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Post by tetramorph on Aug 23, 2015 13:21:57 GMT -5
I am sitting on a bunch of projects, and I don't know which to give my attention to most whole-heartedly, first.
That is, in the main, because the only person asking for them is myself.
I like these projects of mine and I am deluded enough to think that other folks might benefit from them as well.
If anybody here is interested in these projects, let me know whether, of the above represented by the pole, which one (1) or two (2) you would most like to download and have available for perusal, first. Feel free to comment about your choice, further, in a post. These are close to me. I am open to helpful criticism and comment, but please be nice!
I don't know whether these offerings would be for free only (PDF) or also include a print-on-demand version that I might get a little chump-change for. I may well try my hand becoming a hundredaire through "OSR" (I mean that in the broadest, least controversial sense) publishing!
Some further descriptions:
Ray-guns and Retrorockets is my Fantastic Space Opera Wargames Campaign setting. It would be a retro-supplement based entirely upon 0e but spun out into SPACE (echo). It is similar to but different from other similar offerings. I believe mine would wind up hewing the closest to 0e that I have seen so far.
Perilous Realms is what my "Gonzoland" rules-lite ideas are evolving into. It is my retro-supplement where I smooth out of the rules for pick-up sessions and otherwise easy-going 0e campaigns where one can't assume folks meet with too much frequency.
Ringmail is my homage to and playful combination of Chainmail and Little Wars. My boy and I play it with fair frequency. It is easy to play and a heck of a lot of fun.
The Book of Barons is my homage to Delta's Book of War wherein I would give some rules for barony play based upon and extrapolated from the game itself and what I know of the medieval world. The point would be to support a true wargames (using either Chainmail or Delta's Book of War) campaign with the barony as the economic base for army-building and for the intrigue and politics leading to conflicts, etc.
I did not give my high-fantasy, Christendom "Dun Kells" retro-supplement as an option, as I am still heavily play-testing it. It is my baby and will probably take the longest before I am willing to share it. By the time I am willing to share it, it probably won't matter anymore, as I will have finally learned from all the grognards that less is more anyway!
Thanks, folks.
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Post by Admin Pete on Aug 24, 2015 18:23:42 GMT -5
Well, I cast a vote for Perilous Realms for obvious reasons and for The Book of Barons. The Perilous Dreamer  |
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monk
Prospector
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Post by monk on Aug 24, 2015 21:25:14 GMT -5
Well, I suppose I evened it out with a vote for Rayguns. I'm not much for rules supplements, honestly. I prefer setting/adventure material since I tend to use my own system anyway, but Rayguns sounds cool and I don't know how I'd create adventures for that yet. Hopefully yours would help me out a bit.
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Post by Necromancer on Aug 26, 2015 4:38:58 GMT -5
I certainly recognize that feeling of being torn between different projects - too many fun ideas, too little time!  Well, personally I think all those projects in your poll would qualify for an interesting read, but I put my vote on the "Ray-guns and retrorockets" as that sounds really cool (plus, I've been thinking about a sf-project myself so it would be a good source of reference and inspiration). |
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Post by jmccann on Aug 27, 2015 22:54:10 GMT -5
Can you give more details on the projects? 2-4 are most interesting to me, but I would need to hear more about the projects to decide what is most interesting to me. What level of completion are the different projects at?
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Post by tetramorph on Aug 28, 2015 13:33:49 GMT -5
jmccann, good questions, thanks. Yes, completion is probably most important. In order of closeness to completion: Perilous Realms Ringmail Rayguns and Retrorockets Book of Barons Perilous Realms would be the end result of a a kind "retro-supplement" writing out the results of the thread in "house rules" on "GONZOLAND." Check out that thread to see some of what you would get. I would also publish complimentary and totally free aids to that one including a "Players Ready Ref Sheet" for rolling up PCs and a Ref Screen, etc. Ringmail is a fun quick ruleset for playing with toy soldiers. Infantry 1d6, Cavalry 2d6. Anyone depicted with a range weapon roles 2d6 X2 for successful range in inches. (My boy and I use a 2" felt HX blanket, so the 2d6 translates directly into HXs, which is rad). Infantry MV 12" Cavalry MV 24" engines of war MV 6". Etc. Everything else, including fantasy stuff, builds from there. It would be fun to share. Rayguns and Retrorockets comes from my discovery that PC "aliens" are basically just "space elves." Robots and cyborgs are space dwarves. "Mutants," replace "halflings." Fighting-men are space aces. Magic-users are psychics. Clerics are Galactic Knights. Magic swords are paranormal blast-guns. "Non-edged weapons" becomes "laser swords." Then the fun starts. Book of Barons is my application of some knowledge of medieval western economics and politics and the recursive and fractal relationship of baron/manor, earl/shire, king/kingdom to one another. I would come up with some rules, based upon and harmonious with those already given, for a kind of increasingly powerful realm, similar to the way players grow in power. Light mechanics in order to encourage role-play. Lots of reaction rolls, etc. The realm would fund warfare relative to its size, and wind up generating its own conflicts! So, mechanics for making the barony less of a side-project and more of something that contributes to and encourages wargames campaigning. Let me know what you think. Or if you need further description. Thanks for interacting.
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Post by jmccann on Aug 29, 2015 2:12:38 GMT -5
Book of Barons is my application of some knowledge of medieval western economics and politics and the recursive and fractal relationship of baron/manor, earl/shire, king/kingdom to one another. I would come up with some rules, based upon and harmonious with those already given, for a kind of increasingly powerful realm, similar to the way players grow in power. Light mechanics in order to encourage role-play. Lots of reaction rolls, etc. The realm would fund warfare relative to its size, and wind up generating its own conflicts! So, mechanics for making the barony less of a side-project and more of something that contributes to and encourages wargames campaigning. Let me know what you think. Or if you need further description. Thanks for interacting. This interests me the most. I am hoping to achieve this kind of 'wheels within wheels etc.' effect in the Middelsae campaign once there are enough players. The model could be set up to have "slots" representing powerful individuals which would be operated by a ref, some system, or the player, to accommodate comings and goings of participants and the varying needs of different campaigns. And I think your description compresses the range over which a system like this could fractalize. You describe 3 such levels but I think a model that covers (spitballing) family to empire sized orgs with 7 or 8 steps or even more (I don't know what the max here might or should be) would be a very powerful model which could be used widely. I could really use this for Middelsae when the scope of testing moves beyond the basic combat and integration with OD&D etc. magic systems. Right now I am not very concerned with events at the barony scale, but having a model like this usable for campaign implementation would be very useful to potentially many people. I would think in terms not only of these political units, but also the nature of the relationships represented. As for the economic model, I have some ideas for a very simple economic model which handles pricing based on various game event inputs and modelling resources. Bath also covers economic models suitable for such a game. I don't have the book here with me but I will update the thread with a citation after I find the book. If you are interested in collaboration on this project, let me know because I would be very interested in working on this. Looking at the other projects I think Ringmail would be of most general interest, and is also the one of the remaining choices I would be most interested in reading. It sounds similar to the game I am using, also developed playing against children although I am not intending the final game to be used primarily in games with children participating. How accessible to the general OD&D/ RPG public would Perilous Realms be? Would the space opera game be easily used for other kinds of SF? Sword and Planet, Sword & Sorcery and so on? |
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Post by jmccann on Aug 29, 2015 2:46:17 GMT -5
Bath also covers economic models suitable for such a game. I don't have the book here with me but I will update the thread with a citation after I find the book. I found the book upstairs. Glancing quickly at chapter 5: Supply and Replacement [Curry 2009], John Curry's book Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming (part of the History of Wargaming Project series of books), p. 95 in my copy, the economic models are very limited and simple but they do cover resources, taxation, supply, troop pay, and many other features. I would not follow his models closely, but I think they are useful since they got a lot of testing. |
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Post by tetramorph on Aug 29, 2015 10:24:23 GMT -5
jmccann, based upon the voting so far, cross-compared with where I am on each project, I will aim to complete Perilous Realms first. Then I will move on to composing Book of Barons, because of demand, not because of nearness to completion! I am not sure it will give you exactly what you are looking for. It will be more designed of players, to motivate them to want to hold baronies and jump into mass-combat scale warfare, etc. I also tend to like to go for very simple, like 3s rather than 9s! The full scale will range: farm, estate, manor, county, kingdom, empire. But the definitive structural lvl will be the manor with extrapolation up and down from there. The three main realm types being baronies, counties and kingdoms. I will design it so that Empires are quite deliberately difficult to maintain for any significant period of time. Farms will be the things that PCs are fleeing from! So the range for practical play purposes will, for the most part, remain from the estate through the kingdom scale. Let me know if that still sounds interesting to you.
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Post by jmccann on Aug 29, 2015 12:25:35 GMT -5
That sounds interesting. What about other power structures? Church, guilds, etc. I think I am looking for something more general while you are looking for something more specific to support a particular campaign or campaign format.
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Post by tetramorph on Aug 29, 2015 18:51:56 GMT -5
jmccann, right, yes, I was speaking in an abbreviated way. It would include clean, simple, recursive rules about: economy, rule, church, infrastructure (roads, etc.), "education," resources, "style of life" supportable at a given level, settlements possible at given levels, non-agricultural "careers" possible at given levels, etc.
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Post by The Red Baron on Aug 30, 2015 9:56:17 GMT -5
I could contribute a lot to a "Book of Barons".
I have a lot of info typed up on economics, taxes, troop organization & pay. I've been trying to balance historical accuracy, od&d rules as written, and ease of use.
And there was a good thread on titles of nobility that could be incorporated.
Let me know if you're interested in seeing any of that.
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Post by tetramorph on Aug 30, 2015 10:02:50 GMT -5
The Red Baron, for sure! As that is the least developed of my projects, a conversation would help a lot. What folder should we start a thread in? Let me know, and let's start one with a title like "barony rules." Campaign workshop folder?
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Post by The Red Baron on Aug 30, 2015 11:13:32 GMT -5
Perhaps general discussion would be a better place, as it doesn't pertain to campaign development.
Or we can speak via pm if that is easier.
I will be travelling for a few days and will have limited Internet access, but I will try to find the pertinent files if want to start a thread.
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Post by Admin Pete on Aug 31, 2015 10:10:31 GMT -5
Why don't you start a thread here title "Book of Barons" either here in General Discussion or down in the Campaign Workshop.I think you should take input in the thread from anyone that wants to help and then perhaps between the two of you privately take what you like and create the document. Once you have a beta document - the forum as a whole can help with the proofreading before you whip it into the final format. My 2 cps. |
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Post by tetramorph on Sept 6, 2015 15:16:35 GMT -5
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Post by Crimhthan The Great on Oct 23, 2015 10:04:06 GMT -5
Status update please! |
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 23, 2015 15:31:53 GMT -5
Admin Pete, monk, Necromancer, jmccann, The Red Baron, Crimhthan The Great, et al: UPDATE: I am working with a professional editor / formatter to get out Perilous Realms by "Black Friday" for your Christmas shopping joy! I plan on setting up Perilous Realms as a free PDF but offering a digest size version through Lulu that I may mark up a buck or two so that I can finally be a "hundredaire" through old school publishing! I plan on releasing it as a suite with some other materials. But these would use the name D&D, etc., so I would require you to join my campaign so that I could share it with you under fair-use. This would be the Players Reference Sheets, a Referee's reference sheets (4 pages to be turned into a ref screen), and character sheets for both 8&½ X 11 and 5X7 note cards. The key is separating HD from lvl. I've got some nice one's I've marked up. Now: how to add you all to my campaign? Hmm. I may have to start a "Perilous Realms" PbP. Just as absolutely gonzo as possible: "Turn on the goblin spigot before the robots start pouring out of that flying saucer that just crashed!" How about something like that?
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Post by Admin Pete on Oct 23, 2015 16:54:04 GMT -5
Admin Pete, monk, Necromancer, jmccann, The Red Baron, Crimhthan The Great, et al: UPDATE: I am working with a professional editor / formatter to get out Perilous Realms by "Black Friday" for your Christmas shopping joy! I plan on setting up Perilous Realms as a free PDF but offering a digest size version through Lulu that I may mark up a buck or two so that I can finally be a "hundredaire" through old school publishing! I plan on releasing it as a suite with some other materials. But these would use the name D&D, etc., so I would require you to join my campaign so that I could share it with you under fair-use. This would be the Players Reference Sheets, a Referee's reference sheets (4 pages to be turned into a ref screen), and character sheets for both 8&½ X 11 and 5X7 note cards. The key is separating HD from lvl. I've got some nice one's I've marked up. Now: how to add you all to my campaign? Hmm. I may have to start a "Perilous Realms" PbP. Just as absolutely gonzo as possible: "Turn on the goblin spigot before the robots start pouring out of that flying saucer that just crashed!" How about something like that? Let me know when you are ready to start that campaign. |
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monk
Prospector
Posts: 90
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Post by monk on Oct 24, 2015 10:09:49 GMT -5
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Post by jmccann on Oct 24, 2015 15:47:06 GMT -5
It sounds more gonzo than my preference would normally be.
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 24, 2015 18:17:20 GMT -5
jmccann, I hear you. I am normally FAR TOO SERIOUS. So I think this approach is an attempt at a remedy. But we could maybe have more than one adventure going within the Perilous Realms: High, Medium and Low Gonzo (but no Non Gonzo). Even if you are a wanna be Paladin in King Arthur's Court, eventually you are going to have to deal with the crash landed flying saucer!
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Post by jmccann on Oct 24, 2015 21:28:01 GMT -5
I could play in a campaign where the gonzo was set pretty low. A crashed flying saucer is fine.
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 6, 2016 14:44:25 GMT -5
Status report please!  |
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Nov 6, 2016 17:56:13 GMT -5
MORE gonzo is always better. "Too much gonzo" is as illogical as "too much chocolate."
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Post by Mighty Darci on Nov 6, 2016 20:33:11 GMT -5
You can never have too much chocolate!  |
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Nov 7, 2016 1:39:07 GMT -5
You can never have too much chocolate! Not to go off the topic, but to completely go off topic, this brings back pleasant memories of our middle daughter returning from her band trip (to some horror foreign country called California) with a package of chocolate covered bacon-encrusted potato chips - all for Daddy. I was in literally figurative hog heaven and insulin shock for hours. |
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Post by tetramorph on Nov 7, 2016 13:50:16 GMT -5
Status report please! Thanks for resurrecting this one, Admin Pete . I had actually forgotten about it. The Perilous Realms has been published, as announced in other threads, as a "retro-supplement." A kind of "anti-supplement," as I suggest only simplifications, (almost) no additions. I have a suite of related offerings if you scroll down on my campaign page. Always we begin again. After it's been out another year I will published a revised version based upon play tests. Ringmail: Rules for Medieval Toy Soldiers has been released as a web-log publication on my own blog. That leaves Ray-guns and Retrorockets and the Book of Barons. Ray-guns and Retrorockets is on the back burner but will not be forgotten. I will return to it. Meanwhile, I've turned my attention to what has become of the proposed Book of Barons. What has happened to that project is that it has folded into a larger document. As the Perilous Realms is my "retro-supplement" to the LBBs, I am now working on a retro-rewrite of the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets. I LOVE the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets, but they are TOO MUCH for me. Glorious in inspirational detail but TOO MANY RULES, already going in the direction of AD&D for me. So I found myself, every time I turned to them for inspiration, rewriting them in a more d6/d10/d20 or at most d100 rules-lite kind of way that made more sense to me, with lots of interlocking, branching table that you can skip, steel from, or actually roll to see what randomly comes up. I've collected all these little rewrites as individual sheets of anywhere from one to four pages. All of these I've collected into one massive document. I am calling it: Campaign Aids and Inspirations: Designed for Use with the Perilous Realms Supplement; Being Generally Compatible with Original Edition Rules and their Various SimulacraHope that sounds interesting to you all now. Let me know interest and that may spur me on to completion (of its first edition!). Thanks for the continued interest and encouragement. |
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Post by hengest on Nov 7, 2016 14:03:16 GMT -5
Very interested in the retro-rewrite of the Ready Ref Sheets!
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 7, 2016 15:04:18 GMT -5
I really liked the name Book of Barons, so you could name it: Campaign Aids and Inspirations aka Book of Barons: Designed for Use with the Perilous Realms Supplement; Being Generally Compatible with Original Edition Rules and their Various SimulacraJust sayin'! |
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Well, personally I think all those projects in your poll would qualify for an interesting read, but I put my vote on the "Ray-guns and retrorockets" as that sounds really cool (plus, I've been thinking about a sf-project myself so it would be a good source of reference and inspiration).
