Workbench: Digital Ghosts In The Zona Alfa Floral Department?!?

Wow have I been crazy busy, at least in my free time.  Our 5e game has transitioned over to Roll20 so I needed to learn the basics of not just playing but DM'ing with their system in last week and a bit.  Add to that my decision to make JPEG maps of some of the locations since I've gone completely off the rails from the written Ghosts of Saltmarsh game and yeah, not a lot of free time.

That said, I'm quite happy with what I was able to cobble together using a pdf program in such a short time.  Here is the first floor of the Sutton estate that my players psycho-pumped.

Unfortunately the 2nd floor and basement didn't look quite as finished as all the details I was adding were really bogging down the program I was using, but I'm still really happy with them overall.  I am looking at getting a Pro subscription to Inkarnate.com so I can do more work for the campaign... and because it just generally is kind of fun.  Crazy, I know, but I'm looking forward to bringing more of this game to life using the digital tools that are out there.

Of course this means that I've had no time for physical painting, but I'm okay with that.  Hobby is hobby after all, and I'm really enjoying running our insane little corner of the world.

This doesn't mean that there hasn't been any hobby though as I've stumbled on some great bits I'm going to use for some terrain pieces.  A week or so ago, I stopped by Hobby Lobby to grab some canvases for my daughter and decided to swing through the floral section just to take a looksee.  I've got a lot of regular terrain, but I was looking for something more alien.  Zona Alfa has recently caught my eye and I've been had some ideas stewing in my brain for some terrain pieces to build.  I wasn't holding out much hope though since this was a craft store so imagine my surprise when I found these little gems!

These two were the first that really jumped out at me.

Thistle pom pom pick

People have done some pretty cool prints for anomalies but since I'm 1) lacking a 3d printer and 2) always looking for the cheap option, these seemed like they might work.  As I explored some more, I had some other options catch my eye so I might just use them as alien plants instead since they would tie in nicely.

The next two were these, with colors inspired by the first ones.

Thistle stem

I can see these being scattered around as ground cover, bizarre little growths that are overrunning our native vegetation.  Or I could group some of these together on a base to create a zone hazard that could be encountered.

Next was this one which just looks bizarre.

Blue green microberry spray

As an added plus, the piece is also really long.  The crazy bubbly stems are over a foot long and there are at least a dozen of them on one plant.  It might be tricky to cut them down without having the bare stems exposed but I'm willing to give it a try to see what I can make.

The final one is a doozy!

Red protea stem

I have already made a carnivorous plant but the center looks pretty floral.  This one looks far more dangerous, almost like some kind of gigantic land anemone.  I can see this fitting in perfectly as a "creature" for Antares.  Some great finds, especially since I really wasn't expecting them.  Now I just need to start making some structures as well so I'll have somewhere to explore.  So many projects, so little time.  Oh well, at least I shouldn't get bored in the next few years as I work my way through all of these!  Until next time...

5e Dungeons & Dragons: This House Is Psycho-Pumped!

Last weekend we "finished" the first part of our Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  The caveat on that is the first session, one of the characters (a death cleric of Baphmet) basically kicked in the front door to the haunted house, told the ghosts to get out now, and said that the house was cleansed.  Almost the shortest session ever!

They did ultimately explore a good portion of the house, but it has been a wild and crazy ride.  The party is made of the aforementioned dragonborn death cleric, a tabaxi swashbuckler, and a kenku rogue/wizard, and they are amazing!  The dynamic of the group is all over the place but we're having so much fun with it that it is great.  I never know what they are going to do, but I'm finding that I'm really enjoying that.  I don't have a lot of experience but so far this campaign has had the least amount of preparation that I've ever done.  I do have a number of pages I've written up about my version of Saltmarsh, including it's history (you can find a post about that here) but the actual sessions are so free flowing that I'm having a blast running it.

Between this and a busy weekend around the house cleaning and moving things, I haven't had much time for painting but it's all good.  For now we have two living rooms, so you can't knock that!

Behold the furniture that we are "storing" for our daughter.  Might as well make use of it while it's here!

I did manage to get back to the workbench last night and knocked out a Heroclix repaint (I'm toying with making her Bunny Winters for a Fear and Faith: Kooky Teenage Monster Hunter game).  Very basic paint job, but it's a very basic figure so that works out well.  (I did take a picture to put up here but don't like the angle.  I'll probably throw it up in a later post though once I get some more of Clix painted.)

Next I'll be returning to my Core Space minis.  I still those last two members of Jace's crew to finish off, and I really need to place that order for Zed's.  I'm having fun painting the Core Space minis and want to make sure I have more on hand so I can keep working on them.  And if that wasn't enough, I've got some ideas brewing for Zona Alfa terrain and miniatures but one thing at a time... at least that's the theory.  Until next time...

5e Dungeons and Dragons: The History of Saltmarsh

I'd planned on working on my minis this week but life didn't play out that way.  Later this week I'll be getting some shelves so I can clear up my painting space which will be amazing!  Until then, I've been keeping myself busy prepping for a modified Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was one of the first adventures I ever played and I get to try my hand at running it soon.  For those of you not familiar with them, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a 5e campaign built around the original U series of adventures from the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Overall, I like how they fleshed some of the background with the new campaign but there were things that I wanted different, hence my own spin on the history of Saltmarsh...

History of Saltmarsh

Roughly a hundred years ago, during the reign of King Veryl Rudge, Keoland waged war along its northern border as the King sought to expand his territory.  Not all agreed with this aggressive expansion and some of the coastal families moved further south.  Finding fertile fishing grounds beyond the Dread Wood, they founded the towns of Seaton and Saltmarsh along the northern coast of the Bay of Javan.

Seaton quickly established trade connections with some of the more organized factions of the Sea Princes and developed into a trading hub, while Saltmarsh became known for its bountiful fishing along the mouth of the Gleaming River.  Both towns grew and prospered in their own way, but It was not long until they fell under the greedy eyes of some of the Sea Princes.

As part of their trading, Seaton was able to arrange for some protection from the Sea Princes but Saltmarsh did not enjoy such luxury.  The initial raids were small, but once word spread of the vulnerability of the town compared to Seaton, it was not long until they became the target of one of the most ruthless Princes, Prince Dugir of Scourgehold.  It began as a blockade of the town, but once the forces of Dugir saw that Keoland was quick to ignore their southern holdings, the true pillaging began.

These were dark days for Saltmarsh and the constant raids quickly took their toll.  The town would have become a mere footnote in history if not for the actions of two of the major fishing families in the region, the Primmwaters and the Owelands.  Together they ran the blockade of Saltmarsh and then began striking back at the forces of Dugir himself.  Calling themselves the Kingfishers, they drove the pirates out of Saltmarsh and broke the blockade.  The final blow came when Amarion Primmwater and Rupert Oweland led an attack against one of the lieutenants of Dugir, Arem the Doomcrier, killing him and sinking the flagship of the blockading fleet.

After their victory, Primmwater and Oweland were divided about what should happen to the Kingfishers.  Oweland favored disbanding the group and petitioning the Crown to provide more support while Primmwater wanted to transition them to into a private town guard, focused on protecting the town of Saltmarsh without the help of the Crown.  In the end, the two compromised.  Oweland reached out to the regional commander in Seaton and stepped away from the Kingfishers while Primmwater took command of the group until Keoland was able to provide what he felt was sufficient protection.

Since then, the Primmwater and Oweland families became well established and have been instrumental in Saltmarsh growing into the town that it is today.  While the Oweland family continued to focus on fishing, the Primmwaters expanded into trade and sent ships along the west coast of the Azure Sea.  Both families have prospered over the generations since, expanding their fleets and influence within the town and the region, and both have remained a guiding force for the growth of Saltmarsh.

Though other mercantile families have sought to expand into Saltmarsh, it was not until within the past ten years that the town council decided to allow it.  The Solmor family, an established merchant family from Seaton, quickly established themselves locally and the head of the local family, Petra Solmor, was invited to join the council as well.  Working together, Saltmarsh has continued to grow under the guidance of the three families.  Today, the council is composed of Eda Oweland, Garin Primmwater, and Anders Solmor.

Eda is the granddaughter of Rupert Oweland, and her family owns or contracts most of the fishing ships operating out of Saltmarsh.  She works together with the Fishmongers Guild to establish competitive rates for their goods.  The Guild also maintains a large smokehouse, letting them expand their markets farther, and they are said to be working on creating magical methods of preserving fresh fish as well.

Garin is the grandson of Amarion Primmwater, and while his family still maintains a small interest in fishing, he has largely shifted his focus to transporting goods in the region.  Though Saltmarsh is mainly known for its fishing trade, it is a closer port to Restenford and Burle to the north, and it is less regulated than Seaton.  In addition to his family’s legal activities, it is commonly known that the Kingfishers were never disbanded and have become a well-established smuggling ring operating in the Bay of Javan and beyond.

Anders is the son of the recently deceased Petra Solmor.  Just over a year ago, Petra developed a mysterious wasting illness and soon passed away.  Rather than send another family member to handle trade in Saltmarsh, it was decided that Anders should take control of the Solmor interests in town.  Raised and educated in Seaton, he has a different outlook on things than Eda and Garin are accustomed to, but he does have useful insights that still make him an asset to the council.

In addition to the council itself, there are also two prominent townsfolk who act as advisors.  Eliander Fiske is the Captain of the town guard and a decorated veteran of the Royal Army.  With the safety of Saltmarsh as his main concern, he keeps an eye open for any trouble that might be stirring up in the region.  Eliander also still has strong ties to the Royal military and has been able to have a small contingent of marines stationed in town in case of emergency.  Trained as soldiers and sailors, these fighting men can be assigned to trade ships if the Sea Princes start to become aggressive again.

The final advisor is Jemis Copperlocks, head of the Copperlocks mine located to the east of Saltmarsh.  Though some of the locals complain that she has no business with the council, the Crown feels otherwise which is why she attached by a royal decree.  Even so, she typically sits as a bystander if the town business does not interfere with her operation.

In addition to this, I'm also fleshing out various locations around town and expanding the initial adventure in the haunted house.  I'm the first to admit that this might be a bit much but I'm trying to make sure I have a solid picture of the setting so I can convey it to the players.  I have some thoughts for an overarching plot for the campaign which departs from the one laid out in Ghosts, but that all depends on what the players want.  Heck, they might just hop on a boat and sail away for all I know but at least this gives a solid foundation to build on.  Until next time...

5E Dungeons and Dragons: Ki-ki-ki... ma-ma-ma...

I had planned on doing some more work on my Dustgrave terrain this weekend, but the yard took a bit longer to tidy up than I expected.  Up here in the northeast, its been quite a bit of rain so not ideal weather to mulch the leaves on the yard.  Thankfully yesterday was sunny and dry, so 10k steps later my feet were killing me but the yard is done!  Huzzah!

But this wasn't all that happened this weekend, not by a long shot.

We also killed Jason.

This weekend marked the restart of our long put on hold 5e Out of the Abyss campaign.  Ironically, we will be putting it on pause in a couple of sessions as I hope into the driver's seat for Ghosts of Saltmarsh  but it was still great to get back to these characters again.  But what about this Jason character?  Well, it is October after all, so we had to have a Halloween themed encounter.

That's right, I'm talked about that Jason.

I must admit that I felt pretty confident at the start of the encounter because I'm playing a tanky bard (who knew there was such a thing?).  That ended really quickly when I realized how much damage I'd taken in the last session 6+ months ago... and Jason threw me up into a stalactite, taking me completely out of the action.

By the end of the encounter, two of us had gone out of action but thankfully neither of us actually died.  A great session and I can't wait to see what happens with the next one.  We will finally have an audience with the Deep King of Gracklstugh to see if he is as mad as the rest of the Duergar.

Gracklstugh... Definitely not you typical getaway location.

No worries though, there will be more painting/building this week.  I've already got a couple of buildings in progress, I just need to clean a spot on the desk to get a couple of good shots of it.  Until next time...

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...

Project Ninja Panda Taco Is Coming!

Yep, you read right.  Ninja Panda Taco.

For those of you who don't know, this is a new collaborative story telling game designed by Jenn Steen, host of the Jennisodes podcast.  In PNPT, the players all take the part of mastermind plotting to take over the world, as well as a nemesis who tries to stop the other master minds and minions who just want to help.  But why just listen to me blather on about it?  Here is Jenn herself doing a Q & A a few days before the Kickstarter ended.

And here is a demo that she did with a Google hangout with Lyndsay Peters from Dragon Chow Dice Bags, Liz Bauman from the Illuminerdy blog, and Daniel Solis, designer of the games Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple and Happy Birthday, Robot! so you can see just how the game plays out.



Unfotunately the Kickstarter just ended for this game but it was fully funded so it is on the way!  Of course the question is just why exactly am I sharing this now when you can't pledge anymore?  Simple.  Part of the funding was a fully print run of the book, meaning 1000 hardcover, full color books.  As there were about 400 backers, that means that there will still be a good number of this books floating around so you should still be able to get in on the mastermind goodness!

Based on the info on the Kickstarter page, these should be coming out around the end of the year so once there is more information available I'll be sure to pass it along.  Until then, I'd like to wrap this up with a big CONGRATULATIONS!!! to Jenn for publishing her first game!  It sounds like it will be a whole bunch of crazy goodness so I can't wait to get ahold of it and give it a try!

Until next time...

Playing The Roles: Gamma World

Hey everyone and welcome to a constructive installment of the Dispatch!

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I recently picked up the new Gamma World boxed set. Since then, I've gotten some players together, we've rolled up some characters, and we're all set to start exploring Gamma Terra! But its a big world out there so just where should you begin?

Making Realty A Reality
World Building For Gamma World

As I mentioned before, the boxed set does come complete with an adventure so you really can just crack open the box and dive right in. I considered doing this but as my group of players had been looking to be two people at the time (its since grown to four) and that adventure is designed for five players, I decided that I should really look elsewhere for inspiration for now. Looking at the upcoming releases (and remembering something about the original releases from all those years ago) it looks like the campaign boxed sets are going to be centered around the northern midwest of the United States. Famine In Fargo was set in and around Fargo, ND and the Legion of Gold took place on the shores of one of the Great Lakes. Admittedly they might be headed in a completely different direction this time but it seemed like a safe bet so I decided to run with it.

Since Famine In Fargo is the next release, I decided to look at opening the campaign in North Dakota but the question was where? It was when I was flipping through the rulebook that inspiration struck. One of the creatures in the is serf or thought master. These are domineering little bastards that want to have their own little kingdom to rule over which struck a chord with me. Instant villain! Well, after a fashion at least. In my mind Gamma World is a place of greys so having someone like this in charge just makes him a little darker than your average Joe.

Reading on, it says that serfs gather badders, hoops, and porkers around it as followers and try to establish a stronghold of its own. So what is the modern day equivalent of a stronghold? Military base came to mind first but a quick Goggle search didn't turn up anything of note. Then I thought prisons! These are designed to keep people in and out, would have a large number of "barracks" available, and as luck would have it there was one right in Bismarck, ND! Perfect! Now what else was in Bismarck?

For this, I opened up Mapquest and looked for places and attractions of note. Universities, malls, hospitals, etc. Within no time, I was able to find not one but two good sized malls, three different colleges, zoo, the state capital building, and the municipal airport. Zoom in somewhat, copy the image, touch it up a little and bam! Instant players handout and a second one for my own reference as well.

This is a scan of the players map that I made, complete with some wear and tear.

Next, I went over the locations that I picked out and fleshed them out with some details. The Gateway Mall became the town of Gateway (isn't that where everyone usually hides out in the post apocalypse movies?), the State Capital Building became the Noh Dakta Complex, the Kirkland Mall became the Kirlad Bazaar, and so on. This gave me the key parts of my setting, so now I just had to figure out how they relate to one another but more on that next time.

The Parting Shot...

Another short and sweet one for Gamma World but I don't want to give away too much about my overall story as I have some other ideas percolating right now but I want to get the game moving forward before I show too much of my hand. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them here on the blog or you can also email me at SinCitySnowman@gmail.com. Plus, still on Facebook and all that stuff, so go there and like it! Until next time...