Still alive

A lot going on behind-the-scenes at Thirdwalling!

For starters, things got really official with the registration of http://www.thirdwalling.com!  We’re still hosted on WordPress (for now) but we’re all pretty excited about the URL.

A few of us are working on some new series that will hopefully help new Game Masters create their first games, as well as scheming with the head of the local chapter of O.G.R.E.s on a DM101 class for the local game shop.

In the meantime, please accept this video someone sent us on Facebook as tribute:

GMX Schedule

Howdy Thirdwallers!

It has been a busy time of Birthdays and Geek stuff!  A few of us on the Thirdwalling crew have started playing X-Wing Miniatures on weekends, so look for some painting tips and tutorials soon on that as well!

This weekend the Thirdwalling crew is hitting up GMX in Nashville, Tennessee!  It looks like most of us will be moseying around most of the day on Saturday checking out panels and buying swag.

I’m going to check out these panels Saturday afternoon:

3:00 Designing Role Playing Games
4:00 Gaming in the world of New Media
5:00 Swing Dancing (with TheGinger!)
6:00 Full Scale Millenium Falcon Build Update (don’t judge me)
7:00 Storyteller Championship
8:00-9:00 TBD
9:00 Storytelling in the Gaming World
10:00 Late-Night Stand-up Comedy

You can check out the full scheduled on their website!

What are you going to see?

…. I know.

Today is a very special day!  Five years ago today, The Ginger made an honest man outta this old Star Wars nerd.

Happy Anniversary, Princess.  I love you!

DIY Lightbox to come…

It may be time for me to build a lightbox if I’m going to keep painting miniatures and making 2.5D terrain.  More to come…

Crafting Series – Mounts

I picked one of these up at Party City a few weeks back and never really did anything with it.

This past weekend I got a bit creative with some craft paint, some cardboard and some paper towels to make some mounts for my D6 Fantasy game.  Horses for the humans and elves, and a wolf (made from the dog model in the pack) for some goblin and halfling NPCs.

Some horses and a dog mount for my D6 Fantasy game.

Crafting Series – Custom Dice Tower

Last week, we examined some guidelines to using dice towers.   In that article, we made the recommendation that users make their own towers rather than springing for the available store bought.  While there are quite a few great plans out on a simple web search for making these simple gadgets, once again we will put our money (all $2.00 of it) where our mouths are and show how to create a custom dice tower. This step-by-step tutorial shows how to lay them out and glue them up, and offers suggestions for improving our simple design!

Dice Towers – Useful Tool or Gaming Gadget?

A big part of the Thirdwalling gaming philosophy is breaking down the game into its component pieces, enhancing the key elements of play and discarding the frivolous components.  Some upcoming entries will detail the contents of our pack, highlighting how this philosophy has led to a streamlining of the game experience without a lot of extraneous clutter.  But for now, our philosophy has had very little need for something as bulky and single-purposed as a dice tower.  Now we’ll decide if we were right in casting off this gaming gadget, or is it an indispensable piece of tabletop technology?

Random Tuesday – Koopa gets a star!

Browsing my favorite YouTube subscriptions and came across this gem as a suggested video.

I consider my day complete, having enriched your lives!

Crafting Series – Custom Screens

In a previous entry, the Thirdwalling crew examined the role of the Game Master Screen and the barrier it can pose to effective communication at the game table.  This week, we’ll take a look at the basic construction methods of building a custom screen for use in your game.  This screen is fairly basic, but we will discuss some options that the Thirdwalling staff has explored on other custom screens that could benefit you at the table as well!  Fair warning:  This is a picture-heavy article as it contains a picture-tutorial of construction.

Pathfinder Society Play

As any of my players will tell you, I am not a big fan of the d20 system – whether it’s old school D&D, Star Wars d20 or the newer Pathfinder and World of Darkness I just never really cared for the system.

Recently, I have been attending an OGREs Pathfinder Beginner Box event at my local game shop. Tonight we graduate from the Beginner Box into Pathfinder Society play and I’m actually pretty excited about it. I explored the Wizard class a bit in the Beginner box and really liked it – so tonight we shall try Barbarian!

While I still am not a big fan of the complexities of the system, I will say that I greatly enjoy the social aspect of the game!