Wargamers roleplayed first.

Recognizing Wargames as patient zero in what would become tabletop rpg’s and go on to infect the brains of millions of nerds breeding ground is usually brought up in the context of demonstrating how DnD is shit for roleplay. Besides the open abyss of vapidness which overtakes me when this discussion occurs. Mostly because it is soft talk around the fact maybe you suck at the game and the person juuust can’t get their head around that. Besides all this, it is the clear miss of most to consider wargames as devoid of roleplay. 

Wargames are historical simulations which get turned into games because optimizing routine behavior is hard-wired into humans. The historical simulation thrill of orchestrating sweeping military campaigns takes back seat in concern of the win. Aside from the obvious competitive urge which can get me to take my eye off of the wargame ball, which I call immersion. I want to see what it would be like to command armies and experience the decisions these commanders faced. If I have no connection to the historical context of the game, I end up playing a complicated game of checkers, looking to leverage all advantages in the system to score a “hit”. Even if I have a keen interest in the historical action depicted, I easily drift into a competitive mindset. I must beat the other person if I am to consider the game fulfilled. That is why I always end up playing the game two times, I’m sure.

But I also can get into the groove. I can tell the stories in my head of the sections and squadrons, what they did on that day. The flipped over chit on the hex map is now the smoldering pile of defeated men and machines. And it is happening on a certain day, a certain hour under certain weather conditions. I feel the wind in my face as I lean against the hatch, scanning the horizon for the enemy. Fuck, I can roleplay the shit out of my wargame. I didn’t call it that because I had never heard of ttrpg’s when I first started playing at Rommel in the Libyan desert.

And that is the wargame ball and it has been an immersive roleplay experience ever since Tactics hit the table for a shit-ton of people who enjoy this kind of thing. If you can ttrpg a wargame you can roleplay anything which comes after marketing itself as a ttrpg. Wargames don’t lack the role play experience; it just doesn't appeal to many people. It is mostly a solitary experience, that is the key difference. Once you start thinking how to make the experience a shared one with multiple people you will notice the nugget of gold which is buried in a wargame can be extracted and applied to other imaginary experiences. Not something better either, just different. I want to get my rocks off this way as well as that way.

DnD didn’t introduce ttrpg’s to the world, wargamers had already created this for themselves. Eventually someone participating would (and did) make the connection simulated fantasy play would have broad appeal. And they worked on it until they had what they were after. And they were right to do so.

SciFi Setting Size Comparison

 I finally got around to sizing up the Space Opera official universe and the Traveller official universe to see how they compared size-wise to each other. First I need to figure out how big a Traveller Subsector is and compare that to a Space Opera Star Sector, these being the basic unit of measurement for their respective maps of known space.

The Star Sector for SO is easy to figure out, a 200 ly x 200 ly x 200 ly cube of space (ly = light year). Here is a picture of the Star Sector map for The Confederate Systems Alliance. 

There is no superimposed hex grid over the sector map, only grid locations indicated by letters and numbers coded on the top and side of the map. Much like a street map. For example, Doug's Groceries is in grid BB04. Everything is plotted on an x/y/z axis, with the Star Sector's Primary as the 0/0/0 point. The maps are created to scale, 1 cm = 10 ly. To find your straight-line distance between planetary systems you plug in your values into your formula for a right triangle.  For example, Janus to Lilith is 128 ly apart.

Classic Traveller (CT) on the other hand, measures distances by the parsec. A parsec is 3.26 ly. The traditional Subsector map is laid out on a hex map 10 x 8. So 32.6 ly x 26.08 ly. There are no values for up or down, the map is a 2-dimensional representation. The distance between two planetary systems is determined by the number of hexes needed to cross to get there. Therefore if a system is three hexes away that system is 9.78 ly away.

It is clear already the SO universe is much larger than the CTU (Classic Traveller Universe). But how much bigger? CT does offer us another map scale, the Sector. A Sector is made up of 16 Subsectors arranged in a 4x4 grid. 130 ly x 104.32 ly. Here is the well-known map of the Third Imperium by Sector.  

This map is arranged 8 Sectors x 16 Sectors, which, if using the Sector values established above yields 1,040 ly x 1,669.12 ly for known space in the CTU.

Here is a similar map for SO;

These are 200 ly x 200 ly cubes so sizing it up against the CTU should be a snap. 5.2 cubes x 8.34 cubes. It looks like to me the Space Opera universe is about 6 times the size of Traveller!  

USR Sword & Sorcery Reaches Electrum Best Seller

 USR Sword & Sorcery notches another medal achievement at DriveThru! We've gone plaid! No, I mean Electrum! USR Sword & Sorcery is now an Electrum Best Seller. 

The little game which launched a thousand and more unpaid hours devoted to learning Scribus, Indesign, Photoshop, Live Streaming games, podcasts, blogging about games, going to game conventions and getting suicidally drunk, etc.

I have a return date expected for work on Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery (title is still in the air). It is August. This is predicated on my DC Heroes 3rd Edition retro-clone manuscript being complete and sent to the editor. This is looking good so I might even be able to return to the Word of Xoth setting guide even sooner! 

OSR Compatible 2nd-4th lvl dungeon AA01 Purging Woth N'rld Okwy's Muddy Hole Now a Reliable POD

 AA01 Purging Woth N'rld Okwy's Muddy Hole, my first and only dnd module has finally seen the light of day on DriveThru as a physical book!

Not only a physical book, but all the art is "fixed", new art introduced, and the Appendix is better organized. It is still the twisted little weird dungeon Bryce Lynch loved, so if you are looking for another decent adventure for your OSE sandbox you can't go wrong with PWNOMH!

40 pages, A5 (digest?) size, black and white illustrations and text. Several of the pages in the back are just VTP ads, but I think the book looks cooler with them in than out. 

The book is organized with a simple adventure "hook" and a dungeon "ecology" page. Dungeon Ecology is a bird's eye view of how the denizens of the place go about their business. How the different factions interact, and conflicts between the facts of the fables, and the dungeon itself... 

Every one of the creatures described in the key come with complete statistics in the Monster Gallery. I think it is important for an old school adventure module to include all the stat's for the Monsters and NPCs which will be encountered in the course of events.  So my first old school module includes those.

One critique leveled at the module is the treasure is not substantial for the levels indicated. Fair enough, each to their own. But I did look at the treasure horde in the module and have increased it here and there from the original edition.

All in all, like many rpg products, this second edition is an improvement over the first. While the content and quirky ideas remain, the organization is better, and therefore should be a more enjoyable product for the DM to run at the table. 

Successful delving!

Western USR now in Hardback POD

Just got the proof in last night and I approve! The hardcover edition of Western USR. Pop on over to Drivethru and order yours today. 

This is the first hardback publication from the press and I can see why this digest sized format is popular. The same size LotFP has ridden for continued success. It lays flat at the table and compact size make it a breeze to travel with. The durable hardcover will make this indie print last forever on the game shelf, I imagine. Well, I don't need to imagine because I can look at my hardbacks currently on my game shelf. Monoliths of stone I tell you.

As with any USR game the rules are dead simple, but offer a granularity of results and uses only seen in bigger games. Character creation takes literally 5, 10 tops. The gun play is deadly, and splattering gore is encouraged. There is the introduction of a Speed attribute, all important on the day of your main street shoot-out. 

Decent equipment list for all your western sundries, straightforward weapons tables and a combat system. while simple, allows all the flexibility a game needs to provide opportunities for cinematic action. $15.58 at Drivethru, shipping has been 3 weeks for me from Drivethru. It has reached copper status already with no marketing what so ever, great. It will be a while before I release any supporting adventures, but if you want a set of Western rules you can pick up and go... can't go wrong with Western USR.

Oh. yeah, I totally nailed getting text on the spine. Perfectly located. You don't have much room vertically with a 34 page book.