From Curt: Welcome to Challenge XIII - Film Crew from the Golden Age of Cinema (25 Points)

Hello and welcome to the 13th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!!

As tradition dictates, I kick off the Challenge with our first entry, and to break the ice I thought I'd try to hit two-birds-with-one-stone. To fulfil the 'Under Construction' location, I decided to dig up an old set of figures that have been sitting, half done, on my desk for the past several years. In addition, with them being a film crew, I thought they would be a nice fit for the movie magic theme of this year's Challenge.

Years ago I came up with a simple set of rules to (ahem) set the stage for madcap stunts and the off-the-cuff storytelling found behind the scenes of a movie set during the Golden Age of Cinema.

The rules challenge players to attain ‘Top Billing’ status by either having the most Fame Points by the end of shooting, or by simply being the last character to still be left standing on the movie set. The actors with the top Fame scores at the end of the shoot will have Top Billing on the movie playbill, and be able to bask in cinematic glory - perhaps having a shot at an Academy Award for their unscrupulous efforts.

A 'scene' from our Sword & Sandals game (note the 1.0 version of the film crew)

Previous victims, er, players of a 'Top Billing' game

...and their hard-earned Academy Awards!

The rub is that the actors are often forced to spend their Fame to gain the Director's attention, and so foil the plans of competing actors. With this, the actors have to strike a balance between protecting their accrued Fame while also spending it wisely it to seize the moment in order to burnish their reputations. 

For example, any player/actor can interrupt the action of another by demanding a 'screen re-write'. These re-writes can range from (but are not limited to) choreographing a complex stunt, constructing a scene where another actor looks the fool, or perhaps seizing the camera crew to get a closeup as they give a pithy line of dialogue. 

These 're-writes' are entirely up to the imaginations of the players and always create a huge amount of good-natured fun. In addition each screen re-write can be challenged by another star sparking 'Ego Trips' where the contesting stars bid-up their Fame points to try to convince the Director (GM) why their approach to the scene should be favoured. It's all good, silly fun.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. This film crew is offered by the talented folks over at Eureka Miniatures.  They are a wonderful set of minis, and a real joy to work with. Now I just need to get Byron to make me an acrylic 'field of view' template to fit the round base and I'll be set... 

Only the 'clapper' fella will be scored for this entry, as he was the final mini that needed to be done to finish the set.

So, we have 5 for the 'clapper', along with another 20 bonus points for the 'Under Construction' location = 25 points! I'm on the board and in first place no less. ;) We'll see how long that lasts...

Next, I think some pulpy fun is needed so I'm going to take the road south to check out the film set for Hight Adventure. Wish me luck!

Now, let's get this show on the road, folks! I look forward to the floodgates opening, with your entries rolling in sharp-quick. Remember that from now until January 1st is 'free-fire' submission, meaning you can submit entries whenever you want, so take advantage of the holiday season to kick-off your own Challenge.

Happy holidays everybody and Welcome to Challenge XIII!

- Curt