Core Space: Scavenger Hunt - The Set Up

After the fiasco on Arcturus, the Ebon Fox was left worse for wear. Money is tight and with Purge moving into the sector, making an "honest" living might be difficult. So what's the next best thing? Scavenge from the dead. After all, they aren't going to need anything where they've gone.

For this mission, I decided to do something completely different. Instead of going after a station, I decided to make things interesting and have my crew of "good Samaritans" investigate a wreck that they discovered. Introducing, the Sparrow.

This is a small trading vessel that makes runs to various outposts and colonies. Or at least it did until the Purge arrived. It wasn't clear what had happened to it but Kylan and Riva picked it on their sensors floating dead in space. The power was still running but it would just be enough to keep the lights on. There was some structural damage but it looked intact and still had an atmosphere. Best case? There might be a survivor on board that needs rescuing. Worst case? Maybe there are still some goods onboard that they could help get back into the supply chain.

For this mission there is yet another special map. The last mission had a whole bunch of civilians and this one... well, that's the surprise. Unlike a normal mission with the Purge track, this mission is safe from the typical wandering monsters. That doesn't mean that they won't be part of the story though.

Instead of having civilians starting in fixed positions with the Purge showing up at random entry points, this is exploring an enclosed environment. There was a crew of two onboard, a few random items, and maybe something else?

First to pick the civies. In this case, I decided to use Dolin the trench and Mara the techie. They both are pretty average characters so I think they will do nicely. Beyond that... well, the rest is going to have to wait for next week. My thought is to create two or three possible scenarios for what happened on the Sparrow. Is the crew alive? How badly damaged is the ship? Is there anything else hiding on the ship?

Lots of variables to figure in but I wanted to at least throw out a teaser for what's to come! Be sure to come back and we'll take a look at the fate of the Sparrow. Until next time...

Core Space: The Heist On Arcturus Station - The Aftermath

We talked about the set up for the mission, then ran it through the paces. The question is how successful was it?

From a mechanical point of view, it felt like it worked pretty well. I wasn't sure about delaying the arrival of the Purge to a narrative point, but I liked how it all fit together. There was enough pressure to get out but still the ability to get some stuff before heading to the hills. It wasn't in the pictures, but Kylan was actually down to two health at one point so pretty close!

So where to start... how about all those civilians! I was worried that it would be too much going on but most of them were static for this mission. I did decide to give Delmar the delivery man at route instead of having him wander aimlessly, but that just made sense.

Dolin also had a static position until he was approached by Kylan. The idea was that once the contact passed off the information, he would want to make himself scarce. Of course that also assumes that I could actually make a Persuade roll for Kylan to get the data! I liked the narrative that evolved from that though so that works out as well.

The Purge arriving from one side of the board did mean that they were the giant stone from Indiana Jones, pushing the crew out of the station. This felt right though as I imagine the Purge vessel latching onto one location. They were still a threat and the crew wasn't able to just poke around and grab things so that feels like a good balance as well.

So how about the things that they grabbed? This was my first test with using the goods dice instead of the weapon tokens as normal. In this case they rolled up pretty good, totaling 11UA in value. To add a "role play" aspect to this, one of the crew is chosen to go out and sell the goods. How good they are at doing this is determined by their current Skill stat, just like when you try to persuade an NPC. The more successes you roll, the better the value you are able to collect. Makes sense, right?

    0 successes: There aren't any buyers right now. Things are too chaotic, or the goods are too eclectic... however you want to spin it, but the goods are left sitting in your hold.

    1 success: You get the "fair market value"... meaning whatever you rolled up on the dice. Better luck next time!

    2 or 3 successes: You are able to talk up the value some, raking in half again the value of the goods... rounded down, of course.

    4 or 5 successes: You have managed to double you money, you smooth talker! Nice work!

Of course it can't all be good! If you roll two or more "misfires", then things have gone pear shaped. Something about the items you are selling has caught the attention of the Authority and it is confiscated! Loose the highest value die but apply any other results as normal.

With all this in mind, let's see just what Kylan is able to wrangle for their 11UA of goods. Rolling three dice for his skill and... two hits and one misfire! The captain is able to talk up the value at bit and comes back to the ship with 16UA for this ship's coffers. Nice!

Now do they want to buy or sell any regular gear. Besides the goods, the crew also picked up a combat knife and a crafted short sword. Since Zhong the cyber samurai is one of the custom characters I'd made up, I figure I'll keep the sword but sell of the knife. Looking over the options that are out there, Kylan will pick up an enhanced military pistol. Nice and compact but still able to potentially reach out and kill someone. What a great combination! This drops our bank down to 8UA.

Next up is hiring new crew members. The other two custom crew that I made up are either 13UA or 17UA to hire permanently, which is out of my price range right now. Just for grins, I shuffled up the crew that I have available and pulled out five... and they are all a bit pricey so no new crew members. On to the maintenance phase!

And that's when Murphy strikes! Ouch! During their flight to get away from the Purge overrunning Arcturus Station, the Fox took some structural damage and the life support system got a bit taxed when the station's CO2 scrubbers shut down. She's still operable, but definitely worse for wear.

And there we have it! Overall... I think the switch from weapons in boxes to stuff works, at least for me. It was also fun to throw together a logical map; there were sleeping quarters, a market, a maintenance bay. It felt much more like a living space than some of the other maps I've seen. Now the question is, what's next? With the Fox getting to be worse for the wear, it looks like it might be time to scavenge for some ship parts. After all, no one will miss parts from one of the derelict ships left in the wake of the Purge. What could go wrong? Until next time...

Core Space: Heist on Arcturus Station - The Playthrough

With a thunk and a hiss, the airlock of the Ebon Fox attached to Arcturus Station.

"You remember the plan?" the bear of a man known as Kylan Hesketh asked as he holstered his Outland pistol. It would be nice to have something more reliable, but for now they just have to make do.

His partner, the diminutive Riva Doan, tossed her green hair as she rolled his eyes. "Are you serious, Kylan? It's not that complicated; find Dolin, get the codes, grab the goods, and get out. Now are you going to open the lock so we can get started?"

A smirk played across Kylan face as he slapped his hand against the airlock release. "Alright then Riva, let's go get us some credits."

Kylan and Riva make their way onto the darkened station. There is still a buzz of activity even though the station has ticked over to the night cycle.

As the crew make their way from the docks to the market, the delivery man moves to finish his route for the day as an augmented canine wanders around looking for scraps.

Kylan casually strolls through the market, heading towards his contact. Dolin the trench is known for being able to get anything for the right price, and this time the price is perfect. He owes Kylan a favor, and this is the perfect time to collect. "Dolin, my friend!" Kylan booms as he approaches the weaselly man.

"Sorry Hesketh, I've got places to be. Can't chat now!" Dolin says as he slips away.

Damn it!, Kylan thinks to himself. As he follows the man, he looks around for his partner but Riva is no where to be seen.

Meanwhile, Riva opens one of the sleep spaces off the market. Hmmm... Nobody home, she thinks. Let's see what I can find...

Heading into the dimly lit room, she notices a cargo container in the far corner of the room. Bingo! Checking to make sure no one is looking, she cracks it open and finds some quality goods inside (mechanically it was a 4UA roll on the goods die). Stashing her prize away, she heads back out into the market to find the captain.

Kylan breaks into a trot as Dolin tries to get away by heading into the other sleep space. "Come on now Dolin, fair is fair. I helped you out when Shovar was after you, time for you to pay up."

"Alright, fine! Here, take the passcodes but you didn't get them from me, understand?"

Kylan takes the datacard from the man with a nod and a wink. "Absolutely Dolin. Always a pleasure doing business with you."

Now where did he go... thinks Riva as she approaches the terminal outside the cargo bay lock. Hmmm... looks pretty basic. Maybe we don't need Dolin's info after all.

"Riva! What are you doing?" Kylan hissed as he walked up to the terminal. Riva was bent over the terminal running through the displays.

"You weren't here and I was. Might as well see if I could get us a head start." she said and the terminal buzzed at her again.

"Guess it was a good thing I was able to get the info from our friend." Kylan said with a smirk as he slotted in the data card. The locks flipped to green, there was a hiss, and the door to the cargo bay opened up. "Easy, right?"

And then the sector alarms rang out.

"What the Hell did you do?!?" Riva yelled over the alarm.

"That wasn't me." Kylan said as he worked the terminal. "It's a proximity alert. Something is on a collision course with the station. What is that... Uh oh, that's a Purge scavenger vessel! Quick Riva, grab the goods and lets get out of here!"

Without a word, Riva ran into the bay and threw open the nearest crate as everyone started heading for the the transports to get off the station.

"Jackpot! There's some good stuff right here Kylan, get in here and grab some!"

"I'll grab the rest." Kylan said to her. Dolin dropped something when he was running for the transport. Go see if it's any good!"

Kylan grabbed the rest of the supplies from the crate, only to look up into the glowing red eyes of two harversters.

I'm going to regret this, thinks Kylan as he runs over to another crate and cracks it open. Damnit! I'm risking my life for a knife?! "Riva, I could use some help in here!"

"Get out of there!" Riva shouted as she ran back and opened fire on one of the harvesters. The bullets struck home but bounced off its metal body.

The two harvesters scamper towards Kylan with inhuman agility and swing at him. He dodges under one blow but the other harvester gets a glancing blow on him. As he curses under his breath, an explosion sounds from another part of the sector and the lights briefly flicker.

"What the Hell was that?" Riva asked.

"They must be attacking the power systems in maintenance. We need to get out of here!"

Riva covers him as he runs out of the cargo bay, and together they are able to drop both of the harvesters as the sound of energy blasts rang out near by. "Hear that Riva? There must be a devastator here now. Head for the Fox!"

With the Purge closing in, Riva and Kylan ran through the empty market. The could hear more blasts coming from Oblivion's Edge but they were able to keep their distance from the approaching machines.

"Disengage the lock! I'm getting us out of hear!" Kylan yelled as he pounded towards the cockpit. Riva sealed the lock and with a thunk released the magnetic ring holding the ship to the station. She slumped down on the floor as the Fox rocketed away and dropped into core space. There's gotta be an easier way to make a living.

And there we have it! Was the mission a success? Did the mechanics I threw in make any sense? Just what the heck did Kylan and Riva find in those crates? We'll find out soon! Until next time...

Core Space: The Heist On Arcturus Station

Finally time to play some Core Space again, but for this one I've created my own map and scenario, complete with a bunch of special rules. Why? Why not! So let's dive into the heist on Arcturus Station!

The map for Arcturus Station

For this mission, the crew of the Ebon Fox are going to try to line their pockets with some goods liberated from a cargo bay. The door to the bay is locked but the Captain knows a guy that knows the code... and maybe he'll actually share that information! There are rumors on the Purge closing in on the station but surely those can't be true, right?

The "market"

For this mission there is a special map that I put together. The Ebon Fox is docked at the bottom of the board and their target is the cargo bay on the other side of the board. In the middle of the board is a small market which is also where the crew will find their contact, Dolin the trench. Also in the market are two stalls, one manned by Sundr and and the other by Mara Chaldr.

The Oblivion's Edge

On the right side of the board is the Oblivion's Edge, a club that employs Zolla-13 and is currently being patronized by the fixer Luya Faetala. There are also two other civilians that are in the sector, the delivery man Delmar Inarta and the cyberdog Skitz.

That's right, there are seven civilians in this mission! And to keep it "simple", they also have special rules. Delmar and Skitz both move freely each turn as normal. Zolla will also move each turn but she will not leave the Oblivion's Edge... at least not yet.

Dolin the trench will remain where he is until the crew persuades him to share the codes to unlock the cargo hold, but they only have one shot at this. Once they have talked with him, Dolin will start to wander around the station, moving each turn just like a regular civilian.

The cargo bay terminal.

Once the crew have the code, they can open the cargo hold door with an effortless action. If they somehow didn't get the code, then they will have to hack the console next to the door to open it (this is an easy task and only needs one success).

And this is when it hits the fan.

When the door unlocks, alarms start sounding on the station as a Purge scavenger vessel has dropped out of Core Space and closing to dock with the station. Once the alarm sounds, the hostility tracker is set to 5 and there is a chance for the Purge to arrive each turn.

Maintenance room...

...the cargo bay...

...and the storage rooms.

There are three locations the Purge could arrive; storage rooms on the right side of the board, the cargo bay in the center, or in the maintenance room on the left. If the Purge arrive in the maintenance room, they will attack the conduits and the CO2 scrubber. If the conduits are destroyed, all of the doors will remain either open or closed and no longer function (all of the doors start in the closed position). If the CO2 scrubber is destroyed, then all of the non-Purge on the board will start to suffocate. At the end of each turn after it is destroyed, roll a red die for each living creature. On a hit, they take one point of damage that ignores armor which means that the civilians will start dropping like flies.

The emergency exit.

Once the alarm sounds, all of the civilians will start to head out of the sector. All of them will move twice towards the exit which is located on the bottom of the board next to where the Ebon Fox is docked. As soon as they reach the edge of the board, they are removed and will no longer be part of the game.

If an Event card is drawn that activates the civilians, then they will follow the instructions on the card and then continue moving towards the exit during the NPC phase.

But wait, there's more!

I've also switched out all of the gear tokens for goods dice. When the traders crack open the crates, there probably won't be weapons in them. Instead they will have some kind of... stuff... that will have a random value. As soon as the goods die is found, it is rolled and has that value. What can you do with them during the mission? Nada! BUT... you can sell them Trade Phase... more on that later.

If any of the civilians are killed or die before they leave the board, remove the mini but place a random piece of gear where they died. This gear can be grabbed by the traders for an effortless action as normal. There are two exceptions to this, Sundr and Mara Chaldr. When the alarm sounds, they will spend their first action to grab the goods out of their respective crates and then start moving towards the exit. If they are killed, they drop both a piece of gear and a goods die.

And there we go! Loads of moving bits and pieces to keep track of so I'm sure that something will slip my mind once the action starts, but I'm excited to see how this narrative plays out! Until next time...

Week In Review: Hanos And Heroes!

Things happened this week!  In fact, I even managed to play a game!  Shocking, right?  So without ado, let's dive right in!

Harry the Hanomag

The first bit wasn't painting but it's a step forward for the 12th Company!  Introducing their captured half-track, Harry the Hanomag!

Going with my theme for the 12th Company, I had to include a Hanomag in their force.  I have always loved the look of the Sd.Kfz 251 and this is perfect excuse to put one into my army.  In this case, it will be as counts as M3 since the stats for the two vehicles are very similar but it will still let me run with the German version.  This leaves me with one more vehicle to buy but I've already got my eye on one that will give the 12th a wonderfully ragtag look that I am going for.  More on that soon, plus it's time for me to get to painting these guys!

Daqan vs Latari in Song of Blades and Heroes

Next I finished painting that one dude I needed for the Daqan force so it was time to dust off Song of Blades and give it a go again.  I stated up the two forces, set up a table, and away I went!

On the Daqan side, we have three Outland scouts, two crossbowmen, and a single spearman.  This gives the Daqan a good variety of units; the scouts are light while the crossbowmen and spearman both have heavier armor.  Not necessarily that relevant in SoBH given the high level view the system takes of things but I think I was able to capture the different feel of them?  Maybe?

Meanwhile, on the Latari side there are a whole two swordsmen and two bowmen.  That's it.  Nothing else.  When I did their stats I gave them all Forester but... yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

So with the forces set, it was time to hit the table!

For this battle, I decided to just go with a basic meeting engagement; two forces are walking through the countryside and stumble into each other.  Obviously, only one of them can leave here alive.

So... I actually did play through almost the whole game.  I even took pictures of each figures actions going back and forth across the table.  It sounds great, right?  Unfortunately it wasn't.  The lack of any real forests meant that those points were wasted on the Latari and left them at a numerical disadvantage.  Add that to a bunch of horrible dice rolls... yeah.  Back to the drawing board.

The Forester ability isn't worth the points sink that it became and I think that the Latari needed a bump to the Quality.  I had them at Q3+ but I want to kick them up to Q2+.  This will still leave them at disadvantage but the high Quality should help to balance it out better.

And... yeah, that's about it really.  I've been recalled for a few weeks so this week will be focused on packing and moving.  Hopefully there will be some mini time in there as well but... just gonna have to see how this plays out.  Fingers crossed!  Until next time...

Core Space: Getting Into Some Characters

Since I picked up all my new cyberpunk minis, I figure it's high time that I actually wiped up some stats for them in Core Space.  The thing is, while there are rules for making characters, its a little vague as far as what is... well, average?  To try to figure this out, I broke out the character cards that I have.  First things first, every crew needs a captain... and I honestly think that this was the easiest one to make.

I see captain Kylan Hesketh as a bear of a man from a life of hard knocks, so I used Weaver as a starting point for his stats.  I dialed down his skill points by one, dropped combat expert, and made close assault 1 as his secondary ability.  Kylan is a former gang member that has broken from his criminal past and is trying to make an "honest" living as a trader.

Now for the crew.  I'd planned on stating them all up but I think that for now I'm just going to focus on the second crew member for the beginning of the Perseus Campaign.  In this case, the crew is Riva Doan.

Looking over the base crew cards, most characters start with four health, four skill points, and an array of nine career points spread between two or more commonly three levels.  In this regard, Riva is pretty much bog standard.  The only difference is that when you build characters, you have to start with two career points while most of the out of the box characters only get one.  Not a big deal but it does mean that the point value for custom characters are going to be a bit higher.  As for her background, Riva was another member of the gang that Kylan was part of and she decided to follow his lead when he jumped ship on the gang.

This gives me what I need to start the campaign though I want to incorporate some of my new civilians into the story as well.  I won't post all their cards but we have Mara Chaldr the techie, Sevia Nakamola the corporate, Dolin the trench, and even Skitz the cyberdog.  I'll probably tweek their stats once I play a few games with them but this is good enough to start!  Now to get them to the table and see how it works out.  Until next time...

Week In Review: Heros Clicking With Trolls!

With Christmas falling on the end of the week, this was a short week for hobby but I'm happy with what I managed to crank out.  So what the heck was it?  Let's find out!

Trollbloods of Erehwon

Slow but steady, I managed to get a little bit more done to move my Trollbloods towards the finish line!  Another stone scribe joins the unit, leaving just two more to go!

I like these models but... yeah, I'll be honest, the whole two poses that they come in makes it a challenge.  Just kind of gets to be "Oh look, it's another copy of the same miniature."  Yeah, it's only five minis for the whole units but still it feels like it's a bit of a grind.  That said, I've been making sure to mix up the colors for the clothing.  This is a minor touch but I feel like it breaks up the continuity some which is good.  This is just a base unit so it comes in at 117 points.  Feels pricey for a unit with no armor but I'm hoping that them being stubborn psychopaths works to my advantage.

Next is my impaler with his whelp "crew".

Yeah, I've already shown this one a couple of times but think this is the first time to have the finished unit together.  I love how this unit looks, especially the contrast between the massive impaler and the tiny whelps!  This unit is a whopping 111 points and I was thinking this would be a unit I would expand to include later, but it's just too fun not to have in the army!

And last but not least (so far anyway...) is my chief and his bodyguards.  Again, it's not Borka (yet...) but Madrak is still a pretty cool mini with that giant axe.

For this unit, I've kicked them up to big axes and stubborn which brings them in at 127 points.  I'm really tempted to give the chief either wound 2 or tough 2 but I want to give them a try as is first.

So all of this gives me 355 points (once I finish those last two scribes) which isn't a bad start... but it still needs more which they will get in the form of a unit of scatter gunners!

Yeah, more work to do on this one as well but there is progress!  Once completed, they will add another 110 points to the army, taking the total point value up to 465.  I still want to add more troops to force (namely some regular troops to bulk out the ranks) but this is a solid start.

Random Heroclix Repaint

I also decided to get some paint onto one of the Heroclix that I'd picked up.  She's been sitting on the painting table for a while but I finally decided on a paint scheme and got to work on her.

Yeah, she's mainly dressed in red which is kind of predictable but I like how she turned out.  Rather than just start with a dark red, I actually did a base coat of bloodstone before bringing the color up with a dark then regular red.  I like the depth this seemed to give her kimono.  For contrast, I just went with a basic white but again I used a different color for a base, in this case Menoth white which is more of a cream or tan.  After that, I used white to pick out the raised portions on the neckline of her kimono, the torso, and her head band.  I might go back a try to freehand some flowers or something similar but... I don't know.  It's good to push yourself to improve but I'm pretty happy with how she looks.

She fits in nicely with the other repaints that I did for our Betrayal Legacy game for the male and female companions you can meet in the game.

This also gives me a good comparison point since I did red for both of the female characters.  I feel that the folds on the kimono are more distinct than on the skirt.  I might try a quick repaint on the woman's skirt, plus I have several shades of yellow so I might try hitting her sweater with that.  I think that would help add a bit more definition to some of the details on the sweater that are pretty muted right now.

And that's about it for now.  I did also do some work on stating up my new crew for Core Space, and I've got another couple of ideas for my campaign reboot but these are still in progress.  More on that soon!  Until next time...

Week In Review: More Frosty Core And Murder Hobos!

And another week is in the books!  The question is what did I manage to get done this time?  I'll admit that it feels like less than last week but this is also my 5e week which does take up part of my schedule.  Even so, I'm feeling pretty happy about the progress I made so let's take a look!

BrushFu For Core Space

Two more for the horde.. of random civilians!

Picture is a bit washed out but hopefully you get the idea

These last two are a corporate and a kid.  Only logical for a cyberpunk style game, right?  You've gotta have a corporate in the mix somewhere for things to be truly cyberpunk, and the kid just seemed like a fun addition.  This model is also available on a hoverboard which could be an interesting twist as well.

And that takes me up to nine civilians... or workers?  Since I have Black Star Rising, I can throw that little twist into the game as well, which I think will add an interesting depth to the game.  And as for the miniatures, I really like them.  These are printed by BrushFu Studios, but the sculpts themselves are from Papsikels. I love the variety of the sculpts that they offer, and I've really enjoyed painting up the minis that I've purchased.  I can't help but notice that the first batch I'd received seem to be larger than the second batch.  I kind of wonder if they might have been 32mm instead of 28mm but either way works for me.  If anything it gives them a mix.  After all, we aren't all the same size, right?

That said, it felt like the details were easier to pick out on the larger figures which makes sense in the most basic way, but it seemed like the sculpts are probably designed to be printed at 32mm height.  The 28mm still look good, things just seem to get a bit cramped on them which makes sense.  Think of a river running between two mountains.  At one height, it is clearly there but if you move higher up the detail of the river starts to fade until it becomes a meaningless line between the two ridges of the mountains.  Now translate that analogy to a fold between pieces of clothing and hopefully you can see what I'm getting at.

Next I want to mix things up a bit and grab some aliens.  There's a collection called Novus Landing which has got a great mix of civilians, bounty hunters, merchants... I think it'll add an interesting dynamic to the whole collection.  The store that I'm looking at for these, Resonating Prints, lists all of these minis as being 32mm so I want to see how they compare with my current collection.  Plus I'll be honest, I'm just having fun painting up all of these civilians and populating an imaginary world.  How can you have a fight in a bar without their being anyone else around?  Or in a market?  It just doesn't feel right so adding these characters just feels right, even if they just stay in the background.

Devastators for Core Space

Back in the beginning of the year, I put paint onto my Purge for Core Space.  I'd painted up the harvesters and devastators in the same color thinking that they would be easy to tell apart.  After playing a few games... yeah, not so much.  Instead, I decided to fall back to the original color scheme (at least partially anyway) and I repainted my devastators red.

And man are they red!  The Menoth white that I'd painted them with was a perfect base.  I'd thought that between the off white color and the shade that was on it that the red would be darker but this definitely works.  I did consider painting the heads white but I like the way these pop.  Really need to get this game to the table again soon, especially with all the new minis.  Really need to make some stat cards made up for them soon, or at least rework the ones that I've done.  The captain seems to be about right, but I think some of the crew need to be toned down a bit.  Might work on that this weekend.

Auril the Frostmaiden for D&D

I also wrapped up painting the three forms of Auril this week as I got paint onto her third form, known as the Winter's Womb.

Compared to the other two minis, this one felt like the details weren't quite crisp enough.  They are still there, but no where near as pronounced as the ice shards on the Maiden or the fur on the Crone.  This is also the smallest of the minis which is saying something as the other minis already seemed kind of small.  Even so, they were fun to paint and interesting change of pace for me.  Plus, they led to me picking up another trio of minis but I don't want to post about those yet.  I don't think that my friend even knows about my blog, but I don't want to spoil the surprise in case he does.

The 5e Waterdeep Murder Hobos

Last but not least, we had our biweekly 5e session and man did it get dark!  We've really been trying to stay clear of the law but this week... yeah, it's gonna be rough.  There was a gang fight that quickly escalated ("What do you mean we are doing non-lethal attacks?") followed by a visit to a shopkeeper.  My connection lagged out when we went to his shop, and when I got the connection back a couple of minutes later we were killing him.  Ummm... okay?  I guess?  Thankfully we have several players that can heal.  As long as he didn't take enough damage for an instant kill, we should be able to salvage the situation... maybe...

And that about sums it up for this week.  As I mentioned, I want to work on stating up some of the Core Space characters so I can get that to the table again next week.  Plus I have some terrain that I need to put together for my next Five Parsecs scenario...  really feel like I need some canals for this one... so we'll have to see what I can get together.  Until next time...

Random Updates: So... That Was A Week...

So I got back out to the field, and started painting like crazy.  The BrushFu minis had come in, then Black Star, plus a friend asked me to paint his Auril the Frostmaiden minis...  I'd even put together a post with pics of the stuff that I'd painted but... yeah.  Just wasn't happy with them.  Very flat and just blah, ya know?  Really uninspired so I just set the blog aside for a bit to think about things.

I realized that I was pushing to get the painting done so I could post pictures of what I'd painted, but they were just meh.  Honestly I thought about just putting the blog on hold for December while I figured things out.  Once I stopped focusing on the blog and just painted... well, it seemed to go better.  So for a while, I'm just going to switch to posting on the weekends and do more of a recap.  Just feels like it will be a better fit, so let's look at what happened this week!

BrushFu For Core Space

At the beginning of the week, my BrushFu minis came in.  Huzzah!!!  With the first order, some of them came with bases as part of the print but this time they were all loose.  I kind of wondered if that might be the case so I ordered ten cyberpunk bases so I could keep that basing scheme going through these minis.  Not only did I get the ten that I ordered, but they also included enough extra bases for the minis that bought with this order, which I thought was very cool!

As for the prints themselves, they all looked very clean and crisp again.  I was a little worried because one of the minis didn't have a head, but then I found it in a ziplock by itself.  With that panic sorted, I grabbed the glue and got to basing.

The first two minis that I painted were the droid waitress and the techie.  The initial paint scheme... yeah, they just didn't work.

The color combo on the techie wasn't bad but she just needed more, and I wasn't sure where to go with it.  The droid on the other hand... yeah, she was a failed experiment.  My initial thought was to go for a tarnished and worn look for her since she's a droid out on the frontier.  Maybe she wasn't serviced as often as she should be?  Maybe it's a lack of supplies?  Either way, she was just way too dark.

It was pretty disappointing because I thought that things were flowing better and these were just... well, crap to be honest.  I set them aside and decided to come back to them later in the week.  As I thought about it, part of the challenge that I was facing was the details are almost too fine.  Might be time to grab some magnifiers but for now I just decided to pull up the images from Etsy and enlarge them.  Man, did that make a difference!  This helped me identify some of the details that just wasn't seeing, and I decided to hit them for round two.

This time, I'm a lot happier with the results.  On the techie, I painted some of the base colors on her skin, top, and coveralls to add a bit more depth.  I'd initially only done the base followed by a shade, but I think that the extra base helped pull out the details more.  Looking at the enlarged pictures, I noticed the trim and belt on the overalls so I painted these up as well and I really think this helped.  No, it's not display quality but I feel like its perfect for gaming.

For the waitress, I tried to pick out her body panels with a bright gold that I have, but it seemed to thin to give good coverage, kind of like you usually find with yellow paint.  I could have built it up but decided to grab the cold steel instead since that has better color density.  A short time later, I had the raised and more shapely panels painted up and I like how they contrasted with the recessed spaces.  Her calves and feet are far more industrial in appearance, so I left those the original color.  Overall, I'm much happier with how these two ended up, and I think that stepping away for a day really helped clear my head and refocus.

Trollbloods Of Erehwon

In between the other projects this week, I also grabbed by impaler to get some more work on him.  Initially, I wasn't too pleased with him but then I started to pick out some of the contrasting colors and it really helped bring him to life!

There is still more to do with him (the bases, the tree trucks aka spears) but just adding the touches of the cloth wraps and the bronze trim add so much life to the figure.  I also love the two chickens hanging from his belt!  Just an example of the fun little details that the Trollbloods have.  This guy is gonna look great on the board with his two "crewmates" and I might have to paint up the other one just because!

Auril the Frostmaiden for D&D

A friend of mine is running the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure for one of his many D&D groups, and he asked me if I could paint up his Auril minis for him.  "Sure!" I said, and then realized that I had no idea what I'd agreed to.  Thank God for the internet, right?

It took a few weeks for us to actually exchange the minis but he was finally able to get them to me last weekend.  I'd hoped to be able to get through all three this week, but the cyberpunk bump that I had really through things off.  Even so, I was able to rally and push through two of the three forms.

Her first form is known as the Cold Crone.  This was an interesting one to paint because of all of the rich details that are sculpted into it.  The ridges in the horns, the texture to the fur, the drape of the robe... all of these are very pronounced details so they just came screaming out of the mini when I painted it.  Love it when they make things easy like that!  The fur was done with three different shades which let me keep around the eyes darker so they could really pop when I painted them.  I do still need to give the claws a touch of black but overall I'm really happy with it.

The second form is the Brittle Maiden.  Again, the details on this mini are nice and crisp so washes and drybrushing were my friends.  I ended this with a thinned white that I painted onto the ends of the crystals to make the edges pops.  I like how the figure ended up but I've got to admit that I'm not that big a fan of the sculpt.  I get what they were going for but... I guess it just seems really clunky.  Not that I could have done better, it's just that compared to some of the other collector series minis GF9 has released, this one seems to be on the lower end of the quality scale.

I still have yet to tackle the third form, the Winter's Womb, but since it's the smallest of the three I will be able to knock it out this week.  Heck, I could have done it today if my supplies weren't down south but I really don't want to get into hauling all of my painting stuff back and forth every week.

And there we have it, the week in review!  Think I'll start calling this segment that in the future but I'll stick with Random Updates for this one.  There might be the odd post that I throw up during the week, but for now I am going to shift my focus and just be posting on the weekends.  Until next time...

Trollkin of Erehwon: More For The Kriel!

Edit: Huzzah!  I was going to post this yesterday but Blogger wouldn't let me upload the pictures for some reason.  Apparently things are working normally now so on with the Kriel!

Yeah, so I was a bit of a slacker this week.  Well, not really but one of the things that I was working on I can't post yet.  I did make some time to work on my Trollkin though and I've got to admit that I'd forgotten how much fun they are to paint!  Of course I didn't have time to break out my light box for the photos, but still think these give an idea how they are coming along.

First up is my chieftain with his bodyguard.

I'd originally planned on using Borka as my chieftain but I had Madrak done so he will do for a stand in.  The two bodyguards are champions that I'm using for now.  I might switch them out for Warders eventually, but for now these guys will work perfectly.

Next are my stone scribes.

Yeah, still only two of them are painted but I added some finishing touches to them.  I was going to wait on these ones in favor of filling out the basic kriel warriors but I think these guys will be amusing to play so I think I'm going to but them up in the cue.

And last but not least is the first of my two impalers.

Just the base drybrushing done on him but now his two buddies are by his side to give an idea how the unit will look.  The whelps are just a riot and remind me a lot of the snotlings of old, though I think that a whelp would probably kick a snotling's butt!

Next week, my BrushFu order should arrive so I'll be digging into those minis ASAP.  On top of that, Black Star Rising is supposed to arrive on Wednesday so even more goodness to get into!  Plus, a friend of mine just gave me some minis to paint up for his D&D game so even more for me to paint on top of wanting to keep pushing on with my Trollkin!  Definitely looking forward to see what I can knock out this week.  Until next time...

Core Space: The Black Star Is Rising

While I'm waiting for my new cyberpunk minis, I decided to take stock of what I have to look at making them into characters for Core Space.  While I've got lots of options, I really was feeling like I was a little limited in the options that I have.  The rules from the basic rule book are civilians and I was looking to make some of these characters more tied to some of the locations.  Based on what I've read, it sounded like the worker rules are what I'm looking for so I decided to bite the bullet and order a copy of the new Black Star Rising expansion.

Black Star Rising is one of the new expansions for Core Space and features rules for both workers and scavengers.  Instead of just wandering around aimlessly, it sounds like the worker rules tie the characters to a specific location so I really want to see how they fit in with the regular rules.  All told, I will have nine NPC characters just from my Etsy orders so I'm excited to see how they help to flesh out my universe.  On top of these figures, Black Star also comes with four more NPCs which means I'll have a ton of options between the existing crews, civilians, workers, scavengers... it's going to be just like its own little universe and I'm really excited to explore it more!

Now I just need to wait for Black Star to arrive... plus my Brush Fu minis (which have finally shipped!)... yeah, gotta love the waiting game.  Until next time...

Zona Alfa: One Crew Done!

Well, it's taken long enough but I finally finished my first crew for Zona Alfa!  Huzzah!!!  The last man for the crew is Chatterbox with his friendly LMG.

And with that, it means that it's time to start working on getting a board together so I can actually start heading out into the Zone.  I have decided to shelf the Southwestern Exclusion Zone idea for now, just because I have terrain that I can already use for a more temperate region.  Where will it be set?  No idea, but it will be somewhere green!  I do want to get some deciduous trees as all I have right now are the old standby Christmas pine trees.  At some point I want to make these look... well, like they aren't covered with crusty toothpaste, but for now they will work.  I'm also going to focus on a more rustic setting so I'm going to break out my Battle Systems fantasy village to get some quick country terrain.

I do need to also throw together some of the Zone floral that I'd picked up months ago.  It's literally right next to me in the hotel room, just waiting for me to finally throw it together.  I'm thinking that will be on the table for next week, depending on when my Brush Fu order comes in.  I missed out on being able to leave a review for my first order because I didn't realize that there was a limited window for leaving reviews, and I'd like to avoid that this time.  Barring that (and work commitments... and... believe it or not... college... because I've decided that it's finally time to get that piece of paper), the Zone terrain is at the top of the list.  Until next time...