Gloomhaven

When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you have duct tape, every problem looks like “not enough duct tape. Add more.” And, when you have a 3D printer, every problem looks like it could be solved with a few days design work, twelve hours in failed print attempts, and eight hours for a successful one. Like the original Gloomhaven game, its beginner-friendly side story expansion Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion stores its character decks and player boards in slim little fold-top cardboard envelopes. These are just barely large enough to hold everything without sleeves. With sleeves, they are just entirely inadequate. They can’t be fit. ...

Trogdor! Trogdor! Trogdor was a man I mean, he was a dragon man Or maybe he was actually a board game But he was still TROGDOR! Burninating the countryside, Burninating the peasants, Burninating all the peoples And their thatched-roof cottages! THATCHED-ROOF COTTAGES! (Insert guitar solo) Trogdor the Board Game is based on the iconic . You, and up to five of your dragon-drawing friends play as Keepers of Trogdor, members of a group that help Trogdor… ...

I’m printing all the scenarios in Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, in collaboration with my boyfriend, on a filament and a resin 3D printer. After the printing comes the painting. I know nothing about painting terrain or miniatures, but what better time to learn? This is all to make the best Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion and Frosthaven playing experience we can create. Every time we play, it will be epic. ...

June hasn’t been the best month for gaming. Tom and I are ramping up our 3D printing, and working on that sort of stuff is taking more and more of our time. I hope it’s worth it. I have a severe backlog of minis to paint – I have to finish the Gloomhaven PC minis, I have an army of vermlings and cultists to paint for the first few Jaws of the Lions scenarios, some snakes… Plus printing the terrain tiles. ...

We’re working as hard as we can to be able to play Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion the way we want to play it – by making a quick, easy to set up and play game an exercise in overcompensation. We play a lot of board games. One thing common to all the most popular games is how well they lend themselves to being modded. The pieces that come in the game are just the starting point. ...

The huge, 20 pound box that Gloomhaven comes in can be more than a little intimidating, but that’s nothing compared to all the boxes, cards, tiles and popout tokens inside the game box. Gloomhaven is more than just a campaign-style adventure. It’s a system that supports the construction and play of millions of custom scenarios. But, it doesn’t lend itself to casual play. The floor tiles have to be found and arranged, the monster AIs need to be set up, their cards found and standees stood up. It could take half an hour to set up a session before I started working on organizing the stuff. ...

I want to point out at the start that I did not buy a 3D printer to print miniatures. I bought it to print terrain and other parts for board games, and whatever other fun stuff I think of. My *boyfriend *is buying a 3D printer to print miniatures. He’s a chemist. He can safely use one of those resin printers with smelly chemicals and stuff. Super high resolution, and the minis will look fantastic. ...

I’d really wanted to talk about playing in the new EverQuest server today. I took a day off from work to play EverQuest and watch the SpaceX rocket take off with two American astronauts from American soil. Neither happened. I guess the weather just wasn’t quite right for either. It wasn’t a total loss. It was still nice to spend an unexpected day with my boyfriend. We went to the local game store, which opened early for us. We were the only ones there. I bought a very small paint brush and a couple vials of paint; Kasul bought a couple of discount games. The person working there didn’t know when they’d be running Friday Night Magic again. We were all of us wearing masks. I bought an Ikoria bundle just for fun. ...

We’ve been doing a family game night where my boyfriend and myself, my son, my daughter and her family all get together to play board games once or twice a week. We recently finished an epic, year-long Gloomhaven campaign. If you have been following my Instagram, you’re probably really familiar with our game nights… That all ended when the pandemic struck. We haven’t had a game night with more than just us three since March. ...