Steampunk - Once upon a time there was a roleplaying game

As part of the catch up then I'm covering somethng I got involved with last month.  I did a kickstarter for some figures, specifically the Empire of the Dead Requiem.

A long time ago - well early 90's there was a roleplaying game called Castle Falkenstein that was steampunk plus magic.  I liked it and the theme - I even GM'd a couple of sessions but the White Wolf World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf) were the fashion at the then RPG group and it had limited interest.  Very much it needs people in the right frame of mind and the GM needs a setting that the players want as well.  Needless to say I bought all the books and even managed to get some of the "official' figures out of bargain bins at conventions.  For other figures I scoured various fantasy ranges along with historical ranges from people like Wargames Foundry.

But in some ways the steampunk feel went back earlier than that.  I'd always enjoyed films that featured say Nemo and the Nautilus.  Go back to the mid 80's and was re-reading the Hawkmoon stuff by Michael Moorcock - we were playing alot of Call of Cthulu RPG at the time but the GM had lots (possibly all) of other stuff put out by Chaosium (which is how I got started on the Pendragon).  When a toy shop was having a clearout I got a couple of zoids with a view to converting them.  These may may excellent 'steampunk" vehicles.  I think I have the giant worm pictured below and another one that flaps wings (view to making a Gran Brettanian Ornithopter from Hawkmoon).    

One of the blogs I follow is A conflict of Interests and I found myself agreeing with the comments about wanting the steampunk aspect in preference to the Gothic werwolves vs Vampires.   

Not blogged about here but something I was very taken with a couple of years ago was the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West game.  Now sadly part of history as I suspect licensing issues means that nobody else will be given permission to reprint it.  One of the groups was the Chinese Tongs - always part of pulp fiction.  The Empire of the Dead Requiem Kickstarter had a couple of free figures that I really wanted - the Dragon Lady, so I ended up backing the project.   

I have the PDF of the rules but not really had chance to go through it yet.  I watched the kickstarter (or Nickstarter to be more appropriate) for the figures for In Her Majesty's name.  The free figures for the various financing options were less generous than the Westwind offer and the basic factions were of less interest or ones that my Castle Falkenstein stuff might cover.  

I have bought the rules though.  Very interesting on a first read through and definitely my sort of game.      The mechanics and construction rules seem fairly sound, and the campaign system whilst somewhat simple looks as if it will work and the whole thing has that "feel" of the campaign and tabletop skirmish game that had appeared in the Legends of the Old West.  

Legionary 2012

Legionary is my local show in Exeter.  It's had somewhat of a chequered history in recent years having been through several different hands and venues.  Alongside this has been the rationalisation of show attendance by traders and the effects of the downturn in the economy.   With Exeter being roughly 100 miles from Bristol then aside from any overnight costs its going to be a good 5-6 (if not more) gallons of fuel for anyone to get there and back from North of Bristol or West of Bournemouth.  In 2010 I'd been somewhat disappointed and whilst 2011 saw it move to the new venue as part of my general lack of enthusiasm I didn't go.
As always the show was very mixed - lots of Warhammer 40l/Fantasy and Flames of War from traders, and generally smaller local traders.  This does not always mean little league as for example Black Scorpion produce some of the finest figures available today in my opinion.   The Square and Dreamholme are some of the big producers of resin terrain.  None of these had much new though to interest me, and the first two (not sure about the third) were certainly at Salute only a few weeks previously.
A major part of the show in recent years has been the tournaments - Warhammer fantasy and 40K (Flames of War and Warmachine have been in/out as well in recent years) - which do not interest me at all.
The quality of the wargames on show seems to reflect the very variable nature of the hobby at the moment.  Some were very good, some were just disinterested in people around them, and a few (Saga / Dystopian Wars / War and Conquest) were linked in with traders at the show.
I'd arrived reasonably late on the afternoon and still had my stick re my bad back (see Salute blog).   I only got the camera out for two games, although a third featuring the Sudan was interesting but not of much interest to me to record.
Firstly a VBCW game from the Abbeywood Irregulars.

Next was a Victorian themed steam tanks plus HG Wells/Jules Verne "liftwood" aerial gunboats.  NOt something I particularly want to game but some excellent modelling being demonstrated. 

I had a quick explanation of the use of Strategy dice within War and Conquest from Rob Broom and Scarab Miniatures,  My copy from the Northstar sale had arrived that lunchtime and I'd not even had time to open it.  Had I been more organised then I should have allowed time for a walkthrough of the full game/rules.   

I bought very little at the show - a reflection probably of it coming only a couple of weeks after Salute and the traders that were there.  I got a few figures out of a bargain bin to convert into SAGA personalities - if its cheap when it goes under the hacksaw and I botch it then I'm not too upset.  One discovery made as I was literally heading towards the door, and people were starting to pack up /go home was some laser cut MDF terrain from Warmill - had I looked more closely then getting one of their cargo pods for me would have been on my list.  As it was I got a stargate (small centre one) for my chum in London.  Warmill are exactly the sort of small supplier with a niche product that I would like to see at Salute if the economics could be made right. 

Chris

   

Robots for £1

No point having a blog if I don't post the bargains I've found on it...

Today's bargains from Poundland were some Robots..  I'm not a Warhammer 40K gamer, but do hanker after SF and Cyberpunk RPG, and have got a couple of Science Fiction Miniatures skirmish sets.   Faction Wars from Fire and Forget games, which desperately needs some rules for vehicles, the free Chain Reaction 3 from two hour wargames, Void (aka Urban War) from Urban Mammoth and had been thinking of Tomorrow’s War from Osprey.   I'm much more a Total Recall, Bladerunner, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly movie fan than Space Marines and Starship Troopers.  

A large box from the Walle movie of some years ago, and then some "Androidyz" which might be American aimed at the Italianmarket which arrive to Poundland via Russia... The Walle box was hard to see what you actually got aside from a picture and a description, whilst the Androydz were fairly easy.  

Close up of an Androidyz in packaging.  Per the flyer that comes with them then there were 24 different models.  Mixture of ones with weapons, to buzz saws etc.   I got "Night Shield" which has a stick, shield and gun - so can be some sort of security robot, and "Scuba Miner" which has a drill and claw for use as an industrial robot.   

Out of the box with some Games Workshop figures for scale comparison.   The Walle stuff as one might expect from a disney licensed product is the most sturdy and is part of a playset - the blue robot has a winching crane hook activated by turning the arms.  The Androydz have a metal wheeled chassis, plastic uppers and arms that move  at the shoulders.   All likely to benefit from a respray and repaint.   The mining robot is probably my favourite at the moment - might see about getting another one or two of the "engineering' style so that I can stencil numbers on them for a consistent workforce theme after the respray.