Guide to Roleplaying

Tabletop roleplaying has become one of my great passions in this hobby. Meeting up with friends to act out adventures that a dice (and sometimes a Dungeon Master) will determine is great fun and fantastic escapism. But what can you do to make yourself a better roleplayer?

First off, speak to the dungeon master and fellow players about what you want from the game. A bloodletting dungeon crawl can mean a lower amount of roleplaying and more fighting, whereas a grand campaign with a huge narrative arc allows a huge amount of scope for really delving into a character and backstory. This will help set the mood with your group at an early stage and put everyone one the same level.

When it comes to creating a character, think about how much you want to be involved with the roleplaying aspect. To keep it simple, choose a race and class that appeal to you and put a little of your own personality there. Humans are always a good start as we know how they act already, but Elves and Dwarves aren't too dissimilar to play either. If you're looking to push your skills then races like Tieflings, Dragonborn and Goliaths can really open up your perspective. A good DM will have the world react differently to differing races and this can be really interesting to play.

In terms of a backstory always converse with the DM. The first thing is to understand the setting, which will then spark some ideas as to where your character fits in. Talk to the DM about your idea and they may be able to link you into the story even more which will immerse you even more. The more immersion, the better the roleplaying.

When you begin playing theres some things to remember. Every player will, or at least should, get time to shine. This can be from triumph in a battle getting the last hit on a renowned enemy to being the focus of a story arc in which you'll do a lot of talking and roleplaying. These moments are great for your character so really try to lose yourself in these moments. Likewise, if its a fellow players time the best thing you can do is to give them the time to shine. If they are nervous about roleplaying then you can help them get immersed. If its in the heat of a battle, you can try to set them up for a finishing blow, either by an ability or spell that can buff them or by flanking or aiding them to give them advantage. If its more character based with conversations with NPCs then just help them with little questions the player may be unsure of to ask, ask them questions that will then inspire them to talk more with the NPC's. Being a great roleplayer isn't just about playing a good character but about helping the players around you be better roleplayers too.

There will also be many times when you know things as a player but your character may not. I usually mention to the DM 'I know how to do something but I'm unsure my character will, can I roll a check to see if he does?' to see if the character will know, or quite often not even mention it. Your character will have a different variety of knowledge compared to you and this works in the opposite way too. The DM mentions something you know nothing about but think your character will? Ask your DM and hopefully they'll ask you to make an ability check. You might learn something new!

 My final piece of advice is also to accept that you will make mistakes or bad decisions and have some truly terrible sessions where the dice rolls are incredibly bad. Yes its annoying, but don't get angry at such things as they will affect the rest of the players at your table. Remember TTRPG'ing is a game and a shared experience with a number of other players and a Dungeon Master. Player etiquette should always be a priority in a group, the happier each player is the more enjoyable the session will be for everyone. Someone roll a nat20? Give em a clap or a cheer! Someone roll a nat1? Have a collective groand but laugh too!

So there we have it! I'm learning all the time when I'm roleplaying so expect more thoughts on this tremendous aspect of gaming in the future, perhaps I'll be able to get other peoples thoughts too from fellow players and dungeon masters. If there are topics you'd like me to cover then please get in touch and I'll see what I can do, Don't forget my affiliate link with The Outpost above if you want to get some nice discounts from your tabletop gaming needs and I'll be back again soon with another blog post.

The Return

If I've stated it once, I've stated it several times, but I'm back. I've not posted since November, 2018 and I'll be honest it feels like a lifetime ago. What happened during this time is deeply personal, so I won't spare the details but over the last few months my hobby mojo has started to return. It has taken a little knock during this Corona Virus debacle but I'm still soldiering away on painting and crafting ideas for gaming and generally trying to make the most of this isolation. 

Necromunda, has been at the forefront. 

I picked up a couple sets of the floor tiles, and decided to paint them purple, using silver, rust and chevrons to break them up. The PLLX stands for Pollux, thinking my hive will be named after the Imperial Fists hero. I think they came out well!

My Necromunda gangs will all see use in my Hive Guard army for 40k, so twenty orlocks means two units of infantry for the force. I've got sizty in total, 20 orlocks, 10 van saar, 20 escher and 10 goliaths. Plus various tanks and vehicles. 

The Dark Uprising set really captured my imagination, and I'll get some better pictures soon as thats all purple too and goes well with the floor tiles. 

So whats in store in the future for Death By Die? 

D&D has been a staple of my gaming time, so I've been jotting down campaign ideas for when the group can get back together. In the campaign I play I'll be showing off some things I've done with my character, Tovus the Visceral. More on him later though! I may also post about a previous character named Elias Azure, and talk about how I create characters for roleplaying games. 

40k will also feature as I may get involved in a gaming club campaign and also running a very narrative based campaign with an Ork warlord. Look for world building ideas, force ideas to keep things narrative and painting and conversion ideas coming soon... I also picked some Sisters up....

I'll also be running a Necromunda campaign in the future at my local club so expect some news on that when social gatherings are once more allowed. I've been slowly building up some ideas for the hive and will begin crafting those into a solid background within the next month or two.

I may showcase some Kickstarters, other hobbyists work, maybe even some Q&A's with myself and others here too. One other thing I may do is some archived White Dwarf look backs, as my collection goes back to about 180... which is over 20 years ago! 

If you have any ideas or things you'd like me to share then feel free to get in touch. I'm still affiliate for The Outpost who continue to serve as the most excellent online shop of all things tabletop. Click the link above and take a look, you'll also be helping me too! 

Death By Video

Welcome all! I've been a little quiet again, but its because I've been working on a few things..... 

Death By Die is going video! I'll still be posting here, espcially with the new Ork releases coming but expect videos once a week  maybe more when I get into the swing of it! All subscriptions are massively appreciated, if you have ideas for videos or questions for a Q&A then fire away!

D&D and Exciting News!

First of all, lets get the news out there now. You may have already seen me mention The Outpost as one of the best online stores around. 20% discount on GW prices and many other ranges, releases always arrived on time, and I've had some excellent customer service. Well Death By Die is now an official affiliate of the store! By clicking the link above to make orders, it gives me some extra juice to get more new releases, produce articles on them and in the long term, allow me to produce more content for you hungry hobbiests.

 This will also lead on to me hopefully within the next couple of months producing video content on youtube and linking on here, and possibly even doing some giveaways! And we all like free things don't we? Well I bloody do especially if it means I can spread the love and pass them over to the readers of my humble blog. This link now has a permenant home underneath my blog header so sign upto the Outpost and get shopping. 

Otherwise on Saturday (hence no Saturday Salvo) I ran my first session of D&D! Which also means I can soon start to going into what I've been doing in terms of narrative, miniatures painting and dungeon crafting for it! Set in a homebrow city called Cannahein, a party is needed to do the deeds that the City Guard cannot, such as deep investigation, averting great evil and generally being heroes!

So far we have Malekai, a human Paladin who is older and more experienced than the other party members. Mane, a Wood Elf Druid from the nearby Ardeep Forest looking to enhance his skills and learn from a respected kinsman that now advises the people of Cannahein, and a gifted Fighter called Throngir who grew up in Cannahein working in his fathers forge. The young dwarf has bested most of the City Guard already and together, the party were introduced and quickly put into action. Being sent on the northern path to meet a now late Dwarf Caravan, the party crest a hill after hearing a loud explosion to see goblins attacking the caravan, running off with some spoils and a hostage. They rout the remaning goblins and get the Dwarves safely back to the city. 

The party were then tasked going back to track the goblins, finding them eventually and discovering the goblins had a troll ally! After some trickery the party manage to get the troll and goblins to fight amongst themselves before the troll and a couple other goblins see what has happened and a fight ensues. Malekai goes down but Throngir, Mane and the rescued Borrick are able to down the Troll quickly and pick Malekai up. 

I've also got two other players lined up to play, so should make a good full party with some variety of playstyle and characters to roleplay, so looking forward to it!

In other news the 40k Escalation League continues and I've managed to pick up 2 very close wins against Genestealer Cult and Space Wolves, next step is 1250 points. I was hoping Orktober would be in full swing but alas, not even the new issue of White Dwarf (which arrived today) mentions of any new releases. I IZ ANGREE AN' WANNA KRUMP FINGS! 

I know Orktober will probably commence at the end of the month so may have to wait until the 1500 points tier to get the new Codex Orks smacking heads!

So thats it for now, look out for more posts soon and don't forget to visit the Outpost through the link at the top for some great wargaming deals!

Review: WD January

So 2018's first post a review of Januarys edition of White Dwarf, the Games Workshop publication. Manby of you GW fans will no doubt have seen the Nurgle miniatures coming soon and White Dwarf offers a great look into them. So here we go!

The cover has this great art from the AOS Battletome: Daemons on it, the Lord of Blight taking centre stage. The new model looks great and can see how inspired it is by a certain other Nurgle model thats been converted and painted so many times yet each time I see it, it looks so different.

Amongh the Nurgle releases is this boxed game from Devil Pig Games, Heroes of Black Reach. Its a hard card version of 40k by the seems and is quick an deasy to get into with games only taking 30 mins or so. It looks quiet fun and will be a tempter!

An interview with Black Library legend, Dan Abnett. I've read a few of his books and hes certainly one of the best writers of 40k lore, Unremembered Empire was a personal favourite. 

Designers notes about the new look Nurgle Daemons, this is a really interesting read from the conception by John Blanche of the aesthetics of the original Gods to how they still contain those key elements. Those Great Unclean Ones are incredible and the Nurglings... well they are so small but have so much character. Also Nurgley is a battle report between Nurgle Daemons and Fyreslayers, haven't read through this yet but going from the points its a reasonably close game and the photos look great. 

An article on making Tau terrain and its really interesting to see how Dan Harden tackled creating it from Tau spare bits and the look is amazingly good. Who knew a water tank would look so damn good built by the Tau?

If you think that photo looks incredible of Iain Gonzalez wait til you see the full spread. A great collecting article looking at the gentlemans Ork army and it looks flat out (coz its red boss) and is inspiring me as I may be getting some orks to paint up soon!

A Blood Bowl article is also featured looking at some of the teams created by GW staff, Louise Sugdens goblin team I've drooled over on Instagram they're so well painted. Good to see some colour schemes for several teams here!

Among the readers models this month is this sick looking Cor'Bax Utterblight by Yann Taniou. I've seen this model a couple of times on some youtube battle reports and it looks so good, its different from a lot of other Nurgle Daemons but is still unmistakenably Nurgle. 

I had to include the back cover too, it shows off the size of those Great Unclean Ones so well next to Nagash and I can't wait to hear how they do battles.

Other articles I didn't cover was some lore on the Malign Portents, guides to Death in AoS and Orks in 40k, a miniatures review of the year, an AoS Tale of Four Warlords, some new armies for 40k by staff, plus some scenarios for Necromunda, Hobbit, and Warhammer Quest. 

So far its been a great iussue and start to the year and I've still got some left to read. Codex Daemons is going to be the one thing I definately pick up from this months issue and I can make a start on my Khorne Daemons reworking that I need to do. If you're reading this hoping for some sneak peeks at rules then I haven't delved into it enough for that, you will have to get this issue for yourself!

All in all a fantastic start to the year. I've literally today subscribed to Warhammer TV's twitch and can't wait to get stuck into the bakc catalogue of things to watch, mention going to Painting with Duncan and Peachy which is live tonight in half hour at 6pm (UK time). 

Hope you've all had a good Xmas and New Years! If you have projects you'd like featured why not get in touch? Heres to 2018!

Santa Khorne

Happy Xmas everyone! I know you're more likely to be enjoying a quiet/frantic evening/night of relaxing/wrapping/prepping before a busy Christmas Day but I don't think I've shown much of the skull love here. I picked up a Khorne Daemon army up from a fellow club member after he was downsizing (I mean downsizing in a loose term) and while most was painted already (and I'll probably go over a bit) there was some fresh there to go on with. Including a Khorne Herald from the Skull Cannon kit. I fancied an alternative one on foot so stuck him on a suitable base and painted him up quite a while ago!

I was working on Mazarall the Butcher too, but having been broken into, losing all my miniatures and then regaining them the motivation to game and paint had become almost non existent. More in that in a different post though! With my motivation coming back I'm gonna slap some paint on these brutal looking Bloodcrushers soon!

Rumours abound that after Xmas we'll be seeing a Codex Daemons book coming for 40k so I shall finish rebasing the army (Most of it was on the old fantasy square bases) and then getting more painted to go with the book. Surprisingly theres not an awful lot of Chaos forces at the Gwent Reavers although our resident Blood Angels player, aptly surnamed Angel, has painted up some very disgusting Nurgle Death Guard (which I'll have to grab some pics of some time along with other peoples armies to show off on here) so some Daemon support for him would be well appreciated I'm sure. Never used Daemons in 40k before but it will be interesting to see how they play in the new edition. I can get Mazarall finished and use him as a counts as Skarbrand plus I have a Blood Thirster who needs re-attaching to his base (Not looking forward to that) and some other units to get upto standard. 

2018 is looking to be a busy year hobby wise and I can't wait to get stuck into all the projects I've been putting off. Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Warhmmer 40000 and perhaps another attempt into the realms of Age of Sigmar. Then the heaving under all the board games and rpg's that will be out I'll want to get stuck into too! 

Expect a couple more posts before the new year, hopefully I'll have some progress to show on the Escher, finish the Goliaths off and get some terrain done too for 40k and Necromunda. Beast mode will be initiated! First though, the pickings of roasted Tzeentch, seductive Slaanesh stuffing but certainly avoiding those Nurgle sprouts! 

Merry Xmas for tomorrow all!

Specialist Aniticipation

With the announcement before Christmas about GW and FW producing the Specialist Games range once again, I can't help but to have got myself incredibly excited. I understand why the range was dropped years ago, small ranges and difficult to expand meant profits were hard to come by. But where the range made its worth was being an easier and less financially demanding way to get into the hobby. It was the perfect gateway to engross yourself in the core games of Fantasy and 40k. 

My gaming history starts off with its humble beginnings in Space Crusade. My sister had started seeing someone and he asked if I fancied having a go, sounds good to me. After several games I remember him asking me an incredibly important question.

"Fancy playing a game thats American Football bu with Orcs and Elves?" 

Hells yes. 

And so my love for Blood Bowl began, along with the other Specialist Games as they were produced. I could natter about the past for ages, how Long Gone Lemmy the star player for the Crookback Critters could score in one turn until his unfortunate death in an win that felt like defeat. But this post is about the future, about what I'd like to see from the new upcoming range.  Just before we go into the Emperors Tarot however, what about the present? 

People at our club have been chatting a little about getting a campaign based game to play and Mordheim has been mentioned. Not really being able to spend money on some new bits I had a scour and remembered I still had the Dwarf contents from the old Battle of Skull Pass set. Behold the start of a warband! Its unknown when we're starting and it could be a while, but they're ready to go (although more love painting wise is needed) and as a friend pointed out, they look rather festive. White beards to come!

Sticking with a 'stunted' theme, I've also been working on these short warriors by Macrocosm, part of their Digger Corps range. I'm not a fan of metal models but these haven't been too bad to paint thankfully, and will hopefully look cool when done. They're multi purpose too, being that I could use them for Necromunda or as an Astra Militarum unit, which means I'm thinking about a custom Chimera!

So first of all, the future.

Blood Bowl. I'm guessing you've all seen the early sculpts from the Warhammer World open day right? No? Well just in case... 

I'm even more excited after seeing these! Many people are already saying 'well they'll spoil the rules anyway so whats the point'... For gods sake a beloved game in the community gets new models and already theres scepticism? I do wonder about this 'community' at times. If they change the rules then fine, whats to say they'll be worse? All I want from Blood Bowl, is a good league based format to play games, some good looking models and continued support. I'm hoping the full choice of teams doesn't take too long to be released so a league can be started with variety. A couple of members are very critical of the older models and they're not fussed on third party ones either so hopefully, this will get them intrigued. 

In terms of Necromunda and Mordheim, I want multi part models so its easy to equip them with what you want, preferably in plastic as its easier to convert with than resin, and I think importantly is scenery. Imagine a plastic Necromunda terrain set? It'll add to your Warhammer 40k terrain collection and add a few more layers to the play. Will Mordheim get love in this sense? Its hard to say as the scenery may be more restrictive as I haven't seen much in the way of ruined towns being used in the photography for Age of Sigmar, so it will be interesting to see where they go. One other avenue GW/FW should look at is that when making sets of gangs, make them so they'd work as Imperial Guard regiments too. Even more reasons for gamers to spend money on the kits will help sustain the game itself.

Epic has also been mentioned, and its a game system I never got to play but would be interested in. I would love to collect an entire Krohmus Guard Chapter (my own Space Marine chapter creation) in Epic scale along with vehicles and support. And an Imperial Guard artillery platoon please. BASILISKS! Otherwise I'm not sure what I'd like to see, perhaps a good way to integrate it into 40k and maybe even Battlefleet Gothic for campaigns? Could be an interesting take on how the narrative in 40k could work through continued games. 

Lastly, Inquisitor. I don't think its been mentioned, but surly it would be a great game to bring back but in the traditional 28mm scale. One of my favourite monthly doings is getting the new Warhammer Visions and flicking through to Blanchitsu, where a lot of the models featured would work well in an Inquisitor/Necromunda setting. Perhaps the two can be combined? Surely its likely that gangs may be purged by roving Inquisitors weary of the gangs uing Wyrds in the Underhive and enlisting Redemptionists? Possible!

So what do you guys and gals think may be incoming? Do you still play any of the Specialist Games? Feel free to post links to what you're working on, I'm always inspired by what the blogging community gets upto!

Please Allow Me....

To reintroduce myself.

So who is this great bufoon behind the blog? Well, put simply, me. Known infamously as Big Kev or vandalworks (twitter, instagram, XBL, facebook) I am not only large in size but also large in nerdiness. Over the last year, Death By Die, has been put to the side a little as real life came to the forefront and decimated my time and mental stability. But now it would appear that I need this more than I realised. I've missed blogging, writing about things I love (mainly gaming of the dice and card based kind) and hearing from people and making new friends. So where do we start? Lets talk about the shit I love.

This last year, myself and a couple of our club members (The Gwent Reavers) got into Dungeons and Dragons. We didn't know what to expect, but I think massively enjoying it wasn't one. I thought it would be ok and worth a go, but I've now become a huge fan of being a DM (thats short for dungeon master) and helping to create these adventures for my friends to gallantly garner victory or hilariously fail basic tasks. Gav, looking at you kid. What makes this so good is character development, seeing people you know get into who they have become for a game and trying to go against what might be a better tactical option for something more in line with their character. And the best thing now is that we're soon having our first regular roleplay night with a few new people. Should be good and will be something I'll blog about in the future! 

Ah Sons of Anarchy. This represents not just how much I adore board games but certain TV shows too. Sons being one, Game of Thrones being another. I don't get in to many but the ones I do get into, I may blog about occasionally! Also keep an eye out for movie posts, with a Force Awakens thoughts post coming soon!

Everyone needs their ideal snack for gaming, and by Christ Squashies are the best. From full to empty in a short and often unbelievable amount of time these little pillows of goodness are addictive. Hence why I've been clean for a few weeks. But soon....

Being born in the year of the Empire, (1980) I was a pure eighties kid. Cartoons were probably at their best with Thundercats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bravestarr and a plethora of other goodies being crammed into my eager and toy needing eyes. But if one caught my attention more than any, it was Transformers. Generation One Transformers to be specific. When the vehicles got a little scifi they were'nt Robots in Disguise anymore, which was ok but I preferred the real looking ones. Expect much gushing if I spy Transformer related goodness. 

Ah Blood Bowl, my first love. Not only have Games Workshop released the first sculpts for the new addition and therefore given me the biggest nerd-on in the last year but I picked up the sequal to the original videogame on the Xbox One and its been enjoyable. I took a little time off videogames for a few years but a few months ago Star Wars Battlefront was being released and I needed to get back on board. Expect some videogaming posts on this very blog! Along with the Blood Bowl tabletop game I do play the occasional game of 40k and am often found tinkering around with some Space Marines, so progress, which you can find over various posts previously in this blog shall continue!

Wrestling. Yes, I'm a fan of the theatrical fight where men in pants covered in baby oil act and grapple for a new belt. From WWE to local wrestling, if I can get to some shows I'll be giving thoughts on them and about things that happen in the wrestling world as I see fit to comment on. Royal Rumble is just around the corner and may well be the first subject on this blog! 

So thats my reintroduction of who I am, and what you can expect as I attempt to inspire myself to blog and annoy you about all things I feel most nerdy about. 

Geek on Garth.