Conan VIII - The Golden God - LARP Event

My name is Adam and I'm a LARPer, or more precisely an LRPer.

I state the latter because when I was mostly involved in the hobby it wasn't even know as LARP, it was LRP, the action got missed out, why? Probably because 'Action' was a given. I don't know who coined the phrase LARP, but they we better marketeers than we were, it certainly rolls off the tongue better than LRP.

Point of clarity. What has widely come to be known as LARP in the public eye is not what I actually did. It was the same sort of thing, just different. I don't think there's anything wrong with the 'Sport' LARP that has become so popular, but I was always very much firmly on the European side of the fence, immerse interactive improvisation theatre, story lead rather than rules led, is what we did. In fact, the first event we ran didn't even have a rules system. The mantra was 'The is movie-make-believe, if it's fun, awesome and might happen in a film, run with it'.

As a life-long fan of Robert E. Howard, our games were for the most part set in Hyboria and visually John Milius's 1982 classic Conan The Barbarian, whilst not true to the text, certainly 'felt' right.

I was fortunate enough that many of the friends I fell in with were writers, model-makers, prop-makers and costumiers to the film, television and theatre industry (I did a short stint in the industry myself just before heading off to college). So, to put it bluntly, the games we played had pretty high production values, especially considering the relatively limited budgets.

I drifted away from the hobby for one reason or another. I still played quite a bit of horror themed and Zombie LARP but I hadn't picked up a sword in years.

In last 2012 we received an out of the blue invite. Some of the people involved back in the day were ready to run something once again... it was settled then, we were headed back to Hyboria.

Atlantean Sword: When choosing a sword, there was no competition.

To be continued...

Dust Tactics: Hell's Boys Ranger Attack Squad

This was my first attempt at any kind of camouflage in a long time. In fact, the first attempt at anything with a pure military theme for a while, so I had to re-buy a few choice olive drab and olive colours.

This Ranger Attack Squad for Dust Tactics turned out a little darker than I really wanted, so I started to think about getting the top coat, pre-wash, colours a little lighter and diluting the washes a little more.

Hell's Boys - Ranger Attack Squad

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 3

Rome wasn't built in a day... but I'm pretty sure that the Romans did a little bit every day... so that eventually they got quiet a bit done.

 Slow but steady progress is the order of the day for my Incursion 3D Play Set.

I want the game board to have a very 3D textured feel so the floor tiles start out as Cork Floor tiles from a DIY store. I've seen cork floor tiles used very well for a number of things, so I picked up quite a few packs to set me in good stead.

The edge of each tile will be sanded down so there is clear definition between spaces on the game board.

Dust Tactics: Death Dealers Ranger Weapon Squad

Whilst living away from home over the last 18 months I didn't really get anywhere near as much hobby done as I'd have liked. I simply couldn't transport large scale hobby projects and gaming tables back and forward and to me, that's very much part of my enjoyment of the hobby.

I did want to do something however, something simple that would be a complete game in a box and I could take as far as I wanted, without having to commit to anything too vast. Seeing as I had a change of location and was getting a little giddy about Weird War 2, later growing into an interest in Incursion, my curiosity was piqued by Dust Tactics.

I downloaded a copy of the rules, free from Fantasy Flight Games website, which looked simple enough, with just enough variation to have at least some depth, and after deciding it looked pretty cool I picked up the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set.

The models were pretty nice sculpts, the soft plastic did throw some challenges with de-flashing and a few 'bendy' models here and there (simple enough to fix with the hot and cold water trick I picked up when collecting Star War Miniatures), but considering the price, pre-priming and high production value on things like tokens, unit cards etc. I was sold. So, with a single pack of miniatures at a time and a small toolbox of paints and tools I set upon a new adventure.

What started as a simple boxed set, grew over the 18 months, during which time I was keen to attempt to copy the colour scheme and painting techniques as closely as possible. Here's the first of many units I painted over that time.

Death Dealers: Ranger Weapon Squad

Quick note on basing. As I'd been experimenting with some resin bases, the entire play-set is scheduled to be re-based on pre-painted resin. Therefore, none of the bases were touched.

Music for Zombie Gaming - Part 6

The video game itself was kinda Marmite, some loved it, and some really couldn't get along with it.

I was in the former camp and from a score perspective it set the scene perfectly.

The Walking Dead Video Game's score is full on small town America gone sour, slow lilting melodies, minor key strings with hints of mournful bluegrass guitar reminiscent of Ennio Moricone's spaghetti western years.

Jarred Emmerson-Johnson's accompaniment to the game is a slow burner and is far less dramatic than many other zombie themes but it's great for game build up and those character driven moments where you're just not sure if one of your favourite characters is going to make it. I've painted to is numerous times, just don't expect it to leave you feeling happy, hopeful or in any way good about surviving the apocalypse.

Music for Zombie Gaming - Part 5

So here's where the purists go mental, sorry guys. 28 Days Later... yeah, I said it. Whilst upon release it was never touted as a zombie movie and even now we recognise it as an 'Infected' movie, even director Danny Boyle went on record years later to say "I kinda wanted to make a zombie movie, but I had to do things differently to get away with it.'

So whilst the movie threw a 'runners' spin on genre, John Murphy's soundtrack on the other hand really hits the spot.

Slow building, haunting and and subtly discordant, the Original Soundtrack makes a superb backdrop to any zombie game.

Personally, I would mark this as the first of the 'modern' Zombie scores, heralding in a new era of themes specifically for the genre as we know it today. As a stand alone soundtrack it is not specifically innovative. It relies upon the standards of the horror genre in building tension and conflict, music box style melodies with contrasting resonance in the strong section but I'm pretty sure it has influenced composers of the genre since it's release. For example, as it is hard not to hear its influence in Bear McCreary's work.

Judge Dredd Miniatures: Judges

Drokk!

I was an avid reader of 2000AD Monthly back in the day and Dredd unquestionably was my favourite character. A few years back I sold my collection of original GW Judge Dredd Miniatures... fool that I am, I was never gonna need them right?... Wrong!

The Dredd movie did it for me, I dragged out my old Dredd Mags, picked up Case File No. 1 and got all nostalgic about old stony face.

That's when I found the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, available as a free download at the time, simple enough.

And then... I found the Kickstarter and signed up at surprisingly low level (no idea how I manged to maintain that, considering the 'giddy fury' that ensued). I got my name in the recently released rulebook credits and picked up a pack of Judges.

In Grud's name they were really quite fun to paint. Nothing too fancy here, just plain colours, washes, a few highlights and some gloss varnish on the helmets.

I've a few more to go, but this was enough to play a few quick games and get to grips with the rules and Outbreak City was perfectly happy to sub itself as the Big Meg.

Street Judge

Street Judge

Female Street Judge