So I spent all this week making my final preparations for this evening’s recording of the next installment of the Blackspire RPG Campaign. While I’ve already planned the game probably as well as I’m able to, there were some “non-essential” miniatures I really wanted to tackle, so finally got those underway this week.

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While comedian Jim Meyer‘s character BISHAMONTEN was about 90% complete the last time we played, there were still a few finishing touches I wanted to make on it before we gamed again, and I was pretty pleased with the final results.

That left me time to go a little crazy and paint some kimono-wearing figures I’d only just mocked up for the tabletop. The left-most figure is the (older designed) metal of the Malifaux character Kirai Ankoku. I had once sold a prize-winning paint job of this figure and loved the sculpt so much I bought myself another for use in this game. But… when I decided I needed more than one of them, I made a mold of her using my trusty Castin’ Craft Mold Maker and then cast two more versions out of resin. The head of the right most figure didn’t quite come out, but that’s fine as I’d wanted a different face for that character anyway.

 

 

 

Not long ago, one of the B.R.U.W. players in the Blackspire group donated to me a bunch of his unpainted miniatures (many I hope to one day sic upon this party) as well as a some incredibly nice brushes for me to paint them with. These included beautiful set of Royal Langnickel brushes, as well as the very excellent 20/0 Spotter brush which you can find in the Princeton Series 3050 Mini Detailer Synthetic Sable 6 Piece Brush Set. Using this new beauty along with my wonderful Lowe-Cornell Soft Comfort Brush-Taklon Liner Size 10/0 I was able to achieve some pretty minute details in these five figures.

I really need to build a new light box so I can get some better photos of some of my more (and some less) recent miniatures, but for now maybe you can get a sense of what I was going for here at least…

Jenny’s also taken on a more directorial role in terms of the production of the Blackspire Podcast, and with her assistance I made yet another round of edits to Episodes 1 and 2, adjusting the volume levels of everything in Audacity to create an overall much more pleasing listening experience. I also went ahead and grabbed the 3rd party software I needed so now I can save the finals of each episode in MP3 formats which end up being almost 10 times smaller than the WAV files I had previously been making. I shared them on Dropbox with my players (including Brother Enlil) so everyone got one more chance to review the sessions before we’d played again.

But, today the full moon was exalted in Taurus, the perfect day to have all the things I’ve imagined to manifest into reality, and so once again the time was right to convene for another recording session of Blackspire. Jenny’s background in both theater production and sound/video editing was shining today, and she had a bunch of really insightful notes for everyone before we got started… especially concerning points where we need to be considering the audience’s perspective more.

 

While I still need to go back through the recordings, I am quite pleased with the sound quality we were able to capture with the omni-directional Snoball mic this time. Sure, the farther away the players sit from it, the fainter their voice becomes, but it still comes through clear as a bell and it’s nothing I can’t fix in the editing room… so to speak…

And of course, we’ve scheduled our next Blackspire recording session with the B.R.U.W. Crew, but we’ve put it off until after the holidays (January 6th).

And so, coming soon…

Blackspire Session 79

Saying Hello on Window Hook Row

Wherein the White Hydra Mercenary Company makes their way to the main restaurant district of the Jade Town neighborhood… territory of a gang run by the notorious butcher “Emperor” Toko.

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But… this week I need to put some real work into actually planning out Brother Enlil’s first Blackspire session, which I’ll be running for him and Jenny next weekend. We also have to make preparations for the little “magickal dinner party” we’re throwing on Friday. Aside from Brother Enlil and Frater Superabo we’re happy to learn that The Friend will also be joining us that evening. Should be a good time.

Frater Superabo also recently posted a very insightful instructional video in the history and performance of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) and its various iterations. He’s got a very down to earth approach that I think most people can respond with, and for any beginner interested in keeping up an actual magickal practice, it’s definitely worth a half hour of your time.

 

And, it’s cool to see my art used once again in conjunction with another RPG Podcast (especially given how much the Great Old Ones have been on my mind this year…). I’ve fast become a big fan of the How We Roll Podcast, as they have been doing for some time what I’m now trying to accomplish with Blackspire currently.

They’re a fun group of guys, and have inspired me to up my game a bit more… as well as introduce me to a few other very cool names in the RPG Podcasting world, and I’m particularly taken with semi-regular guest Aram Vartian‘s RPG Podcast Godsfall… which right now (for me anyway) seems to be the “show to beat” as far as immersive world-building and production values are concerned. He is a top-notch Game Master, and definitely the type I’d love to play with if I had the chance.

Color me impressed. I definitely have my work cut out for me.

 

Saturday 11/4/17-

Sun: Scorpio –

Moon: Taurus (FULL)

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