mardi 31 octobre 2017

Dungeons & Dragons Boardgame

Yesterday, while checking the stats of the blog (Yes, don't you ? I particularly appreciate to have visitors from all over the world), I read the comment written by Geordie, from Geordie's Big Battles, and I crawled the web to discover his blog that I didn't know. Lots ans lots of different subjects, nicely painted figures, big battles... I was curious to read the posts under the label Fantasy, and I found this one, which recalled me great memories: Playing around with "Speed Painting" some "Fantasy" with "Washes", because of the minis displayed, plastic toy figures from the Dungeons & Dragons Boardgame by Parker. Do you recognize this box ?


This is the french version of "Dungeons & Dragons: The Fantasy Adventure Board Game" (2002), the exact copy of the one I offered my son when he was 10. It was a simple dungeon crawl game in a fantasy universe, and a good introduction to RPGs for my children... I was right on that point since they are still involved in RPGs as players and occasional designers, more than 10 years later :)

The box was full of things, including a lot of figures (compatible with 28mm fantasy figures):


I was very happy to read Geordie's post, because we had many a good adventure with this game, but I don't think that it met great success, and it is rare to hear or read about it. I left a comment on the post, saying that I wished to write something on my own, and here we are.

Last year, I had enough time to begin to paint the minis of this box. Once again, I wanted to turn poorly regarded minis into nice game pieces, and I thought that some of them might become interesting monsters for my 1/72 fantasy armies. This is what I could get:



The tiles on the pictures come from the game box, but not the wall  that I bought in an aquarium shop.
Some individual pictures: The Troll




The Bugbear (I try to find the english name after the french description, correct me if I am wrong :)):




The Carrion Crawler:





The Ogre:




On the following pictures, you can see the monsters in their various daily activities: dwelling the dungeon, crawling the dungeon, attacking anything and particularly adventurers (a human word describing "armed people who steal anything in your dungeon, sweet dungeon and destroying the rest"). Admire the taste in architecture as shown on the original columns !





I would like to thank the painter from whom I stole the idea for the bases - unfortunately I don't remember who he or she is, because I lost my internet bookmarks last summer when my laptop was stolen. Anyway, thank you.

At last, a couple of pictures of my workspace in the cellar.



Once again, my daughter took most of the pictures of this post.
And now, I am looking for players for another dungeon crawl :)

Hope you liked this post.

15 commentaires:

  1. They paint up really well.
    PS: It is Bugbear..or it must be. I played D&D way back in the 80´s and they had Bugears then.

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    1. All right, thank you for your confirmation. I also discovered the RPG with D&D, then AD&D, in 1983.

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  2. Awesome selection Phil. They will look great as big monster's in 1:72 scale.

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    1. Thank you Sprinks. Yes I do think so, I will try to take pictures with 1/72 minis side by side. The only problem in my opinion is the base.

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  3. Awesome selection Phil. They will look great as big monster's in 1:72 scale.

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  4. Very Nice
    In fact expertly done
    Have you varnished or PVA'ed them to harden the surface?

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    1. Thank you Geordie. No, I didn't varnish, but it would be a thing to do before playing. I read somewhere that the best way is to apply a layer of satin varnish, then a layer of mate varnish, it is strong enough and the minis have a good aspect. Have to try.

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  5. Que de souvenirs cachés dans ces lettres...D&D...avec un A devant, ou non, que de souvenirs...magnifiques figurines par ailleurs...

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    1. N'est-ce pas ? Quand j'ai découvert cette forme de jeu, j'ai eu un sentiment de liberté (narrative) inconnu par ailleurs.

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  6. Back in 3rd edition D&D days I think? Your painting is superb on these pieces. The setup and pics are better than what most manufacturer's offer.

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    1. Thank you for your comment :) As far as I know, the Troll was one of the first monsters of D&D, since its characteristics were described in Chainmail magazine. The Bugbear and the Wizard Ogre were part of Greyhawk. Concerning the Carrion Crawler, I don't know.
      The first ruleset my friends and I used for a campaign was AD&D2.

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  7. aaaarghhhh ! Je n'ai pas l'habitude de commenter sur des articles concernant la fantasy, pour laquelle je n'ai pas le moindre intérêt. Mais tu es si talentueux que je suis allé faire un tour...et j'ai découvert ton antre !!! Moi qui n'ait qu'une table basse ikea lack pour établi et en tout et pour tout UNE boîte de 40 cm sur 20 avec tout mon matériel de peinture... Je suis jaloux ! :-)

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    1. Merci pour ton commentaire fort sympathique. Oui j'ai la chance de pouvoir m'étaler à loisir dans la cave, mais ça reste la cave avec quasi pas de lumière du soleil, ce qui je préfère pour peindre, mais bon, je ne me plains pas.

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