"I was falsely accused of a hideous crime... yada-yada-yada..."

Am I the only one getting totally GEEKED about the new (old) show Nikita? Maybe. Still, be it a remake, a reboot, a reimagining, or even just a regurgitation, I'm usually always a sucker for this crap.


Now, I will admit that there really isn't much "Back in '81"-ish about this show, BUT these types of shows and movies, when done right, can take me back to the days, somewhere in '81-'86, sitting with some buddies around a kitchen table, with this rulebook,


and these dice,


playing through modules like this (or a totally ad-lib'd one),


with slick, bad@$$ dudes and chicks like this:


See, I'm a HUGE fan of the late '90s (-early '00s) La Femme Nikita,


the original French film, subtitles and all,


and even the re...make with my girl Bridget (Point of No Return),


... so this new Nikita might be a total suckfest, but I just HAVE to give it a shot. Tonight at 9 (EST), on The CW... we'll see. OK, now I'd better get back to Section, before they decide to cancel me.

So a bugbear, a werewolf and 3 goblins walk into a bar...

Ok, so there was no bar...not even a tavern. Well then let's just focus on the fact that Reaper has some new members of their Legendary Encounters Pre-painted Plastic minis line coming out this summer. Sweet!

I was over at Spike Page's awesome blog Ubiquitous Orcs, reading a post about Reaper's Warlord tabletop minis skirmish game being released in a new rev (version 2), and I decided it had been a little while since I visited Reaper's site, so I headed over there to see if there were any more details on the new version.

It was then that I saw these:

Bugbear

Werewolf

3 Goblins

"Yes, please. May I have another? And another? And another?"

Man, I freakin' love that Jeff Dee drawing. Always have. That lighthearted halfling looks like he just stopped in from the local frat toga party. Bottoms up!

Ok, so back to the minis: I really like Reaper minis, especially their current pre-painted line, as I am having trouble finding time to sit down and paint the buggers myself....ugh. I have tons of WotC's plastic D&D minis too, but I seem to favor the Reaper minis when they are an option. I've noted on a few occasions my usage of their LE plastic line figs. I especially have gotten some good mileage out of two of these figs for both a Human Cleric of Kord and a Elf Archery-style Ranger that I currently have as 4e characters. Heck, I even used those same two minis when my son and I played Dungeon! the boardgame.

My feelings on the pricing is somewhat mixed. I think $5.79 for 3 goblins is ok - $2 a piece for something you know you are getting, and can plan for your usage requirements isn't too bad.

The Bugbear at $4.99 is getting pricey (I do have a number of Bugbears from WotC - mostly the same guy though, IIRC) but the sculpt and paint job as shown on this new Reaper one looks pretty darn nice.

The Werewolf though, is the real tricky one, IMO. It's listed at $3.99 which unless this thing is sized along their current Minotaur or maybe even Troll's scaling, then that just seems too high to me. I guess I may be skewed a bit on that one, as I also have picked up various werewolves in Heroclix, Mage Knight, and other collectible miniature game used and/or commons bins at local gaming shops and conventions, spending anywhere from 15 cents a piece for the smaller ones to 70 cents in the bigger/nicer versions. Here's one of my cheapos:

Sure, I usually have to re-base those, mostly for cosmetic purposes, but still that makes this Reaper one a bit tough to take. We'll see though. Maybe when I see it for real-realz, I may just have to have it too.

Now, looking back on some older pics I saved off to my HD, I recall that Reaper had previously posted some future releases for the LE pre-paints, including gnolls, kobolds, a mummy, an ettin, a dwarf warrior, a war dog, a succubus, and even a type V demon... err... marilith... err... female demon. In fact they also already had goblins in that list. However those earlier posted guys sported a different paint job. Potential gang wars? Don't wear the wrong color, bro':


Oh, they also have a Giant Spider in the mix too:


But honestly I will likely pass on that one. It's showing a $3.99 price tag, and unless it really blows me away, I will probably stick with my Target $1 bin ones, or some new smaller ones (about half the size of the Target one) that I just snagged for 35 cents each. I bought four of those critters thanks to the advice of Mr. Moldvay:

I guess time will tell. First if these things actually are released or not (like the last "next" batch?), and secondly just how many gold pieces I'll hand over to get me some.

Now, back to the original premise...sorta: If you are ever in a bar/tavern/etc, especially once named after a certain wild animal of a certain color (ie: The Black Stag, The Red Lion, The Purple Worm...hehe), and you see a bugbear, a werewolf, and a trio of goblins come strolling through the front door, I leave you with three simple words of advice (again illustrated *awesomely* by the great Jeff Dee):

"Hit the deck!"

M1 Blizzard Pass: Basic D&D solo mod'n without the cool invisible ink pen

So recently I've been blessed to have a regular local weekly game of D&D (4e in this particular case) for the past 4 months or so. It began as the WotC/RPGA sanctioned Delve Night series, in which I played an 8th level Elf Ranger (Archery Style) sniper... errr ... "striker." That then morphed into a custom campaign where I played a level 4 Bastard Sword wielding human Cleric of Kord (let's just say he liked to get up in there, ok?). This campaign was created and DM'd by the DM of the Delve Nights at my friendly local game store, Blue Dragon Games.

Now I'd usually link the store's website to that last phrase there, but ya see that's when "teh suck" struck.

"Uhm...ouch."

Out of the blue, the store closed. Boom. Blam. Done. No warning. In fact I got an email stating from the site's fourms stating that as of right then, they were closed for good. Wow.

I was stunned. Not only was this store a great source of gaming items, which I purchased quite frequently, but this was the place that got me back into playing real tabletop PnP D&D, no matter what version it might be. It just so happened to be about 5 miles from my home, which was the freakin' icing on the cake.

Now look, the economy blows... understood. We are especially feeling it in the metro Detroit area (ugh), so I won't comment on the store owner's reasons. I'm sure it has been tough making money, so my best wishes go out to the store owner in whatever direction he decides to go next.

The part that leads us to this blog entry is that even though I played every Sunday night with the same crew for 4 months, I have no idea on how to reach them, now that the common ground has been removed. Sadly, I never got their cell numbers, or even their last names...jeesh! I guess I just got spoiled on just calling up the store if need be to chat with the DM (he was an employee/manager/etc of the place) if there was ever a question of game on/off.

At any rate, until I either reconnect with the members of that group, or find a new local one, I am in severe need of some adventuring!


This past weekend I got a little fix from the Worldwide D&D Gameday - Monster Manual 2 event, but I had to drive about an hour and a half to the next closest gaming store that was running it. I did have a blast with the gameday, playing the part of the bravura tiefling warlord "Chance" and I think I'll post a little about my xp with that gutsy general. Additionally, I have been to that particular store before (Heroquest Comics), purchasing a fair amount of stuff, and they would be a great replacement for the other (now defunct) store, if they weren't so far away.

So...

Time to bust out the old solo/solitaire modules again. The terms solo and solitaire get a bit tricky with some of these old modules. Sometimes solo means a single player and a DM. Other times solo means solitaire, just you the player, no DM required. I'm talking here about those solitaire mods (even if they call them solo mods...ha!).

Looking back to last fall, I had some fun playing through the Basic D&D solitaire module BSOLO - Ghost of Lion Castle:

I never actually finished that one, so I could hit that again and see if my sucky Elf can get past a Giant Fire Beetle or a Rock Baboon before dying (twice) this time.

I also have tons of Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventures, and those are all kinds of quick and easy fun, so maybe I'll run a couple of them.

However, first I think I wanna take a shot at the M1 - Blizzard Pass, the invisible ink Basic D&D mod by David Cook:

Now, as the blog post title states, I will be taking on this quest sans magic pen. Ugh! Some folks have said that a yellow highlighter can work, and my kids have some more modern invisible ink pens that they use to reveal sections and words in little Spider-man books etc, but I don't think those are gonna work. We'll see.

I do have 2, maybe 3, copies of this thing, but they are all in varying degrees of "revealed ink" status. So I need to kinda watch how I progress thru it, and try not to accidentally reveal a choice too soon. Wouldn't wanna spoil all the fun, right?

On that note, one very cool project that I found online is this one here, where some folks have put some serious effort into compiling (most of) the invisible entries into one big entity. That just might be the route I will have to take, at least for Blizzard Pass. Thanks to all of those who helped compile those notes. Very, very cool.

After MI I may have to keep the solo mode going for a bit, unless I find a good local group. If so, these beauties are all waiting in the wings:

M2 - Maze of the Riddling Minotaur:

XS2 - Thunderdelve Mountain (At least I think I have this one...man, I need to get organized!):

XSOLO - Lathan's Gold (Similar in style to Ghost of Lion Castle, IIRC):

CM5 - Mystery of the Snow Pearls (Ooooooo, a Companion Level mod...nice! - utilizing the Magic Viewer thingie too.):

MV1 - Midnight on Dagger Alley (1st ed AD&D here - using the viewer again to reveal parts of the map.):

Rage of the Rakasta (An early '90s D&D Game Box module, which is mostly spent exploring a palace. It can be played with or without a DM. In pure solitaire mode I don't think it's much more than "enter this room, fight this baddie, rinse repeat" but I could be totally wrong...never played it. I'm not sure if I have the stand-up figs with my copy...hhmnnn. Again the need to get organized.):**EDIT**: When I first posted this, I had this mod mixed up with another in the same series, In the Phantom's Wake. That mod takes place mostly on a boat. See below. **END EDIT**

In the Phantom's Wake (Another in that same early '90s D&D Game Box series. This is the one that features a boat floor plan. It's recommended for 4-6 players, (so not a solitaire mod...kinda), butit can be played with or without a DM....weird. So I guess a person could play solitaire, playing all 4-6 characters, with no DM. So that's like playing in accompanied solitary? Regardless, I'll still include it here because of that possibility. Both of these '90s D&D Game Box mods reportedly can be played with those Game Box rules, the Rules Cyclopedia, the Dragon Quest game, or even 2nd ed AD&D witha little fudging, I presume.):**EDIT**: Added this one here late, after checking them at home and realizing I mixed it up a bit with Rage of the Rakasta. See above. **END EDIT**

Wshew! Well that's quite a little bit of solo-play (man, that just sounds wrong) to be had, if need be. I've only messed with one or two of these mods listed above, and that was a loooooong time ago. I recall buying some of these, but never really needing to play them, as we always seemed to have the old kitchen table group back in '81 (and '82-'85 too). Even if sometimes the "group" meant a whopping two of us. A few others I aquired later in life, and just never really got around to playing them.

So that being the case, do any of ya'll have any favorites in this list, or any advice on which one(s) I might enjoy more? Do you favor the invisible ink over the magic viewer? Or is the good ol' "choose you own adventure" style of Ghost of Lion Castle still the best way to go? I think I'll start with Blizzard Pass and see if I dig the invisible ink thing. But if you have a better choice, please let me hear it.

Until then I'll be kickin' back enjoying a little "solo time" (still sounds just as bad, dunnit'?):

Jeff Dee's "Land of Umber Hulk Confusion" drawing: yep, more old lead minis stuff

"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility" - Chris Knight, 1985




As true as that description by one of my all-time fave characters in one of my all-time fave movies may be, this crap is still a lot of fun.

Here's a real cool drawing by Jeff Dee, from the pages of 1980's TSR AD&D module C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness, of an umber hulk seemingly putting "the whammy" on some poor sap:

And here's me dorking around with some minis again, doing a very minimalistic representation of that scene:

The umber hulk fig is one of my favorites from the old collection, a Grenadier blister pack which contained this Umber Hulk and a Xorn. My Xorn still has his 3rd arm as a separate entity. In other words, I never attached the darn thing. Ah well, another project for another day.

The "poor sap" in my shot is the Fighter with Sword mini from the 1983 AD&D Fighters, Rangers & Paladins box set, a set which has rewarded me over and over again.

You may notice, from the back of the TSR box that this guy bears a strikingly resemblance to a popular TSR iconic(?) fighter. Here he is cropped from that back-of-the-box pic:


And here he is gracing the cover of 1986's The Book of Lairs, a book of short adventures by TSR for AD&D:

His name escapes me...anyone? How 'bout you there big fella?

"Huh?"

Biggie-sized! - a few old lead Giants (and other big folk)

I've been diggin' through some old minis lately. That exercise along with and a recent suggestion by Jay at Spell Card of using a Papo Dwarf King mini as a surrogate Fire Giant got me thinking it was time to post some old late-'70s/early-'80s lead giants and other biggie-sized minis, from Grenadier, Ral Partha, etc.

So let's begin with a group shot taken at last year's Lumberjack-Con:

Can't recall without peeking, but I believe that lineup is from left-to-right a Grenadier(?) Frost Giant, a Ral Partha Firbolg, and a Ral Partha Fire Giant.

* EDIT *
Turns out I wasn't too far off on the makers of these guys. Upon checking them at home, here's the real deal:

• The guy on the left is actually a Ral Partha Hill Giant (version 2) from 1977...yikes!
• I was correct on the other two dudes.

* END EDIT *

Here's a real nice paint job (IMO) by Herb the bitter that I saw over at CoolMiniOrNot.com of that Firbolg mini:

Very, very cool!

Next up, some recent Mall Cop applicants:

Ok, now I really need a cheat-sheet. Forgive me for any misinformation here, but I think in the shot above the polite fellow on the left is a Ral Partha Ogre, a Ral Partha Bear-rider Dwarf is the homey in the center, and on the right requesting a high-five we have a Grenadier Ape...err something. I will check these when I get home and edit things as needed here to provide better information on these figs.

* EDIT *
More corrections here, after checking them at home:

• The Ogre on the left is indeed an Ogre, but he is more correctly an Ogre Berserker by Grenadier (1988).
• The Bear-rider in the middle is actually a Dwarf Ursine Cavalry with Axe from Grenadier (1989) which was (as Jeff Rients from Jeff's Gameblog pondered...or possibly teased?...hehe... in the comments of this post) part of their Fantasy Warriors sets. I know I only have one of them, but I also know where I can get more, so a tabletop skirmish with a legion of bear-riders may be in my future.
• The ape on the right is a total unknown for me at this point. The bottom of the fig is basically unreadable. I think it says '77 and #122, but that's all I can make out. I could swear I just saw this fig on some old lead minis site, but I can't find it now. Ah well. If anyone knows what it is, please shout out so I can get back to sleeping at night, ok? Thanks.

* END EDIT *

For purposes of scale, here's a couple pics of the Fire Giant and the Frost(?) *EDIT* Hill Giant hangin' out with my (apparent) recent favorite posers from the Reaper Legendary Encounter Pre-painted Plastics line:
Most of these are all 2nd-hand figs, painted (if at all) by some other gamers of days past, which I either inherited from my old PnP buddies, or snagged at different times in the past from various shops' used-RPG sections and other forgotten backroom bins. "One man's trash..."

I may just leave them as they are, as sometimes those old-school paint jobs ...good, bad or just plain horrible... can better set that "back in '81" mood, standing proud atop the kitchen table in all of their Testors glory. But I'm thinking I'd like to try to clean them up and do some re-paints, if I ever find the time. I have tons of old minis in that "someday I'm gonna paint" pile, so these will have to get in line. I have a sneaky feeling, however, that a couple of these whoppers just might "take cuts."

a breathless Blue Dragon, a short-staffed Ogrillion and a non-green sword-wielding Troll?

"I'm so confused..."

Allow me to explain.

As recently witnessed, I have failed my save vs. The Papo Pit, also known as the following aliases: The Safari Snare, The Schleich Seduction, The Target Tangle, and sometimes even The Dollar-Store Deadfall.

After (subconsciously ;^]) looting the idea from Christopher B at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword and posing the old-school-ish Red Dragon with some even older-school lead figs, I decided I needed more of these "toys."

So I made my way to a local miniatures shop (models, games, terrain, etc) and initially added the Papo Blue Dragon (winged and sans fire-breath, in this case), and the Papo Ork (which is...well...an "orc"). He actually kinda looks a little Ogre-ish to me, or maybe even more so Ogrillion or Orog, but whatever. Here he is chillin' with a veteran lead Druid/Shaman/WildMage/Wizzie/etc (info on the skull-topped walking-stick later):

I will most likely use him for an oversized Ogre, or some orc/ogre/goblin deity, like this Jeff Dee rendering of Maglubiyet:

Regardless, this "Ork" fig was in their clearance bin (50% off) because the fork at the top of his forked-wooden-staff/stick was broken off. Big whoop! I mean, first off these figs were priced at $5 (or less) anyway at that shop, so at $2.50, I couldn't say no to the big green guy. Here's his broken shaft (ouch!):

And here's the quick little mod my son and I came up with for an impromtu photo op:

I won't permanently affix that skull, as that's the head to the Plasma Kreaps Ghoul (basically a very cool winged skellie), and we like that fig way too much to eternally behead him. At any rate, it's a thought starter and for some pics it's kinda works.

Next up, the fire-breath-less Blue Dragon fig. I'm not sure if it was another fig-injury or not, but the shop wouldn't take clearance price on this particular fig. I tried to tell them that it was "missing" the fire-breath (as other Blues in the same shop had it spewing from their mouths) but it wasn't going to happen. So I just snagged it anyway at $5.24 or whatever. See, I was gonna cut off the flames from a normal Blue anyway, as we all know (heck even my 5 y.o. son knows) that Blue Dragons breathe lightning, not fire. I guess I could have bought a normal Blue fig, and saved the flames for some other mod, but whatever...this way I didn't have to cut the poor cerulean wyrm. Here's a closeup of him/her in all his/her flamelessness:

Now I just need to find a cool plastic/rubber bolt of lightning to glue to the back of it's throat. Any ideas on where I can find one?

Paired up here with the original Red in this shot, you can see their slight differences, including big wings vs tiny wings and flames vs no-flames:

Now for some comparisons between these Papo Dragons and some offerings from the WotC line of D&D minis. Again, I don't have the massive, colossal, gargantuan, just plain huuuuuuge WotC Dragon minis to compare, but then again $40-$300 vs $5.24 isn't a fair fight to begin with, eh? Anyway here's some side-by-sides of the Papo Dragons vs WotC Basic Game and Against the Giants boosters Dragons:

As much as I am totally pimping these Papo Dragons for some old-school feel, I must say I do also like this new WotC Red from the AtG boosters. It has a very proud look to it, which seems right. However in the end the Papo fig wins outright for me. It just hits me too hard in the Moldvay box set gut. I will do the reverse mix here for a sec though and throw in the new WotC Dragon vs my old 1983 TSR "Fighter with Platemail" from their Fighters, Rangers & Paladins box set:

Still lingering in the local shop, I couldn't leave without snagging this guy for $2 or $3...can't recall. Papo calls him a Troll with Sword, and that might possibly be in the Three Billy Goats Gruff "mean dude under the bridge" theme, but it's certainly not the stinky, green, pointy nose, must-use-acid-or-fire type that the term "Troll" conjures for me (and you I presume).

Names aside, I dig this little Papo Troll (uhm ...with sword). I think in an old-school themed game, he could play the part of some generic brute. He has a look that to me seems to be a mix of ogre, orc, hobgoblin, and maybe even a tad bugbearish ...sorta ...dunno. He looks fun though, especially with that shortsword jabbing ya in the face. Doink!

Here's a closeup of that ugly mug:

And one more shot of him going toe-toe with that venerable Shaman/Druid/humma-humma from the earlier "Ork vs Oldguy" scene:

Ok, one final fig before I left the local shop a little lighter in the gold pieces bag. This guy is what Papo calls a Dwarf King, but as Jay suggested in this comment to this post over at Grognardia, I may use him as a Fire Giant. BTW, it appears from Jay's comments and links to pics of his figs, that he tends to dig the Reaper minis too, especially the one I use a lot for my 4e Cleric of Kord and other holy warrior stand-ins in games and pics...cool! Anyway, I'd say this Papo Dwarf King could also be used as some Dwarven God, Aspect of Moradin, etc. but I kinda like Jay's Fire Giant angle. Maybe add a little custom paint job, mixing in some blackened skin look, etc. Dunno. Here's a shot of him just about to cleave our (apparent) undefeated world champ, "Old Guy in Bathrob with Cane" in half:

Ah well, toys they truly are, but useful props in future games I hope they will someday become.

BTW, I also snagged a few others from another shop (some of which I bought for trying some mods and paint jobs), but have yet to take pics of them, so I'll save them for another post. Fun!