Hobby Dungeon

Over the last few years I've repeatedly stumbled over the work of Alexander from 28 Magazine. Specifically, the work he has done with his Lord of the Rings miniatures. What is so striking to me about these miniatures, is that they fit an aesthetic of LOTR that I have had in my head since I was a child, and which I have not seen for many years. When I was younger I had the 1991 collected LOTR in a single volume, complete with colour illustrations by Alan Lee. This was not long after I had read The Hobbit, and been totally enchanted by the world of middle earth. The combination of these pieces of art (especially being prior to the Peter Jackson films) created a strong image an aesthetic in my mind. It was earthy and simple, and always seemed to in soft pastel colours. I know now that my memories are influenced heavily by Alan Lee's artwork, which itself was not original - only the most recent at the time of my reading. Alan Lee LOTR Illustration All of these ideas of what the Lo...

I am feeling very overwhelmed. I am writing this on Tuesday morning after arriving home on Sunday night at midnight from Dungeon Fest. My mind and body are still recovering from that whirlwind of an event. I know Rat Boy Rory is going to be taking even longer to recover than I am - he birthed this wild event in his brain, and then carried it forward into the world. We owe it to Rory that this event was such a success. And what a success it was! All throughout the weekend there was chatter about what we were going to be doing 'next year', which made us feel like people were excited to come back before they even left. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What is Dungeon Fest? Well, Dungeon Fest is a two day gaming and culture event in Calgary, Alberta that takes heavy inspiration from Under the Dice Fest in Chicopee, Massachusetts. There were full day gaming events of Mordheim, MTG, and Flames of Orion, as well as pickup games of OPR, Turnip 28, Gaslands, Space Hulk, and Mork Bor...