Weekender XLBS: What’s Your Next Big Project?
June 25, 2017 by dignity
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Morning all…
Happy Sunday Everyone 🙂
The boss is checking in on you guys, lol!
Good morning 🙂
HappySunday!
Well I think our internet is now molasses or it is time for a reboot. Time for bed anyway so I will catch up in the morning.
Happy Sunday – looking forward to seeing the lads at Gen-Con
GenCon pre-dates roleplaying, Ben. Both Gygax and Arneson were attendees of the show before they did D&D. It started out more as a wargaming show, which is also where the roots of D&D are.
Size-wise it’s closer to four times the attendance of Expo. They’re recently announced they’ve almost sold out of passes for this year, which I’ve never seen before so god knows what the attendance will be this year.
Seems like you might have the answer to your own question with regards to where to do the meet-up, Justin. Kill two birds with one stone and do it at the The Ram.
The one thing you should both try and do is get to the FFG stall first thing, buy pre-release copies of the Legend of the Five Rings LCG core box, and then give them to me 😉
Pendraken is one of my favourite companies. Always helpful and friendly. I think a lot of their older fantasy figures and furniture etc is slowly being withdrawn as the the moulds are pretty much worn and unusable after 20 odd years. They are planning a complete resculpt of the dungeon creatures , furniture etc
Happy Sunday arvo from Oz
Happy Sunday!
I’m actually skipping Gen Con this year. My pocket book can’t take it but once every few years.
My suggestions:
1. Acknowledge there are too many things to see in one trip.
-You must seriously pick and choose what you want to see.
2. Tour the all the floors and ballrooms at the convention center. Between the cosplay, tourney’s, demo’s, and exhibit floor your’ll have hours (if not days) to report.
–Hotels also run a bunch of events, so check out what is schedule in those locations as well.
3. The Ram (and few other bars) do theme foods and drinks.
http://www.gencon.com/forums/17-travel-housing-and-dining-2016/topics/325-downtown-restaurant-bar-review-hub
4. Download the convention center map from previous years to get an idea of how big it is.
5.. When the con starts, get a hold of one of the Gen Con event books (has maps inside). You’ll need it. The books run about 300 pages long with about 2/3’s dedicated to the event schedules.
Honestly, I can go on with lesson’s learned and ramble on and on about how over whelming and amazing it can be. BUT your fixing to experience it. So enjoy the ride.
My next painting project is a yearb long challenge to.paint all or as many of the miniatures from my noard games. I’ve started a thread in the painting forum to highlight my progress.
I think I’m getting to that point too, with MythicBP due later this year it would be good to catch up. Looking for ideas and simple schemes so will drop in on your thread. Do you have a link?
Sorry, been sorting out the garden all day….busy doing 1-1 scale terrain…lol
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/painting/forum/topic/miniature-board-game-painting-challenge/
“Let your fanboy hang out…”?! Oh come on, really…! 😉
Gotta let everyone know you love their work! 😀 Az
I’m going to GenCon this year. It will be my first time. I’ve signed up for a few events but tried to leave a lot of free time in my schedule for just walking around and seeing things.
Happy Sunday
@dignity you realise they normally have the FASA Mechwarrior simulators there. You need to try and get a go in one and have camera set up like the star trek simulator.
I am very interested to see the plastics for Human Interface to see if the company they are using manages to keep the great level of detail they achieve in their metals.
Big projects for me, I am going to finally bite the bullet and try the transition to airbrushing.
Have a great week everyone
Great show guys thank you 🙂
great show
Happy Sunday All!
Great show and I wanted to welcome “Az” (is that right?) to the BoW weekenders. I must have missed his introduction and I’m not sure of his name, but I wanted to say “You’re doing a great job!” There’s a good rapport going between Ben, Justin and Az and I look forward to seeing more of him whether he’s a ‘series regular’ or ‘returning guest’!
I’m a little worried he’s been a regular for months but I’ve been gormless and missed his appearances so if this is old news, you have my apologies 🙂
Great show as per,
GZ
Thank you so much! I will be a permanent feature (if you all will keep me :P) and you’ll see lots of regular content coming from July onward but definitely not a Warren replacement don’t worry 🙂 Totally welcome all feedback and super looking forward to diving into some of the big systems favoured by the BoW community in coming weeks. Az
Really like Justin’s idea there actually. He does occasionally come out with something doesn’t he?
A kind of “toolbox” for amateur games designers, or a kit for assembling a game engine by choosing mechanics which work.
Think that’s an idea that’s got potential.
Don’t know how it works from an IP point of view though, because obviously the temptation would be to pull mechanics you like from existing systems. I don’t know to what extent a gaming mechanic, if rendered generic, can be owned by anyone?
Game mechanics are covered by patent law. As patents are expensive and have to be applied for within a certain time period it’s very rare for a tabletop game to be so successful so quickly to justify a patent application. Magic: The Gathering is an example of a game that did patent its mechanics as it was very successful right from the start, but that patent expired a few years ago.
I don’t believe you can patent ‘game mechanics’ you can copyright the descriptions though and trademark terms. You could in theory protect bits and bobs like widgets and score trackers etc
You can indeed patent game mechanics, and have to if you don’t want anyone else to use them. It’s very rare in tabletop gaming due to the fact you have to pay a five figure sum to do it, and it needs to be done within a certain timeframe so you don’t have long to decide whether it’s worthwhile for your game.
Here is WotC’s patent on Magic (now expired) – http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,662,332.PN.&OS=PN/5,662,332&RS=PN/5,662,332
They didn’t necessarily defend every aspect of it, hence the glut of CCGs that followed, but anything which could make your game seem like Magic was a no no. This is why no other CCG calls exhausting a card ‘tapping’ it, as WotC would enforce their patent if you did, but lots of CCGs use the exhausting mechanic and they didn’t bother going after them.
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/12/22/patenting-board-games-101/id=21356/
“You could in theory protect bits and bobs like widgets and score trackers etc”
Scrabble did do this. It’s patent, long since expired, was for some widget other to make it easier to use the tiles.
You are correct but you should look at the case Spry Fox vs. Lolapps. IP Watch and others have been saying it can be over turned. This is pretty recent 2016 case. The courts have been looking at the mechanics as process and saying, is it really so unique? For example, is it really possible that nobody else can come up with a way to put some game mechanic together? For example, could you patent roll and move? The courts have been leaning more and more into not allowing process patents. They have been saying that the mechanics can fall under copyrights and have restrictions under copyright laws. Hasbro pretty much lost its lawsuit when someone tried to make a “Scabble” like game even though they had a patent. It was settled out of court because Hasbro knew they had lost but did not want to actually loose in court. The other company changed the name and added a few tiles and that was it. There was another case involving Tetris, and the owners of Tetris also lost.
There are some long discussion on https://patents.stackexchange.com including some well known lawyers who have responded to those threads. It is unclear if a Game Mechanic can truly be patented at this point. Spry Fox vs. Lolapps may end up in the US Supreme Court which has not been friendly to patents involving process which is what Game Mechanics fall under. The courts have however said that copyrights can protect certain aspects of games.
There’s a recent example of a company losing a claim to have a copyright over their game mechanics – http://www.strebecklaw.com/court-rules-favor-cloned-tabletop-game-no-protection-us-copyright-law/
Patents are largey a moot point in tabletop gaming as companies, certainly within the ‘hobby’ industry, so rarely take them out. When they do, it’s a deterrent more than anything as puts off other companies from taking the risk. If it came down to it in a court of law they patent holder would have to prove infringiment, which could be difficult, but if you’re a designer why bother with the hassle when you could just use one of the many many unpatented mechanics that are out there. As things stand that’s where we are. Patents cover game mechanics whereas copyright does not, so you can’t assume your mechanics will be covered by inherent copyright and you need to apply for a patent if you want any protection over them.
Saturday morning I felt like I’d had Papa Nurgle’s pizza on the way home from the pub the night before.
Dammit, Justin! I’m never going to live down my Will Wheaton experiernce! Lmao
Wow!!! I always wanted to go to GenCon back in the day! Just a tad jealous.
PS Happy Saturday from Chudleigh, Devon (though I’m still dissertation writing so no hobby time for me still, boo 🙁 )
What to eat in Indy – Well first off dont waste your energy on Pizza there. Originally from Chicago, so perhaps I am prejudice. OBVIOUSLY! 🙂 In Chicago for Pizza suggest Uno’s or Dues. Giordannos also good. My suggestion is be sure to have a hot dog or polish sausage. In Indy there is a well known steak house that is good though – St Elmos I think. For Bars, they are many, but often crowded. We tended to settle at the Tap, but imagine there are otheres that locales can recommend. Also in Chicago, head to Italian village, loads of fun, or Ed Debevics or Safe house that started in Milwaukee, but now has one in Chicago too. BTW, great addition to hosting – well done.
Hey, guys. I agree that game mechanics flavor the feel of the game. 40k 8th addition feels much the same as earlier editions, because the core mechanic is about the same – lots of d6 dice.
Strap a harness on John.
I think Az is a good addition to the hosting team – enthusiastic, fluent and interesting to listen to. Good stuff.
This will be my first year at Gencon. My son and I are going. Really looking forward to catching up with the BoW crew and would love a backstage meet up.
Justin I’m jealous, here it is that I live here in the states and I can’t afford to go to Gencon. Enjoy your Trip here in the states.
Ben you are on fire at the minute mate.
Balin’s company is a glorious idea. you could go with a display stand if you wanted a functioning company but Tolkien makes for a diorama and a half if you go that way. if you wanted the retro look why not hunt down some Merp dwarves, mithril stuff is silly money but you can get some of the citadel stuff for a fair price. even one or two in the company would be cool.
as for the other minis the Siren elf is so good, these guys are now officially on the radar. I also liked the from Russia with love bits you picked up. it’s the little touches like the craft boxes and the stories make all the difference in presenting boutique minis.
I can see why you were drooling over the 15mm wizard, very cool. pretty sure now you have me thinking about it 15mm was D&D’s original scale. if your going to do retro it doesn’t get more retro than the first little men taking their first step in the first dungeon. ever thought about running them with fist edition seeing as you can get the reprint for reasonable money these days?
@dignity If you’re interested in using a variety of washes, you should really check out some of the stuff from James Wappel – he uses a range of different washes over figures, and it works really well. As a bonus, his technique (he calls it “shaded basecoat”) makes the base coating *really* fast and fun.
He has a painting series on CMON, in particular the “Glazing Away” video covers the use of washes in detail, and the “Shaded Basecoat” video covers the basic technique. There are preview videos on YouTube as well, although obviously they miss a chunk of useful info that is in the full videos.
great show the new human interface game/figures are looking great.
That cyberpunk guitarist ….. epic!
Great show. On vacation this week with family, but looking forward to watching hobby night live from the beach here in Ocean City, MD on Friday.
Happy sunday guys (still is for me 😉 )!
Thanks guys, because of you i’ll have to check out Human Interface!
Happy sunday! (OK it’s monday I’m running late!)
I’m going to be controversial…. plleeeeeeaaassee do a bit more research when talking about 30k stuff…. Ben talking about jay188’s 30K Iron Warriors made me want to cry, they’re a heresy army, not 40k with a heresy-look, and the second squad is armed with volkite weapons, not plasma. Sorry guys I know you have a lot to cover across the industry, but if you’re going to show off and talk about people’s stuff, it’s only respectful to them to make sure you’re talking about the right stuff 🙂
Chest harness for John. Also “Spreading my cardboard crack.” Yes, I know, Craic.
Great show guys, but why do you have to stick to the idea that this is recorded Sunday?
We all know there is a lot of work with it, cutting uploading, etc. No real point ‘faking’ the Sunday morning feel.
I saw the Caesar cartoon before I watched this show. And I must say that Az is a pretty good Warren substitute. 🙂 You can never be sure what will come out of his mouth, but you can be sure it will be naughty.
Aaaaaand I finally found time to watch. Over a week late :/. But awesome awesome XLBS. Thanks.
Oh forgot….chest harness for John! 😀