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...

Random Updates: The Gloomy Core of Space Comrade!

This weekend I was able to get Core Space to the table for the first time!  I went over to my friend's house and we ran through the Salvage Run mission so we could see how the game played.

It's been weeks since I went over the rules or watched any playthroughs so it was a little rough to start, but once we got going it all clicked into place and we were able to dive into the action.  If you've played a miniatures game before then most of the rules just made sense, and the terrain really pulls it all together.

The highlight of the game?  Gak, Roykirk, and Butler (a new volunteer for my crew) all being taken out by Beck and Jace, while Kaori and Gaa'nek ran around like lunatics and randomly shot at people.

Meanwhile Arianna tried to get payback by taking shooting Jace and company with an incinerator.  Absolutely hilarious amounts of fail!  In fact, we were racking up some many of our own "kills" that the Purge barely felt the need to show shiny metal faces!

All and all, I feel like it was a hit and I'm looking forward to playing it again in the future!

After that, we dove back into Gloomhaven with his son as we tried to find out what our "patron" was really up to.  I switched from the scoundrel to the brute so we could have some heavy hitting action, but even so it was really close!

The end bosses were two bodyguards with a ton of hit points, but we were able to take them down right at the last minute and even find out some clues about what is really going on.

I have also been able to make more headway with my painting, finishing up Lars, Faye, and MAC.

I really like how MAC came out with his weathered paint scheme.  Lars and Faye turned out pretty good as well though I'm tempted to go back and paint their tool boxes.  Dewalt black and yellow for one, and Ryobi green for the other... just because I find it amusing.  I also like how the black edging looks on these minis so I'm going to go back and do the same on the rest of them.

This just leaves me with four more minis and then all of the Core Space I own will be painted, so of course it's time to start looking at what I'm going to buy next.  I've been really torn on this as the late pledge is still open for Core Space: First Born and it's quite the deal.  On the other hand, it doesn't deliver until later this year and it sounds like it shifts the focus more towards solo play.  Rather than wait, I could just use those funds to get more of the existing expansions.

It's tough to pass up the late pledge but I'm thinking that my best bet is going to be to pick up the Shootout at Zed's expansion.  This set introduces gangers to the mix (in the form of Zed and his minions) and it comes with a couple more civilians as well.  Maybe it's silly but it's the extra civilians that are what seal the deal for me here.  I love that the base game comes with three but I really like the idea of even more random people wandering around the board.  You can also use Zed and his crew literally as another crew, so it really seems like this set gives the most bang for the buck as far as versatility.

And last but not least, I picked up a new game on Kindle.  Zona Alfa, published by Osprey Games.

I remember when this one first came out and I'll admit that I was kind of "meh" about it, but having read some battle reports and play throughs I decided I want to give it a try.  I don't have many minis that fit the Soviet post-apocalyptic flavor but I figure that is something that I can work on remedying.  My main interest with this one is solo play so it'll give me some time to hunt around for the right minis, not to mention build some terrain for it.  I love the Battlesystems stuff and they do have modern post-apoc terrain, but I've got a bunch of black foamcore lying around so I might as well make some use of it.  Until next time...

Random Update: The Problem With Gloomhaven

Yes, I'm treading on dangerous ground here saying some negative about the game that is number one on BGG for theme, strategy, and just overall existence but hear me out.

I've played this game seven times now with my friend and it's a lot of fun.  The world is refreshingly different from other fantasy settings, and the gameplay is unique and interesting enough to keep you engaged the whole time.  Even if you "die", you can just take over moving and flipping cards for the monsters so even the downtime is limited once you've been taken out of action.  This heads right to my issue with Gloomhaven.

Based on what we have seen, there seem to be no consequences for failing.

Our latest adventure had us breaking into an Inox encampment.  The first time we were so close to succeeding... and then we started falling like dominoes.  Battered and beaten, we wake up outside of the encampment effectively no worse for wear.  Heck, the Inox that we just attacked didn't even take the gold we looted from their fallen comrades, never mind the other equipment that we had.  We walked back to Gloomhaven to buy some more equipment and give it another go.  Returning to the same encampment for a second time, they were just as shocked to see us though they did manage to soundly thrash us within a couple of turns.

Waking up outside of the encampment, battered and bruised but still very much alive after attacking the same group of Inox for the second time, we proceeded to attack them again.  The guards and archers had all taken their appropriate places for the beginning of this dance as the music started for a third time.

And this time, we actually won.

My first thought after the third run was that we must be missing something.  Surely you can't just make the same run over and over with no repercussions for our actions, but everything I found online indicated that we were doing it right.  You can literally play like its a video game and just grind for levels without it having any impact on the main storyline.

Is Gloomhaven still a great game, worthy of all of the praise it has received?  I think that it is, it just seems like there is a disconnect in the narrative that the game is generating, that the lack of the finality of character death does take a bit away from the drama of the story... The story that we will be continuing this Sunday as we push onto our next adventure.  After all, I did say that its still a great game.  Until next time...