New Far Trader

Okay checking out the local second hand store, came across this great ship that is a Fisher Price of some sort, of a space shuttle but would look the part of a Far Trader sitting in port.

Here you can see just how big it is compared to a couple of 15mm figures.

You can see with the right paint job and with added panels and gizmos this thing is going to be great!

So now I have several large ships of about this size so I could have a very full spaceport, now I just need to work on landing pads, some operation building, control tower and warehouses, I have several vehicle that would work really well for a port as well thrown in to the mix and it will be a great port for adventures!

It will also look great on those planets that just need a close look as well!

New Zombie Rule Book

Okay this is the first of the new  series of RGP books "End Of the World" from Fantasy Flight Games http://fantasyflightgames.com/en/index/  "Zombie Apocalypse" the whole idea behind the series is to make a character that closely resembles one's self and try to survive the on coming apocalypses.

First book "Zombie Apocalypse" the second book not release as of yet is "Wrath of the Gods" which will be followed by the other two "Rise of the Machines" and "Alien Invasion".

First off the book's cover and it's bindings are very well done and should last you along time and the art work and graphic is done very well also.

The Rules are D6 base using positive and negative d6s. Characters get 6 characteristic abilities, Vitality, Dexterity, Charisma and so on, you as the player get 16 points to divide up between the six charactersitic of you character to pick and chose which are your strongest and weakest suit no one area can have less then 1 point or more then five points, then the playing group votes up or down each of these to get a character that best resembles you,

Now it doesn't end things there, what  you know or skills that you have can be added to your abilities as skills, this is a good thing for each single skill/ability that is applied to a task gives you one positive d6 to counteract the negative d6s, for example you have to get pass a magnet lock door and you have electrical skills and mechanical skills, If the GM applies 2d6 against you becaues it's a dark room and you are tired from lack of sleep.  You get 1d6 for attempting the task then you can apply both of those skills you have to give you an additional 2d6  apply to the task for a total of 3d6.

There are rules for dealing with stress, trauma and death.
Stress is the key factor, the stress you receive can kill you, if you never seem and dead body before and you see a dozen of them now this can add stress to you, now add someone shooting at you can add more stress and so fourth, but if you can recognize this stress and deal with it, you can turn it over into trauma, and time to rest is the only thing that can heal you from trauma. Trauma can slow you down or hamper you in getting task done using the example used above if you had a sprained wrist then the GM could have applied an additional d6 to the task you were attempting. Stress is broken down into three areas Physical, Mental and Social  and can hamper your character in all three of these areas, now there is some tracking of all of this but it seems from the rules and further reading all this can be tracked very well and easily followed. Now you can reduce gaining stress over time by building resistance in the three areas, like the area of Mental stress where seeing a dead body can be stressful over time it just part of the everyday life.

Movement is limited to maximum of 20 meters per turn.

There are guide lines to help run a good game and guide lines for running campaign games as well.

Rules for combat with zombies and other humans seem fairly straight forward. Rules about food, water, weapons and the amount of weight one can carry.

Weapons chart for most weapons and ranges, but you can do a good work around for additional weapons you wish to use easily,

Draw backs to the rule book;

There are no rules for vehicles, or vehicle movement.

There are no rules for using figures.

there are no rules for solo play

These short comings I feel can be worked around, by using rules from other game as to fill in the gaps in these areas. Or you can make your own house rules.

The book does have 5 scenarios for you to play out with players and NPCs with basic locations apartments hospitals and other locations alike, Plus plots to get you and your players involved in quickly

Each of the five scenarios has an apocalypse section covering from day one up to a couple of years to include time lines which are great for inserting as rumors or news headlines you can give your player to hear or see as News Flashes. The second half of each scenario is a post apocalypse situation for years later for which there are save havens for your players to work from and again a list of plot lines to work from with some additional applied rules.

Again each scenario has a list of plot line to try out but I can't see no reasons as to why you couldn't use some of them in different scenarios.

Scenario #1, A meteor brings all mammals back from the dead from mice to elephants not to mention the dearly departed. Basically their all ghouls that want to eat your brains!

Scenario #2. Only the humans come back from the dead. Basically "The Walking Dead"

Scenario #3. Again only the humans but the zombies are more like those from "28 Days Later" these guys can RUN, CLIMB and JUMP!

Scenario #4. You have to deal with Voodoo Zombies and deal with a clan of Voodoo Priest and their followers from around the world wanting to create a new world to rule over.

Scenario #5 Your group deals with Zombies that are much like the creature from "The Thing" the host is infected with a parasite that takes over and devours the host body from within, looking for new hosts, cutting off a limbs only make two threats to worry about now! Fire is a good tool to use!

Now I'm sure you could run any scenario with any zombie type you would like to use just replace the type of zombie you want to run out all the plot lines.

Over all it's a really good book one can have hours of fun with! I believe the other books will have many of the same rules but different rules for dealing with there different titles.

STAR SHIP IDEA!

OH MY GOD! BECKY LOOK AT THE SIZE OF HER SHIP, HAVE YOU EVER SEE A SHIP THAT BIG, IT'S LIKE HUGE!

Okay so I was cruising the thrift store when  I spied this S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier still new and in the box and thought  (cue Music) "OH Yeah, Bomp Bomp"

 

Okay this would make for a great center piece of terrain for any gaming table.

Now this thing is big in fact for a gaming table it huge! It's just over 3 feet long! My ideas are for RPG games, but could also be used for table to war gaming as well.

Now you can see from the pictures below that it will need a lot of conversion work to be done. Plus to give you a better idea of it's size all the figures on the main deck are Khurasan's Ship Crew and those on the cutting mat a 15mm.co.uk figures and vehicles.

I didn't add all the little parts just the main stuff

It's really big

Main deck

Main deck and tower

Side view lots of room underneath it

Middle of main deck

Rear main deck

Rear landing gear

Front landing gear

Front nose area

One of many bucket style catwalks

Vehicle on main deck

Almost as big as the coffee table!

Now I think it needs a large box cargo holding area on it's under belly, just to give it the appearance that it can hold a lot of cargo or vehicles, plus some sort of engine area in the rear of it again this is only to give the look of just being big and maybe another level added to the upper deck with sectioned off  rooms and alike with a removable roof,

Chasing a Madman across the Stars

The ship is the "Bragi" a research ship refitted as a medical rescue ship, the crew is made up of the flight crew, medical doctors and staff. Scientists and lab techs. And a military security force of Marines. Their prime mission is to go to the outer rim planets and colonies that may have medical outbreaks. There secondary mission is research of new planets.

That was their mission until, they arrived at colony "Kinross 4" a mining colony, the sole colony on the planet "Aulax XVII". What had brought them there was a call from the Navel ship "Valley Run" Who was dispatch to investigate the lost of communications. Once the Valley run was in orbit it launched a platoon of Marines to Kinross 4. What the Marines reported is unbelievable, the colonist, those who were still alive have mutated somehow. And had attempted to attack the Marines who in turn protected themselves. After the would be attackers were put down, the officer in charge further investigated the situation and discovered that every colonist all 278 of them were at some different stage of mutating.

The Marine officer evaluated the position and quarantined himself and his platoon of marines to Kinross 4, for fear of the unknown. what had cause this to happen to the colonist? Was it in the air or the soil? And he couldn't risk bringing this back to the Valley Run, So the call went out through military channels to the Bargi

It took three months for the Bragi to get to Aulax XVII, in the meantime the Marines at Kinross 4 were kept resupplied by supply drones sent from the Valley Run. Once the Bragi was on site it's crew quickly went to work, first examining the Marines then examining the environment and determined that the local environment was not the cause of the mutation. Now the thought is someone may have experimented on the colonists. A trace of a chemical compound not known till now was in the remains of all the colonists tested

The compound chemical, was not the direct cause of the mutation of the colonists but may have been a carrier and no trace of this compound was found in any of the Marines, and as of now nothing is known about this compound.

As for the colonist they were all at some beginning stage of mutation their skin had started to slide around like it was melting and each one was changing differently some look to be developing scales, other feathers and yet other sharp spines or barbs of some sorts. Many of the colonists seemed to have died in this early stage as if their body was not able to handle this changing or mutation as it was happening, but about a third seem to have, and this is also a part of the mystery.

Major Leon Kaine with three months of quarantine time to kill started an investigate of his own, and found a very troubling mystery on his hands. The first part of the mystery is all of the report logs from the mining office have either been deleted or removed. Another part was a dispensing device attached to the main water supply coming from the water treatment section, and a section of the medical facility was sectioned off and was totally empty but there are signs that equipment was there and just gone now. The medical staff had all been killed though they all had signs of mutation going on. By sight alone were no where near the level of mutations as the rest of the colonists. And he concluded that they were murdered when the first signs of mutation started. The next mystery is that in the mining medical staff quarters, five of the rooms were empty. The quarters were all cleaned and wiped down, while five of the other quarters showed signs that some of the medical staff had doubled up in those rooms.

Further investigation turned up that all the personnel files are gone as well. And there is no way to cross reference with the pay roll. The way mining company hires through the mining boss, who contracts the miners and only request pay in a large payment, which then the mining boss divides up as to the miners. So all the paperwork is held in the mining boss's offices.

The communications equipment was disabled It seems a resistor was placed in the main out going signal cable that made the out going signal so weak that no one would ever hear their messages for help. And any equipment systems check would show that all was normal, and would not warrant a complete visual inspection of the system. Which came about when Maj. Kaine tried to send a message to the Valley Run, which was so weak that it raised questions as to why?

After a body count of all 278 miners and staff, 7 were missing, the first thought was that they may have wondered off, or just plain left the facility. A search was made of the outer area of the mining facility, during the search and it was found that another ship had been there and all the signs of traffic going back and forth to the mining facility.

The compound chemical that was found seemed to have been breaking down and was missing a stabilizing agent, and when discovered it was only part of what it originally was. What was it and what did it do in it's original form?

More question needed answers, who were the missing miners, were they part of this horror or victims that may have shown potential to this experiment? Who would want to perform such and act and why? Where are they now, where are they going and what will they do next?

To find these answers now rest on the shoulders of the Bargi and it's crew plus one, Major Leon Kaine

Twilight 2000

Yet another game I truly like as a RPGs, is to play Twilight 2000 using 15mm Figures.

Okay so many people feel that it's out dated as far as the "Cold War" goes for the "Cold War is over or is it?

We currently live in a time were a nuclear accident could trigger a limited exchange more so today then 20 years ago.

We almost went there not long ago when a missile being tested, almost triggered such an event, when a simple thing as failing to share information between departments. State departments were aware but military departments were not informed.

Plus with the numbers of countries that have limited abilities today that they didn't have then. So you didn't live during the time period of the "Cold War" why bother with such a game, currently there are about 3500 missiles right now! ready to launch! you are living in a cold war so to speak, you could call it the out of mind war, we don't see it, we don't hear it, and we don't talk about it, so therefor it's out of mind.

All the better for such a game just change up the situation, location and update it to today, what if your were a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan when such an event happens, how would you get home better yet how would you survive to get home.

Nice thing about this game is using 15mm figures for play, there are a wide range of modern figures one can use for what ever situation you would like from US Troops to Chinese Troops and almost everything in between to include vehicles and equipment, and the terrain can be what ever you wish it to be.

There are a lot of adventure add ons for this game as well.

Wasteland Raiders

Concept idea is to combine several grav bikes from different 15mm Miniature companies to form a nomadic raiding party just one more hazard for your Traveller party to deal with or to be your Traveller party, heck they could be your escort across the no man's land.

The more of a mix of Grav bikes the better, for the more random look as one would expect to see in a marauding group, picking up a bike here and there as they go and the parts they would need to keep them running as they raid camps or outpost as needed.

The concept came to me when I had seen a concept artwork piece of such a group when image surfing google and then saw the start of something similar at David's Painting and Modeling Log  http://billinghurst.spalding.gen.nz/Webstuff/hobbies/paintlog.html

Here you can see he is using GZG's Grav Bike http://shop.groundzerogames.net/  and Rebel Minis AP riders http://www.rebelminis.com/index.html which has inspired me to do fairly much the same only I'm going to add more to it.

I want to add bed rolls, saddle bags, pouches, sacks of goods and alike and I would do this by using modellers putty "Green Stuff".

Equal parts yellow and blue and knead together until it's an even green all around then you can work with it for awhile until it hardens, working with 15mm things a very little goes a long ways.

So now the list of Grav bikes for the Raiders

 

Grav Bikes from GZG http://shop.groundzerogames.net/

Grav Bikes from Critical Mass http://www.criticalmassgames.com/default.asp?category=homepage

Gave bike from Spriggan Miniatures http://www.sprigganminiatures.co.uk/index.html

Grav bikes from The Scene http://thesceneuk.com/

 

Grav Bike from 15mm.co.uk http://www.15mm.co.uk/index.html

 

Grav Bikes from Khurasan Miniatures http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/

Now I will be doing some head swaps and switching out riders as well, Riders from Rebel Minis AP riders.

I am thinking of some other Grav vehicles as supply vehicle and for carrying additional raiders and thought that I would need some dismounted Raiders so the jury is still out for those items for now.

In the mean time, if your players have to investigate a surveyors camp, or outpost that hasn't reported in be mindful of what may be out there. Not everything has to have teeth and claws.



Running a Salvage Crew

Being a Salvage crew Captain

If your going to be traveling the stars, then your going to come across a crashed ship from time to time or a derelict a drift in space. If your running a salvage crew as the captain then your going to have to look for work everywhere you can so you end up looking at all the reports of every lost or missing ship at every star port or base you come to and their last known location in hope for a score.

Hit the bars for rumors of missing ships not reported, so talk to other trader ship captains some traders like to travel under the radar so to speak when their carrying cargo let's just say that they don't want to be caught with. Great to have a few smuggler friends to off load that kind of stuff  quick but cheap.
Plus if there is any clashes going on then there is a chance for an even easier score just don't get caught in the middle between the two clashing sides, best way to find this information is to find young marines, sailors and soldiers in the bar and offer to buy a few drinks, older veterans and officers know better to not to talk about such things but younger troops want to brag about their heroic deeds of battle and where it happened.
Large  battlefields are littered with equipment that was either damaged, destroyed, just plain lost, or just left behind due to cargo space, not everything is broken or wasted, most military campaigns just keep moving on and pretty much just leave broken or useless equipment behind, nice stash of weapons, ammo, firing computers, comms equipment and a like can be found. Lots of fair size colonies feel the need for such stuff to protect themselves and you can get a good price for your stuff there.

 

Talk to Scout ship crews, they come across derelicts drifting from time to time and fail to report them, either by accident or on purpose for a score of their own, and a few drinks will help loosen them up many times. What the crew knows is not always what the captain puts in to his ship's log.

Working ship parts and ship's equipment cost a lot of credits, and one can get about half as much for them, depending on a lot of factors working or needing some repair, but there is always a buyer somewheres for what you find or recover, so make sure you have a long list of potential ship builder clients. ship building yards are good for buying engines, jump drives and ship computers of all kinds to cut cost of a build or repairs to save time for new ones to arrive.

Avoid areas where pirating is going on, two bad things can happen there, either you get hit by pirates or the authorities hit you for being a pirate. Unless you know the players on both side in that system and they know you but be warned you'll have to play both sides against the middle, because both side will want you to throw them a bone from time to time.

One of the last jobs you want to take on, is to salvage a failed colony, it's sad when you know that these were families trying to make a fresh start and fail, many personal items are left behind to remind you that this was once someones home and life, it can make you feel alone and lost in your mind sometimes thinking this could have been your life. Better jobs are old refineries and mining operations.

 

Why be on a salvage crew, why not be a belter working on some asteroid or working with a demolitions crew on some city world revamping some city block, work is steady and so are the hours, and life will be the same day in and day out and a rut, for me a salvage crew seeing the stars and other worlds, my live in my hands and hold to no man but me.

 

 This is the view from my window, What's yours?

 

Traveller's Imperial Army

Okay we all know that Ground Zero Games http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php  has great figures for Traveller's Imperial Marines

 

 

But what about the Imperial Army in Traveller? There are stats for generating a character with an Army background, so what miniatures would you have for an Imperial Army in Traveller, myself I'm going to go with these guys the New Israeli also from Ground Zero Games

 

 

They have lots of different poses and weapon systems

Of course it's all in one's taste as to what figures one would want to use as for their Imperial Army. Yes the Imperial Marines are great for doing ship to ship fighting and the initial ground assault or to quickly crush a revolt of some miners on some forgotten asteroid but for your longer ground campaigns or for an outpost in the middle of nowhere your going to need an Army.

Now go out and have your players look for work in a bar half full of Imperial Marines and the other half with Imperial Army with nothing but time on their hands and their brains half polluted, toss in some locals and remember everyone is carrying a loaded weapon! Oh yes it's going to be a good time at "O-Mally's" tonight! Then in time someone is going to call the local police.

 

Companion Robots

Starting a new character that I haven't tried before for Traveller, Companion Robots the idea came to me from Eerie Magazine

I remember reading the Hunter and Hunter II series back when I was younger, and how they would just make it out of almost any situation by the skin of their teeth.

Going to make the character using help from Travellers black book "Robots" now the robots to use will be from Mega Minis "Small War-bots" http://freeboardgamesnow.com/smallwar-bots20mmtall.aspx  they say there 20mm tall and that should work for my project. I have just ordered two sets before they close shop June 1st. and they should be here any day now.

 plus I want to use Khurasan Miniatures http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/  police/security robots part number TTC-3005 they just have that  look to me that would work well.

 

I feel this project will work well for campaign games for when a player loses a character they still stay in the game as their companion robot that was with that character, plus if it really looks bad send the robot in first!

 

Each robot will be able to select the weapon they will need by the appropriate tech level weapon laws just like the regular characters, and have their own attitudes, just like a regular character and act as a regular crew member, plus they save on crew pay and additional supplies and can be pack mules for when these guys are not around to do such

 





These are from GZG http://shop.groundzerogames.net/  under 2mm Germy's micro minis. I have seen them on another site where they are used as pack mules and mobile power units, they would be great for your planet safari adventures.

I will work it up and play test it a few times and post my results.

Update 5/24/2013 here's the link for Germy's AT-ATs as mobile power units http://gwargamesp.fr.yuku.com/topic/7183#.UWxheLWHx8E