(Kickstarter) Bones 6 by Reaper Miniatures

Even if I wasn't pleased with the last Kickstarter, it is sort of a national gaming holiday when launches another Bones campaign.

The Reaper Bones 6:  Tales from the Green Griffin follows and updates the traditions of the previous five.

Within the first few minutes of the campaign (I was pledged #40 at 1:01pm) there were only two open options at this time: the $125 Core Set for 46 figures at the time, as well as a Green Griffin Tavern/Inn expansion for $50, which starts with 2 figures, a Fireplace, and seven other accessories.  As usual, stretch goals and expansions will make these sets grow much much bigger. 

Eight minutes in and they've already gotten almost a thousand members and $120,000 pledged.   Unleash that updates.

Another Month of Gaming Solicitations (April '22)

Another month, another issue of Alliance Games Game Trade Magazine, covering new releases and the monthly solicitation guide for your Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS). Here's my take on the new releases, what's cool, what might sell, and some Old Man Yells at Cloud rants on product issues that were just as true in the 80s-90s (when I worked gaming retail) as they are today.

I'm not the demographic of most game companies, and while I max nostalgic for older products I should have bought, or I shouldn't have sold off, I wince at the the prices from 30 years ago.  Such is life.

Issue #266 of Game Trade Magazine can be found at your , or online in pdf form here.

ViscountEric's Gaming Want List

Nothing!    

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List

Nuttin'!

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)

25th Century Games

Cryptid Cafe ................................................................. $39.99

Cryptid Cafe: Creeples ................................................. $14.99

Prehistories ................................................................... $30.00

The Army Painter 

Army Painter has gone a little made with two full ranges of paint:  Warpaints Air for the airbrush aficionados and Speedpaints, which apparently should be the "one coat fits all" type of paint, or better put, the type of paint we all used 30+ years ago.  Considering I find the coverage with normal Army Painter paints more than acceptable, I'm pondering what type of gel paint these things will turn out to be.  Warpaints Air will the $3.50/each,  Speedpaints $4.50/each, and the larger bottles or airbrush cleaner, varnishes, and primer got for $6.50-$8.50.

Beyond My Control Games

Perilous Paths ................................................................ $25.00

Catalyst Game Labs

Shadowrun RPG: 6th Ed Core Rulebook - Seattle Edition ........$49.99

Shadowrun RPG:  Dice & Edge Tokens - Green ....................... $19.99

Cubicle 7

Warhammer Fantasy RPG: The Horned Rat GM Journal ....................... $19.99

Warhammer Fantasy RPG: The Horned Rat Player Journal ..................  $19.99

GMT Games 

Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain 1085-1086 ..................... $90.00

US Civil War ........................................................................................... $80.00

Goodman Games

DCC:  Lankhamar #13 - Mercy on the Day of Eel ................................ $ 9.99

DCC: Valentines Module #1 - Love in the Age of Gongfarmers ........... $ 9.99

5th Edition Fantasy #19 - Denizens of the Reed Maze .......................... $ 9.99

Greater Than Games

Lost in the Woods ................................................... $ 9.95

Japanime Games

Anime 5e ................................................................. PI

Anime 5e Pocket Edition .........................................PI

Konami Digital Entertainment

Yu-Gi-Oh! Elemental Hero Game Mat ......................... $14.99

Yu-Gi-Oh! Elemental Hero Game Sleeves ................... $ 3.99

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Tactical Masters Boosters

Loke Battle Mats

Battle Mats: Big Book of Battle Mats - Volume III ....... $26.95

Mantic Entertainment 

Kings of War - A Storm in the Shires:  2 - Player Set ....................... $110.00

Terrain Crate: City Battle ............................................... $175.00

Terrain Crate: Bustling Metropolis ................................. $100.00

Terrain Crate: Downtown Destruction ...........................  $90.00

Terrain Crate: Convenience Store ..................................  $40.00

Terrain Crate: Destroyed Building ................................   $40.00

Terrain Crate: Street Scatter ............................................ $40.00

Terrain Crate: City Accessories ....................................... $20.00

A whole lot of Armada as well, which hasn't tickled my fancy, no local FLGS has stocked, and none of my gaming friends (face-to-face or virtual) have taken a look at it.  

Modiphius

Giant Frostbite Spider ...................................................... $25.00

When I see "Giant Frostbite Spider" and it's 25.00, I picture a certain size and quality in a product.  When I see "Trolls (2)" for $33.00 next to it, I question everything.

Monster Fight Club

22" x 30" Broken Grassland/Desert Scrub Game Mat ................... $35.00

44" x 30" Broken Grassland/Desert Scrub Adventure Grid ........... $50.00

44" x 30" Broken Grassland/Desert Scrub Game Mat ................... $50.00

Amethyst Crystals ............................................... $30.00

Ice Crystals ......................................................... $30.00

Peridot Crystals .................................................. $30.00

Evergreen Pine Forest ......................................... $45.00

Snowy Hills ......................................................... $45.00

Snowy Ice Fields ................................................. $45.00

Snowy Pines ........................................................ $45.00

Osprey Games

Castles in the Sky ............................................................ $25.00

Paizo Publishing 

Pathfinder RPG: AP Outlaws of Alkenstar 3 - The Smoking Gun ............... $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip-Mat - Enormous Dungeon ......................................... $26.99

Starfinder RPG: AP Drift Crashers 1 - The Perfect Storm ........................... $24.99

Starfinder RPG: Alien Archive (Pocket Edition) .......................................... $24.99

Starfinder RPG: Spell Cards Supplemental .................................................. $29.99

Pegasus Spiele

Carnegie ....................................................... $69.99

Reaper Miniatures

Bones Legends: Leprechaun ......................... $ 5.99

Learn-to-Paint Starter Set ................................. $49.99

Learn-to-Paint Kobold Quick Paint Set ........... $35.99

Layer Up!  Color Expansion. .............................. $29.99

And a slew of new Bones from the 5th Kickstarter.

Rio Grand Games

Fenix ....................................................... $39.95

Full Throttle! ........................................... $29.95

Space Station Phoenix ............................  $79.95

Ta-Ke ....................................................... $34.95

Steve Jackson Games

Shark D6 Dice Set ...................................... $ 8.95

Tally Mark D6 Dice Set ............................. $ 8.95

Munchkin: Munchkin Babies 2 Stork Naked .............. $11.95

Teeturtle

Happy Little Dinosaurs Dating Disasters Expansion ................  PI

Wizards of the Coast

Dungeons & Dragons:  Mordenkainen Presents: Monster of the Multiverse HC ..... $49.95

WizKids

Guests of Critical Role .................................................. $59.99

Monsters of Exandria Set 1 ........................................... $79.99

Monsters of Exandria Set 2 ........................................... $79.99

Monsters of Exandria Huge Premium Figure ...............  $49.99

NPCs of Tal'Dorei - Set 2 .............................................. $59.99

NPCs of Wildemount ..................................................... $59.99

Dice Conquest ................................................................ $19.99

D&D - Icons of the Realms - Adult Bronze Dragon ...... $99.99

D&D - Icons of the Realms - Dragonheist 1 .................. $49.99

D&D - Icons of the Realms - Dragonheist 2 .................. $49.99

Death Saves: Medusa Trophy    ......................................  PI

Marvel Heroclix- X-Men: X of Swords Boosters 

Marvel Heroclix- X-Men: X of Swords Dice and Token Pack ....... $14.99

Marvel Heroclix- X-Men: X of Swords Miniatures Game ............. $69.99

Marvel Heroclix- X-Men: X of Swords Play at Home ................... $19.99

(Star Wars d6) #31 - A Dark Fortress

 The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.  Completely out of his element as the group is trapped underground.

Underground Movement!

Trapped by a cave-in the intrepid crew 

Of the Pretio ventured into the 

Underground tunnels of  Planet 576-908.

Encountering sentient life not of this world, 

And with an unhealthy focus on death,

or heroes have absconded with their watercraft 

and travel up an underground, to their "Holy Place"

With Tarrie piloting the recently stolen submersible, the crew let the auto-pilot guide them up a slow moving river, destination unknown, but allegedly and holy and very deadly place.  

Evus, who was stuck in the storage area, filled his time with searching the containers on board.  Nothing too unusual: protein biscuits, carb pouches, and powdered blue milk.   The crates weren't part of one full shipment.  Some had been cracked upon and portions used, while others were completely intact. 

An hour into the voyage, a droid voice turned up on the speakers, "ATTENTION PILOT!  APPROACHING ICE FLOE!  PREPARE FOR MANUAL NAVIGATION"

The auto-pilot immediately disengaged, sending the crew lurching around the ship.  As Tarrie took over the controls, the river turned into a wide lake. Strewn across the surface of the lake was a surprising number of ice floes.  Tapping onto the sonar, Tarrie found it too shallow to submerged, but also that the exit for the river was, of course, on the other side of the lake. 

The pilot deftly swerved through the maze of ice.  With the ship lurching quickly to the left, then to the right, the crew could only buckle up... Evus could only hope none of the containers in storage would come loose and smash him to bits.

Finally, one of the floes got the best of the Tarrie, and the ship began to navigate off course a bit, surrounded by a tighter ice pack.  

With a press of a button, the sides of the ship rose up, sealed at the top and the submersible dove underwater.  Despite the internal alarms going off, he turned up the throttle. Frokazza could only stare forward from the co-pilot's chair, desperately clinging to a well-place handle. 

In the passenger compartment, Ne'vets was barely holding in his rations, while Kafla kept muttering under breath, "Thisisawasteoftime. Thisisawasteoftime. Thisisawasteoftime."

A few well-place shots with the dual-blaster on the submersible and the vessel emerged from the ice with only a few scrapes.  

A relieved Tarrie, turned on the cabin comms, "Should I put the auto-pilot back on."

Ne'vets gulped a few breaths, regained his composure, and responded, "If you're good, keep it off for now.  Perhaps we'll navigate around the long and painful death those other fellas promised."

Two hours later, the droid voice came on again, "YOUR DESTINATION IS ON YOUR LEFT."

As Tarrie ascended and the water poured off the windows, a series of crude docks appeared.  A number of similar ships were docked there, with a scattering of people on them, unloading, loading, and moving cargo.  

A further view was a bit more disturbing.  The origin of the underground was the large lake the docks were located in.  The docks connected to a huge, black mass of rock jutting out of the center of the lake.  This rock rose into the darkness to wherever the caverns ceiling was.

Tarrie pulled the submersible at the dock, opening up the canopy.  Evus, finally freed from the cargo hold, popped up and stretched with a much-needed "UGH."

"Hey, are you here to sightsee or to work?  Start unloading your cargo."  

There was an individual on an adjacent dock, datapad at hand.   He appeared to be directing the other workers, human and alien, to move cargo into an entrance of the obsidian tower.  

"C'mon, we've got a deadline."

Frokazza asked to the others, "Do we actually have cargo to move?"

"Sure we do," and a Evus raised a crate over the walls of the cargo hold.  

Once the crew appeared to start working, the middle-aged man found another ship to yell at.

Grabbing a hovercart, they unloaded the cargo and transported it a pair of large blast doors into the tower.  The first step inside and they were hit with the stench of dirty clothes and warehouse intermixed.  

The area was certainly a storage area, with 10 meter tall warehouse racks lining the space.  Off to the side were piles of clothes and a laundry operation taking place.  

They dropped their cargo and worked their way to the only other door in the facility.  En route, Evus ventured over to one of the piles of laundry, a pile of short, black cloaks, almost-robes.  Discovering that they were clean, he grabbed enough for everyone... even the Wookie.

Frokazza, finally a cultist, not a pretend prisoner

Of course, things went darker, when they all realized that the random piles of clothes could be from the prisoners they may have killed.

Hiding behind the industrial galactic washers, the crew pondered their predicament.  Could they grab a boat and sail downriver?  Does Tarrie's starfighter pilot skills translate to captaining a dingy?   Are the dockhands cultists, or do they keep separate?  Do they worship the Trapper?  Was it easier to be above ground, where the local floral and fauna shot at them with their own weapons.  Could they get the blaster shot and blood stains out of the cool puffy shirt stashed in the laundry?

The exit to the warehouse opened to a curved hallway, made out of a dark grey stone.  Some of the people milling about looked like guards, other were cloaked cultists, and the third group were the smugglers/pirates from the docks.  A Wookie in a cloak, brought some odd looks from the guards, but no one overtly questioned the crew.  

The inside of the circular hallway appeared to be a dark, obsidian with no apparent entrances.  Near it were two separated turbolift, they hit the button on the turbolift and found they only had two options, "1" and "3".  

Going up to Level Three, they discovered stone equal to the center, with the same circular hallway.  The doors on this level were covered with a strange script/runes.  No one knew what they met, but it was definitely different that than galactic common everywhere on Level 2

Working the doors, the disguised crew opened the closest one to them.  Inside was another vast room, akin to the warehouse area.  It was carpeted, but empty, save a few orange lights, and three individuals in various meditative poses.

Grabbing a far corner, the crew tried to plan their next move in whispered tones. While the rest of the crew was rather nonchalant, the sight of a cloaked Wookie broke the trance of all three, at least for a few moments.  Rather quickly they returned to their meditations and chants, with the occasional "Taking the planet back," or "Death to the Unbelievers" interspersed.  

After the few minutes, and one Wookie growl, the crew got up and headed to the only other door in the room, besides the one for the hallway.  

Walking into the next room was another warehouse sized room, save the religious paraphernalia adorning it, and lines of pews.  They were struck in surprise of a loud, unified chant of two dozen of individuals worshipping in the room.  Lea by a Mon Calamari with turquoise skin, wearing a black robe with streaks of red, chant increase in speed and volume, multiple languages being spoken, yet somehow keeping with the cadence. 

As the chant reached a fever pitch, it stopped suddenly, and the worshippers stood up and casually headed for the back exit, right where the crew was standing.

Ne'vets ordered the crew to fall back to the meditation room, where they formed a receiving line on both sides of the doorway.

Despite Frokazza being the center of attention to many of the worshippers, especially an elderly woman who took a liking to him (although she was racist as hell), the cultists were quite pleasant and friendly.  

Once the worshippers left, the crew worked their way into the temple.  The Mon Cal priest had not exited with his flock, and he wasn't in the temple proper. 

With the doors finally shut, Tarrie let his feelings known.

"I so wanted to punch that old lady in the throat."

The unsettling feel and untranslatable tapestries made the crew wish to find an exit even faster.  Finding a hidden door near the lectern, behind another rune-covered tapestry.  

Through the door, they found themselves in a conference room, dominated by a beautiful table, surrounded by comfy chairs.

As they began to look around, the chair at the far end of table spun around revealing a beautiful Twi'lek woman sitting in it.  She raised a single finger to beckon you closer.  

"Good, I've been expecting you...."

The Mysterious Twi'lek

Next: #32 - An Unexpected Arrangement

2022 Mid-Year Review and a Sneak Peak of Season 4 of the Pulp Game

I've said it repeatedly that I simply love the concept of blogging.  The ability to record what I've done, what I'm doing, and what I hope to do just tickles the the gamer in me.  Despite the fact that I have no desire to monetize, I still like to track page views, look for trends, and maybe see what topics I enjoy also can garner an audience. 

My gaming year runs October - September, so the end of March is time for a mid-year review.

• Work, Work, Work, Basketball, Basketball, Work: While it's my third year managing my department, this was the first Fall where I got to travel on the company's dime to train and manage our seasonal third party vendor.  Throw in a few overwhelming seasonal projects and my kids' basketball demands, and I've had little time for painting or gaming. Then my boss of ten years left for a lucrative VP position, and I was focusing on direct reporting to the Board of Directors, dealing with an unwanted consultant, and running off to see Maja play in her first season of school ball, and things went even worse. Only with the recent hiring of my boss's replacement and the end of winter league basketball, have I managed to get back to the painting bench and planning new games for the upcoming weekends that don't have AAU tournaments.
• Star Wars d6: My Monday night online d6 Campaign is my 2-3 hours of serenity every week.  We just stumbled into episode #70 last week, with no obvious end in sight.  The group is enjoying the game so much, everyone's forgetting to ask for character points (RE: xp) at the end of sessions, including me.  If I could only catch up on the 6-7 episodes that need to be written up for the actual play, things would be perfect.
• You guys like what?:  The Top Ten blog posts since 10/1/2021.  A November Historicon emerging from a year and a half of COVID tops the list, with what few painting projects, some Gnome Wars, and the #CharacterCreationChallenge getting double listings.

1. Historicon 2021 Has Finally Occurred   (Conventions)
2. Recycled Sci-Fi Buildings   (Scenery/Terrain)
3. Venusian Pond Scum     (Scenery/Terrain)
4. Run While the Inn is Closed (Gnome Wars)
5. Historicon: Gnome Action   (Gnome Wars)
6. (Pew Pew) Low-Light, Bounty Hunter (#CharacterCreationChallenge)
7. (Curse of Nevoz) #5 - Werewolf of London Drug  (Call of Cthulhu)
8. (Hackmaster) Magni Drakebelly - Dwarf Cleric (#CharacterCreationChallenge)
9. (Star Wars d6) #25 - Tournament   (Star Wars d6 Campaign)
10. (Kickstarter) Batteries Low, Getting Dark   (Kickstarter)

Conventions:  Besides Historicon, Maja and I got to spend Sunday at Mepacon, our local convention only 15 minutes away.  She got to play in her first Powered by the Apocalypse game.

Checklist for the Second Half of the Year

6.  Painting up the Gnomish Space Marines by unit organizaiton

5.  Painting with the kids

4.   Gaming with the kids

3.   Maybe some face-to-face gaming, at least Historicon

2.   More prep for the Star Wars Campaign and one-shots to fill in off-weeks.

1.   Season 4 of the Pulp Game.

Looking at last year's end-of-year and mid-year reviews, there were two glaring facts:  First, my Pulp Game actual plays were incredibly popular, garnering four out of the Top Ten spots, and second, I've been talking about prepping for Season Four of the Pulp Game for at least a year. 

While we're looking for a Summer start to Season Four, I can let out some spoilers.

1.  We're moving from Savage Showdown (Worlds) to Pulp Alley.

2.  The main campaign will focus on Pulp Alley's Tomb of the Serpent campaign.

3.  Episode one will be more of the CBS Movie of the Week quality, taking up an entire evening's worth of programming.  

4.  We haven't even set up Leagues (aka Teams, gangs, crews) and the while the old reliable cast members will make cameos, this will be new characters we may need to paint up first.

But here's a quick tease of everything getting worked on for that first session.  It's not often I go beyond a pack or two of minis and move onto a box of Warlord plastics.

 It's not often I go beyond a pack or two of minis and move onto a box of Warlord plastics. Glue is my best friend right now (and worst enemy).

(Painting) Mystery 15mm Mouse

Rebooting my painting queue continues to move slowly.  There area handful of projects seeing progress, a formal announcement regarding my pulp campaign coming shortly, and one tiny figure finally completed. 

I honestly don't know where this 15mm mouse guy came from.  It might have been from an HMGS convention paint and take, it might have come from a flea market, it may have been a weird Kickstarter free stretch goal.  It's sculpt and slotted base mean it's not from Splintered Light's line, it's not Battle Valor, and there's nothing similar to it on Old School Miniatures website.  It's an odd and adorable enigma.  Any help identifying this figure would be appreciated.

Still not sure how I feel about 15mm Fantasy.  It's been nice to gather my painting senses, purge some brushes and paints that were bad and get something off the pile, but I don't think it's for me.  I will say that I'm still on the fence about whether of not I should have bit the bullet and invested in 15mm Sci-Fi back in the day.  

The mystery mouse with a Battle Valor Hellion (r) and Mounted Wizard, both 15mm

PROJECT: 350 -  Considering I was in the 490s this time last year, and the 520s in the early days of COVID, I should be satisfied staying at 457 (303/154) from 457 (305/152) a week ago.  While I did start to catch up with my Star War d6 campaign's backlog, every episode I finish isn't scheduled to post until October, plus I've been forced to split episodes up for continuity sake.  I still have seven episodes to write up, and if I can play a game, or finish painting project, I might go below 300 drafts for the first time since 2018.

Next: An update on the progress for Season 4 of the Pulp Campaign first, but a certain windfall has thrown off the painting queue even more... and it's Gnomish Space Marine related.

When Do We Upgrade to Heavy War-Foxes?

Or is the painting more a representation of higher ranking Swiss officers needing swift steeds to continue to bolster the defense of the forest?  

(Kickstarter) Chaos Space Dwarves by Macrocosm Miniatures

Macrocosm has a fine collection of well-sculpted, easy to paint Space Dwarves.  There were a few obvious holes in the collective line.  A new Kickstarter for Chaos Space Dwarves add some needed depth to a side that only had a few Beastmen and Mutants.  

All new figures and add-ons offered during the campaign (Tank is by Ramshackle Games)

The Powered Armour Squad is basically what you would expect the elite shock troops to be like.  

And the Pact our the basic cultist level of troops, complete with spooky gas masks.

Add-ons are available for some of the existing models as well, including the Beastmen Troopers, Mutated Deserters, and The 7 Dwarves. 

One add-on I had not found before on the Macrocosm website were the Bogling Swarm.  Cute and diabolical enough to justify the £5 price.  

Of course, it helps that my pledge for the Sci-Fi Dwarves High Command Kickstarter just arrived yesterday afternoon.  I hate shipping costs from the UK, but it's quicker than cross-country in the States. I'll need to cobble a Base+ order together.

(Star Wars d6) #30 - The Caves of the Great Island

The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

Island Getaway!

After bumbling encounters with

Some of native fauna of Planet 576-908, 

The Star Safari of Kafla Thingvellir 

and his hired crew move on to the 

Large island in the center of the "Great Sea"

The Pretio lifted off from the rudimentary "spaceport" established by the Explorer Corps, nineteen years previous.  Destination: the Great Island of the Great Sea.  It was hoped that a quick diversion to the island might net some clues as to the location of the elusive Translucent Trapper.  

The island was dominated by one long ridge line running north and south.  It was the highest elevation on the island, a towering 200 meters at its highest.  

Crossing the green-blue water of the Great Sea, Frokazza picked up some vague lifeforms on the island.  There were three major clusters on the island,  two near the center, and one on the far northern tip.  

Kafla was incredulous, "This is impossible.  More opportunities here than the spots that should have?  Sure, whatever, let's investigate."

Ne'vets decided to visit the northern signature first.  Tarrie found a safe spot to land and the Piscopo disembarked for a short jaunt to a cave on the ridge wall.   

Frokazza worried about cave-ins,  "Do we need to bring in heavy weaponry?  Any little blast might cause a collapse." 

Tarrie translated for his friend and the larger weapons were secured in the Piscopo.

Tarrie nominated Frokazza for point and quickly walked back to grab his blaster rifle and sling it onto his back.

It took the better part of the day to explore the cave network, It only meandered 500 meters deep, before resulting in a sizable cave-in.  There was evidence of the tiny wildlife found on the mainland occasionally ventured onto the island, and the cave in particular.  

They did discovered another cache of the orange Denuli crystals, albeit the same "spent or burnt" ones Kafla showed them before taking the mission. 

Still unsure of the signature on the sensors, the crew went back to the ship and called it a night. 

43 days to go...

The following morning, Tarrie flew the ship south to the next cluster.  

The readings pointed out another cave entrance..  Frokazza immediately regretted it, as the tunnel never went higher than six foot fall.

The cavern system was quite meandering, but trackable.  Another pile of thirty or so Denuli crystals laid about the complex.  Tarrie was also keen enough to notice the sound of moving water, even if they couldn't find the source.  

Going further into the network, one moment, they turned back to talk to one another, then notice Frokazza was missing, replace by a large hole on the floor.  A few moments later, the hole opened up further, swallowing everyone. 

The fall was quite short shaking the crew up more than injuring them, but the ensuing fall of rocks from above, made everyone scatter further into this lower cave.  The crew was relatively unscathed, although Tarrie was struck in the head with some of the smaller rocks.  Lucky for him, Tarrie was wearing his trusty helmet, the only party member to do so. 

Ne'vets took a personal inventory before counting the crew.  His Binoculars and lone tangler grenade were lost, under tons of rock.  

To his surprise, Frokazza handed him his missing grenade.  The binocs, however, appeared to e a lost cause. 

Digging out back to the original tunnel would require heavy mining machinery to clear out the rockslide, for further down into this new tunnel was the only option.  

The cavern had little deviation and continued a slow descent for possibly hundreds of meter.  The sound of moving water was much louder.   

Evus was the first to notice a lifeform in this cave, a lizard over three inches tall, more than double the size of the largest specimen they found above ground!

Kafla was still not interested in any creature other than the trapper in question. 

Ne'vets thought he was dreaming, when he saw a series of fresh boot prints along with the crews' fresh steps.  

"That boot print has a bunch of zig-zag lines on the tread.  None of us have those boots. 

Of course, everyone in the party checked their character's footwear, including the bare footed Frokazza.

"Is this your tipster friend, Kafla."

"No, they're much too fresh, he's been gone from this planet for quick awhile.  I'd be surprised if they survived," Kafla surmised.  

"Regardless, they're heading in the direction we're going, Be on the lookout," Evus warned everyone.

Continuing down the passageway, Evus swore he heard something, voices in an alien language:

So then, when the Boss had them all dead, we wrote 'Death to the Unbelievers" on their ship.  That'll teach those smugglers to mess with us... Hey what's that light over there?  Hey, where'd that light disappear to?"

The party had been caught and extinguished anything that was lit.  

Ten foot away, so could faintly see a few pairs of glowing eyes and the hum of a item with a vibration. 

Ne'vets ducked behind and ran to the back of the group, stumbling and knocking down Kaflas.  

Kafla freaked out, "They got me, They got me! Save yourself!  Take whatever you can and leave me to die...!"

Evus, turned on a massive flashlight, half-blinding everyone.  

In front of the group were four Snivvians in black tunics with hoods, with vibroblades perilously close to the Wookie's genitals. 

Frokazza jumped back in utter surprise, running right into Evus.  

With everyone else tripping or falling over, that left Tarrie standing there, blaster rifle targeting the Snivvian's chest. The alien flew back and did not move again.  

With their friend motionless on the ground, the other Snivvians froze in place.

With blades still in hand, the Snivvians raised their unarmed hand, and in Galactic Common, pleaded for surrender and their lives.

The aliens slowly walked backwards to what appeared to be a river(?)

"Not another step, drop your weapons." Evus demandeed.  

They complied. 

"We don't need to shoot anymore?" Tarrie asked.

"Point your weapons down, let's talk," Ne'vets decided.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"You fools, you fools!  We know nothing, we're just here to bring supplies to the holy place.  Ohhh, you're unbelievers, you're all going to die horrible painful deaths.... Man you guys were loud, we almost got you."

"How many of you are down here at the holy place?"

"So many people, I can't count how many, and they all want you dead... by horrible means that are so awesome.  I mean, people so much better than us will find you and kill you."

Tarrie doubted them, "Are you sure I can't just shoot them."

"No-no-no... no reason for our painful death."

"How do we get to holy place?"

The one Snivvian pointed behind him, to a large river and a submersible watercraft.

"How did we miss that?" Ne'vets inquired.

"You know, humans have horrible sight, you won't even see your..."

"...Horrible and painful death, we know we know.," Tarrie finished his sentence. 

"How do we get there?"

"I don't know, I just press the button and we get there."

The crew left a few crates of foodstuffs on the shore, and quickly tied the four Snivvians up.  

The submersible had four seats: one for the pilot, one for the gunner and two passengers.  Evus volunteered to stay in the cargo hold.  

Everyone inside, Tarrie closed the canopy and began a painful experiment of piloting in the water.  Frokazza and Tarrie began bickering about the controls for the ship.  Neither noticed the herky-jerky motion of the ship, nor the black gloved hand of Kafla, reaching between them and pressing the "AUTO PILOT" button.

"If we're going to succumb to the 'The Worst Death.... Ever!' we might as well make the trip pretty easy."

Next: #31 - To a Dark Fortress

I.... AM..... IMMORTAL!!!!

This explains why my recent brushes with death over the last two years have come out far rosier than expected.

Happy Spring 2022!

(Painting) One Wacky Blue Martian

Paint is being applied to models on the basement.  It's just being tougher than usual to prioritize what's on the bench.  

This morning we celebrate the completion of one wacky "Blue Martian" 

I still have no idea what manufacturer cast them.  It does use a 20mm slot base, but I'm still as perplexed where exactly they came from as I was when I painted a similar "wacky goblin" almost a decade ago.

PROJECT: 350  - With some new idea drafts, a few filler posts, and some Star Wars actual play updates and pendings, things stayed basically the same at 457 (305/152) from (306/151).   I've got a steady 6-9 scheduled posts ready to go for each month for the rest of the year (roughly 65), but even if I don't add to that pile.

Next: Three tiers of painting, as I'm still warming up from the painting hiatus.  (A) the small pile of miscellaneous single figs  (B) Waaay too many vehicles that I've acquired, including that brand-new paint scheme for the next Hultr Half-Track for the Gnomish Space Marines. (C) It's just about time to provide a special update for Season 4 of my Pulp Game.  The season premiere is going to be a hootenanny, and the game will require a lot of "extras."

(Kickstarter) American War of Independence 28mm Minis - Wave 2 by Brigade Games

It's been a long time since I've had an interest in Revolutionary War figures or games, but the launch of the  American War of Independence 28mm Minis - Wave 2 by Brigade Games campaign means one thing to me: the other equally awesome campaigns Brigade has in their pipeline are getting closer.  

Plus the mixture of traditional figures in dynamic poses and the more eccentric troops Brigade is famous for producing figures for should spark a flame in anyone interested in AWI.

(Star Wars d6) #29 - High Plains Shrieker

 The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

Expansion!

Failing to find the elusive Trapper thus far,

Amateur zoologist Kafla Thingvellir and his hired crew 

Of the Pretio continue their 

Exploration of Planet 576-908.

Atop the ancient slag pile, Evus was surprised to see something through his monocular

.

An actual creature larger than the small lizards and tiny "trappers" they kept uncovering!  At the range it was at, the scanners were always fuzzy, but it seemed to be six foot long and three foot at the shoulder.  It had some form of shaggy coat or fur and it gave a full look of its six-eyed face as it turned and stared directly back at Evus before bounding out of the Twi'lek's line of sight.

Evus screamed to his crew members to get back to the Piscopo, an actual animal sighting!

The Piscopo

It wasn't part of Kafla's mission, but any distraction from the ongoing failure of the safari was a welcome respite.

Tarrie pushed the Piscopo as hard as the converted speeder barge could go.  After a quick search, they could spy to strange creature galloping across the desert scrub.  He pulled up beside the running creature (at about 30 kph).  The Wookie Frokazza, opened the side door and proceeded to leap onto the beast!  

Even at this slower speed, it took Tarrie a bit to turn the Piscopo around.  Upon the speeder's return, they found the creature atop the Wookie.  Its six legs pinned Frokazza to the ground, and it's two smaller front arms grabbing the Wookie by the chest hair.  It was emitting a loud alternating shrieking.

Frokazza finally shook free and grappled with the creature.  While the others fumbled around inside the vehicle for any equipment to help him, the Wookie put his hand over the creature's snout, silencing it.  Hoping it's anatomy worked similarly, he applied a sleeper hold on it, and after a short eternity, the creature went limp.  

As the others filed out of the speeder to investigate, an contested debate took place over what exactly to do with the thing.  Kafla only had interest in a the exotic trapper he had hired the crew to look for, some of the crew wanted to tag it and release it back into the wild, yet others wanted to hold onto to it, if not for scientific presentation, for future profit with Ne'vets exotic animal brokerage.  Ne'vets himself was unsure what to do.   A thorough examination of the beast would be necessary to see who viable it would be in the open market.   

It was finally decided they would take the beast back to the Pretio for further testing.  Ne'vets tied the creature up and Frokazza lifted it to the top of the Piscopo, where Ne'vets secured it. 

Tarrie took orders to continue East, further away from the ship, but in a slow pattern, looking for more of these creatures.  

After an hour of futility, the whole crew was shocked to hear blaster fire!

Despite no visual confirmation, the fire sounded close, so Tarrie immediately went into evasive maneuvers.  Finding a safe spot to turn around and run this unconfirmed gauntlet back to the ship, he finally check his instrument panel.  Scans were not picking up anything, however, the WEAPONS MALFUNCTION was lit up in full blinking yellow.  The twin-laser turret appeared to be malfunctioning.  Evus swung open the side door, and climbed a bit to look on top of the vehicle.  He could see the creature, completely free, manipulating the turret, firing the lasers directly into the sky.  

It noticed the Twi'lek peering over, and swung the entire turret around to meet him.  

Evus ducked.  

In the process, he grabbed two straps by the door to avoid tumbling out of the Piscopo, but remained hanging mere inches from the moving ground. The creature eventually tumbled off the speeder and scurried off, but not before some of the crews' scans detected a large group of some sort of lifeforms congregating to the left and right of them.  Tarrie floored it, and they were quickly away from the lifeforms, and on their way to the Pretio.  

Eventually, people remembered Evus was dangling out the open door of the speeder and pulled him back in.  

They could not make it back to the ship before nightfall, so they set up camp.  The Piscopo was set up with camping capabilities.  both side of the speed could extend out, creating some additional space for sleeping quarter, albeit still cramped.  

Under flashlight and blaster fire.  A quick review of the turret reveled that certain sensors and gyros were damaged, but it could be repaired back at ship.  

After a restless sleep full of Wookie snoring, they returned back to the ship....

With no luck with the primary mission, the crew suggested that they move the Pretio to a different location to continue the search for this translucent trapper. The only thing keeping the crew at the "starport" was the guarantee of a stable landing pad.  

Tarrie had the first idea, "Hey, there's that island in the middle of the sea.  Might as well check that out before we search the western shore."

The island was too obvious not to notice.

Everyone agreed? 

"Also, has anyone checked out the terminal at the starport antennae before we leave?"

Checking the port, they uncovered only five listings.   The Jade Pearl was marked as arrived over four and a half years ago, as well as yearly anniversaries of its appearance the following three years.  The only other record was of the Explorer Corps vessel, Smithers which established the starport nineteen years earlier.  

Kafla was deflated, "That merchant was here for three years waiting for his droids to fix his ship.  He could have travelled the planet twice in that time.  Who knows where these trappers are!"

"We've got 44 more days to find it.  We're ruined.  I might as well just pack it in now."

Evus tried to console him, "We have plenty of time."

"We might as well try to find that six-legged Wookie and try my luck with that at the conference."

*Insert a quick montage of Tarrie and Frokazza, welding goggles on, reattaching everything on the turret of the Piscopo.  After a satisfying high-five, Tarrie spoke three words...*

"Onto the Island!"

Next: #30 - Onto the Island!

Happy Pi Day 2022

 

I Need This in 6mm for Some Ultra-Modern Action!

Weekend Snow Days

After weekend after weekend of activity, this one finally looks like a total wash.  

Thank goodness!

Besides prepping the snow blower for only its third or fourth use all winter, I'm thinking it's a weekend of cleaning, soup, and a flurry of games (pun intended).

 

(Painting) Statue of St Crastin for Gnome Wars

 The topic of Gnomish Wanderlust has been discussed ad nauseum amongst the Gnomish Intellectuals.   The cycle of exploration, establishment, and partial retraction of the citizenry has expanded Gnomekind across the world.

But what if a Gnome specifically resists the call of the Wanderlust?  You can thank a brave Gnome named Crastin.  

It's unsure whether Crastin was disposed to a certain immunity to the Wanderlust, or he luckily never sucumbed to it, but it was believed to have originated the cult the intentionally fought the urges to remain within Swiss territory. 

The followers of Crastin have been known to prevent gnomes from leaving towns at the height of an exodus, including terroristic acts like blowing up tunnels and bridges.

While most Gnomes are anti-Crastin, the Pro-Crastinators today achieve very little by not expanding their horizons.

I've gotten a wide variety of gnome-related gifts over the years.  A few of them have been gnome gardens, and todays statue is simply a gnome included in the garden set, as well as a flipped over birth bath. 

PROJECT: 350  - 457 (306/151) down  from 460  (305/155).  It boils down to two obvious and important topics in a backlog:  Eight Star Wars Campaign write-ups and an utter lack of gaming.  Slowly getting those rectified, but a year ago this was my great painting push, and I'm afraid it's been hard getting back into the swing of things with this extended miniatures hiatus.

Next: And a new paint scheme for the next Hultr Half-Track for the Gnomish Space Marines.

(Savage Worlds) Alphonse Fabien - Mousling Musketeer

As I push towards more games with the kids, it's pretty certain that we're returning to a Savage Worlds Mousling Fantasy game.  That being said, we're using one of the minis I already used for the #CharacterCreationChallenge to take refresher on Savage Worlds.  

It's very likely the girls will use modified archetypes, while filling out Hinderances and any necessary changes.

Alphonse Fabien - Mousling Musketeer

Agility: d10  Smarts: d6 Spirit: d6 Strength: d4  Vigor: d6

Skills:  Fighting d10, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Taunt d8, Knowledge: Poetry d6

Charisma: +2  Pace: 5   Parry: 5  Toughness 5    

Hinderances: Arrogant, Phobia: Heights   Enemy (Minor): 

Edges:  Florentine, Two Fisted. Attractive 

Equipment:  Rapier  Str+d4, +1 Parry (not included) 

Mousling Racial Adjustments: 
More Mouse than Creature: Mouslings are allowed one free edge, just like humans.
Nimble Creatures: Mouslings navigation of the forest allow them a d6 base in Agility rather than a d4.
The Mouse Nose Knows: The Mousling Sense of Smell gives +2 to scent-based Notice rolls.
Tiny Legs, Tiny Feet: Mouslings small stature allow them only a base pace of 5.
Only so much strength in such a small body: Mousling characters must spend two steps to raise Strength during character creation and must use two advances to increase Strength during play.

(Kickstarter) Pirates of Luna City - 28mm Pulp Sci-Fi Minis & Terrain

 Crooked Dice Games has done their best effort to have me break my moratorium on UK-based Kickstarters with their simply beautiful Pirates of Luna City figures.

The figures are meant as an expansion of their 7TV: Pulp game, but are great for any classic sci-fi game.

Not only are there a number of stretch goals for add-ons reached, but the current ranges of Crooked Dice will be available to order.

(Star Wars d6) #28 - Surface Safari

The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

By Request! 

Pulled from much-needed downtime,

By the demands of a brazen entreprenuer,

The Crew of the Pretio is headed to a 

Barely-acknowledged planet in search 

Of some rare spider....

Going on hunches and decade-old knowlege,

Will the crew find any arachnids,

Or find something far, far worse....

The Pretio pulled out of Hyperspace to the planet Offu.  Considered a backwater planet, it still had plenty of supplies to restock the safari.  Thingvellir went out to re-purchase everything he had lost, rations, scanners, cages, traps, weapons, and recording equipment.   

The crew was given a far more enviable task of equipping themselves with 4,000 credits.  A few newer weapons, some extra basic gear, and everyone was happy.  

With the Pretio loaded, the group was ready to go.  Ne'vets tries to plug-in the coordinates to make the jump, but Tarrie thankfully stopped him.

"Sorry, Boss, but you know you're banned from the cockpit for the pre-flight check.  That's part of my contract."

Frokazza took over astrogation and Ne'vets returned to the lounge to Kafla expounding on the others the chance for great success.

"By the time I get back on that luxury liner heading to Alderaan, you're rich beyond your wildest dreams..."

Four days of travel, they came into range of Planet 576-908, Kafla continued ranting about the limited traits of this undiscovered survey.    "Translucent Chromium  spawning females are big as the size of your fist...  but definitely not the Wookie's fist. If we can find a spawning female, let's grab that!"

Evus went to the cargo hold to double-check the Safari Speeder Piscopo, laden with rations, supplies, and medical supplies

Plant 576-908 was a dominant land mass, mostly hills and plains, with one large body of water.  The Pretio's sensors picked up a signal for landing, normally associated with starports.  Despite no landing control, Tarrie followed that in.   

The Map of Planet 576-908

The "Starport" was a 500-foot long slab of flat rock in the rock, adjacent to a five-meter tower that was acting as a beacon.

Sensors on the ship picked up low oxygen, requiring rebreathers to leave the ship.  

The group disembarked.  Not seeing anything signs, they turned to Kafla, looking for guidance.  

"We're not looking for mountains.  Trappers would be hiding in crevasses and caves.  The merchant was on-planet for awhile.  He was stuck here for a good long time as his droids repaired his ship.  That speeder will help us cover ground in days versus months for him.  We can set up camp and take your speeder for a jaunt before dark. "

The Piscopo

The terrain of the planet was a dream for Tarrie to operate the Piscopo.  Long stretches of flat land, with hills that allowed the vehicle to just get enough air.  

"Let's find an interesting area or two that might keep trapper," Ne'vets stated.  

After an hour of travel turning into boredom, Kafla advised scouting out locations to see what type of life they could find.  He could bark out orders and ideas, but it became pretty obvious rather quickly to the group that he no clue what a zoological safari would entail. 

Finding a narrow cave, the crew broke out to dig around and did find a trapper, or a group of smaller, violent, non-transluscent trappers.  Nev'ets was beset by them, but never received harm.  

Outside for a few non-productive sites, the remaining afternoon was as equally boring as the trip out.  Kafla continue to type every piece of info onto his datapad.  

Dinner was prepared outside, and everyone enjoyed the sunset, but everyone decided to sleep inside the ship... except Kafla.  He spent only a few hour outside that night.  The need for a rebreather and the lack of noise was a bit disconcerting, so he banged on the ramp to be let back onto the Pretio.

The following morning, they went out in a different directions, looking at terrain and any clues to if these creatures existed.  Results were non-existent, but Kafla reinforced his position, "We can be out here for 60 days and I can still make my conference.  You are getting paid for this."

Day three on planet was much of the same...

...as was day four, safe a repairable breakdown on the Piscopo.

Day five found them investigating the marshlands near the "Great Sea" and discovering lizards and small flying creatures, but no Trappers.  

On the way home, the were caught in a storm.  It was quite violent, Tarrie nearly careening out of control at most times.  

Everyone stayed in the Pretio that night.  

The next day was uneventful, but day eight found an scale-less lizards or hairless mammals scurrying in the rock.

And a much bigger thunderstorm.  Tarrie realized that it was safer to power down in a high spot of land and wait out the storm.  

Fourteen hours later, Tarrie said the heck with it and eeked the vehicle through the buffeting winds at low speed.

Day Nine: A complete washout.  The ruined campsite needed to be completely recovered.  It was decided unanimously to bring all surviving equipment back on the ship, and park the Piscopo inside the ship.  

Day Ten:  Running low on options of day trips, Ne'vets pointed east, far away from the Great Sea.  Digging in another sample site, they discovered more traditional spiders.  Diving directly in line with sun, a giant bird unfurled a tremendous wingspan before attempting to snag Ne'vets....

*PEW* PEW*

Blaster fire from Kafla scared this humongous bird away.  It seemed like a good time to head back to the ship.  

Day Eleven:  A day of rest, nothing more than sleep and equipment/vehicle upkeep.  

Day Sixteen: After covering the entire area around the Starport, as well as the Eastern coast of the Great Sea. It was decided by the group to head out further East, in search of anything. 

Going off into the plains, beyond the hills they had been searching, the group come upon a series of unusual mounds, towering over the horizon.  They were not hills, rather slag piles of mining waste.  No nearby mining operation.  Copper, Tin, Gold, and Starswarziam mixed within the pile.  

Mimicking his actions on Alcazaar, Evus climbed one of the slag piles and pulled out his monoculars.

The surrounding area was empty, save a strange, hairy six-legged creature with just the faintest trace of sentience. 

Evus: "I saw a crazy creature!"

Ready to chase....

Next: #29 - The Shriekers of the Desert Plains