Oh, Hypocrisy…

A few weeks ago, I posted an article over on my Patreon (free to read) about why I gave my Dungeons & Dragons 5e books away. Long story short, I didn’t want to support the company, Wizards of the Coast, when there were so many great alternatives available. About a week later, I ordered HeroQuest, a miniature heavy board game produced by Avalon Hill. The problem is, both Wizards of the Coast and Avalon Hill are both ultimately owned by Hasbro.

I didn’t realize this at the time I ordered HeroQuest, but I don't think it would have changed my decision anyway. I have been looking for a long time for a dungeon-crawler style board game to play with my family, especially my kids. We had played Mice & Mystics, which they really enjoyed, but I wanted something that was a bit more classic dungeon-crawling and something that was infinitely expandable. I searched, and searched, and all roads kept pointing back to HeroQuest. There is just nothing else, that I could find, quite like it.

Does this make me a hypocrite? I don’t know. In the case of D&D there are alternatives that I think are just as good (if not better). In the case of HeroQuest, I couldn’t find any.

The world is a big confusing place, and every question that gets asked is a little bit different. It’s hard not to trip over your own feet sometimes, and I doubt any human is 100% consistent.

So, I still believe that it is better to support the small companies, and independent creators, and companies with a better track record towards their employees and fans, but I also believe we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves. Those big companies often produce cool stuff. Sometimes it’s the best; sometimes its just loud and shiny and marketed everywhere. And I don't think anyone should feel too guilty about how they spend their hobby money.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this. Apparently, its a habit of mine.

My kids absolutely love HeroQuest. We’ve played a couple of games and they ask for it basically every night (when there usually isn’t time).

Scavenger II

Amazingly, my only miniatures acquisition at Salute this year was the new Stargrave: Scavengers II box. (Those were the only miniatures, there was other stuff...) I was pretty excited to get this, as I've had so much fun kit-bashing and painting the Stargrave plastics, and they didn't disappoint. I quickly assembled a little squad of wastelanders, and here's the first one I painted up!

This figure mostly comes from the Scavengers II box, except the gun arm, which comes from Mercenaries II. The mask is designed to have a gasmask attachment, but I liked the look without it for this figure and left it off. I think it makes the figure strangely menacing. 

Sorry, I didn't have better lighting on the photo. I mainly rely on natural light, and it's in a bit of short supply around here at the moment. Spring teased us for a week, and then went on holiday.  

Salute 2024

 

Despite my slightly uncomfortable look in the photo, I had a fantastic time at Salute, 2024. The Osprey Games crew treated me fantastically, as they always do, and we shared many laughs as well as interesting discussions about games and life.

My hot new product for the show was The Silver Bayonet: Egypt. Apparently a shipment arrived just in time to be available at the show a week or so early. They proved rather popular, and I spent a lot of my day signing books and chatting with fans.

Also new on the stand was the Stargrave: Scavengers II box set. I brought one of these home myself. 

The show seemed extremely well-attended this year - certainly the best in years, if not ever, and the atmosphere was wonderful. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Torchbearer

 

Another 'give it my all' weekend figure. This is another Reaper Bones USA figure sculpted by Bobby Jackson. I wanted to paint it, specifically, because of my recent interest in the OSR style of role-playing. I won't go deep into that topic here, but essentially OSR looks back to the earliest days of role-playing, of Dungeons & Dragons specifically, when 'dungeon crawling' was the central focus of the game. Back in those days, carrying a torch was crucial for dungeon explorers, so crucial, in fact, that adventuring groups often hired someone specifically to carry torches. 

Painting this figure was another way to explore this idea, mentally, while giving my fingers something to do. As always with BJ sculpts cast in either metal or Bones USA, the figure was a delight to paint, with both lots of character, and hard cuts separating detail. 

Playtesting with Mike Hutchinson

There aren't a lot of people that 'do what I do' for a living. Thankfully, one of them lives not too far away. Last week, I met up with Mike Hutchinson (of Gaslands fame) to chat about work and the industry and to eat some good food. That's Mike's full English, while I went for the seaside specialty, the scallop and bacon baguette. 

We also got a chance to have a quick playtest of Flagstone: A #Chess28 Game that Mike has been working on. I'll let him talk tell you more about in the video below, but I think he's onto a winner! 

Rats!

I use a lot of giant rats in my scenarios. In fact, one of the most common comments from new Rangers of Shadow Deep players is just how dangerous giant rats can be. Maybe they wouldn't be so surprised if their giant rats looked like this pair! These are 'Barrow Rats' sculpted by Julie Guthrie for Reaper Miniatures. 

I somehow forgot to include giant rats in The Silver Bayonet rulebook, but they made it into the game in The Carpathians! 

It didn't take too long to paint these guys up, about 2 hours each. I wanted real contrast between their pale flesh, darker hair, and the disease spots that speckle their bodies. It all combines to give them an exceptionally unhealthy look. I can see these guys getting into lots of games.

Look what just arrived. It's my author copies of Frostgrave: Mortal Enemies. I'll be honest, I don't normally read my books when I receive them. I'm too scared of finding a mistake or typo! But I love looking and the beautiful artwork by Ru-Mor and appreciate the skill and effort that went into the design and production of it. And the best part - putting it on the shelf, another volume in the growing Frostgrave library! I'll read it in a year or two, when the dust has settled.

Mortal Enemies officially releases in just over a week, on March 28. Osprey Games will have it at Salute, and I'll be on hand to sign it if you want. I think I'm scheduled to be on the stand from 11 - 12.

Otherwise, get it from your local gaming store if you can. 

Or you can pick it up, along with a few new miniatures that have produced for it, from North Star. 

Or you can grab it from Amazon.

Shadowgrave - Cthulhu in Frostgrave, Stargrave, Rangers of Shadow Deep, and Ghost Archipelago!

Want to play Frostgrave, Stargrave, Rangers of Shadow Deep, or Ghost Archipelago with the Cthulhu Mythos? The complete Shadowgrave manuscript is now available to my Patreon backers, including 2 scenarios for each of those settings!

At some point in the future, Shadowgrave will hopefully appear as a full book in the style of Grave Mutations, but I honestly can't say when that will be. This supplement includes all of the material originally found in Blaster, along with a new treasure list, and updated to include Stargrave.

patreon.com/GamesfromtheGrave973

Halfling Rogue or Rogue Halfling?

Lately, on Friday afternoon, when I close my laptop on the work week, I pick out a single figure and think - this is the figure I'm going to paint this weekend. Over the next 2.5 days, I focus my painting intently on that figure, only switching to another while I wait for a wash to dry. This is how I used to always paint miniatures, and for me, I think it is the best way. I find no joy in batch painting. If I'm honest, I never did. I want to fully enjoy every figure I paint. I want to give my brain the chance to work on stories about them, think about rules for including them in games, figure out what magic items or special equipment they might be carrying. That is fun to me.

I've actually painted this figure before. Well, I've painted a metal version of it - this is a plastic Bones USA version. I bought it for a specific project, but it became surplus to requirements, so instead, this halfling will join my generic fantasy figures. 

Looking at the photo, I can see I didn't get his eyes quite right, but you know, I can't even really see them on the miniature, even with my reading glasses on, so I'm not going to worry about it. The rest of the model came out great. 

I'm not sure if I'll get to paint any minis this weekend. It's looking pretty busy - but part of that is seeing The Return of the King at the Royal Albert Hall - so that's alright! 

Huntress

The older I get, the less interest I have in batch painting miniatures. I'd rather just settle in with a single figure and paint that one to the best of my ability. This weekend, I focused on this Reaper Bones USA figure sculpted by Bobby Jackson. I probably spent about 3 hours on her, spread over the weekend. As the figure is wearing a lot of leather, the main challenge was getting that looking good. For me, that means a lot of layers and lot of washes. Then I needed to ensure enough contrast to keep the whole thing from getting muddled.

I've said it before, and I still believe it - you can't have too many rangers!

I also took a photo of her patrolling the deep wilderness!

RoboRally!

With a player missing from the usual Sunday night Deadlands campaign, the rest of us turned our attention to RoboRally! Sorry for the poor photo, the pub just isn't the best for photos.

This fantastic board game has an interesting history. It was designed by Richard Garfield, who took it to Wizards of the Coast in the hopes of getting it published. WotC agreed to publish it, but as it had a lot of expensive components, they asked Richard if he had anything smaller that they could publish first, something like a card game...  That card game was Magic: The Gathering. Several hundreds of millions of dollars later, they published RoboRally.

I love this game because the premise is simple, and the basic mechanics are completely logical. You just have to set out movement cards each turn to give your robot instructions - move forward, turn left, move forward, turn right, etc., and be the first to touch all of the flags. It should be easy, but because you get a random draw of cards, and because the robots can bump each other off course, and because elements of the board can move and turn you around, the results are often utter chaos.  

I laughed a lot last night.

Public Lending Right

In the United Kingdom, authors are paid a small amount whenever their books are checked out of the library, so long as you register your books in advance. The actual rate per loan is set every year. This year it was £0.1369, but that amount is shared between all authors and illustrators that are listed on the cover. For major authors, this probably represents a nice little income stream. For someone at my level, it’s pocket change. I just got my statement for the past year and thought I would share the highlights!

The Story of Santa Claus: £1.37

Peter Dennis with the Cover Art!

My biggest earner every year!

Dragonslayers: £0.41

Probably still my proudest, published work.

Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide: £0.41

Zombies might not be the hot stuff they once were, but they are clearly still of interest.

Steampunk Soldiers: £0.27

I told my co-author he should register. He’s missing out!

Frostgrave: Into the Breeding Pits: £0.41

Frostgrave: The Maze of Malcor: £0.41

Wait… what? That’s never happened before. What library is loaning out Frostgrave books? (Answer – the BEST LIBRARY EVER!). Seriously though, I gave up registering my gaming books because it seemed pointless. Looks like I might be short-changing myself!

Possibly my favourite of the Frostgrave covers by the Burmaks!

Genestealer Cultists Investigate an Unholy Shrine

A few of my genestealer cultists investigate an unholy shrine. This might be just the variety of evil they are looking for!

I took this snap because these things were hanging around my desk. I think I've shown all, or at least most, of them before. The little shrine remains one of my all-time favourite terrain scratch builds. It was simple, easy, and looks terrific without being a huge pain to store! I've got one more genestealer hybrid to paint to complete the dozen I set out to complete for Space Hulk.

Why I Joined Patreon & What it Means for this Blog

Artwork by Barrett Stanley

Writing and games are my passion. I love getting to my desk each morning and sinking into fantasy worlds of my own creation. I love the word-craft of writing stories and filling bestiaries with strange monsters. I delight in the mathematics and probability of rulemaking, of working with dice, of manipulating the flow of stories through randomization. I am driven to create games that give people a reason to gather around a table: to laugh, to play, to create their own stories. This is my work. I feel a calling to do it. One of my main goals at this point in life is to ensure that I can keep doing it. Unfortunately, having ‘work’ to do is not always the same as having a job that earns money.

I’ve considered setting up a Patreon for a couple of years, but every time I seriously thought about it, I decided, ‘I don’t really need it’. My games, published by Osprey Games and Modiphius, have sold well, and my publishers and my fans generally seem eager for more. I’ve even done some self-publishing to help fill in the cracks when other work was scarce. All and all, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to earn a decent living while working so intently on projects I love.

But while I’ve been able to support my family for a few years now, it has never been a steady road. Some months I earn next to nothing, others I land a big score. I live in hope that it averages out. I have no employment safety net, I don’t earn a pension, and I don’t get paid time off. That’s just the price of being my own boss, and I’ve accepted that. However, my industry is rapidly changing. New technologies and changing societal norms are mutating the traditional relationship between creators and publishers. Contracts that made sense when they were signed have become out-dated, obsolete, or sometimes non-sensical. While I work to maintain good relations with my publishers, and honestly hope to continue working with them for decades to come, no one can truly say what the industry will look like in three, five, or ten years. Will there be any publishers? Or at least more than one? And if there are, will they still employ independent creators? How can independent creators hope to retain a stake in their own creations while still getting them out to the people who would enjoy them?

Now, more than ever, it is necessary for creators to interact directly with the fans of their work. So, while the money and the idea of a bit of ‘steady income’ that comes with Patreon is certainly appealing to me in the present, I have really joined in the hopes of better securing a future for my work. To have a place I can always go to write, to create, and to share with people whose passion for fantasy adventure games burns as brightly as my own. A place where my work can be supported even if all other avenues dry up. Additionally, I want a place where I can enjoy the full freedom to write and publish whatever, whenever, I want, without reliance on anyone else. The business world loves to capture and dominate niches, as it has proven a good way to generate income, but people and artists don’t work like that. We thrive when we are free to explore, to take chances and risks, and to push the boundaries of our life and work. I am hopeful that Patreon will give me a safe space for my own explorations into areas and artwork for which publishers have no use. I need to keep exploring and trying new things, artistically and economically, both to survive financially and to ensure I don’t stagnate. I’ve got to keep pushing myself as well as my work.

I haven’t joined Patreon to massively change what I do. My greatest joy still comes from creating fantasy adventure games that are turned into glorious game books! I am just hopeful that Patreon is another tool that will allow me to continue to do that, while also growing as an artist and creator. If you’d like to support me in those endeavours, you can do so here.

What Does it Mean for this Blog?

I set up The Renaissance Troll to be my personal hobby blog, to show off the miniatures I have painted, talk about the games I have played, and to share quick thoughts about anything else that struck my fancy. Over the years, my work has crept into that, but that has always been its secondary function. I still intend to carry on with this blog, showing off minis and talking about games. Occasionally, I will mention Patreon, and maybe even share a piece or two from it, but it won't alter the basic structure of this blog.

The Hobbit Puzzle

I made an interesting find in the local used bookstore over the weekend. It's a 1,000 piece puzzle based on The Hobbit with artwork by Peter Pracownik made in the UK for Express Gifts Ltd. The image is copyright 1999, which I suspect is near the printing date as well.

Now, I'll be honest, its far from my favourite piece of Middle-earth artwork. The whole work is a little cartoonish for my tastes. Bilbo is only recognizable as a hobbit by his bare feet, and looks much more human or even elvish. That said, these days it is rare to see a completely original take on any of Tolkien's works, so I do find it refreshing. I really like the letters in the 'Hobbit', which are extremely organic and even sprouting mushrooms. I also like the arrangement of the piece, with its frames within frames, and how many different pieces of the story it manages to work in. 

We'll see how I feel about it once I've got it assembled. I'm not expert puzzler however, and it's a lot of pieces, so it could be awhile. Also, since it came from a used store, I just hope all the pieces are there!

Ogre: Test Run

My ebay copy of Ogre: Sixth Edition arrived, and I gave it quick test run. I replaced the cardboard Ogre Mk III with my metal mini and the command post with a little piece of terrain from Brigade Models. I played the most basic scenario and even used the suggested set-up. 

The game really is smooth and quick. I wish it used a die other than the d6, but that's my only real complaint. Math that at first seems daunting really isn't. It is apparent that the side not playing the Ogre has a lot more to think about, which actually makes it a good game to introduce new players, as the Ogre side is much easier. 

My Ogre finally ground to a halt a mere four hexes from the command post. The enemy still had 2 GEVs, 1 heavy tank, and a howitzer left. It's that howitzer that really caused the most problems. 

I still want to replace the counters with miniatures. That actually make the game slightly harder, as the minis won't have stats on them. That said, the game has so few units, I don't think it will take long to memorize them all, and a quick cheat sheet is all that should be necessary before then.

Games from the Grave - My Patreon, Launching Today!

Today I am launching my Patreon, Games from the Grave!  I'll explain my reasoning in a future post, but for now, I'm celebrating by sharing some free-to-everyone posts, including:

• Drekyl in Stargrave - A reworking of an article I originally wrote for Wargames Illustrated, now featuring aliens I created for another game called Deathship One.
• The Renaissance Troll: The Life and Journey of a Tabletop Game Designer (Part 1) - The forward, introduction, and first chapter of my gaming autobiography.
• Gundogs of Death Canyon: Design Goals - The blurb and design goals for a small, solo miniatures game I am planning on developing within Patreon.

There are also a couple of pieces already in the paid membership section:

• Lair of the Dark Goat - A solo scenario for The Silver Bayonet.
• The Renaissance Troll (Part 2) - The next part of my gaming autobiography, which tells the story of the first great gaming store to influence my life and an examination of my first role-playing love: Middle-Earth Role-Playing (MERP)!

Going forward, I plan to share at least three works every month, which could include:

 ·       Draft work of new games, with discussions about my design decisions. 

 ·       Essays on game design, the industry, and the hobby. 

 ·       New material for my games, such as a scenarios, monsters, and treasure. 

 ·       Chapters from my gaming autobiography. 

 ·       Reviews of games and associated media. 

 ·       Other types of writing such as fiction and travel writing. 

Most of this will be new writing, though some will be older works that are now out of print and hard to find. Some of it will be used in future publishing projects, but a lot will remain exclusive to Patreon. Whatever its origins or ultimate fate, I hope each work will be a little bit of gamer fun to brighten your day!

Ogre: Mark V

I had so much fun with the first two, I decided to go ahead and repaint the last of my metal Ogre cybertanks - a dreaded Mark V. As you can see, the figure is quite a beast, and when cast in lead, has a serious heft to it! I nicknamed him 'Thunderbolt', because I had a couple of the hand holding a thunderbolt decals that I thought would look cool on him. 

Disaster struck after I finished painting and went to varnish the figure. I do this by using blue tack to stick figures to cardboard and then take them outside to spray. Unfortunately, while tacking the tank down, I pushed on its one week point, right on the centre of the back where the two halves meet. And, unsurprisingly, it broke in half. Now luckily, it was a clean break, so all I need to do was glue it back together, and I had a new bottle of superglue gel to use... At least, I thought it was gel until I gave it a squeeze and sprayed superglue all over the place. This could have been a lot worse as most of it went on the tank itself and the newspaper underneath and not on my hand! So, check those labels carefully!

Eventually, I got him back together and sprayed. He's now ready to lead my cybertank forces! 

Ogre: Retreads!

 

At the start of the year, I wrote a list of all the games I would like to play in 2024. A surprise entry on that list, even to me, was Ogre, the Steve Jackson classic of asymmetric warfare where a giant cybertank takes on a conventional army. Unfortunately, the only copy of the game I owned was an old pocket edition... which is a tough sell to most modern gamers. So, I decided to buy the big, Sixth Edition box set, but this proved difficult. It's sold out in the UK. Well, lucky for me, I just won an ebay auction for a decently priced used set, and I'm awaiting delivery. 

Although the game is technically a board game, using counters, I know I will eventually convert it to using all miniatures. Now, I did already have a few metal ogre miniatures from long ago, which I dug out of storage. In fact, they are dated 1993 on the bottom. I probably picked them up a bit later, maybe 1997, but that's still over 25 years ago. They were covered in dust and the paint jobs were horrible. I considered stripping them to paint again, but stripping miniatures is a really unpleasant and generally unrewarding experience - so I decided I would just paint over them.

I pulled out a Mark III and a Mark III-b and gave them each about 90 minutes of work. While they are unlikely to win any awards, they are vastly improved! I also have a Mark V, but he's in better shape. I might get to him later.  

Once I get the game, I'll make plans for replacing the counters with other miniatures. Apart from the ogres, I'm not committed to the official range, so will see what glorious 6mm tanks are available!

Here's the original paint job on the Mark III. Certainly needed some brightening, if nothing else. If you look closely, right in the middle of the back, you can see it was just slightly miscast - but I'm calling that battle damage!

More Hybrids

 

I've been having a lot of fun old-school kit-bashing to build genestealer hybrids for Space Hulk. Each of these three guys uses bodies and heads from the Stargrave Scavengers set. The two on the outside each have one arm taken from a modern genestealer hybrid set and one arm, or at least part of an arm, clipped off a classic Space Hulk genestealer! The middle guy has one arm from the scavenger set, but the gun arm comes from the Wargame Atlantic Einherjar (space dwarf) set, a sprue of which I got with a copy of Miniature Wargames. Makes a pretty good plasma gun! 

Space Hulk uses genestealer hybrids in a way that really warms my gamer heart. Each scenario has its own encounter table, so you really never know exactly what equipment your hybrids will be carrying, and since this can very greatly from scenario to scenario, you never really know how many and what type you need in your collection. My goal is to have about a dozen of these guys with varied weapons, so I'll always have something 'close enough' that I can throw onto the table (hybrids rarely last long anyway).

Big Skulls!

Just finished painted a pair of big skulls to use as a scatter terrain. These are Games Workshop pieces made to go with their Warhammer Underworlds game, though I actually got them from Stormbringer magazine - these and 4 more pieces for £9, which is kind of a steal.

I've always had difficulty painting bone. I could never quite get the effect I wanted, so I decided to really give these pieces my all. I painted the one on the right first. I used a lot of washes and layers on it, just taking my time to build it up, and I'm extremely happy with the results. It truly looks old and weathered. 

When I came to paint the one on the left, I forgot some of those lessons. While the end effect isn't bad, it doesn't please me quite as much. It looks like it was recently picked clean, while the other one looks ancient. 

I showed them to a friend and said, 'I love terrain pieces that I can use for every setting!' To which he replied, 'Those are going to look great in your American Civil War battles'. Fair point, but since I mainly play fantasy and sci-fi, I think it works.

The other 4 pieces are smaller, or about the size of the smaller skull, so hopefully I can get them painted up soon. Actually, I don't really like one of them, so it might be just 3 more. Cool kit. Definitely worth the money if you can find it for £9.

Colonial Marine Gun Truck

 

My Colonial Marines got a serious firepower upgrade over the holidays in the form of a gun truck. The model is from Games Workshop, their Genesteler Cults range. I liked the tough, workman-like look of the vehicle and thought it would be prefect for marines stuck on distant colonies who were generally facing low-level threats. 

I don't really enjoy painting vehicles, so I gave it a very quick green paint job with a few details and a good bit of weathering. Then I threw a few decals on for visual interest. My one bit of flair was painting the name/artwork on the side. This truck is the 'Lucky Duck'... okay, the paint job ain't great, but it was the best I could manage! 

I really couldn't decide if I wanted a mini riding on top of the truck or not. I went back and forth several times before deciding to make the figure removable. So, I drilled little pins into its feet and corresponding holes in the top deck. These hold her firmly in place, but when she is removed the holes are tool small to notice - so that worked well!

One day, I'd like to have a whole 'convoy' for my marines. But, I'm happy to build this up slowly.

Space Hulk by Pub Light

Sunday before last saw me back in the pub for another round of first edition Space Hulk! Once again, I took on the role of the genestealers, while my two gaming buddies each took a squad of marines (played here by Steel Legion and Karskin troops). We played 'Mission Five: Decoy' from the main Mission Book. I can't remember ever playing this mission before, but selected it because it just fit on the pub table!

The mission tasks the marines with getting 5 of their 10 guys across the table and out the exit. In truth, I thought the marines blew it in the opening turns of the game, when they got bottled-necked at an early cross roads and had their flamers stuck in the middle. I perhaps didn't go after them quite as hard as I could have at that moment, but I have always been more of a games master than a competitor*. Anyway, the game is still notoriously hard for the marines, even when the stealer player isn't the smartest.

We also adopted one house rule for the game, saying that when a flamer trooper runs out of ammo, they can switch to a pistol, which only rolled one die, hitting on a 6. This actually proved crucial in the late game, as the Steel Legion flame trooper racked up an impressive number of pistol kills, defending a crucial corner before finally being taken down (that's him with the plasma gun in the photo!). 

In the end, the marines just managed to get the 5th guy off before everyone else was dragged down by aliens. Another turn, or a bad command points draw on that last turn, and they wouldn't have made it.

I am continually impressed by how this very old game design continues to deliver great play experiences. 

* In my defence, the cover of the first edition box proudly proclaims the game to be '3D Role-Play'. Though Rick Priestly once told me that they only put that on there because RPGs were so big at the time.

Monkey Slush

 It was said that 10,000 monkeys, typing on 10,000 typewriters, would eventually produce Shakespeare. ‘Artificial Intelligence’ may prove this true. What isn’t said is that 10,000 humans would have to read this mountainous pile of monkey-slush, almost of all of which will be closer to shake-poo than Shakespeare. Ask yourself, do you really want to be a monkey poo reader?

Pyrkon in Poznan, Poland!

It's official. In June I will be a guest at Pyrkon, a large geek-gathering in Poznan, Poland!

I have never been to the convention before... in fact, I've never been to Poland before, so it should be loads of fun. 

While the program is still being worked out, I am planning on giving a talk about writing games and also participating in a few games of Frostgrave and The Silver Bayonet. 

Last year their miniature gaming guest was Jervis Johnson - so I've got some big shoes to fill! 

More news as I have it, but if you are Polish (or looking for a new geek adventure in another country!) and you love miniature gaming, please make sure to come by and say 'hi'. I'll be practicing how to say hello in Polish, but that'll probably be the best I can do.

Rangers of Shadow Deep Compendiums...

I’m really looking forward to the release

of Rangers of Shadow Deep: A Gathering of Heroes. You can pre-order in the USA here, UK & Rest of World here and you’ll get the PDF now. Or you can wait to see what kind of deals North Star does with the book and figures. However, the book has naturally raised a lot of questions. These are the same kinds of questions that always come up when dealing with books of collected material – questions that have plagued game publishers for decades. 

As I said before, I mainly created A Gathering of Heroes to get a big, beautiful book! I included new material because I had some new exciting material that I wanted to present in the best-looking way, and I included older material both to make the book big enough to justify publication but also to give that material the A-star treatment. I wanted to give people the option to buy the better-looking book, but not force them to just to get the new material – which is why the book will have a low ebook price when it is officially released.

If this book goes well, I hope someday I will do something similar with the 3 supplements that currently aren’t collected (Across the Wastes, Dungeons Dark, and Tenebrous Citadel). I don’t know when (or truly even if) that will be. My question – are there people that would like to see these three supplements collected into an Adventure Compendium 2 (to match the Adventure Compendium 1 that I published?). This would contain no new material and would literally just be the three books bound together. The only real plus is having them in one book and getting a cover to match Adventure Compendium 1. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And just for fun, and for those who might be wondering, here are the 10 Archetypes contained in A Gathering of Heroes: 

Red Hawk Knight

Chthonian Mage 

River Shark 

Servant of Seth 

Varakian Archer

Vampire Hunter 

Scrollmaster of Melnoth 

Encarnoth Delver 

Wasteland Firesword 

Shadow Deep Survivor or Defector

Genestealer Hybrids (and 2023 Review!)

 

Here's the last three miniatures I completed in 2023 - a trio of 'homemade' genestealer hybrids. I want a complete set of the genestealer hybrids that can appear during Space Hulk games, but I didn't fancy paying the price to get either the classic or the modern models. So, I decided to use what I've got -  a box of Stargrave Scavengers and a few left over genestealer bits. Thankfully, the scavengers box includes a few heads that work great for hybrids (including one zombified version which I used for the magus in the middle). I'll need about a dozen of these guys all together, but I'm not in a huge rush.

These capped off a year in which I painted 104 models - down a bit from last year's 116 - but still a pretty good tally! Once again, those models are spread all over the genre map. 20 of them were genestealers or hybrids. Another 29 were science-fiction, including my new Stargrave crew and a bunch of Colonial Marines. A few were for The Lord of the Rings, as I finally finished up my Fellowship of the Ring. This doesn't count the 12 figures I painted for my slowly growing Dol Amroth army.  Another 8 were for Marvel: Crisis Protocol. 

I've got a couple of projects I'd like to finish in 2024: Those hybrids I mentioned, phase 1 of my Dol Amroth army, and that set of Warcry terrain that has been hanging around for too long. But, I'm also going to try and not worry about it too much. I like hopping around, depending on my mood, and as long as I don't buy too much for anyone project at any one time, I don't see this as being a problem. In truth, I'd rather spend a bit more time this year getting minis onto the gaming table than getting them off the painting desk!