As things still aren't working out on the real life front, I thought I'd post another link, and as so many people have commented on my blog header I thought I'd let you know where I got the illustrations from.
It comes down to the amazing work of Patrick Crusiau. My figures above are taken from his Swashbucklers line of paper figures, I think they are fantastic, they are just full of character.
He has a number of equally fabulous character sets, Thirty Years War and Swiss in particular for my game, plus various fantasy, historical, modern and science fiction pages. They are all free and all of the same amazing quality.
Now as an added bonus I stumbled across his blog, quite by accident really as it is not linked to his webpage at all. On there he talks about using Virtual Tabletop software/websites and has various interesting links and some top down swashbuckling tokens which I also love.
I mention these, well because they demand mentioning anyway, but also because of the use I have made of his horse tokens (actually intend to use, I need to get crafty this weekend). I have some odds and ends of foamboard left over from another project and thought his horses, and carriages too, would be great as a means of indicating who is riding.
Now clearly the ideal is a matching, or even close, figure on foot and riding, and Blue Moon and Redoubt Enterprises do in fact make Musketeers and a few others using this brilliant idea, but hardly anyone else does - until now (sort of)!
Simply take one of Patrick's tokens, resize it (I used Word of all things), print it out in glorious colour, cut it out, stick to foamboard, cut the foamboard, et voila! Now ANY figure can be riding a horse just by interposing your new token betwixt game surface and figure.
A quick tip, one thing I should have done though is get a grass, or other texture, first to use as a background, but they will definitely do.
Now for those all important links:
Paper figures
Patrick's blog
Finally, if you're interested, the text is simply Parchment and is available in MS Office 2007 and probably more, with a small drop shadow.
All for one and one for all!
Steve
My blog about swashbuckling, role-playing, wargames and my adventures in Edenstein using By Savvy and Steel
Friday, 28 February 2014
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Letter of introduction
Dear Mr Lemieur
Greetings old friend, this letter should be delivered to you by a young man by the name of Olivier Tourillon, and it is my intention that you should find a place for him in a suitable regiment of gentlemen.
I have sent him with a small purse for his own provision and the sum of 50 Guilders for the coffers of my old regiment, I am sure you will use it wisely my dear friend.
He is a little head strong but has performed admirably in the local milita under my command and I believe he warrants further training, I am sure you will find a suitable placement.
We must catch up the next time you are in the vicinity of Tannhauser or I am in the capital.
Yours
Count of Chatelaine
Olivier Tourillon was a local tearaway until automatic enlistment in the militia of Tannhauser in the Edenstein East Gate district at age 15 where his combative tendencies found a home. The Count, identifying something in the handsome young man, has decided to sponsor him by giving him a small sum of money and a letter of introduction to his old friend the Captain of the King's Musketeers.
Partially equipped by the Count, with horse, sword, pistols and musket he has been sent from his family, a jobbing carpenter, and given this chance to improve himself, something he intends to take with all vigour. He has two purses, one with a sum for his own provision, both sustenance and further equippage once he has been allocated a regiment, and another for the Count's friend.
His first task is to travel from Tannhauser, the most Easterly city in Edenstein, and home to the famous Tannhauser Gate which separates the country from Eisen and its troubles, to Edenstein Central and the capital, Royal City.
Now for his stats, you will note I have modified the initial setup, effectively making him weaker than recommended as he is younger than normal, being now only 18, and adding in those stats that tie him into my own background. I shall have to see what effect this has on the poor lad. Now the stats:
Olivier is REP 4, Steady and Charismatic. He is an Edensteiner and not entirely devout Vaticine Church supporter, the official religion of Edenstein.
As his father is a carpenter he is a townsfolk with starting Fame of 3, being the 3rd oldest of 5 in the family (both older, then younger, sister and brother) plus a Level 2 Favour. His starting Social Standing is only 1, but I expect this to increase unless disaster befalls him on his journey.
I have allocated his class as Military, which gives him the Fast loader stat. Here I have a house rule, I have decided that reloading should take longer than indicated, requiring 2 activiations to reload, unless a Fast loader which reduces it to 1.
His starting equipment is mentioned above, all the weapons needed to start a career in the military, together with a horse. I will decide on his exact equipment and will only pick one of the options for each encounter, most likely sword and pistol, but a musket will be required for his enrolment and therefore felt he needed one too.
His purse contains the currency of Edenstein which I have detailed before, the large coin the golden Guilder, and the lesser value copper Florin.
A few other house rules, I will bring in the People, Fitness and Savvy skills from New Beginnings, giving Olivier Pep 4 (with Charismatic), Fit 4 and Sav 2. I will allocate skills to other NPCs based on duelling stats, Qwik for Sav, Pwr for Fit and Agg for Pep. I may tweak as required, but for rough purposes this will do. I want these to round him out, as I expect to see him in other situations when these may be called for.
Regarding duelling stats, Olivier has Swordplay of 4, Aggression of 2, Quickness of 3 and Power of 1, with Stamina set at 4.
I will avoid the convention of using French (and other languages) in titles and places, both because of my own poor skills and my belief a true translation would translate those aspects too? Anyway it's my blog so that will be the way it is!
His first task is the delivery of his letter of introduction to the Count's friend Mr Lemieur in March 1625.
This post references two of my favourite films, see if you can spot them and where!
As an addendum I have struggled to post comments on my own blog, so do not think I am ignoring you if you have taken the time to post a comment, and accept my apologies.
Greetings old friend, this letter should be delivered to you by a young man by the name of Olivier Tourillon, and it is my intention that you should find a place for him in a suitable regiment of gentlemen.
I have sent him with a small purse for his own provision and the sum of 50 Guilders for the coffers of my old regiment, I am sure you will use it wisely my dear friend.
He is a little head strong but has performed admirably in the local milita under my command and I believe he warrants further training, I am sure you will find a suitable placement.
We must catch up the next time you are in the vicinity of Tannhauser or I am in the capital.
Yours
Count of Chatelaine
Olivier Tourillon was a local tearaway until automatic enlistment in the militia of Tannhauser in the Edenstein East Gate district at age 15 where his combative tendencies found a home. The Count, identifying something in the handsome young man, has decided to sponsor him by giving him a small sum of money and a letter of introduction to his old friend the Captain of the King's Musketeers.
Partially equipped by the Count, with horse, sword, pistols and musket he has been sent from his family, a jobbing carpenter, and given this chance to improve himself, something he intends to take with all vigour. He has two purses, one with a sum for his own provision, both sustenance and further equippage once he has been allocated a regiment, and another for the Count's friend.
His first task is to travel from Tannhauser, the most Easterly city in Edenstein, and home to the famous Tannhauser Gate which separates the country from Eisen and its troubles, to Edenstein Central and the capital, Royal City.
Now for his stats, you will note I have modified the initial setup, effectively making him weaker than recommended as he is younger than normal, being now only 18, and adding in those stats that tie him into my own background. I shall have to see what effect this has on the poor lad. Now the stats:
Olivier is REP 4, Steady and Charismatic. He is an Edensteiner and not entirely devout Vaticine Church supporter, the official religion of Edenstein.
As his father is a carpenter he is a townsfolk with starting Fame of 3, being the 3rd oldest of 5 in the family (both older, then younger, sister and brother) plus a Level 2 Favour. His starting Social Standing is only 1, but I expect this to increase unless disaster befalls him on his journey.
I have allocated his class as Military, which gives him the Fast loader stat. Here I have a house rule, I have decided that reloading should take longer than indicated, requiring 2 activiations to reload, unless a Fast loader which reduces it to 1.
His starting equipment is mentioned above, all the weapons needed to start a career in the military, together with a horse. I will decide on his exact equipment and will only pick one of the options for each encounter, most likely sword and pistol, but a musket will be required for his enrolment and therefore felt he needed one too.
His purse contains the currency of Edenstein which I have detailed before, the large coin the golden Guilder, and the lesser value copper Florin.
A few other house rules, I will bring in the People, Fitness and Savvy skills from New Beginnings, giving Olivier Pep 4 (with Charismatic), Fit 4 and Sav 2. I will allocate skills to other NPCs based on duelling stats, Qwik for Sav, Pwr for Fit and Agg for Pep. I may tweak as required, but for rough purposes this will do. I want these to round him out, as I expect to see him in other situations when these may be called for.
Regarding duelling stats, Olivier has Swordplay of 4, Aggression of 2, Quickness of 3 and Power of 1, with Stamina set at 4.
I will avoid the convention of using French (and other languages) in titles and places, both because of my own poor skills and my belief a true translation would translate those aspects too? Anyway it's my blog so that will be the way it is!
His first task is the delivery of his letter of introduction to the Count's friend Mr Lemieur in March 1625.
This post references two of my favourite films, see if you can spot them and where!
As an addendum I have struggled to post comments on my own blog, so do not think I am ignoring you if you have taken the time to post a comment, and accept my apologies.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Paper minis - Villagers
OK, so real life has intervened into my gaming schedule so I've only managed to make a few paper miniatures this week.
Paper miniatures?! What's this all about!
Well, you see I have a selection of swashbuckler-y miniatures but have not had a chance to paint them. This comes down to not having any paints whatsoever. This is a situation I will remedy at some point in the future, but to start off there is a lot to get, and with my budget somewhat limited by real life concerns this is a real hurdle. Couple this with the fact that when I do have some spare cash in my pocket there always seem to be some figures want.
Perhaps it is my first forays into the hobby, Milton Bradley's HeroQuest and GW's Advanced Heroquest, that came with plastic miniatures that didn't necessarily need painting, but I can happily game with unpainted minis. My brothers and I did in fact later paint those minis, but I have moved away from my family and in the great divi up I got custody of the aforementioned games and they got the paints etc. In light of the cost of these games now on eBay I got the better deal by far!
Now I know unpainted metal looks horrendous on blogs, so I thought I'd go an alternate route and use paper minis. I have a decent enough selection but I thought I'd explain each one I'm going to use in a little mini series.
First up Microtactix Vyllages on the Cheep - Vyllagers.
These are almost exactly what they say they are. Unfortunately more medieval than renaissance, and with some non-human races, but at £3.64 ($6.00) for 84 I can easily stuff those I won't use in a bag for another game and not lose any sleep over it.
The figures come coloured on one side and in black silhouette on the other. I have seen some complain about this but I also have some where the front and back are illustrated but identical, and this is worse as you have no idea on facing. Additionally, if there where two illos per mini I imagine this would push the price up by quite a margin, so I'm quite happy with them.
So what do you get?
1 Captain, 2 City guard (halberds) and 2 Jail guards (spears)
Prisoner
3 Tramps/invalids
Eastern style noble
5 Orcs
Werewolf
Hunchback
Priest and Monk
Some farmers
Some nobles
Some 'general' townsfolk
Executioner
5 Dwarfs
A few elves (you can't really tell and so are good as humans at the table)
2 Horses
4 Cows
Bull
Donkey
5 Sheep (one black)
4 Goats
Wolf
I don't know about you, but I always used to find villager style minis really hard to come by, especially unarmed, and in an RPG or immersion game environment they are almost more important than the easily found combatants. I admit this has changed somewhat with the number of mini producers seemingly increasing exponentially, but still, for the price I really recommend them. If you use metal minis I would still be tempted because of the clear definition between combatants and villagers.
Here they are on RPGNow
All for one and one for all
Steve
Paper miniatures?! What's this all about!
Well, you see I have a selection of swashbuckler-y miniatures but have not had a chance to paint them. This comes down to not having any paints whatsoever. This is a situation I will remedy at some point in the future, but to start off there is a lot to get, and with my budget somewhat limited by real life concerns this is a real hurdle. Couple this with the fact that when I do have some spare cash in my pocket there always seem to be some figures want.
Perhaps it is my first forays into the hobby, Milton Bradley's HeroQuest and GW's Advanced Heroquest, that came with plastic miniatures that didn't necessarily need painting, but I can happily game with unpainted minis. My brothers and I did in fact later paint those minis, but I have moved away from my family and in the great divi up I got custody of the aforementioned games and they got the paints etc. In light of the cost of these games now on eBay I got the better deal by far!
Now I know unpainted metal looks horrendous on blogs, so I thought I'd go an alternate route and use paper minis. I have a decent enough selection but I thought I'd explain each one I'm going to use in a little mini series.
First up Microtactix Vyllages on the Cheep - Vyllagers.
These are almost exactly what they say they are. Unfortunately more medieval than renaissance, and with some non-human races, but at £3.64 ($6.00) for 84 I can easily stuff those I won't use in a bag for another game and not lose any sleep over it.
The figures come coloured on one side and in black silhouette on the other. I have seen some complain about this but I also have some where the front and back are illustrated but identical, and this is worse as you have no idea on facing. Additionally, if there where two illos per mini I imagine this would push the price up by quite a margin, so I'm quite happy with them.
So what do you get?
1 Captain, 2 City guard (halberds) and 2 Jail guards (spears)
Prisoner
3 Tramps/invalids
Eastern style noble
5 Orcs
Werewolf
Hunchback
Priest and Monk
Some farmers
Some nobles
Some 'general' townsfolk
Executioner
5 Dwarfs
A few elves (you can't really tell and so are good as humans at the table)
2 Horses
4 Cows
Bull
Donkey
5 Sheep (one black)
4 Goats
Wolf
I don't know about you, but I always used to find villager style minis really hard to come by, especially unarmed, and in an RPG or immersion game environment they are almost more important than the easily found combatants. I admit this has changed somewhat with the number of mini producers seemingly increasing exponentially, but still, for the price I really recommend them. If you use metal minis I would still be tempted because of the clear definition between combatants and villagers.
Here they are on RPGNow
All for one and one for all
Steve
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