cawatrooper

Bones V was my first Kickstarted I've ever backed. I think I did okay for myself.

Finally got to meet again! The heroes escaped the collapsing flagship, but not before some strange clawed creatures that had escaped from the biolabs ambushed them in the hallway. After escaping on one of the orcas in the biolabs, they made their way to shore, where a horde of undead was attacking. A massive battle ensued, with the heroes fighting their way through the tide and up the beach as the waves tossed more undead onto the shore. Using the barricades as choke points and relying on the growing pile of corpses to create a difficult climb for the attackers, the heroes held their ground. Eventually the barae Kwalu arrived. He used necromantic tech on his suit to deactivate the undead in his army, and surrendered, citing the destruction of the automaton army as an insurmountable defeat in his campaign. His terms were simply that the heroes let him leave, and he'd give him the gauntlet that could disable the undead. However, he made an offer to Maylin- join him in Hisari, and reunite with Sylhanna to help overthrow Ras Nsi. Kwalu had plans of his own, apparently! Maylin laughed away the offer (tbf, this DM was really tired at that point, and he might not have made the best case for himself). Regardless, Kwalu kept up his end of the deal, and handed the gauntlet to Maylin, also showing her how the team could use it to contact him in the future. Next week- a slightly homebrewed one shot from the new Candle Keep book, as we rejoin H'om, Robin, and Sledge in their quest to recruit mages on the Sword Coast for False Mezro's army.

Just riffing off of some of the Bones V stuff as I wait for it, here's what I'd like to see for Bones 6 (some are also obviously riffing on the general discourse, too)... Dungeon Defilers Rather than something like the Dungeon Delvers that we got in 5 (which itself is neat), I'd like to see a Dungeon Defilers expansion that focuses specifically on being a great entry point to pick up a ton of classic mobs for beginning DMs of lower level games (goblins, skeletons, wolves, boars, bugbears, spiders, etc). I know that the past DD did some of this, but I think a focus on enemies rather that PCs would be nice. Inhuman Townsfolk I'm actually really excited for the townsfolk add on in V. There aren't many models that necessarily stand out in it, but I honestly like that- I just want bodies to throw together to make a town, not everyone has to be striking a dramatic pose. But in a lot of our games, towns aren't solely inhabited by human folk- so I'd love to see an expansion that focuses on some elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings- and even some of the rarer races, like tieflings, goblins, orcs, etc. Maybe even an undead butcher, for those of us that throw really bizarre games. Egypt and Norse Much like we got the Daimyo and Greek expansions, I'd like to see an Egyptian and Norse themed one, too. However, with one caveat- I wouldn't mind the Egyptian one doubling as some crossover into Chronoscope, with mythological and ancient elements meeting some units with a modern and pulpy feel. I'd love to have some Egyptian terrain pieces too (though to try to stem the meme here, I don't want a pyramid) Terrain Expansion A full expansion (bigger than Brinewind Extras) that deals specifically with useful setpieces- an alter, some ladders, cart, tables, the usual fare. Maybe a ruined 2 story building (strategically blasted apart for easy access to top and bottom floors) as the centerpiece of the expansion. Cavalry Expansion All mounted units! You get maybe a dozen mounted knights, some goblins on wolves or spiders- maybe some weirded stuff like halflings on spiders or elves on raptors. I guess this isn't so much inspired by anything in Bones V as just kind of filling a much needed niche. The Astral Sea Can Reaper do stuff with the Gith? I'm sure they might have to use another name, at least, but I'd imagine that WOTC can't have a full lockdown on space elves. Much like Brinewind and Dark Depths focus on the high seas, this would focus on the higher ones. This would be a great opportunity to bring in a lot of models that tread that very exciting area between sci-fi and fantasy (or space opera, I'm sure you all have very good and exclusively right opinions on what that constitutes). Encounters Honestly, just bring them back. They were such a cool part of Bones V! I like the ones that tell a story, but also include terrain pieces that are both useful and genuinely beautiful- the Ravenholm one, or the Dwarf Crypt, for instance (though honestly, I think just about all of them in Bones V benefit from that- they're really well done!). If I had to invent some specific encounters I'd like to see, I'd say that sticking with some of the fantasy tropes is a good way to do this- maybe something like a hero rescuing a victim from a goblin tribe's pyre, a gladatorial fight with arena hazards and a chariot, orcs ambushing a small wagon train, and beleagured soldiers holding off against some enemy (gnolls?) in besieged ruins. The Big Guy We had the barge, then the ship, and next the lighthouse whale well, we don't know what next. Personally, I find the idea of a whale to be pretty boring (though great as a meme), and a lighthouse is fine (I think it's clear I enjoy terrain) but not particularly necessary. So what next? Well, personally I think we could use a full tarrasque. I know we have Khanjira, and I've considered picking it up, but I can't help but feel that a tarrasque could be done better to scale than that. And if not... well, why not take the Kaiju Chaos idea (itself pretty small in V) and give us a truly enormous Kaiju? Or mix it in with the next Great Old One mini and give us a truly terrifying cosmic horror?

Man, some of these are what I was looking forward to most in Bones 4 store releases (I missed the KS, and was just lucky enough to get in on the Lost Valley expansion overstock orders). Mossbeard, Thunderfoot, Blacktooth, Dragon Turtle, Argent, Nyarlathotep... was really looking forward to all of those, especially for my Chult campaign!

We've been distancing since October, but we're all vaccinated now and ready to meet again! Regular play will commence either this weekend, or the one after. I made up this short video to recap last year's adventures and to play us into our new ones. Unfortunately, our last session in October was one session away from the end of an arc, so it's once again kind of awkward timing, but that just means our return is marked by the potential of an epic fight! Since I last updated, the players checked in with a one shot as the Bundreon agents they'd dispatched to Thay. We then returned to their regular characters, who had chosen to take Acererak's portal to Maylin's apothecary-centered home island of Eshelthes, in the Moonshae archipelago. There, the dark bara Kwalu, also known as the Surgeon of Steel, had besieged the island city with large metal cruisers and galleons full of undead. The heroes worked with the local government, the alchemical Seafoam Society, and the Jade Razor trading post to form a plan to infiltrate Kwalu's flagship valance and disrupt the dish atop it that may facilitate control of the automatons aboard his ships. They used dolphins to sneak up to the flagship, a mile offshore. Aboard, they rescued Maylin's brother, father, and a local masked folk hero known as The Draught. After some sneaking, they battled their way to the bridge, taking on wooden and metal automatons alike. While Bravura and The Draught held off incoming automatons on the bridge, Maylin and Akrothma headed to the roof to disable the relay dish. There, they faced off with Kwalu, though he flew away after taunting Maylin with the fact that her daughter Sylhana had been taken to the Yuan Ti capitol of Hisari. So yeah... I really cannot wait for the next session! It's been so long! If there's some silver lining, it's that Bones V should be here relatively soon. Could definitely put those minis and set pieces to good use as this campaign approaches the end of the second act.

I've been trying to keep an eye out, but anybody see any news on this since?

I saw in a recent Pledge update that we are instructed to close out our pledges as soon as possible. This is my first ever Kickstarter, so I'm a little confused what that means. Here's what I've done so far- -Pledged to get into the pledge manager. -Over the next few months, added in more money as I select more items that I wanted. -As of now, I have no unspent money in my pledge, and all items I want ordered. Is there anything left I need to do, or am I good now?

Minor Spoilers for Tomb of Horrors In the aftermath of the battle, the council of False Mezro split up into several different teams, each with various goals to try and accomplish to stop Ras Nsi's machinations across all of Toril (and beyond). As the survivors of False Mezro spread to the winds, the PCs elected to remain on Chult and investigate the Tomb of the Nine Gods to learn more of Chult's history, and see if they could find wisdom from the ancient trickster deities. Though in the spot of the Tomb of the Nine Gods in Omu, I instead ran a modified version of the Tomb of Horrors that we've been playing for the last few weeks. Inside, they found a rival Barae- Fipya, the Laughing Inquisitor- Acererak having been defeated by the old Barare during the Death Curse long ago. The first Four-Armed Gargoyle The "Siren" encounter- toxic myst replaced by Zombies, and Siren herself replaced by a Chwinga (which I got earlier that day printed from one of my players, so was not painted yet) The Falce Acererak encounter. I added in a little "It's a Small World"-esque ride puzzle in the hall leading to him to up the cheese factor. I replaced the "Pillared Throne Room" with a four elements puzzle that was a lot of fun- lots of mixing of puzzle solving with combat, as the PCs tried to stem the four outer elementals from feeding into the large conglomerate elemental in the center. Trapped by Fipya "The Laughing Inquisitor" in the final boss fight. After killing the once Barae Fipya and escaping her trap, the PCs found a portal on the far wall, the Oculus of Omu. There, they found it led to where they desired to go, flipping back and forth as their whims took control. They saw friends, family, allies, enemies, duty... places all over the planes that they needed to go and save from Ras Nsi's plans. But they could only go one place. And so now, they must choose.

If you're just looking for the miniatures, the Hero and Monster packs aren't a bad deal. There are nine of them, and honestly they contain some of the more interesting figures in the game, at a lower price than the boxed expansions. Lets you pick and choose a bit more, too. In my campaign, I play with a lot of Descent and Reaper mixed together. The thing about Descent is that the scale fluctuates a lot within the game itself! For instance, the Dwarf Krutzbeck is arguably twice as big as the dwarf from the core box (Grisbane the Thirsty). I guess Reaper sees a bit of size creep back and forth too, but if scale is important to you then Descent might not be your thing. Also, some of the monsters feel a bit small for what they are. I mean, Reaper gets criticized for how small their giants are sometimes, but they still dwarf the Descent 2E giants.

I know a lot of people (including myself) have used the Descent 2nd edition to supplement their miniature collections. In fact, outside of Imperial Assault (basically Star Wars Descent), this was my first modern foray into miniature painting before getting bitten by the Reaper bug. So, it's definitely exciting to see a new project like this being teased! I'm not sure if I'll get it, since I've barely played the actual game of Descent. I'm more into the minis for use in 5E, and between ALL of Descent, Reaper, Nolzurs, the DnD board games, and especially a big order of Bones V coming next year... I'm not sure this will bring much to the table that I don't already have a ton of. But it's still exciting to see a product so meaningful to me get new life in this!

It's been a bit since I last updated, so storywise a lot has happened. For simplicity's sake, let's just say the players have found themselves in the midst of a large battle! It was a heck of a session. Outside the gates of False Mezro Inside the gates. Rank and file troops are from the GOT Battles for Westeros board game, map tiles are Arkenforge. The catapult in the background, as well as the ballistas, are Wizkids. More inside the gates. In the background, you can see the Firefinger signal tower (changed a bit from the standard lore). Sallying forth out of False Mezro to deal with magical sappers. This served as the battle's "minimap". The minis are the "good" batallions, meeples are the "bad" batallions and ships sailing on the River Olung. Game board is from the GOT Battles for Westeros Baratheon expansion, minis are various including Reaper, meeples are from Cyclades and GOT 2nd edition. Outside the gate, the PCs' batallion suffered a charge from enemy cavalry, supplemented by a triceratops and its brood. Eventually the reached the sapper's den, guarded by a Stone Giant (Reaper). Enemy soldiers and tortles began to pour back out of the tunnel. The situation pretty quickly got out of hand, but the heroes eventually finished off the sapper batallion. Now, far from the city walls and battered with casualties, they must fight their way back, as more enemy reinforcements are landing from the river. Sounds like a good thing to do next weekend!

Just got the Nolzurs Owlbear and catapult, and am very happy with both (already started painting the catapult, just in time for our siege session on Saturday). Raptors are on the way, too. I hadn't known that Nolzurs had raptors until last week, and the minis look fantastic!

Not sure I have a good picture to share right now, but I like to paint fire with a base of yellow, then drybrushing on reds and oranges, sometimes browns. It's a quick and easy to get a flame effect (though I'd say probably not professional quality, if that's what you're looking for). I tend to avoid applying a wash, as I prefer the colors to come through as vibrantly as possible, especially compared to the rest of the mini.

Looks like there are items coming out these next few months, but it appears to have slowed down a bit. Which, while disappointing, is completely understandable. Impressive they're still releasing much at all, really.

I'd heard the same thing. That doesn't look too far off, really. Still excited for the Bones V version, but I may have to pick up a pair of these, too.

It looks okay, but for its price I still feel like Hero Forge is the obvious choice here. I do think Hero Forge looks a little cartoony at times- some of these bits look a little better (especially weapons and armor, though obviously there are much less options). The layout is kinda strange, too. I get how stuff like "hobbit" is trademarked by Tolkein, and "Mindflayer" is a WOTC term. But "Human", even? Why is everything named so bizarrely? It adds an unnecessary hurdle when picking race.

After getting a new Husky/German Shep puppy, we finally got back to it this weekend (and with much less technical difficulty!) After cleaning out the goblin camp, the adventurers spared the chieftan and stashed him in one of the rooms of the makeshift fort. They then continued onward, and soon came upon a row of prison cells. Inside the first few cells were Yuan-Ti cultists, captured by the goblins. "Hello, anyone else here?" Akrothma called out. "Hello?" answered a voice from one of the far cells. "Who's there?" "Your mother", answered Akrothma. "Mother? Is that really you? It's me, your boy Johnny!" The heroes discover that Johnny the Sidler, once Bravura's quarry aboard the Havelock Echo and now bounty hunter for the Bundreon Syndicate, had come looking for them. After the events of the melee tournament finale, the Ytepka had taken the full blame, and the city had considered the adventurers to be merely victims of the onslaught. However, Johnny had discovered that Bundreon had isssued a bounty on the adventurs, and with the help of some Ytepka, he set out to find and warn them. In the process, he'd gotten separated from his Ytepka companions, and at one point had even had the dream vision of the besieged city that so many others seem to have shared. After getting caught up, Johnny and the adventurers headed forward, where they discovered a strange garden within the tree itself. Maylin collected some of the fruits therein (none of which she recognized) and it wasn't long before Bravura heard the sound of approaching enemies coming down the hall- a goblin patrol. Four goblins, each astride a deinonychus, entered the grove and fanned out, as the heroes hid behind the trees. The adventurers ambush worked, dispatching of the goblins quickly. Johnny even managed to kill a goblin by throwing an apple. Forward still they marched, ascending the interior of the tree. Eventually they came upon a barricade up ahead. Choosing another path led them to another barricaded goblin camp. Desiring to still continue in that direction, Maylin devised a plan. The adventurers returned to the prison cells and grappled/gagged one of the Yuan-Ti. They brought it forward and presented it to the goblins, as well as their ogre companion. The ogre gestured toward Maylin and Akrothma, then pointed at the cultist. The two heroes brought the cultist forward, and the ogre brought down his hammer on its head, smashing it. It then allowed the adventurers to pass through the camp, unharmed. They continued up a bit more steps, at which point they ran into a door. Opening it, they found it led to the tree's exterior again, leading out onto an enormous branch. The heroes began the process of climbing from branch to branch, when suddenly were beset by pteradons and pterafolk. They defeated the flying attackers, though taking some damage along the way. After some climbing, the heroes discovered a door that led back into the tree, as well as a lift and pulley outside. Using mage hand, Akrothma started the lift, while the adventured packed onto the lift. After some time, they were attacked by a griffon, but Bravura did massive damage to it with his crossbow before it was able to do much harm. As the lift ascended, the air grew thin and cold. Once it reached its stop, it was flush with a ladder. Bravura climbed it, through the canopy of the tree, and poked his head out to finally see the sky... and snow. The top of the tree, thousands of feet above the jungle floor, was a snowy field, and nearly forty yuan-ti cultists wandered around, freezing and dying. And floating in the air above was an earthmote, a floating chunk of earth. Next session, we'll probably finish this dungeon. The players may want to end up exploring more of the tree map because it was a huge map that they honestly managed to circumvent about 80% of, but regardless, we're really close to a big shift in the campaign... possibly as soon as next week! If so, just about all will finally be revealed... though, judging by what the PCs have been saying to each other, I think they're close to unraveling this mystery themselves.

I dunno about impact, but I've found Heroforge is pretty brittle. Though we didn't splurge for the premium material, but still- for 20 bucks a miniature, I wasn't happy at how quickly two of our PCs minis were broken. Still, the software is fascinating, and so fun to play around in. Half tempted to buy this serpentfolk, elephant-headed, double RPG and electric guitar-wielding absolute unit.

Kind of a quick session this time as well, since I was having tech problems (Arkenforge was mad at me). Picking up where we left off, the heroes approached the ship stuck in the branches of the tree, but were attacked by three su-monsters and a giant white ape! Bravura shot down two of the su-monsters, scaring the other away. Meanwhile, Akrothma used Thunderwave to knockback the giant ape, and it just barely managed to catch itself by its fingertips on the edge of the lodged ship. Not enough of a save, though, as Maylin finished off the job by firing a firebolt at the dangling monster's back. On the ship, the heroes found some loot, as well as a picto-journal of the previous captain of this airship. Apparently, gleaning from the illustrations, the crew had been en route to the top of the tree when they crashed. There, they expected to find some sort of "forge" (though I was careful to note that this did not quite seem to be the correct word either) with which they could dip a quill and create a powerful artifact of a pen. The heroes continued up the wide branches that wrapped around the tree, about 500-600 ft up in the sky now. The branch led to a door that lead into the large tree's interior, and then a staircase, which Bravura both led the way in exploring. Finally, they found themselves at the edge of a four way intersection. The heroes choose to go right, where they ran across a bashed in (but subsequently barricaded) gate. Unfortunately, this is when my Arkenforge files crashed. I was able to bring a somewhat similar replacement map in Dynamic Dungeons to finish off this encounter. After dodging some shots from the other side, the team assaulted the barricade. On the other side they found a force of goblins guarding their camp, bolstered by a goblin leader and an ogre. The heroes took a bit of a beating, but managed to kill all of the goblins, sparing only the leader (who unfortunately did not share a language with any of the PCs). They tied him up and left him to go explore more of the tree. Definitely a frustrating session, as I had designed quite a large and complex dungeon for the players to explore, only to seemingly have lost it all when the files corrupted. Luckily, I managed to restore them today (after trying for the past few days). Feeling good about next time when they'll really be able to get down to exploring, but maybe I should plan a backup in case it happens again...

Hmm... I'm not sure he's quite a perfect match for any of the Forgotten Realms-style dragons. He looks close to either a white dragon, red, or perhaps copper, but I don't think he's an exact fit for any of them. Definitely not blue, green, or black, at least. Maybe someone can find a better match than I can, but to be honest, most players will never know the difference. They'll be far more impressed by the size of the mini and (almost certainly) your stellar paint job. The physical descriptions are more for flavor than anything. What's his base size? If it's 3x3 he's probably an "adult" dragon. 4x4 would be "ancient".

Curious on this as well. I've heard Reaper giants are starting to approach a larger scale, so I'd be interested to see how they compare to the older ones.

Been a while since we've played, due to bad weather laterly, but we got in a short session during the midgame lull of last night's Superbowl. First big exciting thing is the players all have minis for their heroes that they've painted themselves! I'm a proud DM today. So after entering the dirt tunnels below the Lifetree near New Luxan, the heroes heard some voices from up ahead. The chattering led them through the mire and to a small group of goblins. They quickly dispatched of the monsters, but it wasn't long before more joined the fray. As the tide once again turned in the heroes' favor, the goblins retreated further into the tunnels, while the heroes followed. In a dead end, three goblins stood guard over two of the Yuan-Ti cultists that the heroes had battled so often. Bravura quickshot two of the goblins down, while Maylin finished the last. The elf then tried to interrogate the cultists, but they refused to answer. In a swift move, Akrothma decapitated one of the Yuan-Ti purebloods with her sickle. "Do you want to talk now?" she asked the remaining one. He was still silent. Bravura, a ranger specializing in stealth while in low light, managed to become invisible and stood next to the Yuan Ti, whispering to it. "Shadow, is that you?" asked the cultist. Bravura played along. "Tell them what you know," Bravura demanded. "They cannot stop our victory. And so the cultists revealed what had happened to them. After having raided the Mistcliff shrine, the majority of the cult had come down to the New Luskan Lifetree while Shelshi, Isshtti, and a few purebloods remained behind. The expedition stayed at the abandoned city of New Luskan, where they too experienced the strange dream that the heroes had- the blockaded city of Mezro. Each night the city's predicament grew worse as the siege continued, and the Yuan-Ti expedition spent longer and longer in the city. Eventually, the Yuan-Ti stayed in the city long enough for its denizens to realize what they were- Yuan-Ti, like the besiegers themselves apparently, and so they set upon the cultists. killing many of them before the experience ended and they were transported back to New Luskan. In an effort to avoid being sent back yet again, the Yuan-Ti invaded the lower portions of the Lifetree, and it wasn't long before Shelshi arrived with tidings from his attempts at securing the tree in Nyanzaru (failure, since the heroes had won the tourney and blocked his entry). The Yuan-Ti infiltrated the Lifetree in full force, and the cultists our heroes saw now were the rear guard- a rear guard that was eventually captured in a goblin counterattack. When asked what the cult's goal was at the tree, the heroes just saw a smile creep up under the pureblood's hood. "You really still don't know what we're doing, do you?" he sneered. With the information given that he was willing to supply, Akrothma gutted the second cultist as well, killing him. The group pressed onward into the tunnels, not quite sure what they would find. They discovered small animal bones in the tunnels, and some sort of white cracked substance- segments from large eggs, Maylin surmised. As Bravura scouted ahead, he saw some fearsome sights- a large insect with hook-like claws, and three of what seemed to be its larvae. The monsters proved little challenge for the heroes, though, and were quickly dispatched of. At the end of the tunnel was a staircase made of dirt. It stretched forward, slowly arcing to the left as it went up. Over time the stairs transitioned to wood instead, and finally the staircase ended at a door, on the right. Bravura opened it to see that they were hundreds of feet in the air, above the main canopy of the jungle (though still far from the top of the Lifetree). The large tree's branches formed a sort of path upward on the exterior of the tree, and ahead stuck in the branches... a ship, tattered and broken, but very high in the air. Aaaand... well, I was hoping that we'd get one more big combat in last night, but the superbowl delayed things quite a bit (dang sportsball). But next week, we'll start off right away with that combat, then get to a digital map that I'm pretty dang proud of. Looking forward to it!

As a player, I honestly don't mind monsters that seem "boring". I'm much more interested in doing my own thing- and to be honest, monster abilities that might debuff me, give me debilitating conditions that could effectively burn one or more turns, AOE the party away, or otherwise just seem kind of anti-fun. As a DM... eh, I'm still pretty new at DMing, so I don't have a ton of experience there yet. Personally though, I enjoy roleplaying enemies as realistically as I can, regardless of abilities. I've found that either huge bruisers like dinosaurs, or reasonably intelligent enemies like Yuan-Ti are fun to run, regardless of their abilities.

I like the idea, and maybe it would work better for others, but I have a few concerns: -Clearly by this thread, a lot of people would prefer to simply choose their minis -For those wanting something slightly more random, the Kickstarter exists. Not random, but it comes with so much that you're definitely getting that "stepping out of your comfort zone" benefit, while also getting minis at a much better pricepoint (though obviously with delayed gratification) - They could diversify a bit and add tiles, adventure hooks, etc for a general tabletop gaming box, but some of those already exist. Now... on the other hand, if Reaper did a monthly box with figures, paint, basing, and a terrain piece or two (maybe valued at roughly $30... that might work.

I watched an interview with Mercer yesterday about it. He says he wrote the book to work as a campaign setting for anyone even if they aren't fans of the show, though I'm sure fans will probably get more out of it. Still, looks like it has some interesting stuff, including a new kind of magic. The show itself... I've only watched a little bit of it. I'd say the actors are incredible, though they're all voice actors professionally, if I recall. And Matt is certainly an accomplished DM. But I still can't help but find it pretty boring. I enjoy D&D a ton when I'm part of the action, but Critical Roll is pretty much entirely unedited, streamed D&D. Personally, I find Adventure Zone to be a lot more enjoyable. It's edited down enough to keep the pace usually pretty well. Though they're kinda terrible at the rules of the game, they just generally don't take themselves too seriously, and I think they're pretty funny. But I guess if you want to see D&D played as a game, to the book, these kind of antics might annoy you.