Flat Plastic Miniatures - and GenCon

I'm off to Gencon in a couple of days after taking a couple of years off.  I don't have a rigidly structured agenda; a friend registered us for a bunch of roleplaying games, and I'm sure I'll get into one or two M:TG (Magic) tournaments with my buddy the Magic player.  We'll have 8+ dads and kids out there, so there will be plenty to do.  One of the things I'm going to check out in the expo area is the "Flat Plastic Miniatures" (FPM) booth.

I got out of collecting miniatures several years ago, and was using wooden blocks when we needed to use a grid vs "theater of the mind" style resolution.  I imagine other DM's are the same - based on the tactical complexity, and the amount of preparation that went into it, we'll decide on the spot whether to run combat on the grid or without miniatures.  I do mix both styles.

I discovered Flat Plastic Miniatures early this year and they've worked well.  Here's a shot from a recent game on how they look on the table:

They feature hand drawn artwork, laser printed onto thin plastic, and inserted into a plastic base.  The pieces feel way more durable than paper or cardboard, and they're a fraction of the cost of 3-D pre-painted miniatures (like the WOTC or Wizkids offerings).  FPM might end up $.25 to $.33 per figure, while the (admittedly) beautiful official Wizkids pieces are $3-$4 per figure.  So FPM is way more budget friendly (although not nearly as friendly as wooden blocks).  When all is said and done, I'll probably spend a few hundred dollars to get a gigantic mini collection with the flat minis, whereas an equivalent collection of painted figures would be minimum several thousand dollars (and, you know, a divorce).

I also like that Flat Plastic Minis are easy to store - I've got several hundred figures in the binder pictured below:

You can get this type of zippered binder at an office supply store.  Since the figures can easily slide out of the binder if it tilts upside down (a mini apocalypse), a zippered binder ensures you're not going to lose anything.  The sleeves are card sleeves, available at a game store or baseball card shop.  At some point the organization compulsion will take me over, and I'll put little label stickers on the sleeves to make it super organized.

Visiting the Flat Plastic Miniatures booth at Gencon is one of my Gencon goals.  They have a ton of sets I don't own, and maybe they'll have some Gencon deals?  I saw LOTFP will be there as well, and I'm sure I'll do a bunch of board game demos too.

Anyone else going, and what kind of stuff do you have planned?

PS:
Here's the link to the store for the guys that sell Flat Plastic Miniatures:  Arcknight.  The store doesn't seem completely up to date, as they've been doing various Kickstarters and so forth.  That's another reason I'm curious to see what's at their Gencon booth.

Belated Gencon 2014 Report - and Kid Cosplay

The kiddo has embraced anime cosplay

I've had trouble keeping my mind on gaming lately.  I started a sizable remodeling project back in June, assuming I'd get it done before the summer was over, and then BAM! - I look up and it's already August and the summer is fleeing across the sky.  Gaming has been taking a back seat to ripping up carpeting and tackless strips.  At this point I only have a few more weeks to go on the project - some ceramic tiling to do, tearing out the last of the carpet, and then laying new floors throughout the house - I'm hoping to be done before the end of September and be back to normal.  Painting and crown molding was all done earlier in the summer.

For those reasons, my online presence pretty much flat-lined since August and RPG stuff has been quiet.  Still alive though!  Here's what I saw and did at Gencon this year -  a belated Gencon report.

Zombies
My big focus was finding a good zombie board game.  I spent quite a bit of time in the dealer hall this year doing game demonstrations at various publisher booths - it's a great way to get a 20-30 minute exposure to a game ahead of buying one.  In the zombie genre, I tried Zombies!, Zombicide, and Last Night on Earth.  I thought Last Night on Earth was the most fun and best value, and ended up picking up a copy.  We've had fun with it so far.

Other Horror Board Games
I tried a bunch of other board games as well, and a couple of horror games stood out.  I'd been hearing good things about Touch of Evil, another game from Flying Frog like Last Night on Earth, and it was pretty fun.  It's one to pick up before Halloween, the best holiday, and one that's going to be here before you know it.  In Touch of Evil, you play investigators in a Sleepy Hollow style setting, gathering quest items to confront classic supernatural monsters like the werewolf or the Headless Horseman.  (It feels a bit like Elder Sign, a game from Fantasy Flight, with a different theme).    I'd also heard good things about Level 7, so we tried Level 7 Omega Protocol, which was also a lot of fun.  Players take on the role of elite soldiers in a Halo-style world infiltrating a lab full of alien-like monsters.  It's a highly tactical team-oriented combat game with cool mechanics - it was a bit pricey for the Gencon budget this time out.

RPG's
I brought the 5E starter along with our gear, in case our group had some downtime and wanted to try 5E.  All of the official 5E events were sold out.  Many of the guys in our local game group have been going out to Gencon with their sons, so we usually have 7-8 people in our party - more than enough to run our own games at the Con without recruiting.  But things were busy enough that we never did break out the 5E starter.

My oldest kiddo has been on  a gigantic anime and manga kick lately - his cosplay character above is 'Gaara' from a manga called Naruto.  One of my Gencon priorities was to try some super hero games and find an appealing set of super hero rules to run an anime-inspired supers game this year.  I am now the proud owner of Icons, a lightweight super hero game by Steve Kenson (of Mutants and Masterminds fame).  Icons reminds me a lot of the classic Marvel Super Heroes (MSH) from the 1980's and looks fine for a rules-lite anime-inspired superhero game.  The Green Ronin folks were super friendly and didn't mind spending time talking about the mechanics and doing some demo games.

Cosplay

Last year, the oldest kiddo ended up packing his Legend of Zelda Link costume and wearing it at the Con.  I didn't think much of it - he saw a lot of cosplay the year before, so I guess he thought it looked like fun and wanted to join in.  This year, he went after the cosplay aspect with commitment.  We teamed up to make a fantastic "Gaara" costume, he dyed his hair, and made me apply some light make up each day.  It was like touring Gencon with a minor celebrity - he got like 40-50 picture requests a day just walking around the dealer hall and whatnot and it took longer to get anywhere due to picture requests.  Apparently a lot of people know that Naruto show, a lot of folks knew the character.  He might be on to something sneaky smart though - I saw plenty of young ladies complimenting his costume and getting chatty.

Purchases and Related Stuff
From an RPG perspective, my main get this year was the hardcover edition of Icons published by Green Ronin.  Pelgrane Press (Trail of Cthulhu) didn't release Mythos Expeditions in time for Gencon, so I'm holding out for that one - I think it just went on pre-order.  The D&D 5e PHB was around, but I figure I'll wait a little before taking the plunge.

In the board game space, I picked up Last Night On Earth and a card game called Once Upon A Time - something for the younger kiddos and my daughter to do.  I also got in plenty of Magic the Gathering, and won a win-a-box tournament - that's two years in a row winning a box at Gencon, w00t.

This was my fourth Gencon.  We're getting pretty good at getting around the con and have picked up some basic tips and tricks.  I've got to do a Gencon tips post before next year, and find out how readers who attend get the most out of the con as well.

Gencon 2012 Retrospective

I'm still a bit dazed from the whirlwind of Gencon, and since we pulled an all-nighter driving home yesterday, it'll take a day or so to get back to normal.  I visited the OSR booth on Thursday, mainly to say hi to Tavis and find out what were the plans for ACKS at Gencon.  We never did get to drop in on any ACKS games; Bo and I had our kiddos along, and the timing never worked out for us to leave them at the hotel with one of the other mom's that came on the trip.  I didn't fit in any Black City games either;  we ended up doing a massive late night game of Zombie Munchkin instead.  There were a bunch of OSR books I was hoping to see at the OSR booth, but none of them were there this year, so there are no OSR Gencon purchases to hype; my hopes got up when I saw Frog God stuff at the OSR booth this year, but the one I really wanted, The Black Monastery, was notably absent.

I briefly met Roger from Roles, Rules, and Rolls while at the OSR booth, and ran into Trey (author of Weird Adventures) while at a history seminar at the convention.  This meet up was fairly serendipitous - I had listened to one of Trey's round tables on G+ (it was on using "America as a fantasy setting") and he's got a distinctive mid-Southern accent - I want to say, Virginia or Tennessee.  We were sitting right next to each other at the seminar anonymously, and when the guy nearby asked a question, I realized it was Trey from Weird Adventures sitting right there.  Funny stuff.  It's always a pleasure to put a face and a human presence with the online persona.

Night's Black Agents:  Keep your blood on the inside

I had a chance to visit Pelgrane Press on Thursday before things got too busy, and Kenneth Hite graciously allowed me to interrogate question him on some upcoming books he's writing.  I'll get those notes together tomorrow.  I picked up my pre-order of Night's Black Agents and the Zalozhniy Quartet (a mini-campaign for the game) and got a picture of the offspring with the author.  It was a moment of  celebrity author fandomania:

Kenneth Hite and the kid:  celebrity fandom moment

Pagan had a wide range of products, including a bunch of hard-to-find hard backs of Delta Green.  I guess with the move to RPG Now, they're breaking the secret stash out of Area 51.  I was able to get Delta Green, Delta Green Eyes Only, Mysteries of Mesoamerica, and Bumps in the Night, the latter two featuring collections of short scenarios.  I met Greg Stolze and had a nice conversation with Scott Glancy at the booth.  One can't laud the Delta Green setting enough, so expect a review or retrospective this week as well as a discussion of the other books.

Awesome Delta Green and horror goodness

I tried to ignore WOTC as much as feasible, but the offspring is struck with Drizz't-love, and we needed to visit the booth and get him some pictures of the giant Drizz't statue and Lolth statues.  It was nigh impossible to drop in on a 5E play test without waiting a few hours on line (assuming you didn't pre-register for it).  We dropped in a few times but split after discouragement by WOTC's staff.  A few guys in our group did tough out the long waits for a drop-in 5E play test, and confirmed it featured super-heroic characters similar in power to 4E guys.  That's probably old news to readers, but I'm trying not to pay too much attention to D&D Next and keep an open mind until books actually get printed - assuming it's going to use actual books, and not another weird online subscription.

One thing new was Dungeon Command, a new D&D miniatures game promulgated at the WOTC booth.  I was dubious about it, but the kiddo insisted on spending some of his own cash to pick it up (the Drow themed starter sealed the deal for him), and it's actually really, really good.  It blends miniatures gaming with a Magic the Gathering style card deck.  If you have a lot of the previous D&D minis, the figures are all repaints of existing sculpts.  Nonetheless, Dungeon Command was one of the surprises of the convention for me, and I'm glad the kiddo got it - we'll have a ton of fun playing.  Plus, he found it for $25 in the dealer hall (WOTC was selling them for $40).  It's non-collectible, too, which is a bonus.  Expect a detailed review.

Dungeon Command:  DDM meets M:TG

I spent a lot more time in the dealer hall checking out board games this year, including extended plays of Star Trek Settlers of Cataan, and the 4E version of Talisman; I ended up getting Trek Settlers for Wifey, as she's a closet Trekkie.  Bo and I also got in a bunch of Heroclix games with the kiddos in the main hall.  Wizkids really ran a good convention this year; there were minimal lines at their events and they were consistently sitting nearly 400 people at a time.  Plus, the volunteers and judges were super nice to the kids.  Below are some of the great pieces we got in the sealed events that we needed for our collection of plastic men in capes and tights.

Heroclix:  plastic toy superhero men!

More details to come this week as I get caught up with work (and sleep).