3D Printed Tomb Coffins

I printed out about a dozen coffins from thingiverse.com, specifically these damaged ones by DM_Emporium. There's also one with a zweihander sword on the lid but I can't find the link now.

The Mausoleum

A mausoleum is a large tomb, and I thought that having a bunch of coffins prepared could be used for my MEST Dunjon of Death genre as well as for the MEST Mythos one. Therefore, I  painted them similar to the color of the "blackstone" common to Dunjon of Death.

I'm using "Vincent Price", by Bob Murch from the Weird Menace pack at Pulp Figures, as a reference.

All the elements laid together.

A broken coffin atop a plinth.

Hmm. Seems like somebody didn't like coffins and rummaged through here while strewing them about. Could be werewolves. 

Maybe it didn't end well for the wampiri. 

MEST :: Sacrificing Mary

Overview

This was a short MEST Tactics session between two players within the Mythos genre. I used the opportunity to prototype a new scenario and kept the number of figures low.

Setting

The year is 1928 CE. Young Sister Mary has been selected by the Abbot of the Church of Divinity to be a vessel for the Outer God Yog-sothoth and has recruited members of his other "religious" following among the Cult of Charazon to forcefully take her. Among the aide to the Abbot is a local Crazy Cat Lady with psychic powers. Stern Sister Susan of the church has discovered this and wants to prevent Mary from being sacrificed and has initiated a rescue mission.

However, this information as to when and how to prevent such an occurrence is scattered across the Eastwick Village at five different locations. The Abbot and Sister Susan need to collect that information and either use it to summon Yog-sothoth or to defeat its arrival.

Play-aides

Provide 5 Objective markers [ OM ].

Layout

Arrange the buildings and terrain into the four corners of the battlefield. Place one OM at the center of the battlefield adjacent to a terrain element. Place one OM within each of the small buildings. Doors are unlocked, windows are locked. Opening a door, locking, or unlocking it is 1 AP each.

2' x 2' battlefield area

4 x small buildings
6 x walls and other terrain

Environ

Visibility OR 4; it is "Night, Full-moon".

Assembly

Each side receives just four models. Each side receives a model with a Light Revolver, and another model with a Light Source. For sake of simplicity, each receives another Light Revolver but "psychic" which behaves like an assigned weapon but doesn't need to be sculpted on the model.

The Church of Inner Divinity
Sister Maria receives a Light Revolver (30 BP), and Sister Primin receives a Basic Lantern (14 BP) with Light OR 6. Sister Mary receives a "psychic" Light Revolver (30 BP). Total 203 BP.

• Sister Susan 222|222|223
  Average Leader
  Leadership.
  39 BP.
• Sister Maria 222|222|223
  Average Shooter
  Shoot. Brawn.
  35 BP. 65 BP with Light Revolver.
• Sister Primin Proctor 222|222|223
  Average Brawny
  Brawn.
  34 BP. 48 BP with Basic Lantern.
• Sister Mary the Innocent 222|222|223
  Average Coward 222|222|223
  [Coward].
  21 BP. 51 BP with Psychic Light Revolver.

The Cult of Charazon
Spotty McGee receives a Large Basic Torch (14 BP) which is Light 6 (Flicker). Maury receives a Light Revolver (30 BP). The Crazy Cat Lady  receives a "psychic" Light Revolver (30 BP).Total 229 BP.

• Abbot Price 222|222|223
  Average Leader
  Leadership.
  39 BP.
• Spotty McGee 222|222|223
  Average Coward Cultist 222|222|223
  Insane.
  49 BP. 63 BP with Large Basic Torch.
• Maury
  Average Outsider 222|222|223
  [Solitary].
  27 BP. 57 BP with Light Revolver.
• Crazy Cat Lady
  Average Sneak 222|222|223
  Sneaky.
  40 BP. 70 BP with Psychic Light Revolver.

Deployment

Forces start within 8 MU of opposite corners of the battlefield, with the Cultist setting up first.

Victory Conditions

The game-length is 4 Turns. 

• Collection (+1 VP to most OMs collected)
• Elimination (+1 VP if have fewest KO'd or Eliminated models)
• POI (+1 VP if Sister Mary is in Cohesion of only Friendly model)

Start of Turn 1. The Abbot is at the top-left, and Sister Susan at the bottom-right.

This is the start of Turn 2. Sister Primin leads the exploration with Sister Susan and Sister Mary in tow. Abbot Price and Spotty McGee are out of LOS but not Hidden. The Crazy Cat Lady is in position to perform a "psychic Revolver" attack.

Another perspective. Maury is Distracted having run to the side of the house; his job is to acquire as many of the OMs as possible. Within the building at the right one of Objective Markers is seen under the fire-place.

A shot of the Crazy Cat Lady from Spotty McGee's perspective. Sister Primin is in the distance.

This is the start of Turn 3. Each of the buildings have interiors and their roofs are exposed. Many OMs are shown. Maury is at the bottom right, Sister Susan at the left, and Abbot Price at the top. Sister Primin is facing The Cat Lady and Sister Mary the Innocent is near by.

This is the end of Turn 4. Every one is Done and there's been some exchange of weapons fire. Sister Maria is Wounded, and so is Abbot Price and Sister Primin. Sister Mary the Innocent is in the house at the bottom. The Church of Divinity wins!

MEST :: Mythos ~ A Fungi from Yuggoth

Overview

Lord Malik is Defender. Prince Anton is Attacker.

This is a 1000 BP MEST 2.x scenario I played recently with my nephew and my brother. It is part of
the Mythos genre with a scenario name "A Fungi from Yuggoth". There's 10 models on each side, and so this qualifies as a "Large Battle" per the terminology used in the game. It resolved in about 2 hours, which isn't too bad for three players and that many minis.

The scenario is available for download at the MEST Tactics Google Site here;
https://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/downloads/8.5x11.mythos.migi-yuggo.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

The Situation

This is from the scenario background;

In the upper heights of Cairo, Lord Malik, wanted for murder, and his noviatiate cultists are at the Temple of Charon. They are attempting to signal a Mi-Go emmisary in order to establish a base within the area. Unbeknownst to them, one former cult member, very concerned by the turn of events after witnessing human sacrifice by Lord Malik, has warned the local constable. News got out to action-hero Prince Anton. He plus a reputable field scout from Britain by the name of Neil Dunsany the Third take with them 8 Ruga-ruga to investigate.

After Action Report

I'd say this was a very interesting turn of events. Neil Dunsany and 4 Ruga-ruga were controlled by my brother, and Prince Anton with the other 4 Ruga-ruga were controlled by my nephew. They split their forces at the frontage road before the Temple of Charon and started down the precarious terrain towards the Fountain where a Cultist with a Prayer Book is summoning the Mi-Go.

Visibility was 8" because it is Sunset, Clear. A model in Wait status allows LOS to be traced up to 24".

Lord Malik tried to stay away from Line-of-Sight but near the Fountain in order to control long-term Situational Awareness. His two Cultists with Shotguns took a high vantage behind some trees at either side of the corners near their battlefield edge in order to cover the lanes of fire coming towards the Temple grounds.

Four of the eager Cultists rushed towards a Ruined House in order to try and halt the on-coming Ruga-ruga. Two got KO'd. One of the Cultists, armed with a Semi-automatic Pistol, took to the partition wall near the Ruined House and the other went into a Tree Cluster across the way. 

Prince Anton rushed to the blind alley before the Ruined House and took some Reaction Fire from the Cultist at the Ruined House. He successfully ignored the Suppression marker and KO'd the Cultists in the Cluster.

At the other side of the battlefield, Neil and his Ruga-ruga made some way past the frontage road beyond the row of parked vehicles. There's ever so-little room for maneuver except across a large patch of Rough-going terrain. Across two precious Turns they moved towards a large outcropping of boulders while maintaining Hidden status.

Three Turns have passed, and there are two KO'd Cultists, and two Eliminated. One of the Ruga-ruga under control of Prince Anton got bloodthirsty. The constable will hear of this; it cost the Attacker about 90 BP. Not good. At this time, all of the Attackers have crossed the mid-line of the battlefield garnering them 1 VP, plus another for having downed the most BP worth of Opposing models.

However, the Defenders have completed their ritual and the Mi-go known as F4G2 arrives and sets up within 8" of the Defender's battlefield edge. It has Flight and Fear 2, plus it is armed with a Beam pistol. The arrvial of the Mi-go awards the Defender 1 VP. 

Now it is Attacker 2 VP vs. Defender 1 VP.

At the start of Turn 4, the Attackers have lost their Situational Awareness because they've divided their forces too much. The Defender's Lord Malik still maintains LOS to at least half his forces, and so wins the Initiative Test with 4 Initiative Points to Lord Anton's zero. Ouch.

As a result, there's an amazing firefight exchange with Lord Anton, and two Ruga-ruga near the Ruined house against two Cultists. Lord Anton goes KO'd and so does one of the Ruga-ruga. This awards the Defender 1 VP for the KO'd Grizzled Hero and another 1 VP for having the most Opposing models KO'd or Eliminated; Lord Anton is 260 BP ... so that was a big win.

Now it is Attacker 2 VP vs. Defender 3 VP.  My nephew was wailing at this point (he's just 10) but my brother insisted giving it a chance.

The only way for the Attacker to win is to either force Lord Malik's forces to Bottle (unlikely) or to take out the Mi-go. Unfortunately, the Defender still had one last remaining Initiative Point to spend and maneuvered the Flying Mi-go into range of Neil and two of his Ruga-ruga; all were in Hidden status. As a result, they repositioned out of Fear range though becoming Revealed. 

And here's the mistake. As its last Action Point, the Mi-go decided to gain some distance from them instead of using its feeble Beam Pistol (Damage is 2 + 2 Modifier dice). When the Initiative passed to Neil Dunsany, he rolled an amazing Range Hit Test with the Mi-go scoring zero successes. The same occurred for the Damage Test; the Grizzled Scout's Rifle does 5 Damage and the Mi-go became KO'd and fell from the sky.

Per the Victory Conditions, the Mi-go when KO'd awards the Attacker +1 VP. So it is 3 VP vs. 3 VP. However, the Mi-go is itself worth 285 BP which flipped the award for having the most Opposing models KO'd or Eliminated to the Attacker.

Final Score; Attacker 4 VP vs. Defender 2 VP.

It was a close game. Ended in 4 Turns.

The Photos

Alas, I forgot to take many pictures during the game-play but my brother did snap a few good overlooks on the battlefield.

View from the Neil Dunsany's perspective. That's a smoke beacon billowing at the left. There's a Cultist with a Shotgun in Wait status at the top-right tree. Neil and his fireteam needed to maneuver sharp-right across the Rough terrain because anything from the storm-cellar doors to the wall is in the LOF.

View from Lord Malik's perspective. This is one of two hills guarding the Fountain.

Mid-battlefield. The Ruined House has a lot of activity, with one the Cultists KO'd at the Tree Cluster. A Cultist with a prayer book is busy and needs two more Turns at summoning the Mi-go. He's got help, but they are falling quickly to the Ruga-ruga Soldiers coming down the side of the Temple.

Download

Direct download here

Scenarios Page here

Musings on Network Campaigns

I've been working on the "Of Cultists and Unspeakable Horrors" genre document which is a setting within the MEST :: Mythos genre. IIRC, it is the first setting that Aggro and myself played using his "Of Werewolves and Tesla Coils" setting nearly six years ago. That's where I started in this hobby.

Overview

Include here is a link to my Google Drive with what I've got thus far for the campaign book. The instructions on page i and page ii identify the basic flow of how to use the campaign book. This post continues from the Character Progression entry from last week.

There are several Campaign structures available to MEST. Each structure type has its advantages and disadvantages and as a result they should be applied according to the genre or setting. For example, the Mythos campaign use the Network Campaign structure. Here are the various structure types. In all the versions, the idea of character progression exists, but it is a feature attached to the campaign rules itself and not core. This means that the campaign rules could be used without the need to use the Champions rules.

• Free-form Campaigns. This is standard and is what most tabletop skirmish miniatures game resort to; its completely ad hoc. Play a Mission. Play another Mission. No prior Mission affects the current Mission. This is the simplest campaign structure with zero cognitive load; it's a "no-brainer".
• Exploration Campaigns. This is for the Zombies / Survivalist genre. I'll create another blog entry showing what I've got going thus far and link it back from here. It's really just a bunch of linked Missions like the Free-form Campaigns. But, it will have a layer of instructions for inventory control and time management in order to create tension. A variation of this would be what I'd use for the Dungeon of Death genre book; a bunch of dungeon bashing Missions connected by visits to Ye Olde Shoppe for supplies. Maybe also for Retropocalypse but where it could Vault explorations instead of, like, dungeons. It would be a tribute to the Fallout Shelter game.
• Influence Campaigns. This is the next in line for complexity. Imagine that a series of Missions as fought in Free-form Campaigns has the additional rule that whichever Faction was the Winner in the prior Mission receives a bonus in the current Mission. That's what Influence is, and the bonus is known as Elan. Influence Campaigns are a bit more varied and use a network graph displaying Locations with Connection lines going between them. Winning at one Location will provide an award at any other Location connected by those lines. 
• Network Campaigns. This is a step above the Influence Campaigns because it introduces different types of Locations and Connections. Each Location may also identify via icons for Resources, and bonuses for specific Factions which are fighting the Mission there.  Some Locations will have Gates that require that some other Location or icon be fought first. Winning the Mission at the Location awards the Resources which provide long-term benefits. As before, having a Controlled Location will award Elan to be spent at the connected Locations fought. With this arrangement of features, the Influence Campaigns lend to creating a sort of unfolding storyline.
• Map Campaigns. This is for the Victorian Sci-fi stuff. It is a deeper work-in-progress; trying to simplify. I've been working on this for quite a while now and I think that visually it looks really awesome but the added features though nice make this more of a strategy game. High cognitive load but lots of flexibility. Ideal for regimented play for 2-5 players.

Features of Network Campaigns

As mentioned before, for the Mythos campaign in the "Of Cultists and Unspeakable Horrors" setting, I'm building out the instruction set for Network Campaigns. There are 5 campaigns identified within the campaign book.

Features

The General features of the campaign are as follows:

1. Each campaign has a variable number of Missions from 3-6 and one that is 5-9. 
2. The players decide how they'll pursue each Mission within the campaigns. 
3. Basically the Campaign Attacker (there's an Campaign Initiative phase I don't identify here) picks a Location to Resolve. The Mission is fought at the place.
4. Except for the first Mission, each Mission has an Interim Period of 0-2 Weeks on the calendar since the last Mission in the Campaign. This is decided by vote from the players.
5. The Week decides such factors as Moon Phase, Weather, Wind, and Bonuses.
6. Each Location may have Resources that provide benefits to a player during the resolution of a Mission. Some Resources will unlock Strategic benefits.
7. Some Locations are Gated; they require that other Locations first become Resolved by fighting a Mission.
8. Presumably, Champions which acquire Strategic Skills will affect how each Location or each Week provides benefits to a player during game-play.

Campaign Network
Here's what a campaign looks like. This is the first one labeled "The Confrontation at Henley Woods". It allows for 3 to 7 Missions within the campaign.

The Confrontation at Henley Woods. Campaign.

Quick Network Tour
The routine is as follows; actual definitions are within the draft of the document.

1. At the start of the Campaign Turn, players decide who the Campaign Attacker is by rolling dice. There can be modifiers for this coming from what are known as Campaign Skills, and also from Resources (see below).
2. The Campaign Attacker then picks a Location - one of the named elements on the diagram above - and decides to have a Mission there. 
3. The small squares can't be picked yet because they are Dependent Locations which require whatever they are attached to be resolved first.  
4. It can't be "Bonney Shores" because the red outline prevents it from being accessed until all connected Locations are first resolved.
5. Therefore it will have to be the Location named "Henley Woods" for now. Once "Henley Woods" is Resolved, the Dependent Locations become available.
6. Notice the (?) question mark on "Bonney Shores". This means that at least one of the Dependent Locations must first be resolved before access to the "Bonney Shores" location is allowed.
7. Notice the Faction icons. The players of these Factions will receive a bonus of +1 Elan when fighting a Mission there. Elan does wonderful stuff and I'm still adjusting its flexibility. 
8. Notice the Resource icons; they are small, black and white. The one shaped like a skull is Lore and the masked one is Totem. The plus-sign is Medical and the yin-yang is Strategy. These provide different kinds of bonuses during the Campaign Turn, during a Mission, and during the Postmortem phase (new for Campaigns; injury, death, rescue).
9. Notice the Terrain icons. Both "Bonney Shores" and "Henley Woods" have 2 Groves and 1 Rock Formation for every 12" x 12" section of the battlefield. "Bonney Shores" has a shore-line, while "Henley Woods" instead has a causeway; either a road, river, or railroad tracks.

Calendar

This is a key feature of all of the campaign structures, especially for the Network Campaign types. With all five campaigns resolved, the total duration from start to finish is about 52 weeks or one entire year. 

This here is the start of the year and shows what players may encounter for environment and bonuses during the course of the "The Confrontation at Henley Woods" campaign. This takes place in the 1921 AD in the New England area from January 9th until February 22nd at the latest.

Calendar for "The Confrontation at Henley Woods".

Quick Calendar Tour
The calendar is used as follows; actual definitions are within the draft of the document.

1. Except for the first Mission of each Campaign, and the last Week of each Campaign; each player secretly votes to have an Interim Time of 0 or 1 Weeks. Votes are revealed and a the total must be 1-2 weeks; any 0 becomes 1 Week.
2. Players then write in the Mission number at the bottom of the Calendar as a reminder. 
3. Notice the bottom row labeled "Bonus". You can see some strategy here in picking the Interim Time. The Agency and Amateur factions within this setting may want to pick January 17th or 30th because there are no bonuses here. Where as the Cultists factions may want to pick January 9th or February 7th.
4. Notice the Moon phases. Each week has one of the phases. This allows Cultist factions to perhaps pick those weeks that have the best chance for Night Missions because many of the Mythos creatures will have the Night-vision trait. Everybody else will need to carry lanterns and torches for lighting.
5. Notice the Weather. Its Snow for the majority of the weeks in January and February. There some Overcast skies on January 30th and February 15th.
6. Notice the Wind. This is only critical if Smoke or Gas grenades are used. Really windy with a +3 Wind level on January 9th. It can be seen that February 15th has Mud in effect and +2 Wind. Later in the year, it can be seen on March 16th there is Heavy Fog.

To Do

There's always a lot to do. It takes a lot of effort and lots of time to craft this stuff.

1. Each Campaign has one Finale Location which identifies a Scenario. These are Mission descriptions specific to the Campaign and should be clever and thematic. I need to write them.
2. The pages i and ii of the draft document are just summary pages. I'll write the general campaign rules into the Campaign Rules section of the MEST book. Then I'll extract them into the genre book.
3. I need to spec out Recruitment Lists and finish the Faction rules. Almost ready.

Shadows of Brimstone - Speed Painting WIP

I bought the Shadows of Brimstone swamp set a few months ago but never got around to painting any of them. The game itself seems like a great buy with tons of minis, cards, tiles and tokens but I have yet to play.
Be warned though, assembling the plastic minis was mind numbing. I have put together other plastic minis before, but for some reason these were pretty rough.
I used multiple layers of watered down white glue as an easy way to fill in the numerous gaps. 
My approach to painting these was sort of a rough sketch concept, quick and dirty but with (hopefully) interesting blended colors. I quickly got the paint down and added highlights inks and powders.
For the effort I made, I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

These things were orange at one point. Now they look more green and purple.

Tentacles!

Old west zombies!!!!

Bat Things! (these didn't photo very well)

The lot so far.

I still have the heroes and a huge night gaunt looking creature to go!
Hopefully I'll get them done sooner than later.

Finished Brigade Games Models

Well, at least I thought they were finished. After I took pictures of them, I saw a thing or two, here and there, that I'd like to touch up on a few of them. Small stuff so I will not rephotograph the changes.

More Hillbillies

Yet another WIP.
These fellows will be nice for Retropocalypse games as well as Cthulhu games.
I tried to give them a sickly grey "Color Out of Space" look.

Brigade Games WIP's 09/21/2012

Manged to get a little more work done.
As per the usual, they fellows need some touch-ups and basing.

More Hybrids

Tong Gangsters

WIPs various genres

I finally managed to get a little painting in this week. I started painting mini's from my Brigade games order. These all need a little touch up and final basing. I felt very rusty painting these.

Hybrids

VSF Heroes

Gangsters

Gangsters

A Fun Days Gaming With Crap Photos.

I made the trip to Game Kastle in Santa Clara today for a few games with Kitrok.

We had a good time. We played a mythos game (agents vs. cultist) and a swashbuckler game using my GW Mordheim figures.  The shop was really busy as there was a Warhammer 40k tournament going on and everybody had their new 6th Edition rules.

I was distracted by all of the hub bub. Plus, several folks came up and asked a lot of questions about what we were playing, which is a good thing.  So I forgot to take pictures, and the ones I did take were generally out of focus crap, which is a bad thing.

We played the Treasure Hunt scenario both times with Objective markers.

In the mythos game, Kitrok and I both managed to collect 2 objectives each. The last objective was on top of an old ruin in the center of the board. It was too well guarded by both sides for either of us to snatch it. I eventually won the game when Kitrok failed a bottle test. Still, it was a pretty neck and neck game.

Sadly. this is the only photo of the second game. I pretty much mopped up the floor with Kitrok on this one.