More Barrowmaze Undead & Anticipating Frostgrave.

Back to more of the un-living for this episode of the ongoing Barrowmaze saga:

Crypt Thing, pointing at something.

Sapphire Skeleton, the sapphire in the skull causes this variety of skeleton to re-animate unless it is smashed.

Another, more animated, version of the Barrow Guardian featured previously

Another batch of very good miniatures from Otherworld. The animation of the skeleton is particularly good, very reminiscent of his brethren in 'Jason & the Argonauts'. The only downside is having to glue four separate pieces together, holding those tiny arms in place while 5 minute epoxy dries feels like a task Sissiphus would have baulked at.

Finally in anticipation of the July release of 'Frostgrave' a panoramic shot of the board I intend to game this on. I say intend because unless I can get a couple of my colleagues at the local boardgames club to participate, the chances of this project ever taking flight are minimal. This as ever is simply down to time, I just never seem to have enough of it. I really do see the appeal of Frostgrave having enjoyed in my younger days both Mordheim & Necromunda, GW games in a similar vein where you begin with a small retinue of characters & improve them over the span of a campaign. Indeed Necromunda got played almost to death over the space of a couple of months in my earlier feckless years, still got the much converted miniatures ( bits were added every time a character bought or found an upgrade of some sort) & my gang sheet buried in storage somewhere, sold the boxed set for what seemed a ridiculous sum of money when I last moved house along with a lot of other gaming stuff that hadn't seen light of day for some time. Didn't have the space & really needed the money for more important stuff.

Barrow Harpy & Older Sibling.

Bit of a slow old week on the painting front, work is seriously eating into my leisure time. Having to take the Sabbath on pain of death from Mrs. HGA who is beginning to forget what I look like. Anyway, freshly lubricated with a tidy pint of Malbec I got this beauty finished off last night:

Otherworld Miniatures Barrow Harpy.

In company with a Ral Partha Harpy c. 1990 from the hands of Bob Olley.

Nicely animated sculpt this one but coming in six separate pieces it ought to be. I might just add it was a complete pain in the arse to assemble, but at least there was enough metal to be able to drill & pin. This is definitely not the case with the skeletons I've just started on, hope & superglue are going to have to suffice!

Barrow Guardian & Tomb Robbers.

Three more Otherworld Miniatures representing denizens of the Barrowmaze Mega-dungeon.

Barrow Guardian

 I could have gone for a more standard grey cloud to represent this animated statue, but I wanted to try something different. The intention was to attempt a nice red sandstone but it has come out more like rusty iron instead, nevertheless I like the effect & he will make a good stand in for an Iron Golem.

A pair of Tomb Robbers.

I really like these 'Tomb Robbers', low life despoilers of the Barrowmaze, just like adventurers really. These guys would make perfectly adequate low level pc's or henchmen. I particularly like the adventuring gear being carried.

Yet More Barrowmaze Undead.

The Otherworld miniatures painting spree continues unabated into a second week with the last of the single piece castings from the Barrowmaze boxed set:

A brace of Sons of Gaxx.

Mummy Lord.

Must say I particularly enjoyed painting the Mummy Lord, the contrast of his finery & otherwise rather ragged appearance is very pleasing.
Have already started assembling a few of the multi piece castings from the set & as anticipated they are turning out to be a pain in the arse, I generally like to pin miniatures together but a lot of the parts included are too fine for this to be practical. Instead I have had to use super-glue, which is fine to a degree but doesn't always hold together well in the long term; at least in my experience. Will just have to be careful handling them.

Otherworld Miniatures Barrowmaze Zombies.

My first fantasy miniatures for quite some time, starting with the single piece castings from the Barrowmaze boxed set:

A pair of Ju-Ju Zombies

A Ravening Zombie.

Ravening Zombie & Otherworld Thief comparison shot.

 Really nicely done miniatures these & as can be seen from the comparison shot suitably emaciated. I've decided to paint all the single piece castings from this set first as I need a bit of time to experiment with various glues for assembling the multipart castings. Some of these I will pin & glue but some of the finer castings like the skeletons might require a different approach as there is very little to pin into, time to invest in some good epoxy I reckon.

Otherworld Miniatures Monsters of Barrowmaze.

Its been a long time since I had anything of note to report in regard of the Retro Dungeon, but this dropped through the letterbox this week:

This was ordered for my birthday back in January so it has been a seven week wait to get it, but in defence of Otherworld death laid his hand on the shoulder of their casting contractor, so in the great scheme of things having to wait a few weeks for a hobby item isn't terribly important.

Anyway, inside this splendidly decorated box are the following:

Because a lot of the miniatures are multi part they have been supplied individually bagged.

Mummy Lord, Ju Ju zombies & a Ravening zombie.

Barrow Guardian, Tomb robbers & Barrow harpy.

Sons of Gaxx & Sapphire skeletons.

Fossil skeletons, Crypt knight & Crypt thing.

In addition Otherworld included a couple of freebies as an apology for the long delay in shipping the order, not necessary but very much appreciated none the less.

Barrow wight & Barrow guardian II.

The general quality of the castings is excellent with very little in the way of flash & only minimal mould lines, really looking forward to getting some paint on these.
One of these days I may even get round to running Greg Gillespie's excellent Barrowmaze, his take on the Mega Dungeon trope. I really like the consistency of the theme with plenty of undead & vermin involved. Several of the undead types encountered are subtly different from their D&D ancestors, for instance Fossil skeletons are covered in limestone accretions which make them harder to damage than usual; while Sapphire skeletons reanimate a few rounds after 'death' unless the jewel in their skull is destroyed.
Not that this is likely to happen anytime soon however, work is still far to busy to devote much time to gaming ( though I am currently a player in a monthly Firefly RPG campaign) but at least if & when I finally retire I won't be short of stuff to do.

Normal Service Resumed.

I hadn't realized just how long it is since I last posted anything here. Work & house repairs have seriously been eating into my leisure time ( which is limited at the best of times) plus the latest plan to get my dungeon stuff into circulation went badly tits up. So in a huff I stuffed it into a large box & promptly forgot about it for a few months.

I have however decided to get back on that particular horse & have produced a master & mould for a new piece:

A classically decorated room created with the help of hot water, a litre bottle of gin & some strong elastic bands ( sounds like a honey trap for 1980s conservative politicians).
Its a nice change from carving stonework from sheets of balsa foam, the dust of which is like itching powder & now I've got the masters done for the straight walls I can begin to put together some corridor sections with the same pillar detail for those more aspirational dungeon environments.

In other news I've bought my first D&D product after an interlude of 32 years.

I wasn't initially that interested but there was a fair bit of enthusiasm for it with my local board gaming group so in a fit of madness I agreed to DM a session for a few of the other members. There are actually two of us D.M ing on consecutive weekends, it will be interesting to compare notes afterwards to see how the two groups get on. The default setting seems to be The Forgotten Realms, at least that is where the introductory mini campaign in the starter box is set; but I'm going down a different route with my own setting & scenario. Not that I've anything against the official game settings produced down the years, i'm sure they are very good, its just easier for me to remember details of stuff made up in my own head rather than trying to cope with pages of detail written by someone else.

Anyway, for £12 its a very nice little set:

The starter rulebook gives you all the basic mechanics of the game, movement, fighting, magic etc but doesn't cover character generation; however there are five pre-generated characters included in the box or you can download a basic rules pdf from Wizards of the Coast's website. The starter campaign is nicely done, though a bit of a dead loss to me, but even this is redeemed by having a short bestiary in the back of the book featuring amongst others goblins, orcs, giant spiders & four types of undead. Even the dice included are fairly decent, certainly a vast improvement over the light blue ones included in the Moldvay Basic set I bought back in 1983.

There is quite a lot that appeals to me in this iteration of the rules, I like the advantage/disadvantage mechanic whereby you roll 2 d20s & use the lowest or highest number depending on your circumstance. The character sheet is recognisably D&D, anyone who had played BECM or AD&D 1st edition would be able to pick it up & understand it straight away. I also like the fact they've included a skills section on it, each skill being modified by one of your six characteristics. Its a subtle jog to the players memory that they possess attributes other than combat skills & magic.
They've even made magic users a viable class at low level through the addition of use at will 'cantrips', 0 level spells with unlimited daily use, so no more cast one spell & then throw daggers or keep out of the way for the rest of the gaming day. My only reservation is that the balance might have swung the other way a bit, but magic users still only use d6 for hit points & have very limited access to protection  so they still have to keep out of the way when the swords start swinging.

Looking forward to running this, probably have more considered thoughts post the event. Just have to see how my group of four players cope with " The Fane of the Drowned God".