Class Act NPCs

In celebration of Dan’s 100th post on his blog (congratulations, Dan), I went back to read some of his older posts. I came around one that was talking about different characters he enjoyed playing in roleplaying games over time and I thought, well, that would be a fun write-up. So I started thinking about all the fun characters I’ve played and realized that there really aren’t that many. I had Keirstin from Brian’s old 7th Sea game, the Slayer from Ryan’s Buffy game, and my dwarven cleric from Ryan’s short-lived Dungeons and Dragons game. Beyond those, I couldn’t come up with any that really jumped out at me as a boatload of fun. Maybe my Gun Mage from our rotating Iron Kingdoms game.

But I tend to spend a lot more time as a GM than I do as a player. As such, I decided instead of talking about some of my favorite PCs in campaigns, I’d talk about some of my favorite NPCs. Not a complete list, of course, but some of the ones that stand out.

Eschlyn – Eschlyn has made it in to several different games and tends to be a favorite of the players. He has an arrogant, self-assured attitude as though he knows with certainty that he could escape from any trap that might be set for him. In his first encounter with a group of players, he met them at an outdoor coffee shop and offered them a sum of money for something that they had. The players, of course, refused. Eschlyn assured them that he would emerge victorious and insisted that the players remain seated for another hour, giving Eschlyn time to leave and, they later found out ransack their rooms searching for the object. The impetus for remaining where they were? He had hired several sharp shooters who were on nearby rooftops, ready to shoot any of the players if they left before the appointed time. One of the players tried to call his bluff only to earn a poisoned bolt in his chest. The others let him go… for the time being. Always a gentleman, Eschlyn quickly became a thorn in their side. But Eschlyn was not the boss, evidently. He reported to someone he referred to as “the Man,” the identity of whom has remained unsolved to this day.

Achiel – A character who was designed to be the epitome of the smart, but ultimately powerless, character. Before the campaign started, he had been the leader of a secret society. But he was overthrown and, along with his right-hand-man, imprisoned. The game started with the players trying to figure out what to do with him. They did not have the clout in the secret society to kill him outright, but they could hold on to their power for a short time without dealing with him. The players decided to try to convince others of Achiel’s misdeeds and essentially set him on trial. Before that trial could happen, however, Achiel was set free by another of the players, drastically changing his storyline. He ended up staying out of the power struggles in the secret society, having learned that he may have been too heavy-handed. In the end, he ended up being a friend to the players sometimes, but an adversary at others. It all depended on how things fell into his overarching plan. He had no love for the secret society and was using it as a stepping stone to achieve his own goal: re-make the bargain with demons that provided magic to the world, this time with him as the central figure. He tried to recruit the players to his cause, offering them power from the demons too, but the disagreements between the players on how to proceed stalled his plans.

Chase – Achiel’s right-hand man, Chase was a lot of fun to play because he was the fair, just and loyal man forced by his own code of honor to serve a fairly evil and despicable man. There was no love between Chase and Achiel, but Achiel knew how to twist Chase and force his servitude. Even without the bond of friendship between them, though, Chase was unyielding in his service. He was loyal to anything Achiel asked of him, even as far as murder. In Chase’s ideal world, Achiel would be overthrown and destroyed utterly, but he could not institute that change himself, and as long as Achiel requested it, he would fight to ensure Achiel’s place of power was never threatened. Chase could easily have been a hero had situations been slightly different. He was the threat that Achiel often leaned on. Just having him around kept others a little more cautious.

Kuni Amari – He was one of the villains in a long-run Legend of the Five Rings play by email. Corrupted by the Shadowlands, much of the original story played out at his hands. He used the Egg of Pan Ku to create a copy of a prominent Scorpion magistrate, he stole the Bloodsword Ambition, and was able to outsmart the Oracles and prophecy itself to get the names of the seven Thunders. His ultimate plans lay deep in the Shinoman Forest where he was attempting to bring back the necromancer Iuchiban. His plans were foiled, however, but a group of heroes who sought to keep Rokugan safe from a third Iuchiban war. Kuni Amari was badly wounded in the battle but was able to escape. Given time, he might have returned to try once more.

Khadoran Sniper – I never really had a name for him, and honestly, he didn’t really do much, but he always holds a place in my heart for being the NPC who shot and killed two characters in the same session… both played by the same player! (Sorry, Jay, but man, it was funny!)

Raphael – Another one-shot type NPC, he, the Khadoran Sniper, and Cardinal Verdugo (see below) all land on my list for the one or two great things they did. In Raphael’s case, he was a villain provided to me by one of my players to be his foil. Early in the campaign, he set up a plot to discredit and instigate the player’s fall by having him arrested for rape and murder. The player was subsequently cleared of the charges by the diligent work of several of the players, but the player knew from then on there was a villain out there who wanted nothing more than to bring his life crashing down. Raphael ended up taking a back seat as the story progressed, unfortunately, but his shot at the player was one of the more fun twists I’ve been able to pull at a session’s end.

Cardinal Verdugo – Back in college, I started running a 7th Sea game that got me started on my city-based games kick. The Cardinal did not do much during the games. He sent the players on a mission to find a wickedly-powerful witch and when the players found out who the witch was (after one of the players had fallen in love with her), the players started to stall the Cardinal. The Cardinal would have nothing of it and was able to learn their suspicions through another person. He met with the players in his office and began questioning them about the mission on which they had been sent. The players stalled and back-pedaled until the Cardinal was fed up. He reached into a desk drawer, pulled out a gun, and shot one of the players, then turned to the witch offering her a choice. Let her love die, or reveal herself as a witch and try to save his life. And if she was not the witch after all? The Cardinal did not seem to care.

Alexia – And then there was Alexia, a girl gifted with magic beyond her understanding and capability to harness properly. She was the one Cardinal Verdugo was trying to capture with his ploy, and as soon as her love was shot, she called upon the magics that she had at her disposal and was able to re-weave the fate of the man and restore him before he fell dead, essentially bringing him back to life. Her final act in his resurrection was to cut the strand of love between the player and her so that he would never again risk his own life to save hers. The Cardinal knew he had found the witch he sought, and after her escape, went on as a thorn in the players’ sides for quite some time.


You may notice that none of my Rembaldi characters (okay, except Eschlyn who made an appearance over there too) were in my list. I’d need to have a post for them alone if I wanted to talk about all the Rembaldi ones I liked.

Genius of the Res-tor-ation!

I got home from work last night and decided to kick back with some How I Met Your Mother and paint up another model. Here's Marcus. I enjoyed painting him much more than Myranda yesterday. The pose was a lot easier to understand what was going on.



I'm not quite sure who the girl is on the base with him, but it's a cool little model and I wanted to put something there with him. Now I'm moving on to the two animals - the three-headed tiger and the razor snake. Dan says that non-humans tend to be a bit easier than humans. Hopefully that's the case. They don't look particularly difficult to do, which is good for my skill level.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Warning: There are some spoilers to Battlestar Galactica and particularly to The Plan in this post. If you just want to read my recommendation, skip to the last paragraph.

A couple nights ago, I finally put in Battlestar Galactica: The Plan to watch. I've had it for about four months but never got around to watching it. I haven't heard very many flattering things said about this one, so I had been avoiding it, but since I'm still waiting for the next season of West Wing to arrive and was looking for something to watch, I figured now was as good a time as any.

The movie is supposed to show more about this "Plan" that the Cylons evidently had from the beginning of the show. It opens with the two Cavils from the end of season two, showing them standing over the bodies of the Final Five as they lay in wait to have the consciousness of their counterparts downloaded into them when they die.

Flash to the two of them on Galactica being marched to the airlock to be spaced after it's been revealed that they were Cylons and the Cylons were tired of chasing them around.

The show basically follows the time between those two points, primarily focusing on those two Cavils. One of them finds himself with Anders and his resistance cell on Caprica while the other one finds himself on Galactica among all the surviving people. Pretty quickly, the "Plan" is revealed: the Cylons want to kill all the humans.

Wait. What was that? That's it? They just wanted to kill all the humans?

Yup. And Galactica Cavil is pissed because they failed in their mission. He did not anticipate anyone surviving their initial onslaught (and, in fairness, if it weren't for Adama's mistrust of technology, they probably would have succeeded) and now he's stuck in the human fleet with about six Cylons to support his attempts to destroy the fleet. We've seen a lot of what happens - Doral's suicide bomb, Six's attempts to oust Baltar, etc. Every one of the Cylons in the fleet fails at their objectives and Cavil is rapidly running out of people to help him. He's amazed to see the Final Five actually, from his point of view, not learning anything he wanted them to learn. They still value human lives and embrace their human experiences. He hates everything about them.

Meanwhile, Caprica Cavil joins with Anders' group and tries to hear what Anders feels and believes, wondering if Anders has had any change of heart. But Anders refuses to acknowledge that the Cylons may have been forced to take this action and says he'll never forgive them. Even the humans who have died, Cavil realizes, are more important to him than the Cylons that lived.

Basically, both Cavils are learning that it may not be the Final Five who need to learn about things, but rather the Cylons who need to learn about love. Caprica Cavil embraces this and even throws his weight behind the movement hinted at in the main show, while the Galactica Cavil, completely cut off from the Cylons back home, rejects it.

When the two are reunited and sent to their deaths, they have a short debate with each other about what they've learned and what they think about each other's opinions. Galactica Cavil still refuses to change and promises Caprica Cavil that he's going to box him as soon as they are resurrected, and that he's going to put the Cylons back on the right path.

In all, the show did give us a few answers to mysteries, but the fact that the Cylons' plan was, essentially, no further than "kill the humans" was disappointing. What about the Farm that Starbuck was captured by in Season Two? That was referenced in The Plan, but no explanation for it was given beyond that it was a pet project of the Fours. It was disappointing that there was no overall reason for the Cylons doing what they were doing beyond the attack. No mention of the Olympic Carrier and what the Cylons had done with it. The Pegasus was completely ignored. What the Cylons went through after Boomer and Caprica Six reunited with them was never touched on. The only reason I can find for the Final Five being so secret was that Cavil didn't want anyone else to know about them.

As another "episode", though, I thought it was just fine. I enjoyed seeing some new material for the characters, and it was fun to see Anders and his group trying to build an effective resistance cell. Unfortunately it really de-fanged the Cylons from the beginning of the show. I felt like the idea of the movie was to make the Cylons more sympathetic.


My recommendation: watch it if you like BSG, but don't expect it to be anything more than a lengthy episode. It's not going to shed much new light on the story and not really going to fill in any new plots.

Painting the New Box

Last night I was able to get one of my new models painted up and the last two models based and sprayed. Not much more to say about it. Take a look at Myranda. I may come back and touch her up a little more tonight if I get a chance. I don't like the black boots as much, and I'd like to fix up a few mistakes I've made. But I may just move on to the next one instead. Who knows?

Lilith vs. Victoria(s), 30 Stones

Last night I went by the Parlor to play a game or two of Malifaux. I intended to get a game in against Chris, but timing was not in our favor. I was able to play one of his friends, Tim, though. He plays the Victorias (continuing my trend of only facing one of the three Outcast masters). In our area, she seems a very popular choice. Out of about 10 players last night, three of them were playing Victoria.

We grabbed some really nice city terrain from another guy I met there, John (real nice guy - can't wait to get a game in against him) and played in a city-scape. I flipped Treasure Hunt and he flipped Claim Jump. So we stuck a building in the middle of the map for him to claim and my treasure was sitting right in the middle of the building. Awesome.

I took Lilith, a Mature Nephilim, two Younger Nephilim and two Tots. That left me with a 6 stone cache. Tim took the Vikis, two Ronin, a Convict Gunslinger and Taelor, the massive-hammer girl. That left him with seven stones. Plenty to bring back Viki a time or two. To go with Treasure Hunt, I took Bodyguard and Kidnap while he took Bodyguard and Hold Out. Does anyone ever take anything else (other than the faction-specific ones)? They need new Schemes and Strategies.

I had to deploy first, which was fine with me. I looked over the terrain and decided I had to take the fight to him as fast as possible. If I let him get in the building, my Mature Nephilim (who can't fit through the doorway) would be stuck outside. Plus, I couldn't easily spare a model to run back with the treasure and spend the rest of the game sitting on the sidelines. So my goal was to grab the treasure and kill everything of his in four turns so Lilith could run back with it for the next two turns. Piece of cake, right?

His first action was to activate both Vikis. One moved up and dragged the other one forward. The other one went to ground, then ducked into the building, a couple inches away from the treasure. Holy crap, that sucks!

I went with my Younger Nephilim, flying them up to the building with my first two activations. His models all moved up to right in front of a wall about 4" away from the building. My two Tots moved to the back corners of the building and my Mature Nephilim carried Lilith forward 6". With my last activation, Lilith moved up 6" to the side of the building where another door was, and charged in at Viki. First time I've seen a melee fight start on the first turn. Lilith swung and was able to hit. A moderate damage flip (4) was dropped by a soulstone prevention flip to 2 damage. Not bad for a first blood.

Next turn, he won initiative. Viki was in the doorway so no one else could move in to help him out. He went with Viki first. With three attacks, she ended up burning two more soulstones and I burned one, but Lilith escaped entirely unharmed. Lilith went and, knowing there was an entire force behind Viki, went to ground with her first action, grabbed the treasure with the second, then cut down Viki in the next one, also forcing him to lose another stone. Rather than gaining the blood token, she companioned one of the Younger Nephilim who dove over the house and engaged the Convict Gunslinger, cutting off the attack I knew was about to come from the guy. The Younger failed to hit twice, though and the Gunslinger made him pay for it by shooting him in the face a whole lot, killing him. Better him than Lilith, though. My other Younger flew over and did a couple points of damage to the Convict, which, combined with the black blood from the first one set him back to half. My two Tots sprinted in to combat and engaged one of his Ronin and Convict again. Finally, my Mature flew in and nearly killed his other Ronin. Not bad.

Next turn was a lot more killing. My Mature went first and knocked Taelor down to one life (stupid Hard to Kill and me flipping a Black Joker on the second damage flip left her alive). She responded by flipped a Red Joker for damage on my Mature Nephilim, then another severe making a solid 12 damage. Dead Mature. His Convict Gunslinger was knocked down to one life through Young Nephilim attacks and black blood. My Younger Nephilim had two life left. My Terror Tot killed one Ronin while Lilith finished off the second one. No more returning Vikis this game... The other Viki moved up and polished off one of my Tots, leaving me with a Tot, Younger and Lilith against Viki, the Gunslinger and Taelor.

The beginning of the fourth turn started with the Gunslinger shooting the Younger Nephilim after trying and failing to move out of the 1" range of black blood. Both models died. Lilith, now with a clear path, charged Viki and hit. Dropping the Red Joker for cheated damage, then flipping another moderate, he needed to stop 4 points of damage coming his way. Luck was not on his side and Viki bit it. He called the game there since he had a model with one life left and I still had a Tot to go.

Branching Out in Malifaux

I have everything available for Neverborn at the moment and I've been looking at the other masters in the game. There are two currently that interest me outside the Neverborn batch: Marcus, the beastmaster from the Arcanists, and Leveticus, the steampunk necromancer from the Outcasts. Yesterday, I stopped by the Game Parlor to play a game or two and ended up picking up Marcus' box. I haven't seen him played before, and most people say he's the weakest of the Arcanist masters. I personally like the control and flexibility the model offers, and I'm looking forward to giving him a try. Also, between the Salads and the Waldgeists for Neverborn, I already have a few beasts I can use to buff up his army.

Last night I put together Marcus and Myranda. Here's what I did with them.



For Marcus, I found a bit from an old Iron Kingdoms model, basically a woman who sits around on the base. Marcus is a relatively small model himself, so I wanted something else with him. There was a somewhat ethereal quality to the woman, like another druid, so I felt that would work just fine with him.



Myranda did not look very imposing in her pose, but I wanted there to be a threat to her non-imposing-ness (is that even a word?). I wanted it to look like she was not very threatening until you looked around at where she was: standing on a pile of skulls and bones.

I'm looking forward to trying these guys out. I don't have a lot to use with them yet, especially since Myranda can morph into any animal she wants, but they should be fun to play. Got two more Arcanists to fix up now, the Sabretooth Cerberus and the Razorspine Rattler. Eventually I'll need another Cerberus, I think, and a couple of Hoarcat Prides.

Looking Ahead on TV

Those that know me know how much I loved watching Lost. Even at its low points in seasons two and part of three, before things started picking up again, I still faithfully watched the show. Now, it's all over.

So is 24, for that matter. While it lost a lot of its magic several years ago, I still liked to tune in and follow the plot from time to time, just to see what was happening with the characters I liked. While 24 is slated to get a major motion picture, we won't have another season following Jack Bauer around as he saves the free world as we know it from the evil machinations of terrorists and evil governments (sometimes our own).

Heroes was another show like that for me. I enjoyed the first season, struggled through the next two, and finally gave up a few episodes into the fourth. I still read the recaps though, and liked to keep an eye on the characters, ready to return if the story looked any better at any point.

But this season saw the ending/cancellation of several shows I liked. Lost, 24, Heroes, Better Off Ted, and Dollhouse. None of these things came as a huge surprise to me (except maybe Better Off Ted, though that show never seemed like it had a huge audience).



I had already set up my replacement show for Lost earlier this season too - FlashForward - but they canceled that one too! I'm watching through the West Wing currently having never seen it when it was first on the air, and enjoying it immensely, but I just capped off season 5 there and only have two more to watch. So what's next on my slate?

Well, I'll need something to replace Lost and something for West Wing. My first thought was another older show, the Wire. I've never seen any of them, and to be completely honest, I have no idea what the show's about. But a number of people have recommended the show to me and the reviews for the show were pretty stellar. So I ordered that and figured I'd give it a try. It will be my new West Wing - ready to watch whenever I have a free hour or so I want to enjoy.


Replacing Lost will be a bit harder. Like I said, my first thought was FlashForward, but that's not possible anymore. Other shows that are currently on the air that I'm considering are V or Fringe. I tried to get into V early on and couldn't, only being able to watch the first three episodes of the four-part miniseries. From what I read, it never really got its feet until the season finale. From what I understand, that one episode had more to it than the entire rest of the season. Not a stellar endorsement for the show, but if season two is able to keep up, I could be persuaded to give it a try again.

Fringe, on the other hand, I've already seen the first season to and loved it. The characters were interesting, and the plots were really good. I heard some complaints that the first season had a very "monster of the week" feel to it, but I have to say, watching it myself, I didn't get that impression. People are liking the metaplot that Season Two brings, and that encourages me. The problem here is that I would have to get and watch all of Season Two before Season Three hits the air, and generally they don't release the DVDs with a lot of lead time.

There are a few shows coming up on the major networks that look interesting too. Not many, mind you, but only one needs to be good.


Undercovers
(Spy Action/Drama, Wednesdays 8pm)
Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) are a married Los Angeles couple who own a small catering company helped along by Samantha's easily frazzled younger sister Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy).

Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA's best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney) to locate and rescue him.

Thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe, the pair realise this supercharged undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing.

Ben Schwartz also stars. J.J. Abrams, Josh Reims and Bryan Burk will produce.

This one I particularly like because it is written by JJ Abrams. Other than that, I have no reason for wanting to see this show. I'm not a big fan of spy shows in the first place, but who knows. It could be good.


Terra Nova
(Sci-Fi Drama, Mid-Season)
An epic family adventure 85 million years in the making. The action-adventure series follows an ordinary family from the future on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a part of a massive expedition to save the human race..

Steven Spielberg (“Jurassic Park,” “The Pacific”), Peter Chernin, Brannon Braga (24, “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and David Fury (24, “Lost”) will produce.

This is the only sci-fi show to really hit this season, I think. I don't have high hopes for it - usually these kinds of shows come out all cheesy - but I'm willing to give it a try.


The Event
(Drama/Thriller, Mondays 9pm)
A high-octane conspiracy thriller about Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee, Leila (Sarah Roemer), and unwittingly begins to expose a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.



An eclectic band of strangers soon find their lives affected by his investigations - his shadowy father-in-law (Scott Patterson), the leader of a mysterious group of detainees (Laura Innes), and the newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Blair Underwood).

Ian Anthony Dale and Zeljko Ivanek also star.

Now this is the one I really hope will prove to be good. It sounds like one of those massive conspiracy-type shows that I like. Just don't screw it up or get yourselves canceled before being able to show anything!


No Ordinary Family
(Superhero Dramedy, Tuesdays 8pm)
After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie's relationship lacks the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River.

Surviving the incident, each of them discover they now possess unique and distinct superpowers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important, as they try to find purpose for their new powers and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them.

Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Romany Malco, Tate Donovan, Autumn Reeser, Christina Chang, Kay Panabaker, and Jimmy Bennett star..

Finally, there's a new superhero show. I'm nervous that it's billed as a "dramedy", and as far as a premise goes, it sounds like it's not going to be all that good, but I'm a sucker for superhero shows.


Other shows I'm interested in but that aren't going to be coming up on any of the major networks are Song of Fire & Ice (which I don't know when is coming out) and Walking Dead (which I've been told is being produced, but not sure when it comes on).



In the end, I think the best bet of the bunch will be Fringe. It's got a proven track record already and has cleared the difficult part of not being canceled or dropped in the first season. Just need to figure out how I can catch up on the second season before the third one launches.

Lost: The End

I know most of the people who read this (of which there aren't many, mind you) don't watch LOST, so I won't spoil it. But last night was the series finale, and man, did it deliver! The show ended as it began, focused on the characters and their interactions. The reveals were sometimes telegraphed from episodes prior, and sometimes caught me completely off-guard, but always satisfied me. I went in to the episode with two or three mysteries I felt they had to reveal in order for me to be satisfied with the story, but when the final "LOST" appeared on the screen, I realised that it didn't matter as much as I thought it would. Focusing on them drew your attention away from the real point of the story.

Doesn't mean I'm not still curious about a lot of the story. They've already announced they're going to spell out the answers to some of the major theories in an "extras" on the DVD, but to take focus away from the story that was being told and explain some of the mysteries would have flown in the face of what the show's about. You don't know why everything happens in life.

Even in the end of the show, I'm still debating with friends about what it all meant. There's no debate on what happens in the end, it's all in the details of how they got there. As they say, the journey was the point.

Thanks for six great years of television and frustrating (and enjoyable) debate, LOST!

Fallout: New Vegas

November is too long to wait for the next installment of the Fallout series, but that's what they're going to make me do. Not hitting stores until November 16th, Fallout: New Vegas will pick up three years after the end of Fallout 3 and not really be attached to the other game. None of the old characters will be seen again - this is an entirely new game with the same engine (though it's had some improvements).

The VATS combat system will be improved to allow certain special attacks, and will work with melee-based attacks now too.



Kharma will still be around, but there's also going to be Reputation which is based on different factions in the game. So while you may becoming tighter with one group, you may be losing ground with another.

You can start modifying your weaponry now by doing things like adding scopes, changing the shots fired rate, etc.

The companions are going to be set up a little more like those in Dragon Age where you can give them a set of commands and behaviors they will follow.

Finally, the last thing I've heard is a new mode for the game: Hardcore mode. Your ammunition will have weight, your healing packs will delay heal you rather than healing you up immediately, crippled limbs can only be healed with high medical skill, and you'll have to keep drinking water to avoid dehydration. Sounds like a tough challenge.



Personally, I can't wait for the game to come out. Dragon Age is a lot of fun, but I'm still working on Awakenings. It didn't grab me the same way the original game did. I actually went back to playing Fallout 3 for a little while and realized just how much I missed that game. It will be nice to explore an entirely new place.

TV's New Seasons Are Upon Us

Cancellations come pouring in and new television programs are given life.

From ABC, cancellations include "Better Off Ted", "The Deep End," "Defying Gravity", "Eastwick", "FlashForward," "The Forgotten," "The Goode Family", "Hank", "Lost", "Scrubs", "Surviving Suburbia", "Ugly Betty," "Wifeswap". This is probably the hardest network to deal with regarding cancellations. LOST is over and I was looking for a new show to take its place. FlashForward was looking like it might be what I want, but it's canceled after its first season. Better Off Ted is folding after its second season. I don't think the network did a great job advertising it after the first season. I didn't even know it came back on the air until I went searching for it online.

From Fox, cancellations include "24," "Brothers," "Dollhouse," "Past Life," "Sons of Tuscon," "Til Death". No surprises here. I knew Dollhouse was not going to be renewed a while ago, and this has been 24's last season. Though in their new lineup, I'm actually a little interested in Terranova. It looks to be the only sci-fi-ish show coming up.

And from NBC, cancellations include "Heroes," "The Jay Leno Show," "Law and Order," "Mercy," "Trauma". Heroes is the only one I really paid much attention to, and that one's needed cutting for a while now.

Overall, nothing is jumping out and grabbing me right now. I'm not a fan of medical drama, cop drama, or spy drama, and those seem to litter the new shows. I already have a relationship comedy I like in How I Met Your Mother. I think the only shows that really strike me as possibly interesting are the Event (NBC), Undercovers (NBC) only because it's another JJ Abrams show, and TerraNova (Fox).

Also, it's been announced that season 10 is the last season of Smallville. Probably about time. It's had a good run, but it's time to let the story reach its conclusion. Clark Kent can only be growing from high school to Superman for so long. Ten years is quite a while.

The New Olympic Mascots

So London has unveiled the new mascots for their 2012 Summer Olympics: Wenlock and Mandeville. I don't know what to think of them. I don't even know what they are. Somehow this pair is supposed to help raise 15 million pounds through merchandising. I suppose it's possible. After their issues with their logo, I suppose I thought they might take a different track with their mascots. Oh well.

Part of the reason for the cyclops-style eyes, evidently, is so that they can make digital cameras that look like them and have their single eye be the lens to the camera. I tell ya, these guys think of everything!

Rules Lawyers

I was listening to Words From Wales, a section of the D6 Generation podcast (which I highly recommend if you like board and miniature games) on the way in to work today. In this particular section, Owen was raving against the Rules Lawyers. In the particular example he was citing, he said a giant in Warhammer Fantasy was killed and fell onto a Skaven Doom Wheel (or something like that). The Fallen Giant template covered most of the Doom Wheel (he said 95%) and the Skaven player said it was a partial hit because the complete model was not covered. Owen was particularly irate about that and went onto a short rant about how terrible it was that a rules lawyer would ruin his "story-based" game. He liked the idea of the story of the game telling how the giant fell on the wheel and destroyed it (which I don't see why the story can't say the giant fell on part of the wheel and broke pieces off it instead).

From my meager understanding of the rules, the giant template has to completely cover the base of the model it hits or it's a partial hit. I don't understand why the story-based player should be allowed to call a hit that does not cover every part of the base a full hit just because it fits his idea of the story of the game better. To me, it sounded like a bizarre way to justify gaining an advantage in game. Would it have been cool if the giant fell on the wheel? Sure. But he didn't. So why are we pretending he did?

The brief bit in the podcast got me thinking about other podcasts I listen to and how the player who tries to play to the rules tends to get looked down upon by other players who just want the cool story. I like to play games to the rules because I think they're there for a reason. But it doesn't mean I act like a jerk about it. If something is within a 1/8" or something, usually I'll give it to my opponent if they had any more movement left. I'm not out to make a game difficult for my opponent to enjoy, but I like the game to be internally consistent. The rules allow for that to happen.

Seven More Models

I got my second batch of models back from Chris this weekend (thanks, buddy!) and painted up a few more models myself. I'm now less than half a dozen models from the end (at least until the next models are released later this month).

Chris picked up my first Mature Nephilim, Hamelin, and the Avatar Pandora. All three look awesome.




On Saturday morning, I was kinda bored, so I painted up my three Sorrows. I was originally going to make them red to go with my theme color, but I realized I don't have a wide range of red and I didn't feel like mixing colors yet. Since I had a lot of P3 blues (ice blues were going to be my Eldar color), I could add a bit more color to these ones.



Finally, last night I painted up my Teddy. I had some trouble with the blood splatters, but I think I did alright. I'm still trying to decide what to do in the heart in his chest, so I'm still holding off for the moment on that part, but other than that, I think he came out alright.

Sure They're Fun, but Backwards???

Laura and I started playing a game over email today. We take plots of movies we've seen and try to describe what they're like if you've seen them backwards. It started with a couple of T-Shirts I saw.




So far we've got some pretty funny ones.

If you watch Titanic backwards its about a bunch of People Popsicles who thaw out and get on a boat and have a party. (Laura)

If you watch The Wizard of Oz backwards I think its actually sort of the same movie - Dorothy is happy in Kansas and magically arrives in Oz and gets scared out of her wits and goes back to Kansas where she realizes that Kansas isn't so great. (Laura)

If you watch Memento backwards it... makes sense. (me)

If you watch Schindler's List backwards its uplifting. (Laura)

If you watch the Major League backwards, a team of misfits hits a slump and stops playing together very well until finally the manager fires them all because she wants to move the team to a different state. Oh, and they put all the clothes back on a life-sized picture of her as the season progresses. (me)

If you watch Shawn of the Dead backwards, a bunch of undead people die and rise again as living people, swarming the planet. (me)

If you watch Fight Club backwards all the credit card companies blow up which causes a dude with a split personality to become sane and get a job at an accident appraisal company. (Laura)

If you watch Pocahontas or Avatar backwards, two lovers from different worlds decide that a bird really can't love a fish and they break up. (Laura)

If you watch Lord of the Rings backwards they find a ring in some lava, rescue it, and spend 3 movies trying to give it back to another guy who found it who gets saner the longer he wears it who then looses the ring again and a golem finds it and becomes a hobbit the longer he wears it, who then loses it and another guy finds it and becomes King the longer he wears it, who then loses it and the ring turns into a puddle of goo. (Laura)

To the other trilogy, Star Wars, a good man becomes evil and has an intense fight with one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, but the powerful Jedi ends up going into hiding after that. Darth Vader rips apart the galaxy looking for the Jedi who has skipped around several places. Then he forgets the Jedi existed and just concentrates on consolidating power for his Emperor. He finds one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, has a big fight with him, and then becomes good. (me)

If you watch Back to the Future backwards (yet another trilogy) a brilliant scientist falls out of love and miraculously travels forward in time from the old west to the 90s where he meets a kid who likes to skateboard and hangout with him, he then finds a time machine and decides to send the kid to the future but it seems that somehow the kids evil uncle has stolen an almanac and become rich so the kid finds out that he did it in the 50s, goes back in time and stops him from doing that, but he manages to break up his mother and father. His mother falls in love with him so he runs away and travels back to the 90s where it turns out that he didn't go time traveling at all. (Laura)

If you watch 12 Angry Men backwards, a group of jurors who are all of a single mind debate whether a particular kid is a murderer. Slowly racism and bigotry take hold of one of the jurors who manages to convince almost every one of the jurors to switch sides until a single stubborn holdout causes a hung jury. (me)

If you watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest backwards, an Indian catches a sink that's been thrown through a window of a nut house and then finds a lobotomized man. They stick his brain back in his head and he helps bring a kid who committed suicide back to life. The inspiration of this man helps unite the other people in the nut house, but soon they lose interest in his antics and he gets largely ignored by people there. Finally he decides he should leave and go to court instead. On the way home from there, he commits a crime. (me)

Try it out for yourself - they're pretty fun!

What Could Have Been

The first season of Heroes stands as one of my favorite seasons of any television show, but since that awesome initial run, the series has just gotten worse. Season two was terrible, with season three being only marginally better. I tried watching the most recent season with the carnival, but I could only make it through about a quarter of the season before I lost interest.

Well, it looks like NBC is looking strongly at canceling the show. I am neither surprised, nor disappointed. The show, which once took a fresh look at the superhero genre has become stale as the characters never grow, never learn, and constantly seem to be reset back to their previous versions. Sylar was a fantastic villain in season one, but should have remained there, and following his development did a grave disservice to the show as a whole. None of the other villains, despite what I thought were good casting jobs, ever stood up the Sylar's villain. And the show just ended up with so many abandoned plots I couldn't count them all. One of my gripes still has to do with Peter leaving the Irish girl that he was with in the dark future, and then ensuring that future never came to pass so she could never be brought back. Wow, how does he sleep at night?

Zelda's Boomerang

Okay, I just had to post this. After growing up with the good ol' Legend of Zelda, someone came out and showed how his boomerang really should have worked in the real world. Classic. I can just imagine him after the fact. "Well crap. Now what?"

Closing in on the End

In a week and a half, LOST will be over. It's crazy to think of that - six years of awesome television about to come to an end. I'm sure that we won't get all the answers we want, but I'm okay with that. I'd be disappointed to know for certain what everything was. I like a show where I can keep trying to decipher what was going on well after it finishes. While Battlestar Galactica didn't end as strong as I wanted it to, I still love thinking back to it for all the twists and trying to decipher exactly what was going on. In fact, after LOST finishes, I think I've convinced my mother that BSG is the next show we should watch on our weekly jaunts to her place.

I have to say, I'm very glad I've been watching the show as it's come up on TV. While I do miss the ability to click the DVD to the next episode whenever I want to see what happens next, that has forced me to sit back and try to ponder what's really going on in the story rather than just finding out. The finale probably won't pull together everything I want, but I've enjoyed the entire journey.

So with the last episode being next Sunday (starts at 7 PM, goes to 11:30!), my mother, Laura and I were trying to figure out what we should do for the proper sendoff. So far we're at "Lock ourselves in the room with some pizza and drinks and don't come out until it's all done... and show up late to work the next morning since we'll have to talk about the whole thing too." But I found this on the ABC website. How crazy is that!

Well... back to work, I guess.

Spare a Dollar?

Here are a few humorous pictures I thought I might pass on. Enjoy!

Three Games of Malifaux

I played three games of Malifaux over the weekend, and met a couple new players from the area. Good guys, both of them. Over the course of Saturday, I ended up playing both the new guys there and a game against Josh.

Game One - Perdita (Aaron) vs. Zoraida, 30 stones

I wanted to play my Doppelganger, so she was in the list with a Mature Nephilim, a Convict Gunslinger and a Terror Tot. Zoraida and her Voodoo Doll filled out the rest. We both drew the Quarters mission. He had a very shooty army. I started out by dropping a Voodoo Doll on his Convict Gunslinger with the first action. Zoraida's last action was to cast Obey on the Gunslinger and shoot the Governor's Proxy. One shot, one kill. Not bad. He was less than pleased, counting on that thing to keep his Guild models from being Obeyed. My models took a trip around a building to keep cover while his gunmen spread out. My Mature Nephilim charged into Perdita and started clawing at her with Zoraida, the Voodoo Doll and the Doppelganger all adding some Obeys in to the mix. Not much was happening. I think I only got two hits in out of the first 12 attacks. Still, even with prevention flips, that took her down to only a couple life left. His Executioner came around and finished off my Mature Nephilim, but I brought the Doppelganger in and Obeyed his Executioner to try to take down Perdita. She stayed standing until my Terror Tot ran up behind her and finished her off. Meanwhile, my Convict Gunslinger gunned down one of his gunmen while his Gunslinger died of the Voodoo Doll's poison. Left with my Gunslinger, Voodoo Doll and Zoraida, I eventually finished him off with Zoraida jabbing him with her hair pins.


Game Two - Sonia Criid (Charlie) vs. Lilith, 30 stones

This game really could not have gone better. He drew Slaughter and I drew Treasure Hunt. On the first turn, Lilith grabbed the treasure. He got the initiative the next round but Lilith's high defense meant none of his shots on her hit. She buckled back to my corner and handed off the treasure to a Terror Tot. The Tot just stuck around the back in my deployment zone while I forced him to come my way. He was playing a heavy-ranged army too, so I couldn't poke my head out without getting it shot off. I set a trap for Criid, giving her an opportunity to blast at a couple of my models if she moved closer, and she bit. A moment later she was facing a Mature Nephilim in the face while my Convict Gunslinger gunned down his, and Lilith killed off one of his other gunmen. My Younger Nephilim did a fair amount of damage to one of his models, and Lilith finished it off just after Criid killed the younger Nephilim with splash damage from her spells. The Mature ate Criid and turned around to get a bullet to the face and finally fall from its wounds, but it was too late. Lilith moved into range and cut the final gunman in half, killing everyone who stood against her.


Game Three - Victoria (Josh) vs. Lilith, 35 stones

We took a break for dinner and came back. Josh and I hadn't faced each other yet and we were both undefeated through our first two games, so we faced off. We bumped it up to 35 stones, the first time I played a game that big, and man did I have a lot available to me! Three Tots, a Doppelganger, a Mature Nephilim and the Gunslinger made my list while he had a couple ronin, a couple Vickis, the Gunslinger and two other unique mercenaries. We both drew Treasure Hunt and I pulled my same trick getting my treasure on the first turn. He didn't have as good range for his models, so I grabbed his treasure too and booked it back to my zone. My Terror Tot took both of the treasures and went to hide while Lilith prepared for the onslaught. He split up and came at me from three directions. The first group to arrive were the two unique Outcasts and the Convict Gunslinger. A few well-placed shots from my Gunslinger brought them down in life. The Doppelganger with the Mature Nephilim's claws and the Mature Nephilim finished them off, but the Mature Nephilim was only able to take half of his Gunslinger's life before himself being killed. Meanwhile, one of his Vicki's got to my Gunslinger and cut him down. Lilith ran in and started fighting back with a Terror Tot's help. His last Ronin tried to rush past my Doppelganger, but she turned around and killed him. My second Tot reached his Gunslinger and started cutting into him while Lilith killed one of the two Vicki's as the second one arrived. He was out of soulstones and had only one Ronin left, so Vicki wasn't going to come back. We had to call the game short, but we were half-way through the fifth turn and I still had both treasures in my deployment zone. Josh conceded and the game was over.

More Malifaux Madness

Over the weekend, I got back the first batch of models that Chris had painted, I got back the Doppelganger that Dan had painted, and I painted up four new models myself. My crew is rapidly becoming a fully painted crew.

First, here are the Salads that Chris painted. (I know they're called something else, but I can't remember what it is).



Chris also painted up one of my Younger Nephilim.



And finally, he painted up my first master: Pandora. Of course, this is my least-used Master, but still, nice to have her all finished up.



When the image for the doppelganger first appeared on the website, Dan jumped at it and said if I bought it and got him a new pot of paint he'd need for it, he'd be all over painting it up. I, not liking to paint, thought that was a great idea. So I got the model and putzed around trying to figure out what to do with it to make it look a little more unique. I finally came up with an idea when I saw the tree bit from the bayou set. I took some greenstuff and draped it over the tree. Now it's like she's shed some of her skin (check out her back if you're curious about that one) and left it behind as she takes a new form. The demonic-looking owl on the branch is just an added bonus.



And on to the four models I painted up. I've been picking the easier models as much as I can since I'm actually not that good at painting. The first is the Cherub, the totem for Lilith. I don't think I've ever used it, and I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon. Still, I had fun painting him, though I'm still having a lot of trouble with eyes. I can't seem to get the paint in the right spot! It looks okay from a distance, but close up it's a bit annoying.



My other three models were the second batch of Terror Tots that were running around on angel statues. Personally, I like the way these ones turned out even more than the original three.



Chris currently has my Hamelin, Avatar Pandora, and one of my Mature Nephilims. When those are finished, I'm running shy on models. I have the three Sorrows, Lilith, another Mature Nephilim, another Younger Nephilim, Baby Kade, Teddy, and Zoraida. Not too shabby.

Converting

I don't know what it is about the Malifaux models, but they've inspired me more than pretty much any other models out there to do conversions, building, painting, etc. Here are a couple of minor conversions I tried with my two Mature Nephilims. They only have one sculpt of them, so I wanted some variety between the two I own. I ended up doing an arm swap for each of them. One lost a hand in favor of a large crab claw. The other ditched his arm in favor of Thagrosh's (from Legion) arm with the double-bladed sword.



I also got three more Terror Tots from Jay. He tried out the Neverborn, but they didn't really do it for him so he was selling them off. I had most of what I needed, but three more Tots could give me a little more flexibility. Who knows? Maybe I'll try a Tot horde at some point. Anywho, a while back I had bought some small angel models but I had no idea what to do with them. With the new lot of Tots, I figured they'd look cool if they were scampering over angel statues. So I'll paint them up to be stone and put a little green moss and the like on them and have my Tots running all over them.

Painting

I stopped by the Games Workshop store on the way home from work yesterday and picked up a few paints and brushes. I think the guy there is finally learning who I am (since I've been in every other week or so picking up primer or green stuff and now paint), but he still seems a bit disappointed when he asks what my project is I'm working on and I answer with "Malifaux" or "Firestorm: Armada." Probably not what he wants to hear when he's selling only GW stuff, but if I'm buying the paints and supplies from him, that's good enough, right?

So as promised, I took some more pictures of the Terror Tots that Dan and I painted on Monday. Dan painted the one on the top right and I painted the two on the left.



Sadly the paint we used for the bodies was Midnight Blue. Dan says it's part of the GW line, but they may have discontinued it. A shame. Dan offered to give me his pot since he never uses it, so at least I'll be able to cover the Nephilims I have left. Thanks, Dan!

Last night I started painting on my own without any pointers from others as to what colors to put where. It's the first time I've painted models since way back in high school when I painted ten Bretonian archers. After that unfortunate experience I put away all my paints and never touched them again. Anywho, I started with Bad Juju. I figured he'd be pretty easy since he's all green and brown and just a mess of color. Mistakes on it wouldn't be too bad since he's really just a massive mud monster anyway.



After that, I decided I wanted to try my hand at something smaller, mostly because it was getting late. I picked up my Voodoo Doll and tried to think of what to do with him. He's sitting on a brown plank and he's a brown sack. It was going to be a weird model to try. As it was, I didn't end up too happy with him, but he's serviceable.



Overall, I'm pretty pleased with Bad Juju and the Voodoo Doll's good enough for me. I started working on the Cherub and next I might give the Sorrows a try. Between them, the couple of models Laura's painted, and the few that Chris is doing, I'm well on my way to having a half-painted force!

Accessorizing

Malifaux requires up to 10 Soulstone counters be used in each game. These are very important, each one allowing you to prevent damage to your master, or heal your master, or increase a card's value by ADDING a second card to it rather than just replacing it like normal cheating.

I've been using dice to tally up my soulstones each game, but they're not as cool. Ryan came in at one point with some poker chips and I thought that was a great idea. I wanted the clay ones, but I don't have any of my own poker chips. I decided rather than buying a set just for the few chips, I'd look around and find some interesting poker chips that I could buy in small quantities. Here's what I came up with.



They should be arriving soon. I won't have them in time for Saturday's games, unfortunately, but I should have them soon thereafter.

Zoraida, the Hag

Okay, so yesterday I talked about Lilith. Today I’m going to talk about everyone’s favorite creepy old woman – Saddlebags! Er… I mean… Zoraida, the Hag. When I first started playing Neverborn, she was the master I wanted to use the most. Lilith was fairly straight forward, and everything I had heard said that Pandora was absolutely amazing. Zoraida seemed like the biggest challenge. And I was right. I’ve gotten a few tricks down with her, but there is so much untapped potential.



Zoraida’s a crazy broad who lives in the swamps. She makes voodoo dolls and tells peoples’ fortunes. She knows how to manipulate fate and make sure things happen to turn out how she likes. She gives people the evil eye too. Not sure what that means, but it says so in the book.

So just what does she do? Well, she’s primarily a spellcaster, but none of her spells do any damage on their own. She’s all about control and limiting your opponent’s options while maximizing your own. With some luck she can do a fair amount of damage (I’ve won with her by using her in melee before), but that’s not her primary goal.

Let’s talk about her movement first. She’s slow as all get out (only 3”) and she can’t charge, so she’s not going to be breaking any speed records. However, she has a (0) ability called Raven that turns her into a… well… raven. It lets her fly and walk 10” per action, but once she uses it, she can’t attack or cast spells until the end phase when she turns back into a real woman.

For offensive capabilities, she uses the hair pins she has to jab people. She’s not that good at hitting, and if she does hit, it won’t do much damage (1/2/5), but they do cause Poison: 2 to their target, so your enemy will start bleeding out. Also, they have the Maim trigger. If she triggers a hit, she gets a (+) damage flip. An easier way to grab that useful severe damage.

Defensively, she’s sitting pretty on a solid 5 defense. Okay, you’re right, that sucks. But she has a couple of abilities that will help her out. One of them is a trigger that cues off a Mask. If she’s hit for moderate or severe damage, whatever hit her can’t attack her again this round. Okay, that’s decent. But her really cool ability is called Proper Manners. Any attack against her that wasn’t channeled or focused gets a (-) flip. That means no cheating to hit her! Of course there are plenty of models out there with paired weapons, so that ability sometimes does absolutely nothing. Fortunately she has 10 wounds, so she won’t be dying to a stiff breeze. Also, to face off against those pesky mental attacks, she clocks in at the highest willpower in the game with 10. Not easy to pull one over on her.

So far she’s not stacking up too well. But like I said, she’s a spellcaster, and that’s where we should look for her strengths. She’s a Casting Expert, so she can use one additional action to cast a spell per turn, and she’s got 5 interesting ones. She has Crystal Ball, a (0) spell that lets her look at the top three cards of either player’s fate deck and return them to the top in any order. It’s tough to cast, needing a 10 of Masks, but can be useful to see when you should take what actions. She has three (1) spells: Bewitch (target model cannot play control cards until the end of the turn), Repulsive (all models within 6” of her are pushed away from her until they are 6” away from her) and Obey (target model makes a single action or charge). Obey is her bread and butter, at least how I play her, so I’ll talk about that in a minute. Her final spell is Hex (which needs a 9 of Masks) and makes target non-Master model lose one talent or spell until the Hag is removed from the game. I don’t tend to use this spell that much because it’s hard to cast and requires so many action points. But I think I should start using it more early and just locking down an annoying ability off someone.

Back to Obey… this is the spell that makes me really like Zoraida. She can use it to either have an opposing model start screwing things up (like having an opposing model hand a treasure off to my adjacent model or by having an opposing model shoot the person standing next to him in the face), or it can be used to give one of my own models a pseudo-reactivation. I’ve used it many-a-time with my Mature Nephilims, letting them come in with Obey and smack something, and then activate the Nephilim to let him smack three more times. Ouch! Obey can only be cast once per turn, but that means if you try to cast it and fail to meet the target number, you haven’t cast it yet and can try again. But be careful, if you succeed in the target number but the opponent resists, you’ve still successfully cast it and can’t try again.

Now I know I mentioned a few spells that Zoraida has that require high cards, and usually you won’t have that many to play. Fortunately she’s got an ability called Bayou Two-Step that lets her, once per turn, play a card off the top of the discard pile instead of the top of the deck. So if you cheat with a really high Mask to trigger Hex, you can turn around and use that same card to trigger Crystal Ball. Not bad! Or if you’re attacking and cheat a Red Joker to hit, you can immediately use the Red Joker for damage too. Nice!

Okay, so what other random abilities does she have? First off, she has power over the weak-willed. Those with a WP of 4 or less can join her crew as though they were Outcasts. I haven’t tried this yet, but there are a few models I’d like to give a whirl. Nurses from the Ressurectionists, and Papa Loco from the Guild are two. Secondly, at the end of the game, she moves 4” before the VPs are tallied. This means she can slide onto an objective if she ends the game close to one. A nice way to quickly turn the tide at the very end. Won’t matter every game, but at some point, if you don’t forget it, it will save you.

The last ability she has is another of her signatures: create a voodoo doll. Most of the other masters have to pay for their totems, but Zoraida can create one for two actions. When she makes it, she picks a model in LOS. From now on, while she’s close to the voodoo doll, she can target that model regardless of range and LOS, and she gets a (+) flip on casting and damage flips against it. The voodoo doll, meanwhile, can cast any of her (1) spells, so that’s another opportunity to cast Obey (Obey can be cast once per turn PER CASTER, so even if Zoraida successfully casts it, the voodoo doll can still do the same). Also, at the end of every turn, the target the voodoo doll is attached to is filled to 2 poison tokens. So every time that model activates, it’s taking two damage. Sweet!

That’s essentially what Zoraida does. My usual tactics with her have been to put the voodoo doll out on something I want dead quick and let the poison work. Meanwhile, my big hitter will jump up front and Zoraida will obey it until its target is dead. By that point I hope to have enough of an advantage that I’ll win the game. If necessary, Zoraida herself gets into combat and tries to jab things with her needles, but that’s not always necessary. I’d like to use more of her control spells (Hex and Bewitch, for example), but I’m not quite there yet. Soon…

Painted Tots

Monday night, Dan came by and taught me his (patent-pending) method of quickly painting models and making them come out half-way decent. We used one of my sets of Terror Tots as the basis for the painting, and here you'll see the results. Sadly the backdrop is a bit dark to show up all the colors well, but if you enlarge the pictures, you may get a better sense. Overall, all three models were finished in the span of a single episode of Alias, so not too shabby. I'm going to try the techniques on a few other models just to get some color on them, though I'll still be working with others to get my centerpiece models painted up. I want them to look better than I can do.

Nothing Like the Originals

I don't really have anything to add. But this is an awesome photo. Han Solo, Darth Vader, Chewie, Leia, Luke and R2-D2, back before things got so screwed up.

Lilith, Mother of Monsters

I’ve been playing Malifaux for a little while now and probably have a dozen games under my belt by now. It’s been something of a miniatures gaming renaissance for me. Between this game and Firestorm Armada, I have been enjoying pulling out minis and playing games again in a way I haven’t really enjoyed in years.

I’m not really here to talk about that right now, though. I’ve posted before about my feelings regarding Warmachine, so I’d head back to that thread if you’re interested in my thoughts about that. Instead, I’m here to talk about my chosen faction and, more specifically, one of the models in it.

Neverborn seem to fit my style of play very well and let me switch from being the good guys to being one of the bad guys (though with Legion of Everblight and Dindrenzi joining that pack, my bad guys are starting to outnumber my good guys of Cygnar and Eldar). The Neverborn are the stuff of nightmares and corruption. They have hosts of demons to make up the bulk of their army, but their magic is far more subtle. Lacking any spells that can actually do direct amounts of damage, they rely on manipulating their enemy into hurting themselves or putting themselves in jeopardy. Rather than blasting an enemy with an ice storm, the Neverborn may force an enemy to stab himself with his sword, or turn and shoot his partner in the head. They are very fast and very deadly, but have a significant lack of any ranged weaponry. To fight, these guys have to move cautiously through cover and engage fast.

There are three masters in Neverborn at the moment: Lilith, Pandora and Zoraida. The most straight-forward of these three is Lilith, and that’s who I’ll talk about first. If I feel like it, later I’ll come back and talk about the other two.



Lilith is the mother of the brood of strong demons in the faction. She was the first Neverborn to be recognized as something more than just a mindless brute. Play-wise, she’s as simple to understand as you can get with the Neverborn. See that massive sword she carries? She tries to stick that in the enemy.

She’s Fast, so she’s always getting three actions, and with her speed of 6”, she can cover half the board in a single turn’s movement. That lets her move fast and grab cover to keep her safer from enemy attacks. Combine that with her Defense of 8 (highest in the game) and she’s not that easy to strike. Additionally, if you miss her in melee, she can make it even harder for that model to hit her again and the shadows of Malifaux fold around her and conceal her.

Flipping around to combat, she’s going to be swinging at 2” reach with a solid 3/4/6 greatsword (so she gets a (+) flip on damage). She’s got a 7 to attack with already and if she hits with a second Mask, she can start cycling her hand. Often, she wants to get up in the face of the most deadly thing out there (preferably deadly with magic or ranged so she can keep him occupied). Then, if the foe tries to back away, she has the ability to actually damage them if they fail the disengage check. I had a game where I managed to move all the way into Rasputina’s melee range (she’s a powerful magic user who had just killed the entire rest of my army). Unable to cast her powerful magics now, she tried to escape my reach and after two failed checks, Rasputina was cut in two and dead.

She has several other abilities, including Black Blood, so she’ll be hurting people that hurt her, Rush of Magic, so she can cycle her hand even faster every turn, and Master of Malifaux, an ability that lets her ignore the terrain penalties for moving through rough terrain and lets her draw LOS ignoring cover. She can Companion a Nephilim near her as her (0) action, or, more often, she can gain a Blood Token after she kills a nearby enemy. Those she uses to feed her brood and have them mature into tougher monsters. She can ditch Soulstones for Blood Counters, which is horribly inefficient, but could help in a pinch, and she can use two actions to use her great sword to attack everyone around her.

For spells, she has four, but I rarely use them. Most times I want to use her actions to get her up the field faster. She has a Defense debuff that prevents models within 3” of her from charging as well, but from that close, usually I want to be chopping things with my sword already. She can cause everyone within 12” of her to slide 2” in a chosen direction. This spell I’ve only used in one game, but it saved me as I was able to move a number of people off the objective terrain at the end of the turn and win the game because of it. She can create a small forest which I do often early to give myself more cover heading in, but then I just leave it there. Finally, she has a spell that requires a 9 of Masks or better, but allows her to pick two models (she can be one of the targets) and switch their places. Not a bad way to bring an enemy over to you, or bring yourself to an enemy.

She’s a pretty straight-forward master. Usually I pack her up with a few other Nephilim to keep pressure on my enemy. When they’re looking towards one of them, I sneak her in the back and beat the tar out of a couple of guys. She can kill with ease and is pretty hard to take down, but she struggles against massed foes. Also, concentrated attacks can, and often do, bring her down. I like that she’s a melee monster who’s biggest asset is her speed and her ability to appear from directions you weren’t necessarily expecting. Makes for a little more fun than a basic beat-stick. But she’s the simplest of the Neverborn masters to understand, and next time we’ll talk about something a little more complicated…