Season of Scenery 26: The Masterforge, Planning and Progress

Warning: this is another one of my long rambling posts where I go through various options and choices prior to actually doing anything. Hopefully it's interesting to the reader, it's certainly useful for me.

A Bit of Background 

The online D&D campaign is currently set around the Dawnforge Mountains, site of Nentir Vale's largest settlement, the dwarven city of Hammerfast. 

Back in 2010 WotC released a sourcebook covering the city and the region, incidentally mentioning three further dwarven settlements and various adventure sites.  One of these was my original plan for the session, but various side quests and distractions mean that the focus is still very much on the dwarven side of things, the Valley will have to wait.

I've taken one of those settlements, Highpeak, and developed it to tie in with Tharnak Thunderforge's (dwarven paladin of Kord) background. The heroes are seeking the ancient forge of the Thunderforge clan and are attempting to reclaim it, hopefully discover more of its history and uncover the truth behind disquieting rumours about the clan.

The Master Forge 

The forge is multi level, in fact the party have already explored a couple of them. Some areas have walkways, giving the potential for 3D encounters, and there's plenty of smithing type equipment lying around.

Initially I'll focus on the large ground floor room with the walkways as being a good place for action, and the space that translates least well to a 2D floorplan.

If time allows, I'll expand further to other levels.

How to Build an Arcane Forge

The Crypt of the Vampire Knight used Crooked Staff's Dungeon in a Box, with a few additions. It's a great system, and has lots of uses beyond the adventure. 

The Master Forge, however, is quite specific, and is unlikely to be used beyond this adventure. 

I much prefer multiple use terrain so I'm hoping to keep this build pretty simple; no point in putting a lot of effort in for one game (yeah, right).

I'm was going to use some of the Crooked Staff Print and Paste terrain; it's quick to build and produces a pretty sturdy result. It also uses mostly scrap materials (apart from printing off the textures and standard hobby consumables such as glue), and Kris has recently done some very nice dwarven textures.

But then I remembered that I already have Fat Dragon's Halls of the Dwarven King EZ Lock set*.

I've used Fat Dragon stuff in the past, most notably for the Lost Library (a truly epic build, if I do say so myself), but I found the thin card construction was prone to damage and the whole thing was fiddly to assemble and used quite a bit of white card for printing. 

If only there was a way to combine the two???

Of course there is; it's easy. 

Simply print off the Fat Dragon textures on paper, cut out the bits (ignoring any tabs etc), then proceed using Kris's method of corrugated cardboard and cereal box card.

The end result is much more robust than the original Fat Dragon builds, and quicker too.

I do need to get a bit neater with the hot glue gun though.

Once I got going, I got quite inventive with the textures, and even used some Crooked Staff stuff (Episode 51, Broken Wooden Floors) to build the ramps that connect some of the floors.

Current Progress with Spoilers

(While I don't think there's too much sensitive stuff here for the players, there will inevitably be stuff that you might rather be surprised by. I'll try and keep any spoilers to a minimum).

I've got the basic floor plans of four of the levels done now. There's still the walls (which will be removable for ease of play), should I decide to do them and if time allows, and a few more pillars and steps.

I also want to make some bits and pieces to help show the purpose of the building; benches, tubs or carts of raw materials, possibly an anvil or two, if I get as far as the Crafting Level. 

The furnace, heart of the structure, is also important, hence the following...

True crafters want the container, not the contents 

Textures ready for application,  plus a few other bits and pieces 

The furnace takes shape

I toyed with various designs for the furnace. There's a rather nice one in the Dungeons of the Mountain King set, octagonal in section**, but I wanted something bigger. My original map on Dungeon Scrawl has a round icon about fifteen (scale) feet in diameter. That's three inches; roughly the diameter of a Pringles can! I'm not personally a fan of the contents, but they're slowly being eaten. 

Then it's just a case of applying suitably dwarven textures and some greebles to indicate some sort of functionality and control.

Hopefully I'll get enough built for the game.  There'll be a report on here afterwards, and I'll share pictures of the finished forge afterwards.

What's Next?

Well I've also been assembling minis for the game, though there seems to be less required than last time, and many of those are already painted.  

Scenery-wise, there's still a good chunk of time left in the challenge, so I might take the opportunity to finish some stuff off.

*Fat Dragon Footnote

I haven't linked to Fat Dragon's stuff.  I do like to do this as I believe that we in the hobbysphere can help promote buisnesses that we find useful.

However, Fat Dragon no longer produce 3D card terrain sets, having moved over to 3D printing quite some time ago.  

I've nothing against 3D printing, but I don't think I'll ever invest in one.  I note that they now do files for printing some of the Halls of the Dwarven King set, those dwarven statues look great!

They still sell files from printing off 2D paper tiles (Copper Dragon), which are worth a look, though there are quite a few other options for this, the 3D card stuff was far harder to find back then.

P.S. if anyone can find links to legitimate sources for this stuff, I'll happily add them here.

**Dwarves love octagons.  Peter Jackson taught us that (or rather Alan Lee did)

A Challenge Failed And A Challenge Accepted (Forgotten Heroes and Season of Scenery)

I've not posted for quite a while for various reasons. Lots of other stuff going on (generally good, if busy) and a general lack of hobby impetus. 

Forgotten Heroes '26

After having a lot of fun last year building Mina Murray from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I fully intended to take part. Sadly, I never managed to finish this year's mini. I've got all the bits I need, but I never got much further than green stuffing some trousers.

Never mind, he'll do for next year.

D&D F2F 26

One reason I've been less productive is the looming deadline for this year's face to face Dungeons and Dragons session. There's been a lot of planning (or rather, let's be honest, over planning) and a last minute change of plans (making aforementioned planning redundant). But now I know, pretty much, what is likely to be happening, and I'm gathering the materials for it now.

There's less demand for minis this time, all the heroes are still pretty much as they were last year, and I've got most of the opposition already. A few bits of painting should suffice*.

But there's potentially quite a bit of scenery I could build; leading nicely on to Dave Stone's Season of Scenery challenge.

Season of Scenery 26

Last year I used the challenge to make the dungeon terrain for the Crypt of the Vampire Knight. This year the in person session is focused on a long abandoned dwarven forge. 

Whilst I could simply draw out maps, I'd like to have at least something a bit more impressive, so that's my main project this time around.

The challenge runs beyond the D&D session though, so I might have a go at something else as well.

*OK, I'll probably end up doing more than that, time allowing, but I hope the focus this year will be terrain not minis.

If I May Draw To Your Attention...

Free Dungeons

Various dungeon YouTubers have once more got together to produce free five room dungeons on their channels. 

It's organised by Daði on Mystic Arts, and there's a full run down of the available dungeons on his site. 

While you're at it check out his channel too, and hunt down last year's adventures as well. 

The Call Of Cthulhu 

Julian Simpson's Lovecraft Investigations is my favourite reimagining of Lovecraft's work. The first four series are available on BBC Sounds, and I believe that some of his wider 'Peasant Green' stories are as well. 

Going forward, the stories are being independently produced and are funded on Backerkit. They've already done a documentary about the life of Alistair Crowley, and are now continuing the story with an investigation based on The Call Of Cthulhu. 

If you're at all interested in Lovecraft's Mythos, at least check out the stuff on Sounds, you might like it. 

You can find out more about the campaign on Backerkit, they've already unlocked bonus material.

The Periodic Painting Table's Janus Post 25/26

Well, it's that time of the year again. 

Last time I set very vague goals, which I hit, since they were pretty much unmissable. 

But how did the hobby year go?

Janus, god of hobbyists and mini painters everywhere*

2025 - A Challenging year

But in a good way.

I managed to complete five challenges this year, three external and two that I set for myself. 

At the start of the year I joined Dave Stone's 'Paint What You Got' Challenge.  Boxing Day to the end of February to paint, well, stuff.

I used it as an opportunity to build and paint stuff for the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. 

 

Next up was Jez of Carrion Crow's Buffet's Forgotten Heroes, the idea being to paint, and if necessary convert, a mini to represent a hero, but you can't use an official mini. I chose a minor conversion for Mina Murray from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

Around the middle of the year I challenged myself to produce minis and terrain for a live face to face Dungeons and Dragons session for my normally online group.  As I built a bit of terrain I entered Dave Stone's Season of Scenery Challenge as well. 

Then I challenged myself (so just a time limited project really) to paint undead during October.  This was nominally to provide minis for the classic second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign Terror of the Lichemaster. I managed to collect and paint enough classic minis for the first two scenarios, and it's been a seed for an old school Undead army. 

Challenges apart,  I finished the minis for the second Orc's Drift scenario, and I got a few extra bits done, mostly for my orcs.

Playing games is also a big part of the blog. The main thing this year was the Dungeons and Dragons game. It may only have been one day, but I put a lot of preparation into it, and I think it paid off.

I got a few games of Warlords of Erehwon played and some 7TV.

The MEGAforce is largely a board and card game group now, and we've tried several fun new games, mostly thanks to Grim. We have managed some Rangers of Shadow Deep, and I'm sure we're all looking forward to Beneath the Mountains of Madness, which T'Other One is organising.

I got to BOYL again and also RECON, but that was it for shows and similar.

Blog wise I passed 100 000 views early in the year, which was great. It's now hovering just under 180 000, so quite an increase in viewing.

Summing Up

The biggest highlight of my gaming year has to be the D&D Day. Hobby wise, I'm a role-player first and foremost, so this was extra special.

Other high points include going to BOYL again and just generally feeling that I'm making real progress sorting through my collection; thinning it, certainly, but also making it better fit for actually playing games with.

So what does 2026 promise?

The success of the Dungeons and Dragons day means that there's sure to be something similar in '26. I've no idea yet what that might be, but the heroes are currently exploring further afield in the Vale, so there's plenty of possibilities. It's also an excuse to tackle more of the RPG minis mountain, get stuff painted, get rid of surplus and identify any gaps.

We'll hopefully I'll get to play through Terror of the Lichemaster, or at least the first couple of scenarios, soonish. 

I'll continue plugging away at the Orc's Drift project. Probably with Linden Way next, always my favourite of the scenarios. There's a bit of crossover with the Lichemaster stuff, so that lessens the painting requirements somewhat.

Bodvoc has suggested we look at the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles campaign Dark Shadows. I'll need an army for this, but what? Realistically my choices are orcs or undead, as they are the most finished.

There's a new edition of Kings of War out now, and I've been looking through my various armies, deciding what to keep, what to expand and what to get rid of. I think I need to cut down to two main armies, although I have a few smaller forces that allow for allied contingents.  

In any case, my orcs could do with consistent basing, and there's definitely some repairing needed. I've got far too many unpainted stuff for this army, so I'll certainly be thinning out the greenskins.

I'm also looking at rationalising my Fantastic Battles armies in both 6mm and 10mm. A proper terrain set and at least two reasonable armies in each scale is my goal. It might be some while though, so don't be surprised if I make the same vague promises next time.

I'll take advantage of the challenges again. Paint What You Got has already started, and I've got a couple of possibilities.

Mission two for Rangers of Shadow Deep is a good plan, but so is finishing off the Terror of the Lichemaster, which would incidentally expand my Undead army. It's about time I got back to Middle Earth again as well. 

I've already decided on my entry for Forgotten Heroes. Nothing too exotic, and it follows the same theme as my previous entry.

The Season of Scenery would allow me to do the aforementioned terrain sorting out too.

It would be great to  get more games in. There's the aforementioned 7TV campaign, hopefully Mission Two for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and various games for Warlords of Erehwon, with, hopefully,  Bodvoc's campaign starting up. All plenty to look forward to. 

So once again I'm sticking with vague and fuzzy goals, which served me well in 2025. I've certainly enjoyed my hobby time this last year, more than in many previous years. The same holds true for my music, maybe a result of the aging process?

* Not Really!

Old School Bonanza

New Oldhammer Goodies

First, go and read Bodvoc's account of how he got a large number of lovely old minis. 

Back again?  Have you read it?

Good

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

Fortunately he didn't want them all, so I got the opportunity to add some to my Lead Mountain.

Now while it was tempting, when asked "is there anything you'd like " to just reply "everything, thank you very much ", I knew that I had to be selective. 

So what did I end up with?

Fantasy Tribes Orcs

One of my long-term goals is to put together a collection of minis to replay classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign,  Bloodbath at Orc's Drift,  though probably with a different set of rules. I've finished painting the Severed Hand tribe, (but for a few Hobhounds) using various metal orcs mostly from the eighties.

For the Vile Rune tribe I wanted to use the old pre slotta Fantasy Tribes orcs. They have a personal attraction for me as they were a range i bought a lot of back in the 80s and I think they are just full of character.

Collecting them looked to be a slow process though, and expensive. I can't understand why folk ask so much for them, yet so few people admit to liking them.

Well now I've got plenty.

And talking of Orc tribes, I got a second genuine Hobhound too, which I've already painted up.

Marauder Dwarves 

I got a good number of these too, certainly enough to fill the ranks for Ashak Rise and Orc's Drift. In fact, I've now got enough for a reasonable skirmish force for Warlords of Erehwon, should I ever decide I need one.

McDeath Giant (mostly)

I recognised the giant's body immediately, even painted green. It was used for Marcu Grimmock, the giant in the third scenario in the Tragedy of McDeath scenario pack. He's actually just a giant from the C28 range, not specific to the scenario, but, like a lot of other minis, inclusion in the army deal has given him a certain cachet. Still, without the 'proper' head, he's not quite right for me, so I'll be looking for that elusive bonce. 

I do have vague long term plans for McDeath, but for now, he's just a very nice giant.

Minifigs Mythical Earth 

I've got a post dedicated to this range in the works (soon), but suffice to say I've now got quite a few orcs and man orcs to add to my collection of wargs, treemen and cavalry. What I don't have, yet, is any clear idea of what to do with them. While I still have a copy of the rules they were designed to be used with, I don't really have sufficient minis for useful armies. I'll certainly get some painted up though, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

There's also a small contingent of the slightly later Minifigs Dungeons and Dragons High Elves (back right in the photo above).  They might not look very elven, but they match the illustration in the first Monster Manual. 

The Periodic Painting Table; A New Look

Don't worry if you don't recognise the look, I've gone for a new Theme.  Apparently Blogger works better if this is changed occasionally.

I'm also working towards making the blog more accessible, with better links, more sensible titles (don't worry, you'll still get my attempts at humour as sub headings) and some long overdue general editing.

I'm also adding Alt text, so I'd be interested if you find this helpful, and if so, if you  have any suggestions for improvements.

As the blog heads towards 100K views, thanks for checking in. If you like what you see,  please consider commenting and/or following. 

Finally, this particular post has a limited lifetime.  I'll delete it once I think it's done it's job.

A New Challenge

Long time readers know that I occasionally indulge in hobby challenges. These are usually between Bodvoc and myself, such as our 6mm Fantastic Battles challenge during last October. We've even gone international with the First and Second International Townscape challenges, including Merijn from across the German Ocean.

A New Challenge

But now I'm joining someone else's challenge; Paint What You Got, organised by Dave on Wargames Terrain Workshop.

The gauntlet is thrown

I learned about this from long time commentator Snapfit of Da Green Horde, and it seems to be just my sort of thing. Basically, finish something between December 26th and February 28th. It can be something already begun or something new, just as long as it's finished within that window. This is just my kind of 'fuzzy target', pretty much anything I finish over the next several weeks would count.

But what to submit? I've some Rangers that I recently finished (must get their post completed), I'm nicely on with some Reaper zombies and some spiders, and I've got some Companions just started.

Perhaps a collection of stuff for Rangers of Shadow Deep? Maybe a Company plus Creatures for the first mission? Possibly adding in some terrain? 

Now the cynics out there might suggest that this will make no difference to my hobbying, but they're wrong.  What it will do is focus my mind on actually finishing things, something that I traditionally have difficulty in doing.

So thanks Dave for having me along for this.  I'm looking forward to it.

As I'm still not quite sure what will be my actual submission, I'm going to tag everything that is actually finished in the time window with PWYG so you can follow along.

Janus Post 24/25

It's that time of year when bloggers traditionally try and remember what they did over the past twelve months and set unrealistic goals for the next. Who am I to argue with tradition?

Janus, god of mini painters and hobbyists

Targets Set 

Firstly, what did I set out to do last year?

6mm dwarves; I wanted to get a few more companies and characters finished, sadly very little progress here. Worse, I put 'magnetic paper' on the bases for safe storage and transport, but it has proven not strong enough. The tin wasn't stored level and everything slid to one end, resulting in some bent pikes. Nothing that can't be fixed, but dispiriting. This needs sorting.

Similarly, I haven't sorted through the remaining pile of unpainted 6mm stuff - with one notable exception (see below).

Neither have I finished my MESBG Haradrim, nor any Orks.

In fact, none of my existing projects really got much further.

But looking at my actual post, these were hopes rather than goals. My goal was simply "". And I think I accomplished that.

Looking Back 

Last year saw me reorganise my Old School project (yet again) and a considerable increase in my Oldhammer orcs. I've nearly finished painting the minis required for the Severed Hand orcs in the classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario pack 'Bloodbath At Orc's Drift' (just seven Hobhounds to go at time of writing). This led to Bodvoc and myself, always searching for the perfect set of rules, to try out Warlord Games' Warlords of Erehwon, written by Rick Priestley. So far they seem to give the right sort of feel for the size and type of games we want to play with our Old School stuff.

All this Oldhammer led to me attending BOYL for the first time. Not actually my idea (Andy first mentioned it, and I'm very pleased he did. I'd never have gone on my own, but it was great to have a group of us there, three quarters of the MEGAforce).

My only bit of 6mm painting was my Orctober project. Bodvoc and I tried to get at least 500 points of Fantastic Battles stuff painted, including scenery. We both managed it, though mine are not really a balanced force. Most were restored previously painted minis, which gave me the opportunity to sort through what I have for orcs, and an opposing force for my dwarves.

I took part in the RPGaday project during. This was fascinating idea, and it got me thinking about what I play and why, and it should help me decide what games to keep and which to let go or avoid in the future. I had hoped for more engagement with my blog as a result, I'm not sure that happened. Perhaps next time I'll do something that provides more generally useful content?

The tail end of the year saw me finally get round to playing Joseph McCulloch's Rangers of Shadow Deep. This cooperative skirmish game seems to be a hit with the MEGAforce (though Grim has yet to try it) and has inspired me to build up some more of the various plastic minis that I have (OK, yes, and buy some more), and build up some more suitable terrain. 

For various reasons, I played far fewer wargames or skirmish games than 2023. While disappointing, it gave me the opportunity to concentrate on just a few things. This certainly helped me to really enjoy painting. Although I'm still not where I want to be regarding hobby stuff, I can see where I'm going with it. 

The thinning out process started very well, clearing a lot of RPG minis, several whole armies and quite a bit of Lord of the Rings stuff, but slowed towards the middle of the year. The arrival of Bones 6 has got me looking through my roleplaying minis again, and I'm in the process of further thinning.

Looking Forward 

'More of the same' is too broad and unhelpful, but, in essence, I want to carry on as I have been doing. 

The thinning exercise must continue, and linked with this is the ethos that collections of minis and terrain must be as useful as possible. Either relevant for a game I really enjoy, such as my Kings of War armies or my Middle Earth stuff;, or useable in several games, like my terrain or the Old School orcs. 

Thus I've made a set of generic tokens that I can use in Rangers of the Shadow Deep as well as Frostgrave and many other wargames, rather than model dead bodies, cocoons and other scenario specific objectives.

This is the secret motivation behind the Orc's Drift project. Once I've painted the minis and built the terrain, I'll have plenty to use in many different games.

So for 2025 I'm going to steadily build up terrain and armies so that I have stuff ready for play. I may revisit some of my Kings of War armies (it's too long since I played) and I certainly want to get further with both the Rangers of Shadow Deep stuff, which is really generic fantasy skirmish stuff and most of which is good for RPGs as well, and the Old School Orc's Drift collection.

Terrain is an issue for both 6mm and 10mm games, but I have some stuff, I just need to make a few more bits then I'll have a set for each scale.

As I've said before, if I have a deadline I might achieve the target, but it will be rushed, probably incomplete and I won't enjoy it, especially towards the end (it'll feel great having it finished though). If I have no goals at all, I'm lost, unable to decide amongst the many possibilities. I've wasted a lot of hobby time this way.

'Fuzzy Targets' are best.

Above and beyond  these worthy goals, there are three things I'd like to explore.

Last year my blog hit 75 000 views, and is moving nicely towards 100 000 views. It seems appropriate to have a special battle report for the occasion, but I'm not sure what. 

One idea is to return to Mars. I still have some 18mm Mars stuff. Not much, but enough for a skirmish game or two, perhaps Fistful of Lead? It would mean starting from scratch though with terrain and minis, and I don't see it as a game I'd be playing a lot.

I've also got a lot of 28mm Star Wars minis from the WotC pre painted ranges. I've repainted some in the past, but never done anything with them. It would be nice to have some games, probably using Fistful of Lead as it worked great in our 20mm scale games. A short campaign with competing gangs sounds fun, but it would need terrain building.

One final possible diversion is Trench Crusade. My son-in-law is very interested in this, and I'd happily scratch build some terrain and models. It breaks my 'rules' in that it would be very specific in use. Fun though.

RPGaDAY 2024 Review

RPGADAY 2024 Review 

Well, that was fun! 

It's been an interesting experience, and helped me think about what I play and why. It may even affect what I play in the future, particularly relevant with D&D 24 looming.

I'm not really surprised that I sound like an old school Grognard, but it's refreshing to see that I've mentioned more than just D&D and Call of Cthulhu. I like to think that I've dabbled in a few lesser known titles, though I've been reading a few other entries, and there are some truly obscure games out there.

I've definitely come to some sort of understanding of why I play games, and what sort of games are likely to appeal to me. 

Despite no longer being in the world of work, time seems as precious as ever, and inevitably I have to compromise when it comes to RPGs. 

In the past I've run several different games on different nights, using different systems (running D&D in both 4E and 5E was a challenge). I can't really do that anymore. The cognitive load is greater than I want to give these days.

I've realised that I don't enjoy a game if I feel I'm lost in the rules. I know that I might make poor choices within the game, but I want them to be my poor choices, not just because I don't understand the details of the game rules.

I appreciate that there's bound to be a period when I'm learning a new game, but, much as with my wargaming, I'm wary if something new comes along. Do I already have a game that does the same sort of thing? If so, is it worth learning something else new?

I've also realised that I like playing in games where the players act as a group to achieve a goal. I'm all for personal goals and motivations, but I've a personal dislike of games that set the players against each other. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with this style of game, just that they aren't for me.

And if I'm playing a fantasy game, I want it to feel heroic. 

Honourable Unmentioned 

I realised that I've played quite a few different games over the forty plus years that I've been roleplaying, and many of them haven't been mentioned. 

Here's a list of the ones that I can remember.

So, in no particular order;

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 

Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game 

Runequest

Fiasco

Shadow Chasers (and various other Polyhedron magazine games)

GURPS

Tunnels and Trolls 

The Arduin Grimoire (or is this just a D&D supplement?)

Dragon Warriors 

Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying

Basic Roleplay System (the OSR clone)

Traveller

True d20 (the Pulp version, not the Mecha version. I regularly get asked to run this again)

Microlite d20

Warrior Cats 

SAGA roleplaying system 

Star Wars (the WotC d20 version)

STOCSlite

Maelstrom 

Lone Wolf (RPG based on the game books)

TORG (both versions)

Empire of the Petal Throne 

Beneath the Sands (devised by a fellow player/GM at the FLGS)

MERPS

Maybe some of them will get a mention next year.

#RPGaDAY24

RPGaDay 2024: Day 29: Awesome App

Day 29: Awesome App

This one's easy. I only really use one app for RPGs, Roll20.

I'm not nominating it because it's amazing, it more or less does the job and I'm aware that it can do a lot more than I know how to do.

It's simply that we need a way to game online, and it seems to fit the bill. There's a regular cost, but that's unavoidable if I want to play online.

Now the vague rambling bit.

When I stop and think a bit more, I do have a dice rolling app on my phone, which I've not used in many months, and we use Meets for the actual AV side of things (the AV on Roll20 was too slow when we tried).

I also use Inkarnate to draw maps, but there are many other ways of producing maps, including just downloading commercially produced ones.

I'll also mention Obsidian Portal. I've used this off and on since the 4E days and it is a useful way to organise a campaign. I find that it requires a lot of set up though to have enough wiki in place for the players to usefully reference, and if some players interact more with it than others, I end up not sure what to assume with player knowledge. So I end up restating it in session, which sort of negates the reason for using it in the first place.

And now the rant-y bit.

But I know many people use apps much more. DND Beyond is the big one, of course, and it seems as if it's becoming increasingly necessary. I know there's a free version, but it doesn't cover all the options. WotC even advertise it now on the grounds that character generation is too slow and complicated without it. To me, that's like GWs' liquid greenstuff, a condemnation of the original product that its trying to fix, not a selling point for the new thing.

It also looks like the next edition of D&D will rely more heavily on D&D Beyond and VTs, all of which will require subscriptions.

I'm certainly not opposed to paying for content. I buy the books that I think I'll use (OK, and a lot more besides), but I don't want to have to buy everything all over again just to play remotely.

If we've got to the stage where the game requires apps to keep track of all the abilities, then it's getting too complicated* for me.

While I'm channelling my inner Grognard I have another grumble; people relying on the various apps have access to everything they've paid for, and it doesn't always match what's in the books. I like to start a game or campaign stating what books the players can draw from, usually just the Players Handbook. I rule that any other material has to be discussed before its introduced, and online services make it hard for a player to know if its something I've OKed.

Now this isn't a very new thing. 4E had online tools, and as the characters got more powerful, they became increasingly necessary for levelling up. We split the cost between us, but the wizard was using spells from all over, sometimes not very well balanced spells either.

It's not me being a killjoy, it more about me knowing what the heroes are capable of and building suitable challenges.

#RPGaDAY24

* My personal definitions; Complex - involving many details for the benefit of the whole.

Complicated - involving many details just for the sake of it to the detriment of the whole

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 28: Great Gamer Gadget

Day 28: Great Gamer Gadget 

Gosh, these are getting tricky.

I'm a bit stumped, because I don't think I really use gadgets*, nor have I played in games where others do.

One thing I wish I did do, is use music. Some kind of music playing device and a playlist, but I've never been organised enough, and there always seems to be something more important to prep. I'm not sure what I'd play, I'm not short of Medieval music for tavern scenes and banquets, but for background? I'd suggest video game music, for atmosphere (I'm a big fan of how well Nintendo did this in many of the Legend of Zelda series), but it can be a distraction if the players recognise the source.

So I'm reaching back to the 4E campaign again. As the characters grew more powerful and gained more abilities (and the monsters did too), combat could take ages. In an attempt to speed up the decision making I used a small egg timer. If a player completed their turn before the sand ran out, they gained a bonus. What it was varied from an Action Point to a draw from a deck of boons. I'm pretty sure that the last piece of cake was once claimed.

We also used the coloured plastic rings from soft drinks bottles to show the various conditions, and there were a lot of conditions in 4E. We even experimented with flight stands, but not very successfully I'm afraid (I repurposed the clix bases from WizKids Heroclix minis with a raised platform for the mini, but they were overlarge on the floor plans and fiddly to use).

But, if I think a bit harder I do use gadgets now. I have metal or plastic gadgets to represent where the PCs and their adversaries are. I also use other gadgets to represent the area the heroes are exploring.

I have a whole series of card and paper gadgets that I refer to for the rules, and even plastic gadgets to generate random numbers.

What I don't use much of is electronic gadgets, but we'll talk about apps tomorrow.

#RPGaDAY24

*Thinking more about this, I don't currently play face to face. My desk is crowded enough with PC, keyboard, phone and notes. There certainly isn't enough room for anything else.

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 27: Marvellous Miniature

Day 27: Marvellous Miniature

 

This is a tricky one, I own a lot of minis (seriously A LOT) and it's hard to choose. I invested heavily in the old WotC prepainted minis for D&D, so as to get just the right mini. Prior to that I had a lovely mix of different fantasy and historical minis. In fact I'd been collecting minis, especially the old Minifigs Mythical Earth range, long before I'd even heard of roleplaying.

More recently, I've gradually been replacing a lot of the early stuff with Reaper Bones minis. They are great for detail, relatively cheap and the soft plastic actually makes them more resistant to knocks and damage.

Of course, a lot of these are unpainted. I periodically have a blitz on them, as I'm sure you can see if you look elsewhere on my blog, and it's my ultimate goal to have a set of minis to provide adventurers and adversaries for roleplay games.

I'm ignoring minis that I use primarily for wargames, though there's some cross over, especially with the minis I use in skirmish games. 

It's would be even more difficult if I included minis that I've seen but don't own, so I'll ignore those too.

So now the rambling bit. I know I don't actually need minis for RPGs. I've certainly run sessions without them, and it's my default when running games like Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green. 

But minis have always been a part of Dungeons and Dragons for me. Right back to the first game I ever played, we used minis, though they were only used in a very general sense to show who was fighting who,  floorplans came a lot later.

Now there are so many options that both players and GMs are spoilt for choice. Indeed, with 3D printing and online services that let you customise a mini, a GM or player should be able to get exactly what they want.

And that idea of custom minis sort of brings me to a conclusion.

The Marvellous Miniature has to be a character mini, villains and monsters just don't get enough table time. 

There may be a 'Wow' moment when a particularly awesome gribbly monster mini is placed on the table, especially if the players haven't seen it before, and as a GM I try and find stuff to impress. 

I remember a Volcanic Dragon and a Dracolich being particularly admired.

So a character. 

And the customisation has to be a feature; the player has to feel that it represents their character.

I've converted and painted quite a few minis over the years, and I could have chosen many of these, from Flosi, my first ever character (an old Asgard Miniatures dwarf thief, no real customisation here, we were just glad to find fantasy minis) to Citronella (a Reaper Miniatures Bonsium dwarf). 

But out of these, Keith's character Francis gets the nomination.

Keith was new to D&D, though he had played in my Delta Green campaign, in fact he started off roleplaying in 'Music of the Night', the Call of Cthulhu scenario I ran with my daughter.

Francis was his first character, a fighter, and he used an axe rather than a sword and carried a crossbow for ranged capability.

I converted a WotC prepainted mini, adding a backpack and swapping the head from Frostgrave sprues, I thought the kettle helmet matched his soldier background. I painted him as the player suggested. It's a simple mini, but it does everything that it needs to.

It's not my best conversion or my best painting, but what makes it really special is that the player passed away during that awful hiatus we all suffered in 2020, and its a way of remembering him.

#RPGaDAY24

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 26: Superb Screen

Day 26: Superb Screen 

I'm not a fan of these fancy architectural screens. They may look great, I've seen castles, towers and dragons, and they may have features like dice towers and shelves for minis, but I've carted around enough stuff for running games, and I prefer something lighter and cheaper.

For practicality and affordability, I'll take the opportunity to suggest my home built screen. Of course, you have to provide the actual GM's charts and tables yourself.

But for commercial screens, more specifically for the information on them, I'll jointly recommend the screens for seventh edition Call of Cthulhu and the latest edition of Delta Green. Both have atmospheric artwork on the player facing side and useful charts and tables on the other.

They don't need to be fancy, just practical. In fact, too fancy and they can be distracting (on the players' side) and finding the information can become difficult.

I will just say that there's something to be said for collating the charts and tables yourself. Only you know what's going to be useful, and what you might need that little reminder for.

One thing I regularly do, when using my homemade screen, is put area maps on the player facing side.

#RPGaDAY24

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 25: Desirable Dice

Day 25: Desirable Dice 

Dice? Yeah, I got dice.

Oh, you want more?

Some dice are better than others, and I remember the original polyhedral dice where you had to colour in the numbers with a Chinagraph pencil. The plastic was softer than modern dice, and over time D20s ended up round. Given long enough, even D4s ended up as round lumps of plastic. Only the venerable D12 kept it's shape, because they never really got used.

Modern dice may have the numbers already coloured, and they keep their shape, but not all dice are equal. There's a reason why the cheap dice sets available online are cheap.

As a gamer, I've lots more dice than I need, even taking into account the buckets of dice needed in wargames (D6s mostly, but D8s for Deadzone and D10s for Warlords of Erehwon and Fistful of Lead). 

I amassed a good few more recently with the Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer partwork, and some of these are nice. My favourite set is probably the metal set, though they are a bit small.

I've seen dice with miniature weapons cast inside them, dice with skulls instead of dots and even spiked dice (potentially painful), but there's only one set that I ever thought of as desirable.

Back last century, when magazines were actual physical things printed on real paper, a company used to advertise in Dragon Magazine. They made dice out of unusual materials, and as a geology student I wanted the set made from dinosaur fossil. Really wanted them. 

But they were expensive, and shipping from the US wasn't cheap either.

Now I'm more aware of the issues in the fossil business, and I'd avoid them, but back then they were the dog's pyjamas.

And to think I thought I'd have nothing to say about desirable dice, and I didn't even rant about dice apps.

#RPGaDAY24

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 24: Acclaimed Advice

Day 24: Acclaimed Advice 

It's very tempting to simply repeat my recommendation for Justin Alexander's 'So You Want To Be A Game's Master' or his website 'The Alexandrian', but that's too easy.

Another RPG pundit that I've benefited from a lot is Scott Rhem, aka The Angry GM.  His Tension Pool, or whatever it's currently called, is a great idea that I regularly used in F2F gaming, but much of what he writes is specific to certain circumstances, and aimed at long time GMs.

In fact today there's more advice for GMs and players that ever before, and there's only going to be more.

When I started playing, the rule books, especially the GMs section, contained useful advice, and then there were the magazines and fanzines. 

A lot of this seems to have moved online now, and a GM or player can spend hours each day watching helpful advice rather than getting on with designing anything useful.

So I'll settle on one very wise piece of advice that a venerable GM, witnessing me stressing over preparing to run a session at the FLGS said;

"Looks like they're going to have fun tonight".

I must have mumbled something like I hope so, I just have to get all this ready for them.

He replied "Don't forget to have fun yourself".

Now I'm ashamed to admit that I can't remember who said this. It was one of the other GMs at the shop. We'd regularly glance at each others games, but I didn't really respond beyond a mumbled thanks. I did try to catch him later, but I missed him*.

I'm certainly guilty of spending a lot of time trying to make sure that my game will be as good as I can get it. I want the players to have as much fun as possible.

Long time readers of my blog know that I've a tendancy to overthink things. 

When I was in teacher training our tutor instilled in us a very 'belt and braces' approach, but quantum ogres notwithstanding, in RPGs this leads to a lot of wasted prep (in lesson planning too). 

In the end, this leads to frustration and burnout, or at least, it does for me.

I came close to this with the 4E campaign. Ironically, one of 4E's flaws, the overly detailed and slow combat, especially at high levels, helped me here. I never had to plan in detail very far ahead. 

I still ended up designing an entire dungeon based around a Blue Dragon that the players completely avoided though.

If I'd remembered to have fun myself I suspect the campaign might have ended sooner. I'd certainly have worried less about getting everything perfect. I'm sure as well that when the GM is having fun, the players pick up on it and have a better time too.

#RPGaDAY24

*Now I realise that this would be a better story if no one else had seen him, or that the staff had said "that sounds like 'Owd Tom'. He always sat there, right up until the night he died".

Still, it's possibly the best advice I've ever heard.

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 23: Peerless Player

Day 23: Peerless Player 

Oo, a tricky one, I don't want to offend my players by missing anyone out, but nominating 'everyone I've ever played with' is trite and inaccurate. Besides, I'm related to half my current group, so I don't want to be accused of favouritism.

But over the years I've had the pleasure to enjoy this hobby with very many people, so I'm going back to my early days, to the days of the KMMGS, Huddersfield New College Gaming Club and games played at each others' houses. 

Dennis was in the year above at college, and as keen a fantasy fan as I. He tended to be a player rather than a GM, though I remember him running S1 Tomb of Horrors to deadly effect.

He tended to play wizards, and got the best out of his spells, not just Fireball and Lightning Bolt either. He came up with imaginative uses for spells, and often saved the party with a Reduce or Polymorph.

I think he was the first player I knew who actively pushed the idea of the party as a team. New players back then often saw the game as their own personal hero trip, which went well for a while, but tended to go badly when things got tough. He encouraged us to work as a team and make choices that benefited the group as a whole.

He was there in the Halls of Anubis and going through the lich mega dungeon.

I remember both adventuring with and GMing for Fordeldrax, his favourite wizard character. Playing alongside him I learnt a lot about exploring different solutions. Back then many adventures had a regrettable tendancy to present problems with only one way out (often combat). He looked for different ways, and certainly as a DM I responded by being more open to this, and now, in the words of Justin Alexander, I 'prep situations, not solutions'.

Dennis also introduced me a lot of music I'd never heard before. He led a trip to Leeds to see a group and we missed the last train. Lacking the funds for a taxi, we all spent the night in the waiting room improvising a game using coins instead of dice.

#RPGaDAY24

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 22: Notable Non Player Character

Day 22: Notable Non Player Character 

I can't speak for the players, but from my experience as GM, I'm nominating a character from a published module who took on a life in subsequent adventures.

Klas Jorga appears in the Second Edition D&D box set, Hail the Heroes. This is an above average adventure (despite the cheesy CD) and it fitted nicely into the third edition campaign I was running at the time*.

Jorga is a foil to the PCs activities, representing the extreme end of a rival faction also seeking the Temple of the Shield. While he could be used simply as another combat encounter, I played him as a fanatic who will play dirty to succeed. He KNOWS his side is right, so that excuses his actions, he avoids getting his hands bloody, but understands how to use others to achieve his goal. He frequently sets up situations that can be blamed on the PCs.

This is pretty close to his description, see above, but the players loved him (their characters less so). One of them was a member of the Temple of Traladara, and was just as driven. Both Jozan and Jorga viewed the other as basically good, but misguided. They only needed to see the error of their ways to come over to the light.

So the party and Jorga had mutually exclusive goals. He proved a thorn in their sides through the adventure, but the party prevailed, and Jorga went into hiding in disgrace.

Several of the NPCs from Hail the Heroes returned, but Jorga made such an impression that he triggered a later adventure. He survived that too, but lost an eye and gained a much grimer demeanor. The party had a much less positive attitude towards him by now, he'd done some unpleasant stuff, believing that the end justified the means.

His final appearance was in the 4E campaign, where he sported a magical eye, and led a band of thugs. He was instantly recognised by Jozan's player, and just as quickly loathed by the characters.

Jorga's importance grew through two campaigns, but what if he'd died early on? Well he certainly didn't have plot armour, and initially he was no more prominent than the other NPCs (ah Kriss, who remembers you now?). It was simply the way he 'clicked' with the players that inspired me to keep bringing him back. It was nice to get repeat use out of him, but, beyond his actions triggering 'The Temple of the Sword' he was completely disposable.

And I suppose there's a lesson there. Memorable NPCs can develop organically, and are often the better for it. But it's a mistake to artificially keep them alive. Don't plan on them surviving first contact with the heroes, and you might be surprised what develops. I certainly was with Jorga.

#RPGaDAY24

*Again with the mismatch of game world and edition 

RPGaDAY 2024: Day 21 Classic Campaign

Day 21: Classic Campaign 

When I stop to think about it, I've played in or run very few 'proper' campaigns, at least in the way most people think of them now.

Early D&D was very much a series of adventures with characters drawn from a pool depending on who was available and what the party needed. The closest we ever got to playing a linked series of adventures was the classic G modules at college (we bought them out of club funds and three different GMs took it in turns to run them. I was set up to continue with the D modules, but we never got that far).

Even when we started playing Call of Cthulhu, it was similar. I ran whichever investigation I'd just bought or written. I did seed references to the Shadows of Yog-Sothoth campaign, and some of the investigators joined the Silver Twilight, but that's as far as it got. In fact, they never even suspected that the Silver Twilight had any sinister intentions, and when they found the Shining Trapezohedron in an abandoned church steeple in Boston, they handed it over to the Lodge for safe keeping John Scott was delighted.

Since then I've managed to run a BECMI* campaign set in Mystara. This was for a gaming club, the successor to the Kirklees Military Modelling and Gaming Society. It was still a bit 'adventure of the week', but there was a clear goal and end point. 

Likewise, I ran a 3/3.5 edition D&D campaign, again set in Mystara. This was a series of plot arcs, but the final one, the module Night's Dark Shadows, was unfinished.

Because then we moved to fourth edition, and we actually managed a ten year campaign with foreshadowing, character arcs, a proper ending and everything.

 I'll admit that it started out as just trying the system by playing Keep on the Shadowfell. But once that was done, and it was clear that we wanted to continue, I did actually have a plan. Well, I planned up to the end of Heroic Tier, then as that approached I extended the scope to cover Paragon Tier. As Epic Tier loomed I took various plot threads and brought them together to provide, I hope, a suitably epic conclusion.

I even managed to include references to events that happened in the previous campaign as some of the players had taken part in that. The feeling that they had influenced past history was very empowering to them.

But none of these get my vote today, party because most of the early stuff had no real design, and by the end of the 4E campaign I was experiencing a lot of dissatisfaction with the system. I still enjoyed it, but it had become hard work, and that colours my memories of it.

So I'm nominating a campaign that I played in rather than one I ran 

The best campaign I've ever played in was a Golden Heroes campaign run by Grim.

He based it in our area, and while the first few sessions were fairly low key, it became apparent that something was happening to the world around us. The way he tied events into West Yorkshire was fun (we had a base next to Leeds Central Station; if you wondered what the current road works and alterations are, it was probably something to do with us).

But the changes, subtle at first, really made it special.

At the time I had very little comic book knowledge, apart from reading a few early Marvel titles pre teens. Now I'd draw parallels with Wolverine's disorientation at the start of House of M. 

Eventually we traced the changes down to one character, now I'd describe him as a slightly less malevolent Mad Jim Jespers. We eventually realised that we had just as much control over the changes as he did, and set things back to rights. Or to a version of 'right' that suited us.

Highly enjoyable and marvellously fascinating, a tribute to a system that is great at reflecting it's genre, and a GM who really understands the system and the genre, but is not afraid to twist it to fit his own vision (rather as we did to end the campaign).

It also keyed me in to the joys of running games in a familiar location. He'd run a game before which was based on us playing fictionalised versions of ourselves. 

I now try and find a way to localise most games I run, obvious fantasy excepted.

Which brings me to my honourable mention, my own Delta Green campaign. Without Grim's localised Golden Heroes campaign, it would never have happened.

Much as I like the Delta Green's background, I wanted it set in the UK. I developed my own organisation, called simply The Section (which may be a cover, or a replacement, for PISCES, which definitely exists in my game world). I used a mix of published scenarios reworked to fit and case files that I wrote myself. It all ended rather messily in Wales, but that's the nature of the game. The action was all set in places that I had at least a passing familiarity with, with several major events happening in West Yorkshire.

Now I'm looking forward to running Rivers of Yorkshire.

#RPGaDAY24

*Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortal. An acronym for the 'not Advanced' Dungeons and Dragons rule set and it was published in parallel with first edition.

It was originally released as a series of boxes, named as above, which were essentially tiers of play. Yes, you could reach Immortality.

The whole lot was later collated into the Rules Cyclopaedia.

While I'll stick with 5E, partly because it's so accessible, and there's a lot that I think they've got right, I'd definitely run BECMI if there was a call for it.

RPGaDAY: Day 20: Amazing Adventure

Day 20: Amazing Adventure

Once again for the sake of fairness I'm going for two. One I played in and one I ran.

My early days of D&D were dominated by two DMs, both of whom ran games at the club in town. They took it in turns to write adventures for our party. There was some sense of a background (the same priesthood set us tasks, and frequently Raised fallen comrades, and the geography was consistent), but it was largely a campaign by virtue of the cast of characters.

One DM, Jonny, was responsible for the massive dungeon we played over a weekend, see Day 19 for details, but the other, Martin, produced some memorable dungeons too. I should say that for us back then, adventure and dungeon were synonymous.

The best was probably the Halls of Anubis, a massive underground complex that started out in a system of desert caves before we reached the long abandoned priest's quarters. 

Then down to the mummification chambers (and a mechanism that sent coffins down to a subterranean lake). Then those that avoided the chute descended down inside a statue of Anubis to the lake and had to find their way across to the Maze of the Dead. Alas, the funeral barge had sunk, but remember those coffins? They float. Just mind the Sacred Crocodiles.

At last we reached the Maze, fought or avoided various mummies and finally faced the Demon Ghoul King.

Looking back, it was quite linear, but we didn't care. As long as we were moving forward, we felt we were progressing.

And the memories it leaves, priceless.

"Sarcophagus Ahoy!"

Now for one I ran, or jointly ran. 

It was for Call of Cthulhu. I've run 'Music of the Night' several times, set firstly in 1920s New York, and then in Arkham. My daughter expressed an interest in running Call of Cthulhu and requested a scenario to run. Now I'm a firm believer in trying to anchor games set in a version of our world somewhere that I have at least a passing familiarity with. So we relocated it to her university city and brought it up to the modern day. 

The scenario is a simple one, designed to introduce new players to the game, yet provide sufficient interest for old hands. 

It involves a music student (Michael Spencer) who has stumbled upon fragments of a late sixteenth century score. Unknown to him, the notes contain a Summon spell. 

He transcribes the notes and gathers a small group of fellow students to practice. I usually start the investigation just after the creature has appeared, killed one player and driven the others mad. Spencer has fled, and in his madness seeks to undo what he brought about.

There's a clue trail with the opportunity to recover the original MS, which contains a dismissal rite, but I purposefully leave the ending open for ingenious players to come up with their own solution.  To hurry them along, the creature is hunting down the people present at the summoning, and there are reports of a huge bat seen at night.

The adventure went extremely well. As my daughter was new to the system she handled the narrative and the determination of investigator actions, I merely filled in with rules queries.

Although it was her last bit of Keepering so far (she's gone on to other systems) I was impressed. I wish I'd been that good a GM at that age.

If you're interested, the group did manage to track down Spencer, but they didn't bother with the Dismissal Rite. They reasoned that the creature had only been seen in the dark, and seemed to deliberately avoid bright light. Using Spencer as bait they lured the thing on to the moor and flooded the area with lights, thus banishing it.

Everything neatly wrapped up in one session.

Of course, one of the characters later passed a club and recognised a familiar discordant note sequence...

Everyone had fun, so much so that a couple of the characters got ported over to my Delta Green campaign (which I realise hasn't yet been mentioned in this series).

#RPGaDAY24

 

RPGaDAY: Day 19: Sensational Session

Day 19: Sensational Session

For fairness I'm nominating two here. One that I've run and one that I played in.

Of course, I'll ramble around the topic as well.

Probably the most sensational session I ever played in was a D&D adventure that one of my first DMs ran for a group of us.

The Kirklees Military Modelling and Gaming Society was where I first played any roleplaying games. There were two DMs who took it in turns for our group, but after a while Jonny moved away with his family.

He invited us over to play an adventure he'd devised, so four of us travelled by train to Lytham for the weekend. 

We pretty much just gamed, ate and slept, but by the end we'd fought our way through the temple and defeated the lich. It was so close at the end that Jonny's mum drove us to the next station so we'd get a crucial extra twenty minutes.

Technically, I suppose this was several sessions, but it all flowed together so well that it seemed like one mammoth one.

Honestly, I don't now remember too many of the details, but the sense of sheer fun was immense.

I'm lucky enough to be able to share my hobby with my kids, and sessions played with them are always special.  But for a session where the gaming itself was sensational, I'm once again going back to the 4E campaign. 

On reaching Paragon Tier (11th to 20th level) the characters were all rewarded by being made Lords or Ladies and several were given grants of land. 

Grim had picked up on one of the underlying themes of Heroic Tier, a land struggling with it's identity and with different factions with often conflicting goals. He suggested to me that organising a grand fair on the frozen lake north of Threshold might help bring the people together. Between us we roughed it out, then next session the whole party pitched in with suggestions for what their characters could bring to the event.

The session I'm nominating is the next one, where we ran a timetable of events with the characters responding to various problems and threats (including traditional animosity between dwarves and elves, a vampire seeking victims and a missing child). There were also competitions to judge events to organise (and take part in) and just generally making sure things went smoothly.

Amazing fun for all of us, and it was a delight to see the players so engaged in a (largely) non violent activity that cost them quite a lot of gold.

Despite their good work bringing the community together, shortly after they all got arrested, as recounted yesterday. Still, that's the breaks when you're an adventurer.

#RPGaDAY24