Tuesday 27 August 2024

Pootling Around in Felstadt

 Hi!

I've been humming and hahing about Frostgrave for a while now. On the one hand, it's been around for a while and gets a lot of support, be it supplements, new miniatures and lots of folks playing it. On the other, I'm not sure I want to play the actual game as its just not quite my cup of tea. I'd prefer to have a more Mordheim style sort of a thing that doesn't focus quite so much on the mad wizards blasting each other with spells.


What I do like is the background that's lightly touched on, that a previously lost city has been rediscovered and bands of adventurers flock to it to explore and plunder the place.

I'm thinking of doing a somewhat toned down version with my bold adventuring party, led by Miss Fisher delving into the forgotten ruins in search of lost relics of a previous epoch and fighting all manner of villains, scoundrels and monsters!

I don't know if it's going to be set in the frozen wastes of Felstadt or in the post apocalyptic ruins of Aeroth or even the stinking boggy mess of Stump but I think it could be quite a fun mini project, especially if I use Brutalquest as my ruleset and build some characters loosely based on the Miss Fisher Mysteries, much as I did with my Inquisitorial team for Rogue Trader.

With this in mind, I nipped to my local model shop and picked up a box of Frostgrave Soldiers and have put the first sprue together to create a bunch of mercenary types to use as friend or foes for Miss Fisher.


I'll post some pics of my progress in the next couple of days but the figures are just what I needed to get out of my hobby slump as they are really easy and fun to paint, especially as I picked up a couple of Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0 at the same time which I've found to be really handy in getting figures done quickly but still looking good!

Once I've got the first five done, I'll post my thoughts on them and see how the project proceeds!

In the meantime, All the best!



Thursday 15 August 2024

Richard's Wargaming Remedy

 Hi!

I've been having a bit of a ponder upon my recent hobby block and have sat down and written up a list of what has worked for me and what succeeded in getting me back into the swing of things.

Here's the list as it stands:

Use 28mm Scale. It's got the largest selection and while it's getting more expensive, there's still a lot of pretty cheap but characterful figures to be found. While I do love 15mm, it just lacks the character of the larger figures and I've been really struggling to paint the smaller scale stuff lately.


Use Planet 28, Brutalquest or my own hodgepodge ruleset. They're rulesets I've used for all sorts of games and are easy to play and great fun without a tomes worth of rules, tables and gumf.


Low figure count is king! The above rules only require a handful of figures a side be it 2-4 heroes or villains or a small group of goons and underlings. This allows me to create a warband quickly and easily and lessens the perils of hobby burnout.


Make games strongly narrative! Make the games a loose ongoing campaign but don't get too bogged down by the details. A game should be fun but not be a slave to making sure all the details are stuck to.


Strong visual element! Allow me to use my creativity to flesh out the setting, characters and narrative of the whole thing. This is a really enjoyable part of the game, drawing character portraits and whatnot.


Space is Limited! My gaming space is at most 3'x3' but at present my gaming table is packed away so 2'x2' or even my pinboard board size should still make for engaging and enjoyable games.

Budget! Get the most you can get out of a tiny budget. £15 a month should be ample.

With all this in mind, I think I'm going to re-investigate Inquisitor Fisher and her retinue. I'm thinking of finishing off her retinue and other characters but want to recreate other iterations of her in fantasy, historical and whatnot.

She's based on Miss Phryne Fisher from the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries that we binge watched during the lockdowns and has a host of brilliant characters that could be easily be transferred into other settings and I'm rather keen to bring her back to the centre of my gaming as she's somewhat a totem of a brilliant series of games that I played over the course of years!

I've also been playing The Wandering Library of late which is a roll and write solo rpg which I've then built up into a scrapbook of sorts which has been rather fun too so I'm planning on doing this to create a journal for my adventures.




I'm going to be doing a bit of a rummage of my collection to see what the state of my sci-fi stuff is and see what I've got and what I still need to work on before moving onto either fantasy or 1920's pulp. 

Hopefully I'll put together an update soon with some further musings but in the meantime, Thanks for reading my ramblings and all the best!

Tuesday 13 August 2024

Kind of Stuck

 Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates but I seem to have got myself into one of my occasional hobby slumps where I just can't seem to find anything that I want to sit down and paint.

I've picked up and put down a ton of different things but can't seem to find anything thats really getting my attention or indeed interest which is most infuriating but something that does seem to happen from time to time.

While miniature gaming has kind of left me cold, I've been enjoying pottering around with some solo rpg's which is giving me a bit of creative freedom but I do wonder if I need to have a bit of a small gaming project that will get me back into the swing of things.


Over the last few years I've been more than happy going my own way which has been awesome fun but I do think that a bit more focus on a small project could be just what I need to rekindle the wargaming side of my hobby.

I'll have a rummage and see what I've got that could possibly do the job but I'm currently unsure what to do!

Fingers crossed, I'll get myself sorted out and post without a months delay but in the meantime, all the best!