September Games

 So... September happened... 

Probably the best thing that came out of RPGaDAY 2022, was I organized THREE different groups to play role-playing games with this fall. 

One was the online group I'd been playing with through the pandemic. I basically got them committing to playing a new Wrath & Glory campaign this fall. I'd actually talked to them a few months ago about it and we'd gotten as far as making characters... but then never really ended up playing. This time around I suggested playing ONCE a month - doesn't even have to be the same afternoon or evening... Just fine ONE evening or afternoon each month that EVERYONE can commit to showing up and play a game then! 

Another was a group of local 40K players. They also agreed to play Wrath & Glory. That game will also be once a. month. 

Both Wrath and Glory games will, effectively be THE SAME CAMPAIGN - both are starting as a Tallarn Tank Crew on Xoxigar Secondus. One group is in 1st Company, the second group is in 3rd Company. 

The third RPG groups started because of the Day 15 question; Who would you like to Gamemaster for you? My friend Jasper chimed in with "Finnegan!" (Jasper runs the after school games club at the high school just down the street where Finnegan played for two years before the pandemic. The first year he played in a campaign run by Jasper. The second year Finnegan started running a D&D game for the club. That group continued online throughout the pandemic and is back playing in person. Another member of group, Beau, also chimed in and said he would be down with that - he had come over with his son to play D&D with Finnegan a few years back. 

To this I said, "that can probably be arranged...?" After some discussion and inviting a few others, it was decided that Finnegan would also run a once-a-month game for me and a few friends. We didn't settle on ONE game, though, we through we'd try out a few different one-shot games through the fall and if any went well, maybe we'd continue with a short campaign of the one we liked. 

Monday, 5 September 2022

Mutant Crawl Classics

Though Finnegan's been making good use of the Game Room and running in-person The first of the one-shot games Finnegan ran for us - a Mutant Crawl Classics Funnel Adventure. We each made up a team of four, zero-level adventurers that decided to strike out on their won to prove their worth to their community...  

My four characters were; Hunter S. Hashpipe - a female porcupine manimal hunter, Wüd Kutr - a pure-strain human gatherer, B. P, Hovercraft - also a pure-strain human gatherer, and Sweet Pea - a plantient (mutant plant) gatherer. 

Jasper played Morpho - a mutant human gatherer with insect mouth-parts (butterfly!?), Mason Jar Murphy - a pure-strain Human gatherer, Chadlick Northington III - a pure-strain human hunter. and Cedress Murgo - a Cedar Plantient gatherer.

Neil played Foxy - a female panther manimal gatherer, Knuckles - a four-armed mutant human gatherer, Chonk - a green-skinned mutant human gatherer, and Pierre - a lemon-yellow skinned mutant human hunter. 

Nine of these suffered horrible, violent deaths at the hands of ANT MEN! (Oh, except for B.P. Hovercraft, who died when a rock fell on him... and... maybe someone was killed trying to figure out some new bit of ancient tech we came across...? I can't remember...) The only survivors were Hunter S. Hashpipe, Foxy the Panter, and Madon Jar Murphy - one of each of our characters! So we have our party should we play this again! 

The two players Neil and Jasper, I actually met BOTH of them in a Physics class during one of my brief attempts at higher education, 29 years ago this fall! I might have played a role-playing game or two with Jasper back in the day, and in more recent years, since he moved back to Saskatoon and started teaching at the high school, he's been over to play lots of board games (pre-pandemic). Neil never started playing role-playing games until a few years ago. I ran into him while riding my bike one morning in the first year of the pandemic - found he had moved back to Saskatoon and was playing D&D with... Brother-in-law...? and maybe running a game for his son and nieces and nephews and their friends...? So it was great to get together with these two and play games. I am SUPER looking forward to next month - we are planning to try out the Dresden Files RPG (or maybe Dresden Accelerated...?)

Saturday, 17 September 2022

Wrath & Glory Online Campaign

I actually got three of the four players out to play and we tried out a short adventure - mostly to try playing out an encounter to remind ourselves of how the system worked and what I'll need to remind myself of and what stats and tables I'll need to print out and have handy in the future. It went pretty well. 

The new vehicle rules in Church of Steel worked pretty good. I need to make up some extra rules to quickly determine what happens with all other vehicles in an encounter. I was thinking about using regular 40K or Apocalypse Rules. Or the old Epic rules, if I can find my copy...? 

Sunday, 18 September 2022

Wrath & Glory In-person Campaign

Three of the players got together and made characters, which was fun. 

We had planned to start playing the following week... but then two players were sick... and the following weekend the other two were moving... so... 

And that wraps up Q3 - How did I do on the Challenges I set out... not well... 

For the Q3 5x5 challenge, I suggested:

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm (4 more) 
2. Warhammer Underworlds: HarrowDeep
3. GMT Games
4. Kill Team
5. Hammer of the Scots

But later in August suggested changing to:

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm
2. Warhammer Underworlds: HarrowDeep
3. Stone Age
4. Kill Team
5. Wrath & Glory

In the end I played:

Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x4

Wrath & Glory x3

Stone Age x2

Terraforming Mars x2

Angola x1

Five Tribes x1

Kingdom Builder x1

Mutant Crawl Classics Role Playing Game x1

Space Base x1 

15 games in all. Yikes... 

The last suggestions for the remaining challenges were:

Q4 5x5 Challenge?

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
2. Carcassonne 
3. Wrath & Glory
4. Kill Team
5. Stone Age

10x10 Challenge

1. Wingspan
2. Terraforming Mars
3. Five Tribes
4. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm
5. Azul
6. Carcassonne
7. Stone Age
8. Wrath & Glory
9. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
10. Kill Team

So far this year, I have played:

• Wingspan x11
• Terraforming Mars x10
• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x9
• Five Tribes x8
• Azul x6
• Carcassonne x5
• Quebec 1759 x5
• Wrath & Glory x5
• Splendor x3
• Andean Abyss x2
• Stone Age x2
• Wizard Kings x2
• Angola x1
• Bananagrams x1
• For Sale x1
• Kingdom Builder x1
• Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
• Mutant Crawl Classics Role Playing Game x1
• The Silver Bayonet x1
• Space Base x1

Wingspan and Terraforming Mars are done. Two games of Five Tribes shouldn't be too hard. 

One game of Direchasm...? What held us up on playing Warhammer Underworlds was me insisting on getting a new warband done each week... and then not getting that painting done... One game of Direchasm won't be a problem... 10 games of Harrowdeep...? I don't know. 

Azul and Carcassonne shoudln't be a problem. 

Stone Age...? We'd need to play EIGHT games... I don't know... 

Wrath & Glory...? If BOTH groups manage to get in a game each month October, November, and December - I'll totally made that one. 

Kill Team... If I got motivaed and got some of those new teams painted by the holidaze, I could probably convince the kids to play a few games when school is over - five would be very doable (for the Q4 5x5 challenge). Ten, though...? I don't know. 

What's been going on otherwise...? Well have I have been riding bikes and making art... 

Epic 40K - Orks Preview

 At the same time I was painting up the Imperial Guard Armoured Task Group, I also got a bunch of Orks done as well. I haven't really organized them into Detachments yet. Or, rather, my initial plans have changed and I'm in the middle of painting MOAR ORKS, so this is really just a preview of what I've done so far and when I finish up a few more things, I'll post pictures of the entire force (so far... because I have piles and PILES of Orks that I'm just not going to get to soon!) 

The Orks, so far... 

• 4x Morkanaut (or maybe Gorkanaut?)
• 10x Trucks
• 80x Ork boys (on four stands - one of those I painted previously) 
• 4x Warbikers
• 1x Killa Can
• 4x Warbuggy (not sure what to classify that as now...? Maybe the Kustom Boosta-blasta?) 

I have some more Ork Boyz and Trucks and a couple of Nobs and a few more Morkanaut (or maybe Gorkanauts?) and a stompa that I'll need to figure out how to put all together in to Detachments. Seems like two Battalion Detachments, a Spearhead Detachment, and an Auxilliary Super Heavy Detachment...? We shall see... 

The Workbench - as you can see, Epic stuff had kind of taken over... I have a second Imperial Guard tank squadron on there (I figured the first one went quick enough, I might as well knock off this second one while I'm at it...). There are a few other things I have that will join these... when there is some space on the workbench!? MOAR ORK walkers and stuff - I might even assemble the Gargant! (Don't tell my player characters!! Most of this is for the Wrath & Glory role-playing games I am running this fall/winter)

Epic 40K - Imperial Guard Armoured Task Group

 I've had these sitting around forever. I finally got some paint on them, not because I'm suddenly feeling like I want to play Epic 40K, but because I'm finally running a game of Wrath & Glory again - the Warhammer 40,000 role-playing game!? The characters are a Leman Russ tank crew and I thought it might be handy to have some tanks - friendly and enemy - and some groups of infantry, to mark out where everyone is in an encounter. 

Also, I have been wanting to try out the new (well, most recent) Warhammer 40K Apocalypse rules with Epic 40K miniatures. I guess I do already have a Force of Space Marines and Eldar, that I could have used to try out the rules.

The idea here was to put together a squadron-sized, mechanized task group with elements drawn from 3-4 different regiments - all drawn from elements of the larger Astra Militarum Task Force deployed to Xoxigar Secondus. The core of this Task Group is an Armoured Squadron from the 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment with an attached infantry component from 382nd Tallarn (Desert Raider) Regiment, and possibly some heavy support from the 17th Tallarn Super Heavy Tank Regiment (and, at some point, artillery from a Tallarn Artillery Regiment brought there as part of the Astra Militarum Task Force). 

The story behind the Task Force is that it was to be a fully-mechanized task force... but I don't have any epic Chimera models, so I'm saying one of the voidships lost in the warp was the one carrying most of the Regiment's armoured transports. The infantry regiment has been able to procure a few Gorgon Heavy Transporters locally, as that it one of the items the forge world manufactures... but they are NOT IDEAL for carrying small groups of infantry around for long distances in the desert!

All the NEW STUFF

Newly painted stuff. 

Except it's NOT all the new stuff, there's a previously painted Shadowsword that snuck into the back there!? 

Tallarn Armoured Squadron:

• Tank Commander (Vanquisher) (1) PR13
• 10x Leeman Russ Battle Tank Troop  

Here's a funny thing I just noticed; in the new(er) Apocalypse rules, you can't field and entire company as a single Spearhead Detachment (like you actually CAN in regular 40K - because your can field PLATOONS of up to three Leman Russ battle tanks and they count as a SINGLE element in the Detachment organization, no such luck in Apocalypse). So, technically you can only have up to six heavy support in a Spearhead Detachment, thus this would be fielded as TWO Spearhead Detachments (one with the Tank Commander and four tanks a second with five tanks - or maybe just a second with a tank commander and four tanks - the second tank commander could be the Squadron 2IC...?) 

Heavy Transport Section

Gorgons Heavy Transports are considered Lords of War, so each of these would have to be fielded as an Auxiliary Super Heavy Detachment - or could be fielded as a regular Super Heavy Detachment along with the Shadowsword(s). 

Speaking of Shadowswords, I have a new sort-of-Shadowsword...? I'm calling it a Xoxigar Pattern Shadowsword - a variant that is made locally in the Forge World where all the near future campaigning will likely take place! Teh Model is from Vanguard miniatures. 

Original Games Workshop Shadowsword on the left of the pic, "Sort-of-Shadowsword"...? (Xoxigar Pattern Shadowsword) from Model is from Vanguard miniatures on the right. 

Infantry Company - Also from Vanguard Minaitures. 

Company Commander (+Commissar? +Command Squad) 

3x Infantry Squad 

One things 

Allof the Astra Militarum Forces I have painted thus far. The only stuff I'd painted previously were three Leman Russ tanks, three Ragnarok tanks, and a Deathstrike Missile Launcher. 

I may just finish up the second Squadron of Leman Russes and the few other vehicles I have - just for some more options.

I've also painted up a whole PILE of Epic Orks... but I'm adding more to the force, so I'll wait until I finish up a few more things before posting pictures of those. 

RPGaDAY 2022 - Day 22-31

 

Most of the last week or so of this year's RPGaDAY was focused on YOUR CURRENT CHARACTER... which... I didn't really think applied to me as I DIDN'T HAVE a "current character" in any RPGs... Until this past week, when I rolled up four, completely random, zero-level characters for a Mutant Crawl Classics game my son Finnegan will be running for me and a few friends on Monday (Labour Day in Canada) 

22. Who is your current character?

I have FOUR of them! 

Sweet Pea - a Plantient (mutant plant) Gatherer

Hunter S. Hashpipe - a Manimant (mutant anthropomorphic animal) Hunter 

Wüd Kutr - a Pure-Strain Human Gatherer 

Bartholemew Pantaloon (B.P.) Hovercraft - a Pure-Strain Human Gatherer 

23. What situation is your character currently in?

Well, all four of them are not enjoying their lot in life as mere hunters and gatherers and have been considering striking out on their own to try and prove themselves as something... MORE... to the community! 

24. When did you start playing this character? 

Well... technically... I haven’t yet… 

25. Where has that character been?

Y'know... around... The village... The Hunting Grounds... The Gathering Grounds... 

26. Why does your character do what they do?

Up until now, it's all they've ever known. And they're getting bored with it. They're starting to feel like they have a greater purpose, to be.... something MORE! 

27. How has that character changed?

Oh, none of them have developed any mutations, yet... 

28. Style Sunday: Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends with your favourite cover art

Well. I can't really TAG people on this platform... but I'll post some art I really loved.. 

That whole run of covers for the first half-dozen or so modules for the first edition of Twilight: 2000 were just fantastic. Free City of Krakow, Pirates of the Vistula, Ruins of Warsaw, The Black Madonna, Going Home, Armies of the Night, etc. All just fabulous paintings with so much detail - they told a story and really set the tone of the adventures for me. They also often had women, which wasn't super common for the time.

29. Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDay?

I've tried to get more friends and other local people to join in through a local role-playing game group on Facebook. I wish a few more of my friends on their would participate. 

Wouldn't mind at all if anyone reading THIS would chime in with their answers. (I guess I COULD have tried to encourage that more by ending all these posts with something indicating I'd LOVE to hear from people reading this blog... because it's cool to hear people stories and stuff... but also just to know that there ARE people still reading blogs and I'm not just casting this all into the void!?)

30. What should RPGaDAY do for its 10th Anniversary next year?

Maybe start at the beginning and repeat all the questions that those of us late joiners missed...?

Or a "best of"...?

Maybe go back to using single word prompts...? I don't know. Sometimes when there have been specific questions, I found a lot don't apply to me, which is a bit of a bummer, if I'm wanting to participate... but then I've also struggled with how to interpret single word prompts. Part of me likes the idea of going back to single word prompts, so I could maybe used them as drawing prompts - like those that are used for inktober (or all the other "...ober" and "...ember" drawing challenges later in the fall). 

31. When did you first take part in RPGaDAY? 

I think I first encountered RPGaDAY in 2016...? It was on Eric Jacobson’s wonderful blog Gaming with the Gnomies - I think I replied to a few of his posts with my answers to the questions.

The following year, 2017, I tried posting answers on my own blog, but only got halfway through the month (partly because I went on vacation and didn’t have the technology to post remotely). 

I’m pretty sure I’ve participated, in some way, every year since….? Either on my blog and/or Facebook groups. I've never tried Twitter... I feel like twitter could be a place to connect, but the character limit is so... limiting... Maybe if I was using the prompts for illustrations, though... If I was doing illustrations as responses, I suppose I could post on Instagram as well... now I'm rambling... 

'til next year, I guess...?

Mutant Crawl Classics - Character Portraits - Wüd Kutr and B. P. Hovercraft

These are the final two characters I've made for the Mutant Crawl Classics game Finnegan is running for me and a few friends on Monday! 

Wüd Kutr is a pure-strain human gatherer. 

Wüd Kutr feels like he was destined for greater things. He comes from a long like of gatherers that forced him to follow in the family tradition. but he always wished he could be a HUNTER! So, he chose to gather the hardest, heaviest, most difficult things he could; trees. 

Wüd Kutr

Pure-Strain Human Gatherer - Male (He/him) 

Strength - 14 - +1

Agility - 9 - +0

Stamina - 8 - -1

Personality - 11 - +0

Intelligence - 10 - +0

Luck - 12 - +0

Hit Points - 2

AC - 10

Equipment:

• Flint Dagger (d4)
• Stone Axe (d7)
• Bone Club (d6) 
• Waterskin
• Large Leather Sack

Bartholemew Pantaloon Hovercraft  is also pure-strain human gatherer.  

B.P. is the "brains" of the operation. He's the one that's convinced his friends to join him and to strike out from the village and to try and prove themselves in a way that could elevate their position within the community and become something MORE than the simple Hunters and Gatherers that society had pushed them to accept as their lot in life. Maybe Wüd could become a Sentinel? Maybe B.P. could become a Shaman or Healer? 

Bartholemew Pantaloon Hovercraft

Pure-Strain Human Gatherer - Male (he/him)

Strength - 10 - +0

Agility - 14 - +1

Stamina - 12 - +0

Personality - 14 - +1

Intelligence - 16 - +2

Luck - 6 - -1

Hit Points - 2

AC - 14

Equipment:

• Flint Dagger (d4)
• Hide Armour (+3AC)
• Waterskin
• Large Leather Sack

Mutant Crawl Classics - Character Portrait - Hunter S. Hashpipe

 Okay... I guess I could have waited and done these all in one post... but I was excited to share! So you're going to get them in FOUR posts! 

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the first one: 

Mutant Crawl Classics - Character Portrait - Sweet Pea

Mutant Crawl Classics Character Portrait #2 - Hunter S. Hashpipe. 

Hunter S. Hashpipe isn't really all THAT good at hunting... with barely average agility and not a lot of strength. Her method is to try and attract larger predators or irritate herbivores and have them chase her! She then leads them off a cliff, counting on her stamina to survive that fall - and previously scouting the drop to know where the softest places to land and counts on the predator falling badly and dying or being injured enough that it can't move and Hunter can kill it without it resisting too much. 

It's a strategy... No one has ever suggested it's a GOOD strategy... but it's put some meat on the community's tables, from time to time... 

Deep down, Hunter feels she maybe SHOULD have been a gatherer, like her other friends, being a vegetarian and all... She often ponders the circumstances and life choices that brought her to this...

Now to do the boring ones… pure-strain humans… yawn… 

Hunter S. Hashpipe

Manimal (Porcupine) Hunter - Female (she/her)

Strength - 7 - -1

Agility - 12 -  +0

Stamina - 13 - +1

Personality - 10 - +0

Intelligence - 12 - +0

Luck - 12 - +0

Hit Points - 4

AC - 10

Equipment

• Flint Dagger (d4)
• Wooden Spear (d5)
• Waterskin
• Bag of Seashells

Mutant Crawl Classics - Character Portrait - Sweet Pea

This is Sweet Pea. 

Sweet Pea is the first in a series of portraits I’m working on for characters in an assortment of role-playing games I’m playing in or running this fall, some in-person, one online. 

This one is a character in the Mutant Crawl Classics game my son Finnegan will be running this coming Monday for me and a few friends. Sweet Pea might not survive the first adventure… With both Mutant Crawl Classics and Dungeon Crawl Classics, players generally roll up 3-5 completely random level zero characters and then they go through a “Funnel Adventure” wherein MOST of them die brutal and horrific deaths. Those that survive (ideally, one per players) are truly the stuff heroes are made of and instantly level up - to Level One! If I was smart, I might have waited to see who survived the “funnel adventure” and just made portraits of THEM… but this one seemed too fun to NOT make a portrait of. 

Sweet Pea is actually a mutant parasitic sweet pea vine that has entwined itself around and within and completely taken over the body and mind of a human host. It seems it can only say “Sweet Pea”. Somehow the others understand that to mean a great many things… The host is slowly rotting away, but the flowers make them smell pretty. Eventually, when the host expires, Sweet Pea will leave them, creeping and crawling across the ground until they find a new, unsuspecting victim host, usually one that is sleeping and won’t be able to put up much of a fight until it is much too late… 

Most of the portraits are going to be drawn in a small sketchbook I have, but I decided to do this one on a larger, separate sheet of watercolour paper. The picture ended up a little flat, though - background too dark, not nearly enough contrast… Ehhh… whatever. Done and moving on… 

Next will be Hunter S. Hashpipe - another in my group of adventurers for Mutant Crawl Classics. 

Sweet Pea

Plantient (Sweet Peas) Gatherer - non-binary (They/Them/It/That)

Strength - 11 - +0

Agility - 9 - +0

Stamina - 12 - +0

Personality - 16 - +2

Intelligence - 7 - -1

Luck - 13 - +1

Hit Points - 4

AC - 10

Equipment

• Flint Dagger (d4)
• Wooden Club (d5) 
• Waterskin
• Large Leather Sack
• Small Shiny Thing (non-functioning trinket artefact)