15mm Goblins 2

After painting my first four 15mm Goblins, I decided to take a break. I had 12 more to go, and I was not looking forward to the process. I wanted to paint more player characters, not dull green, brown and grey goblins!

Well I finally sucked it up and finished the next 12 over a few sittings. And I actually came to enjoy the process.

These guys like, the previous four, come from 15mm Co. and are part of their 15mm goblins. These packs come with 16 guys, in 4 different poses and cost around $10 CAD. It is a great deal and a fantastic way to build up a small force for cheap.

Now, these guys area  little on the large side, standing at about the same height as a human. SO if you are the kind of person who really wants their goblins to be small, then these guys aren't the minis you want. But that being said, it doesn't bother me and am quite impressed with the detail.

These three definitely make for perfect lighter armoured goblins. Wearing only a tattered and filthy kilt, their low stature in goblin society is made quite clear.

See how I slay of couple of these guys in Hymns of a Vagabond game 1. Coming Soon.

Written by: Andrew Gregory

15mm Bandits

Bandits are a perfect villain for any low level campaign. They don't need to have armour and rarely have more then eight hit points: making them easy to kill. However, their own attacks are also often powerful enough to pose a mortal threat to the low level player character.

Bandits are also usually easy to work into stories as nothing more than a local and passing encounter. All in all a very versatile low level enemy for your players to face. However, there is one problem with bandits: they operate best in numbers. And when it comes to minis, numbers mean $$$.

That is normally true, but not if you get this bandits group from Splintered Light Miniatures.... They only cost $10 for the lot.

Now that being said, 10 bandits to paint in any scale is still 10 bandits. So it took me a while to get these 15mm guys painted. But I am glad I did. Back when I was still using 28mm I always ended up using a random assortment of player characters no one had chosen to represent my bandits, so it is nice to have minis devoted to the role.

They also make for great peasant fighters. This particular mini is Galen from our 1st edition AD&D campaign Hymns of a Vagabond. Galen is the self appointed protector of Carthen, and had an interesting role to play in Hymns of a Vagabond game 1 and 2.

I have tried to give my bandits a spread of different outfits. Making them seem from all walks of life. This fellow for example clearly had nice clothing at one point. Makes you wander what happened to him.

I really like the variety of weapons in  the Splintered Light miniatures Bandits. Allows you to give a sense of incongruity to the group, just the kind of thing a mish-mash band of robbers, thieves and murderers needs.

And while, many of the minis are in a running charge position. There are a few minis issuing challenges, or threateningly suggesting a detour; as this guy seems to be.  All in all there are just enough poses to add some spice to the scene.

And they have guys with spears! I love guys with spears!

This guy is definitely my favourite of the bunch.... Mostly because the eyes are just awesome. *pats self on back*

I think this guy is the silliest of the lot. I mean nice blazer and all... But what happened to your shirt?

This rag-tag ranger, works well as a hunter, or a sneaky bandit waiting to strike from the shdaows of the forest. Right now he is being used to represent the Half-Dwarven hunter: Sen, in Hymns of a Vagabond.

Our 10th and final Bandit in the group is this crazy looking guy. Definitely want to know his story. Though I doubt he would ever tell you.

All in all I love these minis, and I have used them dozens of times in game already (painted or not). I recommend anyone gaming RPGs in 15mm get a set.


Written by: Andrew Gregory

Gesen the 15mm Cleric

Since I am the only player in JADE's 1st ed AD&D Campaign Hymns of a Vagabond, I discussed with mm DM having access to a decent amount NPC's as hirelings or companions to accompany me on my journey.

One of the first NPC's I encountered (and that was willing to come long for the trip) was a novice priest named Gesen. Gesen grew up in the same town that my player characters (one died already) did, and was willing to explore the world with me.

Finding a mini for Gesen was easy. This one came from Splintered Light Miniatures, and cane be found in there 15mm Henchman collection.

As soon as I saw that mini I knew that it would be perfect for Gesen. He also kinda remind me of One Punch Man.

Gesen is a quiet person, and only recently became a full-fledged cleric. He decided to leave Carthen after witnessing the death of Akelius Flint's mother at the hands of a mob who accused her of being a witch.

Flint and Gesen had long been close friends, and the incident with his mother was enough to set him over the edge. He decided to leave his sheltered life behind, and join Flint, and their friend Sen on their adventure exploring the world before them.

Gesen has already been in two games, but I just got his player character finished. But you will see him in his full glory in up coming write-ups of Hymns of a Vagabond Game 1 and Game 2, and games to come!


Written by: Andrew Gregory.

#Characteroftheday: A Thank You

When we first made these dice, we never expected such an incredible response and have been absolutely flooded with orders for our #characteroftheday dice! You guys rock! And we hope taht you love them when you get your own set.

This past week has consisted of a blur of envelopes, and shipping labels. However, I am pleased to say however that we are finally caught up on all the orders! As of today, if you have ordered a set before the last 48hrs, your dice are their way!

We had orders from all over the world! Including Iceland and Austrailia! but as Canadians I would like to thank our American neighbours for their incredible support. I had no idea we were so well known down south! And as JADE Gaming, thank you all!

I hope you enjoy your sets when they arrive! And please let us know and facebook/tweet/instagram your first #characteroftheday roll and tag @jadegamingews.

With the huge overflow of orders out of the way I hope things will return to normal around here, and we can get back to some gaming. Hopefully you will see our usual minis and thoughts on gaming, including a expose on why it took us 18 months to bring the dice from the realm of imagination to reality!

Happy Gaming!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

And if you don't have your own set yet, you can get them here: https://jade-gaming.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/characteroftheday-dice
 

2nd Edition Druid Character Sheet

This week were are onto the Druid character sheet. Now druids are not the most popular choice at the JADE table. Not out of any animosity, it is more that the whole priest major class doesn't quite suite our playing style.

The top of the Druid sheet is pretty standard. Large sections to cover your basic stats and combat abilities. Of course the big difference here is the large section for granted powers. In 2nd edition, Druids get a lot of abilities, and I think having access to all of them on the first page is amazing.

Your back page is entirely devoted to inventory, XP and Henchmen/Animal Companions. I love it! The check boxes for supplies, the area to sketach out items/small maps. It reminds me of another 2nd ed character sheet I found.... But I will show you that later.

The final sheet is devoted to setting up your character kit. I have to say that I really like the full page for the character kit. there is often so much information involved in using one, and the standard sheets just don't have the capacity to handle it.

I think so far this is my favourite sheet. It is straight forward, while still being large enough to cover all the info you need. For me that is what I am looking for in a sheet.


Written by: Andrew Gregory

Last Week With JADE: Get Your #characteroftheday dice!

It is official! The #characteroftheday dice are on sale! get your set here:

https://jade-gaming.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/characteroftheday-dice

They cost $17.25 CAD + $10-15 S&H depending on where you are.

We couldn't be more grateful top the community for making this happen. You guys rock! We will be shipping out orders all week this week, and if you have ordered a set or more, they will be at your door soon!

With all the dice business, we can only hope that we have time for some games this week! On the docket we have another round of Sails of Glory: the pre-painted miniature ship game that Elijah and I played last week!

It is an amazing secret action/movement selection game that perfectly combines the history of the era, with an easy to play game.  Now we only played with one ship each since we were just learning, but I would definitely recommend using at least two ships a side to really get a feel for this game.

All in all a fantastic table top miniatures game and I look forward to playing again!

Last Saturday, I was finally able to continue with my first edition campaign: Hymns of a Vagabond. My last character didn't far so well but my latest one took the scene by storm!

I will do up a more detailed write up for you guys soon!

Dave would also like to remind everyone that we still have an awesome amount of DC Comic's Heroclix, and that we will be playing this game as soon as possible!

Now, I have heard mixed things about this game. So again I will keep you guys posted on my thoughts.... But in the mean time there are dice to ship!

Happy Gaming!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

2nd Edition Bard Character Sheet

In keeping with posting all of the interesting character sheets from the 2nd Edition Complete Handbooks; we continue bravely through the alphabetical list of character classes to Bards. Bards of course introduce as a playable class for a level 1 character in second edition, and weren't quite what we know them as today. They had thief skills like Climb walls and pickpocket, etc. They could cast a small amount of wizard spells (including the damage dealing kind) starting at level 2. And Bardic Knowledge was a little less powerful. Lets take a look at the sheet.

This is my first time actually looking at this sheet, but it seems pretty standard to what we have come to expect from them. The first page has a large focus on combat. Which makes sense: it is what you will be looking up the most. And given the jack-of-all trades nature of 2nd ed bards, combat won't be far behind them.

The second page is a list of your bardly abilities, including a section to bring the information from your kit onto this easily accessible page. The top is mostly devoted to handling your non-weapon proficiencies, with the bottom covering thieving skills, and spells. And racial abilties? That one seems out of place, but I guess they are grouping it with the rest of your character abilities.

I am not seeing any place to put my weapons proficiencies. But perhaps the ATK/Both/DMG section on the first page is designed to cover that.

The third page has your physical characteristics. I always love this part of the sheets, and was a little sad to see it pushed to the side in 3rd and 4th edition. Nice to see it making a bit more of resurgence in 5th ed. Anyways... here you have a space to record your personality, patron and reputation; underlined by a huge section for equipment. I would prefer a more detailed section for my followers, rather then all the space and info about my patron. But to each their own.

And of course the final sheet gives you all the space you need to properly record the information for your chosen character kit.

Not a bad sheet, but I am not sure it adds all that much to the usual 2nd edition sheet. And mine has a much large place for companions and followers.

Written by: Andrew Gregory

Carthen: From Hymns of a Vagabond

For my first (and soon to be second game) of Hymns of a Vagabond I played (will play) in my home town of Carthen.

To say it is a tiny village is some what of an understatement. Aside from farm houses in the surrounding country side, Carthen consists of 4 houses, a long house style tavern, an old Stone church, and a ring of stalls for the farmers to sell their wares.

It is a simple place, not the sort you would expect adventure to find. But times are changing. In my first game there were bandits, goblins, and even signs of a dark cult. Whatever happens next, my new character's simple life certainly take a turn.


Written by: Andrew Gregory

15mm Druid

For last week's round of JADE's 1st ed Campaign Ivershill, Matt decided that for his first go in a tabletop roleplaying game, he would play a Druid.  So after making his character sheet, I sat down and painted this 15mm Druid from Splintered Light Miniatures Warriors of Nature line.

In my first wave of 15mm fantasy miniature purchasing, I did not bother to get any minis for druids. It is just one of those classes that rarely sees action around our table.

It is not that we have any animosity for Druids or anything. It is in fact quite the contrary: Druids can become absolutely powerful characters! It is just that in most of our games a Druid Player Character doesn't fit the setting.

I often find that it can be quite difficult to keep Druid's in the party. The nature of their class tends to lead to a solitary woodland existence, and finding a reason for them to live their beloved woodlands can be difficult.

Since Ivershilll is just a small one-off scenario: an in depth character back story wasn't necessary, and Matt was able to explore the class unabated. Sadly his adventure was cut short when he was killed defending a farm form a ghoul. A noble death to be sure, but no less disheartening.


Written by: Andrew Gregory

#Characteroftheday Dice: Update

UPDATE: The dice are now available for sale here: https://jade-gaming.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/characteroftheday-dice

Wow! We had not suspected such an overwhelmingly positive response to our #characteroftheday dice! You guys are all awesome!

So to keep you as informed as possible here is an update with some more of your questions answered:


Q: When do they go on sale?

A: November 27th at 8:30 AM (Eastern Time Zone, UTC-05)


Q: How much will they cost?

A: They will cost 12.99 USD. Now remember our store is Canadian (as are we) so our prices will be listed in CAD (making it 17.25 CAD)


Q: Is there a Wholesale Price?

A: Yes there is. For anyone interested in purchasing 12 or more sets, you can buy them at 8.99 USD (12.00 CAD).


Q: What will shipping be like?

A: Shipping will be anywhere from $10-$20 CAD depending on how far away from our home town of Toronto you happen to live.


Q: Where can I get them?

A: You will be able to buy them from us on our store: https://jade-gaming.myshopify.com/


Q: What do I get when I buy a set?

A: When you buy a set you will receive all 4 #characteroftheday dice.


Q: How many sets do you have available?

A: We have just under 1000 sets available. It will be first come first come, but we plan to produce more when the need arises.


Q: What RPGs do they work for?

A: These dice are designed to work with D&D 3, 3.5 as well as Pathfinder.


Q: What are they missing to make them work with 5th Edition?

A: The race die is missing Tieflings and Dragonborn. And the Class die is missing Warlock.


Q: Are you guys making 5th edition dice?

A: Yes we are! But we need your help! Using our hopeful profits from the 3rd edition #characteroftheday dice we are planning on making a 5th edition set.


Q: Any ideas for other dice in the future?

A: Yes we are bursting with ideas! Aside from making 5th ed character dice we also plan on making 1st ed and 2nd ed as well. We are not making 4th edition... sorry? But you really need to start playing a better edition of this game. No excuses. We also have plans for loot dice, weapon dice, armour dice, and random encounter generators.


If you have any other questions, or ideas for more dice lets us know in the comments! And remember to buy your own set of #characteroftheday dice November 27th 2015!


Written by: Andrew Gregory

15mm Halfling Theif

For my D&D game last Friday I prepared this 15mm Halfling Thief for one of my players to use as her player character. I modelled the paint job off of her concept. While admittedly she was playing a gnome... At this scale there isn't much of a difference.

The mini itself comes from Khurasan Miniatures, and is part of their 15mm Fantasy line. I really like this halfling, she is just the perfect size! I often find that places make their halflings a little too big, so it is refreshing to see one the right proportions and with high detail.

I gotta say that I am finally getting the eyes down at this scale. It is still huge (and I mean huge) pain in the ass, but they just look awesome.

Playing small characters as thieves is a such a classic choice, as they often get bonuses to sneak, and their natural size AC modifier makes up for the light armour they are usually forced to wear. All in all a popular choice around this table.

I am hoping to get a couple more of these small folks to fill the my 15mm D&D miniature ranks. But in the mean time, she will have to do.


Written by: Andrew Gregory

Last Week With JADE: It's All About the Dice

Counting today there are only 5 more days until you can by your very own #characteroftheday dice! They will be available on November 27th from the JADE store on this very blog! They will cost 12.99 and we will be shipping worldwide!

You can get your very own set of these for 12.99!

With all the dice stuff happening so quickly, we haven't had a lot of time for games, but I did manage to play a round of Star Trek Attack Wing with my friend Wesley.

The Kreetcha VS the Hathaway

We decided to do a pairing, the Star Trek the Next Generation episode Peak Performance S02E21. I was in command of the Hathaway ( what with Constellation Classes being my favourite ship) and Wesley took Command of the Kreetcha: the first ship in his plans to create a Ferengi fleet.

It was a great battle! These ships are wonderfully matched, with a slight advantage on the Ferengi side since they have more useful abilities right out of the pack. Despite this handicap, I emerged victorious! Using some fancy flying I was able to back Wesley’s Ferengi marauder into one of the corners, and used by superior firing arc to hold him at a safe distance. In the end my ship took quite a pounding but I was able to take the day! So far it has been my favourite game!

Sorry Subbuteo! You will have to wait.

I had planned on having a Subbuteo tournament last week, but was unfortunately unable to get the board from my parents place. Its size makes it difficult to move around with any more then 1 passenger, and sadly it would not fit in the car this weekend.

That means that the next time I will be able to get it to my place will be after Christmas. So our Subbuteo Tournament will have to wait.

Next Week, Elijah and I are playing our first round of Sails of Glory: his most recently acquired miniatures game. I am really looking forward to it I have heard good things about it, and it will fulfil Elijah's love of Napoleonic Era Sail ships. I will keep you all posted with updates on how the game goes!

This coming Saturday I playing my next round of Hymns of a Vagabond: the First Edition Campaign my Cousin and I have been playing. I will of course be starting my new character... Since my last one died. I am very much looking forward to getting things back on track.

And of course, To say it again (because we are excited and can't say it enough): check back here November 27th and get your very own #characteroftheday dice!

And as always... Happy gaming!


Written by: Andrew Gregory