Zomtober begins

The Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer has launched Zomtober again, and since I qualify this year, being a gaming blogger, I have decided to take part alongside many of my colleagues. The goal is to paint up at least a zombie or a survivor each week in October and post them each Sunday.

Gorgeous header Leon created for this event!

I've been remiss in not painting more and sharing my enjoyment of that pursuit with you, my faithful readers. This is just the motivation I need, as I love zombies, I love October, and I love painting miniatures, even though it's been more than two years since I've put brush to metal (or plastic, or restic, or whatever crazy compounds they're making minis out of these days.)

As of this writing, here are the other blogs I know of taking part in Zomtober:

• 28mm Victorian Warfare
• Anything but a One
• Baconfat
• Bandit86
• Bloggity-blog-blog
• Brians and Guts
• Brummie's Wargaming Blog
• Cheaphammer
• Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
• The Demonic Visions
• Fiends in Waistcoats
• Four Colour Super Minis
• Illustrated London News
• Lead Admiral
• Metal Skirmish
• Shelldrake's Zombie Wargaming Blog
• SHO3BOX
• Zerloon Place
• and Dr. Zombie via his LAF workbench plog

OK, so back to your boards and brushes, people. We've got zombies and survivors to paint! See you back here Sunday if not before.

The rest of "Sedition Wars: The Battle of Alabaster" -- Unboxing (pic heavy)

Welcome back, droogs!

Thanks for sticking with me during this period of infrequent postings. As summer yields to autumn, I feel more centered, empowered and inspired. I think that bodes well for "Dispatches" and for my hobby activities in general.

I don't want to veer too far from my topic tonight, but I do want to say Tracey and I have had some wonderful times recently. After a recent visit to the pain clinic, she felt good enough to actually go out to a restaurant for a meal. We went to the IHOP near our house, where she hasn't been in at least a year. The manager and staff always ask after her when I go in to pick up food for us, but her return there caused quite a scene. All the servers who know us came over for hugs, and Pam, the manager, actually cried. Which made me tear up. Nothing adds to the flavor of stuffed French toast with blueberries like fresh man-tears.

And there's nothing to make you feel like a success as a man, a husband, as a human being, for your beautiful wife to be looking into your eyes and tell you, "You are a good man." Wow.

Now, on to the unboxing:

For the "Sedition Wars" kickstarter, I plumped for the Biohazard level, plus the terrain pack, the THI suit, and all the characters with their strain-infected versions: Dr. Susan Ridley, Ramirez, Niven Banks, Hexen Phaedrus, and the crew of the Calamity. Well, the Calamity crew doesn't have strain-infected versions, but you know what I mean.

So here's the tidy little box these wave 2 minis came in.

While many people are unhappy with the material the Sedition Wars minis are made of, I think Brian Roe wrote a nice analysis of the materials. You can read what Roebeast had to say here and here.

Essentially, it takes paint well but moldlines are maddening and difficult to deal with. I'm going to keep that in mind as I work on them.

There's also a growing thread on Frothers about the slight stature and apparent shrinkage in scale of some of the plastic minis. The multitude of voices there will give you a better perspective on this issue than I can at this stage (although I certainly reserve the right to chime in later.)

On the non-minis front, this wave included cards and the instructional painting DVD:

The remainder of the Biohazard product comes in one big blister pack.

The terrain pack comes in its own separate retail-ready box. It's nice to have the diagram on back detailing its contents. (That's one complaint I do have about a lot of kickstarters: no packing slip in the box. I want to be able to quickly verify that what you think you sent me is what you really sent me, and that that matches up with what I requested.)

So here's the terrain:

Crates, barricades, teleport controls, security terminals, life support
terminals, havok guns, necrocysts, exocysts, gestation vents, macrophages,
spore engines and three each of male and female corpses. 

Narrow standard doors.

Wide standard doors

Airlock doors

Section doors

And all the add-ons come in their own little bags to keep their myriad parts together. That's another thing about these Sedition Wars minis -- it seems like everything is multipart. It's like buying from IKEA, in that I don't care if it's a flyswatter, if you buy it from IKEA it's gonna come in two parts with an Allen wrench.*

The Calamity Crew

Dr. Susan Ridley

Ramirez

Niven Banks

Hexen Phaedrus

THI Carapace

Once I get these minis unbagged and separated out, I'll get you better, clearer photos, and hopefully some size comparisons to other minis as well. I can't really work on them at the moment without the real risk that the tiny parts will vanish forever.

So that's it for today. The Empire of the Dead: Requiem level I pledged at should hopefully be shipped in a week or so, and the Zombicide Season Two and Toxic City Mall expansion should also ship soon. So more on those later.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the gaming table soon!

*I'm sorry that I can't remeber what comedian said this originally. I'd love to credit him or her.

Avast, me hearties! Heave to!

Happy "International Talk Like a Pirate Day"! I trust you all enjoyed it and did Robert Newton proud.

I have much new plunder and booty to share with you scurvy dogs. But most of it will have to wait as my cell phone/camera/handbrain remains AWOL.

However, to celebrate today's theme, here's a link to what is probably my favorite song by Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew, notorious pirate rappers.



I'll be back shortly with pics and comments about some of the things I've gathered recently.
- my new figures of H.P. Lovecraft and his wife, Sonia Greene, from the Mythos Foundry kickstarter.
- the Infinity Artbook 1 and figure of Miranda Ashcroft, authorized bounty hunter.
- the Goblinaid figures I ordered to support the continued recover of goblinmaster Kev Adams.
- anything else I've overlooked!

Bear with me, mateys. Bosun, fetch me my brown trousers, as I'm trying to get my shit together!

Much belated Welcoming Wednesday

I'm about two weeks late in thanking the latest two followers to join us here at Dispatches from the Rim. Colin Hagreen and Vin signed on a while ago and I've neglected my duties in pointing them out. My weak web fu doesn't reveal blogs for either of them, but please let me know if I've missed one either of you would like to promote.

Thanks again, all, and I'll touch base with you all soon.

Laughing Ferret is celebrating 200,000 pageviews!

And he's having a massive giveaway to celebrate, with a selection of 11 prizes. Eleven!

Laughing Ferret Giveaway

Deadline is Sept. 1, so head over there quickly and get in on the action.

In addition to the zombies and steampunk games that capture my fancy, I'm also a big Blood Bowl fan, and I've always appreciated LF's efforts in that regard. While you're there, check out the many great BB posts, including this one, which uses Privateer, Reaper and Khurasan figures to make a counts-as-Ogres team, except their totally MECHANICAL:

Robot Blood Bowl 1

Trust me, you'll love it.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon!

More regarding the Obscenarium

A letter found among the effects of Donald B. Pearson, third son of Peter Pearson, the American railroad magnate, visiting friends in London on the occasion of his 21st year. The youngest Pearson remains missing, presumed dead: 

My dearest Reginald, I scarcely know where to begin. I told you that a fortnight ago I came into possession of a gilt-edged calling card bearing the name of Synryll Voolge, the so-called Crooked Man. Those tokens are considered priceless, and gossip says they only find their way into the hands of those destined to need them, as they are required to gain entrance to Voolge's demesne, the infamous Obscenarium.  

As one would gather from its designation, the Obscenarium deigns to preserve and present all the manners in which man has found to slake his thirst for carnal delights. But it is so much more than that. There are any number of red-lit, back-alley parlors where flesh is peddled, where a man can spend his lust or dull his senses with any number of concubines or concoctions.  

Where those pursuits and depravities end, the Obscenarium begins. In demure alcoves on marble stands one will find sculptures depicting the wildest scenes of Sodom or discover paintings delineating the rape of the Sabine women. Down pristine corridors float ethereal tunes tempting one toward the most licentious releases. I found myself contemplating first the sins of the flesh, then pulled further in thought, teased into considering the many ways to violate the mind, the common sensibilities, then lured into calculating exactly what would be needed to desecrate the immortal soul. What is the ultimate taboo, Reginald? When you think of one, imagine what would be beyond it? Can you conceive of a sin contravening holy laws of gods yet undiscovered? I tell you such things are already old hat to those who tender custom to Voolge and his cadre of glittering, beautiful, brittle servants.

The self-possessed and achingly beautiful docents walk coolly among the visiting nobles, dandies and common folk like the Muses, clad only in whispers of sheerest cloth that somehow make them appear both wanton and remote, simultaneously imperious and seductive. I know I found myself poleaxed by desire again and again, knowing that I would never see a woman more comely or a man so Apollonian when I would turn and there would pass another of these guides to the intricacies of delight and degradation on offer, with looks both angelic and diabolical all at once. 

People believe the Obscenarium traffics in depravity, that Voolge is somehow set to conduct souls to hell by the traincar-full. I tell you that to enter through its massive teak doors is to have already descended to depravity and abandoned it. Mere depravity would seem like a welcome harbor on the sea of the soul after seeing what the inner chambers of that complex have to offer.

I would offer you more words on what goes on within those chambers, but some fell restriction stays my pen, bids my lips stay sealed on what I have seen, felt, understood within those rooms. They are at once like the half-remembered contents of a fever dream and yet possessed of an earthshaking reality that I feel to the depths of my guts, in the marrow of each bone in my body. I feel like a new person, as if I was somehow stripped down to my essential elements and reassembled, yet more myself than ever. Whatever I went through in those rooms, it has changed me irrevocably. 

I still possess the calling card. I found it tucked neatly in the top pocket of my jacket when I awoke this morning, back in the rooms I've hired for this trip. I have no memory of returning from last night's excursion. Ha! I must have, as I am here. 

I await only nightfall, to see if that card will get me back in. I must return, if only to see ... I cannot recall what. It is as if I am desperate to find a passage in a book that has yet to be written, to recall an indescribable and fleeting taste from my youth, to see the face of someone who was never born, but with a visage I know as intimately as I know my own reflection in the mirror. 

I must return. Until then, dear Reginald, I will see if I can shake this feeling that clouds my memory and stills my tongue, that I might tell you more of what I saw inside the Obscenarium. I would swear, Reginald, that the hallways, they MOVE ...

No more of the letter remains. Pearson never returned to his rooms, and the letter went unsent, only to be picked up by constables investigating the disappearance before making into the hands of Scotland Yard's Hell Branch.

What D&D Character Would I Be? (A Web diversion)

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Wizard (6th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-9
Dexterity-12
Constitution-11
Intelligence-18
Wisdom-14
Charisma-14

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)