[40K] Progress; Primer Problems

I finally quit my procrastination and began work on the Mexi-Marines for the Dude. I gave up trying to overlay primer or paint by hand on the already black-primed figs and hit them with some white spray primer.

There are far more than I originally guessed. I have five 10 man squads, two 5 man assault squads, two 5 man Terminator squads, a 5 man Scout squad, a standard bearer/captain type, a Libby, 2 Dreadnaughts, and a Rhino to work on. [This is probably my fall/winter project.]

Because this is truly a three color army, I am doing all of the green first. I have well over 20 Space Marines with green left arms right now, like so:

I honestly would probably have a great deal more, but I encountered a self-induced problem.

A BAD primer job.

I was warned the bottle was almost empty, but I thought I could eke out enough to cover all the guys I needed to get painted. It's finally becoming fall here in the land of the corn, so I also knew my choices for days to spray were limited. I had a warm night last week and I took all of the figs outside to get them covered before it rained or got cold (which it did the following day).

I have more than a couple guys with sandy and gritty spots as well as a good number that got primer on the top arc but are missing coverage on the undercarriage.

You can see a good example of this kind of problem here, on the guy on the right front, and the worst of the bunch in the back on the right.

For these guys, I am spot priming by hand. I'm also removing flash and molding lines after priming (bad form, I know) because those elements were not nearly as visible before being primed.

Despite all of that, I have a bunch of guys in white, waiting to get painted.

My hands will have plenty to do while I watch my fall shows: House, Bones, Sons of Anarchy, Supernatural and Justified.

[HS6E] Honolulu Intro

There are three HS6E games going on at the FLGS right now. They are all superheroic in scope (400 pts). Two of them are being run by the Dude. Those two are set in Chicaco (home of two or more previous campaigns) and Phoenix.

The Dude wrote up a campaign standards document, to give players an idea of the history, feel, social and political scene for the game in question. It's a little more than an abridged timeline, but it's pretty effective at giving just enough information while leaving a lot of room for growth and development. He also wrote up a list of known villains and scored them on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the most powerful. There are only three 5 star individual villains in the game. (There are a couple 5 star teams but I can't remember how many. ) Of course, there was a list of known "hero" teams (with their respective cities) included to help flesh out the information known about the world.

After a bit of play time (and learning the system), one of the Dude's players in the Phoenix game decided he wanted to run a game. (He's a longtime friend as well.) He spent some time debating whether he wanted to use the "universe" as the Dude had written it, or go about making his own. He decided to use the Dude's world, but with the understanding that his own flair and color would be going in the mix.  Then the new GM had to find a location for this team to go, as most urban cities had teams assigned to them by the Dude's campaign/universe document.

He decided on Honolulu, Hawaii.

This is where I'm playing Diamond, a brick (strong/tough type).She's a very attractive surfer babe,and quite often gets referred to as "Hot Chick".

A lot of the back story I discussed earlier has either been adjusted and modified as my vision of her became more focused, or tossed out entirely. Look for updates at a later time. The scrapbook is pretty accurate, though.

The Dude is playing Jumpshot, a former NBA player who got wuji energy projecting abilities. His projections usually take the form of orange spheres, and almost all of Jumpshot's abilities have some basketball oriented themes and skills. Jumpshot is also a motormouth pretty boy.

There's Freestyle, played by another (but different) long time friend.  Freestyle is a parkour/street runner with mental abilities. He wears a kitbash of hockey pads, skate pads, motorcycle helmet and so forth as his makeshift armour. He's the only member of the group with a secret ID, and it was learned at last session that he's a teenager.

Next up is Steel Warrior , a mostly normal human. When I say mostly, he's pulled a Bruce Wayne sort of thing and topped his body out in every possible way. He's learned to tap into chi forces to increase his combat effectiveness and ability to damage stuff. Martial Artist, he is.

Jerry Riggs is his friend, a mad scientist inventor type, who's learned how to use the same chi stuff Steel Warrior uses to power gadgets and weapons. He has his own little lab, which is a mile out under the ocean. It is often referred to as "The Pineapple" and he often gets called "Spongebob" (mostly by Jumpshot).

Last is Syphon (I think I spelled it right), a mute drainer/absorber with her absorbed abilities going to strength. She's a little unusual looking on top of being mute, but she's highly effective.

Now that we have the introductions and basic details out of the way, look for write ups to come.

[WOD] Generating Heat [M for Mature]

There's a song for every occasion. I often have music running in my head, making commentary on the aspects, mood and actions of the game I'm playing at the moment.

Eile's soundtrack has been pretty easy so far. Temptation Waits by Garbage, Don't You Want Me by Human League, Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood,  Tell Me Lies by Fleetwood Mac, and Girls, Girls, Girls by Motley Crue have all made a momentary appearance on my mental playlist.

It recently occurred to me that much of my "angst" (man I hate that crap, especially for WOD which has a bad rep anyway) was due to thinking about the problem from the wrong perspective.

Instead of trying to get Eile into a position where she can be trusted, why not take advantage of the fact that she isn't, instead?

I'm really looking at creating a 'heat' campaign, like old school wrestlers used to do. I can easily find ways to make Eile appear to be untrustworthy, shifty and otherwise bad news. I can use that appearance and perception in a multitude of ways just as easily as I can use the raw and virulent emotions that come with true distate.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share the song Eile's using for one of her sets at the strip club. It's not traditional in any sense, but it's rythmic, sensual and truly suggestive.

[WOD] Supernatural- Revisited

[Trying out a new labeling system someone suggested might be helpful. Like I need another reason to be anally organized.=p]

As I started watching Supernatural oh those many years ago, it was pretty easy to imagine it as a WOD Hunter game. I mean, they said it out loud: "We hunt monsters. And then we kill them."

I followed Sam & Dean along their adventures and immediately drew the network of cells in my head. I enjoyed the various and imaginative ways they dispatched the bad stuff. It was pretty cut & dried; this was the best example of Hunter available.

Then  things began to change. Those deals with demons, the Trickster, Chameleon Ruby, intoxicating blood proffering surreal abilities and various other strangeness started becoming regular events, and not just one-offs.

I happened across a rerun of a pivotal episode today; where Dean reveals to Sam exactly what he did in Hell while Crowly encouraged him and showed pride in his talent.

It suddenly struck me that Supernatural was no longer a Hunted game; it seemed quite obvious to me that it had passed into Changeling: the Lost.

Dean- "Time's different there. It might have been four months, but there it was more like 40 years."

[Sounds like Arcadia to me]

Followed by

Dean- [they tortured me] "Until there was nothing left- and then suddenly, I was whole again so they could start all over. It was almost like Magic"

[Durance, anyone?]

Combined with them running from the very worst things they could imagine [Keepers/True Fae], but trying to kill the Overlord in order to break a destiny cycle and save the world.(It  IS a hopeful game, after all)

I kept wondering why there were no ways out of their predicament- the amount of Glamour and Wyrd invested in the Pledges that bound them to begin with would have cracked the world if either end didn't keep their promises- made willingly or not.

The end result of their adventure was pretty rewarding, but not necessarily a "happy ending".  Sam wound up getting his whole Willpower pool back by sacrificing himself for Hope, and Dean's Gluttony seemed finally sated.

I wonder what season 7 will be?

[40K] Living Librariums

Monday was 40K night at the FLGS and I decided to head on down to hang out rather than do dishes or laundry. [I'm convinced that I'm going to Mom Hell, so I can be lazy now and then.]

I spent some time admiring folks' paint jobs, army composition and generally chit chatting. I then sat down to check out the Eldar Codex because it's one of 2 armies I am considering. It's also slightly more accessible than BT, as one of my real life friends who comments here is contemplating selling his Eldar army. His army is 1: already put together, 2: almost entirely complete, and 3: already painted.

A pre-painted army of ANY kind is a bonus for me if I'm looking at Eldar with any seriousness (and I am) simply due to all the detail work that Eldar requires [and I've established that I suck at details]. I haven't even seen the army in question, and I'm pretty interested, just based on the talent of the painter. He's one of the 3 best painters I know. I love his color choices, and he has a sense of lightness and life with a brush I'd hurt kittens to get.

While checking out the Eldar Codex, I was encouraged VERY strongly to continue considering Black Templar by T, a guy that everyone in our 40K community truly admires. He's one of those walking founts of rules knowledge, endless in understanding and application. He knows every Codex as well as all the FAQ's, and as far as I can tell, UNDERSTANDS what all the variations, combinations and esoterica means when it comes down to how an army plays. What's best about T is that he's an incredibly nice guy. He's absolutely approachable, willing to share information and knowledge, fun to talk to, pretty easy going, and he has a fantastic sense of humor.

T took the time to talk to me about why I like the BTs, and what advantages (as well as disadvantages) they offer.He's letting me check out his BT Codex next week so I can read it over a couple times.  He additionally talked to me about Eldar and gave me some insight I just really didn't grasp about them. He offered some pointers on how to address my playstyle with ANY army as well.

I'm aware that my community is pretty rich in talent. It's hidden by the fact that the guys at the store are generally there to have a good time. They enjoy a silly game just as much as a serious, in-the-trenches campaign, but don't let too much get to them. A good number of guys seem to have the "Gentleman's Ones" curse, and there's a lot of good natured bitching about dice results. But the guys playing are smart, critical thinking, and creative. They're not pushovers; they're guys that get the difference between wanting to win and being an ass.

All these guys defer to T when it comes to a rules question. It sometimes happens that a question will come up and it will get posed to the League Organizer that he simply doesn't know the answer to. He's not afraid to say, "I don't know, ask T". Even when a rule kicks you straight in the balls, guys take it in stride if T confirms that's the way it goes. I'm glad he's around our store.

[WOD] Austin by Night: Session 7 as Eile

The session started off with TK following Eile home from work at the Hedge Row. However, Eile isn't GOING home. She heads over to a local strip club. She pays TK's way in (very unusual for her), finds him a seat, and excuses herself for a moment. TK has no idea what's going on- he fails just about every roll he can for a clue.

Music starts, and Eile comes out onto the stage in practically nothing aside from knee-high leather boots. Quite a lot of money makes its way into the boots, all the while TK watches, mouth agape. He and his Geist, Frank, have a very animated conversation; with Frank encouraging TK to watch the proceedings. Frank comforts TK and even goads him on into further voyeurism as Eile performs several private shows and lap dances. Frank seems to be 'saving up for later', as his directions are aimed at finding the fellows ogling Eile and disposing of them at a later date. Eile gathers quite a bit of Glamour as well as gains Resources during the show.

After Eile's shift is over, TK walks her home. Eile determines that TK enjoyed the show very much, and wants a private viewing. The couple heads to Eile's apartment, only to discover Bruce awake and around. Eile quickly makes a run to her room to change clothes, and TK and Eile head to TK's apartment over the Hedge Row.

The couple are alone and finally consumate the relationship. TK suggests that Bruce needs a girlfriend (or simply to get laid) and Eile's mind buzzes with possibilities. She privately considers ways to manuver a girl from the strip joint into Bruce's life while TK continues talking.

Later, Eile heads downstairs and winds up working. She sees TK talking with someone she mentally calls "Cowboy" and casually asks what the conversation entails. TK totally lies to Eile about the conversation, but something in the wording gets Eile thinking about another topic and she doesn't mind or notice. [She and TK are fairly evenly matched vs each other on Subterfuge and Persuasion, so they often cancel each other out and lies/falsehoods are pretty easy to miss against each other.]

Eile has now come up with an idea for gaining even more money and Glamour, as well as possibly disposing of a problem element in her world. All she needs to do is hire some bodyguards. [That's for next session.]

[HS6E] A Different Kind of Look Book- Diamond's Backstory in Pictures

I'm having a really hard time coming up with a written backstory for Diamond. In my spare time in my real life, I scrapbook. I thought a "scrapbook" style backstory might be an unusual change of pace. I wrote all the pages and captions from her POV.

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PG 1- 

Santa Barbara, CA

 
PG 2- Home. Easy, clear, perfect. My parents taught me to surf here as soon as I could walk.



PG 3-

Malibu, CA

PG4- College at Pepperdine- Malibu was bright, fresh, fast, full of promise. Member Malibu Surf Club. I discovered girls (thanks, Migz), tore up the beaches and the babes.


PG5-

Long Beach, CA

PG 6- Long Beach. Long hours, long lines for waves. Mastered the waves, a degree, and a lot of ladies' bedrooms.

PG 7-

Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

PG 8- Gold Coast- I found a lot of treasure Down Under, that's for sure. 6 month internship and endless hookups only made the waves that much better.

PG 9-

Chiba, Japan

PG 10-Chiba, Japan. I quit girls for a couple years pursuing my career, got sick and got heavy. The surf, much like Japan,  was brutally bad- Choppy, rocky, rough, shitty, blown out and cold. And worth every minute of torturous hell I had to endure for the best ride I ever had (halfway across the world, to boot)- I met Nani.

PG 11-

Pipeline, Oahu, Hawaii

PG 12- Hawaii. Paradise on earth. Bright, fast, fresh, pumping and minutes from my home. Can't catch a single wave-I'm simply too heavy. My heart is light and my mind is clear, though. Nani's here with me, doing her lawyer thing. I've found something I'm good at, and life is like a glass top before a break.

PG 13-

My birthday gift to Nani

PG 14-

I couldn't find a ring I thought she'd appreciate, so I got her a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3, in grey & black. I hope she likes it.

more pages to come ----