Lasgunpacker

Space Ship Interiors

2012-02-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Due the popularity of Space Hulk, and Alien/Aliens (one may be more popular than the other), space ship corridor systems are quite popular. People want to take the flat tiles from space hulk similar games, and translate them into three dimensions to add even more color to their games. (and probably because they want their little dolls to have better displays).

A new entry into the space corridor system market is GameCraft, which by all appearances is exploding into the scenery scene lately. They have recently released a system of Space Ship Interiors, which have all of the usual hallways, intersections, and small rooms you might expect, plus some detailing tiles, improved doors, and some exterior details which give a nice look to the walls. Also available in a smaller size too, for 15mm figures.

The genius part though, is this, they have a micro sized planning kit, which has multiples of all the various pieces, and allows you to plan your layout in advance, and all the pieces are numbered, which match numbers on the normal corridor pieces. And it is to scale. Very smart.

Someone put some serious thought into this system, and were I to buy a set of space corridors, this is the one I would go for. Obviously the price adds up, but it looks great... and I do already have all those stormtroopers...

Santa Delivers!

2012-02-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

Sort of. Rolang, of Rolang's Creeping Doom, asked his readers to challenge him to create tables for them, as a way to jump start some of his own creativity, and get back into blogging. And he donated $1 to charity for each request. How cool is that?

Today, my turn came up, and I got the 3d6 table of hireling motivations of my dreams. Perfect for a traditional fantasy game (no gonzo entries), and this will work quite well next time my players are hiring anyone.

You can view the rest of his creations Here.

Non-combat fumbles

2012-01-31T11:24:00.000-08:00

Over on his blog, Jeff has a post about marching tightly, and he muses that there should be a table for non-combat fumbles.

Here is such a 3d6 table for the DM to use when such a situation occurs. Slightly more humorous that I would normally do, which can be fun.

To use this chart, when the group is in a clumsy situation, roll every x turns [modified by various factors like terrain, lighting], and on a successful roll, consult chart for a complication. If a complication does not make sense, roll again.

3	Iggy's itchy bow fingers	Accidental ranged weapon release (normal damage)
4	So sleepy…	Reduced oxygen in this area makes d4 characters tired, all rolls -1 for d4 turns
5	Oh Nose!	Trips and falls flat on face, resulting in a broken nose, -1hp, -1CHA until healed (d6 weeks)
6	Shiny Shiny!	Someone in the march order stops abruptly, resulting in a pileup
7	You fool of a Took!	One Character kicks over a pile of something very very loud
8	Dung you watch where you walk?	Slips in something unmentionable on the ground, spills out all gear
9	Watch your step!	Hole in the ground results in twisted ankle, reduced movement for d4 turns
10	It sure is drafty in this place	One Light source is snuffed out, and needs to be relit
11	Slippery slope	One character trips and drops hand carried gear
12	Watch where you point that thing!	Someone gets an eye full of torch/lamp, -1 to ranged combat for d6 turns
13	How much did you eat again?	Belt breaks, drops attached gear to the ground with a loud clatter
14	Watch your head dummy!	Cracks head on low point in ceiling/branch etc., character drops to ground, -1hp if not wearing helmet
15	Wallow wallow piggy!	Falls into a mud hole, -2CHA until cleaned off
16	Who ate beans last night?	a concentration of Methane gas ignites if there is open flame, resulting in a puff of light, and d4 damage to the person carrying the flame
17	If you were a horse, we would shoot you	Hole in the ground results in broken ankle, -2hp, reduced movement until healed (d10 weeks)
18	Chuck was a little too ready with the sword	Someone stabs someone else (damage -1)

Temptation

2012-01-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

My wife has a program on her smart phone that will monitor Craigslist for you, and then let you know when certain keywords have been posted. She uses this to watch out for items we want for our house (brick, plants etc.). On a lark, I added "warmaster" as one of the keywords, because I had once seen a posting about warmaster there.

Just the other day she said that the program never gets any returns for "warmaster". This morning she emailed me the link to a post for something over 120 blisters, spanning eight armies. The guy wants $300. Retail price for that would be over $1,800, and Warmaster blisters go for pretty close to retail on ebay...

That is some serious temptation.

Map Test

2012-01-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

Last week, Ckutalik had an interesting blog post about using point maps instead of a traditional hex map as a DM tool for exploratory games. In essence, the point map catalogs those areas of interest, and details only the distance between them.

It occurred to me that this sort of map would also work as a DM overlay onto a traditional hex map as well. If you presume that an area is "safe", that is that it has no real exploring potential, then it can be reduced to just a blank hex. A blank hex is fairly meaningless, and therefore can be further reduced down to just a travel point to indicate the amount of time needed to get from A to B. However, the hexes are still maintained, in the event that they are needed for something later (domain level play, say)

Here is a quick map that I drew up using Google Draw, a handy little tool if you have not used it yet.

It uses the conventions mentioned by Ckutailk in the original post, but leaves the "interesting" areas as hexes, ready to be explored. As an additional bit of usefulness, the node sort of map is how someone from City A might actually think about the geography, that is in terms of marches from point A to point C, rather than in terms of cardinal directions and miles.

Thoughts?

AD&D Reprints

2012-01-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

You may already know this, but Wizards of the Coast is reprinting all three books of the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (PG, MM, and DMG)with a special covers in order to raise money for the Gary Gygax memorial in Lake Geneva, WI. Obviously, it is pretty great of Wizards to reprint these books, and giving some money from the sales to the memorial fund (what percentage has not been announced) is great too... but you could also buy these books used for as little as $10 on Amazon, so if you just want the books, it is probably not the best of deals. That said, I am eager to see what they look like, and if they have "old school" art or not.

Obviously I am interested in getting a copy, since I do not have the originals, and would like to own the DMG at least. Pity that my birthday is so far away...

Magic Item: Sunswords

2012-01-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

Forged in the mythical antediluvian age by the elves of that time, Sunswords are a magic weapon without equal in the known world. They are each known to collectors by name, the history of each over the long thousands of years chronicled in the City by sages, great battles at which they appeared known to dreaming squires all over the world.

Finding an unknown Sunsword is correspondingly very rare. The majority of those known are in the hands of the Paladins of Red Bella, the Elvish God of War, and even then they rarely leave the Grand Armory-Cathedral in the City. News of finding a new sword in the human lands would mean that armies would march, and assassins, thieves and worse would be unleashed to recover the prize, for so great is their prestige that they are coveted by the kings of man... or those who would to become kings.

Yet, the Sunsword is not a mortal blade. They are made neither from bronze nor iron, rather their blade glows slightly, like unto the new dawning sun, white over the horizon. It is this three cubit blade from which their power comes, for the hilt is unremarkable, being nothing more than a cylinder etched for grip. There is no guard, no ornamentation, no gems, nothing besides the blade and the hilt. Nothing there is, besides the box.

Given time, the Sunsword cuts all things, and suffers no scabbard or belt, cutting easily through either. Instead, each is stored in a special white ceramic box, which grips the hilt tightly, letting the blade remain untouched. This box also blocks the unending light and faint hum generated by the blade, allowing its bearer to rest, and to carry the sword unremarked. The hilt does have a flat bottom, which can be used to rest the blade during a respite in combat, but many have died on their own blades, trying to regain them in a moment of panic, and the wise ignore this feature.

Sunsword, 1lb, d12+4 damage
Sunsword case, 5lbs

A letter from a PC

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

I told my players that they could get an experience bonus for writing an in character letter recapping the adventure, which the magic user decided to make use of. The intent was to collect a bit more detail, have the players create some color, and hopefully, give me some devious hooks to us on them later.

Lord Oraculi,

I have recently come across magic that I cannot explain through my own studies, and I write this to you seeking answers as to what the magic is and guidance as to what should be done with the remnants of what I have found. Because my knowledge of the matter is so incomplete, it may help you to know under what circumstances the magic came into my possession.

While having a feast with the Baron, a human from a small town burst in and cried for help. His village had been attacked by the Thin Men. One of my party, I cannot tell you which due to mild intoxication, volunteered us to investigate the matter. After a cautious journey to the town we found that the vast majority of it had been burnt to the ground, save for the structures that were made of stone and therefore could not be burned and the palisade on the far side. Brief investigations of the remaining structures revealed that the people inside had been killed.

We managed to gain entrance into the palisade by climbing in and began investigating by looking in a small hole in the center. Our orc, Orgoyle, brash as she was (and still is, luckily) rushed to the bottom while the druid Aaganess' faery fire revealed three animated skeletons! Orgoyle was quickly defeated, her injuries life threatening. Another spell from the druid entangled the abominations and allowed us to retrieve the fallen orc. Our young woods people, Nyma and Ummm managed to gather herbs that kept the orc alive, as our demonstrative priest, Solamante, neglected to prepare his spells of healing. We searched the area, hoping to find a healing potion or some other way of keeping the orc alive, but we only found a giant spider and a ghoul (and some treasure) for our troubles. It was shortly after defeating the ghoul that I came across the first bit of that magic that has confounded me so. Once again, I cannot explain its nature other than to say that it filled me with a sense of contrariness, or even wrongness. My only deduction is that the magic is of a necromantic sort, as we had, at that point, come across two types of the undead.

We climbed a tower and saw that there was a quarry near to the village. The remaining party, Nyma stayed with the fallen orc, travelled there seeking more answers. What we found was the remaing villagers, slain and piled high like debris. Fearing what foe might have that kind of power, we retreated out of the village to try and restore the orc into usefulness. After a good deal of rest, the priest's magic revived Orgoyle, and in an effort to be at full strength when found our foe, we rested some more.

The following day we returned to the quarry and ventured into the hillside via a small fissure. Upon entrance we were accosted by a cave crawler. Fortunately, none were seriously injured, though the reinvigorated Orgoyle, with much to prove after her incapacitation, chased the poor creature as it tried to flee and slew it. What followed was a strange network of small tunnels and ancient rooms that was difficult to follow. I have done my best to recreate our journey in the underground after this letter, and have labeled everything as best I could. Of particular note, are the ancient elven tombs and the ancient underground cathedral.

We came across more skeletons as we entered the cathedral, and thanks to some creative tactics and some rather impressive slinging from Orgoyle's minion Bantha, they were easily dispatched. What we found at the far end of the cathedral is the most pertinent of all: we stumbled across a woman just before she sacrificed two humans, and surrounding her were zombies! The wicked wench charmed my own hireling, Sir Willy, and caused him to attack Orgoyle. That distraction would have been enough to fracture our party and end us if it hadn't been for Aaganess' quick thinking. Another spell of entangling brought Nature's fury of inconvenience on the necromancer and her minions, holding them fast where they stood. Orgoyle, having learned from her last bout of blade induced near-death, luckily wore a spare shield on her back. That shield likely saved her from Willy's wrath, and after trading blows, Sir Willy was felled by one of our rogues. Meanwhile, Umm and Aaganess had their dogs viciously attacking the Necromancer, and though she protected herself with the same magical shield you yourself taught me, the dogs brought her down.

The zombies were easily dispatched after the wicked woman was down. Most of it had been taken care of by the time I returned with a long spear to keep me out of reach. Solamante spoke to the woman as she lay dying, and when she mentioned having minions come to her aid, he smashed her skull with his mace.

Here are a few more points that require your guidance. The sacrificial area was lined with some kind dark magical script, likely to have the dead return to life after being slain. The Necromancer wore a necklace of human finger bones that named men and had the number 1. The Necromancer's spell book, while containing some benign spells, which I have already copied, also contained more of those that seemed to twist my sense of the natural order, which I have not copied. All of this took place in a cathedral that was likely used by elves ages ago, and contained small areas for each of the ten gods as well as others that we did not, and I suppose still do not, know about. One of the shrines was dedicated to Triton, who I know to be a banned god.

So there you have it, Oraculi. The entire experience unsettles me more than most. Who were the other gods? Why don't people know about them anymore? Where did this Necromancer receive her power and what could that mean for the future? I pray that you will give me the guidance I require to make the proper decisions regarding this tainted magic.

Ever Your Student,

Fondue

Thoughts on the Session

2012-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

As you no doubt read in great detail, the first Deepest Sea session ultimately went well. Here are a few thoughts from my point of view:

I had a player interested in playing a Druid and a havling cleric, so I had to come up with information on both. Druids are based on the Advanced companion rules, and havling clerics are worshipers of the elvish pantheon. Both players did quite well with their choices.
Players were confused about the "lines" thing with equipment and encumbrance. They were also somewhat confused about how to generate the various bonuses based on stats. Both need to be better explained in the players guide, possibly with examples.
Buying equipment takes some time, and may need to be simplified for beginners with a "kit".
I rolled the motivations of the retainers using the NPC motivation table created by Rolang, but the results were not as random as expected. Drop tables may have a bias due to methodology [I was dropping with my left hand, and most results went to dull and torpid]. As it happened, they only hired two retainers and a dog, so it did not matter much.
The players did not go quickly to the village, which meant that they missed out on seeing the zombies and skeletons burn down the village, and also meant that the necromancer was encountered only at the end, and not as a reoccurring villain.
The players never searched the ruins of the church, missing a large part of the potential loot.
The first combat went pretty poorly, and the orc fighter went down as quickly as would be expected in a 3:1 situation. I was willing to let the character die, but the other players pointed out that having the character of the guy who flew 3000 miles to be in the game (not wholly for the game) die might not be the most fun. So apparently now we need to get to -10 to actually die. Ah, house rules!
Instead of attacking the skeletons in the well, the players looked around for "healing potions".
Spider and ghoul in the tower died very easily, showing the combat power of such a large party.
The players never looked through the stables or the workers huts, instead hurrying off to the quarry.
Once they recovered spells, they did not go back to the well, or to the previously found hole in the ground, but instead went to the cave with the slime trail (!). Might have to use that against them next time as a chance to introduce a TPK, or as I like to think about it "a life lesson".
Cavern Crawler was weaker than I thought, and got spanked in one round by the massed firepower of the group, and then slain as it tried to flee.
Entangle was very very powerful... when the DM forgets to roll a magic resistance for those hit by it.
Players put down the necromancer very quickly, ending combat in three rounds. She also failed her blood sustenance spell because she missed her attack on the dog ripping her apart. This was disappointing, since I had hoped that this combat would be sort of the capstone of the session. Another instance of misjudging the power level of the party.
Players are now going to carouse to ensure that they all make it to level 2... which gives me evil glee.

Deepest Sea Session Recap

2012-01-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

I finally ran a game for my friends this past couple of weekends, over two sessions. Here is an exhaustive recap after the break.
Barony Brose
Player Characters:
Orgoyle- Female Orc Fighter
Solemante- Male Havling Cleric, party caller
Aagness- Female Havling Druid
Fondue- Female Havling Magic User
Ummmm- Female Elf Fighter
Nyma- Female Human Fighter
Gwyneth- Female Elf Rogue
Cecelia- Female Human Rogue
Retainers:
Willie - Man-at-arms with mail, helmet, and sword
Bantha - Man-at-arms with tunic and sling
Sssst the dog
Shhh the dog
Two pack goats, and a donkey

I asked the players to decide on a party caller, and further, one who was not as experienced with RPGs. With a bunch of new players, I wanted to avoid having the three guys most experienced drive the bus so to speak. After some fiddling around with equipment and retainers, the players started the game already in action having drunkenly agreed to find out what is attacking a local village. While they were enjoying the local Baron's hospitality on the feast of St. Steve, a peasant rudely burst into the great hall of the castle, and said that "thin men" had attacked the village, and killed or driven off the inhabitants. Being drunk, the players' characters stood up and said that they would right this wrong. In the cool light of morning, it seemed a bit risky and foolhardy.

I then asked them to decide on getting to the village in a hurry, meaning arriving at nightfall, or going more leisurely, so as to arrive the next morning. The players decided to go slowly, and camped over night after traveling for around 8 hours. [this also changed what the village looked like when they got there] They did set a watch, and talked a bit in character about what "thin men" could possibly be.

The next morning, the party crested a hill, and saw across a stream, the village, mostly burnt to the ground, with a smokey haze hanging over it. To the west there was a swamp, north was the village itself, and it was between two bits of wood. They could also see a hill beyond the village with a palisade at the top. They elected to look at the three unburnt houses in the village, all of which had doors locked and barricaded from the inside, and one open window. The first building was essentially empty.

Second building examined was larger, and inspection of the main room showed that it had a trapdoor in the floor which looked as if it had been burst open from below. Checking upstairs, they found a few bodies, torn apart, and some silver working tools, raw silver, and some coins. Searching the basement, they found a low hole in the dirt wall which looked as if it had been dug out by animals. While the druid was willing to go down and check it out, the other players decided that the party should go to the third building and check it out. It was similar to the others, although it had a ton of flour in one room, and the other room had a secret hiding place under the rushes. Inside the hidden hole was a bag with a gem and some silver.

The players then moved on to examine the palisade, and as they got closer, they could see that it had a ditch running around it, that it looked like the wood wall was being replaced with stone, and that the gate was closed. The players debated for a while about calling out, and after a while decided that they should. There was no answer, just eerie silence. Walking around the palisade, they went up the hill a bit, and then could see into the bailey.

They see a well with a large mound of dirt next to it, a tower, stables, chapel, a huge pile of wood, and some huts. They decided to climb the wall, and go explore. Sending the rogues over, they opened the gate, and looked around a bit. Looking down the well, they saw that there was a rope ladder, which was twitching slightly. Rashly, they call down the well, and hear some shuffling sounds at the bottom.

The Druid decides to descend into the well with a lantern, and once he gets low enough, he can see that there is a corpse at the bottom of the dry well, and something which keeps moving out of the light. I told him it seemed thin and white. Surmising that these were not villagers, he switches places with the Orc fighter, who then descends all the way to the bottom of the well, initiating combat with three skeletons dressed in archaic armor and wielding bronze swords and Shields. She misses her attack, and in a flurry of blades, goes down to the soundless killers. [they caused 9 damage, and I did remind the player about "Shields shall be splintered" before hand] The Druid descends further on the rope and casts entangle on the skeletons, trapping them in place. She then climbs down to the bottom away from the skeletons, bandages the wounds of the orc [I ruled she will die overnight unless tended to], and ropes her up to the top.

The players then badger one of the henchmen into opening the door to the chapel, root around in the chapel looking for healing items, page through the illuminated prayer book, see the altar items, and then move on to the tower. The yett is closed, but not locked, and the party opens it and goes into the first room. They see that it is a kitchen/dining room, and that 1/2 of the room is covered in thick web. After some debate, they shoot a sling bullet into the web, and it summons out a monstrous black widow. In a flurry of attacks they put it down before it can even strike, although the elf fighter intended to throw a lit torch into the web and instead dropped it onto the rushes on the floor.
After extinguishing the fire that the fumbled torch started, the party searches around, and finds a drained and desiccated older woman hung in the web, with a key in her pocket. Moving up to the next floor, they find that it has an office and a maids' quarters. The office has a sealed letter from the steward to the Baron, and some gold, which the players pocket. They discuss the letter, and decide that they will tell the Baron that they found it open, if anyone asks. They open the letter, and read "My Lord Baron Brose, that woman has gone quite insane following the death of her husband, and now her moods threaten all of us". In the back of the office is a little room, where they find the body of the steward, his throat cut. A search of the maids' quarters turns up the same thing, and they surmise that the woman has killed them before the rest of the village was destroyed.

Climbing to the next floor, they find the bed chamber of the lord and lady, and an office. Examining the bedroom first, they find that the male clothes there have been shredded, and that the woman's clothes are there. Opening the office, the rogues and cleric are attacked by a ghoul who slams the door behind them. He attacks the human, and manages to strike her with a claw, causing the loss of 1 hp. The cleric casts protection from evil on herself. The next round they manage to slay the ghoul, and find a cheap spellbook, and a map of neighboring Brémdy with "Daro" written above a circled mountain in the Rim. Climbing up to the roof, the party looks around, and sees the quarry in the distance, as well as an overview of the town ruins. They decide to check out the basement, and find a ton of food stuffs, and notice that the foundation has subsided some.

They then decide to go check out the quarry. Leaving behind the pack animals and the dying orc, they go to the quarry, and see that there is a large pile of bodies there, as well as a slime trail leading into a cave at the foot of the rock wall. The party then decides to rest overnight so as to be able to heal the orc, and moves across the stream to a nearby hillside to do so. They watch the town during the night, but no action is seen.

The next day, after magically healing the Orc character, the party decides to explore the cave [!], leaving Nyma the fighter with the animals [the player was not able to make this second part of the session]. Entering the cave, the party saw that it was created by erosion... and that a cavern crawler was the thing making the slime trail. Acting quickly, the party unloaded ranged weapons, causing it to flee. The orc fighter kills it with a mighty axe blow as it tries to slip out of the entrance. The druid explored the tiny tight tunnel at the end of the cave that goes up to a small stone room... it turns out to be an open tomb, which is in an excavated area underground. Moving along, the party saw a few other tombs, and a tunnel leading off in one direction. While everyone else leaves the area, the orc and her [currently] loyal henchman pry open one of the other tombs, and when they are greeted by a skull with glowing eyes, and hands reaching out of the coffin, they quickly slide the tomb lid closed again.

Coming around a bend, the group finds an excavated area around a temple door, and another tunnel leading north. The group decides to look into the open door of the temple, where they see, and are seen by six skeletons. The party pulled back, and dealt with the skeletons in two groups, killing them all. [worst player joke of the day "do dogs get a bone-us against skeletons?"] Exploring further in the temple, the party discovered that it is quite old, and elvish. Noticing a light down the temple, they decide to send the rogues to check it out. Unfortunately, they fail their move silently, and a hand is seen covering up the light. The elvish fighter sends a flaming arrow down to the altar, and manages to hit it perfectly to illuminate the area, and they see a female human with some zombies at an altar.

Acting quickly, the druid casts entangle, and the whole group is caught. Combat starts with the woman waving her hands and speaking some mumbo jumbo, and suddenly Willie the henchman is attacking the Orc! Fortunately the shield that she had strapped to her back took the mighty blow that Willie dealt, because otherwise she would have died [The player DID use the Shields must be splintered rule this time around!]. The dogs and part of the party attack the woman, and the rest of dealt with Willie. Despite casting shield, the woman is eventually torn down by the dogs, and then the party spent some time picking off the zombies who were still entangled. The party finds that the woman had a marked out mystic circle with herbs and a couple of unconscious young girls, along side a book which seems to be open to an evil spell. The havling cleric interrogates the dying woman, and when she says "my followers are on their way", dashes her head in. The magic user takes the book and the ornate knife she was using.

Willie is revived with a cure light wounds spell (after being stripped of his gear) [the players were properly eager for the mail], and after some negotiation is released to follow the party with his hands tied. A few of the chapels branching off from the temple proper are examined quickly, and the party sets off into the tunnels again. The party finds what appears to be a buried house, and the elvish rogue manages to sneak up on a ghoul and stab him to death with one blow [natural 20 for backstab with a longsword]. The orc takes the lead next, and manages to avoid a collapsing basement, which would probably have killed her. [pit trap]

The three skeletons that nearly killed the orc the first time are encountered again, and this time they are quickly dispatched by the whole party, although they kill Bantha, the orc's henchman as they die. The party then sends the rogues up the well shaft to lower down the rope ladder, and the party all climb out into the mid morning sun. They were only underground for a few hours, although it felt like days.

When they climb out of the well shaft, one of the girls being carried wakes up, and after she is calmed down after seeing the sea of non-human faces, manages to tell them the following story:

The lady, sh's the furign wife of Sir Allard, she wasn't right after he died sudden like. She spent a week locked in her chambers I heard tell from, Ella, sh's the lady's chamber maid, and she didn't weep or nothing, but just read books. Then at his funeral, th'lady was laughing and looked crazy. That night the thin men came, and killed the Aldric family and the smith. Some ran to the tower, but the gate was locked, and no one answered. The next day was scary, and some said we should leave the town and get help. Maybe someone did, 'cause you are here... but the next night more thin men came, and this time they burned houses, and drove everyone into the forest. Something... wrong was there, and everyone died. Me and Macy ran to the hills, and we saw the lady there, and that's all I remember really. Oh, it is terrible really (here she weeps uncontrollably)

And that is where things ended, with the party knowing essentially the complete story of what happened in the village, and needing to decide what to do next.

Also, welcome to new followers Brendan and William Dowie, both of whom I have seen out and about in the blogosphere, and appreciate having them look into my little corner of it.

A Review of 2011

2012-01-09T11:20:00.000-08:00

2011 will stand as a banner year in the history of this blog, should such a boring work ever be compiled. This is due to its refocusing on a slightly broader hobby in the area of roleplaying, and my participation in the A-Z challenge, which increased my posting from occasional to regular, and really brought in blog followers and hits.

In this post last year, I discussed goals for 2011, based on the failed goals of 2010.

Here they are, with a few thoughts about their completion (or lack there of)
1. Get in a Game or two: Failure with regards to miniatures games, success for board games.
2. Paint More Figures: Success!
3. Figure out Figure Storage: Partial success, thanks to my wife buying the Diebold Safe-T-Stack
4. Get Hobby Room Finished and Set Up: Failure, although I expect something basic to be done this year, as the in-laws are finally out of our house.
5. Use airbrush again: Failure. Waiting on completion of the Baneblade, which is actually not that far off, although I have been caught in the trap of detailing for a while now.

2012 has already started off better in the gaming, since I have already played Settlers (and won), Clue [Cluedo for UK readers] twice (won once), Cathedral, as well as ran my very first D&D game over two sessions (much more on that later).

Anyway, for goals this year, I want to accomplish all of the above, plus start following blogs that I already read anyway. I will have more on this later, but intend to highlight and review the blogs as I add them. I also intend to paint my new box of Dreadfleet, and run a couple more D&D games. We will see how it goes!

Welcome to new blog follower Simon Forester, who has a very interesting blog called "... and the sky full of dust".

Type V

2012-01-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

Well, if you are reading this blog, you probably have already read about this, but Wizards has officially announced that they are playtesting for Fifth Edition D&D. Apparently they are planning to do an open playtest, and as many had speculated previously, they are intending to capture players of previous editions (meaning mostly 3/3.5 I assume).

I do not think that this edition will capture my gaming dollars, or mental attention, but I did sign up to get the notifications of material. Maybe something will be worth cribbing at least.

December Update

2011-12-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

A belated Merry Christmas to all.

Things have been quiet here on the old blog, due to being sick and busy all at the same time. Rest assured that I have been beavering away at my various Deepest Sea items, and more slowly working on getting the figures painted for the game... which happens in three days!

For Christmas this year I got Dreadfleet from my wife and her family, which was an unexpected treat. I look forward to getting it all off the sprue, and reading through the rulebook. I could not wait to see the contents though, and already had a rummage around inside. The details on the ships are pretty amazing, in particular the sails struck me as being excellent. Looks as if it will be a big painting project for 2012.

The second surprise, was the D&D Rules Cyclopedia from my sister. This was a complete shock, because even though it was on my Amazon list, I basically put it there for my own reference. I have paged through it a bit, and it seems every bit as comprehensive as I expected. In fact, I already got some game ideas from it.

There are a few other minor items that I will talk about in their own posts as I get to them.

And a slightly early Happy New Year... I am sure I will still be busy in the next few days, and probably will not get back to the blog to post again this year.

Quick Update

2011-11-29T10:46:00.001-08:00

Yes, I am still alive. With the Thanksgiving Holiday last week, and a bout of sickness at our house, I have not been online much. While I did not get as much done hobbywise this weekend as I planned, I did manage to prime all of the D&D figures (with the help of my wife), and started to paint some yesterday.

Now I just need to paint three figures a day for the next month... so we will see how that goes.

As you are probably aware, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, we enter into the Holiday Sales season, which would be more tempting if I had not just spend so much on figures. Nothing that should prevent YOU from buying more figures or rules though Dear Reader, so get to it.

Pavements

2011-11-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today in my Internet wanderings, I came across this lovely method from the Lazy Forger for making streets and sidewalks, using MDF.

Here are the relevant three parts:
1. Carving the cast lines and cracks
2. Sponge Painting
3. Sidewalks and detailing

I think that this technique could be combined with my eventual plan to make a 6 foot square 28mm City fight board, by having an MDF layer to represent roadways, and indeed it may be adaptable to blue foam as well. Since I own a table saw, making the relevant cuts should be simple.

Something to think about in the future.

Also, a warm welcome to Sean Robson, who like many excellent folks, is a paleontologist. He also has a great blog mostly aimed at D&D, and has come up with a very handy format to present adventures, which I hope to utilize when I get around to finalizing the one I am working on for New Years.

Words of Wisdom from the Family

2011-11-21T16:07:00.001-08:00

My wife is a pretty smart person, as well as being generally tolerant and understanding about the hobby. This weekend we finished going through the Wargames Illustrated that I got last weekend, and she said "did I remind you to renew your White Dwarf yet?"... not a vote of confidence in WI. She finds the concept of historical gaming to be a bit more boring in general, and was not impressed with most of the photography in the magazine either. I liked it myself, but it does not seem to scratch the same itch that White Dwarf does.

She also reviewed with dismay the array of figures I got for the D&D game, and said "Isn't one of the nice things about D&D that you don't NEED figures for it?". She is completely correct of course, and at this point it is obvious that I got a bit carried away, and have bitten off more than I can chew... not enough time to paint what I have in time for the game etc. At this point I think I am going to essentially pre-generate most of the encounters that they may have, and paint to that, rather than painting to the possibility of what could be encountered. I have based and prepared most of the miniatures, and will prime them sometime this week... then the real adventure begins.

Also, my son, who is now 1.5 years old saw some miniatures out on the table (NPCs for the D&D game), and kept point at them and saying "man!". He was pretty excited by them, and wanted to play with them... too early to get him a set of green army men or 1/72 figures? I am guessing yes. Maybe next year.

Players guide v0.2

2011-11-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

An update to my Deepest Sea Players Guide. This version has prestige classes, a threat ranking, and some better explanation of how to create a character, amongst other things. The file is located here.

The threat ranking is based on the concept created by Roger here, and is located on page 29. As always, the various silhouettes are from Telecanter, and they are highly useful.

Please let me know what you think.

Reaper Miniatures

2011-11-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got my Reaper Miniatures order in the mail. I ordered the PC figures and a few monster/NPC types from Reaper, and was able to take advantage of both their free shipping, and their special October "Trick-Or-Treat" offer. Here is what I got in my Trick-or-Treat bag:

We have a bag of candy, the Pink color paint for Breast Cancer awareness, four bottles of paint as samples, a pack of CAV branded playing cards, and my Trick-or-Treat figure.

The real Trick vs. Treat aspect of the bag was the chance to get a "treat", a figure, or a "trick". I got the trick, which was a packaged rock. Maybe it will be a future collectible? It is after all a one of a kind figure...

As I have mentioned before I really like Reaper figures, and I like how useful their website's figure finder feature is. (although it would be nice if there were more keywords for each figure). Unfortunately, at least in terms of this project, most Reaper figures are more in the 32mm range than in a 28mm range. Some are even pushing that, since the Dark Heaven range is fairly free form, and different sculptors have different ideas of how large a figure ought to be.

Pictured between "Franz" and "Jean" our comparison figures, we have Red Box Games, Perry Miniatures, Ebob, Reaper elf, and Reaper Gnome. Sort of a motley crew, but I think basing and paint will draw them together a bit more.

Why only one player wants to be a male character I do not know, but it sure made figure finding more difficult. More on that later, when I introduce the PC figures.

Now I am just waiting for bases from EM4, and we can start seeing some real progress here, and not just shots of bare metal.

Also, a warm welcome to new follower Bogus Gasman, who has a D&D blog titled "My pants are Haunted".

Perry Miniatures Review

2011-11-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got my first order from Perry Miniatures. While I certainly have more than a few figures sculpted by the Perry Brothers (more like 100s), I had never previously ordered from their own figure company.

I ordered a few figures to use as NPCs in the D&D game that I am running in January, drawing from their First Crusade line. Indeed these are figures that I am using as the benchmark for the project, because they fit the look I want so closely. In this case the figures are sculpted by Michael Perry, although most people would be hard pressed to identify between the work of one or the other of the brothers.

This first picture is our lovely comparison models "Franz" and "Jean", which you may recall are 6th and 5th edition GW figures. As it happens they were also sculpted by the Perry Brothers (I may have missed a zero on my previous estimate of the number of figures I own that they have sculped.) As you can see, the figure matches most closely with the 5th edition metal Bretonnian figure, which is to my mind, excellent.

One of the things you read about online occasionally, is that Perry figures are "terrible" in terms of flash and other clean up work. As you can see from the figure below, there is some extraneous metal that needed to be cleaned up, but I think it was nothing out of the ordinary, and it only took a few minutes to work through the set that I got.

This last picture is of CU25, one of the only packs that does not have a picture on their site. As you can see they are quite dynamic figures, and should look quite nice slaying orcs down in the dungeons.

Perry Miniatures CU25 Mailed Sword and Axemen, advancing/attacking

The figures are packed in little black boxes for each code, and this seems to be good enough for overseas shipment. Shipping times were perfectly adequate, and the VAT rebate offset the price of postage. In conclusion, these are lovely figures that I am already planning on supplementing sometime in the future.

Red Box Games

2011-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

This past week I got an order of miniatures from Red Box Games (RBG). Sculpted by Tré Manor, the Red Box Games figures are much closer to "true" proportionality, which can mean that they look small compared to other figures, and in particular have small heads (or normal sized depending on your POV). Personally, I find the figures to be lovely, but I can see why some people would say that they do not mix with other figure lines.

In my order was the figure "Nannulf of Arnholt's Hill", a barbarian type with three different arm combination options. He can have a sword and shield, two handed axe, or javelins and a buckler. The finish of the figure was excellent, with essentially no flash or mold lines. The thinner metal of the sword and javelins was bent, but easily corrected with a bit of gentle pressure.

Here he is shown with my tester figures for this set of reviews "Franz" and "Jean", which are an Empire handgunner from the 6th Edition boxed set, and a 5th Edition Bretonnian Man-At-Arms with Spear Champion, both from Games Workshop.

The other figures that I got were equally well cast, and I would certainly buy from RBG again.

Hobby Weekend

2011-11-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend was great for hobby activities.

First, I got my Red box, Reaper, and Perry Miniature orders, which gave me plenty of figures to play around with. I will be using these for my NPCs, PCs, and Monsters in the Deepest Sea D&D game I am running in January. I have a order coming in from EM4, which has my bases, and then we are off to the races. Reviews of the figures I got are coming up this week.

Second, we went to the new Hobby Lobby store in our area. This was the first time I had ever been, and now I understand why the folks on TMP are always talking about it. It is possibly the largest "hobby" store I have ever been to, with everything from knitting to stain glass, beads to fabric. It has a much larger modeling section than other craft stores (including military models and Tamiya), and also has doll house, terrain, and rocket items. Since they have a weekly 40% coupon, it could be a great place to pick up tools, paint and the occasional kit. Unfortunately the store is a bit far from my house, so I will not be going there frequently, but it is good to know that there are options. (and they are going to open more stores in the area)

Third, I got a call from my FLGS, Great Escape Games, and they let me know that my Wargames Illustrated is in. I had to order a copy since they did not have any in stock when I was there last weekend, but this way I can read it and decide if I want to replace my White Dwarf subscription with something a bit more historic. I did not pick it up yet, but something to look forward to.

I am also looking forward to the long Veteran's day weekend, when aside from digging a drainage trench and putting in a french drain, I hope to get a ton of hobby work done.

Eureka Miniatures

2011-10-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

As part of my D&D project, I needed to get some dogs to serve as retainers for the PC party. (or as wild dogs to slay the PC party) Looking around the various dog options from the myriad of sources on the Internet, I fixed on the Eureka Conquistador dog handler and dogs set as being the best bargain, and bought it from Eureka USA (for somewhat less than from Eureka AU). Since they have flat rate shipping, I tossed in a few other useful figures for monsters and the like, which I will not talk about now. (I was also very tempted to get a squadron of Saxon horse for my 1809 project, but fortunately sanity prevailed)

My order came very quickly, and was packed quite well. I was really quite pleased with the service that I got from Eureka USA.

The dogs from the set are great, perfect for what I want to use them for, and while they have a little bit of flash between their legs, they are cast well, and should clean up nicely.

Not necessary for this current project, but also interesting is the dog handler himself. I had always thought that Eureka figures would be too small for use with GW figures, but as you can see from the picture below, that is not the case at all. I am quite pleased with its size and heft as compared to the smaller Bretonnian figure on the left, and the larger Empire figure on the right. Consequently, I think it should be possible to make a small Estalian or Dogs of War force using Eureka figures, and they would not look out of place with GW figures at all. Unfortunately, I have not opened my pack of Foundry El Dorado adventurers, so I was not able to compare with those, but I think they should match up fairly well.

With my Eureka purchase, I also threw in a Venturan trooper with SAW 15mm figure for comparison purposes. Since these are relatively new, this may be of use to someone who is interested in getting these figures.

Left to right we have a Resistant Roosters US soldier in Greatcoat, the Venturan, a late war German Grenadier from BattleFront (Flames of War GE722), and a German anti-tank gun crew man from Command Decision (Old Glory). As you can see the picture they are all close enough for use on the same battlefield, although, possibly not in the same squad.

The Venturan was well cast and quite proportional, although a bit thin legged considering he has body armor on. The integral base was quite thin, and would be easy to blend in. The SAW, as you may be able to tell from the picture, is pretty clearly a SF BAR, which I found amusing. At $0.67 a figure, they are quite reasonable, and a full platoon would not break the bank.

As a concluding cautionary note, the Eureka figures do contain lead, so be sure to handle them appropriately, if like I do, you have small children.

Soon, I hope to discuss the other figures I am getting from Perry miniatures, Red box games, and Ebob.

On bases

2011-10-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

Since I am running a game in January sometime, I need to get a bunch of miniatures bought, painted, and ready. Since the miniatures are coming from a number of diverse sources (including Eureka, Perry, Red Box, Reaper, Ral Partha, GW, and Ebob), they do not have matching bases. Normally, with fantasy figures, I would just go with GW style 20mm square bases, and be done with it, but I have some rather large monsters, some small guys, and a bunch of figures with integral bases. Round bases may work better for this set, since they will blend together better. Also, these figures are not going to fit in with my GW stuff anyway, due to a difference in theme and size, so not as much need to worry about that I think.

Basing options are as follows:
20mm square
25mm square
20mm round
25mm round
30mm round
30mm round, dished
40mm round
25mm hex

Ideas? Thoughts?

How old is that Ruin?

2011-10-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

I am very very slowly working on my Deepest Sea Dungeon Master's Guide, but just to prove there is something going on, here is a d12 chart for "How old is that ruin that the PCs just found?"

I tried to go for a slightly archaeological look, with the PC party peering down through the dirt through the depths of time to the ruins. As you can see there is a better chance of "really old" ruins than of recent human ruins, which seems reasonable.

Thanks again as always to Telecanter for the silhouettes.

I asked potential players about a New Years game, and have had positive response, so some miniatures are on the way for that, and it gives me a good goal for getting the DM's Guide and a revised Player's Guide finished.

White Dwarf - renew or no?

2011-10-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

My White Dwarf subscription comes to an end next issue (382 in the US), and I am seriously considering not renewing it. The usual reason is the cost of the magazine, and the new reason is my annoyance with their new delivery schedule, which means I get the magazine nearly a week after the stores do.

A year of White Dwarf costs $75 which comes out to $6.25 per issue. Pretty costly per issue, particularly considering that 1/3 of the magazine is advertisements for various Games Workshop products, most of which I am already aware of, and therefore do not need to see again. GW used to give out "free" miniatures with a subscription, and include cardstock inserts in the magazine, but neither of those seem to be the case any more. (although I could buy a non-useful White Dwarf miniature for more money... in Finecast too)

On the positive side, I do look through the magazine with my wife before bed sometimes, and it is the one bit of "hobby time" that we can share easily. I do like some of the content lately, as it seems to be shifting back to the "useful" side of things after a year of declining content. I have been subscribing, and collecting, the magazine for 15 years now (since issue 200!), and it would seem strange to end that.

If I did not renew my subscription to WD, I could get a subscription to Wargames Illustrated, and get either 14 issues or 12 issues and miniatures for $96. Slightly more than White Dwarf per issue if I go with the 14 issues. I have not read an issue yet, but it looks promising. The FLGS always seems to be sold out of the newest issue, so it makes it hard to get, and possibly indicates its popularity. Seems to be fairly solidly oriented at historical games, which is not a bad thing, but might lack some of the appeal of fantasy/sci fi games.

Alternately, I could just not spend the money, and either save it or spend it more directly on miniatures. Neither of these seems as exciting as getting a magazine in the mail for some reason.

So, decision time. Status quo, or something new?

Encounter Table - column shifting

2011-10-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have been sort of quiet this week, in part because I have been working on this encounter table idea. The concept is that your encounter table for a certain large region includes all terrain types, and then there are column shifts from right to left or left to right to show changes in conditions, such as bad weather, or other situations where a normally safe area becomes more dangerous, or a dangerous area becomes more safe.

(click to enbiggen)

Ideally there would be a few more columns to show the differences between say, city and dangerous city, but I did not have 16 more ideas at this time! I also used 3d6 to make it more regular, and repeated entries to make it even more so. So there are lots of "peasant" entries. (roll on sub table). In addition, my entries are more naturalistic than fantastic, and there is very little on there which is straight magical... which I think fits the setting.

As always the excellent silhouettes are from Telecanter.

Any thoughts?

Also, a welcome to New Big Dragon, who has an interesting looking RPG blog. (which I am trying to resist reading before publishing this post)

Deepest Sea Players' Guide

2011-10-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, after a couple months of lunchtime and some side tracking, I have at last finished the players' guide to the Deepest Sea (Located here). This is intended for players in my Deepest Sea game, which I hope to be able to run over the holidays. The guide has a character creation sheet, and a character sheet, as well as equipment and spell lists, a progression chart, and some "fluff" on the nations, a bestiary, and assorted other bits of information for 18 pages in total. This was created using Microsoft Publisher, and then converted to PDF. The "art" is just placeholder art until I can draw and track down a few more fitting pieces.

I am standing on the shoulders of giants to make this guide, with information from a number of sources, prices inspired by Rob's draft Majestic Wilderlands price list, silhouettes from Telecanter, prestige classes from FrDave, and some layout ideas from Roger's single sheet project. Many thanks to those who knowingly and unknowingly helped so far.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. Now a short break, and then on to the DM's guide and the actual adventure.

Delenda est Carthago

2011-10-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

I finally finished reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles. This book, from its title, would appear to be an overview of Carthage's development and civilization; however, the book spends far more space talking about Heracles/Hercules/Melquart and how they became increasingly conflated as time went on through cultural syncretism. Even the actions of Hannibal are presented as attempts to use the myths of Heracles as propaganda, and less of military/logistical actions.

This book was far less gripping than Empires of the Sea, the last history book I read, being much drier, due in part I suspect to the comparative lack of information. Where as Roger Crowley had personal diaries and letters to draw from, Mr. Miles had only second hand histories and archaeological data from which to build his story. Regardless of that though, the style of these two books could not be more different, with Mr. Crowley putting the reader in the action, and Mr. Miles takes scholarly distance to a new height. The book spends far more time discussing sources and methods than in explaining general history, or geographical relationships, which I think is less useful way to write in a general history of this type. It does have an extensive bibliography and end notes, which do help to explain some of the assertions made. In conclusion, it is hard to recommend this book to those who want a mere overview of Carthage, as it serves more as an examination of syncretism in Greek/Punic culture, and its impact on the ancient world.

The Punic wars though, remained interesting even with the dry style, and now I am more interested than previously in gaming in that period (as well as reading a military history). The early Republican Romans fought an extensive set of wars all over the Mediterranean, and Hannibal is their iconic enemy. I think that Warmaster is clearly the way to go with, since it allows for large armies, although Hail Caeser! and Warhammer Ancients could both do a good job with the period. 10mm is far cheaper than 28mm though, particularly as there are no Early Republican or Carthaginian plastics currently in production.

Excellently, a "Carthaginian" army is mostly made up of generic forces, either supplied by Barcan Spain, various allied Celtic tribes, or as mercenaries. The only really unique forces would be citizens from the Punic cities, Numidian horse, and elephants. The generic nature of the army allows for the component pieces to be used in other areas, and in other wars. With a few additions, it could be a Celtic invasion, post Alexander Macedonian kingdom, or Greek Successor army, all fighting against a common Roman army. Somthing to think about when I need a new project. (2030?)

Warhammer Historical Sale

2011-10-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

Warhammer Historical is having a half price sale on their books. Unfortunately, they seem to be out of Warmaster Medieval, which is the book I am mainly interested in acquiring. Still, this sale could be helpful to some, particularly those who are interested in Kampfgruppe Normandy, or Waterloo, which are otherwise very pricey.

Although, Trafalgar for £13 shipped does seem like a pretty tempting deal... and I do like ships...

Earthscraper

2011-10-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered where your mega-dungeons came from in your post apocalyptic setting?

Behold the Earthscraper, a giant inverted skyscraper. This one is intended to replace the Plaza Major in Mexico City.

Just add a century of decay to this, and you have a dangerous dungeon with all sorts of treasures. (it even has a museum at the bottom, which ought to have treasures worth seeking).

Also, a welcome to Galpy, a new follower. Hope you see more of whatever it is you like about this blog.

Defiance Games Marine

2011-09-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Defiance Games, which was born from the fallout of the Wargames Factory breakup, posted a preview of their first hard plastic scifi figures.

Looks pretty good so far, and I am certainly interested in these. Those arms looks as if they would take other guns pretty easily too, so this guy could get a lasgun, or a pulse rifle without much work. Obviously we still need to see these compared to other figures, and some of the detail of the helmet looks strange, but I am much more excited than I was previously about these.

Dreadfleet

2011-09-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

The long rumored "special September release" from GW has been reveled... and it is a Warhammer World Pirate game. Two years ago, they rereleased Space Hulk, and I failed to get it, so I was pretty interested in this year's release.

Araby Djinn powered ship

Skaven "ship"

Fighting it out on the battlemat with some skull islands

Here is what Games Workshop has to say about it:
Dreadfleet is a boxed game for two (or more) players that includes everything you need to make war on the turbulent seas of the Warhammer world. At your command are two fleets of ships - the Dreadfleet led by the Vampire Count Noctilus, aboard his gargantuan sea-hulk the Bloody Reaver; and the Grand Alliance commanded by the Pirate Captain Jaego Roth, who recently stole the Heldenhammer - the pride of the Imperial Fleet, and one of the largest galleons to ever sail the high seas.

As your ships engage in furious battle, it's down to you, the fleet captain, to make important split-second decisions. Do you bring all guns to bear on the closest enemy warship, or do you sail into position for a furious broadside? What happens when the warship catches fire, or worse, the powder kegs ignite? Exactly how much punishment can your warship take before it sinks without a trace? Are those Undead seagulls or flying piranha fish? And, when all else fails, do you have the courage to ram your foe, board their ship, and engage them in a duel to the death?

This boxed game contains:

98-page Rulebook
Seascape Gaming Mat
10 Warships
10 Scenic Bases
7 Cog Auxiliaries
1 Dragon Auxiliary
1 Dirigible Auxiliary
7 Islands
5 Shipwreck Pieces
3 Sea Monsters
5 Treasure Tokens
12 Dice
1 Wind Gauge
2 Ship's Wheels
1 Navigation Rod
10 Warship Cards
55 Damage Cards
40 Fate Cards
12 Auxiliary Cards
10 Wound Cards
11 Miscellaneous Cards

For $115 in the US, it unfortunately does not rise to the level of product I expect for that price. At $50 I would be very interested, but at double that price... not as much. I am also disappointed that it is a "Grand Alliance" styled game, where each race only has a single ship, which means it is certain that there is a race you are not interested in.

Pity. Maybe next year will be the year that they rerelease Warhammer Quest.

Character Sheet

2011-09-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Building from my one page character generation, I have been working on a character sheet. The concept is to have everything that a player needs on one sheet, and further, all the "core" data needed to play in a single quadrant of the page.

I still need to work on the "fluff" quadrant, which is pretty basic right now (and fairly unattractive) .

Other design choices:
Silver pennies are the main coinage used in the Deepest Sea, so instead of a box to track GP, we have S/d/cp
Retainers are placed on the character sheet
Encumbrances are handled by lines in the item list, so that a character loses one move (5 feet) for every two lines filled. Heavier items take up more lines.
Spells, skills, and such like are in KSAs

Anyway, here is what it currently looks like:

Let me know what you think. Any suggested refinements? Improvements? Something I forgot? Would it be useful for new players?

Also, welcome to new follower Lum. Hope you see some stuff you like here!

The Passage

2011-09-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

I finished reading The Passage yesterday. A newer book by Justin Cronin, it is an account of what happens when a "vampire" virus is found and released by the US government in a near future setting (2016?). The first part of the book is concerned with collecting subjects for the testing, and then as things inevitably fall apart, what happens to those who survive, and their decedents, leading up, as all modern books do, to the inevitable sequels. Over all it was a fairly interesting book, and one that fans of the end of the world genre may enjoy.

I do not want to give away too much, but it does have some great ideas for Post Apocalyptic gaming, and some of those could be adopted for more sci-fi type games too, just replacing the virals (as the vampires come to be known) with very strong aliens, or genetically modified soldiers. The post fall fortifications in particular are very interesting, and could be easily extended to, say, zombie gaming.

Perry Miniatures

2011-09-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Perry Miniatures, the company founded and run by the Perry Brothers, has a modern new website.

The most exciting aspects of this are that the company appears to be VAT listed, which means those of us located outside the EU save 18%, and it has more pictures of miniatures, some of which have been for sale for some time without any official pictures, as well as pictures of the 3ups for future plastic work.

Most exciting is this splendid example of the future Men At Arms sprue for their Renaissance range, which will have Flemish/English/Italian and German armor styles, as well as separate horse armor and a ton of weaponry. Certainly one to look out for in the future, and they should make perfect WHFB DoW knights.

New website, 18% discount... sounds like a good time to make an order right? And I will be getting that per diem check soon...

Foamular-tastic!

2011-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

A chance glance at the Lead Adventure Forum subforum Workbench, led to the discovery that I can in fact buy extruded polystyrene in California, and better, locally!

Owens Corning Foamular sheet insulation, available in varying thickness, can be had at several local Home Depots, just not the one right by me. As you are probably aware, this stuff is great for terrain, model building, and terrain building, as it is fairly strong, easily worked, and takes textures well.

Unfortunately the 2" thickness is a bit pricey, at $25 a sheet, but on the plus side I would only need two sheets to populate my currently strictly theoretical 6'x6' table. 1" is far more reasonable at $13.67 a sheet, and the thinner sheets are in a similar range.

Character Generation

2011-08-31T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have been toying with the idea of running a Deepest Sea game over the holidays (Christmas and New Years, not this upcoming holiday weekend). Doing so would entail creating a packet of material suitable for gaming neophytes and those with a ton of D&D experience, although mostly from newer editions. The handout packet would be the players' guide for setting and would be ~20 pages long in total. Character generation would be one of the pages in the handout, and would have a matching character sheet to make things easy.

Above, for your consideration is a draft Character Generation sheet that I have created in MS Publisher. [click to enlarge] Please note that it uses the wonderful silhouettes created by Telecanter for a little atmosphere.

What do you think? Is this sufficiently useful for both newcomers and those with significant experience in newer editions? Suggestions for improvement? (aside from cleaning up the statblocks) Any obviously missing items?

Ebay score

2011-08-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on a night goblin regiment (painting at work during lunch!), and as you might know, every night goblin regiment needs some lurking fanatics to keep away the heavy cavalry. Not being a fan of the current (costly) plastic fanatics, I looked over to Ebay, and happened to find this:

Seven old lead fanatics, which I put in a super low bid for and won! (winning bid was less than shipping) They got to me very quickly, and are now enjoying a bath in some Simple Green.

As a side note, I intended to post a picture of this directly from my phone, but was not able to post MMS messages to blogger, so here is one from Ebay.

This is a test, just a test

2011-08-19T22:13:00.001-07:00

an attempt to post by phone

Forge Beasts

2011-08-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Noisms has a post about using the Forge to create monsters for your game (or just for fun, because monsters should be fun). Basically you go to the Forge, hit up "beast forge" and create some monsters. You can redo the words until you get one that seems plausible/interesting/scary, and then you blog about it.

So here are my four:
Dead Flesh Lizard: A small lizard with a nearly translucent skin. Some think that this is why they are called "dead flesh lizards", however; the truth is that they collect meat from dead creatures to make their nests, several lizards working together to create a large pit under the earth where their eggs are laid. The stench of this is can be extreme, and just as the smell fades, the eggs hatch and the rotten liquefied flesh is eaten by the young lizards. [Adventurers walking on the surface have a chance of falling into the nest, and take d4 damage from the bites of the lizards before they flee. Hoard class I, nests may be detected as traps, or avoided all together by parties with dogs]

Plains Basilisk: Thought by the most erudite scholars to be a sub-species of the common Basilisk, the Plains Basilisk is generally larger, leaner, and longer limbed. [move of 100'/30'] Their color ranges from the usual Basilisk Brown Green, to a nearly tan color. During the summertime, when they are most active, they can be seen stalking prey from patches of long grasses, or sunning themselves on rocks or termite mounds. In the winter, they generally hibernate for weeks at a time.

Unlike a common Basilisk, the plains Basilisk keeps no den, and therefore has no hoard worth speaking of. However, its the powder made from the large scales of its neck are considered to be an aphrodisiac in some quarters, and the most depraved will spend unimaginable sums for this powder. [this powder is inhaled, and causes partial petrification of extremities lasting d6+1 rounds]

Hill Wallow Shrimp: The Hill Wallow Shrimp is a parasitic shrimp carried by wild or domesticated hogs from wallow to wallow. They are occasionally collected by enterprising adventurers and sold in jars to bored elvish children as "ocean apes" complete with little wooden kingdoms, and halflings find them to be delicious. [If the adventurers consume the Hill Wallow Shrimp in any quantity, either by drinking the water, or by eating a cake of the shrimp themselves, they will have a small chance of contracting lycanthropy from the experience. In addition, wallows in the wild are protected by Giant Boars 1/6th of the time, who come charging out of some nearby brush if the PCs stop too long by the wallow]

Ebon Hair Willow: The Ebon Hair Willow is a particular type of tree linked to a particular type of Dryad. The tree from afar looks like a normal weeping willow of dark color, however; once it is examined at close range, it is noted that the branches and trunk are the color of bone, and the leaves are instead long black hair twisting and turning in a wind that no one can feel. Touching the hair brings out the dryad, who is chaotic and hideous to look at. She is as white as bone with long black hair, and seeks to destroy those who disturb her slumber. She uses her charm ability to make the party fight amongst themselves, and pulls the weakest into the tree, which reacts with a bone crunching shudder. The hair of the tree is used by necromancers to bind the bones of skeletons for rituals, and is highly sought after, both by those who want the hair, and those who wish to destroy the tree and with it, the dryad.

Prestige Classes Old-School Style

2011-08-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

FrDave had a great post recently about a way to incorporate prestige classes. Essentially, he moves prestige classes to entry at fourth level, so that a character has to survive and be a hero before he is able to select some of the more obscure classes. FrDave also comes up with some interesting specialist classes as the prestige class, for example healer for cleric.

Musing on what he had posted, I thought of the graphic below, which essentially shows a decision tree of the various "career options" that a standard human has. I am no Telecanter, so it is a bit crude.

[Apologies on the format, but I knocked it out in MS Word, and then cropped a screenshot to get this image]

Obviously this needs some work, but I think it gets the concept across. It could be modified to show the classes allowed in YOUR world, and with a better presentation, could have all of the spell levels and skill information included as well to allow for it to be a one stop visual representation of player classes. You will note that in the cleric and fighter rows, I started to go that direction, so it shows the XP and HP of each character level.

Stellar Adventure

2011-08-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished reading Exiles of the Stars, by Andre Norton. This is the second book in her Moon Magic series, and like many of her books features an outsider dealing with issues relating to separation and growth, while overcoming the immediate problem. It is set in a far future, where Free Traders are contracted to move cargo from one primitive planet to another

Reading this book, I was struck by how much the story and setting would suit an Old School sort of game. Everyone is fairly low powered, death is imminent at any time, and classes are at once rigid and generic. Solving mysteries and exploring maze like ruins are key, and the risk of being overtaken by those with magic (esper) powers is ever present. This started the creative juices flowing, and I started thinking about a sandbox game set in a vaguely Norton-esque universe, with the Star Patrol, Free Traders, Combines and Guilds mucking it up for the little people, and howling wilderness worlds loaded with Forerunner treasure, monsters, and secret pirate bases. Atomic rockets, blasters, stunners, fliters, tape computers, and all the good stuff.

Thinking about how such a game would be run, I immediately thought of Stars Without Number, the 0D&D based space exploration game from Sin Nomine. Since the rules in PDF are currently free (at the link above), I had a bit of a look through, and they seem pretty workable. The game uses 3d6 for skill checks (in a similar way to d20 games). Interestingly, a professional published version of this game is coming out soon from Mongoose in September... something to watch for. I think I will post more of a review of the rules later, once I have the chance to read them more thoroughly.

More on FFG's X-Wing game

2011-08-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

The Hopeless Gamer has some pictures of the prototypes for the new X-wing miniatures game from Fantasy Flight Games. Seems to be using a pilot card and stats on the base and a damage dial and turn/movement templates. That is pretty component heavy for a miniatures game, and may lead to the table looking pretty cluttered. On the plus side, the components all look very good, as is expected from FFG.

New Star wars Games!

2011-08-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) just announced that they are releasing games set in the Star Wars Universe. Wizards of the Coast gave up the Star Wars Universe license last year, and there was much speculation that FFG had picked up the license. Two games have been announced, a Star Wars card game (is this the third one?), and more interestingly, a miniatures based dogfighting game called X-wing. Figures for this game will be prepainted, but still, it should be interesting to see what comes out.

More games will be announced in 2012, and the message specifically mentions a new RPG. It will be interesting to see if it is compatible with the previous three versions of role playing games, or if it is completely new. So watch for more exciting news!

Pro Gloria Miniatures

2011-07-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

I probably would have noticed these figures earlier if I had been to the Warhammer Empire forum lately, but a new company (to me at least) called Pro Gloria, has just released some lovely HRE civilian figures, sculpted by Paul Hicks!

Very exciting, and not too expensive either, at €5.95 per pack. There are currently four packs, and hopefully there will be many many more. These figures will be excellent as NPCs for WHFRP, or for Mordheim type skirmish games. As an aside, the paint job on these is by Andrew Taylor, and just look at that herald... he has a double eagle under his arms... amazing.

Sometime in the future, I need to get these figures.

Miniature Wargames

2011-07-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Miniature Wargames, a magazine "published continuously since 1983" now has an online electronic version, and you can read a free issue of it here.

Content wise, the magazine is quite nice, with several articles that would interest most miniature wargamers, although with a mainly historical bent [appropriate given the assumed audience]. Several articles have sharp maps, which help to explain the battles or terrain discussed in the article. The article on Pavia is particularly of interest, as it covers the history of the battle, as well as explaining how to refight it in a fairly rules generic way.

The software used to present the magazine is pretty slick, and allows for easy manipulation of the "pages", which can be viewed larger than life size [allowing you to see how dodgy tabletop quality paint jobs are at 500% of life size]. Some of the hyperlinks in the magazine can be clicked, and the overall presentation is quite nice. There also appears to be an option to download a printable PDF, should you want to take the magazine away with you.

At a cost of £29.5 per annum, it is a substantial savings over the print edition, which is apparently a staggering £75 for rest of the world subscriptions. However, even this price seems a bit much for me, as I am both a Luddite and quite tight when it comes to this sort of thing. So not for me, but you might find it interesting, and should certainly have a look at the free issues.

Scratch Built Galley

2011-07-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

Now, I am no Tony, but I think I had some success with this project. A bit of background, a while back, I finished reading Empires of the Sea, and got inspired to look into naval gaming with galleys. Finding that the available options for galleys were rather expensive, I thought I would try my hand at scratch building a galley. Following some Internet research, I decided to base the scale on the size of a common Popsicle stick, which happens to be 1cm in width. This translated to a ship of around 8.5cm in length for an approximate scale of 1/510. This size also fits neatly on a plastic credit card, which I happen to have a ton of from gift cards and hotel room keys.

After a few afternoons and evenings of work, I had the following results:

Needs, paint, but I think it is on the right track.
I think that I can create more of these pretty quickly, which would be good, since there were over 400 ships at Lepanto...

Skaven for sale

2011-07-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Blog follower ZeroTwentyThree is regretfully selling off his Skaven. Do take a look, he seems be a great painter, and needs the money.

Painting at work

2011-07-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have a new job (same company), and with that came an office. Consequently, I have been thinking about painting on my lunch break, now that my geekery would not be on such public display. Looking through my "in progress" figures (1000s), I have plenty to work on.

Any thoughts on this? White collar job, so paint spills would be bad.

In other news, I finished Knight and Knave of Swordsby Leiber, which was frankly rather poor. The amount of on camera sex, and "edgy" sex, was astounding, particularly in comparison to the other books. The last "adventure" is basically a series of voyeuristic vignettes, in which our heroes are completely passive. Certainly not recommended. Pretend that Faf and the Mouser just rode off into the sunset or something.

I am now reading the first book of the Elric collection (Elric the Stealer of Souls), so we will see how that goes.

40k with lego

2011-06-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is a bit more advance than when I played with legos as a kid...

Embedded - Dan Abnett

2011-06-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Note that this gun is completely wrong

Last night, I finished Embedded by Dan Abnett. I turned to my wife and said "well that was annoying", so yes, typical Abnett end. However, let us start at the beginning.

Dan Abnett is well known to many as a writer for Black Library, the Games Workshop imprint, in particular for his Gaunt's Ghosts series of books, which follow a particular regiment of Imperial Guardsmen around a lengthy crusade. This is a near future book, or at least appears to be at first. Set on a colony world, this story has a burnt out and jaded reporter arrive on planet with an interest in stirring the pot for more stories. There is a small insurgency underway on the planet, and after a few disappointing inquiries in to the real cause of the conflict, Falk (the reporter) has his consciousness placed in the mind of a soldier about to go in to the conflict zone. The soldier gets shot in an ambush, and Falk must blend his skills and knowledge with those of the grunt he is stuck in to get home.

Overall the book is interesting (aside from the abrupt end), and has several situations suitable for gaming, as well as technologies which are interesting. Soldiers are armed in a manner easily accommodated by most skirmish games, and infantry tactics, when seen, are similar to modern warfare. Several of the scenarios would be interesting for, say, platoon level games like StarGrunt, and others would work better as skirmish games with individual reactions (Eyeburn ridge). So for gaming purposes, this book is good, even if it is not great for endings.

Next up is Knight and Knave of Swords, the last of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books. Hobby wise, I am working on a scratch build, which is actually going rather well. More on that as it gets closer to completion.

Maps the Carmen way

2011-06-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Carmen's Fun Painty Time! has a nice little tutorial on making a map using Photoshop elements. Often I struggle with various open sourced software, and here is a little tutorial that makes the comerical products seem so much easier... I assume having artistic skill helps a bit too (you no doubt recall my crude efforts in this area)

Anyway, here is his very fetching final product, a wastelands area map, which would be perfectly servicable for a miniatures campaign, or a roleplaying exploration map. Throw on a hex grid, and you are good to go.

Empires of the Sea: Renaissance Galleys

2011-06-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

I finally finished reading Empires of the Sea, by Roger Crowley yesterday. I own this book, so I have been interspersing it with library books, as it has no due date. This book is a cracking read about the very narrow period starting with the Siege of Rhodes (1522) and concluding with Lepanto (1571). During this period, the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the whole of the Mediterranean, and was apposed at times by a Holy League comprised of Spain, Venice, and the Papal State. Each of the three main Christian powers had their own interests, and the League fell apart several times before successfully defeating the Ottomans at Lepanto. This battle cost the Ottoman empire nearly its whole battle fleet, and most importantly, all of its experienced sailors (nearly 30,000 men were lost).

The book itself is very gripping. Mr. Crowley describes the various battles in detail, using letters and memoirs of those involved to get the feel of combat. You can feel the exhaustion and elation of the sides during skirmishes, and the horror of battlefields awash in blood. Mr. Crowley also describes the political machinations of the various League partners and the Ottoman court, so you get a feel of why certain outcomes were achieved. I highly recommend this book. (it also has 83 reviews of 4 stars or better on Amazon)

Reading this book has really stoked my interest in naval battles for this period, and I looked first at Langton miniatures, which are truly lovely (and exacting). However, at £7 for a single 1/1200 galley, it would be extremely costly to do much more than a few ships per side for a skirmish. Lepanto had over 200 ships just on the Christian side... so another direction will have to be taken.

First rate galleys of this period were fast narrow ships made solely for combat, with 24 or so oars per side, each pulled by three men (mainly slaves). These 144 men were the motor that moved the ships in combat, as sails were rarely used. Ships had an array of heavy prow cannon, and were also armed with smaller guns on the bow, then were packed with missile armed troops (mainly arquebusers, archers for Turkish Ottomans), and further packed with heavily armored infantrymen. The goal in battle was to ram another galley, and send infantry over to capture it, meanwhile pouring on the supporting fire from the missile troops. Don Juan's flagship, the Real, had many hundreds of men on board, and during the battle of Lepanto, both flagships had constant reinforcements from the embarked infantry of other galleys.

Here are some links I found surfing around:
http://stokesinternet.com/games/rengalleys.html
http://gonsalvo.com/reports/galleyho.html
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/a-sasano/english/e-galley.htm
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/a-sasano/english/e-galley_design.htm

Next up is Embeded by Dan Abnett, which ought to be interesting. I wonder if he can avoid having his usual ending in a non-GW book.

Mongoose and Star Fleet Battles

2011-06-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Now that is a teaser poster.

You may have already read about this, but Mongoose and ADB have a new agreement for Mongoose to produce miniatures and an ACTA variation for the Star Fleet Battles universe. Much like Klingon Armada, this new game will use the Star Fleet Battles background and ships with a different "engine" to handle the actual game play and fleet construction. The new ships will form Starline 2500, and will be computer designed 1/3125 instead of the 1/3700 scale used by the existing (rather poor looking) hand sculpted ADB ships. Ships will be cast in resin.

As I already have a micro machine based fleet of feds, Klinks, and Romulans (in the usual varying stages of construction), I am not particularly interested in their replacements. I am however interested in remodeled versions of Kzinti or Gorn ships, which should be far sharper and more attractive. Yet another rule set for this setting is puzzling, but it may be more playable, and anything that drives interest would be great. [this would make four official rule sets using this background]

On a blogging note, you may not have noticed this on your own blog, but my site views have exploded in the last week or so. While I would like to think I am just that popular, I suspect that it is some sort of counting error... in any case I am already over 1200 views for this month, double my previous high.

1/285 Cityscape

2011-06-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

This morning on TGN, I saw GameCraft, a company I had previously never heard of, has released a new set of laser cut mat board building ruins in 1/285. [which, along with 1/300, is often called 6mm]

I must admit, they look pretty attractive:

They do have the issue of course of being pre-contemporary ruins, but that might not matter if you are doing WWII, or some sort of primitive sci-fi future (such as 40k, where all technologies that are not weapons related seem to be 1940s standard). I have used heavy card stock terrain before, which is similar to mat board, and it worked pretty well. I think that if you based these models that they could last quite a while. However, $20 does seem a bit much for card, even in this quantity. Their resin kit for $13 seems like a better deal in some regards, and the resin would be more durable as well. Still, more terrain options is good.

The cost of figures

2011-06-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Inso had an interesting post this morning [his evening] talking about the cost of the hobby, which is something that I think many are thinking about lately, with price rises and the shift to resin as metal prices increase. Games Workshop figures seem to have yearly price rises of at least 10%, and single figures are now well into the double digit price range.

As I mentioned in a comment on Inso's post, I could never buy figures again, and still paint for years and years, but higher prices do prevent me from starting new things, and in some cases filling in old projects.

Here are some comparisons, prices in USD, converted at £1.645 per when necessary (VAT inclusive, since I can not remember which companies are too small to be listed).

10 GW Space Marines (plastic): $37.25
10 GW Imperial Guardsmen (plastic): $29
10 GW Wyches (plastic): $29
10 GW Firewarriors (plastic): $29.13
10 GW State troops (plastic): $24.75
10 GW Free Company (plastic): $17.50 [if this box is ever canceled, I am buying five more]
10 GW Iron Breakers (metal): $49.50
10 em4 troopers (metal): $21.06
10 Copplestone Neo-Soviets (metal): $27.97
10 Perry Crusaders (metal): $17.82
10 Perry Mercenaries (plastic): $7.40
10 Hasslefree Adventurers (metal): $69.91
10 Hasslefree Grymm (metal): $57.58
10 Old Glory Pikemen (metal): $11.66

Analysis:
Building a full platoon or a full regiment, of around 25-35 figures, is going to be expensive going with anyone other than Perry. Better detailing is going to cost more, particularly from some of the smaller, more "boutique" companies (Hasslefree in particular). Also, looking over this list, one begins to see the appeal of going to 10-15mm. (10 GZG figures cost a mere £5, £5.75 for a full unit of 10mm Copplestone Fantasy).

In a bit of amusing news, while reading about the Tomb Kings in the latest White Dwarf magazine, my wife stated that she would play Tomb Kings if she ever had an army. She then proceeded to suggest that I sell all my Eldar (as of yet unbuilt, mind) in order to finance this project. I think that is both good news (interest in collecting an army), and amusing, as it shows her continuing hatred of the "big helmets".

Welcome news

2011-06-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Dropship Horizons, the emanate closure of which I reported in my last blog post, has been saved by a crew of new authors. I think it is a measure of the original author that it took seven people to replace him.

Also, I got the check from the county for Jury Duty, and now I just need to figure out where to spend it all...

May

2011-06-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, May is over now, and with hardly a post from me. I went from the A-Z challenge of posting six days a week to, well, to just posting six times. Sort of shameful really. I guess to a certain extent I was a bit burnt out on the blogging thing. Despite the lack of new posts, I still had 469 views in May, which is somewhat astounding, although lower than April. Hopefully June will be better in terms of posting content.

In other blogging news, Dropship Horizon, the premier source of news for 15/18mm scifi figures and gaming is going dark, due to shifting interests of its author. This is a real shame, as the site was seen by many as a driving force for them getting into 15mm, and was in more recent times breaking news about new figures and games. Hopefully this will alliveate my interests in getting a couple of platoons of 15mm figures from GZG... or not. Those second edition NAC and UNSC figures really are great, and I will get that jury pay check sometime soon.

As mentioned recently, I have been working on the Baneblade, and have also been researching what sort of detailing could be added to the base model. This is probably why it has taken me so long to build the darn thing, but I want my model to be unique, since it is a centerpiece model (that is until I get three more super heavies and make a full company of them). More on that as it is built.

Still more on Citadel "Finecast"

2011-05-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Popped into my FLGS today (to get a birthday present for a friend), and while I was there I took a look at the finecast figures they had on offer. I must say, they did look very sharp and cleanly cast, although it was a bit of a shock to pick up one of the new clam shell packs and notice that it did not weigh anything really. The prices are way out there of course, particularly for older models, such as the Green Knight, which was $38. For a model sculpted in 1997.

CMDante has a great little review of a figure that he picked up, and as a "trusted reviewer" I think that it cements my opinion that the figures are fine... just costly.

In other gaming news, I managed to work a bit on the Baneblade last night (at the instance of my wife, who said "you are always talking about modeling, so do it").

More on Citadel "Finecast"

2011-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

A few reviews have started to sneak out for the new Citadel "Finecast" figures, which as a refresher, are new plastic-resin castings of the old metal figures from Games Workshop. No figures are supposed to be released until tomorrow, 5/28/11, so getting a review out ahead of time is pretty surprising.

The new figures are now packed in a larger clam shell blister, with a color picture of the figure in front. All the bits are now on a sprue, which I assume was intended to cut down on "pulling" costs and also helps to keep the figure squared in the box.

This review, on Dakka Dakka, points out some of the flaws and benefits of the new material, specifically that it is indeed light, takes superglue well, and has sharp detailing. Unfortunately the cast quality seems to be poor, with some serious damage to some of the (optional) parts.

This review states that the figures are pretty much the same in terms of quality as they were in metal... just with a higher price.

Another in German

Not very excited about this change, and still disappointed in the price increase. Hopefully I will be able to check some figures out in person at the FLGS, and see for myself.

GW News II

2011-05-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

As you may recall from just yesterday, Games Workshop has restricted sales out of the EU, and has created "Finecast", which is widely expected to be resin replacements for metal miniatures (at a higher cost, of course).

Today, the news is that GW will further restrict their "rumor" information down to a week prior to release, which will mean that White Dwarf will continue to report on items after they are released, and further, that there will be a price increase in the US and Canada, to the tune of 18%-20%. Some of the older figures have had a pretty continuous price increase, for example Catachans (which I have about 100 of ), have gone from $22 for 20 to $58 for 20 in a ten year period. (263% increase) So that is fun.

All of this negative GW news should not really impact my spending on GW, since I have only been buying a couple boxes a year, and, well I have somewhere on the order of four more armies still in boxes anyway... it does however increase my interest in buying figures from other companies though.

Speaking of which, in a bit of positive news, GZG's online shop is back in action after a five month down period. If you have not checked them out before, you should. GZG is the maker of Stargrunt II, Dirt Side II, and Full Thrust, which are all excellent games, and they have a wide assortment of miniatures to support those games. Their newer 15mm figures for Stargrunt are particularly interesting, and at a mere £2.5 per pack, a company worth is affordable too! I just have to tell myself that I do not need any more figures right now...

GW news

2011-05-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone's favorite company, Games Workshop, has decided to restrict UK retailers from selling outside of the EU, so that means no more cheap figures sent abroad to folks like me. This is particularly important for those in Australia or NZ, who pay ~40% more for the same figures. They may be able to buy from the US, or get their packets sent to a UK freight forwarder.

On top of that, the rumor about GW switching to resin may be true, and of course with an accompanying price increase. Resin figures interest me very little, since my (limited) experience with resin is that it is more brittle, flexible, and overall less durable than metal or polystyrene. Increased prices mean I will continue my streak of buying no GW metal figures, which is a shame, because there are some that I really love, and would like to get.

Extremely Topical

2011-05-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Osama Bin Laden's compound in 1/285. I think I would have shot for 15mm myself (~1/100), since it seems more game-able in a larger size. Still, speedy work there.

Also, I have jury duty this week, so I am both away from the computer, and reading more than usual. Got through most of Path of the Warriortoday. We will see what happens tomorrow, when the trial starts.

April Roundup and some Stats

2011-05-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well, that was fun. Working through my little universe from A-Z was an interesting challenge, and hopefully entertaining as well. Results wise, I added some followers (thanks!), and went from 400 page views to ~650 page views in a month, so it was pretty successful on that measure as well. The blog had some more international readers, including a number (or one frequently) from Iran, which is surprising really. I made it over 100 published posts, which is easier when you add so many in one month. I will put up an index page to the A-Z posts sometime soon, which will also be useful as an index to the greater Deepest Sea project.

It is a pity that Blogger does not break down the US by state, because it would be interesting to see where everyone lives. Similar issues for other large countries I guess.

My most popular post continues to be my Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (WHFRP ) Estalian figure, which of course has nothing to do with D&D or the A-Z challenge, but remains very popular on image searches.... I really ought to retake that picture.

So what is next for the blog? Well, it feels strange to go back to my slow posting routine, so I will try and think of something to keep it up. Any ideas? Are there gaps in the Deepest Sea information that you would like filled in particular?

Zagyg

2011-04-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Z is for Zagyg in the twenty sixth and final installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

Zagyg is the legendary first Titan, or in some versions, the first magic users amongst the Titans. In any case, he is credited with teaching the other Titans magic, and luring the Elves into slavery. The first he did by learning from demons, and then using the power granted by subjugating the demons to influence the other Titans. The Elves he lured by the sheer magnetism that magic held for the.

Zagyg's reign lasted for centuries, and then he departed. Not much is known of this period, but the wisest of sages, those who have read the Titan scrolls, or explored the depths of the long abandoned, but not empty research pits, say that he left, alone, and walked back to the legendary city in the far south that the Titans came from. The Empire sent expeditions after him in its early years, hoping to thus end the Titan threat all together, but none ever returned. Occasionally their bodies are found frozen in sea ice, mangled and screaming in terror.

Over time, most forgot the name of Zagyg, but somewhere, somewhere in the cold of the southern pole, he might still carry on as a lich, still consorting with demons, still wresting a little bit more magic out of a universe which commands him to die.

Next time, a roundup of the A-Z project, and a review of the results for April.

Yeomen

2011-04-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Y is for Yeomen in the twentyfifth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Yeomen are a rank of society between the nobility and the common peasant. They own land which they derive income from, but are not nobles. In most countries they make up the upper class of villages, together with artisans and petty clergy. Typically they are more likely to be selected by the baron as a bailiff, or elected by the other peasants as reeve, depending on the system used in that area. The amount of land owned varies, but is typically more than any one peasant would work, meaning that their family is at least twice as prosperous as a common peasant.

Yeomen typically have military responsibilities to the baron, or to the kingdom. What this entails varies from area to area, but typically they are required to be trained with a bow, and often have other weapons on hand. When the baron goes to war, yeomen are required to accompany him, although they are often paid waged for this service, beyond some basic defence of the barony. In Brémdy, where the population is wealthy and many rank as yeomen, some even own armor and horses, and serve as secondary knights, in support of the nobility, who maintain better equipment and horses. In this role, they are often called "sergeants". In other kingdoms this term is used for yeomen who lead small groups of men.

In a city, or large town, the term yeoman is not often used, as few own land, and instead all are ranked as burghers together. Naturally, some are poor, and some are rich, but in general all are wealthier than serfs in the small villages, and all have more cash at hand, even if it is only a few coppers. One's job, or guild membership becomes more important in determining relative social standing, although this does tend to map out to wealth as well.

The ranks of men:
Slave
Indentured man
Serf
Free Peasant
Yeoman
Squire
Knight
Baron

Tune in Saturday for the final episode of the Deepest Sea A-Z, with Zagyg.

Twenty Questions

2011-04-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Jeff has a great post about 20 questions you should be able to answer about your game world. His point is that these are the things that your players care about, not the eras of history you have written up in a binder somewhere.

Here are some generic answers for the Deepest Sea:
1.What is the deal with my cleric's religion? - assuming human, you worship the Shepard, a singular god who sent you over the plains to the known world. Has priests, monks, bishops, all that jazz.
2.Where can we go to buy standard equipment? - towns have standard equipment
3.Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? - Plate does not exist, otherwise, from an armor smith in a larger town.
4.Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? - Martletock, an elf. He's quite mad you know.
5.Who is the greatest warrior in the land? - of all time? Remoos, long since dead.
6.Who is the richest person in the land? - The Emperor.
7.Where can we go to get some magical healing? - Larger church in a town, from random hermits who can heal.
8.Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath? - Larger towns have churches with significantly high leveled clerics. Question is, would they want to heal you?
9.Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells? - not as such. There are secret societies of magic users, and colleges, but access to spells is closely guarded, particularly beyond the first two levels.
10.Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC? - large towns or cities. These guys are not hanging around cow towns.
11.Where can I hire mercenaries? - pretty much every town will have some muscle that can be hired, either knights who need cash, or bravos/toughs.
12.Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law? - swords are illegal in most towns, particularly if you are not a Noble. magic is restricted by social custom (meaning they might hang you).
13.Which way to the nearest tavern? - nearest village has a pub.
14.What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous? - depends on the locale, but most areas have sufficiently scary monsters living in the mountains, and failing that, there are always sub-humanoids to slay.
15.Are there any wars brewing I could go fight? - Chénez and Gyor do not get along all that well, and local barons are always cattle raiding one another.
16.How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes? - in the City. You are most likely going to end up dead though.
17.Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight? - if I told you, they would not be all that secret, would they? The Empire is reputed to be rife with such things, and you know how those Laténs go for societies and factions.
18.What is there to eat around here? - Mostly simple things like salted mutton and rough bread, the City has the really good stuff like larks' tongue paté.
19.Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for? - The titans left many treasures in their towers and mines, the problem is that people might want to burn you for going there.
20.Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure? - look in the high mountains.

Xenophobia

2011-04-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

X is for Xenophobia in our twenty third installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Webster's defines Xenophobia as: (N) fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. Which seems about right.

In the Deepest Sea setting, xenophobia is pretty much the default setting of a random NPC. If you are not from this barony, let alone the country or race, well, that is a pretty big negative to his or her opinion of you right out of the gate. With a few exceptions, humans do not care for Dwarves, Elves, or Havlings (and certainly not orcs). Correspondingly members of those races, do not as a general rule care for those of other races either.

Of course, in a world where different humanoids are common, there are some whose interests are, shall we say, peculiar. This sort of person can be found at every social strata; however, only the rich can afford to buy exotic slaves, or otherwise indulge in xenophillia. This trait is slightly more common in Elves, as they are, as a rule, thrill seekers.

For role play purposes, it is assumed that a PC does not have xenophobic tendencies, or if they do, they are sufficiently subsumed as to not prevent normal congress with them. NPCs on the other hand should have a negative to any reactions if a PC or NPC is from a different part of their own country, a negative if the PC/NPC is from a different country, a further negative if the PC/NPC is from an enemy country, and on top of that, a negative if the PC/NPC is a different race (human to elf say). That means that the PC/NPC better have a pretty darn convincing argument, or be willing to pay a high price for that gee-gaw, or otherwise will be suffering due to the xenophobia of the target NPC.

[JB at B/X BlackRazor also posted on Xenophobia, and as usual, expressed the concept quite well.]

Friday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Yeoman.

Walking

2011-04-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

W is for Walking in our twenty second edition of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

Walking, riding, and other methods of leg powered locomotion over land are always critical function of travel, particularly so in the Deepest Sea where navigable rivers rarely cross the Rim.

In the D&D rules, a character has a maximum movement rate per day of standard move/5=miles. A standard move of 100 feet per turn is equivalent to 20 miles per day. Roads add 50% to that amount, "forcing" the march adds another 50% per day. Using this information, we find that the max rate of movement for a man on a horse on a road on a forced march would be 240/5*2=96 miles per day. That is some pretty serious traveling!

Random walking facts:
Marathon (26.2 miles), fastest time is just over 2 hours.
Horse walk speed, 4mph
Roman march, was 24 roman miles with a load in 5 summer hours.
Roman league was 2.2 km, or half as much as a man could walk in an hour.
Cattle can be driven 15 miles per day and not lose weight, or 25 a day at fastest.

In the Deepest Sea, as mentioned above, walking is the main mode of transport for the majority of the population. Carriages exist for the very rich, moving between close cities, but in general the people walk, and nobles ride.

Dwarves often use trekking poles when walking, which allows them to keep pace with the longer limbed humans or elves. Dwarves occasionally make use of pack goats and female Dwarves sometimes have riding goats.
Elves are able to keep walking for much longer than a human, and can jog for very long stretches of time. Before horses were introduced, the Empire maintained runners stationed 30 miles apart for communications, and whole legions would march at a quick step to distant parts of the Empire. Elves still use riding cattle (mostly steers) for non-military travel.
Orcs do not commonly ride horses, and instead use forest elephants with two Orcs mounting each elephant. When Havlings travel in the company of orcs, many can be mounted on a single elephant.

Thursday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Xenophobia.

Vaults

2011-04-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

V is for Vaults in our twenty first installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

The Vaults are a unique geographic feature of the Deepest Sea setting. Towering cliffs wall in a channel which runs roughly north east through the Rim from the Deepest Sea to the Shallow Sea. They are commonly believed to have been created when the City was founded over 2000 years ago, some great magic of the Gods to protect the City from the rest of the world. One story has Sol the All Father harnessing a great blue oxen to a giant plow, and plowing the channel. Some sages advance the ridiculous theory that the channel of the Vaults was formed when the Shallow Sea flowed suddenly into the Deepest Sea, although why such a flow would exist, they are unable to explain.

Formerly the Vaults were bridged at the end nearest to the Deepest Sea, where the mountains were lower, and the gap was not much wider than a single galley. These bridges were used to march the Empire's armies around the Rim, as well as for trade purposes. Over time, erosion worked away at the cliff side foundations of these bridges, ruining many, and the hostilities with the Turqs have caused the rest to be pulled down, so that no bridge currently spans the Vaults.

Currently the Vaults are heavily fortified along their Deepest Sea shores, and again where the channel reaches the Shallow Sea. The Empire maintains large fortresses on either end, and a low wall runs along the edge of the cliffs until the Rim mountains begin. The Malikate of Turqs controls most of the Turq side of the Vaults, and it too has a fortress on the Deepest Sea side of the Channel. Near the Rim mountains, where the power of the Malikate is weaker, there is a place where people can gather on either side of the channel and shout messages to one another. In this way, news travels swiftly from kingdom to Empire, even when they are at war.

Despite the current hostility between the Turq kingdoms and the Empire, a great deal of traffic uses the channel between the Vaults to move from the Deepest Sea, and the City, to the Shallow Sea. Great fishing fleets harvest the Shallow Sea's bounty, and processed and fresh fish are sent on swift galleys through to the Deepest Sea. Those Turq kingdoms on the Shallow Sea, and the Beha, also send a great deal of trade between the Vaults to the kingdoms of the Deepest Sea, and occasionally a laden ship comes from far off Ehiandi, carrying exotic goods.

The portion of the Vaults that passes through the Rim characterized by towering cliffs, and in ancient times, before the Elves were liberated, they were the hideouts of escaped slaves. Working with Dwarves, the Elves made whole secret towns in the soft cliff faces. Many of these caves and tunnels have fallen to ruin in the time since those dark days, but every now and again, explorers find a new entrance to the catacombs and descend to look for treasure.

Tomorrow, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Walking.

Uténas

2011-04-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

U is for Uténas in our 20th installment of the Deepest Seas, A-Z.

Geography
Uténas is a small country located at the southern end of the southern continent, south of Brémdy, located on on a portion of the Shallow Sea commonly called the Bay of Barbarians by others. This part of the Shallow Sea freezes in the winter, limiting access to the port towns of Uténas and to Chénez as well. The terrain of the country is relatively rugged, particularly as compared to Brémdy, with a small range of mountains running east to west, separating Uténas from the Nords to the North.

Population
Uténas is a country of Barbarians, at least by the standards of the Nords and Laténs. Populated well after the fall of the Empire, the territory was never occupied by the Elves in any numbers, and was rough and harsh. Consequently when later waves of human migrants came out over the plains, they found a nearly virgin land, well suited to the warriors of the East. Over time the warriors settled down, and be came the hearty farmers, eking out a subsistence life on the fur and timber trade.

The people of Uténas have their own dialect of the Barbarian language group Phinic. The language is heavily influenced by Brémdic, and has a few loan words from Franka as well.

Elves are very rare in Uténas, and are viewed with suspicion and hostility by the less educated, particular in the countryside. Elves are often suspected of cattle rustling, or unnatural acts with livestock. Dwarves are rather more common, and there are a few small settlements in the mountains working mines and the like. They are viewed with much less hostility, but still are an object of suspicion for most people. Many think that they are greedy to the point of theft when shown gold (false), or that they eat their bread with stone dust (true on certain days).

Law
Like the people of Uténas, the law of the land is harsh and decisive. What constitutes crimes is well understood, and enforcement is handled by village hetmen. The few trials that are needed are heard by the hetman and decided on the spot. Typically, punishments are divided into death, slavery, or a fine, depending on the severity of the crime. Fines of course often result in slavery, or indentured servitude, since cash is rare amongst the lower class.

In Uténas, superstition and tradition have equal weight with other more formal types of law. Being accused of casting the evil eye for instance, is neigh on a death sentence. Showing the dirty soles of one's boots to a child is a crime in Hawkitai, and for good reason too, since soles and souls are linked in the minds of the locals. The punishment is a hefty fine, equal to the price of the child on the slave market.

Cities
Hawkitai
The primary city of Uténas, located slightly inland from the sea on a river. Economy is based on fishing, the meager grain crop, and timber production. Population 2500 households
Vaarjivé
The primary port of Uténas, Vaarjivé is located on the Barbarian Bay (locals call it the Bay of Vaarjivé) Has the most trade interaction with other nations, as well as the long distance fishing fleets, which sail out into the Shallow Sea seeking cod. Population 2100 households
Antéo
Antéo is a small town in the mountains, close to the pass to Brémdy. The economy is trade and mining based, and there is a small population of dwarves living here in a fortified quarter of the town. Fur trappers operate out of here as well. Population 1100 households

Tomorrow, more Deepest Seas A-Z with Vaults.

Not quite perfect...

2011-04-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

We have lived in our house for a couple of years now, and during that time I have been looking for some sort of more permanent storage for my completed miniatures. My wife will tell you that pretty much every time we go to a store, any sort of store, I will look at boxes, tubs, and the like, trying to find something that will easily store a large amount of 28mm figures. I figured that I wanted something roughly 4" tall, large enough for a sheet of paper (US office sized, or 8.5"x11"), and ideally metal. Two years of handling boxes, eyeing them, measuring them, and deciding that they were not quite good enough, or too expensive, or whatever.

Friday, while thrift store shopping, my wife found the following and brought it home with her. $14 for a 6 drawer system, roughly 24" by 12" by 14". The interior of the drawer is around 3.5 inches tall.

Marked Diebold Safe-T-Stack, these are six excellent card file boxes in three separate cases. Made of heavy gauge steel, they are super durable, and best of all magnets will stick to them. Each seems like it will hold around 4 regiments of WHFB figures, which is great. At 3.5", they will not hold a knight with his lance up, but they will hold one with his lance down, or at a slight angle.

So not quite perfect, but pretty close, and a great deal too. Further, and possibly the most important, no more agonizing for a while! My wife is the best. Thanks!

Titans

2011-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

T for Titans is our nineteenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

History
The Titans are the bogeyman of the current era in the Deepest Sea setting. Long ago, before the Empire was born, and before Humanity came over the plains, the Elves, Havlings, and Dwarves, lived a primitive life around the shore of the Deepest Sea. At that time, copper axes was as advanced as weaponry got, and farming was still secondary to fishing and hunting in terms of food production.

One cold spring, the Titans came North from the far reaches of the Southern Continent, striding over the empty lands. Reaching the shores of the Deepest Sea, and seeing the primitive towns of the Elves and others there, the Titans used their magic and superior technology to enslave. True be told, many went willingly to their side, as the lust for knowledge was already within the Elves. Conquest or unwilling subjugation, with in a year, the whole of the Deepest Sea was united under their rule, and the Titans turned from conquest to comfort.

Never a numerous race, they dwindled in these long years, as reproduction was not a high priority when there were towers to build, boreholes to dig, and above all research to conduct. For the Titans, their long lives and natural magical proclivities were a natural combination that resulted in a spiral of deeper isolation and darker research. Eventually each Titan lived alone with their slaves, and magical creations, which became more and more monstrous. As the Titans aged without any children, they began to fear death, and fearing death lead to the desire to control it. Their research turned to necromancy and the extension of life. Rumors that this Titan or the other had succeeded in finding immortality lead to war amongst them, and terrible monsters were created for this purpose. Their numbers dwindled more, and the wars wrecked much that they had built.

Eventually the Titans weakened enough that their slaves were able to successfully rise against them. Under Remoos, the Elves arose and liberated the slaves from one Titan to the next, moving around the Rim. When the last Titan fell, Remoos proclaimed the republic, and banned the study of magic, the Titan language itself, and tried to expunge their memory. Now long gone, the Titan name still evokes fear. While the bans on the study magic did not outlast Remoos, the impression that magic is ultimately evil and corrupting did. Their ruins remain in distant corners of the world, tempting and taunting with the possibility of secrets, and threatening with the monsters and danger lurking there.

Language
The Titans spoke Titanic, and wrote spells in this language as well, which as made it the de facto language of magic research and scrolls. The Titans also created Servile, a language which was used by their slaves. This language evolved into the Dark tongue, and also influenced Franka. Written Titanic is written with conjoined letters, and endless loops, making it hard for the uninitiated to read.

Monday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Uténas.

An Experiment

2011-04-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me to try out the polystyrene foam scoring method of making bricks for terrain. Not being one to be too scientific, I thought I would also try to see if polystyrene foam would glue with standard modeling glue. I decided to make a sample wall section for the 10mm castle that keeps running around in my head. If the sample worked out, I would need something like 20 wall segments of this type. So that makes this a triple experiment, one to test the scoring, one to test the glue, and one to test the overall dimensions of the project.

As it happened, my wife had some leftovers from her mother's birthday dinner, which she had in a takeout box. [takeaway for our British Friends] I set to work with scissors and a somewhat dull pencil. The wall section took about 30 minutes to construct, and future segments would be much faster to build. The results are below. Success I think on the overall size, and certainly the scoring method, and rather a failure on the plastic model glue.

~55mm tall, 40mm wide, 25mm deep. Seems like a perfect size, and fits with the siege rules in Warmaster.

Size modeled here by some Copplestone 10mm Half-Orcs.

Here you can see the melted polystyrene.

So, all in all a partial success. I should try it again with less glue (possibly brushed on), or with PVA glue.

Dungeons and Dragons Perfume

2011-04-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

More proof that the original crop of role players is getting old.

D&D perfumes, customized to your class and race.

What will be next? D&D clothing? Get your outfit customized to your alignment?

Swords

2011-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

S is for Swords in our eighteenth installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

What is a sword? Is it no more than a pointy bit of metal that causes d6 damage? To the player perhaps that is all that it is. To the PC though, well, the sword is more. It is representative of a rank, when they wear it about town. It is the artifact handed down by their father from his father that they will use to slay the monsters that threaten the village. Was Excalibur just a sword? Or was it a symbol as well?

In the Deepest Sea, there are many sorts of swords. They are used by all countries and all races in one form or another.

The most common sword type is the human arming sword:

It is a steel sword with a cruciform hilt for one hand, and has a blade suited for cutting and stabbing. They are fairly long and have a good reach.

Similar swords are also used by Orcs and Elves, although the Elves tend to use a simpler hilt, and are slightly broader over their length. The Franka name for this sort of sword is a Spathé, and it is issued to the infantry as a secondary weapon. Consequently it turns up frequently in graves, or in the hands of ex-soldiers.

Havlings and Dwarves, being of short stature, tend to use shorter swords. They are still full swords, but have a thicker blade to allow for close quarter cutting and a supported stab.

The slave armies of the Titans were armed with leaf shaped bronze swords, which are often found in graves, or in ancient armories. Some are still sharp today, and a few adventurers carry one to show that they have "seen the dragon" so to speak. Bronze swords will not shatter, and of course are immune to rusting magic, such as from a rust monster.

In any case, a sword is not just a pointy bit of metal. It is a link to a place, and a time, and it is a personal part of the adventurer. Keeping this in mind when describing what the PC carries, or what they find in a grave, or what is for sale at the sword smith's, gives the player a sense of space.

Saturday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Titans.

Prospero Burns

2011-04-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just finished Prospero Burns, by Dan Abnett, a book set during the Horus Heresy era, which gives some background on the Space Wolves, so here is a little review. The story in the book is told from the viewpoint of a Terran who becomes an adjunct of the Space Wolves.

The over all story was good, although like many Abnett books, it ended quite abruptly. Plenty of information about the Space Wolves was revealed, although most of it was just more layers of detail on what was already known. I was never really a fan of the Space Viking-Werewolves, and finding out that they dress like this guy did not help matters. In the end, their viewpoint was not as sympathetic as that of the Thousand Sons (in A Thousand Sons), which is disturbing, when one is labeled a traitor legion and the other is held to be loyal. Regardless of the sympathy that the author was trying to evoke, the story was interesting to keep me turning the pages.

There were plenty of interesting bits in the book, once again describing how things were really better in the year 30k than in the year 40k, and more about the detail of Terra at that time. The discussion surrounding how unification was not a single event was interesting as well.

Anyway, next up is a childhood development book that my wife wants me to read and THEN the Dungeon Masters Guide II (from 3.5).

Rogues

2011-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

R is for Rogues in our seventeenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Rogues, thieves, buglers, pickpockets, scoundrels, what ever you call them, the slightly shady have long been a part of fantasy lore. Bilbo was hired as a burglar, the Grey Mouser and Fafhard were thieves, and even Conan was often looking to enrich himself by thievery. Having a stealthy fellow to accompany the fighters, and open locks, stab guards, and so on is always useful.

In D&D, Rogues were added early on as a core class, and have remained in the game ever since. They have minimal hit points, can only wear leather armor, can use any weapons, and can back stab. In addition, the rogue has an assortment of skills, which allow them to pick locks, find traps, pick pockets, and hide in shadows. These skills are handled through a d100 roll on a chart, on which the Rogue improves as they gain levels. A major part of Rogues in classic D&D is that they are supposed to be part of a Thieves Guild, which restricts their options and freedoms.

In the Deepest Sea, those who fit the description of "Rogue" are common. Like fighters, rogues are everywhere, in all walks of life, although they are more likely to be city dwellers than from rural areas. Rogues often start as pickpockets and cut purses, and work their way up to adventurers when something good comes their way, or when driven out of the city.

Another source of those who fill the "rogue" category, are the clever, but not militarily skilled folks. They are trying to rise in the world by adventuring, but do not have training with weapons, and have to use their brains instead. These individuals take a more lawful path to rogue-hood. Seems very fitting for most of the "rogue" skills, which are fairly general (listening and wall climbing come to mind).

NPC Rogues or randomly generated PCs have a 1/2 chance of being male, and a 1/20 chance of being nobles. 2/3 of the time they will be human (modified by location). 9/10 of the time they will be from the country in which they are currently located. 1/4 of them are 15-20 years old, 2/4 of them are 21-30, and 1/4 are 31-60. In any random adventuring party, 1/5 of the members are fighters.

Handling PCs who are rogues should be fairly easy for the DM, because if they engage in theft, they are law breakers, and law in the Deepest Sea is both harsh and swift. Therefore the DM has a huge stick to work against any rogues that need it. The carrot is greed, as any rogue player should be especially greedy, either for gold, or position in society. Further levers are through the brotherhood of thieves, family, friends, and so on.

Friday, more Deepest Seas A-Z with Swords.

Quaffs

2011-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Q is for Quaffs in our Sixteenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Occasionally your players come across a bottle of something that looks drinkable. What is in that bottle?

roll a d20
1 Holy Water - as per standard rules
2 Aqua vitae - pure alchol, imbiber feels a warming sensation spread over their body
3 Aqua fortis - mild acid, imbiber takes d6 hp damage
4 Aqua regia - strong acid, imbiber takes d8+2 hp damage
5 Bucking solution - Lye and water, imbiber takes d6 hp damage
6 Hide glue - in urea solution, smells of urine, imbiber suffers -1 charisma for d4 hours
7  Oil of vitriol - weak sulfuric acid, smells of sulfur, imbiber takes d6 hp damage
8   Balsamic vinegar - valuable, no effects
9   Hydrogarum - diluted fermented fish guts, smells of fish, imbiber suffers -1 charisma for d6 hours
10 Natron Oil - salty soap flavor, no effects
11 Glyceryl trinitrate - imbiber makes it react 1/2 the time, 2d20 hp damage within 10' (test separately)
12 Havling urine - smells of urine, imbiber suffers -1 charisma for d4 hours
13 Olive oil - rancid, may be used as lamp oil
14 Rose water - sweet smell, +1 to charisma for d4-1 hours
15 Wine - white translucent liquid, sweet taste, no effects
16 Spring water - clear , no effect
17 Cola - brown translucent liquid, sparkling, sweet taste, no effects
18 Carrot juice - orange clear liquid, no negative effects, PC feels vibrant
19 Hemlock Infusion - parsnip odour, save vs. poison, otherwise death in d6+1 rounds
20 Polymorphine - soft fruity taste, imbiber must make a save vs. spells, otherwise turns into a turnip

Thursday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Rogues.

Swords' Masters

2011-04-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks once again to the bounty of the local library, I have had some interesting books to read lately.

I finished Swords' Masters last week, and it was pretty good. Not as good as the Three of Swords, but it was nice to return to Lankhmar. The longer stories allowed for more development, but in some ways they do not suit the characters as well. The short, action packed stories from the first book get right down to the point, where as the longer ones seemed to drag a bit more. Still, plenty of interesting details there. I particularly liked the "queller", which seems like an interesting little magic item, and also shows the difficulty a PC would face when handling some magic items... their value as raw materials may be more than the value as a magic item.

As a bonus, I also read Fafhrd And The Gray Mouser, a graphic novel adaption of the first few stories. The script adaption was pretty good I thought, , but I really can not get into the Mingola art style. Too... flat or something, which makes scenes with the protagonists a bit hard to view. Also, the version of Lankhmar shown was too modern looking. So can not really recommend that as a purchase, but from the library it was fine.

Currently I am reading Prospero Burns, which is pretty interesting so far, which is what you would expect from Dan Abnett. The Space Wolves were never my favorite chapter, so I was a little leery of reading a whole book about them, but fortunately they are mostly secondary thus far. More on that when I finish it.

After that, I have another library book, the Dungeon Master's Guide II for D&D 3.5. Should be interesting to see if there is any value to be mined there. (and the library has plenty more D&D books of mostly recent vintage)

Paladins

2011-04-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

P is for Paladins in the sixteenth installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

No, not this guy

Paladins are a classic image from Fantasy, if somewhat rare by that name in earlier works. Typically, they are knights of great purity and piety, which sometimes affords them extra power. Galahad is a Paladin, some of the other knights of the round table have leanings in that direction. Imrahil too fits some of the imagery.

In D&D, Paladins have a long list of bonuses. They can Lay on Hands to heal 2 hitpoints once a day, they can cure disease, detect evil, have a protection from evil power, and get a +2 to tall saving throws. They can turn undead at level three, and cast clerical spells at level nine. Oh, and they are immune to disease as well.

Pretty powerful no? However, they have some pretty massive restrictions to offset these advantages. First, they have to have Charsima 17, which, well wow, that is high. Second, they can not participate in any "evil" acts, or they will lose all of their powers. They have restrictions on their allowed possessions, and must tithe 10% of earnings. Even with these restrictions, some DMs do not like Paladins, and some game universes simply do not allow them.

In the Deepest Sea setting, there are paladins, mainly from two sources. The first are warrior priests of the Red Daughter Bella, the Elvish Goddess of war. These are priests in terms of hierarchy, but they more closely fit in with paladins. They accompany the armies of the Empire and its allies, and seek to bring glory to their god through battle. They may be male or female, and have a red cloak to denote their authority. These warrior priests are not likely to be PCs.

The second source of Paladins is from the crusader kingdom Candia. A combined army of the Nordic nations under the command of the brilliant St. Cuthbert went on a crusade against the Orcs. This force of knights landed on the north side of the Deepest Sea, and struck the Orcs there, ending their long war against the Elves. They built a fortress city on the bay of Candia, starting with a prebuilt castle brought in pieces from Brémdy. The order of Cuthbert was founded shortly after the death of the Saint, and knights who took the vow of Cuthbert became known as Paladins. They strike out from the city after they are ordained, and seek adventure and right the wrongs of the world. They predominantly work north of the Deepest Sea, fighting the Orcs as they can, but the long relative peace there has caused political pressure for the order to send them somewhere else.

Members of the Order of St. Cuthbert have the following restrictions:

Piety [must follow the Shepard]
Respect the sanctity of life [only non-lethal damage to humans/Elves/havlings/dwarves, must attempt to heal all wounded (including orcs)]
Poverty [may only keep enough coin to pay for their basic needs]
Obedience [must obey their superiors in the order, or those nominated by the order]
Chasity [may not have issue]
Bravery [must be at the forefront of battle, otherwise act in brave ways]
Protection of the weak [must defend the innocent and weak]
Hate the Titanic [must destroy all Titanic artifacts, must shun those who openly speak Titanic]

Failure to obey these rules will result in the loss of position as a member of the Order, and a loss of the powers and privileges therein.

In return Paladins get the powers listed in the Advance Companion, except they are not immune to disease. As members of the Order, they also have considerable "soft" power in the Nordic countries, which highly respect the order, and lesser "soft" power elsewhere. The order itself also has considerable resources to sponsor adventuring parties, or supply equipment, or otherwise help out a party containing a PC Paladin, of course in return for their goals.

NPC Human Paladins have a 9/10 chance of being male. 1/2 of the time they are nobles. In any random adventuring party, only 1/20 are likely to be Paladins. They are always heavily equipped, and are accompanied by d3-1 squires. 1/4 of them are aged 20-30, 1/2 are 31-40, and 1/4 of them are 40-60. 1/2 of them are from the two Nordic countries, 1/4 from all of the Latén countries, and the rest from all other human countries.

When handling Paladins in the game, remember all the control that players have surrendered in return for the benefits and prestige of being a Paladin. The character is a member of the Order of St. Cuthbert (or a priest of Bella), and must obey their superiors. This is in addition to any ties of family or fealty. These duties and obligation give a DM plenty of ways to provide carrots and sticks to the player of Paladin.
Wednesday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Quaffs.

Future Perry Plastics

2011-04-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

TMP has a news post about the new and upcoming Perry Plastic releases. Some excellent stuff coming out, in particular those Men At Arms, which would of course fit nicely into an Empire army, with some added shields.

28mm Napoleonics are awesome of course, but thankfully not the direction I want to go in... although they could be good as a source of figures for skirmish gaming... Similarly the Revolutionary War figures that they have in metal are already amazing, so plastic figures should only make games more accessible.

Not too much going on in hobby land the past couple weekends, as I completed taxes and did yard work, but sometime soon!

Orcs

2011-04-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

O is for Orcs in the fifteenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Orcs, at least as we know them, came from the Lord of the Rings. They are nasty, brutish monsters, which threaten the "good" of the world with their desire for war. Other views of orcs are generally similar, and only change the details, such as Games Workshop Orcs/Orks which are a bit more fun loving with crude Cockney accents. Orcs are typically seen as hunched, dirty, with poor quality equipment, and low personal hygiene.

In D&D Orcs are not usually player characters. They are described as pig faced cruel creatures who live primarily underground, have a lust for gold and killing, and a crude tribal structure. They have one hit die, and are chaotic, which is in keeping with the description. Half-orcs, which are an allowable PC race in the advanced companion, have positive strength and constitution modifiers, and a negative modifier to charisma. They can be assassins, thieves, fighters, or clerics, but not magic users. They have infravision, and are able to find secret doors and traps 1/3 of the time.

History
Orcs come from the Northern Continent, and most scholars think that they originated somewhere beyond the great equatorial Wet, where the very air steams, and giant beasts tread the marshes. They did not feature much in the affairs of the world before the Titans, or at least they do not make an appearance in the legends or stories of that time. The Titans certainly made use of Orc slaves, particularly as task masters over the other subjected races, which may account for the cruelty of the Elves meted out once the Titans were over thrown.

The Elvish legions spent most of their efforts against the Orcs, spreading out on great pacification marches, where every Orc was slain, towns burned, cattle slain, and goods spoiled or carried off. These occurred on a rotating basis for centuries, as the then superior technology and discipline of the Elves allowed them to operate with impunity. The Orcs were forced back into the Wet, and their population seethed. Eventually, growing weary of the slaughter, and of death in the mud, the Elves built a long limit line along the southern edges of the Wet, league forts and walls to prevent incursions, and small towns to supply the forts. This was called Hadrioon's wall, after the emperor who ordered its construction.

The limit line lasted but a generation, for the Empire was already in decline. More and more troops were diverted for civil conflict, or to fight with the incoming hordes of humans, or simply because there were no more replacements. The wall grew weak, and gradually, slowly, and fitfully, it was abandoned. In AGM600, the Orcs boiled out of the Wet in a massive crusade, sweeping the few Elves left from their path, and gobbled up the rich farm land to the south. This crusade continued to the Sea, and by AGM630, they had destroyed the whole of the northern Empire, save what is now the Remnant, clustered around the Great River, and the City.

War with the Elves has now settled into defined lines, and the unity the Orcs once had is slipping away. Great warlords became kings, and though they all served the Hooded One, they rule their own petty kingdoms beyond the rim. The priesthood has a heavy hand in the rule of law, and all orcs remain united in that at least. Havlings and dwarves with in the territory are enslaved, and captured Elves are carried back to the homeland beyond the Wet. No one knows what happens to those taken, and none return. The humans have sent several crusades against the Orcs to liberate the land, and aside from setting up the small kingdom Candia on the shores of the Deepest Sea, have had little success.

Language
All Orcs speak Orcic, a language not related to Franka, or Titanic. Consequently, it is very difficult for outsiders to learn, and Orcs similarly have great difficulty learning the languages of others. Typically they use Dwarven or Havling interpreters for formal needs, and get by with a crude pidgin version of Marian when no slaves are available. Due to their difficulty in learning Titanic and Franka, Orcs have a much greater difficulty learning new spells, and must spend twice as long to inscribe spells.

Race Rules
Orcs of the Deepest Sea are perhaps best treated as Humans. The differences between the two races as far as stats and abilities are slight, and these are handled best by role play, rather than rules. Consequently, all of the restrictions normally placed on half-orcs do not apply. Orcs may be any class save Paladin or Druid, as they have no equivalents to these.

RP
Orcs adventure for much the same reason as any human, for money, for glory, for duty, or for love. They look down on Havlings and Dwarves as servile races, and treat Elves with a thinly veiled contempt. Humans are the only race that get on with them at all, something which does not impress the other races. They respect their overlords, and obey their priests nearly reflexively. They take a great personal pride in honor and justice, even if these are obscure to those from other cultures.

Orcs typically have great piety, and will spend at least one hour a day in worship. Orcs have a number of sayings which involve mud and similar idioms from the Wet, which often are hard to translate. They have a reverence for well built things, and often heavily ornament simple items of equipment. In this regard, they are somewhat like Elves or dwarves, although they would not appreciate the comparison. Female orcs are not often seen abroad, as they are seen as the guardians of traditional Orcish culture, and consequently are kept away from outside influences.

Randomly generated NPCs or PCs are likely to be male 7/8 of the time, nobles 1/10 of the time, and from the Wet only 1/20 of the time. They are likely to be fighters 1/2 of the time, clerics 1/6 of the time, are not randomly wizards. NPCs will be accompanied by d3 slaves, which are Havlings 2/3 of the time, and Dwarves 1/3 of the time. These slaves are treated as hirelings, with a -1 to moral checks.

Adventuring Orcs are rarely seen abroad due to their slow conflict with the rest of the Deepest Sea, however, they do sometimes strike out from trade vessels. They are likely to have legal or social problems in Dwarven kingdoms and in the Empire, and in smaller towns in Human countries. They do adventure though, for their love of glory leads them to seek out monsters to slay, and treasure is always welcome.

Miniatures
The best miniatures for Deepst Sea Orcs are Thunderbolt Mountain Goblins. As these are somewhat limited, Reaper Black Orcs might also work, particularly as a PC.

Tuesday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Paladins.

Nords

2011-04-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

N is for Nords in our fourteenth installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

The Nords were the first tribe to meet the Elves on that fateful day when they first rode out over the plains. There on the border near what is now Fedenzia, the sleepy town guards goggled with wonder to see the first horsemen riding ahead of a massive wave of migration, thousands of wains with thousands of families, rolling across what the Elves had always considered trackless waste. The Elves were gracious and welcoming with the slightly more primitive humans, and gave them land in the far west of the Empire to settle.

In return for the Western lands, the human tribe gave the Elves horses, which would be the undoing of the empire. The Nords spread out in their new land, and as the Empire fell, they created the new countries of Brémdy and Chénez, first as protectorates of the Empire, then as client kingdoms, and now fully independent kingdoms with nearly 1000 years of their own history.

The Language of the Nords is heavily influenced by Franka, since the original place names and many words for technological items came from that language as the Nords filled in the quiet South Western corner of the Empire. In addition, the period as a protectorate member of the Empire spread Elvish culture and law through out the new country, as the humans were eager to learn from their more civilized overlords. With that basis, the languages of Brémdic and Chénezian arose, closely related to Franka, but retaining much vocabulary from the original Nord language.

Nords tend to be of medium height and build, in between the barbarians and the Laténs. Their hair color ranges from light brown to nearly black, and nearer to the border with Utennas, it is not unusual for some to be blond. Skin color tends to be light, although anyone who spends time outside tends to a ruddy tan. Eye color is light, ranging from grey to green.

The two Nordic countries follow the Shepard exclusively, and hew closely to the established church. The piety of both countries is well known, and the countryside is heavily populated by churches and monasteries. Unlike some of the human kingdoms, heresies are comparatively rare, and the Crowns of both countries have actively suppressed dissent from the church, to the point of calling in levies of knights to attack communities that have deviated from the accepted policies and positions of the church.

The Piety of the Nords has lead them to form a crusade on more than one occasion. The second crusade even went over the Deepest Sea to fight the Orcs, leading to a crusader kingdom being founded there. Most paladins are Nords, slightly more commonly from Brémdy, as its population is larger. In addition to crusades, questing clerics are slightly more likely to be from one of the two Nordic countries, due to the larger numbers of monasteries there. Several of the monastic orders are headquartered in Chénez, although chapter houses may be found all over the Deepest Sea.

Monday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Orcs.

Lockpicking: the game

2011-04-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

Telecantar has a great post about using a procedural method to simulate lock picking, rather than just rolling a die and assigning a chance to succeed (based on looking for a solution to the problem posed on rather gamey here). Basically it is a rock/paper/sissors sort of game, with one correct answer per stage.
(Zak also posted about this here, with some refinements)

This sort of mechanic could be adapted for several different sorts of tests, such as trap disarming, mechanism working etc. Anything which could be set up as more than an either or solution, but still has a limited set of options could have a little branched path "game" like this, where the player has to make a choice to move along the path to success. Many computer RPGs have some variant of this mechanic as logic puzzles, since you can not describe what you are doing as well.

The challenge with this system is to make it simple enough that it can be "played" in a few seconds, and not have the rest of the players disengaged. I think that the way to do that is to limit the total number of steps (d4+1) , and allow for "auto passes" once a lock has been solved.

What do you think? Does this slow things down too much vs. a die roll?

Magic Users

2011-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

M is for Magic Users in the thirteenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Called Wizards, Witches, Mages, and worse, Magic Users can been seen as the sine qua non of D&D. Sure, some argue that the fighter is the core class of D&D, but really, you could have a fighter in any role playing game. No, magic is what makes D&D tick, and magic needs people to wield it, and thence, Magic Users. What makes the monsters exist? Magic. What makes the magic items? Magic.

So magic users are integral. However, how do they work in the game? Most of the time I would guess that players think of magic users as being like this:

However, in the game, wizards are more... squishy, particularly at the lower levels. First level Magic Users only have one spell! Rolling a d4 for hit points does not help things either, as even a middling blow with a weapon puts them near death. It is only at higher levels that magic users start to become powerful, and of course at the highest levels they are as powerful as armies.

In the Deepest Seas setting, magic is rare, with only as few as 1/10,000 humans having any sort of magic ability. Elves are rather more magical, and dwarves less so. Magic is viewed with a heavy suspicion, since it was through magic that the Titans managed to enslave the world thousands of years ago. While Remoos was alive, the study of magic was banned, and magic users were crucified or had their tongues torn out. After Remoos died, the fervor over magic passed, and secret societies sprang up to promote the study of magic. These grew through the years, until magic was no longer banned, but became a part of the Empire. Mages accompanied the legions as they fought the enemies of the Empire, and back home, worked to improve and

When the humans came riding out over the plains, it was found that they too had magic, and the elves taught what they knew to the eager human wizards and warlocks. When the Empire fell a scant few years later, many of the human wizards left with the remaining elves, and set up colleges in the City. Over time, other places of study were set up in the new human cities, and magic use was regularized as a part of life.

Now, magic use might not be against the law, but it is suspicious. Those that find they can use magic often run away from home, and head to a large city where they might have the chance to learn more. If they can not make it away, they often end up as the crazy old wizard on the outskirts of town. Sometimes they are called witches and killed by those suspicious of their power. Female magic users are more likely to be branded witches than men, and are therefore less likely to make it away.

Magic users are not able to wear armor when casting spells, nor can they carry a shield. Many find that iron weapons inhibit their connection to magic flows, and consequently most do not use swords or axes. Staves and knives are common weapons used by magic users, as they feature as ritualistic implements and are easily enchanted. Magic users learn to read Titanic and Servile as part of their education, and most spells are written in a form of High Titanic. Spell books are extremely valuable, and are quite rare. Finding new spells is the goal of all magic users, and part of the reason that they are feared, as the pursuit of new spells brings them closer and closer to the power of the Titans.

NPC Magic Users or random PCs have a 3/4 chance of being male, and a 1/4 chance of being nobles. 2/3 of the time they will be human (modified by location). 2/3 of the time they will be from the country in which they are currently located. 1/4 of them are 18-25 years old, 1/2 of them are 26-35, and 1/4 are 36-60. In any random adventuring party, 1/10 of the members are magic users.

For human wizards, I favor the Perry miniatures pack Cu28. Just look at that last dude and tell me that he is not casting a spell.

(picture cribbed from Perry Miniatures)

Saturday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Nords.

Copplestone Spring Sale

2011-04-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Copplestone Spring Sale: From midnight on Friday 15th April until midnight Sunday 17th April (UK times) you can get 10% off anything you order just by entering the promotion code – spring – when prompted at our online checkout.

Copplestone, as you may be aware (should be!) produces some rather excellent near-future figures (including the particularly excellent Neo-Soviets), as well as the superlative 10mm fantasy figures which would work well as LotR stand ins.

I have ordered from Copplestone a couple of times, and they have great service, and the casting quality was great. The figures speak for themselves of course. Unfortunately, I do not think that I will be able to take advantage due to a funds shortage (and just maybe the fact that I have about 10 other armies that I ought to paint). You should though!

Lécce

2011-04-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

L is for Lécce in our twelfth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Geography
The Grand Republic of Lécce is located on the Deepest Sea in between the Sea and the Rim, and between Crotére and Bori. It is a small Republic, and occupies a marshy country surrounding a bay. Over the centuries much land has been reclaimed from the sea, as levees, dams, and other barriers exclude the sea from more and more area. The republic is named after the principle city of Lécce, which sits at the bottom of the bay. Arranged around the bay and the city are five large towns which are sometimes known as the Pentagon. The five towns are heavily fortified, and help Lécce remain independent from its neighbors.

Population
Lécce is sometimes thought of as the most Latén of the nine remaining Latén countries. Its people are just as vibrant as those in Emillio, and just as energetic as those in Vatoni. They speak the Marian dialect of Laténs, which is derived from Franka. In Lécce, many of the more educated populace learns Franka, and some also learn one or the other of the Nordish languages for trade purposes.

The people of Lécce diverge from their brethren in the other Latén countries in two ways. The first is that they divide neatly in to two political parties, the Imperialists and the Localists. The first believe that Lécce should petition to rejoin the empire. They are typified by red stripes in their clothing, sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant, depending on the political mood or passion of the wearer. The localists are not apposed to the idea of rejoining the empire, but want first to improve the situation of Lécce itself, either through capital improvement programs, or through conquest of the neighbors (these are divided between Crotére and Bori as the likely targets). Localists adorn their clothing with blue billets, again depending on their passion or the political mood of the city. Typically a family will choose one side or the other to support, and on election days the colors come out. Strangers will be questioned about which viewpoint that they support, and none will believe that outsiders do not have an opinion on the subject.

The second way that they diverge from other Laténs is that the citizens of Lécce are elf crazy. They ape elf style, fawn on elven visitors, try to practice their Franka, and some even go so far as to try and mate with elves. The women wear makeup to make themselves seem more elvish, the men practice walking with mincing over emphasised elf walks. Major holidays are celebrated with the population wearing ceramic "elf masks". Most of the rest of the world thinks that they are eccentric, but few in the Empire comment, and some accept it as their due. The Elvish quarter of Lécce is very small, for few but the most egocentric (or crazy) can stand the attention for long.

Law
Like the other republics around the Deepest Sea, Lécce has a small senate of elected men, and a speaker of the senate. The Republic of Lécce is unique in that it has a selected Podestà, who rules the Republic for a five year term. During this term he is essentially imprisoned in a lovely palace on the sea, and the only outside contact he has is with the senators. All his worldly needs are taken care of, and he is treated with the utmost curtsy, but there is no leaving the palace grounds. The Podestà is always an elf, and he is "selected" by the senate when ever the previous term has ended, or the previous Podestà has decamped. This selection varies from open elections in the senate to hooded kidnappings in the dead of night.

Lécce has a militia law, where all men of age in the territory must drill on the 7th day of the week. This is often interpreted to include foreigners as well, so those visiting may find themselves outside the walls marching back and forth for a few hours.

Cities
Lécce
Lécce itself is the only city in the Republic, but the five towns of the pentagon are nearly cities in their own right. Located at the bottom of the bay, and due to land reclamation is gradually extending into it. Has a varied trade, including fermented fish paste. Population is 5200 households
Masone
Located nearest to the Rim, Masone has stone quarries which supply the other towns, as well as fine carving stone for Lécce. Population is 1580 households
Mele
Located at the mouth of the bay, Mele has the Republic's small fleet of galleys, as well as a substantial fishing fleet. Population is 2000 households
Busalla
Located nearest to Crotére, Busalla has the most recently upgraded fortifications, including having its walls cut low and reinforced. Has a small wizards school outside its walls, which is looked on with apprehension by the other towns. Population is 1870 households
Recco
Known for its pottery, Recco is located in a formerly muddy swampland. Much drained, the population has grown. Population is 1830 households
Repallo
Located nearest to Bori, Repallo was heavily fortified before the other cities of the pentagon. For this reason, it is now the weakest of the cities, and consequently has the largest militia postings in times of strife. Most of the grain in Lécce is grown in this region. Population is 1490 households

Friday, more Deepest Sea with Magic Users

Kékhzmet

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

K is for Kékhzmet in our eleventh installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Geography
Located south of the Deepest sea, Kékhzmet is between Györ to the west and several smaller kingdoms to the east. South is the barbarian kingdom of Oülös, where the border seemingly shifts with the seasons. Like most of the human kingdoms, Kékhzmet is divided by the Rim into two primary territories, one bordering the Deepest sea, and another to the south of the Rim.

The territory north of the rim is fertile, and is dominated by grain and woodlands. Most of the population lives in this area, which is highly divided into small baronies. The area south of the rim is more arid and is economically dominated by cattle barons, who rule vast tracks of land, with small populations easily outnumbered by cattle and horses.

Population
Kékhzmet and neighboring Györ are the eastern and western portions respectively of the former kingdom of Pannonia, which itself had ruled former Imperial lands under the Dacian dynasty for nearly 400 years. Pannonia was conquered by the Mägr tribe, which invaded from the south, in AGM492 after a five year war following the death of the last Dacian king and resulting civil war (AGM487).

Ethnically, the majority of the population is Nord, and the lords are mostly their former barbarian conquerors. The original Franka language dialect has been replaced by the new hybrid language Kékhzmetic, which is predominantly Finic in vocabulary, but uses the grammar of the ancestral Nord language. Due to the upheaval in rule, and the generally arid terrain, the population of Kékhzmet is somewhat low, on the order of 2 million.

Law
Kékhzmet is ruled by a king, who expresses his power through his barons. Greater barons have greater land holdings, and may have lesser barons under them. Technically the greater barons are supposed to form a council for the king, however those south of the rim rarely make the long journey back to the capitol. Each barony has its own courts, and slight variations of the common law. Sentences may be appealed to the greater barons, or the crown itself, although this is not done for lesser crimes. Trial by judicial combat is still common in the far southern regions of the country. To the eyes of those from the Empire, or more settled human kingdoms, penalties for crimes are harsh, although the total crime rate seems to be lower.

Elves are mistrusted in Kékhzmet, particularly around the cattle. There are laws against selling cattle to Elves, and those who travel there must constantly prove that they own their mounts. Elves are not allowed to handle beef, and those that wish to eat it must not handle it with their hands.

Cities
Szépes
The largest city of the Kingdom, known for the vagaries of its law. Located slightly inland from the Deepest Sea up a large river. Primary trade is grain shipments around the Deepest Sea, as part of the circular trade. Population is 4700 households
Négymacs
The second city of the Kingdom, and the capitol. Located on the shores of the Deepest sea, there is a large fishing industry, as well as many iron bloomeries working iron ore brought down from the mountains. Population is 3500 households
Ebéz
Located across the Po river from Emilla, only a few leagues from the capitol city of Emillo. There is a substantial population of Laténs in the city, which gives it a more relaxed air than the other cities of Kékhzmet. Trade is predominantly in cattle and horses, sent to the Latén counties. Population is 2750 households
Josza
Located in the far south of the country, this city is a trading post with the barbarians, as well as a heavily militarized city. Population is 1850 households
Sarand
Located in the center of the country, this city is on the internal trade route between the north and south parts of the country, and has a particularly large merchant quarter as a result. Population is 1670 households
Ir-Simha is a small dwarven kingdom located in the Rim, between northern and southern Kékhzmet. Techincally a vassal state of the kingdom, in actuality it is nominally independent, although the lack of arable land in Ir-Simha means that the dwarves depend on trade with the rest of Kékhzmet.

Thursday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Lécce.

Kampfgruppe Normandy

2011-04-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Warhammer Historical is releasing a new rule book soon, called Kampfgruppe Normandy. This is an great looking book, which seems to be doing company level World War II Normandy in 20mm. There are some lovely looking page views located here.

Some people will no doubt complain about the 20mm/1/72 aim of the book, but there are a ton of figures and vehicles available , and it seems like it would be easy to go 25/28mm or 15mm too, by adjusting the ground scale.

However, the book's price is £48.00. Which is around $75.25. That is just crazy. I am sure that the book is lovely, but there are tons of other books one can buy for that price. (even 350 page full color ones) There are also plenty of other skirmish games out there that you can buy rule books for very cheap, or get them for free.

This of course also suggests that Warhammer Historical will not be doing any Warhammer Ancients rulebooks anytime soon... which is too bad. That was an area where WH seemed to be doing well, even if their publication rate was anemic.

Justice

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

J is for Justice in the tenth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Justice and Law in the world of the Deepest Seas are not your Justice and Law. There are no constitutions, there are no Miranda rights, and no international courts. That being said, in most countries, life is not some sort of Hobbisan dystopia either, custom and codes of law restrain the abuse of power, and the sure knowledge that death awaits with an executioner's axe keeps crime down as well.

Most of the human countries have a feudal system, in which a lord is given control of a fief and its tenants in return for loyalty to a higher lord, and military service. This chain continues up until you reach the King, who own the land, and is beholden only to the Shepard (or in some cases to a High King, or the Emperor of the Elves). Each link in the chain has control of those under them, down to the lowest peasant or slave. This chain works in reverse, so that the authority of the feudal overlord increases as one moves from the manor court to the baron's court, to the local magistrate, and then to the court king himself. Typically, only the local magistrate or the king may authorize enforcement of a sentence for capital punishment, although lower courts may suggest this sentence.

Cities with in the human countries sometimes have a slightly different situation, as many have a charter from the king to be self ruling, typically with a council of elders and an elected mayor. In these cities, the laws are typically based on the common law of the country, but have an additional layer of rules and laws created by the council. These local laws may relate to local commerce, or local religious custom. As an example, in Szépes, a man may not wear red tights during the 4th month, as this is seen as offensive. The punishment is set at a hefty fine of one penny.

The Empire, although much reduced in power and territory has a long and grand legal tradition, starting with the dictates of Remoos, adding law and legal custom under the Republic, and then moving into the long period of decline, where the rule of the Emperor became both more open, and more absolute. In general, citizens of the Empire (which is to say mostly Elves) have a strictly defined protection from the state, and one another, based on legal precedent, and a limited code of laws. Citizens retain these rights when outside the empire, although except in the case of client kingdoms, this is impossible for the Empire to enforce. Slaves, and other non-citizens have very few legal protections, and are not covered by same code of law.

Dwarven Kingdoms are somewhat varied, but typically have a feudal/clan hybrid system, where a king reigns above several clans as their liege lord, the clans are headed by a great noble, who then has their own clan members as vassals. The system as a whole, is generally flatter than in a human kingdom, as the distance between common citizen and the king is, on the whole, much smaller. Some dwarven kingdoms are contrarily more despotic for the same reason, where the king maintains his position by fiat and tight rule.

The Orcs have a more autocratic legal system, where the king rules through courts and magistrates appointed by the crown. Their basis of civil law is religious law, to the point where many of the appointed magistrates are priests recommended for their position by higher priests closer to the crown. The near totality of the overlap of religious law with civil law means that there are no appeals, and that sentencing is both swift, and usually merciful. Non-orcs have many fewer legal protections, and those who are not state slaves or orcs have none, save the force of arms or appeals to the local lord for clemency.

Wednesday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Kékhzmet.

Ir-Simha

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

I is for Ir-Simha in our ninth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Crude and Hasty Map

Ir-Simha is a Dwarven kingdom located in the south Rim in the midst of Kékhzmet. It consists of one small city and one village, each at the end of a valley in the middle of the Rim. The land between is arid due to the height of the mountains. Ir-Simha itself is heavily fortified with effectively two walled surface towns joined by a keep in the center, which contains the gate to the under city. The few humans, havlings, and elves who live in Ir-Simha live in the northern half of the city, in the new quarter, which has taller buildings more suited to those who do not enjoy living underground.

While the king gives nominal fealty to the king of Kékhzmet, in actuality the country is independent. The king has a council of elders, who are reputed to speak with the voice of the ancients. What this means, few know, as the council is not seen in public. The city has approximately 1750 households, but appears to be smaller, as many of the residents live under ground. Trade with Kékhzmet is mostly concentrated on exchanges of grain from the more fertile north, for the well wrought swords of Ir-Simha. There are also large flocks of sheep, which provide cloth and meat for the city. The village at the east end of the kingdom relies heavily on timber production, in addition to providing services to traders and travelers moving from one part of Kékhzmet to the other. Ir-Simha uses imperial standard measures, and takes imperial coin, although most are over stamped with dwarvish markings.

Ir-Simha was founded as a slave town early in the rule of the Titans, housing the working crews used to mine iron from the hills. After the overthrow of the Titans, more dwarves came to this area, and a frantic fortification process protected them from the upheaval of the era. Elves came in numbers during the high days of the Empire, and created the south above ground town. The fortifications were expanded when the Empire dissolved, and have recently be modified again to take heavier war machines on the main bastions.

Near Ir-Simha are the ruins of a small pre-Imperial town. The buildings appear to be mostly elvish in nature, and only survive due to the arid nature of the high mountain regions.

To the north west is a giant head and arm which appear to grow from the hard talus of the slopes. The face is approximately ten cubits across. Curiously, the head is screaming, and the hand is missing from the upraised arm.
East of the north south road is a tall black tower, clearly burnt out long ago.

Tuesday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Justice.

Havlings

2011-04-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

H is for Havlings in our eighth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.

Halflings, Hobbits, "the little people", Kender, and other friendly, happy little folk are a long standing part of fantasy. The most iconic of course are Bilbo and Frodo, who carried the One Ring, and set the mold by which most halflings are judged. They are fat, happy little fellows (rarely women), who eat and drink frequently.

In D&D halflings are small, slight, have furry feet, gentle of nature, enjoy comforts, disappear easily when outdoors, and like to eat and drink. In a word, they are clearly hobbits. They can be thieves, or fighters, and have level caps for those as well. They get a +1 to initiative, and to dexterity rolls, and are restricted from two handed weapons and from large weapons.

History
What happened to the Havlings during the rule of the Titans is unknown. They certainly existed before or after, but what transpired during the long dark years no sage can say. Havlings were part of the Empire, and like dwarves, had sort of a client kingdom relationship to their Elvish overlords. They maintained a single polity on the western side of the Deepest Sea. As the Empire disintegrated, the Havling realm became more and more independent, and managed to keep together during the dark times when humans took over the southern Empire, and the Elves withdrew to the capitol.

Reduced in numbers, the Havlings continued on as they had for centuries, although they now had to defend themselves more often. Militias were created , but life continued on as it had, and the pastoral life of the Havlings went on. In AGM615, the first crusade of Orcs crossed the rim, and without the Empire to protect them, the Havling realm was crushed in a matter of weeks, completely absorbed into the crusade.

Orcs of course, had little idea what to do with a bunch of pastoral nature lovers, and attempts to impress the lot of them into the crusade ended in expected failure. Ultimately, as the crusade failed, the Havlings were enslaved. Male Havlings were tied to the land on which they were born, serving as agricultural serfs. Females were taken as household slaves, and often used for worse. As time went on, and the local Orc overlords became more "civilized", the strictures of slavery eased. However, all male havlings born in the realm are born as slaves, and they are owned by the state, and controlled by the local Orc lord.

Language
Havlings speak Franka of a sort, a dialect called Westronese, or Half Franka by some. This language is derived from Franka, and is more flat in its intonation, and has more rounded vowel sounds. This dialect arose during the last days of Imperial control, and is wide spread on the north western side of the Deepest Sea, at least amongst the educated.

Race Rules
Havlings of the Deepest Sea do not have experience caps as they do in standard D&D, nor are they limited to being fighters and thieves. Havlings may be fighters, rangers, druids, magic users, and thieves. They are able to use two handed weapons, but as they are less sure footed than Dwarves, they suffer a -1 penalty when doing so.

RP
Younger Havling females love to adventure, to strike out and see new things, and to have new experiences. To a certain extent, they look up to Elves, believing them to be wiser and more knowledgeable about the world, something which does not usually last more than the first few adventures with one. Like Elves, Havlings trade on stories when at home, lighting the misery a bit with tales of danger and reward abroad.

Havlings live for today, and love to drink above all other things. They reverence nature, and try to "tidy things up" when they can. They have a myriad of taboos and observances which strike outsiders as both quaint and befuddling. The web of etiquette and taboo makes it difficult for outsiders to live in Havling towns, and while they laugh off offenses, they tend to separate themselves quietly from those who offend often.

Randomly generated Havlings NPCs or PCs are likely to be female 5/6 of the time, fighters 1/2 of the time, and slaves 1/6 of the time. Random males are nearly always slaves (19/20), and are escaped slaves 1/2 of the time. Havlings adventuring tend to be young, and 3/4 of them come from the Havling realm. Havlings have no native nobility, but reverence their druids in a similar manner.

Humans are less familiar with Havlings, and often call them "half elves", "halflings", "kid", and other more derogatory things, in part due to their general appearance as child Elves. This ignores of course the Havling tendency for shoes, difference in facial features, skin color and so on, but it is a perception that refuses to die. That encountered Havlings tend to be thieves and escaped slaves does not increase their popularity with humans.

Miniatures
The best figures for Havlings are clearly Reaper Gnomes, particularly those sculpted by Derek Schubert.
Monday, more Deepest Sea A-Z with Ir Simha.

On Hex size and mapping

2011-04-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Part of making a game map, particularly one for sandbox play, is figuring out what the scale of the map should be. Once that is done, then you can figure out what size hex grid to overlay. (sometimes those are the same thing) Sometimes you want the hexes to be a standard for maps of that scale, and some times you want a hex size linked to a game more closely.

Zak S. has a great post here about how to calculate hex size. (caution, site is frequently NSFW) He suggests that using the formula H = DN - P(DN) is a way to calculate the size of a hex for your map. [where H is hex size, D is distance in a day, N is number of days without incident, P is percent chance of an empty hex, and DN is again Distance in a day and Number of days without incident]

If you are drawing your map out by hand, I find this site to be very useful. You are able to create your own PDF of hexes, and then you can print them whenever you need a new map page. There are other interesting papers there too, such as square graph paper, polar paper, and even music paper. The Cornell Graph paper looks to be useful for dungeon drawing and keying for instance.

Anyway, just musing a bit on maps for the Monday A-Z post.

Grit

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

G is for Grit in our seventh installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z

Grit (N): firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger
Gritty (Adj.): having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism
Definitions from the Online Merriam-Webster dictionary

Grit and Gritty are two qualities that I want to bring out in the Deepest Sea setting. Grit, is admirably served by OSR D&D play, with PCs running the risk of dying in traps, to hungry slavering beasts in the deep, and to "justice" when in town. Gritty, by emphasising the early medieval world, with its dangers, diseases, and death.

So, sharpen those swords, pick up more lamp oil before you leave town, and hire some more henchmen, you are going to need it all.
Tomorrow, more Deepest Sea A-Z, with Havlings.

Smaug's Hoard

2011-04-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Forbes writer Michael Noer calculates the value of Smaug's treasure. As you are aware from your close reading of the Hobbit, Smaug ruined the dwarven kingdom, and took all the treasure and made a huge pile of it. Which he then slept on. Mr. Noer calculates this at a value of $8.6 billion, including the Arkenstone. This number of course leaves out the matter of the value of mithril items [Bilbo's coat alone worth as much as the Shire], and the value of any gems and such like mixed in with the gold and silver, but it is still an astounding total.

Fighters

2011-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

F is for Fighters in our sixth installment of the Deepest Sea A-Z.
Fighters are arguably THE core class of D&D. While clerics have their uses, and pages of pages of material are devoted to magic spells, it is difficult to imagine a game without a plain old guy with a sword or axe to protect the comparatively squishy magic users when they run out of spells. Indeed, in the OSR visions of D&D, low level magic users are nearly one shot weapons, where as the poor fighting man has to carry the main part of a battle.

Traditionally, there seems to be the view that fighters are some sort of movie-Conan type warriors, leaping to the forefront of battle with a broadsword, hacking and slashing their way to victory. Alternately, they are depicted as some sort of tank, heavily armed and armored, holding the line while the magic users do the real work. Both of these visions are possible with role play, but the rules tend to fall somewhere in the middle.

In the Deepest Sea, fighters are soldiers, mercenaries, bandits, knights, guards, and bravos, all those who earn a living by the strength of arms. That is not to say that they are unintelligent, but rather, that their skill set is mostly martial in nature. Some of them are nobles, particularly if they are knights, but most are common soldiers, or their analog, bandits. All races have fighters, because war and conflict are ever present. Indeed the feudal system of government which pervades most of the land breeds conflict, by creating in effect local warlords with loyalty only to the next most powerful warlord.

Unlike historical reality, women fight somewhat more frequently in the Deepest Sea setting. Due to the pervasive nature of magic, and the nearly total equality of Elves, even human women take up arms on occasion, although would still be viewed as being unusual in most areas. Dwarven women rarely take arms outside of defense of their community, and havling women are more likely to go adventuring than the men are.

Sub-classes of fighter include Rangers and Paladins. Rangers are fighters who spend their time as scouts, border guards, and woodsmen, and consequently have a deep connection and experience with the wilderness. This connection gives them the bonuses mentioned in the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion. [Paladins will be addressed separately when we get to letter P]

NPC Fighters have a 3/4 chance of being male, and a 1/20 chance of being nobles. 5/6 of the time they will be human (modified by location). 9/10 of the time they will be from the country in which they are currently located. 1/4 of them are 15-20 years old, 2/4 of them are 21-30, and 1/4 are 31-50. In any random adventuring party, 3/5 of the members are fighters.

When handling fighters in a game, it is important to remember where they came from. Are they sell-swords, or are they knights, with a sworn feudal duty to an overlord? Do they owe certain duties to their lord? Must they be present at a muster of arms every year? No one is completely free of obligations, and properly understood, these give hooks and levers to tie the player to the story, and move them when necessary.

Many of the more wealthy might look like this guy:

(Picture from Bing image search)

So anyway, a quick review of fighters in the Deepest Sea.
Tomorrow, more Deepest Sea A-Z, with a discussion of Grit.

Tomb Kings

2011-04-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

One Warhammer army that I have always wanted to collect "when I am done with the others" [cue for laughter], is the Tomb Kings army. It has the benefits of being an undead army, and in previous editions anyway, did not suffer from being overpowered like Vampire Counts. The Pseudo-historical aspect of an "Egyptian mummy" army also appealed to me.

Games Workshop is gearing up to release a new army book for the Tomb Kings (first since their 6th edition book), and of course has a slew of new plastic miniatures to go with it. Besides the new book the first sets released include plastic Tomb Guard, a War Sphinx, and Necropolis knights, both new to the army.

The War Sphinx and the Necropolis knights appear to be in keeping with the 8th edition theme of "huge monsters", rather than the 6th/7th edition theme of "troops". Which from my point of view is too bad, because as much as I like large center piece models, I am far more likely to have a couple of large regiments of regular troops.

Unfortunately, there are no new basic troops, so the army is still using the over sized skeletons with the Tomb King add on sprue, as well as the extremely old cow tailed skeleton horses. Another unfortunate aspect of this release is that the new kits are all more expensive than earlier ones. The days of $30 regiment boxes appear to be long gone. Even the new army book is $37.25. This makes a new army pretty costly, even if it is mostly plastic now.

So the conclusion is that a new Tomb Kings army is not in my future. At least not until they release new chariots for me to drool over.

Also, a warm welcome to new follower graymatterblues.

Elves

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

E is for Elves in our fifth installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

Elves have become an even more classic element of fantasy than dwarves, ranging from our friends at Keebler, to the immortal elves of the Lord of the Rings. Elves are typically portrayed as thin, super hippies, with above average resistance to poison, long lives, and so on.

In D&D, elves are small skinny folk (only 5-5.5' tall, and 120 pounds). They get a plus to dexterity, and a minus to constitution, have infravision, and can spot hidden and secret doors. They are not affected by ghoul poison, and have limited class and capped level progression like dwarves (or have a race as class).

History
The elves were the first slaves of the Titans, and they went willingly. The allure of knowledge, and the thirst for the new and unique was in the blood of the species even then. For thousands of years, the elves served the Titans, and the novelty wore off, the Titans became more cruel and demented, and the elves now had the knowledge of what they lacked in bondage.

The nearly abandoned gods heard the cries of the elves, and sent Remoos to deliver them. Born alongside the great river, Remoos became the mightiest of all elves, and liberated his people, as well as the havlings, and dwarves from the Titans. He founded a mighty city alongside the great river, and became king of an empire which circled the rim. During his long reign, all remaining Titans were slain, their works burned, and the study of magic was forbidden. Anticipating that he would die, Remoos created the senate, and left a republic to protect his people.

The republic lasted only a single generation, and became an empire in name as well as in fact. The Bans of Remoos did not even last that long, as the lust for knowledge burned deep in the people of Remoos, and the study of magic was already underway in his waining years. The empire was powerful and the cattle wains and marching legions spread civilization all the way to the endless grass, and north to the Wet. Gradually the people weakened, and turned inwards, and orcs and other things came out of the Wet, or the mountains, and preyed upon the people of Remoos.

When the first humans rode out of the plains on horses, the elves greeted them with honor and delight. The vast tribes of the humans were settled in the sparsely populated territories beyond the south rim, and human lords fought the monsters. Horses were particularly treasured by elves, and even though they were poor horsemen, horses were eagerly sought after, and spread quickly around the empire. Little known then, was that horse pox was spread with them.

After the great plagues had depopulated so many of the provinces, elves returned to the city Remoos, in the contraction. Wanting to be amongst their own kind, elves walked from the towns full of the dead to where they found more of their kin, or stayed and died with their families. In a few short years, the empire died.

Now, 90% of all elves live in the city, or the farming villages to the north along the great river. The rest are scattered around the former provinces, living where their families once did, tending graves, going crazy in solitary towers, and declining. Humans, and their kingdoms hold most of what was the empire, and orcs press from the north to take more. Past glory is past, and the last of the elves who knew the imperial days has died.

Language
Elves speak Franka as a rule, and typically learn many other languages during their long life. Magic users learn the ancient languages, and as Franka is derived from Servile, they become proficient at it quite easily. There are several Franka dialects, generally relating to geographic distribution; however, Elves can speak without accent when the situation calls for it. As Franka is spoken everywhere by educated people, and as a trade language by many merchants, elves have a much easier time traveling than others.

Race Rules
In the Deepest Sea, elves are not limited in class. There are elves of all classes, from Assassin to Paladin.

Elves do not have infravision, instead they have keen vision, which accounts for their ability to spot hidden and secret doors. Elves are able to see much further and more clearly than humans.

Like dwarves, Elves do not have an experience cap, although their lust for adventure may serve as a cap, in that. More experienced elves have a tendency to want to return to the capitol city and live off of their stories, at least for a while. In addition, with every level gained above 3, elves have a 1/6 chance of becoming addicted to adventuring, meaning that they are not able to retire, even when they seek to do so. Unlike humans, or other races, PC elves are not likely to create strongholds, as they begin to get "itchy feet" and must go back to the dungeon or the frontier.

RP
Elves adventure for one main reason: ennui. Being a long lived race, they experience all mundane life has to offer (even in a city as many splendered as the capitol), and frequently become bored with it. Adventures, particularly dangerous adventures, excite the elves, and they are either planning to adventure, or make a living from telling about the ones they have had (real or imagined). Battle scars gained from combat with exotic animals are almost de reigure at the fashionable parties. In addition to seeking adventure on their own, elves also hire adventuring parties to collect rare specimens, lost magics, and above all, new stories.

Randomly generated elves, either PCs or NPCs, are likely to be nobility 1/20 of the time, come from the Capitol 2/3 of the time, and are male 3/5 of the time. Newer adventurers tend to adventure because they are in the employ of other elves who want them to acquire some artifact, or have simply become bored with their workaday life. Occasionally elves adventure to regain items or wealth that their family lost in the contraction. Experienced elves tend to adventure because they are addicted to the thrill, or less commonly to the rewards of adventure. Experienced or no, elves will often be at the forefront of any dungeon delving group, and the first to explore any dark space, open a chest, and so on... with the resulting high death rate.

Miniatures
Finding miniatures to represent this view of Elves is difficult to say the least. Most elves seem to be either bow armed, cloth covered, or are in fantastic plate armor. Sometimes all three. I believe that the ones which most closely fit the look are from Thunderbolt Mountain, specifically this one. If larger figures are desired, then the Molon Labe fantasy figures may work.
Tomorrow, more Deepest Sea A-Z, with a discussion of Fighters.

Dwarves

2011-04-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

D is for Dwarves in our fourth installment of the Deepest Sea, A-Z.

Dwarves are a classic element in any fantasy, due to the influences of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. "Classic" Tolkien-esque Dwarves are stout, short fellows, with a predilection for gold, underground delving, and orc slaying.

In D&D, all of these are true, and dwarves gain the ability to see in infravision, while suffering from class restrictions (or are race as class). In addition they get a spread of languages, and improved saves. They are not able to use two handed weapons, or long bows, and have a 1/3 chance to find traps, false walls, etc. Dwarves have capped level progression, and are "particularly gruff with Elves". Often, they seem to have faux-Scottish accents, and act as the comic relief.

History
In the Deepest Sea setting, Dwarves were enslaved by the Titans sometime after their emergence from the Rim. Dwarves however, made poor slaves as compared to the Elves, and were never very numerous. Consequently their numbers dwindled during the era of domination, and once the Titans were overthrown, they kept to themselves and founded small independent city states. At the height of the Empire, the various dwarven cities were client kingdoms to the Empire, and some dwarves migrated out of the Rim to the the flatlands, living side by side with Elves. When humans arrived from over the plains, dwarves felt a kinship with them, but the Horse Pox plagues struck them down regardless. Currently the Dwarven kingdoms have regained their much of previous strength, but keep to themselves more than they did before.

Language
The Dwarves speak one of two cradle languages, either Hoch Dwarf if they are born in a dwarf kingdom, or Platt Dwarf if born in another kingdom. Both languages derive from a common, pre-Servile root, with Platt Dwarf diverging more from the root, with a heavy Servile and Franka influence. Each group of dwarves tends to develop its own dialect or cant fairly quickly as they bond together, often leading to conversational difficulties with far flung groups. Dwarves also learn languages of the region in which they are in, and if magic users, they will learn the ancient languages as well.

Race rules
In the Deepest Sea, Dwarves are not limited by the traditional set of classes as presented in most D&D material. Instead, they may be any class except for Cleric or its related sub-classes, or Paladins, as dwarves as a rule have no connection to the divine, and tend to find the very concept of a deity to be confusing. Dwarves do have a very strong sense of morality and duty, and tend to be very group and clan oriented. They seem to have great reverence for their ancestors, and have elaborate secret ceremonies for the dead, which are seldom witnessed by outsiders. There are nasty rumors in some quarters that dwarves who attend the ceremonies are never the same as before, or that they eat human babies and perform other diabolical acts.

Dwarves do not have infravision; however, they may see 20' further in the dark than a human.

Dwarves may use two handed weapons and longbows, but they must use the longbow as a footbow, as their stature does not allow them to draw it while standing. They tend to use heavy crossbows to compensate.

Dwarves to not have any experience cap, although high level dwarves (beyond 6) will have heavy pressure to return home to the clan. In a game, this means that starting at level 5 or so, dwarves should get messages, dreams, longings, and visitors, all urging a return to the clan.

RP
Dwarves tend to adventure for several reasons. They might adventure to seek wealth, to bring renown to their clan, to serve clan interests, to discover potent magics, or rarely, to escape from clan control. Randomly generated dwarven PCs or NPCs are likely to be nobility 1/3 of the time, come from the Dwarven Kingdoms 2/3 of the time, and are male 5/6 of the time. Typically a younger dwarf will owe money to his clan, and will be interested in sending wealth back to them in any case. A dwarf's word is his bond... when given to other dwarves. They relate well with humans and elves, and less well with havlings or orcs.

Miniature-wise, I recommend Hasslefree Miniatures, in particular Russ and Dwarf with Great Axe. These have mail armor, beards, and weapons which are suitable for Dwarven fighters. Hasslefree also has a dwarf multi-pack for retainers, and a wizard.
Tomorrow, more Deepest Sea A-Z, with a discussion of Elves.