Spent last month's gaming sessions working up new characters. The group is new to Ashen Stars, so it took awhile. The mechanical parts were relatively straightforward. The emphasis the game places on character development took the players a little off guard.
Mechanics
The players divide up shipboard and groundside roles between them. The shipboard roles relate to the operation of the player's ship in combat. The groundside roles define what each character brings to an investigation. The mechanical aspect of the roles amount to a title and a list of the skills needed to be effective in the role. The roles are not as restrictive as classes. Players can even opt out as a group from using roles and simply pick out their skills directly.
Skill selection is a simple point buy. There are no conversions between experience or other points to skill points. One point buys one rank in a skill. Points may be banked for use after character generation. These banked points can be used later, even during an adventure, to purchase new skills.
Equipment is simple. No need to go through lists to purchase every single item. Player characters are assumed to start with what they need to perform their role. This includes a sidearm, a communications device, and a data retrieval/scanning device. The only time players need to pour over lists is when big ticket items like cyberwear or their ship come into the picture.
Character Arcs
Players create a character arc with a beginning, middle, and (if desired) conclusion. These arcs relate to some goal of each player character (find a lost sister, reestablish and uphold lawful government, have a grand adventure and look good doing it). The goal and each step in achieving it are presented as one sentence ideas. These are the seeds for future adventure subplots. It is still up to the GM to incorporate these ideas into the campaign. The details (who, what, where, when, and how) are controlled by the GM, but this allows the players input into the development of their characters.
Reactions
The group had no problems with the mechanical aspects of character generation. Looking up what each skill or piece of cyberwear did take time, but grasping the concepts was not an issue.
Coming up with character arcs was a little more challenging. It's an approach to character development that places more on the players' shoulders. It is more proactive than writing up a backstory and seeing what, if anything, the GM decides to use. It allows the player to decide what is important to their character and how that effects future game sessions.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Painting By Numbers #9 - More Earth Exploration Teams
The appearance of these 15mm soldiers is inspired by a popular and long-running science fiction franchise. They'll be useful as security or light infantry in near-future or hard science fiction settings.
Note that one group has helmets and the other has patrol caps.
Base colors as follows:
Uniforms: Reaper Camouflage Green.
Vests, weapons, and boots: Reaper Stormy Grey.
Faces: Reaper Fair Skin or Russet Brown.
Washes as follows:
Vests, weapons, and boots: Citadel Badab Black.
All other areas: Citadel Gryphonne Sepia, followed by Devlan Mud.
I was going to paint the vests, weapons, and boots black. This would have resulted in a flat appearance. The dark grey with a black wash looks dark enough while letting the details show.
The first wash of Gryphonne Sepia was too subtle and too red for the effect I wanted. Going over the same areas with Devlan Mud provided the shading the models needed.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Painting By Numbers #8 - Earth Exploration Team
These are 15mm miniatures inspired by characters from a popular and long-running science fiction franchise. In addition to representing those characters, they will be useful as team leaders for security or light infantry teams.
The sunglasses on the one model is a nice touch.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Painting By Numbers #7 - Space Portal Guards
Part of my latest completed 15mm painting project. These alien warriors with their jackal-shaped helmets are pretty distinctive. That distinctive appearance limits their overall utility, although they could be used as a Egyptian themed army in a pulp or space opera setting.
The one with gold armor is the squad leader. The team leaders are picked out with blue details. The regular troops have red details in homage to a certain science fiction franchise.
Painting was straightforward. The armor was based with a medium grey followed by an overbrush of metallic silver. The gold areas were based with brown and overbrushed with metallic gold. All areas got a diluted dark wash followed by a brown wash to bring out the details and weather the figures a little.
The one with gold armor is the squad leader. The team leaders are picked out with blue details. The regular troops have red details in homage to a certain science fiction franchise.
Painting was straightforward. The armor was based with a medium grey followed by an overbrush of metallic silver. The gold areas were based with brown and overbrushed with metallic gold. All areas got a diluted dark wash followed by a brown wash to bring out the details and weather the figures a little.
A Little Overdue for an Update
Yeah, so... it looks like I missed out on updating this blog for... all of February. I'll take all the blame for that one. There was alot on my plate last month and something had to give. Blogging had to take the hit to free up the time I needed to get things done. I'm sorry and will do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Until next time.
I did spend time thinking about this little blog, though. Up until now, I've done little more than chronicle my painting and terrain projects with a few reviews on the side. Those are worthy pursuits and will continue. But I do have ideas on other topics to add to the mix. I hope that you will enjoy the greater variety of posts.
I did spend time thinking about this little blog, though. Up until now, I've done little more than chronicle my painting and terrain projects with a few reviews on the side. Those are worthy pursuits and will continue. But I do have ideas on other topics to add to the mix. I hope that you will enjoy the greater variety of posts.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Initial Thoughts on Ashen Stars
I finished reading through Ashen Stars during the holidays. I gave the rules another going-over and ran my group through a demo last week to get a feel for the game. Ashen Stars is a sc-fi tabletop RPG using the GUMSHOE system. Both the game and rules system were created by Robin D Laws. It is published by Pelgrane Press.
GUMSHOE solves an issue with "investigative" games. In an adventure that relies on giving the player characters information needed to continue the story, what happens when they fail to acquire that information? Many systems require a successful skill check to get information. If none of the player characters have the skill needed to find a particular clue, they don't get that clue. If one of them does have the skill, but fails the roll, they also don't get the clue. Without that key piece of information, they cannot continue the adventure.
Faced with that situation, a GM has three basic options. One, accept that the player characters have failed to complete the adventure and deal with the fall out. This is like a murder mystery where the detective doesn't catch the killer. It can be done, but may not be a satisfying end. Two, fudge the skill check and hope the players don't notice. In that case, why require a skill check in the first place? Three, find another way of getting the information into the hands of the player characters. Again, this brings requiring a skill check into question.
GUMSHOE circumvents the whole issue by just putting the information into the hands of the player characters. During character generation, the players determine which character buys a given investigative skill. The entire range of investigative skills is doled out between the player characters. This avoids the issue of not having a specific skill. If a player character possesses the required skill to obtain a particular clue, they find the clue automatically. This is a more elegant solution that keeps the adventure running seamlessly.
Note that this only applies to core clues - those that are needed to continue the adventure. Information that is helpful or optional, but not critical to keeping the game going, is not automatically given.
GUMSHOE solves an issue with "investigative" games. In an adventure that relies on giving the player characters information needed to continue the story, what happens when they fail to acquire that information? Many systems require a successful skill check to get information. If none of the player characters have the skill needed to find a particular clue, they don't get that clue. If one of them does have the skill, but fails the roll, they also don't get the clue. Without that key piece of information, they cannot continue the adventure.
Faced with that situation, a GM has three basic options. One, accept that the player characters have failed to complete the adventure and deal with the fall out. This is like a murder mystery where the detective doesn't catch the killer. It can be done, but may not be a satisfying end. Two, fudge the skill check and hope the players don't notice. In that case, why require a skill check in the first place? Three, find another way of getting the information into the hands of the player characters. Again, this brings requiring a skill check into question.
GUMSHOE circumvents the whole issue by just putting the information into the hands of the player characters. During character generation, the players determine which character buys a given investigative skill. The entire range of investigative skills is doled out between the player characters. This avoids the issue of not having a specific skill. If a player character possesses the required skill to obtain a particular clue, they find the clue automatically. This is a more elegant solution that keeps the adventure running seamlessly.
Note that this only applies to core clues - those that are needed to continue the adventure. Information that is helpful or optional, but not critical to keeping the game going, is not automatically given.
The core mechanic for Ashen Stars is simple. A single die (d6) is rolled against a target number based on the difficulty of the task. The die roll result can be modified by spending points from a skill pool refreshed at the beginning of an adventure. The difficulty is adjusted due to circumstances. For example, the base difficulty for hitting a target with a disrupter pistol is a 3. However, trying to hit a target using cover and in poor lighting would change that to a 5. The player has the option of offsetting the increased difficulty by spending points from the Shooting skill pool.
Combat is quick, but abstract and dependent on GM descriptions to provide context and flavor. There is no map and modifiers are kept to a minimum. Such a simple system might not hold the interest of a group with a more tactical play style. Fortunately, the investigative system and the task resolution mechanic are easily separated from each other. This allows a group to run the GUMSHOE investigative system with a more robust combat system. I might try combining GUMSHOE with Savage Worlds in a game with a bigger emphasis on combat. But that will have to wait.
The setting for Ashen Stars tries to solve some issues related to sci-fi roleplaying. It sticks to the usual troupes of space opera to keep things familiar. But there are enough twists on those troupes to make the setting interesting.
Combat is quick, but abstract and dependent on GM descriptions to provide context and flavor. There is no map and modifiers are kept to a minimum. Such a simple system might not hold the interest of a group with a more tactical play style. Fortunately, the investigative system and the task resolution mechanic are easily separated from each other. This allows a group to run the GUMSHOE investigative system with a more robust combat system. I might try combining GUMSHOE with Savage Worlds in a game with a bigger emphasis on combat. But that will have to wait.
The setting for Ashen Stars tries to solve some issues related to sci-fi roleplaying. It sticks to the usual troupes of space opera to keep things familiar. But there are enough twists on those troupes to make the setting interesting.
A specific issue that Ashen Stars addresses is the military or paramilitary command structure in many sci-fi settings. The usual approach to space opera is a big ship with a big crew run with a hierarchical organization. This implies rules, regulations, and a chain of command that players may find confining. There is also the issue of creating adventures that the players can bludgeon into submission with their capital starship and crew of specialists.
Ashen Stars makes the player characters independent problem solvers working under contract. Their ship is something small enough to run with a crew of about half a dozen people. This makes the player characters less like starship bridge officers from Star Trek and more like the crew from Firefly.
The Ashen Stars setting mixes utopian and dystopian concepts and explores the conflict between the two. It takes an interstellar civilization of high ideals and wrecks it with a decade-long war. Picture the difference in tone between Star Trek the original series and late-season Deep Space Nine. The player characters are
faced with the desire to live up to the example of a golden age and the desperate needs of a now that is barely getting by.
Ashen Stars avoids being too grimdark with a Reputation mechanic. Players have to balance the temptation of having their characters take pragmatic or self-serving actions versus upholding a more idealistic and moral stance. In some ways, this reminds me of similar mechanics in the Mass Effect games.
Overall, the game looks pretty good. I'll be running my group through some published adventures until we all get a solid grasp of the game. Then I'll see about working up a short campaign to fill out the next couple of months.
Ashen Stars makes the player characters independent problem solvers working under contract. Their ship is something small enough to run with a crew of about half a dozen people. This makes the player characters less like starship bridge officers from Star Trek and more like the crew from Firefly.
The Ashen Stars setting mixes utopian and dystopian concepts and explores the conflict between the two. It takes an interstellar civilization of high ideals and wrecks it with a decade-long war. Picture the difference in tone between Star Trek the original series and late-season Deep Space Nine. The player characters are
faced with the desire to live up to the example of a golden age and the desperate needs of a now that is barely getting by.
Ashen Stars avoids being too grimdark with a Reputation mechanic. Players have to balance the temptation of having their characters take pragmatic or self-serving actions versus upholding a more idealistic and moral stance. In some ways, this reminds me of similar mechanics in the Mass Effect games.
Overall, the game looks pretty good. I'll be running my group through some published adventures until we all get a solid grasp of the game. Then I'll see about working up a short campaign to fill out the next couple of months.
Monday, December 31, 2012
2012 - Looking Back at My Gaming Goals
It's as good a time as any to take a look at the plans I made for gaming this year. Things didn't go as planned, but that's how life works.
Role Playing
The idea of running quarterly RPG games hit scheduling issues and go tossed to the side early in the year. But the underlying concept of promoting variety did work. I got three games off the ground during 2012.
Unfortunately, two of those games died off within two sessions. The first fizzled out. My issues with the ruleset (Palladium) caused me to trash the second.
The third, an AD&D campaign partly motivated by nostalgia, lasted for the planned half-dozen sessions. My gaming group will likely revisit this one later in 2013.
Terrain Projects
I tried my hand at creating my own terrain and learned quite a bit. Of course, some of that knowledge came at the cost of failure. Still, I feel better about trying, failing, and learning something than not taking the chance at all.
I have also been looking at sources of terrain for purchase. Expect some more reviews in 2013.
Painting Projects
I got a fair amount painted this year. Certainly the projects that were hanging over my head from 2011 were all completed early in the year.
Not buying more miniatures went out the window with the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. The summer and winter sales from various sources were also too tempting to resist. The end result is that my pile of unpainted metal, resin, and plastic is bigger than it ever was in 2011. Things will get even worse in March 2013 if Reaper stays on track.
So, yeah, more painting.
Overall, not a bad year.
Role Playing
The idea of running quarterly RPG games hit scheduling issues and go tossed to the side early in the year. But the underlying concept of promoting variety did work. I got three games off the ground during 2012.
Unfortunately, two of those games died off within two sessions. The first fizzled out. My issues with the ruleset (Palladium) caused me to trash the second.
The third, an AD&D campaign partly motivated by nostalgia, lasted for the planned half-dozen sessions. My gaming group will likely revisit this one later in 2013.
Terrain Projects
I tried my hand at creating my own terrain and learned quite a bit. Of course, some of that knowledge came at the cost of failure. Still, I feel better about trying, failing, and learning something than not taking the chance at all.
I have also been looking at sources of terrain for purchase. Expect some more reviews in 2013.
Painting Projects
I got a fair amount painted this year. Certainly the projects that were hanging over my head from 2011 were all completed early in the year.
Not buying more miniatures went out the window with the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. The summer and winter sales from various sources were also too tempting to resist. The end result is that my pile of unpainted metal, resin, and plastic is bigger than it ever was in 2011. Things will get even worse in March 2013 if Reaper stays on track.
So, yeah, more painting.
Overall, not a bad year.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The Premium AD&D Books and How They Sparked Off a Campaign
Wrapped up a AD&D First Edition mini-campaign yesterday to avoid Campaign Death Due to Holidays. It wasn't deep roleplaying, but everybody had a good time. The game will come out of hiatus after we get some other gaming under our belts.
The whole thing started when I treated myself to the Premium Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks. These are incredibly nice books. The crisp printing and bright paper makes it much easier to read than the originals. The gold coating on the edges might be overkill, but it sure looks swanky. The bookmark is handy (the one in my copy of the DMG marks the combat tables) and attracts playful cats. And I can testify to the durability of the covers - stuff just wipes off them. Nevermind how I know that.
I'll admit that nostalgia played a role in my getting these. I actually started gaming with the Basic D&D Set back in the day, but AD&D First Edition wasn't far behind. My original set was lost in a move long ago. Although I replaced them with secondhand copies awhile back, owning a new, high-quality set was something I couldn't resist.
The whole thing started when I treated myself to the Premium Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks. These are incredibly nice books. The crisp printing and bright paper makes it much easier to read than the originals. The gold coating on the edges might be overkill, but it sure looks swanky. The bookmark is handy (the one in my copy of the DMG marks the combat tables) and attracts playful cats. And I can testify to the durability of the covers - stuff just wipes off them. Nevermind how I know that.
I'll admit that nostalgia played a role in my getting these. I actually started gaming with the Basic D&D Set back in the day, but AD&D First Edition wasn't far behind. My original set was lost in a move long ago. Although I replaced them with secondhand copies awhile back, owning a new, high-quality set was something I couldn't resist.
Something I didn't expect was how these books put the game back on the radar. My players asked me to run a game as soon as I purchased the books.
The mini-campaign lasted six sessions. I used the maps and some thematic elements from the classic modules X1 Isle of Dread and C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. The basic plot was that a mysterious island showed up out of nowhere and the player characters were hired to go check it out. One shipwreck, some ruins, a few groups of undead, a couple of native villages, lots of jungle, some mild Lovecraftian elements, and a close escape later, the adventurers are off the island and sailing for home.
There are more than enough loose ends to pick things up later. The current plan is to start Part Two after March. That's when I'm expecting some fantasy miniatures to show up and provide a greater variety of monsters to throw at the player characters.
In the meantime, the group's consensus is to give Ashen Stars a try. More on that next year.
The mini-campaign lasted six sessions. I used the maps and some thematic elements from the classic modules X1 Isle of Dread and C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. The basic plot was that a mysterious island showed up out of nowhere and the player characters were hired to go check it out. One shipwreck, some ruins, a few groups of undead, a couple of native villages, lots of jungle, some mild Lovecraftian elements, and a close escape later, the adventurers are off the island and sailing for home.
There are more than enough loose ends to pick things up later. The current plan is to start Part Two after March. That's when I'm expecting some fantasy miniatures to show up and provide a greater variety of monsters to throw at the player characters.
In the meantime, the group's consensus is to give Ashen Stars a try. More on that next year.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Painting By Numbers #6 - Sarah Blitzer, IMEF Sniper
This one almost got filed under Learning Experiences rather than Painting By Numbers.
I'm not sure if I like how this mini turned out. What I learned made it worth the effort of painting. I'm just not sure if it looks fine, could use a little more work, or needs a soak in Simple Green.
This is "Sarah Blitzer, IMEF Sniper" from Reaper's Chronoscope line (50274). The model is clearly based on the "female long ranged soldier/assassin/spy" that shows up in sci-fi shows and films from time to time. The rifle is huge. The armor is skintight. We all know what's going on here. Let's just move on.
The miniature is of good quality. The mechanical details on the rifle and armor are sharp and well-defined. A little work with a hobby knife took care of the small amount of flash. There is an annoying seam line on the top of the head. It blends into the hair at some angles, but is glaringly viable at others. I left it alone, but it's getting some time with a file if I decide to strip and repaint the figure.
It will be interesting to compare this metal model with the plastic version in Reaper's Bones Kickstarter. I'll follow up on that next year.
The base is from Champ Industries. I've been really happy with these from beginning to end. The service was prompt and efficient. The fact that these are plastic rather than resin meant that there was no clean up and no pinning required. Just a couple of drops of superglue and I could move on to priming. The detail is excellent and takes drybrushing well.
My paint job was inspired by the character Nova from Blizzard Entertainment's Starcraft setting. The model was primed with grey auto body primer. The body suit got a shade of medium grey (Citadel Codex Grey). The armor pieces and rifle got a darker shade of grey (Reaper MSP 09088 Stormy Grey). And a light shade of grey (Reaper MSP 09090 Misty Grey) was used as a highlight. A slightly diluted dark wash (Citadel Badab Black) was used to bring out the details. The rifle and base were drybrushed with a darker metallic (Citadel Boltgun).
Overall, I like the effect, but it might be too subtle. It stands out in good lighting, but it gets lost in darker conditions. What I'm tempted to try is using a light grey for the body suit while keeping the dark grey for the armor to enhance the contrast. I could use white or a white-light grey mix as a highlight.
I would also like the details to stand out a little more. The green on the goggle lenses is barely viable except on close inspection.
The hair came out well. I base coated it with a nice blond color (Reaper Master Series 09074 Palomino Gold) and hit it with a medium wash (Citadel Ogryn Flesh). A little more Palomino Gold was applied as a highlight.
What I'm really not happy with is the face. The skin came out alright, but I'm just going to have to learn how to paint eyes for Reaper's female figures. They just don't look right without that detail.
I'm still not sure what I'm going to end up doing with this mini. It's good enough for tabletop as it is, but I feel that I can do better with another attempt. For now, I'll just set it aside and get some work done on other projects.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
The Workbench #6 - Alien Crystal Terrain
These are what happen when you have some spare parts and a little milliput.
I was using some milliput to fill a few gaps in a project. As usual, it worked fine. Also as usual, I had some left over. And you can't unmix milliput. So it was either find something to do with it or throw it out.
This time, I had a plan. Best of all, it would use stuff I had laying around from previous and shelved projects.
Materials:
Flat wood craft pieces with the edges cut into irregular shapes. Used as bases.
Cocktail stirrers. I used plastic cutters to snip off angled pieces. This resulted in rather sharp edges, so I gave them a light sanding. Used as the "alien crystals".
Milliput. Used to mount the plastic stirrer pieces.
Sand. Basing material.
Glue. I used tacky glue, but any PVA glue will do.
Assembly:
Step 1: Push a small blob of milliput down on the wood base.
Step 2: Push cocktail stirrer pieces into the milliput.
Step 3: Wait for the milliput to cure.
Basing:
Step 1: Apply watered down PVA glue to the base and over the milliput. Be careful not to get any on the cocktail stirrer pieces.
Step 2: Cover the glued areas with sand. Wait until the glue is dry.
Step 3: Apply a watered down mix of brown craft paint and PVA glue over the sand. This colors and further fixes the sand in place. Wait until dry.
Step 4: Drybrush some linen craft paint over the sand.
Results:
These will look good on a variety of game boards. They could be alien crystals on a newly explored world or magic crystals in a cavern deep underground. I'll have to keep a few bases and cut stirrer pieces around for the next time I have a little leftover milliput.
Flat wood craft pieces with the edges cut into irregular shapes. Used as bases.
Cocktail stirrers. I used plastic cutters to snip off angled pieces. This resulted in rather sharp edges, so I gave them a light sanding. Used as the "alien crystals".
Milliput. Used to mount the plastic stirrer pieces.
Sand. Basing material.
Glue. I used tacky glue, but any PVA glue will do.
Assembly:
Step 1: Push a small blob of milliput down on the wood base.
Step 2: Push cocktail stirrer pieces into the milliput.
Step 3: Wait for the milliput to cure.
Basing:
Step 1: Apply watered down PVA glue to the base and over the milliput. Be careful not to get any on the cocktail stirrer pieces.
Step 2: Cover the glued areas with sand. Wait until the glue is dry.
Step 3: Apply a watered down mix of brown craft paint and PVA glue over the sand. This colors and further fixes the sand in place. Wait until dry.
Step 4: Drybrush some linen craft paint over the sand.
Results:
These will look good on a variety of game boards. They could be alien crystals on a newly explored world or magic crystals in a cavern deep underground. I'll have to keep a few bases and cut stirrer pieces around for the next time I have a little leftover milliput.
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