Dead-cember (prelude)

Advent. A time of reflection, preparation, and impending joy. For me and millions of others around the globe it leads up to the second most significant time of the year, the first being Easter.

However, thanks to a poor pun on the name of the month, and having just bought a bunch of skeleton figures that I want to paint by New Year so that I hit an average of one figure a week for 2015, it's also going to be the month of the (un)living dead! Why don't you join in with any dry bones or squelchy zombies that didn't quite get the attention they might have done at the end of October?

So, here's my unholy horde to disturb any silent night or lay siege to a Good King's castle, twenty-eight skeletons (including musician, banner and champion) from the old Harlequin range now with Black Tree Design:

Stage 0 - based and undercoated

They were mostly pristine casts with almost no mould lines or flash. One pose seemed to have a slightly duff mold and all three of them had a lump of excess blobby lead under their right arm, almost as if that part on the mold has a tendency to bulge slightly.

What will you paint to increase the darkness before the dawn?
Rab

The restless dead

No, not a miserablist prog band, but an impulse buy that arrived over the last couple of days. A little late, but worth the wait...

Knovember Knights

I've blatantly stolen the title of this post from Erny (do go and read his blog if you don't already) as it fits this post perfectly. Perhaps I should take inspiration from his Orctober success and encourage chivalric geeking next (k)November?

But back to today and the three reasons for stealing the title.

First, battle is soon to be joined. Based on the Combat of the Thirty, Whiskey Priest and Lenihan (I think) have devised a free-roaming foot tournament in an Oldhammer styleee for some of us Ogres to play on Erny's kitchen table tomorrow. My first adult-adult gaming for months!

Apparently there'll be jousting, too!

NaGaDeMon 2015

I wasn't going to get involved in National Game Design Month this year, really I wasn't, but then I was laying in bed while my two sons charged around like lunatics and I had no choice but to hear their game. It revolved around using lasers on each door to stop the ghosts from stealing their duplo models because it would give the ghosts special powers that would allow them to take over the world.

You couldn't make it up.

Averaigne campaign - session 04(b)

[The story so far]

Session 04(b) - Victory through cunning

The six males (four human, two elven) arranged themselves carefully to creep down the steps into the darkness, knowing they were searching for not only the missing young man but also the first rescue party...

Averaigne campaign - session 04(a)

[The story so far]

Session 04(a) - Back to the gully with a new party, and introducing the Summoner

The "Four Javelins" coaching inn was busy. It was late afternoon and the light was fading from the early spring day. Locals, and travellers who had decided to stop the night rather than risk not reaching the next welcoming fireside, thronged the bar with its flagstone floor and oak-beamed ceiling. At one sturdy table a group of farmers toasting the birth of a healthy son, traders swapping gossip from the capital at another, here a rich man, there a poor man, most of them human but a couple of halflings and maybe even the odd elf thrown in. A roaring fire in the hearth gave not just warmth and light, but a glow of civilisation, comfort and security most welcome after a damp day's work or travel. Serving girls with trays filled with mugs of foaming ale or platters of simple but good quality meals weaved their way through the press, and, overlooking it all, the landlord. A man in his late forties, perhaps, stout and bearded. The sandy hair on his head thinning, his beard streaked with grey, but his eyes still sharp to spot newcomers and his voice still loud to welcome them over the cheerful din.

The costs of gaming - Orctober 2015

Jan 2015  -  £00.00 (0/0/0)

Feb 2015  -  £24.99 (5/5/0)
Mar 2015  -  £46.11 (20/7/-13)
Apr 2015  -  £06.40 (2/12/10)
May 2015 -  £07.07 (-25/2/27)

Jun 2015  -  £34.00 (25/0/-25)
Jul 2015   -  £00.00   (-2/3/5)
Aug 2015  -  £00.00   (1/0/-1)
Sep 2015  -  £00.00   (1/3/2)

Orctober 2015

• BOUGHT - matt medium, basing material, dice £6.65
• BOUGHT - skeletons, wraiths, a wizard and a goblin princess (!) in the Black Tree Design sale £33.88
• BOUGHT - zvezda medieval cog kit from a good friend who picked it up from a car boot £5.00
• BOUGHT - the B/X monster guide from the Oubliette kickstarter £5.00
• TRADED - finished my contribution to the Oldhammer warband 2015
• TOTAL for Orctober - £50.53   (27/2/-25)

Total net. expenditure for 2015 to date         = £175.74

Remaining acceptable expenditure for 2015 = £-25.74

In something similar to the LAF lead-hoarders vow, I'm also recording the number of figures purchased versus the number painted, which is what the numbers in brackets after each month's total represents - (net unpainted acquired/painted/net total for the month). So, here you go:

Net. unpainted figures acquired in 2015   = 53
Of which, painted to date        = 2
Total no. figures painted         = 32

Net. hoarding status = -21

Oh dear... red figures everywhere. It was going so well and then I had a bad week at work, and there was a sale, and the bood-wargames classic dwarf kickstarter hasn't even launched yet... Ok, I'm weak. But if you're reading this, you're probably weak too. Well that's how I make myself feel better, anyway!

Averaigne campaign - session 03

Today's session is brought to you by the letters T, P and K. Yup, only three sessions in and the players managed to combine overconfidence with abysmal dice rolling (with their brand new sets of polydice which I'd bought them, all parcelled up in little drawstring bags like treasure) to such an extent that I couldn't tip things in their favour and they all died. But I'm jumping ahead...

[The story so far]

Session 03 - Crossing the gully, noisily, and then blundering about

Concerned for the health of Bernard the magic-user [he was down to 1hp, and the player was sick so didn't make today's game], the party left him with a torch and a whistle to keep watch over their rear, while they proceeded over the bridge.