Into The Badlands - Hero Forge Customised Miniatures

One of my favourite TV shows at the moment is AMC’s “Into The Badlands”. Currently in its third season, it has gone from strength to strength and provides an entertainingly heady mix of furious (and at times extremely bloody!) martial arts action, political manoeuvrings and fantastical elements set in a post-apocalyptic America 500 years in the future.

It struck me that the Badlands setting and mythos provides the perfect basis for a tabletop miniatures-based skirmish game. All the elements are in place: the diverse rival factions and mercenaries; the hierarchies within those factions (Barons at the top of the pyramid, assisted by their Regents (right-hand men and women), Clippers (trained assassins) and Cogs (grunts)); the wildly over-the-top martial arts combat with plenty of parkour-style flying around the table; the potential for cinematic feats (e.g. certain characters possess a dark “gift” whereby their eyes turn black when enraged and they then proceed to slaughter their foes wholesale while in a berserk state…), all in a post-apocalyptic setting for which all kinds of terrain options are readily available.

(At this point I should probably just add that I hope there will be no IP-related issues with my posting this project – given that I am not seeking to profit from it in any way I would hope not – but I am sure someone will tell me soon enough if otherwise!)

Being neither a miniature sculptor nor a game designer, just an avid gamer and amateur miniature painter with about a year’s experience under my belt, I decided to start a mini-project where I would initially look to create a few of the iconic characters from the show in suitably epic poses using the Hero Forge custom miniature design website (www.heroforge.com). I would then attempt to paint them up to a reasonable standard. Down the line, I might even attempt to come up with a basic custom ruleset for a Badlands skirmish game, though that is definitely some way off yet (if at all!).

So… on with the show! First step, designing some figures in Hero Forge…