holiday as window dressing and/or a story factor. If the holiday is a factor in the events of the story it's usually in providing suitable obstacles to the adventure or game. Limited availability of help, local closures of services, or even limited movement due to the environment at that time of year. Perhaps the players have a time commitment and have to be home for the parade of the Elf King and his winter court.

This particular method is really a good way to establish character in a fantasy world. Holidays speak volumes about their parent cultures and you can get a lot of mileage out of featuring a holiday observance in your RPG campaign.

Holiday Feel

The holiday doesn't have to play into this at all, but the adventure evokes the feel or themes of a holiday. This is popular among gamers who like to run spooky horror games coinciding with Halloween, but could tap into other holidays. Superhero themed games are easy for this as you can have villains with holiday motifs and all sorts of holiday-inspired villainy.

They May Take Our Thighs!!!

Turkeys Standing Up For Themselves

This year I ended up having to work on Thanksgiving. This is kind of a bummer as I won't get to be with my family. At least the company feeds us a really good meal and we get some serious holiday pay for it all, so there are worse things.

The general humbug of it all has not dulled my usual good spirits however and I have taken to drawing some fun pictures of turkeys standing up for themselves. Poor sods, they don't know how doomed they are.

We few, we happy few, we band of gobblers;

For he today that sheds his blood with me

Shall be a gobbler; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition;

And other birds on The Farm now in their nest

shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their giblets cheap (about $0.50/pound) while any speaks

That fought with us upon Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Picture from the Internet. All rights go to the awesome person who put together the LEGOs, not me :)]

Just a quick holiday shout out to all of you in the wide wide world. Many of you that read this blog don't celebrate Thanksgiving, unless there is a holiday celebrating getting rid of some malcontent and pushy pilgrims out there? For those of you who do celebrate this gluttonous holiday...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Remember, using table items to plan the strategy for your next battle is usually frownded  upon by the other guests who aren't as cool as us. Also, there are no X.P. granted for eating copious amounts of food, even if you do single-handedly defeat the turkey. Further more, no DM can be held accountable for promises made the party during the sleepy afterglow of a fine holiday meal.

Take care and have a safe and wonderful holiday,

-Eli