Pathfinder - archer paladins, holy smokes!

There is some contention regarding Pathfinder rules allowing paladins that take up archery. You'll find it on message boards and F2F debates at game stores and across tables. It's not like edition wars or anything but I've seen some of the debates in forums get a tad heated prospectively. What camp am I in? Well, I play an archer paladin in one of my games so I'm all pro on that.

Some of the comments I've seen pro and con (paraphrased of course and probably some bit out of context and debatable):
Pro-
It is not against the rules as written.
Pathfinder, themselves, have stated it is 100% legal as long as the paladin stays within their code.
In PF rules archery, in and of itself, is slightly superior to other ways of dealing out non-spell damage.

Con-
*pulling from IRL historical doctrine via the Holy Roman Church* It is illegal for knights to use un-honorable weapons like bows or crossbows.
Paladins are supposed to be plate mailed tanks.
In past editions of the game (Dungeons and Dragons) it is against paladin code to use ranged weapons.

Now, first, I am no authority. I'm just a hobbiest. I play PF for the fun and social aspects of it. "Fun" to me is setting out a goal in game and achieving it - and this usually consists of "something is threatening X, we go out and find it and make it stop, get stuff for that". On top of all that you get to be somebody all heroic and shit and explore that personality and maybe even plagiarize something from a movie you saw that was cool. On top of all that you get to improve as far as you succeed. On top of all of that you get to shoot lightning bolts and jump on fantastical monster heads and hit them with magical weapons named "Dire-Smasher" and shit like that. If you are lucky this goes on for longer than a year and you build a story that is fun to be a part of.

I am in no position to say anyone is right or wrong and me doing so would be useless as my typed words here and what comes out of my mouth has no effect on how others chose to play a game.

We played another session of Brandon's (the GM) Rise of the Runelords yesterday and we got to the boss fight of the session. It was against some undead/revenant/corrupted dude that was evil and crazy. He had minions too, more undead ghouls or something like that. We were at full strength as we rested right before,though there is only 3 of us in the party (and if you did not know encounters are hardwired in the assumption there are 4 PCs). The fight was tough, the BBEG focusing his attacks on our druid played by my wife Gretchen. The wizard (Jason) laid down some battlefield control which took some of the bear of the mooks off of us. Balder, my archer paladin, put some arrows down range. We saw what could be done.

Balder clicked all the columns for this one. Smite Evil, Divine Bond (on bow), Deadly Aim feat, Rapid Shot feat, Point Blank feat, and some other stuff. He was rocking a full attack of +12/+12/+12/+7 and doing 1d8+20 damage per arrow. In 4 rounds of combat he shot 12 arrows - hitting with 4 (some crap die rolls) and netting a total of 110 points of damage as per what Brandon the GM tracked. Due to Smite Evil and the BBEG being undead the first arrow that hit did 1d8+24. Hitting with less than half the shots taken he still put down 110 damage. Balder did get bit by one of the mooks taking 6 points of damage, no need for some fortitude save as he is immune to disease.

The BBEG went down and the mooks were handeled with Balder's positive energy burst he can do. He then healed everyone with lay on hands and cured the diseases they picked up with his mercy ability. Because of his ranged ability he could stay out of melee for the most part and still put some damage down.

Some would say "Wow, so broken!!" and to that I say, "That's what Balder was designed to do." Let's take a good look at it all.

1) Balder is a paladin, a champion of good and justice. He is hardwired to defeat evil things in combat. This target was not only evil, it was undead too.
2) The whole group made tactical decisions for the best tactical situation - up to and including leaving Balder with line of sight on his target (aka positioning).
3) We made sure we also had proper illumination so as to get rid of any concealment chances due to not being able to see clearly.
4) Some buffs were up for us.
5) Some debuffs on the baddies were also up.

If the BBEG were not an undead evil guy that murdered people things would've been different. I did some math to prove that point. If the target was a rabid dire bear 75 feet away Balder would be doing considerably less damage. 2 arrows at 1d8+5 at best. That's if they were able to get the rabid dire bear out into the open, in the day, no rain or fog. Balder is not helpless mind you but he's not as bad-assed as he is against a demon.

Change that rabid dire bear into a gang of chaotic neutral humans and elves that have taken to banditry? We're looking at a whole different philosophy of contact for Balder there. Afterall, he's a lawful good paladin, he can't just go kill these bandits. At least, that's how I'd play him.

Pathfinder games

I'm actively playing in 2 right now - Rise of the Runelords (GM Brandon) and Wrath of the Rigteous (GM Jason). I play 2 different Paladins in both, which I blogged about some recently.

My last game was last Saturday, WotR. We got a good loot drop and leveled. It was very fun. Jason hosted and supplied us with pizza. I had painted minis for every one of our PCs. I also brought some extra minis for Jason to use as I have about 1 billion of the old DDM minis. Well... more like around 800. On top of that I will be painting more minis for the game as we will need fly demons and fire demons and poop demons... all kinds of demons as I am under the assumption the main baddies in this AP are demons.

With Reaper putting out the Bones line a few of my FLGSs are discounting metal minis to the point I can afford them. What was once a $30 metal mini is now a $12 metal mini. Goody for me. On top of that the Bones "large monster" minis are much more affordable at $8 or whatever they are which leads me to...

...Rise of the Runelords. I know we have some giants coming up against us soon. Brandon bought the boxed RotRL tokens set but I will be able to help him by fielding some giants. I'm not sure what kind of giants there are but I have hill giants, stone giants, fire and frost, plus maybe a cloud giant or 2. On top of that I've got a good amount of trolls of the normal/rock/mountain/ice kind. Plus a bucket of ogres. With his tokens and my minis we've got it covered. I did buy a Bones female cloud giant. It's kind of "sexy" but it's the only female cloud giant out there I can find in the normal spots. Will be fun to paint.

Next RotRL session is this Sunday the 22nd - last game session of the year unless we can pull one more WotR session out post Xmas.

Now, stop reading this and go see if any local stores sell mead!! Then buy it. No real reason, just enjoy some mead or wine or a nice cranberry juice and soda... whatever you like. Happy Holidays and may you never get mixed up in a scheme lead by Odin himself.

Saga, Dark Ages Skirmish war gaming I

Finally played our first 2 games of Saga a week and some days ago. It was an icy cold yet dry Friday night, in the 20s, and Spencer and I finally had everything we needed to play Saga.

First things first: Spencer and his Anglo Danes whooped my Viking ass. Twice. I looked silly.

The saga of us playing Saga can be summarized like this:
1) Spencer, interested in historical war gaming, mentions Saga to Gabe. Gabe says "OK" spring of 2013.
2) Gabe buys rule book.
3) Both buy Wargames Factory plastic minis and go through a learning process from various backgrounds in mini painting. A lot if things are learned.
4) Both now have very solid opinions on how to build and paint their armies next time around.
5) We realized.... or more like Gabe realized a lot... how important terrain was for Saga and started a whole new hobby.
6) Life, family, other hobbies, and 7 Years War 1/32 minis and All The King's Men mixed with the above made the process of saying "yes" to "Spencer kicking Gabe's ass" take about 8 months.

The game is relatively easy. Players get some points to build an army with. The units are standard - no special group gets much special troops like more modern games common at your FLGS. There is some standardization and variance but nothing in the "collectible" market. Basic warbands are:
Vikings
Anglo-Danes
Welsh
Normans
You pick one and build off of that. You can use anything to represent the light standards they coded into the rules to represent them; the only hard rule being what your table decides is the level you want to achieve in looks. Spencer and I decided to shoot higher than painting pennies blue and red and scooting them about a coffee table around jars and books... though one could play Saga doing that.

What you need (and not necessarily what I bought):
D6s - a bucket of them
Saga dice - can be bought or made
Minis, or something to represent your army in a fashion like minis would
Saga rulebook and the "battle board" that comes with the rule book
A flat surface that is about 3'x4'
maybe some of them painted pennies I mentioned above for fatigue markers
a measuring tape or measuring thing that can do 2", 4", 6", and 12"

I'm sure I missed something.

Players deploy their armies in some order based off points and scenario. You then go at it. There are phases you must follow:

1. Roll Saga dice (with runes or helmets and stuff on them) and place them on your battle board. Your battle board is the thing that gives your unit activations (move, shoot, rest) or special abilities like roll 2 extra attack dice for every X on the board and stuff like that. You put the Saga Dice on the thing you want and hope it comes in handy.

2. You activate and end up dukeing it out with the other players units.

Our 2 games went like this:

Game #1
I deploy my Vikings like an idiot. Spencer deploys his Anglo-Danes like a smart guy. I run my vikings all over the place and get picked apart by Anglo archers. My own archers are in the woods for some stupid reason and not able to get volleys to bear. The last turn looked like this:

What is left of my hearthguard and the warlord, full of fatigue and archers somewhere behind them out of any kind of range and in the woods. That's Spencer back there with HIS WHOLE ANGLO-DANE WARBAND.

Game #2
Started off a bit better. I deployed, from left to right behind the little thatched a-frame I built, warriors, warriors, warlord, hearthguard, hearthguard. My grand plan was to march my warriors up the middle and then my warlord and his hearthguard up the right flank from behind the a-frame and SLAM into the Anglo-Danes.

Oh Snap! Them wily Vikings looped around on the right!!

Well, it didn't work out too well. Spencer kept his troops in a nice and tight formation and I didn't move my left flank up enough to even get into the fight so Spencer's Anglo-Danes concentrated a majority of his forces on my Warlord and his bodyguards and they were all killed.

All that getting my lunch taken and then wallered in sound unfun but I had a blast. We were learning the game so spent a lot of time reading the rules - really Spencer did most of that. I followed along and found all the mistakes one could make when playing this game. Now we know. *Dons cape and flies away*

What I learned is that using your battle board is very important. Having your units work off each other is very important. Knowing your strengths and your opponents weaknesses are very important. All basic Art of War stuff - but mechanics of the game you are actually under the umbrella of, and The Art of War is best.

As has been stated in other blogs way before I could state it here - Saga is not a game of grand moves or strategies. Your field is quite small and we played 4 point war bands. Some of your battle board tactics will give your war band it's flavor (Anglo-Danes are slightly defensive while Vikings are all about attacking with as many attack dice as one could dream of) but it's mostly move and shoot and melee. Oh... and protect your warlord.

Players with a grip on the rules can have a game started and finished in 45 minutes. Maybe longer with larger war bands.

One can use any brand of "vikings" or dark ages warriors for your war bands as long as it's Vikings or Anglo-Danes. Normans and Welsh have cavalry so it's a bit more complicated for those war bands if you into saving money. Solid rules are 25mm scale, dark ages-esque look, and you can tell the difference between:
Levies - mostly javelins, slingers, and archers - no armor - farmers and such pressed into service.
Warriors - shields and spears mostly, some variance depending on war band.
Hearthguard - the pros - armor and shields and axes and stuff.
Warlord - the big cheese.

The Holidays are all up on us!

Happy Thanksgiving to those that do such things in any form yu choose to do it. For me it was football (Raiders and Cowboys), early dinner, meeting some quasi inlaws, and dessert at friends' home later that night. I'm a Raiders fan, been one since the late 70s. I spent a lot of Sundays, as a child, at gatherings with my Thai Mother (Wilivan "Juke" Martin, RIP) and our extended Thai family

"Black" Friday was a day in while the wife worked. My kid and I hung out and I tended to some house cleaning while the kid tended her room. I also got a few hours of Skyrim in - my preffered method of passing time in a relaxing and fun way when I can. I also did do a bit of shopping on Amazon, got the kid some of her gifts.

Saturday was a day of going to the DEQ to get new tags for the truck and... a Pathfinder Game!! We're in our second session of Pathfinder's Adventure Path Wrath of the Righteous and so far it has been great. Jason is the GM and there are 4 players - me, Brandon (my Rise of the Runlords GM), Ryan, and Jeremy.

I play a quasi crippled paladin and scion of the Crusades Aaron Marcovina - he is young and strong but not very fit for the "campaign life" of a crusading crusader near the Worldwound. His Father, General Marcovina, has justly placed him in an admin and flag officer position within the city of Kenabres - Aaron's leadership and intelligence making up anything he lacks in raw martial prowess. He's a good kid, knows his strengths and limitations, and harbors no allusions of grandeur. His policiy of making peace before war has marked him by the seniority in the past year.

The game has been fun so far, I really like trying to RP a lawful good paladin. It's not about being a dick, and all about being a hero that people love and respect. People should be happy when a paladin shows up and there's badness about. I play a paladin in the Rise of the Runelords campaign I'm in too but of a different style - more like a down home kind of guy. Really good archer and physically superior to most but barely a cup of brains and sense in his head. Good guy, just dumb. He's a bit maiximized though and can put out a ton of damage with that bow when he's got all the cards in play. Something like "1d8+12 per arrow, 3 arrows per round... this does not include magic bonuses and smite evil dragon/undead/outsider bonuses". He is level 6.

Half-painted mini of my paladin in Rise of the Runelords - "Baldur". Mason Thorward mini from the Reaper line, old school metal.

 

All the King's Men, Friday night game.

Looking to be our regular thing, Friday nights are wargaming night for Spencer and I. Last night we had another rousing game of All the King's Men. Figure are 54mm (aka 2 inch) figs, the kind you can get 36 in a bag for $9. Spencer painted them all. We're playing 7 Year War era stuff here.

 



I chose to play France while Spencer chose The Allies (Britain and all). I like playing France when given the choice. I had the advantage of being able to set up all along my side of the table (south) while The Allies only had about 2/3 of the north side to deploy.

 

France's battle line.

Ally's battle line, boxed in on one side due to the hills and woods.

 

Knowing the Allied restriction and how important it is for infantry to be moved into a position to bring their muskets to bear I set up my infantry in column, thus they moved quicker than in line formation (10" move in column, 6" move in line). I had 2 infantry units in column and my first few moves were getting them to the middle of the field and formed in lines up against the Allies.

 

I immediately lost an cavalry unit on my left flank from Allied cannons. I accidently moved my skirmishers too far but, fortunately, that misstep was not a game changer. The Allies also moved skirmishers into the woods and they took pop-shots at each other. Than we both decided to move cavalry into the woods and a bloodbath ensued resulting in The French holding the woods with the aforementioned skirmishers.

 

Princes of The Woods of Death!

 

French lines holding and bearing fire upon the Allies in the middle of the field.

 



 

A slug fest ensued after the brutal fight in the woods. We exchanged fire and adjusted lines where needed. In the end the French came out the victorious ones. Moves were being made by both sides to take the town in the middle but all was for naught as it was too late. Heavy casualties resulted in The Allies withdrawing from the field.

 

French units moving towards the edge of town, anchoring the right flank's pincher move.

 

Spencer set up the table before I got there, and he drew up maps so that we could do a "blind" deployment prior to coming to the game. The big lesson of this game, for me at least, was how important infantry are. Bravo!

 

Edit: Not 30 Years' War - 7 Years' War.





OryCon35 is done, and it was very fun

We had a great time at OryCon. On a Zombie Squad level and on a personal level.

The fantable was run well by my wife Gretchen, Media Officer Tifni, Vice President Nate, Financial Officer Jane, and her husband Michael. We had a ton of visitors and got plenty of information out. We even held a raffle that was a success and raised some money for the Susan Petrey fund.
http://www.osfci.org/petrey/

The panels I was on went well. Some I spoke a lot in, some I did not. All was good. I go where needed.

The Game-anon panel (gamer lifestyle) centered on nerds bullying nerds. Jason Andrew (White Wolf) was the moderator and he focused us well. Rhianon Louve was a panelist, as was I obviously, and she was a perfect representative of the female aspect of gamer culture. We talked about bullying within the gamer community, touched on gaining the skill to determine what is and is not bullying, hygiene, women at the gaming table, delving out of the gamer culture a bit, ... and stuff like that. A really good talk in my opinion.

The Comics to Movies panel also went well. I did not bring much to the table as some other heavier industry people took over and that was fine. Other than "Avengers was cool..." I was able to bring up The Walking Dead comic to The Walking Dead TV show and how i felt about it (all good, my favorite TV show right now).

Saturday was the Practical Preparing for the Apocalypse panel. I sat on it with Karen Black (not the actress that just passed away this year but the writer and modern pioneer), Roget Rothferd and Rory Miller who moderated. It went well and was well-attended. We seemed to focus on defining what your "apocalypse" is, infrastructure, and the kinds of things one can do now in case there is a major disruption of life as we know it.

Jesse and Chin Chin from Heroes of Cosplay hung out with us a little bit at our table too. Good couple of folks and a lot of skill there. Hoping to work with them in the future some.

We had a room for Saturday night, it ended up being on the party floor, whoops. Anyways, we ended up partying a bit Saturday night. First we did a podcast via our friends Mathew and Brandon from The Orcbelly Inn. Brandon is Brandon Weaver and can be seen this December as Warbucks in the Annie production going on out in Forest Grove:
http://theatreinthegrove.org/wp/

After the podcast recording Gretchen and I, Nate, Brandon and Mathew set out to party and we did. By midnight it got a bit much for us old kids (Gretchen and I) so we went to bed.

We got up and had a delightful breakfast in Hospitality after a good shower and packing up some. We had great conversation with a lady dressed as a Jedi Knight and a gentlmen dressed like... well... a guy from the Pacific Northwest with his fleece vest and flannel shirt.

Some things to remember for next year:
1) Bring some healthier food. Like healthy meals.
2) Wash hands more often - I caught the Con-Crud.

I did get some good deals in the dealer room:
Shane Harris of Redwulf  http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedwolfLtd  gave me a discount on some "early period" brooch pins and hair pins for my wife. I've known the guy for almost a few decades via the SCA.
Red Castle Games  http://redcastlegames.com/  gave me a little some-some of a discount on a Pathfinder map. I'm addicted to those laminated maps for my RPG table. Love those things. Then we talked about my opinion on new RPGers playing Pathfinder. I'll get into that in another blog post.
Guardian Games  http://www.ggportland.com/  gave me a little some some of a discount with some wargaming dice. Always appreciate that. Then we talked about maybe hosting a Saga demo in the future.

Next year we plan to work with The Orcbelly Inn to bring a great party to the Con.

Going to OryCon this weekend

Not that I am a big con-goer guy, I go to them when I can but it's not imparative I go, I will be at OryCon this weekend.

First and foremost I will be representing Zombie Squad Oregon (ZSC011). I am president of the chapter and am on the "Practical Survival of the Apocalypse" panel Saturday afternoon. Also we have a fan table and manning that will be me, my wife Gretchen, ZSC011 vice president Nate, media officer Tifni, and Financial Officer Jane. Also in attendence for us will be varying members of ZSC011. Further, we are hosting s small room party Saturday night. On top of all that we are holding a raffle, funds will be donated to one of the OryCon scholarships, prize being a backpack and some bug out bag goodies.

Adding more to my plate (and thus other ZSC011 officers) I will be paneling at 2 other panels - Comic book and Movies Panel and Geekanon - gamer geek lifestyle panel. It's a long story how I got on those. Jist of it: I filled out a panelist interest survey, they used that to volunteer me on 3 panels. It's all good and I am honored to have been considered for the other 2 panels. I'm just some shlub... a fan... a consumer. The others on the panel are creators and known people in the industry.

After all that it's back to work on Monday, Veteran's Day, and a bunch of "thank you for your services" and back patting... which I don't care much for. Oh well, it's how it is for some of us vets and if that makes people feel better than so be it.

My fantasy at the con is to find a great deal on some gaming stuff that I want or could need in the dealer's room. One time at a comic con, one of them small ones at the Memorial Coloseum, I found two boxes of GW Lord of the Rings figures - Riders of Rohim, orcs with sword and shield, orcs with long spears, goblins, Gondorian soldiers - and the dealer was letting them go for $16 a box. I'm still using some of these minis on my gaming table today. I had also found some Elvgrin pin up reprints and a box of Bettie Page trading cards for cheap. This was back in 2002 and the only time I ever found such deals at a con of any kind.

Anyways, I should also see a lot of old-timey friends and acquantices there so looking forward to the weekend.

In other news - finished my Saga Warlord and 3 points of hearthguard - Vikings!!!:

A-frame viking longhouse I made and some wattle fencing.

Quickshade (quickly shading) minis

This is old hat to many grognards and wargamers - a quick short cut ot painting your army is to quickly shade it with some wood stain. I have no idea the history of doing such things but I learned about it this year (2013). Some are against it and consider it cheating, for others this is the only way they can get an army on the table and not have them be unpainted. Myself, I like ot use it when I've got to put out a good amount of minis. For instance:

If I need to paint one miniature that may be  used as a Boss or a player character I'll give it a good go at old school painting. Layers and shading and all. Well... more like wash and highlight.

If I need to put out 6 guys in chainmail with crossbows, I'll speedpaint. Pick a few colors and:
1) Base with appropriate sized base.
2) Spray a base/primer coat.
3) Flock base with sand (optional)
4) Paint flesh, clothes, outer things.
5) "Dip" in quick sahde medium of choice.
6) Flock with grass (optional)

I've turned over 8 minis in a 24 hour period (minus drying time for quick shade which is 1 or 2 days). Here's one:

 

 

There's even a specialized product called Army Painter Quickshade:

You can get it anywhere and it works great. That crossbow dude above? Army Painter Quicksade "dark tone". I've seen it on the net for $17 a can (then add some shipping to it) and $30 at my friendly local hobby/game shop. I'm comfortable with spending an extra $3 to support my FLG/HS. They work hard and deserve some purchases.

That said, cheap-skate tip: Minwax Polyshade works the same and is, generally, less than $10 a can and you can get it at your local hardware store, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes... what ever. Works fine, though some say you must mix it with some mineral spirits. It is a bit thicker than the Army Painter Quickshade. I've used it straight out of the can and it has worked fabulously. The "thickness" of it is a boon too as it seems to put a good protective coat on your plastic or metal mini.

Color comparison, what has worked for me:
Minwax Poly "Pecan" = light
Minwax Poly "Walnut" = strong
Minwax Poly "Mahogany" = dark

"Dip" is a dubious term. You are instructed to actually dip your mini in the can. It's messy. I brush it on instead.

All these products dry glossy so be ready to dull it up with your dulling product of your choice. I use a matte spray or some Vallejo acrylic dull coat. I have used Testors Dullcote product (brush on) and it's been iffy at best. I have no idea why it's not working for me.

Someone else's work.

Just a quick link to my friend's blog regarding his latest All The King's Men game (54mm figures). His opponent was a friend of his:
http://tinzeroes.blogspot.com/2013/10/punctually-and-in-good-order.html

He learned a lot about set up during this session.

Me? Been busy the past week. Work has been busy as well as hme life. Got Halloween coming up and that's a busy time for us at my house. Getting some painting projects down though - got another 2 points of Saga Viking hearthguard painted and dipped after one of my cats wrecked some of them. Got a viking a-frame house almost donw. Got some wattle fencing finished. Starting to paint some Reaper Bones minis for my friend Brandon in exchange for some leather work. Starting up... or renewing really ... a Pathfinder Kingmaker game that has been on hiatus for almost 2 years.

Also - setting up for a big Zombie Squad showing at OryCon (panels, party, and fan table). Had to cancel a hunting trip because of how busy I am but getting ready for hunting next year. Hoping ot get a salmon fishing trip in before the end of the year here.

Happy Halloween!

Pathfinder - Rise of the Runelords campaign

I am currently in a Pathfinder game run by my friend Brandon. At the table are my wife Gretchen and friend Jason. I've been gaming with Brandon and Jason for ... 10 years now? They are my current core group. My wife got into Pathfinder via me and has been being baptised in fire and blood for about a year now.

First - Edition Wars aside, Pathfinder IS a hard game to learn for an unexperienced player. I love the shit out of it but I see new people struggle with it quite a bit. I'm not hte best teacher so it's better for me to let Jason and Brandon handle that aspect as they are better teachers than me.

Second - I took a break for all table-top roleplaying 2008--2010. The longest I had been away from gaming, and I have been gaming consistently since 1979 when I was a we lad of 8 years old. Even while I served in the Navy I was able to find a way to game every month or so.

We play with 3 players. We had a 4th but he dropped as he had never played PF before and kind of didn't like it. Cool with us. Instead of bringing in a 4th player we decided to ghost an NPC - a tank-type. Right now Jason is playing the 4th NPC but, when at appropriate level, I will choose the leadership feat and take the NPC tank over as my cohort.

My character is a paladin named Balder. He is not your typical paladin, though I think most people that try to play a paladin can be quite unimaginative about playing a paladin. Balder is archery focused so not a plate-mail/mounted/lance/sword/knight type of paladin. He is also not lawful stupid ... and not because of an intelligence score which is pretty low anyways as we created our PCs via point-buy and something needed to get dumped to make Balder somewhat effective.

Ehr... Powergamer? Why, yes. Why not? The Pathfinder/3.x system is designed for powergaming, and by "powergaming" I mean "making your character as effective as you can within the scope of the rules". No munchkining (tweaking and exploits) but...

... here's an analogy:
You are playing the part of a hero that is trying to "save the world" for the most part. 3.x rules mandate this for the most part. You are playing the star, the hero, the saviour, the professional. Kind of like a pro football player. Why would you then opt to try to not maximize your effectiveness to do battle with the super bad in your game? If I knew that the guy oppressing my people was some ancient Lich from 2000 years ago risen, why would I not try ot get the best armor, sword, training, and skills I need to defeat it? IRL I do a lot of outdoor stuff. Sleeping on the ground can get uncomforable. To solve this I went to work (adventured), saved up some money from pay (loot), and bought a higher-end airmatress, an ExPed Downmat (a +2 mattress of warmth) to replace my older foam pad (standard, 2002 era, Z-lite foam pad).

Enough, enough.

So, Brandon is running us through the revised Rise of the Runelords by Paizo. We are in the second "chapter" called the Skinsaw Murders. It's awesome. We are following the trail of some evil psycho murderer and the deeper we get into it the more we are finding out we are the targets and not just the ones trying to stop it. There's actual "horror" going on, it get's kind of spooky at times. The party is a mercenary company called The Blue Ribbon Company (more on that later). Balder, sworn to something else, is "in advisement" only with the BRC. The others are Priestess Mikk of Desna (a gnome priestess played by my wife Gretchen) and Zelbathor (a wizard played by Jason). The NPC tank is Orick (standard platemail and sword frontline guy).

Our stats dictate our roleplaying personalities. Mikk is a haughty little gnome - passion rules her as she is always running on her emotions. It works out though as she is the one that speaks for our group and makes deals, contracts, and calms people down when that needs to happen. She's also very perseptive and empathic.

Zelbathor is very intelligent. We know because he tells everyone how intelligent he is. Why would he not do such things. He's a powerful wizard too. He tells everyone that too. He also proves it from time to time so there is no problem with him stating so. He's just being honest - He's smarter than almost everyone else and he wields arcane power that most do not.

Balder is a great guy. He smiles a lot. He's handy and handsome (imagine Alcid from True Blood but with a bow and smiling all the time and never gets angry). If you're having a bad day and he walks into the room he will help you. He's also great with animals and manual labor, which is when he takes off his tunic as that restricts his movements. He just doesn't notice things well, or know a lot of stuff about stuff or is able to deduce or process information beyond A and B. He does know that he is not very bright so that is why he has his friends around. He also knows that if one is not smart, than to be strong and helpful in other ways like mending a farm's fence, tending the animals, and fighting the evil that threatens a community.

He knows that Erastil has favored him, he's even been called a chosen warrior of Erastil, but he does not consider himself a "paladin" like that one who took him under his wing a few years ago and taught him honor and dignity in work. He is humbled and will not squander the gifts Erastil has given him. He was squired to Sir Egil Nortsson of Irori. He was killed in battle against a tribe of goblins that ambushed him and his followers while Balder was out hunting meat for the group.

In Balder's words, yesterday's session:
We are still on the road south to Magnimar. The murders heavy upon our shoulders as the community we serve is under the chains of fear. Being as we are capable we do not bather humble farmsteads for hospitality as the farms have been under strain the past month or so. Animals are afraid both wild and domestic. Rumors of scarecrows coming alive and attacking farmhands and innocents abound. Though capable, we decided to play it safe tonight and take rest at a more established farm, The Grump Farmstead.

Old man Grump gave us hospitality but we immediately heard his tales of the recent history of the area and he showed us a creature he cleaved with a shovel just yesterday. It was identified as a ghoul by Zelbathor and Mikk, Orick and I just happy the thing was dead and not something we had to do and also impressed that Old Man Grump had some fire in him to do such a thing. We also believed this ghoul was something from the sanitorium we fought the necromancer at a few days ago but Mikk and Zelbathor beleive the source is something different and in relation to what we sought.

We supped with Old Man Grump as I calmed his oxen in his barn. The general health of his animals was good, and a testament to the man Old Man grump is. Bless him.

In the morn Grump directed us to the Hamble farm down the road. We followed his directions and immediately fell into an ambush of more of these scarecrow creatures Grump told us of. Almost getting lost in the tangle of unkept crops we found our way via Mikk to the safety of the longhouse after a battle at the stead's barn. We also found Svetlana and her brother, captured and near turned into these ghouls

In the main longhouse we came upon more of the undead. We defeated them handidly but we found that all the Hambles had perished before we could aid them. We did secure the life savings of The Hambles and will be looking for the next of kin as they have the rights to the silver we found, which is under my protection.

-Balder, son of Sloan, chosen of Erastil

Music: metal, indy, hip hop, punk, and variations in between.

I like music. I've always been into it and I have many in my life to thank for my tastes that I was introduced to when I was young and my tastes now.

1) My Dad Valton. He used to have a huge vinyl collection, well, when I was a kid it was huge. More like 100 or so albums. Mostly Pink Floyd from what  I could remember but also some old honky tonk, ELO, Blondie. 70s and early 80s stuff. He also gave me my first record player and "real" album - AC/DC Highway to Hell.

2) All the stoners I knew when I was a pre-teen brought to me metal. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Black Sabbath... good shit with some blues influence or lyrics about the devil, wizards or murderers. On top of that I played Dungeons and Dragons - had a big target on my back in the 80s.

I must mention, as most of us were little idiots at that age, I did delve into some liking of lame metal bands too. Too me that was Motley Crue, Def Leapard, Warrant ... "smiley metal" crap like that.

3) Not sure "who", if anyone, introduced me to punk/HC music. That was more about me being a pissed off little boy and discovering Black Flag and The Clash. Rollins-era Black Flag answered a lot of questions for me that no one else would touch. It was pretty much my "guide" for weal or woe. I do remember watching Cro-Mags video for We Gotta' Know on MTV's 120 Minutes. That was monumental. I even taped it on VHS and watched it over and over again. I wanted to be that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BLcCM8nPYQ

4) By junior high and high school I started exploring "new wave" as we called it. To me that was The Smiths, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Joy Division, ... all the usual subjects. I still try to figure out why I liked it (and still do). I think it was because I was crushing on all the waver and gothy chicks at first and then later I found out I liked the music and some of it was poignant to me. None of those chicks liked me anyways and thats what The Smiths are all about so I was right in that audience!

5) Jason LeMaster introduced me to prog and "lesser knowns". He may deny it but it's his fault. A lot of the stuff he liked I did not but it was the concept that he introduced and educated me about. Add to that the passion for music. Jason, if you are reading this I thank you for exposing me to another opinion. It's made me more critical of the music I listen to today.

So, other than punk/HC, my musical tastes were from my Dad, Jason, stoners, and waver chicks.

As an adult I have learned to like indy rock and hip hop. This was the result of me working at The Crystal Ballroom 2002-2003. I saw a lot of shows back then. I loved the indy rock shows as it was new to me and I was infatuated with the technicalities thrown into a pop-rock song. It was like they said, "Let's do a rock song the hardest way we can." and I dug it.

All the hip hop shows I worked were just fun, except for one that was all fights. Truth be told, hip hop shows were the least violent shows to work at my time at The Crystal except for that one. The shows and music was fun, women were flirtatious, men were having a good time and spending money.

Ok, that's it in a nutshell. Will be back in a few days with more nerd/gaming stuff.

Edit: failed to mention what I listen to now:
Metal - I like the "hipster metal" that so many deride. The Sword, High on Fire, Sleep, Electric Wizard... mostly doom and stoner metal. Also Gwar.
Hip Hop - Like most white people, I'm about 15-20 years behind in hip hop. Wu Tang, NWA, Missy Elliot, Jay Z, Beastie Boys.
What I call "My 80s": New Order, The Cure, Joy Division, The Smiths, Slayer, American HC stuff (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, DRI, MDC, et al.), and I will include some Specials and The Selector.
And Clutch, Morrissey, Motorhead, Bon Iver, Iron and Wine, Butthole Surfers, Smog/Bill Callahan, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dandy Warhols, David Bowie, Erasure, Wolf Parade, Viva Voce, Tool, Primus, Postal Service, MC5, Barry White... on and on and on...

I actually have content to get out right now - More Saga Wargame... YAyyyyyy

Got them all built. Now time to paint them.

Again, I have been painting minis since 2002. It's a hobby I picked up reluctantly but had the need to do it. Always thought it was cool but it is a hard thing to do. Now, still mediocre at it, it is how I meditate. I paint them one at a time though. Need a gibbering mouther for a game session in 2 week? Blam!

New game, new party of mighty adventurers? Blam!

Pretty simple stuff.

For wargames you need to put out 20-200 minis, in specific patterns, with some uniformity. That's not bad but these are dark ages vikings. They had no real organized army or uniform so your color palette for a rag-tag band of Norse raiders would be a wider spectrum than space marines or Romans. You end up with something like this:

How I did this is not a secret or anything like that. I sprayed them all with a 2in1 spray paint (prime and color), then brushed flesh and brown leather. Then other details like hair (these are the old guys with bows... so grey) and gave a good coat of black on the bases. After all that I was finished with my base coat.

I used the putty tack stuff to stick them to a paint stir stick (free in a little bucket at the Home Depot paint encounter). Less fingers on the mini and I can rip out a few minis at a time.

Welp... this is good for the day. More pics for you as I know from some experience on forums and modding, "pics or it didn't happen!"

Saga - Dark Ages Skirmish Wargame, putting the minis together

This last spring (2013) a friend of mine that is an ex-gamer and now a Father of twins was looking to get into some wargaming. I never really wargamed before, most of the gaming I do is table-top and board gaming. He got into All the King's Men and other musket and pike type games. Also we were interested in Saga - The Dark Ages skirmish game out of the UK... or France... or some Euro country... probably the UK.

I'm totally down with some viking stuff. I used to be in the SCA and am now trying to get an older Regia group back up and plan to make combs and junk like that. Saga is a game by Gripping Beast who also does some other wargames like Tomahawk. I'll go more into the  Saga details later as we have not played it yet. here is a link though:
http://www.grippingbeast.com/

The primary step is getting minis and painting them. I wanted to go cheap as I was not sure I was into it yet. I got a couple Viking boxes from Wargames Factory:
http://www.wargamesfactory.com/webstore/hammer-of-the-gods
I went with the Hammer of the Gods line, one box of Viking Thegns and one box of Viking Huscarls. My friend is going to be Saxons so he did likewise though the Saxons. I got them for about $18 a pop, each box has 30+ plastic minis in it with no bases and you need to assemble them. Torso, head, arms, weapons, shields.

Here's my first pic of the assembled warband!!

Some details - 28mm scale or 1/72. Bases are steel washers, bought at the local hardware store, 100 for $8.99, and glued on with Zap-a-Gap. Tamiya plastic cement was used to piece the plastic parts together. "Warlord", center behind the sweinfilka, is mounted to a 1 3/4 inch washer, as per the Saga rules that is so you know it is the Warlord. Not required but OK to do.

There is a point structure ot the warband but we'll get into that later.

Mind you all - there is a bit of blogger blogs about Saga. Most stemming from last year (2012) and from Europe. Saga is not as popular in the US as it is in Europe for many different reasons of varying degree. There was some Saga tournament up in Tacoma at some time, like last year? Us hippies in Portland don't really follow it much though as we seem to be into the more common games like Flames of War, Warmachine, and Warhammer. Others are being played but not like those 3.

Back to putting together 40+ minis in the manner I did - it was a PITA (pain in the ass). Quite tedious as a matter of fact.Miniatures is one of my hobbies. I'm no pro and probably on the bottom 20% when it comes to skill and experience. Actually, if you are reading this thinking you are going to get pro-tips than you went to the wrong blog. I'm not awesome at this, though I do love doing it. Putting these guys together was like work with no pay. Next time I'm buying way more expensive metal figs by Gripping Beast or something like that.

Wargames Factory puts out a fine product. I like what they do and in proper circumstance I will go with them again. It was me and my skill/patience level that was the issue. Maybe, now that I am drenched in the mud, it will go better next time. No major drama or issues, just doing it right took time and I had not done something at that level before.

My bench is rigged up for painting minis at a "character" level. That is, I play some paladin, I am painting a paladin mini. Making an army is a whole different species.

More pics:

Warlord Viga Hrolfr!! The base is bigger fore he is the Warlord.

I'm Blogging

After pummeling my friends and fellow gamer geeks at PDXgamer (a google mail list) with posts about my summer and fall of dipping my toes into wargaming, it was suggested that I do a blog. OK. First, I hate blogs. Second, here is a blog that I am writing. It's going to be about wargaming at first but I'm sure I will either:
1) Blab about a ton of crap that 4 people will read.
2) Get board and this blog will die like so many others.

BTW, don't you hate that? You google-fu something you want to learn about, you find a cool blog that starts off strong and has bits about EXACTLY what you are looking for, it has 3 posts, and then you notice the part that says - 2010 18 posts ... 2011 3 posts... and then zilch.

Note: I spell like shit and gave up caring about that. I'm not that smart so...
Also of Note: I've never blogged before nor am I that awesome with technology. I'm sure this thing is intuitive and all and if I'm getting paid or forced to do something I can become proficient with it but this is a hobby/lifestyle blog here so I'm not that invested. Not that I don't care, I've got things I'd like to share and this seems to be the feasible form of media for my needs.

Things I am interested in and you may see me blabbing about on this blog:

 I'm a wargamer and I paint miniatures.

 

 I play RPGs, table top. Right now it's Pathfinder and Savage Worlds.

I like the outdoors. I just got into fishing in 2012. Hunting this year, 2013. I bushcraft and hike and do some short distance backpacking.

I'm in Zombie Squad. I'm the President of the Oregon Chapter ZSC011. I'll explain later what I do and what it is.