Threndian Travel Diary #7

Goodbye Google Plus - You Were Great For A While

Dont Peek Under This Link

Satire

DIY Again

A couple of things going on. Reflecting, thinking about the spirit of the hobby that drew me to it as a kid.

I think back in the day, I had neither the money to acquire little metal guys nor the know-how to make stuff, myself.

Now, I got plenty of know-how, a modest trickle of hobby-money, and only a couple of hours a week to pull of hobby-stunts. SO, it comes down to: what do I want to take part in? The conspicuous consumption part of it, or the DIY, punk part of it?

I think, for me at least, that the answer is easy.  Don't get me wrong, I love Games Workshop's stuff.  The figs, the fluff, all of it.  I was mesmerized by Space Elfs with Bayonet-Chainsaws at age 11 or so, and now I think they are even better than they were then.  That said, I am consistently amazed at the quality of GW stuff that comes out - I don't feel I can paint it to justice! These Genestealer Cultists, once a dream of mine and started with 10 WWI german troops, now have whole codexes and are awaiting a coat of oil wash.  Funny how far things come.  I even finished painting a set of Necromunda 1e Scavvies that were mine when they came out new (thanks +Daniel Fandino !)

What do I want to do with my time and hobby dollars? I figured it out.  I want to make stuff.  I have decided to learn about sculpting and casting.  I have been practicing with some Hirst Arts tiles (the steel girders set) and made some casts from some things I put together

I'm also retexturing/repaintint my 2x2 game table tiles (lovingly called FLAGSTONE WASTELAND) and dickering around with Hive Terrain and some Zone Mortalis type stuff. Making some 1x2 and 1x1 foot tiles out of spare MDF laying around the new place

Next I will copy some SOB Seraphim and their jump packs to plop underneath some Statuesque heads, maybe...

Here's today's goings on:

The Autoconveyors of Thrend

All this RPG'ing, in my head anyway, happens in my own little contiguous universe.  The main world is maybe Aereth, I guess, like in DCC.  The other one is Nebulmor, the Tomb World where Space Dungeon takes place. There's a beat up shithole named Rad.  They farm radishes. Sometimes, they are highly irradiated and mutant-rich, some other times they are perched on the edge of a hole (I think one version of it appeared on top of +Daniel Bishop's Silent Night). There's Helleborine, "that town over there", and Marbourg - kind of my "home town".  Floating languidly down the coast is Aubergiole, where men dally with fishy horrors.

The confines of genre are stupid; my things are maybe more like Titan and Magnamund than Faerun or Middle Earth. Where maybe the lines between fantasy and scifi are not as clear as they are now, sort of like in the beginning.

For example, there must be cars. The roads suck, but there are cars since (in theory at least) I love car chases.  And I like the idea of scrounging for gas and parts. And flat tires.  I figure, if you can't smoosh a crummy beater into your imagination zone, you probably wouldn't enjoy the games I run anyways.  Maybe this post is a clear statement of intent.

I think most of the cars must be hilarious, awful, cramped boxes of shit that respond well to tinkering and are immune to the problems we have today in terms of proprietary parts. It occurs to me that having cars means people need driver's licenses and so, High Schools and Driver's Schools must be a thing. I refer you to the thing I recently dropped on Google Plus called Alma Mongrel.

Anyway, here are some of the cars I think do well in my fantasy/sci-fi/post-apocalypse world of Aereth in the Kingdom of Thrend (first named casually in a session but then somewhat codified in The Hounds of Halthrag Keep). When they DO breakdown, it gives you a perfect excuse for an adventure...

Imagine these with ballistae, .40 caliber heavy machine guns, steam and/or nuclear or shoggoth-powered engines... Rowdy paint-jobs, magic hood ornaments, missing pieces, weird gizmos. Screaming down the highway at night, chased by Nightgaunts or a Dracolich.  I don't know.  I guess I don't get to use chase rules enough...

Dystopian Simulation

Working on Actually finished since post was writ, that is I finished this Grand Theft Auto 4 mod project, just trying to capture a certain Half-Life 2/Stalker/Exclusion Zone feel. Maybe Innsmouth? Like a version of Innsmouth from that movie Dagon, in which the town really sucked. I don't mean to say I made a mod, but I collected a bunch and just enjoy driving around in it and watching bad things go down.  Why? I don't know.

Some mods listed below:

Cars:

http://www.gta4-mods.com/vehicles/gaz-m20v-pobeda-f7879

http://www.gta4-mods.com/vehicles/vaz-2103-rusty-f7926

http://www.gta4-mods.com/vehicles/vaz-2103-rusty-second-edition-f7936

http://www.gta4-mods.com/vehicles/vaz-2103-rusty-second-edition-f7936

http://www.gtainside.com/en/gta4/cars/67638-1970-fiat-abarth-695-ss-assetto-corse/

... and a couple of different Fiats

Scripts:

The Simple Native Trainer
http://www.gtainside.com/en/gta4/trainers/49982-gta-iv-eflc-simple-native-trainer-v6-5/download

The Selfie Mod
http://www.gtainside.com/en/gta4/mods/63545-selfie-mod/

The Facial Animation Mod
http://www.gta4-mods.com/player/facial-animation-mod-f29759

Pedestrian Changer

First Person View
http://gtaforums.com/topic/412129-relgtaiv-first-person
 or
http://www.gta4-mods.com/script/first-person-107-compatible-f9171

Then there's this one script in which total war erupts in town and it's cops and gang bangers and drive bys like 24/7 365 and I made sure it's raining and lightning all the damn time and it's not as fun as I thought.