Pulp Alley Perils: Predator

Introduction

As I mentioned in my last post (Pulp Alley Perils: Introduction), my friend Steve has come up with a detailed set of rules for what we've called the "Predator" class of perils.

The Predator is a type of danger that will (to a greater or lesser extent) stalk or chase a character.  As such, it might represent a swarm of tropical bees defending their nest, a gang of pickpockets, an officious Gestapo agent ("papers, please!") or an angry rhinoceros.  Or many other things, indeed.

Over to you, Steve:

The Predator

Following our last game I've contemplated mobile perils like the Nazi agents and the angry buffalo.  As we've gained experience playing Pulp Alley, we've become adept at avoiding the normal static perils.  We typically only brave the peril if baited with a plot point, or if it represents terrain that we absolutely must cross.

I enjoyed the element of risk introduced by the mobile perils.  The possibility to lead them toward another player's characters added an extra aspect to the game.

Here is a simple model for a peril which attacks the player characters.  I've named it the predator, it fits snugly into existing pulp Alley mechanisms.

Each predator is assigned a range, movement and optional special behaviours called traits.

For example: 

The Buffalo

Range 8"

Move 4" / 2d10

Traits Impetuous

Roll the move dice (2d10) when a character (target) moves within the range of the buffalo (8" in this example).  The buffalo travels its move distance toward the target (4") for each success.  No successes no movement, one success 4", two successes 8".

If the predator contacts the target then a peril occurs, and is resolved as normal.

The predator normally stops on reaching the target, though traits can adjust this behaviour.

Traits

Traits are simply special rules that apply to the predator.  Predators may have no traits or several.

• Feeble: The predator is removed if the target passes its challenge.  This represents a weak or timid or easily eliminated threat.  Removal overrides any post-challenge actions caused by other traits.
• Pack (N): A pack of N relatively weak threats, similar to feeble, but with N "lives".  One member of the pack is removed each time the target passes their challenge.  The pack is removed (see Feeble) when its last member is eliminated.
• Ambush: The predator only moves if it rolls sufficient movement to reach its target.  A classic ambush predator that lies low and attacks from a short distance.

Predators may have only one (or none) of the final three traits:

• Elusive: The predator always deploys in cover.  If its move finishes the open, it returns to the closest cover.  Specific definition of cover may be used to fine-tune behaviour.  For example,
  - a swarm of bees would return to their hive.
  - a vampire might return to any shadowy corner, except sacred ground.
• Impetuous: The predator moves the full distance rolled, and may move beyond its target.  The target suffers a peril even if the predator overshoots.  Example: a bull or rhino that will build up a head of steam during its furious charge.
• Hit and Run: After resolving a challenge, the predator rolls its movement again.  It moves the rolled distance back in the direction it came.  Example: a pack of small yappy dogs or smaller monkeys, individually timid but brave in numbers.

The predator provides a flexible method for single threats, or packs and swarms of smaller creatures.  Range and movement can be adjusted to represent the tenacity of the predator.  Traits permit different behaviours.

Example Predator Perils

• Rhino : Short sighted, easily provoked, faster than you'd imagine - the original "battle unicorn".
  Range: 8"
  Move: 4" / 3d6
  Traits: Impetuous.
  The Rhino's move is potentially greater than its range.
  The Impetuous trait means it can charge through and past its target.
• Bees defending their hive:
  Range: 12"
  Move: 3" / 4d6
  Traits: Ambush, Elusive (returns to hive).
  Several movement dice, threat level increases with proximity.
  Ambush means the swarm will not leave the hive unless they can reach and imperil the target.
  Elusive sees the bees return to their hive after an attack.  (Elusive specifies return to cover, in this case the hive is specified).
• The Mummy: Classic Universal studios version, slow, but always on your tail.
  Range:16"
  Move: 4" / 1d12
  Traits: None
  Long range and big movement die guarantee pursuit.
  Single die and short move mean it will rarely catch a running target, but trip, or stop to investigate a clue, and your adventure may be over.
• Macaque troop: Small nosey monkeys. Raid your pack / pockets for food, may bite.
  Range: 8"
  Move: 4" / 2d8
  Traits: Hit and Run
  These fellows will back off as soon as they've relieved you of your sandwiches.
• Small stray dog: More bark than bite, but what other perils might the bark attract?
  Range: 12"
  Move: 4" / 3d10
  Traits: Feeble, Hit and Run
  Fairly mobile, but a limited danger.
  Will not stand its ground, and disappears in the face of determined resistance.
• Young conscripts: acting tough but fearful for their own safety.
  Range: 6"
  Move: 6" / 1d6
  Traits: Pack (5)
  As likely as not to challenge characters getting too close.
  Reasonable staying power from Pack (5), but won't resist a determined show of force.

Conclusion

So, is this useful inspiration?  Or possibly unnecessarily complicated?  Please let us know your thoughts!

28mm Bees: Revisited

Introduction

At the end of last year, I showed my recipe for creating a swarm of bees for my 28mm "Wicked Witch of the West" army.  This idea seems to have gone down well, but a couple of responses particularly caught my attention.  Paraphrased, the commenters said "if you did this with a tube or dome then you could place it over a 28mm figure to show that a model was enveloped by the bee swarm".

I found myself returning to this idea again and again; I just couldn't get it out of my head!  Eventually, I thought that I'd just have a quick look online for cheap sources of plastic domes, to see what might be available.  Of course, it didn't end there and so the remainder of this article describes what happened next.

Snow Globes

In the UK, there is a company called "Baker Ross" (I imagine that similar suppliers exist in other countries too).  They make cheap craft kits, often in multi-packs.  It looks to me as if their products are aimed at kindergartens, primary school classes or possibly birthday parties for young children.  However that may be, I discovered that they make a range of small, plastic snow globe "kits".

A box of these snow globes cost just over £5 (including postage).  There were several sorts available (mermaids, princesses...), but as far as I can tell the only difference is the pattern on the cardboard insert for the centre of the globe.  Since I would be discarding this anyway, I didn't really care which version I bought.

Each box contains 4 globes; the globe comes with instructions and is basically a glitter-filled dome covering a plastic insert & base, which in turn acts as a holder for a patterned piece of cardboard.  The idea is that you colour in the card, slip it into the central holder and then fill the globe with water via a plug in the base.

A 28mm African villager surrounded by a swarm of bees

I wasn't at all interested in these items as snow globes, though!  It was trivially easy to cut the dome away from the plastic base.  Once it was separated, it took a little longer to wash out all the glitter and then paint my bees.

The painting was done according to the recipe in my previous article; bees were painted on both the inner and outer surfaces of the dome.  I'm not sure if painting them on the inside (which was certainly a bit trickier) helped to add to the impression of depth or not.

L: spray varnish.  R: brushed-on acrylic varnish

When the bees were dry, I varnished the dome.

My first attempt ruined the model: I used my normal aerosol satin varnish and the dome went completely frosty!  I'm not sure that there's anything I can do to save this piece; I've tried re-varnishing it lightly (which sometimes works), but it remains completely opaque.

Fortunately, I had several more domes available.  For my second attempt, I brushed on an acrylic varnish.  This hasn't compromised the transparency at all, though on close examination the brush marks are evident.  It'll do...

Conclusion

At 50mm wide and 55mm high, these domes are easily large enough to engulf most 28mm figures (excluding pikemen, horses, or models who are waving exceptionally heroic weapons in all directions).  So, they will work as I designed them to do.

Of course, I don't have any immediate plans to use swarms of bees to engulf models in any of my games.  But I could!

Finally, I now have several base remnants, as can be seen in the picture above.  I'm racking my brains to think how they could be used; so far all I can come up with are dungeon doors (or secret doors in fireplaces, as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)!

Bees in 28mm?

Introduction

I have a very slow project to collect a "Wicked Witch of the West" army for Hordes of the Things.  This is of course from the land of Oz which is described in the books of L. Frank Baum and is probably best known to most people from the 1939 MGM film "The Wizard of Oz".

In that film, the witch is shown commanding legions of flying monkeys and has a number of Winkie spearmen as her castle guards.  However, the book also describes her sending crows, bees and wolves to torment and distract Dorothy's party.

OK, so what's the plan?  The army I envisage will have:

• Witch (with attached crows): already done.  In a previous article, I showed the completed Witch's element (and that was 4 years ago, for goodness sake!).
• Winkies: Hmm.  There aren't any models which are perfect matches, but it shouldn't be too hard to find/convert something that will do the job.
• Wolves: There are plenty of 28mm wolf miniatures, I just need to choose some.
• Winged monkeys: Available from Eureka Miniatures.  I have a few already, but could probably use many more.
• Bees: How the heck am I going to model bees?

The rest of this article describes how I did indeed model some bees.

Making the "Substrate"

The problem with modelling bees or any other insect swarm is this:

1. They're very small creatures, but occur in large numbers.
2. They fly, so the model needs to fill a large volume of space with many gaps between the individual creatures.

This being so, it's simply not practical to make 3D representations of each individual insect, connected by wires or similar.  Instead, they'll need to be painted onto some surface.

I thought about transparent shapes for a while; they need to encompass quite a large volume but be as unobtrusive as possible.  A small dome might work well (repurposed snow globe?), but I didn't have anything like that.

Here's an interesting piece of clear plastic, though.  It's an empty food container; I think it originally held 4 different types of chocolate cake sprinkles.  Maybe it will work for what I intend to build?

Firstly, I cut off the outer parts; I was only really interested in the inner core.  I used a razor saw to make the cuts; note that this was not easy as I was trying very hard not to scratch or otherwise mark the pieces.

Once I had the length of core piece that I wanted, I rounded the top corners and smoothed the edges as much as possible.  My attempts to polish out the scratches were useless, but I did paint some clear varnish over the cut edges and this does seem to have helped to tone down the "whiteness".

How do you paint a Bee?

Indeed - how do you paint a bee?  I needed a simple recipe which could be repeated dozens (hundreds?) of times at very small scale, yet which would represent the insect a bit better than a plain, black dot.

Here's what I came up with:

1. Firstly, paint a couple of yellow stripes (more ochre than bright yellow - these aren't wasps after all!).  It may seem odd to start with this, but remember that I'm painting on a transparent surface.  These will be the bee's stripes when viewed from the other side.  If I was painting on an opaque sheet then this step would be pointless...
2. The bee's body is represented with a couple of black dots, one of which (the abdomen) covers up the bars painted in step 1.
3. A quick black stroke at an angle is used for the insect's legs
4. Now decorate this side of the abdomen with a couple more yellow/ochre stripes.
5. Add another blob for the wings in a pale grey.  It doesn't even matter if this is slightly translucent.
6. Repeat many, many times...

The Result

One I had painted all my bees, it was a trivial matter to create a suitable base and glue the "swarm" to it.

Note that the bees are fairly crude!  I did follow my recipe, but the blobs and lines are not very precise.  Indeed, I kept discovering mistakes - such as bees without wings - and although I think that I've fixed all of these, I cannot be sure.  Still, does it matter; no-one will be looking at the individual insects, will they?

Conclusion

I'm reasonably happy with the result.  This was a very cheap build in terms of materials and didn't even take too much time.  It could just as easily be used to model any other type of flying swarm, of course - locusts, flies, winged ants, wasps or whatever else you fancy.

The only thing that I'm unsure about is the shape of the clear plastic core.  Perhaps a small dome would have worked better after all?

Addendum: Maybe I should have used a dome?  See here for how that worked ==>