Up On A Soapbox: You get what you pay for...or do you?

I recently got some miniatures and scenery (as we do) for gaming and as is often the case when getting a bunch of diverse stuff at the same time I found myself comparing what I had acquired and think A LOT about the phrase "value for money".

Every gamer has a different budget based on many factors ranging from their own real-world financial situation to their perception of what their hobby is 'worth' to what the practical cost of a functional playable game is.  For the purpose of my thoughts today I'm actually going to not include 'budget' as part of the equation.  Budget is more of a question of what you as an individual can actually afford whereas value is more of a question of 'if you bought it, did you get your money's worth?'  For example I personally cannot afford a high end automobile but that doesn't mean that someone who can and then spends that money didn't get what they wanted out of their purchase.

As production technology and materials cost in the gaming industry have changed two product types have emerged with a wide range of pricing from different manufacturers that potentially throw the concept of value into sharp contrast while also often challenging our preconceived notions of what we're buying.  Today I want to talk about laser cut wood/MDF scenery and PVC gaming miniatures.

Years ago most model/gaming building kits were plastic.  Plastic is great!  It holds a lot of detail, takes paint well, and is generally quite durable.  Having said that the cost of plastic tooling can be quite high and can put it outside the price range of new and emerging businesses.  As more businesses have entered the miniature scenery market a number of them have turned to laser-cut wood as a significantly less expensive (less expensive, not cheaper) alternative.  I recently acquired some MDF building kits of roughly equivalent size from both TTCombat and MicroArt Studios.  From a strict 'cost' point of view there is no comparison.  I got nearly 3 full-sized buildings from TTCombat for what my single building for MicroArt Studios cost, but what about value?  When comparing value I got to be quite happy as when I really stepped back and thought about it I felt like both manufacturers gave me really good value for my money.  The MicroArt studios building was nearly triple the cost but had an unbelievable amount of detail, more than I was aware a manufacturer could get from MDF.  The TTCombat buildings were lacking in detail (including in one specific way that really bothered me personally) but when I looked at what I paid for them they still felt like a great purchase and if each building was going to take roughly an extra hour of work to get to where I wanted them, the money saved felt like it more than made up for it.  In short if I was looking to buy buildings on a budget, or if I just plain needed a lot of stuff I wouldn't hesitate to buy a bunch more TTCombat buildings.  If on the other hand I was looking for more polished or realistic buildings I would definitely feel like the extra money spent on the MicroArt Studios buildings was well worth it.

Where my experience was less even was with PVC figures.  I know as I type this many "serious" gamers readily and quickly dismiss PVC figures as 'cheap' and not being nearly on par quality and detail-wise with other materials (plastic, pewter, resin).  First up, I think that's a slightly flawed assumption (I'll come back to that) and secondly there's that question of value.  During the same period I got laser-cut buildings from 2 sources I got PVC figures from 4 sources, as PVC is more prevalent for gamers and in some cases an unavoidable choice for certain games lets talk about both quality and value.

Here we go (in no particular order):

Reaper Bones

Of all the mixed-bags in gaming quality and standards Reaper Bones might be the most mixed-bag of them all.  The figures are some of if not the least expensive on the market.  Having said that the detail level and degree of flex and bend in some of their figures is among the worst.  At the most basic level I think Reaper Bones is the ultimate example of 'you get what you pay for'.  the quality is relatively low (in my experience) but the cost is also low.  I have personally bought some Reaper Bones figures and almost immediately though 'nope, not good enough', but conversely have bought some and been super-happy with what I got for what I paid.  In general their larger and thicker figures (big monsters, sci-fi figs in power armour, etc) are just fine.  I've got a few of their Cthulhu baddies and I'm happy with all of them.  They're also great if you need a horde of something and don't want to spend an arm and a leg, I recently needed 42 kobolds and really wasn't willing to pay for premium quality metal figures at that quantity.  Having said that the Peryton I painted last year fell well short of what I wanted which resulted in me just going out and replacing it with a metal one anyway.

In my opinion Reaper Bones is good value for money and lands on the bottom end of the budget scale.

WizKids Pathfinder/D&D 

To the best of my recollection WizKids pretty much started the PVC thing years ago with their Mage Knight and Clix lines.  Since then they have evolved a lot.  WizKids miniatures are more costly than Reaper Bones but still much less expensive than hard plastic or metal miniatures.  I find the detail level much crisper on WizKids than Reaper so that's a huge plus, they are also officially licensed which means you're be able to get accurate depictions of a number of unique D&D monsters.  Two other big bits of added value are that WizKids packs include hard plastic bases which means no wobble on your miniature bases, and they come pre-primed which means they're ready to paint right out of the package.  I'm a big fan of the WizKids line as the greater depth of detail allows for more painting techniques to be brought into play and the price is great for the budget conscious gamer.  My one reservation (from a quality point of view) with the WizKids  models is bendy weapons, most longer weapons tend to come out of packages bent.  If you build and paint a lot of models it's not a deal breaker as you can swap them with hard plastic weapons from your bits box.

Again in my opinion WizKids are good value for money and if your budget allows for it are (again my opinion) a superior choice to Reaper Bones.

Imperial Assault 

This is a bit of a weird one for me.  I have recently started playing some sci-fi RPGs and was really surprised how hard it was to find non-40K sci fi miniatures.  I really thought the problem was that 40K (and Star Wars for that matter) had miniatures that were so distinctive they really couldn't be separated from their IPs.  Having said that Imperial Assault had enough smuggler and alien types that weren't named characters I felt like I could blend them in.  As far as PVC figures go Imperial Assault is one of the more expensive options (that Star Wars license can't be cheap) but they are still relatively inexpensive compared to metal and hard plastic.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the figures themselves as they have a good depth of detail and are well cast.  The two big downsides with the Imperial Assault range are if you're buying them for other games you're playing for a lot of collateral material that you won't use (counters, rules, etc) and of the figures I bought the guns were very disappointing, every figure I ended up using I swapped out their guns as most of them were the weakest parts of the sculpts.

My opinion is a bit split on this one as I think if you're a Star Wars fan these are in fact really good value for money but if you're just looking for sci-fi figures they come up a bit short overall.

Fallout Wasteland Warfare

(full disclosure; this is what triggered me to write this whole thing, it's also why I filled this under 'soapbox' rather than 'review')

  Of my recent acquisitions Fallout Wasteland Warfare was unfortunately my most disappointing from the perspective of value for money, of the six products I'm addressing today it's also the one I had the highest expectations of so that may be playing into my perspective as well.  I was super excited about Fallout but by the time I opened it my feelings had changed almost completely.  To Modiphius' credit they released (and continue to offer) the rules as a free PDF download online, as I had downloaded and read them as soon as I opened the box I set the printed rules aside as they had lost their 'newness' for me.  I also largely disregarded the counters and dice as having read the rules I wasn't particular interested in playing using their rules which meant that collateral had little value to me.  That left me holding a $100 CDN box of 13 PVC figures.  That might sound high, but much like Imperial Assault I recognise my lack of interest in the collateral doesn't alter the fact that it's there and it has a cost.  The figures I got in the box for the most part have a fairly crisp deep level of detail, but their bendyness and warping are on par with the Reaper Bones models, in fact none of my Reaper Bones models have bases that are nearly as distorted as the bases these came with.  When I first got this box I intentionally waited a few days (just to see if I was just 'hot') to reach out to the company about the quality, and I have sat on my thoughts for nearly a month before writing this because I didn't want it to be raging nonsensical garbage, having gone through my cooling off I can ultimately say I'm just disappointed.

My personal opinion; not good value for money, but I would put 2 qualifiers on that.  As I mentioned with Imperial Assault if you're going to play this game and need the stuff in the box it's probably decent value for money, plus an additional consideration if you aren't going to paint the figures and can live with slightly better than board game quality pieces.

So I guess what I'm ultimately saying is if you go into a purchase with eyes open and 'get what you pay for' it's all good.  If your personal expectation doesn't line up with the price you pay and the quality you end up with, then disappointment follows.

-Jay

Clarence the Cleric of Cthulhu

My buddy Darren had wanted to do an OLD (40 years old) D&D adventure from Judges Guild using the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules.  A group of us each rolled up characters the way the ancients intended (3d6 in order rolled) and I ended up with a cleric.

I have a lot of experience playing Clerics in other game systems but Dungeon Crawl Classics can yield some odd (and harsh) results.  Clarence's pre-adventuring 'profession' was a slave so I wanted him to have a very rough appearance.  Statistically he was also on  the low end of the spectrum with all 3 of his physical traits being below 10.

I decided to build a figure out of the Bretonian Men-At-Amrs (why didn't I buy more of those when they were around?) as the equipment would look right, but it would also be easy to end up with a poor, rough looking fellow.

Overall I'm happy with how Clarence turned out as a miniature and he was CRAZY effective in our game!  I had generally terrible luck with my rolls in combat as well as my saving throws but if I recall correctly EVERY roll I made to either cast a spell or turn unholy yielded a result of 19 or higher!  In Dungeon Crawl Classics your spells and turn effects become significantly more powerful if you roll high numbers.

Tegal Manor was conceived as a one-shot so I don't know if Clarence will ever return but I would certainly enjoy using the character again.

-Jay

Rick Flag

Recently my friend Kevin painted up Knight Models new Enchantress model and it made me a little bit nostalgic.  A few short years ago I was very excited about Knight Models superhero models for both DC and Marvel and was really enjoying their games, but, due to some really disappointing interactions with both the company's customer service and social media outreach I packed all my stuff up over a year ago and just walked away.

Seeing Kevin's Enchantress reminded me that I never did paint my last two Suicide Squad models; Rick Flag and Enchantress.  I decided to go back and paint them up and it led me to another decision.  But first up here's Rick Flag:

I've decided that instead of painting up more Infinity models to play Last Days next month I'm actually going to build my force out of some Knight Models stuff.  In preparation for playing through the Suicide Squad campaign way back when with Kevin (which sadly never happened) I had purchased some additional law-enforcement/military models that I think would work well for Last Days.  I need to dig those guys out but I think there's some more in the pipeline.

Maybe I'm back in, maybe I'm not.  We'll find out soon enough.

-Jay

Goodbye Shadespire.....Hello Nightvault!

I think I just had one of those feel good/bad moments.  I feel great because I finally got my Shadespire stuff done, but on the other hand given that the whole thing probably only took me three hours from start to finish I feel a bit crappy about these guys having sat on my painting desk primed and ready for a year without getting touched.

My full force of seven models is now done for the Sepulchral Guard.

I really like these as some characterful undead models and I hope that in addition to Warhammer Underworlds Games Workshop continues on with the practise of providing some more of their models with textured bases.  They saved me tons of time and hassle and in my opinion really look good on the finished pieces.

Having painted my three petitioners yesterday my additions today were three of the 'named' heroes for the Sepulchral Guard.

First up, The Harvester

Next we have The Prince Of Dust

And finally The Champion

As much as I painted these for the purpose of playing Warhammer Underworlds I'm sure they'll show up in some other games as well.  How could they not?  They're probably the nicest skeleton models that I own.

-Jay

I better get my Shadespire stuff done before Nightvault comes out

Games Workshop has been teasing season 2 of their Warhammer Underworlds game; Nightvault.  When Shadespire initially came out I wasn't really all that excited.  It looked like a decent enough game but playing miniatures on a board wrapped in a competitive-play style just isn't really my thing.
After watching my friends play for about a year and seeing more spring up around the game as well as the new starter having some more undead for Age Of Sigmar in it I've decided to jump in.

Having said that, even though I didn't play Shadespire I did pick up the Sepulchral Guard figures.  Now that I'm looking at new figures its made me aware that these have been sitting unpainted for a year and and I should get off my butt and paint them before the new figures come out next week.
The Sepulchral Guard set is only seven figures and I did paint one of them (The Sepulchral Warden) in December last year.  Of the six remaining figures there are three unique characters and three  similar figures called the Petitioners, I decided to start with the Petitioners.

At their core the Petitioners are basically nice new sculpts of the basic Warhammer skeletons. They were fairly easy to paint with a little dry-brushing and some washes going a very long way.

That's four of the seven models done.  If I can get the other three done this week I won't have to feel bad about getting the Nightvault models.

-Jay

She's the captain now

I finished (mostly) one more figure late last night to join my special forces team.  I say 'mostly' because macro-photography has revealed more than a few areas that need some touching up.

This is another USAriadna figure for Infinity and I figured she looks just different enough from the other two troopers to stand out as a leader.

I'm going to take a short pause from the Apocalypse to paint a fantasy figure and start costing out my force and figuring out what kind of fanciness I can afford to add.

-Jay

They don't 'survive' in the post-apocalypse, they 'thrive' in it!

I've been playing a lot of post-apocalyptic games lately and as much as I've done the wacky (lots of Gamma World inspired stuff) I've decided to take a crack at painting some stuff that's more in line with some of the other fiction and games I've been in to.

One of the popular concepts in fiction and gaming is a pre-apocalypse society having put fail safes into place should the apocalypse happen.  This is the basic idea behind the video game The Division as well as the roots of both The Brotherhood Of Steel and The Enclave in Fallout.  For myself I've been reading a fiction series called The Remaining and am an old enough gamer to have played The Morrow Project RPG.

To that end I've decided to paint some high-tech near-future military figures with the idea of using them both as Reclaimers for This Is Not A Test and professional operators for Last Days.

I have an assortment of USAriadna models for Infinity that should be perfect.  I started with two basic assault rifle armed troopers but if I stick with it I've got some support weapon models to add in later.

Not sure how far I'll take this but I expect to paint at least a few more of these before I get distracted by the next shiny thing.

-Jay

Ranger of many systems!

I had actually prepped this miniature months ago with the thought of using it for a D&D game but in the end opted out and went with the figure that became Rolf Rolfsson.  He's been sitting primed without a purpose on my desk since then and the upcoming release of Rangers Of Shadow Deep made me decide to finally slap some paint on him thinking he might end up being the titular Ranger leading my warband.

I've lost track but this is either the third or fourth different miniature I've painted that is based off the 'Valeros Iconic Fighter' from Pathfinder.  Its the current WizKids Pathfinder model and like all of its predecessors works really well for a lot of adventurers due to his piecemeal armour and full assortment of weapons.

Hopefully this guy will work out and I'll eventually settle on a name.

-Jay

Yul

Feline Force Five is done!

I've painted my final cat, Yul.  Because every successful post-apocalyptic warband needs a Siamese cat with an M-16.

I've got to properly points out my stuff for my This Is Not A Test game on Thursday.  I think I'm under by roughly 50 barter script so there might be a hired gun in my future.  Perhaps some sort of...robot?

Anyhow, probably a one or two day break before starting on anything new and then probably some more stuff for D&D.

-Jay

Cecil the Lion-Man

Four down, one to go!

My second last catman, Cecil The Lion-Man is ready to rock!

Reaper has a few figs on their site filled as a Steampunk Wizard Of Oz group that I thought were pretty cool.  The Tin Woodsman might be an add for later but as I was looking for cat-people their take on the Cowardly Lion was my first choice.

For his skin and hair/mane I went for a fairly basic lion colour scheme but once I was holding him in my hand it was super-obvious that had I painted his skin fist and goggles red he would look exactly like a certain boy from hell.

-Jay

Julio Jaguar

I've moved past the monstrously large cats and into the 'normal' (doesn't quite seem like the right word) man-sized cats.

Julio Jaguar will be my psychic mutant.  Julio is a figure from an old Pulp City three pack; the Dark Solar pack.  I bought that pack to use Solar as a generic superhero in a superhero RPG I was playing in a few years ago, I guess I lucked out that I had an extra catman laying around.


The nice thing is that Julio has way less (as in no) tech gear or equipment so although I'm painting him for a This Is Not A Test game in a few days he's more perfect than most of the figures I've painted for Mutant Crawl Classics.

Two more cat-people are hanging out on my painting desk and will hopefully be done before the weekend is out.

-Jay

Here kitty kitty kitty!

My first 2 mutant big cats are done.  I say big cats because both of these dudes are on 40mm bases and are closer to ogre-sized than to man-sized.

I finished up my Lykoi and although I'm not entirely happy with how the tartan turned out for a first attempt I'm relatively pleased.  I may have to dig through my box of unpainted models and see if I have another kilt wearing model I can experiment on.

I did these 2 first because I was excited about the models.  It's time now to start constructing a roster and figuring out what else I need to paint to make up a starting force for This Is Not A Test.

-Jay

Lykoi (WIP)

I was hoping to finish my second cat today but his tartan is taking longer than I expected (I honestly surprised myself that the words I just typed form a sentence).

My next cat, and probably leader figure is Lykoi.  A lykoi is a relatively new breed of cat that looks like a wolf.  This allowed me to use one of the awesome Infinity antipode models in my feline force.

I'm usually a fairly boring painter and don't try new things as often as I should but I decided to try something new and am working on a tartan.  I found a few great articles online about painting tartans and I have to say like a lot of things it becomes far less daunting when someone breaks it down step-by-step.

Tomorrow is a shorter day at work so with any luck I can finish Lykoi and hopefully get atleast one or two other models started.

-Jay

Tabby!

Tabby, the first of my mutant cat-people is almost done!  Just need to finish the basing and the eyes and he's good to go!

Tabby is a Reaper Miniatures Tigerian Merc armed with an axe, holstered sidearm and grenades.  You'll get a better sense of this in a few days when I post my full feline war-party but Tabby is also really big (that's a 40mm base he's standing on!).

Tabby is slated for use in a couple of upcoming games.  He's going to be one of my main mutant characters for my next This Is Not A Test game against Tom Carter and his warband of Alf miniatures.  There's also a 100% chance of feline manimals being discovered in the areas surrounding Port Dever in my future Mutant Crawl Classics adventures.

The next 3 days are 100% cat-people painting so by Tuesday a decent-sized force of cats should be on the prowl.

-Jay

Almost ready for my almost first Mutant Crawl Classics funnel!

I wonder how many times during the time I've been writing this blog I've used the expression "best laid plans of mice and men..."?  A small group of friends and I were planning on playing through our first 0-level funnel tomorrow but once again real-life called an audible and the game is off, at least for a change it's not my schedule disrupting things for everyone else :)

So I had today off and rushed through getting 11 of the 12 miniatures done we needed for tomorrow.  Six of them were just re-bases and touch-ups of some older models and I painted five new figures today.  It was a bit of a time crunch so I really just slapped paint on basic models but now that I have time before we're actually going to play I'm going to go back and add some debris and salvage to these guys to make them feel a bit more appropriate to the setting.

Having said all that let me show you what I got done today.

In Mutant Crawl Classics characters at 0 level start off in one of four categories; Humans, Mutants, Manimals or Plantients.  Today I was making due with models I had on hand so although I represented all four groups Plantients got the short end of the stick (pun intended).

First up the humans.

Three of these are re-purposed figures from previous games.  The guy on the left of the picture is my old Dungeon Crawl Classic character Jaqar.  Ironically he's no longer a suitable miniature for the fantasy game I'm playing because he should have more hi-tech gear.  The next figure over in the jeans and leather jacket is new, he's a Cursed Earth Desperado from the Judge Dredd miniature game.  Next in line is the jester I painted for the first round of The Iron Painter three years ago, and finally Bloody Brannigan a pirate model from Warmachine.

Next up the mutants.

Starting again on the left is a Reaper Tiefling Wizard.  Next in line is Junior Angel from Wargames Foundry's Judge Dredd line and finally is a nameless Reaper mutant who looks very Incredible Hulk to me.

Next up the manimals.
(these guys are my favourites)

One the far left we start with some sort of Reaper Lizardman (I lost the package).  Then in the center we have one of my Rangifers from Frostgrave touched up and slightly re-based.  And finally....why not Zoidberg? from Armorcast.

Last up my lone plantient.

This guy is a Games Workshop Dryad which I seem to be using for a lot of games lately.

I'm probably going to phase a bunch of these out and do some conversions that have some suitable looking scrap on them before we reschedule our game so keep an eye out for those.

-Jay

Still learning to paint ghost-pants

One of the things I have to give Games Workshop tons of credit for over the last decade is the additions to their paint range under the "Technical" category.  From basing materials to paints opening up new techniques they're really creating some great new stuff for hobbyists.

When the new Age Of Sigmar box was announced I was very excited by the new Nighthaunt figures and thought the studio models looked great and easy to do once I saw the Warhammer TV videos on YouTube.

I figured out the Hexwraith Flame paint (which I used on my Spirit Hosts a few posts back) but am still working out the Nighthaunt Gloom.  I decided to try it out on an extra Reaper armoured wraith model I had kicking around and honestly did not really get the effect I was going for.

I think the mistakes are actually my use rather than the product itself.  It feels like I should have given an extra coat to the top of the model and gone much lighter on my highlighting.

Oh well, live and learn.  This guy is passable if I need an extra figure for a D&D game I suppose.

-Jay

Mimic

I one of the fun (it was fun to me anyway) things for new players to fantasy role-playing games is after multiple encounters of either conventional foes (cultists, evil soldiers, bandits, etc) or classic Tolkeinesque fantasy creatures like orcs and goblins the first time they encounter something truly bizarre.  The early history of D&D is littered with unique and exciting creatures that could spring surprises on unsuspecting players.

No matter how sincere your players are in attempts to separate player knowledge from character knowledge sometimes the mechanics of the game can give away what's going on.  That's one of the things I really like about a well used Mimic.  A group can complete an entire combat encounter, drop out of initiative and start searching and healing and then when they open a treasure chest BOOM! Mimic!

The Mimic is a shape-changer that can disguise itself as a simple inanimate object like a door or treasure chest and then when an unknowing character touches the item strike with its sticky tendrils in an attempt to ensnare and eat the character. 

I'm not sure if/when this particular Mimic will try to get one of my PCs but I'm fairly certain when it happens I'll hear an expletive yelled out at the first sign of attack.

-Jay

 

Grimjack The Half-Orc Fighter ready for action!

A little bit of paint spread out over a few days and Grimjack is done!

I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.  The dull metals and muted clothing look suitable for a hardscrabble martial character from the wrong side of the tracks.  His flesh tone came out a bit browner than I intended originally (I was going for a pinkish-grey) but due to him being a Bones model with fairly soft detail I didn't want to layer on anymore paint on his face.

Grimjack will be starting out as a simple warrior in the world of Filbar (a series of adventures available online at DMs Guild) with a goal of eventually evolving into an Eldritch Knight.

I've referenced before that when it comes to role-playing its nice to add in figures that you didn't previously have in your collection and now that I'm looking at him not only could I use Grimjack as the Half-Orc he is intended to be but he feels like he would make a good Caliban for the Ravenloft setting.

That's it for me for D&D characters for a bit.  I think some monsters or Age Of Sigmar figs are up next.

-Jay

Grimjack The Half-Orc Fighter (WIP)

I've had a few things on my desk waiting for attention for a few weeks but real life has decided to intrude and keep me from hobbying.  Today after a decidedly not fun day I decided to take a break from real life for a couple of hours and work on a conversion I've been needing for an upcoming D&D game.

As I mentioned in my previous posts about Garkas and Rolf I've been trying some variations on characters I haven't played before.  Garkas and Rolf were different character classes than I had played previously, today's addition is a very familiar class (the Fighter) but is a race I've never played before (Half-Orc).  I think one of the main reasons I've never played a Half-Orc before is because I game with miniatures and I've never really found any of the Half-Orc miniatures appealing.  A recent change in my model collection that has made the standard for Orcs in my D&D games the pig-faced orcs of old-school D&D, based on that I decided to reconsider and just add plain old Orc miniatures to my consideration to be used as Half-Orcs.

A couple of years ago a friend gave me an enormous pile of Reaper Bones models.  Most of the ones I have used so far have been for Zoe's various painting projects.  I chose an Orc Warrior for my new Half-Orc Fighter.

There were a few elements of the original model that didn't really work in my head for a player character model existing in 'civilised' parts of the world.  All of the armoured parts of the model including the shield were covered in spikes.  I took all of those off which was surprisingly more difficult than I expected.  The Bones material didn't take to filling at all so after snipping off the raised areas  I had to make multiple careful passes with a knife to smooth out the surfaces.  After that I snipped off the sword the model came equipped with because it was styled like a long cleaver and seemed a bit too feral for polite society.

Once I was done with the subtractions I started the additions.  With my last few characters I've gotten it into my head that adventurers don't look right without backpacks to carry their treasure in.  The problem with this model was that it was far too big for any of the backpacks I actually had.  I sculpted on straps and made a very simple bag out of putty.  At the time I took these photos the putty had not completely cured so I still need to get back to it with the knife and file to even it out a bit.
The second addition was a more conventionally styled (if gigantic) sword.  The sword is not from a model kit, it's actually from a Brick Warriors Warrior Pack which is a third party LEGO accessory pack.

I'm hoping to get up a bit early tomorrow and clean up my putty work before I leave for work and then get some paint on Grimjack in the evening.

Wish me luck!

-Jay

Zoe's World - The Adventure Begins!

After a year-ish of doing some painting and occasionally talking about trying an actual game Zoe and I did our first dry run today to see if she could wrap her head around basic D20 mechanics and had an interest in playing a full game.  It went pretty well, she enjoyed herself even more than I actually hoped and her first 'full' adventure will be this coming Monday!

We had been talking about trying the game for a while and I think I was holding us up more than she was.  I kept trying to settle on complicated campaign, character and rules details and ultimately just decided to forget it and play like a kid discovering the game for the first time.

I basically threw open Zoe's model collection and asked her what she wanted to use and she actually picked 3 of the models she painted the last time she painted.  As it turns out those 3 figure were all from the Legend Of Drizzt board game so I grabbed out a couple of tiles, the stat cards a D20 and we just ran through a quick combat encounter.

I used my new Rolf Rolfsson model with Wulfgar's stat card and gave Zoe 2 'waves' of her chosen miniatures to keep Rolf from reaching the throne at the end of tile 2.

Having to do simple math to calculate hits the first turn was a bit new and strange to Zoe but by turn 3 she had it down pat.

The game was a study in the law of averages as Rolf decimated her creatures on the first tile, and then failed to score a single hit against the second wave on the second tile.  Sadly Rolf was ripped apart by a panther a mere 25 feet (5 squares) from his throne :(

I'm going to spend some quick time tomorrow night knocking together a single session adventure for Zoe's chosen party on Monday.  I will definitely have to give some thought to balancing play as she has chosen to build an adventuring party that isn't exactly Player's Handbook friendly.
Her first idea for a group is:
-Cyber Ape with minigun
-Unicorn
-Panther
So.....I'm going to have to think about this.
Time permitting over the next few nights she is considering these alternatives though:
-Medusa
-Skeleton
-Gryph-hound
Not quite your classic Fellowship Of The Ring style adventuring party :)

You might see some more painted stuff this weekend and definitely a game summary on Monday.

-Jay

Rolf Rolfsson son of Rolf Rolfsson son of Rolf

A little while back I painted up a Reaper Barbarian to use as my solo D&D character "Rolf".  My first adventure in what is now a series of three linked modules was 'The Death Knight's Squire'.  I got the adventure from DM's Guild and I have to say it was excellent.  It was really well balanced and definitely seemed like it would have been challenging but doable with any type of character.  My initial plan was to make a couple more characters in case Rolf didn't make it but after running into some disappointing issues with D&D Beyond I ended up simply re-tooling Rolf for a second...and then third attempt.  I want to really emphasise that the adventure was well structured and balanced and Rolf didn't fail...twice...due to any issues with the quest.  On my first play through I made one unbelievably bad choice that resulted in me being undone by my own stupidity, on my second play through I was doing great until a string of bad die-rolls coupled with me forgetting to use one of my character's special abilities resulted in poor Rolf (junior?) running out of hit points before the final encounter.  I made some minor changes to the character between my first and third play throughs, one statistical change to get away from something that felt too much like min/maxing to me, and some trait changes based on some of the choices I made initially not really feeling applicable to a solo module.

Some of the changes I made necessitated a replacement model.  The new and improved Rolf is stronger but less agile, uses a bigger sword, and added a missile weapon.  Much like Garkas I started off with a Games Workshop Chaos Marauder as my base figure and added a backpack from the Frostgrave soldier sprue.  I then added a crossbow from a Gale Force 9 Paladin model that I still haven\t gotten around to painting.  And finally chose a head that came with an old Pirate Vampire that I have from years ago that came with multiple head options.

I carried forward the colour scheme from the original Rolf's shield and other than that went with a fairly muted colour palette, Rolf and his descendants didn't seem likely to be an overly flamboyant people to me.

Rolf Rolfsson will go into his next adventure at 3rd level with slightly improved offensive output and a little bit more gold in his pockets.  Hopefully he will be successful on his first pass as now that he's mid-story I think if he perishes on his second adventure I'll have to actually create a new character.

Wish me (and Rolf) luck!

-Jay