Historicon 2018: Ogres, Donkeys, Giants, and Shakespearean Shenanigans.

Nick and I had another great Historicon!  This was the 6th Annual Historicon Musical, this time a mash-up of Into the Woods and Shrek.  We had 16 players and the action was non-stop and crazy.  Plotwise, the Shrek characters were attempting to free Fiona from Lord Farquad's clutches, while the Into the Woods characters were attempting to escape the angry Giant.  The Giant was an NPC whose movement across the board was randomly determined.

Here's a partial cast photo:
















Some shots of the table

Shrek's band of fairy folk massing to attack Lord Farquad's castle.

 For some reason, a lot of the players focused on trying to get Rapuzel out of her Tower.  This nearly resulted in disaster for many when Jack (of beanstock game) tried to lure the giant after him, causing the giant to turn ominously toward the tower.  Thanks to the frantic pleas of Donkey following by attack by Cinderella's black birds and the red dragon's flame, the Giant was forced back and tripped over Rapunzel's hair that was stretched between the tower and the beanstock.  This caused the Giant to fall, impaling herself on the numerous tall pines of the Woods.  The dragon went on to rescue Fiona from Farquad's castle and the princess shared True Love's First Kiss with Shrek.

There were a lot of great performances, such as completely smarming and hate-inducing Prince Charming and enthusiastic Gingerbread Man, the coveted Wazi award for Best Actor went to Donkey, who did a spot impression of Eddie Murphy.

Our other game was a reprise of our Elizabethan Frostgrave game, A Dead Man in Deptford, where various factions were searching for the lost manuscript of Dr. Faustus shortly after the murder of Kit Marlowe.

We had 16 players for this game and so got to use all of the possible factions I had created, including Puck and the faeries, and 

the Scottish Weird Sisters

The scene is Southwark, on the south side of the Thames.  The Rose Theatre and bear-baiting rink are just a few of its charms.

We got a great compliment on our table from a professor of English Lit at a local college who was attending the convention, who absolutely loved the look of it.

Here's some shots from in the game.

As always happens, the Rose was burned.

 Ultimately, Solomon Kane destroyed the spell book that allowed for the creation of dramaturgical magic while the manuscript of Dr. Faustus was taken by Grace O'Malley's Irish pirates, with the aid of both the Lord Chamberlains' Men and the Lord Admiral's Men acting troups.  They all escaped in Grace's ship to found the Irish National Theatre.

I also played in a number of games.  Here's the magnificent SOCCOM and sorcery.  It was western Coalition troops vs various shady forces that we dubbed the Axis of Evil, all searching for a hiding cultist in a underground Egyptian Lair. A fun, fast moving game despite its size with great scenery.

I ran some Afghan Mujaheddin troops

 My motorcycle-riding RPG proved to be the MVP of the game, careening through the corridors of the lair to snatch the cult leader from under the noses of the Coalition and monsters.

I also played in a couple of Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant games, which were great fun despite my doing absolutely abysmally in both games.

I also played in the incredible Ghost Archipelago game, unbelievably beautiful table.

The high point of my game was slaying the Fire Element in the belly of Vaal

Here's some other games that caught my eye.  A beautiful Necromunda table

ACW game.

Minas Tirath

The Siege of Fort St. Elmo in Malta

FIW game with great waterfall:

An impressive Battletech game.

Do You Bite Your Thumb at Me, Sir? Eureka's Romeo and Juliet Figures

I just got the new line of figures from Eureka that are based on Romeo and Juliet.  Lovely and evocative figures.  Perfect for Renaissance dueling and gang fights as well as role-playing.  Here's pictures:

Review of Impudent Mortal Tudor Inn

I am planning on running the Dead Man in Deptford game at Historicon this week.  One of the issues we had when we ran the game at Cold Wars was that we used the Sarissa Tudor Inn as one of the objective points.  This resulted in a lot of figures in a fairly cramped space.  To rectify the problem, I broke down and bought the very substantial Tudor Inn produced by Impudent Mortal, found here:

https://www.impudentmortal.com/product/tudor-inn/

Although a bit on the pricey side, for its $100 price tag, get a lot of terrain for your money.  It is 19 inches long by 11" wide and 11" tall, very easy and quick to construct and very robust.  In layout, it is the iconic fantasy tavern with multiple floors, including fireplaces on each floor, a balcony-like second floor, and customizable room spaces on the third floor. It includes extra walling and a number of variously sized tables.  The whole thing is textured so that you don't really need to paint it.  Two large roof panels give access to the interior and the top floor is removable.  All fit snugly.

My only criticism is that the 2nd floor is not removable and somewhat obstructs the front door.  I decided to clip the pegs holding that floor in place and add support beams in the corners, making it easy to remove as needed.

I did paint it to fit in with the look of my other Elizabethan buildings.  Here it is on the Cigar Box Mats medieval city mat.

With some 28mm figures to give an idea of scale

Here's the top floor with one of the roof panels removed. 

More of the top floor.  As I mentioned interior walls can be configured in several different ways

Descending, here's the second floor, a balcony overlooking the main floor.

 The ground floor, with one of the extra walls added to form a kitchen.  Note the support beams I added in the corners.  This was the one modification I made to allow the second floor to be removed and it was a very easy mod to make.  The grey-topped tables are the ones that come with the kit.

 Here it is on the full table, dominating the Sarissa tavern (which is a lovely kit as well) on the left.

I can see this being used as the center piece for a host of games, bar fights, raids, duels, etc., as it is usable in fantasy as well as historical games from the medieval period up through at least the 19th century at least.  I felt it was well worth its price.

Ghost Archipelago Crews

This is just a quick post to show some of the crews I've painted up for Ghost Archipelago.  These came from one box of plastics and a few of the metal specialist packs.

 Here's one crew with a more Sinbadish look

 Female crew members

 A Wave Warden and Vine Warden

 A couple of Heritors

 Beast Warden and Earth Warden

Storm Warden, Female Warrior, and Hunter.  The Female Warrior is from Reaper miniatures

 A more Western style crew

A Savage

Vine Warden, Heritor, and Crackshot

Some Drichean Bronze Age Warriors.  These are from Crocodile Games Gods of Olympus Trojan line.