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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Bones Kickstarter: Wow, That's A Lot Of Minis To Paint...

A couple of days ago Reaper sent out this sneak peek of the Vampire pledge level for their Kickstarter and holy crap is it a lot of minis!  I mean sure, I've seen the picture on the pledge page but seeing them all together like this... wow.  Check it out.


That's a total of 240 minis.  The question now is just how many of them am I actually going to be able to paint before the end of next year but for that we'll just have to wait and see.  Until next time...

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Fate Core Kickstarter: Going From One Fate To Another

Ironically enough, the same day I canceled my pledge to Through The Breach another product caught my eye and I was quick to put in a pledge for it instead.  Definitely an odd twist of "fate" which is appropriate since the new product is none other than the Fate Core Rulebook.


In stark contrast to the lack of apparent development for Through The Breach, Fate is well established and thoroughly broken in so no growing pains with this one!  In addition everyone who pledges gets a pdf of the current draft of the Fate Core Rulebook.  Strapped for cash?  Donate a dollar and the pdf is yours to play with.  If you have another nine bucks you can part with you'll also get all of the expansions that have been added as stretch goals (a total of thirteen so far with 45 days still to go).  Heck, knock it up to thirty dollars total and get yourself all this plus a hardcover copy of the book!

Now I'll be the first to admit that I've never actually played Fate but after listening to some actual plays using variations on the system I really want to give it a try.  With its easy to grasp mechanics and flexibility to be used for any setting your mind can imagine this system just seems like a win-win and being able to get the rules in a hardcover for a mere $30 just makes it that much better.  Until next time...

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Malifaux Kickstarter: But Where Is The Game Exactly?

A week ago I wrote about the Kickstarter for Through the Breach, the role playing game from Wyrd Miniatures set in the Malifaux world.  With such a rich world to draw on I was really excited about this and was looking forward to seeing just what they had in mind.
 
Notice the "was" in there?
 
Now a week later I have decided to withdraw my backing from this project, but the question is why?
 
Most of the Kickstarter projects that I've seen or backed have had at least some of the development done on them before they hit Kickstarter, the general idea being "here is our product, please help us produce this on a large scale".  For example, some of the initial run for the new Reaper Bones was shown in the video for their KS because they had already started working on it, and Relic Knights by Soda Pop Minis had been in development and playtesting more than a year before their KS even started.
 
In stark contrast, it sounds like Through the Breach still has yet to reach the playtest level but is slated to be released in roughly nine months.  In fact the only thing that I've really been able to pick up from the info that I've seen is that the game will use a card mechanic like Malifaux which makes me a little leery.  How they can expect to create a solid and unique game system and work out the bugs in less then a year... well, I just don't see that really happening.
 
Don't get me wrong; I hope that they are able to create this incredible and lasting game like they were talking about in the initial video on the KS but personally I think I'll wait to see what the game is like before I start handing over my money.  Until next time...

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Malifaux Kickstarter: Time To Start Playing With Your Own Fate

Yep, its time for another Kickstarter!

About a week ago Wyrd Miniatures launched their latest Kickstarter endeavor, giving all of us the opportunity to take a step further into the world of Malifaux.  Slated to come out in September next year, Through The Breach lets players become part of the story of Malifaux as they try to survive and control their fate in that nightmare realm.


Using a card mechanic that sounds similar to the core mechanic of their miniature game, Through The Breach will let players cheat fate as they try to rewrite their own story and shape their destiny.

Already over 500% funded with more than a month still to go, this game sounds like its going to be a lot of fun and I've already put in my pledge to back it.  In addition to the receiving a copies of the Players and Fate Masters Guides, there are a number of nice little perks to go along with this one including male and female multi-part plastic minis to let you customize your character for Through The Breach or the Malifaux skrimish game.

If you enjoy the Malifaux skirmish game or even just the dark world that Wyrd has created just beyond our own, then you should definitely check this game out.  Until next time...

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

MDRG Miniatures: Break Out The Miracle Grow, We Need Reinforcements!

In Mutants and Death Rays you can field warbands of all kinds of different critters and I've modeled a number of them.  The mutants of Dr. Medel, the robots of the 00101001 gang, Mordac and his band of survivors, and Saint Mark with his followers from the Ranks of the Pure.  The only two types of creatures that I haven't done yet are the Wretched (think plague zombies and you get the idea...) and plants.

Yes, you read that last one right; plants.

There are lots of minis out there for all kinds of different things but one of the types that is lacking (at least that I've found anyway) are plants.  GW has made a number of them in the form of dryads and treants but that's a pretty limited pool to choose from which is why I haven't attempted one yet.  As luck would have it the solution to this problem came from a bunch of dollar store flowers.


First I stripped off the leaves and the flowers to give me the basic structure of the critter.


Next I straightened out the six out "legs" and then bent them to give the look of spider or insect legs.  This left one stem located in the center of the bunch that I twisted so that it resembled a tendril.


This gives you the basic form for the creature but there are still a few details to add.

For these I removed the petals from one of the flowers and attached this to what had been the base of the stem to create the "eyes".  Then I took a couple of the sets of leaves and slid them up the central tendril to create some of a body.  And voila!


An "instant" giant plant creature and only for a dollar no less!  Ya can't beat that with a stick even if you tried.

I still have to create some smaller critters to go along with these giant ones but this is definitely a good start toward getting them to the table.  I've got some ideas on this front but nothing concrete yet so more on that later.  Until next time...