The Self Insert. Is this valid roleplay or just bad roleplay?

I came across this term whilst browsing YouTube and I have to confess that I hadn't heard of it before.  It would seem to originate from the world of academia and specifically media studies.  As the Urban Dictionary puts it:

  "When an author or writer puts themselves into a story they have written as a character."

I can see where this literary concept might be fun for the author and a hidden easter egg for the reader,  but does it translate to roleplaying games.

Who is the Author in an RPG?

Technically speaking it is the Games Master, they write the plot and the players inhabit characters within that plot.  That said, the players are collaboratively creating the story within the boundaries of the plot and could also be considered authors.  They certainly have free creative rein when it comes to their own character and how that character impacts on the world that they share with the other players.

I have witnessed that inexperienced players, or dare I say the less imaginative players, will naturally want to put themselves in the game rather than playing their character.  I think that this is a by-product of how we are exposed to fantasy and science fiction tropes these days and how they are born.

The creators of most RPGs drew their inspiration from the media of their day, the great fiction writers of the day who were collectively read by a large part of the RPG fandom.  We all read the same books so we had a shared understanding and acceptance of the concepts we consumed.  The characters were largely the work of one person, maybe two and often spanned epic cycles like scandanavian sagas.

A lot of the media we consume today is watched and not read and is the creative endeavour of many people from Directors to screenwriters to producers, each one has their own vision of what should happen and where the story should go.  These stories are then fed into the studio screening system where analysts record audience reaction in a minute detail.

The danger with this system is that we are forced to watch the current crop of Hollywood stars essentially play themselves in whichever cinematic masterpiece they are currently attached to.  You know the ones, Arnie, Sly, Statham, and Johnson.  They aren't being paid to be someone else they are being paid to play themselves.  This isn't the exclusive preserve of the action genre there are plenty of talented actors out there who can't help but play themselves, even the likes of method actors such as Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lawrence have their moments of phoning it in.   

I always try to encourage my players not to inject their personality or knowledge into their PC in order to inhabit the character.  If you were playing a Mega City One Judge you would play up the harsh and brutal nature of the job despite what your personal thoughts are about the crime and punishment.  Similarly if you are playing in a fantasy campaign it would be anachronistic to use modern understanding of science to Macguyver your way out of a situation.       

Your Character is not You

The challenge, nay the fun of roleplay is the opportunity to play someone other than yourself.  That might mean you are a 6 foot tall one legged retired pirate who pretends to be a Dwarf or a 85 year old art historian named Gertrude with a penchant for the hurdy gurdy.  These are not extensions of your own persona they are persona's all of their own.  

Your character sheet, stats, backstory and ephemera that you create to describe the person you are playing are all tools to help you to portray that person.  The art of roleplaying a character is to get inside your characters head and to come up with a believable and convincing portrayal.

Inserting yourself into your character is easy because your motivations and feelings are second nature.  If you are playing a streetwise orphan in a sprawling fantasy undercity your middle class sensibilities are going to seem out of place in a dog eat dog world where you have to survive on your wits and be prepared to do whatever it takes otherwise you don't eat tonight. 

Representation

I have heard it said that roleplaying games need to be more inclusive and representative.  The crux being that unless people see themselves represented in RPGs that they don't feel like it is "for them".  

I'm not so sure I get this argument which it would seem stems from traditional media such as books, movies, TV and even video games.  These media are traditionally consumed, the reader / player has limited agency with regards to the direction of the story or the major NPC characters encountered.  Even with video games where you might have some input in what your character looks like, if the options aren't programmed into the game then it doesn't appear.

Roleplaying has never suffered from these issues because you, the GM and the other players make the game what it is.  Important NPCs are often pulled directly from your back story, your species and their cultures have always been yours to houserule to your hearts content.  

This should not be confused with the goal of increasing diversity within the RPG Industry.  This is absolutely to be encouraged so that we get more diverse ideas and inspiration for the stories we continue to enjoy. 

What the designers of the latest D&D edition may put in their book may or may not make it to the table in my games and there's no way that anyone can "police" how I use the content once I've bought the books.  What flys at the table is that which the group collectively agree is acceptable.  If I want to include a story arc that has the heroes being enslaved by the villains so that they can bring the whole evil practice to a permanent end then I should be able to. The classic Heroes Journey as they confront absolute evil has to be a challenge otherwise it becomes insignificant.  Barely an inconvenience.  

Similarly If I want to outlaw the +1 wheelchair of dungeoneering in place of a house rule magical armature of mobility then so be it.  I might want all my drow to be evil to allow a player to be the mythical rebellious "Good" drow, then that's fine too.  In fact the whole concept of evil bad guys and good rebels throwing off their cultural heritage falls apart if these tropes don't exist. 

Okay which one of you is a rebel sympathiser?

Which is why I am a little bemused by the whole narrative that seems to swirl around the internet these days which states

"I can only feel comfortable and safe if I can see myself represented in the game and you are a bad person for not understanding my feelings".  

I thought the express purpose of roleplaying games was not to be yourself and to have fun being challenged with making decisions you might not personally agree with safe in the knowledge that this isn't real life, it's just makebelieve.  To demand that the industry makes RPGs some kind of non-triggering safe place by design removes that quintissential element of challenge and seems like the presumptuous demands of a self insert to me.

If the imaginary world you inhabit is safe and non threatening, why do we need heroes?

Zone Maps - Map Making for the Lazy Games Master

I am a big fan of any technique which can minimize the amount of time I spend prepping a game and maximise the utility during play.

What is a Zone Map?

Put simply these are maps which don't try to show things like distance or scale in favour of the relationships that the different elements have with one another.  This is a concept popularized in the game fate and its descendants.  

My own exposure came in the form of Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7) which is a monstrous tome but my go to Space Opera systemand I have even adapted it for a Fate Judge Dredd Campaign.

The beauty of a Zone Map is that you don't need any kind of cartographic skills in order to produce them.  You just need to know what the relationships are between the zones.  They also don't pay any particular respect to scale or distance and so they can be used to represent anything from a building to a galaxy.

Show and Tell

Its easier to show rather than to tell so here are a couple of maps from one of my Judge Dredd games to illustrate a few of the different styles I use.

The examples above are sketched onto 5"x 3" Index Cards which is incidentally my favourite method for initiative tracking in RPGs but I will talk about that in another post.

Zone Map Resources

• Show Me Your Fate Style Zone Maps - A great Reddit thread with a lot of inspiration  
• Fate Zone Map Pack - If you prefer a flowchart design try these from DriveThruRPG
• Fate Zone Maps Tumbler - A bunch of different maps including a jungle map I might steal... 
• Using Abstract Maps in D&D - A look at how you can use the zone map in your D&D game

Show Me Yours

Have You used zone maps in your games? Share your experience in the comments section below.

15mm Judge Dredd: Civilian Vehicles

The Streets of Mega City One are littered with an array of crazy looking vehicles which George Barris or Ed "Big Daddy" Roth would have been proud to have designed.  But finding 15mm scale civilian vehicles which fit the genre aesthetic is harder than I imagined.

My 15mm Vehicle Fleet

An eclectic mix of vehicles from various sources

Bladerunner 2049 Spinners (Thingiverse 3760309) - These two designs are inspired by the 2017 sequel to probably the greatest sci-fi movie of all time.  The designs build upon the original iconic spinner with an angular aesthetic which was apparently inspired by a sidewalk snow sweeper.

Flit Cars (Alternative Armies V101) - These cool looking 2 seat hover roadsters are perfect for the perp about town.  The models are resin cast and quite reasonably priced although a little small for 15mm,

Hover Van (Alternative Armies V103) - A very utilitarian flat bed pickup style van which can also double as a meat wagon in a pinch,  A resin cast piece which is elevated on a resin plinth for that hovering vibe.

H-Wagon (my own 3D design) - Heavily influenced by some early iconic Dredd artwork by Mike McMahon this H-Wagon is the workhorse of the Justice Department.  Whether it is being used as a perp transport, a meatwagon, an APC or just as a mobile patrol vehicle, the H-Wagon is a stalwart and dependable vehicle and a common sight on the streets of Mega City One.

 

Bus (3D Print ) - I can't remember where I downloaded this mini bus from but I have 2 in my fleet.

Korben's Taxi (Thing 2639417) - I couldn't say no to a 5th Element Taxi and the great thing is that it looks cool as a civilian sedan too.

 

Cargo Truck (my own design) - Sadly the file for this has long since been lost to a dead laptop, this was before I imortalised my designs on Thingiverse.  As I need more trucks, and I've gotten much better at 3D modelling I'm inclined to try this again.  I will of course include more 80s movie references in the panel art.   

 

URSA Tracked Truck (Thing 4513543) - One of three vehicles the Industrial Vehicles collection from Shiaic1 on Thingiverse.  It's a solid looking small cargo hauler and we won't mention the fact that tracked vehicles are a bit of an anachronism on the bustling highways of the city of the future.  It looks cool and that's good enough for me.  It comes with two optional cargo beds either a box truck or a tanker.  

Big Tanker (Thing 4513543) - Another from Shiaic1's Industrial Vehicles Collection.  This bad boy barely fit on my printbed and took almost 10 hours to print.  Once again this is scaled up 300% from it's Epic scale (6mm) original size but the quality holds.  Easy clean up despite a huge amount of support material.

What I want to include in my fleet

A Mo-Pad - The motorised home of the future which spends its entire life cruising the 13 billion miles of megways.  It is rumoured that some citizens have spent their entire lives travelling from sector to sector aboard their mobile home having never once set foot on the streets of Mega City One.  There is no definitive design for these mobile monstrosities but one of my favourites comes from the Mega Rackets Crime Files strip in Prog 219.

Trucks - The citizens of Mega City One need to be fed, clothed and entertained and there should be a steady stream of robo-trucks plying the megways fulfilling their every need.  As I mentioned earlier this is a perfect opportunity for me to dust off my modelling skills and put together a kit of parts so that you can mix and match bodies cabs and wheel configurations to suit the cargo.  This could also be a good way to kickstart a mo-pad build. 

The Killdozer - This beast of a vehicle (actually two vehicles) was a major tie-in with Matchbox toys under the "Adventure 2000" brand name back in the day.  The diecast vehicle is sadly not 15mm scale but a nice 3D Printable version is available from Thingiverse.  Whilst the original never survived its journey out into the Cursed Earth, a model exists in the museum of the Halls of Justice and every now and then gets put out on a tour of the sectors.   

Sky Surfers (Thing 5177927) - "Chopper Lives" is a slogan that almost every citizen will have seen scrawled on a wall, on the seat back of a mono-rail or on the side of their neighbours block in letters 50ft tall.  The most famous skysurfer of them all needs to make a comeback and be chased down by a patrol of judges.  Why stop at one, when you can make a whole lineup of surfer dudes waiting to become the next greatest thing.  

I've designed and printed out some surf boards I just need to find suitably posed surfer dudes to go on them.  If you want some of your own head on over to Thingiverse.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 15 - 15mm Bladerunner Cars & A Gloomy Box

 

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Bladerunner 2049 Spinners - (Thingiverse 3760309)

Dennis Villenueve's design team (Dennis Gassner and  did a pretty good job, in my opinion, of updating.  Vanity Fair ran a great article on the design for K's spinner which unbelieveably was inspired by a snow sweeper.  These Spinners are courtesy of Thingiverse user Carandhel and they include 2 different designs, including a re-imagined police spinner.

 

The original design of the police spinner was of course penned by the legend that was Syd Mead and is such an iconic design that it is hard to beat. 

 

Talking about beats did you know that one of the Bladerunner spinners was featured in the promo shots for Iron Maiden's "Somewhere in Time" album.

 

Extra points to the reader who can identify the white vehicle in the background of this shot which looks like it could have driven off the set of Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galactica.  Please post a link to a good image in the comments below.

Cthulhu Gloom Deck Box (Thingiverse 4787273)

I finally got tired of my Cthulhu Gloom falling out of its custom Tuck Box and so I found a new better box thanks to Thingiverse creator Duncan Mac.  

 

This is a sweet looking box and is no doubt going to double as the housing for some eldritch artifact in a game at my regular Friday night game group Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

15mm Judge Dredd: The Justice Department

My current penchant is for Judge Dredd, so I dug out some old Laserburn Lawmen which had been gathering dust and decided to splash some paint on them

Street Judges

You can never have enough rank and file street judges on hand when your PCs have just ordered a Crime Blitz or as crowd control reinforcements at that Ugly Pageant.

Standard Justice Department loadouts are the order of the day, but may be augmented with the ever popular Widowmaker 2000 magazine-fed automatic shotgun.  Sometimes a stern warning falls on deaf ears.

Riot Squad

Probably the hardest working Division (also the highest injury rate) of the Justice Department.  Everyone does their stint on the Riot Squad at least once a week.  Some Judges volunteer for Riot Squad duty but the Psyche Squad are always on hand with their evaluation surveys to root out those bad apples that like the detail just that little too much.  You never can be too careful.

The standard loadout for a Riot Squad is augmented with the MkIV extra long daystick, a stumm gas mortar and a riot foam thrower for when things get a little too heated.

Wally Squad

The undercover Judges of the Justice Department (colloquially known as Wally Squad) are indistinguishable from your everyday citizen.

Reaper Bones #39 - Human Barbarian, Goldar

By Crom this guy has an interesting pose.  It's screaming "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enuff!!"

Human Barbarian, Goldar - Matt Gubser (SKU 77047)

My first Matt Gubser miniature and looking back at his back catalogue in the Reaper Figure Finder, I can see some great sculpts.  Matt has since turned his attention to flexing his comedic muscles in stand up comedy, but there is nothing funny about Goldar.

Human Barbarian, Goldar (SKU 77047)

Bones Progress

Buckaroo Banzai - Probably the Greatest Cult Movie in the World

I get a lot of flack from my friends at Dragonskeep Roleplay Club about my tastes in movies.  I'm accused of liking a lot of garbage, but in my defence I watch a lot of films.  The good, the bad, the ugly, the popular, the art house, the esoteric, I will give any movie a go and, as my step daughter will attest, I even cried during the end of Hannah Montanna!

The reason I watch so many films is simply to expose myself to story ideas.  As a Games Master, I rework, hack, borrow, pay homage and down right steal these ideas and use them in my own games.  In fact borrowing these story elements is an essential skills when creating your own stories for Tabletop RPG Games.  

What's New Buckaroo?

Buckaroo Banzai or to use its full title The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) is a low budget sci-fi written by Earl Mac Rauch and directed by W.D. Richter (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Big Trouble in Little China, Brubaker).

The movie follows one adventure of polymath Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) who is a skilled neurosurgeon, rock musician, crime fighter and test pilot as he uncovers an insidious alien invasion by the Red Lectroids from Planet 10.

Buckaroo is ably assisted by his team of crimefighters / band mates, the Hong Kong Cavaliers and by a secret network of civillian volunteers known as the Blue Blaze Irregulars.  Buckaroos connections within the Government run deep and is often called on by the president to resolve issues in times of National Emergency.

Wow that's a Lot of Ideas

Absolutely and it only gets worse.  Buckaroo Banzai is like an onion being peeled, each layer reveals another underneath.  It's a classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy saves world from an alien invasion and finally gets the girl wrapped in a shell of barely explained world building which creates tantalising visions of a fully developed and lived in universe.  A classic example is the famous waternelon scene, but I'll tell you later about that one.  

My own particular favourite is the idea that the famous radio broadcast of War of the worlds on October 30th 1938 was in fact an eyewitness account of the Lectroid invasion.  I also love the idea that there is an entire secret network of Buckaroo fans out there who are willing to lend a hand at the drop of a hat is a really useful concept for any GM out there thinking about doing some world building.

Rick and Morty takes the idea of the polymath to the extreme, but I love the Secretary of Defense (Matt Taylor) who is a slimy politician that knows he is completely out of his depth by comparison.  Buckaroo is a loyal subject and gives the government his expertise because he loves his country and wants to help.  Rick on the other hand is contemptuous of everyone.      

Before they Were Famous

I've mentioned our titular hero, but the film has a stellar cast of actors many of whom have gone on to become huge hollywood stars and household names.  Just look at this cavalcade of talent:

• Peter Weller as Buckaroo Banzai
• John Lithgow as Emilio Lizardo / Lord John Whorfin
  
• Jeff Goldblum as New Jersey
  
• Christopher Lloyd as John Bigbooté
• Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy (Pretty Penny get it)
• Clancy Brown as Rawhide
• Vincent Schiavelli as John O'Connor
  

They Don't Make Them Like This Anymore

Well this isn't strictly true, the Hollywood studio system has emasculated the auteur director and subjected movies to an endless hell of screenings and audience ratings.  There are a handful of directors who have enough weight to just do their own thing but they are thin on the ground.

My search for those stories which don't get told and don't get the big studio budget is how I get tarred with the bad movie taste brush.  If you want to be wowed by big special effects then go see a Michael Bay movie, but if you want to see a story that you've not seen before then you need to look past the explosions and the flimsy walls and open your mind.

I Bought Another RPG... Flotsam

In a recent article I wrote on the Dragons Keep Roleplay Club site in support of the November 2021 RPG Blog Carnival, I mentioned my love of Indie TTRPGs.  

One such game I namedropped as a "Would love to Play" was Flotsam from Black Armada Games.  Well I couldn't resist and handed over my cash to the eBay gods. 

Flotsam: Adrift Among The Stars

The premise is simple, you live in the underbelly of a spacestation.  Unseen and unheard you are the underclass of society, the renegades and misfits that the more prosperous society above cares not to think about.  The game cites such inspiration such the belters of The Expanse, the folk of Downbelow from Babylon 5 but this is a story told many times in the stories of underclass struggle seen in Asimov's Foundation or even Anime such as Battle Angel Alita or Megazone 23.  

Flotsam: Adrift Among the Stars - Joshua Fox (Black Armada)

 
Interesting Game Concept 

Whilst the game has the standard Player Character that we all know and love, it introduces the interesting concept of a secondary character known as the situation.  Situations are the world building element to the game and the way in whihc you introduce threats and complications into the lives of your characters.  

This is not a Rulebook, It's a Way of Life

If your only experience of Roleplaying Games is Dungeons and Dragons then this might come as a bit of a culture shock.  Flotsam is more or less a guidebook on how to run a GMless narrative story.  This is something I have, in middle age, come to embrace through my exposure to Indie TTRPGs like Fiasco! and The Quiet Year.  Flotsam is a game in this vein and is very much focused on the relationships between players as they struggle with everyday life and the challenges that situations throw at them. 

Collaborative world building is a fun way to run a game as everyone gets to contribute their ideas into the mix rather than following a prescribed narrative written by one mind.  Each player gets to introduce their own situation which makes for a much more complex and nuanced experience as characters struggle to deal with the various competing priorities.  Players will make decisions in a much more organic way based on perceived threat and poor information, a totally different kind of play compared to traditional roleplaying games where players come preloaded with information about the world.    

First Impressions

This is a first impressions article and I have yet to bring this to the table but with the festive season fast approaching and the possibility of a Christmas Eve Friday with low attendance, this might just make an appearance.  Fingers crossed.

If you have played a game let me know how it went in the comments below.

15mm Judge Dredd - The Media and Miscellaneous Bad Guys

Well my obsession with 15mm Judge Dredd hasn't waned and I have been busy with the old brush painting up a storm.

Media Teams

The Roman poet Juvenal is alleged to have once said of the Roman people, "Give them Bread and Circuses".  An astute observation that it is much simpler to way to generate public approval by diversion, distraction or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace than to , actually provide a public service or create great policy.  This is definitely the sort of thing Judge Cal would have approved of and, to be frank, is a practice readily condoned by the Justice Department, who charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order in Mega City One need every trick in the book, however old. 

Part of that entertainment is the double edged sword that is the roving media teams that seem to pop up at every public event no matter how small.  In fact the demand for constant 24hr coverage has led some unscrupulous channels to hack into the municipal eye in the sky surveillance system just to meet the demand for new content.  This raw feed has led to them feeling the wrath of the Justice Department and tampering with city infrastructure carries a heavy sentence of 10 years.

Most media organisations like to do it the old school way and hire crews who roam the city looking to feed their daily quota of content.  Here are three such teams of reporters, camermen and hover cams ready to report for duty and capture the mundanity of life in all it's technicolour, Tri-D TV glory.

Cult of the Octopus God

Below City Bottm lies the Undercity.  The concreted over remains of 20th Century New York, home to the troggs, scavs and muties who have built their own rudimentary society in what is left of the old world.  Some of these unfortunates band together in packs, drawn together by a sense of family or a shared mutation.

One such group are the Cultists of the Octopus God.  The unspeakable Elder God who sleeps in an underwater city waiting for the moment when the stars align.  Then and only then will he arise and conquer the surface world devouring all the humans who stand in his way of total domination.  Well at least that's what it said in the guidebook...

Dragonites

The Galaxy of the 22nd Century is a pretty big place and Mega City often features as an interesting holiday destination for alien species from far and wide.  However, it also attracts its fair share of unwanted attention from the numerous warlike species who see it as a crowning jewel to add to their burgeoning Empire.

The Dragonites heard about Earth from their reptillian cousins the Kleggs who had suffered an embarrasing defeat at the hands of one human lawman.  They fled Earth some time ago and speak in hushed tones of the one they call "The Dread".  Dragonites are of course made of much sterner stuff than Kleggs, better armed, more resilient and with a brain the size of an orange, they are much cleverer to boot.

Ebay Joblot Challenge - Will it Dredd?

So I was cruising the fleabay, as you do, when I chanced upon a series of auctions for 15mm sci-fi minis.  Curiosity got the better of me and so I punted.  £12.50 later, I am the proud owner of over 80 of the little lead fellas and I have absolutely no idea what they are.

Cast a spell of Identify

First thing to do is to catalogue what I have and then I can determine how usable it will be in my next Judge Dredd game.

1. 5 x Robots - these appear to be from the small but perfectly formed Robots range by The Scene.  I've never heard of this company before but these will complement my civilian robots nicely and they have that weird 1950s industrial look to them.  RRP £2.30 - Dreddability 10/10
   
   
2. 8 x Cultists - This one threw me because their heads came seperately bagged.  They are packs LC100 and LC101 Cultists of the Octupus God, part of the Eldritch Horror (Little Carinthia) range by Khurasan miniatures.  Nothing about these minis stood out in the listings photo but they are probably my favourite of the entire joblot.  Being Khurasan minis they are hard to get in the UK and shipping is extortionate so I am really chuffed to get these.  RRP £5.45 - Dreddability 7/10
   
   
3. 6 x Chicken Riders - I was amazed at how many different types of chicken rider you can get in 15mm, it's almost like it's a trope or something.  These would have come in super handy in my last Judge Dredd game which featured several sessions trekking through The Cursed Earth, do I want to return to that desolate wasteland so soon? Probably not but in any case these chaps are from Brigade Models and claim to be Tolero Cavalry with Spears.  RRP £3.50 - Dreddability 3/10
   
   
4. 2 x Giant Terror Birds - An easy find this pair are Gandowana by Crom's Anvil.  They are big minis but extremely good value for money, as not only will they pass for Giant Cursed Earth Chickens but will they will easily stand in for the trusty Axe Beak in my fantasy campaigns - RRP £5.00 -  Dreddability 5/10
   
   
5. 4 x Spy Cams - Spotted these on the Alternative Armies site in their Hordes of the Future range.  These are HOF45 Robot Scout Drones and will do nicely as Justice Department "eye-in-the-sky" surveillance drones.  RRP £1.20 - Dreddability 10/10
   
   
6. 32 x Aliens - This gaggle of green skins (or blue, I haven't quite decided) are essentially the entire range of Akarr available from Ral Partha Europe.  My joblot included one pack of every variant in the range.  That's a total of 32 minis!!.  (RRP £18.50) - Dreddability 7/10
   
   
7. 10 x Space Centurions - Unidentified sci-fi warriors with helmet crests .  Could easily pass for one of the more organised and well armed street gangs which are a regular feature of every sector of Mega City One - Dreddability 6/10
   
   
8. 1 x Jet Bike Space Knight - This reminded me of the old 25mm Alternative Armies Space Crusader miniatures and I suspect is some long OOkeP vintage 15mm range.  Blow me down if it isn't one of the Ion Age Burgeon Grav Bikes.  The megways of MC1 are home to all manner of weird vehicles so I'm reasonably happy that this will work.  RRP £2.75 - Dreddability 6/10 
   
   
9. 3 x Guns and a Shield - Loose weapons
   
   
10. 2 x Random Aliens - Unidentified and will probably remain that way.  Nothing stands out about these guys and I will struggle to identify them in their current shiny state, possibly after they are primed they will reveal themselves. - Dreddability Unknown
    
    
11. 3 x Human Space Adventurers - These are probably crew members from some range or other and will blend into my armed civillian population seamlessly - RRP £? - Dreddability 10/10
    
    
12. 1 x Big Powered Armour Suit / Killbot - To be brutally honest this could be anything and is massively anachronistic with a big sword and shield.  It is in fact a Duxius MkIIIA "Bladesman" Battle Suit from Ion Age.  It might feature as a contestant in the droid wrestling rings of Meka-City (progs 271-272) or as some failed ABC Warrior expirimental close combat unit, who knows... RRP £6.00 - Dreddability 8/10 
    
    
13. 10 x Ram Horned Women Warriors - These are the Shivan Sisterhood by Blue Moon Manufacturing available in the UK from Old Glory.  They could easily be an ugly girl gang of the future "The Horned Hellions of Sector 55" or "The Fighting She Devils".  I smell a Block War...  RRP £7.50 - Dreddability 7/10
    
    
14.  1 x Space Knight - Spotted this chap in the Desteria Lancer Command Pack whilst looking at the Ion Age minis on the Alternative Armies site.  Totally out of place in practically any setting other than some proxy future crusade, but would pass as a droid of some description.  RRP £2.00 - Dreddability 5/10  
    

Total RRP of the joblot £54.25 and that's with 5 minis still to be identified.  What a bargain!! 

Jessie's Print's - Episode 14 - 15mm Judge Dredd Stuff

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Judge Dredd Vehicles

Sky-Surfing Boards

Epitomised by the free thinking lawbreaker Marlon Shakespeare, aka Chopper, Sky-Surfing is one of the great comic inventions of Judge Dredd writers Grant and Wagner.  Chopper's real signature story began in Prog 545 (Judge Dredd in OZ) which chronicled his escape from custody and trek across the radlands and polluted oceans to compete in Supersurf 10.

I thought it would be a cool encounter for an upcoming scenario to have players chasing down some sky-surfing bandits so I designed a quick and dirty board in sketchup and printed some out.  I am now on the lookout for some suitably posed 15mm minis to be my sky-surfing contestants.

Industrial Vehicles 

I had been looking for some sci-fi trucks for a while and came across this neat collection of futuristic industrial vehicles on Thingiverse which seemed to do the trick.  These vehicles are originally designed for 6mm wargaming but if you scale them up to 300% they fit well with 15mm.  The detail is pretty insane for such small models and I imagine they would look amazing on a resin 3D Printer.  My printer is just a cheap SLA printer and to be honest fast and cheap printing is what I want for my vehicles.

URSA Cargo Trucks - These are sweet little tracked vehicles with a choice of boxed or tank cargo's which plug onto the main tractor unit.  Very useable with plenty of options for paint treatment to make them fit into the Judge Dredd universe.  Otto Sump's Oil of Ugly doesn't transport itself you know.

 

Bulk Tanker - Satisfying a Mega Cities insatiable thirst is a job for big rigs and this two lane monstrosity is perfect for the needs of my citizens.

Coming Soon to an Ugly Clinic near you...