Ghosts!

Or maybe some water elements? Hard to say. Chen very kindly swapped me some 28mm minis and the first ones I painted up were these folks. 

These were cast in a medium blue, translucent plastic, which gave a cool see-through effect but made it hard to see the details. I did a light set of dry brushes and then a wash.

Up next: More crypt-dwellers plus some crypt terrain!

One-off building

I spent much of early November renovating my gaming room so painting has been slow.

I did finish this single railway building. It has kind of haunted house or mad scientist vibe.

Up next: Not sure. Maybe some fantasy!

Some Gaming

I've been doing bit of afternoon gaming with Bruce lately.

We playtested a campaign mechanic for generating miniature battles for his 1920s gangsters. The mechanics entail tough decisions and should give players reasons to interact as well as fight.

We also play tested a grand strategy game called Swords Around the Throne. Basically point-to-point movement, 22 locations, card-driven, and super hard choices (made worse by only getting half of you card deck (at random) for the first half of each turn (a turn is a year and you have six actions per year). I would love to play this again now that I understand the rules!

25mm Star Wars Villain

Things are slow on the work bench right now. Awhile back, I had the idea to use up some old bits and extra WEG Star Wars figures by creating "hero" bases.

I grabbed an extra Boba Fett figure and some industrial debris. The lights seem to be washing out the washes I used to make the debris seem beat up and weathered. Bottom picture does a slightly better job at showing the open hatch.

Up next: Zero idea. Maybe some more HO-scale buildings. I'm rapidly reaching the bottom of the paint pile.

Pulp terrain

I finished another of the rehabbed HO-scale buildings I got at the spring model train swap meet. I missed this fall's swap meet but, honestly, do I need more buildings?

This model was really beaten up when I go it. It needs some decals to pop, probably signage in the windows. I don't have nay rub on decals left but maybe I could print out some reversed text (white on black) and glue it into the panes? Some posters hung on the walls might also help. That might be a winter project.

Up next: Maybe a Star Wars figure for Xenos Rampant?

15mm fantasy

I've been grinding out a few more 15mm fantasy figures for Dragon Rampant. Today, I have some plastic game tokens from LotR Risk. 

These are, I think supposed to be Moria goblins. I did 30 of them and I have another 30 based and primed for when I get desperate in the winter. I think the figures look okay. The sculpts are pretty 2-D but whatever--they cost pennies apiece on fleabay.

I also had a few extra riders from the Joan of Arc game that I finished up.

Up next: Some HO-scale terrain.

Fistful of Dice Endgame Mechanic

For the past couple of weeks, Bruce and I have been playing some Gangster scenarios using the Fist of Dice rules. The rules work very well for skirmish games and I played a short superhero campaign with them the spring.

One of the mechanics Bruce has been experiencing with is a turn limit one. Instead of a fixed turn limit or the game ending when an objective is achieved, he's been rolling 1d6 at the end of each turn and adding the following:

• +1 for gunfire having occurred in the game
• +1 for machine-gun fire having occurred in the game
• +1 for each figure KIA'd in the game

(Each modifier reflects how player behaviour increases the priority the police would give to responding to game events.) When the roll plus mods equals 12, we enter the end-game staged.

At this point, a random number of cops appears at a random board edge and play continues. At the end of each subsequent turn, the cops on the board take two moves towards (1) any visible figure or (2) towards the objective. If they make contact with a figure, then the figure is arrested and removed from play. A random number of new cops also arrives at another random board edge. Players can shoot the cops but the cop figures just recycle. 

The effect of this is pretty cool. The game plays on but there is much more pressure on the players to take action (i.e., chances) to win before the cops nab all of their figures. Basically, it feels like sudden death overtime. The random arrival also make its hard to plan and adds to the sense of pressure.

This mechanic could probably be used in almost anytime there is some kind of authority structure. For example, a shoot out in a space port could trigger the arrival of stormtroopers who detain everyone, including maybe any Imperials they run into (you never know who is secretly Rebel scum).

Overall, a pretty neat mechanic to change the tempo of the game at the end. It also encourages players to think about when they want to shoot and kill. In a hostage rescue, sooner may be better. In a search-and-rescue game, players (or some players) may want to avoid gunfire.

In a bloody game, the average point at which the end phase would be triggered is likely turn 6. But it could happen as early as turn 3 and as late as turn 9. You can, of course, fiddle the target number to shorten or extend play. Anyhow, a fun little add-on idea.