Not a catchy title, that one.

I managed to finish off another Barbarian – this one definitely will form part of my group of minis that all represent the same chap. I’ve been thinking about this a bit more and the background for this guy – as a young thief in he stole something of an old hag sorceress, and she cursed him to permanent unhappiness, a constant yearning to move. Anything his eye falls on, any property he gains, any village he calls home and any woman he loves he is cursed to tire of… cursed to wander, seeking a satisfaction he will never find. The games I play will represent him in old age, relaying scattered tales from his colourful life – itinerant and adventuring, hoping to lift the curse. The fella with the crown and bracelet next to the white haired barbarian from a few posts ago will also represent this ‘accursed wanderer’ too.

Seems like a good, simple background for adventure hooks.

I’m also on a major terrain kick at the mo – on Black Friday I bought a few mats from Deep Cut Studios.. a 3×3 simple green meadow (seems like a good thing to have), a 3×3 Snow mat (for a future 6mm sci-fi project) and a 2×2 desert. I already have my textured desert board, but I thought a mat might be handy.

I realised I don’t have a surface that I can even place a 3×3 on (ah the joys of living in flats!) so I bought a 90cm square wooden art panel from Jackson’s. I can just pop it up on some folding trestle legs to play with. I know it’s a little overkill, but I thought it was better to go that way, it’s future proof for if I ever want to make another *proper* terrain board.

Anyway – I also popped some 30cm square boards in my order too, on sales at £6. I’ve been thinking recently that games designed (or can be played) for 2×2 in inches (Relicblade, Crom, Open Combat, LotR SBG Scenarios…) can be played in 15mm on a really small board if you swap inches for centimetres (a 2×2 becomes just 24cm). This means that I can make so fairly low investment but very specific boards – a ravine, a castle ruins etc.

This is the ‘rough draft’ of the first – a cave network. Unlike almost all my other terrain I won’t be basing these, that way I can easily move them around and rearrange – 3 have right angles on the back (to slot into corners) and one has just a single flat edge, so it’ll sit flush against the board edge. It’ll be desert style like the rest of my stuff – I’m picturing a series of games where the party hunts through a cave network deep in the desert (over a series of this board rearranged) then find the entrance to some ancient temple catacombs (at which point I can use my souk tiles). I reckon the odd sci-fi gunfight could erupt in these caves too.

It’s all coming together!