Objective Secured

It has been nearly a full month since Masters and after a MUCH needed break its time to get cracking and get everything rolling again with ObSec. We have big things planned and they won’t happen unless we are putting our heart and soul into it!

I wanted to share with you the importance of the feedback we receive from you all. Last year after Masters 2015, I sent around a survey asking for player and spectator reflections on the event. Overall the responses were glowing! (Thank goodness). One comment really got to me though. It was a complaint about the fact that 4 or 5 or the tables didn’t have mats or battle boards and were the (up until then) standard plain painted boards. The comment said something along the lines of ‘I’m pleased I didn’t have to play on one of the substandard boards that didn’t have a mat’. The terrain that was on those 4 or 5 boards was a good standard, there was more than a third coverage, they were in fact better than the ‘standard’ tables that had been used at clubs and events up until that point and instead of noticing that we had literally worked out butts off to raise the standard and have better quality and quantity of terrain, and better standard of event the player took the new level as standard and complained that 4 or 5 tables fell under that. It was really disheartening. Probably more so because we were upset we hadn’t been able to have mats on those tables and this confirmed it for us.

It’s human nature to focus on the negatives so that one comment grated on me for the full 10 months between Masters. Plus in my head I knew we (ok I, it took a while to convince M) were planning to run an event in 2017 needing 150 tables. 150 tables at $100 a mat, $15,000 just for the mats not including terrain for each of those 150 tables. We worked out the terrain for each of the tables for Masters is costing approx $400 per table on average. All of a sudden we are looking at close on one hundred thousand dollars just for the tables for 1 gaming system for next years event (SHO). There had to be a way to bring that cost down. (edited to fix the maths! Thanks to our reader Paul for pointing out the error!).

Enter the Obsec Sec Gaming Table Stickers

For those that know me, I’m all about thinking outside the box, as much as I love the mats we use there had to be a cheaper alternative and given the comment from last years Masters event there was no way I was going to have bare painted boards. Soooooo what were the other options? Well there weren’t any, none that I was happy with anyway. And then driving home from work one day an idea started to form. Hmmmmmm what about giant table stickers? They couldn’t be paper because that wouldn’t be long wearing, these had to be tough, maybe a sticker like a bumper sticker they seem to be pretty tough. Then a bus drove past me advertising a musical of some sort showing in Perth which distracted me for a minute and inspired me for a lot longer. I can’t think of anything more long lasting than a vinyl wrap for a bus. That’s it. The idea was in my head and when I get an idea I obsess over it.

I loved the idea! The vinyl is tough, long lasting, doesn’t interfere with dice rolls, and when we get to events it will save us time because we won’t have to roll out all the mats then at the end of events have the mad panic because we can’t find the bags. They are there and set up, all we need to do is put the boards on the table. So with the idea in place I found a supplier, FINALLY managed to convince M, left him to sort out the designs with the designer and we were set.

We were set…except then my brain started to tick over. I know that $100ish (plus postage) is not expensive compared to a lot of things in this hobby. It’s really not, but it is an added expense. If I were playing I’d rather spend the $100ish on a new model than a mat (which is silly because the mat can be used with many armies and will be usable regardless of codex changes but I’m financially minded AKA a tightwad), if I think that, how many other players are thinking it? How many other players can’t justify spending $100ish on a mat? What if we were to make these vinyl board covers (we so need a better name for them – any suggestions?) available to the gaming community? I know there are clubs out there operating on very limited budgets who would love to have mats but can’t justify the cost, there are stores with plain painted boards, there are garage gamers and seasoned vets. So I wanted to be able to offer an alternative to our community.

That came with it a whole new set of problems. The first was what if we need to post them? How do we even post a 4’x6′ piece of vinyl? They don’t make post tubes big enough. M came up with the great idea of having them printed as panels, but do we get 2 panels 3’x4′ or 3 panels 2’x4′. An evening was spent tossing up the pros and cons of both options and in the end, rather than choosing, we got both.

The scene is set…

With the order placed we were waiting for production and delivery. It was nail biting as to whether they would make it here for Masters. Thursday before Masters we received a phone call that they had arrived. Everything at ObSec was focused on getting prep finalised for Masters, I had lists of tasks that needed doing, all the organisational loose ends needed tying up, heck, we were still painting terrain! This was not a good time for M to be going to collect them but I was so set on having them for Masters and so excited they were done and absolutely terrified they would be rubbish and not work and it was all my fault because this was my project and and and (OK I was very tired and may have catastrophized a little) that M went to get them. He returned 5 hours later with no vinyl. Customs had made M jump through a million hoops then refused to release them (lucky us, we managed to get delivery when they were on a ‘work to rule’ and apparently being helpful isn’t one of the rules). So after engaging a customs lawyer and don’t even mention how much we had to pay in fees, I’m sure there was even a ‘paying a fee’ fee and a ‘writing a receipt for the fee’ fee! We finally had them. M went out Friday, the day before Masters for a couple more hours away from everything that still needed doing and this time returned with a traitor full of vinyl. I was sooo excited!

The big reveal!

I’ll be honest by the time we were finished getting everything ready for Masters we were both too damn tired to put the vinyl on the actual boards. We pushed through and managed to get 2 boards done, a grass mat and a Mars mat. We would have 2 to use on the 2 tables that wouldn’t have FATmats on. Woooohoooooo!

 

Well that was the plan anyway. M got up early on Saturday morning and packed the trailer while I pretended I didn’t hear in an effort to get an extra half hour sleep. As we were driving I said ‘do I need to watch the trailer this year?’ (Last year we, ok he, didn’t have packing down to a fine art as he does now so every time we would pick up speed a box of terrain would move, a lid would fly off or we were at risk of losing something. We stopped 8 times to re-shuffle the trailer and I don’t think we got past 50km/h). M assured me that it was all well packed and the boards were on top of the terrain in an intricate herringbone pattern, locked in so nothing was going anywhere. Awesome, I closed my eyes and smelled my coffee hoping the caffeine would kick in by osmosis (it didn’t!) Then we stopped. One of the boards had moved but he didn’t know how that was possible. A quick reshuffle and we were off again. No more stops.

When we arrived at the venue we started to unload. 2 of the vinyl covered boards were missing. M remembered packing them but maybe he just remembered thinking he would pack them. A quick phone call and no they hadn’t been left behind. So somewhere between Mount Nasura and South Perth we had lost 2 panels of a 3 panel table top. We looked the entire way home that night, we couldn’t spot them anywhere. Where they ended up is a complete mystery.

 

All the running around was stressful at the time but now we can see the funny side and we are pretty darn excited to be able to offer 5 different designs of self adhesive vinyl. The standard price will be $45 a mat plus postage (pick up available from local WA gaming clubs or the ObSec dungeon by appointment). For Masters we offered a Masters special $35 each or 2 for $60. We have received some really great feedback about the mats and how easy they are to stick down, so thanks for the feedback. Since we have had a month long rest we are now pretty darn excited to be able to offer these for sale so we have decided to offer the Masters special of $35 each through the month of October. If any clubs or stores are interested in buying bulk amounts then please get in touch for a wholesale discount (on going).

Check them out here!

Thanks once again for your support as we continue to support the gaming community.