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| Ral Partha Djinn | Ral Partha Djinn |
Saturday, 19 January 2013
On the Workbench: Ral Partha Djinn & Efreet Pt 3
Finally found some time to finish off the Djinn and Efreet miniatures and I'm pretty pleased with the results. This is by far the best paintjob that these two minis have ever had and I think this will be it for them.
Previous parts to this series are available at:
Thursday, 17 January 2013
A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: L is for Large Box Games
The 80s was synonymous with excess, in business, there was large hair, large shoulder pads and large mobile phones and in the games industry there were large box games.
One of the biggest exponents of this were Games Workshop who suddenly went from publishing bookshelf sized boardgames to making huge boxes full of tons of plastic miniatures. As you can see in the photo below these things were larger in every dimension and made sure that GW games dominated over their rivals for valuable gamestore shelf space.
Adeptus Titanicus (1988)
Released in 1988, Adeptus Titanicus, introduced the EPIC 6mm scale to the Warhammer 40K world. It allowed you to create massive micro-armour legions of Space Marines, Eldar, Orks and Chaos and have them fight it out in traditional miniature wargaming style.
The big selling point to the game were the ridiculously huge multi-part plastic Titans which dwarfed all the other units on the battlefield. Each came with a compliment of plastic weapons which you attached to various hardpoints on the miniature allowing a degree of customisation and damage was tracked with a innovation rotating base dial, precursing Heroclix by some years.
Some neat expanded polystyrene apartment block structures were included in attempt to create some line of sight blocking terrain but these were largely redundant. Also included were infantry and mobile armour which were later supported in the "Epic" range of 6mm miniatures. This should have been a slam dunk success as you could build huge forces for not a lot of outlay. Sadly like a lot of the games you are going to see in this list they ulitmately fell out of favour and GW moved on.
Like many of the big box games it came badged with the "3D Roleplay" logo, but there were no roleplay elements in it, nor did it have the finessed boardgame play of the vastly superior Battletech.
Dark Future (1988)
I'd always been a fan of the Mad Max movies and Steve Jackson Car Wars game, so when GW announced that their future release Dark Future was an attempt to upscale the action to 1/72nd "matchbox" scale, I snapped it up.
The theory was that in the post apocalyptic "Dark Future", vehicular highway battles between the corporate good guys driving sleek "Interceptors" and the highway outlaws driving makeshift "Renegade" buggies would be a daily occurrence. The game included 2 cars of each variety which you could customise by adding an array of plastic weapons to the models built in hardpoints, in a similar style to Adeptus Titanicus. The rest of the game game was essentially a series of cardboard curves, straights, tokens and some bikes.
My recollections of the game was that it was a bit of a drag, mostly due to the phase system which although shorter than Car Wars, was still ponderous. This is something I will be reacquainting myself with in the very near future, thanks to eBay, as I try to find the perfect blend of rules for my post apocalyptic road-racing game project.
Bloodbowl 2nd Edition (1988)
A large box was always going to be necessary to contain the huge three part expanded polystyrene "Astrogranite" playfield and clutch of plastic ork and human player miniatures. This was a vast improvement on the jigsaw style board and cardboard standees of the original bookshelf game published two years earlier.
This for me was the definitive version of Blood Bowl and the enhanced rules, artwork and backstory turned an interresting game into an exciting game. Simple things like the transparent plastic throwing ruler and the cardboard endzone inserts displaying your team name lifted the game into the stratosphere. The icing on the cake however is the expanded polystyrene foam pitch with the Blood Bowl skulls in the center.
The low cost of putting together a team of maybe a dozen or so starplayers in addition to your plastic blockers compared to that of most other miniature games was a pretty attractive selling point for cash strapped gamers like myself. Just blogging about it makes me want to play it. I'm sure I have a Dwarven Deathroller miniature around here somewhere...
Advanced Heroquest (1989)
In 1989 Milton Bradley (in collaboration with Games Workshop) released the dungeon crawl boardgame Heroquest. It was very successful and Games Workshop almost simultaneously released an advanced version.
This version eschewed the traditional folded board for a modular jigsaw style collection of rooms and corridors which you could connect together in different layouts as you progressed through the various scenarios. A serviceable set of plastic hero and monster miniatures were included with all the stats necessary to play out your own little dungeon adventure game.
As can be seen from the box art the now familiar "3D Roleplay" is present and for the first time, GW actually delivered a game with a strong roleplay element to it. Also featured is the "Solo Play" logo which meant that lone gamers could enjoy the Warhammer Fantasy universe as well. The rules were also a significant step up from the original and allowed simple character progression and monsters were backwards compatible with the MB Boardgame.
Space Hulk (1989)
Set in the Wharhammer 40K universe, Space Hulk pits space marines in "Terminator" armour against a new enemy, the Genestealers, as they explored massive derelict spaceships.
Essentially a sci-fi version of Heroquest with very well executed and very repurposeable jigsaw floortiles. The miniatures were made of the same brittle type of plastic used in Adeptus Titanicus and Dark Future rather than the slightly more flexible stuff used for minis in Advanced Heroquest and were adequate sculpts. The game however was slick, fun and immensely challenging.
I like many of my age, I'm sure, totally raided my copy for sci-fi floorplans and the minis which ended up in other boxes never to be seen again. Ebay, to the rescue perhaps...
One of the biggest exponents of this were Games Workshop who suddenly went from publishing bookshelf sized boardgames to making huge boxes full of tons of plastic miniatures. As you can see in the photo below these things were larger in every dimension and made sure that GW games dominated over their rivals for valuable gamestore shelf space.
 |
| Large Box game vs Bookshelf sized game - a storage nightmare |
Released in 1988, Adeptus Titanicus, introduced the EPIC 6mm scale to the Warhammer 40K world. It allowed you to create massive micro-armour legions of Space Marines, Eldar, Orks and Chaos and have them fight it out in traditional miniature wargaming style.
 |
| Adeptus Titanicus - buy it on eBay |
Some neat expanded polystyrene apartment block structures were included in attempt to create some line of sight blocking terrain but these were largely redundant. Also included were infantry and mobile armour which were later supported in the "Epic" range of 6mm miniatures. This should have been a slam dunk success as you could build huge forces for not a lot of outlay. Sadly like a lot of the games you are going to see in this list they ulitmately fell out of favour and GW moved on.
Like many of the big box games it came badged with the "3D Roleplay" logo, but there were no roleplay elements in it, nor did it have the finessed boardgame play of the vastly superior Battletech.
Dark Future (1988)
I'd always been a fan of the Mad Max movies and Steve Jackson Car Wars game, so when GW announced that their future release Dark Future was an attempt to upscale the action to 1/72nd "matchbox" scale, I snapped it up.
 |
| Games Workshop Dark Future - Buy Dark Future on eBay |
The theory was that in the post apocalyptic "Dark Future", vehicular highway battles between the corporate good guys driving sleek "Interceptors" and the highway outlaws driving makeshift "Renegade" buggies would be a daily occurrence. The game included 2 cars of each variety which you could customise by adding an array of plastic weapons to the models built in hardpoints, in a similar style to Adeptus Titanicus. The rest of the game game was essentially a series of cardboard curves, straights, tokens and some bikes.
My recollections of the game was that it was a bit of a drag, mostly due to the phase system which although shorter than Car Wars, was still ponderous. This is something I will be reacquainting myself with in the very near future, thanks to eBay, as I try to find the perfect blend of rules for my post apocalyptic road-racing game project.
Bloodbowl 2nd Edition (1988)
A large box was always going to be necessary to contain the huge three part expanded polystyrene "Astrogranite" playfield and clutch of plastic ork and human player miniatures. This was a vast improvement on the jigsaw style board and cardboard standees of the original bookshelf game published two years earlier.
 |
| Blood Bowl 2nd Edition - Buy it on eBay |
The low cost of putting together a team of maybe a dozen or so starplayers in addition to your plastic blockers compared to that of most other miniature games was a pretty attractive selling point for cash strapped gamers like myself. Just blogging about it makes me want to play it. I'm sure I have a Dwarven Deathroller miniature around here somewhere...
Advanced Heroquest (1989)
In 1989 Milton Bradley (in collaboration with Games Workshop) released the dungeon crawl boardgame Heroquest. It was very successful and Games Workshop almost simultaneously released an advanced version.
 |
| Advanced Heroquest (cos basic just isn't enough) - Buy it on eBay |
This version eschewed the traditional folded board for a modular jigsaw style collection of rooms and corridors which you could connect together in different layouts as you progressed through the various scenarios. A serviceable set of plastic hero and monster miniatures were included with all the stats necessary to play out your own little dungeon adventure game.
As can be seen from the box art the now familiar "3D Roleplay" is present and for the first time, GW actually delivered a game with a strong roleplay element to it. Also featured is the "Solo Play" logo which meant that lone gamers could enjoy the Warhammer Fantasy universe as well. The rules were also a significant step up from the original and allowed simple character progression and monsters were backwards compatible with the MB Boardgame.
Space Hulk (1989)
Set in the Wharhammer 40K universe, Space Hulk pits space marines in "Terminator" armour against a new enemy, the Genestealers, as they explored massive derelict spaceships.
 |
| Space Hulk - Buy it on eBay |
Essentially a sci-fi version of Heroquest with very well executed and very repurposeable jigsaw floortiles. The miniatures were made of the same brittle type of plastic used in Adeptus Titanicus and Dark Future rather than the slightly more flexible stuff used for minis in Advanced Heroquest and were adequate sculpts. The game however was slick, fun and immensely challenging.
I like many of my age, I'm sure, totally raided my copy for sci-fi floorplans and the minis which ended up in other boxes never to be seen again. Ebay, to the rescue perhaps...
Monday, 7 January 2013
On the Workbench: Ral Partha Djinn & Efreet Pt 2
A while back I posted some photos of a couple of old Ral Partha D&D miniatures that had made their way on to the workbench. Sadly I managed to break the Efreet's scimitar in half, either because I'm immensely strong/ham-fisted or more likely because tin/lead alloy becomes quite brittle with age.
Well I'm glad to say he's on the mend as I cobbled together a new sword out of an old credit card and some wire from a mousetrap (who would've thunk it).
I know the sword is a bit on the ridiculous size, but what the heck if he's an Elemental and so's his sword!! It also reminds me a lot of Voss's character mini (Magmar Teufel Schlager) in the RPG romcom Unicorn City. Which incidentally is currently playing on Netflix.
Tune in later for an update on the painting of both the Djinn and Efreet miniatures.
Well I'm glad to say he's on the mend as I cobbled together a new sword out of an old credit card and some wire from a mousetrap (who would've thunk it).
 |
| Efreet with new plastic sword of +5 Elemental Awesomeness |
 |
| Magmar Teufel Schlager (please correct me if I got this wrong) |
Tune in later for an update on the painting of both the Djinn and Efreet miniatures.
Friday, 4 January 2013
2012 Movies
Last year I posted my movie list for 2013 for the first time and I did get round to seeing the majority of them.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
Underworld Awakening - A welcome update and return to form for the Underworld franchise after a frankly pitiful 3rd film. I really do like Len Wiseman's dark modern world view of the eternal struggle between the warring clans of Vampires and Werewolves and his missus, Kate Beckinsale, always puts on a good show as the lycra clad Selene.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - Despite the cast this was a nicely put together amalgum of Vernian adventure, far superior in my view than a lot of the turgid TV movies we've had over the last few years. It reminded me of those happy Sunday afternoons I spent watching Doug McClure battling prehistoric monsters in The Land that Time Forgot and Lionel Jeffries in his bid to become The First Men in the Moon.
John Carter - An awesome film let down by a terrible PR campaign making it the biggest box office flop of the year (until Battleship). If you haven't seen this movie, buy the DVD you will not be disappointed. Andrew Stanton really deserves credit for bringing Edgar Rice Burroughs hero to a new generation in such an epic way.
Iron Sky - The hype which preceded this Sci-Fi Nazi comedy was too much for the film to live up to in the end, but there were some really great visual and comedic moments. How many films have ever seen which feature gigantic space zeppelins discourging Nazi UFOs?
Looper - A really enjoyable dystopian sci-fi movie and probably my favourite film of year, not perfect by any means but a neat idea well executed. The star of the film had to be Pierce Gagnon who played the supercute but scary Cid and totally stole the show from Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt whenever he appeared on screen. I loved the cobbled together tech vision of the near future in particular the café racer inspired jet engined hover bikes.
THE LOWLIGHTS
Prometheus - Ridley Scott's confused Alien prequel (or is it?) could not live up to expectations and I suspect that he shot an amazing film but it just ended up on the cutting room floor. It was beautiful in every respect other than story so let's hope Prometheus 2 explains what the hell is going on.
Dredd - Although I loved the grim gritty reality of Dredd's interiors, it just failed abysmally to capture the Mega-City I know and love, t was just so flat and 2 dimensional. Where was the hover traffic, the suspended train line or the high-level megways which bind the blocks together? I appreciate that this was most likely a plot device, let's face it you can hardly trap Dredd in a tower block if you have ready access to H-wagons. It's what results when you rehash the basic premise of the vastly superior Gareth Evans directed martial-arts movie The Raid: Redemption.
Don't get me wrong it's not entirely worthless, it just wasn't as visually rewarding as I expected... damn you expectations!
Total Recall - Although it was a smörgåsbord of cyberpunk visual effects, the rehashed storyline was a confused mess stemming from the brave but flawed decision to set it on Earth. For example, if you had the technology to build an advanced security android why would you then bus thousands of migrant workers through the center of the Earth every day as a sweat-shop labor force to assemble them? Would you not just have machines which made them? To then ship them back to the other side of the planet as an invasion force, it just didn't make any sense.
All human history points towards conquest being driven by the avaliability and exploitation of natural resources. I'm sure if any of the bean counters had gotten wind of Cohaagen's plan they would have just told him to offshore production to the Colony ready for the invasion at a later date.
Eclipsing the 90's Paul Verhoeven version was always going to be a tall order, and the film contains some excellent and worthwhile homages, but in this version you never got the feeling that you knew which version of reality Quaid/Hauser was experiencing.
THE SLEEPERS
There were a few movies I caught this year whose PR managed to totally evaded my consciousness but I enjoyed enough to recommend:
Cockneys vs Zombies - An ensemble cast kicking zombie butt in London's East End and perfect inspiration for a game of Fiasco using the cockney London.
Grabbers - An Irish monster movie in the style of Tremors for which I wrote an earlier more in-depth post.
Headhunters - A gritty Norwegian crime thriller originally penned by Jo Nesbo with more twists in it than a pair of iphone headphones. Like 2009's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it has some brief nausea inducing moments in it that are not recommended for those with weak stomachs but the cast, including the very talented Aksel Hennie and Game of Thrones star Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, are convincing giving you a real sense of jeopardy throughout.
Coming soon... The 2013 Movie List
THE HIGHLIGHTS
Underworld Awakening - A welcome update and return to form for the Underworld franchise after a frankly pitiful 3rd film. I really do like Len Wiseman's dark modern world view of the eternal struggle between the warring clans of Vampires and Werewolves and his missus, Kate Beckinsale, always puts on a good show as the lycra clad Selene.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - Despite the cast this was a nicely put together amalgum of Vernian adventure, far superior in my view than a lot of the turgid TV movies we've had over the last few years. It reminded me of those happy Sunday afternoons I spent watching Doug McClure battling prehistoric monsters in The Land that Time Forgot and Lionel Jeffries in his bid to become The First Men in the Moon.
John Carter - An awesome film let down by a terrible PR campaign making it the biggest box office flop of the year (until Battleship). If you haven't seen this movie, buy the DVD you will not be disappointed. Andrew Stanton really deserves credit for bringing Edgar Rice Burroughs hero to a new generation in such an epic way.
 |
| John Carter fights two Barsoomian white apes |
Iron Sky - The hype which preceded this Sci-Fi Nazi comedy was too much for the film to live up to in the end, but there were some really great visual and comedic moments. How many films have ever seen which feature gigantic space zeppelins discourging Nazi UFOs?
Looper - A really enjoyable dystopian sci-fi movie and probably my favourite film of year, not perfect by any means but a neat idea well executed. The star of the film had to be Pierce Gagnon who played the supercute but scary Cid and totally stole the show from Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt whenever he appeared on screen. I loved the cobbled together tech vision of the near future in particular the café racer inspired jet engined hover bikes.
THE LOWLIGHTS
Prometheus - Ridley Scott's confused Alien prequel (or is it?) could not live up to expectations and I suspect that he shot an amazing film but it just ended up on the cutting room floor. It was beautiful in every respect other than story so let's hope Prometheus 2 explains what the hell is going on.
Dredd - Although I loved the grim gritty reality of Dredd's interiors, it just failed abysmally to capture the Mega-City I know and love, t was just so flat and 2 dimensional. Where was the hover traffic, the suspended train line or the high-level megways which bind the blocks together? I appreciate that this was most likely a plot device, let's face it you can hardly trap Dredd in a tower block if you have ready access to H-wagons. It's what results when you rehash the basic premise of the vastly superior Gareth Evans directed martial-arts movie The Raid: Redemption.
Don't get me wrong it's not entirely worthless, it just wasn't as visually rewarding as I expected... damn you expectations!
Total Recall - Although it was a smörgåsbord of cyberpunk visual effects, the rehashed storyline was a confused mess stemming from the brave but flawed decision to set it on Earth. For example, if you had the technology to build an advanced security android why would you then bus thousands of migrant workers through the center of the Earth every day as a sweat-shop labor force to assemble them? Would you not just have machines which made them? To then ship them back to the other side of the planet as an invasion force, it just didn't make any sense.
All human history points towards conquest being driven by the avaliability and exploitation of natural resources. I'm sure if any of the bean counters had gotten wind of Cohaagen's plan they would have just told him to offshore production to the Colony ready for the invasion at a later date.
Eclipsing the 90's Paul Verhoeven version was always going to be a tall order, and the film contains some excellent and worthwhile homages, but in this version you never got the feeling that you knew which version of reality Quaid/Hauser was experiencing.
THE SLEEPERS
There were a few movies I caught this year whose PR managed to totally evaded my consciousness but I enjoyed enough to recommend:
Cockneys vs Zombies - An ensemble cast kicking zombie butt in London's East End and perfect inspiration for a game of Fiasco using the cockney London.
Grabbers - An Irish monster movie in the style of Tremors for which I wrote an earlier more in-depth post.
Headhunters - A gritty Norwegian crime thriller originally penned by Jo Nesbo with more twists in it than a pair of iphone headphones. Like 2009's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it has some brief nausea inducing moments in it that are not recommended for those with weak stomachs but the cast, including the very talented Aksel Hennie and Game of Thrones star Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, are convincing giving you a real sense of jeopardy throughout.
 |
| Aksel Hennie gets trapped in the privy in Headhunters |
Coming soon... The 2013 Movie List
Thursday, 3 January 2013
2012 in Review and Some New Years Resolutions
Happy New Year to one and all.
It's been a while since my last post here and I'd love to say it's because I've been busy creating new and interesting stuff or that my personal life has been one hectic social engagement after another, but I can't. So in the spirit of New Year I intend to make some changes round here, but first we need to review 2012.
This Blog
Got 26,636 page views from 15,141 visits with the most popular content being:
Roleplay Geek Publishing
I managed to publish only 1 additional product this year, bringing the catalogue to a total of 8 products. In order of popularity these are:
Google+
Has become one of the most important sources of gamer news for me over the last 12 months and I see this continuing for the forseeable future. The addition of communities has also seen an explosion of new contacts in the last few months and has resulted my eye being off the blogosphere. New Years Resolution #3 is therefore to get my digital channels into some sort of order.
Gaming Highlights
This years Dragonmeet was my only convention, and I've never seen it so busy. I don't know if this marks a resurgence in interest in RPGs in the UK or as a reaction to the current economic slowdown, but you could barely move in the tradehalls. It did give me the chance to play Fiasco for the first time and I absolutely loved it, rushing straight down to the trade hall to snap up my copy. A big thanks to Fiasco's designer Jason Morningstar and the rest of the Google+ Fiasco community for making this my RPG of the year.
I first saw Fiasco on Wil Wheaton's excellent boardgaming web TV show Tabletop which has become de rigueur viewing over the last 12 months. If you like boardgames and haven't seen the show, you're missing out. If there are any Game Publisher's listening, you need to help Wil and the Geek & Sundry Team to get this show renewed for another season. I know it's responsible for me buying and recommending featured games as a result of watching.
It's been a while since my last post here and I'd love to say it's because I've been busy creating new and interesting stuff or that my personal life has been one hectic social engagement after another, but I can't. So in the spirit of New Year I intend to make some changes round here, but first we need to review 2012.
This BlogGot 26,636 page views from 15,141 visits with the most popular content being:
- Fantastic Locations: Mega City One (1495pv)
- RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Dungeon Maps (1479pv)
- Links to Free RPG Stuff (1096pv)
- RPG Mapping Tools Part 2 - Battle Maps (1068)
- I'm a Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (887pv)
- Minions: My OSR take on the One-Hit Wonder (841pv)
- A-Z of UK RPG in the 80s - D is for Dungeon Floors (725pv)
- RPG Mapping Tools Part 4 - Planet and Star Maps (725pv)
- Papercraft Gaming: Sci-Fi Vehicles and Terrain (639pv)
- A Fresh-ish look at Goblins (637pv)
I managed to publish only 1 additional product this year, bringing the catalogue to a total of 8 products. In order of popularity these are:
- Item Cards Set 0: Free Sample - 135 downloads
- Paper Minis - Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers - 87 downloads
- Item Cards Set 2: Potions - 18 downloads
- Sci-Fi Scenics - Set 1 - Hover Taxi and Hover Car - 18 downloads
- Item Cards Set 1: Adventurer's Gear - 17 downloads
- Item Cards Set 3: Animals - 14 downloads
- GM Aids Set 1: Decision Deck - 10 downloads
- Paper Minis - Set 1: Animals - 7 downloads
Google+
Has become one of the most important sources of gamer news for me over the last 12 months and I see this continuing for the forseeable future. The addition of communities has also seen an explosion of new contacts in the last few months and has resulted my eye being off the blogosphere. New Years Resolution #3 is therefore to get my digital channels into some sort of order.
Gaming Highlights
I first saw Fiasco on Wil Wheaton's excellent boardgaming web TV show Tabletop which has become de rigueur viewing over the last 12 months. If you like boardgames and haven't seen the show, you're missing out. If there are any Game Publisher's listening, you need to help Wil and the Geek & Sundry Team to get this show renewed for another season. I know it's responsible for me buying and recommending featured games as a result of watching.
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