Diminishing Returns

I seem to find myself involved in discussions that seem more and more pointless, meeting people that do not interest me, and finding myself in less and less attractive situations.  I comfort myself with the belief that such things are cyclic but find myself wondering if I am caught in a broader cycle that is tending in a negative direction.

I am clearing out trash in the apartment.  It is amazing how many worthless bits of nothing gather together and conspire to have themselves placed in a box with more or less worthless bits of nothing and then travel with me from place to place.  Perhaps that is the essence of collecting.

I have noticed that if I paint figures an hour or two each night (an impossibility given my current situation), I would likely get everything nicely painted in a couple of months.  I have noticed that it is nicer to look at photos of current work than older.  I suppose I will see where things stand in a couple of months if I am still here to check.

Bireme and Galley

A pretty old set of rules produced by Fantasy Games Unlimited, the set can be played with either miniature galleys or a series of cutout counters for a variety of different vessels.  There is also a large map showing a couple of basic oared vessels for staging man-to-man combat during boarding actions.  The map and one of the counters can be seen in the photo above.

For what it covers, the rules offer a fair amount of information and appear to be usable for all oared naval actions from ancient to encounters during the Renaissance.  The rules were likely meant for historical gaming but appear to offer enough detail to allow their use in RPGs.

One thing to make note of is that a clear overlay is provided with the rules for determining such things as turn radius for ships so if purchasing the set used which I assume is the only way to get it these days, make sure the overlay is included.