An Open Letter to Austin Miniature Gamers and Shop Owners

**CRP** · 08-19-2015, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Caldera02

I've done my part to help organize things like this. Someone else's turn. oh and on Fat Mats...DL won't do it, I've tried. They bamboozled me into thinking they were getting em and turned out it was cheapo garbage.

Yep, I recognize what you have done in the past, Chris. More was accomplished in the year you were organizing things than in past years and a lot was accomplished. I would like to try to get the tables and terrain finished. Fat Mats may not be the solution. But, they do look nice and are becoming the standard across the country. Heck, I would be happy to get rid of the table toppers and get the tables finished as Dan stated above.

Also, I feel that we as a community should lend Wonko's a hand, too. He and Frank have provided a fun monthly/bi-monthly event for years with very little help from the community. I'm not saying we need to devote a ton of man hours but if we can get 8-15 people working for 4-8 hrs per quarter. The terrain at both stores would look a lot better and we would all have a better gaming experience because of it. Also, it is a community building exercise. We had a couple of fun days building tables and terrain for DL.

**mathusala0** · 08-19-2015, 05:18 PM

Officially: Dragon's Lair is under new ownership and has been making slow but steady changes across the store. We haven't quite reached the miniatures section yet but we do plan to take a look at our terrain and are more than willing to organize terrain building events.

Unofficially: Ipersonally want to respond to a few of the points made so I can clear some stuff up.

Terrain storage: Wonko's has a better handle on this issue than DL and as a result has terrain that has held up better. After you play a game, put the terrain up. Don't just pack up and leave a table full of terrain.

This, SO MUCH THIS. If you use terrain that isn't yours please put it up when your done with it. It helps more than anything if it gets put away properly. Your using things that are being lent to you in order to let you have a more engaging and fun playing field. If you owned it at your house you'ed take care of it too so treat the terrain you don't own with equal respect.

I would like to see the stores get real Fat Mats, not green yoga mats that don't fit and cause more issues than they solve. Even if it is just one a month eventually all tables will be covered. I know they are not cheap.

I've done my part to help organize things like this. Someone else's turn. oh and on Fat Mats...DL won't do it, I've tried. They bamboozled me into thinking they were getting em and turned out it was cheapo garbage.

When we ordered the playing mats we were led to believe that they were Larger, smoother, and overall better than the product we received. Trust me when I say that we are already looking into options to make the tables nicer.

And trust me when I say we are just are frustrated as you guys are if not more so as we payed for those mats

Originally Posted by Minus67

Im sorry, but my view is that this is 100% Dragon's Lair's responsibility. I can show up to help but it is part of earning my business.

I strongly disagree. It's both the store and it's customers responsibility to maintain the terrain. The store, as you have accurately put, has the responsibility to maintain tables and the terrain to the best of its ability. But it is also the players responsibility to treat the terrain they get to use for free with respect so that everyone can continue to use it.

Anyways, If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to pm me. Just know that we are aware of the terrain situation.

**eaglesmvp11** · 08-19-2015, 06:17 PM

I'd be more than willing to be a part of a terrain day. It would need to have a clear goal though and a build up. I think if its a vague 'we're gonna build stuff and/or make stuff look like nicer stuff.' thats when you lose people's enthusiasm to be a part of it. Making a few odd pieces or anything that isn't unified like that will mean terrain days without something as impressive or immediately evident to show off.

There's a really cool ice themed realm of battle board. maybe a day of making ice themed terrain, or painting some of DL's grey terrain to fit an ice theme. There's also a lot of the red rock pieces. Maybe another day to do a wasteland/mars/manufactorum theme. By the end of anyone of those days, there will be a really cool themed table that can go up here or on the dlair site, and obviously will be used in the store, which will motivate people to show up for future terrain days. It would be cool if it got to the point where there was an ice table, and a mars table, a ruins table, a grasslands table, etc.

**Geist** · 08-19-2015, 06:22 PM

I have always felt that stage one for terrain day is FIX all the broken stuff. I am sick and tired of the one building that fits a medieval fantasy genere is half a house!!
What I would like to see is one day a week set aside to fix terrain.
Fix all the broken terrain.
Get that done first then grand projects.
Also yes the matts are a sore subject.
Lastly, I am not going to name names, but everyone who took trees for units fillers or took home hills or any other terrain pieces. Stop doing that.
We had 30 of those plastic trees (sets), now I can barely find 4 of the bases let alone the trees.

**noodlers** · 08-19-2015, 06:45 PM

I have always felt for stage 1 is to destroy all fantasy based terrain. I am glad some of you were taking that crap home.

**eaglesmvp11** · 08-19-2015, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by noodlers

I have always felt for stage 1 is to destroy all fantasy based terrain. I am glad some of you were taking that crap home.

fantasy has been destroyed enough dammit.

**noodlers** · 08-19-2015, 06:55 PM

In response to crps original post

I have asked around at other cities and I did not find that the stores had provided either fat mats or terrain

As a result of this factual information my position is that the gaming community is responsible for the mats and terrain that they use at the store.

What I would like is to work with someone at dragons lair to come to an understanding.

**noodlers** · 08-19-2015, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by eaglesmvp11

fantasy has been destroyed enough dammit.

Gw did you a favor by canning that crappy square based game. It's good you've been playing 40k even if you are playing elder.

**Geist** · 08-19-2015, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by noodlers

Gw did you a favor by canning that crappy square based game. It's good you've been playing 40k even if you are playing elder.

Spoken with the insight of true igroance.

**Zoro** · 08-19-2015, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by eaglesmvp11

I'd be more than willing to be a part of a terrain day. It would need to have a clear goal though and a build up. I think if its a vague 'we're gonna build stuff and/or make stuff look like nicer stuff.' thats when you lose people's enthusiasm to be a part of it. Making a few odd pieces or anything that isn't unified like that will mean terrain days without something as impressive or immediately evident to show off.

There's a really cool ice themed realm of battle board. maybe a day of making ice themed terrain, or painting some of DL's grey terrain to fit an ice theme. There's also a lot of the red rock pieces. Maybe another day to do a wasteland/mars/manufactorum theme. By the end of anyone of those days, there will be a really cool themed table that can go up here or on the dlair site, and obviously will be used in the store, which will motivate people to show up for future terrain days. It would be cool if it got to the point where there was an ice table, and a mars table, a ruins table, a grasslands table, etc.

Originally Posted by Geist

I have always felt that stage one for terrain day is FIX all the broken stuff. I am sick and tired of the one building that fits a medieval fantasy genere is half a house!!
What I would like to see is one day a week set aside to fix terrain.
Fix all the broken terrain.
Get that done first then grand projects.
Also yes the matts are a sore subject.
Lastly, I am not going to name names, but everyone who took trees for units fillers or took home hills or any other terrain pieces. Stop doing that.
We had 30 of those plastic trees (sets), now I can barely find 4 of the bases let alone the trees.

Both of these are good points. As someone who is slowly basing his entire army winter themed I'd love to see more ice-terrain.

But as Chris points out, we do need to fix what's there. I think the first stage should be fixing and painting what's there. There are a lot of terrain pieces that would look great with some painting, touch ups or a little TLC and some glue.

I don't know how feasible this is, but if Dragon's Lair is willing to provide some paints and glue, I'd be willing to provide some time. What if one of the tables was left set up just for building stuff? You could check out the paints, glues and stuff (I don't know how they feel about checking out hobby knives...) and one of the tables would be more or less permanently set up to work on terrain. If it's already set up, I think people would chip in more. Would be cool for people waiting for a game to be able to do 15-20 minutes instead of it being a big all day event. Plus that would be a way to get foot traffic a taste of the hobby side of table top games

Thread: An Open Letter to Austin Miniature Gamers and Shop Owners

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