Freeport via Dragon Age

This Saturday I plan to run Green Ronin's Freeport fantasy pirate fantasy setting using a modified version of Green Ronin's Dragon Age RPG mechanics. There's a certain symmetry there.

Anyway, I am getting together some figures for it to use as NPC's, and I thought I might show off a Foundry Swashbuckler I painted a while back, as I intend to use him.







Everything about this guy oozes character. A superb mini, and I really feel like I got the most out of the time I put into the paint job.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Picking a City...

The Dragon Age tabletop RPG from Green Ronin feature a great system and rich background born from the highly successful computer game of the same name. But it's a bit thin on details in some areas. Namely cities. As I get ready to run the game, and set my campaign in Denerim, the largest city, I found myself with no city map.

Not having the time or desire to make my own, my choices were either crib one from an existing book, or buy a generic one. I popped over to RPGNow's web site and after a quick search, I found exactly what I needed! 0one's Blueprints!



I almost immediately bought the Great City, a super product at a great price ($1.65)! This includes a nice sized city map with generic quarters, the ability to print as a standard sized sheet or a poster map, and lots of added details. Building out from the Great City, you can buy detailed packs on each of the quarters that feature maps on the various locations, including popular taverns, places of business, and temples. I also bought the Dock Ward to check out the more detailed ward sections, and this was also a dynamite buy at $1.65. I imagine that I will eventually buy them all.

I'll be doing a more detailed review of these products for Play Unplugged in the coming weeks, but suffice to say that for fantasy games using any system, I heartily recommend them!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Someone Call the Guard!

How many times has that imperative wrung out in a fantasy RPG? I've been getting ready to run my first session of the Dragon Age RPG from Green Ronin, and I've decided to set a lot of the campaign in the city of Denerim, the largest city in the nation of Ferelden. It's a teaming 'burgh, as cities go in this campaign world, and I realized I would need a crack unit of City Guard to enforce the major laws, or perhaps engage in a bit of institutional corruption themselves!

I decided to use some Bretonnian Men-at-Arms models. I re-based these guys on 20mm metal washers, and used some muted tones for their uniforms.







Although it is a magical world, magic is neither frequent nor accepted enough to be used to make everyday things like communication easier. Taking advantage of all of the cool bits on the Bret. sprue, I decided the Denerim City Guard would use trained birds to carry messages to and from their barracks. This could let them call for reinforcements, or report on a pressing investigation, or perhaps even make a corrupt sergeant aware that his smuggling contact had just entered a certain tavern.

Here's the Guard Sergeant with one of his messenger birds:



This is a perfect example of how sometimes fleshing a concept out in miniature can spawn new ideas for my campaigns. It's why I believe so strongly in using miniatures for most of my games. Anyway, I've got at least two more guardsmen to work on, and then I will move on to some other characters.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

LotR Plastic Goblins

I have had a box of these sitting on the shelf for a while, so I busted three out and gave them a quick paint job. I experimented with Armory's dip, but I had only the lightest shade, and I did not get the best results. Tomorrow I will go back to my Devlan Mud + highlight method, and then I can do a comparison here.

I think for the time being, I am done with dip. Not enough control for my taste.







I'll be using these guys as Darkspawn in an RPG called Dragon Age that I hope to start running in April. It's a nifty little boxed set game from Green Ronin. I'll be talking more about it in subsequent posts.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott