Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Designing a Card Game

My older son and I have been working on ideas for card games recently. Our first foray is now available for sale. We've played the game quite a bit here at home, and I've also tried it a few times with some local board gamer friends, who really enjoyed it. 

Castles: A Game of Medieval Rivalries 

That's a link to DriveThruCards. 

The game is designed to be quick to learn, easy to play, and fun. Each player is trying to build castles. Castle cards are played in front of you, and each has points, from 1 to 5. Action cards can help you or hinder your opponents. On your turn, draw a card and play a card. Simple. 



 

Once one player has five Castle cards in front of them, each other player takes one more turn. The player with the most points (not necessarily the most Castle cards) is the winner. 

A game takes around 15 minutes to play, and with 60 cards in the deck, it should suit games with 2 to 6 players. The most we've had is four players, so far, but that went well. Played/discarded cards get shuffled and made into a new deck when the draw deck is empty, so 6-person games (or more?) don't need to worry about running through all the cards. 

The proceeds will go to Flynn, to help him save up for university expenses. 

I'll post updates with other ideas when we get them worked out.


Monday, February 3, 2025

Some Board Gamin'

In the first two weeks of January, I taught my Speaking English with Boardgames class at the elementary English camp I usually do every summer and winter break. 

This time, I didn't change much, other than to bring in some of my miniatures to use as character markers for the Dungeon! games. And the kids loved it! 


Each class is only 50 minutes long, so in order to explain the game, set it up, and have enough time to give the kids a chance to have a winner, I have to simplify the game a bit. 

First, I cut all the treasure requirements in half, and don't require the group with that much gold to return to the entrance. 

Second, monsters don't fight back. If a group fails to kill a monster on the first die roll, they can try again next turn (or run away). Other players can come in and fight that monster, though, and possibly steal the treasure. 

Third, Wizards get a set of 3 fireballs, 3 lightning bolts, and two teleports, rather than rolling and selecting spells. 

Fourth, this time, I made a small change to the Thief (elf in the original). In addition to the increased chance to find a secret door, I decided that the Thief ignores traps and just gets the treasure. I also decided the original Hero/Superhero names were easier to explain than trying to explain what a cleric is.

Fifth, the Chambers only have one monster each, and also provide a treasure. The only thing different about them is that the Wizards can only teleport to/from Chambers. 

These rules make the game play quickly, and the kids really got into it. 


The first time I used Dungeon! at a camp, a kid mangled one of the treasure cards, so now I keep all information about each team on the white board. This includes what type of hero they are playing, how much gold they have/need to win, spells for the Wizards, and any magic items they pick up.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Is Star Frontiers Mimimalist? Is it Lite?

What exactly defines a minimalist game is subjective, as is what makes a game "lite." Some people go by page count, with 1-page RPGs the epitome of minimalism. I've seen some people say it's bare minimum dice types, bare minimum ability scores/traits, and bare minimum word count. I've seem people say that it's a universal mechanic and plenty of space for players to do things not on the character sheet. I've seen various combinations of the above. I'm sure there are other qualities I'm overlooking at the moment.

So, how does Star Frontiers (Alpha Dawn) actually rank as a minimalist RPG? 

Page Count: 16 page Basic Rules, 60 (or 64?) page full game. 

This would count as minimalist in relation to doorstop games like Pathfinder, but still pretty hefty compared to many indie games. Fairly minimalist, for the time it came out.

Dice: Only d10s. 

Definitely in the minimalist camp here.

Resolution Mechanics: d% resolution for most actions, Xd10 damage, 1d10+modifier initiative, a few oddities like 2d10 bell-curve resolution tables for vehicle damage. 

Pretty tight, but not as light as it could be. 

Abilities/Traits: With eight abilities, but these grouped into four pairs, it's fairly tight. The fact that the scores (or 1/2 the score) are also the % chance to make a check is streamlined design. Alien species' special abilities are also % based. 

That is again pretty light mechanics load, but not as streamlined as possible. Not bad, but could be simpler.

Character Options: Four alien species (one human), three primary skill areas, 13 skills. Five of the skills have no subskills and are Ability dependent (weapon group skills), and all others have two to nine subskills at set levels which are learned as a suite. Only the Martial Arts skill has unique mechanics (increased Punching Score and knock-out chances). 

This isn't very heavy. With basically four die rolls for Abilities and three choice points (not counting Ability adjustment and selecting starting gear), you have a character. Roll Abilities. Select Species. Select Primary Skill Area (PSA). Select two starting skills, with at least one in the PSA. You're good to go. 

Creatures: Aside from descriptions and special ability rules, most creatures are represented by seven descriptors/numbers: Size, Number (appearing), Move (given in general categories), Initiative Modifier/Reaction Speed, Stamina (health), Attack (%), Damage. 

I've seen games where there are fewer stats for creatures, and something like D&D you can get by with fewer actual numbers most of the time (AC, HD, HP are enough for most encounters), but this isn't a lot, either. The game also provides typical stats for herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores of each size category, to make creating your own alien creatures simple. 

Again, it's almost minimalist, and for the time it came out, it's again pretty light. 

Combat, Movement, Etc.:  The basic combat resolution is dead simple. Roll d%, if you roll lower than your chance to hit, you deal damage. But there are a LOT of modifiers, for melee and ranged combat. The vehicle combat isn't too complex, but it does add new subsystems (like the vehicle damage rolls, mentioned above), acceleration, and turning radii. Movement rules are generally simple, until you add in things like modifiers for planets' gravity, rough terrain, and species' movement rates. 

There's a minimalist core there, but also just enough crunch to make things interesting and pay some attention to the science side of science fiction. This is one area where the game stops being minimalist, but it's not maximalist to make the hardcore science nerds happy. This is, I would wager, one of the things that really makes people dislike the game. It's too complex in certain ways, too simple in others.

Equipment, Weapons, Etc.: The game uses "credits" as money. There aren't a whole lot of items on the weapons, defenses, equipment, or vehicle lists, and those that are are one-size-fits-all. There's only stats for "laser pistols" not XM-03 Blast-all and Zerk-tech Laserific Pistols, with fiddly distinctions between what are essentially the same weapon. All ground cars share the same stats, with no distinctions for make/model/species it's designed for.

Robots and Computers are the two areas where there can be a lot of customization, but even then, the options available are limited and streamlined. This is again an area where hard sci-fi people, and gearheads, are going to be disappointed that the system's gear is so bare-bones (and the computers presented were obsolete not long after the game was on shelves), but things are just fiddly enough that it can't be called minimalist. 

There are no rules for building, buying, or operating starships. This is again something that many people deride the game for, but again, this isn't something that's actually necessary (or realistic). There are rules for FTL travel, and prices for PCs to book passage. You just can't own your own ship. This is actually both more realistic, and more minimalist. But it rubs many people the wrong way. I'll go deeper into this in a future post. 

Setting: The Frontier Sector is fleshed out in small bites throughout the rules, with a lot of information in the Basic Rules book, and small details scattered across the Expanded Rules book. All in all, though, it's a skeleton of a setting, with lots of room for the referee to flesh it out as they please, and plenty of uncharted star systems on the sector map. 

This is a pretty light setting, but it gave my friends and I enough of a structure to flesh things out, with inspiration from various sci fi books, TV shows, movies, and games. Again, I'll post more on this particular point in the future. All in all, it's not minimal, but it's a very light setting with just enough meat on the bones to not be useless. 

THE VERDICT

Is Star Frontiers minimalist? No, but then it wasn't trying to be. That wasn't even really a thing back in the late 70s/early 80s when the game was designed and published, as far as I know. 

Is it a lite game though? I'd say so. It has its complexities, but from experience it was pretty easy to ignore a lot of these rules when we were young and didn't care that much. And even as we grew older and got more proficient with the core mechanics, it wasn't hard to add in the extra complexity of the game, because it never gets THAT complex. 

The thing is, I think that it COULD be a minimalist game, if stripped down. The Basic Game is already pretty minimal, but it's also a bit more of a board game than a proper RPG. Still, using it as a base, and selectively including only the bare necessities from the Expanded Rules, you could play a very minimalist space opera/exploration game.

 

 


Sunday, January 12, 2025

Minimalist Sci Fi Gaming

I'm not sure exactly why, but I've had Star Frontiers on the brain the past couple of days. 

I know the game has a pretty bad reputation among many gamers, but it also has its ardent fans. I loved the game as a kid. And while I would probably not say I love the game anymore, I still like it and find it fun to play. Although it's been quite a while since I've tried to run it, I might still brush it off and give it a go some day. 

A few of the common complaints against the system that I find are as follows (not all inclusive, just what comes to mind right away): 

  • It doesn't have starship operation/creation rules (until Knight Hawks).
  • It's a "muddled" or "incomplete" system.
  • It lacks realism in the skills it offers.
  • The setting is under-developed and silly.
  • It's a game for kids, not serious sci-fi fans.
  • The tech in the game is dreadfully outdated.

I don't want to answer all of these criticisms in this post, but I may get around to them later. The thing that's been on my mind is the action resolution system of Star Frontiers. 

It's a simple percentile system, roll under your Attribute or Skill number. Easy peasy. 

It's the same resolution system that Call of Cthulhu uses, yet that system is not derided as simplistic. Of course, CoC has a big "comprehensive" list of skills, alphabetized on your character sheet. And having played a fair amount of CoC the past year or so, there are a whole lot of those skills that NEVER get used. In fact, one of my previous posts was basically about how I managed to make my PC's musician background relevant in the adventure, and helped out by making an Art (Jazz) roll at an appropriate time. 

Star Frontiers has a very limited skill list. There are skills for each of five or six weapon groups, martial arts, demolitions, mechanics, robots, computers, medical, environmental, and psycho-social. Each of these has subskills that you automatically gain access to when you take the parent skill. And when you improve the parent skill, all subskills improve. 

It's very minimalist in design. It features skills for things your PCs are likely to be doing (fighting space monsters or the Sathar, exploring planets and meeting alien species, and dealing with technology problems). The lack of starship content is because of the conceit of the setting. It's Aliens, not Star Wars. Starships capable of FTL travel are huge, expensive, and the province of governments and huge corporations. It's not designed to be Traveller with its African Queen style tramp-steamer starships. But that's a discussion for another post, I believe. 

Part of what makes Star Frontiers work well, at least for me, is that the eight Attributes can actually cover a lot of "skills" that aren't covered in the rules. For those not familiar with the game, the Attributes come in four pairs: 

  • Strength/Stamina [STR/STA]
  • Dexterity/Reaction Speed [DEX/RS]
  • Intuition/Logic [INT/LOG]
  • Personality/Leadership [PER/LDR]

Most of these don't affect skills. Your base weapon attack value is half of your DEX (you can use half of STR for melee/martial arts if it's better than DEX), plus 10% per level in the appropriate skill. The Technology and Bio-Social skills (everything not combat related), plus Demolitions, all have a set base percentage that you start at for each subskill. A few subskills are just set at that base percentage, but most gain a 10% bonus for each level of the skill a character has trained. 

So, people complain that the rules don't cover lots of other actions. But actually, they do. All those other actions, if they require a resolution roll to determine success, can be mapped to one of the eight Attributes. In fact, this makes the game system both rules-lite and fairly comprehensive in its coverage of actions that the system can resolve. 

Below, I've copied the skill list from d20 Modern. I'll note which ones are already covered by a skill or subskill in Star Frontiers, and which Attributes (or in a few cases other rules) could cover the action in a Star Frontiers game. 

Balance  DEX
Bluff    PER
Climb   DEX (there are climbing rules in the game)
Computer Use  Computers already covers this
Concentration  STA
Craft  A few of these are subskills, others could be Attribute checks. Crafting other than robots, or survival gear in emergencies, isn't normally part of the game, but if you wanted it to be, it could be.
     Ct:Chemical  LOG, Environmental, or Demolitions depending on the use
     Ct:Electronic  Technician, Computers, or Robotics depending on the use
     Ct:Mechanical  Technician, or Environmental for simple tools and weapons
     Ct:PharmaceuticaMedical
     Ct:Structural  LOG or Technician
     Ct:Visual Art  INT or DEX
     Ct:Writing   INT
Decipher Script  LOG or INT, depending
Demolitions  Demolitions are already covered
Diplomacy  PER, but also partially covered by Psycho-Social
Disable Device  Technician, Computers, or Robotics depending on the use
Disguise  INT or PER depending on how it's being used
Drive   already covered by Technician
Escape Artist  DEX
Forgery  DEX or INT, depending
Gamble  LOG or INT, depending on the game
Gather Information  PER
Handle Animal  LDR
Hide   Environmental covers this already
Intimidate  LDR
Investigate   LOG
Jump   There are jumping rules that determine distance depending on local gravity that don't need rolls, but STR if a roll were necessary
Knowledge  Hmm, OK, here's an area that may be hard to cover. Lumping them all under LOG seems too broad. Some, like Arcane Lore, don't really play a part, and some others can be assumed by having other skills. A system like the Language rules (see below) might be imported if a Referee felt these sorts of determinations were important to the game. Otherwise, the closest Attribute or Skill, in my opinion, are listed below.
     Kw:Arcane Lore   not relevant
     Kw:Art   ???
     Kw:Behavioral Sciences  Pscycho-Social
     Kw:Business  ???
     Kw:Civics  ???
     Kw:Current Events 
     Kw:Earth and Life Sciences  Environmental
     Kw:History  ???
     Kw:Physical Sciences   LOG
     Kw:Popular Culture  ???
     Kw:Streetwise  PER
     Kw:Tactics   LOG, or assumed with a Military PSA?
     Kw:Technology  Technician, Computers, or Robotics depending on the use
     Kw:Theology and Philosophy  ???
Listen  I would probably go with INT for this, but it's a bit of a stretch. This is something the game assumes Referees will decide depending on circumstances, rather than requiring a roll.
Move Silently   Environmental covers this
Navigate   Environmental covers this
Perform   DEX or INT, depending on the use
Pilot  Technician covers this
Profession  There's already a system of determining pay per day depending on total skills known, used for hiring NPCs, or for pay offered to PCs for jobs. No need to make rolls.
Read/Write Language  The game contains a system similar to Skills for languages, with each level in a language costing 3XP and granting a +10% bonus to communicate in that language, starting at a 40% base.
Repair  Technician, Computers, or Robotics depending on the use
Research   LOG
Ride   DEX or RS depending on use
Search   I would probably go with INT for this, but it's a bit of a stretch. This is something the game assumes Referees will decide depending on circumstances, rather than requiring a roll.
Sense Motive  Pscycho-Social covers this
Sleight of Hand  RS
Speak Language  The game contains a system similar to Skills for languages, with each level in a language costing 3XP and granting a +10% bonus to communicate in that language, starting at a 40% base.
Spot  INT
Survival  Environmental covers this
Swim   There are swimming rules that don't involve checks, but STA might be used for endurance situations
Treat Injury  Medical covers this
Tumble  DEX

I think the case can be made that Star Frontiers actually can be a robust system, covering a wide variety of checks you might want to make with its base rules, even if they aren't covered in the Skill system. It's also a good minimalist game, focused on less serious sci-fi action, rather than hard sci-fi or more modern Star Wars-influenced sci-fi media. 

While designed and marketed as more of a kids game, compared to Traveller, it's not as bad of a game as many people seem to think.

Friday, January 3, 2025

Painting Again

 This morning, I finally got around to painting a set of the Red Hat Russian War Monk Artillery figures that I picked up a year ago. 

I'm going to teach at the usual elementary school English Camp over the winter break (starting on Monday), and one of the board games I use is Dungeon!

This year, I plan to use some of my 1/72 scale minis (20-22mm) instead of the cheap cardboard standees in the new WotC edition of Dungeon! that I use for the camp. [I don't want to risk damage/loss to my old 80s edition.] 

These were quick paint jobs, with all five done in around 2 hours. I probably could have done it faster, or better quality, if they were a larger scale or my eyes weren't as bad as they are. But still, I think these look pretty good all told. 


Maybe I'll get around to painting some of the minotaur and cyclops minis after the camp. Winter seems to put me in the mood to paint the past few years.

Monday, December 30, 2024

Looking Ahead

Happy New Year, everyone! I know it's a little early to wish everyone this, but if you look at my posting rate this month, it shouldn't be a surprise. 

2024 wasn't a great year over all, but gaming wise, it was pretty good. My TS&R Jade campaign is going well. Everyone is enjoying it. My side campaign of Star Wars d6 is also going well. We just played it yesterday, and had a good time. The Call of Cthulhu game was pretty fun, and hopefully it continues into next year [This one isn't actually a campaign, as we make new characters for each scenario]. And here and there, we got to try out a few smaller games as one-shots. 

In the realm of play-by-post, the long running 1E game had a reboot, with new PCs starting at level 1. It's not so bad, when the other option was the DM shutting the game down. I really enjoyed playing my primary PC in that game, but at times I was thinking it was time to retire him anyway. The one 5E game I still play there has been pretty slow due to the DM's real life schedule, and honestly, I keep forgetting to post there. I got into the ground floor of a RECON game, but different player styles/expectations frustrated the GM, and now maybe one of the players will take over. We'll see. 

The two games I'm running there, Gamma World and Star Wars d6, are moving along just fine. 

Looking forward into 2025, I see these trends continuing. Well, hopefully the 5E game picks up the pace a bit. Otherwise, things seem to be going well gaming wise. 

On the game design front, I'm plugging away at Flying Swordsmen 2E. Over the weekend, I made some character templates as the equipment chapter was kinda boring me. I'd been somewhat reluctant to get into the weeds of templates, but so far, it's been kinda fun trying to figure out the basics of different martial arts/wuxia stock characters within the framework of the game I'm creating. 

The other thing that's been on my mind lately is an idea I've had of converting the Isle of Dread for my TS&R Jade campaign. It would be a fairly superficial thing, but at the same time it would take a fair amount of rewriting. I'd want to change the Isle's native culture to be less Polynesian and more SE Asian in nature. And of course the wandering monster tables and a few of the encounter areas would need to be reworked to include more SE Asian style monsters along with all the dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. 

But do I really want to put the breaks on the local campaign to send the players off to a multi-session arc on the Isle of Dread? I mean, it's a fun module, but I'm not so sure it's the right thing for the group. Maybe I'll make some notes and then throw a few rumors/hooks their way. If they bite, I'll finish fleshing out the idea. If not, then I'll drop the idea.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

My first 40 years as a role player

Today, I turned 51 years old. And, as I've mentioned on numerous previous birthdays (and probably numerous "how did you get into gaming" posts), I got my Mentzer Basic Set for my 11th birthday. So I've been a D&D and other RPGs player for four decades now. 

For the first decade, 1984 to 1994, I both ran and played BECMI with my friends and family. We also ran a lot of Star Frontiers. We also played some AD&D of both the 1E and 2E variety, but not that much. And occasionally we'd play, or at least make characters but never get around to playing, lots of other games. Gamma World. Star Wars d6. Cyberpunk 2020. TMNT and Other Strangeness. Marvel Superheroes. I'm sure there are others we tried or at least sampled that I'm forgetting. We played a LOT of BECMI D&D though. Tales of this decade are labeled as The Old BECMI Group, obviously.

For the second decade, 1994 to 2004, after a bit of interruption in RPG play due to Magic: The Gathering and not wanting to associate with the campus Gaming Guild who embodied most of the negative gamer stereotypes that were out there at the time, I got back into gaming with a group that played a mix of 1E/2E AD&D. Then I went to Japan, and by the time I got a group to game with, 3E had just come out. So we dove into the world of the d20 system, playing 3E D&D and a bit of d20 Modern and d20 Star Wars. The final few years of this era, I had moved to a different part of Japan, and started gaming on RPOL.net since I hadn't found a group to play with there. These tales are under the Evansville Group (1E/2E), and Toyama Group (initial 3E stuff) tags.

From 2004 to 2014, I got in with a group playing in Tokyo. Again, we mostly played d20 stuff, including 3E, d20 Modern, and d20 Conan. But through this group, I also got to try a variety of Forge-style story games, and also it rekindled my love of old school D&D. I also got involved (finally) with some local gamers, and we played some Abberant (an obscure White Wolf game), 3E, and old school D&D. We also developed Presidents of the Apocalypse, which I know I've mentioned many times before, but no, it will probably never get released because it's so scattershot. In the middle of this era, I moved to Korea. For a few years, the emphasis was on board games, but eventually I got some old school D&D going, using the house rules that have by now evolved into Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins. I also got to try 4E and we sampled a few One Page and microlite RPGs, played a bit of Gamma World (the 4E D&D stuff AND classic GW), Pathfinder 1E, and a few other games here and there. I continued to game on RPOL, and also got to sample various OSR offerings through online realtime play (Google Meet, when that was a thing). I also developed, play tested, and released Flying Swordsmen. You can find these stories in the tags Ebisu and Yamanashi Gamers for the Japan era, and Busan Gamers for the Korea era.

My fourth decade, 2014 to today, coincides with the release of 5E D&D, and I've played it a fair amount. As a player, it's fun. As a DM? Not so much. So I've mostly stuck to my TS&R old school D&D rules as a DM. And I've been running my d6 Star Wars game for many years now. As a player, there have been a wealth of games and game systems, that are face to face, online realtime, and play by post. While I've mostly given up on 5E (except for a really good game on RPOL), my TS&R game and SW d6 game are both going well. I've sampled lots of OSR and micro-games, both in person and online. I've recently started both a Gamma World and Star Wars game on RPOL. And very recently, just joined a game of RECON. I developed, play tested, and released Chanbara, and have recently finished up releasing everything to make TS&R a complete game that others can play. I've been too busy to post about that. These last few years of gaming can again be found under the Busan Gamers tag, as will most games I post about going into my fifth decade of gaming. 

The first 40 years of gaming have been on the whole really good. I'm excited for the next 40 years!