Mansions of Madness 2nd edition playing as a campaign

Recently we started playing Mansions of Madness 2nd ed. with some simple campaign rules. The goal is just to add some sense of continuity and evolving storyline to the game. Put simply you will have a chance at some smaller advances, and the possibility of eliminating or crippling Investigators. The goal for the campaign should be to see how long you can keep up the investigations before running out of investigators. We are using both the official app and Valkyrie for this.

Check out the rules here and see if it is anything you would like to try.

The Dunkeldorf Kickstarter arrived in the mail today, so here's a quick update with photos of the range. The range will end up being available from https://kinggames.dk and might be expanded on in later kickstarters. The inspiration is ofcourse Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which should be very obvious when looking at the miniatures below. I'm very impressed with the result they have achieved,

The complete range so far.

Some of the great artwork of the project.

Dunkeldorf 28mm miniatures for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

little update about a new exciting miniature kickstarter coming up. A miniature project that I think fits nicely into my blogs big interest of classic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

The kickstarter is called "Dunkeldorf - 28mm Fantasy RPG Townsfolk Miniatures" and is started by a well respected local shop here in Denmark called King Games. The owners Nana Kronmark & Nicki Irmark are themselves WFRP players and with this kickstarter they hope to create a new line of miniatures that fits into this universe.

The photo here is a nice teaser of some of the miniatures painted. There's already a nice presentation of WFRP careers and NPCs. The Burgomeister is nice, could even fit in for a merchant or Teugen from Bögenhafen in the Enemy Within. A female Rat Catcher is also a nice miniature option. Very nice and charismatic sculpts.

The miniatures above are painted by Nana and featured among others on her painting blog.

If this has your interest feel free to visit the links below!

Link to the Kickstarter campaign

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinggames/dunkeldorf-28mm-fantasy-rpg-townsfolk-miniatures

Link to the Dunkeldorf website:

https://dunkeldorf.eu/

Painting Session: Daemon Lord - Pantheon of Chaos

So far I've only painted a few of the Pantheon of Chaos miniatures from Knightmare Miniatures. The sculpts are fantastic and just like a gold old Realm of Chaos miniature, so it really is a joy to paint them. But like all the rest of you I have too many projects going on. My last painting session though, was getting the Daemon Lord painted.
The miniature itself is sculpted from this little beauty of an illustration from the Realm of Chaos books Daemon Weapon section:

 

I went for pale skin which can be done in a myriad of ways, and personally I've tried various ways so far. With a miniaure of this size I felt like I had to do a blending technique. Actual wet blending is a bit cumbersome IMO so I went with glaze blending. I started from a light pink base and worked up to  rakarth flesh and then palid flesh, with paints mixed to a thin translucent glaze. The crevasses of the Daemon was washed with a very thinned down flesh wash using acrylic medium. The hooves, bones and horns was also blended with glaze mixed paint from light brown to bleached bone. The fleshy mutated axe handle started with a base of dwarven flesh with some red in it, then washed heavy red and worked up again with layer painting towards Dwarven Flesh tone at the absolute highlight. The wings was drybrushed with a couple of brown layers. Here he is in all his glory:

Painting Session: Circus of Corruption painted miniatures

I've finally painted the three Circus of Corruption miniatures I got for preview and here's the result.

And also some close ups of the small guys:

There's 5 days left of the Circus kickstarter. The next stretch goals are: A Circus Chaos Elephant if the kickstarter reaches 100 backers, and from looking at the poll, what might look like Female Conjoined Twins if the kickstarter hits £7000.

Circus of Corruption previews

Today I received 3 of the resin masters for the Circus of Corruption Kickstarter I've mentioned earlier. I intend to start painting them right away so I can present some photos of them painted before the kickstarter ends. As of this writing there's 11 days left, and the kickstarter is close to the goal of 3 additional clowns. There's also a poll up for backers with suggestions for the next goal which has the female conjoined twins winning at the moment.

Painting Session Doctor Who Daleks and Cybermen

Starting of the easter vacation I had a promised painting session with my son. Now thanks to his dad he isn't new to the hobby though ;) but we are still doing the very basics of painting. The target of the painting session was the miniatures of the new Doctor Who Exterminate box set from the UK based company Warlord Games. The box set, which itself is a basic tabletop skirmish wargame with card elements, comes with plenty of Dalek and Cybermen (including cybermat) plastic miniatures. Today we toyed mostly with drybrushing, little washing. Also my son wanted to try some highlight layer painting. However the ultimate goal of the day was to do bases, which he haven't done before. So with all the available materials at hand and a little trip in the garden he went to work with PVA glue, gravel and static grass and ended up with some nice looking cybermen bases.

Next up we are going to have a go at some some Doctor Who themed wargaming. We are going to try the boxed game from Warlord Game, but the ultimate plan is to do something ourselves.

Circus of Corruption Cart

he Circus of Corruption kickstarter I've mentioned earlier just unlocked a Circus Cart stretch goal. Unlike the troupe itself it will come cast in resin as pictured, although there's now a kickstarter stretch goal that might attempt to cast it in metal if reached. The kickstarter price for the current stretch goal cart will be £35.

Circus of Corruption / Carnival of Chaos kickstarter

here's a new kickstarter which might interest Mordheim players. The Old School Miniature Company has just put up their Circus of Corruption kickstarter featuring a carnival of chaos team. The sculpts look absolutely amazing and even though I do have the mordheim team I'm also getting this one!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/882426675/old-school-miniatures-presents-the-circus-of-corru?ref=463342&token=6c178249

Pantheon of Chaos Chapter Two

he Pantheon of Chaos completed it's second kickstarter, and I just received my miniatures. This time around I only went for a few, which is due to the money involved, because the sculpts themselves are absolutely top, and if I could I had gone for more :)

For those who don't know these, this is miniatures created to fit right down the alley of the old Realm of Chaos era of miniatures. They are available from Knightmare Miniatures.

I mostly picked out the new Chaos Dwarves, and went for a bit extras:

Sulfur Aethus Champion, love this miniature which is really something standing out of the norm.

The new Chaos Dwarves.

A beastman / snake mutant, and a more traditionally looking Chaos Warrior

A great sculpt, a heavily mutated beastman.

Mordheim Scenario: Don't wake the Giant

couple of weeks ago my Mordheim campaign group had a go at a quiet funny variant of the well known monster hunt scenario. The scenario was recently mentioned on the Mordheim Facebook group so I had a google search and unfortunately couldn't find it. So what better excuse of a blog update to upload it :).

The scenario in question is Don't Wake the Giant, a funny variant of the Monster Hunt scenario making use of a Giant bad guy, a model central and loved in many RPG players model collections :) 

In this scenario the players are encouraged to try stealth to steal treasure from a sleeping giant, but with the chaotic nature of Mordheim things might not go as planned. In our session the Skaven player was doing quiet well, being quick on the spot, and good at stealth, but the other players decided to sabotage the success of the Skaven player by gambling it all and wake the giant. From this point on the game evolved into pure chaos and survival :)

I've upload the scenario by David Gitchel here as a PDF.

The Possessed team ready to start

The Sisters of Sigmar Team ready to start

And the Skaven team player blank refused that I could take a lineup photo as the paint job isn't finished ;)

Table overview

Game in progress, the Skaven player quick on the spot, that is a standing up sleeping giant yeah ;)

Sisters decide to wake the Giant much to the annoyance of the Skaven player

With Skaven cassualties and the rest of the Skavens hiding the Giant turns on the Possessed and Sisters....

Painting Session... Kill Teams: Space Hulk

he gaming group has been experimenting a bit with adopting the Kill Team rules for some Space Hulk play. A classic game the group veterans love. This is inspired by Games Workshop's original article dealing with this challenge.

Today isn't going to be about this though, as we will have to do some playtesting first. But eventually I plan to put up our ruleset here. Instead I've focused on getting some teams going for the playtest, so once again I have been having a bit of a painting session.

Although tests will be for Terminator Squads at first, the plan is also to have this work for other Kill Team squads, as long as we can keep the model count under 8 for a squad, and hopefully do some 3 player sessions with one Genestealer player, and two players with one squad each cooperating.

So first off we have the Team of Rogue Traders:

Next up a team of Grey Knight Terminators:

Then we have a Ultramarines Terminator Squad:

I didn't really paint genestealers in this sessions, as I kinda of already have them painted up.. not to my usual standard though, as they where painted long time ago. But we do plan to try and introduce the Genestealer Hybrids from Space Hulk: Genestealer. And luckily Games Workshop recently released some very cool Hybrid miniatures.

Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter is up

he Pantheon of Chaos project kickstarter is up - meaning you can go there and support the project and get miniatures in return. The goal is almost reached shortly after the kickstarter came up. So this one should go through with no problems in the 30 days the kickstarter will run.

As mentioned earlier on this blog, the miniatures in this project is focused on the old Warhammer Realm of Chaos look. Beastmen will not be your average goat look-alike but rather cool mutants, which for an old WFRP player also is much more in line with the old Warhammer description.

As a bonus this project will feature the Daemonic pantheon of 'Malice' aka Malal. Collecting all will be rather pricey, but there is a lot of miniatures in this project, with more unlocked as more kickstarter goals are reached. There are however also plenty of options for just opting in for small miniature packs of your choice of miniatures in the range.

Head on over to the Kickstarter project:
Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter

Mordheim Gothic Terrain from Escenorama

ordheim and Frostgrave players are always on the lookout for cool city scenery. At least I know I am. Some time ago I stumbled upon a Spanish company called Escenorama that does resin sculpts of modular fantasy ruins terrain. The pieces I have are usually in use somewhere on our table, so should be on this blog in the Mordheim battle reports. The cool thing about them is that they can be stabled to create multiple storey buildings, or spread out in rubble like terrain to cover a larger area.
Anyway the post isn't really about my old Escenorama terrain, but rather the new product line they have up. The line is called "Gothic City" and has a Gothic Fantasy theme to it. It looks awesome, and have some improvements over the last set. The set is still a multi build set, which is a big plus, but on top of it there's a lot of accessories available to it to create an even more detailed and unique feel. A thing the old set did miss.

Escenorama Facebook news post:
https://www.facebook.com/Escenorama/posts/985030478212455

Escenorama web shop:
http://escenorama.com/shopping/category.php?id_category=53&id_lang=1

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower - Warhammer Quest rebooted?!

odays news is that Warhammer Quest is on it's way back. Although in what form remains to be seen. For those of you who don't remember Warhammer Quest, it was a boxed Games Workshop Game, which moved along the line of Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest. In short making a grey zone between boardgaming, tabletop roleplaying, and miniature collecting. Your players selected a hero type to play, and you where the gamemaster in a campaign of dungeoneering with dungeons build up of interlocking dungeon pieces.

I've had tremendeous fun with all the three games, and lately me and my gaming group have begun playing Warhammer Quest again.

So Warhammer Quest was published in 1995, and have been dead for decades. It is important though to remember how much Games Workshop as a company has moved since then. Because of that there really is no saying how much this new Warhammer Quest project will compare to what we knew and loved. So lets look at what is on the rumour mill...

The game will be called Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, and will feature an attack on a fortress of Tzeentch called the Silver Tower. It is set in the Age of Sigmar, and hopefully it will include other hero options than Stormcast.

Release should be immanent, set in may, and future expansions might be possible depending upon the game's succes.

Links to Warseer forum:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?417295-Warhammer-Quest-Silver-Tower

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?416013-AoS-Upcoming-releases&p=7611504&viewfull=1#post7611504

Painting Session: Skaven Screaming Bell

ime for some painting session update. We recently had a blast at playing a small WFB scenario here, which included a Skaven force. Besides having some Skaven Mordheim Warbands, I also have a rather small Skaven Force based around the Screaming Bell, a Skaven machinery I just love.

So I actually found a battered up assembled kit of the new line of Screaming Bells, and decided to switch out my old screaming bell. It's no secret that I normally love the Oldhammer miniatures, but the later screaming bell version is just so good looking.

The Assembly required some modification of the original model, there was just no way to take some of the wrong assembled parts apart, so I went on to modify those parts to fit instead.

So here it is included in it's clanrat unit:

Greater Daemon of Malal

he Pantheon of Chaos project has another update in the Malal range. This time it's the Greater Daemon sculpt, looking really good. Also on the same news, the project has stated they hope for availability in March this year, so fingers crossed, and start saving up...

Apply to join the Facebook group for more information:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1438811393089076/

WFRP and Naked Dwarf Syndrome

oday we will talk about naked Dwarfs...
Or rather the WFRP specific issue dubbed "The Naked Dwarf Syndrome".

First off I have to state that I'm a WFRP 1st edition player. The Grim old school Warhammer background in WFRP 1st ed. is what keeps me there. However I'd be the first to admit that the weak part of 1st ed. - compared to the newer editions - are the rules. Later editions really did improve on the rules, but took the approach of introducing the changed Warhammer Fantasy Battle World which is not rocking my boat. Luckily I live by the rule that roleplaying rules are made to be bent on the spot by the GM, but it doesn't hurt to look at shortcomings of 1st ed. before you actually start a campaign in 1st ed.

One obvious flaw of 1st ed. is this "Naked Dwarf Syndrome". Despite the amusing name, which started on the WFRP mailing list and was subject of many heated debates, it describes the problem well. To sum it up, usually your average Dwarf Troll Slayer player would end up with so much Toughness, nothing would ever scratch him, even when fighting naked.

The problem in 1st ed. is Toughness' influence on damage calculation. An obvious system since this has always been at the base of the Warhammer Battle Systems, and worked fine here (although some WFB 3rd edition players would say otherwise when we talk about the Realm of T10 Chaos Bloodthirster..), based on a S vs T table.




First off it's important to understand there is different perspectives of the Naked Dwarf problem, and some who would say there isn't a problem at all.

Perspective 1) Some WFRP players feel it is unrealistic that a fully armored target is more vulnerable than a naked high Toughness target, but are otherwise ok with the whole Toughness system.

Perspective 2) Some WFRP players are entirely opposed to the fact that a natural Toughness stat exist that gives more natural armor to one creature than another, based on professions or humanoid race.

So if you want to fix this issue in your campaign you first have to decide where you stand on this. Perspective 1 is probably the one that is easily fixed, since if you sum it up it's really an unarmored scaling issue you are having with the rules.
Perspective 2 is more difficult, as you would have to change something implemented in the roots of the damage system. It tends to open up issues where huge creatures that you would assume has a natural armor will be easier to damage, since their WFRP stats base this natural armor on a high Toughness value in it's profile.

Later Editions

So how did the other editions actually handle this.

2nd ed. still had Toughness dependency on combat damage, but made steps to downtone the effect.
It toned down T advancements and kept S advencements on the same scale. Damage rolls where upgraded to 1d10 instead of D6, while creatures and PCs had slightly more Wounds. Also armor was more effective. This takes on Perspective 1 and also Perspective 2 to a lesser extent.

3rd edition is an entirely different beast. I have no experience here. It's a game making heavy use of Cards, cardboard, special symbol dices. In case you are missing anything? Want to play a Priest of Shallya? Well, you need to buy an expansion pack for that. This takes the FFG boardgame approach, and I doubt I will ever be a fan. All the tracking, cards etc. is stuff I see taking away from the most important aspect. Actually playing your character role out.

Proposed fixes

Here is a list of the various suggestions arround to fix Naked Dwarf Syndrome. Some are easy to implement but may just be subtle patches to make the problem have a lesser impact. Others will make more dramatic changes. I'll leave my comments under each suggestion.

1. Using later edition rules with the original Warhammer background

Straight forward as the heading suggests.

My comment: Sounds really interesting, as this would also possibly fix other rules issues. I'd rule 3rd edition out, it's just too different, but 2nd. edition rules would be worth looking into. Since I'm not that much into the rules of 2nd ed. I can't say for sure how it would impact things. Basically I think it would work just fine. It should be noted that later editions use the schools/Colleges/Winds of Magic, but remember that WFRP 1st ed. actually kind of did too, since it was introduced in Hogshead's Realms of Sorcery. If you don't want that some changes will be neccesary there of course, shouldn't be too dificult.

2. 3rd edition damage approach.

Any successful hit will always do a minimum of 1 wound.

My comment: Super easy implementation. It does make weak enemies in greater numbers far more deadly, but me personally, I always liked that idea. This doesn't address the specific issue of the problem where fully armored people feel it unrealistic to be easier wounded than a naked high T Dwarf. A change could be to have a difference in minimum wound depending on armored and unarmored state.

3. Exhaustion based approach 1

Any successful hit will reduce your Effective Toughness for this combat by 1 point. One round of inactivity will recover 1 Effective Toughness point.

My comment: Super easy implementation. Like suggestion 2 it make weak enemies in greater numbers more deadly. As fight progresses fully armored people will value their armor over a high Toughness. There is an extra number to keep track on, which can be done with a dice.

4. Exhaustion based approach 2

Effective Toughness is reduced each round of active combat with attack actions by 1 point. One round of inactivity will recover 1 Effective Toughness point.

My comment: Easy implementation. Will not put you at extra risk from many weak enemies. Approach can be fine tuned if you do not want Effective Toughness to degenerate as fast. As fight progresses fully armored people will value their armor over a high Toughness. There is an extra number to keep track on, which can be done with a dice.

5. Percentage Chance approach

Instead of subtracting Toughness from the damage taken, a D10 Toughness test is made. You then subtract the actual success of your test from the damage taken instead of the full Toughness value.

My comment: Easy implementation in the tone down Toughness category - but will introduce a lot of extra dice rolling during combat.

6. No Toughness approach

A friend of mine is using this in his campaigns. Basically Toughness is never used in a damage situations, but used for the normal test situations, and armor values are upped. This requires some scaling on the damage end, as an entire stat is taken out of the damage calculation.

My comment: Requires a lot of extra rules, which I unfortunately don't have at the moment. I had to bring this on the list though, to give the idea what is needed to fix Perspective 2 completely. I'd probably prefer a more simple approach myself, but if you are of the opinion that a pure natural stat alone can't change the impact damage of a two handed sword, then this is most likely the path to go.