No news is most certainly good news!

Greetings friends!

So I've been very quiet recently, and you may all be wondering what I've been up to?

Well to answer that I would have to say:

Not much!

The past week or so has been a very pleasant break from all things hobby related.

I've done no rules work, no fluff, no modelling, no painting & nothing else of the sort!

Instead I have been spending time with my delightful daughter during one of the weeks she's been home from her nursery's summer break and also playing some great games on my computer.

I'm not going to go into much detail here about my home life, that's for a Geek Dad post; one I've been meaning to write for quite some time, but I can talk about some other things!

So no doubt you want to know where we are with First Law: Override?

By now I hope you have all heard the interview that me and Tom did with Gamers Lounge, if not then I suggest you go listen right away! It's about 2 hours long and we go into a lot of detail about the game, it's fluff, our design style and everything else in between.

Thanks to this interview we have seen a large amount of traffic for our website www.firstlawoverride.com and we hope in time that will result in some good amount of feedback and questions/queries.

I have also started planning a third and (currently) final force for the game. In my case it is one of my favourite in terms of theme; but then I'm pretty sure I say that about all the Forces, and in this case we are talking about the Trydan.

To date I've been looking at some multi use models and in this case it's more Infinity Nomads namely one of the starter sets:


Over the previous weekend I was able to nab this for an absolute steal off eBay; we're talking a tiny fraction of retail due to the original owner having owned these for a while but never even assembled them so just trying to get a quick sale - one I was happy to assist with! This boxed set gives me a Trydan Boss and 3 Members with Assault Rifles (plus 2 other models that while not useful in this case, are great for others).

In time I'll be looking to add to this with the following which make for wonderful Hitmen and Hacker:








However all of this comes at a price: I'm not even touching them at the moment until I have painted my Red Claw and Raiders.

What this allows me is full access to the Reavers and lots of potential with Hired Mercs. Imagine a Trydan force running Bal'Tek alongside a Hitman or two? Or a Red Claw force who's mission requires some super awesome Hacker who just isn't generally available to them? Well just hire Jinn!

Yes these Mercs are available regardless of which Reaver Force you run (Animosity allowing) but having a choice of Forces to run them with is pretty damn sweet!

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Other than First Law: Override I have also been playing a shit-tonne of the game Heroes of the Storm.

Now until now I've never played a MOBA before. I've always been very put off by the toxic community that these go hand in hand with, however I'm a big advocate for Blizzard, and in wanting to unlock content for their other games figured i'd give it a go.

You know what? It's super fun!

We (me, the wife & mutual friend) have yet to team play against real people, instead going against the AI, but we've had an absolute blast doing it!

I've also had my computer upgraded in almost every way possible, this allows me to play a series of new/older games in ways I've never been able to before, including playing Dragon Age: Inquisition finally. Long time readers will remember that while featuring in my Notable Mentions of 2014, I was very unhappy with how buggy and unplayable it was. Once I finish it this time you can expect a second opinion post about how it is when it actually runs.

Other than that, things have been very quiet on my end. I have still yet to edit the last episode of Hobby Sofa, but right now I am lacking any actual desire to do so. I'm going to try and get that done in the next week or two, but you know what they say about when a hobby begins to feel like a chore. So I'm going to have to make some serious decisions about if I want to carry on with that project.
- I know I'll be letting the co-hosts down, but right now my priorities are else where, and the fact that this has sat unedited for over a month says a lot.

Anyway, I'll let you all get on with your day; so until next time, stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Overcoming Hobby Malaise

Greetings friends!

So as I write this I am hectically hitting the iPhone equivalent of F5 waiting for a special podcast episode to be published, and figured the best way of passing the time would be to share some stuff with you.

Hobby Malaise.

You know what I'm talking about, Hobby Funk. That lack of an urge to do stuff.

In my case it is painting.

I've got more projects with pins stuck in them than I want to admit, including but not limited to;

- A large pile of modular sci fi terrain for DeadZone
- A 300+ point Nomad force to use as Raiders for FLO
- A Pan-O starter set for use in FLO (unsure what as currently).
- A 300+ Morat force to use as Red Claw in FLO
- Some misc Infinity models including things like Scarface & an Aleph doc for use as Raiders.

All of these have been built and other than the last they have even been undercoated and appropriately ink-washed, but other than a very small selection, that is where it has stopped and has for the past 6-7 months.

The problem seems to be destruction. I am getting distracted by other things.

I now have enough models to run a large Red Claw force as well as a large Raider force. I am thinking my next expansion will by a Trydan force, that way I have all 3 of the Reaver groups, but that doesn't help my current situation.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted while talking about distraction!

It's so easy to do. With only about 2-4 hours free a day, and my desire to spend that time with my wife playing games together from Dying Light to World of Warcraft, that time passes very quickly.

Then there is time I've put aside as 'Hobby Time' but that ends up getting swallowed up recently with rules work, book design, website work and fluff/lore writing.

I've got the next week off while I look after the little one, which should be great for a little bit of hobby time here and there, but as the week gets closer and closer I seem to be filling it up with other activities like trips into London etc.

How do you guys deal with it?

I know the golden rule is to paint what you want to paint, and all these models I want to paint, I just don't want to do any painting at the moment.

I guess one way of looking at it is that we only have so much 'hobby juice' in us, and right now that is getting used up on the FLO game itself.
- Did you know; I've had an episode of Hobby Sofa to edit and upload for over a month, but it keeps getting knocked down the priority line, and getting firstlawoverride.com sorted has just been priority for a good couple of weeks now.

Anyway I'm dragging on now; until next time, stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Incentives & Plans

Greetings friends!

So maybe you saw my post yesterday about the Ghost Project?

One thing you may be wondering about is just how does this project work with the existing transparency of the design of First Law: Override?

Well first things first, I should probably address something that appears to be a bit of a misconception regarding the design process:

It was never my intent to break the mould with game design by posting left, right and centre about the game design process, it was just something that happened.

In fact when I have recently had two people who are pretty established mouthpieces in the wargaming world describe what i do with this blog as 'against the grain' or similar, I have to be honest, but I don't see it as that.

I suppose from one view point you could argue that it largely goes against Game Design 101, but unlike a lot of these people I haven't been on any game design course, I don't hold a qualification on how to write a rules pack or interpret the latest buzz words, but I also don't consider myself a games designer.

Am I designing a game? Well yes obviously. But that doesn't make me a game designer, and I would say it would be overly egotistical of me to refer to myself as such.

I guess as such I see myself as a hobbyist. Helping to write these rules and the fluff around them is a part of my hobby, much like writing this blog is. It's hard to draw the line where one starts and the other ends.

So now that is out of the way, there's the question of transparency, and I have to be honest, I haven't been as transparent as a lot of you think.

As has been mentioned before, we have a Book 2 planned and everything concept wise for that is pinned with a rough idea for a Book 3 as well. All of that is something that Tom & I have discussed in depth, but I have not blurted out on these pages as obvious 'in your face' rules. Instead hints have been dropped here and there, with nods to content in overviews and short stories.

But going forward a lot more of this is going to be pulled more and more internally.

Why? Because of the Ghost Project.

It is our opinion that the game First Law: Override is a terrific game. We have spent hours upon hours discussing fluff, rules, imagery, layouts, mechanics and everything in between. We have agonised over rule books, websites and more to try to bring this game to you in as good a format as possible while retaining some of the core aspects of the game project, namely accessibility & fun for the player, and affordability & fun for us the creators.

We wouldn't have done that if we didn't think the game had legs.

Hell; only yesterday we acquired (for a steal of a price) the domain firstlawoverride.com. In all the projects I have run before from games to blogs I have never once bought a domain name! But here we are now as owners of one!

This is why we need the help of Ghosts.

We're only two people, and despite already achieving more than I ever imagined with this game (have you seen the Rulebook? It looks beautiful!) we have our limits and can only be in one place (each) at a time.

In a matter of days our latest interview on our friend Bill's podcast GamersLounge will be posted and you get to hear more from both me and Tom and with hope you will all hear from my own voice the true enthusiasm we both have for this game.

It is our hope that at least some of the people listening to the show will download the rules, grab some miniatures and give the game a try and fall in love with it just as much as we have, as it truly is a game that has to be played to be fully appreciated for its simplicity and depth. And if these people then go and grab their game group and promote this game, then that's just grand! And maybe these people will look at the Ghost Project and go "Yeah! That's for me!"

But we want some way of rewarding these people while keeping with the core values of the game.
One of these is by giving them first dibs on new rules.

Is this detracting from what is posted on the blog and when? Yes of course, but like I said, I want to reward the hardened few who desire to take the game out to the masses!

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Maybe I'm just barking in the moon here, but in the spirit of transparency I wanted to be upfront and honest about the whole thing.

And yes, at some point I will look into a T-Shirt for Ghosts, just need to design one for me & Tom first!

And on that note; until next time, stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Introducing the Ghost Project

Greetings friends!

So for those who have been keeping their eyes open will have seen some small but important news tweets on the @FLOverride twitter account.






One of these things is something I would like to talk about now:

The Ghost Project.

For those who are curious the Ghost Project is our volunteer program that allows people to take part, promote the game and help with development.

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If you are wondering about the game and are unfamiliar with the fluff; Ghosts were the original hackers on Earth during the AI war and were responsible for allowing the Human & Hydan survivors to escape to Honos. Since arriving however they have fallen out of favour with groups like the UEF and HMC and are now proud members of Col. Russell's Raiders.

As hacking is a vital part of First Law: Override, and the Ghosts are the quintessential hackers, naming the project after then seemed like the logical option.

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So what can you do if you want to be a Ghost?

Well being a Ghost is all about promotion and assistance.

We need people spreading the word, from running demo games and organising campaigns, to writing articles to be hosted on the homepage firstlawoverride.com.

So what are you going to get from being a Ghost?

First and foremost you get to try out new rules in advance of the rest of the world.

As it currently stands new rules are released in batches, however before each batch is released we go through a lot of revisions. Anything major will often be featured on this blog regardless of if it makes it to final batch, but we're also talking about very small changes, like Nt cost adjustments etc.

You get to see all these internal batches!

What's more, you also get to try out Book 2 before it enters beta!

Yup we already have a slow burner going on Book 2 including mission ideas, new or adjusted mercs, new force ideas and while new play styles! As a Ghost you get access to all of this long before everyone else.

Depending on popularity you may also get some other good little bonuses to assist you with running demos and promotions.

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So that's where we are, is this something you are interested in?

If so grab the new rules, give it a play decide what force or two you like and send off an application form to us!

Until then; stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley