The Grumpy Gnome‘s Fantasy Projects Blog (latest update on page 61)

[Grumpy Gnome]

Later than usual but another update with lots of photos and news….

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/12/24/better-late-than-never/

I would love to hear your feedback!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Hopefully folks are still getting something of interest out of this thread.

[CookAndrewB]

Great blog post. Always appreciate reading about your TV and movie watching. I'm certain that I've dodged some garbage TV by listening to your critiques

Interesting bit about the Wheel of Time. My wife and I watched the show and then decided to go back and read the book. I'm about 50/50 as to whether shows turn me on to books, or books make me excited for shows. In this case, I thought the show was interesting enough to make me want to read the book and see what I was missing. So far, I'd say that in the first few chapters the book has blown the TV series out of the water. Not that the series is bad. I thought it was actually quite reminiscent of a serialized rendition of a quasi-LOTR-style fantasy quest. I just think that the book has organized the information in such a way as to make the story understood. The important back story is told upfront. Where the TV show jumps right in as if the series of events that launch the adventure all happen in a span of six hours, the book describes a more ominous feeling over many years.

Good looking table. The DF terrain really does look every bit worth the price.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Thanks for letting me know your thoughts mate, it really helps me justify the time I put into the blog knowing that some folks get something positive out of it.

Since I am not on Facebook any more, and I never got into any of the other forms of social media other than various forums, the blog is one of my core communication tools…. Online or otherwise, especially with the Covid lockdowns.

I really want to love rather than like Wheel of Time… that is the problem. Expectations too high yet again.

Speaking of high expectations…. I am incredibly excited about the Book of Boba Fett coming out… hopefully I have not set my expectations too high for that as well.

[mazk7130]

I like Your caverns - it's surely fun to play in them ...

[Mister Frau Blucher]

Good to see you got more gaming out of that cavern set-up! Looks good.

I like the touch-ups you did on the dragon. The more subdued color looks better to my eye.

The Frostgrave guys are painted up nicely, as well.

I don't watch a lot of TV, so it's difficult to react to your thoughts on the various shows. Not a big fan of WoT, stopped reading after book 4 or 5, so I'd probably be ambivalent about the series. Space Sweepers looks interesting.

[Sunjester]

I also really enjoy reading your blog posts and the cavern set-up looks awesome.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Thanks for the kind words folks.

I really need to take down that cavern set up to free our gaming table but it is hard to do for some reason. I keep finding reasons to procrastinate.

Space Sweepers was fun at times, wacky at others, really dark at others and even cute at others. It is a bit long winded and drags a bit at times and yet sometimes feels like it has left something out or rushed past it.. It might have made a better tv series be honest.

[CookAndrewB]

I am also excited for the Book of Boba, but feel like I'm going to end up thinking differently about the character. That could be an ok thing, though I doubt that I will like whatever I learn more than I like the Laconic bounty hunter who felt like he was brimming with steely-eyed lethality. This Boba puts slippery smugglers in carbonite for gangsters. I like that guy.


I have no idea what this new Boba will do. I don't need or want him to be kinder and gentler. Wiser can still be interesting even if all he learned was to draw first. I don't want a redemption story, and I suspect that I'm not going to get my wish. Still... the teaser was him walking in, murdering some folks, and taking up the throne of a notorious gangster. That holds just a little bit of promise that my dark wishes will be granted by Disney.

What platform is Space Sweepers found on?

[Grumpy Gnome]

Yeah, the challenge for me is that as a former cop I normally do not like glamorizing criminality, but the nostalgia of my youth for just how cool Fett was… how he could accomplish so much with so little dialogue, just astounds the amateur cinematographer in me. The character‘s costuming is spot on perfect in my opinion.

Now we have an actor I love playing the role… and yet I was a bit disappointed to find out in the Mandalorian that he and Jango technically are Mandalorians. I like the earlier Lucas version where him and Jango were not actual Mandalorians… but someone who wore the armor the same way he wore Wookie scalps, as a trophy.

So will we see some sort of anti-hero redemption story? Most likely, in my humble opinion. But that really is just me guessing.

I watched Space Sweepers on German Netflix.

[CookAndrewB]

Ah, that is my problem. I currently don't have Netflix, though I'm about to get it again for a while and catch up on some stuff that I've missed over the last year or so.

I understand cringing at showing the glamorous side of criminal enterprises. Still, I would be game for something that looked like a Star Wars version of Breaking Bad. Every successful step feels like blindly stepping towards a cliff above a pit of sharks. The rush and terror are portrayed in equal measure and in the end nothing great comes of it. Or, any mafia movie. For every comped steak dinner with a beautiful mistress, there is that moment when Joe Pesci will stab you in the throat with a pencil for telling him you think he is funny. In those cases, it would be naive to look at the story and feel like the roller coaster was worth it when you find out the tracks were never completed halfway around some random loop. I'd be all for that type of story, but it would require Disney to get a good bit darker than they have been.

What I don't want to see is Boba going around making amends like he is in some kind of 12-step program for aging bounty hunters. To me, that doesn't fit the character. Mando has that luxury to wander in and out of quasi-ethical situations because he is a young foundling trying to make money (sometimes the wrong way) for his displaced Mandalorian enclave. He has a solid foundation of ethics (or a code of sorts) by way of the Mandalorians. Working with other bounty hunters is what gets him messed up and he ultimately has a choice to pick which side he will be on. Mando rankles at the idea of working with, or for, the remnants of the Empire. Boba is on the bridge with Vader when the call to kill some rebels comes in. Boba is on speed dial when Jabba has the urge to redecorate his palace with frozen bodies, feed the rancor, and dress some lady in a skimpy outfit strikes his mood. Boba isn't struggling with morality. He's Sammy "The Bull" Gravano lining up to do wet work for bad people. If we don't have those characters, then the goodness of Luke isn't all that interesting. You have to have the really bad guys to make the really good guys important. Boba just doesn't seem like a wishy-washy grey area type of fella.

Just my .02, but I suspect Disney will bungle it a bit. Obi Wan should be a story of boyscoutish do-goodery. Boba doesn't need to go there.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I hear you mate, I really do.

[Elk101]

This is the Fantasy Board and as such please keep discussions on sci-fi on the Future Wars Board.

[Paratrooper 42]

Yeah, the challenge for me is that as a former cop I normally do not like glamorizing criminality

As a former Circus Performer and Catwalk Model I don't like glamorising criminality either.  Glamour belongs on the high wire and catwalk, not in drug deals or bank robberies. I've yet to see a criminal pull off a bank heist in Gucci or Prada with the pizazz of Milan Fashion Week, they're just not gorgeous enough. 

[Elk101]

Can we keep this about fantasy gaming and miniatures rather than Fantasy and Anything Else We Want to Talk About?