Pit Omega

Pit was one of my favorite games as a boy. I don't remember why or when I got rid of the game, but it was at least 20 years ago.

I recently found a copy of the 70's edition of Pit (the same version I had) at a local thrift shop for a $1. I immediately bought it and played it a few times with the family. I broke it out at the last board game night with my friends. So far, I have only played 3-player games. I really enjoy the frenetic pace of the game, but with only a few players, it is easy to track what is going on.

With more players, I imagine that it would be harder to track cards, especially the Special cards. But I still want to up the play-ability within my gaming group--alcohol is likely an increase in fun too!

Pit Omega card back

That got me thinking. I am putting my Omega treatment to Pit, focusing on two aspects: 1) Allowing more players, and 2) Adding more special cards. I researched the interwebs and found that Pit was released in 1904. It is almost an exact copy of a game that came out the year before--Gavitt’s Stock Exchange. In that game there are no Bull or Bear card, but there is a Telegram special card.

In addition to the different special cards(s), there are also a couple mechanical differences between GSE and Pit:

• Must trade one or two cards only (in Pit: up to four)
• Winner gets 2x points printed on their commodity (in Pit: 1x)
• Anyone that has 6 or more of their commodity when the winner is rings the bell gets the points printed on their commodity (in Pit: no equivalent rule)

So I set forth to create a new set of rules and to design a new set of cards. The commodities in the 70s edition are all grains, so the three new commodities I added are also in the grain family. The complete set of Commodities in Pit Omega are:

• Wheat - 100 points
• Barley - 85 points
• Corn - 75 points
• Rye - 70 points
• Poppy - 65 points
• Oats - 60 points
• Millet - 55 points
• Hay - 50 points
• Rice - 45 points
• Flax - 40 points

I decided to include all three special cards from both Pit and GSE (Bull, Bear, and Telegram) and I came up with an additional 2 (Hybrid and Surplus).

• Bull: A Wild Card if you are winner, but worth -20 points if you are not the winner. Score triple points if you win with a set of ten commodities plus any Bull cards(ie a set of eight plus two Bulls)
• Bear: Worth -20 points. Can not win with it in your hand.
• Telegram: Worth +30 points if you didn't win, worth -30 points if you did. Two telegrams in the same hand cancel each other out.
• Hybrid: Worth -40 points. May win with a set of six commodities (instead of nine). Score points based on the majority commodity.
• Surplus: Worth -30 points. May win with this card in hand.

For the design of Pit Omega, I wanted to pay homage to my version (the 70's edition) as well as earlier sets. I took inspiration from the colors from the 70s edition (orange and ocher/green) and the art within a circle from earlier editions. This is what I came up with for the front:

Sample card from Pit Omega

In full disclosure, I used clip art for the grain artwork and the pattern on the back of the card.

Pit is an excellent party game! If you are interested, pick up a copy of the game and download my variant of the rules below.

A PDF of the Rules can be found here. 

The rules presented in this post are home brew variant rules for Pit. No copyright intended.

Talisman Island Talisman 2ed Content

Jon New over at Talisman Island contacted me to provide some pics for his site. I happily obliged, and took some new pictures better suited for his needs.

In addition to the following official 5 figures, I sent pics of 16 "home brew" minis of the characters form Talisman City, Talisman Dragons, White Dwarf #115 and La Heraut #2. The alternates are not up on TI's site yet, so I will only show the ones that are.

Princes from Talisman

Gladiator from Talisman Expansion Set

Soldier from Talisman The Adventure

Scout from Talisman Dungeon

Astronaut from Talisman Timescape

These minis have either already been posted or will soon be posted in the Talisman 2ed Figure Collection series. After the series is over, I will show my alternate/home brew characters, as well as home brew expansions I downloaded over at Talisman Island.

That's all for now. 

DeviantArt

I recently joined DeviantArt.

In an effort to expand my social footprint (and increase my odds of landing a freelance gig :D ), I have finally joined the ranks of the artists on DeviantArt. So far I have only uploaded my Risk Omega map, but I will be adding more content over the next couple of weeks.

My focus will be more on Graphic Design and Illustration rather than gaming, but they will sometimes overlap. Hopefully there won't be too much duplication of content between there and here.

That's all for today.

Talisman 2ed Figure Collection (part 4)

We're just over half way through the series.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken individual shots instead of group shots. Oh well... next time! None of the figures in this batch had conversion work.

The High Mage, Conjurer, Wizard, and Pilgrim

 
The Conjurer, Wizard, and Pilgrim were repainted around the mid 90s. The High Mage was started in the early 00s.

The Elf, Dark Elf, and Woodsman

 
The pair of elves were repainted in the mid 90s and the Woodsman was repainted a second time in the early 00s.

 

The Amazon, Barbarian, Ghoul, and Witch Doctor

 
The Amazon, Barbarian and Ghoul were repainted in the mid 90s and the Witch Doctor was painted for the first time in the early 00s.

 

The Druid, Ranger, Merchant, and Spy

All four of these guys were repainted in the mid 90s.

Over the years I repaint a lot figures. Mostly it is because my current style is preferred over past efforts, but very occasionally it is to re-purpose a mini. As is the case with my Talisman collection. When I came back to finish the handful of figs that were never started, my skill and style was so much better that the figures finished, I started repainting the entire set before moving on the the un-started ones.

That wraps up this installment. Until next time!

Test Post

This is a test post to confirm my new IFTTT.com recipe ports a Blogger post to Facebook.

My son Deathbot's 1750 point army from our last battle.

Grin and Bear it | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 11)

I love bad puns... and I'm really bad at them!!!  

Today I present a quintet of bears.

1. A plastic toy bear (early 00s)
2. A D&D Miniature Dire Bear (mid 00s)
3. A plastic toy bear (early 00s)
4. A metal bear miniature from "I Don't Remember Co." (late 90s)
5. A WHFB Wood Elf Animal Handlers bear (late 90s)

Short and sweet today. Thant's all today folks. Ta ta!

Spyke And Flower Photobomb Contest

Steve Jackson Games is running this contest. The top five favorites will win a Munchkin Imaginary Friend!

I decided to enter, and following are my (13) contributions. Of course I waited until the last day to turn them in!

Talisman 2ed Figure Collection (part 3)

More Talisman...

Now that I am well into this series, I am fully re-immersed in Talisman. I have gone back to www.talismanisland.com and revisited the fan made expansions, picking a select few that caught my fancy. I also looked at 3rd and 4th edition characters that do not have counterparts in 2nd edition. All in all I now have 60 new characters (half with minis already) to add to my collection. In future posts, I will showcase the new characters and expansions.

The Gypsy, Satyr, Thief, and Sprite

The Satyr and Sprite are actually original paint. The Gypsy and Thief are re-paints. All I can say is I faithfully painted the figures like the character art.

The Ninja, Assassin, Priest, and Monk

The Ninja has original paint from back in the late 80s. The other 3 were painted around the mid 90s.

The Halfling, Dwarf, Leprechaun, and Dragon Slayer

The Dragon slayer is original paint, but it wasn't painted until around the early 00s (when I did a batch or re-re-paints on some of my older Talisman minis). The figure is an old GW WHFB Giant Slayer hero model.

The other three figures are re-paints done at the same time as all the other repaints (mid 90s).

The Swashbuckler, Pirate, Minstrel, and Philosopher

All four minis are repaints. I actually lost my Philosopher for about 5 years. He got misplaced somewhere and just showed up. I had been searching the interwebs for a replacement, but never pulled the trigger hoping I would eventually find the original.

Than"s all for now. Take care!!

The Kroot Have Arrived!!

My Tau army finally received it first Kroot detachment.

This is the largest squad I have ever assembled!

It was an effort, but I now have maxed out unit of 33 Kroot. There is still some filing and trimming to do on these guys before primer. To my disappointment, the 3 Krootox(es?) are in the worst shape. I could not get the 2 halves of the Krootox to fit ant where near reasonably well in any position, no matter how much I fiddled with it--Quite a bit of greenstuff patch-work required to cover it up.

As I always do with my plastic figures, I glued a washer to the bottom of the bases. I prefer a weighted feel to my miniatures (that's the old skool gamer in me). This is especially so with a squad containing metal and plastic figures.

I am anxious to get these guys on the field and add some new options to the Tau. With the condition of my Aquamarine army, and my sorely out of date Chaos/Demon army, Tau are all I have to play. Not that it really matters much... between 4th, 5th, and 6th editions I only played about 10 games total!

This is the largest squad I have ever assembled. I don't think I have ever assembled this many figures in one batch before. My plan for painting them is to break them into 3 groups of 11 and give each group a different skin tone. Although I haven't decided what the colors will be nor if I will go subtle or not.

That's all for now. See you next time.

Motley Crew | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 10)

I think this series is getting a little long in the tooth. I will be ending it shortly and present the remainder of my Fantasy RPG Figure Collection in a different way.

First of we have some felines...

1. A pair of D&D Miniature Guenhwyvar (mid 00s)
2. This is a Saber-tooth Tiger, but I don't remember the foundry that made it (early 00s)

The Saber-tooth is the only one I painted. I don't remember if this was for a generic encounter or painted specifically for a player. The photo does not do the figure justice. All the interim shading steps are lost--There is a dark base coat, an ink wash, followed by 5 successively lighter highlights.

Next we have a variety of small four-legged mammals...

1. A trio of Boars; foundry unknown (late 90s)
2. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Dire Wolverine (early 80s)
3. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Dire Weasel (mid 00s)
4. A quartet  of D&D Miniature Celestial Dire Badgers (late 80s)

In this group, the Boars are the only figures painted by me. Nothing special here... they look in RL pretty much like they do in the image.

To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9