Shadows of Brimstone Kickstarter #3

Last week, I was a little surprised to see an update from Flying Frogs announcing their next Kickstarter.  Details were scarce, but there it was.  I wasn't incredibly surprised that there would be a third campaign, but it caught me off guard a bit  that they'd be kicking it off right now without much build-up. 

But no, we got a few days heads up, a couple of Facebook posts, and it's off to the races with a relatively short, 14d campaign.

This time around they're launching their "Adventure" boxes, which are a pair of basically mini-cores.  Intent is apparently an easier starting point for new fans, and good integration with the original two cores (Swamps of Death and City of the Ancients).  In this smaller box will be the usual "stuff" - map tiles, figures, cards, gear, missions, but scaled back a bit (e.g. fewer map tiles than a full core).

New mechanics will be "team" heroes - apparently instead of 4 unique heroes all with their own skills, skill trees, and mechanics, each of the 4 Adventure heroes will effectively be of the same class.  (Therefore less playtesting and fewer balance issues with an already large Brimstone universe).

There's a bit of apprehension about the team heroes, as it feels like "less," (less content, less customization).  I'm actually okay with it - in our house we typically play 2-player, it will be easier for us to run a full squad of 4 without having to remember all the nuances of 4 unique heroes. 

The campaign is off to a roaring start already - pushing $650k at the 23 hour mark and smashing through stretch goals. 

Anyway, I'm all-in on this one.

This Week's Distraction: Diablo 3 Season 16

It's been quite awhile since I've played any meaningful Diablo 3 content.  When the game originally launched, I played through, but was quickly bored with the grind and steep difficulty curve.  (And, at launch, the real money auction house and a couple of classes that were nigh unplayable).

It's been several years, and Blizzard has continued to tweak the title and make incremental improvements.  A friend mentioned that Season 16 had commenced, so on a whim I popped in and rolled a fresh Crusader. 

What became clear to me is that:
a) after several years away, the core satisfaction - smiting oodles of baddies - is very much still there, and in some ways amplified.
b) after several years of playing board games, D3 offers a really great dungeon crawl on par with Shadows of Brimstone, or the tabletop RPG that we played last week with friends (D&D5E).  Sure, the pacing is different, and D3 is far more mindless, but the but it's been a really excellent way to scratch the same itch, and do it in ways that WoW or GW2 simply can't.

So, anyway, that's this week's distraction. I'm sure it won't last, but I'm enjoying the ride for now.

Dog Might Games: Custom Kingdom Death Gear Grids

Looking back through my posts, I realized I never actually uploaded these pictures.  Let's fix that!

Very early in our KDM career, I knew that the stock cardboard grids that come stock in the game were a pain.  If you look away for a SECOND, the gear cards spin and dance and rearrange themselves.  

I wanted a solution.

But I was picky.  There were some acrylic and laser cut ply options on the market, and 3D printable files around, but I wanted something a little more ... deserving ... of the great title that KDM is.

At PAX Unplugged 2017, I stopped in at the Dog Might Games booth and struck up a conversation with someone that I would later know as Zoey.  

I had a particular request - Gear Grid for Kingdom Death.  She politely pointed me at some of the other card and table organizers they had in stock, and I kept shaking my head.  We had an otherwise great chat, and Mrs. Zoxe found a prototype dice box for sale from their PAX stock.  And, after a return trip or two we caught up with Konas, one of the founders at DMG.

I wrote up my idea, did some sketches in MS Paint, and sat down with real cards and took some dimensions.  They were receptive to the idea of a custom commission, but wary because a) the cost would be spendy and b) they were really (super mega) busy.  I think maybe I had to convince them that I was serious. :)

We traded emails back and forth over the coming months, and this past September, they were able to work me into production.  

KDM Gear Card being measured; yes, I broke out the calipers.

With so much BoRo at risk, they cut a prototype and shipped it to me.  I loved it, and brought it back to them at GenCon 2018 with final tweaks.

Unboxing.

All four player stations in a big row.

The first words from the KDM manual included as an engraving:  "Once upon a time there was a place of carved stone faces."  (Harder to read in the glare than it is in person).

Side view showing magnets for future Component Collector integration.  Each pocket is sized to take a single 2x2 gear card and is angled a bit for easier readability.

And they felted the back.  Super cool.

This was a super splurge on my part but they came out wonderfully.  And you might think that it's a lot to spend for a single game title (you'd be right), but they do have uses beyond KDM.  One or two on the table make a wonderful collection point for tokens in almost any game.

I didn't post these pictures initially because I didn't know if DMG was interested in building more, considering all the other projects they have going at once.  Konas later said they'd build more if people are interested, and for my part I don't claim any particular ownership over "my" design.  It was a great collaboration, and if DMG can put a few more on the street, it's fine by me!

Dog Might was fantastic to work with.  I've gotten to know the gang a lot better through their forum and am happy to see their business continue to grow.  Since that first PAX, we've added several other DMG pieces to our table and I'm happy with them all.  But the real showcase are my Gear Grids.  

Overhaul

In the post-before-last, I questioned whether House of Zoxe should continue on.  I wasn't really in a mindset to pack it in, but I was kind of questioning my motives and how to increase visibility.  Pevil jumped in and was a great sounding board, and the result of that conversation resulted in just a few minor tweaks that I could make to increase my own enjoyment with this project.

So here's the line in the sand, the milestone, the point where I overhaul.

FIRST - Repeat visitors will notice the new layout.  After using the a more graphical/modern layout for the first year or so, I'm taking a step back to something a little more basic. 

I'm curious if part of the problem with keeping all y'all's attention was the theme.  So it's gone.  (Two sub-notes:  a) Expect more tweaking as we go, and b) you might find some broken formatting in older posts. I'll fix it if I see it but I'm not auditing everything right now).

As a side benefit, I'm no longer forced to include an image in every post (it broke the old theme), which means I might be inclined to type stray thoughts without feeling like I need to stop and dumpster drive for an appropriate image.

SECOND - I'm going to delve into some additional personal writing.  This is my platform, my outlet, and there's more to Zoxe than just airbrushing little army men.  You've been warned.

I stayed away from this kind of non-gamer content intentionally because I felt like it diluted the blog a bit, and if I go through a period where I'm not gaming/painting, then it becomes post after post of randomness.  My EVE blog went through this in its death throes.  But I also think that it could spice things up and perhaps make this a page worth bookmarking.

THIRD - I have a few projects in the hopper, but I'm also shifting my methods a bit to focus on volume over perfection. 

This fall, I stepped back from the path I was on.  I'm an "okay" painter and I don't aspire to perfection.  The "expected" path is that as a mini painter, I should aspire to finer control, more difficult techniques, cleaner blends, better basing, and incrementally better and better results - inching and clawing and begging and pleading towards higher and higher levels of quality.

The mini-painting community is great - friendly, inclusive, and creative.  But for some of us the moving of the goal posts becomes unhealthy. 

I needed to remind myself that I started in the hobby NOT intending to paint but just to PLAY the damn games.  My very first figures were a 3 or 4 step process (Prime, basecoat, wash, dry brush).  There's a slippery slope of adding complexity to a painting process to add some detail, pull up a highlight, push a shadow, fix a line, add some freehand.  There's a peer pressure aspect to it, there's a self motivation aspect.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.

Anyway, I need to not obsess and just shut up and paint.  I'm okay with a "Tabletop plus" result.  I'm going to screw up some models, learn some things, and be okay with it.

This Just In: Dog Might Component Collector

Straight from the box:  Component Collector in storage mode.

Once the recent cold snap lifted (I refuse to use the term 'Polar Vortex' ... oh damn, I just did), our USPS mail delivery resumed.  

I came home from work yesterday to find a greatly anticipated package on my doorstep:  Dog Might Games delivered my Component Collector Kickstarter pledge!  (And there was much rejoicing).

This was an interesting campaign.  Each backer was able to pick their wood species and tile layout from a long list of options.  My particular setup is a Bolivian Rosewood (BoRo) kit.  I chose one dragon sculpt to show, three Square tiles, two 'L' tiles, and two Counter tiles.  The tiles stack in a base that doubles as a personal rolling tray or another larger token tile, and once stored a leather strap keeps things together.

All of it is magnetized and smartly indexed to create a grid that clacks together with a satisfying 'schnock!' sound.  Once together, no small amount of table shenanigans will knock the tiles around.

3/4 View. 

Unpacked and gridded together.  I intentionally took this and the next picture partially in/out of the sun, so you can get an idea of the luster of the BoRo.  It's yummy.  I lucked out and get quite a bit of figure/character in my pieces.

Deployed with some Shadows of Brimstone bits.  For scale, most of these tokens are a little larger than a U.S. dime,and the dice are 'standardish' sized poly dice (also from Dog Might; their Bone Box from a previous campaign is shown above).

So far, I've just played around with these staged photos, but for token-heavy games like Shadows of Brimstone I'm looking forward to adding some sanity to our table.  I probably won't use the counter tiles all that much, but the dials simply lift out and the remaining recess will hold things fine.

Two CoCo tiles magnetically locked to the Dog Might Kingdom Death gear grids that I had done as a commission a few months ago.  I can continue to chain tiles to this "dashboard" as I see fit.  Super happy that we added the magnets, Konas.