Octopus Overlords

A table of Lawful Good Paladin-Clerics?

The craziest table I sat at had THREE Clerics — a Good healer, a neutral utility, and an evil Necromancer. As the GM, I found nothing injured them for long.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:40 am South Park continues to champion board games. Obviously Parker and Stone are true board gamers as they feature real boardgames from kickstarters and what not quite a bit.

Trey Parker's top 10 games. Definitely a couple of my favorites on that list (but just a couple). His #1 I gave a long, hard look at the last PAX Unplugged, but didn't quite pull the trigger.

Very cool.

I'm not seeing this online yet, but it was in the newsletter I just got. This is screenshot from that. It's the upcoming fantasy game from Battle Systems, the people who made Core Space. My interest level is somewhere between 'very high' and 'sell the children for addon money.'

Yeah, I'm quite excited for it as well. And remember this fantasy world *is* connected to the story of Core Space...somehow. I'm more worried about the space I'll need than anything else, but I'm definitely watching!

Yeah I wish I had held off on this one instead of spending money on Core Space (which I haven't played nearly enough to warrant the investment). I have to just accept the fact that sci-fi games in general don't sustain my interest. Fantasy version, however, sounds absolutely awesome.

I am super in on this one. Also, it will justify me needing to have more Battle Systems terrain!

I'm curious how it connects to Core Space. It would be very cool to have Wizards vs. Robots battles.

baelthazar wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:22 am It would be very cool to have Wizards vs. Robots battles.

Smash-up: The Wargame.

Are there any card sleeves out there that are matte clear on both the front and back? There are so many manufacturer and products that the words 'clear' and 'matte' are everywhere.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:47 pm https://shop.ultrapro.com/products/pro- ... eves-clear

From the descriptions/reviews, those are matte on one side and glossy on the other. I need matte on both sides (for double-sided cards.)

The matte finish helps minimize glare during play, while the textured matte back keeps cards from sticking together and provides a smooth shuffle.

As opposed to:

Huh, that may do the trick, then, thanks.

I had looked up the same item (same name/item number) on Amazon, and people were reporting one glossy side.

When compared to the textured side, the other side look glossier.

So, I have been inspired. I have been messing around with Mice & Mystics lately, and I just started playing Moss in VR (screenshots in the spoiler.) I'm also a fan of Mouse Guard.

I realized that it would be a blast to use this theme for a tabletop skirmish game.
It would be easy. One of the biggest challenges in finding tabletop terrain is finding things that look right at scale. Like painting sand so that it looks like gravel at ~1:58 scale. Or finding artificial plants that have leaves that look appropriate when placed next to an inch-high person. Finding seeds that kind of look like tiny fallen leaves. You're always looking for ways to create the illusion that the real-world item is a much bigger item that's been shrunken down, and it doesn't always work, creating a version of the uncanny valley where the textures and materials just look off if you look too closely.



With mouse-based terrain, you wouldn't have to do that. Since the miniature is roughly the size of a small mouse (usually smaller, but it's out of our normal sense of scale so it isn't noticeable), everything you use for terrain could be real-world sized. That means that any artificial grass, plants, or flowers are already good to go. Rocks are... rocks. Leaves can just be leaves. Need a fence made from branches? The twigs in the yard are already at scale. Elevation? - a bit of broken stone or an old brick from the yard would do a great job of representing a broken stone or an old brick. Look at those screenshots again - I could recreate most of that right now without having to 'craft' much of anything (other than the stalls.)

I'm thinking that it would, perhaps, be a fun reskin of something like Rangers of the Shadow Deep. There are plenty of mouse-themed miniatures already on the market, and it would be simple enough to reskin enemies as (normal sized) bugs, rats, birds, lizards, whatever.

I'm really struggling to find appropriate scaled foliage for my games. I've got a whole box full of random cheap aquarium plants that I want to turn into jungle terrain, but when I look at it, I kind of lock up because I can't really envision how it's going to look good on the table.

I realize I shouldn't be so fussy, but I like a good looking table, dammit.

I've decided that I really need a blank playmat. I'm thinking that something like 24x30 would be good, maybe even 24x24. Something that could handle a variety of smaller (especially card) games where I don't have (or can't afford) the custom mats. I've got a few MTG-style standard decks, but they're too small for games with spread out cards, and I've got one huge one that's too big to drag out all the time.

The biggest problem that I've always had is that too many mats overdo the art. I'd prefer something other than a simple single color, but I don't want the mat art competing with the card art, or being so busy that it's easy to lose track of components because they disappear into the art. What I'd love to find is just a simple weathered wood mat - like I'm looking at an old, worn, plank tabletop.

Again, this is something I can't spend money on now, but I'm searching for just the right mat for when I can.

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but I keep a landscape (grassland/wasteland) terrain playmat on my table at all times. On top, I use a cheap (<$10) single color tablecloth. While it's not exactly the same as having game play directly on a play mat, the added spongy layer under the table cloth does make picking up cards much easier.

Yeah, I've got some options like that that I use when necessary. This is more of a 'wishlist' item. I'd actually like to have several for different types of gaming: A wooden plank table, like I mentioned. A high-tech panel (not a display - just a neat, clean panel with panel lines), and a rusted, welded metal. Each of those as a mat would cover a lot of territory.

Something similar to these three, although the last one would be more like weathered armor plates than blue.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 2:58 pm I've decided that I really need a blank playmat. I'm thinking that something like 24x30 would be good, maybe even 24x24. Something that could handle a variety of smaller (especially card) games where I don't have (or can't afford) the custom mats. I've got a few MTG-style standard decks, but they're too small for games with spread out cards, and I've got one huge one that's too big to drag out all the time.

The biggest problem that I've always had is that too many mats overdo the art. I'd prefer something other than a simple single color, but I don't want the mat art competing with the card art, or being so busy that it's easy to lose track of components because they disappear into the art. What I'd love to find is just a simple weathered wood mat - like I'm looking at an old, worn, plank tabletop.

Again, this is something I can't spend money on now, but I'm searching for just the right mat for when I can.

FWIW, I find this 2ft x 3ft Roll-Play Board Game Mat comes in handy when you need a simple and unobtrusive table mat without distracting artwork. It's double-sided, with one slick and the other with more friction. The slick side may not be patterned with weathered wood grain, but the subtle design it uses is sufficient to break up the background without being becoming distracting:



If you're specifically interested in a less obtrusive custom patterned mat, have a butcher's at what's available from GripMats on Etsy, e.g. here's their wood play mat (available in various sizes, including 24" x 24" or 24" x 36"):

Yeah, that's not horrible - much more in line with what I need. And I'm familiar with the company - I have their river and road sets.

For those that need them, BGG is having a fire sale on boardgame carry bags.

Link

Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Today I found out that Star Trek Ascendancy (my favorite all day space 4x game) is not, in fact, finished. The main designer tragically passed away a while ago and the assumption was that the franchise was done. But there’s two expansions coming this summer for the Breen and the Dominion War. This is great news as the game is just a blast for fans so Star Trek, or fans of big ol’ space opera games.

Some kinda weird interactive table and a chess like game.

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aOr4bWM_460sv.mp4

hepcat wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 6:40 pm Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Today I found out that Star Trek Ascendancy (my favorite all day space 4x game) is not, in fact, finished. The main designer tragically passed away a while ago and the assumption was that the franchise was done. But there’s two expansions coming this summer for the Breen and the Dominion War. This is great news as the game is just a blast for fans so Star Trek, or fans of big ol’ space opera games.

I didn't know that. He also designed Firefly. What an excellent talent, lost too soon. I really really loved Ascendancy, but one member of my gaming group (who also is the most nitpicky Trekkie in the group) really hated it. He was too caught up in the "Romulan warbirds would have always won this fight... that would have never happened in reality" type of unpleasantness to realize that - this is a game, not a simulation. Myself, I was having a hoot as the Klingons taking over Earth after the Federation had colonized Praxis, despite my loud exhortation that it was - by right - Klingon dominion.

baelthazar wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:54 am I really really loved Ascendancy, but one member of my gaming group (who also is the most nitpicky Trekkie in the group) really hated it. He was too caught up in the "Romulan warbirds would have always won this fight... that would have never happened in reality" type of unpleasantness to realize that - this is a game, not a simulation.

Sheesh, that would annoy the hell out of me. Just hold game days for Star Trek Ascendancy and NOT invite him. If he finds out and gets upset, tell him it's his own damn fault.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:22 am

baelthazar wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:54 am I really really loved Ascendancy, but one member of my gaming group (who also is the most nitpicky Trekkie in the group) really hated it. He was too caught up in the "Romulan warbirds would have always won this fight... that would have never happened in reality" type of unpleasantness to realize that - this is a game, not a simulation.

Sheesh, that would annoy the hell out of me. Just hold game days for Star Trek Ascendancy and NOT invite him. If he finds out and gets upset, tell him it's his own damn fault.

Well, he is the third of a triumverate, so that would make all my games 2-player... (we lost our fourth player, tragically, last year). We haven't had a game day in over two years now, so it would have gathered dust anyway. Thus my constant emphasis on solo-play games.

Drive up to Chicago and we'll have an all day Star Trek Ascendancy.

baelthazar wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:44 am

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:22 am

baelthazar wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:54 am I really really loved Ascendancy, but one member of my gaming group (who also is the most nitpicky Trekkie in the group) really hated it. He was too caught up in the "Romulan warbirds would have always won this fight... that would have never happened in reality" type of unpleasantness to realize that - this is a game, not a simulation.

Sheesh, that would annoy the hell out of me. Just hold game days for Star Trek Ascendancy and NOT invite him. If he finds out and gets upset, tell him it's his own damn fault.

Well, he is the third of a triumverate, so that would make all my games 2-player... (we lost our fourth player, tragically, last year). We haven't had a game day in over two years now, so it would have gathered dust anyway. Thus my constant emphasis on solo-play games.

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:50 am Drive up to Chicago and we'll have an all day Star Trek Ascendancy.

I haven't heard a "no" yet

hepcat wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:50 am Drive up to Chicago and we'll have an all day Star Trek Ascendancy.

Oh, I would absolutely love to do this at some point. We are still very isolated due to family needs. Someday, I would also like to get back to GenCon and meet up.

A tabletop RPG based on the Faith No More album “The Real Thing”

That is just…incredibly niche.

Grabbing this discussion from the Kickstarter thread, in response to a crowdfunding project failing, and the company possibly folding:

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 12:43 pm Yeah, I was following as well. I guess they needed to hit about $1.5 million in funding and with only 2200 backers and 15K followers, it wasn't going to happen.

I am totally with you - I think the golden age of big-box miniature gaming is over. Monolith is apparently going to relaunch their Gotham City Chronicles game with a focus on updating the rules and providing a dedicated solo option for all products in that line, which I totally didn't see coming. How they're also going to offer the ability to re-purchase all that content I don't know, but I'm guessing prices are going to be quite high. I was just getting ready to offload my untouched set because of the lack of solo play, but now I'm going to hold on to it for a bit longer to see what happens.

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 2:26 pm I was looking at that one too. But it was well over 100 bucks just for the core. And it went all the up to like 3 or 4 hundred smackers, I believe.

Between the economy and the shipping, I agree. Big box stuff is going to go away for a while...if not forever.

However, I will still buy just about anything Lovecraft related because I'm a moron.

I don't really keep abreast of the latest industry news, but this really does seem like what's happening.

We got lucky, and a whole string of things happened at around the same time, leading to a real 'golden age' for tabletop gaming, board, war, and pen-and-paper games. I don't study the industry that closely, but my impression on some of the things that brought it about, all happening in a relatively short time frame, which I will poorly estimate:

• Video games were everywhere, leading to the broader concept of 'gaming' as a hobby becoming mainstream (this built up gradually, but really hit the mainstream after the 2001 launch of the Xbox, 2004 with World of Warcraft, and by 2005 was making more money than cinema.)
• "Nerd culture" became pop culture (it was unpop culture before!), making it 'trendy.' (this happened broadly across the early 2000s)
• Cheap manufacturing and shipping became widely available (Started in the 70s, built up speed in the 80s and 90s, and overtook the US in around 2011.)
• Internet shopping took center stage, making products that most stores couldn't stock viable, making previously niche interests more widely available (Amazon launched Prime in 2005, taking away the 'shipping costs and slow service' that had held online retail back, really causing it to surge forward.)
• YouTube made it easy to find and share niche interests in an easy-to-digest format - perfect for games that are often visually striking, but complex (launched in 2005)
• A couple of YouTube shows based on tabletop gaming became hugely popular (TableTop launched in 2012, Critical Role in 2015)
• Similarly a couple of popular TV shows involved tabletop gaming (Big Bang Theory (cringe) in 2007, Stranger Things in 2016)
• Kickstarter happened. This allowed experimental projects to confirm viability before launch, and seriously reduced the risk in launching new projects. It also made huge, expensive games viable in a way that never would have happened before (how many $600 board games would have sold if they were plonked into a retail store pre-KS?) (launched in 2009, Exploding Kittens became the most-backed project in 2015.)
• This one's a little more... iffy, but it is one I've seen quoted by a lot of people: The end of local multiplayer in video games due to the rise of broadband and the profitability of online play. Friends wanting to get together to hang out found that one popular activity had been eliminated, and a lot of them found board gaming as an alternative. It's a little harder to estimate a date on this, as it was a slow process rather than a moment, but it was broadly happening just as everyone was talking about how awesome board games were.
• Likewise, as smart phones and social media became so prominent, there was a big desire for an analog activity that didn't involved staring at a piece of glowing glass by yourself (iPhone 3g in 2008 seems to have been the kick-off event for this trend, while Facebook really started to take off around 2010.)
• While all of the above was going on, board games themselves had matured. The production values were higher, the rules had begun to find a balance between Avalon Hill complexity and Milton Bradley shallowness. You didn't have to sacrifice depth for pliability, or fun for depth, and hobby games no longer looked like scraps of cardboard.
• Many of the above factors led to the viability of indie development, which resulted in quite a few gems, and some new trends that leaked over into the mainstream (this is especially true of pen and paper gaming, which has been completely transformed by trends started by smaller or indie publishers over the past decade.)

There are probably dozens of others, but it really seems, in retrospect, that it was a 'perfect storm' for tabletop gaming to explode like it did.

Lately, we've had a couple of other, less awesome trends:

• Consolidation. Board gaming has been going through the same kind of consolidation that video games have. Every restaurant is Asmodee Taco Bell.
• The way crowdfunding works has changed. It's no longer a way to test new products, it's a preorder system, and a few types of board games are highly, highly, reliant on it. This is where those massive miniatures-based board games that cost hundreds of dollars come into play. They exist only through Kickstarter. It is their economy and their market. Pretty much anything that has a Fantasy Flight logo fits in here.

And then the other perfect storm hit. It hit everything, but hit crowdfunding especially hard:

• Brexit. It wasn't a huge one, but it did throw European shipping into chaos, and nobody knew what kind of fees to expect. Products in some places became unreliable in regards to time and cost.
• Trump's trade war. This was an early event, but it really set the stage. People had expectations as far as prices went, and this threw everything off. Suddenly, super-cheap manufacturing became kinda-cheap manufacturing, and a lot of products suffered, while the cost was passed on to the consumer. Products are more expensive.
• COVID-19. This impacted everything. I'll touch on a few big ones.
• COVID-19. Suddenly those only-kinda-cheap manufacturing facilities in China were shut down more than they were open, and when they were actually open they were operating under extreme restrictions and short staffing. In terms of crowdfunding, this means that prices have increased for comparable products, and that project completion time has increased. Projects are more expensive and take longer.
• COVID-19. Shipping. Workers couldn't work. Ports and warehouses filled up. There were no containers to pack games into. There were no ships to load containers onto. Hell, there were no workers to do the packing. When the ships finally sailed, there was nobody to unload them, and nobody to inspect them. When they finally did get into the warehouses, there was nobody to pick them up and move them around the country. That led to warehouses that were packed so full that there was nowhere to unload the new items. This, in turn, tied up containers. And as the supply of shipping services took a nosedive, the demand went up. This massively increased shipping costs to absurd levels (but still not to Marvel Zombies levels...) It has also massively increased total time from manufacturing completion to delivery, and has done so in an inconsistent manner, making shipping time predictions impossible. In terms of crowdfunding, this means that shipping has skyrocketed to sticker-shock levels that fluctuate all over the place from day to day. This has made companies afraid to commit to a price, as if the prices go up, they could end up tens - or hundreds of thousands in the hole, either forced to beg their customers for donations or potentially lose their businesses. As a result, shipping prices are no longer included in most campaigns (remember 'free shipping in the US' of days past?), and they often don't even have estimates - or have really vague estimates. After getting bitten by this a few times, this makes customers afraid to back, as they're never sure if their cost is going to jump by 30% in the end. Shipping has become slow, the prices have become insane and opaque when purchasing decisions are being made, and consumers are afraid to commit.
• COVID-19. Raw and processed materials. Nobody to gather them, no factories open to process them. This one is true in every industry and across a huge range of materials, but the big one here was the paper shortage, and a paper shortage means a cardboard shortage, too. No cardboard to make the games, no cardboard for the game boxes, no cardboard for cartons to pack the games into. In terms of crowdfunding, this has resulting in more big delays without warning and even higher prices (supply is down...) More delays and higher prices.
• COVID-19. All of the above have hit both developers and backers. Developers who had projects going or commit ed to when COVID hit blew past their deadlines and lost much of their profits to increased expenses after funding, tarnishing reputations, ruining plans, and sometimes destroying companies and ending careers. The customers had campaign after campaign after campaign go bad. Some became more expensive as companies reached out for help dealing with cost spikes. Every project suffered delay after delay after delay. Six month timelines became two years. Many projects were declared kaput - unfulfillable, refunds unlikely. Developers starting building themselves a breathing room into their projects out of fear of worse to come. Backers who had suffered bad project after bad project began to look at committing to yet more projects - already way more expensive, slower, and unpredictable - with wariness. Did they really want to get themselves into yet another headache? Companies became more cautious and less willing to take risks, while backers became jaded and suffered Kickstarter burnout due to repeated problems.(I think this one is a huge factor myself.) (Disclaimer here - very few of the problems were preventable or the fault of the developers, especially those already committed to when this all began.)
• COVID-19. Unemployment, lockdowns, and inflation. People have less money due to unemployment, and everything else costs more, leaving less free money.
• Current events. Ukraine and Russia are the big one, and have thrown European business into yet another morass - even more shipping and logistics issues, more supply issues, more economic instability. Exactly how this will affect things is still up in the air.

So, we have smaller studios being bought up under corporations that are less interested in innovation than they are in established money-making franchises. We have scads of studios, big and small, who have built their entire business model around the ability of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding services to mitigate risk. Other companies are completely reliant on it as a guaranteed pre-sale and (very powerful) advertising tool for projects that could never work if simply plopped down on their website one day (let alone at a gaming store - who's going to offer shelf space to a game where one copy takes up eight cubic feet and cost $500+?) And now that tool is about to collapse under the pressures of the rest of the world.

We're going to see a lot of companies go down (companies like FFG and Monolith are about to have a bad year), and those that don't are going to become much, much more conservative and cautious. As others have said, the big box miniatures games market is probably about to die. Maybe it will fade away with a whimper. Maybe it will be a big and flashy, as a huge, high-profile game will fail to deliver, or a big-name company will fold. When that happens, corporate-owned studios will become even more cautious, and will stick with guaranteed sellers (IE - established IPs) with modest budgets. Smaller companies will likely focus on more modest products as well, not as big, or as flashy, as what we're used to. We're going to be seeing more and more games come out with cardboard standees for the characters, and maybe some STL files as a stretch goal - hero miniatures if things go really well. Games that are cheaper and more reliable to produce and sell will become the rule.

It's been a great golden age, but lets be honest - we were due for it to wind down. I just don't think we expected the Great Miniature Crash of 2022 (or will it be 2023?)

CMON’s accountants have been alarmed for over a year about the unfulfilled Kickstarters, and all of their products are big and expensive to ship. A business model that could depend on the next million-plus Kickstarter to keep operating.

But I think their Marvel deal made it impossible for CMON to subsidize shipping the same way they used to. The studio wants their fee and demands timely delivery. I think that puts CMON into the position they had to schedule delivery and pass on the cost, regardless of the company damage. I also think they severely misjudged the market’s willingness to buy the huge Galactus model and underestimated badly the additional shipping cost.

For smaller developers, the drying up of the product pipeline due to the impact of COVID is deadly. El Dorado Games openly talked about how their expected profit on Legend Academy went down by about $400,000 due to shipping to only $70,000 for 2 people. That’s not enough to pay themselves, so they’ve taken regular jobs. If the company wasn’t diligent about cash flow, increases in shipping and manufacturing cost and delay would further kill profitability. Gamers are notoriously bad at business management, running on just ideas.

Personally, I am worried about Arydia but loved Xia enough to feel better about giving money to Cody’s team at Far Off even if the game doesn’t deliver.

I wonder how much board game stock is going to be at game conventions this year. I’m hopeful but I think the supply chain issues linger this year. But easily past July.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 10:33 pm I wonder how much board game stock is going to be at game conventions this year. I’m hopeful but I think the supply chain issues linger this year. But easily past July.

There's another potential issue. A lot of the conventions have grown considerably in conjunction with the 'golden age'.

GenCon is probably the clearest example, and the one I know best (I've made it three times) - they went from 25k to 30k in the eight years between 2003-2010, then went from 30k to 70k in the next nine years. The expanded to hold that, and Indianapolis incurred a fair amount of expense to expand to accommodate it. Then we had 2020, which had an attendance of... zero (they had online 'events' only.) And 2021 had 35k in-person - back down to 2011's levels. But the company has invested the resources and infrastructure to handle 2019's 70k, and they had to have taken huge losses in skipping an entire year. If the industry crashes or shrinks considerably, they are going to have to shrink their entire corporation in order to stay solvent with half of the attendees - and that's if they're smart. Lately, they haven't been smart, effectively pricing a lot of smaller companies out of participation with rate hikes for floor space. If they crank the (already high) prices to compensate, or simply try to force their way through it hoping for an industry recovery, they could end up having serious issues.

I'd imagine that other conventions are going to face similar problems if the hobby crashes/shrinks.

Yeah, I think you nailed it Blackhawk.

I'm guessing the hobby might change. I strongly suspect there will still be crowd-funded games but they're going to be dice and card based - no more minis.

I also think it's possible we're going to see many more projects for skirmish-style RPG hybrids -- where people can buy a PDF and possibly STL files to all print out at home. Games like Rangers of Shadow Deep, 5 Leagues from the Borderlands, Nightwatch, etc...

I can't claim to follow the news too closely on these topics overall, but there has definitely been a surge in board games and miniature gaming products going to independent production houses (like Game Crafter) and POD sites like DriveThru RPG.

I honestly don't know what will happen with companies like CMON but their current model is unsustainable. They've been using KS as a glorified preorder system for years and I think it just stopped working for them. Companies like Flying Frog or Asmodee...hard to say.

Things are definitely going to change. By all accounts they're just as bad or worse than they were a year ago. If it's not shipping issues it's recurring outbreaks.

I guess Kickstarter might even move back to being a more Boutique provider of certain types of games. IE- there will be a small percentage that will pay more for games with Mini's. <shrug>

But it will be interesting too see how the industry changes.

Great writeup, Blackhawk.

I definitely don't underestimate the hobby's ability to adapt to changing times. We've been awash in a flood of minis-based games because they're flashy and bring in the big money, but I think if that revenue stream is impacted by shipping costs and supply chains, designers and publishers will re-route and we'll still be flooded with high-quality games.

I mean Gloomhaven is arguably the most successful dungeon crawler of all time, and it utilizes a tiny handful of minis compared to most games. So the solutions don't need to be invented - they already exist, and they've already been proven viable. In fact, I kind of hope this ultimately results in better game design as developers no longer have the "shitload of minis" crutch to fall back on.

So overall, I take a rather optimistic view of the whole thing. Challenges drive innovation, and the hobby has grown so large that there are plenty of opportunities there for those companies that are agile.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 9:55 am I also think it's possible we're going to see many more projects for skirmish-style RPG hybrids -- where people can buy a PDF and possibly STL files to all print out at home. Games like Rangers of Shadow Deep, 5 Leagues from the Borderlands, Nightwatch, etc...

I can't complain too much about more products along those lines! As long as they do the .pdfs with an option to print (all they need to do is distribute them through DriveThruRPG.) But as far as the .stl files, a lot of people still don't have 3d printers (including me - although I've been wanting one for years), and are unlikely to back anything that requires one. And many of those that do have printers don't have the type that's capable of printing a paint-quality detailed miniature without having to invest a huge amount of labor on each one to make it smooth enough.

Now, if there were DriveThru3d... that could make a lot of things more viable, as long as they could keep the quality high (most people without printers wouldn't know what to do with miniatures that look like they're made out of LEGOs), the prices reasonable, and the turnaround fast enough to be practical. I don't know if the tech is there yet or not.

I'm not knowledgeable at all with 3D printing, but I have a friend that is obsessed. The one limiting element for the STLs I've seen floated is that there's no reliable controls for theft so there's little incentive for a company to go to all the efforts to create them only to have [X] files sold an [X^n] turned into warez.

Saw this in my recommended feed today and gave it a watch/listen:



It's long and I generally avoid The Dice Tower, but there's a really great discussion here. The one that that I picked up early on in the interview was the observation that for the Marvel Zombie campaign shipping pricing they thought it was still too low. If that's true - I can't imagine KS is going to be a viable option for too many more board games moving forward - at least those that involve (1) large or heavy boxes and/or (2) require complex pack outs.

Anyway, it's a good video to keep on in the background while you're doing other things. The audio cuts in and out in a few spots, but the content is great. Highly, highly informative.