Octopus Overlords

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Sep 26, 2021 6:18 pm Has anyone tried Bolt Action? I'm don't have any real plans in that direction, but it looks kind of appealing. What kind of table size in required, and about how much is the buy-in (assuming solo play?)

I really enjoyed Bolt Action, but haven't played in years. It's a table hog and like many other skirmish games I've played, really works best when you have tons and tons of LoS limiting terrain in place. This was from my last game:



The recommended table size is 6'x4', but if you pick smaller squads, you can likely get away with 4'x5', but your longer range units start to lose their utility and are potentially going to be at a disadvantage, imho.

Also, the game doesn't entire work well with mechanized units, imho. It does a really great job at simulating infantry combat, but whenever we've added tanks, things get weird.

Not sure how setup would work for a solo match as your setup and then who goes first would be questionable. I'm confident there are some solo rules out there, but it's not a game I ever considered playing solo. I probably should as it would likely actually get played.

I've seen quite a few references to solo play, and apparently some of the content includes solo rules. But 6x4 is a bit big for me. It was really the WWII minis/terrain that appealed to me. I'll look at Chain of Command. It does look like it is scale-independent, which opens up possibilities.

I remember looking into a WW2 tabletop game called Nuts! a few years ago, but sort of pivoted away from all tabletop skirmish games when we were getting ready to move back in 2019; haven't recovered. That link is to the PDF but I think you can get a printed copy directly from the publisher and/or on Amazon. If you purchase the hard copy from Amazon you can email the creator and he'll give you a free PDF (it's on the Amazon page), if that matters to you.

There's a review for Nuts! here and I'd considered it mainly because it was created with solo in mind. It's also scale agnostic - the only requirement is that your units are all on their own bases.

Nuts does look interesting, thanks. The idea of scale-independent rules means some flexibility in table sizes. It also means that, as I've taken up scale modeling again, I could choose a model scale (1/72, 1/48, 1/35, although the latter two would probably be table hogs.)

AWS260 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 10:21 am Last night I got to play Glory to Rome for the first time, thanks to a friend with a print-and-play copy. It lives up to its reputation - really fun and swingy. I found it slightly less chaotic and more strategic than Innovation, which I love.

And now I'm googling to figure out how to make my own PnP copy.

So this happened.



The card and player board files I got from one of the many sources online. I designed the box and the back of the player board, featuring Nero since Glory to Rome ostensibly takes place during his reign. The back of each player board and the back of the box each has a different Nero quote, taken from Suetonius's The Lives of Twelve Caesars.

Got everything printed at printplaygames.com, and I'm pretty happy with the quality.

That's really great looking!
I had no idea you could get games printed professionally. How does that work with all the copyrights and such?

A good question! Services like printplaygames are generally intended for prototyping and very small print runs by extremely indie designers.

I would normally never consider printing a published game, even an out-of-print game, because someone still holds the rights and it might become available again sometime. But Glory to Rome is a bit of a special case, in my view, because it will almost certainly never be reprinted (How a CEO fiddled while beloved board game Glory to Rome crashed and burned). Graphics files for it are widely available online and people are constantly printing their own.

FWIW, I did secure rights for the other assets used in my version. The box photo is a stock image that I purchased, the other photo is in the public domain under a Creative Commons license, and the Roman-looking font I bought specifically for this purpose.

I have both the old edition and the 2.0 version of Glory to Rome. I love the game because it's basically broken. The engine you can build is ridiculous at times...and yet it works. It works really well. And when someone is able to take 8 turns in a row suddenly, all you can do is chuckle and be jealous.

I will say that I prefer the first edition's cartoonish graphics over the modern, minimalist art of the second.

I was able to print my own Paranoia RPG Item, Action and Mutant Power cards through Drivethucards.com

They look pretty indistinguishable from the official ones. Color was slightly off due to my amateur formatting.

I asked for and obtained permission from Mongoose to use scans of their card back art.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:36 am A good question! Services like printplaygames are generally intended for prototyping and very small print runs by extremely indie designers.

I would normally never consider printing a published game, even an out-of-print game, because someone still holds the rights and it might become available again sometime. But Glory to Rome is a bit of a special case, in my view, because it will almost certainly never be reprinted (How a CEO fiddled while beloved board game Glory to Rome crashed and burned). Graphics files for it are widely available online and people are constantly printing their own.

FWIW, I did secure rights for the other assets used in my version. The box photo is a stock image that I purchased, the other photo is in the public domain under a Creative Commons license, and the Roman-looking font I bought specifically for this purpose.

If I had any interest in shipping, I should have offered to sell you my copy. I'm not even sure it's ever been opened. I enjoyed it enough to buy it but no one ever wanted it brought to the table.

I should almost learn how to ship, determine if there is any interest, and downsize my games. Many of them haven't made it to the table in a decade or longer. They feel so unloved.

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 1:35 pm And when someone is able to take 8 turns in a row suddenly, all you can do is chuckle and be jealous.

My favorite thing about Glory to Rome was the actual rule that stated "if there is a question on how an action resolves, always go with the most broken interpretation."

The game WANTED you to break it.

Glory to Rome was a snapshot from another time, so I sold it a while back (making quite a bit for the old clamshell version). It was great when we played it as 20-somethings, but just don't have the time or group for it as 40-somethings.

My updated copy of Twilight 2000 arrived today, and what a marvelous box it is. I haven't actually played this game since the late 1980s, but I'm kinda excited to pull it all open and see what I can remember. The included tile maps are fantastic and the solo rules for a hexcrawl system are included in the core rule appendix.

I am genuinely impressed with what I've seen from the Free League so far (Forbidden Lands is the other title I'm familiar with) and I'm quite glad now I jumped in on their Lord of the Rings KS as well.

Humble Software Bundle: The Maps Bonanza A crap-ton of mapping tools for tabletop (or fiction, or whatever else), including fantasy, modern, sci-fi, etc. Notably, the $30 version comes with a lifetime license for Campaign Cartographer 3, a standard go-to for map making.

For those that would use it, this is a fantastic deal.

Sold.

I can't afford it, and I don't have anything I'm working on right now that would justify it. But I'm still really, really tempted.

This REALLY compliments the stuff he put on Humble Bundle last year (only a few duplications).

Blackhawk, if I get the bundle (and I am very likely to do so) and it allows for sharing of the duplicate keys, I'll pass on the lifetime CC3+, Fractal 3+ and other duplicate packs to you.

It came with 9 keys. One was Campaign Cartographer 3+ Lifetime License

Does anyone know much about Frostgrave? I've got some Frostgrave miniatures that I'm planning to use for a different game, but I have decisions to make as I assemble them. I don't currently own Frostgrave, but since they're Frostgrave official minis, I don't want to put them together in a manner that would preclude their use in that game down the road should I ever decide to take it up.

Specifically:
1. Does miniature equipment matter? Is it viable and acceptable, for instance, to use a miniature with a crossbow for a longbow, or a sword-and-shield miniature for a spearman?
2. How defined are the bases in the FG rules? Standardized size? Is shape defined by the rules?

There's no WYSIWYG rule for Frostgrave - you can have them equipped however you'd like because it will be detailed on their character sheet. If you were playing against someone else, you'd need to declare and officially agree that your miniature holding a 2H sword is really holding a 1H ax and Shield, but that's it.

For sizing and bases, all minis should be the same scale. Bases should all be the same size and shape because combat will always use base size to calculate. For melee it's when bases come into contact and for range, you're always measuring base to base.

The miniature sprue sets for Frostgrave are some of my favorite ever. They build easily and the amount of customization you can achieve is quite nice. They are core elements of my Rangers of Shadow Deep play.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:46 pm The miniature sprue sets for Frostgrave are some of my favorite ever. They build easily and the amount of customization you can achieve is quite nice. They are core elements of my Rangers of Shadow Deep play.

By no coincidence at all, I'm talking about a Frostgrave gnoll sprue for Rangers of the Shadow Deep.

The female solider set they have is also really good. It wasn't until I started looking around that I saw how hard it was to scrap together a generic female solider that fit with the general aesthetic/theme of the all the other Northstar minis that they publish...and then they released the female sprues. I know he makes metal casts specifically for RoSD (including a zombie camel, but I just keep using the plastics.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 12:54 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:37 am Core Space
Pulp Alley
Rangers of the Shadow Deep

I think I need to make a decision and get one of these back out to focus on. I've had the urge to paint again lately.

Brain storming - Rangers benefits from simple rules, and from giving me terrain to work on, but suffers from making me work on terrain (which is kind of a big time sink right now.) Pulp Alley benefits from simple rules, and from a smaller number of miniatures and versatility (I can think of a number of pulp subgenres it would work for), but suffers from the fact that I have zero pulp terrain, not much suitable material, and zero experience making it. Core Space benefits from everything being in the box, but suffers from more involved rules.

Yanking this over from the other thread. I was just pondering terrain (structures specifically) and storage, and I was thinking about facades. I thought to myself that a dozen simple building shapes (cuboids) could turn into a hundred different pieces of terrain if I came up with simple facades backed by magnets. Fronts, sides, backs. The Pulp Alley five & dime could be the Deadlands (or whatever old west game) general store just by swapping the front. Pull off all four sides, slap on new ones and that same cuboid becomes a fantasy tavern or a sci-fi house. Since the sides are simply flat pieces, storage isn't much of a problem.

Alternative approach: Ditch the cuboids, put the magnets near the edges of the facades, and use some sort of right-angled pieces with magnets to attach each corner. It would allow other shapes. They'd be more hassle to set up, but there wouldn't be any 3d cuboids taking up space.

Alternative approach #2: Instead of magnets vs magnets, put the magnets into the cuboids or the right angled pieces, and just put flat pieces of steel on the backs of the facades.

It may require tweaking, but I could have actual crafted 3d terrain that doesn't take up any more space than collapsible cardboard terrain (and would look better, and be easier to set up/take down.)

Looks like something similar was done a while back. But I'm talking homemade here (and I'm leaning more toward the corner braces anyway.)

Looking around. Here's what I'm thinking.

Walls - foam, foamcore, or heavy card, depending. At each edge where it would connect to another wall, I place one or two of these (1/2" x 1mm thick, 250 for $15), a set distance from the edge:



And then I take a bunch of these (1" per side, 60 for $15):



And put a strong 6mm magnet (200 for $14) in the 0.24" hole, possibly with a thin backing (this would take some tinkering.)

Now, I just take the combination of walls I want and clip them together. I could make a few straight clips as well to allow for longer buildings using tongue depressors with the remaining magnets.

So, $29 for 60 of the clips, which is enough to cover the table in buildings, and $15 for enough disks to make 100+ walls. That's enough to cover tables in structures, but it would all sit flat in plastic totes. It isn't something I could do right now (that's still more than I can spend), but it would let me solve the space issue without having to use premade collapsible terrain (which is nice, but tends to not look as good as crafted stuff.)

I'll mention it here as I've recommended the store before - the owner of NWS Wargaming (out of FL) has unfortunately died. Both his wife of 30 years and father also died within the last 6 months, so just a tragedy all around.

The reason I'm posting here is that I've since learned that the web store (and his business) was never incorporated. This means all his assets (including any preorders) are now headed to probate and I would imagine will be lost to the ether. I'm posting in case any others have outstanding preorders with him and wanted to update their records.

I had limited interactions with him via email (discussing war games and preorders, usually) and he always seemed like a great guy that was super enthusiastic about gaming. I have no idea what happened but it's really just awful news to share; figured I should update anyone that might care.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 12:01 am I'll mention it here as I've recommended the store before - the owner of NWS Wargaming (out of FL) has unfortunately died. Both his wife of 30 years and father also died within the last 6 months, so just a tragedy all around.

The reason I'm posting here is that I've since learned that the web store (and his business) was never incorporated. This means all his assets (including any preorders) are now headed to probate and I would imagine will be lost to the ether. I'm posting in case any others have outstanding preorders with him and wanted to update their records.

I had limited interactions with him via email (discussing war games and preorders, usually) and he always seemed like a great guy that was super enthusiastic about gaming. I have no idea what happened but it's really just awful news to share; figured I should update anyone that might care.

Oh no! I always got the most amazing service from NWS. I also constantly considered getting Rule the Waves 2 and never did do it. This is very sad news and I hope his associate, William Miller, is able to revive the store after it goes through probate.

BGG reporting that Asmodee purchased Miniature Market at some point in 2021??

I wrote about the purchase of French retailer Philibert in January 2021, but the purchase of Miniature Market was news to me. I called MM to find out more, but the person who answered the phone told me that they knew about the acquisition, but had no other information at this time. If I receive an update from MM, I'll add it to this post.

During this part of the presentation, Asmodee CEO Stéphane Carville said that the development of the company's global distribution network over the years has put in in the position of distributing games for many different publishers — "The Steam platform of boardgaming" in the words of one of the speakers. Asmodee works with these companies to boost their sales, which benefits Asmodee as well as the publisher.

Slight adjustment:

Asmodee works with these companies to boost their sales, control prices and limit discounts, which benefits Asmodee as well as the publisher.

I am not sure how I feel about that. They are my go-to for most orders. I still find their prices competitive, but that may change.

MM used to undercut Asmodee but they haven’t for most of the year. No longer, so this explains stuff.

MM still ships my $100+ orders for free in 1-2 days. And they have most of the stuff I’m looking for.

Getting ready to dip back into D&D.

A buddy of mine has participated in and helped run a couple of very successful forum-based D&D adventures on BGG, and he invited me to join in the next one which will be specifically for starting characters.

I had a *very* brief stint with 4th edition, but haven't played 5e at all. I grabbed the Starter Set off Amazon today for $5 (!), as I figured that would be a quick way to get up to speed without having to read the entire Players Handbook.

I'm also toying with the idea of trying some solo adventures with DM Yourself.

Do I really have time for this given all the board games I own? Not in the slightest. But I do miss D&D and seeing all the fantastic content coming out for it these days has really had me jonesing to play. I don't have anyone that would meet for regular sessions (nor do I have the time), so a forum adventure and dabbling in solo might be the best option to get my fix.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 12:42 am Getting ready to dip back into D&D.

A buddy of mine has participated in and helped run a couple of very successful forum-based D&D adventures on BGG, and he invited me to join in the next one which will be specifically for starting characters.

I had a *very* brief stint with 4th edition, but haven't played 5e at all. I grabbed the Starter Set off Amazon today for $5 (!), as I figured that would be a quick way to get up to speed without having to read the entire Players Handbook.

I'm also toying with the idea of trying some solo adventures with DM Yourself.

Do I really have time for this given all the board games I own? Not in the slightest. But I do miss D&D and seeing all the fantastic content coming out for it these days has really had me jonesing to play. I don't have anyone that would meet for regular sessions (nor do I have the time), so a forum adventure and dabbling in solo might be the best option to get my fix.

Have you ever tried playing any of the Lone Wolf, Grey Star, and Freeway Warrior gamebooks?

If not, they're well worth checking out if you have any interest in solo D&D-style adventures. Better yet, courtesy of ProjectAon.org, they're all available to enjoy completely free and gratis. Also, the gamebooks.indecorous.online web app simplifies the process of managing your stats and playing the books entirely on a mobile device or web browser.

D&D 5E is like a n old pair of slippers. Worn in and comfy in all the right places.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 12:42 am I'm also toying with the idea of trying some solo adventures with DM Yourself.

This has me intrigued. From a quick glance, it's very similar to how I taught myself to play 1st/2nd edition D&D back in the 80s.

FWIW, 4e and 5e are night and day. 4e was a serious misstep, while 5e brought it all back in a great way. It's not a perfect system (the character customization after creation is seriously lacking), but it's a great system.

I'm part of a D&D group on Facebook, and apparently people have had success running full campaigns of published boxed/book adventures using DM Yourself and other various solo tools. It's likely the only way I'll get to experience those stories, so I figured it's worth a try. I'll try to keep the board updated with my findings.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 10:44 am DM Yourself and other various solo tools

If you could post what some of those tools are, I'd appreciate it. Hell, it might even justify its own 'solo RPG' thread.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:18 am If you could post what some of those tools are, I'd appreciate it. Hell, it might even justify its own 'solo RPG' thread.

I have...so many solo RPG tools. I'd happily add to a thread.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 12:15 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:18 am If you could post what some of those tools are, I'd appreciate it. Hell, it might even justify its own 'solo RPG' thread.

I have...so many solo RPG tools. I'd happily add to a thread.

Your comment is my command!

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 12:42 am Getting ready to dip back into D&D.

A buddy of mine has participated in and helped run a couple of very successful forum-based D&D adventures on BGG, and he invited me to join in the next one which will be specifically for starting characters.

My friends and I play via Zoom and it works great. I actually have two groups, a weekly and a much more infrequent one.

I came from the AD&D era (so 2nd or 2.5, I think). And 5e just feels like they went in and took all the great stuff from AD&D and then filtered it though the sparse good stuff from 4e (don't look at me like that, At Will spells are just ONE example of something great from 4e). Gone are the crazy Save Roll tables, for a simple d20 with one modifier. Gone is THAC0. You no longer need a math minor to play D&D.

I would also invest some time in D&D Beyond. It is a free tool that really helps to manage your characters. You can even make rolls directly from it. Some stuff is gated behind pay walls, but you can get a lot of content from the free version. If you don't mind eBooks, if you buy the books from D&D Beyond, the content applies to your character sheets. It makes playing online a breeze.

I also enjoy some easier systems via Zoom. One of the best was Monster of the Week. The narrative style and flow of that game just makes it perfect for running through web conferencing.

Our group also uses Roll20, but that tool ups the ante when it comes to complexity. It is janky, but offers a good tabletop simulator. That said, I think D&D Beyond just added an encounter manager, which is probably better than Roll20s. So I will probably try something like simulating the map on Roll20 and the numbers on D&D Beyond.

I've been playing 5E regularly with two OOers, since July of 2020 using Fantasy Grounds Ultimate. It was a bit difficult to learn both the Fantasy Grounds application and 5E at the same time, however, I was really surprised at how much 5E reminded me of classic AD&D in terms of simplicity.

My only issue is that it seems to create really, really powerful PC characters at low level, but if everyone is having fun...