Oops, getting 'way too alliterative up there.
This weekend I spent half of Saturday at the RPGNet Games Day at EndGame in Oakland, California. We probably had two dozen people in and out while I was there, unfortunately, most of them seemed to be Games Industry people, rather than "mere" gamers or the public.
I ran a Heroquest game for two nice gentlemen that had never played before - one had heard of Glorantha, but that was about it. We had a good time with a Dinosaur Safari to Darkest Dragon Pass, followed by the expedition's return to Glamour. They both liked the system, and appreciated the fact that the same system that governed combat (and allowed Moby Dino, the Great White Triceratops, to smash Allanus Quartus into a red paste with a Crit-Fumble on a 20-point bid (Bump downs are nasty!) ) could also cover Scholarly Wrangling at the Glamour University (where a Fumble-Fail result ended up with a Prof. Challenger-Prof. Summerlee debate at the three year old level of: "Is so!" "Is not!"). Unfortunately, I had to leave before the afternoon sessions, as I had an appointment on the other side of town.
I picked up some figures while I was there (me? In a game store and not pick up something? I think not!)
Figure 1: A lovely Lunar Priestess wielding two long curved knives (suitable
for an unarmored Taraltaran martial artist). This is a Mordheim figure from
Games Workshop, item number 8805D, Sigmarite Augur.
(http://us.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.us, search for "Sigmarite",
the Augur is in the "Bitz" section).
She wears a long dress with a halter top. Around her neck is a stole/scarf,
and a small pouch hangs at her waist. She wields two large curved knifes,
nearly shortswords. He head is shaved except for a long braid at the base of
her skull. Her right arm has all sorts of bangle bracelets, while her left
has only a arm ring on her upper arm, and a wrist band. She is barefoot. I'
ve liked this figure ever since I saw her in the Mordheim rulebook, but
previously I had only ever seen her in a boxed set for 'way too much money
(at $5.99, she was still a bit too expensive for my tastes, but I bought her
anyway).
She stands about 30mm Sole-to-eyes, and 45mm to the tip of her upraised knife. There are some obvious mold lines that will need erasing with a file and hobby knife, and some tags of extra metal on the knives that come off easily. The dress is awkward, I had a hard time figuring out how it was supposed to go (a halter with cross-back, I think). Obviously sculpted by a guy, not a gal. Her legs seem to be too long for her torso (a common problem with Fantasy figures, especially of women, and even more so of the Games Workshop style of "comic book proportions").
Figure 2: A new warlord for my Broo Hordes: Skalathrix, the Vulture Demon
from Reaper Minatures
(http://www.reapermini.com/fantasy/gallery/2500s/2532_G)
This guy caught my eye and screamed "buy me!" At $6.99, it was a tussle between conscience and greed; greed won out. He's a big guy, about 48mm sole to eye, a whopping 95mm or so to the tips of his wings, which are a separate piece. He's a nice repulsive mix of Man and Vulture - head and neck are those of a vulture with spikes and horns, the chest and arms are human-ish, but scaled, and long & sinewy out rather than bulky with muscle. The legs are feathered/scaled bird legs, ending in some nasty talons. As an added chaos marker, he has a Dragon/demon tail with an arrowhead-shaped tip. Clothing is a ratty loincloth front & back covering his naughty bits. Armor is a chain section over the front of the loincloth and a Demon-faced shoulder pad on his right shoulder. His weapon (besides looks - good for a Terrifying Looks 15w2 ability!) is a humongous two-handed sword with the typical evil/chaos curves and cut-outs.
The wings are too regular for a real vulture (looking out at my window at one right now.). Real vultures always seem to have a half-dozen flight feathers missing (hawks and eagles never seem to - they are too fastidious), as you might expect of a bird that has no feathers on its head because it goes grubbing around inside the body cavities of dead animals. These wings are too "clean" for my taste. There was a bit of flash in the space between the arms and the chest, and along the underside of the neck that will have to come off, but otherwise it's a pretty clean cast. The base of the model is sculpted with grass and bones.
When I got home, there was a package waiting for me - some figures I had
traded for with a fellow from London. These are "precasts" from Wargames
Foundry (http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/) from their Argonauts range
(http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/cgi-bin/generated/new_stuff.pl?month=10&type
=p, about half-way down the page). While I would have liked to have bought
all the figures in the range, finances prohibited it (and I have a bunch of
Greeks already.). However, there were a number of women in the mixed in the
packs (one here, two there), that I did want, and I sent a call out on one
of the wargame lists I belong to for anyone who didn't want "girlie" figures
in his macho, manly army.
There are nine women in the range. Five of them are respectable Greek women, clothed in the traditional long tunic, four wear the himation (cloak/scarf) in various ways. These will make fine civilians or priestesses for my Dara Happans.
The other four gals are a mixed bag.
Figure 1 is an adventuress, leaning on a spear and carrying a shield. Across her back is a quiver of arrows and what I suspect was supposed to be a bow, but it looks more like a pointed stick. Her hair is drawn back from her face. She wears a short tunic and sandals, but no armor.
Figure 2 is almost naked, wearing only a front & back loincloth and calf-high boots. She wields a big knife (I'll have to whittle it down a bit so that the blade isn't wider than her face.) and stands in a ready position, knife over her head, left hand down to guard.
Figure 3 is just down out of the hills. She wears a goat-skin cape, short skirt, belted shirt, fringed boots, and a hat. She has no weapons or equipment. A just-starting-out adventuress, or a goat-herder. Definitely not from the city.
Figure 4 is an interesting one. I'm not sure if she is meant to be Medusa, or what. She is naked with a cloak over her shoulders that leaves her breasts and belly bare, but covers up her arms and legs. She has a necklace around her throat, and a headdress. Her hair may be in dreadlocks, or may be sausages, it's hard to tell. Finally, there is a dragon/demon tail coiled around her feet, peeping out of the cloak. She might be some sort of monster, or, with a tail amputation, a priestess of some Mystery cult.
The last figure in the package is either Calais or Zetes, the winged sons of the North Wind. This one makes a nice Wind Child, at least until we get a real one from Lance & Laser. He stands in an aggressive pose, shortsword raised over his head. His wings are spread back, out of the way. He wears only a Greek off-the-shoulder tunic (check any sand and sandals movie) and laced-up boot/sandals. His hair is long, and blows back from his face. It may be possible to make him into a flying figure by removing the base, bending the feet back a bit and drilling a hole for a flight stand in his belly.
The girls are all 27-29mm sole to eye, the wind child is 29mm, 44mm to the tip of his sword.
All in all, a good weekend.
RR
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End of Glorantha Digest
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