Insanity Cards

I would be remiss (one might even say, crazy) if I forgot to mention my friend and longtime dungeon pal Paul is running a crowd sale at The Game Crafter for his innovative Insanity Cards.

The more folks who buy in, the cheaper it'll be for all of us who've bought a copy. So check it out, and try to ignore the hamsters talking to you from under the floorboards. They're cheapskates, and wouldn't know a good gaming product if they had it crammed in their grubby little cheek pouches.

Henchmen and Hounds

One feature of old school type gaming that I enjoy is henchmen. While admittedly they're more mouths to feed, both literally and metaphorically with treasure and XP, having a couple extra hands down in the dungeons can be a really good thing. Especially since there are a LOT of mouths to feed down there and it might be the difference between whether you or your hired help get volunteered for that job.

The best ones develop their own personalities and become just as much a fixture of the campaign as the player characters. (I still fondly remember Melchior (with his missing fingers and his justified pathological fear of wolves) Strang the Unlucky, or good ol' Frog from when I played in Paul's ongoing campaign back in the day.)

Meta game wise, they're a great source of backup characters if your primary character fails their save vs. the big Trapper Keeper in the sky and you don't want to wait to get back into the action until the party extricates themselves and treks all the way back to the tavern to find a new sucker adventuring companion. This is why I always recommend henchies get a full cut of the in-game loot, even if they're only drawing 1/2 exp. It makes an easier transition than the party just deciding all of a sudden the former flunky suddenly gets a pay raise.

So I decided to have some hireling figs on tap with my dungeon kit, just to have 'em.They can also do duty as town guards or bandits if need be. I dunno why I decided to make them kinda like starter Pokémon (water, fire, and leaf types) but the rock/paper/scissors aspect of that may come into play somehow. Who knows?

  

These guys come in 3 packs so they're a good way to fill out your roster on the cheap. You can also get 'em with spears, bows, and x-bows if you wanna get fancy. I didn't, so sword guys are good enough for me. 

I've also got a faithful porter, for those non-combatant, stuff carrying jobs where you might not want to bring a pack mule or pony down into the depths. Reaper's got a pretty decent peasant with pitchfork and torch. With a little modification to the fork, like maybe turning it into a spear or quarterstaff, they could make a good torch bearer.

Good ol' Yothrick the Downtrodden.

Now another form of dungeon helper I've seen before is someone often has the bright idea of bringing dogs into the scary, monster and trap infested underground. I'm a bit more ambivalent about this. Just like henchmans, dogs are really under the control of the DM, but are a bit more unpredictable since they're animals and unless you've got a druid with the right spells along it might be hard to get 'em to understand or do what you want. 

It pays to remember that they're just dogs, not remote control robots who can bite monsters. They'll spook at really unnatural things like undead or aberrations. They bark, which at the right time could be a vital warning of danger but at the wrong time would be like having your own pet shrieker following you around. Plus if you bring 'em along just to set off traps you probably ought to scratch "Lawful" or "Good" even "Human" off your character sheet if it somehow got on there.

Still, I figured it'd be worth picking up a couple of doggos for either extra help on a delving crew, or even better as K-9 units for any town guard entanglements the party might find themselves in. It's always worth remembering, if the DM allows you to have it, then they get to use it too.

Big puppers. These guys are pony sized in 35mm scale. In fantasy world dog curbs you.

'Tis the season...

... for me to cover the table with miniatures that need paintin'. It seems to happen around this time of year. I dunno if it's just an after affect of the holidays or making plans for upcoming gaming events.

So this year for Christmas, my nephew got me a bunch of dice sets, which led me to cook up the idea of making a portable, ready to play "D&D kit" for those random occasions where I run into a bunch of folks who're interested in playing but have never had the chance and we all have a few hours to kill and aren't going anyplace.

Okay, it's 00's on a d100, but if that extremely unlikely set of circumstances comes up I wanna be ready for it. Plus it's an excuse to buy more minis, which is one of my few material vices.

Part of the portability factor is having some minis that are nice and durable, and also blazingly cheap. Thus, my selections are all from Reaper's gloriously affordable Bones line. Now that I've sussed out the proper way to prime and seal them, without getting unfortunate chemical reactions and unwanted tackiness, they've become my brand of choice. Did I mention they're inexpensive?

My axe of choice on the tabletop is Labyrinth Lord. It's nice and basic, and easy for me to lift up the hood and tinker with. So for the six dice sets I chose and color matched the classic tetrad of classes (fighter, thief, magic user, and cleric) and filled out the rest with the most popular of the demi-human classes (elf and dwarf). Sorry, halflings. Guess you came up short.

I've got a couple smallish maps from the inestimable Dyson Logos that I need to key up, and I'll make some quickie character sheets, probably laminated so that they can be used with dry erase pens.

Of course, into any dungeon, monsters must fall, so I got some workable basic stock:

 

Skellies

Giant Bugs

Berserkers

Miscellaneous Critters

Ochre Jellies

Living Statues

Deep burrowing aberrations and their Brain Beast master

Anyway, that's a good start, but there's so much more to paint and show, so watch this space as the year unfolds.

Merry Christmas!

Delta's DM Screen

So recently, my good friend and gaming buddy, the mighty Delta, contracted me to fashion some art for his personal DM screen.

Here is what ensued from him honoring me thusly:

Woe betide you if you don't bring your A game when you sit down at a table with a handful of dice and see this facing you. Hang on to your Hit Points and prepare for an Excellent Game !

Since I work digitally, and I like to give a pal some options, here's a couple alternate versions, one is strictly black & white, ideal for printing:



And here as if it had been printed on a TSR product circa the early 1980's. (Okay, I just colored the black as blue, but it does evoke, if I may say so myself...)

Use it in good health, Delta!

Oh, and as a bit of a self serving P.S., I am quite available as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, so if you have a gaming related product and want to punch it up with some artwork, drop me a line. I work quickly when properly motivated and my rates are fair. Contact me at bigfellamachine :at: comcast.net

Thank you, Reaper Miniatures.

For finally producing a decent owlbear miniature.

This fierce lookin' fella is rolling out with the next Bones Kickstarter. While I am a bit tight in the wallet to partake of that (and from the look of it they funded themselves x20 on day 1, so they hardly need my contribution anyway), I will be buying multiples of this badass bearbird when it sees general release. I do love me some owlbears, and I do love me some Reaper Bones.

Finally, a Reaper owlbear that doesn't look like a sports mascot created by a mad costume maker.

Or like he's about to fall over from excessive gangliness.

Hoot hoot hooray!

Sometimes it takes time to get your produce to market.

Anty Bella haulin' a load of her sweet agave nectar. Takes time but tastes mighty fine.

I'm proud to announce that Mutant Bastards is finally arrived in an artifact format that'll survive The Big One if you run outta power cells. Go to DriveThruRPG and git yerself a softcover paperback, hot off the presses. Come n' get it!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/214078/Mutant-Bastards--Adventures-in-the-New-West

You ain't had so much fun since you tried some of Miz Bella's special stock and didn't go blind!

My brand new mutant baby with its proud pappy & grand pappy. Evolution in action!

 Thank you kindly!