A Plunge into the Dark

I have decided over the last couple of years to take the opportunity afforded by the AHPC to do something different. Last year saw my foray into a 6mm miniatures with a Blood Angels Epic army. This was quite novel for me as I had never painted any 6 mm models nor had been involved in anything to do with Fantasy wargaming. For this year's Challenge, an unusual series of events and observations sent me down a path I would have never predicted.

This past fall found me with far fewer wargaming opportunities than had previously been the case. What was I do? Through a Kickstarter a Boardgame had landed in my lap. I gave it a go and discovered that boardgaming was a possibility but at the same time it was still a challenge to play solo. Somewhere along the way, I believe Curt mentioned that there were Boardgames out there where the story line was driven by a computer programme. In fact he had recently painted some figures for a same said game. 

So I bought Mansions of Madness. I had heard of HP Lovecraft but had never read him and the Cthulthu Mythos was unknown to me, although I had wondered what it was. I like main stream Science Fiction but had never really been into the horror genre aside from maybe Steven King and TED Klein. I set up a game and found it quite interesting and fun to play and as a bonus one day my wife and sister-in-law were watching me play and quickly got talked in to having a go. They were immediately drawn in by the character profiles of the Investigators in the game. At the end of a 2 hour session, they both said when are we going to play again!

Being obsessive, I really could not play with unpainted figures, so I set about painting them. A further conversation with Curt gave me the idea that it might be interesting to paint the Investigators in polychrome while painting the Monsters in a monochrome. But while putting the project together, I started to ask myself who was HP Lovecraft?

Well I suppose this is where I started to lose control of myself. Reading about him certainly revealed a somewhat unusual character; both parents going mad and dying in asylums, riches to rags, and a quite extraordinary fan base. His books are out of copyright, so Kindle versions are easily obtained. I read The Dunwich Horror, a strange story and I liked the writing style. But what was this Cthulhu Mythos. While researching this, I discovered that many of his stories have spoken versions and are easily available without cost. I discovered HorrorBabble and I was hooked. 

I suspect in the last two months I have listened to maybe 20 of HP Lovecraft's short stories and novellas over and over again! At the Mountains of Madness is my favourite, but close behind is The Shadow over Innsmouth and of course The Call of the Cthulhu. I suppose it does not help that I live in Salem, Massachusetts, the dead centre of Lovecraft Country. 

This immersion has also sparked an interest in 1930 and 40's pulp magazine cover art. I am going to have to stop myself from starting a collection.

I could go on and on, but I should stop. If you would like to take the plunge, here is a link to my YouTube playlists of HP Lovecraft stories.

Anyway, please excuse my ramblings, time to get back to the challenge! Below find the start of my Mansions of Madness figure collection. The figures are mostly semi-hard plastic, the faces are somewhat soft but generally I enjoyed painting them. The polychrome Investigators were easy enough to paint but I am not really sure if you can call my Monsters true greyscale, so I decided to use the term monochrome. The black background is a real challenge to get right. I have photographed all the figure 3-4 times. I initially tried my iPhone 8 but I just could not get it right. I then went back to my Cannon and in iPhoto I was able to adjust the background (make it black) using the blackpoint adjustment without destroying the image. Still not an hundred percent but improving.

The Investigators

Carson Sinclair, Joe Diamond, Father Mateo

Kate Winthrop, Rita Young, Agatha Crane

The Monsters

Cultists

Hunting Horrors

Mi-Go

Ghouls

Cult Leader, Witch, Priest of Dagon

Innsmouth Rioters

Deep One Hybrids, Barnabas Marsh

Ghost, Hound of Tindalos, Maniac

Deep Ones

Chthonian

Star Spawn

Shoggoth

Well another year's challenge has gone by: Many thanks to Curt and a very patient Sarah. Also thanks to my minion Ray as well as all the other helpers. And finally congratulations to all the participants, each year the submissions are just more and more brilliant.

More Affliction

A few more figures that I have painted from the Folklore The Affliction Kickstarter. Above is a somewhat questionable unboxing video which I believe is important rite of passage in the Board Gaming World!

Two Werewolves and the Witch Hunter

Decaying Dead

Something Different

Almost two years ago I backed a Kickstarter for Folklore-The Affliction. I am not sure why except perhaps it was by a local company in Marlborough, MA. I forgot about it then, the pledge was $95 and I looked at it as support for the local gaming industry. I really had little interest in fantasy boardgaming, I had not even played Dungeons and Dragons in past. I think the last boardgame I played was Risk maybe 40 years ago.

I did get regular email updates and about 2 weeks ago a large box showed up on my doorstep. It contained the basic game as well as another box containing an expansion set as well as some extra figures. I have to say I was shocked with the quality of contents as well as the figures. There were multiple pieces including many cards, punch out counters, a gaming board and almost a 100 figures. The quality of the game components and the figures were really first class. The board and card art was amazing. The figures came assembled and based and were of hard plastic, I suppose one would call them heroic 28mm. They were all beautifully sculpted and well cast. And aside from the faces on the human characters which were somewhat soft, they are very easy to paint...........yes I just could not resist giving them ago.

Base Game

Expansion Set

Contents

The game itself is a fantasy romp through a world inhabited by both minor evil beings and animals as well as the Afflictions, the major adversaries. The game is for 2-5 players and each player assumes the persona of one of 12 characters who travel through the world following a pre-written storyline. The depth of the story telling is quite impressive and easily played solo. The characters have to act cooperatively in order to make it through their travels. Each chapter takes about 60-90 minutes and the play is quite engrossing with simple gaming mechanics. Although the story is scripted the number of branch points is impressive and the combat mechanism is quite simple and fun. The characters of course grow in ability and strength as they progress through the story. I know this is old hat to most of you but the whole thing was quite novel to me.

It was so novel that that I could not resist setting up the game and having a solo run through it. A lot of fun indeed. Two of my sisters happened to be visiting last week and I played a couple of chapters with them and they also quite enjoyed it. Now all that is left is to convince my wife to have a go......she says maybe!

Flesh Eating Ghouls

Rabid Wolves

The Telepath, the Archeologist and the Arcanist

Anyone this has been a lot of fun and I will look forward to painting more of the figures in the box, at least 80 more to go as well as some Afflictions.

On the gaming front, I am working on a massive new project which is going quite well and hope to have a post up soon with some photos.