Star Citizen

Star Citizen Crowdfund Pitch - 720p from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.

Cyberpunk/Industrial/40k/Necromunda Terrain

While looking at detailing my upcoming Shadowrun campaign, I again stumbled across Necromundicon, a site I found when I first started messing around with 40k.  With terrain tutorials covering a range of games, it's actually a great place to get inspiration for terrain for games of your choosing.

Easy Cyberpunk Terrain

As I look toward fleshing out my Shadowrun campaign, I find myself toying with the idea of running using miniatures -- something I've not done in a modern or futuristic setting before.  In my searching, I stumbled across a site I initially found when looking to make Warhammer 40k terrain -- a site dedicated to a game called Combat Zone.  On this site, they show how to make 28mm cyberpunk terrain primarily out of old Plasticville model railroad sets, and the results are stunning.  Pictures, and the link, after the jump.

Mantic Games: Deadzone

Mantic Games is at this point largely known for its proxies of obsolete Games Workshop models, such as zombies or Chaos Dwarves.  Last year, they ran a Kickstarter program that allowed their fantasy game to move past that, teasing beautiful angels, werewolves, ogres, and other sculpts that weren't Games Workshop-related.  They then announced Dreadball, an updated, science-fiction focused dreadball.  In comparison, the releases for their science fiction line, Warzone, were rather lackluster.  I was nonplussed by their space Orkcx and space Dwarves, and their humanoids seemed to try to just be another Imperial Guard world army in 40k.  Now, though, Mantic is teasing a step out of Games Workshop's shadow with their science fiction line.  In a little over one week, they will have a kickstarter for a science fiction skirmish game, Deadzone.

Shadowrun 5: Limits

One of the things I enjoyed most about PAX was getting the chance to test D&D Next and SR5.  My D&D Next thoughts will have to wait, due to my possible playtest participation, but I am free to comment on SR5.  The biggest change SR5 makes is creating limits for each set of stats.

Cyberpunk 2077 Preview

Mongoose Traveller Cheat Sheet

The Traveller books have always had some editing issues.  The layout leaves you flipping through the combat chapter to identify where all of the rules you're looking at are, and there is inconsistent usage of terms in the Mongoose books.  There are also a lot of things that are left unsaid.  I made a cheat sheet to walk players through combat.  The one thing I had to extrapolate was unarmed damage -- that part was left completely unexplained.  I got the damage from the creature damage chart, but I guessed (and I might be wrong) that player damage is locked at d6+Effect damage.  If it's wrong, I'm more than glad to correct it.  But for now -- a download link.

The Sin of Damnation

After my nerdgasm about the possibility of a true-to-tabletop strategy adaptation of Warhammer Fantasy, another foot drops: Space Hulk is being re-made as a digital title.  This goes to show that Games Workshop is trying to draw players in on more platforms at a time in order to increase the value of their IP.  It's working.

Competing with an IP

Competing with an established IP is difficult.  Even with players generally unfamiliar with source material, a quick search on Google can net a wealth of information, effectively spoiling plot.  This leaves gamemasters with a wealth of background knowledge that could be exposed at a moment's notice, or leaves the gamemaster heading into uncharted territory in a manner that leaves the players feeling like the GM has moved too far away from the established IP.

Fly Me Again

Traveller has been a game I've been putting a lot of attention into lately.  After the first character  I generated, I realized that I might need to make someone that was more useful to the party.

Disney and Star Wars

I admit, I initially winced when I heard about Disney's buyout of LucasArts. I expected it to be equivalent to the "Merchandising" scene in Spaceballs. And then I thought about it some more.

The Gravtrawler

The Gravtrawler, the 1km-long grav racer I mentioned in my Traveller biography, is actually something I mathed out using the Civilian Vehicles handbook.  I don't have access to the new combined handbook, so there might be something I'm missing.

Starting Skills in Mongoose Traveller

Mongoose Traveller determines your starting skills by the career you pick.  As part of my own character creation process, I looked at every career in MGT.  Here, I'm posting a list of careers, including source book and skill, for your convenience.

Fly Me To the Moon

Earlier in the week, I discussed the use of lifepath generators.  Today, I spent a bit of time creating and exploring a lifepath via the Mongoose Traveller system.

Digital Media

One of the pitfalls of modern television programming is the complete ignorance of the internet at the hands of most providers.  With a few networks excepted, some of the most popular shows on television are simply not available on the internet legally, or if they are, it's at significant restriction.  HBO is particularly terrible at programming in a digital age, but even the Big Bang Theory is unavailable.  It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before media companies noticed YouTube, Vimeo, and the World Wide Web as a distribution platform.

Kickstarter Feature: Space Command

I have to admit, I've got a soft spot for old, kitschy science fiction.  Space Command is quite appealing -- a classic science fiction movie, made by veterans of the industry.  At worst, it'll be the next Plan 9 From Outer Space.  At best, it'll remind us why we're all nerds to begin with.