#grimdark terrain

[titanomancy]

While exploring some different shapes and styles for laser defense bastions, I was left with the conundrum of where to put garrisoning infantry stands when the roof is mostly laser. After noodling on it, I struck upon the notion of building plinth to provide conveniently infantry-sized platforms to represent troops occupying the structure.

The layout is taken almost entirely from the official Grimdark Terrain Dominator Prison Complex Xhi build, but I wanted to try and replicate the look of the now discontinued Imperial Bastion.

We also wound up using it as a proof of concept for pre-arranging the components in Blender and exporting to a flat .STL for printing, which worked reasonably well. Some minor artifacts due do to inadequate precision arranging the parts and I'm not sure it's actually that much of a time savings over hand assembly, but the finished product is rock solid and looks great on the tabletop.

[bfleuter]

Took the day off yesterday and made some terrain for the Grimdark Future. These two industrial containers were made from nut cans, nerf gun parts, and trash.

[holyfirethem]

"A jail? An altar? In Fleischtraum? Both mos' like. I don't know for certain, but I know it's cursed, sure n' simple. I'm leaving, an' you should too."

--

Big Weird Skull Terrain. Another thing checked off the hobby bucket list.

[thegodemperorsmycopilot]

This is quite a brilliant idea, we absolutely love it!

What army would you use as your chess pieces?

And what miniatures would be the pieces?

[ghoulish-arts]

WIP old barnhouse for a dark fantasy TTRPG I wanna run, experimented with trying to make thatched roofing by using the wire brush wheel on my Dremel, anxious to see if it takes paint well

[nekrosmagos]

[flo-85]

The Tormented Pillar of Skulls

I modeled this piece with a 3D pen. I imagine this piece is part of the landscape of Shyish, the realm of death. It took a really long time to add all those little skulls. The top is flattened so that you can place a figure on it.

[sara-paints]

WIP of my sniper for Grimdark Future Firefight. The cloak is 90% of the way there. I'll need to put some dry pigment and snow on it to help it match the terrain. Some layering on the main body, v and the face, and I'm basically done.

[kid-az]

Ouran War Game Club (If the Host Club played Warhammer)

Please bear with me nerding out about my current anime hyperfixation & Warhammer. Tbh this is actually pretty likely since all of the characters that Aren’t Haruhi have enough money to buy their tabletop armies, alongside fancy terrain & all of that fancier stuff to make their sessions more…

AUTHENTIC

Tamaki only uses the most glorious and heroic armies of all of the settings, which is why he primarily plays the Craftworld Eldar, High Elves, and the Lumineth Realmlords, all the while evoking the pompous glorious pride & chivalry of the Elves. He sobs loudly whenever the Craftworld Eldar are screwed over.

Kyoya is the world’s most sophisticated powergamer to end all powergamers, and therefore he only uses the most powerful armies to achieve one thing… victory. Although he constantly changes his armies depending on the edition and whatever army he’s fighting, he has quite a soft spot for the Necrons & Lizardmen/Seraphon.

The Hitachiin twins never played Warhammer before joking the Host Club, but they’d quickly become addicted to the game (Particularly Age of Sigmar) after opening up to playing with other people. The twins’ favored faction are the Orruks, with Hikaru playing Ironjawz and Kaoru playing Kruleboyz. Sometimes they’ll switch up their subfactions with one-another to confuse their opponents.

Out of the entire Host Club, Honey would be the least-interested in Warhammer, for the grimdark nature of all of the settings does not appeal to him. He has however painted & kept an army of Halflings gifted to him by Mori, and everyone dreads the day when he finally gains interest in playing the game.

Mori plays the Adeptus Mechanicus (40k), and Brettonia (Fantasy), and he is a calm, collective player who’ll never speak unless he is either spoken too or the occasional advice to help out a newly-starting player. He has never lost.

Haruhi never even heard of Warhammer before joining the Host Club, and she wasn’t the least bit ecstatic over the idea of buying overpriced plastic miniatures. She’d only start playing 40k & Age of Sigmar once Tamaki begged about it for the 10,00th time, promising to pay for all of the miniatures she’d use.

After playing a few tabletop sessions with the Imperial Fists & Stormcast Eternal, Haruhi would find herself actually having loads of fun playing the game, even if she often loses due to being a newbie. She has however greatly improved, and can now consistently score wins against Tamaki (Even when he isn’t deliberately trying to lose) and the Twins.

Renge is an unhinged psycho who plops a Warlord Titan onto the tabletop while laughing maniacally.

[helix-enterprises117]

Halo Reloaded: Seeing Triple III

The Warthog's engine growled under Silver's deft control, its tires kicking up clouds of dust as it navigated the desolate landscape. The inside of the vehicle was thick with the tension of its three very similar, yet distinctly different occupants. Silver, with a driving style that could only be described as 'enthusiastically reckless', seemed to find a sort of grim amusement in the occasional jolt that threatened to unseat them. Chief, for his part, sat with the stoicism of a boulder, his gaze fixed on some distant point, lost in thoughts that likely weighed as heavily as his armor.

Ranger, unable to stand the silence any longer, swiveled his turret around, a mischievous glint in his one good eye. "Hey, fellas," he started, voice dripping with a blend of curiosity and the kind of cheerfulness that only comes from blissful ignorance of true despair. "How long have you been playing the galaxy's most reluctant heroes? Feels like we've got enough grimdark backstories to start our own band."

Chief let out a sigh, the sound somehow carrying all the weight of his years. "Feels like since the dawn of time. It's been a never-ending parade of enemies. Insurrectionists, Covenant, Flood, Prometheans... And now these Banished chumps. Honestly, it's like the universe has a personal vendetta against my downtime."

"Banished? No such thing where I came from. Back in my timeline, it was more about Spartans going rogue and interservice, political in-fighting." Silver waved a hand dismissively, as if brushing away the memories along with the dust that had settled on the dashboard.

"You boys make my timeline sound like a walk in the park. No Banished, just a bunch of Forerunner tech that doesn't play nice," Ranger chimed in, trying to lighten the mood. He paused, his expression turning thoughtful under his helmet. "Makes me wonder what I'm missing out on. Or not."

The topic of age came up as naturally as anything else could in a conversation held at gunpoint by existential dread. "So, how old are we talking here? I'm a sprightly 2530 baby, myself," Ranger offered, injecting a note of pride into his voice.

"2511," Chief responded, his voice as flat and unexciting as a history lecture.

"Same." Silver chuffed, glancing over at Chief with a look that could almost be considered camaraderie if one squinted.

Ranger nodded, a smirk playing on his lips, "Makes me the kid, huh? Guess that explains the youthful charm." He laughed, a sound that bounced around the Warthog's interior.

"Y'know, I got a girl back home. Spartan Linda. Tied the knot and everything. You guys would love her; she's a real charmer, once you get past the sniper rifle."

Chief's reaction was almost comical, had anyone been in the mood for comedy. A slight twitch, like he'd been zapped by a low-voltage current, betrayed his surprise. "Linda..." he echoed, the name carrying a weight that seemed to anchor him to the spot. The moment stretched, filled with unspoken thoughts and feelings, a saga of 'what-ifs' and 'if-onlys'.

"Got a thing for your Linda, huh?" Ranger nudged, his tone playful yet edged with understanding. "Can't say I blame you. If she's anything like my Linda, she's one in a trillion."

The conversation meandered from there, shifting to less emotionally charged topics... that's a lie, it got more emotional. Ranger glanced back at his companions, a new thread of curiosity weaving through his thoughts.

"You know, I've been thinking... It's weird how everyone in your world can just... interact with Forerunner tech. In my dimension, it's a no-go unless you've got this rare Forerunner genome thing going on. Which, luckily, I do." He tapped the side of his helmet, as if to punctuate his point.

Silver, who had been navigating a particularly treacherous patch of terrain, perked up at this. "Yeah? That's a thing for me too." He noted with a half-smirk, then, as if a thought struck him, he directed a queston to the other Johns. "You ever hear of someone named Makee in your world?"

Both Chief and Ranger shook their heads, their interest piqued. Chief’s voice was the first to break the ensuing silence. "Makee? That's not a name that's come up. Who is she?"

In the rearview mirror, Silver's reflection showed a man wrestling with how to frame his next words. "She was... unique. A human, but the only one who joined the Covenant, believed in their cause. She could interpret the words of the Forerunners, activate and use their tech... She's like me, but she used her abilities for them."

The weight of the story hung in the air, heavier than the gravity on Onyx. Ranger, always one to push forward, nudged the topic. "So, what happened to her?"

Silver's grip on the steering wheel tightened, the muscles in his jaw working as he chose his words carefully. "One of my Spartans killed her," he said, a simple statement that carried layers of unsaid emotion.

The silence that followed was telling, filled with a mix of curiosity and respect for the delicate subject. It was Ranger who broke it, his tone treading the line between sensitive and inquisitive. "You sound... kinda fond of her?"

There was a pause, long enough to be uncomfortable, before Silver finally let out a breathy chuckle, laden with a cocktail of emotions. "Yeah, well, she was under my custody, and... we ended up falling for each other. And, uh, she—We..." He stumbled over the words, a rarity for someone usually so sure of himself.

Chief, the ever-stoic warrior, found himself at a loss, his brain trying to reboot like an old, overworked computer. "You were... involved with a POW?"

Ranger’s reaction was a mixture of shock and an almost irrepressible urge to laugh, not out of mockery, but sheer disbelief at the complexity of Silver's situation. "And let me guess, there were... consequences to this?"

Silver sighed, a sound that was half resignation, half defiance. "If by 'consequences,' you mean a baby, then yeah. I'm raising our child. Her name's Angel."

The revelation hit like a gravity hammer. Chief looked as if he’d been physically struck, the concept so foreign and shocking to his disciplined mind that it nearly sent him into a state of system failure. Ranger, on the other hand, clamped a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with the effort to contain his laughter, not at the situation itself, but at the sheer absurdity of life and how it seemed to throw curveballs at the most unexpected of times.

Silver glanced at both of his counterparts through the mirror, a sheepish yet defiant look in his eyes. "Yeah, I know. It's a mess. But she's the best thing that's come out of all this chaos. Angel, I mean."

The Warthog trundled on, the silence now filled with a new understanding, a recognition of the complexities and the unanticipated paths their lives had taken.

Chief, still processing, finally nodded, a gesture of acknowledgment if not full comprehension. Ranger, finding his composure, offered a supportive clap on Silver's shoulder, his laughter subsiding into a knowing smirk.

"Life, huh?" Ranger mused, the landscape around them unforgiving and barren, yet somehow less desolate with the sharing of their intertwined tales. "Doesn't get much crazier than this."

[greenjudy]

Rook Notes, part 1

-About 6 hours in at this point.

-I like it here. (I'm playing on Steam Deck at the lowest graphical settings, which makes Rook feel a bit nearsighted as he bumbles along; but there's something about the movement, and the shapes, and the flavors, and the settings, that I like very much. If I want to see things very clearly, LOL, I enter Photo Mode and poke around.)

-Someone made the mosaics shine in a very distinct way. I want to shake that person's hand.

-I am getting used to working with the not-open-world terrain. It is a very good idea to look around. It is a very good idea to read codex entries. Some of the codex entries are truly wonderful.

-I enjoy the combat; this is unexpected. I only occasionally enjoyed the combat in Inquisition; I hung on by my teeth in DA2; and I loathed the combat in Origins. I was just not expecting to actually like Dragon Age fighting. Mage Rook Elen de Riva relies on death-from-above tactics and has just learned how to parry with his magical weapon.

-People have been saying 1) they can't dictate Rook's personality and 2) they find that Rook has no personality. I am baffled by these stances, which incidentally contradict each other. Did ye not play Dragon Age 2? There are three flavors of Hawke. You can mix and match, but if you let one of the three styles of response predominate, you get a person out the other end, someone who is not your self-insert, a person in their own right. The restrictions on the field paradoxically help to generate the sense that Hawke is a real person.

I am treating Rook like this. I'm picking sorrowful responses and enjoying getting to know this careful, regretful Crow mage.

-On a related note, people are apparently mad that the dialogue options are not cruel enough for their liking; in some cases at least, that seems to be the real issue behind "being unable to dictate Rook's personality."

SkillUp's now notorious video is full of complaints about the tone of DATV. "Everything is too safe, too YA, too friendly, too wholesome." This feels very much to me like a personal preference getting a weird sheen of moral outrage. "Art should reflect the true depravity of our world," or something; it reminds me of the ardent defenses of Game of Thrones and the way that show treats women. I think I will call this take GrimDark 2.0 for the time being.

-I will play more before weighing in on the tone, the writing and the shape of the story.

-I will tag for spoilers along the way with #DATV spoilers.

-I will try to figure out how to upload a picture of Elen de Riva.

-Rook out.

[titanomancy]

The complex organization of the Adeptus Ministratum, or Administratum, is responsible for the administration of the whole of the Imperium; it manages over a million inhabited worlds. Planetary government buildings, records offices, taxation centers, and many more are controlled by the Administratum; they are usually distinguished by the sign of the Imperial eagle over the main door. Many bloody assaults and valiant defenses have taken place in and around urban and planetary government buildings; they are natural command posts, and the fall of the Administratum normally indicates the fall of the city. This building is often the attacker’s primary target.

[thesixthchaosgod]

Going to play into my nostalgia for real now huh?

Had to scrabble in a old shoe box to find him but I still have some remnants of that box set when I first got it hèhè, also yea I tried to go for Crimson Fists without having crimson but it's fine. got the weird human with box of viles too lol. This wasn't my first box of 40k or something, but! this one came with books with art and stories and that really made me fall in love with this goofy grimdark universe as I remember staring at every detail in those artworks for hours on end.

Honestly this is very very boxset tempting. For the crashed ship too! That terrain piece is gorgeous

Doupt it'll be priced the same as back then though lmao

[tinygiantplasticmonsters]

Dracosan counts as 3d print done by metal oak castings, design by grimdark terrain. Painted up by me as a test model for my solar auxilla when I get legions imperialis (soon.) Just wanted to do some pink, goes with the planned emperors children space marine half, so re-used a pattern that worked for mechs...

[dungeonmalcontent]

The Living Grimoire Expansion

Grimdark & Dangerous: The Living Grimoire Expansion is a smaller book that holds a variety of content. The big chunk of content is the living grimoire class.

Living grimoires are similar to wizards, in that they record their spells on a tangible medium. However, unlike wizards, that tangible medium is alive. This medium can be your own body or the body of a creature that you create. You can record your spells with arcane ink to create tattoos, you can record them on implanted arcane items (piercings, body augmentations, cybernetic type modifications), or you can build a construct companion that contains your magical secrets. These three types of methods of spell storing medium constitute the three subclasses that a living grimoire can choose from. Apart from choosing the medium on which you record your grimoire, you can also stylize your grimoire with a series of aesthetics. These aesthetics determine what kinds of spells you prioritize and what flair they bring to your magical skill set. When you use a variety of aesthetic spells in conjunction, the style and coordination of the grimoire makes progressively more stylish spells more potent.

Beyond the living grimoire class, there are several subclasses that almost made it into the core G&D book, but without the living grimoire class the vibe was just not there.

The manabound grimoire soul is a subclass/archetype for the manabound class introduced in G&D. Manabound are burdened rather than blessed with the capacity to perform magic as their magic overwhelms their bodies. The grimoire soul archetype is geared to be more of an eldritch knight, using the magic in their bodies as both armor and weapons. Grimoire souls can use cantrips as part of their martial refinement abilities, leave shattered mana around you after a manaburst to create difficult terrain, and tag targets for high impact spells by other players or by a mana burst.

Monks get the way of ancient writ, a martial artist that secrets away esoteric knowledge. Again, rooted in the themes of the living grimoire class, the way of ancient writ arms monks with a variety of cantrips that they can then weave into their martial arts. These monks also unlock greater secrets of time and space as they grow in power, bending the fundamental powers of nature and magic to their will.

Rogues are masters of secrets, and the secret keeper archetype emphasizes this. Imagine an arcane trickster rogue, but what if they were closer to a warlock than a wizard. These rogues learn eldritch invocations and can whisper secrets into the hearts of other creatures to debilitate them.

Warlocks get three new invocations along with the grimoire keeper patron archetype. The grimoire keeper is a master of arcane secrets and you, as their warlock, become their grimoire. This pact grants you a more durable body, a boost to magical power based on the patron's aesthetics, and the ability to substitute part of your own body as spell components. When you grow powerful enough, you become a valuable resource for your patron and they can be compelled to protect you when you knock on death's door.

This expansion book includes five feats. Arcane aptitude, which allows you to attune to an extra magical item; arcane secret, which allows you to learn spells outside of your class; ink adept, which allows you to permanently add a spell scroll to your body that can be recast; ink finger, an odd feat which improves pickpocketing and writing related abilities (it's better than it sounds, trust me); and the living grimoire initiate, which is a spellcasting initiate feat for the living grimoire's special brand of magic.

There are two backgrounds, tattooist and arcane resonator. The tattooist background is fairly self-explanatory. The arcane resonator describes someone with a natural talent for understanding magical items and constructs without classical training; a natural artificer talent, if you will.

The following magical items are also included:

Effervescent Ink - a magic ink that works similar to the magic mouth spell

The Gouge - a powerful magical pen that can be used to create special curses

Living Grimoire Fragment - a repository of arcane knowledge preserved on a formerly living medium

Mercurial Implement - Similar to an all-purpose-tool but more versatile and always at hand

Pitchblack Pigment - similar to nolzur's marvelous pigment, makes holes and smoke clouds

Shard of Ioun's Writ - a shard of ioun's pen, can be added to, improves spell attack dc

Soul Siphon Crystal - better pearl of power with a price

Tinkerplate - modifiable material that can make shields or armor, perfect for artificers

This book comes complimentary with purchase of Grimdark & Dangerous. Grimdark & Dangerous is currently 50% off for the month of October. Snag a copy along with The Living Grimoire while it's cheap.

[nekrosmagos]