04 February 2024

Five Bananas From Home

 
When I first played Sellswords & Spellslingers I went through some big misunderstandings of the rules through the early campaign, but I really liked the characters so just fudged my way through it and corrected course the rest of the way.

I keep stalling on this Five Parsecs campaign but have really been itching to give it a go. Or maybe just learn the rules on a mini test campaign? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. So I rolled up a random crew of four. I ended up with two ferals, a K'Erin, and a hooman.

Then this started repeating in my head.




So there it is. I need to find four new anthropomorphic figures for my test crew, I need a dog, ape, lion, and elephant. Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky. I'm disregarding my randomly rolled background for the crew (but adapting the individual crew backgrounds that were rolled as a writing exercise). They will simply be violent anarchists posing as a pop band. Their ship's AI (and thus, name) will be Banana Vac. But I am also considering the AI named Banana Vac but the ship to be named Suspect Device. Maybe note and that will bleed into something else in the narrative....



Thinking rapidly, O'Neill said, "Don't check any of them. The factory's undoubtedly ready to test and resample. It'll make its own analysis and then ignore us." His face glowed as frantic inspiration came. "Write in that blank at the bottom. It's an open space for further data."

"Write what?"
O'Neill said, "Write: the product is thoroughly pizzled."

"What's that?" Ferine demanded, baffled.

"Write it! It's a semantic garble -- the factory won't be able to understand it. Maybe we can jam the works."

(From Autofac, by Philip K. Dick)




I remember the Banana Splits from my childhood. But in searching for a few reference photos I found some interesting facts that I never knew. Mainly because I haven't really considered the Banana Splits at all since I was maybe 6 years old. I never even made the connection with memorable scenes  Kick Ass  & Nimona - in spite of being very fond of both movies.

  • Produced by Hanna-Barbera,
  • Costumes created by Sid & Marty Kroft. This kickstarted them into their own (awesome) psychedelic productions soon after.
  • First season directed by Richard Donner
  • Was rebooted in 2008.
  • Was used as the basis for a horror film in 2019. (Pic below, great vibe for my crew




 So I have limited ideas for figures. They will all be converted to some extent, so I am looking for base anthropomorphic figures. I appreciate aby suggestions! Here's what I have in mind so far. (Not endorsing any of the specific Etsy 3D printers, these are just a first-pass of me looking for ideas. There's usually multiple printers of each figure .)

  • Fleegle (dog/hound)
    • No idea outside of wolf ro werewolf type figures. But I would like something more hound like, referencing the original a bit more.
  • Bingo (ape)
    • https://www.reapermini.com/search/ape/sku-up/50031
    • https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/ganesha-games-scifi/ape
    • https://www.reapermini.com/search/Orangutango
    • GW Jokaero Weaponsmith.... haha, no, just kidding. It was overpriced when it was new, the secondary market prices are 10x as stupid.
  • Drooper (lion)
    • https://www.reapermini.com/search/lion/latest/50312 (this would be the "human" crewman)
    • https://www.etsy.com/listing/1436945798/king-deepcut-the-kings-of-karmaaz-leonin
    • https://www.etsy.com/listing/1441992402/king-dawntredder-kings-of-karmaaz-32mm
  • Snorky (elephant)
    • https://www.reapermini.com/search/elephant/latest/77588
    • https://www.etsy.com/listing/1342116621/elephant-man-harawat-beastmen-army-32mm

I also have these to use for Drooper and Snorky. But I don't think I'm willing to do any further conversions, repainting, or even rebasing for either. So they would be sort of proxy-ish. This will be just a test to learn the rules, so maybe I shouldn't be so focused on specific figures....