Holidays...

 So, perhaps a couple of you peeps out there realized my lack of posting lately.

I'm off work on paid holidays, got to use up these hours before cut-off after Fall. Retail kicks it up a notch from Fall until Christmas, and they don't allow management to take time off during the busiest part of the year.

I'm currently visiting with friends I've known since grade-school, jamming with old musician friends and hanging out with who's left of us that are still alive.

Going back to my old hometown (this is a 12 hr drive, so very far away) last October, I realized that my move (4 years prior) was the best thing I've done. The old stomping grounds is a tourist area that is now ravaged by an overpopulation of homeless, bussed in from other areas to clean up other cities of their degenerates and mentally ill. Little did I know that my hometown would be the landfill.

Think about that, it could be used as an adventure trope in sci-fi or Fantasy.

BTW, I'm not in the USA, I'm in the Northern part of Canada, the oil-rich region. Times are actually not bad considering the cuts in the oil and gas industry, this city I'm in is still booming and there is a lot of opportunity to be had.

Anyways, I thought I'd pop in here and let you folks know, I'll be following up on Cha'alt and Metamorphosis Alpha and some other acquisitions. Also a full expose on my painting progress on DEEP MADNESS.

The Grind to paint minis...

Sometimes, there is a call to action...

The players, who know you are a SCI-FI gamemaster, with a hundred or so SCI-FI fully painted miniatures, say... "hey, can you GM a fantasy game?"

So I take the players on and of course, my miniature collection has very, very few Fantasy figures.

So, I went to my local store and pick out a set of minis that look like the players characters... then I collect up Gnolls, Orcs, Goblins... a giant, an Ogre... 30+ some odd miniatures later, you have a problem when game time is a week away and you hold down a full time job and you got a family as well.

Well, the only solution is to stylize... and so I have, Statuesque Miniatures.

So we mount our subject onto a 25mm base, this being a Barbarian Gal from Reaper bones...

and we mix up a bit of milliput to blend out the mini-base to the miniature, I usually do this in batches, getting as many miniatures based as possible. This stuff is sticky and messy on your fingers. It does dry rather quickly and rock hard. A couple of hours tops.

I try to get the appearance of rough ground on these bases so you squish it onto the base with fingers, then use a dental tool to help mash it on solid... and damp down with my fingers to pat it down evenly.

A grey primer works, I'm also trying to match the natural grey color of the Wizkids minis, fresh out of the package. This bones figure needs to look like a grey Wizkid mini... note the other minis and the effect I'm going for.

After the base primer is dry, it resembles the same grey as the others, time to wash it.

I use a combo of black primer, Airbrush Thinner and Airbrush flow improver (All Vallejo as well).

And with a final dusting of grey once again as a drybrush...

Looks good enough to tabletop for now...

All the minis are painted like this and when I finally have time to mass-paint all of these, I'll break out the colored paints and go at it. They are ready for color when the time comes.

Building Worlds... D&D and all RPG's

So there has been a lot of "outsiders" looking into RPG's in general and displaying their disdain for the genre. Outsider: meaning someone with very limited information on how RPG's work, feeling that what is written in the rules is LAW, and have contempt for any "triggering" content.

The DM/GM has to read his participants, gauging what will promote situations in the game, resulting in the participants resolving the situation, resulting in catharsis.

It's part of the DM/GM's job to create something that "triggers" the participants, so they play with an emotional attachment to resolve.

Without this, the game becomes a theme-park and the goal is XP... which leads to the game being dismissive and unmemorable.

NPC's are the DM/GM's tools to evoke conflicts or aid in such conflicts. They must portray a persona that comes from the imagination of what a good villain or commoner in the imagined world would be.

Many DM/GM's will use voice acting and even accents to portray these NPC's.

I once had a game of Space 1889, Victorian, Jules Verne era Sci-fi.

One of the most beloved NPC's I made was the manservant Gungi Jim, companion to the lead player's character, the very British, Matthew Cross.

I used a pseudo India influenced accent to bring the NPC to life.

Cross was eventually joined with a US Gunslinger and a Canadian Inventor (no longer remember the characters names, this was back when the game first came out in the 80's)

Cross' main antagonist was Danton Mignon Monet... a French aristocrat, that was attempting to woo Cross' love-interest Miss Stephanie.

Monet was based on the powder poof white-wigged Casanova, complete with white makeup and fake beauty mark... and he was a bondage fanatic... (I knew this would really, REALLY irk the RL player).

Stephanie's kidnapping and the search for ancient treasures in the Amazon ruined cities (complete with giant scorpions, pythons, and giant Cyclopian-Centaurs... French mercenaries under Monet's command...

THIS was the most memorable campaign for all the players involved. and is STILL talked about to this day almost 40 years later.

With the incursion of SJW policing, how would you then re-create this masterpiece of brain-candy?

No matter what the SJW's write within the rule books... Roleplaying games are not chained to the rules. Any mechanics system that players gravitate towards, will be used to invent new worlds with all kinds of "triggering" tropes, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Even the setting promoted (Faerun/Sword Coast, Ravenloft. Theros...) will be torn asunder by DM's that will cannibalize the parts they deem fit for their group and add their own twists and creative ingenuity. Making EVERY world different and diverse in their own way through the gameplay between participants in the game. 

Take heed readers, that you are empowered to create ANYTHING you want, if you have the audience/participants willing to interact with it. You can use any "trigger" to have at your disposal to give participants, for the best game experience possible.

The players will either enjoy it or leave it for another game suited for their tastes.