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Post by Meph on Feb 21, 2015 11:39:36 GMT
Nice. Might be making a trip to Syracuse today. If I do looks like there might be a side stop off at Target. These look like they would be great to mod.
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Post by Meph on Feb 20, 2015 10:55:17 GMT
Love the precision on your cuts. It all looks so neat. I tend to rush things and get sloppy at times. Your stuff looks top notch. Good job.
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Post by Meph on Feb 18, 2015 22:18:52 GMT
That looks pretty cool. I think I need to order a bag and try it out. Thanks for the link. Shipping is pretty expensive though.
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Post by Meph on Feb 18, 2015 10:58:39 GMT
It has been 20 years since I have DM a game. Thanks for for the warm welcome. Welcome to the forums. That's about the same stretch I had when I returned to gaming late last year. If you have a good group it will all come back to you.
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Post by Meph on Feb 18, 2015 3:01:15 GMT
Welcome aboard, I hope you have a lot of free time
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Post by Meph on Feb 18, 2015 2:59:21 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 17, 2015 20:34:03 GMT
I have a few items set aside so far to pass on. My craft boxes are fairly sparse since I just started out but I am positive I can come up with some worthy packages =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 17, 2015 19:40:38 GMT
Very cool. So how does this work now? We receive ours and then we pay it forward with 3 other packages out? Just want to know how much I need to scramble to get together. =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 17, 2015 10:57:55 GMT
Try to paint large, creased things like the cloak with shadows and higlights. Its easy and give a astounding look to such things. Make a smal drop of green on your palete mix with a trace of withe and paint over the higher area's. Make the same with blackand paint the lower areas. Maybe you tried something like that at the lower edge, maybe you simply paint over it (with a somewaht different mixture) after yo paint the base (I know I allways have to repaint such points because I splatter basepaint over it). But try to work it over the whole cloak, highlight the raised areas. On the lower edge of the cloak I mixed it with some yellow to highlight and fade it. What I need to learn is patience and not try to rush things. For this one I didn't give it a real base, I just washed it, dried it and started painting. The one I am working on now I sprayed it with a black primer first. Didn't really seem to make much difference with these minis. The problem I am having is that some of these cheap paints just don't want to cover at all. I am fine with thinning the paint and doing small layers but some of this paint is just junk. I'll get it though. I am about to pull the trigger on the Reaper Master Series Core Set #1 which is the first 108 paints. That should get me a nice start. Reaper also has a Learn to Paint Starter Kit I thought about buying. I figured for $35 I am getting 11 Master Series Paints (Core and HD), 2 Brushes, 3 Reaper Bones minis, and instructions on painting those 3. The price seems right considering what everything included would cost and then I can at least follow the instructions on those 3 and get a better idea of how I "should" be painting.
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 21:15:14 GMT
I just recently got into painting about a month ago when I found this site. My first attempt at a paint job was my Black Dragon which I thought turned out pretty well. Other than that I have never painted a miniature so I decided it was time to give it a stab. I still haven't bought any good paints yet but I did get a couple "ok" brushes from AC Moore. My paint selection is still comprised of My Studio, Apple Barrel, Americana, and Folk Art paints from the local craft stores. 50 cent to $1.50 at the most. Anyone want to recommend somewhere to start I am all ears. I have looked at Citadel kits and Reaper kits. I don't mind spending money but I just want to make sure I am buying the right stuff to start. Anyways, I am going to use this thread to consolidate my paint attempts and will save new threads for my bigger projects. I just bought a handful of Reaper Bones off ebay the other day. I needed a couple minis for my Ranger that I play in another campaign. I also wanted a Paladin as I love the class and will probably play one next. I needed a Hellhound for my game but it didn't arrive in time. I also grabbed an Ettin because I love them and a badass Ogre Chief. Since next week I will be back to playing my Ranger I decided I would start with one of them. I had a really hard time settling on the color scheme and because of my limited paint selection I had to mix to make the colors I wanted. I didn't quite get it but I am pretty happy with the final result. Grenlar the Human Ranger
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 15:07:41 GMT
Hmm...turned 40 last October. Definitely a theme here
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 13:03:07 GMT
Over the last week I have been pouring over the remaining couple levels of the dungeon. I was really concerned that my players weren't going to be able to handle it. They were an average level of 4 and the last two levels were designed for 5-6. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem because I would just find a way to artificially block their progress requiring some side mission to continue on, in the process giving them the needed xp to level them up some. Unfortunately the other DM is chomping at the bit to get back to his campaign and after 4 1/2 months of every weekend I am ready for a break, so I just decided to revise the whole bottom of the dungeon. The original plan was for the PCs to fight a Black Dragon at the bottom of the dungeon but I really didn't to have to scale down the encounter so much as to be doable to a level 5 group, and my intention isn't to wipe the party.....so I buffed the hell out of the dragon =) I know it doesn't make sense but the players have spent this dungeon believing that they were going to kill a dragon, and if they are smart they will quickly realize that they have seriously overestimated their abilities. We picked up with the players having just killed the Caecilia. They end up searching the main cavern and find that there is a path continuing down to level 10 of the dungeon. They decide to go back up to level and and over to the other stairs leading to level 9 before progressing further down. As soon as they descent the stairs they come into a 2 tiered chamber. The players are up top with a small stair case leading down, and then the room exits in 3 directions. In that first room are 4 stone "statues". There is a large scorpion, a troglodyte, and 2 humans all in various combat poses, all stone. Of course after facing a Medusa, the players are a bit freaking out at this point. The players choose to take the hall on the right and starting moving more cautiously than I have ever seen. They search the door on the left and are immediately surprised to find a snarling Owlbear backed into the corner of the room. Of course their surprise turns to relief when they realize that the Owlbear appears to be backing away in fear and turned to stone. A quick search of the room reveals that behind the Owlbear is another room. The players are able to move the Owlbear and search the room to find 2 nests and 2 long dead Cockatrice. This entire section of this level was originally the home to the Medusa who was imprisoned above and her pet Cockatrices. The Owlbear had trapped 2 of the Cockatrice in that room but himself got ambushed from behind by a 3rd. Unfortunately for the other 2 they ended up starving to death in there. As they players searched the room they found 3 Cockatrice eggs in one nest. Now none of the characters have ever seen a cockatrice and as such, without saying, were expected to play as such. 2 of my players have the Appraising non-weapon proficiency and both appraised the eggs. Both failed their checks and appraised them as worthless. Thus began my issue with the thief in my party. I believe I may have mentioned him before in this thread or maybe another but this guy really gets to me and the other players. After having failed his appraisal and believing the eggs to be worthless, he insists that he is going to take one anyways because "it might be worth something". This is the same guy blurting out at the table, in character, that they are cockatrice as soon as I describe the skeletal remains. Fortunately a couple of the other players are constantly trying to keep this guy in check so I don't have to. That type of play just irritates me. They move to continue exploring and leave the other 2 eggs in the nest. The thief takes the one egg and puts it in his nice warm, cozy backpack They proceed down the hall and around the corner into an open southern room. The thief with no light source, only infravision decides that he is taking point. 2 fighters are behind him, one with a light source. No some of the halls in this section of dungeon are only 5 feet wide. We had 7 players this week along with the 2 dopplegangers that were disguised as a human and dwarf. I told the players the way they kept stacking up that there was limited mobility and if they got into a battle in tight quarters they were bottlenecking themselves. They didn't listen and not 5 minutes later it became a reality. The thief and 2 fighters enter the room with the remained of the party filling in behind them. As soon as they turn the corner the thief sees a quick blur of heat advancing at him. The fighter behind him with the torch immediately sees 2 cockatrice move to attack. Now this is where I begin to get really annoyed with this thief. The players end up defeating the cockatrice and nobody is turned to stone. The one fighter is wearing splint and has an Ac of -1 so I decide the cockatrice needs a natural 18 or higher to actually hit bare skin. The thief on the other hand is wearing leather which provides no protection at all from the cockatrices petrification. The fighter never actually gets hit in the combat, the thief does twice. Once with a natural 20 which we play as critical hits incurring double damage. The thief ends up dropping to 0 hp but makes both of his saves and isn't petrified. The other 2 fighters kill the cockatrices. The annoying part was the thiefs reaction. The second he saw them he declares that he is "averting his eyes" and turns to run. Of course after my warning about stacking up like they were in the halls and doorways he isn't able to go anywhere. He gets mad at me as if I somehow put him in this position. Next he continues with the "averting his eyes". The other players start giving him crap about playing impartial and how his character wouldn't act that way about a couple of oversized chickens, but he just tells them he doesn't care and continues. This guy really is a bad player. The move on down the hall that opens into a wider room with a southern door and an eastern door. The east door is guarded by a 6' tall 4 armed bone guardian. He is made up of a patchwork of different types of bones and wields 4 long swords. He does nothing when the players enter but one fighter decides to throw a dagger at it, immediately causing the guardian to attack the party. The guardian is a minor bone golem created by the Wererats which occupy the other half of this level to keep the cockatrices at bay and away from them. They players have a pretty decent fight with this guardian but win. They proceed through the door into a large open hall with large curtains at each end. The end closest to them is a very fine looking curtain, the opposite end is tattered rags. As they enter they are immediately confronted by 3 armed Wererats who order them to leave. The state that the players are trespassing and give them the chance to leave. The curtain behind them opens and 2 more, finely dressed and armed wererats come out. Much to my dismay the players for the first time start to actually think before they act and they back out of the room. They check the southern door to find the wererat's food stores and a bone pile for "golem repair". Of course the wererat guards follow them out and order them to leave which they do. Of course our adventurers get a whiff of courage and decide to rush back in the room to fight. They end up fighting the 3 guards and 2 finely dressed wererats and towards the end of the fight the ragged curtain opens as 2 more wererats rush out. Both are dressed in tattered clothing and both move to backstab the finely dressed rats, which now has my players all twisted. This is where I throw this whole wrench in this dungeon for them. They start talking to these wererats and find out the stairs up and out of this room leads to the royal chambers. The King, Queen, Prince, High Priest, Adviser, and 3 royal guards reside above. At the mention of the adviser the "human" npc who is with them starts to question the rats about this adviser. Of course the players that rescued the captured human and dwarf start to question them about who they really are and who the adviser is. At this point the 2 dopplegangers decide their best chance of survival is sticking with the party so they show their true form. Now the players are a bit freaked out as they stand in this room with 2 wererats and 2 dopplegangers, all of which appear to NOT want to kill them. THis is where all the portions of this dungeon start to come together for the players. This dungeon is called Dalnir's Folly. Dalnir was a great wizard and his tower sat above this dungeon. Stories say that Dalnir started excavating below his tower to create a dungeon to conduct his experiments and they got out of control. Monsters escaped his dungeon and in the battle to regain control the tower was destroyed, Dalnir was killed, and the dungeon eventually sealed. That has been the accepted story. Of course the dopplegangers tell them a different story. Dalnir created a great magical portal to other worlds at the bottom of his dungeon. To hide his creation from the rest of the world he destroyed his tower and created this story. Their "order" has been searching for this portal for generations and have finally gotten this close. They came with a small raiding party but ended up ambushed by Ogres. Most of them died except for 3. Their goal was to reach the Rat King and search for information about the portal and more importantly the crystal needed to operate the portal. The 2 with the party ended up captured by the Ogres and the 3rd escaped and hopefully made it down here to the Rat King. The 2 Wererats explain that they are from the disgraced Poeress family. They have been slaves to the Royal family for generations. The rats they killed were from the Noble Durin family. The wererats have been the guardians of the portal for generations until recently. The great Black Dragon Dulwin moved in to the lower level of the dungeon. He brought with him a small army of Troglodytes and Ogres. They killed off the rats and the Royal family, guards, the Durins and Poeress are the only remaining wererats alive. When the PCs attacked and were winning the Poeress saw their chance to finally get themselves free from the King and away from this dungeon that has been their prison. The players question the rats and they give them a description of the Royal Hall above. The player devise a plan for the 2 dopplegangers to change into rats and alone with the Poeress family to escort them up the the Royal hall. The dopplegangers will enter the Advisers quarters and see if the other doppleganger made it, or else kill the adviser. The thief will take a potion of invisibility and post just outside the kings door. Half the party will move to intercept the High Priest immediately and the other half will post outside the Kings chamber ready to fight. Now I am not used to my players actually planning anything out like this, they usually just run in half cocked and barely live. I decided to NOT alter the makeup of the Royal Hall and let them go through with their plan, which actually works quite well. Our priest immediately moves in to cast hold person on the Rat priest. He fails his save and that encounter is trivial. The King, Queen, and Prince move out to fight. It is a decent fight but nothing that the players and allies can't easily handle. The thief's job was to backstab the King as he left his chamber. He was already invisible so that was a plus. His only weapon was a long sword which of course he can't backstab with. Somehow at level 4 he didn't know this. Remember this is only the 2nd time he has ever tried. Of course a player gives him a Silver dagger which we find out he isn't proficient in!! Thief not proficient in any weapon he can backstab with. Anyways, he is going to try. +4 to backstab to counteract the non-proficient penalty. Regardless he fails his move silently and gets a rear attack instead of a backstab. So the players finish that up and the Adviser proceeds to give them more to this story. Dulwin the Black Dragon's horde has recently started to seriously diminish. They don't know where it's going but he is spending his fortunes on something. He also recently took a mate but he got so pissed off at her that he killed her. Since then he has been in an exceptionally foul mood and has been out of his lair a lot with a large raiding group of Troglodytes. Each time he has returned with a Magic User as prison but within a few days he has killed the Magic User. He knows that Dulwin is in possession of the crystal needed to power the portal. He is currently out of his lair but it is guarded by Troglodytes. Below his lair is a large underground lake approximately 1 league across. At the other end of the lake there is a cave with the portal built into the rock wall. If they want to try to recover the crystal, now is the time to do it since he is away. Of course the Dopplegangers are going with them since this has been their life's mission. The 2 Wererats from the Poeress family are going with them because they need help getting out. This is where the players left off. Next week will be my final DM session for a while. The players have already been told to bring their characters for the other campaign because next week they either complete this dungeon and reach the portal or they die, either way we are switching campaigns. I haven't yet decided if I am going to make a large custom tile for the Dragon's lair or not. All will not go as they plan but if they try and fight Dulwin, they will die. They will have the opportunity to escape so I am leaving this all in their hands.
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 11:12:51 GMT
Very nice. I just got a small batch of single Reaper Bones minis this week and started painting my first minis also. Yours turned out great. What paints are you using? At the moment I am still just using cheap 50 cent craft paints which I am sure is making my job much harder than it needs to be.
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 11:09:09 GMT
Btw, how did you manage your grid? I made a large 6" x 6" stamp with a well defined grid on it but when I applied it to the cork board it barely showed up. I ended up using my irregular brick pattern all over and then drawing the grid with a paint pen. I already did 8 tiles so i'm not changing mine now, but I really like how yours turned out.
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Post by Meph on Feb 16, 2015 11:06:45 GMT
Looking great Alexis. I just went through the same process and my players and I love it. I did the same with my tiles. I went with a green spray for the back side of the tiles. I haven't decided if I am going to put a grid on the "outdoor" side of it yet. All of your pieces look great. Nice job.
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Post by Meph on Feb 14, 2015 21:04:19 GMT
Nice job, I am really big on inventing new creatures to keep the players on their toes. That thing would terrorize my players =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 14, 2015 20:47:55 GMT
Welcome to the addiction!
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Post by Meph on Feb 13, 2015 21:32:37 GMT
I love ping ponging ideas around. Most of the D&D forums I am part of are pretty dead. Dragonsfoot is going strong but some people can be weird there. The two 2nd edition AD&D forums i'm on are essentially dead. I don't really care for anything past 2nd edition much so I am pretty out of place on ENWorld. I love how active the forums are here so I know if I throw something out there it will get response. The best part about here is that any idea we toss around I can put it to visual pretty quickly and get some feedback on it.
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Post by Meph on Feb 13, 2015 12:12:23 GMT
Oh, so you like to end with entering the portal, not with the attack of the kraken? Maybe the kraken is the portal. You know, the action of entering the portal is when the kraken pull down the ship (and spit it out on the other portalside-6 month realtime later). Let them combat the kraken-but somehow he only grabs the ship, not the tiny humans on the ship. Let the players try to chop at the tentacles, try to defend the ship, but ultimatly the ship is drawn under the lake water......Stop yoour Gming with "....Water closes over you, the suction force of the ship's body draws you down, too. But at the moment the water closes over your heads, you feel as if you are pushed against the water, up. Light dazzles you, your smell salt, hear some gulls. The kraken was the portal.....See you in 6 month!" ;-) Only a weird idea. That is actually kinda interesting. I am going to explore that idea. Ya know I love and hate when someone throws out and idea that makes me want to throw out my entire plans for a campaign and go in another direction =) It's a good thing though, my best stuff has always been when I changed something mid game or hours before the game. It's usually the stuff I have thought and planned for months that I end up hating in the end.
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Post by Meph on Feb 13, 2015 11:31:09 GMT
Sadric, I had two thoughts about that. First thought I had was to make it into some type of magical ship but then I would want to do it large scale and keep it for further adventures. If I did that then I thought about having that lake itself a portal to somewhere else, similar to the Ravenloft mists. The other idea was to just make it a small boat only for the purpose of getting them to a small island with some type of portal that they operate. My real goal is having my players go through some kind of portal to somewhere completely unknown as we end my DM run for a couple months. It leaves the players in total suspense and gives me freedom to come up with anything I want for when we return.
Either way I do it I plan to have the Black Dragon a re-occuring villan and the wizard who created the dungeon, and supposedly died in the process centuries ago come into play in the future.
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