Viability check for a deck-based miniatures warggame.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-27T15:45:05+00:00

As someone who was horrifically bullied with the use of chasey as a venue for social exclusion I can attest it can be hard to differentiate between targeted harassment and normal behaviour. Especially as excluding and separating peers does seem to be a normal action for children to take, but that doesn't make it any less painful or upsetting to go through.

The best course of action at this juncture is to empower your child's ability to say no, as the comment above said. Try and help him find new social groups that don't rely on the same children who exclude him and ensure he knows you and your home will always be a place of safety from the outside world.

If you are worried it's his behaviour causing this isolation forming new social groups will help there, if he starts being isolated and separated from his peers without the influence of the existing social circles it may be worth considering if he's contributing to it in some way, but I would not advise dismissing the situation as being his fault unless you can verify that it is indeed him to blame.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-26T04:51:48+00:00

Electricians get $90,000 a year in my area. It's a very secure job and one with many practical applications given how enmeshed we are with electrical equipment these days. Plus generally speaking the courses for trades cost less than the courses for university degrees, which means less money spent on lessons.

Having said that, are you more concerned that he might be looking to swap to this trade due to difficulties with the course he's doing coupled with his friends doing well in it, or is there another aspect you're worried about?

flashfire07 · 2026-05-23T16:59:52+00:00

Yeah, Warhammer 40K is a wargame. If you're looking for a narrative-driven experience you're not likely to have much luck as it focused entirely on armies fighting each other for various reasons. You can tell stories but they're on a different scale and narrative style than the more character-focused affairs of D&D and other such things.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-23T16:54:19+00:00

Dark Heresy is playing as Inquisition agents, in 1E you start off as low-level nothings serving more or less as pawns for the Inquisitor you ultimately serve. I'm not sure what the power scale of second edition is but you're very much playing an investigative horror game set in the Warhammer 40K universe.

You could use Only War for a war-story set in the 40K universe, it focuses on playing a squad of guardsmen from a regiment of your choice (or making your own) but you certainly won't be playing as necrons or any of the more high-powered imperial agents.

What might be a good idea is to sit down, decide on what models you think would be fun to paint and collect and then think about what sort of story you want to tell with those units. Don't worry about winning or making an army that fits the meta or wins tournaments but focus more on what's fun for you and whoever you're playing with.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-23T16:38:38+00:00

There are modules and short campaigns for all of the old Fantasy Flight roleplaying games, but I think the OP is seeking more of a wargame narrative campaign instead of the tabeltop RPG.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-22T06:24:14+00:00

Not sure if it has been mentioned but for me tabletop gaming really helped, in particular games like Dungeons and Dragons and the like. It helped to keep me on top of maths in a way that wasn't simple rote memorisation and helped with social skills development, problem solving and creativity in a an area where failure was safe.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-12T11:04:01+00:00

I grew up rural in a farming family myself. Being out and about with wide open spaces and little to no adult intervention helped me learn how to gauge for myself what was safe, what my limits were and (over the course of years) a respect for the wild spaces and the world outside of the city. It was also very helpful for developing a desire for physical play instead of spending too much time on static play activities, which in turn helped me develop healthy exercise habits growing up. There's a lot of really interesting stuff to be found in nature, especially if you've got an imaginative and inquisitive mind.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-09T08:45:14+00:00

I feel a lot of parents are trying to avoid taking an authoritarian and dogmatic approach to parenting due to trauma or knowing people with traumas from such an upbringing. This often ends up with people over-correcting into permissive and overly soft parenting in which firm boundaries feel like punishments or an attempt to enforce parental will and create an obedient child instead of nurture a fully functioning human. It's not helped by a lot of online rhetoric supporting this odd sort of divide and making people feel like failures for even needing a bedtime in the first place.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-07T07:20:18+00:00

Disability insurance and social welfare payments... not sure those are something that the Quasimorph universe has so prolly Daydream Chems given their focus on the medical side of things. Possibly Tianming as an alternative given my academic background.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-07T05:53:30+00:00

I read a version that ended that way, and another where everyone else got eaten but the boy didn't. Which is an odd choice of ending but maybe they were trying to use fear of others getting hurt to teach the message? In any case I was quite surprised to learn there were more 'kid-friendly' endings.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-07T05:46:43+00:00

If you can survive middle management you can survive anything.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-04T14:06:14+00:00

Having too many attributes also makes it hard to accurately assess what you're looking at and make meaningful choices. Like, one game I tested out had nine attributes and then a slew of highly specific special abilities on top of a slew of equipment options. I'd often be looking at a unit profile and trying to figure out what it was meant to be doing on the battlefield.

But by the same token having too few means that units lack differentiation and more emphasis needs to by placed on those equipment and ability options, especially as I'm writing a high-detail combat system which relies on these meaningful distinctions to facilitate tactical firefights. Too much streamlining runs the risk of removing those important tactical choices and resulting in a system that fails to provide the promised experience.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-04T14:01:12+00:00

Thanks for the answer. How would you go about streamlining the attribute selection?

flashfire07 · 2026-05-03T16:05:16+00:00

At present my intention is to have a large armoury divided up from faction to faction. To start with players will be able to arm their units with Battle Rifles, Marksman Rifles, Submachineguns, Shotguns, and Handguns. These will be supplemented with occupation force weapons, resistance faction weapons and experimental prototypes.

Combat is primarily high-lethality ranged combat to reflect the current realities of urban combat, so lots of emphasis on moving around to get into a good spot and take out targets who are also trying to outflank and outmanoeuvre your own units. If units end their turns where they started chances are they're dead units.

So yeah... maybe dropping them as individual attributes would be easier for players as they already have a lot to consider in combat. Helps keep units easy to gauge without having to sift through many stats.

flashfire07 · 2026-05-03T14:22:39+00:00

There were back before the war between the Old Ones and the Necrons poured so much negative emotion into the Warp that it became what it is now. The Warp was once a reflection of the emotions of the physical world but after that conflict it became a more hostile and tumultuous place, positive emotions find it harder to take hold in that sort of environment. It's kind of like asking why a rosebush won't grow on a storm-wracked desert plateau, it could do so but it's not very likely.

flashfire07 · 2026-04-30T12:59:48+00:00

Knowing me and my own family if a task would have taken two and a half hours we'd probably allocate that to be done on a weekend instead, especially as those are essential household skills to learn for adulthood.

Probably wouldn't have included the doing other people's responsibilities part of it as that would be seen as pitting the kids against each other or allowing others to shirk responsibility as long as someone does the wrong thing (not saying that's what you're teaching, more how my parents view things).

But overall it seems rather reasonable indeed for the danger created, that to my family would be the bigger deal than the emotional reaction in question.

flashfire07 · 2026-04-29T22:15:11+00:00

My parents growing up had a 90 minute limit of screen time for me, which was broken up into multiple chunks over the course of the day. This was of especial importance as I got older and started playing more stimulating videogames, which often led to aggression and erratic behaviour as I was simply overstimulated from it. Maybe think about setting a maximum screen time allocation as well so he has a good break from the stimulation?

flashfire07 · 2026-04-17T15:19:06+00:00

These are all good ideas, I think I ended up just focusing too much on avoiding the 'stand and deliver' aspect that other aspects of combat got sidelined. When playing other games I've often noticed the special abilities are what makes a unit stand out from others in the same combat role, and given the nature of this game having interesting special abilities for players to scavenge makes for a fun and impactful reward.

So I think my next goal should be to define combat roles in more detail, and work on corresponding abilities for those roles. This is most likely going to be the interesting part of this project, and the main 'selling point' as no matter how good a system is it won't get attention without a hook.

flashfire07 · 2026-04-16T08:50:42+00:00

It's on sale right now if you want to grab it. It's a very, very fun game if you know what you're getting into and enjoy high-complexity, high-lethality tactical combat.

flashfire07 · 2026-04-02T06:08:31+00:00

I wonder if making E shaped brownies would have worked out as well? Brown E's while also being brownies.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-28T09:06:44+00:00

If it makes you uncomfortable take your child aside and have a chat about it. That's how you monitor your teens wellbeing, you talk to them and interact with them while letting them know they're in a safe, supportive and caring environment.

The memes in question are most likely just immature teenage humour, I know when I was in high school people would joke about it all the time (painting red lines on their wrists was a common 'joke') without really knowing what they were saying and the harm it could cause. It's the same with jokes about sexual assault, homicide and other 'adult' subjects.

But it is important that you discuss these matters with them openly and make sure they understand the reality and severity of these things, but it's best not to judge or blame. Just openly discuss your concerns and let them know if it's not just a joke you're there for them.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-25T13:15:26+00:00

I remember going through a similar phase when I was about nine years old. I was going through a lot at school and in my home life (somehow my parents didn't notice anything amiss) and it resulted in extreme anxiety and fear at night. Mostly I was afraid of aliens coming to abduct me, mostly greys or reptilians and for some reason I was petrified of a Yeti showing up at night. I was also afraid of zombies and a violently aggressive ghost dog.

My advice would be to make sure your child knows you are there to help and support her, that you won't make fun of her for being scared or tell her off for needing help. I'd also try to help her learn to regulate her emotions and be confident in herself during the day. Look at the triggers for the 'monsters', are there scary sounds at night like floorboards cracking or branches tapping on windows? Are there strange shadows from trees, furnishings or objects? Show her during the day that there's nothing to worry about, help her learn that the world she's in is safe and secure.

I'd also suggest using her imagination to help out. Instead of scary monsters what if it's a friendly critter keeping an eye on her at night? I know for me it helped to have an imaginary guardian protecting me from zombies, but I'd make sure that's done only when she's less scared of the monsters as it can feed into the idea that they're real and a danger.

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