Thursday, September 18, 2014

Nerd Movies

So, you say you'd like to watch a movie but you are tired of the mainstream fare. Then this is the list for you. All of the movies on this list are currently on Netflix. None of them are mainstream.

Dragonfyre - The Gateways  between the 9 worlds need guardians. The guardian of a major gateway to Earth is known as a great wizard. He's really just armed to the teeth. Elves, Orcs and Dragons meet superior firepower in this low budget Sci Fi/Fantasy mash-up. This movie has its moments of cheesy but it was made on the cheap. I would love to create a movie like this where the actions of the hero were controlled by gamers rather than scripted by film writers. 

Dororo -  A father trades the body of his son for demonic alliances and power. A Frankenstein like doctor creates a new body for the boy and he grows up to hunt the demons his father made a deal with. Every time he kills a demon he wins back a piece of his body. Bizarre fights using both live action and CGI. 

Bunraku - A comic book style adventure where two very different heroes team up to stop the evil town boss. The evil hench-bosses are numbered for easy score-keeping. All in a world that seems to be made of paper mache. Striking visuals and a cast you won't believe. 

War of the Worlds: Goliath -  Animated movie that is the spiritual sequel to the book War of the Worlds. In 1914 the Martian invasion is a recent memory, Nicola Tesla has broken the code of Martian technology and the earth defense force (ARES) led by Teddy Roosevelt are ready for the rematch. The movie does not wait long for that to come. Loaded with action start to finish this movie is great fun. 

13 Assassins - A brutal lord must be assassinated. An older samurai is chosen to carry out the task and gathers a force of 11 loyal men and a crazy demi-god to carry out the task. The movie is great fun from start to finish. 

The Host - A creature spawns after chemicals are dumped into the local river. One family gets caught up in a battle with creature while authorities have no idea what they are dealing with. There are some great CGI scenes depicting the creature mixed with live action humans. Very well done. 

Chocolate - A young autistic girl name Zen has an awesome talent. If she observes a martial art she is its master. Zen and her cousin embark on a quest to collect the receipts of her sick mother's loan shark book. They show up and at the addresses in the book and demand money and of course the bosses always send a horde of flunkies to dissuade them. Zen is more than happy to show them what she has observed! 

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Dungeon-pocolypse

Below is the entrance to the fortress of Menedon. It looks peaceful enough. I scratch built the facade from cardboard, card stock, clay and hot glue.The tiles are actual industrial grade floor tiles that I painted and added walls made from cardboard strips. The walls could be made taller but they do not impede play at all in their current form.

The five groups lead by  (left to right, below) Casey, Don, Greg, Terry and Phil (thanks guys!) are teleported to the fortress to find that there are creatures guarding the entrance. Fiendish TRex, bullettes and Trolls, oh my!


Fast forward a few rounds later and the groups have invaded the next tier of the dungeon (below). You can no longer find different groups, though Casey's group is still mostly together.



Just as the force thought they were done outside a "little" surprise pops up. Below part of Terry's force chips away at the purple worm. The hunter in the fore-ground of the picture was eventually consumed.


So, this is where we called it a night. There are about 1/3 of the way through the dungeon. Only one casualty on the player side so far and only a few of the higher level spells have been used. There are also many wounded characters some more than others. 

Here is the list of what has been killed so far:

2 Fiendish Trex
2 Troll Slashers
2 Bullette
1 Behir
3 Fiendish Girallon
1 Purple Worm
2 Goblin Underboss
Lareth the Beautiful
1 Drow Cleric of Lolth
2 Teifling Blademaster
2 Yuan-Ti Half-blood Sorcerer
Half Orc Executioner
King Obould Many Arrows
Warduke
Bugbear Champion of Erthnel
Trogledyte Barbarian
Dark Moon Monk

We will try to schedule the next installment soon. I think it will go faster from now on because everyone is more familiar with what is going on now with the modified DnD Miniatures rules and I generally have fewer enemies from now on (really, hardly any, like one per room). In any case, there will be more pictures to come. If you participated and have better pictures you can send them to me or post them in the comments.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Been building

I am building a dungeon. Not a real dungeon but a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon.

I wanted to build something huge so this dungeon is 64,000 square feet in scale; in real size it is 36 inches wide by 72 inches long. The base is made of industrial floor tile which I found at a local flooring store for 88 cents a tile. The tile is a composite material that is already gray like stone. My original idea was to attach the 2.5D walls (ala DMScotty) using hot glue but I soon discovered that the hot glue would not stick to the tile. So, good old white glue was employed.

I used a combination of dry brushing, sponge painting and inks to give the dungeon the "lived in" look. During the construction I learned new ways that might have made the whole thing look better but I am going to run the game I had planned for them. I will post some pictures after next weekend's game.