So, I was ill for a week and then the DayJob got intensely busy for a week, making me remiss in my postings. Therefore, I’m going to cover several projects here to get everyone up to date.
Blood, Gold, and Lizards
My new Fantasy Hero campaign will kick-off this month. Characters have been built for everyone but one player and we will be building his character this Friday. Both groups have five players with one player floating between groups as his work schedule permits, for a total of eleven players active in the campaign.
The first Saturday session will be May 18th. This group of adventurers is starting in the rough and tumble town of Lucan’s Clock. Beyond town are hills and dry valleys leading up to the Draken Spire Mountains.
The first Friday session on May 31st. This group starts in the more settled New Zwicke. Beyond town here is a dichotomy of sorts: heavily forested adventure to the west and a sea of grassy plains to the east.
I’ll post details on the characters in both groups in later postings, one for each group.
The Speedwell War
Not a lot to report here. I’ve put the novel work on hold so I can get the campaign up and running. I finally received the last of the feedback this past weekend – two pads of paper worth. My next step is to compile all the comments into a spreadsheet so I can track them as I address them.
The odd part is that most of them will go by the wayside as Draft 3 is going to be a major re-write. The majority of the feedback boiled down to “I like the story, but it is very difficult to keep track of all the characters.” This stems from two things:
1) Draft 2 lays out all the action that happens during the story arc, but doesn’t go deep on the characterization.
2) There are a LOT of characters, some of which only show up for a scene late in the book.
So, to address this, I’m re-working the story to follow 6-7 characters and getting the readers deeper into their heads. I’ll be adding why the things happening are significant for the character in question and what their reactions and thoughts are. My goal is to resume serious work on the novel the first week in June (if not a bit sooner) and finish Draft 3 by the end of the year. I feel this is do-able as I have the story arc written out already, what I need to do is show the readers that the events are personal for the characters.
That’s it for now. More next week.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Defiance: Shadowrun or d20 Modern?
Watched episode 1 of Defiance on The-Channel-Previously-Known-as-Sci-Fi.
I'm trying to decide if they were doing an alternate background for
Shadowrun or d20 Modern.
It was pretty basic storytelling. They really crammed too much into the 2 hours of the show. I think they would have been better served making everything they put into the first episode into the first season. This would have provided more depth to the town, the characters, and the personal relationships between the characters. See the first season of Deadwood for a good example of how this is done.
By the way, it is fairly clear that Defiance borrows heavily from Deadwood. (Plus some Shakespeare and some westerns/samurai stories: Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars/Last Man Standing - I'm looking at you.) They need a better Al Swearengen as the one they have is kind of bland. The riff on the drow and what a female led society that lets the men think they are in charge looks like is interesting, but I did not see enough to determine if it is a cultural trait or just that particular couple.
Also, I've driven through St. Louis, so I know what the terrain looks like. It is a river plain adjacent to the Mississippi, not a valley surrounded by cliffs and hills. They may try to hand wave this as part of the terraforming the aliens started (and might or might not have finished), but that seems unlikely. Anything that would have raised those formations would have been enough to drop the arch entirely. I'm striking this up to "filmed in Canada".
Those are my initial thoughts on the show. I'm probably not going to watch any more episodes as it did not have that "must see what comes next" vibe.
To get back to my original question - I think the show models an alternate Shadowrun setting more than d20 Modern. It looks like they are substituting high tech and psionics for magic, but it is hard to tell from the first episode (too much exposition, not enough doing). The aliens are all here and have been for 33 years at the point the story picks up, which lines up with Shadowrun more than d20 Modern. d20 Modern assumes more "fantasy races" are bleeding through from the shadow realm over time, whereas Shadowrun has the goblinization event and then it's done.
The technology is a post-apocalypse mix, so there is a mix of ultra-tech and low tech. As with any post-apocalypse world, good alcohol is hard to find, but bullets are always available. Most of the people in Defiance (the town) have pistols (if they are human) or energy blades and maybe energy rifles (for the non-humans). The big horde o' bad guys at the end are all body armor and energy weapons like space orcs ought to be (no, they are not called orcs, but really, look at them). This, to me, leans more towards Shadowrun's mixture of high tech and social regression rather than d20 Modern's more "world behind the world" vibe.
That's it for now. I'm still recovering from a cold I came down with last Saturday, so my thoughts a bit more scattered. Later!
It was pretty basic storytelling. They really crammed too much into the 2 hours of the show. I think they would have been better served making everything they put into the first episode into the first season. This would have provided more depth to the town, the characters, and the personal relationships between the characters. See the first season of Deadwood for a good example of how this is done.
By the way, it is fairly clear that Defiance borrows heavily from Deadwood. (Plus some Shakespeare and some westerns/samurai stories: Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars/Last Man Standing - I'm looking at you.) They need a better Al Swearengen as the one they have is kind of bland. The riff on the drow and what a female led society that lets the men think they are in charge looks like is interesting, but I did not see enough to determine if it is a cultural trait or just that particular couple.
Also, I've driven through St. Louis, so I know what the terrain looks like. It is a river plain adjacent to the Mississippi, not a valley surrounded by cliffs and hills. They may try to hand wave this as part of the terraforming the aliens started (and might or might not have finished), but that seems unlikely. Anything that would have raised those formations would have been enough to drop the arch entirely. I'm striking this up to "filmed in Canada".
Those are my initial thoughts on the show. I'm probably not going to watch any more episodes as it did not have that "must see what comes next" vibe.
To get back to my original question - I think the show models an alternate Shadowrun setting more than d20 Modern. It looks like they are substituting high tech and psionics for magic, but it is hard to tell from the first episode (too much exposition, not enough doing). The aliens are all here and have been for 33 years at the point the story picks up, which lines up with Shadowrun more than d20 Modern. d20 Modern assumes more "fantasy races" are bleeding through from the shadow realm over time, whereas Shadowrun has the goblinization event and then it's done.
The technology is a post-apocalypse mix, so there is a mix of ultra-tech and low tech. As with any post-apocalypse world, good alcohol is hard to find, but bullets are always available. Most of the people in Defiance (the town) have pistols (if they are human) or energy blades and maybe energy rifles (for the non-humans). The big horde o' bad guys at the end are all body armor and energy weapons like space orcs ought to be (no, they are not called orcs, but really, look at them). This, to me, leans more towards Shadowrun's mixture of high tech and social regression rather than d20 Modern's more "world behind the world" vibe.
That's it for now. I'm still recovering from a cold I came down with last Saturday, so my thoughts a bit more scattered. Later!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Blood, Gold, and Lizards: Lucan's Clock Starting Area
(This post was delayed due to life and visiting parent. All parents have now visited this year and life is...being worked on. This is clearly The Year of Everything Happening at Once with all the pain-in-the-keisters that come with that.)
Here is the second of two maps of the starting areas. They are representative of what the players will get as a starting map. This one is notable for its blank spaces. The "entrepreneurial seafarers" (read: "pirates") that make up most of Lucan's Clock for the most part don't care about what's beyond the coast. They can see a big range of mountains deeper in and have notated them on their maps, but they're seafarers, not landlubbers.
This is the Lucan's Clock area (1 hex = 3 miles):
The Valley of the Landsharks was a promising spot for a colony...until the eponymous landsharks noticed the colony and started treating it like a buffet. There are minor streams and seasonal creeks in the valley so there is water to be had, but little in the way of areas safe from the landsharks. The valley is suspected of being much longer than shown, but no one has explored past the branching of the valley.
The Dry Plateau is up above the arable river lands and other than one expedition to verify it did not connect to the Valley of the Landsharks, it has not been particularly explored.
Lucan's Clock clings to the cliffs near The Falls, the point where the Farmer River spills over a cliff-side into the bay. There are numerous ledges along the cliff. Some ledges have buildings on them, some just the fronts of structures dug into the cliff. All are connected by (relatively) sturdy bridges and ladders. Most ledges have cranes of various sizes to haul up merchandise from either ships and boats in the bay or from lower ledges (depending upon clearances). The croplands shown almost supply enough food for the colony at a subsistence level (pirates are not very good farmers and the crop yields are low as a result). As the locals want to live better than that, this makes foodstuffs expensive and additional food is purchased from New Zwicke (and sold at a markup) or taken as part of the booty from raided ships.
~*~
The terrain icons indicate the center points of the hexes at the next scale up (1 hex = 15 miles). I might keep the actual symbols there in the final version of the map I hand to the players, but I will probably just put in a generic symbol of some sort. That should help me keep the mapping accurate as the players explore.
Here is the second of two maps of the starting areas. They are representative of what the players will get as a starting map. This one is notable for its blank spaces. The "entrepreneurial seafarers" (read: "pirates") that make up most of Lucan's Clock for the most part don't care about what's beyond the coast. They can see a big range of mountains deeper in and have notated them on their maps, but they're seafarers, not landlubbers.
This is the Lucan's Clock area (1 hex = 3 miles):
The Valley of the Landsharks was a promising spot for a colony...until the eponymous landsharks noticed the colony and started treating it like a buffet. There are minor streams and seasonal creeks in the valley so there is water to be had, but little in the way of areas safe from the landsharks. The valley is suspected of being much longer than shown, but no one has explored past the branching of the valley.
The Dry Plateau is up above the arable river lands and other than one expedition to verify it did not connect to the Valley of the Landsharks, it has not been particularly explored.
Lucan's Clock clings to the cliffs near The Falls, the point where the Farmer River spills over a cliff-side into the bay. There are numerous ledges along the cliff. Some ledges have buildings on them, some just the fronts of structures dug into the cliff. All are connected by (relatively) sturdy bridges and ladders. Most ledges have cranes of various sizes to haul up merchandise from either ships and boats in the bay or from lower ledges (depending upon clearances). The croplands shown almost supply enough food for the colony at a subsistence level (pirates are not very good farmers and the crop yields are low as a result). As the locals want to live better than that, this makes foodstuffs expensive and additional food is purchased from New Zwicke (and sold at a markup) or taken as part of the booty from raided ships.
~*~
The terrain icons indicate the center points of the hexes at the next scale up (1 hex = 15 miles). I might keep the actual symbols there in the final version of the map I hand to the players, but I will probably just put in a generic symbol of some sort. That should help me keep the mapping accurate as the players explore.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Blood, Gold, and Lizards: New Zwicke Starting Area
Here is the first of two maps of the starting areas. They are representative of what the players will get as a starting map. There is some coastline missing, but to show it, I'd have to include a bunch of boring unexplored hexes.
This is the New Zwicke area (1 hex = 3 miles):
The Jicarilla Lands are the lands the (more or less) friendly lizardmen call home, from Thorkil's River (the colonist's name for the river) south to the coast (just off this map), bounded on the east by the Wall Hills (there's more of the hills, but the colonists have not pushed into that part of the forest to find them). By treaty, colonists may not enter these lands.
The Dark of the Forest is comprised of the forests north of Thorkil's River and west of the Arrow River (named by the colonists due to its fairly straight course). The Jicarilla tribes consider the area cursed and will not enter. If the idiot colonists want to enter that area and die, the Jicarilla will let it happen.
Estini is a logging village and represents the furthest point of colonial expansion in the area. The lumberjacks here work the North Forest (not labeled), which are to the east of the Arrow River.
The Wedge Wood is named after its rough shape. It is not currently being logged as it in not adjacent to a river and getting the timber to New Zwicke would be difficult with out any roads. The Governor Governor does not seem inclined to build roads in that direction at this time. Perhaps it has to do with the shares of the North Forest Logging Company he owns...
There is a Stone Quarry to the east of New Zwicke. All those convicted of crimes in New Zwicke are sentenced to work the quarry for a period of time, based on the crime they committed. This is rarely abused by the Governor Governor. So far.
New Zwicke is protected by four watchtowers. The thin dashed red line that forms a perimeter around the large town is the limit of The Watch's ability to see and, by definition, the limit of the town's territory. The thicker red dotted lines indicate paved roads. There are numerous unpaved roads amongst the croplands that are not shown. The amount of croplands shown provides a surplus of food, which is sold to merchant vessels stopping at the port.
~*~
The terrain icons indicate the center points of the hexes at the next scale up (1 hex = 15 miles). I might keep the actual symbols there in the final version of the map I hand to the players, but I will probably just put in a generic symbol of some sort. That should help me keep the mapping accurate as the players explore.
That's it for now. The map for Lucan's Clock will follow no later than Tuesday of next week. I still need to name some areas and put some story behind the area, so it's not ready just yet.
This is the New Zwicke area (1 hex = 3 miles):
 |
| New Zwicke, Player's Starting Map |
The Jicarilla Lands are the lands the (more or less) friendly lizardmen call home, from Thorkil's River (the colonist's name for the river) south to the coast (just off this map), bounded on the east by the Wall Hills (there's more of the hills, but the colonists have not pushed into that part of the forest to find them). By treaty, colonists may not enter these lands.
The Dark of the Forest is comprised of the forests north of Thorkil's River and west of the Arrow River (named by the colonists due to its fairly straight course). The Jicarilla tribes consider the area cursed and will not enter. If the idiot colonists want to enter that area and die, the Jicarilla will let it happen.
Estini is a logging village and represents the furthest point of colonial expansion in the area. The lumberjacks here work the North Forest (not labeled), which are to the east of the Arrow River.
The Wedge Wood is named after its rough shape. It is not currently being logged as it in not adjacent to a river and getting the timber to New Zwicke would be difficult with out any roads. The Governor Governor does not seem inclined to build roads in that direction at this time. Perhaps it has to do with the shares of the North Forest Logging Company he owns...
There is a Stone Quarry to the east of New Zwicke. All those convicted of crimes in New Zwicke are sentenced to work the quarry for a period of time, based on the crime they committed. This is rarely abused by the Governor Governor. So far.
New Zwicke is protected by four watchtowers. The thin dashed red line that forms a perimeter around the large town is the limit of The Watch's ability to see and, by definition, the limit of the town's territory. The thicker red dotted lines indicate paved roads. There are numerous unpaved roads amongst the croplands that are not shown. The amount of croplands shown provides a surplus of food, which is sold to merchant vessels stopping at the port.
~*~
The terrain icons indicate the center points of the hexes at the next scale up (1 hex = 15 miles). I might keep the actual symbols there in the final version of the map I hand to the players, but I will probably just put in a generic symbol of some sort. That should help me keep the mapping accurate as the players explore.
That's it for now. The map for Lucan's Clock will follow no later than Tuesday of next week. I still need to name some areas and put some story behind the area, so it's not ready just yet.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Mapping
The last fantasy campaign I ran was as close to a West Marches-style campaign as I could get away with without being back in college. My new campaign, Blood, Gold, and Lizards, will also borrow heavily from the West Marches style, meaning that it will be exploration driven, not plot driven. I have some ideas how the world will change over time in the background, but player actions should have the spotlight over DM planning. (Plus I can only afford to dedicate minimal time to background stuff while I work on Draft 3 of my novel.)
For exploration campaigns, maps are vital. Last time I started with a map that I thought was large enough because, well, it took up six 11x17 pieces of paper covered in 1” hexes. This worked well enough at the start, but when the players started hitting the edges of the map, I was not ready as I had not mapped anything beyond the edges. At least once I had to put up a “This Area Under Construction” sign and ask the players to go a different way.
That is not going to work for me anymore.
So this time I’ve mapped the large scale first and then zoomed in for the detail work. My top level map (which fills 2 11x17 pages, long-side by long-side) uses quarter-inch hexes scaled to 1 hex = 75 miles. I then selected an area to detail and zoomed in to a middle-sized map where 1 hex = 15 miles. I created one of these for the New Zwicke area, covering the end of the island the colony was established on, and one for the Lucan’s Clock area, showing the environs around it and some of the interesting terrains to the south, over the mountains. I then selected the specific start areas and created maps where the scale was 1 hex = 3 miles. This last set has the initial encounter areas and will be enlarged to create the table maps the players will explore on and mark up.
This means each starting area takes a total of four maps to become “playable”, which is fine for me as I love making maps. Maps are what drew me into playing D&D originally. Games Magazine included D&D in their Top 100 Games one year (late-1970s) and included a sample map of an inn with a secret passage from the basement as an escape route. I was immediately hooked and never looked back.
I still need to create the table maps for the players, but I have the actual areas mapped already, so that won’t take much effort, especially as the maps will start out mostly empty. I’m going to experiment with the Long Distance Sighting Rules put forth on Bat in the Attic (follow the link). I like PCs having the ability to take a look-see by climbing a nearby tree (assuming there is one).
That’s it for today. I want to post maps of the starting areas, soon, but need to do some other stuff first – like finish the encounter tables. I have them for the island of Majica (where New Zwicke is), but still need to do them for the mainland (where Lucan’s Clock is). One word for both maps: dinosaurs!
For exploration campaigns, maps are vital. Last time I started with a map that I thought was large enough because, well, it took up six 11x17 pieces of paper covered in 1” hexes. This worked well enough at the start, but when the players started hitting the edges of the map, I was not ready as I had not mapped anything beyond the edges. At least once I had to put up a “This Area Under Construction” sign and ask the players to go a different way.
That is not going to work for me anymore.
So this time I’ve mapped the large scale first and then zoomed in for the detail work. My top level map (which fills 2 11x17 pages, long-side by long-side) uses quarter-inch hexes scaled to 1 hex = 75 miles. I then selected an area to detail and zoomed in to a middle-sized map where 1 hex = 15 miles. I created one of these for the New Zwicke area, covering the end of the island the colony was established on, and one for the Lucan’s Clock area, showing the environs around it and some of the interesting terrains to the south, over the mountains. I then selected the specific start areas and created maps where the scale was 1 hex = 3 miles. This last set has the initial encounter areas and will be enlarged to create the table maps the players will explore on and mark up.
This means each starting area takes a total of four maps to become “playable”, which is fine for me as I love making maps. Maps are what drew me into playing D&D originally. Games Magazine included D&D in their Top 100 Games one year (late-1970s) and included a sample map of an inn with a secret passage from the basement as an escape route. I was immediately hooked and never looked back.
I still need to create the table maps for the players, but I have the actual areas mapped already, so that won’t take much effort, especially as the maps will start out mostly empty. I’m going to experiment with the Long Distance Sighting Rules put forth on Bat in the Attic (follow the link). I like PCs having the ability to take a look-see by climbing a nearby tree (assuming there is one).
That’s it for today. I want to post maps of the starting areas, soon, but need to do some other stuff first – like finish the encounter tables. I have them for the island of Majica (where New Zwicke is), but still need to do them for the mainland (where Lucan’s Clock is). One word for both maps: dinosaurs!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Starting Locations
Here is the color text I sent to my players for my new campaign: Blood, Gold, and Lizards
New Zwicke
Welcome to the County Palatinate of New Zwicke! Count Arman, Colonial Governor of the Lustrian Colonies, bids you welcome. Please mind the laws and do NOT bring any trouble back to town and things will be most agreeable for you here. Appointments to meet with members of the government are taken Mondays and Tuesdays, actual meetings happen on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, executions are scheduled for Thursdays (in Justice Square), and legal proceedings start on Fridays.
Every full moon there is a Sanctioned Auction. Everyone may attend and bid at the auction, but only licensed sellers may submit items for the auction. Licensed sellers include members of the Hansa League, legal representatives of all registered guilds, and members of registered adventuring companies. Please be aware that bidding at the auction and then failing to honor your bid is a crime with penalties including the confiscation of goods and property equal to the defaulted bid, plus 20%, and the colonial government claims the item bid on.
Members of registered adventuring companies are permitted access to [the adventurer’s quarter] where several fine establishments will meet their needs. Please see the Adventurer’s Ombudsman’s Office for details of taxes and fees due to the colonial government by registered companies.
Once again, thank you for joining the Lustrian Colonies. Now please move along before I have the guards remove you.
Lucan's Clock
Howza, mates! Welcome to Lucan’s Clock, official colony of the Republic of Sartosa in these parts. Mind the Code and deal with your own problems and things’ll go well for ya. We don’t stand on fancy laws or drinkin’ with our pinkies out like that lot on Majica. Anything you want to do that doesn’t leave a dead body is fair game, but that won’t protect you from angry reprisals, so watch it.
Commodore Baldomero Teobaldo Espina, Captain of The Foul Wolf of the West, is in charge of The Clock. (That’s what we call Lucan’s Clock around here.) The Commodore will see you if he wants, but you might get a word in edge-wise if you try talking to him when he’s at a saloon. Or you might get shot. Could go either way.
Every new moon there is a swap meet here at the square. It’s not as fancy or boring as that auction over in New Zwicke, but you’d be surprised what things you can find at the swap. Very surprised. Be ready to haggle and deal or you might just find yourself in possession of a lead bird instead of the ancient heirloom you was thought you was tradin’ for.
One other thing. It’s a hard scrabble to make do here, so expect to pay a pretty penny for the nice stuff. You can get the cheap stuff, but it might turn on ya as you get what you pay for.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a saloon nearby that has a drink with my name on it and wench or two to I aim to bed.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Quick Update
Sorry for the radio silence, busy with a side of drama llama the last couple of weeks. I'm starting to get back on my feet and on something approximating a steady schedule...just in time for my in-laws to visit, my 14th wedding anniversary to roll around, and then my mom to visit. So while I'll be taking two weeks of vacation over the next five weeks, I'm still going to be busy.
On the novel front, I've got feedback from all but one couple and have set aside large chunks of this weekend to organize the feedback and start applying it. I'll deal with the grammar issues first, because it is the smaller component. Then I'll break things apart, pull out scenes that do not involve the focus characters, and see what's left. Then I'll write back in the removed content, but as seen or experienced by the focus characters. This should address two common issues - too many characters to easily keep things straight and not enough insight into why things happening are significant to the characters. That will become Draft 3.0 and it'll go out for a reading again. That probably won't happen until closer to the end of the year unless my schedule shifts and tons more writing time becomes available.
Why would I need tons more writing time? Because I'm also starting up a RPG campaign in April. This will be a West Marches-style campaign with two groups of adventurers adventuring in the same world. I have 14-15 interested players, which is too many to run at once, so I'll run two sessions a month, each session with a different group. There is the possibility of some overlap as there are 5 reserved seats at each session and floater seats to bring each session to 8 players maximum. I think the totals will be smaller due to player availability, but we'll see how it plays out.
In the meantime, I'm creating and populating the play area and setting up encounter areas. I'll provide more details as I get things nailed down. Next week I'll post the color text I sent out to the players introducing the two potential starting areas they have to choose from. They are quite different and have strengths and weaknesses that I believe balance them out.
Later!
On the novel front, I've got feedback from all but one couple and have set aside large chunks of this weekend to organize the feedback and start applying it. I'll deal with the grammar issues first, because it is the smaller component. Then I'll break things apart, pull out scenes that do not involve the focus characters, and see what's left. Then I'll write back in the removed content, but as seen or experienced by the focus characters. This should address two common issues - too many characters to easily keep things straight and not enough insight into why things happening are significant to the characters. That will become Draft 3.0 and it'll go out for a reading again. That probably won't happen until closer to the end of the year unless my schedule shifts and tons more writing time becomes available.
Why would I need tons more writing time? Because I'm also starting up a RPG campaign in April. This will be a West Marches-style campaign with two groups of adventurers adventuring in the same world. I have 14-15 interested players, which is too many to run at once, so I'll run two sessions a month, each session with a different group. There is the possibility of some overlap as there are 5 reserved seats at each session and floater seats to bring each session to 8 players maximum. I think the totals will be smaller due to player availability, but we'll see how it plays out.
In the meantime, I'm creating and populating the play area and setting up encounter areas. I'll provide more details as I get things nailed down. Next week I'll post the color text I sent out to the players introducing the two potential starting areas they have to choose from. They are quite different and have strengths and weaknesses that I believe balance them out.
Later!
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