A Bit of Light Figure Painting – You Scurvy Knave!

Some Words of Humble Apology

Foolishly I promised “uploads a-go-go” so to speak in a recent post on the topic of rolling up new player characters. That’s because I’ve been on leave from work and thought I’d do nothing but work on the game and the site, but of course that has been a silly, unrealistic thought. I have in fact done relatively little work on the game except for some more mostly ongoing scenario prep work on the game world.  This relates to the current scenario I am running for the playtest (an adapted Greyhawk Campaign scenario) so I won’t publish anything on this work until the relevant game sessions are complete.  So, sorry for the lack of content flood.  You can stand down that Ark. I will be running a campaign session for the playtesters  this very evening – so we will  at least find out how things are proceeding with our would-be heroes in the city of Lankhmar.

I have done some light figure painting today. It’s been a while since I’ve wielded a paint brush in anger. I’ve bought some recently from my favourite gaming emporium and RP club, Wargamers Heaven, along with a splendid Chessex Vinyl Table-top RP gaming mat (and that’s a switz-swoo bit of kit I can recommend to any DM). I’ve finally got round to daubing some paint on, so here’s a first effort at a return to figure painting. (Cue, drum roll). He is clearly a salty sea-dog  type from the quay side of the city of Lankhmar judging from his cutlass type sword and eye-patch.

Figure Painting and Roleplaying

You scurvy knave! Get off my lawn!

I’m probably not the best figure painter in the universe, but I do enjoy daubing my collection. This is just a stock NPC type for the city. I’ve used water-based acrylics for this little chappy. A little glue was used on the over-coat to act as varnish and give it a ‘wet’ texture which hasn’t come out too clearly in this highly squashed into a jpeg image. Well, you can just make out some of the sheen on the right shoulder. The grass around his feet is a little sprinkled parsley. I can recommend herbs like parsley as a good grass substitute. Dried tea bags produce leaves that are also good grass/dirt clumping substitutes for your figure bases.

Painting figures is a treat as a DM; for me anyhow. I also like to create, as you  may know from a prior post or two, gaming props like the olde phial of magic potion and dioramas. I am working on a gaming board for this current campaign – which will be a key location ‘modeled’ into a combat board. This is admittedly only in the conceptual stage so far as I have to make it fit into the series of scenarios/modules that are being run. It will be a centrepiece for the campaign at a later date.

I love using figures. It means you have to collect a lot to try and represent all the various beasties and opponents that your group will come across in gaming – but it’s worth it. Having some figures plonked down upon a floor-plan focuses the mind of the players and DM on the task at hand. It helps with the combat sequences and dispels arguments (and creates others). Mainly I find it helpful as a concentration focus. It puts gaming attention somewhere tangible, and is a place to redirect player’s attentions when they are wandering for whatever reason. Sometimes you need something concrete with your players (and yourself as DM) to ground everything, when you’ve had long bouts of description, dialogue and imaginative roleplay.

Some physical gaming objects (like props), floorplans, maps  etc are helpful to use when your descriptive powers or interactive powers are flagging and wearing thin. So, don’t neglect the possibilities afforded by drawing out a floorplan of where your party are, bunging some figures on the plan if there is some puzzle or logistical problem to work out to help focus everybody’s minds. It can help divert their attention whilst you work out, as a DM, what on earth to do next. Physical props or plans create a talking point that can give you space to think as a DM and marshall your forces so to speak. I typically have a prop in the wings just for this purpose. It’s also a fun activity creating these bits and pieces to wheel out in your game and as good as reason as any to get your crafty, creative side going to enhance your roleplay.