Secret Skeleton Miniatures

Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:22 pm

Hi, my name is Wes Herbst and I would like to use my introduction post to pitch my miniatures company (website pending).

I am an avid fan of Castles & Crusades who first found the game when 4E was announced. I had been disenchanted with 3.5 and the upcoming Pathfinder and as a result of reading about 4E, I went and bought a ton of 2E stuff. As I read back through the rules of 2E, I got to where I remembered why I changed to 3E. I hated the over complex micro-management of 3E as well as the focus on "builds."

I found Castles & Crusades quite by mistake.

I was at my local game store and I was looking through the "non-WotC" section (it is very small there) and I cam across the C&C Player's Handbook. I opened it up, began to read, and I remember saying, "Holy crap! This is exactly what I have been looking for!"

I bought every C&C book they had at that store. I spent $40, they only had the PHB and the MaT. Still, two core rulebooks for $40? Hells yes.

Anyhow, with my newfound want for something more traditional in my role-playing (I'm just last month 28, so I'm hardly a greybeard...yet) I began to refocus my games (I DM and only DM) to be about more storytelling and better attention to things like atmosphere and the like.

Long story short, I came across a website called Otherworld Miniatures that designs and sells really nice miniatures inspired by AD&D. I spent about a grand there one day, and when I got my miniatures they were fantastic in every way except for scale. Apparently, when he said 28mm scale on his website, the owner didn't really know what that meant, if anything.

I still love the miniatures, I am just crazy about continuity.

So my favorite miniature line of all time is Julie Guthrie's line of Grenadier miniatures now sold by MegaMinis. Most of the miniatures at OW were scaled just dandy with my vast amount of PC miniatures, and that was great. Many were not, however. Worse yet, my favorite adventures ever U 1-3 were mostly underpopulatable by Otherworld Miniatures.

So I stole OW's idea.

I started the company in October and called it Secret Skeleton Miniatures because the name sounded cool to me.

I hired Jo Brumby to sculpt a line of Sahuagin inspired by the artwork in U 1-3 and Jason Wiebe to sculpt 25mm Bullywugs.

I took a personal hand in the design making sure they were a combination of the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual, and functional yet cool. My theme for humanoids is going to be multiple figure packs with interchangeable arms.

I mentioned scale, so here is my logic on that. Most gamers use one-inch grids to represent 5 feet. This tells me that 5mm more or less equals one foot, right? So instead of saying that I produce miniatures of a particular scale I am just going to take pictures of the miniature next to a ruler. I sold off all my Reaper PC types for this reason as my Player Characters were all seven to eight feet tall and my gnolls were barely pushing 6'5".

So I am still awaiting about a dozen sculpts to be finished (it is quite time consuming to sculpt them, or so I hear) and when I have them in hand I will put up the website. Iron Wind Metals, formerly Ral Partha, will be my production and packaging company.

I really have no intention of ever getting rich doing this, I just mostly want to have fun with it and spread that good ol AD&D era love around.

I miss the old artwork. I think 3rd edition is where the game ceased to be Medieval and more...well...I do not rightly know what. He-Man? It does resemble He-Man...

My company will be run to the letter, I won't be looting my own coffers. I intend to pay full retail for any miniature I take for my personal collection. I do not intend to go out of business, I am sinking my own money into it with best hopes of at least breaking even...so I can use that money to make more miniatures.

I have plans to mostly do humanoids, though I am going to make a line of miniatures inspired by popular NPCs from the Greyhawk setting, of which I love.

C&C is pretty going to be with me from now on till forever. It speaks to me rather well. I just finished up my first campaign with it and it was the most cheerful 7 months of gaming I have ever had. We had two rule look ups in seven months. Instead of 7 months of rules look ups every two minutes when playing 3.5.

I would be interested in maybe doing some kind of collaboration with Troll Lord at somepoint. I do not craft the miniatures myself, but I know a few good men who do. For now, however, expect to see some of my goodies up and for sale around the turn of the year.

It has been a pleasure meeting you all.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:06 pm

Well met Secret Skeleton. All of the best in your business efforts. The design theory sounds solid, and I look forward to seeing some example in the future. Will keep an eye out.

As you've been playing C&C for some time now, it seems silly to say WELCOME TO THE CRUSADE. But I will say it none-the-less. Welcome.

~O
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Deogolf · Post by **Deogolf** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:35 pm

Welcome aboard, Secret Skelly!!

Looking forward to the forthcoming miniatures. Isn't cool when you run across something that you never expected and it's what you were looking for as well! Can't be that!
Keep us posted!
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yell0w_lantern · Post by **yell0w_lantern** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:52 pm

Verrrry interesting.

Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 9:52 pm

I thank you all for your kind salute. I am starting a new campaign a week from today where I am adapting the Umbrage Saga modules to Perrenland in Greyhawk. I wish I had the boxed set, but it still is not available yet.

I still have A0-A3 I bought awhile ago.

If you are looking for some kick-butt goblins and kobolds go look up Otherworld Miniatures. They are much more expensive than my stuff will be, but they are pretty dang good at what they do (the pig-faced orcs, bugbears, hobgoblins, and the ogre are really, really big. They are fun to have, but if you care about scale they are all over 30mm tall).

CharlieRock · Post by **CharlieRock** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:55 am

Keep Killin'! (alternate "Welcome to the Crusade" phrase)

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Wulfgarn · Post by **Wulfgarn** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:56 am

welcome Aboard-

I have an online game on Friday nights EST that could always use another .....

Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 7:30 am

Wulfgarn wrote:
welcome Aboard-

I have an online game on Friday nights EST that could always use another .....

You know I could try, but with my schedule I do not know how well I would do. I raise two kids as well as manage many other things. Perhaps I could sit in on one and see if it is too intensive for my Friday schedule or not.

Taranthyll · Post by **Taranthyll** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:33 pm

Welcome, Secret Skeleton! I hope that C&C continues to give you great joy. You've joined a great community of friendly players, here on the Troll Lord forums, who have also found in C&C something that was lacking in other games. When I first stumbled upon C&C I found the game I had been looking for my whole life.

I'm a very keen miniatures collector and am always looking to add to my collection (I can hear my wife sighing in exasperated resignation), and I'm quite excited that you'll be producing representations of some classic D&D creatures. I look forward to seeing your website - please keep us posted.

Best of luck!
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:12 pm

Welcome - Do me a favour though...

MAKE RUST MONSTERS!
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:33 pm

angelius wrote:
Welcome - Do me a favour though...

MAKE RUST MONSTERS!

Done deal, sir/madam.

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 7:05 pm

Hi. May your bones not crumble, and the steel not sunder.
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:38 pm

Secret Skeleton wrote:
Done deal, sir/madam.

Rust monsters in pewter format are pratically non-existent and if they are, I didnt like the sculpt anyways. Right now I'm using the new plastic ones from DDM. But it just doesn't cut it!

By the way - if you're open to it I have some ideas that I'd like to discuss with you.
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Sir Ironside · Post by **Sir Ironside** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 2:12 am

angelius wrote:
MAKE RUST MONSTERS!

Huh... I just take rust of my car and use that. If it was good for my father, it is good enough for me!
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 8:22 am

I have a pretty cool Ral Partha Rust Monster produced in the late 70's. It's older than I am.

angelius · Post by **angelius** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 2:02 pm

They do exist but I would really like a newer sculpt ... hehe
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jaybird216 · Post by **jaybird216** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 2:45 pm

Welcome aboard, SS. As stated above, you've stumbled upon a really friendly group of gamers and enthusiasts here. Best of luck with the minis!
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DeadReborn · Post by **DeadReborn** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:11 pm

Welcome to the Crusade! Looking forward to those minis. Maybe buying some new ones will motivate me to hunker down and finish painting all my HeroQuest figures.
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:33 pm

Man, I have so many figures from the original HeroQuest game. Seriously, I have at least six or seven full sets of the figures, two or three of the furniture and two boards, one is the original, the other is one I made from HirstArts bricks.

Great game.

Fat Dragon Games · Post by **Fat Dragon Games** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:43 pm

Good luck with the minis. Maybe we can look at some cross promotions once you release.
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Castles & Crusades...more D&D than D&D.

Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:53 pm

Fat Dragon Games wrote:
Good luck with the minis. Maybe we can look at some cross promotions once you release.

Yeah, absolutely! Working together with other small online RPG businesses is a major point of Secret Skeleton Games. I want to show WotC that the gaming community, when deprived of their game, will stand tall and shake the freakin' heavens.

angelius · Post by **angelius** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:33 am

Same here Secret Skeleton - we're releasing our new RPG mid 2010 and would be a great chance to do some cross promoting there too.

Maybe we can combine our heads and come up with a unique creature that I can write into the game and that you could sculpt.

LOL we have too many weird ones in our game like the GFC (Giant Flying Chicken) or the Metal Gorger.
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 3:57 am

I am rather fond of giant crabs for some reason. Maybe a giant crab with four arms or something.