The Search for Charlie Episode 1.0: Sam's Makeover

"I'm Sam."

Charlie has been missing for almost a year now due to "The Adventure of the Great Move" and I feel real bad about it. He saved my life on more than one occasion and he always had a drink when I needed one. We busted Lo Pan at the Smithsonian when he got hurt real bad. We did our part during the Egyptian Adventure. 

Posing after "The Egyptian Adventure" when Sam and Charlie learned about inter-dimensional and supernatural beings.

I think someone or something killed him. 

Last known photograph of Charlie.

You know Randolph, when a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. We are in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around - bad for that organization, bad for every detective everywhere. I'm going to talk to The Colonel.

Sam and Charlie have been some of my oldest employees in the fight against evil - I hired them away from the Copplestone Castings Agency and they have never let me down. But before I let Sam go on this probable fool's errand, I'm going to send him off looking good with a new makeover - something I haven't done in a long time.

This was going to be tricky since I did not want to rebase Sam. The first think I did was you Vallejo Flat White to paint all over the figure except for Sam's shoes and his face. Sam asked me not to mess with his face because he liked his ugly mug just the way it was.

The trench coat was painted with GW Contrast paint Skeleton Horde.

Sam's fedora was painted with Contrast Snakebite Leather and his trousers with Contrast Black Templar. I also used the Contrast Black Templar for Sam's tie; Sam doesn't like fancy, colorful ties.

The belt and buttons of the trench coat is also Contrast Snakebite Leather and I put some Contrast Snakebite Leather on the shoes as a shade.

The band around the fedora is Contrast Gore Grunta Brown (laughter).

Sam looked real shiny and clean, which would make him stand out in his business. I decided to go back with some water on a brush to lighten the trench coat and have some of the highlights stand out. Once that dried, Sam was given a spray coat of Flat Clear enamel.

Sam looking pretty stylish - I mean intimidating.

Sam is now ready to start his investigation. Maybe he'll have some allies - we know that there will be villains. I feel sorry for the villains that may get in his way.

"I'm going to find Charlie . . . or the villains that did him in."

The Ogre Mark V: A Quick and Easy Paint Guide

In the year 2085, armored warfare is faster and deadlier than ever. Hovercraft, tanks, and infantry slug it out with tactical nukes. But, the most feared weapon of all needs no human guidance. It's a giant cybernetic tank bristling with guns and missiles.

It's the Ogre.

A part of the sturdy, cardboard game board. You can also play without the board and use a ruler.

Ogre has always been one of my favorite games and one of the first games I purchased myself as a you 12 something. The updated board game version is fantastic and Honorable Son #3 (The Chemical Engineer Aviator) has plastic miniatures to play on the new board game. He asked me if I would paint them (it didn't take long to twist my arm) so I thought I would use just three GW Contrast paints to knock them out quickly.

Above is the sprue for the MK V Ogre in hard plastic. In order to use GW Contrast paints the items must be primed in either white or a light gray. I did not use Hobby Primers, even though they are usually the best quality primer out there - I just buy whatever is on sale.

You can see that some of the red can still be seen after one coat of primer. I almost gave it a second coat but I thought to my self, "Self, this is an Ogre. It's not some fancy parade ground museum piece. It needs to look rough around the edges." In addition, I was painting it white so I figured - who cares?

I did some rushing in gluing the Ogre together with the treads. I should have glued one side, let it dry, and then glue the other side. You can see the results of where my sticky fingers were as I put treads back into the correct positions. Hey, it's battle damage. The model itself is easy to put together if you take your time.

I used GW Contrast Blood Angel Red for the base color of the hull. Truth in advertising time: I did not paint the whole hull at one time due to the length of the model. Contrast paints take about 20 minutes to dry and I did not want my finger prints (see above on gluing treads!) on any of the areas. The main batteries, in fact all of the batteries are painted with Contrast Basilicanum (What the heck is a Basilicanum in the GW world? Gee, another homework assignment.) Black and the Primary Sensor Array is painted with Contrast Nazdreg (BWAH HAH HAH!) Yellow.

The engine like structures, exhaust fans, and treads were all painted with GW Contrast Black.

The rest of the secondary batteries, anti-personnel batteries and secondary sensor arrays were also all painted Contrast Basilicanum Black. The Rattler Missiles were painted with Contrast Nazdreg Yellow.

Tah Dah! All done.

Pulp!: Episode 3 of The Return of the Mad Guru

 

And now, the stunning conclusion of the play test of the solo rules for Pulp!.

(Game Note: The Princess has the Life Experience Profile "You killed my father. You'll pay for it." For having this attribute she can only use the Special Benefits Adrenaline Surge and Mighty Shove; however, she receives a +1 in all Melee and Ranged combat against the Mad Guru only.

(Game Note: I couldn't have scripted it any better myself. The Mad Guru failed to activate, Colonel Douglas fires at him with a result that he is suppressed. The minions fail to activate (Yikes) and the Princess does, fires at the suppressed Mad Guru (who is now -1 on saves) and nails the evil villain that killed her father.)

(Game Note: The Bat declares he will use the Special Benefit "Mighty Shove" as he charges into combat. If your character inflicts at least one unsaved hit the enemy figure can be moved up to 3" in the direction opposite of the charge - and the figure would drop any objectives it might be carrying!)

(Game Note: The Big Guy is no dummy and as soon as The Bat moves into contact with him, he performs an Acrobatic Dodge before Melee is resolved and move away from the attacker in the opposite direction 1 to 3 inches.)

 

(Game Note: The Bat uses his last Special Benefit of the game (he could do four) which is "Second Chance" which forces The Big Guy to reroll any Combat Roll or Save Roll. The Big Guy had to reroll all of his Save dice and . . . well . . . you see the result above. No more The Big Guy.)

(Game Note: I figured the last 3 minions would have had enough and decide to scatter into the Jungle.)

So Colonel Douglas, any advice?

For up close pistol play, the Special Benefits "In The Zone", "Precision Shot", and "Second Chance" are very effective.

Yep, I forgot to use the Special Benefits until the beginning of Turn 3 - What's a Pulp Game without daring do, miraculous dodges and heroic leadership? In addition, I made The Mad Guru too weak: he should as a minimum had a total of 4 IP's (combat dice) and should not have given him a Consuming Obsession which limited the Special Benefits he could use - really limited them!

And what about the fight at the bridge? All that beautiful terrain to use to dodge and scoot and the majority of the figures end up fighting out in the open by the bridge. I guess someone learned a lesson. And in fairness to the Bad Guys, I have never rolled so many "1's" (and automatic fail) in my entire life.

Uh, thanks Bat.

I think Pulp! has gotten a bad rap by experienced gamers (myself included). In actuality, it's a great introduction to skirmish gaming for new or inexperienced players using the Basic Rules. Experienced players (myself included) will find that just using the Basic Rules will be boring. If you want to have fun with Pulp! you have to take the effort to add the chrome yourself based on the outlines and sections in the book. After all, if you have an unsaved hit from the Death Ray - your dead in this game! It fires DEATH. It covers a lot of territory and ideas in 64 pages; it's not Pulp Alley which has characters that come with the game, game aides, etc. Remember, we are living in a Golden Age of Gaming.

I enjoyed the Solo Rules (click on the link to get a PDF file) which have tables and an interesting AI system for the "other" guys in the game. I did not use the Solo Special Benefits table as I used common sense when the Bad Guys would need to use one. As recommended in the Solo Rules, I adjusted the priority of actions for the "Bad Guys" based on the scenario and common sense. I guess the Collaborative part is players are all on one side controlling specific figures and teams and the "main" hero or villain would determine which unit activates when. Bottom line - I had fun playing the game and honestly I thought the Bad Guys were going to win. Until next time: BWAH HAH HAH!