#osprey publishing

[vintagerpg]

When I think of Osprey Publishing, I think of military history. Specifically, I think of their huge, beautifully illustrated series detailing military uniforms and equipment for specific regions, unit and time periods (Angus McBride of MERP fame illustrated quite a few of them during his career). So when I heard Osprey was producing RPGs, I figured they would be stuffy, if pretty, things, focusing on military style play. Twilight 2000 through the ages, or some such. Nope! Not at all. Totally wrong.

This is Paleomythic (2019), and it release alongside Romance of the Perilous Land as Osprey’s first RPG. Author Graham Rose calls it “stone and sorcery” and it is a compact system that powers play peppered with ideas not often touched on in RPGs. The mechanics are very similar to Year Zero Engine — attributes and skills translate to a number of six-sided dice that a rolled for checks, sixes count as successes. Injuries reduce attributes, and thus the number of dice rolled. A number of character templates offer special abilities or magic (all of which, rather than having discrete systems, have effects tied to attributes). The low tech increases the importance of equipment, which is limited and mostly utilitarian (containers are a big deal, for instance). Combat is quick and easy, with weapons having keyword traits that determine their effects.

The whole thing is lean and fast; the focus of the game is on survival and exploration in a stone age setting not often explored in RPGs. The rest of the book gives the GM tools to create the world and populate it with monsters, hazards, tribal groups and pockets of civilization. Again, the low tech makes even the most mundane RPG scenario seed feel like an epic undertaking. I didn’t think this would feel so exciting, but it does! Gimme a wood club, a bow and a need to find some specific herbs for the tribal elder and I’m all set, I guess. The fact that the art and layout is gorgeous help a lot, as does the sample adventure.

[petermorwood]

Hmm.

Christopher Rothero wrote and illustrated books for Osprey Publishing.

Richard Scollins (1946-1992) also illustrated books for Osprey Publishing.

In addition, Rothero and Scollins illustrated articles for "Military Modelling" magazine, which I used to get for the many years when making and painting models was A Thing. :->

*****

Scollins did the pics for one about the Norse and Norman invasions of 1066, and I used to have that issue until it and all the rest went the way of old magazines during a house move.

However, I have a pretty good visual memory, and a couple of images online (seen as usual, while looking for something else :-> ) sent me searching for other images from that long-ago magazine article in August 1978 (see top left of the busy page).

Chris Rothero's book "The Scottish and Irish Wars 1250-1400" was published in July 1984, so there's no question which pics came first.

Both illustrators did work for the same magazine and same book publisher. Maybe they worked in the same studio. Maybe there was a deadline looming. Maybe they were friends.

And maybe Rothero just wasn't at ease with action poses, because a typical costume study looks like this:

After just a few - and there are lots more like these - his style becomes easy to recognise, as is the way he represents cloth, metal and faces.

That's why those images I saw on-line prompted a different memory...

...and why I did a little cut-and-paste exercise with the magazine art to confirm it.

I like to think, before doing his repaint version, that Chris Rothero asked Rick Scollins if it was okay, and Scollins thought of friends and deadlines and said "yeah, go for it."

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1938 07 19 Bf109D Legion Condor Aces - Mark Postlethwaite

the moment that Leutnant Rudolf Goy of the 3.Staffel of the Legion Condor’s Jagdgruppe 88 banks his Bf 109D, coded 6-75, overa Republican air force I-16 Rata which he has just shot down following an engagement between Segorbe and Viver, just east of Valencia, in southeastern Spain,on 19 July 1938.Goy’s Bf 109 was one of a group of eight aircraft led by Oberleutnant Werner Mölders, the highest-scoring fighter ace in the Legion Condor. The German formation comprised four separate Rotten of two aircraft each: a tactical innovation devised by Mölders that offered German fighter pilots in Spain a looser and more flexible system in preference to the more rigid wing-to-wing ‘V’ formation previously adopted. In the Rotte, the leader could concentrate on scanning the sky for the enemy,while the wingman would cover the vulnerable rear. Furthermore, such a formation reduced the risk of collision and allowed greater manoeuvrability and higher speeds. Several four-aircraft Schwarme could operate together in Staffel strength,staggered at different altitudes so that there was an even greater element of mutual search and protection, as well as flexibility,when engaging the opposition. Mölders’ and Goy’s formation had been despatched from La Senia airfield as escort to bombers of the Legion Condor when it encountered three escuadrillas of I-16s during the Nationalist offensive towards the Mediterranean. Mölders scored his third victory west of Villar del Arzobispo, and four other pilots, including Goy, accounted for an I-16 each. Rudolf Goy claimed three victories in Spain and went on to fly with II./JG 53 during World War 2.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Frostgrave Cover Art by Dmitry Burmak

[corvidous]

Anyway play Xenos Rampant, everybody. Play Frostgrave, play Forbidden Psalm, play The Doomed, play Rebels & Patriots, play Saga, play Swordpoint, play Dragon Rampant, play Planet28, OPR, Silver Bayonet, something, goddamn. I could keep listing more!

There are SO many good tabletop miniatures games out there that you could be playing, most of them even let you use your existing collections of GW minis if you want. Stop giving Games Workshop your fucking money.

[nightbringer24]

So here is my collection of books from Osprey Publishing based around the Middle Ages, in this case 1000's to 1500's. 15 in total, which is the majority of my collection. Although I do think one is missing.

Going from top to bottom-

Top row: Castagnaro 1387

Campaldino 1289

European Medieval Tactics (2)

Forces of the Hanseatic League

Towton 1461

Tewkesbury 1471

Middle row- Teutonic Knight vs Lithuanian Warrior

Mongol Warrior vs European Knight

Otterburn 1388

Bosworth 1485

Longbowman vs Crossbowman

Lewes and Evesham 1264-65

Bottom row- Viking Warrior vs Anglo-Saxon Warrior

Viking Warrior vs Frankish Warrior

Shrewsbury 1403

Knights at Tournament

Medieval Indian Armies (1)

Medieval European Armies

So... yeah. Nerd I am, and a self-avowed armchair Medievalist. But it's such an interesting topic, especially the military side of it especially since there really is a lot more to the Medieval period than what people think.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"NO ARMY HAS EVER PROVOKED SUCH JUSTIFIABLE TERROR AND LOATHING IN ITS VICTIMS..."

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on illustrations of the Mongol Army and the warrior culture that encapsulated the very nature of their empire, from the book "The Mongols" (1980), written by George Turnbull and illustrated by Angus McBride. Part of Osprey Publishing's "Men-At-Arms" Series, 105.

DESCRIPTION: "The history of the Mongol armies is a catalogue of superlatives. No armies in history have ever won so many battles or conquered so much territory. No army has ever provoked such justifiable terror and loathing in its victims, or slaughtered so many of its vanquished.

What other army in history has marched on Russia in the winter and survived, let alone won victories? The stories of these and many other amazing feats of this "barbarian" people are here brought vividly to life by Stephen Turnbull, from the birth of Genghis Khan in the wind-swept steppes of Mongolia, through the conquest of China and beyond."

-- OSPREY PUBLISHING, "The Mongols" (published 1980, "Men-At Arms" Series, 105)

Source: http://miniaturasmilitaresalfonscanovas.blogspot.com/2012/02/angus-mcbride-los-mongoles.html.

[krinsbez]

Help Me Pick My Next RPG Thing!

So even though I'm only about a third of the way through Pulp Cthulhu, I'm excited about having polls, and am trying to decide what I'm gonna read next!

Gonna give several categories, and depending on which wins, will do additional poll or polls subsequently.

Respectively, the above are Romance of the Perilous Land (a British folklore/mythology game), Jackals (a Bronze Age Mediterranean fantasy game), and Paleomythic (a stonepunk fantasy game)

[the-random-hamlet]

How to Play Helluva Boss (& Hazbin Hotel) as an RPG

Welcome to Hell, but should you abandon all hope? Or can you make it through another day walking the mean streets of Hell? Find out when you play Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel as a role-playing game.

[pattern-53-enfield]

Bushrangers, by Mark Stacey for Osprey Publishing

[all-action-all-picture]

The 'Broomhandle' Mauser by Jonathan Ferguson (Keeper of Firearms and Artillery...etc). Osprey Publishing.

[vintagerpg]

Jackals (2021) is Osprey’s most ambitious RPG to date, the first to launch with an accompanying campaign. An additional sourcebook has also surfaced.

Back in 1982, Chaosium published QuestWorld, as a sort of open world for RuneQuest (as opposed to the closed, Stafford-approved Glorantha), where players would essentially come up with their own RQ variants. The box set was an interesting, but failed, experiment. Jackals strikes me as the sort of thing I bet Chaosium hoped would emerge from the scheme.

It is powered by OpenQuest, a tweaked retroclone of RuneQuest. Jackals tweaks it some more, but at heart, if you’re familiar with the BRP style d100 skill games, you’ll ken this system fast.

Like RuneQuest, the game world is extremely important. Characters get the choice of one of four cultures (modeled loosely on the real world Bronze Age cultures of Greece, Egypt, Israel and the Arabian desert), each of which determines the bulk of their baseline attributes. As the titular Jackals, they wander the world, beloved by communities beset by the taint of Chaos, manifest as a variety of beast-people who kill and destroy indiscriminately, a sort of embodied anti-civilization. When no such problem exists, though, most folks don’t want Jackals around.

The world they wander is a rich one. I love Glorantha for its strangeness, but the War Road feels familiar (thanks to its dim relation to our Middle East). That gives the setting a kind of excitement akin to knowing the song on the radio, even if it is a cover. The mysteries are intriguing, the art lovely and the maps! My goodness, these are some of the best dungeon maps I have seen in years! A handful of scenarios round things out and pave the way for the grand, world-changing campaign, The Fall of the Children of Bronze.

[tzekkaz]

Unboxing: Various historical wargames

Recently I ordered a number of historical wargames as I figured it is my thing now, fantasy and science fiction wargaming just does not appeal to me now. Some of the rulebooks I ordered were updates or new editions of rulebooks I already own, these are Hail Caesar second edition, Saga 2.5 and Swordpoint. Others are rules completely new to me such as Lion Rampant, L'art de la Guerre and Milites Mundi. I will go into more detail about these games once I have had chance to read them and hopefully try them out.

Hail Caesar is produced by Warlord Games and came with a resin model of King Richard I 'the Lionheart' and a free sprue of Imperial Roman Auxiliaries. Of my numerous purchases of wargames Hail Caesar is probably my favourite for value for money as when I ordered it it was on sale and I had enough points from Warlord games' reward scheme to get a £35 game for less the £20. I already own a copy of first edition, second edition seemed like a natural choice, I had held off buying it for sometime

The second game on my recently bought list is Saga 2.5, from Studio Tomahawk, the book is an update of the second edition rulebook rather than a completely new edition. The FAQs have been folded into the rulebook thus taking away the need to carry a handful of printed pages.

The third rulebook in my list of new editions and updated rulebooks I needed was the Swordpoint from Gripping Beast. The second edition has been out for a while now and been on my to buy wishlist for nearly as long. When second edition was released Gripping Beast provided a free document that allowed players to carry on using their first edition rulebook, this document was very long with the adjustments to the rules, I caved in in the end and replaced my second edition document with a second edition rulebook.

The first of the completely new to me rulebooks is Lion Rampant. produced by Osprey Publishing. I ordered the book through Amazon and the book arrived through the letterbox with an ominous thud! Thank you amazon man for putting a dent in the back of my nice new hardback rulebook.

Next up is Onyx editions game L'art de la Guerre. The book has a nice piece of art on the cover and what I have read of it is a good solid ruleset.

The final rulebook is Gripping Beasts Milites Mundi which is designed for smaller scale models using the Swordpoint mechanics.

Anyway that is all for now, in the future I shall go into more detail with each one.

Stay safe

Happy hobbying!

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1940 08 12 Bf109E-4 JG53 Pik As - Mark Postlethwaite - cover art Osprey

On 12 August 1940, JG 53 was tasked with carrying out a ‘Freie Jagd’ off Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in support of Ju 88s of KG 51 that were attacking Portsmouth harbour and Ventnor radar station on the Isle of Wight. Leading 1./JG 53 was Hauptmann Hans-Karl Mayer, who was flying a Bf109E-4 coded ‘White 8’. His Rottenflieger was Unteroffizier Heinrich Rühl in a Bf 109E-1 coded ‘White 10’.

Flying at 8500 m, Mayer spotted three Hurricanes below attacking a lone Bf 110 at 1220 hrs, and although he quickly engaged the enemy fighters the Bf 110 pilot bailed out. Mayer selected the right Hurricane and Rühl the left, the former firing a total of 20 x 20 mm shells and 80 x 7.92 mm machine gun rounds into the RAF fighter, which immediately burst into flames and dived into the sea for what would be Mayer’s tenth victory of the war. Having already exhausted his supply of cannon shells, Rühl fired 200 machine gun rounds at his Hurricane, which then hit the sea in a gentle curve.

Mayer now turned his attention to the remaining Hurricane, which had been engaged by the rest of his Staffel. This combat was not as one-sided, however, for his Bf 109E was hit six times. Mayer’s combat report noted;

‘After my first kill I flew back to the dogfight with the last remaining Hurricane against several aircraft of my Staffel. I immediately attacked and was able to open fire twice, and also received some hits myself. The damaged aircraft tried to escape in the direction of the coast but I stayed close to it, while my Staffel lost me in the haze. At first it made only slight evasive actions, and so I was able to get in several well-aimed bursts. The aircraft started emitting black smoke, went down in a shallow dive and disintegrated on impact.’

Mayer had achieved his second victory of the mission, firing ten cannon and 250 machine gun rounds at the Hurricane, which, after hitting the sea, sank immediately. Although it cannot be said for certain,it is believed that Mayer and Rühl accounted for Plt Off John Harrison, Acting Flt Lt Wilhelm Pankratz and Sgt Josef Kwiecinski of No 145 Sqn, all of whom were reported missing in action off the Isle of Wight at times that matched the three German claims

[negreabsolut]

Coberta del llibre Late Roman Infantrymen versus Gothic Warrior, per Murray Dahm, i amb iŀlustracions de Giuseppe Rava. Editat per Osprey Publishing.

[corvidous]

Apropos of...nothing...I've slightly altered one of the most personally satisfying (if not necessarily "useful" per se) image edits I've ever made