A Package for a Far-Away Land

Well, it's been a few days since my last post ... but I have been at least productive.

A lucky someone ...with a rather good taste in games (and art ... if I do say so myself) will be receiving a marker upgrade package in their mailbox in the near future for their copy of Robinson Crusoe: AotCI.

It's a little sad to see your creations you've spent so many hours on packaged up and sent off (to New Jersey in this case) ...but I am certain they will be well loved where they're going.

One of the pieces commissioned was the Shelter marker. For my copy of the game I made myself a leaf shelter, but I was requested to create one of fur. Even though I had made a fur shelter before (for my Shelter Building space) it didn't reduce the challenge of this sculpt ...it was a tricky little blighter.

I spent an afternoon making one that in the end I just wasn't totally happy with ~ I have kept it, but spent the next day working on another, which I was much happier with ...seen below.

A cosy place to spend the night

Throw another log on the fire

A smorgasbord of castaway delights

The full commission ~ off to a new home in the U S of A

Bundled up in bubble-wrap :)

Feel free to take a peek at the work I've done for my own copy of the RC:AotCI if you so desire.

Phew ... now I can relax for a few days and might actually get the chance to play a game or two and recharge the batteries ;)

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

"Do hurry, Jenny darling, we're going to be late for the premiere screening."

"Dexter dear, they'd never start without us ...we ARE the stars of the show."

"Hmmmm ...well, just don't forget to tuck your twin 45's into your blouse. You know whenever we go anywhere some unhinged $#!% always goes down."

Dexter, as usual, was right.

Over the last couple of evenings, my wife and I, have been playing the Mansions of Madness board game from Fantasy Flight Games. I've always had a fondness for H. P. Lovecraft's strange tales ~ and the movies and games inspired by them.

MoM is one I absolutely love ... it's like the Call of Cthulhu RPG become a 'dungeon delving' Descent-like Cluedo.

Another crazed fan ..."No! I don't give autographs"

The base game contains several mysteries for your intrepid investigators to solve ~ each one has a set of clues that must be uncovered and various tasks that need to be completed to win; involving solving puzzles of differing types, uncovering specific items, surviving unnameable horrors (and their minions) ...and endeavouring to keep your sanity! ...to name a few.

Dexter's top hat, along with the top of his skull, is clipped clean off.
A tragic end to such a talented actor.

As well as the investigator players there must also be one who plays as the Keeper ~ controlling the denizens of the dark and with their own agenda they must meet to claim victory.

Each of the adventures has a selection of clues (only certain ones are used depending on the Keeper's set-up choices) and other cards that can be laid out differently each time you play, creating a variation on the path that must be taken to solve the mystery.

Understudy, Joe Diamond, bursts into the foyer to save the day ~ as well as pick

up a Choc-Bomb and large-size box of popcorn from the kiosk

As I mentioned above, my wife and I had played over the last couple of evenings ...this is not because it is a hugely long game; it would usually fit nicely into one evening. It's just that we started late on the first night and she had an early start ...It worked well though, as the particular adventure we were on was "House of Fears" (a PoD expansion pack) revolved around the premiere viewing of a horror flick the investigators had starred in ...we took it as the Intermission ;) 

Another adoring fan ...no? Oh, it's the ectoplasmic embodiment of a disgruntled ghost actor

in the form of an axe-wielding maniac ...Easy mistake to make

There are a couple of boxed expansions and several PoD (print on demand ...not to be confused with 'print and play') adventures available. I have them all (like I said, I love this game). Reviews on the 'Geek range the various adventures among them from not-so-good to fabulous. I for one have enjoyed every one I've played. The "Forbidden Alchemy" boxed expansion added chemical formulae based puzzles and mad-scientistesque adventures ...and the "Call of the Wild" boxed expansion added lots of outdoor action, allies and puzzles for the Keeper to solve. Each box also adds new investigators, mythos beasts and a plethora of cards, tokens and new map pieces to the mix. The PoD adventure packs contain a single adventure and the cards required to play it ~ no extra figures, tokens or map pieces.

I must say, there were a few errors in the early printings ... but FFG were great and included re-printed cards and errata in their expansions. Also, if you look at the MoM section on the 'Geek you can find 'adventure tweaks' that will fix loopholes discovered in some of the adventures. I do like FFG games ... but they can seem to sometimes be a little lax in their play-testing (except for when I've been a play-tester ...of course ;p)

My opponent ...becoming more discorporate as the night draws on

Mansions of Madness, another game rich in theme just begging for a lick of paint ...it's on my list ;)

Birthday Beasties

Just the other day my little chap turned a big 6. He's always been a big fan of monsters and the like (a good 90 percent of the drawings he does contain beasts of some sort), so I made sure (among the usual new pants, shirts, pens, pencils and drawing blocks) there were a few dangerous critters.

He'd already begun to accrue a small collection, starting with a few Warehouse dinosaurs; then last Christmas I tracked down a few choicer items on Amazon ~ some mythical beasts by Papo and Safari Ltd. For this Birthday I again visited Amazon ... and found more beasties, as well as a wizard and a Spartan warrior to throw in the mix.

Areion, the immortal talking horse from Greek mythology

...a bit like a black Mr. Ed

Cerberus, the friendly 3-headed hound (ok ...not so friendly)

A Griffon ...you're not going to have a rodent problem with this guy on the case

I must admit, the gifting of these marvellous monsters was all part of a cunning plan. A plan to introduce him to and (hopefully) get him enthused  in the realm of tabletop (war)gaming. You can't start too young :)

Following Christmas I had pointed up two small warbands for the game "Song of Blades and Heroes" by Andrea Sfiligoi. Only 3 six-sided dice and 3 small sticks (for measuring) are required to play. I gave the lad a quick run-down of the way things worked, stacked some boxes between the bands as terrain ...and we were away. As I had hoped for, he found it rather intriguing ;)

I was delighted at how quickly he grasped it - his ease of remembering the skills his various band members had ...even reminding me. "Hey, doesn't Joan of Arc always get a six!" (being a Hero ...and a dinosaur mounted one at that).

"You can take this team" he said "I want Medusa!"

We have had many games since. With him always wanting to add new objectives and special terrain; just the other week he got me to construct a haunted house which he declared you had to make a quality roll to see if you were brave enough to approach ~ if you were, the ghost gave you a special gift, if you weren't, you were scared to death!

Suffice to say, this Birthday he was well pleased to acquire 4 fresh conscripts to add to his creature pool.

Medusa and Zip-Zanny the Wizard...

...followed up by Joan on a Diplodocus and her entourage

The Chimera catches Medusa's bale glance and is turned to stone

Flying beasties lurk above

More action than you can shake a 7" stick at!

Here he is, dressed to kill ...and also as something starting with the letter W for a school "letter of the alphabet" day. He was a Wyvern!

I whipped up the costume in an hour, with a stuffed green stocking tail and wings cut and stitched on, made from a sacrificial red t-shirt.

He was going to have his face painted too ...but decided against it as he finds the paint can get a little itchy - and it would have been on for the whole day.

And just a quick mention ...that I have managed to make a few further additions to my Robinson Crusoe: AotCI boardgame. Now adding a Volcano tile as well as a handful of ash pile tokens.

You could warm yourself by that on a cold winter night

...plus a few more life-spinners, requested on the 'Geek, for the fan-made characters available.

Circles of life :)

Fire in the Sky

The nearby volcano has been more active of late. Frequent tremors have convinced the band of treasure hunters it's time to strap together a raft and flee the impending doom. But rumours of riches beyond their wildest dreams tucked away in various locations on the island have them torn. Is there time to collect the treasures before the fire begins to rain down?!

I've sculpted a further 4 tokens, depicting the locations our brave adventurers can visit in the Robinson Crusoe: AotCI scenario "Volcano Island".
The Cave, Small Temple, Underground Temple and Ruined Village.

There's gold to be found in them thar hills!

More pics of my RC:AotCI pimping can be found here ;)

The Path of Least Resistance

After finishing sculpting a bunch more crate cubes and rock markers for Robinson Crusoe: AotCI, I looked at the clock ...it was 2am. I still though felt enthused to make something else. I find the ever handy short cut seems to make it's way onto the board in many of my games - time to give it's token a makeover.

It'll cut the trip in half

A handful more pics can be found on the pimped RC:AotCI page.

Now though ...time for a nap.

:)

Deadman's Island

The fog is rolling in and the dead are rising. A group of courageous god-fearing folk must brave the haunted island and exorcise the evil within.

Consecrate the earth and banish the spirits

I've now created cross and fog markers for use in the 'Cursed Island' scenario of the Robinson Crusoe: AotCI boardgame.

I haven't attempted it yet ...so far I have just been sticking to the Castaways scenario ~ a great challenge; but I'll see if I can summon the courage and attempt to turn these vile undead.

The encroaching fog bank will make things difficult

Hallowed ground

Feel free to check out the rest of my pimped RC:AotCI.

Next on the list I'm thinking may be some busts for the character pawns. Hmmm ;)

Circle of Life

I was finding the life tracks on the bottom of the player cards in Robinson Crusoe: AotCI a touch fiddly, so I decide I'd whip up some Life Spinners. Now I don't have to fret about knocking those little markers off the cards ...and can focus on gathering kippers for tea ;)

The life of a castaway

Yes, I am aware the morale arrows are in fact pointing the wrong way ... oops ;p

I'll be fixing that small error though, then submitting it to the RC:AotCI files area on the Board Game Geek shortly ~ so those who'd like to spin their castaway's lives away can print them out and do so.

Edit: These Spinners are now available for download on the 'Geek ;)

Bonus and fan-made character Spinners can be found here.

Polish language versions are available too,

as well as German language versions (kindly translated by 'Geek user plissk3n)

:)