Hobbystreak 2020

A few folks online are doing this #hobbystreak challenge thing (I first saw it on the Crafts & Mini's YouTube channel) - where the aim is to do something miniatures related every single day ...and see how long you can keep it up.

It doesn't need to be anything special - for example it can be something as simple as priming or basing a mini ...just as long as it's something each and every day.

So, since I seem to have an ever increasing pile of unpainted mini's I thought I'd give it a go :)

And (as you'll see in the pictures that follow) I've just about managed to keep it going everyday this year (though sometimes my 'days work' really was just sticking some tufts to a base, or similar).

Anyway here's January's progress...

Week 1:

The larger mini's are Reaper Bones 'saproling warriors' and the smaller ones are old WotC 'twig blights'

Week 2:

Left: Reaper Bones 'demi-lich' (which I'll be using as a flameskull). Right: Ral Partha Europe 'wraith' (which I'll be using as a lich).

Week 3:

Reaper Bones 'dread wolves' (it's not the best pic of these - they actually look a tiny bit better IRL).

Week 4:

These are five of the undead models from #1 of that cheap 'Mortal Realms' magazine that was on sale the other week here in the UK (£2.99 for 13 GW models ...so it was a hard deal to turn down).

Anyway, that's 14 models painted in 4 weeks ...which is pretty good going for me. And the plan is to also stat out any monsters that I don't have rules for HERE.

So, here's hoping you like 'em ...and here's hoping you're managing to put a dent in your own unpainted stockpile (yeah, we all have one ;) ).

Print & Paste Terrain : Irregular Passages & Circular Rooms

The latest print & paste video is live!!!

As you can see, in this one I've had a go at making some forked passages, round rooms, and so on - just to add even more variety to the layouts that we can make.

Anyway, as always, I've uploaded the pdf file to DriveThruRPG as a pay-what-you-want download (so feel free to pick it up for free -or- throw a small donation my way if you feel so inclined), and here's hoping that you can put them to good use!

Just another podcast ...Season 2 - Episode 1

I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with these, but I've kind of got into the habit of recording a segment or two each Saturday morning ...so I think I'll stick with it for a while (and now that I'm actually gaming again, I might have something more interesting to say).

(note that the podcast should be displayed below ...but HERE's the direct link if you prefer)




SHOW NOTES

0:00 Intro.

0:12 Call-in from Che (from Roleplay Rescue).

0:42 Random Dungeon (HERE is my blog post, and HERE is the pdf).

3:06 Miniatures Rant.

6:42 Rant Addendum (HERE is my travelling GMs kit)

7:48 Plans for 2020. Note that I didn't get to the games store/venue in the end :(

• YouTube competition
• Crafts & Minis channel
• The D&D 'undead' adventure I'm working on
• VTT map library
• UK Games Expo

12:35 Outro

Note that you can send me a message by logging into anchor and using the mic on your computer, or by using anchor app on your phone, or you can just send in an mp3 file to csp.kris@hotmail.co.uk.

Alternatively, just drop me a regular email (or comment on this blog post, or send me a message on facebook, or whatever), and I'll read it out on the podcast (just make sure you mark it as 'podcast mail' so that I know to include it).

Make your own stirge miniatures.

Back in December, I started playing around with an idea that I had to make a bunch of stirge miniatures (if you've been following me via any of the social media platforms you might have already seen this pic)...

...and a few folks seemed to like them - so I've gone ahead and made another video tutorial (to show you how to put them together)...

...and I've also uploaded the pdf file to DriveThruRPG as a pay-what-you-want download (so feel free to pay as much or as little as you like).

Now, they're obviously not as good (or as durable) as regular/proper miniatures ...but if you need a whole bunch of them for an upcoming encounter/adventure, then they should do the job.

Anyway, here's hoping you like 'em :)

Some of the 'print & paste' highlights from 2019

I said that I would follow up my last post with a similar article about the print & paste stuff that's been appearing on the youtube channel ...so here goes...

So, I think the channel has gained around 3000 subscribers over the course of the year (which is pretty amazing if you ask me), and most of the responses and feedback I've been receiving have been super positive.

I mean sure, there's always going to be a downvote or two (and the occasional snarky comment will surface every now and again) - but that's just the nature of youtube, and is to be expected (or at least, that's what I'm telling myself :) ).

Plus, the regular dungeon terrain has expanded to include sewers...

...papercraft(ish) miniatures and player handouts...

...sci-fi tiles and terrain (though this is still very much in its infancy)...

...multi level dungeons...

...and I've also teamed up with SquareHex again to produce more sheets of textures that you can buy (at a very affordable price) - instead of having to print everything out at home...

So yeah, it's been a busy year on the youtube front - though I've still not got as much stuff done as I had hoped (filming and editing videos takes up a huge amount of time ...not to mention all the design work) ...but it's been (mostly) fun nonetheless - and there's still lots more to come.

Furthermore, the channel is getting pretty close to 5000 subscribers now ...and I'll be doing another giveaway when I get to 5K ...so you might want to keep your eye open for that.

Anyway, a huge thanks goes out to everyone that subscribed, commented, and got in touch or sent pictures of their builds (via social media etc.) ...it really has been a great experience thus far :)

Thanks again!

All of the (VTT style) map tiles from 2019

Well, now that 2019 is behind us, I thought I'd write a short article to show off all of the tiles that I created last year - thanks to the support of my kind patrons (without whom, I probably wouldn't have got nearly as much done).

Anyway, the main focus for 2019 was 'caves' (you can find the full size images HERE by the way) ...and over the course of the year I managed to get all of the basic cave tiles finished...

...which, as you can see, includes:

• Small chambers with various exits.
• Large chambers that can be pieced together from multiple tiles.
• Tunnels/passages/dead-ends of various shapes and sizes.
• A few cave 'assets' that can be placed on top of the tiles to add a bit more variety.

Plus, if you take a look at the maps on the right hand side of the above picture, I also managed to squeeze in a few 'feature caverns' that can be used for specific encounters.

So, with all those done, we can now build nice 'little' cave maps that look something like this:

However, it's also worth mentioning that I did manage to get a few dungeon tiles (and one transitional tile) done as well ...as can be seen in the image below:

So yeah, that's another year's worth of maps done, and I've added them to the growing library of over 300 tiles (found HERE) ...which contains all of the (VTT style) maps that I've drawn over the past three years.

But what's next I hear you ask? (or is that just the voices in my head ;) ) ...well, to start things off, I think I'm going to concentrate on more 'feature caverns' and 'assets' for a little while - as I think that will really help to add some variance to the type of maps we can piece together.

So, all that's left to do is repeat my thanks to those of you that support this little ongoing project* over on Patreon, and to wish you all a happy new year. Here's hoping that 2020 will be a good one!

*along with my print & paste stuff ...there'll be

a separate post about that a little later on.