The last few weeks have been a bit of a strange one for me. I haven’t managed to do much of the usual hobby stuff at all—no gaming, no painting, and not even much writing. Everything has been moving a little slowly.
I haven’t exactly lost my gaming mojo, though. It’s just playing hide and seek at the moment. Hopefully I’ll find it soon!
I basically haven’t been in the position or frame of mind to get anything out to game with, or even sit down and do some painting. Sometimes you just have those periods where the hobby doesn’t seem to want to happen, and that seems to be where I’ve been for the last few weeks.
I have managed to do a few things, though. There has been a little 3D printing—at least until I ran out of filament—and I’ve done some more design work on the new pirate ships for Ironclads of Ferrosia. I’ve also done quite a bit of planning, which doesn’t always look like hobby work, but somehow seems to lead to even more hobby work!
The biggest thing I’ve actually managed to achieve is finishing the Stars & Lasers: Forbidden Arsenal supplement.
This was the first supplement I’ve completed using the new publishing software, and it was definitely a learning experience. Affinity Publisher has been a bit of a pain to learn, but by the end of the supplement I think I had got the hang of at least the basic things I need it to do. There is still a lot more to learn, but at least I’m getting there.
Teaching an old dog new tricks springs to mind!
What I’m Working On
I’m now looking at which rules set or supplement I want to tackle next, and this is where the planning comes in.
I’m looking more closely at a new supplement for Hostile Actions. This time I’m thinking about adding some much bigger battlefield elements, including super-heavy vehicles and other battlefield extras. I’m also looking at things such as orbital operations, special operations and battlefield engineering.
This should be a lot of fun to write and, more importantly, playtest. Quite a few of the ideas have come from discussions on the Little Wargaming Worlds Discord server, which is one of the things I really enjoy about having the community there. It’s great to be able to throw an idea out and see what other people think about it.
I will probably finish off the Ironclads of Ferrosia pirate supplement first, as that is already quite close to being finished. The main work now is getting everything transferred into the new publishing software. I would also really like to get some paint onto the 3D-printed pirate ships. I’ve designed twelve new ships for the supplement now, so it would be nice to actually see some of them painted and ready for the tabletop!
The Fantasy Rules
I haven’t really got into transferring the fantasy rules over to the new software yet, as that is going to be a big job.
There is the main set of rules to transfer, followed by all the faction army lists, cards, spells and everything else that goes with them. Once I get the first draft of the new version done, there is going to be a lot of playtesting needed.
I’m actually quite looking forward to getting to this stage, though. Splitting the game into a core rulebook and separate faction army books should make the whole thing much easier to manage, and it will also give me a chance to really start looking at how each faction plays and what makes each one different.
It’s a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it.
Crystalline Wars
Another project I’ve been working on, on and off, is the expanded version of Crystalline Wars.
(the free lite version has been out on Wargames Vault for a while now, download it and check it out)
I’ve now laid out the new wizard guilds—ten in all—and I’m quite happy with how they are coming together. The bit I’m struggling with is actually designing the basic troops.
This is turning out to be much harder than I first thought because Crystalline Wars doesn’t use dice. I can’t simply give a basic troop a set of stats and then give it a normal attack that requires a dice roll.
Everything has to work through the game’s Element Token system, which means I’m having to rethink how basic troops actually fight and use their abilities.
It’s a fun problem to have, but it has definitely made designing the basic troops more complicated than I expected!
And Then There’s Another Game…
Of course, my mind apparently cannot settle for working on just a few rules sets and supplements at a time!
I’ve also been working on a small fantasy solo dungeon card game.
This is something I’ve been doing a little bit here and there, usually when I’m sitting around in the evening and don’t really feel like doing anything else. The main game is now done, so I’m currently working on designing the cards.
The idea is for this to be a small, fun game that can be played in around half an hour. You take a character into a randomly generated dungeon and see what you can find—and of course see if you can survive!
The dungeon will be different every time you play, so hopefully the game will have plenty of replayability without needing to be a huge campaign game.
I’m hoping this will eventually become a print-and-play game, so it’s something that people can simply download, print out and have a go at.
I’ll post more about this one as and when I get bits of it finished.
Little Wargaming Worlds
The Little Wargaming Worlds Discord server continues to grow, and if you want to keep up to date with what I’m working on, that’s probably the best place to do it.
You’ll find sections for all of my games where I post updates, previews and design ideas, and it’s also a place where you can get involved in the development of the games.
You can suggest ideas for existing rules, discuss new mechanics, or even suggest things you’d like to see in future games and supplements.
You can find the link to the server under the Community tab on this site.
So, although the last few weeks haven’t been particularly productive from a gaming or painting point of view, there is actually quite a lot going on behind the scenes.
Hopefully the gaming mojo will return soon, the paintbrushes will come back out, and I’ll have plenty of new things to show you over the next few months!
Now, if I could just find where that mojo has hidden itself…
