Let's chill with: FROSTGRAVE

MattDP wrote: But one thing confuses me: it looks like some of you are playing on hexes, and some on tables (presumably using rulers). Does it support both? How?

It's not a hex based game. I just converted it. Figuring out the conversion is easy, but instituting it involves minor paste ups and such.

I'd like to see all your Heroscape conversion stuff as I also have a ton of Heroscape.

For Frostgrave, I took one of those rubber mats and drew 1" squares on it with a Sharpie and using that so we don't have to measure. It works well and then we throw a bunch of Heroscape stuff on it for obstacles. Eventually, I want to cut slits in the mat about half deep so I can insert cardstock walls . Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

We also switched to d12+d8 for all combat rolls instead of a d20 as we found the d20 too swingy.

Someone should tell me if I should buy a huge lot of Mage Knight stuff.... or if I should not.

The mat I ordered for Frostgrave came today all the way from Lithuania (game mats appear to be a major Eastern European/Russian industry). Really surprised it came within 2 weeks. It’s 3x3, vinyl and was about $45 shipped.

Totally blown away by it- it has the best print quality I’ve seen out of the mats I’ve bought- including a GW one. I love the image- most “snow” mats are really boring whiteouts but this one has some popping aqua magic/ice colors and some spots where you can see cobblestones and ruin floors- this is the only mat that is actually designed for Frostgrave that I could find.

Kind of wish I had gone in for the mousepad material, but it was nearly twice as much. I would actually consider the 4x4 one for larger games, and in the future I will probably be going with their mats based on the quality and value on this one.

Also got my Osgilliath set in- it’s just right for most Frostgrave stuff because it it closer to true 28mm...meaning that it is really too small for AOS stuff.

I can’t wait to pack this mat with terrain- it is going to be NUTS.

Seriously, why are you not buying Frontline Gaming mats? Mousepad material, comes in its own labeled carrying case, only $45 for 3x3, $60 for 4x4 and $75 for 4x6 ($7 shipping, but free at $100).

The vinyl has a much better print quality than dye sublimated neoprene.

I do a lot of dye sublimation projects and wish I could find vinyl print services more readily.

Depends on the project and what you want to do with a mat, but after some experience, and if you roll the vinyl carefully, I find it is often a better option.

I didn’t like the Frontline snow print and this was the same price anyway. I’ve looked at a couple of theirs in the past though, trying to avoid the Eastern Bloc.

Colorcrayons wrote: The vinyl has a much better print quality than dye sublimated neoprene.

I do a lot of dye sublimation projects and wish I could find vinyl print services more readily.

Depends on the project and what you want to do with a mat, but after some experience, and if you roll the vinyl carefully, I find it is often a better option.

I’m not disagreeing with you on the print quality, but just pointing out that there was a high quality neoprene alternative as Barnes said he kind of wanted that.

The snow print image is certainly better than FLG’s.

I actually seriously considered the FLG snow one, but I really didn't like how it looked like an overhead view of mountains. I feel like sometimes these mats are not designed by someone with graphic design sense- the scale of the image to the figures is wrong on a lot of them for example. I really liked that Deep Cut has images that show you the relative scale of a standard 25mm base to the graphics, that really helped in my decision.

Too many of them are also too specific- like, I like my Mats by Mars 3x3 industrial area, but it has really specific graphics like a big fan and stuff on it. kind of didn't like the GW mat (Soulblight Necropolis) because of that too- it's only ever gonna be a graveyard, and if you put graveyard terrain on it, then it just looks like a clusterfuck.

I got the rules in PDF form and read them. They sound great, and tonight I'll see about building a warband using some Reaper Bones. I think I need to pick up some standard soldier-type units.

I'll probably get some terrain of some kind if I like the game.

The official Northstar kits are a GREAT value for your “regular” guys. They can be had for about $30 and you get 20. So with one soldiers kit, I made 5 Thugs, 4 Infantrymen, 2 Men at Arms, 2 Treasure Hunters, 4 Archers, and 3 crossbowmen. And there are plenty of extra parts that will work with the Barbarian and Cultists kits if you get those as well. Short of using figures you have already, I think it’s about the cheapest option for soldier figures, they are less than Bones per model and much higher quality. Not GW level, but very good.

For terrain, if you get you one of those Ruins of Osgilliath sets ($65) you will be halfway home. It is A LOT of terrain for the price. The Arcane Ruins set I mentioned earlier ($29) is also a tremendous value.:

I just bought some things to fill out the bestiary- mostly D&D and Pathfinder prepainted minis. Got some Yetis to use as snow trolls, they have this crazy 4 armed gorilla that happens to be white, a Frost Giant, a snow leopard, a Phase Spider (which is blue, hence ice), some other things. I’m stuck trying to find a decent Ice Toad and boars of all things, nobody seems to make a good (and cheap) boar.

hotseatgames wrote: I got the rules in PDF form and read them. They sound great...

I am learning to sweat the d20 less and less.

Yesterday was my 25th game. Started a new campaign.
I've observed that early on in campaigns or just 'pick up' type games, the d20 is often a cruel mistress.
But it does seem to even out a couple games later when you start gathering items and leveling. You don't have to resort to using different dice whose sum is 20 to have a better experience.

I've also stopped using critical strike.
It's nearly always a killing blow without doubling damage of a critical strike, but without it, sometimes people can eek out another turn or two of survivability with a soldier.
It's less decisive when the crit strike option is eliminated, but it seems more enjoyable on both sides without it.

Tl;dr is not to let your dislike of the d20 itself dictate the game. It really does even out.

Publisher is having a sale at the moment

ospreypublishing.com/frostgrave

Michael Barnes wrote: I’m stuck trying to find a decent Ice Toad and boars of all things, nobody seems to make a good (and cheap) boar.

73094 WizKids Deep Cuts Unpainted Miniatures: Familiars

About $4 for all three.



The owl can be a great crow stand in for the crow master. The cat... Familiars don't need physical representations, but I thought it would make a cool wardog stand in that is unique yet thematically fitting. A wizard's psycho feral cat familiar.

So a use for all three models. All pretty good sculpts.

I scored a Ruins of Osgiliath on ebay for $34.95 shipped.