Today I wanted to alert you to a cool new web project of illustrator and concept artist, Nicholas Cloister. RPG Creatures is his attempt to introduce a compendium of fantasy monsters that promotes discussion and participation. To that end, he’s posting his bestiary blog-style and would really love your comments. I’d say it’s definitely worth a visit, as he has some amazing illustrations, plus some pretty descriptive background information.

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Are you reading any RPGs in public this week?  If so, make sure you get picture proof! Post the picture as a comment on the contest post, to our Facebook page, or on twitter with a mention to @purplepawn and you’ll be entered to win an awesome RPG prize pack!

As of right now we’re giving away:

We still may be adding more prizes.  Keep an eye on our sidebar to keep tabs on the current pot of loot!

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Iron Wind Metals is known today for its Battletech miniatures and its continuation of some old Ral Partha miniature lines. Today, roughly a third of IWM’s income comes from distribution and wholesale, another third from its online store, and another third from producing or fulfilling miniature lines for other companies.

Iron Wind Metals was formed from the remains of famed miniature company Ral Partha. The history of IWM, Ral Partha, and the Battletech miniature line is somewhat convoluted. Here is a small portion of the story, ignoring many other product lines and ignoring many other versions of the Battletech licenses, such as RPG, CCG, and electronic:

1975

Tom Meier forms Ral Partha, together with Jack Hesselbrock, Marc Rubin, Rich Smethurst, Glenn E. Kidd, and Chuck Crain. Ral Partha pioneers certain productions processes and produces popular miniatures under a D&D license from TSR.

At the time, Tom is in junior high-school, only 16 years old. The company is founded to promote and produce his sculptings. He remains the only sculptor until 1980, and the primary sculptor until he starts a new company in 1988.

1979

Citadel Miniatures, a subsidiary of Games Workshop, acquires the UK Ral Partha license. Citadel promotes Ral Partha in the UK, and in turn Ral Partha promotes Citadel in the US.

1980

Jordan Weisman forms FASA, a company that will eventually acquire Ral Partha.

1982

Michael Noe, eventual factory manager of Ral Partha and of Iron Wind Metals, joins Ral Partha.

Also at this time, Citadel forms a US division, using Ral Partha as manufacturers for their miniatures.

1983

Fantasy Productions (FanPro) is formed. FanPro works into our story later on.

1984

Ral Partha takes over the Citadel US division, marketing them as Ral Partha products. FASA creates the Battledroids board game.

1985

Ral Partha begins producing Battledroids miniatures for FASA.

Tom Meier, as a result of some disagreements over copyright issues and a deal with RawCliffe Pewter, begins looking for alternate venues to market his miniatures.

1986

FASA renames Battledroids to Battletech, owing to a trademark dispute with Lucasfilms. Minifigs acquires the UK Ral Partha license, as well as a Battletech license.

1987

Ral Partha drops the Citadel US line.

1988

Tom Meier forms Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures to do personal projects. He continues to work for Ral Partha on a freelance basis. He continues to retain stock until the company is dissolved.

1989

FASA creates Shadowrun, a fantasy RPG system.

1991

Ral Partha begins producing Shadowrun miniatures. Over the next several years, Ral Partha earns numerous awards for its Battletech and Shadowrun miniature lines.

1997

Wizards of the Coast acquires TSR, shortly thereafter ends Ral Partha’s D&D license, and orders all existing D&D molds destroyed. Pthhhffft. Revenues from other Ral Partha lines also begin to drop, leaving it with only one successful line: Battletech. Update: Shadowrun and fantasy were still making some money, too.

1998

In desperation (Update: or for personal reasons), Ral Partha sells itself to FASA and Zocchi Distribution.

1999

FASA gains sole ownership of Ral Partha. Hasbro buys Wizards of the Coast.

2000

While still at FASA, Jordan Weisman founds WizKids to sell MageKnight, which becomes massively popular.

2001

FASA unexpectedly ceases operations. Various explanations are given as to why, such as exiting the market while things are good. The licenses remain valuable commodities.

WizKids buys Battletech and Shadowrun licenses, as well as many of the original Battletech and Shadowrun miniature lines, although Tom Meier keeps control of many of his lines. WizKids licenses BattleTech and Shadowrun to FanPro LLC, a US division of FanPro.

WizKids spins off Ral Partha, which, owing to various legal issue, becomes Iron Wind Metals. IWM continues to create Ral Partha, Battletech, and Shadowrun lines, as it still does today. IWM’s management includes Michael Noe and Marc Rubin.

2003

InMediaRes forms. ImResMedia creates BattleCorps in order to create BattleTech branded fiction. WizKids licenses Battletech to InMediaRes for this purpose.

Also at this time, Topps buys WizKids.

2005

InMediaRes creates HoloStreets in order to create Shadowrun branded fiction. WizKids licenses Shadowrun to InMediaRes.

2007

Jim Fox forms Fox Miniatures to produce certain Tom Meier lines of miniatures. [Update: Tom says: I'm making a 1/48 WWII line for him he's not marketing them for me. I'm selling the copyright to him, they will be his completely, I'm just doing the sculpting and initial mold making.] While IWM pimps itself at GenCon and Origins, Fox Miniatures jointly pimps their own products together with IWM at other game conventions. Tom also creates figures for Dark Sword Miniatures, who outsources production to IWM.

FanPro LLC loses the licenses for Battletech and Shadowrun. InResMedia creates Catalyst Game Labs to acquire these licenses to create game expansions. CGL includes employees from FanPro LLC.

Also at this time, Tornante buys Topps.

2008

Near the end of the year, Topps shuts down WizKids, citing the economic climate. A scramble ensues to secure the Battletech and Shadowrun lines, as well as other important WizKids lines.

2009

After wrangling, Topps decides to keep the Battletech and Shadowrun licenses for themselves, and sell the rest of WizKids to NECA. Catalyst Game Labs and Iron Wind Metals continue to license Battletech and Shadowrun.

Michael Noe of Iron Wind Miniatures

Battletech

Battletech is a story about combat in a fictional future universe. Several companies license the rights to create products in this universe, including fiction (BattleCorps, a division of InMediaRes), war / role playing books and technology descriptions (Catalyst Game Labs, a division of InMediaRes), and miniatures (Iron Wind Metals). In the past, there have also been a CCG, cartoons, and other products. An online gaming version is being handles by Smith & Tinker, headed by Jordan Weisman.

IWM creates the figures to match new technologies, arms, humans, and vehicles as defined, described, and illustrated by Catalyst Game Labs. In the past, such as when IWM was working alongside FanPro LLC, IWM would have to figure out what was new by looking at the new product catalogs put out by FanPro LLC. Nowadays, CGL gives IWM a heads up over what’s new before their new products hit the public.

To me, it seemed like a natural idea for CGL and IWM to cross-promote each others’ products, but somehow this hasn’t happened, yet.

IWM also does work for Wyrd Miniatures, Impact Miniatures, Dark Sword Miniatures, and Crocodile Games, among others. Oh, and you see those words “Paints and Accessories” in the logo at the top of this post? They tried that, but they don’t do that right now; Reaper Miniatures apparently did/does it better.

Spin Casting

Iron Wind Metals uses spin casting to create miniatures. Starting from sketches, a “green” model is sculpted from hard resin or another material. Larger miniatures might be broken into components, with multiple models for each component. The pieces are all cast separately, and must be assembled and painted by the consumer.

Impressions from the green models are stamped into a heavy rubber layered disk mold. Grooves are scored from the impressions to the center of the mold, so that when pewter is poured into the center of the mold and the mold spun, the pewter travels along the scores to the impressions.

The pewter is heated to a scant 600 degrees. While spinning the mold, pewter is poured in, hardens, and cools in less than a minute. Each piece is inspected, and any pieces not exactly correct, and any extraneous pieces of metal, are tossed back into the pewter soup.

The figures are sorted, sealed into plastic boxes, boxed up for shipment, and FedEx arrives once a day to carry the products to distributors, stores, or partners.

A design released this week, the Oppie, a Battletech vehicle.

Parts of the “green” model for the Oppie, as received from the sculptor. The green model is used to make the molds.

Creating molds from green models. The model is placed between two hard rubber disks and pressed. The shape of the model leaves a permanent impression in the mold. This is done several times, so that each mold can create several figures at once.

All the equipment you see here is fairly old and was manufactured, and amazingly still supported, locally.

One half of a completed mold.

Two complete molds, created using several models. After creating the impressions, lines are scored between the end of the mold to the central hub, into which the pewter will be poured.

A stack of molds done for Wyrd Miniatures.

The archive, containing thousands of molds. I estimate around twenty thousand molds, give or take.

Bars of pewter.

Melted pewter, ready to be poured into molds.

The two rubber disks of the mold are clamped between two silver disks. The disks are spun and the pewter is poured into the center. The pewter fills out the impressions in the mold though centrifugal force. The minis are ready and cool within a minute.

A minute after pouring in the pewter. All the pewter, other than the final product (the disks as the end) is chucked back into the pot.

Plastic boxes and items are placed into this machine to be sealed into shippable products.

Order fulfillment.

(Edit: Shadowrun spelling)

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I hinted about this in last week’s Purple Parlay.

If you don’t already know, this week is Read an RPG in Public Week. Basically the point of this week is to get the hobby “out of the basement” and into the public eye. Participation is simple.  Read an RPG in public.

If you’re on the fence about reading an RPG out in the open, we’ve come up with a little idea to help persuade you.

We’re giving something away! A full set of Tremorworks’ HDL Universal Tactical Role-playing System.  This includes:

HDL Basic Rulebook
Deck of HDL Cards
Demongate High setting
Perfect Horizon setting
Lucid: Dreamscape Reality setting

That’s a good chunk of RPG goodness right there!

UPDATE:  The winner will also recieve a copy of HackMaster Basic and an Aces & Eights Player’s Guidebook from Kenzer & Company.

UPDATE 2: Fat Dragon Games will be providing a copy of the E-Z Dungeons Starter bundle to the winner!

UPDATE 3: Chaotic Shiny Productions will be providing a copy of Martial Flavor to the winner!

FINAL UPDATE: Obsidian Portal will be donating a 6 month Ascendant membership to the winner!

You might be wondering how you can enter? Easy as pie. Simply send us a picture of yourself reading an RPG in public. You can do this several ways:

1. Post a link to the photo in the comments section of this post.
2. Post a link to the photo in twitter, with @purplepawn in the tweet.
3. Upload the photo on our Facebook page.

Entries must be received by March 14th, 2009. We’ll pick a winner at random, and post some of the best images here on the site.

If that wasn’t enough! We’re currently working on grabbing some more prize material, so the payout to you may be even greater!

Disclosure: I’m the cofounder of Tremorworks, LLC, and am providing the Tremorworks pack for the prize of this contest.

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‘k…just when I think I’m going to have to see about having my “FFG Forever” tattoo removed, Fantasy Flight Games goes and makes me love them all over again with the announcement of Deathwatch. This newest RPG in FFG’s line allows players to take on the role of one of the elite members of the Deathwatch, the best of the best out of all of the Space Marine chapters, assembled whenever the Imperium of man needs to put the hurt on some xenos scum. What makes this more than a simple “kill the monster” RPG is the fact that the each member of a Deathwatch killteam comes from a different Space Marine chapter, with different practices and approaches to worship of the Emperor. FFG’s press release has a ton of great information and has me unbelievably jazzed for this title – let’s face it folks, this is the 40K RPG we were all looking for and it looks like FFG is set to deliver. The Deathwatch core rulebook will release sometime this summer and retail for $60 US.

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February 28th – March 6th

That’s Read an RPG in Public Week.

There’s also two more weeks later in the year where you should do the same.

So.  How many of you out there will be reading your RPG books in public?

Maybe you should, because there’s a good chance we’ll be announcing a contest to win some cool stuff if you can prove you did. *hint, hint*

I normally read RPGs at work sometimes during my lunch hour, so I’ll probably just keep on doing that.

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HalfBakery is a site for half-baked ideas, and it has a large section with game variants for dozens of traditional and modern games, role playing, party games, as well as accessories for games.

Sorry about those three hours you’re about to waste.

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Palladium Games has sent their 12th dimension book for their undying RPG, Rifts, to the printer. The new expansion, Dimensional Outbreak, will add a number of new classes and spells to the game while continuing the ongoing Minion War storyline and adding lots of detail around the Demon and Deevil factions. If you’re not familiar with the series, Rifts is the height of the Palladium system (a fairly old-school, very crunch system) set in a post-apocalyptic future where dimensional barriers are as thin as paper. To be clear, this is the 12th expansion of a very specific type of book – given that Rifts has been going strong for 20 years, you’re currently looking at over 60 100+ page expansions. If you’re a Rifts fan, this is probably another must have title and will clock in at just under 200 pages for $25 on March 5th.

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That’s it. Just the title. No other reason.

From Hinterwelt. They have a new Squirrel Attack dice game, too.

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Washington Family Magazine pimps games Telestrations, Say Anything, Q-bitz, Pitchcar, Qwirkle Cubes, and Dominion. (source)

The PBS Nightly Business report interviewed Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. He pimps Scrabble Flash. (source)

Good Housekeeping was one of many covering the Toy Fair. They pimp Rubik’s Slide and Scrabble Flash, as well as many other toys. (source)

In The Economist, More Intelligent Life pimps board games, but not any good ones. The writer appears to be woefully ignorant of Eurogames. (source)

Writers pimp the positive effect that D&D had on their lives. (source, via)

The Chico Enterprise-Record pimps Cribbage and one of its proselytizers. (source)

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