HELLBOY WEEK - Heroscape Hellboy

A Brief History of Time - Followed by Heroscape

Before there was Tannhäuser, there was Heroscape. And before that, many others. I have been gaming and writing about games for years. Many, many years. After Candy Land and Uncle Wiggly came Green Ghost, Monopoly and Man From Uncle. Somewhere along the way my friends and I were making and playing our own games and then discovering Richthofen's War and later, Car Wars. Then came AD&D. That opened my eyes to roleplaying and I before I knew it I was refereeing Champions! and Call of Cthulhu campaigns. I wrote my own adventures and soon enough I was getting published in Space Gamer, Autoduel Quarterly and Different Worlds. I wrote a Car Wars adventure supplement. I painted armies for Warhammer 40K (1st Edition) and for the role-playing games I was running.

Along the way I graduated college, got married, and moved to Hollywood. Literally. A crappy apartment. Then came work and more work.

I stopped gaming for a long time. Then along came Magic: The Gathering. I played that a lot and bought a lot of cards. Star Trek and Star Wars followed. I bought a few packs of Mage Knight figures, but never played. Then HeroClix came out and I bought a bunch of it and played it a bunch of times. It was good, but not great. But I loved the figures.

Around the same time I got high speed internet. Somehow through search engines or just following links I discovered HeroScape. When I saw the custom 'Scape figures on the now defunct heroscape.net I really got interested. There was the famous Talos by Aratak and more importantly Aliens by Annerios. The Alien Warriors and Queen got me to see Heroscape's potential for expansion and that got my creative juices going. The more I read the more I knew I would buy it. The expandability and room for creative additions were calling me with their siren's song. There were characters (Savage Dragon) that I wanted to do for 'Clix, but doing custom dials seemed too hard. But just making a card for Heroscpe seemed easier.

I started making HeroScape customs before I had even bought the game. I knew I was going to buy in, but it was a bit pricey for me at the time. Then came the famous Toys R US Buy One Get One Free sale. I dove in; bought 2 Master Sets and a bunch of expansion packs. My kids were just old enough to play.

I continued with customs, and cranked out quite a few - even getting one in the Hall of Fame.

My history with customs for Hellboy and the BPRD goes back to 2003 when WizKids released the Indy HeroClix set that included Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, and Rasputin. I got the figures and after HeroScape came out I started thinking about how to make customs of them. I really wanted to do Abe and Liz.

I was looking around for suitable HeroClix to convert when I discovered the Gatcha vending machine figures supporting the first Hellboy movie. I used the Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman Gatcha figures and HeroClix for Hellboy, Lobster, and the Agents.









These early BPRD cards reflect the movie versions of the characters (especially Abe and Liz), while my later versions more closely represent the characters as portrayed in the Dark Horse comic books.

I added Rasputin, the mad monk. He keeps your team alive and himself, too. The figure is from Indy Heroclix and should run you several pennies plus a buck or two shipping.



Then in Spring 2007 WizKids released the Hellboy and the BPRD Action Pack for HeroClix.

This time I went all out and created a BPRD Box set that was featured in Issue 7 of the awesome Heroscape online magazine, The Codex.











Here are the Marvel Heroscape cards for the BPRD team. My earlier BPRD cards reflected the movie versions of the characters (especially Abe and Liz), while these more closely represent the characters as portrayed in the Dark Horse comic books.









And Hellboy as he was when summoned to Earth against his will. Imagine if Utgar would have would gotten ahold of the wee demon...



There you have it. Check out more of my HeroScape customs like Terminator, Aliens, Doc Savage and many others.



© 2008 W. Peter Miller


That this material is posted here for your own personal, non-commercial use. My custom additions to Heroscape are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Hasbro. HEROSCAPE and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. © 2006 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

HELLBOY WEEK - Tannhäuser Tuesday

Hellboy Week continues with the complete Hellboy package for the Tannhäuser U-Chronic Universe. littlewars and I worked together on the stats and powers and he created a plethora of graphics, tokens and cards for incorporating Big Red into your Tannhäuser game. We have included 2 Hellboy cards for your dining and dancing pleasure.

Hellboy Figures

There are three different HeroClix figures of Hellboy. There is the basic Indy HeroClix figure...

There is the Indy HeroClix Unique horned Hellboy...

And there is the HeroClix / HorrorClix B.P.R.D. Action Pack Hellboy swinging the Sword of Giurescu.

The best way to get the BPRD is with the Heroclix BPRD Boxed Set, which features Hellboy with the Sword (Coming Soon to a Tannhäuser Universe near you!), Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Ben Daimio, Johann Kraus, Roger the Homunculus, and Hellbaby. Then you can pick up Lobster Johnson and Gregori Rasputin from the Indy HeroClix set.

The basic Hellboy miniature is from Wiz Kids Indy Heroclix set and is available online for as little as $2.99. The one with horns goes for $35 or so...

The Heroclix BPRD boxed set can be had for as little as $19 from Amazon.com.

The Hellboy pictured here has been rebased with a spare D&D minis base.



B.P.R.D. Affiliation Symbol

Characters that possess the B.P.R.D. Affiliation Symbol may join the Union faction as if they possessed a Union Affiliation Symbol. They may also use any bonus tokens with the Union faction symbol. B.P.R.D. Heroes take up one Hero slot on a team. Additionally, Hellboy takes up 1 Hero slot and 1 Troop slot.

SPECIAL ITEM
Right Hand Of Doom
Type: Hand-to-Hand Weapon
Adds 1 additional hit in the event of a successful Combat Roll. If Hellboy rolls a Natural 10, his adversary will use their lowest values for their Shock Roll, regardless of any equipment.

COMBAT PACK
Samaritan
Type: Close Combat Weapon
During a Combat Roll, the Samaritan's precision adds a 1-point bonus to the result of each die (except natural 1s). Demonically tainted (OZO and Stosstruppen) or cursed characters also suffer an Automatic Wound, and are killed instantly if you roll a Natural 10 on your Combat roll and they do not roll a Natural 10 on their Shock Roll.

MKII AI
Type: Grenade

Supernatural Strength
When making a Hand-to-Hand Combat Roll, this character always uses his highest Combat Value. Only Hand-to-Hand Combat attacks benefit from this bonus.


STAMINA PACK
Samaritan
The Rules for this item appear in the above Combat Pack.

Immunity To Pain
Whenever this character makes a Shock Roll, he uses his highest Stamina Value.

Celerity
No matter how many wounds Hellboy has suffered, he uses his highest Movement Value on his Character Sheet to determine his movement points.


MENTAL PACK
Samaritan
The Rules for this item appear in the above Combat Pack.

B.P.R.D.
Thanks to his heroics, Hellboy awards 1 supplementary Bonus Point to your unit, which can be used just like Victory Points. Bonus Points are not exactly like standard Victory Points. If they are not used during play, they are lost at the end of the game and subsequently not counted for victory conditions.

M-1929-C Ammunition
Before attacking with a Close Combat gun, announce that you are using the M-1929-C ammo. If you hit the target and deal at least 1 wound, place the M-1929-C ammo token on the target character's card (it doesn't take up an equipment slot). While a character is marked with the token, all characters add a 1-point bonus to each die when making Combat Rolls against them (except Natural 1s). Hand-to-Hand attacks do not receive this bonus. Using the M-1929-C ammo replaces the effects of the Close Combat weapon.

I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!


© 2008 W. Peter Miller

My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are TM and © Take on You LTD. All Rights Reserved.

Hellboy Week - Movie Props

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Prop sneak peeks:

HELLBOY WEEK Monday - Brand New Sneak

Here is a brand new sneak peek video...

HELLBOY WEEK Monday - This time it's personal...

Welcome to Hellboy week at Savage Tales. In celebration of Friday's release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army I am featuring new (and slightly used) Hellboy stuff everyday this week.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS


I thought I would start the week with some personal stories of my time working with Guillermo del Toro on the first Hellboy movie. Through work I often get to meet filmmakers and spend some time helping them achieve their vision in the marketing materials for their films.

Photo: Egon Endrenyi/Universal Pictures

Way back in 1994 I saw Chronos, the first feature directed by Guillermo del Toro, on the big screen in Hollywood. I liked it due to the striking visual style and the performance of Ron Perlman. I saw Mimic on video and didn't think much of it. I later learned that he was very unhappy with the studio's version of the film.

The first time I met Guillermo del Toro it was late in the evening. He arrived at the session around the same time as Director of Photography, Guillermo Navarro. We were at a facility that was brand new and we were working on the color timing for the marketing. I had worked with Mr. Navarro before so he was already comfortable with me. He later won the Oscar for his photography on Pan's Labyrinth.

So the Guillermos arrived and were happy with how things were looking and only wanted a few small changes. Unfortunately, the new Digital Intermediate equipment decided to stop working. The two men had been chatting a while when del Toro asked me, "Do you mind if we speak in Spanish for a bit?" I replied that of course that would be fine, but I was impressed by the question. I grew to learn that the kind of courtesy on display that night was typical del Toro.

The gear got going again and we were close to the final color for the trailer when the gear went down again. Navarro said his "goodnights" but del Toro stayed and waited. We chatted about kids and family, monsters and heroes. I told him of my love of the Hellboy comics and that I was thrilled at how the movie was coming along. He is an utterly charming man. I wish that I had known about his notebooks and sketches. I might have been able to get a look at them.

We finally finished in the wee hours of the morning, but I didn't care about the time. I was working on Hellboy with Guillermo.

One Saturday we were laying down the whole Hellboy feature onto tape. With no sound. We finished Reels 1 & 2 and I had to leave to work on something else. Guillermo knew the other filmmaker and sent me on my way. When I returned he had skipped ahead and finished the last 2 reels of the film so that I wouldn't see the ending until I could see the whole movie. I thought that was so cool. Then he invited me to a sneak preview screening.

Needless to say I loved the movie! Guillermo pushed me to see The Devil's Backbone, now my second favorite del Toro film after Hellboy. I really recommend "The Devil's Backbone".

After "Hellboy" del Toro went on to make "Pan's Labyrinth", his biggest success, which was nominated for 6 Oscars and won 3. Guillermo didn't win one for himself, though. But because of the massive critical and financial success of "Pan's Labyrinth", Guillermo had heat in Hollywood. That got Hellboy II made and Guillermo going to New Zealand to direct a pair of "Hobbit" movies. Hopefully Hellboy II will lead to Hellboy III...

Here's a look at Guillermo del Toro on Jimmy Kimmel Live...




Here's the online movie prequel comic...









So go see Hellboy II: The Golden Army - you know you want to...



© 2008 W. Peter Miller

Happy 4th of July!

NEXT WEEK IS HELLBOY WEEK

Everyday next week will feature new and cool Hellboy stuff.

Here's a teaser to whet the appetite...



Savage Tales will feature lots of Hellboy movie stuff, my reflections on the genius that is Guillermo del Toro, an overview of his films, Tannhäuser customs, Heroscape customs, a never-before-seen Mignola sketch, and with any luck a custom Fight Klub card. I say that because I have been having photoshop trouble. I think I have it resolved and I'm working on the Tannhäuser map, but it's very tricky stuff to get the pathfinding circles positioned and colored logically. With luch, the map will be up on Tuesday.

We are keeping busy in the Savage Tales workshop and littlewars has some great stuff coming as well, so stay tuned...


© 2008 W. Peter Miller