A hobby black hole

I seem to have falling into what I can only call a hobby black hole, so what is a hobby black hole ? Well its like a normal black hole only instead of pulling in light it pulls joy, at least that how I see it & is what I think is the best way of explaining the way I am at the moment.

Hobby wise I've not done anything since before June, you might remember that at that time I was building up to what is know as gangster setting & even had the table set up for the first game & there the table has set un-looked at ever since, as I've lost interest.

Like all bloggers I'd guess, not only do I get joy from doing my own blog post but also from reading other people's blogs as well, but when I found that I was only looking in on those blogs in a going though the motions point of way & not getting the enjoyment out of them that I should I knew something was wrong, this was really hammered home when I quite reading one when half way through it.

What lead me to this point I don't want to go into here, but some of you have contacted me to enquire about my well being & that was very kind & once again my thanks for doing so, so where am I now hobby wise ?

Sadly still in the pull of the black hole, but hopefully the fact that I'm doing this post is the start of me trying to brake free, I guess I just need to find something to fire that spark & then take it slowly.

That's it for this post & as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcome.   

New Dublin, Johnny Vega Head of the British Firm

Johnny Vega aka Gentleman John, Johnny's rise to the top was far from what you would call a normal route, in that he's not know for violence, Johnny's life of crime began with pulling off con-jobs a roll he was well suited to given his exquisite manners which earned him the nickname Gentleman John, but don't let that fool you as when needs must Johnny will go toe to toe with the best of them & despite his charm has a ruthlessness not matched by many. 

Fists 3, Gats 4, Guts 5, Smarts 5, Stunts 2 Hits 4
Exquisite Manners If a non-Leading Role enemy is about to start a fight, the character can say just the right thing to put him off (prior to shots being fired or punches thrown). The character tests his SMARTS +1 each turn until he fails--then the fun begins!

Disclaimer, Any similarity to any persons living, dead or half dead is only in the mind or the viewer & Nickel & Dime Productions take no responsibility for such thoughts.

As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

New Dublin, Sean Mulloony

A look at the head of the Irish gang, Sean Mulloony aka The Wacker
Born in the Irish slum of New Dublin know as Winterhill Sean Mullony the 6th son of a family of 11, Sean has been fighting since he could walk, by age ten as the youngest member of a teenage street gang he'd got the nickname the wacker such was his love for violence by 14 he was already well known to the local police & had already done time in a reform school for beaten a teacher at his local school so badly with a baseball bat that the teacher had to spend 3 weeks in hospital.
This violent streak has taken Sean all the way to the top of the Irish gang & for all the fine things his money has bought him he still likes nothing more then taking a baseball bat to those that cross him.

Its said that Sean only fears one thing & that the sharp end of his wife's tongue.

Name Sean Mulloony, Irish gang leader
Fists 5, Gats 2, Guts 5, Smarts 3, Stunts 3, Hits 5.

Skills
Just Nuts +1 STUNTS when escaping from opponents by leaping / diving / etc

Disclaimer, Any similarity to any persons living, dead or half dead is only in the mind or the viewer & Nickel & Dime Productions take no responsibility for such thoughts :)

Designers note, Yes John not quite a snappy a dresser as the Italian boss, but no flat cap :)

As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

New Dublin, Don Enzo Macaroni

Enzo Macaroni aka Unlucky Mac is head of the Italian mob in New Dublin, he got the unlucky tag after the accident at his 21st birthday party which seen him lose an eye, when the cork in the bottle of champagne he was opening shot out & hit him in the eye which costs him to lose it & as if that wasn't bad enough he then slip on the spilled champagne smashing his leg so badly he was left with a limp.

Lady luck is one dame who has never been seen hanging on his arm since that faithful night.

Name Enzo Macaroni,  Italian mob boss.
Fists5, Gats 3, Guts 5, Stunts 4, Smarts 5, Hits 5.

Skills
Unlucky--Director or opponent may demand this character re-roll one successful (but nonfatal) die roll per scene in the hope of failure.
Gimpy, -1 from all movement,but -2 from running.
Not in the face, all brawling wounds require an extra round to recover from.

Designers note, In keeping with the spirit of how I want to run this I went with rolling for the stats, now I have to say for someone who's unlucky he did really well, rolling 6,6,5,5,4,3,1,1, for the 8 dice rolled, how this works is that for each pair of 6's & 1's you roll they become 5's & 2's, you then assign the best 6 scores to the stats in whatever manner you want, also any 6 rolled gives you a roll on the skill table.
The unlucky skill I gave him for free, & rolled for the other two, the first one rolled was two 6's & at that point I was starting to thing I might need to drop the unlucky tag, that was until I looked to see what 66 was, as it turned out it was Gimpy, the next roll was a 4 &1, 41 which was Not in the face, guess the unlucky tag was about right :)

Well that's a wrap for this post, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

New Dublin

New Dublin unlike the older city from across the water that it takes its name from, is a city at war a war that has been fought for generations between the different gangs, but it wasn't always known as New Dublin, in its earlier days it was called Little Rome, as it was mainly founded by the Italians.

New Dublin where crime never sleeps, except for Sundays & holy days of obligation that is. 

                                     
So how did the name change come about ? well as other nationalities flocked to the new world in search of a better life only to fine that the grass wasn't any greener & the slums became where most of them ended up, then like seeds in fertile ground the gangs sprouted, this lead to gangs fighting for bigger pieces of the action, & as everyone knows that's bad for business.

Away of ending the war that's what was needed & so it was that Jimmy (the nose ) O Donnell leader of the Irish gang came up with a plan, as the two biggest gangs were the Italian & the Irish & that's who most of the fighting was between, Jimmy's plan was that the two would play a football match' with the winners taking control of all the major operations.

Jimmy sent word to Don Antonio  Macaroni head of the Italian mob out lining his plan & asking for a meeting so that they could iron out the finer points, believing that the Italians would be more then capable of putting a team together to beat the Irish on any day of the week, Don Macaroni agreed to have the meeting.

As neither trusted that the other wouldn't try to turn the meeting into a hit, the meeting would have to take place in a neutral place & it was decided to hold it in a restaurant in Chinatown, so over a fine dinner they agreed on the terms with the winner taking control of all the big money business outside of their own area, the only exception to this was to be the chipper business which the Italians would keep control of no matter who won, a point Jimmy reluctantly  agreed to as long as the chippers would only use Irish potato's, with the city been mostly made up of a Roman Catholic population the chipper business was a big earner especially on Fridays which were black-fast days which meant you couldn't eat meat & the ques outside the chippers for a fish & chips dinner often stretched for blocks.

So a truce was called & the date for the match was set for a month's time, the teams could only be made up of players from each sides population & the officials would have to be of neutral origins, needless to say there was a lot of betting taking place on the outcome of the game & the odds for each side was fairly close, that was until the night before the game when after hearing that the Italians had somehow managed to bribe the match officials, Jimmy offered odds of 10-1 on an Irish victory, was Jimmy mad your asking yourselves giving such big odds on the Irish winning when the Italians had the match officials in their pockets ? well no you see Jimmy worked on the bases that the Italian players, been well Italians wouldn't be able to resist thrown the game to make some money for themselves.

What followed has got to be the strangest football match in all of history, with the Italians passing up many a golden change to score even when it was harder to miss, while the ref ruled out Irish goal after goal, with all of this going on the crowd of about 10,000 was starting to get rowdy, & as the clock ticked down to the finial seconds, one of the Italian center-halves turn & played the ball back to his keeper , who slipped as he came to collect it & could only watch hopelessly as the ball rolled into the net.

Fearing that disallowing the goal would lead to the Irish fans invading the pitch & stringing him up by the unmentionables, the ref let the goal stand & hoped he get the hell out of town fast while the Italian mob were still in shock.
So it was that the Irish got control of Little Rome & later got the name changed to New Dublin, but what of  Don Antonio  Macaroni  & Jimmy the Nose O Donnell you ask ? ( well if you didn't you should have ) A few month's after the game Don Antonio  Macaroni came to a sticky end when out inspecting one of his new business's he slipped & fell into a vat of toffee, he was replaced by his son Romeo Macaroni as head of the family, as for Jimmy he lived on for close on 20 more years, until one night while having his supper of crubeens he chocked on a sucking on a piece of gristle.

When it was later found out that the crubeens were from an Italian pig a new war broke out, with Sean Mulloony who had taken over as leader of the Irish gang ordering a hit on Romeo Macaroni, who was then replaced by his son Enzo Macaroni as head of the family, & there folks is where we have to leave New Dublin of now at least.

Disclaimer, Any similarity to any persons living, dead or half dead is only in the mind or the viewer & Nickel & Dime Productions take no responsibility for such thoughts :)

Designers note, this was an induction to what I hope will be the stage for many up coming releases, for a long time I've wanted to do what is thought of a gangster movies but I want to take a different angle at it.

As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

Movie Tone News, April 2020

Welcome to this months news in which I want to talk about a question most elegantly put by Ivor in the comments of the last post, Do you 'storyboard' photos ideas a head of time or are you Indiana Jones-ing it & make it up as you go ?

The simple answer is yes :) I'll explain, The Hex campaign is run along the lines of different things, first came the idea of what I wanted to do & up until the ruins that part was verily clear, with the opening couple of episodes been written  first & pictures taken & added.
The plane episode was a game played out which gave the unseen event of Bill running away, so that meant I'd to come up with away of getting him back into the story, which is like making it up as you go, rolling dice to decide the story will do that for you :)

So I've now done both for what Ivor asked to get this far, so I then carry on as far as the ruins which was the next game played out & really was only as far as I had the story mapped out to, the hope was that some event in the game might drive the story forward, but the dice been what they are didn't comply with that & tbh I came a bit stuck as to how to carry on hence the big delay.

My first thought was to have Bill figure out away in which the group got the plane up & running, but that didn't really fit well with what I wanted, as it turned out the sets & props team were working on a new set which you've seen parts of in the last episode & while taking some photos I came up with the way forward that has giving what is I hope a clear path to the end of the campaign,

But in that episode I also added a new way of doing things, in that I took some pictures & then wrote up the story until they came out on the other side of the sea & then a game was played out to rescue the children, but here I done some thing else that I never done before.
The game called for 14 makers on the board, now when it comes to using makers I try to come up with other ways of doing things as I don't want makers in the photos, but with this many on what was only a 2 foot by 2 foot set I was at a lost.

Anyway I wanted to push on & decided I play out the game, first take went horrible wrong with the T-rex turning up before any of the beasts which were standing in for raptors.
To try & avoid the same thing happening again I added another token which meant there was now 15 of them, & played out the game, taking photos as I went, & while playing out the game I hit on an idea, what if after the game instead of using the in game photos I staged manged the scenes ?

Tbh this is a god send to me as for a long time I've stayed away from doing certain things or tried to do them in different ways, but this way of doing it means I can just play out the game as its meant to be & then just re-shoot the parts of it I want to use :)
I hope that answers your question Ivor & maybe is of some use to you guys, below are a couple of pictures to show what was done.

This picture was added after the episode had been scripted. 

This one was taken before the script was written.

                                                       

In game photo

Photo of the same thing that you seen in the last episode

In other news, I getting near the point were the studios can start doing what I'll call Mobs & Dolls movies that will take place in the fictional city of New Dublin & the surrounding areas, New Dublin is much like Dublin, only the politicians are more corrupt, I did say it was fictional right :)

In late news, never one to let the grass to grow under his feet Mr Panama is also looking at way to brake into the radio media, more on that in next months news, so plenty to look forward to coming up as well as the conclusion of the Hex campaign.

Well that's it for this month's news   , so its a goodnight from me & a goodnight from him :)
As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.

HEX Campaign, The Children

The start of this story can be found here https://nickelandimeproductions.blogspot.com/2019/04/hex-campaign-knock-on-door.html

Grace's mood was grown darker by the day, as near as she could guess its been about 2 weeks since the fight with the Germans at the ruins, but who could tell in this place of no night or day, the time immediately had past fast as Tom, John, Ronld & herself along with some of the natives had headed to the river in search of the Germans, only to find their U-boat gone.

Unperturbed they'd followed the river for what they estimated was about 30 miles until it opened out into a sea, finding no sign of the Germans along the way.
Although they could see land on the horizon they had no way of crossing the sea, so at a deadend they headed back to the village which was now their home, what keep their spirit up on the trek back was the hope that the Scorpion had returned, for without it, it now seemed they would be stuck here forever.

The Scorpion had not returned though & the group were perplexed as to what to do next, as not to be a burden on the villagers resources & to pass the time Grace, Tom & Bob help out with things like hunting & croup gathering, while Jenny Bill & Gregory spent most of their time at the ruins, which was just as well as it was there that they found their way to move on.

Bill, with a grin like a Cheshire cat "I think I found away to cross the sea which doesn't involve been on a boat & running the risk of getting eaten"
Building a boat to cross the sea had been the first thoughts but as any boat they could build would be to small to stand an attack from any of the larger sea creatures, they'd dropped the idea almost at once.
Grace, her mood starting to lift at the thought of been able to continue the search for her friends, "Ok you coy old fox don't keep us waiting spit it out.
Bill explained how he believed that from his exploring of the ruins that there was an underground passage that linked the land here to the land across the sea, they would need to speck to the beastmen to find out if they knew anything about it & if they could help.

At first the elder of the beastmen refused to talk with them about it, but with Roald intervention & given the fact the group had helped them out against the Germans they finally relented, it turned out that Bill was indeed correct in that there was a passage across that their ancestors use to use to trade with others of their kind on the far side of the sea, but they had to close it off as the red beastmen who lived on the other side became more aggressive.

The passage they told them was closed off by a great door that has not been open in many life times, but they agreed to let them try to cross accompanied by one of their kind, so that if the door could be opened he could close it off once again behind them.

Roald had decided not to go with them & bid them farewell at the ruins, Grace as were they all was saddened by this news as they all thought of Roald as a good friend.
Grace, as they were parting" Are you sure you won't come with us ? as it might be your only chance to find away home"

Roald"I'm sure Grace, I think in some kind of a strange way I've come to think of this place as home & as I've no family in the world above I've no real reason to go back"
Tom" Well thanks once again for all of your help Roald" & turning to Grace said " Come on its time to get going"
As Roald turned away Grace & Tom followed the others who were lead by Uk-got into the opening.

How long their journey through the passage way under the sea took none of them could guess,

but they were all relieved to find that the great door opened as easily as it had the day it had been built & a short time after they stepped out once again into the twilight of this strange world.

As Uk-got turned & headed back into the dark the group found they where high up on a ledge, looking down on a valley with a river & what looked like some kind of settlement on the far side.

As they made their way down the cliff face they notice there was groups of children moving around on the ground below, but no sooner had they set foot on the valley floor when the sound of a loud horn rang out, at this some of the children started to make their way towards a bridge that crossed the river while others seemed to panic.
Jenny" There must be something wrong, we'll better try & help these kids"
The group split up & started for the kids,but the kids seemed spooked & backed away from them.

As Grace tried to assure some of them, Bob spotted what was the cost of the panic, as some kind of fierce beast appeared from the foliage in front of him. 

Quickly un-slinging his rifle Bob let off two shots with one of them slamming into the beast's chest, but still it charged forward, it took Bob all of his courage & years of military experience not to turn & run & standing to he fired off another couple of shots out of which hit the beast's head bringing it to a stop just as it was on him. 

After directing the group of kids over to Jenny & Gregory, Grace noticed one of the children had climbed upon a rocky outcrop & started to climb up, no sooner had she reached the top when she noticed Bill been chased by one of the foul creatures, whipping out her pistol she fired off a couple of rounds missing the target & could only watch on helplessly as it gored at Bill.

Try as he did Bill was no match for the beast & Grace could only watch on in horror at what was unfolding below her, then Bill with the blood steaming from a nasty leg wound & starting to tier from  the onslaught he felt a slight shudder under his feet, the beast must have noticed it as well, for to Bill's amazement & relief it broke off its attack & darted away.

Just as Jenny & Gregory were leading the first of the children to the safety of the bridge the reason for the break  off of the attack by the beasts reviled its self .

With a mighty roar a T-Rex burst into view close to were Grace was trying to shepherd some children towards the bridge, from his vantage point Bob opened fire, followed by Tom on the ground, but the bullets seemed to have little or no effect on the monster.

The speed of the brute had to be seen to be believed as it quickly covered the ground on Grace who had keep herself between it & the children, lowering it's massive head it snapped at Grace.

Luckily it's aim was a bit off but the teeth racked across Grace's back & as the pain exploded in her she fell to the ground.

This proved to be the saving of Grace but the dooming of the children.

Although horrified by what he witnessed, Bob keep firing away, this brought his attention to it giving the rest of the children & the rest of his group apart from Grace, time to reach the safety of the bridge.
As the T-Rex reach the outcrop Bob climb down on the opposite side & for the next while had to engage in a game of cat & mouse with it, known that any slip up would cost him his life.   

Getting feed up with the game the T-Rex soon headed off in search off a meal some place else leaving Bob free to head over to where Grace had falling.
While badly hurt Grace with Bob's help was able to gain her feet & with his help they crossed the bridge to where the others were waiting.

To be continued

Designers note, I'm not going to go into details in this note as there are thing I want to cover in the next news, so I'll leave it at saying its great to have this back up & running after what was a longer then expected break.
As always my thanks for dropping in & if you want to be a movie critic & leave a comment it would be welcomed :)