The Papodiles of Awz

Papists!  We all Hate 'Em.  Amiright?

I'll say again that the spirit of the Baum Oz books ought to, by rights, pervade all our DnD'ing.  So the kicker is that we needed some stuff for a nasty Oz-flavored thing in which to express our IT GETS WORSE motif.  It was good times.

+Evan Lindsey and +Bryan Mullins as Billy Buttons the Blunderbussing 10-year old, and Ransom Calabash, a inexpertly glued together victim of the 1000-yards of Verdun.  He went starkers as a melodic spell was cast at him and literally fell to pieces and was pitched off a cliff.

1) Howell, the Tattered Woggle Bug Sangrita Blast Salesman
2) a Half Dozen Minus One Irritable Kalidahs
3) Miss Petunia, the Buff Orpington Photographer
4) The Black Carniv'rous Heliotrope
5) Whistler, the Shrunken Apple Headed King of the Western Orchard Lands

A thing which the Internet gave us but which sadly we could not use owing to time constraints and the limitations of my frail human frame was the above, the Papodiles.  Behold, their Toothy Mitermaws!  Their babbling Proselyzations (SAN damage) and in other systems we determined that you can take damage depending upon your alignment, but I was thinking that if (for example) your SAN or your Willpower ran out, then of course you'd be Catholic and convert and just go on your merry way to play out whatever Catholicism means to you.  Not as a spiteful thing, mind you, but in the spirit of the times of Baum and Nast (so like maybe a little spiteful since they weren't enlighten'd then as we are, now).

I'm going to say in the interests of hot social commentary that these Ravenous Beasts are amphibian, Lawful Evil, and they horde gold and unread bibles at the bottom of their murky lairs, and they especially love to prey upon the poor, the young, the winsome, and that all three qualities in a single individual (e.g. Master Buttons, above) draws them as a moth to the proverbial thing-which-yeah.

I don't know, 4HD or something, 3 x bite (1d8), droning preaching (DC 15 Save or stop and listen closely, then a DC 15 Save or switch to Catholicism/Law OR take metaphysical damage each round, with +1D damage for non-Lawful characters)

in Into the Odd, pretty easy to stat out.  15 HP, 2 Armor, the attacks are pretty straightforward as 1d6 or 1d12 if the victim is forced to listen to the spiel.  A failed save means the victim takes (in our little game tonight) 1d8 SAN damage in addition to HP loss when the droning, Latinate chanting begins.

RRAAAAARRRGHLAAG PLEASE TURN TO GOSPEL OF ST ROCH CHAPTER 4 VERSE 73, AND LO, JUDAS ISCARIOT WENT UNTO ANTIOCH AND MADE WAR UPON THE DAUGHTERS CHOMP CHOMP WAGNAGHL OF NAPTHALENE AND YEA VERILY BLAH BLAH BLAH IN NOMINE PATRI ET SPIRITU BAALZEBOOOV FEAR NOT FOR THE END IS NIGH AND REPENT REPENT REPENT GIVE UNTO US WHAT IS CAESAR'S AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH SNICKERSNACK

And with the firey eyes and the chomping of glistening golden vorpal miter-teeth and then you are dragged below to do penance and never receive charity

Game Table Hijinks and Green Stuff

My buddy Doug from Miami showed up this weekend on a lark; it was good to see him. In addition to minor progress on the honey-dew list, we did a stop motion thing on the game table using my DA and  IG and it was a good time. Observe:

Also, learning is great. I read about green stuff and superglue making for easier to pose and more dynamic models, and it's been pretty cool to play with it.  In addition to this cool Chaos Land Raider Thing, I want to do some Space Marine Breaching Team Unit with non-stock GW models, and maybe a counts-as-Telion Scout Sergeant, on loan from another Chapter. (edit: he's the guy on the right, below). Maybe break down these old Gold Terminators I have and revamp them as characters.

Work on the table (i.e. terrain) proceeds slowly. I need to get some flat gray or black primer, since all the spray paint I have is taking a crap on me, lately.  Fouled nozzles etc.

Death, We Defy Thee

(For Alex's consideration)

Following up - I thought Wayne R. Had preempted my post with this thing here:

http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2014/07/better-living-through-clones-death-and.html

But it's a good review of exactly the kind is thing I want to avoid.  So, as discussed in my previous thing - this admirable little Oz game posits No Death right up front, for the PCs or the NPCs.  I think that's amazing way to look at play - it hearkens to childlike fantasizing that gives rise to the more complex forms of gaming we all love.

(I never finished this and it was in drafts but a recent thread by Alex prompted me to hang it out)

STC: Hive Terrain from Dimensional Lumber pt I

Okay -

Process is pretty well considered, and the wood is cut. I'm trying to build a good deal of cheap terrain out of dimensional lumber and stuff I have just laying around. I use laminate flooring for the platforms, plus whatever plastic lids turn up.  And junk. Heavy sprinkling of junk.  The laminate is 1/4" by 8" by 48", but it's got these notches on the sides to slip it together, so I chopped that out. If I were cleverer, I'd have found a way to include it in the design but so it goes.  To keep the decks at the standard Necromunda height of 3 inches, I just gotta cut it all to 2 and 3/4" and also 5-3/4" lengths. I'm shooting for at least a few platforms that can be taken apart and held together with either magnets or screws, and stuck in a box for storage and multiple configurations.

Today with a couple of precious minutes before work sans my juve and Gang Leader, I turned a bunch of trash wood from under my porch (and some scraps from the futon-turned-game table) into this:

Which will have a little more panache than this'n Nintendo-cartridge-on-the-half-shell bolted onto a hacked up 4 by 4 (like so):

Although, to be completely fair the entire process of mashing the junk together was fun beyond recounting.  I woulda painted it tonight, but frankly I'm beat. Watched Real Detective, instead.

The gunner's nest looks like this when primed with Krylon:

You can see where the mold release or whatever caused the spray paint to shrink back.  I don't think it'll negatively impact the thing very much.  Lastly, the 4x4 with plastic top and metal sides after a coating of Krylon enamel (bear in mind that although I think about these issues a good deal it's a process of discovery and improv more than anything else):

You could totally beat a Genestealer to death with this thing. It's like S7 AP3 and it confers Dubious Egress to any units that start the turn on it.  You'll need to buy the dataslate to have access to those rules.

Tomorrow I will maybe fiddle with the bases and platforms and work out a magnet system... Flush-mounted neodymium in the tops of the supports and washers underneath the platforms?  Possibly reversible?  See where I'm going with this?  I trimmed the 8' lengths of laminate flooring down to 7' square, and so maybe that's a weird number. I don't know how it will work out yet, but the good thing is if I use wing nuts or magnets, nothing will be set in stone!

And don't forget to remind me to explain my thinking on ubiquitous hazard stripes and whether it's worth it to paint them by hand...  With the thing I'm thinking of they'll be all over everything.

EDIT: I thought I was all clever and searched it up on google and somebody didn't just beat me to the proverbial one-two, but they also used LASERS

DAMMIT

http://www.back2base-ix.com/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=70

Rogue Trader Era Vortex Weapons Et Cetera

I have never ever used these in a game, although they captured my attention back in the late 1980s. Looking at a copy  of RT the other day, the rules in there are fun.   In retrospect, the thing almost seems iconic, like Jokaero Digital Weapons and those crazy fat Marines and bulbous Tyranids.  And Ambulls.  And Sand Clams.  I mean, what's not to like?  A bomb that makes razorwire!  A grav-tank from a deodorant stick!  It would even smell manly, except for all the craft-ichlorians!

New Arrival, Spanner-Brother Norrin.  He's in the dip, awaiting colour reassignment.

I don't know about the most recent Vortex stuff; I guess there's a dataslate and it's given a treatment in the Fortress Assault rule book, maybe.  I saw a copy of that the other day and it was cool, but essentially a catalog of the dreary skulls and arches terrain.  Don't get me wrong, I like that stuff, but I'm seeing now why people call it 40K$.  A 'D' template weapon as big as a 2-liter bottle of coke, to shoot at your stomping Knight and make all the little guys irrelevant.

Back to the subject, it seems to me like you'd need a couple of turns worth of trenches, a 3 inch blast marker, and a ping pong ball on a base. Could be a fun thing to scratch build. I'll need to think on it for a spell.  I already envision how to paint and base it, with one of those dumb electronic tea lights.  It's going to be freakin' sweet.

Also, I'm done buying new GW stuff, and done hunting it up on eBay. Aside from Spanner-Brother Norrin up above, I am losing my interest in collecting. I got sniped about 4 times for Genestealer Hybrids and a sweet RT dread, and  I think rather than go through the heartache anymore, I will just convert things and make due.  Like, welcome to my table everyone, as long as your shit has a lick of paint then it's all good.

Speaking of making due, I turned a bunch of junk into almost-terrain tonight. Just a couple of hours of greebles-ing and all this junk will be ready for a layer of PVA wash and some spray paint.  I figure two weeks or so and I should have a pretty playable Underhive ready and willing and able.  I had 3 cans of oldish spray paint seize up on me Sunday and so I went into a Red Fugue and slew everyone in this hab-block, but I figure maybe they were just cold or old or both. Like me that morning.

I'm going to add to my list of "must dos" a couple of feet of slimy canals full of purplish goo, a big factorium where the Taint Cola cult can live and brood/breed, some ratty shacks on CD bases, a couple of destroyed corners-from-styrofoam, 1 big- and 2 or 3 medium- dimensional lumber and laminate flooring hive platforms.  The laminate is 8 inches by 48 inches.  I have a lot of cool plans for stackable stuff, so we may see some height in this Hive.  I look forward to slogging some Marines and 'Nids across it.  You can see I have a bit of a new thing for trying to figure out how to convert scraps of dimensional lumber into gaming terrain.  My system isn't close to perfect at the moment, and I never have the time to cut stuff the way I want to (in my brain) so the miter saw sits and sulks and I make due with the stuff I almost threw away from under our deck.  I persevered in the same manner a Hiver wouldn't throw away anything found, and so here:

Is it junk? Terrain? Terrain made from junk? What do these hivers build their homes of, anyhow?

Also, you ought to check out Inquisimunda.  It's the bees knees, and takes the urgent, mixed squads feel I loved about RT and plops it into an Underhive I already love. I dig Inq28, but nobody wants to play on account of ITS A NARRATIVE GAME or something

After I get the table and terrain ready, I think I'm going to learn to sculpt and cast figs. We'll see.