by Rachel Carpenter

Dear readers, sorry, but I'm delaying the Fire in the Library session report to tomorrow.

I ended up spending the entire day working on the new art for Nine Tails. It's nowhere near done. Tails 2-8 need to be bigger, like Tail 1. And I also need to fully redo the artwork for each Tail (I started Tail 2- Earth, but I don't like it yet) or maybe find a way to bend the existing inner art to fit the new shapes. I'm happier with the overall look of the kitsune. He's more fox-y looking and less elementary-school-drawing-lesson looking. I might want him more sitting/less awkward standing... If that makes sense. Here's where I ended the day:

Nine Tails , New kitsune in-progress

And, this is the current kitsune:

Happy Saturday and happy playing!
-Rachel

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by Pete aka The Masked Minstrel

Today, I did something that may financially be dumb, considering where things currently are at in my life, but I am super excited.

Actually, it was yesterday, since it's 5:22 am the next morning, and I can't sleep.
Yesterday, I bought the almost complete PDF bundle of books for the Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying Game!

I want to buy all these as physical books, so as to have a Library of RPG tomes, just like we used to back in the days of AD&D 2nd edition, which was my favorite edition and the one I grew up with.
Times have changed, my current group of gamer friends don't really commit financially at all, they might buy some dice, or some virtual content for a VTT, but I don't mind, the idea of having these RPG Tomes for Marvel Multiverse brings me a lot of joy and happiness, as well as satisfaction, and unlike my AD&D 2nd Ed books I won't get rid of them ever - biggest mistake I ever made.

I just decided to dive in headlong and enjoy it.
My friends will go along with it, and I will make certain they have a good time.

Also, having the PDFs to read on my iPad and iPhone is just extra convenient, as my eyes are getting bad now, and I can lay in bed and read in the dark.
And read I certainly intend, I plan to read each of these books from cover to cover, just to cover my bases, while having the physical books available for reference during play.

My next major purchases will be 3D prints from Etsy of Marvel Crisis Protocol scaled miniatures for use in the RPG.
Originally, I was going to go with HeroClix, but getting them from the US is still expensive despite how cheap the Clix minis can be, but now my MCP stuff can pull double duty!

Speaking of MCP, I set up my phone with Werble, this is another long story which I won't delve into, but previously I used Werble to make animated action photos for my Marvel Crisis Protocol battle reports, and people seemed to enjoy them, I know I certainly did.
So I set up a little intro scenario to play with a friend with limited space and a small group of characters, since the learning curve can get pretty steep with all the individual characters having multiple abilities and rules.
So two minis a side, recreating that scene from Avengers: Infinity War.



Well, I have some reading to do, and lots of it ahead of me.

Oh, I still have to play my 400th Play of Marvel Champions, not sure why I am hesitating...
But after a few plays I intend to go back to some basics, like trying out some new heroes against the Core villains - that always racks up a lot of plays.
I am also considering getting a custom-ordered play mat of Adam Warlock and another of Ghost-Spider, I love these characters so much in Marvel Champions, it only seems fitting, and it's not that expensive... I think?
There is a guy in an Etsy store who does some and they look amazing.
I did pick up an official FFG Hulk Playmat for $8Aud.

Til Next Time, True Believers!

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by sdonohue

Tomb of Zines is a 2023 release from Philip Reed Games. It was designed by Philip Reed and features art by Jeff Freels and Henrik Kappinen. It is intended for use with any system, but does have a fantasy theme.

Presentation
This is available in print and pdf formats, although the pdf might be tough for most people to use. The print version ships as a flat piece of cardboard which can be folded to form a sturdy box about 6.5" wide by 10" tall and 2" deep with a foldover lid and ears to keep it closed.

Content
This is primarily a box intended to store products with a 6" x 9" form factor, but it can (obviously) also store smaller products. The exterior is decorated with artwork with one random prompt on the back cover to select something a wizard might do; these lead to the included brochures. The inside bottom of the box has a d6 table to select a likely foe and then the inside front cover explains what they're up to. The foe selection is a d6, then each for has a d6 of potential actions.

The box also come with 6 brochures, each of which is tied to one of the prompts from the back over. The titles are: The Wizard's Requests, The Wizard's Tales, The Wizard's Secrets, The Wizard's Summons, The Wizard's Attacks, and The Wizard's Demands. These are each 9" x 9" in full color and tri-folded to make them look more like a brochure. Each of them is a random table related to the them. The tables range from d12 to d40 with each entry getting one or two sentences aimed at inspiring the GM. They are full color and double-sided on glossy paper.

It also includes some smaller items: Magic Hands and Magic Mouths are both 10" x 4" items folded into 2.5" x 4" booklets. One details various hands and the other mouths which one might encounter. There are also two 2.5" double-sided cards; one has a skeleton and some random ideas for an encounter and the other is an unmoving skeleton with some ideas about how it might contribute to an adventure.

Evaluation
Philip Reed does a great job generating inspirational random tables and decks; these are no exception. There are a lot of ideas in here and they are all creative and inspiring. That's not really even the point of this, which is to provide a box to store your games. It excels both as a storage device and as an inspiration.

If you get a chance to buy one, I would. If you just want the content, you can purchase it as a pdf or print book combining all the contents into one volume.

by M Charles

'Ello, M. Charles here.

PART 18: DEADWOOD IS SOMETIMES NICE...

(1) I spoke before about the idea of letting deadwood -- all the things holding your game back, bloating it, confusing it, infecting it -- fade away. But deadwood is sometimes nice. It still must fade away (usually). It depends on the tightness of the system, and its focus, and how many primary subsystems you have. In this case, I came up with an interesting idea of collecting resources, and Crafting Items in a Minecraft-like style. But I realised that it would work much better as a video game, or else if the Roguelike or deckbuilding element didn't exist.

As it stands, North of the Snow seems much better without the additional cards, systems, mechanics, admin, and table space. The primary thing it was achieving was the idea of Campfires to Heal HP. Then I stepped back, and realised the blindingly obvious: instead of using cards to represent Tree nodes as to gather Wood by cutting them down, then make a Campfire I could simply use the cards to represent a Campfire you discover. This works very well in streamlining the process, removing unnecessary and time-consuming components and mechanics, further tightening the entire theme, helping to drive forward momentum towards the end of the run, and focusing the gameplay on the deckbuilding combat aspect. It also worked out well to use these Campfire cards, since they're randomly placed in with the snowy wilderness cards -- you can see where the Campfires are, and can choose to travel towards them. This helps the player have more information and options, but it's also thematic, as you would actually be able to see a fire from far away in a flat/fairly empty forest snowy landscape (assuming no major downfall/visibility issues).

This change saved about 30 cards/tokens, and a lot of time and table space, and ensures that each run is a little less random (beyond the draw of the Campfire cards in the first place, since it's possible to not find any Campfires, though unlikely).

And I originally created an additional storage/Inventory system, but I think it works best as a tight management game, with a lot of randomness, and a high replay value at a fast pace (some runs being better than others, and most runs being very fast, so you never lose much time when a run goes badly). This also saved time, table space, and cards. And it helps to cut down on player analysis and mental book-keeping, as it were, which takes even more time.

(2) I scraped the original HP/card/Inventory system. I suppose it could have worked, but it didn't seem like it was working for North of the Snow.

(3) In trying to figure out the new HP system, I went through a few ideas about Energy/HP, Tool Upgrades, and an Exertion mechanic. What I really needed to figure out was the best way to create some kind of power-up system, as opposed to everything being flat (unchanging, single-function, one-level, universal, default, etc.). Ultimately, I settled on what we currently have, in keeping with the rest of the game and the other changes.

Buttons. No real reason the Buttons are your Health -- just to add to the whimsical, fantasy, cosy nature of the game. You begin with 10 Buttons, and it Regenerate to a maximum of 5 whenever you Heal by eating Fish, but this can be increased to a maximum of 10 via Upgrades. Then, you can earn a maximum of 10 additional, temporary Buttons. When you lose these, they're gone, and you cannot Heal back to them (anything beyond 10). You must re-earn them. This means, at most, you can have 20 Buttons.

The final twist is the Exertion mechanic. Instead of Tool Upgrades or dice pools or whatsoever, there is a standard rate of gathering Resources via Actions, etc. This is improved by Exertion. For example, let's say you Fish. The Standard Fishing Action offers 1 Fish (random). But if you want more Fish, you can perform an Exertion Action by spending your Buttons. This is quite an elegant system, both thematically and mechanically, and takes up no more table space, and requires nothing but Buttons (either actual tokens/buttons, or else cards). 1 Button = 1 additional Action. In this case, you would lose 1 Button and gain 2 Fish, instead of 1.

The beauty of this system is the baked-in dynamic difficulty and player priority system. If you want to focus on Buttons as to not die and/or play risky tactics in the combat encounters, you must sacrifice on gaining more Fish or Ores (the two Standard/Skilling Actions), and GP (Gold Pieces) and/or future Upgrades, as a result. The way the game currently works is, you must gain GP by selling Fish and/or Ores, and use the GP to buy cards in the deckbuilding section of the game, thereby improving the combat side of things. On the other hand, if you want to risk being low on Buttons and die early, or feel confident in the combat encounters, you can choose to gain many more Fish and Ores. In the long run, this will give you more GP, and more Upgrades/better combat results, as a result. Clearly, this system favours the better and/or luckier player. It's a balancing act for each player -- but it's not actively punishing the bad or unlucky player. And having more Buttons in the long run can help to gain Fish and Ores at a slow, steady rate, so it's not exactly an all-or-nothing system. In theory, this should work well...

In removing so much of the game, I'm judging the players. I'm judging that most players will be happier with a deckbuilder, with a fairly fast-paced, simple survival aspect that also ties into the combat, mining, Fishing, Upgrades, and Roguelike map. It's all interconnected and seamless, I pray. I know some players would have enjoyed the more RPG-heavy, immersive, larger survival section direction. But my guess is that many players would ultimately feel like the non-combat portion was nothing more than admin and a 'chore', taking away from the flow of the game and the meat/core mechanic (deckbuilding). It's better than people wish aspect B had more content than no content, or far less content. It's better to wish than dread. (You know like how sometimes a secondary character is great in a film or TV show, and you wish they had their own show... only their own show proves dull and pointless, and they're not nearly as good anymore. That's because everything has a time and a place, and a balance. They're great exactly because they're in a secondary role, helping to support and define the structure -- they are not the structure themselves. I believe games are like that, when it comes to subsystem A vs. B, or core mechanic A vs. B.)

Here is the table setup at the moment (deckbuilding card slots in the centre; not figured out yet -- that comes next).



I made sure to fit everything in a 4 by 2 ft area, including all the bags/storage cups and related. It's still compatible with Stardew Valley: The Board Game (2021) -- you just don't need nearly as much. The deckbuilding cards will be 100% custom/print & play. At the same time, I was very mindful of what I'll term excessive gesturing. In this context, 'gesturing' refers to whenever you have to physically move something, and must move your hand/arm around the table, to pick things up and place them down, and flip over cards, and shuffle decks, and draw cards, and replace down cards, and move tokens/chits, and turn dials, etc. 'Excessive' is whenever you have to perform many physical gestures or movements of any kind in a short period of time and/or when the gestures are practically unnecessary, and only exist due to bloated or opaque game design (i.e. moving one token from location A to location B, to then use it for Action X, and return it to location A, or else place it in location C).

I hate gesturing. Ideally, board games should be as close to video games as possible -- automatic, nested, embedded, and multi-function. Mechanics and rules and components should all be doing at least two things at once, mechanically and/or thematically, with as much clarity and depth as possible, and as few gestures and time as possible, without additional book-keeping or the issue of floating modifiers (i.e. effects/game states, etc. you must mentally track over time, or else write them down, beyond the scope of the core book-keeping).

Gesturing in Roguelikes is an even larger problem, due to the need for a rapid setup time, which happens every 5-30 minutes (60 minutes at most). Every new run or 'level' within the run, etc. needs a change in game state. This is a nightmare if you have to move lots of miniatures around, flip over 20 cards, or reshuffle and draw 20 cards, and otherwise. I'm going to do my best in this regard! In line with the gutting of the non-deckbuilding side of things, I want to aim for 30-minute runs as opposed to the original 60-minutes runs. Assuming most players seek a 60-minute play session, that means two runs per session, which seems reasonable to me. We'll see!

And the new cover (button graphics + new subtitle).

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