Nothing quite like a campaign to get me fired up

Friday, 8 March 2013

So, I'm running a new Icar campaign. My last campaign (playing my free RPG The Wall) sadly fizzled over Christmas and a change in job made it hard for me to have any head space for working on a campaign setting.

Last Tuesday, while sitting chatting to roleplaying chums about Life (The Universe and Everything), I made the bold statement to just stop faffing about and run the still-fledgling Trooper Setting.

What I did then

Panic.

What I did after that

I took stock of what I had. Got all the notes organised and started putting them into Trello. Organising timelines and events with Icar's sandbox principles is really easy in Trello.

Made a list of what I needed

What was needed for the first 2 sessions? I made a complete list. Everything! Getting my dice bag sorted out, a new bag to carry all this rubbish in, printing off character sheets, new equipment sheets and so on.

Hit problems

I need a new sector map for Typhon. I have an old-style one that I could use but I wanted a nicely printed one in A3. It needed to be able to fit against the Remmar map in version 4. But the process to create that was not repeatable. Rats. I need to recreate them all (which is easy now I have the computing power). Which means updating the version 4 document. That will take time, time that I don't have just now.

Do I really need all that?

The Typhon map is going to be important but I won't need it for the first session. I can get away with just a local planet map. I only need it when it goes a little more sandboxy. That can wait.

Prioritise

With the remaining assets, I finished off the nearly-done ones so that it was easier to see what was left. Bionics sheet done, TAFAC sheet - half done, Stone (dropship), have model - need stats, cheat sheets and pre-made Skill lists (Trooper characters don't get to choose skills).

Am I ready?

No. But do I need to be completely ready before next Tuesday? Probably not!

The best thing is

That running a campaign will give me a kick up the bum to stop playing Minecraft and do some creating. I work well with against aggressive deadline and manage to find time where previously there had been none.

What gets you fired up to create? Let me know in the comments.

A quiet family day and a burst of output!

Sunday, 13 January 2013

I have been hammering our Icar today, thanks to me dear wife who has disappeared out with my son, Felix. Only with a quiet house and clear plan of what I wanted to achieve would anything get done. Nothing new has been released but by getting over some of these jobs-that-needed-to-be-done means that working on Icar in the evenings is more plain sailing. Here's what I've been up to...

Created the Google+ Page

It appears that there are many more roleplayers on Google+ than there are on Facebook, so I've been wanting to carve out a Google+ page for a long time! I will be posting new images up onto the Plus group as well as Facebook.

Moved Fleet Setting into InDesign

A big step for me is when I move loads of text into InDesign to see how big it is and what's left to do. It takes a fair amount of effort to do the layout - even though I'm only using the Core Rules backgrounds at the moment. Now that is done, I can focus on the things that remain. There are lots of resources to build and the GM section to write up.

Fleet Trooper TAFAC model finished

It's not perfect but perfection is the enemy of done, and I really need to move on. I don't like the hands, they're stock and make him look really surprised! They will have to do for now.

The TAFAC powered armour suit is designed as a lightweight way of getting troopers about and I think the model captures that. The Rapier is now fitted on the Grav Pack an although there are no other Trooper gizmos (yet), the model is done and rendered. Now I can get the Bionics sheets written up.

Fixed the download counter

I have not been able to track downloads of Icar for about 8 years. I moved over to using Google but failed to debug the tracking code. I've finally found out what I was doing (Javascript swallowed a syntax error) and can now track how many times each of the documents have been downloaded.

Added a description to the main web page

It really needed a bit of text to say what Icar was all about. Not only to satisfy the tastes of the web crawlers but also to help those who have never been to the site before.

What would you like to see next from the Icar stable? Is there anything that is crying out to be done?

Introducing the Rapier

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Fleet Troopers need fire power. Every Trooper, regardless of their rank or role, get issued with the Rapier. The most reliable weapon the Fleet have ever had. It is a powerful pulse laser, which weaves light and raw energy into translucent blue bolts. Ammunition is beamed directly into a small store on-board so a belt feed is not required.

The six fixed barrels contain their own 20 gauge (200 damage per round, 50 rounds per turn) pulse laser mechanism, providing 6 times redundancy. It connects directly to the Trooper's Cyber but can be fired without operating sensors.

My love/hate relationship with the Rapier

I drew the Rapier in pencil back in 1999 and it was superb. A 2D side elevation drawing on 5mm squared paper. Sadly, I lost it. Since then, I've been trying to repeat it - regaining the old magic. Each time I try, I get close to what I want but miss the bar and that annoys me so intensely, I can't return to the image again for ages. I tend to redirect some energy into the text of the setting or work on another project entirely.

How I design

I start with a drawing. I have a cheap Wacom Bamboo tablet and GIMP and I just sketch. If I am not near my computer and the mood takes me, then I sketch on paper. I prefer digital because rubbing out and line thickness is easier. It takes some getting used to as your eye is not tracking the line as it appears from the tip of a pencil but tracking across the screen.

Each Icar item starts as a bunch of shapes. I am big on straight lines, arcs and circles. If I like the shape (roughly) then I'll fill some detail. I'll keep going until I think it's no good and then stop and start with a new bunch of big shapes.

If it is a weapon that I am having trouble with, I try different styles to keep myself going. If it is still not working for me, I change the music I am listening to, adjust the blind next to my desk, try drinking something different and so on. It doesn't have to be a huge paradigm shift (try drawing upside down or in a coffee shop) as a combination of little things works just fine.

Once I am happy with the overall sketch, I transfer it into 3D. Getting them into 3D is a long process of tweaking and fiddling.

Rapier examples

The five images below show 5 attempts at the Rapier, each binned at different stages. I did 25 attempts in the end - some made their way into 3D before I gave up. They are not chronologically the same weapon, they each one is a different stab at the weapon. Below the image, I explain why I binned each design. I'm going into more detail than before to help you understand why it's been a pain.

1. The initial idea for the Rapier was that the forearm of the Trooper went inside the weapon. This removes the need for handles. The problem with this is that it is a bit cumbersome - fine for the "clompy" Troopers of old but no good for the new reinvention. I don't like where the barrels meet the rear half. I tried to imagine it in 3d with the grey but it wasn't right.
2. This is still a series of shapes - went wrong really early.
3. I liked the idea of having two circular sections at the back but it made the whole thing too long. Also, bit where the barrels meet is still bad.
4. This one has a lot of detail because I quite liked it. I like that the rear half is grabbing the barrels. I experimented with holes in the barrels but that is something I did when I was 14 and don't see the need these days.
5. My favourite of the five but still to fat - too chunky. Too... too... wrong. This was design #24 and it was here that I realised I was heading in the wrong direction entirely.

Here are another batch from a week or two later:
Didn't like any of those either. The second one down shows the shapes stage of drawing a weapon for Icar. It really is very rough at that point.

Know when to stop

So I sat myself down at the computer and gave myself an evening without distraction. I left my headphones on but didn't play music (am I the only one who does that?). It gives a deadening to the ear that helps me focus. I'm writing this post in the same way. I gave myself one sketch and one sketch only. I came up with this:


To throw myself off the scent of the other images, I drew the weapon left-to-right. Rather than begin with a series of curves, I started with straight lines and then added a minimal number of curves. I didn't like the detail much but that was OK because the design always morphs a little when going into 3D. I didn't want to spend too long on detailing the model but I had a few ideas that might make it more interesting. This is the final Rapier, which will be built onto a weapon sheet soon.


I couldn't copy the drawing verbatim because there are some lines that just don't make sense. Also, where the barrels meet the barrel cover on the right looked really odd so I had them going into a very simple cylinder first. I am please with the result - not 100% happy but then I could spend the rest of the year fiddling and it would never get done. There is a time to stop and this is it.

Why are there no alien races in the Icar universe?

Friday, 6 July 2012

The answer is twofold, a scientific justification and a reason.

Scientific Justification

In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked why we had not detected alien civilisations. The Milky Way is 13.2 billion years old and there are 400 billion stars in it. If there is intelligent life in a tiny percentage of planets around these stars then there will be still a huge number of civilisations. As intelligent life tends to overcome scarcity and colonises new habitats then at least some of those civilisations would have developed interstellar travel and colonised. Even at slow sub-light speeds, the galaxy could be colonised in 50 million years, which is a tiny percentage of the Milky Way's age.

Human technology is fallible and we've not been searching long. There could be remnants out there that we've not spotted. Aliens could be very good at hiding or it could be very hard to spread throughout the galaxy. There are plenty of other valid arguments against but the scientist in me has long felt it was unlikely. When I first outlined Icar, this was not the main reason.

Narrative Reason

I wanted Icar to be different. At Icar's earliest inception, I hated having an idea pointed out as being unoriginal. I wanted common themes (space travel, laser guns etc) but I didn't want humanoid aliens like Star Wars/Trek.

In early games (circa 1994) I used a horror element of "Inquistors" who were an unknown Geiger-esque alien who would take humans apart for scientific reasons. Elusive, high tech and difficult to kill, I canned the idea shortly after. If pushed into explaining them away, I would say they were an insane rogue cell of Star Sci. Then I'd blush and change the subject.

The caveat

There are no intelligent alien races around now. This is an important point because I want people to experiment with the idea of long dead races. It brings up lots of interesting questions. Is destruction the inevitable end state? Is war the only way a civilisation can die out or is civilisation governed by entropy? Long dead civilisations provide excellent exploration and technological opportunities - great for GM plot hooks. I prefer them to be used for raising philosophical questions, which is the arch benefit of playing science fiction.

Designing the Rapier

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

The Rapier cannon is the stock laser weapon for all Fleet Troopers. It's a no-nonsense affair that is sturdy and powerful. It can be used for accuracy and range but it's normally used for throwing as much raw energy at a Droid as it can.

The best Icar designs start off with a sketch. If I can scribble it down, then creating it in 3D is a lot easier because I have the core of the weapon to work from. I do not have a method of sketching. I plug my Wacom Bamboo (an old one) into the computer, start up Photoshop and away I go!

I begin with the barrels and work backwards along the weapon. For the back end, I draw large shapes freely and then fill them in. I try experimenting with shading to see if an idea sticks better but I don't worry too much. Here are a few sketches from last night:

Tactical Armoured Flying Attack Conveyance - TAFAC

Monday, 28 May 2012

Troopers are the foot soldiers of the Imperial Star Fleet. Popular culture like to think of a Fleet Trooper as an unthinking mechanical grunt and the media perpetuates this view. It hides the truth that Troopers are highly trained and better educated than the general public. While being an effective and tactical fighting force, they retain their humour, pride and humanity; the Fleet has long since recognised that removing a Trooper's humanity reduces their ability to innovate and think laterally to solve problems.

Each Trooper is equipped with TAFAC powered armour (see right). TAFAC is an artificially intelligent suit that protects the wearer as well as giving the wearer additional abilities such as flight, invisibility, shields, the ability to re-enter atmosphere and survive in space for up to 400 hours. 

I have been toying with this 3D model for months now and I'm still not completely happy with it. So this picture is a work in progress. The arms are too plain, the helmet isn't how I dreamt it should be and there is no plasma grav pack on the back. The hands I've used are from a stock human model and as such have this rather panicked open pose to them. It makes the Trooper look surprised. They will either get 'rigged' for modification or replaced.

The model is supposed to be thin and lightweight. Icar's style is not about needless bulk - make the armour stronger, not bigger. I think it's delightfully jarring that some might look at this and think that the armour isn't tough enough. The outline is skinny and so it should be - these warriors are svelte because bulk is cumbersome.

The other glaring omission is equipment. All Troopers are kitted out with a Rapier Cannon (I have an old pencil drawing I must locate) and a whole bunch of toys.

The Troopers are coming in the Fleet Setting book, which I hope to have an Alpha for this summer. It's the next campaign I want to play, so I must be ready for that.

Let the proof reading begin!

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

With only a couple more Lulu iterations, I have managed to get a print copy through their system! A quick flick through has shown that there are some layout problems but I was expecting that. For example, the white box behind the text could do with being a little bit more opaque - or at least blend in such a way to keep a good contrast between it and the text. Not having a printer at home has made experimentation difficult.

Now I will engage the Mrs to perform a spot of proof reading. You might think of it as free but I imagine that I will be doing the washing up for months to come!