Sunday, February 01, 2009

GeekEnd: Day 1 - Paint-&-Play Sunday and Game-Nite

Around the end of last year, Garish and I decided to start doing regular painting and gaming programs down at our sort-of-local Hobbytown USA store in Kennesaw.

You might say it's a double-feature matinee. First, our participants get to choose from a selection of free Reaper minis to paint and keep for themselves. We supply the paints, brushes, and whatever meager collective expertise we can offer. Then, once the minis are dry, anybody who wishes to can come over to the dungeon table and do a bit of old-style RPG looting and slaying in our HirstArts plaster dungeon maze. Those that play the dungeon also get a free Chessex d20 and d6 and a handy list of places to get various free rules sets to help them get the most fun out of their painted minis.

Ordinarily, we might have around half-a-dozen folks joining in, but today was a bumper crop...including two entire families and we even coaxed a few of the guys from the Flames Of War tables to give fantasy minis and gaming a try.

Below are some photos and highlights.


The "Paint" part of the event, sponsored by Reaper Miniatures through their Black Lightning demo team program


The dungeon table, featuring our customizable HirstArts maze. The rules we used today were Swords & Wizardry White Box



These two minis with their magical swords are looking for some trouble.


The party, an unlikely collection of elves, dwarves and orcs, find the kobolds' lair. All the players are looking forward to next Sunday's game and the continuation of their long and perilous journey to fame, fortune, and 2nd level.

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Then, after we got back home, we were joined by Shane "The Crusher" and Unglef "The Dwarf" for a bit of AD&D 1st Edition action. We had been talking about getting an all-thieves adventure together and running through the City State of the Invincible Overlord module. (Or as Janara the hafforc would say "City Stake of the Unvisible Ogre-Lord).

So I'm playing a half-orc thug (bit of a surprise, I know), Unglef is a somewhat chaotic dwarf second-story man, and Shane is our human magic user.

Our first night in Ogre-Lord City consisted of Leif (the mage) nearly getting arrested over a botched attempt to gather information, Burzug (the hafforc) passing out drunk, Gund (the dwarf) having to use his bulls:)t-skills on a local guardsman to keep Leif from being hauled to jail, Burzug waking up after all the "good stuff" had already happened, Leif getting seduced by a random-night-encounter which turned out to be a succubus, Gund and Burzug running away as soon as the second demon appeared (but returning to his aid once the town watch and some high-level priests showed up to help with the problem), and at long long last we all found a place to spend the night... and the game session ended with the GM dangling a nice juicy plot-hook in front of us concerning a nobleman's stolen horse and sword.

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In other GeekEnd-related news, it looks like Groundhog Day will be reserved for casting up HirstArts parts for the new cavern system. Garish has proclaimed himself the Master Caster of Plaster Disaster.... as the condition of my kitchen counter and floor can verify.

5 comments:

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

Fun!

Where/how do you get the free Reaper minis and the dice to give away? That sounds like a fantastic idea, I may have to steal it for an old-school day at a local FLGS here.

Chad Thorson said...

Sounds like you guys had a great GeekEnd!

Spike Page said...

Reaper has a program (much like GW's old Outrider program) in which team members schedule regular product and/or game demos at their local game stores, and for payment, Reaper gives the volunteers online-store credit based on a flat rate per event plus a bonus per attendee. If you want to check into it, go to the Reaperminis site and look under Black Lightning (although it seems they are doing site maintenance today.

We don't really have a deal with Chesses like that. We just bought the Pound-O-Dice deal, and since the dice only cost us about .40 apiece, and considering what more sophisticated companies spend to get new players to try their games, we consider it a cheap trade-off for getting folks to try classic RPGs.

We're trying to work out a mutual patronship between TARGA and Reaper, and I'd not be too surprised if HirstArts would consider such an alliance a good way to gain exposure too. I suppose we could ask Chessex if they'd like to work out a special promo-consideration deal too...the worst they could do is say 'No'.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

Thanks! That's always good info to know, especially with trying to start up a relationship at a couple of FLGS's near me.

I would love to find someone near me that has HirstArts molds and would be willing to share.

christian said...

That sounded like a damn fine day. :) I really like the photos of the minis and terrain. Also, it's great how families participated.
Peace,
Christian
iridiazine.net