The Funks of Shroomsbury

OMFG I painted! 🤯
OMFG Blogger got an update! 🤯

It's been a complicated year and there's a lot of change. As the wind & snow moved in to our part of the world, I decided to take a day OFF from most other responsibilities and just slack for a while. I painted for the first time since the couple of convention figures in July. Prior to that, I had painted a figure in March, and my OWAC entries in January & February. So it's been a slow hobby year.

I've been going over my ideas for another solo fantasy campaign, flip-flopping from wanting to try Five Leagues from the Borderlands and going back to Sellswords and Spellslingers. In the process, I've also been thinking about setting & theme and decided to lean into the fungal faction I've been dabbling with for the past few years. I've had the Midlam Miniatures Mushroom Folk on my table for a while, and they were a perfect fit for one of my proxy ideas for 5 Leagues campaign. So here we are...

The Funks of Shroomsbury!

Most are from Midlam Miniatures, except for the hunched over figure on the far right (3d print picked up at the anime convention in July), the little gob-shroom near the center (Gin Fritter/Armorcast), and the infected human (Satyr Art Studio wizard's apprentice with converted shroom sprout.)

Yes, I'm a fan of the Cadfael mysteries and couldn't resist the awful pun. ;)

Plain of Theives - Sellswords & Spellslingers Campaign 2

Plain of Thieves

A Sellswords & Spellslingers Campaign

 

It was unlikely that anyone outside the tribe knew of the Old Days & Nights. Before the coming of men and their change from Tribe to Empire, when the men hunted goblins and killed them in their homes and secret caves. Even before the bitter rivalry of the rat-men and the swamp daemons that broke the land and cut the goblins off from the last of their hunts and harvests. Further still, before the epic battles of elves and dwarves had driven the goblins from the thick forests, to seek hidden mountain vales for survival. Once, many, many lifetimes past, Udag's people had hunted beasts in dark forests, and gathered mushrooms and berries from beneath the shady trees along the riverbank.

 

For most in the tribe, those were just stories told by the evening fires by the old shaman.

 

Tork-An taught the histories that had been handed down through countless generations of wise-goblins. Legends, the typical goblin called them, but not real to any of them. Udag-stuuk, on the other hand, was mesmerized by the history of his people. When he was young, he thought he wanted to be a shaman too. But that was not his path. Udag was driven to action. Not a story teller, a story maker. And when he became the Tribal Champion, he proposed a plan to start reclaiming his ancestors' lost heritage. Maybe not reclaiming & rebuilding their land. But at least starting by recovering ancient treasures taken from them by so-called human, elven, and dwarven "adventurers"  who were little more than thugs and thieves.

So it was that Udag, along with the current shaman's apprentice, Tork-Al, and the chieftain's mischievous young daughter, Noxea, were selected for an ambitious mission to recover the Fire Stones, ancient treasures stolen from one of of the most important shrines of the old Six Tribes of the Riverland.

 

Tagging along, whether they like it or not, is Nox's life-long (as brief as that has been so far) companion, the half-wolf Sasha. Hopefully her keen senses and loyalty to Nox will serve the group well.

This will be my second Sellswords and Spellslingers campaign. I had intended to kick it off not long after the last one wrapped up. But life gets busy, and two years pass in the blink of an eye. I had the general concept of "flipping the perspective" before, but only recently started thinking about the backstory.

Last of the Low Rollers

It's time to wrap up my Sellswords and Spellslingers campaign. I've learned, I've made mistakes, and it's time for the Low Rollers to be retired so I can start fresh. They did better than I expected in the first two of the "winding down" scenarios, I thought for sure this one would be their end. Behold, the dread Thunder Lizard! And since I only have one lizard folk painted, I proxied cultists instead because what sort of madmen would worship such a vile beast....

Although the Low Rollers did suffer one fatality to the Big Lizard in My Back Yard, the ferocious Doc McStuffin's sidekick did fall pretty quickly. Per the Low Rollers modus operandi, as soon as the big baddie was taken out, there was a consistent stream of failed activation rolls and the scene quickly flooded with villains. I threw the second Thunder Lizard into the mix in place of a wandering monster since there's no wandering monster specified in this scenario, and also because I was disappointed that more of the heroes weren't mangled/eaten by the first one

By the end of the scenario, there were twice as many opponents on the table. I ran out of cultists and has to start tossing orcs into the fray.

Although I was hoping for a heroic yet fatal end game, I was OK with the dramatic way things turned out. Youbie died while fighting the original Thunder Stuffie, and P-Stash delivered the killing blow. By the time he got to his friend, she was flat out dead. But he wasn't going to leave her behind. He shouldered her body and ran towards Stabbie the shaman, and their new recruit, Wad.

By that time the second, more serious looking Thunder Lizard had arrived nearby. Wanting to settle things in a heroic blaze of glory, Stabbie tried to cook the lizard (failed) and Wad tried to fill it full of arrows (also failed) so it was up to P-Stash to run in and save the day fisticuffs style. Almost. He crippled the cold blooded beast, but failed to deliver the final blow.

Wad, unexpectedly showing a sense of loyalty, bravery, and honor towards his new friends, charged into assured death to avenge and rescue his brave companion. In a fit of rage, he stabbed the crap out of the unsuspecting dino and brought him down in short order.

But that was only the start of his work. Six more cultists showed up on the scene and (due to shitty activation roles yet again...) they charged rapidly from the far corner of the battle and surrounded the strong archer. Despite the six-on-one odds, Wad managed to quickly butcher the cultists, grab P-Stash's comatose body, and meet up with Stabbie (who was carrying the corpse of Youbie) and flee to safety.

So that's the dramatic finale. Two casualties, one dead the other comatose. P-Stash will survive, and although Youbie is technically dead, the group has plenty of unspent wealth to resurrect Youbie.

But I'll leave that all behind for now. I'd like to start fresh, though the newcomer -- Wad -- may make an appearance in a potential group of next (anti)heroes...

Neville, Zeek, Wad, and Tommir

Death of a Necromancer

The Low Rollers wandered up to the Necromancer's tower, and though beset by challenges, they defeated her without too much trouble.

Moments after the fall of the Necromancer. Just a simple stroll home now, right?

(The square to the right represents the first floor of the tower)

Then things got complicated. Although some of the skeletons crumbled into heaps of bones, all of those in or near the tower were freshly invigorated, gaining in strength. As the heroes tried to make their escape, new foes, ghouls and skeletons, flowed into the area. Was the spirit of the Necromancer still powerful and angry? Did the Necromancer's tower itself hold some sort of malignant magic? Was fate punishing the four heroes for their unjustified murder of an elderly practitioner of arcane magics who was simply pursuing her studies in a remote study in the wilderness?

By the time the valiant murder crew left the scene of their assassination, an amassed horde of 27 skeleton warriors and 8 ghouls had arrived on site.

Back to Sellswords and Painted Some Rabble

Painted some fresh rabble...

It's been a while since I last played Sellswords and Spellslingers but I finally got in a game. Since this warband was my "learning the rules" group, I wanted to wind down their campaign by throwing a couple of horrible scenarios at them. By that I mean I would try to kill them and see if they could survive. Sort of like 2020 for toy soldiers in a fantasy setting.

The first was to replay the Badlands scenario again - playing it wrong just like I did the first time when I had only two characters barely survive. For all their experience and new skills and equipment, they didn't do much better. Bowie, who was essentially a clone of the original Bowie who died the first time, met the same fate. This time ambushed by a troll.

Stabbie tried to rescue her, but she was too far gone. The troll had already eaten one of her legs and was pulling off the other as the shaman got close.

Youbie almost didn't make it either. Seeing P-Stash surrounded by orcs, the powerful swordswoman charged in to assist, but only managed to jump on every sword that was bared in front of her. Really, she barely had to swing at them to mow the minions down, but failed anyway. Stabbie had better luck with his healing this time, saving the bold warrior well enough to limp away to safety. P-Stash, always living in the shadow of Youbie's expertise managed to prove himself by downing foe after foe just when the struggling group needed. He had to climb over a ring of orc corpses to join his friends as they fled the dreaded orc infested territory a second time.

As they leave the Badlands, Youbie takes one last look back, mourning their lost companion and contemplating how they could roll so goddamn low on so many activations again.

It was good to play a game for the first time in a few months!

One last look back at a fallen comrade.

The fallen comrade.

Badlands carnage 2.0.

And then there were three...

Next game with put the Low Rollers up against a necromancer hiding out in a remote tower. Not sure why they've got to go all murder hobo on this nice old lady and her friends. But that's what's going down. If that fails to do them in, there may be a thunder lizard waiting for them after that....

In non-gaming stuff, we're finally getting the first (not counting the herbs & green onions) small harvest from our tiny garden. Last year the neighborhood wildlife annihilated the garden, so I haven't got to pickle hot peppers for two years. Obviously I need a party of sellswords and spellslingers to rid our yard of the raiding vermin.

Hob-orcs, Sellswords, and Fire

I have painted five more of the Midlam Miniatures hobgoblins (or hob-orcs/half-orcs for my purposes.) More great sculpts! I've got some duplicates that I will be using for some minor conversions, mostly just simple weapon swaps.

I've been wanting to get back to my Sellswords and Spellslingers solo campaign. But I've recently discovered I've been doing it wrong. I've been using mixing the terms "players" and "PCs" a number of times.

So, for example, the reason the first game was such a bloodbath was that I had far more hordes of orcs than I should have. I've also been handing out too much XP after games. So I've decided to wrap up the current band with a few final games, then start over with a new warband.

My plan is to replay the Badlands scenario -- possibly using the "wrong" number of orcs again. Then possibly play the tower scenario, since I've had this old Battlemasters in my garage we cleaned out my friend Rich's game room over a year ago. (It was mine, & I painted it, but gave it to him at some point. I was handed a box with this and two others to take home...) Finally, I will put them through the Thunder Lizard scenario. Per the scenario instructions, I rummaged through my daughters toys for a suitable adversary. She had a good selection hiding at the bottom of a bin, and I've narrowed it down to these two... :D

I will also need some lizarmen, which is great motivation to get back to painting the old Tom Meier troglodytes I've been planning to repaint for many long years. I did one test figure, with an unusual color scheme based on an actual lizard. But I'm not sure I like it. The main reason these wonderful figures haven't been repainted all this time is because I can't make up my mind on how to paint them!

This weekend we've had some beautiful weather, so my family took advantage of is with a back yard cookout and fire. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but my wife and daughter enjoyed some s'mores! Stress has been getting to me lately. The pandemic isolation had been difficult. Aside from missing friends and family, we're working full time at home, trying to help our daughter manage at-home schooling (can't wait for Summer break!), and what seems like an endless stream of household maintenance issues requiring attention/repair. Enjoying the outdoors/weather has been something good to focus on.

Low Rollers Head to the Broken Lands & ZeroTwentythree Paints Plague

I abandoned the battle I had set up as I still needed to resolve how some of the solo aspects of the game would be resolved. Instead I have returned to Sellswords & Spellslingers, since I've enjoyed it and have been wondering what The Low Rollers have been up to. Set up a new game, maybe play a bit tonight...


Our Heroes. The Low Rollers.

The Villains. Vile Goblins.

The heroes have been employed by the residents of a rural village to root out some goblins from the Broken Lands to the west. They have made great use of stealth and have managed to approach very close before being detected... The two "Great Goblins" on larger bases are proxies for Orc Brutes.


The setup.

The Low Rollers were counter-ambushed by far more goblins than they had expected, but 3/4 of the team took them down pretty quickly. Stabby the Shaman spent most of the game on the ground, unable to stand up or do much of anything. Supernatural assistance stepped up in his place, however, as a mysterious spirit killed one of the greater goblins in the distance before disappearing again

Also, I painted an old Plague Elemental from Citadel. There were 7 elementals in the range, the usual 4, plus Life, Death, and Plague. This is the last one I had unpainted. It had been painted many years ago, then stripped more recently but never got around to the repaint. A fitting time to paint him/it, I think...

More Sellswords (Solo games 2-4)

After the first game of Sellewords and Spellslingers, I had to restart half of my party as 2.0 versions of themselves. I wanted to give them a second chance since I felt they had been killed by dice and never really got a chance to prove themselves.

For the second scenario, I chose Defend the Villiage, which seemed a little more tame and appealed to my fondness for the Seven Samurai. I set everything up and drew a card for the antagonist and...

Well, I don't have an minotaurs. So I dug around and found a mutant rat ogre! (Boneripper?) Close enough. It's big, has a horn or two somewhere on its body...

The set up.

Several quick dice rolls later he's dead from a fireball and several arrows stuck in his fresh corpse. Game over in moments. The total opposite of the previous game, I made every die roll by a long shot.

So between the two games, I'm a little concerned about the impact of dice on gameplay, while still trying to understand that I rolled mostly 7 and lower in the first games, and nothing but 17 - 20 in the second. Again -- no rules can account for that sort of one-sided rolling.

I decided to replay the same scenario (I spent more time setting up the table than playing the game!) again but with a new draw on the monster cards.

Irony.

Ratmen it is.

After the mutant rat ogre was easily defeated, nearby Skaven agents heavily increased pressure on the small villiage of Geenberg. The Low Rollers, the heroes who defeated the mutant beast had not even left town when the attack began, so they were caught in the middle of a second battle for Geenberg. In spite of poison gas traps and ambushes, the barely adequate heroes managed to defeat the verminous horde, and rescue the townsfolk once more.

Another tense and dramatic Sellswords scenario, a second run through of Defend the Village, the ratmen seemed like an easy win but (like the first scenario) a ton of botched activation rolls (and fumbles like broken bow strings, etc. again) made me seriously concerned for the team's survival again. They barely pulled this one off again. I'm now dumping XP into the Hero trait...

I played one more game after this, but failed to record it with photos. For game 4, I played The Healer, and it went pretty easy I managed to knock out most of the bandits, with just two more entering off the perimeter and being dispatched pretty quickly.

It's been two weeks now, but I'm hoping to pick back up with a few more games this weekend. I'm thinking Sellswords might be a good gateway to try to get my wife & daughter into miniatures gaming...

Sellswords and Spellslingers (Game 1)

It's been about a year since I bought the game and started prepping for it, but I've finally played a few games of Sellswords and Spellslingers. For those not familiar, it is a cooperative (or solo) fantasy skirmish game with a bit of an RPG feel to it. I downloaded the PDF from Ganesha Games, and bought the printed cards. You go through a points based party/character creation and then dive into scenarios. There are "between games" campaign activities and progression as well.

I originally had a some other plans, but ended up creating a team of four barbarian adventurers, from left to right... P-Stash, Bowie, Stabbie, and Yubie. I'll get back to the other ideas after running this group for a while.

There is no order to the scenarios, but I started with the first one, "Through The Badlands" because it seemed like a good learning scenario.

It was brutal.

This is what I was up against... Orcs, Orc Brutes, and a Troll. At least to start with. The way the mechanics of the game work, each character rolls between 1-3 activation dice. Roll 8+ on a d20, and each success is an action for that character. Fail, and you draw a card which means enemies activate, more enemies join the game, or one of a handful of events happens.

I failed at least 2/3 of my activation rolls throughout the game, which meant that the Heroes didn't get to do as much as the Villians, and more of them kept spawning around the table. Stabbie the shaman fumbled (rolled a 1) his first spell roll, which meant no magic the rest of the game. Bowie fumbled (rolled a 1) her shooting early on, which took her skills down a major notch as well. The scenario involved my group getting from one side of the killing field to the other. It was a flight for survival.

After many rounds of activation, at the end of the slaughter, this was my deployment area. Yubie got bogged down in combat and almost never making an activation roll. She lasted longer than expected, but eventually fell from her wounds, comatose. She could have been carried to safety by her "friends" but by this time they were in a panicked sprint for safety, far far away.

Here's a shot from the other side. You can see the others (Stabbie and P-Stash each down to their last hit point) making a dash for survival, corpses, pursuing foes and their abandoned friend all on the distance (and to either side, off camera.) This is right at the edge of the table. You would think they were home free.

You'd be wrong.

Here's Stabbie, the inept shaman, mere steps away from "edge of the world" safety. He's already been lapped by his companions because he can't roll above a 5 throughout the game. Just one activation and he's free... nope. Failed, resulting in another orc (just to his left) ambushing out of the bushes... er, ambushes? Just an orc, not a difficult combat at least... right? Nope again. Fumbled, lost his last hit point. But at least he's got a roll to see what happens... aaaaaand he's flat out dead.

The carnage at the end of the game. We started on the left, and 50% of The Low Rollers (they have a name now) exited off the right.

Since Stabbie and Yubie didn't really get much of a chance, I added their twins back into the party for the next game.

Next game? Yes. I thought it was worth another try. I like the mechanics, though they seem like they fluctuate between extremes. And the dice really had a heavy part in the game. But that's also what went wrong here... A large majority of my rolls were 5 or less on a d20. No rules are going to mitigate that. The game deserved a second try.

Back to that in the next update. (FYI, I just finished Game 4. Give me a few days to catch up with updates...)

Need for Bushes

I'm really trying to play an actual game, and set in the evolving make-believe world/campaign I've got in my head. The arrival of Sellswords and Spellsingers, as I've mentioned before, has spurred me on to finally try some solo gaming -- especially since my old plans have been mostly killed by lack of space since our move. So for the past few weeks, I've been slowly making plans. After initially selecting a warband for the Warhammer-Empire miniatures exchange minis, I've completely changed gears and decided to go with Plan B. In fact... maybe that should be their name: Plan B.

---

After a harrowing journey through the Grey Mountains and his narrow escape from the Barrow, Zogmar finally grew a little more cautious. An almost "strategic" thinking started to creep in as he began recruiting among the misfits and dispossessed of the foothills and  Bitter Moors. From his small retinue he selected Zomar's Finest. Six of the brightest, strongest, or most talented (in some manner) among a sad and motley group to undertake a scouting mission with broad goals: find easy targets for supply & looting, determine strong points to be avoided, and aid in locating recruits for the proto-horde. Plan B, some witty half-orc called them, as the main force was taking up the safer mission of raiding isolated farmsteads and recruiting among small camps of bandits and outcasts.

They may have been viewed as an accessory to the main action, but their mission proved the stuff of legends... at least among Zogmar's camp.

---

The first mission they will be undertaking is... a trap! After raiding along the foothills of the Grey Mountains, Zogmar's forces hit one wrong target -- a small inn at a crossroads frequented by the small garrison assigned to the western roads. Several small detachments of guards have been sent to keep the mysterious raiders from venturing further east -- precisely where the Finest have been ranging in recent days. After quietly scouting out the area, the Finest are trying to slink back out of the area. As they travel along a shallow gully in the Moors, something doesn't seem right. Spike, probably the most attentive & savvy of the group, calls out his suspicions, and the party proceeds cautiously...

In terms of Sellswords, the mission is a modified Through the Badlands -- which I will call Through the Wastelands. Some alignment swapping fun... orcs & troll for guards and ogre.

I just need some more bushes! Of all the stupid things... Luckilly I've made some before. Like the ones in the back of the second pic. Hopefully I can crank some more of those out soon -- or just go buy some lichen or similar crap from the local craft store!

Sellswords -- The Other Side

I'm also considering something like this for a themed "the other side" warband for Sellswords & Spellslingers.

Swordslingers and Spellsellers and Stuff

After reading the Sellswords and Spellslingers rules a month or so ago, I decided there were a lot of things I liked about the rules. I was convinced enough that I bought most of the cards online and picked up some MDF to make a 3x3 tabletop, figuring that I would use it for some sort of skirmish gaming anyway.

Since then I haven't been able to get out to the garage to glue some sand, paint, etc. So today I "gave up" on doing a full oldschool table like the old (larger) one that's been hanging in the rafters for the past few years. The weather was nice, so I spent a quick 10 minutes spray painting a piece of MDF, hoping it will look convincing enough to work with the rest of my terrain. I'm still hoping I can find some time in the next few years to spend a little time gluing sand and then painting it, like I had originally planned.

So... here's the half-assed table in basement where I paint. I put my usual scale-reference handgunner on the table, as well as on of the converted Fomorians. I managed to clear some space near a light, and mostly away from the beams that I usually crack my skull on.

I've got two ideas for starting warbands, and I think I've decided which to try first...

...It won't be all of them. And there will be a more recent entry. These are from the Warhammer-Empire "Pleasant Surprises" miniatures exchange, and I had started thinking about making use of them in some sort of skirmish game a couple years ago. The essential premise will be this:

Rune, Etrigan (just the zweihander), Claus, all three crew members of the Chump Change Artillery Corps, Anvalous, and the (not pictured, and still to-be painted) Artoban's Ghost have been stranded behind enemy lines. Fighting off whatever come their way, while trying to reunite with the rest of the army. The undead King may show up as a villian.

Hopefully I will finally play the game soon....

Sellswords and Printed Cards

Stuff! In the Mail!

As mentioned previously, I bought the PDF of Sellswords and Spellslingers recently. I was impressed enough with the possibilities for both solo and co-op skirmish gaming that I ordered the cards from Drive-Through Cards. There are actually four sets of useful cards available. You don't need them all, but the price for professionally printed cards didn't seem bad, so I went for all of them.

At first glance (they just arrived today) the cards look like very nice quality.

I'm hoping to try a solo game soon. Need to build my first band of adventurers!

Sellswords and Spellslingers

I bought another new set of rules, Sellswords and Spellslingers from Ganesha Games.

I bought the PDF because I've read a lot of good things about it as a solo game recently. After reading the rules I ordered the printed cards. Given my recent problems with space and time (no, not in a metaphysical, Eternal Champion kind of way... gaming space and time to play) I thought it would be worth a try. If it goes well, it might be fun try it as a cooperative game as well. It's a skirmish game, so it won't quite fulfill my quest for more "big battle" games. But it will be something.

It will also be a good excuse to put a bunch of individual and small groups of minis to use. Motivation to paint up some more odds and ends -- individuals and small groups, without worrying about large regiments.  I also like that it's got a built-in campaign system.

Now I'm revved up to build a 36"x36" gaming table. I have a 34"x34" folding table, so I figure I can build a wood frame out to 36" square and either top with plywood or infill with insulation, and give it some texture and paint pretty quickly & inexpensively. That could slide right on top of the folding table.

And... maybe I should try the game out first before getting carried away. Haha.