Anyone still playing Warhammer 40K these days? (tabletop game)
- Thread starter Lagduf
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Battletech was starting to have a renaissance, but they've made some questionable decisions with their authors.
I still have some teams for casual play, but the company is off the rails.
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Yeah, I have to wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.
Firing Blaine Pardoe is the dumbest thing Catalyst Games has ever done. And all on false allegations by a person that wasn't even who they claimed they were at the time the charges were levied. This was proven to be a 100% hoax and they still chose the false accuser over the guy that has been keeping their fiction line going for years. I believe they even gave the hoaxer a job? Clown World.
Catalyst and Goodman Games are wolves in sheep's clothing. They are either compromised or they were biding their time. Steve Jackson Games is another company I've lost so much faith in.
I have plenty of old Battletech materials if I still want to play, and all of the new stuff is readily available online if you know which seas to sail.
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I'd recommend you get 1 or 2 cheaper airbrushes instead of a expensive one.
Chances are you are going to fuck one up sooner or later.
For miniatures that's good enough.
For basecoating I just use rattlecans.
Chances are you are going to fuck one up sooner or later.
For miniatures that's good enough.
For basecoating I just use rattlecans.
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For what you describe, I would also recommend a cheap airbrush. I use a cheap airbrush 95% of the time anyways. I don't do small details with airbrush that often. I prefer gravity feeds over siphon feed even for basecoating. Siphon feed looks good on paper, but doesn't work well in practice.
This is the one I use for all of the things you mention:
Amazon.com: Master Airbrush G22 Multi-Purpose Dual-Action Gravity Feed Airbrush Gun for Model Painting, Graphics, Cake & Fine Art - Air Brush Gun Only with a 0.3mm Tip and 1/3 oz. Fluid Cup, Art Hobby Crafts : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
Shop Master Airbrush at the Amazon Arts, Crafts & Sewing store. Free Shipping on eligible items. Save on everyday low prices.
www.amazon.com
They used to have a set with compressor and everything. You can get similar models on Temu, but YMMV.
Two other things to make it easier:
Airbrush Flow Improver
Iwata Airbrush Cleaner
Primer based paints can really clog an airbrush. Flow improver helps for that, and it reduces clogs overall.
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I've had some dealings with Catalyst.
They have done nothing but squander the Battletech brand.
Also, it was a pain in the ass to get any kind of commitment out of them, or a straight answer, or a timely response, and even harder to get paid for my work.
It's a supid and kind of long story but if anyone cares I can post it up.
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warhammer quest dark water looks awful
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Okay, This all started a little more than a decade ago. and my memory may be a bit off but I think this is how it went down.
I've been a fan of the game since the FASA days, and was just doing this as a fan service kind of deal.
The fans wanted faction dice. Catalyst had even put out a statement about why they couldn't / wouldn't be making any. A lot of players had the Wizkids dice from the Mechwarrior clicky game and were using those.
One day, I said, "Fuck it." and worked up a bunch of faction dice for Battletech. Due to the minimum I had to make for each design I sold some of them off in the fan community to cover the production cost. The first ones were more expensive, but after that I could get the cost down and sell enough to do the next design. These were really small runs, like 100 pair each. At the time they were pretty lax on what they would allow fans to do. Catalyst knew what I was doing, and decided they wanted some for Origins and I hooked them up with all the unsold stock I had, at my unit cost.
(On a side note - When I was working with Catalyst, It was with Randall Bills and the at the time art director whose name I can't remember, but they were my main two contacts at the company.)
I didn't have very many of the factions produced at that point for Origins, but for Gen Con, I had made up a small test run of Battletech Inner Sphere faction dice. Catalyst were going to sell them as sort of a testing the waters thing at their convention booth.
I produced and then delivered them up to the convention. I was charging Catalyst just my unit cost.... not any time working on graphics or packaging them, not the costs I paid to have the casting dies made. Just the per unit cost after shipping. No profit for me. I was doing it as a fan service kind of thing.
The dice were nickle plated zinc with hand painted enamel faction logos.
Now I had also made up the same five factions in some plastic dice, and brought them thinking they may be interested in something that could be produced in mass, in the hopes of landing some kind of deal. I could have them done at about 43 cents a pair and they were very nice, if I do say so myself.
They didn't want the plastic ones at all and totally wanted nothing to do with them at all, so much that they seemed kind of pissed that I made some.
I found out later they had just cut a deal with Q Workshop to make shitting looking plastic dice that ended up in clearance bins in hoby shops.
Anyhow, the metal dice were a promo product for Gen Con that year with a very limited number.
My impression was that they were going to be limited one pair of each faction to the first 125 customers at the price of $5 per pair $25 for the set of 5, but then they jacked it up to $20 per pair $100 for the set of 5. They were paying 85 cents per pair, by the way, that's why I thought $5 was pretty reasonable. They sold out quick on the first morning. So they made about 12k profit there for doing nothing but handing people dice and taking their money.
After that, they wanted to do more for the next year. We talked about it for quite some time. They were invoiced for 90 days so I wasn't in any hurry. Three months later I still wasn't paid. About three months after that I reminded them that I still hadn't been paid for the last bunch and wasn't willing to do anymore until that happened, so that's what got me paid.
Anyhow,I had already worked up new designs to do the main clans. They wanted to produce them in larger numbers for the upcoming convention.
Rather than do it myself, I first offered to GIVE them all of my work, and set them up with my factory contacts over seas, and the casting dies I had produced and they wanted none of it.
They wanted me to handle the whole thing, so. I wrote up everything for them, and laid it all out so they would know how much per unit it would be by volume, so the more they order, the cheaper it would get as usual for such things. I also informed them what the lead time would be for each amount.
Some of the factions would cost more due to the amount of colors needed for the enamel, so it wasn't a one cost fits all kind of thing.
I had things ready to go.
Now here is the thing. They wanted me to take all the risk on the project for nothing. I was going to have to lay out the cash up front on this, and I was willing to do that but, only up to a point depending on how big the order was going to be.
At that time we had like half a year maybe before the convention to get this done. I needed at least a 45 day lead time depending on how big the order would be and to have some wiggle room with the shipping. Also, 5 new dies needed to be made for the new designs. So they couldn't just be crapped out and shipped to me instantly. The new dies had to be run, samples made, approvals and such. That was all outlined in what I had sent them.
After about two weeks I had not got anything back so I reached out again. Sent the info again and such.
This went on, they would talk to me or respond to emails and never give me a straight answer on how many of each they wanted.
It finally got close to the deadline and I was sending emails letting them know when the cut off date was and that I needed some numbers.
They finally got back to me and wanted about 5K pair in total, that being five new designs at 500 pair of the 5 previous designs at 500 pair, meaning about a $5K out lay of cash for me, not unreasonable. If they had wanted like 1K of each design I would have asked for some of that up front.
The problem was, they waited to just right before the convention.
On the off chance they maybe they they were wanting them for the following year I asked something along the lines of, "So this going to be for next year's convention?"
As you can imagine, they were like, "No, for this one."
I then informed the deadline had passed about two weeks back and it wasn't possible.
They ghosted me after that.
Now just to be clear, They should have easily been able to sale all 5k pair of dice at $20 per pair. I was charging them about an average of .85 cents per pair. So lets just say a fucking dollar!. That would have been a $95K PROFIT they wouldn't have had to lift a finger to make, but pissed it away because they couldn't bother to give me a solid answer on what they wanted. There is some more to it than that, but thats the basics of the story.
I've still got about 500 pair of plastic Wolf's Dragoons dice in a box around here somewhere, as well as a bunch of Kurita and Davion dice. I sold a bunch of my bulk left over plastic dice to some guy who I think was selling them on ebay years ago.
Also, I would think they needed all the cash they could get after all that embezzlement that went on.
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Catalyst gonna Catalyst. It's a really interesting story, though.
I've never had to deal with any of those companies on quite the level you did but when I was a kid, Gary Gygax sat down with me at the Gen Con after he'd been ousted from TSR and was debuting Cyborg Commando. When I asked him why he wasn't working on D&D anymore, he said 'Well, I just want to do something different.' A lie, but one that protected my innocent vision of the gaming hobby as a whole. I can't know this for certain, but I think that he still wanted me to love D&D even though he was no longer a part of its future.
In retrospect, I know what a litigious guy he ended up being and the industry has hated him for it ever since. They've done everything they can to erase him and ruin his name so they don't ever have to pay him any true homage. The 'lifetime member of Gen Con' status he enjoys will someday, I'm sure, be revoked. Probably after all of us older gamers are all dead or about to die.
So now he's a sexist, a bigot, a racist, etc, etc, etc. Even Luke and Heidi won't outright stand up for the man they knew better than these charlatans disguised as 'TTRPG historians' ever will. Rob Kuntz is the only guy from those old days that fights for him. He's the Christopher Tolkien for Gary that none of his kids will ever have the balls to be. The grognards still hold him in high regard but they tend to see everything through rose tinted glasses. The man was complicated, just like every noteworthy person that has ever existed. Purity spirals are nothinig new.
Anyway, I learned a long time ago that the TTRPG industry is filled with shitty people pretending they're better than those that came before. You know, the same people that crowdfund everything and have it manufactured in China because it's cheaper to do it over there while touting the virtues of 'real communism' or some faggotry.
I guess the industry, as a whole, is 'complicated', too.
Sorry I had a 'yelling at clouds moment'. I didn't need to click 'Post reply' here. But I did anyway. At least I can admit that the things I buy are almost always made by people engaging in (what I'd consider to be) immoral business practices. Capitalism leads to socialism, I suppose.
I've never had to deal with any of those companies on quite the level you did but when I was a kid, Gary Gygax sat down with me at the Gen Con after he'd been ousted from TSR and was debuting Cyborg Commando. When I asked him why he wasn't working on D&D anymore, he said 'Well, I just want to do something different.' A lie, but one that protected my innocent vision of the gaming hobby as a whole. I can't know this for certain, but I think that he still wanted me to love D&D even though he was no longer a part of its future.
In retrospect, I know what a litigious guy he ended up being and the industry has hated him for it ever since. They've done everything they can to erase him and ruin his name so they don't ever have to pay him any true homage. The 'lifetime member of Gen Con' status he enjoys will someday, I'm sure, be revoked. Probably after all of us older gamers are all dead or about to die.
So now he's a sexist, a bigot, a racist, etc, etc, etc. Even Luke and Heidi won't outright stand up for the man they knew better than these charlatans disguised as 'TTRPG historians' ever will. Rob Kuntz is the only guy from those old days that fights for him. He's the Christopher Tolkien for Gary that none of his kids will ever have the balls to be. The grognards still hold him in high regard but they tend to see everything through rose tinted glasses. The man was complicated, just like every noteworthy person that has ever existed. Purity spirals are nothinig new.
Anyway, I learned a long time ago that the TTRPG industry is filled with shitty people pretending they're better than those that came before. You know, the same people that crowdfund everything and have it manufactured in China because it's cheaper to do it over there while touting the virtues of 'real communism' or some faggotry.
I guess the industry, as a whole, is 'complicated', too.
Sorry I had a 'yelling at clouds moment'. I didn't need to click 'Post reply' here. But I did anyway. At least I can admit that the things I buy are almost always made by people engaging in (what I'd consider to be) immoral business practices. Capitalism leads to socialism, I suppose.
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Gary Gygax and several others used to drive down here to Henderson, KY to play Dungeons & Dragons with the Evansville Gaming Guild. The club was made up of players from all around the area, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro, being the three closest cities. Evansville and Henderson sit across the Ohio River from each other and Owensboro, (where I live) is about a half hour away from either. Also, they named themselves that to have his initials E.G,G. Gary and his group came several times back then.
One of the local hobby shops still has a bunch of pictures and news articles from those game nights. A friend of mine still has the old notebook where everyone would sign in and he can flip through it and show the days Gary came and singned to play. They used to get the back party room of the Noble Romans in Henderson and the game nights were good money for the pizza place. This was when D&D was well established, so it wasn't promotion trying to sell the game or anything like that. He was just coming to play with people who had invited him.
That's the kind of thing you really only see out if indy developers anymore.
Catalyst, is really where it is by standing on the shoulders of a giant. But all they did when they got up there was shoot the giant in the head and say, "Everything that came before us was crap, now we're going to make it good with our vision." They are a publishing company, not really a game development company. They would like for you to totally forget all the history and legacy of the Intellectual properties they have licenses to and act like it's them and not the fans that are keeping these games alive.
Also, just take a moment to look at any of the games that are their original productions. Are any of those a success? Or is it only the things they didn't create that are?
One of the local hobby shops still has a bunch of pictures and news articles from those game nights. A friend of mine still has the old notebook where everyone would sign in and he can flip through it and show the days Gary came and singned to play. They used to get the back party room of the Noble Romans in Henderson and the game nights were good money for the pizza place. This was when D&D was well established, so it wasn't promotion trying to sell the game or anything like that. He was just coming to play with people who had invited him.
That's the kind of thing you really only see out if indy developers anymore.
Catalyst, is really where it is by standing on the shoulders of a giant. But all they did when they got up there was shoot the giant in the head and say, "Everything that came before us was crap, now we're going to make it good with our vision." They are a publishing company, not really a game development company. They would like for you to totally forget all the history and legacy of the Intellectual properties they have licenses to and act like it's them and not the fans that are keeping these games alive.
Also, just take a moment to look at any of the games that are their original productions. Are any of those a success? Or is it only the things they didn't create that are?
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It's a typical corporate mindset. We see it happen with every IP we loved as a kid.
Buy it.
Reprint it.
Mix your own messaging in, gradually increasing its presence as you go.
Demonize what came before in order to commodify the virtues of the 'new version' over the 'toxicity' (lol) of the 'old version.'
Take creative ownership of it and make sure the propaganda arm that is access media is promoting how much you' fixed their shit'.
Shame anyone that dares to disagree and call them a nazi.
Wait for the 'nazis' to make something else way better than the shit you're shoveling and then sink your claws into that, too.
Repeat the cycle.
These people are parasites.
Goodman Games removed their tribute to the founding fathers of the industry with one of their printings of Dungeon Crawl Classics and replaced it with some gay messaging about 'diversity is our strength' and all that. All the self flagellating bullshit that's par for the course if you're an old white dude creating in the hobby space.
Goodman Games, that touted how Appendix N is their reason for existing, shits on the people that were inspired by Appendix N to establish the TTRPG industry as something more than monthly gatherings at the bingo hall.
They got called out for it and then said 'wow, we didn't know this mattered to people so much!' They subsequently put it back in with the next printing. Which great, good job, you fixed it.
But honestly, who did they think would buy that line?
Joe Goodman can't stop apologizing. Not to the wokescolds, not to the grognards....no one. Such a spineless faggot.
Maybe make games more and prove points less.
Buy it.
Reprint it.
Mix your own messaging in, gradually increasing its presence as you go.
Demonize what came before in order to commodify the virtues of the 'new version' over the 'toxicity' (lol) of the 'old version.'
Take creative ownership of it and make sure the propaganda arm that is access media is promoting how much you' fixed their shit'.
Shame anyone that dares to disagree and call them a nazi.
Wait for the 'nazis' to make something else way better than the shit you're shoveling and then sink your claws into that, too.
Repeat the cycle.
These people are parasites.
Goodman Games removed their tribute to the founding fathers of the industry with one of their printings of Dungeon Crawl Classics and replaced it with some gay messaging about 'diversity is our strength' and all that. All the self flagellating bullshit that's par for the course if you're an old white dude creating in the hobby space.
Goodman Games, that touted how Appendix N is their reason for existing, shits on the people that were inspired by Appendix N to establish the TTRPG industry as something more than monthly gatherings at the bingo hall.
They got called out for it and then said 'wow, we didn't know this mattered to people so much!' They subsequently put it back in with the next printing. Which great, good job, you fixed it.
But honestly, who did they think would buy that line?
Joe Goodman can't stop apologizing. Not to the wokescolds, not to the grognards....no one. Such a spineless faggot.
Maybe make games more and prove points less.