Awesome Fantasy Minis in Series 9

If you're more into the DND side of life (as opposed to the Lego side) you may not know about the mini-figure blind packs.  They come in little baggies that look like this:

Each little packet has one minifigure.  The series 9 figures look like this:

Which include a bunch of awesome figures for DnD.  I'm particularly in love with the gypsy and the little cyclops.  You can buy the blind packs online all over (Amazon Link), but for our purposes I'd either buy them in the store, since with a little work it's easy enough to feel through the bag and buy the figures you actually want, "blind pack" be damned.

Usually the bags sell for about 3 bucks, which is about the average price for minis, but with the blind packs you can often find  the more common figures cheaper, since collectors buy the whole box to get the rares (which we DND players may have no interest in), and then sell off the commons cheap.

The "Forest Maiden" and the "Heroic Knight" fight off a LotR troll.

Also, I need to read more random gaming blogs, like this one.

I just NEED to make that War Litter out of Lego, and sick it on my players...

Back-story is your friend

I had a great moment last weekend that, at least for me, proved the maxim that "A solid backstory is more useful than a million stats."

We only had two encounters:  One, a random encounter while journeying... and the dice (well, an online random encounter generator) selected... a young green dragon... I quickly decided his motive was simply hunger, quickly read his stats, and we're fighting... and I'm reviewing stats.... and we're fighting... and I'm looking over abilities... and we're fighting, and I'm trying to decide if my players creative solution might work... back and forth, back and forth.

The second encounter was the one I "planned."  And by planned, I mean I knew my players would be heading to talk to NPC-Z, to get information about Macguffin-X*... I wanted to use the lego bride minifigure, and I wanted an NPC that was probably friendly, but had a weird twist and could go badly for the players... I remembered another bride (Zack Smith's Hollow Bride), so I stole a lot of the idea from that, and decided that NPC-Z had been replaced by an interdimensional traveler who really really wanted to socialize and make friends, but who had a really nasty temper and would freak out and revert to her natural form (the hollow bride) if the players offended her.

The face of evil-ish.

So of course the rogue looked up her dress.  And got caught.  And couldn't bluff her way out of it.

Battle ensued.    

There were 7 creatures involved in this battle, and figuring out what they'd do and why, was about 100x easier than the "simple" dragon battle.  And in both situations I spent about 30 seconds looking over their stats, but in the latter, I knew why the monster was doing what she was doing, and that meant the stats were secondary to the story I wanted to tell, and I worked less.

So note for self:  Next random encounter, spend an extra minute and make up a quick backstory.

*The gang found an elvish wizard, he managed to open a planes gate between earth and fairy.  They managed to kill him and steal his tome, but they don't have the skills to understand it.  They took it to the NPC who explained she needed 3 other tomes to figure out how to close the gate (of course.)   I know, Troperific.  

Chess

I just saw this chess set over at my favorite DND blog (NSFW, sometimes) and it really threw me... it's a completely normal chess board (same number of squares) but the varied heights make it look much more complex, and my brain defaults to "higher is better."  It would be interesting to make (and play) on a board with the actual important squares higher (ie, highest at the center) and see how that changes people's play.

Best Lego MOC ever

If you're any kind of Lego fan, you have to go check this out:  Mini-Fig Scale Serenity.

If I ever manage to build anything that awesome I'll be able to keel over and die afterwards in complete satisfaction with my life.  Make sure you flip through all the pictures (there are many), the interior shots of the kitchen, cockpit, and bedrooms are absolutely fantastic.

Great table for when a player misses a session

I'm putting this here, so I never ever lose it again.  (Zack's site is generally not safe for work, but this direct link SHOULD be okay... no blaming me if you just can't wait to get home and open it at the office and get fired... although, if you do, can I have your job?)

Er, sorry, anywhere, here it is:   Where the Hell have you been Flake Table, at DnD with Porn Stars

Review of Shelob Attacks

Eurobrick has a great breakdown of the build, so I"m going to skip it, and jump right into talking about it as a DnD mini's set.

So, first off.  Hobbits.  Well, Halflings, since we're playing Pathfinder or DnD, but let's not quibble.  The important thing here is that we have short little guys with curly hair.  That makes me happy.  I don't have anyone playing a halfling in my current campaign (sadly), but now that I have a dozen of these little guys, they may meet some.  

The set comes with 3 minis.  2 halflings, and Golum.  Golum is pretty... I dunno, strange.  Kind of harmless looking and withered and strangely adorable.  I'm sure I can find some purpose for him (for some reason he reminds me of the treasure goblins from Diablo 3, so maybe I'll make my players chase him around a map for ages?)  

The Hobbits are hobbits.  The new curly hair is great, and I'm always up for some new capes and short legs. They each have a sword, although Frodo's is curvier.  I'm pretty sure "sting" isn't a unique model, but I'm always happy to have more stabby bits.

There is also a little "cave" thing.  Yay map flavor bits.  Nothing to write home about, but it won't go unused either.

The real joy here is the spider.  Shelob is awesome.  I almost passed on this set, because I have two of the spiders from the Harry Potter series, and why have another big spider?  Giant spiders are a little "meh" in my mind to begin with, so I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in another one.

But check it out... it's HUGE.  And scary looking.  It could eat the Harry Potter spider (whose name escapes me) for lunch.  I'm going to have to save this bad boy for a truly epic encounter somewhere down the line, because it's just too awesome to waste.  

Shelob towers over Sam and Frodo, and the ruins of our last game.

Shelob is making a light snack of the Harry Potter spider.

DND 4E Tonight

I gotta say my buddy Andrew does the best role-play voices ever.  Fat Marlon Brando as a disturbingly sexy 600 lb fishmonger?  Yes please!