Miniatures Monday

In tunnels far below the earth lurks this cycloptic horror, waiting for unwary delvers to crush beneath his huge spiked club!

Conan

Many artists have drawn Conan over the years, but in my mind, none has done it better than Frank Frazetta.  This will always be Conan to me.

Miniatures Monday

Today, we have a blast from the past!  Here in glorious lead, we have the barbarian from Grenadier's Dungeon Explorers set circa 1981.

A Wild Day in the Woods

A bold swords-woman assailed by ravenous wolves in a forbidding forest

Retro Miniatures

I'm happy to say that over the years my painting skills have gotten a bit better.  Below are some examples of my much older efforts.

These were painted around 1985

These were painted in 1992

Miniatures Monday

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From the steaming southern jungles come the evil snake warriors, bent on the subjugation of all warm blooded beings!

And the aren't much friendlier from the other side either!

This miniature has been brought to you be special request. :-)

A busy day in the Caves of the Magic Realm

This is what the wily swordsman revealed on his first turn.  The octopus and the goblins are bad news.  I just hope the octopus doesn't crawl out of its pool and chase me around.  Yes, Magic Realm octopi are shockingly mobile.

And it just keeps getting busier in there...

Crom!

     So, last night I ordered a pizza and settled in to watch the new Conan the Barbarian movie.  I had avoided it in theaters partly because it was in 3D and partly because I was concerned that it would be bad.  But it was a slow night, and I figured that as a $4.99 rental, it was worth a shot.  So here are my thoughts.
     First of all Jason Momoa as Conan.  I think he was perfectly acceptable as a Conan early in his career around the time of the Robert E. Howard story "The Tower of the Elephant", an adventure that is referred to in the movie, but sadly not seen.  His voice seemed to have been digitally deepened, sort of like they did with Christian Bale in the previous Batman film, and he made the occasional terse barbaric pronouncement like the corny, "I live, I love, I Slay, and I am content", but he didn't seem to have much conviction in his dialogue.  Not that I was expecting super dialogue in a sword an sorcery film, but his Conan never seemed to get very wound-up about anything.  Also, he needed to call on his god Crom a bit more.  Not like Arnie did back in the original film where every third line seemed to be,"Crom!", but a few more Croms would have been nice.  Also I have to mention his costume.  Not that it was bad, just odd.  He wore a blanket wrapped around his wait for most of the film.  Not a loincloth, a blanket.  It was distracting enough that I started referring to him as Linus the Barbarian.  Maybe he needed frequent naps after all his slaying activities.  Who can say?
The supporting cast was OK, not great, but OK.  The female love interest/girl needed by the evil villain was good and not stuck with the thankless role of being a full time damsel in distress.  She could fight and had a nice little bit of sarcasm about her.  I particularly like when Conan told her his name and she replied, "Conan?  That's it?"  The villains were passable, but somewhat lacking.  The evil sorceress was suitably creepy, but I'm not sure that her daddy issues really added much to the film.  The male villain seemed more like a thug than an actual villain bent on resurrecting the dead and conquering the world.  James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom, this guy was not!
     "But it's a Conan movie," you say.  "What about the fights?"  Well there was plenty of fighting in the film, and while it wasn't watered down and family friendly (like the fight scenes in Conan the Destroyer), the fights seemed to lack the same solid feel of the ones from the 1981 version of Conan the Barbarian.  I just didn't get the sense that anyone was being hit with a sword, axe, hammer, rock, or whatever, in spite of the fountains of blood spewing across the screen.  As for the blood, there was just too much of it.  Now, I'm sure that people are thinking that I've gone old and soft and can't handle blood or something crazy like that.  I assure you, that's not the case.  What I mean is that everyone who got cut down in a fight in this film seemed to have been on a very high dose of blood thinners.  Huge amounts of blood splattered everywhere from any sort of wound however minor.  Maybe people in the pre-dawn of history had more blood in there bodies?  Who knows?  The special effects were OK, but strangely intrusive in my opinion.  A lot of times, they looked too much like special effects that I would have seen in a Sci-Fi,  oops, sorry, Syfy channel movie.  There was a very cool skull cave, that was called interesting enough, "The Cave of the Skull".  I wish that they had fought in front of it instead of inside of it, as it's exterior was way cooler than its rather low rent Mines of Moria interior.
     The story was the fairly standard 'my village and people were slain by the evil sorcerer, and I must avenge' them tale.  That's not a bad thing, and in truth it's what I would expect from a sword and sorcery film.  Do I think they could have done better, with all of the available Conan source material that was available to pull from?  Well, yes, but they were making a movie to make money, not to please Robert E. Howard fans.  All in all I enjoyed it well enough.  There were some cool enough moments in it, but I'm glad that I saw it an 2D and didn't spend the extra cash to see it in the theater.  In my opinion, it's definitely a rental rather than a purchase.  In truth I would recommend the Michael Stackpole novel based on the screenplay over the actual film.

Miniatures Monday

Today we have a dreaded foe known to many who have visited the Blue Frog Tavern, a Red Robed Priest!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Red Robed Priests, but interested in paying the Blue Frog Tavern a visit, it can be found here.

The Real Forgotten Realm

No, not that place where every street sweeper is a 5th level warrior.  I'm talking about Avalon Hill's Magic Realm.  This game is a true test of old school gamin fred.  Honestly How many people can truly say they've ever played it?   And of those people, how many people can actually say they understand it?

I'll admit that I've played it a few times with people, and quite regularly using RealmSpeak. but I'm not sure that I'll ever completely understand it.  My aunt gave me a copy of this for Christmas 1980. and I spent the next 8 years trying to figure it out.  It wasn't until I was in college that I actually met someone who knew how to play it, and it turned out to be as I had always hope it would be.  I honestly wish that someone would do a reprint of this.

Everything old is new again

Now this is D&D http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/gygaxmemorial

To all who disagree, roll initiative. :-)

I just wish they were keeping Dave Trampier's original artwork.  Honestly, how can they top this?

Miniatures Monday

A wily sorcerer stalks the forest, seeking exotic herbs for his perilous potions!

Fear of the dark

No, not the the Iron maiden song, although that's pretty cool too.  I'm talking about actual fear of the dark.  There has been quite a bit of discussion lately around Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition and what people want to see left in, taken out, or added back from previous editions, so I figured that I would weigh in with one small removal, that would please me.  Glow sticks, or sun rods as they are known in the game.  These things seems to have become ubiquitous items for dungeon explorers.  No one takes a torch or a lantern anywhere anymore.  Dark tunnel?  Just break out a sun rod and we're off to the rave...um I mean dungeon.   While these are no doubt handy items for the players, they lessen the game master's ability to use darkness to his or her advantage.  Gone are the days when a gust of wind could blow out the party's torches just as a swarm of giant spiders descended upon them.  Gone are the days of dropping the players into a pit filled with icy water, extinguishing their torches and lanterns, right before one of their legs is brushed by a slimy tentacle...  Now I'm not advocating that D&D should be some sore of psychodrama, where the game master exploits the real world fears of their players, but fear of the darkness is a primal fear that can go a long way in creating atmosphere in a game, especially considering that a large portion of D&D adventures take place in a lightless, or at best dimly lit underworld.

Taking Five...

Soooooo, WotC has announced yet another version of what they call Dungeons & Dragons.  In truth, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  D&D long ago ceased to be relevant to me from a regular gaming perspective.  I switched to the Hero System in 1988, and have moved on to other games since.  But still Dungeons & Dragons, in name at least, holds a special place in my heart, conjuring up magical memories of games long past.  I want to see D&D survive and flourish, whether I play it or not.  It's a part of my history, and I can't easily turn my back on that and wish for it to fail as many of my contemporaries do.  So, here's hoping that what they do is good for the hobby in general and good or Dungeons and Dragons in particular.

Miniatures Monday

Torhak the Unrelenting is....relentless.