Random Update: Making terrain

 Okay, it's been way too long since I've updated here. I have been working on things here and there, but sitting down at the keyboard has been a little hard to do. So I thought I'd share some terrain I made. I may do a How To article about it in the future, but time will tell.

If you're curious, I found one of those novelty check in a Dumpster years ago and bough it home. Over the years, I've used about 2/3 of it now, as well as some other pieces I've been able to find here and there. I do have a lot more projects I'd like to do, too.

First off, let me explain how I started. I drew some outlines on a piece of card stock and then used them as a template on the piece of foamcore, trying to fit as many of them on there as I could. All in all, I think I did a decent job.

Here's a picture of the pile I ended up with:

With this done, I started using some bones I picked up at the Dollar Tree, some tropical trees I ordered on Amazon, and then some rocks that came in a bag of stuff I also ordered on Amazon. That is something I'll need to talk about in the future, too...

Anyway, here's what it looked like when I finished:

Now, that pile to the right is everything left over. That circle piece is about 6" around, so I'm setting aside in case I need something in the future. The thing in the back with the skull and bones is going to be used as a "Shrine" in Reign in Hell (when I get a chance to play that again). 

When it came to making the various "forests," I wanted to have them work as terrain, rather than have them look realistic. That's why they have trees around the edges and not in the middle. To break them up a little bit, I used the rocks and bones. I also made a thing of bones to act as area terrain, as well as the collection of rocks. I left some of the smaller pieces aside to be used as some ponds or pools.

I also made myself a little graveyard.

Yeah, I know, I should have left some more space along that one edge. I don't care.

Anyway. The next step is putting some sand on them, putting down some primer, and then painting everything up. I already have some craft paint I've been using for other terrain, but I might wait until I grab a kind of sandy yellow color instead of the browns I've been using. 

Before all of that, I have a lot of other pieces I've put together that are further along, so it'll be some time before you get to see the finished product. If there's anyone actually reading this, let me know if you want to see some more of the terrain I've thrown together and I'll share it.

Sources Say: The Deck of Many Things

 

Name: The Deck Of many Things

Produced By: Wizards of the Coast

System: D&D 5e

Genre(s): Fantasy

Ah, the Deck of Many Things, the destroyer of campaigns. I’ve had one encounter with the Deck as a player and once used it as a DM, back in 3^rd edition. I think many players have at least one story of the Deck appearing in their games, usually leaving death and discord in its wake. So, it seems that Wizards has seen fit to explore the Deck, its origin, and expanded it to fill many more roles in your games. The box comes with The Book Of Many Things, a reference book for the cards, and a set 66 very well made cards of the Deck of Many Things.

To start, let’s discuss the Deck. They’re Tarot sized (so about double the size of regular playing cards) with this gold leaf looking stuff on the edges. These cards look great, the art, and everything. They’re very well done. You get the original 22 Deck cards, two of which have been renamed, and then two more sets of another 22 cards. These can be used for the “expanded” uses for this deck, as I discuss below.

Which brings me to the next part of the box, the reference book. This book is kept with the Deck, which is nice, as it should prevent some damage to the cards if something happens. The book includes how to use the deck as an in-game Tarot type divination tool, letting the players or the DM do some fortune telling for the game. They can also be used to design an adventure or a dungeon, using the cards as an inspirational tool for games. I actually kind of like this idea, as it can help a DM come up with something on the fly or when they’re stumped on where to go next with the campaign. The last part of the book is the definitions the cards have as divination tools, how they can represent people, places, and locations, beyond their general meaning, as well as what they mean when reversed. If you’re familiar with Tarot, you’re going to know how that all works already. Honestly, I could totally see using these cards at a LARP or a party or a con and having a bit of fun with them.

The final part of the set is The Book of Many Things. This book is one that you may or may not find useful. It contains a history of the Deck (both in universe and production history), how to use the Deck in your games, and how to set up your Deck by selecting different cards. It then goes on to have a chapter based around the OG 22 (the original 22 Deck of Many Things cards from the various DMGs over the years). Puzzles, trap, adventures and side-tracks, as well as groups of importance that have risen up around the Deck over the centuries, each of these are given a chapter. As you might remember (or just look up), the Throne card gives the player ownership of a Keep, right? Well, if you don’t want to come up with one on the fly, they have one you can use, based on an old adventure published in Dungeon magazine. There’s also the Donjon and Void cards, which have very negative effects on the characters, and there’s a chapter for each of these effects. What I really love about this book (so far, still working my way through it) is giving you a lot of uses for the Deck itself. You can let players hang on to them after they draw them, using them as magic items on their own. They give you advice on how to use the cards to make and solve riddles, which is something I really struggle with.

I do hope that they’re going to sell these cards separately, maybe in a “core deck” that has the OG 22 cards, and then an “expanded deck” with the total 66 cards and maybe the reference book. Or just sell the cards and reference book as the boxed set they already kind of are. As for the Book, it’s one of those “nice to have but I probably wouldn’t buy it” for a lot of people. I’d be willing to bet that we’re going to see this set broken up into two different products down the road: The Deck of Many Things (with the reference book) and The Book of Many Things. It would make more sense to me for them to break it up into making people spend more on things as time goes on, especially since most people probably just want the Deck more than anything else.

Let's Review: Reality's Edge

What is it?:

Reality’s Edge is a Cyberpunk skirmish game set in the grimy, dark, depressing world of the Sprawl. 

 

The setting:

It’s 30 minutes into the future and the Space Jerk/Tech Bros/Super Rich just run the world now. Crypto Currency is actually being used (even if that makes the least amount of sense in the whole thing) and we have cybernetics. It’s everything that science fiction authors have been trying to warn us about for decades.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t read too much about the setting, as it’s kind of mishmash of cyberpunk settings, with a dash of current trends (gig economy, crypto currency, social media, etc). I’m not saying it’s bad, not at all, it’s just that I have my own idea for the setting and I’ll get into that if/when I get around to playing some games.

 

The system:

The system for Reality’s Edge is very similar to the one from This is Not a Test, with a few changes and adaptation for the gritty cyberpunk setting. For the most part, models roll a d10, add a stat, and beat the TN (Target Number, usually 10). There’s stats for shooting, fighting, hacking, your firewall so you don’t get hacked, and even some digital hit points, which is really about your connection.

When you make your group, you’ll start with making a Showrunner, who is a promoted version of the various model types (I’ll get to them shortly), who also gets a background and a few other things. Then, you’re supposed to make your Backer, but I’m going to skip them for now. Instead, let’s talk about the rest of model types.

When making a crew or team, you can recruit up to five other models from a pretty good list of classic cyberpunk archetypes. We’ve got hackers (who are called Console Cowboys, in a nice nod to classic cyberpunk), Sprawl Ronin (which is a very interesting flip on the classic Street Samurai title), gang members, enforcers, social media influencers, ninja types, and drone handlers (which I find to be a very interesting inclusion), just to name a few. You might think that this low number of types might lead to a feeling of sameness in crews, but each time you pick one, you get to pick what sort of variation they get in stats, as well as pick a random table to roll on for their starting skills. These members of your crew start out as freelancers, who you can later recruit into permanent member of the crew, who then gain experience.

The last part of your crew is going to be the avatar of the mysterious backer of your Showrunner and your crew. This avatar is going to be a hologram or only exist in cyberspace, as that’s something else that’s also on the game board, too. Anyway. If you’re just playing one off games, your backer isn’t really a big deal. When you start a campaign, you get to pick (or randomly roll) what kind of backer you have and give them a special ability. Backers vary from media corporations, military/government sponsors, organized crime, corporations, and unshackled AI, which is my personal favorite. Each sponsor gives you a pair of advantages and gives their avatar a special skill.

The last part of building a crew is buying gear, which is going to add up quickly. You have melee weapons, pistols, long guns, support weapons (except not rocket launchers for some reason), cybernetics (with a cyber-psychosis mechanic to keep things interesting), and Apps for the hackers, that act a lot like spells. Now, most things cost 5, 10, 15 points, but it’ll add up quick. Plus, there’s only one healing item, but only one combat medic character type, so things are going to get deadly fast.

Once you get around to the missions, or JOBOPS as the game calls them, where you get to do your hacking and killing. Most jobs are about what you might expect in a dystopian cyberpunk future: kidnapping people who want to change employers (or because another employer wants them), protecting a location, or stealing data. My favorite one is protecting a Ramen cart as your crews transport it through the ghetto. There’s a fair amount of jobs, each with their own complications, as well as a master complication table. I feel like this can add in some repeatability, but it would be nice to get some expansions with extra jobs. Maybe that was part of the plan and it just hasn’t come to pass yet. Anyway.

Once the jobs are done, you get to roll for rewards, and traces if you fumbled while hacking and stuff, as well as recruit your freelancers. That’s right, most of your team isn’t going to gain experience during games. It’s the gig economy, but with more bullets and less heath care. Which is saying something. I still don’t know how I feel about this mechanic, but I can see why it works like this, with the setting we were given. I just worry about how this comes down to a roll, with bonuses from bribes, as I tend to roll poorly.

The last part of this book is the “rogue’s gallery” of NPCs you might encounter in the game. This list varies from the corporate security you might expect, to the drunk salaryman and VR griefer you’re probably not expecting. As much as I like the types collected here, I’m slightly unhappy with the amount of corporate goons that could have been condensed and replaced with more interesting NPCs.

 

Is it worth it?:

Reality’s Edge is most expensive Osprey Wargame that I’ve run across at $45, so that makes it a much harder call to make. For me, I found a cheaper copy online, which made it easier to swallow, but it’s a hard sell if you’re not sure if you’re going to like it or not. So, I have to leave this in the “maybe” category as that price makes it harder to figure out.