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

A Dungeon for Dominion Day!

Tomorrow marks Canada's 146th birthday, and I plan on celebrating with A Dungeon for Dominion Day! (A salute to my Dad, who still calls Canada Day by its old name.)

Our good friends will be trudging through this dungeon for our first ever crawl soon enough, but I plan on taking my older gnomelet through tomorrow morning. For now, you get a sneak peek at my plans and secrets while I also showcase my favourite papercraft artist, Billiam Babble of Inked Adventures. Depending on timezones, I may even get this entered into The Frugal GM's Inked Adventures Contest in time. Time's something I've been rather short of, with the gnomelets now out of school for the summer, and a surprise convention that got me gaming for eleven hours yesterday! Anyway, back to The Dungeon!

In our first glimpse, we see two gypsy wagon drivers enjoying a chat and a beer while someone else looks after the horses. The gypsies are from a caravan our hero is helping to protect through a sometimes treacherous route through the woods.

The wagons & drivers are from my second favourite papercraft artist, Dryw the Harper, over on the Cardboard Warriors forums. He has generously provided 100's of free paper minis that he's made for the games he gamemasters (GMs). Our hero is a bargain bin HeroClix figure I picked up from Strange Adventures (my friendly local comic & gaming store or FLC/GS) because he looks remarkably like Montresor: my favourite character I've ever created, from my favourite computer game, Hero's Quest AKA Quest for Glory. Except, I played Montresor as a jack-of-all-trades thief, and this guy (Jericho? whoever that guy is; clearly he's in the bargain bin for his obscurity) looks ready to take on the world with his fists alone. Which is good, because he's going to solo this dungeon for demonstration's sake ;)

Descending into the crypt, our hero will confront a halfling skeleton-come-to-life should he open up the sarcophagus. However, our hero may be smart enough to discover the lever that swings the sarcophagus aside, revealing steps leading into...

The Dungeon Dominions of the Demented Demi-Human!

Our will have to be wary of traps and minor beasties in the hallways.

Every decision will have its consequences.

A Mysterious Chamber?

Or more choices?

A Dead-End Tunnel?

Or a Dozen Dead Demi-Human Knights?

Okay, so only four are shown here. But I have twenty-seven altogether! These were my experiment at crafting paper-minis in a semi-One Monk/Cardboard Warriors style; the artwork is the scale-representative drawing used in Inked Adventures' Skeletal Archway & Portal Large Dungeon Entrance add-on. The artwork here reminds me very much of my favourite comic book artist, Mark Oakley, and his Shadow Knights in Thieves & Kings.

Finally, our hero seems to be getting somewhere worthwhile. But who would be crazy enough to live down here?

It is the Demented Demi-Human! (AKA Lem the Halfling Bard, Iconic Pathfinder character, gone rogue... err... evil summoner) summoning a creature from a bizarre dominion...

He also appears to have an equally demented pet goblin, ready to toss a bomb or two at our intrepid hero!

Will our hero's fists-of-fury prevail?!

Naturally. After all, I'm going to be running this for a seven-year-old gnomelet, as his first-ever dungeon delve ;)

My elder gnomelet may, however, need his lil' brother gnomelet's miraculous finding skill to discover the hidden treasure hoard off the summoner's bedchamber. Someone roll him a Nat 20! Stat!

THE END

FYI

All terrain used for this dungeon is Inked Adventures from RPGNow, as noted below:

Forest
Encounter Lairs #3 Forest Ambush ($3.25 sale $2.50), the encounter tile is printed twice
Modular Dungeon | Cut-Up Sections | Basic Pack ($5.50 sale $4.50), p.40 "Entrance amidst overgrown ruins" [also available in the Free Sample Pack of same]

Crypt
Modular Dungeon | Crypt Room & Door (FREE)

Entry Stairs, Corridors, Stand-up doors, Dual-level Chamber
Modular Dungeon | Cut-Up Sections | Basic Pack ($5.50 sale $4.50) [some pieces may also be available in the Free Sample Pack of same]

Summoner's Bedroom, Staircase, Summoning Chamber, Prison Cell, and Secret Treasure Chamber
Modular Dungeon | Evil Summonings ($2.50) [all proceeds go to charity! Woohoo!]


A mixture of minis:

Gypsies & Wagons: Imperfect People's Imperfect Wagons, by Dryw the Harper @ Cardboard Warriors

*Log*: my first ever paper mini/terrain. Surprise!

Our Hero, Montresor: Jericho, DC Team Crisis, HeroClix, from Strange Adventures in Fredericton

Halfling Shadow Knights: paper minis I crafted from a scale-representative drawing in Inked Adventures' Skeletal Archway & Portal  Large Dungeon Entrance ($1.50 sale $0.95)

Halfling Summoner: Lem the Halfling Bard (iconic Pathfinder hero repurposed), from WizKids' Pathfinder Battles: Shattered Star random booster pack (MSRP $15.99, or on his own for $10.00 from Paizo), from Strange Adventures in Halifax.

Goblin Pet/Prisoner: Mogmurch the Alchemist, from WizKids' Pathfinder Battles' Builder Series: We Be Goblins (random single pack, MSRP $2.99). He was my character from my first-ever-as-an-adult tabletop RPG, on Free RPG Day 2013, from Gamezilla in Fredericton.

Summoned Creature: A patriotic maple leaf eraser from one of my elder gnomelet's pencils ;D

The dice, too, are patriotic in Canada's Red & White; they are from the Pathfinder Beginner Box. The shimmery yellow d20 die is a loose Chessex from the bin @ Strange Adventures in Fredericton, bought especially for my GMing.

Hope you've enjoyed the adventure, and that you have a Happy Dominion Day! 

err... Happy Canada Day! err... Happy Fourth of July! or just Happy Summer Gaming!

- WackyAnne AKA Dungeon Mama

P.S. Always share your stories (& your treasure) with your friends afterwards ;D