Latest Paint-ups

Overview

Just before winter break I had a chance to set up a painting workstation in my living room and took to painting as many figures as I could in order to reduce my back-log. I think I was able to paint about 60 figures. I've got probably another 200 in my boxes.

Part of my problem is that I'm trying to do quite a bit. Just in terms of MEST Tactics I'm trying to cover at least 6 established genre between myself an Aggro; Retropocalypse, Gothic Horror, Mythos, Dark Fantasy, Dunjon of Death, and Victorian Sci-fi. Between  myself an him we've got enough but there's always more to build out.

Excuses

Additionally, for those who follow this blog I'm concurrently working on several other game systems and features;

MEST Campaigns + Character Progressions, Barbarian Suns v4 (BSv4), Superhero 2044 Second Edition Revised (SH44SER), Mech, Beast, and Infantry (MBI), and quite a few more in the skunk-works or those with low-priority such as Sarna-len Role-playing Game, Giant Robots of World War II, Hemo Rage (MEST zombies), and Cold Steam Empires (MEST Campaign setting + VSF ship battles).

Gallery

Here's just a bunch of quick pics. I'm a lousy photographer and I'm just using my Android camera with three light sources. Some of the figures show up shiny but that's because I didn't get to re-spray them with low-gloss finish.

I've added captions to show more context. So here they are in no particular order of presentation.

My Ruga-ruga for Victorian Sci-fi. I plan to get some Askari and Zulus as well. My British Colonials are currently work-in-progress. All of them together will be low-fantasy, but I intend to get some steampunk figures for the named figures once I finish the main bulk.

I purchased Reaper Mouslings about 3 or so years ago. I finally got to paint two of them.

These are my newly painted Mythos cultists. Some are shiny-glossy; I'll need to re-spray them flat. The two with the yellow is my attempt at representing a light-source.

All of my Mythos cultists together. I think I have another 5 in the back-log. I also have 5 cult-leaders which are on the workbench.

My nuns. I think they are Mythos nuns. The color is historically correct for "Blue Nuns"

Some VSF clock-work soldiers.

Some Mageknight repaints. Dark Fantasy genre.

My Celts for Dark Fantasy, which I can use for Dunjon of Death.

One of my Mi-go.

Both Mi-go and a human figure for scale.

A Dungeons & Dragons repaint with a human for scale.

All of my Deep Ones for Mythos. The three new ones are those armed with weapons. That Reaper Bathalien can be used as a cult-leader for the Deep Ones, or be used in Dark Fantasy as a per se mind-flayer.

Some dakka-dakka stuff I got at the flea-market. These can serve as my Retropocalyse Vault warriors and also be used for VSF as steampunk soldiers.

More Mageknight repaints.

The two on the left are repaints. The one on the right is from Pulp Figures. These three form part of my Mythos Amateurs faction. 

A few more repaints. Again part of the Mythos Amateurs. I can also introduce them into the Derring-do genre (1920's). I think the one on the left actually is Marvel's Juggernaut figure from HeroClix.

Two more repaints. I can use these in VSF as well.

Preparing for Mech, Beast, and Infantry - Part II

Mech, Beast, and Infantry

I've got the rules for Mech, Beast, and Infantry v0.39 [ MBI ] posted on the Delta Vector forums. I'll be updating it soon before posting here; I'll do this after another play-test to ensure the game flow is correct. In the meanwhile, enjoy some progress pictures!

The Pictures

Here's my suite of assets I've assembled for MBI. The figures are based on 30MM fender washers. I'll need to primer them and then do enough for table-top quality. The models are from MechWarrior Clix and from Dropzone Commander. I've got four from the Robo-tech game as well.

I think I have 30 buildings. Some require their top walls to be decorated. All of them are from Hawk Games.

These are the objective markers. They'll count as terrain as well.

My mechs. The four in the back are from Robotech. The remainder are from Mechwarrior Clix.

Overview of my collection. The snake monsters are the size of a medium mech. I think they're from Mageknight Clix or something.

Bonus Actions in Action

Here's a sample 2 vs. 2 battle between some hapless investigators (an Agent and a Mystic) and two Deep Ones to demonstrate how the use of the Bonus Actions feature in MEST makes for dynamic battles.  I've decided to keep the dice rolling for determining which side gets the Initiative and how well the dice score out of the examples so that we can show the results of the combat tests.

Turn 1: Begin. Deep Ones have the Initiative.

Fish-eater Charges in and gets free Close Combat
Attack. Also receives bonus for cornering target.
This will be a Concentrated attack.

Fish-eater scores just a single Wound against the
Agent and is done. Foolishly, did not use a Bonus
Action and so maintains position. Agent passes
Morale Test; therefore no Fear tokens assigned.

Agent performs a Concentrated Attack with Pistol
in Close Combat Hit Test (it has Melee trait) and
succeeds! It uses the Bonus Action "Disengage"
and moves back.

Agent scores a Wound against the Deep One for the
Damage Test and is done.  Characters are typically
allowed at most a single Bonus Action for each AP.

The second Deep One Charges the Mystic and
receives a free Close Combat Action with the charge
bonuses.  Note the position of the Deep One will not
provide the Cornered bonus against the Mystic.

The Deep One uses the Bonus Action "Push" to move
the Mystic towards the Agent.  During its Damage
Test no Wounds were scored against the Mystic.

Now it's the Mystic's activation and it does a
Mind Blast which takes 2 AP.  For the Hit Test it
succeeds and uses the Bonus Action "Reversal" to
switch positions with the Deep One.  The Mystic fails
to score any Wounds for the Damage Test.

Turn 2: The Investigators have the Initiative.

The Agent opens fire with a Concentrated Attack with
full ROF.  It is of course penalized -1 Modifier die
for being Wounded.  The Fish-eater is KO'd. 
Player opts to not use a Bonus Action here because
the Agent is in the ideal position to set up a
Flanking penalty against the Deep One.

The remaining Deep One's activation. Another
Concentrated Attack that succeeds! Deep One
employs the Bonus Action "Reversal" as well and gets
out of the potential Flanking situation. 
Damage Test comes next ...

The Deep One succeeds in causing a Wound against
the Mystic.  For the Morale Test, the Mystic fails by 1
and so receives a single Fear token.

On the Mystic's activation, the player decides to
give his Agent character a clear LOS to the Deep One
so that the Friendly Fire rules won't take effect.
Mystic is Done for the Turn.

Turn 3: Things look grim for the Investigators. 
The Deep One player receives the Initiative.

Surprise!  The Deep One player goes after the Mystic!

Needless to say; the picture says it all. 

The Deep One utilizes the Bonus Action "Reposition"
after scoring a KO on the Mystic to move into
base-contact with the Agent.  This provides the
Cornered penalty against the Agent when it activates.
Combined with the Agent's Wound token it will be
penalized 2 Modifier dice.

However, upon activating, the Agent player succeeds
in its Hit Test even with those penalty dice!  It uses
the Bonus Action "Reversal" to once again switch
positions with the Deep One.  As can be seen; these
Bonus Actions certainly make the play-field
very dynamic.

 

The Agent scores 2 Wounds against the Deep One during
the Damage Test and is done for the Round.

Turn 4: A duel to the death! The Deep One player
again receives the Initiative. It is Cornered and
will be penalized. No penalty dice are received for
being Wounded as both characters have
Wound tokens.

The Deep One succeeds in the Hit Test and uses the ever
popular Bonus Action "Reversal"; the Agent is again
put into the corner next to the wall.

For the Damage Test, the Deep One scores an additional
Wound upon the Agent character. 
Time for a Morale Test!

Agent fails the Morale Test by 2 misses and so it
receives 2 Fear tokens.  This makes the Agent
become disordered and it must immediately perform
a Disengage action and move away from its opponent.

The Agent succeeds in passing the test for the
Disengage action and moves off the board. 
The Deep Ones win! 

Introducing MEST Tactics

The interminable investigators.

The crafty cultists.

Welcome!
Welcome to the blog for a new tabletop gaming rules system that has been in development for nearly two years.  It's the MEST Tactics rules system.  MEST is the acronym for 'matter, energy, space, and time'; the measurable properties of the known universe!  MEST Tactics [ here now MEST ] was designed to be a universal set of narrative-scale gaming rules.

It is universal because it can be applied to multiple genres ranging from science-fantasy down to 'swords-and-sandals' fantasy.  It is narrative-scale because it can be played with just a handful of miniatures; between 6-12 models for each player in a standard game of 750 BP [ Build Points ].

Features
Some of the key features include a unique dice-pool mechanic designed to limit the number of six-sided dice used, a short but comprehensive actions list, quick-play, opposed rolls for action resolution, reasonably modeled combat attrition with morale, bonus actions, and stream-lined force composition.  Characters are rated in six standard attributes and with an average of 2 traits apiece.  Weapons are assigned to a character depending on its model's sculpt but some weapons and equipment can be acquired free of cost as long as they are uniquely assigned.

Design Goals 
The goals of the game design process were to take the best aspects of other widely available narrative-scale games and distill them to their essences.  The resultant system needed to provide players with enough variety of decisions to make each session interesting.  It needed to handle ranged combat and close combat in a universal manner which could be applied to both black-powder societies as well as to future-wars.  It had to be consistent enough in its design that it should be easy to generate character templates, weapons, equipment, and mission situations.  For example, the same rules for modeling an average human equipped with a bow should be able to model a giant robot equipped with a beam weapon, or maybe a fearsome Lovecraftian horror armed with tentacles.

The Game Play
The player that wins the initiative check at the start of each turn decides who goes first. Depending on the amount of success ('casacades'), that player who goes first may be able to activate 1, 2, or more models. Activation then alternates one model at a time.  Models are provided 2 AP [ Action Points ] each to spend on various actions such as move, attack, hide, detect, suppression fire (if using rate-of-fire weapons), or even to rally themselves or others. Characters may be pushed to get and extra AP now at the cost of being 'delayed' to receive less AP at the start of its next activation.  

Opposed tests are used for both the to-hit and the to-damage tasks; players compare their test scores which are a character attribute plus their dice scores.  The winner of to-hit test scores 'successes' which may 'cascade' into the damage test; increasing the number of dice thrown.  Cascades from damage tests cause wounds to the defending character which becomes KO'd [ 'knocked-out' ] should it receive too many.  So far this is standard fare for a narrative-scale game.  What is interesting is that the attacking character receives one bonus action to use immediately after either successful test.  More so interesting is that the defender may opt to counter-strike and immediately resolve the damage test if the attacker failed to score successes for the hit test ... and receive its own bonus action should that test succeed!

More Information
MEST Tactics is still in the development phase.  There are plans to expand it into many genres; some have already been experimented with.  The good news is the the core rules [ 'MEST.narrative.pdf' ]  have been very stable and are available for play-testing now.  All other files - works-in-progress - are hosted at the MEST Tactics Web site and are ready for download here.

Enjoy!