Dicing With Design: Role Playing, Wargaming, Card games & Board Game Design

It’s Episode 2 and we’re talking Smallworld, board game design, online gaming and, for some reason cardboard… What’s We’re Talking This is a live episode, recorded after Grant and I met up for a few drinks and a lot of games. Mostly, we played Smallworld, with a couple of games of Dwarves of King’s Hold […]

00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:35 Martin Vaux joins us to talk Lords of War – a Kickstarter update 00:19:55 Martin tells us how he went about creating a world for the game. 00:51:15 The GM of our When Worlds Collide Campaign joins us to discuss how he created a world for us to game in. 01:31:05 Outro and contact details The post Episode 19 – World Building Part 2 appeared first on Dicing With Design: Role Playing, Wargaming, Card games & Board Game Design Podcast.

00:01:45 Updates – RAEX games, kickstarter, Once upon a time, B movie, Battlestar Galactica, Lords of War, Blackbox Games, Sedition Wars, DreadBall, Pro Wrasslin’ Battle Royale, Drive Thru RPG, XCOM 00:15:00 Joe tells us about developments on the Warpack fantasy battles system – Warpack, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, The Wheel of Time. 00:27:15 World Building: Playing games in popular culture settings, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. 00:38:10 World Building: Specific gaming settings – Legend of the 5 Rings, Eclipse Phase, Eternal Contenders, When Worlds Collide. 00:59:40 Contact Details and Outros. In this episode Joe gives us an update on the developments to his forthcoming fantasy battle game, Warpack. Then we get into a discussion about world design – playing in literary and cinematic worlds, custom gaming worlds and building games worlds from scratch. The post Episode 18 – World Building Part 1 appeared first on Dicing With Design: Role Playing, Wargaming, Card games & Board Game Design Podcast....

Frostgrave is one of the most recognisable games in the tabletop miniature wargame hobby. It's also one of the most popular outwith the Games Workshop Empire. On this episode, we're joined by the architect of the frozen city himself - Joe McCullough. We're going to talk about the lay of the land when this miniature agnostic fantasy skirmish game was released back in 2015, and speculate on the key factors behind its success. Joe's no one-trick pony though, and his scope extends well beyond Frostgrave. Stargrave may sound similar in name (and certainly shares a few core mechanics), but this sci-fi skirmish game is much more than just "Frostgrave in space". Then there's Rangers of Shadow Deep - a solo and cooperative game that became a firm favourite during the year of global lockdowns that was 2020. More often than not, Joe has appeared to release games in the right place and at the right time. One notable exception, however, is Oathmark. This mass fantasy battle rank and flank game was undoubtedly subdued by its Spring 2020 release date - a point in time where very few people could actually play it. Joe offers his thoughts on that as well as how the game might recover from this setback going forward. One of the reoccurring themes of this conversation was that of miniature wargame terrain. Frostgrave and Stargrave in particular benefit from their tables being extremely busy. But does this create a barrier for players with no existing terrain collection or no budget? Joe tells us about many players using simple wooden blocks or polystyrene packaging to build their frozen cities and intergalactic outposts, and why it doesn’t need to look “real” to capture the imagination. You can keep up with Joe on his blog The Renaissance Troll where he posts updates on his games, his hobby, his painting, and his thoughts in general. You’ll find the official range of Frostgrave miniatures over at North Star Military Figures, if you want to go down that route, as well as a raft of other games and supplements on DriveThruRPG. We’re also looking for future guests or co-hosts for this podcast and if you’re interested in coming on, we’d love to hear from you. Head on over to the podcast section of the website, fill out the short form, and we can get the ball rolling from there!

Big units of troops marching across a scenery packed 6 by 4 table – there’s no aesthetic quite like it. For most of us growing up, there was only one option when it came to fighting out mass fantasy battles and that was Warhammer. And whilst the Old World is returning at some point in the future, there really is no need to hang around waiting on that day, whenever it might be. There are plenty of good Warhammer alternatives you can pick up and start playing today. For starters, there’s absolutely nothing to stop you from playing whatever edition of the game you own or liked the best. There are also projects like The 9th Age and Warhammer Orchard Edition which remain lovingly supported by their own respected communities. Then there’s Kings of War by Mantic games. This is perhaps the most famous and popular of the Warhammer alternatives out there on the market today. You can use your old and existing miniatures to play this game, or buy from Mantic’s ever-increasing range of original units and figures. On a previous episode of the Tabletop Miniaure Hobby Podcast we heard from Joe McCullough who’s most famous for games like Frostgrave, Stargrave, and Rangers of Shadowdeep. Joe has also created one of the big Warhammer alternatives out there though, in the form of Oathmark. Have a listen to our episode with Joe to find out more, or, check out our roundup of miniature agnostic games. A lesser-known (but still definitely worth checking out) game is Mayhem by award-winning game designer Brent Spivey. Brent is known for a popular sci-fi skirmish game called Rogue Planet. Mayhem is his mass fantasy battles contribution and lends itself particularly well to dropping down to 10mm or even 6mm scale wargaming. Warpack – A Diceless Mass Fantasy Battle Game On this episode, we’re adding another option to the ever-growing list of Warhammer alternatives. It’s called Warpack, and we’re going to hear all about it from the game’s creator, Joe Prince of Prince of Darkness Games. Here, we’ll learn about the game’s mechanics and structure. This includes its use of a deck of playing cards rather than dice to work our way through the tactics and turns. We’ll also find out a bit about the motivations and inspirations that lead Joe to create Warpack, and, naturally, we’ll chat a bit about Games Workshop. You can get a copy of Warpack by supporting Joe on his Patreon, and you can also follow him on Twitter at @JoeJPrince.