Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Daeothar on 09 January 2025, 09:20:45 PM
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Brace yourselves; this is going to be a long one...
For as long as she can remember, my daughter, who is now 11, has seen her dad engage in all types of nerdish behaviour, like painting miniatures and playing weekly games of DnD with his mates. When she was little, she liked to join me in my painting sessions, and did so for a couple of years, with varying degrees of concentration and finesse, but over the years, she has drifted away from 'painting dollies' and found her own passtimes, like horse riding and all types of crafting. Which is fine, of course.
But just last December she approached me while I was painting and asked me about 'that game' the lads and I regularly play. Because on rare occasions I had shared some gaming anecdotes with her and her mother at the dinner table. My wife is usually not very impressed with my fantastical antics, but the little lady must have been more attentive than I had expected. So much so, that she asked if I could play it with her some time!
Obviously I could barely hold back my excitement, but with effort I played it off cool and answered her: 'sure honey, I'll see if I can find something suitable'. But in my head, a thousand campaign ideas started whirling around already.
However; in order to keep it easy for all involved, I decided to start off with a simple one-off starter scenario. I checked my old red DnD box for the beginning adventure, and also my old set of Oog des Meesters (translated into English as 'The Dark Eye'), which was my introduction to RPG games about 35 to 40 years or so ago. But they did not quite grab me again as I thought they would.
So I ventured onto the web and found that there's tons of fun one-off adventures for beginning players. And plenty of those cater to younger audiences as well. So in the end I settled on this one adventure I found, called 'The wild sheep chase'.
Which was perfect, because I had told my daughter she should ask a couple of her friends if they wantend to join in as well; Ideally I wanted 3 or 4 players in the group. And her best friend, who is sure to be invited, has an inexplicably strong love for sheep, and things start out with an encounter with a talking sheep, so that would work just fine.
There's also a bear in an outhouse and a bed half transformed into a dragon, so you get an idea of what we're dealing with here ;)
I picked some ready made player characters from elsewhere and then the fun could really begin. Because obviously there should be miniatures. And when there's miniatures, there needs to be terrain, so you can see where this is going…
Firstly, I sourced all of the miniatures, and I always find this one of the most enjoyable parts of such a project. I have a plethora of sources here, but materialwise, I've got metal, plastic, siocast, bones and resin-printed minis in the mix. Of course I started with scouring my own collection first, but the characters are so specific, I only had a few directly available. Which meant I had to go shopping (from the comfort of my own computer desk, obviously).
What I needed was:
- a sheep (I sourced this from an STL for a set of 5 that I purchased. I printed all 5 and will add to them by mirroring them for added variety, so I will then have a small flock of them. Always useful)
- a hulking half ork with a greatsword (I received a freebie of a rather large barbarian type miniature missing his hands and a weapon at a convention from a Siocast machine salesman. I added a huge sword from a Frostgrave Gnoll sprue and sculpted a set of fangs and his two hands)
- Three wolves (I already had wolves lying around (of course). I believe I had 7 or 8, but I could only locate 3 of them. they're older, metal sculpts and look a tad goofy, but they will certainly do the job)
- Three apes wielding longswords (I had a set of 8 chimpansee-like apes wielding primitive weapons (spears, bones, clubs) from Lucid Eye. So I painted up all of them. Always useful ;) I did not give them swords though; I decided to use the spear wielding ones, because outside of this scenario, I see very little use for longsword wielding apes)
- A grizzly bear (I had previously been gifted three large 3D-printed bears I intended to use as polar bears for Frostgrave, but I'm sure one can be spared)
- An evil wizard (the main antagonist. I had to order the Frostgrave Wizard box for this guy. No problem; it's loaded with very useful bits that will find a purpose eventually. I built up the wizard from this set, with the addition of a wand cut from plastic rod, as this was pretty specifically described in the scenario)
- A bed-wyrmling (yes; an actual bed that got transformed into a dragon, but not quite. I found a pretty nice 3D-design for free on Cults3d and printed it off. The design also came with an untransmorphed bed, so I printed that too)
- a Gibbering Mouther (this is a pretty specific DnD monster and by far the most disturbing one I ever painted. This too was a 3D-design that I printed)
Then there are the player characters. I sourced six (they came in a balanced set) and my players wil be able to choose which ones they will use. I might make some changes to the strength of the NPC's depending on their choices, but this will all be on the fly.
- a male human ranger (from a set of metal rangers by Midlam Miniatures)
- a male Elf Rogue (Started life as a GW Dark Elf Shade, but I cut down the wicked barbs on the sword and replaced the crossbow with a longbow and now he's all nice and stuff. Mostly)
- a female dwarf fighter (Sourced as a bones miniature from Reaper)
- a male gnome wizard (a Reaper Black Bones figure)
- a female Elf Cleric (another Reaper Bones miniature)
- a female halfling bard (yet another Reaper Black Bones mini)
And those are the miniatures sorted. But what of the terrain then?
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Because you can't have minis without at least some semblance of terrain, right? But I was not going to fully model 2 locations; not even I am that insane lol
So I opted for a map of the final location I found online when I also found the scenario. I printed it in two parts on A3 paper, but the included grid was just 1.5cm per square, so way too small, and the quality of the illustration was not up to being enlarged to 200%. Luckily though, I found another source, with much nicer graphics, and completely in scale too. And this source had loads more locations, both night and day, and I made good use of that resource.
Because I also wanted to represent the first location, the inn, in the same way and in the same style. So I also printed off an inn, and added additional parts in the form of floors and roofs (and even a cellar), which I photoshopped to fit the map. I also added a grid to this.
And then I could not slack off, so I also added roofs for the other map (and foliage. Because as it turns out, the wizard's residence was basically a big treehouse ;) )
I laser printed all of the above and glued the maps together; they're both 90x90cm. And since I wanted them to be re-usable and portable, I glued everything to 2mm thick cardboard, which then needed cutting out.
And there was a lot of cutting to do. I used up two full break-off blades in my hobby knife and even got blisters under my blisters during the (hard) work. But dang was it worth it. Those kids will never have a DnD experience like it! lol
The maps I have glued to 30x30cm squares of cardboard, according to a folding plan I first made. So now they fold up like a boardgame, and I'm pretty chuffed with that. I made the components in such a way that they also fold to fit within a 30x30cm space, so everything can be stored together. I do plan to make some custom boxes for these, so it'll be easy to just grab a set later on. Because I intend to make use of them a lot more in the future!
All the paper/card stuff is now done, bar the assembly of the second map, but I'll do that when the weather clears a bit, because I use spray on adhesive for that, and those fumes linger for days in a closed space (ask me how I know... ::) ).
So now it's on to painting the miniatures!
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Last year was a bit of a painting fiasco; I only painted 28 miniatures in the entire year, and almost half of those were done in the last two weeks, for this project. But I've had a running start this year, and I've almost painted half of what I did in 2024 within the first week of the year!
I started out with the sheep. I only need one here, but I did the entire small flock of 6 in one go.
Then I did the bear, followed by the three wolves and I then tackled the gibbering mouther. that was an easy job, but still very effective.
This was followed by the apes. I only need 3, but I did all 8 at once. I originally bought these years ago for a pirate campaign that never even got started. But I'm sure they'll be useful somewhere, eventually.
Following all that was the wizard. He was fun to do, and I even painted some chaos runes (from the WHFB 6th ed WoC book) on his robe, spelling 'End Boss Noke' (with Noke being his name). Just a fun little detail.
Then it was time for the bed(s). I did a plaid pattern on the blankets, but the red I used was a bit on the dark side, so some of the work does not come across as well as it should, but it works :) As a bit of fun, I decided to paint one of the pillows as light blue with little yellow duckies, because my daughter used to have a bed cover in that pattern way back when she was a toddler :D
I also built a custom, magnetized flying base for the dragon version, and Noke can actually ride on the bed.
So that was all the NPC's done, bar the half-orc, but I'll do him alongside the PCs.
First of those, chosen at random basically, was the halfling bard. I wanted her clothes to be as gaudy as possible, so I used a riot of colours and I think it worked. This is the first mini in a long time that I really worked for and it shows. I even managed to give her make-up and painted (toe)nails and I'm really happy with the result :)
The rest is still on the table. I'm painting the dwarf right now, but I'm having trouble with the skintone so now I'm on the fence whether I should paint over it or strip the mini and start completely over...
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More pics...
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Because you can't have minis without at least some semblance of terrain, right? But I was not going to fully model 2 locations; not even I am that insane lol
No, you probably are. ;)
I'm just guessing you haven't got time to do it. Should be very impressive when you've finished it all.
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I was halfway through the terrain post when I had the sinking feeling that after all this preparation that the kids decided to do something else...
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lol
At the moment I'm not afraid they'll butterfly away, but I'm not doing all of this for just the one sitting; I'm fully planning to use everything I make here in other games as well. So nothing will go to waste in the end ;)
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It all looks very good, especially the mouthmonster, that's awesome.
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Excellent work!
That gibbering mouther is terrifying!
The same company that produces "A Wild Sheep Chase" also has an adventure one called 'Wolves of Welton' (http://"https://winghornpress.com/adventures/wolves-of-welton/)" which is an excellent starter (and level 1) adventure. It features talking wolves! I've played through it, and it's great fun! Although I'll now need to give a wild sheep chase a look.
I'm loving the work you're putting in and I'm sure that your daughter and her friends will love the game!
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Cheers guys :)
And I will look into the Wolves of Welton, just in case... :D
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Wonderfull stuff, dude.
Hadn't seen al of it. That dragon-bed is certainly amazing.
Good job on getting these kids started on such a level that future dnd can only be a dissapointment.
No-one is gonna be an amazing a DM as dad was after this.
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Great stuff & well played. When are the results of the Dad of the year announced?
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You're going to have an amazing time with your daughter and her friend(s)! It will be a memory both of you cherish as they years pass and she grows older. Awesome job recruiting the next generation...! :-*
Mike Demana
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This looks awesome! I'm sure they'll have a blast. What a great idea with the removable roof and second story over the printed map- so cool!
I got my kids to play a game of Warhammer Quest (1995 edition) and we've tried the new Heroquest a bit, but there is some reluctance to accept bad outcomes and a great preference for selective interpretation of dice rolls. More often they just want to play a very "rules light" RPG with miniatures, which often ends with the Game Master being overthrown in favor of someone shorter who can better interpret the winds of fate... That's how all RPG's are supposed to go, right?
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...they just want to play a very "rules light" RPG with miniatures, which often ends with the Game Master being overthrown in favor of someone shorter who can better interpret the winds of fate... That's how all RPG's are supposed to go, right?
That's how my mates and I play it, yeah... lol
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Things slowed down considerably when going back to work after the holidays, but then came to screeching halt when my father in law passed away last weekend. As my wife is out of town now to make all the arrangements, I'm all of a sudden a single dad with a full time job...
But tonight I managed to get to grips with the dwarf on my desk. And true to form, she proved quite a stubborn character. Most of that is due to her being a Reaper Bones mini, which makes a lot of the detail rather soft.
So she's not as neat as the (much more agreeable) halfling I did earlier, but she'll do. She looks like a proper girl boss, with her shiny (half) boob armour and that's what counts ;)
Next up is the gnome wizard. Getting the little folk sorted first I suppose :D
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Im sorry about the bereavement. Hopefully things aren’t too hard for you and your family.
Great work on the dwarf. I’ve got the same model and she’s not finished anywhere near to the standard you’ve achieved here. I know exactly what you mean, the details are really shallow and I have a couple of mould lines that were tough to remove. I’ll be honest I’ve been moving away from reaper minis recently- I’ve found they are often too detailed for my needs, and the scale is not consistent, while simultaneously being affect by scale creep.
Cracking work, can’t wait to see what’s next.
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You did a great job on the lady dwarf. I would be very happy with how she turned out.
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but then came to screeching halt when my father in law passed away last weekend.
Condolences on your father-in-law... :'(
I agree with you on Reaper figs. The details is very muddy at times. What there is tends to be shallow, making dry brushing not a preferred tactic. You did great on Miss Armored Half Boobs...! :D
Mike Demana
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Nice job on that little lady.
Those are some killer push-up bra's. I do not believe those to be comfortable.
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They're not supposed to. But they do give some genuine iron support and are +2 charisma... :D
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In the press of real life stuff needing to be arranged right now, I have managed to sneak in a couple of hours of painting. And I set myself the goal of finishing this little guy in one session, and this is exactly what I was able to do.
It's another Bones miniature and again I struggled with finding good definition and all that, but in the end I'm OK with the outcome. Not my best, but more than acceptable. I have one more Bones mini to go, but this one is of the black variety and that's a slightly harder material. As a result, the details look a lot sharper on that one, so it should not be as much of a struggle as the last two were. And then there's a Siocast one and two metals, which I'm looking forward to.
Bones minis are cheap, but a painter's dream they are not. I will probably steer clear of the white bones minis from now on...
I painted this gnome wizard up as a young pyromancer; the magic effect he's producing looked like flames to me, so that was an easy conclusion. First time I actually painted flames, and I'll be the first to admit they require work. But considering the speed, I'm not complaining. I'm most happy with the clothes though; the tunic was actually painted with original Blood Angel Red (hexagon flip top pot) which was part of the very first acrylic paint set I bought way back in 1995 or so :)
Next up is probably the human female Cleric, which is the last (black) bones mini in the group.
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This looks amazing Daeothar - I’m very envious, it should be great fun. There’s quite a disparity between talking sheep/that odd dragon bed thing and then the gibbering mouther (I’m not that au fait with D&D - it’s quite grim and creepy). The halfling is great - the eyes (something very hard to do well) are perfect.
I’ve recently realised I need to focus on doing some similar small self contained games that I can get done and to the table to help my motivation; as I’ve previously repeatedly burnt myself out trudging through vast, never ending projects.
Looking forwards to seeing an AAR
Andrew
BALM
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You're absolutely right of course, but the Gibbering Mouther is the final end-boss in the adventure. First it's Noke, the bad wizard, who then, when he can't win, transforms his bed into a wyrmling, but his wand of transmogrification (or something ::) ) starts to malfunction under the stress of abundant use and only half transforms the bed. Then finally, in an act of desperation, he turns the wand on himself and it fails completely, transforming him into that... thing.
So even though it's a bit of an odd one out in this adventure, I feel it still is a good escalation into a scary monster for the kids to beat :)
In the meantime, I've managed to finish this lady today: a human female cleric. She has access to the School of Life, so I figured a nature themed religion might fit her best. Hence the depiction of a tree with three stars. I have no idea if it matches up with any Forgotten Realms deity (Silvanus?), but here we are :D
As a cleric, white(ish) attire seemed appropriate, and since I chose green as a secondary colour, I went with bronze armour, which I also gave a very faint green tint.
All in all not a very challenging miniature, but I certainly don't mind that and I like the sculpt. The casting in Reaper Black Bones was also pretty good. Certainly better than the white Bones of the previous two ;) On to the final three miniatures of the lot!
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Well done on the fire and the flame.
The new lady does seem likes she'd be hunting for The Fallen.
Familiar colourscheme for you?
Productive year, so far
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Daeothar - that’s brilliant, the best kids stories are always darker and creepier than the adult’s. I’ve never been a fan of magic (give me steel any day) - it’s too lazy and promises too much reward (so the cost should be high) so ending up as that gobby blob seems fitting lol
I like the cloak motif - clean and simple, an excellent bit of freehand (I often find it’s easy to get carried away and ruin my earlier work :D ) that ties the colour scheme together well.
Keep up the good work,
Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain