Sunday, February 20, 2011

February Hobby Matrix - Hobby ADD

Last month about this time I wrote a post about my hobby A.D.D.  I thought it might be a fun project (or frightening) to track my flights of fancy as the various games, projects, and obsessions that preoccupy my free time wax and wane - seemingly without reason.  Though I still have not had time to decide on a proper format for tracking the changes (OK, I admit it.  I did not even think about it in the last month) I did not want to miss the opportunity to enter this month's data.


So...here it goes:


Current Obsession - Scenery and Terrain
Past Obsession - Legends of the High Seas
Looming Obsession - Ambush Alley*


Lord of the Rings SBG = 7+
Warhammer Fantasy = 5*
Warhammer 40K = 6+
Pathfinder RPG = 4+
A Song of Ice and Fire RPG = 6*
Flames of War = 4-
Wings of War = 7-
D&D 4ed = 2+
D&D 3.5 = 5+
D&D old school = 7+
Axis and Allies War at Sea = 6-
Legends of the High Seas =9-
Terrain and Scenery Design = 8+
Miniature Painting (general) = 8+
Lord of the Rings Online = 5-
Pirates of the Burning Sea = 4*
Pirates of the Spanish Main = 5-
Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG = 6+
Ambush Alley = 5+

(The scale is 1-10 with one being the lowest on the current interest scale and ten being the highest.  "-" indicates a negative trend and "+" indicates a positive while "*" signifies no change from the previous month.)


Looking at the data above I do not see any real surprises.  My Legends of the High Seas project is still moving along nicely and the only reason for the decline is probably due to over-saturation.  I've been quite busy with general miniature painting, as well as making scenery for LotHS and LotR SBG so those respective categories saw an increase.  Several different flavors of D&D also witnessed gains.  I attribute the rise in ranking to three factors.  One, I've added several new items to my classic D&D collection through wins on Ebay.  Next, I finally got around to adding blog feeds of my favorite D&D/RPG sites to my iPad and now I can read them every night before bed.  Finally, there have been several web series dealing with D&D-ish themes that I have been watching on YouTube.  Who knows, maybe I will actually want to run a game before long if this trend continues.

There are two new additions to the list this month.  Ambush Alley I mentioned last month as a looming obsession.  Fortunately for my bank account, I have been unable to get a copy of the rules.  It seems that the company will be publishing a new ruleset in cooperation with Osprey Publishing in April and the licensing agreement specified that the old copies be suspended.  Needless to say, I will be eagerly awaiting the April release date and I have no doubt the ranking assigned to Ambush Alley will skyrocket.

The second addition is the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG.  I have had a copy of the rules since last year but have only recently spent time familiarizing myself with the mechanics.  Based on the Savage Worlds model, the game seems like it would be rather interesting to play or GM.  I plan in a rereading soon and possibly playtesting thereafter.  I could see this taking up a large portion of my time given my love of pirates and tropical settings.  As if I needed more persuasion, my huge fleet of PotSM ships could be put back into use with this game system as well.  I see trouble on the horizon.....

If any of you have had experience with either Ambush Alley or the PotSM RPG, I would love to hear your comments regarding the games.

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