Crowdfunding Spotlight: Tikki Trolls Tribe Miniatures Mortal Arrow Kickstarter

I just have to point you to these unique troll miniatures from Mortal Marrow Miniatures. Given a Tiki theme to differate them from the normal trollish miniature offerings that are out there, a full tribe, if not a full war horde of these can be put together with all the individual options available here.

I am an avid troll mini collector (and I’ve covered other articles with a troll theme before like Big Bastards, and my two headed Troll sculpt and so on, if you’re interested!) and if I had spare funds going, I certainly would be backing this one. They are extremely old school, while still being different enough to be unique to stand on their own. What I like about the indie mini industry is that even so we see the same tropes used, again and again, the interpretation of the themes are sometimes totally different and ends up for making some really special models.

This monstrous pedipalp here from the project is a great figure, and shows the free thinking of Mortal Arrow with their regard to creating. I’d also suggest that you check out Mortal Arrow’s website too (http://www.mortalarrow.com/) and see some their other stuff and background fluff to go with their ranges, which is a jolly good read!

Go and find out more from either the link below to visit the KS project page, or like I said above, check their website and see what you think! There’s plenty of time to decide if you want to become a backer, but make no mistake, the project is funded so they’ll be going into production for those wanting their own Tiki Trolls! Well done guys!

Crowdfunding Spotlight: Pantheon of Chaos (Chapter 2), 28mm Old Skool Chaos Miniatures

Ok, my apologies for missing yesterday’s post in this “post a day” month, but things were out of my control. I’ll make up for that today with two posts, the first being this really great looking retro “Realm of Chaos” inspired KS.

For those of you old enough to remember GW’s old “Realm of Chaos” stuff from the 80’s & early 90’s, these are very much of their ilk, a perfect throwback to the glory days of all things Oldhammer.

There are some cracking miniatures up for grabs here in this campaign, the picture above just shows a small selection of what’s available, so you’ll need to check out the project page for details of more chaos loveliness they are offering! What I really like is that the style is spot on, and apes the presentation style from things like the old White Dwarf ads and publications of that era.

Get over to the page and check this project out, seriously! There are some beautiful stuff here, and if you are serious about a chaos army for your own games, there will be lots here to tempt you into owning some of these fantastic minis!!

Will the new “IT” Movie, see a new wave of Creepy Clown sightings?

A subject not talked about on here for ages is that of the Clown sightings of the past few years. The worldwide craze started by the Northampton Clown, caused much fear and loathing in the community in the UK and US and started a viral sensation that now is but a distant memory.

September sees the release of the new version of Stephen King’s seminal horror, “IT” which I’m sure that we are all familiar with. The movie looks like something most fans of the horror genre will be looking forward to, but maybe not if you’re caulrophobia (Phobic of clowns) but the whole thing has got me thinking that while the whole craze is old hat now, we might be seeing a resurgence of such antics again once the movie has been released.

If you haven’t seen the trailer for the new film yet, where have you been? No longer will we see the great Tim Curry don the guise of the infamous “Pennywise the dancing clown”, but now Bill Skarsgard will play the evil alien entity who disguises itself as a variety of head fucks to feast on the young residents of the town of Derry.

For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer, here it is before we carry on with the discourse.

Looks ok, but the proof of the pudding will be seeing the movie in its entirety. It does look as if the movie will deal with the first part of the story (when they were kids) with a sequel in the works probably to carry on the second part of the story (when they are adults) and have to face “IT” once more to stop its reign of terror.

This aside, I’m pretty sure we are going to get the onslaught of clown sightings as a response to the movie’s release. There will always be some joker (get it?!) ready to put on the clown suit and mask and start scaring people for a variety of reasons, be it for publicity, for viral hits or simply to spite those who live in fear of clowns. This is a big issue, seriously bigger than you’d realise, some people really do have a proper fear of all things clown. the last time I blogged about them, at one point I received 160,000 hits in a day just on one post about the subject and over 100 private messages and emails! A real boost for my humble site stats for sure, but a real eye-opener in terms of how much this subject affects people’s lives and psyches.

I recently took my kids to the circus, myself hoping that the clown/s there would be creepy enough to entertain me (well, I’m not scared of clowns if you’re wondering) but what I ended up finding is that “real career clowns” if I can call them that, are somewhat watered down compared to the traditional idea, which for me at least was a bit disappointing!

What I will do here, is monitor the subject in the media over the course of the movie release, and what I find, I will blog about. One thing is assured this time, is that if my own area sees the return of the Doncaster Clown (or other pretenders to the title) I will try my best to get an interview with the guy, in fact, if there are any other regional clowns, I’ll also try to start up a conversation with them, just to see what motivates these folks to do what they do!

Who knows, I might end up making some clown related PDFs, minis or similar type stuff to cash in on the craze (well, if it happens) and the very least should help me shift some books!

Whatever happens, mark my words. The clowns will return, and I’ll be here to keep you up to date with the associated craziness that comes along with it! Let me know your thoughts and comments on the subject!

A Reminder Call out to Writers who want to Collab…

Just a quick call out for anyone who would be interested in becoming an author of one of our growing range of Grinning Skull Studios PDF products for RPGers, Wargamers and other hobbyists.

Check out the page on the top or side menu, or visit the page HERE for more details, or just simply drop me a line via  the contact page for a chat about your ideas, Or if you’d like to have a look at our range of PDF products check out our various publisher pages here:

  

Feel free to peruse our wares to give you an idea of what we are doing. We’re up for new and exciting ideas too, and if you feel like having a chat, please feel free to do so!

Crowdfunding Spotlight: Dimensions Pen and Paper RPG by Juliet Fehrenbacher on Kickstarter

This is the first Kickstarter that I wanted to highlight for some points later on (in a future post on here) but, I’ll address those later and get talking about this project in it’s own right.

Tabletop RPGs and their ilk seem to be doing a roaring trade on stuff like KS these days, showing the rest of the industry that even the little guy can make a big impression in the gaming world, so coming across this RPG over there, I thought it could do with some love and attention in the sea of other games.

The premise is that of a multi-genre based system, that would suit loads of different types of play, which is all well and good, but I have to take some issues with the project.

There’s not enough emphasis on the setting. Ok, the project talks about the system, but not enough to set it apart from the competition (which these days, there is a lot) The Heroes of Terrestia could be a good USP, but is only mentioned in passing. The inclusion of more detail could help sell the game.

Also, even with all the details of the system, there are no examples of how it works, no sample primer of gameplay or anything that helps to give a flavour for it. Even so the art is lovely, it wouldn’t justify my backing it just off that.

My advice (for all it’s worth) would be that a PDF release on Drivethru RPG or RPGnow would help build a following first before a print version. Just my ten penneth worth.

Still, it could be a diamond in the rough, but without the supplemental detail, we’d never know.

If that’s piqued your interest, check it out over on Kickstarter by clicking the linky below, and I wish them good luck from one game publisher to another!