CBS DND Cartoon Miniatures

I backed a kickstarter a while back created by Antediluvian Miniatures. It had a series of models that were grown-up version of the kids from the DND Cartoon that I watched as a kid during the 80's. I loved that show, even thought the censors had gutted it of any violence, which, let's just admit it here is part and parcel of a typical DND game.

I also picked up a Unicorn from reaper Minitures to be Uni. Bobbi's mini has a unicorn skull as a shoulder pad, but that seemed harsh, so I bought the Unicorn.

I have not found anything that states what the name for the kid's name for there adventuring company, so I have take to calling them "The Homelost".

The Nightmare King

    It's been a while since my last post. Here is where we are at now. We (Cap and I) have done over 25+ sessions for the first DND Story arc of the 'Oracle of the City' campaign, called 'The Nightmare King'. We have 4 session left and then we are taking a hiatus from DMing for a few months, due to the impossibility for keeping a group together through the holiday season.

I was inspired by Daarken's painting on the MtG card "Dream Eater" to be the Nightmare King, but I needed a miniature for it and I saw Atlantis Miniature's Sphinx and saw how similar they were to one another and a BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) was born.



So without further adieu, I present to you The Nightmare King;

What is a Pact Team

What is a Pact Team?

As I was doing the Ravnica Research I had a few of my players go throughthe GGoR and choose their Guild by way of flowchart.

What I got was a Boros, a Dimir, and a Gruul. I nicknamed them the "Judge Executioners"

So I worked with the players to find miniatures and I painted them up. Fast forward six months or so, Life/ Schedules have changed so now I am looking at running a game at a local game store. I have a few in mind. I am really excited now that I have a story written up, some maps and 200 painted minis with which to tell a story.

So I am running two groups. a group of six (The Impartial Party) and a group of two (Scions of the Streets). I know I have five people, maybe seven that might be interested in gaming at a store, before I even put up a poster in the store. Really I am hoping to just get three people to show up consistently.

Now to the title.

If you are familiar w/ MtG then you should be aware that this story is set three years prior to the events of the "War of the Spark".

The Guildmasters at this point know that there are real issues. They have appointed individuals that now have the title "Guilder". There is one Guilder for each of the ten Ravinican guild. They are able to assign missions/ tasks for these pact teams to resolve, so peace will be kept and open war amongst the guilds put off for another day.

The Guilders gather these teams and then begin to assign tasks to them. Missions that no one guild wants to be blamed for.

Each group of players are going to get their own web page written up about them.

I will be buying and painting a mini for my collection to represent each character, in the livery of the Guild that the character is in.

Thus far there are four Pact Teams:
1) Judge Executioners (Sessions:01)
2) The Impartial Party (Sessions:02)
3) The Knick Knacks (Sessions:02) DM: Cap
4) Scions of the Streets (Sessions:01)
5) TBD

Well if you got this far you get a treat. Here is the website with all of the minis painted up and lots of other goodies added and more coming.

Enjoy!
https://sites.google.com/view/oracle-of-the-city/home

Rakdos Troupe 04: We have a Troupe: Cultists

So Everything fell together. Yay!

I have the Troupe done, but not the terrain. It's good, don't get me wrong, it really is...It's just that well, I want a stage!

But first what we all have been waiting for... I give you...

Horryhost's Band of Thieves and Vagabonds

Yep, that's really their name.

The troupe consists of five cultists (Including the ringleader), one familiar, Three Rakdos Ogres, and eight Cacklers. And one "transformed state.", which is part of the story-line. I have minis to support each of these "slots".  

So that is a grand total of 18 minis.

I need to begin to focus more on the "audience". I have a storyline in my head, and the audience will consist of an additional ten or so minis. but we can get back to these guys later.

HBoTtV: The Cultists of Rakdos:

The Narrator, Horryhost

Don Fuego Master of Beasts and Flame

Juggler of Pain, Bonita Cortar

Jahowen Vidalus, Necrosinger

Lady Kopesh, Swallower of Blades

Syn Triff the Spikewheel Acrobat

HBoTtV: The Minions

--Rakdos Ogre-- (x2)

--Cackler-- (x8)

"Peeker" the --Krenshar-- (x1)

Original Post: 6/18/2019

Rakdos Troupe 03: Tent Poles and All

Alright so I have the minis, It took some time but I got them.

Now, I really want a themed terrain set to go with them.

The best terrain I have found is located... here

The link (above) is to PlastCaft Games with the "Circus" Keyword.

I feel like I should mention a few things at this point...
1-I don't need terrain, in fact I usually shy away from it. I am going to make an exception in this case.
2- Some of the sets I want I won't be using all of the pieces for for this particular band of Rakdos.
3- I have never ordered from this company before, nor have I done the "cut-out" terrain before. So we will be learning together.
4-These are not in USD, so that means an extra expense for shipping (as I am here in the US)
5- They are colored already and I won't have to paint them (score!).

So at this point (With the search parameters I have set) there are 6 items in this list:
1-Circus Prop Set
2-Circus Entrance
3- Circus Stage
4- Circus Stand Set
5- Circus Wagon Set
6- Big Top Stage
NOTE: there is a seventh on in this series called "Passage of Terror" that does NOT have Circus in the title. But I am not interested in it anyway, although I thought I would at least mention it.

Buy List (And Reasons Why):
I am only buying that which I feel is absolutely needed for a small troupe like the one I am designing, and those items are:
1- Circus Prop Set- I want the tables for the Audience members to sit at. and the big "dartboard" for juggler act.
2-Circus Wagon Set- I think it would be neat for the Rakdos Ogres to pull these around Ravnica from place to place.

That's it. 2 sets.

Let's see how this plays out. Hopefully I will have the minis painted before the terrain arrives.

The Boros (Arcane Legionnaire)

The Boros Arcane Legionnaire

A player sat across from me. He looked at me steely eyed, and in a voice that rivaled Clint Eastwoood's dry rasp he said: "A Boros Arcane Legionnaire..." His sentence began, and finished with  "...and I wanna be a goblin with a staff and spells. And fight too."

Alright I thought I can do this. You see, my dear readers, if you are not aware in Ravnica the writers made goblins a playable race.

Even though it went against the very fiber of my being I said "Sure! A goblin is fine." Ugh. Where I was raised a goblin was target practice." That was, for many years, the fantasy troupe that everyone could hang onto regardless of the module or campaign.

 That changed for me and many others with a short story about Drizzet Do'Urden meeting a goblin and a cute lil dude named Squee found aboard the MtG: Weatherlight.

And then there was the mini my player had selected, the Goblin Wizard by UK based Atlantis Games. Simply a beautiful sculpt, and was only 2 pieces (Staff w/ arm and the reast of the model) and a base. 

So... We now have our first goblin.Welcome to Ravnica!

Buying New Paint

Buying New Paint

Well a new stumbling block.

I have not updated my paints in quite some time. Most of them are 7+ years old. I keep spraying my desk with paint as I squeeze the hell out of the old paint bottles. The paint within crusted over like a dried out desert well. This ends up being messy, wasteful, expensive, and an enormous time waster.

So I decided to throw out "most" of my old paint. WE will see. I am very attached to my craft paints.

I also made the decision to choose one company to go with and order over 100 colors from. I plan on using these most of the time. What do you want? Its baby steps here!

So my choices were:

Top Tier Choices (and a reason)

• Vallejo- Love the colors but not everyone carries them.
• Army Painter- Love the set. But Reaper has a nice set of various skin tones which I don't see on the Army Painter site.
• Reaper- Yeah, I picked these guys. Stable company. Huge selection of paints and minis. With Craft paints I keep on getting paint that rubs off of white bones even after I scrub them with a toothbrush and soapy water. That is a pain. So I am going to try Reaper's "Core Set" of paint. I see that they make a set just for bones but I need paints that are going to work well with metal and resin too.

Second Tier Choice

• Privateer Press- I love their paint pots, truthfully the reason these guys are so far down on my list is because I actually own so few of their paints. From what I have see I like them. I like there paint pots.

Last Tier Choices

• Games Workshop- I feel like the paint pods are designed to dry out paint. If I ever buy any of their paints in the future I am going to put them in dropper bottles I got off of Amazon. But man, what a pain. I would rather spend my time painting rather that transferring paints from one container type to another. It would have to be a really good color. And they are, I just can't bring myself to waste an entire afternoon transferring paint when I could be well, painting.
• Craft Paints- I love me some craft paints. I have been working with several of the colors in this category for over a decade. But I keep watching these videos of pro painters saying that these paints can make the models look better.  So I figured I would will give it a whirl... Top Tier, here we come! (Mostly).

Rakdos Troupe 02: Under the hood of the Big Tent

Alright. So know I have a plan.

And I wait for the minis to arrive....okay, Tada! (This took about a week to get the minis.)

So here are the cultists..minus the minions and the Necromancer.


Here is a shot if the entire troupe. Notice that there is both a Hyena and a Krenshar mini for the Necromancer's familiar. Which ultimately leaves me with 5 minis to clean, assemble, prime (for 2 of them), and then paint.

Rakdos Troupe 01: All the World is a Circus

I wanted to create a small wandering troupe of Rakdos entertainers that travel throughout Ravnica that my party will encounter. So I present to you:

Harryhost's Band of Thieves and Vagabonds

I wanted to focus on really fleshing out the look and feel of a traveling troop of the Cult of Rakdos would be like. So I focused on the following items:

• Troop Members
• Character NOTES
• Terrain
• Acts
• Audience

Listed below are my thoughts on each of these points:

Troop Members:

I wanted a separation from the card carrying cultists and their minions.

Character NOTES:

I felt there there should be a few general traits that each character should have that could tie them back to the world writ large.

Terrain:

There is only one company that I have found (thus far) that sells 28mm Circus Terrain. I will be picking some up soon.

That company is Plastcraft Games. You can find the Circus pieces here:
https://plastcraftgames.com/en/buscar?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=Circus&submit_search=

Acts:

I have seen Circe De Soli a few times and I noticed how although there was a story there were specific acts throughout hte show. Some of those characters appeared once in a while and others were recurring, i.e. the "Stars" of the show.

I am looking at the acts from the following perspective:
1- The Ringmaster (Hallowhost) is the Narrator.
2- The Necromancer is the star of the Circus.
3- The Fire Eater Is the second in Command, and controls the giants
4- There should be some audience participation.
5-I want Distinct Acts to happen throughout the show.

Audience:

Few rules about the Audience:
1- No Kids. Seriously. Its unfair. Nuff said.
2- No Uber powerful members of the audience. There are specific exceptions to this but they should be planned.
3- Everyone loves a good show.

In a nut shell that is it. Now it is just a matter of gathering the miniatures to make this happen and getting them painted, Then Getting the terrain assembled.

Gruul Herd, of Owlbears?!

Gruul Herd, of Owlbears?!

I replaced most of my paints. That is what started this. I thought I would try out a lot of pro-paint colors but I wanted to go with a single brand. I chose Reaper. Unbeknownst to me this would send out a cascading flood of bonus miniatures.

Let's back up for a moment though. I chose reaper for one really simple reason. When I had made a previous order they had sent me an "Invisible Stalker" Miniature, which was an empty package labeled, yup, you guessed it, "Invisible Stalker". I still have it. It made me laugh.

I have tried several other companies' paints, But this was it. This was finally going to be my jump away from craft paints up to the next tier of paints. Mostly.

The other selections of paint that I may one day try are;  Vallejo, Army Painter, and P3 from Privateer Press. And even now I have a smattering of those in my repertoire. But craft paints are my great vice. I have used them for so long that I have become very accustomed to their unique profile. But I am weaning off of them.

I won't go back to GW as I hate their paint pots. The containers actually make it harder to paint. I have made the command decision that I don't need that kind of negativity in my life regardless of how much I like their models or the colors that they sell look like the beautiful essence they have wrung directly from a wild rainbow.

So, back to Reaper. Reaper was running a promotion for the new Black Bones".  So for every X dollars they would send you a new Black Bones Owlbear. Cool! And of course I had no idea.  None.

When I found a new gift in my order because along with the paints and I picked up a few more minis (of course I did, right?!).

So imagine my surprise when I saw a dozen owlbears. At first I thought Reaper was pranking me (See Above for Invisible Stalker package).

The immediate question, okay the immediate question after doing a quick google search to find out "why" I had all these owlbears was, "What am I going to do with a dozen owlbears?"

Now for those of you who have been keeping score what I am running, as far as games are concerned, right now I am:

1) NaK: Prepping to DM a sci-fi game using Cypher System rules we have nicknamed "NaK"

2) Ravnica:  Prepping 5E D&D Campaign set in Ravnica, Wizards MtG setting for D&D.  Which, incidentally, we nicknamed "Ravnica". We rock original thought around here.

So I figured I could do a cool "odd" paint job for one of them and have it appear in my sci-fi game. Then I would use all of them as a "herd" that the Gruul equivalent would herd from one part of the rubblebelt.(A rubblebelt is a section of the city that has fallen, and nature has begun to reclaim it.) to another part of the rubblebelt. Like really buff cowboys.

I thought that this might be a fine sight more interesting than bandits, as far as roadside encounters are concerned.

As I took on this project, I wanted to make the most of this and tried a few different techniques, which I do not normally use just to see what happened. Some are better than others, but that is how experimentation goes, amiright?

Long story short, below are the fruits of my labor including a few group shots next to a mirror so that you can see the owlbears' backs and the back of their wings.

The paint schemes were inspired by real birds, animated birds, my imagination, and the Minka, which is a really cool fictional bird whose color scheme I took cues from to make the Minka owlbear. I ran across the image while doing my research. Man, I love that image!

So without further ado... Below are the individual pics of the various species represented in the herd:

#1 Species: Blue Ray

#2 Species: Tundra Owlbear

#3 Species: Red Tailed Owlbear

#4 Species: Pandemonium Owlbear

#5 Species: High Septon Owlbear

#6 Species: Purple People Eater Owlbear

#7 Species: Sooty Owlbear

#8 Species: Hancock Owlbear

#9 Species: Druid's Friend Owlbear

#10 Species: Minka Owlbear

#11 Species: Oriole Owlbear

#12 Species: Great Gray Owlbear

Background Theme for Shdw Wars

Ravnica "City" Background

I am making a background for photos I take to upload to the internet.

I plan on using paint.dot net and printing the background image on a piece of cardstock paper.

This background is meant to be the default background for my Ravnica Campaign. At the same time, I don't want the image to scream "fantasy" much more than "science fiction" so that I can reuse the images. I would like it to be distinct though. I.E unlike I a lot of the sales photos that are out there. What I have close by is my IPhone, so that is what I will be using for this blog and too keep my costs from going to high.

Perhaps if things go well we can talk about enlisting someone who knows their ways around the photography space better than I.

I have settled on BG that goes from a light gray to a blue then to dark shadow of mottled loose crystals. I think it is going to be great. I plan on that background becoming my signature of sorts.