A New Year's retrospective-futurespective for Oakbound Studio

It's nearly the end of the year, as I'm sure you've noticed, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a look at what happened at Oakbound in 2015 and ask some important questions about what I want to happen next year. For the latter part I'd like to ask your help, but more about that later down the page.

The beginning part of 2015 saw a couple of important events, one for Oakbound and the other for me. First we shipped (after a lot of unavoidable hassle which I hope not to experience again!) The Woods Kickstarter miniatures. Yes, it really did take five months to mould, cast and ship and since that period involved my having to make hasty arrangements to get bits resculpted and cast by three different companies in order to not keep backers waiting any longer than necessary the final sending of those boxes was a great relief. If you've noticed that there are still only a tiny fraction of the figures we produced on the webstore that's because of the rate at which my painting was able to go before getting caught in the next thing...

I got married! Not of enormous significance to Oakbound maybe (although my wife Solly has generously donated space in her studio and a substantial amount of her excellent artwork to the company) but certainly a momentous occasion for myself and one that kept me away from big developments with Oakbound for a few months.

The Summer and Autumn were more productive on the Oakbound front with the Legends of British Steampunk Kickstarter gearing up and a couple of trade shows where we sold the last copies of our first Tripods! board game print run and a significant number of The Woods miniatures. Completing the Legends Kickstarter at 500% was a very positive way to end the year and I'm now leaving the casting in the capable hands of Kieven at Lancer Miniatures whilst I go off on Honeymoon.

So, LOOKING AHEAD TO 2016 then...

There have been two very key developments from the previous year. The first is that Tripods! is currently earmarked for an international release and a significant amount of work has been undertaken to make the system more strategic for the adult board game market. The developments need some serious playtesting in the spring but we're hopeful it will be ready for print in the next 6 months.

The second development is with a game system called 'Factious Waste' which a number of followers of this blog and the Oldhammer Forum have been testing during 2015. Talking to visitors at the trade shows one thing that is apparent is that selling miniatures without a game system supporting them can be confusing for some people. A slight frustration of 2015 has been having a huge amount of background for The Woods produced for a couple of aborted attempts to work with people producing roleplay systems and which has yet to see publication. That, and wanting to release Factious Waste but knowing that the miniature and background development is a good year or so away from being ready, has prompted me to make a significant step which I believe is going to make some future developments much easier. I have stripped the rules-set (all 4 pages of it!) from Factious Waste and left it as a background-free system I'm calling Systemmech. Legends Kickstarter backers have had a chance to download and try out Systemmech with a Legends plug-in which gives a good idea of where I'm going with this.

So, my hope for the next year is to finish testing and release Systemmech, a cards-free, dice-free tabletop roleplay system consisting of a short, free, downloadable rulebook. THEN to release a series of printed supplements with equipment lists, skills trees, scenario ideas, narratives, character classes and, most importantly, a ton of background for each of the miniatures ranges to allow their use not only with Systemmech but also with any wargame or roleplay system players wish to plug the setting into.

All going well with the casting process, the success of the Legends Kickstarter  puts Oakbound at a position where I hoped we'd be this time last year, with a comparatively small but usable pot of money to invest in developing a setting.

NOW, this is where I need your help.
With the two Kickstarters we've run so far we've got a small but strong core of supporters. Kickstarter is something of an odd beast, I'm very keen on it but I know some people, especially with established businesses, aren't since it has taken a lot of trade away from the small companies who aren't using the platform. Meanwhile, companies like Mantic, with a customer base and reputation large enough not to need Kickstarter any more, are still using the platform for the coverage it provides for them. My own take on Kickstarter is that it is a wonderful opportunity for someone like myself with ideas I'd like to make flesh but no supply of capital to enable that to happen without the support of other people who think those ideas are worth pursuing. BUT, at the point at which the company has enough capital to go it without crowd-funding platforms I think it SHOULD, to allow others to benefit from Kickstarter without being overshadowed by established giants, and to grow the business practice of the individuals running company.

For this reason I would like Oakbound to not have to resort to Kickstarter in 2016 (or afterwards) As I say, we have a small but usable pot of money to invest in the development of our settings and systems now and I believe we should use it for that rather than banking it and then asking backers for more money through crowd funding. That doesn't mean necessarily we won't need to do pre-orders, but it represents a move away from the startup stage and I'm very excited about it.

HOWEVER....

From this point it would be very easy to crash back to the point of not having any funds rather than building on the funds we have available to invest in the necessary and hefty expenses such as getting artwork commissioned, printing books, paying painters and sculptors to work on the miniatures I find myself not having time to work on and so forth. WHATEVER WE DO WITH THE FUNDS WE HAVE NOW HAS TO REALLY COUNT! So I'd like to ask a few questions of this blog's readers if I may. It won't take long, but it really is important to me as the future of Oakbound Studio could really hang on this one decision.

The decision is... which setting do we go for as a starter? You can find a description of the settings and a few related questions
courtesy of Survey Monkey (here). You don't need to sign up or provide personal details or anything. I'd be very interested to see what you think, grateful for your participation and would love further feedback and ideas. Please do feel free to post on the Facebook Page.

Thank you again, and Happy Christmas!

A New Year's retrospective-futurespective for Oakbound Studio

New Year-amunda 2015

Happy new year everyone!

I apologise that I have been somewhat absent over the last few weeks. I've been busy with Christmas, writing essays, getting engaged, visiting friends who've broken up, being ill and playing necromunda! So the good, the bad and the downright scummy. Now the festivities are dying down there's a definite to-do list... Tripods! needs the FAQs releasing, the rules redrafting, the expansions playtesting ahead of a kickstarter with triple ace games later in the year. Factious Waste undergoes further playtesting and the search for artists begins. The Woods miniatures need sorting, entailing a phone call to Griffin moulds to see what the situation is there, photos to Andrea miniatures to get quotes from them and a set of masters to send to 4D Modelshop to get their prices on casting. There's a lot to sort out on the boat, and I did take a video before Christmas which I was hoping to post up over the holidays but haven't got round to it yet. Plus, of course, there's a wedding to plan! :)

So in the meantime, here are some taster shots of our annual Necromunda bash. The gangs got more advanced this time, and I hope it won't be a year before they come out again. There's a chance I could join in another local campaign, but that would mean dropping back to starting status again, just as my gang starts to take on character (suitable numbers of head wounds making for some psycho juves! And the BS6 Heavy's not something I'm keen to lose either!) so we'll see. For now, some shots of last week:

The Duct's End Militia, a division of the Necromundan 8th, the Spiders, modelled on the Colonial Marines from Aliens... and awaiting a similar fate in the tunnels beneath Duct's End.

The New Merciful Sisterhood of the Nephilim. My own Goth/Punk Escher gang. The Nurse couldn't hit the broad side of a barn last year, this campaign she's well 'ard with a BS of 6! They've been joined by Anja, Moonchild and Curt Vile, shotgunners and a sword-maniac juve.

 

The Sisterhood have a run in with the militia

Part of the harbourside at Duct's End

The Emperor's Reeves turn up to cause trouble

Night falls over Duct's End

More of Pete's lovely paintwork

 

Yes, that IS a tiger rat skin!

 

The Redemptionists plough in with their buzzing weaponry... and flames!

The Tanks Girls arrive rather late to the party, but still managed to prove themselves vicious underdogs!

New Year-amunda 2015

Oakbound's Winter Newsletter

A rundown of the year from Oakbound- enjoy!

Oakbound's Winter Newsletter

Dragonmeet Rundown

Time to tell you how great Dragonmeet was...

 Explaining Tripods to two groups simultaneously, Andy the Balrog takes the Peg boys through a demo game.

This was our first year attending Dragonmeet as Oakbound Games and it was a brilliant experience. Their new venue at Earl's Court seems to have been a massive success as over 1600 people attended over the eight hours the event was running, that's an average of 200 people per hour- and most of them seemed to stop at the Oakbound stall. The stands were really very good value for the size and space and there was ample on-street parking around, despite the arrival of a Christmas Market on the main road nearby.

It was really great to see so many little companies and independent games creators and traders around. In contrast to the Games Expo, where there was lots of independents but most people seemed to be shopping at Leisure Games' discounted stand, it was brilliant to see so many of the little people shifting so much stock and receiving so much attention. We sold out of miniatures and nearly sold all our remaining copies of Tripods, not to mention taking orders on a few more of the limited edition Woods background books.

In the gaming room there was plenty of space, but so many varied games going on, including an enormous Pandemic challenge. Sadly we didn't get to watch much because of being so busy, but being positioned next to the door we were party to a lot of the highs and lows of the attempt to halt the infection! We also got to participate in the splendid peg game...

I finally got round to picking up the Investigator and Keeper's guide for Achtung Cthulhu and am looking forward to studying the Third Reich's interaction with the Old Ones. I also got some bargains off the bring and buy (helped to be dropping off stuff as they came in!) and some very nice pyrogravured (not laser etched!) jewellery for Christmas presents.

The atmosphere of the place was really nice, everybody was very positive and there were, to my knowledge, no issues with harassment or derision.

Thanks and congratulations to the excellent Modiphius Entertainment who organised the day, I'll definitely be returning to Dragonmeet!

Dragonmeet Rundown

Lost in the Oakbound Woods part 4- Preparing for Dragonmeet

It's Dragonmeet at Earl's Court this weekend....

Thought I'd better sort out some nice display for Oakbound Miniatures, enter my almost-nearly-finished terrain!

Of course, this is only some of it... it's a small table after all and Tripods! needs some room too! Today's main task has been sorting the water and foliage. As you can see, the tall one now doubles as a point of sale display for blister packs.

Tree branches take two forms. For the barer trees lower down the slopes I pulled sections of hobby lichen and glued them onto the branches trying to get the stalks aligned for a natural look. Higher up the slopes I used branches pulled from one of those toilet-brush-style model railway trees. These are nylon bristles with flock glued on and give a nice foliage scatter and branch cluster pattern. Don't cut them though as you end up with bits of bare nylon sticking out, pulling them out gives them a more natural look. I used superglue with an accelerator spray to get them to stay in place quickly, fiddly but well worth it.

The water on these sections is clear vinyl glued over the pre-painted and textured riverbed. The ripples were made by painting on fast-drying PVA wood glue and the shine on the banks where the stream is trickling down is made by using super-thin superglue dribbled down them, about 4 layers to build up the shine. The superglue mingles with the wet PVA resulting in the foamy look here, which can be stippled around with a stick or old brush to give a flowing effect.

 



 Hopefully they'll show off the minis well enough to get me some sales! If you're in the London area the show is dead cheap to get into and the gaming lineup looks brilliant, stop by and say hi!

Lost in the Oakbound Woods part 4- Preparing for Dragonmeet

Steampunks in Spaaaaace!

We had a jolly splendid time this weekend at the spiffing Steampunks in Space event at the National Space Centre. Having missed seeing our friend Thaddeus Tinker, Lady Elsie, Jack Union and the fabulous chaps and chapesses from Modiphius at the Asylum this year it was great to have a chance to catch up.

We were there with Tripods! which you might remember is out War of the Worlds themed board game. Tripey had a full makeover for the event, which was just as well, for we were confronted by the terrible sight of a full sized Tripod looming from the shadows!

We'll be at Dragonmeet this weekend with Tripods! and hopefully the first batch of castings from The Woods Kickstarter so if you're London way it'd be great to see you. And if not, you can still order Tripods! by following the links at The oakbound website. Perfect Christmas present for the discerning Steampunk, Board Gamer or Sci Fi fan. Ooooolaaaaaa!

Steampunks in Spaaaaace!

Tripods attack Leicester!

It's all been a bit quiet on the Martian front lately...

No, not the Android's Dungeon game, the Oakbound Games board game Tripods! We took the game to the UK Games Expo back in April where it was very positively received despite being pipped to 'New Game of the Year' by Asmodee's "Splendour". That hasn't deterred us, since Asmodee themselves are now reviewing Tripods! with the possibility of becoming involved at some point in the future.

Well there are a few copies left from our original print run, and your last chance to pick one up may be coming up in the next few weeks. First up there's

STEAMPUNKS IN SPACE!
Leicester, National Space Centre
29-30th November

and then

DRAGONMEET
London, Earl's Court
6th December


If you can't make it to either but would like to know some more about this War of the Worlds boardgame you can find us on Facebook and at the Oakbound website.

Tripods attack Leicester!

Oakbound at Dragonmeet

The very excellent Modiphius Entertainment are throwing their biggest ever DRAGONMEET on the 6th December at Earls Court. Oakbound will be there along with many other brilliant companies, guests and scores of games.

Oakbound at Dragonmeet

Tripods! The British await the invasion....

As news reaches me here that the boards, cards, boxes, dice and other its and pieces are currently winging their way across the Atlantic the industrious Brits have also been busy.


Those following on our facebook page will know we've just wrapped up a competition to design some Victorian meeples for the game. The competition has now closed, the winners have been chosen and the prototype meeples have been produced so without further ado allow me to unveil.....



The NEW LONDON POPULACE as it awaits invaders from elsewhere:

 

 

Now to officially coin the term "Meepods"! :D

Tripods! The British await the invasion....

The flare coming from Mars.... Tripods! begin their journey to earth.

 

 



I've just placed the order for the first batch of Tripods! the board game, scary but exciting times for me... had to check a hundred times to make sure there were no typos! The estimated shipping date is April 11th so should be here in plenty of time for the UK Games Expo, even given Custom's principle of holding stuff for ages!

The flare coming from Mars.... Tripods! begin their journey to earth.

The Martians are coming!!!! For real this time!

That's right folks, those of you who've been following for a while might remember Tripods! the board game we've been developing for some time over at what's now called Oakbound Games. Well, now you can buy this exciting survival game and take to the streets of Victorian London as you attempt to save the population from the wicked Martians intent on sucking out your bodily fluids through a straw!

We're having a limited print run of these games produced and are expecting to sell out, so to avoid disappointment place your order now. The games should be ready to dispatch by mid May. You can grab yourself a copy at

the Oakbound Games website

where you can also have the opportunity to add your own handiwork to the game (and win a fabulous Tripods! t-shirt) by entering our Meeple Designing competition.

The Martians are coming!!!! For real this time!

THE GRAND VICTORIAN MEEPLE COMPETITION!

Oakbound Games needs You!

We're almost there with getting Tripods! released, but now there's something fun adrift in all the administration...

We get to design our own meeples!

Yippee!

So come on guys, what does a VICTORIAN MEEPLE look like?

All the guidelines are on our website, pop on over to the Tripods link on the left to find them, but they're basically this.

You can have up to 10 different Meeple designs
Meeples must be able to stand up easily
Meeples must be no more than 15mm wide and 30mm high
Designs must read in silhouette, no stickers
Try to steer away from fine bits which might snap off
Email designs to Geoff@propworkshop.co.uk, they'll be posted on the facebook page
You have until the 1st April

The winner will have the joy of seeing their design produced and sold with the Tripods! game, their name credited in the rulebook and a limited edition TRIPODS! T-SHIRT.

THE GRAND VICTORIAN MEEPLE COMPETITION!

Red October... Red Weed that is!

Well folks, it's October and that means there's only 31 days left to pre-order your copy of Tripods! the War of the Worlds board game with all its Victorian Martian invasion goodness. Here's a little video to whet your appetite and show you what your £35 gets you, besides hours of family-friendly fun for the winter!

Please excuse the fuzziness, my camera doesn't do video well. The graphics are nice and sharp I assure you! If you'd like the full, annotated version of the play-through visit our facebook page here.

Red October... Red Weed that is!

Tripods! new Facebook page

You can now follow everyone's favourite Martian invasion at

Tripods! the board game

featuring an unboxing, video run-through and detailed photo album guide to playing. The video is reproduced below:

Tripods! new Facebook page

The Comet Has Landed! TRIPODS! has launched!

It's official,

Tripods! the board game of Martian Invasion in Victorian London is available to buy RIGHT NOW at the game crafter

Of course, if you're not in States shipping's quite pricey right now- so we're trying for a European production run which you can support by pre-ordering your copy now at www.indiegogo.com/projects/tripods-the-board-game and spread the word, we need to sell 400 copies to fund the print run! If you want to take the quantity up with anyone, most of that is tax for the UK government!

 

Tripods! will be available to play at the Asylum Steampunk Festival in Lincoln this weekend (website), you'll find us in the Duke William on Bailgate from 11-4 and, even better, you don't need to be a Steampunk or have a ticket to get in! Just come say hello. We'll also be at Bristolcon on the 26th October and are open to invites to any other events you may care to have!

 

The campaign closes on the 31st October, but don't give us a Halloween trick by waiting until then! If we clear the target early there'll be reward perks available such as some juicy metal Tripod minis which will be strictly for campaign backers only!



The Comet Has Landed! TRIPODS! has launched!

TRIPODS! The Invasion of the US has begun!

That's right folks, you lucky people in the US can now purchase a copy of Tripods! The War of the Worlds board game by visiting

The Game Crafter

Of course, if you're elsewhere in the world you can buy from there too, but the postage is quite pricey. An Indiegogo campaign for a UK/European launch will be starting very, very soon. Keep posted for updates, or email Geoff@propworkshop.co.uk to be added to the mailing list.

TRIPODS! The Invasion of the US has begun!

The Eve of the War.... TRIPODS! prototypes arrive.

The prototype copies of Tripods! arrived earlier in the week... after sitting in the sorting office for ten days. Four shiny new sets to play with and drum up interest for the European print run. Potential US customers will be able to order these sets direct from the manufacturer from next month, the Kickstarter for the UK and European release will be happening in October so the games should be ready for December. We'll need 300 orders to go ahead so please spread the word and watch this space for all your Christmas shopping needs! If we clear the required total there will be some funky additional goodies too as a thank you.

The Eve of the War.... TRIPODS! prototypes arrive.

It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind!

Coming soon- Tripods! The board game

As of this afternoon, four prototype copies began on their way to England.
I believe fired direct from Mars by some kind of enormous gun.

It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind!

Tripods! Board of this game already....

This week I have uploaded the artwork for the board game, ready to be printed. Now I have to work on the cards and have patience whilst my lovely partner paints the stunning images for the box and character art. Here's a sneak preview of the board as the game starts:

And as the Red Weed takes hold:

Tripods! Board of this game already....

From the timeless worlds of space... The martians have landed!

This time it's not about those pesky Techpriests, for something else lurks on that dark, forbidding planet!

-----------------TRIPODS!--------------------

I've mentioned to some people how I've been making a War of the Worlds based board game called TRIPODS! which is currently in playtest stages (If anybody happens to be of the steampunk persuasion and attending the famed UK convivial 'Weekend at the Asylum' in Lincoln you may have the chance to play (and even take home if you're VERY lucky!) one of the first prototypes. I finished the Tripod model this morning and it has been posing for shots which will be turned into artwork for the game. The pen and ink sketches for the board and cards have been completed but my other half is going to produce oil paintings for the characters and Tripod art over the next few months, based on photos now taken.

  

Here's a brighter shot for an all-round view. I wanted the Tripod to look like it had a kind of musculature, the book mentions that Martian technology seems to have evolved without the wheel and it seems the best way of avoiding any kind of rotary motion in creating a machine is to use a kind of  advanced 'smart' technology, using memory materials to create sinews and tentacular devices. The 'hood' of the martian machine is based loosely on a cobra and intended to give an impression of the shape of the creature within, with a few of the pilot's creepy tentacles protruding from gaps in the scales. It's hard to see from this angle, but the top of the Tripod has a hatch where the martian enters, the ridged panels down the 'spine' of the machine extending to form a ramp for entry. The arrays around the front of the hood are mirrors and lenses for increasing visibility, an extension of the periscopic device used to survey and aim the heat ray from the cylinder pit. The heat ray itself is the small brass 'funnel' wielded by one of the machine's tentacles. There is a similar box from which the black smoke issues. It looks fairly harmless until....

Kazzzzzzaaaaappppppp!

I'll post some more pics of the game art as it progresses.

From the timeless worlds of space... The martians have landed!