Wining and Winning

My wife, Kitty, and I love wine tasting. Our favorite destination is the Adirondack Winery in Lake George, New York. It’s not just a stop for us; it’s a tradition. We visit four times a year. We try once a season and hit the mark almost every year. 

Adirondack Winery has an impressive lineup of over 40 wine varieties. We’ve proudly or shamefully sampled and purchased every single one. It’s no surprise we’re members of their Case Club, which comes with a variety of perks for those who purchase at least 12 bottles a year. For us, that’s easy. During each visit, we usually leave with a case in hand, and we keep going by adding three more bottles to our collection every month.

We are rapidly running out of room for wine. In our living room, we have a wine rack with about a dozen bottles. In the dining room, the legs of our dinner table have slots for 12 more bottles. Since we are gifting a bunch of bottles, we have at least a case of bottles waiting to be wrapped. 

Maybe you noticed that I had an ad for wine.com on my blog. It didn't work. No one clicked it. Not even once so I took it down. The link provided in the post is informational only, I don't receive anything from ADK for promoting them. 

The bottles are shipped in excellent packaging, a type of form-fitted cardboard. They use FedEx so the wine can be directed to a secondary drop-off point like Walgreens. In NY you need to show ID for wine deliveries. 

This growing collection has led to my latest project: designing a wine cellar. Kitty has officially put me in charge. To that end, Kitty selected a special Christmas gift that will be used to make this happen. I can't wait to start showing that off next year. 

But you know what I really want? 

Toys. Models. Buildings. Spaceships. 

I missed Mecha Monday this week, but I did make two posts this week to make up for it. If you like to order wine or know of a winery, you might be able to pick up some of these bottle-form containers. 

If you cut them apart with a pair of scissors and slap some paint on them, they start to look like buildings. This one looks a bit like a hanger or bunker to me. They have that old adobe Star Wars look, like Mos Eisley. 

I realized I don't have any grass or sand, so I will need to pick some up to texture the bottom edge. 

Depending on your paint job, you can deck them out for many different scales and themes. The slab-like arches can be painted to look like garage doors or regular man-sized doors depending on need. I have to say the Commando looks massive and threatening next to this thing. 

Since my last post was about Star Wars, I hope to do a campaign using a lot of Star Fighters. My pick for these are either Bandai 1:144 scale models from my local comic shop or small metal models from Studio Bergstrom. I have purchased a few ships from Studio Bergstrom and I suspect I will amass a lot in the future because I like models as much as wine. 

The three or four dozen ships I already have are going to be the focus of a lot of Miniature Mondays. I will be mixing that up with Mecha Monday, because a good mech is like good wine. 

Star Wars D20 - The Donations of Palpatine

I am creating a Star Wars D20 campaign using the Star Wars Role-Playing Game I reviewed here. Unlike my last foray into the world of Star Wars, this series will be heavy on Jedi, Manolorians, and star fighters. This post contains many of the ideas I will present in Session 0. 

The system Meneth is in the Outer Rim. It has always been unaligned with any galactic power due to the array of ion cannons defending it. Novema and Seguna are the two habitable worlds in the system. Novema is the seat of power in the system with Seguna producing most of the food for export. 

I hate the Star Wars timeline for its numbering convention, but the story starts in 19 BBY, with Order 66. Five Nu-class shuttles were on Novema for resupply for a trip to Coruscant. Four shuttles carried 20 clone troopers each. The last shuttle carried 3 Jedi Counselors and 3 Padawands to escort 4 force adepts and 6 children who were potential candidates for the Jedi order. 

As they made for orbit, Order 66 came in. 

Chaos ensued with a 4 on 1 dogfight in the upper atmosphere. The Jedi ship danced between several incoming freighters, including several operated by Mandalorian refugees. From the ground, it looked as if the Clone Troopers went nuts and were gunning for each other, which was actually the case. After several tense minutes, the order to fire on every ship was given. The ion cannons were very effective, 

Three-quarters of the Clone Troopers died as the ships crashed, along with two Jedi and one Force Adept. Most of the remaining Clone Troopers were seriously injured. Most tried to integrate with Menethian life, but a few joined the criminal underworld, fled the system, or joined the Silver Blades. 

Fast forward to 5 BBY. A fleeing group of Battle Droids attempted to take the planet. By this time, Meneth was protected by a vast array of deep-space ion cannons. Three Droid ships crashed on Novema while one was trapped in orbit around Seguna. None of the Battle Droids were able to activate and attack either planet. 

A fifth fully activated Droid ship crashed on an asteroid and has become a horrible thorn in the side of the Menethians. They prevent full coverage of the system with the ion cannon array and allow pirates into the space lanes. 

One final time jump to 5 years after the Battle of Yavin. There are five factions in the Meneth system: 

1. The Jedi,
2. The Silver Blades, 
3. The Menethian government, 
4. The remnants of the Droid Army,  
5. and a small Rebel base. 

The Menethians allow the Rebels to refurbish older fighters and small ships on Seguna. It is a tiny port among many, protected by the Ion Array. The Rebels assist in the defense of the system with their elderly Y-Wings, and faster A-Wings, plus a few X-Wings. They are not allowed a bigger presence. The Rebels will not bring "hot" ships known to the Empire into the system or new items like B-Wings. 

The locals have been providing old speeders to the Rebels, which are being converted to special operation vehicles for harsh environments. Their tactical value is dubious. 

The Silver Blades are the remaining Manolorians plus a handful of Clone Troopers who are headed up by one of the Force Adepts who declined to join the Jedi. They act as an independent force on Novema, usually opening the way for the remaining Jedi to negotiate peacefully. They all wield Silver lightsabres that stun as opposed to wound. They are not as skilled as Jedi when using them, a Silver Blade cannot block blaster fire, but their armor makes up the difference. 

Silver Blade: (Light Saber) Damage: 1d4 stuns DC 15, 1 kg, size medium, simple group. 

The Jedi have a small temple on Seguna. While they do not see eye-to-eye with the Silver Blades, they often accompany them on missions when negotiation is necessary. Most people believe the Jedi are old, wiser counselors for the Silver Blades. Everyone is inclined to keep up this appearance. 

During the planting and harvest seasons, the Jedu will offer their manpower to the local farmers. It is very boring, but it allows the Jedi to get their ears to the ground while trading for necessary items. The Jedi generally don't have much money.  

The Imperials want to smash the Meneth System but are stymied by the five factions. In one case, a Star Destroy was attacked by all five factions at once, the distress call sent was worrisome, to say the least. Their next attempt was another disaster. Believing the Droid base was the front-line defense, they bypassed it and flew into the teeth of several fighter squadrons backing up the Ion Array. 

The fleet limped out of the system and resorted to guerrilla tactics and civilian ships to get spies and saboteurs into the system. The player characters will investigate the Imperial interference while also helping the local fighter squads beat back hit-and-run raids by the Imperials. If they can, they are also charged with dislodging the Droid Army from their asteroid base. 

Accommodating the Unrequested

I was going to call this post, "When the players change the rules" but it isn't that at the end of the day.  I used to play in a shared world with 3 rotating DMs who also played characters. This is obviously where my love of NPCs came from as when a player stepped into the DM role, their character faded to NPC status. 

One of my co-DMs favored oddball player characters, usually a druid or illusionist but he really liked the idea of an archer. The real class was Fighter or Thief depending on the stat placement, but with a bow and always unarmored. 

And it drove me nuts. 

First, he would sink into the background trying to avoid melee. Then the player would switch to DM mode after the combat and wanted to roll a 1d20 saving throw against a crushing blow for each and every arrow fired. As a DM with a table full of characters, I have better things to do. But I couldn't stop him. He would fixate on it. 

The HAPPY archer

How annoying. 

The problem was hidden and had to do with the archery rules in AD&D. He led the pack of players as archery comes before melee in the rules. From his perspective, he was making a couple of rolls and sitting idle for far too long. Eventually, he'd run out of valid targets and his combat role was nullified. 

To spice things up for him, I addressed the problem with environmental conditions. I encouraged him to carry a ridiculous number of arrows in multiple quivers. A quiver on his back, a quiver on his horse, a pair of quivers on the pack animals, and maybe one or two more on the horses of other players. I didn't want him focused on "preserving arrows" from the start. 

A firing position

The next environmental condition I presented is, that his character would have a variety of firing positions to choose from. As an archer, I figured he'd scout good positions, stuff with either cover or concealment. This was a nod to his lack of armor and cranked up the drama by having enemy missiles strike a fence, or a door, or whatnot. This also meant he could pluck an opponent's arrow out of the barrier and send it back. 

Later, I added special rules to make him feel more engaged. He had a collection of special rules that gave him a choice of pros and cons to choose from in combat. 

While this may seem unbalancing for the rest of the party, like I was making the archer more special, it did not. What it did do is break up the whole "marching order" shenanigans into something more realistic and slightly more badass. 

Ah... Ranks.

Without options, players will often place their characters into a block with the fighters in the front and the squishy characters in the back like a giant military formation. This action made sense when OD&D was a titch away from simulating armies. It doesn't make sense in a small combat action, which is what D&D does now. It also diminishes the role of squishy characters, regulating them to a boring non-combat role, even worse than the example archer character. 

With the archer acting as overwatch, the party would naturally break up into groups, with no one "in the rear", like a real tactical unit. The front is everywhere. The melee types would form up as a small group or two with the archer lending his firepower and sweeping the battlefield. By not having every character visible from the get-go, thieves and assassins were free to blindside attackers. This often created situations where the squish wizard got to engage in front-line action by having one fighting guardian and an archer overwatch. Or placed the squishies under the direct cover of the archer, seen, but unreachable. 

It really envigorated combat. 

It allowed me, the DM, to use more enemies and track them more easily. The party told me what to do with them so I didn't have as much to track. I have a table rule that characters including monsters don't die until -10 hit points, allowing me to reuse unique enemies. And unique characters remember. The players' tactics create my tactics. 

"What are they doing?" asked the party.

"One of them is approaching you. The others are looking around for something." 

"They don't see me?" asked the archer. 

"No, they don't."  

This is all very organic. 

And it adds a nice meta, which is rare and cool. We all know the trope where the players hear the DM's dice rolls, right? Well, with the characters' tactics dictating the flow of combat, this diminishes the cause-and-effect observation of these die rolls. They are never unnoticed but somehow fall into the background. 

A good example of this is skulking characters moving silently or hiding in shadows. I roll the dice, get a result, and make a choice. There is a delay between the roll and the visible action. There is nothing better than a good move silently roll resulting in an opponent turning away from a stalking assassin. 

It also hides the obviousness of morale rolls. The enemy isn't retreating because of a die roll, they are retreating from a superior force. This can eliminate the anticlimactic "we're out of targets" situations by replacing it with "how bad do we want to chase the targets?" 

Personae Dramatis - Flameheart and Jen

I use a set of standard NPCs in all of my campaigns. These folks are bearers, guards, horsemen, and archers. They are the typical NPCs the party will hire and somewhat control. Of all of them, a couple will become henchmen and followers. These are all bog standard until the players decide to ask more of them.  

I am not a fan of arming the party with a Gandalf-style NPC. I don't mind powerful NPCs adventuring with the party, but they should not provide important information and direction for the players. The party is adventuring for its own sake, they need to be Gandalf types, not following one or more of them. 

I am not entirely against offering points of refuge or safety to a party in times of need. However, these people are NOT to travel with the party for long (if at all) or provide extra oomph in a fight on demand. Usually, they have their own fully formed plans and goals which have nothing to do with whatever the party is doing. They offer a respite from an unexpected threat to the party. 

I describe them as Personae Dramatis to set them apart from regular NPCs. They are chance encounters that provide further insight into the setting of the game, without requiring the party to follow them or buy into another plotline. They tell a story outside the one the players are experiencing. And like any good story, it offers the players entertainment, news, and most usefully, a brief respite. Tom Bombadil springs to mind. 

I am not a poet, so I swing for comedy and a bit of false tension. 

In my campaigns, Flameheart and Jen Tanner are two examples of Persona Dramatis. 

Their main traits are right in their names. Jen was a runaway from her father, the town tanner. She disliked being a social pariah at the edge of town. Tanners live at the edge of town because they use ammonia for the tanning process. The main source of social stigma is the use of urine to obtain ammonia. The second source of stigma was the incredible taxes they paid. Urine was double taxed, once in its collection and once again on its sale. This created the impression of stinking, rich tanners and evil tax men. This is the real-world source of both the phrase and the trope of evil tax men.  

Ick. I love it when real life intrudes on my RPGs. 

Flameheart was a ridiculously old red dragon, one who had sunk to eating equally old cows to survive. It was only a matter of time before someone put a lance in his chest. 

Flameheart stumbled upon Jen in her attempt to escape her dull village life. It wasn't long before the Tanner family caught up with the pair. They found the whole village guard not up to the task of rescuing Jen, who very much didn't want to be rescued. 

I will save the full story for another time. Here is how I use these Personae. 

When I present Jen and Flameheart, they are encamped near the party, causing a ruckus they are unaware of. The presence of a dragon is often a reasonable explanation for a pause in the character's adventures. 

Think of Jen and Flameheart as a mobile fortress or safe area, no matter how the reactions go. If the party goes into hiding from them, so will anyone following the party until the dragon leaves. If Jen convinces the party to stay for a time, no one will approach the party. 

In general, I don't have much cause to stat up Jen. She sometimes has a potential boyfriend in tow depending on how I feel. He also doesn't get stats, unless I decide to have him join the party. Usually, the boyfriend is very pretty and less than helpful to Jen and Flameheart and might be better off in the party.  

I have given Flameheart the following stats: 

AC: 1, HD 8 (46 hp), Att: [ 2x claw (1d6), 1x bite (4d8)], or breath weapon (special). THAC0: 12 (+7), MV: 90' (30') / 240' (80') flying, SV D8, W9, P10 B10, S12 (8), ML: special, AL: Chaotic, XP: 2000, NA unique, TT: H. 

Flameheart has the following spells:  

Level 1: Charm, Light, Sleep.
Level 2: Detect Invisibility, Invisibility, Phantasmal Force.
Level 3: Dispel Magic, Fly, Waterbreathing

Flameheart shared his horde with Jen and she always carries the following when stat'ed up: 2 Bags of Holding, Bracers of Armor (AC: 4), and Boots of Levitation.  

As mentioned before, Flameheart is extremely old. To the point of weakened health. This is reflected in his HD, attacks, hit points, and saves. He will not retreat if Jen is threatened, hence his special morale.  

He has two different breath weapons due to his age. He has difficulty breathing fire. He can breathe fire on a save vs. breath weapon. On failure of this save or when he desires it, he will emit a massive jet of obscuring smoke instead of fire. It lasts 3 rounds. This may sound like a joke, it isn't. 

While the smoke does no damage, it is a very dangerous situation. He is smart enough to follow it up with one or more spells to cause chaos. He is savvy about his limitations and can turn them into true threats. He will use his spells creatively in conjunction with his smoke to terrorize victims. He may turn invisible, charm a victim, or use Phantasmal Force in the next round. 

He has a 35% chance of being asleep when discovered. Jen mitigates the danger as she sleeps as much as a typical 22-year-old woman. Jen is smart and disarming, allowing the dragon to wake or appear unexpectedly on opponents.

From a DM's perspective, Flameheart and Jen represent a minor threat and a dangerous refuge from larger threats the party might face. If the party presents itself as needy, Jen may attempt to assist them more than providing a safe haven. Due to Jen's exposure to the tanning profession, she is very money-conscious and savvy about exploitation. 

They are always chaotic, but not necessarily evil. 

Devilfish - What Makes It "Better"?

A few posts ago, I mentioned a plan to have a permanent Star Smuggler board set up so I can play whenever I like. I drew up deck plans for a gargantuan ship. The Devilfish is roughly 3 times bigger than the Antelope that appears in the original game. 

Bigger is better, but what else makes it better? It has 3 turrets, therefore 3 guns. It has two shuttles, a garage for a skimmer, and a medical station. 

But what went away? It lost its stasis box in pilotage and its concealed locations. It has no more Hypercharges than the original. 

Strangely, to hit charts and criticals are introduced in the rules. I would have a standard chart for the Devilfish: 

1. Garage, 2. quarters, 3. engineering, 4. gun turrets, 5. main cargo, and 6. the boat hold. Since some of these locations are very large, I would split the turrets into 1 of 3, the holds into port and starboard, and the engineering area into large and small. The Medical area and pilotage can't be damaged directly owing to the 1d6 nature of the roll. It seems easy enough to expand this to 2d6 in the future because it's odd that you can't hit pilotage in the nose of the ship. 

This ship clearly has the edge over the Antelope in the game. Now I have to consider what else has gotten better? 

Many or all hostile ships will have shields and ECM by default, something the Devilfish does not have at all. They will also have and make use of hoppers more often than the rules currently allow. I will have to design antagonistic ships, possibly even small fleets of them to make things fair. 

I can't wait to retool the battleship from e81. In the image I drew for that post, I think a pocket battleship would have one or more hoppers to act as spotters. It has two orbiter bays and two 45-cu cargo bays to carry even more. Imagine if it was a battleship-carrier hybrid. Even hampered as it is with the limitations from the rules, a swarm of 4 hoppers would give anyone pause. 

Another improvement is needed for ships boats and more frequent drones. The improved hopper would have a fission engine to produce life support and eliminate the need for fuel units. Ships or hoppers toting a drone or two in battle would be cool and terrifying to face down. 

Visiting Fort William Henry

A map of Lake Geroge and 
Fort William Henry

Jen and I visited Fort William Henry in Lake George, NY this weekend. There is so much to do and see there, it boggles the mind and scratches an itch for me. 

The map on the left is something I am working on, I need to do some adjustments and re-fire the laser. I'll probably break it into the fort and the lake. If it comes out nicely, I'll add it to my shop. 

Lake George is loaded with American history and the older history of the Native Americans in the area. While my wife enjoys the Lake for the nostalgia of her childhood, her family spent summers there; she also connects with the history of the place. They have several good historical sites, museums, and books stores that we frequent a lot. I can digest history naturally, as one is meant to. 

Our last trip zig-zagged between history and amusement. We did a couple of historical tours and a few ghost tours. We went up French Mountain to look down on the Lake and took in the sights, lakeside. It is a wonderful place. 

The Horicon Steamboat

There are several steamboats. One of them is named The Horicon. That sounded Greek to me, but it isn't. It's Algonquin. It means "the land of pure, clean water." Native Americans were highly mobile, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge is in Wisconsin and they also gave the name to the Lake George region. It is a vague descriptor of the area, not a specific site on or around the lake, in either New York or Wisconsin. 

That is a vast area. I just wanted to say that in case you Google it. I think it's amazing that people moved so much. 

I can't wait to get back there. We'll do another trip in December before planning our 2025 outings. 

#SundayStew for October 13th, 2024 - Paella Fusion - Part A

This week's #SundayStew is crockpot Paella and a two-for-one recipe. 

The basic recipe is: 

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 lbs. chicken breasts or thighs 
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cups of chicken broth
1 lbs. of hot smoked sausage, sliced in rounds. 
14 oz. stewed tomatoes
1 cup of uncooked Arborio rice
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of frozen peas

Cook the chicken in a skillet for 6-8 minutes or until browned on both sides. Place in crockpot. 

In the same skillet, cook onions until clear. Stir in broth, sausage, tomatoes, rice and garlic. Cook for 8-10 minutes, then pour over the chicken in the crockpot. Cook for 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high. 

Pull the chicken out and place on a plate. Fluff rice and stir in peas. Place the rice in bowls and top with chicken. 

Very often, I don't have hot smoked sausage and Wegmans sells a nice Italian sausage. I do a fusion Paella. Just switching out the smoked sausage for Italian sausage totally changes the meal. But you can take it further. 

Here is the fusion recipe: 

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 lbs. chicken breasts cut into quarters
1 medium onion, sliced
2 medium peppers, sliced 
4 cups of chicken broth
1 lbs. of Italian sausage, diced
14 oz. stewed tomatoes
1 cup of uncooked Acini di Pepe.
1 clove of garlic

Place olive oil in crockpot and layer with the raw chicken breast cut in quarters.

In a skillet, cook onions and peppers until browned. Stir in broth, sausage, tomatoes, and garlic. Cook for an additional 8-10 minutes, then pour over the chicken in the crockpot. Cook for 6-8 hours on low. 

Prepare Acini di Pepe per directions and spoon into bowls. 

Stir the crockpot well, using a fork to shred the chicken. Top the pasta with the fusion paella. 

You can even go a further two steps with tomato sauce and cheese but that can get mighty heavy. 

Oops. Merry Christmas?

I might have made a mistake. I logged into Kickstarter to back a project only to realize that I had already backed this project at a much higher level than I would have done today. 

This project wraps up in December so this could be a Christmas present or maybe a January Birthday present. 

#Mechamonday for October 6th - Locust Again

I managed to complete 3 more Locusts, plus three other mechs. They need some sprucing up, I expected the colors to be brighter.  

As you can see, I use wine corks and sticky tack to mount them. 

If I had time for another project, I'd make a photography station. 

#SundayStew for October 6th, 2024 - All The Stuff That Happened This Week Part B

This is what I meant to do last week. I wanted to talk about all of the progress and setbacks I experienced in the past week. Here is a link to Part A, the recipe. 

First, I had this idea for cute little dice cups. All I needed was lids. The jars are recycled yogurt jars, the glass beads were leftovers from my daughter's fishbowl and the dice are something I had left over from a D&D campaign. 

Well, it seemed pretty simple until it wasn't. I was going to cut the lids from 3 mm thick wood but I accidentally bought a 5 mm sheet of birch project board. 

I did a trial run and it seemed fine. Except I cut a rectangular piece, not circles. I didn't think about what I was asking the laser to do. I used a caliper to measure the interior and exterior dimensions. These are Oui Yorgurt jars. Here are the measurements: 

Interior dimensions: 55.700 mm 
Exterior dimensions: 69.000 mm

Here is the problem of what I attempted to do with the laser. LaserGRBL and Falcon2 attempt to cut by moving back and forth along the X and Y axes. What that means for circles is the laser attempts to blast a series of holes through the target, in the shape of circles. It starts in the bottom corner and blasts a dot-like hole as deep as possible, then moves on to the next dot, and so on.  

This means the laser has to dump 22 watts of power into a pin-prick area and move on. When you are cutting straight lines, the laser moves at a predetermined speed dumping its power into the target. The beam can smoothly slice through wood. 

That is different from firing full power for a brief moment and moving a large distance before repeating. The energy is discontinuous. It took hours of repeated tries to cut circles. Eventually, it worked but I'll never do that again. 

I meant to burn a series of dice images onto the lids. Recently purchased some .svg files on Esty, so I thought this would be easy. 

No. Either I didn't like the images or the license on the image was objectable, most not extending the right to put the image on a physical object or otherwise modifying it. 

I suddenly landed a new project. Make a package of dice images specifically for various projects, from digital products to physical goods. On the left is a sample image. I suspect I will be doing blank dice and numbered dice, both black on white and white on black. These would be .svg files so they are easy to modify. For completeness, I would make a set of .tifs and .xcf files with a transparent background.

And my drive for completeness makes this project "epic scale". I need 6 images of blank dice, 60 images of numbered dice. I can double that for black on white and white on black. I can double that again for the .xcf and .tif files. More if I want to have .png and .jpg. 

Hell. I will probably break this into three different files. The Friends and Family Pack would be 12 .png images priced at PWYW and would be the hardest to modify. The Dev Pack at $7.99 would be blank dice in positive and negative for the user to create stuff from there. That is 12 images in 4-6 file types. The Complete Set of Dice would contain hundreds of files owing to the numbering and would be $24.99. As time permits, I will be completing and loading these to Ko-Fi and DriveThruRPG. 

The licensing would be really friendly for each. If you use them for a blog or digital product, an attribution someplace therein would be required. If you modify the files into something else, say colorize or make them part of a completely different image, then attribution is optional. Placing images on a physical object like a coffee mug, map, or t-shirt requires no attribution. The big hangup is the license does not permit the use of the files to make another clip art package. I don't care if you sell 10,000 books, T-shirts, and coffee mugs using the images, I just don't want someone reselling them in a new clip art package, modified or not.  

In other news, my son spotted a piece of artwork on ESTY that he wanted burned onto a plaque. Ah, another rabbit hole. 

BUT the file has the exact license I want. In fact, the creator asks people to post images of their products made with the image. That is exactly what I want to do with my dice images. 

This is an image of a KC-135 refueler. My son wants it flipped the other way around. The completist in me knows there is only one main door on the left side, so I have to modify this file for accuracy because there isn't a door on the right side. Also the little curved panel under and slightly behind the cockpit is also not visible on the opposite side. 

And that rabbit hole will continue throughout the next few weeks. Tomorrow's post will be about the 6 mechs I got painted. 

#Sunday Stew for October 6th, 2024 - Mock Chicken Soup Part A

Jen and I are down with some sort of cold. So, I am rehashing last week's crockpot meal, this time as a soup. The recipe is 90% the same as my Chicken and Potato Stew: 

2 pounds of chicken breasts, whole
1.5 lbs of baby yellow potatoes
1 lb of matchstick carrots
1 lb of peas, frozen
1 lb of corn, frozen
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
16 oz of chicken stock
3 chicken bouillon cubes
3 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 tsp. of white pepper
Salt to taste

Line the bottom of the crockpot with your chicken. I layer the carrots, onion, corn, and celery on top. I add the bouillon cubes, garlic, salt, and pepper next. The chicken stock is poured over everything, covering them, and setting the crockpot high.

Cook for 4 hours then add the corn and turn it down to low. Cook for 2-3 more hours. With an hour to go, add the frozen peas. I shread the chicken at this point and give everything a good stir.

This is a good time to start the noodles. I use extra wide egg noodles. I cook them separately because they simply won't fit in my crockpot. I ladle them out into bowls and put the mock chicken soup over them. 

Do you know why Fiver doesn't like this recipe? Rabbits can eat carrots, but they are too high in sugar, fiber, and other stuff rabbits don't really like. They will happily eat the green carrot tops, which is a disaster for farmers and gardeners. Rabbits will nibble your carrots down to the orange bits and stop. 

Poor Fiver. 

Here is a link to Part B, the projects. 

Going Off the Rails - Part Six

It's been a while since I wrote about games that went off the rails, but here is another entry. I had a basic scenario where a small town needed an army to defend against a threat. To the west, there was an army fighting but would not directly support the town or kingdom they were in because the true heir to that kingdom had been usurped. Proof of heirhood was rather simple; it was possession of a particular magic sword. The town leaders located the sword and sent the party to go get it. 

The party should have obtained the sword easily. The trouble would come when they returned it and people started making claims to it. The characters would become the protectors of the sword and ultimately kingmakers. 

Of course, this was all contingent on the party, you know, actually doing the deed. And being a typical party, they did not do the need. They fought it hard, and in a moment of weakness, I resorted to railroading. 

The gist of the situation was that the party got lost because they didn't follow the road to the town where the sword was. Lost, they saw the proper town in the distance but believed it was a different town. Somehow, they also missed finding a road to both towns by just a few hundred feet. 

Goddamn it. 

The party set up camp for the third night in a row, just out of sight of the road. I decided to throw a double whammy at them. First, I threw a storm down on them to force them out of the streambed and towards the road. That didn't work, the party made a series of herculean efforts to secure their campsite. 

The second whammy was a group of bears. Lots of them. Somehow, the party won surprise over the bears, in the dark, in a storm, and fled to the road. 

Finally, Victory! 

No.  

One of the characters cast Speak with Animals, rolled a very positive reaction and struck up a conversation with the bears instead of fighting them. Rule One of RPGs should be "Random and Railroading are immiscible." 

Here is how the conversation went. The bears were attracted by the party's pitiful fire, they wanted it. There was a negotiation for "the fire starter". The party was confused but agreed thinking they were giving the bears a bit of flint and steel. 

The bears wanted and took the person who made the fire, "The Firestarter*" was taken back to their cave. The whole party follows and piles into the bear cave all warm and cosy and lets me stew with a bunch of failed plans. 

Sometimes, you have to throw in the towel and decide what you are doing is simply not viable. I made a snap decision to let the bears join their mission and go directly to the Army to plead their case for the town. On the way they obtained horses. It was an impressive display of power, a party of mounted magic using characters guarded by bears. 

In retrospect, this was way more impressive than a sword, even a magical one.  

The party still got to become kingmakers even though the general of the army obtained the sword. Since the sword was far less impressive than a band of bear-clan warriors, it didn't help him much. He remained the general of the army, but the army wanted the support of the Bear-Clan* alongside the general. And if the Bear-Clan* said go save the town, then dammit, that was what the army was going to do. 

This occurs a lot in history, where an army follows a general but the general follows the will of the average soldier. It is weird, but true to life. Great generals don't railroad the troops. 

*Notice that "fire starter" and "bear" suddenly got capitals. This isn't a typo. I tried to make the new capitalization of the words audible and largely it worked on this party.  

My prompts for #Inktober2024

I decided to come up with my own prompts for Inktober. I will be doing these in no particular order. 

My 31 Prompts #Inktober2024 are: 

1. Whisper
2. Galaxy
3. Mosaic
4. Ember
5. Key
6. Serenade
7. Velvet
8. Eclipse
9. Labyrinth
10. Crescent
11. Solstice
12. Jubilee
13. Nebula
14. Euphoria
15. Tapestry
16. Mirage
17. Horizon
18. Cascade
19. Riddle
20. Echo
21. Glimmer
22. Fable
23. Voyage
24. Sanctuary
25. Lullaby
26. Haven
27. Alchemy
28. Chimera
29. Serenity
30. Odyssey
31. Breeze

Of course, I will be posting a day late the whole way. 

#SundayStew for September 29th 2024. Part A

 Ah, #SundayStew. 

I do a lot of things on Sunday. Cooking in the crockpot is one of them. Here is my recipe for chicken and potato stew: 

2 pounds of chicken breasts, whole
1.5 lbs of baby yellow potatoes
1 lb of carrots
1 lb of peas, frozen 
1 lb of corn, frozen
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
16 oz of chicken stock
3 chicken bouillon cubes
3 vegtable bouillon cubes
1 tsp.paprika
1 tsp. of white pepper
1 tbsp of olive oil
Salt to taste

I also call this Fiver's Favorite. He loves his veggie scraps. 

Start with the olive oil on the bottom of the crockpot, then line the bottom of the crockpot with your chicken. I layer the carrots, onion, and celery on top. I add the bouillon cubes, salt, and pepper next. The potatoes go on top. The chick stock is poured over everything. I dust the potatoes with paprika, cover them, and set the crockpot to high.

Cook for 4 hours then add the corn and turn it down to low. Cook for 2-3 more hours.  

Ah... the peas. I didn't forget them. I cook them separately and stir them in last. I shread the chicken at this point and give everything a good stir. 

You can knock on the veggies or add other things like fresh herbs and veggies from the garden. Fiver prefers fresh peas and parsley. I've been tempted to add some oregano but the rabbit always has dibs on fresh oregano. 

You can also add flour or cornstarch at the end for a thicker stew. 

This feeds about 6 with leftovers for lunches. 

This recipe gives me time to do other things, like laundry or better yet, paint figures. That will be Part B later today. It is also fairly diabetic friendly as you can work around the potatoes and skip the flour or cornstarch. 

A 3 Way Hook

It's Tuesday night and I am painting some Battlemechs. I like to listen to books or TV when painting. I have this funny trait that the thing I am listening to is the opposite of what I am painting.  For example, when painting mecha, I listen to fantasy books. 

While waiting for a basecoat to dry, I got wrapped up in Terry Brooks' Wizard at Large. This is the third book in the Landover series. Questor Thews, Wizard at Large attempts to transform his friend Abernathy back into a human. It seemed like the right thing to do because he was the one who turned the Scribe into a Soft-coated Wheaten Terrier. 

Things go sideways and hilarity and terror ensue. This is one of my favorite series because it incorporates 80s sensibilities into a fantasy story. Oddly, the series makes some nods to the 80s and 90s but doesn't dive in too deep. There is an odd simplicity to the stories that somehow dodges the passage of time and advances in technology that would normally break a portal fantasy story. 

This gave me a great idea for a D&D hook. Locate Object is a bunk spell, the range is far too short. If this spell would be useful, they get down on their hands and knees and do it the hard way instead of magic. Invariably, if something is far away, the characters look for a sage or high-level Wizard to help. Or a Cleric with Commune.

So here goes the three-way hook. The scenario is, the party needs an item to fulfill some objective. They don't know where it is so they hire a scribe or Wizard to do the job. The characters assume they will be given some trivia about the object and a direction to go to recover the item. 

Wrong!

The sage or Wizard does give them that information on how to find the object but decides to toot his or her horn by pulling out a scrying globe or magic mirror to show the characters exactly what the item looks like and its immediate environs. Pleased, the characters thank the sage profusely. 

And then it happens. 

The sage drops his or her magic item and it shatters. In the discharge of failing magic, the sage disappears and the item itself appears at the feet of the characters. 

Surprise! 

Now, here are the three hooks: 

A) The characters feel obligated to bring the sage back home. 
B) The characters take the item and leave, forgetting about the sage. The enraged sage escapes on their own and hunts the characters down.
C) The owner of the item brings the sage home, searching for his or her stolen possession.  

The beauty of this is the triple hook is, in no way are you pushing the players to pick a course of action. They'll do it themselves by word and deed. Also, it doesn't tie up the DM too much. The forces against the players can have many motivations and goals, so it doesn't turn into a targeted TPK. You can play it for laughs, for growth, for horror, all based on what you discover your players like. 

Imagine the look on your player's faces when they discover the sage doesn't want to go home because they accidentally found the love of their life. Or what if they ran home just days ahead of a demon horde. What if the sage stumbles home and into the party just in time to save them from themselves? 

That is so much fun. 

Let's get ready to paint some #mecha

 I do love a good Locust sculpt, but I have a few more figures queued up for painting. 

Usually, I do a light color as the base, but you can see I used black on the Mechs in the back rank. I've never tried that before. The Battlemaster and the Commando will be dark green, with red and white details, along with a bit of silver and gunmetal. 

The jars of dice are my next laser project. I'll be cutting some 3 mm thick lids for them. The next generation will have laser-etched glass, but I need to buy a rotating stand for that. 

Stupid Solution to Stupid Problem #MechaMonday

I've been working on a few Battlemechs for my Thursday outings to Kingpin Comics and Games. However, I own two 100-ton cats. They are beasts. They keep knocking my painted mechs off the shelf. 

They are savage. They skip the unpainted ones. 

I came up with a stupid solution to a stupid problem. I put the models in a terrarium I had in the garage. 

They've tried half a dozen times to get up there and they can't fit. Problem solved? 

Happy Accident - Fiend Folio times 2!

I made a point of getting Nathan physical copies of the D&D 5e rules. He has two different groups that play and it would be dumb if they couldn't do that due to an internet outage, lost computer, or other silly problem. 

Mechanically, 5e is very different than AD&D or any version of B/X but the lore remains largely the same. Drow are Drow, Goblins are Goblins, and so on. Sure some people would like to change that for everyone but once you put an idea out there, good luck changing it. 

Wayback in 2019, I had a campaign where elves and humans were hostile to one another. I couldn't sell it and no one bought it. 

Once an idea is out there, forget about changing it. 

Anyway, I mentioned to Nathan my world's main antagonist is a Drow named Magarven. You can read all about him here. 

Nathan was put back by the mention of Drow. He thought they were new to 5e. Nope. I grabbed my copy of Fiend Folio. His jaw dropped.

"Is that a Githyanki?!?" 

Hell, yeah it is. 

That was the last I saw or thought about my copy of Fiend Folio. Somehow, that struck me funny. I forgot I even had a copy and ordered one POD from DriveThruRPG. Of course, when it arrived, Nathan tried to return my copy. 

I took some pictures and made him pick one. 

The POD copy is a soft cover, but don't let that put you off. The pages are solid and crisp, the print is excellent and the binding is nice. It is a tiny bit smaller than the original, making it a standard-size book. The price for POD was also amazing, far less than the $20 I paid for the original copy back in the day. 

I hope you can tell from the images, the POD's paper is somewhat thicker and the black is very solid. The thicker paper is nicer from the get-go. The softer black ink in the original is likely due to the age. Even though I bought my hardcover 2-3 years ago, it was printed in 1981. No book will hold up over 40+ years.

Anyway, I thought I would share this title as it keeps bringing joy to new and old players. 

#Mechamonday for September 16th - Locust Again and Home Improvement

As mentioned before, Locusts are one of my favorite mechs. In the image to the right, the painted Locust sculpt is from the Battletech Alpha Strike Boxed Set. There is no official source for more figures, so I purchased a few from Etsy.

Here is the link I used. I am not an affiliate of Etsy or this seller. I just like the product. I gave it 5 stars, I honestly couldn't be happier with these mechs. 

You'll notice these are variants, with long gun barrels on the arms and no chin cannons. When they arrived, I thought of cutting the guns off to match the other model. The obvious bend in the barrels bothered me to. 

I couldn't do it. I want them as they are. 

I decided to fix them. These are obviously resin printed, so fixing them is relatively easy and the technique works on many types of plastic models. 

Step one: get a cup of very hot water. I've seen people say it must be X degrees and then they name some arbitrary number below boiling. 

Stop. Let me offer some free home improvement advice then tell you about using hot water to bend plastic. 

You have three basic choices of water heating: on-demand, electric, or gas. If you have on-demand hot water, you can skip this because that will make as much, and as hot as you like water until the fuel runs out. If you heat water by gas or electricity you have a hot water battery in your home called a hot water tank.

Modern hot water tanks have two heating elements, one at the top and one near the bottom. The cold water comes in from the bottom of the tank and is heated by the first element. The hot water rises and is kept at temperature by the upper heating element. Cold water comes in to replace it and the process continues. This is actually kind of neat. When not in use, the water starts as a column of cold to hot and turns into a column of nearly uniform temperature water. 

Have you ever noticed that your water comes out cool and warms up over time? That is two different processes at work. The obvious one is the water in the pipes is cooler than the water in the tank. The second process is as the tank replenishes the flowing water, and eventually, both heating elements turn on. 

This is very efficient. This is also why I say not to use the hottest water possible for bending plastic. You won't be able to control how hot it can get consistently because of the heating elements. 

If you notice you burn yourself at the sink when the dishwater or shower is running, turn down your hot water tank temperature. It's too hot. Remember, the shower will dump water over your head even if it's too hot. Second, turning the temp down can save you enough over a month or year to buy another mech. 

This ends my home improvement section. 

Ok. Get a cup of hot as you can tolerate water. You'll be holding your fingers in it for about 30-60 seconds. Plan accordingly. 

The reason for no specific temperature is, I don't know what kind of resin you are dealing with and I don't want you to melt it to slag. Repeating this process several times is better than destroying a model with very hot water. 

Also, get a cup of cold water. Again, not as cold as you can get it, but cool.  

Initially, I held my model in the water for a minute. Next, I bent the gun outwards and dipped it in the cool water. In the picture to the left, you can see the guns are less bent but not entirely fixed. 

I repeated the process. Since the water didn't damage the models, I felt comfortable dropping all three into the hot water and repeated the process. 

After the next dip, I thought they looked good enough. I might do it again before priming the models. 

This technique works well with bent airplane landing gear, drogues, and antennas. You may give it a try on slightly warped larger pieces, but only if you can press the model's complex shape against an opposing shape. I have yet to fix a model where 2 halves of the model are warped by pressing them up against each other. 

It is always too much flex to work but you may have better luck. 

As always, you can pick up a copy of this game on DrivethruRPG, but if you hit up brick-and-mortar stores, you can get the physical copy with minis. I will be doing a review of my favorite place to shop and play Battletech soon. 

#MechaMonday for September 9th - Commando

The Commando is a light mech and missile boat. It's an interesting option, as it pairs a single laser with two different missile racks. The range is short and shorter, but it's cheaper than a Locust. And there is something to be said about a low-heat mech. 

The Commando Gallery

You can pick up a copy of this game on DrivethruRPG, but if you hit up brick-and-mortar stores, you can get the physical copy with minis. 

#MonsterMonday - POP-001 Preview

I am on call this week, so I have prepared a couple of posts in advance. I won't be playing this week, so hopefully I can catch you up with the playtest progress. 

This is #MonsterMonday. 

I have 10 main monsters and creatures selected for this adventure. Several are unique. The first monster the character encounters is the Guardians. Here is a preview. 

Iron Temple Guardian

18’ tall iron statues with massive crowns. 

AC: 4, HD: 9 (41 HP) Att: 1x fist 1d6 or 1x kick 1d8 or 2x ensnare or 2x push. THAC0: 12, MV 90’. SV: D8 W9 P:10, B10, S12, ML:12, AL: Neutral, XP: 3,000 NA: 1d4, TT: 2x 500 GPS diamonds (the eyes). 

Guardians are more determined than aggressive. They are usually set to guard an area such as the temple grounds, hence the name. These creatures are larger and more versatile than Iron Golems, but lighter and lankier. They can guard, pursue, or attack as commanded. 

Mundane damage immunity: Requires silver or magical weapons to damage. Blunt and non-metal weapons will bounce. Sharp metal weapons will be absorbed and heal the Guardian for HP equal to the maximum possible damage for that weapon.

Energy Immunity: Immune to fire and cold.

Healed by fire: Each HP of fire damage restores one HP. 

Energy vulnerability: If struck with fire and cold in the same round, they heal as per above but then take thermal shock damage. Thermal shock damage is equal to the maximum possible damage from the cold attack.

Mind Jolt: Scrying or mind reading will be ineffective as they don’t have minds. The caster must save vs. Paralysis or be stunned for the attempt. 

Bonus XP: If a player role-plays a bouncing weapon, give them 50 XP each time. 100, if it is truly funny. 

They pursue at half-normal speed and only use pushing or ensnaring attacks unless attacked, in which case they switch to kicking and punching. They will only punch or kick armed and aggressive attackers. If they flank a target, they switch to ensnaring and pushing again. 

Ensnared creatures are carried by the Guardian. This causes no damage and up to 2 characters can be ensnared. The target(s) can wiggle out of the Guadian’s grip on a successful DEX check or after three rounds of trying. The escaping victim can either slide to the ground or ride on the Guardian’s back or crown. Riding characters won’t be attacked once they escape unless they attack the Guadian again. Up to 3 people can ride the Guardian’s back and one more in the Crown. Typically they are not controllable, but wiley characters can direct them by making reasonable suggestions. 

If an ensnared or riding character successfully attacks the Guardian, they will be dropped and kicked (2d6 falling damage, plus a kick attack).  

Pushing moves a target 6 feet in the direction of the Guadian’s choice and does no damage. 

If an Iron Temple Guadian is destroyed by thermal shock, the parts can be gathered up and placed in a fire to restore the creature. This takes all day and the fire must be kept lit for it to work. This will place the Guadian under the fire-keeper’s command. If many people tend the fire, the last one to add fuel will be in command.  

POP-001 is meant for OSE. You can pick up a copy of Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome and Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome at DriveThruRPG. 

Session 0b: The Land of Adventure

This particular run is called “The Hunt”. It transports special tradesmen and craftsmen to the supporting cities and towns of the Capital Region. The Hunt’s secondary purpose is a yearly survey of the road to ensure there is nothing to inhibit the normal caravan runs. The Hunt contains 14 wagons, 64 men-at-arms, and 6 cavalrymen to protect the wagons. This includes Mercy, Tilly, Misha, Garven, and Kayleb. Tilly and Mercy are assigned to the cavalry while Misha and Garven are assigned the first and last wagons. 

There are 6 mighty 24-foot-long wagons for passengers. Each wagon has an awning and carries tents for camping. There are 4 16-foot wagons, heavily loaded with various goods and cargo for the trip. The caravan has a pair of small kitchen wagons that are little more than rolling ovens. A 12-foot larder wagon carries food. There is a massive war wagon that is the core of the defense. The war wagon is 3 levels high and is covered in metal plates and leather hides (AC 4). 

The war wagon has 6 crossbowmen stationed inside at all times. Each of the other wagons has 1 or two archers or crossbowmen, except the larder and kitchen wagons which have no defenders. The vanguard is made up of 3 mounted men and 6 unmounted men-at-arms. There is a matching group of defenders at the tail of the caravan. The caravan doesn’t have enough men to completely rotate the guards and passengers are encouraged to act as an ad-hoc watch. Mostly, they tend to fire and drink late into the night, which is better than nothing.  

Much of “The Hunt” is high pageantry. The road is well-maintained, well-mapped, and largely free of bandits or raiders. The local bandits avoid all caravans. There is a slight risk of pirate ships as even the pirates avoid the area. 

The main concern is that the road crosses the equator, in the shadow of the Butter-Ripple Needle. 

What the hell is the Butter-Ripple Needle? 

The Butter-Ripple Needle marks the East Pole and was the last Space Elevator built by the High Men and the Iron Men. The four Space Elevators ring the equator. They are ancient. They are commonly known as the Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, and Butter-Ripple Needles in the vulgar language. They were built during the Great Silence when the High Men stopped writing, so the original names are unknown. (Actually, the internet decided and these are their real names.) 

The route will cover 25 six-mile hexes or 150 miles. As mentioned before the area along the road is well mapped, so there is no hex crawling on the road. Off the road is a different story. 

The first town on the road is Iron Tree, 18 miles from the Canvasary. The next stop is the port of Western Gate, two more hexes away. Before the mid-point of the journey is a farming community named Bounty. It is hardly a town, merely a hex-sized collection of farms. 

This a milk run that the party will turn into an adventure. 

POP-001 is meant for OSE. You can pick up a copy of Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome and Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome at DriveThruRPG.