Good morning, boys and girls and other things or people! Autumn is in the air and allergies are stuffing up our noses. School is back in full swing and Christmas preparations or ones for your other favorite mid-winter holiday are in their most fevered planning modality. It is a great day for a short nap and National HeroScape Day (always the third Saturday in October) has just passed us by. That brings us to our very first question for this edition of "Ask Papa-'Scape."
Dear Papa-'Scape,
Our [State name omitted as a courtesy] group did not get together on National HeroScape Day but we wanted to. Some of the members had to look at some land they had recently bought. Others had just gotten married and were much too busy. One had just bought some oxen and needed to inspect the livestock. So we didn't get together. My question is: can we have a tournament or a game day on another day for our National HeroScape Day celebration?
Dear Daisy,
I am sorry to hear of the sorry state of your state. It is always good to get together to play HeroScape, anywhere, any time. But, if you do it on any day other than the third Saturday in October, don't go calling it "National HeroScape Day." You could call it, "We missed NHSD." You could call it, "Dweeb Festival." But to be NHSD it has to be on NHSD. Sorry. -Papa
Now on to a similar yet entirely different quesion, this one nicely passed along by Sweetcurse. (You can pass along questions to Papa-'Scape too. Just send a PM to Revdyer and he'll make sure that I see them. Sooner of later you'll get an answer here.)
My gaming group talks incesantly...hundreds of pages worth of chatting. Unfortunately, itseems utterly incapable of putting together an event. We tried democracy, and we just failed at a dictatorship (Doomtatorship to be precise). I'm considering nepotism, Oligarchy, socialism, rule-by-council and even invoking the Merovingian kings from their graves. What can I do?
Dear Gameless,
If possible, I'd go with those old French kings. They were pretty cool and could pull together a tournament now and then. Nepotism might work if you can find enough nepots, though. Oligarchy is a bit slippery, and while I believe, deeply, in being social, socialism is another can of cats altogether. Dictatership is small potatoes (as the name itself implies). My personal favorite, though, is the "Event Coach." This is a new concept modeled on the Life Coach that has become so popular among people who can't even run their own lives. If you can't run your own tournament, hire an Event Coach. I'll do it for just a few hundred dollars per event, myself.
Hope this helps. - Papa-'Coach
I found this next question at the bottom of my stack of incoming mail. It is from Einar's puppy.
I recently received the object of my desire: The fabled krug pack. It was tapped up, which I found odd, but hey, I won it at a tournament so it could have been damaged. When I took out the figures, I marveled at them. But when I placed Denrick on the board, he was lopsided. There was an extrusion of plastic under neath him, and is that...neon yellow paint on his butt? I think someone took units they liked from that pack, put in the crappy ones, and tapped it back up!
I answered this one last issue, didn't I? Weren't you paying attention? Wasn't I? I don't know. I'm going to go lie down and take a short nap.
Ah, that's better! I'm back from my little nap. So, here's our next question:
Dear Popper-Scrap,
I use the screen name of Abimination. My avatar is a picture of Abimination. What do you think of that?
Dear Abs,
I think it is an abomination. Maybe it is an Abdominalation. It could be the old group Abba. But, it's fine with me. -PS
One final question for this edition.
Dear Paper-Scraps,
Is it OK to write "alot?"
Dear Worried,
If you want to write a lot, I think that is wonderful. The more you write the better you will get at it. Eventually you may become literate. Ultimately you might become articulate. That will please your Grammer and her old lady friends. Then you will know whether to use "OK" or "Okay" or "Okey." You will know how to write right. If you become good enough at it, you might even get to create liturgies which would mean you could write the right rite. That would please your Grammer too.
And that's about it for this time, young readers. Remember to send in your questions. I look forward, backward, and sideways to hearing from you. Now I'm going to go and take a nap.
That's NOT ME, that's Papa Smurf!
Dear Papa-'Scape,
Our [State name omitted as a courtesy] group did not get together on National HeroScape Day but we wanted to. Some of the members had to look at some land they had recently bought. Others had just gotten married and were much too busy. One had just bought some oxen and needed to inspect the livestock. So we didn't get together. My question is: can we have a tournament or a game day on another day for our National HeroScape Day celebration?
(signed) In a Days Daze
Dear Daisy,
I am sorry to hear of the sorry state of your state. It is always good to get together to play HeroScape, anywhere, any time. But, if you do it on any day other than the third Saturday in October, don't go calling it "National HeroScape Day." You could call it, "We missed NHSD." You could call it, "Dweeb Festival." But to be NHSD it has to be on NHSD. Sorry. -Papa
Now on to a similar yet entirely different quesion, this one nicely passed along by Sweetcurse. (You can pass along questions to Papa-'Scape too. Just send a PM to Revdyer and he'll make sure that I see them. Sooner of later you'll get an answer here.)
My gaming group talks incesantly...hundreds of pages worth of chatting. Unfortunately, itseems utterly incapable of putting together an event. We tried democracy, and we just failed at a dictatorship (Doomtatorship to be precise). I'm considering nepotism, Oligarchy, socialism, rule-by-council and even invoking the Merovingian kings from their graves. What can I do?
Gameless in Cyberspace.
Dear Gameless,
If possible, I'd go with those old French kings. They were pretty cool and could pull together a tournament now and then. Nepotism might work if you can find enough nepots, though. Oligarchy is a bit slippery, and while I believe, deeply, in being social, socialism is another can of cats altogether. Dictatership is small potatoes (as the name itself implies). My personal favorite, though, is the "Event Coach." This is a new concept modeled on the Life Coach that has become so popular among people who can't even run their own lives. If you can't run your own tournament, hire an Event Coach. I'll do it for just a few hundred dollars per event, myself.
Hope this helps. - Papa-'Coach
I found this next question at the bottom of my stack of incoming mail. It is from Einar's puppy.
I recently received the object of my desire: The fabled krug pack. It was tapped up, which I found odd, but hey, I won it at a tournament so it could have been damaged. When I took out the figures, I marveled at them. But when I placed Denrick on the board, he was lopsided. There was an extrusion of plastic under neath him, and is that...neon yellow paint on his butt? I think someone took units they liked from that pack, put in the crappy ones, and tapped it back up!
~Cruising with Krug
I answered this one last issue, didn't I? Weren't you paying attention? Wasn't I? I don't know. I'm going to go lie down and take a short nap.
-Papa
Ah, that's better! I'm back from my little nap. So, here's our next question:
Dear Popper-Scrap,
I use the screen name of Abimination. My avatar is a picture of Abimination. What do you think of that?
(signed) Abimination
Dear Abs,
I think it is an abomination. Maybe it is an Abdominalation. It could be the old group Abba. But, it's fine with me. -PS
One final question for this edition.
Dear Paper-Scraps,
Is it OK to write "alot?"
(signed) Worried about this alot
Dear Worried,
If you want to write a lot, I think that is wonderful. The more you write the better you will get at it. Eventually you may become literate. Ultimately you might become articulate. That will please your Grammer and her old lady friends. Then you will know whether to use "OK" or "Okay" or "Okey." You will know how to write right. If you become good enough at it, you might even get to create liturgies which would mean you could write the right rite. That would please your Grammer too.
- Papa
And that's about it for this time, young readers. Remember to send in your questions. I look forward, backward, and sideways to hearing from you. Now I'm going to go and take a nap.
That's NOT ME, that's Papa Smurf!
