Danger Zone for Storm King's Thunder

Danger Zone for Storm King's Thunder


Album Cover:

And here's a slightly more legit link :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHFv75-AvM

Picnic Adventures: CORNFLAGRATION of DOOOOOOOOOOOM

http://onemonk.com/FH-2013.html

A last-minute entry, as I've finally managed to track down the photos from the Halloween Adventure I created and crafted last year. The photos are not the best, but at least now you can see what was intended by my Halloween Hoard entry ([a href="http://onemonk.com/FH-2013.html"]Halloween Hoard 2[/a]).

Just got back from my son's first ever D&D game! :D

     I've run him through the Pathfinder Beginner Box solo adventure, we've played Dungeon! the board game, Dungeon Roll the dice game, drawn a few maps, made up (but not statted) a few creatures, started up a few stories, but tonight was the real deal.
     I brought him along to my FLGS tonight, expecting him to last an hour or so, while we played through Cragmaw Castle in the 5th Edition Starter Box. We'd talked about what character he'd like to start with, and decided on the pre-generated fighter-archer from the box set. He had a special d20 that he picked out after I ran him through the PFBB solo, and a full set of polyhedrals in fiery orange (Chessex Vortex Orange, to be specific). While he needed some reminders, and guidance, he had good ideas, and was engaged throughout the evening. He lasted all the way to the end, three-and-a-half hours later, and as you can see below, he had a blast!

     This is a big deal for him. He was just recently diagnosed with ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive (daydreamer, not troublemaker), as well as with learning disabilities in written expression. He's very imaginative and very bright - though only 8, his reading comprehension level is at grade 10 level (i.e. twice his age). But the rest of it has been getting in the way of socializing, expressing himself verbally and most definitely in writing, and even in things like math. D&D is, in many ways, the perfect game to play to his strengths, and work on his weaknesses, having fun all the while.
Tonight was a great night for it, too. We were playing the penultimate chapter in the 5th Edition Starter Set, Lost Mines of Phandelver, and there were two other players (both with DMing experience) aside from us. And we had the best DM possible - Scott is a wizard at bringing the action, the story, and the monsters to life. He's especially talented at goblin voices and expressions, and had G. in stitches.

Scott embodies a surviving gobbo with delusions of grandeur...

G.'s now gotten his first treasure, his first XP, and a brand new organized play card to track it all. He'll be back next time as we finish Lost Mines of Phandelver, and we'll play it by ear after that. (He definitely won't be joining us for Wednesday night Encounters, as we already have ten (10) players and only one (1) DM...

Happy Dominion Day! Another year, another beginning...

Happy Canada Day! or Happy Dominion Day! for the oldschoolers ;)

A first anniversary past, and nearly half-a-year missed. Boot to the head!*

Topics I want to tackle in the coming weeks and months:

Baba Yaga & her Dancing Hut (ongoing project)

Picnic Adventures (my top gaming priority, on the back burner for too long)
- Fluff: setting, story, accessories (minis, maps, tiles, terrain), iconics, adventure, illustrations
- Crunch: character building (& pregens), resolution mechanic (dice), etc.

Song of Blades and Heroes, Song of Fur and Buttons - my first venture into wargaming, about to begin

RPGs for Kids, overviews, reviews, play-thrus

Mapmaking

Inked Adventures & Billiam Babble omniverse

Fantasy Inns & Taverns

The Beauty of Black & White

Fantasy Art inspirations

Best Books in Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Best Films in Fantasy & Sci-Fi


Kids' own RPGs and fantasy games...









"Boot to the head" is a reference to Canadian comic group Four-on-the-Floor... in this case refers to a hard-reboot of the blog. Once more ;)

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part I)

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part I)

Unfortunately, this blog post (in draft form) was wiped out when my laptop's hard-drive failed. I didn't have the heart, time, nor energy to rebuild from scratch, and then health issues took over.

I will rebuild it within the coming weeks...

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part II)

      More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
      Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Part II: Dungeons & Dragons

Ongoing Baba Yaga-ing

I'll be posting Post Numbers 2 and 1 (in that order) later today and tomorrow. Weekend is family time ;)

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part III)

      More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
      Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Part III: Pathfinder

The Most Wondrous Item: The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga (Part IV)

     More famous than any other fairy-tale dwelling --save perhaps that lowly witch's gingerbread house-- the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga has a depth and a life of its own beyond its iconic owner/creator. One of my papercraft dreams has been to build it to run my adventurers up against, and now that dream is within reach! For the fantabulous Fat Dragon will be designing it for me (and others too), having listed it as the first stretch goal of his current Kickstarter project, the medieval village Ravenfell. And what do you know, not only did the project fund within a couple of hours yesterday, my chicken-legged wonder was reached by suppertime (and he launched at lunch)!
     Well, now Fat Dragon Tom is wondering what The Hut (Not Pizza, Not Jabba - better, tastier, more ancient, more powerful than both) should look like, having only worked out the tricky chicken leg geometry so far. So I will share a few ideas and illustrations over the next few posts... be sure to share yours in the comments here, and/or at the Kickstarter page, and/or the Fat Dragon forums.

Part I: Fairy-Tale & Folklore
Part II: Dungeons & Dragons
Part III: Pathfinder
Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Part IV: Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Buon Natale e buon anno!

Feliz Natal e Feliz Ano Novo!

!Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo! 

I'd love to add greetings in Polish and Russian, but I don't trust my old translations, and I'm afraid to make a similar mistake to the lead priest at my father's church. Every Christmas service, he breaks out his guitar, sings José Felicianos "Feliz Navidad", and proceeds to wish everyone in the congregation a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous Anus. You really have to watch those accents and non-English letters, as I keep trying to tell him... ;D

Festive joy from my favourite webcomic, Brian Patterson's d20 monkey. May all your gaming be merry and bright, and may it be with the best of your family and friends. Have a Happy New Year, too!

P.S. Please send good wishes and/or prayer's Brian's way. He broke his knee getting his Christmas decorations down from his attic a month ago, has had to have surgery, and can't even sit at his desk to draw the comic for most of the next two months. And his gaming-related goodness includes an annual Christmas arc with one of his lead characters proving to be Santa's long-lost son... :(

Beginning gaming again (test entry)

Learning GIMP to create and modify gaming papercraft...

Extended corn rows for Corn-flagration of Dooooom!

As previously promised, One Monk's Corn Rows modded to 10" lengths, to save work when crafting the corn maze. Four printed copies are necessary for the cornmaze I've designed, at the largest size they will print off (either US Letter or A4). The cornmaze requires 78-79 linear inches, and if you can print each sheet at 10" long you'll just be able to do it. Actual photos of the build should follow tomorrow...

One-Monk-Halloween-Harvest-Props-Cornfield-modded-to-2-10%22-rows-by-WackyAnne.pdf

The illustration is (C) 2008 by Jim Hartman (One Monk), and modded with permission 2013 by Anne Thornton (WackyAnne AKA DungeonMama). For personal use only. Please visit onemonk.com and the Cardboard Warriors forum for more on the art and hobby of gaming papercraft.

Minis for Monday! (slightly late)

Hello Everyone!

I've learned a valuable, yet painful, lesson today. I had an older post open to update it with some links, my computer hung up (a memory leak somewhere, it seems), and the post was wiped. As it was my Dungeon for Dominion Day, a prize-winner, and my most detailed (and visited) post, I couldn't leave it at that. There was some hope, in that the initial image and opening paragraph still lingered in the editor when the browser was re-opened. It's taken me hours to restore the post, and add back in the valid links, etc. Fortunately the comments were still linked...

The reason I was fiddling with the old post in the first place was because I've recently been chatting with Mr. Billiam Babble, of Inked Adventures fame, and he suggested I share the minis I made from his knight-for-scale doodle in his Large Dungeon Entrance. These knights will be marching off to join the Cardboard Warriors as soon as this is posted.

I reworked the whole page earlier today, to put in a proper copyright notice; they were, until today, for my eyes only save for a glimpse in the photo below. Please note, the artwork is under copyright by Billiam Babble, but my understanding is that my adaptation may be shared with the notice intact. For free, that should go with out saying. However, I heartily encourage you to purchase some of Inked Adventures' most excellent dungeon tiles and terrain. Not only will it show your appreciation of his work, it affords you the very best way to make your knight feel at home. ;)

Brave Montresor against four Dead Demi-Human Knights (or Halfling Shadow Knights, if you prefer) in the Dungeons of the Demented Demi-Human! adventure for Dominion Day.

Inked_Adventures-WackyAnne_Double_Dozen_Dead_Demi-Human_Knights

These are not quite in the One Monk/Cardboard Warriors style for three reasons.

One: this is simply mirrored art rather than full-front and back (YOU try doodling a back to match!). Two: rather than fold on the base tab, you fold down from the top of the mini.
Three: no black border used as a cutting guide. You trim as near as you can, or leave rectangular

Why this way? Well, this was a very early experiment of mine, before I knew about GIMP or had access to my Photoshop. This is just about the simplest way to make a mini:

1) take a cropped screenshot of a suitable image

2) duplicate it

3) flip the duplicate upside down

4) flip the duplicate left-right (mirror-image)

5) open up a text-editor, drop in upright

6) copy across as many times as you want, hit enter

7) drop in upside-down/mirror-image

8) copy across the same number of times, lining it up

9) in between each set of feet, insert two lines of type with the artist/mini info

10) underline the right-side up text, to provide a cut or fold line

That's it, save for some minor tweaking of tab sizes, lining-up, and page formatting. All it took on my Mac were the screenshot function, Preview to flip the image, and TextEdit. The screenshot image loses some resolution from the original, but it's still acceptable.

In this case, to fit the page, the knights come out to about 23mm scale. Given that One Monk's scale is closer to 32 mm, and comparing with my small-sized Pathfinder minis, the resulting knights are just about perfect halfling size. Now, you could certainly enlarge these on printing, though you will have to change your top and bottom margins to compensate. It would be easier for those using A4 instead of US Letter.

Here you can see them roughly cut and folded. Next, you would glue the wrong sides together. You may glue the tabs together if paper-basing One Monk style or with a plastic slotted base. Or you could leave the tabs unglued to use the Reivaj or Kev's Lounge styles of paper-base. Inked Adventures' free bases work best with the latter styles. After the glue has set, you can trim around the figure, or leave as is.

Well, I hope you have some fun with these. To see what I used them for, check out my Dungeons of the Demented Demi-Human! adventure for Dominion Day.

The good news is, that I have perhaps inspired the Brilliant Mr. Babble to draw up some actual adventuresome paper minis!

- WackyAnne, AKA Dungeon Mama

Picnic Adventures! Corn-flagration of Doooooom! Halloween Mini-module for Monday...

Just a tease, for now. Hope to have this mini-module of sorts posted tonight, as there are now only 10 days left until Halloween!

Picnic Adventures! Pumpkin Patch Map-Tile

The first official release from Picnic Adventures! For my readers, and especially my friends at the Cardboard Warriors Forum! It will be joining the second part of the Forum Hoard of free minis and models in paper...

A pumpkin patch/garden plot/wheat field/corn field tile for your enjoyment, using the grass and dirt textures from One Monk's bases page (all credit to the mighty Jim Hartman, and thanks to Eric "Squirmydad" Brown for keeping the dream alive!). This ensures that they will work perfectly with One Monk's Halloween Harvest Prop set (download zip file here). The map or terrain tile is designed as 7" x 7", 300 pixels per inch. You'll likely have to test it out on your printer for the most accurate scaling.

Picnic Adventures! Pumpkin Patch Map-Tile (image or pdf)

Why 7" x 7", rather than 6" x 6" or 8" x 8"? Well, this way you can slice off one or more of the grass margins and have a battlemap spanning multiple tiles, yet still have a usuable stand-alone tile. Four tiles will yield a 12" x 12" field, six tiles a 12" x 17" field, nine tiles a 17" x 17" field - and unless you plan on leaving the fields fallow, you'd better stop there  


Since the One Monk crops are 3" long, one page of wheatfield or pumpkins will yield 24 linear inches or 120 linear feet of crops, one page of corn-rows will yield 12 linear inches or 60 linear feet of crops. A single tile can accommodate four (in-line) or five (off-set) rows of crops per page, so plan & print accordingly. 

You can use One Monk's bases that are included in his set; they'll match just about perfectly if you want to place or glue them down onto the tile (see how well they'll blend below). Alternatively, you can glue the tile(s) down onto foamcore board (preferably black), and cut slots to accommodate the crops' tabs, like Okumarts bases his minis. You can also crop (tee hee) the tabs somewhat, so you don't have to slice the whole length into the tile/foamcore.



Preview showing compatibility with One Monk's free Halloween Harvest Prop set (download zip file here)

Reboot to the Head! A little Mini Mondays for you...

Hello again, World!

While the summertime meant mama-time over dungeon-time, things are finally falling into place for fall. And this blog has been too-long neglected, especially considering the amount of raw data that I've been accumulating even as I've been failing to post.
In the coming days and weeks, I'll be posting many of the papercraft gaming models I've been finding, admiring, buying, printing, cutting, folding, gluing, and even occassionally using ;)
I'll also be reviewing a few of the many excellent resources (digitally and in print) I've discovered for gamers and game-masters, beginners, kids, and old grumps. :P
But for tonight, where it's still Monday somewhere, I'll be talking about an impulse buy that has turned into an impulse collection... with perhaps no end in sight.
For Mini Mondays, let me present:

duh duh DAH!

HeroClix


[now let me take a few minutes to clean up and post some pictures, please :) ]

Hopefully you recall our handsome adventurer from the Dungeon for Dominion Day, brave Montresor Jericho, from DC's Crisis line. I picked him up for a song ($0.50) at my FLC&GS, Strange Adventures,  because he so closely resembled the hero from the best computer RPG that ever was, or ever will be, Sierra's Hero's Quest Quest for Glory. I've still not found any better candidate, in metal, plastic, or paper. He's seen duty more than any other mini, and braved the Skeleton King's Crypt not once, but twice, while my son & I played Pathfinder on a picnic in the park.
Well, he was also a gateway mini, and after the disappointments I've suffered with the hit-and-miss quality of WizKids' Pathfinder Minis releases, I found the prospect of HeroClix _very_ appealing.
Buying from the bargain bin allows me to see what I'm getting and therefore get what I like, pay little for it, and keep or convert as needed.
I plan on rebasing them gradually, touching up a few spots where the brush went awry or the colours need adjusting for my needs, and only altering a couple more drastically. Mini-painting is another entirely new experience for me, so I'll go slow, do as little as possible, and only experiment on the cheapest, most disposable ones until I'm feeling more confident.

Over the course of a month or two, I bought 34 bargain-bin HeroClix for $22.75, or $0.67/mini on average; 7 for $0.25 each, 11 for $0.50 each, 2 for $0.75 each, 14 for $1.00 each. Roughly a third need no conversion, another third only light modification, and the remainder some, none (saving 2-3 recognizable superheroes for my boys later on), or completely (cut up for parts).

Pros: No Surprises, Cheaper, Generally better paint jobs than I've found with the Pathfinder Minis.
Cons: Need for re-basing for best results, Not Pathfinder-specific,
Break-even points: slightly larger scale than most RPG minis.

Sorry, I'll have to add more more details and photos later. Looking over my stash, and my records, this got more involved than I'd planned.

Today's big news was supposed to be that I'd found HeroClix Marvel Classics and DC Classics 3-packs at my favourite local "dollar" store for $2.50 apiece. Savings of 75%, my sons will get to play with recognizable superheroes (or it'll be up to me to run a superhero campaign sooner rather than later), and one or two will have life outside comic-book settings. Commissioner Gordon looks like he'd be great as an aging pulp detective ;D

Overland Adventures and other things... placeholder for Freebie fridays ;0

Picnic Adventures! Picnic Mimic!

What kids ever met up in a tavern? Nope, our bold adventurers begin their heroic journey one simple, sunny summer day, enjoying the fresh air and a delicious picnic. But what is a picnic without ants?

Here is adversary number two for our bold Picnic Adventurers (the first ANTagonist was diplomatically turned into an ally): a baby mimic at play!

The picnic basket is all one piece, folded, and has the following options built-in: food, blanket, mimics (2), and lid to keep it all in!  Dryw the Harper's female cleric from his Imperfect Child Adventurers set is included for scale, and your defense!

[My submission to the Single Figure category for this year's Papercut Awards over at the Cardboard Warriors forum]

I'd not originally planned to include this and my other entry into the Papercuts 2013 contest, but if I don't now, I never will get them done ;D I hope it at least brings a smile to your face, if not admiration for my skill!

Sadly, only camera working is my iPhone, and neither of my printers nor my scanner were in the necessary full working order to assist, so things are a little rough. My mini, therefore, is the original, prior to being scanned and printed. My photo-scan needed too much digital manipulation to restore true colours to make it worth my while for the contest submission.

Picnic Adventures!

What kids ever met up in a tavern? Nope, our bold adventurers begin their heroic journey one simple, sunny summer day, enjoying the fresh air and a delicious picnic. But what is a picnic without ants?

Here's what I've been up to all summer. Well, lots of picnics, certainly, with my two boys lil' G (age 7) and lil' L (age 3). And trying to get a game of Pathfinder going with my husband and our friends while having to satisfy my fix diving into this wonderful hobby of papercraft for gaming. The closest I've come this true adventuring has been A Pathfinder Picnic in the Park with lil' G, GMing him as he went through the solo adventure in the Pathfinder Beginner Box, The Skeleton King's Crypt, with help from a couple of paper minis.

The combination of my favourite pastimes inspired me to start designing a kid's game which may one day see the light of day. The pictures below show a glimpse into a couple of adventures I've got planned. The ant is Reivaj's Ant Warriors Standard Bearer, shrunk to 67% and de-weaponized so that he doesn't present a threat to Dryw the Harper's excellent adventurers [Imperfect Child Adventurers]. The background is from The Hobbit Companion book, the ground from a Japanese papercraft site modded in Gimp, the greenery from Oversoul Games (whose Dungeon Plungin' I have yet to read the rules for), and the Picnic Mimic, blanket, and log are all mine. The log, in fact, I've already shared in a previous post, and was my first paper mini, made on the fly for that first photo.

[My submission to the Diorama category for this year's Papercut Awards over at the Cardboard Warriors forum]

Supplemental to the entry, a couple of fun details as I play around with Dryw's amazing little adventurers...

I'd not originally planned to include this and my other entry into the Papercuts 2013 contest, but if I don't now, I never will get them done ;D I hope it at least brings a smile to your face, if not admiration for my skill!

Sadly, only camera working is my iPhone, and neither of my printers nor my scanner were in the necessary full working order to assist, so things are a little rough.