Mountains of madness?

Time to cast: 1 hour. 
Time to glue: 1 hour. 
Time to dry: 1 week. 
Time to base: 6 minutes. 
Time to dry: 1 day.
Time to paint: 1 hour. 

Look and behold: one cast each of moulds 81-84.  A second batch is drying, I think 2 batches will go a long way making cave encounters a lot more realistic and enjoyable in Runequest and CoC alike.  I'm doing a superdry white brush tomorrow, then some varnish, and we're good to go!

Message from Cthulhu!

Great Old Cthulhu himself has seen fit to send me a parcel, containing a collection of weird looking artifacts, packaged in an alchemist treebark concoction and polymer cover, a container surely devised by the old gods.

I have tried to make a picture of it, but some of the packages resisted by malignantly reflecting every bit of light in the investigation room.  Still, for what it's worth, here is the picture.  In the meanwhile said package has again disappeared, very probably it went back into the void.  Or maybe someone wrapped it in gift paper and put it under the christmas tree.  Time will tell.

Hirst casting tryouts

Hiring children to do the work proves much cheaper,
and they can be bullied into working unpaid overtime easily

We had a few casting tests today, with the help of my son and daughter, to establish how many hirst silicon moulds one can cast per unit of time.  The tests pointed out that the speed I could reach very much depends on the number of moulds available.  At one time, I had 7 moulds 'in the air' at once.  That was doable, I would say I could manage to keep 10 moulds busy.  Depending on turnaround time, and therefore drying time, I could do 2 to 2,5 rounds per hour.  Some of the things I found:

1. Setting up took me about 45 minutes.  This will be the same for one person doing 3 moulds or 4 persons doing 40 moulds so organization is essential.
2. We need more mixing bowls: it is a very bad idea to rinse your mixing bowl in the sink, you have to let the plaster set and then remove it.  For one person, 5 mixing bowls is a good number.  Luckily, these are dead cheap.
3. It took me over one hour to clean up.  This will also be required after every cast, so it would be best to try and organize big casting sessions.

The homemade vibration board worked VERY well, so that's going to stay.  I have a nice setup in mind, with one person making the mixture, one scraper, one unpacker and one all-round, and that should allow to make lots of casts in the course of an afternoon or so.

Chaaaarge

The planning stage - it lasted a full four seconds :)

After the capture of Aelwyn, his brother rounded up some of Aelwyn's friends to go and kick ass in the Grey Dog forest.  In spite of common sense, they charge into the woods, using a very crude decoy ploy while Odd the Dark sneaks past the enemy on his warhorse - yeah I know - and liberates the weakened prisoner.  They even give Miskar a good run for his money.  Doubtlessly to be continued!

The story: Miskar under pressure!

Call of Cthulhu

Newspaper archives are essential for CoC!

We're starting a few games of CoC, in order to get a fresh kick after several months of hack and slay.  Call of Cthulhu is easily the best RPG out there, with intelligent scenario's, cool atmosphere, and frightening occurences, so what's not to like.  I have started by delving into my New York Times frontpages for our first scenario, the old classic 'The Haunted House".  The book above features all front pages from 1920 to 1927 - the traditional CoC era, and then some.  It would work for 1890 gameplay and WW2 gameplay as well.  Even 2009 is in there!  I'm looking forward at using this resource, and might well comment on it some more soon.

Workbench update

When painting updates seem to occur only now and then, it's more often than not a case of 'finishing a bunch of stuff at once'.  Typically, I have several series of miniatures that get rotated, and because of that, it looks like nothing happens at all.  Here's a quick update of a bunch of not-finished mini's I hope to finish anyday soon.

Some LAnce and Laser Bison Riders and a rider and mount.

Lunar mounted guard, some BTD, some Warlord

Some slaves and servants, an assassin, and a healer, Warlord and Reaper

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Puppet Wars Executioner

Been painting this little puppet wars Executioner for a club demo next week.  I've been painting some more details since I took the picture, but the general idea is clear.

Some you win, some you don't

Ranath, Aylwin, Ulic and Odd before the shit hit the fan

Our fellows started tonight's session with a three hour fight trying to finish off the Scorpion Man and the Broos attacking the bridge near Grey Dog.  In the end they prevail, and they gather some impressive awards.  When they learn of a kidnapping that took place during their fight, they think not one second, but decide to go rescue the damsel.  It does take them the rest of the night to come up with a plan though.  Rather than setting up in several locations at once, they gamble and set up stake near the Stead controlled by the Gagarthi, and when they actually do run into the messengers they expect, they manage to alert the entire gang.  Three of them manage to escape in the pitch black, but Aylwin is captured and taken to the Stead for interrogation.  If you listen closely you might hear his incessant screaming.

Baboons on the prowl!

Our party decided to split up after they assassinated the yelmalio rune lord on the crossing of the Jonstown to Runegate road. They meet up with two Grey Dog nobles, and decide to travel together. When a playful baboon tries to steal some food, they decide to take vengeance and murder its entire family, including old uncle Huglug, the favourite storyteller of the baboon babymonkeys (aaaaah).

Horde of unliving

With all new and shiny dragon bronze weapons, haunted shields and (some) armor: Delecti's skeletons.

Defiled by chaos!

Blanka, Odd, Ranath 'the not yet quite so wise' went off to micturate, and A'ido.  Teun is spectating

After surviving yet another botched up assassination attempt, what is left of the party after the disappearance of Gunnar and Ulic shortly after the passage of a Uleria priestess groups up with local A'ido to clear out a chaos infection nearby.  Sages meleeing with ferocious scorpion men, I thought I'd never see the day, but no-one else was up for the challenge, and I think I will grant him an extra hero point after all for such courage.  At one point he even went as far as protecting the warrior, a case of self sacrifice that is rare with Colymar tribe members, and probably the reason the Colymar yielded to Lunar where the Lismelder did not.

Baboon pack

In Glorantha, monkeys can talk!  Or at least, baboons can.  They talk, they use simple tools, and their spiritual leaders are powerful shamans.  Here is a new set of miniatures I painted for RuneQuest, featuring the Lance and Laser Baboon miniatures.  These are some of the best detailed mini's I have been able to put my hands on lately.

Stalking the stalkers

We had another violence-session yesterday!  After brutally slaughtering a bunch of Tusk tourists from up north, and bloodily vivisecting their furry mounts, our bloodthirsty adventurers degraded even further and brutally murdered a group of Lunar officials that were only doing their duty.  A noble Sun Lord was mercilessly slain, a promising student of the arcane who only wanted to escape imminent death was likewise finished off, with some serious abuse of hero powers to boot.  Clearly, it was a successful round of RQ!

Or, you can read what really happened on the campaign blog!

Yes, this is blatant self promotion!

Orlanthi!

Here are a few of the new Orlanthi I painted up for the RQ campaign.  The air rune job is a bit messy, but let’s say they’re barbarians that are a bit graphically challenged.

The mob in tights

Socializing in and around the Grey Dog Inn

We had an eventful adventure, with our companions making a very good impression on the folk of Grey Dog Village and surroundings.  Aelwyn killed Elrund the butcher, a lieutenant from a local racketing syndicate that was slowly becoming the scourge of Grey Dog.  Of course, this triggered some nasty reactions, but the operatives sent failed miserably in their task.  After Blanka left for a surprise party at the local brothel, four of them went and located the gang headquarters, but they realized a frontal assault was suicidal.  Now let's hope nobody dies.

Second Floor interior and some extra's

 Let's start with the extra's: I have gotten the Alchemist Shop Friday, slapped some paint on it, just needs a bit of detailing and pin washing and we're good to go.

 I also ordered the Kitchen set: a nice touch to complete the Inn, with fireplace, pizza oven, and an atmos that is slightly to modern for RuneQuest, but amist I bovvered forsooth?

Here's the main feature, although it's not looking like much compared to the splendid complete interiors above, these beds are still gonna add a lot of spunk to my Inn rooms for sure.

Air Rune Shields

 I clipped off the pin on the viking shields and cut off the remnants, repaired the damage with some putty and evened things out with a pencil shaper and some vaseline oil.

Then I took some tries at putting an air rune on the shields.  One is a little rough, but the second and third attempt worked really well.

Some new miniatures from The Foundry

Brave adventurers wielding axes.  In front, some Orlanthi Alynxes

I have 3 KR cases full of RuneQuest miniatures, but there a quite a few players who suddenly went all axe-y on me, and it turned out I have only one character wielding the one-handed battle axe and buckler shield.  So I promptly dispatched an order for more of those, and I added a trio of Lynxes - big fat lynxes too - for Orlanthi that want a traditional pet, and, later, if and when they make it to Rune Lord, for their allied spirit.  The Lynxes do look like pets that have been overfed for a few years, rather than a lean predator, but I can live with that.

Making a second floor for my inn

Yellow Polystyrene, a stump pencil, some black acryl, and a ruler.

Although I was unable to start a barfight Saturday, I'm not despairing: I have started work on the second floor of the Inn, the idea is to make a wooden floor, and then add some room walls, some nice beds from Scotia Grendel are underway to finish things off.

Still no barfight!

A fellow might lose his spirit over it: I set up a nice bar, with lots of barbarians from other tribes, most of them not best friends.  I even throw in a few Storm Bull cultists on a stag night, and a small gang of cave troll on a mercantile mission.  I make a wonderful bar playing area, put all the sweet scotia furniture in, and get my NPC's to call the adventurers names, insult their mums, and otherwise offend them, and the party refuses all cause for fighting and decides to be wise and civil about it.  It would have been much more convincing had they not started fighting amongst themselves later during the session, however.  Another nice session of RuneQuest last night, with some second thoughts about a certain lack of cooperation.  Lots of muscle, but not enough out of the box thinking, that's my diagnosis.  In the end the party, still a flock of unexperienced adventurers, decided to travel to Snake Pipe Hollow and get rich quick.  Hey, if it was so simple, everyone'd be doing it!  The scenario ended with our brave barbarians being under attack from a small gang of Tusk Riders.  Bad news!

HQ marathon

Gamers are a weird breed, and the ones at HQ even more so.  Someone came up with the idea of organizing a 24 hour non-stop gaming session, and behold, a small dozen of gaming geeks responded to the call.  From 9 AM, our gamers played a succession of boardgames, and we went over to support such brave behaviour, although we had no intention of doing a 24 hour tour ourselves.

Still fresh and in high spirits, after a mere 7 hours of gaming everyone is still looking fresh and crispy.

A rules dispute? Grognard alert?  Or are they just posing for the photo?

My kids love games, and they did not want to miss this, so by noon we were participating.  Mind you, my daughter, aged 7, I escorted back home by 6 pm, but my son stayed and played a scenario of RuneQuest with us until well after 2 AM the next day, at which time I had to break the scenario off in the middle of a fight, much to the dismay of said son, who would not have objected to staying until 9 AM like the rest of the gamers.  That would have put me in a difficult domestic dillemma, however, so I ruled against it.

Still more RuneQuest miniatures

The Red Emperor, demigod son of the Red Goddess

The commander of the Dara Happan Imperial Bodyguard

The best sword, the best poet, the most beautiful and dangerous: Jar-Eel the Razoress

Lunar Soldier

Working on the Grey Dog Inn

I'm a firm proponent of visual clues when Role Playing.  The player's imagination can and must be stimulated, but I prefer to have control over the look of the scenes I tell about.  Then the player can use his imagination on just about everything else in the story.  I just like to have a common starting point for my story, so I make a few houses and other buildings, and in this case I am working on the interior of what I believe will become a key building in my campaign: the Grey Dog Inn.

To be honest, what I am working on is more like a common denominator room interior with lots of room for customization: for the Grey Dog Inn I am preparing a private room and a staircase, as well as a cellar.  In other cases, this may become a library hall, or a brothel, or even a king's hall.  I made the thing from a 20 mm thick piece of green isolation board, which I carved in with a blunt pencil and lots of round and square  objects to create the 3D feel.  I then rpimed in black, and brushed up to medium grey in 3 or 4 thin leyers.  The result is fine: leightweight and sturdy, and looking real good for something that took 2 x 30 minutes.  Then I cut 3 mm foamboard to size to make the walls, glued with contact glue, and used wide masking tape to finish things off quickly: another hour.  I already had a lot of furniture ready, here is one set-up I have been trying.  I'll be making the top floor and cellar as well, already ordered lovely little beds from scotia grendel!

More RQ miniatures!

Another batch of miniatures, mostly from former L&L, now Armorcast, finally got painted and based properly, so here they are:

Kallyr Starbrow, the leader of the Sartar Revolt and heir to Sartar.

A lunar Warrior

Holay Warrior

Aggar Warrior

A healer of the Esvulari

Finished some RuneQuest miniatures

The holidays have started, and I since we are not going abroad I am having a lot of free time that I can spend on clearing some of the waiting projects on my workbench.  Today I finished a part of the Lance and Laser (mainly) miniatures I have been painting for RuneQuest.  One thing I learned is that painting several miniatures at once is a good thing, but doing batches of 50 numbs the brain.  I finally got through these, and I can now start on the other 90 or so I have still lined up for RQ.  But I'll be doing those in smaller batches, 8 to 10 at most, in order not to make it a drag.

Here's a healthy grizzly that's about to be disturbed by a non-suspecting party member.

Two dragonewt demibird riders on patrol.

A dragonewt patrol with some beaked and some crested dragonewts.

An Orlanth Rune Priest casting a spell.  It looks like lightning :-)

Babeester Gor Maider taking issue.  Blood is going to flow.

This is a Reaper miniature of Fhafrd, but I think he will do sterling service as the personal bodyguard of Kangharl.

Rule One Magazine

Chances are you already know this internet magazine, but if you do not, be advised there is an excellent and informative article on life in Prax in this edition: Life in Prax (part 1). Author is Andrew Larsen. This edition features some other excellent articles as well.

RuneQuest Session

The end of demo #3.  Where our not so hirsute adventurers manage to run over one of their own with a four-wheeled cart, where clumsy adventurers break their teeth trying to get out of a chariot, and where adversaries are grilled 'a point'.

Odd, Blanka, Gunnar, Ulic, Hjorda and Aelwin in traffic.

The duck caves entrance BBQ

The mystic powers of Ulic the not quite so arcane have foiled the evil but cunning plan of the Ducks, and all hell breaks loose.  The party quickly dispatches the clumsy ducks, and their self confidence has gotten a significant boost, setting them up rightly for the next scenario where they will confront Urgh the Impregnator, the chaotic overlord of Broos and evilness.  Pucker up, boys and girls!

Club Night

 A game of Crokinole to loosen up the fingers.

Showing off some new Malifaux characters.

 A game of Merchants and Marauders.  These guys have been at it most of the evening.

 A game of Warhammer 40K

 A game of Warhammer 40K ish, or something similar, I can't quite recognise it from the photos

Dungeons and Dragons the boardgame.