Guilders: Loot, Crowds and Civilians - concepts

 The full rules for crowds can be found in the rules on p. 15 and p. 28: LINK 1.42 beta

Loot

The entire board in Guilders have Loot. All buildings, civillians and crowds have a Loot I token - this is petty cash mostly. If a thief steals a Loot I, they will be able to cover their upkeep and perhaps put a small item or few coins in the guild treasury. 

Buildings with Loot I need to be lockpicked (a skill availble at start for thieves) or smashed (will cause alarm and bring guards). 

Then there's Loot II and Loot III which will bring in a lot of extra cash and items for the guild. 

Crowds (NPCs)

Crowds are a 3" round base with miniatures (I use three on mine). The standard scenarios have 4 crowds (two placed by each player) and some single civilians. A crowd has a single Loot I token. 

Crowds can be pickpockted or knocked down (one is stealthy the other will cause alarm and bring in the guards). 

Crowds (and single civilians) move randomly at the end of each turn. In Reality's Edge (cyberpunk game) the crowds moved very little and often got into a 'bump' situation. Hit terrain, move rest of movement the other way. 

In Guilders crowds move d10" in a random direction. They don't bump into stuff, but move around it continuing in the direction rolled. So they won't end up static. 

Guilders can move into crowds (hide from guards), covered from shooting and will then move with the crowd when they move. So it's a good way for a thief to stay on target (free moving) more actions for trying to pick their pockets. 

It really is quite fast moving all the civilians. Roll d10, use the top as direction, move crowd. 

A concept in the game is Overall Alertness. The more Alarm the guidlers cause, the tougher and more guards will enter the board. When Overall Alertness gets to 15 (the guards are hostile at this point) the crowds and civilians will stop moving randomly. They will then move directly towards the nearest board edge instead (running for their lives, as there is obviously a lot going on in this part of town). Guilders can still be inside a crowd base - it's a good way to escape the board. 

Number of civilians

So in a standard game of Guilders, you will need 4 crowd bases (12 models if putting 3 on each) and 4 single civilians - so a total of 16 civillian models. Nothing stopping you from making a crowd with a herd of sheep, a crowd being a small wagon etc. Important part is that it's a 3" round base really. 

Crowd bases

I'll drop a post about making crowd bases later. Made with cardboard and xps foam. But here's a quick shot of one before painting. Made with small holes for the civilians, so they wont fall off. 

Guilders - A Life in Shadows

The blog has been dormant for some time. I haven't really been focussing on it at all. Well, now it's time to tell why.

For the last few months I have been working on a Tabletop Roleplaying Miniatures Game.

Guilders - A Life in Shadows

A game about thief guilds, with living NPC environments and a long campaign.

It is lifted from a nostalgia of Mordheim and the Warhammer Quest RPG book.
And created from the desire to own a miniature fantasy city that is fully Baldurs Gate or Tarbean from The Name of the Wind.

Built on experience from the last 7 years full hobby focus on skirmish gaming. 

I have missed a skirmish game that had a greater degree of role-playing in it. The game I wanted to play I could not find, they were all missing a little something - so now I'm writing it myself.

Now after a lot of read throughs, changes and game tests it's reality. Therefore, it is now coming out to public beta.

Here's the cool stuff:

• 1.3 Beta (a playable game)
  
• Tokens (all the tokens you might encounter in the game)

Games live through community, so it needs to be built up and I really want to have fresh eyes on the game.
Right now the core is working, it's a game that can be played. But I might be blind to broken rules. The next update will be with the first edition of the campaign section.

So I just share the link to the Facebook community group, hoping you will follow the process, watch the game and maybe even try it.

You're also more than welcome to join the Discord or tag #Guilders #ALifeInShadows wherever out there. 

I'm really looking forward to sharing the progress on this game and all the miniatures and terrain I'm working on. 

Sincerely

Søren Bloodbeard Bay

Cyberpunk Psychic and Christmas Sniper

 For Hardwired you only need 4 agents on a team. I've decided that if some of my agents die, I have to paint up a new one. This psyker model is from Endure the Stars (that I scored for cheap and flipped to make it free). It's a pretty cool model, decided to go for bright cyberpunk colors. 

The base is a first for me, it's made with a greenstuff world rolling pin on 1mm xps foam, glue to 1 mm renedra base. 

Over on the Discord server there's a lot of cool people. For Christmas we had a miniature secret santa. Members made a wish list for settings, then got a random member to make a wish come true. I made the below miniature for a guy wanting something scifi. 

It's a kit bash. The body is a Gate of Antares concord model, the head is a resin bit from Anvil Industry. The augmetic arm and gun is from a GW necron. Added a drone from a GW mechanicus head with some twisted wires. The pointing finger is from Mantic GCPS. 

I really like the look on this guy, kindda envious and might build him again. 

A final word

Please consider helping out my bloggerverse and its reach.
Like, follow, share - and all that stuff.

Facebook.com/BloodbeardsGarage/
Instagram: Bloodbeads_Garage
Twitter: @Blodskaeg
Twitch: twitch.tv/bloodbeards_garage
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/bloodbeardsgarage
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/bloodbeardsgarage


Join the Discord. It's an excellent community with lots of hobby stuff (not just mine): https://discord.gg/xwcRSs7

Happy Birthday Discord and Hobby Burnout.

 It's been over a year since we got send into lock down for the first time. It's been a crazy year and my country only managed to open partially - before getting into another lock down. 

A long year and I'm craving some actual physical games with people.

One year ago I setup a Discord server in order to talk with people and try a bit to combat the isolation some of us feel. Wrote this post back then 'Staying Social Apart'. 

The Discord server have grown over the year and have become a very dear place to me. Wonderful people have joined it and there's a really creative crowd in there. As a community it's grown into a place full of support.

Wanted to take a bit of time to tell about it.

Mini blogs

For all the members who've wanted it, we've setup mini blogs. Text channels for individual members where they get moderator rights and can post and upload their projects. It's there own little playground. 

And there's some awesome stuff being uploaded here. The best thing about Discord is how easy it is to upload stuff with your phone and the pace. The pace is must less than Facebook. It feels more like the old PHPBB forums in some ways, where you would have your own thread. 

Talks

I've made good new friends in here. There's almost always some hobby people ready for a bit of hobby voice chat if wanted. Many a good hobby and game discussion going on. Often I find myself just listening in to other peoples wise words. It's great background noise when painting. 

The Discord even made of produce a podcast. Amazing how every single author we've asked to join us have just said 'Yes' and been game. It's a nice format, with Discord members throwing questions during the talk, sharing links and photos. 

All the flash

There's just some fun little things you can do with a Discord, kind off gamification like. We've got a friendly bot overlord, XP granted levels and roles, motivational quotes and so on. It's good fun without being spammy. 

And spam is the worst. One of the reasons I like Discord is the notifications I can manage myself. I've muted individual channels, and nobody can make those @Everyone tags. So despite there being a lot of activity it's not overwhelming. 

SoMe overwhelmed - stepping back.

Speaking of overwhelming. ... I got crushed under all the SoMe stuff. It came sneaking over the year. I tried a lot of stuff during lockdown. Solo gaming, streaming, youtubing, podcast and so on. And the bloggerverse grew. ... so many drafts done, photos on twitter, instagram, facebook - tons of different groups. 

And in the end it really didn't give me what I was looking for. Something was missing. It lead to something like a hobby burnout. 

At one point I need the social aspect - it's the next game that motivates me. Building terrain and painting models for the next planned game with a friend. Solo gaming couldn't do that for me, it wasn't what I was after. It didn't scratch the itch. 

And the SoMe got too much as well. I love this blog, the hobby diary. It was great fun to have the free stuff and the advanced copies. But it also (without me noticing it) made the hobby a job - it cam with (unspoken and self made) obligations. "I really should be writing a review", "remember to also check into Twitter". Something like maximizing reach.

F*** that stuff. In the end I took a long break. Ended twitter and instagram. Stopped the 'post every 4 days' cycle and all these systems I had ended up with. Nevermind the being 'someone' or what one might call being an influencer. 

This is turning into a bit of a rant. But stepping back from all the SoMe was really good. Social media growth is not important. Getting free books is cool and all - but I can afford them myself. 

Writing big battle reports or reviews might be neat. But it takes a lot of time. 

So now I'm just doing what I want, post more 'only photos, few words' post and so on. 

So what did you do? 

Facebook: I was in so many groups. Games I wanted to play, games where my terrain would fit, large groups that was cross hobby 'miniature painters', 'terrain builders' and such. Too much. I've never shared my blogs in wrong groups - always within the frames of the groups. Still I was posting in 7 groups with all blogs. 

I got out of all facebook groups, except one group for each game I actually play. No all around groups, no double groups. Like specific Hardwired group - I'm now only in Stalker7. No need for multible post apoc groups, now only in TNT. Done this all over. 

It's cleaned my feed and most porjects now only gets shared in one of two groups. 

Twitter and Instagram: Just stopped going there. Twitter is really not good for hobby work sharing. The tweet, retweet, comment thing is a mess to follow. And a maximum of 4 photos. I still post my blogs there. But don't need to post all photos and don't care about adding a million hashtags. 

Same for Instagram. It's about putting on a million hashtags. ... yeah, it's just not for me. 

Anyways.

Take care out there! 

Garage Talks: Curtis Fell - Ramshackle Games

 

A new episode of Garage Talks is out now, where you listen to podcasts. Hear all previous episodes on Anchor or right here on the blog.

Garage Talks are recorded talks with prominent people from the hobby. They are invited into the Discord server, an excellent hobby community in itself. And here we have a talk about their part in the hobby. You're welcome to check in there, see if the platform is for you.

Curtis Fell runs Ramshackle Games and have written the games Nuclear Renaissance and Mini Gangs. recently Curtis have started the company Soul Forge and taken over production of orc model line 'Da Green One'. He's also a commission painter and has a cool blog.

We're talking about this, community, hobby history, hobby evolution, gaslands and much more. 

I've painted a lot of Curtis stuff over the years. Here's some of the stuff.

Dunger and dungerdon

Gaslands cars converted with Ramshackle bits and toy cars

Slaves and models of different kinds for This Is Not A Test

Garage Talks ep 2 - Joseph A. McCullough

We've had the immense pleasure of having Joseph A. McCullough over on Bloodbeard's Garage Discord for a hobby talk about his games. So that make our second Garage Talk. 

For two full hours we were allowed to ask about anything related to his works and upcoming releases. I think we even have some breaking news. That's awesome! 

Frostgrave: 2nd edition, launch in covid times and the upcoming expansion The Red King

Oathmark: Not the launch it deserved, new kits, new expansions. Bane of Kings and Oathbreakers.

Rangers of Shadow Deep: World building, future, RPG elements.

Stargrave: We get to hear a lot about the upcoming game Stargrave! Scifi in a ravaged galaxy!

You can listen to the episode here or find it on popular podcast platforms - all anchored here. 

Why not join the Discord and listen in on future talks? We have all manner of interesting guests coming in for talks with us. 

While we did the chat yesterday, I even got to build the Thaurmaturge warband I plan to use for Frostgrave 2nd edition. Good times, good times. 

Infantrymen

Thiefs

Thugs

Templar and archer

Wizard and apprentice

How do I blog? How am I using the Bloggerverse?

I launched this blog back on March 16th 2017 - so tomorrow it'll be three and a half years old. Before 2017 I had done my blogging and hobby across different phpbb-forums. Forums fitting for the different projects and games I was doing. 

But phpbb-forums were dying, not really seeing activity. More and more discussion and hobby work was moving into Facebook groups. But FB groups are moving fast, scrolling by - that's why I launched this blog. I really wanted to collect my hobby, show off my stuff and be my personal log - of how my hobby is evolving. 

Slowly the blog has grown is reach, across other kinds of social media - but all centered around this blogger - where all stuff is still collected as blog posts. One thing that's always been important to me, is to not be a spammer and only sharing appropriate posts in across different media. 

So in this blog post, I'll be writing - how am I blogging. And how am I using the different platforms. It's become a bloggerverse - multi platform hobby blog.

Blogger - the base of operations

I blog because I like it - that's my motivation. I see a lot of hobbyists getting hobby stress. "I should be going this", "I need to tend my blog like this". I do the hobby projects I like, I play the games I like and then take photos of my stuff. 

Lots of the blog posts I have on the blog is written months in advance. When I finish a ton of terrain (I often work in batches) - I photo it all and split it into different blog post. Like when I did the entire Wasteland in a week of vacation time - became blogs for cars, scrap piles, dead trees and ruins. 

When stuff is on the table I photograph it all with my phone. I then jump on blogger, an insert the photos into different blog drafts.

When I feel like writing, I make a coffee and start typing. Might write up five blogs in a row, pictures already there. Keep them as drafts for later. 

To not spam and keep content for a long time - I tend to post a blog post every three days. That keeps the blogger nice and fresh. And with my normal hobby output, working when I want - I always have around ~30 blog drafts ready. So even if I don't feel like hobbying or spending all time outside during the summer, I have material to keep the blogger going. 

What to post?

I try to mix up whatever stuff I have ready for posting. Switching between fantasy, cyberpunk and post apocalypse. If some game is new and I have stuff for it, I'll post that. Like a new expansion is out for RoSD and that's what people are talking about? I'll post some RoSD stuff if I have it. 

But I always do the hobby work I want to do! Not putting thought into 'I better do this specific thing because of blogging'.

• All finished hobby work gets a blog post.
• Models, terrain, games, videos, hobby thoughts.
• Write multiple blogs at once.
• Post roughly every three or four days. 

Facebook - the news, the photos

My Facebook page was the first social media I launched and that's what will bring in the most traffic. Whenever a new blogpost is released, I make an FB post with a bit of text, link to the blogger and all the finished photos from the post. I don't include WIP shots, as these always have lots of 'how to' words with them. 

Facebook has a ton of different groups for a ton of different games - and sometimes more groups than one for each game. After posting a blog on the page, I'll share it around. One time and in all relevant groups at once. 

I've seen hobby blogs sharing their facebook post in 1 group at a time across a number of days - I consider this spamming. Or sharing multiple times in the same groups.

So I tend to share my blogs once and only in groups relevant for the blog. Would never share Frostgrave stuff in the Rangers of Shadow Deep group. 

I can't figure out the best times to post, so don't mind that much. It is what it is.

• Post and link each blog post on Facebook.
• Share in all relevant groups.
• Share only once at the same time. Don't spam timelines. It shows up all over, then it's gone.

Twitter - random photo throwbacks to blogs

Twitter is new to me still. And I don't know exactly how it works, with the lack of groups and a ton of different hashtags flying around. But I have seen lots of hobby people only using Twitter as their platform. It seems kind of weird to me - as it's not a platform for photos. 

But I have a Twitter. All photos from the bloggers that I  post I download into a folder called 'twitter'. As twitter only allows 4 photos pr post, it'll take a lot of time to get through them. 

So on Twitter I'll post 4 photos a day, just pick four from the folder. To the tweet I add a link to the blogger and some hashtags. After posting I delete the photos in the folder (so they only get shared once). This way Twitter is an excellent place to follow, to get throw-backs, see post that has been. Probably long before. 

I also use twitter to announce going live on Twitch. Hard to spam on Twitter. 

• Post 4 random photos from previous blogs. Only post photos once, then delete.
• Announce live videos on Twitch

Instagram

Instagram is for posting photos, lots of photos. I've refrained from doing WIP photos of projects. I think I have enough content as it is. Instagram follows my blogger page, but is way behind. I often forget to use it, or there's too many photos in the blog post (Instragram allows only 10 photos). 

I really like posting from a PC, but that's not possible with Instagram (only 1 photo posts). So to not loose track and double post. I follow the blogger. Posting photos of a miniatures or game on Instagram. So Instagram will often lack behind the blogger. I always add a link to the blogger, though people will have to copy it to go there. 

• 1 post pr day, using photos from blogger
• follow the blogger order
• post photos only once

Twitch

This is a new addition to the bloggerverse. I don't know much about video editing or filming. Twitch is intuitive and easy to setup. I want to show of some builds and I really want to get going with solo games. Twitch offers a new way to show off stuff, that's not only written words. 

The cool thing about doing video on Twitch is the interaction. Playing a solo game lets people watching take part in the game. While working on terrain, people can ask at techniques or idea while I'm working. Getting to points I might not think off myself. 

I also pre-order a lot of rules and games. And sometimes get lucky enough to get stuff soon after release. So flipping through books and set is good fun, I love the hobby hype. 

But for the most Twitch shows I make sure to consider: What do I want to show today? No just fumbling about.

• Easy to do filming
• solo games, unboxings, previews and terrain building. 

Youtube

I'm a firm believer that the internet cannot have enough content. The Twitch software is easy to use for editing the streams. I try to cut down the videos to shorter versions. Making Let's Play, unboxings and terrain builds. The finished / slighty edited and shortened videos are uploaded to Youtube. 

As this is finished content, I will then make a blogpost for the video. This can be combined with a longer written blog or photos. I don't want to spam. So a video preview will be combined with a written review if possible. 

For years I've been doing small 1 minutes shots of terrain setups, for all my games. This go in here as well. All videos will have links back to blogger and the correct written article. 

• Edited, tightened material recorded on Twitch.
• Minimum on video pr week. This can be anything. 

Discord

Discord is an excellent program for hanging out and talking to other people. Used originally for talking while playing PC games. Back during Covid19 isolation, I was really missing talking hobby with people. The Discord was setup to help with this. It's a platform to hang out, in a way Facebook can't provide. 

The Discord has since grown to a small community in itself. All people are welcome. Post away about anything in the hangout area, and people will jump on voice chat if they want to talk while doing hobby work. 

Lors of people, that doesn't have blog on their own, have gotten a thread here. A micro blog, a thread for them to add whatever hobby the want. 

In my own thread I post WIPs, link to written blogs, twitch will tell if I go live, YouTube will link new videos and photos from Twitter. So my thread is kind of a consolidation room. It's just a nice place to hangout and talk hobby with good people. I always check around here while I'm doing hobby work. 

• Hangout and talk with hobbyist
• Micro blogs

Podcast - Garage Talks

The newest part of this constantly extended bloggerverse. With half a year of life on the Discord, I got the idea to invite in some of the authors from the industry. The idea is quite simple - come join the chat, hang out and talk hobby work. With a focus on the author themselves of cause. 

First one to visit us was Patrick Todoroff how made wrote Hardwired, Nightwatch and Zona Alfa. 

The plan is not to make a traditional interview. All the people on the Discord are allowed to join in the talk. The first one was great fun. It was recorded and released as a podcast.

There's no plan or 'must make' for this. These talks and podcasts are completely up to if any authors or people of note from the industry is willing to join us for a chat. 

To sum up....

That's a damn lot of social media, considering it's about small toy soldiers. I've got no plans of fame, monetization or something like that. I just like to do models and terrain. 

My miniatures are not top painted - they're decent. But I'm proud of them. I do get some good ideas for terrain and conversions. I like to share those, some people get inspired. 

It all comes back to this blogger. A couple of posts every week, my personal hobby log, a collections of stuff I do. No stress, no 'I must do this' - this is my leisure time and hobby. Don't spam, but share the cool stuff around. Stay grounded, stay honest, we're all geeks. 

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think. 

The Road to Horisont pt 1

Good things can come from a weird situations. Back during isolation I setup a Discord server (more words on that in this blog) - which has turned into a growing creative community and have gotten me some new friends. 

Well one of these new friends is Torben, a fellow Danish hobbyist and a good guy. We've been talking a lot of Discord both in The Garage and during Patmocon that ran back in those isolation days. 

We seem to have the same mindset when playing a game - fun, well painted models, non-competetive, story-driven gaming. Lots of smaller skirmish and indie games. And after hours of hanging in voice chat, we figured we had probably met in real life. 

Back in the day there was a small Danish convention called Horisont. A gaming convention for all the small indie games on the scene and a place to showcase new or homemade systems. A key thing about Horisont that I remember was 'no 40k and warhammer fantasy' - because those systems have enough room and tournaments in Denmark. Torben and I both attended that old convention. Unfortunately Horisont has been around since 2016 - and despite going to differnet RPG conventions, there's not really a place just like it. 

So we thought we wanted to do something similar. A weekend of hobbying, lots of different game systems, cool boards. A place to connect the skirmish scene, that's scattered all over the country. 

We wanted to meet hobbyist, mostly known from online commuties, look at cool stuff and get as many games in as possible.

And we figured 'why not resurrect Horisont?'. We're aiming for that same old feel. 

We were lucky enough to get permission from the old organizers and will be running the Convention through an RPG Club named Føniks (Phoenix). 

It's great fun for me to be organizing something like this again, it's been years since I've been in that kind of chair. 

Location is locked down, a cool free venue in the middle of Denmark. The cost for the convention will be held at an absolute minimum - because we want as many people to join as possible. So what now? 

Well... people are cool. The hobby community is awesome. Right away lots of people have said 'I'll join and would love to demo X system'. Voluntary hours are being poured into website design. It's awesome! So the website and sign-up will open very soon. 

... and that seems to be how a convention is made. From now on and until October, all my hobby time will go towards Horisont Con. I will be painting warbands for demos and try to hammer out as much terrain for new boards as possible. 

I can currently setup a jungle board, a modern board, a post apocalypse board, a huge classic fantasy board, a frozen city board, a farm board and an industrial board. And I'll be bringing all of it to Horisont. It's all here.

Be October I would love to also setup a full 3'x3' dungeon board, a dessert board and a military base board.

And Frostgrave 2nd edition is soon coming, will need a few new buildings for that - because it's my home. 

Personally I'll be running demos in Frostgrave and This Is Not A Test. I'll be looking to get my first game of Relic Blade and A Song Of Ice And Fire. Would love to play some Last Days and Reality's Edge as well. 



 

The Bloggerverse - Discord, streaming, Twitch and Youtube

This is gonna be a different kinds of blog post - no real hobby content in it. So that's not how it's usually done. 

Discord - fighting isolation with a human voice

This Covid-19 situation has been a crazy ride. I haven't gone this long without gaming in years and social isolation is really tough on a lot of people. Early in quarantine I decided to setup a Discord channel for hobby work. I wasn't the first - and it's become very popular to have a Discord channel. 

Lots of small companies have set one up. Most of them are either too cluttered with too many channels - or completely dead. Like any community it takes some moderation and care to grow it. This best facebook groups are the ones with clear rules and active moderators keeping it clean. 

I'm very happy with the community that have grown on the Bloodbeard's Garage Discord server. 

There's curently around 70 user on the server. There's a nice hangout area - where people post current projects, discuss gaming, share kickstarters and so on. But there three extra super cool things come from it:

Voice channel

People from around the world are hanging out in the voice channel, talking hobby while they work. Interesting discussions on painting, gaming, rules and the industry going on. It's nice. And not being the biggest talker myself, I've spend lots of time just listening in on other interesting people. 

I've made new friends through the channel and gotten new contacts. 

And that leads directly to 

A convention

There's not really a miniature gaming convention scene in Denmark. There's some large tournaments in Warhammer 40k and some nice large conventions for playing RPGs. But nothing for the skirmish / indie gaming scene. GW is sitting even heavier on the market in Denmark than elsewhere. 

We're making that now. This autumn, smack center of Denmark, we'll make a convention. At a nice location in the middle of Odense, we'll run a weekend of games. All those smaller scale and unknown games. Lots of cool boards. We want to connect the Frostgrave, TNT, Song of Ice and Fire, Relicblade guys to a weekend celebrating the completeness of the hobby. 

Painted models, great stories, non competetive environment. It's gonna be cool - so thank you Discord. 

Microblogs

The Discord server is growing with a number of super cool microblogs from hobbyists. They've gotten their own text channel and become moderators of it. Sure we'll see a lot of the photos shared around Instagram and in Facebook groups. But Discord connects it, shows the progress and the channel is only containing work from one person. It works really well and we're happy to setup more channels for new members.

The Discord server is such a nice place to hangout, that I've paid money for better options in there, deciding to go premium on the Mee6 bot - making even better moderation on the server, adding cool new features. 

A snapshot from the #Hangout area

Streaming - the frontier

I have never planned doing anything in the terms of either streaming or uploading videos to Youtube. Editing film is super time consuming and my hobby time is limited. But now I've taken the step anyway. 

Why?

It's been so nice to voice chat with people while painting, I figured I might as well turn on a camera while doing it. I don't paint to a high quality and can't share many good tips. So I have made other plans for that new camera. So here's my new Twitch.

I'll of cause continue to write blogs on my terrain building and the step-by-step projects. But now I'll start streaming while I work. Hopefully (with a bit of brain activity) I can do it in a manner, that won't take too much editing before going on youtube. 

So expect to get some build videos with my modular dungeon project and the like. 

Solo Gaming - 2020

It was my plan to make a lot of solo gaming this year. I like playing miniature games and I have so many systems with solo rules. ... haven't really gotten around to it in a manner that I want. So enter streaming and webcams again. I'll try to stream my solo plays (still gonna do written AARs with pictures) and make some 'let's play' videos for youtube. Huge expansion of my bloggerverse it is. 

Play testing

But what about the games I have actually played? Well, lots of those games can't be turned into AARs yet, because they're top secret. With the last month, I've been lucky enough to beta read and playtest three different new game systems! How crazy is that?! Three games, three known and published authors. That's a pretty cool hobby achievement unlocked right there!

That's a lot of words about what's going on. New ideas, new blogging, new places to share stuff online. ... so many different platforms. If only there's was a social media AI, I could post stuff to snapchat and tik-tok as well. 

But for know I'm on all these different places. 

The live by your influence life

I pretty freaking far from anything I want and could realistically achieve. I really love working as a school teacher. And I've already achieved the 3 influencer goals I set when making the blog a couple of years ago: 1. reach 500 likes on Facebook, 2. get shared by a company, who likes what you did with their kit, 3. try having someone send you free stuff. 

And I would of cause like your help with the streaming adventure and growing the Discord community as well. Here's the Bloodbeard's Garage Bloggerverse:

As always, please consider helping the blog on any platform you prefer!

I enjoy growing this blog and its reach. 

I appreciate your interaction, a big part of my hobby life. 

Facebook.com/BloodbeardsGarage/

The big one. Sharing the full blogs, the finished projects, a couple times a week.

Instagram: Bloodbeads_Garage
Every photo I take is posted here. Focusing on a single model or game at a time.

Discord hobby hangout: https://discord.gg/xwcRSs7
The nice new place. A great community to hang out in - lots of got people, come get a microblog and hangout.

Twitter: @Blodskaeg

Maximum 4 photos pr tweet, I tweet about other stuff than miniatures as well, post when going live on Discord and Twitch.

Twitch: twitch.tv/bloodbeards_garage
The new one. I need followers on it to open op different functions. We'll see how it goes. 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgzuhhOQBWUZleTzwXei3A
I need 100 followers on it before I can get a good url adress. ... 100... better create some content.

Hobby donations: paypal.me/blodskaeg

I've actually spend money on a community server and a webcam. And all the great streamers have a donate button. 

Discord - COVID19 - Stay social - apart

Saw a post on Facebook that made me think. A friend, very outgoing and social type - doesn't really have any hobbies, don't play computer. Isolated at home, living alone. He was starting to stress about about it.


And when I was gonna spend a quite night having a beer, checking in on some CS:GO, writing battle reports for Rangers of Shadow Deep, Zona Alfa and Reality's Edge. My wife's training CS:GO with her team, my kid fell asleep early after a long day outside.

So I've set up a Discord server. A free platform for text and voice chat. So feel free to and invited to join my for a beer, hobby talk or talking wind and weather.

Please consider jumping in if self isolation is getting to you, we're in this for the near future. Staying home is the right thing - but isolation can be bad for your mental health.

Stay safe, stay happy, stay hobbying.

Discord is free. Here's my server: https://discord.gg/xwcRSs7

I'm logging on whenever I do hobby work in the evening.


Here's the rules I set up for the server.


Hello fellow Hobbyist and welcome to Bloodbeard's Garage Discord. 

This Discord is setup for hobbyists to have a social hangout online, with the possibility to chat both text and voice based. Discord offers a way of interaction that's not great in the way Facebook groups or twitter threads work. 

RULES: 

1. Dont act like a scumbag. Be nice to other people, be supportive, be constructive - or be quite. 

That's it really. Breaking the rules could result in a ban. 

ALLOWED: 

- Cool hobby work and miniature talk all over the place. - Feel free to link your personal blog or facebook group, but don't spam. 

- Share videos or photos from you games and projects. It's all cool. ENCOURAGED - Name tags, if you drop me a message I can add you real name to the Discord name. Makes it easier to figure out who's who. But some value the privacy of internet names. See my own for example Søren / Blodskaeg 

- If you feel like there's missing a channel for something - specific game, WIPs, your own hobby blog - whatever. 

Feel free to ask, we'll probably set it up. Both text and voice - you'll become a moderator of your own room. 

Have fun, glad you've joined in. I'm personally online for voice chat when doing hobby work in the evening. // Søren Emil / Bloodbeard

2019 is over - 2020 is coming

This is a 2019 hobby write - looking back over the year to see if I have completed my overall goals. 

Two for one

This year´I jumped on a 2-for-1 challenge. I had to paint two models for each model I bought, making sure the pile of unpainted models would become smaller. 

The consequence of not reaching the goal, would be to sell stuff from the collection to make it fit. 

2-for-1 has been excellent for me! I've skipped a bunch of kickstarters that would (most likely) have ended in storage anyway. I've only jumped on a few auctions, to get great bulks of miniatures and bits - often with reselling in mind. Reselling a lot of the aquired bits and models to in the end sit back with some almost free stuff.

I have bought the awesome Dunkeldorf Miniatures. First and foremost to support an excellent project a dream of fellow Danish hobbyists. And I could see use for most models when pledging. And even before getting the models, I was sure of backing a second kickstarter as well.

Only other kickstarter is Terrain Crate 2, that'll add so much to my modern and post apocalypse tables. And some of that will be resold instantly as well, to bring down the price.

I won't go into all the boring numbers. But this year I've accuired some free Killteam and Necromunda gangs (for some day) forexample. I also cleared out the rest of the models, I don't have concrete plans for. So when I went over the collection in november I couldn't find more than 35 models to get rid off - all the rest is planned for something (even if that something doesn't get made into anything). 

So all in all (here start December) my collection haven't grown this year - the last sell made me hit 0. And I sold all my Dreadball (breaking even on it, so it's been sitting here for free). So actually my collection is now 184 model lesser than when the year started. 

Opposed to this I've managed to paint 258 models so far this year - that's a lot. A bunch of these were for my Roman Risk project. But for my own collection, for 28mm gaming, I've painted 180 miniatures. So I consider 2-for-1 a very huge success. And I will probably try and do it next year as well. 

Terrain

I love building terrain and complete boards. And with the super cheap MDF kits out there, it's both affordable and fast to make cool thematic boards. We always play on completed, densely packed boards, with a common theme. 

2019 saw me finish a lot of new settings for different games I wanted to play. I build a huge wasteland board during a weeks break from work. Having a cool time with my 5 year old kid. It's all in the wasteland page. 

2019 was also the year I finally intered the Ghost Archipelago. For that I made a bunch of jungle terrain, enough to cover a 3'x4' and make different setups. All in the jungle terrain hub. 

The last 'new' board this year have been making a huge amount of cyberpunk upgrades. New buildings, scatter and details to turn my modern stuff into a full cyberpunk layout for Reality's Edge. I'm not done posting blogs about all the stuff I've build - but it's all going here.

Gaming
I had a plan when the year started, to play more different people. I don't get out to conventions and have no club nearby. So this year I've been inviting old friends (wargamers or roleplayers no longer in the community). I've been building and painting warbands and let them choose the game system.

It's been great. Catching up with some pals from the old days and getting more games in this way. So that's some nice This Is Not A Test done this way. Overall it's been a year of skirmish gaming. With Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, Last Days and Reality's Edge also taking up some game time.

The blogging

I still blog for my own enjoyment. I've never intended to make money, do advertisement or spend any time on it other than my hobby time. That being said, it does fill me with joy the interaction I get from other gamers. 

There's some super great communities on Facebook, and it's nice when people find inspiration in some of the cheap scratch build stuff I do. It motivates me to do other stuff. 

I've also tried this year, to do some review writing - it's hard to do right. But each review have gotten around 1000 reads - and that pretty darn cool. 

Osprey Games reached out, and asked if I wanted to guest blog on their page. Since I do the blogs anyways, it's a cool recognition of the work I do. I've written a few for them and I have plans for a lot of content for 2020. 

Social media

I'm no expert on social media. But I do spend time on it, sharing my stuff around. The facebook page have grown nicely. Got to 500 likes when 2019 started and moving towards 900 now. It's good, never spend any money on getting bigger reach. 

I've also started a twitter and instagram page, but those platforms is harder for me to get - perhaps it's due to there not beeing groups like on Facebook. I would however like a bigger reach there, especially for the review part of the blogging. So I'll look into it in 2020. And if anyone want to help out, please drop a follow on Twitter or Instagram. Or perhaps drop a follow on the blogger page - link on the right side of the page.

2020 - the year of solo gaming

My hobby goal for 2020 is to try out solo gaming. I want to game more and I don't around to playing enough games with my friends. So the 2020 hobby goal is:

Play at least two solo miniatures games every month

This should provide a good amount of motivation for me. I'll be trying out multible new games, I'll need to plan terrain and model painting for specific scenarios. It's gonna be awesome.

In 2020 I'll be flying solo in:
Rangers of Shadow Deep (classic fantasy), Frostgrave: Perilous Dark (frozen fantasy), Zona Alfa (russian survival horror), Hardwired (cyberpunk) and The Walking Dead (zombies!).

And then the super important Frostgrave 2nd edition! Wuhhuu! That's gonna be awesome. I've already ordered three high tower like buildings for my board - it needed som more height.

Suggestions?

There's a nice amount of followers of this blog. Do you have any suggestions? Anything I should focus on? Change around? Any good ideas? Please let me know, I want to expand my skills in this blogging thing - it's good fun.

Thank you for follwing, commenting, liking, sharing and so on. Happy holidays and have a great new year.

February Pledge

February Pledge - as made in the Pledge, Paint or Pay motivation group.

Always working towards a specific game day or project, my 'I want to do this one day' pile is getting really big. So I'm having a clear out month on individual not-really-need-it models.

From left to right:

2x Vindicare Assassin, Inquisitor Eisenhorn, Forge Father God Father, Brokkr Bike, Teraton Scientist

9 Mass Effect conversions

Ragnar Lodbrok, Chaos Dwarf Bezerker, Viking, Goblin Spy, Geralt of Rivia, 3x Dwarfs

Dungeon Saga Legendary Necromancer, Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, Mage

In all 28 model - one for each day in February.



And as of January 2018, this is the yearly Bingo Sheet.

2017 Paint Count

Set myself a '365 models in a year' here in 2017. After June, here's my project report. Counting terrain pieces, 3d counters, scatter terrain as models as well.

January (31): 25 TWD Survivors, 5 TWD cars, 4 barricades, 1 badge = 35 (+4)

February (28): 2 TWD barricades, 1 dumbster, 2 mailboxes, 11 loot counters, 6 tents, 1 campfire, 1 tank, 21 deadzone rebs = 45 (+17)

March (31): 31 deadzone plague, 1 RV, 1 Shipping Container, 17 trees = 50 (+19)

April (30): 20 DZ marauders, 1 Chaos dwarf, 1 mercenary ogre, 1 elevator tower, 12 palettes with cargo = 35 (+5)

May (31): 30 DZ asterians, 1 elf, 1 emisarry, 1 fuel depot = 33 (+2)

June (30): 20 TWD, 1 Chaos dwarf, 6 DZ enforcers, 5 Forge Fathers, 5 Ghouls = 37 (+7)

July (31): 16 Bloodbowl Human, 2 goblins, 17 TWD = 35 (+4)

August (31): 7 Fences. 4 Haybales, 1 tractor, 2 CDs, 1 Morg N Thorgh, 1 Brokkr Chief, 2 Bomb Bots, 8 item crates, 2 Plague Drones, 1 Nurgle Bell Ringer, 20 TWD models = 49 (+18)

September (30): 24 twd, 8 FG trees, 2 houses = 34 (+4)

October (31): 1 DG Drone, 7 DG Marines, 35 Frostgrave, 7 Ulterior Motives terrain = 50 (+19)

November (30): 8 Death Guard, 1 typhus, 3 deathshroud, 1 herald of nurgle, 1 spider, 2 small construct, 1 medium construct, 4 imps, 1 mortarion, 12 cultists = 34

December (31): 24 pox walkers, 1 cultist (-7)

In all: 427 models done this year. Inlcuding smaller token models and big scratch build terrain pieces. Counting only infantry models on bases the number would be 343.

Happy new year! Next year my goal is to get BINGO!

365 Paint Challenge - halfway report

Set myself a '365 models in a year' here in 2017.  After June, here's my project report. Counting terrain pieces, 3d counters, scatter terrain as models as well.

January (31): 25 TWD Survivors, 5 TWD cars, 4 barricades, 1 badge = 35 (+4)

February (28): 2 TWD barricades, 1 dumbster, 2 mailboxes, 11 loot counters, 6 tents, 1 campfire, 1 tank, 21 deadzone rebs = 45 (+17)

March (31): 31 deadzone plague, 1 RV, 1 Shipping Container, 17 trees = 50 (+19)

April (30): 20 DZ marauders, 1 Chaos dwarf, 1 mercenary ogre, 1 elevator tower, 12 palettes with cargo = 35 (+5)

May (31): 30 DZ asterians, 1 elf, 1 emisarry, 1 fuel depot = 33 (+2)

June (30): 20 TWD, 1 Chaos dwarf, 6 DZ enforcers, 5 Forge Fathers, 5 Ghouls = 37 (+7)

In all: 235 (based infantry models 167)

Pledge, Paint or Pay!

Years ago my friends and I started a facebook group called "malerhjerner og drukkenbolde" - translates to ''painter brains and drunks". Malerhjerne being 'chronic solvent induced encephalopathy'.

Every month we would pledge how many miniatures we would paint and if we failed our pledge, we owed a case of beer to a pool. That way, when we got together, there would always be somebody bringing the beer. Unfortunately the group didn't really stay alive and so I've started a new group on facebook - and it's for everybody.

Pledge, Paint or Pay!

"The point of the group is simple, every month:
- We pledge which miniatures or projects we'll paint.
- We announce the 'fee' we'll pay if failing.
- We share pictures of our succes (and cool miniatures) or the payment for failing.

Every month a new thread is pinned at the top of the facebook page. This thread is for posting your pledge as a comment and your fee - should you fail. 

We all have piles of grey plastic, half painted lead and other eternity projects. This group is for motivation, for helping getting more stuff done faster.

Any miniatures and game systems are good. We all paint to our own skill level."

The entire point is to get more stuff painted, help encourage other hobbyist in there work and make some personal challenges. The 'fee' is anything the pledger want to do. And we've had some pretty cool ones made. Here's a few examples:

• I'll do all the dishes for a week
• I'll donate 10£ to a charity
• I'll bake cake for my gaming group
• I'll paint a miniature for a succesfull pledger
• I can't buy new miniatures before I succed a pledge

 Why don't you come join the group?
 

A single blog

A combined blog in one place

For years I've been blogging on different forum about miniatures. A lot of the blogging have been copy paste work for Chaos Dwarfs Online, Powerfist.dk, Lead Adventure, Beasts of War etc.

I've been thinking, for some time, to make a single blog. To get more exposure, to link to one place. It'll be easier to search for old projects on something that looks like a website.

I'm no tech guru, so this free blogspot seems to do the trick neatly. 

The plan is to make sites, for the different game systems I play (collect more than playing actually) and a hobby sections for terrain etc.

This page will contain:

• Fantasy
• Frostgrave, Dungeon Saga, Heroquest
• Sci-Fi
• Deadzone, Scrappers, Star Saga
• Post Apocalypse
• Devil's Run, Auto Kill, The Walking Dead
• Terrain