All's Quiet

Not a whole lot happening over here, hobby-wise. Well, wargaming hobby-wise. 

I *did* play Grimdark Future Firefight yesterday against another human. It was the first game I've played in awhile.

He messaged me on Thursday or Friday on Discord, we hashed out schedules and locations and all that, and then Sunday we got together at a local-ish (30-40 minute drive for me) store. The rules have moved up a version since I last played, but nothing too dramatic has changed in Firefight.

We played two games. 

The first featured his old school Iron Hands Space Marines vs my old school Plague Marines. I took quite a beating. The only consistently good showing was the figure with the plasma rifle. Although, on the last turn, I managed to take out one of his Space Marines in a melee counter-attack with the figure with the Plague knife. It didn't change anything but it felt cinematic.

All of the dice I rolled in that game were retired for the the next one! 

For our second game, he took his Iron Hands again, but switched out some rifles for a Terminator. I benched my Plague Marines for my Battle Sisters. I had 7 models to his 5 but mine were fragile in comparison, especially the two Sisters Repentia. 

Luck was on my side this game - I took out the Terminator with a combination of a Battle Sister with  Storm Rifle and my Cannoness with her Power Sword.  Then I dropped his RPG after a brief exchange of fire with a Sister with a Bolt rifle. On turn 4, I dropped his leader. In the end, I held 2 of the 3 objectives free and clear, and was contesting the 3rd. 

I didn't take any pictures, but it was a lot of fun and hopefully we'll meet up again soon. 

Of course, now it's got me thinking again about how to get at least one of my forces to 2000 points for the full-size game. 

This is the team I fielded yesterday. Pummeled badly, but I still love them.

 

I almost forgot that I ran a session or two of our family and friends RPG campaign since I last updated - I forget when exactly - and we have a session later this month. 

The party has turned to murder-hobo-ing. They are actively avoiding an RP opportunity I set up in the dungeon proper and seem to be speed-running the dungeon. I need to poll them to find out why. I'm happy to terminate the adventure at any point, if they aren't enjoying it. The characters themselves aren't obligated to go straight through, they could go back to town or even to another adventure.

 

My sister and I worked on clearing my parents house out last week to get it ready for sale. This sign hung in the basement bar of their first house. I remember it from my very early childhood. It now hangs on my wall to welcome and set the mood for my RPG players.

 

Most of my free time, I've been spending on music.

I picked up a Behringer Edge (percussion synth) a few months ago and then an Arutria Drum Brute Impact (analog drum machine) about month later. I have been having a blast attempting to make various forms of electronic music as a result - mostly industrial, ambient/drone techno, and power noise. I pretty much do that every day and just get lost in the beats.

It's nice to do something musically where I have no particular purpose except to have fun. 

In fact, I can lose hours to it. It's almost a dangerous as doom scrolling Instagram, except I'm actually creating instead of mindlessly consuming.

That's in addition to practicing trumpet every day (I took up the trumpet on September 6, 2024 and I've practiced every day since). When I started playing it was just for giggles, to return to my first instrument and maybe someday play in a community band. But then I fell in love with it way harder than I expected and suddenly I had musical dreams again - like I did when I was 14 and took up guitar. We're at the point now that when people ask how it's going, I tell them that when I grow up I want to be in a professional jazz band (I do. And by grow up, I mean in about 10 years). And maybe a touring ska, soul, or rocksteady band.

And finally, icing on the cake, a band I was in that hasn't played together in 16 years is reuniting for a November show and I've got to re-learn songs I have long since forgotten. It's punk rock, not prog rock, so it's not difficult, but I just need to sit down and do it to the point I can play them in my sleep again. And remember which song is which just by seeing the name on the set list (never my strong suit - I've many times, in many bands, leaned over and asked a bandmate to quickly sing how the song starts!)

Me and the boys. 2008? 2009?