Prepping Dem Bones: Bones 2 Kickstarter in De House!

I backed the Reaper Miniatures Bones 2 Kickstarter.

My goods arrived a few weeks ago. I have however been so busy that I wasn't in a hurry to open up the package.

Finally broken down and realized that I may a pretty big omission to my order and working with Reaper to see if I can fix my mistake.

But with all of these miniatures in house, I thought I'd take a moment to share some ideas on HOW to paint them.

There are a few things that can be taken into account and some of them are entirely optional.

For example, you can take it out of the bag and paint it. Use 'thick' paints for that first layer, something like Privateer Press, Games Workshop Base Coats or Reaper's HD paints. This will work. It may not be the best method and may lead to some frustration as paint can bead on the Bones material if it's just the slightest bit too thin.

Instead, I recommend having a list of supplies and deciding what you want to do ahead of time. Some of it may vary.

For example, if you're just using the Bones as stand in figures for your role playing games, then you might just take an unpainted figure and throw it on the table as a physical object to represent something in the game. No different than say using a Lego or Marble.

Actual Prep: You may be interested in taking it a step further. Read on!

Xacto Knife: For under $17 bones, Amazon has a good starter set. The benefit of the Xacto Knife is that it will allow you to clean the mold lines on the figures. For those with more experience and patience, the Bones material is soft and the knife will allow you to easily cut the figures up.



A word of caution. Be careful. Even when cutting away from yourself, if you're working on say, a rounded object, the blade and find it's way back around. I'm sure many people have a horror story or two about it as I know I do. Blood for the Blood God indeed!

Having said that, an Xacto Knife and mold removal isn't necessary if you're not worried about it. The Bones material is nice. This batch seems a little... firmer and more quality control in place than the last one. But if you're throwing some zombies on the table and aren't worried about mold lines? Skip the prep with the Xacto.

Cleaning: I clean my figures with an old toothbrush, soap, and warm water. I'm sure some one has some recommendations on what type of soap to use, but I've never had a problem with it.

Hot Water: Here's the 'original' deal. I like tea and hate boiling water. So I bought a electric hot kettle. Then Coolminiornot has this stuff, Insta Mold or something. You heat it up and can use it like a miniature mold. I've never really got the full 'geist' of it. My bad on that. But it's also handy for Bones figures. While I stand by my statement that the quality this time around is better, there are still bent swords and spears. Having something to get water hot quickly allows you to dip the afflicted part of the figure into the hot water. Straighten it out, and quickly put it into cold water. I've heard that the colder the water, including water with ice, the better off you are.



I've actually been using my Keurig for this. Alas, since I bought my Keurig, the electric hot water kettle has gone unto the back porch never to be seen again.

Bases: Many of the figures are fine as is. Some have smaller bases. If you have some glue, you can glue them to a more sturdy base. For most role playing purposes, 1" bases are good for medium sized creatures. Amazon has a fair amount of objects that can be used. One I've seen is the bag of 100 1" wooden disks. Strangely enough, the 1.5" disks are like, half the price. Look around.



Stand: This one is very optional. I use a few different things with blue tack to hold the miniature in place so that I don't touch it with my own hands. This helps minimize paint on me and helps me to reach different areas of the miniature without worrying about touching a wet part of the miniature. For those on the thrifty side, use old pill bottles. For those who want something a little different, I use these wooden squares along with the pill bottle,s along with a few other things.



Primer: I've heard a few horror stories about people using primer on their Reaper Bones. Don't get it honestly. I've used Vallejo Primer, both with a brush and through an air brush, as well as Army Painter primer and a few other brush on primers including Game's Workshop and Reaper's own brush on primer.

A bigger question for me, is what COLOR primer to us.

The figures here are some of the "Rats" from an expansion on the Bones 2 pledge, and some 'Giants' on the bones two pledge. The rats I hit with Army Painter leader and the Giants with Flesh. Saves a ton of time putting that first layer down as well as acting as primer. Note you can also see one of those wooden bases under the giant to the right. That big boy didn't come with an integrated base as the one on the left did.

Black is the most common primer followed by white though. I went with black here because the Bones are white by default. You can see the minotaur lord in the back on the left hand side along with a few others. Priming white over white? Not necessarily a great idea because you can't see if the primer is on the figure.



Note that color primer seems to be a thing now. I've seen the Army Painter ones, as well as a return to color primer by Games Workshop. Note I personally have not tried the Games Workshop color primers on the figures so can't say if that causes any problems.

But Vallejo has been doing some military color primers for a while and they work great as well. Even better if you're comfortable with an airbrush. The nice thing about Vallejo? They often have several sizes for their primers. For example, a nice neutral gray 200ml is under $17 from Amazon right now.



Take a look around and see if there are some primer colors that you want to use.

Accessories: I mentioned blue tack. I use that to hold the miniatures to other things. Sometimes I'll use it to hold a shield to a miniature or a miniature to a base.



Glue: If you're new to painting, you might not have any glue. Depending on how detailed you're going to get with the miniatures, you can do anything from skipping the glue, and just going with the single piece figures, to buying the different types of glue that will help you out.

Superglue is useful for keeping the pieces together. A word on that. Some of the figures are better off being assembled at the end of the painting process. This allows you to easily access parts that may be more difficult to reach after the figures are assembled.

Another note is that you should test fit the figures before you glue them. This allows you to see if there are any obvious problems or if you need to break out the hot water and do some bending to make sure that everything fits well.

For the most part, I didn't have any problems with the Bones figures. Most of the larger figures have huge tabs and fit nicely and glue quickly. The minotaur demon lord was a bit of a PIA but that was only because he had so many pieces to him. Highly unusual for a Bones figure.

For those who hate waiting around? Get some super glue accelerant. It makes the glue bond quickly. Some will warn you that it weakens the bond. I personally haven't had a problem with it. Your mileage may vary.



The other type of glue you'll probably want, is if you're doing any 'flocking', putting fake sand, dirt, grass, and other bits on your base, you'll want white glue.



White glue is pretty cheap so you can buy a small bottle and see how that works for you.

In terms of painting tools and brushes?

That's going to vary tremendously.

For someone brand new to the hobby, I strongly suggest you watch some videos and talk to friends who may already be in the hobby. If you have a local hobby store, go there. This hobby store doesn't even necessarily have to be a gaming hobby store. Some hobby stores may primarily be train or other type of hobby, but still have material relevant for a new comer to the hobby. See if they have any paint days.

One of the reasons Games Workshop does so well is that they have these stores. They also have some huge bundles that make getting into the hobby easier. If you just want something to start that's not going to murder your wallet, I'd recommend checking out Army Painter.



The Mega Paint set (which is pretty good price here) has paints, inks, and a few brushes. That's a good start to see if it's something you want to continue with.

If you get paints, get a cleaner and clean your brushes after every use.



It's important to clean the brushes because it keeps them viable longer.

For the more experienced painter who already HAS paints but is intrigued by time saving with an air brush?

The Badger 105 Patriot is a 'starter' air brush. It will handle a bit of abuse and while I always recommend thinning your paint before putting it through the airbrush, the 105 handles it a little better.



The strange thing, and I honestly don't get this, is that the Sotar, another air brush, is a more 'advanced' model, and at this time, is less expensive than the 105. Both from the same company. Perfect for the Vallejo primers.



There are a few things I didn't mention like a pin vice. Useful for using say brass rod and pinning two separate pieces of a miniature together and using glue to hold it. The pin creates more support. Useful for small joins or very large ones.

I'm working on a ton of things myself at this time. Just finished running the second book of Kingmaker, looking over the next chapter, The Varnhold Vanishing, one of my friends is prepping to run some Numenera, and well, the dreaded realities of work and what not.

But I was thinking, "Hey, I'm painting Bones. Other people might not be as familiar with the Bones and how they work. Let me throw together a quick blog post on it."

If you're new to Bones and have any specific questions, let me know. If you have some resources you'd like to share on it, let me know.

Wizards of the Coast and Miniatures aka Bad Marketing 101

This is a screenshot of Wizkids site I took the other day.

The very first thing? Pathfinder Battles Iconic Miniatures.

The third thing? Not the second mind you. D&D with two brands, Attack Wing and Icons of the Realms. And those icons look way too crowded and way too busy. You can't see anything that's happening there except maybe you might think, is that Godzillia by the D&D brand?

I went to Wizkids because I was just at my FLSG, Games Plus.

While there, they had the NEW random collectable miniatures.

Usually WizKids is real good about providing a poster or some other means of, you know, KNOWING what the buyer can at least potentially get.

No such poster here.

So when I got home, I checked out Wizards of the Coast site. I knew that was probably going to be futile. For some reason, WoTC doesn't want people on their D&D section of the site as they didn't have a gallery of their previous release either.

And nope, at the time at least, no gallery. A few previews which is nice mind you but no actual gallery.

So I wandered over to Wizkids site.

Bam, Pathfinder at top.

That's gotta hurt.

I don't know if that's because Pathfinder is paying more, allowing Wizkids a bigger share of the cut, or just random weirdness but if I was WoTC, with a brand new set out, I'd want my brand on top.

I'd also want a gallery of what the miniatures people can buy look like.

But you aint' going to get that from Wizkids son. Last time I looked around the site, you could see some of the Attack Wing figures and the figures from the first set, Tyranny of Dragons.

That's not good marketing on WoTC site. It's not good marking on Wizkids site.

I've heard some people say, "Well, if you go to site X, you can see the full release."

And that's okay but it's certainly not what either of these companies should want to happen. If I have to rely on 3rd party sources to get information that should be gushing from your sites? You're doing it wrong.

But that's just me.

Anyone buy any of the new figures? I like some of the previews we've seen, but I'm also a miniature painter and I buy these things to either fill out gaps in my collection or because the miniatures are inexpensive. As the cost of the blind randoms have gone up, I've cut waaayy back. Part of that is my ownership of miniatures like Reaper's Bones or say, Mantic's Kickstarters. Other parts are that WoTC made D&D itself less reliant on miniatures.

I also can't help but notice that there are still no Dragonborn. Maybe I'm missing it. So WoTC makes Dragonborn a core race in two editions now, and we've got, including all the old ones, less than five I want to say? That's terrible. I assure you WoTC, we don't need elves, dwarves, or adventuring humans these days. But dragonborn and other IP that you own and few other people have touched? Might want to look at hitting that eh?

But some of them do look nice. I'd buy a few packs to take a chance on getting say a firesnake or an ettin.

In terms of what WoTC long term miniature plans are? Anyone have any guesses? I can't see the Gale Force 9 miniatures being a priority or long term way of handling things. It's not that the miniatures aren't solid. I've bought many of them myself.

At clearance prices.

From a "limited run".

Nice figures. Resin makes them brittle mind you but nice.

Nice and expensive.

I think WoTC needs to get Reaper on board with their miniature program. Put the well established brand of Reaper at work on their miniatures that are non-random and non-collectible.

Some may say that Pazio and Pathfinder are already established at Reaper.

Yeah, take a look at that Wizkids screenshot again. If Wizkids can't make a new set their priority on the web and have a gallery for it, and WoTC isn't on them like white on rice? WoTC can swallow whatever may pass for pride there and acknowledge that Reaper can do them justice without limited edition runs, without being made of brittle resin, and can capture the spirit of D&D.

But that's just me. I can't see either the Gale Force 9 miniatures lasting too much longer (which is a shame because they have a Red Dragon coming up that looks fantastic) nor can I see the random miniatures sticking around much longer when they can't even get top billing for a new release.

Others? Am I out of the water here? Is WizKids pushing WoTC IP into all new directions and all new fanbases? Let me know. I'm old and senile and keep telling these damn kids to get off my lawn!

Rivers Run Red Finale!

So when last I left off, the party had lost one member to a fey creature. Another had been cursed and another suffered from a magical trap.

This required magic of a higher level than they had so they went to the city! In this instance, Restov. There they meet with the mayor, hunted down some magic items, sold some of their current ones for cash, had a few social encounters as the mayor held a celebration to welcome the heroes of 'Murkwell', the name of their nation, and they meet a few people.

Now they also owe three quests in exchange for the magical services rendered. Ha! I can throw those in somewhere I'm sure.

They also burned through the last encounters of the adventure. Several of these were role playing in nature ranging from dealing with more fey, at least this time not assassin or poison using, to dealing with the enraged owlbear that attacked their town while they were hex exploring.

For the owlbear, I was super lazy. I just used a fire giant's stats and lowered the CR by 1 as I didn't give it a bite nor allow it to be immune to fire. Seemed to work out okay. Terrible damage, hits you easily, has a bucket load of hit points and little else.

But man, the party is sure tired of owlbears.

Bad new? they have a lot of Kingdom building to do. They did roughly five months.

The next adventure, The Varnhold Vanishing, assumes another one to two years of building.

And one of my friends is getting ready to run.

What?

He's a new dad. He's in school. He's getting out for a semester and is dying to try Numenera.He claims that it's easy to run, he loves the setting and art, and he's only got a limited window of opportunity to run it because once school starts back up, he'll probably be out of gaming for a while as he's got help on the child situation with grandparents, but they're only visiting for now too.

Hey, someone else wants to run? Can you say awesome? I don't mind running but I'm kind of flat on 5e. I'm too used to the rich resources that Pathfinder and 3.5 have and I keep wondering where the hell the new Monster Manual is.

On the other hand, I ain't buying Numenera. It's not an inexpensive book. He's only going to run it for a few months. I suspect I'll be getting there early and reading up on it or hoping for another Bundle of Holding or something.

Part of this is because another of my friends is talking about Dresend Files and the same guy is talking about the Fantasy Flight games like Deathwatch while another is running oWoD when I can't make it to run. That's a lot of money for games I'll probably never play on a regular basis.

I get that if you're playing a game long term, $50 bones isn't that much of an investment. That's like a ticket to a concert or 20 (or less!) drinks at Star Bucks. But I also paint miniatures which require a TON of things if you like experiementing like I do ranging from different paint from different companies, to different accessories like glaze medium, matt medium, brushes, pigments, etc...

So I'm curious to see how Numenera works out and will enjoy my break from running.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised the group managed to make it through books one and two and even the starting adventure from the boxed set.

What's everyone else doing now? Still playing 5th edition? Waiting on Exalted 3rd edition? Sticking with the OSR?

Dungeons and Dragons: Why Official? Why Magazines?

I have previously mourned the passing of the magazines, Dungeon and Dragon. My blog post on such musings, as well as others about the lack of material for 5^th edition, has recently seen much activity thanks to a sharing of said blog post by +Charles Akins .

One responder, +Ricky Moore, asked “Why do we need the magazines? There’s so much stuff out there now that it’s not necessary.”

I don't want to say that’s always been true but to a certain extent, it has. In days gone by, there were people doing conversions of monsters from other game systems. Bringing magic items from myth and history into the game. People sharing notes and convention war stories. People making up things on the fly or inspired by comics and movies of their time.

The internet has made the sharing of such things even easier.

So in that sense, no, nothing new is needed. But in that sense, Dungeons and Dragons 5^th edition itself was not needed. People already HAD games. People already HAD characters. People already HAD something.

But we have 5^th edition nonetheless.

So are there any reasons outside of a product being sold?

Ed Greenwood. How much money has Ed made for first TSR then WoTC with his creation, the Forgotten Realms, his personal works printed for the Forgotten Realms in both fiction and gaming line?

Ed did not spring whole cloth from the mind of Gary Gygax. He made his bones if you will, in the pages of Dragon magazine.

Ed is not the only one. There were many comics that either started out in Dragon or had a signal boost from being in the official magazine of Dungeons and Dragons. These range from classic comics like Wormy (sadly never completed) to more modern contemporaries like Order of the Stick.

Here at least Wizards of the Coast has been wise enough to allow others, like Scott of PvP, to use their properties to have stories. Scott does a great job in his comic Table Titans of a group playing in the Forgotten Realms. But would you know about that comic from The WoTC site?

Dragon magazine proved to be a fertile ground for many in terms of creators, comics, and artists. 

Larry Elmore and others may not have made their bones in Dragon and Dungeon, but such magazines didn’t hurt in getting eyes on their art.

Again though, there is this whole internet thing where people can see each other’s work on a much broader scale than previously so while the legitimacy of being published by the official makers of Dungeons and Dragons has its appeal, it’s not necessary. It’s another “Nice” thing.

It’s so “Nice” that Paizo has yearly competitions to see who the next “Superstar” will be. These contest draw a lot of attention to Paizo’s site and get people involved in the game in a way that only playing it does not.

Content: This is the era of content and content is king. Comic readers have had thousands of issues of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman, among others, but those characters are still being published, still being put through the paces. New foes and allies arriving with regular frequency.

Look at it from another perspective if you can. If Dungeons and Dragons 5^th edition is your first role playing game, and as a player, you enjoy the barbarian, sorcerer, or warlock, among others as a player, you’re using “new” content. Such classes were not originally part of the game.

Do you enjoy tielflings or dragonborn as core races? Again, not something that was part of the core prior to 4^th edition.

By this whole theory of “let the players make it”, the Player’s Handbook should only have included human, elf, and dwarf for races, and only cleric, fighter, magic user, and rogue for classes. Some would say go back further and only have cleric, fighter, and magic user as the rogue wasn’t part of the “original” game.

Do you get my drift? Your favorite part of the game may be one that’s new to it. And in so being new to it, there may be those who’ve played and would like to see their favorite thing return to the game. For example, me? I’d love to see psioncs hit 5^th edition.  While I have not enjoyed every edition’s versions of psioncis, I like it as a concept and enjoyed a lot of what was done in 3^rd and 4^th edition with it. Not having psionics in this edition is a strange thing to me.

For me, this is where the vast resources of 3^rd edition and 4^th edition make those games feel more ‘complete’ to me.

But you’re the Dungeon Master! You care not for these player bits. You have hundreds of monsters in the Monster Manual.

But do you enjoy the chaotic Slaad or the lawful Modron? These were not creatures that were originally in the 1^st edition Monster Manual. I know, I’m stretching it going back that far.

But the point is there are so many monsters that are different people’s favorites that Dragon magazine would be a good way to bring them to the game. There are numerous types of dragons ranging from ferrous and drakes, to gem dragons. There are numerous types of outsiders including elemental variants and demons and devils that haven’t been updated. Many of them are someone’s favorite.

And magic items? Wow. With the cap on magic items at +3 (which I’m sure we’ll see broken officially at some time), and other changes to how magic items work, having Dragon would allow a Bizarre of the Bazaar to make a return and update some of them. Perhaps not even necessarily on a one per one basis but some game design articles talking about how you COULD update the items.

Content: What? Again? Yes. I mention content again because I don’t go to the official site of Wizards of the Coast that often. Paizo on the other hand… Paizo breaks their site up into many parts. They have upcoming previews for new material. They have short stories that are free to read. They have showcases of what other companies are doing that they think are cool. There is a lot of interaction with the fan base.

Wizards of the Coast? Maybe I'm just missing it, but I found the site so poorly organized that when I tried to find images of their miniatures, I’m directed to other sites. WTF WoTC. WTF. If your own site is so lacking in regular content to draw readers to it, you will wither on the vine.

Content, new content, on a regular basis, is needed to give people a reason to come to your site every day. Sometimes multiple times a day to see if they missed anything previously.

To me? WoTC site for Dungeons and Dragons seems designed to act as a coming soon page with an occasional dip into an article like Unearthed Arcana. Perhaps I’m wrong and I’m not looking at it enough? Are there some hidden gems I've missed?

Nostalgia: Okay, this one is a nonsense listing for the most part. It’s a “Because I want it!” portion. But… but… there are probably STILL people angry that WoTC cancelled the print versions of the magazine. There are probably people upset that WoTC cancelled the electronic versions of the magazine. Maybe I should retitle this one “good will” as opposed to “Nostalgia”.

But there MUST be value in Nostalgia or WoTC wouldn't keep going back to the well. Elemental Evil? Really? Again?

Tiamat? Really? Again? Wasn't one of the adventure paths for 4^th edition Tiamat? Wasn't that based on Red Hand of Doom? What?

Nostalgia has power. It’s been a force in 2^nd edition. In 3^rd edition. In 4^th edition. In 5^th edition. Using well known names, events, characters, and other bits, showcases continuity between editions. It allows new people to play with old ideas. It gives readers who have never seen any of it before, opportunity to go down the rabbit hole and see how far it goes.

Variety: I like a lot of esoteric things in Dungeons and Dragons. I like a touch of technology for example. I was very happy to see that in the Dungeon Master's Guide. I enjoyed the Sheen, a race of robotic invaders from back in 2nd edition. I enjoy Psionics. I enjoy Ferrous Dragons and Linnorms. 

Not everyone does. For example, some people LOVE the two hardcover adventurers WoTC put out. I thought the basic adventure in the starter boxed set shamed those two books. To me, their useless. They are no-gratis products.

By having products like Dragon and Dungeon out back in the day, you were able to have something that probably hit your fancy. Rare was it that a whole issue was useless. Not impossible mind you but rare.

Time: Perhaps role playing in and of itself is a younger man’s game. Unlike say comics, books, movies, or other forms of entertainment that you can enjoy by yourself at your leisure, role playing is a group activity. It is one that requires a further chunk of your life. What does that mean?

If you work more than 40 hours, raise you hand.

If you have outside obligations, like taking care of a diabetic mother, a special needs child, your crack habbit,  raise your hand.

If you have a S/O or children, raise your hand.

If you have all those and still find time to game, raise your hand.

Now having done that, it’s nice to be able to sit back, grab a professionally edited magazine with some appealing art and go, “Man, I’m going to put that in my campaign.”

The days of spending hours, days, weeks, or longer on crafting the perfect dungeon or setting, are gone for many of those who've been playing the game for years and having content created for busy people is a very handy thing to show people, “Hey, Dungeons and Dragons, it’s the game that’s well supported so you can sit back and enjoy it” as opposed to “Hey, Dungeons and Dragons. You finished our boxed set starting adventure and hated the two hardcovers adventurers so make up everything from scratch now.”

And this is part of the problem. It’s not necessarily JUST a lack of the magazines. It’s a lack of resources. There are no official conversion documents. There are no official electronic tools. When such tools are put up on a fan site, they are requested to be taken down. For the most part, the core content has been allowed to roam free and the owner has closed the gates to go check on their more promising, profitable children.

I cannot blame WoTC for that. WoTC is a company and a subsidy of Hasbro. They need to show profit and need to show continual profit.

But again, that’s why I'm concerned that this edition of Dungeons and Dragons, will be the last. If you're the biggest fish in a pond too small to interest the corporate masters, your value is equal to that of the smallest fish.

I enjoyed the spirited debate that popped up last post. Be curious to see if people think I'm just smoking that lovely crack pipe or a little from column A and a little from column B.

Savage Sword of Conan Volume Nine

Dark Horse comics did fantasy fans, as well as comic fans, a huge service when they brought the old Savage Sword of Conan back into print. The only thing I question, as I usually do, is the choice of cover. It's not that this is a bad cover but rather that this volume includes a cover by artist Joe Jusko.

If I was publishing this? Oh yeah, that cover full color straight on.

Volume Nine has over five hundred pages of bone crushing action. Ernie Chan and John Buscema bring the Hyborian age to life like few before of after them. John in particular renders wide scenes that bring the reader fully into Conan's world.

While last volume introduced readers to the Devourer of Souls, here he makes his return. He is a glutton for turning men into worms so that they are easier to devour. His insatiable lust for souls thought, isn't his primary motivation. Rather, he desires to bring his people, a whole race of soul eaters, into Conan's world. The world that the Devourer of Souls hails from is low on this precious resource.

It's a good trick. To showcase someone hoarding something that they don't normally have access to. To show people who might have once been poor to eke out ever copper piece they can. To do work that others might not, even though they can afford not to do that work.

In this volume, the Devourer does manage to bring several of his kin to Conan's world. But even then, the Devourer himself stands different. It is he that wears the armor. It is he who has the winged helm and cape. It is he who uses magics to turn men into worms that may be devoured by his people.

He even names himself as Wrarrl of the Demon Helmet.

But whereas in the previous fight, Conan won through luck, this time, even as Conan initially is beaten down again by the Devourer, this time Conan actually has a plan. This time Conan is able to use deception to make the Devourer lower his guard.

There are also a few other colorful characters. While we get no Red Sonja and Conan this volume, we do get the Snow Raven. While mainly a thief, she's also no slouch with sword or bola and manages to get the upper hand on Conan not once, but twice in matters of thievery. Still, the last and final laugh of the issue goes to Conan who switches a bag of gems for a bag of stones.

While many of the standards here here, Conan being stronger than any man has a right to be, lasses and lords aplenty, there is some amusing banter as well.


"Good steel is scarce here! Give us your sword!"

"You've a fine sense of hmor Kushite! I admire that in a man!"

Then there's this little gem.

There are also numerous bits where Conan is working for one person, and the other people working for that person, are working against Conan's new employee and so Conan winds up facing double and sometimes triple betrayal as the person he's working for, seeing him kill the traitors, doesn't know that those were traitors and so casts Conan out!

There are also some reminders that Conan's era is far from civilized.

"I am but a poor priest of the Zambolian mysteries... why kill me?"

"Why not? You are old and blind and of no use to anyone!"

Yeah....

Be that as it may though, it does bring up some interesting scenarios. In one, Conan is offered a job as a palace guard but must "displace" one of the current members. Sounds almost like some of the old 1st edition Monk or Druid bits where there can only be so many of each rank.

To do this, Conan and another guard fight with staff on a stone bridge over a pit of long spears. To fall into the pit, the "Well of Spears", is to die. Suffice it to say it's not Conan who is knocked into the pit.

John Buscema, as usual, brings us into the world of the barbarian in it's vast scope. For example, the Temple of the Lion. The people who come it as mere ants before it's epic size. Men astride horses far far away form the temple and still, the temple looms like a mountain off in the distance.

As usual, there are a few choice bits for adventuring seeds that I think I'll steal.

Conan brings a fence an item of some small worth. The fence needs light to see it and appraise it right? Turns out that light in the window is an alert to guards who come by to capture those that the fence sells out in exchange for turning a blind eye to other things the fence does. That whole candle in the window bit is classic but I'll be damned if I've used it more than a handful of times in 20+ years of role playing.

In another tale, Conan's and his shipmates are lost at sea and tossed onto land. Here they come across a wicked queen whose cruelty to her people inspire rebellion. In exchange for plunder, of course Conan and his men are all too happy to help.

On one hand, the queen indulges the worst aspects of her court. There are orgies, gladiatorial combat, both against man against man, and man against beast, as well as outright slayings of people to savage apes.

On the other, the queen isn't actually human and those who've supposedly laid with her, well, they've been turned into demons that were ready to turn the town into a bloodhouse before Conan gets there and seals them in the labyrinth.

The use of illusion and other magic to take the form of an appealing enemy is a simple one. It's one I've used quite frequently because I swear despite almost everyone in my group being 40+ years old they still think they're in high school.

That use of illusion though goes both ways. For example, in one story, when Conan is washed upon shore, he is asked to kill a sorcerer who is keeping Kiriandra, a sorceress prisoner. Turns out that sorceress thought, isn't a real woman, but rather, a thing that the sorcerer created so that when Conan kills the sorcerer, she returns to a state of inhumanity

The Savage Sword of Conan is always a nice visual feast. At it's 500 pages, it's a great bargain. It's inclusion of monsters from various parts of the world into its own mythology to craft monsters powerful enough to challenge Conan, entertaining. If you're a fan of fantasy and a role player, these classics may not all have aged well, but there's a lot to find enticing about them.

Savage Sword of Conan Volume Eight

The Savage Sword of Conan Volume Eight brings further adventures of Conan's time at Marvel as a magazine back into print thanks to the efforts of Dark Horse Comics.

The physical version clocks in at 500 pages. Yeah, it's a lot of barbarian in black and white for the money. We get art from many of the classic masters of the time including Gil Kane, John Buscema, and Ernie Chan among others.

Speaking of Ernie:

Ernie captures Conan quite well and I wish he'd been able to do more work in the main body of work itself. Still, I'm not going to look down on John or the others for their fantastic efforts.

This volume has a little something extra to it for me. On one hand, it's Conan. You know that it's going to have a lot of the standard features:

1. Conan is going to get sucker punched and knocked out at least once.

2. Conan is going to get captured and escape, at least once.

3. Conan is going to have many amorous companions.

But push past all that, and we actually have a thing rare for Conan. Enemies who survive more than one encounter with the barbarian.

This volume introduces us to the Devourer of Souls. This is one character that Marvel thought so impressive, that they brought a major storyline around him in the regular comic. He's also one of the few people to simply beat Conan down.

The bad news here? Is Conan is saved by outside agency. This to me defeats the purpose of Conan being overwhelmed by his foe because he is not responsible for saving himself. He doesn't have a trick. He doesn't have a plot. He doesn't use brain or strategy. Instead he essentially gets lucky.

It's like if the Game Master was like, "Man, I've rolled a lot of 20's here... The villain decides to move on and finish you off later!"

This is quite the contrast to Conan's encounter with Darius. With Conan's assistance, Darius finds three magical items, Gauntlets, Armor, and a Bow. All are vastly powerful. With them, Darius turns on Conan and almost kills the barbarian. In the rematch, Conan does use wit and maneuvering to finish off Darius. That's a nice change of pace.

Another new foe introduced, who we will see again, is Konar. The 'flip' to Konar is that he's Conan, or at least, a Conan or another world. The 'real' Conan finds himself dragged through the multiverse through a gap and when he arrives in his new world, much like one of the old Planetary Romances, is under a world with different suns. The country this Konar rules? Aquiloria. Sound familiar?

Conan fits in well but his counter eventually returns and the two battle. Conan sees no profit in fighting Konar to the death and retreats.

It's another case where the authors use outside influence to make things easier for the barbarian. I can see the player's and GM going, "Is this getting lame or is it just me? Alright, let's get back to the standard setting."

Surprisingly another villain returns. THis time it's Captain Bor'aqh Sharaq, a barachian corsair. Last seen being dragged into hell. He manages to escape and bring with him a powerful weapon but this being the Savage Sword of Conan not the Savage Sword of Sharaq, while it proves useful, it does not grant him that victory. Still, it was nice to see a foe make a series of returns. It gives a little more sense of continuity to the series.

One of the things I enjoy about this mammoth volumes, is that they often have a lot of ideas that would make for great adventurers.

The Gamesmen of Asgalun: Two 'brothers' are addicted to gambling and set the barbarian off on a wild goose chase to see if he'll succeed or die on their bet. Much like Trading Places in its simplicity.

Isle of the Hunter: Conan is taken to an isle guarded by a monstrous defender and is then hunted by the lord of that island for sport. Another commonly used theme seen in such as The Most Dangerous Game. This adaptation is made more complicated by those who hunt Conan from the mainland in addition to twins. Nothing is ever easy for the barbarian.

Spartacus: Top Five Reasons To Play Gladiators

Watching Spartacus, there are a lot of gladiators. There are a lot of tales told about specific gladiators before one even sets foot in the arena.

There are gladiators who are visually designed to appeal to both the crowd and in a meta sense, the viewers. 

For gaming, gladiators can be broken down into a few different venues.

1. Colorful Names: The Undefeated Gaul! The Shadow of Death! Gladiators are colorful champions and they have names that reflect that need. These names can be a combination of homeland and status or a fearsome name designed to strike fear into enemies. Spartacus own name isn't his name mind you but it is the name of an ancient Thracian king.

2. Variety of Characters: The show includes a wide range of characters from different ethnic backgrounds. These include almost anyone of the ancient world ranging from Gaul, Roman, Thracian, Assyrian, and others. This melting pot of different characters allows players to select from a wide variety of racial origins without having to over think "Why on earth is this dragon born here?"

3. Variety of Weapons and Fighting Styles: Spartacus and the former "God of the Arena" are both masters of the two sword fighting style. Others are masters of spear and shield or trident and net. An arena is the perfect place to have characters wield those odd weapons that might not make sense in a more conventional setting.

4. Variety of Enemies: The types of foes that gladiators encounter ranges from other gladiators to captured beasts. In a fantasy setting, this can be changed up dramatically with constructs built specifically to battle the gladiators or to train them. It can include summoned creatures brought forth to test the gladiator's mettle. It may also include the odd wanderer who fancies himself an unstoppable swordsman who needs a little money and so signs up for an encounter.

5. Patrons: By having characters fight in an arena, chances are they may have patrons that sponsor their fights are award them when they win. This provides the Game Master with a quick "In" as to why the players are fighting. Patrons with ambitions that go beyond gladiator arenas may have other odd jobs for their skilled men at arms and may have them act as bodyguards, fight in underground arenas or even act as thug and assassin when needed.