The ruined fortification

I managed to salvage the terrain feature I was working on, but in the process it came out a lot darker than I had intended.











I am still messing up my photos. Sometimes light is the issue and sometimes it's the camera settings. These ones are the best of a batch of about 50 or 60 taken at different stages today.

Setbacks

I finished the ruined section of castle that has been my project for a while and sprayed it with lacquer to keep it safe from greasy nerd fingers. Unfortunately the laquer has dried leavuing lots of white spots and has ruined the look that I was quite happy with. I have seen this before, but the lacqeur I've been using lately has never done this before. I wonder why it happened this time. In the back of my mind I think maybe I did'nt shake it enough before spraying. Anyway, here is a pic of one of the problem areas.



I also botched the lighting and focus on the photo. Normally I get at least one of them right.

Walking through syrup

Things have stayed slow. For many reasons I am not finding the time to work on game stuff. Last night though I managed to pull out the ruined castle and sand it down, so hopefully tonight I can paint it and maybe give it some detail tomorrow.

The title of the post is also a great song.

10 year olds wargaming

Here are a couple of pics of my fourth graders playing an entry level war game.

Mini wargamers

I edited the mistake that made the whole thing not make any sense.

I introduced the wargame to my ten year olds yesterday. It really wasn't meant to be an out and out wargame, it was meant to lead them to an insight into why weapons developed so much over time. They were supposed to be hunting animals and taking them back to their camp to become food. I told them that the group with the most food in its camp at the end of the game would win.

I split the class into 4 teams of 6, each with its own colour. Three of the teams were mixed, with one or two boys and the rest girls. The red team however was all boys. On their first turn, one of the red boys asked me if they could kill people as well as animals. I told him they could if they wanted to, but I pointed out that the blue team (the closest to them) was a long way away.

The red boys discussed their strategy and decided that because their was a finite number of animals to hunt, they couldn't have the blue team hunting them all, so they headed toward them and attempted to exterminate them. They almost succeeded too. They managed to get 4 out of the 6 and they almost got one of the remaining ones as they fled away to their camp.

The blue team were not exactly happy about the way the game went and I think the red team were disappointed because time ran out, which meant that the green team won; they deserved it because they had cooperated from the word go.

The kids want to play it again and I am thinking of letting them do it on Friday. They have made lots of suggestions; better weapons being the most common idea. One of the kids (a member of red team) wants nukes to be introduced. Bloodthirsty little buggers.

Mostly rpg

I had a great game with the guys on Saturday night. They were following a rumour of a wizard in the North to see if he was an escapee of the House of Rose. They did some gathering of information in seedy dock side bars and met a man that dealt in secrets. The man told them about a wizard living in a town called Lothair, a few days North of them. He also gave them a contact name in the town of a guy who knows more. So while there was little action there was plenty of role playing and investigation. I really enjoyed it.

My high school students were totally freaked out by yesterdays session of our fantasy game. I decided to base their latest escapade on a survival horror model. They have not played any horror, but they have watched enough movies and played enough computer games to get the genre.

I haven't done much painting lately. I am however building a small ruined fortification. I am about half way through it and look forward to putting it on the battlefield.

I have also accidentally designed a war game for my 4th grade class to play next week. Should be amusing.

Working for Morvery

I finally have my fantasy rpg happening. The lads are coming over on Saturday night for the first installment (of what I hope to be more than just a couple) of "As yet unnamed fantasy game". The game takes place in the fantasy world I have been setting games in since the release of 3rd ed D&D. This will be the fifth group to play in the world (fifth only by a short margin; my students are playing in now too) that I have got so much information on.

The players have taken the role of trouble shooters working for the House of Thorn (A college of wizards with the emperor's ear), on the hunt for remnants of the recently destroyed House of Rose (the old main rival of the House of Thorn). I am thinking there will be a fair bit of political intrigue as they cross the land trying to wheedle out those of the Rose who have gone to ground in the wild lands or set themselves up in the cities and towns of the Dale Lands.

I am using the free download of Song of Ice and Fire, which I have heavily modified. One of the main mods was adding a magic system, as there seem to be no wizards in the original material. I am particularly happy with my magical incantations* and am including the one that I think is the coolest:


Fog of Seletz
On a successful routine incantation roll the weaver conjures a large fog that seeps up out of the ground and condenses out of the air to obscure an area a kilometer square over the course of a minute. The fog reduces sight range to five meters, is five meters deep and lasts for one hour.
Additional successes may be used to:
The fog does not obscure the vision of the weaver. In fact the weaver’s awareness rolls have a bonus dice as the movements of the fog alert him to the goings on therein.

*For some reason I am not using the word spells.

Have at you!

I have finished the Knights Exemplar. I am happy with the simple scheme I have achieved; happier than I was with my finished Kreoss.



Now that I look at them I think I might do a few more bits of detail on them.