New printer and results

 I was gifted a 3d printer by a relative that didnt use it much, so the last month has been learning a bit how to use it and doing some repairs to keep it running. 

I made a 5 hex tray for placing and moving 15mm miniatures, and I also made some wound markers, red and yellow that can be added to the mini bases as a conflict occurs.

 

The Frogmen are 15mm splintered light minis I have had for awhile and finally painted them.  I took stock of some of my 15mm minis that can be used for skirmishing and may try some kind of Victorian Science Fiction or Pulp campaign focused on the Scramble for Africa. 

I've been able to print some 25mm and 15mm minis on the 3d printer. Still prefer metal minis, but can't justify the cost of new ones since I still have a pile of lead. 

Clockwork soldiers with a Neopolitan "Earth pig"

I ordered a large piece of the hex cloth and used high flow acrylics to die it. I was worried the grey hex pattern would disappear but it blended in nicely. It drapes well and is easy to lay out and fold up. Wife did sew all the edges with her sewing machine so it wont fray out on edges. 

I made the clockwork soldiers in Tinkercad and printed them out. My first real project on the printer I inherited from a step son. 

The earth pig is a take on an Ford 3 ton M1918 from Thingiverse and I painted it in a tricolor dazzle pattern. I added visible gears in the back... a bit of a chore.

The clockwork soldiers are holding pistols and bombs. May fool around with a model that in carrying a rifle. 

Looking to fit these in to a Victorian Science Fiction game or something similar.

 

Clockwork battalion and earth pig

 Made up some 18mm clockwork soldiers and an earth pig to support them for wargaming on the new hex cloth. Will post pics soon.

Cloth hex map

 Ordered a piece of cloth with hex printed on it. Its about 18x28" and is cotton material similar to a T shirt.  I have a black fabric marker coming tomorrow and may try to darken the hex lines. I would like to dye it a light sepia color or maybe a light green for use. It appears to be usable on top of contoured foam to a point. It fold up and lays out flat nicely.

Fell Helm solo RPG

 I finished the 12 page booklet pdf and the page in order pdf along with the 3 adventure sheets.

Each sheet has 4 different characters, so twelve total. 

I'm working on the seperate adventure sheet set instructions so they  

can be used for playing with other rules light games. 

Pretty happy with the work so far!

Bestiary work

 A sample of some of the work done on my bestiary which will have mostly new creatures. I'm keeping the stat blocks light at this time until I get the whole layout done. Since this is solo for me I will probably have a random generator for certain special powers to keep things unknown until there are encounters.

Ref. material

 Spent last evening going thru The Dictionniare Infernal cover to cover. It is a French work, so I mainly flipped thru the 740 pages. I know enough French to read the titles and get the gist of some of the entries that caught my eye. Made a collection of some of the drawings to work woodcut style of sketching. 

Some thoughts on solo party play mechanisms

1. Either skills or classes are needed for characters in a solo game. As you are both the GM and player, skills or classes will help define the capabilities and limitations of the character on the sheet. Without the type of guidance either of those two mechanisms provide, there will be a tendency for PCs to become homogonized into reflections of  your knowledge pool of the game. 

If the 3 PCs you are soloing with are capable of performing all tasks based only on the roll of a die to check for success, then all 3 can gain equally from your play knowledge and you are playing with 3 interchangeable PCs. This interchangeablitiy degrades the importance of tactics that test the solo players mettle. 

2. Movement, time, and turn add consequence to the solo game by placing limits on the flow of the game. Normally done by the GM in group play, if these items are not adhered to the solo game can begin to flow past a manageable speed. 

Party character sheet design

 This is an updated variation of a party character sheet I used for in my solo RPG core rules set. 

It is designed with a limited inventory per character concept found in games like Maze Rats, Cairn and Fallen. In those rules light OSR games trying to solo with one character is challenging at best, and I have more fun with 3 to 4 characters in a party. With the 10 item inventory slots it makes it important what each character brings and keeps with them. 

It also designates what items are where. One item each on the arm for hand held items, 2 items on the belt area, and six lines for knapsack items. I usually place the 3 to 4 ability numbers or modifiers in the four spaces along each drawings collar piece and level or HP  in the belt buckle or in the outside squares, two lines for name and class if needed. Pencil in if they have an item, erase it if they lose it or replace it. 

 If only one character has a torch written in arm space and it goes out then the party is in the dark. If the guy with a rope fell down the 30ft hole then the rest of the members don't have rope to get across the chasm. 

I have a total of 12 different types of drawings, both male and female that I switch out. I also made a 4 character variant to use