Finished Hogman!

It's finished and I just love it!!!

More wip pics of the Hogman!

More wip pictures of the Hogman sculpt that Paul Muller is doing for my upcoming range from Oddity Miniatures!

I think he's turning into quite a magnificent beast if i say so myself!!!

Exiting news!

So I've been trying for years to release some miniatures of my own design and preferably by some of the sculptors who I've admired for years. One of those sculptors is Paul Muller, and you might know his excellent work from companies such as Otherworld, Wyrd and Andrew Coleman's Four A Miniatures.

Picture courtesy of Four A miniatures: http://www.fouraminiatures.com/page2.htm

I've always loved Paul's recognizable and unique style and had been trying for years to get into contact with him and maybe commission a few works from him. To be honest I had almost given up untill Andy Coleman (yet him again, go check out his wonderfull range and show him some love! ;) ) passed my message onto Paul and he contacted me to see what all this was about!

We got to work and by some simple pointers Paul got to work and made some preliminary sketches. I deliberatly gave Paul lots of freedom and a minimum of directions as I think he works best if he can let his magic happen that way!

So, can you see what this will become? Please be free to guess! I will unveil more about it soon!!!

Ruleset Design: Turn system (2)

A few days ago the 'special tokens' were mentioned. Basically these are tokens which represent some random occurance or change of play, etc. To be honest I've only thought up a few at the moment but I'm sure more will come up either by myself or from your suggestions. To make things easy I have used some different coloured pebbles to represent them and marked them with a square, circle, triangle, etc to let them stand out from the Roman numerals I've used for the fighter tokens.

These tokens are meant to spice up your battles and can generate interesting situations which can make you really think twice on which course of action to take. These tokens are randomly selected or agreed on up front (how many and which are used) and are put in to the bag together with the other tokens used in the game. When they are picked, the players must follow up the instructions that go along with the token in question.

Examples of random tokens:

-Pick any one of your opponents' fighters which hasn't had its turn yet and force it to take its turn. Discard the next token your opponent picks.

-Pick any one of your own force's fighters and have it perform its turn, even if it has already taken its turn before in this round. (effectively he has two turns this round!)

-Pick any one of your opponents' fighters which hasn't had its turn yet. That fighter cannot take its turn for the remainder of this round. (effectively putting him out of play for this round. Note that the fighter can still fight back if attacked.)

-Pick any one of your own fighters that hasn't had its turn yet. That fighter cannot take its turn for the remainder of this round. (effectively putting him out of play for this round. Which fighter do you sacrifice? decisions decisions! Note that the fighter can still fight back if attacked.)

 

-Your opponent may choose any one of your own fighters that hasn't had its turn yet. That fighter cannot take its turn for the remainder of this round. (effectively putting him out of play for this round. Note that the fighter can still fight back if attacked.)

 

-When this token is picked this round ends even if there are still tokens left in the bag! Simply start the next round. (this one is quite drastic so not too sure of it just yet!)

 

Just a quick run through as it needs some more work but I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding it!

Ruleset Design: Turn system (1.5)

So this is pretty much a short musing on some of the replies posted by Ian and Corvus and also of some people I've spoken to about this turn system. The thought that comes up quite frequently is that people are affraid they will be waiting too much if they are unlucky with the tokens being drawn.  (for example player A gets three moves in a row due to his tokens being taken out of the back after each other)

What might would solve this is to get just one set of tokens with the approapriate markings of each fighter being put in the bag instead of each player having its own colour. The game would become a bit more '' I go, you go'' but still retains a bit of its unpredictable nature. Note it would be still possible to have a player having more then one turn in a row due to some special tokens available in the game but more on that later!

The case about one player geting more turns then the other because he has more fighters in his force is one a bit harder to solve. If solvable at all. I mentioned in my replies that this is the case in most skirmish and mass combat wargames. Once fighters/units/squads start to die or become removed from play for some other reason it can always happen that one player has more 'to do' then the other one. This is also the case if you are facing a 'horde' like force with your specialized one. One player will be playing his fighters more timewise because he simply has more of them. You might notice it a bit less maybe in some cases if you are playing the ''I go, you go'' style as you move/shoot/fight with your entire force in one go and then your oppent does the same with his.

I guess this is also a matter of balancing your force. I always liked to go for a varied force with only a few leaders and specialists and mostly footsoldiers. If you only take a few hard hitting characters and maybe some monsters and just a few lower fighters then you will always be outnumbered. Sure your opponent has more to do but your fighters are likely to survive just a bit longer due to better stats and abilities.

What do you want to get out of your games?! For me it's all about fun and not a competition of how to make the hardest hitting force out there to smack your opponents silly with and in as little time as possible. Sure, if that is your thing go right ahead. I respect that but I'd likely wouldn't play against you in the future again as it wouldn't be much fun for me to be honest. Nor would it be for you either right?

I am not saying this turn system is perfect, yet! Far from it but I like where it's going and with your help I hope it will be polished some more untill it's good to go!

Next update will likely be tomorrow or towards the end of this week and will be about the sorts of tokens I have in mind including the 'special ones' I mentioned earlier!

Cheers,

Gibbergeist!

Ruleset Design: Turn system (1)

So let's get this rolling shall we! I would like to start with the turn system I've created.

When I first started thinking about creating a game the first thoughts I had went out on how to create a turn system that I would like. I am not a big fan of the ''you go, I go'' way as I find it pretty boring! Basically you or your opponent moves, shoots, fights and whatever else with his entire force and all you do is react when needed and make some dice rolls for various reasons. What I like a bit better already is that you move something in your force and then you opponent does the same. This way you both get to play shortly after another without waiting for the other to finish the turn with his entire force. And it's also a bit more challenging tactically wise. Still I find this a bit predictable and I really want a system where you don't get to choose entirely which unit goes when.

 

So what I have come up with is that every individual that is part of a force is represented by its own token. (bare in mind that I have a skirmish game in mind. That means you get to play with 6-20 miniatures a side. If you want to use the system in bigger games you could allocate the tokens to units just as well!) To playtest the system I've bought some glass pebbles (which are available in most pet shops and garden supply centers) to use as tokens.

You can write down numbers or symbols on the glass pebbles to represent the various sorts of fighters which can be found in your force. I'm probably going to use classes or levels to represent the fighters and characters so I've simply used Roman numerals to keep it simple.

 

For example, you have five class 1 fighters in your force, two class 3 and your leader is class 5. You would need to take 5 pebbles with a I, three with a III and one with a V.  Your opponent does the same for his force and of course to keep the forces apart you use different colours for each force! (this also because there will be more different coloured tokens which have other uses. But more on that later!)

 

As said, once the forces has been put together the players collect all of the tokens necessary for that game and put them together in a bag. These bags are also known as dice bags. (check below for an example of a dice bag which I've found online) Just remember that you need a bag which is large enough to put your hand in with enough room for about 20-30 tokens without you being able to see whick tokens you pick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To establish which player goes first with which fighter, the players each take turns picking a token out of the bag. The player who's token is taken out of the bag can activate a fighter of the same class which is represented on the token. For example we have five class 1 fighters in our force so it's up to you to decide which one of those five you are going to play with!

 

Repeat this process untill there are no more tokens in the bag. When the bag is empty and all the fighters have performed then the turn is over and the players put back all the tokens into the back for another round. Reapeat this cycle for whatever number of rounds you have agreed upon or adhere to the number given if you are playing a scenario of some sorts. 

 

Note that it is possible to have one player's token taken out several times in a row. This makes the game unpredictable and challeninging. You have to choose wisely which fighters you use and more importantly, how you use them.

Edit: I now see I forgot a very important part!!! While the players are taking turns in picking out a token blindly from the bag, it can happen that you pick a token belonging to your opponent! Thus in this case he takes its turn and acts with one of the fighters from the class represented on the token! And vice versa!

 

 

 

 

Okay this was the first part about the turn system and I hope you like it so far. If you have any questions, ideas, feedback or advice then don't be affraid to share it! Next part will be about the different sorts of tokens available and how they work.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Gibbergeist.

Introductions...

So what's this all about then!? Well if you have a few moments to spare and you find it interesting, let me tell you.

I've been a gamer/painter for well over 25 years now. I guess it all first started when my parents bought me a game called Hero Quest for my birthday many years back. I always had a love for fantasy and scifi and I had been ogling the game for months in our local toy shop, intrigued by the heroes and the strange fantasy creatures illustrated on the cover of the box. I remember opening it and discovering the little plastic figurines inside and how exiting it all was. My dreams that night were filled with adventures and strange new worlds being discovered.

 

 

 

 

I've always been a bit of a dreamer and while we played the game endlessly, the most fun I had was when I was thinking up new worlds, creatures and scenarios to play with. I always kept that habit no matter which game I was playing or interested in. Later on I was introduced by a mate of mine to a game called Warhammer Fantasy Battle released by a company called Games Workshop and that was what really hooked me forever into this hobby. To this day I still admire what GW created all those years ago even though for me it has lost that special feeling which I felt in the beginning.

 

 

I still love playing games and creating 'stuff' and I've been dreaming for years about releasing some miniatures of my own design. I have had several themes fighting for dominance inside my head but I keep coming back to fantasy so that's what I've settled on and that's what I really want to do. Now of course fantasy is a pretty wide subject so in this blog I gradually want to unveil my plans for the game, background and miniatures.

 

Why this blog!? Well I really want to put things to paper and keep motivated! Hopefully, you, the reader (if there are any! ;) ) will aid me with some valuable feedback and maybe even pitch in some great ideas! At first I thought I had to keep everything a secret but then I had another thought and that was that it might be cool to share. Maybe others might like to tag along for the ride and be interested in what experience and process a noobie like me goes through. So I hope you join me on this hopefully not too bumpy road and witness a world being shaped!

 

So what can you expect from me in the coming months? Posts on the creation of the ruleset. Unveiling of the background and its inhabitants and musings in general of subjects I like and care about. Done yet you say?! NO!!! Maybe most important and what I am really exited about is that I'm about to commission some sculpts by artists I really admire! So I hope to share pics of some greens and maybe some concept art too and hopefully you'll like what you see!!!

 

Cheers,

 

 

Gibbergeist.