Designing Stuff

I will do a d100 table of first interesting subject requested that hits the comment box - if goes well will do again. Come at me bro...

Have lots of layout work and some printing to do and will aim to have several publications ready for events. Will publish a bootleg edition game product just to test the interest at mainstream zine show. I'm supposed to be painting but not going well for a commission. Work increased to so some diary stuff to plan for a few months. Zine Fair and EYE con game event mostly working on.

Things to do

Metropolis Con Game
Reread Metropolis and get locations ready and make a doom track which activates events in play. Make envelopes with personal secrets and characters.

Im Thinking:

Male astronaut age 28 planning to depart for space soon
Male cavalry officer age 26 back from front with gasmask and pistol
Male psychiatrist age 60 with interest in strange rituals and cults
Male rich idle youth age 21 with very high status from Metropolis bank father
Male Historian 46 with interst in old city records and construction
Male worker age 26 has stolen ID to live in over city

Female doctor age 36 has worked on a submarine voyage
Female police age 42 officious and carries a truncheon and whistle
Female scientist age 32 interested in anything mysterious
Female aviator age 27 a famous pilot and traveller
Female Dancer age 22 fem fatal about to start shooting first feature film
Female Film Maker  29 travelled far and wide shooting military spectacles, movies and tribal rituals

Secrets.... will make more than players and give in envelope, some will be set up
Deep one?
Cultist?
Insane?
A dreamer prone to visions?
ill keep rest secret till played...

I might do a table for visiting decopunk planets

Octopus Princess Big Surface Adventure
Im gonna do a big board game map of seaside village. Make doom track and might get giant dice.

Pregen octopus princeses
Princess Sparkles who can make a magical illusions and has the best hairstyle
Princess Moonbeam who can turn invisible and shy and smart
Princes Seashadow a necromancer who can make a zombie friend and is gloomy
Princess Crystal who shoots magic beams and is fiesty
Princess Pearl who can heal and is a bit bossy
Princess Freya who's magic makes her strongest and starts with a sword
Prince Tophat who's magic can charm a human and is most romantic
Prince Merlin who's magic shoots fire and he is grumpiest
Prince Knight casts defensive magic and likes to fight with a sword and sheild
Prince Spex likes to read lots has magic to understand languages

Octopus Items
A magic sword hurts two legged beings
A magic trident charm sea creatures once
A Magic Mirror casts clairvoyance once
A magic sceptre can cast hold person once
A magic cordial 2d4 times 1d6 healing potions
A wand creates fog cloud works for 1hp

some tiles, a doom track and other props to make like a baordgame
tables for location encounters

Long Stairs
I want some official looking briefing emails
equipment lists
character sheets for zero lv and then final classes at first
base maps good too

should i start a zero then level up in game chapters or just set at a higher level and send on a set mission???

Club pix of friday dnd gang - up to 4 tables at times

Sandbox Hexcrawl Gossip
A few have commented about this of late. For me sandbox better for drop in players as gives them freedom within setting to more. With my more regular games I make stories to fit characters more instead of on the fly. Marvel games is very drop in. DnD and vikings been very consistent players so more a set menu. Vikings especially as I'm using lots of products to help me. Im happy for them to do something different but will put back on the rails. When they get too good, time to raid Cthulhu's Tomb.

DnD i give players lots of freedom and have the most tables

I find set scripts break lots so goals, links and threads need to be flexible. Scenarios where party meant to lose then they luck out and win, or a hostage is taken but party slaughter kidnappers.

Planet Psychon one of my favorite hexcrawls. Random hexes with not much interaction let me play lots with every new kingdom. Early on players moved from hex to hex every few sessions but last game spent all in same hex. Fixing problem of each hex was kinda the point of game. Last years Psychon con game was a linear adventure with sandbox distractions but all got to endgame by end in a very different way. The map above was used and nobody went to sea. Several went to mountains and explored tunnels using random bunker and subworld tunnels from the psychon book

Part one meet and great then crash plane gather survivors as zero lv band members
Part two go through desert, get water from magenta hills till reach bottom of hex
Part three all have adapted to 4th lv local mutants and go kill wizard for Colossus the AI

So the desert was sandbox but funneled to same destination from same start. Im sorry nobody went to sea. I didnt expect everyone to start the Psychonian custom of tasting or eating every being they met. thats the magic of players messing with your stuff.

For gamma world I looked at map near many modules I like set and found Beaver Island in the great lakes and used as basis for sandbox. Placed several bunkers and did some tables and factions. Worked great. Escaping enemies would return to be killed by party.  I kinda like Mutant Epoch  for approach of having random room contents allowing you to replay or run again with your own maps. I dont like the scripted boxed text but a sense could use book and all could play like a giant fighting fantasy novel.

My dungeon zones i did for originally my long stairs then started using in my normal game to make quick dungeons. I got lots of use out of the early TRS monster treasure tables book and the geomorphs so these zones were attempt to make my own. Worked very well and ran my Redbrick Style for last year for most dungeons on my Exile Island setting. The gothic version proving good and have a fair way to go. Goblin Mine Zone next.

Recycling old tables is a great benefit. Adding a extra table is easy way to paint a portrait of local life and good to train creativity. Adding a dwarf feature table to my gothic zone made a great haunted Dwarf city. With a sandbox hexcrawl like a good computer game some locations are set pieces. Some set pieces are just locations with local encounters but others Some locations could be an adventure, npc or part of a quest. Whatever players don't explore needs to be recycled. It is a tragedy if they never enter hex2305 you wrote something for. Sometimes a highlighter pen is handy for used ones or a ruled line. Bur don't be afraid to move a set piece if it keeps story happening.

I guess I'm good at ad-libbing rather than rote learning so it suits me to work like this. I suspect some ppl dont quite mean same thing as me with sandbox or hexcrawl and have different problems to me. The whole universe is my dungeon. Only a problem if I'm ill or tired or distracted by cat girls during game.