[unofficial weekender] Play by the rules!

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

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First time visitor to OTT? Then please introduce yourself in the New Member Thread and look around in the Project System. Then come back and read on…

https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/introduce-yourselves-new-member-thread/

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/

Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.

First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.

You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.

If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.

A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil. This includes no philosophy, no home computer culture wars.

Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.

Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)

And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is the unofficial Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv

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Question of the week:

• Learning a new game. Do you “just read and get it”? Do you need someone to teach? What is you most successful approach to get into a new game?

And now back to the show.

[sundancer 42900xp 3]

Pledge: finding my hobby mojo with things I want to paint!

Answer:

I have to be honest: if the rules are more than one or two pages (and I mean that in the most literal sense) my brain just stops processing things. I can read a rule book no problem but I will be none the wiser after the fact. That leads to me wanting to play a game and never doing it because my head won’t ingest the rules and there is nobody near me who could teach me. Learning by doing is so much easier. Most of the times.

But I did finish my Spring Clean Challenge 2024 entry! Dang I’m done for XD

Bar Room Brawl Bunnies

On a side note: I won’t be buying new stuff this year for the hobby. Only exception being Star Wars Legion units for either Rebels or Empire (for completing the collection) and hobby consumables like paints. No new games, minis or anything. At least that’s the plan to get my funds in order… a bit at least.

And now back to do the laundry!

[templar007 52366xp 2]

Pledge:: Taking a break from my board build of the ‘Brėcourt Manor Assault‘ and opening up my three boxes of Bolt Action: Kelly’s Heroes miniatures.   I’ve always loved that movie and finally pulled the trigger to buy the minis that Warlord Games has done up.  Of course, having reviewed/rewatched the movie I see lots of scenes that could be played out.  I’ll need:: three American Halftracks, at least one American jeep, German Halftrack, Opel trucks, three more Hollywood Tigers and two more Oddball Sherman’s!    Do I need all that?  [NO]  Do I want to buy all that and build and keep together as my ‘Kelly’s Heroes Action Play Set’?   [YES]  WILL I, only time will tell.

 

Question of the week:

Learning a new game. Do you “just read and get it”? Do you need someone to teach? What is your most successful approach to get into a new game?

 

Answer: I do a bunch of research first which includes watching ‘LET’S PLAYS‘.   A really good LET’S PLAY will sell me and teach me a game fast.  But reading and stepping thru works as well.  I’m like you @sundancer not a bunch of people around me these days for learning new games from.

There has been an effort to start a ‘bring your game and rent a table for a few hours’ shop.  But the ‘card board Crack’ players keep swarming the tables and bitching that our miniatures games take up too much space.  Now I get told that the tables are reserved and there’s no room to be had for minis.  I am really starting to loathe card games.  Oh well!

[pagan8thParticipant 10744xp 1]

Pledge involves working on a wild west town for Dead Man’s Hand and painting the minatures I bought to go with it.

Had a nightmare building an mdf saloon because the laser cuts were wrong in some places… and not in a small way at times… two sides of the same roof were different sizes and had to be cut down to fit. Filler will also be needed. I expect a bit of trimming to get things to fit, but this was a real pain.

When it comes to learning the rules of an RPG is usually only bother with the 30-ish pages of actual rules to play the game that are surrounded by fluff, character generation, spells etc. Most RPG’s are similar enough that you can make a ‘call’ and if it’s wrong then I fix it later.

With skirmish games I often look at how to play and demo games to get the basics and read the core rules. Faction rules I look up the first few games until it falls into place.

Board games I read the rules and watch a lets play and/or demo game.

I don’t play tournaments, so getting the rules right not as important as having fun.

[limburger 21668xp 0]

The BoW bootcamps really helped me in understanding the core concepts for Flames of War 4th edition and Bolt Action 2nd.

It really is one thing to read rules, but to actually grok them I need a demo game or something with someone who has an understanding of the rules. Or failing that : a good “Let’s Play” will do the trick as well.

However for wargames there is one thing that I always struggle with : list building.

I understand how Kings of War works after the demo I had, but building a list that is (a) fun and (b) functional is an art that I haven’t mastered yet. I need examples, but otoh I don’t want the same thing everyone else is building, unless it is a historical army. And even with historicals I’d rather build a generic list instead of trying to re-create a specific batallion. This may upset the button counters, but I’d rather have a flexible army that can be fun in multiple situations as opposed to an authentic list that only ever was used within a specific theater and time.

@sundancer a neoprene mat is indeed a possible solution, but I don’t have one to cover the entire surface at this time.
I was thinking of a grass mat. The local DIY store has one with a 2-3 mm fake grass surface area.

Everything is better with Metal ?

[danlee 22433xp 1]

@sundancer congratulations on finishing your spring clean challenge.

 

This week’s pledge is painting Iron Man and the Hulk Buster.

 

• Learning a new game. Do you “just read and get it”? Do you need someone to teach? What is you most successful approach to get into a new game? – Playing a demo game with a player who know the rules is always good, but I’m ok reading a rulebook. I grew up playing DnD 3.5 with literally every official rulebook they published, plus a great deal of the unofficial books released via the open license.

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

Thanks @danlee

Just got back from the in laws. Now dinner and after that the XLBS. Might fall asleep though XD

[limburger 21668xp 0]

As Bob Ross likes to say : their are no problems, only happy accidents … or at least that’s what I think he said.

I found some plastic I beams of exactly the right size to cover the gaps between the 4 boards that will be my the tabletop for my table. And because they are very thin I won’t have to worry about unsightly bumps.

Probably should have bought a bit more, but then that’s what happens when you think you’ve got a solution and then change your mind after the fact 😀
So that means I got to go back to the shop tomorrow for a bit more.

I do have to be real careful when assembling as that is a bit of a puzzle at the moment.

sidenote : why do I feel so tempted by the Hannibal set from Warlord ?
Is it the scipio mini game that was recently mentioned as being included into the box?
Am I going to be starting an epic ancient army ?

Why is this distracting me ? *squirrel*

[sundancer 42900xp 1]

It’s Monday and I finally got to finish listening to the XLBS.

Now this lives in my brain

[danlee 22433xp 1]

Got started on Hulk Buster and Iron Man. Decided to give up on NMN and go with normal metallics to save my sanity.

 

Dan’s 2024 Side Projects

 

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

That’s a big boy

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 1]

RPG’s have Quickstarts. FFG has its Learn to Play leaflet, and Rules Reference booklet. I’m much better learning a game by reading (and learning a painting technique by video) and everyone has to learn the game once. Even video games have a tutorial. So, imo, part of good rules design should be a tutorial section for everyone’s first game. Someone there to teach you the game is ideal, including to “try before you buy”. I’m also fortunate there’s someone in the gaming group who will grok rules games better than I can. I used to be a “read the rules and get it” guy, but I’m certainly becoming less willing to read complex rules as I grow older and less patient. Maybe it’s also because, especially with the “cult of the new” with boardgames (at least ten or twenty years ago, at the start of Magic and Catan) and KS, there’s been an increase in boardgames to play and learn.

[sundancer 42900xp 0]

Oh speaking of FFG they had a brilliant short video series for X-Wing and Legion. Those worked brilliant. Who ever did come up with those: please do more for all the games!

[templar007 52366xp 1]

I agree!  Those were great.

 

Also, ‘Fire Lock Games’ did a series of instructional videos at their initial launch.  The videos were short and followed the chapters in the Core rulebook!  Very nice.  ??

[limburger 21668xp 0]

yeah, good tutorials are a must.
It is incredibly tough to make, but soo worth the trouble for new players.

There have been attempts at making tutorials in app format, but those rely on companies wanting their games digitized and some sort of subscription model to pay for the cost of making the app. Net result is that only a limited selection of games get their tutorials and player aids added and not everyone wants to pay money just to learn to play the game they have already bought.
So as cool as the concept is there hasn’t been a viable variant that works for everyone.

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