Spelljamming Giff

[Scarbonac]

All I need now are some minis of Ninteenth-Century-Naval Uniformed Hippo People.

Easy... not. Maybe some old spelljamming figures are out there still.

I had to make one, using a half-ogre w/cutlass (I think) for the body (after adding a wheel-lock pistol to the other hand) and the head was that of a hippo mini that came in a Ral Partha blister pack of "jungle" animals.

The only giff minis that I ever saw besides my mod was a set of 15mm Giff marines.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Personally, I always thought of it as a weird (loosely based on real world mythological cosmology) but serious and very dark setting. I mean, you have some very very nasty aliens, most of whom get around in space by killing slaves. Plus pirates everywhere. And not the campy, friendly POTC-Disney/Freeport style pirates. And an impending invasion by the goblinoid races.

Not to forget the un-tolkiensque elven imperial navy... We hates them elvses!

 

[Ahzad]

I had to make one, using a half-ogre w/cutlass (I think) for the body (after adding a wheel-lock pistol to the other hand) and the head was that of a hippo mini that came in a Ral Partha blister pack of "jungle" animals.

The only giff minis that I ever saw besides my mod was a set of 15mm Giff marines.

Reaper did a nice stone golem that would make for a Giff, but he's not very customizable w/o a lot of work.

http://www.reapermini.com/gallery/2500s/2597_G

 

[BOZ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giff

 

[MojoGM]

Ok, we need the next D&D Mini set to have a Giff.

Who is with me?

 

[Harker Wade]

Giff rock!

 

[crazy_cat]

Ok, we need the next D&D Mini set to have a Giff.

Who is with me?

Hippo Men. In Space. With Guns. And Explosions. And more Guns. How cool is that!

(To be fair you had me with just "Hippo Men")

 

[Henry]

Cast another vote here for the Giff!

They're basically the very lawful version of berserkers. They crave military order and discipline, and absolutely love battles and blowing things up. They're like merry Klingons.

Actually, my read on the Giff was more like 19th century Victorian British Officers - kind of a "Commander McBragg" sort of fashion.

 

[Dragonbait]

Another vote here for the Giff mini. I have the Reaper hippo-man mini. It's a stone golem with what I guess is Egyptian-ish clothing. It's one of the heavier minis that I own.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Am I the only one who thinks that the designer who said "I know, anthropomorphic hippos!" in the design meeting should have been taken out and soundly thrashed?

The Giff race was one of the few things I liked about Spelljammer. In a game in which there are, besides elves and dwarves, all manner of anthropomorphic animals, I don't see the Giff as especially odd. It could be that, culturally (for us here in the west), the hippo is seen to be a big, roly-poly critter who looks pretty inoffensive, and thus a ridiculous-looking choice for anthropomorphism. But the hippo is a pretty dangerous, powerful animal. Does it look goofy as a humanoid? To an extent, sure. But so do critters like gnolls (hyena-headed) or even old-school orcs (who were literally pig-headed).

I also dug the image of the Giff in 19th-century Prussian-style uniforms, wearing monacles. But that may just be me.