CHAMPIONS CAMPAIGN: LONDON WATCH

Copyright S. Orr.

As some of you regular readers will know, I've been taking part in an excellent WFRP 3rd ed campaign on Thursday nights, diligently recorded by my lovely wife, here.

Last night, the second story arc came to a close after we exposed a false reincarnation of the God Sigmar is suitably  dramatic fashion.

Next week, we begin a new campaign: London Watch for 5th ed Champions.

As we did with the WFRP game, Deranged Scribbler and I enter the ongoing CHAMPIONS campaign at the start of the second series. Almost a year after the London Knights foiled VIPER's attempts to mind-control the whole city (by blowing up the BT tower), London has been suffering from a lack of a dedicated hero team. The campaign of most of the London Knights, with the notable exceptions of French-born hero, Paladin, exposed as a traitor and the power-armoured hero Gryphon.

With the end of the London Knights, London's few remaining solo-heroes have struggled to contain the depredations of the U.K's villains.

HERO ROSTER:

I'm playing Arsenal, which explains why there's a little more detail about this character in the write-up. All in all, we seem to have a good mix of specialities. We have two "support" heroes (Arsenal and Chimera) who can lurk around the battleground, hindering (debuffing, in MMO terms) villains and taking on minions willy-nilly. The Gryphon is a no-holds barred Tank with a good few surprises up his sleeve. Ferrous is your typical ranged combat Energy Blaster and the Shadow is a pretty good all-round "Infantry" hero after the likes of Black Panther, Black Widow and Cat-Woman. All in all, a good, well-rounded, balanced team of heroes.

Copyright S.Orr.

A certified genius, expelled from every institute of higher learning he has ever attended, Arsenal is a vainglorious party animal who revels in his public identity. A life-long football fan, the Gadgeteer earned his name (and began his career) by saving the life of Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke. He funds his activities through a number of corporate sponsorship and advertising deals (Arsenal FC being the most notable). Subsequently, he is viewed as something of  a "sell-out" by the Hero community. Arsenal has an intense rivalry with another corporate-sponsored hero, the web-cam-broadcasting Crusader.

Copyright S. Orr.

Wealthy socialite and complete airhead, Chimera has the power to go anywhere, be anyone and make her foes see, hear or feel anything she likes. A master of illusion, Chimera is one of two mutants in the London Watch line-up. Her alter-ego is also likely to become one of the teams major backers. Her true identity (assuming Chimera really is a "she") remains secret.

Copyright S. Orr.

Ferrous is a member of one of the oldest known mutant-lineages in the world, though this is a secret he is careful to keep to himself. Gifted with the power to manipulate metal with a though, Ferrous' great power is balanced by his somewhat obvious weaknesses. His true identity remains secret.

Copyright S. Orr.

Sole survivor of the London Knights, Gryphon saved the city of London from a VIPER plot at great personal loss. Currently an employee of Am-tech boss Lord Allan Sweet, The Gryphon is an armoured hero of considerable skill and experience. Like Arsenal, The Gryphon maintains a very public identity. His former ties to UNTIL are well known.

Copyright S. Orr.

A mysterious cat-like entity, is the Shadow a mutant? An altered hero? Something else entirely? No-one knows. Extremely fast and agile (though not a Speedster, as such), villains dread the swish-crack that heralds the arrival of the Shadow and her lash. Her identity (and even her true power source) remain secret.

Warhammer 40K Featured on the BBC

Link to the BBC article:

Reading this you would think there aren't any other companies out there bar GW. But then, most non-gamers (and gamer's mums) have only heard of GW after all.

I'm Alive

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Having started up a new miniature painting business I'm having difficulties keeping up a roleplaying blog, a wargaming blog AND a painting service blog all at once. Naturally, since my job involves painting miniatures, there's a little synergy with the wargaming blog so that tends to be updated more often than the RPG one.

However, I have not been idle on the RPG front either. I have three sessions of the Isle of the Earthshaker to write up (probably in one big summary post rather than the usually detailed write-up) and another session on Monday. Very little has been done with the Oriental OSRIC project for the very simple reason that I'm too darn busy with work and writing my Post Apocalypse skirmish rules. The PA rules might actually bring in some (modest) income while OA will be entirely free. So the money-maker has to take priority in that regard.

Anyway, I hereby affirm that I will pay more attention to this blog in the next few weeks and stop neglecting it.

See you all soon.

Flo Green: World's Last WWI Veteran Dies.

Florence Green, the world's  last surviving WWI veteran, died in her sleep at a care home in Norfolk just two weeks before her 111th birthday. She was the last surviving person to have seen active service in WWI following the death of British-born sailor Claude Choules in Australia last year. She died on February 4th 2012.

Florence Green served with Britain'sWomen’s RAF (WRAF), which she joined in September 1918. Although she did not see front-line action, the charity Veteran’s Aid said she qualifies as a veteran of the war.

Mrs Green, who turned 109 in last February and was a great-grandmother-of-seven (as of January 2010), worked as a waitress in the officers' mess during the war at RAF Marham and Narborough Airfield, both in Norfolk.

Her story came to light after Andrew Holmes, a British correspondent for the United States-based Gerontology Research Group, traced her name using the National Archive. Mr Holmes tracks and validates the ages of people over 110 and also keeps track of British men and women who are older than 107. He was amazed to locate a service record on the National Archive for Florence Beatrice Patterson, Mrs Green’s maiden name. He traced the records further and found that Florence had joined the WRAF in September 1918 - two months before the war ended on November 11, 1918.

Mrs Green, who was born on February 19, 1901 and joined the WRAF aged 17, said she had been unaware of her status until very recently. She said:

''I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company. I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways I had the time of my life.
It was a lovely experience and I'm very proud.''

Until recently, Mrs Green, who was born in London, lived with her daughter May, 89, in King's Lynn, Norfolk. She was married to Walter Green, a railway porter in 1920, for 50 years until his death in 1970.

Last year, when her status as a WWI veteran was discovered, Wing Commander Hugh Milroy, from the veteran's charity Veterans Aid, said:

“This goes to show that there is a huge variation in the type of veterans we have in this country.  ''Women like her played a vitally important role in the British war effort and the fact she is now the last surviving veteran is some achievement.”

Before the discovery of Mrs Green's service history, it was believed that British-born Gladys Powers, who died in Canada in 2008, was the last female veteran.

Harry Patch, recently known as "The Last Fighting Tommy" from Somerset, was previously the last surviving British World War One veteran and died in 2009 aged 111.

The penultimate survivor was Henry Allingham, who also died in 2009 aged 113. Henry famously survived the Battle of Jutland.

Lead Legion Painting Service featured on Tabletop Gaming News

Tabletop Gaming News have been kind enough to mention us in today's gaming news. Why is this something for me to shout about? Well, because Lead Legion Painting Service is my new company! Two weeks old today.



TGN is a fantastic site that does exactly what the name suggests. It's a great way to keep in touch with events throughout the wargaming community. If you haven't already book marked-this site, please do.