söndag 30 oktober 2016

Map-making for my World-building

Greetings and welcome once more to the tabletop multiverse.

In today's post I will be going back to discussing my world-building project, and map-making for said project to be precise.

In the last few days I have been practicing my map-making skills and learning how to use Campaign Cartographer, or Campaign Cartographer 3+ to be precise. As I am learning more and more about the program I am coming to the realization that it is a really good program for map-making, albeit a bit much to learn for a newbie map-maker such as myself. In the beginning I think I was struggling a bit with my own wish to be good at it straight from the get-go, and to be able to make really good maps, and especially the maps that I wanted to make, right from day 1. Of course I know that something like that isn't really possible, and I have moved away from that into finally actually practicing with the program and making practice maps. I still feel like I am learning something new every day I practice with it, which I suppose is good, and there are still a lot of question-marks that I need answered before I start going into making the actual maps that I need.

As I said before, Campaign Cartographer 3+ is a really good program, and it had better be considering the price. I am still a novice at the whole map-making thing and so I realize that I am probably making a lot of mistakes, and doing things the wrong way, when I really don't need to. If anyone out there is really good at using that particular program feel free to send me a message. I could do with some advice in finding good tutorials etc, as well as some pointers.

So, why am I so into making maps at the moment, you may ask? The reason is quite simple really. I have a lot of written material for my world-building now. Probably enough to fill 3 or 4 different continents, at least mostly, with cultures, civilizations, races, etc. Now I need the maps to get a better visual on how everything fits together. I have it in my head, but I think it will be immensely helpful to have visual maps to look at as well. I don't need anything super-detailed, but enough for me to get a view of the general layout of various regions, where the mountains and mountain-ranges are, the woods, rivers, lakes, major cities and towns, etc, and how it all relates to one-another.

I am sure I will get to that point eventually. I just need to learn how to do it first, and how to make decent looking maps that will work for what I need them for.

A couple of things I miss in Campaign Cartographer - though it might just be that I haven't found those specific functions yet - is a way to just mark something and then click to see what is effecting it at the moment, what sheet and layer it is on, etc. Sort of just to get a good view of it as I have on several occasions been bewildered as to why an item or thing on the map is behaving the way it is, or why a command suddenly isn't making it do what it did before any more. Another thing I am missing is a measuring device. Something along the lines of what AutoREALM has where you can measure distances in feet, meters, miles, kilometers, or even things such as 'days travel by horse' or 'days by sailed galley'. I know this exists because I have tinkered and experimented with AutoREALM a bit in the past, but not many maps have really been produced from it and in any case no maps that have had any real purpose or seen any use.

That's about it for this time, I think.

Until next time.

torsdag 27 oktober 2016

Halloween Horror Sales!

Greetings my fellow citizens of the Tabletop Multiverse.

For those who haven't noticed yet, there are tabletop Halloween sales going on all around the place online at the moment. I thought I would link you to a couple of them to get you started, in case you wanted to go see if you could find a good game for Halloween. If you haven't seen my earlier post on 11 tabletop horror games for Halloween then you can take a look at that as well for some gaming suggestions. :)

Here's a quick list of links to a couple of places that are currently (at the time of writing this) holding halloween sales for tabletop RPGs, and the like.

DriveThruRPG

RPGnow

To most avid tabletop gamers out there, both of those websites will probably be familiar, but for any who haven't found their way to them yet, they are good places to find tabletop rpgs.

I would also recommend visiting the websites of various publishers to see if they have a sale on any of their products. Again, you can find link to some of them in my 11 tabletop horror games for Halloween post. :)

Until next time!

måndag 24 oktober 2016

Kickstarter for Mutant: Elysium, the new expansion for Mutant: Year Zero.

Greetings!

Fria Ligan (English website: Free League Publishing) has started up a Kickstarter for their new expansion for Mutant: Year Zero, called Mutant: Elysium. It will be the 3rd major expansion for Mutant: Year Zero, the previous two being Mutant: Gene Lab Alpha and Mutant: Machinarium.

The current Kickstarter is only for the Swedish version of the game, but according to Fria Ligan there will be a translated version in English released at a later, so far unspecified, date.

This new expansion deals with the un-mutated humans that remain in the world, their "Ätter" (which I suppose could be translated into "clans") and their life in the enclave 'Elysium I'. It will contain new rules, a colour map, a new campaign, and much more.

The Kickstarter has only been up a few days, but it has already amassed 448 backers and almost 6 times their pledge-goal, currently sitting (at the time of writing this) at 333,397 SEK (Swedish crowns) out of a goal of 50,000 SEK. They have already unlocked 5 out of 9 stretch goals. and I hope they will get to unlock all of them. There is also still 17 days to go on the Kickstarter, so if you go to the Kickstarter which is linked at the start of this post and like what you see, there is still time if you want to back it.

Personally I used to really enjoy playing the Mutant games back in the day. I enjoy Mutant: Year Zero as well, but have as of yet not found someone to play it, or any of the expansions, with, or really the time, so I can't really say much about what it is like to play. However I have heard a lot of good things about it, so I am excited for when I can give it a try. :)

Until next time!

torsdag 20 oktober 2016

11 tabletop horror games for Halloween.

Greetings!

As Halloween is fast approaching I thought I would talk a bit about tabletop games that you can play this Halloween. They may not necessarily be inherently Halloween-themed games, but I think they will fill the purpose anyway. :)

So, let's get started! You can click on the heading for each game to get to a site where you can learn more about the game and buy it should you so wish.



The classic horror-themed tabletop role playing game from Chaosium. Comes warmly recommended. :) There are a lot of Cthulhu games out there, other than the classic Call of Cthulhu, so I am sure your gaming group will be able to find one that suits its need. H.P. Lovecraft's mythos is very popular.



Another strong contender is Dread, a tabletop role playing game that takes a slightly different approach to horror in its mechanics.Published by The Impossible Dream, it uses a tower of Jenga bricks, with the players drawing a brick each time they attempt to do something. The player can also refuse to draw, but then automatically fails whatever it was they were attempting to do. If the tower falls, the character dies, which helps add extra tension to the game play.



A horror themed board game from Fantasy Flight Games that I haven't had a chance to play myself but have heard a lot of good things about. Using the H.P. Lovecraft mythos to great effect. It's a game for 1-8 players.



The original Kult tabletop role playing game was a Swedish horror game from the early 90's. It is now getting a new edition courtesy of Swedish game-developer Helmgast (website is in Swedish). I am not sure if this has been released yet, but I wanted to put it in here anyway as I used to really like the old Kult game.



A tabletop role playing game in the survival horror genre from Eden Studios where you fight for your survival in a world where the dead has risen again. Pretty straight forward really.



Noctum is a tabletop role playing game designed by Mischa L Thomas, and released through his company Wicked World Games 1.1 - although some sources claim that Mongoose Publishing has the 3rd edition of this game I have not been able to find anything about it on their website. Either way, while I haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, I do like the look of it and I have only heard people speak positively about it. Read up on it by following the link and if you like it I would suggest getting it. :)



A tabletop role playing game from Evil Hat Productions where you all play as insomniac protagonists with super powers. Just make sure your character doesn't push him- or herself too far...



Curse of Strahd for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, made by Wizards of the Coast, have been a huge hit so far with the D&D community. It is classified as a Fantasy Horror game, and one I highly recommend.



A zombie survival tabletop role playing game, from publisher Hunters Books. It presents itself as a "Zombie Survival Simulation RPG" on the website. I haven't tried this one myself, but it looks interesting and the few bits I have heard about it seems promising.



Are you a fan of movies such as Friday 13th, Halloween, and other such "slasher" movies? If so, then this tabletop role playing game from Spectrum Games might be what you are looking for.



Tabletop roleplaying game from Alligator Alley Entertainment, according to DrivethruRPG. I have unfortunately not been able to find an official website for the game, so the link leads directly to the DrivethruRPG webpage for it. I haven't looked at the second edition myself yet, but the first edition seem interesting. If you enjoy hunting demons and other things in the late 1600's (the first game is set in 1689, I think it was), then this is a game for you. It labels itself as a horror game, which is why it is on this list.


The links I have posted for these games go to the developer's website, with the exception of Witch Hunter where I couldn't find one. That one instead links to DriveThruRPG.

I know that Halloween isn't quite here for another week or so, but I wanted to compile this list in advance to give people a chance to look up these games in their own time and possibly decide on one they would like to play for Halloween with their friends.

See you all next time!

onsdag 19 oktober 2016

New expansion for Mutant: Year Zero coming up.

Greetings!

Swedish RPG company Free League Publishing (Fria Ligan in Swedish), who created Mutant: Year Zero, has announced a new expansion for the game, the third one so far, called Mutant: Elysium. They will be launching the Kickstarter for it tomorrow (Thursday). This time it is about non-mutated humans in the post-apocalyptic setting of Mutant: Year Zero.

They haven't released much else in terms of information about it yet, save for a teaser picture which can be found, for example, on their Facebook page. It is only showing a part of the cover image for Mutant: Elysium, with a promise to show more of it once the Kickstarter is up and running. The image was made by Simon Stålenhag.

Personally, I really like Mutant: Year Zero, both the setting and the rule-set for it. So I will definitely check it out once it comes up on Kickstarter. At the time of writing this blog post I still don't know whether the Kickstarter is for the Swedish version only, or whether there will also be an English version. My guess is that there will be one, but I am unsure when.

Until next time!

tisdag 18 oktober 2016

Trudvang Chronicles is getting a Spanish translation in 2017.

Greetings!

I hope all is well with all my fellow travelers in the great, big tabletop multiverse. This will be a fairly short post, due to a busy schedule.

Some quick news:

Trudvang Chronicles, from Swedish RPG company Riotminds, is set to be released in Spanish in 2017. The company has posted about it on their official Facebook account. So congratulations to all my Spanish-speaking readers. :)

I have not yet had a chance to look at Trudvang Chronicles english edition, but I have high hopes for it. I haven't played the Swedish original "Drakar & Demoner Trudvang", though I did play earlier versions of "Drakar & Demoner" quite a lot in the past. I do however own a copy of an older version of Drakar & Demoner Trudvang so I have had a chance to look through it. It will be interesting to see whether the new Trudvang Chronicles is exactly like it or whether they have made any changes. I will try to get back to it in a future post.

That is unfortunately all I have for you today.

If you want to read more about it, and happen to read Spanish, here is a link for you.

See you all next time.


fredag 14 oktober 2016

Another world-building post

Greetings!

Welcome to a short-ish post today.

Yesterday evening I was on a bit of a writing-binge for my world-building, and I managed to get about 10 pages written on a new continent + a new country for one of the old continents I have been working on for a while. It might not sound like a lot to some, but add into it the creative process, researching some things, etc, and it quickly adds up. This new continent I am working on is shaping up to be quite different than the other continents. I won't say how exactly, but I am forced to think of ways it fits in with the rest of the world around it. It is going to work though, and I am sure it will be an interesting addition to the rest of the world.

My biggest issue is just the shear amount of ideas that I have for the world. I am probably going to have to save some of them for another world or another project instead, but it can be difficult sometimes to decide which ideas should go in and which ideas should be put on hold for something else. I have ideas for other worlds, and projects as well, so I might need to start working on one or two of them in parallell to my work on my main world, to give myself a natural place or two for ideas that don't quite make it into my main world.

As for the nation I wrote a few pages on, I am happy that I was finally able to do so. I have been meaning to for a very long time, but other things have always demanded my attention instead. I have never gotten around to sitting down and writing about it, so I am glad that it is finally underway.

Some times I miss not really having anyone to bounce ideas off of on a regular basis. My girlfriend helps out as best she can, but that is still on a pretty irregular basis. At the same time though, I am very grateful for her help and the inspiration she gives me.

Today I am going to continue work on the new continent as well as the country I was working on yesterday. I will also be working on some other bits and places if I have the time to do so.

Until next time!

tisdag 11 oktober 2016

Tabletop RPG Bookshelf - Mutant R.Y.M.D.

Greetings from the depths of the Tabletop Multiverse.

Having unpacked all of my old tabletop RPG books (the ones I still have left anyway) and put them on their shelves in the bookcase, I have been looking a little at a couple of them. This is probably the first time in 15-20 years that I actually sit down and take a look at them, so memories come back and there have been a few 'aha' moments reading through them as I recognise things.

One of the games I have been looking a bit at are Mutant R.Y.M.D (Mutant S.P.A.C.E.), which came out in 1992, published by Target Games. It was quickly 'replaced' by the first edition of Mutant Chronicles the following year. In a way it was a mixture of the Mutant games that had come before it - the Mutant games that recently has seen a new edition released in 'Mutant: Year Zero' from Swedish company Fria Ligan (Free League) - and Mutant Chronicles which has also recently seen a new edition released, this time by British company Modiphius Entertainment.

Mutant R.Y.M.D. has recognisable elements in it from Mutant Chronicles, which I think might be the version of the 'Mutant games' that most people are familiar with. Especially with the release of the 3rd edition by Modiphius Entertainment last year. You can find the same Megacorporations in there, even though they work slightly differently, and there is even the Dark Legion. Though it is not known here as the Dark Legion, but goes under the name "Ondskan" (the Evil) instead. Or rather the forces of "the Evil". The premise is similar though, with the forces of evil having been let loose on the solar system. The technology level in Mutant R.Y.M.D. is decidedly more advanced than in Mutant Chronicles however, with laser weapons, disruptor weapons, advanced cybernetics, spaceships, etc, being part of the arsenal and availiable to the players, as well as other technologies that weren't availiable anymore in the world of Mutant Chronicles.

The game uses a percentile system using d100. There are three "Classes" availiable - 'Normal Human', 'PSI-Mutant' & 'Mutant'. Each class has access to a number of Occupations, with Normal Human being the only one who has access to all of them. There is even the Doomtrooper occupation, again something some of you may be familiar with from Mutant Chronicles.

The game has a list of mutations you can pick, cybernetics, etc. The mutations come in two different forms: "Mental Mutations" & "Physical Mutations". There are also lists of mental and physical defects.

There was only one adventure ever created for Mutant R.Y.M.D. called "Operation Kirkwood", which came out in the same year as the main game did. It was the only module ever created for the game besides the core books which came in a box.

Having looked over it I feel like I want to try playing it again to see what it is like 'in action'. I hope I will get a chance to some day. In the meantime it will sit on its shelf in my new home and I'll take it out and look at it from time to time. :)

It would be nice if one of the Swedish gaming companies would pick up the IP and release a new version of it some day. *hint. HINT.* But honestly I'm not sure that will ever happen as the game was so quickly overshadowed by Mutant Chronicles arrival.

Anyway, that is it for this time. See you all some other time in the Tabletop Multiverse!

fredag 7 oktober 2016

Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel miniatures boardgame

Greetings!

Yesterday Fantasy Flight Games announced that they have entered a publishing partnership with Modiphius Entertainment and Cabinet Entertainment to publish and distribute Siege of the Citadel, a miniatures boardgame tie-in to the Mutant Chronicles franchise. The game first arrived in 1990's and is now getting a new, updated version after Modiphius launched the 3rd edition of Mutant Chronicles.

The game is currently in the final stages of its Kickstarter, with only 28 hours left to go at the time of writing this post. It has done really well for itself, so far amassing over $400.000. The goal was set at $60.000, in case you were wondering.

I wish them all the best, having played the game back in the day on a couple of occasions. Though I was always a bigger fan of the tabletop RPG version of Mutant Chronicles. I love its lore and have many fond memories of playing it. I might return with a review of the older versions of the game, and a look at the new 3rd edition as well. As for the miniatures board-game, I might. It depends on a few things.

I still wish them the best of luck with it and I hope it does really well. It is always good to see old Swedish titles getting revived again and doing well. It gives other people a chance to enjoy the games that I used to play when I was younger. :) Though the game mechanics are different in the newest version of the game of course, but that was only to be expected.

Anyway, I could talk on and on about it for ages so I think I will save that for another post.

If you want a link to the official statement from Fantasy Flight Games, you can find it here.

torsdag 6 oktober 2016

Reflections on my world-building project and mechanics

Greetings fellow tabletop enthusiasts!

A lot is going on over here with regards to IRL stuff, so I once again apologise for the lack of posts. However this blog is something I am doing out of my own free will because I like it, and it is not earning me any money, so I am not really sure why I just apologised for not blogging more often. XD lol Oh well.

I'm still working on my world-building project, as well as finding that I have renewed energy to work on the game mechanics for it as well. Not to mention I might have found another little game-mechanics side-project that I am also working on. It might seem like much, but switching between the two helps keeping me from getting too tired of one project, and both projects also help spawn ideas for eachother, so that is good. Yes. I am talking about game mechanics for tabletop RPGs here. :)

While the first set of mechanics is meant to be used with the world I am also creating, if I ever get to run a tabletop RPG game in it, the second set of mechanics is a bit different. They have nothing to do with the world I am building, but is more meant to be used for a Noir-style game, or a heist-game or similar thing. It feels different than what I am making for my world, and it should. Again, neither of these systems will probably ever be made into something I will sell or any kind of official product, but even if I am just intending for them to be used by me and my friends (if the systems ever get that far in development that is), I still want to do it right and not just take an already existing system, add a few houserules and be done with it. I'm not saying that doing it that way is wrong however, I am only saying that I want to try and build it from scratch instead. I enjoy the challenge. Admittedly, chances are that in the end some rules might be similar to things that already exist elsewhere, etc. It is almost impossible to do something completely, 100% original, as so many game systems already exist out there. But hey, if it is just for me and my friends, I don't really think it matters. :)

Sadly I have not been practising my map-making skills any more lately. I really should get back to that, but I rarely seem to find the time, or something else has my attention instead. I will try and get back to it when I can, but I have learned not to force it or promise too much. I will get to it when I get to it, basically. Maps will be a useful tool for me, I know this. They will act as a reference point as I continue to build the world. Writing is all good, but it isn't until I put it down on a map that I can see the actual relations and borders between different nations, cultures and races. It is an invaluable tool for me.

I think that is all for this time.

See you all later!

lördag 1 oktober 2016

The Atlas of Rokugan supplement from Fantasy Flight Games

Greetings!

A few days ago, Fantasy Flight Games announced that The Atlas of Rokugan for the Legend of the Five Rings tabletop rpg is now availiable for purchase.

I've always enjoyed the look of Legend of the Five Rings, even though for some reason I can't seem to get more than about half-way into making a character before I am bored with it and have to take a break to return later. None of my friends seem to have that issue though, so I guess it is just on my end. I can't understand why though, because looking at it I really shouldn't have an issue with it. The system itself is ok though, and I would recommend it to anyone interested.

The book itself contains maps of the lands, castles and cities, as well as comprehensive descriptions of the settlements and provinces found in the land of Rokugan. It also contains detailed explorations of the imperial capitols of Otosan Uchi and Toshi Ranbo, as well as the city of Ryoko Owari - three major cities. According to DriveThruRPG the book contains 20 full-colour maps.

The book contains one chapter for each of the Great Clans, as well as for the Minor Clans and the Imperial Holdings. There are also chapters regarding the Shadowlands as well as the forest of Shinomen Mori.

I for one can definately see this book being a helpful tool for any GM wanting to run a game of Legend of the Five Rings. Or for any player who wants to learn more about the world their characters inhabit.

If you are interested in reading more about it, the link to Fantasy Flight Game's article on it is right here.

And if you are interested in buying it you can do that at DriveThruRPG.

See you all later!