It’s Friday, and here on No Rerolls that means it’s time for an all-new 5 on Friday. We’re going to start with 5 exciting releases for this week before moving on to our usual digest of some of our favourite articles from the past week. Of course, we’re slow readers, so don’t be surprised if there are some articles that are a little older – these are just some of the great articles we happen to have actually read in the past week.
Releases & Previews
Every week there are many games and miniatures released. This will probably be a mix of previews, preorders and releases, and with release dates being the way they are in this industry, it’s always pretty approximate. Excuses out of the way, here are 5 of the releases that caught our attention this week:
Games Workshop releases new Be’lakor miniature – Be’lakor, the dark master himself, is returning to the mortal realms in style. Whereas his previous miniature was similar in size to other Daemon Princes, this new one is massive. What I really love about the miniature is that it is so similar to the original. All the core elements are the same. The body shape, chained wings, head shape, and tail are all essentially the same, but scaled up and more exquisitely detailed. He’s a real beauty:
Ruleswise he’s been beefed up as well, but I’m mostly just happy that he’s being featured pretty prominently in current lore. One oddity with the model is in the variant bases. The miniature pictured above is a base that is clearly set up for Age of Sigmar, with a dead Chaos Warrior at Be’lakor’s feet. Given that he’s a Daemon Prince, Games Workshop has also provided a base with a dead Primaris Space Marine. It makes sense. I get it. I like that he’ll be more usable. But a wee, irrational part of my b rain does bristle a little. Be’lakor is most definitely a fantasy character. He has a long association there, whereas he’s not really had a lot to do with 40K. As I said though, I do actually like that he’s usable in 40K.
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The Onyx Path releases Jumpstart for Geist: The Sin-Eaters – So, Geist is one of those World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness games that I just don’t know how to approach. Vampire is pretty straightforward to run in terms of motivation and keeping a party bound together. Same with Mage. Same with Werewolf. Changeling is easier in Changeling: the Dreaming but is still doable in Changeling: the Lost. Wraith, I have no idea. Geist is the same. Maybe another read through the rulebook would help.
The Jumpstart might actually give me what I need. Providing an introductory story, a set of pregenerated characters, an abbreviated set of rules and a number of plot hooks for later expansion, this might actually help me work out what sort of tone I should be hitting with this game, and what sort of motivation the characters should experience. I’ve not yet picked up any Jumpstarts for the various World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness titles, so I’m tempted to take a proper dive into this one. You know, for science, or something…
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Bezier Games releases a second edition of Suburbia – I liked the original edition of Suburbia, but it might actually represent one of the few occasions where I genuinely preferred the app version to actual game. I always felt there was a lot going on and a lot of bookkeeping that the app handled really well. It made the game flow well and allowed you to play through the rounds quite quickly. Now, it might be worth another look, as Bezier Games puts out a second edition of the game:
It’s a game of city building in which you place hexes to represent different neighbourhoods, features and amenities. There are bonuses for grouping together certain tiles as well, which is where the bookkeeping comes in. I like the game, so I’m curious as to what’s changed for this edition.
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Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent launches on Kickstarter – Right, so this is what Metzen’s been up to since leaving Blizzard. I did like his work on World of Warcraft, and I think he’s pretty good at worldbuilding, so I’m curious as to how his RPG setting will pan out:
I hope this turns out to be interesting and not just a bit of a vanity project. There seems to be a few bits and pieces in the book, with a handful of races and subclasses, but the bit that actually interests me is the Sigils System:
This does stand out as something new and different, so I’m keen to see how it actually works. I hope it’s more than just a simple, passive buff. This has the potential to be interesting.
Preorders available for PanOceania Military Orders Action Pack for Infinity – Oh, Infinity… How I love your miniatures… I don’t know why Infinity miniatures capture my attention so firmly. Maybe it’s the anime-esque aesthetic, though that doesn’t always do it for me. I like the slenderness of a lot of the minis, definitely, and I adore the armour designs. PanOceania is a force I’ve not collected, but I love the idea of their Military Orders subfaction:
The feel of an army of sci-fi crusaders appeals to me. I love the mix of the modern or futuristic with the archaic. I mean, it’s basically Catholics in Space™! These expanded starter sets are a great way to gather a nice foundation to an army that, if you are anything like me, you then will ultimately not get around to painting.
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Blog Posts & Articles
The meat of 5 on Friday, the articles are listed in no particular order, so let’s get into some recommendations:
Low Fantasy RPGs – Part One @ Burn After Running – I quite like low fantasy and, judging by the success of books and shows like A Song of Ice and Fire and/or A Game of Thrones, I’m not the only one to appreciate the genre. High fantasy can be fun, but I’ve long felt a bit fatigued by the tropes of that particular subgenre. The author of this post shares some cool games. I’ve heard of all of them, but only really know a lot of about Call of Cthulhu. There are some good recommendations here for me to go check out.
Sylvaneth Army – From Warcry to Age of Sigmar @ The Reading Room – I love the Sylvaneth and the miniatures range is really beautiful. Of course, at the moment, I am very much abusing that range as I cut them up and mix them with Nurgley bits! This author’s army looks great, and it’s fun to see someone dipping into AoS for the first time. Looking forward to seeing more!
SFB and Me @ Pile of Dice – So, Star Fleet Battles doesn’t mean much to me. I’ve not played it. I don’t really feel the need to. That said, I really enjoyed this article because this is what the hobby is all about. This is a gamer who just wants to share his passion for a game that he loves and, for that reason, it is well worth a read.
None More Black – review and Keeper advice @ Mindlands – I’ve been looking recently to pick up some Call of Cthulhu books, and so have been looking for reviews. Doors to Darkness is one that I’ve been looking at, so this is a cool writeup of a Keeper’s experience of running of the adventures from the book. It’s cool to read about other groups playing these adventures whilst I weight up whether to try it with a group of my own.
40K 9th. Edition – Finished! Indomitus Starter Box – Primaris Mentors Chapter @ Túbal Villar – Virakotxa – Now, this is just gorgeous! Not only are the paintjobs and conversion absolutely stunning, but the author’s decision to magnetise ever arm and head is mindboggling. This seems like a lot of work, but it makes your kits so flexible and versatile. This is really impressive in both the aesthetic and technical aspects.
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This week on NoRerolls, I shared some more progress on my Garden of Nurgle army. I’d like to try and post some sort of hobby progress each week. I’ve not been doing so well recently. and I’m trying to get back on the horse! There was also a wee writeup of session 0 of my Traveller campaign.
In the coming week, I’m aiming to post another Traveller writeup and perhaps the next part of my favourite video games series.
Catch ya’ll next week!
No Rerolls 
Thank you so much for the shout out!
It really was my first attempt at messing with magnets, and would suggest everyone giving it a try! A bag of 100 2mm. x 1mm. N52 neodymium magnets it’s under 5 (whateveryourcoin) I started with 3 mm. but that’s overkill… A drill-bit of the same size, superglue, and you are ready to go! Just have your polarity clear, and it’s not that much work at all! Specially with all you gain from it, as you mentioned. With the fun you can have posing and mixing, it’s no doubt the fun part! Moldlines are work… Magnetizing an arm takes way less time than cleaning its moldlines. Having some sculpting material in case something feels too loose inside that chest-part doesn’t hurt, but aluminium foil is non-magnetic, non-messy, non-expensive and might just do.
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