Greetings friends!
Now I debated about featuring this here or instead keeping it closer to my chest and I figured it best to feature this bad boy right here for you all to see!
Some of you may remember a 6 part short story I wrote around a year(ish) ago called Repo Man.
The protagonists of the story were a duo of Bounty Hunters from the 612 region of The Block.
These two, along with the rest of their Bounty Store group are a number of characters I really wanted to include in First Law: Override as a unique combination of Mercenaries.
- For those unfamiliar, Mercenaries or MERCs are named characters who are hired out of your mission pool Nt (not your Force Cache) and are immune to the campaign progression system so they will never receive injuries, gain skills or die.
The plan for the 612 is to feature them as something different. They are a group of 5 units who together make up 500Nt. They are Factionless but can also be hired separately by either Faction due to their neutrality.
What this means is that you can field them individually with your force-proper, or they can be your force if you so desire**.
**Should you field them as a full force, you will not need to declare a Faction. If for any reason you are required to do so, then they are treated as their own Faction and can not be affiliated with another. The 612 Bounty Store is always neutral and under no circumstances will they do anything beyond accepting paid contracts.
*********
The Mercs themselves consist of the following characters (stats, full equipment and Nt score still TBD):
Paul Homes: The Scoundrel
Paul is an all-round bounty hunter. Light on his feet but weakly armoured, Paul likes to get into medium to close range with his twin pistols to bring a bounty in.
Redd: The Brick
Redd is a meaty bruiser and when paired with Paul receives the added Body Guard skill (but only for Paul). A capable melee fighter with a muscly bulk behind his weight. His choice of weapons is between twin reinforced fighting gloves (counts as dual large melee) or his 2 handed hammer.
Claire Rueben: The Strategist
Claire is the brains behind the 612. She is physically weak with little to no martial combat training, however she can read the landscape like no one else providing a series of strategy bonuses to her crew or anyone who can afford her. She knows the strengths of her team and the weaknesses of her enemy and tries her best to use both to great advantage. For this reason she always carries with her a trusty sniper rifle allowing her to perform at her best as far away from the conflict as possible.
Charlie: The Hacker
Charlie is the youngster of the 612 Crew, no more than very early 20s. Growing up on Honos he was always bullied for his slight stature and inability to aim a gun straight or land a single punch. Charlie has always been adept at Hacking however and complete with his Jackhammer Deck is a dab hand at getting doors and almost any security point open with minimal fuss.
Shogun: The Mech
Shogun is an anomaly on Honos. An outwardly human female in a mech form. Acting as a Link Bot tied to Charlie she is fiercely loyal to him and comes with the Body Guard (Charlie) skill. She is also sentient and unlike normal Link Bots does not enter a disabled state when Charlie does Down or Out. More so, Shogun is not First Law enabled and is able to land a string right-hook with a mechanised fist (counts as singular large melee).
*********
And that is the 612 Bounty Store Crew!
I hope you like the initial soundings of these guys. Over the next month or two I should be putting rules together, however they will at best go into Alpha testing. Currently they do not have a scheduled release date, but it is predicted to be either Book 2 or possibly Book 3.
Anyway, until next time! Stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Friday, 27 November 2015
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
HobbySofa goes visual?
Greetings friends!
Last night I had the joy of spending about an hour and a half trying my best to edit the latest episode of HobbySofa. Why did it take so long you ask? Audio volume.
Yup for some reason that I only half understand my audio insists on recording as a load quieter than everyone else in the Skype chat. It's annoying as hell and stopping Bill & Andrey sounding like they were shouting and me sounding like a tiny mouse took all of 90 minutes, despite the actual cutting of the removable bits only taking a few minutes!
If you have listened to the show you'll have heard that for the first time recording we made use of cameras.
I don't know why we never thought of doing this before to be honest, it really makes sense, especially as whenever Tom & I play our Vassal games of Override we always use a camera.
You see, there are so many extra levels of communication that you get through visual queues which are completely missed when you stick to audio only.
Of course a lot of these visual factors are lost on you guys because you are still limited to audio only.
This is why I am going to look into the possibility of recording our next episode which will probably be early to mid January with video recording!
I'm not 100% sure of the best way of doing it, I know that through OBS (Open Broadcast Software) which I am semi familiar with, I can record video for use later on, it is how I did my Razor's Edge videos over the summer (which will be returning with the nicer weather by the way). In theory there should be nothing to stop me video capturing both Bill & Andrey's streams as well as my own and utilising this.
There are other options, but I am sure this will be the best as it will allow me to set up scenes with banners and stuff for title and backgrounds right into the show. I can also try my hand at video editing for adding a title screen.
But what do you guys think? Would you be interested in seeing our gurning faces for ~3hrs roughly every quarter? That sure sounds like a lot of punishment to me!
I'm still waiting to hear back from the rest of the Sofa Crew, and I'm not going to go to the effort of creating a YouTube channel just yet for something that could turn into a massive failed experiment. Instead (at least to begin with) the first episode will be hosted on my LoxBotLive channel just to see if it works and if it is at all popular, but I think it opens up a lot of possibilities that previously were not ideal.
********
Now, saying that, I will not be doing away with the audio only version, and part of the experiment will involve how easy it is to dual run the system. Can I (for example) edit the whole thing for YouTube and then rip the audio out of it and use that? If so then I don't see there being an issue at all!
But I promise you this, under no circumstance will a visual presentation replace the audio.
What this also opens up is the possibility of even better experiences!
As it stands we have the issue that two of the Sofa crew are in the UK only about 20mins drive from each other, the 3rd Crew Member is on the other side of the pond. It is my hope that one day sometime in the future we could get the whole crew together in person, either Andrey & I going to the states, or Bill coming here. I do know that I was thinking of going to GenCon in a few years time once the little one is older and I also know that Bill does a lot of travelling for a living, so managing to wrangle him to visit could/maybe possible, but pulling either of those rabbits out of a hat would be in no way an easy or soon thing.
- But c'mon! How awesome would it be to have all 3 of the Sofa Crew actually sat on THE Hobby Sofa with a video recording of the lot?
Or maybe I'm just being narcissistic...
Anyway, hope you enjoy the latest episode (11) and as part of a New Years pledge for 2016 I'm going to try and get every episode edited on the same week it is recorded, or at the least the week after, as I know I've been letting down both the Crew and you the audience by my delays in getting shows out.
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Monday, 23 November 2015
I've played the future...
Greetings friends!
So over the past couple of days me and my friend Tom had a great weekend of gaming.
We had planned to spend the Friday night playing a demo of two games; Guild Ball and a then unnamed game built from the ground up by Tom. For those who may not remember, Tom is the friend who is working on First Law: Override with me. The Saturday night was then going to be spent playing Override.
What actually happened was Friday night we played an intro game of Tom's game, Saturday afternoon we played Guild Ball and then Saturday Evening we played a full game of Tom's game.
Yup no Override at all!
(But that's ok, after all it's not exactly going to be squashed, and come April I have a full weekend of providing demos for this game).
Let me tell you, the game is quite literally the future of Character Driven Skirmish games!
I've heard some people describe Guild Ball as scratching the same 'itches' as Malifaux used to, and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my game of Guild Ball, but I shit you not! This new game does all that and more!
So I proposed the idea that Tom & I include this in our 'catalogue' of games. It is such a good game that I need to be a part of it. I want to see it stand next to Override as a tabletop game that is equally great fun to play but ticks every box that Override does not.
*********
So currently I don't know how much we should be talking about this right now, but there are a few things that I know needs to be shared:
Firstly we have the working title of Moonstone, and from now on I will refer to it as such for ease.
Next is that we are looking at a fantasy setting but not High Fantasy (Tolkenesque). No, instead it is more like European Folklore with mischievous Faeries, trickster Goblins, gruff Gnomes, revolting Trolls and stoic Giants with Humans thrown in equal measures into the mix.
It's character driven, so rather than campaign progression like you see with Override, you have static characters, each one has a role and quite often a bit of humour around their names and/or abilities, for example "Baron Fancy-Hat" or "Cloppy-Choppy" complete with his ability Charge Geooooorge! (yes it needs to be shouted when used for full effect).
It is almost entirely dice-less! Requiring dice only to reflect the location and depth of Moonstones (objectives).
All non Melee combat (ranged attacks and spells) relies on a bluff mechanic. I'm not going into detail here, but this relies a lot less of luck of the draw and mirror the exact same skills that good poker players have including trying to convince the opponent that your cards are the ones you claim they are (when really they are not), or that you are bluffing when really you are not!
It creates a series of situations where it rarely feels like you are the victim of luck, instead where having a good (or in my case; bad) poker face can be the different between killing an enemy model or blowing up yourself.
The game itself deals with movement and terrain/LOS with a very simplistic rule set which rather than detracting from the game allows you the player to focus more on the bluff mechanics of Arcane abilities or the trading of blows trying to get the perfect strike onto the opponent in melee.
**********
To go back to what I said before about scratching that same itch as Malifaux did, I am saying this after playing Guild Ball and greatly enjoying it (will probably be picking up a team in fact) but you can take my word for it; Moonstone rocks this game's socks!
**********
To give you an idea of how we played it, here's a photo of our game setup from Saturday night:
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about what this photo reveals, but there is a LOT of information to be mined, at the very least you can see that unlike Override, Moonstone is played on a 3x3 board.
If that isn't enough, here is a shot of the game around the start of the final third of the game.
I'll leave you to determine what you will from these pictures.
*******
And on that note it is time for me to say good bye! Stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So over the past couple of days me and my friend Tom had a great weekend of gaming.
We had planned to spend the Friday night playing a demo of two games; Guild Ball and a then unnamed game built from the ground up by Tom. For those who may not remember, Tom is the friend who is working on First Law: Override with me. The Saturday night was then going to be spent playing Override.
What actually happened was Friday night we played an intro game of Tom's game, Saturday afternoon we played Guild Ball and then Saturday Evening we played a full game of Tom's game.
Yup no Override at all!
(But that's ok, after all it's not exactly going to be squashed, and come April I have a full weekend of providing demos for this game).
Let me tell you, the game is quite literally the future of Character Driven Skirmish games!
I've heard some people describe Guild Ball as scratching the same 'itches' as Malifaux used to, and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my game of Guild Ball, but I shit you not! This new game does all that and more!
So I proposed the idea that Tom & I include this in our 'catalogue' of games. It is such a good game that I need to be a part of it. I want to see it stand next to Override as a tabletop game that is equally great fun to play but ticks every box that Override does not.
*********
So currently I don't know how much we should be talking about this right now, but there are a few things that I know needs to be shared:
Firstly we have the working title of Moonstone, and from now on I will refer to it as such for ease.
Next is that we are looking at a fantasy setting but not High Fantasy (Tolkenesque). No, instead it is more like European Folklore with mischievous Faeries, trickster Goblins, gruff Gnomes, revolting Trolls and stoic Giants with Humans thrown in equal measures into the mix.
It's character driven, so rather than campaign progression like you see with Override, you have static characters, each one has a role and quite often a bit of humour around their names and/or abilities, for example "Baron Fancy-Hat" or "Cloppy-Choppy" complete with his ability Charge Geooooorge! (yes it needs to be shouted when used for full effect).
It is almost entirely dice-less! Requiring dice only to reflect the location and depth of Moonstones (objectives).
All non Melee combat (ranged attacks and spells) relies on a bluff mechanic. I'm not going into detail here, but this relies a lot less of luck of the draw and mirror the exact same skills that good poker players have including trying to convince the opponent that your cards are the ones you claim they are (when really they are not), or that you are bluffing when really you are not!
It creates a series of situations where it rarely feels like you are the victim of luck, instead where having a good (or in my case; bad) poker face can be the different between killing an enemy model or blowing up yourself.
The game itself deals with movement and terrain/LOS with a very simplistic rule set which rather than detracting from the game allows you the player to focus more on the bluff mechanics of Arcane abilities or the trading of blows trying to get the perfect strike onto the opponent in melee.
**********
To go back to what I said before about scratching that same itch as Malifaux did, I am saying this after playing Guild Ball and greatly enjoying it (will probably be picking up a team in fact) but you can take my word for it; Moonstone rocks this game's socks!
**********
To give you an idea of how we played it, here's a photo of our game setup from Saturday night:
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about what this photo reveals, but there is a LOT of information to be mined, at the very least you can see that unlike Override, Moonstone is played on a 3x3 board.
If that isn't enough, here is a shot of the game around the start of the final third of the game.
I'll leave you to determine what you will from these pictures.
*******
And on that note it is time for me to say good bye! Stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
2 Days to go :s
Greetings friends!
So today is Wednesday, which means tomorrow is Thursday followed closely by Friday.
What's so important about Friday? Well for those who remember from the other day, this Friday is the first night of a gaming weekend I am having with myself and a friend, which means I have very limited time to get these models painted.
Well shit!
How did I get to this stage? Well it's because of a number of reasons; firstly you have my love of video games.
Recently my wife and I have been playing through the Batman Arkham games. She was doing it as she had never played them and wanted to play the latest Knight, and it was my recommendation to play all the previous games in the correct order first. As she was doing that I decided to join in, replay through the campaigns to refresh my memory and also aim for a higher completion percentage.
In addition to that we also have the shooters in the form of Wolfenstein: New Order which I picked up over Halloween, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III which I have also been playing up until last week.
Rest assured I'll be giving Black Ops III a second opinion, as my views on the campaign seem to vary drastically from that of Joe Public.
Then as if that wasn't enough I was introduced to the Constantine TV show after seeing the cameo on Arrow last week. Since then I have been watching those episodes via my computer pretty much every night, and am currently at Episode 09.
What this means; the time I have set aside to paint my models has instead fallen on the way-side and I have only moved slightly forward.
How slightly? Well I do now have Link Bots for both Red Claw and Trydan forces!!
Check out these bad boys for my Red Claw. They look sleek and high tech now, but gimme the right paint job and an attempt at dirty-ing and weathering and we should have what looks like Bots that have been salvaged from other tech and put to use.
Then we have these spider dudes! Never before have I seen models so perfect for Trydan Link Bots! They are high tech and sinister looking at the same time, the type that look perfect for the closest we have for an 'evil' Force in Override.
You may recognise these babies from the Dropzone Commander range, and until now it never occurred to me how perfect an Epic scale model could be for synthetics and Link-Bots in Override.
Since those photographs were taken I have done a little bit of modelling work on the Red Claw bots, namely taking one who was not properly sat on his base and moving his leg into more of a run pose, I have also removed the Gatling Guns from their undercarriage. There was nothing that could be done with them for a paint job, they were Gatling Guns.
Normally that would be fine, however for Link Bots it poses the issue because Link Bots are all 1st Law Programmed, so it is impossible for them to hurt anyone, so why would they have guns? And teeny-tiny ones while they're at it?
So where am I with my Red Claw? As a reminder this is where I left off before:
So I am happy with the skin and hair, that looks striking enough for my liking, it is now time to work on the weaponry and bases as well as sort out the armour.
The armour I figure I do not have a hope in hell in sorting out before Friday. The weapons and bases are another story.
The weapons are going for urban camouflage. I will try this by creating a two tone pattern tonight in different shades of grey. I will then black wash the lot and then try and highlight back up in the relevant places.
The bases are similar. It's a dark grey base, a black wash then shaded up in 2-3 shades higher. Once complete a brown wash to dirty the lighter tones completes the effect in a way that I for one am very happy with.
Once done it is then just a case of painting the Field of Vision guidelines. These I am going to be trying to do tomorrow, namely as the guide tool I've been sent by my friend doesn't work fully so I need to wait for a new version.
His version of FOV guides can be found here, with his very impressive looking UEF Force:
However I am going to try for something more subtle with mine, aiming instead for single bold lines rather than block colour. We will try out the differences in our game(s) and see which/if either works best. We can then use photos of these in the book as examples of painted guidelines.
Anyway, so yeah that's my plan for the next two nights including tonight. Fingers crossed I can stick to it!
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So today is Wednesday, which means tomorrow is Thursday followed closely by Friday.
What's so important about Friday? Well for those who remember from the other day, this Friday is the first night of a gaming weekend I am having with myself and a friend, which means I have very limited time to get these models painted.
Well shit!
How did I get to this stage? Well it's because of a number of reasons; firstly you have my love of video games.
Recently my wife and I have been playing through the Batman Arkham games. She was doing it as she had never played them and wanted to play the latest Knight, and it was my recommendation to play all the previous games in the correct order first. As she was doing that I decided to join in, replay through the campaigns to refresh my memory and also aim for a higher completion percentage.
In addition to that we also have the shooters in the form of Wolfenstein: New Order which I picked up over Halloween, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III which I have also been playing up until last week.
Rest assured I'll be giving Black Ops III a second opinion, as my views on the campaign seem to vary drastically from that of Joe Public.
Then as if that wasn't enough I was introduced to the Constantine TV show after seeing the cameo on Arrow last week. Since then I have been watching those episodes via my computer pretty much every night, and am currently at Episode 09.
What this means; the time I have set aside to paint my models has instead fallen on the way-side and I have only moved slightly forward.
How slightly? Well I do now have Link Bots for both Red Claw and Trydan forces!!
Check out these bad boys for my Red Claw. They look sleek and high tech now, but gimme the right paint job and an attempt at dirty-ing and weathering and we should have what looks like Bots that have been salvaged from other tech and put to use.
Then we have these spider dudes! Never before have I seen models so perfect for Trydan Link Bots! They are high tech and sinister looking at the same time, the type that look perfect for the closest we have for an 'evil' Force in Override.
You may recognise these babies from the Dropzone Commander range, and until now it never occurred to me how perfect an Epic scale model could be for synthetics and Link-Bots in Override.
Since those photographs were taken I have done a little bit of modelling work on the Red Claw bots, namely taking one who was not properly sat on his base and moving his leg into more of a run pose, I have also removed the Gatling Guns from their undercarriage. There was nothing that could be done with them for a paint job, they were Gatling Guns.
Normally that would be fine, however for Link Bots it poses the issue because Link Bots are all 1st Law Programmed, so it is impossible for them to hurt anyone, so why would they have guns? And teeny-tiny ones while they're at it?
So where am I with my Red Claw? As a reminder this is where I left off before:
So I am happy with the skin and hair, that looks striking enough for my liking, it is now time to work on the weaponry and bases as well as sort out the armour.
The armour I figure I do not have a hope in hell in sorting out before Friday. The weapons and bases are another story.
The weapons are going for urban camouflage. I will try this by creating a two tone pattern tonight in different shades of grey. I will then black wash the lot and then try and highlight back up in the relevant places.
The bases are similar. It's a dark grey base, a black wash then shaded up in 2-3 shades higher. Once complete a brown wash to dirty the lighter tones completes the effect in a way that I for one am very happy with.
Once done it is then just a case of painting the Field of Vision guidelines. These I am going to be trying to do tomorrow, namely as the guide tool I've been sent by my friend doesn't work fully so I need to wait for a new version.
His version of FOV guides can be found here, with his very impressive looking UEF Force:
However I am going to try for something more subtle with mine, aiming instead for single bold lines rather than block colour. We will try out the differences in our game(s) and see which/if either works best. We can then use photos of these in the book as examples of painted guidelines.
Anyway, so yeah that's my plan for the next two nights including tonight. Fingers crossed I can stick to it!
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Monday, 16 November 2015
The Road to a Honan Gaming Weekend
Greetings friends!
So this Friday me and my collaborator in Override are having a semi gaming weekend. He is arriving at mine in Friday and leaving Saturday. During that time we are looking at playing Guild Ball and a yet unnamed future game project on Friday with First Law: Override on Saturday.
It is with hope going to be super fun. I'm really hoping to get two games in of Override if I can including a 'classic' match of UEF vs Red Claw.
- I refer to this as a 'classic' match because these two are the poster-boys for their faction. If we were to ever produce a miniature line and have a 'starter set' UEF vs Red Claw would be the Forces of choice. I'm also hoping to take out my Raiders for a spin, however I am also reluctant to do so as I still have a great number of these who are still metal models with resin bases, ie totally unpainted.
**************
One thing I am also hoping to do is see about having a discussion about Code Black.
This is something which with my recent ill health and focus on creative writing has taken a bit of a back seat but is still something I would be really interested in working on.
For those who may have forgotten; Code Black is the Pen&Paper RPG set within the First Law: Override universe. More so than that, it focuses almost entirely on the Technomantic Space or the 'Mantiverse as it is more commonly known.
I've spent a while thinking about if games of Code Black should span both Mantic Space and Honos itself, but I think this causes so many issues that it's just not worth it. After all hours in Mantic Space only consist of minutes on Honos, so if you as a party member 'jacked out' from the Mantiverse then for every minute they spent in the 'real' world, they would be an hour behind the rest of the group. Doesn't sound like the most enjoyable experience to me for that player who gets essentially 'locked out' from the gameplay.
What this does allow however is for extended downtime.
If you are playing a weekly session and that session is supposed to span about a day in game-time, then if a player can not make it for a session, it can be explained through them 'jacking out' for a short amount of time. Maybe they needed the loo or a shower, after all a short 10 min shower, that becomes 10 hours of absence in Mantic Space!
Most importantly it allows for entire campaigns to play out all within the timeline of Book 1. For this is one of the important factors. Mantic Space is NOT Honos. If Code Black proves to be fun to write and play then it will have it's own series of 'world changing events' much like future Override books will.
**********
Anyway I've kinda gone off on a tangent here, so I'll leave you for now and as always wish you to stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So this Friday me and my collaborator in Override are having a semi gaming weekend. He is arriving at mine in Friday and leaving Saturday. During that time we are looking at playing Guild Ball and a yet unnamed future game project on Friday with First Law: Override on Saturday.
It is with hope going to be super fun. I'm really hoping to get two games in of Override if I can including a 'classic' match of UEF vs Red Claw.
- I refer to this as a 'classic' match because these two are the poster-boys for their faction. If we were to ever produce a miniature line and have a 'starter set' UEF vs Red Claw would be the Forces of choice. I'm also hoping to take out my Raiders for a spin, however I am also reluctant to do so as I still have a great number of these who are still metal models with resin bases, ie totally unpainted.
**************
One thing I am also hoping to do is see about having a discussion about Code Black.
This is something which with my recent ill health and focus on creative writing has taken a bit of a back seat but is still something I would be really interested in working on.
For those who may have forgotten; Code Black is the Pen&Paper RPG set within the First Law: Override universe. More so than that, it focuses almost entirely on the Technomantic Space or the 'Mantiverse as it is more commonly known.
I've spent a while thinking about if games of Code Black should span both Mantic Space and Honos itself, but I think this causes so many issues that it's just not worth it. After all hours in Mantic Space only consist of minutes on Honos, so if you as a party member 'jacked out' from the Mantiverse then for every minute they spent in the 'real' world, they would be an hour behind the rest of the group. Doesn't sound like the most enjoyable experience to me for that player who gets essentially 'locked out' from the gameplay.
What this does allow however is for extended downtime.
If you are playing a weekly session and that session is supposed to span about a day in game-time, then if a player can not make it for a session, it can be explained through them 'jacking out' for a short amount of time. Maybe they needed the loo or a shower, after all a short 10 min shower, that becomes 10 hours of absence in Mantic Space!
Most importantly it allows for entire campaigns to play out all within the timeline of Book 1. For this is one of the important factors. Mantic Space is NOT Honos. If Code Black proves to be fun to write and play then it will have it's own series of 'world changing events' much like future Override books will.
**********
Anyway I've kinda gone off on a tangent here, so I'll leave you for now and as always wish you to stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Friday, 13 November 2015
GW restarts Specialist Games - A Second Opinion
Greetings friends!
So the big news today is that Games Workshop have announced that they are relaunching their Specialist Games department.
All read that? Good!
So for those of you with fond memories of '90s gaming will remember it was the Specialist Games department which brought us games such as Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, GorkaMorka etc.
Many of you will also remember how GW handled these games once their lines had been released; most noticeably that the games were dropped faster than hot cakes so that the company could move onto their next 'specialist' game.
Now you must understand, it is impossible for me to talk about this subject without a degree of vitriol. I loved playing Necromunda, and when that was left behind and the company moved to GorkaMorka I moved with it and found a game that has always had extremely positive memories. Quite simply, I loved that game! It was after they dropped direct support for GorkaMorka that me and GW parted ways. They had little to nothing that interested me and for me was the beginning of the end.
It is interesting to see the number of super positive reactions that the Internet has received to this news but that initially strikes me as something to be cautious of. I have seen statements thrown around about GW 'listening' to the player base, and that these games were 'perfect' as they were with really great mechanics.
The thing is, as I am sure most of not all of you agree, there are problems with all of those statements.
In reverse order, most of these games' mechanics were far from great. They were mechanics that worked functionally, but more often than not made little sense and did not follow the narrative that we as players were telling.
The games were far from perfect. In fact it may interest you to know that when I started working on the initial pre-alpha rules for Override, I tried to read through the Necromunda ruleset again, and I have to be honest. It's poor. I thought it was good at the time because I had little to compare it to, but it could be so much better. That was something that I tried to reach with Override. As a friend of mine put it "Like Necromunda, but not shit".
Lastly about GW listening to players and fans. Come on! This is GW we're talking about! They are the abusive spouse and we are the habitual victim in this situation. Are we really going to get our hopes up that they have 'changed'? Sorry, but no. They have made some bold statements and movements with AoS and the release of free ruleset etc, but that's more like going to anger management counselling than actually changing. It's a step in the right direction, sure. But to me they have yet to prove themselves as a company worthy of my money.
********
Now what are we going to see with the rulesets?
This is something I am very fascinated by, and I am anticipating a lot of problems here.
A lot of these games such as Blood Bowl, Necromunda and Epic have seen continued survival despite no support from GW all thanks to fan support and their ow versions of Living Rule Books.
The way I see it GW is going to go one of two ways:
Either they deny the work of the communities and instead put out their own half-assed ruleset, or they instead incorporate the living rules and go ahead with that.
Let's look at those two choices in greater detail:
1). Denial: this should be fine! After all if everyone reads the new rule sets and says "bah this is shit! Let's stick with our own" then they can just purchase the new rules and play with their own rules, right?
Sure, and monkeys might fly outta my ass!
Let's get real here!
Look at every previous game released not only by GW but by other companies too; Warhammer, see many people playing 4th Ed? What about 40k 3rd? Malifaux 1.5? Hey how's that Warmachine Mk1 community growing?
It's a fact of wargaming that gamers flock to 'official' rulesets like a moth to a flame. You can create community projects or classic editions as much as you like, but players will gravitate towards the official ruleset enmass. Why? Because then you can go to any club anywhere in the world and find other players rather than having Sammy who only plays v14.2 and Johnny who only plays PublicBeta6.
Yes within small communities, like 2-8 people who play each other and pretty much no one else, then yes you do see these older editions thrive, but don't lie to yourselves, even if they are better, it is older by how they will be regarded.
2). Integration. So maybe GW will integrate the LRBs into their new rulesets, great right? You can play the same editions that you love only with high quality print runs and an official stamp on them. Yeah that is true, but let us not forget how GW regard their IPs. Did you spend years working with the community to create that rulebook? Think you will receive any recognition for that work? Think the tiny handful of workers that will be assigned to Specialist Games will even consider you when they go on to make sweeping changes, errata and retcons? If you think they will then I really think you are deluding yourself. Instead we will see the Great Devourer that is GW absorb those rules, put their own spin on it and claim it is 100% their own work.
Then there is the continued existence of the Living Rule Books to consider.
As it stands the official standpoint as far as we were concerned was that GW had totally dropped their Specialist Games, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only reason the publication and distribution (even if it was only via the digital medium) of the LRBs was tolerated. There was no chance of it affecting sales of GW product, because there was no GW product.
So what will happen to those projects when all this goes out? Do you really think the same company responsible for the Spots the Space Marine debacle will just sit back and allow you to distribute copies of your LRB that is in direct competition with their 'official' rules?
Monkeys... Flying... Arse...
*******
So yeah. Call me a cynic and a twat if you will, but that's how I currently see this.
We are standing in the midst of a Tabletop Renaissance where new games are being created on a monthly basis, and many of those exist and were created to plug the holes that GW left, what are we going to see happen now? Will little Timmy's version of NU-cromunda ever see the light of day when the 'real' thing is available in hundreds to thousands of physical and online shops?
I hope not, but I believe it may be a real possibility.
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other.
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
So the big news today is that Games Workshop have announced that they are relaunching their Specialist Games department.
All read that? Good!
So for those of you with fond memories of '90s gaming will remember it was the Specialist Games department which brought us games such as Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, GorkaMorka etc.
Many of you will also remember how GW handled these games once their lines had been released; most noticeably that the games were dropped faster than hot cakes so that the company could move onto their next 'specialist' game.
Now you must understand, it is impossible for me to talk about this subject without a degree of vitriol. I loved playing Necromunda, and when that was left behind and the company moved to GorkaMorka I moved with it and found a game that has always had extremely positive memories. Quite simply, I loved that game! It was after they dropped direct support for GorkaMorka that me and GW parted ways. They had little to nothing that interested me and for me was the beginning of the end.
It is interesting to see the number of super positive reactions that the Internet has received to this news but that initially strikes me as something to be cautious of. I have seen statements thrown around about GW 'listening' to the player base, and that these games were 'perfect' as they were with really great mechanics.
The thing is, as I am sure most of not all of you agree, there are problems with all of those statements.
In reverse order, most of these games' mechanics were far from great. They were mechanics that worked functionally, but more often than not made little sense and did not follow the narrative that we as players were telling.
The games were far from perfect. In fact it may interest you to know that when I started working on the initial pre-alpha rules for Override, I tried to read through the Necromunda ruleset again, and I have to be honest. It's poor. I thought it was good at the time because I had little to compare it to, but it could be so much better. That was something that I tried to reach with Override. As a friend of mine put it "Like Necromunda, but not shit".
Lastly about GW listening to players and fans. Come on! This is GW we're talking about! They are the abusive spouse and we are the habitual victim in this situation. Are we really going to get our hopes up that they have 'changed'? Sorry, but no. They have made some bold statements and movements with AoS and the release of free ruleset etc, but that's more like going to anger management counselling than actually changing. It's a step in the right direction, sure. But to me they have yet to prove themselves as a company worthy of my money.
********
Now what are we going to see with the rulesets?
This is something I am very fascinated by, and I am anticipating a lot of problems here.
A lot of these games such as Blood Bowl, Necromunda and Epic have seen continued survival despite no support from GW all thanks to fan support and their ow versions of Living Rule Books.
The way I see it GW is going to go one of two ways:
Either they deny the work of the communities and instead put out their own half-assed ruleset, or they instead incorporate the living rules and go ahead with that.
Let's look at those two choices in greater detail:
1). Denial: this should be fine! After all if everyone reads the new rule sets and says "bah this is shit! Let's stick with our own" then they can just purchase the new rules and play with their own rules, right?
Sure, and monkeys might fly outta my ass!
Let's get real here!
Look at every previous game released not only by GW but by other companies too; Warhammer, see many people playing 4th Ed? What about 40k 3rd? Malifaux 1.5? Hey how's that Warmachine Mk1 community growing?
It's a fact of wargaming that gamers flock to 'official' rulesets like a moth to a flame. You can create community projects or classic editions as much as you like, but players will gravitate towards the official ruleset enmass. Why? Because then you can go to any club anywhere in the world and find other players rather than having Sammy who only plays v14.2 and Johnny who only plays PublicBeta6.
Yes within small communities, like 2-8 people who play each other and pretty much no one else, then yes you do see these older editions thrive, but don't lie to yourselves, even if they are better, it is older by how they will be regarded.
2). Integration. So maybe GW will integrate the LRBs into their new rulesets, great right? You can play the same editions that you love only with high quality print runs and an official stamp on them. Yeah that is true, but let us not forget how GW regard their IPs. Did you spend years working with the community to create that rulebook? Think you will receive any recognition for that work? Think the tiny handful of workers that will be assigned to Specialist Games will even consider you when they go on to make sweeping changes, errata and retcons? If you think they will then I really think you are deluding yourself. Instead we will see the Great Devourer that is GW absorb those rules, put their own spin on it and claim it is 100% their own work.
Then there is the continued existence of the Living Rule Books to consider.
As it stands the official standpoint as far as we were concerned was that GW had totally dropped their Specialist Games, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only reason the publication and distribution (even if it was only via the digital medium) of the LRBs was tolerated. There was no chance of it affecting sales of GW product, because there was no GW product.
So what will happen to those projects when all this goes out? Do you really think the same company responsible for the Spots the Space Marine debacle will just sit back and allow you to distribute copies of your LRB that is in direct competition with their 'official' rules?
Monkeys... Flying... Arse...
*******
So yeah. Call me a cynic and a twat if you will, but that's how I currently see this.
We are standing in the midst of a Tabletop Renaissance where new games are being created on a monthly basis, and many of those exist and were created to plug the holes that GW left, what are we going to see happen now? Will little Timmy's version of NU-cromunda ever see the light of day when the 'real' thing is available in hundreds to thousands of physical and online shops?
I hope not, but I believe it may be a real possibility.
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other.
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Blog Writing
Greetings friends!
Do you ever look at yourself and wonder if you are intentionally trying to satirise your own life?
I do. I do regularly in fact, possibly self analysing a lot more than is actually healthy. But what I am going to write here today is leaning my thoughts closer and closer to an affirmative.
**********
So some of you may have seen that over the summer I guest blogged a little for Wayland Games writing less about product itself or a certain game, and more about gaming culture itself.
For a while due to a combination of ill health and my focus on First Law: Override these blog posts have dropped off the map.
Recently I spoke with the General Manager and we exchanged a brief series of emails. Within these I propositioned an idea that could be mutually beneficial to us both, namely allowing me to continue my focus on Override, but also post about topics to encourage sales. These topics would cover the game design process and use of Open Source model selections.
I would get to promote the game while also promoting the very items that Wayland stock.
You could say it's a win|win situation.
To date I have yet to send a single blog article under this topic for publishing.
You might be wondering why this is, after all this is a wonderful opportunity for me/us and you would be right! It's a fantastic opportunity! And that's where the problem starts.
The posts need to be -just right-
They say you only get one chance at making a first impression, and I want Override's first impression to be a great one!
************
To a lot of you who write your own blogs, this probably doesn't seem very unusual as you undoubtably take a long time over your blogs, writing one draft then revising it, spell and grammar checking and then shelving the post for distribution at a later date.
That is not how I write.
My blog is one & done! I write on the tube and train, whatever is my first draft that is typed out on my iPhone, that is the version I publish. It is why a lot of my posts start off interesting, meander onto a side topic and then just stop out of nowhere. You are reading through a window of my mind and seeing all the free association involved.
- Take my stories for example. Much like the blog posts themselves, they too are first draft editions.
I have said in the past that I am not a writer, my writing writes itself. Of course this is pretty much nonsense. I am writing it, as I mentioned before it is essentially free association, I am not consciously thinking about what I write, I am instead subconsciously thinking.
This is why more often than not the posts are nonsense and full of holes the size of New York State, but I would hope that there are a couple of gems in there, at least one... Maybe...
But that is where I am comfortable writing, i shut my brain off and let the stuff flow.
It's cathartic.
Writing these posts for Wayland, they are anything but cathartic.
Don't get me wrong, they are rewarding and every time I have seen one of my posts up there, I get a little buzz, kinda like the exact same buzz I used to get when I Henched for Wyrd. It feels special in its own indescribable way.
At present I am roughly 2 posts down. I need to get the right pictures for them as well as run them past Tom to see if he is happy with them; after all he is part of Override too. But I want to first write at least another 1-3 posts so that I can submit them to Wayland and they can be published as and when they seem appropriate.
Why do them in bulk? It's simple really, I want to ensure that there is cohesion between them all, that they flow and work. I don't want to end one post that should lead onto another but instead take it in a whole different direction.
So yeah... A blog post about finding it difficult to write blog posts. Talk about meta eh?
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
Do you ever look at yourself and wonder if you are intentionally trying to satirise your own life?
I do. I do regularly in fact, possibly self analysing a lot more than is actually healthy. But what I am going to write here today is leaning my thoughts closer and closer to an affirmative.
**********
So some of you may have seen that over the summer I guest blogged a little for Wayland Games writing less about product itself or a certain game, and more about gaming culture itself.
For a while due to a combination of ill health and my focus on First Law: Override these blog posts have dropped off the map.
Recently I spoke with the General Manager and we exchanged a brief series of emails. Within these I propositioned an idea that could be mutually beneficial to us both, namely allowing me to continue my focus on Override, but also post about topics to encourage sales. These topics would cover the game design process and use of Open Source model selections.
I would get to promote the game while also promoting the very items that Wayland stock.
You could say it's a win|win situation.
To date I have yet to send a single blog article under this topic for publishing.
You might be wondering why this is, after all this is a wonderful opportunity for me/us and you would be right! It's a fantastic opportunity! And that's where the problem starts.
The posts need to be -just right-
They say you only get one chance at making a first impression, and I want Override's first impression to be a great one!
************
To a lot of you who write your own blogs, this probably doesn't seem very unusual as you undoubtably take a long time over your blogs, writing one draft then revising it, spell and grammar checking and then shelving the post for distribution at a later date.
That is not how I write.
My blog is one & done! I write on the tube and train, whatever is my first draft that is typed out on my iPhone, that is the version I publish. It is why a lot of my posts start off interesting, meander onto a side topic and then just stop out of nowhere. You are reading through a window of my mind and seeing all the free association involved.
- Take my stories for example. Much like the blog posts themselves, they too are first draft editions.
I have said in the past that I am not a writer, my writing writes itself. Of course this is pretty much nonsense. I am writing it, as I mentioned before it is essentially free association, I am not consciously thinking about what I write, I am instead subconsciously thinking.
This is why more often than not the posts are nonsense and full of holes the size of New York State, but I would hope that there are a couple of gems in there, at least one... Maybe...
But that is where I am comfortable writing, i shut my brain off and let the stuff flow.
It's cathartic.
Writing these posts for Wayland, they are anything but cathartic.
Don't get me wrong, they are rewarding and every time I have seen one of my posts up there, I get a little buzz, kinda like the exact same buzz I used to get when I Henched for Wyrd. It feels special in its own indescribable way.
At present I am roughly 2 posts down. I need to get the right pictures for them as well as run them past Tom to see if he is happy with them; after all he is part of Override too. But I want to first write at least another 1-3 posts so that I can submit them to Wayland and they can be published as and when they seem appropriate.
Why do them in bulk? It's simple really, I want to ensure that there is cohesion between them all, that they flow and work. I don't want to end one post that should lead onto another but instead take it in a whole different direction.
So yeah... A blog post about finding it difficult to write blog posts. Talk about meta eh?
Until next time; stay safe and be excellent to each other!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
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