The Dreaded D-Pad

I went to the Rugby on Sunday with several others including a good mate who is and always has been an avid console gamer. We've crossed paths with roleplay many years ago but he never took to miniature gaming, prefering D-Pad to D6.

Catching up gaming wise and chatting about Dark Heresy I was describing our various recent issues and frustrations and suddenly had something a of mini eureka moment. As a player group we've got in a lot of hours with the character sheets, we've all also played a lot of virtual RPG with WoW, Knights of the Old Republic and Skyrim eating horrific numbers of hours between us.

We qualify as proper geeks, just with the ability to shower more often!

At the end of the day all RPG adventures are essentially linear, you've got to get from the start to the end, but it's all about how you get there. To me the real skill of a GM is to create what I refer to as the "Illusion of Choice" i.e. that the players have actual choice as to how they go about things. I feel that a major GM skill is being able deal with things on the fly, it's soemthing I really enjoy as a GM. As such I tend to write most of my own adventures, often by bullet point, and when I use pre-written stuff I tend to strip them down and basically scavenge the bits I want, quite often from the pages of 2000AD!

In recent years RPG games have expanded their play area massively, the ability to just bimble about along with multiple character builds and options is a minimum requirement.

 Having recently played a LOT of Skyrim I took a mace and shield warrior build through to level 35 before needing a change. Restarting with an archer / asssassin the whole gaem ahs been revitalised for me. Avoiding the main storyline and pursuing the Thieves Guild story I'm level 35 again having avoided dragons like the plague and repeating very few previously completed quests and haven't even begun to slow down.

So, having eventually arrived at my point have RPG video games spoilt us or simply raised the bar? Plenty of poor RPG style video games out there but they've all been designed and playtested right? The AI engine controls the virtual enviroment and everything in it, so it should all be down to the quality of the programmers / writers? With a traditional RPGyou introduce the human element coin, i.e. the ability to feck up vs the ability to react and be inspired.

To be honest I think I may have become a bit spoilt becasuse as much as it can be about the GM's ability to deal with the adventure, including it's limits and flaws, surely it's also about the playing group's ability to do the same warts, limits, flaws and all?

May just be time to help Mr C rather than just give feedback......damn it!! ;)

Grinding it Out

As far as Painting Points go it most definitely wasn't the most prolific weekend but that's not to say I didn't achieve at least something........mainly on Skyrim.

With the snowy weather gifting me even more free time than I already had I realised that I didn't have a single current project figure prepped to go under the brush. As such I spent a fair bit of time tool in hand getting my Forge Father and Veermyn teams plus Gabe built and cleaned up along with Rob's Arbite and Charlie's Tech-Priest for Dark Heresy. 

Spraying everyone up, between the flakes, I tore myself away from the X-Box Saturday and Sunday evenings, Mr C was home so I was being polite :), to get brush back in hand. Fancying a few more single figures this is where I got to. Left to right, Tech-Priest semi basecoated, Gabe with his washes drying and Arbite West awaiting highlight. I did complete my Dreadball balls but I'm not going to stoop that low for a Painting Point.

Otherwise Friday night and most of Sunday was spent on the 'Rim turning oh so slightly evil whilst also engaging in a fair bit of mining, smelting, smithing and enchanting all to the point of turning myself a touch more big bad. Did go out and hit stuff too........and then bought a house, decorated it and stacked away my recent load of Dragon bone and scale.

They keep on finding me now, and generally just getting in the way. Shame I hadn't caught on to buying my own place earlier as I'd sold my previous load of bone and scales off. Oh well........only a game :)

Got five days off over the Easter weekend and, as well as actually leaving the house on occasion, have set myself the target of finishing at LEAST the Veermyn. Would like to get the Fathers done as well but still struggling for a scheme. I've done Black / Gold for Corp, Red / White for the Orx and will be going Camo Greens for the ginger Veermyn. When they arrive the Robots will be washed Metallics and the Z'Zor a bright Green / Yellow insectoid.

Blue seems the obvious choice, and seems to be the default scheme Dwarves of all ilks, but feels far to expected. The figures seem strangely under-armoured and I'll be painting an undersuit rather than skin. I don't normally do test figures might have to.

I'll let you know, otherwise suggestions on a comment would be very welcome!

It's a SIZE thing!!

 So, Thursday night's roleplay saw our return to Jon's D&D campaign and the welcome return of Aaron to the group. Having previously preferred just to play Star Wars Mr T hooped across the genre divide to add a Pirate, Warrior sub-class to the group.

That means that both GM's have six players to contend with which I'm aware is considered pretty BIG by most players. With introductions, recap and re-introduction we spent most of the session talking (debating / arguing) various courses of action to take in view of the scene laid before us.

This scene involved the laying to waste of a small highland town, with whose burgers we had lodged 30,000 gold in the form of a solid gold idol's head. The intent was to "invest" (acquire / enslave) said town BUT, strangely, after the marauder's attack it was not to be found!

Cue great debate as to our purpose, motivation and proposed actions. With six of us we cover a wide range of options boasting as we do a Human Paladin, Teifling Warlock, Dwarven Cleric, Elven Ranger (plus wolf), Halfing Rogue and now a Human Pirate. There's very little eventuality that we can't have a go at. Problem is we all want to have a got at them in our own way!

Eventually we did STUFF. Myself, Rogue, and the Ranger went out and tracked the Vampire led marauder band to a rock amphitheatre where thei tracks disappeared (planal transportation spell). The Cleric spoke to the dead for clues and the Warlock researched various magical glyphs. The Paladin healed people and touseled hair while the Pirate dug graves,.......it's a plunder thing apparently.

Stopping relatively early, at a convenient point, Aaron was slightly put out that he hadn't got to hit anyone. This was often the case with Star Wars, lots of planing the action often go in the way of the action!

Meanwhile I spent a bit more time on Skyrim last night, this time with my Steel Clad Orc Brute rather than my more delicate Khajit Rogue. Running through a relatively well known Vampiric hold I actively had a go at sneaking about and taking a number of pot-shots from the shadows realising that he was somewhat deficient in this respect and the practice would improve him significantly.

That's right, a hulking beast of a hack and smash specialist, in the making, sneaking around in full plate! He did rather well at it and then had the superior cleave and clear ability to back it up as required. The head Vamp chap died SO much easier this time, though not before applying a certain little kiss on the cheek.

A couple of hours later I was sufficiently impressed to cough up for a particularly keen magical Orc Bow to go with the Greatsword of Frost and the Orc Sword of Stamina eating / Mace of Shock combo that I'd tried out dual wielding (not as easy as I'd hoped). With good Heavy Armour and reasonable block, I learn!, he's quite the fearsome prospect in most situations and running a reasonable favourite.

I do however realise that picking either locks or a pocket is likely to end up with any number of breaks, locks, pockets......arms!

Tangenting to another part of my, eventual, point SIZE is such an issue with the hobby and not only just scale. BIG games become BIGGER with small figures and similar budgets. There does seem to be more of  a trend for skirmish over the more recent years but even skirmish games go BIG when played with action men. Bigger still seems to be perceived as better.

Thought: isn't it more a question of PROPORTION???

Flights of Fantasy

Continuing my, unpaid and unofficial, promotional drive for Fantasy Flight games I ran Shaun and a couple of the boys through Warhammer Invasion at the club Tuesday night.

In response Shaun then ran us through a four way game of Blood Bowl Team Manager. Generally speaking it was good fun and learning as we went quickly ate a couple of entertaining hours. Given the game time length I did at one point find myself wondering why we weren't just playing a four-way game of Blood Bowl but that was missing the point!

Basically, we played five rounds of upto five games. Within each game you only play the Highlights, one-on-one with a variety of different spoils and resources available to the winner of each game. As such you resource manage to build your team, both players, coaching and support staff, in the chase for as much Fan Factor as possible, which decides who wins.

So what I didn't cotton onto immediately is that you're playing through a five round league in an evening, rather than a single game! Probably best that I don't take anymore bangs to the head then :)

I think I still prefer Warhammer Invasion as it replaces a game that I don't want to play anymore with one that I do. I still WANT to play Blood Bowl, not that I dislike or wouldn't play BBTM again.

What it has made me think it that you could play your classic Warhammer Fantasy Campaign, be it league, map, Mighty Empires or whatever you fancy, just replacing the tabletop battles with Warhammer Invasion. Maybe best of three hands to win the battle? Something I could see me and people / gamers like me (the disenchanted whinger ones) going for. Just a thought??

Meanwhile I am struggling not to let Skyrim dominate my hobby time. Currently running two characters, a Khajit Rogue (a transfer of my D&D Halfling) and an Orc Warrior (another Warhammer replacement) I'm just enjoying myself far too much.

The plan was to try and limit myself to every other hobby evening. I managed an early finish yesterday and needed to get various domestics done so ear-marked it as a Skyrim night. I made the mistake of turning the X-Box on first and suddenly it was bedtime before I'd done a stroke of flat-work. Domestics tonight then which means I'm unlikely to get more than an hour or two with the brushes.......

I'll just play a bit more Skyrim then, especially as I'm halfway through clearing out a Vampiric keep! Friday night for brushes whilst I watch the rugby :)

As I've never been more than a casual gamer I can't really manage to feel too guilty for the distraction, especially as I'm running anything for the foreseeable, .......at least not for a while yet anyway. To keep me honest I'll keep my previous monthly Painting Point target of 20 and see where I get to!

January.........15 PPs to find :)

Purple Haze

I've spent the vast majority of the weekend shambling about the house through a Beechams induced haze in an attempt, thankfully successful, to shift the LURGY that has plagued me.

Concentration has only been achieved in fits and starts, much like Wasps' performance yesterday, but an amount of progress has been made, unlike Wasps :(

My main achievement has been test painting five of my zombie horde-ette which has proved far easier and quicker than I thought it might be, alomost worryingly so.

Given a base spray of Ogre Flesh I moist brushed up to Tallarn Flesh and a drybrush of Dwarf (flesh). I went for solid blocks of darker colour for their rags assuming that this would have been thier burial suit, picked out details and applied the magic of Devlan Mud.

A quick drybrush highlight of Dwarf followed and I sorted the bases out to get a proper look at thier finish. Scarily, they seem to be almost there.
Admittedly these photos aren't the best but for such a quick job they're well on thier way. I don't want to stop here, and won't, feeling that's its now a case of final detail to get the job done.

I am however a little unsure as to what these might be! Red eyes don't say Zombie to me but might be nice on a few of them. A little bit more work on the skin and clothes and maybe a bit of strategic red wash? I really want these guys to be properly manky.

Answers on a comment please!

Rounding out the weekend I finally cracked the cellophane on Fable III, which was from Santa, and tried it out. I spent some of the new year finally finishing off Fable II and so have really noticed the immediate differences.

The graphics are finer, the progression system more creative and they've obviously had the time and budget to lavish a little. Good stuff.

During the load breaks I notice that it gives comparisons to where you are compared to your online friends. Undead Jon has a significant head-start on me, due to time played, being loaded, married (twice!), and having travelled MILES further.

Most entertaining was the "STD caught" count. A gentleman never tells though......... :)

Alternative Armies

The extra-ordinary seems increasing more mainstream these days, especially within gaming as a wider genre.

Personally I've noted something of a Zombie uprising, with barely a week passing without my attention being drawn to another set of impressive, wallet threatening, undead figures. A recently viewed modern "Scrubs"set entertained and tempted me greatly.

Alternative WWII also seems to be on the march with occult Nazis of every shade, shape and size unleashing barely controlled monstrosities from alternate dimensions.

These thoughts snuck up on me last night whilst reawakening the X-Box via Wolfenstein.

I spent the evening eventually taking down a Queen Geist end of level beastie (twice!) and then unsuccessfully battling a platoon of Wehrmacht led by a pair of demonically enhanced Fraulein that you wouldn't want to take home to Mother.
All good fun and despite setting up a good hobby "rhythm" over the last some months, which has been very productive, it was nice to take a break :)

With the pending arrival of Chrimble a semi-related project, previously lurking in a darkened alley, shall now be brought to the fore to be christened Zombie Village [dramatic jingle]

I've been keeping my virtual eye on a relatively new scenery company, Architects of War, and their impressively excellent offerings;
These two will go on the Chrimble list, to be received from others and / or myself, along with a Perry's North American Farmhouse and 30 of Mantic's incredibly fine zombies.

This will provide me the basis with a rather nice setting for all sorts of Zombie gaming including, but not limited to;

- French Indian /AWI / War of 1812 with Zombies
- Wild West with Zombies.......... Zombie Indians???
- WWII: Invasion of America (occult or otherwise) with Zombies
- Mid West B Movies (60s / 70s) with Zombies
- Mid West present day Zombie survivalists
- Mid West Pulp City with Zombies
- Star Wars RPG with Zombies

So, All Things Zombie then and Ganesha / Two Hour Wargames for the rules most likely.

P.S: SOME progress with the Falcon but not a lot, POSSIBLY over the weekend but there's a lot of rugby on :)

A life more ordinary

Afternoon all.

I type this whilst sat on the sofa in front of the Ospreys vs Leicester Heineken Cup game.
Today, I am mostly supporting the Ospreys!!

Some of this is due to the 34-8 demolition that the Tigers inflicted upon Wasps a fortnight ago primarily through the scrum and the tight five.

We've the our last three games on the trot now and our scrum has been creaking like a very creaky thing, giving away penalties and possession like they've been going out of fashion. The last two games in a row it's lead to both yellow cards and penalty trys.

We're a team that's always prided itself on the quality of our pack. Our injury list has featured all of our international forwards at some point so far this season and has also forced five different captains so far.

The rub of the green isn't an issue, it's sport and you make your own luck with intelligent play and good execution. I just worry about our strength in depth, we still miss Dallaglio, and our apparent lack of a Plan B.

We currently lie fifth in the premiership and have qualified for the European Cup quarters so there's plenty to play for. Cipriani's form is improving and we look dangerous with ball in hand but we really need to fix the scrum to be winning any silverware this season.


Elsewhere, i've getting reasonable time in with Wolfenstein and am really enjoying the game as a whole.

I've finally realised that i've been playing it too much as a standard WWII first person shooter, having come up against more of the supernatural, and need to be making more of my own arcane ablities.

Quite cleverly, as you progress through the missions more and more of the Nazi's diabolical plans and creations are revealed, whilst also having a good go at eating Agent Blaskowitz's face off.

This guy isn't too hard to take out, just shoot the three big diode thingys on his armour with your sniper rifle. Sorted!

The Nazi soldier with invisibility and twin blades, think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, caused me sever issue for a while.

Jon suggested slowing down time as he attacks, becoming visible, and then filling him full of MP40. Result! This also works well for taking out the Nazi mages, who otherwise boost thier infantry and charging MG32 nests. Simples!!

So, half-time and its' the Ospreys ahead 14-9 and looking good :)

I've got some leeks in the fridge so I may just start waving one about the place!!

Ho, Ho, Ho.......

.......Green Giant??

Another christmas almost gone. The weird way that the days have fallen this year have been quite kind, giving ten days off for three days leave. Mucho grande!

So after yesterday with the family i've had a particuarly pleasent cave-day.
Watched most of the first day of the second Test against the Saffers (translation: Cricket) and then later Northampton giving Worcester a good shoeing (Rugby).

In between I've got the cellophane off of the newly acquired Wolfenstein and finished off Security Team Zeta.

I'm a big fan of WWII first person shooters and have always enjoyed the Wolfenstein license with it's Nazi-Occult storylines with an excellent Hellboy look and feel.

The latest incarnation has moved on significantly, picking up a lot of features seen in the top titles. There's a large Stadt to roam around at will and enough extra missions parrallel to the main story to add variety.

By earning rewards you can upgrade your equipment but with limited resources you have to choose carefully. The main departure is the development of occult powers for our eponymous hero to go with his exceedingly strong jaw-line.
Not got too far yet, but with ancient medallion in hand I now have the ability to slow time.
Good stuff.

Meanwhile in a galaxy an indeterminate distance away, if you need hired goons on a budget and everyone else is busy then maybe, just maybe, you'll be forced to hire; Security Team Zeta

Sourced from Heresy the investigation team lines up as follows: (l-r) Dwayne B - Tech, Alysa - Logistics, Quimby - The Chief, Quade - Interventions and Hudson - Demolitions.
Sgt Blok, centre, leads the Strike Team, who are highly trained in laying down indiscriminate firepower to minimum effect. Bonnet catches and bar optics beware!


So another 20 painting points in the bag just in time for thier potential deployment.
Off to Twickenham tomorrow for Wasps vs Quinns. Not too shabby :)

Episode IV: A New Hope

After the abject failure of last weeks Star Wars roleplay session i've actually done some gaming.
In my own defence I have spent some time working on the background and opening scenario.

Rich came round last Thursday and re-introduced me to the Ambush Alley rules playing a Star Wars rescue scenario. We played through twice, once with each side, and I somehow managed to narrowly win twice and ALMOST snuffed out Yoda.... almost!

A good set of rules that rewards aggressive / heroic play with your heroes, at least until the dice go a bit wrong.

Saw the girly over the weekend and after a pleasent Sunday afternoon going around Hampton Court Palace I got her to watch Spaceballs over dinner and then SHE insisted that we play co-op Gears of War for 2 hours. God may actually exist :)

No painting in the last ten days though the desperados have had actual paint attatched recently and i've sorted out a paint list. Pretty much all stuff that needs finishing off but with the intention for it to get some use;

1. FoW German artillery:
Just a bit of highlighting and a coat of varnish really. Didn't quite get finished from the last tourney I went to in the far too distant past.
More in the case to be painted but not an active system currently.

2. Hordes Blighted Archers:
Quite a bit of higlighting and a coat of varnish. Same reasoning as point 1 above.
Plenty more in the case and a system I want to get some games in with.

3. Blood-Bowl ogre:
Just the one, but the final figure of the team to be painted. Maybe then they'll roll some decent dice?

4. Star Wars:
An ongoing project that will continue a Genetic Infantry 2000AD project that I started sometime ago. I really want to find an excuse to pick a GW plastic Valkyrie to go with them.

Photos once i've actually painted something.

Toys R Me

Steve + TOYs = HAPPY

Okay, yesterday's domestication got a bit big on me but I did get lots of STUFF done. I then got in some sofa time with the cricket and spent the evening communing with the x-box.

Gears of War is an old one but a bloody good one, emphasis on the bloody! Very slick given the visual "chunky" feel and a subtlelty of mission variation that I hadn't expected. Top Marks.

I then had a quick go with Fable II, until about half two this morning, starting a new "evil" character to continue my recent anti-hero theme. Due to the awesome scope of the game i've quickly established a cross-dressing goff boy with pig tails and an apparant Adam Ant fetish!

Awesome, awsome game. By taking a few different turns this time round i've already seen substanatial differences within the game. Who needs WoW....... not me!!

Actually, I do have a missus but she's away for the weekend so i've been unsupervised :)

Today has actually involved little men, in between the GP and the test.
I've finally set up my work area and got hold of my new camera:

I've also dug my 'waggid White Russians out of thier case and checked them over in preparation for some PULP style back of beyond games with the Ambush Alley rules that Rich J has been involved with.
Here's thier site http://www.ambushalleygames.com/ and here's the figures:

The glorious leadership of Baron Vladimski, Olga and Yuri "the Bear".

The ladies, "The White Doves".

In the rear, with the gear, "The White Warriors". Soap optional.

Anyway, back to the test. It's got very tense all of a sudden. A draw for England is as good as a win today!