MUSING & MACHINATING
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SPALDING WARGAMING CLUB
After reflecting upon the piece I wrote for the Fen Orc blog about the origin of my hobby, it caused me to think more deeply about why I still am engaged with it. We all know many people who dabbled with tabletop games in their teens. These people had fun but in time abandoned it. I myself have had serious troughs in my activities, but why is this? I have come to the conclusion that it is about one thing, and that is structure. Structure is invaluable to maintaining engagement within the hobby: you need easily achievable short term goals in order to remain motivated. For example, you could say that this week I'll glue and undercoat a unit of miniatures. Next week, I'm going to basecoat them. The following week, I’m going to base and shade the same unit. The week after, I will highlight and add detail. In a month, you will have completed an entire unit from beginning to end. Wouldn’t it be great to finish a unit per month rather than start 4 and never finish them because it just seems too daunting? That's 12 units a year! It's very achievable to have this kind of progression, if you strictly discipline yourself to 15 minutes a day of quality time, actually sitting and getting on with it. I'm certain everybody can find 15 minutes, somewhere, every day, to set aside for this. Realistically, once you sit down for those 15 minutes, you'll run over without even meaning to, and, by doing this, you'll be spending almost 2 hours of quality time per week on your project. The added benefit is that it is vastly easier to concentrate for 15 minutes than a block of 2 hours, especially if you have dependents or other duties to attend to. Even by organising your time, there is always the question of ‘why?’ that creeps into your mind. Why am I doing this every week? For a few, there is just the personal pleasure of a job well done: this is very common in scale modellers, because once the piece is finished, there is nothing left but to display it. However, we are table top enthusiasts and the pieces we paint are exactly that; pieces for a game. Although it is true that is it not required that they be, there can’t be much debate about the superiority of playing with painted miniatures. It adds so much character, theme and spectacle to a game. The grey tide is a fact of life; at times it feels like holding the ocean back with a broom. We always promise to ourselves that we will make a dent next week, or next month, or next year. So here's an idea; why not make a promise to others? This sounds like a radical concept, but, if you're a DM/GM, then you're totally cognisant of this phenomena. Before your next session, you've drawn up the maps, written the story, made your contingencies and probably painted up the gribblies you need before the next session. You entered into a verbal contract with your players that you are going to be organised for the next session and this motivates you to get it done, because you don't want to let anybody down, as the game relies mainly on you and your input. To take the wider concept and expand on it, examples of this can be found all over the internet in blogs and message boards. Like this one here: The authors of these posts make (sometimes unspoken) agreements to make regular updates on progress with their projects. In addition, they often apologise for periods of inactivity, even though they made no formal commitment to keep their audience in the loop. However, let’s not pretend this is a one way street, because it isn't. A lot of people offer encouragement, praise, suggestions or ideas to help the content creator. This support is invaluable to both consumers and producers, because, without this external validation afforded to them, the creator is like to lose impetus and ends up believing they are howling into the void. The main cause of the death of threads and blogs is either that the project reached its end or there was a lack of community engagement or support. By providence Spalding Wargames Club is lucky enough to have these resources at hand. We have a section called ‘This Month’ in which members can submit what they've been working on (or may be planning to). We have the indispensable Mr Jonathan Rowe who is more than happy to accept rough WIPs to spin golden threads. In turn, our community can vouch support and, if we’re blessed enough, a wider audience may take interest in our little backwater. Going back to my initial ponderings; why am I still engaged with the hobby? I think it is down to what I mentioned on the Fen Orc Blog. I had a publication which, from my early years of wargaming, gave me focus and built a community for me. It gave me a regimen. Every 2 weeks I’d get a new issue, so I’d have a deadline of 2 weeks to complete my pack (miniatures, scenery and scenarios) before the next one came out. When I examine my periods of low engagement, it is primarily down to a lack of community. I had no reason to keep up with my hobby because there was no end goal. There are a lot of games I don't play (despite having an interest) because nobody plays them. Doubling your efforts to get 2 armies done and having to run a lot of intro games for a couple of people to consider getting involved is an inordinate amount of effort. However, a summer project I have in the works is invigorating me in a corner of my hobby that has gathered dust of late, and the shadow of Mordor has grown long indeed. In summation, structure is key to making meaningful progress. A chisel to chip away at the great obelisk before us. To have discipline within ourselves, in setting and completing objectives, and, above all, to hope that others encourage us to strive for better and motivate us when our drive is lacking.
3 Comments
Jonathan Rowe
1/3/2019 07:47:32 pm
So many board games with miniatures these days. Need to bash on with Fireteam Zero, get the PCs painted for Endure the Stars, then there's Shared Dream, Orderof Vampire Hunters, Western Legends, gaaaaaahhh
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Hantal
2/3/2019 02:40:39 pm
About a year ago I pledged to average a mini a day for a year. I knew going in that I wouldn’t be able to maintain it but kept it as a viable target until some surgery in the summer cost me a couple of months work.
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Jonathan Rowe
2/3/2019 02:57:26 pm
That's an amazing achievement. So many minis!
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