I am now back home and about to give my recount of day 3 at GenCon.

Short and sweet it was slower and just as good as the other two.  Maybe even a little better if you consider that I won a castle.  Seriously.  But we’ll get back to that a bit later.

Day 3 found me quite a bit more tired than the previous two but still very excited to see what I could do on the last day.  After quickly packing up and getting ready we left our hotel and headed to the convention center.  Where we put our names on the waiting list to participate in the Reaper Miniature Paint & Take.  It took about 45 minutes but soon I was able to pick a mini and get going.

A few points about this paint and take session:

1.  I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of miniatures that were available to paint!  I figured there would be 2 maybe 3 choices and instead found about 8 or so.  And we arrived on the last morning of painting so I am thinking that there were probably even more choices available during the earlier days.

2.  I am a new convert to using Reaper Master Paint Series.  Absolutely incredible paints.  They are much thinner than most available out there, they water down exceptionally well and simply flow onto the mini.  In the past I had used Citadel paints which I still think are very good quality; however, as I buy new paints in the future I will be working with Reaper.  They also  have a much larger variety of colors. 216 to be exact!

3.  While the mini was a blast to paint the brushes they had on hand were a bit large to get to some of the finer detail so I decided to wait to paint the face till I got home. (I’ll post pics as soon as I get my camera up and working again)

After painting we headed over to Champions for lunch with Jeff from the Bonescroll and Michael from Stargazer’s World.  Mark, Jeff & Michael recorded an impromptu interview/recap session for RPG Circus while I did my best to stay as silent as possible   I’m not always a fan of having myself recorded!

Then it was back to the dealer hall where we met up again with my sister-in-law and did our final shop & tour.  Mark picked up a set of dice and the Jihad supplement for the Burning Wheel series.  Now, this is where the castle comes in!

On the first day Mark and I both entered a drawing with World Works Games to win an already assembled castle from their deluxe line.  We showed up promptly at 2 pm for the drawing.  They announced that in addition to giving the pre-built castle away as the grand prize that they would also be awarding 3 people with a free PDF of it so you could build one yourself.  Well as luck would have it I was the winner of one of the PDFs yay!  To be honest I was much happier with the idea of building one myself.  I like taking the time to do things like that.  It was very exciting to win seeing as that’s not typical for me… at all… especially if playing Bingo but that’s a whole’nother topic entirely.

So, thus ended our last day at GenCon.  We stopped by one more booth and then headed out to the car.  It took almost 3 hours longer to get home than it should have but it was still worth it.

I loved all my time at GenCon.  It was such a fabulous experience to play so many new games, meet new people and get away for a fun fun weekend.

Thank you GenCon for the media passes!  I don’t know that I would have gotten to go if it hadn’t been for that.  What a great experience!

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Day two of GenCon was busy, busy, busy and fantastic!

This morning we woke up too late for the game we were scheduled for, so instead we went over to the Dealer Hall and wandered for a while. Bridget picked up a set of Game Science dice, we got a stuffed dragon for Gabe, and we got the new Mousling figures from Reaper. They’re basically Mouse Guard mice, and are very cool. Kudos to Reaper for having a military discount as well!

We got to meet Shelly Mazzanoble over in the Author’s Alley. We got to talk for a while, and she’s very, very nice. Bridget lamented forgetting to bring her copy of Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress to have her sign.

I saw the Malifaux Terraclips terrain, and to be honest, was underwhelmed. The cardstock was too thin, so it bowed in places, and the plastic clips were too obvious and took away from the asthetic.

While in the Dealer Hall, I got a text from the TOFtBCHes telling me that Dan from Fear The Boot was going to be running a game of the Star Trek Tactical Starship game, which Dan has talked about frequently in the past.  They had two spots left, so Bridget and I ran up and joined the game.

It was an awesome game. Each person on the crew of the ship fills a role in the crew: Captain, Engineer, Weapons Officer, Science Officer and Helmsman. They all have to work together to successfully fight the other ship, which is also manned by another five people. I played the Engineer, sending power to the other systems of the ship and repairing any damage. Bridget was the Weapons Officer, in control of the phasers and torpedos.

We played the Romulans, sneaking up on a Federation ship in the Neutral zone as the Feds dropped an away team onto a planet to destroy a Romulan compound, then extract their crew and fly away. With cloaking device active, we moved in.

The game was a blast, with phaser and torpedo fire going everywhere. In the end, the Federation got away, but not without taking heavy damage to their Warp engines. It was a fantastic game. While the rules were overwhelming at first, we all got it. Bridget kept telling me for the rest of the day how phenomenal the game was.

After that, we rushed over to the GM’s Jam panel, where we showed up late, but had a great time talking with other GMs about issues they were having. On the panel with me were Jeff and Zach from RPG Circus, Dante from Stupid Ranger, and DNAPhil from Gnome Stew. Dante put out a great piece of advice: “Our characters can level up, and so can we.”

We then went over to The House at Union Station for a big RPG Bloggers and Podcasters meetup. It was awesome! We met a ton of other RPGers, and had some great conversations with Enrique, Quinn Murphy, Sarah Darkmagic, Chris Simms and Mike Shae. Newbie, Quinn and I had a great talk about an upcoming project we’re working on (which Bridget graciously took notes on) and Quinn and I talked about another project the two of us are working on.

It was a fantastic night, and I feel like now I can really call all these people “friend” now that I’ve met them all in person.

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Yes, that’s right! We’re going to tell you exactly where we’ll be!

(Note there are a lot of board games here. We actually play a lot of board games here at home, so we’re happy to get out there and play some we’ve never tried before.)

Let’s start with Friday, our first day there. We’re assuming I’m going to be able to get that Friday off work to drive down.

FRIDAY

11:00: “I’m Wil Wheaton, and I’m a Gamer“: We’re going to go see my “Wil Save” himself, Bridget’s old pen pal. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to talk to him.

12:00: Mouse Guard: Winter 1152: This is my Mouse Guard game I’ll be running. If you’re interested, contact me on Twitter. My handle is @markmeredith. This will run for a couple of hours.

3:00: Warhammer Fantasy RP 3e: This is the Warhammer game I’ll be running. Again, if you’re interested, etc. We’ve already got a few people interested.

And that’s it for my scheduled stuff. Bridget and I are going to go on a date that night, since we don’t have much time to when we’ve got the munchkin in tow. That evening, we’ll be milling about, so if you’re interested in hanging out, I’ll be on Twitter all weekend.

SATURDAY

10:00: Guillotine: We’re excited to play some Guillotine, one of our favorite card games.

2:00: Ticket to Ride with Europa 1912 Expansion: Bridget’s never played, so we’ll be using this to occupy our time until…

4:00: GM’s Jam: I’ll be on this panel with Zach from RPG Blog II and a few others. We’ll be talking about RPGs and how to be a better GM.

6:00: Atlantis: This is a board game we’ll be playing. Neither of us have played, and we’re interested in seeing how it turns out.

8:00: Media Meet & Greet: We’ll be here to chat with anyone about blogging and podcasting. We really look forward to seeing all the RPG Bloggers there!

After that, we’re pretty much free! I’ll have my phone synched with Twitter to get any @’s.

SUNDAY

Sunday we’ve only got two events planned.

10:00: Hey, That’s My Fish: This is another board game we’ve been interested in playing.

12:00: The Adventurers: This game by AEG looks pretty awesome.

And beyond that, we’ll be free for other activities.

We’re looking at hitting up some other events in our free time: Tower of Gygax, WotC’s Lair of the Dread Witch, Dark Sun, some free painting, perhaps one of the HirstArts seminars, and the MechWarrior Simulators.

I look forward to seeing a lot of people there, including some game designers and the guys from Fear the Boot. And getting some interviews and an episode recorded for RPG Circus, of course.

If there are any events we’re missing that are going to be big, let us know! If you want us to play in your games, let us know!

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In anticipation for the upcoming “conversion“, I was told by Bridget that my sister-in-law wants me to play a character as well as DMing. I think she thinks the party will be safe as long as I’ve got a stake in the party as well.

I decided to give a character a try I’ve never played before, and went with a Dwarf. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been a fan of Dwarves (at least 12 years or so), so I thought it would be a welcome change of pace. I was originally planning on having him be a Beastmaster Ranger, but thought better of it when Bridget brought home a mini of an arabian girl with a pair of swords and Bridget said she wanted to play a Ranger with it.

So I began looking through the books, and stumbled upon the Runepriest. It’s an easily ignored class in PHB3. While everyone’s been focusing on the Psionic classes, they’ve ignored the Runepriest.

So why not give him a whirl?

I’ve been looking over the book, and he looks like a pretty solid Divine Leader, with some very strong Defender elements, in that he’s definitely the type to take the brunt of attacks.

I also picked up a mini for him, and got him painted. To the right, you can see the results. The lighting is really horrible, but hopefully you can see what I’m going for. I made his eyes glow, and, failing to make a good glow effect from his axe, it’s just sort of a metallic blue.

Bridget will get up photos of the minis she’s painting soon, I’m sure.

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Back in March, Stuart Robertson of Robertson Games wrote a post about painted vs. unpainted miniatures, which got a lot of great comments.

iIn the post, he asked who out there uses entirely painted figures with no stand-ins.

I wish.

My ultimate goal would be to be able to run a weekly game in which I had full 3d terrain for any situation, as well as hand-painted miniatures for anything the players find themselves encountering.

A pipe-dream, right? I’m not so sure.

I’ve got a ton of World Works Games and Fat Dragon Games pieces printed out, but not assembled. As I get them assembled, I’ll have a ton of dungeons, caverns, tavern and town pieces assembled. Will it cover every situation? No, but it’ll come close.

I’d love to begin collecting Dwarven Forge terrain, but it’s so damn expensive, I’m not even sure I can afford to start collecting, much less build a collection.

Now on to miniatures.

If you’re running a game of 4e D&D, you can expect to run between 1-2 encounters in a four-hour session, with some RP in between.

After getting the minis for everyone’s heroes, you simply have to, in the week before, plan the encounters, then head down to the FLGS to pick up the minis for the monsters, or order from Reaper. If you have the whole game group contributing about 5 bucks a week, you could easily put together two encounter’s worth of monsters each week. Then spend a day giving simple paint jobs to your monsters, and you’re good to go.

You don’t really need to put fantastic paint jobs on these monsters, unless it’s a Boss, since they’re expendable. And eventually, you’ll have minis that can be used in later encounters, so they don’t need to be bought that week.

Here’s an example:

Say you play on Saturday nights. Here’s how the week would go:

Sunday: Plan out a few encounters using DDI.
Monday: Pick up the minis at the FLGS and begin painting. Any they don’t have, order online. You should get these by Friday.
Tuesday-Thursday: Continue to paint, assembling cardstock terrain as needed.
Friday: Recieve the minis you ordered and paint those up.
Saturday: Play!

I know it’s not so easy as all that, but you could get ahead of the curve by getting figures for the first six encounters or so before the campaign begins, then keep one step ahead of the game by continuing to plan ahead.

Just an idea. Let me know if you have ever tried anything like this, or might try!

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Jim over at One Monk Miniatures has gone crazy! He’s offering all of his miniatures for absolutely free! You heard me right. And this isn’t a limited time offer. It’s absolutely free forever!

You can see the announcement here. Jim, thank you so much for this completely selfless and unnecessary act. This is definitely one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen a publisher do. Thanks, Jim.

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Click for a larger image

Tonight, this is what the heroes will face. It’s the first paper model I’ve built successfully that actually turned out looking good. That’s entirely made of paper, and normally you could find it on One Monk Miniatures to download, but they’ve been redesigning their site, and I can’t find it at the moment.

When last we saw our heroes, they were battling their way through the Lightning Rail, fighting Hobgoblin pirates. Tonight, when Aldan, Pillar and Alaeyah move into the cargo cabin, they’re going to be beset by this beast. I still need to go through the Monster Manuals and see what monster I’m going to re-skin to make this thing.

I’ll post pictures of tonight’s game later.

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It’s another Monday, and you know what that means? Another fantastic Top 5. These are my top five favorite things this week.

1. Happy Jacks RPG Podcast

Even though RPG Circus recorded a bumper for the beginning of their podcast, and they recorded one for ours a while back, I’ve never actually listened to Happy Jacks until this week. It’s a great roundtable discussion, with a gaming group, talking about different games and topics that pertain to RPGs, such as alignment and player options. It’s been a great listen so far. Give it a listen.

2. One Monk Miniatures

I’ve been downloading free sets from One Monk for a while, and haven’t ever plucked up the courage to actually start putting any together. Then, last week, I started putting together some modern horror figures, and discovered how easy it was to assemble the paper miniatures they make. The Crypt Worm (right) is a different story, but I’m going to try to get it assembled soon and use it in an upcoming game. They’ve got some great figures in the forums created by different people, including some random villagers and monsters of every kind.

3. Getting back in touch with my old group

Three of my players from the Crew of the Iron Dawn are on Facebook, and we’ve been reminiscing about old times. I was reminded of breaking Nate’s foot in a paintball game, causing him to have trouble attending sessions, Kate having no idea why it was I killed off her character in a dream sequence, and discussing the various adventures we all had. These were some great people (still are) and we had a phenomenal time with our group. I’ll be posting up more Never Split the Party posts soon, discussing other games I’ve been a part of.

4. Urban Dead

I’ve mentioned it before, but Urban Dead is a pretty cool game. Playing either a survivor or zombie in a city overrun, you fight throughout the entirely non-graphical city. I’ve maxed out on all my skills at this point, so I’ve been spending my time going around as a zombie making survivor’s lives miserable. If you’re a fan of the idea of zombies killing everything in sight, and you being the only thing standing between them and the world’s complete destruction, here’s your chance.

5. The Lightning Thief

Bridget and I went and saw the movie the other day. She was highly disappointed, as it’s nothing like the books, and it inspired me to start reading them. I’ve just finished The Lightning Thief, and it’s a really good read, if you’re into Greek mythology and the style of Harry Potter. The books are a quick read (Bridget read all 5 within about a week and a half) so it’s not going to take a lot of time out of your Star Wars novel reading (you know you are…)

That’s all for this week’s Top 5. Keep rolling 20′s!

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Browsing the internets the other day, I stumbled upon Mega Miniatures, a miniatures retailer who makes super-cheap minis for nearly any genre. How cheap, you ask? Try $1.50 a mini cheap. All are unpainted, and you can get sets of the figures for even cheaper. You could populate your entire fantasy village for only 24 bucks!

They’ve also got tons of dungeon decor, including bookshelves, beds, torture devices, and racks of weapons. Now, is the quality up to par with, say, Reaper Minis? Not quite, but at the price they sell at, it’s more than worth it. I’m thinking about picking up a few sets myself. I could always use some extra villagers, orcs or zombies to add to my game.

Now, I haven’t bought any yet, so I can’t attest to their actual quality, but it might be worth checking out.

If you don’t mind painting, they’re a great way to practice.

Check these guys out at Mega Miniatures USA.

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