Coronavirus Craft Week 01a - Gamer Box Done!

And here it is!

Coronavirus Craft Week 01 - Gamer Box

So I've been watching a lot of Adam Savage's One Day Builds, feeling the week long cabin fever setting in. So I decided to treat myself to a gamer box. My stepdaughter donated the box. It was one of these.

This is what I wanted it to hold:

Full set of Jumbo Koplow Dice

Dice rolling tray

Clay poker chip bennies

Generic villain tokens of medium, large, and huge sized.

Savage Worlds and D&D GM screens

A blank Paizo Flipmat

Pencils and wet erase pens

5 minis

2 decks of playing cards

Water spray bottle

So firstly, the box was well used and beat up, and all the dividers for the top tray were missing. So after I disassembled the box, I sanded it down to strip the previous stain and get rid of the dings. Then I chopped the bottom tray's dividers down to 1 1/2 inches high. I also cut and glued in some more dividers. I did the same with the top tray. The top tray should hold cards, bennies, dice, and the big section is the dice tray. So I can pull out just the top tray to use for most games. I made sure there was a long section in the bottom tray that would hold some pluck foam and have spaces for five of my character minis.

Next I added so,e rails into the lid as spacers, cut a board with a thumb hole to fit in the lid, and I will put magnets into the rails and board to create a pocket in the lid for the GMs screens (once Ace opens so I can get the right sized drill bit). Then I stained the wood with Kona, and lined it with green felt.

The white ribbon in the left tray is to help get the poker chips out.

And finally, I created a stencil with my  Cricut Maker and painted my name in gold letters.

Stay safe out there!

My Travel Kit

I've been redsigning what I travel with in anticipation of PaizoCon 2017. Yes, it's 6 months away but I like to be prepared and last year I packed way too much and hurt my back.

I'd love to be this excited about a Pinnacle Con but they don't come up here. And with my home life being what it is, a 4 day break is a rare god-send.

So here is my PazioCon kit. Items not pictured that are going in the bag are my iPad with pdfs of books and Herolab installed, iPad backup charger, 5x9 notebook, 5x9 graph notebook, sketchbook, pill box, and hand sanitizer.

So from upper left to right: Player Character Folio which grants me 1 re-roll per game in Pathfinder Society, dice box with jumbo dice (my Fave), Plano box with items I will describe later, Summoned Creature cards so I won't have to flip through the Bestiary, and along the bottom are are affect cards for spells and what-not.

The Plano Box

This holds a couple of mechanical pencils, a laminated initiative card which can also be used for tracking rounds, Pathfinder Condition Cards and Buff Deck, 3x5 pad of index cards vertical ruled for notes, wet erase pens, minis of my characters, and a stand from a delivery pizza box that serves as a stand for flying characters (like my Faerie Dragon side-kick, "Riddywipple").

I have another Plano box for Savage Worlds stuff.

So far it has 2 decks of cards, my modifiers tokens, and some card stands for figure flats. 

My dice box

Geez these are expensive! And most are made of wood. I don't want to lug a wood box around a con. It's expensive, bulky, and can get damaged. So instead I took a relatively cheap Vaultz box that I got from Fred Meyer and glued some craft foam in the bottom as well as some blue felt. Now I have a place to keep my dice and a tray to roll them in, quietly, without damaging the table.

 And finally my messenger bag. I picked it up at Best Buy for about $50. The dice box and the Plano fit into the outer pockets nicely, freeing up the internal room for other things I will be carrying or buying.

It also has straps in the back if I need to carry my maps in a tube.

Well, that's my Con Kit. Actually that's about my everywhere kit since I never game at my house so I often have to travel light. If I am GMing I would also carry the Basic Paizo flip map and any adventure materials or extra Savage Worlds books I might need.

The Danger of Stuff Pt. 2 - Losing My Way

Yeah...so...

I have become too wrapped up in stuff. I've been making maps, tiles, and painting figures. I've been collecting, even after I swore I wouldn't fall into that trap. Worst of all, I had brainwashed myself into thinking that maps and minis were just the way you played RPGs.

What I haven't been doing is gaming. I'm so caught up in prepping for eventualities when I start running games that I haven't been running games. Honestly I was so glad to have my artistic drive back that I was willing to drown myself in it.

And I was deluding myself into thinking that I could make a supplemental income with my maps on DrivethruRPG. I'm not knocking DrivethruRPG, I love their services, but when my Forest Tiles were going for $.50 they received maybe a purchase a month. Since they went "pay what you want" they have been downloaded over 50 times this month with only a couple of people tossing me some coin. I'm flattered that people like my stuff, but it is obvious that this is not a source of revenue I should depend on.

So I had to do some soul searching this weekend.

I remembered playing WEG's D6 Star Wars back in college. I had no minis, no maps, and there were epic adventures to be had. My players weren't thinking tactically about body positions, they were think tactically about supporting each other and completing the mission.

That said, I still get players that prefer minis and maps. And if I can't get them to switch over, I will have to adapt. But what I need to stop doing is making maps in a vacuum, and painting minis that I may never use.

What I should focus on is creating some One Sheet adventures, and any extras that I make (such as NPC cards, map designs, figure flats) should go towards that specifically.

So...time to prep things I will actually use, and get back to sharing stuff for free because I can.

RPG Loot Crates - A Cool Idea I Will Never Buy

Who loves presents? Who doesn't?

That is essentially what a loot crate, dungeon crate, rpg crate, any of the new crates or blocks that are rocking the current geek fad are. It's a monthly subscription to a monthly Christmas, and like all Christmases, the gifts may not be quite what you desired.

I admit, I want in. I want to get some blind rpg stuff delivered to me so I can geek out with my new toys. However I just can't bring myself to make the investment. And Here's Why:

• It's all D&D. Well that's a blanket statement, but more or less true. And if I were running a company that targeted RPG players, I would also set my sights on the 300lb Gorilla that is D&D as well. The problem is that I game everywhere on the mythical timeline, and fantasy isn't my favorite. Some crate makers have admitted they do other settings, but very rarely. Therefore I have no reason to buy a year subscription.
• Wrong game systems. As mentioned above, they target D&D heavily, but I use Savage Worlds as my go to. And there are hundreds of other systems that people enjoy that are being ignored. Even the modules and magazines that accompany these crates are for specific systems (such as some edition of D&D).
• Vynil figures. Some people love them, I don't. I am very picky about why I collect, mainly because my ex-wife was a hoarder. If it's on my shelf, it better do more than look pretty. 
• How many dice do you need? This gets included a lot because every gamer needs at least one set of dice, right? But I am afraid that this cheap, useful go to item is going to be in every crate and I purged myself of the great die bucket long ago. 

That said, I believe there are some good ideas that can be made better here.

• Truly personalized crates. Have you ever thought of making one yourself to give to a special gamer in your life? Suddenly this can be an awesome birthday/Christmas/ anniversary gift and you can tailor it to the person's preferred gaming. What is more, you know you are getting what the crate is worth and - no buttons, no ads, and no stupid frakking inflatable crowns!
• I am considering a digital loot idea. Imagine a bundled download for purchase from Drivethrurpg that includes a map, paper figures, a one sheet adventure, and a map. I have no idea how I would pull that all off monthly but it would be catered to Savage Worlds, no subscription, and significantly cheaper since I am just creating virtual assets.

Anyway that's my brain hemmorage for today. I am currently awaiting approval for my Cavern Tiles to go live on Drivethrurpg. They can connect to the "Pay what you want" Sewer Tiles I have already uploaded and will cost $1.99. That's a 50 tile set, btw.

Sewer Tiles In Action.

Edit: There is some weirdness going on with my pic attachments. This is the second time I have uploaded them as they keep breaking.

Also Edit: The tiles are fixed, as well as some new ones added. Located here on Drivethrurpg "Pay What You Want".

I printed mine up and glued them to chip board. It's sturdy and they come in 6x6 packs, which is nice. The one down side is that they do add weight as the stack gets thicker.

Although I did notice another mistake. I will have to correct that later as my weekend seems booked.

Freebies - Sewer Tiles Fixed!

And here's the new link.

Freebies! - New Sewer Tiles

Edit: Fixed

I was going through my wife's craft stuff and I came across a cheap little matte cutter she had. It was perfect for cutting down all of the chip board leftovers I have from some failed 8x10 tile experiments.

So to kick off my DIY tiles, I started with sewers...again. Well at least these are with my new map style and I think they look pretty sharp. I never bought Paizo's Game Mastery Tiles for the sewer adventures in Pathfinder Society. I'm not a fan over their tile sets (though their maps are fabulous). My problem is that they are 5x8 and my OCD hates odd numbers as well as tiles that can't be turned sideways to be reused in a grid. They are also a bit on the thin side which makes keeping them butted up against each other a pain.

So I have adopted 6x6 as my official tile set size, and I have more tiles planned as time goes on (such as sci-fi!). As for rooms, they can break the 6x6 rule depending on what they are.

I've had a super hard time trying to build re-useable tiles due to Pathfinder Society. It would be impossible to recreate any of their maps with a generic tileset. But my mental issues wouldn't let me get away from trying and failing to make them for PFS. I have to distance myself as much as possible for the idea and move on with my crafting. That said, my sewer tiles are compatible with PFS and can loosely replace their designs. Mine aren't exact to what they have, but it keeps the general gist of things.

Anyway, you can find my sewer tiles in the free downloads section, or right here in the ticketyboo!

PS> I had an experiment idea about gluing plastic sheets from cut up sheet protectors onto my tiles to make them wet/dry erase. I tried white glue spread thin, regular blopped white glue, and a clear colored glue stick. Neither white glue held the plastic on, and even warped the cardstock that was already mounted to the chipboard. The gluestick did the best job, but it did have problems holding onto the sheet in places and it slightly discolored the printed art.

I've tried contac paper but I can't get the permanent stuff, and wet erase markers want to bead up on it and don't make a crisp line. Ah well, back to the laboratory!

Even more FREE STUFF! A Fillable NPC Card PDF!

It was requested, and now it is delivered. Very special thanks goes out to Savage Matt Leonard for diddly-doing the dealy-boops with the PDF editing. We had to make some compromises but in the end I think we came up with something cool.

As always, it's best to print on cardstock. Just trim and fold the cards in half (front and back). Glue the halves together and you got yourself an NPC card.

These cards are 3x5 so they won't fit into a card sleeve. But the increased size allows you to fit in all of those character details you don't want to look up. If it doesn't fit, then shame on you for power gaming :).

Click the pic to get the schtick.

FREE STUFF! My Eye of Kilquato Tools!

I've gotten word back from Jodi Black at Pinnacle. I am clear to release a PDF that contains all of my tools used for the Eye of Kilquato. Well, all except for my Status Tokens.

Get the file right here.

Edit: I update the file. They are supposed to be crocodile Cultists, I guess.

Post Game Report: The Eye of Kilquato

I ran the Eye of Kilquato last night for my game group. This is the second time ever that they have played a Savage Worlds game and the first time I got to use many of my new tools.

So first up, I downloaded The Eye of Kilquato as well as the Map and the Paper minis from the Pinnacle website.

My tools involved:

• a redraw of the map (Pinnacle's version was hard on my eyes)
• NPC Cards
• Vehicle Cards for the Boats
• Status Effect Tokens (I made my own but there are sheets available from the Pinnacle Website)
• Taking the trifold figures and making bi-fold pawns
• Tent cards for character sheets

So how did the tools work out?

• Map - It was fine but only used in the last parts of the game. The rest was all accomplished with Theater of the Mind.
• NPC Cards - They helped a lot, but added to the cluttered mess of my GM station. 

• Vehicle Cards - These barely saw use since the combat was less about sinking each others boats than picking off whoever was on deck.
• Status Effect Tokens - Wow, these were a hit! They helped keep track of Shaken, Wounds, who was taking an Aim action, etc. 

• Pawns - This was the chief source of the mess at my GM station. There are a lot of figures for this game, and you will likely use less than half of them. I should have kept them sorted from each other to make pulling them out and locating the right ones easier.

• Tent Card Character Sheets - This also went over like gangbusters! The character portraits not only helped them get into character (Kator was awesome), but the portraits on the outside of the tents got the players treating each other as their characters.

Issues that I had with the adventure:

• It's supposed to have crocodiles but the Pinnacle tri-folds say alligators
• Spoilerz!: There are two eyes of Kilquato, but while the first one doesn't match the description at all, it is also considered a real one. I'm guessing this is in case the adventure runs long at a Con, it gives you an early ending spot as an option. It should be explained for anyone who is new to running con games.

But despite these little quibbles, everyone had a lot of fun. My next outing will involve them picking a setting and having a Session 0 (aka group character creation).

Wild Hunt Character Sheets

Another issue I had when playing the Wild Hunt was keeping track of who was playing which character. Then I remembered seeing somewhere a sort of tent card and I thought it would make a perfect design for some convention character sheets.

So as you can see, the tops are folded into a tent. From everyone's perspective but the player's you can see the character name and artwork. On the inner fold, the player can read their character description. And on the flat is the actual character sheet.

About the only things I have left to do for this con kit is get or make Bennies and a Benny Box.

This is fun. Any suggestions for a box or for bennies?

I'm going to go ahead and post the pawns and the character sheets. I hope Pinnacle doesn't mind.

Wild Hunt Character Sheets

Wild Hunt Gear Cards

Wild Hunt Pawns

Wild Hunt Pawns for Folding

I will be in Washington DC soon so there won't be any new posts for week of the 4th. I just heard that they've reinstalled the original Starship Enterprise at the Air and Space Smithsonian. If I can, I'll post a video of it lighting up.

Have a good fourth!

Edit: I updated the Gear Cards because a Gallon of holy water has 8 pints, not 4! And I included the Molotov Cocktails.

New Freebies - The Wild Hunt Equipment Cards

Today's Freebies are Equipment Cards for the Wild Hunt. Now that I have pawns and status markers, the only other slowdown I came across was when the players had to copy down acquired tools and weapons. But since I'm prepping a benny box for cons, why not have equipment cards?

The full sheet is HERE. Just cut them out, fold them over and glue. I recommend printing them on card stock and laminating them for wet/dry erase markers.

And I decided to print my own themed bennies in the same way I made my old character tokens. That way I can get some reuse out of all of those wooden disks I have.

If you would like some blank cards, you can download them HERE.

GM Wednesday! - Using Initiative Cards For Other Things

There's always one player that wants to jump in to the center of attention. Sometimes there's more.

You know that player. You tell one player that he discovers a chest in the corner and this player screams he/she is going to open it, even though he/she isn't the one who found it. Or he/she is in the back stealing the gems out of the eyes of the golden statue but when another player locates a secret door on the other side of the room, he/she announces he/she is listening at the door.

He/she is an spotlight hog, and his/her behavior needs to be moderated.

Originally I used to go around the table and ask each individual what they were doing before I started feeding them the results of their actions. That way the spotlight hog had to decide what they were doing for themselves instead fo jumping all over another player's actions.

"Ooh, I open the chest!"
"It's not your turn and you aren't the one who found the chest. Besides, you are spending time on those eye-gems, remember?"

It worked fine until one of my players mentioned that the most covetous seats at the table were next to me since I always started at one end of the table and that often times I started on my left. So the next time I ran and it got to the heroes doing exploration, I dealt initiative cards.

At first it freaked them out as they thought combat was starting. My spotlight hog player quickly started shouting all the preparations she had made, trying to get it out before her card was dealt. I told her that didn't matter but she insisted she was ready for combat. Then we had a discussion about her meta-gaming (it fell on deaf ears).

But the initiative cards did help. It allowed each to player to have a moment to announce their actions and it got rid of any accidental favoritism on my part.

So if you find that your having a hard time managing the table, either because it is too large or because you have spotlight hogs, I recommend using initiative cards out of combat as well as in.

GM Wednesday! - Getting Organized

You've probably heard a lot about Obsidian Portal or other Wiki systems to keep track of your campaign. You don't need me to tell you about them as nearly every website or forum is filled with helpful people that will discuss them with you. I don't use these sites anymore, and basically it is because I am too lazy. I am too lazy to learn the wiki code, or to lay out my entire campaign setting on a digital website. What's more, when I did use them my players never bothered with accessing it. They weren't up for doing homework and that is what I felt Obsidian Portal was. Every entry was homework.

Then there is Evernote or One Note. To me, these systems were like shoving clippings into a folder. Yes you could get a lot of ideas into one doc but they always seemed slapdash to me. I'm probably not using these right and I'm sure Your Mileage May Vary.

Believe it or not I just use MSWord. I can feel the hisses from here and I haven't even published this post yet. It's like this, I make my campaign as a living pdf/doc. If oyu know how to use headings in Word, it's awesome. Each Heading becomes a bookmark and you can move everything under a heading to a new location by dragging the bookmark. Not only that but when you export the doc to pdf, the headings instantly become bookmarks making searching your campaign doc just as easy as searching pdf books. I keep making whatever changes I need to the Setting Doc, export the PDF, and load it onto my tablet. If I ever need a hard copy, I have a nicely formatted document as if I was publishing. In fact, if the setting is a winner, I may just publish it.

Elevator Pitch

I open each doc with a paragraph that describes the gist of the campaign, the concept, and feel of what I want. I might also site some inspirations in case I find myself getting lost on the original concept.

Rules In Play

On to the nitty-gritty. Rules In Play section lists anything I want to change from the core rules for my world, both in play and in character generation. For instance, one setting I ran for Pathfinder had no half-breeds: Half-elves or Half-Orcs were not permitted as character races. There was also a list of character classes I boycotted for the campaign. All of this info would go in this section. 

Gear

I add any available gear into the document, even if it is also in the core book. The First part of this document can double as a primer for my players so having all the setting equipment in one place is handy.

Locations

I jot down interesting locations as I come up with them, whether or not I have plans for the pcs to go there. If the Players want to steer the their course away from my plans, I'm ready with a few choice locations of interest for them to explore. I'll give the place a name, list a trope if it fits one, and a few Aspects (ala Fate) so that I can keep the description short.

Example: Obsolam - Robot Graveyard. Where the Obsolete go to finish their run. "Praise Be to the Place We Dare Not Go". "Do not disturb our bones, for we are not yet dead".

Factions

Who are the power players and what do they want? Again I just list ideas as they come to me and keep the descriptions short and sweet. I may not use them so I won't waste too much time developing them.  Besides, I find that the best details about these factions come out in play a lot easier than trying to write them in a vacuum.

BTW don't edit yourself. It's better to have a bunch of ideas that you think might be garbage in your doc than a single blank page. You can always revisit the bad ideas and make them better.

Example: Lazarus, Inc. - Seeking immortality at any cost. Walking an unspeakable path. Funded by powerful people. "If I can't take it with me then I just won't go".

NPCs

If it's a connection, I'll add a couple of sentences describing their personality, what they do, and where the PCs met them. I build out combat NPCs on my NPC Cards and keep them in a little card file until I need them.

Hint: If you don't like printing my fancy pants NPC cards, buy some index cards. I like to get some 5x7 cards and cut them up into 3x5s. It get 3x5s with portrait orientated lines as opposed to landscapes.

Adventure Pitches

Just like Adventure Mondays. I toss in any old idea in one sentence so I can pull it out and run off the cuff whenever I need it.

Tablets

Invariable the question gets asked on RPG.net or your local game forum what is the best Tablet for reading PDFs. The answer is get what you can afford or what you want for other pursuits. Newer models are going to have more memory and better draw speeds, but a lot of how well a tablet handles pdfs has to do with the software you use to read them.

As for me, I'm running a Nook Tablet HD, which I picked up for $150 at the time. It's not the best tablet and I mainly use it for web surfing, youtube, and reading my PDFs. It was a nightmare for a while but then Nook went Android and I was able to download EBookDroid. It has the fastest response time I have found when switching pages and its free.

Game On!

New Free Stuff Page!

So it seems that Google Chrome doesn't like Mediafire. That might explain why people have had a hard time with my free stuff downloads. Well I have collected all of the Free Stuff I have posted and put it onto Google Drive. And if you look right over there --------->

You will see a new FREE STUFF page that has links to all of the stuff I have posted.

Sunday Updates! - Sci-Fi Gear Cards

So it looks like I'll be updating on Sundays since that is about the only time I have available. However, there will be no updates next Sunday as I will be Larping around Norwescon here in Seattle.

Today's update involves some sci-fi equipment cards I was doing free art for while I was unemployed. Original they were planned to be released by Paul Wiggy Wade-Williams as part of his Daring Tales of the Space Lanes. However now that I do have a job, I'm not able to deliver everything needed for it. He was a nice guy and let me out of the deal so I could release what I did have for free to all the little Savages out there.

Sci-Fi Gear Cards

They are compatible with other weapons inside the Savage World Deluxe book, in case you want some cross-tech level action (although it replaces their versions of futuristic weapons). Enjoy.

How do I work this doohickey? - NPC Cards

So I figured I would start off my blog with some freebies that might keep you coming back for more (I know you really aren't interested in me). Now I just need to figure out how to post downloadables...
First off, here are some NPC cards for Savage Worlds. They are 3x5 in case you are wondering.

 I print them out on cardstock and slice them up over at my local Kinkos. That way I can build up a library of my own critters for a campaign and keep them in a index card folio. Then I can just pull them out and use them as I need them. Plus it's nice to have a few blanks around when I get a great idea for a critter or a new villain.