The Last Great Scape Hunt

Well I have found another job but it’s kind of sucky. It’s more hours for less pay- not exactly ideal, but at least there will be food on the table.

In preparation (my first day of work is next Monday) I have been examining my budget. Obviously some things are going to have to go, and one of the frills is Scape hunting.

I certainly enjoyed perusing Scape while it was in the stores and even after it was discontinued it has been fun chasing it down- making offers, swaps and yard sailing yard sales. But I guess that’s done now.

How many times have I asked myself “do we really need more?” I have noticed a lot more for sale lately, but it is starter stuff- RotV, SofM and castles. And they go for next to nothing because no serious collector or player needs them and there just aren’t very many new folks getting into it.

My kids and I have been trying to make more intelligent decisions about purchasing previously loved Scape. My kids are my advisors. But they suffer from the same illness that I do- Scape excitement, Scape greed, Scape gluttony or whatever you want to call it. It seems like there are opportunities that will be missed forever if you don’t grab them.

But do we need another master set?

First thought, no.

Second thought... well more terrain equals more heights and you can never really have enough heights, can you? Since we custom almost everything for our own personal game we can always use the figures. We play so much that we actually wear the paint off the dice. I’ve repainted almost all of them- so more dice are good too. So you see how easy it is to talk myself into buying another discount used master set?

But this must stop. We are having storage issues. We have one master set that has not been taken out of the box. We do not need more of what we have. Even if it is a good price, a golden opportunity and a great find.

I don’t know why I keep checking the internet for used Scape. Old habits, I guess. Well I found some locally. A good pile:
3x Rise Of The Valkyrie
2x Swarm Of The Marrow
1 x Dungeon Master set
1x Marvel

1x RttFF
1x TT
1x Jungle
1x Castle
1x - Orm's Return

1x wave 1
1x wave 5
1x Wave 8
1x Wave 9
1x Wave 10

I offered what I thought was a low price, just because I wasn’t interested. The seller countered a very reasonable counter. And I found myself on my last great Scape hunt. Yes, I accepted, was even excited. Can we spare the money, really, no, but it was an opportunity soon to pass.

I agreed to meet at the fellow’s house and do the exchange. A variety of feelings affected my drive. I’m not very keen on this new job and I feel like I’m losing a lot. So part of this was a small rebellion. Another part was just because I love the stuff. I am trying to start up a sort of club for people who might like to play regularly, and we’re trying to smooth out our game system to make it something easy to step in to. I’ve been using that as justification to buy terrain lately. You can justify anything, if you try.

Well, the emotional upheaval of losing a job and getting another that I really don’t like has been more than I could control. Crabby, irritable, at times ridiculously happy- I’ve been riding the pendulum of monstrous moods. I’ve also been screwing up all sorts of things, forgetting details, doing things wrong. In this case I drove across the city to the neighbourhood where the Scape seller lived and didn’t bring the address. I didn’t bother remembering it because I had written it down.

So I couldn’t go. I now have extremely limited internet and email access, so basically I just stood the guy up. I was a little disappointed but what could I do?

He was nice about it though, I got an email form him the next day asking if I’d changed my mind and I said no, I was just stupid. I proposed a new exchange date time, but he never confirmed and I had to leave and so no date was made. Four days later when I was able to get back on line I saw that he had confirmed but of course I hadn’t shown up. He then relisted his stuff for sale, convinced I’m sure that I was just some nutcase, which of course I certainly am.

I resigned myself to not having it. It was for the best. We didn’t need more, and I should hold onto the money. My middle son came home from school that day all excited. He also had a big red carrying sack. He had a friend who was into Scape at some point but hadn’t played in a long time. They were cleaning out, and so 1 RotV and 1SotM and 1 ole castle was being gifted to us. That made me happy. It was sort of like getting a consolation prize. And it was free.

And then the guy, the Scape selling one, sent me another email. It was mine if I wanted it. I proposed a time and we met up. He was a young fellow, maybe 17, and very nice. He said he just didn’t play anymore. He said the thing that bothered him the most and led to a great decline in his interest was that “the company that makes it dumped it”.

I took my time looking through the boxes; I’ve bought enough used Scape to know what to look for. I accept that several figures will be damaged or missing- that’s just the way it goes. I know my Scape well enough to be able to tell which sets are present in jumbled boxes. It was acceptable and we made the exchange. He was happy for the cash and I for the Scape, even though I don’t really need anymore.

At home we had the joy of sorting it all and putting it away. And I do mean joy. I love handling the stuff. It smelled different- it takes a while to take on the smell of my house. It’s almost all put away now, except for the order markers. We have an awful lot of order makers and we don’t use them in our game. Sometimes we use them for other things in the game, as it changes and develops.

I don’t think I’ll be buying anymore Scape for a while; at least that’s what I’m saying quite loudly to everyone and mostly myself. I’ll miss the excitement of Scape hunting though, and the pure corrupt joy of handling plastic that is suddenly all mine... mine... Mine!