Tilea (a Warhammer Campaign)

[Padre]

Geof Downton wrote:

I suspect your use of WordPress may preclude that…

I asked them using the ‘help’ dialogue. Long story short, it does preclude it! They gave me loads of instructions which were not to do with what I was asking. Wasted quite some time. But I am the daft one, not them!

Meanwhile a very recent sequence of pics from my campaign, in which several groups of riders meet. Perette’s Brabanzon and the ‘Brotherhood of Shadows’, known as the Arrabiatti, are joined by the Arrabiatti scouts, who describe the strange strip of dead ground they found around ratto uomo (skaven) infested Ravola. Then all of them meet riders from the condottieri company the Compagnia del Sole. It’s quite a lot of rider. The grey and purple riders are one of my latest paint jobs, using acrylics instead of enamels (as I had done for 35 years). The actual story can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/2021/01/11/some-too-late-and-one-too-early/

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Gone Fishing]

Breathtaking work. (Am I repeating myself?)

[Angel Barracks]

Damn Skaven.

[Deleted User]

I’m really impressed by this campaign. I’m still reading the early episodes but what would you suggest to keep a campaign going this long?

[Mike]

Deleted User wrote:

I’m really impressed by this campaign. I’m still reading the early episodes but what would you suggest to keep a campaign going this long?

Good question.
Mine fizzle out after a few years, but then they have until now been solo play, which is a lot of hard work.

[Padre]

Good question.

The most important thing was agreeing with the players beforehand that it would be like this. I said it would make cricket look like pinball! We all agreed that real life (work and families/children) would likely slow communication, and make get-togethers for the battles rare. I have taken advantage of the time to model, paint, photograph and write like crazy. Trouble is, those things now slow down progress too!

I don’t have a problem with the slow progress, as the alternative would be not to do it! If I won the lottery I could concentrate on it I suppose. I genuinely don’t know if and how much my players are frustrated by it. Three are very active, 2 less so, and one just watches nowadays and occasionally gives a political ruling sort of thing.

I just ‘wasted’ (?) two days experimenting with audio recording and editing the first story, video editing the pictures to fit, then uploading onto YouTube (a private, test version). The trouble is, now I see the test I am happy with the audio, but want to repose and re-shoot the pictures better! Hiding the bases etc. This will mean I am potentially trying to move backwards and forwards for the next few years, which may drive my players insane with impatience. Perhaps though, once I master the techniques, I can do a story in one evening and so do one per week. The first is 10 minutes long with 8 pics. Many of the bat reps have 40+ pics, so they might be more difficult! Still, I will see what my players think of my test run.

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Padre]

I have managed it all, I must be a quick learner. I need to learn some more skills and tricks, and I hope I will, but I have just uploaded the first video story to my brand new YouTube version of ‘Big Small Worlds’.

When it comes to the bat reps, with their many pictures, I think this sort of format should work well, but there are stories such as this to link up the bat reps and allow a much more involving story of Tilea to unfold. The first (and the next to come very soon) are the stories.

I am half way through putting together the next one!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

That is amazing, I have been re-listening to Gotrek and Felix, but was bored and skipping bits, you are my new source of Warhammer listening.
Ever thought about a patreon?

You could let the payers have characters named after them and all sorts.

😀

[Padre]

Not sure Patreon would be legal, what with the various manufacturers’ figures being shown. I’ll at least look into it a year or so down the line, if it seems possible. But I have my doubts! For now, and perhaps forever, it will have to be hobby. I have other writing projects to turn to if I wanted to monetize!!!

(edit) Oh and thanks for saying you enjoyed it, Mike. It’s what I need to hear to know it is worthwhile proceeding!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

Loved it, it was today’s topic share so I shared this topic on TWW’s twitter feed and FB page.

[Deleted User]

Cool, having it read to me is so much easier 😀
This is kind of like an illustrated audiobook, a visual novel?

Patreon might work. What you’re getting paid for is the story, the miniatures are just window dressing. Mybe a little disclaimer at the beginning or end with the manufacturers.

[Padre]

My second video story is up!

‘The Greenskin Corsairs’ and ‘A Weakening of the Faith’.

I put two parts (2 and 3) together, so it is 25 minutes long. I probably won’t do that often, however – I was testing to see if I could work through a longer one. The battle reports might be longer as they should be easier to do, what with the pictures fixed as they are and so I can’t be tempted into redoing them!

@ Tnomaston. I wish I could, but reading the Games Workshop guidance on such things, I really don’t think I can.

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

Well if you carry on doing them, I will pay you a little bit should a paypal donate button appear on your site 🙂

[Mike]

He has a very fine waist scarf.
I never really pictured Orcs as anywhere near that cultured myself, language wise or in terms of ideas and leadership.

Shame about the anti-dwarf racism.
Still that is to be expected outside the glorious Empire.

😛

[Padre]

The player, Matt, wanted his character to start out from the very beginning as a tryant. He went all religious (Morr) fundamentalist at my suggestion, as I had been rerading about Savonarola in Rennaissance Florence. Exiling the dwarfs added a small boost to his end of Season supply points, from the stuff that was confiscated. The next story will be a bat rep of his attempt to conquer a small neighbouring city state. Not all villains and vampires, orcs or ratmen!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Deleted User]

Its a nice change from the usual fantasy stories.

[Mike]

Any more updates Padre?

[Padre]

We are currently nearing the end of a play by email battle which has taken 5 days so far. Once I have done that I will do another video story this time with a battle report in it. Then I will be writing up the report with more than 50 pictures of this current battle. The campaign is going strong. This current battle should prove quite interesting.

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

Cool, thanks for the super swift reply too.

[Deleted User]

Looking forward to it.

[Padre]

I should, though, put up some more of my favourite pics from the campaign here. You might like them!

Here The vampire Duchess Maria and her necromancer lieutenant raise recruits for her forces from her defeated enemies!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

Very cool, where did you get the Duchess model from?

[Padre]

She’s old citadel. Came in a blister with a foot and a mounted version.

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Deleted User]

I thought she looked familiar.

[Padre]

Another undead scene, and why not?

Biagino, archpriest of Nagash, attended by his unholy clergy, the vampire thralls of the La Fraternita di Morti Irrequieti, about to beckon the mob of zombies named the Disciplinati di Nagash!

[img3]http://i.imgur.com/dTdUf0x.jpg[/img]

And now, they turn to look at the crazed, animated corpses of the cultist ‘dedicants’ of the Disciplinati di Morr.

Dance, my bambinos, dance macabre!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Steve Johnson]

Superb!

[Padre]

Steve Johnson wrote:

Superb!

Thanks. You can see the story that goes with the pictures half way down Part 16 of my campaign … https://bigsmallworlds.com/2017/11/19/tilea-campaign-part-16/

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mr. Average]

The monks reminds me of this:

Your painting is amazing! This is a great series! Would that you could write a book with all this material in it! Osprey should fall all over themselves to print it.

[Padre]

Marvellous. That is the song I used to sing on an almost weekly basis on a Friday or a Saturday with my silly drinking friends. You know, when things like pubs existed, back in the ‘olden days’.

As for publishing the campaign, it can’t happen. Intellectual copyright etc, even over the images of the figures. The campaign is already big enough to fill several large tomes, but it must stay purely a hobby affair!

I have been slaving all evening over part three of my latest bat rep, which is massive. The pics were done during the play by email game, but writing the story report has taken every evening this week! Am I, perchance, mad? Or is this what keeps me sane? It’s a toss up!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mr. Average]

Of course I know it can never be printed, I simply lament the fact. It’s a fabulous narrative so far!

[Padre]

If it has an audience, of however many readers, who enjoy it, then I am a happy man. If I want to publish, I shall have to write something else!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

I am secretly hoping you live very close and I can come visit one day!

[Darkest Star Games]

This is all fantastic!  The video stories are great as well.  I seriously doubt putting this up on Patreon would be a problem, after all there are loads of people on there that show videos of themselves painting figures and giving instruction and this would basically be no different.  You could intersperse videos of making certain scenes or models or bits of terrain between story chapters thus giving both entertainment and instruction.

And if that all seems a bit overwhelming then yes please do put out some sort of book, your story is faaaar more rich and better told than most!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Padre]

Thanks ever so much for saying it’s fantastic. Comments like that keep me at it!

I still really don’t think, however, that I can derive any sort of income from it, even Patreon.

First, because of the intellectual property issues over the figures in the images, like Mr Average said above.

Second, because of the fact that my bigsmallwords website has been up for years, with seven years of chronological, illustrated campaign stories and battle reports, with many hundreds of pictures, all weaving one huge story together, and yet it only ever gets a handful of visitors. I think it must just be too niche. (I’m not sure even all my players actually read it!) It just doesn’t get much of an audience at all, so the potential wouldn’t be there for printing.

I really must be mad for putting so much effort and time into it.

As for printing it, I have to admit that seems an odd idea for another reason – it already exists in full, accessible to everyone, and is ongoing. If folk wanted to read it, they could.

I do wonder if when people go to https://bigsmallworlds.com/ they see what I see. The blog part is simply where the stories first go, then every few months they get joined up in bunches and organised into a new chapter listed and linked on the website’s front page.

I don’t know why it doesn’t get more of an audience, but that’s because I’m writing it, and as such it’s the sort of thing I like, so I am obviously biased. One or two real fans have told me they are fans, and one (who I had met once in RL many years ago) even became a player two years ago.

But it remains a niche within a niche. Maybe it just asks too much of people? Too much information! 🤪

 

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Darkest Star Games]

To be honest, I think the view count isn’t because of the content but more because you have to know something is out there to look for it.  Your story writing is excellent, heck you could probably sell quite a few novels (even if they are in a setting of your own IP).

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Padre]

I know this goes 7 (real world) years back from current campaign events, to a simpler time, but part 4 of my video version of the account is up on YouTube. The delay was mainly because of the work on the new battle report (at https://eefl.freeforums.net/thread/2444/fight-sersale) I am apparently working at this campaign from both ends, as well as currently kit-bashing a new regiment of gas-masked skaven!

You can find the new video, ‘All That Astiano Has to Offer’, a short and simple battle report which was good to get the campaign going, at …

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Mike]

Interesting, and very cool.

Thanks again for sharing here!

[Deleted User]

Ended way too soon. My favorite part was the gun crew debating if they should shoot or not. Overall I enjoyed the story telling. There’s a certain charm in the way its both writen and read. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a career in reading audiobooks.

[Padre]

The trouble is, 7 years ago I wasn’t really writing, or producing pictures of the battle, with a video in mind. I added a scene at the start and the fleeing scene at the end, but all the rest were original from the game (I even forgot to hide a dice in one of them!). This battle was pretty small and straighforward, but we were just excited to do the first battle in a campaign and so it seemed fun at the time!

Later stuff should work really well in video. See this early stuff as background / prequel / prologue!

As for my eading voice, I am sure many Uk people think it’s weird hearing my Yorkshire accent. It should sound something like a Winterfell accent to the rest of the world, as Sean Bean was from quite close to me!

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Padre]

A (re-done) pic from my next video story. At this rate, even at one a week, it’s gonna take years, especially as I am working on the camapaign ‘at both ends’. I can’t quite do the video report yet (from a 7 year old story) as I am currently working on the various ‘end of season’ reports for the players and for the public!

Anyhoo, I quite like how this one turned out …

Quite like this one too …

My Tilean Campaign can be found at https://bigsmallworlds.com/

[Author]

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