A week or so ago OnLive (awesome cloud gaming service) were running a special offer: pre-order the new Assassins Creed (released December 1st on Onlive) and get a free microconsole.
I like the Assassins Creed games but wasn’t specifically after it – having a look however the game was half the price of buying the microconsole normally… bargin.
So I ordered it and the microconsole got delivered to me in work. Inside the plain cardboard box was this:
So just a quick update as mentioned.
Digital artwork for some of the cards. I’ve put it side by side with the previous photo to give a better idea of things though some bits have changed slightly between versions (the power room now has two doors instead of being a dead end, for example).
(You’ll probably want to click the image to zoom).
So I’ve been silent on here for a while, just been a little busy and had nothing to show/talk about.
This is a very early mock up of an idea for the modular/rearrangeable board.
I have been playing about with ideas for Conviction and particularly thinking about how I wanted the map to work. I’ve always wanted it to be a modular board so that you can do various different map layouts based on scenarios in a book using the same tiles. Originally I wanted to do large hexagonal tiles with multiple ‘spaces’ on each tile for the humans and aliens to move around; taking a more practical look at it however, if I ever intended to make a playable version of this game I needed to go somewhere simpler and I have an idea I quite like.
Basically using standard sized cards (makes them easier to make and they could use normal card sleeves and stuff) which can either be laid out in advance by the alien player (following a scenario) or potentially shuffled and drawn for a ‘dungeon crawl’ type experience or solo game.
This is a little bit of an experiment in posting from my phone so apologies in advance for any typos. I’ll tidy it up on a computer later.
Edit: I’ve gone through things on the computer, made corrections and changed the wording slightly.
Conviction takes place over 600 years in the future. It is a time of peace and prosperity in which all people are guided and provided for by One Nation Earth (ONE).
ONE came into existence after the Third World War. With a death toll counting into the millions the war came to an end when the leaders of each faction inevitably resorted to nuclear weapons and destroyed each other. From the ashes of the old a new theocratic government was born and united humanity in a new age.
Mankind has prospered, seeking out new resources and expanding its horizons beyond imagining.
All was well – until the Azrael incident. Read more
One Father who art in the Heavens,
Hallowed be One’s name.One’s Kingdom come,
One’s will be done,
In the reaches as it is in the core.Give us this day our daily ration,
And allow us to atone for our sins,
As we grant atonement unto those who are worthy.Lead us not into the darkness,
But deliver us from the xenos.For thine is the kingdom,
And the power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.Amen.
Sorry for the delay between posts, things have obviously been quite busy.
So characters; I’ve made references to stats and skills in my post on mechanics but lets expand it a little more while I have some thoughts in my mind.
First of all – Warhammer Fantasy, 3rd Edition. I know it’s a point of contention for alot of people who know about it. In my own gaming group I have some people who like it and some people who don’t (one dislikes the setting in general, one loves the setting and loved first edition but despises the overhaul that has been done with this latest version).
Having played through the introductory adventure I’m for the most part indifferent. I find the setting to be okay, nothing spectacular but interesting enough. The dice I dislike, they’re an interesting idea and I can see the thought behind them but I really don’t like game specific dice for an RPG.
One of the things I did like was the cards, especially the way you have a card for each of the actions your character can potentially do and as you learn new abilities you get new cards for them. This is something I’d like to have in my game.
I’m contemplating taking it a step further as well.
So we’ve discussed some basic mechanics ideas and we’ve had an overview of some setting elements I want to use – now I think I’ll go into a little more detail on some of the setting, why there is an established known world and what nations exist within that known world.
There must be a reason for why there is a finite known world and why there is now access to a much larger world beyond that.
In the Universe of Rogue Trader (the Warhammer 40,000 Universe) there are ‘Chaos Storms’ which cut off areas of space for hundreds of years at a time. For my setting I figure the known world has been isolated from the rest of the world for hundreds of years – so much so that they have no idea what may lay beyond. Rather than storms however they are cut off by the oceans around them, a literally tide of darkness.
My last post discussed a few vague ideas for game mechanics, this time I thought I’d go a bit more onto the setting itself. In an ideal world the mechanics would be easy enough to adapt to any setting but I would like a ‘default’ setting of sorts and so we’ll take a look at that.
The theme will trump real life. In real life a guy with a gun may be able to shoot and kill a guy with a sword from a distance and the guy with the sword won’t have a chance. According to the Rule of Cool however the guy with the sword should be able to fight back on relatively equal footing (at least).
In real life perhaps it is technically impossible to leap from the crows nest of a ship and use a dagger to ride the sail safely down to the deck – however that seems like a perfectly suitable course of action for heroes!
For a long time I’ve been thinking about interesting RPG and game mechanics and ways of changing, adapting and combining them. I’ve also got an interesting setting in my head (at least I think it’s interesting) that I’d love to run an RPG in. I think it’s about time to start writing things down.
D12s will be the dice of choice in my game.
Why? Well firstly because they’re an under-used dice. D6s of course are the ‘normal dice’, D20s are for … well D20 Systems and although I love D10s they get far too much attention with the World of Darkness and Roll and Keep systems (not to mention percentage systems).
Secondly I have in mind an initiative system of sorts with each round representing 6 seconds of time (I think that’s a fairly standard length for a round in many RPGs), using a D12 you can then split each round into half-second phases. Perhaps the number 6 (which a D12 works nicely with) will come up elsewhere as well?
Last Sunday there was a fund raising day of board games at Chapter Arts in Canton. It was organised by Cardiff’s friendly local gaming store, Rules of Play, in order to raise money for Ty Hafan.
The weather was unfortunately wet and engineering works on the train line meant that I had to get a bus from Barry to Cardiff – not to worry though. I eventually made it there and promptly bumped into Michelle who had a copy of Braggart set aside for me. I tracked down Matt Clementson who was concluding a game of Ticket to Ride – one of the better known board games (with the exception of things like Monopoly and Cluedo) but one which has never really appealed to me, maybe I just don’t like trains.
