King's Angels - a RPG campaign

Well, as some may or may not know, ideas have a tendency to evolve beyond your original plans. Thunderbolts, a W40k campaign was severely re-routed after a had a good look and Only War rpg-system.
In short - its a DnD in different setting, with all its rigidness and class progression. The other thing is availability of models, but i have been winging about it earlier. So as things progressed, 40k became 1947 AD, in our real world,  Imperial Navy turned into a mercenary regiment and planet Ashoka shrunk into Ethiopian Empire. At the moment of writing this, I'm testing the flight model and elements of RPG system for this particular campaign.  

There it is then: http://kingsangels.blogspot.co.uk/

Did I mentioned femme fatales? No? Then i will.

Liya Kebele

As always, your lonely megalomaniac

Imperial Thunderbolt keeps on fighting

Some ideas just refuse to leave and die in oblivion. Thunderbolt skirmish/campaing game will be set on the planet Ashoka IV, during the jungle war against greenskin Orkz. I have no idea how and when I'm going to pull this off but I really hope it will happen soon enough. What I'm certain of is that will have three main components: aerial dogfighting, intrigue based on technology of Warhammer 40000 universe and it will have women. You may read it as much as you like, but these are an essential components for any good macho-game, especially if players are going to assume roles of fighter pilots of Imperial Navy. To make matters more difficult players will face South-Eastern peculiarities of the culture.

But SHHHH! I've not told you anything.
Now get back to work, Mark :)    

Thunderbolt vs X-wing.

For almost a month I've been playing with idea of RPG / flight simulator crossbreed game. I know. It even sounds weird, but I've learnt to trust even craziest idea which came into the head of mine. This one was inspired by this particular plane:

Imperial Navy Thunderbolt

Despite the being an obvious product of Games Workshop's approach towards aerodynamics (flying brick in other words), I love that plane. It has heroic vibe, lots of guns, unique appearance and style of World War 2 dogfighter. Warhammer 40k setting easily transfers players into grim and gritty warzone, and Dark Heresy book would provide enough background and rules for detective storyline enveloping the flying missions. As a point of reference I took Korean War (1950-53). That conflict provided more than enough information on planes, combat, pilots, their living conditions, attitude to war and people. (Russians, Chinese and Koreans would be replaced by Orks, eventually :-)  

But before I began fleshing out main characters as Inquisitor, Squadron Leader, Commissar, Naval Intelligence officers, Adeptus Mechanicus Magos (somebody had to upgrade and refit the planes) I stumbled upon some serious problems.

The first one is: rules for simulating air combat.
Obviously you'd look at Aeronautica Imperialis, game produced by Forgeworld. The result was frustrating. Not only the game is discontinued along all other Specialist games of GW, the rules have a very steep learning curve and require a lot of bookkeeping. In addition games tend to be quite long and overloaded with unnecessary and irritating rules like limited ammo or fuel consumption. For example: Thunderbolt may fire only 4 times per battle hitting on 5+ or 6+. Different altitudes of planes, positions, speeds and manoeuvres add to the complexity of it. After careful consideration, this game would not do the job of quick air combat between the ground missions. Well, the greed factor is still there. Its £30 for 16 pages of rules, while rest of hundred or so pages are fluff and pretty pictures.

The second one is: absence of models.
Well, as I've mentioned before Aeronautica Imperialis, along Epic: 40k and other titles have been discontinued. Aftermarket is expensive as models become rarity and slow to offer. I completely accept my fault and responsibility for NOT buying any of those model before. Sorry, GW. Next time I will be faster and clutter all my living space with your products. In the mean time I'll learn how to scratch build the tiny plane from paper.

The outcome of this sketch was discovery of very interesting set of rules by David Child-Dennis, a game designer and historical wargaming enthusiast from New Zealand.  Thanks to http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ I can share this outstanding work here:

• Airwar Korea 
• Airwar Vietnam
• Typhoon (modern aircombat)

Ironically, as well as Aeronautica Imperialis I've came across another relic of long forgotten past: Crimson Skies! The incredible and crazy creation of FASA Corporation, people behind the myth of giant walking robots. In Crimson skies they managed to cross breed table-top aerial dogfighting, bravado of 30-s, zeppelins and piracy. Rules are relatively easy to grasp and free to download. See for yourself:

Crimson Skies rulebook

Last but not least, came X-wing with incredibly easy, fun and balanced rules. Which are available for download for free.

X-Wing miniatures game rulebook 

The X-wing ironically have taken my attention away from 40k. Not only this game consumed quite a bit of time and money, it inspired set of new ideas for other project I'm working on. (sci-fi of coarse :). It also showed that time of over complicated games is coming to an end.

In short time, from the moment idea of Thunderbolt campaign was born, it grew, flew on the high hopes, hit the wall of reality, died and opened the the whole new areas and approaches for future projects as well as finding some rare the jewels.

So, I guess thank you, Thunderbolt.

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn. 
(the wanna-be-designer with megalomaniac ambitions)
     

Destiny: Brave New world

I have to apologize, for some annoying reason, Bungies have 339 social networks listed on their page, but I can't put I video of this one hour conversation into my blog.
So here is the link to it:  Destiny News revealed.

This video is a first look at Destiny and ideas that shaped it. In short, while most of Bungie have been developing Halo, some have played around fantasy world and their mythology-infested habitats (yawn). Thankfully, the sci-fi past and power of shotgun have prevailed and idyllic fantasy, filled with Heroes and master-crafted swords have been invaded by blaster, bounty hunters and spaceships. Rejoice! Bungie stayed true to themselves and kept balance between hardened heroes with pet tigers (just wait for it to appear in the video) and assault rifles aimed at robots.

 The visuals are powerful and magnetic. One of the goal they set was to make Destiny's world attractive: they have succeeded already. However game is still far in development, but at least world builder is ready and main characters outline are set too. The media hype have started too, so start putting coins into your piggy bank, or whatever you are using to save money.

The Fallen.
Four arms is better than two.

Research and table-top economics

Well things are moving, i came back to game system I'm working on and decided to dig deeper into economical system and how it should be present in the game. Sounds easy, huh? Easier said than done. First of all economics is subject almost not covered in table-top games, you are more likely to find Monopoly styled games in the world of board games and economic simulators among MMO's. Not to worry, i thought, lets minimize economy part to a supply line and bribery of opponents forces. In fact this is plausible in modern warfare. If latter was simple enough, the supply and market positions of the groups became a bit of the challenge. Not to worry, i said, i shall look at modern day market structure and development, draw some inspiration and then problem will be solved. Naive...

I found 2 distinct approaches and videos to supplement them. First is overview of New York stock exchange Market structure and trading systems.

Simple enough to represent in table-top game. Second is a video on market and indices manipulation. That is where my brain exploded.        

 

in short that goes against everything I've learned about markets and economics. Basically, imagine that you play chess in the club, naturally everyone is trying to win. However club owner changes the rules during the game, right when grab i figure to move. Not only that everyone else supports this action because they agreed that club owner must win no matter what. 

I think i need to rewrite original concept of planetary economics... :-( or may be get another education  

Ankerstad Alliance: concept

This faction or species was inspired by Ravan Technocracy posted here by Skjold http://www.darkspacecorp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=140. I took a basic concept and played around it a bit. That's the result.



Technocracy of Ankerstad
 
Name: Ankerstad Alliance
Race: NuHumans
Homeworld: Ankerstad
Ankerstad is a low-gravity planet extremely rich in natural resources. Its positioned on the fringe of its solar system orbiting a blue giant star. Planet's orbit brings it into direct vicinity of the Gate once per cycle. This attributes to early settlement of Ankerstad as well as it's civilization dependence on space fleet and orbital defences against unexpected arrivals from the gate. Majority of planetoid is covered in ocean hidden by thick ice and molten rock islands. Atmosphere is rich with ammoniac and nitrogen. Ecosystem and presence of oxygen breathing life forms depended on volcanic activity until Great Families crated artificial system of oxygen production and climate control. Main defence and production system are based on ego-stationry orbit of planet as a belt of docks, elevators to surface, defence and radar outposts.

Origins:
Ankerstad has been colonized and settled in order to control its natural resources and utilize proximity of the Gate. However difficulties in exploiting those resources meant that only highly advanced civilizations had a chance of retaining its grip on the shifting icy surface of the planet.
All of them human, each dating to various times of arrival and settlement, but all of them eventually united into Ankerstad Alliance which consist of seven great Families which rule over Seven Great Atolls. The Great Seven Families are:

1. Lepanto
2. Midway
3. Tsushima
4. Gangut
5. Salamis
6. Jutland
7. Trafalgar

Each Family attributes certain set of unique skills, technology and resources into Ankerstad Alliance's production of spaceships and other goods.

Government:
Ankerstad Alliance has two levels of governance: Atolls are ruled by Families and their courts. All matters of external relations with other space faring nations, including warfare, production of ships and trade agreements are carried out by Alliance's representatives which arecoming from the Great Families. Alliance plays pivotal role in solving disputes between the Families, but if diplomacy fails they retain their right to solve matters on the field of battle. Luckily it happens very rare. Head of Alliance – The Great Commodore is chosen once per 14 cycles by votes of leaders of the Great Seven Families. In case of his death or inability to perform his duties to the Great Seven he is replaced by someone from Alliance's staff until next elections.

Alliance's form of governance is technocracy: decision and policy making depends on specialist with both administrative and field experience. Officials are called to serve time on the ships of Ankerstad fleet often as a commanding officers before any progress on other career path. Though progress through ranks is relatively small, the amount of skill and knowledge officer gain is vast. Captains of Ankerstad are well versed in negotiations, fleet tactics, technology development and boarding actions. However the majority of information is acquired by the means of Virtual Minds: a sophisticated artificial intelligence created to support human decisions.

Physical:
Ankerstad have seen several waves of habitation and both those who failed and succeeded as civilizations left their mark in the bloodlines of Families. Though not a single bloodline remains completely dominant. Great Seven Families are usually identified by following dominant gene-types:

Lepanto: tall, medium build, olive or dark skin, brown and black eyes, bird like face traits.
Midway: dark brown skin, grey hair, black or brown eyes, short and muscular build
Tsushima: frail, small build, purple or brown eyes, black hair
Gangut: broad and wide build, pale white skin, red, blonde and light brown hair, green or grey eyes
Salamis: broad and wide build, dark olive skin, brown or olive eyes, round nose and lips
Jutland: slim build, thin lips, blonde hair, blue or grey eyes, hawk-like noses
Trafalgar: medium and short build, pale white or blue eyes, light green hair and skin.

Religion:
Ankerstad Alliance is secular society which emphasizes the power of technology and inventive human mind over speculative religions of others. However almost all ships and private quarters on Atolls have a shrines of Neptoo: a form of meditation room, where people come to burn incense to the spirits of Ship or Atoll and be in solitude for a short time being. No other religion is known to take root among practical and hardy people of Ankerstad.

Technology:
Ankerstad Alliance has mastered several technological disciplines: spacecraft building, surface and sub-surface ship building, artificial intelligence creation and training, advanced metallurgy and nano-material modification, long range space detection sonar and equipment. In form of weapon design their guns retain a significant range superiority in comparison with similar types of other factions.

Society and Cultural Priorities:
Ankerstad Alliance is not a totally unified society and each Atoll retains its own identity and cultural peculiarities, but all share following priorities:

Humans takes a decisions - Machines provide support.
The rationale behind this cultural priority is unknown, but some suspect that it may be rooted in long forgotten fight with renegade Virtual Mind. After the victory people of Ankerstad decided to rely on their own reasoning and limit the roles of artificial intelligence. However master's of Trafalgar family are known to produce AI with very high levels of independent thinking for undisclosed customer. On the human side, free general education system strongly emphasizes ability to think, take decisions and analyse world around with sufficient information.

People-Family-Atoll-Alliance.
This passage is shortened part of national anthem of every Family and is repeated on the flag of Ankerstad Alliance. This principle represents the uncommon camaraderie among the people, ability to help and share resources, be polite and supportive in time of need regardless of origins and social status. As a result of this cultural trait and accessibility of info-clouds of NuHu implants information passes between the common people and specialist in a matter of seconds. This creates unusual freedom of speech and thought but restricted by in-native responsibility and trust to the Family. Loyalty despite the social tension and disagreements remains unquestionable. In full this passage is following:

People protect the Family.
Family serves Atoll.
Atoll serves Alliance.
Alliance protects the people.

Lakedonian Empire: concept

To be honest I have posted this concept on the forum of Dark Space Corporation [http://www.darkspacecorp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1159&p=8869#p8869], but decided to re-post it here as note to myself. This is basically a "sketch gone wild", I was playing with idea of organization for one of futuristic settings and Beyond the Gates of Antares gave me a spark to put it on paper.
 
 

Images are taken from site http://mandragoreminiatures.free.fr. Sculptor is Gael Goumon. Used without permission. No challenge to property rights intended. 
Name: Lakedonians
Race: Revers
Homeworld: Lakedonia Prime

Planet Lakedonia is 1,6 bigger than Terra, has oxygen based atmosphere, with harsh climate, arid plains and mountainous terrain divided by great number of lakes, seas and rivers. Planet is moderately rich in natural resources. Lakedonia has three moons: Melitele, Arisaka and Shakta. 

Origins: 
Lakedonian's are descendant of humans who settled on Lakedonia countless ages ago. Current civilization has been re-build after previous has made a contact with unknown group of Concord. The result of this contact was an uncontrolled spread of unknown lethal disease which affected mostly male population of planet. Disease, or Male Sin as was latter called was stopped when scientist created an genetic modification which prevented the micro-drone technology from hosting and affecting human bodies. This event dramatically changed world perspective of this nation, creating a fusion of technology  and religion.


Physical:
Not so different from normal humans, Lakedonians normally stand at 1 meter 70 centimeters. Majority has blue, green and grey eyes, pale or olive skin and have a slim and frail looking physique. However as their planets gravitation is more than standard Terran, they are strong and muscular. Major slim body type attributes to the fact that certain bloodlines fared much better than other during eradication of Male Sin.    

http://mandragoreminiatures.free.fr/

Government:
Lakedonians are governed by matriarchal theocracy, where the High Priestress of Melitele and Sekmerra appoints the planetary government every twelve cycles in accordance with prophetical visions and reading of their dual deity will. Citizens share all wealth of Empire, but not allowed to have more than certain limit of personal possession. All members of society (except Ilhotes) are provided with education and financial support. Those who excel in during harsh educational process usually are provided with  better career chance and more responsibilities.  

Religion:
Religion of Lakedonian's is monotheistic in nature. It worships two aspect of their main unnamed, but certainly female deity: Melitele and Sekmerra. Melitele is an aspect of love, fertility and growth through work and improvement. Her primary color is white. Sekmeraa is aspect of war, oppression and deceit. She creates destruction in order to give way for new life. Her main color is red. Both deities have came to rescue Lakedonian's in times of Male Sin, when previous civilization was being absorbed by Concord and majority of male population was losing its fertility and independence. Both are worshiped in same temples in accordance of calendar and have their Saints. Religion of Melitele and Sekmerra contains not only popular texts, but predictions on return of the Concord and instruction on how to boost human bio-resistance to its influence.

Technology:
Lakedonian's are relatively young space faring nation of Antarean space. Their technology emphasizes robustness and mulch-purposeness. For example Lakedonian infantry mag-gung could be upgraded in field conditions to a heavy support weapon. Major achievements of Lakedonians lie in the area of bio-resistance and genetic modifications. It's a common practice for Lakedonian units to be accompanied by guardian animals designed for task of spotting and harassing enemy.    

Society and Cultural priorities:
Male population of Lakedonia is less than 1/7 of entire population. This is a direct consequence of Male Sin and contact with Concord. As a result most of active roles in society is are filled by females. Male are generally divided into two separate castes: the Breeders and the Ilhotes. Breeders are those few bloodlines which survived Male Sin and remained generaly unaffected. They provide seed for legal fertilization and procreation. Breeders are controlled by the Cult and are priceless in terms of preservation of Lakedonians. The Ilhotes are bloodlines which has been affected but were retained for the use as slave workforce. They are generally genetically modified or lobotomized for the task purposes and under no conditions they are allowed to breed.

Female roles in society are divided into so-called Gifts to Lakedonia. Depending on age and social position Lakedonian female is either fulfilling and preparing for one of the Gifts.
They are:
Gift of Blood: initiation into adulthood achieved by killing at least one Ilhote.
Gft of Tears: the birth of at least one healthy child for the Cult.      
Gift of Spear: active military service either in planetary army or as Lakedonian mercenary
Gift of Craft: active service as foster parent, tradesmen or official.

Allegiance:
Will not ally with Concord or Isorian shard under no circumstances, will not commonly ally with aliens. Any Rever, PanHuman or Simhuman group.

What is waiting Beyond the Gates of Antares?

The Future is a mystery to all of us. 

It stands with its back turned, silent and 

unknowable until we reach it. 

Those who can predict it are often wrong,

 simply because they cannot see all the details

 the Future holds up its sleeves. 

Those who aspire and push forward may fail 

for the very same reasons. 

Because Future does not reveal its secrets easily or 

warn us of dangers ahead. 

Beyond the Gates of Antares is an extremely ambitions and promising project by Rick Priestly, the father of Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 universes. The renown and legendary game designer left Games Workshop in 2010 to pursue new goals as a freelancer. So far he created and participated in number of successful projects, like Bolt Action (WW2 squad-to-company size wargame) and Fanticide  (a homicidal warband tabletop top game). The latter was successfully promoted and launched using Kickstarter, and apparently gave an inspiration and confidence to repeat the experience with BGoA.

For the selfish purposes i will post a video of Rick  Priestly, John Stallard and Rik Alexander (Warlord Games) interview were they describe the "sausage" or the bright palns for new gaming universe to the Beasts of War website. In short and to save you one hour of listening i will summarize the goals of project as quite ambitious.

First of all they are trying to merge Massive Multiplayer Online game with table-top wargame, and give players a real-time online mirror of their table top efforts. So while you are playing the game with your mates and feed result to the website, the script (or admin) will change the big picture of entire universe.

Sounds revolutionary, at least. What is comforting is that big picture will be controlled by the company narrators. 

Secondly, the game mechanics (so far) is similar to tested in Bolt Action system of activation and units status, though system is still in development to adjust for the far far future, sometime couple of million years ahead.

Thirdly, the combat will be affected by pool of command action and every unit will react to enemy actions according to situation and impact, which promises to deliver a very intense game where both players are constantly engaged in the game.

That is IF the project will find required amount of supporters on Kickstarter. At the moment of writing this post, BGoA have collected 31% of £93.492 pledged money and it had 36 day to go. And if would be behind this project i would be worried. Unfortunately i'm not the only one who sees realities of BGoA.      

Blogger Mr. Zweischneid's (dont ask me how to pronounce this name) in his brilliant analysis describes the most obvious reason for worries. Check it yourself, http://pinsofwar.com/rick-priestleys-kickstarter-fail, and you might agree that at the moment, Beyond the Gates of Antares is an incomplete product. To summarize Mr. Zweischneid's post, 

• BGoA will be funded only if will get at last £5000 in donations each day
•  if the vision of game universe will suddenly became clear and focused so that people will know what exactly they are supporting 
• if game mechanics will be finished to at least 90%

             

Looking at the current situation of definitely an interesting project I wounder what might happen in likely case if project will not get requested amount of support.   

1.  Rick Priestly stated: "that this the game I've always wanted to create". We may believe in his commitment to the project, which mean that he will continue working on the game regardless of financial situation. That is promising. 
2. Warlord Games support: John Stallard (the boss) clearly understands that IF this project will take off, and people will start playing BGoA as they play MMOG these day, then his company will become a second Games Workshop. 
3. Arrival of undisclosed investor: frankly I'm speculating, but project of such novelty and potential could attract a third party investor, which means it will get required amount of money and production schedule will be met.     

             

Apocalypse vs. Boredom

Ever since human being realized that they are mortal the idea of Apocalypse have emerged. However only Christian tradition have taken this idea to its extremes and made it popular and well know to every brain they could reach. Religions of India and Far East do not use excessive fear of Doomsday, Judgment Day and Savior as a last hope.  They postulate concept of everlasting and ever-changing world in general. I'd like to stop my reference to religions and philosophical practices at this point, to avoid going astray.   

Like it or not, Apocalypse is used and re-used countless times in movies, books and other cultural references. It is part of any European cultural understanding of world, and majority of  other cultures at least understand what do we mean by Apocalypse.

In game design however it has became an ultimate answer to boredom and i think the ultimate excuse in setting development. Whenever you need to portray dark, hopeless future/past or situation and therefore justify the need of exterminating the opponent "A" in various forms is present. To bring some popular examples which allows player to act out of mundane life restrictions: 

1) the War, which wipes out humanity and finally allows us to kill everything that moves,

2) invasion of horrible aliens - no sentiment here, get out of my lawn you alien/nazi punk!,

3) zombie horde - I will remain alive-white-human-armed-with-shotgun no matter the cost!

4) we made it - human activity finally screwed everything on the planet. Yuppi! Its shotgun time!

5) personal "A" - they killed my dog/family/canary/planet/tentacle choose appropriate, guess what's gonna happen.

6) Not on my shift! - apparently the "A" is about to happen and player must stop it using lots of bullets and pressing the red button in the end.  

I may have missed some interpretations of Apocalypse in games but the point of "A" remains the same: give a player an excuse to act without thinking too deep why he is doing it, a strong emotional anchor that he not only pressing the right button, but he is making something IMPORTANT. Some players may bluntly ignore the storyline, especially in FPS games or table-top war-games where primary activity is concentrated around annihilating opponent, but the reasoning why has been done before the game begin: my action matters.  

Accordingly, the bigger the threat of "A" the more important player should feel himself, when in fact he has not even left the sofa. The better the reasoning behind it the more people relate to matters of game and characters on the screen, the more real the Apocalypse becomes and more meaningful players actions become. 

After all how many chances we get to save the world in our mundane lives? That is the biggest catch of a really good and well-selling games (with exception of solitaire, perhaps :-) ). 

 

Oddly enough, computer games industry have outperformed movie industry in volume of sales by 2005 (i think),  a good proof that some real talents are going there to make this illusions believable and keep players occupied and happy.