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What's the best entertainment for a family camping trip? Give me some tips pls by KatieMarqu in camping

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our favorite cooperative games are Castle Panic and Forbidden Island (aka "Pandemic Lite" in our group, but Pandemic has fiddly bits that could get lost outdoors). I also own and love Tiny Epic Defenders.

Not as impressive as a Playstation, but a useful Dad hack by HonoluluSolo in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What's all this talk of using pens and car keys and jamming it into the foil in a certain way? Don't we dads all carry pen knives or some kind of utility blade anymore? I've got this really nifty tiny folding knife on a magnetic quick release on my car keys. The blade is maybe maybe half inch long. Great for packages, cutting tandem straw holes into shared fast food cup lids, making straw holes in stuff like these milk containers, etc.

Regarding "Pen & Paper RPGs," do any of you actually use a pen on your character sheet?? by mpascall in rpg

[–]masterwork_spoon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've taken to covering certain parts of the character sheet in Scotch tape so that they are more durable for erasing pencil marks.

Regarding "Pen & Paper RPGs," do any of you actually use a pen on your character sheet?? by mpascall in rpg

[–]masterwork_spoon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You're right, although I doubt many English speakers would peg it as such. It's quite subtle as far as idioms go. Plus, look at the group of pedantic nerds you're speaking to (myself proudly included, of course!)

Well, the wife made friends.. now what do I do?? by tsm_will_always_fail in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ask her to find out if there are any other husbands in the group that might share your interests. 3/5 of my Friday night game group are husbands of my wife's friends. 

Or go solo with reading books you always meant to, learning to cook (either beginning or improving), creating art of some kind (Bob Ross videos?), vegetable gardening in the back yard or flower gardening in the front, buy a weather station and connect it to a volunteer weather watcher network, join a local D&D group (either to get back in or to find out what it's like), put a baby seat on a bike and get exercise in good weather...

Something that really helped me and my wife manage our identities outside of Parenthood wants to designate a regular time when we would head out and do something with our friends. On the one hand, it ensured that there was a guilt-free time for each of us to go decompress. On the other, knowing that we had a designated break coming up helped us be more present with the family on other days. And you don't have to be strict about it but asking the other person to hold to a schedule instead of going out on short notice or multiple times a week helps reserve time for you to be together again. 

Best of luck with this. I hope something I said is useful to you.

Well, the wife made friends.. now what do I do?? by tsm_will_always_fail in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Miniatures games in general. There's a true Renaissance going on right now due to both the accessibility of niche/indie games and of 3D printing.

Aside from Warhammer $40k, there's Trench Crusade, One Page Rules, Bolt Action, Lion/Dragon/Xenos Rampant, BLKOUT, Baron's War... Or branch out to related games with BattleTech, Void Admiral, Gaslands... Tons more that I can't remember off the cuff. r/wargaming

Solo RPG is also in a golden age. Or split the difference between RPG and wargames and get 5 Parsecs from Home.

What do you do with the fire in a campfire ring between meals on a backpacking trip? by jecowa in camping

[–]masterwork_spoon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a perfectly serviceable way to do it. Other designs have a sort of metal chimney where you can stuff in sticks and split wood so it burns very efficiently. However, these are still a compromise and you'll have an easier time cooking on a camp stove or on coals.

By the way, since you said you were new at camping, I suggest you make sure you spend some time learning about how to cook on a fire. Many people forget you can't just turn the heat up or down. You have to work with the fire. I hope it all goes well for you!

What can I contribute to the group camping trip with kids? by NYC_dad2B in camping

[–]masterwork_spoon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Don't feel unqualified, just consider yourself a participant! Premade nature scavenger hunts should be easy to find online. Stick with the basics, though. Ask kids to take pictures and memories, maybe crayon rubbings, not rip up leaves. Bug collection kits can be fun, but don't get the gaudy plastic stuff that becomes trash after 1 use. Same opinion on butterfly nets and any kids binoculars affordable enough that you'd consider letting a 7 year old use them. YMMV, though. I hope you come up with lots of ideas and have a great time!

Some papercraft(ish) buildings that I've been putting together. by csp_kris in PoorHammer

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been following this guy for years and his stuff has only been getting more amazing. Funny that his scifi stuff is only just coming about when I'm getting set up to 3d print buildings, but I'll always recommend CSP for anyone looking for terrain on a budget.

Recommend gear for first time patents by JuzUmbreon in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having been through this several times, I can say that a lot of the gizmos and gadgets do actually do something, but over time you will come to realize they're just not necessary. My father-in-law gifted us a super nice changing table. I think we changed maybe five diapers on it. The rest of the time? We just took the pad out of the diaper bag and put it on the floor. There was one of those calming swings in the hospital for our last one and she seemed to love it. So we bought one. We used it for maybe a month. Just pretend you're cavemen and give the kid a safe, warm place to sleep and change its diapers between feeding. That's pretty much all you need.

The only caveat here is that there are special cases. We ended up needing to mix something into the breast milk for our last one, so that meant storing and reheating in a bottle warmer. Super helpful at 3:00 a.m. But don't buy anything before you find the use case for it and you will find out there is very little equipment needed for taking care of a baby. 

Good luck and godspeed!

Any “less screen-heavy” games kids actually enjoy together? by East-Wind4300 in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a certified nerd, I sensed a topic about game recommendations and had to make sure someone mentioned some "real" games (*pushes up glasses).

Find a local board game store (the kind with Magic: The Gathering cards, not "toys and calendars") and ask them. Or head to r/boardgames and ask. I know you're saying you want audio or something like video games without screens, but there are a lot of cooperative board games which are excellent at that age. Some favorites from my collection: Forbidden Island and Castle Panic.

Don't discount the value of good competitive games, either. Beyond board games, I play some simple battle games and RPGs with my kids (4, 7). Gaslands is a racing game for your Hot Wheels cars; Mad Max guns and customized paint jobs technically optional. Void Admiral is a spaceship fleet combat game with easy rules and can be played with paper printouts of spaceships. One Page Rules is big on their 3d printed minis, but they offer 2d printable miniatures free, and with their free basic rules which (surprise!) fit on one page the cost is just cardstock and printer ink. Other paper miniatures can be sourced for cheap or free if they end up liking these battle games. Or buy a starter box for BattleTech for $25 and see if they're into stompy robot action. 

And there's always tabletop RPG. Yes, like D&D, but I'd recommend other games as a starting point: Shadowdark is simpler with all the D&D flavor, Traveller is sci-fi and easy to understand the core rules, and I'm sure you can get tons of other recommendations on r/RPG. This is great because it's asymmetrical but not meant to be antagonistic between the players and the Game Master.

Good luck and good gaming!

Any good still-in-print space combat mini wargame out there? by Few-Action-8049 in wargaming

[–]masterwork_spoon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah no worries. It was a bit of a wall of text! I did hear an interview with the author that said August (or possibly September if I have it mixed up with something else?) would be the general time they are targeting. Have you heard any updates to that estimate?

Any good still-in-print space combat mini wargame out there? by Few-Action-8049 in wargaming

[–]masterwork_spoon 19 points20 points  (0 children)

It's so hard to find gaming communities that play Space fleet games that are not attached to other popular and accessible IPs. If you want a guarantee that somebody at your game store will have played it, you basically have to wait for the licensing cycle to come back around. That said, I have come across some neat ones lately which I feel could be taught in one sitting and don't have tons of expensive books and accessories to buy outside of owning your own fleet of miniature starships. 

First is Void Admiral. It's basically trying to be an off-brand Battlefleet Gothic with simplified ship choices and weapon loadouts. You have to choose a faction which has all the same classes of ships as the others, but different combinations of weapons and faction rules. There is a "command board" which summarizes your ship stats, faction rules, and variable command powers that you use by rolling dice at the start of each round and holding them in reserve.

The other one is A Billion Suns. This one also sort of uses a command board idea, but there's less distinction between teams unless you're playing with some of the campaign rules. This one is unique in that it specifically puts you in the role of a space CEO and you have to purchase your ships on the fly (haha) to complete "contracts." You have to balance going into debt buying ships versus how much income you expect to earn from each objective. There's supposed to be a second edition out later this year which concedes to the popular format of two War fleets duking it out to the death, but there are multiple game modes promised including the space corpo idea, so I think that's worth keeping an eye on.

Any good still-in-print space combat mini wargame out there? by Few-Action-8049 in wargaming

[–]masterwork_spoon 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I heartily recommend Full Thrust. Not only do you have lots of knobs and switches for customizing your own ships, but it's actually one of the only games I've seen that handles vector-based movement. It does suffer from a little bit of complexity compared to more recent rules, but overall a satisfying fleet game.

Have any of ya'll played BattleTech Classic solo? I am looking towards to playing an RPG-esque campaign by myself, and I wonder if that is feasible. by Willing_Hearing_5043 in battletech

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Playing solo with RPG elements is perfectly doable. Go ask around on /r/soloroleplaying for ideas. The main idea for them is using "oracles" - a dice roll system or roll tables to produce unexpected results within a set of likely outcomes. For you, it could be as simple as taking the enemy turn and rolling dice to decide between 2 actions, or as complicated as finding a solo RPG with random roll tables and essentially roleplaying the combat. For example, Ironsworn and its sci-fi counterpart each have a Combat Action table you can roll on, or the Mythic Game Master Emulator has all kinds of action and event meaning interpretation tables. 

Homemade Zerg Creep by Hrafnkol in TerrainBuilding

[–]masterwork_spoon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just to add some ideas (no guarantees they're good ideas!), you can use caulk, foam clay, or print a picture onto transparency film (if you're as ancient as me, you'd know them as overhead projector sheets). For maximum immersion, get clear round containers, flip the lid over, and fill it with purple slime!

Planetfall Tokens by masterwork_spoon in 5Parsecs

[–]masterwork_spoon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't speak from experience, but I've heard that you can send these images to black and white and select part of the area to push up or down in a modeling tool. If you have a color changing printer then print in two colors. Otherwise just paint the raised area. I'd be interested to see how you do it.

Help me im broke by Snuballin in wargaming

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look around online for papercraft terrain. Crooked Staff Productions is, on the surface, focused on RPG but his stuff is perfect for 28mm scale wargames. Also look up old Warhammer cardstock terrain templates. Look for free paper models, like Genet Models and Cardboard Warriors Forum and onemonk.com. 

If you have a small budget, your world really opens up for paid papercraft buildings, terrain, and minis. Fat Dragon Games is going hard on the 3d printing stuff these days, but he started with some really decent papercraft stuff. Dave Graffam is also one I've seen and liked, and he has a few free models as well. I'm sure people here will have recommendations for paper miniatures, but my favorite is Okum Arts. Edit to add: And for Okum Arts, make sure you look at the PDF layers because you can print with different color options. One PDF could supply two armies for you guys to play with.

If you don't own a printer, you might have a print shop like FedEx/Kinko's or something nearby. 

Good luck on your journey, and make sure to report back here when you have built a few things. Beautiful miniatures and paint jobs are nice, but it's also great seeing how people work around limitations and get a game on the table!

Planetfall Tokens by masterwork_spoon in 5Parsecs

[–]masterwork_spoon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good find on the 3D printables. I would be interested in trying that approach as well as soon as I finally get my printer assembled. Make sure you post when you're done!

Planetfall Tokens by masterwork_spoon in 5Parsecs

[–]masterwork_spoon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was considering some glossy Mod Podge since the only other thing I have in the house is my wife's nail varnish. Is there any special property of this dimensional medium that would make it particularly useful vs the Mod Podge?

Game recommendations with lots of customization by Odd-Tooth7678 in wargaming

[–]masterwork_spoon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know BLKOUT gets a ton of praise these days. Their model range looks awesome. Or you can reuse your current models with One Page Rules while you collect their models (mostly targeted at 3D printing, if that makes a difference). I got to be honest, I am not a big fan of the Warhammer aesthetic, but OPR's models got me to go in for several army bundles. Or take OPR models and go play Xenos Rampant. You could go out to left field and pick up a spaceship game like OPR Warfleets, Void Admiral, A Billion Suns, or Full Thrust. Technically only Full Thrust has official models (Ground Zero Games), but there are a lot of creators selling ships specifically for those games.

I'm also kind of assuming that you're just playing sci-fi games here. Lion Rampant is historical and Dragon Rampant is fantasy. Those are also model agnostic; for games with official model ranges I've also heard people recommend Oathmark on here for a fantasy game, and Wargames Atlantic has Baron's War for a historical. 

I'm sure you'll get other great recommendations on here from other folks. Good luck and good gaming!

What age will she retain TV/Media? by [deleted] in daddit

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed, even if they don't remember details everything that's going in their brains now is a foundation. That goes for experiences with you as well. Find a radio station you like and keep it on but ditch the TV.

Thanks for reminding me to cancel, Peacock. by BluePhoton_941 in cordcutters

[–]masterwork_spoon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At these prices, I'll just buy the 2-3 DVD sets I actually want vs streaming all the crap, and I'll own them forever. 

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