Digital to Print-on-Demand is working

It's like this.  HHSOLO1 passed the officially, mathematically profitable mark already, while I wasn't even paying attention.  So, uh, WOOT, I guess.  Well, better to say that it's no longer a loss in terms of overhead, unless you factor in work time.  Note: I don't think this is a good measure of success - the way I heard these high school kids took off with my working copy, and some good reports I've gotten from FB and G+ community - that's success.  Funnily, I see now why I probably could never ever ever do publishing for a living, but it's a fun and interesting hobby and once you get some steam going, I mean, hey.  Could be worse.  My wife said something like: "I know you're not in it for the money...  But if you could be in it for the money a little, that would be great."

Where is the POD, the guys all say?  Lulu?  The way I set that thing up, it was easy to make some changes to text and content, and have the InDesign spit out a new digital thing pretty easily when changes were made.  This is in 8.5 x 11, nostalgia-nerd boner for TSR's treatment circa BSOLO (what I was aiming at/for)

It's tedious to suck all that text out and convert it to 6x9 print.  Conversely, it makes it easier to place interior art (except the Russ Nicholson piece), and it happens to break the cover into smithereens.  NOW, it feels like maybe what you get when you picked up a copy of SORCERY!, if you get my drift.

Dreary cut 'n' pasting, but the upshot is, maybe you could get an actual DCC solo gamebook in your actual hand by Christmas-time or whatever your Yule-like equivalent is, but I think it'd be white-knuckle layout for yours truly.  Gotta figure out how to work the Table of Contents, also...

Work so dreary, it could make one Irascible but OOO a tasty gemstone!

Almost done but so much professional stuff to attend to by January's end, I can't even tell you (also, probably a law suit over this borrowed dwarfsney)

How to Host a Dungeon

I think i may have posted this a while back, with my iphone - not exactly clear.

Maybe I scanned it from work, but I found it again and it got my dungeoneering (Space Dungeoning?) thoughts going, again.

Dear Reader, if you give a shit, I been worried about many non-gaming things, and anyways, sorry if I've been away from our mutual little space fantasies.

This is from the free version of HTHAD, which you can get here but if you can generate all these thoughtbombs with a free thing, shucks, you may as well spend the coins.

It was started by Dark Elfs, obviously, and then the monsters ran amuck and the gold ran out, and the Great Cities that Groan to the Skies Below become mostly empty, with bands and gangs of Dark Elf raiders the only occupants, long lived and bored and sulky as the Great Wyrm Foronax dug his way into the Corruption Pits.  They have degenerate duergar and beastmen to dig the mines out, always searching for the blue-green crystals that pepper the Aereth, here.  They hoard them, but don't know why except greed and obstinacy.  Any adventurers they come across are obviously flayed and put to death in the Sacrifice Pits.

Maybe I can include this in the setting for Halthrag Keep's little Kingdom of Thrend

Cheap Hobby Buys

At Michael's:

Wilton fondant thing - maybe you could use it on fimo or air-drying clay or green stuff

I've seen this used on Space Wolf bases a couple of times - fine sand/ground glass?  Plus some clear acrylic = snow!

I don't have any snowy interests but you might.

Insomnia for the Emperor

 The good thing about dicking around with these models all night is that I'm almost done with the Cadian infantry and the Inquisitorial retinue

Except things got a little bit surreal at 4:30 am - not sure if the modeling/painting thing is now a symptom or a cause, although I did sleep about 10 hours the day before

Anyway, I got in some weird nerd-loop where I was counting figs into squads, except my calculations started to not make sense. I think I bagged them into squads correctly. Should have taken a picture; I think I was sorting over and over about 4000 worth of Marines and IG

I feel literally frightened of the slog that painting the Catachans will become - not the least of which because these plastic figures are ugly and the seams are hideous and (although I have no stitch of perfectionism in me) I'm offended how they will look. Weird. At least i felt that way at 1:45

I tore all the arms off the Flagellant/Veterans in disgust. No big deal they need some flamers and plasma anyway

I dunno

I won't be good for much today, I think.  This is a problem.  I can state unequivocally that either I am addicted to hobby painting or some serious state of anxiety is pressing me to escape from reality in an unhealthy fashion.

Gotta get to work.  Pics later I guess.

P.s.  I am no longer able to see clearly enough for the results I'm looking for.

Drybrushing, Lack of Faith, and the Angels of Gloom

It feels like when I paint this IG army - pretty standard Tamiya German Gray base coat, plus metal helms and flak armor - it feels like it never fucking ends.  I am eager to play with the orders and Battle Brother etc. in 7th edition, but Jaysus, if I finish this army to table ready level, ever, I will be amazed (just like 6 more days til a premier of some kind, I guess).  Also, gotta get these Inquisitorial retinue cranked out (crusaders and warriors are nearly ready - the fancy ones may need to wait)

If I went bonkers on it, I could set the veterans up as these IG-kitbashed-with-Imperial-Flagellants as some Veterans, and it'd be cool as fuck, but it means the delicate swapping out of a lot of weapons.

I think at the rate I am going I will have Celestine ready by January or so.

Back to my metaphor (and I think Adam pointed this out on last weeks Beer and Bolters 40K) that like painting swarms of troops is a slog and he'd rather spend the points on models that are easy or fun to paint (I think he said something like this).  These huge squads are terrific time wasters - it's now 1:30 and I need to take the dog out.

Sisters are worse.  I've been putting them off for literally 5 years or so, and they've been primed and waiting forever.  Celestine, too.  The models are all detailed, and it's kind of like an Act of Faith just getting them ready for a game!

One problem is that I learn and forget, learn and forget, learn and forget.  I don't stick with the hobby long enough to get good or learn to paint well.  I mean, I enjoy it, and I'm nuts at the idea of fun conversions (and making terrain out of junk, for some reason perks up my ears)

Anyway, more tomorrow.  Maybe some picture

For my Sisters, here's what I rolled up from the 1d4chan Sisters of Battle Creation Chart:

Minor Order

Descended from the Order of the Bloody Rose

A Standing Force (to guard a way-shrine?  And take confessions?)

Pride in the Colours (won't submit to other authorities)

Suffer Not the Works of Heretics! (A keen and watchful eye on the locals, and monitor all trade and warp traffic closely, and quietly.  If I went with some kind of Librarian sisterhood, it would mesh well with my Dark Angels Succesor Chapter, who I've now named The Stormcrows)

Primary Saint : A Seraphim Commander - kinda goes with the Celestine presence on the list, and maybe I can convert something fun up, on this.  I note with some interest that there is a single Sister head on the Immolator sprue, and I'm sure I could cook something up with the bodies of the grey knights, and I have the BA Assault Squad sort of sitting there in the bag...

Deeds of Legend : The Seraphim Saint attacked an Eldar Craftworld.  Maybe these can be bitter enemies of a Dark Eldar cabal, or something.  That's pretty neat.  I don't know anything about the DA whatsoever.  Guarding a Shrine to the Saint, which sits upon a long-buried DA warp-gate that could be opened if the local populous gets too frisky, and reads too many heathen texts

Homeworld : Medieval, Industrial (Vandross Betelgeuse VII, makers of Lasguns and Shoelaces, not quite a Hive World, but not very well maintained and plagued by pollution and mutations)

No involvement in local politics, except the occasional assassination of too-curious tourists or meddlers in the Black Arts (they are leery of Exterminatus, and work closely with Inquisitor Van Helthrack but none other, since he already knows of the Warp Gate below the planet's surface, and his lineage is charged with searching out the other side of it). They may occasionally work to destroy and torture Dark Eldar raiding parties and keep these battles from the knowledge of the general populace.

Slight Variation in the standard order, in that the Battle Sisters are relatively few in number; the mass of the convent is archivists, researchers, librarians, torturers, and geneticists.

Well versed in close and ranged combat, orbital insertion (for the occasional Hulk that wanders through the nearby space, and to raid DA raiders pre-emptively), and terror of the local populace.

Bestial Companion:  Given the whole thing so far, I'm going to go with Bats.  Bat Servitors, Bat-winged Jump Packs on the Seraphim Superiors, Maybe I will modify the scheme of the sisters I've already painted (I don't know if this will fly, but we'll see).  Mobs of Doombats...  Hmm.  This could be fun.

Method of Worship:  Purity of (Wo)Man - "Protect the Hallowed human form from rusted iron".  No bionics, if possible (should be easy).  The penitent engine could be a big batty death machine.  The Woe Grinder or something

Size: Nominal - taking choice recruits from the potential Vestal candidates in the cities, wastes, and sumps

Friendly with: Imperial Guard, from a nearby world (from the local world, Vandross Betelgeuse VII)

Enemies: I already picked Dark Eldar, so no need to roll here

Name

Ehh

eh

The Most Holy Order of the Angels of Gloom: imagine if you will a thousand Batgirls with plasma and boltcannons, and then maybe I can convert some interesting figures, in addition to the ones I have already (only 2 squads and Celestine, as well as a Seraphim Squad and maybe some on the way)