Opening a Patreon and Ko-Fi

I’ve decided to open a Patreon and a Ko-fi (a tip jar, basically) for anyone that wants to support a tiny tabletop fanboy who likes writing indie wargames.

Life is tough at the moment and I don’t get enough time to do fun things as I’d like. Last year was very difficult for me with a job change and a medical assessments, so even somebody buying me the odd cup of tea would be a huge morale boost.

Everything is brand new, but lots of new content will be going up on Patreon every 48 hours. This’ll include new Army lists, some deleted content, and previews of special characters.

Ko-fi : https://www.ko-fi.com/rolonoise

Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/nephritegames

FRAG Previews

Screenshots from the first public release of the FRAG “Shareware” rulebook.

Get it here:http://www.mediafire.com/file/x7uc6vo7jrt8y88/Frag+Rules+0+9a0818.pdf

FRAG: SHAREWARE EDITION (0.9a/082018)

I said I’d release something so here’s the first public alpha of FRAG.

Click to access Frag+Rules+0+9a0818.pdf

FRAG is a really fast and simple tabletop game where small squads beat the hell out of each other in a video-game inspired universe. There’s plenty of silly references and it’s just been a huge amount of fun working on this.

FRAG:SHAREWARE EDITION is a fifty-five page rulebook containing 15 pages of core rules and the rest being split across the five major factions.

The SHAREWARE EDITION is my ‘fun hobby project’, intended as a free release by an FPS fanboy who wants his work to be enjoyed by fellow enthusiasts. This public release is the first step to fleshing out this love-letter wargame.

I expect these rules to change quite a lot based on feedback. Points values especially are not final and some of the major factions will get expanded on later.

There’s lots of new content coming in the future too, with EPISODE 2: THE NEW TECHNOLOGY has vehicles, new units, relics, four new factions and a ridiculously huge amount of special characters. Most of these are at a near-finished state, with just a few missing (relics, unit profiles for specific vehicles, and the Martian army list).

So have fun everyone!

FRAG

FRAG: Russian Overkill

Writing a rulebook can be lots of fun.

FRAG: More Design Work

There are so many factors to consider. This battle is far from over.

I’ve been playing around with GIMP and Word a lot today. Having a good looking title on your front cover is so important. It’s the first thing players will see, and it will make an impression (good or bad) every time it’s pulled from a book shelf.

I’m starting to think it’d be a good idea to raise some money for original artwork.

FRAG: Some Graphic Design

@vonuberwald has been helping me design logos and covers for FRAG, the retro FPS tabletop battle game.

The game studio logo by @vonuberwald.

A first mock-up of the front cover. God, did I really write ‘twitch gaming’?

Please note that the artwork above is a place holder I found on Google Image search. I have no idea who drew that picture but I love them to bits. I’ll be looking for an illustrator able to do a similiar colour cover picture at some future point.

The same cover with some WIP logo text by @vonuberwald

Below are some more pictures from the FRAG rule book. None of the artwork is official, all of it dates back to when I wanted to make my home brew look nice for my friends.[[MORE]]

Some of the text is still being gone over, as the story has been altered quite heavily since the first draft (i.e, it’s actually a setting now, not just some text blurbs to give me excuse for me to bang converted miniatures together).

Painted Miniatures for FRAG

Mantic Games dropship and Forward Observer with two converted Maelstrom’s Edge Epirians.

Mantic Tortured Souls with three objective markers made from spare plastic bits

Mantic Abyssal Molochs, converted with spare Mantic Marauder bits and cut up paperclips

Heretic: Advanced Mapping

For fun and to brush up on my GZDoomBuilder skills I decided to recreate a major location from the freeform RPG I’ve been running on and off for the past 3 years.

There is a LOT of artwork of the various characters.

I really wanted to practice with GZDoom exclusive features more and hopefully this will help me learn some new tricks (the dynamic light shown in the above pic is the first time I’ve ever tried using them).

The level itself is a small witch’s tower at the edge of a vast forest. So far I’ve only finished the cellar area.

Because Heretic has so few resources I’ve had to add stuff from Hexen and Realm667. After testing out my work in progress I do regret not simply using Hexen as the base, given that the combat feels closer to what I want and there’s so many textures and options available from the start.

Below are some pics from my test map where I’ve been testing out new sprites, animated textures, and monsters. I can’t begin say how proud I am for figuring out how to emulate the Wendigo’s fragmenting ice attack outside of Hexen.

Not only did I get the Wendigo’s attack working, but I’ve also edited the terrain files so that characters sink into mud and create splashing effects as they move in water/slime/mud.

I’ve even managed to create PolyObjects – swingable objects (in this case, a door that creates an ominous creak and slowly opens – this is no mean feat in an essentially 2D game engine based on static sectors).

Things I’ve Painted

Things I’ve painted this fortnight:

x2 ‘Demon Heavies’ converted from Mantic Games’ Abyssal Moloch (a tankbuster heavy with particle lance still on the to-do pile)

1x Royal Marine Ork lightly converted from Mantic Games’ Deadzone range. They’re old Mantic and huge pain to prep for painting.

16x Skeletal Reapers from Black Tree Designs.

These have all been varnished and are still waiting for a matt coat to dull the shine.