Hobby Matrix - January 2012

This year I would like to get back on track with some of my regular monthly posts.  Somehow I got busy last year and dropped the ball and never recovered.  Although they may not have been terribly exciting features for others to read, the monthly columns such as On the Horizon, Recalling the Past, and Hobby Matrix helped keep me both focused on looming projects and savoring those of the past.

Now is as good a time as any to start again, so here we go.

This month features some fairly big changes but that's not to be unexpected since I have not posted one since spring of last year.  My hobby ADD has been in full swing over the last eight months and it's a shame that I did not track the changes from month to month.  Or maybe it's a good thing.....

A copy of my Adventurer's Book

The big news is the acquisition of The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild from Cubicle7 games.  I had been watching this develop since early last year and eagerly awaited a chance to snag a copy.  Options for getting a physical copy (PDF's were available) were few in the early days after release but Amazon eventually started carrying them and that's when I jumped.

I have to admit that I am still in the process of reading the Adventurer's Book and have not had time to delve deeper into the mechanics with the Loremaster's Book, but so far I am VERY impressed.  Cubicle7 has been able to fully capture the theme and essence of Middle-earth unlike any previous attempt.  MERP was good and will always be one of my favorites but the system was clunky and cumbersome while Decipher's version was, well.....at least it had good artwork since it was based mainly off the movies.  The One Ring may very well be the one Middle-earth RPG to rule them all.  Once I finish reading both books and play testing a bit, I will write a full review.

While ToR may be the current obsession, there is a very real possibility that Legends of the Old West may figure prominently in my future.  Confession:  I have never been a big fan of US history.  Even the Civil War fails to grab my interest the way that the history of the old world does.  But something clicked recently.  Perhaps it was the Clint Eastwood old west movie marathon I watched over the holidays or maybe the great miniatures I stumbled upon, but I have a bit of a Wild West bug right now.  Visions of dusters, cowboy hats, and gunfights obscure my vision so I have to test it out.  I've been reading the rulebooks and I'm getting ready to paint my first two miniatures.  We'll see how it goes from there...

My first two LotOW miniatures.  Both are from Black Scorpion.

Most ever other category has suffered a loss in interest lately except for LotR SBG and MERP.  I suspect that both benefited from the general Tolkien increase brought about by reading the ToR manuals.  As a direct result, my backlog of Middle-earth minis are finally seeing some attention and I may actually purchase a few new ones from GW soon.....something I have not done in several years.

Anyhow, without further delay, here is the matrix for January 2012.




Current Obsession - The One Ring
Past Obsession - Legends of the High Seas
Looming Obsession - Legends of the Old West


Lord of the Rings SBG = 9+
Warhammer Fantasy = 2-
Warhammer 40K = 5*
Pathfinder RPG = 6+
A Song of Ice and Fire RPG = 8*
Flames of War = 1-
Wings of War = 5-
D&D 4ed = 1-
D&D 3.5 = 1-
D&D old school = 7*
Axis and Allies War at Sea = 3-
Legends of the High Seas =9*
Terrain and Scenery Design = 8*
Miniature Painting (general) = 10+
Lord of the Rings Online = 1-
Pirates of the Burning Sea = 1-
Pirates of the Spanish Main = 3-
Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG = 3-
Ambush Alley = 5*
Age of Blood = 6+ 
The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild = 8+
Legends of the Old West = 7+
MERP = 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.)