The end is finally near. Only a few days of grueling heat left. Let's use that time to look at a few things I've been doing over the summer.
No Air Conditioning
I live in a small apartment, in the middle of a city in Germany. That means no air conditioning and no reprieve from the heat. The oppressive heat drains my will to do anything, and it gets worse every year.
When it comes to my hobbies, this means shelving a lot of my projects (pretty much no painting), and shifting most of my free time to PC games, movies, and TV-series. It's just easier to do and doesn't require as much concentration or creative energy. Running a weekly Starfinder game is exhausting enough.
The summer wasn't all doom and gloom, though. Thanks to the flexibility of solo gaming, I was still able to get a bit of playtime in here and there.
RPGs
Starting the Paizo Marathon
In one of my recent posts, I've talked about playing through the entire backlog of Paizo Releases for Pathfinder 1e. Yes, it's a ridiculous undertaking, and I'll probably never finish within my lifetime, but it's fun, so why not?
Their first releases were for D&D 3.5E, which I've never played before. My goal was to explore the Pathfinder releases, but understanding where the system comes from is a very vital step of that process. Obviously, there is a ton of content for 3.5E, but I limited myself to the Player's Handbook for now.
Reading the book, learning the rules, creating characters, and painting their miniatures is taking a long time, though. I'm looking forward to hunkering down on colder days and dedicate more time to this project. It's not really fun (or feasible) to only do in 30min iterations.
Starfinder
Because of my weekly multiplayer sessions of Starfinder, I kept thinking about possible solo adventures within that setting/system. Like any crunchy game with detailed combat rules, I can easily see myself enjoying a variety of possible scenarios and character groups.
That being said, I don't think it's going to happen for now. Next session is going to be the finale of our Against the Aeon Throne campaign, and we decided to switch to Traveller for our next game. We were really disappointed with the spaceship combat and wanted to switch to a sci-fi game without levels.
Obviously, I could still do a solo game of Starfinder, but I don't want to juggle 3 complex rulesets in my head. Instead, I'm going to focus on my Paizo Marathon for level-based gaming and enjoy the solo-friendly systems of Traveller for my skill-based cravings.
Traveller
Having to learn the rules and immerse myself into the Charted Space setting of Traveller gives me the perfect excuse to do a few solo adventures in it. My group hasn't yet decided what kind of campaign they would want to play, so I'm going to wait until that's decided before I make any solo plans.
If you yourself want to get into Traveller (specifically Mongoose 2nd Edition), I highly recommend Seth Skorkowsky's YouTube channel. He has a fantastic playlist walking you through every aspect of the game and is a great content creator in general.
Boardgames
Roll/Flip & Write
I've come to really enjoy this type of game. Small footprint, easy setup, and relaxing to play.
Cartographers is my current go-to game when I don't have much time but still want to play something non-digital. Once I let go of the notion that every playsheet had to look like a good hand-drawn map, it became a very calming and relaxing experience. The point system is very random and can feel arbitrary at points. I just focus on the process itself and the scoring becomes a non-issue.
Hadrian's Wall comes into play when I want a bigger and longer experience. I love the theme and complexity of the playsheet. It might look overwhelming at first, but it's actually quite easy to partition it into different styles of play. Don't try to do everything at once, and just focus on a specific tactic for each playthrough. Highly recommended.
Blackstone Fortress
One of my first big box purchases. I just wanted the miniatures and didn't really care about the quality of the game itself. Luckily, I really like the game! It can be grindy and a bit random, but it's a GW miniatures game so that is to be expected I suppose.
I finished my first playthrough of the base campaign a few years ago and have since then acquired a few expansions. Some minis still need to be painted before I dive in, but I'm already excited to try out the new characters and enemies. It's a good game and the miniatures are incredible.
Print & Play (Plans/Ideas)
Ever since I watched SU&SD's video of PnP games, I've been waiting for the right moment to start exploring this world of creative ideas and concepts. I still haven't gotten around to it yet, but I made a promise to myself to do it before the end of this year. The accompanying Reddit thread is another great source of recommendations.
Puzzle
Do puzzles count as boardgames? I think they should.
This puzzle is the bane of my existence. It has been in my collection for a few years now, and I've tried to finish it at least 3 times now. Look at all the bright colors on the cover. The distinct hues, shapes, and lines. As a colorblind person, I have to be very careful with my puzzle purchases. Some colors blend together or become indistinguishable for me. Looking at the cover, I didn't think this was going to be an issue with this one.
Reality is often disappointing.
The actual puzzle looks like somebody turned the brightness slider all the way down. It is extremely dark, and I can barely see the difference between the colors. Puzzles are usually very relaxing for me, but I can't help but get frustrated in this case. It always ends up unfinished and gets thrown back into the box after a few days.
One day. One day I'll finish it. Just not today.
Wargames
The heat put a serious damper in my painting progress (it stopped completely) but I've been looking at the MESBG Pelennor Fields Starter Set for so long now that I just had to get a game in.
I used half finished minis to play Scenario 1 from the booklet. It's a very basic battle, and I played it a couple of different times to get a good understanding of the basic rules. Once I've finished painting both sides, I'll add a hero and continue from there.
Miniature Painting
Over the last few months, I've only painted a single half-project. It's quite depressing when I look back at it like this, but I just can't handle the heat while painting.
It was a half project because I only painted one half of the miniatures: The horses of the Rohan cavalry. I don't like the hard edge highlights on horses, so I played around with a rougher stippling technique for the fur. It was quick and easy and will be my go-to method for painting horses in the future. Pictures will come once the riders are painted as well.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, a very slim summer when it comes to the solo hobby. It might look like a lot when it's listed like this but trust me when I say that it felt like barely playing anything at all.
I'm eagerly looking at the weather report and have already made too many hobby plans for the colder months.
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