Over The Wire

Over the Wire is Darkson Designs' periodic newsletter featuring updates, frequently asked questions, and new rules and previews for their core games including AE: WWII and AE: Bounty. In addition it has been known to feature material for Pulp City.

I have just submitted an article I hope may make it into a future issue (watch this space if it does), but in the mean-time thought I would draw attention to some of those those OTW issues with Pulp City content.

Issue 7, Sept/Oct 2008
Including all the rules you will need to have Pulp City Supremes battle in the AE-WWII universe.

Issue 15, May/June 2010
Includes trial rules for superheroes in games of AE-WWII.

Issue # 20 April/May 2011
Pulp Monsters’ very own Beermonkey talks about Minions in your Pulp City games, and a Pulp City campaign.

Pixels/Megapixel (Vector)

First off, sorry for the dearth of new minis lately. Stuff is in progress, have no fear, but still apologies!

I painted these things up very quickly recently, after receiving them through the post from fellow gamer and Pulp City fan Hendybadger (thanks Ian!). His generosity reminds me of just how decent the gaming community is on the whole, so cheers to him for sending these my way.

As usual, click to embiggenify the pictures.

Ian had them custom-made by Fenris Games and I believe had a similarly positive experience to my own when getting custom stuff made.

Pixels/Megapixel is a weird little Resource exclusively available for Vector. Unlike other Resources it has no Resource cost; it kind of behaves like a renewable Minion, yet is not treated as a Minion card. It can be a struggle struggle to get the absolute best out of Pixels, since they are mainly about resource (note the lower case 'r' resource here) management, as well as game-management of Vector. Please find my own Vector Tactica here.

I have not used them too much myself of late, simply as I was using paper glued to round bases as representations. Now with these finished, expect to see more of Vector, his Pixels and Megapixel.

Zombies...At The Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer

On my more 'general minis hobbying' blog (the Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer), I will be posting various examples of zombies I have recently painted (to be featured in the upcoming Battle Report). I mention it here because I can see a lot of these walking dead seeing use in future Pulp City games, either as Zombies Resources (which can be fielded in heavy numbers with Necroplane Supremes) and/or as self-created Minions.

No Longer Mighty - The New Crusaders

Not much on the minis front right now as the (lower) Pulp Citizen Cave has been recently co-opted as a store-room for bedroom furniture as the main bedroom has been decorated. So the only stuff I have managed was brief and modelling base (preparing some bases for Monsters; 80 mm Fenris recessed round-shoulders as the basis) and basing up some Pixels kindly given to me by Hendybadger (more on those in due course!).

So in lieu of minis and modelling (I have been able to pitch in some writing and development bits and bobs in that time...), back to one of the reasons why Pulp City was such a big draw for me: comic book superheroes. Now in tone Pulp City probably reflects much of the tone from the big two over the last decade or so, but as I grow older, I find my comic-book reading sensibilities are actually changing so that I yearn for simpler, less gory, less sexually-suggestive fayre on the whole. And DC in particular are not aiming in the same direction. Marvel I find strangely more recognisable.

So it was with a warm smile that I saw news that one of my favourite comic book properties (see posts here and here) is making a come-back, and seemingly with a tone to my liking. The Mighty Crusaders are giving way to the New Crusaders, and it looks good to me.

It appears that the new stuff will be in digital format first, with the possibility of print collections later (if understand a source of mine correctly). So pleasing all around. Yes, purist may baulk, but I have to say this is the kind of thing I could really like, so happy times even as my other comics reading diminishes (DC for example).

Welcome

Another hearty 'welcome' going out, this time to wardy-la, who to look at his own blog links is a pretty prolific minis and gaming blogger. I know I will be Following his Level 2, A Project Too Far and The Dead Hate The Living blogs for a start.

Thanks for signing up wardy-la and hopefully you interest will be repaid. Cheers!

Welcome

Another 'welcome' goes out, this time to Joe B. Joe is known elsewhere as Dr. Mono, and is a games designer. Most intriguingly for me as a minis fan and a comic book superheroes fan, Joe. B. has been working on a project called Superhuman, which will be a miniatures battles game. All good. I am watching the progress of that with interest, and in the meantime I appreciate the time Joe B. has taken to sign up as a Follower here. Thanks again for doing so, Joe B.

On the subject of 'other' superhero miniatures games, there looks to be potential growth in the area. Of course current offerings include Pulp City, Supersystem (3 editions so far) and Heroclix. A related offering which may be of use to gamers looking for a system to suit their tastes is Atomic Super Humans, a game intended for use with action figures, but surely useful for smaller scaled minis with a moderate amount of tweaking.

And further out on the horizon is the aforementioned Superhuman and also Power Legions from Ganesha Games (the guys behind the various Song of... games amongst others).

So while Pulp City remains my preferred choice, for other gamers with interest in the area it looks like choices will hopefully continue to grow.

Making Some "Albino Gator's Curse" 'Tokens'

Albino Gator's Curse is one of Francis Gator's Exclusive Actions. It creates an area of his home swamp on the Playing Field that lasts for the rest of the game.

Of course I could mark the area with bits of paper or what-not, but I really fancy making a few elaborate Tokens to represent the areas of terrain (which are 3 inch radius areas!).

I have cut myself some discs to size, and as an alternative have ordered some 150mm blank round-lip bases from Fenris (not quite perfect size but close enough!).

Now I have to fill up the blighters (whether I choose the discs or bases) with swampy looking stuff. I plan on making undulations and sanding the bits of ground, while filling the area with wet effect stuff. The thing is with such big areas (I plan to do several of these!) I would love to add suitably swampy decoration (without going too overboard) simply to help bolster the visual appearance.

I have some bits in my box, but was wondering if you guys have suggestions for stuff I can add. Cheers.