Looking Back - Writing Goals

At the start of the year I set myself some writing goals for 2017, these focused on four things: writing for Spartan Games, writing for Modiphius Entertainment, writing for my blog, and writing some things for myself.

Well, what a year 2017 has turned out to be. At the start of the year everything seemed to be bursting with action as far as Spartan Games was concerned. Things started going a little wayward, and then suddenly, Spartan went out of business. This was a big shock for all involved, and I was none the wiser when it happened than everyone else. I'm sad to see Spartan go, I got along well with the owner, Neil, and liked the company and the games they made a lot. Shortly afterwards we got the news that Wayland Games, under their Warcradle banner, picked up the various Spartan IPs. I haven't had anything to do with the new rules that are coming down the pipe, but of course, I wish them all the best in their endeavors!

Needless to say this change in landscape for Spartan put paid to any of the goals I had had concerning them, so not much happened on that front. One goal down.

Onto my second goal... Modiphius Entertainment. On this front I have been kept extremely busy. I have spent most of the second half of the year writing for the Infinity Role Playing Game, and have also managed a few things for the Star Trek Role Playing Game as well. A vast majority of the things I have been working on are still in approvals, and I have a few things that will consume my attention throughout January, but it has been busy.

Through my work with Modiphius I learned that if I push myself I can manage upward of 50,000 words in a month, at one point pushing to 20,000 in a week. So far this year, for both Infinity and Star Trek I have penned around 110,000 words, for about 9 different books/products. I say this with a pinch of salt, as much of what I have done is sitting in the approvals lines with either CBS or Corvus Belli, but in terms of what I have produced (not necessarily what will hit print) - those are the numbers.

Overall I am reasonably proud of this achievement. It has taught me a lot about getting words on the page, and the sum total of that experience has taught me one key lesson: sit down and write.

On the blog front I have managed (just, at times) to hit my goal of two blog posts per month. Though I really feel I need to up my game to blog at least once a week. Goal achieved, but room for thought on next year...

On the personal writing front things have been of mixed success. With my freelance work I have been kept busy enough to keep me away from other, more personal stuff. I have managed a few things though:

• I have started the plans for several novel ideas.
• I have been listening to range of podcasts on writing which has been an excellent source of inspiration and information (I will blog about these at a later date).
• I have bought a few books that should help me moving forward (I will blog about these at a later date).
• I have solidified a plan for how I should proceed with my personal writing projects.
• And, I have a more clear idea for how to get there.

So while I haven't written as much as I would have liked, not all is lost!


That gives a rough summary of how I have fared against the goals I set at the start of the year. Overall I have to say I have learned a lot about myself as a writer, and this should provide me with a better structure come 2018. At a later date I'll go through and lay out some of my goals for the upcoming year, but suffice to say for now: I am very happy with my writing achievements for 2017. I am hoping 2018 is even more successful. We shall see!

Spartan Games

Well. I'm really not sure what to say. Dystopian Wars was my brother's and my gateway back into miniatures gaming, I became a fan. Was one of the hosts of the Element 270 podcast for 36 episodes over 3 years or so. Playtested for Dystopian Wars 2.0. Became friends with Neil, the owner. Wrote back stories for some of their boxed sets, as well as working on the Legions and Halo rules. Helped run the playtest groups for Legions and Dystopian Wars. Was one of the writers of the Fleet Action rules. I moved away a little from Spartan the last 6 months, I was burned out playtesting - as happens.

I read today that Spartan have closed their doors.

I'm not really sure what to say. I counted and count Neil a good friend, he was always full of energy, ideas, plans, and worked harder than most people I know. I know he has been seriously ill the last few years, and I know this has impacted. I know Spartan had other difficulties as well.

I'm not really sure what to say. I'm sad to hear the company has closed, and wish only the best for Neil and Francis, for Derek and the staff at Spartan, for all those keen supporters of Spartan who helped the company in so many important ways, and of course, for the gamers who play their games.

I was a big fan of Spartan Games, they made excellent games, wonderful models and hold a seminal place for me in my evolution as a gamer and my gradual transition into freelancing in the game industry. I will sorely miss them.

2017 Dystopian Wars Tournament...

Well, the 2017 Shepp Minis Gamers Dystopian Wars tournament has come and gone. 25 battles across two days have been waged. It was a fantastic experience again this year, and a big thank you to all of those who attended, it was great to see you all, meet new people and have the chance to play against a range of fleets and opponents.

As one of the organizers, the tournament was, we believe, a great success, and kudos to everyone involved for playing hard but most importantly, for being good sports and friendly competitors.

A huge thank you goes to Gus, of Zepnix Wargames, for again standing up and sponsoring the weekend with prizes. Everyone involved thoroughly appreciated it, and we heartily recommend people check them out, if you don't already. https://zepnix.com/

The standings after day one...

This year we had 10 participants, with a good mix of fleets. The Kingdom of Britannia, Covenant of Antarctica (x2), Republic of France, Russian Federation, Empire of the Blazing Sun, Indian Raj, Black Wolf, Chinese Federation, and Australians all had representation. It was also nice to see some of the new Battleships hit the table...

The prizes this year went to:

1st Place = Quinton, with the Black Wolf

2nd Place = Aaron, with the Covenant of Antarctica
3rd Place = Ryan, with the Covenant of Antarctica
Best Sport = Ryan, with the Covenant of Antarctica
Best Painted = Trent, with the Republic of France

Congratulations to all the participants! We had some memorable games, great conversations and many a Sturginium Flare and Magazine Explosion... Though tired, we're already looking forward to 2018!

Standings at the end of the second day...

Variety is the Spice of Life...

In the lull of waiting for various pieces of writing to pass through the editing process and back to me for revision or rejection (hopefully the former), I have been chipping away at various hobby projects. I have come to the conclusion that I have far too many projects I would like to be working on, and far too many games to really give any of them justice. Naturally, and like any good wargamer, the projects I am working on are all for new things.

Aside from recording and editing episodes of the On Minis Games podcast (which I wrote about last time), I also managed to assemble my British force for Sharp Practice; I won't be writing anything more about them this time, I'll cover them in a later post.

In addition to these things, I have started refining a dice system that I think could work nicely with a Dungeon Crawl style game I have been working on in fits and starts for a while now, I have been putting together some scenery, and finally, mulling over which Ancients force I should collect for Sword and Spear.

The scenery I have been assembling is from the Spartan Scenics line of MDF 28mm scale sci-fi buildings. The Starter set is a extremely large and heavy box, full of a variety of buildings, corridors, doors and so on. The instructions leave a little to be desired, but everything does make sense if you group the MDF sheets by the letter codes. 

So far I have managed to assemble two buildings, and have a metric ton of MDF waiting to be put together. The scenery is very nice, with good details, and goes together rather well. All the buildings are designed so that the tops may be removed so the interiors are exposed, and everything is very modular. The Starter set is an excellent purchase, with a lot of stuff crammed in the box.

One of the two buildings I have constructed so far, with some 28mm Zanshi (Yu Jing models, from the Infinity Miniatures Game) added for scale.

As the photos attest these buildings are quite large, spacious, and have plenty of doorways, which may be blocked up by doors, or attached to corridors etc. These are not the two largest buildings in the Starter Set, and I still have a huge pile of stuff to get through (before I open any of the other boxes I may or may not have as well).

All the other stuff from the Starter Set, waiting for attention...

I also got some of the Spartan Scenics resin scenery sets - they have a whole collection of things to fill out and add detail to the rooms, from tables and monitors, to medical beds, cryo-pods, munitions cabinets, crates and even a pool table. I added some pieces to the room to see what they'd look like, and all I can say is that they are amazing.

The detail is spectacular, and they really add a lot of character to the rooms. I'm under no illusions as to whether they will get painted, but who knows... one day perhaps!

Lastly, the other hobby project that has been chewing away at my mind is what force to collect for Sword and Spear. Sword and Spear is an ancients set of miniature game rules, my good friend Quinton (whose blog may be found here) rather likes the idea of Romans, which leaves me indecisively trying to pick between Gauls, Britons, Dacians and Parthians, oh, or possibly Carthaginians. 

I have heard excellent reviews of this rules set, and being a sucker for historical games it has piqued my interest for some time. I am thinking of collecting a force in 6mm, partly because they are relatively cheap, and partly because I have always liked the idea of having a force in 6mm. Decisions, decisions...