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Author: Stan Shinn (Page 66 of 111)

Hex Mapping Middle-Earth

August 28, 2015 /

Author’s note: this page has a lot of high-res images. Be patient as they load. Don’t forgot to scroll down to see all the images and comments!

I’m doing some long term planning about an epic, multi-year Middle Earth RPG campaign. One key element my game group guys want is Kingdom building rules, so we’ll likely hack the Pathfinder ‘Kingmaker’ OGL rules to serve this purpose. Kingmaker rules presume you have 12 mile hexes, and they have rules about exploring and settling (and defending) hexes, so this should work well. But — we’ll need an epic map to make this work like I want. Here’s my prototyping so far.

First up is taking a high-res fan-made map and cropping it to fit on an 18×24″ aspect ratio. This will be our World Map we work with for the campaign.

MERP Hex Map 0

Next up I zoom in on the top left corner. I could make this NE quadrant into an 18×24″ map if we decide we need that.

MERP Hex Map 1

Then I overlay a hex grid over the quadrant. Each hex is 60 miles, which is the D&D 5e Kingdom scale, which will play well with setting up 12 mile sub-hexes inside them. We’ll be adventuring in the Third Age, around T.A. 1400-1600 (centuries before The Lord of the Rings adventures). This area of Middle-Earth has several MERP (Middle-Earth Roleplaying, the old 80’s RPG) modules we may want to leverage so I think this is a great place to adventure. Also, it’s close to Angmar and near enough to the Witch-King to get into trouble with his foul minions. But I digress…

So I overlay a the sub-hex map with a rectangle that will, once zoomed, make for another nice 18×24″ map, this time portrait instead of landscape.

MERP Hex Map 2a

Here’s what it looks like zoomed in.

MERP Hex Map 2b

The above topography is simple enough we can ‘explore’ in traditional hex-crawl format and draw in features as we explore using wet-erase pens on the poster frame in which I’ll put it. Alternatively we could use the uber-awesome Peter Fenlon map from the MERP products. Looks really cool. If I go this route I’ll need to fix the colors in the scans and also sharpen and possibly re-typeset the labels for legibility.

MERP Map 4

A third option would be to use a hex map that has no details at all and we draw in features as we explore or as they become relevant. Anyway, lots of cool option.

Want to track my progress? Follow me on Google+ where I’ll share out once in a while the maps and other tools as they progress 🙂

Hex Map 18x24

Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion — Episode 03

August 23, 2015 /

In the aftermath of their skirmish with Storm Troopers, the Rebels clean up the carnage. Daymont Syko hails the home-base of the dead Storm Troopers.

His ruse works. He discovers the location of Garr Juun, a Sullustan who worked with Dalin Show to betray the rebels.


Disguised as Storm Troopers, the party pays a visit to Garr Juun. Vin Sai notices that the armor seems to be a perfect fit on only one: Daymont.

The phony Storm Troopers gain easy access to Juun’s house in Tanga City.

Meanwhile, the alien—er, non-human—rebels circle around to the back.

Talk is cheap, and blaster fire is cheaper as a fight erupts. While the lasers fly, A9-LX disarms a baradium bomb with 10 seconds to spare—and keeps it as a handy souvenir.

The rebels capture Juun alive. Cornelius Vaan is all for torture, and Vin Sai almost delivers.

When Juun accidentally inhales some of the shroom-drug he deals, Dredge Myolnon enters his consciousness, and senses an evil presence—emanating from Andooweel.

And Daymont, lost in thought, recalls a time, when he was fighting against—not for—the Rebel Alliance …

How To Create Your Own Stan Shinn Classic Traveller Binder

August 8, 2015 /

Lot’s of folks have been interested in how I put together my Classic Traveller binder. Here’s an overview of the binder:

You can download the Referee Dashboard PDF to insert in your binder.

Stan Shinn Traveller Planner CoverIf you want to make a planner cover, you can use my OpenOffice template below. It is an OpenOffice Draw (.ODG) file. You can edit it using either free OpenOffice or LibreOffice software.

To use the template, you’ll need two fonts:

And I use a planner from Staples which you can order online:

Enjoy!

Avoiding the RPG 'Shiny'

August 5, 2015 /

mwpGreat advice from Gnome Stew; this is my biggest temptation in roleplaying as a GM which I need to resist!

“AVOID THE SHINY

This isn’t original with me or unique to online gaming. But it is still good advice. For the most part, you should avoid too many campaign reboots, rules changes, or genre switches in your regular game. It’s much better to work around any quirks in your particular rules system (or post some house rules) than to ask folks to change editions or systems frequently.

Now, some groups may be fine with an occasional one-off in another system or genre. In general though, if your dying to run something different, you may want to just run it at a different time and send out a general invite to your social group. While your regular players may want to play, they won’t feel obligated to play something they are not interested in.”

(Source)

Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion — Episode 02

July 12, 2015 /

As the Empire ramps up its Thorilide mining operations on Vor Deo and its moon, Thrin, the Rebels grow concerned.

Meanwhile, the crew of the O.R.C Tyrannus, all sworn to the Rebel Alliance for their own reasons, detours their cargo run for a top-secret Rebel mission: to pick up Agent Lu’Nimah.

But instead of finding Lu’Nimah, the Tyrannus finds only the Star Destroyer, Ultimatum, under the command of the despicable cyborg, Count Vidian. The quick-thinking teamwork of A9-LX and Vin Sai, however, narrowly averts disaster.

Once on Vor Deo, the Tyrannus crew delivers their payload of Baradium for Moonglow Polychemical, and then follows a lead to the grub restaurant of Bennbus Polag in Tanga City. The grubs are good and the information better—the crew gets the last-known coordinates for Lu’Nimah.

They find and rescue her at the bottom of a crumbling mineshaft, only to discover that they have been betrayed by a spy. The 20 Storm Troopers sent to kill them, however prove no match for the ragtag rebels and Dr. Tark Malin’s Rapid Happy Orb.

Now the rebels receive instructions for a secret rendezvous on Thrin despite the threat of Count Vidian and his retinue of Stormtroopers …

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