building a "family" gaming table

[forbes]

When my kids where younger the Lego games were good intro games - some of them are actually very interesting games, there is one with knights climbing a mountain to reach a dragon that is quite tactical. They also have an interesting 'build a dice' mechanic which I have thought about trying to port to a table top game.

One thing I found with kids is that they have an innate sense of fairness - they wanted to try Warmaster, but when they go lots of command success in a row (kids with dice!) they thought that this was unfair and I should have a go.

Now they are a bit older they like Song of Blades and Heroes - especially as they can use any figures with it - and they have independently worked out tactics on this - one of them is particularly deadly with her mob of halflings!

[jchaos79]

a mob of halflings... sounds good!

[cjbennett22]

With all this talk of family gaming, a concern that always pops up in my mind, is that of violence and also the human figure, mainly the female body portrayals.  One of the reasons why I really like Heroquest, looking through everything I fail to notice really ANY blood or gore or even scantily clad women.  How much of a concern of those images is it for everyone else?  I have no fear for my 2 sons in seeing some blood or gore as long as it is depicted by an artists hand in the old comic fashion.  Heck, yesterday my son was playing with the body of a mouse that drowned in our pool that I had just taken out with the skimming net and pole so I know gross things are all around and I am not one of those nancy dads. 

I kid you not my son wanted to "tickle him to make him feel better"  LOL
Actually when I think about it, Games workshop does do a pretty good job at keeping those shots out of their games but they always seem to leak in from around the edges.  One thing that is constant in all table top war games, people or things get killed.

This weekend will be the table top and from then on the other things that will make it more of a table, I might add a fold away laptop bracket.  I built it up with 2x4's like the walls of a house so I could put in an outlet later with an extension cord to plug the table into the wall.  I have a piece of drywall right now for a table top and I really just don't see it, I am moving around so much playing games on it that I would hate to put anymore out for people to need to move around or to push them further away from the table top.  Oh also, a large paper roll hanger so the kids can have plenty of surface area to color and finger paint on.  I'll start buying some cheap revel models to let my oldest son paint, see how he takes it, I'm sure ill need to literally hold his hand through the whole thing but it should be fun for him.  He always asks to go to "paint store" and play with the trains, Ryders hobby shop, my local GW retailer where I buy my paints and supplies.

Oh and happy fathers day to everyone, kids are exhausting but man they are also so much fun!

[cjbennett22]

got the table top done.

2 pics below.....building it and installed it.

[cjbennett22]

and I found a better picture of the long cubby I put in.

[forbes]

The finished table looks good.

[Tiberius]

Looking awesome.  You have really brought it all together!  I envy the space on a nice big table top like that.

So I confess I don't really know much about Hero quest, but I have heard a lot of people talking about it.  I see that the first edition is from 1989.  Still a good game though?  Are there new editions?

[mlkr]

Nice result


/Mlkr

[cjbennett22]

Heroquest is ridiculously simple. I mostly got it as it was a game i missed out on when i was growing up and actually found an auction on ebay that the seller didnt have a clue and didnt take but 2 pictures or list anything about it so no one else bid on it and i got lucky, it was a 45 dollar great condition 99.9% complete game. It even came with a collection of old ral parthas for whatever reason. Second reason i got it was to remove my wife's putrid party games and make everyone play an actually fun game. Like i said, it is ridiculously simple. Thirdly, i made rules to integrate it into my campaign stuff along with man owar. If you can find it for cheap 3bough then i would suggest you buy it.  My nearly 4 year old can almost play it.

[cjbennett22]

here it is with handles, the game I was playing was just out of boredom and the dwarves, even with a dwarf king with command of 10, failed a lot of orders and got routed!

The next step is to order a roll of the large format paper to size up the overall diameter and then to make a dispenser for it for the end that is currently up against the wall.  This will be under the tables overhang so it will not add to the overall length of the table.  I will probably need to drill holes for pegs that will hold up a new shelf in the bottom left hand cubby that currently has the little puzzles in it.

[Irisado]

If anyone is interested in discussing Heroquest in more detail, we have a board for this very purpose: http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?board=56.0.


Great work on the gaming table.  You've put a lot of work into that, and the results are impressive.

[Tiberius]

Wow, that is beautiful.  Those black handles, the white paint.  That is really amazing work.  You should be very proud.

[cjbennett22]

I used nails instead of screws for the table top construction and even though the nails are punched below the surface of the wood they still show as little black dots.  The handles then had to be black and do work very well.  Thank you everyone.

Once the table is done I can get back into my projects to finish my armies and magnetized and boxed instead of just sitting loose in some trays like they are now. 

Cant wait for the kids to get old enough to actually use the table!  HA