Encounter Table Games

View From the Tabletop: Equipment

I’ve taken a break from the higher-priority expansion work and switched focus to equipment. Partly this is so that I can leave the other stuff for my subconscious to go over, partly it’s so that I can see if adding equipment will break anything I’ve already done. Mostly, though, it’s so that I don’t burn out by focusing on one topic for too long. Burnout is a real thing, and I find changing the task I’m doing can help with preventing it. I also thought it might be interesting to get a sort of snapshot view of part of the playtesting process.

The Playtesting Conflict

Getting the most value out of playtests is a problem when designing a game. Here’s how the problem presents itself to me, and how I’m trying to deal with it.

Work in Progress – October 2021

Development work has slowed a bit recently, but that’s because it’s getting harder to make improvements. All the easy fixes have been done, and what’s left is more a matter of refining. Here’s the state of things this month.

Figure Conversions – Completed

Well, it’s taken far longer than it should have, but the figure conversions are completed! Let’s take a look at them 🙂

Work in Progress – August 2021

The figure conversions are still in progress, and managed to splash some more paint on them in the weekend. In the meantime, here’s where the development focus is for this month.

Figure Conversions – Part 3

Painting the figures has been taking more time than expected, and other things have been cropping up as well to steal time from them. While that’s all going on, I thought it might be interesting to see some of the in-progress pictures.

Mechanics vs. Themes

Sometimes, it’s the assumptions we make which block us from moving forward. Becoming aware of what they are, and questioning them, can show us new ways to achieve our goals. In my day job, this is something I do with clients early on, but it’s easy to forget about in this context for some reason. Here’s an example of how using this technique solved a development problem for me.

Work in Progress – June 2021

I just looked at the list of blog posts and realised that it’s been months since I gave a general status update. While I wait for paint to dry on the figure conversions , here’s what I’m working on these days.

Figure Conversions – Part 2

Having decided on the figures and conversion parts I was going to use, in this post we’ll look at the first stages of the conversion process.

Figure Conversions – Part 1

In a recent post, I talked about how the EM4 plastic figures are a good basis for conversions – in fact, I was going to do a few myself. Well, the time has come to put my money where my mouth is: I’m going to do a series of articles on converting some of them.