Every time I go to my friendly local game store for game night I do a quick scan of the used games section before I sit down to set up the evening's scenario. This week I spotted a copy of the Age of Mythology boardgame for only 25 bucks. Upon inspection I discovered it was opened but unpunched. I have no interest in playing the game per se, but it comes with a metric crapload of vaguely 1:72 figures, including a bunch of monsters. And all of them are pristine on the sprue. I already own a couple of boxes of medieval knightly types, so I think I'm going to get serious about trying some dungeoncrawlery in miniature. I'm not much of a figure painter, but I've long wanted to try the dipping method.
Someone on the OSR blogosphere uses Jenga blocks for dungeon walls, but I can't remember who at the moment. That strikes me as a good middle ground between flat terrain drawn on the map and the fullblown Dwarven Forge/Hirst Models route.
A Return to the Stars
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After a veeeeerrrryyyy long, and mostly unplanned, hiatus, Stuart and I got
together to play more Stargrave in recent days. It was good! It was also a
bit ...
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Posts
I've used a black and grey, flat set of place mats that had a one inch grid on them with Jenga blocks to make the ruins for Hollow's Last Hope (twice) which was fun.
ReplyDeleteThis is the good stuff for dipping minis: Army Painter Quickshade.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any Half Price Books stores in your area, a lot of them are selling new copies of "Beowulf: The Movie Boardgame" for five bucks - it comes with 40 pretty decent looking miniatures. I think they are clos to 15mm or so...
ReplyDeleteWhoa, thanks for the dipping link. My armies may indeed someday get painted!
ReplyDeletethanks for the dipping link.i like your blog.
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Jim has a post re: Jenga: http://carjackedseraphim.blogspot.com/2011/06/mapping-with-jenga-blocks.html
ReplyDeleteI've also used them in the past: http://www.welshpiper.com/chimera-rpg-dev-5/
WV: "cocatick" which is silicon-eating arachnid whose gaze turns victims to stone.
I have a love/hate relationship with minis. Sometimes I love what they add, other times I hate how they limit me and steer the player's imaginations a certain way. Try finding a mini for a 3-headed gorgon or a spidergoat, for example.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, someone needs to make some inexpensive dungeon legos. I imagine them like Duplos but with dungeon brick patterns on them. I would buy.
@Aplus: Second that suggestion.
ReplyDeleteAdded bonus: check out the croc being fed a Duplo steak here: http://duplo.lego.com/en-us/products/default.aspx#5634
Dominos make reasonable dungeon walls and I've used them over the years to good effect. They're certainly cheap as chips. This past weekend when I ran 0E for my sons and nephews (average age about 9), we used an oversized chessboard matt and dominos to play out Dyson's Delve. worked just fine.
ReplyDeleteJenga blocks are a good idea. I actually used dominos myself, back when I first got my Moldvay Basic Set and made my first attempts at playing.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty negative on minis for a while, but I’ve started using them again on occasion. (Well, actually, pawns or paper minis.) But I’m making an effort to keep away from playing like a skirmish wargame and just use them as visual aids.
(Well, except for the fact that I’m currently trying or retrying a bunch of systems, and I prefer to try to play such games fairly by-the-book for a bit.)
One of my players owns a few sets of heroscape and we've used them on occasion for battles outside of dungeons.
ReplyDeleteI tell them the basic terrain layout and let them do the legwork.
From my point of view the players get a lot more into it when they're the ones building the landscape one green, brown, or grey hex at a time.
Personally I've always been a fan of miniatures, not for the tactical combat but mainly for the interesting mix the players choose as their avatars.
Most recently the party consisted of Spartacus, a Valkyrie, A clone trooper, and Spiderman oh my!