Painting Dillemas, RPG Development Dillemas

Well, I have been painting multiple things at once: Some clanrats which are turning out quite decent, some striking scorpions which are turning out OK, and working on the new painting techniques for my Necrons which, in my head at least, will look awesome.

Now, the clanrats, when I actually do get a chance to work on them, are progressing suprisingly quickly considering how much detail and work I am putting into them. I am pulling a lot of stops, shading and highlighting each one individually and creating some neat effects on some so that they stand out a bit from your normal horde of clanrats. However, now that I am putting that kind of work into individual models now the rest of my models seem to be falling short in my eyes. The striking scorpions, which started with just simple highlights, look suprisingly dull next to those clanrats. I am hoping to make up for it with some fantastic swamp basing, we will see what happens.

As for my RPG's, I have recently came across a dillema regarding warhammer heroes: should I use the system for my own tabletop wargame? I could put all that work into it and never really get anything out of it. I am sure others have had the idea to propose a new way to expand 40k in the past and I have never really heard of anyone getting through to them. Also, I am debating on if I want to go to school to learn to program the online RPG or if I should hire someone to do it after I get a high paying job.

As with all life problems, I am sure I will come up with a solution!

Two Major Announcements

Well, I think it is high time I got back to the internet life and back to my plans for the future. That said I have two major projects to announce which will probably excite anyone who bothers to read this.

The first project is called Warhammer Heroes. The general idea behind this is that you can take a single hero, squad, or both and customize them to your liking, making them stronger and more personalized than you can in a normal codex entry. After you are done with that you take your favorite heroes (or villains,) and put them up against serious challenges. There is a large story focus to this although you don't have to use it if you don't want to. I have playtested this with two friends who thoroughly enjoyed it, even wanting to play Heroes over a regular game of Warhammer 40K. Their input on this project has me very motivated to get a rough copy done and sent to GW for consideration, and while I doubt they will publish it I hope they at least look at it and provide some input.

The second project I have is a lot more involved. In short, it is an online version of a pen and paper RPG, with many web elements to help players role play. A large focus is going to be put into making the gaming experience easy to learn and fast to get started. It will also be a faster-paced role playing system than most are used to. I am thoroughly excited by this project and hope to get started on it once I get my own computer. I allready have a notebook which is quickly filling with notes and a rough outline of what I want to accomplish with this system. Unlike other online systems out there this will be a GUI based system rather than a text based system which will probably run on either flash or PHP. It is also my hope to make the system modular, so that you can add or remove elements (such as limb damage, for example,) to make the game play the way you wish.

I have been talking to a friend of mine about the web-based system and he seems excited by it.  He has been helping me brainstorm ideas for it and as it turns out he is a very talented artist. Take a look at his portfolio on www.elevenstonestudios.com if you are interested. I may ask him to do some art for the monsters, of which I am hoping to have 100 original monsters, and possibly add in some of the normal monsters you see in a fantasy setting.

Do keep following this blog to learn about how both these projects develop!