Miniatures.  I'm obsessed with them.  It was miniatures that got me back into gaming after being away for years.  Specifically Confrontation miniatures.  Sometimes they're a bit cartoony but that's sort of the appeal.  

It doesn't hurt that they're painted gorgeously either.

I was surprised to find I enjoy painting miniatures as an adult.  And there is a long list of truly wonderful miniature manufacturers out there, many of them small companies of only a few people. 

Of course my work has been stymied by rearranging the house but, with a new airbrush (that I'm learning to use), and an indoor place to airbrush, production should be up again soon.

Unusual Bugbears

Bugbears…

1.       Billbog:  Gray-brown long sparse hair, big scar across face.  Wields a switch -2 dam (min 1) +1 initiative.  Is perpetually grumpy about stuck doors and instructs in repair.  “Learn by doing.” Swack!

2.        Gipgak: Gangly with yellowing gray hair.  Wields pitchfork.  Perpetually hungry and easily distracted/diffused with a free meal.

3.       Frofil: Bushy brown hair, needs to cut fingernails.  Wields mace missing studs on one side.  Likes gambling and speaks in a toothy grin.

4.       Drod: Black hair, wry expression.  2-h sword.  Believes nothing she’s told.

5.       Silwig: Rust colored hair, big nose. Wield club covered in glue and glass.  Always drinking from magical wooden cup that perpetually fills with barely palatable swill.  Wants to know, “What’s going on here,” but doesn’t listen to answer.

6.       Drigldrak: Dark gray hair, Squints.  Wields massive thigh bone of unknown origin.  Utters “Not me I’m with child,” in falsetto during combat and chuckles.

7.       Bluod:  Tan hair, tall.  Wields giant oak soup spoon shouting “Have a taste”.

8.       Jif:  Pale gray hair, hangs in front of eyes.  Wields 2-h cleaver.  Delays fighting with arguing.

Daddy, where do bugbears come from?

Well, ehem.  You see when a daddy bugbear and a mommy bugbear love each other...

Actually we'll work that out in a bit.  Lets start with some basics.

Bugbears are 7-8 foot tall hairy goblinoids.  They are strong and exceeding quiet for their size.  Where goblins are more mischievous in nature bugbears are malevolent.  Cruel deaths, dismemberment, and disfigurement are their calling cards.  And stealth is a matter of pride.  Their enemies are met with strength and deception.

Bugbears build no cities, farm no lands, neither craft arms and armor nor sew clothes.  While they have been seen to pen animals for food, build crude huts and patch bits of cloth or armor together, the efforts are careless, temporary, and crude.  They do not give much thought or care to any labor.  Any possession a bugbear owns that is not makeshift was most likely either stolen, won in combat, or made by a subordinate non-bugbear (since they know better than to trust the handy work of their own kind).

They live in desolate and abandoned places.  Haunt might be a better word.  They leave bones and dust and ruin undisturbed.  They admire faded frescos, dim paintings, crumbled stone, and sagging glass.  The rooms and passages of a dead or displaced people are ideal to a bugbear.

Bugbears form large groups called clans though it is almost a requirement that there be lesser humanoids, commonly goblins, that can be subjugated into foraging for food.  A truly powerful leader is needed to keep tendencies of insubordination and inevitable power struggles from escalating in such a group.  Smaller groups of bugbears or individuals are much more common, and they will often seek out goblins to handle menial tasks.

It is a common punishment in bugbear communities to chain problem individuals.  Manacles are attached to the arms, feet, or neck and chains, bells, or both are bound to the bugbear.  The inability to be quiet can drive a bugbear mad. 

Bugbears believe themselves to be evil ghosts given form.   Only the cruel and malicious bugbear will be reincarnated after death.  Those that do not cause enough strife or who are loud will be trapped in the realm of spirts.  Shamanic bugbears are called ghost eaters among their kind and it is from devouring these disappointing ghosts that their power derives.  Worth noting is that undead often ignore or are indifferent to bugbears.  Ghosts, wraiths, banshees, etc.  treat them as like spirts.