The same old different new

A quick list of goings-on from the top blogroll themed around renewal and rediscovery.

• In an Expanse-friendly double-whammy, the delving mwschmeer at Rended Press has a long list not just of zines, but zines on 40K and Warhammer.

• Hopeful Monster Creations have put their first release out, Sean Robson's indie board game Megadungeon!, inspired by the old TSR microgames.
  

• Former GW designer Andy Hoare has been updating the narrative skirmish game Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies and any and all feedback is welcome.

• Sidney Roundwood and TOOFatLardies are designing for the Dark Ages - here and here - and going deep, with 1, 2, 3 reports reflecting the histories, and rules for goading; Arlequin has yet more insight for gaming the period.

• Stuart at Strange Magic has a simple approach to converting D&D monsters to player characters, Hereticwerks have a set of weird beings for Swords & Wizardry and S. P. at How to Succeed... has more adapted to fourth.

• And sad news to finish - Rustfoot has posted its last, but the blog is still up.

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Triffles (11) - A tense exchange

Following the theme of the last Triffle, today an attempt to exchange a high value item. It could even loosely describe an eventful Valentine's Day date.

            a cautious                     a fumbled handover / 
             approach                    misunderstood gesture

\             /

a tense exchange

/              

an unseen tail / infiltrator /                                           
double-cross                                               

If you want to get this into a wargame, skirmish game or roleplaying game, you could do far worse than look at Necromunda which has a mechanism for simulating a cinematic wild west-style gunfight. You could also try something more like the tracks used in the latest Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, based on key elements which need to occur to ratchet up the tension. The situation seems to need a build-up to a moment at which nerves snap and a means of determining the order of reactions, assuming they'll not all be simultaneous. It's possible to imagine entire forces manoeuvring around the few specialists conducting the exchange, hands at weapons holstered or sheathed.

But maybe the breakdown doesn't come? It might be possible to hold it off or prevent it by diplomacy and avoid the loss of life on both sides. Would that ruin the game? Better question: could wargames do with more mechanisms for impromptu diplomacy?

In writing, as the Valentine's Day idea suggests, this could be the underlying idea in a situation apparently very different, within a comedy of errors at least. A fine web of taut interactions could be spun, more so if more than two parties are involved. This post at TalkToYoUniverse ought to be helpful if that sounds tricky.

Continuing the interest in applying these to music, we might expect a slow build-up, along the lines of "The Creep Out" by The Dandy Warhols or "Angel" by Massive Attack.