Month: July 2022

A lot of my time over the last few months has been spent using Blender to model Battletech mechs, usually at a whim based on some random Reddit post about a ‘mech. It’s been slow going, but I’ve expanded my Blender capabilities from “total amateur” to “a little competent”. I’m no longer pushing simple primitives about, I’m using modifiers and nodes and all sorts of good stuff.

It came in handy when my wife, tasked with getting a grant for the NHS trust she currently helps at, needed a ‘render’ of a room that was [part of the proposal for the grant. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but she’d been having trouble for weeks getting the grant moving, I put my little render together and the grant was awarded within the next 24 hours! I hope my effort was instrumental, my work might at least be somewhat instrumental in advancing a greater benefit of the local NHS services!

I’d love to show it off here, but I’m not sure I have the authority to do so as it’s now the property of the NHS per-sé. But what I can post Is the ‘mech that’s been about 35 hours in the making, not quite 100% complete, totally untextured, but good enough for a quick screen capture.

I’ve been playing in a friends Vampire The Masquerade role-playing game, ongoing now for nearly a year, with a few breaks but it’s been quite a different experience from my usual go-to gaming in D&D, Set in an alternate history Steampunk London, my Character ‘Benzoheth Gioffre’ A sociopathic capitalist of the Giovanni clan, workhouse master, preying upon the unwanted that London would churn and throw aside has set about a path of self-aggrandizing dominance in London, already partly responsible for the diablerie of one ‘Jack The Ripper’ and now ingratiating himself to the Primogene of the Malkavian clan for his own benefit, sadly having stomped on the toes of the Nosferatu and the Tremere. It’s proving to be an in-depth story, with political intrigue and Victoriana-Vampiric goodness for all.

Aside from indulging in my computer gaming and roleplaying, I’ve not really been stretching my creative muscles with my games development. I have due to some problems faced with licencing, been reworking one of my games from scratch (project title Board Gamer Lands), and now I’m creating a pirate exploration and adventure TTRPG style game.

And, because I keep telling myself I WILL publish a game finally and in full, I’ve been looking back at one of the very first games I ever made. Perhaps by the end of the year I shall release my tactical skirmish game rules, currently under the project name Trigger Happy – But I need to get a different name for it, while I confess a great selection of my tabletop gaming has been wargame focused, and I understand that wargaming is a pastime and hobby for millions, I think the name is somewhat gratuitous and glorifies confrontation too much.