Project Focus and Sustainable Gaming

Completing a squad of Rogue Trader-era Space Marines energized me to keep hacking away at my long list of projects.

Opponents for the beakie-marines seem the most obvious next endeavor, right?... nah! Instead I've flitted between at least three, totally unrelated painting, crafting, or game-writing ideas. Which brings me to the topic of this post: Project focus and sustainable gaming.

Sustainable gaming is not my term but one apparently coined by Dan Adam on his Paint All the Minis (PATM) Podcast. I discovered PATM during the holiday slowdown and it's quickly become my new favorite podcast as I find myself pivoting away from RPGs and back towards tabletop wargaming. I particularly enjoy the "why I love (XYZ Game)" episodes but the discussions on sustainable gaming also top the list.

So what is sustainable gaming? I hope I don't corrupt Dan's definition by paraphrasing but essentially I understand it as: "play more games". As in focus more on getting games to the table, avoiding the pitfalls of buying more systems than one can possibly play, or endlessly preparing miniatures and terrain but never rolling the dice in anger.

Of course, we all like to try new things, so buying new rules (or home brewing our own) forms a key part of the hobby. And some folks (myself included) take more joy from creating/finishing the models than from actual game play. And that's OK too. Practicing sustainable gaming doesn't imply some monastic devotion to one game project, just a general push to try to to avoid the ruts that actually inhibit gaming.

My personal rut is endless experimentation. I'm always (buying and) tinkering with new materials and new techniques but before I can actually employ them I move on to the next idea.

All this said, I've laid down some guidelines for myself to help me focus my projects and I'm listing them and my goals here for accountability.

The short term goal is to play a single tabletop game this Spring. Between work, grad school, and domestic life this seemingly simple goal is challenging but achievable. By the year's end I would like to have played multiple wargames in different genres.

Following the guidelines below should help me get there:

1) No more buying. No new systems, no new miniatures. Play only games that I already have miniatures for.

2) No new homebrews. Playtesting a homebrew system is acceptable, as long as it uses miniatures I have on hand. Also, the homebrew needs to be fairly complete with the rules actually written somewhere (laptop, notebook) and more than just a faint idea.

3) No more miniature fabrication. This may be the hardest one for me to follow. I have too many commercially produced and DIY miniatures that need paint however so until I reach my short-term goal, no more sculpts.

4) Guideline 1 above means no new scales. Furthermore, I'll focus on scales used by multiple game systems, so I can make terrain usable across many games.

5) Active projects must fit on my drafting table. (I'm currently violating this guideline...) I can work on the project elsewhere (like by a window for ventilation/lighting, setting terrain on a side table to dry, etc.) but when I clean up, the projects must fit on the drafting table. If there's no longer space on the table, no new projects until something is finished to make room.

6) Speaking of clean up, I'm working really hard on trying to keep all my tools and work area tidy, setting up for a quick hobby session, and then putting everything back in its place. Unless paint is drying or plaster is curing, projects need to go back to the drafting table and tools in their cubby. This is probably the hardest guideline to honor.

7) The most obvious one: choose a game and work toward that. Not just a general system but a specific scenario in the game. Decide on the board layout, the opposing forces, and any other accessories needed. Like I said, obvious but not something I normally follow.

With these guidelines in place, a spaceship game would be the obvious choice. I have tons of completed ships, the minimal terrain required, and a fully-written homebrew ruleset needing playtesting.

Spaceship gaming is weird however in that none of the models or terrain transfers to other scales or games. In order to expand my range of potential games with painted miniatures and terrain, I'm purposefully avoiding spaceships for my next few games.

I've narrowed my next game down to Scott Pyle's great looking Super Mission Force (2nd Edition). I've already statted up the eight characters, grouped them into two teams, and started painting. Doctor Who miniatures at 28mm act as proxies for my super teams, which means I also get painted figures for later games set in the Whoniverse. Terrain-making is in progress.

MS Excel based game emulator

 Super Mission Force just barely beat out my other choice for my next game: micro-armor battles using my homemade future tanks. It ticks most boxes as I already have the miniatures and detailed notes for my homebrew system (working title Tracks, Turrets, and Tokamaks). I do not however have the terrain, so the tanks will have to wait. Happily, I can still playtest the rules using MS Excel as an emulator.

OK, back to making 28mm trees. I might just be playing a game in a few weeks.