The Nook

The little space on Tumblr where Pendix (Miniature Sculptor and owner of Ex-Manus Studios) shares the occasional thought and things he likes.

[will-tomorrow]

The first time I ever held a brush in my life next to the last piece I completed. 5 years of practice in between the two.  People often remark that I’m talented - take a look at that first piece again and see if you can sort out why I find that “compliment” a touch dismissive of my journey so far. Raw talent has nothing to do with it. It’s passion, dedication and repetition. It’s dreaming about paint schemes and leaping up to try an idea at 2am. It’s studying the way light plays off of the car bumpers while you’re picking up groceries. It’s living, breathing, eating, sweating and fucking your dreams.  Nobody would’ve told me to drop everything and become a miniature artist full time on the strength of my first piece. That wasn’t talent. It was a desire to be one of the greats some day. A desire that hasn’t waned at all. Every piece gets me a little closer, even if my ambitions are still miles away.   “Find what you love and let it kill you” ~Charles Bukowski

[pendix-blog]

This guy gets it.

[pendix-blog]

Played my first game of Shadow War last night. Sisters vs Wych Cult. Lots of fun! The old Necromunda scenery really holds up well!

[talenlee]

I wrote a book, you know? It’s a story of cool queer teen assassins stabbing evil in the face. You can check it out here!

[pendix-blog]

My friend wrote a book. I read and enjoyed it.

[talenlee]

Just Playing 4ED D&D

Just Playing 4ED D&D

I was a holdout. I loved 3.5 D&D. I really did. I was an active poster on the min-max forums. I had lots of work – I mean huge amounts of work – set aside for running 3.5 D&D campaigns. I was planning, in an odd and roundabout way, to make my living selling 3.5 D&D stuff, never once considering the transient nature of that industry period. I remember sitting down and trying to make my case that…

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[pendix-blog]

Passing this around. Becasue 4th is way too maligned.

[talenlee]

Storytelling in Non-RPG Games

Storytelling in Non-RPG Games

This is a bit of a tease of a subject, because if you’ve ever heard me explaining games in general, there’s this phrase I’m fond of using: A Game is a Machine to Make Stories. Not tell stories, to make stories. Every game you play gives you a story, and you may not think it’s a great story or not, but you will always walk away from a game with a story. Since stories are one of the fundamental…

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[talenlee]

Gamecrafting Skulk: Some Notes

Gamecrafting Skulk: Some Notes

I try to tell people about the tools I’m using fairly aggressively, which is in part to make sure people around me can make measured, reasonable responses and judge whether they’re good tools for their own projects, but it’s also because my memory is just awful. Yesterday I received my art-proof copy of Skulk from The Gamecrafter (hence TGC), and I wanted to put some info down here on that front.…

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[pendix-blog]

Where a friend blogs about game making.

[thestonecuttersguild]

Hunting Lodge, Gripenhem. 2016

The Lodge holds a prominent place in the city, originally being founded by a group of trackers. 

[pendix-blog]

Rebolging Gripenhem, because Gripenhem is awesome.

[socialmtg-blog]

MTGPayne crafts the most epic 720-card cube box I have ever seen.

[thestonecuttersguild]

oh my!

[pendix-blog]

That. . . that is some serious nerd bling.

[pendix-blog]

[invincible-ink]

Price Drop! DOG BEAR and THE SUITS!

Hey there, friends! Are you interested in our game products The Suits and Dog Bear? These are a pair of starter RPGs designed to be easier for new players to get into the hobby without starting with a bunch of math homework, for people who want to be Stealthy Covert operatives, or stylish, cool ladies conducting a train heist. And now, their digital download versions have been dropped down to only $5.

Feel free to check them out on DriveThruRPG! The Suits and Dog Bear!

(reposted from http://www.invincible.ink/price-drop-dog-bear-and-the-suits/)

[pendix-blog]

I have played these!

[pendix-blog]

I remember now, I can use Tumbler to share my own art!

[x-story-blog]

Vitaliy Shushko — art, story, directing Elena Volk — 2d/3d-animation, compositing Pavel Mira — compositing, 3d-modeling, 3d-animation Denis Pisarev — compositing, 3d-modeling Timur Gibadulin — 3d-modeling Viktor Gullichsen — music Henri Keinala — music DZA — additional music Thomas Karagiannis — additional music Juhana Vihervaara — sound design Tomas Ihonen — sound design Florian Calmer — additional sound design Special Thanks Vasili Zorin Pavel Vasin Nadya Mira Ilya Shekiladze

[pendix-blog]

This is very cool.

[invincible-ink]

BIG NEWS: GX Australia, Online Shop and More!

If you’ve noticed us going a little quiet lately, you’re not wrong. With no conventions planned after MOAB, we’ve been working hard on new games and some special extra christmas releases. But now it’s time for some big news – and lots of it!

Our Australian Online Store is Live

That’s right – our “coming soon” messages have finally morphed into a real online shop, just in time for christmas shopping. Local customers can now buy all of our games (and special editions like the coveted The Botch: Cryme Pays Edition), without the hassle of US shipping prices and turnaround times! If you’ve missed us at a convention or just didn’t want to pay for international shipping, this one’s for you. The “Buy Stuff” section is live on our site now – happy shopping!

GX Australia 2017

We’re super excited to announce that we’ll on our way to GX Australia in February 2016 – as long as it happens! Their Kickstarter campaign is live right now, but they still need a few more pledges to get over the line. With only about 19 hours to go (as of this post), they’re so close it smarts! If you care about diversity and acceptance on the Aussie gaming scene – and we sure do! – head on over and check out the campaign while you can. We hope we’ll see you there!

We’re Confirmed for Cancon!

That’s right – we can finally confirm that we’re absolutely, definitely going to be bringing our indie games collection to Cancon 2017! Scheduled for the 27th-29th January, this one is a HUGE convention for tabletop gamers, battlegamers and roleplayers, so we couldn’t be more excited to be attending. As usual, we’ll be attending with our good friends at Ex Manus studios, who have just added a BUNCH of new and exciting miniatures to their lineup. If you’re near Canberra in January, check it out – it’s going to be huge!

(reposted from http://www.invincible.ink/big-news-gx-australia-online-shop-and-more/)

[pendix-blog]

My good friends at Invincible Ink are doing things.

[pendix-blog]

One of my more recent projects, now complete.

[invincible-ink]

What's... WOBBEGONG-12?

Here at Invincible Ink we’d like to announce the launch of Wobbegong-12! If you’ve ever played a space adventure with an elegant, sleek rover and thought to yourself this game needs more stop-starts and embarassing crashes into the scenery, if you’ve ever wanted the arm-bending mechanical challenge of Twister without rubbing anyone else’s body, if you’ve ever wondered where are the crap parts of space, then Wobbegong-12 might be for you. Sound cool? You can get all of this for $10, here, on DriveThruRPG!

If you’d like a little more detail, though…

Wobbegong-12 started out as a microgame, with the question how small can a game be and still be fun to play. I made the original of Wobbegong-12 with four cards, one of which was torn into quarters. What kept it from being a microsized game, however, was when I learned that DriveThruCards would only ship cards in quantities of 20 – less than that, and people wanting to buy Wobbegong would have to buy other stuff as well.

Furthering the expansion of the game was the realisation that my design, that envisioned players capable of holding up their arms and running around a table, was incredibly limited by ability. So, the rest of the design space of the game went towards overcoming that. There were new rules variants that allowed you to slow the game down, or keep people from struggling over the same card, or that allowed a player who was immobile to turn into a rover-stealing monster threat, described as a ‘lurking hippo.’

Wobbegong-12 is a game you play a few rounds of. It’s silly and it’s active; you have to flick a rover, keep an eye on your friends, try to manage a very frustrating task, and then you might just lose out of nowhere. This isn’t a game for the super competitive amongst you. But it is funny, it is silly, and it is designed to evoke that same feeling of piloting a bouncy castle with wheels that I had in playing old videogames set in spaaaaace.

With that in mind, if you like the sound of it, or the style – consider buying it!

(reposted from http://blog.invincible.ink/whats-wobbegong-12/)

[pendix-blog]

More games from my friends at Invincible Ink

[pendix-blog]

For my sins, as they say, I’m an artist. I write things. I design games. God, it’s hard to say that, and to say it and mean it, and to say it without flinching. Without rushing to quali…

Because the art itself is only the first battle.

[invincible-ink]

What's... CAT & THE MOUSE?

. Here at Invincible Ink we’d like to announce the launch of Cat & The Mouse! If you’ve ever wanted to play a stealth bluffing card game, if you’re looking for a duelling card game where reading your friends and bald-faced cunning is important, if you want to be a super cute thief or super dogged inspector, then Cat & The Mouse might be for you. Sound cool? You can get all of this for $10, here, on DriveThruRPG!

If you’d like a little more detail, though…

Cat & The Mouse is a game I want new designers to play, because I want them to see how simple ideas expand when you put work into them. I’ve been fascinated by stealth games for years now and it’s been a longstanding point of embarassment for me that video games are almost the only place that does them right. We all know tabletop sessions where the stealthy character has gone off, done some stealth, and come back, and either left everyone alone to wait for them or failed spectacularly without any friends. The question of how to do stealth well in tabletop games has been on my mind for ages, and Cat & The Mouse is the game that came to me as a bolt from the blue while walking the dog.

Rather than try and accommodate a dozen other elements, Cat & The Mouse boils the entire concept of the thief game into two elements: The thief, and the pursuer. If you’re an Inspector, you’re going to be told lies, basically every turn, and if you’re good, if you can read the thief, you might just spring the trap on them at the worst moment. If you’re the thief, you’re constantly putting forth an air of being in control and comfortable while privately shrieking as you try and work out where the last piece you need before you can escape. Cat & The Mouse is a game about tension and lies and giving away information and seeing if you can get away in time.

With that in mind, if you like the sound of it, or the style – consider buying it!

(reposted from http://blog.invincible.ink/whats-cat-the-mouse/)

[pendix-blog]

I have played this game. It was good fun. Also: I’ll get you next time; The Mouse! NEXT TIME!