The Procrastinating DM - An Introduction to My Campaign

Welcome to the Chronicles of Shard -

    First, some backstory, about four years ago I started a campaign with some friends set in a re-imagined version of another friends campaign (Shard World, itself based on James Maliszewski's Dwimmermount). That campaign eventually ground to a halt because of scheduling issues being the sad victim of adults trying to find time to get together every Friday night. It was designed as a vehicle for me to use fun published adventures in a sandbox setting but with an over arching plot. I spent a bunch of time digging through my old Dungeon Magazines as well as my collection of B/X and 1st Edition Modules in preparation. I made a map in Hexographer and sprinkled the map with adventure locations. We played this campaign for nearly two years and the party fluctuated between three to eight players. I converted B5 Horror on the Hill, which was our first adventure site. The party had not gotten to any other sites before the campaign wound down because of the size of the map. But in addition to converting B5 I had converted The Keep at Koralgesh from Dungeon #2, and wrote three other locations based on maps I found online. One of which I found on Wil Wheaton blog and was inpired to populate. I also began converting B4 The Lost City. I believe I was somewhere on the 4th level before I stopped working on it. 

    After things ended I got to thinking about all my other abruptly ended campaigns and came to the realization I have never finished a campaign, either as a DM, or a player. I was saddened by all the work I had put into these various worlds and how that work would never likely see the light of day again. Then I discovered Matt Colville. His series on Running the Game was eye opening to me not because all of these concepts were new to me, although certainly a fair amount were, but because I was inspired by his mantra of steal the things you like and add them to your game. I had certainly done that once before when I based my campaign on a "what if" in my friends campaign and added a bunch of adventure seeds that others had written. But, what if I took all that time I had invested in my own world designs and applied that same principle? Then it was as if the flood gates had opened and I found myself excited to revisit old plots, NPCs, adventures and campaign worlds that had been relegated to storage boxes in the backroom.

Shard in the 4th Age -
Fire fell from the sky and sundered Shard.
The resulting earthquakes toppled structures.
Hurricanes pounded the shores
and a continent sinks beneath the waves.

The Campaign to End All Campaigns -

And so it came to pass that I dug out those boxes and mined my own creations to piece together a living world full of vibrant characters and locations that have history I am intimately familiar with. Of course all of these needed an adequate home and some of these were vastly different. After looking over my old notes and thought about the nature of my campaign world and the themes I hoped to bring forward I came to some conclusions. 

Firstly,  I wanted some ability to play other games and in some way tie them back to Shard. The intent is to allow different types of adventures and systems. The cosmology that I decided to reuse for Shard has some potential for this. Shard's creator, Aoanddar, fled the known realms to seek isolation and escape the petty bickering of the gods. A barrier was constructed of magical energies that prevent intrusion from outside, but that means their is an outside and that gives me a place to set adventures outside the normal scope that I don't want impacting the campaign world they will be set beyond the Void of Stars, which is my version of the astral plane.  However, with things that may have some impact I intend to use an age old trope... The Dreamlands! This seems perfect for my purposes because dreams can have an impact in the real world but generally don't and this is a perfect vehicle for weird games outside standard fantasy to take place. My own little Wonderland as it were.

Secondly, my various campaigns include steampunk and even a post-apocalypse setting and these have had a lot of time poured into them. So I determined right away that a timeline to separate different technological eras would be in order. I also had some events, written by James Maliszewski as part of Dwimmermount, that featured in my original plot line for Shard. *minor spoilers* Invaders from beyond Shard, such as the red elves of Areon. A necromancer uprising, such as the Thulians. A powerful warrior-mage king that sought divinity, such as Terms Turmax.*end* Of course Dwimmermount itself would need a home in the Shard timeline. As such Shard has seven ages planned.

Pre-history - The events before recorded history.

1st Age- The Age of Iron and Fire (0-4600): This age has humanity living in tribes and fighting just to survive against other races. Its when humanity learns metallurgy and begins to carve its place on Shard.

2nd Age - The Age of Magic and Rebellion (4601-6900): This age has the Eld of Tiriande invade Shard, humanity learns dark magic (necromancy) and overthrows the Eld, the stranded Eld create a pocket realm to avoid retribution.

3rd Age - The Age of Blood and Conquest (6901-7840): This age sees the rise of a warrior-mage king that conquers the known world, builds a storehouse of magical power, and sees the formation of numerous kingdoms and when a great cataclysm occurs it results in the destruction of others.

4th Age - Unknown (7841-9814+): This is the current age. I have two games in-development here. One is set in a kingdom called Ir'run in 9734. Another is set in the current year.

5th Age - Steampunk. Age of City-States, Clockwork Golems, Steamer Ships, Airships, Firearms, and some integrated magic & technology. This is considered the golden age of Shard. One might note there are a lot of similarities between this and Eberron. Fun side note. I wrote this material when WotC announced their setting competition in 2000, I think it was, but reading the fine print if you made it beyond the first round WotC would own your creation. Thanks, but no thanks. Ultimately it was Keith Baker's Eberron that made the cut so at least my instincts on the setting were good.

6th Age - The Great War. This age has a faction that hates science rise to power, called the Golden Court. Psionics are introduced, tech and magic are at their peak, and the fighting between the various factions is brutal.

7th Age - post-apocalypse/gonzo. Think Thundarr meets Gamma World. I have an idea for a game set here that has a bunch of work done as well.

Thirdly, I want Shard to both have a large variety of cultures and have room to add new ones as I think of or discover them so a large world seems to be the best way to facilitate that. Since the great cataclysm, as you can see by the picture above, Shard has literally lived up to its name. The chunks that are no longer part of the sphere are hard to reach but have the potential to introduce new cultures very easily.

Each of these topics and sub-topics could have their own posts so more as things develop. In the meanwhile, stay safe and we will continue the Chronicles of Shard another time!

A Farewell

  Greetings fair travelers. It has been a bit since my last post. Since our last meeting I have started a new job and sadly lost one of my best friends, Archer. He was an Maine Coon and a rescue that my wife and I adopted nine years ago. He had chronic respiratory issues his whole life but he was such a friendly and charming little floof. He was such a stoic little guy and overcame so much. In the end his various aliments got the better of him despite his heroic efforts. He passed in his favorite place, being held in his dad's arms, looking out at the grass and trees sway in the breeze. We sang him his favorite song (about how awesome he is) while he drifted to sleep. I will always miss you little buddy.

Sterling Mallory Archer 2009-2020

The Procrastinator in the 31st Century!

Recently there has been a resurgence of Battletech. It is a storied franchise with lore that spans over 30 years. I stopped playing just before the clans story line dropped, but it wasn't related to Battletech at all. Rather it was because I was focusing on other aspects of my life. But my love of Battletech has never waned. The game by HBS that came out a few years ago is directly responsible for bringing me back to Battletech. Not just because it was a fun and oft time challenging game, but because the community went nuts adding fan content which even ended up being supported by the game devs.

So I started playing and, so did it turns out, a lot of other people too! Fans that had gone missing for decades. Suddenly there was interest in the game again and it created an appetite to start pushing mechs around like the good old days. Turns out about a dozen people in my area felt the same so we formed a Facebook group and started planning events. Finally, I had an excuse to dig out my old mechs and start force building. Now don't get me wrong, there is no right or wrong way to play Battletech, but I gravitate towards the hexless way to play because it appeals to the miniature gamer in me. Turns out this group felt the same way so I started planning events with them. But, first we needed to decide if we want to use classic rules or the more recently released Alpha Strike rules which attempts to streamline the system and allow for larger forces that don't require a weekend to play.

I immediately started building some units. I started with pirates. Specifically Redjack Ryan's nefarious pirates! My friend had already started on his Eridani Light Horse unit so we threw together a scenario to try out the Alpha Strike rules. A company of Redjack Ryan's Pirates vs a company of ELH's 50th Battalion. My friend and I met up at a local game store for our first game of Alpha Strike. So without further adieu may I present...

ELH v Pirates in How Redjack Almost Stole Christmas. A Comstar Christmas Special.

Redjack Ryan seizes any opportunity to oppress and steal joy. A veritable Grinch he eyes the three grey warehouses that hold his prize. Just a few militia boys to contend with (or so he though).

A mech-eye-view of the three toy filled warehouses.

I am aware that the Pheonix Hawk has its jets on backward. This game took place in December 2018 and they have since been fixed.

These trees stand were a WIP at the time but have since been completed and will be the subject of a future post. I have a few more to make so i'll be doing a tutorial and possible other Battletech terrain guides.

Into the woods we go! Not playing with the advanced rules this time around, or my Firestarter would have lived up to his name.

Alerting command of the situation those ELH boys call in reinforcements while advancing to intercept the enemy force. There in the break between the woods, a Crusader. No real paint to speak of (gasp, lazy gamer, yup that's me) must be pirates!

ELH Rifleman and Pirate Crusader mix it up with the Rifleman coming out on top. The pirate is to busy spotting for indirect fire and gets hammered. Unfortunately, return missile fire is ineffective.

Oh no!? Is that a Behemoth? This is no militia unit! Eridian Light Horse!!! Hey, Roman. Your contact that told us about this opportunity better have a knife in his back by the end of the day, Snarled Redjack to his XO.

A pirate Phoenix Hawk jumps out of the southern woods landing between a warehouse and SRM Carrier. I should have gotten a face full of SRM's, not to mention fire from the ELH Kyudo and the other two vehicles. Luckily, very luckily, Lady luck was smiling at that pilot. Only the Kyudo managed to get in a hit. (Just a note: I jumped there with the intent of shooting the further SRM Carrier and kicking the adjacent one. Today, I learned you can't make a physical attack after making a weapon attack. Oops. You live you learn.

Gotta say this game was amazing.

Uh oh. These ELH boys are good. A medium recon lance comes to support the defenders. Caught between the new arrivals and the seasoned ELH defenders things turned south fast. One good bit of news, I finally got a pirate Shadow Hawk adjacent to a warehouse. Let the looting begin!

The pirate Shadow Hawk makes his get away (loot was worth the carrying mechs PV), while a pirate Hermes and Thunderbolt begin looting themselves. It's all men for themselves as only moments before fire from the Kyudo, behemoth, and Archer bring down Redjack Ryan's Warhammer. Ironically, it was just as Redjack's PPC's slammed into the ELH company commanders own Warhammer. War, war never changes. But, no one will shed a tear for Ol' Redjack Ryan, scource of the Periphery!

By this point, turn 6, it's clear under the given victory conditions I can not win. ELH 145 v Pirates 121. Pretty close, really. Okay, gotta say I got mad love for Alpha Strike. 100% converted. Company v company 4 hrs start to finish. Which mean with 6 players you could easily run battalion size games!!!

Yup we greatly enjoyed this game. I was an impatient, sloppy and unlucky player. Which made my tactics suffer and I lost far more games than I ever won. I am learning, and I am having fun doing it. During our unfortunately short group campaign, with six players, I went 2-1 before the campaign ended. Its also possible, as I wrote the scenario, that the scenario I lost was ill conceived, but I don't really know. Speaking of campaigns, I will be discussing our groups campaign and posting the batreps from our group as well as the rules I wrote. They aren't complete but they are a starting point. So tune back in next time. Meanwhile, stay safe out there!

The Return of the Procrastinator!

Greetings! It feels like a million years since my last post and a lot has transpired in my time away. I got married, went back to school and got my degree, abandoned games, picked up new games, got more heavily into roleplaying games again and started an ebay business. Okay, I guess not that much has happened if you considers its be seven years since my last post, but still some significant events. I feel like enough has happened I'll probably do a followup post or two about those events.

I am going to make some changes to the blog. The primary change will be bi-weekly posts, possibly more depending on time constrains and life events getting in the way. I have changed the name of the blog because the focus will no longer be on miniature wargaming. I will also be talking about my adventures in roleplaying, terrain building and game design. I'm no expert in any of these things, but I think talking about my experiences, failures and successes will hopefully inspire others that doubt themselves as I sometimes do.

What have I been up to gaming-wise since my last post you say? Well let me start by talking about miniatures. I have sold off a number of my collections. Stuff that I have either never played or has fallen out of favor. What I have remaining is the following:

Warmaster - Orcs & Goblins, Dwarves, Empire and Chaos.
* no progress since my last warmaster post. here.

Full Thrust - Phalon, Kra'vak, FSE, ORC, UNSC fleets and civilian crafts.
* painted Kra'vak fleet. I also finished the storage for my fleets and I'll post something about that later on. Lastly, I finished the Full Impulse Chaos Campaign a couple years ago.. More on that later as well.

Battletech - 15th Dracon (Liao), 11th Legion of Vega (Kurita), Redjack Ryan (Pirates), Blackwidow Company (Merc).
* I created my first unit for a campaign I started for a local Battletech group. Still painting because I always go to far when I am making anything. Painting a regiment is daunting work. I have also built some terrain for Battletech so some of those will get a mention and others a full post.

Legends of the Old West - Outlaw, Lawman, Cowboy and Native Posses.
*I sold all my old west buildings a while back so I'll need to scratch build some or print some. Otherwise no progress.

Malifaux - Neverborn, Resurrectionist, Arcanist Crews.
*This is a lost cause to me. I had fun with it before my big move but no one plays it here that I have found and with the release of the 2nd edition i'm only getting further behind the curve as it were. But, I love the mechanics and so I have not yet given up on it. It is after all a game my wife has shown some interest in.

Crossfire - American, US Marine, German, Russian and Japanese Companies.
* no progress.

Alien Squad Leader (ASQL) - "Stargate System Lord", Alien Greys, "Harkonnen" Armies.
* no progress.

Frostgrave - Witch Warband.
*They are partially painted so that deserves its own post in time.

That catches you up on my recent work on miniatures. I'll go into a bit more detail as work progresses on these. My current focus is on Battletech so that will be my starting point next time I do a minis post. My next post, however, will be about what I have been working on with RPGs. So tune in next time, if that's your jam! Be safe out there!

We Struck Soulstone!

So in my continued quest to churn out Malifaux terrain I have completed a dual use terrain piece - the Soulstone Vein/Magic Nexus. So far most all of my Malifaux terrain has been designed with two games in mind... Malifaux, for obvious reasons, and my other favorite game Legends of the Old West. This is my first piece that can't be used for either game and I'm ok with that. I think its simple but effective. However, I did discover a great way to make my ground crack for when I am doing parched desert or "dead zone" terrain pieces. Here are the pictures of the new terrain and you'll see how much more cracked the ground looks than my previous terrain.

So I had used an old batch of my "ground" mix what I was calling porridge before and it was several months old and dried out. I poured some water in the container and stirred it up and applied it to my CD as a base. When I woke up the next morning it was cracked like this. At first I was thinking it was ruined but then I realized I could add some desert life around the stones and it would look if not magical, life giving at least. Which played in to both of the aspects of the terrain piece well. But, I was stumped for a while as to why it cracked like that.

While I was drybrushing the piece some small chunks fell out (I'm a heavy handed painter), which is the only downside to the dried cracked look. But it hit me the reason it cracked was because I had thrown off the water to glue ratio or at least that is my theory. I'm planning to test that out on some future terrain. Probably something more desert-like with cacti and such. Anyway, I'll be planning another terrain piece in the next few days and I'll try to do a more step-by-step entry for it. Thanks for stopping by.

Return To The Blog And More Malifaux Terrain

So haven't had a lot of miniature activity of late but a visit with my friend Paul has lit the miniature bug fire under my butt. So the first order of business is to get some terrain so I can teach some of my friends this great game Malifaux. So, I made a list of specific Malifaux terrain pieces and I'll be working on them as time allows. This entry is for the Campsite which I tried to keep simple while still making it obvious what it is. So enjoy...

I am particularly fond of how the fire pit turned out! I actually repainted it at the suggestion of my Fiancee.

Next up is my Magic Nexus/Soulstone Vein terrain piece which I am pretty excited to get together. Then I'll be working on a few hills and should be ready to work on a few models after that. I am really looking forward to working on my Red Chapel Gang!

To Conquer the Stars Part IV

So previously I mentioned that I purchased some of the photon torpedo markers from Amarillo Design Bureau. I'm not sure if they still sell them. Nice sculpts, not very clean however. But after painting them up I like how they look and I think they will look great on the table. I have included a few pics I have taken of them so far

These should look really great flying around the table blowing stuff up!

This is my favorite shot!

Large Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

Medium Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

Small Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

More news on the Full Impulse (Star Trek Variant) campaign that we will be kicking off soon. I have started to adapt the Battletech Chaos Campaign rules over for use with Full Thrust. So far so good. I have nine generic tracks written out and have plans for six story arc tracks (three to a side) as well as adapted rules for ship repairs/refit/upgrades and crew advancement.

Once I get them full adapted I'll post them somewhere to make them available for other to use (and of course modify as they see fit). It is a work in progress however so I figure it will require some playtesting during our own campaign to make sure they are balanced. Looks like we are up to five players so far - Chris, Paul, Josh, Emmi and myself. I'd love to find at least one other player to balance out the sides. More news as it develops!