Painted: Cave fisher

This next fig is a dream for those, like me, who go nuts for canonical monsters, and it's no question one of my favorites from the Grenadier official AD&D line. He debuted in 1981 in Slave Pits of the Undercity and later showed in the Monster Manual II. I have a copy of Slave Pits and wouldn't mind running it some day, but my guess is this guy will see action long before the PCs in my game are strong enough to take on that adventure.

Oh, and I don't scorn me for it—I painted him more or less in the colors of the wind-up toy. No, don't consider the toys' colors canon, but as I was searching for cave fisher pics before starting painting there seemed a lot of potential in this scheme. The blue flecks on the maroon legs are my own invention, however, and a win for me, imo. I also opted for metallic eyes of a greenish hue rather than glowing green (saved the glowing green for the basilisk, who will get his day soon).

And as always you get a shot to establish the scale:

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Official AD&D "Solid Gold" line
Set: Dwellers Below
Catalog title: Cave Fisher
Catalog #: 2012D
Release date: 1980
Date painted: 2009

This one is archived with the rest in my gallery on flickr.

Painted: Grenadier Lamia

A Grenadier Solid Gold line Lamia in gold lamé.

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Official AD&D "Solid Gold" line
Set: Tomb of Spells
Catalog title: Lamia
Catalog #: 5004N
Release date: 1980
Date painted: 2009
Note: This is the second (clothed) version.

Painted: Grenadier Halfing Fighting Man

Another painted AD&D Solid Gold line fig for you.

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Official AD&D "Solid Gold" Line
Set: Halflings
Catalog #: 2002D
Title: Swordsman
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2009

I have only one or two other halflings from this set, but would like to pick up the lot of them at some point. I particularly like the colors I chose for the shield on this one. Them and the rosy cheeks.

Here's a description of a pre-gen character based on this fig I wrote for a one-off adventure called Vault of the Mushmen:
Rory Bywater, halfling fighter, wants to be a hero.
He is the eldest son of the mayor of Suddenberries and has a hundred admirers amongst his young siblings and cousins.
Not to mention his dozen or so lady admirers back home, and the numerous sweethearts he acquires on the road.
He has a cheery smile and deftly navigates between a charming bravado and sincere humility.

Blogroll Additions

Here are several great blogs that come with my recommendation.

Swords & Dorkery

Swords & Dorkery is a smörgåsbord of old school D&D fare as well as whatever else the author, Mike Monaco, decides to cram in. What drew me in was the fully functional collection—that is one of breadth and quantity enough to field encounters in the manner called for by the traditional style of play—of painted old school D&D figures he showcases here. It's a real inspiration you should check out! I was actually searching for such collections when I found this site (because functionality is of key importance to me as I develop my own collection and I wanted to see how others had addressed this aspect), and I can't stress enough how rare they seem to be even in an internet that is brimming with miniatures and more miniatures.

Clamshells and Sea Horses

This is the oddly-named blog of a skilled miniatures painter with whom I share some common sensibilities. The figures are a great mix, from old school Warhammer chaos dwarfs to Otherworld D&D to Marvel Superheroes to funky oddball stuff.

Ghola Scale

Got a nice mention from Ghola Scale recently and was drawn back to this blog I bookmarked a few months back. Like me this guy aims to show off old figures in their best light, and he's also up to sculpting and casting. His scratch sculpted Ambull, the blog's most recent focus, is really great.

Realm of Lead Addiction

Blog of a miniatures painter of no small talent. All sorts of figures old and new are showcased. He's also just put up a stand alone gallery of his stuff.

Painted: Three Ral Partha Dwarves

Here's a look at the first of many dwarves to be painted for the collection.The first two are some of the oldest Ral Partha figs I have. All of these were sculpted by Tom Meier.

Dwarf of the Anvil

Manufacturer: Ral Partha
Line: Wizards, Warriors and Warlocks
Catalog #: E311
Title: Dwarf of the Anvil, in full chainmail, with mattock, striking overhead
Release date: 1976
Sculptor: Tom Meier
Date painted: 2009

Dwarf of the Blue Mountains

Manufacturer: Ral Partha
Line: Wizards, Warriors and Warlocks
Catalog #: E313
Title: Dwarf of the Blue Mountains, swinging axe
Release date: 1976
Sculptor: Tom Meier
Date painted: 2009

Dwarf Lord

Manufacturer: Ral Partha
Line: Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night
Catalog #: 01-031 (version 2)
Title: Dwarf Lord
Release date: ?
Sculptor: Tom Meier
Date painted: 2009

Group shots:

You can see that somewhere between painting the first two and the lord I stopped painting yellow into the highlights (including the metallics) to represent torchlight and match some of the artwork I love from this period. In addition to the torchlight effect it gives the figure a feeling of being aged, and I like both these things. So, not sure why I stopped and it's likely there will be more yellow highlights in the future.

The collection can be viewed in its entirety at flickr.

Ral Partha Illusionist

A really fine 25mm figure by Tom Meier.

Painted in 2010. RalPartha, sculpted by Tom Meier. I don't have the catalog number handy for this one.

The costume on this guy looks to have been inspired by Moebius, and I chose a scheme that would enhance the Moebius connection.

What's my chance at Paladin? Gnome illusionist?: AD&D Character Gen Eligibility Statistics, Pt. 2

Following on the heels of the first post in this series of three, let's look at the elegibility statistics for three of the most common rolling methodologies that don't involve rearranging scores or assigning points. This tells us which methods generate the more and less powerful characters, and generally what you can expect from chacter stats. Again, these were all computed by a friend of mine.

Method: 3d6

Percent of stat lines that can be X class

Class	% change of eligibility
magic-user	61.38
cleric	61.31
thief	61.27
fighting man	58.30
assassin	6.39
druid	2.86
illusionist	0.36
ranger	0.15
paladin	0.09
monk	0.03

Other useful stats

• Average sum of attribute scores: 63.00
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 17, before racial adj: 8.03%
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 18, before racial adj: 2.73%
• Percent of stat lines that can be a non-core class: 9.34%

Method: 4d6, drop the lowest

Percent of stat lines that can be X class

Class	% change of eligibility
magic-user	85.51
cleric	85.48
thief	85.45
fighting man	84.12
assassin	27.18
druid	13.61
ranger	2.94
illusionist	2.93
paladin	1.41
monk	0.89

Other useful stats

• Average sum of attribute scores: 73.49
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 17, before racial adj: 22.53%
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 18, before racial adj: 9.36%
• Percent of stat lines that can be a non-core class: 38.89%

Method: 3d6 twelve times, drop the lowest 6, keep in order

Percent of stat lines that can be X class

Class	% change of eligibility
fighting man	99.72
thief	99.65
cleric	99.63
magic-user	99.61
assassin	52.24
druid	13.76
ranger	4.82
illusionist	1.88
paladin	1.65
monk	0.87

Other useful stats

• Average sum of attribute scores: 76.44
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 17, before racial adj: 15.43%
• Percent of stat lines with at least one 18, before racial adj: 5.42%
• Percent of stat lines that can be a non-core class: 57.52%

Obvious conclusions

• Straight 3d6 is brutal. 1 in 2500 stat lines can be a monk. 1 in 1000 can be a paladin. Fewer than 10% of stat lines can be a non-core.class: assassin, paladin, ranger, druid, monk, illusionist.
• 4d6 drop the lowest produces more 17s and 18s than 3d6x12.
• 3d6x12 produces a higher average sum of attribute scores than 4d6.

Please let me know if these spark any further insights, and in the next post my friend asks whether every character that meets the base stat requirements as these charts would have you believe are truly elegible by Gygax's own definition, and this leads to adjustmnets to the tables. Finally, he presents a new method of generating characters.

New to the Blogroll: Eternal Keep and ADD Grognard

Eternal Keep has actually been in the blogroll since the beginning, but I'd nonetheless like to add a few words of context. Eternal Keep is you perfect entry point to the OSR and early edition D&D blogosphere. It aggregates all the big-name blogs as well as fledgling ones like this one, and it's a one-stop-shop for what people are talking about at the moment.

The site is run by ADD Grognard, who runs a great many blogs you can see in his blogger profile, including his self-titled blog, other aggregators like The Call of the Dungeon for OD&D, as well as ones on his own rpg designs, retro sci-fi gaming, and other topics.

It seems to me that the communities that share some of my other gaming interests such as the craft miniatures are really centered around the forum medium, and blogs act as satellites to the big forums. The OSR community, despite having a few large, active forums like Dragonsfoot and the Knights & Knaves Alehouse, seems much more decentralized, and the blogs themselves much more closely knit together. The desire to participate in this community helped in large part set BftD in motion.

That said about forums vs. blogosphere, the Eternal Keep has just stepped into the former medium in the guise of the The Eternal Keep Meeting Place. I haven't joined yet but probably will.

New Regular Feature - New to the Blogroll

Like most of us I follow a good many game blogs (which you can see on my Blogger profile page), but rather than dump them all in the widget all at once I'd like to give each a little context and limelight. To that end I'll add them one by one and mention each in a post—simple!