Sci-Fi Troll

Here we've got a Sci-Fi troll from Reaper Miniatures. It's a metal fig, but I slightly modified the position of the arm holding the gun. It was originally straight out, and I wanted a less action oriented pose, so I placed it downward, pinned it, and had to put a little bit of green stuff around the shoulder. Sculpting was limited, but easy. 

This fig will be used in an upcoming game of TFA when I get together with Scott in May. This guy's going to be a bruiser!

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Something Rotten

 Reaper Bones are the gift that keeps on giving to fantasy and sci-fi gamers alike. 

A few weeks ago I picked up a Bones giant maggot to use as an adversary in some future game. I can see having this beast as a surprise hazard in a game of TFA, as it is depicted bursting from the ground, it's deadly maw gaping to consume its likely prey. 

Here Speed Paints again served me well! Check it out! 

Thanks for visiting! 

--Scott

Another Play-Test In The Books!

 Another play-test in the books for TFA! 

This time I took a 5-model warband against two Chaos Space Marines, both built-out as major characters.

While their initial bolter shots were deadly, I was able to close with them and enjoyed some truly lucky dice rolls. 

I played a raid scenario, defeated my foes, and absconded with the main objective. 

New crew for this play-test, though a few of them were from past bands.

Malachi Oathbreaker guarding the objective. 

A nice shot of my home-made jungle terrain!

Insane courage!!!

The classic double-team! Best way to take on a major character. 

Zarthos, Malachi's partner charges in, but he is headed off by my leader, Victus.

Malachi goes down!

    

Zarthos goes down!

This game inspired me to create another ability for Inhuman called Terrifying. It makes characters less likely to hit the Double Bonus against them. 

Thanks for visiting! 

TFA: Project Process Update

 I have been discussing the latest play-tests of my current project, Techno-Fantasy Adventure (TFA). Today I want to show off a preliminary sketch of the cover from the talented Jay Piscopo. 

Jay imbues his work with an amazing sense of dynamism, and each piece tells a story. I can't wait to see this in finished and in color. Jay is doing a number of other pieces for the interior as well, so this little book is going to look amazing! 

Thanks for visiting! 

--Scott

Haarlock's Legacy Continues

 Stu and I played part one of Damned Cities, the second volume of the Haarlock's Legacy series for Dark Heresy. I found this one a little harder to adapt to the Techno-Fantasy Adventure (TFA) skirmish RPG rules I am working on, but once I made a few key decisions, it worked out well. 

We completed two games in around 2.5 hours, and that included eating a frozen pizza along the way! 

In this session, we arrived on Sinophia Magna. While nobody bothered to meet us at the space port, we hitched a ride into the city on a merchant's canal barge. We were promptly ambushed by a group of Undertow gangers led by a two-gun bravo named Devo. Yes, I know. Crash and whip. 

Anyway, we fought them off and sent them running, while taking no losses. 

In the second scenario, we followed a lead to the rundown Section XIII of the city. There we tried to interview (and ultimately rescue) a dreg named Sokken. But someone else had bad things in mind for the mysterious wretch. This party sent Warp-crafted zombies called Risen after him, and us, since we were in their path. 

They proved too much for us, and we were forced to flee! We had to leave Sokken to a terrible fate. But we got to know our enemy a little better. 

Here are some pics! 

We learned a lot rules-wise. Number one lesson, the rules are pretty good! I know that might sound weird coming from the writer himself, but they really are fun and highly adaptable. So that's good. We also fine tuned the retreat rules and they work very well now. 

We tested the Gunfighter trait and that worked Ok, but we did take Devo out pretty quickly. 

Ultimately, I am very happy and confident that we'll be starting layout soon! 

Thanks for looking! 

--Scott

Chaos Space Marines

 I know at some point in my Inquisitor skirmish-RPG journey we'll need to face the forces of Chaos. Chaos Space Marines, to be precise! I acquired two Blackstone Fortress Chaos Space Marines to paint up for just such an occasion! 

Here they are! Brought to you by the wonder of Army Painter Speed paints! 

Later this week, more to come on the Haarlock's Legacy campaign. 

Thanks for looking!

--Scott 

Dark Heresy RPG to Skirmish Notes

 Somebody asked about my method for adapting the Dark Heresy adventures to the tabletop skirmish format. It's mix of "stand-up" role-playing and writing some tables to create some random elements for each encounter. 

I took a couple of pictures of my notebook pages to show my work on this. A picture is literally worth several hundred words in this case! 

This page shows my notes from the end of Carnival of Blood. Since we got our butts kicked at the end and had to run away, I had to come up with a workaround to get us to the final chapter, the 13th Hour. 

In the 13th Hour, I wanted us to do some role-play prior to the action, so I made up this table and Stu and I each talked to three of the characters. Based on some rules in TFA, we used our stats to interact with them and gain info. If we succeeded, we earned bonuses to our attacks on the Widower. 

I hope this provides some insight into my somewhat seat-of-my-pants process of adapting this amazing material to the tabletop. I should also add that Alan Bligh's work on these adventures is amazing. It is so sad that he passed too soon. But his work lives on. 

Thanks! 

--Scott

Concluding Tattered Fates Part 2

 After taking out Gang Boss Papa Grist, we earned our invitation to the Revel at Gabriel Chase. 

After arriving and  gathering some helpful clues with some social interaction rolls (and rules, see below!),  we faced the twin horrors of the Widower and the Beloved, a vile Chaos sorcerer. 

It was really a three way battle, as the Beloved wanted to be the one to take out the Widower so he could collect his essence and enslave him. The Widower just wanted to slay any living being it came across! Stu and I were hoping more hapless party-goers would wander into the Widower's path, but after he slew the first one, the others just seemed to randomly avoid him! 

It was left to us to face him. We had gathered enough info to learn that opening the fabled  Steel Clock and securing its Keystone would allow us to truly destroy the Widower for good. So we tasked Hanse Grebs and Septimus Dexter with making the Intellect checks to accomplish this extended task. Unfortunately, after just one attempt, Hanse Grebs was charged and slain by the Widower. 

Meanwhile, Stu's Vostroyan IG conscripts were harrying the Widower with withering fire form their long-las sniper. My servitor, Ergo-VI also added to the fire on the vile sorcerer. Eventually we took him out! Big relief there. 

Then we fought a desperate delaying melee against the Widower, and Dexter successfully opened the clock and destroyed the Keystone! The decadent city of Xicarph, and the whole world of Qaddis, were saved! 

Lady Melua and a Vostroyan battle the Widower; Hanse has already fallen!

Dexter works feverishly to open the Steel Clock. I was pretty happy with my quickly knocked together Steel Clock terrain piece!

Behind the clock, Ergo-VI and the Vostroyan Sergeant have finished off the Beloved and are moving around to engage the Widower just as Dexter destroys the Keystone! 

In all, my theory about adapting the Dark Heresy modules to my Techno-Fantasy Adventure* rules worked splendidly!

More to come! 

--Scott

* I have changed the title from Techno-Fantasy Skirmish to Techno-Fantasy Adventure because I have added enough RPG elements for folks to run the game as a simple RPG. So now it's keyword skirmish, co-op, PvP, and RPG!