Painting Miniatures

Greetings Adventurers!

Now I’ve been painting miniatures longer than I’ve been playing TTRPGs. I started out with Heritage Models Dungeon Dwellers Caverns of Doom adventure game set that I probably got sometime in 1981.

These were LEAD miniatures and several looked like melted messes of metal rather than the superbly crafted 3d printed plastic/filament minis of today. When I started playing RPGs I also got into the miniatures hobby associated with them. I particularly liked Grenadier Models AD&D line. I also dabbled with some Ral Partha’s, Alvanco’s Wizards & Lizards and some random Armory ones among others. I started painting those Caverns of Doom figures with enamel paints (yeah yuk!) designed for plastic models and quickly learned that was not the thing. After a few play sessions most of the paint had been worn off. Also, the end results were less than ideal. I took all of my painted miniatures and dropped them in acetone and removed the paint and started over. Re-starting with Floquil railroad colors, designed for metal trains, I began to hone my craft and started painting some pretty good minis.

(Early Paladin work, Grenadier 1980's, notice the poofy lichen basework)

Oil-based paints were a pain to deal with and I always seemed to be out of thinner. Soon, I moved on to water based acrylic paints and started to pick up some Citadel Colors mostly made for Warhammer minis. I liked the color pigments and their thickness but the bottles they came in were pretty terrible and sometimes the paint became so clumped it was unusable. As I developed my hobby skills in painting and miniatures (like basing, kit-bashing, pinning etc.) I got rather well at mixing colors, drybrushing, glazing and other techniques.

(Re-done Halfling Grenadier 1980's)

Still, I was not satisfied with the Citadel Colors, especially for the price. A few years ago I discovered the Army Painter line of colors and really loved them. I got a mega set and supplemented it with colors that I wanted or experimented with. I really dig their Warpaints line. The big thing though. It takes me FOR-EVER to paint one mini. From the initial spray paint primer to base coat, then shading, highlights, special effects, detailing, and then on to washes and drybrushing all the way to dippin into varnish to add depth (an old tin soldier modeling trick) then spraying with a dull cote to take away the varnish shine or even skipping that whole step and just and sealing them with a clear cote spray. It’s like a few HOURS to finish a mini and that is if I know what colors I want to use from the get go!

(Reaper Elf, Getting better but basework still "basic")

My conundrum. I have a lot of minis. Most of those minis are not painted. Some of my minis from 1981 aren’t even finished. Everything is primed, but color? 

(Yep. There are more minis under that cardboard)

Nope. I even made a vow to myself not to buy another miniature until I had all the ones I already owned painted. This lasted, mostly (I bought military ones and military models), from about 1986 till I got into the gaming industry in early 2000 when I started to get some “comp” minis for free or in trade. I really didn’t buy a SINGLE fantasy miniature from 1986 until about 2000 when I broke my vow with the wonderful Reaper line of miniatures. 

(Reaper Ghost with a little too much varnish. See brown part inside of hood and on shield, Ack!)

BUT I love using minis at my table. My gaming group loves to see their battles played out on maps and want, neigh, demand that I have a battlemap for every combat encounter. I have minis for characters that were specifically purchased for games (and used unpainted) that have long since ended. Sadly, with the promise that I would have them painted “next session for sure!” I have bought whole groups of monster minis designed for encounters in an upcoming game session (usually a few sessions away!) only to paint one or two and the rest hitting the table only in their glorious primer coating. I desperately want to have my magnificent collection, now bulging with the excellent Nolzur’s Marvelous line of D&D minis (I’m especially fond of their monsters,) painted and table ready. Sigh.

(Reaper Dungeon Dwellers, throwback line, plastic spider)

I’m nowhere near a professional at mini painting. I’m not even close to some of the people who have you tube videos up there like Squidmar, Ninjon and Lyla Mev, who I’ve learned so much from. I just want to get my minis to the table and not have them with off-white or grey primer.  Now, I’ve been watching slapchop, speed paint, contrast or whatever you want to call “painting a miniature faster” videos for some years now and the results, to me, were less than stellar. I’ve stayed with my acrylic paints and crank out perhaps 5-6 completed mini’s a year (ugh, that sounds so awful.) 

(Conan still in progress, note test swatches on cardboard holder)

Well dear friends, I’ve decided to take the plunge. I’m writing a lot now and really need to have my “hobby time” prioritized. So, I have done a lot of research in the last year (off an on yeah…time is hard to find) and I think I’ve found a solution. I took the dive. Army Painter’s Speedpaint 2.0+ line of paints. I’ve ordered the “supermega one with everything” set. The reviews from all the pros are in. I’ve seen all the how to’s. They have fixed the bleeding and reactivation issues. I’ve gone to a whole bunch of websites with the sample swatches that dozens of people have painted and I’m going ALL IN. I think this might be my solution. I’m gonna paint these little buggers and get them to the table. Pros are cranking out “table ready” minis in less than 15min after priming. I’m sure I can get down to 30min a mini. I’ll keep you posted. After all, “Smiley” here has been waiting since 1982 for some paint.

"Paint me, Seymour!"

 DCC Day at Dragon’s Lair

Greetings adventurers! Saturday July 19th was Dungeon Crawl Classics Day. This is a celebration all things DCC (as well as Mutant and X-Crawl Classics) sponsored by Goodman Games. Taking place at FLGS across the world once a year Judges present special DCC adventures for any and all to come and play a little bit of DCC, and get some cool stuff. The event is run free of charge for those both experienced and brand new to DCC. This year I made it out to Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy here in Austin, TX for some DCC goodness. 

I planned carefully so that I could play in my new friend Matt “Grape Ape” Robertson’s DCC game and arrived early, perhaps too early as I found out the game would not start until some two hours later. 

Alas, I did some shopping and picked up some DCC day specials along with some great DCC adventures. I sat down and started to look over my new purchases and was soon joined by others ready to throw down some DCC action. 

Soon Grape Ape arrived and began his set up. I struck up some amazing conversations with my new acquaintances and we swapped many gaming stories before the game began. Three full tables eventually assembled for both DCC and MCC with ours being the first to fill up. Grape Ape is the Community Outreach Liaison at Goodman Games and lives nearby here in Texas (Check out his Rules as Written Podcast on the official Goodman Games You Tube channel.) We have met several times at various conventions and events but have never gamed together, until now. Judge Grape Ape ran The DCC Day special: The Key to Castle Whiterock and boy was it a hoot!

I’m not going to throw out any spoilers but in the end my character ended up dead and we didn’t get the Key to Castle Whiterock. I can’t say how much fun I had playing in Grape Ape’s game, I seriously felt like I was 12 years old again playing in my first Fantasy RPG adventures. Everyone had a great time, we got some great freebes from Goodman Games and some neat swag from Grape Ape for participating in the game. I must give shout outs to all the excellent players in our game. You guys are amazing. Kudos to Keith (Gosshus the Cleric who by far has the most deity disapproval I have seen in any game I’ve played in my entire life!), Chaz (our giant-sized Wizard), Tony (Jasper the gold and silver sniffin dwarf. I’ll reach out to you soon and hopefully we can start our own gongfarmer local!), Ryan (Haldr the elf devote of none other than Sezrekan himself. Maybe someday you can convince us to teleport 100 miles away from the dungeon!) and last, but not least, Hector (Wat the primitive warrior MVP who had the most Mighty Deeds and saved our skins more than once, in the end I know you tried to save me but smashed all your fingers, you can have Squire Bedford’s share of the treasure.) A special Thank You to Grape Ape for organizing this fantastic event and running such a great game (I am so going to steal your goblin voice in my next game.) To my fellow adventurers I salute you until we meet and adventure again.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part III: The Modern Age

“…Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand…” 

Greetings Adventurers! Welcome to the last entry in my series about Conan in RPGs. In 2015 British game company Modiphius Entertainment announced that is would be creating a new Conan RPG. Sadly, I was not on board. I felt burned by the stack of books on my shelf from Mongoose and didn’t have the faith or energy (or cash for that matter!) to emotionally or financially invest in the Kickstarter. I let Conan Adventures in an Age Undreamed of (2017) pass.

This was to be a terrible mistake and nearly a painful regret as I will discuss later on. The Kickstarter was a tremendous success, fully funding within a few hours and by the end raised nearly 10 times the goal amount. Much acclaim was hyped upon the new game and the momentum would only build with the release of the Quickstart Guide which included an amazing Thunder River introductory adventure. This game was to be different, and the designers were to focus only on the Howard cannon. Brilliant writers, talented and famous artists were commissioned for the artwork and maps. For the first time Howard scholars from the Robert E. Howard Foundation were brought on board to review and assist. The highly successful 2d20 System previously used for Modiphius’ Star Trek Roleplaying Game (among others) was utilized and tweaked to fit Howard’s world. In January 2017 the pdf was released and by May 2017 the 368page all color physical book was in print and the world of Conan exploded! From that point on over a score of hardback books were produced all based on Howard’s writings. Critically acclaimed supplement books such Conan the Barbarian (the Barbarian/Cimmerian sourcebook)

 and Conan the Thief (The Thieves and Zamora sourcebook) were produced as well as many others detailing Howard’s world. Several adventure books and accessories were also produced during publication, such as special dice, card decks, an amazing Gamemaster’s Toolkit/Screen, Maps, and other items. During the end of publication some liberties were taken with a few supplements (not of Howard canon) that tied into The Age of Conan and Conan Exiles video games as well as a (fated-see below) sourcebook tie in with Monolith’s Conan board/miniatures game. All the books were hardbacks, beautifully illustrated and well made with quality paper. For the most part (I’m talking about you Conan the Wanderer) all were critically acclaimed. Sometime in 2020 I ran into a sale at Drive Thru RPG and grabbed a bundle of all the .pdfs with some birthday or perhaps it was Christmas money, I cannot remember which. It was a “Conan Impulse Buy.” I skimmed the core book but have always been averse to “roll low” systems and didn’t think much of the 2d20 system, then. I perused the .pdfs not really taking it in or reading much about the mechanics other than some of the flavor text which I felt was very good but alas, I left them sit on my hard drive. In 2022 I heard that Modiphius was losing the license and on a trip to Houston with my wife I ran across the physical copy of the Gamemaster Toolkit and picked it up for a little less than cover price. One thing you will get to know about me- I’m a sucker for GM screens or DM screens or Judge’s screens or whatever you want to call them. I just love them (Hm. Perhaps that may be an idea for another series of posts?) In the hotel room I scanned it among the other treasures I picked up that day not thinking much about it. The tables were clean and well laid out and the GM screen was printed on very thick durable cardstock. Upon review, I was fascinated with the listing of weapons and armor and wanted to know more about the strange damage symbols and how “Armor Soak” worked. I had also read previously online that the Gamemaster Toolkit was worth it alone for the Adventure Generator and as I reviewed it in the booklet I found out there was, indeed, something I had missed. When I got home, I found the .pdfs on my hard drive and transferred the free QuickStart (and adventure) onto my handheld pad and began to read. This was amazing. What had I missed all these years? I had goofed and goofed bad. The more I read the more I began to enjoy this elegant system. I devoured the .pdfs and began my quest to purchase all the physical books that I could find. It started with the core book and blossomed from there. Luckily there were people on eBay dumping their copies. With news of Modiphius losing the license and the liquidation of their backstock (sadly which I had missed) prices on eBay were low and sometimes even affordable. I lucked out and snagged a bundle with over a dozen books nearly completing my collection in one go. I slowly searched and hunted, grabbing physical copies where I found them. Some in FLGS like Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL outside of Chicago (where I was on a film shoot) and some from Noble Knight Games (dealers in new and out of print games.) Then in 2024 I managed to find the last book (for cover price I might add) which was the video game tie-in-The Conan Exiles Sourcebook at Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, TX (for you non-Howard scholars this is an event held at his house every year celebrating his life and creations.) With that book I completed my collection. Sure, I’m missing the special dice (Ack! See below) and some maps but I now have all the books. I’ve fallen in love with this system and have read cover to cover a large portion of my collection. I’m savoring this reading taking each volume word by word and enjoying them at a leisurely pace. Currently, I’m on Conan the Wanderer, this is the one that critics have panned and has the least favorable rating of all the line, but so far I still feel it is an excellent read. I have read (cover to cover), reviewed, selectively read, or have used sections of all the books. The system plays well and the Doom and Momentum mechanics give the game a certain feel that I can only describe as “pulpy.” (IMHO the boys at Daggerheart have seen this system and appear to like it. I challenge you to compare their 2d12 system to this one and tell me it is not true.) The subsystems of skills, combat and magic add just enough crunch that I like without making it too complicated nor too basic. The game does not use hit points and has a stellar death spiral mechanic. I think that the excellent and (Ennie award winning) Seth Skorkowsky has the best explanation and formal review, far better than I can describe here. Please check it out. This is MY goto Conan system and I will continue to use it. I might buy some new adventures when they come out, but for the system I’m going to stick with this one. Sorry Savage Worlds…this one just works for me and for Conan, I’ll see you for some other stuff. Promise.---and more on SW later! 

Ok. So, I got off on a bit of a tangent now back to the history with Modiphius. Sadly, they did relinquish their license in 2022 and it passed on to Monolith Games. Monolith Games had created a very successful Conan tabletop game (2016) packed with miniatures and they continue to crank out reprints

 and new supplements for this boardgame to this very day. They now have the license for a Conan RPG and are producing Conan: The Hyborian Age – The Roleplaying Game (TBD). They ended their successful Kickstarter at the end of 2024 and have put out their free Quickstart on Drive Thru RPG. I’ve read and tested the Quickstart and I’m not a fan. Some of the stats and numbers I’ve seen do not jive with me. I do not like a hit point system for the Hyborian world and I prefer a death spiral system. Also, a bit of the flavor of the game just isn’t in the Howard style that I enjoy. This does not mean I will not patronize this company as I will probably purchase the two planned adventure books (in .pdf) and convert them to Modiphius’ 2d20 Conan system. I just won’t be purchasing the core book or other supplements. I will say that the artwork looks great and the layouts are very professional. This is just my opinion and I urge you to download and try it out yourself.

Well, those were some long posts filled with lots of information. I’m sure this is not the end of the tale of Conan of Cimmeria in roleplaying games and I wish Monolith all the best with their new RPG. For those of you wondering- Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of Core Book prices on eBay are beginning to drop and with the coming of the new RPG people are unloading their core books and collections at now reasonable prices. Good Hunting! I just saw that someone was unloading the mega-kickstarter with the Leather Bound Core book, Leather Conan Backpack, GM dice set and EVERYTHING in print for a few thousand dollars. Too rich for my blood. Ack! I just found the Modiphius Conan dice on eBay and paid way too much for them…alas, I’m still a sucker for Conan.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part II: The OGL Years

Greetings Adventurers! Today we will be continuing my peek into Conan Roleplaying history. We return to our tale that takes us into the early millennium. In 2000 Wizards of the Coast released version 1.0 of the Open Gaming License and changed the RPG industry forever. This allowed third party publishers to produce compatible material for Dungeons and Dragons without an individual licensing agreement. Onwards to 2004 where our hero Conan again was able “…to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” with the release of Mongoose Publishing’s Conan: The Roleplaying Game (2004).

 This version used the OGL to allow players to adventure in the Hyborian Age using the current and extremely popular d20 Dungeons and Dragons rules set (with some interesting modifications which I will talk about later). The initial release of the core book was followed by dozens of supplemental hard and soft cover books detailing the world of Conan, not just Robert E. Howard’s Conan but all iterations of our hero from the various books, movies, comics, graphic novels, and media. Releases also included many adventures both original and chances to walk in Conan's shoes such as the excellent Conan and The Tower of the Elephant. Fun Fact: A few 5x8 pocket sized editions were created for this line! 

It was a hit and such so that a second printing of the first edition called “The Atlantean Edition” came out in August of 2004. I enjoyed this line of products very much. The sourcebooks were fantastic and filled with Hyborean goodness. During its publication run I managed to pick up nearly everything available for the first edition, except for the pocket sized books and 2nd edition books, more on that later. By the time the second edition came out in 2007 I had socked several hundreds of dollars into the system and did not wish to depart with any more cash for what I could tell were “jazzed up reprints” (my words).

I do like, no love, Mongoose Publishing and continue to give them my hard-earned money with their Traveller system to this day. I just think, at the time, it was a bit of a cash grab. The success and rapid rate of publishing (over a score of books by 2006) was not without controversy. In 2006 the boxed set Shadizar – City of Wickedness (of which I own an original copy) was printed with a map provided by the cartographer that was plagiarized (read nearly directly lifted) from a free map offered by Wizards of the Coast. This went unnoticed and was included in the production. Many patrons were very upset by this, including myself. Several, again including myself, found out about this late in the publishing game and would not have the opportunity to get a replacement map (which had been provided by Mongoose if you requested it) other than the free download provided by Mongoose. The second edition of the game did not do well and many of the publications were re-dos of existing sourcebooks such as Return to the Road of Kings.

I enjoyed the Mongoose d20 version but felt it suffered from the same thing that D&D 3.0 and 3.5 suffered from: rules bloat. For example: in the second edition players guide there are three pages of  just tables dedicated to the listing of minor and variant character races and variant/prestige and multi-classes with how to FIND the sourcebook that contains them. Combined there are over 100 entries! These charts do not include ANYTHING other than the name of race/class and the name of the sourcebook where you have to dig out all the information, requirements, abilities, feats etc. of that race/class. Talk about rules bloat! Remember these are NOT even just the basic character classes. There are nine of those. There were rules and feats for everything. Another example: The players guide for 2e also boasts 4 pages of charts with the same type listing of just feats and where to find them. Again, no info on the requirements of the feat, what it does, or the game effect- just the name of the other book where you can find that information. Because of this character write ups were sometimes horrendously long with some monsters nearly a half of a page long. The rules included alterations to the d20 armor system that was clunky, to say the least, and added yet another layer to the already complex 3.x system. The magic system was a hodgepodge of D&D spells mixed with alternative tweaks to fit the Hyborean flavor. In my opinion, this system suffered a bit from the same splattering of including ALL of the Hyborean mythos. However, I will say the adventures were good and many of the sourcebooks have excellent reference material and beautiful artwork and maps. There are quite a few typos and errors and I think these were simply overlooked by overworked editors trying to meet print deadlines for all of these products. Even though many of these books have become quite rare and are selling for some high prices on eBay I would not part with my copies of them. I still find myself, to this day, grabbing The Free Companies, Tito's Trading Post, The Road of Kings, or The Scrolls of Skelos amid others for assistance in my Conan creations. I truly think I will use the city boxed sets (yes, even the bad map one) when it comes time for my heroes to tread upon those streets in one of my Conan games. These books have a lot of flavor and contain many highly detailed descriptions of locations and NPCs that no other Conan RPG ever (to this date) has done.  

Mongoose Publishing dropped the license in 2010 and cancelled the line as sales for the “new” edition books dwindled. This, coupled with “disagreement between ourselves and the license holders” about producing more material and the migration to a new system ended Mongoose d20 Conan. It would only be a short five year hiatus before we would see another Conan RPG and that RPG would be earth shattering in many ways. I leave that tale for another day.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part 1: The Beginning

Greetings Adventurers! I’m a big Conan fan. To say that puts it mildly.  I’m not just a Conan fan- I really enjoy almost all of Robert E. Howard’s work but more on that another time. Today’s post is about Conan and RPGs. 

A little history about me and the big barbarian. I first came across Conan as a fantasy character amidst the comic books of Marvel, DC, Archie, Key and so forth. It was in the form of The Savage Sword of Conan magazines. As a child it seemed very adult to me and a little beyond my fantasy interests, which were mostly in the likes of Robin Hood, King Arthur and onward to the Lord of the Rings, etc. Forward to the 80’s and my love for all things related to Dungeons and Dragons. As a young teen I came across the Conan the Barbarian (1982) film by John Milius in VHS (sadly I missed the theatrical release). I was taken by the character and the whole theatrical experience. For the first time I saw Dungeons and Dragons as I imagined it. Swords and Sorcery at a “realistic” level…well at least at a realism that wasn’t campy, low budget, or schlocky to me. I was entranced by it all and shortly learned that there were a whole slew of books written about the character. I managed to find a copy of the Ace Publishing  Conan Book 1 and I was hooked. The rest is history.

Of course, it didn’t take me long to find my favorite barbarian in roleplaying games. I’m not going to go into the “Barbarian” Class or various mentions of “Conan like” depictions in RPGs I’m only going to explore the actual licensed versions. I’ll start historically and not in the order that I came upon the various gaming publications of my favorite savage hero.

To my knowledge the first appearance in a roleplayingish sense in gaming was with Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Royal Armies of the Hyborian Age (1975). Although it doesn’t specifically have any rules for roleplaying in Conan’s world it does include wargaming information (and rules) for battling armies during the Hyborian Age. Conan is but mentioned as a Superhero commander and little much else. I found my copy in a dusty RPG discount bin at some gaming convention I attended in the late 1990’s. I’m lucky that mine contained the original map and cardstock reference sheet. I know I paid less than $5 for it. The rules are dry and typical of wargames of the 1970’s and very similar to TSR’s Chainmail. The section of Appendix II about Magic Users is interesting and worth a read just for the bit about Thoth-Amon (who garners three rather large paragraphs, far more than Conan himself!) 

 

The first licensed ability to play Conan came about in 1984 with the publication of TSR’s AD&D Conan Modules: Conan Unchained! (1984) and Conan Against Darkness (1984). Both are rather dry affairs, the first a high-level adventure with players taking the roles of Conan! (Why the exclamation point I do not know.) Valeria of The Red Brotherhood, Juma The Warrior and Nestor The Gunderman as they proceed to fight along Kozaki’s in the Free Companions and delve a Wizard’s Tower. The Second is another less inspiring high-level adventure with Conan (no exclamation point this time), Pelias, Prospero and Nzinga taking on the feared Toth-Amon in and Shem and Stygia. The world of the Hyborian age for AD&D adds a Fear Factor, Luck Points, and some unique healing rules. In my opinion David Cook and Ken Rolston tried too hard to appeal to all the movie goers, comic fans, and book lovers and failed to capture the “Howard Feel” of adventure. 

A year later these were followed by the very first standalone Conan RPG simply called Conan Roleplaying Game by TSR (1985). Coming off of the very successful Marvel Superheroes RPG of 1984 TSR (the beloved FASERIP system) attempted to use the same style of color-coded action charts (read Universal Table) to resolve tasks. The system was targeted at beginning roleplayers and it wasn’t the best fit for Conan fans. It contained many clerical errors and lacked the dangerous feel of the Howard Stories. Three adventures came out for it in 1985 but the momentum of a less than ideal system doomed the project. I only played this system once yet I treasure my copy as I was gifted this boxed set by a dear friend of mine who I worked with at Crescent City Con (we organized the gaming events) who knew of my love of Conan. Within a year I had acquired the other three adventures at various gaming conventions. Alas, the color-coded table system was a bit too simplistic for my gaming tastes. A unique note to this part of the story is that this rare game and its adventures go for very high prices on eBay now. 

Next Steve Jackson Games would acquire the license and produce GURPS Conan: The World of Robert E. Howard’s Barbarian Hero (1989) for its popular Generic Universal Role Playing System. Previously in 1988 SJG began producing GURPS solo adventure modules then in 1989 releasing the full sourcebook followed by even more solo adventures. Far better than the TSR version as GURPS was designed for the fantasy genre (SJG’s Man-to-Man became GURPS) and plugging the world of Hyboria into the system worked very well. I found my copy at a FLGS for $15 at a time when copies were being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Since 2021 SJG has been able to sell this product again both as a pdf and print on demand and old 80’s copies have plummeted in value since. As are SJG’s other GURPS world/sourcebooks this one is great and I highly recommend it for the lore, monsters, and the gazetteer chapter alone is worth the purchase, at least for the pdf. Even though I own all of the “solo” adventures they play pretty much like an old “choose your own adventure” book and are not my favorites. 

Conan took a downturn after 1989 and his time in the roleplaying spotlight began to fade. It wasn’t until the release of the OGL that brought life back into Conan’s roleplaying career. We continue this into the next post. Until then adventurers I hope you enjoyed the beginning of my little trip into the past. 

 Why Choose the Name Hydra Hobbies?

Greetings Adventurers! The short answer to the question? It is an homage to a simpler time when my brother and I were in middle school and dreamed of opening up a hobby/FLGS. It was a pipe dream of two kids wishing for a game store in a very small Wisconsin town. We came up with the name Hydra Hobbies and thought it was cool.

The long and thoughtful answer? I've always loved that name and kept it in my mind over the decades. When I was thinking of what I would call my company, one that would create game materials, it was a no-brainer to use it. Although it does symbolize quite a bit more. The idea of a multi-headed beast has been around since the time of ancient Greeks and I've always been a fan. Ever since I saw Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and read stories of Greek mythology I've loved the Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna as a concept and throughout the years have included that monster in many of my games. In science class I was mesmerized by watching real Hydras getting parts cut off and regenerating! I even own a couple of them in several forms including paper, cardboard, plastic and metal miniature, and no, I don't own any of the hydrozoan polyps. That would be weird.

There is a symbolism to the multi-headed hydra that I want in my company. The multi-heads are to represent the multiple genres and game systems that I want to develop products for. I know many game companies out there specialize in only one genre (like just Medieval Fantasy) or only one system like only for the world's first roleplaying game (any edition). I want Hydra Hobbies to encompass a whole bunch of systems and a whole bunch of genres! Just like me, I dabble in not just fantasy RPGs but Sci-Fi, Military, Historical, Supers, Cinematic, and all sorts of other genres, I want Hydra Hobbies to do the same. Another aspect I want to emphasize is the ability of a Hydra to regenerate its lost heads. I want to embrace the ability to move on if something goes wrong. Let's say that one of my ideas is a bomb, a real stinker, or that it just doesn't float well with you adventurers out there. Well, I can just "cut it off" and then move on with another just like the Hydra regenerating a new head! Perhaps there will be a Hydra or two in my upcoming adventures? We shall see (hint hint.)

 Hello and Welcome to Hydra Hobbies! 

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans! What a great day for the first post and introduction to Hydra Hobbies to coincide with the celebration of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. This is the first post about the company, what we will be producing and some of my thoughts on gaming. My name is William Toporek and I've been playing and running RPGs since around 1982. For a time I worked in the RPG industry for Steve Jackson Games in the very early 2000s. I co-wrote GURPS Special Ops 3rd edition and helped produce and playtest many games and products during my time there including being one of the original playtesters for a little game called Munchkin.

Why this blog? Well, I believe this will become a great platform to highlight the products we will be producing here at Hydra Hobbies. It will also serve as a hub of information highlighting the progress as I develop several gaming products for various companies that I have a fondness for and who happen to have OGLs. To wet your appetite, the first product is planned for Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and I have secured a commission for a cover by the brilliant artist Peter Mullen. The product is written, cartography acquired, art has been purchased, the book has been laid out and playtesting is underway. Come back here for an upcoming release date!

I have many more products planned and even an entire line of products in the pipeline. There is much more to come and I'm excited to share this grand adventure with you. In the beginning this blog will be pretty plain but I intend to jazz it up and add a whole lot more content, customize the look, and fill it with not only information on upcoming products but my thoughts on gaming over the years as well. Stay tuned!