My Gencon Plans

I'm attending Gencon this year. I attended the convention in 2008 with my wife. We stayed on the outskirts of town and she dropped me off on the way to the outlet mall south of Indy.

Back in February I talked one of my old D&D friends from public school into coming. He didn't need his arm twisted but wouldn't have gone on his own. His wife is going so that gives my wife someone to chum around with. We are staying downtown this time.

This might sound strange but when I went in 2008 I didn't play any games. I played a couple demo games like Monsterapocolypse but that was it. Living in Southern Ontario we really don't have cool conventions to attend. So I used the opportunity to tool around the vendor booths, sift through old D&D stuff, and look for minis (and thus avoid paying duty). It was time well spent. I also really didn't have a feel for the enormity of it all. I certainly do now. I was also completely on my own and didn't know anyone to hang out or game with.

This time, I've registered for a bunch of games and will DM a Labyrinth Lord game myself.

As you can tell from the blog, I'm a straight-up medieval fantasy D&D gamer. I don't want to use my limited gaming time playing other games. Just gimme some dice, D&D, and stand back while I crush skulls. I decided to broaden my horizons this year and play some different games. On Thursday we are playing Colonial Battlefleet: Klingon Border, and attending a Hirst Arts Seminar. I'm hopeful to pick up some tips. Friday we will be at the OSR Discussion in the morning, Reich of the Dead in the afternoon, and play my D&D adventure in the evening. Saturday it's on to Beginner mini painting, Gladiators, and Wings of War. We will return on Sunday.

So, all in all, a much busier schedule than last time. If you are attending let me know, I'd like to hang out with fellow blog-o-sphere-ians. :)

I intend to have fun as I may not be returning until my children are much older and can come along.

My Hirst Arts Dungeon (in Progress)

Inspired by the posts on Grognardia, A Paladin in Citadel, and others, I decided to purchase some Hirst Arts Flagstone molds and have a go at creating some dungeon pieces.

My intent here is not to create whole dungeons a-la Dwarven Forge. My idea is to keep the graph paper central to dungeon exploration but to "zoom-in" enough to construct 2-3 rooms at a time with the dungeon pieces.

At first I created a small dungeon with the walls on the outside. That seemed like a good idea for two reasons: aesthetically the blocks look nicer on the outside and, with the blocks on the outside, you are afforded more space to create little alcoves etc without actually taking up your room space.

Anyway, here's a couple shots of the work-in-progress. I think I need one more big cast to create more single tile and double tile walls to make the set playable. Once I'm confident that I have the pieces I need I'll prep and paint.

Question: Do you use either Hirst Arts or Dwarven Forge pieces in your game? How has it worked out? So far I'm pretty happy with the result.

What does D&D and Sum41 have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Actually one of the guys in the band is a family member and my wife and I went to the Warped Tour just south of the border at Darien Lake (NY) in the last couple days and I took some behind the scenes pics.

Enjoy.






Gencon info and more miniatures coming up soon...

Much Ado: Recent OSR Kerfuffle

Like some other blogs, I do try to keep this blog politic-free. There are a couple things I would like to say, and these are generally applicable to the OSR spats that crop up from time to time.

In the final tally, does anyone really care about people determining who has the longer whatever? I don't. I mean really, who cares?

I will say this. I have no problem with someone saying that the OSR produces better material than TSR - and I don't have any problem with someone else disagreeing. I've read good stuff and crap from both.

Something is missing though. This isn't about new or old material strictly speaking. To me, this is about having both. I want to play Against the Cult of the Reptile God with my group followed by Death Frost Doom or whatever AND I want to do it with a rule set that people can find without scouring Ebay for a book that's half falling apart. I want a version that brings new gamers to the hobby (easily). The OSR rocks.

Moreover, I want to game with my old AD&D screen and my new Otherworld painted miniatures while chomping Funions and swilling Mountain Dew. Ok, I really didn't mean the Funions part.

I don't care who wants or gets credit. I don't care who produces/ed better material. As a consumer I'll be my own judge.

Whatever happened to publishing good product and letting the product do the talking? Can somebody please take the High Road (from the start)? Who needs the drama.

More Painted Miniatures

Here's a quick post of some recent work.

The first depicts Otherworld's Shriekers and Violet Fungi and the second some adventurers from Megaminis.

You can click twice to zoom the image.

In the next post I'll talk a little bit about my plans for Gencon. Cheers.

Otherworld Miniatures: Gygax's (Orange) Goblins:

As many of you know, I've been busy painting my Otherworld Goblins. In this endeavour I've tried to stay as close to the source material as possible. Regarding goblins, the AD&D Monster Manual states:

“Goblins range from yellow through dull orange to brick red in skin color. Their eyes are reddish to lemon yellow. They dress in dark leather gear, and their garments tend towards dull, soiled-looking colors (brown drab, dirty gray, stained maroon).”

This was a tough decision as I've always considered goblins green in skin colour. I've bought most of the Otherworld humanoids and I want to make sure that each looks unique on the table (Hirst Arts prototypes forthcoming). Gygax noted that as the PCs make their way through levels they should face a corresponding monsterous humanoid: Kobold, Goblin, Orc, Hobgoblin, Gnoll, Bugbear, Ogre, Troll and so on. So they need to be individualized. This is easily done if one does a close reading of the MM.

So here are the final images of my goblins. I hope you like them. I will have pictures of my Shriekers and Violet Fungi up in a day or two, followed by some additional Gencon information.

You can click twice on the images for close-ups. Cheers.

My Gencon Labyrinth Lord Game

I'm DMing a Labyrinth Lord game at Gencon this year. It will be my second Gencon and my first time DMing.

I've posted character sheets of the 5 PCs at a basic blog for the game. I'm using a combination of rules from the Labyrinth Lord Core Book, Advanced Edition Characters, and some basic house rules.

You can check it out here.

http://theburialtombofthebanditqueen.blogspot.com

Sorry the hyperlink function isn't working today.