Long time, no type!
Wanna hear something silly? The reason I haven’t posted pictures in a while is this: I cannot find my blue fade backdrop. “Well, just print a new one.” The primary issue is that we are out of color ink and it is expensive. The secondary issue is that I did not save the PSD, so the new backdrop will be slightly different than the old. “Those are all just excuses.” Ahh, you got me there. And here we are.
But I have been painting. Some crummy pictures will follow. And something more important and worth talking about:
RogCon!
On January 31st/February 1st, 2026, a group of folks came together to host a small RPG and wargames convention benefitting our dear friend and miniatures game creator Roger Porter. Roger was recently diagnosed with stage three cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. He’s a real gem of the Portland miniatures community, and many folks volunteered to run games. The small two-day event raised about $800. I was thrilled to be part of it. Thanks to John for being the lead organizer, and to Black Water Bar/Dark Future for allowing us use of their space.
Burrows & Badgers, Second Edition
I have been taken by the prettiness of Oathsworn’s miniatures and the wholesome vibe of Burrows & Badgers, both of which are the work of Michael and Jo Lovejoy. Michael has sculpted over 200 miniatures for the game! If you ever read Redwall or any of the other work of author Brian Jacques, then you already have an idea of the game’s setting. Anthropomorphic animal miniatures are… Tough. I have found that they usually skew chibi, with huge eyes and over-sized heads, or furry – neither of which is to my taste. Michael’s sculpts under his Oathsworn brand hit that nice place of beautiful, detailed, and often cute, but not cutesy. They aren’t saccharine or overly cartoony. The proportions and details are much more reminiscent of the illustrations found on the covers and in the pages of the Redwall books.
My friend Warren has purchased miniatures from Oathsworn multiple times now, and while the tariffs and duties are fairly steep, I am deeply impressed with the stellar customer service that Michael and Jo provide. They ship promptly and package carefully; further, upon careful inspection of the miniatures, it is apparent that any prominent flash/mold lines are actually filed down before the miniatures are packed! Warren was kind enough to gift me two warbands-worth of miniatures – thank you, Warren!
Now that I’ve sufficiently lavished Michael and Jo with well-deserved praise, please permit me to gush a bit more: the gameplay of Burrows & Badgers Second Edition is robust, satisfying, and intuitive. The artwork in the rulebook is wonderful (although I have an equal amount of love for Gary Chalk’s illustrations in the first edition of the book). I’ve played only twice, but it has been enough to cement it as one of my favorite games. Starting sometime in March, I’m planning on running two sessions per month to play through a short campaign with some friends.
For RogCon, Warren and I collaborated to paint miniatures and terrain in order to host a couple of demo games of B&B. It was enjoyed by all, and rightfully so, as Warren’s wonderful terrain setup made a terrific environment within which our painted miniatures could skirmish.
I was so intent on keeping the visual appeal of the game intact that I elected to create custom markers/tokens for the different statuses that are applied to characters during gameplay. The are as follows:
- Acorns (not pictured): Activated
- Pinecones: Berserk
- Dark, unadorned stone: Blinded
- Twig wrapped in red string: Burning
- Small shell (not pictured): Guard
- Twig wrapped in off-white string: Paralyzed
- Leaf (to be placed under miniature): Sneak
- Stone with spiral: Stunned
If you’re worn out by the dark grimdark grimness that pervades the miniature gaming world, why not take a break and escape to a world of woodland creatures? I am passionate about wildlife – owls, birds, and so many other creatures – so having a reason to paint a barn owl or an adder for the first time was really wonderful. My local gaming group is even starting to imagine what a small range of Pacific Northwest creatures might look like…
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – Brains, Bones, Blood & Snow
Another game over which I presided at RogCon was a session of Rogue Trader. I have found that running games of Rogue Trader at conventions or events is always interesting. I believe most gamers today see Rogue Trader as a curious piece of wargaming history (which it is), but many of them come to the table with misaligned expectations of what the game will “be like.” It seems to me that many folks wish to engage with “the roots of Warhammer 40,000” as a messy, complicated army-sized wargame, with a large amount of tedious or obtuse rules. This is the perception that many people have of Rogue Trader. But I believe that to play Rogue Trader “by the book” or “rules as written,” the games master is quite ironically encouraged to “tear pages out,” so to speak. In fact, it is the very presence of a games master that enables such flexibility and on-the-fly innovation to be possible.
Complete comprehension of the Rogue Trader rules in detail, to me, feels both like a fool’s errand and like missing the point. Rogue Trader is a sandbox. It’s a set of rules intended to be used to facilitate tabletop adventures played to find out what happens. Competitive play of Rogue Trader – at least in the current use of the term – sounds to me like a very difficult and potentially un-fun way to engage with the rules. If balance and matched play are terms that get you excited and the primary things you look for in a miniatures wargame, Rogue Trader might not be for you! But I hope you’ll give it a try anyway if you have the chance.
The above preamble exists because this is sort of what happened at RogCon. I quite embarrassingly required an additional half-hour beyond the scheduled start time to write down player sheets at furious speeds (I had spent so much of my prep time painting Burrows & Badgers miniatures!). Only two people were signed up, and one more dropped in. One of the players – his name was John (apologies if I misspelled your name) rolled up to the table and asked which armies were available and if players were going to just grab their allotted miniatures and have at it! I very quickly did my best to reframe how we were going to engage with Rogue Trader and how I planned to run it. I had a narrative all ready to go, with individual player motivations and “asymmetrical knowledge” (I’m not sure how else to phrase that). I might describe the game in detail in a future post (let me know if you want to read about it – the heading of this section is the title I used for the game).
In the end, the players all had fun, although I think my experimental and noticeably “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” GM style at the table was not to everyone’s taste. Next time I’ll prepare more thoroughly.
“Gee, that was a lot of words.”
Yeah, it really was. If you’ve read this far, you have some real endurance.
Hope you got some enjoyment out of this – until next time,
– Bryan