Legendary Realms Terrain Kickstarter

There's one last Kickstarter campaign I'd like to direct your attention to--assuming anybody still has money left in their bank accounts after the flurry of projects that have emerged lately. This one is by Legendary Realms Terrain, a small local company that produces dungeon terrain, accessories, and other neat pieces. They're also nice folks, to boot.

Legendary Realms Terrain produces resin pieces, making them lighter and less expensive than similiar pieces produced by companies like Dwarven Forge. All their items are sold pre-painted, which is a real boon to time-strapped gamers like myself. They have a pretty extensive back catalog of items, but they're looking to expand the variety of pieces and themes they produce, hence the Kickstarter.

If you use dungeon terrain in your games (or are thinking about doing so), please take a moment and check out the Kickstarter page and see if LRT has what you're looking for.

Take Part in a Dungeon Strike

No, I'm not talking about the work slowdown currently underway by the kobolds of Stonehell Dungeon. I'm talking about a free skirmish game written by xwardukex over at Fear No Darkness.

FEAR NO DARKNESS:DUNGEON STRIKE is a miniature skirmish game set in the dungeon. Encompassing aspects of the dungeon crawl, board game play, and quick-to-learn mechanics, the players take on the roles of dungeon adventurers running amok in a small delve. Traps springs, monsters lurk, magic awaits discovery, and there's a good chance you'll end up dead. In other words, a perfect old school dungeon crawl.

I got to playtest DUNGEON STRIKE at Retcon a few months back, and it was an utter blast. The game can be completed in an hour or so, making it a great way to kill time when Billy is running late to the game again and keeping everyone waiting. Best of all, it's free! I recommend you check it out by downloading it here.

You'll need some six-siders, a battle mat or dungeon terrain, and some minis, but we all know you've got those hanging around anyway.

Otherworld Miniatures Dungeon Adventurers Indiegogo Project

If you're an old school gamer like me or have at least been following the antics of this thing we call the OSR, chances are you already know about Otherworld Miniatures and their lines of classically-inspired monster miniatures for D&D. I, myself, own several of their hobgoblin minis which saw much use during the great Hobgoblin War of Stonehell Dungeon.

What you might not know though is that Otherworld Minatures is launching a line of Dungeon Adventurer minis and is currently running an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to put them into production. Assuming you still have some funds left and haven't jumped on the anti-crowdsourcing bandwagon yet, you might be interested in throwing a few bucks into the kitty on this one. I've got to say the "Henchmen and Hirelings" set sounds pretty sweet to me!

Make the "Not Be"…Be

Those of you who read my post NTRPGCon report know that a little beastie I whipped up, “The Upside-Down, Inside-Out, Thing That Should Not Be,” was illustrated in gruesome detail by Jannell Jaquays as part of the Artists’ Panel. It was a very popular depiction.

At the moment, there’s a vote going on over at the NTRPGCon website to choose one of the illustrations created by the artists to be reproduced as a miniature. Right now, Jannell’s picture is smoking the competition, but I’d really love to see the “Not Be” become a 3D figure I can use to terrorize my players. If you’re a member of the NTRPGCon forums and haven’t voted yet, you can stop in and vote for the “Not Be” right here. In interest of fairness, you might want to take a look at the other four illustrations on the slim chance that you think one is actually cooler than an upside down monster with eyeballs on its feet, its organs on its outside, and a big gaping mouth with a spine for a tongue. Those can be found here.

Your continued support for the bizarre is very much appreciated around these parts!

Beware the Crazy-Ass Miniature Level of Stonehell!

I took a brief jaunt up to the FLGS today to clear my head before taking a late night stab at the next phase of my current project. I’ve mentioned before that my local game shop regularly buys old gaming collections from those poor sods that’ve been forced to abandon this rather bizarre hobby of ours for various reasons. When I got there, the owner was sorting through one recently acquired collection and he knows I love getting first dibs on newly received stuff.

The collection was all pure 3.5 stuff: modules, sourcebooks, dungeon tiles, and a bunch of WotC pre-painted minis. Really, really crazy-ass minis, like Aspects of Tiamat, 15’ tall werewolves, frost giants riding on mammoths, and the like. All stuff I’ve never seen before. But while there were one or two pieces that caught my eye, I can’t justify spending $20 on a mini I might use once. However, it did give me an idea.

I’m going to spend the next few days going through all my minis—plastic and metal—and pick out the strangest of the lot. When that’s done, one quadrant or more of Stonehell is going to showcase them all. I’m not certain how (if at all) I’m going to rationalize it, but I guarantee anyone wandering into that area of the dungeon is going to meet something they’ve never seen before. I’ve got some crazy-ass minis that have been collecting dust for far too long and it’s about time they see the light of day (or at least the dim glow of a hooded lantern). If you’re one of those anal-retentive referees who simply must use the “correct” monster miniature in your games, my apologies in advance, because you’re going to hate this part of the dungeon!

'Naut Fight! Playtest 2

This cocludes the 'Naut Fight! portion of the consolidation process between Secret Antiquities and The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope. New content is on its way shortly.

This week we were back to four players again, allowing me to see if ‘Naut Fight! remains playable with even more ‘Nauts battling it out in the arena. Not only do the rules still allow for fast and exciting play with more players, the game seems to increase in fun at an exponential rate! The only drawback was I had to supplement my playing pieces with a Binary Load Lifter from WotC’s Star Wars Miniatures line

Everyone except last week’s winner chose to create new ‘Nauts this time and we had a wider array of engines and specials. Our first-time player allotted most of his build dice into Speed, allowing him to run rings around the other three combatants. Seeing that it would take their combined efforts to bottle up and destroy the swift-moving construct, the rest of the gladiators put aside their differences for several rounds and turned their attentions on the poorly armed and armored ‘Naut.

Having learned that putting a big hill for the ‘Nauts to fight over in the middle of the arena keeps the battle in one place, I decided to mix things up this time around. Instead of a pile in the middle of the board there was a pit with a single hex platform at its center. A glowing orb floated above the platform, and the returning players recognized this as a body reinforcement globe that added to their ‘Nauts’ hit capacity. One player headed straight for it in the initial round, almost reaching it, before discovering that the orb jaunted around the arena randomly, coming to rest in the middle of areas of intermittent fire. This proved to be no obstacle for one ‘Naut who possessed an engine that help resist fire damage. He scooped it up early in the fight, but the flame rings around the arena continued to be obstacles throughout the fight.

There was still a lack of body slams or overbearing attacks in the match, despite my reminding the players of that option. We almost had an attempt to push one ‘Naut into the center pit, but the opposing gladiator lacked the movement that round to close and make the attack and the threatened ‘Naut moved clear in the following round.

The special weapon of the game was undoubtedly the Fimbul Gun, a cold-emitting cannon that could inflict freezing damage on a ‘Naut or be used to ice down hexes in the arena to create slippery terrain that slowed down movement through them. Two gladiators had these, and you can see the iced-down ground in the pictures (the hexes marked with blue lines). The Fimbul Guns helped corral the speedy ‘Naut into a corner where it was finally destroyed.

The game is turning out to be a surprise hit and the guys are beginning to hint that I should be working on a demonstration model to shop around. They continue to provide valuable feedback and suggestions, but the real proof of the game will come the next time I get together with my friendly, non-roleplaying board gaming group. If ‘Naut Fight! proves to be a hit with them, it demonstrates that this could be something more than another portion of the October Country. I may have to pick up two more ‘Naut miniatures to bring the possible number of players up to six. If six is still fast, furious fun, I might really be on to something here.

After ‘Naut Fight! wrapped up, we managed to squeeze in some actual October Country roleplaying. The party picked up a fourth member at Hunger Rock College and got a lead through some useful inquiries (and thus skipped a part of the adventure, but this is a good thing) that led them out to the burned-out insane asylum downriver from the City of Midnight. Hired goons were encountered and defeated, and the party now believes a group called “The Silence” is involved with the attempt to shut down the library. Sounds of chanting were heard and exotic incense filled the air as they entered the asylum, but what awaits them at the end of the soot-covered hallway will be revealed next week (along with some pictures and game stats).

'Naut Fight! Playtest 1

The consolidation process continues. The purpose of my last post was to lay the groundwork for this post and the following one, both of which concern playtesting a new skirmish miniatures/board game I've developed based on the October Country setting. 'Naut Fight! has become a popular diversion with this group and I suspect I'll be running another playtest of it again in the next two weeks. I've had non-roleplayers express interest in giving it a go, which I interpret as a good sign that I might be on to something here.

Yesterday saw the first official playtest of the October Country stuff and I was extremely pleased with the way things turned out. My gaming group is going through a transitive period, but is reorganizing to better address what everyone wants to play/run. I’ve finally put Labyrinth Lord behind me for awhile, and although I will return again one day soon, it was nice to explore other options and systems.

 We started off with a playtest of my steampunk automaton gladiator game, ‘Naut Fight! Although intended for one-on-one bouts, the rules are flexible enough to allow multiple ‘Nauts the opportunity to square off. And square off they did as three hulking brutes powered by experimental engines took to the area to battle it out for dominance. A little pre-match skullduggery didn’t turn out too well for one player when his pit crew spy was caught sneaking a peek in an opponent’s ‘Naut depot, but the trio was pretty much evenly matched at the start of the bout.

I sketched out the arena while the guys were building their ‘Nauts, using whatever popped into my head. A few walls, a pair of tar pits, a big old pile to play “King of the Hill” on, and a pair of special “You don’t know what happens when you enter these areas until you do so” spaces filled out the battleground. The ‘Nauts headed for the high ground early and most of the fight took place around the hill as everyone sought to use the top of the heap for combat advantage.

Speed was definitely the red-headed stepchild of traits as only one person decided to allocate more than a single die into that aspect of their gladiator machines. That could have been a bad move for one fighter when he fell into a pit and needed to roll above a certain number to escape. I’m wondering if this choice of allocation will remain true in future matches.

There was one attempt at an alliance to take out a less damaged ‘Naut about halfway through the fight, but it was rebuffed. Had it been accepted, we might have had a different winner. Instead, the two ‘Nauts with the least health beat the snot out one another for a bit while the souped up ‘Naut watched with glee.

The playtest revealed that I need to tighten up the language in my Specials descriptions and that I should make a cheat sheet with some of the other options available besides just blasting away with ranged weapons or slugging it out. That also could have changed things as ‘Nauts tried to clothesline one another or slam an opponent into one of the tar pits.

The guys had some good suggestions for future Specials to be added to the list of options: 360° Sensors that make it impossible for an opponent to gain a tactical advantage when attacking from behind and a Self-Destruct Feature that causes an area of effect blast when your ‘Naut goes down. I originally wrote the first rules draft with two fighters in mind, but after the three-man fight, I can see where those options would make play interesting when fielding teams or with multiple players. The match lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, which, with three players, is a good sign that the game is short enough to be used in conjunction with the roleplaying game if needed, but also a fun diversion when you can’t get enough players for an RPG but need some entertainment on a rainy afternoon.

After the match, we took the October Country roleplaying game out for a drive. Three would-be heroes traveled to the City of Midnight to make a name for themselves. The group consisted of a budding magician who was an agent of the Juggler; a ballisturgist gun-slinger and agent of the Unnamed; and a great sword-wielding agent of the Red Ruin of War. They quickly found themselves hired by a librarian whose business was overrun by bibliophages. The trio went in, took names (thanks to an ungodly number of critical hits), and discovered that somebody is trying to drive the librarian out of business before he could even get started. The band is headed off to Hunger Rock College to collect a bounty on the slain bibliophages, but it’s obvious that there’s treachery afoot.

Running GORE was a snap, although I need to run through the rules again and make some adjustments and corrections (a blackjack can’t do 1d8 damage unless that’s subdual damage and I’m overlooking the rules for that). The benchmark skills are working as intended and so far they are allowing the PCs to do “cool stuff” early without overpowering the system or making combat a cake walk. We’ll see if this trend continues as the game progresses.

From the October Country: Writhing Madness

Another refugee from Secret Antiquities. Although I don't play the skirmish miniatures game Malifaux, I've become quite enamored of some of the castings. The sculptors and I seem to share a common mindset and a lot of the Malifaux line fits in quite nicely with the October Country. When I saw this one, I knew it needed a place in that odd world. The entire mini is coated in transparent Day-Glo paint and emits an eerie phosphorescence under a blacklight.

Sunday's game saw the PCs going toe-to-toe with members of a group called "The Silence." Led by a manimage, a sorcerer whose spells deal with madness, the Silence was in the midst of conjuring up a madness "elemental" from the spirits of the dead inmates at the Crow Tree Asylum when the party showed up. Things did not go well. I take a lion's share of the blame for that, as the encounter I designed was more formidable than intended. I'll fix things next play session. In the meanwhile, here's yet another unusual occupant of the October Country.

Writhing Madness

STR: --
CON: --
SIZ: --
DEX: --
INT: 3d6 (10-11)
POW: 4d6 (14)
CHA: 3d6 (10-11)

Move: 8
Average HP: 14
Armor: Immune to non-magic attacks

Attack: Bite--60% Damage: 1d6+d2+ madness (POW vs. POW or succumb to temporary madness)
Other Skills:  Dodge: 40%

Conjuring Cost (as per rules on pp. 35-36 of the GORE rule book): 20 MP

Summon Writhing Madness
MP Cost: 1+
POW Cost: 0
Range: 20’

This spell summons forth a swirling maelstrom of madness from the Nightmare Lands and impels it to do the magician’s bidding. The spell must be cast in an area where madness was once common, such as asylums, hospitals, slums, or other locations of the referee’s choosing. The total MP cost of the spell is dependent on the size and power of the entity summoned as per the rules on p.36

Oriental Adventures Minis for Trade

As mentioned in my last post, I'm going through my miniatures collection looking for things that need to be culled or repainted. I've got several pieces up on the chopping block and I thought I'd see if there was anyone would like to become their new proud owner. I'd be interested in swapping these lots for items of equal or lesser value (or greater weirdness). If you've got something you'd like to get rid of and these look interesting to you, please comment here or email me at poleandrope (AT) gmail (Dot) com. I'm especially looking for plastic or metal miniatures, either of common monsters or truly strange ones. I'll leave these guys up for a week and make a decision on who to swap with after everyone's had a chance to make an offer.

The first lot is a collection of Ral Partha minis hailing from the days when Oriental Adventures and ninja films were all the rage. Some are missing weapons and all have been poorly painted. Since my purpose is to clear out the dead wood in my collection, I'm swapping this as a lot rather than individual sets. However, I'm open to negotiations if you want a few pieces and somebody else wants the others.

Oriental Adventures Lot (Ral Partha Bushido Miniatures and Grenadier Fantasy Lords First Series)

Ral Partha 53-909 Kappa

Ral Partha 53-904 Budoka and Yakuza

Grenadier Fantasy Lords First Series152 Ninja Hit Squad (all missing weapons)

Ral Patha 53-908 Oni

Ral Partha 53-911 Dai-Bakemono & 53-912 Dai-Oni (Dai-Oni missing naginata)

'Ware the Chaos Giant!

The end of the year saw me engaged in a little miniatures inventory, refurbishing, and preparations for painting in 2012. As part of this process, I came across the box that once contained my only membership in Grenadier's Dragon Lords Giants Club: The Chaos Giant. Although the giant himself is long gone, I still own the obelisk and the guy about to be smooshed under the Chaos titan's foot.

I almost threw the box away as it's in pretty poor condition, but decided to retain it for nostalgia's sake. On a whim, I pulled up the foam padding at the box's bottom and was astonished to find that the insert that came packaged with the box was under there. Since that's the kind of thing well old schoolers apparently jones for, I've scanned it and posted the images below. Click to embiggen. I think it's pretty safe to assume that there's now going to be a Helwaste somewhere in my campaign world.

Lord of the Rings Miniatures Terrain Question

To those readers who are/were either fans of Games Workshops' Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game or just followed the GW production schedule in general, a question:

Did GW ever produce this statue as a stand-alone piece or was it always part of their Lord of the Rings Terrain Pack? I could have sworn that I once saw it for sale as a single piece, but all my searching seems to indicate that this was just something I cooked up in a fever dream rather than an actual sighting on the Web. I know for certain that I'm not thinking of a Thomarillion production (although those are quite cool, too), but this particular sculpting based on the statue that appears in the films.

I re-watched the trilogy over the holiday and absolutely love all the little background scenery Jackson sprinkles throughout the films. It does a wonderful job of imparting a sense of history to Middle-Earth and that's something I always shoot for in my own games--successfully or not.

What the Heck am I?

Anybody recognize me? I'm a mystery miniature from Mike's youth (as you can tell by my hideous paint job). I have scratched on my base "© 82" and the initial "P" but no other identifying marks. Heck, I don't even look like anything in the Monster Manual. Can someone identify my maker and what the hell I'm supposed to be. I don't seem to be on DnD Lead and that place has everything.

Brother, Can You Spare a Shield?

I’m currently sorting through my old minis to determine what needs to be stripped and repainted and what needs to be culled completely. Amongst them, I found one knight who is missing his shield. I’m not sure who produced Sir Aegisless the Exposed, but he obviously hails from the period in the mid 1980s when mini companies decided to mold their figures separately and include plastic shields to attach to a boss on the miniatures’ arms. I’ve looked online to find a replacement, but truth be told, I just need a single shield and not an entire sprue of them. Does anyone have a spare they’d be willing to pop in an envelope and mail my way? I could probably rig a replacement from a washer and some green stuff, but I thought I see if anyone has some extras lying in the bottom of their mini box first.

Here’s Sir Aegisless so you know what I’m talking about:

Visitors from Nowhen

As much as Stonehell Dungeon has become a commercial venture, at its heart it remains my own personal dungeon and that means I oftentimes add things to it merely to please myself. Take the following:

It is not widely known that deep in the belly of Stonehell Dungeon stands a certain cave mouth. It is not a particularly interesting cave opening. It is rather narrow, no more than a cleft in the rock face in which it stands. Many adventuring bands have passed it by without a second glance.

Of the handful that have entered it, none have traversed its entire length. The cave is merely the mouth of a long, long, sinuous tunnel that seems to stretch for miles. One brave soul who ventured farther than any other reportedly encountered the tunnel’s guardian: a portly, faceless demon dressed in nondescript robes and bearing a number of glowing, green eyes in its otherwise featureless hood. He fled before the guardian could challenge him.

Although none have passed through the tunnel from Stonehell, there is a tale that says two persons once emerged from the cave, obviously arriving from whatever strange lands lay at the opposite end. The peculiar, mismatched duo became involved in several convoluted schemes in the cities of Ilrahtyr and Xultvar before eventually vanishing from sight. Some believe they returned to the weird lands that birthed them; others proclaim they set sail on the Western Sea and have never been sighted since. Perhaps one day the two will again be encountered in Stonehell by those who probe the dungeon’s deepest mysteries…


Fritz Leiber's tale, "The Adept's Gambit," is a blessing to we referees who love his work and want to include a taste of Nehwon without necessarily setting our campaigns there. Thanks to the magic of Nin's cave, the Twain can show up for guest apperances just about anywhere. I've long had the idea to have Fafrhd and Mouser visit R'Nis, staying just long enough for the PCs to get involved in whatever scheme the two are planning (or perhaps rescuing the Twain from their own ill luck). With that idea in mind, I picked up an appropriate set of minis for the Boys from Lankhmar. Recently, I finally got around to painting them

The Fafhrd figure is Reaper's Fafnir Of Kjord. You must admit the likeness is uncanny.

My Gray Mouser is also a Reaper figure, Kurff The Swift. The match isn't perfect, but it's close enough for my purposes. The gray paint job and crouched stance help maintain the illusion.

Otherworld Miniatures' Labyrinth Lord Boxed Sets 1 & 2 Available for Pre-order

It was announced back in March of last year that Otherworld Miniatures and Goblinoid Games were teaming up to provide a series of miniature boxed set that correspond to the various levels of the dungeon. After some delays, the first of those boxed sets are now available for pre-order at the Otherworld Miniatures store. Both are expected to be released September 20th of this year and will cost £60.00 now and £75.00 after release.

Originally, each boxed set was to include a 3-4 page adventure that would link together to form a larger dungeon complex. I do not believe this is still the case and that the adventure concept has been discarded--which is a shame since I participated and submitted my level on time so that I could get a set of these bad boys myself, but such are the whims of fate.

Over the Wire & England Invaded

I’ve let it be known that I have a fondness for that historical period spanning from the end of the American Civil War to the end of World War I. I find this era fascinating; so close to our own world-view yet oh-so-different.

While tooling around online looking for Victorian period minis, I happened upon a mention of the miniature skirmish wargame, England Invaded. Produced by Over the Wire Games & Miniatures and available from Warrior Miniatures in the U.K., it seems to be set in an alternate history timeline where World War I broke out a couple decades early. The minis are the perfect mixture of the Victorian and the Great War, and cover the English, German, French, Turkish, American, Cossacks, and a few independent forces (the Americans all have cowboy hats).

I’m not much of a mini wargamer and have no interest in pursuing a second career as Warhammer general, but this line tickles me in just the right places. Has anyone out there had any experience playing this or with the minis? The prices aren’t bad for buying them overseas, but not cheap enough to justify spending the cash without doing some research.

My attitudes and interests when it comes to RPGs have been heading in strange directions lately, and if this turns out to be a winner, I can see strange fruit being born from peculiar trees.

The Siege of Fort Wolf’s Head

Last Sunday saw the players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign defending a remote frontier settlement against a horde of goblins. The scenario was lifted directly from Night’s Dark Terror, although the events leading up to the siege were a result of the players’ own actions. Putting them in charge of the fort’s defense was a great way to shake up the game for a session before returning to the dungeon crawl that seems to be the preferred style of play. I almost, almost sent out an email to players to suggest they watch Zulu or Assault on Precinct 13 before the game, but decided to not tip my hand ahead of time. Michael Caine references were made nevertheless.

The biggest problem in preparing for the battle was that I didn’t have a map of the frontier fort that accompanied the module. My copy of B10 is secondhand and is missing the big map and counters. If I was dealing with people who maintain a reasonable business model, I would normally have the option to buy a PDF version of that adventure and print out the map in pieces to tape together. Alas, Hasbro has an interesting method of doing business. Thankfully, someone was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the map so I could reproduce it on a sheet of Gaming Paper ahead of time. I’m attaching a photo of that reproduction to this post—just in case anyone else out there was wondering what the map of the outpost looks like.

Thankful for Small Things

If you’ve been following the progress of my Labyrinth Lord campaign, you know that hobgoblins are the current “big bad” of the dungeon. Prior to the missions against the hobgoblin redoubt, I discovered that I was grossly lacking in hobgoblin miniatures. I made one attempt to solve this by making a lowball bid on a slew of WotC’s pre-painted hobgoblin minis on eBay, but someone wanted them more than I did. As a result, I decided to go for quality over quantity and made my very first purchase of Otherworld Miniatures, namely Hobgoblin Warriors I. A lot of good things have been written about Otherworld’s metal and I can say that I heartily agree with those statements. It might be my imagination, but the pieces felt heftier than your average metal mini. I was very impressed with my hobs—enough that I purchased another two sets (Hobgoblin Warriors IV and Hobgoblin Guards I) to bring my total number of orange-toned Asian goblins up to eight, which should be enough to carry me through most encounters (although the Hobgoblin Command Pack looks pretty sweet and it’s hard to resist).

These guys have shown up in the background of certain photos and video from the game sessions, but I thought they’re worth a closer look. The camera work is a little shoddy, but I pretty pleased how they came out—especially since painting minis is a fairly new activity for me.

While Otherworld’s pieces make them, in my opinion, the go-to source for new classic miniatures, there are of course other manufacturers out there. In my own game, Mars Markus is portrayed by a Mega Minis Guthrie Grenadier recast, for example. Nevertheless, I wanted to make a case for Center Stage Miniatures. Center Stage went through a bad patch a little while back when its owner left the business in less than capable hands while he was undergoing military instruction. He came home to find the business in ruins and has been doing his best to rebuild goodwill and make right all that went wrong. Originally, Center Stage was to do a line of official Swords & Wizardry minis, but that’s no longer to be now that S&W is moving in other directions with new partners. The S&W line has been, ahem, “recast” as Fantasy Encounters. Fantasy Encounters are all 25mm pieces from molds that were manufactured “back in the day” and are again available at good prices.

I did business with Center Stage before the whole kurfluffle and my interaction with them was nothing but professional and satisfactory. I would do business with them again in future should their pieces again meet my needs. I’d likely wait until I needed several minis and go for the flat shipping rate to make the most of my savings. You can check out their renewed website at centerstageminis.com.

The two pieces I purchased were Evil Cleric and the just returning Evil Champion W/Runesword. You can see my efforts to bring them to life below.

The OSR has been largely synonymous with retro-clones and new adventures compatible with old editions, but let’s not forget that there can be more to these games than just the books and dice. Companies like Otherworld and Center Stage are making it easy for those of us who couldn’t afford a Grenadier boxed set back in the day to nevertheless acquire some pretty cool, classic-looking pieces and I, for one, am extremely grateful for that.

“Be seeing you.”

In the same vein as homemade gelatinous cubes, here’s another do-it-yourself job that I intended for use in my sword & sorcery megadungeon, but never got the opportunity to (hehe)unleash it.

In the same aisle that I found the pre-cut 2” cubes that formed the base of my gelatinous cube, I also discovered a bin full of wooden doll heads. Although mostly spherical, they were flattened at their bottoms to better allow them to be affixed to a doll’s body. I, however, saw this feature to mean they wouldn’t roll away if I put one down on a battle mat. That got me thinking about what spherical monsters I could use these to represent. Then I remembered an old issue of White Dwarf, number #7 to be precise (although #6 would have been more appropriate). In that issue’s “Fiend Factory” was this:

A base of primer, a going over with a coat of white paint, and a layer of glossy sealant later, I had this:

It was a little more difficult than that, mind you. I had problems with the thing getting away from me during painting, as I had it sitting atop a pencil that was supported in a hollow candlestick. It picked up a little grit in its adventures across the concrete floor, which is why you can see a bit of schmutz on its surface. Had I to do it again (and I did buy two doll heads just in case), I’d probably find a way to clamp this down better during painting.

Drollo and Eryl knew not what they faced, but they suspected it meant them ill.

Artsy Craftsy (and Cheapsy) Gelatinous Cube

With the weather getting cooler and night falling sooner, it’s time to start planning for projects to take me through the long winter’s dormancy. Longtime readers know that I started painting my own miniatures and scratch-building terrain last year. And, like most folks who undertake such projects, I’ve found that it is far easier to acquire new miniatures than it is to paint the ones you already possess. As such, my workbench has accumulated quite a few figures in various states of completion, some of which have been that way for an embarrassingly long time. My goal is to clear the slate in time for winter.

One project began so long ago that my Watchfires & Thrones game was still occurring in its original pulp sword & sorcery setting—the one I was building as I went. For that setting’s megadungeon, I had an interesting creature in mind and I wanted to do something special for when the PCs finally encountered it. This idea led me to the following creation: a cheap, do-it-yourself Gelatinous Cube (or perhaps a close cousin of such a creature). While there are Gelatinous Cube minis on the market they tend to be a bit pricey for a critter you’re not bound to use regularly on the battle mat. Plus, in making one yourself, you have options that the professional manufacturers probably never even considered.

The idea started when I was exploring my local art supply/crafts shop. Down the aisle where they keep the woodworking stuff, I came across a small bin filled with wooden blocks of various sizes, including a 2” cube. Seeing as that’s just the right size for a gelatinous cube, I bought one (paying $0.99 for it) and took it back to my workbench.

Breaking out a tub of joint compound, I slathered the cube with a generous layer of spackle, going for a goopy, “I’m frosting a birthday cake”-style thickness and texture. The key was to put just enough on so that it no longer appeared to be a square block, but not too much so that it would crack and shatter if I dropped it while moving it around the battle mat. It took a couple of days to get five sides covered, as I had to ensure the compound had dried on two or more sides so I could hold it while I did the other half. You could speed the process up by temporarily mounting the cub to a dowel with some putty. Once the cube was dry and looked appropriately uneven and viscous, I covered it with a layer of white primer (you can use your own favorite color) and got down to painting it.

I mentioned above that the inspiration for this cube was a special monster for my sword & sorcery megadungeon. To convey its uniqueness, I went a bit offbeat when it came to painting my cube. Instead of ordinary acrylic miniature paint, I picked up a small jar of Glow-in-the-Dark paint. Not only was it an ooze-like and nauseating shade of green, but you can never tell when having a glowing cube miniature might be the perfect way to drive home to fact that this isn’t a by-the-book dungeon monster. Like with the joint compound, I really slathered the cube with the paint, allowing it to run and pool along the surface to give me a semi-liquid apperance. At first, I couldn't get a glow off of it, but the thicker the layer of paint, the better the thing looked after I shut off the lights. I’ve yet to be able to demonstrate its unique property in actual play, but I look forward to surprising my players one day. The final step was to apply a protective coating on the piece. I went with a glossy acrylic coat to give it the slick, wet shine.

Although I’m taking some creative license with the old gelatinous cube, which is traditionally transparent, I figure once the mini hits the table the players know what they’re up against. Plus, I can always whip up a new ooze-based monster like the Slime Blockade or the Green Goop and really throw the players for a loop. This particular cube has made the jump from my original sword & sorcery campaign and will be making a most anticipated appearance on one of the as-yet undocumented levels of Stonehell Dungeon. You’ll get to know “Wheezy” a little better once the sequel is finished. My players might meet him even sooner than that…

"Alright Cube, you're coming with me!"