Review - Byte Me Games MasterPad

Almost since the beginning of the tabletop RPG industry gamers have broken down into two categories; theater of the mind players, and players who use miniatures (or counters or standees).  As much as I enjoy and respect theater of the mind my first choice has always been gaming with miniatures.  Over the years many companies have provided mats, tiles and books to support miniature gaming.  Today I'll be looking at Byte Me Games' MasterPad.

MasterPad comes as a spiral-bound 30 page booklet with full-colour dungeon map sections on one side, and 1" blank graphs on the other side for creating your own maps and tiles sized for traditional gaming miniatures.

My initial impression of MasterPad was instant excitement. I run a lot of games, and consistently do not run them at my own home.  This means more portable gaming accessories are instantly appealing to me.  Once I started delving a bit deeper I found more to be enthusiastic about.  The look of the tiles is nice and clean with serviceable grid markings that don't get in the way or make you overly aware that you are looking at a grid.

One of the things I was actually surprised by was how well the physical quality of the product functioned on the tabletop.  Historically one of the things I have not liked about gaming tile sets is that they are frequently printed on what is intended to be a thick high-quality card-stock.  I say 'intended' because the problem I have frequently experienced is that thicker heavier card-stock tends to warp and curl which makes them almost immediately unusable.  If the tiles curl they no longer link up and function as intended.  MasterPad is printed on heavy paper, but paper none-the-less.  I was initially skeptical of what I perceived as being of lower quality but after heavily using the MasterPad tiles for a couple of weeks the tiles are perfectly flat, and I suspect if they were to warp or distort they could be more easily re-flattened than card.

Overall I think MasterPad is a terrific product and a welcome addition to any DMs toolkit.  Anyone who uses miniatures or has been considering using miniatures but wasn't sure what to use as a gaming surface should definitely get their hands on a MasterPad.

MasterPad is available from Byte Me Games who can be reached either through their website at https://bytemegamez.com or through Twitter at @ByteMe_Games

-Jay

Zoe's World - Skeleton

After another brief sabbatical from the hobby Zoe asked me about painting some more figures from out of the blue last week.  At the conclusion of her last batch of painting I had her pick out another group of models so I could prep them ahead of time and this worked out great!  It meant as soon as she felt like painting I already had 5 models based and primed and ready for her her to go.

Zoe's painting options were; Human Female War Cleric, Griff-hound, Medusa, Orc or Skeleton.  She chose to start with the Skeleton but she did manage to make a bit of progress on the Medusa as well.

The skeleton is a Reaper Bones model and I have to say for a small very inexpensive figure it was really good.  All the depth of detail was fully realised and in spite of multiple small-narrow points on the model there was virtually no bending out of the package.

Although the Skeleton is a far simpler more basic model than a lot of what Zoe has painted in the past painting it actually show a tremendous amount of growth and learning on her part.  She drybrushed the Skeleton proper and for her first time did not go overly heavy on the paint during a drybrush.  She also chose a light pink colour for the shield which required multiple (four or five, I can't remember) thin layers of paint to get a consistent colour.  Compared to her previous pastel coloured Unicorn you can really see improvement in her technique which yielded a smoother crisper result.

She's going to have quite the eclectic model collection if she ever decides to jump in and start playing miniature games.

-Jay
 

One-shot PCs

Over the holiday season I was able to squeeze in one gaming session playing Winter's Splendor a D&D one-shot available on DMsGuild.

It was an eleventh hour game put together outside of any regular gaming campaign so I invited my players to create new characters specifically for use in this one-shot adventure.  All three players chose to make characters that they wouldn't normally play (as one-shots are great opportunities to test-drive character concepts), this meant some new models.  Andrew provided his own Half-Orc Monk model and I made figures for Grant and Adam.

Grant decided on a Kenku Rogue.  Kenku are bird-men, Reaper and Darksword both make suitable models but neither were immediately available on short notice.  I ended up using a Frostgrave soldier body with the head from a Games Workshop Gryph-hound.  My putty work around the hood area didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped but in a pinch it worked.

Adam was playing a Goblin Trickery Cleric armed with a crossbow.  I was a bit surprised to discover that somewhere along the way I had used all my Night Goblin miniatures so I didn't have the pool of figures I thought I did. Having said that I still had a few of the excellent WizKids Pathfinder Goblins laying around.  I chopped the arms off and replaced them with a set of crossbow arms from the Frostgrave soldiers sprue.  The existing hood and cloak made it fairly easy to hide my putty-work on the arms.  Adam requested a festive holiday colour-scheme so some bright red and green with white trim later and we're ready to roll.

The game was fairly short (completed in roughly 3 hours) and featured some interesting problem solving along with a few interesting combat encounters (more on those tomorrow).
For anyone looking for a fun quick easy to run adventure I can highly recommend Winter's Splendor.

-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

Rolf The Barbarian!

I wasn't aware until I sat down to type this that I haven't posted in a month, ouch.  I've actually barely hobbied in a month which feels even worse.  Hopefully this weekend I'll be cranking out a few different small projects.

This morning I finished a character model for a solo D&D game module I found online and hope to try out on Monday; Rolf The Barbarian.

Rolf is a Reaper Pathfinder miniature and one of the things I really liked about him is that he breaks the mould of the traditional huge hulking barbarian.  As a character Rolf's strongest traits are Dexterity and Constitution so a more Heroquesty Barbarian would have been far too big to represent Rolf.

One of the other things worth calling out is that it seems most of the 'adventurer' type figures in the Reaper Pathfinder line seem well layered with lots of bits and pieces of equipment and armour without feeling like they have a lot of decorative nonsense on the figures.

Hopefully by Tuesday I'll be able to update you on how Rolf did on his first adventure!

Stay tuned.

-Jay

Review - Wardlings

Over the years I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with pre-painted miniature lines.
As an old school miniature gamer something has always felt slightly 'off' about pre-painted miniatures but I think they're good for the health of the hobby game industry because they remove a potential barrier for player (and GM) involvement.
Having said all that, for someone like me who does like painting miniatures a pre-painted line has to have something unique going for it to actually appeal to me personally.  Wardlings has more than one unique thing going for it.

Wardlings is a new line of pre-painted fantasy miniatures from WizKids.  the figures are packaged and scaled identically to the current WizKids Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder miniature lines and are made from the same material.

The first thing that makes Wardlings stand out is that all the characters are younger children who still look like serious adventurers.  There are lines out there that include miniatures for kids but they tend to either be chibi, cutesy animals or less serious in tone.  The Wardlings are clearly young kids but they are armed, armoured and look ready to explore a dungeon or a haunted house and stick it to evil doers.

The second thing that makes the line unique is that each pack comes with an animal companion.  I really like that some of the companions are classic animals (dog, badger, etc) while some of them are more exotic (genie, winged, snake, etc).  Small animals and well detailed familiars can be hard to come by and not only are these figures well sculpted and cast they are all also really well painted right out of the pack.

The Wardlings line is a great option for anyone running an adventure for a younger audience that still doesn't want their adventurers to be cartoonish and will also really appeal to young fans of the Spirit Animals series of books.

Although the figures are good to go right out of the packs, I'm going to re-base mine to match my existing D&D figures and may do a few touch-ups.

Personally I hope Wardlings is a success for WizKids and if they expand the line beyond these initial six packs I'll definitely get their new releases as well.

-Jay

Monster Manual (barely) Advent Calendar - Day 24

Cambion (...but really....it's Venger)

Sticking with my theme today finale is the Cambion.  The Cambion is the offspring of a humanoid and a fiend.  Basically the demonic version of a half-elf.  So...in a Monster Manual context this figure is a Cambion but for purposes of my gaming; he's Venger.

Back in the 80's during one of the first rises in popularity of D&D an animated show aired in which the recurring  villain was a demonic sorcerer named Venger.  The show only aired for a single season but managed to roll out a lot of classic D&D tropes and monsters all with Venger standing in the  background.  Interesting bit of trivia (that I may have mentioned in another post); the voice actor for Venger was Peter Cullen who is far better known as the voice of Optimus Prime.

This miniature is from Antediluvian Miniatures, a company any fan of classic fantasy rpgs should look to for miniatures.  I made one minor change, the original figure had 2 horns on his head but the character I am using him as has only 1 horn so I removed one.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 23

Yet another Owlbear!

You know how sometimes you can be very descriptive and specific about why you like something, and sometimes you just like it because you like it?  For me since my earliest days in D&D I've just liked the Owlbear because I like it. 

The Owlbear is exactly what it sounds like.  A hybrid creature that is part owl, part bear.  Over the years the Owlbear has appeared as a wilderness encounter in almost every non-horror campaign I've run.

This particular Owlbear is something slightly new for me.  I've painted  a number of Owlbears over the years but they have always been posed up on their hind legs poised to attack.  This Owlbear is in a more  bear-like pose and in spite of being my fourth or fifth Owlbear model feels unique and different.

The Owlbear is definitely my personal favourite D&D monster, what's yours?

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 20

Lich/Demi-Lich

Oops.  I definitely hit a wall and missed a few days there, sorry about that.

Today's addition feels a bit like it straddles the line between the Lich and the Demi-Lich.  The Lich is an ancient wizard who has used magic to grant himself a sort of immortality but in comparison to many other immortal creatures the Lich's immortality is a bit cheap and second-rate.  Although Liches are extremely powerful spell-casters they are also undead and not even vaguely human anymore. 

Liches have long been a staple high-level boss monster in D&D due to the fact that even if they are completely destroyed, if the vessel they have placed their soul in is still intact they can remake themselves and return to torment their 'destroyers'.  They are an easy go to for a recurring villain in any campaign.

For my Lich I've gone a bit outside the box and used Games Workshop's new Wraith model.  Truthfully this model is a bit more ghosty and insubstantial than a traditional Lich but I really like the skull and general feeling of malevolence this figure  projects.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 16

The Peryton

Now we're getting into strange mythological hybrids.  The Peryton is a beast with the body and wings of a bird and the head of a stag.

When I originally got into D&D the first two things I got were the red box D&D Basic Set and a copy of Dragon Magazine #80.  I was immediately hooked on Dragon as in those pre-internet days the magazine's content was a window into games and worlds beyond my immediate game group.  One of the regular features was "Ecology Of ........" a series of articles where in game academics such as wizards and alchemists would discuss various creatures inhabiting the worlds of (at the time) Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms.  If I recall correctly that first issue featured the Doppelganger but the a few issues later I got a creature I'd never heard of before  but became instantly fascinated with; The Peryton.  First of all the Peryton got in my head because it was the first fully developed fantasy creature I had read about that I didn't already have some sort of passing familiarity with from books or movies.  In addition two of the Peryton's special features struck then 12 year old me as so alien and terrifying that I immediately felt like it was one of the most malign and evil things in Dungeons & Dragons.  The first feature  was that it's diet was not the flesh of its enemies but specifically their hearts, that just weirded me out.  But the second feature (to me anyway) was pure nightmare fuel; the Peryton casts the shadow of an average man.  I don't know why but something about that relatively minor detail struck me as the most actively deceptive and evil idea I'd been exposed to to that point in my life.  To this day 30+ years later the idea that anything can cast the shadow of something else remains my most Lovecraftian nightmare.

This particular Peryton is from the Reaper Bones line and painting it has made me realise two things:
1.  I am 100% certainly going to use this monster in a game sooner rather than later.
2.  I need to contact the retailer I purchased this from and see if I can get the metal version to replace this guy.
This is unfortunately one of those cases where the Bones medium did not yield a great result on the finished product.   I LOVE this creature and this model  is certainly serviceable but I would really like to have a much crisper cast of this model to bring out ALL the detail.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 15

Troll

The Troll is one of those classic D&D monsters that many players will remember as their first encounter with something that could heal and regenerate damage, which could ultimately be incredibly frustrating.  When I first started playing D&D and none of us were very meta or rules-savvy I remember our group defeating a Troll and then carrying on only to get ambushed from behind by the Troll we thought we had killed while fighting other monsters.

This particular Troll is the WizKids  model for the D&D unpainted miniature line.  I choose it because the look of it is a great throwback to the original Troll artwork.  Having said  that Trolls are one of those miniature where I feel like we're spoiled for good choices.  Games Workshop's current Trolls for Warhammer as well as Lord Of The Rings are all great models.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 14

Goblin

When I plotted this advent calendar idea out my initial plan was to bookend the series with the Orc and the Goblin, but I've since decided to finish with a different model so the goblin is showing up today.
Goblins are one of the most classic-stock low-level monsters in any fantasy RPG or miniature game.  Over the years a lot of companies have done a lot of different visual takes on goblins.  As much as I like Games Workshop's Night Goblins my favourite look for goblins over the years has been Paizo's take on goblins for Pathfinder.

The Pathfinder goblin is simultaneously menacing with a giant mouth full of teeth while also being sort of comical looking with it's Stewie Griffin style head.  In regular Dungeons & Dragons the goblin is a simple low level monster that doesn't really do anything fancy.  If however you're playing Pathfinder goblins do pick up some extra abilities and even had a supplement dedicated to making full proper characters of them.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 13

BANSHEE!

The Banshee is one of the classic old school monsters that I have actually used in a fair number of games.
They were background characters in any adventure/story involving our good friend Lord Soth as well as being featured in one of the first third party D20 adventures I ever purchased and ran (the name escapes me at the moment).

The Banshee's key ability beyond its ghostly touch and terrifying presence is that its wail can outright drop a PC to 0 hit points with one failed saving throw.  Its yet another potentially instantly lethal monster.

This Banshee model is by Games Workshop and I have to say I really like it.  Its got some rotting clothes and a gaunt face to highlight its undead nature in addition to being posed like its floating rather than walking.  I can't help but feel there some inspiration from Galadriel here which is why I choose most of the colours I did.  My only break with that was red hair to both give the model some contrast and because there's a certain 'forlorn' castle I might want to use this fig with for a D&D game down the road.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 11

Time to start getting into the 'weird' stuff; Umber Hulk

Today's addition to the Monster Manual collection is old school D&D stalwart the Umber Hulk.

The Umber Hulk is one of the strange creations from the early days of D&D that takes a fairly basic monster concept and gives it a slight twist.  The Umber Hulk is a typically brutish creature in the same vein as an Ogre or a Troll but adds in it's "Confusing Gaze" special ability.  The creature has an almost hypnotic effect on anyone who can see it's eyes, it can't actually control them but anyone looking at am Umber Hulk's eyes can become disoriented and somewhat foggy-headed.

This particular Umber Hulk model is from the new WizKids line.  I really like the figure and it held detail really well but there is one potential shortcoming with it.  The left mandible drops below the level of the base provided with the figure which means it used as-is out of the pack the miniature will not sit flat on a gaming surface.  Because my figures are all mounted on Games Workshop bases (which are slightly elevated to begin with) with a layer of plasti-card on top it wasn't an issue for me but anyone who like these things table ready out of the pack might be a little disappointed.

-Jay

Monster Manual Advent Calendar - Day 10

The Gorgon

The Gorgon is one of those extremely striking creatures because it blends the familiar and the unnatural.  In basic appearance it is an over sized bull which a party of armed adventurers might not find intimidating until you add in the fact that it's skin is some form of iron or steel.  The Gorgon is an actual living monstrosity and not some sort of mechanical life form so it's just generally kind of hard for players to figure out the first time they encounter one.

The Gorgon is one of classic role-playing's truly horrific monsters.  I always found that anything that had the an ability to take a character out on one or two unlucky rolls of the dice was always more frightening than something that was just tough and dealt a lot of damage.  The Gorgon has the ability to breathe a noxious green gas that forces players to save against its effect.  If the save is failed the affected character is petrified and begins to turn to stone.  There are a number of creatures with similar abilities but what makes The Gorgon so much worse is that ones foes are turned to stone it smashes them and eats the stone fragments.  So unlike other creatures where you have an almost unlimited amount of time to find some way to magically restore an affected character, with The Gorgon you only have until it gets hungry.

This particular Gorgon is Reaper's 'Brass Bull' model.  This is one of those large models where the Bones resin/vinyl really is the best choice.  The metal version would be heavy and cumbersome and probably prone to chipping given all the points on the model.  In addition this is a pretty big figure (the base it's on here is a 65mm GW base)  and at this size this miniature was only about $6.50 so a lot of bang for the buck.

-Jay

Advent Calendar - Day 9

Dire Wolf

Over the years one of the things I had struggled with is finding good models for Dire Wolves (or just wolves in general).  A ton of companies have made wolves over the years but for some reason they always strike me as much too small for Dire Wolves.  As an added irony most miniature companies (in my opinion anyway) scale their dog miniatures way too big which means that a wolf model comes off as even smaller.

About 5 years ago I found some pre-painted D&D miniatures of Dire Wolves that were PERFECT.  They filled a 25mmx50mm base and were roughly the same height and mass as a Games Workshop warhorse.  Those were fun but I need more and different wolves as well.

The Dire Wolves in Games Workshop's current range are a bit more like zombie wolves and although I really like their uniqueness they didn't fit with my image of a Dire Wolf for old school RPGs.  I wanted a giant furry but still living wolf.  Luckily for me Games Workshop actually makes exactly what I'm looking for in their Warhammer 40,000 range; the Fenrisian Wolves.

These wolves are huge!  They are slightly bigger than the pre-painted wolves I had from before but in addition they are far better sculpted and have much crisper detail.  I painted the first one in my traditional 'evil' wolf scheme but might try some wintery colours down the road on more wolves.

-Jay

Advent Calendar - Day 7

Wraith

Today's entry is the flip-side of the coin versus my Death Knight from a few days ago.  There have been a number of Wraith models from various miniature companies over the years for RPGs but I've found pretty much all of them to be pretty underwhelming, Games Workshop went with a 'Grim-Reaper' take on the basic Wraith idea and I've always liked it the best.

Full disclosure I actually painted this figure before the start of the month but after Darren suggested the idea so he's already seen the game table in an Age Of Sigmar skirmish game but I still think he'll get double-duty in fantasy role-playing games as well.

-Jay

Advent Calendar - Day 6

Minotaur

The minotaur is another old-school fantasy monster that when I think about it I'm surprised I haven't painted before.
In addition to being a staple of D&D since the beginning it has also appeared in  various versions of Warhammer.

My first exposure to the minotaur in D&D was the awesome invisible ink solo adventure Maze Of The Riddling Minotaur.  The titular monster hung out in the centre of the maze as should be expected.

My inspiration for coming back to the minotaur was the most recent awesome cinematic battle featuring a minotaur.  I am of course referring to the mass battle in Anchorman 2.  This might mean that if I decided to do a ghost at some point it may well end up being the ghost of Stonewall Jackson.

-Jay

Advent Calendar Day-5

Myconid Sovereign

Today my mushroom-men are adding a boss to their ranks.  In addition to being larger and tougher than the regular Myconids the Sovereign also has the ability to use fungal spores to animated fallen foes as spore-infested pseudo-zombies.

I think at some point down the road this could be a neat hook for an adventure as that sort of ability is traditionally associated with evil creatures.  It feels like it could lead to a traditional comic book style encounter where a (relatively) peaceful character is encountered but the protagonists mistake his intentions and their relationship begins with a fight due to a misunderstanding.

It feels good to be getting some truly different and distinct creatures done for my games!

-Jay

Advent Calendar Day-4

Death Knight

It seems like tradition (for my anyway) that any advent calendar has something in it that is at least mildly disappointing, today's addition is unfortunately that thing for me.

I wanted to add a Death Knight and not finding any great actual Death Knight models readily available I turned to the Games Workshop's undead line and chose their fantastic looking Wight Lord model.  The Wight Lord hits (as a Death Knight) on everything I'm looking for; armoured, regal, conveys might beyond a skeleton, crisp excellent detail...but there was one REALLY obvious thing missing to me; he's not Lord Soth.

Death Knights have existed in D&D since the beginning but with the release of Dragonlance in the late 80s Lord Soth became THE Death Knight.  In addition to featuring heavily in Dragonlance  fiction and modules Soth was eventually dropped into my personal favourite setting Ravenloft where he got two more novel and another published module.  There are certain characters who become so iconic (if I say "wizard" don't we all picture Gandalf in our minds?) that even when there are other versions of that same character you somehow just can't move past the image of the 'alpha' version.

Although my plan from inception with this project was that these models would be used for D&D this might be the one figure I can't quite muster putting on the table and declaring what he is because I can't shake the feeling my players will feel and think what I feel and think.  If he fails to see the table as a Death Knight in any of my games I'm sure he can return to his intended purpose as an Age Of Sigmar hero where I can appreciate him for how perfect he is rather being hung up on my own image of what a Death Knight should look like.

-Jay