Large Groups and TTB

The Through the Breach (TTB) Core Rule book doesn't explicitly give an ideal number of players. 

But from what I've seen online and heard from various podcasts... 3-4 Fated players is best.    

(All the examples in the book use Brett and Marcelline - just two Fated characters.)

 

My gaming table has generally has nine players at the table. 

That's a lot of Fated.

It's a significant number of people who have taken time out to drive to a location to spend their time with each other and me.

So I'm always conscious of finding ways to minimize downtime and keep everyone as engage as possible.

Here's some tips I've learned to keep the game working with a large number of people. 

Have a Robust Game Zero

Seven of the nine players were not familiar with Malifaux, and none of them were familiar with TTB. 

So the piece of my game I worked the most on was my Game Zero presentation.  

I used my office experience to make a colorful Powerpoint presentation. I broke it down into three sections:

1. The Soft Stuff - purpose, background, setting, timeline
2. The Crunchy Bits - session structure, rules
• Make players try out a quick example of Ongoing challenges, attack, defense, triggers
3. Mini-Game - pull it all together with a simple Ongoing Challenge and Combat with low stakes
• Remember your players are still learning the game. 

As much as you can... Show don't tell.   

 

Ongoing Challenges Are Your Friend... 

I love Ongoing Challenges.

And I really love them for big groups.  

It is a tool that works as fantastic shorthand for quick narratives with fast mechanics for non-combat story challenges.  

I use Ongoing Challenges to addresses the following issues:

A. Scooby Doo'ing It

"Never split the party" has been a mantra at my gaming table.  Partially it's because my players are always worried about being spread thin.

But I think whoever is running the game secretly wants the party to not split up.  Running a split party is a challenge on its own. Either the group is sitting there waiting for one group to be finished or they have to leave the game room and wait for the other group to be done. 

If the group wants to split up in Narrative Time, here you can resolve it with an Ongoing Challenge. 

B. Supply Runs But with a Challenge  

If you have a player who just wants to stock up on bullets or buy a common weapon with a vendor they've talked with before, I have the player just mark off scrip and get the weapon. 

But if players are in new territory -- or one or two people want to find something unique -- an impromptu Ongoing Challenge gets the entire party out and active in the area. This is a chance for them to stretch their legs on some of the social skills that maybe someone put a single point in a game or two ago and haven't used yet... and also leak narrative tidbits for the ongoing adventure.

C. Siloed Roles 

In D&D, traps and locks are what the Rogue/ Thief is built for. But when the Thief / Rogue gets to flex their muscles here, the game can feel like it drags with larger groups. But not having these moments means the player who chose this class gets punished. It's a tough spot for DM's.

And if there's two rogues in a game, they usually are forced to switch back and forth to share the spolight. 

What I like about Ongoing Challenges is it gets the whole party involved in these situations.

Say the Fated are breaking into a warehouse. The roguish character can still perform lockpicking.  If you have two roguish-types - suddenly the monopoly on rogue skills has been broken and you can actually have them make the same skill challenge (narratively, they are "assisting" or working on two separate locks).  The rest of party can be look-outs or attention decoys, making Notice or Social Skill checks. 

NOTE: Mystery Dead Ends and other Failure results

Ongoing Challenges are a great way to handle finding clues, following leads and looking for connections. This is central in a mystery-based adventure. 

But avoid having a Failure equating to they never get the crucial clue that the adventure hinges on. That's essentially a game over condition - and you shouldn't punish the players for a bad flip mid-game.

I would treat Ongoing Challenge failure as if they get false information... that might lead to combat.  And provided the party gets through said combat - they learn the correct clue (or the right avenue to get it).

Also, most of these adventures end in some form of Dramatic Time (combat, chase, beat the clock objectives). So alternatively, the previous Ongoing Challenge failure could mean free round for the BBEG, neg flips for the party, extra obstacles set up... Etc.

...But Need a Tweak

On setting up Ongoing Challenges, the Core Rule book p291 says "the number of Success Requirements involved should typically be around two to three per Fated character."

I've Fatemastered a couple games with three Fated characters. This rule makes a lot of sense for 3-4 Fated players (making about 6-9 TNs to hit per Ongoing Challenge). 

But nine challenges is only one Duration involving all my players at the table.  If I did 2-3 challenges for 6-9 players, that's 12-27 challenges. It feels "grindy".  It also means you've milled through 20+% - 50% of the deck.   

What I've done to tweak the requirements:

• 1 Success per player
• 1 Failures /  3 players
• First Ongoing Challenge starts with first player and goes around the table clockwise  
• Whoever made the last challenge, we pick up the next Ongoing Challenge with the following player    

I try to get 2-3 Ongoing Challenges per game.

Hand Out Roles

I remember GM'ing a Pathfinder 1e game where I was trying to multitask trying to get the music to work, manage initiative (ugh), and get the terrain on the board all while trying to address a player question.  Each task ran into a 5-minute bump. 

So I kept multiple people sitting there bored while I panicked to get the game moving.

I've since learned not to do it all myself.  

For example, TTB requires you make a note of each skill characters use to offer as a potential skill to improve during the Epilogue.  Once you have over five players, it's a hassle to keep track of while running a game. So I offloaded that to a player.

These are the roles I've handed out to players: 

• Fate Deck 
• Shuffler (if the person operating the Fate Deck isn't the best shuffler)
• Track Skills Used  
• Condition Cards 
• Initiative Lead 
• Music Operator  
• Track Jokers & Severe cards 

And if you have anyone who knows the rules really well:  

• Rules Help - someone to look up a rule in a pinch
• Crunchmeister - Someone to look at best character options 

Be Careful with Enclosed Terrain (Minis)

This is for those who use miniatures.

If each of the nine players take up a 1" square and they enter a 3" x 3" room, there'll be no furniture or other creatures in that room.  The players suddenly are the room.  

For large groups, the game works best with large footprints / areas.  Unless the situation is designed for the party to fan out, tight spaces (3"x3") don't work.

Throw terrain like trees and crates and boxes is fine.  

For example, if a nine-person party is running into a building, make sure the dimension of the room is at least 12". A 12" x 12" room works smoothly.  Any room with a boss battle (with the usual cadre of mooks) should be 6" or more than that e.g (12" x 18").

Adopt the M4E "Ignore Allies" Rule (Minis)

One rule I loved about M4E: you can see through allies and you can move through them. 

Our group has played with this rule for years. Maybe it isn't realistic. But does it speed up gameplay.

Prevent Subordinate Characters from Being Cannon Fodder

Many pursuits enable The Fated to gain followers. Criminals gain a group of Thugs at Step 5 for example.

I love the idea of the Fated building a network of allies and contacts. It gets them more involved in the world. 

But I loathe when the players use  allies as dumb meat shields. 

In past D&D games, I've built in consequences for these actions where certain avenues have been closed off due to their bad reputation. 

I will say TTB does something different with subordinate characters. The Fated have to spend 1 AP to Order a subordinate character to perform an action. So there's something of a cost as opposed to free damage soakers who take a spot in initiative. 

Regardless, I've warned my players ahead of time: unless the adventure calls for it (e.g. Bad Moon Rising) - don't bring your subordinates into combat. 

I've pulled some Pursuits off the table for this reason: Animator, Commander, Medium.

This might seem harsh to some Fatemasters... but I literally have more Fated players than models on one side of an M4E game.

Get out there and fight!

Traditional Character Initiative is a Big Drag

I cannot stand standard initiative. This isn't unique to TTB. Tallying and planning out initiative is a slog that takes all the tension and excitement out of the air - especially with a large group. 

Moreso, it pushes characters away from thinking as a group and doesn't reward thought-out plans before Dramatic Time starts (unless you as a Fatemaster inject them into the process).

But determining who goes first with a large group is going to take some time no matter which system you use. So I say use one that keeps your players involved.

Questing Beast did a great breakdown on different initiative systems. 

https://youtu.be/5HAFxsdVF3s?is=0SmyKdnItfZr0l2n

I like Before and After Initiative, though I'm trying a variation on it. Players roll initiative, count the number of players who beat the highest initiative of the FM chars / monsters, determine who will take those initiative spots before the monsters and who after.

Then it's Before Fated players go, then FM chars then After Fated players.

If your group can work together strategically, this is a win.

One other note, if a player has stepped away from the table to go to the bathroom, move to the next player and come back to them when they are back at the table.

Herd the Relevant Cats

At times, the game is going to feel like you're herding cats.  You will be. Just accept it.

Right as you're trying to get combat flowing, players are going to ask you to double check how their ability works or when the timing of a talent or trigger happens.

This is normal. Breathe and be patient.

But if you're in the middle of combat and someone asks how the rules work for talents they don't have not right now... but when they gain a a step or level, table it.     

Be sure to take breaks to come back and address these issues.

And if a third of the group is talking - either refocus the group or take a break.

Freikorps Librarian: Revisiting the Ochre Palette

What to do with the Freikorps Librarian? She is one of the more interesting figures and I happened to nab a first edition model off ebay.

Overall, I love playing the Malifaux Freikorps on the table, but the minis tend to give way to an obvious militant drab green palette a la camouflage.  It's... fine... but for near turn of the 20th century, it's still a little early to be jumping into the WWI style.  And the navy blues of the Prussian military around that time seem very flat to me.  The suits should be made of leather but I wanted to do something different than the reddish-brown Cinnamon style that I overused in my early painting days.

That leaves me with something brown, and straight brown is very bland.  So I wanted to breathe a little life in to an ochre palette:

• Reaper Military Grey
• Reaper Dark Skin / FolkArt Cafe Latte
• FolkArt English Mustard / Yellow Ochre
• Apple Barrel Antique White

I added a few others into the palette 

• FolkArt Butter Pecan
• FolkArt Linen for Highlights

The main color triad focused on Reaper HD Military Grey, FolkArt Butter Pecan, and FolkArt English Mustard / Yellow Ochre.

So I knew where to start.  But where to go afterwards was a matter of "let's see when we get there."

To start I used grey primer, black wash and white drybrush.

First coats of Reaper HD Military Blue on the clothing, Butter Pecan on the leather padding, Yellow Ochre on the boots and book binding.

First washes.

First run on highlights 

Mixed Military Grey with FolkArt French Blue in dark to light tones for highlights. Vallejo Cold Grey on the metal parts with some Citadel Nuln Oil for separation. To "leather up" the shoulder pads and breast areas (originally in FolkArt Butter Pecan), I put my first trial of Citadel Contrast Paints - Skeleton Horde. But not all over just nearest the creases.

Parchment on the book pages.  Heavy glaze of Reaper Military Grey on front side of legs to blend highlights a little.  Nuln Oil on the dagger and for some separation.  Highlights with Parchment on the whiter leather bits (not as visible in picture as angle of photo is slightly bottom up).

At this point, while I was happy with the general color scheme, I had the ribbons and the goggles to go.  The ribbon I decided to run counterpoint with the set scheme and use an accent color of Red to make the figure pop a little. Reaper HD Brilliant Red, Delta Cinnamon, and highlights mix of Billiant Red and Antique White.

The goggles took more fretting because I had to decide whether to show the eyes (which would have been very difficult given the size) or try a reflection like it was glass. I chose the glass option.  

Cobalt Blue wash 

Vallejo Turquoise

Dot of a mix of Vallejo Turquoise and French Blue 

Touch up goggles English Mustard and Antique White

This ended up being my color scheme.

• Clothes - Main Base: Heavy Glaze of Reaper HD Military Grey,  Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Cobalt Blue, Highlights: Mix of Military Grey with FolkArt French Blue 
• Padded Leather -  Main Base: Heavy Glaze of FolkArt Butter Pecan, Shadow (Selective Wash): Citadel Contrast Paint Skeleton Horde, Highlight 1: FolkArt Linen; Highlight 2: FolkArt Linen  and FolkArt Parchment
• Shoe - Base: FolkArt Cafe Latte, Shadow (Wash): Reaper Dark Skin, Highlights: Reaper Dark Skin Highlight
• Shin Strap, Book Cover, Dagger Handle Wraps - Base: FolkArt English Mustard , Shadow (Wash): English Mustard and Reaper Dark Skin, Highlights: FolkA rt Yellow Ochre, and selective mix of Yellow Ochre and Apple Barrel Antique White
• Book Pages - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White, Shadow (Wash): Nuln Oil (though it should have been Agrax Earthshade), Highlights: FolkArt Parchment
• Metal Bits - Base: Vallejo Cold Metal, Shadow (Wash): Citadel Nuln Oil, Highlights: mix of Vallejo Cold Metal and Reaper Cloudy Grey and Misty Grey 
• Ribbon -  Base: Reaper HD Brilliant Red, Shadow (Wash): Delta Cinnamon, Highlights: mix of Brilliant Red and Antique White 
• Goggles Outside (similar to Padded Leather minus Contrast Paints) - Base: FolkArt Butter Pecan, Shadow (Wash): Reaper Dark Skin, Highlight 1: FolkArt Linen; Highlight 2: FolkArt Linen  and FolkArt Parchment
• Goggles Lenses -  Base: White, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Cobalt Blue wash, Highlights: Vallejo Turquoise, Final Dot: a mix of Vallejo Turquoise and French Blue 

Mysterious Effigy: It's Own Creepy Thing

My buddies and I were talking about what influenced early D&D.  Aside from the well-documented progression out of wargaming (i.e., Chainmail), I'd always assumed it drew from Tolkien.  It's easy to trace the creative leap from playing out big battles into a deeper but smaller skirmish with the key leaders a la Lord of the Rings's Fellowship.  Thus much of the Tolkien-esque fantasy tropes littered through 1e D&D: humans, elves, dwarves, rangers, wizards and quests.

And of course, don't forget the hobbits halflings.

But I'm wrong in thinking it's all JRR.  An old article was dug up where co-creator Gary Gygax firmly put his foot down that Tolkien was far from the sole inspiration.  He waxes poetic about the different fantasy writers with a causal nod to mythology -- promoting that D&D is more akin to multiple other heroic fantasies than just one source.

Ruminating in the article, my JRR position was blindly reductive.  Flaming swords and thrown hammers that return to you.  The Minotaur and The Golem. Carpet of Flying. Baba Yaga's Hut. The pop-culturized Monk. Wishes. Dungeonland (!). The breadth of references is obvious.

But what D&D became is more than just a collection of multiple mythos, fairy tales, and pulpy medieval tropes.  In the creative process of including everything, you also end up making something new:

1. a place where it all exists
2. original creatures that live among known references

And as much as I am fascinated with the world of the collective, I have a special place in my heart for the original things - the new creations that become the short hand for the big picture.

This leads me to the Mysterious Effigy... 

The 1e sculpt was clearly just an effigy.

The 2e sculpt is less so.  You could set the 1e version on fire at a protest.  Not so much with the updated version.

At first blush, it appears to be leaning in on the Neverborn mimic aesthetic -- with the mask coming off like the changeling...

... Except it has spider legs. So I thought this might be reference to Arachne. Or maybe a re-interpreted drider.

... Except it doesn't have spider eyes nor human eyes. It has a nightmarish sideways human eyes.

So the Mysterious Effigy - much like the mimics and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing - is it's own thing.

As to painting it, I originally wanted to imitate a dress pattern I saw Adam Huenecke had done on Molly.  But the Mysterious Effigy sculpt is a lot busier and a lot smaller, and I decided the floral pattern wouldn't work.

Eventually I decided on a yellow dress with a simple square pattern from 1827.


Mysterious Effigy Scheme

• Skin - Wood Lines: FolkArt Walnut Brown, Undertone Base: Reaper HD Ashen Brown, Shadow (Wash): Dusky Skin, Main Base: Heavy Glaze of FolkArt Mushroom and Barn Wood, Highlights:
• Dress - Undertone Base: Tanned Skin, Main Base: Heavy Glaze of FolkArt Ochre Yellow, Shadow (Wash): Tanned Skin, Highlights: FolkArt Sunflower and ButterCup
• Arm Cuffs - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White, Shadow (Wash): Vallejo Khaki, Highlights: Reaper Misty Grey
• Eyes - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White, Shadow (Wash): Cinnamon, Highlights: Reaper HD Entrail Pink, Outlining (wash): Black and Reaper Dusky Skin, Gleam Highlight: White
• Knife - Base: Vallejo Cold Grey, Shadow (Wash): Vallejo Black, Highlights: Reaper Misty Grey
• Hair- Base: Reaper HD Military Grey, Shadow (Wash): Black, Highlights: Reaper Grey Triad
• Masks - Undertone Base: Ceramcoat Blue Heaven, Base: Reaper Fair Skin, Shadow (Wash): Reaper Tanned Skin, Highlights: Reaper Fair Highlight
• Teeth - Base: Vallejo Khaki, Apple Barrel Antique White, FolkArt Parchment

Getting the base right to look like the Terraclips Building Floors.

First a white prime and some glue work after I snapped off the arm holding the mask (&?@!*!)

First Coats

Eyes - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White, Shadow (Wash): Cinnamon, Highlights: Reaper HD Entrail Pink

Outlining (wash): Black and Reaper Dusky Skin, Skin clean up where Dusky Skin was too dark: FolkArt Barn Wood,  Gleam Highlight: White

There's a process I go through when doing patterns.
I got the upper part of the dress down fast enough that I got a little cocky.

What follows next are moments when you realize you did it right...

...when you realize you did it totally wrong...

...and ones where you start and then lose confidence mid-way through that it's going in the right direction.

References always help back up when you are second-guessing.  A simple google of checkered drapes gave me a great reference of where lines are supposed to go when a hem is pinched on the ends.

But the biggest lessons learned... When painting lines on a yellow base color, first draw it out in a lighter color that the final darker color. I would get a line down in a dark brown (Reaper Dark Skin) then realize it was off and have to use multiple layers of Ochre Yellow to undo it. 

Eventually I decided to use Reaper HD Concrete Grey to ease any mistakes. 

And holy smack, did using that color make this fix simpler.  Or at least it boosted my confidence in drawing in the horizontal lines to finish the cross patterns.  There were very few fixes at this point.

Some light skin tone glazes on the masks and I was left with a super creepy mini that I felt rewarded with spending the extra time to nail the smaller details.

Rotpatch: The Rotting Pumpkin Golem

Throwback post #2: When the 2015 Thanksgiving holidays were upon me, I decided it was time to work on another pumpkin/scarecrow type miniature.

The previous Christmas, my son had gotten me Reaper's Rotpatch, a golem made of decomposing pumpkins and vines.

To keep a bright orange look, I primed the figure white and used black wash for separation.

Rotpatch Color Scheme

• Outer Pumpkin shell - Main Base: Heavy Glaze of Reaper HD Fireball Orange, Highlights: Reaper HD Yellow
• Vines -  Main Base: Reaper HD Meadow Green, Shadow (Wash):  Reaper Christmas Green, Highlights: FolkArt Bayberry
• Inner Pumpkin - Base: Reaper Tanned Highlight, Highlight: Reaper HD Caucasian Flesh 
• Scythe - Base: FolkArt Medium Grey Shadow (Wash): Black and Charcoal Grey, Highlights: FolkArt Light Grey and Dover Grey
• Moldy Bits - Base: Heavy Glaze of Reaper Ghoul Flesh, Highlights: FolkArt Linen

Below are the first coats using Reaper HD Fireball Orange for the pumpkins.  On the Vines seeing the transition from Reaper HD Meadow Green with Reaper Christmas Green as a wash, and FolkArt Bayberry as a highlight.

Apparently to get a good inner pumpkin color you should use flesh colors -- according to Reaper's (now defunct) Palette Resource anyway. So I used Reaper Tanned Highlight as a base and Caucasian Flesh as a highlight.

In researching what pumpkins in a decaying state should look like, I discovered it's a little scary how many websites are out there showing rotting pumpkins.  Apparently post-Halloween pumpkins are a thing...?

Anyway... I decided if the pumpkins had any brown, they had no structure to keep them up.  So the gourds that make up Rotpatch's body were in that state before collapse (ie, overripe). Overripe pumpkins should get a deeper orange color, leaning towards the red tone. But on figures this small, it's probably too subtle to pick up. 

So the mold will be the visual cue for rot.  I didn't want to go straight for black or dirty grey as a mold color - either.  It looked too lazy. So Reaper Ghoul Flesh as a heavy glaze worked. White mold areas got a final touch was a heavy glaze of Linen.  

Here he is mounted on the base. Also spotted in a few dark brown speckles to indicate the rot is growing.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I love this figure - but mostly because of the sculpt, not necessarily my paint job.  

This is a great example where overthinking things interfered.  I should have just used a little brown or brownish purple to deliver the rotting look.

  

The figure could have used a cool tone somewhere to offset the warm-centric palette. That would have given it a little more pop... but I cannot think of where I would have put that here (the vines maybe?).

One note on the base - it looks a bit messy here because he actually fits in a pumpkin patch setting I created.

One of these days I'll have to post all my scarecrows and pumpkin nightmares in the pumpkin patch, but here's a group photo I did while getting them ready.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Carver, part 2 & 3

So for Halloween this year, I'm going to finally post two older entries I started several autumns ago on some of my favorite figures... Pumpkinheaded scarecrows.

First up is Malifuax's The Carver.  I started this entry back when I discovered the triple prime threat of grey primer / black wash / white drybrush.

The Carver became a centerpiece for pumpkin patch terrain I used in a Pathfinder campaign I ran.  The Carver and other pumkpin based scarecrows all got used as Jack-o'-Lanterns - which turned out to be formidable foes for the early levels.  I nearly wiped out the party.  Good times.

As to painting, I didn't take a lot of pics for my 1st coats, so I'm going to show most of the end results.

The Carver Color Scheme

• Pumpkin Head - Base: Reaper HD Fireball Orange, Shadow (Wash): Reaper HD Burning Orange, Highlights: Reaper HD Golden Yellow, and Saffron Yellow 
• Shirt - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White; Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Light Grey; Highlights: FolkArt Parchment
• Pants -  Main Base: Heavy Glaze of Delta Ceramcoat Denim Jeans Blue; Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Thunder Blue, Highlights: Light Glaze of Delta Ceramcoat Sky Blue
• Flannel Patch - Base: Delta Ceramcoat Cinnamon, Dark lines: FolkArt Charcoal Grey, Highlights: Pink
• Wood -  Base: FolkArt Coffee Bean, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown
• Straw -  Base: FolkArt Honeycomb, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown, Highlights: Reaper HD Mustard Yellow and HD Pale Saffron
• Crows - Base: Charcoal Black , Shadow (Wash): Black, Beaks: FolkArt Ochre Yellow and Reaper HD Pale Saffron Yellow
• Stitching and Wraps - Base: FolkArt Butter Pecan, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown

This was one of the first times I got to break out my Reaper HD paints I'd gotten as an ace gift from one of my gaming friends.  All the oranges and yellows all went to painting that awesome pumpkin head.  One challenge I had with Reaper's HD yelllow paints - and I've heard reiterated elsewhere - is the paints separate in the bottle easy and require a lot of shaking.

While I went for sort of common farmer white shirt, I really wanted to get a plaid flannel look on the patches.  So here comes the dreaded lines painting.  Actually, I feel like I'm getting pretty good at this.  And I dread this a lot less than polka dots.

I wanted the Carver to look like he's stepping out of the fields and just started the journey towards town.  So for his base, I gave it two sections - one with the dirt and mud of the pumpkin patch, and one where the town's cobblestone begins.  I also wanted the cobblestone path to have an overgrown, not-used-often look - like the urban faded into the rural.  So there will be more patches of earth in between the bricks than I normally do.

Here's the finished base. I used my canned Terraclips Street color scheme on the cobblestone. I used a deep rich brown with a little red hue for the surrounding earth, knowing that static grass would probably go over it. I wanted to distinguish the two earth tones so I made the "crops" side of the earth a little more muddy - like a wet grey brown. Some general Walnut brown washes separate everything up nicely. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Overall happy with the final figure.  The snapped scarecrow post is a fun detail and adds a little bit of drama to the figure -- like he's gotten loose and bringing the terror to the city.

On the denim, this is one of the few times where less is more.  I've looked at several tutorials that give about 5-6 steps to getting a good denim look.  And when I look at what I did here, I don't see much of a difference.  

In retrospect, I could have made him a little dirtier looking.  And I've learned a bit about darkening a figure up to get a good glow since painting him.  If I were to redo the figure again, I would definitely take a more OSL approach with him.  

Bloodwretches: Neverborn Mid-Transformation

My wife is petrified of asylums.  We started watching American Horror Story: Asylum. At the end of the first episode, a reporter writing an expose is admitted involuntarily as a patient. We never saw another, it had tapped a primal fear of hers so strongly: that you would be declared insane and locked away to lose all agency over yourself.

Meanwhile the guards and the doctors get to do whatever they want...

The history of Victorian asylums stoke those fears, and the Malifaux starter set definitely plays upon them.  It takes place in an asylum run by a butcher and filled with orderlies telling you to quiet down with a syringe behind their backs.

That's why I see these bloodwretches as inadvertent rebels, fighting from the inside.  Like a molotov cocktail thrown at prison.  It helps that in M2E, they are some of the best models in the set.

When most people painted these models, they painted them as demons.  But as evidenced from the one that has one horn larger than the other, I see them as in the middle of the Human-to-Neverborn process.  These are the only models in the group I know that show this.  So an interesting challenge.

Having learned from the Swine Cursed I wanted to try the undercoat of darker colors and then do a heavy glaze of flesh color on top.

Bloodwretches Color Scheme

• Skin:  Reaper Tanned Skin blended into Dusky Skin then blended into Reaper Reaper HD Twilight Purple as a base. Then a heavy glaze of the Reaper Caucasian fleshtones
• Asylum Clothes:  Base: FolkArt Camel 
• Horns:  Base: Reaper Cloudy Grey, Shadow (Wash): Reaper Cloudy Grey, Highlights: FolkArt Mushroom 

I used the Swine-Cursed approach to the transformation: the transformation and palette changes are in the extremities while the torse and core keep the "normal" colors.

• On the left figure, you can see what the pre-glaze looks like.  Dark but strong colors. The transition between the Caucasian flesh tone to the purple looks a little muddy
• On the right figure, I already applied the first glaze of Reaper HD Caucasian Skin to the skin. Those strong colors are now a lot more muted, and the transition looks smoother.

Next was the clothes.  Keeping the clothes in neutral colors helps the focus stay on the skin.

Here's a pic of the "Bloodwretch 1" with the Caucasian Skin glaze

A few wrap up details like buttons and finger nails.

Final notes: I don't think these final pictures get the subtler shifts I got in the skin tones.  And the black hair on the first one looks rougher than I would like.  But I was pleased with the final results.  Proud to put on a table, not in a competition.

Angel Eyes: If your eyes are so angelic...

...then why is your freaking eye socket so small?

Angel Eyes has to have the smallest eyes on a model.  Or maybe it just feels that way because her name is Angel Eyes, so everyone will be looking at the eyes on your model.  That means you have to pay attention to getting her eyes juuuuuuuuust right.  (Or at least decent to look at.)

So before I dig in to the color scheme... I want to share how I learned to paint eyes.  It's the great white whale of mini painting. There was a really great article on Reaper's website about how to paint eyes that I grew to love.  The key approach: start with the eyes first.

Then Reaper took down The Craft section of the forum where the article resided. It's a shame because the article was written in a reassuring way - the author admitted each shot below was preceded by two screw-ups.  

That said, I did manage to find the pictures related to the article. As to the steps, however, I can only really remember the bullet-level basics.

Step 1: After priming, paint the white of the eye.  Use an off-white color.  Don't worry about getting all around the eye.

Step 2: Paint the Eyeball. Move the brush in a straight line up and down.  Again, don't worry if you go outside the perimeter of the eyeball.

Step 3: Black all around the outside of the eyeball area. Cover up any of the mistakes outside the eye area.

Step 4: Paint the face with your basecoat. Start far away from the eye and slowly work towards the eye - essentially shrinking the black area.  Try to leave a black circle / ring around the eyeball.

Most of this post is around the trials of trying to get the eye right.

Angel Eyes Color Scheme 

Shooting for cool color schemes as opposed to warm color schemes

• Skin:  Reapers Dusky Skin with Reaper Gem Purple as a base with an heavy glaze of the Reaper Caucasian fleshtones
• Cloak: FolkArt Thunder Blue - base; FolkArt Night Sky - wash; Reaper Gem Purple - shadow under tones
• Vest: Base - Worn Olive; Wash - Olive Drab; Overtone Shadow - Apple Barrel Wedgewood Green 
• Scarf and Pants:  Base - Reaper Concrete Grey
• Bands: Base - Worn Olive
• Boots:  Base - Vallejo Black with Reaper Cloudy Grey and FolkArt Charcoal Grey highlights

First things first.  The boots on this model are so thin, there's no way you're going to get a pin in there.  So I cheated and did it on the cloak.

So I had the eyes looking just right.  And then I went back for more detail.  I hate when I do that.

So I had to go back and fix it.  Like 3-4 times.  Eventually with my magnifiers on I saw I got the dot in the right place.  You wouldn't think it from this.  You'd think I was trying to paint a muppet.

The red box is where the black dot for the eyeball is, not the green box.

Eventually I got it.  Here she is with the eye inn the right place.

Final thoughts: I didn't post a lot about painting Angel Eye's cloak or boots or even her skin tone (which didn't pop as much as the Scion did because she is clothed so much.  But over all I am very happy with the end result.