Review - Grandmother Crookbesom's Book Of Hags

Today I'm taking a look at another new DMsGuild title; Grandmother Crookbesom's Book Of Hags.

Grandmother Crookbesom's is a little bit different from the books I usually get from DMsGuild in that rather than being an adventure or compilation of adventures it is a collection of 13 different unique named hags (or covens of hags in some cases) set in different locales with different motivations and histories to be dropped into an existing game or perhaps to have one-shots built around.

As a toolbox for DMs Grandmother Crookbesom's is a fantastic resource setting up a lot of content that can be used in a variety of ways.  One of the first hags I started planning to incorporate into my current game is Auntie Bumble, a hag with  a confusing and really unique secret that will make my players truly satisfied when they figure her out.  I also immediately adjusted a current adventure I'm running to use Cackling Gundred as the initiator of a minor sidequest.  The contrast for me personally between these two uses; Bumble will effectively be an entire adventure on her own, while Gundred will add some depth and flavour to an existing adventure, showcase the versatility and value of this book.

In addition to the named hags with their various story hooks and encounters there are some new types of hags and some unique magic to provide surprises and fresh challenges for any of your players who have become overly familiar with the cannon of published monsters.

I can highly recommend Grandmother Crookbesom's Book Of Hags for anyone looking to add a dark fairy-tale sensibility to their existing game and it's tremendously good value for money based on the amount of content and hours of play laid out inside for less than a fiver.

Grandmother Crookbesom's Book Of Hags is available now on DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/280395/Grandmother-Crookbesoms-Book-of-Hags?term=grandmother

-Jay

Review - Call From The Deep

I was fortunate enough to get a preview copy of JVC Parry's newest offering on DMsGuild; Call From The Deep and having had  some time to read an absorb the material I'd like to share my thoughts.

Call From The Deep is a nautically themed adventure with a little something for everyone.  Slightly Cthulhu?  Check!  Pirates and high seas adventure?  Check!  A little haunting?  Check!  Heavy use of an iconic D&D monster?  Check!  A scratch for your Spelljammer itch?  Check!

I will preface my review by simply stating that I was stunned by the length, depth and production quality of this book.  The book weighs in at a whopping 270 pages (for context that is a slightly higher page count than Curse Of Strahd) and is chock full of absolutely fantastic and evocative artwork and maps.  I would easily say the quality of this book is on par with anything Wizards Of The Coast has published themselves.

In addition to the excellent use of art and maps the layout with regular breakout sections and clear subsections makes it a very easy read for a book with this much content.  I particularly liked how much focus was given to each significant NPCs motivation and personality, the level of description provided should make each NPC easy for DMs to role-play and memorable for players to encounter. 

The adventure features many different nautically themed locations that all manage to feel unique and important with a character all their own.  Flavour text is descriptive and evocative without being overly long or drawn out.

The thing I appreciate most about Call From The Deep from a DM perspective is that it is a massive campaign length adventure broken down into bite-sized pieces that are incredibly easy to absorb and then run for your players.  The art and flavour text will make the settings and characters come alive for the DM and then they can use that immersion to deliver a truly fun and satisfying experience for their players.

Call From The Deep is available from DMsGuild now at  https://www.dmsguild.com/product/280922/Call-from-the-Deep?term=call+from+the+deep and I can't recommend it highly enough.  The amount of content contained herein is a bargain at the price and I can guarantee your players will enjoy it....unless maybe they get sea sick or are allergic to shellfish.

-Jay

Banshees

The unbelievably slow march of the ghost-pants continues.  This afternoon in preparation for a Ravenloft module I'm planning to run I painted a box of the Age Of Sigmar Myrnmourn Banshees.

The Banshees themselves were quite simple and straightforward to paint.  The real work on these models is their bases.  Each base had an assortment of rubble, weeds and roses on them.  It's well thought out because the bases seem to blend in fairly well with the Garden Of Morr scenery piece.

I'm excited about getting these models on the table soon.  Now I just have to figure out which game they'll be playing in first!

-Jay

Let the descent into Avernus begin!

As I write this last weekend Wizards Of The Coast broadcast their D&D Live 2019 "The Descent" event and it was the first time since those events began I watched and kept up (more-or-less) live.  Although a number of cool new products were teased and previewed the centrepiece of the event was the new book; Baldur's Gate Descent Into Avernus.  This book looks like another D&D hardcover combo adventure/campaign book and blends a descent into the first level of the nine hells with some Mad Max diesel-punk elements.  For me personally this is great!  

When I think back nostalgically on my early adventures in D&D in the early 80s a lot of the real fun came from blending different elements into 'classic' fantasy backgrounds to give players a truly different experience.  Expedition To The Barrier Peaks (sci-fi) and Ravenloft (horror) are fondly remembered by most players of that era in spite of (or perhaps because of) their break from traditional western Tolkien-esque fantasy.  I got immediately excited when it seemed like WoTC was going to do something truly thematically different, and I can't wait for September to get here.

So I won't.

Watching the four main table streams from the event gave me some ideas for miniatures I'm going to need for the adventures and I decided to start working on them right away.

Before the first adventure of the event had even concluded I'd pulled out 2 Reaper Bones Vrock models I'd purchased with the intent of using for Curse Of Strahd and based them up and started painting.  The Vrocks are a pretty good starting point because although they are a classic D&D fiend, they don't look like most classically devilish or demonic fiends.  Vrocks are basically hellish vulture monsters that depending on party level can be either a real nuisance or a huge threat.

The Reaper Bones Vrock has a great pose that emphasises both it's large size and bestial ferocity.

I've got a pair of them because when I initially got them two was how many I needed for my initial intended purpose.

I also wanted to show them next to a traditional man-sized figure to again make note of their size.

I've got a few more fiends to paint up to get the ball rolling and then I think I might dig into my Games Workshop bitz to start creating some infernal warmachines.  In a perfect world I'd wait to start scratch building until I saw some rules but the world isn't perfect and I'm not the most patient modeller :)

-Jay

   

Luthor Von Drak

I finished my new (replacement) character for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.  Following Jurgen's tragic demise a new character was needed and as a player group we decided our new addition needed to have the "Heal" skill.

Not being overly original when it comes to character concepts I started by assuming I'd choose a Warrior Priest.  One of the neat things about character generation in Warhammer Roleplay is that you can basically randomly generate every character aspect and if you chose to keep those results you get bonus XP to improve your character.  Having said that you can keep some random results, and ditch others.  When I rolled my character options one of the career paths I generated was "Duellist".  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Duellist career included the Heal skill!  I also ended up with a noble background so decided to tie my new character's backstory to the former Elector Counts of Sylvania before the rise of the Von Carsteins.

Introducing Luthor Von Drak!

Luthor is basically made from the old Empire Milita/Mordheim sprues with  head from a Bolt Action British Infantry squaddie.  Although keeping with the Sylvanian background I wanted to go with dark reds and black as my colour-scheme I chose to mix it up a bit this time by going much heavier on the red and much lighter on the use of black.  Overall I'm quite happy with how he turned out and could easily seem this figure doing double duty in a D&D game as well.

Let's hope Luthor is a bit luckier than poor Jurgen was!

-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

I'VE GOT A FEVER! AND THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION.....is more Owlbear!

The funny thing about miniature painting as a hobby is sometimes you'll think you are "done" something, or you have "enough" of something...that's never actually true.

After my most recent Owlbear run a friend pointed out that I didn't have the super-fantastic Gale Force 9 Owlbear, and then he sent me one.

There is so much to like about this model I barely know where to start.  One thing that separates the Gale Force 9 Owlbear from the other models currently on the market is they've gone much heavier on the feather texture as opposed to the bear fur.  Personally I really like this as it makes the creature feel more alien and strange than even the idea of an owl/bear hybrid is to begin with.  The one bear element that the model has retained that I really like is the unbelievably dangerous looking claws.

Overall this is an amazing model that has tons of texture and is a simple joy to paint.

At some point in the not too distant future I see an encounter with a ton of Owlbears attacking a town or village my PCs are camped out in.

Okay...so I think I've now...actually...exhausted all the Owlbear model options currently on the market...again...for now.

-Jay