"How Do You Keep It Fun?" Topic

This hobby, unlike many others, can require many hours of prep work before you get to play anything. Yes, some guys just show up and play, and there's nothing wrong with that. But someone has to paint the figures, provide the terrain, research the armies, and design the scenarios.

So… how do you keep the hobby from becoming your 2nd job? How do you cope with the drudgery of some prep tasks? How do you keep it fun?

By shooting the OFM in the back.

By eliminating a source of distraction, you mean?

I believe that a fair few players enjoy being the "man in charge".
They like seeing their scenery, table and rules being used. A good motivator.
If you match them with "happy to play whatever you put on" a perfect match is made.

One friction situation arises when both players are expecting to contribute fully to a game and one player wants to wrest control and the other wants equal ownership. This is only a major problem when players have a wider selection of opponents.

All just part of the social make up of any social gathering.

martin

At this point I think it's more of a therapy, ha ha! Seriously, however, when I get to work on stuff at the workbench all the other worrisome things in life take a back seat.

That's what a hobby should do.

I will admit that if I'm not "feeling it" it slowly gets scooted further back on the bench but eventually inspiration shows up and it's off to the races.

There are also times when I can go a week or two without any interest in any of it but it always comes back around.

I guess if & when it doesn't come back around it's time to find a different hobby but I'm already in too deep :)

I actually enjoy a lot of the prep and planning, with the exception of cleaning mold lines and other defects from miniatures.

That IS "right out"!

Some of it is therapeutic. The less enjoyable stuff, well, I have my eye on the goal, not the process. If its too much effort I substitute, do without or buy it in (if I can).
Night Owl makes a great point : some things just wait until I'm ready, or until I need them. Some things wait a long time.

Love the painting and for gaming having a great group of fellow gamers keeps it fun

Sometimes, to keep it fun means you put down the paint brush and do something else. This does not alway mean stop painting. Sometimes it means pausing the current project.

I recently completed the first phase of a 25mm samurai project. I started the second batch of figures and was not really enjoying it. Solution, pause the samurai and rework some old D&D figures. Still not ready, work on my O scale airport. Now I'm beginning to look forward to getting back to the samurai

I enjoy each part that goes into gaming. I enjoy prepping the figures, painting the figures, researching the uniforms, studying the historical periods, writing the rules, setting up the terrain for the game, putting together the army that I need for the various periods,running and umpiring a game,playing with the toys,the fellowship of the guys coming over, supplying some of the snacks and drinks (Not alcohol), and cleaning up after the game. I run a game once a month at my home for 8-14 guys. I supply everything. They are a bunch of guys from my church including some teachers, a number of ex-marines, army and navvy guys, some cops, a principle, a professor and some other guys and kids. It is loads of fun! I guess the only thing I don't enjoy is spending money, but in the long run it brings enjoyment and escape from the pressures of life.

At first I prepped/painted only to have the painted figs for gaming. The goal was everything. Then the realization came that prep/painting (sometimes with music, sometimes not) was relaxing and meditative. I forgot my worries when concentrating on the prep/painting. Now I find myself having various degrees of prep/painting going on different figs simultaneously and I decide which activity suits my current mood. I try not to even plan a "complete" point. I just move along at an enjoyable pace and find them complete eventually.

I have enjoyed all the aspects of the hobby for the last 50s years, always have.
My only advice I give to make the hobby fun and not FRUSTRATING:

Pick one major period (Napoleonics for me)
Pick on minor period (colonial America for me)

Stick with them, do not be sidetracked, purchase books, study, know your stuff.
Anything else will become a distraction.

Russ Dunaway

Easy; the prep has turned into the hobby over the years

+5,267 to Old Glory. Says the man with the following: Stone Age, Vikings, Robin Hood, Three Musketeers, Pirates, French and Indian War, American Revolution, Mountain Man, Indian Mutiny, American Civil War, Pony Wars and Old West, Anglo-Egytian Sudan, French Foreign Legion, Slightly Cracked Colonials (early African Exploration in Victorian era), Boxer Rebellion, German East Africa, Prohibition Era Gangsters, and Vietnam. Except for the last, all in 15 mm, Vietnam in 10 mm.

If I'd have followed Russ's advice, I expect everything would be all painted by now.

Then again, all those periods will give me something constructive to do when retired – besides the honey-do lists.

And, yes, Russ, you and Bluemoon bear a lot of responsibility for much of that! ; )

Of course, for me, a huge part of the fun was the sorting out what to buy for each of those collections. Then one day reality reared its ugly head as far as not just getting it all painted but being able to get it all on the table enough to justify the time and expense. Had far too much fun getting to this point to be disappointed in myself. Just need to apply restraint and call it done. Almost.

So… how do you keep the hobby from becoming your 2nd job? grin How do you cope with the drudgery of some prep tasks? How do you keep it fun?

Drudgery: n. hard menial or dull work

Sorry, I don't understand the question. Painting, assembling, writing scenarios, making play aids … none of those scan well into the famous song, but they are a few of my favorite things.

I'm the one in our group that does literally everything, the other guys just show up, which is fine with me. I always have a project in progress, whether it's making terrain, assembling models or painting. I derive more satisfaction and fun from that aspect of the hobby than actually playing the games.

I enjoy curating a game. Research, terrain writing up a scenario. Setting up the terrain and figures. What I don't like are the guys who show up and complain about everything. Yet they never put on a game themselves. I have had guys like that blow up a game. Not realizing the work that goes into it.

I enjoy designing scenarios & running games that I would like to play using my preferred rules. I've amassed the figures & terrain I need so all I have to do is decide which scenario I want to present. So no drudgery required just boxing up what's required

Oh, you can do it, Oberlindes!
"Painting, assembling, scenarios and play aids
Filing and trimming and fingers with band-aids
Slow-drying figures held in place with strings
These are a few of my favorite things!"
When the plan tanks, when the dice fail
when I'm feeling mad
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad!

@Old Glory – that is perfect advice. I wish I could follow it!

My only build would be – if you can't pick a period then at least pick a scale!

This is also advice I failed to follow myself… Latterly I've got better, ~80% or more of my purchases in the last ~10 years are now exclusively in one scale (20mm since you ask).

I am in the middle of a duldrum. My Game Room is not air conditioned. I can not game in there right now, too hot. I painted up my last great big subject. American War of Independence. I flew through the Colonials, and the British. I loved painting the Indians for the era. Completely bogged down on the French.I am painting Dragoons, just can't make myself right now.I have some ultra moderns to paint. I am like this sometimes. I always get over it. The last game I hosted was at a Game Day. We have them every month. I had Saxons vs Vikings. I wanted to play and run the game in a 4 man game. Nothing went right, guys were late, didn't show, I was terrible as a GM. I was terrible as a player, I had terrible dice…. no joy. I will rise again, I always do. Sometimes one joke or quip is enough. Still beats working…lol.

My advise is two scales, though you might get by one one scale and two or three levels of representation. But you don't fight out Chippewa and Waterloo with the same system.

I am now 39 castings from completing the 28mm H&M project, and I'm idling on the computer instead, which says something.

Rotundo, I once drove 400 miles to put on a game, got stiffed, repacked everything and drove 400 miles home without a single turn of play. If you can't take days like that, you can't make it as a GM. Bleed a little, then rise and fight again.

robert p.: Ouch. I have gone to the trouble to run a game and had no shows but less than a hundred miles, or in town cons. It stings a bit but it is part of the process. Generally, people enjoy the games I run – or so it seems. Sometimes people just want a different 'flavor' that day. Then they come back the next time around.

Writting scenarios generally is 48% of the fun. Setting up problems to be solved and seeing if finaly you have understood how its done in the real world (I am still not a good general after 11 years but getting better). Even our 200 plus turn campaighns are fun planning and playing but I do need to be in the mood.

Painting I hate, but you can get away with 2% of time wasted on painting. You can see very little at 4 ft so why waste time as far as I am concerned. I only play moderns and WW2 and only in 2 scales 1/72 and 1/144. So painting is minimal over the years.

Rule writing is hard, don't do much now and its the final tidyup that can be a pain.

Scenario writing for simple games is hard for me. To easy for me to write my sort of scenario which require serious tactical planning, where to put FPF. how to interlink the various fires, defining anti infantry and anti-tank defencesetc.

Uk shows are just a bit of fun and chance to chat to new fol. Nobody not part of the team playes seriously at a UK show.

Robert I love the song, very clever. My son just finished a short run in Indianaplois as Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music

@robert piepenbrink:

Bravo! Thank you for the inspiration.

I just watch the re-runs of the OFM chasing kids off his lawn.