40mm Role Playing with The Fantasy Trip

Having spent my last two blog posts on the "serious" subject of Napoleonic wargaming, I thought it was time for something a little more whimsical.  Some of my fondest memories growing up are playing role playing games with my friends from high school.  Unfortunately, unlike the kids from the "Stranger Things" Netflix series, I didn't discover this joy until I was a little older.  While I really only played for three or four years, the memories have stuck and are a constant reminder of the importance of friends and great relationships.  

When one of the role-playing games we played was recently re-released and updated via Kickstarter, I couldn't help myself.  This was the first and only Kickstarter I have ever backed, but oh what a joy to receive!

While the cover art was updated the counters and maps still are reminiscent of the originals.  Though the game is meant to be played with cardboard counters on a hex grid, it can also be played with miniatures, so of course I couldn't help the excuse to paint up a few more of the 40mm quasi-historical figures I purchased when the Mindstalkers game fell on its face.  The game looked terribly cumbersome and complex, but the figures were beautifully sculpted and cast.  At one point they were selling for a couple bucks a piece, so I bought a box full of them.

Just because a figure is beautifully cast doesn't mean the painter has talent, and here is an example of a face only a mother could love.  I tried to salvage the expression, but alas it was either a complete re-paint or accept that not everyone is handsome, so here is a warrior with a charisma score of 3...

Despite the paint job the pose is dynamic and this is actually one of my favorite figures.  Can't wait to try him out in the dungeon!

Slender and beautifully proportioned, the Mindstalker figures were some of the best I have seen.

The sorceress was a bit of a conversion figure.  I added some hair, the staff, and trim around the bodice of her dress to make her less like an adolescent fantasy figure, but once again I think she came out with a face of a hardened warrior sorceress.  I'll pretend that is the look I was going for and get on with it.

Casting a spell clearly calls for a stiff headwind, as that cloak is really blowing!

While I can't say it is some of my best work, I really wanted to have some female warriors and wizards so my wife and daughter could play a game.  They were kind enough to give it a try last Christmas with some friends, but let's just say the dungeon master was a bit rusty.  I had killed the whole adventuring party within a couple of hours.  The Fantasy Trip always was a tough game to survive, but the fault in this case was mine, as I made a couple of nasty bears, twice as tough as they were supposed to be.

This is another minor conversion of a female standard bearer given a new hand with a longsword.

I do like the way the wind is blowing from behind on this figure, causing the cloak to billow forward and her hair to fly forward rather than back from this angle.

That's a big honking sword to be using one handed!

Let's hope next time I get around to hosting a game she survives!  As a parting shot, a look at the dungeon I have been preparing for the games.  Fortunately all of the rooms in the "Death Test" scenarios are the same size, so I can just use the same room for different encounters.

 

Xmas Fun and the The Perils of Collecting!

As is my usual habit, much to the amusement of my family, there were a couple of presents under the tree from me, to me.  I knew I was taking a chance, but am having to learn the hard way about buyer beware.  I'm sure there was no intentional misrepresentation on the seller's part, but sometimes what you get can be a bit, well, surprising.  My first present to myself was a unit of Bavarians that I suspected to be Hinton Hunt.  There are a couple of Austrian Grenadier officers masquerading as Bavarians, but enough line figures to accommodate a simple head swap, so no problem I thought.  The problem turned out to be the muskets, which appear to be childishly executed, so I suspect these are either recasts with added muskets or conversions of some sort.  Does anyone know a good source for 1/72 scale muskets?  They really will have to be replaced to be use-able, otherwise the figures are quite nice.

 This next unit was advertised as 1/72 by the eBay seller and I was curious as to their provenance, but really didn't know what they might be.  Upon inspection of the bases, they turned out to be Hinchliffe miniatures without a doubt, but earlier smaller sculpts apparently done by Peter Gilder himself in the early 70s if the web is to be believed.  While smaller than the later Hinchliffes, the style is similar, but much more slender.  Indeed I thought these might be GHQ miniatures, but once I got them it was clear they are much taller - closer to 30mm.

Definitely not 1/72!

A couple of months ago while trolling around on eBay I also found some GHQ miniatures.  I would like to do a unit of these but would need to arrange a trade with someone else who has a few, as two boxes of the same type would be needed (though one box could be elites of that type.)  I have a box of 1808-12 marching French Fusiliers, and probably marching French Legere from the same period, but the plume is at the side of the shako instead of in front, so I thought perhaps they could be Swiss, as I have seen that plume arrangements in some illustrated plates - does anyone know if the French did a similar plume arrangement on occasion? 

And now for Something completely Different

And now from collecting perils to a little bit of goofy fun.  I finished the dungeon room for an evening of The Fantasy Trip and Death Test with good friends.  It has been thirty-five or more years since I ran a role-playing game and it showed.  We were all essentially new to the game, so we only made it through a couple of rooms before the party met its demise, but that was largely my fault for a mis-read that gave the monsters twice as many attacks as they should have had.  Oh well, dinner was eaten, alcohol consumed and fun was had with good friends, so no matter.  Here are a few pictures of the dungeon - a combination of plaster floor tiles and blue insulation foam that was etched and painted.  The miniatures are 40mm Mindstalker miniatures for the most part, with a few VV miniatures and some LotR plastic combat hex pre-painted figure for expediencies sake.

40mm Role Playing with Melee and Wizard - TFT Kickstarter

I loved playing The Fantasy Trip (TFT) when I was a wee tike in high school (actually I was pretty big and sported a daunting beard back then, but no matter, you get the point).  Recently Steve Jackson re-acquired the rights to the game and has re-released it in a new shiny version through Kickstarter.  In preparation I am hastily painting 40mm Lord of the Rings plastic hex combat figures, as well as 40mm pewter Mindstalker miniatures, to be ready for a dungeon adventure this Christmas with the family.  Nothing says Christmas like Death Test II!  Here are some work in progress pictures of the figures:

 "Not Galadriel" preparing to hurl a fireball.

 I never like this sculpt in 28mm and it was even worse in 40mm, so I just chopped off the extended left arm and added a shield.  Better, but still not my favorite.

 Pewter Mindstalker figures, unfortunately out of print

40mm Miniatures for The Fantasy Trip Death Test

About a year ago I started painting 40mm miniatures with the idea of using them to play some of the old Metagames that were released as part of The Fantasy Trip.  Melee and Wizard were the first two microgames in this series and I have one of the self programmed adventures, Death Test II, that I would love to introduce to my gaming group.  

 As luck would have it, recently one of the creators of The Fantasy Trip, Steve Jackson, was able to regain the rights to the game and is re-issuing the series through Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/the-fantasy-trip-old-school-roleplaying

This is the very first Kickstarter I have decided to back, so hope it will go well.  I have the original rules so don't really need it, but I wanted to throw in my support and it never hurts to get a nice new box of toys.  

Here is a link to some of the other miniatures for The Fantasy Trip I have already posted to this blog:

 http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/2015/09/mindstalkers-40mm-italian-medieval.html

No pictures, but I have also used a lot of the Lord of the Rings 40mm hex click miniatures to form the backbone of the dungeon dwellers.  I just pop them off their bases and pin them to either lead or plaster bases I designed and cast myself, to match the size of the Mindstalkers miniatures.

Below are some of the 40mm miniatures I have been painting to use with the game recently:

This is a Darksword Miniatures figure of a Game of Thrones lady in waiting.  Small for 40mm, as she only stands about 33+mm high, but not everyone is tall, so I thought she was well within the range for a smaller woman.  For what it is worth, I tried to paint her with a sheer fabric dress, but didn't want it to be obscene.

I picked her up a Nashcon in a bin of $1.00 miniatures, so she was a bargain, and then mounted her on one of my custom bases.

Needless to say she was fun to paint for obvious reasons, but I did have to take a lot of ribbing from my dear spouse!

As always, the sculpts by Tom Meier are full of character, and she is no exception.  The attention to facial detail in particular, is a hallmark of his sculpts.

The vikings are part of the VVV miniatures line and are cast in resin.  Beautiful figures, if a bit fragile.  The one on the right has already lost the bottom part of his scabbard to my ham-handedness.  The detail is really incredible though, so I have no regrets.

Most of the figures I have painted so far to represent player characters are heavily armored, so I wanted to do some more lightly armored figures to represent players just starting out, before they can afford those pieces of plate armor.

Here we have some bad guys.  The skeletons are part of the Heroes and Myths 40mm line of miniatures, which to my knowledge, is no longer available.  They are lovely figures for the Greek legends, so I hope someone brings them back to life.

The Troll is another one of Tom Meier's sculpts and is part of his line of 30mm Thunderbolt Mountain range.  These have also recently gone out of production, but I am certainly hoping someone has picked up the line to keep producing them!

The shields for the skeletons are actually from the plastic medieval Russians made by Fireforge.  I replaced the Greek shields to give them a look more suited for a western medieval setting. 

Lastly I am working on some scenery for the dungeon made from old Heroquest parts.  I have also purchased some of the Mantic Terrain Crate sets, which are a hair small for 40mm, but should fit in reasonably well nevertheless.

Mindstalkers 40mm Italian medieval fantasy figures

 

These figures are from the 40mm Mindstalkers game that came and went a few years back.  I picked up the figures on eBay for a song, so bought a boatload of them.  Many are still available I think from 99 cents to about $2.50 for a 40mm mounted knight.  I've been working on them off and on with the intention of playing Melee or In the Labyrinth with them.  Just thought I would post some pictures.  They are a little fiddly to put together, but really excellent sculpts.