Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts

Monday 18 March 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 39 - Index Card RPG Card Back Stamps

This week, I are mostly been printing... Stamps!!

INDEX CARD RPG CARD BACK STAMPS - Thing 6538692

My recent foray into the Index Card RPG system (ICRPG) involved a lot of DIY card making, which I love.

However, during play this presented a problem in that all my card backs where blank and indistinguishable from each other.  What I needed was a simple stamp which I could apply to my card backs.  

I find it useful to categorise my cards into one of 4 types:

  • People - NPCs, Villains, Bio-forms
  • Places - Locations, buildings, Landscapes 
  • Objects - Things, weapons, loot, traps and trinkets
  • Monsters - Stuff that wants to kill you

This would help me to keep my ICRPG cards organized and reduce seek times to a minimum and thereby make me look like a great DM.

Tinker Cad to the Rescue

My experiments making a plaque for my Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II model taught me that this was going to be easily achieved.  

Step 1 - Make a black and white image in GIMP where black is what you want stamped and white is what you don't want to stamp.  This image is then reversed and saved as a JPG or PNG.

ICRPG Card Back Stamp - Places

Step 2 - Use convertio.co to convert your JPG or PNG into an SVG which can then be imported into Tinkercad.

ICRPG Card Back Stamps - Tinkercad

Step 3 - Import your SVG into Tinkercad and scale it to fit inside your stamp pad.  Make sure that the stamp is at least 4mm high and that you create a backing plate at least 1mm high to connect all the pieces of your stamp together.  Position the stamp so that it intersects with the backing plate and then group the objects together.  Export this as an STL for your 3D printer.  

ICRPG Card Back Stamps - Ready to Slice

Step 4 - Make a wooden backing plate and handle for each of your stamps.  If you get into ICRPG you are going to be making a lot of cards and doing a lot of stamping so this step is essential for long lasting stamps.  I made mine out of some scraps of hardboard I had laying around and I glued some pieces of old broom handle onto the backing plates before supergluing my stamps together.  

You could of course model the whole thing in Tinkercad.
 
ICRPG Stamps - DIY Handles

Step 5
- Stamp Away!! - I bought some cheap stamp pads from AliExpress less than £1.50 each and they have lots of different colours to choose from so you can have a different colour for each card type.

 
ICRPG Card Back Stamps

Buy Me a Coffee

I have shared the stamp patterns on Thingiverse, so if you like them, download them and print your own card backs.  Support the channel and please leave a tip in the jar or use the paypal tip link.   

Monday 11 March 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 38 - Warduke

This week, I are mostly been printing... Warduke

Back to regular scale printing this week with a character from the early days of D&D and a firm favourite with all the fantasy damsels.

Warduke - Cults 3D

Warduke is an iconic fighter and in this printable version we have him as seen across three stages of his metamorphosis from journeyman fighter to outright blasphemous bad guy.  This totally reminds me of the Ral Partha 3 Level character minis for AD&D from back in the day.  Last time I painted up a set of these it was the Illusionist and I think they came out really cool.

Warduke - 3 Stages of character development

The Origins of Warduke

According to Dux Bellorum the first appearance of Warduke was on the cover of Dragon Magazine #17 (1978) before becoming the main protagonist in the LJN D&D action figure toy line. He is fully fleshed out in the XL-1 Quest for the Heartstone adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons BECMI.

Growing up in the UK in the 80s we never really had the LJN toys and I only occasionally managed to snag a copy of dungeon magazine as "official D&D" source material was fairly thin on the ground.  

We had White Dwarf instead, which back when the hobby was in its infancy and Games Workshop sold other games, they would support those games with scenarios and new monsters.  They did this for all the games they sold including Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, Car Wars to name just a few.  

They didn't stop this practice until September 1987 (WD Issue 93) when they printed the last AD&D Scenario "Getting Away With Most of It"  by James Wallis.  This issue was the one where they previewed the classic art from the Rogue Trader cover and explained what Warhammer 40K was. 

Painting Warduke

The coolest part of Warduke is of course his metallic blue armour and winged helmet.  This is an undeniable throwback to his 70s disco roots.  Back in the day, anything remotely sci-fi got painted in Humbrol (222) Moonlight Blue metallic paint.  In fact everything in the 70s was a coloured metallic.  The first car I ever owned, a 1975 4-door Mk2 Escort, came in a fantastic shade called Purple Velvet Metallic. 

Recreating that shade was easy with a silver base and a coat of Army Painter's appropriately named Highlord Blue Speed Paint.  His armour is deceptively weird being a mix of chain over bare skin and what look like an animal fur or leather loin cloth.

Warduke - 3 Character Levels

 

Equally bizarre are his boots, with one boot cuff in silver for some unknown reason and the other all black with two big silver studs.  You cannot deny he has a pretty awesome skull shield which just gets the dry brush treatment along with his trusty and utilitarian sword.  

A golden codpiece / underpants combo in the shape of some monstrous demonic visage and two red gems finish him off. 

Saturday 9 March 2024

Am I Too Late to Join the Index Card RPG Party?

I have been loosely following the exploits of Runehammer for a couple of years on YouTube and I had been intrigued by the concept of the Index Card RPG (ICRPG) but was always too scared to dip my toes in the water until now

First Impressions of ICRPG

As a no-prep DM, I am always looking for something that I can get to the table in as little time as possible.  Character gen needs to be trivial and the system should be easy to pick up with a few basic concepts and a comfortable familiarity for those players of other systems. In addition the system needs to lean towards narrative play whilst having enough mechanical aspects that hte inevitable combat and magic flow smoothly and consistently.  

Index Card RPG by Runehammer

ICRPG seems to have all of this but we will need to see how it plays and how easy it is for me to DM. 

Do It Yourself RPG

At the core of the game (it's in the title) and one of the biggest attractions is the index card concept. Brandon Gillam, the man behind Runehammer is of course a consumate artist and has drawn many of these flash card images which are used in play and you are encouraged to draw your own to fit your own game concept or storyline.
 
I'm no artist so the first order of the day is to assemble a stack of index cards with images from ICRPG Volumes 1 & 2 pasted onto them.  This took a few hours which I am sure to get back when actually playing the game.  
 
I'm going to sort these into 3 specific decks; Props, Places & Monsters ahead of my first game.  
 
(DM From the Future: Keeping these decks secret from the players is quite the challenge when all the cardbacks are white.  Watch this space for an ICRPG Card Stamp set.

First Play

I played this for the first time at our recent Dragons Keep Games Day to a small bunch of players of varying skill levels.  The objective wass to run through a few scenarios and see how the players took to the system and how much time I spent looking through the rulebook.

Index Card RPG first play


I thought about pre-genning some characters to get us off to a flying start, but time was not on my side.  I underestimated how long it would take to glue 100 pictures to index cards in the few evenings I had before Game Day.  I must find a way of printing directly onto the card or perhaps use stickers.  

However, on the day character gen took about 15 minutes. I need to create a quick flowchart for those not familiar with the standard fantasy or sci-fi RPG character tropes and having multiple copies of the starter character loot table and weapons is also a must.

The players chose their minis and, after a brief explanation of how the target numbers for encounters worked, we were off to the races.  

Generating The Plot

As I mentioned, I want this game to run for no-prep pickup, so I used the cards to generate the plot.  Ths is where ICRPG really shines as a picture says a thousand words and sparks the players imagination far more than any long description can.  For those playing along at home, everything in BOLD is an index card.
 
It wouldn't have been a fantasy RPG if it didn't start in a tavern so I layed out one of the village building cards that looked tavern like and then surrounded these with four other cards North, South, East and West.  This represented the rumours of adventure that they learned from the locals whilst they were enjoying their drinks.  They didn't fancy the desert of desolation, the barrier keep or the necromancers tower so headed off East to the mountains to kill a dragon.  "Now that's what I call worldbuilding!!"

Encounter 1

Heading out along the windy road through the low hills they encountered an abandoned cart with a broken wheel.  As they pondered where the owner and horse were I slapped down a Target 10 card and asked them all to roll their WIS for a passive perception check to detect the two animated plants that were about to ambush them.

They quickly got into the action and I explained how the range system worked.  
 
ICRPG Range System

DM mistake number one was not reading up on the very limited magic system in ICRPG.  Mages start with a magic missile but the mage in the party decided he wanted to dehydrate the first plant.  As he had a spell book from his starting equipment, I said role a D8 and you can have that many spells written in your book.  Even if I had read the spell list I would probably have opted for something similar in any case.
 
Meanwhile another club member walked in so I threw him the rule book and a blank character sheet and explained the basics of character gen.  Combat was swift and decisive and it was not long before our new member of the party was discovered entangled behind a nearby bush.  He went off in search of his horse dobby accompanied by the elf ranger whilst the others set about mending his wagon.

Following a trail of foot prints I slapped down the cave mouth with teeth.  They approached cautiously as I really played up the jagged teeth vibe and they found dobby the horse inside.  At the back of the cave they found a rusty portcullis and a lever on the otherside.  The ranger ran back to the others to get help. 
 
The mage decided that casting a shrink/grow spell on one of the characters was the way to go and so a tiny halfling walked easily through to the other side.  This was another spell for the mage's book and we determined on the roll of a D8 how many minutes the spell would last for.  He rolled a 6, but I made a DM Decision that one of his other spells was a dispell.  The rogue was instantled restored back to his original size and with a critical hit pull of the lever the ancient mechanism shuddered to life and the portcullis rose.
 
Beyond the portcullis they discovered some Corridors and Stairs and I made the elf wizard roll a DEX check as he triggered a trap.  Looking above he saw a Dangling Stone Weight about to crush him.  He used up one of his spells, to stone shape the weight and the pressure plate thereby disabling the trap.  At the next corridor I told them that the corridor was bathed in a greasy red light.  I thought that they would pick up on the fact that they had essentially triggered the dungeons alarm system but sadly no.

Encounter 2

In the next encounter they walked into a huge circular room with a golden skull on a pedastal at its center.  Down went the 16 Target Card and a WIS check revealed the sleeping  floating high in the ceiling. 
 
A haste spell was cast and most of the party ran towards the pedastal but they were not stealthy and the beholder awoke firing off a couple of blasts.  DM mistake number two was not having read the monster description for the beholder which would have made it slightly less taxing to dream up some eye beam effects, "but this is not my first rodeo..."  

There was some really inventive spell play from Jason the mage and a lot of channeling of Indiana Jones.  The final encounter was quite cool as several players got blasted by various eyebeams and the players experienced the death mechanic, which was useful to know.

Eventually they discovered that the gold skull was actually The Skull of Calderon and they used its power to dispatch the beholder and grabbed some well earned loot.

All in all a very fun experience for all and a very cheap and easy way to get into RPGs or as a primer to running your very first game as a DM.

What ICRPG isn't

If you are looking for a system which has layers of complexity where you can build your character from a low level up to some mythical epic hero then ICRPG is not for you.  Character progression is in there but it will be fairly short due to the condensed nature of the game and it's simplicity.

What I Bought

  • Index Card RPG Core (2nd Edn) rules - a soft back copy (surprisingly expensive in the UK) from eBay for £23.69 delivered
  • Index Card RPG Vol 1 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for fantasy games such as the Runehammer Alfheim setting.  Many of the cards in the first two sets are found as illustrations in the core rulebook.

  • Index Card RPG Vol 2 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for dungeon games.

  • Index Card RPG Vol 3 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for Sci-Fi games such as the Runehammer Warp Shell setting.  Cool powerloader image!!

  • Index Card RPG Vol 4 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for the Wild West Horror inspired Weird West Setting.

  • ICRPG Target Cards - a set of numbered Target cards showing the easy (-3) and difficult (+3) target numbers.

  • ICRPG Character Sheet - a basic character sheet which I printed at half size to create a booklet format with plenty of space for players to scribble their notes.

  • 1000 Blank Record Card Cards (6"x4") - I needed to restock in any case as I use record cards a lot in my games.

Other Useful Resources

ICRPG Character Generator - like DnD Beyond for your ICRPG character and it spits out a nice PDF.

Wednesday 21 February 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 35 - 3 Goblins in a Trenchcoat

This week, I are mostly been printing... 3 Goblins in a Trenchcoat!!

3 Goblins in a Trenchcoat - MZ2450 Patreon 

Our Friday game at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club has seen us sucked through a portal onto one of the levels of hell called Las Infernalis.  Basically this is Disneyland for Demons and I'm sure is going to full of weird and deadly rides, games and equally weird characters.  

Having recently joined the MZ2450 Patreon, imagine my surprise when I stumbled on a recent post containing an STL for this guy!!

3 Goblins in a Trenchcoat

This is exactly the sort of mini that floats my boat and so I quickly printed and painted him and sent a photo off to Alex the DM.  He's a very amenable sort of chap and we share a love of weird cinema.  His reaction was classic and I expect to bump into this trio of ne'rdowells in the very near future.
 
Miguel also does a version with 5 Wyrmlings in a Trenchcoat which is totally not Tiamat!

Three Halflings in a Trencoat (D&D 5e)

A very creative Reddit user put up a statblock for the 3 Halflings in a Trenchcoat for D&D 5e games.  It would be a very challenging encounter and seems rather overpowered to me.  It is written more as monster statblock and perhaps something that occurs as a consequence of donning a cursed magical trenchcoat which must be filled with 3 of something... Mwahahaha  

Origins of the Totem Pole Trenchcoat Trope

This is one of those prints that irrespective of age we all seem to instinctively have a memory of it from our childhood.  According to TV Tropes this is known as the Totem Pole Trenchcoat but there is no reference to a historical origin.  I seem to remember an episode of Wacky Races or The Perils of Penelope Pitstop where the Ant Hill Mob used this technique.  
 
Fun Fact, the names of the members of the Ant Hill Mob are different in each show.  In Wacky Races they are: Clyde, Ring-a-Ding, Mac, Danny, Rug-Rug-Benny, Willy and Kirby.  Their car is number 7 The Bulletproof Bomb.
  
The Ant Hill Mob

 Whereas in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop they are called, Clyde, Dum-Dum, Softy, Yak-Yak, Snoozy, Zippy and Pockets.  Their car, Chug-a-Boom, is much more of a character in its own right in some episodes of this series,  It gets the classic headlight eyes and is voiced by the late great Mel Blanc  

Ant Hill Mob - Perils of Penelope Pitstop

If you know of any earlier uses of this trope, please feel free to comment in the box below.

Saturday 17 February 2024

Even More Starblazer Comicbooks

Some say I should not be left alone with eBay, but I say let's read more Starblazer...

Starblazer Comics

Starblazer #171 - Star Knight
Starblazer #171 - Star Knight - Released from a million year imprisonment, the most evil being in the galaxy unleashed eons of hate and unimaginable fury on the race he blamed - the inhabitants of Earth.  But he had to pit his evil skills against Earth ace troubleshooter - STAR KNIGHT.

This strip is a unabashed mashup of the origin story of superman and the plot of Alien.  The protaganist Rorta, is an alien cyborg warrior with dreams of intergalactic conquest imprisoned in a stasis egg by the benevolent Syran elders as punishment for his treachery.  

A million years later he is accidentally released by some space archeologists looking for alien artifacts.  Rorta goes on to capture an experimental space weapon and only the brave Star Knight, Li Opurney, can save the Earth from destruction.

This story suffers from a serious case of the deus ex machina, as both Rorta and Star Knight overcome adversity with ease deploying numerous unheard of technologies.  A hordroid; las shields, laser lances densitrax mining ships, nullgrav beams, it's all here waiting to implant itself in a young furtile imagination.  There are some weird looking spaceships that look like they jumped out of the pages of a Terran Trade Authority Handbook. (I must get around to writting a blog post about them someday). 

Starblazer #172 - Nightraider
Starblazer #172 - Nightraider - They made the Mafia look like a charity organisation.  He was the only person who could stop them.  They had unlimited credits, men and mchines.  He had one craft and three helpers.  They were the Kratos... He was Nightraider.

Let's face it Nightraider is a cool pseudonym, but when your real name is Garry Clark you need all the help in the universe you can get in order to strike fear in your space mafia adversaries. Fighting at his side are Ursa, the blind Triton navigator who can "see" using his Neuroweb helmet.  Samuro the Cygnan samurai armoured weaponmaster and Typhon the sensor operator and all round fifth wheel.

This is a fun little galaxy hopping story chasing down mafioso whilst dealing with the thorny subject of xenophobia.  The plot takes a twist about a third of the way through when it is revealed that Nightraider's own built-in arm weapon, a deadly neutron beamer, exposes him to fatal Q radiation.  The helpers must get Nightraider back home or he will die, 

I love how the writer borrows the then new fangeled "microwave cooker" technology and turns it into a deadly weapon.  I won't spoil the ending for you but it caught me by surprise.

Starblazer #179 - Mandroid
Starblazer #179 - Mandroid - He was a cop. A good cop! Too good for his fellow enforcement officers, some said.  Some others said he wasn't even human - and they were right.  He was Carter, and Carter was a Mandroid.  Half man, half android and whilly mean.

This is my first Carter story and it's a corker.  High stakes action on every page and it was a gripping read.  Carter definitely has shades of Judge Dredd and Robocop in his character and this story really lets that shine through.  The art by Enrique Alcatena is fantastic, very dynamic and full of inventive costume design.  I felt it was reminiscent of my favourite Dredd artist Ron Smith.

The story starts out as a murder investigation on a remote mining planet but quickly evolves into a tale of robot revolution.  Carter is the perfect protagonist for this story, being half robot himself means he straddles both sides of the conflict.  A classic Starblazer issue and one that comes highly rated.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next Carter storyline in issue #191 Carter's Law

Starblazer #181 - Death Trek
Starblazer #181 - Death Trek - Sergeant Wilse T Force was surly, bad tempered and hated the war.  He owanted out, and the only way he could do that was to obey orders, no matter how difficult they were.  His job was complicated by two things... a bunch of recruits he had to wetnurse through the Badlands, and an enemy commander who wanted him dead - for personal reasons.

This story feels like it is ripped straight from the pages of Commando, another very popular "War Story" title from Starblazer Publisher DC Thompson.  Our hero is trapped behind enemy lines and orders come through to evaccuate the planet.  He just has to get his men to the safety of the rendezvous point in time or be left behind.

Sgt Force and his men have to survive encounters with the strange alien life on the planet whilst being chased by the Carthan enemy soldiers.  The powered armour troopers are equipped with a host of wepons and gadgets to help them survive, but being green recruits they need a veteran like Force to keep them alive.

Solid adventure story stuff and a great read.

Starblazer #183 - The Cyborg Chaser
Starblazer #183 - The Cyborg Chaser - It was 2086AD, and the Earth was in the grip of a drought.  Only androids and cyborgs could work in the intense heat while humans stayed in their controlled areas.  The companies that manufactured cyborgs grew more powerful, until they all but ruled the world.  Faced by secrecy, World intelligence decided to penetrate the largest firm, Cyborg Corporation, and they sent in Britt the Commando, a one man army, a CYBORG CHASER.

The cover illustration brings together two great cinematic images, Max Von Sydow's Ming the Merciless as Arrigon the Head of a Andro Corp and Sean Connery's James Bond as Britt the Commando.

This is an interesting story of global domination being foiled by a super spy and perfectly fits into the Starblazer mould like a hand in a glove.  Being an anthology comic, you never knew exactly what you were getting every other week.  Unlike 2000AD or Star Lord, there was no stable of regular characters who appeared every week.  What was guaranteed were solid adventure story lines with action on every page.  

In the 80s we used to judge our action movies by their kill count, perhaps we should do the same with our Starblazer issues?

Essential Starblazer Links

The Starblazer Checklist is a fantastic resource if you are collecting or want to know who wrote and illustrated each issue.

Many thanks to the chaps who run the Starblazer Covers archive, this is immensely useful resource when looking at ebay joblot listings.

Retro Sanctuary has a great article covering his top 20 Starblazer Issues which is worth a look and I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these classics in the very near future.

Monday 12 February 2024

Jessie's Prints - Episode 34 - Teenage Mutant Sorceror Tortle

This week, I are mostly been printing... A Tortle!!

Epics N Stuff Tortle Sorceror - MyMiniFactory - 109539  

This week saw us return to The Rivenlands D&D Campaign at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.  My clubmate and fellow founder Paul needed a mini to represent his Tortle Sorceror so he commissioned me to print and paint a supplied STL. 

Tortle Sorceror

He's a chunky boy and basically pyramidal in shape.  The mini came both pre-supported and unsupported, as is common these days.  However, he also came as a pair of pre-hollowed out variants for those wishing to not waste resin or just wanting a slightly lighter mini.  

This is the first time I've seen this done on a 35mm single piece character mini, so I printed a hollow one for shits and giggles.  The only issue I had is that the wall thickness just wasn't thick enough to prevent the odd hole appearing when I removed the supports. 

Painting

The customary zenithal priming was done and mounted to my base of choice (a two pence piece).  I said he was chunky and barely any base was visible under his girthy feet.

Paul supplied me with a photo of a make by Empire of Minis so I didn't even have to make any colour choice decisions. 

Base colours were a mix of Vallejo Acrylics, with midtones dry brushed on before picking out the highlights.

Tortle Sorceror

Serious Skin Problems

I really struggled with the skin on this model, in fact it was practically the last thing that got painted.  The sculpt had no texture and yet he is supposed to be a tortoise like humanoid.  Last time I looked they had pretty scaly lizard like skin and his was as smooth as a baby's bottom.  I have a small collection of greens and they were covering really horribly over the zenithal, particularly where areas of shadow were converned.

Tortle Sorceror

 

I persevered though and resorted to mixing in a bit of some Crafter's Choice acrylic that I found in a Wallington "Arkwrights" shop.  

Arkwrights Store - Open All Hours
G.. G.. G.. Granville! Fetch me that tube of G... G.. G... Green Paint!

This stuff is so random it doesn't even have a paint name, just a number (PNTA-134) but it's made by Royal & Langnickel and it did the job where my specialist miniature paints could not.  
 
This just goes to show that when you are painting don't just dismiss your art materials because they aren't Vallejo or Games Workshop.  Try out lots of different paints and you just might hit on some secret sauce.

Monday 5 February 2024

Blue Monday

I wasn't planning on making a post today, but when I find something on the interwebs that I think is amazing, I tend just jot it down in here and share it with everyone.

Blue Maps Monday

Tim Hartin has been making his Old School Blue Maps available every Monday since 2022.

What is an Old School Blue Map

Old School D&D modules were famous for their gatefold covers and the ubiquitous blue maps which were found inside.  Fun Fact! this is a well known anti-copy technique using a particular shade of blue called "non-photo blue".  It is also widely used by traditional illustrators to make their initial sketches as the blue will not be picked up in any subsequent scanning or photography stage.

Blue D&D Maps - B1 - In Search of the Unknown
Back in November 2011 I wrote about the various free software options you could use (at the time) to make maps at the "Dungeon" scale maps and included a fun little level editor Tiled 

Sadly the tileset I created is lost to the mists of time, but I will rebuild it and make it better than ever...

Mwahahaha


Sunday 16 April 2023

Heroquest - A mid life crisis story

A fun day was had by all at the first Dragons Keep Roleplay Club Game Day of 2023.

Having recently picked up a copy of the re-issue Heroquest boardgame I was eager to revisit my childhood and go do some dungeon bashing 90s style

Heroquest - Now and Then

That first scenario is so tough and you essentially get thrown in at the deep end, ultimately facing off against a Gargoyle which is the toughest monster in the core set.  Needless to say we ploughed on and over the course of some very enjoyable hours Conan the Diabetic and his chums managed to get through 3 challenging scenarios.

Can't wait to pick up where we left off.


Friday 14 April 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour among Thieves

On a rare trip to the cinema I saw the latest Dungeons & Dragons Movie...

It was fantastic 

They pulled it off, and managed to put together a movie which pretty accurately reflects what playing a game is actually like.  Previous incarnations have made the cardinal sin of taking themselves too seriously because they built a world in which there are real consequences and motivations.  This is not D&D.

Dungeons & Dragons Honour Among Thieves

Let's face it most parties you have every had the honour of joining make up their plans on the spur of the moment.  Most of those plans go south almost immediately and the party scrapes a victory by the skin of their teeth.  This is well portrayed in the character of Edgin (Chris Pine) who even styles himself as the team leader and planner.  Every party needs a tank and Holgar (Michelle Rodriguez) fills this role with aplomb, they even give her a surprise romantic plot twist just to round out her character.

Low level mages are crap and this party's spellcaster is no different Simon the Sorceror (Jussie Smith) plays this to a tee.  Individual player agency even if that sends a plan spiralling into failure is a critically important part of the playing experience.  His triggering the bridge trap even whilst the rules are being explained to him is classic D&D.

The elf druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) is the only character that I struggled with because it was played as a jack of all trades.  This may have been for plot reasons but she felt a little NPC to me.  Talking of NPCs, who can forget the excellent Xenk Yendar (unpronounceable name starting with X... check!) the insufferable super character who cannot be bested in combat as he's too important to the plot to die, even though everyone kind of hates him.

Even the DM makes a sort of appearance as the hand of fate that tips the scales against our characters.  most noticeably in the carefully orchestrated portal painting scene when the frame "accidentally" falls over onto the floor.  So D&D.

Easter Eggs Galore

When you are dealing with a muti-generational fictional universe adored by millions you are going to need to lean on the fan service.  It's why your core audience, the fans, are going put down the cold hard cash to go see your movie.

This is where many of the current crop of properties go astray.  Instead of giving fans what they want the directors writers and producers all want to "subvert expectations" or lean into "representation" in order to chase some ethereal demographic of what they would like their audience to be.  This is so mind numbingly empted headed thinking that it beggars belief.  The first rule of any product is know your audience.

What this team did was mine the massive back catalogue of source material and pull out a few monsters that everyone is familiar with.

Aaracokra, Dragonborn, Rust Monsters, Owl Bears, Displacer Beasts, Gelatinous Cubes, Mimics and of course dragons.  Colour me surprised when up pops Themberchaud the fattest Red Dragon you are every likely to encounter.  He will be familiar to anyone who has had the misfortune to wind up in Gracklestugh the Duergar fortress city of the Underdark.  Last I saw of him he'd slain his jailers and was merrily setting the city on fire.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves Themberchaud

Familiar spells peppered the action like bullets from a machine gun.  Having a knock down drag out fight between two mages wielding Bigby's Hand was a sight to behold.  

In the run up to release, the internet was wild with complaints about how they should have written this with the characters of the original D&D Cartoon from the 80's.  The producers listened and lo and behold up they pop as contestants in the great games.  Nice. 

Will it Suceed?

Well if the runours are true and it cost $150 Million to make then it needs to turn $300 Million in order to break even.  With the recent debacle over the OGL and the social media backlash, I'm not so sure that it will.  Unlucky timing perhaps because without that cloud hanging over its head it should have been a no brainer choice for every D&D fan out there to go see it.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Jessie's Prints - Episode 25 - Efreet

This week, I are mostly been tasting...  Middle Eastern Delights

Regular readers will know that my favourite D&D setting is Al-Qadim but it was never well supported in terms of minis.  Time has been kind to the genre though and there are plenty of neat minis that can be downloaded all over the internet including. 

Efreet - Pinshape 48509

As soon as I saw this guy I new I had to print him my other two Djinn are a bit too weapony and this guy is all about giving out wishes.  I'm really pleased with the paint job on this guy and his muscles benefitted from the zenithal highlighting that I've been doing lately.

Efreet Fantasy Geni

Talking of Al-Qadim, I recently acquired a copy of the Caravans boxset for the collection.  Whilst in these woke times there is absolutely no chance of WotC revisiting this setting on account of "Cultural Appropriation", I absolutely love how different it is to regular D&D.  If you are interested or have never heard of one of the best settings TSR ever came up with check out my Al-Qadim article.

Saturday 21 January 2023

Jessie's Prints - Episode 24 - I like Big Girls, I Cannot Lie

This week I are mostly been printing big women.

My foray into large scale 3D printed models continues in the early weeks of 2023 as I have printed off a series of large scale ladies.

Becca - Cyberpunk Edgerunners (Cults 3D

The standout character from last year's Netflix Original Anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners was of course Rebecca.  A cute little anime girl with a foul mouth and a fouler temper, Becca is the eptomy of the live fast die young aesthetic of cyberpunk.

Becca Cyberpunk Edgerunners Netflix 3D Print

There are a few Becca STLs out there some good, some bad but this is the only one I could find which was free.  That's why the pose is so weird but then so is Becca.

Harley Quinn (Fotis Mint via Printables)

When I heard that Fotis had put all of his sculpts onto Printables I jumped at the chance to print one out and chose Harley Quinn.

She is the spitting image of Margot Robbie and printed pretty well as a single figure with the exception of the back of her head which is nore an issue with my attempt at supports than the model itself.  The base printed seperately and I don't know what happened with scaling but it is a bit of a chonker.  This is going to be a real challenge for me to paint as I'm not very good with actual faces.

Harley Quinn Margot Robbie 3D Print Fotis Mint

Ylenia Bloodthorne (Capritor Miniatures)

My clubmate Dan backed this Capritor Kickstarter and sent me the files to download and print for him.  This is my first foray into 78mm multipart minis and she came out okay.  I had little instruction in terms of sticking her together (hence the weird arm position) and she is so fragile that if you breathe on her she will snap.

This is part of the issue with resin printers and more specifically the resin you print with.  Sometimes a mini will just be too spindly to survive and Ylenia is in that category.  But I guess what can you exect for something so highly detailed and anatomically correct.

Ylenia Bloodthorn Capritor Miniatures Kickstarter

Monday 27 June 2022

Reaper Bones #41 - Human Fighter, Duke Gerard

You wait months and two Reapers come along in quick succession!

Human Fighter, Duke Gerard - Bobby Jackson (SKU 77063)

This is a great mini because it is so purposeful.  Every fantasy game you've ever played has this type of veteran fighter as an NPC.  They're usually the one giving the orders and putting your neck on the line!

Duke Gerard

Monday 20 June 2022

Reaper Bones #40 - Pirate with Treasure

It Seems like forever since I painted a Reaper mini (Dec 2021 to be exact).  I've had this one trapped shipwrecked in the painting queue for quite a while.

Pirate with Treasure - Julie Guthrie (SKU 30026)

Another simple and evocative sculpt from Julie Guthrie makes you wonder what this guy's backstory is.  What's in the treasure chest? How good is he with that cutlass? That knife looks like it's got it's own story.

Pirate with Treasure

Tuesday 14 June 2022

Jessie's Prints - Episode 19 - Free Files Galore

This week, I are mostly been enjoying printing free pre-supported files I found on the interweb.

Truth be told they found me really.  I was approached in a random email by CustomMiniatureMaker.co.uk who run an email newsletter called Free Files Friday.  Seriously peeps if you aren't subscribed to this smorgasboard of STLs then you are missing out.  Join now at https://www.customminiaturemaker.co.uk and maybe even join their latest kickstarter campaign.

Blackjack Dreadnought Omni - Custom Miniature Maker

All the cool kids seem to be sticking it to the man (Games Workshop) these days with their "proxy" models for WH40K so I thought I's jump on the bandwagon.  I've always loved the chunky aesthetic of the WH40K vehicles and been a fan of the dreadnought's since the early days of Rogue Trader.

Blackjack Dreadnought Omni

This is a wicked model and has so many possible weapon options that I thought I would have a go at magnetising my loadouts (ooer sounds a bit rude!!).

Blackjack Dreadnought Missile Carrier

Goatman - Infernal Miniatures

For old skool gamers the Broo were the iconic bad guy minions of the Runequest franchise and I fancied printing me out this great double axe wielding bad boy.  Worth the download.

Goatman

Amazon Warrior - Artisan Guild

I've been hearing about these chaps and their patreon but I wanted to try out one of their files for myself.  It came unsupported but I put my new found support skills to good use and she came out a treat.  And lets face it, who doesn't like a bikini clad warrior woman?

Amazon Warrior

Slime Weird - My Mini Factory

In our last D&D game we ventured into the underdark and encountered a water weird which almost ripped our party to shreds.  This one is a slime varient and I love it's animated pose like it's trying to smother you.  

Slime Weird

Tuesday 7 June 2022

Jessie's Prints - Episode 18 - I Need Supports

This week, I are mostly been learning how to add custom supports to unsupported STL files using Any Cubic Photon Workshop.

Suppprted minis
Rafts are essential to make the prints stick to the bed and not the FEP film
 

This is the slicer which came with my printer and has a somewhat frustrating interface.  The key things I learned were:

1. Always add a raft using the RAFTS tab in the Shape Edit window.  This is essential to help your minis to stick to the bed (Foot) of the printer and peel away from your FEP film.

2. For best results with tabletop mini prints set your supports to LIGHT this will allow you to get more supports in tighter spots.

3. Fill your model with auto generated supports and then add more manually.  You're gonna need them.


King Pin - Thingiverse 4140572 

There are a lot of marvel minis out there but very few free ones of King Pin.  I liked this one because he had a useful pose and body shape for my character mini in the game of Call of Cthulhu which begins next week at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

King Pin (Wilsopn Fisk)

Sumo - Sketchfab

To be honest I just needed the head for my character project.  I should probably have cut it apart in mesh mixer and blended it together with the King Pin but that's what superglue is for.

Sumo

Crouching Gargoyle - Thingiverse 3604340

This is a neat model and useful for both set decoration and as a monster in almost any game.  I printed a bunch to fill up the print bed and get the best value for money from my printer.

Crouching Gargoyle