lazylich

+1 noise, one instructor I had to ask her to repeat herself four or five times during the class. :( Though it's possible my ears aren't quite up to factory spec at this point. Other than that the classes were great. I can certainly say you won't find a group of instructors more interested in teaching their subjects.

Literally just pick any monster with stats that seem right and mechanics that work for what you want to do with it, and don't shy from tweaking if you want a different damage type or whatever. Reskin all the things!

It's good. The story went in directions I wasn't really expecting, and they really didn't just remake or make an homage to the original. The structure of the story is pretty different even while the aesthetics follow the original closely (the story's not perfect, but no spoilers). They also did a great job of staying in the world of the original, while advancing it 30 years into its future based on what's happened in the real world in the same amount of time, if that makes sense. I also appreciated the editing - it has an old-school pace that gives scenes time to sink in instead of rushing from cut to cut like most modern movies do. I would recommend seeing it on the big screen in a good theater if you are interested in it - the sound design and soundtrack really want a professional audio system. I was worried seeing the final cut last week might have set too high a bar, but turns out not to be a problem.

As a non-entering first-timer, uh, what? Have I missed something here?

Same - I bought a ticket for the original Final Cut and the new one for consecutive weekends. The Cinerama here does reserved seating and you can buy well in advance. Seeing the original on the big screen kinda sets a high bar for the new movie, though.

The fancy theater in town is running the original Blade Runner for a week, before Blade Runner: 2049 opens. It is still an amazing movie and not only holds up, but is weirdly relevant in some ways. A great movie to see again on the big screen. Of course as you probably know there are many recuts of Blade Runner, so technically it isn't the original original, but this latest version is great, and the restoration looks great as well. I just hope 2049 doesn't disappoint by comparison since I'll go see it this weekend at the same theater...

Well, it's kind of a personal decision, but you get really a decent number of models for the price (granted I don't expect to use some of the models). Modeling is real work (it is basically digital sculpting). Also, its a one-time investment for as many as you feel like printing (once you have models and a printer, the consumables are pretty inexpensive compared to buying cast/molded terrain). Comparing Kickstarter prices with things like printablescenery their prices seem in line with other projects (don't necessarily compare to model download sites, there are some cheap but crappy models out there). Also, Fat Dragon has so far done an great job of supporting and updating the models. Since I backed the first one, there were a few issues that they quickly resolved with updated designs, and they have since redesigned the locking mechanism completely (the new system works *much* better) without charging for a version 2.0. For me the value of the models is there, assuming they're models I'll print and use.

I've run into the same problem with the Tre Manor orcs, which I wanted to use for D&D (and I didn't have any 32mm bases handy at the time). One solution for a figure just a little larger than 25mm was to trim off the integral base and let part of one foot extend past the edge of the base, and actually it enhanced the look of the pose a bit (or I've just rationalized my hack, you decide). You could also try square bases, with the figure oriented diagonally. A 25mm square base will have a 35mm diagonal, roughly. (I haven't painted my owlbear yet, aren't they supposed to be Large anyway?)

Apparently Secret Weapon is in a dispute with Wargames Factory over billing and withheld tooling for Tablescapes Tiles. Their press release states that this doesn't involve the Tablescapes Dungeons KS, fortunately. Still, doesn't sound like a good situation.

I use a lot of digital stuff for preparation (when I can use my desktop monitor and keep a million tabs open) along with physical books. I get all my notes and so on into Evernote which I use as the adventure during the game. Players use spreadsheets or character creation tools for creating up to date character sheets. However, at the table its all physical, including printed character sheets, except for my Evernote notes. I rarely look up rules - either a player can do that while I'm juggling monsters or I'll just make a bench ruling and hit the books later so we do it right the 2nd time. Fortunately we don't have remote players (just irreconcilable scheduling BS). When we played 4E I did use the Compendium and so on (they got integrated into my Evernote workflow). I'm curious if anyone has used the Beyond D&D online tools, which is the new 5E thing (I think from Curse). From what I see with SRD content its nice but it seems pretty expensive, and no credit for buying physical books from Wizards... For me the most useful tools are online monster stats, character editors, and NPC/monster customizers. I also wish there was a decent easy-to-use and model-friendly map editor; DF actually has something like what I'm thinking of but it's not very good and hasn't been updated since KS2.

If you really want to turn the silly to 11, map Trek aliens to D&D humanoids - Klingon hobgoblins, Vulcan elves and Romulan drow, Cardassian Gith, Ferengi gnomes, Gorn lizardmen... then ask why all those aliens have been collected on one primitive planet for a long time. Heck, if you're a DS9 fan maybe there's a race of evil mimics taking over...

I think so. Treat branch/shirt color as a "class" - Command, Science, Medical, Engineering, Security and decide who gets proficiency in what bits of gear, hand to hand combat, etc. Then you can get the traditional trek tropes associated with some mechanics without constraining your players' character creation too much.

Here's my suggestions. (Biases: I'm assuming fun/cinematic rather than serious/realistic, and I mostly watched TOS.) Model phasers as a magic item that has a few different abilities, but a finite number of charges (in the power cell). If you really want to be daring (and depending on the level you're playing at) go ahead and let them disintegrate stuff with a phaser, but that runs the power cell down quickly (uses multiple charges). Assume they start with just a small one (type 1?) that can only "cast" disintegrate 2 or 3 times before its out of juice (although that still might be a lot if there are enough players). Off the top of my head, assume it can also stun (cast sleep, choose level based on how big a creature you want them putting to sleep) and heat things (heat metal) for few charges (allowing it to last longer). No area effects - if they decide to phaser down a phalanx of skeletons they'll be wasting a lot of their potential. And remind your players that they're enlightened Federation officers, so sleep-and-coup-de-grace is a frowned-upon practice. Those mindflayers are misunderstood aliens and it would be awful to murder one like that. Depending on the length of the game they'll either have to carefully conserve charges or switch to D&D weapons sooner or later and that will force them into some interesting tactics, but they still get some future science shock and awe against an over-confident enemy if they're selective. If you decide you need to limit which characters have phasers, they got stranded while not expecting to be an away team. Maybe a transporter accident or lost shuttle during a ship-to-ship transfer. The security guy or commander might have their sidearms, but maybe the science officer and engineer don't. As for the trekkers using magic, you might allow the right character to do a sort of "use magical device" check based on their scientific knowledge of primitive folklore or something like that, e.g. Mr. Spock figures out how to make the wand of fireballs work despite it being totally illogical. Speaking of how they get stranded in the first place, I'm thinking they're meddled with by "aliens" who are D&D monsters, maybe by sending them to the aliens' past, or they're infiltrating the D&D planet or something. That way the premise ties to the overall plot instead of just randomly getting lost and phasering a dragon (not that there'd be anything wrong with that). Agreed on the tricorders. (In 5th edition I'd treat them like tools/kits that allow a proficient character to add their proficiency bonus to a roll.) Communications - just let them use their communicators unless conditions specifically prevent them. If they split up their party they're all at the table anyway, so everybody's going to know what's going on. Exceptions would be that it takes an action in combat to use the device, and you might decide they can't be used deep underground or something. If you are going for a longer, possibly multiple session one-shot, I'd consider dividing it into three "acts" and have the character level up each act (ignoring XP), giving additional bonuses and proficiencies for dealing with the D&D world (e.g. they gain proficiency in D&D weapons, increase use magical device bonuses, etc), and ratchet up the action each act in accordance with the traditional Trek episode structure...

They're not as similar as I'd like. They're both basically 2x2x2" to represent a 1" grid, but the DF pieces have walls and floors around 3/8" thick, while the Dragonlock models have 1/2" walls and 1/4" (ish) floors. So they are pretty obviously different if you try to use them together. My plan was to use the Dragonlock pieces for pre-built setups, especially stock buildings and locations characters come back to, but I haven't gotten around to printing enough of them yet. If you are interested in 3D printing the Dragonlock KSs have provided a lot of good stuff, but know what to expect - it will take some experimenting and dialing in settings to get models you'll be satisfied with. Also printing takes a long time (unfortunately, my hobby time is pretty intermittent, so this has been an issue for me) so its a slow process to build up a large collection of terrain models. But if you really want 3D printing in your repertoire, these are a great way to get lots of different RPG terrain designs to print. I've backed both of the earlier Dragonlock KSs and will probably back this one (at least for SF pieces so I can dream of the Starfinder spaceship interior of my dreams).

Well if you're willing to take occasional posters and first-time attendees... lazylich / av / thu-sun