Repurposing Clix II

Not much time recently but this is what I've got.  Aggro84 suggested that I dry-brush the primed models with gray and now that I've done that a lot of the details come out.  I suppose the next step is to use the highlighting cues from the dry-brushing to help determine where color goes.  I hope that the dry-brushing effort doesn't get lost under the new coats of paint.

The Wargs on the right.

Brawlers in the front.

Supers on the left.

Repurposing Clix

Busy Busy Busy

This is one of my newest projects.

About two years ago I received for about $10.00 USD around 500 Clix figures; Mechwarrior, Mage Knight, and HeroClix. I also received a mix of D&D Minis for another five bucks. I've been anxious to re purpose them for my own needs.  Since that time I've weeded out about half of the Mage Knight and HeroClix figures.  I've not touched the Mechwarrior figures.  One really cool thing about the Clix figures is that the majority of them are very cheap to get in bulk.  A low-end figure may cost about $0.25 USD and if repainted it can serve as a minion figure. Just a note for the curious; some of the unique Clix stuff out there is crazy expensive like this Arkham Asylum Batman on a post figure that is around $125.00 USD;

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/hcaka-099.html

The WIP Pics

Here's what I've got in the works.  This is about 50 figures that I'll slap-dash for use with my modern and supers genres among other things.

My spider mob.  These will useful to try out
rules dealing with hordes.  If that works well
then I'll get some zombies.

Some of the HeroClix.  Poor Wolverine dinna make it;
I tried using his arms on another figure but
the glue didn't take. This soft-plastic stuff
is just too oily.

More of the HeroClix.  You can see US Agent's arm
and shield upon ? Blockbuster.  Sad lot.  Anyhow it
can be seen that I've rebased the figures on fender
washers.  Metallic fender washers ...

I created these a while back.  They are magnets glued to
dowels on a stick.  Since I base my figures on those
metallic fender washers they stick in place when I
apply primer spray.  Favorite color? Black.

Here's a close-up of one of the stands.  I've got
space to hold 21 figures.  So I've got a lot of work
ahead.  And there's many more figures in old boxes.

Here is the spider horde ready for color. 16 total.

Here's my wargs ready for color. 10 total.

Here's my Clix figures; mostly supers. 50 total.

Here's my 40mm figures. 6 total.
Two of these are Mage Knight Blade Golems.

Here's my 120mm figure. 1 total.
This is a Fomorian Giant from D&D Minis.

Here's my 50 mm figures. 3 total.
These are Craals from D&D Minis.

My precious Berserk Flesh Golem from D&D Minis
that aggro84 painted for me looks on
approvingly. He yells "Let's paint!"

MEST Update

Layout Changes and Rules Update

I've re-arranged some of the widgets to make the downloads available; that is now with a big red title bar at the right-side of this blog post.

Particularly of interest for some people would be the new Retropocalpyse "post-apoc" genre documents that we recently used at PacifiCon 2013.  Some explanations for the play-aides and how to use them are shown with the origin listing via the Google Sites page.  Anyhow that stuff is to the right.

Also to the right are the character cards that I used for the Fantasy Gladiator demo.  These are mapped to the Papo and Schleich 1:18 scale (90mm) figurines that I placed upon 3-inch diameter bases.

NOTE: I created a few updates to the MEST Basic Game rules in order to prepare for this post.  The furious editing ("debugging") I've been doing to the basic rules has quieted down a bit now since I had to scramble so much for the recent gaming convention. I think agrro84 and myself can probably move forward and begin consolidating and debugging the Advanced Game rules from all of the notes that I've got; some of which is laid out on the Google Groups site for MEST Tactics.  Most of this come through as we build out the aforementioned Retropocalypse genre document.

PacifiCon 2013 Noble Pursuits pictures

I see that aggro84 already beat me to throw-ups for PacifiCon 2013, but I'll just add my shots here.  I'm actually a worse photographer than he is but these pics need to go somewhere!

Fantasy Gladiator Arena

After the MEST Tactics Groups member ssendam asked me about setting up a tutorial or introductory scenario I got the idea to build an arena.  The goal was two-fold; the first was to have something that I could lug around that looked visually impressive.  I could bring these bits to a gaming convention for example.  The second goal was to have some figures and terrain that I could use to conduct training sessions. 

So, @sssendam, I will eventually answer your request with a video or HTML5 animation!  Work-in-progress gentlemen; this stuff takes time. =)

For those who want to know more about these figures, see my earlier posts.  These are Schleich and Papo figures.

Spartan vs. Cyclops

Gladiator vs. Northerner.

Roman vs. Egyptian

 As a side-note on the gladiator display; we used it as a quick and easy visual grab for new-comers.  The idea was that we'd use the arena to explain the basic game mechanics before migrating players into the main game.  Some people that signed up for the Retropocalypse event (basically a "Wasteland" or "Fallout" scenario) had thought I was doing a switcheroo on them.

Retropocalypse Board One

We set up two 48" x 60" boards for the Retropocalypse events.  This first board focused on a rural town; much more like Cormac McCarthy's bleak "The Road".  I think that thematically it wasn't what people expected because the imagery from Fallout and Wasteland is much more like a desert town than something rural.  Next time we'll just ditch the mid-west rural towns and go all Southwestern.

Retropocalypse Board Two

This is the board that we ran our games on.  We ran a session in both of the 4-hour blocks.  Each player chose an assembly of 4-6 characters.  Here's a sample of what they look like at this link.  I prepared a lot of hand-out materials for the game.  Each attendee to our games received a saddle-stapled copy of the plain basic rules (via here), a mission brief introducing new weapons and traits for the Retropocalypse genre, a faction card, and several character cards.  I'll create another blog post and introduce these assets more properly later.

I think this is from the first game session.

The long strip of road in the middle makes
for a crazy barrier that few would cross seeing
that it would be sort of suicidal.

Long view of that same road.

Those familiar with our rules would know that we
emulate the UK gamers and use measuring sticks.
Very useful to get range and direction at one time.

Yep. That's about 8".

Those tokens with the stars are Objective Markers.
aggro84 will try to get prettier stuff painted up for these
in the near future.  When an OM is touched it is removed
and the player gets to draw a Resource Card that
can confer intragame benefits.

Whee! I got one!  Not a good position to be
in even though behind Hard Cover.

A.J. Smithson of the Vault Dwellers is an Elite
with a Heavy Machine Gun.  Nasty even without
using the Fire-lane benefits.

Miscellaneous

This is Mike O'Brien's Dust Warfare/Tactics battlefield.  It had 8 players and 4 GMs. The table was 24 feet long.  He is not affialiated with Noble Pursuits but the guy is legit.  He informs me that the flying saucer at the center are two ski-pads glued together.  I saw it close up; the smoke plumes are lit by flickering electric votive candles.  A very nice effect.

From Mike O'briens vantage looking down-range.

Looking across.

Banner Stand

We placed this custom-made banner and stand next to our tables.  Unfortunately for us our tables were next to the vendor booths and more than once I had people asking me if we were selling anything.  Also, I didn't figure that the lighter airy design would fade into the walls at a distance.  I think for the next `Con I'll chose stronger colors and more contrast.

Sample Retropocalypse Cards

Here are a few of the cards we used for our Retropacalypse game at Pacificon.
There are a few mistakes here and there.  When they are corrected, maybe we can make them available for download.

Kitrok really did a nice job on these.

Hillbillys

Survivors

My Crumby Pics from Pacificon-08-31-2013- Santa Clara, California

Noble Pursuits Tables

I was busy running games at yesterday's PacifiCon in Santa Clara California so I forgot to take a lot of pics.
The ones I did take were pretty rushed with very few close ups.

The Fantasy Gladiator Demo. As previously shown on the blog, these figs are European pre-painted toys that Kitrok based up. They are about 3' tall on average and really captured peoples attention.

A close up with the models and their cards.

I should have taken a few more pics.

Retropocalypse Board 1

Board 1

Board 2

Board 2

A Red Army Group and their cards.

In game shot with a KO'd cultist armed with a flame thrower. Kitrok was up late the night before making a ton of burn markers that never got used.

In Game shot.

Another in game shot of a four player game.

This side of the board saw a lot of gritty up close action with a wave of angry mutant-billys charging a Survivor group.

A wounded Hillbilly croc mutant.

In game.

Towards the end.

A mutant-billy gets in close with a Survivor.

Darkest Africa

A fun looking Darkest Africa game ran by a nice
chap (Ronald Vaughan) at the table next to ours.

Good use of aquarium terrain

I wish I had time to walk around and take more pics of other games being played.

This was my second convention and the first time helping run a game at a convention. There were some obvious hiccups as Kitrok and I were first timers, but I am calling it a successful day. For the most part, we seemed to have generated a lot of interest in the rules.

Kitrok and I learned a lot, and I think things will run much smoother and be a lot more fun for the players next time.