JP On Gaming

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Tau Stealth Suits

These tau stealth suits I got from a miniature trading event at the Game Keep. They were printed using a transparent resin, perfect for these guys. However, leaving them unpainted is not something I can do...

So I used a number of ink-like techniques to make one unit in blue and one in green and painted the based to match the color.

The result is unique among the minis I painted. I have no use for them so they will likely end up on Ebay.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

[Titan Week] Clod Kings

To close off Clod week on the blog... More clods!

These clod kings are massive and sit on a throne carried by other clods! Ain't that just the sweetest thing?? Kings are not rulers as much as the mouthpiece for the other clods.

And for those wondering... the green clod is a special clod. He is the jade knight, a hero of his people.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

[Titan Week] Earth Clod Artillery

When you are immortal and made of mud, what do you use for ammunition? More clods, of course!!!

This large elemental can throw clods. It has one in hand ready to fire!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

[Titan Week] Clod rolling ball

Clods rolling balls coming at you at top speed. I said these guys were cute and flavorful. Not just fun to paint but awesome to create a stat block for them too!

Monday, March 11, 2024

[Titan Week] Earth Clod soldiers

I happened on these little guys on Thingiverse while looking for proxy models to use as titans. I fell in love with goofiness and charm of the little guys, called clods.

They look like lumps of clay with some wearing armor and others carrying random weapons. There are more clods coming. I may have gone overboard, but they are just so cute....

Saturday, March 9, 2024

All-Girl Space Regiment

A regiment of female soldiers with Cadian-adjacent colors. I painted these girls for SpaceFOE or One-Page Rules (I don't have enough characters for another Imperial Guard 40k Army).

All of them are 3d-printed models.

Friday, March 8, 2024

[Terrain] Little Rural Temple: Scratch-Built Temple for DND

This is a temple built in Greek style using caryatid columns in the shape of women. Could be Aphrodite, Hera, Athena, or even Artemis.

I built this one as a way to try out various techniques and materials. The result is more effective than I believed.

The columns and the altar were 3d printed while the rest was built using popsicle sticks and with the rook made of cardboard from a frozen pizza box.

It was great to get back into scratch-building things again.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

[Terrain] Statues of Neptune/ Poseidon

These statues of Neptune/ Poseidon are based on a statue on the east coast of the US. I thought they would make great focal points and were painted to go with the rest of the ship graveyard.

I printed them before painting.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Sailing Ships of Olympia: Scratch-Built Ship for D&D

I built three ships in one Sunfay afternoon using cardboard and a variety of other materials I had on hand. These include popsicle and candy sticks. I did not set out to make them overly different but each has its own charm.

The masts were added later. Why? Because I was building to a general idea and I only thought of adding masts after all was done. Magnets to the rescue!

One of them has the Victory of Sam thrice as a its prow decoration.

My goal with these ships was more to focus on the gaming functionality that the accuracy

But JP, what about the prow ram, I know you will ask. Simply these are not warships but trading vessels.

They will be used in the Gencon special named Re-leash the Kraken.


Tuesday, March 5, 2024

[Kinda Book Review] Colossus: Stone and Steel

I looked at this book for a while before pulling the trigger on it. It is set in 66AD at the outset of the Judea Rebellion against Rome. The story has, as its protagonists, twin Jewish stone carving brothers, Judah and Asher, caught in the chaos.

It focuses on the opening parts of the rebellion and the early Jewish triumphs. The book presents the usual Romans: Vespasian and his son Titus. But also (Flavius) Josephus, who wrote The Wars of the Jews. A large part of the story is the siege of Jotapata where the Romans besieged the jews.

This book is well-written and I want to continue reading the next volumes in the series.

As a rating, I will settle on a 4/5 as I tore through the pages, wondering what was going to happen next.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Yearly Retrospective 2023

Another year has ended and we are now in 2024. This one is late but better late than never!

Personal and Family Life

- My eldest daughter graduated from high school and she is off to the next step of her journey.

- I still work and enjoy working at 247 Sports/ CBS Sports.

- The passing of my good friend and FOE author JD Conrad. I took the opportunity to add some Rhym to our Gencon Specials as a thank you and farewell. Farewell my friend, keep that new adventure ready.

World Events

- The Continuation of the Russia-Ukraine War. For God's sakes people, enough of this mindless dying. Ukraine is done. Let's find a way to end this madness. The great defenders are dying for what will become useless soil. Stop it.

- The Gaza War. Again, that one group does something wrong does not allow another to go ape-shit. Let's work at a lasting peace. But our leaders don't seem to give a crap about that either.

Trips

2023 was a pretty tame year when it came to traveling. We spent most of our year at home. This year, we were lucky enough to have people come visit US at our new house in TN. It was great to see all those faces.

- The biggest trip of the year was our daughter Jojo leaving for Canada.

- Both parents and my sisters came from Canada for Jojo's graduation

Publishing/ FOE

This was a relatively tame year as far as publishing goes. I spent a lot of time on Chaos Tide Rising, which I decided not to publish, and coming up with the Ozaka Campaign Setting.

Amazon Releases
- Ozaka Campaign Setting inspired by Medieval Japan

DM's Guild Releases
- Drow of the Demonweb a product to help GMs create or expand drow-themed encounters.

DriveThruRPG Releases
- Ozaka Campaign Setting inspired by Medieval Japan

This year, many FOE products reached Best-Seller tiers. This is a great honor and sign that you guys enjoy and appreciate FOE products, and a great motivation to keep writing and creating more and better products.

Bestseller Milestones: Electrum
- Curse of Strahd II: Griffon Hill Manor
- Rahadin: Dread Knight of Ravenloft
- Ravenloft: Apple of a Mother's Eye

Bestseller Milestones: Silver
- Rhym Campaign Setting

Bestseller Milestones: Copper
- Graz'zt's Entourage Demonic goodies for the GM.

RPGing/ GMing

Akhamet Cover

I ran a hexcral for my home Ozaka group. It thought me much about this medium and let me know that I REALLY like running those. We played one month in-game for about eight months of real-time. If you know me, such a type of campaigns is so completely out of my personal comfort zone and usual style. Loved it.

I ran and completed "Tides of Chaos" but decided not to publish the campaign because it would requires too much material to be added to make it. I figure 400+ pages of material and on DM's Guild, the time and monetary investment. Still we got some good memories.

I played some "Monster of the Week" and had a good time. Thanks to my GM, Sarah.

I joined a local Westmarch-style campaign at the local Murfreesboro, TN. Here are a few action shots from games I ran there.

Conventions/ Special Games

2023, I returned
- Festival Draconis Online
- Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo Huntsville, AL
- ICCC-V Lebanon, TN
- Gencon Indianapolis, IN (6 parts)
- FOE Day at the TEC Murfreesboro, TN

Blog

- I put up a variety of articles, mostly FOE-related, kinda book reports, and miniatures.

- I finished the year with 109 blog posts this year, a pace I rather like.

Other Media

I am one of the players in Die Inspired Season 1.

I participated in a discussion with DMPaulG on his Twitch/YouTube about my work with the Moonshae Isles

Books

Different things to read thing year. Again a variety of things, from fiction to comics. Looking at this list now, I found that the amount of books I read to be somewhat less than in previous years. Perhaps because of my great tired state. Damn you old(er) age!

Non-Fiction
- The Empires of Ancient Persia

Fiction
- Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn
- The Noise of War by Vernon B Davis
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
- Saracen Storm by JM Nunez
- Ulrich by James Walker
- Sixteen Ways to defend a walled city by KJ Parker

Comics
- Essential Hulk Vol 5 by Marvel Comics
- Essential Thor Vol 7 by Marvel Comics
- Essential Spider-man Vol 3 by Marvel Comics
- Murena Tomes 1-3 by Dufaux/Delaby
- Murena Tome 4: Ceux Qui Vont Mourir by Dufaux/Delaby
- Rat Queens vol 1: Sass and Sorcery

RPG and games Mini-Reviews

Posting some initial thoughts about new games I tried this year.
- Mothership RPG Survival Horror Sci-fi

TV and Film Reviews

I did not review anything.

This new season of Doctor Woke is not on TV and I won't pay for it.

Miniature Painting

For most of this year, I painted sporadically. Most of the painted characters were for tabletop gaming. Throughout the summer, I painted many models as GM gifts for Gencon.
- SpaceFoe characters

So with all this, I wish you all a very happy new year.

JP

Friday, January 12, 2024

[Terrain] Ancient Ship Graveyard

During the Christmas holidays, I began working on something for Gencon... It is an ancient ship's graveyard inspired by the remains of ships at Purton in England. These remains jut out of the ground.

What will I use them for? I won't reveal too much but one of the Gencon adventure has a working title of "Re-leash the Kraken"...

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Hormagaunts/ Gnashers

These are hormagaunts, the melee troops of the tyranids.

For SpaceFOE, they are called gnashers part of the Ticks. The ticks are creatures who are insect-like and spread out into the cosmos. They fight by swarming targets mindlessly. I have some Small (CR 1/8), Large (CR 1), and Huge (CR 2) versions.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

[SpaceFOE NPCs] Group shot

And finally a group picture of all the SpaceFOE NPCs.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

[Kinda Book Report] Rat Queen Vol1 Sass and Sorcery

I have been distantly involved with the folks at Lurking Fears who produce some really good gaming stuff, particularly with Call of Cthulhu. Recently, I saw a post from them asking for volunteers to play a streamed game of Rat Queens, with the PCs taking on the roles of the titular Queens.

Therefore, reading the first trade paperback was required for the game. It's been a long time since I did something with required reading. In fact, I think it was an interview... I did not get that job (thank God!)

So on to the story. The Rat Queens are one of many adventuring/ mercenary parties in the town of Palisade and well... like most young people with a lot of money and not much to spend it on, they get drunk, fight each other, and cause a lot of damage.

Yep, they are pretty much the typical D&D party. They talk trash. Curse. Sex. A lot. Then booze. And drugs. In short, they are the stereotypical 20-something college crowd with money and power!

Now the good points: I like the four Queens. They each have their personalities and the conflicts generated by these personalities are interesting and really sells the whole piece. I've a feeling you could put these four into whatever situation/ adventure and they would play out with similar hilarious results.

The main villain of the piece is also efficient (though I've a feeling he will suddenly become completely incompetent so the Queens can prevent him from doing his nefarious deeds).

The art is topnotch and really effective. The writing is competent. The characters are good. The story has some interesting twists. The world has some consistency in a gaming sort of way.

So why do I not like this? Why do I get the feeling this book is "not for me." The in-your-face, over-the-top rowdiness turns me off. Now I don't "hate-hate" it... But I don't think I would read much more of it either.

So... what do I rate this? If you like this sort of thing, you may go as high as 4/5. But I can't go that high. I thought about giving it a 2/5 but there are a lot of things here that I liked that don't warrant that. So, I have to settle on 3/5 but with severe warnings. This has an MA rating (or should).