Darnok

Wow... "Island of Flowers" indeed. You did an awesome job of creating this scene. I absolutely love the flowers in the background, but that water-to-beach transition is equally impressive. There are lots of things to see in this, and I really adore the whole thing. Well done!

I had to climb down to page 3 to find this again. Could a thread like this, for the time it is running, please be sticky'd?

No worries, I just wanted to set things right. Thank you for the quick response!

I guess it is just an oversight soon to be corrected: I can not find myself in the account summary. See this post for my characters introduction.

Great build, lovely interior. There is only one thing I do not like, and that is the gap between walls at the front right corner. Just a personal taste thing, and I guess it is due to unavailable bricks.

Credit where credit is due: well done! There are some amazing builds to be found here, I am impressed. Keep going! And just surrender to Corrington to make all this beauty ours...

Nice one! When I first noticed the wheels, I was irritated, but then I read about your plans. I would love to see pictures from the finished build on the BMA!

Quite the boat you've got there. The "blockiness" is in character with the inspiration, which I guess came from this beast: This is Chinese explorer Zheng He's ship compared to Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria. The Wikipedia article on Zheng He is worth a read. As for the Komodo Dragon again: I think it would profit from a tiled deck, as well as some more details on the main deck. Maybe another door to the lower decks? I do love the other details though, especially the "irregular" ladders and the food containers. Those things add a lot. A truly impressive build!

That story captured the insanity of administration and bureaucracy perfectly. And there is a nice build on top of it, awesome! Really well done.

Bad style! I did not say anything!

Oi, I can not wait to see the finished ship. It might not stay the biggest boat on the Brick Seas for long though...

This sounds like a great project, and once finished will be a valuable source for veterans and starters alike. Currently I have enough on my plate already, and my minifig collection would be of no help anyway. You have my moral support and best wishes though!

This is just getting better. Another great series, which I wish could be mine. I don't think I even have enough distinct minifigs in that style for a full series...

I think you misunderstood me. I am talking about two of these minichallenges, not a build for both the Oktoberfest and the Railway. Combining those two would be a tough challenge indeed.

Some more questions... 1. Concerning point "4.": I suppose I have to pay those 150Db? Are there loans available for new players like myself? 2. Concerning point "6.": that is the same type of rails that comes with, for example, the Christmas Train, correct? 3. Concerning points "8." and "9.": is there some more source material for Cocovia? Previous builds, ingame texts, real life inspiration? 4. Can I enter more than one of the minichallenges? Closely related to this: can one build be entered into more than one minichallenges? I'm really looking forward to this. Some ideas are there already, now Reinhard just has to catch a ride to Weelond for the Oktoberfest, but also leave for Cocovia shortly after that! Busy days in the Terra Nova...

Sorry for me being a noob, but what does "1000 studs in size" mean? A 32x32 baseplate and anything on it?

Brilliant! You also have a very funny writing style - I just spent half an hour digging through older stories of yours, and couldn't stop laughing. I absolutely love it. The microscale ship is excellent, and the flowing waves... so awesome. An all around great display. Please, more of this!

To start with the TL/DR version: how realistic do you consider the BotBS setting to be, and how realistic should it be in your opinion? Now for the wall of text... It is obvious that the BotBS setting is roughly based on a 16th to 19th century era of exploration, colonisation and seafaring (usually referred to as the "Age of Sail"). Overall, it seems like the romantic aspects are emphacised - especially in relation to piracy - but it is a RPG in the end, so that is only fair. I do wonder though how much realism is integral to the games setting, and what its players expect or are willing to accept. I will try to draw two sketches from the oppsoing end of the spectrum to illustrate what I am talking about: The setting is deeply rooted in realism and historical accuracy, mostly based around earths history of a given timeframe. In game terms nothing that would not be historically plausible is acceptable. In terms of roleplaying and Lego builds you would have to strictly go by historical examples. Ever ship built needs to meet the standards of a specific timeframe, any building has to mirror the architecture of a certain period. Some might even go as far as restrict what minifigures (depending on clothing style) are accepted or not. The setting is, at best, loosely based on any historical precedents. There are heavy influences from fantasy and/or sci-fi - take any "Final Fantasy" as a good example. Anything goes, as long as it is even somewhat plausible. Your roleplaying and any builds you come up with can be crazy, as long as you don't get downright silly. From what I have gathered so far, the BotBS setting is much farther from "2" than it is from "1", but obviously not close to the first example. Historical accuracy is appreciated by most current players, but not strictly enforced, I would describe it as "Pirates of the Carribean Light - without the zombie pirates". To further illustrate my point: think about Lego ship sets and their place in the BotBS setting. Anybody with even the slightest bit of knowledge of shipbuilding history is aware of the historical inaccuracy of any and all existing Lego Pirates ships. There is nothing wrong with that, they obviously have to take play features and the restrictions of a "kids toy" into account. All Lego sets are an abstraction of their real world counterparts, and those sets are no different. They are loosely based on historical examples, but not more. So the question is: are you happy with using those exact sets in a game like this? Or would you object to them - either by claiming "MOC one yourself" or by "please be more historically accurate"? The guidelines are clear: this is about the "Age of Sail", steampunk and dragonriders are obviously out of the picture. There is lots of wiggle room with this though, and everybody has his or her own red lines not to be crossed. Having said that: how do people feel about this? What do you expect from this, and what are you (not) willing to accept? Where do you draw the line? P.S.: I will state my own opinion on the matter at a later point, for now I do not want to force the discussion one way or the other.

Now if that is not an impressive first post, I do not know what could be. Your characters backstory is interesting. It offers some strong plot points, but leaves enough freedom for development in almost any direction. I really like it. Same goes for your builds. Are those parts of something bigger, or "only" the vignetttes shown? The second shot in particular catched my eye: I imagine it being part of a much larger and very impressive ship. Does that ship exist as a whole? I would love to see it. You also seem to have quite the minifig collection for this, I'm jealous! As another recently joined Corlander - I'm instantly not the youngest anymore, right? - my welcome and best wishes go to you. Ask your questions, the lot down here is friendly and supportive at all times. I hope to see more from you soon!

Oi, it seems like I have hit a nerve here. Great replies so far, I will get back to some of them later. For now, as promised, my own opinion. To be honest... it is complicated. On the one hand, I admire people who do some research and put extra effort into building something as close as possible to the original. That is a creative act of its own, and often quite a challenge. On the other hand: Lego is an obvious abstraction from reality, and I think one should embrace rather than hide this. In the end I feel being limited way too much by "historic accuracy", whatever that means in a hobby around standard sized building blocks. One of my first "big" sets was the Black Seas Barracuda. I loved it, despite all its faults (especially by todays standards). My current favourite is the Brickbeard's Bounty, and I'm sure you can see the similarities. This is the style I prefer when it comes to Lego ships, and it is quite a bit away from "realistic". For anything in the BotBS game I would happily use any regular Lego ship set, even unmodified - as long as it is for "background purposes" only. Take my characters introducton as an example: I used an (almost) unmodified Imperial Flagship, but only as "scenery" to showcase my character. The model did fit the situation I wanted to show, and to be honet I had nothing better at hand in that moment. I would never use that model "ingame" though. Same goes for my unmodified BBB - nice for some action scenes as background, but not usable as my own "content". Currently I am contemplating on what to do with some "raw material" I aquired over the last weeks: two BBB kits and a Brick Bounty (similar, but different). Both would leave me with enough parts to build a sizable merchant ship in Corrington colors. One idea is to go for a more massive "regular ship" with three or four masts, wider hull and bigger and more ornate everything. While history nuts would raise an eyebrow, I think this would be fine for almost everbody. But then there is another idea... Think about a massive two-hull ship with a structure between them. Similar to this or this (swimming, and without the steampunk elements of course), with two or even three masts per hull. It would be an absolute beast - The Beast? - completely over the top and unrealistic. But I would love it. In my opinion this would raise more than a few eyebrows, and even provoke disapproval from some - but as long as this monstrosity did not interfere in other characters storylines, it should be okay... ish. Right? I can tell you this: while I am heavily influenced by steampunk, movies like "Hook" or "Pirates of the Carribean" (the first and only!) and video game RPGs as well as action adventures from the 90ies (Final Fantasy 6-9, Secret of Mana/Evermore, Breath of Fire 2), I will respect the rules of this game. My "style" is a good bit away from history - I just named my main influences - but there will be no machines, magic shotguns or similar shenanigans in anything I bring up here. I might build The Beast though... Finally, I want to stress that I have the utmost respect for anybody striving for historical accuracy. As stated above, this is a real creative challenge, and I respect the effort going into it. It is just not the cup of tea I would like to have on my personal shelf. That will not stop me from enjoing the works of others though!

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this: It is a pretty awesome MOC, and features round walls you could use. Using different greys could get you the irregular stone pattern you are looking for.

We are not talking about any official Lego instructions, correct? As far as I know these are all available for free, at different places of the internet. There are instructions for the Flying Dutchman from the PotC movies available for sale, but again I do not think that is what you are looking for. I have no Pinterest account, so can not verify the usefulness of these: check this and this link. Finally: if you find something useful: please share! I would be most interested.

Awesome display! I absolutely love the skelleton, and that vulture build is impressive, yet simple. Same goes for the overgrown walls: not a difficult build, but effective. The whole thing tells a lot of stories, and just oozes character.

I wonder if there is in-universe background for the Oktoberfest? Of course the reference is with the Bavarian (not German!) festivity known as Oktoberfest, but why is it part of the BotBS? There must be a nation/region/town where this version of the Oktoberfest originated, and I... would like to know more.

I'm jealous again - what a great set of minifigs! Is there a chance you could give us details about what parts (and their sources) you have used? Thanks in advance.