![Make Your Own Star Wars: Legion Heroes! Rebel Agent & Officer Set Review [7 Days Early Access]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/12/unboxing-atomic-mass-games-star-wars-legion-rebel-alliance-agent-_-officer-coverimage-225-127.jpg)
Pointless Views: How You Get Out Of The Hobby Funk
January 10, 2020 by crew
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
When I try to download it says it’s forbidden. Is that me or you guys?
That is strange. It’s trying to download it as an XML but it’s uploaded as MP3. I took it down and re-uploaded but same thing. Will consult with the fount of all knowledge (Tom) when he gets in.
Podcast download should be working now.
Cheers
I like bad Sci-Fi movies from the 50’s and the 60’s and other bad movies like The Matrix
With B-movies you know it’s not going to be great.
Worst SF movie I’ve seen ?
I’d say “Last Jedi” and any of the Matrix sequels (especially the 3rd).
Warren, one of the YouTube personalities I follow in the US has stopped talking as much about Star Wars. He doesn’t really like the environment any more, and has problems with the films (but loves The Mandalorian).
What he has decided to do is view the last few films through the eyes of his kids (the eldest is 8). He enjoys watching her reaction – it is still a thing of wonder to her, she probably isn’t too worried about any plot holes or inconsistencies in logic.
Over the last few years, a growing component of what you talk about on an XLBS is gaming with your kids and, by the level of passion in your voice, where you are really enjoying the hobby at the moment. Perhaps it is the fuel to the rest of your hobby activities when you arrive at work early in the morning to get a bit of hobby in before starting the business day.
I found it interesting that you have yet to mention any gaming that you got up to with the kids over the break, leading me to postulate that there was none, and perhaps that is why the fire has gone out.
Your right!
I’ll talk a bit more about it on Sunday 🙂
Are you still thinking of doing a 40K Worldwide Online campaign?
I have a 1500 word doc – needs an edit – but didn’t want to email it to you if things had changed.
Yes indeed!
Just trying to get ourselves organized here and stuff off our plates so we can get stuck in 🙂
I will reach out to you and a couple of others soon about this 🙂
What he has decided to do is view the last few films through the eyes of his kids (the eldest is 8). He enjoys watching her reaction – it is still a thing of wonder to her, she probably isn’t too worried about any plot holes or inconsistencies in logic.
Maybe thus is what everyone should have been doing this all along
Those that do have kids that age…
Unfortunately I don’t have any myself.
I haven’t watched the new BBC Christmas Carol, but one thing that is often missed in the story is that Dickens is having a pop at Thomas Malthus’ ideas and philosophy which was still prevalent at the time (and keeps coming back because people are stupid) – Scrooge is a character who certainly agrees and believes Maltus… it is one of the reasons I hate being called Scrooge just because I don’t celebrate fairy tales in December – I am definitely on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Malthusian philosophy and economics.
Dracula was fantastic. Dracula is my favourite book… it has captivated me since I was a teenager when I first read it… I really enjoyed the reimagination of it. It definitely had the feel of the book in the way the story was told. I didn’t enjoy watching the third episode as much as the previous two, but on reflection, it was very good story telling. I did read some of the criticisms of it on Twitter… and all I can say is… what a bunch of backward, unimaginative cunts exist in the world today.
The feel of three changed a lot – and felt a little more Dr Who BBC style.
It lacked the glorious eloquence of 1 and 2 but I can see what they were going for and the reality is there is no way around it – because quite simply ‘Today is Devoid of Eloquence lol’
Spoilers… ish.
I watched both: the BBC’s Christmas Carol and the BBC’s Dracula, and i enjoyed both, though i thought both ended poorly.
I thought A Christmas Carol set a good tone and had some interesting ‘twists’, but ultimately i thought that the role given to Mrs. Cratchit (as something of a summoner) undermined the thrust of the narrative, and in general i felt that the whole thing petered out towards the end.
I was pleasantly surprised by Dracula. I was anticipating a Dr. Who / Sherlock reskin, but i didn’t think there was much of that in any significant way (though there was (i think) a reference to Sherlock Holmes). I liked what i found to be a well crafted reinvigoration of old Dracula film tropes. I did like the third episode for the most part. The only part i thought really let it down was the last, what? 5 minutes, which smacked of the writers suddenly reaching their word limit and having everyone ‘wake up and realise it was all dream’. I thought that they got the reason for fearing Dracula right, in that yes, you can have a nice cup of tea and chat with him, and yes, he’s polite and eloquent and appreciates good art, and yes, he’s a bit comical in some ways, and yes, you may be his favourite, but make no mistake, he is going to kill you, in much the same way a lion will get around to killing a deer, or a vet will comfort a crippled race horse before ‘destroying’ it. Hannibal Lecter eat your heart out… as it were.
@warzan please say you didn’t buy the lightsaber off facebook??
I didn’t buy the one of facebook.
No guarantee what I got was any good though. Went for one with (supposedly) a 12w led that does RBG.
Could be utter dung, but… we will see 🙂
interested to see what you get 😀
Brightburn…. SPOILERS!!!!!!!!! git!! @dignity 😉
I can’t recommend Frostgrave enough. One of my more successful projects I’ve done was the encounter table from the rulebook. I’ve not quite finished it (the frost giant I have is a very large mini and has sat unloved for a few months).
As a painting project it has so much variety. You can do it entirely from minis from North Star (I *think* they have everything) or do what I did and throw in a bunch of minis from other manufacturers (I have Heresy, Mantic, GW, Hasslefree, Warploque, countless others in there). I had tons of fun choosing minis and painting them and now i have a mountain of stuff for generic fantasy sat there ready to play.
@warzan I think you once said you did a similar project in the olden days for RPG or Heroquest. I reckon it would be right up your street!
STARCRASH…..well thank you Lloyd thats 1hr 32 mins i wont get back, ffs who wrote that a six year old……but must admit old Christopher Plummer was a class.
Also Hellboy on Pendle Hill? I went to school in Sabden at the foot of Pendle!
@warzan if you’re after some historically accurate Siege Towers I made some 3D Models a while ago you can get them here.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3640488
Wow the beardless wonder has returned from his break and illness full of wisdom – great to have Justin back!
One last point on the funk thing. I’ve adopted a “One Hour Fake it Till You Make it” system for the initial phases of a hobby funk. A bit like the Vicks First Defense cold treatment. When I get to hobby time when I want to hobby but end up sitting there staring at projects but paralysed from picking anything up, I’ll force myself to pick up a model and paint for an hour. Any model, but one from an unfinished project. I tell myself its just one hour and if I am still not in the mood after an hour I’ll allow myself to stop and do something else. Guess what? Most of the time the block clears and I’m off into a long session. If it doesn’t, well I’ve moved things on a bit, no biggie.
The one-hour system is great for fooling your brain into action – it can’t really argue with an hour!
Clearly this only works for those small, temporary, procrastination type funks, but I think this accounts for quite a lot of them so definitely worth a try!
If you want to try and rekindle your love for sci-fi, I recommend watching ‘The Expanse’, it brought me back to understanding why I like sci-fi so much. Just give it a chance and be patient for 2 or 3 episodes until the story ramps up.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I really enjoyed the first series of The Expanse, only watched it recently. Having a wee break before I go on with the rest so I don’t over indulge on it.
I’m planning to not make the ‘mistake’ of watching the series before i’ve read the books, as i did with ASOIAF AKA GOT. The good news is that the ‘Expanse’ writers are somewhat more prolific than G. R. R. Martin, so i’m hoping to wait until the whole thing is published (which i think will be this year or next year going by their release schedule history) and read the whole lot in one go. I might read the first one before buying the others, just to check i do like it, though i’m tempted not to. BTW, it started as an RPG.
Getting out of the funk is getting a game (or games in) with something totally new (that’s also accessible to you to buy in to (ie not a kickstarter)). Let your gaming buddies put on a game for you and just get rolling the dice again. Hobby funk appears when you’ve been grinding all the prep work and get to the stage where you feel swamped and you ain’t going to see the light.
Frostgrave is going to be easy for you to get into with minimum prep work (all you need is a few RPG minis), and is a good one with the kids (as the rules aren’t that hard).
But “Dr Phaid Knott” prescribes something I don’t think I’ve seen you do before. A good old fashioned historical refight (this is where the army list is preselected, as is the terrain and deployment), I think Gerry might be someone to guide you here. In fact I’d be really interested to see how you would find such a game (would you find it too constraining), and if it would enthuse you to further attempts at doing another refight. It’s probably THE most “grognardy” of grognard wargaming (the type of games you normally see at Historicon) and usually the bigger the better (even done some refights that took a whole weekend over a large table we were able to leave mid game overnight…..wait you have those big tables at OTT right?) Get a game in, do something new and different within the hobby to see if it recharges your batteries. HOWEVER I did hear you say 6mm Napoleonics, now this is THE hardest thing to paint in 6mm……I’d recommend ACW instead (much easier) 😀
“State of emergency; how beautiful to be”
Theirs no such thing as a bad sci-fi film only the one’s you only watch once.
Or does that just make me a sci-fi slapper?
Thanks for Star Crash, I’ve watched a fair few retro ‘B’ Sci-Fi and not usre if I seen this or Battle Beyond the Stars [that spaceship, lol!]. Hmm, I might have seen Star Crash 1 and 2. Hope your hobby funk becomes a newfound hobby direction Mr.Warzan.
Right now I need to give a hard think about WHAT I get out of my hobby. I don’t really wargame anymore, I play about 5 games year? So, maybe for me the hobby is a creative outlet and a chance to get enveloped in an idea?