Supermarionation fans are going to have an FAB 2015 as they celebrate 50 years of Thunderbirds.
In April ITV launches it's semi CGI remake of the classic series Thunderbirds are Go! and Modiphius have teamed up with Pandemic designer Matt Leacock to make a Thunderbirds Co-operative Boardgame and RPG currently going through the crowdfunding motions on Kickstarter.
Withing minutes of hearing about it, I backed it. Game components look top drawer and with the extra RPG stretch goal already unlocked, it's two games in one. Can't tell how it will play, but if Pandemic and Forbidden Island / Desert are anything to go by this should be a crowd pleaser.
Whilst you're waiting for this to be delivered check some of the stunning models created for the new series by WETA Workshops. I can't wait to see how it looks with the CGI characters added in.
Wednesday 11 March 2015
Friday 20 February 2015
Reaper Bones #9 - Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard
In a couple of weeks I'm going to be getting both my first taste of D&D 5e (can't wait) and visiting the classic 80s module Isle of Dread for the very first time.
American readers may find it surprising that as I'm a 40-year-old virgin when it comes to most D&D modules and I've opined on this cultural peculiarity several times.
When GMing I like the PCs to be a good spread of classes to ensure that every player has at least one set of abilities or skills to ensure they feel engaged. I'm probably holding a minority opinion here, but my example is always that of The A-Team. Face had his charisma, B.A. his Strength and Engineering skills, Murdoch was the pilot and Hannibal the brains of the outfit.
However, when playing I prefer a challenge. I let the dice decide the big stuff and I use my imagination to fill in the subtle details. My GM accommodated my predelictions and I ended up with a female gnome barbarian with a severe Napoleon Complex. She's going to be the sort of girl who picks fights in the roughest inns with the biggest guys just to prove that she's not a damsel in distress. I still have to figure out who she's trying to prove it to...
Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard (Derek Schubert SKU: 77164)
Luckily Reaper Bones came to the rescue with a suitable mini, even though she's listed as a Bard, she's not carrying the defacto lute or mandolin and can easily stand in for a plethora of fighter stereotypes.
My painting style starts with a black base coat (usually sprayed on)
and then I block out the main colours starting with the face. I'm making
her some kind of forest gnome so her palette reflects summer and autumn
of reds, browns and greens.
My theory is that she gathers fresh local foliage every day to camoflague her shield and clothing much like snipers and she paints her skin and dyes her hair to blend in with the forest just like the hunters in Apocalypto.
Then it's just a case of adding midtones and highlights to finish her off. All-in-all about an hours work spread over a few days between filling out job applications and talking to recruitment agents.
I hope to be blogging regular gameplay updates of her progress through the game and my thoughts on 5e, so stay tuned.
Reaper Bones #1: The Marathon Begins - Where I paint a dozen Giant Rats
Reaper Bones #2: Kobolds, Are They Dogs or Dragons? - Where I paint a dozen kobolds.
Reaper Bones #3: A Carcase of Skeletons - Where I paint a half dozen skeletons
Reaper Bones #4: A Shuffle of Zombies - Where I paint five zombies.
Reaper Bones #5: Introducing Shaina Coppervein, Dwarven Orc Hunter - First PC mini
Reaper Bones #6: Mimic, Treasure Chest and How I re-base my Bones - Where I paint furniture
Reaper Bones #7: Fire Elemental Meets Novelty Lamp - Where I hack a mini with LEDs
Reaper Bones #8: Flaming Sphere LED Tealight Hack - Another mini LED lighting project
American readers may find it surprising that as I'm a 40-year-old virgin when it comes to most D&D modules and I've opined on this cultural peculiarity several times.
When GMing I like the PCs to be a good spread of classes to ensure that every player has at least one set of abilities or skills to ensure they feel engaged. I'm probably holding a minority opinion here, but my example is always that of The A-Team. Face had his charisma, B.A. his Strength and Engineering skills, Murdoch was the pilot and Hannibal the brains of the outfit.
However, when playing I prefer a challenge. I let the dice decide the big stuff and I use my imagination to fill in the subtle details. My GM accommodated my predelictions and I ended up with a female gnome barbarian with a severe Napoleon Complex. She's going to be the sort of girl who picks fights in the roughest inns with the biggest guys just to prove that she's not a damsel in distress. I still have to figure out who she's trying to prove it to...
Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard (Derek Schubert SKU: 77164)
Luckily Reaper Bones came to the rescue with a suitable mini, even though she's listed as a Bard, she's not carrying the defacto lute or mandolin and can easily stand in for a plethora of fighter stereotypes.
 |
| Main colours blocked out |
My theory is that she gathers fresh local foliage every day to camoflague her shield and clothing much like snipers and she paints her skin and dyes her hair to blend in with the forest just like the hunters in Apocalypto.
 |
| Windsor & Newton Matte Varnish... not so matte, but she's well protected |
Then it's just a case of adding midtones and highlights to finish her off. All-in-all about an hours work spread over a few days between filling out job applications and talking to recruitment agents.
I hope to be blogging regular gameplay updates of her progress through the game and my thoughts on 5e, so stay tuned.
Bones Progress
Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 35Related Posts:
Monday 19 January 2015
Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the un-game of Cashflow
A close friend of mine and long time gamer has embarked on a new career as a property developer and has become a fan of the work of business guru Robert Kiyosaki author of the well known book Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Diversification and Passive Income are the mantra of many of these self help millionaires and Kiyosaki has branched out into the realm of games design. Yes, you heard right. He's a Games Designer, that's his BGG entry for the boardgame Cashflow, he designed back in 1996.
Recently I was invited to play this little gem of a game and boy does it suck!!
It's a game of two halves, but both are roll and move. In part one you travel around the center circle trying to avoid the here you travel around a very small 25 space center board landing on various "investment opportunities" either stocks and shares or property which you can purchase with your savings. You also have the chance of landing on one of the "bad" spaces which may result in you losing your job and missing a couple of turns, having a baby (aka a joyous bundle of unplanned overhead) or landing on a luxury space and having to buy a suit or repair your car. These "bad" spaces are so few and far between that they have little impact on the outcome of the game in fact the distribution is arranged in such a way that it is a statistical impossibility.
Once you've amassed a passive income which equals your salary you have essentially "left the rat race" and can now move on to stage two. In which you basically do exactly the same but instead buy established businesses with even less chance of risk. There's so little risk or consequence to the game and your decisions have so little effect that a game of snakes and ladders looks appealing by comparison.
There's a mild form of game balancing via the drawing of "career cards" which control what your starting cashflow stats are, but there's no game here. No deep decision making, no evaluation of risk (it's all laid out on each card in bold text), no balancing of resources, nothing. I'm speculating but I think that there's an educational reason for this, Kiyosaki wants to teach you that becoming a self sufficient is easy and in the game of cashflow it is in fact there's no way to lose. I think he needs to listen to the wise words of real plutocrat Nick Hanauer.
A quick google reveals that the game retails for in excess of £100 shipped to the UK, so I guess the secret of cashflow is to author an incredibly lame game and charge the absolutely earth for it. Apparently there are cashflow clubs where this pile of shite is played on a regular basis, probably because they're too ashamed to play it outside of those select gatherings.
Someone needs to give them a copy of Monopoly or The Game of Life it will blow their freaking minds.
Diversification and Passive Income are the mantra of many of these self help millionaires and Kiyosaki has branched out into the realm of games design. Yes, you heard right. He's a Games Designer, that's his BGG entry for the boardgame Cashflow, he designed back in 1996.
 |
| Now doesn't that look exciting |
Recently I was invited to play this little gem of a game and boy does it suck!!
It's a game of two halves, but both are roll and move. In part one you travel around the center circle trying to avoid the here you travel around a very small 25 space center board landing on various "investment opportunities" either stocks and shares or property which you can purchase with your savings. You also have the chance of landing on one of the "bad" spaces which may result in you losing your job and missing a couple of turns, having a baby (aka a joyous bundle of unplanned overhead) or landing on a luxury space and having to buy a suit or repair your car. These "bad" spaces are so few and far between that they have little impact on the outcome of the game in fact the distribution is arranged in such a way that it is a statistical impossibility.
Once you've amassed a passive income which equals your salary you have essentially "left the rat race" and can now move on to stage two. In which you basically do exactly the same but instead buy established businesses with even less chance of risk. There's so little risk or consequence to the game and your decisions have so little effect that a game of snakes and ladders looks appealing by comparison.
There's a mild form of game balancing via the drawing of "career cards" which control what your starting cashflow stats are, but there's no game here. No deep decision making, no evaluation of risk (it's all laid out on each card in bold text), no balancing of resources, nothing. I'm speculating but I think that there's an educational reason for this, Kiyosaki wants to teach you that becoming a self sufficient is easy and in the game of cashflow it is in fact there's no way to lose. I think he needs to listen to the wise words of real plutocrat Nick Hanauer.
A quick google reveals that the game retails for in excess of £100 shipped to the UK, so I guess the secret of cashflow is to author an incredibly lame game and charge the absolutely earth for it. Apparently there are cashflow clubs where this pile of shite is played on a regular basis, probably because they're too ashamed to play it outside of those select gatherings.
Someone needs to give them a copy of Monopoly or The Game of Life it will blow their freaking minds.
Friday 16 January 2015
Lindybeige - A Youtube Channel about History
I'm a late convert, but I've recently become a fan of Lindybeige's YouTube channel. It's an excellent resource for explaining the realities of medieval living and fighting in a simple and fun way.
Lloyd is a natural presenter and his content is engaging and well scripted.
One to put on your YouTube subscriptions list.
Lloyd is a natural presenter and his content is engaging and well scripted.
One to put on your YouTube subscriptions list.
Wednesday 14 January 2015
Doctor Who vs The Librarians - AKA How not to Deal with Santa
One of the annual festive traditions is watching the Dr Who Christmas special, but in 2014 the eponymous time traveller had competition in the form of US fantasy history adventure series The Librarians.
Santa: Bruce Campbell vs Nick Frost
Both shows picked capable comic actors for the role of Santa. Bruce Campbell was The Librarians sophisticated Saint Nick, a gestalt mortal avatar capable of switching between all his various incarnations throughout history, each with their own individual powers. Santa delivering all his dialogue in the third person was a great touch, how else would a mortal "possessed" by a mythical construct with God like powers refer to himself.
Nick Frost's bearded fat man was merely a comic foil to Peter Capaldi's dark hero, an anachronistic mnemonic to remind you that you were still in the dream and still being facehugged by a Dream Spider. Irritatingly his dialogue didn't help much in trying to work out what the heck was going on, being confusing and
Story: Timey Wimey Dreamy Weamy vs Globe Trotting Extravaganza
The essential aim of the Dr Who Christmas Special was to revitalise the association between the Doctor and Clara. It didn't reveal anything new other than the Dream Spider which was a fairly lack lustre and pedestrian knock-off of a facehugger (they even resorted to referencing "Alien" in the dialogue... maybe it was a legal requirement?). There was no real peril and frankly the inception dream within a dream was overplayed too heavily in my opinion and the idea that the shared dream space appeared to ignore it's victims relative times and locations made it even more hard to follow. In the end the show gave up trying to make sense of itself and put it all down to timey wimey wibbly wobbly nonsense. A reoccurring feature of New Who which I'd rather like to see the back of thank you very much.
The Librarians on the other hand had to deal with the possibility of Santa being assassinated and its global spiritual ramifications. There were several moments of mild peril for all the cast (despite the low budget plane effects) and the subtext of everyone getting their Christmas wish whether they wanted it or not was a nice touch. Despite the extremely low budget the action trotted the globe from America to London to Canada to the Arctic Circle with a bit of multi-faith mental projection to the China, and the Middle East to illustrate Santas gift to everyone.
Santa's Ride: Chocolate Box vs Citroen Box Van
Of course Santa gets nowhere without his Sleigh and both shows covered it in different ways. Dr Who had a full blown digital sleigh and reindeer complete with central locking nose flash. The Librarians went down a more interesting route of having Santa's sleigh stolen and replaced with a small red french farmers van. The real sleigh makes a later appearance as a self powered sans reindeer rocket ride capable of busting into a cargo plane.
Ridic-YULE-ssness: Mental vs Mythical
To be honest you have to buy into the huge helping of cheese that goes along with the premise of The Librarians as a low budget, light hearted, family orientated adventure show. It's not trying to scare you, just take you on a theme park ride in the same vein as Indiana Jones and National Treasure but without the Nazis or dark occult overtones. It manages to get away with a lot thanks to it's visual jokes, excellent dialogue and lots of running about. I left the show feeling good about the characters, good about humanity and warmth towardsmy fellow man (and woman)
Sadly I feel Doctor Who is struggling to keep up these days, overburdened as it is by the weight of public expectation thanks to it's "National Treasure" status and the absolute lack of decent writing talent. In fact it's forgotten exactly what made it good in the first place, snappy dialogue and a lot of being chased about. I left the show feeling cheated and dissapointed, like when you're left with just the unpopular toffee fingers at the bottom of the Quality Street tin.
Where this special Christmas themed episode is concerned, I'm afraid I have to give it to the newcomer... The Librarians and Santa's Midnight Run.
Santa: Bruce Campbell vs Nick Frost
 |
| Nick Frost channels the late Sir Dicky Attenborough while Bruce Campbell channels Norse God Odin |
Nick Frost's bearded fat man was merely a comic foil to Peter Capaldi's dark hero, an anachronistic mnemonic to remind you that you were still in the dream and still being facehugged by a Dream Spider. Irritatingly his dialogue didn't help much in trying to work out what the heck was going on, being confusing and
Story: Timey Wimey Dreamy Weamy vs Globe Trotting Extravaganza
The essential aim of the Dr Who Christmas Special was to revitalise the association between the Doctor and Clara. It didn't reveal anything new other than the Dream Spider which was a fairly lack lustre and pedestrian knock-off of a facehugger (they even resorted to referencing "Alien" in the dialogue... maybe it was a legal requirement?). There was no real peril and frankly the inception dream within a dream was overplayed too heavily in my opinion and the idea that the shared dream space appeared to ignore it's victims relative times and locations made it even more hard to follow. In the end the show gave up trying to make sense of itself and put it all down to timey wimey wibbly wobbly nonsense. A reoccurring feature of New Who which I'd rather like to see the back of thank you very much.
The Librarians on the other hand had to deal with the possibility of Santa being assassinated and its global spiritual ramifications. There were several moments of mild peril for all the cast (despite the low budget plane effects) and the subtext of everyone getting their Christmas wish whether they wanted it or not was a nice touch. Despite the extremely low budget the action trotted the globe from America to London to Canada to the Arctic Circle with a bit of multi-faith mental projection to the China, and the Middle East to illustrate Santas gift to everyone.
Santa's Ride: Chocolate Box vs Citroen Box Van
Of course Santa gets nowhere without his Sleigh and both shows covered it in different ways. Dr Who had a full blown digital sleigh and reindeer complete with central locking nose flash. The Librarians went down a more interesting route of having Santa's sleigh stolen and replaced with a small red french farmers van. The real sleigh makes a later appearance as a self powered sans reindeer rocket ride capable of busting into a cargo plane.
 |
To be honest you have to buy into the huge helping of cheese that goes along with the premise of The Librarians as a low budget, light hearted, family orientated adventure show. It's not trying to scare you, just take you on a theme park ride in the same vein as Indiana Jones and National Treasure but without the Nazis or dark occult overtones. It manages to get away with a lot thanks to it's visual jokes, excellent dialogue and lots of running about. I left the show feeling good about the characters, good about humanity and warmth towardsmy fellow man (and woman)
Sadly I feel Doctor Who is struggling to keep up these days, overburdened as it is by the weight of public expectation thanks to it's "National Treasure" status and the absolute lack of decent writing talent. In fact it's forgotten exactly what made it good in the first place, snappy dialogue and a lot of being chased about. I left the show feeling cheated and dissapointed, like when you're left with just the unpopular toffee fingers at the bottom of the Quality Street tin.
Where this special Christmas themed episode is concerned, I'm afraid I have to give it to the newcomer... The Librarians and Santa's Midnight Run.
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