Clean up the beach - make cool terrain!!

Hi everyone,

Here's our *Process Flow* of steps for taking Ocean Plastic from the beach to create Tabletop Gaming terrain!

Here's an interesting (and fun?) or at the very least positive idea for those of us who like the beach and like table top games!!

The beach on the Eastern Shore or Oahu.  Lots of plastic washed up onto the beach after days, weeks, months or years in the Pacific Ocean.

1) Go to the beach (when you can - or ask a friend who is going)
2) Collect beach plastic (which doesn't belong there anyway)
3) Make terrain and bases out of the weathered plastic pieces

Over the recent holiday we had the chance to visit Hawaiian island Oahu.  It was lots of fun.  But, sadly there was a lot more trash-plastic on the beach than when one of us was a bit younger and we visited the same location.  Realization for us that the concerns about ocean plastic are very real.

Here's a pile of several of the pieces of plastic we hauled to the trash can.  Some had been in the water a long time - others much less time.

What to do?  Well, we thought we'd do our share and put plastic in the trash can.  We may have filled a trash can up over our several days there.  And, the good news is that the stretch of beach we worked on did seem to stay a bit cleaner -- meaning the more plastic didn't wash up again over night.  So, it does seem possible to attack the problem.

Here are several of the plastic pieces we saved and brought home.  The water created fascinating textures.  This is what got us thinking about using them for modeling.

And, while we were at it, interesting discovery.  Time in salt water does amazing things to plastic!!  Need plastic which looks like cobblestones or ancient concrete?  You're all set -- just get some beach plastic.

Not sure, but we think this was a piece of a shoe....

We ended up using some to make Sci-fi looking bases for some of our Starfinder Minis.  And, thinking of lots of uses for Ork structures and terrain for 40K.

This piece is more weird - very orange inside.  We wondered if it might have been part of a ball because of its curvature??  We liked how it looked a lot like cracked stone.

We also shared some with our good friend Mr. S at Game Kastle -- knowing that he is a big fan of finding materials which naturally create the textures of real-life for his super detailed models :)

Here are some pieces which must have spent some time at depth.  Think the blue piece was the bottom of a bottle.

We even found a six sided die on the beach.  No idea how long this guy was in the water.  The little dots are pretty worn down.  But, after some scrubbing we could sort of see which side was 6 and which side was 4....

What was that role?  I think we got a 6!!

Caution:  some of the plastic you find is really brittle.  While this might not be great for modeling with, we figure this is some of the most important to pick up and put into the trash so that it doesn't break up into little micro plastic pieces which (as we understand) can really mess up fish and birds.

We've cut a piece of the Ocean Plastic *Shoe* out for mounting on a base.

We put the mini band-saw to work and cut some pieces to mount on square miniature bases.

Here's the miniature we mounted on our shoe plastic :)

We mounted our Starfinder Android mini on the piece of shoe plastic.  The granularity of the pattern on the Ocean Plastic seems perfect to us for the scale of the miniature.  Make it look like the android is standing on a very old concrete surface. 

Here is our Starfinder mystic miniature mounted on the reclaimed Ocean Plastic

And, we mouted our Starfinder mystic on the ball plastic.  Makes it look very much like a rocky alien surface.

All in all -- lots of fun.  Beach gets cleaner, we get weird plastic pieces for models :)

Creating Starfinder RPG maps from actual maps

Hi everyone,

Have had a bunch of things going on lately - and time to share updates on those!

One item - we've been enjoying playing Starfinder!

We have more to say about how and why we've been enjoying the game - but a quick write-up on one things we've been up to....  And, that's creating *maps* for our Starfinder sessions.

A challenge (early on) with Starfinder is that there aren't very many modules released yet.  And, even if there is an old adventure module to use (from D&D or Pathfinder or something like that) - the maps might not be quite what we need.

So....  We've been taking actual maps - from Google Maps - and then converting them for game use.

It works out pretty well!

(As a quick Spoiler Alert - we've been playing a Pathfinder - Starfinder hybrid.  A top secret wormhole has connected the Starfinder space station home base for the party with a fantasy (pre-gun-powder) world setting.  So, we're eager to make maps which match.  That being said, the same tricks here would work to make higher tech looking maps for a 100% Starfinder campaign.)

1) We picked an area with interesting geography (we actually picked the LA basin -- and in this example, showing what things looked like when we used an area around Pasadena).

 Here's our map with all of the roads and signs turned on.

2) Then, we went into Google Maps and with the options, turned off roads and signs.

Here's how the map looks when we turned those off.  (Or course you can still see in the satellite image where the major roads are -- but this is cool because we can use these for our RPG road locations).

3) Then, we grabbed a screen-shot of the Google maps.

4) With that finished, it was tablet time.  We used our iPad to and Pencil to draw over the top of the map - tracing the features we thought were useful.  We used the app "Procreate".  Here's how things ended up.

Here's how our drawing turned out.  We had looked a bit at JRR Tolkien's maps and noticed that he drew little mountains and shaded them.  So, we tried to do the same thing....

Some thoughts for improving....

- We could certainly have a layer of hex's or grids in the iPad app and have those as part of the map
- We could also use icons instead of our hand-drawn things if a more crisp image was important

Having fun with D&D and 40K

Hi everyone,

Had some fun setting up and taking these photos yesterday....

What is cool about the Pathfinder Society

Hi everyone,

We have started playing a little bit of Pathfinder.  But, not just playing in our small group.  Nope, instead playing with the "Pathfinder Society" at Game Kastle in Santa Clara.

The sessions are scheduled using the Warhorn website.  It was really easy to set up and account and then sign up for a Pathfinder Level 1 (through Level 5) session.

We decided we'd play a Half-Elf Cleric/Bard.  Decided to name him Perry.  Fights with a rapier.  Started working on a miniature for our next session :)

Well -- the whole world (except us) probably already knows what is cool about the Pathfinder Society (and, we're just the last ones to figure it out)....  But, regardless, here's a quick take on what we're liking about it :)

High level explanation?  Well, the main rules (Pathfinder) are like the Programming Language.  Rules about syntax, what can be done, what can't, etc....  Then, you have the Operating System (the Pathfinder Society)....  How gaming sessions are managed, how experience works, how items are divided up....  It's very much like the OS on a computer which is managing files, data and access....  It is so cool to have both!!

Got Perry primed.  This is our first real attempt with white primer.  Working on 40K have been using black primer.  Let's see how this works out!!

1) The "Society" is cleverly set-up so that a group of people can "campaign" together in small one-session (one evening) stints.  [In Warhammer 40K we just spent several weekends in a row trying to find a time when the four of us who like to play together could get together for one large battle.  Very hard to manage schedules when everyone is busy!!]

2) There is a very nice structure around how much experience or treasure a group of adventurers should receive from each adventure session.

3) The classic argument over the +2 Longsword ("It's mine!"  "No, I found it!"  "Yes, but my character would make better use of it!") is settled.  Maybe a bit contrived -- but everyone can have it because the notion of party-treasure-sharing is boiled down to each character worrying about their own advancement.

4) Pathfinder vs. D&D rules?  Yep, there are differences -- and, we can see that many people have strong opinions.  We could live with either one -- for us, the fun is in the playing.  And, if it's the Pathfinder Society which has figured out a way to get together easily - then those rules work for us!!

Not too bad using the white primer after all.  Thinning down the colors so that we don't lose detail.  Finding that Perry looks OK with the white primer.  Using our 40K painting tricks as best we can!

5) If you can't make it one night - big deal.  Just show up at the next one when you can.  And, doesn't seem like it even matters too much if you play your character at or with different groups the way things are structured.

Well, we get to play again tomorrow night.  Very much looking forward to it!

 Here's Perry, ready for action tomorrow night.  Fingers are crossed that we don't kill him off.  If we can nurse him through two more sessions as a lowly first level Cleric he'll gain that crucial second level -- and will add a level of Bard.

D&D using Story Cubes [Story Dice]

Hi everyone,

We've been playing D&D off and on for a while now -- and just implemented something we had been scheming on for a bit....

Using Story Cubes to embellish the situation of battles and interactions with NPCs.

"What are Story Cubes?"

We first discovered these at Gator Games -- got ourselves three of the little expansion sets -- gave two away as gifts and kept the third.

 Here are the first Story Cubes we used -- the expansion set of prehistoria, clues and enchanted dice

Story Cubes -- officially "Rory's Story Cubes" https://www.storycubes.com/ are nice little sets of dice -- each die having unique icons or images on each of the six faces.

Here is the "basic set" of story cubes...

There are several different sets -- The Basic Set, Actions, Voyages, and two sets of expansions (which is what we had found at Gator Games).

How we've been adding this to D&D....

• When our party charges into a room (which has 5 skeletons hitting in a pile of rubble) one person reaches into the bowl of Story Cubes -- with eyes closed -- and grabs two.  Then, he or she rolls these.  And, we come up with a way to build the result into the story. 

• When somebody rolls a 1 we do the same -- and work the fumble into the story

•  And, thinking that it would be fun to the do same for a natural 20 critical hit [but haven't tried that yet]....

It took us a while to come up with a system which worked.  At first we had all of our Story Cubes out in a pile -- but didn't have a very good way to decide which of the dice to use....

Our D&D set-up with our Story Cubes ready for business

Then we came up with the idea of putting them all in a rather high-rimmed bowl -- and having someone at the table pick with eyes closed.  This worked out really well -- added another aspect of excitement to the game -- and also let the players feel that they had some involvement in the DM's management of the game.

Our bowl full of Story Cubes!

And, here's an example where the party was fighting skeletons.  Wouldn't you know it -- a skeleton rolled a natural 1 -- and we had agreed that for fumbles, this would mean (you guessed it) -- Story Cubes....

Rolling the story dice when a skeleton has rolled a 1 and fumbled....

We decided that these dice indicated that rather than executing a proper strike with its spear, the skeleton lost its grip and threw the spear into the wall....

In terms of other things which are helping us to keep the game moving -- snacks (watermelon in this case) are certainly helping.  Thinking hard about the the "overhead projector" we had seen one person write up in his/her blog.  This sounded sweet.

Here's our table set-up....

Have to say that the D&D Spell Cards are really helping us to keep things going.  No more flipping through the only (dog-eared) copy of the Player's Handbook to find out how long "Protection from Evil" lasts.  Now it's all in the players "hand" so to speak.  :)

Here are the cards set up for Ms. P's Bard character :)

We'll report in as we continue to refine ways to add fun to the game!

And, here is a link to our earlier posting about playing D&D 5th Edition:  D&D 5th Edition First Try

Game Day #2 at Meeples (Seattle)

Hi everyone,

This past weekend we flew up to Seattle to have a Game Day at Meeples -- the great game store in West Seattle.  Here's a quick write-up on our visit :)

Background:

• Meeples (http://meeplesgames.com/) is in West Seattle.  At the corner of Charlestown and California Ave's.
• It's on the 2nd floor -- so there is a LOT more space than we are used to having for a game store here in California :)
• It's a "Gaming Cafe".  This means that you can play games, order (lunch/dinner/etc) and eat food.  Perfect!
• We had visited back at Thanksgiving time - and had a blast playing games, hanging out, having lunch.  Here's our write-up from that visit.  http://battlegaming1.blogspot.com/2014/11/battle-gaming-one-seattle-visit-meeples.html

Our day in Seattle (this past Saturday):

• We had coordinated with friends and family to meet-up there
• Were not sure what people would want to play -- so we packed up two modest 40K armies (some Orks and some Space Marines); packed up X-wing; packed up D&D; and packed up ourselves.  Then, made the quick trip north

We ended up playing a D&D card/miniature game (was new for us -- cool way to quickly play somethink like D&D 5e); X-wing; and a fun game called Telephone Pictionary.

Ravenloft D&D Card/Miniature Game

The Ravenloft board game we played :)

We borrowed Meeples' Store copy to play....

This turned out to be quite a bit of fun.  Hadn't known that the miniatures in the game were so detailed.

What we liked about it was that out of the 6-7 people in our group, a good half of the group had not ever played D&D (of any edition).  So the "board game version" let everyone start playing really quickly.

A few turns into the D&D session.  We had killed a Kobold and were taking on a Skeleton.  Still learning how to help each other out.

It helped that we had one person in the group who had played some of the board games before.  We were a little bit slow to catch on to the game mechanics.  Then he helped us understand how to "activate" bad guys -- and also how to understand who would "operate them"....

The one thing we missed was that when we folded up the game, that-was-that for those characters.  No real way for them to continue on.  Heard that in the Pathfinder board game this isn't the case -- and that you can keep treasure you find -- and progress your character from session to session.  Will have to check that out :)

Also missing was the fun social part of the game.  Those of us who had played enjoyed that part of the game -- "getting into character" is always fun.

Lastly, another really positive part of the game.  The miniatures are great -- and lots of them.  Would be lots of fun to work on painting those!!

Also -- great way to learn some gaming basics, "Don't Split up the Party!!!"


Star Wars X-Wing

Two of us took a quick break during the D&D session and played a game of X-Wing.

Here's where the size of the Meeples store is great.  There was a Magic tournament going on while we were there.  Did they still have a free table we could use for X-wing ??  No problem!

We played a quick game -- sort of 5 on 5 -- with the Rebels outgunning the Empire ships by a little bit.  (It was Luke and 4 of his pals against 5 Academy Pilots).  [We weren't trying to create a fair battle -- instead trying to show the people in our group how to play.]

"Hey, Luke -- I think we can take them!"

That ended up working out pretty well.  Got to explain the game dynamics in a situation which wasn't too stressful.  (Is it easier to learn a game when you're winning??)

Learning about the movement dials in X-Wing (while clobbering Academy Pilots)

Everyone had fun learning how to plan out the moves for the Rebel Fleet.  (And, the one of us who was playing the Empire went into the other room to check-out the progress with Ravenloft while the Rebel planning session was going on.)

Last, we played a session of Telephone Pictionary   

How to play....

Need a set of sheets of paper (something like 10) which are bound or stapled together.

The game starts with each player WRITING a phrase or sentence on their pad of paper....

Then each pad is passed left or right (keep it the same once selecting).  And, the receiving person reads the phrase or sentence -- and then DRAWS their impression of what is written.  AND, the sheet with the writing is folded over....

So, when the pads are passed again, the 3rd person to see that pad can only see the drawing (not the writing).  AND, then they WRITE their version of a phrase or sentence of what they see in the drawing.

And, so on....

Eventually, what happens?  You see your phrase come back again (only now it is changed)!!!

Everyone hard at work during the DRAWING phase....

It was lots of fun -- everything changed.  

After several passes, a storm trooper turned into fire fighters putting out a fire.  Ducks with a postman turned into a mechanic attacking a bird with a wrench.  A tractor hitting a dog turned into a dog chasing a tractor and back to a tractor running over a dog.  And, porcupines turned into kittens :)

D&D 5th Edition - a first try

Hi everyone,

Today we decided to try out D&D 5th Edition.  (Well, first we did some reading to see whether people like Pathfinder better than 5th Edition - and then we decided to give it a try.)  We ended up having quite a bit of fun!

What made the game especially fun is that now we have a handful of beginner level miniature gaming skills.  So, playing with miniatures and scenery is much quicker and more efficient.

Our session:
- We played (the two of us); plus our friend Mr. N.  Artist Expert is planning to play in the next session - but wasn't able to today.

Campaign Summary:

Scene 1:

Two young adult friends Ukabuk (LVL 1 Human Fighter) and Duscutt (LVL 1 Human Wizard) are exploring in the barn-loft at the home of local pub owner Boeuf (LVL 1 Human Cleric).  They find a chest full of old war-gear.

Ukabuk finds a heavy crossbow, a longbow, 1 very shiny arrow (enchanged?), a quiver full of arrows, a warhammer [very fitting for Warhammer 40K fans!], and a battleaxe.  He also finds a set of chainmail armor.

Duscutt finds a heavy crossbow, a hand crossbow, a longbow, and a quiver full of arrows (one of them very shiny).  He also finds some chainmail armor.

While Ukabuk and Duscutt are playing with their new equipment, they hear sounds of a scuffle down below.  Peering down, they see some very, very, very, very, very, totally ugly weird creatures mixed up in a fight with Boeuf!  They immediately rush to help Boeuf out.

The attackers are Goblins and Boeuf holds them off in turn 1 -- with one of the Goblins hurting itself with a 1 roll :(  Then, Ukabuk and Duscutt weigh in.  Ukabuk (pretty high dexterity) fires with the heavy crossbow.  Duscutt fires a magic missile (his first!).

The battle winds down as all 5 Goblins are dispatched.  Luckily for all involved, Boeuf turns out to have some healing skills (big magic Cleric bandages!)

Boeuf comments, "it was sure lucky that you two were here.  And, where did you get those weapons?"  Ukabuk and Duscutt explain to Boeuf that they had found the equipment in his own loft.  "Well, you're welcome to them.  Must have been left there by me grandfather long ago."  Ukabuk -- who has been training as a blacksmith -- asks, "any idea where I can get some iron or steel around here?  I'm working on a set of plate mail armor."  Boeuf suggests that they visit his friend at the next farm toward town.

That afternoon, Duscutt, studying his magic books, figures out a new spell -- Burning Hands.  And, Ukabuk fashions a shield with the bits and pieces of metal which are scattered about.  After a good night's sleep, they are off. 

Scene 2: 

As they reach the next farm yet again they see the signs of a struggle.  Boeuf rushes to the door of the farmhouse.  The farm owner, Lana, is collapsed in her front door.  Boeuf immediately offers aid.  Meanwhile, Duscutt peeks inside the house.  "Hey!  There are two more of those Goblins in here!"
Duscutt and Ukabuk make short order of the two Goblins while Boeuf tends to Lana.  They see another band of Goblins retreating to the north - but decide that pursuit is a bad idea at this very moment.

They rest and discuss the Goblin attacks.  After much discussion they form a plan.  Duscutt has learned the spell Disguise Self - and will cast this upon Lana.  She can then sneak to the north to see where the Goblins are holing up.

Executing the plan, Lana returns with word that she saw the Goblins entering a broken down building just a bit up the road.

Scene 3:

The adventurers rest up and head north.  They use a similar plan, with Lana disguised as a Goblin entering the run-down building.  There she sees two Goblins standing on either side of a stairway heading down beneath.  These Goblins challenge her.  One problem -- Lana doesn't speak Goblin.  Luckily Duscutt does - and he whispers the proper response to Lana (and the Goblins don't notice).

Lana attempts a backstab attack on the two guards - a total fail.  But, Ukabuk hits with a heavy crossbow bolt.  And, Duscutt and Boeuf take out the other one.

Propping up the dead guards (so that their passage might not be noticed), the party carefully descends....

At the bottom of the stairway, a hallway opens into a large room.  To the left, three Goblins are tending to something in a large pit beneath.  To the right, six Goblins are having some sort of discussion.  A boarded up opening is noted to the far right.

The four quickly create a plan.  Ukabuk goes left and takes on the three Goblins by the pit.  Duscutt goes right and uses Burning Hands to dispatch four of the Goblins.  Boeuf and Lana take on the remaining two.

Here is the scene of the attack.  We used miniatures from our Lord of the Rings set for Goblins.  We had just gotten miniatures to use our characters at Gator Games (but hadn't gotten to paint them yet.)

This works out fairly well, but 3 on 1 is tough odds for Ukabuk - who retreats when he is down to only 1 hit point "Ouch!".  Lana charges in to hold the line - and to give Boeuf a chance to heal Ukabuk.

With these Goblins out of the way, the group debate their next move.  Down pit?  Through the boarded up opening?  Or, even, call it day?  They decide to call it day - but sleep in the Goblin's Liar.  Eight hours of careful watch pass - and are uneventful....  (Duscutt takes the whole watch so that the other party members can heal.)

After the rest, Ukabuk chops away at the boarded up doorway - and opens up a hallway type passage.

Lana discovers the spider in the pile of debris!

The four explore - a small room - with some debris in the corner.  Lana quickly inspects - and jumps back from a Spider who was lurking inside.  Ukabuk quickly kills the spider - and the inspection of the corner continues.  An old sword and chest (locked) are discovered.

Wrap up:

- We worked out experience - and each character gained 300 EXP.  As we read the 5E rules, enough for 2nd level :)

- All-in-all, it was lots of fun - we are looking forward to our next session against the Goblins!

- The adventure tiles we had gotten to play Star Wars Edge of the Empire worked really well for D&D 5E as well.  Hadn't ever played with these before - but they made things super quick to set-up.

- We lit candles to play - added to the overall theme of playing D&D!

Here's a quick photo of our overall dungeon set-up.  The great thing about posting this is that we can quickly refer to the photos to set up our next campaign....