Flashpoint Cantina (OOC)

[SWSF Hoppus]

I need to find a way to schedule time in to do this stuff again. It brings me a lot of happiness and joy and I need an outlet for creativity that is not work related... but what entices me most is something as close to a nostalgic game as possible. I wonder what sort of tools I might be able to build to lessen the time requirements -- make some of the mundane aspects automated so we can focus on the most exciting bits...

[Medivh]

I need to find a way to schedule time in to do this stuff again. It brings me a lot of happiness and joy and I need an outlet for creativity that is not work related... but what entices me most is something as close to a nostalgic game as possible. I wonder what sort of tools I might be able to build to lessen the time requirements -- make some of the mundane aspects automated so we can focus on the most exciting bits...

I will tell you my secret.  It's that I write a story that, while it involves another person, does not require that other person to be reliant on/waiting for me.
The story Syren and I have weaved over the last decade plus has flourished because we don't need to take turns to post, or need to post within a set timeframe.  We also don't have minimum post lengths - you'll see some of my posts are fairly short, because I wanted to advance the story but maybe didn't have the time to add as much of the story or the kind of detail I might if I had infinite time.
If you are playing a sim with battles, you need to have those timetables, but free-form story telling leaves a lot of room for flexibility.
We check in with each other by private message, to see the general direction of our characters, and how their individual stories will intertwine, and we allow each other, when it makes sense, to take over the other's characters.  When the characters finally meet, it feels epic, and gives weight to the months or years of build up, but in the meantime, we post what we have our own time for.

[Ramano]

Absolutely well and good Med. I have often wondered why you 2 dont try to license and publish some of it.

However, and i may just be speaking for myself here, but we need more... boom... than a story. The story is necessary dont get me wrong, otherwise what are we booming and how, but it the competitive strategy aspect that gets me into it.

[SWSF Eidolon]

We had a system, we mocked it, it was cool, it worked, we identified some needed tweaks, there was some selective story posting, annnnd flatline.  I mean.. 




As far as a storying goes, I just open a word doc, slap a few sentences in there every so often and post it when it feels like it's a scene or narrative change.  Granted yeah i suck and eventually get bored with everything, but damnit the Bears are different Im telling you!  I'm going to go bathe in a stream and slap my salmon lunch out of it to get my mind right about it all.  After about 20 posts, I'm going to jump a timeline if need be and insert a murder bear in to Med/Sys sphere ;p

I was tickled to see GreyJedi post a bit ago again after so long.  Nice to see even a slow trickle.

[SWSF Hoppus]

Yeah, maybe just embracing the story is the way forward here. I get so blocked with writing these days that its really hard for me to get going on that. Easier to work on rules, make battle posts... even though the story aspect is what I am most drawn to and want to create via rules/settings/battles!

[Ramano]

This is why i just play d&d anymore. Same concept. Yeah the lack of starwars but thats not as much an issue for me. I was more a fan of the game than the movie. Its why im not big on SL'ing. Ill do it to keep the game fun, but outside of that i just dont have the ambition.

[Medivh]

Absolutely well and good Med. I have often wondered why you 2 dont try to license and publish some of it.

I think Disney/LucasFilm might have a problem with that :-)



 As for the murder bear ... bring it on!

[SWSF Eidolon]

I think Disney/LucasFilm might have a problem with that :-)

  Think of it like being a contractor for one of the dozens of companies that they license publishing to.  For instance, both Marvel and IDW publish panel art stories (comic books/graphic novels).  I know for sure there are other companies that license to publish pictured stories as well.  All those picture stories require scene/word script and the ideas aren't alwats entirely internal.  Yeah you won't get the whole sum of profit contributed to because the parent is going to keep most, but how cool would a publishing credit in the SW universe be even if you didn't get a dime for it?  I'd imagine thats how some people get the ball rolling anyways.

  Anyone off the street can submit their material to Image and try and get them to subcontract you.  That is their actual business model last I knew, most artists/writers that have material published by Image aren't Image employees, but rather they had something to offer and they were contracted for their material.



  Ram, ain't Starfinder basically a blend of the two?  I've never played DD, Path or Starfinder though.  I'd rather watch the Ewok Adventure movies or Willow than a second of a LOTR movie again (or Amazon series) though myself.  If was gonna play a game in that vein, it would be Malifaux, but my current painting pace is about 1 gremlin every 6mos so I need a couple years yet ;p

[Ramano]

Firstly, i like the Ewok Adventure and Willow, and the LotR franchise is my favorite movie. I have personally watched return of the king over 1000 times. (I turn it on as i go to sleep every night... for the last 5yrs) One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them!

And yeah Med. I wasnt talking about copywrite infringement. I was talking about what Eid just summed up there. I mean, yes. Realistically they are probably going to tell you to go fuck yourselves, potentially in those words... its Disney. But, on the otherhand, what if they didnt? You know what a dream job is? When you get paid for doing something you already do for fun. If i had a fraction of you and Syrens creativity for writing id already be a billionaire. 

[Ramano]

Eid

Ahh, so youre a figurines gamer. I would suggest "Warhammer 40k". We actually have a league for it here at one of the game shops. However i fall into the same problem you have with that. Dont have the patience to sit there assembling and painting 4 dozen figurines. I have a pretty rotten terminator army though. That and i work at a gas station so i dont have the money to do that kind of stuff anymore.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Warhammer is what actually got me in to tabletop wargaming ages ago, actually more specifically it was Mordheim, which is part of the WH universe but was small scale.  The start up box for it came with a bunch of cardboard assembled and pre-painted ravaged buildings- Mordheim was a city in WH universe that was apparently destroyed by a Meteor basically that cast it's valuable 'soulstone' ? (If memory serves) chunks all about the city, and instead of whole armies, you had these little warbands of 4-8 dudes that you had to run around this sweet 3D ruined cityscape collecting the stones and killing your opponents.


Then I played a lot of X-Wing and Armada before growing tired of the upgrade card dynamics that took over the games, especially for X-Wing, it was more about your build than necessarily flying/dogfighting, at least thats how it started to feel for my simple mind anyways.


I gravitated towards Malifaux several years ago because the figurine style/cast/molding is quite different from WH materials.  If you are ever looking for something else to try and got some time to paint, they are definitely worth a look.  I hear you on money constraints though, I always spread my wings too far in terms of both gaming and collecting and then I have to sell a ton and reel it back in to a tighter focus.  The one I regret selling is my MIB Transformer G1 Soundwave, but having one always leads to others! I also gotta redo a garage floor before winter, groan.

[Ramano]

In general i will die of starvation long before i sell my stuff, lol. My pride and joy is my still playable launch copy of Valkyrie Profile for PS1 or my 1935 e series blue seal silver note. I mean, my mtg and pokemon card collections are probably worth 100x them combined but eh. Not nearly as rare. I could replace all the cards. Would cost more than my house, but could be done. Anyone that even has a copy of VP is not parting with it.

I own everything for xwing that came out at launch but had already given up on it before any of the expansions came out. I was literally the only person playing it with in 90 miles. But yes it is very build oriented. Although i can still pwn face (lol) with an e-wing and a b-wing. Just be careful with how you move and remember, obstructions are a b-wings best friend. Break line of sight, maneuver in, then watch those weapons trash anything that ends up in range.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Last time I checked there was an App for X-Wing now where the point cost for upgrade/mod cards was dictated so that FFG could tweak them if need be for future expansions in case it got 'broke'.

I totally get your mindset on collecting/selling, but speaking from a place of how I personally got myself to start selling- What are you going to do with it?  I had assembled a nearly complete collection of Amazing Spider-man from #100-700.  With that sitting in 3 long boxes, I was like WTF, how often am I going to pull one out and read it?  and yeah it has value to the collecting world, but wtf is it really worth if you're not willing to part with it and turn it in to actual value?  I got myself to sell my AMS collection, my 38yrs of Lego collection, every SW figure I had that was not a part of the TVC series, a burgeoning GI JOE Cobra Bubble Trouble swarm, all kinds of stuff just because I hit a mental wall and was like, wtf am I doing with all this shit?  Just too much shit!  I started wanting to live more for experience of life than necessarily a pile of shit that I gather that then just becomes part of a trophy of the experience of spending $ and time to get it.  I almost listed those gremlins on ebay but pulled them after figuring thats my own art

I wrestle with my general geek interests, my completist OCD, and my lingering desire to live a light lifestyle.  Plus when the real calamity hits human society and it begins to break down (more than the daily trials that is), how many bugout backpacks do I need to carry all that other shit?

Thats kind the mental shift I went through that got me back out sitting on a frozen lake pulling them dumbass fish out a hole one after the other.  And I tell you what, I was never more at peace with myself not being surrounded by a bunch of colorful possessions.  Not to say of course that everything doesn't filter through my mind in the context of a fantasy star wars existence, but fuck that shit cluttering up my house and being worth a bunch but getting me nothing other than saying I own something worth a lot to other collectors.

When the meteorite hits, when the dead rise, when the seas reclaim earth, when the Second American Civil War starts, when the Aliens come to harvest us to mine gold for their circuitry somewhere else, when Indiana Jones 5 hits and it's worse than Crystal Skull... then what are you going to do with all that stuff?!?!


Just ranting here obviously, not at all bashing collecting becuase I'm still a collecting junkie, I just have to try and keep it in check somehow and that convoluted thought process above is how I manage. =)

[SWSF Hale]

[Ramano]

Well, firstly, i spent 30 years of my life preparing for those eventualities. They arent going to happen. The most likely scenario is civil war, but the otherside is too stupid to be a real threat. Im not concerned with "short bus people" as their own lawyers referred to them as, taking over the country. Making a mess, sure, but no more dangerous than an unsupervised todler. 

My collections however, the cards, the dnd books, the figures can all still be used for entertainment purposes post apocalypse. I have dreams of being a wandering mtg player like gwent in witcher 3. Lmao!!