Review - Harper's Tale

Today I want to take a look at a 10 chapter, 170 page adventure path for D&D characters of levels 1-10; Harper's Tale.

Harper's Tale is named for lead developer Matt Corley's daughter (and co-lead developer) Harper.  The adventures mix the inspiration and youthful-fun outlook of a child with the sensibilities of an experienced game author to contribute something truly new and unique to the current RPG scene.

The creative team behind Harper's Tale reads like an all-star team of freelance writers and artists currently working in the RPG industry, and it's not just a list of names on the credits page of a book, the quality and experience this team brings really shines through.  Harper's Tale is gorgeously illustrated throughout but I want to call special attention to the fantastic character illustrations by Gwendy Bee, these illustrations are bright and appealing while still conveying a sense of mystery and the fantastic.  In addition to the amazing art I found all of the cartography to be easy to read and use and clearly laid out where I needed it.

The ten adventures themselves are all written by separate writers or writing teams and one of their nicest features is they are structured so that in addition  to making up one ten adventure long campaign they are also all framed so they can be run as individual one-shots.  The central story mixes investigation and adventure as the characters start off by investigating a mysterious illness and follow various leads and clues looking for both the source and a cure.  The adventure path is set in the wilderness but uses many different settings for individual adventures (forests, small villages, dungeons, multi-room buildings) to give the ten adventures a great deal of variety.

In addition to a number of different settings the adventure path is full to the brim with interesting NPCs that not only work well within the narrative but could also be used to seed other adventures, for my part I GUARANTEE my players will meet Professor Piewright at some point prior to actually playing Harper's Tale.

And I couldn't resist the urge to convert and paint my own Sir Cheddar!

Overall I highly recommend Harper's Tale.  There is an absolutely amazing amount of the highest quality content here and the mix of art and writing style really evokes the sense of fantastic mystery, fun, and discovery that I think the best fantasy RPG adventures are capable of.

Harper's Tale is currently available from DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311843/Harpers-Tale-A-Forest-Adventure-Path-for-5e?term=Harper

-Jay

A few smaller critters for Animal Adventures

The march towards Zoe and I playing Raiders Of The Lost Bark for Animal Adventures continues!

I got the last 2 PC/NPC doggies done the other day.  Tedric and Hartley are smaller (much smaller) dogs being a chihuahua and a french bulldog.

I went pretty basic with the paint jobs on these two but I'm still very happy with how they turned out.  Tedric in particular in my opinion definitely leans more to the fantastic side, largely be virtue of the look of the knife being carried in his mouth.  Until we actually play (hopefully this weekend?) this will be the last of the actual dogs for a while.

Having finished the dogs the next step was to get started on some rats which are the main antagonists of the adventure.

These two small rats are actually small add-ons on the Frostgrave Wizards 2 sprues.  It was nice to have a few rats to get started on.  I'm expecting to get a few more rats and rat swarms from my FLGS this Wednesday and then I should be able to get the last of the models done we need for our game.

-Jay

Getting ready for some Animal Adventures!

After years (holy crap, has it really been years?) of saying we're going to play a full-on D&D game Zoe and I are actually doing it.

With the release of the Animal Adventures lines from Steamforged Games along with some free published adventures on Steamforged's website we're almost ready to rock. 

Zoe has painted her first character.  I'm painting the baddies as well as the other 3 featured player character models in the first adventure.  I've also printed the module and am mounting the encounter maps on foam-core to use with miniatures once we get rolling.

First up I finally finished painting Cerysse the Cleric.

Cerysse was one of the miniatures from the first Dungeons & Doggies set that launched this universe.  I really liked this St Bernard model and I think one of the things about it that really appealed to me is that Cerysse wouldn't look out of place in a non-animal based game as a pack animal for a more conventional group of adventurers.

Zoe painted Cornelius the Wizard.

Cornelius is basically the poster-dog for the Dungeons & Doggies line and features prominently in a ton of the line's art.  Zoe seemed drawn to the cool hat and friendly face.

While we were getting some painting in Zoe also knocked out a wolf that we've had sitting around primed for a while.

Can't remember if this is a Reaper or WizKids model (it was already based and primed) but I'm sure it was part of a familiar pack.

I've got 2 more dogs to do as well as some villainous animal characters and then we're off to adventure!

-Jay

These models as well as the their villainous opponents and loyal friends are available from your Friendly Local Game Store.

Bugbears and some odds and ends

Over the past couple of weeks I've been steadily getting some models done for two upcoming games.  In that same time however I've been fairly poor at posting those models.  Over the remainder of this week I'm hoping to show off some of what I've gotten done.

First up; Bugbears!

Bugbears are a classic and iconic D&D humanoid species that looking back I've barely ever used in my home games.  I had wanted to add some to my collection for a long time and when I saw the two different packs WizKids had available the time was now.  There's two options I particularly like about these figures, both of which were featured on the same model.  First up, there is a female.  Most RPG miniature companies currently offer a good selection of female PC models but there tend to be very few female monster options.  Secondly; there is a spell-caster.  Most humanoid NPC models tend to be fighty characters so it's nice when a caster gets thrown into the mix.  I'm really happy to have these in my collection and I hope WizKids does another pack or two of Bugbears down the road.

Pixies!

Another WizKids pack.  I'm currently playing in a game set in the Margreve setting by Kobold Press and the Warlock character I started off playing needed a familiar miniature.  A Pixie felt like the right choice.  I initially painted the Pixie with the earth and grass base as I felt that worked best for the setting, but then realised the basing didn't match my character model who I had used cobblestones on.  I did a second Pixie with matching basing but ironically ended up switching to a new character before the model ever hit the table.  I have enough wilderness adventures planned that I'm sure my Pixies will still get some use in the near future.

The goodest boy!

Quite awhile back (over a year ago?) I backed the Dungeons & Doggos kickstarter thinking that those were models my daughter might be excited about painting.  I was wrong but that doesn't detract from the fact that they are really cool models.  I painted this dog up to be a companion animal for my Saltmarsh campaign character Garkas.

That's the first few new additions, check back tomorrow for more!

-Jay

Getting a lot of things started...not getting very much "done"

I can definitely say the spirit of hobby A.D.D. is alive and well.

In the past couple of weeks I've started several projects but haven't actually finished any of them.  I need to get at least one of these off my "to do" list this weekend just to get back into the swing of things.

First up I've got my first two Dungeons & Doggies miniatures by Steamforged Games.

I got these via a very well executed and delivered Kickstarter (I think I received the models almost  month AHEAD of schedule).  Originally Zoe (who is also painting a doggie) and I were doing these for an online painting contest on Facebook but once I left Facebook the urgency to complete the models instantly evaporated.  I'm actually planning on the smaller dog being a companion animal for Garkas in the Saltmarsh game I'm playing in, hence the matching bases with my sailors.

Next I'm finally planning on playing Warhammer Quest Silver Tower and decided to paint the Excelsior Warpriest and his loyal Gryph-hound as my character.

I actually just started these and have to figure out my bases and patiently layer on some white robes but they should be done sometime this coming week.

My final project is actually the one I started last but probably need to complete first.  In my last Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game my gravedigger character Jurgen came to a comically tragic end, and therefore I need a replacement.  I rolled up a duelist and quickly assembled one for one from those fantastic Empire Militia sprues.

I may have mentioned this before but the current version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is great!  It does a really good job of capturing the flavour of the original game while being a lot less crunchy.  It's definitely more complex than D&D 5e but not so complex it slows down game-play.

Let's hope I have something finished to show off soon.

-Jay