Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Call of Cthulhu => Strange Aeons => Topic started by: Cherno on July 13, 2012, 02:41:22 PM
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Hello fellow Agents and Lurkers,
after three days and countless sheets of paper and cardboard, I can finally present you my Strange Aeons project.It all started one year ago (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=40649.0) when I first found out about Strange Aeons and I started building some cardboard Standees. As you can see on the photos below, the first version of the Standees are immediately recognizable, having integral bases and no outline. It wasn't until one week ago when I actually got the Strange Aeons rulebook and started on this project in earnest.
(http://www.abload.de/img/blayduwt.gif)
The Standees, aside from those old ones (no pun intended) made from sprites from the computer game Blood, were made possible with the help of Anatoli and some other dude I forgot the name of :D
However, the biggest part was building terrain. I had the "Battlefield in a box" approach in mind when starting this project: All elements should fit in a small box. That means larger features like buildings have to be collapsible and everything will be made of paper/cardboard so they fit stylistically with each other and with the Standees, and so they can just be carelessly thrown into their storage box after play without worrying about paint scratches or parts breaking.
I decided I wanted to have three terrain types for Strange Aeons: Forest, Graveyard and Farmland.
The Forest
(http://www.abload.de/img/forest14wut1.jpg)
The Forest was the easiest to make because I already had the terrain tiles from my All Things Zombie project.This time, however, I didn't just want printed-on trees and cabins, so I had to actually build those. What I ended up with were trees, bushes and hedges from World Works Games' excellent Hinterland Forest set, logs from Dave Gaffam (they have a 25% summer sale over at RPG.now!) and a cabin I made using TLX templates with custom textures.
This should give a nice selection of terrain I can fill a 2x3 table with easily, providing models with different types of cover.
Game aids
Browsing through the rulebook, I noticed that a player would have to keep a copy of the weapons master list (and extra item, spell etc. lists) ready because weapon and other item stats had no place on the force sheets. So what I did was make my own equipment cards with all info provided; this way whenever a certain item is present the player just has to put it in front of him, no need to look anything up or have more than neccessary on the table.
I made cards forall weapons and extra items, as well as counters for map pieces, ancient and evil tomes, and scrolls, and mounted them to heavy cardboard after printing them on glossy photo paper.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3014mqu7o.jpg)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg30159nuhc.jpg)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3016i2uwj.jpg)
That's it for now, next up is the graveyard! don't forget to bring your holy water! :o
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Here's my little cemetery :)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3020ppdpl.jpg)
The set is of course Wildwood Grove, an older set from WWG still available in their "Vault" line of classic products and highly recommended for Strange Aeons paper scenery!
The small crypt is made in the TLX style with custom textures from Blood.
The larger one looks actually more like a chapel from it's size and is part of the set. It is collapsible too.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg30214eis1.jpg)
I use the graves as grave markers or normal scenery. The tombstones can be detached.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3022bwd3s.jpg)
The monolith can also be used as scenery or as a scenario-specific monument.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3023tcfwq.jpg)
The fences were the result of pure chance when I scrounged through my old print-outs of WWG scenery and found two sheets of transparent Wildwood Grove fences in them. I cut them to TLX 6" specs and made some more posts for them, and some free-standing bases.
Hope you enjoy. Next up is the farmland.
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Here are some photos from our first two games. I played as Lurker vs. two Threshold teams.
Some highlights:
Joe Diamond tosses a stick of Dynamite at a Fishman and cultist hiding behind a hedge. Both got caught up in the explosion.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3025yujij.jpg)
Later, Joe fumbles his to-hit-roll while trying to throw dynamite at the last Cultist... It didn't end well.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3024vqj5m.jpg)
A cultist armed with a Bolt-Action Rifle takes a shot at Agent Eads and kills him in the first turn. Needless to say, after that incident the Threshold team quickly took greater care while moving about...
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg30261ojoj.jpg)
A Fishman, much ridiculed at the start of the game suddenly rushes forward and kills Agent Bale, much to the horror of the Threshold player.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3027g4k7v.jpg)
The same Fishman tries to attack Agent Eads, but the Agent fails his Resolve test and flees! Damn! Stay where you are when I'm trying to eat you!!!
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg302899jev.jpg)
Overview of the game table from the Lurker side.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3029q7j76.jpg)
Another Bird's-eye-perspective. This is where I was sitting during both games.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3031zwji9.jpg)
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reserved :P
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well, reserved or not, it looks great! :)
would you mind sharing the plans of the buildings and treeas and stuff, would ya? ;)
edit: oops, sorry, just read that they are copyrighted stuff.
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Wow! Paper modelling at it's very finest.
This really works; I can only imagine that it does so because you've been very selective about which textures and models you used. Plus you embraced the look of the WWGs- a look that can be quite hard to describe. After all it's not realistic nor is it out-right cartoony.
Well done mate!
Cheers
Andy
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Thanks guys. I am indeed picky when it comes to choosing scenery; WWG and Dave Graffam have by far the best textured models available (not counting non-wargaming related models); most of the paper scenery on RPGnow etc. is just horribly bland and very unappealing. You get what you pay for, although WWG and Graffam's models have very cheap prices for their contents.
As someone else here said, paper scenery doesn't really work if mixed with other miniatures and terrain, but if everything is made of flat paper it somehow has a style on it's own that just looks right :)
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huh, I messed up the forest photo in the op, here it is 8)
(http://img4web.s3.amazonaws.com/source/DWWN5.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=1SC7XPM4CHJWESHW9XG2&Expires=1342193200&Signature=WZGmADbHUG63qCkKQyKNb1yuZqY%3D)
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I dont like paper terrain by default but your work is outstanding. You are a genius by my standards. If those are available sometime i will surely use them. The weapon etc. Cards are a brilliant idea! I hope you will post an AAR with those in use
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While I would never contemplate using card models and scenery myself, I enjoy painting miniatures and making scenery too much, I can see and appreciate a fine job when it is presented to me.
This certainly looks damn good, and has a certain look all of its own.
A very nice alternative to the 'norm'.
Well done, sir!
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Nag nag, the image hoster I used is crap, I have re-uploaded everything. Should be fine now ::)
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That is an outstanding piece of work. I love paper terrain even though I use painted miniatures. It's cheap, fills a table quickly and stores a lot more easily than the molded equivalent. You'll have to show us the box you're using to store all your hard work!
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This is so cool I can't stand it.
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Very, very nice looking standees. By the way, I haven't gotten around to taking pictures for you yet. I'll try and take some pictures next week (if you're still interested).
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That is an outstanding piece of work. I love paper terrain even though I use painted miniatures. It's cheap, fills a table quickly and stores a lot more easily than the molded equivalent. You'll have to show us the box you're using to store all your hard work!
Thanks. I plan on making a thematic storage box similar to the ones Arkham Horror player made on BoardGameGeek:
(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355665_md.jpg)
(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355646_md.jpg)
(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355651_md.jpg)
(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355652_md.jpg)
Although I somehow suspect I'll be stuck with a plain old cardboard box for a while :D
Very, very nice looking standees. By the way, I haven't gotten around to taking pictures for you yet. I'll try and take some pictures next week (if you're still interested).
Yes, I am indeed still interested, always on the lookout for new material as you know ;)
Looking forward to seeing your pics 8)
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That looks great, you should pm Uncle Mike to see if he fancied hosting those cards on the SA site!
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That looks great, you should pm Uncle Mike to see if he fancied hosting those cards on the SA site!
I did, and he said thank you for making these :)
Perhaps he will put em up on the website, perhaps not, who knows... I have my cards ;)
I just finished the cemetery, tomorrow I will make photos :)
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Fantastic job! The whole thing together looks wonderful!!! Never seen paper done better!
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This is pretty cool, and a great way to get every thing you need for a game fast :)
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Here's my little cemetery :)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3020ppdpl.jpg)
The set is of course Wildwood Grove, an older set from WWG still available in their "Vault" line of classic products and highly recommended for Strange Aeons paper scenery!
The small crypt is made in the TLX style with custom textures from Blood.
The larger one looks actually more like a chapel from it's size and is part of the set. It is collapsible too.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg30214eis1.jpg)
I use the graves as grave markers or normal scenery. The tombstones can be detached.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3022bwd3s.jpg)
The monolith can also be used as scenery or as a scenario-specific monument.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3023tcfwq.jpg)
The fences were the result of pure chance when I scrounged through my old print-outs of WWG scenery and found two sheets of transparent Wildwood Grove fences in them. I cut them to TLX 6" specs and made some more posts for them, and some free-standing bases.
Hope you enjoy. Next up is the farmland.
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:oThat is a very impressive work! Could not imagine that paper models and sceneries would be so nice. Wonderful :-*.
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Very nice indeed!
:-*
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Excellent stuff. I'm not in favour of paper miniatures generally, but this works very well. :-*
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Thanks for your kind comments. I was literally non-stop at work yesterday finishing about 20 tiles for my first game last night and we didn't even play in the cemetery :D
But all had a blast (well, at least the one character who blew himself up with dynamite trying to bomb a lone cultist to smithereens!) and after the first game of looking up rules we can now handle the game pretty well. Only the wound concept was something we had a hard time to figure out, now we play as we think it's intended, with each attack causing one wound if it's damage is equal or higher than the target's CON and if it's the last wound the injury table is used with modifier if the damage was higher tan CON.
Some pics of the first few games to follow. For the farmland, I have to do some crop tiles first, and I plan to do one or two corn fields too 8)
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Here are some photos from our first two games. I played as Lurker vs. two Threshold teams.
Some highlights:
Joe Diamond tosses a stick of Dynamite at a Fishman and cultist hiding behind a hedge. Both got caught up in the explosion.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3025yujij.jpg)
Later, Joe fumbles his to-hit-roll while trying to throw dynamite at the last Cultist... It didn't end well.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3024vqj5m.jpg)
A cultist armed with a Bolt-Action Rifle takes a shot at Agent Eads and kills him in the first turn. Needless to say, after that incident the Threshold team quickly took greater care while moving about...
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg30261ojoj.jpg)
A Fishman, much ridiculed at the start of the game suddenly rushes forward and kills Agent Bale, much to the horror of the Threshold player.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3027g4k7v.jpg)
The same Fishman tries to attack Agent Eads, but the Agent fails his Resolve test and flees! Damn! Stay where you are when I'm trying to eat you!!!
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg302899jev.jpg)
Overview of the game table from the Lurker side.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3029q7j76.jpg)
Another Bird's-eye-perspective. This is where I was sitting during both games.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3031zwji9.jpg)
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:-* :-* Hats off to you Sir,pure Awesomeness!
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4baiNTlMXkg/SM6bJ1YMSeI/AAAAAAAAABg/jtegmg4Jzms/s400/Awesomeness+seal.gif)
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Thanks. Now send me some photos of your miniatures so I can enlarge my Standee colection :P
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any of these?
(http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad244/Falkenhayn/001.jpg)
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Your cardboard terrain really is nice! :-*
They should sell more boardgames with wonderful paper terrain like this!
I'm really fond of the blast marker. :D
Slight threadjack: Nice collection Dr.Falkenhayn. :-*
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If I had a cardboard-cutting machinery I would totally sell punch-out scenery that just slots together. Until then, I have to use a trusty hobby knife and my own hands ;)
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How are the "Arkham Horror" standees made? I love 'em!
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This is so much better than most of the "real" gaming boards.
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How are the "Arkham Horror" standees made? I love 'em!
I just asked around a while ago if anyone had the official pre-painted figures sold by Fantasy Flight Games, and one chap agreed to photograph his figures, and from those images I made my Standees :)
And thanks, Relic 8)
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:-* That's a nice example of how cool can be paper terrain.
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I just asked around a while ago if anyone had the official pre-painted figures sold by Fantasy Flight Games, and one chap agreed to photograph his figures, and from those images I made my Standees :)
And thanks, Relic 8)
Wow! Nice!
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Some of the best looking cardboard stuff ever!
Already tried to photograph some of my minis and I think I've gotten everything matching right now (I'm using my 105 mm Macro, lens which gives pretty good results). I'm trying to get some done this weekend in between painting my 40K stuff).
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Looking forward to seeing your photos. Just remember: The farer away your camera is from the miniature, the better the front and backsides will match up :)
I'm currently building some 3D corn field tiles, crop tiles, and then I'll do some custom modular hills that can be stored flat. Also, I need even more trees and stuff... Much to do for the next game :)
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Hi all,
we had another two games this night, I had no time for a big deal of preparation so the farmland terrain is somewhat lacking in visual appeal, but the games were fun anyway so I guess that's what really counts ;)
I also had no time to set up a tripod, so I had to use flash which I really don't like :'(
Overview
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3192e5ork.jpg)
My buffed Fishman charges forward
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg319394obw.jpg)
Same situation on the other side of the board...
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3194zmp79.jpg)
Second scenario, "Bodysnatchers" in a cemetary. A Mummy, Ghoul and Zombie attack a Threshold Team.
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3199i1r2y.jpg)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3202x3qla.jpg)
One Zombie had just desecrated one of the graves. The rest of the squad was saved by the low walls, thank god for 4+ cover saves :)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3200h5q0e.jpg)
(http://www.abload.de/img/rimg3201iuoc4.jpg)
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This keeps getting better and better.
Eleventy-thousand points awarded for concept and execution.
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Really impressive work! Any chance you'd make your standees and cards available for download?
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No, I generally don't make standees available for download, it's basically the art of others (miniature by the manufacturer and painting by the.. painter! :D ) that I use (with permission from the painter, but still), and it just doesn't feel right to make this available freely. However, since it's really just a matter of getting the right photos, everyone can just make his or her own personalized standees from whichever images he or she likes, be it actual miniature photography or character art from a rulebook.
That being said, I promised I'd write a tutorial on how I edit and built my standees, and I still haven't done anything about it.. Maybe in the future ;)
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Thanks. Now send me some photos of your miniatures so I can enlarge my Standee colection :P
I have quite a lot of stuff, feel free to use it however you like. Let me know if you need bigger photos.
http://paintoholic.nl/gallery_other.htm
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No, I generally don't make standees available for download, it's basically the art of others (miniature by the manufacturer and painting by the.. painter! :D ) that I use (with permission from the painter, but still), and it just doesn't feel right to make this available freely. However, since it's really just a matter of getting the right photos, everyone can just make his or her own personalized standees from whichever images he or she likes, be it actual miniature photography or character art from a rulebook.
That being said, I promised I'd write a tutorial on how I edit and built my standees, and I still haven't done anything about it.. Maybe in the future ;)
how about those lovely item cards for us poor unfortunates with too little time ?
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I have sent the cards to Uncle Mike a while ago, so maybe if enough people show interest he uploads them ;)
I won't upload them myself because as I see it, they contain data taken directly from the rulebook, which in the end would be just like scanning a few pages from it and making it available for all. This is obviously out of the question, so I say just write a nice eMail to Uncle Mike and ask him for the cards :)
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Wouldn't it be great if those cards were available in the resources section of our website absolutely free...right now! Am I serious? You bet!!! Deadly serious!
Thanks for those Cherno, I always said you were a damn fine Agent.
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That is a great idea.
Very handy to have the info readily available.
Well done, that man!
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I noticed I've made an error on one or two of the cards, please refrain from downloading from the Strange Aeons website until I have sent corrected versions, which will be very shortly! :)
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Wow, really missed this thread until now, fantastic to see the end result Cherno!
And great to see some of my minis made it to cardboard standee's :)
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I noticed I've made an error on one or two of the cards, please refrain from downloading from the Strange Aeons website until I have sent corrected versions, which will be very shortly! :)
dont know if weve spotted the same thing but armour vests currently have +1 and +2 to movements instead of -1 and -2 !
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Yes, that was one of the errors, made a minus into a plus... Well, let's just say they're Power Armor! :D
@ Anatoli: Your miniature photos are very nice, and the Squidfaced cultists make ideal leaders or High Priests :) And of course I got good use of the other things as well, it's a shame I wasn't able to use the Werewolf yet, he's my favourite =)
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Doopdeedoo...
Uncle Mike, I sent you the correted cards a week ago, in case you haven't received it I have re-sent it to the info@... adress :)
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I'm sorry to say that I still haven't been able to get the Strange Aeons crew to re-upload the cards which makes me kinda sad cause they are just waiting to be used by other players :(
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I like your cardboard terrain and minis, looks really good.