As you may be aware, I posted up a few days ago about a very generous give away that Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor was running; where he was offering up items normally reserved for Patreon. He was even picking up the tab for the postage!
To say I have been looking forward to these would be an understatement. Work is crap at the moment, so knowing I have something to look forward to has really helped keep me going; so I was overjoyed when I got home from the daily grind this evening to be greeted by a small white envelope on the door mat.
Opening it up eagerly I found two small adventures, one the size of an index card, and the other contained in an A5 sized folded pamphlet; along with another index sized card containing a NPC - all of which I promptly sat down with and began to read through.
I have to say that I am very impressed (not that I doubted I would be), and amazed just how much adventure you can fit into a very small space. Seriously, I'm really digging these micro adventures; and the NPC has a certain quality about him that brings him forth from the page.
Which leaves me only two things to do as a result:
1 - Work out how Patreon works, so I can get more of the same in the future, and..
2 - See if there's some way I can get the whole back catalogue of these adventures; as what I have seen so far really makes me want more. LOTS more!
The blog of a gamer and his eclectic interests; including home brewed content for board games, roleplaying games, and video games.
Showing posts with label Free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Wednesday, 5 July 2017
Freebies!
Well, how's this for keeping focused, and on track. Only one post into the month, and I'm already going off on a tangent.
It's a good one though, as I'm sure you'll all agree; relating to a number of freebies that Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor is offering up for.. Well, free!
There's no catch either. Normally this is stuff that Tim offers via Patreon, but as he has a few going spare; he is offering them out to anyone who's interested in them. Which I certainly am! I was lucky to win a copy of The Manor (Tim's zine) a number of years back in a contest hosted over at Tenkar's Tavern; and I was really happy with my prize.
Don't get me wrong, winning something is always nice; but The Manor has a real old-school feel about it that I really love, and the quality of the material inside was excellent. A nice little map, and a random encounter table to seed it, some art, a poem, and probably plenty more that I've forgotten since my last read.
In short, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you're lucky enough to get a freebie; as the quality and creativity that goes into them is top notch.
Enough already! How do I get my freebies!?
All you have to do is drop a comment on this post requesting them, followed by sending Tim an e-mail with your address to the e-mail address included in the same post.
That's all there is to it!
You could of course follow the blog whilst you're there, add it to your feed, or see what else is available via his Patreon; but as Tim says, "There is no obligation". Having followed the blog both here, and at my old digs for a number of years though I'd certainly recommend it; as there has been some really great stuff posted over that time, and it would have been a shame to miss it.
It's a good one though, as I'm sure you'll all agree; relating to a number of freebies that Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor is offering up for.. Well, free!
There's no catch either. Normally this is stuff that Tim offers via Patreon, but as he has a few going spare; he is offering them out to anyone who's interested in them. Which I certainly am! I was lucky to win a copy of The Manor (Tim's zine) a number of years back in a contest hosted over at Tenkar's Tavern; and I was really happy with my prize.
Don't get me wrong, winning something is always nice; but The Manor has a real old-school feel about it that I really love, and the quality of the material inside was excellent. A nice little map, and a random encounter table to seed it, some art, a poem, and probably plenty more that I've forgotten since my last read.
In short, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you're lucky enough to get a freebie; as the quality and creativity that goes into them is top notch.
Enough already! How do I get my freebies!?
All you have to do is drop a comment on this post requesting them, followed by sending Tim an e-mail with your address to the e-mail address included in the same post.
That's all there is to it!
You could of course follow the blog whilst you're there, add it to your feed, or see what else is available via his Patreon; but as Tim says, "There is no obligation". Having followed the blog both here, and at my old digs for a number of years though I'd certainly recommend it; as there has been some really great stuff posted over that time, and it would have been a shame to miss it.
Saturday, 29 April 2017
Experimental Playground - Check It Out!
It has however been a mental couple of weeks! What with getting everything ready to start my new job, coupled with being seriously short-staffed in the role I was filling up until Friday past; I have been spread pretty thin. It's been exhausting to say the least and something had to give. So blogging unfortunately got put on the back-burner for the most part.
Don't get me wrong, I got a few posts up. Just nowhere near as many as I had expected to, and it also hasn't escaped my attention that I have fallen behind in a number of other blog related areas (10 x 10 Challenge, One Man And His Dice write ups, etc).
Things are calming down now though, and I am hoping that over the next few weeks I can get back on top of things and begin to clear this backlog.
I digress though. This post isn't about me or the many plates that I currently have spinning. It's about Experimental Playground; a great little blog that I wanted to share with you all and, that I highly recommend checking out.
What's so great about Experimental Playground?
Well, Experimental Playground has an excellent range of print and play games that are all free to download; the vast majority of which will require only a single piece of A4 card to print off their components, and look just fine in black & white.
The games are also really quick to assemble, typically taking only a few minutes to cut out all of the pieces you'll need to play. Couple this with learning the rules, and finding a couple of dice; and you'll often find that this means that you can be up and playing within the space of an hour of your download.
That's an impressive turnaround! Particularly when I compare that turnaround to the time it would take me to get into a typical game picked up from the store. With longer rulebooks, cards to sleeve or tokens to punch (sometimes both), it might take me days to get going.
Does this mean that these are lesser games in some way then? Not at all! They're just simpler, and more economical games than something you might typically pick up at the store. They have smaller footprints, require less components to play, and keep the rules short and sweet.
Basically, what we have here are mini games. A concept within gaming that has become very popular in the past couple of years, with notable titles such as Tiny Epic Galaxies, and Harbour by Scott Almes. So, if mini games are your thing, or you're a big box gamer just curious about them, then Experimental Playground could be just what you're looking for.
Last but certainly not least in the list of reasons why I like this blog, is that the bulk of their games are intended to be played solo. As a largely solitary gamer, this is a big plus; but as I see it, it really works for the group gamer too. The reason for this conclusion being that it makes their games far more accessible to any of you who are curious and decide to download a game or two to try.
That's the beauty of solitaire games. You don't have to wait for your gaming group to meet up or, for a friend to pop by to give them a go. They're just there. Ready to play when you are. So to combine that freedom with print and play games that are ready to go in next to no time, is a winning formula in my book.
If this post has piqued your interest at all (and lets face it, free games are generally worth a look to the avid gamer), the authors over at Experimental Playground have compiled a list of links to all of their games here for ease of use, including links to their roleplaying systems that you can also freely download.
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Writing A New Solo: Thoughts And Practical Advice
It's been a long time since I even looked into writing a solo; but as I'm getting back into writing after taking an extended break, it seems both a fun and worthwhile outlet. Also, as with all my previous solitaire adventures; it'll be free.
In truth, I'm not sure how long it'll take till I have something to release, but my guesstimate is that 6-8 hours worth of work can produce something pretty good. Not a Fighting Fantasy novel by any stretch of the imagination, but something that will be enjoyable to play through certainly.
So far I have a plot (which I won't spoil by saying too much at this point), and a rough plan of the narrative flow. If it were just a short story, we'd be ready to start drafting at this point; but being interactive fiction there is need to throw a few divergent paths in there. Which is where things become tricky.
You still want the reader to have a coherent experience. Which means you need them to hit key paragraphs where the plot points of the story are, but you don't want to railroad them into always picking the same path; as that somewhat defeats the point of interactive fiction. So, it's a real juggling act in that respect.
You also need to be mindful that the divergent paths don't dilute the story. Spending several paragraphs fighting goblins for no real reason for example; when the adventure is about recovering an idol from a cult that has set up base in a disused temple. The goblins may well fit into the ecology of your dungeon (they could be slaves of the cultists or something similar), but if they only detract from the adventure itself; then do they really warrant being included?
Replayability is a big thing that I like to weave into my adventures, and I have a few ways of doing this; randomly generated paths and tables of random content included with the adventure for example.
Random tables are probably one of the most commonly employed tricks by writers who want their adventure to be good for more than one pass, but I do feel that random tables aren't always used to the best effect. Sometimes being poorly balanced, or overly random.
In some solitaire adventures for example, to generate a random monster or random loot; you roll 2D6. Which seems simple enough. What's often overlooked however when populating these tables is the weighting of the dice rolls. You're mathematically going to see a lot more 7's than you will 2's and 12's; so this should be reflected in the results generated by the table if this is the method you're going to use. It seems fairly obvious when it's laid out in such simple terms, but I have seen it overlooked.
Overly random tables is also a bit of a personal bugbear. Whether this be in terms of content, or the relative disparity of difficulty; I don't really like it when the range goes all the way from rats to T-Rex's, and said rats can kill the T-Rex's in a straight fight. There's no harm in mixing it up a little; that is what random tables are for, but just because it's a random table it doesn't mean that logic goes out the window. Yes, this may be a magical land full of wonder, but there is no surer way of severing your readers connection to your work and that place than by throwing something at them that is either unfair or completely out of touch with the expectations of that world.
Admittedly, what I have planned so far is a bit mad cap when compared to traditional fantasy writing; but it does have its own internal logic. This is where Tunnels & Trolls really shines through (which will be the system that I am writing adventure for). It allows for both serious and farcical adventures.. The trick being to decide which you're writing ahead of time; and to stick within that framework.
My forthcoming adventure will be within the genre of the intentional B movie, but with a fantasy flavor. I've chosen this not just because I really enjoy those kind of movies (they're so bad, that they're good), but because the combination of genre and setting gives me a wide scope to work within. There is a passion here, and a crossover of styles that is largely unexplored.
Possibly for good reason, but we'll see. One thing is for sure though, and that's that Tunnels & Trolls is the perfect vehicle to traverse this new terrain; being as it is geared towards humor and outlandish adventures.
In truth, I'm not sure how long it'll take till I have something to release, but my guesstimate is that 6-8 hours worth of work can produce something pretty good. Not a Fighting Fantasy novel by any stretch of the imagination, but something that will be enjoyable to play through certainly.
So far I have a plot (which I won't spoil by saying too much at this point), and a rough plan of the narrative flow. If it were just a short story, we'd be ready to start drafting at this point; but being interactive fiction there is need to throw a few divergent paths in there. Which is where things become tricky.
You still want the reader to have a coherent experience. Which means you need them to hit key paragraphs where the plot points of the story are, but you don't want to railroad them into always picking the same path; as that somewhat defeats the point of interactive fiction. So, it's a real juggling act in that respect.
You also need to be mindful that the divergent paths don't dilute the story. Spending several paragraphs fighting goblins for no real reason for example; when the adventure is about recovering an idol from a cult that has set up base in a disused temple. The goblins may well fit into the ecology of your dungeon (they could be slaves of the cultists or something similar), but if they only detract from the adventure itself; then do they really warrant being included?
Replayability is a big thing that I like to weave into my adventures, and I have a few ways of doing this; randomly generated paths and tables of random content included with the adventure for example.
Random tables are probably one of the most commonly employed tricks by writers who want their adventure to be good for more than one pass, but I do feel that random tables aren't always used to the best effect. Sometimes being poorly balanced, or overly random.
In some solitaire adventures for example, to generate a random monster or random loot; you roll 2D6. Which seems simple enough. What's often overlooked however when populating these tables is the weighting of the dice rolls. You're mathematically going to see a lot more 7's than you will 2's and 12's; so this should be reflected in the results generated by the table if this is the method you're going to use. It seems fairly obvious when it's laid out in such simple terms, but I have seen it overlooked.
Overly random tables is also a bit of a personal bugbear. Whether this be in terms of content, or the relative disparity of difficulty; I don't really like it when the range goes all the way from rats to T-Rex's, and said rats can kill the T-Rex's in a straight fight. There's no harm in mixing it up a little; that is what random tables are for, but just because it's a random table it doesn't mean that logic goes out the window. Yes, this may be a magical land full of wonder, but there is no surer way of severing your readers connection to your work and that place than by throwing something at them that is either unfair or completely out of touch with the expectations of that world.
Admittedly, what I have planned so far is a bit mad cap when compared to traditional fantasy writing; but it does have its own internal logic. This is where Tunnels & Trolls really shines through (which will be the system that I am writing adventure for). It allows for both serious and farcical adventures.. The trick being to decide which you're writing ahead of time; and to stick within that framework.
My forthcoming adventure will be within the genre of the intentional B movie, but with a fantasy flavor. I've chosen this not just because I really enjoy those kind of movies (they're so bad, that they're good), but because the combination of genre and setting gives me a wide scope to work within. There is a passion here, and a crossover of styles that is largely unexplored.
Possibly for good reason, but we'll see. One thing is for sure though, and that's that Tunnels & Trolls is the perfect vehicle to traverse this new terrain; being as it is geared towards humor and outlandish adventures.
Sunday, 19 February 2017
More Free Zines.. 10 Of Them
So I finally got around to working my way through the extensive list of links that I found over at Grognard.com; and updating the "Free Zines" page.
The list below may seem like I cut a lot of the content from the original site, but there were reasons. One of the main ones being dead links. Whilst the list over at Grognard was extensive, a lot of the links were dead; which was a bit of a shame. Zines come from people's passions, so it's always kind of sad to see that dwindle away; or lost to internet archiving.
The other main reason for links not making the cut was that they weren't actually zines. There were blogs, podcasts, and websites in the mix; and that's not what the "Free Zines" page is about. No matter the merits or quality of the work on those sites.
Lastly, a few didn't make it because they weren't free.
All of that aside, the list did yield the following 10 zines; which can be accessed by the below links, or the "Free Zines" page:
Burke's Autoduel Magazine - A very dead zine dedicated to Car Wars and Autoduel. Seriously, not even the darkest technomancy is going to bring this back; being available now only through the wonder of the wayback machine. With Car Wars making a return in recent years however, it may be of some interest to someone.
Countermoves - A very professional quality wargame zine that reminds me greatly of the older hobby magazines. Very nice.
Diplodocus - A few issues of a very niche zine that focused largely on play-by-post games of Diplomacy. Quite the curiosity, that reads like almost like a number station!
Diplomacy World - A diplomacy zine that has been going since 1974, with back issues available all the way to their first publication.
Games Journal - A general interest gaming zine that ran between 2000 and 2005.
Gauntlet - A wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Phoenix - Another wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Relative Range - A gaming zine dedicated to Avalon Hill's Up Front, made available by the wayback machine. 7 Issues in all.
Simulations Online - Yet another wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Sweep of History - A short lived wargaming zine, that only appears to have run for three issues back in the mid noughties; which can still be downloaded as PDFs from the original site.
The list below may seem like I cut a lot of the content from the original site, but there were reasons. One of the main ones being dead links. Whilst the list over at Grognard was extensive, a lot of the links were dead; which was a bit of a shame. Zines come from people's passions, so it's always kind of sad to see that dwindle away; or lost to internet archiving.
The other main reason for links not making the cut was that they weren't actually zines. There were blogs, podcasts, and websites in the mix; and that's not what the "Free Zines" page is about. No matter the merits or quality of the work on those sites.
Lastly, a few didn't make it because they weren't free.
All of that aside, the list did yield the following 10 zines; which can be accessed by the below links, or the "Free Zines" page:
Burke's Autoduel Magazine - A very dead zine dedicated to Car Wars and Autoduel. Seriously, not even the darkest technomancy is going to bring this back; being available now only through the wonder of the wayback machine. With Car Wars making a return in recent years however, it may be of some interest to someone.
Countermoves - A very professional quality wargame zine that reminds me greatly of the older hobby magazines. Very nice.
Diplodocus - A few issues of a very niche zine that focused largely on play-by-post games of Diplomacy. Quite the curiosity, that reads like almost like a number station!
Diplomacy World - A diplomacy zine that has been going since 1974, with back issues available all the way to their first publication.
Games Journal - A general interest gaming zine that ran between 2000 and 2005.
Gauntlet - A wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Phoenix - Another wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Relative Range - A gaming zine dedicated to Avalon Hill's Up Front, made available by the wayback machine. 7 Issues in all.
Simulations Online - Yet another wargaming zine available as text pad files via Grognard.com
Sweep of History - A short lived wargaming zine, that only appears to have run for three issues back in the mid noughties; which can still be downloaded as PDFs from the original site.
Friday, 10 February 2017
Lots More Free Zines!
I'm still quite intent on adding as many new (and free) zines to "Free Zines" page that I have added to the top of the blog; which has meant a fair bit of digging.. And I think I have struck proverbial gold with this site, that has a long list of online zines buried within it.
The catch however is that they're not all free. So I'll need to sift..
This could take a while!
The catch however is that they're not all free. So I'll need to sift..
This could take a while!
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
Critical Miss: A New Zine Has Been Added To The Collection
A new zine, Critical Miss has been added to the "Free Zines" page for your viewing pleasure.
I've given the latest issue a quick glance prior to posting up the link, and there seems to be a lot going on. Truly something for almost every gamer, as long as you aren't offended by strong language.
Word is unfortunately that this zine is no longer in production, but there all 11 back issues are available from the link above.
I've given the latest issue a quick glance prior to posting up the link, and there seems to be a lot going on. Truly something for almost every gamer, as long as you aren't offended by strong language.
Word is unfortunately that this zine is no longer in production, but there all 11 back issues are available from the link above.
Sunday, 29 January 2017
Collecting Zines
So I've been working on the design of the blog today, and one thing that I thought might be a good idea to make it a bit more user friendly; and improve the experience of my readers would be to implement pages, as opposed to just sticking everything down the side as I have been to date.
One of those things that was going to be relegated to a sidebar was a list of free gaming zines.. Well, I say list. I have three which I read with any kind of frequency. But I know there must be more, as a lot of gamers love to write.
So this is where I could really use the help of anyone who's reading this.
If you read, write, or contribute to a free gaming zine; please drop me a comment below, so I can add it to the list.
If we all pitch in on this one, then we really stand to get something out of it. If you write a zine, then you can share that with a captive audience; who are looking for a good zine to read. If you read zines, then you may well find a hidden gem on the list that had previously passed you by.
So if you have something you want to add, please drop me a comment.
I look forward to hearing from you!
One of those things that was going to be relegated to a sidebar was a list of free gaming zines.. Well, I say list. I have three which I read with any kind of frequency. But I know there must be more, as a lot of gamers love to write.
So this is where I could really use the help of anyone who's reading this.
If you read, write, or contribute to a free gaming zine; please drop me a comment below, so I can add it to the list.
If we all pitch in on this one, then we really stand to get something out of it. If you write a zine, then you can share that with a captive audience; who are looking for a good zine to read. If you read zines, then you may well find a hidden gem on the list that had previously passed you by.
So if you have something you want to add, please drop me a comment.
I look forward to hearing from you!
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