Print-on-Demand!

If you love Rangers of Shadow Deep, Frostgrave, and paper, it’s your day!

First up, after a bit of trial-and-error, the hardback version of the Rangers of Shadow Deep core rulebook is live. It is exactly the same as the paperback, except with a heavy, thumpy cover.

Next up, Rangers of Shadow Deep: Blood Moon is also now available print-on-demand. It’s a thin one, but makes for an attractive little supplement, much like a classic RPG module.

Finally, Issue 4 of Spellcaster is also available, for those that want to make sure they have the full set in print edition!

I love the flexibility of PDFs, but for me, nothing beats paper. 

A New Battlefield

Check out my new mat from Cigar Box Battles! It’s the 6’ x 4’ ‘Mixed Ground’ matt with 1” hex overlay. (You can get it without the hexes or with 2, 3, or 4” hexes). 

I thought this would be a great mat to lay down for games of Battletech and Ogre. Actually, I like it so much I might even use it for the occasional miniatures game where I’m feeling lazy and can't be bothered to use a tape measure.

Some of the members of my Firehawks Legion are testing it out in the photo. As you can see the new battlemech bases are a bit bigger than 1”. Still, I don’t think the difference is big enough to cause an issue.

Looking forward to getting a game in on this sucker!

Buzz, Buzz

Okay, I admit it. When I wrote Rangers of Shadow Deep, I included ‘giant flies’ in several scenarios without having the slightest idea where players would get such miniatures. I wasn’t worried though, I’ve noticed that miniature gamers, especially those attracted to more open-ended games like this one, are infinitely inventive. I have since seen several suggestions to use for giant flies, but the most popular seems to be this set of ‘joke flies’ on amazon. Since I needed some giant flies for my Blood Moon set-up, I ordered a pack.

So far, I have ‘painted’ six of them, which is probably all I will need for Blood Moon. I say painted, but the only thing I actually painted were the bases. I painted up and flocked some bases, and then I just glued the flies on top. I haven’t otherwise touched them with a brush. It just didn’t seem worth the effort.

So here they are menacing a new ranger I recently painted.

Anyway, if you are looking for flies, these are recommended. Actually, if you can bring yourself to do it, it looks like you can get the same flies for several pounds cheaper if you are willing to buy plastic poo at the same time. Personally, I'm kind of glad I paid the extra few pounds for less... [It has been pointed out that the cheaper ones are only 10mm. The more expensive are 15mm.]

Mechanized Infantry

It turns out, it is really difficult to photograph 6mm infantry, which is probably just as well as it is also really hard to paint 6mm infantry. All of that said, I gave it a go! Here are the first two squads of a mechanized infantry company that will support my Firehawks Legion Mechs.  (Actually, only one squad is actually pictured, but the other looks almost identical).

The infantry and APCs come from Brigade Models ‘Hammer’s Slammers’ line*. I like these because they are just a bit bigger than their other 6mm stuff and seem to fit better with the Battletech mechs. As you can see, they look great with a Locust looming over them.

* Saying that, I can't seem to find these specific minis on there, but similar ones are available.

Auxiliary Companions

There wasn’t a huge amount of quiet time around my house during the holiday period, but I did find enough to paint up the four Auxiliary Companions I had made to use for Rangers of Shadow Deep: Blood Moon. If you’d like to read more about how these figures were built, you can read about that here.

I started by painting their leader, Nicholan. Since he comes from a wealthy, aristocratic background, I painted him in the standard uniform colours of the army of Alladore, complete with his ‘upper class’ red cloak. He doesn’t seem to have any eyes in the photo, but when viewed at true 28mm you can’t tell. I like this figure a lot and suspect he’ll managed to get into a lot of games beyond just the Blood Moon scenario.

Next up was Orla; she also got the standard Alladore colours. It’s great how easily the paint job can take these Frostgrave figures out of their cold environment and make them look at home in a more temperate climate.

Last came Covan and Seb. Since these guys are a bit farther removed from the standard army, I decided to play that up by having brown feature more heavily than green on both of them. That way they still feel like part of the same force, but more…auxiliary…

Once again, praise for the Anvil Industries heads that I used on the three men. While there is nothing wrong with the heads in either the Frostgrave or Oathmark boxes, it is nice to have some extra variety as a different head makes for a completely different figure and stretches those boxes even further.

The Chapel on the Cliffs by Joseph Crawford

One of my goals in the new year is to be a better supporter of independent/small press game publishing. There are a lot of talented and creative folks out there who are developing great stuff in relative obscurity and every little mention they get can make a big difference.

Recently, while checking out DriveThruRPG, I saw the cover for The Chapel on the Cliffs. Since I’m a sucker for a bit of undead art, I decided to take a closer look and very quickly ordered the print-on-demand.

Having now read all 40 pages, I can honestly say this is terrific fantasy role-play adventure. The adventure is designed for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, but could very easily be converted for use with just about any fantasy setting or rules system.

It is a low-level adventure, centred around an abandoned fishing village. There are lots of interesting locations to explore, some of which are directly related to the main plot, and some of which are not. What I really like about the adventure is its great mix of exploration/investigation and combat. Although there is going to be a lot of swordplay, it is basically impossible to succeed through combat alone. It’s been really well thought-out and developed.

In truth, with the book in my hands, most people wouldn’t believe it is a small press publication. The artwork is fabulous. The maps are terrific. The layout is great. Seriously, it’s just really well done.

At $11.95 for the print edition, and just a tad more to pick up the PDF as well, this adventure module is an absolute steal – especially for those who have fond memories of the Basic D&D modules of yore!

Something Wicked This Way Comes…

Amongst my many little obsessions is pumpkin heads, especially evil pumpkin heads*. I don’t know where it comes from, or why it has stuck with me over the years, but it has.

A couple of years ago, either for a birthday or Christmas, my buddy Phil gave me a small pack of resin pumpkin heads, I think from Puppets of War (although I could be wrong about that). For whatever reason, these heads sat in my bits box for years.

The other day, I just felt really compelled to paint up a pumpkin head, so I quickly threw this guy together. Apart from the head, the rest of the bits come from the Frostgrave Cultists box. I gave him a skeletal arm as I thought I could paint it to look like sticks, which I think as worked pretty well.

In truth, I’m pretty pleased with him. In fact, I like him so much, I have decided that a full pumpkin-headed Frostgrave warband needs to be one of my little projects for the year. Of course, I’m going to need some special rules for that, so look for ‘Vegimancer’ rules coming later this year (possibly for Halloween).

* In truth the only ‘good’ pumpkin head I can think of is Jack Pumpkinhead from the OZ books…who is probably the most famous pumpkinhead of them all. The rest seem to be evil.