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| Fire Ant Colony #45 - 18.5"x12.5"x13" (HxWxL) |
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| Carpenter Ant Colony #31 - 16.5"x4.5"x8" (HxWxL) |
Friday, 1 August 2014
Ennie Award for Best Cavern Map goes to... Fire Ants.
One of the staple RPG tropes is the "Bug Hunt", we've all done them. There are some pretty cool bug hunt tunnel maps out there, but even the best human cartographers can't come close in complexity to these real world Fire Ant Colonies. These stunning aluminium casts are the work of anthillart.com
The artists YouTube channel has some interesting videos showing the whole casting process which inevitably causes the destruction of the colony. I'm rooting for Hicks and Hudson on this one and prefer to immortalize the work of these pests rather than go down the "nuke it from orbit" route.
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
More uses for those pesky Loom Bands?
If you've got a child aged between 10 and 15 you will have probably been unable to avoid the current craze of "Loom Bands". These tiny multicoloured rubber bands are intended to be woven together, in a form of phsychedelic macrame, to make friendship bracelets and other strap like objects.
But they have a far more useful use... as wound markers for your tabletop miniature games!!
They're stupidly cheap (1000 for about £3), you can find them just
about everywhere at the moment and come in an astonishing array of
colours.
I'm going to throw down the gauntlet and challenge you crafty readers to weave up a set of spell effect templates. Post links to your achievements in the comments below.
But they have a far more useful use... as wound markers for your tabletop miniature games!!
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| Loom Bands make great wound markers |
I'm going to throw down the gauntlet and challenge you crafty readers to weave up a set of spell effect templates. Post links to your achievements in the comments below.
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Dazzle Camoflague for the Future
Back in WW1 artist and Naval Reservist Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea of covering ships in bizarre geometric paint schemes to make it harder enemy submarines to target them.
Fast forward a hundred years and we are fast approaching a minority report scenario where we are all subjected to face recognition scanning to some degree as we pass through public spaces. We even carry these devices with us every day (it's in the software of most digital cameras in our smartphones).
Thankfully we're not at the stage where you are scanned by GAP as you walk past their billboard at the tube station, but I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that things like facebook's face recognition software are a bit creepy, So here's a free app idea for some enterprising mobile developer.
Enter the guys at CV Dazzle who are developing simple makeup and hair techniques to fool facial recognition software. The only downside is that it makes you look like some uber futuristic cyberpunk cosplayer or Lady Gaga fan depending on your perspective (and age).
Which brings us back to Sci-Fi and RPGs in particular. The most common party concept for Sci-Fi games is the band of misfits sticking it to the empire/corporation/man and engaging in lots of covert ops where your ability to hide your identity is crucial. Unless there's been some sort of utopian revolution there is likely to be some form of mass surveillance at work.
R Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 had a plethora of fashionware items such as light emitting tattoos, colour changing hair and contact lenses squarely pitched as mere character affectations. The 2006 adaptation of Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" had undercover cop Keanu Reeves in his hi tech "Scramble Suit" to prevent his identity from being revealed. Even Milla Jovovich got her identity fooling fashion camo together in the visually entertaining "Ultraviolet".
Put these all together and you've got a really sweet combo which should keep those algorithms busy.
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| HMS Kildwick in Dazzle Camoflauge |
Thankfully we're not at the stage where you are scanned by GAP as you walk past their billboard at the tube station, but I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that things like facebook's face recognition software are a bit creepy, So here's a free app idea for some enterprising mobile developer.
 |
| Muppet face recognition |
Enter the guys at CV Dazzle who are developing simple makeup and hair techniques to fool facial recognition software. The only downside is that it makes you look like some uber futuristic cyberpunk cosplayer or Lady Gaga fan depending on your perspective (and age).
 |
| CV Dazzle Makeup and Hair Techniques |
Which brings us back to Sci-Fi and RPGs in particular. The most common party concept for Sci-Fi games is the band of misfits sticking it to the empire/corporation/man and engaging in lots of covert ops where your ability to hide your identity is crucial. Unless there's been some sort of utopian revolution there is likely to be some form of mass surveillance at work.
R Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 had a plethora of fashionware items such as light emitting tattoos, colour changing hair and contact lenses squarely pitched as mere character affectations. The 2006 adaptation of Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" had undercover cop Keanu Reeves in his hi tech "Scramble Suit" to prevent his identity from being revealed. Even Milla Jovovich got her identity fooling fashion camo together in the visually entertaining "Ultraviolet".
Put these all together and you've got a really sweet combo which should keep those algorithms busy.
Monday, 7 April 2014
International Tabletop Day 2014
Last Saturday was the second International Tabletop Day and unfortunately it wasn't possible for my regular Friday night group The Hobbits Hole to host an event this year. So a bunch of us did the next best thing... we went to someone else's event.
The Role Play Haven RPG Club are based inside Lewisham Hospital at The Lewis Club and they were a very friendly bunch. They meet on Wednesday nights for RPGs and Monday nights for Boardgames.
I got to play a couple of games, namely:
The Quiet Year
A free form drawing game based around a year in the life of a post apocalyptic community. Players draw cards to determine what random events affect the community and then choose to either discover something new or plan a project.
Of course the temptation with this sort of game is for it to go totally gonzo and we ended up having Ninja Rabbits attacking a Nazi Zeppelin whilst a party of explorers went to the mysterious pyramid and discovered the ark of the covenant.
A Game of Thrones
With season 4 of the TV series just around the corner I couldn't resist playing Fantasy Flight's epic game of royal houses fighting for control of the Iron Throne. I was playing House Tyrell and although the lack of any court influence at the beginning was a bit of a pain, I had a fantastic tussle with House Martell. Sadly I couldn't stay to find out how it all turned out, but I will definitely play this again.
Thanks guys it was a lot of fun and roll on 2015 when we can "Play more Games!!"
The Role Play Haven RPG Club are based inside Lewisham Hospital at The Lewis Club and they were a very friendly bunch. They meet on Wednesday nights for RPGs and Monday nights for Boardgames.
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| Game of Thrones - House Stark on the move |
The Quiet Year
A free form drawing game based around a year in the life of a post apocalyptic community. Players draw cards to determine what random events affect the community and then choose to either discover something new or plan a project.
Of course the temptation with this sort of game is for it to go totally gonzo and we ended up having Ninja Rabbits attacking a Nazi Zeppelin whilst a party of explorers went to the mysterious pyramid and discovered the ark of the covenant.
A Game of Thrones
With season 4 of the TV series just around the corner I couldn't resist playing Fantasy Flight's epic game of royal houses fighting for control of the Iron Throne. I was playing House Tyrell and although the lack of any court influence at the beginning was a bit of a pain, I had a fantastic tussle with House Martell. Sadly I couldn't stay to find out how it all turned out, but I will definitely play this again.
Thanks guys it was a lot of fun and roll on 2015 when we can "Play more Games!!"
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