Couple extra ratmen...

A couple of Reaper ratmen...not a big fan of the result, but they're just for use in a couple of pictures.  Will sell them off shortly.

These three do put me at 34 miniatures for 2020 thus far, so I'm on target for 10/month.

Zombies wander into the dungeon...

So over the past week I painted up these 18 zombies which are from Fireforge "Undead Peasants" box or some such.  Really nice minis, simple, but well designed.  A couple of issues with some of the arms (just really finicky to assemble!).  Love that they're not over-detailed...as someone who would be painting up dozens and dozens of these could do them quickly.

$27 shipped from the UK for the box of 18 - a solid deal.  I'll be adding some of the armored zombies eventually too - just to have more on hand, and to mix it up a little bit.

Replacement ghouls...

Maybe a year ago I painted up some "ur ghuls" or whatever from Blackstone Fortress.  I found them pretty cool as generic ghoulish creatures and...more importantly, stupidly easy to paint.  I decided to pick some up since they're cheap on eBay.

I repainted the bases on the original four minis...and added another 12.  So these will stand in as ghouls for my dungeon game, even if they don't particularly match the classic aesthetic. 

The Ballad of Bob the Bushwacker

Got in a game of Shoot N' Skedaddle...with appropriately poor pictures.  It was a lengthy and crazy game in the newly invented town of Bent River, New Mexico.  A buddy of mine and I did up a gang/posse of six characters; I ended up with Lawmen, and he, Outlaws.

 A bloodbath erupts early in the game...the Judge is dead...the 'Bad Man' is dead..the Drifter and Hired Gun are wounded...

 A Town Person, a Bodyguard and a Prostitute walk outside of a burning bar...

 The Drifter grits his teeth and ignores his gunshot wound...

 An exuberant Town Person joins the Lawmen only to be gunned down a few minutes later while he's rummaging through the 'Bad Man's coat...

 Bob the Bushwacker.  An innocent enough looking fellow.  Bob showed up as a Lawmen reinforcement...but was drawn as a Bushwacker (Outlaw Character).  He galloped into town shooting around..

 Lawmen reinforcements arrive, and blaze away at Bob the Bushwacker, firing 20-30 shots as he speeds through town.  Eventually his horse is shot out from under him and he falls, becoming Shocked.  He survives this and flees two Brothers chasing him on horseback...another 6-10 gunshots missing or failing to wound him...

 Bob the Bushwacker (lower left) flees into a bar...chased by the Brothers.  He survives more gunshots and jumps up onto the roof.  Now he's chased by the Older Brother who engages him in fisticuffs....he flees, surviving two rounds of close combat.  The Younger Brother and a Town Person are likewise chasing him...when he falls off the roof onto the outhouse and then grabs a surprised occupant as a hostage...Bob the Bushwacker manages to escape the whole game having survived 35-40 gunshots, several rounds of combat, falling off a horse and a roof...

 The Outlaw Hired Gun with a sawed off shotgun evens the score by gunning down Lawmen mercilessly, surviving a hail of bullets.

 Just five of the many bodies strewn about...

 Late game madness.

Two Outlaws who survived the whole game in these two buildings.

A quick runabout in the dungeon...

Hosted a small game of CCC playtesting again, and will probably step away from playtesting it for a bit until asked or until a third version of my cards arrive.  Still doing working behind the scenes, but will cool off the playtest schedule until some more changes are made.

Also need to start working on the campaign and between-game play, the quest book, etc.

 Blazing through some Skeletons with our all-conquering Elemental Ally (who turned out to be way overpowered!)

 First room of this Quest was a simple Skeleton bashing session.

 In the Quest Room we ran into a Legendary Encounter, and Skeletons and Verminkind (ratmen!)

 The Quest Room fight elevates...but is handled with "ease".

 A room which should have been a tough fight...but we paid off the Troll, the Elemental slew the Cockatrice quickly and then we just peppered the Dragon to death - will be fixing some of the stuff involved here...rather underwhelming fight!

Just poking around the ole dungeon...

CoastalCon 2020 - Caverns, Crypts & Catacombs Public Debut

While it was a bit off my night schedule meaning I was a little out-of-whack, I stumbled down to CoastalCon 2020 in Beaufort, SC yesterday and managed to run two games of Caverns, Crypts & Catacombs - it's first "public" playtest.

CoastalCon is a new convention in its first year, but the venue was nice, good sized, and a decent flow of people.

I did the usual "set up a game and sit around for an hour or two" thing, and then three awesome dudes volunteered to give it a go.  I didn't take any pictures during the game (I never think to do that...for some reason).  Here are two pics I snapped between the games:

Game One:
At first I thought this might tank the interest as our group stumbled into an empty Tavern...and another empty chamber...and things were going "too well".  Then they ran into a Crone and a room filled with acid and it all went pear shaped from there.  While the party should have died about eight times they managed to squeak through each time, and luckily ended the Quest having survived and defeated Hygthumpus the Goblin King.

Designing a game based on random chambers, encounters, creatures and rewards is occasionally risky at something like a convention, where a player's first encounter may be their only encounter with a game!  I have considered in the past "pre plotting" cards and encounters to guarantee a balanced dungeon - but then I completely ignore that impulse and let chaos reign.  It worked out in this case...even the players picking up that I was suspicious of how easy it was going at first....

As with all playtest I found some stuff to fix, some underwhelming cards, some underwhelming creatures, some "how does this work?" questions that I didn't have an answer to, etc.

The best part was that, while CCC is a relatively complex game, I want players to be able to pick it up quickly (within two or three turns), and these guys were 100% on it within a few turns. 

Game Two:
After I ran across the unpaved parking lot for Firehouse Subs for lunch, I was sitting around waiting for another group to assemble.  I was close to calling it quits and packing up for the drive home, when two of the guys from the first game swung back around the table and decided to give it another shot!

This was awesome as they get to run different characters and they already knew the rules, so the game was far more quick and efficient.  It's awesome to see the game is easy to pick up and run with.  They had a much better go at the second dungeon, acquiring a Man-at-Arms (yes, "Tod"! returns!) and an Elemental (sacrificed...don't ask), etc.  This dungeon draw turned out to be more balanced and a bit easier - with no mega-deadly chambers encountered.

It all worked out well and we blazed through the second game - which is nice, as it highlights the ability for a group to play 2-3 games in an evening or afternoon easily if you feel like having a mini-campaign.

In Game Two we skipped a lot of the repeat encounters or rewards just so the players and I could see more diverse stuff in action.

Overall it was a good con, and I had fun.  Will definitely go again next year, maybe with a finished product!

PS: Stumbled upon a couple of pictures from the Con's facebook page:

Dinner & Dungeons

Having been sick for nearly two weeks...which has absolutely murdered my hobby progress, I was finally able to have some friends over last night for some chiney foo and some dungeoneering.

Good game, 2/5 of our party survived...and I ended up with a page full of notes for edits/changes, which means it was a great playtest overall.

 The mess after the game...

 The dungeon build - made quickly and sadly I used very few of the my new pieces!

 At the end of the quest, the Elf, Wizard and the Mute Savage prepare to simply run for an exit...

 They make a run for the staircase...but zombies pile out of the darkness to stop them!  (Yes, some skeletons are standing in for additional zombies...)

 In the chamber behind the fleeing heroes, the Barbarian and Thief are murdered when they accidentally free the Giant.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The Mute Savage and the Elf escape.  The Wizard...rolls three '1's and falls flat on her face.  She is quickly devoured by five zombies on the staircase, a mere TWO SPACES from exiting the dungeon...

 

Go go gadget dungeon!

Having sold off a handful of extraneous Dwarven Forge hallways, I turned that money into some more useful Dwarven Forge bits.  This order was all about elevation.  Getting a boring set of elevation blocks, then some ramps and some nice stairs.  Painted them up real quick, happy.

Straight out of the box.  Nothing particularly interesting this time, but...basic stuff before cool stuff!

 

You can still use these random bits to make some cool entrances, or gateways, etc.

 

Painted and finished...really quick, maybe 1.5 hours!  Next time I can order some proper cool stuff!

 

 

Another day, another dungeon...

Had a play test of CCC last night on a nice dungeon we built the night previous.

 A Cockatrice and Crone magic the crap out of our party and we're put in the hurt locker...this may be the room that finished us.

 Our party is sent to investigate an abandoned "haunted" Tavern...we discover a rotating book case that leads us into a deadly dungeon...

 The dungeon, nicely laid out using Dwarven Forge bits.

 The last remaining party member, our Gnome Wizard is fleeing from a Goblin King...who in turn is fleeing from a Giant...so that happened.

 Upon entering the tavern, the stone fireplace erupts into a Stone Golem, welcoming us to the dungeon.

 This supply room is home to some angry Lizardmen.

 Our fleeing Gnome Wizard is finished off by the most deadly CCC denizen...the friggin' Cave Spiders! 

 Our party smashes through some Zombies while exploring.

 We open the door to what we discover is the Quest Room...

 Exploring the dungeon, one room at a time...

 Dungeon layout.

 The Tavern is a two-chamber encounter, with a small store room in the back with a rotating book case that leads us into the caverns.