Adam's done it again with a great teaser for upcoming werewolves. The figures and diorama piece hearken back to the great film Dog Soldiers, and lend themselves to similar scenarios.

What a great birthday present! Collecting DARKMOOK's contributions to the One Monk Monthly Figure Hoards (and a new vampire!) kicking off the next expansion for the forthcoming Survival Horror rules. I can hardly wait for the rules to be published! Until then, these great miniatures may be used in any modern occult games. It's great to have these figures collected on one sheet. Adam's attention to detail reveals itself in looking at the minor features -- a little spatter here, a little there. The majority of these figures simply cannot be found in metal, or would be unbearably costly if they were. Now, I loves me some metal, but it is a lot quicker to print off a sheet, cut, glue and play. I am also hoping Adam plans to include the title scenarios using these great miniatures when he gets the playtesting finished, and the rules published. Grab the other sampler too, and see the detail for yourself. I especially like having the three-stage progression in some of the figures.

Anita Broz' mutant turtles are simply wonderful! Her angels are very nice, but I doubt I will use them in RPG. (I think they'd make lovely Xmas Tree ornaments!) These turtles on the other hand are extremely versatile -- Amazon monsters, fantasy beasties, or sci-fi pack animals, these turtles can do it all! They'd also make great specialized trops for Oversoul's Tortoise vs Hare. Another feature making them incredibly useful is the incorporation of layers in the PDF -- no more separate sheets, it's all here, line drawings, color, AND the ability to save ink by turning off the instructions! The only thing missing to totally make me holler their virtues from rooftops would be the inclusion of Robocutter files.

You want these turtles. You NEED these turtles! Hey, c'mon, who don't like free turtles!?

DRAGONSHIRE Building Expansion Set I 38.29 MB/42 PDF pages, including 8 page Beginner’s Guide to Card Modeling and 9 page Building Expansion Set I instructions. $2.99

Remember how great it was to build with Legos? You could just stack and stack all day, and make neat new things. That’s sort of how this set works! Like, the Legos of card terrain. Created for Fat Dragon’s Dragonshire line of urban medieval/fantasy buildings, this expansion set is designed to add near-infinite variety to the existing structures. Best of all, the various parts make a nice bunch of models all by themselves. Need an old New England shantytown? How about a murder mystery at the renaissance faire? This is just a very versatile set of parts that may be combined to build single story, two story, and two-story extended townhouse. Of course, stacking more levels on top, one could theoretically build an apartment complex. I sort of wish my apartment was like that. The textures match the original Dragonshire set, and new roads have been included. To retrofit, there are also two new tiles for use with the church.

Floor This floor is similar to City Interiors, being wooden slats, but these come with studs. Sizes for the extended 4x8 and standard 4x5 upper floors are included. Each features four slats per inch. Once a 1’ based miniature is in place, it is easy to see the measurements.

Ground Floor Ground Floor A-4”, B-5”, C-4”, D-5” w/ Door, each has a window. These are to be folded in half, and include tabs intended to secure the floor pieces. These also have side tabs meant to slide between the walls of its adjoining neighbor. I prefer these over the older bent-corner method. Just easier to deal with, and they line up much nicer.

Items Stairs, and Stove with Window Box. Stairs include a special support piece intended to hold a 1” based miniature on the stairs without tipping off, a very cool idea. There are three of these supports. The page with the stove and window box has nice details – Rust on the stove pieces, and cracking of the plaster on the sides of the window box.

Roads The road tiles are 8x8”. Included are five road pieces and two church floors. The first church floor includes a 5” stone stairway leading down into the basement of a church. Did someone say ‘Esoteric Order of Dagon’? The stairway stops at a door leading into a larger 6x2.5” room, with another door 1” away from the stairway door. It leads into a 4.5 x 3” room. Church Floor 2 is intended to be attached to the first. It is also 5” wide, and extends 3.5” before reaching stairs to a dais with altar. Surrounding both are the nice new textures of bricklike construction. The inner floors are a pitted version of the ones in Necropolis Dark Temple, resembling a nice dark marble, seen in the original Dragonshire set.

Road 1 is composed completely of the new brickwork, and four of them together would make a nice town square. The coloring of all this brickwork is the same at the Cthulhu statue from Kingdom of Cthulhu’s Shrine of Cthulhu.

Roads 2-5 are composed of the same, with the roads themselves being irregular cobbles, and jut a shade darker than the walkways. Also, in the cobbles and walkways, stray sprays of grasses have broken through, and sprout up here and there. Road 2 is a thin (4”) street angling into a wider (6”) street. There is a drain opposite where it joins the wider street. Road 3 is a 4” narrow straightaway, with a drain on either side, about in the center. Road 4 is a T-Intersection of two 4” roads with a drain at the end. Road 5 is an intersection of two 4” roads.

Roofs Roofs come in 5” and 8” lengths for extended or short builds. They are nicely wood-shingled, and realistically textured. Both the 5” and 8” support beams are all on the third sheet, but it’s composed of very thin lines, and won’t waste much ink. Save the beams you’re not going to use; you’ll find a use for them somewhere, even if it just building the shorter version of the model. Roof Ends consists of one identical pair, and also two square chimneys. Again, the plaster is realistically cracked and aged, but there is no variation, and it is cracked in the same places on both pieces. -- a very small oversight that only you will ever notice. Roof Windows allow more variation and are meant to be glued to the roof.

Upper Floors 4x5 for the non-overhanging build of the townhouse, and 4x8 to allow for the overhang. Both sheets are textured with the nice cracking and aged plaster-on-wood architecture. Sheet A contains a 4” wall section and two 4” supports. Unless you’re building Crazytown, the candle holders belong on the inside. Sheet B is a 5” section with a window. You’ll need to print two of each. There are three sheets for the upper overhang build. Sheet 4x8 A appears identical to 4x5a, including the supports. This time, you’ll only need one of these sheets printed. It was included here to save you from having to switch back to the other folder, and unintentionally print off sheets by mistake. 4x8 B needs to be printed twice, and is a longer version of 4x5B. 4X8 C contains another 4” section, but with the bottom of the floor attached, and two taller supports. Again the cracking plaster is very beautiful, but if you’re putting the candlesticks outside, you’ll have to tweak the floor a bit.

Builds Stone Upper Floor -- Printing off one extra Ground Floor B can make a stone upper floor. Just put the ivy trailings inside, then put some furniture against them to keep them out of sight.

Extended Wood and Plaster – build two 4x8 Upper Floors, and glue some spare doors on.

HiRise – build like six extended Upper Floors, and stack them.

See how versatile this set is? You need it!

Five out of five victims for Versatility, MultiGenre, Execution, Artistry, and Usability.

If you love using miniatures, but haven't the time or energy to prep and paint everything ahead of time, Jim's got the answer you're looking for. These are very high quality, but at the same time, are easily replaceable. Spilled soda? Cheeto fingers? No problemo, just go print more. Jim bases his minis on several standard sizes, and in a multitude of textures, so you can always find something you'll like. Best of all, they are designed to be baseless, and may be stored flat. High quality, easy storage, well-executed, and in realistic colors. What's not to like?

Jim's work is unparalleled when it comes to providing tabletop quality miniatures without hours and hours of prepping and painting. I love my metal, but don't always have time for it. Apart from gaming, these undead make for great seasonal decorations. I like to put them on the snow bases to terrorize the wife's Christmas displays.

Ten pages (plus 7 pages of instructions) in PDF files. Great for just about any genre except prehistoric. You will need some manner of wall and floor combinations here. These accessories are designed for use with Fat Dragon’s E-Z Dungeons, but with a little tweaking, anything from E-Z Heroes to Dragonshire and Star Tiles walls and floors will do. I’d say these are for beginners also, except for the Circular Saws.

Flowing Acid Trap x2 A simple hole in the wall pouring acid is a lovely thing. Imagine the distance a little pressure would provide. Add it to the huge idol from Necropolis Dark Temple to give those interlopers the baptism they deserve. Where else did you think all those skeletons came from? These Flowing traps are designed to sit against existing walls, so they may be easily added when players fail their die rolls. Using the idol will require a little ingenuity.

Flowing Water Trap x2 Can’t even drink your way our – it’s salt water. With some modification, it could be made into a beautiful fountain.

Ceiling Blade Trap x1 Perfection. It lies in wait above a hallway section, like a great spider, and when sprung, someone gets a new body piercing.

Circular Saw Floor Trap (Standard and Retracting) 3 each Just what the doctor ordered for the cancer-ridden Anti-Hero to show people that life is the greatest gift of all, and the amazing lengths to which people will go to hang onto it. Want to play a game? Don’t just limit yourself to floors either – imagine how nice these would be spinning out of a wall. You’re going to want strong thick 110 card for these at least, and be careful when scoring the reverse folds.

Fire Trap ( 2” and 4”) x2 Anywhere a little light is needed. May be modified into campfires, Wall of Flame, etc. Combine with Circular Saws or either of the Blade traps for added value. You’ll want a lot of these around Necropolis, but you’ll need to alter the floors.

Floor Spike Trap x2 No need to worry about the ones who used Intelligence as a dump score – they can chew off both legs, but they ain’t walking away from this! Who said they wanted a jam sandwich?

Pit Traps 11 per sheet This page contains 2D Lava, Water, and Acid/Green Slime Pit Traps. There are one of each 1.5” trap, three 1” Lava Traps, three 1” Water Traps, and two 1” Acid/Green Slime Traps. Watch your step.

‘The Squasher’ Need a 10’cube to take some bold adventurer where none have gone before? How about TO THE CEILING! I can already hear a certain Clown Prince of Crime’s laughter as he plots to add some new bat art to his hideout. snickers Bat mobile. …Heh.

Wall Blade Trap x3 Professorial archaeologist/adventurers stopping by Petra after your sacred relics? Penitent man indeed! This baby will take them off at the waist, so even kneeling won’t keep that jaunty fedora in place.

A very versatile multi-genre accessory set, one that begs the question when we getting Organic Traps, Tom? 4 out of 5 victims. Woulda been five if the 3” wall and floor Demo were included. $3.99 52.96 MB zipped

Eleven pages (plus 5 pages of instructions and the 8-page Intro to Card Modeling PDFs) for five bucks is a steal. In truth, I only played CoC once, over twenty years ago, but still eagerly seek out anything HPL related. Even went so far as to crank up Darkest of the Hillside Thickets’ Cthulhu Strikes Back while printing, cutting, and folding last night. If you play CoC, this is a great set. If you don’t play CoC this is a great set for keeping people away from your desk at work. Let’s take a look at those components….

Base The irregularly-shaped base portrays a rock-strewn area in tall grasses with a big fricken standing stone hewn into the shape of Himself, with five attendant standing stones, each carved with a mysterious sigil. Great for placing atop something big from Cliffs and Mountains overlooking a beach. With a little modification, it can be made into a rectangle measuring an even 10”by 14.” Print off an extra page, and cut it apart to cover the spaces set aside for the statue, circle, and altar stones, and have a nice field of tall grasses with occasional rocks.

Statue Coming in at 6.5” long, 2” thick, and 8” tall, this monolithic centerpiece works great even by itself. The colors match the Egyptian floor tiles from FDG0009 Mummy’s Tomb, where the cut stone of the floor and statue contrast nicely with the natural stone of the rest of the statue. Glue some kind of weight inside to the base for added stability if you’re going to use it by itself. Print one off in grayscale for look of basaltic rock. Print one sheet on glossy photo paper, and cut out the Cthulhu part, and glue it to the cardstock to give it an eerie sheen. Resize the pages, and have one for your figures to put on their desks too.

Figures There are eight paper miniatures included, four cultists, two female investigators, one male investigator, and one male adventurer. Two cultists have daggers drawn, and appear ready to get to the point in any disagreement. One holds a book. Which book? You probably don’t want to know. It’s better if you don’t know. YOU MUSTN’T KNOW! The last cultist holds…nothing. Why is it that leaders just stand there? They never do anything. Male investigator holds what appears to be a .45 auto, and is dressed in a nice suit. One female carries a book (see above), the other carries a .45, and the male adventurer has a machete drawn. Shame about the investigators – they seemed like nice people. I’m gonna miss them. If memory serves, these are the first paper standees that Fat Dragon’s done. They are on hex bases that match the other ground tiles.

Magic Circle Included as part of the base is a pentacle with optional tentacle. I’d also use some scrap base grass to cover that also for the Big Reveal , and finally whip out the one with the tentacle on it for pure pants-browning terror.

All in all, a versatile and functional set, and all pieces are easily constructed. There are no tiny fiddly bits, and the folds are well inside the ink line, so even if you mis-fold or misglue, it’ll still look great.

IA! IA!

I’d give it five out of five victims.

Word is that the next set will be Egyptian themed, so expect some Nyarlathotep nastiness!