Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone

 About a week and a half ago, I got in my kickstarter pledge for Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone.  I'm not really up on the Cyberpunk Red universe; I think it started as a tabletop rpg, and this is a spin off.  At any rate, I thought the game had some clever mechanics and cool models that could be used for other science fiction settings, so I was eager to paint things up.

The starter set comes with two different six model gangs.  The "Tiger Claws" are basically yakuza, and the "Maelstrom" are people that want to use cybernetics to improve upon humanity.

I won't talk much about the gameplay, since as I write this, I haven't actually played.  Instead, let's just get to the photos, which is why anyone would come to this page.

I guess I should throw out a warning that since I painted 12 models in a week and a half, it should be noted that these aren't display quality.  There will be a lot of flaws that are evident when looking at them as close as the camera does.  I'm okay with it, since when seen at a normal distance they look cool.

Tiger Claws

Ronin Assassin

This was one of the last models I painted from the Tiger Claw.  You can barely see the face, but it is a gas-mask.  I like how his coat turned out (which is why I wanted a shot from the back), but I'm not so fond of the white shirt.  I've never really learned how to paint white.

Ronin Sniper

This was painted at the same time as the ronin assassin, primarily because it shares the same body.  (These are the only two models in the set that share a part.)  I like the purple-glazed metallic facemask, but I struggled to get the effect.  The first glaze I did, I ended with a horrible tide ring, and I had to just keep glazing over and over until that wasn't as noticable.  You can still see it if you look carefully, and it ended up darker on the bottom half that I was intending, but I think it works well enough in the end.

Wakagashira

The proportions of this guy look off when you photograph the model, but look fine in real life.  Just a typical example of how minis often have to have exaggerated proportions to look right on the table.  There aren't many bright colors in my paint scheme, so it doesn't pop on the table as much as it should, but I still like it.

Kyodai

This was one of the first models I painted from the set, and I feel I would do a better job of it now.  I found out just how much black-lining can make a difference, and I feel this model would benefit from some more of it.  I still lke the model, and it feels very iconic for the faction.

Onee-san

Great model; stupid name.  There are a couple of interesting things about this one.  First, I really like how her face turned out, even though I did very little to it.  Female faces are hard, but this one I think looks fine.  I also realized after that I never highlighted up her pants, but the thin layer of black paint gives it enough of a contrast-paint-like effect that I think it is fine.

Oyabun

You know how I just said female faces are hard? 😢

This is the leader of the Tiger Claws, and yet the one I like the least.  I think her kimono looks better than I thought it would, but both the power sword and especially the face look terrible.  I spent a lot of time, and tried a number of things, and this was the best I could do.  You might say I would be better off not trying to paint the eyes, and my response would be that it looked even worse without them.

Maelstrom

Crusher

It isn't a big deal, but you can barely see the shoulder cannon from this angle, which is a bit of a shame.

With this model and the next, I was experimenting.  The models are big compared to the others, and there was just so much metal that I wanted to do something to make it less monotonous.  I had the idea to red-line the metals instead of black-lining them, and hopefully give a bit of suggestion of muscle fibers.  For this one, I did the red lines before I gave it a dark wash.  It makes the effect much more subtle.

Warlord

This is the Maelstrom leader, and while I wasn't excited by him when I assembled it, I think he has grown to be one of my favorite models.  The face is possibly the best I've ever done on a mini, and everything just kind of works in my opinion.

For the red lines here, I washed first and then put in the red, making it more prominent.  I'm honestly not sure which method I prefer.

Berserker

Kind of a throwaway model.  Not much to say here.

Ranged Specialist

Ugh.  I hate how this one turned out.  There are things I like, but the face looks terrible.  I can console myself that it doesn't look that great in the concept art, either, so perhaps it is meant to look unnatural.

Ripper

The face here looks a little off, but I sort of feel that it works anyway.  It kind of looks like an artificial skin that doesn't quite fit right, which doesn't seem off for a cyborg.  Besides, I really like the shirt and jacket.

Flenser

I really like this model, and I wanted my paint job to do it justice.  While it isn't perfect, I think I did a good enough job.  The face is really good for a female, and I like how the bright hair contrasts with the otherwise dark outfit.  My only regret is not working in the green that I did with all the other Maelstrom models.

Conclusion

The models are definitely tabletop, but I'm happy with the quality for painting 12 models in about a week and a half.  I have lots more minis for the game, but I'll take a break and paint some other stuff first before I jump into them.

Until later!

Duskling Ambush!

 24th Day of Palesun, 1293

We were once again patrolling the outskirts of the city.  Some of the local farmers had reported to the town watch that their livestock were acting scared of something, so we went to investigate.

The first few farms we visited, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  But then we heard cries of distress in the distance.  We approached as quickly as we could while still trying to be cautious, and found a farmer, wounded and under attack from dusklings!

(Out of character:  Please excuse the shoddy quality of the farmer mini.  It is a prepaint, and not my fault.)

We quickly dismounted and prepared for battle.

The warband advanced cautiously.  

The dusklings, however, raced forward with unexpected speed.  It was clear we needed to move more quickly or the enemy would finish off the wounded farmer.

With only three enemies visible, we got overconfident.  But then Eleseth walked right into an ambush of five more dusklings!

From there, things got chaotic.  I went to try to rescue the farmer, while the rest of the warband attempted to deal with the newly arrived enemies.  After a long back-and-forth fight over a wall, I finally took out the first of the enemies, though I didn't come out of it unscathed.

Things rapidly went downhill from there.  My companions starting going down one after the other.  Wilfred healed my wound, and I immediately took another.  I made it to the farmer and bandaged myself, but then more dusklings came after me.  It was a close thing, but I was in the end victorious and opened a path to escort the farmer off the battlefield.

Dobbin attempted to provide covering fire, which allowed Wilfred to escape.  In the end, though, Dobbin's arrows couldn't stop so many foes, and he was overwhelmed.

Fortunately, we had defeated enough of the dusklings that they too were more interested in escaping than pursuing us.  Once they had left the area, we provided first aid to our fallen companions and managed to get them back to town.  Their injuries were extensive, though, and Dobbin wouldn't have made it without giving him some of our precious store of silverleaf.

30th day of Highsun, 1293

I haven't been able to keep up with this journal, because with half the company out of action, the rest of us have been worked hard to earn our keep.  We did hear rumors of dusklings taking prisoners, which possibly explains their attack on the farm.  I hope to go and mount a rescue expedition there soon, but Dobbin is still recovering.

With everyone else back to fighting-shape, though, we plan to check out the abandoned mines that are nearby.  Foolish?  Perhaps.  But lately, the town guard has been mocking us... Sometimes behind our backs, but sometimes right to our faces.  "What kind of adventuring company leeches off the town guard for months at a time?"  I feel we must do something to prove ourselves to them, and our shepherd friend Samuel apparently lost a few sheep in that area.  Hopefully we can do him a favor, and raise our esteem at the same time.

To Battle!

Setting Up

As with all things in Five Leagues from the Borderlands, there are a number of random variations when you set up a battle.

The battle was a random occurrence when we did a Ride Patrol adventure action and encountered Signs of Danger.  In that entry, it says to determine a random threat, which turns out to be "The Ruin Within."  We then set up a Meeting Engagement (the most common type of battle), but also using the Unknown Enemy rule.

Because we're fighting The Ruin Within, we roll on the enemy table for that threat and determine that we're fighting a Deserter Squad.  The enemy stats and any additional rules are determined by that selection.  I won't go into detail on the stats, but the relevant special rules are that there are +3 enemies over usual, and that one basic trooper gets upgraded to a sergeant.

To get the actual number of enemies, we roll 2d6 and take the higher, which turns out to be a 5.  Then we add the +3 to get 8.  (If at this point there our warband outnumbers the enemy, they have a minimum of 1 less than our warband size of 6, but that obviously isn't an issue here.)  The unknown enemy rule then kicks in, and says that the enemy numbers are reduced by 3, but they get a marker that can turn into 1 to 5 enemies when it is spotted.  So, depending on luck, we might be fighting more or fewer enemies than we expect.

The next roll is to see if they have a leader with them, and it turns out they are accompanied by a lieutenant.  Putting everything together, we start facing a lieutenant, a sergeant, 2 bow troops, 2 melee troops, and the unknown enemy marker.

Next, we figure out the objective of the scenario, which is to Fetch Something.  We decide that we come across the group of deserters suspiciously poking around a copse of trees, and as we're patrolling for activity out of the ordinary, we go in to investigate.  The ex-soldiers don't take kindly to the attention and resist.  We set up the battle kind of to our liking, and get something like this:

Our warband is on the near edge, and the enemy on the far side.  Just as a note, almost all the minis used for our heroes are temporary... I decided to use stuff I had previously painted that don't *quite* fit the characters rather than using unpainted models that are more accurate.

Also, the unpainted (giant) crow model toward the upper left is the unknown enemy marker.

We're playing on a 2'x2' board, so combat is going to happen quickly and brutally.

The Engagement Begins

If I'm honest, I didn't take good notes about how the battle played out.  Here are some of the highlights, just based on my memory.

Nothing much happens the first turn.  People advance, trying to stay in cover, and the ranged characters fire off some shots that miss.  (Reviewing the rules, I don't think they should have been able to fire at all, but in the end it doesn't matter.)  The unknown enemy marker advances toward the center of the table, and because the table size is so small, it is instantly identified and spawns 3 more troops.

Our leader wades right into the thick of those three enemies, and due to a combination of good rolls, having a +2 combat skill, and getting counter attacks with his spear, ends up killing all three of the enemies that just spawned.

(Ignore that Garrick Thomson is represented by a Greek hoplite, please.)

Nothing much happens on the right side of the field; potshots are taken back and forth that miss, and the melee troops jockey for position.

Back on the left, Eleseth attempts to join the fray, but doesn't have nearly the skill or luck of Garrick, and she pretty much immediately goes down.  Garrick has a couple of bad rolls, but still continues to more than hold his own against the remaining enemies on the left.

We decide to make a play for the objective and grab the macguffin in the center of the table.  Wilfred creates a wall of flame to keep the enemy lieutenant at bay and allow one of the followers (Campbell, I think) to run up to get it.

From there, it is pretty much cleanup.  Dobbin finally starts hitting with his bow, and ends up one-shotting the lieutenant.  (Very lucky, since his toughness save was 5 or less on a d6.)

We hold the field, and carry our spoils off the table.

Resolution

After the battle is over, we deal with the aftermath, both good and bad.

We get one "adventure point" for a victorious ride patrol encounter, and an additional one for defeating a lieutenant (poor guy never even got to attack).  These are used to progress the campaign in various ways... Most importantly, we can use them for chances to lower the threat levels of the enemies.  Two isn't enough to do much with, so we bank them for later.

Because Eleseth went down in the fight, we have to see how badly she is wounded.  We get a "serious injury," which means that we roll 2d6, choose the higher, and she is out of action for that many turns.  In another stroke of luck, we get double ones.  We feed her a tonic to reduce her downtime by a turn, and she's immediately back in action.  

All our heroes get 2xp; one just for participating, and another for winning the encounter.  Dobbin gets a bonus 1xp for killing the lieutenant.  No one levels up as a result of this, but Dobbin and Eleseth are only 1 more xp away from it.

Rolling for loot, all we find are two "misty waterflower" consumables, which help people recover if poisoned.

As an additonal bonus, a local was so impressed by our battle prowess that he wanted to join our company.  We decide to allow him, and Ansel joins us as a loyal follower.

Speaking of followers, they don't get xp like heroes do.  Instead, each time they survive a battle, they get to roll to see if they learn something.  If lucky enough, they can become heroes.  Kurt has a flash of insight and becomes a hero, but doesn't gain any advancements.  Campbell was too focused on the treasure, and learns nothing.

I kind of decided that heroes have last names, and followers don't.  So, Kurt earns a last name of Coleman.

We roll for end-of-turn news, and apparently nothing interesting is going on.

Back in Town...

I probably should do journal entry format for this, but I just don't feel like it this time.

Sadly, I don't remember what the random event was.  It was inconsequential, since it affected something that we weren't planning on doing anyway.

We choose to help the town guard, since we still can't afford to pay upkeep.  We also send Dobbin to train, giving him the last xp point to level up.  His advancement is either an agility point or a toughness point.  Since he shouldn't be hit all that often (we hope), we choose the agility.

We also send people out to gather information for our contract.  Eleseth easily makes the expertise roll, Wilfred succeeds at the wits roll (even though he has no particular skill with it), and Campbell flubs the speech roll.  Only two successes are necessary to fulfill the contract, and the warband gains 2 gold marks and another adventure point.

We check our connections, and because we now have a friend, he helps us out with a story point.

We still only have 3 gold marks, which isn't enough to buy anything useful, so it is off to make another ride patrol.  Unfortunately for variety's sake, we get a lot of the same results on the tables... another unknown enemy, fetch something fight.  The enemy type is different, though... we get "Duskling Warbands," and the specific group is "Prowling Renegades."  They have a bunch of special rules, which could make the encounter more interesting.  Further, there are far fewer of them (depending on what we roll with the unknown enemy), but they are individually more difficult foes.

We'll see how it goes in the next session...

Events Leading to Adventure

Background

The flow of Five Leagues from the Borderlands is that you do "Preparation" in town or camp, by going shopping, doing odd jobs, hunting for food, and the like.  Some random events happen while you're doing this.  Then, you go out adventuring.

Adventuring may involve traveling to a new location, exploring a feature of your current place, or just riding around to see what is happening.  Typically (but not always) this will result in a combat against a group of npcs.  

One of the most fun things for me is to create a narrative out of all the randomness.  This isn't going to flow well like a short story, so I think I'll mostly structure it like Garrick's journal.  When I specifically go out of character to explain the game effects, I'll mark it as such.

12th day of Palesun, 1293

We finally arrived in the valley.  The cold on the trip through the mountain pass was terrible on my old shoulder wound, so I haven't been making regular entries here.  Things should be warmer at the lower altitude, so I'll be back to keeping my records.

Of course the blasted fey-blood wasn't bothered by the cold.  She kept bouncing around from rock to rock like she was a child at play.  She's lost some of that energy now that the rest of us aren't freezing, which makes her a lot easier to deal with.

As we approached the village of Mahn, the ever-watchful Dobbin pointed out some kind of an entrance in the side of the nearest mountain.  I could barely see the thing even after he pointed to it, honestly.

There was a shepherd out grazing his sheep, so we asked him about it.  He told us it was an old silver mine that was abandoned after the veins were played out, which was decades ago.  Every once in awhile some idiot goes there hoping to discover a new vein and strike it rich, but they never return.  Who knows what has taken up residence in there now?

We bid farewell to the shepherd, and headed into the village.  We're a bit low on coin, so rather than checking into an inn we reported to the guard barracks.  A lot of these frontier settlements are in need of extra bodies to patrol the streets and surrounding areas, and are willing to give some basic room and board for people willing to help out.  Luckily, that was exactly the case here, and we bedded down for the night.

(Out of character) The group travels to Mahn, and when traveling to a settlement there is no need to make a random travel check.  We do still get some news, which after a few random rolls leads to a new delve.

13th day of Palesun, 1293

We spent most of the day exploring Mahn as we patrolled the streets as temporary members of the guard.  Things were a little bit busy, since apparently today was a big market day as goods were delivered from Kethra.  We looked at a lot of stuff wistfully, but in the end we could only afford a bit of used armor for Campbell.  As our newest recruit to the company, he hasn't had a chance to really gear up, and I want to at least give him a fighting chance.  Literally.

We spent the evening in the barracks drinking with the other guardsmen and swapping stories.  We didn't really learn as much about the area as I'd have liked, but it is always good to make nice with the locals.

14th day of Palesun, 1293

Today, our duties took us on patrol outside the city.  We ran into the same shepherd that told us about the mine, and since everything seemed quiet, spent awhile chatting with him.  I found out his name is Samuel, and he owns the biggest flock in the area, so he's constantly moving around.  He definitely seemed eager for some human contact, and I get the feeling he meets a lot of the travelers that come through.  He might become a valuable source of information on local happenings.

As we headed back into town, we noticed that a large military force was also out patrolling, which probably explains why everything was so quiet.  It does make me wonder what our purpose in going out was, though.

(Out of character)  A typical preparation turn involves a random event, which in this case was that there was a market day.  Then you choose two actions to perform: we assisted the town guard so we don't have to pay upkeep costs, and met the locals drinking to get a "story point" which is a resource used to help out when the dice go against you.  Next, you can sell stuff (nothing to sell, yet) and buy an item, which was us getting the armor.  After that, you can "research" to either check connections or try to discover a hidden location.  The group is a long way from being ready to go after a hideout, so we check connections... but we don't yet have any friends and nothing happens.

(Out of character) Our adventuring phase is to go out on a "ride patrol," which typically results in a combat encounter that is easier on the difficulty scale.  This time, we only encounter a "chatty herder."  We can either ignore him and go for another encounter, or talk to him and make a friend.  Since we've already been burned once by not having any friends, we add him to the list.  Finally, with no battle, the only thing remaining is the news, and a random roll gives that the local army has been patrolling.  This would help with travel, but the company will be staying in this area for a bit so it doesn't matter.

15th day of Palesun, 1293

We set out to patrol the village again today, and some cheeky sod nicked our purse.  We didn't have much coin to begin with, but we lost the last of our gold marks.  I guess we'll be on guard rations for awhile more.

16th day of Palesun, 1293

Eleseth, Dobbin, and I continue to patrol the settlement, but I sent Kurt and Campbell out to do some odd jobs and try to make some cash.  Being totally broke really limits our options.

I also sent Wilfred to talk to the city council to see if there was some job we could do for them.  Apparently, they've noticed cultists in the area, and want to know more information.  We'll ask around town, and if we can rustle up enough news we can earn a bit more money.

17th day of Palesun, 1293

I brought everyone together again to ride a patrol outside of Mahn.  No sign of Samuel today, but we encountered some suspicious individuals poking around a small copse of trees.  Dobbin with his amazing eyesight noticed that their armor is the same style as the military folk we saw a few days ago, but much more unkempt...  Probably deserters.  

Well, this is how we earn our keep...

(Out of character):  Event:  Pickpocket, lose 2 gold marks, which is all we have.  Our town actions:  help the town guard for free upkeep, and do hard work to make a gold mark.  We skip past the buy/sell phase, and our research turns up a contract to investigate a settlement.  Fortunately, the random settlement turns out to be Mahn, so we don't have to travel anywhere to do it.  

(Out of character): For the adventure phase, we again go on a ride patrol, but this time get a battle encounter.  There are several steps to rolling up an encounter, but I'll save that for the next blog entry after we've actually done the fight.

Multiple Attempts at Planning (i.e., map)

Deciding What to Do

The first thing I looked for when I knew I needed a map was a free online map tool.  Honestly, I don't even remember the name of the tool I first considered, but it was garbage.

I then looked into YouTube tutorials on making your own maps, and found a great one, by JP Coovert.  He seems to have something of an artist background, and a real passion for D&D and in particular, D&D maps.  Here is the video that really inspired me, but he has several others that would be useful if you want to hand-draw your maps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1XEVzX5cxg

The thing was, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how problematic drawing the map by hand would be.  As you play Five Leagues from the Borderlands, you discover more places and add them to the map.  You also eliminate camps, clear out delves, and so on.  What is important on the map will change, and it seems nearly impossible to have something that both looks good and allows for expansion.

So, I went back to looking for digital tools.  The one that every place seemed to bring up was "Inkarnate."  I spent a half-hour or so playing with the free version, and I pretty much hated it.  It absolutely can make beautiful maps, but it was unintuitive for me to use, and seemed to require a lot of effort to get even the simplest things done.  Even worse, I'd find a tool that I'd like to use to add something to the map, and it would be locked behind the pay wall.  Now, I don't mind paying for a product, but having to pay for a subscription to use even pretty basic features bothers me.

In the end, I bought "Wonderdraft" for a one-time price.  You can get decent-looking maps in a tiny fraction of the time it would take me using Inkarnate, and I think that with practice you can get stuff that looks just as good.  I'm not constantly being hounded to pay, and I can add and remove things easily as the campaign progresses.

Without Further Ado...

With less than an hour of playing around, I have a fun map of the area my warband will be adventuring in.

World Building

 Picking Spells

In the last post, when I created my Five Leagues from the Borderlands warband, I hadn't yet chosen spells for my mystic.  Mainly, I wanted to re-read the rules and spell descriptions.

In 5LB, spellcasters are mainly support.  There are no fireballs or other attack spells.  Instead, they can help their allies, hinder their foes, and alter the battlefield.  I've always liked this kind of wizard, but it does leave me with "everything is cool" syndrome.

I only get to pick two spells, and then get three more randomly.  After some consideration, I'm taking "Heal" as my first spell.  Even though it is limited to one cast per combat, anything that can help keep warband members alive a bit longer is a must-have.

The second spell I went around and around with, but I settled on "Barrier."  Being able to create cover wherever it is needed sounds amazing to me.

Now, the random rolls... 

(01) Antidote makes a warband member immune to poison and venom for an entire battle.  Situational, but probably very useful when appropriate.

(06) Barrier... er, reroll (46) Heal... bah, reroll... (100) Weaken.  Makes some enemies easier to deal with.  Another very situational spell, it looks like.

(43) Guidance.  Allows an ally a reroll during the next round.  Powerful if done at the right time, but tricky (or impossible) to know what the right time is.

At any rate, I look forward to seeing how this works out.  Having a mystic definitely allows for some creative play instead of just "run at the enemy and hope dice work in your favor."

Settlements

The next part of setting up a 5LB campaign is to start making a map of the area.  I'll draw something up later, but to start I need to know the major features that are in the area.

Rolling on a table gives me 0 hamlets, 2 villages, and 1 town.  Each of these gets a special trait.

The village of Ree turns out to be a nomadic camp, while the village of Mahn is a trading hub.

The larger town of Kethra is a market town.

I'm imagining a synergy between these three places.  Mahn is the closest to more civilized lands.  It serves as a gathering place for adventurers heading into the area, and also accumulates loot from those same adventurers.  It is the primary place for goods to come into the area, and treasures to head out.

The people of Ree wander in search of fish and game.  Anything they find beyond their needs gets taken to Kethra, which is connected to Mahn via a river.  In that way, the nomads can barter for goods they can't manufacture themselves.

Threats

There are three major groups threatening the area.  While there is the option to roll randomly, for this first campaign I'm going to pick based on models that I already own (and some of which are painted).

There are two "foes within," which lurk within the human realms.  I choose "The Ruin Within," which means bandits and brigands, and "The Whispers from Beyond," for fights against undead and cultists.

For "foes without," I go with Duskling Warbands.  While previously I said that dusklings reminded me of dwarves, I think I'm going to use orcs for these enemies.

I'm going to make the dusklings the primary enemy of the campaign (threat level 6), and both of the foes within will be threat level 5.  The goal of the campaign (which I highly doubt I'll achieve) is to reduce all three of those threat levels to 0.

Each of the three enemy groups will get both a camp and a hideout on the map.  The camps' locations are known, but the hideouts will be hidden and have to be discovered later.  I imagine that we have heard rumors of the general area where the groups are based, but we'll have to investigate and search to actually find the places.  That is a problem for future Garrick, though...

Other Stuff to Find

A few other interesting locations need to be added to the map.

There is a "delve," which is a multi-level tower/dungeon that can be explored.  In the past, there was another town in the area, called Lorba.  It grew to the point where hygiene was a serious problem, and the residents attempted to start a sewer system.  While digging, they broke through to a cave system.... and the inhabitants didn't take well to being disturbed.  Foul things decimated the town, and retreated back underground.  Rumors tell that the town coffers were full before the attack, and that coin has never been found.  

The map will also have an "unexplored location," which could be anything from a monster lair to a magic woods to a lost community.

Next up is to put all this stuff onto an actual map.  The map is mostly fluff, since you get from any location to any other in one "travel action."  Still, it adds to the immersion and makes it feel more like a world.  Once I get that drawn, I'll make another blog entry for it.

Preparing for the Borderlands

Background

Five Leagues from the Borderlands (5LB) is a solo (or cooperative) fantasy miniatures game.  The player(s) create a warband of adventurers who go on missions, fight enemies, rest in towns, and try to fight against encroaching enemies.

The game is a sequel/companion to Five Parsecs from Home (5PH), which has a science fiction theme to it.  I briefly attempted to play 5PH, but it wasn't my cup of tea.  First, I don't have many SF miniatures, and more importantly, it just was more frustrating than fun to me.  You randomly go on missions, and most missions are just too difficult for a starting crew.  So, I'd get wiped out, not get any rewards, and ended up further and further in debt.

5LB may have many of the same problems, but you have a bit more agency in what you attempt.  When starting out, you can go on simple patrols rather than seeking out much more difficult encounters.  You can eventually fight abominable monsters, explore dungeons, and just in general have more choice as to what you're doing.  There is also a more established goal: there are three major threats to civilization, and you're trying to prevent them from becoming too strong.

More importantly, I have many more fantasy miniatures than SF ones.  

I don't know if it will be any less frustrating, but I'm going to give it a go.

Races

In 5LB, you have six choices of race for your characters.  While most character attributes are determined randomly, race is one of the few things you can pick.

There are humans.  They don't get many bonuses except that they are the only race that can have a "will" stat of more than 1.  Also, of course, it is easy to find minis for human adventurers.

Fey-blood are somewhere between your typical fantasy elves and the trickster fey.  They also have ties to "the endless winter," which gives them a frost power.

Just like in Dungeons & Dragons, halflings are a total rip-off of Tolkien's hobbits.  About the only difference is that in 5LB they get bonuses to ranged weapons.

The other three races are a bit more unique to 5LB.

Dusklings are a warrior race that like the dark.  I get a dwarven vibe from them, but that could just be my imagination.

Preen are bird-folk.  I'm going to ignore them for now because I don't have any appropriate miniatures.

Ferals are animal-people, generally cats and wolves.  I may eventually paint one of these up, but not at first.

For a starting warband, you have 4 heroes and 2 followers.  I have some minis in mind, so I'm going to choose:

2 human heroes

1 fey-blood hero

1 halfling hero

2 human followers (initial followers must be human)

Human Hero 1: Garrick Thomson

Humans can be any of the following backgrounds:  Townsfolk, Noble, Frontier, or Zealot.  In addition, any race (but only 1 per warband) can be a Mystic.  For this character, I have the image of a standard "town guardsman" in mind, so I'm going to go with Townsfolk.

Once your background is chosen, you roll a d20 for each of four different categories:  capabilities, mentality, possessions, and training.  There are charts for each to see what you get.

Capabilities (15):  Speed and Combat Skill increase

This is fantastic.  Any time you get two increases it is great, and it really fits with my image of him wanting to get into melee combat.

Mentality (15): +1 XP

The worst thing on the chart, but also by far the most likely.

Possessions (18): Item

The exact item will be determined later.  I would rather have gotten a weapon or even some money, but hopefully it will be fine.

Training (15): +1 XP

What is with all the 15s?  Again, I'd rather get anything else on the table, but with 2 xp Garrick will at least be very close to leveling up.

I'll also declare Garrick my "avatar."  I don't like that name for it, but he is basically the warband leader.  He gets a free will and luck point, and a d100 roll of 17 says that he is a veteran with the scars to prove it... +3 XP.

So, he has a total of 5 xp, which gives him an advancement roll!  67, which is another combat increase!  Garrick is quite a powerhouse.

Human Hero 2: Wilfred the Wanderer

I want a mystic, and it is easy to find good human mage miniatures.

Capabilities (6): Casting increase

This is the most likely result on the table, which makes sense.

Mentality (9): +1 Will

Again, fits the character.

Possessions (5): Mystic Item

This isn't quite as cool as it sounds.  There are only two choices, and they are both limited-use items.  I can either get 2 items that let Wilfred cast an extra spell (you can normally only cast 3 spells in an encounter), or 3 items that let him cast two spells in a round.  Both seem useful, but honestly to be really good you need both types.

Technically I choose later, but I'll go for the extra spells, since I expect that would be more useful than burning through the limited spells more quickly.

Training (5): Alchemy skill

Now this is nice.  Basically, during down-time Wilfred can attempt to make more of the item that allows for extra spells.

Fey-blood Hero:  Eleseth Morningfrost

Fey-blood heroes must be outsiders.  I'm imagining this character to be a finesse melee fighter.

Capabilities (4): Agility increase

Not as good as a combat skill increase, but fits the character concept.

Mentality (16): +1 XP

Meh.  Again, worst result but most likely.

Possessions (17): Item

I don't think I'm supposed to be getting this many items.  Starting to get worried.

Training (2): 1 skill

A d100 roll comes up 31, which means that she has the "Expertise" skill, which makes her good at avoiding traps.  She is starting to feel more like a rogue than a melee fighter, but close enough.

Halfling Hero: Dobbin Kingsley

Halflings must take the Frontier background.  Given the natural bonuses to ranged weapons, I'm picturing an archer here.

Capabilities (17): Agility and Combat Skill increase

Fantastic, and probably the best roll for the character concept.

Mentality (18): +1 Luck

Luck helps when a character goes down in battle.  Given how deadly combat is, it is likely to happen, and this can keep Dobbin around a little bit longer.

Possessions (4): 1 Gold Mark

Yay?

Training (9):  1 skill

The d100 here is 89, for Wilderness skill: hunting and foraging for herbs.  Definitely makes this character sort of a mini-ranger.

Followers:  Kurt and Campbell

Followers don't get to do all the interesting customization.  It is just a simple roll to give them a bit of character.

Kurt (03) is an aspiring scholar.

Campbell (53) is an outcast drifter.

Weapons, Armor, and Items:

Without going too much into the details of how the game works, here is what the above characters end up with:

Garrick gets partial armor, a helmet, a shield, and a war spear

Wilfred gets light armor, a sling, and a light weapon.  (He'll also get spells, but I'll select those in another blog entry.)  He also has 2 "congealed strands," since he's the only one that can use them.

Eleseth gets partial armor and a fencing sword.

Dobbin takes light armor, a self bow, and a light weapon.

Kurt gets light armor and a standard weapon.

Campbell just gets a standard weapon, and no armor.

As a whole, the party gets 4 gold (3 base plus the 1 extra from Dobbin), two doses of silvertree leaf, 3 bandages, and 2 tonics.  These will be divided up as needed.