Pirate Borg returns for the new year

The lads finally got together for the new year to venture once more into the Dark Caribbean for Pirate Borg. In the previous gaming session, the lads finally eradicated the feral goblin threat to Port Nelson in brutal but efficient manner.

As we kicked off the new year's adventures, the lads finished taking stock of the booty they had discovered. The Captain had found the shrunken head of Lucky Jack in one of the goblin's tents. Jack was known to the Captain, the two having served together on a pirate ship some years before the PC's awoke as skeletal Haunted Souls. Jack had headed off on some wild goose chase regarding a mysterious treasure map and some buried treasure.

The Captain had thought the man mad. But it turned out that the treasure was real. Jack had found it, and clearly the feral goblins had found Jack. Lucky Jacks treasure had been placed as an offering to the feral goblin's idol. Now that treasure was the PC's to have. The Captain rolled a 99 on the d100 Buried Treasure table. That nabbed them a wooden box with 24 stacks of 20 gold coins (500s each) and 6 loaded flintlocks.

As they argued over how best to drag that lot back to Port Nelson, suddenly the idol was thrown to the ground and a giant roar bellowed from the gathering darkness. The lads looked up in shock to see the following...

Out of the darkness charged a Giant Freaking Zombie Gorilla Abomination, or GFZGA for short [side note, this miniature is from Zombicide].

I expected the lads to run off into the gathering darkness like frightened girls, but they chose to stand and fight like the men they once were. And fight they did. The battle lasted ages and the lads barely survived. They were aided by the fickleness of my dice, that rolled many '1's, whilst they themselves were blessed with many a critical hit. Eventually they brought the beast down. Only for it to fall on top of one of the PC's. As they struggled to pull him out from the beasty, the darn thing reanimated and it was on again for a second round. This time, they finally properly killed it, and it promptly fell back on top of the same hapless PC as before.

So, it was now dark, the night sky illuminated by brilliant starlight but the land around them was pitch black. Climbing a tree, one of the PC's spotted a fiery glow off in the distance. Thinking it to be Port Nelson, they stumbled through the night, lost their way, climb a tree, reoriented themselves, and headed off again. Eventually they crested a stream embankment to enter another clearing. This time they found that they were in a village where the only solid structure still standing, and not on fire, was the Church at the opposite end of the clearing.

Movement caught their attention and they noticed slow moving villages heading towards them. The shuffling and moaning soon gave away that these were not well individuals, and the group found themselves about to be surrounded by Zombies. The Captain and one of the lads ran for the church and just manages to avoid the grasping hands to make it inside the building. One of the lads climbed a tree and began doing what he does best, blowing the bejesus out of one zombie after another. But there were many of them and the lads were hard pressed to suppress the threat. One of the lads chose again to stand his ground and took off his back Bianca (his beloved ship anchor) and started swinging away. He managed to crush as few heads as the others fired shot after shot, hoping to hit the zombies in the head.

Run Captain, ruuuun!

The zombie threat finally removed, the lads gathered in the church. It was still night, and the only illumination within was from prayer candles over in one corner of the building. It was then that the lads noticed the priest, nine young ladies and their cadre of children, for all the noise of the battle had drowned out any other noises within. Some hasty talk managed to convince the priest that, although they were no saints, they were certainly not a threat to the survivors gathered there. By the morning, the survivors had come to realise that, by God's providence, these strange protectors were sent to save them.

The priest told the lads that a black mist had descended on the village and soon many of the villagers became ill and suddenly violent and horrific to behold. This was only two nights before and the survivors had gathered in the church hoping for a chance to escape. That chance had now come. The lads dutifully escorted the survivors back to Port Nelson where the "civilised" pirate Orc's were then convinced by the Captain that having more people around would help Port Nelson to not just survive but perhaps become a solid little trading hub. A bunch of humans running around wasn't much to their liking, but they were finally in agreeance that the Captain was right.

And so, our game came to a close for the evening and the PC's began to think of how, once more, they might possibly find their lost ship.

The Ghostbusters - character cards for Pulp Alley

So, if you're going to play a campaign of Ghostbusters using the Pulp Alley rules, you're going to need Ghostbusters. Here's my take on the gents.

The Ghostbusters are a League of Legends and so all four are Sidekicks at Level 3. Based on the scenario the leadership of the group will be handed around to whichever Ghostbuster leads the team based on the scenario conditions.

All I need to do now is finish painting off the Zombicide minis for these gents.

Ghostbusting rules for Pulp Alley - Who you gonna call?

Happy New Year everyone.

Well, I have finally finished the draft of my campaign rules for Pulp Alley Ghostbusters. I have a scenario game almost ready to play test these draft rules as well. Just need to paint a few more miniatures.

But why not share it and let you give it a try as well, if you like.

So, hope it all makes sense and you like it. I drafted the campaign rules very much with the Ghostbusters video game and movies in mind. It has options for using the four main settings for the proton pack from the game, a variety of new ghostly Abilities for ghosts, and rules for capturing ghosts. So, feel free to give it a try. 

Cheap and easy rubble terrain

 

Easy and cheap rubble

I had some MDF bases floating around and some unused sponge and so I decided to give a go at making rubble terrain pieces for use on the tabletop for both wargaming and role-playing games. The first of the finished pieces can be seen above and below.

The process was very simple. So simple, in fact, that a numpty like me was able to do it. I cut the foam into blocks to represent worked stone blocks. Then I added to that some small river stones I had floating around somewhere. You could use thick cardboard for the base but make sure it won't warp first. MDF is better in my opinion. I then smothered the stones and foam in White/PVA glue.

After a few minutes, I then added river sand across the base to add to the rubble effect.

Below, the foam blocks were arranged to make the base of a ruined tower. In this manner, you could make a larger structure stone by stone. However, I wanted this to block partial line of sight whilst permitting ranged attacks over the ruined wall, so I kept it to a low profile.

Below is a fake stone that I bought from a $2 Dollar store. The stone has a hole in the base so you can hide a spare key in it. I wanted it for a large boulder. Once again, the river stones add to the rubble effect, and I'll add sand later to the base.

I mixed some White/PVA glue with water and brushed it over the foam in order to harden it. This took about 24hrs to dry. I did this a few times to get all the foam blocks hardened.

Painting the finished result was simple. A basecoat of black spray followed by a grey spray lightly over that black undercoat whilst it was still wet to blend the colours. I then followed this up with a drybrush of lighter grey and added some straw from an old doormat to make it look like some grass had grown between the rubble then died.

And there you have it. Cheap, easy, simple.

Pulp Alley cards for Animated Ornaments and a Cranky Chrissy Tree

 You better watch out. You better not cry...but you can run in fear though.

Animated Ornaments powered by PKE

And a VERY cranky Christmas Tree. This one is a Construct that must have its Christmas Star atop the tree wrangled from it in a Ghost Wrangling Challenge (more on that when I finish the campaign rules) in order to take it Out.

I've almost finished the campaign rules. I'll post those when they are done and that will clear up some of the weird things on the creature cards.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum...

"O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, how faithful are your leaves!" Wow, watch out for this one. He doesn't look too happy.

This cranky bugger is another one of the War in Christmas Village miniatures. Now that Christmas is over for another year :( I can understand why he may be a little upset.

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by in 2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Micah 5:2 & 4 (NIV)

² “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

    though you are small among the clans^[a] of Judah,

out of you will come for me

    one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

    from ancient times.”

⁴ He will stand and shepherd his flock

    in the strength of the Lord,

    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they will live securely, for then his greatness

    will reach to the ends of the earth.

Footnotes

^aMicah 5:2 Or rulers

This year has flown by so quickly. I can't believe that its Christmas Eve here and the year is closing out. I feel very blessed to be able to enjoy our hobby and take time to paint fantastic miniatures, play games, and game master a great role-playing group for five (including myself) nerds from churches across the city, with occasional drop-ins to bolster their numbers.

My long-suffering wife tolerates our antics (and the money I spend on the hobby). The stories that the lads make when we dive into an adventure surprise me in how they literally stumble through failure into success on every adventure. Its nuts. And occasionally maddening. Especially when that take out the Boss in one or two rounds of combat.

So, from my family to yours. May you have a wonderful, safe, blessed, peaceful, and joyful Christmas. God bless us, one and all!