Wow, 40 years.

40 years ago today, Queen released the single Bohemian Rhapsody from their album A Night at the Opera.

Queen never seemed to get much respect in their heyday, but in retrospect, they really were quite amazing.

The Superhero Dilema

      I like superheroes.  I've really enjoyed the recent Marvel films, I still read Batman comics, love playing the Arkham games, and really like watching the Awesomes, but for some reason, I've never been that crazy about superhero roleplaying games.  Oh, I've played them.  In college we played Champions occasionally, and a few years ago we played a friend's home-brew system, but I've always been more a fan of guys with swords.  So where am I going with this?  Well, lately I've been feeling the urge to run a superhero game, and as usually happens, I'm debating which system I would use.  In my mind, the game would be a one-off, rather than a regular campaign, and I would want the flexibility to create characters of varying types.
     To me, the seemingly obvious answer is Champions / Hero System, but it's not as clear cut as all that.  While I know that Champions and the Hero System have a bit of a reputation for complexity, the core mechanics (3d6 roll under) is pretty simple.  The heavy lifting comes with character creation, which is a bit of a double edged sword.  While Champions lets you create just about anything you can conceive of, it can get a bit overwhelming if you don't already have a concept.  Building the powers can be a bit of a turn-off to some, but once the characters are done, the game flows pretty smoothly.  Combats do tend to take a bit of time, but that's pretty much in keeping with comic books where you generally only see one big fight per issue.
     Mutants and Masterminds of course is in the mix.  I love the DC Universe supplements which means that I'd never run out of ready-made antagonists, but it doesn't seem to be that much lighter then Champions.  Character creation still seems to be the stumbling block for new players, but man is it a beautiful book.
     GURPS is that game that I've always wanted to love, but just don't quite.  Sort of like Champions without all the stats, which is probably why I'm not that fond of it.  Had I come to GURPS before I'd ever played The Hero System, I'm guessing that this would have been my go-to game, but it didn't happen that way.  Plus, I'd need to tote around at least 3 books just to do character creation.
     So maybe Savage Worlds?  It's a great system for pulp games, and would probably be awesome for a costumed vigilantes fighting Nazis type game, but I'm not sold on it for straight up Superheroes.  I need to do a d6 only have for Savage worlds, as I'm just a fan of using d-sixes and.
     Finally, we come to Icons.  I picked up the Assembled edition last winter and it really seems to scratch that more rules light while still doing supers itch that I seem to have.  I like the idea of random superhero creation, and it uses all six sided dice.
     In the end, this doesn't really go anywhere.  I doubt that I'll run anything soon, but it may e a fun diversion for the times when all of our regular group can't get together.  I think that either Champions or Icons would win out, but who knows?

Miniatures Monday

This week or Miniatures Monday, we have the last member of our Iron Kingdoms party, Voldrag the Doomreaver.  The Fellblade was a bit tricky, and I had a tough time deciding which pieces of armor to do in red, but overall I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Miniatires Monday

For this week's Miniatures Monday, we are continuing with miniatures from our current Iron Kingdoms campaign.  Here we have a couple of photos of Ellyon the Warcaster in his coal powered armor.

Miniatures Monday

This weeks for miniatures Monday, we have an alchemist from the Iron Kingdoms.  This is one of the miniatures that I painted to represent the adventuring party in our current campaign.  He's a bit monochromatic, but he is an alchemist, and I'm not sure that they are the flashiest of dressers. :-)

Miniatures Monday

This weeks we have another Iron Kingdoms miniatures.  This one is  a warjack intended to represent our gobber's's steamjack.  All of the rivets took a bit of time to paint. :-)

Wrecking Crew: Work In Progress

It's no secret that I enjoy painting miniatures, and for years I've been intending to paint miniatures to match the characters from whatever campaign we are playing.  Sadly, I tend to be a rather slow painter, and it seemed that just as I was finishing the first miniature, the campaign would end.  This time I set out from the very start of our Iron Kingdoms game to collect and paint miniatures that I felt matched our characters, and amazingly enough, they are nearing completion!  Oddly enough, my Doomreaver (in the center) is the farthest from being finished.

Miniatures Monday

A gobber miniature for our Iron Kingdoms game.  I'm actually pretty pleased with how this one turned out, but then how can anyone be sad about a miniature with a spyglass and a pocketwatch? :-)

Best action figure ever.

No, seriously.  Words fail me.

Random Artwork: Mountains at Night

Just something that I sketched the other day.  A precariously leaning tower atop some impossible mountains, and yes, the moon is made of green cheese.

Miniatures Monday

Miniatures Monday this week brings us a Black Orc Hero from Reaper Miniatures.  I intend to use this miniatures as on Ogrun for Iron Kingdoms, so I painted him in colors more suitable to that.  I'm pretty satisfied with how this one came out, even though the flesh wash was a bit darker than I wanted.

Miniatures Monday

This week, Miniatures Monday brings us two photos of a red robed cultist wearing some groovy purple slippers and wielding a bloody dagger.  No doubt, this fellow is up to no good, probably out looking for his next sacrificial victim.  I've never been particularly good at painting large areas of red, and while I did some shading on this one, I'm still not particularly satisfied with how he turned out.

R.I.P. Mr. Steed

Patrick Macnee, who played John Steed in the British spy show the Avengers has died at the age of 93.  He was the epitome of the gentleman secret agent, able to handle the bad guys but always with style and panache.

Miniatures Monday

Miniature Monday this week is...a barbarian!  Don't everyone look shocked at the same time.  :-)  This miniatures is a very old lead mini from a company that I can no longer remember.  I seem to recall that at some point in the 90s, I had figured out who manufactured this guy way back when, but I've long since forgotten.  It's not a great sculpt, but I've always been fond of it for its resemblance to Frank Frazetta's Conan paintings.  It's been sitting in a box for over 30 years and I figured that it was time to finally paint him.  Despite the limitations of the sculpt, I'm reasonably happy with how this one turned out.

Mad Max: Fury Road

So I finally got around to seeing Mad Max: Fury Road, and I have to say that I was extremely impressed.  I think that George Miller did a wonderful job in setting up a story that was less of a reboot and more of another chapter in Max's history.  It required no knowledge of the previous films to be able to enjoy it, while at the same time containing enough references to those films to keep the long time fans happy.  I will admit that I was a bit skeptical of a new mad max film after 30 years, and even with all of the great reviews I had my doubts that a film which was essentially a two hour chase scene could really be successful.  To my surprise and delight though, Miller managed to maintain an almost constant edge of your seat tension throughout the film.  The special effects were extremely impressive and the set design and art direction created a wonderfully visceral post-apocalyptic world.  I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys action films.  It is well worth the price of admission and definitely a film that should be seen on the big screen.  Plus, those old ladies kicked ass. :-)