Quirkworthy

Yesterday’s alien question ferreted out some great references and some amusing stuff too. Apparently this is a real spider…

Overall, it seems like spiders have inspired a lot more alien races in computer gams and RPGs than on the tabletop in miniature form (though there some rare exceptions). Interesting.

Having spent some time surfing along the links you’ve shared, I have a couple of follow up questions for you.

1. Which real world creature do you think has been most unfairly neglected when it comes to inspiring weird alien lifeforms? Horseshoe crabs? Ocelots? Starfish? Squirrels?
2. What’s the most alien alien you know, in any fictional background? For this question, try sticking to physical creatures. Energy beings and nanite clouds are always going to be at the weird end of the scale, but don’t really work as models or artwork.

I’ve already come up with a couple of ideas for unusual aliens that I’ve never seen before by asking myself these questions. See if they inspire you too.

Does anybody know of a gaming background with a race of sentient (giant) spiders in?

I was cleaning the house this afternoon, and came across a mother spider guarding a dozen babies, all wrapped in a fine web. It’s the time of year that spiders come indoors to get out of the encroaching cold and wet, so that wasn’t terribly surprising, but it made me wonder whether the whole creepy-spider thing had been really tapped. Sorry, I should have said I was cleaning the house and thinking about games…

I’ve seen giant spiders as wandering monsters in D&D for decades, and there’s a character spider or two in LOTR. Then you have the odd dark elf centaur that’s half elf and half giant spider. Not a lot of actual sentient spiders though.

Is this because they haven’t got a face that you could recognise emotions on, or perhaps they’re just too creepy for them to be anything but animal (insect)? Could it be some sort of anti-spider conspiracy (you never know)? Or, is it that I’ve just missed them?

They make a great starting point for SF or fantasy aliens. I mean, just look at them!

While I’m thinking SF, I want to take a detour from Deadzone and to mention a couple of other things. Firstly, the Macrocosm Kickstarter is almost finished. As I type this there’s less than 24 hours left, so hurry along if you want to see what’s on offer before it ends.

They’ve already doubled their target, which is great, and have added over 60 models to their existing range. As I mentioned in a previous post, Chris has taken the slightly unusual route of producing the first two races and free rules on his own, and has only gone to KS when he needed to fund an expansion… exactly the sort of thing that I keep hearing folk no longer use Kickstarter for.

The style he’s gone for is very much in the Oldhammer vibe that has emerged from the woodwork of late. Personally, I’m not gone on all of the ranges, but I am rather partial to the Diggers and also like the Malignancy*. I’m sure other people will prefer the other ranges. The big robots will be interesting to see when they’re finished and standing next to the other models. I have a feeling that they’re going to be quite imposing. And then there’s the Kev White space goblins…

Of course, not all of you will like that retro style, and that’s fine. As we were just discussing in one of the Deadzone threads, you can’t please everyone all the time. I mention the Macrocosm thing partly because I know Chris and wish him well, partly because I have an admiration for the energy and drive required of the many one-man bands we have in the gaming world and like to support them when I can, and partly because I like the models (mine aren’t going on eBay) and would like to see him succeed and make more.

On A Related Topic

Another thing I mentioned before was a new set of retro style SF rules I’ve been working on.

The reason I mention this is that you may be interested in it when it is done. It’s intentionally more detailed (hit locations, etc) and designed to play at a more considered pace than DZR. They are very different beasts, and which I prefer depends a lot on what mood I’m in at the time. Sometimes I want the energy of DZR, and other times the story and detail of the retro SF suits more.

Overall, the retro stuff has been a very entertaining and unusual design, and it’s worth a few articles on its own. Deliberately designing something in such a specific style is quite a challenge, but a fun one as it’s allowed me to wallow in my own nostalgia for games I grew up with.

Whether this is the same retro that everyone else recalls remains to be seen. But then that’s nostalgia for you – it’s a very variable thing 🙂

* As an aside, you may recall me remarking about how some figures look better in reality, others when they’re on screen; some painted and some in bare metal, plastic or whatever. I’m sure you’ve all noticed. For me, Macrocosm’s Diggers look really good on screen and in real life (not much difference), but the Malignancy seem much better when I have them in my hand than in pictures (big difference). I don’t know what that means, if anything – it’s just something that intrigues me, more so because that difference is within a single company’s offer. I would normally expect this sort of variation in perceivable quality to be more common between companies.

Just had a chat with Ronnie about a bunch of DZ questions that you guys have raised in reply to recent posts.

The one I’d like to deal what today is the fact that some people might have bought the existing DZ recently, and might feel a bit miffed about shelling out for a new one.

Rest assured, the main point of reworking DZ is to get more people playing it. With this as the aim Ronnie’s keen on making this transition as smooth as possible.

The way this is achieved hasn’t been finalised, but Ronnie said he was happy for me to let you know the sort of thing that he currently has in mind. This starts with giving a digital copy to all the original KS backers. For those who’ve bought DZ after this, there will be some sort of discount scheme. The sort of thing that Flames of War has done between editions seemed to work – get your old edition stamped for a hefty discount on a new one.

Something like that.

Of course, whichever way you got your copy of DZ, your models, mat and scenery are all perfectly compatible with the new one so there’s no need to replace any of that. Whilst there are new sculpts of some models, the new ones are the same scale, style and imagery, and personally I’m entirely happy to mix all the ones I’ve seen so far.