Straturday, Slight Teaser

 Just been away for a week so no real hobbying time lately. On the flip side the much needed break has got me re energised to get back into making cool shit. Ain't that always the way.

Some news happened while I was away: as part of their slate of awesome upcoming games, Possible Worlds (who I've worked with before on the new edition of GoGoGolf! have announced my next game with them: Overcure! You can check out the full press release and a great interview with Tyler over here on Rascal. Love Rascal.

Overcure is a tabletop miniatures game. Ish? Definitely enough that it warrants a post on Straturday (the Lord's Day). More info and cool stuff will come out about it as development continues and the release approaches.

For now, I'll say that Overcure is a solo tabletop strategy game focused on accessibility, instant setup and arcade-inspired fun.

In a world where most minis games involve hours-to-months of researching, learning, collecting and hobbying before getting to the gameplay, you can go from starting Overcure to finishing your first game in under 20 minutes. And randomly generated level elements based around real-world wifi networks mean you can keep coming back for more. Play slots as easily into your regular schedule as a mobile game.

Don't get me wrong, I love big chunky wargames that demand ever more of your brain and time. This is something new.

Recommendation this week goes to Colonel O'Truth's Miniature Issues, a youtube series I've been storming through lately. Very relaxed, classic terrain building, where each episode is about making a new part of a constantly evolving 10mm wargames diorama/board. Incredibly simple and accessible, with a focus on understandable techniques and cheap tools and materials, but the overall project slowly builds into something wonderfully intricate. Worth watching from the start.

Straturday Snipe Preacher

 Trench Crusade minis are starting to go out to backers soon, so I'm going to need an opposing warband to greet my Azebs when they arrive. Kitbash time baybee

These are a sniper priestess and a trench cleric, made from odd bits I had lying around attached to my partner's gracious sacrifice of a couple of WH40k sisters of battle. That and a bit of plastic glue from the bottom of an old bottle, plus some very past-its-prime green stuff that came free with an army painter basing starter set, back when I had Big Plans to get all the way into wargames. That's all you need! I even added extra green stuff where it wasn't needed for some bonus jank

I'm pretty happy with these - the cleric's head in a reliquary cage (majestic!) and dual weapons akimbo gives her a lot of character. And the priest's over the top (pun intended) weapons are a great fit too.

They're not done - painting, plus there are bits to tidy up like the extra hand still clutching part of the priest's rifle - but a New Antioch warband has begun to take shape.

Only issue is, now I'm out of bits. Reinforcements will have to wait for another time.

Elsewhere in wargaming, you've got to check out Chris McDowall's scrapheap starter set for space fleet games, and watch quadra make amazing terrain while recounting the fantastic backstory behind it. Don't miss these.

More Straturdays to come x

Mothership en noir

 Been doing research for SPILT MILK, the phonebook mystery adventure, which means watching film noir movies on internet archive and playing Hotel Dusk on my old DS

Noir isn’t the only aesthetic at play in Odai 57, but the more I lean into it the more I find it fits Mothership specifically. The black and white is apropos but the connections run deeper

1. The Solve. Most apparently, MoSh is a mystery game already. I’ve already done a “solve” focused module for TKG, Piece By Piece, which has an X-Files vibe. The survive and save are still there, but are reliant on players working through the immediate questions first, and are easier when equipped with answers from the central mystery. There are still people to die for and things to kill you in the phonebook too, but they’re fewer and further between. No aliens, for one thing. But none of this is outside a Mothership module’s jurisdiction 

2. The Panic. I rarely put too much focus on making things horrific when I’m writing for Mothership, I find it comes naturally. But it is a horror game with that Stress/Panic core and flimsy characters made of nasty wounds and repressed trauma. I don’t think any of this is far removed from noir - people die, sometimes the lead, always in quick, dramatic bursts after long stretches of simmering tension. There are guns everywhere but few shots are fired and fewer make contact, like a survival game you can count the bullets. Our heroes are troubled, desperate and weak. It’s only their quick thinking and a little luck keeping them out of the frying pan, which sounds pretty OSR to me.

3. The Rest. All that’s left is vibes tbh. Closing in on aesthetic specificity is part of the joy of each new MoSh module. Every corner of the outer rim has its own corporate overlords and tech levels, each author has their own sci fi vision. If I want my landline phone network in focus, I can say that the station’s extensive radiation shielding renders wireless comms useless. If I want rain-soaked streets, I can make the station’s pipes drip with leaks and submarine-style condensation. Mothership is malleable enough to get us the rest of the way there without fuss

I think a lot of very good modules have already been made within Mothership’s existing vibes wheelhouse. I’m excited to make something a little different, even if it turns out the heart is still very much the same