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Originally Posted by TREX
ARV is a new map building group dedicated to making Heroscape maps that are tournament worthy. We hold contests that people can participate in. We use their maps in our tournaments, test them, give feed back on them and put the most balanced and worthy in our tournament pool. I mainly started helping them because I made their logo in photoshop and have been doing all but one of the contest prizes for the group. I since have lost interest in really playing heroscape but decided I'd throw in one more prize. It turned out beautiful. My wife told me not to give it away. Its an Ullar themed dice tower. I'm actually going to get in a frostgrave game in tonight. Possibly a 3 way game. I'm going to post this tower pics and get setting it up.
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That sounds neat Trex. I look forward to seeing it.
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Originally Posted by japes
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Originally Posted by Hahma
I do have to come up with a scenario for the game mat that I will choose to demo The Walking Dead on at a convention in a few weeks. I may end up using Emma's Diner and go from there with cars, barricades, scatter etc. Want to make it co-op for 2 players trying it out and keep it manageable so that they can play a full game, but not be overly long, because I want as many people as possible to try it that want to. The convention goes from 8am to 10pm on March 2nd, so it will be a long day. But it's for a great cause, as the proceeds from entry fee and other things are going to help veterans in adjusting to life after they get out of the service. 22 veterans kill themselves every day.
Here's a quote from the convention organizer on the ArctiCon page:
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This is why we do ArctiCon. Not just for you, our excellent gaming community friends, but also to support those who protects us all. This is what 22 Project is all about. An average of 22 service members suffering from PTSD take their lives daily. Every penny we raise goes to helping then get the support they need to integrate back to life at home afterwards. Thank you for your support!
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Also - U.S. Military deaths since 1999 is 5,273, while veteran suicides since 1999 is 128,480!
Yes, that is a ton! So I'm happy to contribute in whatever way to help with this great cause. |
I don't mean to derail this thread but I wanted to personally thank you for this. My youngest brother is a Vet of Afghanistan. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor for his action that saved several soldiers. My brother was later injured in country and came home to be reunited with the surviving men from his platoon. Of the handful that survived at least two that I know of have committed suicide. My brother tried to do it the slow way with drugs and alcohol. He's now been clean for about six months but I worried many nights that he would follow his "brothers" and I don't know if I'll ever fully stop worrying.
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Hey Japes, derail away
First of all, thank your brother for his service for me. I was fortunate enough to be in the service from '85-'89 and stationed in Hawaii for 3 1/2 years, so I know how good I had it compared to these folks that had to go to war.
I can only imagine that the veteran suicide issue has been going on for a lot longer, as there have been plenty of terrible wars and experiences for people to have to endure and then have to come home and try to adjust. But perhaps with social media and more openness to talk about it, maybe that's why there's more awareness. Also, maybe these days, it's harder to come by jobs since there isn't as much non-skilled jobs available that there used to be, where people could make a decent living over time.
A guy that has joined our game group maybe 6-10 months ago is a vet on disability. I'm not sure what his disability is, because he appears fine, but I know he was wounded a couple times and don't know him well enough yet to ask what his disability is. I've gamed with him on a handful of occasions, went to his place last Saturday and will play Concordia with him tomorrow night at our group's meeting place. He's married and is moving into a house next month, so hopefully things work out for him, because while he seems alright, you just don't know. His wife is a nurse in Chicago, so at least the income part is okay. A few weeks ago, a buddy of his from the service was in trouble and had a Go Fund Me page, as he needed help paying for rent. He had had problems with jobs and his wife and kids had moved to a new place for her job, but he needed help getting the last month's rent paid where he was at before he move, as he didn't want an eviction on his record for finding work or whatever. I helped out with what I could, as did my friend.
It's tough and sad. My friend Brian V. commented, "a lot of people say they care, but they really don't". That may be directed towards some in government that brag about how they care about our vets, but when it comes down to action, it seems lacking.
As for me running a demo of a game at this convention, that's nothing really. There are a lot of people involved in this convention, and the organizer, Ben Starkey is the one really making a difference. He's got people to run gaming events, artists there too and a lot of prize support from various gaming companies. He's done this for maybe 7 years now, though last year they didn't have one for some reason. I worked/demoed one they had 2 years ago at Valparaiso University, as that was the first time I had learned of it's mission. I had heard of ArctiCon before, but didn't know what it was really about until then.
A bonus for this years convention, is that my nephew Tyler is going to be demoing his game Cube Hog there. It will actually work out to be a Kickstarter launch event for him, as his Kickstarter for Cube Hog is starting on March 1st. I told him toward the end of last year, that he should make it to the convention and demo his game to help both his Kickstarter, as well as to provide an extra thing for people to check out there, helping support the mission. So he's coming up from Purdue University that weekend for it, though Purdue is only a little over an hour away.
So back to your brother Japes. I really, really hope things work out for him. To think that there are so many brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers out there that have to share your worry, is really sad. Thanks for telling us about him, because others will know of his heroism, and it personalizes it for anyone who reads it.