Monster Lead Miniatures!

Well. One of these days (I'm going to cut you into little pieces... whut?!) I'm going to have to figure out how to properly organize a bunch of photos in a blogspot post. Anyhow, here are several of our beloved monster lead minis. All painted by hand using Testors model paints, which is probably why the paint rubbed-a-dubbed off so easily over time.

If you click on one of the photos you'll be able to scroll through them at a larger view. Sorry that some are out of focus!

We had masses of orcs, really like 50, that stood in for just about any type of army against the characters. Also goblins, the little yellow bastards!

As for the painting schemes, we used the colors indicated from the Monster Manual descriptions, which is how I learned what mauve and ochre look like.

The beholder below is one of my favorites, with his pretty blue eye!

Ha, we have representations of all the giant types, but had to use them all for whatever giant-type we fought at the time.

Cave Bear. Important tip I learned recently. If you need some monster on the fly, start with Cave Bear stats and work out from there with whatever else you need.

This troll is another favorite. I have a cool ogre with his testicles hanging down, but I don't see the picture here. It may not have came out good enough to save.

We essentially bulked up our set of minis during the great hobby store bust of 1984 or so. Our local store went out of business and the prices kept dropping until everything was sold.

Too bad, Pleasanton Hobbies was our place for many years.

Lead Minis!

Hand-painted metal miniatures were a big part of our game for a couple decades. For my part until I was able to establish a large enough collection of the pre-painted plastic ones that proved to be less time consuming to get in play (no need to spend a week painting) and above all, and this surprised me although it should not have, so much physically lighter in weight to move around.

I literally have about a 2'x2'x3' chest that weighs less than the two 18"x12"x8" wine crates I used for lead miniatures. (Yes, I still always call them lead minis, although I'm unsure how many are actually lead.)

The cool thing about selecting and painting your own character mini was the ability to select a good character fit in terms of armor, weapons, equipment, etc. then paint to match personal and racial characteristics.

Hear are a number of favorite character minis... (I'll follow up with a monster minis post)

Nicodemus, long-played
Grey Elven Fighter-thief.

Please No Name, J.A.S.'s strange fighter
with glowing orbs under his hood.

Sumerled, my brother's barbarian
from before there were barbarians.

Warmanjg, Deangul's long-suffering,
one-eyed dwarf.

Just about every 1st level mage...

Just about every high-level mage.

Surprise in Encounters

The simple and elegant surprise tables from Judges Guild "Judges Shield" circa 1977.
(Interesting. The Party never gets a free round of attack, only Monsters...)

My Favorite RPG Covers

Zak Smith posted about his favorite RPG covers over on Playing D&D With Porn Stars.

I absolutely love cover art, although it's pretty much rooted in old D&D since that's about the only role playing game I run (albeit in various formulations). So here are seven favorites that came to mind for me of RPG covers that bring a smile to my face every time.

Maps is art! (What other purpose serves an unenterable room...?)

Truly, it never hit upon me the woman was neked until the cover became all controversial...

Could've picked any of the Arduin trilogy covers.

Original cover 1e DMG. I had the Easley cover maybe why I loved City of Brass.

This is terrific art because... LOOK AT ALL THE SHITS YOU GET FOR $9!!!

Phil Barker did all his own art for this RPG. Awesome. (Still need to play it...)

Damn well have viewed this cover a million times, just have to love it. What D&D's all about, eh?

Down the Rabbit Hole

 Our intrepid band found themselves sliding along the tunnel beneath the plagued fort as if the ground had turned sideways, yet behind them their views was still of the far off crypts. Walls became rounded and slicker than glass as the adventurers plummeted into a web-filled room.

(Were a bard to have accompanied them, they might have learned these were "rabbit holes," tubular rips puncturing the very fabric of the multi-verse thought to be byprodects from interplanar passage of  powerful beings...)

Inside the webbing the party joined with a dwarven fighter with magic pony and half-efreet sorcerer who also befell the same cluster of rabbit holes. Denizens of the webs were wasp-like spider creatures with extremely nasty venom which the heroes were able to dispense with thanks to the sorcerer's fireballs.

Going on, caverns of gelatinous cubes and oozes were discovered, as well as an underground river, but no intelligent locals until four two-headed trolls arguing over meager treasure. The newly met dwarf kept the two trolls not slain as unwilling henchmen.

 When the party was attacked by an angry momma-purple-worm Anu'Barak, rejuvinated by a cure disease from Anton the Paladin, bore his way out from the worm's gullet stabbing down through hardened skull to slay it.

Treasure was accumulated, but no sign of any civilization, so the group followed down a narrow stair, being at least a sign of civilized works.

Nearly 100' down a small throne was found, a disguised secret door in actuality. When the half-efreet entered (the door barring the remainder of his companions), he was grappled by hideous blood-wights who essentially water-boarded him with their blood.

The party dragged the throne-door from it's rods and peppered the blood-spewing wights with fireballs until they succumbed leaving a vast, columned temple-area. The elf discovered a secret door leading to another narrow stair heading still further downward.

Here, our heroes search revealed a still vaster temple, that of the kobold lich-cleric of orcus and his rawbones minions (terrifying, flayed folk, in life tortured to death). A ferocious battle ensued with paladin, fighters, sorcerer, and elven mage-thief all steeped in combat against the undead squad while avoiding a humungous vampire-ooze filling a 30' pool in the chamber.

Whilst the party was victorious, even the elf mage-thief who survived several rounds entombed by and with the cleric-lich, the undead kobold's treasure went unfound, as was also not found the lich's phylactery...

Escape to/from Fort Plague

The adventurers appeared in a relatively barren scrub waste, the afternoon sky approximately what would have been in Blackmoor, albeit colder.

Nearby was a half-eaten horse corpse and somewhat further away a smallish manor-fort flying a flag indicating plague.

The party spied what appeared to be zombies, but they moved faster and were unsusceptible to clerical turning - juju zombies!

Although the juju zombies could not attack the party thanks to the paladin's protection from evil, there was a movement in the wooded hilltops and a colossal, grey, slug-like creature moved through the hills towards the heroes who then retreated inside the fort.

Inside the fort looked abandoned in haste except for an insane person who kept warning about going into the basement. Two bodies were discovered of men who committed suicide, one of which was horribly mutated.

Going into the basement adventurers discovered the mutant denizens of the fort and defeated them, but not before Anu'Barak was infected (and struck deaf and blind trying to affect a cure). The party retreated down a long, narrow tunnel heading south as the probing tendrils of the grey slug reached into the basement vault...