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Looks like Archon listened to feedback! "Bestiary and an RPG campaign book will be free PDFs now. Hardcovers, on the other hand, will be available as add-ons. 😉 In return, each pledge gets +1 add-on to choose.

Someone on Dakka asked what others like about the Core Space game (available retail, and what Maladum is based on), so I thought I'd repost my reply here! Theme: Instead of the usual generic killfest, you're playing a crew of traders who are sneaking into an alien compound, grabbing what they can get, and fulfilling the mission objective. This often means avoiding direct confrontation with aliens, or at least snuffing them out before it's their turn! You're not entirely defenseless, as the captain's a good shot, and the crew has a not-wookie for close combat! Alien artifacts: Most "always available" abilities are through your equipment. You start with the terran equipment, but soon grab and search for those cool alien toys. This does mean that you should at least play two scenarios, one for looting, and the other to actually use your better equipment. Skills: Skills are more like "bursts" of speed, combat ability, or other special abilities. You have a limited number of skill pegs that you can use during the game for cinematic effects (or just increasing movement so you can get the heck away from the bad guys!). Sandbox: While Core Space has a campaign and additional scenarios from Battle Systems and fans, it's easy to create new scenarios, such as a second game with the same terrain setup, but a different objective and entrance point. It's also not hard to use Battle Systems or other science fiction terrain with the Core Space system. Terrain: The terrain requires assembly, but it's printed, so gets to the table faster. Battle System's first products were terrain for 28mm, so you can use it for other 28mm games. As a solo player, I've used their Fantasy Set for Rangers of Shadowdeep and the unpublished Lasting Tales. The printed terrain actually looks good with painted conventional 3D terrain. **** I should mention that, while terrain set is dungeon-themed, specific parts of the terrain can be used for various medieval settings. Make sure you look closely at which terrain each pledge offers! Ruins: Cities and Towns:

For the Archon small bits, you can buy some 2" square wooden bases (or whatever) cheap, glue and paint fine craft sand, and stick on whatever with Museum Wax (under $10 for lifetime supply). I used a 2" square for the Elven Woods campsite stumps, fire, and pelts. Building is part of the Battle Systems "Village Set". BS has a KS for its dungeon-themed Maladum, and multilevel dungeon-themed terrain. Game board is Terra Tiles, pre-order on the Ravenkeep website. Old school miniatures are OOP Johnny Lauck. Tiny Furniture has a line of resin sitting miniatures.

Adding rocks from the Elven Woods set! Terra Tiles game tiles by Ravenkeep. Pre-orders still available. Townhouse from Battle System's Village Set, available retail. BS's dungeon-themed Maladum started today! Dog-faced kobolds from RBJ games. Spooky trees by Mantic.

Archon posted the preview page for D&L5! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/archonstudio/dungeons-and-lasers-v-world-of-deuslair-5e?ref=dbov5y&token=e4fa4ebb 48 hour owlbear (multi-pose) and beholder for returning backers! If there are some previous Archon releases, Archon plans to make them available during this KS! Let them know which ones you want in this survey: https://archon-studio.com/content/dungeons-lasers-v-add-ons-survey More info on Dakka! : https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/960/797368.page#11504112 Various add-ons. I'm guessing the legacy add-ons are available in the higher pledge?

Preview of Tricks and Traps add-on. New cover! Cutouts, though I'm sure digital content will be available. Given the content, it's more of a set of special effect tiles and rooms you can put in your dungeon! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamingbooks/rpg-encounter-toolboxes-the-veiled-dungeon-and-the-long-road/posts/3744167

Another promo shot, from the FB page. One week to go!

Posted this elsewhere, but got my Dungeons and Lasers loot, and need to paint some trees! Cottage from Battle System's "Village Set". Their dungeon-themed Maladum game and terrain KS starts 3/15. Tiles from TerraTiles. Pre-order on their Ravenkeep site. Also, got a copy of Loke Battlemat's "Castles, Crypts, and Caverns" awhile back and wrote a review on RPG.net! https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/19/19119.phtml

Shipping! Castles, Crypts & Caverns Books available now! (Or will be shipped with the KS if you bought it through this KS.) RPG.net review : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/19/19119.phtml Late pledge still available? Digital rewards already sent. Contact Loke if you have any questions or problems!

Painted up the oak trees! 😛 Cottage from Battle System's Village Set. Maladum dungeon-themed set coming March 15th! Game tiles are Ravenkeep's Terra Tile set. Pre-orders still available! Other trees are Mantic. Mini's from Fantasy Series I and Massive Darkness. Setting up a game for Lasting Tales. Those civilians are in trouble...!

Synthwave is the weekly special! 🙂 Not fantasy, though. And how is this "Woman long brown coat brown hair"? 😄

I like how the cultists have a "Take your child to (the) sacrifice" day. 😄 Rumormill on D&L was that they shrunk the adults to fit on the sprue better. Dunno about NLM, as Siocast uses a different mold technique. Like D&L, the human scales are more noticeable than the monsters. Maybe have the smaller guys fight FFG miniatures. 😕

Still too lazy to start another pre-launch thread 😄 but DaveC answered my question about the pledge levels for D&L 5: Deuslair! Starts in Q1 or Q2. Last two pledge levels contain previously released content. Pledge price is how much you'll be paying, before shipping is added. Rapid shipping means that this previously released content will be shipped as a separate, earlier wave. Archon often has "one per backer" SG's, so the best price is usually multiple accounts, with one pledge each! 😛 I usually just pick up one base pledge without the all-in. As much as I want my mini's, I'm also behind on painting! 😞 EDIT: Cute, cuddly, and carnivorous! EDIT EDIT: Just got the tracking email! EDIT EDIT EDIT: KS launches 11th April! Preview page up March 14th! EDIT EDIT EDIT 😛 Again thanks to DaveC that various minion miniatures you will get more than one of will be multi-part with variants!

Ghost has put up his previous white brushes on eBay, with photos. $6 for two brushes plus $5 for shipping. Search on "ghost brush". If you want more brushes, he sells sets and I'm sure he'll sell bulk. Send him a note via KS! Good luck!

Found an AI-art generator site, useful for image references. Search on "neural.love ai" and you'll find it. Free and quick, though it took a lot of tries before I found something that looked good. Thankfully, even the not-so-good results have color schemes worth a shot. Anyway, I'll be posting pics I'm using as image references, or at least an idea how to paint yet another mini. Though, seriously, what's with that crossbow? 😛

"She sure likes melon." Late Pledges still available! Contact the creator through KS!

Looked in the comments. Favorable feedback. Also, the guy's run multiple brush KS and supplies retail stores? Also: "$50,000-- It is tradition to give all my paint brush backers a free extra set and I am doing it again!! If you back a pledge that includes the Maxton Black Paint Brush Set you will get an additional set when we hit this goal." $8 shipping to USA. So $40 for 12 brushes. Fauxhammer review. He likes the smaller brushes. "Screw the other brushes in the range. Get the #00. Hell, get ten of the #00." https://www.fauxhammer.com/reviews/ghost-brushes-brush-set-review/ So I've asked the creator how to get 12 #00 brushes, white or black, once the SG is hit. I'll let you know what I find out. Could always just buy retail, since that's his objective, anyway. Thanks for mentioning this KS!

fyi, If you also play physical games (or at least want physical content!), Loke Battlemats "Box of Adventure" and probably upcoming "RPG Toolkit" will have a code for free digital PDFs of their physical content. Loke Battlemats already has free maps you can practice uploading to various virtual tabletop services. However, it looks like you'd want to buy the virtual module through the virtual service, since it's pre-whatevered to run on virtual service : https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/9nqd37/uploading_module_from_pdf/ I have an iPad, so would end up kludging my way through. 😛 Set up a Zoom meeting, and have the camera point to a physical map! Have the players tell me how they want to move the miniatures on the board, and stuff.

EDIT: Live! : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/battlesystems/maladum-dungeons-of-enveron?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=Maladum Based on Battle System's "Core Space" mechanics. Spellcasting system should be interesting. Terrain is preprinted cardstock. You'll still want to paint the punched out cardboard edges (and the miniature) to look like this picture, but it's definitely less work than painting terrain! Search on "Battle Systems Maladum" for the designer notes and game rules, "Maladum Facebook" for fandom, and "Battle Systems Kickstarter" to see their previous projects. Beasts of War "How to Play" : https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/lets-play-maladum-dungeons-of-enveron-battle-systems/ I also have a thread on painting their Fantasy Village Set : https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/99834-battle-systems-fantasy-village-set-painting-the-edges/ I think their terrain is great for buildings, and works for "flat" terrain bits, such as chairs, tables, and books. I prefer conventional miniature terrain bits for "round" objects, such as barrels, flames, and chests. It's still less work to get to the table, and less expensive as well. KS coming next month! 🙂

Part 4 : Wave Echo Cave (WIP -- More text to add) The Wave Echo Cave D&D map is mostly caverns, and CC&C's cavern and other maps are a good fit for this map! You can add furniture and such with the "Add On - Dungeon" vinyl clings to the maps, although I didn't do it myself. On the D&D map, location 1, the cave entrance, has a previous party's abandoned campsite. Location 2 is a catacomb of corridors, replaced with a battle map of cavern passages. Location 3 is a cavern also replaced with cavern passages. You can find other CC&C and Coast of Dread maps to better represent the D&D map, but I felt that the cave mines would look better with section that was a maze of twisty little passages, all alike! To the north, for location 4, the guard room, and location 5, the assayer's office, and location 6, the south barracks, and 7, the ruined store room, I used room maps from Coast of Dread, covered to only use a portion of the map. I think the furniture, webs, and other dungeon dressing from the "Add On - Dungeon" vinyl clings could be used to tailor the battle map rooms to the D&D map locations. Location 8 is the Fungi Cavern, and CC&C has a cavern map with fungi! To the north is location 13, the Starry Cavern, with location 14, the Wizard's Quarter. CC&C has a matching map, with both a cavern and room to represent these locations. Not connected to location 8, location 9, the Great Cavern, is represented by two two-page cavern spreads from CC&C. You an see how you can make a two-page area for a huge cavern with minimal walls. Plenty of room for a fight! North of location 2 is location 10, the Dark Pool. CC&C has a two-page spread of a cavern with a pool which matches these locations. To the east of location 10, is location 11, the North Barracks, and location 12, the Smelter Cavern, as another two-page spread. To better match the D&D map, a door has been added between locations 11 and 12, and part of the battle map, where there's a passage, has been covered by the booklet. We've already covered location 13, the Starry Cavern, and location 14, the Wizard's Quarters. To the north of these locations is location 15, the Forge of Spells, represented by a round room. (Maybe I should have rotated it 90 degrees to better match the D&D map.) To the north is location 16, the Booming Cavern, whose water entrance is represented by the same battle map used in location 10. Location 17, the Old Stream Bed, and location 18, the Collapsed Cavern, are represented with a two-page spread of a descending cavern with a river. Finally, location 19, the Temple of Dumathoin, and location 10, the Priest's Quarters, are represented by this two-page spread of a temple.

(Need to add more text to this post.) Cragmaw Castle: The CC&C castle battle maps are exterior shots, and differ from the D&D maps, which are cutaway views. The interior rooms, then, don't have castle features (eg. arrow slits), but that means you can use the interior rooms more generically. Some interior rooms have a double-spread, so are nice and large (see the shrine below), so are quite suitable for a castle, yet they're also generic enough to be the interior of a building in a town, or, as a single page, a large room in a dungeon. The first picture, of locations 1-3 on the D&D map, is a little complicated. The two third rooms are the round towers in the left battle map, but I ended up representing them with two corners of the right interior battle map. The interior castle yard of the left battle map is not used ("Your characters can't see that part of the map"). The upper right and lower left rooms of the second battle map are rooms that *lead* to those locations of the D&D map, not that it the characters would notice. You'll notice that in the way I'm using the battle maps, I'm adding more rooms to the D&D map. These rooms can be used to add more encounters. The castle in the D&D map is in ruins, so I've used the "Add-On - Wilderness" rocks and debris vinyl clings to modify the maps. You can still use wipe-off pens to draw any room changes. The next picture are locations 4 and 7 on the D&D map, representing a storage area that serves as a goblin barracks, and a kitchen area that is the goblin mess hall. Most of the Loke Battle Mats have the middle of the edges of the maps open so you can connect any battle map to another, but that doesn't mean you can't offset a battle map and use doors if you have other ideas! To the north of location 2, we have location 6, the hobgoblin barracks, and location 5, a storage room. Again, by overlapping books, I'm using only part of the covered battle map. I changed my mind here! Instead of the location 5 having a door to location 9, the shrine, I used the corridor portion of the upper left battle map as an entrance to location 9. Note how large the shrine battle map is, quite suitable for a castle! One of the battle map castle walls is used for location 10, an alternative entrance. The right battle map is actually a crypt battle map, with the "Add-On - Wilderness" rocks to hide the crypt drawing. I changed the entrances of the rooms on the battle maps to correspond with the D&D map, with doors and rocks (as said, the ceiling has collapsed in various places of the castle). To the north of the not-crypt rooms is location 11, the ruined tower. Some rubble from the "Add-On - Wilderness" vinyl clings indicate collapse of the walls and roof. Between the two battle maps I partially covered a generic tile map from the Coasts of Dread to make a corridor between locations 8 and 12. And the corridor does indeed lead to location 14, the boss lair! Yeah, that's totally not a drow in there, is it?

Nah, it's just the joke. 🙂 Games Workshop is "well-known" for being an expensive part of the hobby -- and they've just raised prices. Here's 13+ pages of sf painters ranting about their latest price increase. 😮 https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/808826.page (Also, might as well mention Kingdom Death Monster as an expensive miniature hobby.) My two bits is to just buy whatever matches your painting, gaming, and budget -- and you're the one who dictates all three. I'm more into bargain-hunting and play boardgames as well, so end up spending a lot of money over many boardgame and miniature companies, rather than a lot of money on a single company's products. I've ended up with quantity over quality, but the quantity I have is still quite good! 🙂

Oh, I see no familiarities at all! 😄 Add-ons may be available directly from the Sally 4th website.

So how's that GW army going? 🙂 I'd say that DF is the display and diorama of terrain. If you want backdrops for your miniatures, it's the best out there. OTOH, For tabletop gaming, I'd go with Archon or Battle Systems. (ObPlug: Archon will have a miniatures KS and BS a dungeon terrain KS "any time now" 😛

I'm pretty much resigned that the more manufacturers you buy from (including boardgames), the more likely you'll have miniatures of different scales -- and proportions. Even scale and proportion may vary within a manufacturer, or even material used (eg. plastics can have thinner parts than metal). Archon took only one crowdfunding to switch scales, based on backer demand. 😕 "While a model may be described as 28 mm the actual height of the model may be different. This is because of a number of factors such as manufacturer, model proportion, method of measuring the model, the model's pose, and what sort of man the model is meant to represent. A manufacturer might advertise its figures as 28 mm, but their products may be over 30 mm tall. Manufacturer's use of scale is not uniform and can deviate by as much as 30%.[citation needed] Some manufacturers measure figure height from the feet to the eyes rather than the top of the head; therefore, a figure that is 30mm to the top of its head could be considered a to be 28mm miniature. True scale proportions compared to heroic scale proportions A further complication is differing interpretations of body proportions. Many gaming figures are unrealistically bulky for their height, with oversized feet, heads, hands, wrists, and weapons. Figurines with these exaggerated features are often referred to as "heroic scale". Some of these exaggerations began as concessions to the limitations of primitive mold-making and sculpting techniques, but they have evolved into stylistic conventions." - Wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_model_(gaming)#Scales "As a final note, even figures which ostensibly are in the same scale may differ considerably in body build, head size, and general sculpting style - even when made by the same manufacturer! (For instance, older figures vs. newer figures from the same company.) Styles may differ considerably, as some manufacturers see their goal as to make scale replicas, while others concentrate on making "gaming pieces" which are inexpensive, durable, or easy to paint. Plastic figures may be sculpted in a thinner style than metal figures. Therefore, if you are concerned whether you can mix figures from different product lines or companies and have them look appropriate, you may first want to order samples from the manufacturer." - TMP : http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/scales.html