Welcome to the Tavern!

You and your party enter the tavern. It lies on the outskirts of a small gnomish farming village named Wintermanor. It is a small establishment, the only people working are a Bartender and a Waitress. Off in the corner, a nicely-dressed halfling with a deranged look in his eye is overseeing the operation. You suspect he may be the owner of this establishment.

Suddenly, you hear someone shout to get your attention. Looking around, you see a bespectacled man sitting at one of the tables. He waves you over. As you approach the table and take a seat, he begins to speak....

Hey! So, uh... Welcome to the Glowmarsh Tavern!

I started this blog as a means to showcase my miniature painting efforts, and just as a general place for me to write thoughts on tabletop games in general. While I had thought of starting a blog for a while now, the catalyst for getting started was taking a look at my Miniatures backlog, and I figured I would be more likely to get things done if I had an audience to hold my feet to the fire. More on that in the next post that I make.

So, seeing as (I hope) you'll be staying around for a while, perhaps I should tell you a bit about myself. What did you want to know?

After pondering  for a while, you think of a series of questions to ask him.
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What is your background with tabletop games?

For the first many years, my Tabletop career was almost exclusively TCG based. I started, like so may people my age, with the Pokemon TCG. After that I moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, and the World of Warcraft TCG. I played my first non Milton-Bradley/Parker Bros board game in 2006 with the standard game everyone starts with, Catan. A year later I joined the RPG group that I've been playing with since then, and in 2010 I bought my first miniatures.

What RPGs are you playing currently?

Our group currently has two separate campaigns running. We have an in-person session where we just started a campaign with 7th Sea 2nd Edition. We also have a Labyrinth Lord campaign we are running via Roll20 that is (mostly) comprised of group alumni who no longer live in Edmonton. That game is being DM'ed by my friend N. Manscorpion 

What Miniatures games do you play? What factions in each?

Oh Crap. This is going to be a long list. I play Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, Blood Bowl, X-Wing, Star Trek Attack Wing, Dropzone Commander, Dropfleet Commander, and Dark Age.

My primary faction in 40k is Necrons (I have around 3000 pts, by 7th Edition values). I also have small 500-700 pt factions of Dark Angels, Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves, Orks, Adeptus Mechanicus, Deathwatch and Genestealer Cults. I have enough Imperial Knights to run them as their own army as well.

For Age of Sigmar, my main focus is Seraphon (Lizardmen, for you fantasy purists). I have small forces of Skaven and High Elves as well. When it comes to Blood Bowl I have MANY teams. From the last edition I have Human, Orc, Undead, and Lizardman teams. For the new edition that came out last November, I currently have every model released for the game (both GW and Forge World). I really, really like that game.

In Dark Age I'm running a C.O.R.E. army. Dropzone Commander is mainly Resistance, with some UCM and Scourge on the side. For X-Wing, Attack Wing, and Dropfleet Commander, I have a little bit of everything.

What is the most recent miniature you've painted?

The most recent model I have finished is the new Griff Oberwald star player from Forge World. It was the last model I needed to get done in order to finish my new Human Team, the Olde Spyce Ogre Blockers.

Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-power!

Playing any TCGs regularly?

Not so much. We occasionally do a MTG Booster Draft at my place of work, but that's really it. A year or so ago my RPG group all jumped into WARS, a defunct card game from 2005. We haven't played much, however. It's not a big deal though, as we paid around $8 a Booster Box.

Are there any gaming events that you frequent regularly?

I attended PAX Prime each year from 2007-2012. This year will be my 2nd time attending Gen Con (I last went in 2015). Other than that I normally stick to events that are nearby, like IntrigueCon or Edmonton Onslaught.

I'm looking into making a trip out to Vegas this coming February to go to the LVO.

What tabletop related media do you frequent (Podcasts, Webshows, etc.)?

I watch a few webshows on Youtube. Wil Wheaton's Tabletop, Easy Allies' Tabletop Escapades and Fiasconauts, and Tabletop Minions are the ones I view regularly. I have a Miniwargaming vault membership that I use to watch Battle Reports.

The only tabletop Podcast I really follow is Hobby Night in Canada. 

Do you read any other tabletop-related blogs?

The only Tabletop blogs I read regularly are Terrible Sorcery by HDA and Lair of the Manscorpion from N. Manscorpion. Both are members of my RPG group.

Physical or Digital Rulebooks?

Physical whenever possible, and when I'm gaming at home.. If a book is available in PDF only I'll usually print out a copy for myself just so I have it on hand. I also have a PDF of (almost) every book I own on an Amazon Fire tablet that I use when gaming away from home, so I don't have to break my back hauling 20lbs of books everywhere.

Have you ever won any painting awards?

Nope.

Favorite TCG?

WoWTCG. That was a great game. I had stopped playing a while before it had died, but was still sad to see it go.

Favorite Board Game?

I'm counting Blood Bowl as a Miniatures Game, so I'll have to say either Arkham Horror or Star Wars: Imperial Assault.

Favorite Miniatures Game?

As mentioned above, Blood Bowl. It was the game that got me into Miniatures in the first place. I could play that game all day.

Favorite RPG?

Hmmm. This is a tough one.

I'm going to have to go with either West End Games' Star Wars RPG, or Call of Cthulhu.

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And that's that for now! I hope you'll come back and read some more. It's my goal to do at least one post a week, on Wednesdays, but my guess is that it will be more frequent than that for the first few weeks.

--Jastrick