Getting Heads

 I did a playthrough of THE Blindman of The Flagellant and the Fool's game (printed by Grub-Grub press) "HEADS". I'm not sure if I can get across how good this game is. Maybe I won't bother trying. It's a game inspired by wandering Samurai movies. You draw up a character on a notecard, give them a mantra following some very open ended but inspiring prompts, then you draw an opponent and follow prompts to give them "memories". The combat mechanic is incredibly slick and tense (even if you're bad at interpreting rules like me". You have four stances you can choose (dice) which you then roll at the same time as your opponents entire dice pool. After rolling you roll a d8 to determine which stance your opponent actually picked, you find the difference and follow the list that tells you what happens etc. It's a bit dry to explain but it works fantastically well. When you're not dueling, picking corpse pockets and lopping off heads, you travel roads, find warm hearths to rest at, and look at the stars. Every day after doing your travel action, you journal. I found the journaling to be an incredible way to find insight in a character I drew with very little effort. 

 

Here's the Journal of my character "Gang"

 

I decided any character I played as I would paint. 

 

Heads by The Flagellant and The Fool 

Playthrough

Gang, a Rogue and Killer. 

I met another swordsman on the road. As soon as we locked eyes I knew I was going to kill him. I don't think he knew he was going to die. It was obvious he would try to pierce me. Precisely pointed flickering blade. I left mine sheathed until I could almost smell the stink of his breath. And when I drew it, he fell limp, blood spraying my face. I barely got a look at him. He won't be worth remembering. I take his bloodied bandana and dig through the pockets of his cloak. I take four silver. It's weight has an emptiness in my hand. My stomach tightens, but I take it all the same. Once a Thief always a Thief. I'm going to try and rest a little further into the woods and travel tomorrow. 

Walking down the road I couldn't help but think about the past. The family I found who opened their hearts to me. Gentle nights watching the stars and talking about nothing. A joke, an observation. They didn't know not to trust me. I didn't know not to betray them. A few golden coins and jewels to bring them to that city. They all were hung while I was left to wander this world alone. When I bed down for the night, my eyes sting with tears. 

I'm a coward. A tired coward. Travel is taking it's toll on me. All I want is peace. The stink of this head is becoming noticeable. I don't know how far I am from that cities walls. I spent everything they I got trying to forget what I'd done. I can't escape it though. I know that now. I'll sleep here tonight. Or maybe I'll just watch the stars. 

Enough. I wandered into a Swordsman with wild eyes and a smile that seemed pained. In his white knuckled grip, a sword I knew must have enchanted. Without a word, I drew my sword. I expected to die. I think in his heart he was seeking death, for despite his strength I opened his belly. As he died, the smile on his face softened. He looked almost pleasant in the end. About his neck, I notice a Guilded Gorget. I kept his head to remember that perhaps not all I do with my evil is bad. Though, who can say. 

I lose track of my path somehow. The road went alongside a stream, without even realizing it I had followed the sound o fwater instead of my own eyes and when I realized it I was thick in bramble and grass. I decided, as warm a day as it was and as shallow a stream as it was I might as well walk within the water, for no other reason than to cool off. As I stepped towards it, I couldn't help but see my face. Tired, tight. I see why so many on the road are quick to want to draw their steel when they see me. An easy mark or perhaps a sick animal who needs put down. I couldn't help but feel a kinship to the man I killed yesterday. He was ensorcelled by a sword, me by my past.

I continued walking the stream the ext day. In the middle of it, I met a swordsman wielding a strange blade like a spiral with a helmet covered in strange lumps. An eight legged creature clung to his arm and his belt was held up with a star. He looked strong and resolved, so I took the Hawk stance and swung with all my might. I overshot and left myself open. He took advantage and took a bit of my flesh and blood. I am not a strong man, I am not suited for mighty battles. My way is treachery, and so I Feinted with the next strike. And in so doing, I dug my dagger into his belly, slipping it through his scale mail. He gurgled more than gasped. Water spilled from his mouth. When I withdrew my dagger, a fish leapt from the wound. I pick 5 silver off his corpse. Then I watch the star and the eight legged creature dislodge themselves and float down the stream, before removing his head. Thinking about it, I should have died. I really should have. When I looked in my pack, I noticed my Duelist's Bandana was missing. 

I sit under the stars tonight. Memories of good times lull me into an easy sleep. I have no nightmares. I awoke refreshed. 

A lit flame. A breath of smoke. I imagine myself as a dragon breathing smoke. Every inhale is like the stoking of the hearth in my heart. I'm sure I will feel ill from this tomorrow. 

Another night under the stars. Is this the peace I've been seeking? Have I found it in these woods, idling?

I come across a small hut. With payment, the couple it belongs let me in. They treated my kindly, though I don't deserve it. I sidestep every question they ask me. It's best not to be known. In my dreams I am stalked by the reaper. A labyrinth stretching infinitely, it feels like he is closing in though I never see him. Before I wake, I hear the sound of boots on cobblestone getting louder, and louder, and louder.

Another duelist. I lunge and hear the sound of shattering. I could swear his sword broke but when I turn I see him standing in the Hawk stance,. When he swings whatever chip was in his blade rends the thing stardust, as I pierce what I have to assume is his heart. It takes me a bit to remove the glass helmet mounted to his suit. When I finally do I take his head as another reminder of my sins. 

This sowrdsman looks strong. Too strong for me to win against. His sword has "1 ton" etched into it's blade, though he doesn't lift it to swing. I feint. He feints, making it clear he had no intention of lfting the blade to do his damage. It was a ruse. But it doesn't pay off. I bury my dagger in his heart, as he sputters his last words through a spray of blood. "At least I won't have to hear their laughter anymore"

AsI wandered down the road, I saw something peculiar. Though, not as peculiar as some of the swordsmen I've fought I suppose. I remember making things like this as a child, though I used snow and not dirt and moss. For the first time in a while I smiled. I laughed. For the first time in a while the tears in my eyes were from joy. 

I met my end. 

 

 It's worth noting the swordsman that ended up killing me is my friend Erick. I joked that I was hastening Gang to his doom (he clearly was suffering) and told him I would fight him next. The duel ended in mutual destruction which I think is pretty funny.

 

gang and all his opponents, save for the first one which I forgot to draw

I can't recommend you play it yourself enough. You can find it on his itch.io, or wait until it's available in print again. 

Tower Playtesti

 Hello just blogging. I'm doing a test of my worldbuildy game which you are welcome to look at. I wanted to get a feel for the new dice mechanics I added when I decided that unpaid Envoys can settle and interacted with in a way other than cards. It seems to work in a satisfying enough way. The following is basically what my playtest looked like. At the end of it I wrote a couple of notes about what needs adjustment. Also I should note that some of the rules I'm following are currently handwritten on a printed copy I made of the rules and I will need to go in and type them out in the rules doc. 

 Another thing. I was doing a bit of study of Tarot reading to try and figure out satisfying ways to actually make use of the visuals of Tarot cards and had this blogpost hit me in the face with such an obvious realization that I felt the need to implement it immediately, though it's not really apparent here it will be a more obvious inclusion in the future. I am using the Pamela Coleman Smith deck because it's the classic. 

 

When a Court Card is named, followed by a numbered card of Suite, that indicates a vision is had. If an envoy is declared to Arrive that suggests a number of days relating to their Questing card have passed.

 

Playtest: 

King of Cups, V of Swords. Name a mythical creature. The Baron's Hound, an oily creature said to worm it's way into the minds of innocent people and turn them into cruel wretches. It slithers in through the ears and can only be expelled by boiled honey water. Faire: The Lovers VI

F:d20
C:d6
S:d12
W:d10
P:d8
F: +

Knight of Pentacles, V of Cups: Name a mythical creature. Ivory Thing. Like a crane but yellowed like bone, resembling a carved and aged tusk but larger than a true bird. It is said to live in birch forests. It's story tells of it feeding it's young fingerbones and building their nests from ribs. Faire: The Devil XV

F:d20
C:d12
S:d6
W:d10
P:d8
F: 

Envoy King of Cups arrives. Settled for now, with an unpaid Faire. Rolled for interactions. Faire dice roll was 14, spent it on paying off the Faire. Good Favor. Swords roll is a 3, I will spend the Pentacles dice to flip the one added facedown card (need a name for this maybe?). The facedown card is a cup. Maybe I get to add it to my hand? 

Page of Cups, IV Pentacles. Learn of trade: From the plains a new crop is finding it's way East. While it closely resembles wheat, it is touted as being medicinal and even as causing visions. People in the City of Salary are skeptical, though it is being offered in huge quantity in the market vendors and for reasonable prices. Faire: The Hanged Man XII

F:d20
C:d6
S:d10
W:d8
P:d12
F:

Visit the Envoy of Cups again. Dice are cast. Sword die rolls a 2. Not enough. I debate spending one of the other die to reveal the facedown card. I spend The cups die revealing X of Pentacles. I pocket it. The Favor becomes negative since the Envoy hasn't been paid yet. (maybe favor flips after a certain amount of days without interacting. Let's make it 2 based on vibes.) 

Knight of Pentacles Arrives. Faire is paid with VIII of cups. Roll d6 to determine how the vision manifests. Rolled a 6 which is above the 2 required of a knight. People are wary of the birch forests. Some villages are close enough that the townspeople take cautionary measures in fear of the Ivory Thing. The most effective thing people swear by is deboned, salted and spiced fish left by entryways, spiced to keep the stray cats from stealing it in the night. 

This Envoy's Journey was five cards: VIII of S, Ace of W, VII of W, 9 of S, V of P (interpret as wished). It ended in leasure (spent X of cups) and they do not settle at all, save for a long drink with the Tower's Ward, before heading off to continue their journey. 

Visit with the King of Cups again, their Favour has turned to positive again after two days left alone. Dice are rolled. Swords die rolls 6, though I spend both dice to flip the stacked cards on the settled Envoy and pick two to use or add to my current hand. Cards are II of P, X of W, and The Magician ( a mistake on my part) so I pick the first two cards to add to my current hand. Having no dice to use as a card, I spend The VIII of S to pay off this Envoy. I roll a 4 to manifest the Vision which matches the King's requirement. The vision is adjusted thusly: It is rumoured that palace sorcerers have captured Baron's Hounds in wine bottles, corked and bound with spells written in wax and ichor. The Envoy thanks you for your hospitality and will be leaving shortly to return home. (The Faire that has been paid should effect something about this, I'm still not sure how that will look.) VIII of Swords should also flavor how the Envoy left, forgot to decide that but will make note to do it in the future.

Hand and Journey cards combined then pared down to 5 cards.

The Fool: X of Swords. An unexpected Visitor comes to the Tower. In this vision, they tell you of the Grain from the Plains and how it is rending the city to madness. Faire:

Page of Cups Arrives. Their Journey is VI of S, II of C, IX of C, VI of W, IV of S (interpret as desired in order). Hanged man is swords. Faire paid with IX and IV of Swords. Envoy is paid with V of Pentacles. Dice is rolled above a 1 so the Status quo is undisturbed, their story matches your vision perfectly (paid Faire modifies in some way, etc). They return on their Quest in some way based on cards spent (again, must make a note of this.)

End of this Tower playtest. 

Things to note:

1. Faire unpaid and settled should have some effect. Faire paid should have some effect on vision or Envoy's character. Ex. The Devil could suggest the Envoy had some sort of ensorcellment, The Lovers could suggest the Envoy is leaving to return to someone special to them etc.
2. Flesh out Journey based on Journey cards arranged chronologically. There is a story in this Journey, it is based on vibes. 
3. Cards used to pay Faire and Envoy should add flavor. In the case of the Faire, it should suggest how the Faire was overcome, or how the Envoy has come to terms with this Faire. In the case of Paying the Envoy, the cards should suggest how the envoy was convinced to tell you things in relation to the vision. 
4. Note should be taken of the Journey cards in hand and who they were received from. This is getting tedious but it is an interesting idea of continuity. Ex. Using a X of Swords you received from another envoy to pay off an Envoy could be you recounting their sight of bandits on the road to offer comradery as a caution in their future travels. 
5. Gotta be a better way to take notes of these playtests.

on being a cheap ass

 ebay is a monster. It makes monsters of us all. 

 

I have been descending down a rabbit hole looking at oldschool citadel models. I think there's a word for having nostalgia for a time you weren't a part of, I don't know what it is off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to google it right now. These ebay listings hit that note. 

I've been looking at old the old Lord of the Rings line by citadel quite a bit. Not all of the sculpts hit for me, but there's specific Frodo (ME-13), Sam (ME-34), and Gandalf (ME-82) sculpts that really make me yearn. They're not overly expensive, but they're not cheap either. Also,  they're mostly available from overseas sellers. This hobby, man.

So, being cheap I haven't dropped the hammer on these yet (is that a phrase?). Instead, I've continued digging and browsing deeper and deeper into the inspirational depths of The Lost Minis Wiki and The Stuff of Legends (RIP Orclord). Also, just trawling ebay seller pages intently. There's a lot of just, sick as hell minis from back in the day, and they're all just a little pricier than I want to drop money on.

At the behest of my friend, I'm saving myself some money and sculpting my own. Here's the start (not the start), heavily heavily based on the Fantasy Tribe Fighters 43, Captain of Chaos figure.

 

no he is NOT tugging on his salami

lil face because I can't not sculpt a lil face

 And here's the original from one angle

 I'm debating adding some of these details and leaning on the side of Not adding them at all. Obviously I haven't added the plume, or the cape, or the end of the mace. The mace I will add after I bake it, likely with greenstuff. I didn't plan the armature very well. The plume and the cape add so much to the silhouette of the original figure, so if I do decide to add them it will also be post baking. 

It is very cool to be able to sculpt some kind of approximation of a figure you like. It's also cool to just own the figure you like. So, I kind of consider this an exercise in delaying the inevitable. Maybe I'll sculpt one of the hobbits next. 

 

casual update

 hello keeping it cas. casual. I have been a little lacking in hobby. sometimes that happens. It's not burnout just sometimes you take a lil step back from doing things, nothing wrong with it relax. 

 I started sculpting some mounted halflings to use for HAIRFOOT JOUSTING and that has been a bit less of a joy than I thought it would be. I'll get back to it sometime, here's a pic of what I have 

great pic, twabbis

 frog and a hare and a lady and man halfling. much work to be done still, motivation will return eventually. I really want to play hairfoot jousting. 

In another effort to get myself hobbying, I'm painting some more of my sculpts. trying to get my scamps done and I started on the meteor squig

 

 didn't mean for the flesh colored scamp to be flesh colored but I kinda vibe with it so I'll keep it. Demonic scamp... The red eye is kind of great too, unfortunately. scamps can be anything you want them to be it doesn't matter ultimately to me as long as it matters to you. 

 anyway, just an update. blogging is blogging. gonna steep some more pu-erh tea and finishing catching up on hobby youtube backlog 

It's time for a... POST

 This hobby is so strange sometimes. Sometimes really surprising and sometimes in really good ways. I probably should charge my digicam (Digital Camera) cuz I'm gonna need to take some pics for this post. Lemme get that going then I'll start writing some more.

 Ok, it's charging. 

One bad thing about using my camera from 2007 is that it's from 2007 and no matter what, the battery doesn't last like modern devices. That and, sometimes when the battery runs out it wipes the memory card. That and, when the battery dies I have to reset the date and time...

Every Tuesday I go to bar trivia. Some weeks I miss but usually I'm there. I don't always contribute a lot, but one thing that frequently happens is that me and my friends draw wizards on the scrap paper we get from the trivia host. Here's a couple of those. 

I tried to ad lib a poem and gave up so don't bother reading it lmao

 

It's fun to draw wizards. No one reading this is surprised. Last week, I had a bit of a divergence. Last week we had a different host and we didn't get enough pens so I borrowed my roommates micron. Something magical happened, dear reader... Last week, I drew little gnome-like guys. Then I got my friends to draw little gnome guys too. Here they are.

 

these are the ones I drew

all of them

I posted these on discord and people seemed really stoked about them. I decided to post them on instagram but, not all of them because it felt a little strange to share other people's art without their knowledge. But, I asked people to sculpt one of them if they wanted to, FOR FREE. This isn't a challenge I just thought it was funny to shift the burden of sculpting onto someone else in a Non Challenge way. Got a couple replies from people I wasn't expecting, which was fun but I didn't expect too much to come of it. Everyone's got their own stuff going on, no one really was going to take the time etc. Well, yesterday while at trivia ( a week after sharing) I got a message from a hobbyist who almost exclusively customizes tyranids for Warhammer. And he had sculpted one of my guys! That man is frankendoodle65. I think you'll understand my surprise with just a click through. He knocked it out of the park too, I mean my jaw dropped. I showed everyone in my group, my friend who sculpted the fishnet gnome asked if anyone was gonna sculpt that one and I had to kind of awkwardly try to explain my earlier reservations when sharing the gnomes. I regret that! Anyway, look at this. 

 

 

I mean c'mon, that's cool! It's perfection! It kind of pissed me off, so I had to sculpt one too. Now, let me check my camera and see if I can get a good pic. 

 

 I think I did alright! So, if you want to, go with my permission and sculpt one yourself! And if you sculpt the fishnet one send me a pic so I can send it to my friend, I think they'd really like that.

 

 

 

Extra Extra!

I drew a wizard with eyeball minions the week before last and sculpted an eyeball minion. I have to revisit this concept because it's not Quite What I Want but here it is. Nothing super special just something else to blog about!

 

just making an effort to blog...

 I'm gonna post this on instagram too... but...

Here's Hobby Update for the Blog:

Snails.

 Sculpting snails in cheap polymer clay is the best here's some of those mmk?

 These were done in Fimo Effects clay. I forgot exactly what effects they were until I baked them (this is not entirely true, I knew used the green on a different snail) so when they came out of the oven I was pleased to see what they became!

 

delicious JADE snails :)

Let's keep ESCARGOing. I'm sure you noticed there's a guy in the middle, and a door. Well, the door I didn't take any process pics of. I was looking at old citadel models and they had some cool dungeon doors and I wanted to sculpt a door. I'll try again sometime. One more thing on that topic actually: old citadel had a LOT of weird models of ladies being tortured for some reason??? They were going crazy back in the day no wonder moms were so against tabletop stuff!

Ok ok sorry, so. The guy in the middle is I drew a picture of a snail like Solid Snake. I've been trying to figure this out for a while, since I read through the Wanted! Reward cc 10k rules the first time.  I did this drawing and it was exactly what I wanted so I sculpted it.

can you even see the drawing in this oh well

a bit o' wip

I'm amazing

 One final update because, well, this is what I've been up to. I sculpted the coolest orcy face of my life yesterday using colored polymer clay in a way I haven't really before. It was very worth it, you should give it a try!

 Ok so that's pretty much it that I can share. Thanks for reeeeading 

bye

twabbis 

short and SHweet

 Been painting a lil bit...

 It turns out, it's pretty rewarding to paint minis. All of these except the middle one are my own sculpts, and it's rewarding to paint them. It's rewarding to paint your friend's sculpts. Must get better about doing that! The real Wanted Reward CC10k was to finish painting a mini! 

 

One more thing!

 

I'm working on The Tower v1.3

 

I'm (slowly) figuring out mechanics for Envoys to kind of settle down a little around the tower and to form some kind of narrative interactions with them. Each Envoy now has a little card which will have dice assigned to the Suits and Faire and there is gonna be like, a favor mechanic that determines if the Envoy likes you depending on your last Faire rolls. I'm still figuring out exactly what that looks like!

Ok like I said, short and SHweet. Have a good weekend, hope it's at least 3 days long for you! holidays, baby!