Monster Brains and Escaping Leviathan Shout Outs

Blogroll add and Indiegogo plug

I sat down to mention this Indiegogo campaign for an old school weird fantasy module called Escaping Leviathan by Monster Brains blogger Aeron Alfrey when I realized Monster Brains isn't in my BftD blogroll. It is now though!

What I have to say about Monster Brains is that all hyperbole aside it's been my favorite blog for some years and has provided me inspiration and entertainment in quantities hard to measure.

About the Indiegogo campaign, I left a comment to this effect on the campaign but I'll say it here too that I'd be happy to donate to Monster Brains just in thanks for the good times. But this one also has the promise of a cool adventure down the throat and into the bowels of a great beast.

I'm a little sad and surprised the campaign isn't doing that well given Monster Brains's massive following. Just 10% of the way there with one week to go. But it makes more sense given that this is part of a series of modules for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and LotFP decided to launch campaigns for each and every one of them separately, at the same time, with a short end date, high base goal and few perks to speak of. The way I see it the books are essentially competing with each other and I don't really understand the strategy behind LotFP's choices.

Oh well, I was happy to contribute and given this is the internet there is still time to pull out the win. I wish Leviathan and LotFP the best. Also looking forward to funding/buying more indie pdf modules and to this end I have just purchased a beast of a laser printer so I will never have to pay for shipping or toil in the treacherous swamps of inkjet land again.

Let Start the Face-stabbings—Enter the Bugbears!

Painted: Otherworld Bugbears

Please welcome to the dungeon these sneaky, furry, porkypigginit, face-stabbing, dick-punching hooligans. They don't play well with the other kids (and tend to eat them), smell like wet yak and their ubiquitous dandruff harbors some fierce alergens, but they cook a mean gumbo, never shirk patrol duty and their A1-class jokes do wonders for monster morale.

The Chief gets a spin-around:

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And if you want to see a pics of all of them launch this slideshow or see them on flickr. Didn't want to overdo it here.

Bugbear Miniatures

Bugbears are a D&D core monster but unlike goblins, orcs and skeletons there are not that many options out there in the old school style. I've got some of the AD&D Grenadier ones, which have their charm, as well as a few of the Dungeon Dwellers. You'll have to be patient on eBay to build up a unit of either of these, however. Ral Partha's first ones are skinny, goblin types that in plus category have big, saucer eyes but overall don't match the Monster Manual description. RP's later AD&D line ones are more-or-less human-sized, which is something of a deal-killer for me, but match the mid-to-late-80's artwork, so if you're into that sort of thing.
I considered all the options including making my own and eventually went with Otherworld's. These are big, mean dudes with some gonzo attitude and some key resemblance to the Monster Manual. In key areas like pants-or-no-pants (no self-respecting bugbear submits to the tyranny of pants!), armor and weapons, size/bulk and attidude they are spot-on. You get some fair variety in six variants of two sculpts plus a chief. In a perfect world the heads would be rounder and the eyes bigger, more saucer-like and freakily bulging out the head rat-fink style. I would have also preferred a little more difference in the variants in the armor, jewelry, accessories and poses. The castings also had some problems and these would probably have been better off done with separate heads. In particular, the mold on a few was obviously torn and there was extra metal around the neck and arms. But all told these get the thumbs up and I say your old school D&D collection would be lacking without them.

In the size-comparison pic here you can see these are meaty, hulking bastiches in 25mm. Just right!

On the painting

I painted these in my usual style of rich colors built up over black and as usual I went with canonical colors per the Monster Manual. Yellow is one of those fun colors when you build it up over a rich golden-orange but I wrestled down the urge to let the yellow shine forth as it were and dirtied them up by building up over base-coats that included bits of green and grey.
For faces and skin I also varied the recipes as I figure bugbears are like people and none-two the same. The Monster Manual says the fur can be tan and I wasn't sure if that would look mean enough but I tried it out on one and it turned out great, imo.
I'm really happy in particular with the eyes on these, which are greenish-white with red pupils. Wasn't sure how this was going to look but I trusted old Gygax and it's what makes the paint jobs on these guys sing, imo. It gives them their freaky edge.
The chief you'll see has mostly red tones on him. If I was painting to please a contest judge I would probably have done at least the leather straps hanging down over the loin area and the gem in a contrasting color, but I'm painting this for myself and I trusted their was plenty of contrasting hues to compliment the red, and the red scheme sets off the green in the eyes that much more. I also eschewed a cliched glass effect on the gem and instead carefully copied some photo reference of a real precious red stone (can't recall which stone type now) I grabbed off the Web.

On the bases

The bases are made-to-order laser-cut ply ellipses that Ian at Fenris Games cut for me. Can't say enough good things about these. I embedded magnets in them by drilling holes with a dremel. The texture is tiny, tiny amounts of Sculptamold with a little white glue along with select bits of sand and Woodland Scenics talus and ballast. Painted to match the Dwarven Forge dungeon environment they'll be living in.
And as always, the collection can be viewed in its entirety at flickr.

In the Shadow of Lead Mountain: Too Many Projects!

Blah, that was an unintended break I took from the blog that grew and grew. It wasn't because I didn't have anything to post or the will to do it but just the opposite. I have way to much. Too many projects, too many pictures to sort and crop, too many miniatures to catalog, too many lists of post ideas and partial drafts. Too many little things to obsess about. I have some of my best work from five years ago I've never posted anywhere and most of the stuff so far has been done at least two years ago.

And that's just the blog stuff, saying nothing of how crazy the idea of painting all the miniatures I have in front me, finishing all the terrain projects I have going, and running all the adventures I have lined up. If this is the first time I'll say it it won't be the last, that the blogosphere is a hobby within a hobby, and painting figures another hobby, and making maps one, and writing adventures, etc. ad infinitum. When I have a window of hobby time in front of me just the idea of which hobby today can slow me down all by itself.

This just to say it can be too much. It's highly likely this is a familiar story, especially if you're a blogger yourself. I know I'm in good company and I'm sure there are many who are biting off more than I am. Balancing spending time with friends and loved ones, doing professional development, other creative and intellectual pursuits, etc, comes with the territory, I know. Rather than complain let me take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of the bloggers of the blogs I follow do and how easy you all make it look.

What am I doing about it. Well, one of the main reasons I started the blog was to help me organize my projects for myself. Another was to make my collection meaningful. An uncatalogued collection is something of a liability while a cataloged one is an asset. Anything you don't where and what it is and what state it's in is useless. With that in mind I've spent this Independence Day morning sorting through pics and post ideas and I now have over forty posts lined up with pictures already taken, etc that shouldn't be too hard to bang out. In the past few weeks I've also been tackling physical organization of the stuff and am making some inroads.

I also think I'll make a few posts on this topic itself, about workflow, organization and project management, and maybe we can share some ideas and help each other out. Despite the occasional creeping chaos I've made some recent strides that are worth putting down in the blog.

And for now, if you're up to your neck in projects or conversely you've done some things to get organized lately sign off below.

Painted: Grenadier Lich/Summoner/Trumpeter of Doom

I showed this figure in the group shot in my recent skeletons post but looks like I forgot to include the individual shots of him. I've seen a few mentions of him recently on other blogs. I was able to help out a fellow blogger who was after one as I located a spare, and Jeff of Jeff's Gameblog made a post detailing some alternate rules for him. Funny that, because I also chose to make a new monster type for him as I wanted to use him in the game and a Lich was too powerful an opponent for my level 1 adventurers. I wound up calling him a ghostly summoner which, come to think of it isn't such great English as ghostly must refer to the manner of summoning and not his own state. Maybe undead-summoner is closer to the mark. Anyway, moving forward I can add both undead-summoner and trumpeter of doom to my encounter tables. Thanks Jeff! I'm all for getting some added mileage out of my figs and keeping my players on their toes.

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D Solid Gold Line
Set: 5002 Monsters
Figure: 5002E. Lich w/Horn
Release date: 1980?
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak
Date painted: 2009

Spoiler alert: my players, you may want to skip this.

In all honesty when this guy showed up in the game I had still not worked out every little detail. I basically intended him to be a kind of guard dog that could pass through walls while doing his rounds and summon a group of 2d6 skeletons each time he blew his horn. He will then stay out of the fray and bring reinforcements (limited times per day or would some action on the pc's like turning or a spell cause give his horn another charge? A d6 roll to see what trigger will recharge the horn?). He is immune to non-magical weapons and so will pose a serious barrier/danger to a starting group. He acts like your basic ghost in a movie, not fully aware of his surroundings until you get up close. Think the librarian ghost in Ghost Busters. So, while he's wandering the halls he can be avoided more easily than, say, the same wondering band of 2d6 skeletons that he's set to unleash. Plus, there is that sense of the unknown you get when you wrap a familiar monster like a skeleton in a new guise (a guise that the players will likely think is a much more powerful entity e.g. lich, spectre, ghost, etc). Oh, and the first blast o' the day also acts as a protection from good +1 spell as cast by Cleric level 2. It is turned as a shadow, has three hit dice and attacks only rarely (will usually retreat before this is needed of players have magic weapons) with a dagger and leaves behind his horn as treasure when vanquished, which turns invisible in one turn. It will remain where it lies in the ethereal realm until retrieved by a creature capable of doing so. Maybe there is a spell or combination of spells that can make it corporeal or allow it to be stowed in its ethereal form (suggestions?).

As always, my D&D collection can be viewed in its entirety at flickr.

Blogroll Additions

I updated the blogroll with some great additions. If you're not familiar do yourself a favor and have a visit!

• Beyond the Black Gate is a great old school D&D blog with a wide breadth of quality content.
• Handgrenadealien has a newish blog that features old school dungeon delves and miniatures in a vein not unlike BftD.
• Dungeons & Discourse is another multi-faceted D&D blog where miniatures play a role. Check out the great Otherworld figures. This is also where you'll hear all about the Barrowmaze megadungeon that recently went to print.
• Phreedh is a fellow lead adventurer and obviously a consummate craftsman. His in-game shots are particularly impressive they way everything is uniformly finely crafted. Really brings the world to life.
• Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold belongs to another lead adventurer who lately has been sparing no expense bringing to life some of the early published Warhammer scenarios such as Orc's Drift and The Magnificent Sven in addition to a bunch of other diverse and sundry projects.
• 手探りペイント日記7, which Google translate renders as Paint Groping Diary, drew me in with some of the finest squats I've ever seen. By total coincidence a casting of the coolest one of the bunch showed up at my place recently in a random assortment eBay buy. One day's he's going to be leading a little crew of privateers. Anyway, really looking forward to seeing more of this guy's squats and whatever else he's up to.

Enter: the Challengers, pt. II

The Challengers, painted.

I introduced you to Choderick's Challengers, the party from my Borderlands & Beyond campaign, in part I. In this post I've got the figures we're using to represent them. This post is also featuring a guest painter. The magic-user Twiss was done by his player, Tyler. This is his third figure, I believe, and I'm impressed! A couple of these you may have seen in previous posts but I want to show the whole group here so you'll excuse the re-post.

L-R: Aureo, Cleric of Oghma; Dynis Pofokes, Cleric of Ralishaz; Ott Gravelspit, Dwarf Fighter; Choderick Argenhelm, Paladin in the Service of Freya; Boodika, fighter; Leofwyn, Half-elf Ranger; Twiss von Standbrau, Magic User; Timotheus, Dwarf Thief.

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Julie Guthrie's Personalities II
Figure: 8149 Warrior Priest
Release date: 1993?
Base marking: Guthrie 1993
Sculptor: Julie Guthrie
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2011

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Citadel
Sculptor: Alan or Michael Perry
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2011
Notes: Please let me know if you have any further details about this figure. I couldn't find it in the collecting Citadel miniatures wiki.

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Custom Cast
Line: Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques
Catalog #: 1045
Title: Elves of the Woodlands with Fair Countenances Elven Bows and Spears (6)
Release date: 197?
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2009

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D
Line: Dragon Lords
Set: 5001 Dungeon Explorers
Figure: Dwarf Thief
Release date: 1980?
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2011

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Metadata ↓

Grenadier Magic User
Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Julie Guthrie's Personalities II
Figure: 8142 Travelling Wizard
Release date: 1993?
Sculptor: Julie Guthrie
Painter: Tyler
Date painted: 2011

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Metadata ↓

Paladin miniature painted 2009 by Spooktalker. Superior Models WL-032, Knight in winged helmet, from the Wizards and Lizards range. Released 1980. Sculpted by Ray Lamb.

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Julie Guthrie's Personalities
Figure: 806 Swordswoman
Sculptor: Julie Guthrie
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2011

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Metadata ↓

Manufacturer: Ral Partha
Line: All Things Dark and Dangerous
Set: 02-926 Clerics
Figure: Cleric
Release date: 1984
Sculptor: Julie Guthrie
Painter: Spooktalker
Date painted: 2011

As always these are on flickr, and let me know if you can fill in any of my incomplete metadata.

Quick preview of recently painted monsters

Meatier posts than this one are in the works but for now I'd like to make do with a quick preview of some figs I finished earlier this year. I plan to give all these the full treatment when I can. Really happy to be able to add several encounters to the wondering monsters table!

Pictured are some Grenadier lizardmen, Minifigs kobolds, Otherworld bugbears, an Otherworld minotaur, a Minifigs Iron Maiden, a Grenadier wight, and a Wizards of the Coast dragon. Yup, that's a prepaint knobrot!