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.)

March Hobby Matrix - Hobby ADD

It's that time of the month again when I get to plot my hobby flights of fancy.  Fortunately, this month was fairly easy due to the lack of change on most items.  March is historically a very busy month for me and this one has certainly lived up to expectations.  It seems like every spring-breaker in the world has come to the Keys to escape the winter blues and I feel like I have somehow taken every single one of them offshore to dive or snorkel.  With little free time available for hobbies, not much could possibly change... or could it?


Looking at the matrix, most everything dropped or remained the same.  I am not sure if the lack of upward movement was due to the changing winds of fortune or simply the fact that I was so busy and tired during the last thirty days.  Almost half of the original nineteen categories saw decreases with LotRO dropping the most.  I have not been online the entire month and do not foresee doing so for another week or two at least.  While I would like to blame my absence in Middle-earth completely on work, I would be dishonest with myself if I did so.  The truth of the matter is that I have been burned out for quite some time on the game.  While I've never logged more than a few hours a week behind the keyboard, even that has been a burden.  I hope my hiatus from the rapidly deteriorating RP on Landroval refuels my love of the game and my kinship.

Only two items saw gains this month and both were big winners.  With the long awaited start to HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series less than a month away, anything and everything related to Westeros is finding favor with me.  Not only have my Wildings and Jon Snow miniatures finally moved forward in the painting queue, I have also dusted off both versions of RPG's based in Martin's world - the out of print A Game of Thrones from Guardians of Order and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying from Green Ronin.  If the series is anything like the trailers, I can only see this category continuing to rise in the rankings.  

Starts April 17th on HBO.

 The other gain is actually a new item and could quite possibly become a new obsession.  I have been reading about one gamer's creation of a viking raiding party for several days now and have been green with envy over the miniatures.  Those that know me well are aware of my love for all things viking and anglo-saxon. They also know my tendency to favor skirmish style wargaming over larger set piece affairs.  Well, when said gamer posted the rule set he was using with his viking warband, I was suddenly caught in a perfect storm of dark age bliss.  Age of Blood will no doubt become a favorite of mine in short order.  I have already ordered small warbands of Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and have started the planning process for a model longship. Damn that fateful post!  

Without further ado, here is this month's hobby matrix:
 

Current Obsession - Scenery and Terrain
Past Obsession - Legends of the High Seas
Looming Obsession - Age of Blood


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

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.

Hobby ADD

I've long known that I had a hobby problem... a dirty little secret if you will.  But it's time to come out with the truth and admit my disorder.  I have hobby ADD.  Yes, it's true.  I have trouble concentrating on a single hobby, or even a single aspect of any given hobby.  I ramp up and go full steam ahead on one and then, as suddenly as if a light switch were turned off, I change course and travel in another direction.  It's not that I no longer enjoy the hobby I suddenly dropped.  No, that is not it at all.  The poor discarded project is still there and though it may feel unloved for a time, it's always in the back of my mind, lingering like a long lost friend.  My problem is that I can't get enough of my hobbies in general and I'm always moving forward, looking for the next buzz.

Yes, I have a problem.

Rather than try to hide it, I thought my inability to concentrate might be fun to track.  As yet another project, I am going to monitor my hobby trends over the next year and see if there is a method to my madness.  I'll start off with a simple text matrix until I figure out how I am going to display the data.  To make things easier, and to fit the theme of this blog, I will only track my gamer/geeky pursuits and not add other pastimes like sports or lifestyle.  So....for the month of January 2011:


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Obsession - Legends of the High Seas
Past Obsession - N/A
Looming Obsession - Ambush Alley?


Lord of the Rings SBG = 6*
Warhammer Fantasy = 5*
Warhammer 40K = 5*
Pathfinder RPG = 3-
A Song of Ice and Fire RPG = 6+
Flames of War = 5*
Wings of War = 8*
D&D 4ed = 1*
D&D 3.5 = 4*
D&D old school = 6*
Axis and Allies War at Sea = 7-
Legends of the High Seas = 10+
Terrain Making = 7+
Miniature Painting (general) = 7+
Lord of the Rings Online = 6-
Pirates of the Burning Sea = 4+
Pirates of the Spanish Main = 6*

(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.)

So there it is.  If I think of anything else to add I'll come back and edit.  I will be interested to see what happens over the next few months.  The only problem I see with my methodology is that it does not account for my weekly or daily altered views.  But this will have to do.  I simply do not have enough time in my day to keep track of my warped mind.