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    Monday, 9th July, 2018, 11:00 AM
    talien created an article An Army in the Dungeon in // D&D and RPG News Updates Help
    Dungeons & Dragons' roots stretch all the way back to wargaming and it has a subtle influence on play that's sometimes forgotten today. Early D&D relied heavily on henchmen and hirelings, who often rounded out a group that could number as high as 20 members. This sort of play affected the kinds of D&D, from expectations on mortality rate to distribution of treasure. HirelingsHirelings...
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    59 replies | 2376 view(s)
  • talien's Avatar
    Monday, 2nd July, 2018, 11:00 AM
    talien created an article Games Are (Still) Not the Problem in // D&D and RPG News Updates Help
    The latest hysteria over video games like Fortnite echoes the Satanic Panic over Dungeons & Dragons in the 80s. Some things never change. Nobody PanicIt's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Dungeons & Dragons was so popular and esoteric with kids that a community movement arose castigating the game as an evil influence that corrupted young minds. And it all started with the...
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    29 replies | 2293 view(s)
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    Wednesday, 27th June, 2018, 01:15 AM
    Wystan replied to It's the OOC thread for Tales from The Old Bald One-Eyed Salty Red Dog Tavern!
    ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... yep... still here. :)
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  • Wystan's Avatar
    Tuesday, 26th June, 2018, 01:49 AM
    Wystan replied to The Continuing Tales From The Old Bald One-Eyed Salty Red Dog Tavern!
    Another 6 months and Ranti appears to be singing to himself? He has arranged the others as dress dummies!
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  • talien's Avatar
    Monday, 25th June, 2018, 11:00 AM
    talien created an article Gatekeeping, Edition Wars, and Fandom in // D&D and RPG News Updates Help
    Role-playing games are not immune to the tribalism that is itself a symptom of the Internet bringing humanity together. Defining oneself by an allegiance to a topic and defending it from others has been around as long as humanity has been interacting. To understand the controversies that sometimes roil geek fandom, sports teams provide a useful guide on what constitutes a "fan." Title...
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    54 replies | 2662 view(s)
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    Monday, 18th June, 2018, 11:00 AM
    talien created an article Everybody Cheats? in // D&D and RPG News Updates Help
    Gary Alan Fine's early survey of role-playing games found that everybody cheated. But the definition of what cheating is when it applies to role-playing games differs from other uses of the term. Does everyone really cheat in RPGs? Yes, EverybodyGary Alan Fine's work, Shared Fantasy, came to the following conclusion: Perhaps surprisingly, cheating in fantasy role-playing games is...
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    359 replies | 3619 view(s)
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About talien

Basic Information

Date of Birth
November 1, 1972 (45)
About talien
About Me:
Michael "Talien" Tresca is a game designer, author, communicator, and artist. He was the National RPG and Sci-Fi Movie Examiner for six years and published three books, the non-fiction history of gaming, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games from McFarland Publishing, his fantasy fiction debut, The Well of Stars, from Three Ravens Books, and the young adult fantasy Awfully Familiar from Dark Quest Books. Michael has authored numerous supplements and adventures for publishers of Open Game License and D20-compatible games, including AEG, MonkeyGod Enterprises, Goodman Games, Otherworld Creations, Privateer Press, RPGObjects and Ronin Arts. A top reviewer for Amazon, his articles and reviews have appeared in Allgame.com, D20 Filtered, Dragon Magazine, Gamers.com, Pyramid, RPG.net, and Sharktopus. He has participated in panels about electronic and tabletop role-playing games at ConnectiCon, Dragon*Con, and I-Con.

When he's not writing, Michael can be found as his alter ego, Talien, on RetroMUD as an administrator. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.
Location:
Fairfield, CT
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Male
Age Group:
Over 40
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If you can be contacted on social networks, feel free to mention it here.

Google+:
miketresca
Twitter:
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Facebook:
talien
YouTube:
Trescami
My Game Details

Details of games currently playing and games being sought.

State:
New York
Country:
USA
Game Details:
This story hour is an ongoing account of our D20 Modern conspiracy game. It follows the missions of Majestic-12 agents battling Lovecraftian horrors in a world rife with conspiracy and the occult. I also write a column about action horror gaming in general at RPG.net titled The Horror! and I'm the National RPG writer for the Examiner.
More information:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/214026-modern-delta-green-beginning-end-updated-daily-april-6-a.html
My Character:
* Game Master: Michael Tresca
* Joseph “Archive” Fontaine (Dedicated Hero) played by Joe Lalumia: A licensed private detective and master of the mystical arts, Archive wanted to be a priest once. He freelances for X-investigations, a glamorous private detective agency that specializes in the occult. When he crossed paths with the Traveler and mistakenly identified it as a body-hopping demon, Majestic-12 recruited him for some much needed mystical backup.
* Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero) played by Jeremy Ortiz: A former British SAS and PISCES agent, Jim-Bean lost his partners to what can only be called "brain spiders." Although he's also psychic, Jim-Bean loathes his abilities and considers the majority of supernatural events to be bunk. He's also a wiseass.
* Hank “Guppy” Gupta (Smart Hero) played by Joseph Tresca: An American-born Indian, Guppy was abducted by aliens once, or so he believes, on an expedition to South America. He has never recovered, losing his girlfriend and his promising degree. Majestic-12 sprung him from the Van Dyson Institute for reasons known only to them. Guppy's the first one to panic, but fancies himself a kind of McGyver.
* Kurtis “Hammer” Grange (Fast Hero) played by George Webster: One of the agents who had a former government affiliation, Hammer was on a mission for the CIA when he encountered the "brain spiders." He lost both his partners. Hammer's the most level-headed of the group, and the only trained investigator among them.
* Jake “Blade” Iron Shirt (Strong Hero) played by Matt Hammer: A Native American bruiser and former Ultimate Fighting Champion, Blade is the only famous agent on the team. Unfortunately, he's famous for all the wrong reasons: his romance with the woman he was assigned to protect, Christine Dee; the birth of their child, Alex; his subsequent divorce and spiral into alcoholism. Blade is desperate to get visiting rights to see his son. Stephen Alzis has an unhealthy interest in Blade's family dynamics as well.
* Sebastian “Caprice” Creed (Fast/Smart Hero) played by Bill Countiss: An American engineer, Caprice is the closest agent who was "normal" before he joined Majestic-12. His fast thinking on his feet has proved useful on more than one occassion, especially when hunting down body-hopping aliens.

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My Game Details
State:
New York
Country:
USA
Game Details:
This story hour is an ongoing account of our D20 Modern conspiracy game. It follows the missions of Majestic-12 agents battling Lovecraftian horrors in a world rife with conspiracy and the occult. I also write a column about action horror gaming in general at RPG.net titled The Horror! and I'm the National RPG writer for the Examiner.
More information:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/214026-modern-delta-green-beginning-end-updated-daily-april-6-a.html
My Character:
* Game Master: Michael Tresca
* Joseph “Archive” Fontaine (Dedicated Hero) played by Joe Lalumia: A licensed private detective and master of the mystical arts, Archive wanted to be a priest once. He freelances for X-investigations, a glamorous private detective agency that specializes in the occult. When he crossed paths with the Traveler and mistakenly identified it as a body-hopping demon, Majestic-12 recruited him for some much needed mystical backup.
* Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero) played by Jeremy Ortiz: A former British SAS and PISCES agent, Jim-Bean lost his partners to what can only be called "brain spiders." Although he's also psychic, Jim-Bean loathes his abilities and considers the majority of supernatural events to be bunk. He's also a wiseass.
* Hank “Guppy” Gupta (Smart Hero) played by Joseph Tresca: An American-born Indian, Guppy was abducted by aliens once, or so he believes, on an expedition to South America. He has never recovered, losing his girlfriend and his promising degree. Majestic-12 sprung him from the Van Dyson Institute for reasons known only to them. Guppy's the first one to panic, but fancies himself a kind of McGyver.
* Kurtis “Hammer” Grange (Fast Hero) played by George Webster: One of the agents who had a former government affiliation, Hammer was on a mission for the CIA when he encountered the "brain spiders." He lost both his partners. Hammer's the most level-headed of the group, and the only trained investigator among them.
* Jake “Blade” Iron Shirt (Strong Hero) played by Matt Hammer: A Native American bruiser and former Ultimate Fighting Champion, Blade is the only famous agent on the team. Unfortunately, he's famous for all the wrong reasons: his romance with the woman he was assigned to protect, Christine Dee; the birth of their child, Alex; his subsequent divorce and spiral into alcoholism. Blade is desperate to get visiting rights to see his son. Stephen Alzis has an unhealthy interest in Blade's family dynamics as well.
* Sebastian “Caprice” Creed (Fast/Smart Hero) played by Bill Countiss: An American engineer, Caprice is the closest agent who was "normal" before he joined Majestic-12. His fast thinking on his feet has proved useful on more than one occassion, especially when hunting down body-hopping aliens.

Thursday, 12th July, 2018


Monday, 9th July, 2018


Sunday, 8th July, 2018


Tuesday, 3rd July, 2018


Monday, 2nd July, 2018


Tuesday, 26th June, 2018


Monday, 25th June, 2018


Sunday, 24th June, 2018


Friday, 22nd June, 2018


Wednesday, 20th June, 2018


Tuesday, 19th June, 2018


Monday, 18th June, 2018


Monday, 25th June, 2018

  • 09:44 PM - Mistwell mentioned talien in post Gatekeeping, Edition Wars, and Fandom
    I know I can block people in forums, but will that also block them from the front page? Because I can do without the armchair psychology assessment that attacks the entire membership of this website. It's a shame too, because at least the first 2/3rds was a cool collection of block quotes from better writers. Agreed. I don't recall talien asking fans why they do the things they do, and engaging in a conversation with them so he can get a better grasp on their differing perspectives, so he can gather the data necessary to even begin to draw a psychological conclusion about their motives. That line just struck me as outright rude. As for why he decided to be rude...I'd have to ask him. See how that works Talien?

Wednesday, 16th May, 2018

  • 10:55 AM - Cergorach mentioned talien in post Is It Worth Printing Your Own Miniatures?
    talien: Do me a favor, print the best model Beholder from Thingiverse in a similar size as the Wizkids unpainted model, ink both and make a photograph. Use the default settings for this, do another print with the best settings for this kind of model on your printer. Then explain how much time you've spent printing with your printer to get these 'better' results. Thingiverse is hit or miss in their model quality, 99,99% is just crap. The question is whether that 0,01% contains what you want. And if not, does someone else sell those models and what do they cost? Someone else said it better then me: "Getting into 3D printing isn't like buying a normal printer, it's like getting into another expensive hobby (in both time and money)." Also, if you need 5 Wargs and you don't care about legalities, why not buy the model, create a silicon mold and cast them in resin, then sell the original model. Chances are that you can get it cheaper then even 3D printing... I'm not advocating this, bu...

Tuesday, 8th May, 2018

  • 12:33 PM - Cergorach mentioned talien in post How Long Before the Digital Dam Breaks?
    talien: Do you have any experience printing HIPS? Marvel Unlimited is awesome! Services like Humble Bundle and Bundle of Holding are great, for a small fee you get introduced to a small selection of 'new' material. The intention of course is to get you interested and buying the rest of the material. Computer games are far more advanced in this market then comics, rpg pdfs, ebooks, etc. Things like Steam have been around for ages, GOG is also wel established, Blizzard of course with Battlenet 2.0, even EA Origins is a good service these days (they also have a game subscription service). Consoles also have such services, but I'm not a console player, so my knowledge of those is only anecdotal.

Thursday, 5th April, 2018

  • 05:27 PM - pemerton mentioned talien in post Do We Still Need "Race" in D&D?
    you are confusing the evil use of race as a concept in our world with the accurate use of a word as a rule in D&D. The word race is not bad at all, it is the theory that humans have races and that some or one is better than the others is the evil. To say that elves and humans are different races is not the same and to claim they are is confused logic. I don't think you read my reasons closely at all. I didn't say anything about elves. And I offered no complaint about the word "race" - in fact I said that it is a crucial but challenging concept in social explanation. But when you refer to the accurate use of the word "race", what do you mean? Clearly not that. I'm pretty sure I know what you mean: and that's why I would like some sort of change along the lines described by talien in the OP. Because I would like my family and friends to be able to engage with my hobby without having to wade their way through all this . . . residue . . . that I have to explain away, or apologise for, as legacy baggage of the fantasy tradition.

Tuesday, 3rd April, 2018

  • 12:56 PM - Ancalagon mentioned talien in post Do We Still Need "Race" in D&D?
    I thought that the OP was commisioned by the website owner to write articles. Well, there's only one way to settle this... .... Yo talien, were you commissioned by Morrus to write this?

Wednesday, 28th March, 2018

  • 07:54 AM - pemerton mentioned talien in post From Dogs to Dragons: Kobold Evolution
    ...here and they are rightfully scared. They are cautious and worried and whatnot. Tell them that there is a cave of goblins over there and it's "Wahoo, xp pińatas." Because, frankly, that's pretty much how humanoids are presented in the game.Well, if you look at it in wargame terms, there has to be some piece that's at the bottom of the power gradient. Kobolds and goblins are it! And looked at in genre terms, there's also a certain logic to it. In LotR the orcs of Cirith Ungol are worried that a single great Elven or Numenorean warrior might be asaulting their tower. And the heroes of the Silmarillion are pretty good at orc-hewing. If the system supports character growth to those sorts of legendary degrees, then it follows that ordinary troops (including orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc) will eventually be fairly easily overcome. There's a tradition in classic D&D design of coming up with threats to PCs that do an end-run around the level mechanics, but - as I posted in reply to talien upthread - I'm not a big fan, because these seem like rules exploits rather than genuinely fair play (your save vs poison gets better with level, and your ability to survive pit traps gets better with level because of hp, but because Gygax never bothered to write in any quicksand rules then your 12th level fighter is as vulnerable to submerging and drowning as your 1st level one? - that seems like a cheat to me). If you want to have "squad leader" style play in a humanoid lair like Caves of Chaos, then use 2nd or maybe 3rd level PCs. That should do the job.

Thursday, 10th August, 2017

  • 04:54 PM - LordEntrails mentioned talien in post When the Sharks Finally Catch You: The Death of Geek Chic
    Have to say that when I saw this title I was expecting to hear some information on what has happened since the announcement. Sorry talien, but this news is almost 2 months old. Your article is good, but not very timely. I appreciate the background info, but if there are current lawsuits, who is suing who and why? What about customers that have paid and have yet (if ever) to recieve their tables? Has CGT said anything else since the first week?

Thursday, 26th November, 2015


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Monday, 9th July, 2018

  • 11:19 PM - Les Moore quoted talien in post An Army in the Dungeon
    The very fact that Grenadier produced an entire boxed set filled with torch bearers, guys toting treasure chests, and even a "potion tester" (he's figure E in the image above) tells you far more about the way D&D was played back in the day than I ever could. What it tells me is Grenadier was interested in selling large groups of miniatures, which could be handy, to represent different party members, NPCs, and also townsfolk. I remember many a party of half a dozen PCs, back during AD&D, and usually we played NPCs to compensate for parties smaller than 5 or six. NPCs had the additional issue of tripping traps set for the PCs by the DM. Granted it is absolutely true that D&D's roots can be traced directly back to wargaming.

Tuesday, 3rd July, 2018

  • 01:00 AM - Tony Vargas quoted talien in post Games Are (Still) Not the Problem
    If the latest craze is any indication, games will be dogged by accusations that they corrupt young minds as long as kids are playing them. We can only hope. Nothing sells to that demographic like fears it might 'corrupt' them.

Monday, 2nd July, 2018

  • 07:57 PM - TheCosmicKid quoted talien in post Games Are (Still) Not the Problem
    Jane McGonigal, game designer and advocate, argued on Twitter: Videogame "addiction" is compensatory, escapist behavior stemming from untreated depression or anxiety. You can't treat this by focusing on games. You treat this by targeting the real underlying problem, which by the way -- for many gamers is tied to large, systemic issues of economic insecurity, social alienation, fear of violence, trauma from serving in wars, the daily grind of suffering racism and sexism and lack of compassion in our elected leaders... I mean JUST STOP BLAMING GAMES. Whether or not a nine-year-old English girl's mental health troubles can be ultimately laid at the feet of economic insecurity or battlefield trauma or [insert disfavored politician here], getting her off Fortnite is probably going to be an important step in her recovery process. The game is not to blame in the sense that Fortnite's designers are bad people who have maliciously released a dangerous product*. But neither is it just a symptom. O...
  • 02:28 PM - Eltab quoted talien in post Games Are (Still) Not the Problem
    The problem is sometimes they're more boogeyman than threat My family and I soured on MMOs when my grade-school-aged son started playing one, went through a lot of in-game work to get the raw materials for a piece of equipment, had it built … and an IRL classmate so-called friend hacked his account to steal the completed work. This is not the game's fault, the "friend" had low character and the game gave him the opportunity to express it.

Monday, 25th June, 2018

  • 07:23 PM - Tony Vargas quoted talien in post Gatekeeping, Edition Wars, and Fandom
    Fandom, and its ability to influence the material that created it, all began with Sherlock Holmes. I always thought it started with religion, or tribal affiliation, back in pre-history somehwere. It's just, that, with rise of sciene and nation-states, those old ties were weakened or lost, and sometimes in that lack, projected on trivial comonalities, like team sports or fiction franchises or designer labels, (other times on political parties, race, gang membership, etc). It was in fan communities (specifically fantasy and science fiction fans) that Dungeons and Dragons (Deb) first became popular, and it has retained its popularity in these communities (Mackay, 2001, p. 16). In fact, Crawford and Rutter (2007) suggest that gaming in general should be considered as a part of studying fandom (p. 271). Can TRPG players be considered just another group within the larger fandom subculture or does it represent its own culture? Perhaps gaming is a part of fandom as a whole. We don't even get to ...
  • 06:36 PM - Ralif Redhammer quoted talien in post Gatekeeping, Edition Wars, and Fandom
    The Complete Oracle as a fun read and return to a prior age of the game. But this quote struck me when I first read it, and it still resonates. It really captures part of what makes this game so magical. As for gatekeeping, it avails little, and comes off as pretty silly (if not downright jerkish). As a Goth of old, over the years, I’ve seen so many arguments on what IS or ISN’T Goth, not to mention slinging around of that most dire of labels, POSEUR. Eventually one realizes that it doesn’t really make you any cooler or more Goth whether you prefer Valor or Rozz. Dr. Richard Forest explained how D&D propagates itself in The Complete Oracle: [HQ][INDENT]The genius of Dungeons & Dragons is that it is a machine that makes more Dungeons & Dragons, and it does this right at your table. D&D is not in the books. It is at the game table. It is in our scribbled notes. It is in our maps, in our jokes, in our daydreams during dull classes or meetings, in our forum posts from work, in our blo...

Monday, 18th June, 2018

  • 06:25 PM - Dire Bare quoted talien in post Everybody Cheats?
    Well I WAS going to write an article titled "Nobody Cheats" but unfortunately we have data points (both research and surveys) to the contrary. I'm not sure why some are giving you hassle. A few posters almost seem to be taking this as a personal attack, or an attack on their beloved hobby. "Are you calling me a cheater Tresca?" Your article is on point, cheating is rampant in our hobby . . . so much so that some folks criticizing your points literally describe themselves cheating. It's somewhat normalized in our hobby culture, as you point out in the article. I think cheating was more common back in the day and that as game design has advanced to take some of the randomness out, and some of the strict prereqs out (high scores to play a paladin), cheating has become less common. However, I can't remember playing a session when someone didn't appear to be cheating in some way. Of course, how you define "cheating" and how serious of a problem it is varies with individuals and groups....

Tuesday, 12th June, 2018

  • 11:56 PM - evileeyore quoted talien in post D&D: The New Poker?
    Is D&D now being used to network and blow off steam the way adults play poker? In this aspect? Maybe? Will D&D replace poker as the weekly adult get-together for busy professionals? Personally I think boardgames have replaced poker. At least in my circles it was poker† as the pick-up game, then it was M:tG, now it's boardgames. † As in 'card games', like poker variants, spade, hearts, etc. Professional DMs fundamentally change the game for everyone involved and not for the better. The DMs role becomes that of a paid entertainer rather then a collaborative storyteller. I could never take a penny for running a game and never will. That's all you. I for one have been paid to run games† (LARPs specifically). Nothing wrong with it. † Not sure I'd take money for running a non-LARP as ... well... I'm not as good a sit-down GM as I am a LARP GM. It's a whole different style of running game. I'd describe LARP GMing as "herding cats by alternatively tossing cat-nip and...
  • 01:21 AM - dragoner quoted talien in post Everybody Loves Lovecraft?
    Lovecraft's racism is troubling, more so when one reads his letters which were published later on, so like many, I liked the books until I read his published collection of letters, where even his friends such as Howard criticized him for it. He’s an author who encouraged others to expand on his ideas, to set their own stories in what would become known as the Cthulhu Mythos. He created an open source, creative commons universe decades before those ideas were to become in vogue. If he did none of this, his work would have certainly died when he did. He originally took inspiration from Poe, "the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym", is definitely the precursor to "At the Mountains of Madness". Also Chambers "The King in Yellow", and not merely influences, things directly lifted. Things really got rolling when Greg Stafford attended NecronomiCon (1992?) — a Lovecraftian convention held in Massachusetts — and realized that the Lovecraft community of the early ’90s was made up of two classe...

Monday, 11th June, 2018

  • 11:43 PM - Bagpuss quoted talien in post Why Did "Solo" and "Rogue One" Feel Like RPG Sessions?
    I'm specifically referencing "A Star Wars Story" which is a different kind of movie from the main trilogies. So Last Jedi happened, but totally distinct from these new "side quests." EDIT: Two other people pointed this out before I read all the way down, didn't mean to pile on! You don't deny it though. ;)
  • 03:18 PM - Bagpuss quoted talien in post Why Did "Solo" and "Rogue One" Feel Like RPG Sessions?
    If you saw the two most recent "Star Wars Story" movies--Solo or Rogue One Ah you're one of those people that pretends The Last Jedi never happened.
  • 02:59 PM - Eltab quoted talien in post Why Did "Solo" and "Rogue One" Feel Like RPG Sessions?
    But why now? Disney's success with interweaving Marvel stories -- something long-established in comics -- is certainly part of it: -Quotation 1- Two factors are coming together to make this kind of storytelling popular. Millennials are interested in storytelling and the Internet's fondness for mashups: -Quotation 2- Were these quotations intended to be so similar? Disney seems to be doing better 'filling in the blanks' of the Star Wars universe than in writing all-new stuff. Hopefully they can learn from experience faster than Lucas did with the prequels. A thought-provoking piece. I'm going to have to digest this for a while.

Tuesday, 5th June, 2018

  • 08:16 AM - MNblockhead quoted talien in post D&D: The New Poker?
    We've rehashed professional DMs before, but the reason I bring it up is that there are adults out there who want to game badly enough that they're willing to pay for an in-person experience. I find that a fascinating shift in "gamers come of age." For busy professionals, this is likely just as natural as outsourcing any other activity -- paying for a movie, watching a baseball game, going to a play. The difference is it's D&D. Exactly. Not only an "in person" experience, I'm will pay for a one-off VTT. My problem is that there are not enough professional DMs. I would love to be able to schedule a 4-6 hour one-off game that fits my schedule, but it is difficult to find one off games, on short notice, that fit my schedule.

Monday, 4th June, 2018


Wednesday, 30th May, 2018


Tuesday, 22nd May, 2018

  • 05:03 PM - Xavian Starsider quoted talien in post How the Scouts Teach Gaming to Kids
    Thank you for pointing this out, I added the info to the article! That said, I've looked everywhere and from what I can tell although the badge is OFFERED to Girl Scouts nationally, it is not officially part of the national organization's advancement structure. It's not on the Girl Scouts' badge explorer site (I wish it was!). Emphasis on badges has shifted over time. It used to be that badges were a requirement for everything, and now it seems badges are much less rigorous for both organizations. A troop or pack can technically offer any badge they like, but that doesn't mean it's nationally offered by the org. The website that offers these patches is careful to point out that they are patches, not badges. That as much as they would like to be an official badge, they are not recognized as such.

Thursday, 17th May, 2018

  • 06:47 PM - Dirk Wiggley quoted talien in post Nice truck
    Was that a free model? It looks very nice. If it was free, where did you get it? Regards, Dirk

Monday, 14th May, 2018

  • 03:39 PM - pogre quoted talien in post Is It Worth Printing Your Own Miniatures?
    Terrain is a different story. Dwarven Forge's unpainted terrain made of Dwarvenite (a strong, color-infused compound) costs $55 for 34 pieces sized to what we consider a medium print by Dremel (or a large D&D monster), or $1.62 per model. I agree about Dwarven Forge's unpainted pieces. However, I think DF's huge advantage is their pre-painted selection. Generally speaking, people heavily into DF have more disposable income than time. For me, painting terrain is mostly boring and time consuming. I would rather be painting miniatures. The terrain company I could see really getting hurt by 3d printing in the nearish future is Hirst Arts.

Tuesday, 8th May, 2018

  • 01:57 AM - R_Chance quoted talien in post How Long Before the Digital Dam Breaks?
    My next article is going to dive into the economics of all 3D printers as a viable replacement of miniatures and terrain. Originally it was part of this article, but the article was way too long so I decided to dedicate space to just this topic alone. I have a 3D printer and I've been pushing it hard in an attempt to replace figures: Star Wars spaceships that don't exist in mini-format, terrain that I created as papercraft, unique 28mm miniatures, etc. To your point, 3D printers aren't Star Trek replicators, but there are definitely some economics on what it IS feasible that I think is worth discussing. Nice to hear it. I've been thinking about the uses of 3D printing for awhile now. Terrain, buildings, etc. seem like a fairly good possibility. I used to do some 3D modeling, but that's been a decade plus and I'm curious about how easy / difficult it is to get the files set up for printing among other things.

Monday, 7th May, 2018

  • 09:16 PM - Tony Vargas quoted talien in post How Long Before the Digital Dam Breaks?
    Miniatures have slowly fallen out of favor among companies like WOTC, who once offered pre-painted randomized miniatures, only to abandon the product after the Great Recession in 2008 made the price of production and shipping unfeasible. WizKids picked up the slack, acting as a consolidator for multiple companies' plastic miniature lines, WOTC included. Hm. I hadn't heard it presented in that light before.


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talien's Downloads

  Filename Total Downloads Rating Files Uploaded Last Updated
d20 Ghostbusters
Who You Gonna Call? 		350 0 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:59 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:59 AM
d20 Hellraiser
d20 Hellraiser supplement for Call of Cthulhu d20. 		559 0 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:52 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:52 AM
d20 Terminator
d20 Terminator: Future Fate. 		416 0 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:45 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:45 AM
d20 Aliens
d20 Aliens: Game Over. 		488 +1 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:43 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:43 AM
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d20 Matrix. 		288 0 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:32 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:32 AM
d20 Evil Dead
D20 Evil Dead 		287 0 1 Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:00 AM Sunday, 10th November, 2013, 01:00 AM

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