3D Printing: Amazon Box Mimic

3D Printing: Baba Lysaga

 Here's the latest stuff I've printed:

A Slender Guy

Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut from Curse of Strahd

Leaf Boat

Blue Fairy

3D Printing: Toons and Squid

There's a running joke with my DM, that he throws a lot of squid at us, or at least uses them in weird locations.  It's probably not even true, but it became a thing, and so I figured he needed an actual squid miniature. 

Here's a Gazebo Mimic, based on the infamous Dread Gazebo anecdote.

Here's some boats:

And here is my first attempt at recreating the characters from the 80s D&D cartoon.  Most of them aren't great, because I can't find actual STL files for them, so I had to collect and improvise.  I'm going to gradually replace these if/when I find better models to work from.

Some notes on the individual characters:

Dungeon Master: This was the easiest, because someone actually did make an STL file for him.  I really should fill in his facial features, but I suck at tiny details.  I even tried a flesh wash, but I had to paint back over it because it accentuated the horizontal print lines.

Hank/Ranger: The hardest part of this one was picking from the many STL files available.  He has such a basic look, I found a lot of Ranger minis that would work.  I didn't realize this until after I painted it, but what I painted as his hair is supposed to be a hood.  But I like how it turned out.

Bobby/Barbarian: It was also pretty easy to find a barbarian STL to work from.  A child barbarian, though?  Impossible.  Still, this one will stand in pretty well.  I didn't print the unicorn, though.  I think I bought it at a zoo, and just glued it on a base.

Diana/Acrobat: This is my favorite.  I think the STL I found was called "savage warrior".  She was originally holding a spear, but I cut off the tip.

Sheila/Thief: This is a very undetailed mini, but it works for my purposes.  I love the minis that print easily without supports, and the conical shape of this mini made it an easy print.

Presto/Magician: My least favorite, and the first one I'm going to replace when I find a better STL.  I really needed a mini with his iconic hat, but every wizard I found with a pointy hat also had a long beard.  It's like nobody's ever considered the idea of a young wizard wearing a pointy hat.  This will do for now, as silly as it looks for someone to wear a hat over a hood.

Eric/Cavalier: You know what else is impossible to find?  A paladin STL that is holding a shield, but not a weapon.  

Overall, I think these minis result in the "Cheerleader Effect".  If you look at each mini by itself, you wouldn't connect it to the cartoon.  But standing as a group, it trips that memory by virtue of the color scheme alone.  I can't say I'm proud of the set, but they'll serve their purpose if I ever run an 80s cartoon themed adventure.

More to come, as I print more things!

3D Printer Update - Dinosaurs!

A while back I showed off my first efforts with a 3D printer.  Here's some updates.  First off, here's a few of the ones from last time, now painted:

Dice tray, now painted and felt-lined.

Dice tower.  I kept the interior green, because it would have been hard to paint it all.  But I like how it gives it a mystical feel.

Campsite.

Barbarian.  Now de-stringed and supports removed.  Still needs some paint touch-ups.

Now some new stuff.  Here's a different style dice tower:

Here's some dinosaurs.  I did not print the dinos (except for one of them), they're from some packs from a dollar store.  I printed the bases the dinos are on, then painted the bases.  I also repainted some of the dinos.  I'm now ready to run a campaign in Chult.

I did print this one.  You can tell because it sucks.

And finally, here is something completely different.  I tried to print a horse that had a platform on its back for holding a miniature.  Unfortunately, it printed badly.  First, it came out huge, like some sort of war elephant.  Secondly, I didn't put enough supports under its nose, so it came out looking more like a duck's beak.  So I leaned into the skid, and designed a new creature.  I present the four-legged war mallard:

Daggerford: Taking Things For Granite

Game Date: 11/28/2020
Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 8

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Esmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue
Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:
When we left off last session, we were searching for an elemental key. We had followed some footprints into a mausoleum, where two of our party members contracted a disease. Today, we started by searching more mausoleums.

In Mausoleum #3, Sylvester set off a gas trap. Ezmerelda deactivated the trap. In #2, we found footprints in the dust, leading to a hidden trap door. A passage led down to a small room, lit by a lantern. Neven led the way, and was jumped from each side by a couple of grave robbers.

The party parleyed with the ruffians. Just as things were starting to calm down, an imp appeared and tried to attack us. There was a short fight. Azul finished off the imp, and the two men surrendered. They told us that they were working for Darwa Dalion (a wanted criminal), and were the rear guard for her band.

We tried to hire them to come with us, but they turned us down. We asked them what else they could tell us, and they pointed out a secret door in the South wall. They also told us about the makeup of Darwa's party. After they left, we looted their adventuring gear.

We opened the secret door, revealing a long hallway. It ended after fifty feet, with no visible doors. We found scratches on the wall at the South end, but couldn't find any sort of secret door to open.

Khemed drank a potion of gaseous form, and slipped through some cracks in the wall. The hallway continued on the other side, with a side passage to the West and a dead end to the South. There was a statue of an Ogre that looked like it was pushing something. It turned out the barrier separating the party was a huge block of granite.

Azul and Neven pushed the block Southward, past the side hall, then we all proceeded West. We suspect that the Ogre statue will eventually push the block back to its original position, sealing us in. Hopefully there will be another exit from this dungeon.

The hall ended in a multi-chambered area, containing five crypts. The walls were adorned with murals themed around the elements. There was a room to the far West containing a red mist. We started to investigate the Southeast crypt, which looked like it had already been looted. As we investigated the crypt, three wraiths appeared and attacked.

The first wraith attacked Khemed, dropping him with one hit. Vanya healed him, but a few rounds later, another wraith dropped Sylvester. Then Azul went down. Things looked pretty bleak, but then the DM had an epiphany - the wrong monster stats had been used for this module. A few adjustments later, the fight started looking more fair.

Ezmerelda dealt the final blow. We were still pretty bruised up at the end of the encounter, but we survived. We ended the session there.

335xp each, bringing us up to level 4.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

My favorite 5e supplement has to be Xanathar's Guide to Everything.  It has a large helping of new subclasses, at least five of which I found tempting (one of which I'm using right now).  It has a background generator that almost rivals Central Casting for its depth.  It has new DM tools, expanded downtime activities, more spells and magic items, and a huge list of names for every race.  Overall, it's a great value.

So when I heard about Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, I was ecstatic.  Even if it was just another collection of Unearthed Arcana, that was enough for me.  Unfortunately, now that I've read it, I'm not as impressed as I was with Xanathar's.    

Like XGtE, Tasha also includes a plethora of new subclasses.  Unfortunately, none of them stood out to me as something I would like to try.  Your mileage may vary on that one.  Tasha also contains a bunch of new magic items, but again, I wasn't impressed by many of them.  Then it has a few more DM tools, including Sidekicks and puzzle ideas.  And that's pretty much it.  It just feels like it's missing a chapter.

Tasha's starts out strong.  After an introductory chapter, it leads with the much anticipated customizable origins.  Unfortunately these new, optional rules can be summed up in a paragraph, and aren't really worth buying a book for.  While the third party "Ancestry & Culture" supplement does an intensive job separating genetic traits from cultural traits, Tasha's pretty much just says, "Wherever the PHB says you get a bonus to a stat, you can pick a different stat instead." (Ditto for languages, skills, etc.)

Some players have complained that this will lead to min-maxing, and to a minor extent they could be right.  But the designers have admitted that the stat bonuses for each race have nothing to do with game balance, and everything to do with tradition and flavor.  So you're not going to break the game with your new +CHA Half-Orc Warlock.  

Next up, Tasha reprints the Artificer class, which is nice for those who weren't interested in that Eberron book.  But it still means that about 15 pages are taken up by content that was already published somewhere else.  

Then we have the subclasses.  It has about as many subclasses as Xanathar's, averaging about three for each class.  But like I said, none of them really did it for me.  It's like they were running out of ideas and really forcing it this time.  Then there were a few new feats, again with no real standouts.

Then there's a chapter on group patrons.  Who is funding your group, and sending them on missions?  I found this chapter useless.  I'm pretty good at worldbuilding, and I haven't had any trouble designing my guilds.  But I guess this could be helpful to someone else who having trouble finding inspiration.

The new spells were okay, again nothing stood out to me.  Same with the magic items, for the most part.  The magic tattoos were kind of interesting.  I don't really like that they require attunement, though.  To me, the point of tattoos is permanence, so having a tattoo that disappears when you unattune to them seems silly.  If the designers thought the tattoos were too powerful, I'd rather they had nerfed them than to make them require attunement.  

An awful lot of the magic items were new kinds of spellbooks, maybe because Tasha's a caster.  I think it contains a new spellbook for every school of magic.  I don't usually play wizards, so these didn't do much for me.  They did throw a bone to the other spellcasting classes, too, with some new magic items that can be used as a spellcasting focus.

It contains a section on Session Zero, with a special focus on finding out each player's triggers so you can avoid scenes that cause discomfort.  This is important, and I wish more DMs took this seriously, but I also think it's common sense.

The book also reprints the rules for sidekicks, previously seen in the Essentials Starter Kit.  I really like the sidekick rules, so it's nice to see them in a more mainstream book - not everyone's going to pick up another starter kit.  But again, it's repeat information.  Btw, the Essentials Kit is way more useful than this book, even if you already have a starter kit, so please don't buy Tasha's just for the sidekicks.  As I type this, the Essentials Kit is $7.79 on Amazon - a real bargain for such a handy campaign starter.

It has a short section on parleying with monsters, which mostly involves bringing the monster an appropriate gift.  Then it spends several pages on environmental hazards, which were somewhat interesting.  It finishes off with a section on puzzles.  The puzzles were fun to read, though it seemed like several of them had similar solutions - variations of "collect a bunch of words, take the xth letter from each word, and unscramble the results for the solution keyword."

Like Xanathar's, Mordenkainen's, and Volo's books, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything includes little notes here and there commenting on that page's content.  Unfortunately, Xanathar is the only one who made these notes entertaining, and Tasha's in particular felt devoid of personality.

I know all this sounds negative, but I don't think Tasha's is a complete waste of space.  If you don't already have the Essentials Kit or Eberron: Rising from the Last War, then this is a good way to pick up the Sidekick rules and the Artificer class.  If your DM refuses to use rules that don't appear in a book, it's good to have the rules for customizable stats in print.

But overall, I just didn't find Tasha's to be nearly as useful as Xanathar's.  Bottom Line: Tasha's stew contains too much broth, not enough meat.

Towns & Taverns by Loke Battlemaps

I don't support a lot of Kickstarter ventures, but that's because I'm usually broke.  But when the right project happens at a time when I have a few bucks, sometimes I give in to the temptation.

Earlier this year I backed the project "Town & Taverns: 2 Modular Books of Battle Maps for Roleplay".  The books arrived this week, a month early.  Nice!

I've got to say,  these books are beautiful.  Each volume contains 40 pages of maps, with spiral binding so they can be opened flat on a table.  The two volumes are designed to work together.  Open each of the 60"x60" volumes and place them next to each other, and you have a gorgeous 120"x120" map covering the table.  

When stored together in their sleeve, the two books make a compact way to store a large number of maps.  They cover a good variety of town-themed locales: downtown, docks, interiors, courtyards, castle walls, and even some blank grids you can use for whatever you need.  You can draw your own details with dry erase markers, and your marks wipe away clean.

This is now my favorite way to store battle mats.  I'm still going to keep a couple of my Paizo flip-mats, but I might try to sell my D&D Dungeon Tiles and paper maps.  I'm honestly running out of room for D&D paraphernalia, and I don't think I'll ever go back to using paper maps or cardstock tiles.  

I bought the Towns & Taverns version, but they also sell dungeon and sci-fi versions on their website:  Loke Battlemats.  I hear they have a wilderness set in the works as well, so watch their Kickstarter page.  The books come in a few different sizes to fit your table's needs.  

So if you're looking for a compact way to keep battle maps, you can't go wrong with Loke Battle Mats.  Highly recommended.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

I'm currently reading the module "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden."  I don't read every module, just the ones I think I might run someday, assuming I ever DM again.  So far I own the following 5e modules:  The Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and both Waterdeep modules.  

I've read through most of them.  A couple of them lost my interest about halfway through, but I think I can still use some elements of the book.  My favorites are the non-linear ones.  Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are especially good about giving players the freedom to explore, and different playthroughs will undoubtedly feel like entirely different stories.

Rime of the Frostmaiden is also very good about this.  You can start the adventure in any one of ten different towns (collectively known as "Ten Towns"), and each town has its own minor quests.  Some of these quests encourage you to explore the other towns and the outlying areas.

As you gain levels, you start exploring the farther reaches of Icewind Dale, heading into the more dangerous tundras and facing deadlier enemies.  You'll pick up harder side quests, but you still have the freedom to accept or ignore certain plot hooks.  However, you will start to notice some common threads to some of these quests, hints at greater evils at work.

Of course, everything gradually leads up to the main quest, which involves defeating the goddess Auril.  She has been keeping the sun from rising in Icewind Dale, making the harsh land even harder to survive in.  I noticed that it shared a plot point that is similar to Curse of Strahd - once you find yourself in Icewind Dale, it's difficult to leave until the final boss is defeated.  I suppose this keeps you from fleeing, leveling up a few times somewhere safer, and coming back with fresh supplies and magic items.

Also like Curse of Strahd, Rime of the Frostmaiden has been described as a horror-themed adventure.  While it certainly does have some horror elements, I fail to see the overall theme.  Curse of Strahd is full of horror icons like vampires, zombies, and werewolves.  Icewind Dale has a harsh environment, and a few shout-outs to movies like Alien and The Thing, but for the most part it seemed about as horror-themed as any other D&D module.  Tomb of Annihilation is much scarier, IMO.

Still, it's a decent adventure.  I think the most notable selling point is the freedom.  It's practically an open world MMO given how much leeway characters have to forge their own path, especially in the early levels.  It's not my favorite 5e module, but it's probably in the top five.

Daggerford: Blue Fungus Among Us

Game Date: 11/14/2020

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 7

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:

Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Esmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue

Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard

Neven (Steve) Elf Monk

Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock

Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard 

The Session:

Last week we left off right before a battle.  Several goblins had trapped an elf at the bottom of a ravine, and some pixies needed us to save the day.  Khemed won initiative, and started by dropping four goblins with a sleep spell.  Azul hopped down the embankment and splattered one, Neven sped downhill and killed another, and Vanya killed three with a Shatter spell.

Once the final goblin was defeated, we kept one alive for questioning, and healed the bleeding elf.  The elf introduced himself as the King of the Woods.  He said he was out tending the hollow when he was attacked by a group of goblins.  For saving him, he gave us a leather pendant that would give us passage through Laughing Hollow.

We interviewed the surviving goblin, and he told us that his comrades were chasing the Baron.  Sylvester convinced him to lead us to them.  We let him guide us for a while, until we realized he was just leading us in circles.  Eventually the goblin admitted he didn't know where the group was.

While we wandered though the forest, we encountered a woman who claimed to be Lady Bronwyn, the woman we were searching for.  This seemed a little easy, and we were suspicious.  But she seemed to know details that only Bronwyn would know.  She claimed that the Baron didn't know she was a spellcaster, which allowed her to escape.  

We started to head back to Daggerford, when we ran into the Baron and his men.  He claimed he was an honorable man, and offered to settle this in one-on-one combat.  We talked for a minute, then Sylvester attempted to charm one of them.  Combat ensued.

Esmerelda killed one of the Baron's men right off.  The rest of them lined up nicely for Azul's dragon breath, and Vanya finished them off with a Shatter spell.  This left the Baron by himself.  Neven weakened him with some solid punches, and Khemed hit him with a Mind Spike.  

After one of Neven's hits, the Baron took him out with a Hellish Rebuke.  Then he used a mind spell to control Esmerelda, who proceeded to stab Sylvester.  Khemed used a portent roll to keep Esmerelda from killing Sylvester, and another one to make her save from the spell.  Khemed finally finished off the Baron with another Mind Spike.

Lady Bronwyn was a little perturbed that we killed the Baron, since he was royalty.  After the battle, we were attacked by more goblins.  We decided to flee.

We managed to outrun them.  We got back on the road, headed for Daggerford.  We gave the Baron's body to the authorities, and they chose to have him raised.  They thanked us and gave us each 50 gold.  I swear, we're going to have to start charging by the hour.  But at least they allowed Azul to keep the Baron's plate armor.

We spent a few days in downtime, getting some personal business done in town.  Our fame had increased, and people were calling us dragon slayers.  There was even a puppet show about our exploits.

Last session, we had made an appointment to see the wizard Delfen, and it finally came around.  He gave Khemed a book about Red Wizards.  He also gave us a wand that detects secret doors, and a plot hook to investigate the ruins of the Ambergul Estate.

It took about two days to reach the estate.  It was full of overgrown stone crypts.  There was snow on the ground, and we saw some bootprints headed towards the graves.  We opened one of the crypt doors, and saw a lot of bootprints in the South West corner.  Using that wand of secret doors, we found a hidden passage.  A set of brick steps went down into the darkness.

At the bottom of the stairs was an underground room filled with urns and a blueish-white fungus.  The air poisoned Neven and Khemed, giving them blue lung disease.  Until cured, every time they take a short rest, they will lose 1d6 hit points, until they reach 1 hit point.

We ended the session on that happy note.

Session XP: 725 

Total XP: 2509

Daggerford: Intrigue & Investigations

 Game Date: 10/31/2020

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 6

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:

Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Ezmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue

Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard

Neven (Steve) Elf Monk

Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

Boo - Neven's Riding lizard 

The Session:

We started the session in Cromm's Hold, and then traveled back to Daggerford.  After a tenday of downtime, we ran into Maechen, our guide.  We'd lost track of her when fleeing the dragon last session, and presumed she'd been killed.  Vanya asked her how she survived, but Maechen said we must have mistaken her from someone else.  This woman had no memory of meeting our party.

A few sessions ago we saw the execution of an evil wizard.  On a hunch, today we decided to dig him up.  "It's not grave robbing.  We're not going to take anything; it's grave voyeurism."  The body was still dead.  We looked for indications that the body was a clone, but the results were inconclusive.  He looked familiar, though.  In fact, he looked a lot like our party's wizard, Khemed.

We made an appointment to visit Daggerford's town wizard in seven days.  We saw town guards putting up wanted posters for a woman named Darwa Dalion.  We did some talking with various authorities, asking for more details about Dalion, and informed Sir Isteval about the Maechen's imposter.  Azul poked around and learned that Maechen was spotted in town while she was simultaneously leading us through the swamp.  

We rode out to the Florshin estate, to speak to Lord Darfin.  There was a lot of construction going on, as Darfin was in the process of building a home for the mentally ill.  Apparently madness has been running rampant in Waterdeep.  I wonder if that will be important later.

We poked around the estate, looking for clues about a recent murder in the library.  Our collective ears perked up when we heard about a fight that had taken place in the crypts.  Apparently some Red Wizards had stolen a key from the crypts.  Also, eight of their servants had been abducted.  

Our investigations led us to suspect the cult of Yan-C-Bin, an evil air god.  We headed back to Daggerford for more research.  Daggerford's priest of Lathander suggested we look for more information in Waterdeep or Candlekeep.  That didn't seem likely.  But Sir Isteval was able to give us more information about the stolen key.  Apparently there are four elemental keys.  Sounds like a good campaign hook.

We asked him about the remaining three keys.  He thinks they're somewhere in the Sword Coast area, and that the fire and earth keys might have already been found.  He also an idea who Maechen's imposter might be.  It was an old foe of his, a Rakasha named Nadir.  Why a Rakasha is so keen on meeting up with a black dragon is beyond our knowledge, but it's probably not good.

We believed our next step was to look for the water key, but we didn't know where to start.  While we waited for inspiration, a Duke came for a visit.  He told us that his sister had been abducted by the Baron.  He hired us to track down said Baron, and rescue his sister.  He was sending teams in three different directions to track down the Baron.  Our route was to lead us through an area called "Laughing Hollow", a canyon run by wild elves.

While riding through the snowy canyon, we encountered some mercenaries.  They fired some warning shots at us, and revealed that the Baron had hired them to keep us away.  We rolled initiative, and proceeded to kick ass.  Khemed took out two of them with a sleep spell.  Then Neven ran to the leader and pounded him into pulp.  Azul rode up to one, jumped off his horse, and skewered a merc with a dramatic dismount.

We finished off the last few, extinguished a burning tree (Khemed's work), and got back on the road.  The route became darker and scarier as we followed the Baron's path.  Ezmerelda suddenly fell asleep.  Vanya rode over to wake her up, when tendrils of grass suddenly started to entangle her and her horse.  

We heard giggling from the distance, and Neven went to investigate.  As he approached some dancing lights, Neven was hit by a sleep spell as well, but he was immune.  Three pixies materialized and started trying to calm Neven down.  They could only speak Sylvan, but Khemed had a Comprehend Languages spell.  They were asking for help.  

They led us down a path.  We saw a humanoid trapped at the bottom of a ravine, and a bunch of goblins were firing arrows at them.  Obviously the pixies wanted us to defeat the goblins and rescue the humanoid.  We had to end the session there, right before the battle was about to begin.

35 xp.

Fun With A 3D Printer

For my birthday I received a "Creality Ender 3 Pro" 3D printer, which I've mostly been using to make D&D paraphernalia.  It's got a sharp learning curve, and I'm not very good with it yet, but I've managed to make a few useful items.

First thoughts:  I can't wait until 3D printers are so commonplace that they just work out of the box, like an ink printer.  I had to build this thing from the ground up, and the included instructions are no help.  You pretty much have to watch a YouTube video to get it put together.  It took me about an hour to assemble it.

Keeping it working is also a bit difficult, as you're constantly having to relevel the bed and other minor maintenance.  It's kind of a good thing that you have to assemble it yourself, because it gives you insight on to how it all works, which may help you fix it in the future.

D&D miniatures are particularly hard to print.  This type of printer simply isn't designed for such tiny details on one-inch-tall miniatures.  My luck has been mixed, but I've made a few decent minis.  The hardest part is placing supports.  

Mini with Supports

Unless a mini's hands are on its hips, then chances are it will need supports to print correctly.  Otherwise, when the printer gets to the layer where the hands start, the hands would be floating in mid-air and won't print properly.  Supports are basically scaffolding that lead up to suspended areas, which you cut off of the mini when it's done printing.  The slicer software you use to prepare the 3D model can add supports automatically, but it sucks at it.  It's better to add them manually, which takes some practice to get just right.

And then if your settings aren't right, or the filament is too old, or the stars are aligned improperly, your print will fail.  If you're lucky it will fail early, because the nozzle was clogged or bed wasn't leveled.  But you could also be 20 hours into a 22 hour print when it suddenly conks out.

Printer Fail, or Time Warp?

And that's another thing - 3D printers are sloooooow.  Most of my miniatures have taken about an hour to print.  My condition rings take about twenty minutes.  But anything of substance takes hours.  The biggest print I've done so far took seventeen hours, for a dice tray that was only 6.5" x 7" x 1.5".

The pics below show some of the better results.  I still have work to do on most of these prints.  I still need to shave off some of the excess filament and paint them.

Condition Rings for D&D Battles

Lots of Condition Rings

Dice Tower, Overhead View

Dice Tower

My 17-Hour Dice Tray

Xenomorph Miniature

Partially Painted Sleeping Bags and Campfires

Many Minis Preparing for Painting

A Somewhat Stringy Samus

Green Knight in Search of Sir Gawain

Gandalf the Green

Partially Painted Pussycat

If the Joker Used a Hit Point Tracker

Sorcerer Spell Tracker

Bard Spell Tracker

Hogwarts

Hogwarts

Hogwarts

Hogwarts

Dice tower in action:

Anyway, so far I suck but I'm having a lot of fun.  It's a very time-consuming toy, and with all my various interests, it's going to be along time before I'm an expert at it.  But that's fine with me.