It's Satyr Day

I've painted up 6 Satyrs and 1 juggler (free bonus with my order from Turnkey Miniatures).  I know Marlon won't be here tomorrow, but I'm ready for him now.

Not Wasting a Snow Day

Home from work today, finished my re-ordering of the game room:

Top:  multi-colored bin-shelf is now dedicated to mostly paper, tokens, templates and office supplies.

Bottom:  the metal shelf unit is almost all terrain/buildings
Plastic shelf is painting equipment and a grab bag of other stuff.  Books and old campaigns piled up by the wall.   There's some clear space along the inside wall!

I reorganized the miniatures shelves a bit, getting the fantasy all on the right set, the historical on the left.   And organized the fantasy arrangement a bit.  

I packed up Krondor and put 5e books on second shelf of low book case.  Top shelf has the Tnranconia campaign and the appropriate books.

I even edited the pencil cans, fresh sharpened pencils at the ready, dead pens and markers thrown away.

My only fear is that since it's a snow storm and it's also garbage day, something will go wrong with collection, and I've kinda filled the garbage can to the top.

I'm not a hoarder

I've been reorganizing the game room and moving stuff into the multicolored shelf deal.  I could not believe how many packs of index cards I found.  If I were aware of how many I had stashed, it would be some sort of sign of mental illness.  The notebook paper supply and pile of prong folders weren't far behind.

But, I'm not a hoarder.  Honestly.  I threw out a bunch of the stuff unbidden, all by myself.  It's just an accidental accumulation, not a compulsion.

Battle of the Gnome King's Gold

2 armies of about 120 men each brawl for possession of the Gnome King's Lost Gold

1) The Blue Army's Knights and Armored Pikes engage a small unit of Red Army's Plate-Armored Swordsmen

2) The Red Army's Knights Advance between the central hill and a grove of trees

3)  Tangled Melee between Red Army's Light Cavalry and the Blue's armored halberd men and light spear men

Norman Knights and Armored Pikes

Although I had been tied up and busy, I did manage to get a few miniatures painted the last 3 weeks,

First, 8 dismounted Norman Knights:

Second, a squad of armored Late Medieval pikemen

Here's a photo of them both together

Since my phone camera is still kind of messed up, here's a big thank you to daughter Katie for the photos.

The wager

I've had an idea about a process to allow characters to do heroic feats during the game.

For most things, I intend to use the following scheme:

• If something is not particularly hard, a character can just do it.
• If something could be done by an average guy about half the time, roll d20 and get equal or less than the appropriate ability score. Example: push open stuck door, d20 roll STR.
• If an average probably couldn't do it, but might get lucky and pull it off, roll d100 and get equal to or less than appropriate ability score.  Lift portcullis,  roll d100 vs. STR.

So far so good.   But, what if the player wants to try something odd.   Here's where "The Wager" comes in.  The character  proposes a wager.   He offers up some negative consequences in exchange for a chance to do something outside the rules.   The DM has to accept the terms, and then a roll is made.  On these wagers, PC cannot spend Fate Chips for re-rolls, ever.

Example:  player wants to throw a dagger to cut a rope.  This is virtually impossible.   Proposes a wager:   "I'm using my +1 dagger, If I fail the throw, my dagger flies out of sight and I lose it forever.  Since the player is risking a magic item, DM rules that he can make a d20 DEX check to succeed.  

Suppose he doesn't have a magic dagger to risk.  He could wager a "Fate Chip" instead.   Since these are much more common, DM might rule that this is  a D100 DEX check needs to be made.  If this seems too unlikely, the PC might try to up the wager to 2 Fate Chips and the character will fall down and loose a turn if the check is changed to a d20 DEX.

Initiate of a god

I'm tentatively adding a "Initiate of a god" feature to the Blueholme game.   If you character agrees to become initiated in one of the temples it gives him 2 benefits:

1. Stat Bonus:  each god has 1 of the six ability scores associated with him/her.  If you are initiated, the stat associated with the god is increased by 1 for the character.
2. Own temple:  if you want to buy a healing potion, and you buy it from the temple of the god to whom you are initiated, you get the potion for the lower, "own temple" rate (which is just over the cost accrued to the temple for making it).

Being an initiate has a down side.   If a priest of your god gives you a command during a session and your spurn it, you suffer an exp. penalty.  If you do that 3 times, you are kicked out of the club.

I don't have a "price list" for casting spells at the temple, but when I do, initiates will pay a lower rate and have a better chance of getting a spell cast than non-initiates too.