Converted Figures from the Judge Dredd Rulebook

In the appendix of the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook are character record sheets for four pre-generated Judges who can be used as player characters or NPCs. I decided that I wanted to use them in my Judge Dredd campaign as NPCs. I own an extensive collection of 28-32mm 2000 AD miniatures so I decided to convert four of them to represent these four NPCs. These are all rank:5 (5d6) starting characters and I have tried to match them as close as possible to their illustrations in the rulebook.

At the far left is Med Judge Clayton Halsey, a clumsy clone who always tries to impress. Grown as a clone, all Clayton Halsey has known is the Academy of Law. His fellow cadets and Judges are his family and like all Judges, he is fiercely loyal in his belief and commitment. He was assigned to become a Med Judge despite his inner dream of being a Street Judge. He sometimes battles his own inner self who still resents the fact that he isn't on the streets cleaning Mega City One up, as opposed to having to patch and seal up Judges who are incompetent enough to get hurt in the line of duty. He knows that if he was walking the streets he wouldn't end up on the slab half as much as some of the Judges he regularly attends to. These feelings cause him anxiety at times as he struggles between his fierce loyalty and belief, and his inner anger and resentment. He is, however, very good at his job and often seems to put himself in harm's way to help fellow Judges, although that may be more so he has an excuse to get into a fight himself, satisfying his inner turmoil.
Next in line is Psi Judge Sera Devi, an inspiring human who cannot tell a lie. Sera Devi showed psychic aptitude from the day she was recruited into the Academy of Law aged 5. However, until she was 16, it seemed to be nothing more than just a minor talent she could use to make others see her in a more positive light. It wasn't until a jealous classmate attempted to frame her for cheating in a test that her powers truly blossomed, allowing her to see and share the truth of the matter with her superiors who discovered she was incapable of telling a lie.

Second from the right is Street Judge Jessica Morris, an athletic human who collects antiques. Judge Jessica Morris, has in her short time on the streets of Mega City One, become feared by the local street gangs in her assigned sector. This has been mostly achieved through an uncompromising attitude and liberal use of her Daystick. As a cadet she always excelled in the Applied Violence classes and as a rookie was assigned to Judge Ocks. Ocks, while young for a Senior Judge, was well known within in the Justice Department for using his formidable physical strength in confrontations with perps. Unsurprisingly, his rookie has followed his example in becoming a scourge for the city's street thugs. Judge Morris is currently awaiting reassignment having successfully tracked down a kidnapping gang operating in the sector. While it is possible she has brought all those perps to justice, she is almost certain that some of the gang escaped and she is currently on the lookout for any leads that may bring them within her grasp.
Finally, is Tek Judge Terence Novak, an erudite human who collects celebrity gossip. Tek Judge Terence Novak showed an aptitude for mechanics early on. After he dismantled and alphabetically arranged the components of every single electronic item in their home, his parents sought counselling, and Terence was immediately removed to the custody of the Justice Department to be trained as a Tek Judge. Cadet Novak  received a commendation when he used his mechanical skills to assist noted Judge Jack in the arrest of a disaffected cadet who attempted to destroy the academy with an improvised explosive device. Since becoming a qualified Tek Judge, Novak has not missed an opportunity to remind his peers of his achievement, a habit that has not made him popular with his fellow Judges,
Med Judge Halsey was the most complex conversion as he started life as a Tex City Judge, so I had to replace his Stetson hat and shoulder pads. Psi Judge Sera was a very simple conversion. All I did was add a Lawgiver Pistol to her left hand. Street Judge Morris had a sex change from male to female and I added her Daystick. As for Tek Judge Novak, he was simply a spare Tek Judge I had, so no conversion work was needed on him. All four of these figures were originally produced by Warlord Games but are now sadly out of production. I enjoyed converting them. I am now happily creating my own cast of Judges, Perps and Citizens for my Judge Dredd campaign. I can't wait to make a start on it.

Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD

This is the book I have been waiting for more than any other ever since it was announced over a year ago. This is Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD produced by EN publishing based on their WOIN role playing system. It has been written by Russ Morrissey, Darren Pearce, Nick Robinson and Rob Schwalb and runs to 270 pages. I should preface this review by stating that I am a massive fan of the WOIN role playing system (hence this blog) and an even bigger fan of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd. I have been collecting the comic since prog #1 and own every issue.
There are ten chapters to the book, all differently colour coded, which is a very nice touch. I'm going to review each chapter in turn.
Chapter 1: Introduction. This gives a brief history to the world of Judge Dredd in 2099, the start date of the scenarios presented in the book and in The Robot Wars supplement. This takes us right back to the start of Dredd's adventures in the 2000 AD comic. I can see the point of this although I expect some people would have preferred it to be set in Dredd's present day. Future supplements will progress in Dredd's timeline until we get to the present day in the Judge Dredd comic strip, currently 2141 as I type this. There is a very welcome three page example of play presented in a comic strip format.
Chapter 2: The Worlds of 2000 AD. This chapter gives brief overviews of many of the strips that have appeared in 2000 AD over the years. No doubt some readers will be asking "where is such and such strip?" Have no fear. EN Publishing hold the licence to produce all of the stories that appeared in 2000 AD so there is a good chance your favourite strip will appear at some time in the future. Just bear in mind, 2000 AD has a huge backlog of different stories. Currently in production are supplements for Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dogs.
Chapter 3: Character Creation. This chapter takes you through the process of creating a character to play in Mega City One, be it Judge, Perp or Citizen. When I bought the N.E.W. rulebook, primarily to check out the WOIN role playing system, I immediately fell in love with the character creation system. The idea of career paths greatly helps in bringing a character to life. This is the longest chapter in the book, running to 70 pages, and is the chapter I'll be referring to more than any other chapter. Brilliant and faultless!
Chapter 4: Equipment. Here are the stats and prices for your basic equipment, weapons, armour, shields, drugs, cybernetics and vehicles. My one criticism of this chapter is that it lacks pictures of the various items listed. The N.E.W. rulebook provided pictures of everything listed in its Equipment chapter and I found that a great aid. I'd have liked to have seen the same here, but I do appreciate it would have added to the page count considerably.
Chapter 5: Playing the Game. This chapter presents all the rules you need for playing any game based on a 2000AD comic series, not just Judge Dredd. It includes rules for the Attribute check, common tasks, countdowns, the role of Luck, combat, injury and death, objects and the environment. You'll need to refer to this chapter if you buy any any supplement for a different 2000 AD story setting.
Chapter 6: Mega City One. This chapter gives you a history of the city, a gazetteer, a glossary of MC1 terms and a list of crimes and their punishments. What I particularly liked about this chapter was in the gazetteer, each location came with ideas for using that location with your PCs, thus giving you loads of scenario plots.
Chapter 7: Games Master Advice. A very helpful chapter for Games Masters giving advice on running campaigns, published adventures, creating organisations (note that the rules for creating organisations in N.E.W. are very similar but much more detailed), types of scenarios and campaigns, plots and railroading, opponents and rewards.
Chapter 8: Crime Blotter. This is simply five short scenarios that can be played by Judges, Perps or Citizens. I really appreciated this as you can never have too many scenario ideas.
Chapter 9: State of the Empire. This is a much longer scenario, set in the decaying and mostly derelict Empire State Building. Once again, it can be played by Judges, Perps or Citizens. A great introductory scenario. The floor plans were a very useful addition.
Chapter 10: Foes. This gives you the rules for creating foes. Note that these rules are very different to the character creation rules in Chapter 3. In there, you start with an origin and advance your character until you reach whatever grade your Games Master has assigned you (usually rank grade:5). In this chapter you pick the grade you want and work backwards from there. Examples of common NPCs found in Mega City One round out this chapter.
Appendix. Here you will find six pages of quick reference rules as well as four pre-generated Judge characters. I have converted four of my 28mm scale Judge figures to represent these four characters and I'll showcase them in a future post.
My thoughts on this book is that it far exceeded my expectations and I believe it is the best Judge Dredd RPG that has ever been produced. The whole layout and production values of the book are of  a very high standard. I showed this book to my brother, who is not a role player, and his first comment was, "Wow, this is very impressive!" WOIN has quickly become my favourite RPG system of all time, and so I can't wait to get started on my own campaign. Will I be playing Judges, Perps or Citizens? That's a no-brainer - it has to be Judges. Judge Scott will live again.
Do I have any criticisms of the book? Yes, a few. As I said above, I'd have loved to have seen pictures of all of the equipment items. I'd also have liked to have seen a map of Mega City One, showing all of its 300+ sectors. Finally, for a book called Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD where were the stats for Judge Dredd? That's a serious omission in my opinion. I did ask Russ this question and he replied that Dredd's stats will appear in future supplements as he ages and grows in experience. He also gave me a link to download Judge Dredd's Character Record Sheet as he appears in 2099. Here he is. Surely this should have appeared in the rulebook and not as a download.

Here are my maps of Mega City One that I downloaded from the Internet.

And here's a map of the Undercity. Feel free to copy any of these pictures.

Judge Dredd GM's Screen & Counters Set

Last Friday was a very happy day for me. It was the day when I received my Kickstarter bundle from EN Publishing for the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD RPG rulebook, the Judge Dredd: Robot Wars supplement, Judge Dredd GM's Screen and Judge Dredd Counters Set. I have been eagerly awaiting this rulebook ever since I first heard it being announced over a year ago. I shall review the rulebook in my next post and the Robot Wars supplement after that. In this post I'm going to take a closer look at the other two products, starting with the Judge Dredd GM's Screen. I'd seen photos of it before, but when I actually held it in my hands I was blown away by the high quality of it. It is by far, the best Games Master's Screen I have ever seen. It is such a beautiful product. What I was not expecting was just how thick and sturdy it is. It is made of very thick card, which gives it real heft. Facing the players in the centre of the screen is a two page picture of Judge Dredd being flanked by two other Judges, all on Lawmaster bikes. Beautifully painted by Brian Bolland it is also the image used as the front cover of the rulebook. To the left of the screen is a table listing various crimes and their sentences - a very useful aid for players with little or no knowledge of the Law. On the right side of the screen are all the stats you need for the Judge's Lawmaster Bike and Lawgiver Pistol. On the reverse side are an assortment of useful tables for the GM. From left to right are the Character Creation rules; next up are stats for a selection of melee weapons, ranged weapons, equipment quality and what some of the character's Attributes mean; these are followed by a page with tables for Skill ranks and their meaning, Difficulty scores for tasks, Derived Statistics and their associated Skills, Dice Pools and a list of NPCs and where to find them in the rulebook; finally is a long list of encounters for Judges on patrol, listing the Perps, the Crime and the Location. Obviously, the screen can't list every table in the rulebook, but it does cover the ones that will most commonly be used  by both players and GMs. I can't recommend it too highly if you want to run a game of Judge Dredd.

Less useful is the Card Counters Set. I got them simply because I'm a completist but I can't see me using them much, if at all. The majority of the thick card counters (only printed on one side) are 25mm in diameter. Some of the larger NPCs like the Heavy Metal Kids and Octopus Guard are 50mm in diameter and the counters for the Lawmaster Bikes are rectangular in shape, measuring 25mm by 50mm. There are 54 different counters, some of which are singular and others with multiple identical counters. They are designed to be used with the main scenario from the rulebook and the Robot Wars supplement. I have such a vast collection of 28-32mm scale Judge Dredd figures that I simply have no use for them but if you're just starting out on running a Judge Dredd scenario or campaign then these will come in very useful, especially as there are currently no companies producing figures for Judge Dredd. Warlord Games own the licence to produce them and will be making them in the future but I have no idea when that will happen. It is unlikely to be this year. Sadly, there is no counter for Judge Dredd himself - definitely an oversight in my opinion.

Ghostbreakers: Spirits of Manhattan

Spirits of Manhattan is the third of EN Publishing's W series of supplements that reimagine certain films and TV series and gives them a twist to fit in with the WOIN RPGs, specifically N.O.W. in this case. This one is based on the Ghostbreaker series of films - Ghostbreakers: Spirits of Manhattan, Ghostbreakers II: Ectoplasmic Boogaloo, Ghostbreakers III: Through the Nether, Ghostbreakers IV: Seems Like Teen Spirits, The Ghostbreakers Project and The Ghostbreakers (2010 reboot). Spirits of Manhattan is set in New York in the year 1984 and features the four Ghostbreakers who appear in most of the films, scientist Dr. Aurora Bradshaw, exorcist priest Carlos Martin, scientist Dr. Miles Wheeler and taxi driver Kimberlyn Gardner, plus their receptionist Emeline Holt, a half-ghost (she is fully corporeal and cannot become incorporeal) and Patrick Dempsey, a business major who oversees the team's finances.
The first part of this 74 page supplement written by David F. Chapman has rules for two new careers (Demonologist and Exorcist), equipment used by the Ghostbreakers (their Ghostmobile is a converted pope mobile!), info and floor plans of the locations that feature in the story, and stats for an assortment of supernatural entities. The bulk of the book is the introductory scenario, Spirits of Manhattan, which follows the plot of the first film. It is split into three acts, each of which are broken down into a number of scenes. The book ends with character record sheets for the six characters mentioned above, if you want to use them instead of creating your own characters.

Clearly this supplement is based on the real world Ghostbusters films. As such the tone of it is comedic and not dark or serious. The characters in this adventure are normally those featured in the Ghostbreakers: Spirits of Manhattan movie. If the players prefer, they could create their own characters, usually a combination of scientists, occult experts, students and slackers. Of course, using the adventure as a guide, you could run your game after the events of the movie with your own team of Ghostbreakers, working as a franchise of the main group, located anywhere in the world. All they'd need is some start-up funding, the blueprints of the technology (available for a hefty licensing fee from the original team) and a vehicle they can modify.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this supplement and I very much want to play it. Indeed, it inspired me to send off for the Paranormal Investigator figures and the ECTO-1 vehicle from Crooked Dice Games. I'll review them here as soon as I get them painted. Spirits of Manhattan has suggestions for future scenarios if you want to turn this into a campaign. You could also convert the scenarios from CDG's Paranormal Investigators supplement to add even more variety to your campaign. I bought my copy of Spirits of Manhattan for £15.90 from Amazon UK.