Model For The Good Store

"And here is where we thought about putting in a cafe."

This business is one of constant brainstorming for the successful. For most stores, which I will maintain are not very good (fight me), the answer to all questions is often doing the thing you're doing now, but better. More inventory, better trained staff, better events, an improvement process and an upgraded look. Most stores don't need a cafe to be relevant.

They should know by looking around where they could spend the time or money. You could expand and upgrade for quite some time, really, but most stores struggle on a daily basis and never get the chance. It's the curse of under capitalization in a low barrier to entry market. Often it's not even about money.

Visit enough stores and there are simple improvements that just take elbow grease. For many it's as simple as picking up the trash you can see when you look in the window, or re-arranging the product on the damn shelves. Basic retail. Problems I saw throughout Pennsylvania and New York this month. One or two of those stores ran a super tight operation on what you could tell was a low budget operation. One was scrappy and organized and had family and part time staff stocking shelves on a Sunday. That made me happy.

The idea we need to diversify into some new business model is compelling, mostly because successful business owners look for trouble. We want new problems to solve, not the same old problems. I preach how a Unique Value Proposition, over time, eventually becomes only a Useful Value Proposition and then No Value Proposition.

The next thing is a real struggle. But I'm also thinking now that running a really, really good retail model that focuses on serving the community can be Unique. I'm loathe to say this, really, because most of my peers think very highly of themselves. Most store owners think their stores are much better than they actually are. This is often because we don't know how to measure. We don't know how to look at our stores with clear eyes. Most store owners often don't get outside of their local bubble (why I like to visit stores). We also can't even decide what good is.

Get a dozen game store owners together (if you can decide what that means) and they'll argue, Clintonesque style, about the meaning of the word good. Good for one is the most profitable, while other owners will argue that stores aesthetic hold it back from that desired profitability. Some will claim they only meant to serve a small market when they made their polarizing choices. Good to you may just mean a steady paycheck.

The debate about Wizards of the Coast Premium stores elucidated much of this. Other people, not even store owners, are telling you what they believe is good, with rewards attached. Store owners hate this. Try to help one of these store owners with their problems and they will quickly produce reasons for why they do a thing badly. Alright, alright. Maybe you need a cafe after all. I should mention Premium rewards a type of existing store and there are plenty of good stores that don't meet that criteria. It doesn't make them less good.  All Premium stores should be good (a debate in itself), but not all good stores are Premium.

This leads up to my visit with Millennium Games in Rochester New York this week. It's an example of doing the standard model, for a long time, really, really, well. It's notable to me because it's a large store that clearly engages in best practices and a constant improvement process, rather than some unique, large store model. Also, when I say standard model, I'm talking about a basket of game retail best practices, since baseline game stores, as I've postulated, kind of suck.

Millennium is unique as a large store because most large stores appear to have teleported from the past, their inventory, and unique practices, not particularly replicable intact. Other stores appear to have been built from whole cloth with buckets full of money. Millennium is a best practices store, only much, much bigger. As I can't time travel and I don't have buckets of money, this is compelling as a model.

As you walk in, it looks brand new, because they have a process and budget for constant improvement. The retail space is vast and the game space comfortable. There are about 100 photos on my Facebook author page (please subscribe). If I sound like I'm heaping on praise, it's because it's a model for the future, unlike other big stores which are great, but mostly as interesting anomalies. Millennium got there by doing the thing, year after year, only better each time. It's the same thing I do at a smaller scale, and you might be doing. That gives me hope both for myself and for retailers in this trade.

Suck Less

Beyond The Oscars

Image used for criticism under "Fair Use."

"In many ways, Oscar hype and hoopla is similar to that of college or professional sports — it's an entertaining competition that's easy to become temporarily absorbed in, but one we know has ultimately no real effect on our lives. Most of the time, we leave it at that — the winners win, the losers lose and we all move on."

- Chelsea Samelson, New York Post.


As a black movie fan who has certainly seen his share of tasteless racism on film, I simply couldn't bring myself to care about the controversy surrounding the Oscar's supposed "whiteness". I've made it quite clear in an earlier essay "The Case Against Awards Shows", that these private parties for the Hollywood elite are of little interest to the everyday American. By being a televised event, the Oscars have fooled the American population into thinking that these awards are about them. No, they're not about you. They're about the celebrities. It's an opportunity for wealthiest entertainers to show off just how great they are, and that their greatness demands attention from the rest of us. Indeed, this elitism is only boosted by the ordinary Americans who waste four hours of their Sunday to view it. This masturbatory ritual of staring uncomfortably at your rich neighbor's RSVP celebrations have given viewers the illusion that they're supposed to get something out of it. They don't vote for any of the films, yet, they expect the Oscars to actually give something to them? Nonsense. To be fair, it's not as if we've ever had the opportunity to do so. Hence, throughout these shows, we (the 99%) are virtually nonexistent. Only a view count, not a participant.



I don't think very highly of the Oscars, and neither should you. The people behind these shows clearly don't know what they're doing. These trophies have gone to the insufferable likes of Gigi, Crash, and Brave. Should the opinions of these few really matter to our personal tastes? It seems unhealthy to the arts that we must seek validation with gold trophies and cocktail parties. There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we think of art. We need to think beyond the Oscars, and see art on its own terms, not in terms of the awards that they garner. Now I don't mean to strip the Oscars completely of any value they have brought to the medium of film. I've even quoted Tom Cruise's moving statements on the importance of film after September the 11th. No doubt, these Oscars have been helpful in bringing attention to good filmmakers and good performances, and of course, when one achieves recognition for their hard work, they deserve applause. Some say that the Oscars don't do enough to recognize black art, however, and that they're "too white." It's of little controversy that these awards shows are largely run by white people, so one could call them a "white people's award". My question is this: Since when does black art need the approval of a white people's award?

It doesn't. In fact, many black artists have been recognized by the NAACP Image Awards and the BET Awards. Of course, it's expected that black art be celebrated at these shows, so it dosen't have to compete with white art. Yet black art does get recognition in our society, even if one doesn't see it in the Oscars. Brandon Patterson has suggested that this emphasis on the Oscars seems to send the message that black art is more meaningful when it gets a white recognition,

"Other Black people seeing value in our art doesn't mean as much as White people seeing value in it. So we have rappers who brag about how many Grammys they have instead of how many BET Awards they've won; Beyoncé and Jay Z rarely attend the BET or Soul Train Awards even when they're nominated, but attend the Grammys yearly even when they're not; and Black people get upset when a Selma or a 12 Years A Slave doesn't win every Oscar or Golden Globe that they think they deserved, but don't care who's nominated for what at the BET Honors," (Politic365).

Even so, take someone like Sidney Poitier, who was the first black man to win the Oscar of Best Actor. A fine accomplishment, sure, but Poitier's not a fine actor because he's got a gold statue in his closet. It comes from his riveting performances in some of the most socially conscious films of the period. He is great not because of his Oscar, but in spite of his Oscar. Some of my favorite performances in film, Jack Nicholson in The Shining, Kim Novak in Vertigo, Denzel Washington in Malcolm X, and Spike Spencer in End of Evangelion have never won one of those goddamned naked men of gold. That Selma didn't win Best Picture shouldn't have mattered, because that film's greatness shouldn't need a Oscar. I'd also like to see what black celebrities are doing on my behalf, before I start demanding they get more golden trophies.

In any case, I say let the Oscars be as white as they damn well please. You heard me. As far as I can tell, the selection of mostly white nominees hasn't broken any of the Academy's rules. The Oscars don't have to be diverse or politically relevant, they just need to select the films that the Academy thinks are the best, not what we think are the best. We don't always have to like the choices, I clearly don't, but again, we aren't the ones making them. To complain that the Oscars have picked too many "white" films implies that "talent" shouldn't be the criterion for selection, but diversity and political relevance. If that's what people want, then quotas should be installed, x number of black, gay, female, etc. artists need to be selected. Just don't be surprised, however, if awards are given to people like Tyler Perry and Dinesh D'Souza. To say, however, that the Oscars are the final, only, and best statement on film in America, implies that, based on the winners, white males are better at filmmaking than damn near everyone else. I'm not saying that. I'd never say that. We shouldn't let wealthy elitists be the final word on American movies (though their opinions are duly noted). Yet when it comes to the point that Al Sharpton is creating an Emergency Task Force, I start to worry that we care too much.

Keep in mind that this whining over the Oscars all sounds rather superfluous to people who haven't even seen these films. I, for one, couldn't afford to see any of the films nominated for Best Picture, but now I'm suddenly supposed to care because some of them are too "white"? If Selma (a film I haven't seen) wins plenty of Oscars, what good is that to me? Not much. A certain degree of wealth and privilege is needed to have seen enough of these movies to care about what's going on. Which is why nearly all of the folks invited to the Oscars are excessively wealthy, just look at their red carpet dresses. I already feel like an outsider. Yet, this is now a civil rights issue that deserves my involvement? Don't make me laugh. This isn't to say that we don't need diverse films, or that racism in movies still isn't a problem (it is), but films are different from awards. Remember that.

Celebrity culture, of course, is why many people watch the Oscars, and why they're televised. Even though it would do the rest of us a lot of good if these shows were permanently pulled from the networks, the peons of America would undoubtedly protest on behalf of the royals. Celebrity culture has a particularly nasty strain on the Left, where Oliver Stone is a historian, Sean Penn is a peace activist, and Russell Brand is a revolutionary. This isn't to demean all celebrities, many of whom are great people, but dammit, why do we continue to treat them like they're center of the world? Why do we continue to see a celebrity awards show as so important to our tastes on film? Even George C. Scott once called the Oscars "a two-hour meat parade," and America still doesn't know why.

I hope that one day, we can look beyond these Oscars.



Bibliography

"Obituaries: George C. Scott: The man who refused an Oscar." BBC News, September 23, 1999. Archived by the Wayback Machine, March 11, 2014. Web. https://web.archive.org/web/20140311095900/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/obituaries/455563.stm

Patterson, Brandon. "Who Cares that Selma was Snubbed by the Oscars? I Don't." Politic365, February 6, 2015. Web. http://politic365.com/2015/02/06/who-cares-that-selma-was-snubbed-by-the-oscars-i-dont/

Samelson, Chelsea. "Why fuss over the Oscars?" New York Post, January 21, 2015. Web. http://nypost.com/2015/01/21/why-fuss-over-the-oscars/

SOMA - Two Years Later

It's over two years since we released SOMA, so it's time for another update on how things have been going.

First of all, let's talk about sales. As I've said many times before, sales are not straightforward to count, and the number you come up with is reliant on many different factors. For instance, SOMA was part of the Humble Monthly Bundle, which meant that everybody subscribing to that service was able to download a copy of SOMA. These are not really "sales", so should we count them? It's also worth noting that pricing differs a lot between different sales. A single unit sold at full price means more than one sold when the game is 75% off. I think it's important to think about these things, and remember you can't directly compare the sales of two games.

With all that said, what I'm going to do here is to basically take every single download of the game as a sale. Doing so gives us a total of 650 000 units, a 200 000 units increase since the the same time last year. This is a very good result.

It's interesting to compare how sales have changed across the two years for SOMA. The normal day-to-day income, when there are no discounts or anything, is 33% of what it was the same time last year. However, when the game is at a discount (such as a Steam summer sale), the generated income is about 75% of what similar events generated last year. This means that discount events are extra important this year.

Taken as a whole, the sales that we make from all our games will cover all our expenses every month, and even make us a profit. This is quite amazing. Given that we currently have about 16 people working with us full time, we have a pretty high burn rate, and to still be able to support all that on your ongoing sales is great.

This means that we still have a good buffer from our launch sales. While it will by no means last forever, it gives us peace of mind and lets us take the time we need. While we'll continue to generate income next year too, I'm not so sure it'll be enough to cover all our costs. This is when that initial buffer comes in handy, and will let us continue working on our projects without any monetary worries. To put things in perspective, it is worth noting that most companies start using up their buffer just a few months after release, so we are in no ways in a dire situation right now - quite the opposite!

However, this also makes it very clear that we need to be able to release games at a more regular rate. We were lucky that SOMA was a hit, and that the money is easily able to sustain us for the time we need to complete our next project. Had SOMA been a flop, the situation would have been a lot worse now. That's why we are focusing on becoming a two project studio, and the goal is to be able to release a game every two years. Had we managed to set that up prior to SOMA, we would be in the process of releasing a game right now. Needless to say, it would makes us a lot more financially stable, and able to handle a less successful release. In turn this should allow us to take greater risks, which I think is a key element in being able to create great games.

This leads me to another thing that's been on my mind. A few months back someone asked me: "How do you get people to buy your game?". This is a fairly basic question, but it really made me think. When it comes to sales made during launch, the answer feels quite self-evident. We generate a lot of buzz, there are reviews, let's plays and so on. There are a number of fairly obvious ways that people learn about our game.

But what about the customers that buy our game two years after release - why do they do it? That's a much harder question. I think most of this is via word-of-mouth recommendation. When the right circumstances arise (e.g.: "I feel like playing a game tonight") and when external influence (e.g.: "your friends said they liked our game") is strong enough, that's when a sale happens. I know that Steam and other stores have some forms of discovery tools, but I don't think they play a major factor. What really matters is not a single source, but the slow build-up of good will around a game - eventually this will make a player consider buying it. Discovery tools, such as "you might also like"-adverts, surely help, but they are just part of a much larger process [1].

Because of this, and considering the sheer number of games that are currently being released, I think the best strategy is to focus on unique experiences. You want to create the type of experience that is not only hard to get elsewhere, but also leaves a mark on those who play it. This is now a core philosophy here at Frictional. I guess we sort of always had it unconsciously, but we have now made it official. Our goal is to create games that are more than forgettable escapism. We want people to come out of their experiences feeling changed. A lofty goal? You bet. While it'll be impossible to make sure every single player has this type of experience, it feels like the perfect thing to strive for.

Now I will round of this post with a brief discussion on the status of our current projects.

The first project is in full production, and about 80% of the team is currently working on it. The focus for most of this year has been on creating the first few maps of the game to create a solid vertical slice based on our experiments last year. However, we recently came up with some new avenues that we wanted to explore. The stuff that has come out of this recent detour is feeling really great and I am certain it'll make the game feel very special. All of this came out of what I just discussed: our focus on making games that leaves a mark on the player. I'm not sure we would have gone down this route if we hadn't explicitly stated that goal, which makes me confident it's a really good way of thinking. I'm afraid I can't go into any details on this, other than to say that the project will be horrific in nature. There will be no release this year, but we hope to announce something during the first six months of next year.

As for the other project, that's also going well. We've been a bit delayed due to new tech taking longer than anticipated to develop [2]. The upside of that has been that the game has had  more time in pre-production than any of our previous games. This has been incredibly valuable, as the things we aim to tackle in this game are quite difficult, and allowing it all to brew for a bit has meant many of the basic aspects are clearer for us. This game will be less about direct, visceral horror, and more about the player gaining an understanding of different concepts. This can, as we know from working on SOMA, be quite tricky to get right and requires a slightly different approach than when working on a more direct horror game. Release for this game is quite far off though, so don't expect to hear any concrete details in the near future.

That's it for this update. I'm incredibly excited about the things that we have planned, and I'm very eager to give you all more updates. I also want to thank everybody for the support over the years, and rest assured that while we might not reply to every single mail, tweet, etc. that you send us, we make sure to read every single one!


Notes:
1) For games that are heavily based around online communities, such as a Rocket League, I think things work slightly differently. There is still a word-of-mouth zeitgeist going on, but a lot of it comes from your game become a habit for your players, something that they participate in on a daily basis. This forms a feedback loop that helps drives new buyers, which I think is quite different from how our games work.

2) We are currently working on the fourth iteration of our HPL engine for this game, and due to some of the things we need to be able to do for the game, we've been required to make some major adjustments. These things take time, but luckily we have most of it done now.

Frictional Fan Jam: Winter Modding Event

Screenshot from Draugemalf's SOMA Winter Asset Pack.

Quick overview

Duration: 11th of December until 19th January 2020

Theme: Winter/Hibernation

Medium: HPL engine modding

Submission link: Frictional Fan Jam 2019: Winter modding event submissions

Info

Winter is coming for us in the Northern Hemisphere. Get a hot drink, curl up under a blanket, and start up the HPL level editor – it's time for Frictional's Winter Modding Jam!

Join us for a month-long event focused on HPL modding! You're welcome to participate alone or in a small team (up to 5 people). For peer support, head on over to our Discord server.

Are you an artist, writer, or other kind of creator? You can still participate by teaming up with one of the modders. Head on over to #winter_modding_jam on our Discord and find your team! We will also be holding specialised events for you in the future.

Duration

The Jam will start on the 11th of December 2019 and last until the 19th of January 2020.

You can submit your work on the night of Sunday the 19th, as the submissions will be checked on Monday morning.

Theme

Winter and/or Hibernation.

One or both themes should be present in the Fan Jam entry. You are welcome to interpret them however you wish. The mods don't have to have a connection to Frictional Games titles.

Medium

This Frictional Fan Jam is specifically for HPL modding. You are free to use HPL2 and HPL3, or even HPL1 if you're brave enough.

Aside from the game assets, you are also welcome to utilise other assets you can legally use, or have permission to use from the creators.

You can for example use the Winter Asset Pack for SOMA, made by a long-time contributor and one of our Discord moderators, Draugemalf.

Submitting your work

Upload your mod on a platform like ModDB or Steam Workshop.

For entering the event, please submit a link to your work through the following form:

Frictional Fan Jam 2019: Winter modding event submissions

If you worked as a team, have one team member submit the entry.

All works will be showcased on the #winter_modding_jam_showcase on Discord.

Prizes

The jury of Frictional Games employees will pick the winners of the jam. Discord moderator team will not be voting on entries, and are therefore allowed to fully participate in the event.

The winners will receive A5-sized posters of a game of their choosing sent to their home address (team members will be sent theirs separately). The Frictional team from the Malmö office can sign them if you wish. Once our next project is out, the winners will also receive a download key for the game on an available platform of their choosing.

Depending on the amount of entries, the Malmö office Frictional team will stream all of the entries, or only the winners.

Contact

The Fan Jam is organised by Frictional Games' community manager Kira, with support from the Frictional Games Discord moderators. The easiest way to contact either is through the Frictional Games Discord server's #winter_modding_jam channel. The channel can also be used to share ideas with other community members, get feedback, and look for team members.

If you don't have a Discord account, you are welcome to contact Frictional Games through Twitter or our Contact Form, and we will help you as soon as we can.

For general questions: Contact Kira, for example by pinging them on the Discord channel.

For technical questions: Join our Discord server which has an active modding community.

Have fun, we're looking forward to your wintery creations!

Generation Zero Game Trailer

Generation Zero Game Trailer

Initial release date: 2019

Developer: Avalanche Studios

Platform: Microsoft Windows

Publishers: Avalanche Studios, THQ Nordic

Sails & Sorcery Progress

I have been continuing to develop Sails & Sorcery, Micheal's "Victorian era organized crime" themed game. After a disappointing few tests with the TMG guys at Origins and GenCon, and several attempts to balance the Plunder role, I have come to the conclusion that the way the role works is too problematic -- it cannot be fixed just by tweaking the costs and rewards.

The Plunder Role

The Plunder role allows you to remove opposing pirates from the board. You get some points for this, but the captured pirates go back to their owner's ship to be re-deployed. Deploying pirates to the board helps you win majority in an area, and then they stay in play for later, while Plundering an area helps you win majority in that area for the round, but nothing more. This sounded like a decent trade-off to me, but in practice it always seemed to be problematic. Part of the problem is the ability for a player to wipe another player out of an area entirely, reversing their progress, or cutting them out of scoring. Some of this might be groupthink, but it tends to scare players away from recruiting and deploying pirates (in an area control game about putting pirates on the board and moving them around).

We tried several versions of Plunder costs (capture 1 pirate per icon, pay N icons, capture N-1 pirates, Capture 1 pirate per *2* icons...), and considered several versions of rewards as well (you can capture ships and they're worth points, you can capture ships and they're NOT worth points, you can't capture ships, you get 1 point per pirate captured, you get 1 point per COLOR of pirate captured, you don't get points at all...). Over the different iterations of the game we even tried giving captured pirates back right away, vs the next round, and we experimented with those pirates going back to the player vs back to the general supply. The point is, we tried a lot of variations, and while each idea had its merits, none of them combined to make the role work correctly!

Re-imagining Plunder

A few times it crossed my mind that perhaps Plunder should do something else entirely, but I hesitated to change the effect because I liked the idea of having a way to remove pirates from areas. After all, El Grande (one of the main sources of inspiration for this game) has effects that add and remove pieces from the areas, as well as move them around. After a recent playtest, the idea of changing the nature of Plunder altogether came p again. One player suggested that perhaps there could be some kind of set collection associated with the role. Another something to the effect of digging up buried treasure. The epiphany I had that got me interested in it this time (when I was hesitant before) was this: perhaps there could be a set of "treasure" tiles, which you "buy" with Plunder. Each one could either give you an effect similar to Davy Jones (add one of your pirates to an area and capture 1 pirate from each opponent there), or some set collection scoring icon (like a gem of a certain type).

This way, a player could "Plunder for control" by going for the tiles with effects, or "Plunder for points" by going for the set collection stuff. My first attempt at this format was to make a bunch of tokens like that, put 4 of them on each area during setup, and make the cost of plundering an area go up each time one of them is taken. I figured that matched the Summon and Build cost structure, so it made some sense. I wasn't sure whether to go with the more strategic option (placing the tiles face up), or the more thematic option (face down), so I sort of compromised -- the tiles were face down, and when you plundered an area, you got to look at all the remaining tiles there and choose one. I tried that version last week, and it had some good points and some bad. Nobody missed the thought of having all of their pirates wiped off the board! However, it was weird that the choice went down as the cost went up (assuming the best tiles get taken first), and I would have preferred less setup anyway.

Thinking about it some more, I decided that this new format is similar to the old one, but limited in how many pirates you can capture, so maybe better than effect or points, it should be effect and points. So for the next playtest, I will try a tweak: I'll put 2 tiles on each area, each with a random plunder cost (between 2 and 6). Then I'll have a deck of treasure cards to the side of the board, with 4 of them face up. Each card will have both an immediate effect, and a gem for set collection scoring. This way, the plunder cost doesn't escalate like it does for building or summoning, but it'll still matter where you are when you Plunder, and it'll still be worth having plunder in your deck to afford the higher cost opportunities. And you'll get to capture or add pirates according to one of the available cards, plus you'll score a few points. We'll see if this version feels better.

If that doesn't feel right, another idea is to make the cost "2 + 1/player with presence in the area" -- which would scale in a potentially interesting way, but might not scale well with player count. But it would save the plunder cost tiles, and a little setup hassle.

A word on theme

At the top of this post I mentioned the theme was supposed to be Victorian era organized crime. Michael did mention that when he dropped off the game, but as far as I could tell, the game was a generic pirate game with monsters you can summon. If he hadn't told me he intended the players to be pirate captains backed by countries, doing espionage and etc, then I would never have guessed it. When I told him about this "buried treasure" version of plunder, he suggested we do something more in line with the Victorian era organized crime theme... which made me consider theme in general...

I think it's good to have a specific or interesting theme to a game. The less generic, the better. However, if the interesting, unusual theme looks the same as a more common, generic theme, then Occam's Razor would suggest that people won't even see the interesting theme.

So it's not a surprise to me that a player actually suggested a buried treasure sort of mechanism in this game, which is not intended to be a "pirate" themed game, but which clearly looks and feels like one.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and plays like a duck...

ASOIAF: Rodrik Cassel 40Pt Army

Let's get down to business.

Winter has come.  While there are some people out there that prefer to go maneuver-heavy with Robb or face-smashy with Greatjon Umber, I like going Rodrik Cassel.  The reason why is because his tactics cards are absolutely bonkers and making units Vulnerable just makes a smashy faction even smashier.

First, let's take a look at Rodrik Cassel and see what he offers to our army:

A true soldier.

As you can see, Rodrik is a soldier who has an Order to make the opponent's unit Vulnerable after Attack dice are rolled.  The timing for this is exceptionally important because it's what Sworn Sword Captains have as well and it's considered one of the best 1-point attachments in the game.  Vulnerable is huge for someone like Rodrik because it unlocks his Tactics cards and skyrockets the damage potential of all your units.  Having Vulnerable on something after you charge it would mean you re-roll all hits and your opponent has to essentially re-roll all their successful saves.  It pretty much means the Stark army will obliterate units that have low saves or punch through tougher targets that can normally deflect their blows.  Peeling ranks off enemy units will also keep your units around longer as the enemies' damage potential will decrease.

Let's take a look at Rodrik's tactics cards:

All that martial goodness!

Martial Superiority is one of the best defensive tactics cards in the game.  It triggers off when the enemy unit attacks and that dice rolls less dice AND loses all abilities until the end of the turn.  Now, it isn't as powerful as some of the silences we've been before where it lasts until the end of the round, but this card doesn't need any conditionals like expending condition tokens or anything else.  You cast it, boom, and most of the opponent's plans are foiled.  This card is amazing at stopping something like Gregor + Flayed Men from rolling a unit while you set up for a counter-attack.  To make things even more interesting, if you're going after Rodrik's unit, good luck.  Having Weakened on top of this card pretty much means Rodrik's units going to stay around.  Combat Prowess is a great follow-up card when used with Rodrik's unit or with any unit under the influence of Vulnerable.  What if your opponent rolls poorly and you don't need to spend the Vulnerable token?  Guess like he's being silenced and unable to respond with any defensive tactics cards.  It's really fierce when used on the charge as there are fewer things in the game that interacts with that timing window than when a friendly unit attacks.  Lastly, we have Press the Advantage.  This is another one of those cards that trigger off the attack so you can't use a Sworn Sword Captain's Orders and then play this card because it escapes the window.  What this card does is kick your opponents when they're already down because of the Critical Blows on an already Vulnerable target.  That's why I have taken a unit of Tully Sworn Shields with Rodrik because it makes them one of the tankiest units in the game while giving them the opportunity to do bigger damage than their stats suggest.

Here's the list:

Faction: House Stark
Commander: Rodrik Cassel – Master–at–Arms
Points: 40 (4 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• Stark Sworn Swords (5)
  with Sworn Sword Captain (1)
• House Umber Greataxes (7)
  with Robb Stark – The Young Wolf (3)
• Grey Wind (0)
• House Tully Sworn Shields (7)
  with Rodrik Cassel – Master–at–Arms (0)
• Stark Outriders (7)
  with Brynden Tully – Vanguard Infiltrator (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Sansa Stark – Little Bird (3)
• Petyr Baelish – Littlefinger (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

Let me try and explain some of these choices super quick.  The Stark Sword Swords are simply one of the best offensive units in the game for the cost.  With Stark Fury and 8 dice on a 5-point unit and the ability to make someone Vulnerable, the damage potential for this unit is huge.  Great Axes deal a huge amount of damage and can definitely wreck heavy cavalry if they're already engaged with them.  Robb Stark as an attachment makes them regular infantry speed and gives you the ability to launch yourself out there on a Maneuver trigger on the tactics board.  This makes two units that can do it in the army and that will surprise your opponents a lot!  The fact that Robb (and Bran) come with their Dire Wolves is one of the best things about Starks.  These free wolves not only come with great abilities, but they're a free activation and deploy to be used in battle.  Grey Wind is especially good because he is able to apply Vulnerable onto a unit if already used, or apply it beforehand so it can be consumed using Rodrik's own ability or tactics cards.

I already explained a little bit about the Tully Sworn Shields above, but with Rodrik's tactics cards, this unit becomes a very jack-of-all-trades unit.  It's already super defensive with Shield Wall and 3+ save, but cards like Martial Superiority just takes it over the edge.  While the defensive stats normally lower damage expectations, Press the Advantage and Vulnerable tokens in general greatly increases its damage potential.  As for Stark Outriders, I think they're a great, solid unit at 7 points.  With Brynden Tully however, they can be one of the most annoying units in the game thanks for their great flanking ability and healing on retreat.  A lot of the Stark tactics cards play incredibly well with Outriders as well thanks to their unpredictable damage potential.  Just remember that with 7-point units, you can also decide to trade out the Sworn Shields for a unit of Berserkers if you want some more face-smash.

"And yet you betrayed me.."

As for NCUs, I really like Sansa Stark with Rodrik because of her ability to recycle or tutor for exactly what is needed right then and there.  While we all try and anticipate everything that is going to happen in a game, Sansa offers us extra insurance that if an opponent rolls a 6 for a long ass charge you didn't anticipate and is rolling in with crazy Tactics cards in support, you always have a way to Martial Superiority him into the ground.  For my next NCU, believe it or not, I think Littlefinger is a solid choice for the Starks.  It's just comical that I'm taking both Sansa and Littlefinger in the same list, but his ability to claim Combat/Maneuver that unlocks the secondary capabilities for your Stark tactics cards while still reaping the benefit of other unclaimed zones is amazing.

Try out the list and let me know how you fair!

Fuchsia Malaise Playtest Sessions

Last week, I ran three different sessions in my Cha'alt campaign.  This post will highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Session One

This was on Roll20, and it was kind of a disaster.  Every player seemed to be on a different page or possibly different book.

They arrived at the golden gates of A'agrybah, and learned a bit about the city and taxes.  Apparently, paying taxes is a fate worse than death because several PCs (one in particular) was preoccupied by imminent tax collection for the entire scenario.  Always looking for somewhere to hide his meager wealth so the tax man doesn't take a cut.

Another PC just stalked the guy afraid of taxes like a creepy ex-girlfriend.  It was weird.

A third PC wanted to go off completely on his own to the palace (the rest of the party was in the tavern making friends).  And when he got there, he wanted to speak directly to the King.  That didn't happen.  Instead, the PC talked to a servant and when that wasn't good enough, he attacked a royal guard.  The PC almost killed the guard, but reinforcements were called.  And when multiple guards eventually killed the PC, the player complained about poor dice rolls.  Really, dude?  You chalk that fate up to bad luck?  Wow, ok...

A fourth PC decided he would take down the biggest guy in the bar who had two companions sitting next to him.  That lasted a whole 2 rounds until the PC was skewered dead on the end of the barbarian's obsidian blade.

The fifth PC tried to make the most of his adventuring time.  I felt bad for him, since his party just collapsed under the weight of their own distraction or incompetence.

Session Two

Same set-up as before (also a Roll20 game), the PCs enter A'agrybah.  This time they enter the marketplace, find a guide, and get a tour... until a couple of thieves make off with their coin purses.

They track the thieves to a blind alley and combat takes place.  It's quite the battle, ending with the most murderhobo PC ripping the head off a thief when he was trying to run away.

It was fun, and everyone had a great time!

Each of those games lasted about 70 minutes, so there wasn't much time for anything else.

Session Three

This was face-to-face at my FLGS, and a blissful four-hours long.  I'd been waiting weeks for this game.  Crummy weather (ice and snow) almost ruined things, but luckily there was a window.

BTW, all three sessions used my Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 hack of both OSR and 5e.  FYI, the cleric isn't broken!  Not only does he allow the party to keep fighting past the 2nd encounter without having to rest for the day, he allows the wizard to keep casting spells (both during and between combats).

Patrick played a cleric moon-elf, Pat played a fighter blood-elf, Michael played another fighter blood-elf, and Steve played a sky-elf wizard (who became his own familiar).

Three of the four players ran through The Black Pyramid a couple months ago.  Instead of starting at 1st level, I suggested they make 3rd level characters and rolled on that d100 past event random table from How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss.

I introduced some Fuchsia Malaise backstory - the PCs' settlement had been destroyed by off-worlder invaders intent on draining Cha'alt of its most precious resource - zoth.

In order to successfully raid the off-worlder's base, Elysium, they'd need either high-tech weapons, magic items, or both.

Rumors of relics and artifacts within The Black Pyramid abound, so off they went.  As per usual, just the tip of the pyramid was visible, shiny black, the majority submerged beneath irradiated sand.

They met a demon attempting to open up a gateway to some Demon Lord, and decided to help him.  Each PC was bestowed with an infernal blessing, and the gate-opening demon became an NPC hanger-on.

The PCs spent a little time with The Community, but nothing substantial happened there.  Then, they wandered into a Tiki bar and chatted with a demonic vacuum salesman (vacuum sales-demon?) and the negotiations began.  The vacuum demonstration included sucking up some NPC into another dimension (ok, maybe it was demonic).  Two vacuums were purchased.

After that transaction, the PCs felt this would be the perfect initiation for their new demon friend, Qa'atz.  His rite of passage will be to kill the salesman and loot his body as the other PCs watched.

Qa'atz got advantage on a surprise stab to the stomach. Sadly, I rolled badly and Qa'atz missed horribly.  The salesman backed away and disintegrated him in one shot (rolled bad on the saving throw, too).

Disavowing anything to do with Qa'atz, the PCs made their way to a room where a female demon (wow, lots of demons in this session... even for me!) was gifted a magic sword by an infernal council.  The PCs agreed to help her by being their champion and killing the titan Za'argon so she could have a ridiculously large ruby.

The magic sword had an unbreakable glass pommel and a variable plus to hit and damage, so one player suggested the current "+" number would be visible inside the little glass sphere as an indicator.  A brilliant idea and the kind of thing that could only happen in an RPG.

A hive of reptilian insects was in another room, and they became fodder for a fireball spell, as well as, the magic blade.  A decent amount of treasure was found searching the honeycombs.

A wandering humanoid offered to sell his own magic sword.  It had a strange name, Kenyur-Trova'ak. Not having a translation handy, I looked for the closest thing in the Viridian glossary at the back of How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss and came up with "passionate oblivion"... a better translation would be "the strength of nothingness."  Then ended up trading a vacuum and a turquoise slab for the sword.

The last room before Za'argon was full of his devoted worshipers who occasionally offered themselves to the minor god when he was feeling especially peckish.  The PCs didn't think much of them, playing strategy games and plucking their zita'ars.

The PCs had a whiz-bang idea of removing the chartreuse sphere from an adjacent triangle-shaped room so the worshipers could use it as a new age music room with excellent "triangular acoustics".

Unfortunately, Za'argon needed to roll a 1 for him to fail his save.  I rolled a 3, which was damn close.  So, he didn't immediately die.  But the sky-elf wizard did lob a fireball at him.  This little table was rolled on.  The wizard's player rolled a 6.  Ouch!  Knocking half its Hit-Points down, the rest of them dealt damage like true adventurers.

The cleric dropped down onto the titan's head so he could dish out a holy invocation to Lovecraftian abominations.  The fighters (they both had magic swords, but especially the one with the variable +) wailed on him.

Za'argon slapped all of them around with a couple rounds of tentacles, practically killing the cleric.  The wizard asked if it was possible for him to cast a spell to save his companion's life.  I deemed that it was.  The wizard could try preventing the cleric's soul from leaving his body.  The wizard cast his spell and the cleric would need to make a saving throw.  Luckily, he did.

Finally, the killing blow cut the titan in twain.  The PCs looted his chamber, the demon sorceress took her giant ruby, and her champion did not return the sword even though she was done with him.  She vanished into thin air before the PCs could turn on her.

Za'argon's horn bestowed enough power making the party's spell-caster a Very Powerful Wizard (at long last).  He used that temporary power to destroy the enemies within Elysium.  Also, the PCs became 4th level.

Having survived The Black Pyramid was no easy feat.  For years and years, they will be able to tell their children and grandchildren of their bravery, cunning, and unbelievable fortune!

VS

p.s. One thing I like to do is look back at my sessions and see if there's something I could have done differently, that could be improved upon.  The demon sorceress should have been sexier and a potential love-interest for one or more PCs.

The Concept Of Tchekhov's Gun In Games

It is always interesting to create a cris-cross between literature and games. In fact, both worlds are intrinsically connected, and this is especially evident in games with narrative, characters, plot twists etc. I like to think about games as "ergodic literature" — an idea previously discussed in this post.

Here, in this short article, I would like to address the concept of Tchekhov's gun applied to games. Anton Tchekhov (1860–1904) was one of the most important voices in Russian literature. He developed the principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Tchekov said that, if you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or the third act it must be fired. If the rifle isn't going to be used, it shouldn't be hanging there. The Russian author also said that one must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it's not going to be fired. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep.



What does this principle mean inside the gaming universe? As Tchekhov has postulated for literature, in games we also need to create a sense of order and to make sure every single element is relevant. If the scenery displays a highlighted symbol, it should have some function in that stage, like serving as a hint for a puzzle or as an object that the player must collect in order to defeat an enemy.

To further illustrate this, we can discuss a puzzle from the game Little Nightmares. In the scenery, there is a TV that can be turned on and a door that cannot be opened. But, previously, the player received a piece of information: in the other room there's a bizarre blind create that is attracted to sound. So, you must turn on the TV, get close to the door, and wait until the monster opens it, so that you can walk into the next room. Check the video below:



In this example, imagine if the TV was just a decoration, something useless in the puzzle flux. It would make no sense in the game and it would be contrary to the concept of Tchekhov's gun.

This is the point I wanted to make with this short article: everything must be interconnected and play a role in your game.

I'll talk more about the overlapping universes of literature and games in the next posts.

#GoGamers

Warlord Germans...I Had No Idea....

Warlord Stug III D

With infantry support

Warlord infantry section

After years of slagging off 28mm WWII figures a combination of circumstances have led me to dip my toe in the water. To put it simply, I was pleasantly surprised, a lot of the figures I'd seen have been the late war, overly "heroic" (read: Fugly) style, which remain pretty horrible. Then I discovered these early war Warlord plastics, much different, presumably a different designer, nicely proportioned, and as with so many plastics these days, really cleverly designed in terms of pose compatibility within the sprues. I enjoyed putting together the plastics, took me back to the old Airfix multi-pose kits (remember them?)  they fit together well, and have some cracking pose combinations.

Then the painting, great fun...a lot more to work with obviously than 20mm, and the overall design lends it to gaining a decent result with only moderate skill with modern paints and techniques.

These I did with Vallejo block painting, then slopping GW Nuln oil all over, then a 2 layer highlight, before doing the flesh last (Vallejo sunny skin with a Lavado skin wash), my usual old lazy basing of PVA and sand +Army Painter Autumn tufts.

I'll talk about the Stugs a bit later.

All this is for Chain of Command, I've found a group in London who play these terrific rules, so this lot will get their first outing next week. However, I have far grander plans for this lot in the future. 

More to come! 

Independence Day 2020

How To Beat The Backloggery Boss! (Monday Musings 79)

The Backloggery is an amazing site where you can add your entire game collection, and see which games you've beaten, and which needs completion. It's frustrating to see so many games not yet beaten, and this site gives you incentives to slay the Backloggery Boss. Indeed, it's a breath of fresh air when you see your backlog numbers reducing, and you also obtain achievement badges, which is a very nice touch!

They also have features that shows you trends of your backlog against games completed. Upon using these cheese strats, my unbeaten games percentages plummeted! I can't find a link on the site where it lists all of your badges in one place, so I'll make that suggestion!

If you find it very useful, make sure you chose a name that you really want, since you can't change your username as of this writing.

TheBackloggery Trends Chart

Here's my Backloggery link.

I love the site because it's so easy to add, edit and view games, so impressed that I donated to the site awhile back. You can easily add games under a Collection Series, which streamlines, so you can view games even more conveniently.

Given that I have a large backlog (when I started, it was over 100 games), and I felt overwhelmed, but digging into my usual ways of finding cheese methods to beat a boss, I found ways you can cheese and defeat the Backloggery Boss!

I would sell, give away and/or donate all physical copies of games that you never played and really feel that you'll never play again. Don't be upset about giving up these games, for you can borrow those games back from library, or rent from GameFly (my review link) which thus far I had a surprisingly positive experience.

By donating and giving my games away, my backlog was heavily reduced by at least 50%, and I got a nice tax deduction! This is a win-win - you no longer have the guilt of an unplayed game, and by selling or donating, you get money back, and someone out there is enjoying your game so it doesn't go to waste. Through donation and giving away strat, that takes out 50% off Backloggery's health.

I wouldn't include any free games you've gotten through your Playstation or XBox subscription, since there's no "guilt" if you never play those games ever again, since they're free anyways. I also wouldn't include games that you received free in a bundled console package, because often you buy these bundled packages because they're actually cheaper than the console by itself.

Therefore, delete those free games, unless you want to include them as a reminder that this is a game you want to play down the road. On the other hand, if you need a reminder that you own a game, you most likely aren't interested in playing the game in the first place!

Next, I was very upset since I purchased a lot of digital copies of games and DLCs which comprised a substantial portion of my backlog. Upon reviewing The Backloggery FAQ section, it was noted how ownership is unclear, especially since a lot of games are purchased digitally. I was then excited, after reviewing legal rules into digital ownership, that we do not technically own these games at all!

Therefore, I deleted all the digital games I purchased that I don't intend to ever play again! Digital copies also include any DLCs you purchased as well! Often, when I buy DLCs, I already finished the game, and would start on the next, never going back to playing said DLC. Therefore, you can also delete those if you know for sure that you'll never go back to those neglected digital games and DLCs. 

I can't tell you how refreshing that is, since quite a few digital games I purchased tend to be classic platform games, which I tend not to enjoy as much as RPGs, as well as iOS games that may not work on the next iPhone iteration (further, I refuse to buy any more Apple products due to atrocious customer service x 2), and hence will never play those.

Thankfully, Fortnite's Save the World was digital, so I can delete that game. Further, is this a finished game in the first place? I don't think Epic games ever completed it, instead focusing on Battle Royale, so there's no cheating here.

Make sure you label games that don't have an ending (such as Karaoke and Dance games), by labeling them as "Null", which will show up on your games collection list, but not counted toward your backlog. 

By removing the vast amount of digital games and DLCs, that left my Backloggery boss near death at 4.9% health. The remaining 6 games are physical copies that I can easily donate. I'm so tempted to give away or donate Witcher 3 as I don't foresee myself playing the game, given that it's been years since I was thinking of buying it, and then once it was on a huge discount, I purchased it, and yet only played at most 30 minutes! 

The remaining physical games I have are definitely games I will play which include only five, all on PS4: Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remake, Gravity Rush Remastered, Kingdom Hearts 3, Nier: Automata, and Nights of Azure 2.

With my strat of using GameFly, I will be renting games, and only buying a game that I want to play more in depth such as Sekiro. This will prevent the Backloggery Boss from resuscitating.

Clearly these strats are very cheese (which is how I tend to play games), but it works and isn't technically cheating!

Do you find these strats helpful or too cheese, and do you find it refreshing when you reduce your backlog?

The How of Happiness Review

Building A Magnetic Model Transport System

Last June I started collecting Convergence of Cyriss.  Since I was getting the faction almost completely by doing model trades, the project turned into a bit more work than I had planned for it as more than half of what I got in trades were in a horrible state.

That said, I did get most of the faction in one swoop and after a bit of hard modeling work, I had everything ready to go.

Except I couldn't really go anywhere with it because as any war gamer knows, you need some kind of transport system for an army.

That's a lot of CoC!

I've typically used Sabol foam trays carried around in a Battle Foam Pack Air case, but huge based models require specialty foam from Battle Foam, and those are pretty pricey - $23 per huge base.  If anyone knows about CoC, they know you will have at least 3 huge bases, and I ended up with 4 after all the trading was done.

I'm looking at almost $100 in foam just for the huge bases, then at roughly $8 per Sabol tray, I'm easily blowing $150 or more getting everything in foam for this faction.  Then I'm lugging the large pack air case plus an old Sabol Army Transport bag to hold my huge bases if I'm using them in my list pair.

There simply had to be a better way. Then the idea hit me...

Magnets!

I went to the local craft store and bought myself some bins that were the same length and width, but had different heights. I did some pre-measuring of each of my huge bases and my "floating" vectors to check heights.

Each bin is 15.5" x 11.5" and I ended up with 5 bins in total: 1x 8.3" tall, 2x 5.6" tall, and 2x 2.9" tall.  The bins were about $12 a piece, but more importantly I wouldn't ever have to buy more in the future. The only recurring cost for this system is going to be purchasing magnets for new models.

Securing the Models

Magnets don't work on plastic, so I needed to line the bottom of my bins with metal. My local big-box hardware store had 1 foot square steel sheet at about $5 per. Not too shabby.  The only problem was that I'd need to shave off some of the sheet to fit into the bottom of my bins. What's more is that while the overall top dimensions of the bins are the same, the bottoms are not.  

There was a bigger problem. I'm not particularly handy, and I don't have a ton of power tools.  What I do have however is my friend Ray.

This is Ray. Ray is handy. Be like Ray.

Ray is one of those guys who makes his own furniture - as a hobby...and the furniture actually looks good when he's done! He's got tools galore and was kind enough to help me out by cutting my metal for me. I had used a pair of metal snips to cut one sheet and it worked, but it didn't look great. Ray sanded that shit down for me and trimmed it up so it looked better. 

So now I had 5 sheets of steel cut to the right size for my bins. 

Mixing Plastic and Steel

Next up I just gotta stick my steel to my bins, should be easy right?

I tried superglue. That failed spectacularly. The steel pulled right off with a tiny bit of tugging. It worked well enough to hold if I didn't rumble it too much, which was good for a short term solution of carrying the CoC to play games locally. 

So next I decided to buy a two part epoxy that said it would work on metal and plastics.  So I put on my gloves, was really careful, sanded down parts of the steel where the super glue didn't take and weighted down my bins:

After 24 hours of curing....the steel peeled right off with just a little bit of force, just like the the superglue. 

At this point I was done trying to find some kind of glue or epoxy based solution. It was time for nuts and bolts. Luckily the bins I bought had the raised section in the middle where I could have the bolt-ends sit while not exceeding the lip of the base of the actual bin (ie. I won't scratch up any tables due to having bolts on the bottom of my bins). 

Construction Tips

One thing I learned: Drilling through steel sheet isn't great if you don't have special drill bits, which not being a handyman, I didn't have.  You can however put a thick nail through the steel pretty easily, which then lets the drill go through easily and drill through the plastic.  I only hammered my thumb once. Ray would be proud. Sorta. 

Because bolts take up model space, and my huge base solution is kind of tight, I elected to only use two bolts per bin rather than 4. I will see how well this holds up, and if I need to secure it more it's easy enough to mark where to put the holes, remove the plates, make the holes, and re-secure it all. 

That said, there's only a tiny bit of wiggle with the two corners secured as it is, so I believe this setup will work.  Here are my results:

Magnet Advice

I recommend buying strong rare earth magnets for this, stronger than what you'd usually buy if you're magnetizing jacks/beasts. Specifically N52 strength is preferred.  I've gotten some magnets off Amazon but the affordable ones there are generally the weaker kind, so I've preferred to get magnets for this from K&J Magnetics. I'm not affiliated with them at all, but I've used them for years and they deliver quality stuff. 

You can get away with cheaper magnets if you use multiple, and cheaper magnets work well for small based plastic models that don't require as much force. Amazon can help out here. 

I actually had quite a few magnets laying around from years gone by which reduced my magnet purchasing requirements a bit.

That said, once you've used the right magnets, everything stays very secure in the bins. I didn't take a picture, but I was able to turn the bin upside down with the models in it and not have any casualties. 

Carrying Solutions

The final bit that isn't finished yet for this is a bag to hold it all. Currently I use a set of straps I had for carrying a PC around to LAN parties to secure the bins and hold my dice bag + widgets.  This works but isn't exactly pretty.

I am lucky in that my wife is a quilter, and she's currently sewing up a bag to hold this in, complete with pockets, straps for easy carrying, and all the rest. I realize not everyone can do this or has the luxury.  The alternative was trying to find a piece of luggage or a transport/case for a sewing machine that would have the internal dimensions to hold my bins. With better planning up front (buy bins that fit in luggage more easily) this is probably more achievable, but again you're still spending a decent amount of money this way. It's still probably less than a equivalent sized Battle Foam bag + rack system, but it's a lot of work to find the right combo of bin + case. 

Costs and Benefits

I started this project thinking it'd be good long term going forward wargaming wise and would save me money. Did it? Yes, but partially because I've cheated.

I am saving a good bit of money and getting a custom case + transport system, but that's really only because my wife isn't charging for her labor to assemble the bag, Ray didn't charge me for cutting the metal to size, and I don' t have to pay myself for all the work I've done getting the bins setup.  I also didn't have to buy lots of my strongest magnets because I already had a bunch from when I played 40k/WHFB. 

I probably could have just spent the extra money up front and bought Battle Foam's Magna-Rack system and one of their cases. They're pretty damn expensive, and you still have to buy the magnets, but it's basically none of the work and it looks great.  My custom case will look as good if not better, but not everyone is married to a quilter with sewing equipment to make a custom bag. 

The real savings are in the fact that going forward for any new armies I ever pick up, I'm using magnets, not foam. 

Magnets can cost up to $0.50 per magnet of the right size/strength, so 100 models is $50 in magnets. Is there really a cost savings here?  I think so, but in hindsight, it's probably not much.

Typically $50 in foam is not going to store 100 models, especially if you're counting lots of bigger models (30mm to 50mm bases) which take up a lot of foam space, but still only require one strong magnet.   Huge bases (120mm) require multiple magnets per, but even then it's only like $2 in magnets as opposed to $22 for a foam tray. 

You can also use weaker magnets for small based plastic models, where the magnet costs are significantly cheaper, especially if you look around on Amazon where you can get 50 to 100 magnets of the right size for something like $15. 

The real savings comes in the fact that once you've bought+built your bins to transport the minis, you can use them with basically any model set you want. Compared to foam where you need to pluck out whatever kind of foam for your specific models. The other benefit is storing models that have long reach weapons or stick out oddly...like Inverters or Reciprocators. 

When it comes to storing models long term (ie. when I'm switched to another army), I can put some metal sheet in larger storage bins and just put my models into one decent sized bin. This is probably more efficient than what I have to do now to store foam trays for models. 

The other benefit is when it comes to going to tournaments. I can fit my two list pair onto a single baking sheet, which makes for a great tournament tray that securely holds everything. I've already attended one event this way and it has worked out great. The baking sheet was something like $5 and slips easily into my bag. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the project has come out and I've certainly saved some money going this route, but it's definitely a lot of work to get here.