Shoutout to the friend who spent six hours painting miniatures for a game we never actually played

The campaign setup was so elaborate that by the time we finished, everyone had to leave for work the next day. Now his beautifully detailed orc army just stares at me from my shelf, judging my life choices.

4 comments

4 Comments

quinncarr1mo ago

Consider how the painting process becomes the main event for so many of us in this hobby. I've got a shelf of beautifully detailed zombies from a pandemic game that we never got around to playing. The time spent mixing paints and highlighting details feels therapeutic, like a meditation on the game to come. Then reality hits when you realize the rulebook is still shrink-wrapped and the group has scattered. We invest hours into the artifact of play while neglecting the act itself. It's a bittersweet tribute to our ambitions versus our calendars.

tara_robinson721mo ago

I mean, when you said the painting process becomes the main event, it reminded me of my friend Dave. He spent months airbrushing these intricate spaceships for a starfighter game, like every panel line had a different shade of gray. He'd show me progress pics, talking about how mixing the metallic paints just zoned him out after work. But yeah, the game itself? Still in the box, and his gaming group kinda fell apart after someone moved away. It's like the meditation part was real, but the actual playing just never happened, you know? Idk, maybe it's just me, but seeing his shelves full of perfect miniatures feels kinda sad now.

irisjenkins1mo ago

Honestly, that's the hobby in a nutshell. We chase the zen of painting but forget to actually play. Kinda tragic, but hey, at least it looks cool on the shelf, lol.

martin.nora1mo ago

But isn't the painting time well spent on its own?