Sci-fi Play By Email

Over the years I have played many sorts of games; board games, pen and paper role playing games, wargames with miniatures, play-by-email strategy games and play-by-email role playing games.

I have covered most types of those games on this blog at some time or another, but I don't recall mentioning or commenting on the RPG by email games I occasionally get involved in.

So, there is a bit of a change of pace with this post. This one actually relates to some gaming I am currently involved in! A few weeks back I began playing in a new campaign with a brand new character in a play-by-email sci-fi role playing game called StarVigia - designed by my friend Colin (the referee). It is a gritty low-level/low-life adventure game where the PCs work hard to extract themselves from a life of poverty and petty crime, and ultimately (sometimes spectacularly) fail in true future-noir fashion. The turn-around time for each "move" is approximately a week, and the scenario has been set up for my character who is an out-of-work, down on his luck, ex-planetary marine corp type.

Below are a few scenes put together by Colin from his extensive sci-fi miniatures collection that shows what we used to get up to in our face-to-face games of yesteryear. All are 15mm and the scenery etc. is created and painted by him.

A showdown between a gang of heavies and a local biker gang at Colita's Bar...

And what could be a rude awakening for a security force arriving after the alarms went off over an intruder alert at a top secret laboratory in the outback of some desolate world in the Outer Rim...

This sudden delve back into sci-fi gaming has renewed my interest in all things space related, so I am about to dig out my old star system and world creation notes in order to update them with the latest scientific facts and figures on exo-planets and their star systems.

That said, all the new scientific discoveries in our own solar system recently may make this quite difficult to boil down to a few dice-rolls as commented by Colin, but I will update the rules and see if I can perhaps open a spreadsheet to make creating systems easier. Up until now, it has all been rolling tons of dice, cross-checking tables, adding modifiers and so on - a very manual and time consuming process that I will streamline, but Excel may help me automate a lot of that. I am not a computer programmer in any way, shape or form, but I would like to try to write something that will collate all of the system stats, display a table of details and allow for a graphical representation of all the system components to be created.

More on StarVigia and the exploits of Thomas Aquinas in a future post.

15mm: A base of Spears for HotT

I finished basing a unit of 15mm Spears for one of my Doggerland HotT armies. These will be something I will slowly put together to form each of the four major armies in an upcoming Doggerland revisited epbm game. If I get more players, then I will need to paint up a few more bases of another range to represent those too.

Anyway, onto the miniatures - they are Two Dragons Productions' Anglo-Saxons, I have quite a few packs of these, so will be creating a large army of them. These will represent what became of the core of the Divine Bergen Hegemony around 200 years after the events that unfolded in the last Doggerland game.

These will form a division known as the Black Shields of Bergen; an elite unit that puts the mourning of Elrich the Alwise uppermost in their religious rites. The Black represents that they are mourning their lost deity...

The Yellow represents the Divine Elrich himself, and the Blue represents the sky that knows no bounds but the love of their divine master.

I also have miniatures to represent later incarnations of the troops of The Cantwaran Confederacy, The League of Borre and the Thuringian Empire.

In the next game, the lines of the various empires will have faded and new empires will have begun to rise from the ashes of the past. It will be gamed at a smaller scale, representing just a small part of one of the old territories - possibly Cantwara. It will be a game of diplomacy, economics and warfare between rising warlords and their immediate retinue, or comitatus.

15mm Holiday Madness

I am off work this week as it is half-term at school. In between feeding the kids (a full time job in itself) and running them to the park etc. I have been catching up with my comics and trades reading, DVD watching, and figures sorting and painting. Today, I pulled together several boxes of figures I have around the house in order to bring some semblance of order to my collection.

Whilst working my way through my 15mm stuff I found I actually have enough for four armies for HotT for my Doggerland campaign. I was going to paint these all up and then run some tabletop battles but just never got around to it. That said, I did come across a few bases of Two Dragons' Anglo-Saxons that I had made up for some game I obviously never got around to playing. I have decided to put these up on the blog so they can be compared to some bases I started painting today.

First up is the General's base - the flesh colour looks very washed out compared to the Dwarf Flesh I currently use for most of my figures these days.

Here are three bases of Spears - I'd gone for a red theme for some reason.

Finally, here is a picture of all the miniatures I have so far painted. A small army (12 APs: General, 2 Blades and 3 Spears) ready to take on either Viking or Norman invaders.

The basing was just some green paint and sand mixture, but it obviously served its purpose back when I painted them. I am not sure if I will get around to adding to these but I am definitely going to work towards a different paint job for a 24APs HotT army of Doggerland for some future tabletop gaming. I will need to work out the amount of Blades, Spears etc. but I will theme each army differently just to see how they get on against each other.

Hopefully I should be able to get a bit more painting done through the rest of the week, and I will update the blog as and when i get something else completed.

Maggot Breed of Ymir II

From the fallen body of the giant Ymir, the maggots formed the svart alfr. Citadel's miniatures from yesteryear provide a wonderful representation of these little critters and Alan Garner's books a fantastic story setting for them. I have created a warband ready for SoBH and general fantasy RPG gaming. First up are the command figures, a wizardly type and a leader...

This is a netter. I had to put him onto a large washer to fit the net on, but I think it works OK...

Here are three of the warrior svarts, ready to cave in the skulls of any human silly enough to venture out onto Alderley Edge in the darkness of night...

Two more of the little blighters...

Another of those weird happenings with the camera - all the other pictures are in focus, but one with all settings etc exactly the same goes a bit awry...

Finally, a picture of all ten of them together as a warband...

These will work as either very small 28mm goblin types or as 15mm goblins.

Next up should be some Romano-British command to use in Brytenwalda. They just need a few finishing touches and then a final spray of the old matt varnish.

15mm Dungeon Delvers

My friend Colin was able to collect a load of his 15mm fantasy minis together that we use for our game Dark Realm and get them photographed. I have posted them below with his comments...

ADVENTURERS


The goblins are mostly Tin Soldier. The two more evolved ones on the far left are AD&D. The bat (which isn't very clear) is Chariot. They come on swarms and have to be separated if you want all individual bats. Some are more easily separated off than others.

The delvers

Back row (left to right)

a. Minifigs Russ commander
b. The same mage figure as described in the Magi section below
c. An Eastern commander

First row:

a. Tin Soldier Dwarf
b. Chariot elven thief
c. Minifigs Irish leader
d. Tin Soldier Cleric
e. Another converted Minifigs staff slinger
f. This started life as a Minifigs late medieval pikeman. Its slight stature loaned itself to gender reassignment. A shield and sword have been added.

CLERICS

FIGHTERS


These are all Minifigs, some being subject to more conversion than others. The Goblins are almost entirely Tin Soldier.

Back row (left to right):

a. Originally an "ancients" staff slinger, with the head removed and replaced with that of a Norman Knight and an axe blade fashioned from plastic packaging (the same as the clear bases).

b. A medieval knight with the head changed to that of a mounted Teutonic knight. It is a shame Minifigs does not do on foot figures for their mounted ones, but I have just bought 2 packs of the "personalities" and used the heads. I will do some pictures of the knights I have done so far with a mounted and foot version of each character, showing the charges on their shields.

c. A Viking archer, as manufactured. Quite a nice figure, although as it already has lots of character, it bit difficult to personalise further to make a number of different personalities.

Front row (left to right)

a. A Medieval standard bearer with his banner changed for a sword.

b. Byzantian unit commander (as manufactured)

c. A Medieval unit commander with his weapon changed to a home made axe. The delicate shield design is perhaps a little incongruous with a crude axe. I may change the weapon some time in the future.

d. Another staff slinger with a Milliput gender reassignment, assisted by a bit of trimming to make a better waist. The head is of a saxon warrior from another manufacturer. The hammerhead is Milliput.

The staff slinger figure, being a rather strapping chap, is one of my favourites for converting to any large statured hero.
 

Lil' Fellows


I'm not sure where the inspiration came for this bizarre party, although their appearance has a familiar ring about it. The short chaps with the pointy ears and no shoes are Tin Soldier and the fellow (although I am not sure of what College) in grey is a Peter Pig Russian Priest without his crucifix and wearing a rather improbable Milliput hat.
 

MAGES (Perhaps that should be Magi?)

The skeletons are AD&D. The Magi are of various makes and most involved a degree of conversion and adaption. The two on the right are Chariot and were painted as they came.

The back row are (left to right):

A Minfigs monk with a different Minifigs head.

A Minifigs monk with a Chariot head that has had Milliput beard and long hair added. The monk was carrying a religious emblem that has been shortened to a magic staff, tipped with a small glass bead.

A Peter Pig Russian Priest. His crucifix has been replaced with a gem from an American nails kit.

Front row (left to right):

A Peter Pig Russian Priest, with a Milliput hat and elaborated beard. His staff has been tipped with a a gem from an American nails kit.

A Minifigs medieval peasant. This figure is a bit androgynous, but I have painted it to further suggest femininity, including giving her bright lips. I have also extended her weapon to a staff and added a gem from a card-art kit. The gem is a little large, but this hedge-wizard is clearly working some significant power.

The gems work very well on the table, adding a bit of "magic" sparkle. Like the gloss paint, they don't work so well in the kind of flash photos I am able to take.

Thanks to Colin for sharing these with us. I should be getting some more of my minis up on here over the weekend, and I think Alex has a fair few minis ready for photographing too. Alex also has a trip to GW planned for tomorrow where he can get a game in with his Bretonnians and the staff will help him with painting up a small unit, maybe his Pegasus Knights. Its just down to me to get them prepared for him (cutting and glueing)!

Goblins

A bit of a change this time round. I haven't quite completed the Brytenwalda minis yet - just need their shields completing and then a touch of matt varnish to finish them off. In the meantime, my gaming buddy Colin dropped me a line with a few things he has finished off over the last few weeks or so. Thanks to him for letting me show his handiwork, i.e. the miniatures we game with when we do get together. These are a bunch of his 15mm goblin horde members.

This is the general gist of the email he sent me with the attachment...

"They are painted in gloss so they don't come out too well as they shine a bit in the flash, making it look like there's undercoat showing through in a sloppy way. They are mostly "Tin Soldier".

The Goblin at the front left with the tusks is actually an Irregulars Miniatures's 6mm Troll that was sent as a free sample.

The big chap, a troll or bugbear or ogre (as required) has been adapted slightly with the addition of black horns on his helmet where there were a couple of stubs and with angry eyebrows, as he looked a bit too gormless to look mean - all Milliput.

The wild boar is home made, carved out of almost hard Milliput. The base is another piece of Milliput, this time formed into shape whilst moist. The tusks were added later ... If the urge takes me, I'll try to make a mate for him, with a longer snout amongst other lessons learned.

The dungeon floor was a free download I darkened and reduced for 15mm and the walls and door are home drawn, scanned and printed of on 350gsm paper."
 
Colin usually runs our fantasy pen 'n' paper RPG, Dark Realm. These are rules that he has developed over the decades with the occasional bit of help from some of us other players. The game runs very well, and combat is brutish and bloody - very realistic. Hopefully one day this year we will get to meet up and have a game or two so I can see the beasties above in the flesh. I have seen his first few goblins and fought them as adversaries to one of my PCs, who was ensorcelled by the local witch who had a few as her minions. maybe he will one day be rescued?