Miniatures Monday

This Clay Golem gets all of the dirty jobs in the dungeon!

Miniatures Monday....of the future

Here are 26 miniatures that are in various states of near completion.  Hopefully each of them will make it into a future Miniatures Monday. A couple of them, the elf in particular have been completed since this was taken, but most of the rest have not.

Happy Birthday to H.P. Lovecraft

Who would have been 123 years old today.

Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

Miniatures Monday

Fear the wrath of The Purple Sorcerer!

Barbarians of Lemuria: Creating a Character (Step by Step)

Today, I decided to try actually creating a character for Barbarians of Lemuria from Beyond Belief Games.

The first step is to select the character's attribute ratings.  There are four attributes:

Strength - Physical strength and toughness
Agility - Speed and coordination
Mind - Intellect and knowledge
Appeal - Looks, persuasiveness, and likeability

The player has 4 points to spend on these attributes, but no attribute may start higher than 3. A 0 in an attribute is considered to be average, and if the player wishes, one attribute may be reduced to -1 to get an extra point to be allocated to another attribute.

I decided to create Korgrym the Unrelenting, a mighty-thewed barbarian hero, so I focused on Strength and Agility.  I decided to buy my Mind score back to -1 because I didn't envision Korgrym as a particularly bright fellow.  Thus, his starting attributes were as follows:

Strength: 3
Agility:   2
Mind:     -1
Appeal:   0

Next, it was time to choose Korgrym's combat abilities.  The process is very much the same as attribute selection.  There are four combat abilities:

Brawl
Melee
Ranged
Defense

Again, the player has 4 points to spend, with a maximum score of 3 in any on ability and only one ability permitted to be reduced to -1.  I saw Korgrym as a sword and axe fighting kind of guy who wasn't very good with bows, so I decided to go with the following:

Brawl:     1
Melee:     3
Ranged: -1
Defense:  1

Next, it was time to select Korgrym's careers.  Careers in barbarians of Lemuria are what provide characters with their skills.  There are no skill lists, but chosen careers are intended to give guidelines as to what the character is able to do.  Each character has 4 points to spend on 4 skills.  As with attributes and combat abilities, the maximum is 3, but unlike previously, carers cannot be bought down to -1.  The minimum for each career is 0.

I decided that Korgym began life as a youth in the barbarian wastelands, but longed for adventure and set out for civilization.  Upon reaching civilization, he took up as a mercenary, but grew weary of military discipline and drifted into thievery.  After being arrested for thievery, he was forced to fight in the gladiator pits from which he has only recently escaped.

Korgrym's careers are as follows:

Barbarian   2
Mercenary  1
Thief            0
Gladiator    1

Korgrym's Lifeblood score, which is how much damage her can take, is 10 plus his Strength, in this case 13.

Next, it was time to choose Korgrym's origin.  I decided that he would be a Valgardian, just like good old Thongor for those Lin Carter fans out there.  The character's origin allows him to choose one boon, or two boons if he also takes a flaw.  I decided that Korgrym was hardy and took Quick Recovery, which allows him to recover an additional Lifeblood point  after combat.  I decided that he was also the master of the Valgardian Broadsword, and took the Valgardian Blade boon.  Having taken two boons, Korgrym was now required to take a a flaw.  I chose Illiterate, as it seemed to be keeping with my dumb barbarian theme.

Normally characters begin with 5 Hero Points, but as Korgrym chose an extra starting boon, he only got 3.  Hero points allow the character to dig deep within themselves when the chips are down.

For equipment, I chose a Battle Harness and a Helmet (Light Armor), along with a Valgardian Broadsword and a dagger.  I was ready for adventure!

Here is Korgrym the Unrelenting's character sheet:

Tunnels & Trolls: First Edition

I recently received my signed and numbered reprint of the first edition Tunnels & Trolls rulebook.  It's a fun read, and I love the awesomely old school art, particularly the little wizard guys who show up quite a lot.  It's looking to be a fantastic year for T&T.  I can't wait to get ahold of my Deluxe edition!

The Reaper takes his due :-(

R.I.P. Blue Oyster Cult keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier

Miniatures Monday

An old school orc who looks like he should be hanging out in a Tunnels & Trolls or Fighting Fantasy adventure!

Choosing the system for the world

The other day, I was going through some of my old gaming notes, and I came across the notes for my Savage Sorcerers of Sungor campaign.  It was a straight up sword and sorcery campaign with no elves or dwarves.  If it wasn't human, it was a monster.  Nothing shockingly original, and not particularly good unless you were into barbarians killing wizards in spider haunted towers and the like, but the notes got me thinking.  I had originally done it as a Hero System campaign, but as I grow older, my interested in crunchy games system continues to wane at an accelerated pace.  So if I were to dust it off today, what would I use?
The first game that came to mind was of course my current go-to system Savage Worlds.  It's got enough crunch to make combat interesting, but is still streamlined enough to be easy to prepare for.  The next game that came to mind was Fate Core.  I've really been wanting to try this, but just haven't had the opportunity.  I'm not sure how well it would doe sword and sorcery though.  It might just be too abstract to do it well.  the last system that came to mind was Barbarians of Lemuria.  This might actually be the best choice as the game is designed for a world almost exactly like Sungor, but like Fate Core, I've never actually tried it out in practice.  It might make for an interesting exercise to  stat-out the same adventure for all three systems and see which one looks best.

Bernie the Flumph: The Sanctum of the Wizard's Well [Mini-Map Monday]...

Bernie the Flumph: The Sanctum of the Wizard's Well [Mini-Map Monday]...: Taking another stab at isometric maps, all free hand on board with illustration pens. Click to big it!

I totally want to use this map.

A Mysterious and Magical Device

Should you find yourself at the Crazy Mocha on Liberty Avenue, stop in and visit the wondrous creation.  For only $5 it will dispense one of it's locally hand made treasures into your eager hands.  I absolutely love finding things like this.  They bring a little magic to the world, and make me happy.

Talisman

The magical quest game!  I've always had a soft spot for Talisman.  Sure, it's essentially a simple race game.  Roll dice to move, do what is written on the board or the cards, and be the first one to the end.  Nothing deep, nothing complicated, and it can go kind of long sometimes, but I still find it fun, even though it gets a bad rap as a kids game.  I think the first thing that struck me about Talisman, was the artwork.  Ever since the box cover of second edition, I've loved the artwork.  Just look at that dude fighting the dragon in front of those winding stairs which lead to some mysterious tower, no doubt filled with riches!

I had the poster from the box hanging in my dorm room in college for ages.  

Of course when Fantasy Flight Games released a new version with cooler components, I bought that too.  And what an upgrade it was in terms of production value.  It got the typical Fantasy Flight treatment making it the most impressive looking version yet, IMHO.  The game is pretty much the same, and there are quite a few expansions available for it, all of which add new cards and characters, while some introduce whole new boards to add on to the main one. 

An now I can play Talisman Prologue on my iPad.  Life is good.  Now if only they would make a mobile version of Dungeonquest! :-)

Of course, I still want this..

I should see if anyone wants to play some Talisman this weekend.

Miniatures Monday - Number 100!

Wow, 100 Miniatures Monday postings.  It's kind of hard to believe that I've painted that many miniatures of the past two years.  So, for my special 100th Miniatures Monday posting, we have a very special guest.  Yes, he's a barbarian, but, he's a very special barbarian.  Does anyone recognize him?

Inspirational Imagery

I've always loved the cover of Different Worlds magazine issue 5.  The weird tower-like hill, with the strange cyst-like dwellings is eerily evocative.  The barbarian warrior with the spear also has a great Conanesque feel.  This is what fantasy roleplaying looked like in my mind back in the late 70s and early 80s.  In truth, this is what is still looks like to me today. :-)

Miniatures Monday

Here is a rather odd creature.  Some sort of rhinoceros / centaur.  A Rhinocetaur perhaps?  Of course, with an axe that size, I guess he can call himself whatever he likes.