I think following up on yesterday's post I have to go with HeroForge as a Great Gamer Gadget.
Even if you never get a mini from them (and you should get at least one, they are great) their mini designer is one of the better Character design tools out there.
Come to think of it. I don't have a mini of Omar yet!
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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August.
This one is rather easy. I am completely in love with the miniatures from HeroForge.
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| These all sit on my desk. |
I was an early backer, and backed it again for their color print process. Since then I hove picked up quite a few. What can I say, I love them.
Here is my "mini-me" and my alter ego Johan.
I have a few Larinas. A printed one and few I did on our home printer.
Some to commemorate my best Baldur's Gate 3 run, Sinéad, Karlach and Shadowheart.
The mini standees of Duchess & Candella. I wanted to try it out.
And Willow & Tara. Because of course I did.
Not to mention all the screen shots I have used over the years.
Likely not long before I get an itch and want to make another one.
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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August.
Got some things to support two of my new on-going obsessions.
Up first, some new HeroForge "standee" minis of Duchess & Candella.
They are flat, made of plastic about 3 mm thick. Their colors and design perfectly match those I used on HeroForge.
They got here rather quick to be honest. Much faster than the 3D-printed color minis. And cheaper too.
I always wanted to try these, and since I needed these minis in a hurry I opted to go this route for these two. I am happy with them, but I do prefer the 3D color minis. But they do come with nice little bags to store the mini or dice in.
Next up a "new to me" version of one of my all-time favorite games. The Spanish Language version of CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG.
The Spanish Language version from Edge most resembles the Eden Studios 2nd Edition. The text is the same and the art is the same.
The difference of course is this new Edge version is in Spanish.
I am happy to have this as this was one of the other "Holy Grail" items for my Spanish collection of RPGs. It was also the last CJ Carella WitchCraft book I am likely able to buy.
I am pleased that I was able to read a lot of it. Granted, my Spanish is still very limited, but I know this book very, very well.
My collection of Spanish Language RPGs is not huge, but it covers my favorite games and about 85-90% of the games I like to play.
Not a lot, but enough to keep me busy for a while.
When Ed Greenwood was exploring the Realms in the pages of Dragon, he had a guide, the Sage of Shadowdale Elminster. Elminster told him stories of the Realms and was the intermediary between his world and ours.
But Elminster, like Ed, was an expert on the Realms. I am not. I am not even good. I am an enthusiastic novice with no idea how much I am trying to bite off here. So. I also need a guide. But my guide has to be as naïve as me so we can discover it together.
Generally, for these explorations, I have characters on hand. When I was writing about vampires and undead it was my Paladin Johan. When it is magic, the occult or witches, it is my witch Larina. They are great characters, but neither is appropriate here. Neither has anything to do with the Realms for starters and I need a native.
So introducing (again) Sinéad. She is a half-elf from the Moonshae Isles and her elven mother claims to have ancestry from Evermeet. And...that is all I know. Fun right? Now to expand her out I used her as a character in Baldur's Gate 3 and of the many games I have played of it I liked her run the best.
As I progress through the material and books I am taking the literary license of having her tell me what she shows me as my guide, munch in the same way the Ed has Elminster. Plus it feels like a fun little nod to Ed and Elminster as well.
Sinéad
What do I know about her? Well looking back at my 2nd Ed idea I know she is a magic-user of some sort and a Bard. Given some of the material I have read I also like idea she has wild magic, something she is not quite capable of controlling. This is why she leaves home. She needs a reason to go away from a loving family after all and I am not reverting to the trope of dead parents.
This worked great in my run with her in Baldur's Gate. But I'll get to pencil and paper details in future posts.
Since I had such a great time with her and I'll be using her in tabletop games next year I couldn't help but get a new HeroForge mini of her as an early Christmas present to myself.
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| Sinéad from HeroForge |
Not too bad really. Here is how she looks on the HeroForge site AND in Baldur's Gate 3.
.png "Sinéad Hero Forge")
I rather like how she came out. Of course, I had to do two of my favorite characters from the game, Shadowheart and Karlach.
I rather like how they all came out.
And Karlach:
Yeah. If I am going to do this, then I will do it right.
I am also doing runs with Skylla and Kelek in BG3. Those have also been fun.
Busy day at the day job today (Fall term is starting) so a quick one today. I picked up the Icons of the Realms: Dragons of Stormwreck Castle minis over the weekend. I mentioned these back in June and had hoped they would at least include the thief Shelia. Well...they didn't.
I do like the way they all look.
I was never a big watcher of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I worked on Saturdays and often missed it. BUT I picked up the DVD boxed set back in the early 2000s and my kids LOVED it. It was the set with the 3rd Edition stats for everyone.
You might notice that this set is missing Bobby, Uni, and Shelia. I will get to that in a bit. It does include someone just labeled "Cleric."
I can't help but think that this Cleric is none other than Aleena.
The outfits are not perfect. And I thought I read somewhere that Aleena was a blonde. But this certainly works. I have been using Aleena as the Patron Saint of Adventurers for a while now. Though like the D&D cartoon, the D&D Red Basic set for BECMI was not something I was into then.
Since Kelek was in the D&D Cartoon and Skylla was supposed to be they seem to work well with this set.
I said I did not watch the D&D cartoon much, but I was aware of it. I can't help but wonder if the red-headed girl with a penchant for wearing purple and hoods in 1983-85 didn't somehow influence my red-headed witch with a penchant for purple dresses and black hoods in 1986? I honestly can't say.
In fact, I did even think about it until I scored this D&D Cartoon "kids" book at my local game auction. It is called "The Witch's Spell Book."
The basic plot is you have the Golden Wood by finding Agnes the Witch's Spell Book. For reasons, only Shelia can read the spell. You would think Presto, but no it is Shelia.
Now not to go out on a limb too far, but those that make Shelia an initiate witch? It would in my games. She is 13 in the show, the age witches often "hear the Call of the Goddess" in my game worlds. (BTW this is what makes Larina special, she heard the Call at age 6.)
But sadly I don't get to add Shelia to my War of the Witch Queens yet. But all is not lost thanks to Hero Forge!
I could get the print from HeroForge and for the Invisible Sheila download the STL and print her here at home in clear resin. Like I did for my "Ghost" of Aleena. Click on the pictures above to buy your own from HeroForge.
I think we have some clear blue resin still.
If Shelia has a theme song then Aleena should too. It kinda works. Or maybe this one, if I go with the idea that she was a blonde. At least the timing of all three is right for me.
So that only leaves a question for me. Should I introduce Shelia to my War of the Witch Queens campaign? I might need to revisit the dual classing or multi-classing rules from OSE Advanced.
They do all fit on my shelf rather nicely together.
HeroForge
Up first, Some new minis from HeroForge.
You can get a better look at Graz'zt below.
If you click on the HeroForge link here you can even see he has six fingers on each hand!
I forgot who made this, the post on Facebook is gone, but she did a great job.
He compares well to the official mini that was made for him.
And he looks good next to my HeroForge Iggwilv.
Blue Rose Adventure's Guide
The Blue Rose Adventure's Guide is out as a DriveThruRPG POD and it looks great!
This allows you to play a Blue Rose game using the D&D 5th Edition rules. It is surprisingly complete.
You do not need the Blue Rose core rules to play this, but you do need the D&D 5th Edition rules.
A full review coming soon.
Dragon #20
And last, but not at all least, I finally got a copy of Dragon #20 with the Witch class and demonology guide.
Expect a "This Old Dragon" post on this one soon!
