Splendor of Fire | Michael DiBaggio | Substack

Abomination on a Stick

GW's Latest Shit Test

11 hrs ago • Michael DiBaggio

Dragon #104 - December 1985

This cover is by Denis Beauvais and is called Spinning Tales.

Jan 12 • Thomas

Tales of the Black Widow Company

FASA Battletech 1985 (FASA1605)

Jan 5 • Thomas

2026 (instead of looking back on 2025)

Tis the time of the year when we make New Year’s Resolutions, and a lot of content creators will go and show you what they did in 2025.

Jan 1 • Thomas

Fallen Stars: The Sternophthalmoi & Allied Races

A survey of the most prolific enemies of Sidereal Christendom

Dec 31, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Game Philosophy

Wargaming Time Capsule: Ragnarok #6 (1996)

Discovering the nature of the hobby via The Journal of the Society of Fantasy & Science Fiction Wargamers

Dec 28, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Lore (or the lack therof)

I still read a few articles here and there on Goonhammer and Bell of Lost Souls.

Aug 25, 2025 • Thomas

The Gallipoli Campaign

A quick history lesson

Aug 11, 2025 • Thomas

The Gallipoli Campaign

Blood and Valor Scenarios, Part 1 of a Campaign

Apr 25, 2025 • Thomas

Make Her an Ant!

Real Tabletop Housewives Part 2: Create a stripped-down microcosm of the game inside the game

Apr 17, 2025 • Shell Presto DiBaggio

Are 3d Printed die fair?

Edit: Shell Presto asked if they were resin or filament.

Apr 14, 2025 • Thomas

Splendor of Fire

Splendor of Fire

A Journal of Toy Soldiers and Fantastic Worlds in Miniature, made for and by wargamers and RPG enthusiasts.

Top posts

Starting a 'Third Place'

Apr 30, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

The Sad Decline of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society

Jan 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Episode 2: Reclaiming Imagination

Mar 8, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio, Thomas, and Bob Lollard

"Americans Don't Want to Make Games"

Apr 11, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Episode 3: Wargames Campaigns

Mar 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio, Thomas, and Bob Lollard

Wargames

Abomination on a Stick

GW's Latest Shit Test

11 hrs ago • Michael DiBaggio

Fallen Stars: The Sternophthalmoi & Allied Races

A survey of the most prolific enemies of Sidereal Christendom

Dec 31, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Wargaming Time Capsule: Ragnarok #6 (1996)

Discovering the nature of the hobby via The Journal of the Society of Fantasy & Science Fiction Wargamers

Dec 28, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Doomsday at the Oasis

A Post-Apocalyptic Horror Battle Report for The Doomed

Nov 18, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Blood & Bayonets Playthrough

I spent some free time last week working my way through the rules, and playing around with the solo rules for B&B.

Nov 3, 2025 • Thomas

The Riddle of Plastic!

Resisting the Gray Tide from the Workbench

Oct 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Battle Masters Chapter History

The lore for of my homebrew Space Marine legions

Aug 25, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Cyberpunk Buildings

Add stuff to the workbench, clear stuff off the workbench...

Aug 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Role Playing Games

Sword World RPG Preview

First English translation of the most popular Japanese TTRPG Coming in 2026

Aug 16, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Starting a 'Third Place'

An Adventure in Tabletop Gaming and Business

Apr 30, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Combining Original Dungeons and Dragons with Dragon Rampant

Get ready for the new DDR.

Apr 25, 2025 • erniet

Stormtroopers as Revolutionary Cadre

The Mysterious Place of Stormtroopers in the Imperial Military

Feb 28, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

On the Origins of a Galactic Civil War

The first part in a series on the radical reclamation of Star Wars for tabletop gaming

Feb 27, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

False Documents: The Transcripts of the Medium Bayrolles

Tabletop RPG adventure seeds from the weird fiction of Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, et. al.

Feb 21, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

False Documents: The Bruce-Partington Plans

More adventure seeds for your RPG from classic literature, this time involving Victorian submarines, Martian invasions, and archaeotech remnants from an…

Feb 5, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

False Documents: The Deep School Manual

Diabolical mysteries and soul-searing artifacts for your occult horror and pulp adventures.

Dec 10, 2024 • Michael DiBaggio

Hobby and Craft

Wargaming Time Capsule: Ragnarok #6 (1996)

Discovering the nature of the hobby via The Journal of the Society of Fantasy & Science Fiction Wargamers

Dec 28, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

The Riddle of Plastic!

Resisting the Gray Tide from the Workbench

Oct 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Battle Masters Chapter History

The lore for of my homebrew Space Marine legions

Aug 25, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Cyberpunk Buildings

Add stuff to the workbench, clear stuff off the workbench...

Aug 22, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

TTCombat's Oldhammer Terrain

Pre-painted MDF gothic sci-fi building kits for the Grognards

Aug 1, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Star Grave: Death Vector

3d Printing Edition

May 27, 2025 • Thomas

Recommendations

Wargame Culture Design Journal

Wargame Culture Design Journal

Purple Druid

Arbiter of Worlds

Arbiter of Worlds

Alexander Macris

RPG & Wargame Newsletter

RPG & Wargame Newsletter

TheTabletopEngineer

Lore

Fallen Stars: The Sternophthalmoi & Allied Races

A survey of the most prolific enemies of Sidereal Christendom

Dec 31, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Doomsday at the Oasis

A Post-Apocalyptic Horror Battle Report for The Doomed

Nov 18, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Battle Masters Chapter History

The lore for of my homebrew Space Marine legions

Aug 25, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Red Army River Tanks

Overview of "Soviet Motor Gunboats of World War II" (Osprey, 2023)

Jul 13, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

1:14:25

Episode 2: Reclaiming Imagination

How once-exciting and mysterious settings like Star Wars and Warhammer 40k became boring and how we've made them interesting again.

Mar 8, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio, Thomas, and Bob Lollard

Stormtroopers as Revolutionary Cadre

The Mysterious Place of Stormtroopers in the Imperial Military

Feb 28, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

On the Origins of a Galactic Civil War

The first part in a series on the radical reclamation of Star Wars for tabletop gaming

Feb 27, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

False Documents: The Transcripts of the Medium Bayrolles

Tabletop RPG adventure seeds from the weird fiction of Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, et. al.

Feb 21, 2025 • Michael DiBaggio

Reviews

Abomination on a Stick

GW's Latest Shit Test

11 hrs ago • Michael DiBaggio

Dragon #104 - December 1985

This cover is by Denis Beauvais and is called Spinning Tales.

Jan 12 • Thomas

Tales of the Black Widow Company

FASA Battletech 1985 (FASA1605)

Jan 5 • Thomas

Battletech 2nd Edition (1985)

So I finally got a chance to get the 2nd edition boxed set of Battletech on the table last week over the Christmas holidays.

Dec 29, 2025 • Thomas

White Dwarf #72 - December 1985

A lovely piece of work by Lee Gibbons.

Dec 9, 2025 • Thomas

Kalashnikov Tribal Logistics - Jim Webster

Jim Webster is always releasing some new aspect of wargaming rules.

Dec 2, 2025 • Thomas

Dragon 103 - November 1985

I know these are coming in out of order.

Nov 24, 2025 • Thomas

White Dwarf 71 - November 1985

This month’s cover art is brought to you by Alan Craddock.

Nov 10, 2025 • Thomas

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