I used to play Avalon Hill hex-and-chit games and I don't see why we can't go back to that.  Hell's bells, I used cardboard standees for Battletech as recently as 2012.  We don't need expensive plastic or metal game pieces. 

I believe that I, like so many other gamers, have way more dice than I will ever wear out in a lifetime.  I think we could certainly do something like a dice exchange co-op to get people the dice they need until we can get our own dice making cottage industry up and running.  (There are also dice roller apps too.)

Honestly, I'd be happy to see the hobby revert to a "for gamers, by gamers" model.  Home printed books and cardboard play pieces ordered from the back of a zine  sounds like a return to better times to me.  The death of companies doesn't mean the death of the hobby.

Simple: Buy from Troll Lord Games, where everything is made right here in the USA.

Quote from: BadApple on April 14, 2025, 05:49:46 PMI used to play Avalon Hill hex-and-chit games and I don't see why we can't go back to that.  Hell's bells, I used cardboard standees for Battletech as recently as 2012.  We don't need expensive plastic or metal game pieces. 

I believe that I, like so many other gamers, have way more dice than I will ever wear out in a lifetime.  I think we could certainly do something like a dice exchange co-op to get people the dice they need until we can get our own dice making cottage industry up and running.  (There are also dice roller apps too.)

Honestly, I'd be happy to see the hobby revert to a "for gamers, by gamers" model.  Home printed books and cardboard play pieces ordered from the back of a zine  sounds like a return to better times to me.  The death of companies doesn't mean the death of the hobby.

Yeah I have a ton of the cardboard standups I DO like the minis I got with the new boxed sets, but I suck at painting so they're almost all still plastic colored. And they take up a lot more room.

I think there's a certain segment of gamers that literally just collect stuff and have no intention of ever playing, and these are the most vocal about crap like having to use chits or cardboard counters. People who actually play tend to not care nearly as much.

Quote from: Brad on April 14, 2025, 08:43:21 PM

Quote from: BadApple on April 14, 2025, 05:49:46 PMI used to play Avalon Hill hex-and-chit games and I don't see why we can't go back to that.  Hell's bells, I used cardboard standees for Battletech as recently as 2012.  We don't need expensive plastic or metal game pieces. 

I believe that I, like so many other gamers, have way more dice than I will ever wear out in a lifetime.  I think we could certainly do something like a dice exchange co-op to get people the dice they need until we can get our own dice making cottage industry up and running.  (There are also dice roller apps too.)

Honestly, I'd be happy to see the hobby revert to a "for gamers, by gamers" model.  Home printed books and cardboard play pieces ordered from the back of a zine  sounds like a return to better times to me.  The death of companies doesn't mean the death of the hobby.

Yeah I have a ton of the cardboard standups I DO like the minis I got with the new boxed sets, but I suck at painting so they're almost all still plastic colored. And they take up a lot more room.

I think there's a certain segment of gamers that literally just collect stuff and have no intention of ever playing, and these are the most vocal about crap like having to use chits or cardboard counters. People who actually play tend to not care nearly as much.

I like the minis too. I have a bunch of Star Wars minis from the X-Wing game.  I want to continue to see great products for table top gaming.

That said, I don't think that going without for a few years while the market straightens itself out is going to hurt the hobby at all.  We had fun before plastic minis and high page count full color art books pretending to be gaming material and we can do it again.  Then, as there is a market for this stuff, some of us will figure out how to do it locally and we will see the rise of more products.

There's no reason to be worried about the state of gaming, just the state of publisher's sanity. 

Quote from: D-ko on April 14, 2025, 11:29:52 AMDice. Nobody is saying books cannot be printed in the USA, but I suspect custom dice are a nightmare for a company with games like Zombie Dice. China can afford to prioritize entire factories for something custom they get a large order for, plus engineers/toolers who can quickly make a design into something real-- as it turns out, making counterfeits of products leads to workers who are really good at seeing something and mimicking it on the assembly line. America doesn't really have anything like that readily available, certainly not that cheap either. It reminds me of how Normal Rockwell actually used projection tracing and many Japanese manga authors openly promote tracing in order to learn how to draw extremely detailed objects at strange angles. The entire way of American thought toward work and creativity is going to need to change for this AI revolution we have coming.

When I was a kid I marvelled at the illustrations in Twilight 2000 2.0 I was like "how does he draw that good!??! It's like a photo!!"

Of course, they were photos traced with a lightbox. I only realised that when I was in my 20s. I was a slow learner.

My grandmother was an amazing acrylic painter (at one point she was working for the government painting concept art in the late '80s for what would later become what we know as drones, and her boss actually repossessed a work of hers, a bear catching a fish in running water, to keep for himself-- heh) but she always berated herself for starting her projects with a lightbox tracing. I don't think she ever quite realized how good she was with acrylics. It's like, comic books have sketchers, inkers, and colorists. You're not a failure if you only do one role! Anyway.

Some opinions on Tim Bradstreet who illustrated T2K 2.0 https://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?s=3bbe476935b45bf6c2003b6aa47931bf&t=103068

Quote from: BadApple on April 14, 2025, 05:49:46 PMI used to play Avalon Hill hex-and-chit games and I don't see why we can't go back to that.  Hell's bells, I used cardboard standees for Battletech as recently as 2012.  We don't need expensive plastic or metal game pieces. 

I believe that I, like so many other gamers, have way more dice than I will ever wear out in a lifetime.  I think we could certainly do something like a dice exchange co-op to get people the dice they need until we can get our own dice making cottage industry up and running.  (There are also dice roller apps too.)

Honestly, I'd be happy to see the hobby revert to a "for gamers, by gamers" model.  Home printed books and cardboard play pieces ordered from the back of a zine  sounds like a return to better times to me.  The death of companies doesn't mean the death of the hobby.

I'm basically a wargamer, and the one RPG I play, other than my own, uses counters, and I make my own professional grade counters, and love the DIY aesthetic in gaming, so i'd fit in just fine in this situation.

Quote from: Mistwell on April 09, 2025, 09:54:14 PMI've been slammed by tariffs. I do not object to the concept. I object to the manner it was done. And fuck you for not caring about those details.

During his first administration Trump imposed many tariffs. Biden also continued them. But the way Trump did it, he gave businesses lots of notice, and told them what the new rate would be in advance so they had time to make logical business decisions about whether they wanted to buy goods under those terms, pass along costs, change where they bought, manufacture at home, etc..

This time, he literally imposed massive tariffs on products on ships already on the water. Less than a weeks notice. Products left port under one customs rule, and arrived at the US port under an entirely different one. Businesses often had no ability to make decisions based on the change. No possible new manufacturing could happen from it. No possible change to the products or even the prices in many cases could be made as customers were often locked in to contracts as you do with wholesale.

MEGA corps can afford that loss. Small businesses like mine, and most medium sized businesses, cannot.

There is a Government agency which can help with this sort of thing. The SBA. Trump cut their budget and staffing by 50% before he raised the tariffs. So the one place you can go for help, suddenly couldn't help. Then the markets tanked, and banks reacted by immediately ceasing loans to anyone who was a risk - which is small businesses impacted by a huge unexpected tariff.

So yeah, I object to the way this was done.

And those who say tough shit this is for the greater good: you're EXACTLY like those fuckers who supported Obamacare and told me the same thing when my insurance costs skyrocketed with worse coverage. If you want sacrifices for the greater good, volunteer to make that sacrifice yourself. Don't voluntold me to do it for your principals.

There was an opportunity to do this without harming small and medium sized businesses. It was EASY to do it that way and still do tariffs - he had already done it that way successfully before. He chose the reckless path instead. Which sucks and deserves criticism instead of this sheep-like parroting of the Administrations lame talking points.

I totally agree with you, Mistwell. You're absolutely on point here. The way this was done will definitely hurt small businesses much more than the big corporations. And if it matters, I really am sorry this is happening to you.

Meredith Placko resigned.

Quote from: DocJones on April 19, 2025, 07:45:24 PMMeredith Placko resigned.

Every time I hear her name I feel like she's stuck to my teeth.