On The Painting Desk: Heroquest - A Whole Lot of Elves

 

I have a lot of Heroquest Elves to get painted.  I got the Mage in the Mirror and the Rise of the Dread Moon supplement and Elves were the primary baddies from those boxes.  I got most of the other stuff from Mage in the Mirror done, but left off the elves since I saw the Rise of the Dread Moon had so many.  If I did not paint them all at once, I had a feeling they would end up looking very different and not match each other that well.  Now was the time to get it done.  

First thing I did, was I reviewed how I painted my Elf heroes.  There were a few conventions I wanted to carry-over across all the elf minis.  Of course, I was going to use Elf Flesh from my Armypainter set as the basic flesh tone, I mean it is in the name right!?!  The main convention was that I did not use Metallic colors for their "metal" work, instead I used Pallid Bone to give them a goldish look to their gear.  This would make them distinctive from the other "Minions" that I painted.   Hair colors I had used actual Daemonic Yellow, Sand Golem, and Graveyard Grey so nothing too crazy there.  I decided that elves would NOT have any red-heads.  That was for the Fae Druids and Dwarves.  With those guidelines in place, it was time to get to work.  

The first step, was to go ahead and undercoat them all with Grey Seer, then the traditional cheap acyrilic dark grey wash, followed by the white drybrushing.  I also went ahead and painted up all the Elven Flesh in one big batch.  They were now ready to get painted.  You have all seen that a hundred times, so I didn't even bother with a picture!  

My eye was immediately drawn to the Elf Mercenaries from Rise of the Dread Moon.  These guys were not supposed to look like the "Minion" elves, so I decided to start on them first.  I was not ready to start batching yet.  They are four individual models, a guy with dual hand-axes (Striker), a guy with a pole-arm (Halberdier), a crossbow pistolier (Arbelist), and a crouching guy with a cloak (scout).  It was clear to me that although they were individual sculpts they should all look like they were on the same team.  Therefore, I decided to give them a unifying color-scheme.  

I decided that their under clothing would be Orc Green, and their cloaks would be Magic Blue.  I also applied the usual conventions for all elves of Pallid Bone armor and metals.  No Red-heads.  That made painting this little group up much easier and I ended up batch painting them as a group.  Once the base coats were dry, I hit them with a light tone wash and then based them like all my Heroquest with Runic Grey and a Black rim.  

I have not read the quest in Rise of the Dread Moon but I can not help but think these guys are a band of Elf heroes.  They could be taking on the dungeon that our Heroes took on early, but they were somehow seperated by Zargon's trickery.  The Heroes help them to become re-united and they come to their aid to defeat Zargon and their designs on the Elven Kingdom.  It is always dangerous to build too much head canon before you read the actual quest!  

From there, I moved onto the other Elves.  I had a lot of sword and boards and archers.  However, in order to feel like I was accomplishing stuff, I grabbed the Magus Guard and Assassins next to paint.  I also had the Elf Sorceress Queen to paint, but I decided to hold off on her until the end as a little treat.  I took a close look at the Elven Magus Guard and picked them up and put them down several times before I started working on them.  I wanted something almost crystalline look to their armor but was not sure I could pull it off.  

So instead, as I messed around thinking about the Magus Guard, I picked up the assassins and went to work.  These guys would be much more straight forward!  Any metal was going to be Pallid Bone and it looked like they just had some knee pads, some gauntlets, a breast plate, some shoulder pads, and their cool knife chain thing.  I decided to make their under clothing dark purple and their boots Graveyard Grey I wanted them dark but not black.  For their cloaks I gave one a Camo Cloak Green and the other a Highlord Blue.  For hair it was Zealot Yellow and Grim Black.  Then, it was the usual bases. 

I think they look suitably tough and scary.  They are pretty visually distinctive from the Mercs as well.  That left me going back to the Magus Guard.... again.  In my regular Armypainter Paints I pulled out Voidshield Blue, which is a relatively light baby blue.  Then, I watered it down and base coated their armor with it using "two, thin coats".  I hear that is all the rage.  Then, I went back and dry brushed it all with cheap acrylic white again, and I was pretty happy with how that turned out.  From there I added a bit of detail with some Runic Grey and Hardened Leather.  After that, I gave one a Blood Red plume and another the Alchemy Purple plume to give them some differentiation.  Finally, I went back and used Fire Giant Orange on their cloaks and the Phoenix on their shields.  Finally, I gave the armor a watered down Blue tone each, and the rest a light tone wash.  Then, the bases as usual.....

Okay, time was running out for this weeks effort but I had one last model I wanted to finish.  I had the BBEG from Mage in the Mirror to finish.  I wanted her to fit in with the Magus Guard, so used the same trick I did on their armor for her robe.  I also enjoyed using Alchemy Purple on the runes on her color and then painted over it with Zealot Yellow once it had dried.  That gave them an inset rune look.  I used Sand Golem on the wolf staff, and Pallid Bone on the other one.  Finally, the final touch was the Plasmatic Bolt hair.  I then gave her a light tone wash on everything except her robes.  Base was as normal, but her dress covered most of the base, which was cool!  

Not a bad start on the painting front for 2026!  I still have a lot of Heroquest Elves, but those are going to be more of a batch painting process.  I have something like 8 or so Sword Elves and 6 or so Archers.  Still plenty more elves to finish, and I have more miniatures than that waiting for me.  I have the Rise of Dread Moon furniture, and I still need to decided what I am going to do with the translucent miniatures for Heroquest from Spirit Queen's Torment and Prophecy of Telor.  

Anyway, here is all the stuff I painted this week....

Through the plastic, the paint, and the process!  Until next time! 

Become a Patron and get access to all the cool stuff, a peak behind the curtain of Blood and Spectacles, and early-access to playtest games!  

Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!      

            

   

      

Wargame Design: Understanding the Genre

A new year and a renewed commitment to making sure I talk about wargame design on this blog!  Sometimes, it can get lost in the painting, the game reports, the reviews, and all the RPG stuff I have been drawn to lately.  Hopefully, I can get wargame design on the blog at least once a month or every other month.  I have to admit that sometimes I am unsure what folks still want to see in this space.  I have covered so many of the basic topics from the 4Ms, to Chrome, to the process, and some pretty esoteric areas of wargame design.  Therefore, if there is something you want me to talk about drop me a comment!  It helps get my brain moving.  

Genre?  Is That Even a Word?

Let's start by setting some ground rules.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Innovation is Overrated.  Most games we go and see some bright spark is putting a label on it and creating some definitions around what it means.  Sometimes these labels become buzz words in and of themselves.  We have all heard them:  

• Grimdark
• Steampunk
• Cozy 
• Eurotrash
• Noblebright
• Spy-fi
• High Fantasy
• Kitchen Table
• Hard Sci-Fi

Honestly, the list of genres grows so long that half the time when I run across the I have no idea what they mean anymore.  I guess I am getting too old to keep up with the industry and its genre buzzword.  Some of these terms are more common than others, and some stick better than others.    

However, a Genre is essential a category or class of games that all share certain distinct features that align them with games of a similar category.  These features maybe based on mechanics about how the game plays.  It might be based on aesthetics such as how the game looks.  It could also be featured around the narrative built into the game such as the setting or story beats.  

The key thing for you to know as a designer is that when your game gets one of these nice Genre labels, that means players start to have a certain expectation about what that means about the game.  They start to expect it to meet certain conventions and norms.  

These Genre terms are not unique to Wargaming.  In fact, many of these terms come from media like books, TV, and movies before they get applied to a wargaming setting.  That means they come with even more cultural baggage if it is a cross-media genre. 

The Mecha Genre

In wargaming, a common Genre was created by the game Battletech.  I am sure we are all familiar with it.  Giant robots that are piloted by humans that have big guns and big armor.  They stride across the battlefield and lay waste to lesser foes.  Only other big, giant, stompy robots can oppose them.  

This genre is not unique to wargaming.  It also exists within a larger media world.  Super Robots and and other big, stompy robots are a staple of Japanese (and other) media.  Think about Transformers, Robotech, Voltron, Gundam, and countless other examples of the big, stompy robot genre.  They are rather ubiquitous in popular culture and along with that notoriety, the average person has certain assumption about what it means to be part of the Mecha genre.  

Battletech was "first to market" in the wargaming space and hence has set many of the conventions people associate with big, stompy robot games.  They have come to expect the following: 

• Resource management such as Heat or Energy
• The ability to take a lot of damage in attritional combat and limb loss
• Walking and jumping, but mostly terrestrial combat
• The Big, Stompy Robots are kings of the battlefield
• Pilot skills are important to combat results

There are others, but those are the key ones I can think of off the top of my head.  These first-to-market features have helped define what the genre of Mecha Games should mean.  Some of these ideas also appear in other media, but not all.    

Now, since Battletech has come out the number of games related to Mecha have expanded.  There are a number of big, stompy robot games on the market.  You will also find that many of them still harken back to those same key points in their designs and features.  People who buy Big, Stompy Robot games expect them. 

Why The Genre Matter

Now that you understand how the idea of Genre works, it is obvious that those Genre labels create certain expectations.  As a designer these expectations can be your friend or your foe.  However, as the designer it is important that you have an understanding of the Genre rules and conventions.  

The great thing about Genres is that they help you establish the guidelines and design goals for your game.  You know what players are expecting, and you know that you will want to deliver those basic assumptions about the genre.  So, if you are designing a Mecha game you want some resource management, attritional combat elements, land combat, with pilot skill built into the mechanics.  Therefore, your design goals can quickly and easily hit the key Genre requirements early.  

The downside about Genre is that they also establish certain expectations from the player, and if you did not hit them; the players may reject your game without giving it much time, space, or effort.  When the expectations of the Genre are not met, it may lead to dissatisfaction with the whole product.  Player expectation is a powerful motivator.  These expectations can serve to "hem in" your design space.

Therefore, once you have a Concept for a game, it is a good idea to go do your homework.  You will want to know what Genre it fits into.  From there, you will want to understand the core expectations of players and see if you have a different or skewed Point-of-View (POV) on the topic.  Unless you bring a new POV, mechanical beat, narrative beats, or even a visual Hook you will want to ask yourself what new thing are you bringing to the design space.  No one needs another Warhammer (Insert any other popular Genre game here).   

Deconstructing the Genre

You have done your homework and seen how everyone else has done it.  You have an understanding of what the Customers expect from the Genre.  You know the key points of what makes the Genre the Genre.  Now you know the rules and tropes of the Genre.  Now, you have what you need to break the rules!  You can not break the rules unless you know what you are breaking!  

No one needs another Battletech, it exists and can be played now.  Steve Jobs famously said, "If I built what customers wanted, they would just have gotten another CD player.  Instead, I built what they did not know they needed!  I built the I-pod" .... or something like that.  You do not need to try to build a better Battletech, heck even the makers of Battletech have struggled doing that.  Instead, you have to build something that the players may not even know they needed!  

However, doing this is a delicate balance.  People want innovation, but can only handle it in small doses.  They want the familiar.  In the I-pods case it was still a portable music player that used head phones, essentially a CD Player without having to change CDs.  It still met their needs of playing music portably and personally, but better because you had access to more music!  

You need to do the same thing with your Genre.  You need to deliver the familiar, but more.  The easiest way to do this is with a strong Hook .  A great way to develop a strong Hook is to take the "rules" of the Genre and decide to subvert or break one of them.  Still deliver on the core Genre premises and tropes, but completely subvert one.  

If we continue the Battletech example, I looked at the Mecha Game Genre and thought, "What if we set it in space?"  Now, there is plenty of source material from other media in the Genre that places mecha combat in space.  Battletech just isn't one of them, and most of the Genre doesn't either.  One of the tropes of the Mecha Game is that it is on land.  Immediately, you have given yourself a differentiator from all the other games in the Genre, you have subverted the Genre without destroying the underlying aspects of the Genre.  Hostile Space was born.  

Another example is Castles in the Sky.  Most Aeronef games were basically WWII naval, but supposedly flying.  They used 2D battlefield mechanics for ease of play.  I simply asked, "What if we added flying mechanics common to other aircraft games and made it 3D?"  Boom, I subverted the genre just enough to make something different.  

Conclusion

Genre is an amazing thing for a wargame.  It is important for designers to know and understand the genre they are trying to achieve and build for.  This involves doing the homework on what the "rules" of the genre are to start with.  Once you  know that, you will know what rules you can break.  It is important to break enough to create something new, but if you break too many; customers will reject it as "not part of the genre".  You have to keep your design space narrow enough to meet the needs of the Genre but break the right rule to make it something new and worth buying.  Therefore, knowing and understanding Genre is a blessing and a curse.      

Until next time! 

 

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Random: Forward into the Future of 2026

 

Look at this!  I have been doing this for 9 years now.  That is a long time.  I have 43 publications out in the wild on my various platforms.  I doubt I will make it to 50 publications before the 10-year mark but my goal is to make it to 50.  Now, not all of those publications drive revenue, as some of them are free content.  However, 50 is 50!  I am sure you all recall that a friend in the publishing business said, "Great you got a book published.  Don't expect to make any money until you have 50 publications."  Therefore, my goal is 50!  I still do not expect to make any money though.  

However, the point is not to make money.  That is a side benefit.  The point is to make things that I want to make.  It is nice if it subsidizes my hobby, but it is still a hobby.  I don't expect to put food on the table or pay my mortgage with my 50 publications.  

The truth is, I can not stop making games.  It is what I do and who I am.  I think about it when I am not thinking about other things.  I see media and think about how I can make it into a game.  I literally dream about making games when I sleep.  It is part of me.  I have to do it.  That is the best part about making games.  I do not do it for anyone else.  I do it for myself because I have to.  

I expect 2026 will be no different. However, I may start making more "less finished" content.  "Dump it out of my head and move on"-style work.    

Castles in the Sky - Osprey Games

Anyway, that means it is time to think about my goals for 2026.  As usual, I keep these goals as guidelines more than anything else.  They help keep me focused and avoid chasing the new shiny and actually finishing stuff.  As usual, I break this down into a few basic categories: 

• Purchases
• Painting and Modelling
• Gaming
• Rules Writing
• Other Stuff

So, let's get into it.  

Purchases

 None of this section would be possible without the generous financial support of readers like you! 

Every time you purchase one of my books from Osprey, my Wargame Vault page, my Drive-Thru RPG page, and/or follow my Patreon you are helping to fund the continued existence of Blood and Spectacles Publishing.  The money I earn from these areas I put back into content on the blog, content on Social Media, and new products for you!  Any money I earn goes back into the business of wargaming and role-playing.  Thank you!  I could not continue to do it at the level I am doing it at without you!

Odin's Ravens: Viking Age Bad Boys

With that said, it is always hard to decide how I intend to use these investments as purchases for the year.  Going into this year, I had a few goals lined out for what I should purchase to help generate content.  Some of this is carry over from 2025.    

• Stay caught up on the Osprey Wargaming Series
• Three Fantasy Ice Hockey teams for PHUCK! 
• Wizards of Morcar for Heroquest
• Cowboy Miniatures, Terrain, and rules 
• Some "Cold War Gone Hot" 15mm forces for US/NATO v. Soviets
• One or more new Wargaming rule sets
• Some new RPG system
• Start a Carthaginian, Late Roman, Aztec, Conquistador, or Theban force
• Desert battle mat

It was aggressive last year, and it is aggressive again this year.  No idea how much of it I can get done. However, I have faith that with your help I can make some progress.  

Anglo-Saxons - Fury of the Northman

Painting and Modelling

Going into this year, I have a backlog of Heroquest models from all the expansions.  I got the Heroes all painted, but I still have monsters and furniture.  Therefore, any new stuff I buy will by default need to be painted as well.  So, here is what I am going with: 

• Heroquest elves- Mage in the Mirror and Dread Moon
• Heroquest furniture- Dread Moon, Jungles, and Frozen Horror
• All the other Heroquest things - Prophecy, Spirit Queen, Frozen Horror, Jungles
• Those three Fantasy Hockey Teams

That means that I will be painting stuff as I get it and try to keep my backlog clean this year.  Therefore, how I do with my Purchasing goal will impact this goal as the year goes on and vice versa.  If I am slow to paint, I will probably be slow to purchase as well.  I do not like having a large back log of miniatures.   

Gaming

I try to get at least one game in each month.  That seems like a reasonable approach again for this year. 

 However, I am not sure if I will manage it.  My Skumgrod is gone.  However, I still have a few solo-campaigns for Heroquest and Under the Martian Yoke ongoing so I can hopefully complete those.  However, my time is being eaten up by other "real life" things that are taking up my time.  I am also unsure how often I will be able to go to the True Crit Gaming Guild due to my schedule.  This year, a big public game is not on the cards, and I am not planning on attending any big cons!      

I expect my normal weekly RPG campaign will continue.  A board game night or two seems like a thing that will happen as well.  

Men of Bronze - Osprey Games

Rules Writing

I have several games in the hopper, but as usual it is slow going on them.  A lot of these games are still being worked on from the last few years: 

1. Rise and Fall - Wars of the Republic supplement for Carthage 
2. PHUCK!- The game of Fantastical Hockey
3. Barbarians at the Gates - Late Roman ruleset
4. Gold, Glory and Guns - Wargaming the New World
5. Mobile Fortress: Verdun - Land Ironclads in the Castles in the Sky world
6. Super, Sexy Swingin' Spies - 1960's Spy-fi RPG

I think the only adds would be: 

• Cold Depths - Cold War Submarine wargaming
• Blood Reign - Modern Vampire warband skirmish
• In the Garden of the Red Weeds - Post-Martian Invasion of 1938, survival RPG
• Rise Against - A solo wargame similar to Under the Martian Yoke, but against (space) fascists. 

However, I also have a few RPG Modules that are banging around in my head.  Sometimes, I have to clear that stuff out before I can make good progress elsewhere.  Those involve modules for Legend of the 5 Rings, Star Wars WEG, and Pendragon.  Of course, we will see what happens.   

The rough drafts of many of these rules are available on the Patreon but not all of them are that far along.  

One of the biggest roadblocks to these games getting completed is a lack of miniatures in my collection, or even on the market in some cases.  That is limiting what I will be able to produce to completion.  For example, there is a dearth of great Land Ironclad or Cold War Submarines on the market.  Therefore, it can be hard to make progress on those designs.  

Despite that, I am well on my way to 50 publications and hope to get there in the next two years! 

 

Turf War

Other Stuff

Of course, I will keep tracking what I paint and play.  That helps keep me motivated.  

Beyond that..... I have no idea.  I am not even sure if I will have enough content to keep me posting on the blog once a week?  Instead, I want to focus as much of my free time as possible on writing rules, painting, or playing games.  

The rest is a bit of a distraction.  

Conclusion

In some ways, this is a very ambitious year but in other ways it is a repetition of things not completed in 2025.  Not much else to say or add at this point.  2026 will be my ninth year.  By this point, I have a process.  I have a plan for my work.  Now all I need to do is work those plans.  Bing-bam-boom.  

This year, "Real Life" maybe a challenge to this year's goals.  Nothing new there, I mean this is my side hustle.  Therefore, sometimes it has to go to the side while I manage the rest of my life.  It happens.  The end of 2025 fell into this trap too.  It has limited my time, space, and mental bandwidth.  Hopefully, I will be able to put some of this behind me and get back up-to-speed.  I still have not hit my goal of 50, and I am nothing if not goal oriented. 

Well, keep your eyes on this space as the year goes on.  Let's see how I manage in 2026.  I think it will be a surprise to all of us! 

Until next time! 

Become a Patron and get access to all the cool stuff, a peak behind the curtain of Blood and Spectacles, and early-access to playtest games!  

Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!    

      

 

    

  

Random: Cyberpunk Year-Twenty-Twenty-Five Wrap-Up

As a teen, when I started on my foray into RPGs and Wargaming, the year 2025 was some supposedly distant and future dystopia.  It was the far future.  Now look, that distant chrome future is now heading into the rearview mirror.  I will let you decide if it was better or worse than what 2025 was portrayed as in the popular culture back then.  All I know is that it will soon be over.  

That means, it is time to take a look at my aggressive goals for 2025 and see how I did?  As usually, I have broken it down into the usual categories to help keep me organized.  Shall we begin?  

Purchases

None of this section would be possible without the generous financial support of readers like you! 
Every time you purchase one of my books from Osprey, my Wargame Vault page, my Drive-Thru RPG page, and follow my Patreon you are helping to fund the continued existence of Blood and Spectacles Publishing.  The money I earn from these areas I put back into content on the blog, content on Social Media, and new products for you!  Any money I earn goes back into the business of wargaming and role-playing.  Thank you!  I could not do it without you!

With that said, it is always hard to decide how I intend to use these investments into purchases for the year.  Going into this year, I had a few goals lined out for what I should purchase to help generate content.  Let's see how I did! 

• Stay Caught up on the Osprey Wargaming Series - Success!  I bought and reviewed all the offerings from this year.  Pacific Command and Voidfighter
• Purchase Victory at Sea- Success!  
• Purchase Three Fantasy Ice Hockey Teams -  Failure     
• Start one or more of the following..... let me stop you right there.... - Failure  
• Cowboy Miniatures, Terrain, and rules - Failure
• New set of RPG rules - Success! I actually picked up the Pendragon Gamemaster's Handbook and Adventures in Rokugan which I have reviewed.  For next year, I have Fate Core, Wrath and Glory, and Inspirisles for you to get reviews on. 
• New Heroquest Expansions - Success! I have them all except Perilous Dark and the new Wizards of Morcar. Reviews have slowly been filtering out with Mage in the Mirror and Spirit Queen's Torment on the blog now. 
• A fourth Reaper Nativity Scene- Success! 
• I also purchased a new Ocean Mat and an Austro-Hungarian Fleet for Castles in the Sky

That was a pretty aggressive set of goals for 2025.  As long as it was a book I was able to purchase it.  If it was a miniature, I was not as lucky.  I try not to buy miniatures unless I have cleared out my backlog, and I never quite got there this year.  That doesn't mean that I did not get a lot of painting done..... well, we will talk about that next.  What it means is that thanks to all my Heroquest I always had something sitting there waiting for me all year.  That means, I did not buy a lot of new miniatures to paint.  

Painting and Modelling

I had a pretty strong start to the year, but summer sapped that energy.  Once winter came, I was still having a hard time getting back into the painting grove.  I was busy doing a lot of stuff that was not Blood and Spectacles Publishing this fall and winter.  However, I expect that to change in 2026 as the winter months are usually some of my most productive for writing and painting. 

This year I painted:

• Anglo-Saxon army - 92 Victrix miniatures.
• Heroquest stuff - 47 miniatures and furniture from a few expansions, and all the Heroes
• Aeronefs - 15 Brigade flying warships
• Misc 28mm - 12 including a Nativity and a few odds and ends. 

That puts me at 166 miniatures painted for the year.  That is still a decent amount of miniatures for the year and in line with what I have done in the past.  

Anglo-Saxon Army

Heroquest- First Light

Heroquest- Mage in the Mirror

Austro-Hungarian Fleet- Brigade

Heroquest - Heroes

Gaming

My gaming was focused on getting out stuff that I have painted recently.  

• Heroquest - 12  
• Kill Team - 1
• Blood Bowl - 1
• Fury of the Northman - 1
• In Strife and Conflict - 2
• Castles in the Sky - 3
• Restless Sun - 1
• Odin's Ravens - 1

Fury of the Northman

In Strife and Conflict- Battle of Kadesh

Inquisitor Heroquest- Battle for Ammoriss

Restless Sun - Battle for Ammoriss

Odin's Ravens: Viking Age Bad Boys

Castles in the Sky - Osprey Games

Heroquest

Castles in the Sky - Osprey Games

I think there was one note-worthy success this year.  I was able to take my Battle of Kadesh Demo game out and played it in public.  That was something on this list for a couple years, and now I can mark it off the list.  Another success was getting to play some Castles in the Sky at the Guild.  

I also got to go to 1 board game night, have my weekly RPG, and have a few online games going as a player.  I have been RPGing a lot more than Wargaming this year.     

On the downside, my Skumgrod moved away so my games will probably drop next year.  It also explains the drop off towards the end of this year.  I was too busy with "Real Life" over a lot of this year to indulge in wargaming and hobby time.  

At least, that is what I am trying to tell myself.  

Rules Writing

This one ebbed and flowed over the course of the year.  I was much better with RPGs than I was on Wargames.  They do not have the same overhead in the post-production process.  However, if I had the miniatures painted it was a lot easier to finish some stuff off and explains any success in the Wargame arena.  The lack of miniatures has derailed many a project this year and in general.  

However, going into the year these are things that I planned to finish and did: 

• Glittering Void- Space Mecha Theatre RPG
• Badlands- Wild West Role-Playing

Other stuff was.....

• The Corinthian War - Men of Bronze Supplement
• Odin's Ravens: Viking Age Bad Boys - Viking model vs model game   
• Song of the Siren - Flashlight: Tales of Terror Module
• Sleepers in the City - Flashlight: Tales of Terror Module

My Patreon also has a lot of mini-games, modules in draft, and even some basic game rules for various periods and styles of games.  If you are a paid Patron, you get to have access to what I have finished and all those draft games too.  Thanks for being a Patron! 

Other Stuff

I was happy to do the "other stuff" I wanted to do this year.  I left that pretty limited.  

• Kept up on my painted mini tracker
• Kept up on my games played tracker
• Started a Bluesky
• Reduced my Social Media output to weekly
• Got a blog post up every week
• Added blog previews, Patron content and rule drafts to my Patreon

Yeah, that's what I can think of for the "other stuff".  Nothing that impressive.  

In addition, I spent time organizing my wargames space.  Now seemed like a good time and I am contemplating moving my wargaming room into a year-round space.  

Conclusion

Dang.  I started this year really strong and then slowed down considerably after summer hit.  A lot of stuff happened in my real life, and I expect the same will be true for next year.  Sometimes, the side hustle has to take a back seat to "real life".  The exotic and futuristic year of 2025 was a bit less exotic and chrome than I hoped, but maybe I am still too close to it to really appreciate it?  

Anyway, so long to all that.  Time to start thinking about what I am going to do to make 2026 a great year for Blood and Spectacles Publishing and wargaming/RPG gaming?  

Until next time.

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